Takeover Tuesday: April Osteen Simons

Faith Day. Woo. What we live for. I love it. And I'm also so excited that I have one of my friends, April Osteen Simons, Author, speaker, of course. Like, you can't go anywhere in the globe without knowing about the Osteen family. So amazing. She really shows you how to practically live by faith, how you make it a part of everyday life.

She's a mom.

She keeps it real. She knows what we're all going through. So, April, thank you so much.

I am so glad to be here. Hannah, thank you for having me. It's just an honor.

Oh, the honor's ours, really. Thank you so much.

Here's the big question. How are these average everyday moms getting radical results in their lives? How are they able to transform their health, money, families, homes, and have fun doing it?

The trick. We're not average. I'm Hannah Keeley, and I'm going to.

Spill our secrets and answer your questions right now in that mom show.

So we've talked a lot. We don't get to see each other often, but we've talked. And we have the same struggles as a mom and especially as our kids are getting older. But you know what? Something changes when you decide to surrender to God's favor and stop trying with the toil. And I think one theme that we have that keeps coming up inside the supermom is toil. We try so hard in the flesh. When God is like, I've got a better way, right?

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I mean, we worry about much, you know, maybe. Maybe y' all don't, but we tend to worry so much, and. And, you know, God's got this. I know it's a Christian saying, and, you know, we hear it so much. But when you get it done in your heart, you know, God really does have me in the palm of his hand. He really does care about what I'm going through. And we gotta realize, Hannah, what stresses us out does not stress God out. He's got it all under control. If we can just. I like to say if I can just be a believing believer. It's easy to say the stuff, but to actually become what you believe. I am a child of God. I am. I have the peace of God that passes all understanding to guard my heart and mind. It's just acting like the word is.

True, that, you know, you said it like mic drop right there. Acting like the word is true. Because so many times we're like, all right, you know what, God? I'm just gonna trust you now. Let me go work my Butt off and try to fix, find a solution to this problem. When God's like, is that really trust? I mean, there's. Where do we draw the line between working in the flesh and then working in the spirit? You know, we can't just sit back, but we have to be working alongside God. Yeah, but I think when we pull in, I think probably one of the warning signals is the stress. You know, when we start to feel that that's where we're trying, we've jumped over the line.

Exactly. My dad used to say this, that he found out one thing in his life. God is wiser and smarter than he is. And, you know, if we just realize God really is working on our behalf and that moment that we get into stress is the moment that we're not trusting God. And I know I have five kids, I know it's easy to get into stress, but that moment that you feel yourself get into the stress, you kind of pull back and say, wait a minute, I've crossed that line. You got to take control of yourself. And like you said. I like what you said. If we do our part, God will do his part. It doesn't mean that we trust God. God, you know, I'm stressed out, blah, blah, blah. No, we bring an environment around us that's peaceful. So we are getting rid of stress. We just can't expect God to do everything. We have to do something. Faith without feet is of no avail. You know, you got to put feet to your faith.

That's so true. That's so true. And that's part of acting as if the word is true. Yeah, I know a lot of people are having money struggles, but acting as if the word is true. If you really believed that God rewards those you seek him. If you really believe that when you bring gifts into the storehouse that he'll return it in abundance, wouldn't you therefore tithe? Wouldn't you therefore set out a spending plan? Wouldn't you therefore create a savings? You know, so you storehouse. And so many times. I know personally, I really have to do that daily check. Like, am I today acting as if the word is true? Acting as if favor is just waiting for me to step into the day, or am I speaking against it? Am I speaking the problem or am.

I speaking the premise?

It's not just like an Instagram me, you know, it's real.

Right, Exactly. I like to say this. Be careful how you talk to yourself because you are listening. What am I saying to me? What am I saying about my house? What am I saying about my kids? What am I saying about my finances? You know, this is funny, but I always confess that I'm blessed and a favor surround me. You know, it's just confessing the word of God. I'm not saying thinking that it's pie in the sky kind of thing, but one of the things that my dad used to say is we used to do this confession of, you know, checks will come in the mail. And you know, it sounds kind of funny, but he used to say, finding money. And I just kind of started adding that to my whole everyday thing. And this isn't some good weird stuff, but, you know, I just said, God, I thank you. That favor surrounds me as a shield. I thank you, Lord God, that my finances are blessed. You know, just went through those things, speaking the word of God and then I added it. I think that I'll find money. And I thought, that's so funny. I haven't said that in so long. I'm talking about putting feet to your faith. And sister and I were in D.C. just two days ago and I was walking along at night and something caught my eye and I looked down and I passed it and then I thought, no, picked it up. There's a $50 bill. You know, that's just a simple thing, but. But you know, it's. What are you saying about your life? What are you saying about your situation? There's people that'll pray, God help me in this, and then they'll go talk to their girlfriends about how bad is. And the Bible says one of my favorite scriptures, Proverbs 14:1, A wise woman builds house. House. But the foolish one tears it down by her own efforts. I mean, that tells me I can be a builder or I can be a tear downer, make up my awards right there. But you know, they're build and build and build and build and build with life and not tear it down by what I'm saying or by what I'm doing.

Oh, April, you're talking my love language, baby. And here's the deal. We've got to make it intentional because I don't know about you, but there's gravity that is always, in effect, physical gravity and spiritual gravity. And if we're not intentional about the words that come out of our mouth, we'll just start talking about our circumstances. That gravity will start pulling us down. And every single morning. It's funny that you said that, April, I didn't know that you said it because every single morning I say favor surrounds me like a shield. And I speak that same thing as favor surrounds my children like a shield. And I think I'm gonna add that finding money thing.

I like that it works.

And it's not like she said, it's not like this airy fairy woo woo thing. Like this is. He says that the power of life.

And death is in the tongue.

And when you're speaking, why are you so mean to your sister? You're so mean or you never helped.

Me out around the house.

That's your reality. It's going to stay your reality until you integrate something different.

Exactly. So many times we focus on what's wrong in our lives instead of what's right in our lives. And so, you know, I heard someone say, speak to the king and queen and your children or your spouse and don't speak. Know something negative over them. Find that one good thing that is positive about them and speak to that. You know, your kid may be doing everything wrong, but find that one thing that they're doing right. Your husband may bug the whatever out of you, but find that one thing.

The whatever.

Yeah, the whatever.

We all know what that whatever is.

Find a thing that you love about him, you know, and speak to that. Don't focus. You know, the enemy is real good about magnifying the negative. You've got to be intentional. Like you said of magnifying the positive in your life.

And there's always something to be grateful for.

Exactly.

In every situation, there's always something. And gratitude. I just believe that gratitude is the energy of abundance. Like out of that heart, out of that spirit of gratitude. I just believe God's like, that's my girl. Now we're ready. Like now. Because he can't just operate outside his covenant.

Right?

Speaking against his promise and against his favor and abundance. Then he honors the power of our words.

Yeah.

So he said, my covenant will I not break. We've got to give. We've got to open up the door to his favorite with our words. I always have heard, and I'm sure you've heard it too, that grace makes and faith takes, like God's done everything. But we have to have the faith to speak the positive, to find the positive to be grateful. And that's that faith that opens up the door.

Exactly. I mean, the Bible says in Deuteronomy, choose life or choose death. Choose blessing or choose cursing. So it shows me that we have a choice. We have to walk in the choices that we make.

That's so true. And you know what? I always, I feel like in that verse in Deuteronomy, where it's like, okay, everyone witness this. I put before you life and death. And then it's kind of like a teacher who's giving you a pop quiz. And he says, okay, here's your multiple choice. The answer is B, like circle B. Because in that same verse he says, choose life that you and your descendants may live.

Right?

He give us the answer to the quiz.

Exactly. I like that kind of test.

But now are we going to do that? Are we going to. And what does it mean? Like, let's be super practical for moms here because you know what it's like sometimes we hit the ground running. We're packing lunches, we're folding clothes, we're answering calls. What does it mean? What does it look like to choose life?

Well, I can tell you this. To choose life means to stop complaining.

You heard it, you heard it.

Yeah, don't complain. Adjust. You might have Hades on earth going on around you. Adjust. Your attitude is everything. Complaining is draining. I'm going to say it again. Complaining is draining. You know, you mom set the whole atmosphere in your home. And I know you've heard this before, but if you complain, you know what, your kids are going to be grouchy. Your spouse is going to be grouchy. You've got to be purposeful. You've got to be intentional. I take it from my mom, how she raised us and my mom and dad every morning. You know what, we saw them in the word of God. We saw them reading their Bible. Not that you have to do that. I know some of you may have to get in the closet alone to read your Bible. You know, get in the word of God because that's going to help you get the right mindset and, you know, just, just speak again. I'm going to say this. Speak to the king and queen and your children. Don't speak to the mess that they are. Don't always talk about how late that they are. See, you have, you have such power in your words and set the tone in your home. Make the atmosphere an atmosphere of peace and joy.

Hey, mama, we'll get right back to the podcast, but did you know there is an entire online university just for moms? If you're ready to get radical results in your life, just go to mommastery.com that's M O M M A S T-E-R-Y.com make sure you check it out and take your free quiz again. That's mommastery.com M O M M A S T-E-R-Y.com now back to the podcast.

Mom is happy. Everybody's happy. That is true. That's so true. So start your day off. If your kids are going to school, pray over them. My mom prayed over us every single day. I said the same prayers over my kids when they walked out the door every single day. And, you know, establish a routine of peace. Establish a routine of confidence. Establish a routine of positivity. You know, the things that you do, your children are going to do. Your children are like little video cameras with legs. How you react is more than likely how they're going to react. If things are going well, they're probably going to act like you. The Bible says this. If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn't much to you in the first place. What do I do in a crisis? Because bad things happen to good people. Keep your chin up. Keep your faith in God. Keep your trust in God. Attitude is everything, and we hear that all the time. But you know what? If you change your attitude, you change your life. Make it an attitude of God. A Godditude is like what I like to call it. Just. Just do things even when you don't feel like doing it. Faith it till you make it.

That's good.

You may not feel like getting up in the morning and putting on clothes and opening up the. The curtains. Do it anyway. Get up, open the curtains, get dressed. Make your house a place of peace. Make it pretty. You know, just what you can do with your house. You know, your atmosphere affects everything around you. So you may not feel like, you know, you may say, I'm not in the shape I want to be in. I don't feel good about myself, so I take it out on my family. You know what? Fake it till you make it. Fake it till you make it. Walk around like, you know, you look like you want to look. Put feet to your face.

Oh, that's so good. That's so good. And it's easy to do it when you feel like doing it. But I can't think of a single day that I've ever woken up and said yes. I'm so excited about going to the gym. Like, it's never happened.

Right.

But there's so much power in saying, I don't. I'm not going to let my feelings vote.

Right?

Like, I'm not even gonna. I'm not even gonna let them have a vote. And in my behavior today. Yeah. And I. And I love. I want to call attention to one word that you said that is so important, April. And you said routine. You said routines of positivity routines. And that's the thing.

When you first decide.

You know what? I'm not gonna let my circumstances determine me. I'm gonna. I'm gonna talk to that queen inside of me.

Yeah.

That inner dialogue. And I'm going to develop routines whether I feel like it or not. It's just something that we are going to do. And that is just so much power in routines.

Don't let the chaos around you override the calm within you. Routine of confidence. I mean, what you said is just. It is just brilliant. If you can just take hold of. I am going to establish the routine. Christ in my house. What does Christ you? Christ is peace. He's confidence. You know, he's. He's this overwhelming peace. We have a saying in my home, and I have five kids, and I know you have a 10, too. Do you have five or six?

Seven.

You have seven.

Okay, but really, I have eight, so seven by birth.

Okay. So sorry. I should have known that. I knew you had more than me, but I didn't know that many more.

You know what? I lost count after four.

Well, this is the deal. Like in my house, we have this saying. Well, I have this saying. My kids may not know it. This is a negative free zone. Now, is it always negative free? Absolutely not. There's times. But when it gets negative, you know what? We speak to that. Right that way. Does that mean that it's perfect and it's without fighting? Are you kidding me? No. But you have to take hold of it. If that's one of your things in your home. Like, to me, we're not going to talk bad about people. We're not going to have negativity. It doesn't mean that the conversation might not start, but I know me as the keeper of the environment in my house, I'm going to put a stop to it. I'm going to turn it over.

That's good. Again, I'm just going to call attention to what you just said. The keeper of your environment. Moms are like the thermostat. We're the emotional thermostat. We're the spiritual thermostat. As goes the mom, goes the entire household. That is a lot of responsibility. But it is also a lot of power that we have. If we would just tap into that. Just like Ephesians 3:20 says that super abundant power at work in us. So we can do those things even if we don't feel like it.

Exactly, exactly. You know, One time I came home from speaking, and I was real rushed, and I was trying to get to a state championship volleyball game that one of my daughters was doing the opening serve. So I got out kind of frazzled. I don't know if you've ever been frazzled.

No, I was like, I've never been frazzled, April.

Never.

I know. I'm not even upset. You even thought I could be.

Well, I came by the house, I picked up two of my girls, and, you know, it was just one of those things. My nature isn't normally yelling, but, you know, I can yell. So I got in the car, my kids were frazzled, and I was upset at myself because my plane was late. I didn't want to miss my daughter's opening serve. So I was kind of taking it out on my kids. You know, My daughter asked me something, and I remember just jumping down her throat. It was just a simple question. And you know what I did? I recognized this is by the grace of God, because this doesn't always happen. I recognized that I was frazzled. And because I was frazzled and stressed out, I was taking it out on them. We were on a busy highway in Arlington, Texas, and I've never done this before, and I've never done it since, but I decided to do this. I pulled off the highway, even though we were almost late for the game, and I pulled into a random parking lot, and I got out of the car. My kids were looking at me like, what in the world are you doing? I got out of the car, and I walked about five steps away. I turned around, I came back to the car. I opened up the door, and I said, hey, guys, it's great to be home. How y' all doing? You know what I did? I did a do over. Not because, you know, I always do a do over, and I'm always that great, perfect mom. Of course not. I just thought, I've got to do something to change this environment. And I know that's crazy, but you know what? It worked. My kids looked at me like, who are you and what is happening to you? But it worked for me. I needed to physically do that, step away from the situation and make a brand new entrance. Yeah. Brand new entrance. This is the new positive, improved mom. And you know what? It worked for us. Sometimes we got to step back, take a breather, and, you know, say, this isn't going the way that I want it to go. But you know what? God, you're still in control. And I may not be able to figure everything Out. But I'm going to take control of me, and I'm not going to let this chaos determine who I am and just do a do over.

Do a do over. I love that. But you know what? That probably your kids will never forget that and they're going to need do overs in their lives.

Exactly.

So your kids will never forget that. I think it's so funny because I bet your kids were like, mom, the same thing happened to me. I was so frazzled. And of course I started the day frazzled. And I'll never forget, I was in the kitchen, I was doing the same thing, just snapping, snapping left and right. And my son said, mom, did you have time to do a devotion?

Oh, my God, listen to you.

So I literally love it. I walked outside, I did the same thing. I walked outside, walked down the driveway. But it was so funny, when I came back in the house, there, all my kids, like, all of a sudden, we're like, mom, you okay? Do you need help? Do you want me to clean the kitchen? Can I unload the dishwasher? Do you need anything? Can I get you something to drink? Mom's gonna lose. We all need do overs.

We do. And sometimes a do over is just a deep breath, walking into the utility room and breathing again. Okay, you know what? It's okay to feel that way. It's just not okay to keep reacting the way you feel because you got to take control of your emotions. If you want God to do the exceedingly, abundantly in your life, you've got to take control of you.

Yeah. That's why the Bible says we have to take every thought captive.

Yes.

Like under the authority of Christ Jesus, like, we have to hold those thoughts and. And it's almost like you step out of your head. Like, if you can step out of your head and say, what am I saying to myself? What am I saying about my kids, about my energy level, about everything I have to do? And if we can, like, step outside of ourselves and taking something captive is not like a passive thing. It's like you're, like capturing it. So you have to capture those thoughts and say, does this. Does this fit in with the grace of God? Does this fit in with his covenant and the life that I want to live? If it's not, you've got to learn how to throw that out.

Exactly. And you got to get rid of it fast, because if not, you'll dwell on it and you just get consumed with it. So you got to take it captive. I love that.

Oh, man. It's so important. And I think that's. That's a beautiful way. I think just that we can step into that super mom power because it's there for us. It absolutely is there for us. And we may not. And just like she said, like, okay, you're not gonna feel like a super mom every day. Sometimes you'll go months without feeling like a super mom. But just like April said, you don't have to feel like it.

Yeah.

Be it.

Right. You walk around like you're that. My mom grew up with polio, and she was always very conscious. She has one leg that's real tiny, and, you know, she can walk fun. But she always walked with a limp, and she was always very conscientious about that. And she just. You know, she just didn't feel good about herself, and she wished she could wear high heels and all that. And one day she was walking with my dad and a minister, and they went by a storefront window, and they could see the reflection in the window. And my mom didn't want to look at it because she's so conscious of her legs. And that minister said to my dad, he said, look, John Dodie walks like a princess. And you know what? My mom never forgot that. Somebody spoke life over her. You may have a limp in your life, you may have something that's happened to you in your life, but you know what? God looks at you as a princess. He doesn't see all your flaws. He doesn't see all your mistakes. He doesn't. He doesn't care that your dish, you know, your dishwasher is just overflowing and you have dishes in the sink and laundry that's undone and that you feel.

Maybe, like camera in my kitchen.

No, I don't.

Just making sure.

Okay, I know you just might feel like you failed as a mom today. You screamed at your kids when you shouldn't have screamed at your kids. You know what? It's okay. That's life. God doesn't see you as a bad mama. Bad moments don't make bad mamas. You may have had bad moments, but.

You'Re not a bad momma.

Tweets.

You are like, the queen of tweets. I just want to write down everything and post it on Instagram. I preach to myself, how do you do? I've been in the shower before preaching up a storm.

Yeah, exactly.

Myself happy.

Right? Exactly. You know, it just takes. It takes one person, and you might be that mom that maybe life into another moment, and, you know, say something as simple as I can't even 40 years ago that man said that about my mom. And she still says it today. Why? Because it made a difference in her life. And we as moms, we need to speak life into other moms. You know, we need to say that one kind word. Say, say something of life to someone else because they might be.

That's so true. And that's what, that's what you're doing for us right now, April. It's just. Just speaking so much life to us. I really appreciate that. And I also want to. Want to just make sure you understand what April just said, that bad moments do not make bad mamas. We will always have those bad moments, but it's what we do with them. We're all broken pots. But if we let God's glory shine through it, that's what our kids will see too, because our kids will need to do do overs. Our kids will have bad moments. And now we're teaching them by example how to step into that super abundant power of God and operate in it.

That's good.

It makes all the difference.

It does.

Thank you so much. I just really. I love your words. I love how you speak life to people. And I know that you just are just passionate about moms because we're living that life. Just like if what someone needs to deal with today, if there's one thing that they can carry with them moving forward, what would that be?

I would just say this. Whatever you're believing God for, you may not see it happening right now. Just don't worry. God has your back. God has everything under control. The scripture says he has your name written in the palm of his hand. I like to say he has XOXO by my name. You're the apple of his eye. You know, just. The scripture says, don't worry about anything, but pray about everything. Just stay in an attitude of prayer. And every time you think of that situation, the money, there's money's not in the bank. My marriage is falling apart, my kids are on drugs, and they're not serving God. God, I thank you. As for me and my house, we will serve God, the Lord. God, I thank you that my house is a house of unity and harmony. God, I thank you that I'm blessed financially. Begin to speak the word of God. When you speak the word of God, My dad used to say, put the word of God in you when you don't need it, and God will bring it out of you when you do need it. Just when you meditate on God's word and you Begin to speak it. It forms life. The words that you speak become the house that you live in. What kind of house are you living in? So just when. When the enemy's bringing all the. It's not going to happen. Speak out. It is going to happen in Jesus name.

Right? So good. And you know what we just did? We just went full circle back to where we started. God's got this.

Yes, that's right.

Whatever you are believing for, whatever the struggle is, God's got this, right?

Amen.

April.

Thank you. Oh, thank you for having me.

It has been such a joy. All right, guys, remember, God's got this. You are a super mom and you don't even have to feel like it to be it. As April says, face it till you make it. Thank you so much.

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