The Power of Being Quiet

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What does it mean? to be quiet. Initially, you hear me ask that question, and you think, wait, look who's talking? The loudest guy around.

Well It's time to talk about something so important.

So critical. We have all kinds of noise out there. We have a lot coming at us. Life is coming at us fast. We've got all these devices.

But how important is it And I realized this just last week driving down the mountain. Where was I? I was at the Cove, the Billy Graham Training Center. Met several people up there. I was there ministering to, speaking the gospel to a team, a college basketball team, and encouraging them.

My buddy Phil came and he played the guitar. And it was it was two days of Yeah, there were times we ministered, but it was two days of being quiet before God, listening and praying. I went into the room and there's a great Bible sitting right there in the drawer and there's no T V. And I thought, this is amazing. No distractions, just being quiet, listening.

But sometimes that quietness. is awkward. What do you do? How do you handle it? And how does the Bible and the Word of God speak to this?

And what about my buddy? Of many, many years, many decades, who just wrote a book about this very subject. You folks are in for a treat. I'm Stu Everson. Welcome to Truth Talk and Truth Talk Live.

When's the last time you had a quiet moment with God? There's a new book out that is going to be. I mean, this book is going to take fire. You're going to love this book. You're going to want to read it.

You're going to get a bunch of copies. to all your friends and family. The book is entitled the quiet me remembers. And the forward God has a sense of humor, and my buddy Donnie Lafferty has a sense of humor as well because he asked the loudest person he knows to write the forge, Stu Epperson. Donnie, I don't know what you were thinking, brother, but it was an honor to write the forward to your new book.

Congratulations and welcome to the show. Oh, thank you so much, Stu. It's so good to hear your voice and Touch base again. It's been a good while.

Well, it's good to hear your voice, and it's good to talk about this subject. And listeners that are listening may want to reach out by email or call us. Talk about maybe when is the last time. you were quiet before God. You know, oftentimes we'll refer to our devotions as a quiet time.

I like that name. It's a quiet time. It's not me. running my mouth or on the phone or In a meeting and this and that, it's just your time with God, time alone with God. listening to him, And Donnie somehow In our fast paced culture, We've gotten away from being quiet.

Is that kind of what led to this book? Tell us kind of what's just out of your heart, how this came about. Yeah, thank you. I hit a point in life I had gone through A lot of trauma and losing my wife of 23 years. Uh to suicide.

several years ago. And my life took different turns where I ended up relocating to Georgia from North Carolina. And God put me in A situation where I left everything that was familiar, Stu. the things that I had grown accustomed to, my community, my family. Uh my parents.

And I literally resented it a bit at first. I actually remarried. Uh my wife Michelle. and was blessed to love again after a few years uh of being widowed and in that position of being in a new place, and starting a life over. My wife is a flight attendant and would be gone for several days.

And so it put me in a position to be very quiet in a house by myself. in a new place. And Like I said, I resented it at first and God spoke to me Just giving me a calm. Probably at the best point of my pity party. And Really stirred me to recognize that he wanted me to be quiet with him.

More so than I had ever been. Wow.

So you've had some real life trauma, and brother, I've been. With you in that. I've seen it firsthand. We've prayed together. We've been friends a long time.

You've been a great. friend, a great Christian radio partner.

So, when I read this book, Knowing the Author, I thought, wow, because you really got real. Like, you didn't hold back at all. On sharing your heart, your struggle. I mean, this is Donnie Lafferty, raw and uncensored, brother. Yeah, you know, uh I have always I used to uh be like a counselor with kids at the YMCA.

And besides dunking on the little ones when I was in my twenties. Um One of the things I I learned real quickly is a kid could see through a fake really, really quickly. And so early on, I just grew to appreciate and really wanted myself to carry myself. in the most real way that I can and to be authentic. I've written this book of that same representation And that is a bit uncomfortable when you are that vulnerable to share your own struggles with uh being quiet and thinking about Sometimes the first thing I want to reach for is my phone.

versus Uh even um my family or even the Lord or time with him. And I share from a, I guess, a struggling standpoint. And God has just continued to Give me the words and the idea of what was most important during that quiet time. And that's what I write about in this book. Yeah, you know, my wife, we were sitting on the couch talking the other day, and she I was on my phone of all things, and she's sharing with me from her phone.

About how some of these leading psychiatrists and health science experts are saying. that for the first hour of your morning, you shouldn't even look at your phone. You should do your stuff. And these are not even Christians. You know, a pastor would say, you're saying in your book, very, very.

cogently and very in a in a very solid and appropriate manner and gracious manner, That we should focus on the Lord there at the beginning of the day and throughout the day, of course. But these are secular. People that some of them don't even believe in a God. But they're saying that you're You know, instantly pick grabbing that phone first, opening it up, and jumping in there. Actually does things to retard your mental process.

It actually It actually increases and advances aging and messes with your mind, your psyche, your whole. bodily ecosystem from your your head to your toe. And it's interesting that you say and you use a lot of scripture. You say this quote, this kind of a word from your book. The phone may not be changing what we believe on paper.

But it may be training What our hearts Reach for first. Can you talk about that? Yeah, and it it really does. And it's the book. is me sharing how I became and continue to become more aware of just how distant I've become from reality.

And we really don't realize how our thinking is so skewed Um And we we think that it's okay. And we think that we I was feeling like I was very in tune with what was most important. And that being the Lord, I ended up teaching a class about technology at church. Oh, wow. And that.

allowed me to hear other people in the class just share from broken hearts about how they were losing theirselves to the screens within their families and within their work. Um so uh yeah, I mean The thing about Psalm 4610. I start out in the book talking a little bit about. This being still But in the context of it, Sometimes we think that that means lack of motion and lack of movement. But Actually God.

understands that we have busy lives.

However, in our busiest of times, we can be still in the Lord. And I'll talk about a little bit of how I've been challenged. To not lose sight of God, even in those busy, noisy times. I love that.

Now, we're going to go deeper on how to be quiet, and we're going to talk about these two battling personas inside of you: the noisy me and the quiet me. This show today is to nourish and encourage your soul in the Lord.

So, stay tuned. There's a whole lot of juicy nuggets in here from my buddy Donnie Lafferty, his brand new book, The Quiet Me Remembers. You won't want to miss what he says about this when we come back on Truth Talk. Hang on, more coming up. Another thing about this book that really grabbed my attention right out of the gate was my dad's one of my dad's favorite verses.

Psalm 46, 10. Be still and know that I am God. Donnie Lafferty, Lafferty author, longtime friend of mine and of this network, has written this amazing book. called The Quiet Me Remembers. This is so important.

in our fast paced, breakneck speed world of scrolling and distractions and social media and all the stuff like that. And now we have screenagers. You walk into a restaurant and there's six of them sitting at a table and they're all glued to their screen, not even talking to each other. What in the world's going on? We're not going to bemoan and attack and shame everyone for being on their phone.

We are going to point to a better way. And that's really what you're trying to do here, Donnie. You're not going that shame way. You're trying to point people. To What happens when you actually listen to God, when you actually are quiet before God?

When you actually allow him To work in that stillness. His voice is so powerful, Donnie. But what are those things, those impediments in our life that keep us from hearing Him? Donnie, how uh what would you How would you describe those things out there for us for listeners and that you approach in your book as well? Sure.

So one of the things is obviously awareness, but We um We get in a state of what I call the noisy me, Stu. And And the noisy me is the it's the version of me that uh appears when Life becomes very, very loud. It's it's uh It's the busiest of times. There may be a few crisis going on. Um It's not all bad things as well.

There's many, many good things that we fill our lives with. And so even when you have quiet time available, I found myself and you may have done this, you'll turn the T V on almost like a companion. And I talk about this, is there were so many ways, even in the car, I would. turned the radio up and I began to realize I wasn't necessarily even paying attention to what's on. that I was feeling my environment with noise.

as almost like a calming, familiar place. Uh where I didn't get to that quiet place, which can sometimes be comfortable. And for me, given the hard times I had gone through, as I as I grew Um trying to cope with it, I found myself trying to drown out the quiet. Mm. Wow.

And you kind of set up this parallel track throughout the book. There's the noisy me. The performing me The acting me, the scrolling me, and then there's the quiet me. And it's kind of like the two dogs, you know, in the old Indian proverb, right? Where the Indian chief says, Hey, there's two dogs, and one of them's the bad side, one of them's the good side.

And the kid says, Well, which one wins? He says, Well, the one you feed the most. It seems like everything in our culture is screaming out: fee the noisy me, fee the poser, fee the performer. You got to look like everyone else. You got to feed the FOMO.

Everyone else is putting happy, you know, they're fighting and scratching and gnawing their way to church every Sunday morning, but they put that little happy picture of themselves up because that's what the, they're, they're, Yeah, yeah. But on the inside, there's a lot of pain, Donnie. There's a lot of struggle. And the noise is getting louder and louder and louder. And it's so loud that we don't even hear.

Any kind of communication like you and I are doing right here because we're. We're trapped in a whole other little pseudo-world of our screens and our phones. And our iPod our iPods are in. And I used to share the Lord on the airplanes. I do still.

But literally, the last few times that I've played, Lord, opened the door, give me an opportunity to share. Like the person I'm sitting next to, the earbuds go in and it's off to the races. And there's not, you know, unless I spill my drink on them or something, there's not going to be a conversation, you know, necessarily. But God still works, you know, through that. But it's almost like we.

We have So many options. You think this would be wonderful. But it's it's it's almost become a curse, hasn't it? It really has. And I like what you said earlier about Certainly, the book and my own attitude toward is not to shame people.

The reality is, there's so much good with technology, with our phones, with screens. We use those for many, many good things. And our work environment, our lives are filled with that. Um But the thing that I noticed is when I And God just put me in a quiet place. I started to one, be still with the Lord, but You know, my pain is part of my story, but it's not my identity.

And God. woke me to You know, we it He made me aware of how much I'm forgetting. be with all the noise.

So we often push out The important truths that we should be keeping on to. And so when I became quiet, I was more. uh able to remember who I was in Christ and remember some of the truths. Yeah. the noisy side of me was pushing away.

Um The quiet means not somebody new that I that I have to admit, invent. It's It's that person who begins living again from what God has already declared me to be true, is what I say in the book. And there's some questions I challenge. the readers on when we're thinking about quiet the quiet mean the noisy mean. For example, are you tired because you're doing too much?

or because you're trying to prove too much. Another example is Are you listening to God or only listening to people talk about God? Or what could God remind you of if you gave him ten uninterrupted minutes Today So there are some exercises in the book that I ultimately challenge, but they all come from me trying to practice those. and sit quiet with God and let him remind me Of his truth, and more importantly for me. remind me who I am in him because That busy, the noisy me is not the best version of me at all.

Yeah, we got a lot of noisy me's out there, including yours truly. And I want to spend some time this hour, this time we're all together talking about how we can quiet ourselves before the Lord, why this is so important. Even Jesus took time. To rest, he took time to be alone, one-on-one with his father. Donnie, obviously, we don't want to give away the whole book.

You know, we wanted folks to get it, and we want it to be a real resource. But you have really poured your heart and soul into this thing. to give people a real blessing. What would you say the biggest takeaway You want to happen.

Someone sits down, reads the book. What do you want them to come away with?

Well Obviously uh one, the the awareness of how noisy we have we've we've made our whole world around us and we're we're falling for that. But a main message is ultimately that the noise this noisy life It doesn't erase what God says is true about us, do it? And it makes that truth easier to forget. And and this book is The quiet me is the part of me that slows down long enough to remember who God is. And I just Hate to see Our Christian community lose our way Because we have swallowed the noisy world around us um to the point where we're not even aware even any more of our power that we have in Christ when we're still with him.

Yeah. Well, I want to do a couple more segments with you. In those segments, we're going to learn a little bit more about your testimony. And kind of what God did early in your life, how you found the Lord. And kind of your testimony leading up to this book, the tragedy, some some tragedies in your life that were real rough stuff, and you're very open in the book about that.

Also, I want to give some folks practical ways to be quiet before the Lord, to rest before the Lord. And to try to make this habitual, to try to make some you know some disciplines of being quiet Donnie, can you tell folks how they can learn more? And we'll do this again later in the segments here in this podcast, but Tell folks how they can get the book. Like, if they want to get this, they want to order a copy, they may want to order a case for their whole company real quick before we go into the break. Yeah, books available on Amazon as well as Barnes and Noble Outlets.

You can also go to DonnieLafferty.com. And there are some free resources at that site as well. that are companions to the book. And you can order the the book direct from the website as well.

Okay, the power of being quiet. More with Brother Donnie after this quick break. Hang on. When's the last time you just shut everything out? And just said, I need it quiet.

Even, this is gonna be tough for me to say, as a radio guy, turning the radio down, that is tough, but sometimes. You gotta have Quiet, quiet time. Even daily, how important is that? I'm Stu Eberson.

So glad you're with us today on Truth Talk and on Truth Talk Live. And I got this book in the mail called The Quiet Me Remembers. Do you remember when things were a little quieter. Do you remember when things in your life were quieter. When you actually Had some tender moments, quiet moments with the Lord.

Don't we want to go back there? Our guests The author of that book says that we can. And Donnie, I want to thank you for writing this book. And I feel like. I get a lot of books across my desk.

I get a lot of inquiries. I get a lot of requests. Of course, everyone wants to be on the radio, and that's a wonderful thing, and we love having. Whoever the Lord brings across our path, we vet him, obviously, to have him on this show. But, Donnie.

I was personally blessed by this book. I mean, I was really blessed by this and encouraged. In my own life, and convicted, man, you really kind of hit me between the eyes, brother. I got to be honest with you, man.

Well, Steve, we're we're all we're all none of us are void of a life that's not full of noise right now. And I really appreciate the times when we can Get out in nature, or whatever we need to do to be, you know, to be in a setting that's more quiet. I think what I've tried to emphasize And my own life is To accept the fact that I live in a busy space and I work in a busy space. As do all of us in our own way, not everybody is in a place where they're. They're rocking in a chair on the front porch.

And uh I tell you, that sounds good, doesn't it? But I'm not there normally. And so God has shown me. uh various ways That we um We don't have to be totally removed from real life. to actually be still in him and be quiet.

Yeah, wow. And it, you know, you don't want to wait till it gets so bad. That you just, you're desperate. You're almost like. in need of medication.

Like there's a There's a great I did a commentary not too long ago on Meditation. Versus medication. And when you actually obey God's word, Joshua 1:8, Psalm 1, and you meditate on it day and night, it's actually a kind of a. a bomb or a medication for your soul. Because God's Word will calm and quiet and inform you And Donnie, effectively, man, you're using a lot of scripture in this book, too, The Quiet Me Remembers, to get folks.

Kinda almost like they're reset. On what's really important. And that's kind of what you're doing in this kind of dualism between the quiet me and the noisy me, isn't it?

Well, absolutely. And you what are you putting in place of The noise that we consumed so much. And there's nothing better than the rich word of God. Um I I always say The word is alive, Stu. And uh And I have always been a fan of the Truth Network because I can count on the Truth Network to be about the truth, about God's word and to be able to stand on that.

Wow.

And there's various scriptures that apply to all of this. Uh Isaiah 43, 1, God calls his people by name and reminds them that they belong to him. Uh And The book talks about the question of who we are. in a time in my life where um I was I was in a setting and I won't Break it. You'll have to read the book to learn this, but I'm in a setting where the big question of who am I.

hit me Stu. And it really challenged me. about what I really was about. Deep down. And you know, Those times when we can sit quiet and contemplate a question like that.

They're so powerful. And so many of us are so now. get exhausted and tired. From the busyness of life, and we're constantly in this comparison mode.

So quiet is a big, big thing to put in along with the truth. the word of God in a quiet space to counter so much of what we're taking in. That really challenges who we really are. We lose ourselves. Wow.

Yeah, I've heard so many pastors say, I've heard Truth Network speakers pastors say, Who you are. Lights are off, head hits the pillow, right there in that moment. What defines you? What's your identity? When it is quiet and it's time for sleep, like you're there, or when you wake up in the middle of the night and you're all alone, like what is your what is it you find your comfort, your solace in?

And Is it an identity grounded in Jesus Christ and the gospel? Or is it What others see you as? Is it all these other voices, these other noises, these other images? that we so often clamor for and some that may feign a compliment or so, but Deep inside, is that what really defines you? Donnie in his book Addresses this head on in the quiet me remembers.

Now we got a caller, I believe an Ohio caller, jump on in here, sir. Thanks for calling in. What are your thoughts about this book and about Brother Donnie's discussion of the power of silence. It is an awesome concept, Stu. And I just want to thank Donnie for this.

I think I needed this. This is serendipitous. Because, as a very evangelistic Christian male, it's just I'm running a lot now. I love my service to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, but I gotta ask Donnie this, Stu. With the advent of cell phones and computer technology, Donnie.

On the internet, and all of this right now is, if you will. I mean, Donnie, I can get on Amazon. And if I order at the right time, sir, I can have my item delivered to my house truly within hours of hitting. Order, you know, and that's true. What do you, how do we get through this?

Era that we're living in, Donnie, of such rush, rush, rush, sir. How do we navigate this? It's a great question. I appreciate you calling in and I think the timing of this, especially with AI and other technologies that are Absolutely. These are things that when I in my childhood and growing up, We just weren't here.

But we are in the midst of so much change I don't think the goal is to get away from technology. but it's to get through technology without losing our awareness of God. And you know, it's a tool. It's a toll for sure. But start with God before you start with the world.

And we if we continue to be in the habit of busy and noisy. which I've done. Um I The book, given the things that I went through that I share in the book. God will put us in places. that get our attention.

And he did so for me. And wow, in that yeah, in that quiet space, I tell you. in that quiet space. Um It it's a beautiful thing. To just be reminded of so many things.

The book talks a lot about remembering. And I would just say As far as dealing and coping with the technology ahead, Let's not forget the goodness of God in the past and present. What's coming to mind, Donnie, and Brother Stu, is this verse. It's right out of Psalm 23, and I love it in the KJV. He shall make me make me Lie down.

In green pastures. That's what you just made me think of, Brother Donnie. He makes me. lie down because I won't lie down on my own, possibly, brothers.

So my father makes me lie down. Hm. What about that, Donnie?

Okay. I I think that is the case for me. I definitely was made to be in a you know, I mentioned a totally new place to a whole new life, a new family. A new career. A new home.

Um It struck me so strange. and I had a health scare a couple of years ago. And all of that put a sense of urgency not only for me to be aware of the message God was giving me. but that I needed to share it. Um I agree that he will place us in those green pastures.

Uh And I'm living proof of that. Yeah, I was thinking about these devices, these phones, and our callers brought up a great issue on that. Is my. View of God. In my prayer life.

been diluted And almost directed by the devices' manipulation on my mind and soul. Or is Do I treat my devices under the Lordship of Christ and do I view them through His eyes? In other words, We want instant gratification. You know, a caller said, Hey, I go to Amazon. I can order it right there.

It'll be there this afternoon. You know, we're telling people to go order your book, Donnie, on Amazon. We want people to get this book. This is one of those ones. This is a must-read.

I read it and it tore me up. And it was very healthy for me. It was painful, but healthy. And then he went and asked me to write the forward. The loudest person in his life, he asked to write the forward on a book about being quiet.

What's going on there? A lot going on in that scenario there. But the interesting thing is, well, yeah, but see, the thing that. That we can tend to do is we can say, God, I want this answer right now. We can treat God as like a divine app.

that just kind of is here To just grant and bless our every whim and way, Donnie. And it seems like you're taking folks. to have more of a Bibliocentric, Christiocentric view of everything, including our devices, rather than letting them control us. Aren't we more to be in control of that and not allow them to steal our joy and our quietness, Donnie? Speak to that, will you?

Yeah, I well, as far as stealing our quietness, We don't want to lay down on that. And I think that's what you're saying as well. It's just. There is a there we obviously want to surrender the right things the right way. But I do think we surrender our quiet.

and succumb to the noise in ways that are so destructive. Our relationships are just getting hammered. uh by um so much disconnect. But uh I don't think that um Uh being realistic. We have got to we laugh about me asking you to write the forwards, Stu, but you're a great example of.

being a busy active A man of God that is just you're serving. Yeah. Right. I have known your character. I've known you.

to still be a man of peace. And that is so powerful that to stay so busy and to stay on the go, the message of this book is not. To sit still and not do anything. It's to be still in the Lord, even in our busy, noisy life, don't you?

Okay, practical ways to get there when we come back, and we'll hear how Danny, Donnie, not Danny, we'll hear how Donnie first met the Lord and first became quiet before God and some other cool parts of his testimony. Don't touch that dial. More coming up on this special Truth Talk Live podcast. Thank you.

So when's the last time you took the money? Time to be quiet before the Lord, to truly be still. We hear over and over again in Scripture about resting in the Lord. A caller just brought up a great verse out of Psalm twenty three, where he makes us lie down and green. Pastors, he restores our soul.

Do we allow for In this breakneck culture with things moving rapid fire, I mean, with headlines, used to be some major. Issue happened, or even war started. You didn't hear about it for a couple of days, or you had to wait till the paper came out in the morning.

Now we have instant Instant news right there on our phones. We're barraged with it. Literally, we can step out of a room or just Pull a phone out of our pocket, and we could lock into something for three hours, and it'll go back, go by like it was three minutes. All the noise, all the clamor. all the distractions, all the devices, and yet Jesus says, Come unto me All you who Yeah.

who labor and are heavy laden. And I will give you Rest. The Bible is a book. Of rest. The Bible is a book that says, steal yourself away.

From the chaos and listen to the Lord. Over and over again, it says, hear him speak. Over and over again, it says, listen. He who has ears, Jesus would say in his parables. John the Revelator would say, the Lord would say in Revelation, He who has ears, let him hear.

And is this not Donny Lafferty? A real thrust of your book, that there's a greater message, there's a more beautiful. A more Absolute fragrant. And satisfying, all-satisfying message, pleasurable message that can reach into our soul and heal us, and cleanse us, and fill us and satisfy us. But it can't help us if we can't hear it, and we can't hear it if it's too noisy.

And so you wrote this book, A Quiet Me Remembers. Talk about this and how relevant it is, especially in this modern day. Yeah, I mean Christians We sometimes think that being still It's like a retreat. Sitting by the lake a calm morning, and listeners there now, my life. through your life is is a busy life of of not always Sitting still.

Um But God has definitely blessed me. going back to how he has brought me to the point of writing a book. We all can look back. We all have our stories. But I know that we can all look back and understand that there are times in our lives when people try to tell us things.

and we didn't have the ears to listen to it. And in today's environment, Even if we're stubborn people. we have technology around us and such a busy world pushing in, that it almost becomes impossible. to remember what's most true and what's most important. I'm just thankful that God saved me.

I'm thankful that. He has brought me to this point. The book talks about our lives. I tell you, so many of us If someone's out there Our lives for the most part, most of us, have not gone the way that we thought that they would go. There have been surprises.

There's been turns. that we didn't anticipate. In God has allowed me. Through tremendous trauma. to be in a place where I'm able to love again.

Put build. A new life. and to be in a new place Not everybody gets the opportunity that I did through what I got. And so Only by sitting quiet with God have I become in a place where I tell you, where I could even write a book and be this honest about how much I struggle to be this honest about Following Christ in a busy world and the challenges that are there.

So I'm asking the readers. and the listeners to join me in the struggle. And I think that's the way to do it is none of us have arrived for this battle against noise. We're not going to arrive. We're going to say goodbye to each other and finish this interview.

And it's going to hit us the minute we stop. I mean, there's something else that's going to happen. There's another headline, there's another family issue, there's another crisis. And the question is. is not so much How you deal with this.

The question is, how do you respond and how do we How do we bring the Lord in? and and get before him and listen to him And really ask the questions: what does he want? What is his will? What is his heart? What is his voice?

He's talking. He's texting us all the time. And yet, what did one preacher say? It's this has been parroted around the internet and all over Facebook and social media. Don't say God is quiet.

isn't speaking when your Bible sits there shut. And so, and I love how you use all kinds of Bible references, Donnie. It's rich. This book is really just driven by scripture and the principles and actual scriptures and passages that have been near and dear to your heart. And You're very transparent in this book.

You talk about your struggle, and you are a guy who's an entrepreneur. I remember you and Sam, and your business cost keepers, and all the ventures you guys were rolling, high-rolling, doing big deals. You've always been successful. You've always kind of had that Midas touch in business. And now you're going and speaking to companies, and you're talking to people about: hey, how do we find.

A piece. How do we find rest in this world of unrest, in this world of absolute chaos and noise and distractions?

Now, Donnie, how did you come to know Christ? You talk about your testimony quite a bit in your book. Especially the later tragedies you faced that were all this unexpected, and you're raising those boys and dealing with business and dealing with heartache and whatnot. But tell us a little bit about your spiritual journey, coming to know the Lord. And leading up to this.

really important. Uh defining book The Quiet Me Remembers. Yeah, I was blessed with just tremendous parents. I'm an only child.

So they spoiled me pretty well. And uh But I was raised in a home. We we were in church.

However, The church that I grew up in, salvation was not an emphasis. I ended up meeting a fellow in college And for six weeks' time is all I was around him, Uh He showed me something that just uh it just Blew me away. And it was not any big miracle. It was just consistency and kindness. And um Praying over a hamburger.

And I just saw, I remember telling you that years ago, but praying over a hamburger got my attention. His face seemed authentic, and I ended up recognizing at a point where. Oh. Okay. It was a day.

Okay. It wasn't. Mm-hmm. It's not the day I became a Christian. It was the day I first realized I wasn't one, Stu.

And Uh was just I definitely realized how far I was from God. Um And fortunately, a young man had set an example And Ben just met me where I was. He didn't browbeat me or. you know, uh look down on me in any way. Uh But that person for six weeks time.

God put him in my life for sure. And I ended up rooming with him in college. and growing in the Lord and serving the Lord in different capacities. And We just don't know who's watching us in what way. And uh I remember he was staying with me.

He came home with me and hung out with me and my parents one weekend. And the door was cracked and I had to go to the bathroom. And I walked by and his door was open with his little lamp on, and he was in there reading at one thirty in the morning. He's reading the Bible. And I went on, I didn't say anything, but that stuck with me as I knew he wasn't trying to impress anybody at that time of day or night.

And So be faithful in the little things you don't know who's watching. Mm. Wow.

What a testimony. And really, what a quiet... Witness he was. Not not showing off, not posing, just being real with the Lord. And I just am grateful for how you struggle in this book.

I struggled reading the book because I thought, wow. And I kept thinking, man, I've got meetings to go to. I've got calls. And I thought, you know what? This whole book is about putting your device down and focusing on the Lord.

I'm going to read this book. And so I got to do it. I can't wait to actually hold a copy. You sent me the digital version. I'm going to hold a copy.

I'm going to buy bunches and share them with folks and pastors and lay people. And really, Donnie, Tell everyone how this met, real quick. We only have a little bit of time left. How is this message resonating? What are people saying to you that are getting a hold of this thing, that are hearing you?

Because you've obviously shared. The Quiet Me Remembers principles with groups and business folks, ministry folks, youth pastors and the like. What's the feedback you're getting? You know, to be frank, some of the first feedback that I get is about the funny little stories in the book.

So, uh, They certainly get the message and through some of the exercises and are encouraged to. to take some steps in the right direction. But the book has some funny parts in it. Uh it has some uh Some gut-riching parts. As I said earlier, being a suicide survivor to my spouse, Man, um So I think Some of the feedback has just been people uh commenting how They're just amazed that that I have I have come through what I have.

And I and I I am as well, but it's not not me. I mean God has just been faithful through it all. And I just praise him. I give him all the praise.

Well, we've probably already said it, but what would you say a scripture verse that kind of defines your heart in this book, the quiet me remembers? by Donnie Lafferty. What's a verse that really drives us you would want to leave us with today as we say goodbye?

Well, I mean, I I probably It's just a verse that hit me when I first got saved, Stu, and it holds true. You know. abiding in the Lord. and and uh which is remaining in him. And uh that has just clung with me.

In this quiet time, to take these moments and abide and just remain with the Lord. Even in a busy time, I would say that's a verse for me.

Okay, Donnie Lafferty, get the book. A quiet me remembers, get it, read it, you'll be blessed, and bless some other folks with it. Donnie, thanks for blessing us today, my friend. You're so encouraging.