When Life Isn’t What You Hoped: Elizabeth Woodson

We tell ourselves a lot of things that are not true. And one was like, they don't want to hear this. They don't want to be bothered with this. I'm still talking about this.

I haven't gotten over it. They don't want to be here for me. And that's not true. Your friends, your community, they love you. They want to hear.

They want to be able to help. And sometimes we need someone to give us the hug. And sometimes we need someone to give us that hug and a hard word of, OK, sis, like, what are you going to do today?

And so we rob ourselves of the beauty of that when we stay by ourselves. Welcome to Family Life Today, where we want to help you pursue the relationships that matter most. I'm Shelby Abbott and your hosts are Dave and Ann Wilson. You can find us at familylifetoday.com.

And this is Family Life Today. Going to bed last night, late, got a big day ahead of us. I'm just literally like, I'm so ready to go to sleep. And Ann goes, hey, uh.

You're just crawling bed. Oh, I was literally. And I said, hey, you know, I heard the furnace. Like, I opened the door and it's dripping water. And I'm like, no, sure enough. There's water dripping out of through the filter into the pan. And, you know, we're in Florida and I didn't know this about Florida.

But you have to get a shot back and suck out the drain line that goes outside like every two months because they run so much it gets stuck. I don't know, but I just closed the bedroom door and I could hear banging. I can hear him outside. I mean, I had to do it. I'm like, we're not going to have any AC all night.

And I'm out there at midnight. And I remember thinking, I did not sign up for this. This is not the life I want. I do not want to do that.

I could do this at 8 a.m. or 7 a.m. I'm so grateful that you did that. But I got it done, didn't I?

You did. But think about this. Think about if you had to do that over and over and over. And after two weeks, you're still doing it. Well, I probably will be in two weeks.

That's all I know. I mean, all that to say, we're talking about hardship today. And that's really not a hardship.

I mean, getting the shop back out. And it took care of everything. And we were good in 20 minutes.

Although I had to jump in the pool because I had full sweat. But we have Elizabeth Woodson back with us. You're like, stop talking.

I know. In the studio, Elizabeth, welcome back to Family Life Today. Thanks for having me. And your book called Embrace Your Life, here's the subtitle.

It's so good. How to find joy when the life you have is not the life you hoped for. Every single person at some point in their life will feel like that. Like, I never expected this. I never wanted this. The subtitle, How to Find Joy. Come on. How to find peace.

How to be okay. You literally picked the word joy in the middle of hardship. Okay, you're laughing. I mean, I'm sure you thought about this for hours and days and weeks.

If you didn't hear yesterday, go back. Because you get into some really practical things too. But you're taking it a little too far. And you're an author. You're a speaker. You're a communicator.

You're a Bible study writer. So you've thought about this for a while. So why the word joy? Yeah, I laugh because that's the last thing people want. Right. In a place of, I don't want joy.

Exactly. I want to be happy. But I think that that is the key for us to not lose ourselves when we're in those places. To me, joy encompasses the other things. So it encompasses hope.

It encompasses the things we need to move forward. And so to me, joy is this anchor. People who have joy in them as a difficulty handle it differently than people who don't. And aren't they attractive?

They are. Like when you talk to somebody that, you know, their life is falling apart. They've lost something that they love.

And there's not the happiness. But there's a trust and a contentment in your soul. And you're like, I need that. I want that.

How do you get that? You said yesterday, you know, going to live with your grandparents and they both die. Were you able to find joy? Yes.

And on the way. Because everything is, to me, what I want people to know is what I'm not suggesting is something immediate. You're not a quick fixer.

Not a quick fixer. After whatever thing happens that is causing us this appointment, it's not like, oh, it's, you know, that I have this superficial, joyful attitude. But what I knew is my grandparents were with the Lord. And so for me, in my situation, there is this anchor to my faith in God where my joy is attached to.

It's like, God, you're going to be with me in this place that I, thinking about all the wonderful memories I had with them. My one grandmother, she had cancer. And so at a certain point, cancer just is, I always say it's mean.

It's mean. And I don't want you here suffering. And so it's knowing that my grandmother is healed as she's with the Lord. It's not easy.

It's not a quick fix. But I do believe the Lord brought me joy in that place. That's not this bubbly happiness, but it is this deep-seated contentment on the things of God. And to me, that's where the joy comes from. Yeah, you know, you open the first chapter, Embrace the Journey. How is the journey to joy through the tunnel of lament? Like, are there moments when we, I mean, hopefully we get the joy, but we're not there yet. Or is it okay to just cry out and be mad or angry or complaining to God? How would you even define lament? That?

Anything else? I think it's crying out to God. And I think many times it's crying out to God for what we believe things he has not done and he said he was going to do. What we have in scripture, which I love, is the book of Psalms.

And the Psalms, sometimes you read through them and you're like, man, that sounds a little wild. No kidding. He sounds depressed. He's like, is he talking to God like that? Yeah.

Angry. And saying, God, you said you were going to be faithful to us. And so Israel has real covenantal promises they are holding onto God for. And what you see is that the fact that they're present there, to me, is an illustration from God that this is okay.

Yeah. That it's okay for you to be a little frustrated. It's okay for you even to be angry. We do everything in honor of the sovereignty and bigness of God. But that we're honest with our emotions because he already knows what we're thinking anyway. So that we would just have the space to process that with him. I think a lament that's crying out to God and, Lord, you haven't met my expectations.

You haven't filled my promises. Psalm 13, to me, shows this really beautiful journey that David takes in that place of lament. And it starts with frustration and it ends with worship. I don't think it's immediate, but I do think that that shows us something about what it means to process the big feelings with God.

I don't know about you guys, but when someone has gone through something really hard, I most often will send a psalm that will be like, it's usually when David is lamenting at the beginning. He's complaining. He's asking, God, where are you? But then by the end, he'll be reminded like, you are here. You love me.

You see me. When I'm struggling, it's good to be reminded. And having somebody along the way with me to do that. You talk about people, how people are important, too, as we walk through lament or just hardship. Embrace help. Yeah.

How do you do that? I think sometimes it is the last thing you want to do because sometimes people can be unhelpful. People say, you know, some crazy stuff when bad things happen and we make promises that are not things that we're in control of. And so I get it when people are like, I don't know if I want to tell people about what's going on. But what I have seen is sometimes just being present with someone. I don't have to have all the answers, but that I am just physically present.

I bring a meal, I sit and I just listen. And being able to share without shame and judgment what's going on in your life, to be able to express all those things to me is healthy probably for reasons that even science would tell us if it's not just bottled up inside of us, but that I get to have someone who just grieves with me something that was really bad. They're just like, we're not going to sugarcoat this. We're not going to put a bow on it. And we live a God, we have served a God who is grieved with this, too.

He doesn't want this world like this. That's why he sent Jesus. And so I think there is power in that. I've seen a lot of lament happen in song. So singing together and singing worship songs or even I think about the old hymns that I grew up on or even Negro spirituals that I grew up on where we're singing about the hardships of life, but also thinking about the trueness of God. And it is the voices of the people around me that give me strength. And I think there's just something happens there that I don't have the full words to explain, but going through difficulty with other people gives us the strength to me that I believe is grounded in who God is.

I've shared this before, but my sister passed away when she was 45 of lung cancer, never smoked. And I remember I'd go to the worship service and I couldn't sing because there's something about worship that connects your heart, you know, in the moment to the pain. And so I would just sob. But there was something. You're right, Elizabeth, of hearing the words, hearing the people all around me. It's this steadfast remembrance of he's with me. He is faithful.

He is here. Even though my heart feels so broken and shattered, I can rest in it. And it doesn't have to all be fixed. I'm just hurting. And that's OK.

But you're right. There is something about being surrounded. But hearing the words of some of the worship is just such a it's a balm over the soul. Yeah, I think it's easy in that when you're hurting, maybe it's just my default. It's like I want to pull away from people.

Totally. Not go toward them. I just want to be alone thinking that's good for me. And it's absolutely horrible because you wallow, you know, like you said, there's some good to lament and complain and getting being honest with your emotions to God. But when you're only alone, how do we go to people when we don't want to? I think it's an element of being courageous. Again, it's these aspects of community are hard to jump into when it's non-existent in your life. And so I think, you know, it's easier.

Build it before. But even still, if we are part of a community of believers that we can go to a minister, to a leader and say, I just need to talk with you. We go to people who we know they love us and care for us. We tell ourselves a lot of things that are not true. And one was like, they don't want to hear this. They don't want to be bothered with this. I'm still talking about this.

I haven't gotten over it. They don't they don't want to be here for me. And that's not true. Your friends, your community, they love you. They want to hear. They want to be able to help. And sometimes we need someone to give us the hug. And sometimes we need someone to give us that hug and a hard word of, OK, sis, like, what are you going to do today?

What step are you taking today? Because they know us and know what we need. And so we rob ourselves of the beauty of that when we stay by ourselves. A few years ago, we were speaking on a family life has a cruise called Love Like You Mean It. And it's a marriage cruise.

It's a love boat. And we did a workshop for parents of adult children. And then it had an open mic at the end because it says it's a unique stage of life where your kids are now out of the home, probably and adults. And when we went to open mic, it was tragic story after story of heartbreak, of their children not turning out and walking away, choosing different lifestyles. And, man, to hear the pain, you know, but then realize as they're speaking that on the mic, there's a room full, almost a thousand people who live the same place.

It felt like we have to have community in like minded people when we walk through the valley. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Because we can think that we're the only one. Yeah. And many times we're not. And so you're like, oh, you too?

Why does that feel better? We're both in this valley place. It's like sometimes it's you find the person who, oh, you walk through this, too, and you're still here. Yeah. And that gives us hope. But even in just the sharing that that community does something for us and strengthens us. And I think it's a really beautiful thing. How do you embrace loss and embrace hope? Yeah. It's like they're contradictory.

Good question. You know, it's like, first of all, I don't want to embrace loss. I almost want to deny it.

Yeah. I lost a child. I lost my marriage. I lost, you know, my future, my family, whatever. I just want to move on. But you're like, no, you sort of got to embrace that.

But at the same time, there's hope. It's like, no, they don't go together. They're later. Yeah. You're like, how do you do it together?

Yeah. In the book, I take the journey with Joshua. And Joshua has a really unique story. He comes into a pivotal moment of leadership after Moses dies.

And I was like, how was that? Like you have served with this person for 40 years and they're not here anymore. What you have in Joshua one is I feel like God takes Joshua kind of through this, like these movements of a kind of a process.

Israel grieves the death of Moses. But God gives all these promises about who he is and what he's going to do for Joshua. And to me, it is the hope and the loss between those are me moving through these things of like lamenting, dealing with my pain, remembering what's true about God and really standing in.

He says he will be with me forever at that moment. And you find God say to Joshua, it's time for you to move forward. And I think there's a moment where the Lord does that for us.

And he says, I've given you all the truth. It's time for you to move forward into things because there's still life for you to live. And to me, that's where the hope is found. It's found in, oh, what do I have through Jesus? But to me, that's not, it's, some folks it's immediate.

But I think for many of us, it's this process of time with the Lord, time in prayer, living in community and the flickering flames of hope start to emerge and we can walk in that. It's funny, one of my really, really good friends, and we're friends with him as a couple, but she was walking with her daughter early in the morning and she was hit by a car. This just happened a few months ago. And she is this vibrant, she just finished seminary, but she has four kids. She has her own business. And she has extensive brain damage and she's still in the hospital recovering.

And it's very, very slow. But it's been interesting to watch, like Dave and I just went to see her again and her husband was there and you can see he's in the midst of despair. He's in the valley and he's a doctor, so he knows the details. Like he knows, you know, you don't just make up stuff like she's going to be okay.

He knows the reality that it could be bad. And even as we visit, there's something about someone else being there as we pray together and pray over her and then worship together. It's all the things you're talking about, Elizabeth. Like, I'm grateful that we have that, but I'm imagining if they as a family didn't have anybody. They have 50 people coming. There's a sign up sheet of all the people that are visiting her because they've invested so much time and energy into people and into Jesus. But I'm imagining the listener thinking like, I have nobody. You don't understand. I don't know anybody. Even my family is estranged.

Where do they even start if they're in the valley by themselves? I remember a situation, it was during the pandemic and it was one of these weepy days. And I was like, Lord, I just really need you to show up for me.

And at that moment. So you asked that, you prayed that. I prayed that. I was like, Lord, I need you to show up.

I'll pray that same thing. Look, I need something today. I need something today. Like, I know you do the right now answers.

I need a right now answer. And I had a friend at that moment text me and she was like, hey, do you need prayer? Like, I just feel like the Holy Spirit, you know, put you on my heart.

Is there anything you need prayer for? And I'm a voice text person. So like voice text later, like the whole paragraph. I was like, you should have just called her. You know, and I just shared in that moment what was going on. And she prayed for me and it was great. But what was encouraging to me was that God reached out by the part of the Holy Spirit to someone else across the country.

Really? She's across the country? She's across the country. She's in a totally different state.

She's in D.C. I'm in Texas and she responds to the Holy Spirit and she just reached out to me. And so what I believe is when God says he is with us, he can bring somebody. Like that's who we are as a hands and feet. So when God prompts, the Holy Spirit prompts us to, you know, go talk to someone, to be encouraging someone.

You don't know what they need. And so even if you don't have anyone, you have God and God can move anyone to come to you. Oh, that's good. Yeah. We forget who we serve.

There's nothing stopping him. But I also think that means we as his followers, when we're prompted by the Holy Spirit, somebody's name or a thought comes into my mind. I'm trying to now act on that.

Like send them a text instead of just letting it go. Yeah. I think we forget who God is in trial, in hardship. And you have a whole section you're like, you got to remember who you are and who God is. Let's talk about that. Talk about that.

How do you? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Remind us. Remind us. There's a couple of attributes of his that I unpack in the book.

The list is endless. But first, he's sovereign, which means that he's all powerful and nothing is outside of his control. So I think about the lies we'll tell ourselves. Yeah. Like, well, then why did he let this happen? Right. It's a question of why do bad things happen to good people?

And it's a complicated question. But what we need to know is the bad things don't happen because of God. The bad things happen because of sin. That we will do ourselves or sin that we experienced from other people. That God doesn't turn a blind eye to that. And he's able both now to deal with it, but we also know that he deals with that in an ultimate way through Jesus. That's what our scriptures tell us.

But the scriptures say God's arm is not too short. Like, nothing is impossible for him. And what will stifle us is believing he can't do it. He's not going to do it. He's not going to come through. I have too many stories of doors opening in my life that had no handles on the outside.

So there was nothing I could have done to get that job or to get that interview or to get that opportunity. But he works something out. And his power, to me, encourages me for different seasons where I need to be reminded that he can do it.

So he's sovereign. Another one is his love for us. Scripture tells a story of how God created us out of the overflow of his love and pursues humanity. And ultimately, through the power of Jesus, saves us for eternity. All of that so that we could experience, I like to use the word shalom. It's wholeness.

It is this perfection that we see a glimpse of in Genesis. We see it in ultimate sense in Revelation. God's love for me is that deep that he's never going to let me go.

And that nothing that I could do is going to make him kick me to the curb. Those are two things. You know, there's a sense of, you know, how do we deal with God being eternal?

Like, all these things that, omnipotence, all the omnis we could talk about. But to me, it's that he is powerful enough to do anything. And his love means that he's also compassionate. He cares. He cares about my sad moments. And he cares about me when I just, I always say, like, you walk with a limp. Like, you just, I can't, I can't be at full speed because I'm a little broken. That his love is present with us in those moments too.

You're single. Have you ever struggled with that whole thing? Oh, yeah.

You know, in what way? You know, it's like, how much time do you have? It is, I'm single and I am 39. And so at this point you have to think about if the Lord doesn't bring it your way. To grow up in the church and to, one, to just desire marriage, to desire companionship.

But two, to believe that that is like, that's the evidence of God's goodness and faithfulness in your life. What, marriage? Marriage. And so it's like, am I not married because something's wrong with me? Am I not married because God's mad at me?

And how do I exist in this ecosystem where marriage takes its place of prominence and singleness does not? How do I believe that what I have is not dirt, but actually is gold? And that God has something good in that place for me. So it, it varies. And sometimes it's just, man, I just long to, to experience the same things my friends do. And that's just not what God has for me in this season. And so it's that wrestling back and forth. I take myself through those through steps, even now that I present in the book. Like it's not something I did in the past. It's something now. And it just is, every good thing will not come my way, but God's still good.

And what he's given me is a life that's still worth living. I remember being with Elizabeth Elliott. You remember that name? Jim Elliott's wife. And I was in a conference with a bunch of women and a woman raised her hand and she said, I'm single, but I know that God hasn't called me to be single.

And Elizabeth's pretty cut and dry. She said, are you single today? And she said, yes. She goes, then he's called you to be single today and he'll equip you and provide all you need today.

And tomorrow we'll see what he has. It's true. I love that answer.

We're called the life of the Lord and we go where he sends us. Yes. Yeah. I mean, I think the question is sometimes our expectations are faulty.

Yeah. But often they're not. It's like I desire justice. I desire fairness. I see people in the church. My friends get it.

I don't. So you're saying healthy expectations. I mean, my expectations are reasonable. They're even biblical. Yeah. And yet God doesn't seem to deliver and I'm disappointed.

How do I deal with that? You know, expectations are always connected to timing. And so we'll see things and experience real things that are good. Like you talked about justice or just peace or the things we see other people have that are present in scripture we don't. And it is, do I trust in the timing of God?

So the way I think about issues of justice, again, super complicated and can be heavy and hard. That what we'll think is because I don't see it now, God's not doing anything or he won't do anything. And I just believe that God's always working, even when we can't see it.

And we would just trust his timing. A lot of this place of embracing our lives comes to Lord, I'm going to trust what you're doing and trust what you're giving, even when I don't understand it. And I don't see it because you are the one that determines what's best. And there's a resting, there's a surrender and humility and resting in that. It's not always easy, but I believe that's what the Bible says is a life for the believer. Yeah, and you've mentioned before, I mean, there's got to be a surrender to the sovereignty of God. That doctrine sometimes is really hard to wrap my arms, to embrace. When everything's good, I, yeah, God's sovereign. But when it isn't, it's like, seriously, it's almost like you want to throw away the theology. Like, come on, that's a childhood belief that he's really all powerful and in control because these bad things keep happening.

How do you hold on to that? For me, I'm a person, I'm always going to come back to the stories of scripture. And what I've learned is God is a lot more patient with us than we are with ourselves. And he is more patient to change people slowly over times and situations quickly.

That frustrates us to no end. But he is like, and his plan, I don't understand it. Scripture says his ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. And I don't want to say that sounding super spiritual and sugary sweet. It legitimately is that God is changing things. Scripture shows me that, the way he changes things over time. But even in the things he doesn't change now, scripture points me to an eternity where all those things will be shifted into goodness. And as a believer, that's the path I'm called to walk on. And life outside of that gets difficult when I can't embrace the timing of God. It's really embracing God himself. It's embracing him even when I don't feel like it. I don't trust it.

I'm acting and walking in obedience as an act of my will, not my feelings. And that is hard unless we cling to him every day, I think. You know, it's interesting. I lost my little brother when I was seven. He was five leukemia. And a single mom, dad was already gone, so raised by just my mom. And she tended to sort of not talk about it.

You know, it's just like you don't talk about it, you don't have to deal with it. And yet as I look back, she somehow embraced hope as we went through this journey. And you know, losing a child has got to be one of the hardest things ever. And recently in a church that we started in Detroit 30 years ago, a family that just is a pillar of our community.

With kids, and they've been there for decades. And their college-aged son was standing on a curb on the campus at Michigan State. And a hit-and-run, somebody hit him and killed him and drove off. But this is what Gina, his mom wrote, and it was right at the funeral. She wrote this, Early Sunday morning on November 5th, the enemy of my soul, Satan launched a violent attack against my family and community, and our camp is severely wounded. It was an act of war. Jesus warned us of this war. In Ephesians 6, 10 through 17, we are told to put on the full armor of God so that we can stand against the schemes of the devil. It explains who and what we are actually fighting against.

That it isn't flesh and blood like we think, but a powerful dark forces in a spiritual realm that we cannot see. We are instructed to armor up with the armor of God so that we're prepared for this fight. We are to put on protective gear, which is the belt of truth, the breastplate of God's righteousness, the shoes of peace that come from the gospel, the shield of faith, to stop the fire arrows of the devil, the helmet of salvation, and to bring only one offensive piece of armor, the sword of the spirit, which is the holy word of God. This scripture also promises that after the battle, we will be standing firm. Jesus himself says in John 16, 33, that in this life you will have many trials and sorrows, but to take heart because he has overcome the world. I have placed my faith and trust in Jesus as my God and Savior, and I have been following him for a very long time. He has been so good and faithful to me, even though hardship has come. I have no reason to believe that his everlasting love, goodness, greatness, and grace will ever run out in my life, and I do not believe that he did this terrible thing to me.

I know him so much better than that. While I cannot explain the whys and hows of what has happened, I have learned enough to know that I can trust Jesus with my pain, and that he will use his resurrection power to bring beauty from the ashes. I will see the promised victory over this battle that God has pre-warned me about, and I will be reunited with my sweet Sal again when God receives me in his timing. Until then, I will battle onward, knowing that I will never be alone because Jesus is with me always.

The counter-attack on Satan will make him wish he never heard the Vicharos' name. I am wounded and weak right now, but I will bring my hurting to the great physician and let him prescribe my healing. I will accept the comfort of his Holy Spirit that he has promised. I will claim the peace that surpasses understanding that is promised to those who are in Christ Jesus. I will commit to comfort others who are hurting with the same comfort I have received from him. Jesus, let me see and feel you close to the brokenhearted like you promised. I mean, it's hard to say and write in the middle of that valley within days of the death of her son.

Any thoughts? Yeah, to me, when I hear you read that, like I hear where our hope is girded in. And there is this reality of the war that we're in. The hard stuff that we experience is ultimately connected to the enemy and the things that seek to thwart the things of God. But she also connects to this reality that all those dark things have an end date on them. That there's an end date to our pain, there's an end date to our sadness, there's an end date to the grief. There's not an end date to life with the Lord and that she will be reunited with her son. Until then, we were on knowing that the great physician will provide her the healing that she needs. And that's just really powerful.

The humanity of it, but the perspective we have based upon the truth of scripture. It's our foundation, the rock and the hope of Jesus. I'm just wondering if you'll just pray. I'm sure there's so many people that just need prayers.

They're battling right now. Father, we just thank you that we have the opportunity to speak to you. And I pray for the listeners who are going through their own valley, a dark night of the soul, the things the unimaginable has happened to them. And I pray that you would be the comforter. I pray that you would bring a bone to their soul. I pray that you would show up and bring them the comfort and support tangible things, even in your people, that you would have the people of God show up and provide them with the things that they need, but their hope would be grounded in you.

And they would see you do what you always do, which is provide, which is sustain, but their eyes would ultimately be on you. There's an end date to all the hard things that we deal with in this life, but there's never an end date to the life with you. And that is what we find joy in. In your son's holy name, we pray. Amen.

Amen. There's an end day to the hard things, but there's never an end day to life with you. Wow, what a poignant and practical way to help you in the present and then give you hope for the future.

I loved how she ended that prayer. I'm Shelby Abbott, and you've been listening to Dave and Anne Wilson with Elizabeth Woodson on Family Life Today. Elizabeth has been with us for the last two days, and she has written a book called Embrace Your Life, how to find joy when the life you have is not the life you hoped for. And I think to some degree, almost every person can relate with the subtitle of that book. We're all in a position where we think to ourselves, this is not really what I hoped for.

This is not turning out the way that I wanted it to. And this book really addresses that gap between what your desires are for what you hoped your life would be and where you are practically in the here and now. And so this book is going to be our gift to you when you give today. You can get your copy now with any donation by going online to familylifetoday.com and clicking on the donate now button at the top of the page. Or you could give us a call with your donation at 800-358-6329. Again, that number is 800-F as in family, L as in life, and then the word today. And feel free to drop us a donation in the mail if you'd like to.

Our address is Family Life 100 Lakehart Drive, Orlando, Florida 32832. You know, Psalm 34 8 says, O taste and see that the Lord is good. I think a lot of times we aren't able to see that the Christian journey is really the opposite of what we think.

Now, what do I mean by that? It can feel like when you're walking with God, there's these little deaths that you experience all the time. But it's really in those little deaths leading us to life.

While the road to destruction through sin, basically if we make sinful choices, it feels like these little bursts of life, but it's really leading to death. So I found that these little deaths that God calls us to really lead us to life, deeper communion with Him. And one of those ways that things can hurt is by giving. Giving hurts sometimes. But in those potentially painful moments of our own generosity, we're really seeing that it leads to life, not only by blessing the recipient of the gift, but by blessing the giver too. In these moments of generosity, we are tasting and seeing that the Lord is good. Now, when you give to family life, not only are you able to experience tasting and seeing, but you're also able to know that God is using your gift to bring Jesus into the homes of thousands of people. So thank you for giving. And if you want to start giving and becoming a monthly partner with us, you can head over to familylifetoday.com. Now, coming up tomorrow, what is the actual impact of digital technology on personal relationships and parenting? Well, Silicon Valley pastor Jay Kim is here with David Ann Wilson tomorrow to talk about that and the underestimated value of being present with people. That's tomorrow. We hope you'll join us. On behalf of David Ann Wilson, I'm Shelby Abbott. We'll see you back next time for another edition of Family Life Today. Family Life Today is a donor-supported production of Family Life, a crew ministry helping you pursue the relationships that matter most.