How Does a Faithful Girl Tackle Tough Days?

Claire Black: This is True Girl, a podcast for girls and their moms. Together, we’ll explore God’s truth for us, one hike at a time.

Dannah Gresh and Staci Rudolph are inviting you to get outside and go for a walk as mom and daughter. As you listen to this podcast together, you’ll grow closer to each other and closer to Jesus. 

Have you ever had a tough day? I sure have. Hard days are bound to happen, but the question is, how are we supposed to handle them?

Dannah and Staci are at the beginning of a camping adventure, but Staci is not having the best day. Let’s find out what advice Dannah has for her. It might help you on your tough days!

This is our tenth season of the True Girl podcast, and it’s based on a Bible study Dannah wrote called Mary: Becoming a Girl of Faithfulness. In episode two Dannah and Staci are going to talk about what Mary’s story can teach you about being faithful even on the toughest days. It’s called “How Does a Faithful Girl Tackle Tough Days?”

Dannah Gresh: Ah, good morning Mr. Robin! Good morning Mrs. Chipmunk! Good morning my sweet Cassie. Did you sleep okay?

[Donkey bray]

Yeah, me too!

Staci Rudolph: Ugh! Talk about a terrible night. I slept on a tree root! My back is killing me!

Dannah: Guessing you didn’t sleep too well huh, Staci?

Staci: You can say that again! That root jabbed me in the back all night. It was muggy and hot. And the hole in the tent let the mosquitoes make a three-course dinner out of me! How does anyone do this for fun?!

Dannah: The first night is always the hardest. You’ve just gotta adjust a bit. We’ll find flatter ground for the tent and patch that hole right up. Try to stay positive!

Staci: I’ll try, but so far, I am not a fan of camping. 

Dannah: Well, let’s make some breakfast over the fire and see if that turns things around for ya. I’ll get it going. 

Could you see if those eggs I packed in the cooler bag made it? It’s there on the left side of Cassie’s pack. I think we’re going to have eggs and toast.

Staci: Yum! Well, look at that. They made it!

Dannah: Alright, let’s get this fire lit.

Staci: Hey, are those matches I see? You said we were being a real wilderness women! Shouldn’t you be rubbing two sticks together?

Dannah: Well, true but I’m not that good at making a fire from scratch. It would take me forever! You do want to eat breakfast this morning and not tonight, right?

Staci: Very true. 

Dannah: It’s taking a while for this fire to catch, but it’s getting going. Gotta give it a little help. There we go. 

Staci: Hey, could I make the eggs? I’ve never cooked over an open fire before 

Dannah: Of course you can, but we have to let the fire get bigger. While we wait, let’s review Mary’s story. 

Staci: Oh, yes!

Dannah: I’m a teacher at heart, you know. So go ahead and give me a recap of Mary’s story.

Staci: Okay. So, Mary hears from an angel of the Lord that she is to have a baby. And not just any baby—the Savior of the world to be exact. She’s already engaged to be married and has plans of her own, but instead of choosing them, she decides to faithfully accept God’s plans for her life. She says, “Yes, Lord!”

Dannah: Well done, Staci. And do you remember our first faithfulness lesson?

Staci: Yes ma’am: a faithful girl trusts in God’s plan. 

Dannah: You’ve got it, Girl!

Okay, so Mary gets all that life-changing news from the angel, and do you know what she does next?

Staci: Well, I know the Christmas story, Dannah! She had a donkey of her own, and she jumped right on it and headed to Bethlehem!

Dannah: Well, sorta right. She travels, but we don’t know for sure if she was on a donkey. It’s possible she was because some people used that kind of transportation, but people did a lot of walking back in the day. The Bible doesn’t really tell us that. And she didn’t go to Bethlehem when she first heard the news that she was expecting. Nope, on this trip she goes to a place called Hebron to visit someone. 

Staci: Oh, good idea! I’d need a vacay too after hearing all of that news. Processing time, ya know!

Dannah: It wasn’t the kind of vacation you’re thinking about, Staci. She wasn’t sitting under a Cabana on the beach. She was going to visit someone very special to her. Let me grab my Bible so we can read from the first chapter of Luke, and let’s see if a name sticks out to us. 

Ah, here we go.

Let me read Luke 1:36. We read this last time. This is what the angel told Mary after all that news about having a baby. The angel Gabriel said: 

“What’s more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she has conceived a son and is now in her sixth month.”

Did a name stick out in that verse?

Staci: Elizabeth!

Dannah: Very correct. When the angel spoke to Mary and told her she was going to be a mother, he also reported that her cousin, Elizabeth, was six months pregnant. Now, this was incredibly surprising since Elizabeth was w-a-a-a-y too old to have a baby!

So, Mary took the journey to see Elizabeth. Nazareth was ninety miles away from Hebron where Elizabeth lived. It would take one-and-a-half hours to drive that far in a car. Staci, can you guess how long it would have taken Mary to walk it?

Staci: Hmm . . . maybe three days?

Dannah: Close! It would have actually taken Mary about four-and-a-half days if she walked at a regular pace for eight hours each day. 

Staci: Ouch! My feet hurt just thinking about it! Mary must have really wanted to see Elizabeth.

Dannah: I’d say so.

Staci: Hey, don’t you think the fire’s ready now?

Dannah: Oh, yeah. Go ahead; here’s the frying pan.

Staci: Thanks!

Dannah: You’re welcome! 

Now, back to Mary. Her journey was a big travel commitment if you ask me. Let’s go ahead and read a bit more from Luke 1 to find out why she went on this trip. I’m going to start here in…let’s see, at verse 39

A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town where Zechariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me? When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.” (vv. 39–45)

I love Mary’s friendship with Elizabeth! Now, we don’t know for sure, but I think maybe Mary and Elizabeth had probably known each other for a long time because they were cousins.

Now, the Bible doesn’t tell us specifically why Mary went to see Elizabeth, and because we weren’t there, we can only make some educated guesses.

But let me tell you what one of my guesses is that maybe Mary wanted to see if what the angel told her about Elizabeth was true because it would help her believe the rest of what the angel said.

It’s possible also that she may have wanted to get some advice about her situation. I don’t know. 

Do you have any guesses, Staci?

Staci: I was thinking that maybe she needed some encouragement because she felt afraid about what God was asking her to do.

Dannah: Oh, that’s a great guess. I know I’d need some encouragement if I’d just heard that I was going to give birth to the Savior of the world!

Staci: Me, too!

Dannah: You know, it’s an interesting question to get us thinking, but we have to remember that we are only guessing about why Mary wanted to see Elizabeth. We can’t be sure of the reason because the Bible doesn’t tell us.

One thing we can be sure of is how she responded to what Elizabeth said during their visit. 

Staci, would you read Luke 1:46–55?

Staci: Of course!

Mary responded,

“Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.
How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
For he took notice of his lowly servant girl,
and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
For the Mighty One is holy,
and he has done great things for me.
He shows mercy from generation to generation
to all who fear him.
His mighty arm has done tremendous things!
He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.
He has brought down princes from their thrones
and exalted the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away with empty hands.
He has helped his servant Israel
and remembered to be merciful.
For he made this promise to our ancestors,
to Abraham and his children forever.” (vv. 46–55)

Dannah: So Mary responds with all the reasons her soul can praise the Lord. Isn’t that cool? Staci did you know there’s something really cool about those verses? Those words are actually a song. 

Staci: Really?

Dannah: Yep! This song is so special that it has a name too. We call it The Magnificat. 

Staci: The what?

Dannah: The Magnificat. Magnificat actually means “magnify.” And through this song, Mary magnified God’s name. How would you define the word magnify, Staci?

Staci: Well, when we magnify something, we’re usually trying to make it bigger, right?

Dannah: Well, yeah. 

Staci: But wait, that doesn’t make much sense here. Mary was magnifying God’s name? I thought God was already ginormous. We can’t make Him bigger.

Dannah: Well, that’s a good point. Let me explain it this way. Remember when we were looking at the moon last night while eating our s’mores?

Staci: Yeah. I also remember how many s’mores it takes to satisfy a donkey! Can’t believe Cassie ate so many!

Dannah: Yeah, me too! Well, anyway, the moon is very far away. Let’s say we wanted to see it up close or be more familiar with it. We would use a telescope, right?

Staci: Yep.

Dannah: The moon is already huge and doesn’t need to be bigger. But if we used a telescope to magnify it, we would have help seeing the moon through our limited human vision.

Magnifying God works just like that. There are some things we do that help us focus on who God is and see just how big He is—even though our understanding is very limited. 

Staci: Oh, magnify the Lord means to increase our understanding or view of Him—not to actually make Him bigger! I get it!

Dannah: Worship is one of the ways we magnify the Lord. It helps us put God in His proper perspective in our eyes. Through our worship, we draw close to Him and, as a result, can magnify His name for other people, making God’s greatness more evident to them.

I think through Mary’s worship, God was magnified—The Magnificat!

Staci: That makes sense. Way to go for Mary choosing to magnify God. She could have given in to her fear and troubled emotions, but instead she chose to worship.

Dannah: Yep. That brings us to faithfulness lesson number two: a faithful girl worships when she feels like whining

Staci: Yikes! 

Dannah: What? Did you drop an egg in the fire? 

Staci: Oh, no. It’s just that, that faithfulness lesson just called me out in a major way. I’ve been whining all morning when I should be worshiping.

Dannah: Oh. Did you know what that feeling is you’re feeling right now?

Staci: Umm, guilt?

Dannah: Nah. What you’re feeling is called conviction. God’s Spirit will allow us to feel that in certain situations when He’s inviting us to respond differently to life.

Staci: Yeah, that’s definitely what I have going on!

Dannah: Well, my friend, I have some good news. There are things you can do to help get you back on track when you find yourself lost in whining rather than worship.

Staci: Like?

Dannah: Well, the first thing you can do is find friends who help you worship by reminding you that God is good, and He is in control.

Staci, God is soooo good. He’s got great plans for our camping trip and for our lives in general. 

Hi, I’m Dannah by the way.

Staci: Is that your way of introducing yourself as a friend who’s gonna help me remember God’s goodness?

Dannah: Bingo. I’m here for ya. I will always remind you to worship when you feel like your heart is a bit whiny.

Staci: Thanks, Dannah. I’ll be that friend for you too.

Dannah: The second thing you can do to redirect yourself to worship is to prepare your heart to worship, instead of whining, by knowing God’s Word. Mary prepared her heart to worship. Her worshipful spirit wasn’t something she just woke up with one morning. She planned to be worshipful. 

Staci: How do you know that? 

Dannah: Well, I’m glad you asked. 

While we don’t know exactly what happened during Mary’s early life, we can see clues about what her life may have been like before she became the mother of Jesus. 

For example, every time Mary was asked to do something difficult, she spoke God’s truth and responded obediently. Now, that doesn’t just happen! She probably built this habit by knowing God’s Word and living by what it said. Mary probably put these good habits into practice before she needed them, so that when pressing times came, she was prepared to worship instead of whine.

Staci: That’s a good point. It is so important to have your toolbox packed full of helpful resources before you need them. Having a list of Bible verses ready would be a great idea! Like ones you can read and think about carefully when you’re feeling like whining instead of worshiping.

Dannah: Great idea! 

Staci: I have another idea.

Dannah: What?

Staci: Let’s take some time to worship God right now. I’ve been feeling a little whiny this morning right? Let’s just take some time and say things we love about God. 

Dannah: That’s a great idea. But don’t ask me to sing, Staci, because that’s not something you want to hear. And you don’t always have to sing when you worship, you can just say what pleases you about God at that moment. 

Staci: Let’s do it. I’ll go first. Even though the outdoors can be tough, I really am thankful for God’s creation. I love the trees, the birds, the moon, all of it. 

Dannah: Mmm, me too. You know what I love about God? 

Staci: What?

Dannah: The fact that God gives us friends and family to enjoy Him with. I’m so glad we were able to go on this adventure together, Staci.

Staci: Me too. Bon Appetit it’s time to eat.

Dannah: Good! I’m hungry, and those eggs look great! 

Staci: Oh trust me, they’re gonna taste egg-celent!

Dannah: Oh boy! 

Claire: I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty egg-cited for the next episode!Get it? Okay, okay, I’ll leave the puns to Staci.

I’m also ready to notice the times in my life where I should be choosing to worship even though I feel like whining. What a great and memorable lesson in faithfulness!

If you want to learn more about how to grow in faithfulness, there’s nothing like doing an online Bible study live with Dannah and Staci. They’re getting ready to start one based on Dannah’s new Bible study—Mary: Becoming a Girl of Faithfulness! Go to MyTrueGirl.com and click on the Bible studies menu to learn more!

And join us for next week's episode, when we learn how a faithful girl responds to what God is asking her to do.

The True Girl podcast is produced by Revive Our Hearts calling women of all ages to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ!

All Scripture is taken from the NLT.

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