When Life Looks Different Than You Expected

Plans change. God doesn’t. We open up about the quiet grief that comes when life looks nothing like the picture in your head, and why that’s not a personal failure but a sacred invitation. 

You’ll hear practical ways to process the ache without getting stuck: journal God’s past faithfulness to steady your present, pray the whole truth when you feel wrecked, and practice listening so your prayers become a dialogue. 

We talk about hidden seasons that build character, the danger of chasing a platform before formation, and the gift of slow growth that makes you sturdy. Scripture anchors the journey as we reflect on the God who sees, meeting women personally, naming them, restoring them, and calling them forward with dignity and purpose.

If you’re navigating a desert season, wrestling with singleness, waiting for a child, grieving a friendship, or questioning a career path, this conversation offers hope. 

You can mourn what you expected and still choose what God is shaping. Take a breath, release the timeline, and lean into the next faithful step. 

If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs it, and leave a quick review so more women can find a seat at this table.

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Transcript

Setting The Table And Theme

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to the Table of Grace podcast, where every woman has a seat, every story matters, and Jesus is always at the center. We're here to create space for real conversations and faith-filled stories that help you grow in your walk with Jesus. So grab your favorite cup of coffee and pull up a chair, because at his table, there's always a seat for you.

Tessah 0:29

Welcome back to the Table of Grace podcast. I am Tessa Lupke, and I'm here with my co-host, Courtney Newberry.

Unmet Expectations And God’s Plans

Tessah 0:36

And today we are going to talk about when life looks a little different than you expected. And really the heart of this episode is to talk about really normalizing the quiet grief of unmet expectations, how to separate disappointment from shame and focusing on what it looks like to trust God to plan for us. Before we started recording, me and Courtney were talking a little bit back and forth about just like how our plans that we had for a life, um, the plans that didn't work out were actually the best plans for you.

Courtney 1:11

Everything good in my life is not something I planned.

Tessah 1:13

Yeah. Isn't that crazy? Yeah.

Courtney 1:15

Like down to like where I live, like what I do for a living, you know. Like I was pre-pharmacy in college and took the PCAT and like ready to roll. And I was like, do I really want to do this? Is this how I want to help people? You know?

SPEAKER_04 1:32

Yeah.

Courtney 1:32

Um, and I'm not saying that we don't appreciate pharmacists and all the things that they do.

SPEAKER_04 1:37

Right.

Courtney 1:37

Um, but I like to talk and um y'all are busy. They are. Yeah, they are.

Tessah 1:44

Yeah, and I think I I when she said that I kind of started thinking, I was like, you know what? Me either. Like I'm thinking like all the things I never had planned to live in Jonesboro, Arkansas. Like that, I didn't even really know Jonesboro existed, except like I came here for cheer camp a few years and like would come here and be like, bye, see you next year. You know, like never we never headed back to South Arkansas. Right, yeah, heading back to my small town. And uh even up to like right before me and White got married, we thought, yeah, we're going back to DeWitt, like this is what we're gonna do. We're going back to our hometown, and we are going to like do all the things and live out this the rest of our lives and farming and do all stuff. And like God was like, Ha, no, you're not actually. Yeah. And you're gonna stay in Jonesboro and your whole life is gonna be uprooted, and that's okay. And I um I think like navigating those things, usually when you're in the thick of it, you're like, What is happening? What is God doing? I don't understand.

Personal Detours And Disappointment

Courtney 2:41

And I thought I and I think back to like disappointment I've had. Like I have been wrecked in disappointment. Like I've called off a wedding, I left a hospital without a baby. Like I have, and they're each season kind of builds on the other one, and it reminds you of like God's faithfulness of when your expectations aren't met.

Tessah 3:00

Yeah, no, for sure. Yeah, I think we all at some level have walked in unmet expectations. And um even if you don't are currently living in that, I think, or even if you can like have 2020 hindsight of like, oh yep, I've been there, I think there's still so much ahead of us that we don't even know, right? And that we're probably gonna be met with another uh season of life where we're not where we thought we would be, or things aren't exactly what we thought it would be, you know, and like things just are different and we're not doing what we thought we would do. And like it's just um I I always I actually keep a journal and I love going back and reading reading um different prayers and like different like just things that I've written about and like going back and going, oh my gosh, like wait, God answered that so cool. Um, and I think knowing that like God's plans for us are always better.

Courtney 3:54

Before God's answer was no, and that's so cool. Like to get to that to that part after like the disappointment and after the gut wrench.

Tessah 4:01

Yes, no, yeah. I think yeah, sometimes a shut door is the best thing that could ever happen to you. And um, I'm very thankful for those. I'm very thankful that God knows better than me, that's for sure. Same. Um, Courtney,

Journals, Closed Doors, And God’s No

Tessah 4:13

I'd love for you to share a little bit about um and even like talk to women who maybe are realizing this now. Like, when did you realize your life didn't look the way you thought it would be by now? And like what what would you say to the woman that's sitting in that, like she's coming into a new year and she's like, My life is not the way that I planned for it to be. And I don't and like I don't even know if it ever will be. You're like, what it what do they're sitting with this unmet expectation. What what's something that you would kind of share with them?

Courtney 4:48

I think that I would have to say, I hear you, and I know where you've been.

Tessah 4:54

Yep, been there.

Courtney 4:55

And this doesn't last forever. Yep, and it feels really big and it feels really heavy and daunting, and like you're gonna suffocate.

SPEAKER_04 5:03

Yeah.

Courtney 5:04

Um, but the sun's gonna rise tomorrow, and God is still gonna be good. Yep. And he's still gonna be sovereign. And even in the the wreck of the disappointment and the unmet

Speaking To Women In The Waiting

Courtney 5:15

expectation, he's not gonna leave you, he's gonna walk with you in it. Um, you get to decide whether you lift up and hold hold his hand. That's on that's on you. You get to make that call. Um, and I think that there is something to be said for like us women who are like risers. Because we all are gonna fall. Yeah, we're all gonna be disappointed on some level.

Tessah 5:38

Yeah.

Courtney 5:38

Um, and being able to say, wow, that's a disappointment, but God is still good, um, and not let that leak into, you know, I I'm the problem, I'm shame. Or if you made a mistake, you know, hey, you made a mistake. It had it, it had it had a cost and own it and walk through onto the other side of it because we never get through a trial without walking through the trial.

Tessah 6:01

Right. Yeah, no, for sure. Yeah. And I'm sure there are a lot of people that are sitting listening on the other end of this that are in some kind of trial or a season that's really hard. There's heat in the kitchen. Right, yeah. Um, and it feels like some like either maybe it's your career, maybe it's motherhood, maybe it's uh, you know, your marriage, maybe it's finances, maybe your singleness, maybe it's trying to find community in a new place that you're living, or just trying to find community, period. Like that's hard. Um finding friends, adult friends are hard. Like that's period. And um I think oftentimes we have to ask ourselves, you know, what expectations or timelines have you been holding yourself to? Like where did this originate? You know, like what are you

Disappointment Versus Shame

Tessah 6:51

who are you comparing yourself to?

Courtney 6:53

Was it God breathed? Right. Or was it Courtney breathed?

Tessah 6:55

Right, yeah, exactly. Um, and I think a lot of times I know myself as someone who's like just my whole life been I've had a lot of high expectations for myself. Um it's um it is hard to navigate those things when you feel like, oh, you know, I didn't get this, this is not in the timeline I thought it would be, or this is taking longer than I thought it would, or this maybe isn't gonna happen for me, and I'm gonna need to navigate that and move through it.

Courtney 7:27

And people can see it and know you failed. You're right.

Tessah 7:32

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh gosh, yeah. You know how many times I've put my foot in mouth, um, multiple times. Um, I'm always like my prayer before I get on stage ever to talk. I'm like, Lord Jesus, please let the mic shut off. If I start to say something, that is just going to embarrass me. You know, I'm like, please, absolutely, please just let all the like little electricity go out. Cause like I I would rather not. But I think um a lot of our expectations, um, and we talked about this on the last episode, but like a lot of our expectations don't even always come from God either. Like we I think most of them don't. Right, yeah, yeah. I think most of them that, yeah, you're right. Most of them don't. Like, um, we have so many things that like, and and again, like having goals and like even having time on for yourself, it's not inherently like a bad thing. It's just we can make that such an idol that we worship and put up a lookout for who who am I doing this for? Yeah.

Courtney 8:34

What's the guest that started this fire within me to do this? Was it because God said I need you to do this? Right, or is it because you thought you needed to do it?

Tessah 8:41

Yep. Oh, yeah, for sure. Uh, and I think navigating that is like once you can kind of work through those things, like you can kind of start asking yourself, like, oh, yeah, I or even like I am the only person that expects me to perform at this level. You know what I'm saying?

Courtney 8:58

Like, I growth never happens if you're not wrong.

Tessah 9:01

Right, exactly. Yeah, for sure.

Comparison, Timelines, And Idols

Tessah 9:03

No, that's so so wise. Um, and I think a lot of times social media does not help. Like, we are constantly running this comparison race of okay, well, like this person, like she's my age, and like she's doing something similar. I need to be at this level and performing it when really like God might not be calling you to that in this season.

Courtney 9:25

Like saying to the Lord, hey, like what you planned for me isn't as good as what you planned for her. Your plans for me are wrong. Can I get that level? Because yeah, what you have planned, I don't like.

Tessah 9:36

Yeah, no, uh yeah, exactly.

Courtney 9:38

Sound like a petulant child.

Tessah 9:39

Exactly, yeah. And I do that, right? Same. Exactly. And um, I'm trying to think of the book. We mentioned Lisa Tierka, she's like my favorite. Um, oh, Uninvited. She talks about this um in her book, Uninvited, but she talks about uh how oh well God's like her success doesn't threaten mine because I like God has still a daughter of the king, right? And like God has such a different, unique story for you and a different calling for you than he's gonna have. Even someone that's in your same industry, in your same field, at your same level, in in your same circumstances, like their story is so different, and like their relationship with God is even different. Like if he's our father, right? Um, we all have a different relationship with him, we all have this unique relationship with him, which I think is so cool.

Courtney 10:24

Um I just finished reading um Now and Not Yet by Ruth Child Simmons. And um, it talks about like being in this season of the desert and or the season of being unseen, you know, like you know, kind of and she talks a lot about like being a stay-at-home mom and her passion for like ministry and her husband's ministry was on fire and she was like matching socks, right? Changing diapers. Yeah, exactly. You know, and I think that we have to get comfortable with working in the background sometimes for things, um, because we're all called for a purpose and that's to build a kingdom. Um, and sometimes we're a hand and sometimes we're a foot, and sometimes we're an arm.

Tessah 11:07

Yeah.

Courtney 11:07

And we have to be willing to be what God's called us to be, yeah, or we're not accomplishing

Unique Callings And Different Seasons

Courtney 11:12

it.

Tessah 11:12

Right. No, yeah. And I think a lot of times uh they talked about this. I was watching an interview on like Better Together. I think it was Lisa Harper that was talking about it, but a lot of times, like especially in this generation, like it and just in general, like just the culture that we live in. We want this instant gratification of like I'm doing the work now, I should see results right now.

Courtney 11:32

Or I should see them, then I'll do the work.

Tessah 11:34

Right. Yeah, exactly. Or like I am going to like it's so easy to like build influence so fast before you've been through the fire, you know, and like Lisa Harper was talking about, like some of these people just need to go through the fire first. You know, like they haven't even went through, they haven't cleaned toilets at times. Right, yeah, you know, and so like and like through socials and social media, like these people have this platform where they've not even not saying that everyone has a platform hasn't gone through something, but like it's just like you sometimes God's gotta take you through some stuff and like really humble you and and really in a way like you need to die to a lot of things, uh all of yourself actually.

Courtney 12:15

Right.

Tessah 12:15

Oh yeah.

Courtney 12:16

And so wakes up and like, you know what, I wasn't humble yesterday, but I am today. Right, yeah.

Tessah 12:21

And if you're stripping, yeah, yeah. And so like there are just so many things that like we have to like as we're navigating, like even unmet expectations or timelines, we have to know that like maybe I'm not at this point because like God is still doing a work in me. God still has things he wants me to learn. God still has things he wants me to learn about myself.

Courtney 12:43

He wants me to do something different than what I had planned.

Tessah 12:46

Yeah, yeah. And so I think we should be encouraged by that because uh honestly, like I I think often of like different if a different version of me would have entered into motherhood before I did, you know, or like even like it I would have been a different

Slow Growth, Fire, And Humility

Tessah 13:04

I would have been a different mom, you know. Like, and I think I'm just so thankful for God's timeline being what it has been, even if it's not planned, or even if it's unlike it's just or if it's what we call too late. Right.

Courtney 13:18

You know, if I got married when I was 34, had merit when I was 35. I mean, yeah, I'm old. I was geriatric, advanced maternal age.

Tessah 13:27

That really is they should really change that.

Courtney 13:29

They changed it to advanced maternal age, I think.

Tessah 13:31

Okay, well that's good. That sounds a little bit better, better a little less offensive, I feel like.

Courtney 13:35

I love being advanced.

Tessah 13:37

Advanced. But honestly though, like even like so many of my friends, like a lot of we're a lot of my friends are edging up 130, and like a lot of them are just getting married, you know, right? But still, like it is like this turn of a decade. But a lot of people I know are waiting later in life to get married, and like and and if it's just like it's just knowing and like trusting that like your story, and this sounds like you've probably heard it a thousand times, but like your story is not someone else's, like it is so unique to you, like your how you were raised, your worldview, how like the situations and circumstances you've walked through. Like God is also developing these things to shape you into the person that you need to be for this season and the next for your life.

Courtney 14:22

There's not two Pauls, there's not two Peters, there's yeah, there's not two.

Tessah 14:25

Yeah, yeah.

Courtney 14:26

And you had a purpose in each one, right?

Tessah 14:28

Yeah, and so it's I yeah, I think it is um so fair to I think we s navigate that struggle of like, okay, well, but you know, but I think trusting that God He really does have the best for us in mind. And I um always point people back to Jen Wilkins' book and his image is such a beautiful picture of it's actually just God's characteristics that we can obtain. She has another like sister book that's none like him, and it's his characteristics that we can obtain, like his omnipresence and all the things, all the omnis. Um but I think the more we can trust and know God's character and

Trusting God’s Timing In Identity And Family

Tessah 15:10

know that because he is completely holy and loving and justful and uh gracious and merciful and good, that like he can't he can't go against his character. And so if he can't go against his character, then he can only be good and holy and just and loving and merciful. And so I think that has helped me a lot in not only just like trusting God's plan for my life, but trusting when he says not yet or no or this is you're gonna have to wait.

Courtney 15:39

And I and I think that you know, like in the human part of us, like I, you know, like there's like this Chinese finger pull of I know God is good, but I really wanted what I planned.

SPEAKER_04 15:50

Yeah.

Courtney 15:51

And I think that there, you know, we talk about grief and like and related to death, but sometimes we have to grieve our expectations of what we thought things would be.

SPEAKER_04 16:02

Yep.

Courtney 16:03

Um, if we're gonna walk forward in what God has called us to do. And that's okay. It doesn't mean you don't love God's will in your life.

SPEAKER_04 16:10

Right.

Courtney 16:10

It just means that you thought something else was gonna happen. Yeah. Or that you were working towards something and you misunderstood what God wanted you to be, or you didn't consult with God. The Lord knows that I have called many a shots I've had to grieve because I didn't talk to him first. Right. And I think that there's not any sh there's no shame in in being like, you know, God, I want your will, but I'm still a little sad about this too, or this hurts.

Tessah 16:33

A hundred percent. Yeah, I think that is so. They coexist. Yeah. A hundred percent. Yeah. I I think learning how to grieve the things that um and knowing that we have permission to do that, you know, like giving ourselves permission to be okay with like first off, trusting, like you mentioned, like them coexisting, like trusting that, okay, God, I'm gonna trust your will, but I'm also grieving what I thought would be what my life is. And I think we I mean that is just life. Like we walk through so many things. We're like at like in this season, I thought we would be doing this, right? I thought life would look like this, or um, I

Grieving Expectations While Trusting God

Tessah 17:12

thought I'd be married by now, or maybe I thought I'd have kids by now, or maybe I thought I'd have that promotion right now, or I'd be running that business, or whatever that situation is. Like, we all have those things, right? We all all have those expectations of our life that have gone unmet. Um and I think oftentimes we even think, okay, well, God, like I'm being obedient, kind of give me what give me what I want type, where it's it's not this obedient, oh, I'm gonna trust in your plan. It's more of the oh, okay, well, I'm gonna be obedient, but only with the with the hope that you're gonna give me what I want. And that's just I feel like it comes into that, like well, the surrender piece is gonna be from that. Right, yeah. You're not surrendering, you're kind of like holding on to and I I I also think there's like this I don't I don't know how to explain it, but like God wants to, like God wants good things for his children, right? But sometimes the things that we want, we think are good things, but they're not the best things for us, right? And I think oftentimes, I know in my life, God has given me, it's like almost like he's holding out open two doors. Okay, you have a choice. You know, you can walk through this door and live in this season situation or whatever, or you can walk in this door. Um and I I feel like I have been at crossroads like that so many times, and often as I go and really like prayer and fasting, I'm like, Lord, I don't know, just tell me what to do, you know. And I think oftentimes like when I just listen to those nudges and those like those pulls of like the Holy Spirit going, you need to step back. And me being like, what do you mean to step back? This is going great, this is awesome, like I love this, this is so much fun. And then it'll be too much down the road. I'm like, oh, that's why that's why. Yeah, that's why. Um, and oftentimes, you know, sometimes we don't ever even see the reason. Um, but I do think a lot of times when God is even pulling you from something

Prayer, Honesty, And Telling God’s Story

Tessah 19:03

or calling you to something else, it's in this also this protection of rejection is protection.

Courtney 19:09

Yeah, a hundred percent. I'll say it again. Say it again. Rejection is often God's protection.

Tessah 19:15

Yeah, and that's and that is a hard pill to swallow.

Courtney 19:18

It is, but not sitting with it or not recognizing that um is a whole lot harder.

Tessah 19:25

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I I I totally agree. And um yeah, I think we can even um see see that play out in so many different ways. If we if you kind of look back, I know like 2020 hindsight, you can kind of see so many things, but I think when we l I look back at my life personally, I can see so many times that God said no, or like this door shut, or I didn't I had a great interview that I felt like, oh I got that job and it like didn't work out.

Courtney 19:57

Yeah, or like your friend, you don't talk to your friend. As often and or maybe you have the loss of a friendship or you know someone betrays you that you didn't think would.

SPEAKER_04 20:07

Yeah.

Courtney 20:07

Um I have this really terrible problem in my life of um I will especially when I was younger, I will put people on pedestals and then I get to feel the disappointment from doing that, you know.

Tessah 20:19

Yeah, it's like you get crushed when they fall off.

Courtney 20:21

Absolutely. And I'm like, ah, when am I gonna win? I guess I haven't learned that yet.

Tessah 20:25

Right. No, yeah. I yeah, I feel like I've definitely learned that the hard way. And I and I think it comes with like we are we are all human in that, you know, like we're like in wanting, you know, different things in idolizing people and idolizing seasons of life or things that we think should be this way or that way. Um, and I think ultimately like making the main thing the main thing is like, okay, God, what what who do you want me to be

Sitting With God In The Mess

Tessah 20:55

in this season? What do you want me to do type thing? Um Sheila Wash, I think I've probably already quoted it on the podcast, but I'm gonna quote it again because it's one of my favorite quotes. Um but she has a great, a great quote she said at one of our conferences a few years ago, and it was um, God, thank you for everything that has been and yes to everything that will be. And I'm like, that's so good. And I I just find myself praying that so often because um even in the hard things, I can look back and go, thank you, God, for either getting me through that or thank you for letting me experience that, or thank you, thank you for being with me as I wrestled with that, and yes to everything that you have before me, because I know ultimately it's for my good. You know?

Courtney 21:36

I I I can think of prayers where I'm like, God, I don't want to do that.

Tessah 21:39

I will, yeah.

Courtney 21:40

But I don't want to.

Tessah 21:41

Right. Yeah. Yeah, I I yeah, I I feel like I navigate that too, for sure. Um as we're like just kind of talking about, you know, unmet expectations and a season that you're walking in that you maybe never expected to walk in. Um

Listening, Surrender, And Sovereignty

Tessah 22:01

I think oftentimes we see our stories so differently than other people and even like how God sees us in our situation. Um, Courtney, I'd love to for you to kind of talk about, you know, how can we kind of step into w working through um, you know, I'm living in this season that I never thought I would live in. Um I'm I'm grieving what I thought was gonna be. Um and I don't I just don't know what where to go from here. Like I just feel so stuck and I feel so isolated and I feel like I'm in a desert. I feel like no one gets it.

Courtney 22:47

Um pray that to him.

Tessah 22:48

Yeah.

Courtney 22:49

Say it out loud. You know, Lord, I never thought that I would be here.

Tessah 22:53

Yeah.

Courtney 22:54

I am totally wrecked. Yeah, this is not what I dream for my life. Um I know you're good, I can't feel it because I'm human. Right. And sometimes my feelings supersede the moment. And I know in my heart of hearts that it won't stay this way because that's really what grief is. The further you walk from it, time is always gonna be your best friend. Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. Right. Um, doesn't mean we're not wounded, doesn't mean we don't have a scar. Yeah. Um and I think that in my times of disappointment in my life, um, my prayer has been, Lord, I will tell your story.

Tessah 23:36

That's good.

Courtney 23:37

I will tell your story. And when you want me to tell it, I'll tell it. Um, I'll tell it without shame, I'll tell it without struggle. Um, I'll tell it because you were in it and it was God breathed. Yeah. Um I've always and in in talking like with people or after like giving my testimony, I'm was a better person after struggle. But I had to be willing to struggle. And I think that that's something like we

Comfort For The Desert Season

Courtney 24:05

get like this, I don't want to call it like fake Christianity. I think we get this facade of what we think that Christianity is, and we convince ourselves that, hey, I love the Lord, I'm not gonna struggle, and that's actually the exact opposite. Um, hey, you love the Lord, get ready, here's your struggle. Yeah, um, and if you just got out of one, there's another one coming.

Tessah 24:25

Right.

Courtney 24:25

Um or you're in it.

Tessah 24:27

Yeah.

Courtney 24:28

And every time I have struggled, it's been a moment where he can sanctify me and make me more like him, and he draws me in. But I have to let him.

SPEAKER_04 24:37

Yeah, for sure.

Courtney 24:38

And so I think that we have to be willing to be uncomfortable. And if you've ever spent time around me, I say that all the time. Um, people are like, gosh, he's gonna talk about being uncomfortable again. So uncomfortable. But we do have to be willing to be uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_04 24:50

Yep.

Courtney 24:51

Or nothing changes.

SPEAKER_04 24:53

For sure.

Courtney 24:54

If nothing changes, then nothing changes. And this doesn't feel good, so I might as well try something else. I love to solve a problem. Yeah. And if I'm so stuck on how I think that something can be, yeah, um, I'm gonna stay in that problem.

Tessah 25:10

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, and I think sometimes as we're sitting in these seasons of navigating that, or you know, your story looking differently than you thought it would, or your season being different than you thought it would, or living in this unmet expectation. Um, I think oftentimes God just wants to sit with us there and meet us there. Yep. Um, and um we don't have to clean up for him. Right, yeah. Yeah, right. He just he wants the real raw version of us because he sees it anyway.

Courtney 25:41

Well, and Nick will say, Here's the mess. Yeah. Like when he when he talks about like his here's the mess.

Tessah 25:45

Yeah, it's true. Yeah.

Courtney 25:47

It's not my responsibility to clean it up, it's my responsibility to give it to you. It is my privilege to give it to you.

Tessah 25:55

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, and I think um that's like just

Scripture, God Who Sees, And Homework

Tessah 26:00

in something that if you're listening to this and you're like, I don't know, like I I feel like I'm just stuck in this. Like I d that that is the challenge, is to, and and really just the um giving you permission to like sit sit with God in it and talk to him about it. Like there's so much power in that. Oftentimes we will um and be willing to hear.

Courtney 26:24

Like I can pray all day to the Lord about how unhappy I am about something.

SPEAKER_04 26:28

Yeah.

Courtney 26:28

Um, but I have to be willing to hear.

SPEAKER_04 26:30

Yeah.

Courtney 26:31

Um, if I'm in a struggle, I'm learning something about him, or I'm learning something about me, or he's changing me.

SPEAKER_04 26:37

Yeah.

Courtney 26:38

And that if that is his will, nothing is going to thwart that. So I can lean into it and lean into his sovereignty, or I can resist it and struggle and struggle, and then convince myself that I have a plan to not do the thing that he's called me to do, or to have the conversation that I don't want to have. Um, but it's whatever he has planned in my life, whether you know it's the hard conversation or making a hard decision or you know choosing not to say something when I really want to, I think that's probably more of a challenge for me than having to have a hard conversation. I can have hard conversations all day. Right. Keeping my mouth shut is the harder thing. Yeah. Um, and he's teaching me that.

SPEAKER_04 27:25

Yeah, for sure.

Courtney 27:27

And if I'm always so willing to speak, am I blocking what someone could hear from the Holy Spirit?

SPEAKER_04 27:35

Yeah.

Courtney 27:36

I can't be his in the shadow. They need to feel the full sun from him.

Tessah 27:41

Yeah, for sure. That's so good. I I love that. And I think as you're as we're wrapping up this episode, um, as you are, if you are sitting in an MA expectation, or if you're walking in something where you're like, ugh, this sucks, or this is not fun. Uh, we've been there. You know, like Can I get my money back? Yeah, right. Yeah. Can I can I not be here right now? Thank you. Uh, I need to return this season of my life. Um, I just want to say that like we see you, we've been there. Um, and also God sees you, and um He wants to walk with you and sit with you in it and walk with you through it. Um, and there is just so much I know for me there's so much comfort in knowing that we serve a God that is not looking just down upon our mess and our chaos, but is in the midst of it and is working for our good through it. Um, even in the hard, really hard things, um, and even in the seasons that we could have never seen coming, he's already walked before us, um, and he's already um made a way uh for us. And I think oftentimes it can be really hard to see that when you're sitting in the season

Encouragement And Closing Invitation

Tessah 29:00

of of that, and when you're sitting in hard seasons and in seasons that you never expected. Um but I think our prayer for you guys as you're listening to this, whether you are in this or not, in this season or not, um, just to know that like God has not forgotten you um and that you're not behind. Like God is He has perfect timing for you in your life.

Courtney 29:24

And Yeah, Roy, the God who sees. Mm-hmm.

Tessah 29:27

Yeah, yeah. I've literally been in Genesis 12 and the story of Abraham uh recently, and it's yeah. I mean, and it's actually really kind of cool. I'll end on this note because I could probably talk about it forever. Um a lot of times in scripture you see God actually, especially with women meeting them where right where they're at. Um, and it's so I get like chills thinking about it, but it's so cool um to see how he um how he shows up for his daughters um in such unique ways. Um and he does different for his sons, but like I think they require something different, though. Right, yeah, exactly. And so like I think it's so cool though, like when you look through scripture, and I challenge you guys to do this as you're listening, look at different places where God meets women in in the New Testament where like Jesus physically like meets women. Um and just I want you just to kind of like study the interaction because it's so interesting how different um he approaches it. I think of Jesus at the woman at the well um as just like a standout story that most of us know, but like how he was and how he met her, where she was, called out her sin, but then called her to himself.

Courtney 30:39

And chose her and just announce him as the Messiah.

Tessah 30:42

Yeah, I mean, crazy. So like go read that story, it's so good. Um, and I think that's in John. Um, I'm not even gonna try to quote which chapter it is because I would probably butcher it.

Courtney 30:53

Not even gonna, I just not even gonna do the book.

Tessah 30:56

Early chapters of John, I think. Um, but uh it is it is so good. And definitely just go and read through that. Um, that is your homework for the week. I know you probably weren't expecting homework from a podcast, but that that is what that is what you should do and be encouraged by that. But thank you guys so much for listening. And if this podcast encouraged you, or if you know someone walking through this season and of unmet expectations or just a season where they never really expected themselves to be, feel free to send them this podcast episode to encourage them. And if you love this episode, feel free to share it and tag us on your socials, and we will see you on the next episode.