Georgette Beck | Junk to Jewels: Beauty from Ashes

The world is becoming increasingly proficient at telling stories that deny God. As such, we need thinking Christian to become as natural as breathing. Welcome to the Thinking Christian podcast. I'm Dr. James Spencer. Through calm, thoughtful, theological discussions, Thinking Christian highlights the ways God is working in the world and questions the underlying social, cultural, and political assumptions that hinder Christians from becoming more like Christ. Now, on to today's episode of Thinking Christian. Hey, everybody, welcome to this episode of Thinking Christian. I'm your host, Dr. James Spencer, and I am joined today by Georgette Beck. She's the author of a new book called Junk to Jewels, and she also runs a nonprofit organization called the Bella Healing Hearts Foundation. And so we're going to be talking to Georgette today about her life, her vision, her work, and excited to have you here, Georgette. Thanks for coming on the show. Oh, my gosh, Dr. James Spencer, thank you so much for having me on the show. I love it. I appreciate this opportunity. I love how a divine appointment occurs in all of our lives. God brings random strangers to each other out of all the billions and billions of people on the planet. It's amazing. Yeah, no, I've found it, and you were on a podcast as well, so you probably get this a little bit too, but it's always kind of nice to see somebody pop up in your email that you have no clue who they are, and they're asking, you know, to see if you want to be on their podcast or vice versa, and so you get to meet people you wouldn't ordinarily run into, so I think it's great. All right, well, I do too. It's very rewarding. Well, tell us a little bit about, you know, you've got, you've got the new book, but I'm wondering what the backstory is for the book. Like, where, where are you coming from with this book, Junk to Jewels? Well, I'll show the cover. It's junk to jewels, a journey from brokenness and despair to beauty and delight because that, that's my story in a nutshell. And that's Junk to Jewels is now the platform I speak on and write on and talk on and live on. Everything stems from that. It's from that scripture, Beauty from Ashes, and it's a, it's a repeat cycle. If you know in our life, God always goes full circle over and over again on any layer of ours that he's working on. And I was once upon a time that girl that was come from very low self-esteem, value. I did not think I mattered. I would try to hide myself behind my hair. And I, I mean, he, that's the first thing he did was give me words with music lyrics to say, I, I hear you. I'm here. And then he started just stepping in miracle upon miracle. We, he bleeds me into this, you know, the marriage I hope for a miracle restoration, all that. But there was a limbo time. And I don't know if you've ever been in limbo on anything in your life. It is, I call it the edge of hell. Like it's horrible. It's horrible because you're hoping for this miracle. You're trying to be faithful in this current land. And with someone who sees the worst of you and just doesn't, there's no forgiveness. To be around someone who sees the worst of you when you already know the worst of yourself, it's not fun and you're hurting and you're lonely and all, it's just so many emotions. And so God was there. It didn't heal, but God was healing me from that start. And me and my daughter hit the wilderness years and then we'd go into the promised land. And there is second chances. God is the God of restoration, but he starts with us first in our heart. And the story documents my journey, but also at the end of every chapter is jewels for people in their current situation. We all have brokenness or loss in different ways, whether it's someone who died or a relationship broke or a lost dream or a lost career job that you loved and passionate about. But there's always something that each of our stories bring to others. That's why I do a podcast too. And I read like crazy because everyone's journey matters. So that's the story. God showed up for me and he'll show up for you too, wherever you are. And I learned that I mattered. I learned that I belong. And this is the essence of who I am now is I, I come across people and let's talk about heart matters. I'm not afraid. I was the first one up at the altar every Sunday during those broken years. And I still am. You go to daddy God and he, he receives you no matter how ugly or dirty you got, he'll always receive you. It's, and I have a real cool story that I really thought I messed up. There was so many, like during the single mom years, he was taking care of us. And you know the story, like, you know, I can't remember what scripture, but when you try to make sense of what God's doing in your life, like I was looking at my finances and the bills and the rent due and all that, and I never enough money ever, but I was, I'm living in this apartment community. That's beautiful. That he put us in. We're doing these things. My daughter's in school, but then it never made sense. So I tried to, I was thinking I got to jump ship. I got to go get an apartment that's cheaper, but no, he was keeping us. Like it was that widow with the oil. That's it. That's one of the examples. The oil stopped running out until God said it's done. And she was kept. Her family was kept. So yeah, the, the book is a story of hope. It's a restoration reconciliation, you know, and, and then the tools and things, jewels that came along, you know, that help us all. It's so you mentioned just to kind of tease out a little, little piece of your story because I'm kind of interested. You mentioned, you know, your plan on going to Oral Roberts potentially. Were you from that area or were you living somewhere else? No, here's the deal. They had a traveling thing back in the day. They had ministries go out and go to different churches. And I saw their music team and I was attracted to that. Now here's the deal too. We each have a destiny purpose. There is giftedness that come in each of us. And sometimes it continues down the family line. And I had learned my mom also is a writer, creative person. She burned her stuff and never showed it and never wanted and pursued publishing, even though she wanted to out of fear. So one of the things in my heart and I talk about our dreams and our purposes, it's a, I, I'm like, God, don't let me die without this dream you gave me. Call me writer too after this journey. And I said, I knew I was going to write the story of what he did in my life to share it with others. She, I said, don't let me die. And I'm listen, I turned 57 this week, just so you know, my birthday is this week. And God is, it's never too late, never too old for his, your dreams to come to life. But yeah, so my mom and dad, my dad's a creative. He was a commercial landscaper, but he saw beauty in the land and he's an entrepreneur. No one ever knew it back then to say that. So yeah, Oral Roberts. That's where I was going, but I couldn't let go. The only thing I perceived as love and a relationship. It was a generational repeat to the point that they were Polish family with brothers and same dynamics. It was crazy. Same dynamics. It's kind of funny how we can get caught up in that. My wife and I are high school sweethearts. I love that. We, I don't know that I ever felt the expectation to get married early, although we did, but I think for me, as I look back, some of those things were like, yeah, if you don't graduate from college, you know,

You're not going to be a success in life. I mean, that was just one of those things that, and I don't know that I would articulate my particular issue as love. I think I would have articulated my particular issue as successful or independent. I had a real interest in being autonomous and not having, you know, and not having to be dependent on other people. And so, you know, college was that expectation for me. Everybody expected me to do it. I did it, but ultimately really just didn't enjoy it, especially the first couple of years. And so I think there's aspects of that that you can, you know, when I look back on not to steal your turn, but there was a lot of junk there and it did, I think God ultimately turned that into jewels. Now that's when I became saved. And so that was a whole different sort of context, but I think it's, I think I'm resonating, I guess, with the overall message that yeah, we have these hard things, but ultimately it's through the hard things that we catch glimpses of God's care for us. Absolutely. Absolutely. And like I said, it repeats because I'm in this season of life. We're empty nesters now. I'm in a second chance marriage. We celebrate 21 years this last May. I have a daughter. He had three daughters and now we have eight grandchildren and we still carry some heart pains. And I, someone just said to our pastor just said every one of us, whoever you see has a problem. Like there's something going on no matter what phase of life you're in, but God keeps you in other ways. There's things to celebrate. There's things to see his hand. But at this stage, I'm telling you, um, Dr. Spencer, our heart pain, like things we carry and cry about the very things we're ashamed to talk about the very things we're afraid to talk about our own mess ups, our losses, our experiences. It all comes to the essence of who we are. And then we bring that forward and that's the best of us. And actually the very thing we're ashamed to talk about or embarrassed about is our superpower. I've just come to this final conclusion and it's okay. Like the education, I was the first in my family to go to college. So God was restoring destiny purpose. And I was going back there with my mom being the writer, my dad, both of them were artists. They could draw drawings, but they didn't really know the purpose. And God was starting to reveal it starting with my mom and dad because their marriage broke several times, got separated. They got a divorce. My mom always knew Jesus. My dad did not. My dad found Jesus and that's when I found Jesus at a vacation Bible school. So all those ministries are important. They got remarried and God was starting with that generation to restore what other generations had lost because my grandparents come from world war two and they're survivors. My grandma was in the Russian camps and there's this like the camp she was in, the people that came out were like none hardly ever like, so she's a miracle there. And just, just that resonates with me, the family history like that. And my mom's side, her mother hated her. There's, it's a sad line up there, but God is bringing back joy. He's bringing back destiny purpose. And I am a creative. I, and later in life coming to, it took me 27 years from that idea of writer to, oh, I'm going to make a difference. And my mission statement now, this full paragraph is to inspire, encourage, educate, give hope to others, healing from the past and the present for the future as they discover their God given purpose and destiny. It started off with a word and then a sentence. And then I got more ideas and visuals. God gives you all of it. He gives you sound and music and, and, and visuals to know who you are. However, your language is, he'll bring it to you. And then it's, it's, it's grow into this vision. And then three and a half years later, we're implementing. We started a nonprofit, like you mentioned. Yeah. Called Belly Healing Hearts Foundation because it started with two words, healing hearts. And that was part of my own destiny purpose. God said, you're, you're a heart healer because I go there. I help people. I draw them out. I help people talk about their stuff. Matter of fact, I had an interview with someone for a book project years ago. It was a book in process. It's still one of my book projects in process. Crossroads, it's called. And she shared about her young, her childhood and her family and how she went, her parents went through a divorce and the pain she was carrying from that. She's an adult. Like this is, she's adult now. She said, I never shared that with anyone. So we're supposed to share, but some people have a harder time than others, but he, he was restoring that. Like this is a destiny thing. So yeah, it, wherever people are in life, and this is what I'm learning too. Now looking back to go forward cause I can't see what's happening around the corner. I feel all the inadequacies because your God gives you a vision bigger than you. And I was just reminded from the spiritual writers of the past, brother Lawrence and William law that it's always going to be bigger than we are. And your ministry, Dr. Spencer. I looked at your website. I was, I was in awe. I was humbled and I was inspired all at once. And then of course I'm like, oh my gosh, yes. God's been saying, level it up, skill it up. Like bring it this vision. We can do it together with God who equipped us, but we got to do our part. We got to show up every day and that's scary because we know our worst. We, we feel inadequate, but he says, I got this. So yeah, my mom and dad, he's restoring and he's still doing it. So yeah. Let me ask you a serious question. If something triggered a major market drop in the coming months, would your retirement be ready or exposed with inflation, market volatility and ongoing global uncertainty. More families are taking a closer look at whether their retirement plan is truly built to hold up and then you're finding that adding a layer of protection makes a lot of sense. Sanctuary metals is a Christian owned company that helps families strengthen their retirement savings with physical gold and silver through a gold IRA. During uncertain times, many people look to precious metals as a way to add stability when other assets may be under pressure. If you'd like to explore whether a gold IRA is a good fit for your situation, sanctuary metals makes it easy to get started. Text guide to 9 4 8 7 8 to receive your free retirement defense guide or call 8 8 8 9 5 8 6 5 7 9 to speak with one of their knowledgeable team members. Again, text guide to 9 4 8 7 8 or call 8 8 8 9 5 8 6 5 7 9. Talk, talk a little bit about, you mentioned healing hearts. Talk a little bit about the healing hearts foundations. It's work with single parents or Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So the vision started off before I ever met my second chance guy. I knew I wanted to help people like people help me. So the, there's power in community. That's one of the things you ask for help. I learned counseling, asking for help, prayer from others. You get in Bible study groups. All the things brought truth and perspective to my situation and myself. And, and God brought me everywhere. Every time he put something in my heart to go do you do, but the, the nonprofit was single moms because that's what I was at the time. And all these people community would love on my daughter and I and help us. And it was through their help that we made it. We wouldn't have made it without their hands. Each and every one, every time. So I knew I was going to do that. So in my heart before I ever met my husband, my, my, my partner now, Scott Beck, single parents was it because I, I didn't qualify for welfare, but I, I needed, I couldn't come up with the money to pay my rent a lot of times. Eviction notices occurred when the car broke down, it we're in crisis mode. Like, so I knew it's just that leg up. It's just that leg up that's needed. And someone would pay for my daughter's gymnastic lessons and she could go to have gymnastics without that little gift. Her life was, you know, it wasn't as rich and that's what God does with us. He enriches us through the hands of other people, hearts and hands. So that's where that came from. And my husband too, he was a single dad for a time because his first marriage broke too. And, and so both of us, this is our second chance together. It's going to evolve. I'm being on. So I just real, his heart was, he wants to build a home for the, the kids that feel like they're throwaways. Like they're not seen my situation to this. It's, I was a guardian at light them for a time and a big sister as part of big brother, big sisters guardians go in and, and meet with the children of things that happen in the home. So I saw things and understood things that sometimes it's not, it's a kid not in the foster care that needs help. They do, but it's actually ones in the homes that are parents. There's too much dysfunction going on. There's, there's just ignorance. There's they're in a situation. They're, they're overwhelmed and need help. So these kids are, they're not seen. No one's speaking life into them.

When you read your Bible, that's a God's faith world. That's His biblical worldview, but you got to, you know, understand history and other things. So I think education brings that to people. If you're in, if you're in your little community and you're there forever and ever and don't ever talk to anyone outside your little community, you're missing out. So many great truths out there. God created us all, you know, throughout the world. But we, we've led groups. There's power in small group, and actually research shows, and my husband and I facilitate a lot of small groups. We help people heal from divorce, and we did couples in crisis and things like that. But there's power when people come together and share their hearts and share their story. And we had one person say it was actually more powerful than the money she paid for a counselor, but I believe in counseling too for that. So we've meet a need, like see a need, meet a need. So it's a unique boutique. We self-funded still. It's slow going. And we, like, we've helped a single mom save her homeowner's insurance, which saved her house because she needed live oak trees taken down. So, and other, just financial assistance if we can. If we have the money, we help when we see a need and hear a need. And it's just a little bit one-on-one when we get to know, like we, the situations are vetted either through another nonprofit or through our own lives coming across these single moms and dads. But the workshop was just to provide mentoring and encouraging. It was actually through a program, Single and Parenting curriculum. Okay. So, yeah, and it's still going. It's, I think it's going to involve just, it's going to involve other, like all people that fall between the cracks, I think. Yeah, yeah. I think it'll expand out. I mean, I think it's fascinating. My wife and I, we recently adopted and we still do foster care. But before we started all that, we were with a group called Safe Families. And Safe Families, you, you know, they're, they deal with what I would consider to be like your borderline cases. These are families that aren't, aren't really ready for foster care. They're, maybe they're short-term or, you know, they're just not as, you know, bad off enough to, you know, push a child into foster care, but they need some shorter-term assistance. And the kind of things we saw there are the kind of things you're mentioning, you know, as, as single parents who are just struggling with different things, maybe, um, you know, the single mom gets sick and has to go to the hospital. Well, what does she do with her kids? And I think that our social safety nets that many of us depend on, uh, grandparents, brothers and sisters, what have you, you know, if you don't have those, you're, you're kind of in limbo here. What do you do? And, and how would you ever get beyond that? I think the other side that I hear you saying is I can imagine there's a survival mode that you get into and I get into it some weeks, right? When work's really busy, right? Um, the difference is that, you know, it's both my wife and I, and we both have full-time jobs and we're, we're, we have, we've been married now 26 years, so we have a fairly stable sort of family life. But the reality is there are some weeks where it's just, I'm, I go into survival mode. Like I don't really have a lot of time for anything else. It doesn't happen as much as it used to, but in those times, you do tend to lose track of things that you shouldn't lose track of. And I can imagine for a single parent that you're almost, you're probably often living in survival mode. Yeah, you're, it's, it's, you're, you're tired. You're, you're always tired. And, um, and I'm going to share this. This is vulnerable. I was vulnerable in my book as best I could because it's the truth. If I, I feel every time I go to read the pages, it's a love story. I feel, I feel and I felt God's love for me. And every time I was working on that book throughout the 26 or 27 years, um, as it grew and evolved, I felt God spoke to me in my current situation each decade, like each year. And I saw God and it was God, Jesus, and my daughter years. It was, um, mommy, Jesus, Jessie years. So it was a beautiful love story, but there's heart pain. And my daughter also went through a divorce as a little girl, and she was from home to home. And then as a single mom, I had to work a lot of jobs and I had to leave her with people. And when my marriage first broke, my family had their own issues and they couldn't be my family. Church family was my family. So there was healing going on there. So my daughter, I would have to leave her with my new spiritual family, like people, so I could go work. And then towards the end of that season, it was starting to really play a toll on her emotionally. She was like preteen, 11, 12. And it was just, I had this overnight shift that had best money for the value and time. So that's why I made the decision. And it was hard. She wanted to be with her mom. And so we had a lot of moments together and created beautiful traditions. Those were some of the happy moments. But there was times that she had to go to, to the other one, and it wasn't home. Like it was just, and so she had those feelings. I can just imagine. I, I'm not in her heart and mind, but I can just imagine based on my own feeling of never feeling I belonged or was valued or wanted. I'm sure those brought that up. Abandonment, rejection, feelings from the break. And I, that's why God hates divorce. It's not meant like it's a break and it's a living death, I call it. So when I handed her to the book this last Thanksgiving, because it published this last January, it brought it all up. See some, and that's my husband's kids too. People from divorce. Everyone goes through healing differently. Some people don't want to talk about it ever and never want to think on those years ever. The sad thing, and this is what I've learned in the art of forgiveness, maybe you've learned this too, that when you try to block out the pain and painful memories, you block out the good memories, too. And you block off your heart becomes closed and not open to what God wants to bring in to refresh it. So it was, it was a huge traumatic thing that happened. And this was just recent because of that. So now there's still healing going on. And this is my heart's prayer for everyone that's going through a loss. Like you need grace. Give you other people grace. Give forgiveness for sure. Forgive yourself and just be open to what God can do because it's beautiful. It's, it's hard. It's hard to face the hard memories, but then you remember the good. And so, yeah, so yeah, yeah. I've had several people on the show to talk about lament. Some of them are scholars and they've written on lament. Others of them are, one gentleman, he lost his son to suicide and he happened to be an Old Testament theologian and talked a lot about lament and how that sort of got him through it. And it just seems to me that sometimes we've lost the art of lamenting. We try to bury things as opposed to being honest about our feelings with God, about bringing those things to him. Even if we're frustrated or angry. Absolutely. And what you find in the biblical laments, at least, is that that anger and frustration and despair often turns to praise. And so it's a way for us to speak with God, process those emotions and turn them into something different. And it just strikes me that that's kind of what your process is, what you're talking about in this process of going from junk to jewels, is you're seeing all these things. And if you just left them as junk, they never turn into anything else. But it's that reflection and discussion and, you know, really releasing of those things that allow you to see then those jewels that were kind of filtered in with them, which is, I think, a really important process for people to go through. Yes. And in this blended family years, it was like a mix and I'm putting my hands together. They're intertwined together. Mixed blessings. Happy, horrible. Sad. Not sad, like the happy word again, but ugly, beautiful. Like it was all like this because my husband didn't have time to heal from his previous life or childhood. He was carrying stuff from trauma from his childhood to teenage years. He had a lot of loss. And as a police officer too, there was other losses there and things he saw he never really processed. It happened in this marriage. So there was a lot of stuff and God, when we faced it, like he, he does bring the beautiful out of the junk, but it's, it's necessary. Like, you know, the story of the pearl, it's like in mud. It's dirty. You can't even see it. It's ugly looking. But then it comes to this beautiful jewel and that's diamond story too. The diamonds, they don't come from beauty. They come from really dark stuff and hard stuff. And even in this season too with the blended, and here's another vulnerable truth that it's in a second book in process, but I'll trust God's timing on that one because some of those other hearts may not be ready and maybe it'll be the fiction. So on blended years, I, I'm the type I want

Testes with everyone. Like I'm that person. I get along with everyone and people usually love me. Like there's only a small percentage, but because of their hearts, they were going through that loss too. They didn't want me in their lives. I was not their second chance. They didn't want a second chance. I logically understand, but I always wanted Daughters of the Heart and that's still my dream and God still may bring it. But it's, I had to come to that place too. They may never, the space we all come together when there's togethers and there are, it may always be uncomfortable. And that's hard for me from my background. It touches all that old pains. And I'm like, okay, God, your will. I'm going to know I'm okay. Like I'm going to know you love me and you chose me. And matter of fact, there's a scripture that my calendar this month, it says he chose me and it's 1 Peter 2 9, but you are the chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession so that you may proclaim the praises of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Guess what? There is darkness in each of our lives sometimes, but he calls us out to share his light, to share his love. He loves us so we can love others. And no matter what, God shows me. And that's why I said to God, even this morning, let me operate from that place that you chose me. So it doesn't matter what other people think of me or know about me or anything. And listen, this has been my lifelong journey and lesson that doesn't matter what people think of me or judge me or anything. You know, if you come from a judgmental, critical environment, people struggle. It's a struggle to show up for other people and be vulnerable and have real relationships. But God wants us to connect with other people and develop community. And that's why he made the family. It starts in the family first. The marriages is the blessing. He said so and it's true. And then the children and then our extended family and our neighbors. We're all meant to be in life together to know each other. And that means seeing the worst in someone and still showing up for them. Yeah. Let me ask you a serious question. If something triggered a major market drop in the coming months, would your retirement be ready or exposed? With inflation, market volatility and ongoing global uncertainty, more families are taking a closer look at whether their retirement plan is truly built to hold up. And many are finding that adding a layer of protection makes a lot of sense. Sanctuary Metals is a Christian owned company that helps families strengthen their retirement savings with physical gold and silver through a gold IRA. During uncertain times, many people look to precious metals as a way to add stability when other assets may be under pressure. If you'd like to explore whether a gold IRA is a good fit for your situation, Sanctuary Metals makes it easy to get started. Text GUIDE to 94878 to receive your free retirement defense guide or call 888-958-6579 to speak with one of their knowledgeable team members. Again, text GUIDE to 94878 or call 888-958-6579. It's interesting. I've, as I've thought through my career and just, you know, sort of now doing some things online and you get the random comments from someone you don't really even know. And, you know, they can be overly harsh. As I've processed all of those different experiences across my time, what I came to was I wrote a little blog piece. It was called, I think, I'm not listening. Sorry, I wasn't listening and I'm not going to. And the whole idea was that there are only certain people that I'm going to take criticism from. Good point. That there are people who know me, who understand me, who understand what I'm doing. And I'm happy to be called out if I'm doing something inappropriate by almost anyone. But I think that for some aspects of our lives, we have to rely on people who know us really well to speak into us and say, Look, it seems like you're sort of trending in the wrong direction. You're allowing some of your baggage to sort of influence the way you're acting. But it's a really difficult thing to do because I think we do want people to like us. We do want to be understood. And when we're criticized just sort of out of hand by people who don't really know us, we feel alienated from them. And so my advice has always been to people, you know, you're going to run into folks who just don't like you. You can't help that. I mean, it's basically what you just said. And I think for me, the sort of escalation of that idea was you can't fix the world. And luckily, it's not your responsibility to fix the world. It's your responsibility to be faithful in the world. Absolutely. There is a different mentality that comes along with that. And I think that as you, you know, like as I listen to you sort of wrestling with some of these dynamics, it's just one of those things where I would sit back and say, I've been in those situations. I totally get it. I can remember meeting with some of my family members and at the end of it saying, Hey, this was really awkward. Thanks. Because, I mean, there's nothing else to say. Like sometimes it's just awkward, right? Yeah, I think just saying it out loud kind of takes the air out of it all. Right. It's just really awkward. It's great. It was awkward to be here. Thanks. I love it. You know what you said, it brought up the story, you know, the story of the starfish of why. Yeah, because we can't save the world. We can't help everyone all over the world. But that's why there's each of us. That's why just like your body is different parts and you need every part, all of the parts to do it, to be that, to be you. But the starfish, this guy's walking along the shore and he's looking at the starfish and he's picking them up and putting them back in the water. And people are looking at him and judging him for his one at a time, trying to save all the starfish when they see all the starfish across the whole shore. And there's millions, right? There's how many? And they asked him, why are you doing that? You're not going to save them all. And he goes, no, but this one is, this one's saved. And then he goes and picks up another, right? That's each of us. Just show up, do your part regardless of what others understand or not. You are going to save the one. It's one heart at a time. I love that. I love what you said. Oh, as painful as that is, but. It really is. When you work with, when you're working with single parents, when you're working with other folks, what do you think you're, do you find that people are willing to sort of be vulnerable and to share these things? Or do you feel that most people need this to be sort of pulled out of them? Like what's your, what's your general experience? Yeah, just a mix. I'm getting goosebumps on that one, Dr. Spencer. I think that's a crucial question. Here's the deal I find. And here's sometimes people made fun of me in the past because I'm the very, I'm like the Tigger. I'm the overexcited, always person. I get excited about everything. I see beauty everywhere. I collect, you would laugh if you came in my house. I have, I have beautiful collections. I have like, I surround myself with inspiration and all things. But that also means, and because I'm open, I talk about my emotions. I wear my emotions on my sleeves. People would say, you're too emotional. You're too this, you're too that. And you're so busy. Why are you always going after doing all these things? Well, now I know that's how God created me to be. And now I know I'm a visionary and visionaries have a ton of ideas and we're going to someday do one by one by one. And guess what? Now I know that's just me. But because I show up and I share my junk, it does help people to say, oh my gosh, well, she's sharing that stuff and she's okay. And look how it helped her. Look how she's grown through it. It gives them confidence because it's so scary to be vulnerable because people don't want to be judged. Don't want to be judged. But because I've earned it, I've earned their respect. I've earned the right for, I've earned the right for me to talk because of relationship and I'm there for other people. Just by us showing up, people come to know that and say, okay, we can call them. We can go to them because they won't reject us. They won't judge us. They're going to receive us and tell us the truth because in all our groups, we laugh a lot in our groups, but we also go there and we talk about the truth. And I'll share my stuff and then I'll give, hey, you know what you're doing is, it may lead to this, this, and this. It's not going to help you. Like carrying anger. We had one person that, and all emotions are good, but there is a time they don't help you make good actions unless you choose. Like you have to understand why you have that emotion and anger is one. But if you have it too long, there's a reason and you need to address it. And so my husband and I would tell the truth, like, hey, you got too much anger going on and your behavior is hurting you and your family. Like it's hurting you and your kids. You got to get through this. Let's talk about this anger. Let's unpeel

God did that. We both have similar heart wounds and similar heart desires, especially to help children and our own childhood traumas to really help. But then he's more on the logical side of this relationship. And matter of fact, one of the things he said that God told him when he met me was actually in the early part of our marriage. God had to get a hold of him and said, listen, buddy, the very things you fell in love with your wife on of how energetic she was and how excited she got and how zealous she is. Well, guess what? There's the downside to that. That up has a down. And when she's down, when she goes and crashes, you're gonna love that too. And he was humbled and he laughs about it today, but it wasn't funny then. He did not think that was funny. Well, this has been great. We're coming close to the end of time. And so I usually ask one question to guests just sort of at the end of the episode to close everything out. So yeah, what do you think that God's people need to be focusing on today in order to be and make disciples more faithfully? Oh my gosh, this is a great question because this has come alive in fire for my husband and I. Like this is an urgent call. You know, call to action. I think God is calling to action Christians everywhere. Connect, connect, connect. I really think he put my husband and I as realtors in our community. I've done it. I was an insurance agent. I did development. I was sales. I was like, God, why? Like it had come to us. He brought Realty to my husband. Go, go after, go, go do real estate and work with this guy that you know. After police officer, he had a year off to golf and he had no intention of going back to do anything. But God's like, no, you have to serve. Like there's, you're who you are for a reason. You can't just golf all day long. And so he obeyed finally. And then he called me to it. And when my situation changed where I was, and I think it's people, God, God wants you. Get out there in community, get to know people. And matter of fact, this is just happened this week, Dr. Spencer. We're going to open our home and we're going to invite people. Well, we've had dinners with people. We've been having dinners with couples, but now it's going to go deeper. I'm going to have a book club and we're going to have people over for, you know, back in the day, they had this salon. They called it back in Paris, all the artists and musicians and writers and business people would come and talk and share. We're going to try to recreate that here in the treasure coast. So if you're ever in this area, stop by. But I think God says, get to know people because the world is having all this dark stuff all out here. But guess what? That's not the truth of us and you and me. And I need me and you to go forward. And that's, I think, the call to action. Get to know your neighbor. Get to know somebody. Be vulnerable. Make a phone call. Go have tea or coffee with someone. Keep doing it until you get better at it. And then invite someone into your house. It doesn't have to be clean and perfect. Just invite someone over because people need us to show up for each other. Don't you know when someone calls you or I try to send notes, when someone sends me a note or calls me out of the blue and say, you know, I was thinking about you. Oh, my gosh. Doesn't that do it? Because we're all so busy. We all have families and lives and we're trying to make a living and we have concerns, anxieties, and we need each other because we need to give hope to each other. And that only comes from you or me. Like it comes from us. So that's what I think. Connect. I think that's a great answer and absolutely fitting to what you conveyed throughout the show here. So, I mean, I think it's a perfect answer. So I really appreciate it. And Georgette, it's been a joy to have you on. This has been great. Really enjoyed the conversation. I would route people to your website if you want to give that Georgetteback.com, right? And we'll include that. We'll include that in the show notes. Is there anywhere else people can connect with you? Where can they get your book? Well, so Junk to Jewels, the website has the information, but Amazon has it direct. It's in all the platforms. If you like a hard copy, Kindle, audio, it's all there. Bellyhealinghearts.org is our nonprofit. And we would love people to share their mentorship, their wisdom, their knowledge of how we can grow and be better. Because like I said, we're at the beginning of this vision and I'm learning all the time management skills and things like that. I love Brendan Bouchard, Ed Mylett, Mel Robbins, all those folks too. I follow all of them. But I really want to get back to the spirit, like what you're doing on your ministry platform, useful for God. Oh my gosh, that's the foundation that says it all. And that inspires me. Yeah, it's time to step it up because I'm 57, but that also means I come with all the wisdom of hindsight, people, all the mistakes, all the things. Guess what? That gives me the right to share and say, and, hey, I learned, I did it this way and here's what I learned. Don't do it that way. So yeah, you're, you're, so I think God's calling everyone higher. Go, go pursue him with all your heart. And what I love most is when you sit with God, here's the deal. Just go sit with God. Just sit and talk heart to heart. He listens and then read your Bible because he'll speak through his word, but then get in community because he speaks through the people around you. Thank you for having me. This has been so much fun. No, this has been great. And we'll have the websites that Georgette mentioned. We'll have a link to her book. All that will be in the show notes. I encourage you to go check it out. Really enjoyed the conversation, Georgette. Thanks for being here. And we will catch everybody on the next episode of Thinking Christian. Take care. I just want to take a second to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the Thinking Christian podcast. If you go to lifeaudio.com, you'll find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more. Hi, friend. Are you stressed, maybe even worried about so many needs around you that you've forgotten you are worth taking care of too? Well, I'm Bonnie Gray, the host of Breathe, the Stress Less Podcast. I want to invite you to join me as I share practical tips based on science, inspired by God's word, to help you spark joy and restore God's peace and love to your soul. Subscribe now and go to lifeaudio.com.