Life is painful when we feel hopeless. But there is a way to find hope in the hard days. Join Sarah and me for a conversation about hope – “Finding Hope in the Hard Days as a Woman of Integrity,” with Sarah Geringer and your host, me – Deborah.
Episode 3: Finding Hope in the Hard Days as a Woman of Integrity,” with Sarah Geringer
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Episode Summary:
Do you ever feel hopeless? Life is painful when we feel hopeless. But there is a way to find hope in the hard days. One of the ways we can do this is by intentionally developing our integrity.
Join Sarah and me, your host, for a conversation about hope in“Finding Hope in the Hard Days as a Woman of Integrity,” with Sarah Geringer.
Sarah shows us how God gave her hope as a sixteen-year-old at a James Taylor concert. She was at the lowest point in her life and considered suicide.
“When I heard him sing that song, I heard the Holy Spirit speak to me, not audibly, but you know, unmistakably. In my spirit, and He just said, you will be a writer. I think God used secular music to speak to me that moment because I knew how much that music had carried me through, honestly, a very difficult time. I think God was saying, “Your words as a writer are going to help people someday.”
Then in the last 18-20 months, she suffered a great setback in life but again God was there to give her hope in the hopelessness and led her to write her new book “Hope for The Hard Day: 100 Encouraging Devotions.”
Show Notes:
- Sarah discusses her new book “Hope for The Hard Day.” Thousands of people prayed for Sarah during her dark days beginning in January 2022. Now, God has led her to write a new book to encourage others in their hard days as many are struggling in our post-pandemic world.
- Sarah and Deborah discuss what it means to be a woman of integrity and how that gives us hope.
- Sarah explains the Proverbs 31 model and the book, “Becoming the Woman God Wants You to Be” by Donna Partow.
- Sarah gives tips on navigating our personal integrity in our culture while honoring God.
- Sarah examines what it means to you to be seen as a woman by the world, by God, and the foundational truth that you are already beautiful as a daughter of God.
- Sarah and Deborah discuss self-love, makeup, self-care, and grooming and how they build confidence as we care for our bodies, which are God’s temple in our post-pandemic world.
- Sarah talks about conquering body image battles by controlling our thoughts with Christian meditation.
- Sarah gives insights on how to talk to the younger generation and the challenges they face growing up in today’s world.
Sarah Geringer quotes from our conversation –
It’s never been harder for me to cling to hope than in the past 18 to 20 months. I had to fight for it, honestly. I had to make sure that I wasn’t letting it go.
I gained a new appreciation, I guess, for hope and how it can pull us forward out of all the trials that we face.
Many of them I wrote during this last year and a half, so they’re right from the trenches. It just seems like people are really struggling these days. Post-pandemic, I feel like more people than not are struggling, and they’re struggling on big levels. So, I thought it was time to make a book that was focusing on how we can hang on to hope.
Sarah Geringer
“A woman of integrity is someone who’s going to do the right thing when no one’s looking because we know that God is watching and he cares about our righteousness.
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Sarah Geringer #women #integrity #podcast #intentional
I’m really big on authenticity because I think that anyone born after 1960, they’re done with fake. You’re not going to be able to minister to somebody just by giving them platitudes. That might’ve worked in the church 50 years ago, but that doesn’t work anymore.
It just got me thinking, it’s easy with the way technology is that our kids don’t need us because they just look stuff up on YouTube, right?
It’s very clear that when my three teenagers come and talk to me, they’re seeking wisdom. They don’t want a how-to. Sometimes we have those discussions. But they can figure out how-to, they want wisdom. They want tried and true experience and filtering it through all of these life lessons that you don’t get from a three-minute video on YouTube.
I think that my children have really appreciated that approach, because they know if their mom is being humble and not acting like I have it all together, that I’m perfect, or that I’ve made every, good choice in my life, but I’ve learned from my mistakes, then they’re willing to come to me when they have an issue that they need to talk about. You have to earn that kind of respect and you have to earn that open door with them, and authenticity is the key.
Sarah Geringer
As a woman of the world in her middle forties, I think you decide that you are going to age gracefully, and I’m not ever going to say this is my 29th birthday again. I know several people who have lost loved ones this year, and I know they wish they would have lived, to be the age that I am. I feel like every year is a gift, and I’m not going to pretend that everything was perfect when I was 29 or 39.
My identity is through God’s eyes.
Sarah Geringer
When we have one of those wayward thoughts about our identity, then we just have to go back to the truth of God’s word that doesn’t change. – Sarah Gerigner #hopefortheharddays #newbook #hopelessness
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I talked about this in “Transforming Your Thought Life” In the Guilty Thoughts Chapter, I had to repeat Romans 8:1 hundreds of times before I believed it, before I actually lived it out like I believed it. “There is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.” And so, I had to say that every single time I was beating myself up for something that wasn’t even true.
When you meditate on something, you’re hiding it in your heart and mind, and you’re memorizing it too, so that when you’re in the heat of a situation, you have something to go on, something to draw from, strength from, and that’s very useful.
It’s very useful for keeping you on track to be a woman of integrity when the world is putting all this pressure on you to go off track. Scripture can keep you on track, but you have to do that work every day. It really only takes a couple of minutes, but it can change your life.
Sarah Geringer
The New Testament says, “Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit?” The Holy Spirit doesn’t indwell junk, you know? – Sarah Geringer #holyspirit #temple #wonderfullymade
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What I am saying is if you take care of yourself people will be curious about you, there’s something different about you, and they, can’t put it into words, but they sense it because you’re taking care of yourself. I think that it’s an opportunity that we have, literally, to witness to people in this post pandemic culture, when some people have just checked out.
They’ve given up, they’ve lost some of their social skills. Which I feel this is one of those areas where that has changed. So, if you say, I’m going to put the 10 or 15 percent effort into this, you’re ahead of the pack, right? People are going to be intrigued. And it might even give you an opportunity to have a conversation with them or just bless them with kindness or encouragement, and they might pay attention to you more than somebody else because you’re actually taking care of yourself.
Sarah Geringer
Scripture References:
- Psalm 23:3 (NKJV) “He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.”
- Hebrews 5:12-13 (NKJV) “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.”
- Proverbs 31:25 (NLT) “She is clothed with strength and dignity, and she laughs without fear of the future.”
- Romans 8:1 (NLT) “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.”
- 1 Corinthians 6:19 (NLT) “Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself.”
- Mark 12:30-31 (NIV) “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
Resources:
- Jean Lush Books
- Becoming the Woman God Wants Me to Be: A 90-Day Guide to Living the Proverbs 31 Life by Donna Partow
MEET THE AUTHOR AND SPEAKER SARAH GERINGER
Sarah is a Christian writer, speaker, poet, and creative coach who helps us find peace in God’s Word. She has just published her 7th book, Hope for the Hard Days: 100 Encouraging Devotions, on Kindle and will be in paperback on Oct. 24. She has a blog at sarahgeringer.com with spiritual growth posts and Christian book reviews every week (in fact, she reads 100 books a year). She hosts two solo podcasts: Finding Peace in God’s Word and one for adult children of divorce. Press on each book to buy.
Follow Sarah at:
https://www.facebook.com/sarahgeringercreates
https://www.instagram.com/sgeringer
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I appreciate the perspective of our children coming to us for wisdom as they can research online for how-to videos and don’t necessarily need “how-to” information from us, but wisdom. Thanks Deborah and Sarah!
Lisa, I really liked that too. And how they are not taught to come to us so we need to go to them. Such wisdom. Blessings to you. Thank you so much for listening.
I really liked the perspective that when we reach 40 we shouldn’t be joking or wishing we were 29 again. I know I’m guilty of that. But it is true – reaching our ages is a gift from God and we should be grateful for every added year. I’m going to be putting this one into practice!
Jennifer, that is a wonderful perspective to keep in mind so that we appreciate every year God gives us. This hit home for me too. Blessings to you and thank you for visiting.
I haven’t listened to the podcast yet, but I appreciate all these wonderful snippets of wisdom you share here in your post! I’ll share it again as the featured post on the Grace & Truth linkup at my blog on Friday. Thank you, Deborah and Sarah!
Lisa,thank you so Much. I will let Sarah know. I would you to listen.