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6 Words of Wisdom for 2025 and Beyond!
You’ll never find peace living out of another person’s head. If you are constantly worried about what other people are thinking, you will never be free to be who it is that God created you to be or free to do whatever it is that God has called you to do.God’s not looking for ability, but availability. All God needs is your yes. It doesn’t matter how unqualified you feel, but are you willing to say yes?Your weakest friend spiritually is the devil’s strongest entry point. Surround yourself with friends who love Jesus as much as you do or more.If you can’t say something nice, don’t. If you can say something nice, do! We live in a culture that is so critical…always criticizing everything! We aren’t afraid to speak our minds and tell others how it should be. It’s a lot easier for us to say mean things to others, than actually be nice. I encourage you, even if you don’t have something nice to say, find something nice to say anyway.Never let what you did yesterday determine who you become today. When you mess up, run to God! When you run to Him, that’s not when He first found out about it. He’s not looking at you with an attitude of “How could you!” But He’s looking at you with an attitude of, “Oh, my goodness, my daughter! I love you so much! Let’s get through this together!”Choosing to forgive can’t change your past, but it can change your future. Forgiveness isn’t a feeling. Many people think, “I can’t forgive because I’m still hurting.” Or “They don’t deserve to be forgiven because of what they did.” Forgiveness is a choice, and it affects you more than it does them anyway. You forgive, because when you do, it sets a prisoner free…that prisoner is you! When we choose to hold onto unforgiveness, it makes us bitter. It changes us and not for the better.Ladies, check your emails this week for updates on the New UncommonTEEN App!!
To ask your Ask Me Anything Questions or if you need prayer, head on over to UncommonTEEN.com.
For the Ask Me Anything Questions, click on the RED BUTTON at the top of the screen. These questions may used on a future episode of the UncommonTEEN Podcast!
For any prayer requests or more personal questions, click on the YELLOW CHAT TAB at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. These will not be used on the podcast unless you say you would like it to be used.Connect with Us!
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Last week, in part 1 of this two part series on the UncommonTEEN Podcast, we began talking about how to throw away anxiety, stress, overwhelm, and insecurities for good!
God wants you walking in confidence, really embracing who it is that He created you to be! But how do we do that?1. It starts with truly understanding who it is that God says you are.
John 3:16 says that you are so loved by God. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God makes everything beautiful in its time. You are beautiful! Just the way you are! Jeremiah 1:5 says that before the world was even formed, God knew everything about you and approved of you as His chosen daughter. He set you apart for a purpose.Isaiah 43:4 says that you are precious to God, honored by God, and loved by God!Jeremiah 29:11 says that God has plans for your life that are good. Plans to give you a future and a hope.Luke 12:24 says that you are valuable to God.But In order to truly understand who God says you are, you have to intentionally make the choice to believe it!
2. Rewrite the stories you’ve been telling yourself.
When you feel anxious, stressed, overwhelmed or not confident in who you are…when those feelings start to pull you down, I want you to stop and think about what you’re thinking about.
Ask yourself, do these thoughts or do these words that I’m telling myself or maybe someone else said about me…do they line up with what God says about me? Do those thoughts line up with what God says in His Word?
The first way you can tell if they do or if they don’t is, how are those thoughts making you feel? If they are making you feel anxious, stressed, overwhelmed, or insecure, the answer probably is no…they do not line up with what God says about you.
3. Change your words; change your life.
Our circumstances that we are facing cause our thoughts. When we dwell on those thoughts, those thoughts cause the words we begin to speak. When we begin to speak those things over our lives, our words then cause the results that we see.
Pick one verse and say it over and over again until those feelings of anxiety leave. “Thank You, Lord that in John 14:27, Jesus says He has given me His peace. I thank you that I have peace.” Then repeat over again over again until you feel that peace,
Thank You, Lord for your peace. I have the peace of Jesus. I praise You God for giving me Your peace.”Sometimes you can speak those verses for a couple minutes and anxiety will leave, sometimes you may need to be speaking those verses over yourself for an hour or two, but continue to do it until that anxiety leaves.
The Word of God is powerful and can and will destroy the weapons the enemy has used against you!
Ladies, check your emails this week for updates on the New UncommonTEEN App!!
To ask your Ask Me Anything Questions or if you need prayer, head on over to UncommonTEEN.com.
For the Ask Me Anything Questions, click on the RED BUTTON at the top of the screen. These questions may used on a future episode of the UncommonTEEN Podcast!
For any prayer requests or more personal questions, click on the YELLOW CHAT TAB at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. These will not be used on the podcast unless you say you would like it to be used.Connect with Us!
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Did you know that it is possible to not let anxiety, stress, overwhelm or insecurities rule your life? Did you know that God actually doesn’t want you anxious, stressed, overwhelmed, and insecure?
He actually wants you to walk in peace, enjoying life as you walk out confidently who He made you to be!
I remember my senior year of high school. I was so insecure…probably one of the most insecure people you would have ever met. I couldn’t even look people in the eye when talking to them. Every time I walked into a room and people were laughing, I immediately thought they were laughing about me, when in reality, I was probably the last person on their mind.
To say that I was insecure was an understatement. It became a way of life for me to compare myself with everyone I encountered and falling short every time. I was a nobody. I hated everything about myself. This insecurity led to so much anxiety.
Going back to my senior year, anxiety attacks became like a friend to me…not one that I cared for either…I always felt like a thousand pound elephant was sitting on my chest and it was so hard to breathe.
Praise God, I found Jesus when I was a senior in high school, because this became my only hope that things could get better. I learned that I didn’t have to let anxiety, overwhelm, and insecurities run my life anymore. At that time, I couldn’t even imagine what it would feel like to be free…a life of joy and peace and confidence, but I clung tight to that hope.
I am so thankful I did, because even on the hard days, I kept pushing through and I didn’t give up. It wasn’t an easy journey, but it was so worth it! At first, there were more bad days than good days. Then the good days started coming a little more. Then over time, the days of anxiety and overwhelm and insecurity were almost obsolete.
I would be lying if I said that the anxiety, the overwhelm and the insecurities never come back from time to time, because they do. However, when they do, I go back to these 3 steps that I’m going to share with you this week and next week and do them until those feelings are gone!
So how do we kick anxiety, stress, overwhelm, and insecurities to the curb?
Ladies, check your emails this week for updates on the New UncommonTEEN App!!
To ask your Ask Me Anything Questions or if you need prayer, head on over to UncommonTEEN.com.
For the Ask Me Anything Questions, click on the RED BUTTON at the top of the screen. These questions may used on a future episode of the UncommonTEEN Podcast!
For any prayer requests or more personal questions, click on the YELLOW CHAT TAB at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. These will not be used on the podcast unless you say you would like it to be used.Connect with Us!
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Why is it so hard to motivate ourselves to do what we know we are supposed to do? Especially when we don’t feel like it? Lack of motivation….complacency…it’s all the same thing.
Complacency is a weapon the enemy is using to get us to give up and not even try. When we live in a culture that is so based on our feelings, we don’t realize how much we are allowing our feelings to control our lives until we take a step back and look at it. When we don’t feel like doing that thing, we don’t do it. If we keep this mentatlity up, we will waste our lives and never truly find the purpose God called us to live out.
Yes, God gave us feelings. Feelings are meant to be felt. Feelings are meant to help us feel compassion and love toward others, but feelings were never meant to be what makes our decisions for us.
However, if we’re not careful, we use our feelings to make excuses for us to do what we want to do or not to what we don’t want to do.
Benjamin E Mays, a pastor who actually mentored Martin Luther King Jr said is so wisely. He said, “The tragedy of life is often not in our failure, but rather in our complacency; not in our doing too much, but rather in our doing too little; not in our living above our ability, but rather in our living below our capacities."Complacency or lack of motivation is one of the biggest enemies to Christians and if I can be honest, when I look at a lot of the Christian teens today, this is the number one enemy I see invading their lives.
Complacency isn’t just not doing anything, though, complacency or a lack of motivation also occurs when we do the same thing over and over again and get into a “check it off the list” mentality.
How do we move from complacency or a lack of motivation to pushing past those feelings? Honestly, it starts with discovering you do have a purpose, right now, as a teen! There’s a quote that says, “motivation is found when purpose is discovered” and it is so true!
How do we overcome a lack of motivation? How do we overcome complacency?
It starts with understanding how much God loves you!Develop a real, living relationship with Jesus instead of just checking God off a list.Do your first 15 (spending the first 15 minutes of your day with God)Spend 5 minutes in the Word5 minutes in prayer5 minutes in worship.Serve others.Share Jesus with those around you!Discipleship, mentorship and coaching!Ladies, let’s not make anymore excuses, but let’s get out there and live our life with purpose! Just like that quote I shared earlier, “Motivation is found when purpose is discovered.”
Ladies, check your emails this week for updates on the New UncommonTEEN App!!
To ask your Ask Me Anything Questions or if you need prayer, head on over to UncommonTEEN.com.
For the Ask Me Anything Questions, click on the RED BUTTON at the top of the screen. These questions may used on a future episode of the UncommonTEEN Podcast!
For any prayer requests or more personal questions, click on the YELLOW CHAT TAB at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. These will not be used on the podcast unless you say you would like it to be used.Connect with Us!
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Your words are powerful. Proverbs 18:20 tells us that death and life are in the power of the tongue. Whatever you speak you will eventually see in your life. But just like the words that you speak are powerful…the words that you tell yourself internally are just as powerful.
When you’re asked to do something big and new, do you instantly jump in and think to yourself, “oh yeah! I’ve got this!” or do you ever say to yourself, “who am I to do that?”Or have you ever told yourself, “Nobody likes me. Why do I have to be like this?” Or maybe you have told yourself, “I’ not smart. Why should I even try to study for that test. I’m just going to fail anyway.” Or maybe when you look in the mirror and you tell yourself how ugly you think you are and then begin to criticize everything about yourself.
Many times, when we’re talking to ourselves negatively, we are taking something that is not true and believing it as if it was true. The worst part is, when we talk negatively to ourselves, it leads us to feel worse about ourselves. The worse we feel about ourselves, the more negatively we talk to ourselves. It’s a vicious cycle.
If you find that you have a hard time being happy, or that you are constantly fighting feeling down, depressed, angry, anxious or any other negative feeling, stop and think about what you’ve been telling yourself. What have you been thinking about and dwelling on? Almost every time, if not every time, it’s something that’s negative that we are choosing to believe.
If you find yourself in that situation…feeling down…telling yourself negative things about yourself, I want to encourage you to ask yourself these questions. Write them down and put them on the wall in your room or in your bathroom. Put them on your phone so you can easily look at them…wherever you find yourself dwelling on those negative thoughts the most.
The first question I encourage you to ask yourself is:
Is what I’m telling myself true? Is it what God would say about me?What Truth from God’s Word confirms that what I’m saying is true?What’s the worst thing that could happen?What will most likely happen?Are there other ways that I can look at this situation?Is this really a bad as I’m making it out to be?Is speaking to myself this way making me feel better or worse?How can I change my thinking in order to find the good news?Then when you’ve assessed the situation, find what God’ Word says about the situation and begin to speak that over our life. John 8:31-32 tell us and this is Jesus speaking, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” If you have been struggling with negative self-talk, the only way to overcome it is with the Word of God.
Ladies, check your emails this week for updates on the New UncommonTEEN App!!
To ask your Ask Me Anything Questions or if you need prayer, head on over to UncommonTEEN.com.
For the Ask Me Anything Questions, click on the RED BUTTON at the top of the screen. These questions may used on a future episode of the UncommonTEEN Podcast!
For any prayer requests or more personal questions, click on the YELLOW CHAT TAB at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. These will not be used on the podcast unless you say you would like it to be used.Connect with Us!
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I remember when I first made Jesus the Lord of my life, I was on fire for God. Nobody was going to stop me from going all in. However, I had a problem. I didn’t know what it looked like to actually go all in with God. Nobody showed me how to practically live out the transformation God had performed in my life as a 17 year old.
I would see other teens my age who were Christians, but most if not all of them were lacking that spark…that fire for the Lord. I even tried going to a youth ministry my senior year of high school, but it almost seemed like a joke. I couldn’t quite understand why it seemed like these Christians didn’t even care. The youth pastor would start to teach on a topic, but the message would be overrun by teens making a joke out of it….the youth pastor did nothing but play along. Needless to say, I didn’t go back to that youth ministry often.
I didn’t quite understand how I was supposed to practically walk out my Christian life when I didn’t even see other Christian teens walking it out. Was I supposed to just pretend this life change with Jesus didn’t happen…because it did and it was very real.
So, how do we put God first in our life. Practically, what does that look like?
1. Put God first in your day. Create the first bit of the morning to spend with God. If you have been struggling with reading the Bible every day, with spending time in prayer every day, with taking time to worship every day, I encourage you to do the First 15.
What does 5 minutes in the Bible look like?
I encourage you to start in the book of John. In most versions of the Bible, you will notice that the chapters are split up into sections. For example, with the New King James version of the Bible, John 1 is split up into seven sections. The first section’s title is called, “The Eternal Word" and it’s 5 verses long.
Read through the whole section one time through, go back through it a second time and right down or underline anything that stands out to you. Then ask God, “Lord, what do you want me to know about this passage? What do you want me to do?” Write it down and take action.Next is 5 minutes in prayer. Take time to talk to God, just like you would your best friend, about what’s coming up that day. Ask Him for wisdom to get through whatever it is you have going on. He so loves you and cares about even the smallest of details.
Then the last 5 minutes is spent in worship. Worship is a response to God’s goodness. Take 5 minutes and thank God for the good things He’s doing in your life.
2. Write out the key areas of your life and ask God, “Lord, will you show me how to put you first in every area of my life. Some key areas would include:
FriendsGuysSchoolWorkSports/ActivitiesLadies, check your emails this week for updates on the New UncommonTEEN App!!
To ask your Ask Me Anything Questions or if you need prayer, head on over to UncommonTEEN.com.
For the Ask Me Anything Questions, click on the RED BUTTON at the top of the screen. These questions may used on a future episode of the UncommonTEEN Podcast!
For any prayer requests or more personal questions, click on the YELLOW CHAT TAB at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. These will not be used on the podcast unless you say you would like it to be used.Connect with Us!
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Today's Ask Me Anything question comes from Ellie. she says, "Sometimes I do feel uncommon as a believer, but your positive words help me get through tough situations. My parents are strong Christian believers who are both teachers. They are very knowledgeable about the world we are living in as teens. Through this, they are opposed to the idea of social media and the possible negative effects. I have recently moved school and feel like the odd one out that doesn’t have a social account. I understand that my parents want what’s best for me, but I just want to feel included in some way.
I’m sure a lot of teen girls have this same question, one because I know several teen girls who don’t have social media. I also know several other girls who have created social media accounts without their parent’s knowledge. Please don't do this! What this does, is it breaks down your relationship with your parents, because all relationships thrive off of trust. If there is no trust, there is no relationship. Parents have their boundaries because they have your best interest in mind.You also said, “Sometimes I do feel uncommon as a believer.” Being uncommon isn’t a bad thing, it’s actually a pretty great thing! God needs you to be uncommon! If you were like everyone around you, nobody would ever see Jesus in you. What does it mean to be uncommon? It means not common, rare, above the ordinary, exceptional, and remarkable! Acts 4:13 is the verse that is the verse God gave me for UncommonTEEN. It says, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and untrained in the schools (they were common men with no educational advantages), they marveled; and they recognized that they had been with Jesus.” What made them uncommon was their relationship with Jesus, but just like with the disciples, the crowd looked at them and noticed that there was something different about them. That opened the door for them to share the Gospel with them, resulting in people getting saved.
When you are uncommon, people look at you and ask, “why are you so nice? Why are you full of peace when everyone else is going crazy? Why are you happy all the time?” That, just like with the disciples opens the door for you to share Jesus with them. It’s okay to be different. It’s okay not to have social media even if everyone else does. They may make fun of you but embrace that you are different and be confident in who you are in Christ.
Check out this week's episode to learn more about what you can do when your parents oppose social media, but you feel like the odd one out.
Ladies, check your emails this week for updates on the New UncommonTEEN App!!
To ask your Ask Me Anything Questions or if you need prayer, head on over to UncommonTEEN.com.
For the Ask Me Anything Questions, click on the RED BUTTON at the top of the screen. These questions may used on a future episode of the UncommonTEEN Podcast!
For any prayer requests or more personal questions, click on the YELLOW CHAT TAB at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. These will not be used on the podcast unless you say you would like it to be used.Connect with Us!
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On this week’s AMA episode, we answer, "
Hi Jamie, lately I've been feeling like I'm disappointing everyone around me in my life. My parents with not being athletic enough (even though I work out), my entire family went to college for athletics, and I only play one sport and I'm only ok at that. I'm also not popular at school and not really that talkative. I feel like I'm also disappointing God by not being a good enough Christian. I really try to ignore the lies the enemy has been telling me continuously but honestly, I can't stop thinking about how I'm talentless and not good at anything. I also have anxiety, and it really hurts me when I start to believe this. How can I make these feelings and thoughts stop?First of all, I want you to know that you are not alone in this. I have heard from several teen girls lately who have been telling me similar things. It hurts my heart that this is a struggle that you’re having, because you were made so beautifully by God.
You are enough…because God sees you as enough! He loves you. You are worthy….you are valuable, because God sees you as valuable.Jeremiah 1:5 tells us that before we were even formed in the womb, God knew us.
He knew every little detail about us…He intentionally thought out everything that makes up who you are, and He was pleased with it.
I know it’s hard, because everyone in your family is really athletic, but God created you just the way you are on purpose. He doesn’t want you to gain your identity from that. He wants you to gain your identity from Him. Now, I’m not saying quit working out or playing sports. Do your best, but then be satisfied because you did the best that you can do. If your parents are truly disappointed in you because you aren’t athletic, I encourage you to pray for them that they see you through the eyes of how God created you…that they see your true identity through Christ.You were not placed on this earth an accident. God deliberately thought about every detail about you before the world was even formed! When you truly understand how much God loves you, you understand that you have so much value! That you are not a disappointment to God. That you have so much purpose! That you are God’s joy! You are a beautiful daughter of the most high King!
Ladies, check your emails this week for updates on the New UncommonTEEN App!!
To ask your Ask Me Anything Questions or if you need prayer, head on over to UncommonTEEN.com.
For the Ask Me Anything Questions, click on the RED BUTTON at the top of the screen. These questions may used on a future episode of the UncommonTEEN Podcast!
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When I think back to the life of King David as a young boy, I see someone whose circumstances weren’t the best. I see someone whose dad didn’t really even consider him as a son. He was forgotten about, made fun of by his brothers and other people. I see someone who could have been so insecure about who he was, because of the way he was treated by the people who were closest to him…his family.
David’s own dad didn’t see anything special about David that he would even consider David his son.With how David’s dad treated him, we wouldn’t blame him if he was insecure about who he was. I’m sure his brothers were constantly making fun of him, as well, because when he was out with the sheep, he would often sit back and write poetry and play his harp. They didn’t see their brother as someone who could be king. They saw him as a nobody.
But do you know something amazing about David? In spite of his circumstances, he wasn’t insecure. He was confident in who God created him to be.
And so can you!One thing I love about David is that he owned who he was. He didn’t ask himself, “God why did you create me to write poetry? Mighty warriors aren’t supposed to write poetry. God why did you create me to play music. Mighty warriors aren’t supposed to play music on the harp. I guess I’m a nobody.”
No, he took those things that he was good at and He used them to glorify God. He used them in spite of what others thought about him. David owned who it is God created him to be. He owned his identity. He knew that he was a shepherd for the Lord. He knew that he was a poet for the Lord. He knew that he was a musician for the Lord. And he knew that is was a warrior and an anointed king for the Lord.And because he knew and owned who God created him to be, God was able to use David in a mighty way and the same is true for you!
Ladies, check your emails this week for updates on the New UncommonTEEN App!!
To ask your Ask Me Anything Questions or if you need prayer, head on over to UncommonTEEN.com.
For the Ask Me Anything Questions, click on the RED BUTTON at the top of the screen. These questions may used on a future episode of the UncommonTEEN Podcast!
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On this week's Ask Me Anything, episode, we are answering the question, "Could you talk about fear of the future on the UncommonTEEN Podcast? I'm really scared of everything going on in the world. I know I should give all my problems to God, but I'm still so scared and don't know what to do. I feel like God isn't listening to me and isn't helping at all.
On thing I have learned about fear is that it is meant to paralyze us. It's meant to make use doubt God, doubt ourselves and doubt others. It's meant to consume uses that the enemy can stop us in our tracks.
Fear is something that I dealt with from a young age. On one hand, I lived my life in fear and on the other hand I was addicted to it--drawn to it.
I didn't give my life to the Lord until I was 17, but even so, I was still addicted to fear. I couldn't wait for the next horror movie to come out. I remember the last horror movie I ever saw. I was in college and a bunch of my friends from the Christian organization on campus and I went to go watch it. There was one girl in our group who wasn't used to watching horror movies and it scared her pretty badly. While we were on our way back to our dorm rooms, one of the guys in our group went ahead of us and pulled a prank on that girl...something to do with the movie, scaring her more. She just laughed it off and so did we...not thinking any more about it.
The next day, I was talking to a guy (who is now my husband), telling him about what happened the night before, thinking it was funny and he looked at me and said something I will never forget. He said, "Why would you intentionally invite fear into your life when God so clearly says in His Word not to fear?" Ouch!
You may be thinking, "I'm not intentionally inviting fear into my life, it just happens. I can't help it, but see it when I look around me." And you're right. We live in a fallen world and just looking out there it's crazy! However, we aren't the first generation to face pretty crazy things. It's happened to every generation up to this point.
The question we need to ask is: why are some people not affected by the craziness going on around us...meaning they aren't in fear...while others fall prey to it?
The answer, it's what we focus on. If we focus on our circumstances more than we focus on God, we will step into fear. However, if we focus on our God more than we focus on our circumstances, it will produce peace.
Think about the Israelite army when they were up against the Philistines. The Israelites were hiding in terror. They were focused on the big problem in front of them...Goliath. However, when David saw Goliath, he wasn't afraid at all. He was focused on how big His God was and knew that together they could take down Goliath! The same is true for you!Ladies, check your emails this week for updates on the New UncommonTEEN App!!
To ask your Ask Me Anything Questions or if you need prayer, head on over to UncommonTEEN.com.
For the Ask Me Anything Questions, click on the RED BUTTON at the top of the screen. These questions may used on a future episode of the UncommonTEEN Podcast!
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AMA: Hannah-Does Evolution Fit with the Bible?
On this week’s AMA episode, Hannah says, “Recently I’ve been thinking about evolution. When I was talking to my friends about Jesus and God one of them asked me “so you don’t believe in evolution?” That question has stuck with me as currently we’re learning about evolution in science and we’re about to do a test on it. But I guess my question is this: is evolution real? And how does evolution fit into what we know happened in Genesis with the creation of humans?”
I love this question, because as Christians, this is something that is extremely important to know. We can actually help lead others to Jesus when we know the answers ourselves.
Ladies, check your emails this week for updates on the New UncommonTEEN App!!
To ask your Ask Me Anything Questions or if you need prayer, head on over to UncommonTEEN.com.
For the Ask Me Anything Questions, click on the RED BUTTON at the top of the screen. These questions may used on a future episode of the UncommonTEEN Podcast!
For any prayer requests or more personal questions, click on the YELLOW CHAT TAB at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. These will not be used on the podcast unless you say you would like it to be used.Connect with Us!
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In part one of this series, we talked about how to keep ourselves from losing positions so that we don’t find ourselves in a low place asking ourselves, “How did I get here?”
As a teen, I found myself in these places so often. I didn’t give my life to Jesus until I was 17 and I had a lot of learning, a lot of shame, a lot of guilt, a lot of regret that I couldn’t let go of…most of those because of choices I made that got me to that place where I was asking myself, “how did I get here?”
When I was a teenager, I didn’t have the best track record for choosing guys. Now, granted, I wasn’t a Christian until I was 17, but goodness…I could have taught you all what not to do! Well, I kind of do with my podcast episodes, by sharing my stories with you.
I want you to realize that if you are feeling this way, you are not alone. I know there are many girls who are listening to this walking through something similar, but there is hope. You can become free!
Freedom starts with forgiveness. Forgiving yourself and forgiving those who have hurt you. When we hold onto unforgiveness, it hurts us.
Forgiveness is the choice to let go of the desire to hurt those that hurt you…including yourself. Forgiveness is not weakness. It gives you the power to take your life back from the person who hurt you. When you choose to forgive, that’s when you find freedom.Forgiveness is not a gift to the offender. It’s a gift to you. When you have unforgiveness, you hold onto your past. You are stuck and not able to step toward your God-given destiny. Forgiveness doesn’t start with their apology. Sometimes they will never apologize. Sometimes they will never be sorry. When you hold onto unforgiveness, that person is still controlling you.Forgiveness is a choice made by faith. Choices lead…and feelings will follow. If you wait for a feeling, you’ll never forgive.
True freedom comes from the Word.
John 8:31-32 tells us Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
In order to really know the Word of God and step into the freedom He has for us, we have to know the Word. Not just know it in our heads but know it in our hearts. We do that by renewing our minds to God’s Word.
Romans 12:2 says in the NLT version, Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
The battle of shame, guilt and regret is a battle in our mind. The Bible helps us renew our minds and when that happens, our thoughts line up with God’s thoughts and we are able to step into true freedom.Ladies, check your emails this week for updates on the New UncommonTEEN App!!
To ask your Ask Me Anything Questions or if you need prayer, head on over to UncommonTEEN.com.
For the Ask Me Anything Questions, click on the RED BUTTON at the top of the screen. These questions may used on a future episode of the UncommonTEEN Podcast!
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I have heard so many stories from several of you ladies who were innocently scrolling on social media when a message popped up in your chat.
This super cute guy was messaging you either asking you if you'd like to be his friend or complementing you about how beautiful you are. It seemed innocent enough until you found yourself in the place asking yourself the question, "How did I get here?"Recently, Investigators (who are all former law enforcement officers) with an anti-trafficking organization called Hope for Justice, did an experiment where they created a fake Instagram account with a teen girl’s photo. In just 48 hours, there were messages from several people…three appearing to be older males who were excited to be talking to a girl under the age of 18. According to their website, hopeforjustice.org, these conversations escalated quickly to asking her (this fake Instagram account) for her age, where she lived, for her to send them photos and videos of herself, telling them that they will take care of them. When Hope for Justice responded that she (this fake Instagram account) lived at home with her mother, these guys wanted to meet with this “girl” in person. Two of these Three guys were identified by the police and law enforcement officers took over from there.
One of the biggest tactics online predators are using is blackmail. I have heard this directly from several different people.
There is a girl that is local to me. She was homeschooled and an all-around great girl. She was scrolling through social media one day and got a message from this guy who she thought was cute.
This girl is a Christian, but she never really felt accepted in her youth ministry…she especially was never noticed by any guys, so when this guy noticed her online and she saw he was cute. She started talking to him. She was cautious, because she had heard the stories.
They chatted every day at a specific time when nobody was home, and it became their thing. She got to know him and really felt a connection to him and then he asked her for an inappropriate photo. She was shocked, but sent a photo anyway, because she didn’t want to say no and not talk to this guy again.
That one photo turned into blackmail. He began to tell her that she needed to send him more photos and videos or he was going to send her parents the first photo that she sent. He told her that he knew where she lived and recited her home address to her. By the way, it is not hard for people to get your home address if they know what they are doing online. She didn’t know how he got her home address, but she felt stuck. It wasn’t until one day that the FBI came knocking at her door telling her parents that their daughter was a victim of online sexual exploitation.Ladies, check your emails this week for updates on the New UncommonTEEN App!!
To ask your Ask Me Anything Questions or if you need prayer, head on over to UncommonTEEN.com.
For the Ask Me Anything Questions, click on the RED BUTTON at the top of the screen. These questions may used on a future episode of the UncommonTEEN Podcast!
For any prayer requests or more personal questions, click on the YELLOW CHAT TAB at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. These will not be used on the podcast unless you say you would like it to be used.Connect with Us!
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Anxiety…I remember being in this place…my heart began beating fast. It felt like there was a 1,000 pound elephant on my chest and I couldn’t breathe. I remember one time, and this was just earlier this year, I was in a crowd where I knew about 95% of the people there. In this crowd, we were asked to find someone and go talk to them. Not a big deal right? Wrong! I started to feel anxiety come on me, I started to listen to all of those negative thoughts going through my head like “who would want to talk to you?” “what would you even say?” “you’re going to be alone.” And I began to panic. I excused myself from the crowd, went into the restroom fighting tears and asked God for help.
As a teen, I remember lying awake at night, thinking about (or really I should say worrying about) anything and everything. It would literally take me hours to fall asleep, because I couldn’t shut off my brain. It always felt like something was about to happen, danger was going to hit, but I didn’t know where or when or how.
I was so bad, that if a friend didn’t call or show up when she was supposed to, I would automatically think the worst…and I didn’t know how to stop it! I even remember one time, interviewing for a job. I had my hands on my lap under the table and because of the anxiety I felt, I didn’t even realize I was doing this at the time, but I was scratching my hands with my fingernails. When I got up to leave, I’m thankful the person didn’t want to shake my hand, because my hands were starting to bleed from all the scratching.
Maybe you can relate. Maybe you have been right where I was. I recently read an article about the state of mental health in teens from in the United States and I wish I could say that what I read surprised me, but it didn’t. The article stated that anxiety, depression and hopelessness among teens in the United States is getting worse, not better.
If you are anything like I was, I tried everything and anything to get over anxiety, but nothing seemed to work. I thought that the only way things would change is if my circumstances would change, but that didn’t help either. It felt like a losing battle. But one thing I learned was that anxiety doesn’t just go away because our circumstances change.
Anxiety goes away when we learn how to conquer it once and for all!!Ladies, check your emails this week for updates on the New UncommonTEEN App!!
To ask your Ask Me Anything Questions or if you need prayer, head on over to UncommonTEEN.com.
For the Ask Me Anything Questions, click on the RED BUTTON at the top of the screen. These questions may used on a future episode of the UncommonTEEN Podcast!
For any prayer requests or more personal questions, click on the YELLOW CHAT TAB at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. These will not be used on the podcast unless you say you would like it to be used.Connect with Us!
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Recently, one of you wrote in letting me know you got water baptized! Woohoo!! I’m so excited for you! Then, some questions came up about water baptism, so I thought this would be a great time to talk about it!
This was an area of my life where I was so confused. To a lot of churches, water baptism has become a ritual…something that they do, but the people who are getting baptized have no idea why. That was the story of my life. The first time I was baptized was when I was 8 years old. My grandma belonged to a church that I went to with her on occasion. At this church, which was not a Christian church, everyone at the age of 8 was to go through indoctrination classes and get baptized at the end of the classes. I will be completely honest, I had no idea what they were teaching me and any time I asked questions, I got in trouble…so, I just went along with what they were saying and at 8 years old, I was baptized. I didn’t know why I was getting baptized; I just knew that I was supposed to according to the people at this church. I wasn’t even a Christian at the time!Fast forward to my senior year of high school and I come to know Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I guess I didn’t tell my friends this, because with the denomination that we were going to, they believed that you had to be baptized in order to be saved. Well, I was baptized when I was 8, so that counts, right? Well, in college, I was a part of a Christian organization. I was actually a leader in this organization on campus and I kept hearing over and over again that in order to get saved I was supposed to be baptized. I began to question my salvation, because even though I was baptized when I was 8, that was before I made Jesus my Lord and Savior. I began to ask the director of the Christian organization about whether or not he thought I should be baptized, and his response was to kick me off of the leadership team, because I wasn’t “saved!” Yikes!
Shortly after all of this, I met my husband, we got married, moved to TN and started going to the church that we go to today. This was the first time that baptism was actually taught to me in a way that made sense! I learned that you didn’t need to get baptized in order to get saved, but it is very important, because it is the first commandment Jesus gave us. We’ll talk more about this in a bit. Shortly after going to our then new church, we got involved in youth ministry. The more I learned about baptism, the more I knew I should get baptized again, but my pride was holding me back. I began to think, well, if I get baptized now, people will think I wasn’t saved before. I can’t do that. That was purely pride talking! It wasn’t until I was on one of our mission trips to Jamaica that I decided that I was going to get baptized, and I was going to declare to the world what Jesus did on the inside of me, so in the Caribbean Sea in Montego Bay, Jamaica, I was baptized, and I am so grateful a
Ladies, check your emails this week for updates on the New UncommonTEEN App!!
To ask your Ask Me Anything Questions or if you need prayer, head on over to UncommonTEEN.com.
For the Ask Me Anything Questions, click on the RED BUTTON at the top of the screen. These questions may used on a future episode of the UncommonTEEN Podcast!
For any prayer requests or more personal questions, click on the YELLOW CHAT TAB at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. These will not be used on the podcast unless you say you would like it to be used.Connect with Us!
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We’ve heard it before, maybe many times…God loves you! For many of us, we grew up singing the song, “Jesus loves me!” and we were so excited…which we should be! I mean praise God for His love. But Just because we’ve heard it, just because we’ve sang the song a million times, doesn’t mean that we really know it. It doesn’t mean that we really understand it. And it doesn’t mean that we actually believe that God loves us.
I didn’t grow up in a Christian home. My dad was physically, mentally, and verbally abusive. I did go to Vacation Bible School in the summertime, and I heard all about God’s love, but for me, there was a disconnect. I couldn’t understand what love was, because I never actually saw love. I was never actually told by either of my parents that they loved me. I didn’t receive hugs. I didn’t feel loved at all. I didn’t feel accepted. I often felt like I was a mistake, that I was here by accident.
You might be listening to this feeling the same way. On the outside, you pretend to have it all together, but on the inside you’re falling apart. Maybe your story isn’t as crazy as mine or maybe your story is crazier. No matter where you feel like you’re at, you’ve been asking yourself, what’s the point of being here?
Or maybe you aren’t, which I pray is the case, but I can almost guarantee someone you’re close to is feeling this way.
God loves you so much more than you even realize. This is not the Sunday-school Jesus loves you kind of love…this love is so real. It’s a love that’s not based on condition. If you mess up, He isn’t going to love you any less than He already loves you. He loves you…period!
Ladies, check your emails this week for updates on the New UncommonTEEN App!!
To ask your Ask Me Anything Questions or if you need prayer, head on over to UncommonTEEN.com.
For the Ask Me Anything Questions, click on the RED BUTTON at the top of the screen. These questions may used on a future episode of the UncommonTEEN Podcast!
For any prayer requests or more personal questions, click on the YELLOW CHAT TAB at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. These will not be used on the podcast unless you say you would like it to be used.Connect with Us!
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God doesn’t cause bad things to happen, neither does he allow them to happen.
We may ask ourselves: what if someone close to me dies and they were believing for healing? This happened to me just recently. A good friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer about a year and a half ago. Their family was believing for healing, she was believing for healing but ended up passing away. It seemed like God didn’t heal her. However, what we didn’t know was that my friend had given up fighting. She was tired of fighting when she knew she could be made free in heaven.
Ask God if there is something that you're missing. He will show you!
Think about Job, why did all of that bad stuff happen to Job? He had allowed fear to control his life, which opened the door to the enemy to be able to work in his life.
Think about the woman with the issue of blood. She needed a mindset shift in order to receive God's healing. She was in a place where she continually expected bad things to happen. She had to shift that and begin to speak life over herself.God is constantly showering blessings down upon you. Picture an umbrella and under that umbrella is all of God’s blessings that He has for you.
Is there an area of your life keeping you from stepping under that umbrella? For example, do you need to dig into the Bible concerning a topic, because you really don't know what it says?
Is there someone that is causing you pain and you need to forgive them?
Is there a secret sin that you are struggling with and you haven't told anyone in order to get help to overcome?
Is there pride in some area of your life or vanity? Maybe feeling less about yourself than what God says about you?
Is it doubt that what you are believing for will actually happen?
Ask God to reveal to you if there's something in your life that is holding you back from stepping into those blessings.
Maybe it’s pride. I don’t know. Ask God to reveal to you your blind spots. Things that maybe you can’t see but are holding you back.Mark 11:22-24 says, "And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."
God is on your side! He is not against you!Ladies, check your emails this week for updates on the New UncommonTEEN App!!
To ask your Ask Me Anything Questions or if you need prayer, head on over to UncommonTEEN.com.
For the Ask Me Anything Questions, click on the RED BUTTON at the top of the screen. These questions may used on a future episode of the UncommonTEEN Podcast!
For any prayer requests or more personal questions, click on the YELLOW CHAT TAB at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. These will not be used on the podcast unless you say you would like it to be used.Connect with Us!
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AMA: I’m a junior in high school, but only just turned 16, which means I’ll move out to start college when I’m 17, and I still don’t know where God wants me. I’ve prayed for guidance and trust, but I just don’t quite know how to get through high school with so much ungodly anxiety.
I wanted to answer this question, because we are walking through this exact thing right now ourselves. I have a 17 year old daughter who is in her senior year of high school (grade 12) and a 15 year old son who is a junior (grade 11).
To share a little bit about our story, my daughter started taking dual enrollment classes during her 11th grade year in high school. For those of you who don’t know what those are, that’s when you take college courses in high school, but they count both toward your high school courses and your college courses. She was sure she knew exactly what God wanted her to do in life. Fast forward to this year and she came to grips with the thought of…what if this isn’t what God wants me to do with my life? What if I’m wrong.
Girls, whew, this culture puts so much pressure on teens to have their whole life figured out. I feel like many times, we rush God’s plans, because of this pressure. It’s tough…you have only a short period of time to figure out your whole life when a lot of adults don’t even know what they want to do with their life.
Check out this week's episode to learn how to listen to and be led by the Holy Spirit!Ladies, check your emails this week for updates on the New UncommonTEEN App!!
To ask your Ask Me Anything Questions or if you need prayer, head on over to UncommonTEEN.com.
For the Ask Me Anything Questions, click on the RED BUTTON at the top of the screen. These questions may used on a future episode of the UncommonTEEN Podcast!
For any prayer requests or more personal questions, click on the YELLOW CHAT TAB at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. These will not be used on the podcast unless you say you would like it to be used.Connect with Us!
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Have you ever felt like God wasn't answering your prayers? Like, He's just not listening?
I have had several of you girls write into me lately saying that you don't feel like God is answering your prayers and it's making you question your faith.
Today, we’re going to talk about Hannah. We can find her story in 1 Samuel chapter 1. Hannah walked through some pretty big challenges. She doesn't feel like God is answering her prayers, so she gives into the challenges, starts to let them take her down and then something happened.
Check out this week's podcast episode to learn what Hannah did and what you can do to see real results with your prayers.Ladies, check your emails this week for updates on the New UncommonTEEN App!!
To ask your Ask Me Anything Questions or if you need prayer, head on over to UncommonTEEN.com.
For the Ask Me Anything Questions, click on the RED BUTTON at the top of the screen. These questions may used on a future episode of the UncommonTEEN Podcast!
For any prayer requests or more personal questions, click on the YELLOW CHAT TAB at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. These will not be used on the podcast unless you say you would like it to be used.Connect with Us!
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This week on the UncommonTEEN Podcast, I get the honor of talking to Pastor Joshua Knudsen and his teen daughter Ariella.
Joshua has been a youth pastor for 15 years and for the past 3 years stepped into the role of generations and young adult pastor. He is passionate about seeing this generation become grounded in their faith knowing God personally so they can live out their faith boldly. The 418 revolution app is an extension to that! Don't know what that is! Check it out below!
Ariella, is also involved in their church. She is a teacher for the kid's classes, on the student leadership and worship team in her youth ministry, and she is on the production team on Sundays. Who says teen girls can't make an impact for Jesus?!?
Check out the 418 Revolution App here!
Check out the 418 Gear here!Ladies, check your emails this week for updates on the New UncommonTEEN App!!
To ask your Ask Me Anything Questions or if you need prayer, head on over to UncommonTEEN.com.
For the Ask Me Anything Questions, click on the RED BUTTON at the top of the screen. These questions may used on a future episode of the UncommonTEEN Podcast!
For any prayer requests or more personal questions, click on the YELLOW CHAT TAB at the bottom right hand corner of the screen. These will not be used on the podcast unless you say you would like it to be used.Connect with Us!
Website: UncommonTEEN.com
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