April Christina Farmer on How Her Father Taught Her Gratitude

Welcome back to Words of Life. Last week, we started a new series all about gratitude. We started to learn about our guest, April Christina Farmer, who was a worship leader, a pastor, a speaker. Today, we continue to hear more of her story and how her father was always a walking example of living out your faith.

Again, to learn more about April and her ministry, visit aprilchristinafarmer.com. Yes, they did clap. They did clap. They did good.

I was leading them. He's a master strategist. He doesn't waste anything. Oh, April, we have so much to be grateful for. For me, particular people come to my mind because they're the ones that help me understand who God is in my life and how I can be more like Him. So it's an attitude of gratitude. Do you have someone like that, people in your life that you think of often that you're thankful for?

Oh, yeah. I think particularly in this particular season, my dad suffered a lot physically in his body before he passed. It's been about two years since he passed away and now I'm going to need a tissue.

We need a tissue stat. Bring two, bring the box. But I thought about that I actually, if you see my... Who booked this on the day? You're fired. Thank you. If you see my post today, I got here early because I left the house early. I was just sitting.

I was like, let me make a post now before the day gets going. But I was trying to think, what do I want to remember today? Because I call it my dad's graduation day because he finished the race. He graduated into eternity. He didn't die. He left here. But he graduated. He finished. He got that well done. And so I thought about this song. Daddy introduced it to me through Larnell Harris called I Choose Joy. What was always so dumbfounding to me was that no matter how much pain his body was in, when you called him, he always had joy.

He just always had it. And I'm thinking, you're in pain and you're going through a lot right now. But he was always, how are you doing today? I'm like, great.

How are you? I'm thankful. I'm grateful to God for what he's done.

Better than I deserve. But he left that legacy with me. And it was something that he learned just in his walk with the Lord was how to be thankful in everything, in all things, give thanks in all things, be thankful at all times.

And that designation does not exclude any season or any state of life. When I found out I was expecting as a teenager, dad didn't ask any questions. He didn't deep dive or berate me or tell me how bad I was. Dad just loved me. He just loved me unconditionally. And I think that lesson of unconditional love, despite the highs and the lows of life, that's what I'm grateful for.

I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful that he was such a beautiful depiction to me of the unconditional love of our heavenly father. I'm grateful that he taught me that and that I get to pass that on to my children and to my children's children now, how to love well and how to teach people and teach them to be grateful. This December on the Salvation Army's Words of Life podcast, we'll be joined by worship leader, pastor, speaker, April Christina Farmer. She joins our host, Bernie Dake, to share her testimony as the two discuss the importance of living life with a grateful heart. Hearing the stories from my husband, because there's so much I don't remember, was the people of God. The investments that you make down through the years in those relationships and the body of Christ that you build relationship with, they came together and they prayed for me. And people feel that all the time.

Like, how in the world? Why would you let this person go? Why would you let me walk through that? Why would you allow this sickness to overtake my body? And Jesus is like, I know it's tough, but you don't know what's coming. I do.

Will you trust me? Listen to the Salvation Army's Words of Life wherever you listen to podcasts or visit wordsoflifepodcast.org. We're all touched by the mental health crisis, and many in our church communities are seeking support. We need compassionate Christian therapists walking alongside them through every season. Western Theological Seminary offers a master's in clinical mental health counseling, blending trauma-informed care with the rich tradition of soul care. Be part of the solution, rounded in faith. Learn more at counseling.westernsem.edu.

That's counseling.westernsem.edu. There's a great verse in the New Testament, Hebrews 13.7. It says, remember your leaders or your elders, the ones who spoke the word of the Lord to you, or in our case showed God's love to us. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

That is powerful. And then the ownership that we can take of that to be an example to those around us so that they can say that about us. When the time comes, what do you want people to say about you? And I want my children and my grandchildren to say, I'm grateful that my emo or my mom taught me how to love Jesus, how to live for him and how to share that love with other people. That's what I want them to be grateful for. When we were recording your solo CD right here at the Salvation Army, you brought in a mentor in the form of Babbie Mason and just watching you sort of student and teacher in a sense. That was really cool. But she played a big influence in your life as well.

More than I ever thought she would. To be totally honest, we met via a friend, a mutual friend. Babbie was finishing up a studio at her home and she needed some people to come out and just kind of do a test run. And one of my friends told me, and I actually didn't live too far from her at the time. And I was like, absolutely, I want to go to Babbie's house and record. And so I get there and we clicked immediately.

And it wasn't something where I asked, hey, can you be my mentor? Hey, can I do, I just watched her. I watched this beautiful demonstration of faithfulness to her heavenly father, of faithfulness to her family, faithfulness to her craft and her gift. And I watched her just extend opportunity to me and I jumped on it and I wanted to emulate what I saw. I saw a love in her. I saw a genuineness in her.

And as I started to travel with her, we went overseas and we would travel across the country. I'm doing background vocals for her. I'm selling her product at the end of concerts. But one of the things that I was, I'm so grateful to her for is how she taught me consistency. She taught me what it's like to actually be a follower of Jesus and do the work of the kingdom and that not be a separate life.

Everything she was on the platform when she was singing and when she was leading, she was that in her kitchen cooking collard greens. Like she was the same all the time. And I watched her love on people. Babbie would do a full concert and then afterwards she'd have a line of people wanting to buy her products and get autographs and can you pray for me?

And we would stay there for an hour, hour and a half loving on people. And she was always the same. And I think I'm so grateful for her example to me.

And I will unashamedly say I try my best to emulate what she taught me and to be that same way. And it's so funny when my husband started traveling with me as I go places, you know, he's kind of, his natural bend is an introvert. So he's just like, okay, we're done.

Let's go. And I'm like, no, I got to stay because I want to connect with people. I want to, I don't want them to ever feel like I'm any different than them. No, we've all got responsibilities and things to do. But one of my favorite things is to connect with you.

How can I pray for you and to make myself available? And Babbie taught me that and I could not be more grateful to her for that. And she can sing really well. It's beyond singing. She can sing.

That's how we say it in the South. This is great. I'm so happy that we get to just kind of reminisce about people in our life. And I hope our listeners get to do that too.

Just take an inventory of the people that matter to you and maybe think about telling them. So many of us believe in something far beyond ourselves. And now there's a special place for us. Fox faith on Fox nation with exclusive original premium content that lifts us up, sustains our spirit and fills us up with hope. Now you can stream hours and hours of commercial free faith based content anytime, anywhere with exciting series like God Family Football about a coach, a team and their faith. And streaming November 17th, Martin Scorsese presents the Saints, one of America's greatest storytellers, recreates the lives of Joan of Arc, Maximilian Kobe, Sebastian and John the Baptist. Before they were saints, they were people. Then streaming December 8th, Jesus Crown of Thorns, a new epic original docudrama series. They fought for his power. He conquered with love. You know his story, but not like this. Fox faith is only available by subscribing to Fox nation.

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Present in prayer is now available on Amazon and wherever you buy books. April, you've had some health crises in the past too. Can you tell us about some of that? Yeah, very unexpected. I got married in 2018 and about six months after I got married, you know, I'm living my best life, me and my boo doing our thing.

Right. And then all of a sudden I went in for a routine surgery on a Tuesday. They sent me home on Thursday, which was actually Thanksgiving day. And then the very next day I had a, what they call a hemorrhagic stroke. So I had a bleed on the brain in two places and I ended up being at the brink of death, honestly. And I didn't know what was going to happen.

I mean, I'm 41 years old and I'm in the hospital having a stroke. I can't recognize my husband. I can't recognize my kids. I can't read.

I can't translate what's in my head to come out of my mouth. It took them so long to kind of figure out what was happening. I was having seizures.

Just everybody was just so panicked. But I think the thing looking back now and just hearing the stories of my, from my husband, because there's so much I don't remember, was the people of God, the investments that you make down through the years in those relationships and the body of Christ that you build relationship with, they came together and they prayed for me. And I, although it took a while for me to recover, having to go through occupational therapy and speech therapy and just all the things you don't know what you're going to get back, you know, am I going to be able to sing? Am I going to be able to speak?

Am I going to be able to teach? Am I going to be able to do what I feel like God, I'm just stepping so confidently into this next season of life. My kids had gone and my husband and I were just married and just all these new things.

And then it's like, really? But now, um, so many years later, six and a half years later, I look back and I realize that God uses, he doesn't waste anything. And while that was a challenging season of my life to see where God has me now, I'm so grateful for that season of life. And I'll tell you why I'm grateful because I recognized very vividly that tomorrow is not promised. I recognized very vividly that because tomorrow's not promised, what am I going to do with today? While it is called today, what am I going to do with this gift that God put in my hand? It's not just for me to, you know, do what I want to do. If my life ends tomorrow, can I adequately say and confidently say, God, I'm doing the most and the best that I can, but this five talent or with these two talents or with this one talent, I want to reproduce this. And so I'm grateful for that opportunity to see number one, that God is a healer and that he restored to me my life and gave me back my life. And I made a decision, okay, Lord, this is, it's all you. Like, not that it wasn't before, but it's you on another level. And so I have totally dedicated everything. You're talking about a consistent yes, whatever you want.

Yes. Whatever you say, no matter how afraid I am of it, no matter how new it is to me, yes, I'll do that. I'll go, I'll speak, I'll sing. I'll say, whether it's a crowd of 10,000 or a crowd of 10, whatever you tell me to do, I'm going to do.

And it shifted my heart and my focus to not question as much. I don't have to know why. I don't have to know what it's going to turn out like.

It's just, yes, whatever you say. I don't have to figure it out. I don't have to know all the whys and hows. I don't have to know all that.

Yes, Lord. Just show me one illustration I like to have as a musical person is, um, is there's two versions of the whys. You have the wizard of Oz, which is the original version. And then you have the whys that had Michael Jackson and Diana Ross and all the folks he's on down that road. But in the wizard of Oz, it was follow the yellow brick road, but the yellow brick road was already illuminated. It was already yellow in the wizard of Oz in the whys.

Dorothy had to take a step on what she saw was yellow and it didn't illuminate the next yellow step until she took the step before. And that resonates with me. And that's what I'm so grateful for. That experience taught me, you don't have to know how far the road is.

You don't have to know where you're going. Just follow the next illuminated yellow brick. And so that's what I look for. I look for, okay, what's yellow right now?

What is the yes right now? Yes to this. And I do that faithfully until the next step illuminates. Okay. That's the next part of this journey. I don't have to know where Oz is.

God knows where Oz is. I'm just following him. So I'm grateful for every high and every low because it helps me on the journey to number one, look back and remember how faithful God was. The Salvation Army's mission doing the most good means helping people with material and spiritual needs. You become a part of this mission every time you give to the Salvation Army. Visit salvationarmyusa.org to offer your support. You can subscribe to Words of Life on your favorite podcast store or visit salvationarmysoundcast.org. Join us next time for the Salvation Army's Words of Life. Thanks so much for listening to Words of Life. We want to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the show. Visit lifeaudio.com where you'll find dozens of other faith-centered podcasts in their network. They have shows about prayer, Bible studying, parenting, and more. Thanks again for listening.

We'll see you next time. Scripture and brain science agree. Meditating on God's word transforms us and reduces stress in our lives. I'm Jody Nissnick, host of So Much More, Creating Space for God, a scripture meditation podcast. And each week I give you space to hear God's word. Listen to the Spirit and pray about what's on your heart. And then we have a thoughtful conversation with guests to help us go deeper. Listen and subscribe at lifeaudio.com. The Historical Jesus Podcast is the sweeping saga of the life and times of Galilean Jesus of Nazareth, as well as the faith, religion, and church founded to honor and disseminate his acts and teachings. Join me, Mark Vinette, on this fascinating journey through time exploring the many great works of Christian theology, literature, architecture, music, and art inspired by the words and deeds of Jesus Christ.