September 10, 2022 • 37 mins
Stephanie has a fun and hilarious, but honest conversation with Tess Scott. Living through multiple divorces, breast cancer, and menopause, Tess shares her story of God's grace and amazing love.
Tess Scott, former black sheep turned “Jesus Girl” is mom of 8 boys and spunky “Grami with a heart above the i” to a whole slew of adorable grandkids. She began the Listen Sister- Encouragement for Women ministry in 2020 where you can find her blog posts at tessscott.com and her Listen, Sister pages on Facebook and Instagram. She continues to live her life of hilariously awkward moments in Sarnia Ontario to the ongoing embarrassment of her family.
Everyone has resilience, but what does that mean and how to we use it in life and leadership? Join Stephanie Olson, expert in resiliency and trauma, every week as she talks to other experts living lives of resilience. Stephanie also shares her own stories of addictions, disordered eating, domestic and sexual violence, abandonment, and trauma; and shares the everyday struggles and joys of everyday life. As a wife, mom, and CEO she gives commentaries, and, sometimes a few rants, to shed light on what makes a person resilient. So, if you have experienced adversity in life in any way, and you want to learn how to better lead your family, your workplace, and, well, your life, this podcast is for you!
https://stephanieolson.com
INSPIRE your team to LEAD WITH SUCCESS and MOTIVATE others with Stephanie bringing 20+ years of speaking experience. If you need to EMPOWER, ENGAGE, and EDUCATE your people-Book Stephanie as your speaker today!
https://www.stephanieolson.com/ask-stephanie-to-speak
Everyone has resilience, but what does that mean, and how do we use it in life and leadership? Join Stephanie Olson, an expert in resiliency and trauma, every week as she talks to other experts living lives of resilience. Stephanie also shares her own stories of addictions, disordered eating, domestic and sexual violence, abandonment, and trauma, and shares the everyday struggles and joys of everyday life. As a wife, mom, and CEO she gives commentaries and, sometimes, a few rants to shed light on what makes a person resilient. So, if you have experienced adversity in life in any way and want to learn how to better lead your family, your workplace, and, well, your life, this podcast is for you!
https://stephanieolson.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tess Scott (00:00):
Thank you for listening. Please share with
anyone you think will benefitfrom this podcast. Hello and
welcome to resilience in lifeand leadership and I am here to
introduce to you test Scott testScott former Black Sheep turn
Jesus girl is Mom of eight boysand spunky Graeme with a heart
above the eye to a whole slew ofadorable grandkids. She began to
(00:25):
listen sister encouragement forwomen ministry in 2020, where
you can find her blog posts attest scott.com and her listen
sister pages on Facebook andInstagram, she continues to live
her life of hilariously awkwardmoments in cineraria, Ontario,
(00:47):
to the ongoing embarrassment ofher family, which is what it's
all about. Welcome to us. Hello,and welcome to resilience in
life and leadership. I am herewith test Scott and I am so
excited to talk to you becauseyou are doing some pretty cool
things. You you're an author andand I was telling tests earlier.
(01:08):
I love her name because Ipersonally have a test my one of
my daughters so great, greatname. What's your middle name?
Lynn? Okay, her middle name isGrace. So that's not really but
Okay, so tell us how. Tell usabout your journey and how you
got to where you are.
(01:29):
Yeah, thanks for having me on.
I'm always excited to share mystory. And my story is like, I
was kind of a black sheep. Youknow, my life. If you look back,
I've been married a few timesmade tons of bad decisions. And
you know, it's a freak show. Icall it a freak show. I have I
(01:49):
have relate to that, actually,unfortunately. But yeah,
that's because you have childrentoo. So I have eight boys, eight
sons, a blended, blended family.
And I'm, I'm blessed. Andthey're all grown up now. Except
I have one at home still. Who's18? And you know, I'm not
pushing him out the door. Butlook at my hands. Yeah,
(02:12):
right. You're not? Who you know.
Yeah, he'sgoing to college next year. So
that's, that's cool. Andgrandkids and the whole life.
But it's awesome. Yeah, it'sawesome in full of experiences.
And by the time you're, youknow, my age or age, you have
lots of stories. But I felt likeso how can I say this? In 2012,
my husband, my current husband,at that time, Rick, came to me
(02:41):
and said that he was leaving,you know, he didn't love me
anymore. And he was in he wasout. And I mean, it had been
overtime. It wasn't like I wasstill surprised and shocked and
devastated. You know, there'salways things leading up to it.
And I mean, I begged God that hewouldn't leave like I spent
every day I'm not exaggerating,every day with my face in the
(03:01):
green shag carpet of my bedroom.
And, and yet, God allowed it tohappen. He left and it was
terrible and awful. And allthose things really bad. And for
the kids too, was awful. I mean,I didn't want to be on my own.
Again, again, not the first timeI didn't want to shame because
there's some shame with that,especially like, I'm an
(03:23):
Elizabeth Taylor. But this wasmy third divorce. Yeah, so I'm
not a fan, anyway, at all. But Ilearned a lot. And I grew a lot
through that time. And I grewclose to God, and I grew in life
as a person. And I really neededthat. Like now it's easy to
easier to look back and say, I'mactually thankful for that time.
(03:44):
Because of what I like how Igrew and how much closer to God
I became. And it wouldn't havehappened otherwise. Right? I
mean, that's all I had. I neededthat to breathe. Like I was
like, moment to moment. Somedays, it was awful. You know,
I grew. It's never through thewonderful times in life that we
grow. It's through those times,where God sometimes strips
(04:07):
everything away from us. And wehave to rely only on him. Yeah,
that's exactly it. Now, I don'tever want it to happen again.
No, no. Good to anybody else.
Right. So, but I can be thankfulfor that now. So then five years
later, well, three years afterour permanent divorce. We got
back together and starteddating. Wow. And at the end of
(04:32):
the year got married. Oh mygoodness. Yeah, like remarried.
So that's like a miracle.
absolute miracle. And I'm verythankful for all of it. Like
every day, I'm thankful. Oh,wow. Three weeks after our
marriage on September 9 Threeweeks after I was diagnosed with
breast cancer.
(04:52):
Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry. Ireally like
talking to God, right? Really?
Like my gosh, you and I I'd liketo say Merson.
Thank you for my husband backnow this What? No, I'm sorry.
You're joking, right? Yeah, God,and I thought like, this is the
(05:13):
worst timing in the world. Ithought, however, okay, stick
with me. Because what I'velearned is that we're always
learning in life, hopefully. Andwhat I learned through this time
was that allowed my husband totake care of me, to show me that
he loved me to show my kids thathe loved me. Wow, was amazing to
me. And had that timing beendifferent if I would have got
(05:36):
sick the year before. And hewould have come and said, You
know what, I want to come back.
I'm going to take care of you, Iwould have been, ah, ain't gonna
happen, buddy. Right, I wouldn'thave trusted him. And so I can
say, that was the best timing,and I'm good now. I'm healthy.
Now. It's been six years. Andit's good, good. Yeah, I'm so
thankful. But I am thankful forthe timing. And we don't always
even get the chance in our lifeto see that to see why things
(05:59):
happen. So that's a gift really,to be able to see, like, yeah,
that was the best timing forthat. And all the things that,
that, that we learned throughthat and how it really cemented
us together. That's beautiful.
Yeah, it was difficult. Like itwas, it was really hard. It was
hard in ways. Like because I wasso defenseless, I had no
(06:23):
control. You know, I had to havea mastectomy. So you know, and
all like the whole, I think themental part of it is the worst,
right? Like, well, when youmarried me, you didn't know that
I was going to be missing partsof my body. Or my hair. I lost
my hair. I had chemo, you know.
So those things were there was abattle all the time. But the
battle is where you grow. Thatis so true. You grow through
(06:47):
that. So we got through that.
And then a few years later, Iguess a year ago now, it's only
a year ago, I can't believethis. Oh, um, I was feeling like
God want me to share my story oflife because it's a freak show,
right? From raising eight boys,the marriages that and all the
(07:07):
little things. It's not evenjust the whole, like biography
of life, but it's like thelittle daily things even Right,
right. But so I said no, becauseI don't want to
write and so yeah, you're gonnawin that battle? Yeah. Okay.
Thank God, because that's how Iyeah, I think I said, I think
(07:29):
there's other people that aremuch better to do this than me,
because I have a high schooleducation. And I mean, instead
of going to college oruniversity, I had a baby, and so
on and so on.
Didn't Moses say some similarthings to God? I think not. Not
about the baby, butno, and Joshua. Right. But I
just didn't feel and who wouldlisten to test God Oh, my word
(07:52):
like hot mess Express over here.
But anyway, time, you know, timeyou hear it. You think God
saying that? And then you go tochurch, and the pastor says it,
then you're listening to theradio station, and the song is
like, you know, tests listen toGod. And you're like, okay,
okay, okay. Okay, I'll do it,you know? So? Yeah, so then I
(08:14):
thought, Okay, I'll startwriting. So I started just
writing little stories andblogging, and my husband's like,
I think he wants you to read abook, or to write a book, I
really think you have to write abook. And so I'm like, okay,
and, you know, so I kind of gota vision, like, I'm gonna write
a book, I'm gonna not got avision, but I mean, the idea
that I'm gonna write a book and,and speak to women, encourage
them, right, just encouragewomen, like, just, you know, we
(08:35):
can do this. And, and then thisis what happened, I was getting
ready for work. And I'm lookingin the mirror, putting my makeup
on, or whatever, I was workingat a college in an admin
position. And my smile was like,kind of crooked. And my eyes
were kind of blurry. And I'mlike, this looks weird. Like,
it's like this, right? Like, youknow, I don't know what's going
on. So I went to work because,you know, they need me. And
(08:58):
so when my boss came, we'rewomen, we just do what we're
supposed to do, right? And whathas to
open the doors. So I went in,and my boss came in, and he
said, What's wrong with yourface? No one wants to hear that.
No. So I went to the hospitalanyway, I drove myself I stopped
at home to get a book in caseyou know, my eyes weren't blurry
and, and then went to thehospital. And it wasn't a
(09:18):
stroke, you know, make a longstory short, but it was a TIA,
which is like a little warningstroke, but there's no permanent
side effects damage, or yeah,thank you damage of that. So I
was in the hospital three days.
And I was really upset because Ifelt like, God, you're asking
me, I think you're asking me toshare my story, too, right to
(09:40):
speak, and I can't see and Ican't and my words were all
horrible. I can't talk right.
And I can't talk. My words areall garbled and it was scary.
And so when I got home afterthose three days, I said, Well,
that was like a false alarm. Andmy husband said, but what if
it's not a false alarm? What ifit's a real alarm? because we
all only have this is myhusband. We all only have so
(10:04):
many days. How are you spendingyour days? How are we spending
our days? I think you need toquit your job and do this. And
I'm like, we don't have thatkind of money. Wow. So he's
gonna work longer. Like youmight have to work until he's on
100 or something, whatever,whatever, whatever it takes. And
yeah, so yes, it's one of thosenumbers we don't know yet. So
(10:27):
then I went into work the nextday and said to my boss, I'm
going to quit, I'm going toretire. And he's like, Oh,
you're thinking to retiring thisyear? And I said, Yeah, and a
couple weeks, soOh, my God. Yeah, I'm sure that
wasn't happy news. But no, orYes. Oh, yeah.
So it was just like using I wantto use my life and all those
things. I want it to be forsomething. Right. And so I so I
(10:50):
stopped my job. I was done.
April 1 of last year. I wrote abook proposal. I sent it in, I
got a book contract with Barnesand Noble or with them. I'm
can't even say it with Morgan,James Publishing. And it's not
me. I'm not a writer. Yeah.
Like, I wasn't a writer. I don'tknow what I'm doing. I'm not an
educated person. But God gave methis right. It gave me a story.
(11:14):
And and I think I just do it oneday at a time. What are we going
to do today? Okay, today, I'mgoing to do a podcast. I don't
know, what am I going to dotomorrow? Like, you know, next
weekend, I'm going to speak tosome women and, and whatever it
is, I don't know what it islike, I'm, it's the good thing
about being me, is that Irealize it zero tests. 100 God,
(11:35):
so there's not a lot of pressureon me.
Yes. You know, I absolutely.
First of all, you're hilarious.
And I could I, this has just nowmy day just started. But this
has made my day. So much funalready. So. But you know, it's
so interesting, because I thinkwhen we know really what we have
(12:01):
the ability to accomplish, whichis why God chose all of those
people that just aren't gonnacut it right, then then he can
show off. He can do the thing.
And that's what I love that thatis so cool. Okay, go ahead.
Yeah, I forgot where I was.
Oh, that is well, you're you'redoing it because God is saying,
(12:27):
Yeah, it's me. Yeah. I mean,it's me. Wow.
It's on him. So so yeah. And theother thing is, like, if I'm
speaking at a ladies event, andI'm walking up the steps to the
stage, and I fall on my head,and my skirt goes up, it's just
all part of it is thought,right. Like I'm the person who
does the most embarrassingawkward things. And there's a
(12:48):
reason for it, then I write astory about it. And then I write
a book. So you know,I always say if something like
that, hey, it's a good story.
That's all I got. Right. So toget to let's talk about your
book a little bit. Tell us tellus about the book. It's called.
Listen, sister Finding Hope inthe freak show of life. Yeah,
yeah. That's so fantastic.
(13:10):
So you show you a picture of
Stephanie Olson (13:12):
it. Yes. Oh, I love I love that. You're.
Tess Scott (13:16):
Yes, that's me.
Is there a boot on? You rightthere?
Boots? Yeah. Yeah, pink boots.
Yeah. Okay. I love that facedown in the because we've all
felt like that what woman hasnot felt like their face down on
the in the, on the hill in themud? Like, I mean, I have
physically been there. And also,lots of other times I have been
metaphorically been there. Yeah.
(13:38):
And so the book is abouteverything from like, stories of
being a kid, I was raised on afarm in the middle of nowhere,
you know, with three brothersand little things that happened
and what I learned through itsome stories of raising the boys
raising eight boys of beingdivorced stories of their some
of breast cancer and whathappened, you know, just kind of
(14:00):
my struggle with it. I thinkthere's about 95 stories, and
more than almost all of them arefunny, because that's just my
style. Like, I think that's whatallows me to be vulnerable. And
to deliver hard truth is becauseI can put a funny spin on it.
Stephanie Olson (14:20):
Well, and so in my, in my real world, in my real
life, I run a nonprofit and wedo prevention, education on
human trafficking, social media,safety and health relationships.
And we we talk to kiddos and oneof the things that makes us
unique is that aside from theengagement that we bring, we
(14:45):
bring a lot of humor into theconversation. And people are
like, well, how can you laughabout human trafficking? Well,
certainly we're not laughingabout that. That is right. And
we always say we take our topicvery seriously, but we don't
take Got ourselves veryseriously. And that really is
the key. Because when peoplehave humor attached to the
(15:09):
things that they're trying tolearn, they retain so much
better. And yeah, so it's it'severything. It really is. Yeah.
Oh my gosh, I love it. And don'tyou hate it when your husband is
right. I say they just come toyou with wisdom and you're like,
(15:29):
Oh, yes, but great people.
Awesome. Okay, so would you sayI mean, God's obviously got you
on this journey where it reallyis a journey of of trusting Him
every day. Can you talk aboutthat trust piece?
Tess Scott (15:54):
Yeah, yeah, it's still hard even though you know,
I could stand up in front ofhundreds of women and say, trust
God. Yeah. You know, I know, Ishared a little thing, like a
Facebook Live or something a fewweeks ago, because, you know,
Rick had said to me, Fear not.
I'm like, Fear not? Like I knowto fear not. Yeah. Yeah, I've
(16:17):
heard it before. Shut up.
Stephanie Olson (16:23):
Here this one with the husband. Yeah.
Tess Scott (16:25):
Like, I know, because I tell other people
that, but we have to be remindedabout it over and over and over.
You know, and one of the thingsI think about, you know, if
you're reading back in the Bibleof stories that you read, like
or heard, since you were maybe alittle girl with a flannel
grafts and all that. I readabout, like, the children of
(16:45):
Israel, right. So you know,Moses takes them across the Red
Sea got parts of water there onthe dry sand and all this stuff.
And then later, they forget, andthey in, they screw up over and
over and over and over. Like, sowe're all going to do it all the
time. Right? Exactly. Yeah. Butone of the things that, that
kind of sticks out to me isafter they crossed over the
(17:06):
water, he had them build thisbig monument, right, like this
big stone monument so thatthey'll remember what God did.
Right? Right. And like, I wouldlike to build something in my
backyard, but my husband's notreally a big stone monument in
the backyard kind of guy, youknow, so I want to do other
things in my life so that Iremember what truth is. Remember
(17:28):
what God did, whether it's likea picture, like our wedding
picture, or, or even sometimesit's just like a verse or a
saying, usually a verse on acard and put it somewhere where
you see it all the time, like,above your kitchen sink, where
you're peeling potatoes or aboveyour, your coach where you're
folding your laundry, orwherever it is like so that you
see it and get that truth inyour head all the time. All the
(17:50):
time. All the time. It's soimportant.
I just love that. I love that.
That's good. I'm so okay. So I'mjust I'm engrossed in this
conversation, because Ipersonally needed to hear this
today. Cool, how that shows up.
And when, when he's doingsomething in your life, and then
(18:14):
he brings, you know, test Scottinto it and just speaks truth. I
think that is so amazing. Sotell me a little bit about what
that because I think there's alot of people who don't
understand that the leading ofthe Holy Spirit, like you said,
(18:37):
you made the comment, you know,and we'll see what I do today.
Because I may, you know, gospeak, I may write or whatever,
that that God does have a planfor your life. And sometimes he
wants you to step out into thatplan without knowing what that
next step is going to be. And II just, I think that's hard for
(19:03):
people to understand sometimes.
Yeah, it is hard to understand.
And so what I started doing awhile ago is in the morning,
just asking God for opportunity.
Can you just open my eyes?
Because how many things do I notsee that are going on around me?
Can you just open my eyes to onething today, one person that I
can speak to somebody I canhelp, like, just show me one
(19:25):
thing. And so I want to tell youa little story. This is this is
something that happened when Iwas working at the college, this
woman who was a cleaner, so Ididn't know her well, but I knew
her name. So she came to me andshe looked upset and and she's
like, Tess, can I ask you aquestion? So like, Yeah, sure.
(19:46):
And she said, when you gotcancer, were you scared? Yeah.
Like I was petrified. Of course,I was scared, you know? And she
said, Well, I think I might havecancer. I'm going To get the
results, you know, this week,what did you do when you were
scared? Okay, there's anopportunity. So I said, Well,
when I'm scared, I prayedbecause I have a relationship
(20:08):
with Jesus, I can talk to himanytime. And I just prayed and
asked in, you know him to giveme peace. And she said, Okay,
and then she walked away. So Ithought, Oh, good. I'm such a
good person. So Oh, yay, tearsway to go. So then I felt
really, in my spirit, really. Iknow, it was short lived, it was
like five seconds. In my spiritreally short lived. I felt, I
(20:30):
mean, in my spirit, I felt like,you have to go pray with her.
Like you have to. But very,like, really quickly, I thought,
oh, no, I'm not gonna do that.
So how about this? How aboutthis, as I'm negotiating with
the creator of the world? Howabout you bring her back into my
(20:51):
office, so I can shut the door.
And then I will privately praywith her. Because I'll do that.
Stephanie Olson (20:58):
So all the conditions,
Tess Scott (20:59):
all the conditions, and God did not bring her back
into my office, she did not comeback into my office. And the day
went by and the day went by, andit's like, time I have to leave.
She's still there. She worked adifferent shift. And I thought,
Oh, my goodness, I know, I haveto pray with her. Like, it's
just this feeling like it'slike, it's knocking on your door
constantly. And you know it, youhave to do it, there's not going
(21:21):
to be peace until you do it. SoI go and look for her in the
building, hoping that she wenthome or something to be honest,
because like, I really don'twant to do it. And I find her
and this is where she is I thisis where she is. She's upstairs.
And she is in the lunch room.
And it's this it's the centralroom in the building and three
walls are glass.
Stephanie Olson (21:43):
Of course, yeah, of course. Because so you
can have anonymity.
Tess Scott (21:49):
You are going to obey me and you are going to
obey me now. So I went in, and Iwent up to her. And I said, Can
I pray with you hoping thatshe's gonna say no, of course.
And she said, Sure, and startcrying. So I put my arms around
her and prayed with her. And andI'm not saying that because
like, I'm anybody because Ididn't want to okay, like, hear
(22:10):
me when I say I do not alwayslisten, but so anyway, I prayed
with her. And I went home, and Iwent into work the next day. I
never saw. She wasn't there. Inever saw her. And I don't know
what happened to her. And Idon't know where last name,
right, so, so fast forward, oh,man, six months, at least later,
(22:31):
and a man comes into my officeand he says, Are you test Scott?
Yes. I'm Rachel's husband. Isaid, oh, like, is she okay? And
he goes, Well, she wants to talkto you. She's in the car. So I
went out. Honestly, Stephanie,this woman I would not have
known was her she's bald becauseshe had chemo she lost at like
(22:52):
100 pounds. She was like, just,like a shadow of the person that
she was. And, and she wascrying. And you know, so I
talked to her. And then I, afterthat visited her, the hospice
got to pray with her more and,and she passed away. But I would
have, like not saying anythinggood about me. But if I hadn't
(23:15):
prayed with her, look at theblessing, I would have missed to
right, right to be involved inthat. And when you take that
step, even though you're scaredto do it, like to be honest, I
was scared. I didn't want to dothat. Yeah. Like, I'm not a
preacher, woman. I don't. I'mlike, I'm just God, I fall down
the stairs. I don't like this.
But I'm so thankful that I did.
(23:38):
Because like, it blessed her andit blessed me to do it. Right.
Exactly. Right. So it's justlistening and then doing it.
Like, just forget the fear, justdo it scared.
Stephanie Olson (23:48):
And you never know what it is that God is
going to do in that moment. Andsometimes you may never find
out. Right? And that is the I'vehad two experiences where we're
just going to talk all day. Sothis is what's good. I hope you
have nothing. That yeah, sookay. But I had one experience
(24:12):
where I remember I was drivinghome and it was freezing. And
there was this little boy on theside of the road on his bicycle,
like he was driving, riding toschool, but he had no gloves and
he kept you know, lowing on hishands and and I was in traffic.
(24:33):
So it was rush hour. I washeaded to work. He was headed to
school. And there were it was atwo lane road and there were
cars everywhere. And God soclearly said I want you to stop
and give him your gloves. And Isaid that is the most
inconvenient thing you've everasked me to do. I you know back
(24:54):
into I can't I can't do it. Andwe had this back and forth I
said stopping Give them yourgloves. And do you know what? I
said? No. And I did not do it.
Yeah. And if you've ever had aHoly Spirit spankin that is one
of those things where like, yes,like, Okay, what could have
happened? If I would have beenobedient in that moment? Yeah,
(25:17):
it could have happened. And sothat has always been in the back
of my mind. Every time God askedme to do something, now, that's
completely uncomfortable, whichmost of the time, right? Yeah, I
was in a Starbucks. And therewere these two women talking.
And I remember and God was like,I want you to go over there. And
(25:40):
tell them that I love them. AndI can see that you can see me in
them. And I was like, No, Ican't. I mean, I don't know if
they care to Yes, I want you towell, so now I've got this
little boy without gloves. Andyes, my mind. So I walked up to
both of them. And I said, youknow, I just want to tell you
(26:03):
that Jesus loves you. And I cansee him radiating from each of
you. They both did that. I did.
And they both burst into tears.
Thank you, we Sony and that'sall I know. Like, I don't know,
their memory. I don't know.
That's okay. I walked away. AndI was like, okay, that's what a
(26:26):
CD ends does, you know? Yeah,that's so awesome. And just
being willing to look like acomplete idiot. Because who
knows? God might ask you to dosomething that is not a huge,
you know, like, Okay, that wasamazing. It could be so amazing.
But yeah,
Tess Scott (26:45):
yeah, that's right.
And really, I mean, if we thinkabout it, what do we care if we
look dumb on Earth?
Yeah, that's not our home.
That's not our job every day. Soyeah, I hold on to that. Right.
That's right. That's right. Betype A in that. Yeah. Oh, gosh,
that is so good. What any otherjust words of wisdom that you
(27:07):
would have to share to thelisteners.
So kind of the thing that Ialways say to women, and I've
kind of said, you know, saidthis earlier is fill your mind
with truth. Because the thingsthat you're thinking, control
your emotions, and then youremotions, you know, lead to your
(27:28):
actions, and then your actionslead to good or bad things,
consequences that are happening,right. But it starts back to
what you're thinking. And you'rekeeping that truth in your mind,
fill your head with truth, fillyour head with truth, just just
keeping that in there.
ruminating around, because wedon't even think about what
we're thinking. No, I thinklike, there's no, there's never
quiet in our lives. In theworld, in our society right now.
(27:52):
Like, there's always thingsgoing on. There's always like,
your phone is beeping, andthere's music playing. And
there's people talking andthere's, at least in my world,
and I don't even have littlekids running around anymore. But
there's hardly ever quiet timeto analyze what you're thinking,
and why am I thinking that? Andis that actually true? Compare
(28:13):
that to truth? Why am I saying,Oh test? You're so dumb, I'm
actually not done, you know, or,or whatever it is, whatever the
things are struggling, like,like, I can get into like, Oh,
why would anyone listen to you?
You've been such a failure inlife, or you're always this or
all those things, but they'renot truth. Right? Right. But if
(28:35):
I don't take that time to stepback, and kind of think about
what I'm thinking, and whetherit's really true or not, then
that can like, it's likebreeding like rabbits in there.
You know. So, I takeintentionally, I take
intentionally take time in themorning, to have that slot of
(28:57):
time, whatever it is, when mykids were little, it was
sometimes five minutes. Andsometimes you have to lock
yourself in the bathroom to getit I understand and, and have
quiet and have like solitude andalso to fill your head with
truth. Like even if you can onlyeven if you can only read one
verse.
Stephanie Olson (29:17):
I love that and it and I think what's really
important is that it can lookdifferent all the time. Yeah,
that we don't need to getlegalistic about it. Oh, no.
Every time every chapter in ourlife is going to look different.
And so the the time we spend insolitude, the time we spend with
the Lord, that's going to lookdifferent every single day. And
(29:41):
yeah, I and we don't wepurposely and I sometimes I had
a friend say to me, why do youalways have stuff in the
background? Like I'll it's noteven I mean, sometimes it's a
podcast. Sometimes it'swhatever, I don't even watch
he'd be a whole lot, but there'salways something. And I had to
(30:03):
really think about that. Andlike, I don't know, what am I?
What am I shutting out that Ineed to really hear? You know,
and I'll spend time with theLord just time with him. But
even then I'm just I'm usuallytalking. What do you need to
tell me? God? Yeah, how can Ireceive that? Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Tess Scott (30:24):
Because he doesn't use a bullhorn. Right? He
doesn't Snapchat. Um, I'd loveto receive an email or a text,
but I
Stephanie Olson (30:34):
didn't really receive a postcard once from
Tess Scott (30:38):
from God Himself.
Oh, yeah, it was. I was myhusband wanted to have another
baby long story. I won't go intodetail. And I was like, Nope,
we're not gonna have anotherbaby. And I said, I'll pray
about it. The next day. I got apostcard in the mail thinking
(30:58):
about having another baby. I'mlike, okay, hilarious. Oh,
that's, yeah, we it's my boy.
Yeah. So here's like, Okay, I'mgonna. So I had, yes, a lot of
problems keeping babies. So Ihad my first I had a miscarriage
(31:19):
my first baby and I had todeliver the baby. Then I had my
daughter uneventful pregnancy,we thought were good. And then I
had three more miscarriages, soand then I had another daughter.
And I thought, That's it. Idon't want to do this again. And
so we're done. And my husbandwas very respectful and didn't
(31:39):
want to say anything. But he hadbeen praying about having
another one. And I can'tremember how the conversation
began. But yes, so we had thispostcard. And then and I, of
course, didn't tell him aboutyou didn't. Then we were at a
funeral, believe it or not, andmy daughters were with me. Now
(32:00):
my two daughters, I've got this,you know, dark skin, dark hair.
My husband's much got therecessive genes. And my oldest
daughter is born redhead bearskin, which I was not expecting.
Because I've got, you know, I'vegot lac in me. And so I was
expecting her to look a littlemore brown. And then my second
(32:21):
daughter was born with blondhair and fair skin. I thought,
What is this recessive thinggoing on? Yeah. But we're at a
funeral. And this woman said,Where did you get the two kids
with red hair and blonde hairand I was like, recessive genes.
And she said, your next baby,this is after the postcard. Your
(32:43):
next baby, your boy is going tolook just like you. And I'm like
it. My mom was furious becauseshe knew we were struggling. We
had struggled. And I was like,Okay, God, seriously, this is
getting ridiculous. My problemwas, the lining wouldn't sustain
a pregnancy. Okay. Go to thedoctor. I said, all right.
(33:07):
Listen, I said, I would prayabout let's go to the doctor, if
the doctor says that my liningis where it needs to be, which I
knew it would not be because Inever was. Okay, we'll take that
bad bet. Right? Then we'll havewe'll, we'll think about it. And
if it's not, we'll keep praying.
(33:27):
So go to the doctor. And shesaid, Wow, your lining has never
been thicker, and you'reovulating. So we have a little
boy, and not so little anymore.
He's taller than me. But he ismy mini me. He was born with jet
black hair. And now it's brownand curly. And he Oh my
(33:50):
goodness. Just. I mean, he is Ithink about like, what if I
wouldn't have had him? He's justlike, one of the lights of my
life. Ah, yeah, that so I canget a postcard from God.
Yeah, I love that. That's agreat story. And the woman at
the funeral has she met yourson? No.
Stephanie Olson (34:10):
I don't even know who she was.
Tess Scott (34:13):
I shall hear this.
Stephanie Olson (34:14):
Yeah. You're listening. Thank you, right.
Tess Scott (34:19):
I love that. That's a great story. Yeah. So
Stephanie Olson (34:22):
anyway, so never never assume you know what
your plans are? Because God, butthe those the whole cliche, man
makes plans. God laughs
Tess Scott (34:35):
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, that's awesome. Okay,final question, because I really
could talk to you forever. MaybeI'll just start a podcast with
you. Show that we do. Yeah,that'd be fun. Yeah. Okay, so
final question. What doesresilience mean to you?
(34:56):
Hmm, resilience, like bouncingback from Some tough things.
Right? I would think, yeah. Idon't know. I think that for me,
I would say, not giving up evenwhen, you know, even when you
get down and think, well, italways goes this way. You know,
(35:16):
it always goes that way. You canbe really beaten down by that,
like the kind of hard onyourself about it. But God has a
plan, right? And you and I areproof of that. Like, there's
better things than we could haveever. There's better things than
I could have ever imagined.
There is no way. If you eversaid to me more than one year
ago, a day that you're gonnawrite a book. And now it's like,
(35:39):
it's, you know, God can usewhatever it is like don't give
up sister, whatever it is inyour life that has happened. You
know, it's not the end. You'restill alive. You're still
breathing today. There's morethings
Stephanie Olson (35:56):
and don't give away. Nothing. Yes, nothing.
Tess Scott (36:00):
Nothing.
Stephanie Olson (36:01):
Don't give up.
That's so good. Okay, tell ushow can people find you?
Tess Scott (36:06):
Well, you can I have a website test. scott.com three
S's in the middle there. Testguide.com. My book is out. It's
out in ebook right now. It'll bethe paperback is being launched
in June of 2022. And it's calledlisten sister, finding hope in
the freak show of life. And youcan find it anywhere books are
(36:27):
sold Barnes and Noble Kohl's,indigo, Amazon, all the places I
saw on walmart.com You see yourname on a book on walmart.com.
And like,
Stephanie Olson (36:35):
wow, that is so amazing. To me, right? That's so
Tess Scott (36:39):
nuts. And it's fun.
Everybody would I thinkeverybody would like it.
Honestly, it's just short littlestories. Like, one minute, two
minutes, you can lock yourselfin the bathroom. The kids are
banging on the door. You justgot to read this little bit.
It's gonna cheer me up and, andgive me some truth today. I'm on
Facebook and Instagram as listensister encouragement. And love
it. Yeah, yeah, message. Youknow, pray for you. Whatever it
(37:01):
is. Oh,well, trust you have made my
day. It is early in the morning.
But I'm going to call this I'mdone. After bed. This is good.
Well, good, better. So yeah. Mywork here is done. Yes. Right.
Yes, you are just a breath offresh air. And I just love to
(37:23):
talking to you. And I want tokeep in touch for sure. Because
this was so much fun. And I lovethat you turned your freak show
into something that can reallybenefit other people's freak
show. So that's, that'sfantastic. So thank you for
being a part of the show. No,thanks for having me on. It's so
fun. Absolutely. And thank youfor listening to resilience in
(37:44):
life and leadership. We'll seeyou next time. Thank you for
listening. Please share withanyone you think will benefit
from this podcast.
Thank you for listening. Please share with
anyone you think will benefitfrom this podcast. Hello and
welcome to resilience in lifeand leadership and I am here to
introduce to you test Scott testScott former Black Sheep turn
Jesus girl is Mom of eight boysand spunky Graeme with a heart
above the eye to a whole slew ofadorable grandkids. She began to
(00:25):
listen sister encouragement forwomen ministry in 2020, where
you can find her blog posts attest scott.com and her listen
sister pages on Facebook andInstagram, she continues to live
her life of hilariously awkwardmoments in cineraria, Ontario,
(00:47):
to the ongoing embarrassment ofher family, which is what it's
all about. Welcome to us. Hello,and welcome to resilience in
life and leadership. I am herewith test Scott and I am so
excited to talk to you becauseyou are doing some pretty cool
things. You you're an author andand I was telling tests earlier.
(01:08):
I love her name because Ipersonally have a test my one of
my daughters so great, greatname. What's your middle name?
Lynn? Okay, her middle name isGrace. So that's not really but
Okay, so tell us how. Tell usabout your journey and how you
got to where you are.
(01:29):
Yeah, thanks for having me on.
I'm always excited to share mystory. And my story is like, I
was kind of a black sheep. Youknow, my life. If you look back,
I've been married a few timesmade tons of bad decisions. And
you know, it's a freak show. Icall it a freak show. I have I
(01:49):
have relate to that, actually,unfortunately. But yeah,
that's because you have childrentoo. So I have eight boys, eight
sons, a blended, blended family.
And I'm, I'm blessed. Andthey're all grown up now. Except
I have one at home still. Who's18? And you know, I'm not
pushing him out the door. Butlook at my hands. Yeah,
(02:12):
right. You're not? Who you know.
Yeah, he'sgoing to college next year. So
that's, that's cool. Andgrandkids and the whole life.
But it's awesome. Yeah, it'sawesome in full of experiences.
And by the time you're, youknow, my age or age, you have
lots of stories. But I felt likeso how can I say this? In 2012,
my husband, my current husband,at that time, Rick, came to me
(02:41):
and said that he was leaving,you know, he didn't love me
anymore. And he was in he wasout. And I mean, it had been
overtime. It wasn't like I wasstill surprised and shocked and
devastated. You know, there'salways things leading up to it.
And I mean, I begged God that hewouldn't leave like I spent
every day I'm not exaggerating,every day with my face in the
(03:01):
green shag carpet of my bedroom.
And, and yet, God allowed it tohappen. He left and it was
terrible and awful. And allthose things really bad. And for
the kids too, was awful. I mean,I didn't want to be on my own.
Again, again, not the first timeI didn't want to shame because
there's some shame with that,especially like, I'm an
(03:23):
Elizabeth Taylor. But this wasmy third divorce. Yeah, so I'm
not a fan, anyway, at all. But Ilearned a lot. And I grew a lot
through that time. And I grewclose to God, and I grew in life
as a person. And I really neededthat. Like now it's easy to
easier to look back and say, I'mactually thankful for that time.
(03:44):
Because of what I like how Igrew and how much closer to God
I became. And it wouldn't havehappened otherwise. Right? I
mean, that's all I had. I neededthat to breathe. Like I was
like, moment to moment. Somedays, it was awful. You know,
I grew. It's never through thewonderful times in life that we
grow. It's through those times,where God sometimes strips
(04:07):
everything away from us. And wehave to rely only on him. Yeah,
that's exactly it. Now, I don'tever want it to happen again.
No, no. Good to anybody else.
Right. So, but I can be thankfulfor that now. So then five years
later, well, three years afterour permanent divorce. We got
back together and starteddating. Wow. And at the end of
(04:32):
the year got married. Oh mygoodness. Yeah, like remarried.
So that's like a miracle.
absolute miracle. And I'm verythankful for all of it. Like
every day, I'm thankful. Oh,wow. Three weeks after our
marriage on September 9 Threeweeks after I was diagnosed with
breast cancer.
(04:52):
Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry. Ireally like
talking to God, right? Really?
Like my gosh, you and I I'd liketo say Merson.
Thank you for my husband backnow this What? No, I'm sorry.
You're joking, right? Yeah, God,and I thought like, this is the
(05:13):
worst timing in the world. Ithought, however, okay, stick
with me. Because what I'velearned is that we're always
learning in life, hopefully. Andwhat I learned through this time
was that allowed my husband totake care of me, to show me that
he loved me to show my kids thathe loved me. Wow, was amazing to
me. And had that timing beendifferent if I would have got
(05:36):
sick the year before. And hewould have come and said, You
know what, I want to come back.
I'm going to take care of you, Iwould have been, ah, ain't gonna
happen, buddy. Right, I wouldn'thave trusted him. And so I can
say, that was the best timing,and I'm good now. I'm healthy.
Now. It's been six years. Andit's good, good. Yeah, I'm so
thankful. But I am thankful forthe timing. And we don't always
even get the chance in our lifeto see that to see why things
(05:59):
happen. So that's a gift really,to be able to see, like, yeah,
that was the best timing forthat. And all the things that,
that, that we learned throughthat and how it really cemented
us together. That's beautiful.
Yeah, it was difficult. Like itwas, it was really hard. It was
hard in ways. Like because I wasso defenseless, I had no
(06:23):
control. You know, I had to havea mastectomy. So you know, and
all like the whole, I think themental part of it is the worst,
right? Like, well, when youmarried me, you didn't know that
I was going to be missing partsof my body. Or my hair. I lost
my hair. I had chemo, you know.
So those things were there was abattle all the time. But the
battle is where you grow. Thatis so true. You grow through
(06:47):
that. So we got through that.
And then a few years later, Iguess a year ago now, it's only
a year ago, I can't believethis. Oh, um, I was feeling like
God want me to share my story oflife because it's a freak show,
right? From raising eight boys,the marriages that and all the
(07:07):
little things. It's not evenjust the whole, like biography
of life, but it's like thelittle daily things even Right,
right. But so I said no, becauseI don't want to
write and so yeah, you're gonnawin that battle? Yeah. Okay.
Thank God, because that's how Iyeah, I think I said, I think
(07:29):
there's other people that aremuch better to do this than me,
because I have a high schooleducation. And I mean, instead
of going to college oruniversity, I had a baby, and so
on and so on.
Didn't Moses say some similarthings to God? I think not. Not
about the baby, butno, and Joshua. Right. But I
just didn't feel and who wouldlisten to test God Oh, my word
(07:52):
like hot mess Express over here.
But anyway, time, you know, timeyou hear it. You think God
saying that? And then you go tochurch, and the pastor says it,
then you're listening to theradio station, and the song is
like, you know, tests listen toGod. And you're like, okay,
okay, okay. Okay, I'll do it,you know? So? Yeah, so then I
(08:14):
thought, Okay, I'll startwriting. So I started just
writing little stories andblogging, and my husband's like,
I think he wants you to read abook, or to write a book, I
really think you have to write abook. And so I'm like, okay,
and, you know, so I kind of gota vision, like, I'm gonna write
a book, I'm gonna not got avision, but I mean, the idea
that I'm gonna write a book and,and speak to women, encourage
them, right, just encouragewomen, like, just, you know, we
(08:35):
can do this. And, and then thisis what happened, I was getting
ready for work. And I'm lookingin the mirror, putting my makeup
on, or whatever, I was workingat a college in an admin
position. And my smile was like,kind of crooked. And my eyes
were kind of blurry. And I'mlike, this looks weird. Like,
it's like this, right? Like, youknow, I don't know what's going
on. So I went to work because,you know, they need me. And
(08:58):
so when my boss came, we'rewomen, we just do what we're
supposed to do, right? And whathas to
open the doors. So I went in,and my boss came in, and he
said, What's wrong with yourface? No one wants to hear that.
No. So I went to the hospitalanyway, I drove myself I stopped
at home to get a book in caseyou know, my eyes weren't blurry
and, and then went to thehospital. And it wasn't a
(09:18):
stroke, you know, make a longstory short, but it was a TIA,
which is like a little warningstroke, but there's no permanent
side effects damage, or yeah,thank you damage of that. So I
was in the hospital three days.
And I was really upset because Ifelt like, God, you're asking
me, I think you're asking me toshare my story, too, right to
(09:40):
speak, and I can't see and Ican't and my words were all
horrible. I can't talk right.
And I can't talk. My words areall garbled and it was scary.
And so when I got home afterthose three days, I said, Well,
that was like a false alarm. Andmy husband said, but what if
it's not a false alarm? What ifit's a real alarm? because we
all only have this is myhusband. We all only have so
(10:04):
many days. How are you spendingyour days? How are we spending
our days? I think you need toquit your job and do this. And
I'm like, we don't have thatkind of money. Wow. So he's
gonna work longer. Like youmight have to work until he's on
100 or something, whatever,whatever, whatever it takes. And
yeah, so yes, it's one of thosenumbers we don't know yet. So
(10:27):
then I went into work the nextday and said to my boss, I'm
going to quit, I'm going toretire. And he's like, Oh,
you're thinking to retiring thisyear? And I said, Yeah, and a
couple weeks, soOh, my God. Yeah, I'm sure that
wasn't happy news. But no, orYes. Oh, yeah.
So it was just like using I wantto use my life and all those
things. I want it to be forsomething. Right. And so I so I
(10:50):
stopped my job. I was done.
April 1 of last year. I wrote abook proposal. I sent it in, I
got a book contract with Barnesand Noble or with them. I'm
can't even say it with Morgan,James Publishing. And it's not
me. I'm not a writer. Yeah.
Like, I wasn't a writer. I don'tknow what I'm doing. I'm not an
educated person. But God gave methis right. It gave me a story.
(11:14):
And and I think I just do it oneday at a time. What are we going
to do today? Okay, today, I'mgoing to do a podcast. I don't
know, what am I going to dotomorrow? Like, you know, next
weekend, I'm going to speak tosome women and, and whatever it
is, I don't know what it islike, I'm, it's the good thing
about being me, is that Irealize it zero tests. 100 God,
(11:35):
so there's not a lot of pressureon me.
Yes. You know, I absolutely.
First of all, you're hilarious.
And I could I, this has just nowmy day just started. But this
has made my day. So much funalready. So. But you know, it's
so interesting, because I thinkwhen we know really what we have
(12:01):
the ability to accomplish, whichis why God chose all of those
people that just aren't gonnacut it right, then then he can
show off. He can do the thing.
And that's what I love that thatis so cool. Okay, go ahead.
Yeah, I forgot where I was.
Oh, that is well, you're you'redoing it because God is saying,
(12:27):
Yeah, it's me. Yeah. I mean,it's me. Wow.
It's on him. So so yeah. And theother thing is, like, if I'm
speaking at a ladies event, andI'm walking up the steps to the
stage, and I fall on my head,and my skirt goes up, it's just
all part of it is thought,right. Like I'm the person who
does the most embarrassingawkward things. And there's a
(12:48):
reason for it, then I write astory about it. And then I write
a book. So you know,I always say if something like
that, hey, it's a good story.
That's all I got. Right. So toget to let's talk about your
book a little bit. Tell us tellus about the book. It's called.
Listen, sister Finding Hope inthe freak show of life. Yeah,
yeah. That's so fantastic.
(13:10):
So you show you a picture of
Stephanie Olson (13:12):
it. Yes. Oh, I love I love that. You're.
Tess Scott (13:16):
Yes, that's me.
Is there a boot on? You rightthere?
Boots? Yeah. Yeah, pink boots.
Yeah. Okay. I love that facedown in the because we've all
felt like that what woman hasnot felt like their face down on
the in the, on the hill in themud? Like, I mean, I have
physically been there. And also,lots of other times I have been
metaphorically been there. Yeah.
(13:38):
And so the book is abouteverything from like, stories of
being a kid, I was raised on afarm in the middle of nowhere,
you know, with three brothersand little things that happened
and what I learned through itsome stories of raising the boys
raising eight boys of beingdivorced stories of their some
of breast cancer and whathappened, you know, just kind of
(14:00):
my struggle with it. I thinkthere's about 95 stories, and
more than almost all of them arefunny, because that's just my
style. Like, I think that's whatallows me to be vulnerable. And
to deliver hard truth is becauseI can put a funny spin on it.
Stephanie Olson (14:20):
Well, and so in my, in my real world, in my real
life, I run a nonprofit and wedo prevention, education on
human trafficking, social media,safety and health relationships.
And we we talk to kiddos and oneof the things that makes us
unique is that aside from theengagement that we bring, we
(14:45):
bring a lot of humor into theconversation. And people are
like, well, how can you laughabout human trafficking? Well,
certainly we're not laughingabout that. That is right. And
we always say we take our topicvery seriously, but we don't
take Got ourselves veryseriously. And that really is
the key. Because when peoplehave humor attached to the
(15:09):
things that they're trying tolearn, they retain so much
better. And yeah, so it's it'severything. It really is. Yeah.
Oh my gosh, I love it. And don'tyou hate it when your husband is
right. I say they just come toyou with wisdom and you're like,
(15:29):
Oh, yes, but great people.
Awesome. Okay, so would you sayI mean, God's obviously got you
on this journey where it reallyis a journey of of trusting Him
every day. Can you talk aboutthat trust piece?
Tess Scott (15:54):
Yeah, yeah, it's still hard even though you know,
I could stand up in front ofhundreds of women and say, trust
God. Yeah. You know, I know, Ishared a little thing, like a
Facebook Live or something a fewweeks ago, because, you know,
Rick had said to me, Fear not.
I'm like, Fear not? Like I knowto fear not. Yeah. Yeah, I've
(16:17):
heard it before. Shut up.
Stephanie Olson (16:23):
Here this one with the husband. Yeah.
Tess Scott (16:25):
Like, I know, because I tell other people
that, but we have to be remindedabout it over and over and over.
You know, and one of the thingsI think about, you know, if
you're reading back in the Bibleof stories that you read, like
or heard, since you were maybe alittle girl with a flannel
grafts and all that. I readabout, like, the children of
(16:45):
Israel, right. So you know,Moses takes them across the Red
Sea got parts of water there onthe dry sand and all this stuff.
And then later, they forget, andthey in, they screw up over and
over and over and over. Like, sowe're all going to do it all the
time. Right? Exactly. Yeah. Butone of the things that, that
kind of sticks out to me isafter they crossed over the
(17:06):
water, he had them build thisbig monument, right, like this
big stone monument so thatthey'll remember what God did.
Right? Right. And like, I wouldlike to build something in my
backyard, but my husband's notreally a big stone monument in
the backyard kind of guy, youknow, so I want to do other
things in my life so that Iremember what truth is. Remember
(17:28):
what God did, whether it's likea picture, like our wedding
picture, or, or even sometimesit's just like a verse or a
saying, usually a verse on acard and put it somewhere where
you see it all the time, like,above your kitchen sink, where
you're peeling potatoes or aboveyour, your coach where you're
folding your laundry, orwherever it is like so that you
see it and get that truth inyour head all the time. All the
(17:50):
time. All the time. It's soimportant.
I just love that. I love that.
That's good. I'm so okay. So I'mjust I'm engrossed in this
conversation, because Ipersonally needed to hear this
today. Cool, how that shows up.
And when, when he's doingsomething in your life, and then
(18:14):
he brings, you know, test Scottinto it and just speaks truth. I
think that is so amazing. Sotell me a little bit about what
that because I think there's alot of people who don't
understand that the leading ofthe Holy Spirit, like you said,
(18:37):
you made the comment, you know,and we'll see what I do today.
Because I may, you know, gospeak, I may write or whatever,
that that God does have a planfor your life. And sometimes he
wants you to step out into thatplan without knowing what that
next step is going to be. And II just, I think that's hard for
(19:03):
people to understand sometimes.
Yeah, it is hard to understand.
And so what I started doing awhile ago is in the morning,
just asking God for opportunity.
Can you just open my eyes?
Because how many things do I notsee that are going on around me?
Can you just open my eyes to onething today, one person that I
can speak to somebody I canhelp, like, just show me one
(19:25):
thing. And so I want to tell youa little story. This is this is
something that happened when Iwas working at the college, this
woman who was a cleaner, so Ididn't know her well, but I knew
her name. So she came to me andshe looked upset and and she's
like, Tess, can I ask you aquestion? So like, Yeah, sure.
(19:46):
And she said, when you gotcancer, were you scared? Yeah.
Like I was petrified. Of course,I was scared, you know? And she
said, Well, I think I might havecancer. I'm going To get the
results, you know, this week,what did you do when you were
scared? Okay, there's anopportunity. So I said, Well,
when I'm scared, I prayedbecause I have a relationship
(20:08):
with Jesus, I can talk to himanytime. And I just prayed and
asked in, you know him to giveme peace. And she said, Okay,
and then she walked away. So Ithought, Oh, good. I'm such a
good person. So Oh, yay, tearsway to go. So then I felt
really, in my spirit, really. Iknow, it was short lived, it was
like five seconds. In my spiritreally short lived. I felt, I
(20:30):
mean, in my spirit, I felt like,you have to go pray with her.
Like you have to. But very,like, really quickly, I thought,
oh, no, I'm not gonna do that.
So how about this? How aboutthis, as I'm negotiating with
the creator of the world? Howabout you bring her back into my
(20:51):
office, so I can shut the door.
And then I will privately praywith her. Because I'll do that.
Stephanie Olson (20:58):
So all the conditions,
Tess Scott (20:59):
all the conditions, and God did not bring her back
into my office, she did not comeback into my office. And the day
went by and the day went by, andit's like, time I have to leave.
She's still there. She worked adifferent shift. And I thought,
Oh, my goodness, I know, I haveto pray with her. Like, it's
just this feeling like it'slike, it's knocking on your door
constantly. And you know it, youhave to do it, there's not going
(21:21):
to be peace until you do it. SoI go and look for her in the
building, hoping that she wenthome or something to be honest,
because like, I really don'twant to do it. And I find her
and this is where she is I thisis where she is. She's upstairs.
And she is in the lunch room.
And it's this it's the centralroom in the building and three
walls are glass.
Stephanie Olson (21:43):
Of course, yeah, of course. Because so you
can have anonymity.
Tess Scott (21:49):
You are going to obey me and you are going to
obey me now. So I went in, and Iwent up to her. And I said, Can
I pray with you hoping thatshe's gonna say no, of course.
And she said, Sure, and startcrying. So I put my arms around
her and prayed with her. And andI'm not saying that because
like, I'm anybody because Ididn't want to okay, like, hear
(22:10):
me when I say I do not alwayslisten, but so anyway, I prayed
with her. And I went home, and Iwent into work the next day. I
never saw. She wasn't there. Inever saw her. And I don't know
what happened to her. And Idon't know where last name,
right, so, so fast forward, oh,man, six months, at least later,
(22:31):
and a man comes into my officeand he says, Are you test Scott?
Yes. I'm Rachel's husband. Isaid, oh, like, is she okay? And
he goes, Well, she wants to talkto you. She's in the car. So I
went out. Honestly, Stephanie,this woman I would not have
known was her she's bald becauseshe had chemo she lost at like
(22:52):
100 pounds. She was like, just,like a shadow of the person that
she was. And, and she wascrying. And you know, so I
talked to her. And then I, afterthat visited her, the hospice
got to pray with her more and,and she passed away. But I would
have, like not saying anythinggood about me. But if I hadn't
(23:15):
prayed with her, look at theblessing, I would have missed to
right, right to be involved inthat. And when you take that
step, even though you're scaredto do it, like to be honest, I
was scared. I didn't want to dothat. Yeah. Like, I'm not a
preacher, woman. I don't. I'mlike, I'm just God, I fall down
the stairs. I don't like this.
But I'm so thankful that I did.
(23:38):
Because like, it blessed her andit blessed me to do it. Right.
Exactly. Right. So it's justlistening and then doing it.
Like, just forget the fear, justdo it scared.
Stephanie Olson (23:48):
And you never know what it is that God is
going to do in that moment. Andsometimes you may never find
out. Right? And that is the I'vehad two experiences where we're
just going to talk all day. Sothis is what's good. I hope you
have nothing. That yeah, sookay. But I had one experience
(24:12):
where I remember I was drivinghome and it was freezing. And
there was this little boy on theside of the road on his bicycle,
like he was driving, riding toschool, but he had no gloves and
he kept you know, lowing on hishands and and I was in traffic.
(24:33):
So it was rush hour. I washeaded to work. He was headed to
school. And there were it was atwo lane road and there were
cars everywhere. And God soclearly said I want you to stop
and give him your gloves. And Isaid that is the most
inconvenient thing you've everasked me to do. I you know back
(24:54):
into I can't I can't do it. Andwe had this back and forth I
said stopping Give them yourgloves. And do you know what? I
said? No. And I did not do it.
Yeah. And if you've ever had aHoly Spirit spankin that is one
of those things where like, yes,like, Okay, what could have
happened? If I would have beenobedient in that moment? Yeah,
(25:17):
it could have happened. And sothat has always been in the back
of my mind. Every time God askedme to do something, now, that's
completely uncomfortable, whichmost of the time, right? Yeah, I
was in a Starbucks. And therewere these two women talking.
And I remember and God was like,I want you to go over there. And
(25:40):
tell them that I love them. AndI can see that you can see me in
them. And I was like, No, Ican't. I mean, I don't know if
they care to Yes, I want you towell, so now I've got this
little boy without gloves. Andyes, my mind. So I walked up to
both of them. And I said, youknow, I just want to tell you
(26:03):
that Jesus loves you. And I cansee him radiating from each of
you. They both did that. I did.
And they both burst into tears.
Thank you, we Sony and that'sall I know. Like, I don't know,
their memory. I don't know.
That's okay. I walked away. AndI was like, okay, that's what a
(26:26):
CD ends does, you know? Yeah,that's so awesome. And just
being willing to look like acomplete idiot. Because who
knows? God might ask you to dosomething that is not a huge,
you know, like, Okay, that wasamazing. It could be so amazing.
But yeah,
Tess Scott (26:45):
yeah, that's right.
And really, I mean, if we thinkabout it, what do we care if we
look dumb on Earth?
Yeah, that's not our home.
That's not our job every day. Soyeah, I hold on to that. Right.
That's right. That's right. Betype A in that. Yeah. Oh, gosh,
that is so good. What any otherjust words of wisdom that you
(27:07):
would have to share to thelisteners.
So kind of the thing that Ialways say to women, and I've
kind of said, you know, saidthis earlier is fill your mind
with truth. Because the thingsthat you're thinking, control
your emotions, and then youremotions, you know, lead to your
(27:28):
actions, and then your actionslead to good or bad things,
consequences that are happening,right. But it starts back to
what you're thinking. And you'rekeeping that truth in your mind,
fill your head with truth, fillyour head with truth, just just
keeping that in there.
ruminating around, because wedon't even think about what
we're thinking. No, I thinklike, there's no, there's never
quiet in our lives. In theworld, in our society right now.
(27:52):
Like, there's always thingsgoing on. There's always like,
your phone is beeping, andthere's music playing. And
there's people talking andthere's, at least in my world,
and I don't even have littlekids running around anymore. But
there's hardly ever quiet timeto analyze what you're thinking,
and why am I thinking that? Andis that actually true? Compare
(28:13):
that to truth? Why am I saying,Oh test? You're so dumb, I'm
actually not done, you know, or,or whatever it is, whatever the
things are struggling, like,like, I can get into like, Oh,
why would anyone listen to you?
You've been such a failure inlife, or you're always this or
all those things, but they'renot truth. Right? Right. But if
(28:35):
I don't take that time to stepback, and kind of think about
what I'm thinking, and whetherit's really true or not, then
that can like, it's likebreeding like rabbits in there.
You know. So, I takeintentionally, I take
intentionally take time in themorning, to have that slot of
(28:57):
time, whatever it is, when mykids were little, it was
sometimes five minutes. Andsometimes you have to lock
yourself in the bathroom to getit I understand and, and have
quiet and have like solitude andalso to fill your head with
truth. Like even if you can onlyeven if you can only read one
verse.
Stephanie Olson (29:17):
I love that and it and I think what's really
important is that it can lookdifferent all the time. Yeah,
that we don't need to getlegalistic about it. Oh, no.
Every time every chapter in ourlife is going to look different.
And so the the time we spend insolitude, the time we spend with
the Lord, that's going to lookdifferent every single day. And
(29:41):
yeah, I and we don't wepurposely and I sometimes I had
a friend say to me, why do youalways have stuff in the
background? Like I'll it's noteven I mean, sometimes it's a
podcast. Sometimes it'swhatever, I don't even watch
he'd be a whole lot, but there'salways something. And I had to
(30:03):
really think about that. Andlike, I don't know, what am I?
What am I shutting out that Ineed to really hear? You know,
and I'll spend time with theLord just time with him. But
even then I'm just I'm usuallytalking. What do you need to
tell me? God? Yeah, how can Ireceive that? Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
Tess Scott (30:24):
Because he doesn't use a bullhorn. Right? He
doesn't Snapchat. Um, I'd loveto receive an email or a text,
but I
Stephanie Olson (30:34):
didn't really receive a postcard once from
Tess Scott (30:38):
from God Himself.
Oh, yeah, it was. I was myhusband wanted to have another
baby long story. I won't go intodetail. And I was like, Nope,
we're not gonna have anotherbaby. And I said, I'll pray
about it. The next day. I got apostcard in the mail thinking
(30:58):
about having another baby. I'mlike, okay, hilarious. Oh,
that's, yeah, we it's my boy.
Yeah. So here's like, Okay, I'mgonna. So I had, yes, a lot of
problems keeping babies. So Ihad my first I had a miscarriage
(31:19):
my first baby and I had todeliver the baby. Then I had my
daughter uneventful pregnancy,we thought were good. And then I
had three more miscarriages, soand then I had another daughter.
And I thought, That's it. Idon't want to do this again. And
so we're done. And my husbandwas very respectful and didn't
(31:39):
want to say anything. But he hadbeen praying about having
another one. And I can'tremember how the conversation
began. But yes, so we had thispostcard. And then and I, of
course, didn't tell him aboutyou didn't. Then we were at a
funeral, believe it or not, andmy daughters were with me. Now
(32:00):
my two daughters, I've got this,you know, dark skin, dark hair.
My husband's much got therecessive genes. And my oldest
daughter is born redhead bearskin, which I was not expecting.
Because I've got, you know, I'vegot lac in me. And so I was
expecting her to look a littlemore brown. And then my second
(32:21):
daughter was born with blondhair and fair skin. I thought,
What is this recessive thinggoing on? Yeah. But we're at a
funeral. And this woman said,Where did you get the two kids
with red hair and blonde hairand I was like, recessive genes.
And she said, your next baby,this is after the postcard. Your
(32:43):
next baby, your boy is going tolook just like you. And I'm like
it. My mom was furious becauseshe knew we were struggling. We
had struggled. And I was like,Okay, God, seriously, this is
getting ridiculous. My problemwas, the lining wouldn't sustain
a pregnancy. Okay. Go to thedoctor. I said, all right.
(33:07):
Listen, I said, I would prayabout let's go to the doctor, if
the doctor says that my liningis where it needs to be, which I
knew it would not be because Inever was. Okay, we'll take that
bad bet. Right? Then we'll havewe'll, we'll think about it. And
if it's not, we'll keep praying.
(33:27):
So go to the doctor. And shesaid, Wow, your lining has never
been thicker, and you'reovulating. So we have a little
boy, and not so little anymore.
He's taller than me. But he ismy mini me. He was born with jet
black hair. And now it's brownand curly. And he Oh my
(33:50):
goodness. Just. I mean, he is Ithink about like, what if I
wouldn't have had him? He's justlike, one of the lights of my
life. Ah, yeah, that so I canget a postcard from God.
Yeah, I love that. That's agreat story. And the woman at
the funeral has she met yourson? No.
Stephanie Olson (34:10):
I don't even know who she was.
Tess Scott (34:13):
I shall hear this.
Stephanie Olson (34:14):
Yeah. You're listening. Thank you, right.
Tess Scott (34:19):
I love that. That's a great story. Yeah. So
Stephanie Olson (34:22):
anyway, so never never assume you know what
your plans are? Because God, butthe those the whole cliche, man
makes plans. God laughs
Tess Scott (34:35):
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, that's awesome. Okay,final question, because I really
could talk to you forever. MaybeI'll just start a podcast with
you. Show that we do. Yeah,that'd be fun. Yeah. Okay, so
final question. What doesresilience mean to you?
(34:56):
Hmm, resilience, like bouncingback from Some tough things.
Right? I would think, yeah. Idon't know. I think that for me,
I would say, not giving up evenwhen, you know, even when you
get down and think, well, italways goes this way. You know,
(35:16):
it always goes that way. You canbe really beaten down by that,
like the kind of hard onyourself about it. But God has a
plan, right? And you and I areproof of that. Like, there's
better things than we could haveever. There's better things than
I could have ever imagined.
There is no way. If you eversaid to me more than one year
ago, a day that you're gonnawrite a book. And now it's like,
(35:39):
it's, you know, God can usewhatever it is like don't give
up sister, whatever it is inyour life that has happened. You
know, it's not the end. You'restill alive. You're still
breathing today. There's morethings
Stephanie Olson (35:56):
and don't give away. Nothing. Yes, nothing.
Tess Scott (36:00):
Nothing.
Stephanie Olson (36:01):
Don't give up.
That's so good. Okay, tell ushow can people find you?
Tess Scott (36:06):
Well, you can I have a website test. scott.com three
S's in the middle there. Testguide.com. My book is out. It's
out in ebook right now. It'll bethe paperback is being launched
in June of 2022. And it's calledlisten sister, finding hope in
the freak show of life. And youcan find it anywhere books are
(36:27):
sold Barnes and Noble Kohl's,indigo, Amazon, all the places I
saw on walmart.com You see yourname on a book on walmart.com.
And like,
Stephanie Olson (36:35):
wow, that is so amazing. To me, right? That's so
Tess Scott (36:39):
nuts. And it's fun.
Everybody would I thinkeverybody would like it.
Honestly, it's just short littlestories. Like, one minute, two
minutes, you can lock yourselfin the bathroom. The kids are
banging on the door. You justgot to read this little bit.
It's gonna cheer me up and, andgive me some truth today. I'm on
Facebook and Instagram as listensister encouragement. And love
it. Yeah, yeah, message. Youknow, pray for you. Whatever it
(37:01):
is. Oh,well, trust you have made my
day. It is early in the morning.
But I'm going to call this I'mdone. After bed. This is good.
Well, good, better. So yeah. Mywork here is done. Yes. Right.
Yes, you are just a breath offresh air. And I just love to
(37:23):
talking to you. And I want tokeep in touch for sure. Because
this was so much fun. And I lovethat you turned your freak show
into something that can reallybenefit other people's freak
show. So that's, that'sfantastic. So thank you for
being a part of the show. No,thanks for having me on. It's so
fun. Absolutely. And thank youfor listening to resilience in
(37:44):
life and leadership. We'll seeyou next time. Thank you for
listening. Please share withanyone you think will benefit
from this podcast.
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