Hey everyone, my name is Austin and welcome back
to another episode of the unfiltered faith podcast
If this is your first time tuning in I'm so glad
you're here. And if you've been here before welcome
back I am so excited to introduce our guest today.
Her story is just so powerful So I'm gonna let
her introduce yourself and then we're gonna get
started Well, thank you Austin for having me
on your show, my name is Carrie Henson I am the
mom's day prepper and I help moms prepare for
the unthinkable in their motherhood and I teach
them how to take their motherhood back. Sometimes
when we are put in a situation where our children
are under attack or in harm's way, or it's our
family, or it's a natural disaster, or, you know,
there's fentanyl, there's a lot of things happening
in our world, and they give moms the strategies
to take their motherhood back, and I've really
enjoyed it. I'm a speaker. I am an up -and -coming
author. I am a podcaster, and I'm a mother of
six incredible, amazing, God -fearing humans.
So for those who are listening, how do you define
a Mom's Day moment? what makes it different from
a hard day. I love explaining this to gentlemen
because y 'all aren't moms. I'm all about motherhood
and a lot of moms especially new moms or young
moms know that you have hard days. You have babies
that are colicky and they cry or you have toddlers
that are throwing tantrums or you forgot the
snacks, you forgot the goldfish and now you're
at the park and everyone's hungry or somebody
has to potty or somebody pees themselves. I mean
those are hard days that moms go through. And
I kind of I liken it to a rainstorm. Okay, so
imagine you're starting your day as a mom and
you have to get your kids up ready for school
and you got to get yourself ready for work and
you're walking out the door and there's it's
just oaring cats and dogs outside. And you have
the umbrella and you're trying to get everybody
out there, but by the time you get in the car,
everyone is soaked. You can't go back in. You
can't stop the rain. It's going to keep coming
at you, but you just got to move on with your
day. And it's very hard and it's uncomfortable
and it just, just sucks, right? It's just a sucky
day. Well, a mom's day moment is like a hurricane
or a tornado. Okay, that's what we have in Texas.
We have tornadoes and hurricanes. We don't get
the blizzards and the, you know, whatever, but
we do have these hurricanes and these tornadoes
that come into our motherhood too. So you imagine
waking up and you're getting everybody ready
for school and you're getting ready for work
and it's just a normal day and all of a sudden
the storm comes. at your house, at your home,
at your family and it's bringing hail and it's
bringing high winds and it's ripping the roof
off of your house and you don't have time to
get into shelter. You don't have time to get
into that that innermost space in your home or
in the storm cellar and the house is starting
to be pulled apart and you're holding on to your
children as they're flying away from you by these
massive winds and you're doing everything you
can to stronghold your family together. and you
get through the storm, but you have no home,
you've been through a severe trauma, you're disconnected
to your motherhood, you're disconnected to your
femininity, all these things just imploded in
your life. That is a mom's day moment. Now I
will tell you my first mom's day moment was when
my nine month old baby, my fourth child, spiked
a fever. and my kids don't get fevers. And it
was a God wink because my grandma, who was raised
in the Great Depression, you know, before they
had Walgreens and CVS and Walmart that you could
just run and get, you know, children's Tylenol
or Advil or whatever. She always told me fevers
meant something. And so I took him to an urgent
care, a nine month old baby, urgent care, he
had a fever. And that was the beginning of childhood
cancer. It was a complete fluke. It was a complete
God moment that my child was saved because he
was probably hours, days away from having a stroke.
His blood pressure was so high because of the
cancer. That is a mom's day moment because in
that one moment when the ER doctor came in and
said, your child has cancer, he will not live
to his first birthday. My life imploded, my motherhood.
was ripped apart. My children were scattered
to the wind. And over the course of the year
through cancer treatments, it was apparent that
we had just been hit with a mom's day moment.
I likened it to an atomic bomb, but I think mom's
day moment is a better analogy. I mean, it's
a better way to label it because it is doomsday.
It is doomsday for your motherhood. And I just
kept getting hit with these Mom's Day moments
until finally I was like, y 'all, I cannot be
the only one out here dealing with this stuff.
And turns out, unfortunately, I'm not. And more
and more moms are like, yeah, this is a Mom's
Day moment. I'm going through a Mom's Day moment.
This is my Mom's Day moment. I know it's a new
terminology out there in the world, but it's
gaining understanding and popularity very quickly.
And the more I talk about it, the more moms come
out and they reach back out to me. They're like,
I know what you're talking about. I feel like
an atomic bomb just hit my motherhood. So you've
experienced so many Mom's Day moments, from childhood
cancer to hurricanes, abuse and addiction from
a spouse, and accidents. Which one of those hit
the hardest and how did you first recognize it
as a Mom's Day moment? Well, that is a complicated
and complex question, I think, for me, because
there have been so many. And I think that the
one that's the most significant is when my son
was hit by a 110 truck. And he was hit on the
same day that his brother, seven years prior,
was diagnosed with neuroblastoma. And it's March
15th, which is the Ides of March. It is not lost
on me this date. And I think it's the most significant
because in that moment, I was furious. I mean,
the rage I felt as a human, I didn't even know
I could. go that deep in anger. And I was very
angry for a very long time. I mean, probably
six weeks at least, I was just out of my mind,
furious. I was furious at his father for allowing
it to happen. I was furious at the man for not
paying attention. I was just furious at God.
I was cussing God publicly, like not a private
person in general, but I mean, I was public about
it. I was really, really pissed that this tragedy
happened. My son was obliterated, the entire
left side of his body obliterated, 12 broken
bones, four lacerated organs, road rash from
head to toe, a huge recovery. His eyeballs were,
the muscle connection is obliterated, like we're
having to work with his eyes still. But once
the anger subsided, Austin, I was able to hear
God's word. I was able to hear him speak to me,
and he spoke to me in a way that only I could
hear, and I'm not gonna repeat it exactly on
your podcast, but he said, stop messing around.
You are not living your purpose for me. And I
heard him clearly, and I said, okay, I surrender.
What is your purpose for me? And he started to
open doors, and he started to open my eyes, and
he started to put people in my life. that were
instrumental to not only help me grow this Mom's
Day Prepper brand and community and the Mom's
Day Bunker podcast, it was instrumental in helping
me understand and see the abuse that was happening
in my own home and how that was affecting these
children and that I was never going to be able
to protect them on my own. that I was going to
have to pursue a court of law. I was going to
have to pursue divine intervention. I was going
to have to pursue outside sources and that I
can't do it on my own. It was a huge lesson.
You can do all things through Christ. You cannot
do all things by yourself and you have to learn
to surrender. And I don't like that. I don't
like surrendering. Who does, right? Come on.
Nobody wants that. Nobody wants to be like, okay,
you take care of a God. Because first of all,
has anyone literally met him? It's all faith.
You have to have the faith to surrender that.
So I would say the most significant mom -to -day
moment was when my son was hit by the truck.
I've always found it interesting, frustrating
even, when people say God won't give you more
than you can handle. Honestly, that's complete
crap. If God only gave you what you could handle,
then why would you need him? That mindset makes
it sound like we're supposed to muscle through
life on our own. God's just cheering us from
the sidelines. But the truth of the gospel, the
whole message of who God is, isn't about us proving
ourselves strong. It's about realizing that we're
not. That we weren't made to carry it all. God
doesn't need us, but he wants us. He wants a
relationship. One where we actually depend on
him. not just survive on our own. And honestly,
it's in the places where I had nothing left to
give, where I was completely overwhelmed that
I saw Him show up the clearest. Well, I would
go deeper there too, Austin. I don't think God
gives us anything. I think God is in everything.
And I also think that we are in a broken world
and the enemy is coming for us. And I love talking
to, how to put this politely, but misguided Christians.
on this topic, especially moms, because that
is a phrase that is told over and over and over
to moms when they go through something hard.
Well, God won't give you more than you can handle.
And pardon my French, but that's bullshit. And
when you tell it to someone who just buried their
child, it is the wrong thing to say. The right
thing to say is, how can I help you? How can
I serve you right now? Can I hold your hand?
Can I cook you a meal? Don't say, can I pray
for you? Because you don't know what that mom's
going through. You can say, I am praying daily
for you, not, can I pray for you? So many people
ask me, can I pray for you? And I looked them
dead in the face and I said, nope, sure can't.
Because what good is God? I was so angry. What
good is it going to do? And it just made me resent
that person. Instead of inviting their light
and their goodness into my life, I resented them.
So I do not believe and I really encourage people
to stop using this phrase, especially a parent
who has buried their child, who has lost their
child to the system and fill in blank whichever
system you want. Don't say that because God doesn't
give you anything. Our God is good. God doesn't
give us tragedy and trauma and crisis. God is
in everything and He will turn your pain into
purpose, you know, and I think that's apparent.
definitely apparent in my life, but in our short
conversation before we started recording, it's
apparent in your life too. And that's why I call
it beauty in the ashes. You know, your house
will burn down in this world because this is
just the world we live in, but there will always
be beauty that grows from it. You just have to
be in the right mindset and you have to have
faith. So a lot of people see someone like you
and think she must be superhuman, but what was
your lowest moment? And did you think you'd ever
make it through? I know I read that question
when you sent it to me and I was like, oh no,
I don't know how to answer this one. Because
I do get that a lot. You're super mom. I wish
I could be as strong as you. You're such a strong
mom. And they're right, I am. I am strong in
some ways, but I'm only as strong as my strategies
and my preps are. I'm only as strong as my faith
is. I'm only as strong as my community is. I'm
only as strong as my strategies are. And I think
that motherhood is like going to the gym. And
when you stop going to the gym, what happens?
Well, you know, your body gets kind of long.
If you don't use it, you lose it. God will put
people in your motherhood to help you through
these moments. But you have to use it, you know,
and I sometimes get flack for this and sometimes
I get praise for this, but I hope that the younger
demographic that listens to your podcast really
hears me when I say this. Social media is not
your community. It is a tool to reach your community.
It can be used as a business tool, but it is
not your community. Your community is someone
who you give a hug to, have a cup of coffee with,
go to a movie with, have a conversation on the
phone with. That is your community. If I leave
y 'all with anything today, you ought to work
on building a community of people, faithful people
who will be there for you. So I've actually talked
about in previous episodes the illusion of connections,
FOMO versus JOMO, the fear of missing out versus
the joy of missing out. So I'm glad you've been
touching on these subjects. Why do you think
moms feel so alone when catastrophe hits? Because
it's so isolating. When my son was diagnosed
with cancer, I had only known one other kid with
cancer and he died. I didn't even know his mom
at the time. She's been a guest on my podcast
twice. Her name is Martin. And I'm always so
grateful for her son, Dino Jake, passed away
in October of 2014. And my son, Super G, was
diagnosed with cancer in March of 2015. And she
was very quick to reach out to me. Even in her
pain and in her grief and they were diagnosed
with the exact same childhood cancer of neuroblastoma
And she was very quick to reach out to me. She
was very quick to just let me know she was there
I didn't understand childhood cancer. I knew
kids got cancer because I saw the commercials
on the TV Oh look at st. Jude and little bald
-headed kids and everybody give money, but I
thought it was rare is not rare It is on the
rise There's a school busload of kids diagnosed
every day and we are being lied to, quite frankly,
by the medical community, by the media, by social
media, saying that childhood cancer is so rare,
it's not going to happen to your kid. Well, it's
not. And this is my tin foil hat that I put on.
This is the prepper part, right? Because it's
not rare. And I think we cannot predict if our
children will get cancer, but we can prepare
for it so that if the unthinkable does happen,
we have a better chance at fighting through it.
So let's talk about miracles. Can you share one
or two moments where you clearly saw God move
when it didn't make sense, but he showed up anyways?
Yeah, I love, love, love this question. This
is my favorite one because I've been talking
and writing a lot about miracles. I am getting
better and better at seeing the miracles closer
to the present time the miracle is happening.
if not in the present time that the miracle is
happening. Whereas before, I couldn't really
see all of the miracles just going back to childhood
cancer. Or even if I look at Hurricane Harvey,
that totally destroyed our home. Like in a minute,
a hot minute, our home was gone. And I had five
kids and I was pregnant with my sixth one and
it was just a disaster. There are so many miracles
happening in your life that sometimes it's hard
to see in the moment, but I'll tell you a really
cool one, okay? This is like my favorite one.
And this one I did understand right in the moment.
I mean, it was so overt that I was like, wow,
I can't unsee that Holy Spirit. Like that was
totally God right there. And I would have never
known it had all these circumstances and all
these integral. It was like a big web of things
that just led to this one moment. But when my
son Super G was diagnosed with cancer, I was
pregnant with my fifth child. So I went through
all the cancer treatments with him pregnant.
And then I. had birth right in the middle of
the cancer treatment. So I had an infant with
me and then I had my one -year -old, they're
15 months apart. So they're very close in age.
And anyways, when your baby's two weeks old,
you'll take them to the doctor and they'll take
a blood sample and they'll do all this testing
on them just to see like where you're at. And
I'll never forget this. We were at Texas Children's
Hospital and G was due for scans. Now these scans
are quite... intrusive and they're a two -day
process for neuroblastoma and they have to put
them under anesthesia to do it when they're little
because you have to be very very still and you
know little guys aren't really still they like
to move and wiggle. So my dad was with me who
was not a believer at that time. We're waiting
for this hour to pass that G is doing his scan
and the pediatrician calls me. And he says, Hey,
I wanted to call you personally because I got
the blood results back. And I'm like, Oh God,
what's going on? I don't want it to be cancer
again. He goes, No, no, no, I don't want you
to panic. I just wanted you to know that he has
a variant in his hemoglobin in the oxygen that's
in the red blood cell. And I thought, Oh, that's
okay. Yeah, because my oldest son had that variant
and my oldest daughter had that variant. And
then my third daughter had that variant. but
I didn't remember if my fourth son had that variant.
And I said, Dr. Patel, can you please go look
at G's records and tell me if he has the same
variant? And he goes, wow, he doesn't. He doesn't
have it at all. I said, well, what does that
mean? He goes, well, this is a genetic thing
and it's coming from me. We know it's coming
from me. And there's no scientific reason for
him not to have it, to not have this variant
in his hemoglobin. I said, well, what does that
mean? What does it mean to have this? He says,
well, if you have it, you're anemic. You're just
naturally anemic. And I said, are you telling
me that out of my five children, now six, only
one does not have this anemic variant in his
blood? And he said, yeah. And I can't explain
it. Now, here's the significance with that, Austin.
When you are going through chemo treatments,
whether you're a child or you're an adult, it
strips your body of everything good and it makes
you extremely anemic. so much so that you have
to have blood transfusions in order to get the
next Joseph chemotherapy. And the way neuroblastoma
works is that it is a very angry disease and
they can cure it. Obviously, my son's doing very
well, but if you don't stay on schedule with
these chemo cycles, it takes, I mean, you give
it an inch, it takes a mile. And had he had that
variant, he would have been anemic. He would
have had blood transfusion after blood transfusion.
The chemo cycles would have been pushed down
the road. and that disease would have taken over
his body. So God knew to arm that child against
this world and he did it on a molecular level.
That is a miracle. And it makes me think, what
is he doing for me? What is he doing for you
on a molecular level that we can't see? It is
total fluke that I even found that out about
him. I only found it out because his brother
was born and his brother came back with the variant,
a positive variant in his hemoglobin. He said,
no, you got to see this. You got to trust me.
You got to keep following me. You got to have
faith in me. I am protecting you. I'm protecting
your children. And that is the coolest, coolest
miracle. And that was the turning point for my
dad. It took him a few more months, but... He
eventually came to know Christ and he was baptized
at 72 years old. Praise God for that. It's amazing.
And I have so many stories like that. And like
I said, I'm getting better at recognizing them.
And when I do consultations with moms and they're
pouring their heart, they're scared, they're
crying, they're angry. I'm really good at seeing
and picking out the miracles and showing it to
them and the light bulbs that go off and the
joy on their face. It makes my job worth it.
Even though it's hard to hear some of these stories,
it's like, listen, God is here. And I've talked
to women who aren't believers. I've talked to
women who were believers and now they're not
because they're so angry. I've talked to women
who were never a believer and now they are. I
mean, miracles are here. I just hope your audience
hears this. And whoever is listening, I hope
it reaches them. I had a mom who was not a believer.
Her family was not a believer. Her daughter was
hit by a car and she passed away. And her daughter's
organs were donated. She was brain dead. Her
liver went into a man who was a pastor. The pastor
reached out to them and that family is now a
believer because their daughter died. That is
how powerful our God is. That is how good our
God is. And I want to tell you how powerful Satan
is too. I had a Catholic mom come on. Daughter
took fentanyl. died. She found her daughter dead
the next day. She cannot even think twice about
God. She doesn't want to believe in God. She
doesn't love God. She's so angry. That is how
powerful Satan is. So I tell moms, you have to
have a foundation of faith. You have to arm yourself.
I give out Ephesians 6 a lot to people, and it's
all about the armor of God. Because like neuroblastoma,
if you give the enemy an inch, he will take a
mile. Those are the moments we hold on to when
everything is falling apart. So Romans 5, 1 through
5 is a core verse for you. Why that passage?
What did it teach you about pain, endurance,
and hope? Friend of mine at the time sent that
to me. I was, like I said, very public with my
anger towards God when my son was hit by the
truck to the point where people were very, very
worried for me. You know, they were like, wow,
this is not Carrie. This is not, like, she's
really a faithful person. Like, this is something
we need to support her. And again, I had already
been putting these strategies and preps in place.
Without calling them preps, without calling them
strategies, I knew the importance of community.
And my community really showed up for me. And
she just felt moved to send me that verse. And
I do not necessarily find my faith through Bible
verses. or reading the Bible or Bible studies.
I find it through experience. And so she sent
that to me and I, for whatever reason that day,
I opened my Bible and I read it. And I thought,
this is what God is telling me to do. This is
a promise to me. This is a promise to all of
us that you will suffer because this world is
broken. That is a promise. And you will persevere.
You will build your endurance. There will be
hope. You will get to the light at the end of
the tunnel. You will get through it. And the
promise ultimately is he will walk with us. He
is in it with us. He has not thrown us to the
fires. He has not given us more than we can handle.
Okay. He is in it with us and he is fighting
with us. He is fighting for us. And that's what
that means. And it's kind of my mom's day prepper
motto. That's a great transition into our next
question. I don't know if that was intentional
or not You've created six moms day preps practical
and spiritual tools for moms from facing chaos
Can you walk through what they are? Sure, and
I've already talked about a few of course faith
is important If you don't have a foundation of
faith, you don't have anything. Walking on the
pediatric oncology floor and just observing the
other families, and there were 36 families on
there at all times because they only had 36 rooms,
you can tell which ones had faith and which ones
did not. And it didn't matter if it was a Jewish
faith, a Muslim faith, a Christian faith, a Hindu
faith, it didn't matter. The ones that had zero
faith, their children were sicker, the parents
were sadder. Their skin was gray. There was no
happiness. There was no smile. In their suffering,
there was no hope because they did not have faith.
And I've talked about community and how important
that is. I mean, I live in a military town. There's
a military base here and these military moms
are fluttering in and out all the time. And they
have like mom support groups on base, but I think
they need to go bigger than that. They need to
go bigger than that. At one point, I had every
single continent on this earth praying for my
cancer kid. Even Antarctica, because one of my
friends was traveling on a trip to Antarctica.
I had a person on every single continent praying.
Like, build your community. Make it a good community.
Briefly, we talk about finances. There is not
a dime you will not pay to save your child. Get
your finances in order. Awareness. Understand
what you are in with your child, whether it is
cancer, it is fentanyl, it is mental health,
it is the school system, it is the court system.
Understand the law. Understand the contracts.
Understand the language. You don't walk into
a school screaming and demanding things. You
need to walk in the school speaking the language
they can understand. And healing is a big thing.
And healing is the one that nobody wants to do.
When I do my workshops, they're like, oh, that's
hard. Oh, that hurts. Oh, I don't know. I don't
want to go there. But you have got to start to
understand what happens to you in these traumatic
events. A trauma happens to your brain. Your
brain, in layman's term, fractures. And you have
to bring that together. You have to help heal
those neurotransmitters and those neuro memory
pathways, your amygdala, your polyvagal nerve.
Like there is a whole physiological thing happening
to your body when you are under these high stress
moments that you have to be one step ahead and
heal. Otherwise you're a sinking ship and your
children are watching you. They are following
you. So those are some of the preps and the strategies
that I've put together for moms, and it's very
personalized. When I do consultations with these
moms, like you're in debt, okay, well, let's
look at our finances. What can we do? How can
I encourage you? How can we support you? What's
the plan? It's about putting a plan together.
Because a lot of the times the moms I talk to,
they're already in it. They're in the mom's day
moment. So these preps are now strategies to
surviving. So how can moms start building these
preps now even if their lives feel peaceful at
the moment? They can reach out to me at momstayprepper
.com and they need to send me an email and I
have some resources that are free to give them,
so not everything costs and I get it. I'm a mom
and things are expensive, but then one -on -one
consultation and coaching is very helpful. But
I think first and foremost, easiest thing you
can do is pray. It's free. It doesn't take a
lot of your time. Just pray learn to pray learn
how to pray learn how to ask for things specifically
your prayers need to be very specific So it's
so to the mom in the NICU or the mom Bearing
a child or the mom silently dealing with addiction
in their home What do you want to say to her
today? This is when I say fight like hell You
gotta fight like hell right now mom and you can't
stop fighting. You are not gonna go quietly in
the night You are not going to lay in the street
and die. You are going to stand up because you
are a lioness in motherhood. Ezekiel 19 to what
a lioness your mother is among the lions and
you are going to fight. How can friends, churches
and communities better support moms going through
mom's day moments? It's so easy. Just make a
meal, send a door dash like. We ain't got time
to cook food when we're trying to save our kids'
life. Are you kidding me? Like, that is the best
thing you can do. What does taking back your
motherhood mean to you? Keeping these children
on a path of salvation. What it means to other
moms, I don't know. But I know that every time
I tell a mom that, tears come down their face.
Because I don't think anyone's ever told them
that before. I don't think anyone's ever said,
fight like hell. Take your motherhood back. And
they're like, oh, I have that power? Yeah. It
has been instilled in you by the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit, justified through death.
Like, you are the power. There's a reason why
he is attacking moms. There's a reason why he
is attacking motherhood. He does not want the
next generation to grow up in salvation. My kids
are amazing kids, and they've gone through very
hard things, and they continue to go through
very hard things. And yet we are keeping Jesus
at the center of it. That's what it means to
me. That makes me tear up, Austin. You made me
cry like three times, dude. So you have an upcoming
book called Look Both Ways. What inspired it
and what do you hope moms get from reading it?
Well, I hope they just get that they're not alone.
I mean, it is a true memoir. It is about all
the Momsday moments that I've gone through and
sprinkled in with like my origin story and how
it all just comes together. I mean, I look at
my life as I'm writing this out and I'm like,
wow, God has been with me every step of the way
and the enemy has attacked me every step of the
way. And there have been times in my life that
I'm a sinner like anyone else. I'm not perfect.
I ain't Jesus. I make mistakes. I've broken all
the commandments, I suppose. I don't think I've
murdered a human, but I've murdered a couple
of cockroaches. Hey, whatever. I don't know how
far you go with your theology. Listen, it's a
hard road to travel, and I think it's an interesting
story. I have an interesting story, and I have
a powerful story, and God has gifted me with
a voice. There's this video of Steve Harvey who
comes out. He always came out and talked to his
audience after his show. I love him. And he's
saying, you know, God put it in my imagination
that I was going to be on TV. And he talks about
all the, you know, trials he had to go through
to get to where he was. I was like, you know
what? God put it in my imagination to be on stage.
I knew I was going to be on stage. I didn't know
at what capacity. I always kind of pursued acting,
but I think speaking, he gave me a voice. He
gifted me a voice. He gifted me the ability to
stand in front of thousands of people and be
totally comfortable with it. Like I shine on
stage. I shine in front of thousands of people.
Like it is so good for my soul. And that is the
gift he has given me. And he put it in my imagination.
at a very young age to be where I'm at today.
I'm just going along and God keeps opening the
doors and there will be a day, I have no doubt,
where I am on one of the largest stages, maybe
a Ted Talk, maybe one of these, I don't know,
like Tim Tebow or Dave Ramsey or whoever, where
they're just having tens of thousands of people
listen to these speakers. It will happen because
God has given me that gift. So you're also the
host of Mom's Day Bunker. What kind of conversations
are you having on that show? We're having hard
conversations on it and they're important conversations
then they're all about mom's day moments there
It's mostly other moms coming on and telling
their story, you know Every once in a while I
pop in and I do an episode, but I'm not as interesting
as other people I'm not as interesting as they're
they coming in being like, you know This happened
funerals Austin cost so much money They are so
expensive and you do not want to even think that
you're gonna bury a child But the truth is, sometimes
you do. And then when you do, you realize, I
don't have the money to bury a child. I don't
have an extra 20 grand sitting around to buy
the spot, to buy the coffin, to do the funeral.
And they're put in these really tough situations.
And I mean, it's been incredible. Because I thought
it was going to be like, you know, my best friends
and my mom listening to the podcast. And then
it launched and it's all over the world. It's
really powerful what's happening. with this podcast.
The podcast is under attack for sure and we just
keep trucking along. What does beauty from ashes
and unfiltered faith mean to you? Unfiltered
faith is a great title by the way. It is a great
title because when you are unfiltered that is
when you are the most honest and your faith is
not always sunshine and joy. It is not always
unicorns and rainbows. It is hard You are tested.
You are pushed. Your boundaries are pushed. Sometimes
your boundaries are broken through. Like when
my son was hit by a car, that boundary was obliterated.
I was really angry and that is the beauty of
faith. That is the beauty of God's love for us.
He gave us these emotions. He created us to have
all these emotions and these emotions mean something.
Anger is probably my favorite emotion because
it tells you when a boundary has been broken.
It tells you when something is wrong and you
need to pay attention. Like, why am I angry right
now? Anger is a band -aid to fear, okay? And
that fear, as we know, is a tool from the enemy.
I'm afraid, but why? What is going on? I need
to look at this. I need to examine it. I need
to be curious about it. So I love the unfiltered
faith. podcast title. That is so cool. And through
your journey with your faith, you will continue
to find more beauty in the ashes with all these,
you know, disappointments, just basic disappointments
in life. You didn't get the job you wanted. That's
really disappointing. But guess what? Two months
later, you get this other job and it's like,
wow, that was a beauty in the ashes moment. I'm
so glad God shut that door because he's opening
this door. Or maybe all the doors are closed,
but there's a window that you gotta crawl through
that's maybe a little uncomfortable, but once
you get through it, it's like, here's the rest
of my life. You know, you gotta change your mindset
and it's about perspective too, but you gotta
walk in faith and trust. And I'll tell ya. My
faith is miles deep and sometimes Austin, my
trust is inches deep. Like it's a journey with
God. It's the unfiltered faith journey with God.
Like, okay, let's look, God, I strongly believe
in half faith and I'm still having trust issues
with you. So let's work through this. Wow. What
a conversation. I just want to say a huge thank
you to Carrie Hansen, not just for showing up,
but for showing up honestly. I thoroughly enjoyed
this episode and I hope so many of you do too.
These kinds of conversations are what unfiltered
faith is all about. Real stories, raw moments,
and the reminder that even in chaos, God is indistant.
He's present and he's faithful. If something
in this episode spoke to you, please share it
with someone who needs to hear it. Lihiva rating
or a review if you haven't already. It helps
get these stories into the hands and hearts of
more people. Until next time, keep seeking those
fresh perspectives and keep having those unfiltered
conversations with someone to better understand
the world around us.