The God Who Sees: Navigating Life's Highs and Lows with Jennifer Mango

The journey through life rarely follows neat categories of "all good" or "all bad" seasons - most of us walk through both valleys and victories simultaneously. In this vulnerable and wisdom-filled conversation, author Jennifer Mango shares her personal experience navigating these complex terrains with faith and resilience.

Jennifer opens up about current victories in her life - thriving adult children and certain areas of success - while simultaneously facing valleys of her husband's job loss, business challenges, and the economic uncertainties we all face. But rather than seeing this duality as confusing or unfair, she reveals how God teaches different lessons through recurring challenges.

"What happens is we go through something, we want to check off the list that it's done, and the minute it comes back in a different form, we get mad at God," Jennifer explains. Instead, she encourages listeners to turn their eyes toward God in these recurring struggles, understanding that each time we face similar situations, He's developing new wisdom within us.

Through captivating personal stories - from a teenage experience where God's protection came through an unexpected circumstance to finding a mysterious gift hidden in their Christmas tree during financial hardship - Jennifer illustrates how God shows up in both ordinary and extraordinary ways.

Whether you're currently walking through valleys, celebrating victories, or experiencing both simultaneously, this conversation offers profound encouragement about God's presence in every season. As Jennifer beautifully puts it: "If you start looking for Him, He will show up." Share this episode with someone who needs to hear that God sees them completely - both their struggles and their joys.

Get Jennifer's Book: https://a.co/d/5DPLp11

Chapters

• 0:00 Walking Through Valleys and Victories
• 6:34 Finding God in Difficult Seasons
• 13:41 Jennifer's Journey to Faith
• 18:08 God's Protection in Unexpected Ways
• 23:02 Divine Provision and Seeing God
• 30:12 Reaching Out to Those in Pain
• 35:27 God Weeps With Us in Grief

Transcript

Gianina: 0:00

I'm so excited for today's conversation because we're diving into something that I think we all experience, walking through both valleys and victories at the same time and I couldn't think of a better person to have this conversation with than my sweet friend, Jennifer Mango. Jennifer is someone who knows firsthand what it means to trust God through the highs and lows. She's walked through deep valleys, but she's also seen God's faithfulness in incredible ways. She's an author, and her book Rescued Heart is such a powerful testimony of what God can do when we surrender our brokenness to Him. Jennifer, I'm so happy you're here. Thank you, I'm excited to be here, so let's just start here.

Kiley: 0:40

Jennifer, would you say that you're in a valley season or a victory right now? Can I say both?

Jennifer: 0:47

I mean right, I think there's definitely areas in my life right now that feel like they're victories. And I've got three kids. They're all doing well, which I think as a mom, when your kids are happy, you're happy, and so they're thriving. I have two in college, I have one living in New York living his best life, who's a recent grad a year and a half ago, and they're all thriving, and so that makes me feel like I'm in a victory season as a mama, as a business owner and maybe in my health and a couple of other things. I do feel like, oh, here we go, we've been in a valley of sorts, and so I think you can be in both.

Kiley: 1:35

Yeah, absolutely, and I think it's so important to remember that we don't just live in one or the other, because we can't experience God's goodness in some areas while still struggling in the others. So what is something you feel like God is really teaching you in this particular season?

Jennifer: 1:52

I think that, understanding that, no matter what success we achieve, no matter when we're on that mountain top, I still have to be completely dependent on the Lord for my happiness, for my stability as a recent empty nester, we're in a whole new season of what we thought we were going to walk out as empty nesters. And then my husband lost his job, my business started to tank, the market and the economy is the way that it is, and we found ourselves having to once again say Lord, we depend on you, not on man, not on a job, not on the world, but on you to provide for us and to bring us the things that truly bring joy, not just happiness.

Kiley: 2:39

Yeah, and I think one of the hardest things is when we go through life and we know that God has been faithful before, but when we face those other challenges it's like is he going to be there for us again? Have you struggled with that, wondering if he's going to pick you up or, knowing that he has in the past, that he's got you For sure?

Jennifer: 3:00

So I think that we go through situations and a lot of times we think God gets us through, he rescues us, we get through that situation and we have some victory and we're like, okay, check mark, that's done on the test of life. And really what I think happens is that, and so many people I've had conversations with like why do I keep dealing with the same thing? Because there's this recurring thing, whether it's a bent towards a sin, whether it's a behavior, whether it seems like a chronic situation, if it's chronic illness, if it's chronically having financial issues, whatever it may be. But I think that God takes us through things multiple times with a very similar situation, because he's teaching us different things with every time that we walk through something.

Jennifer: 3:47

You know we don't have the heavenly perspective that God has in His omnipotence excuse me to be able to see all things from all perspectives at one time.

Jennifer: 3:59

And so I don't know about you, but, like when I walked through, when we walked through financial loss when my kids were little my daughter's 21 now and she was two and she opened the door to a Channel 5 news guy wanting to know about our business that we had shut down, there was something different in that season that I learned in financial hardship that now if that happened I'd be like right up in his face talking to him, because there was nothing to be ashamed of or scared of or like intimidated by. But I'm walking through a season of complete dependence, knowing that it's not about me this time. And so I think you learn and God can show up if we're willing to look and to pay attention in those three times, because I think what happens is we go through something we want to check off the list that it's done, and the minute it comes back in a different form, we get mad at God, we shut down and we don't turn our eyes to Him.

Gianina: 4:50

Yeah, that is so true. I think one of the things that I've kind of been learning, just like walking into this through this grief season that I've kind of been in for the last couple years, is I always knew, you know, everyone says like grief isn't linear, Grief isn't something that is just like from point A to point B you're going to have bad days, you're going to have good days, you're going to have in between days and sometimes you're going to go back 10 steps. One thing I did not realize was going to be part of that is that it's not just that grief isn't linear, but it's layered, and I think sometimes it's like you don't even catch your breath from one situation and then it seems like something else is kind of happening in addition to that.

Gianina: 5:30

And it really just what you shared reminded me too of the Israelites, and you know, they went through the desert and they went through that season for 40 years, and a lot of times we think, well, maybe it was just a really big mountain that they had to get over, but really it wasn't.

Gianina: 5:47

It was just that they were making the same mistakes over and over again and God was showing his faithfulness and there were just different things that he had to teach them before they were ready to really get into the promised land. And so I think sometimes we are going through things and we get frustrated and it's like God is just so faithful with us that before we can enter into and I don't even want to say OK the promised land, because we really aren't going to reach that until we get to heaven, because there's always going to be something that sets us back. It's not like, ok, I have arrived and the enemy can't touch me anymore and I'm just invincible. That's not going to happen until we get to heaven. But you know, just kind of learning how to navigate those things. I think it's so beautiful that you've learned like you said.

Gianina: 6:34

Now, if that situation happened and somebody came to your door, you would know how to handle it, and what a blessing that you would know how to handle it and not like going through that and not learning a lesson for sure, but I would love to hear a little bit about how you came to know the Lord and how he's shown his faithfulness to you through that. And then also, if you're comfortable sharing just some of like, maybe, the health struggles that you're dealing with, sure.

Jennifer: 7:01

So I love what you just said, though, too, about God's faithfulness, but it's also such a beautiful picture of His love, His unfailing love for us. Right, and when you ask that about my salvation experience and really my relationship with the Lord, I am very, very blessed, and would even use the word lucky to say that I feel like most of my life. I don't really remember a time where I didn't know the Lord. I grew up in a Christian home with two parents who loved each other, parents that loved each other. Everyone was very present. I had a younger brother who was 14 months younger than me, and we were inundated in a house that woke up with praise music on and went to church every Sunday. And I know, not just going to church doesn't make you a believer, obviously, but I was always in an environment that was conducive to feeling the things of God, and so it was very natural.

Jennifer: 7:58

One day we were driving in the car. I went to a Christian school after kindergarten. I'm like what does it even mean to be saved? And I had this conversation with my mom and my dad in the car and I asked Jesus into my heart in that moment, and it was sweet, but it was also like. It was like what are we having for dinner? Okay, we're having chicken and rice.

Jennifer: 8:18

Okay, moving on, there was no like experience per se, but because I was in that environment obviously the watering and the pouring of all the people that God had in my life and the environment I grew up in there were different stages where my relationship, I came to these little points where I had to say yes and lean in to God or I could turn my head and turn away from him. And thankfully those turn away moments were relatively small. When I have conversations with other people and when I know, when I've lived as much life as I, have girls at 50 years old, that it's easier right in hindsight to see God's hand on your life and really to how much I was protected in this bubble. And so there was a rededication moment at 12. Then there was a rededication moment at 12.

Jennifer: 9:05

Then there was a like when I met my husband and it's in the book, but like we met when we were 16 years old and I had the opportunity to get to lead him to the Lord. But that was also like an Antietam moment for me where, like, if I'm going to be able to be a walking, I needed to be a walking example for someone that I cared about in my life. And then, when we got married and expecting him to be the head of the household but he had been only saved for like six or seven years and really was still so new in his relationship with the Lord and be trusting God, to say I'm going to let him serve, I'm going to let him lead, I will serve and submit. And so and that's not a word I love but it's a biblical one, and so anyway, it's just really sweet to see.

Jennifer: 9:48

Honestly, I wrote Rescued Heart from the realization of all the things that I had gone through in my life. And, despite all of the things that I had gone through in my life, god was always there and he always rescued me. And it's important, I think, when we are in that season of success and glory and everything seems like it's going well or more things are going well than are not, because it's never, like we said, perfect. When other people see us and they walk out, we're witnessing with our testimony. We have to share those valleys with them and that's why I love that you guys are doing this. But that was also what God was doing in me, and allowing me to write this book and to be so vulnerable is to show people that were seeing me have so much success in certain areas understand that it took a lot of testing and it took a lot of overcome to get to the point that I was at.

Kiley: 10:42

So I was just thinking like I feel like our stories are pretty similar. I grew up in the church as well and when you were talking, it reminded me of a conversation I had had with one of my friends, like I think it was high school or college, and we were talking about testimonies and I, and I said I kind of feel like I don't have, you know, a major testimony, because hear the word testimony and you think of people who have kind of hit their rock bottom and they've come to that moment where they've turned to Jesus. And I said I've never really had that moment. I've always just been walking with him. And he said that's probably one of the greatest testimonies, because you haven't had a bad family relationship or you haven't had struggles with addiction. Like you haven't had struggles with addiction, like you don't have to have those situations in order to be close to God.

Kiley: 11:30

Yeah, and you know, I went through something similar when I met my husband, because I was the one that that led him to the Lord as well, and so it really was. I remember having the conversation with him about being the head of the household and, like you said, when we got married he was still very new and it's you know, it's always a work in progress. Yes, yes, for sure, but yeah. So I just think it's beautiful that, even though we do go through those struggles, knowing that God is always walking with us, it really does make such a huge difference in how you handle those struggles.

Jennifer: 12:04

It really does make such a huge difference in how you handle those struggles. For sure, for sure. I think that the beauty that comes in brokenness is an equal beauty in seeing God sustain something and, like you said, that testimony of always God always being there he was never too far away. That is hope and glory for those that are coming, that are coming from brokenness, because I think the fear is for so many that I have had conversations and prayed with and ministered to, that have walked through brokenness is that there's so much fear wrapped around. I'm one decision away from being right back in that pit and so when we can walk out a life of sustained glory not perfection, but sustaining that relationship with the Lord and having the things that we've had that have continued to hold us up and away from those things like addiction or whatever else it may be, that's a light and a rescue for someone else. Honestly, that's coming from that brokenness.

Gianina: 13:10

And I think it takes a lot of the pressure off of. I think, sometimes, when people have this big testimony with the Lord, where they have like that one moment where everything changes for them, I almost feel like it could be a discouragement when the next test comes, because it's like, okay, well, I thought that God rescued me, I thought that my life's going to be better, I thought it's going to be easier, and so even hearing stories like this, I think, is so important because, although you didn't have those struggles per se, and God has just been this constant source of grace for you, it's like you still struggled, but God has just been this constant source of grace for you. It's like you still struggled, but God has been right there, and so that's such a powerful testimony to be able to share with people, because you know, once you get saved, that's not the end all be all, that's not just the end point. And so we're still going to go through things, and so knowing, okay, yes, now you're saved and you're walking with the Lord, but you're going to have to learn how to find him in these places when you're going through something.

Gianina: 14:08

And so I think one of the things that I definitely want to ask our guests, as we have people on, is like where are you finding God in the season you're in now? But just knowing your story and hearing you talk, I would love to hear some of the tests that you've gone through, if you can think of one in particular. Where is it that you found God in that moment? Did you just always know that he was there? Was it kind of in hindsight? Or how did you train yourself to seek God when you're going through different valleys?

Jennifer: 14:41

Gosh, that's a great question and there's so many things that come to mind. I think I'll preface it all to say this that I feel like and I don't want to downplay it, but I feel like sometimes with Christianity it's like putting on a pair of new eyes or putting on a pair of sunglasses right, and maybe even the opposite of sunglasses, something that when everything's dark, when you look at things through a lens of how God sees things, you'll understand and we see very clearly how he's moving in the big things but also in the little things, and where he's showing up and being able to identify it. And when you are not asleep or you're not unaware, but when your eyes are open and you're looking at things around you, if you start asking God to show you like where are you in my life, lord, right now, in this moment, so good to show up, it's like just put the glasses on. You don't have to do anything but put the glasses on and he's there and you'll see him in so many different ways. I know I share in the book. This is kind of it's funny, but I don't know it's not funny. It's funny only because I was safe not safe, but so sheltered I thought I always am. Like everyone says this about me, jen you're just like not callable, but like you always think that no one's going to do anything bad.

Jennifer: 16:02

And so we go on this trip. That's for my brother. He has a rare liver disease. He's terminal Make-A-Wish gives our family a trip to Disneyland or Disney World in Florida. We go. There's a lifeguard at the pool where we're at. He starts talking and friending up my mom, which then very quickly led to flirting with me. Of course he gets my attention. He invites my family to an event that night where we're all together. While we're there, he's whispering in my ear that he wants to take me somewhere and spend the day with me. My parents are like sure, go go to the water park with him. And my parents went like could y'all imagine sending your 17 year old daughter with a stranger for the day on a vacation trip? You'd like have had like two conversations with this person. Yeah, he was four years older. Four or five years older, I think he was 21. Anyway, long story short, he ends up taking me to his house, but we go to a water park and y'all. This is. This is where I think. This is how creative our God is and how he uses everything.

Jennifer: 17:10

I started my period at the water park on the second slide. We got and I'm not. I was like, without being graphic, it was a situation that I was not going to be able to stay at the water park, right, and so he wants to take me back to the hotel. I'm like, I mean, I want him to take me back to the hotel. He doesn't want me to be alone. He takes me to his house, which, in a way, would seem like even worse, which it could have been but because I was on my period, the advances were made, I was able to stop him and I feel like that in itself protected me in that moment, as weird and as random as it could be right.

Jennifer: 17:53

But then there's other moments where it's so concrete and you know that God's hand is in it. You know we had a Christmas where I'm a thrifter, I'm a garage seller, I love doing all that stuff anyway. But we did have a year where we were just broke as a joke and Christmas was coming with three little kids and my mom had done a few things for my kids. But when you can't do something for them, it's just the worst. Yeah, regardless of what the world would tell you and all of that about materialism. But God had just given me a lot of favor with getting little things which I totally felt like was God in the first place at garage sales and different things.

Jennifer: 18:30

And then we get what I think is done, and I'm grabbing all the empty boxes under the tree and there's this card that's stuck up in the bottom of our Christmas tree and it's got stickers on it like a ransom note. It says don't open it till December 25th. And I'm like what is this? I asked my husband. I asked Phil, what like did you do this? He's like it's not for me, who did it? And it was, I think, at the time. I think it was like a thousand dollars cash under our Christmas tree on Christmas day.

Jennifer: 19:02

And I just remember sitting there and I start crying and the kids are all like coming up, like why is mommy crying?

Jennifer: 19:07

Like just so clearly seeing God meet. Not, I mean, it was a need, but it was also a desire, like to be able to provide. And so I think he shows up in those big, concrete ways for us sometimes to make a mark in it, like I call those, like they're little consecration moments in your life where you know that, no matter what you go through, no matter what it looks like, no matter what it feels like that, no matter what you go through, no matter what it looks like, no matter what it feels like that, when you put your trust in him, he will show up. He will show up. And then those situations that we put ourselves in a lot of times out of just unawareness or stupidity or whatever, when we say that God's our father, he truly is that shepherd watching out for every sheep, and that situation that I was in in high school, that God will use the most unlikely thing but he'll still show up. So always there.

Gianina: 20:06

Yeah, I love what you said. That reminds me of like when it talks about you know, god is our father. Like, if we, as parents, desire to give good gifts to our kids, even being evil, how much more our father in heaven desires to give us good gifts. And I love what you said about it's not just filling our needs but filling our desires, and I think sometimes, especially as women, we feel selfish for having desires. Sometimes, especially as women, we feel selfish for having desires, especially something that could seem so fleeting, like something monetary or materialistic, and I just love that.

Gianina: 20:41

It's like God just smiled down on you and it's like I got you, even if it's something that the world thinks is silly or that you think is silly. I see you. We're actually reading in Genesis right now in our women's Bible study in small groups and we were talking about Hagar this past week and that's just like, really, something God has been emphasizing is the God who sees. And see all these moments where God just sees us. He saw you, he saw your heart, he knew that your heart was for your children and your heart was forgiving. I just think that's so beautiful. Like God, god's like. I see you, I see that desire and that need and want, and so that's just really beautiful. Thank you, it is.

Kiley: 21:26

Well, and even going back to the situation when you were a teenager, you know somebody at that age could have been like oh my gosh, this just totally ruined my day. And then you had the hindsight to think well, thank you, lord. Yes.

Jennifer: 21:40

Well, it might have also been that Jerry Springer was on the TV when I was getting ready. I was waiting, like my parents had left and my dad had left the TV on, and then Jerry Springer came on and I was like, oh my Again, I remind you, I was very sheltered up until about that season. So, oh my goodness, we have a phrase around our house too, that is with my kids. I use this all the time and I learned this from my second grade teacher, charlotte Jamison. She just wrote her own book. She's an amazing woman of God, but she shared with me years ago and I use it and I still think it's so true and such a great reminder Lots of people say it, but that when we experience rejection, right in any form or fashion whether it's a plan that gets messed up or your day gets ruined or someone rejects you, just full out that it's usually God's protection.

Kiley: 22:33

Yes.

Jennifer: 22:34

Like 99.9% of the time, it's God protecting you from something.

Gianina: 22:40

And that's so hard because we want to be mad.

Kiley: 22:43

Always Well, you want to be mad and you want what you want and you can't understand why it hasn't happened for you. And then, over time, most of the time, you realize okay, I get it now Exactly, yeah, for sure. So if someone is listening right now and they're in a deep valley, feeling like they've missed their moment with God, kind of what was popping up in my mind when you were talking was thinking of people who maybe feel like they've never experienced that goodness of God, like he's never shown up for me. I've never had that type of blessing. What would you say to encourage them?

Jennifer: 23:26

Well, if I could give them a hug through the microphone I would. The microphone I would, because I think that the thing that we've one of the things that we've been talking about already, about just being seen that God does see you and he sees it all. He sees the good, he sees the bad, he sees the ugly, but he doesn't look at it and use it against us. He just sees us for who we are and he's willing and ready to wrap His arms around you the minute you say Jesus, the minute you say God, the minute you say I give up, the minute you say help me. There is a movie out that came out about two years ago called After Death. You can find it on Netflix. It's also on Hulu and Amazon. You do have to pay for it. Hopefully it will be free soon, but it is such a beautiful, beautiful picture of understanding. It's done by a Christian movie house but it is scientific in nature and they looked at a sampling of people across socioeconomics and status across religions across the world, socioeconomics and status across religions across the world geographic locations, and they just record their interpretation of near-death and after-death situations where people have gone through a near-death experience and then they've come back and they just take, very scientifically, the objective information of what they experienced. And you guys not surprising to us, but probably surprising to the world they're all there's this recipe or order that things happen and I won't give away. I mean, we know how the story ends right. Heaven is real as well as hell is real. But there's an instance where a gentleman, a young man in his 20s, has attempted to commit suicide. He comes out of his body, he sees himself OD'd in the hospital, in the ER, and he starts falling immediately and has this, like just everyone that went to hell or experienced something about darkness, feels this like surge of going down and he has the thought, the thought, urge of going down. And he has the thought, the thought. I remember going to vacation Bible school with Joe when I was eight or nine years old and they talked about Jesus and he said, the minute he had that thought, he felt love, he felt warmth, he felt arms around him and he started ascending up. Wow, and if God shows up for somebody in that instance where they've turned away from themselves everything in the world and they have the thought of Jesus, and he's there, he's there. He's there for you right now, wherever you are, you can't do enough wrong, bad, whatever damage, destruction you have faced or felt. There's not enough that you can do that will separate you from the love of God. If you want it, it's yours, and so I do tend to have a magnet of sorts for people that have walked through those kinds of that are in those valleys, and I think that what is so cool about God is that I tell them.

Jennifer: 26:38

What I've already talked about just a little bit already is that if you start looking for Him, he will show up, and I don't mean like a pile of money falling from the sky and suddenly it's not hard to do drugs anymore. Suddenly, you don't wanna pick up the alcohol. Suddenly, you're not gonna be hit, pick up the alcohol. Suddenly, you're not going to be hit. There will be things, though, that you will see that God will say I opened this opportunity for you. The bar's closed, you're not supposed to be there. Maybe let's pause and say God, help me right now, in this moment. Maybe the door for a job that you didn't want opens and you think you don't want it. Maybe you're supposed to go there because God knows better than we do, and it's just being obedient when you have those feelings, in those moments, to just take a step and to invite God in.

Jennifer: 27:24

And that's why, with my book, I felt so strongly that, going through every rescue that I went through personally, now I didn't go through a loss of a baby. I haven't gone through a divorce. Have I gone through some grief and losing a loved one? Yes. Have I gone through financial loss? Yes. Have I gone through health struggles? Yes. So I speak to each of those things that I've walked through with an anchor of truth that the Bible says.

Jennifer: 27:46

And what God is so cool about doing is that he can't go back on His promises. In the Bible, in the Old Testament, there was a time where God started to break a promise and Moses reminded him and said God, you promised your people, and he's like you're right, you're right, I'm not going to go back on my promise. He will not go back on his promise. So if you know what the Bible says, it's armor, it gives you the power, and so you can still be doing all the stuff, all the bad stuff, but if you know one thing about God, you hold on to that and I promise you'll start stopping some of that other stuff and you'll start doing more of the God stuff, and it's just one step at a time. It's not an overnight change. But when you know that you're loved and that you're seen, that's where the transformation can start and you'll see God there, and so I have prayers in this book.

Jennifer: 28:40

You don't even have to know how to pray, you can just say Jesus, help me. But if you have a specific situation, the Lord really prompted me with my book to give people the words because I think sometimes when we're scared or we're mad or any of those emotions that can get in the way, they can block us from speaking positive things over our lives out loud. So hopefully that's a help to people but, it's all good news. It's all good news.

Gianina: 29:09

And I think one of the really cool things about that is like God is not trying to be mysterious, he's not trying to hold himself back from us. And so when we just reach out and just say, god, show me where you are in this situation, yeah, show me where you are in my life. I want to know you, I want to see you he will, like he will show up. He's not, he's not saying Jennifer, I just want you to chase me a little bit just just to see if you can catch me. And then I'm just going to tease you and not show you my goodness and not reveal myself to you. And I remember kind of going through a season, especially when I really rededicated my life to God, where I wanted to know, like, what's my purpose, what does God want for my life, where am I supposed to go, what am I supposed to be doing? And just striving in that. And I just remember the Lord saying Gianina, I want you to fulfill your purpose more than you want to.

Gianina: 30:07

I want you to reach these people more than you want to reach them. I have a purpose for you and so you just have to rest in that and trust in that and just ask me. And God wants to reveal himself to us more than we want, than we have that desire. He wants to be with us more than we want to be with him. That's just like really beautiful.

Gianina: 30:28

And even what you shared about what happens in those moments after death in people's lives, and I had kind of a similar just vision that God has given me, where people were passing and moving on to that next journey in the afterlife, and God just showed me people that we truly did not think would be in heaven and how he just was wrapping his arms around them. And there was one Sunday I can't remember even the worship song that was being sung and God just showed me this vision of like this is what it's like in heaven right now. And he showed me this vision of just you know all these Christians and believers and people who are just kind of like doing what we imagine people would do in heaven and just living their best life and communing with each other, but also worshiping and just all the things. But then I saw people who just could not leave the feet of Jesus just attached to him, and he just showed me how the people who were attached to his feet are the people who they never thought they were going to get there and they knew what God rescued them from and what Jesus rescued them from.

Gianina: 31:39

I just picture those people, like in those last moments where they're like what if Jesus is real? Or just calling on the name of Jesus and they just barely make it in. But they make it in and they're just resting at his feet and so that's just. That's really really beautiful for sure. We don't have to strive in it, we just have to rest in who he is, because he's already done it, we don't have to do anything.

Kiley: 32:04

So good. I think one thing that's important for people to know and understand is that he created us to be in a relationship with him, and all we need to do is just want him back, and it doesn't matter you know what you've done or where you've come from. He is, he is ready when you are and I swear, janina, I feel like I'm going to cry, like every single episode we do. It's just, it's so powerful to think about.

Jennifer: 32:32

It really is beautiful I saw this, spoke to me recently, especially with grief and yes, thank you, kylie, because now I probably will cry as well but that this woman was sharing her experience of losing a baby, a stillborn, and how people were questioning the unbelievable peace that they were experiencing as a family while still processing an unimaginable loss. And she was like I felt like I was enveloped in this blanket of just protection and love and knowing that God's hand was in all of it and that he saw me and she's like. I felt like I was doing so well that I got nervous. It's going to come back five years from now or 10 years from now and I'm going to have a complete breakdown. And so she put herself into grief, recovery and the first week that she went, while they were worshiping, before they even started to teach the class, she had a vision. The Lord said I want you to see what I was doing in that day in that room. And she was like I didn't want to go back to that place to see it. I wanted to live in this place in my mind, where it was already done and the baby was in heaven with God and it was fine, even though she was experiencing pain on earth and he's like I want you to see where I was in that moment with you.

Jennifer: 33:49

And she saw the hospital room and she's holding their baby, who was gone.

Jennifer: 33:55

The body, everyone's upset, weeping, the family's weeping, the nurses are there, they're upset, invisibly upset, and she looks over and God is literally there holding her baby and she's alive and she's giggling Wow.

Jennifer: 34:11

But God was crying and weeping and he was weeping for his daughter who was in the bed holding the lifeless child, and he was telling her I broke when you broke, and that's how great his love is for every person that's experiencing.

Jennifer: 34:33

Maybe listening to this. That is hurting in a way, where it's not even about what you've done, but what's been done to you, and where you feel so much loss and pain and you think that God doesn't see it. He's not just there to pick you up, but he's there to cry with you and to grieve with you. Pick you up, but he's there to cry with you and to grieve with you and I just I love that picture because we are not. No matter what we do, while we're on this side of heaven, we're going to continue to hurt, we're going to continue to have challenges, we're going to continue to have valleys and things that are hard, that we have to walk through, that are heavy, that want to take our breath away. And yet he will not leave our side and he carries the weight of what we carry with us and for us.

Gianina: 35:25

That's so good. Well, now that we're all crying, yeah, I really definitely want to thank you for just being so open today. Just, I love the wisdom that you have, and so we're all kind of different ages. I'm in my late 30s. Kylie, you just turned 40. Is that right? Oh, god bless you.

Kiley: 35:47

No, I'm about to be 43. Bless you. No, I'm about to be 43. Yeah.

Gianina: 35:53

We have our 30s, 40s and 50s.

Jennifer: 35:57

I am going to be 51 in 14 days.

Gianina: 36:01

Wow.

Jennifer: 36:02

And, as my kids remind me, you're going into your 52nd year.

Gianina: 36:07

They always try to make me older.

Gianina: 36:07

I definitely just love all of the wisdom, and even me, as you know, 38, I don't consider myself a baby or young or anything, but it's stuff that I can learn as well and things that I can gain from, and I don't necessarily think that has to just do with age, but the experience that you have in the wisdom, I definitely value that and I think that it's something that our listeners can really.

Gianina: 36:31

I think that it's something that our listeners can really really learn from as well, and I hope that their ears are open to it. And I just you mentioned the prayers that you have in your book and you don't necessarily have to use something from that. But if you could just pray for our listeners and specifically, I think I feel I feel led. What I'm kind of feeling right now is, even as somebody is listening to this, they're going well, god's protection has been in your life and you've seen God in these different areas, but I have been betrayed, I have been used, I have been hurt and I don't see where God was in those places. If you can specifically pray for that person, that's who I feel like listener-wise, will really benefit from that.

Jennifer: 37:19

Of course, all right. Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us this opportunity and this moment to come before you. And to lay it all down, we just lay it all down, I thank you, god. And to lay it all down, we just lay it all down. I thank you, god, that you are a God who sees it all, you know all and you're ever present, meaning that you're always there. And I can only imagine. I know there's times when I felt like you were far away, but I knew that you weren't. I just felt it in my emotions. But I also know that there are people walking through right now.

Jennifer: 37:49

There may be people listening right now that truly have never been able to recognize or see you in the hurt and in the pain and in the brokenness that they're walking in, god, and I, just I lift that person up to you. I lift those people up to you right now, their broken hearts. God, would you be so sweet and could we be so trusting, even in our brokenness, even in their brokenness and in their hurt, right now, to lift up that broken thing to you, to lift up every pain, to know that you can hold it all and that, if they will be willing to give it to you, god, that you would take it and start giving them a new perspective of your hand in their life, more than anything for today, but also for tomorrow and, most importantly, over time, god, that they would be able to even look back and that you would illuminate something, some situation, some person that you brought in their life, some experience that seemed random and didn't make sense, some phone calls, some letter that they received in the mail, some ad they saw on TV, something, god, to show that you were there even in all of that pain. God, I thank you that you can heal only the things that you can only heal, god. There are things that we can't heal, there are things that doctors can't heal, but you can do it, god. So I lift them up to you today.

Jennifer: 39:12

I ask for a miracle in their life. I ask for them to feel loved. I ask for you to let them know, be known and be seen, and to ask them to be brave enough to trust the people that you put in their life and to trust you that you'll carry all of their todays, that you've forecasted and planned all of their tomorrows, and that you're strong enough and big enough to heal all of their yesterdays, god. We thank you, god, so much for being who you are In Jesus' name amen.

Kiley: 39:49

Well, jennifer, thank you so so much For everyone listening. Just remember that God is not finished with your story. Whether you're in a valley or a victory, or both, he is still working. He is always working. Thank you so much for joining us today. Please don't forget to share this episode with a friend that you think may need encouragement. Also, we're going to be sharing Jennifer's book Rescued Heart in the show notes of this episode, so be sure to check that out as well. We look forward to seeing you next time as we share more stories from the valleys and the victories.