EP 78 | Laura Smith: Brave Woman, Mighty God

Exposure of our sin can lead to shame and isolation, but Jesus responds by drawing near. On today's episode with author Laura Smith, we talk about her book Brave Woman, Mighty God and why the long-ago stories of women in the Bible still speak directly to faith-based recovery today. 

If you’ve ever felt disqualified by addiction, weighed down by guilt, or afraid that God is tired of you, this conversation offers a steadier truth: Jesus is not looking for a reason to condemn you. He is moving toward you with mercy and power.

If this episode encouraged you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review so more women can find faith-based addiction recovery support and the promises of a new life with God.

- 

Laura L. Smith is a speaker, podcaster and best-selling author who has written fifteen books including Brave Woman, Mighty God, The Urgency of Slowing Down, and Holy Care for the Whole Self. Smith is passionate about tearing down lies, so we can live in Christ’s truth. She lives in the picturesque college town of Oxford, Ohio, with her husband and one of their four young adult kids. There you’ll find her running the wooded trails, teaching a local Bible study, shopping at the Saturday morning farmer’s market, or going on a sunset walk. You can find more about her at www.laurasmithauthor.com 

Connect with Laura

Website
Instagram: @laurasmithauthor
Substack
Book: Brave Woman, Mighty God

About the She Surrenders Podcast:

On the She Surrenders podcast we are talking about women, faith and addiction all on the same platform. There are many podcasts for women and sobriety, but very few for women seeking information and stories from others about faith-based recovery.   

Help us reach more listeners: like, subscribe, review, and share. 

Find us on Instagram @shesurrenders_sherry, on Facebook @shesurrenderssherry, and online at www.shesurrenders.com. 

Transcript

Speaker 2 0:01

Welcome back to the She Surrenders Podcast. I'm Sherry, and my heart behind this podcast is to bring you the excellent news that faith-based recovery is where you'll discover the joy in life you never thought possible while you were in the bondage of addiction. The stories you'll hear from women and sometimes men who have walked in your shoes or alongside someone who has will inspire you to pursue the same freedom they've found. This freedom comes from surrendering not only our addictions, but also our guilt and shame to God. Matthew 19, verse 26 tells us, with man, this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. I pray that today's episode brings you to a new understanding that this is true for you too, because it is. Now, on to our guest. Today, my friend Laura Smith is with me, and she's a little different guest than what you're used to because she is not in the recovery space, as we say, and she's not going to tell her addiction story. But her book is called Brave Woman, Mighty God, and it's um one book of many. But she talks in this book about women in the Bible and how much Jesus loves them. That's the gist of it. Um and we're gonna talk about some of those women today, and their stories are empowering, and it's how Jesus equips and empowers us in ways that we could never ever imagine. And I hope that you take away from my time today the thought it doesn't matter what your sin is, Jesus loves you anyway, and he loves you in spite of, and he is never going to walk away from you. But most of all, he wants more for you. And that's I think the message of today. So I really hope you enjoy this podcast today with my friend Laura Smith. So welcome, Laura. I am so glad you're here with me today in this space. Laura and I have gotten to know each other a little bit from our writers' group that we're a part of. And um, Laura's quite an amazing author. She's got a lot of books out there. So um I will include all those links and encourage you to look her up. But today um we're gonna focus on her latest book, which is Brave Woman, Mighty God. And we're gonna go into the whys of that. So before we get talking about that, welcome, Laura. I'm so glad you're here.

Speaker 2:51

Thanks so much for having me, Sherry. It's so fun to do this because, like you said, we have become friends, and it's just so fun to have this chance to uh chat with you about all the ways God is really for us and loves us and empowers us. Yes, yes.

Speaker 2 3:04

So Laura and I were talking, and Laura is not in recovery, and so this is a little bit different podcast, but I felt like it's really important to know more about I like to think of what God has already done and the examples that He's given us in His Word. And sometimes it's not as easy to just open the Bible and find that story. And I feel like Laura has really brought some of these women's stories to life for us in the Bible. So that is some of the things we're gonna talk about today. And I know you're gonna be inspired by that. But to get you and to get to know you a little bit better, Laura, um, why don't you tell us a little bit about you and your journey and how you got to where you are today?

Speaker 3:50

Sure. I am married to a professor. We live in a small college town in Ohio, and we have four young adult kiddos. I am an author, a podcaster speaker. I just started seminary this fall, which has been a blast. Yeah, I know. I love it so much. It's been so fun. I had been a minute since I had written a research paper, but it is fun to be back in school. And um I don't know, I grew up in with a bit of a traumatic childhood. Um and uh dad who emotionally abused and manipulated me, which made me um not value myself and have a lot of questions about my own self-worth. And really Jesus has transformed that the way that he loves me and the way that he's there for me. Also, a great Christian counselor has helped through that as well. Highly recommend Christian counselors. Um and I just want to share with everyone how much Jesus truly loves you for who you are, where you are. And I think it's something that even when we hear it in our head, we don't always believe in our heart. So my mission is really to just kind of tear down the lies in the world that we've been told or that we tell ourselves and replace them with the truth of Christ's love.

Speaker 2 5:14

I love that. Using our pain for purpose, you know, as you talk about your childhood and some of the things that you went through, it does lead you to a deeper understanding to help others, right?

Speaker 5:27

Amen. Amen. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 5:30

Yeah. When you can sit across from someone and want to walk with them in their pain, it's a huge difference. It's a huge difference. And especially when you want to bring the bring the Lord into the conversation as well, which I think you do so well.

Speaker 5:44

Thank you. No, Revelation tells us that we will be redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. That's Jesus dying on the cross, and the power of our testimony. So, like it says those in one sentence. Like, we know what Jesus did on the cross for us is everything, but we'll redeem by that. And the power of our testimonies, us sharing what he's done for us with others. Um, so we need to share our stories, we need to share them. We need to let people know.

Speaker 2 6:09

What a great reminder. The power of our testimony. Absolutely. Absolutely. We were talking about some of the different women in your book in Brave Woman Mighty God. And what comes to mind when you think about a woman in your book when, you know, we're here in this recovery space, which is, you know, my area. Um, so we're talking to the woman today that, uh, or the woman that's listening that she's she's carrying a lot of shame. And she is, you know, I was talking about how the woman that's a Christian, um, which I put myself back in that head space, and it's it's not a good one to be in, you know, it's just you don't look up. I didn't feel worthy of, you know, being in God's presence, um, feeling like I really should have known better as a Christian, or maybe I should have tried harder, talk to God sooner, you know, all the things. And then later I went into blaming him. Why didn't you rescue me and all these things, you know? So, what woman in your book comes to mind when we talk about the woman that's stuck in the cycle of addiction?

Speaker 7:19

Yeah, there's a few of them do, but just as you're speaking, the one that comes first to my mind is the woman who is caught in the act of adultery. So we have to kind of picture this scene. Like she is having sex with a man who's not her husband. We don't know what the situation was. She could have been being trafficked. Um, she could have chosen to be there either way. You're naked and caught having sex with a man who's not your husband. Some men come barging in while this is going on, drag her out into the temple court. So the front yard of your church. Like, think of how a she's naked, right? She's naked, she's been caught. Who knows what the happened to the man? He actually, by Mosaic Law, should have been dragged there as well, but he was not. So she imagine being caught in the act of something that you're completely humiliated by, naked in the front yard of your church. This is where she is.

Speaker 2 8:15

I can't imagine.

Speaker 8:17

I I can't. I can't even. All these people are ready to stone her, which by Mosaic law, if you were caught in the act of adultery, you could be stoned. Jesus, however, gets down on the ground where she is. I imagine him kind of blocking the view with his body. Like he's now leveled her. So people who are looking are seeing him instead of her. Providing her some actual protection, um, both in his physical presence. You know, if there's ever been anyone who's threatening to you or um who you've been, like, oh my gosh, I hope they don't see me. And someone steps in front, you're like, oh, thank you. Right. Like that is what Jesus is doing. Like, I hope they don't see me. He kind of gets in front and gives her a physical barrier of protection. Like, don't worry, like, I'm between you and them. They have to come through me to get to you. Oh, what an first of all, what an act of love. And this is what Jesus is doing for someone literally caught in an act. So whether you have done something recently that you're ashamed of or forever ago that you're ashamed of, Jesus is coming between you and any accuser, whether that's um someone in your family, whether that's yourself accusing yourself of something you haven't done wrong, whether that's the world saying, Oh, good Christian girls don't do that. Um, Jesus is coming in between any accuser and you and saying, They have to come through me to get to you. And the thing is, through Jesus is through his blood, which has redeemed and restored you, making you pure and white as snow. So they have to come through his forgiveness to get to you. And he he looks at all these people who like have giant rocks and to stone someone, these were like big old rocks. You basically suffocate from being stoned. They're holding them up in the air, and he's like, uh, whoever hasn't sinned, you can go first. And I think we tend to categorize our sin and other people's sins, like this one's worse than that. But whatever you have done isn't any worse than the person who gossiped today, um, the someone who shortchanged someone 11 cents today, the someone who had the bad thought in their head about their neighbor today. Like all sins are equal in the eyes of God. And if you believe in Jesus, all your sins are gone in the eyes of God. So all this shame that we heap on ourselves, like I can't believe it, I can't believe they saw it, and I can't believe they caught me. Jesus is saying, I don't condemn you. That's what he says to her. He says, Who's condemned you? They she says, No one. He says, Neither do I. He's saying, I don't condemn you. And I think it's just so important to remember this is who he is. He is the God who gets down on the ground and protects us, like physically protects us, shields us from shame, uh, who doesn't judge us, who isn't condemning us, but he's loving us, he's inviting us into new life, to abundant life, and to better life. Now, again, I don't know how she got in that situation, but I bet you after that day, she was changed forever because she knew there was someone who would stand up for her, who would love her, who would protect her, and that that she could like move forward. And I don't know what that looked like for her, but uh no matter what you've done or been caught doing, or maybe not caught doing, like you can move forward because Jesus loves you. He's not condemning you, but he's inviting you into more just because he loves you.

Speaker 2 12:03

Right. That's such a powerful, first of all, description of that story. Oh, thank you for that. Um, I saw a video um clip once, I don't know what it was from. My thought, too, was she was the only woman among all these men. She was just thrown in the center, and they all looked at her with such like sneering distaste, looking down on her. And Jesus' face was so kind and loving. She never took her eyes off him. Once she found him, she never took her eyes off him, and who can blame her? But you watch these men's faces, you know, go from their face never went to loving, but they kind of went into um disbelief as Jesus was talking, and then they took on shame as well, which they very well should have. Being pointed out that your sin is no greater than anyone else's. I mean, that is the reason they all left that day, right? Like you can't stone her because you're a sinner too. Right. The realization of that is something that um I think when you're buried deep in addiction or sin like she was, it's impossible to think about comparing your sin to someone that was short-changed, 11 cents or whatever. Because in your mind there is a scale to sin, and it's really hard to comprehend that there's not. But Jesus says that's different.

Speaker 13:38

And I think we need to hold on to Romans 8, which is there is no condemnation for those of us in Christ Jesus. None. Not not some or a little less for you, or maybe someday if you get your act together, there won't be condemnation. But you don't have to do this and that and all these things and check these boxes for the no condemnation. If you believe in Jesus, there is no condemnation for you.

Speaker 2 14:00

It's done.

Speaker 14:02

It's done.

Speaker 2 14:03

Yeah. And in this video, too, when it was all done and the men had all left, and you know, his words, I don't want to miss quote, we're go and sin no more, right? Um to her.

Speaker 14:17

Do they condemn you? Neither do I. Go and sin no more.

Speaker 2 14:20

Go and sin no more. And she walked away, and like you said, her life was forever changed. And I remember thinking, is it really that easy? And I would say yes, right?

Speaker 14:37

I think yes and no, right? It's it's that easy to be forgiven and loved by Jesus because that's just true. That's just who he is. Um that's the part, yes. That's the easy part. That part's easy. He does love you, he does forgive you. He actually doesn't even see your sin. Um, but to go away and maybe sin no more to never slip up, to never mess up, not not so easy. Um, and I I think we also need to remember that when Jesus is saying this, he's saying this because he wants abundance for us, not because he's trying to like wave his finger at us. I think of as a parent, like when my kiddos were little and they would, you know, get so excited and start to run across the street because they wanted to see the frog hopping on the other side of the street or see their friend who's on the other side of the whatever. No, don't run into the street. I would yell at them, you know, no, don't sin anymore. Don't do that. Danger, danger. Um, it wasn't because I was mad at my kids. It's because I didn't want them to get hit by a car. I knew their life would be better and more full if they would look both ways and walk safely across the street. And that's what Jesus is telling us when he's telling us not to sin. When there are things he doesn't want us to do, like fall into addiction patterns. It's not because he's mad at you, it's because he has better for you. It's just because he wants safety for you and abundance for you. It's not because he's like, don't do that and don't do that and look you messed up again. It's like, you know what would actually be better? You know what would actually make you happier? You know what would actually fulfill you more. And that's what he's offering. Right.

Speaker 2 16:14

What a beautiful way to look at it. Because when he said to her, go and sin no more, I'm sure the context that at least I always thought of it was he's telling her, you know, don't go back to the way that you were living.

Speaker 16:29

And I believe he is, but because he knows he has better for her.

Speaker 2 16:36

Yeah, he has better for her. But if that were me that he were telling to, you know, like, don't drink anymore. And the fear in me would be, what if I let him down again? And I think that women need to know that he's gonna love you anyway, because he still wants this more for you that you're talking about.

Speaker 16:58

100%. I think of not a woman, but Peter, who literally denies Jesus three times on the day he's being executed. Like, talk about letting Jesus down. Um, and when Jesus is resurrected, he literally comes back and he um gives Peter this beautiful opportunity to um kind of undo that through this. Like, do you love me, Peter? Like, do you love me? Do you love me? He asked him three times to kind of undo the three times that he denied him, just with just that, just with saying I love you. Um, and then Peter becomes the head of the church, like he's the one who leads the whole thing. Jesus wasn't like, oh my gosh, Peter, on my hardest day, dude, you let me down, forget it. I'm picking John. Like, he doesn't do that. He's like, I mean, he empowers John in his own way, but he loves Peter so much. Like we were talking about this gal before we started, um, Gomer, who we don't hear about much. Um, she's in the book of Isaiah.

Speaker 2 17:58

I heard about her. I never knew her name until you said it earlier today. Yeah.

Speaker 18:02

Um, so if you've seen Redeeming Love or read Redeeming Love, um her name is Angel in that book, but in the Bible, her name is Gomer. And she uh she is a prostitute, so she's being trafficked. Let's be real. Like they um, I know that sometimes when this is taught, it's as if she is the worst person in the world, but she's being trafficked. I can't imagine what situation she got into to be trafficked. Um, their culture was one where unless you had a man actually providing for you, you would probably die because you wouldn't have food or shelter. And so if she didn't have a husband or a father or some sort of uncle who would take her in or an older brother, then she might have been forced into prostitution just to have food. And that's just the reality of life in the Near East 3,000 years ago. Um not only, so God tells Hosea, who's a prophet, to say, Hey, I want you to do something just to show my people how much I love them. I'm gonna have you do this thing for this one woman, Gomer, and it's gonna be a word for my whole nation of all my people to show them how much I love them. He's like, I want you to go and marry that prostitute, this woman who is filled with shame and filled with sin and has had the worst ring of luck, and nobody looks at her as holy or glorious or as someone they would marry. And he's and but God's saying, that's who I would marry because I love her. And he's like, Hosea, I want to show my people how much I love them by you doing this. So Josea's like, okay, Lord, whatever you say, he goes and marries Gomer. Then they're together for a while, they have a couple kids, and then we find Gomer in prostitution again. And again, we don't know, like, has the person who's trafficked her come back and kidnapped her? We don't know how she gets back in this situation. Well, you would think game up for her, right? It's like speak about shame. Um had it all. She had the lovely prophet husband, a man of God who loved her. They had a family, like he got her out of all of that, and yet here she is back in the muck. And God's like, No, no, Jose, I really want my people to know how much I love them. So I want you to go to the marketplace and buy her back. Like, actually pay for her. Because this is what Jesus did for us. He loved us so much in the midst of our sin, he paid for us with his life. Like, there is no too far gone for Jesus. Like, how many times are we gonna end up in the muck? How many times will he keep coming back after us? As many as it takes. Why? Because he loves us that much. Um, this is what it says in Hosea. It's in Hosea 3:1. God said to Hosea, love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, which is his people. We are his people.

Speaker 2 21:05

Yeah. But when you were talking about that and God, you know, told him, Go buy her back. So this is like in a public place. So don't just go buy her back quietly. This is a public thing. You're gonna go back to the city.

Speaker 21:19

She's like on the auction block, right? And you're gonna tell everyone.

Speaker 2 21:23

I'm gonna buy my wife.

Speaker 21:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 21:26

Can you imagine like their children standing nearby? And I mean, it was probably it wasn't some big love reunion, I'm sure. It was probably a a very I don't know if sad's the right word either, but it was a very emotional time because it was very emotional, you know.

Speaker 21:46

Um and can you imagine Gomer's heart to see her husband coming back for her after all of that? Like that's how much Jesus loves you. Anyone who's listening, that's how much Jesus loves you. He's gonna keep Coming back for you, and he's gonna keep paying for you because he wants to spend every day with you. He adores you, he cherishes you, and it doesn't matter what muck you fall in. He's like, Where is she? Where where is she? I'm gonna go back for her.

Speaker 2 22:16

Yes, yes, and that's why Francine Rivers nailed it with the title Redeeming Love. Your book covers that story very well, and I think it compares with a modern day story too of sex trafficking, doesn't it?

Speaker 22:28

Um Yeah, there's a great organization called Aruna who goes into the brothels in India and some other nations and pulls women out, and just um hearing some of their stories too about how they are going back in to rescue these women. It's just uh I think sometimes we look at these stories in the Bible and we're like, yeah, yeah, but that was 2,000 years ago, but that was 3,000 years ago. Um but they still still still happen to die. Yeah.

Speaker 2 22:52

They do, they do. So well, we've time to talk about one more woman. Um anyone in particular come to mind?

Speaker 23:04

Um, I was thinking of Naomi because I know that some people listening and some people who I really love feel like where they are, their lives are kind of bitter, um, that things have been really hard. And um where they are is not where they ever envisioned them to be. And they wonder if there's a future for them. And I love Naomi's story because it shows us this. She was, again, a woman living about 3,000 years ago in the Near East without a man provider. And I know this sounds like so like horrible, but that's just what things were 3,000 years ago in the Near East, right? Like she would have probably been left to die. So her husband passes away, and she has two sons. And so for a while she lives with her two sons and their wives because her sons would take her in. That's what you would do. Your male relatives would take you in. And then both of her sons die. And she's got these two daughter-in-laws, and she's like, Your best bet, ladies, is to go back with your families because there might be a man in your family who's gonna take you in. But but now I'm old and your families don't want to take in your mother-in-law of your husbands who are dead, and like I'm just she's like in desperation. She's like, I'm gonna go back to my hometown and just pray that someone there will take me in. I mean, she's just like at her wits' end, um, gathers what she can in her knapsack, you know, and she's out to hit the road. And Ruth, we always hear about Ruth in the book of Ruth, and we should, because Ruth has a beautiful story as well. Her husband died. That's one of Naomi's sons. And Ruth is the one who says, where you go, I'll go. And she goes with Naomi to Bethlehem, which is where Naomi is from, and God beautifully weaves together a new story for both of these women. When they first get there, some of Naomi's old friends here, and they're like, No, Naomi, is that you? And she's like, Call me Mara, which was the word for bitter. Yeah. She's like, My whole life is bitter. Don't even call me by my name. Just call me bitter. Like, can you imagine like going back to your hometown and being like, just call me bitter, just call me loser, just call me like it's over. Like, this is what I go by now. Um, I go by pathetic, just call me by that audience her, right? Like, um, that's basically what she's doing. But through the relationship of these two women and just like how God does this beautiful thing of Naomi's distant relative, falls in love with Ruth. Um, ends up Ruth actually, uh, Naomi had some land that she didn't know about, but this man knew about, and he can get it back for her. And so now there is land, and this man marries Ruth, and they take Naomi into their family, and together they have a son, Obed, who is the grandfather of David, the great, great, great, great, great, great, grand, great, great, great grandfather of Jesus. Naomi, whose life was bitter, whose life was over, who thought she was gonna die of starvation, all of a sudden has a new family. She's part of the bloodline of Jesus. Um, and she has land and a family, and her life goes from bitter to sweet.

Speaker 2 26:17

And like I just becomes royalty for her. You just said, yeah, she becomes part of the I mean, she becomes royalty for that.

Speaker 26:25

Yes. Um, Ruth 415 says that God will renew your life and sustain you. And that promise that was for Naomi is for all of us. So no matter how bad things are right now, I just want to speak to you that God wants to renew your life and sustain you. And I love the term that's used for this man who um Boaz, who marries Ruth and who then, you know, takes Naomi into their home. They call him a kinsman redeemer. And that was just the term in that time for someone who is your kin. Like I said, he's a distant relative of Naomi, who's going to redeem your story by taking you back in somehow. And this is who Jesus is too. He's our kinsman redeemer. Um, he's gonna renew our stories by taking us back in and giving us a new life. And it's such a foreshadowing of Jesus and Ruth. But um, yeah, I think it's just such a beautiful reminder that widowed or desolate or hungry or homeless, like whatever's hit you, Jesus wants to renew your story.

Speaker 2 27:35

I'm I'm I'm just sitting here with my mouth open as I'm thinking of like three people in my life that have nothing to do with addiction, but I've watched, I've watched them go from bitter to sweet. And God has redeemed their story and just brought them a whole different way of life around them. Not that their way of life was bad, but just um being in unexpected circumstances that only God could orchestrate. So I think that's you need to be aware of maybe you're not planning on what God can do, but he's planning on. He's you know, we can't predict, uh, or we may think we know what we need or what needs to happen, but we really don't. Only God knows. And like we said in the beginning, it's always better than what we have planned. And in the end of that chapter, you have um you've incorporated the hymn, My Hope is built on nothing less. And I have a heart for hymns. I love hymns so much. And you actually just a book about hymns, right? Yeah, the sound.

Speaker 28:37

Yeah, how's it?

Speaker 2 28:39

That was the you should definitely check that out if you're listening. But um, that my hope is built on nothing else than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And I was raised in the CRC church, and hey, no complaints because I can't I could sound off about any hymn, all verses one through four, because you always say all four. Sometimes for some reason you omitted verse three. I don't know why, but sometimes it was just verses one, two, and four. But um now that I'm an adult and those are memorized, I'm grateful for that because you know, I look at that hymn and yes, my hope is built on nothing less. And sometimes those hymns can come to mind quicker than a scripture, even though and they're usually the same thing because they're basically.

Speaker 29:25

Most of the hymns are based on scripture, they actually have scripture with woven into them. So you're actually singing scripture, which what a beautiful thing.

Speaker 2 29:32

I remember being in catechism like in fourth grade and figuring out that with a with a song, like, wait a minute, like that was like an aha thing, going, Oh my goodness, they're writing the Bible. Yeah, oh my goodness, you know, and from then on starting to look, you know, but yeah, um, there's so many beautiful hymns. But um, you know, something else that you're doing for women, um, I wanted you to talk about a little bit is uh retreats. Tell me about your retreats.

Speaker 30:03

Well, I host an intimate retreat in the North Carolina Mountains for women to really be restored because I feel like we're all doing so much. And um most women I know are pouring themselves out for others 24-7 and don't have an opportunity to just be poured into. So it's really designed for some silence and solitude with the Lord, some intimate time with other women, um, a time where the women can be catered to, but really build community and also drown out the noise of the world so they can actually hear the Lord. I know when we seek him, we find him. But often in our hustle and bustle, we don't always have the time. We want to seek him how we hope to. So it's really designed to give women a chance to actually be able to seek the Lord and commune with him. It's really a beautiful, sweet time.

Speaker 2 30:58

Oh, it sounds like it. What is the name of your retreats? What did you call the restorative retreat? Well, that's the best name. There you go. It sounds lovely. What inspired you to do that? Like what came across? I mean, was it something that you desired that you wished you would have had? I mean, so often we do things that we wish had been in place for us.

Speaker 31:21

Yeah, I think there are so many retreats that I'd attended to where you get great teaching, you get great content, um, a lot of awesome things happen, but the um time to actually connect with other people there is hard if you're at, you know, some sort of event with hundreds of other women. You might chit-chat with this gal or chit-chat with that gal, but to actually go in deep. Um also I've came, I've come back from a lot of awesome Christian events, kind of exhausted. You know, I was I was doing and learning and peopling and all the things, and there was so much that I didn't really have time to process this with God or or ask him about this. And I just wanted there to be a space where women could actually find true connection with others and find true connection with God. I think we have we are not at a shortage of content for content in this world. Um, but we are. Um we do have a shortage of taking time to actually go to Jesus with some questions we've had, or even let him bring up some things in our heart that we might not have had a chance to do.

Speaker 2 32:24

Well, I will be sure that all that information will be in the notes here if you want to learn more about Laura's retreats. I've seen some pictures, they look absolutely lovely, and everybody looks rested and happy, and it does look really good. I want to go. You're invited, Sherry. You're invited. Oh, I I'm I'm planning on it one of these days for sure. So I dropped some major hints in our writers' group last week. So we'll be but um yeah, well, thank you so much, Laura. And this book, I'm sure it's changing a lot of women's lives. If you want to be inspired and or maybe you've just been looking at the Bible and you're looking at where to start, um, you're not sure. Maybe reading through the Bible in a year is not your thing, or you just want to read some stories that you feel you'll be able to hold in your heart that you'll be able to relate to. I highly recommend picking up this book because you will um you're gonna find a common interest with a lot of these women in here. And it speaks beautifully to us as women and how Jesus loves us and um he makes a way for us through sometimes what seems impossible, right? So thank you, Laura, for seeing the possibility in these stories of what um God wanted to speak through you and to us with. So I appreciate it very much. Thank you.

Speaker 33:52

Thank you so much for having me on the show and for your kind words about the book. I just pray that it, yeah, that it blesses people and they realize how much he does empower and equip and mainly love us.

Speaker 2 34:02

Oh, absolutely. I know it will. Thanks again, Laura. And thanks everybody for being here. And again, if you want to know about Laura, please follow up with what's in the show notes and um give her a review on this book, especially. So it gets into more hands of those who need to read it. So thanks a lot, and we'll see you next time here on the She Surrenders Podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today. I hope you found encouragement and inspiration from what you heard here. If you know someone who could benefit from the She Surrenders Podcast, please share it with them. Let's spread the word about the miracle of faith-based recovery. Don't forget, like, share, subscribe, and leave a review. Because when you do these things, it helps get the message to those who are seeking answers that can only be found when we put down our addictions and pick up the promises of a whole new life when we walk in recovery with the Lord. Have a wonderful week, and I'll see you next time.