44: Faith Over Fear: Working Through Your Trust Issues with God | SEEK25 Breakout Session

Hi friends, today's episode is going to be a special one. I am putting up the SEEK talk that I did this year at SEEK25, the huge Catholic conference that happens every January, and I'm excited to finally share it with you all. You can listen to it here as a podcast or it's also going to be up on YouTube and we'll make sure to link the YouTube in the show notes. This talk is called faith over fear, working through your trust issues with God. It is relatable my friends, because I feel like we are all in a time of transition in this community. You might be graduating college or getting engaged or married or becoming a mom or moving or starting a new job so much of our 20s and 30s is about new beginnings new change and with that comes fear and anxiety and wondering about the future and asking god like What is his plan? And really, this talk is about trusting the person more than the plan, trusting in the person of God, who he is as your father and what that means for you as a daughter. What are you an heir of, um, of the kingdom given that you are God's daughter? And how can we learn to have more faith than fear in our lives and learn to trust God more than the plan that he has for you? for us. Um, and it takes relinquishing control ove we would have. And it tak eyes fixed on the Lord as in our life, trusting in throughout this talk, I'm sharing some personal sto Just resources that I have found helpful in my life as I grow in faith and surrender, um, and just resources that have helped me just overcome anxiety about the future, um, and helped me to just be more grounded in God's truth and not let fear overtake. So I really hope that this whole talk is going to be encouraging for you as well as just gives you some practical tools that you can take into your life if you feel like you are in a time where you just fear the future and don't know what God has in store for you or are just trying to discern what the next steps are. I hope this can be encouraging and helpful for you. All right, let's jump right in. Hey, I'm your host, Mari Wagner, and you're listening to the ever be podcast where faith meets lifestyle. I'm so excited you're here, whether you're a new listener or a longtime follower, I know there's something here for you. Pull up a chair and listen in for insightful real life conversations and actionable steps on how to claim the full life God created you for. If you're a woman desiring to live a Christ centered life in today's modern world, then this is for you. Welcome to Ever Be. Hello, everybody. It is so good to see you all today and I'm so excited that I get to spend some time with you this afternoon. Uh, right before this talk, I was, uh, I got a call from my spiritual director and he was like, this is the perfect opportunity for you alongside Mary to kick Satan in the face. Amen. So that's what we are going to be doing today. And I want to start out with an activity. So when you walked in and sat down, you should have gotten a few sticky notes. Um, if you don't have one, maybe look in your row, someone might have an extra one. Um, and if you really are out of sticky notes, just put it in the notes in your phone, um, to do this activity. So I want you to take the sticky note and take out a pencil, pen again, borrow from a friend. If you don't have one, And I want you to write down a fear that you have. It can be a small fear, a big fear, maybe something that you have struggled to face or not wanted to face. Um, but I want you to write down a fear on the front. Don't write your name on it, make it anonymous. And then on the back of that fear, I want you to write down a few lies that surround that fear on the back side of that sticky note. If you're not familiar with this language lies. are things that we tell ourselves and truly that the enemy speaks to us that try, um, to make us believe things that simply aren't true about ourselves, about our identity, about who God is. So I'll give you a few examples. Maybe a fear you have is I'll never find the one. I'll never find the person that i'm supposed to marry and i'm just gonna be alone. And the lies that surround that are I am too broken to be loved, you know Maybe I have too much baggage in my past too much brokenness in my past and i'm too broken for someone to love me Or maybe it's that god doesn't have someone in mind for me Like he has simply abandoned me and forgotten me and doesn't have a plan for my life Or another lie might be that i'm just simply not enough For anybody to love me. Another example could be if I'm not perfect, I won't be chosen by people. And some lies that surround that are, I have to earn God's love. You know, that you have to work for God's love, that it is conditional. Or that my goodness and worth equates to how perfect I am, right? My goodness and my worth is only equal to how perfect I am. Or that when I perform well, then God blesses me in return, and only then, right? His love is determined by how good I perform, how much I check the boxes, how pious I am, how devout I am. These are all lies, you guys. So I'll give you two minutes right now to keep writing those down. Um, your fears and your lies, whatever comes to mind first, and when you're done, just eyes up here so I can kind of get a good idea of, of how much more time we need, and we'll have some music while you guys reflect. Right. Now, when I say go, we are going to crumple up that sticky note and we are going to throw it across the room. I want you to throw it far so you don't worry about where it's going to land. Okay, ready, set, go. Yes. Throw away those fears. All right, great. This is great. I hope we're getting video of this. Yes. All right, we're going to come back in. And we are going to come back to those later. Okay. So don't worry about it. Try not to think too much about what is on your sticky note. Um, I feel like I can already feel the excitement and the anxiety in the room rising. Like who's going to read my fear. What if I wrote down something stupid? What if my lies are all actually true? That's what gets us, isn't it? I know I've been there. Like what if all these lies are true? And if we're not careful, and if we're not grounded in the truth, it leads us down this rabbit hole of what ifs. What if the worst case scenario actually happens? What if I'll never find the one? What if my future isn't what I thought it would be? What if I'm not lovable? What if I'm not enough? What if I'm too much? What if I fail? We've all faced these moments in our life where fear and anxiety really grips us, really to the point where it paralyzes us, and we live in this anxious state. But fear, you guys, fear is not of the Lord, and anxiety is not of the Lord, and we were not made to feel this way. We were not made to experience this, right? So how do we cope with it? And that's what I'm going to be sharing with today. I'm going to tell you right now, honestly, I don't have all the answers. I'm just speaking from a place of experience, um, of wrestling with these things the past few years. And so I'm just here to share what I feel like the Lord has taught me along the way. And the biggest thing that I've learned along the way is that the answer is not necessarily about eliminating those emotions. Because it is totally human and normal to feel those, and we're going to encounter those throughout our life time and time again. So instead, it's really about allowing God to come into those spaces, and allowing Him to bring us the peace that only He can give in each one of those moments that we're struggling. So I want to share a story from scripture that I love. Um, this is the story when Jesus calls Peter out to the water. How many of you guys have heard of this one? It is one of my favorites. Great. Um, I'm going to give you a little recap because it is so powerful. So Peter is in the boat with the other disciples and they're out in the middle of the water in this small boat It's not a ship. So it's a little bit sketchy And the waves and the wind are going the waves are crashing the boat back and forth. The wind is roaring And I just can't even imagine what they must have felt, right? The fear, the anxiety, the question of what is going to happen to us tonight in the middle of this storm. And Jesus this time wasn't with them, so he wasn't in the boat, so they didn't have this like fallback of like the son of man is with us, we're fine, you know, like they actually thought we might die right now, we might die today. And then all of a sudden, out in the distance, they see a figure above the water. And they kind of begin to freak out. They think it's a ghost. And as the figure draws closer, they recognize it's Jesus. And Jesus calls out and says, Take heart, it is I. Do not be afraid. And Peter, the zealous and spicy man, we know that he was, he calls out to the figure and sort of challenges him. And he says, Lord, if it's really you, tell me to come out to you on the water. Like you're God, you can do anything. I know that if you call me out to walk on this water, I'll do it. So call me. Well, to Peter's surprise, Jesus took him up on that challenge. And he says, Come. And Peter stands up, legs weak and wobbly, I'm sure, and he takes a step of courage out onto the water, and he feels the impossible beneath his feet. He's standing on the water. He takes another step and another step, and every step he takes, his eyes are fixed on the Lord, and he is doing the impossible. He's walking on water towards Jesus. Suddenly, he hears a loud wave crash and the wind blowing and he gets distracted and he remembers that he's quite literally walking on water and that that makes no sense. And in this moment of fear and him trying to understand what's going on, he loses his focus on the Lord and he begins to sink and he cries, Lord, save me. And in that moment, Jesus reaches for his arm and pulls him out of the water. And he says, Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt? I don't know about you, but I relate to Peter a lot in this moment. I relate to being called out into the storm and having this like gust of courage and trust in the Lord. And I'm like, okay, Lord, I'm going to follow you. I'm going to walk out in faith. And then my mind starts going for some reason, you know? Like, the thoughts start spiraling, like, wait, this, this doesn't make sense, um, why would Jesus ask me to do this? I don't understand. I don't understand the plan, like, I can't see what, what's going to happen in the future. And that, it is exactly what causes us to sink. We get really caught up in understanding. Understanding the plan, and often we try and seek peace through understanding, and we try and logically find ourselves to a peaceful state ourselves. Does that make sense? Like, I think that we all have this feeling, at least I do, that if God just told us the plan, if we just knew what the plan was, then we would have peace, and then we'd be okay. If we just knew what was coming, then we could trust in God. And we constantly try to do this. We constantly try and figure out what God's plan is and try and logically find ourselves to a peaceful state, but that's not faith. Logic is not faith. And we are called to have faith and faith is when we trust in the Lord and rest in his peace. without understanding. Because we don't trust in the logic or the outcome of the plan. We trust in the person of God. We trust in who he is, in his character. We trust in his fatherhood and what that means for us as his sons and daughters. And that is what gives us peace that surpasses all understanding, right? That is straight from Scripture. Philippians 4, 7 says, And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Through our faith, and through coming to know who Jesus really is, That is how we're able to overcome fear and anxiety. And that is how we will find peace in the midst of whatever it is that we're going through right now. But honestly, even though scripture tells us this, it's really hard to believe. Like, truly believe it in your core. And I know that I often have a hard time believing that I could have peace without knowing the plan. Because I like to know the plan. I want to know the plan. I'm always asking God, God, what's the plan? Fill me in on the plan. So, when we have a hard time trusting in God, when we have a hard time trusting without knowing the plan, which is most of the time, you've probably already experienced this, we have the word to fall back on and I have found great consolation in that. Scripture is the living word of God. It speaks directly to us. It is the sword of the Spirit, and we know it is true. And it can remind us of what is true when we're in desolation, when we're unsure, when we're, you know, flooded with all of these lies. And so, you know what I think is amazing about Scripture? is that you can find the message of Do Not Fear 365 times in the Bible. That's once for every day of the year. So, God's Word is filled with reminders to not be afraid. So, what does this tell us? It tells me that we are not a mystery to God because in the beginning, He created us. The Lord knows who his sons and daughters are. He knows our humanity because he created every part of our being, our emotions, our nervous system, our mental state, our physiological state, our physical bodies, and even how the physical interacts with our spiritual being because of course he crafted every part of your soul too. And in the beginning, humanity fell in the garden and we entered into this broken state. And with that, we experience fear and anxiety. And even though we weren't made for this, that's what sin has done, right? It's brought us to this broken state, and the Lord also knew that that would happen. He knew we would experience this. And so I think that in His wisdom, since He inspired the Bible, He made sure to speak to those emotions that He knew that we would feel time and time again. And so let's take a look at a few of them. So, and if you still have your pencils out, I really recommend you take note in your journal this time and write them down, because I'm kind of going to speed through these, but I want you to be able to come back to these later. Number one, we have Isaiah 41 10. He says, so do not fear for I am with you. Do not be afraid for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Psalm 27 1. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Joshua 1 9. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. For the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Psalm 56 3. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. Psalm 46. 1. God is our refuge and our strength and ever present help in trouble. Philippians 4. 6. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And these are just a few. The Lord is constantly trying to get our attention to tell us You have nothing to fear. I am with you. I am always with you. Don't you realize? We are never alone in our suffering. We are never alone in our fear and anxiety. But I know that it feels that way a lot. I know that anxiety is just a feeling that makes you feel so out of yourself, so isolated, and fear is so powerful, it can sometimes just back us into a corner and make us feel like we have no way out. But that is not true. We learned last night in the happiness talk, right? Emotions are just data. It's not the full story. And so scripture tells us what is true. And scripture tells us, That the Lord is our strength and he's always with us. Isaiah 41, 10. Do not fear for I am with you. Can you say it with me? Do not fear for I am with you. One more time like you mean it. Do not fear for I am with you. Man, that is so much easier to say than it is to believe sometimes because when we're suffering it can often feel like he's not there. And it can often feel like he's the furthest away from us when we are suffering. But that doesn't make sense because what I know about God, what the church teaches us about God, what scripture reveals to us about God, that doesn't make sense that he would leave us alone in our suffering. So then why, why do we feel this way sometimes? You're all here, I imagine, because there's something that you fear, something that you're suffering with, you're struggling with. And I pray, whatever it is, that you do feel close to God with it. But I suspect that I'm not alone in feeling like I am alone in my suffering at times. Heck, even Jesus felt that, right? On the cross. God, why have you forsaken me? And if Jesus felt this, and if I felt it I suspect there are many people in this room who have also felt this way, alone in their fear, in their suffering. But knowing the truth about God, we know that's not true. We know we're not alone. And if God promised that he wouldn't leave us alone in our suffering, like we see in Scripture time and time again, then he wouldn't leave us alone in our suffering. I wish I had the answer for you, a more comforting answer, but I don't. Sanctification, maybe it's greater faith, more reliance on God, greater surrender, um, strengthening of our soul and our faith and trusting God. What I do have is Philippians 4, 7, which I shared earlier, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Ultimately, this is the truth. The truth is that peace is not found in understanding. Peace is not found in knowing the answer. It comes from trusting the person, not the plan. And this is how it was, even when Jesus was here on earth with his apostles, with the people. People didn't know the full plan. People didn't know he was going to be crucified and died. And then even when Jesus tried to tell his apostles what was going to happen, they like totally didn't get it and tried to oppose it, and so it just doesn't really work out for us to know the plan. And, you know, they were waiting for generations for a Messiah to come that was prophesized. He was going to come in all this glory and save them, and they thought that it would be this big warrior that was going to take out the Romans. And instead, Jesus was born into a poor family in a manger, and he died on a cross. And so I'm sure the people felt abandoned at times. I'm sure they felt confused. I'm sure there was fear. And there was three days of silence not really knowing what had happened or not knowing where they were supposed to go from there. But we have the full story. We now can look back and we know what happened. We know there was a resurrection. We know Jesus opened the gates of heaven for us. And we know that he had to go so that he could send us his Holy Spirit. And so despite the fear that Jesus felt in the way of the cross and in his crucifixion, despite him saying, Lord, take this cup from me. And why have you forsaken me? Jesus trusted in the person more than the plan. And he trusted enough to give his life for it, for us. So God doesn't tell us we won't face fear. The Bible doesn't say, do not fear because it doesn't exist. No, we're going to face it, but he reassures us that we won't face it alone. And that when we feel that fear, he will be with us. And when we're filled with these emotions, we need to remember that we need to remember that our peace and our strength and our calm comes from God. And as sons and daughters, we are heirs to this peace. We can claim this peace by prayer and petition, and it's truly available to us in every situation, in every moment of our life. Scripture tells us this. So when we feel that fear and anxiety grip us in those moments, we need to remember to take a second to pray and to ask the Lord for peace, for a moment of stillness, for more trust, for more confidence. And so pray for the Lord's peace to wash over you, for him to allow you to feel his comfort and his presence and his consolation in your times of suffering. And what's been really helpful for me in my life is biblical declarations. You may have heard of them before. It's basically these affirming and encouraging statements that announces something that God has already promised, Decreed or established and they're usually rooted in scripture and depending on what they are. Are they affirmed your identity? Or who God is in his goodness, etc And I'm gonna be honest with you when I first heard about these like years ago. I Honestly thought they were dumb. I thought like I am way smarter than that and that's not gonna work on me Like just saying some nice positive words. It's not gonna make me feel better or solve my problem for me And so I never tried them until just about a year ago when I was going through a really difficult time I've shared this publicly already on my Instagram and on my podcast, but my husband Trey and I, we've been trying to grow our family for a few years now and we haven't been able to conceive. We've been struggling with infertility. And everything I've been sharing with you guys are truly things that I have been struggling and wrestling with myself and the Lord for the past three years. We've been on this journey. It's been a journey. of seeking answers and struggling and fighting to trust in God and facing big fears. So I've really had to cling to prayer, to turn to scripture, to continually remind myself of the truth because it's really easy to begin to believe these different lies you tell yourself when you're in a really dark place. And so in many ways, I feel like I've been walking my own way of the cross. And like Jesus I've asked the Lord to take this cup from me and I've asked the Lord why have you forsaken me? But I have fought for my faith to be stronger than my fear and I've had to face the Lord Through the suffering and not understanding his plan and I still don't understand the plan and I've had to face Him through it all and face the fact that you know what? But I can still trust Him and still love Him and still surrender myself to Him and still trust that He is good. And I've had to trust with every fiber of my being that even though the Lord has allowed me to face these really difficult moments and face these really big fears, that He is also the source of my peace. That even though He is allowing this cross in my life, and I know that He has the power to take it away in an instant if it were His will, I have to constantly remind myself that my peace is drawn from Him, and my strength is drawn from Him, and the only way I will endure this suffering is through Him. It's such a paradox. It's such an interesting experience of choosing to love the one who is allowing your cross to happen. So if you relate to anything I'm saying, anything I've said today, I'm really just here to tell you that I know how you feel. And you're not alone. And you're not crazy or bad for feeling this way. You are not bad for failing to trust in God. You are not bad for finding it difficult to love Him and to go to Him. And you're not bad for having a hard time getting on board with His plan that might look so vastly different than what you thought your life would look like right now. So for me, I've relied on Scripture and these biblical declarations to remind me of who God is and to remind me that my trust Trust is in God, not in understanding, and it's rooted in who He is and in His character. And for me, the declaration that has gotten me through all this is Philippians 4, 13. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. It's like your most pin basic Pinterest girl quote, okay? I know, but for some reason, it's what kept coming to mind, probably because I've seen it a thousand times on my Pinterest, and it's just what I chose to hold on to and to speak over myself every day. In a moment of anxiety, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. In a moment of sorrow, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. In a moment of isolation, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And throughout our difficult journey, I've been given the grace of faith and at times even the grace of peace Admits the fear and confusion and that has only come from a deep seated trust in the Lord without ever knowing the plan And that's grace That's not me. And I want you to experience that peace in your life If you're struggling, God wants you to experience his peace and you just need to cling to him and to his word and ask for it to be given to you. And so a really beautiful way to do this is to clothe ourselves in these declarations of truth that I now know are not dumb, you guys. They are in fact so powerful. So please don't write them off because the truth is powerful. The truth sets you free. So I want us to declare this truth together right now. Can we all just say this? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Ready? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Yes, you can. Yes, you can. So if you know me, you know that I love practicals. And I give you the inspiration in the heart. And then I like to tell you, okay, how do we actually put this into practice? What do we actually do with this? So let's go over a few practical things that you can do to root yourself in the truth, to increase your faith and trust in God. Number one is daily prayer. And so I have a few different recommendations here for you to incorporate into your daily prayer routine that are tried and true. I have done them. I have tested them and they have actually worked. Number one is the rosary. The rosary is a weapon against evil and it is such an effective prayer to find peace and to unload what you're carrying and allow Mary to take it to Jesus. Amen. Amen. Amen. Mary is known as the Mediatrix of Grace, which means that God has given her a very special authority to distribute his graces amongst her children as they need it. And what I always say is the rosary is like math. Like 1 plus 1 equals 2 every single time you pray the rosary, you're gonna have peace every single time. So it's kind of a cheat sheet. Number two, nine days to strengthen your faith. This is a short nine day devotional to help you strengthen your faith. It's written by Father Jacques Philippe, who is an amazing author. Um, and faith is a gift from God. We actually can't manufacture it ourselves. So it's actually something we need to pray for and to ask for more of. Ask the Lord, strengthen my faith, give me the gift of faith. And this devotional is so helpful. Um, I actually did it last year right after Seek and I did truly feel a tangible change in my heart and an increase in faith and trust in God. Last is the Surrender Novena. Um, don't do this unless you're ready to actually let go of what you're doing because God will change your heart in nine days. It is an amazing novena that helps you in surrendering your life to God and allowing Jesus to take care of everything. So I feel like we often pray, um, for God to answer our prayer and to fix whatever it is that we're struggling with in the way that we want it answered or fixed. Now, what the Surrender Novena does is actually helps us go to God and surrender whatever it is we're asking, you know, for his prayers for, um, and allow him to take care of it the way that he sees fit. Next we have biblical declarations, which we just talked about. These are so powerful and really easy ways to incorporate scripture in your life. And so I have a QR code up here. I created a freebie with 30 different biblical declarations that you can use. You can print it out, you can cut them up, you can write them down, put them on a sticky note on your mirror or make a little phone background and keep it on the background of your phone so you can see it often. Um, But the whole point of this is that you would pray with these daily. You would choose one or two that stand out to you and that speak to you in this time of your life and you go back to them and trust me they will give you strength for the journey. Then we have Christ centered community and support. Christ centered community is everything you guys. We were not meant to do this walk of faith alone. We were not meant to strive for sainthood alone and when we bring our darkness to the light, it disappears. And so I recommend that you open up to a trusted person. Maybe it's a friend or a family member, spiritual director or therapist, um, and bring your darkness to the light and trust that to somebody. Hopefully somebody who is rooted in Christ so that they can speak God's truth directly to you into those lies that you may be believing. And finally, ask for prayers. Prayer in the moment especially is so powerful. And so I encourage all of you sitting in these seats to take bold steps with your friends and to pray with each other in person, out loud. I know it can be kind of nerve wracking sometimes, but if we all just set the precedent right now that it doesn't have to be awkward and that we're not going to judge each other, then it's not going to be that bad. I promise. And so get in the habit of praying for each other out loud in the moment, because we need to be encouraging each other, pushing each other, praying for and with each other, because it is so powerful. And especially when we're in a weird place with the Lord, when it's hard for us to go to Him, He, He doesn't leave us alone and He uses other people to speak to us. He uses our brothers and sisters in Christ to speak to us, to speak His truth. Which brings me to my last story. A few years ago, I attended a woman's conference and on the last day in the closing session, they handed out sticky notes and they asked us to write down a fear that we had. And then we crumpled up those sticky notes and we threw them across the room. And out of the almost 200 sticky notes, they chose like four or five to read out loud and to stick on the walls around the room. And then they handed out more sticky notes and they had everybody go around and write down the truth. to the fear that people were feeling that they chose to stick up on the room. So to my surprise, my sticky note was pulled from all of those sticky notes, and it was put up on the wall, and I heard them read my fear out loud and stick it up there. And then I saw almost 200 women walk around and write down the truth to the really real lie and fear that I was struggling with. You know what I put on that note? I fear that God may be calling me to speak on a stage, and I don't think I can live up to that call. That was about three years ago. And a year and a half later, last year, I gave my first SEEK breakout session. And I was so nervous nobody was going to show up at 7am, and the room was packed. And then this year they told me, Great, we're giving you a room almost twice that size. And I was like, Crap, it's going to look so empty. Thank you all for showing up. So here I am again, round two, just doing what the Lord has called me to do. And I tell you right now, even this time, it wasn't easy for me to get up here and talk about this. And it took me hearing the truth being spoken to me over and over again by friends and family and my husband praying over me every single night leading up. For me to be hot for me to have the strength to do this Because god uses the people around us to speak to us and he wants to speak to you too And he's gonna speak to you today And well because of the size of the crowd We don't have the space or the time to do the exact same activity and have all of us write down the truths to our fears But I still want to harness the power of prayer and community that we have Um, so before you leave I want you to do two things Number one, um, on your way out, pick up a sticky note that you see on the ground. Make sure that everybody picks one up. I don't want there to be any sticky notes on the ground. One, because the focus staff will get mad at me if I leave trash. And two, because we don't want anybody's lies lying around, okay? And I want you to pray for that person. I want you to read that fear and the lies on the back and pray for that person this week. Put it in your journal or on your bedside table and make sure that you are continually praying for the person to be freed from those lies that are on the back of that sticky note. This is a beautiful way to pray specifically for that person. Okay, and then number two, I want you to grab a biblical declaration paper on your way out the door. You can either get it from somebody handing it out at the door. I don't know if they were able to put a table out or it might just be people that are handing it out at the back. Um, but I chose a variety of different declarations rooted in scripture for you, um, and affirmations to share with you. And I prayed for every single one of you. And I prayed for the Holy spirit to choose who would get which card in hopes that it would speak directly to you, your fears and whatever it is that you're struggling with right now. Lastly, I just want to remind you that our Heavenly Mother always desires to comfort her children. And if your relationship with the Father is hard right now, you can always go to your mother. So let's do that together. Let's bow our heads and let's pray for her intercession as we say, Hail Mary full of grace. The Lord is with thee. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Thank you. Thank you so much for listening in. If you've enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends and on social media and give me a five star rating on whatever podcast platform you're listening on. That helps me and the show out so much. Also make sure to follow the podcast on Instagram at ever be podcast. And if you want more content like this and you don't already follow me, you can also follow me on Instagram at Mari. c. wagner. And may his praise ever be on our lips. God bless.