You're listening to Women Infused Radio, where women in the marketplace connect with purpose and spirit, where the conversation covers all things women, business and fascinating faith. And now your host, Chrissy Lynn Olson. Hey, it's so great to have you join us here on the Women Infused Radio podcast show. Today's interview is amazing.
Actually, I think all of our interviews are amazing because I have some incredible women that have been so willing to share their stories. Today, I'm specifically excited about a particular woman. Her name is Janelle Keith, and she and I met, and you'll hear more of our story, how we met, but we actually met all the way in India and then came back here to the United States and just to have continued to be friends. And she wrote a book recently.
And I was so struck by her story because I knew part of her story, but I didn't know all of it. And so in today's interview, I just want to give you a little different perspective on food addiction and weight loss and the struggle to find significance. An estimated 45 million people go on diets each year and spend nearly $33 million on weight loss products, self-help books, and they all say the right words, but sadly, many diet plans fail, leaving most of the dieters feeling hopeless and left overweight or even obese. So in her new book, Grace for Your Waste, don't you just love that title?
It's Grace for Your Waste, Living a Lifestyle Fitted with Hope. Author and speaker Janelle Keith offers a perspective on food addiction and weight loss that's very different. One centering on God's perspective over the world's view of balance in health and fitness. Janelle understands firsthand the hopelessness felt when fad diets fail and the pain of past hurts linger.
And that's really what we're going to focus on in today's interview about past hurts and about rejection and not feeling heard. That is such a heart cry of mine. Women not feeling heard that I thought this book was a perfect compliment to what we talk about here at Women of Views. Janelle says this was one of the hardest seasons of her life, but the freedom that she gained by shedding the lies of her past was so worth it.
She was powerless to help herself at 244 pounds, but that's when she surrendered to God's grace. Having lost 132 pounds herself without diet pills or weight loss surgery, she downsides from a size 24 to a size 4. But that's not important, and it wasn't a quick fix. In Grace for Your Waste, Janelle offers a transparent look inside her own personal closet of people pleasing, rejection, and fear.
Her brave story provides insights into how to take off the old outfit of self and put on the radiant garment of Christ's love. Her courage will breathe hope into your journey and inspire you to keep on pressing forward. Listen to my interview with Janelle Keith. I'm so excited to welcome you to the Women of Views podcast, and we are going to talk about your new book, Grace for Your Waste, Living a Lifestyle Fitted with Hope.
Welcome! Thank you so much, Kristy, for having me on your Women in Views podcast. This is a pleasure and an honor. Thank you so much.
It goes both ways. I want to share with our audience that you and I actually had to meet all the way in India. Even though we both live in the United States, God took us both on a path to India. We were just talking, we met in 2013, and it really struck me as we were talking about what we saw and what we heard there and how we saw a lot of desperation.
You kind of had an aha moment there. Your whole book is about, we're really going to dig into some of the topics, but it really is more than just a weight loss journey, which I was so excited to read, because your transparent about how really the bigger battle was, how do we stop people pleasing, how do we deal with things of rejection and fear in our life, but really desperation, like in the eyes of the people you saw in India. Thank you for being honest and transparent. As we start this journey, you wanted to share a little bit in the book.
I was struck by your first story about Cheetos. I think there's a fun story to tell because that can weigh the groundwork and then we'll dig into what some of the emotional impact was because this book is so much more than losing weight. If people are looking to buy the book, that is going to be a three step program. This is not the book for them, right?
That is correct. I mean, however, I kind of politely lead you into that place. It is really more than, it is not a diet plan at all. It is a, it's kind of hard to put a lot of words around it, but it's just really that spiritual component that you need to be led out of a life full of lies and deception and out of your own spiritual loessness, can we say, and say, who am I really and how come, how do I matter to God?
And when you find your identity locked in and totally secure in Christ, and those questions don't matter, but when you're looking for your place to belong, you'll always be searching. And as a child, you know, as children, we don't know that we, who we belong to except with the identity that our parents give us, our earthly parents, our mother and our father, our father's teach identity, our mother's teach honor. And you know, you grow up under that, that respect and authority, you know, as a child, because you learn these ways of love and how a family loves and serves and gives and the dynamic within a family. But when any of that is not in place, then a child hungry to know who she is or who he is and you know, anybody searches for their roots, what is life really all about?
And it comes to, you know, there's just so many avenues we can go here, but in respect to India, I saw that first in myself and it really was an activation, if you will, on the Lord's behalf to really go, go long in the obedience of the direction that I knew he was drawn me to, but I was like afraid, I was afraid to do it. I was afraid until I saw that lossness within my own soul through the connecting of an eyes of a young man in what is interestingly enough, a slum of India, I saw my own lossness. And I thought, I didn't know how to deal with that. And it really was an activation, so to speak.
But going, I know, I went down that corridor before I even got you to the Cheetos story. The Cheetos was really my physical appetite calling me out because as a child, and I start the book off with that, as a child, we look for our place to belong. We look for love in all the wrong places, you know, I mean, there's lots of songs that talk about that, but there's not very many songs that tell you the song of deliverance, of, you know, who Christ is and where we should be putting our identity. And that's where faith comes in.
And, you know, it was in the desperation to find myself in this world that I lost sight of my identity in Christ and my purpose for living. Oh, how I needed a new beginning. Sadly, I didn't realize my true identity until much later in life. That's the deal, Christy.
We looked down all these hallways, all these, you know, places, all these, you know, hopes and dreams and thinking, okay, when I get there, things will start working out. And I do this, then all of achieve something. When I get to that place, I'll feel successful. And really life is much more than that.
We are as human, so destination minded that we can't, we can't break that in our minds, you know, and true success is living out your faith, according to God's terms. And when you are secure and steadfast in the truth in your identity, then all of those lies, deceptions and traps and distractions, they fall off, you know, and you really start living. So when I say this is a not a diet plan, it is not that. It is really my redemption story of how God brought me out of my years and years of bondage that was trapped by food.
Yeah, I escalated to 244 pounds, but how I am now, you know, half that person and I'm thankful, thankful because he delivered me from years and years of bondage from food and its addictions and attractions and it doesn't have to just be, you know, labeled drugs or alcohol. It can be that anything can be an idol in your life if it's between you and God. Well, absolutely. And the thing that is so poignant to me is that you didn't even realize how desperately you needed that identity till after you had actually even lost the weight.
Is that correct? That is correct. And yeah, you know, isn't that interesting that until those layers, those physical layers actually came off. Yeah, I was mentioning to you before we started this that it was 2013, October 2013, I reached my lowest point on the scale.
Visically I was at 111. I'll never forget what that made me feel like. I was like, I made it. I made it.
There was that sigh of relief, like, this is what this feels like. This is what thinness air quotes here. This is what thinness feels like. This feels good.
I feel safe here. I feel, yes, this is who I am, but I was really underweight. You know what I mean? I was not.
I couldn't maintain it. I mean, yes, I've lost 132 pounds and that needed to come off, but I couldn't maintain that weight, if you will, health in my mind, in my emotions, in my physical place. I mean, that's not a good healthy balance emotionally for me because then I'm bound to that rule. Then I'm bound to that number and we're not a number.
No, we're not. We're not a number. And we also, you know, one thing that I thought you were really brilliant at explaining in the book was how people tend to label us. Sometimes we just assume that those labels are correct.
So I was wondering if I could share a little more about like what are the labels that people have maybe placed on you and how do labels manifest in our lives? Because a lot of women struggling to find significance. I absolutely guarantee we're people, pleasers. We don't want to be rejected.
We're fearful of everything. And then we have these labels that people put on us and we just somehow think, well, that must be right because someone called me that. So I must be that. So share a little more about your perspective on labels and how do they affect you?
Oh, well, I had a bunch. I had a bunch of those labels and I just took them on because I didn't know any better basically. You know, in our ignorance, we just assume that that's all there is. I was the third child that my brother was always smart.
My sister, we're all four years older, I mean, within each other. And she was the teacher. So she was always the one who knew what she was doing and she went to college and then she used her degree. And here I am.
Here I am. Oh, Janelle, the last and I'm the people pleaser. And I think, well, I want to learn what makes people tick. So I went to school to be for psychology and that, I quickly abandoned that because that became too much.
You get inside people. You think, oh, that's dangerous. But then it was just like, okay, well, I want to be a helper. I understand what it means to be like the underdog, because I always felt like the underdog in my family, the black sheep, the one that didn't know anything, the one that was directional list, the one that was unheard.
Oh, yikes. I just said that. And I believe that. I believe that because I was the third, the last, the youngest, the smallest, the weakest link that I was the most unheard.
It has really, that label stuck with me for a long, long time. I mean, until, and I'm going to be quite transparent until the release of this book. And I thought, I thought until that time, and even when I left the radio station, okay, so fast forward to 13 years ago, well, I don't even know when it was, but I started to work at a radio station and I came through the volunteer door and I started serving my community and it was a Christian radio station. It was a great place to work.
And I learned a lot about how to speak publicly. And I kept thinking, I'm not a public speaker. I'm just talking to my friends, you know, and having an open conversation and people began to listen and it was just like crazy and, and, and wonderful all at the same time and very encouraging. And, but still, even in that place of doing the Lord's work, I was pretending, I was pretending because I thought they only liked me because I was on the radio.
And then so even though you were talking, you still felt unheard. Yes, yes. And it wasn't until I went to India that I realized that I had a problem and that I kept thinking, why, why do I keep trying so hard to be who God created me to be? Why can't I be heard more than what I am?
And it was really my own question to myself. And as the Lord would have it, he loaded this up on a triple seven and took a bunch of broadcasters and writers and journalists and podcasters and women of influence to a place where I think in each of us. And I think if we'd all go back and ask that question, we found ourselves a little bit in India to we really connected with those women. Yes.
And then we found India in individual ways to where something happened to that team, the Lord deposited in each of us. And for me, it was through your influence and other great influential voices like Wendy Pette and Carol Lad and all of these wonderful women of prominence came and spoke at deposit into my life and said, you can do it. And you may not have actually physically said that, but the Lord used you to enforce that my voice needs to be heard. And it was like, I saw the lostness of my own soul.
And it was like, I don't know how this is going to look like God. And he asked me to wait on it. And here it is. And it's just like, I don't know where this is rising up from, except I believe that there was boldness of spirit somewhere.
And I just had to tap into it. And it really is submitting to that authority in your life. You know, as as labels, you talk about labels, I think women in general are unheard, you know, and that's where they're really looking for significance because I don't believe that we know how to teach that to ourselves because of the model of the church and not to throw stones here. But I think it's because we've been led to believe that it only looks a certain way.
Right. And that's really a spirit of religion. And I think we don't even realize that that's what we're fighting. And someone even mentioned to me the other day that at the deepest root of the spirit of religion is the Antichrist and the Antichrist has been in a battle with a woman since Adam and Eve, since the fall and that I believe that, you know, he's been trying to silence our voice since then.
And so those feelings of never feeling heard and the weight loss was one thing, but the emotional journey that you had to go through. I'll never forget. I have to share this story about you in India because I think it does relate to this whole concept of being labeled and not feeling heard. There was a woman that we were sitting in some room and there was a woman that I think has never shared her story and she started talking about feeling ashamed that she has leprosy and that no one sees or hears her.
And I'll never forget you walked up to her. I think it was you, maybe someone else too, and physically put their arms around this woman. And I think for the first time, some of these women felt heard. And so even without us knowing that's what we were doing, we were starting the process of releasing voices around the world and that included us coming back home and looking at our own lives.
And I think that's what you did as well, looking at your own life and say, not only do I feel not heard, I feel distant from God. There's a quote that you said in the book about dysfunction creates distance rather than intimacy with God. And I just thought that was so powerful of an example that we long to be heard and we long to be intimate with the God who loves us, but we don't know how to get there. Would you agree with that?
Yes, absolutely. Wow. What you just shared was a powerful story and I've forgotten that. So thank you for bringing that to my remembrance because there comes a time when you have to you have to accept your name.
And the Lord never calls us out by our shame. He calls us out by our name. And I named my shame in the book. And I didn't.
Wow. Wow. I talk about how I had fallen under false humility, how I had said, okay, I can't say that because that's not right. How I've said that I was, you know, I took this upon myself that yes, I own my story.
Yes, I didn't grow up under a father who said, I love you. He did not say those three physical words. I did not know the love of my heavenly father. And I never felt the love of my earthly father.
Therefore I went searching for it everywhere. And so when you don't have that component in your life, you're again looking in all the wrong places. And then, but then you don't talk about it. You're just like, I can't, what girl wants to walk around saying, well, my daddy never says that.
Nobody, nobody does that. And so we take in that shame, like, there's something wrong with me. Why, why can't my daddy say that? You know, and there's that, that enemy of shame that comes against you in all kinds of forms.
And so it just like stands up against you and say, well, now tell me who you are, you know, your own father can't even say it. You know, so there's that enemy of the soul and you go to war with it, but the problem with women is we're to ashamed to talk about it. You know, and it's not until you open that closet and all these layers of deception come off. Are you vulnerable?
And Brene Brown has it right. You know, it's the most courageous and bravest thing you can do to say, hey, I need help. I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking for anymore, you know, because we get lost. We get distracted.
We get, you know, anything that feeds the soul we're all over. And, and then oftentimes it's got a busy, you know, we're just so like pulled in so many directions as moms, we wear so many different hats and we think, well, I don't even know who I'm supposed to be. Right. And, or we try and be somebody we're not.
We're not. That's the only thing we know to do. And so we're like, I should probably be like those other moms that I see at school or that I see at the real station and then we try and be someone we're not. And that doesn't work very long either.
And then the search for significance continues. And you know, that's what I saw in India. They were the bravest women I knew, yet the most shamed women. I mean, how can, wow, you know, I think about the woman that shared her testimony about how she had to take on the shame of her husband being attacked by a tiger.
Now that was totally not her fault. He was out there just doing what he knew to do. And then she's like, shame. And now outcast from this community because her husband died in that way.
How can shame be that? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Somebody has to be a voice for them. And so, you know, then when you look at it as shame is this vicious animal, of course, we're, well, I'm going to stand up to that.
Well, beware because it can consume you in any way it wants to take form. And shame is just that powerful that if you don't stand up against it and that's where it takes knowing who you are and then you know how to live because we are overcomers in Christ. We, yes, we are weak. Yes, we are the submissive female, but that doesn't mean that we have to let fear rough shot over our entire lives and our domain and our families.
And, you know, we have to know who we are to be able to fight in that spiritual warfare. And a lot of times, everyday life robs us of our very powerful voice that we have in prayer. Absolutely. And we're taught to fight with, if we really read scripture, our biggest weapon is prayer and a prayer language, but we have the sword of the spirit.
And so we have all this armor, but I don't know that we always remember. Sometimes I forget that I actually do have armor in my closet. And so I love what your book talks about. You know, we have to keep going back into our closet and it's not just a proverbial prayer closet, but I have weapons of warfare, but I have to actually go on the closet, pull them off the shelf and then activate and use them to fight against the enemy wanting to shame me or the enemy wanting to keep me isolated or any of those things, those lies that we come up against.
But you're right, we are in a battle and we are in a battle for our lives and for this generation. Yeah, definitely. You know, and the enemy is so subtle. You know, we tend to think that and bless our hearts.
I mean, seriously, we give him too much credit. You know, we let our defenses down and we just think, Oh, well, I can trust so and so and da da da da da da going on our own reasoning instead of thinking and running to God and saying, what do you, how do you want me to respond here? You know, we're so quick to latch out and in in a harshness towards each other. I mean, sometimes I'm going to go ahead and say it out loud.
Sometimes in present company excluded, of course, but sometimes we're very critical of each other, you know, and we don't do ourselves any favor, you know, no wonder, you know, people don't feel comfortable coming to us because they because they heard condemnation from us. So we need to watch our tongues. You know, I'll never forget you wanted to know what flipped the switch for me in weight loss and it was when I realized, yes, I'd lost the weight. Yes, I was learning how to maintain.
Yes, I need, I still need every day daily balance and daily a check in with the Lord to say, where are we going today? What, what had am I going to wear? You know, those kinds of things and a daily renewal of that mindset of who I am, my identity has to be safe and secure every day before I set out on anything that I attempt to do. And when you don't do that daily check in, you're number one, that's this misstep number one, because if we can't take time for the Lord, what, that's the most ridiculous thing ever.
And I'm not talking about, you know, just saying, oh, remind me who I am Lord. Thank you very much for all the things you've done. Okay, great. And then you said about and go about your date.
No, we're talking about where do I, where did I go wrong? And we searched my heart. Oh, God, and changed me. Yes, we knew.
Yes, go to the depth. Yes, go to the depth of that 18 inches. I know that I am locked safely and secure in your left. But in the next 18 minutes, show my heart where to go, you know, because we get so busy with our own agendas and our own to-do list and our own check-offs that we forget to consult them and say, is this really what you want me to do?
You know, do I need to take time to meet with my hurting friend, you know, or instead of just assuming that she's okay? And just really asking her, how can I pray for you today, taking the time for people, you know, because that's loving them. That's right where they're at. People that are hurting can't even know the direction of which way to look until somebody comes and stops and takes time for them and bins down and says, how can I pray for you today?
You know, and taking the time from your own personal agenda to do the Lord's bidding, you know, because that's what he's enlisted us to do. We're warriors, yes, but not to war for, you know what I mean? We're here to help people. Absolutely.
That otherwise, you know, God, he has us here for a reason. God can take care of a lot on his own, but part of his plan is he wants to use us to be his hands and feet and to be that person that reaches out. Yes. And so that's exactly what you're talking about.
The quote in the book that I love, it said, you can spend your entire life trying to constantly fix yourself. But when you come up to the end of yourself, guess what? You're still messed up. And that's why we need God.
That's why we need God. Yeah. I just love that. Not only to help others, but help ourselves first.
Like you said, as I got, you know, know my heart. Look at my heart. Teach me what I need to know. And you did something interesting.
You went on a three day fast. And I think this is in the process of when you were still going through food addiction kind of issues. And there were some things that God revealed to you. And if you're okay, I'd like to read, I think there were five things that I'd like to just touch on that he revealed to you.
And then you can kind of pick up whichever one you think made the most impact. But he helped you in these ways. You said you realized you were deceived. The root was exposed that you loved food too much.
And you didn't love God as much as you thought and that you needed an overhaul. Just how overall you needed an overhaul, but those three days of fasting and then God revealing these things to you. What to share with us a little more about what that experience was like and how has that really helped you move forward? Wow.
Well, there was a it was a seriously a wake up call to realize how I was competing for perfection. And I wanted to look good in front of people and realize that when I got to a certain weight, a certain size that I would I will have arrived. I would be in that place of quote unquote popularity or prominence in that it would be, oh, this I'm here. I belong.
This is my place. This is where what I'm supposed to do. And it wasn't until I measured myself up to that what that deception of that number or that that definition in my mind that that I feel perfected. And that was a false representation of who God has created me to be.
And nobody looks good. Nobody looks from the we all need the Lord. We all need the Lord in every respect. You know, here.
Yeah, I don't even know where to go from that, but accept the thing that we pride will never get you to the throne of grace. You know, it's that false humility to think, okay, well, I when I get there, then the Lord will love me. No, that's not true. That's a lie from the pit of hell because the Lord loves you right where you're at right now, right as you are because that's the full acceptance of his love.
But the thing with love is he doesn't leave you there. He loves you to the level where you need to be loved. And so it's the whole wounded warrior concept like the Lord never leaves anybody wounded in the pew. Yes, unless you choose not to walk in the journey.
You know, I think you said the key. We're asking God the Father for help, but he's not going to leave us there, but it's a process. And you even said, I think in the book that it's the process of taking ownership, first of all, for your issues, but then allowing God the Father and the Holy Spirit to gently teach you what you need to know and kind of I think of it as sowing you back together again. So all those wounded parts can be lovingly sewn up and heal.
And we have to go through this process of healing. And you had to do it, not only healing childhood wounds, but all the imperfections and failures and labels that you were thrown on you. It was a process. It doesn't happen overnight, clearly, but he's not going to leave you there for you to take it all on yourself.
Yes, that is so true. And you know, Grace is powerful. It is so, so powerful. And I have this story that I can share with you.
And it just happened months ago. I have I'm now at my goal weight range. Let's just say that because the healthy way to do weight maintenance, physical weight maintenance is to have a range. You cannot stick to a number.
I mean, physically, your body goes up and down with water weight with, you know, the calories that you take in plus the calories you burn and the ultimate for any person in the physical realm is to live in balance and to fuel your body. And so and then use what you take in. I mean, it's not for consumption in any overindulgence. Nothing can be overindulged in, but anyway, so you learn the rules, food rules, if you will, and you learn the ways to keep balance and the ways to maintain it and the ways to use it.
And so that just is common sense and the scientific evidence and all that. But also there's a spiritual component to this. And it is okay, allowing in your schedule to make time for fitness, to make time to prepare and have good, healthy choices in your refrigerator and your cabinet to make time to rid yourself in every way of the things that distract you. I mean, Eve, come on, you're too close to the tree.
Why are you even over there listening to the hiss? You know what I mean? I mean, rid your life of the things that tempt you. If you know that Twinkies bother you, don't go to the store and load up your basket with those.
You know, let's be wise in this. Let's be strategic in this. And so have a plan. You know, those who fail to plan, you know, you just fall by chance.
You can't do that physically if you're attentive and you have this focus on, I want to make good choices today. Well, don't load your refrigerator with snacks, you know, that are unhealthy for you. So all that to say, preparation is very key physically, but also spiritually. And then also removing those labels.
You know, I prayed Lord, make me whole. I didn't know the stripping that was going to have to come into my life. I had no idea, but it was until those lies were exposed about myself and the Lord. Did I come into right relationship?
And that's what that fast did that. Oh, wait a minute. I just been going through the motions here. I really haven't let you be Lord of my life.
Yes, we love to say the Lord Jesus is our savior. But guess what? He's still saving us. You know, I still need delivering every day.
I need grace. I need that proportion. I need that portion of grace that he has for me every day. I still have yet to go run my five miles and that will come.
But you know, these things that we still need the daily grace of the mercy of the Lordship in our lives. And that's where it all comes down to. We say that Jesus is Lord, but we fail to let him be Lord in our life. And you know, it had that Lordship, had that control and we failed to surrender that trust to him in every way.
And that's what I'm learning is since I've arrived at this goal weight range. And let me tell you how powerful grace is. It is amazingly powerful because I've downsized from a 24, a size 24 to a size four. Now I never thought I could be that proud to say I've reached this size.
And I feel so, I feel like a lightweight. And I mean, I mean, but in every sense, I am. And but still, I know that my significance comes from the Lord. And so I'm labeled, I'm identified, I'm locked into that love.
Well, let me tell you. I just like, this is a powerful story. And I kind of shake every time I talk about it, but I didn't realize how much I had been labeling myself in that category now. And so I was running down the treadmill one day.
And I knew that this was something that the Lord had asked me to do, but I was failing to follow through and obedience. And so I just was running listening to a podcast because I love to distract my legs from the pain of what is happening in the moment. And so I distract my mind and thinking, okay, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to at least learn something. And so I'm right in the middle of some awesome teaching and the Lord says, Oh, about that labeling project I asked you to do months ago, when are you going to do that?
And I'm going, okay, I'll do it right now after my run. And so I just said, let's just get this over with, which if you, when you read the book, you'll notice, you'll notice that line. Let's just get this over with. And so I go into my closet and I take a pair of scissors with me and I cut out every label on my physical clothes that's hanging in my overstuffed closet.
I cut out everyone. I cut out them, everyone. And I thought, okay, what do I do? Well, I compiled them all on a phone plate.
And I brought them into my office and I put them up on a shelf and I thought, okay, I Instagram did that was it. That's all I got it over with there. Did it? Okay, God.
And really, that's what I said. And and so I didn't think about it for a couple of weeks and then I thought, okay, I Instagram all of that. So what? I just need to get rid of it because I knew that it was still up there.
I was still remembering that I put them up on that phone plate and I still knew that the Lord had a purpose to teach me a further purpose, a deeper purpose in in that. And then when I took my hand on that plate, I thought, okay, Lord, what do you want me to do with these now? And he says, I wanted you to see how much you were measuring your own self up to that label of lightweight in your closet. I want you to see how significant or how insignificant you have been counting yourself because I don't see you anything like that.
And now I want you to know how powerful that was because he's always heard me. He's seen my tears and he's always known where I was. And there's just an effect that comes from knowing that because it's one thing to know who you are. It's another thing to act accordingly to your identity in Christ.
And we are powerful, powerful women. And once we realize that our place is covered under the blood of Christ, our voice is heard in ways that we can't even imagine as we faithfully serve him, the throne, the God of all of the universe knows our name. He doesn't call us out by our shame. We are overcomers.
We have inside of us the light of salvation. We are the solution of the representation of God himself activated by faith. Forgiveness, deliverance, freedom, the light. It was like this would preach and we don't need pulpits.
We just need to use our voices. Amen. Wow. That is so thank you so much for sharing that.
That is so powerful because you're right. It's not enough just to think it or kind of know it. But when we actually receive it in the fullness of the love that God has for us and the fullness of his identity and giving us grace, like you said, grace for your waste, grace for the labels and just really believing. You know, Janelle, this has been so powerful and I'm so glad that you were able to share this journey with us.
Would you mind if we just kind of end this interview with you praying for any woman who might be struggling with food addiction or weight loss issues or even just significance and shame? Everything we've been talking about, would you be able to just pray for the women who are listening to this? Absolutely. Absolutely.
Oh, Lord, thank you. We just thank you and we thank you and we thank you so much for this time. We've had together to share our hearts and to lend our minds to you, Lord, you are sovereign, you are holy and you are mighty and we acknowledge you in all of our ways. And Lord, we as we align ourselves, our minds and our hearts and our emotions and our wills, we surrender to your Lordship and our lives.
Lord, we know that there are so many things that are tearing against us. There's so many things that come against us and the barriers, the shame, the sin, the deception, the lies, Lord, they just constantly are hurled at the moms in us and we as caretakers, we throw up our shield of faith and we think we're doing okay, but Lord, we're not doing as good as we need to be when we fail to search our own closet. So I believe today that we're going to call out the prodigal Lord. I believe that there's someone that's listening that needs to be encouraged, that despair and dismay have run across their lives and fears bubbling up and they feel like they're losing ground but Lord, remind them of who they are.
We remind them that they are your child, that you love them no less yesterday or today, that they are locked into your love and that you give of hope, you give love, you give joy, you give peace, you give patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control and Lord, we ask all of those things to be present and everyone that's listening right now, including me and including Christi and we pray your blessing upon everyone, your favor and your mercy and your grace to be evident steadfast and powerful in the lives of these women, help them to see that their significance can only come from you, validate what they do, give them assurance and steadfast faith to endure and persevere whatever trial they're going through. And Father, we ask we're a special blessing of joy that even though they're going through a storm, a trial, whatever hardship Lord that you would take a hold of their hand and give them joy in their suffering. And Father, we pray for the persecuted church, those that are standing up in faith, anchor them in the truth of your word, wrap around their waist, the sword of the spirit and put upon their chest the shield of faith. And Father, remind them of the home and of salvation, deliver their feet to be effective in the use of the gospel.
And Father, we bind Satan from all of his fear tactics and his failed attempts because they are nothing, nothing, nothing is impossible when you're in it Lord. Our little bit and make it much. We ask all these things and we cover ourselves under the blood of Christ. It's in his name we pray.
Amen. Amen. And amen. Thank you, Janelle, so much for sharing just even a snapshot of your story.
And we are definitely going to put the links to your book on the website and on the podcast show notes below. So please make sure and get a copy of Janelle's book and we'll put your links people can connect with you on social media. Is that correct? If we put the links there, you'd be more than happy to have conversations with women.
Absolutely. Yes. Please. I would love to connect in every way.
So yeah, reach out and yeah, the Lord is just so good. So good. What a good, good father we have. We do.
Well, thank you so much. And I look forward to having you back as a guest because I think we just kind of scratched the surface with some of the things we can talk about. So we just barely pulled back the curtain in. We did.
We did. So thank you so much for being my guest today. And I look forward to having people reach out and get your book and we will change lives together with God's help. Amen to that.
All for his glory. Amen. This has been Women in Fuse Radio connecting women around the globe with purpose and spirit. And we want to connect with you.
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