Join Kelly Williams Hale to hear her personal story about grace and forgiveness. “And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to his purpose for them.” (Romans 8:28 NLT)
God wants us to live an abundant life and can use our story to provide hope for others. We will defeat the enemy by the blood of the Lamb AND the power of our testimony (Revelation 12:11).
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So today is my second podcast with women world leaders. And I’m so honored today to share with you what’s on my heart and a continuation from last month, where I talked about shame.
You can find that episode on womenworldleaders.com, click the Resources tab. Episode 339. Trading shame for significance.
It was a powerful message. And today I wanted to share something very personal.
And what’s interesting is I’m sharing this two days after the 6th anniversary of losing my brother in a tragic, obviously unexpected car accident on Halloween, 2016
My brother was a policeman, he loved being a cop, however, he was the brother that out of four of us… he was the one that got into all the trouble. So it’s very ironic that he got into law enforcement.
I’m the oldest of 4. Growing up with three younger brothers. Side note, I believe God was preparing me to be a leader way back then!
Scott was the middle brother, And so just another reminder of how important our words are. If you’re a mom, we have such a responsibility to Speak life into and over our children.
Scott was the middle boy.
Like I mentioned, there were 4 of us kids. It was me and Tim for a while and then Scott came along.
My parents were young parents, my dad served in Vietnam and didn’t meet me until I was six months old!
So when Scott came along, there were 3 and then 18 mos. later my youngest brother was born. At this point, I was 4 years old. So my folks were like 25-26 with 4 young children. I’m not sure how they did it!
Scott was a handful. When Scott would misbehave or push the envelope or just be a kid, really, it was A LOT.
I know my mom got tired! And so he sort of became that kid who got into trouble or was trying to get attention…
When we got older, he didn’t really know what he wanted to do. Growing up, my dad drank. And home life just felt uncertain and unsafe at times, from a child’s perspective.
But as adults, praise God, we all came back home. I know for me, I always said when I turned 18, I was going to leave home and never come back!
But God is so wise and so good. And my family is such a blessing to me, my dad quit drinking when he turned 50.
All of us kids tended to gather back home during holidays.
And it was a beautiful thing.
We did sort of revert to our childhood shenanigans, when we got together. I think that happens with all siblings.
And it was always an adventure, always fun, especially when we started having children. And then all the cousins got together. It was a loud house. We had fun. We enjoyed each other’s company. We loved each other.
And loved our mom and dad, they were such a precious blessing.
My dad went to heaven in December of 2021. But prior to that Scott – who had finally found his direction at 33, when he attended the police academy.
He served in law enforcement in our hometown for about 10 years. And then went to another department and made such an impact in that city, he loved the people, he was a big tease, but he just had such a genuine way about him that other people were drawn to him.
He loved the Lord. And I know I’m gonna see him again in heaven.
But it was a tragic, horrible day.
And so the anniversary of him leaving was just a couple of days ago as I’m recording this now. My second podcast – just know God had a plan all along.
He has a plan for all of us in tragedy.
If we can just surrender to him and trust.
And be grateful. I’m so very grateful for the time we had together.
And so with that said, My message today is a follow up from last month around shame.
And shame can really paralyze us… shame around our decisions, shame around mistakes we’ve made. But God is so much bigger about that.
And he tells us that there is no shame.
There is no condemnation in Christ.
He wants us to live a full abundant life, knowing that we’re forgiven, knowing that we walk in freedom, knowing that he has a purpose for us.
1 Thessalonians 2:4 says: We are ambassadors for Christ.
Approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel.
We are to model what Jesus did when he was here on earth. Sharing hope with other people.
And so today, sweet sisters, I wanted to share that, first of all, his grace is sufficient. Jesus died for our sins. The small ones, the big ones, all of them.
The definition of Sin is simply falling short.
And Satan would have would love nothing more than for us to be separated from God.
And what happens is when we make mistakes, and we feel like we’ve disappointed God, then we sort of separate ourself from him.
But God wants us to run to him when we mess up…
Run to him when we fall short.
Run to him when we feel like we’ve disappointed him.
I made a decision 27 years ago, well, it was 28 years ago now.
And last summer, I was blessed to be a co-author in a book published by women world leaders.
I was originally going to write about obedience.
The title of the book is victories claiming freedom in Christ. And I found such freedom in Christ when I began to really obey, and really know – and believe who God was and what Jesus did for me.
And I began to obey the Lord – not out of any sense of fear or judgment, but rather out of this sense of joy and love.
And so I was gonna write this chapter, but the Lord reminded me of revelation 12:11, that says, We overcame him, which is Satan, by the blood of the Lamb, and the power of our testimony.
And God reminded me that I needed to share this story.
Precious friend, I pray this encourages you, because God will use our story.
I terminated a pregnancy, I had an abortion. And there was so much shame around that, that took me 27 years to release. I knew Jesus forgave me, I knew God forgave me. But I, very deeply, unconsciously felt shame and I realized I hadn’t quite forgiven myself. And I realized too that the enemy was holding that over me.
And so when I wrote this chapter, and I encourage you to go find the book on women world leaders.com, you can click the shop button.
It’s a compilation of women sharing their stories of victory, and freedom in Christ.
And so my entire story around this decision is in that book.
But I wanted to follow up from last month, because shame will keep us hidden. shame will keep us from accepting the abundant love that God has for us. As if we are unworthy to receiv it.
I’m going to read a small excerpt from this book.
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