1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:11,100
Welcome to the new mercies podcast. I'm your host Anthony Caldwell. This is episode number

2
00:00:11,100 --> 00:00:18,920
143 and I know you are tuning in today to hear part two of my conversation with my daughter

3
00:00:18,920 --> 00:00:25,560
Britton, my 12 year old little girl who God is using in incredible ways right now. He is teaching

4
00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:32,720
her things and honestly as a father I am beginning to learn from her faith journey. I believe we can

5
00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:38,160
all learn together. I believe when we accept Jesus as our Savior and we put our faith and trust in

6
00:00:38,160 --> 00:00:42,760
Him, I believe we get the Holy Spirit of God and I don't believe there's a junior version of the

7
00:00:42,760 --> 00:00:47,680
Holy Spirit. I believe my daughter when she accepted Christ and began her faith journey got

8
00:00:47,680 --> 00:00:53,280
just as much of the Holy Spirit as I did, the same Holy Spirit. So I can learn from her as she

9
00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:58,760
learns from me and this season has been one of those seasons that I've learned so much from her,

10
00:00:58,760 --> 00:01:05,440
just from her explaining the book that she read in the last podcast episode and in this conversation

11
00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:11,440
you're gonna hear she wrote a song in the middle of a very difficult time. I didn't even know she

12
00:01:11,440 --> 00:01:17,280
was writing songs. I had no idea and she just wrote this song in a very difficult season. So

13
00:01:17,280 --> 00:01:22,920
without any more delay I want to turn it over to my conversation with Britton. All right,

14
00:01:22,920 --> 00:01:28,760
welcome back to part two of our interview with my lovely 12 year old daughter Britton. How are you

15
00:01:28,760 --> 00:01:33,760
today Britton? I'm doing great. Awesome, awesome. We wanted to break this episode up into two

16
00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:39,080
different parts because the first part yesterday if you didn't hear part one it was all about the

17
00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:44,800
book that she read Little Pilgrim's Progress and she did a little recap for us and kind of explained

18
00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:49,880
why she liked the book and why we would recommend it to anybody and by the way these are not

19
00:01:49,880 --> 00:01:55,040
sponsored podcast episodes. We are not sponsored by this. This is just something we love so much

20
00:01:55,040 --> 00:02:02,480
we want to share with other people and so today I want to focus in on during the season that you

21
00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:08,040
were reading this book God was doing a lot of things in your life. He was taking you through

22
00:02:08,040 --> 00:02:14,240
different situations and different things so you actually wrote a song during this little season,

23
00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:19,720
is that correct? Yes I did. What is the title of your song called? So the title of my song is

24
00:02:19,720 --> 00:02:27,800
called Battlefield. Battlefield. That would tell me that there's something that was a battle for

25
00:02:27,800 --> 00:02:33,400
you during this season so tell me some inspiration behind this song. Why did you write this song? So

26
00:02:33,400 --> 00:02:40,680
some inspiration for the song like I talked about in the last episode was the book that I read Little

27
00:02:40,680 --> 00:02:45,800
Pilgrim's Progress because I wrote this song as I was reading this book so I hadn't finished it yet

28
00:02:45,800 --> 00:02:51,040
but I was kind of in the middle of it and in the book Little Pilgrim's Progress little Christian

29
00:02:51,040 --> 00:02:58,800
went through so many battles and I loved how he always said that he was like I won because the

30
00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:04,400
king was with me it wasn't me it was just that I was brave to know the king would get me through

31
00:03:04,400 --> 00:03:13,080
it and the king he got him through those battles and so if the king can help little Christian through

32
00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:21,400
his battles I know he can help me through mine and everyone through everyone's battles and just

33
00:03:21,400 --> 00:03:29,120
all the battles that people have. Another thing that inspired me to write my song was I really at

34
00:03:29,120 --> 00:03:37,400
this time I really loved a song by Torrin Wells called Trenches and I still love it now but it was

35
00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:43,760
one of my favorite songs at the time. Both of those combined just kind of came out my song that I

36
00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:52,800
wrote. Okay and I've got one more question for you before I have you read out your song for us. The

37
00:03:52,800 --> 00:03:58,000
other question is so what were you dealing with anything was anything going on in your life during

38
00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:03,320
the season that you were reading this book and you this Torrin Wells song meant a lot to you was

39
00:04:03,320 --> 00:04:07,720
there anything you were going through? There actually was I was going through my own battle

40
00:04:07,720 --> 00:04:17,400
at this time and I had just this like mystery sickness and I was just I was sick for a while

41
00:04:17,400 --> 00:04:24,160
and so I was just kind of struggling with that. And I will say to our listeners we typically as

42
00:04:24,160 --> 00:04:29,520
a family I don't share a lot of things going on because we're kind of private as a family but

43
00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:35,560
during this season yes she was going through a little bit of a battle this mystery sickness

44
00:04:35,560 --> 00:04:40,120
she's talking about she had a fever and the fever you know we took her to the doctor when she first

45
00:04:40,120 --> 00:04:44,440
started this fever and it was the doctor said it's just some virus you know some fever virus or

46
00:04:44,440 --> 00:04:49,560
something and the doctor said if she's not better in you know five days or four days or whatever it

47
00:04:49,560 --> 00:04:54,240
was to give us a call so four or five days go by and we thought well okay she's still got a fever

48
00:04:54,240 --> 00:04:59,240
this is weird and so she was out of school for that those four or five days because you can't go

49
00:04:59,240 --> 00:05:04,640
to school with a fever and so she was having to do remote learning and having to do virtual stuff

50
00:05:04,640 --> 00:05:09,680
and try to catch up and wasn't able to go to school and didn't didn't like that did you like

51
00:05:09,680 --> 00:05:17,880
that? No I did not like that at all. And so going through that process it was about a week and we go back to the doctor and he said okay this

52
00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:23,240
is a you know it's a fever virus still it's just lingering she got a secondary virus and didn't

53
00:05:23,240 --> 00:05:29,600
really have an a response so said kind of you know check back in a few days and her fever went on

54
00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:37,720
for almost a hundred straight days we went to doctors we went to hospitals we went to specialists

55
00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:44,040
we were in Nashville we went kind of everywhere and never really had an answer it was really

56
00:05:44,040 --> 00:05:49,520
tough we saw some specials we did finally get an answer but before we get to that part of the story

57
00:05:49,520 --> 00:05:57,000
why don't you in the middle of your mystery sickness you were at home one afternoon or actually one

58
00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:01,280
morning it was during the school season so I was having to go pick your sister up for from school

59
00:06:01,280 --> 00:06:10,200
and you were at home and kind of a quiet space and so you sat down and wrote this this song right? Yes I did. Okay why don't you

60
00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:16,440
read this song for us and let us hear the lyrics. Okay I was standing in the center I didn't know

61
00:06:16,440 --> 00:06:22,200
what to do I had my armor around me but I still couldn't move I looked really confident but I

62
00:06:22,200 --> 00:06:28,280
was scared as could be I lost all of my faith and I didn't believe and you came to the battlefield

63
00:06:28,280 --> 00:06:34,240
when I needed you the most I was still filled with fear but I was safe because you were close and you

64
00:06:34,240 --> 00:06:39,640
came to the battlefield like you always do now my fear is all gone and it's all because of you I

65
00:06:39,640 --> 00:06:45,720
couldn't see as tears came through my eyes you know when I'm beat down and broken inside because

66
00:06:45,720 --> 00:06:51,960
when I'm in the battle I'm weak and I'm alone I can trust in you forever because I know you'll

67
00:06:51,960 --> 00:06:57,720
always show and you came to the battlefield when I needed you the most I was still filled with fear

68
00:06:57,720 --> 00:07:03,840
but I was safe because you were close and you came to the battlefield like you always do now my fear

69
00:07:03,840 --> 00:07:09,640
is all gone and it's all because of you you are the God that helps me through the fight you are the

70
00:07:09,640 --> 00:07:14,640
God that helps me sleep at night and when you showed up at the battlefield next to me you helped

71
00:07:14,640 --> 00:07:19,800
me get through it so I defeated the enemy and you came to the battlefield when I needed you the most

72
00:07:19,800 --> 00:07:25,200
I was still filled with fear but I was safe because you were close and you came to the battlefield

73
00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:32,880
like you always do now my fear is all gone and it's all because of you. That is a very well-written

74
00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:39,560
song when you wrote that you were 11 years old right? Yes I was. And you were in the middle of a

75
00:07:39,560 --> 00:07:46,280
battle and that shows that there's faith in those words right? You said that you defeated the enemy

76
00:07:46,280 --> 00:07:52,840
with him and yet you were still in the middle of the battlefield yourself. What do you want anyone

77
00:07:52,840 --> 00:07:59,880
that's listening to this today what do you want them to know? Well when I was writing this song

78
00:07:59,880 --> 00:08:06,440
like I like you said I was in the middle of a battle and when I was when I was sick when I was

79
00:08:06,440 --> 00:08:12,680
writing the song it felt like it was never going to end it felt like I was just gonna stay sick

80
00:08:12,680 --> 00:08:20,920
forever and it felt just miserable and so I wrote this saying that I was gonna get out of it thinking

81
00:08:20,920 --> 00:08:29,960
I was never gonna get out of this and now today I'm all better and I got out of it so that just

82
00:08:29,960 --> 00:08:38,520
when I look back at this song it reminds me like he came through like I knew he would but I didn't

83
00:08:38,520 --> 00:08:46,040
know it at the same time I was kind of struggling like he's gonna come through but is he is he

84
00:08:46,040 --> 00:08:53,800
really is he not you know what's gonna happen to me and well it all turned out great. Yeah and for

85
00:08:53,800 --> 00:08:59,240
the last and so one of the things that we did as we celebrated when you had a fever for those

86
00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:04,120
hundred days I think it was actually a hundred and six days actually now that I think about it

87
00:09:04,680 --> 00:09:11,880
for those hundred and six days of fever you were weak and you were tired you were struggling and

88
00:09:11,880 --> 00:09:16,280
it was just really hard and so one of the things that we decided after your fever was gone that

89
00:09:16,280 --> 00:09:22,920
day we celebrated right we were like yes this is we're good yeah finally this is this is the way

90
00:09:22,920 --> 00:09:27,800
we're we're through this part one of the things that I did was I challenged you right and I said

91
00:09:27,800 --> 00:09:33,000
hey what if we take the next hundred days and we build your strength back up because you have

92
00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:40,520
strength now so for the last hundred days correct me if I'm wrong but you have done over 10,000

93
00:09:40,520 --> 00:09:47,960
push-ups. Yes I have. Over a hundred day period we set a challenge before you and your mom and I said

94
00:09:47,960 --> 00:09:52,920
you know what I believe she can do it she can do 10,000 that's a hundred push-ups or more a day

95
00:09:52,920 --> 00:09:57,720
and I am so proud that you have done that and we're going to treat you to a nice little surprise

96
00:09:57,720 --> 00:10:06,040
here but as we as we've gone through that one of the things to remember today is that your faith

97
00:10:06,840 --> 00:10:12,040
even whenever you didn't understand how God was going to deliver you through it right he you said

98
00:10:12,040 --> 00:10:16,760
you were sick you just didn't know when it was ever going to end but you trusted that God was

99
00:10:16,760 --> 00:10:21,720
going to do that and honestly I didn't even know you were writing a song I had no idea this was

100
00:10:21,720 --> 00:10:26,280
going on I mean we knew we were praying every night and every day and talking about how you were

101
00:10:26,280 --> 00:10:30,520
going to get through things and how God was going to deliver you and what he was going to do and

102
00:10:30,520 --> 00:10:34,840
how he was going to do it and the truth is we didn't know right we didn't we just we had to

103
00:10:34,840 --> 00:10:41,320
believe we had to trust and so thank you so much for your encouragement Britton sometimes

104
00:10:42,120 --> 00:10:47,240
encouragement comes from the kid and not the parent and thank you for that I'm very proud of

105
00:10:47,240 --> 00:10:53,160
you and I love you very much and I know that this will encourage the many people that will hear this

106
00:10:53,160 --> 00:11:21,160
episode today so I love you and I am very proud of you I love you too

