301: Immovable Faith Under Stress

Hey beautiful, it's Dr. Tabatha. I want to share something with you that I believe God is doing right now in women's health. We're in the middle of a massive movement and most people don't even know it. Every single day, 6,000 women in the U.S. enter menopause. That's over 2 million women a year, and by 2030, that's more than 1.2 billion women worldwide. So here's the thing, most of these women feel exhausted, bloated, anxious, disconnected from themselves, and the medical system is Doctors are handing out prescriptions and quick fixes, and no one is helping women heal from the root cause of their issues. That's where Fast to Faith coaches come in. As a certified coach, you'll be equipped to help midlife women balance their hormones, heal their gut, regain their energy, and reconnect their faith, the foundation that so many of us have been missing. And from a business standpoint, woo, this is one of the most lucrative untapped opportunities in the entire health coaching world. The global health coaching industry is expected to reach over $33 billion by 2023, and midlife women are the fastest-growing, highest-spending demographic in that space. Most importantly, these women stay with their coaches. They invest deeply because they are desperate for lasting transformation— body, mind, and spirit. So if you've been feeling that pull and that whisper that you're meant to do more, This is it. Now is the time to rise, to serve, and build a purpose-driven business that not only changes other women's lives but transforms your own in the process. Because when you help one woman heal, you help her family, her marriage, her faith, and her future. That's the ripple effect that we're creating with Fast to Faith. So join me, click the link to come watch this webinar.

It might be the one thing that really moves the needle for you in this What's confusing for most people, I would say, is you feel like, I've never been closer to the Lord than I am right now. I've never felt more strong and, like, sturdy in my beliefs, but my body isn't matching that. Like, what's wrong with me?

Can you have incredible faith in God and still feel like you're not in alignment with God? What about, can you believe God is good and still feel afraid? Can you stand beside your husband, support your family, pray, worship, and trust God while your body is saying, I can't carry this anymore? Ooh, I think sometimes Christians assume that if our faith were stronger, we would never experience anxiety, fear, overwhelm, or emotional collapse. But our body keeps the score. And sometimes the body reveals just how much we've been carrying long before we are willing to admit it to ourselves. So today we are talking about what I would call immovable faith. Not faith that never feels fear, not faith that never gets tired, not faith that loves or lives an easy life, but faith that has been tested and kept choosing God. So, what do you think about that today, Ashley? You wanna get into that?

Yeah, this is gonna be such a good episode. I'm really excited about it. And just a few weeks ago, I said to you, I'm like, we've gotta talk about marriage. I think it's really, it's been on the heart. I've had people reaching out to me saying they need prayer over their marriage. And you're like, well, that's my plan. And so, with our guest Lindsay today, so I'm so excited for you to introduce her and for our audience to get to know how we learned about Lindsay and how we now get to call her a dear friend.

Yeah, I'm really excited. And this episode is something I actually need right in this moment in my life. Even though this is airing in the fall, right now it is the beginning of college school year, and I'm literally moving my 17-year-old into an apartment. That's insane to me, except for the fact that I took a baby home at 17 and they were like, good luck.

Yeah.

So I know he's gonna be okay, but I did not sleep last night, his first night living in that apartment. apartment, like, I woke up in a cold sweat at 1 AM, and my nervous system is ramped up. So I need some wisdom from our guest today. Yeah, I— she just has a peace about her that I was just drawn to as soon as I heard her on her husband's podcast. I was like, oh, I need to know this woman. She's amazing.

She does have— it is like a really cool, calm sense of peace. And I remember you and I talking about that episode with her and then meeting her in real life. It Like, it's so cool when you get to meet someone and they are the same person that they are online.

So yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

It's neat. All right, let's get into it. Let's go. Oh my goodness.

Okay. We are talking to Lindsay Welch. She is a wife, mother, business owner, and woman of faith with a deep commitment to building a life rooted in God, family, and intentional living. She's passionate about prayer, worship, emotional and spiritual growth, and raising her children with strong faith. Curiosity and character. She's married to one of my mentors. He is a crazy entrepreneur. I'm just gonna call it out. And a host of the Deep End podcast. He has connected so many dots for me spiritually and just, um, how the body, mind, and soul is all connected. And so I'm eternally grateful, but There is always a strong woman behind a successful man. And so that's who we're talking today. So welcome, Lindsay, to the podcast. I'm so excited.

Hey guys, so good to be here.

Oh my gosh, this is gonna be a fire conversation. Somebody's gonna leave this episode changed, right? Oh my gosh.

I hope so.

Yeah, they are. They absolutely are. Okay. So when I first started thinking about talking to you, I was like, oh my gosh, Lindsay is just one of those good humans who has never sinned and has never gotten it wrong. Like, from the outside looking in, you just have created this beautiful life and your faith looks so unshakable and everything looks put together. And so I come from a background that is It's the total opposite. I call myself a messy Christian. Like, I don't even know what I'm doing, and God is cleaning up my messes half the time. So, I had this assumption that faith would be easy for you because that's just how you were raised, and that's all that you know. But what I realize is, I don't think it's easier. I just think that you— You put it into place Sooner in your life maybe than I did. I don't know. I would love for you to just speak into how you were raised. Did you waver or waffle? Have you always had such a strong relationship with Jesus, or are you just as messy as I am and you're good at covering it up? I don't even know.

Honestly, I think we're all on a journey. I wouldn't say at all that I have it together. any given day. Like this morning, I feel like I was a lady with my hair on fire. So I feel like with 2 little kids and both of us being entrepreneurs and just daily life, it is just a journey every day. But I did grow up in a Christian home. I had— my parents were the first to know Jesus in their families. And so we grew up in church, and I feel like how I would liken it is, I think that that is such a gift. I learned about Jesus from a young age. I knew Him, I think at 5, I prayed beside my couch with my mom and was like evangelizing at my dad's work to all the— it was like John 3:16 was the only verse I knew, and I would go up to anyone who would listen and just quote it to them, you know.

Wow.

I have always been someone who has big faith. I think it is a gift that I have from the Lord. When He talks about different gifts that you can have, I have always resonated that I think that is just a gift that He has given me. But as you get those gifts, I think you think, oh, this is easy. Like, I prayed and this happened, you know. And then as you get older, He tests it to strengthen and deepen that gift. And so, I would say, I grew up in high school knowing Jesus, had good friends, had a pretty typical life, had a little bit of a rebellious phase after high school, and the Lord just kept me on a short leash, honestly, and met Taylor a few years later, and we were just really good friends. It was not until that relationship that the Lord really started to test me. Because Taylor moved for a job somewhere else. So, yeah, I just kind of had to— I do not know how to even go into it without telling all the details, but that was just the beginning, I think, of when He started to show me how to have faith and how to hear from Him. But I think the part that I would say was— I was trying to think of when that actually was tested and life got really messy. And that was probably when I was pregnant with my daughter in 2019. I had been working 60 to 80 hours a week. Taylor worked like 100 hours a week when we got married at a church, and we didn't have children the first 6 years. We, when I read your book, I was like, oh, we, we very much were similar in our endeavors to help other people so that they didn't struggle with the same things that we struggled with. And so I think a lot of that came from a good place, but then it became part of my identity. And so I was very resistant to have children because my mom put my dad through medical school. She was a hard worker. She had a salon like I do. And until I was 10, she had her own place so we could go and sit with the clients and talk to them. And it was always really fun. But then when we moved to Iowa, when I was 10. We moved like 5 times in 7 years, and she worked full-time and just wasn't able to be around as much for us. And so I think thinking about motherhood and working, I just was like, oh, I don't really want that. Like, that feels like too much. My mom just seemed tired all the time. She just wanted to give us her best, but she just sometimes couldn't, you know. And when I was pregnant with Kate, the Lord gave me a vision, and it was probably the second or third time I've ever had this happen, where he gave me a vision of what my— what my birth would look like and how I could believe for it. Um, and then slowly he began to teach me how to do that. So I think that was the first time. Um, so I don't know if that answers your question.

That's beautiful. Oh my gosh, I love that so much. And It's very interesting to hear, quote unquote, your side of the story, right? Like, I have heard your life through Taylor's eyes so much, just listening to him for a couple years and really getting to know, like, his story. And so, it's really important to realize that our reality is a matter of perspective. And so, here you are, having a beautiful vision from God, and he's like, you're gonna be an amazing mom, and I'm gonna give you this experience.

Right.

And meanwhile, your husband's over here doing things, and things are going sideways. And you found yourself in this season where you're carrying this, you know, public and private pressure of you and Taylor because his business is going through this regulatory scrutiny, and the FTC is investigating him, and all of this. Mm-hmm. And here you are just trying to be the woman holding it all together and not end up like your mother, which a lot of us are doing subconsciously, right? And so I would love to hear— you don't need to talk about the details and relitigate all his story, but what was going on inside of you while you're watching your husband be attacked, scrutinized, and he admittedly is falling apart and like going from caterpillar into goo, you know? And you're just like, wait a second, what, what about me?

Yeah, well, so in a nutshell, that was years later. So my, my pregnancy with Kate and the birth, everything was beautiful. I felt like tricked almost after because everything happened as I prayed, and I was like, that was amazing. And then postpartum hits, and I took a 2-week maternity leave, and my baby was sometimes in the corner of my salon. And I was on this trajectory, honestly, for a very dark place. I got this vision in 2020 before all the stuff happened with the shutdown, of just the Lord inviting me into rest, and I refused. It was like this clear invitation of him saying, you can do this if you want, and I was just too scared. Um, so she's 7 now. That would have been 3 years, or almost 4, before Taylor went through his season. So I like was like plowing through motherhood, working myself to the bone, while also simultaneously That's like the messy Christian, I think, where I just— He was speaking to me so clearly, and I really was learning, but at the same time, still living in such a chaotic state. I remember probably daily having this nightmare that my daughter— I was gonna fall down the stairs while I was holding her as an infant.

Hmm.

And so I was really scared to hold her, to bring her down. And I remember one day, after I laid her down for a nap, I fell down the stairs after I put her to bed. And I was just crying because I'm like, that could have been her. And the Lord spoke so clearly and said, remember when you built this house? This was years before, and I had written scripture on the walls. And the scripture for the room that she ended up being in— I knew that she was going to be a girl. I knew I was going to have a girl first before we had kids. And the verse was, imitate me as I imitate Christ. And I never quite knew what that meant until this moment. And he was just like, if you keep going down this trajectory, your daughter is watching, and she's going to fall, but it won't be in the physical. Like, you're not actually going to fall down the stairs, but you're going to take her down the stairs like you have learned in your generations. Like, you need to break this cycle. And I was very confronted, like, okay, I can do this. And then shortly after was when the world shut down. And I think over those years, the verse that I kept coming back to was 1 John 4:18, perfect love casts out fear, for if you're anticipating punishment through fear, then you don't know the perfect love of God.

Mm-hmm.

And I just was so confronted by this. Like, I've grown up in church, I've been told this my whole life, but I actually don't think I really believe that. I don't think I know that to be true, because I feel like I have to perform. I feel like I have to be everything for everybody. And even though it was like, now I know it, like here, once Taylor was in his season, I had been praying for years leading up to that, like, Lord, show me how to help him. Show me. He was very lost at that point, really not involved, like, with the Lord at all, wasn't considering, like, what does the Lord think about this? So when all of that hit, God had already spoken to me that he was to walk away from those businesses. And as hard as that could have been, I don't know what that could have looked like if the Lord hadn't have helped us. But, but Taylor felt like God told him that too. So when we came together, we were like, okay, we're not going to try to have more kids because we would both be in our quarter-life crisis together. Hold off. And then the day that he signed the papers, I found out that I was already pregnant with our second. Wow.

Oh my gosh, that's so good.

He was going through his stuff while I was pregnant, and it was really, really hard again. Um, I just remember every day waking up— Taylor had severe anxiety during that season, and he'll share about that— um, just at the end of his rope some mornings, and I would have to like Really, like, muster up what I could to encourage him, because I was like, one thing could go wrong and he might— this might be the thing that puts him over the cliff, you know? Um, and so that made me really dig deep. Like, I think I've never been, uh, if contending is the right word, like, I've never contended for something in my life as much as I did in that season.

Mm-hmm.

And I gave it my all. And then about 2 years after that was when my body just kind of gave up on me. So, um, yeah, I won't keep going if you have other questions, but that was really the moment that it kind of got real.

Yeah, I think that it's a really important point to highlight because this is going to set a woman free today, is you were in survival mode even though you had this faith and it was growing every day and you were just trusting God, you still physically were like taking on burdens and holding on to them without realizing it, and they were manifesting physically. And then we all reach our breaking point. We just attended an event that Taylor did last week, and he was telling your story. I would love for you to share about that moment where you're Your nervous system just had had enough and it shut down. Because to me, that was God's protection of saying like, okay, Lindsay, now we're done. And it's sad that sometimes we have to get to that point, but it's like this wake-up call, right?

Totally. I think what's confusing for most people, I would say, is you feel Like I've never been closer to the Lord than I am right now. I've never felt more strong and like sturdy in my beliefs, but my body isn't matching that. Like what's wrong with me? I kept just really struggling with like pushing through that energy level that was capped because I wanted to show up well for my kids. Because at this point, I'm like, oh wow, I literally am repeating. What I didn't want to repeat, and I feel like I'm doing everything I know to do that's different, and it's not looking like that.

Mm-hmm.

And Taylor actually was the one, he was gonna do this healthy challenge for like 60 days with a woman who can like reset your metabolism or whatever. So we were meeting with her, and I was his support person because he doesn't like vegetables, so I was gonna talk to her. about how to help get him nourished. And basically, we both had to send in our toothbrush, and she does this biofeedback on it. And she reached out to him the next day and was like, hey, this is really serious. Um, Lindsey is no longer your support person. She's very unwell. Like, you're now her support person.

Mm.

And, um, he was like, what's wrong with her? And she was like, well, I just need you to know that She's very unwell. So there's like about 9 different things that are currently going on that are autoimmune, and if they're not addressed in the next year or 2, it could look very different for her. Um, I had been in the hospital several times the year before— not several, 2— but, um, one I was completely unconscious and they said that my body was just shutting down and they didn't know why. Um, I had been in like a hematology office years before that because I had high histamines, but it looked like markers of leukemia. And after 6 months, they couldn't deduce anything from my labs, so they just released me, told me to take a Zyrtec and go on a Mediterranean diet.

Oh my goodness.

And that was just the story of my, of my medical experience. It was like doctor after doctor after doctor, and nobody could give me answers. And so at this point, I was kind of like, I don't know if this lady really can help me because nobody else has been. But when she started reading, I still get emotional about that phone call because she said, do you ever have the feeling that it— what's the point? It just doesn't even matter anymore. And I said, I thought that was normal as a mom or a wife to feel that way.

Yeah.

And she said, it might be normal, but it's not correct, and I can help you. Um, pretty much all my hormones were completely gone. Um, I was like hypoglycemic, and, um, then my body turned to my hormones to get energy, and so it burned all the way through my serotonin. I had none, very low progesterone, all the things. So—

Yeah.

My periods were awful. I had no energy, and I had 2 autoimmune living in my intestines from like old viruses that were still dormant. And then I guess COVID reactivated the really not good one. So, um, yeah, it was like a journey of, uh, it turned from like me supporting Taylor to a fight for my life in that sense. Like, I have to change everything to Fight for myself, and it was difficult. It was about an eight-month journey of completely changing my entire way of life. And I remember three weeks in when I walked up the stairs, I raced my kids up the stairs to do bath time. And on Mondays, Taylor takes meetings all day. So that was his day where he would always bring home takeout because I just had no energy by the end of the day with the kids. To, you know, after bedtime and everything. So I remember going up the stairs, and I made it to the very top, and I still had energy, and I felt excitement to put my kids to bed that night. And I just wept in the stairway because I was like, I haven't felt this the entire time I've been a mother for 6 years.

Mm-hmm.

And it just kept getting better. So Um, my body's had to release a lot. I've been in a lot of like trauma care and therapy since then, um, ways to help my body release that through movement. So it's been a journey. I feel like people think there's just a one-pill fix or one cleanse away from freedom, and it's, it's sanctification. We're always working it out and I am not there yet. I'm still, still very much working it out. Um, but the Lord shows you every step and you get there quicker every time, you know what I mean?

Oh my gosh, I appreciate your vulnerability and your honesty so much because even though you looked like you had the perfect life and you were just like the perfect Christian, I felt something deeper inside of you. I was like, this girl's been through something. And I— this is honestly what we hear every day. Women come to us, they're like, I just, you know, held it all together for so long, and then I broke, and I don't know how to fix myself, right? And so I just want women to hear that just because God loves you and you love God doesn't mean you're not going to struggle and go through some things. We live in a broken world and we are going to experience some things, right? Real quick, I just want to interrupt this conversation for something super important. Even though we need to take care of ourselves spiritually, emotionally, and physically, we do have to take care of ourselves at a cellular level. And that is why I have my Fast to Face supplement line. So let's just take a minute to hear about something that might be the game changer that you need in this season. I absolutely love this product. I love All-in-One Microbiome Lift.

Oh, this one is just so fun. Fiber is absolutely critical. It is. It is so critical. We're talking, I mean, 30 to 50 grams a day is A typical recommendation for women. Good luck getting that in your food. It is so hard to do. And it is, it is just absolutely critical for just bowel movements to prevent colon cancer or so many different things, even to regulate blood sugar. It's just critical.

And estrogen detoxification, right?

Yes.

Hello, we need all of that.

Absolutely. So, um, the All-in-One Microbiome Lift, it is a fiber, but it is so much more than that. There's 11 different Prebiotics in there, so that's a really good number. Remember, we talked about the diversity of the microbiome. There's so much going on there, and so this is going to be helpful for you if you feel you do struggle with constipation or diarrhea, either either one. If you are scared of fiber, which I'm sure some of you listening are scared of fiber because you've tried it and you got worse, we hear that. This is a very specific— these specific prebiotics we chose in the formulation because they're very gentle on the body. And some of them are called resistant starches, which means that they don't do their thing until they pass your small intestine and get into your large intestine. That is going to ease the experience of consuming fiber. And if you're nervous about it, maybe just start at half the dose. There's 11 grams of fiber in one scoop. If you're nervous about it, just start at half and see how you do. So if you feel scared with fiber, please give this one a try. It tastes good. It's a natural kiwi flavor that's actually from the golden kiwi extract, which is one of the prebiotics. It's a beautiful healing fruit that has the prebiotics in there, and that will help to lower inflammation in your body. But what it's really doing too is it's just restoring your gut to give your body that diversification of those prebiotic strains. And again, it'll help with— you're going to feel full. So, I mean, if you are on a GLP-1 and you are trying to lose weight, or you just find that you crave a lot of foods, you feel hungry all the time, it's a frustrating place to be. And so having a good fiber that will help you not feel so full, it'll help to ease your cravings, it'll help to increase your metabolism, it'll lower blood sugar. I mean, look at the list of all of the things that this is doing for you.

It's just a critical I think you brought up a really good point about how long it's taken you to heal too.

Yeah.

Because that women do really think they come off of this trauma season or that fight or flight. It takes a long time to recover. Tabatha and I could both share how long it's taken us to recover from our seasons of having that constant fight or flight. And even today with Tabatha kind of having that high anxiety from her son, Like, it takes us back, but now we just have better tools in place and we can recover faster. But it doesn't mean that it's easy, and there was no pill that fixed us quickly.

Yeah. Oh my gosh. And, um, of course I listened to something this morning that totally ties in with this. I love how God works. He's literally always like giving us breadcrumbs and trying to help us process things and understand. I was listening to Mike Signorelli, pastor from V1 Church, talking about being in fight or Flight, talking about when Peter denied Jesus 3 times. He was by a fire, a charcoal fire, and then he took him back to that charcoal fire when he asked him, do you love me? And he declared his love 3 times. And Pastor Mike was like, he had to go experience the same trigger that he failed in, like smelling the smoke, being in the situation, and have an opportunity to rewrite that trigger and mean something else and get redemption out of it. And I was just like, that is so good. Oh my gosh. And I feel like that is what I see with you. You know, Taylor tells stories about how he used to come to you and say, what does God say? What should I be doing? And you would be like the interpreter because he was afraid To be triggered and to go into the that deep pain of healing and do all of those things. And at some point, I think you said like, you got to ask God for yourself, right? And so he had to go back and experience the pain and the triggers to to rewrite it and come out on the other side. And so I just think it's so cool that you held the space for him, but then when you no longer could hold it. God took over, helped you heal, and then he worked kind of, you know, on Taylor. I would love for you to speak to that a little bit because it's important for women to understand sometimes you have to feel more pain before you get to the other side, and it is a process. Like, 8 months to me sounds pretty darn quick to recover from a burnout and adrenal fatigue and nervous system dysregulation.

I mean, she even said, I don't know how you're so happy.

That's the joy of the Lord, right?

Yeah, it is the joy of the Lord because I would not be able to be like this without it. And I think that would honestly be what I would pray on a daily basis. And honestly, that verse, like, perfect love casts out fear. So I'm like, Lord, if I'm still anticipating like punishment from you, or the punishment of fear, of like the fear of the unknown, or the fear of maybe what happened before in my past coming up again in my body. Like when I would get sick, I would have so much fear, like it's gonna go back to the way it was, and this is gonna— you know, you just go down that rabbit trail. Um, so that can feel traumatic too when you've dealt with so many issues in your body. I Honestly, I went through a very traumatic experience that I repressed from like 11 years old that happened to me, and I think my body held that for me for so long until I was able to see it. And I did 2 years ago doing like a fast, and the Lord revealed it to me, and I went, oh my goodness, that's when it started. And so it really carried it for me over 20-something years, and I think so many women do that. And so much of Taylor's, he had been carrying since he was like 17, just beliefs that we have about ourselves, and then the world reinforces it. And so during that time, I do remember saying, I think, like, God's not speaking to me anymore. I think that He wants you to ask Him. And just the anger that came out of that, because he felt like I didn't want to help him.

Yeah.

Or I didn't want to, um, be a good helper, you know, and being the wife that I am and wanting to be a supporter, like ride or die, like I'll do whatever I need to do. It hit me in a different way at that time because the way I feel safe is supporting others. Um, the way I feel safe and know the outcome is to like make sure everyone else's needs are met.

Mm-hmm.

So that after everyone else's are met, then mine can get met. And I'm— the Lord dealt with both of us at the same time, which was difficult because the control pieces I had in place of like, if I pray and help Taylor, then he'll get better, and then he'll support me better. And this whole like tangled mess of, why am I doing this? Uh, did I ask God for permission if I'm allowed to say this? Even though He did give me a gift to hear Him in that way. Am I trying to be God and, like, save someone when God wants to do it? I think those are all really difficult places to find yourself as a wife, because we do want to just fix our, you know, marriage or fix our situation. And sometimes it is in the mess that we are confronted not only for the person to get freedom, but for us to be like, why is it so hard to let me not do it? Why is it so hard to let God take control of it and not me? Why is it so difficult to see them struggle and then know that I'll struggle, and then that's a struggle?

Do you know?

I don't know if that makes sense, but—

100%. 100%. There's like so much going through my mind. Yeah.

What are you thinking?

I'm just thinking that what we like to do is we, we like to protect and we like to control because we don't want to see our people suffer. Like, we don't want to see our kids suffer, we don't want to see our husbands suffer, but they have to suffer. And you say this a lot, we can't protect them from their testimony. And so, and we can't, like, we've got to let them screw up. But it is hard to do that. Like, I don't like it. I don't want to see my son struggle. I don't want to see my husband struggle.

Well, especially if they're taking it as you're forsaking me, like, you're not helping me when you could be helping me.

Yeah, exactly.

Wow, that was incredibly strong of you to just be like, no, the Lord is telling me you gotta go do this for yourself. How long did that go on?

I mean, honestly, almost 4 years because There was just such— well, maybe 3. I would say 3 for sure, like stronger years where I was, um, he walked away from everything and I was the only thing he could hear at that time. He was just so in a trauma place, like he was in survival at that point. Um, and then it got less frequent, I would say. I feel like it's very rare now, if, if at all. Now it's just mostly like— What are your thoughts? Can you pray and like confirm this with me? It's not like Him leaning on me to get an answer because that was probably 2 years ago the last time that happened. Um, but yeah, it confronted my own insecurity of now I'm not needed, so—

Oh.

Who can I help? It shifted to other things and other people, and then God was like, hey, this has nothing to do with Taylor. I'm dealing with you. which is even harder because you can really look at the person struggling, be like, look at them, they really are, you know, the worst one. And then He points to us and is like, okay, well, why are you thinking that? It, you know, it's up to you. What's in your heart, you know?

Lindsay, that is so good, girl. Oh my God.

It always points the mirror back, and I'm like, I don't like to see that, but Okay, I'm gonna be vulnerable and share something that happened with me a couple weeks ago.

I was journaling and just praying and talking to God, and really I was having a pity party for myself and complaining, like, everybody just uses me and they only talk to me when they want something. And I was like complaining to myself about my older daughter, and God said, Well, that's really interesting. You think she only talks to you when she needs something? How does that feel again? And I was like, oh, slap in the face. You're telling me I only talk to you when I want something from you, God? I was like, I repent right now. You are such a good, good Father. I just come here to worship you. But that was so beautiful that he turned that mirror on me and he was like, no, this is about you, actually. Maybe you just need to love her and be the, you know, one to initiate things more and be the mom. And it was such a beautiful moment because God is so gracious. There's never condemnation. You don't feel bad when he corrects you or shows you that picture, right? He's like, oh, look. So I think that's a really important thing that you just shared. Thank you. Holy cow.

So good. I think we should talk about kids a little bit, Lindsay. You and Taylor talk a lot about raising your kids in such a faith way, and so share a little bit about how you raise them to trust God and not just like giving them your faith.

Wow. Well, I'm still— I only have a 7 and a 3-year-old, so I'm sure you guys have a lot more skin in the game with older kids, but just the foundation that we're trying to build is honestly like what I learned. It wasn't but 3 years ago. I have always heard God for other people, but for myself, I really doubted him. Um, that's probably the episode on Deep End that you guys saw of me.

Yeah.

But just God teaching me how to hear his voice through picking out my clothes. Like, I would be like, um, Lord, what should I wear today? And he would show me and It would just be a plain shirt or a sweatshirt. It wasn't anything super fancy, but when I asked him on the days that we did that together, someone would always comment and be like, oh, I love your outfit, or I love, love that color on you. And it confirmed like, oh, I'm hearing Him.

Okay.

So we teach our kids that, mostly Kate, because she's old enough to comprehend it, but we teach them how to put on their armor every morning because I feel like That's super important with, um, just how we go into the day. So we teach them how to put on their armor. We, we put it on like the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of right— like we do the whole thing with them out for the day.

Yeah.

And we plead the blood of Jesus over our minds, bodies, souls, spirits, wills, and emotions. And they, you know, we teach them how to repent, how to change their thinking about things. Um, if they're speaking lies over themselves, like what the truth is and what God's says about them. Um, and so obviously since they're little, we have to like feed it to them still. But Kate's getting to an age now where I'm like, what are you grateful for? Give me like a list of 3 things. And what do you— what does God love about you? Like, what's your strength? You know? Um, and then if she's on— like, literally this week was the first week of school, and she was super anxious in the car on the way to school this morning, and We'll do this little thing where I'm like, okay, well, is it your anxiety or is it somebody else's that you're feeling before you get there? And she's like, I don't know, Mom, I can't hear. And I'm like, well, just let's take a breath. And we always pray this little prayer I learned from Jamie Winship. It was like, I think I'm paraphrasing it, but it was like, bind the enemy and his lies, silence my own thoughts, and give me the mind of Christ. and then you ask God, like, what do you think? What do you say about this? And so I asked Kate, ask Jesus what he says about your anxiety. Is it yours or somebody else's? And she said, it's someone else's. That's what he told me. And so I said, well, how can we encourage— like, I just believe it's going to be a kid that you're gonna see today that maybe they're sad or missing their mom. Like, what could you do to you know, encourage them today? And so little things like that. I don't feel like at this point we're doing anything really deep or big, but—

No, but you're setting such an amazing firm foundation. So I can tell you, Tabatha and I do have older kiddos, but from my own perspective, I wish I could go back and do that for my son, but I wasn't, I wasn't where I am now in my faith walk. And so I'm trying to now change that, you know, as a teenager, and that, that's hard. And so I think it's amazing that your kids are getting to experience that such. So don't, don't negate that for yourself at all just because you don't have the quote-unquote experience. You are giving them such an incredible experience.

Oh my gosh, I totally wish I could go back and be a mom like Lindsay. Like, girl, you are amazing. I'm just I'm in awe of you. That is, that is deep. That is incredible. You are, are like equipping her to live in this world. But, you know, yeah, we—

and there it is, such a Jesus generation that is coming up. Like, it's so cool. Forrest Frank says that all the time, but it really is so powerful, um, to witness and to see. But you also see, I feel like, the attacks on that younger generation, the anxiety that they all do have and that they're fighting against because of the technology and all the things that they're up against, but also because they do have a strong faith because women like you, Lindsay, and women like Tabatha and I, like, we have a strong faith and we're, we're putting that back on our kids.

Yeah, well, I think the scripture that Lindsay mentioned is everything. Like, perfect love casts it all out. Like, if you are shining your light and you are focused on the kingdom, the darkness just has to leave. It can't handle it. It can't stay. It's like repelled by it, you know?

Yeah.

So, you had mentioned in the bio that you sent over to me that success is not only measured by what the family builds, but by the peace, the connection, and the integrity with which they build it. And I just wanna honor you right now because you literally are so successful. You are doing that, and it is an absolutely beautiful thing. It makes me wanna step up my mom game. Big time, so I'm not going to live in regret. I don't shoulda on myself, but I need to do better going forward because that those are beautiful conversations you're having with your children.

Well, thank you. I I feel like honestly that even you reading that verse every time I hear it, it was like a daily thing where I would literally pray it over myself like. 100 times a day sometimes, because I think it confronts that orphan spirit in all of us that's like, I'm fearful of like whatever I think is gonna happen if I don't blank, or if I do blank. Like if I didn't teach my kids that when they were 5, like what will happen to them? Or if I did this or didn't do that, it's— I feel like the enemy just tries to get in your mind and make you feel like an orphan, like Nobody was there to teach you, so this is what's gonna happen. And I just love that verse because anytime I would feel confronted, even in just life, like I felt like I was left with so much I had to learn on my own. But that verse was like, okay, if I'm still anticipating punishment, then that's not God. Like he's perfect love. So I would just ask him, Lord, would you just give me another layer of your perfect? love for that area of my life because I'm not knowing you in that perfect love there. Um, and I just feel like that really— that's been my constant for the last— I guess it's 2026— the last 6 years since that journey started. That's been huge.

So, oh my gosh, you don't have to do it perfect. No, you don't. And if somebody's listening right now and you're like, shoulda, coulda, woulda, Please, I'm telling you, my beautiful oldest daughter, she was like gave me so much purpose having her at 17. But I did not raise her in the church. I had walked away from the church and had major church hurt. I was reading my Bible quietly to myself, but not talking to her, not raising her with any of that. And Jesus still hunted her down and brought her in the fold. And Mm-hmm. Saved her in her 30s. So I'm telling you, God is a redeeming God.

We—

it's not on us to do God's job. That is where the control comes from. That is where the fear comes from, all of it. We have to stop trying to do God's job. He's called us to plant seeds, to water seeds, and he will actually do the saving, right?

So good.

Oh my gosh, such an amazing episode. I'm so glad we asked you on here.

What else? So I would just say, Lindsay, I love to wrap it up because someone is listening right now and they're probably either out walking or they're in their car and they just pulled in their garage and they don't want to get out. I do that so much. I don't want to like take— go to the next, you know, you don't want to transition. You're like, just sit here, no one can see me while I'm in the car. And, you know, her marriage might be struggling and school is starting. And so when you're raising a kiddo that struggles in school, that her body is just going through so much, what would you say to her today to allow her to know that it is okay to get out of that car and here's what she can do to do that and have a peace about it?

Oh, that's a good one. Oh, I feel like some days There's not like one thing that I could say that someone could do, um, but before she gets out, just like, even I've done this where I've sat and I'm like, okay, like I'm going in, you know? I love that we all do this. Yeah, just having grace for yourself and your body, that it's a good body and you are doing your very best And that's enough for today. I think sometimes we women put so much pressure on ourselves to perform, and it's almost like a wind-up doll where you go in and you're like, turn it on for dinner time, and then you're just fried at the end. So, um, one thing I've done that actually is great is I'll put worship music on while I'm in the kitchen cooking, um, and I'll just put my headphones on and I'll keep one side off so I can hear everybody, but Just to like fill my mind with that for the moment, because I'm transitioning from one kind of role to the other. And then it helps to just ask my kids even, what was your favorite part about today? And what, what felt hard? And we all share. So I feel like the vulnerability kind of— your voice is what helps like move things out of your body, as well as movement, obviously. But Having that conversation and hearing my kids on the times where I felt like there's no way that that made a difference, them saying, this was my favorite part of the day when mom was driving us and she was humming in the front. I'm like, what? And it just, I don't know, those little moments, um, or even getting to hear what they felt was hard. You're like, man, okay, we're doing something good.

Yeah.

And that's not that hard. Do you know what I mean? Um, obviously not telling them that, but you know, just in your mind going, Okay, we're doing something right. This is gonna be okay. Um, I don't know, I feel like that's been what has been working for us.

I love that. Worship music literally changes the atmosphere. So if you can't do anything, just put on a good song, like put on a good worship and allow the music to just take over.

Yeah, Wendy Backlund says the angels love to hear the worship music and they just come to you and, and they worship together with you. I was like, oh, I love that.

Yes.

I know, me too. But the coolest part about having older kids is You get to hear what they remember, and they literally remember the smallest, most random, beautiful moments. And I'm like, I don't remember that. But it's things like singing in the car together, you know, or—

It's the small things.

It's the small things. So it's so beautiful. I can't wait to see what Kate turns into. Like, we don't know about Harrison yet. He's not, he's not sassing back. But Kate is going to, like, change the landscape out there for everybody in her generation. She is already a powerhouse with her little self. I just love her so much. Oh, my goodness. Okay, I'm gonna close us out. I always ask women to meditate on a scripture for the week. So, we're gonna do 1 John 4:18, there is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear. It like literally drives it out because fear has to do with punishment, and the one who fears is not made perfect in love. So meditate on that. Talk to God. What does he want to tell you through that scripture today, ladies? It is for you. I promise you, the word is living and active. It's gonna like cut Through all of the crap and get to your soul and speak to you. So, have that conversation with God this week. Rely on him. Hand it over. Just lay it all down, ladies. And I just wanna leave you with this. You don't have to know what God is doing to trust who God is, number one. These are my lessons I'm learning from Lindsay. You don't have to deny what you feel in order to believe what is truth. You do not have to hold everything together, right? Sometimes faith looks like strength, but sometimes it looks like weakness because that's how he is strong in your weakness. And sometimes it looks like surrender and worship, and sometimes it's Jesus, I just still choose you no matter what the circumstance. So thank you for sharing your wisdom. You are a light. in so much darkness. And I just— I'm so grateful to know you and to share your story. So why don't you close us out?

Okay. Father, we thank you for these women. We thank you for those that are on their walk, for those that are in the car on their way home, or if they're going into the fullness of life right now. We just, um, still our hearts right now, and we ask you Um, just in your perfect love to go to the depths and the crevices that are scary for us to look at today. And would you just highlight your love there to us? Would your, um, just Father's heart come to minister to these women who are weary, the ones who are hopeful, um, the ones who are believing for better in their lives? Lord, I pray that you would give them Such an assurance of your presence with them, such an assurance of your love for them. And I thank you, Lord, that you would place people in their path that would cheer them along as they are on this journey that is crazy and that we call as women just life. And so I just thank you for the community that these women are able to be a part of. I bless Tabitha and Ashley as they. go about their day and the things that you're giving them in wisdom to bring to this community. I pray that you would cause, cause it to flourish even more, that more people would have hope of you, Jesus, and what they are doing in their health journeys. And I just ask you to bless us in anything that we're going into today. Would you go before us in Jesus' name? Amen.

Amen. Thank you.

Yeah.

Have a great week, ladies. Oh, so good.

So good.

If you like that episode, I have one favor to ask, maybe 2. Can you hit subscribe and give me a heart? I want Apple to know that this is important information to you because when we tell them that, you will get more of it. So use your voice, hit subscribe, hit the like button. Share with a friend. And the other thing, I want you to download the 5-day challenge and get started on it. Take imperfect action. I will see you in the Fast Faith Sisterhood. Till next time.