September 24, 2025 • 21 mins
What if the hardest chapters of your life are actually preparation ground?
In this intimate conversation, Terri Mathews Woodall shares how faith reframed her story. From early adversity to hard-won resilience, she has refused to be defined by her past.
Terri opens up about the mindset shifts that moved her from survival to assignment, how she transformed “life isn’t fair” into “I’m being formed”, and how faith and surrender shaped her leadership, relationships, and work.
Perfect for: anyone rebuilding, rewriting, or ready to take the first step.
If this episode encourages you, please share it with a friend and leave a comment—it helps more people find these conversations.
Subscribe, so you never miss an episode.
Connect with Terri: Website: https://terrimatthews.co/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terri/
Connect with Theresa: Website: https://theresabruno.net/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theresa.harper.bruno/
Facebook: http://bit.ly/423kFJy
Get your copy of "He's Not Coming Back": https://bit.ly/40qGX6Y
In this intimate conversation, Terri Mathews Woodall shares how faith reframed her story. From early adversity to hard-won resilience, she has refused to be defined by her past.
Terri opens up about the mindset shifts that moved her from survival to assignment, how she transformed “life isn’t fair” into “I’m being formed”, and how faith and surrender shaped her leadership, relationships, and work.
Perfect for: anyone rebuilding, rewriting, or ready to take the first step.
If this episode encourages you, please share it with a friend and leave a comment—it helps more people find these conversations.
Subscribe, so you never miss an episode.
Connect with Terri: Website: https://terrimatthews.co/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/terri/
Connect with Theresa: Website: https://theresabruno.net/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theresa.harper.bruno/
Facebook: http://bit.ly/423kFJy
Get your copy of "He's Not Coming Back": https://bit.ly/40qGX6Y
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Good morning, Hi, welcome back. I'm Teresa Bruno. I'm the
host of the Soul Talks podcast and I'm so excited
to have Terry Matthews Woodhall with us today. Her list
is long of all of her accomplishments. She is, let
me see if I can get this right, an Emmy
nominated speaker. She's the best selling author. She's a serial entrepreneur,
(00:28):
she's a philanthropist. She's an crazy, amazing advocate on behalf
of autism. She's married to Lee Woodhall, former NFL football
player and Super Bowl champion. And you know the thing
she has, tam Brand. She's the force behind her own
business as well as the nonprofit she started.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Jade's Voice.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
The thing about Terry that I'm fascinated with, and I'll
get you there, is you know, she has such a
sense of purpose across the board, whether it's in business, family, community, activism, spirituality.
Terry is very purposeful in the way she lives her life.
(01:10):
And you look at this litany of all this amazing
success that she's created and you go, well, she must
have come from a family silver spoon. You know, got
all the scholarships to colleges, things like that, and that
is absolutely the antithesis of where this amazing woman came from.
Not to sensationalize it, it'll be overly provocative, but Terry
(01:32):
came from. She's the daughter of a pimp and a prostitute,
and if I could say anything about her, she is absolutely.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Not her past. Terry.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I'm so excited to be here with you today. I
have honestly never heard a story like yours. And when
we talked for almost two hours a few months ago,
I left our time together feeling like you live in divinity.
You live a divine life to be able to do
(02:03):
what you've done, because it just doesn't happen like this.
People don't come from the pain and the hurt and
the lack that you came from and create what you've created.
And when I look at your life, you know it's
not just that you've had all these amazing business successes.
You have a wholeness, You have an authenticity you know
(02:26):
in your life. So help me start somewhere with that
amazing story.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So I would say, you know, growing up it was
you would see in a sense, what you thought life
would be. Because the one interesting part where I could
even go back now, I didn't understand it then is
I look back over my life and realize that there
was intentionality even with my parents with their struggles to
(02:54):
put me in good schools if they could, oftentimes using
an address of someone else so that I could attend
those schools. And the reason why I'm starting kind of
at that point is because when you think about your
life at a young age, you can think about all
of the challenges that were in it. But I like
to see the hand of God in favor, like he
(03:16):
gave common sense to my parents to make sure that, hey,
we may not live in this particular space, but we
know someone who does who's willing to allow us to
use their address. Whether it was right or wrong, the
point was is that they made sure that I had
exposure to something else than what I was exposed to,
and I definitely believe that was the hand of God
(03:36):
in their own life. I also have been able to
forgive and have understanding and grace because when you understand,
I don't think my parents were intentional about wanting me
to experience the things that I did. I think that
they went through addiction. I think that they had their
own struggles growing up, and once you realize people can
(04:00):
only give what they've been given, right, and so it
has allowed me to look back over my life and
not be a victim, but realize I was a victor
then when I also recognized that God uses the very
things in our lives to be a training ground right
of who He has already said that we are, because
(04:20):
the Bible says for I knew you before you and
your mother's womb, right, so we were already seated in
heavenly places before we were here. I don't care how
we got here. We had to be spoken into existence
by God, and He knew then that I would come
through these particular situations. He also knew what he intended
for my life to be, and how he wanted me
(04:42):
to operate in purpose, and how he would equip me.
We don't get to tell God what that equipping looks like,
and so I won't say in my younger days that
I have that understanding. Quite honestly, in my younger days,
I thought life was unfair. I didn't choose my parents,
I didn't choose these situations. I felt like I was
dealt a hand that was already losing, Especially when you
(05:07):
don't get to go back to the deck of cards
and change your cards out, you know. And so for
me that was the challenge. But in hindsight now that
I as I look back over my life with more
spiritual maturity and wisdom and understanding and knowing who God
is and what he has done, then I recognize now
(05:27):
that those situations that I was in was actually my
preparing ground. It was preparation for a purpose that was
far beyond my neighborhood, far beyond the city, matter of fact,
globally and into the spiritual realm. So I'm grateful at
this point in my life.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
So that's amazing and incredibly beautiful. I have to say.
You know, you frame everything up in your relationship to
God and what you believe God intended for you to
be and to come through. The circumstance is the rough
hand you were dealt? Where did that belief come from?
How did you begin your spiritual journey?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Okay, so have y'all seen Moguli? What was that braved
by the bears? That's how I feel like that what
happened with me in the Holy Spirit? And I will
tell you I always had a sense so again interesting
hand of God. Right, my father's father was a pastor,
and although we didn't live in the same city at
(06:27):
the time, I would spend times going to visit him,
and interesting enough, I would watch how he cared for people.
I would also watch how he cared for us. I mean,
I was so young and indeed that my grandfather would
send money through Western Union. So I literally walked. I
would walk, and I had no idea. I wasn't even
old enough to get one, and so I would literally.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Go.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
And there was a code that we would use in
order for me to get, you know, money from Western Union,
and I would be the one given the money because
I was responsible enough to buy the groceries and handle
the things that needed to happen. He trusted the little girl. Yeah,
a little girl. And when I say little, I'm like
elementary school. Like today, this would be considered child abuse
(07:12):
to be allowing your child to walk yafar to do
these things. And I'm not sure if there was an
me being allowed much as it is is that there
was a sense of responsibility. So what's interesting to me
about how my life was interwoven was my I had
a relationship with God. I knew God, but it was
(07:33):
not where it is today. Right, and it would it
would take certain situations in my life for me to
see the hand in favor of God. I am where
I'm at today, and we all still have struggles. Right,
It's even like death. We we know the Bible says
to be absent from the bodies, to be present with
the Lord, but it doesn't take away the grieving, Right,
we still greet a person that we lose. But the
(07:54):
thing is is that what was interesting for me was
my relationship with the Lord. He would allow certain situations
in my life because the Bible says he causes or allows,
so he allowed certain situations or he caused certain situations
in my life where I, at an early age would
begin to depend on him. Right, I would know that
(08:16):
I know that I know, and I'm not trying to
overspiritualize this, but I feel like when God talks about
caring and loving his kids, you know, he knew that
I was a child. He knew that there were certain
things as a child that I lacked. When I honestly
look back, I can see the things that He kept
(08:39):
me from because it could have been a lot worse.
Sure I went through homelessness. Sure there were times of
food insecurity. But he always created a way. And the
more I gained relationship and understood who God was and
see that he created a way. I could look back
over certain situations in my life where I would reflect,
(09:03):
you know that rear view mirror. I'm looking forward, but
I can briefly look back, and I could look back
and say, oh my god, you were in this. You
were in the lines that I had to stand in
to get free food. You were at the welfare offices
that I was standing with my mom to get a
voucher in the morning to sleep at Motel six. You
(09:28):
were at the school places that maybe I was the
only person in a sense who showed up because my
parents weren't available for back to school night. You were
in the room that I was molested in. I can
look back and see that I was never really alone.
And let me tell you, the trick of the enemy
(09:49):
is always to make you feel shame and blame. In
these situations. He wants you to see them from the
perspective of you were never loved, never cared about, there
was no plan for you, you were never enough, You're
not worthy, right, And if we allow the enemy to
use that, that's exactly what he'll do. And I thank
(10:12):
God that it took these hard situations and the more
I got to know God, my story is not really
any different than a lot of people. Now, it's a
combination of a lot of people in the Bible. I'm like,
what am I David? Am I Lydia? And my Martha
and my Mary?
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Am I A.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah? Am I Joseph? And my Roof? Am I Esther?
And my job? Yes? So I feel like there has
been seasons in all these stories and my Solomon, you
know what I mean, where he's given me wisdom, you know,
for things, and because of me asking for wisdom, he's
blessed me in other ways like I wanted him more
(10:52):
than I wanted the things. So I would say to
you that I'm not I didn't just arrive here. It
was intentional situations that occurred in my life that gave
me a chance to experience God's greatness right, and even
through divorce, like through death, through diagnosis, we have to
(11:14):
We can't say we believe something. It's hard for us
to believe been something we don't even see. So it
takes something for us to experience something in our life
so that we can see the hand in favor and
what God kept us from. And then enemy will keep
us on the hard stuff, the yucky stuff, the embarrassing stuff,
but God will keep us focused on where He was
(11:35):
in our story. And when I seen that, then at
that point in time, because people can say, oh, you're chosen.
You know, all are called few are chosen right, And
so the thing is, it's like, how do you know
when you're called them? When you're chosen? Right? And it
was like when the Lord walked me through, I was like,
I'm every story in the Bible, you know, and to
(11:58):
what just given much as required. So and it's not
even about stuff. It's about the territory of the souls
in a sense that we've been called to steward. And
I could look in the faces, which I thought was crazy.
I could go to a foreign country and look in
those faces and say me too, me too. I've experienced
(12:19):
that hurt, I've experienced that heartbreak. I've experienced that disappointment.
I've experienced feeling lack, I've experienced feeling unworthy. I've experienced shame,
I've experienced embarrassment, and all of these things that I
experienced in a very short window of time. By the way,
I'm forty eight. I feel like I've lived nine lives, right,
I've gained, I've lost, I've lost, I've gained right. All
(12:40):
of these different things for me ended up helping me
understand that there was a greater calling than my life.
And instead of looking at what I think was damaged goods,
I recognized that these I'm not damaged at all. I'm
determined and God has a defined process for me to
go through in order for me to fulfill a purpose
(13:03):
that I'm not equipped unless I had these experiences. So
it's different.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
I you know, it makes me go there, there's a
place I just keep wanting to go back to in
your life. And and you, I want to know when
did you know? When did you know there was this
calling on your life? When did you know you were
being directed? And I think about you telling me that
you had your own apartment at fifteen years old. Not
(13:30):
only did you have your own apartment, you were fully
supporting yourself.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yes, I mean yes I was. How does it so
you remember the whole story? I hope?
Speaker 1 (13:40):
So how does First of all, that's just kind of
crazy making in our minds. How does a fifteen year
old supporter stuff well enough to afford an apartment and
to still stay in school. Yeah was there as in college,
by the way, and college also in college, and you
had a baby at eighteen, and I think you had
your first really successful business at twenty one. Is that
(14:02):
timeline right?
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah? So where was it in that?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Okay, I have nowhere to live. I'll I'll get a
job and find a place to live. Where was it
that you went, I'm called to something. I believe I'm enough.
I'm going to overcome this and I have a right
to overcome it. When did that begin to sort of
take hold inside you?
Speaker 2 (14:25):
So I want to go I want to answer going back,
but I want to say this, and my hope is
that this will give women some level of freedom. I
think we're always questioning ourselves. I think the thing about
it is is that as we continue to journey, you know,
I have confidence and stronger faith, but there is always
something that the enemy is shooting at me. Don't get
(14:47):
it wrong, right, Like every day I'm having to renew
my strength and the Holy Spirit, Like, oh, whoa am
I really called to this God? Can I really do
this thing? You know? And I have to reflect sometimes
I have to look in that review. I don't drive
in the rearview mirra. I drive with the windshield because
it's bigger and broader, and it's before me and I
can see a lot more things. But I have to
(15:07):
remember to reflect, Oh God brought me through. I can right,
or I'm equipped, or I am enough. So I think
as women of God, especially where we're called to serve,
wherever we're called to serve, ministry, home, business, a combination
of all of it, whatever it is that we're called
to do, the enemy is always going to be attacking
us at our core because he doesn't want us to
(15:29):
fulfill the plan. He can't stop the plan. Very similar
to Eve. He he didn't do anything except for cause doubt. Right,
That's all he did. He didn't force her to put
a gun to her, he didn't threaten her life nothing.
He just caused her enough doubt. And the enemy is
always it's going to be his. The Bible says there's
nothing new under the sun, So Teresa, he's always gonna
(15:49):
attempt to cause doubt. I don't care how strong in
faith we are. We know Jesus right now, you and
I you know, I'm sure when you started this podcast,
it's like, hey, can I do this thing? You listen.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
I started this podcast anonymously because I had been canceled
on social media and I was so timid about coming
back out into the workforce and the world. And yet
I did feel such a calling to make sense of
the tragedies that had happened to me. But I started
it in an anonymity. I mean, that's how you know.
(16:22):
That's all those feelings. If I'm not enough, I'm not
worthy enough, I can't make it. I won't be loved,
I won't be accepted, all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
And your acceptance.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Yeah, when you're in the middle of saying this, I'm
smiling because I was reading I don't know, all kinds
of articles about you, and there's there's this one article
where you're talking about exactly this very thing, and you
know how the enemy is always attacking and doubts coming
in and you had already built this amazing business before
you ever even met Lee would all and people would
(16:52):
say to you, well, yeah, you had a leg up.
You had all of his contacts, and you're like hands
on the hips. I wasn't Forbes Magazine as top fifty
women to watch before I ever even met that man.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
And you know what, it wasn't ever to take away
his shine, Teresa. But it was honestly because I did
not want anybody to take away what God had done.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
I wanted them to know that I am here because
of Christ, because his hand and his favor. Because had
the enemy had his way at three years old, I
would have drowned. At seventeen years old, I would have
either been paraplegic or been killed in a car crash
that I wouldn't even drive in the vehicle a girlhood
of city bus seventy miles per hour and sent us
(17:35):
across four lanes time after time after time. The enemy
has worked so hard to pull me out.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Of the earth. And anytime something of that nature is
working that hard, it kinst you. You have to be
called for something. There has to be something great on
your life, because if you believe that there is a
God who sees knows everything. And when you think about
the story of Job, it wasn't the enemy who said Joe,
(18:04):
God said, have you tried my servant, Joe? It was
God who offered Job up. Okay, it wasn't the enemy
that says I want to pick on Job. It was
God who said, have you tried my servant, Joe. So
it helps me embrace challenges differently because I know one
(18:24):
that if God has cost or allowed it, he will
finish it. I'm already victorious. His hand is in it,
and nothing can happen to me that he hasn't said
it's okay right, and if he said it's okay in it.
When you really think about that story, in it there
was an intention that God had. Joe lost his children,
his money, his friends, his spouse, everything around him, his dignity,
(18:49):
I mean, emotional intelligence, all kind of stuff. But it
was something so deep rooted in him that God cared
enough to squeeze Job to get that thing that was
out of him in him, out of him so that
he would be far more in the image of Christ,
and he would fulfill a plan that Job had no idea.
(19:09):
Now you're saying, well, Gosh, if I lost all my kids,
I'm not sure having God said that. Even when he
replaced Job's kid, they look better than the first one.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
I know, I mean, think about it, we miss all
that part.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
You know what. I don't know how I would feel like, well,
my little boy LEVI was cute. Now I got a
cuter version of LEVI.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
But I didn't even manage y'all.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
And how did he not go to the crazy house?
How did he not be live on the edge of scarcity?
Because think about it, Teresa, when we're in certain situations
like that, I've had losses. I know that you've had losses.
Many women or people who are listening have had losses.
Having a loss will put you on the seat and
edge of scarcity. Even once you come back around and
(19:56):
you're successful and you trust and believe God and you
know all the etiquette words and biblical scriptures, the truth
of the matter is faith. But we have to also
have hope, right, And so we sit on the edge
of our seat because it's like, what if we lose
another kid, what if we get another diagnosis, what if
this marriage doesn't work out? What if we lose our money?
(20:17):
Like the enemy keeps us in that and we have
to learn to heal. And it amazes me that we
never seen Job do that. We never seen Job go
back and wish that the other situation would be different.
He never did that anything.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
I've never heard that sermon he.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Embrace and accepted with God. He never lived in the past.
You never heard Job say, well, dag, you know, I
really miss my kid. He embraced what God said he
did and was obedient to the next until the end.
I mean that to me, and he didn't lose his mind.
There's nothing in there that talks about Job losing his
(20:56):
mind after the fact. Didn't know. Many of us, after
we come through something are like on the edge.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Oh I have been on the edge one hundred percent,
and not just once, one thousand Me too, And so
I think the challenge too.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
In our community, the Christian community, we don't share these things,
and people are looking at themselves thinking they're crazy because
they're going through these feelings. If you're listening, you're not crazy.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Next week, Terry shares how she had an apartment at
fifteen and a business by twenty one, guided by faith.
Good morning, Hi, welcome back. I'm Teresa Bruno. I'm the
host of the Soul Talks podcast and I'm so excited
to have Terry Matthews Woodhall with us today. Her list
is long of all of her accomplishments. She is, let
me see if I can get this right, an Emmy
nominated speaker. She's the best selling author. She's a serial entrepreneur,
(00:28):
she's a philanthropist. She's an crazy, amazing advocate on behalf
of autism. She's married to Lee Woodhall, former NFL football
player and Super Bowl champion. And you know the thing
she has, tam Brand. She's the force behind her own
business as well as the nonprofit she started.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
Jade's Voice.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
The thing about Terry that I'm fascinated with, and I'll
get you there, is you know, she has such a
sense of purpose across the board, whether it's in business, family, community, activism, spirituality.
Terry is very purposeful in the way she lives her life.
(01:10):
And you look at this litany of all this amazing
success that she's created and you go, well, she must
have come from a family silver spoon. You know, got
all the scholarships to colleges, things like that, and that
is absolutely the antithesis of where this amazing woman came from.
Not to sensationalize it, it'll be overly provocative, but Terry
(01:32):
came from. She's the daughter of a pimp and a prostitute,
and if I could say anything about her, she is absolutely.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Not her past. Terry.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
I'm so excited to be here with you today. I
have honestly never heard a story like yours. And when
we talked for almost two hours a few months ago,
I left our time together feeling like you live in divinity.
You live a divine life to be able to do
(02:03):
what you've done, because it just doesn't happen like this.
People don't come from the pain and the hurt and
the lack that you came from and create what you've created.
And when I look at your life, you know it's
not just that you've had all these amazing business successes.
You have a wholeness, You have an authenticity you know
(02:26):
in your life. So help me start somewhere with that
amazing story.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So I would say, you know, growing up it was
you would see in a sense, what you thought life
would be. Because the one interesting part where I could
even go back now, I didn't understand it then is
I look back over my life and realize that there
was intentionality even with my parents with their struggles to
(02:54):
put me in good schools if they could, oftentimes using
an address of someone else so that I could attend
those schools. And the reason why I'm starting kind of
at that point is because when you think about your
life at a young age, you can think about all
of the challenges that were in it. But I like
to see the hand of God in favor, like he
(03:16):
gave common sense to my parents to make sure that, hey,
we may not live in this particular space, but we
know someone who does who's willing to allow us to
use their address. Whether it was right or wrong, the
point was is that they made sure that I had
exposure to something else than what I was exposed to,
and I definitely believe that was the hand of God
(03:36):
in their own life. I also have been able to
forgive and have understanding and grace because when you understand,
I don't think my parents were intentional about wanting me
to experience the things that I did. I think that
they went through addiction. I think that they had their
own struggles growing up, and once you realize people can
(04:00):
only give what they've been given, right, and so it
has allowed me to look back over my life and
not be a victim, but realize I was a victor
then when I also recognized that God uses the very
things in our lives to be a training ground right
of who He has already said that we are, because
(04:20):
the Bible says for I knew you before you and
your mother's womb, right, so we were already seated in
heavenly places before we were here. I don't care how
we got here. We had to be spoken into existence
by God, and He knew then that I would come
through these particular situations. He also knew what he intended
for my life to be, and how he wanted me
(04:42):
to operate in purpose, and how he would equip me.
We don't get to tell God what that equipping looks like,
and so I won't say in my younger days that
I have that understanding. Quite honestly, in my younger days,
I thought life was unfair. I didn't choose my parents,
I didn't choose these situations. I felt like I was
dealt a hand that was already losing, Especially when you
(05:07):
don't get to go back to the deck of cards
and change your cards out, you know. And so for
me that was the challenge. But in hindsight now that
I as I look back over my life with more
spiritual maturity and wisdom and understanding and knowing who God
is and what he has done, then I recognize now
(05:27):
that those situations that I was in was actually my
preparing ground. It was preparation for a purpose that was
far beyond my neighborhood, far beyond the city, matter of fact,
globally and into the spiritual realm. So I'm grateful at
this point in my life.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
So that's amazing and incredibly beautiful. I have to say.
You know, you frame everything up in your relationship to
God and what you believe God intended for you to
be and to come through. The circumstance is the rough
hand you were dealt? Where did that belief come from?
How did you begin your spiritual journey?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Okay, so have y'all seen Moguli? What was that braved
by the bears? That's how I feel like that what
happened with me in the Holy Spirit? And I will
tell you I always had a sense so again interesting
hand of God. Right, my father's father was a pastor,
and although we didn't live in the same city at
(06:27):
the time, I would spend times going to visit him,
and interesting enough, I would watch how he cared for people.
I would also watch how he cared for us. I mean,
I was so young and indeed that my grandfather would
send money through Western Union. So I literally walked. I
would walk, and I had no idea. I wasn't even
old enough to get one, and so I would literally.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Go.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
And there was a code that we would use in
order for me to get, you know, money from Western Union,
and I would be the one given the money because
I was responsible enough to buy the groceries and handle
the things that needed to happen. He trusted the little girl. Yeah,
a little girl. And when I say little, I'm like
elementary school. Like today, this would be considered child abuse
(07:12):
to be allowing your child to walk yafar to do
these things. And I'm not sure if there was an
me being allowed much as it is is that there
was a sense of responsibility. So what's interesting to me
about how my life was interwoven was my I had
a relationship with God. I knew God, but it was
(07:33):
not where it is today. Right, and it would it
would take certain situations in my life for me to
see the hand in favor of God. I am where
I'm at today, and we all still have struggles. Right,
It's even like death. We we know the Bible says
to be absent from the bodies, to be present with
the Lord, but it doesn't take away the grieving, Right,
we still greet a person that we lose. But the
(07:54):
thing is is that what was interesting for me was
my relationship with the Lord. He would allow certain situations
in my life because the Bible says he causes or allows,
so he allowed certain situations or he caused certain situations
in my life where I, at an early age would
begin to depend on him. Right, I would know that
(08:16):
I know that I know, and I'm not trying to
overspiritualize this, but I feel like when God talks about
caring and loving his kids, you know, he knew that
I was a child. He knew that there were certain
things as a child that I lacked. When I honestly
look back, I can see the things that He kept
(08:39):
me from because it could have been a lot worse.
Sure I went through homelessness. Sure there were times of
food insecurity. But he always created a way. And the
more I gained relationship and understood who God was and
see that he created a way. I could look back
over certain situations in my life where I would reflect,
(09:03):
you know that rear view mirror. I'm looking forward, but
I can briefly look back, and I could look back
and say, oh my god, you were in this. You
were in the lines that I had to stand in
to get free food. You were at the welfare offices
that I was standing with my mom to get a
voucher in the morning to sleep at Motel six. You
(09:28):
were at the school places that maybe I was the
only person in a sense who showed up because my
parents weren't available for back to school night. You were
in the room that I was molested in. I can
look back and see that I was never really alone.
And let me tell you, the trick of the enemy
(09:49):
is always to make you feel shame and blame. In
these situations. He wants you to see them from the
perspective of you were never loved, never cared about, there
was no plan for you, you were never enough, You're
not worthy, right, And if we allow the enemy to
use that, that's exactly what he'll do. And I thank
(10:12):
God that it took these hard situations and the more
I got to know God, my story is not really
any different than a lot of people. Now, it's a
combination of a lot of people in the Bible. I'm like,
what am I David? Am I Lydia? And my Martha
and my Mary?
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Am I A.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah? Am I Joseph? And my Roof? Am I Esther?
And my job? Yes? So I feel like there has
been seasons in all these stories and my Solomon, you
know what I mean, where he's given me wisdom, you know,
for things, and because of me asking for wisdom, he's
blessed me in other ways like I wanted him more
(10:52):
than I wanted the things. So I would say to
you that I'm not I didn't just arrive here. It
was intentional situations that occurred in my life that gave
me a chance to experience God's greatness right, and even
through divorce, like through death, through diagnosis, we have to
(11:14):
We can't say we believe something. It's hard for us
to believe been something we don't even see. So it
takes something for us to experience something in our life
so that we can see the hand in favor and
what God kept us from. And then enemy will keep
us on the hard stuff, the yucky stuff, the embarrassing stuff,
but God will keep us focused on where He was
(11:35):
in our story. And when I seen that, then at
that point in time, because people can say, oh, you're chosen.
You know, all are called few are chosen right, And
so the thing is, it's like, how do you know
when you're called them? When you're chosen? Right? And it
was like when the Lord walked me through, I was like,
I'm every story in the Bible, you know, and to
(11:58):
what just given much as required. So and it's not
even about stuff. It's about the territory of the souls
in a sense that we've been called to steward. And
I could look in the faces, which I thought was crazy.
I could go to a foreign country and look in
those faces and say me too, me too. I've experienced
(12:19):
that hurt, I've experienced that heartbreak. I've experienced that disappointment.
I've experienced feeling lack, I've experienced feeling unworthy. I've experienced shame,
I've experienced embarrassment, and all of these things that I
experienced in a very short window of time. By the way,
I'm forty eight. I feel like I've lived nine lives, right,
I've gained, I've lost, I've lost, I've gained right. All
(12:40):
of these different things for me ended up helping me
understand that there was a greater calling than my life.
And instead of looking at what I think was damaged goods,
I recognized that these I'm not damaged at all. I'm
determined and God has a defined process for me to
go through in order for me to fulfill a purpose
(13:03):
that I'm not equipped unless I had these experiences. So
it's different.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
I you know, it makes me go there, there's a
place I just keep wanting to go back to in
your life. And and you, I want to know when
did you know? When did you know there was this
calling on your life? When did you know you were
being directed? And I think about you telling me that
you had your own apartment at fifteen years old. Not
(13:30):
only did you have your own apartment, you were fully
supporting yourself.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yes, I mean yes I was. How does it so
you remember the whole story? I hope?
Speaker 1 (13:40):
So how does First of all, that's just kind of
crazy making in our minds. How does a fifteen year
old supporter stuff well enough to afford an apartment and
to still stay in school. Yeah was there as in college,
by the way, and college also in college, and you
had a baby at eighteen, and I think you had
your first really successful business at twenty one. Is that
(14:02):
timeline right?
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (14:04):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah? So where was it in that?
Speaker 1 (14:08):
Okay, I have nowhere to live. I'll I'll get a
job and find a place to live. Where was it
that you went, I'm called to something. I believe I'm enough.
I'm going to overcome this and I have a right
to overcome it. When did that begin to sort of
take hold inside you?
Speaker 2 (14:25):
So I want to go I want to answer going back,
but I want to say this, and my hope is
that this will give women some level of freedom. I
think we're always questioning ourselves. I think the thing about
it is is that as we continue to journey, you know,
I have confidence and stronger faith, but there is always
something that the enemy is shooting at me. Don't get
(14:47):
it wrong, right, Like every day I'm having to renew
my strength and the Holy Spirit, Like, oh, whoa am
I really called to this God? Can I really do
this thing? You know? And I have to reflect sometimes
I have to look in that review. I don't drive
in the rearview mirra. I drive with the windshield because
it's bigger and broader, and it's before me and I
can see a lot more things. But I have to
(15:07):
remember to reflect, Oh God brought me through. I can right,
or I'm equipped, or I am enough. So I think
as women of God, especially where we're called to serve,
wherever we're called to serve, ministry, home, business, a combination
of all of it, whatever it is that we're called
to do, the enemy is always going to be attacking
us at our core because he doesn't want us to
(15:29):
fulfill the plan. He can't stop the plan. Very similar
to Eve. He he didn't do anything except for cause doubt. Right,
That's all he did. He didn't force her to put
a gun to her, he didn't threaten her life nothing.
He just caused her enough doubt. And the enemy is
always it's going to be his. The Bible says there's
nothing new under the sun, So Teresa, he's always gonna
(15:49):
attempt to cause doubt. I don't care how strong in
faith we are. We know Jesus right now, you and
I you know, I'm sure when you started this podcast,
it's like, hey, can I do this thing? You listen.
Speaker 1 (16:01):
I started this podcast anonymously because I had been canceled
on social media and I was so timid about coming
back out into the workforce and the world. And yet
I did feel such a calling to make sense of
the tragedies that had happened to me. But I started
it in an anonymity. I mean, that's how you know.
(16:22):
That's all those feelings. If I'm not enough, I'm not
worthy enough, I can't make it. I won't be loved,
I won't be accepted, all that stuff.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
And your acceptance.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
Yeah, when you're in the middle of saying this, I'm
smiling because I was reading I don't know, all kinds
of articles about you, and there's there's this one article
where you're talking about exactly this very thing, and you
know how the enemy is always attacking and doubts coming
in and you had already built this amazing business before
you ever even met Lee would all and people would
(16:52):
say to you, well, yeah, you had a leg up.
You had all of his contacts, and you're like hands
on the hips. I wasn't Forbes Magazine as top fifty
women to watch before I ever even met that man.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
And you know what, it wasn't ever to take away
his shine, Teresa. But it was honestly because I did
not want anybody to take away what God had done.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
I wanted them to know that I am here because
of Christ, because his hand and his favor. Because had
the enemy had his way at three years old, I
would have drowned. At seventeen years old, I would have
either been paraplegic or been killed in a car crash
that I wouldn't even drive in the vehicle a girlhood
of city bus seventy miles per hour and sent us
(17:35):
across four lanes time after time after time. The enemy
has worked so hard to pull me out.
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Of the earth. And anytime something of that nature is
working that hard, it kinst you. You have to be
called for something. There has to be something great on
your life, because if you believe that there is a
God who sees knows everything. And when you think about
the story of Job, it wasn't the enemy who said Joe,
(18:04):
God said, have you tried my servant, Joe? It was
God who offered Job up. Okay, it wasn't the enemy
that says I want to pick on Job. It was
God who said, have you tried my servant, Joe. So
it helps me embrace challenges differently because I know one
(18:24):
that if God has cost or allowed it, he will
finish it. I'm already victorious. His hand is in it,
and nothing can happen to me that he hasn't said
it's okay right, and if he said it's okay in it.
When you really think about that story, in it there
was an intention that God had. Joe lost his children,
his money, his friends, his spouse, everything around him, his dignity,
(18:49):
I mean, emotional intelligence, all kind of stuff. But it
was something so deep rooted in him that God cared
enough to squeeze Job to get that thing that was
out of him in him, out of him so that
he would be far more in the image of Christ,
and he would fulfill a plan that Job had no idea.
(19:09):
Now you're saying, well, Gosh, if I lost all my kids,
I'm not sure having God said that. Even when he
replaced Job's kid, they look better than the first one.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
I know, I mean, think about it, we miss all
that part.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
You know what. I don't know how I would feel like, well,
my little boy LEVI was cute. Now I got a
cuter version of LEVI.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
But I didn't even manage y'all.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
And how did he not go to the crazy house?
How did he not be live on the edge of scarcity?
Because think about it, Teresa, when we're in certain situations
like that, I've had losses. I know that you've had losses.
Many women or people who are listening have had losses.
Having a loss will put you on the seat and
edge of scarcity. Even once you come back around and
(19:56):
you're successful and you trust and believe God and you
know all the etiquette words and biblical scriptures, the truth
of the matter is faith. But we have to also
have hope, right, And so we sit on the edge
of our seat because it's like, what if we lose
another kid, what if we get another diagnosis, what if
this marriage doesn't work out? What if we lose our money?
(20:17):
Like the enemy keeps us in that and we have
to learn to heal. And it amazes me that we
never seen Job do that. We never seen Job go
back and wish that the other situation would be different.
He never did that anything.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
I've never heard that sermon he.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Embrace and accepted with God. He never lived in the past.
You never heard Job say, well, dag, you know, I
really miss my kid. He embraced what God said he
did and was obedient to the next until the end.
I mean that to me, and he didn't lose his mind.
There's nothing in there that talks about Job losing his
(20:56):
mind after the fact. Didn't know. Many of us, after
we come through something are like on the edge.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
Oh I have been on the edge one hundred percent,
and not just once, one thousand Me too, And so
I think the challenge too.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
In our community, the Christian community, we don't share these things,
and people are looking at themselves thinking they're crazy because
they're going through these feelings. If you're listening, you're not crazy.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Next week, Terry shares how she had an apartment at
fifteen and a business by twenty one, guided by faith.
Popular Podcasts
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.