[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, thanks so much for listening to this message. My name is Jason, and I'm one of the ministers here at the Madison Church of Christ. It's our hope and prayer that the teaching you hear today will bless your life and draw you closer to God. If you're ever in the Madison area, we'd love for you to stop by and study the Bible with us on Sundays at 5pm or Wednesdays at 7pm if you have questions about the Bible or want to know more about the Madison Church, you can find us
[email protected] be sure to subscribe to this podcast as well as our Sermons podcast, Madison Church of Christ Sermons. Thanks again for stopping by. I hope this study is a blessing to you.
[00:00:37] Speaker B: Okay, and so tonight we have Alicia Hunt and Anissa Cure speaking for us.
And I'm going to read their bios in a minute, but I'll go ahead and open us in prayer.
Dear Lord, thank you so much for allowing us to be here tonight.
Like I say, every Wednesday, we don't take it for granted. We know that you've provided all the things for us to come together, and you've put things in perfect order for that, and we're very grateful.
I thank you for every lady and girl in this room, and I pray that your blessing will be on them as we try to serve you and as we try to glorify you, God. I pray that you be with our speakers tonight and that they will.
That you will speak through them, that they will be filled with your words, and that those words will penetrate our hearts and help us to make any changes that we need to make or to draw closer to you.
Thank you for our sisterhood. Thank you for friends that have come our way tonight that we're thankful are here for the first time.
I pray they feel welcome.
Thank you for providing all of our friendships, and I pray that you continue to tie our hearts together and that we will use our friendships and our sisterhood to help grow our church, not only numerically, but especially spiritually. Lord and I pray that you'll lift us up in that.
We praise you and we love you. In Jesus name, amen.
Okay. All right. So Alicia Hunt is the wife of Kirk Hunt and a mother to six children, four of whom are currently students at Free Hardman University.
Alicia holds a degree in marriage and Family therapy from Faulkner University, and her professional background over the last 21 years includes work as a social worker and educator in both private school and homeschooling environments.
She currently serves as the co director for Madison Kids Care ministering to children alongside other Christian women of the Madison Church.
Tonight she looks forward to sharing her experiences of hearing God through both joyful and difficult seasons. She will specifically focus on how God uses periods of life transition to shape us.
And then Anissa Cure. I have been married to Douglas for 28 years.
We have three precious children and a top notch son in love.
Morgan, our oldest and Jacob attend here at Madison.
Joel is a junior at UAH studying electrical engineering and Merritt is in the 10th grade and he is homeschooled. We moved from Texas to Alabama in the summer of 2015 and placed membership here at Madison a few months later.
I enjoy chaperoning retreats and mission trips with our youth group. I have been a part of Flourish groups for the last two years. I'm a caring sister in the Solos ministry and I've started visiting shut ins with Ms. Jane Crane. I'm excited to spend time in God's Word with all of you tonight.
So thank y' all so much. Where are you? Thank you. We appreciate you ahead of time.
[00:04:01] Speaker C: Good evening ladies.
My name is Alicia Hunt and my theme for tonight is hearing God through every season of life.
My verse that I wanted to use tonight to really look at is Isaiah 26:4.
A lot of you may not know my life and past, and that's okay.
You'll get a little bit of it tonight. But this is the verse that is one that I go to quite frequently.
Trust in the Lord forever. For the Lord, the Lord Himself is the rock, eternal a rock.
He is the constant in our ever changing life.
He never changes.
He never moves.
[00:05:07] Speaker D: Ever.
[00:05:08] Speaker C: He never moves. We are the ones that move.
We are the ones that if we feel God is farther from us, it's because of us.
It's not because of him.
Whether in life we move towards Him. Maybe it's good stuff. Maybe it's blessings or good things, joyful things in our life. Or maybe it's something that causes us to move farther away from Him.
But he is the constant. He is there and he is the rock.
When we don't even feel like we can be.
God speaks and guides us in both joyful seasons, difficult transitions.
He uses periods of life transitions to shape us.
So in this room, all around this room, looking at everyone in this room, you have got women that are young, you've got women that are new mothers.
You've got women that are older, women that are more mature, that have more knowledge than some of us. You've got some of us in the middle season of life. Where we have children that are going out of the home. We have some that have toddlers. We have some that are in college. We have a variety of women in this room. And each one of us have been through different transitions of life and can help your sister.
And it may not even be the same age as you. It may be someone that's not even near your age, or it may be somebody that's younger that can help someone that is older.
All of that matters, all of that works together.
From what I've been through in my life, I believe everything absolutely happens for a reason.
Everything.
Whether it's good or whether it's bad, absolutely everything happens for a reason. There's a reason for everything.
You don't have to answer. I mean, you can if you want to, but you don't have to answer. But I want you to think to yourself, what does it mean to you personally, to you, to hear God's voice?
For me, I do not think that God does not say, alicia, do this.
He doesn't.
I don't think that. I have never heard that. But I do think that God speaks to us.
I think that he can speak to us through scripture.
I think that sometimes as women, we try to act so strong and inside we are just caving.
We are crumbling, but we have to keep it together. Why? Because we have children. Why? Because we have a husband.
[00:08:29] Speaker D: Why?
[00:08:30] Speaker C: Because you have a house. Because. Because you have life. You have a job.
I think he also speaks through prayer. I think sometimes we have to take time and just talk to him as a friend.
Your relationship with your parents changes over time.
That's another transition.
We get talk about that later, but it changes over time. And so your relationship with your parents, you start to become friends with them, forming a different type of relationship than what you had when you were younger and they were getting on to you and molding you and teaching you.
It changes just the quietness in your heart. Sometimes you just gotta be. Have you ever been to Walmart, sat in the parking lot and was thankful and didn't go in the store for a little bit? Yes.
You're lying if you say no.
Especially as mothers, we have to take that time for ourselves. We have to have quiet moments,
[00:09:43] Speaker D: small
[00:09:43] Speaker C: things, gestures in life.
For me, and you can think about this personally for you, but for me, for myself. Mine is a hummingbird, okay? The hummingbird is something that represents. That is a symbol for me, for my mom.
Okay.
Or a purple flower.
Reason being, on the day that she was buried, there was a purple flower singular Right there. And then the hummingbird comes. As my brothers and my dad are standing there.
That's.
That's what it means to me.
Now for some of you, a hummingbird, oh, that's just a hummingbird. And that's perfectly fine. Each one of you has something that is dear and special to you, that means something to you.
And as women again, that is very important.
Have you ever looked back on a situation in your life and recognized God's guidance the whole time?
Think about that for a minute.
When you've been through something in the midst of it and just you are in the storm of it, or maybe it's something good again. We're talking about good, you know, joyful things and difficult times.
So looking back, have you been able to say, oh, yeah, okay, there it was, there it was. Yes. Okay, yes, you can see it.
And you can use that to help others to see it. Because when they're in the middle of something, they may not see it.
His fingerprints on every situation. I like to call them fingerprints.
Because with fingerprints, think about this. With your kids, I always say kids, I got six of them. But with your kids, they touch something. They touch the glass of the car, the window of the car. It leaves behind something that is God.
Whether it is something that's painful, that we have to rely on him, or whether it's something that is exciting and happy, he's still there.
He has not moved at all, at all.
So what you see up here, okay, there are different major life transitions that impact our lives. These were the ones that I thought of for myself, okay?
And some of them I did find online. But I want you to look at this list and see which ones relate to you.
Relationships, okay? That can include family boundaries, okay? Maybe you got a mother in law. Maybe you've got just boundaries, period. Maybe you're learning how to form boundaries with your older children, okay?
You, you somewhere, maybe you've got some boundary issues that you're working on, okay? Family, okay? Divorce, some of us in this room, separation, losing a child, the death of a loved one, becoming a new parent, navigating empty nest.
[00:13:25] Speaker D: Okay?
[00:13:25] Speaker C: Career or financial change, okay, this is a big one. Financial change, this big transition right there. Change. If you're your spouse or yourself, lose your job. If you're trying to figure out money, trans, all of that affects you, especially us women, and it affects the men as well. But we again, try to carry all of this burden, all of this, and still be a mother and still be a wife.
Okay? Maybe the routines messed up. Maybe Something has happened and your routine is off and it's not the same. That can have an effect on us. Maybe it's health, a diagnosis, maybe a body that's changed after childbirth.
Okay, you laugh at some of this, but I know.
[00:14:20] Speaker A: Good.
[00:14:20] Speaker C: Well that we've all stood in the mirror. If you've had a child and you know that your body is not the same. I had some lady.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: Oh my word.
[00:14:29] Speaker C: Yeah. And she said, now, I want you to know before that it's not going to be the same. And I said, okay, thank you.
But I was thinking, I mean, that she was an older lady in the church. I mean, she was just talking, talking to me. Postpartum, that's a big one that we don't like to talk about, but it is very real.
Menopause, perimenopause.
[00:14:55] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:14:56] Speaker C: Aging parents.
That transition is also very hard. Having aging parents knowing that you could lose them or knowing that they are. The roles are reversed and you are helping to take care of them instead of the latter.
Unexpected disruptions may be moving.
[00:15:19] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:15:20] Speaker C: When I look at unexpected disruptions, I think, oh, well, great, we've got to have four new tires on the car. Well, that's $800 that we don't have. Or maybe you've got to have a roof put on your house or maybe you've got to up and move, or maybe you've had a leak or. Or maybe, I mean, you think of anything that's going to disrupt your routine, that again is a transition. It changes us.
Life and social changes.
You're going to realize that you have. As you change, maybe your friends are changing, maybe your ideas are changing, maybe you're growing.
Okay? All of that stuff is going to influence like who you're around and who you talk to.
That is. That's a big difference and that's a large transition that can also affect us and your self esteem and all of those things.
Sometimes we have expectations about things in life.
You, whether you, whether you have or not thought about this to yourself, you have expectations for something. Whether, I don't know whether your job, whether your husband, whether your friends, whatever it may be, you have some expectations about things in life.
However, God's plans don't always look like our plans. Our expectations may not be what his are and we have to be okay with that.
But we can be assured he does have a plan for us.
It just may not be the plan that we were thinking was going to be it, but it does not mean that it is not going to be good.
We're human. We don't know that answer.
Things happen for a reason.
And that's hard to hear sometimes. That's hard to hear.
My mom used to always say, what? Lord willing. Lord willing, I'll see you tomorrow morning, okay?
And she's very true. I find myself saying that the Lord wills, you know, what is the Lord's will? The Lord's will may not be yours.
We're human.
It may not be what we are thinking, what we are wanting.
I wanted to.
When I was going through some stuff, this lady brought me this.
And she handed it to me.
Say anything else, but just handed it to me. And she said, if you know what
[00:18:21] Speaker D: you need,
[00:18:24] Speaker C: how much more does God know?
And that's all she said. She just handed it. And she said to you, I want you to have this and I want you to look at this.
That is very true.
That is very true. If we know what we need, how much more does he he know about us?
There was a young lady, full of life, excited about her future life. Okay?
Going to college, looking for that special someone.
Meeting great lifelong friends during college.
God's fingerprints.
Keep that in mind.
Married a Bible major the summer before her senior year.
After dating him for two years, graduated college.
It's going good, okay? She wanted to move back to her small hometown to be around her family and to start a family of her own.
She always wanted to be a mom to six children.
God's fingerprints. Remember that.
All the while opportunities would arise and doors opened by him the whole while listening to him and his guidance.
Life as a social worker and then preacher's wife began for her at age 23. Freshly married for a year, but now looking back at moments, she ignored his voice.
We sometimes call those red flags.
Life was great.
Helping to get a small congregation back on their feet in the next town over.
A first child came along, a beautiful little girl. God's blessings all over her.
So thankful for that moment. Still listening very intently through the joyful time in life. Small red flags showing up but ignored.
She began teaching and helping and helped start a private Christian school while mommying it all at the same time. A second child was born two years later. A handsome son who kept her on her toes. She was that mom, the one with a wooden spoon in her diaper bag in her back pocket. Because he pushed the limits every time.
Life was busy being a preacher's wife, a mommy to two littles, working full time as a teacher, postpartum hitting hard.
The flags were getting redder and bigger. And God's Voice was very present but not fully understood because she was tired and really not wanting to listen.
Third child was born two years later, another beautiful little girl. However, during this time in her life, being a mommy was desired but definitely felt lonely.
The flags now at 29, were slapping her in the face, but questions and doubts continued to go through her head.
I mean, she was a preacher's wife and part of a very respected family. How would this make her look? How would it make him look? The congregation was like family to them. Talking to her mom was out of the question because there were signs of memory loss and confusion.
Trigger was pulled. Separation from her husband of 10 years happened and then back together, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Moving several times in three years, state to state, job to job, just to hold her family together.
All the while desperately trying to listen to what God wanted and even sometimes blaming him and questioning because it was not the expectation.
Finalization happened and she and her children went back to her hometown to start fresh. One of those familiar friends from college unexpected, unexpectedly reached out God's fingerprints.
Slowly a beautiful relationship happened and formed over time.
I now have six children, a faithful husband that loves me and respects me and helps me listen and recognize his voice.
Even though through the loss of my mother, my divorce, my children growing into adults, etc.
[00:22:58] Speaker B: Etc.
[00:22:59] Speaker D: Etc.
[00:23:00] Speaker C: I can look back and see God's fingerprints on all of those transitions, every one of them good and bad. And I see him working even when I did not know it.
Being a Christian does not promise no heartache.
It does not take it away or an easy life.
And when you start going through things, you need to ask yourself, why not you? Why not me?
Why not? What makes me so special? Why not? And that's. That's what I do.
[00:23:41] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:23:53] Speaker D: As a young lady, I received a card from a long time family friend.
Lorraine was someone I loved dearly and I had tremendous respect for her.
She had a lot to teach and boy did I have a lot to learn.
I still do.
I treasure the time and the conversations we had together over the years.
Lorraine loved the Lord and was unashamed to share that love with anyone she talked to.
She was bold in her faith and encouragement was a gift.
I remember opening that card and reading what it had to say.
But what stood out to me was how she signed it under her name.
She had the reference Philippians 1:3.
I thank my God every time I remember you.
That meant the world to me and it still does.
It made me feel loved and it made me feel special.
I kept that card for a long, long time and I read it often and I still carry that memory with me on all these years later, all these years later.
And we and I will be forever grateful for a sweet lady who knew how to show God's love through the encouragement she gave to me.
As I was thinking about Philippians 13 preparing for this class, I began to think about the context in which it was written.
The Apostle Paul knew how to cultivate gratitude.
He sang in prison.
He rejoiced in suffering.
He got beaten and thrown out of town and would turn around and go right back and preach the gospel again.
Paul understood that it was important not just to finish the race, but to finish the race with your torch still lit.
He was a man who who knew about gratitude and he constantly told people he was grateful for them.
Paul opens his letters to the Romans, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy and Philemon by giving thanks to his brothers and sisters in Christ and for what they were doing in the kingdom.
In his letter to the church of Colossae, he wrote an instruction manual on how to cultivate gratitude.
When Paul was writing this letter, he was in prison.
He wrote a manual on how to cultivate gratitude while in prison.
Think about that.
He gets into a regular rhythm of giving thanks.
One could argue Colossians is one of the most thankful books in the New Testament.
True gratitude is rooted in Christ and is what is expressed by those who follow him.
Ladies, we have something the world will never have.
Peace in God.
Paul reminds us. It's easy to focus on the world and to become discouraged.
But if we put on the characteristics of being a new creature in Christ, then gratitude is going to be an easy expression that will guard our hearts against the consequences of being thankless.
Paul makes it clear that living a life of gratitude is not an option for the New Testament Christian.
He lived a Christ centered life.
A Christ centered life automatically cultivates gratitude.
Think about all we have to be grateful for as followers of Christ.
And when your circumstance is so deep and heavy and gratitude is the last thing on your mind, start praying to Jesus.
Allow him to comfort you.
And while you're there, take a moment to think about his love for you.
Think about the life he lived, the words he spoke, his suffering and the death that he endured.
Think about why he did all these things and thank him for it.
Thank him for rising on the third day and conquering death and making a way for you to have eternal life.
Thank him for heaven, for all the comfort and the beauty and the peace that it holds, and for the everlasting joy that we will experience when we join him there.
Thank him, ladies.
Jesus is enough.
You see, we have plenty to be thankful for.
God created us knowing that we would get bogged down by this world first. Thessalonians 5:18 says, to give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.
Why does he do that?
If we stay in that place of sadness and pain all the time, it will consume us.
Having gratitude takes us out of our worldly circumstances and puts us on a spiritual plane.
Thinking spiritually gives us peace and comfort.
Is the pain still there?
Unfortunately, it is, but it's not the only thing there.
Having a heart of gratitude is not easy to do when you are in the middle of a trial.
Think of it like a muscle.
You want to have strong muscles, you have to work them every day.
You need to lift weights with repetition, and before you know it, you can see a difference in your muscles.
You can feel it too.
Lifting heavy things becomes easier and you're able to carry things longer.
There is a reward for all that hard work and dedication.
On the flip side, if you ignore or neglect those muscles, they will atrophy, they will grow weak, and lifting heavy things becomes incredibly hard and may even be impossible.
And the ability to carry things begins to diminish and you can feel that weakness in your body.
Cultivating gratitude is something we should work on daily, when things are moving along smoothly and it's easy to focus because we all know.
And listening to the ladies share their stories this quarter, hard times come, and with it pain, disorientation, frustration and anger.
This is when you need to lean on that muscle of gratitude that you have been conditioning and strengthening.
Colossians 3, verses 16 through 17 says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.
And whatever you do, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
The verse I think about, I cling to, I pray on a regular basis, is Hebrews 13:8.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
This verse brings me great comfort when I am feeling anxious, discouraged, or brokenhearted.
To know that in an ever changing world full of uncertainties, our Lord and Savior is constant.
He is our cornerstone, our anchor, our firm foundation in whom we can always depend.
I give thanks to him for that and the Gift and the comfort that it brings.
Ladies, our thanksgiving cannot be connected to our circumstances.
The presence of frustration in our lives does not lessen the blessings that we are receiving in Christ.
And when your heart is full of thanksgiving, you will spend more time in prayer back on that spiritual plane.
Recognize the need for spontaneous prayer when things come up on a daily basis that you need to be grateful for.
If tomorrow's blessings depended on today's gratitude, what kind of day would you have tomorrow?
How many of you keep a gratitude journal?
Anybody? Few? Okay.
Keeping a gratitude journal is one way of working that gratitude muscle that we talked about a few minutes ago.
Writing down daily gratitudes forces our minds to pay attention and make it a habit to notice what God is doing in our lives.
Our focus is directed on God, not on us.
This will also make a great tool for when you are in a valley and you may be struggling to find things to be grateful for.
Pull out that journal and read it.
Read the things that you have been thankful for and remind yourself that your circumstance has changed, but God has not.
He is the same yesterday, today and forever remind yourself of the love our Father has for you and take comfort in that and always remember Jesus is enough.
The book of Psalms is full of gratitude. I encourage you to read a psalm a day.
It will bless your lives and help you to build that muscle of gratitude.
In closing, gratitude was a daily reality for the apostle Paul.
He did not have an easy life once he became a Christian, yet his life exuded gratitude.
And when we fully understand our redemption was not an obligation that Jesus had to come to earth, but that he came as a gift, it should make us want to be overcome with gratitude.
Let's pray.
Father, we come before you tonight with gratitude for the love you have for us.
We are thankful for Jesus and his redeeming blood that covers us continually.
Lord, I am grateful for each lady in this room and pray we all feel encouraged through the study of your word tonight.
Lord, we beg you to focus our minds on cultivating gratitude to you for the many who wonderful spiritual blessings that you lavish on us every day, it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
[00:37:48] Speaker B: Thank you both so so much.
And we shouldn't be surprised, but it always amazes me how things weave together between the two talks. So thank you so so much for all the time and effort you put into that and now hugs and fellowship.
