WELCOME HEART: Living a Legacy Life

Ep 249 Living the Grace-filled Life with Jennifer Sakata

Do you struggle with perfectionism or being really busy—just to prove yourself to someone even if that someone is God? Jennifer Sakata is my guest today and she's got some great things to say about busyness, rest, childhood hurt, surrender and grace—because grace covers it all. 
Jennifer, founder of the Living the Grace Life Podcast, speaker, writer, wife and mother of two boys (and two in heaven) is learning all things grace and you will be blessed with how and what she's continuing to learn since we all know we are in process! (That's grace!)
Jennifer helps busy and distracted women overcome the overwhelm of doing more; so they can receive God’s grace to live God’s grace. Her favorite moments as a workshop and retreat leader are those thin-veiled glimpses when someone recognizes Gods grace rewriting their story.
Some gems from our conversation today:
The three P's of perfectionism, performance and productivity ran my life until I realized I needed to embrace the grace of salvation for my everyday life.
When I feel ill-equipped to do the next thing and run to God, that's when I see incredible things take place and that's all grace. 
Busyness with myself at the center is not how God created me to live.
There's a big difference between being busy with a purpose to serve and glorify God and being busy to prove my worth or solidify my identity.
Psalm 139 reminded me of my worth before God long before I did anything worthy.
We need rest to reconnect with God, His love and His true purposes for our daily lives. 
Jesus became my safe place as a child when I didn't feel protected in my home in my home of origin.
 
 
Jennifer's free resource can be found HERE: Living the Grace Life: One Prayer at a Time 
As well as: 10 Ways to Add More Grace to Your Life
Website: https://jennifersakata.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennifersakata/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JenniferSakata.Author/
Podcast: Living the Grace Life
 
 

Ep 248 Desperate Prayers: Embracing the Power of Prayer in Life's Darkest Moments with Rachel Wojo

Have you ever prayed and felt like it didn’t matter that you prayed or not? Have you wondered if prayer was just a nice thing to make you feel better perhaps, but really didn’t matter in the long run?
If you’ve ever tried praying and then given up because it doesn’t feel like God is listening nor answering, today’s podcast is for you.
Speaker, author, podcaster, Rachel Wojo is with us today to talk about her latest book, Desperate Prayers: Embracing the Power of Prayer in Life's Darkest Moments.
Rachel and her husband Matt are the parents of 6 children, 2 in heaven. They've known sorrow and have traveled this journey of prayer more than most.
Rachel  is offering a free copy of her book all this week. I've read it and highly recommend!
Some gems from our conversation:
Praying has less to do with the right words, and much more to do with the posture of our heart.
Praying with surrender not only gives us a good perspective on our future, but grants us a fresh appreciation for our present, no matter how we see our prayers being answered the way we'd like them to be.
We can't see how God is working when we pray, but the more we pray, the deeper our relationship with him goes.
Do we pray to get our prayers answered "our way" or do we pray to get to know God better and deeper?
If we pray for God to show up, he often shows off in surprising and creative ways—we just need to be looking for him.
We can stiff-arm God when we turn from him rather than going to him in our desperation, keeping our souls from the peace and intimacy he so earnestly desires for us. 
 
Rachel mentioned a free prayer class you can find HERE: How To Be A Prayer Warrior For Your Family In Dark Times
Also, 10 Prayers to Calm Your Heart.

Ep 247 Trusting God When You've Hit a Brick Wall (or Your Friend Has) with Sue Donaldson

This is story of a godly woman who needed an invitation to a less-than-perfect home. She hit a brick wall. She trusted God. She didn’t like to eat alone. I trusted God alongside of her and invited her for dinner.
 
John met Katy when they were both in their teens. They married young, barely out of school. They planned their dreams and lived out their lives. It was to be a forever marriage, marked with the usual passages of home, kids, dogs, career changes, and health challenges. Then, a month before their 40th wedding anniversary, John packed up and left. After so many years of day-in and day-out living and planning and dreaming, off he went to live and plan and dream somewhere else, with someone else.
Katy hit a wall, brick as it turned out, and not of her own making.
Do you know someone who has hit a wall and it's a brick one? Maybe that someone is you.
Here’s the deal. We most often can’t change a person’s big hurt. We can’t bring the husband back or the prodigal home. Our powers of influence can’t force a boss to come to their senses or bring a child back to life. Those brick walls remain out of our control. To remember this truth is important. We are not God. It’s not my job to be someone’s Savior.
Hear Katy's story today. God may be leading you into deeper trust and that trust may lead you to invite someone over even if your home is less than perfect.
Some gems from today's story:
Brick walls come in different shapes and sizes, comprised of the all too familiar elements of broken loyalty, dissimulation, gaslighting, betrayal.
Nothing stings more than when someone you love betrays you. It’s personal. It hurts. Jesus was human as well as God. He knew this was coming. He came for this purpose—to die for our sins. But still, it hurt.
We most often can’t change a person’s big hurt. We can’t bring the husband back or the prodigal home. We are not God. It’s not my job to be someone’s Savior.
Divorce and death don’t place favorites and loneliness is its own disease.
I can't heal a broken heart. I can’t patch up what needs patching. But I can offer a plate of spaghetti carbonara and a cozy remade tablecloth-turned-heating pad and usher someone to the table where Jesus is already seated and waiting to heal and patch and give all manner of hope.
Who do you know who has hit a brick wall? They need to know they are not alone.
We’re created for relationship, with God and with one another. Not because life becomes perfect when we have both God and community.  No, it’s because most days, life isn’t perfect. And remembering we are loved and never alone is what gets us through those days.
 

Ep 246 The Transformative Power of the Word with Connie Champeon

Today’s podcast is brought to you by COME TO MY TABLE: GOD’S HOSPITALITY AND YOURS where we remember that God invited first! We invite others to our table so that we pass on His invitation to His table. Find more information Amazon as well as on www.welcomeheart.com/shop.
Help me welcome, Dr. Connie Champeon, to Living a Legacy Life as we talk about the transformative work of the Word of God in our daily lives. Connie completed her Ph.D. in education and sociolinguistics in 1998. Raised by missionary parents in a thatched hut with mud floors in Northern Brazil, she learned Greek at her father's knee starting at age 3! As an adult, she's  worked with over 30 language groups throughout S.E. Asia, Eurasia, South America , and Africa. Currently working with UnfoldingWord.com, Connie and her husband travel and train and help indigenous  language people groups translate Scripture into their heart language.
She and her husband, Birch, have twin twenty-one-year-old sons. She enjoys the balancing act of many women - wife, mother, teacher, ministry – as well as organizing teams and equipping others for service. She has a great passion for helping women live differently because of the truth of the Gospel and for living out the gospel in our communities.
We talk about her own spiritual wilderness, how talks around the table heal hearts, and why she journals her quiet time on Facebook every morning. Find her on FB here. Or at Connie.Champeon.
As a result of her Scripture journaling, she an now provide us with 60 days of devotionals on the always timely topic of HOPE. Sign up for it HERE. 
Some gems from our conversation: 
To keep a balanced life, don't look for more things to add, look at what God's given you to do, and do it alongside someone else. 
My dad helped people see themselves as God saw them—the best of who they could be, greatly gifted and purpose-filled.
When I doubted God's love for me, I couldn't escape what He was doing in and through the mess I was making in my life. 
To share God is to share how big He is. 
When I read the Bible, I try to always answer the question, "What does God want me to do diferently because of what I just read?"
When we share food, we share a common need; after all, the Bible starts with a meal and ends with a feast. 
God showed vulnerability with arms wide open on the cross; we do the same, opening our lives and doors, our tables and mouths—sharing vulnerably and authentically. Why?  So that the Gospel is replicated in others.
 
 Sign up for HOPE HERE. 
 

Ep 245 A Woman's Heart is Not Her To-Do List with Lisa Granger

Lisa knows about To-Do Lists and how who she is can get stuck in how well she crosses everything off. Join Lisa Granger and me to day on Welcome Heart: Living a Legacy Life. Lisa hosts A Woman's Heart Podcast and radio station and her legacy and desire is to encourage women to look to God for hope and healing rather than what she can accomplish on any given day. Lisa learned to recognize the difference between hoping she could fulfill her dreams and expectations (and other's expectations) and hoping in the One Who made her to relate well with Himself with peace and quiet and joy, no matter the circumstances. 
Lisa offers her free resource for all my listeners today of 8 Verses of Hope. 
Some gems from our conversation:
God can handle all my emotions, good and bad—he's no wimp!
I want to act on any prompts the Lord is giving me so that I can encourage others.
God puts something special in every woman's heart to share with the world.
I learned to put my hope in God rather than what I could accomplish for God.
Hopelessness is exhausting. Hope provides an energy that enables me to do the next thing with faith and strength.
Faith will fuel hope and hope fuels my faith. 
I am in the process of overcoming deep roots of shame and feelings of inadequacy. 
If my To-Do List is too long, I'm learning to ask myself: "Are these tasks from God or from an oversensitive sense of other's expectations, including my own?"

Ep 244 Spa Days for Heaven's Sake: Inviting the Stranger with Sue Donaldson

This podcast tells two stories of women who felt forgotten and left behind. I met them while they were doing their daily work. I was on the receiving end of their good work until they were on the receiving end of God’s good work. He leads in common things like spas, salons and tea parties. Everyone is waiting for consolation and invitation
I tell you these two stories because you never know who is ready to make a new friend or needs to meet the Friend who never forgets His children. 
 
Someone wrote,“The friendship connection is more than the way to health and memory; it is the call of God to be people who create community and bring those who have been forgotten into our hearts.”
 
To bring those who have been forgotten into our hearts.
 
You may feel forgotten yourself. God will use your life experience to help someone else. Your pain is never wasted, unless you keep it to yourself.
 
You may not be called to go to Korea or Mongolia, but we are all called to make connections.  To reach out, gently, tentatively, like dipping our toes into the steaming water for a pedicure, asking one question followed by another which might lead to a simple invitation: “Would you like to get together for coffee? I've got some great scones from Trader Joe's.” 
 
Look for opportunities for coming alongside. And, go to the Beauty College.
Think of a time when you felt overwhelmed by circumstances.
 
Did God send a friend or a stranger to strengthen and comfort you?
 
    3. What did you learn about yourself?
 
    4. What did you learn about God?
 
A prayer for your day (and maybe someone else's!)
Dear Father,
Thank you for seeing my pain and loneliness. My name is written on your hands so I know I’m never alone. Please help me be alert to another who may feel all alone in their difficulties. Nothing is hidden from you and I’m grateful. Strengthen us both according to your word. Thank you and amen.
A reminder from the Word:
“See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;
your walls are ever before me” (Isaiah 49:16)
 
   
 

Ep 243 Everyday Prayers to Love Well with Rachael Adams

Rachael Adams returns to Welcome Heart today to talk about love in the month of love. Of course, to love well is a year-round aspiration and one that I want to work on no matter what age I am or what month I'm in. Her new book: Everyday Prayers of Love: Learning to Love God, Others, and Even Yourself is out this month and will make the perfect gift for yourself and for someone you love.
Rachael hosts The Love Offering Podcast and she and her husband have been married 18 years and are the parents of two middle schoolers. We talk about her first book, A Little Goes a Long Way in Ep 178 in 2022.
Leave a comment below or on social media to be entered to win a copy of Everyday Prayers: Learning to Love God, Others, and Even Yourself.
Some gems from our conversation:
We need God every day to help us love well. 
God doesn't waste any of our experiences—he uses our detours and disappointments to build something good in our lives.
I've begun to live from the perspective of doing my daily work from a place of love for God, knowing he doesn't love me any better for what I achieve or accomplish in any given day. 
To love others as God desires is a way for Jesus to become tangible to those around us. 
If someone doubts God's love for them, I send them to the Word which is full of the truth of his love. 
My daily prayer is that I see others in the same way that Jesus sees them.
When I began to read the Bible, I began to see how great is God's love for me and that's made all the difference.  
 
Find Rachael on her website here.
Instagram: @rachaeladamsauthor
 
 

Ep 242 You and Your Marriage: I Thought This Would Make Me Happy with Chelsea Damon

What a great conversation today on Living a Legacy Life with Chelsea Damon, author of the book: I Thought This Would Make Me Happy, How to Fight Less, Forgive Faster, and Cultivate Joy in Your Marriage.
Married or not, this podcast is for any serious follower of Jesus. Why? Becasue we are all prone to find our joy and satisfaction and identity in anything but God and yet we get disappointed, disenchanted, and discouraged—maybe all in the same day and at the same time—because we forget that we were made to find our rest in Him, period. 
Chelsea knew from an early age that she wanted to be married and she always had someone to lean on. What she didn't know was that leaning too hard on one person, even a great husband, didn't help her know who she was nor flourish as God's child. Married young, she was determined not to be one of those divorce statistics but it wasn't until the Lord showed her that she had made marriage an idol that she began to feel the freedom to be herself and help her relationship flourish instead of trying to control all the outcomes.
Get your free Self-Awareness Guide HERE (how to know how selfish we are!) And, no, not a good idea to take it for your spouse!
Chelsea will be hosting a giveaway of this great book all week long. Be sure to comment to be entered. Even if you aren't married, you know someone who is and might benefit from a gift of her book. 
Chelsea Damon is not only the author of I Thought This Would Make Me Happy: How to Fight Less, Forgive Faster, and Cultivate Joy in Your Marriage, but also, Together with Christ: A Dating Couple's Devotional: 52 Devotions and Bible Studies to Nurture Your Relationship. She is also the author of chelseadamon.com, a website where moms and wives are encouraged in healthy, Christ-centered lives and relationships.
 
Damon and her husband Josh met while attending college, where they grew in their faith and dated for three years. They were married on the windy coast of Washington in 2013. Throughout their dating and marriage relationship and into parenthood, they've been learning what it means to live loving God and loving others in a self-love world. Today, the Damons have three biological children, are foster parents, and spend their time looking for new places to hike and explore beautiful South Carolina.
Social Media: 
https://www.instagram.com/chelsealeighdamon
https://www.facebook.com/LivingTheSweetWife/
https://twitter.com/damonchels
 
Some gems from our conversation:
A good way not to fight is to begin the conversation with: "I'm not mad about this but . . ."
I was fearful to be pegged as a doormat, so I went out of my way to over control.
We are quick to identify the faults in another but give ourselves a little more grace than we are willing to give.
I had an unhealthy need to have "that person" in my life to make me find my place in the world.
I was loving to get something back and that isn't way love is supposed to work.
I needed to change where I find my security—from a person and our relationship—to God and my place in his family.
It's okay to make yourself a little uncomfortable to show the love of Christ to those around me. 
We need to take a good look at ourselves instead of judging how another could improve so that we are getting our needs met. 
I had to learn the skill of speaking up and thinking critically without living in the fear of destroying the relationship.
 
 
 

Ep 241 Sea Glass, Singleness, and Stewardship with Courtney Brackin

Courtney knew God had been speaking to her about doing a major move for two years but she still wasn't sure. She decided to lay out a fleece, as they say in the Christian world: she asked God to help her find a piece of sea glass. And the rest is history. Hear that story as well as how God led her to marriage at 44—suddenlty a mom of 4!
As a fulltime Bible study teacher and mentor with Young Life for over 20 years, Courtney knew the value of knowing and doing God's word. Her passion is to invite women into a flourishing life with the Lover of their souls and she's written two books to help in that endeavor: Prayer & Devotion and her prayer and Scripture meditation book R.A.M.P. Journal
Leave a comment to be entered to win a free copy of either one. 
Courtney is the founder of Sea Glass mission. Here are some of her thoughts as to why Sea Glass:
The beauty of sea glass is that it tumbles through the ocean for 20-40 years - into the depths, across distances, weathered by the elements - in order to be formed. As time goes on, the glass changes texture and shape because of where it’s been and what it’s been through. The slickness wears off, and the edges are rounded. Although still recognizable from its origins, the piece that was once-broken is transformed, and the beautiful sea glass is created … and ready to be used for a new purpose.
Wherever you are in the “tumble” we want to help you see that Jesus, the Author of Life, is writing your story and that He longs to walk with you and show you abundant life.
For the past 25 years, Sea Glass Mission founder Courtney Brackin has been in full-time ministry, working to share the Gospel and the love of Christ with young people in North Carolina, Uganda, Washington, DC and Florida. Her desire is to share the truth of God’s Word and to help others be rooted in His life-giving scripture as they live in this tumultuous world. 
Her own life and soul have been shaped with purpose through studying scripture, spending time in the spiritual disciplines, living missionally-minded and simply being in the body of Christ. She is so thankful for the mentors, pastors and friends who showed her this path and who pointed her to the Way. She aims to be that same type of friend and guide, as she walks together with others.
She also values being available to those who are questioning and wondering about faith and to those who want to be equipped and challenged to share their faith. 
Courtney lives in Naples, FL with her husband Eric. She is thankful to be step-mom to his four children, Ella, Jack, John and Ben. Courtney loves a good novel, cooking & baking, dreaming up her next trip and spending time with family & friends.
Some gems from our conversation:
Everyone deserves to hear about Jesus.
Nothing is wrong with wanting to be married, but we need to live life to the fullest whether married or single.
God completes you, period. 
The temptation in becoming a step-mom is to make it all about me rather than helping each child flourish as God intended.
I know that nothing is mine: possessions, talents, my home—all belongs to God—and that makes it easy to say "yes" whenever someone needs me or my time or my table. 
God told me to remember His promise that He would show me things I'd never seen before. 
 

Ep 240 Gospel Transformation With Our Eyes On Eternity with Danny Edwards

Danny Edwards knows where he's going after he dies and he's not afraid to answer any questions you may have. At 16, athough always in trouble and with more freedom than most teenagers, Danny had a deep side to him and often wondered: "What happens after death? And how should I live so that I find out the answer to that question? What is the truth?"
Today you'll hear how the Gospel worked a miraculous transformation in Danny at age 20 through a circuitous series of events including moving to Colorade to join an Ashram and becoming a Sikh, all in his search to find God and answers to his deepest wonderings. 
And yes, Danny loves talking about death. You will get excited and blessed as you listen to today's episode, Gospel Transformation With Our Eyes On Eternity with Danny Edwards.
Danny and his wife Kimber of over 30 years have raised 5 chidlren and are happy and busy grandparents of 8. 
Some gems from today's conversation:
At age 16, I began asking: "Where am I going after death?" 
I did Yoga 6 plus hours a day, joined an Ashram and became a Sikh, but I still didn't find the truth.
One night I got on my knees and cried out, "Jesus, tell me if you are real!"
A believer from India challenged me, "You've tried so many things—why not read the Bible and begin with the Gospel of John."
I finally saw that what Jesus was saying wasn't said by anyone else; I believed and never doubted since that time. 
I want to live this earthly life in preparation for the great life beyond.
I write letters to people I know who are facing death so that they know and are comforted by the truth of the Gospel: their better and best life is in front of them if they believe the Good News. 
We can have a healthy view of death by reading the book of Revelation and meditating on his great and precious promises.