What if God asked you to do something that you found impossible? What kind of response would you give? This week’s podcast covers the story of Mary and Joseph and how they were are support team who worked together to complete the task God gave them.Contributor: This week Trina shares the journey she has been on with her husband and with God. Listen to how she overcame trials that were placed in her life and how having a partner there to support her made these burdens lighter.

What if God asked you to do something that you found impossible? What kind of response would you give? This week’s podcast covers the story of Mary and Joseph and how they were are support team who worked together to complete the task God gave them.Contributor: This week Trina shares the journey she has been on with her husband and with God. Listen to how she overcame trials that were placed in her life and how having a partner there to support her made these burdens lighter.

Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.

Starting with Jesus

Reflect and Renew July 2023

Heather Bennett

God’s Happy Surprise

An Angel’s Special Secret


My husband Scott and I got married on the day that I turned 18 He and I have been through some difficult times in the past 40 years with 1 of the most difficult coming in 2016 when I was diagnosed with an aneurysm on my carotid artery The brain surgery really changed me in a lot of ways, and it's caused me to lean on the Lord and lean on my husband in ways that I never dreamed I'd lean on anybody in my whole life. Welcome to Reflect and Renew. Hey, I'm Katie. I'm so glad that you'll be joining me today. We will be learning and growing together in our walk with Jesus.

You will surely be encouraged and challenged as we study week by week and hear from the experiences of others. Parenting. What do you think of when you think of that word? Maybe happiness? Chaos?

Fear? Connection? Investment? Raising a child? Heartbreak?

Joy? Becoming a parent changes everything. My friend who was pregnant with her first child was asked by her co-worker what she was the most nervous about, becoming a mom. Her response? Not getting enough sleep through the newborn stage.

The co-worker laughed and said, Honey, that's the least of your problems. Get ready to lose sleep over them their entire life. Maybe you can relate. Maybe you've experienced that. But there are so many joys to parenting, too.

My son was sitting across the room from me last night, and I caught his eye and gave him this sly smile, 1 of those, if I could tickle you right now, I would kind of smiles. He gave me the cutest sneaky little smile back, and my heart just melted. Becoming a parent changes things, doesn't it? Life gets harder. It gets more complicated.

That's why it's so important to have a support system around you as a parent. God designed for there to be 2 parents raising the children together, but as many of us know, maybe we've even experienced, That's not always possible. Life can throw a wrench into our plans and when that happens, God can still provide others to help, like mentors or real or adopted grandparents in our lives, a supportive church family. They can be lifesavers to struggling families. Maybe you're past the parent stage, but you can be a help and a support to those around you who need some encouragement or some babysitting.

We're gonna talk about Mary becoming a new mother in just a minute, but first, have you checked out our Renew devotional? We use the devotional as a springboard for our discussion each and every week. You can Check it out at startingwithjesus.com slash renew. Or if you want to have the devotional sent straight to your inbox each Sunday morning, go ahead. You can email us at renew at starting with Jesus dot com.

That's renew at starting with Jesus dot com and we can make sure to get that sent to you. Mary is a young woman engaged to be married to Joseph. I love what Merle Poirier brings out, the author of our devotional. She brings out this week and I quote, in the fullness of time, Jesus was born. We typically understand this to mean the time in this world's history and we'd be right, But it was so much more for Mary.

If Gabriel had arrived with his announcement before Mary's engagement, she would have certainly borne the burden of this birth and the child alone. Had the angel arrived after her marriage, then no 1, including Mary and Joseph, would know who the child really belonged to. Joseph could easily have claimed him as his own. But the announcement came at just the right time. During the engagement period, when Joseph would know with certainty that Jesus was not his.

But more importantly, Joseph became for Mary her biggest support system. God provided for Mary knowing that she would need encouragement, defense, and protection. He also provided Jesus with an earthly father for shelter and for instruction." God knew just what Jesus needed. It has been shown that boys need strong male role models in their lives. And that's what Joseph was for Jesus.

Boys need someone to look up to, to lean on, to learn from, to be taught what's right and wrong. Joseph was there. He was also there to support Mary socially, financially, emotionally. You know, God puts people in our lives to help us with the challenges and the joys that we go through. It's so important to be connected into a support system.

You know recently I've realized that with our lifestyle and the busyness of life I was becoming more and more isolated. I don't know if you've experienced that. I can't always get together in person with my friends, but I can reach out to them on the phone and I can make time to connect. But Sometimes life is just so busy you don't even want to make time to connect or you're so emotionally drained that thinking about having a conversation with somebody is just kind of overwhelming. But I've realized that this is a problem in my life, and I've been really trying to prioritize connection.

We need connection. We need support. We need friends. But if we don't prioritize those needs, they're going to get swallowed up by the things in our lives. It might be little ones.

It might be work. It might be our schedules. It might be to-do lists. It might be all the extracurricular activities that we're rushing around doing. It might even be ministry.

We have to connect with our spouse. Turn off the TV. Spend the evening together. Turn off the phones, right? Be intentional about connecting with friends that will be your ride-or-die friends, as 1 of my favorite podcaster likes to say.

And connect with your family. It doesn't have to be long, but Just check in with each other. From this lesson this week, I can just see that God puts people in our lives to help us, to support us, that we need to be connected to. But connection is not just going to happen. Connection is a choice.

It's a decision. So let's choose to connect into that support system that God has given us today. Today we're going to hear from Trina, who really helped our family as we navigated the early stages of ministry and the journey that she has been on with her husband, with God. It's inspired me. In 2016, she was diagnosed with an aneurysm on her carotid artery.

Basically it means that part of the wall of her artery weakened and then there was a bulge and if not treated it can rupture. Thankfully they did catch it in time but it led to Trina having to have brain surgery and it was a very long and difficult journey for recovery. When we went to visit them after the surgery she explained to me that just living life, doing simple things, had become so much more difficult. Light, sound, patterns even, could cause her healing brain to become overstimulated and she would just feel like she needed to get away. But through it all, her husband Scott was right by her side, helping her, supporting her, encouraging her.

God placed him in her life to help her through this challenging time. So let's listen as she shares her story. My husband Scott and I got married on the day that I turned 18. We didn't really know what we were doing but we both knew that we loved the Lord and we wanted to follow him. He and I have been through some difficult times in the past 40 years, with 1 of the most difficult coming in 2016 when I was diagnosed with an aneurysm on my carotid artery.

I've always been afraid that I would have a brain trauma and that that would mean that I wouldn't be able to love the Lord anymore. I don't know why I've had that fear but I have had it and so I prayed before the surgery that God would protect me and that I would be able to come through that loving him still. I'm here to tell you today that I do love him still and I'm grateful for his faithfulness to me. The brain surgery really changed me in a lot of ways. I'm a very, very independent person and it's caused me to lean on the Lord and lean on my husband in ways that I never dreamed I'd lean on anybody in my whole life.

I want to tell you a story about a time when Scott really helped me. Our son Eric was the head coach of the Gymnics and right after brain surgery we went to his home show. We'd never missed any of his home shows in all the years that he had been in gymnastics. And so I really wanted to go to this 1. Now I've been having a lot of trouble with lights and sounds and crowds and touch and all kinds of stuff.

And so we decided to go to the show, knowing full well that I was probably going to need to get out of there. Eric put us right in the very front, which I asked him to. The music started and the lights started and the whole thing was going and there was a lot of movement. I made it through 16 minutes and when it was over I was shaking and I was miserable and we had to get out of there. Scott took me by the arm and guided me out.

He took me to our car and shut me in the car, closed the door and got it quiet where I could calm down and relax and get my senses back. Over the past 7 years he's had to do that many times. That was the first. I really love how he honored my desire to see our son's home show. He could have said to me, no we're not going to that, that's gonna be too much for you, but he didn't.

He took me and he made sure I was okay. He got me in there and he got me out of there. I'm so grateful for how God is leading in my life and taking care of me. He's amazing and I trust him with my whole heart. Just like our lesson this week, God placed Joseph in Mary's life to help and support her And God placed Scott in Trina's life to help and support her through her challenges.

Who has God placed in your life? Are we appreciative? Do we thank them and show them how much they mean to us? Something to think about, right? This week we're going to deviate a bit from our usual weekly challenge in the devotional because I am very passionate about the topic of connection.

I feel like it is so important, and it's something that we as a society, we're not doing enough of. We scroll Facebook or Instagram, and it keeps us up to date about who had another kid, and who took a vacation, and where did they go, and who's been renovating and updating their house. So we know all these facts but we're not experiencing relationships. That is causing us as a society, as a people, to be lonelier than ever. And so this week, I want you to be intentional about the relationships in your life.

Let's start with your kids. Try to find some one-on-one time and do something together that they like or that they want to do. My youngest likes to plan birthday parties for his stuffed bear and we sing and play a game and actually sit in a darkened room and blow out a candle. My oldest thinks that this is the most dumb thing ever and just rolls his eyes. But you know what?

If I sit down and play a game that my oldest picked out, just him and I, he's happy. You could go to the park together with your child, play tag, get a special treat. Take some time this week for one-on-one with each of your children. Now what about our spouse? Let's be intentional and do something together that you both enjoy doing.

It may be taking a walk by yourselves or cooking something together, playing a game or finding a list of questions off the internet that you ask each other. We've done this sometimes and it really gets some interesting conversations going, things that I would never even think of. The answers might surprise you. I know of 1 couple who enjoys going to a shooting range together. The point is, take time for you to be together without the kids.

Get a babysitter or relative or a church member to spend some time with the kiddos so that you both can get away and get a break. Or maybe you're like us and you don't have that support system around you, well, then you gotta get creative. After the kids go to bed, it's so easy to just live our lives like 2 ships passing in the night, as my husband says. We need to have one-on-one time with our spouse to reconnect. And finally, take time for friends.

It can be hard to have friends. It can be hard to even make friends. But it will not happen if we don't make time. Invite people over, call them on the phone, schedule it. That's my biggest thing.

I'll say like, oh we should get together and then we don't put it on the calendar and weeks, months go by. 1 of my friends that it had been like 6 months, 5 months since I had seen her and finally I just texted her I'm like okay we got to get together what are you doing this week how can we plan this and we did and it was such a wonderful reconnecting time. Put it on the calendar. The past few years, we've lived in a pretty isolated location, and I haven't had the friendships that I've been used to having around me. But when I stop and I think, who has God put in my life?

I realize that there are people, even in an isolated location, who we can connect with. It may not be somebody who's our age. It may not be somebody who's even of our faith, but God puts people in our lives for us to have friendships with. It's not always easy, and in fact just a couple weeks ago I was moaning because although we were at camp meeting and there were people all around us. I didn't really know anyone and it seemed like so much work to try to make friends that I wouldn't see for another year and then I'd have to start all over next year.

But then I stopped and I realized that there was 1 family who I really liked and they seemed to really like us. So I decided to make an effort and you know what? I can see the beginnings of a great friendship. God puts people in our lives to help us, to support us, just as he provided Joseph for Mary. So I wanna challenge you this week, look for those special people and determine to make an effort to connect with them.

Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the people around us that you put in our lives for us to connect with. Sometimes it's hard to see who they are. And sometimes it's easy to just get so busy with life that we don't connect in with others. Help us to stop, pause, take a break, and make those connections, make those friendships, take that time that will help us to be healthy and to be whole.

In Jesus name, Amen. This podcast is sponsored by Starting With Jesus. To find out more about other programs, or to find out the links that were shared in this podcast, just check out the description box below. [♪ Music ♪ you

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Series

Reflect and Renew July 2023

An Angel’s Special Secret

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Other Teachings in Series

God’s Happy Surprise

14m

An Angel’s Special Secret

17m

Sound Doctrine