Walk Through Podcast
The Walk Through Podcast shares authentic stories of navigating life’s valleys & victories, highlighting how we find God in the midst of every season of life. Co-hosted by Gianina and Kiley, each episode offers hope and inspirations through real, raw & faith-filled conversations.
Walk Through Podcast
When God's Answer Isn't What You Prayed For: Maggie's Journey Through Divorce and Disability
What happens when the life you carefully built crumbles beneath your feet? When Maggie Rouse discovered her husband's affair—and learned she was pregnant with their third child the very next day—her world shattered. Relocating across the country as a single mother with two young daughters was just the beginning. At 32 weeks pregnant, doctors diagnosed her unborn son with spina bifida, launching Maggie into a dizzying cycle of surgeries, hospital stays, and medical emergencies while simultaneously navigating divorce proceedings.
In this raw and deeply moving conversation, Maggie takes us into the darkest moments of her journey—the paralyzing anxiety, the desperate prayers, the feeling of falling endlessly with no one to catch her. "Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop," she remembers crying out, grasping for any sense of control in a situation spiraling beyond her reach.
Yet within this darkness, something remarkable happened. As Maggie's desperation grew, so did her ability to recognize God's presence in what she calls "tiny miracles"—the journal that appeared precisely when she needed one, neighbors mowing her lawn without being asked, unexpected provision at critical moments. "When we actually start looking for God," Maggie reflects, "we actually start seeing Him."
The most profound revelation came through a therapist who helped Maggie understand that sometimes the highest form of love is letting go. While praying daily for God to restore her marriage, she eventually recognized that the true miracle wasn't happening in her circumstances but within her heart. "God won't always change our situations," she shares, "but He's always willing to change us in our situations."
Eight years after that devastating discovery, Maggie's testimony offers hope to anyone walking through their own valley. Whether you're facing betrayal, health crises, or seemingly insurmountable challenges, her story reminds us that healing is possible when we choose it daily. The sun will shine again, beauty will return, and one day you'll look back grateful for how God carried you through your darkest hours.
Listen in and discover that even when your prayers aren't answered the way you expected, God is still working miracles you can't yet see.
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Welcome back to the walkthrough podcast, where we sit with real people walking through real valleys and discover the beauty of finding God in the midst of it all. Today, we are honored to be joined by my good friend, Maggie Rouse, a strong, faith-filled mother who has walked through deep valleys of betrayal, divorce and the challenges of raising a medically involved child on her own. Her story is raw, honest and full of grace. Maggie opens up about the doubts, the daily struggles and how God is reshaping her faith and trust in this season. Whether you're navigating your own storm or standing beside someone who is, this conversation will remind you that even in the unknown, there's presence. So let's dive in.
Gianina:Maggie, how are you doing? I'm fabulous. How are you Good? Good, I love that. This morning, when we were talking about prepping for this episode, you were like I just had my daughter's birthday. It's been kind of a crazy week. I've been doing this, this and this and I'm like this is perfect. This is like real life, real motherhood, like you can't get more raw than that. So I love that. But I would love if you could just share a little bit about yourself and just your journey with how you found God or how he found you and what that's looked like in your life.
Maggie:Yeah, so I was raised in a Christian home. I was saved when I was a little girl and from a young age I remember just wanting to do right, make people happy. I wanted to be a wife and a mom and serve the Lord and I had even come to a place where I felt like the Lord was calling me into ministry and I went to a Bible college and studied music education and met my husband there and we got married and started serving the Lord in youth ministry. We served in youth ministry for a few years. I was teaching at a local Christian school and in 2012, we made a decision to pack up our house and move from North Carolina all the way to the state of Utah. We were going to help our friends start a church there and church plant and be a light there. And it's just really thick here in the Bible Belt and the further you move up west, up north, there's a greater need for the gospel presented in the Bible, and so we moved out there. And my oldest daughter, who just turned 12 yesterday, she was born there. She actually was my first medical baby. She almost died when she was born. She had severe meconium aspiration and was on a ventilator for a week, came home on oxygen and just kind of had a rough start with her birth then as being a first-time mom, and so she was born there. My second daughter was also born in Utah.
Maggie:We had been living in Utah for about five years and just celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary and the next day just kind of a huge. It's one of those moments where you didn't see it coming. But looking back you saw it coming. It's almost as if the Lord had been speaking to me all along, but I was ignoring His voice and the warning signs. I just blindsided and found out that my husband had an affair. The very next day I found out I was pregnant with my son, just surprised baby. My second daughter was only 10 months old at the time and so just unexpected, that just kind of left me in the darkest moments of my life. I remember just not even eating, not having a desire to eat. I remember losing 10 pounds the first week post-discovery of everything, just in a whirlwind. My mom, she flew out to be there to support me, and Maggie then is definitely not the Maggie that exists today.
Maggie:A lot of healing, a lot of boundaries and all the things, but in my current state, then I was a very, very desperate person and I remember this feeling within the first few days of just more things coming out more deception, more lies, feeling like I was grasping at straws. And I can probably take you to the exact spot in my garage in Utah, where I was in the garage on the steps that led up to the house and to the garage, and I remember being on the phone with my pastor at the time and I just I could close my eyes and I felt like I was falling. I felt like I was falling into this black hole and nobody could catch me, nobody could save me, and all I could say, over and over weeping on the phone with him, was make it stop, make it stop, make it stop. And I think we've all had some kind of moment like that where we have felt so out of control and so desperate for help, for anyone or anybody or anything, just to intervene and drastically change our situation. I was not in a place of trying to stabilize myself or get help for myself, because in my mind I would be okay if my marriage was okay and I was trying to get us into counseling, trying to get help and also just wanting to move back home. Let's move back to North Carolina, let's get some help.
Maggie:I thought, oh my gosh, this baby, this unexpected, surprise baby, is going to save our marriage. And, as many of us know, babies are only sanctifiers. Marriage and children are sanctifying parts of our lives and they only reveal what is kind of already there. And if you're not in a good place, a baby's not going to save your marriage. You know, with an unwilling partner and so. But in my mind I was like, well, maybe this baby will save our marriage. And I tried to stay and fight for our marriage. I tried to get him to move back with us to North Carolina and things weren't just. They just weren't going the way that I wanted them to. I was still pretty resolved to move, with or without him. I knew I needed to come back home, I knew I needed to be in North Carolina, and so my mom was there. After about like eight weeks, we sold the house that we were living in. My brothers flew out, a few of my brothers flew out and they were going to drive my moving truck back to North Carolina with all my stuff in it and my husband was going to stay there and in my mind I believed I was saving my marriage. Like I just knew this is going to save my marriage and we've got to get away from here. You know, begged him to come with us and it was hard away from here. You know, begging to come with us and it was hard.
Maggie:I think I've dealt with anxiety my whole life and just never realized it. But when I realized what it was in my life was probably from there on out. It's like I became aware of what it looked and felt like. And I remember when I was still there I got so bad off with the anxiety that I checked myself into an emergency room. I was desperate for some medication. Hey, give me some Xanax, you know, because I felt like I could not function with the anxiety going on, with the current situation and everything coming out and my marriage falling apart. And I'll never forget I couldn't even cry, like I checked myself in. My mom was there with me. I had given my babies to my neighbor to watch so I could go to the hospital and I felt so I couldn't cry. It was just like a paralyzing state, but I felt awful and I sat there and they're like we can't give you anything. You're pregnant, sat there and they're like you know, we can't give you anything.
Maggie:You're pregnant and that was hard to deal with because I felt tortured being awake and I just wanted to sleep. But when bedtime would come I couldn't sleep because your mind is racing and you're thinking about all the things that have happened or could have happened and it's like torture to go to bed at nighttime and not be able to sleep. But yet I wanted to sleep so badly and I wanted to not be gripped with anxiety and it was just a really hard time. And so when I walked through my house that morning that we were going to begin our drive back, my mom was going to drive with me in my car and my girls, my brothers, were taking the moving truck. And I remember walking through my house and making those final goodbyes, like just in the home, like saying goodbye to the memories and thinking about all that had transpired there and just feeling overcome with more anxiety and just emotion and crying and just it was just very surreal. It was like a nightmare. But I was awake and walking through my home and we hadn't even been in that home very long. We had bought this really big dream house in a beautiful suburb, wonderful neighborhood, great people, and it all just came crashing down. But when I drove out of the valley that day, as I was leaving the valley, there was a double rainbow in the sky, and in that moment, even though I was still clinging to oh, god saved my marriage. I remember thinking is a God of his promises and he always keeps his promises. So it takes us like four or five days to get back to North Carolina, and at the time the home that I was going to be moving into and renting was not available for another month, and so I had to have my stuff put in storage and I lived with my cousin for about a month before being able to move into my home. And at the time I was able to relocate and not worry about finances because of I'm in network marketing and I was able to work from my phone, and so it was such a huge blessing to be going through such a hard time of grief and transition and to not have to worry too too much about finances. But those following days were really dark days.
Maggie:I remember putting my oldest daughter into like a preschool program so she could have some sense of normalcy, and then my second daughter. She was still a baby and in all of this. I was just really behind on establishing maternal care because I was eight weeks along in my pregnancy when I moved. It was probably towards. We moved in July. So June, you know, big explosion. End of July, we relocate to North Carolina.
Maggie:End of July, we relocate to North Carolina and it wasn't until close to Thanksgiving time that I got into a doctor's office and got established with care and they were doing the anatomy scan and my ex-husband which he was still my husband at the time was visiting North Carolina for the holidays at Thanksgiving and so he actually went with me to the appointment. So he's actually there for the next big surprise, and that was the anatomy scan came back abnormal. And I remember sitting there and he's in the room with me and I'm not even focused on myself or my baby, I'm focused on hey, lord, do a miracle. In my husband's heart, you know, wake him up. And just clinging every day waking up and clinging to the miracle that I believe that God would do. And so we're sitting there in the room and I'm thinking to myself the doctor's taken a really long time to come in and I kind of just had this feeling in the pit of my stomach. And the doctor came in and he feeling in the pit of my stomach. And the doctor came in and he pulls out the ultrasound and he starts talking and he said, well, we're seeing some things. And he talks about the small head, the club feet, and that they were throwing out possibilities of diagnosis that were much more severe than what it ended up being. But they didn't have any definitive answers for me that day and they were like come back in four weeks. So I've got to go the next four weeks over the holidays, until Christmas time when I go back and have a friend with me.
Maggie:That time I go back and my husband at the time was still living in Utah and I go back with her and they do another scan and this time they pick up on something else new and they say, well, there's a lesion on his spine. And they kind of got a little bit excited and I didn't understand why, you know. But they said, well, this can be fixed. And then they paused and they said, well, this can't be fixed, but this is a better diagnosis than what we thought this originally was. Yeah, which the first ideas they were having would come with, like serious, serious disabilities, not only physical but also mental and more involved care. But they said he has spina bifida and so that was his initial diagnosis.
Maggie:And by the time I got my initial diagnosis for my son I was like 32 weeks along. So I've got eight weeks left before this baby is supposed to be born. This baby is supposed to be born and the next four weeks that followed was picking out what kind of specialized children's hospital I want to see specialists at and have him at. And they switched me from a regular OBGYN to specialized maternity care and with maternal fetal medicine and it was just kind of this huge whirlwind with lots of specialists the spina bifida specialist, the neurosurgeon, the orthopedic, the urologist, just all kinds of meetings and appointments and just so much.
Maggie:And when I had already found out that he was a boy before the diagnosis, because I had gone to one of those like ultrasound places where you do a gender reveal but they can't give you any feedback on the anatomy.
Maggie:So I already knew he was a boy and I was thinking about naming him Ridge, because my mother's maiden name is Etheridge and my friend has suggested you should take Ridge from.
Maggie:Etheridge is Etheridge and my friend has suggested you should take Ridge from Etheridge and I'll never forget going to the hospital that first appointment and we crossed a intersection and it said Ridge Road and I was like, yep, okay, lord, that's confirmation and that's what we decided to name him. He was scheduled to be born February 12th. I got up there and got my IV in we were going to do a C-section. And they come to my room and they're like we can't do your surgery today, there's no NICU beds, and so I had to turn right back around and come back the next morning to have the C-section and he was born and still going through the separation process, my husband had filed for divorce like three months after I had left Utah, so the divorce process was already rolling and he was born and honestly, there's honestly not enough time to get into all the medical things that followed for him. There were times when he would live in the hospital. We would be back and forth to the hospital, we would be there for months on end.
Maggie:One stretch was about two months, with us getting in and out for a little bit. He was three months old and I remember I stopped counting all of his surgeries and he had had 12. I stopped counting at 12 surgeries when he was three months old and honestly, I look back and I think about observing myself in those moments and if I were observing another human being walking through divorce and a medical diagnosis for their child and all the medical trauma that has gone wrong with that, and I don't have any answers for how I made it through that, other than the Lord, because it was the darkest time of my life, having to show up for my children, be a mother to them and also take care of my son. While I'm going through divorce and just praying every day that my husband wakes up and you know, for the Lord to restore our marriage. Through the process, through all the medical trauma, through all the surgeries, the hospitalizations, the appointments, the therapies, I was like pushing the divorce out. I was doing all I could do to like delay the process because I I thought God needed me to give him more time to do that miracle that you know I thought he should be doing. You know, knock, knock, god. Here's some more time for you, and again not in a healthy state, still in my people-pleasing ways, not practicing boundaries, not practicing self-respect, just very much wanting to be chosen and wanting to be loved, no matter the cost, no matter the detriment to my emotional, mental or spiritual well-being.
Maggie:I finally got to a place where we were getting close to two years of separation, where, a few months before that, I just finally started going to therapy. And we were in the middle of mediation and started going to therapy and this woman said something that no one else could say to me. I would not have listened to anybody else Because, remember, I was grasping at straws. I was looking for anyone, anybody, any family member, any close friend, any spiritual leader that could talk some sense into him, begging for help, begging for someone to intervene in him, begging for help, begging for someone to intervene. I was, you know, working myself to death, trying to control the situation, to make it work, and people would say to me you need to focus on the kids, maggie. And I would think what are you talking about? Of course I'm focused on my kids. Of course I'm focused on myself and the kids. I literally had no clue what that really looked like. Now I do.
Maggie:But I remember I started going to therapy and I was sitting there and you know positive me and I was like I'm still praying for my marriage and for God to restore. And I'll never forget she looked at me and she said, maggie, you don't have a marriage. And that was probably the hardest thing I ever had to swallow was hearing her say that. She said you can pray for him all you want and you can pray for God to work on him, but you need to stop praying for your marriage. And I'm sure everybody will have opinions one way or the other, because I've learned when you go through divorce, people think they know what you should be doing and what you should be praying. That's another story for another day. But divorce feels like death. I physically felt like I was dying. Physically felt like I was being torn into. The covenant was being torn into. I could feel it emotionally, mentally, spiritually, physically.
Maggie:I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy and when I would go into my prayer closet after she told me that she said you need to stop praying for your marriage. I remember I would pray for him and I would feel my flesh just want so desperately to pray for our marriage, but I wouldn't. I chose to stop doing that because the Lord was showing me that letting go is unconditional love and as a human, I don't think there's any higher form of love that I could give someone than to release them. When we let go of what we want the outcome to be for ourselves and we release them to the father because, you know, he's God's child too. God loves Him just the way he loves me, and as I am His child, as my ex-husband is His child, he can love us equally.
Maggie:You know, just like with our own children, and we see our children like squabbling. You know we feel squabbling. Sometimes we intervene and we go. You know, just like with our own children, and we see our children like squabbling. You know we feel squabbling. Sometimes we intervene and we go. You know what. I love you both, but I'm not going to let you hurt your sister. I'm not going to let you hurt your brother and for me, I can see that in the spirit where the Lord will remove his children who are hurting and who are being hurt over and over and that's enough. You cannot hurt my child anymore. I love you both, but you cannot hurt my child anymore. I don't know if I would have ever left that situation if he hadn't have left me, like the abandonment.
Maggie:To me, the divorce was worse than the affair, because that was like the ultimate betrayal I felt like. Now, looking back, I see how the Lord released me, the way he releases children from Egypt, and he got them out of there. But when we're in it and all we can see is what we want to see, it's like well, god, why aren't you answering this prayer the way I'm asking you to? Am I not having enough faith? Am I not being obedient? Is there something I'm overlooking? You know, and I was grasping at what I had control over because I wanted it. And you know, subconsciously, in one way or another, we want it to be our fault, because then we can go and fix it, because if I can take responsibility for this, then I can go fix it, I can clean this up and it'll be fine. But we cannot control the free will of another person.
Gianina:Yeah, absolutely, and I think what is you're such a great example of is don't ever judge somebody.
Gianina:Everybody is walking through something or has gone through something.
Gianina:Like you can't look at somebody's highlight reel or you can't look at somebody's success that they're having or what, where they're at now, and compare your life to that, because you never know what it took them to get where they're at. Because I mean, honestly, when I look at you see so much strength and so much wisdom and just your love for your kids and how wise you are with, like, mental health things. And I didn't know a lot of this part of your story. Of course I knew bits and pieces of it, but it's just a good reminder for me and for everyone just to realize like you can think you know somebody on the surface, but really keep your judgments to a minimum, because you truthfully just don't know what people have gone through. And don't compare your life, because you know I can look at you and say, gosh, maggie looks like she has it all together and she's juggling everything so well and it's like I don't know the trenches that you walked through to get to where you're at now.
Kiley:And I think your story is a good reminder to people. When you are praying for something to happen, god either says yes or he says I have other plans. And so he did answer your prayers. It just wasn't in the way that you were anticipating, and it kind of reminded me of one of the other episodes that we did, where we talked about how rejection is sometimes God's protection and I don't know, maybe he was protecting you from something else to have like. Maybe this was that natural course that needed to be taken in order to protect you from something else you know later on down the road. I don't know if you can see that or if you can see it now in hindsight, but there's always a reason for that and I think that he's gracious enough to show himself in those moments and maybe him sending you to that therapist was what you needed, yeah.
Maggie:I agree. I think my biggest lesson that I started to see when I started choosing to heal and work on the things that only I had control over, was I prayed for a miracle daily. Every day I would wake up and I would say is today the day, lord, that you're going to wake him up? And when I began to heal, I saw that he did do a miracle, but it was in my heart. He did a miracle in my heart. God won't always change our situations, because there are people that have free will, but he's always willing to change us in our situations. And I'm even still learning that this summer will be eight years since everything imploded, and in a different situation, I'm still remembering and kind of dragging my feet, stomping my feet, throwing a little tip for tantrum, that God is still doing something, even if it's not the way I want it to be.
Gianina:Yeah, yeah.
Gianina:One of the verses, as you were talking, that God brought to mind was in Joel 2, where he says promises, I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten.
Gianina:And I just hear that over your life, like all of the years that were stolen from you, whether in your marriage or after your marriage, or the trauma like in those two years, especially following your marriage, like I truly feel like God is saying I am not done yet.
Gianina:I'm going to repay you for the years that were stolen, and even the double rainbow that you saw as soon as you said that it's like a double portion, like he's not just going to restore the things that were taken from you, but you're going to get a double portion back. And so I just I want to encourage you with that, yeah, because and even when you said like he did do a miracle and he did a miracle, in my heart, like absolutely, but I also feel like he's just not done, like there's still another miracle, there's still more miracles that he's going to do, and every tear that you cried during that time and every prayer that you prayed, even if you prayed not according to his will, in that moment, like none of those are wasted. Not a single prayer or tear is wasted.
Maggie:I receive that. Thank you so much, so good.
Gianina:So, maggie, going through all of that situation, I know that now you see it differently than you did then, but do you feel like there were ways that God showed up in that season that you see it differently now? Can you kind of compare where was God in that season where you thought he was and where do you see now that he was throughout that?
Maggie:And where do you see now that he was throughout that when we're going through those times, we tend to kind of feel like where is God? And probably because he's not doing the thing we want him to do. But he definitely met me in the secret place. I would be praying and it was like he was sitting in front of me and I was laying my head on his lap and crying and praying and he was. Now I see how he was a husband to me, how he's been a father to my children, and it was during probably my son's hospital days where I was so and going through the divorce.
Maggie:I was so desperate for God, I thought to myself, because I got saved as a young girl. I'm from a Baptist background and I was always taught that, hey, god doesn't work like he did in the New Testament anymore. And the Holy Spirit just started revealing Himself to me in my hospital room. I started encountering him. Well, he started encountering me. I would call them tiny miracles. I have a million stories and I didn't journal them all, but I was so desperate to see him that I think that's why he started revealing himself to me. I would be in my hospital room and I would think I wish I had a journal to journal some things. I wish I had a journal to journal some things. And later that afternoon someone I hadn't seen in a decade or two knew that I was in the hospital and came by and brought me a bag of stuff for me and there was a journal in there. Oh wow, that's so cool. And I know people might say that's a coincidence, but I don't believe in coincidence anymore. Yeah, I really believe that he orchestrates every tiny moment of our lives and if we actually start looking for him, then we will actually see him. And because I was so desperate, I just started looking for him everywhere and he started showing up and other times.
Maggie:I remember the house we were living in. I didn't have a lawnmower, I didn't have the ability to mow my yard. I couldn't afford to pay someone. My older neighbor would mow it, but sometimes inconsistently, and I would drive down my dirt road and I was like you know what? It's time for our yard to be mowed again. And I'd get the kids inside and I was just thinking those thoughts, didn't say them out loud. And next thing I know I hear a mower in my yard and my neighbors come out to mow my yard, wow, and just so many different stories like that, and even like where Holy Spirit was encountering my children and my children were speaking whatever he had to tell me.
Maggie:Then I was so desperate for Him because I just really felt hopeless. I thought there's got to be more to God than what I've been taught. There's got to be more to Him than what I know. And I think I've learned that we humans we wouldn't have God all figured out, because then we've got the formula and there's less need to trust him, there's less need to rely on him. And through this I have tried. Sometimes I still don't accept it because my actions aren't showing that I accept it. But I've got to accept that, hey, I can't figure God out. God isn't for me to figure out. He is for me to love, he is for me to draw close to, he's for me to trust. And if I've got him all figured out in my tiny meat box of theology and doctrine, then there's no room for him to move and work in my life. Oh, that's good, that's a word right there. I yeah. Oh, that's good, that's a word right there.
Gianina:I think that's from him right, and there's no faith. There's no need for faith. If you have all the answers and you have it all figured out, then there's literally no room for faith, which is the gospel. So preach it, girl. That was good.
Maggie:Well, those words just came to me, so I think they were from him. That's great.
Kiley:He's so good and faithful to show up when we need him. He provides what we need. I'm reminded of just a not not even a little. I don't know if it was a story, but I consider those to be love letters from God, and and they can come up in just such a variety of ways, and I think the story that comes to my mind is um and I I know I'm going to get this wrong and my dad's probably going to correct me on it, but it's basically you know, a woman goes on the beach and she just is looking for a starfish and she can't find a starfish anywhere and then, all of a sudden, she turns around and there's hundreds of starfish and it's God's love letter to her.
Kiley:She's the only person in the world that is seeing this in front of her at that time. And it can be in moments like that, and it can be in moments of having somebody just randomly mow your yard, even though they didn't ask for it, but they just figured you'd need it, and he shows up for us through other people. He shows up for us just in things that we see in nature.
Gianina:He's just, I don't know, he's pretty cool, he's pretty cool and that's such a good reminder to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit as Christians, or even just listen to that small voice, because you never know when you're that blessing for somebody else where they need their lawn mowed, and you might be like that's such a weird thing, I'm not just going to go randomly mow someone's lawn, you know, but God is like, hey, that's what they need in this moment. So I think just being us as Christians, being sensitive to that, and you know, just asking God, even on a daily basis, use me where you want to use me today and give me the knowledge or wisdom of who I can help, so that's really cool.
Kiley:Yeah, and Maggie, I want to ask you, going through all that you went through, if you can just speak into I'm sure that there are other people going through a similar situation and there's people listening that are supporting somebody that's in a similar situation. What did you feel like from your community? How, what was it that you needed from them to get through this? You know, I know, that we rely on God to provide us with all these things, but you know, were you yearning for people to do something in particular that, just like showed you that they were holding you as well? You know, what kind of advice can you give to people that might be supporting somebody in this particular situation?
Maggie:I think that it is so important to let go of judgment and show up in love, and I know that that's a human thing. It's a human thing to think we know how someone should handle a situation. But I know I had experiences. I've had good experiences and I've had bad experiences in my suffering, and you just never know who's barely hanging on a thread and how we can push people over the edge and with the words that we say to them. But just showing up in love, and whether or not we think someone deserves what they're going through, or whether or not we think they contributed to it, or whether or not we think it's their fault, just being the hands and feet of Jesus and loving them. But I think that people say things because they don't know what else to say and then I also think that they're paralyzed in action because they don't know what to do. And I think that we should just take more action and we should text somebody and say, hey, I'm bringing over supper. What time is good for you? Don't text people and be like or call or say, hey, let me know how I can help you, because most of the time they're not going to reach back out or sometimes they don't know what's up from down and they don't even know what they need sometimes. Sometimes it's like I can't see the forest for the trees. And you know, offer to babysit their kids and let them go get coffee, make them a meal, have their house, pay for their house to be cleaned, any kind of acts of service. That would really just show love and take something off their plate.
Maggie:I know most people only have time to share or either money to give and rarely both. So if you have time to share, show up in those ways and do those services on your own. And if you don't have time but you have generosity to give, then do that, because it takes all types. You know I've had people Venmo me or order Grubhub while I'm sitting in the hospital room. There's all kinds of ways that we can love somebody and show them that we care, and even just showing up with them, just sitting with them, not trying to say something like well, god has a reason for everything, or this won't last forever, like some of the common kind of plasticky band-aids, all the things we like to throw on something. You know I'm not saying Job's friends did everything right, but they were silent for a time, and they did sit there for a time. And so, man, just being with somebody and being in their space and offering them your strength when they don't have any strength.
Gianina:Yeah, I was kind of giggling when you said that, because I was picturing Jesus like saying to somebody instead of meeting the need if he's like. You said that because I was picturing Jesus like saying to somebody, instead of meeting the need, if he's like you know what? I know you're hungry right now, but this isn't going to last forever, you know instead of saying that, like if we want to be the hands and feet of Jesus, like, literally, what did he do? He fed people, he prayed for them, he healed, you know just all these different things, but I was just picturing the little cliches that people say coming out of Jesus's mouth.
Maggie:As you say that immediately what popped into my mind was people will go I'm praying for so-and-so, or they'll say I'm praying for you. Instead of we should go be the feet, we should just go do the thing that we're praying that they receive. You know what I'm saying.
Gianina:Yeah, for sure. And I think one of the things when I was a single mom that was like a need that really helped that people don't usually think of is I loved the strong Christian men that wanted to be a part of Kingston's life because he didn't have a strong male role model and that was one of my biggest fears and biggest prayers was like God, he doesn't have anyone to like model his life after. And so before I got remarried, I just remember God showing up and just like he had an amazing male teacher that was a man of God and really helped him grow in that. And so for the people who do have strong family homes where there's a mother and a dad, invite the kids over for dinner. Sometimes Guys go play catch with the kids, take them out, just do something with them. I think that's for single parents and single moms where the dad isn't very present is literally probably one of the top things that you could do. Yeah.
Maggie:And I know that everyone's resources are going to be different. We are plugged into our local church and so therefore we have some men that I've made relationships with that are good influences. Them and their families and I'm friends with their wives are good influences on my kids and the men that I trust. I will ask them hey, will you do this for Ridge? Will you spend some time with him? And so I think that is important is is people stepping up and we all can get so busy in our own lives that we forget to be to others, what someone has been to us and to pay it forward. But I agree with you their dad is still out of state and so they don't know what it's like to have a consistent male role model in their life.
Kiley:And.
Maggie:I think it's so valuable for men. I think you're right because I see women culturally. Whether it's right or wrong, they're usually the ones stepping in to nurture and I think there's a great need for Christian men to step in and love some boys and young men who might be growing up without a good role model in their life.
Kiley:And sadly there's a lot of those, so yeah, so we've talked about how other people can support people going through this, but what type of encouragement would you give to somebody that is walking through a similar struggle themselves?
Maggie:I want to preface this by saying that no situation is cookie cutter or the same, and what might have been what God had me to walk out might not be for someone else. You know, I don't have the best advice for someone that's still clinging to their marriage, because mine fell apart, and I can more easily advise somebody who is about to go through divorce or who is in an abusive marriage or who has an unfaithful spouse. So be careful about who you seek counsel from. Not everybody, even strong Christians. They have different experiences and if I'm looking for specific advice, not everyone's going to be able to help me with it.
Maggie:You know, pray and use your discernment on who to ask advice from, but I think that what I would encourage someone in a similar situation is man, your life's not over.
Maggie:It's not over. I know it feels like it. I know that this is the worst thing that has ever happened to you and your heart is broken and you want so desperately to go a different way. And I see you and I sit with you and I honor where your heart is at. But I promise you that God is with you. You can choose healing and you can come out on the other side and live a full life again and have joy and have beauty, and you can feel again and the sun full life again and have joy and have beauty, and you can feel again and the sun will shine again and things will be brighter. It won't diminish what you've gone through, but you're going to live again one day and there's going to come a day where you are going to be so glad and so grateful that the Lord brought you out of whatever situation that you were in. I really believe that.
Gianina:I love what you said. You said it just now and you said it earlier too. You said when you choose healing and it's so many times we pray for God to heal our hearts or heal this that's happening in our lives and it's so important to realize sometimes we just have to choose it, not to sit in the hurt and not to sit in the pain and betrayal and deception and anger of everything that's happened to you and actually choose your healing. So that's really powerful.
Maggie:Amen. I believe that we are co-creators with Christ. He doesn't force us to do anything. We have to choose to walk hand in hand with him and go and heal, and it is through his power, of course, that he brings that to us. But if he's extending us healing and we're shaking our heads and we're saying no, he's not going to shove it down our throats. So, yes, it has to be chosen, it's an intentional choice.
Gianina:Yeah, very cool. So, yeah, it has to be chosen. It's an intentional choice. Yeah, very cool. Well, I would love for you to pray for our listeners, if you wouldn't mind, and, um, I'd say specifically for someone who's just in a season where they don't see the end of the tunnel. They're kind of like, I hear your story and I think it's really cool for you and God has shown up for you, but I just can't see the end in sight and I'm hurting and I don't see God the way that you did in those moments and pray for them to, I guess, have that reminder and desire to seek out God Because, like you said, you were so desperate that you had to look for him. There was no other option, you just had to find him, and so I just feel like there's somebody out there that is going through that and they don't see anything but darkness right now. Father God, I just want to thank you so much for these ladies.
Maggie:Lord, I want to thank you for this podcast and for the many souls that you're going to touch through this, lord, and how you're going to bring glory out of this God, and I just want to thank you for your glory, lord.
Maggie:I just want to thank you, god, that you take our broken pieces and our broken lives and the darkness and the pits and the valleys, lord, and you make something beautiful with it, and so I just thank you for that, lord. I thank you for the glory that you're bringing about in those lives for those who are listening, lord. It's for them, your grace is for them. Your grace was made specifically for their situation. God, we tend to think that your love and your grace and your mercy is for this cookie cutter, nuclear family, god, but it's not. It's for every situation on the face of the earth, lord, that you came to this earth for God, and so I just thank you for that, lord.
Maggie:I ask that you encounter our listeners, Lord, with your love.
Maggie:Your word says perfect love casts out all fear, lord, so I ask that you wrap them in your love and they feel your warmth.
Maggie:So much love and light, god, that they can't even there's no more darkness, as they are drawn to your light, Lord, I ask that you heal their hearts, lord, and may they be open to receiving what you have for them. God, I thank you for the testimony that you're bringing about in their lives, lord. They are not forsaken, they are not forgotten, they are not left behind. They are not behind schedule, lord. You are on time. They don't even have to be on time because you're on time. So, god, I thank you for encountering them, lord, and for putting people, lord, I ask that you put divine appointments in their lives to give them more tiny miracles, small moments of your divine connection, lord, in their hearts and lives, so that they may see you, lord, every face that they come across, lord, may they see your glory shining and feel your love as it heals their hearts. Lord, I just thank you so much for what you're doing. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Kiley:Amen. Well, maggie, thank you so much for sharing your heart and your walk with us today. It really is such a gift for you to speak from the middle of your story with such vulnerability and courage, and we just we appreciate your time with us today. If Maggie's story touched your heart, we'd love for you to share this episode with someone. Leave a review and follow along for more powerful testimonies like hers. This truly helps us spread the message to people who may not hear about Jesus and his faithfulness in other ways, and remember, whatever valley you're walking through, you're not alone. Keep walking, keep trusting and know that God is right there with you Until next time. This is the Walkthrough Podcast.