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BONUS: Same Sex Attraction with Brenna Blain
485 Plays4 years ago
Brenna Blain joins Phylicia to share her personal testimony of same sex attraction and how her faith in Christ interacts with it. We talk about how Christians can love and live well with SSA friends and family, how to respond to those who think acknowledging SSA means you don’t think Christ sanctifies/saves, and “hate the sin love the sinner”.
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Transcript
Introduction to Verity and Guest Brenna Blaine
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Verity. I'm your host, Felicia Masonheimer, an author, speaker, and Bible teacher. This podcast will help you embrace the history and depth of the Christian faith, ask questions, seek answers, and devote yourself to becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. You don't have to settle for watered-down Christian teaching. And if you're ready to go deeper, God is just as ready to take you there. This is Verity, where every woman is a theologian.
00:00:30
Speaker
Well, hi friends Felicia Masonheimer here and tonight I am so thrilled to be inviting on Brenna Blaine who if you've been following her on Instagram for any amount of time, you know, as she goes by the handle at butt on my head, but it's Brenna Blaine. That's her name.
00:00:49
Speaker
She has a podcast and she has her social media presence and I have just been so blessed by getting to know her over the last couple of months. I was on her podcast and tonight we have the privilege of hearing her testimony and then hearing a little bit of what she has to say about sexuality and living as a Christian who is also a sexual being created by God. So we're going to be waiting for her to join in. Oh, here she is and we're going to get started.
Brenna's Personal Growth Journey During Quarantine
00:01:19
Speaker
Hi, Brenna. Hi, how's it going? Good. How are you doing? Good. This is so great. Thanks for doing this with me. Yeah, thanks for inviting me. I'm excited. I'm a little nervous, but I'm pretty excited. Awesome. I was thinking of you today when I was prepping for our little tap talk, and I didn't put this in the questions that we were going to discuss, but I
00:01:44
Speaker
thought I have to ask her, what made you cut your hair into a picky cut? So I had always wanted to shave my head. And like something I did growing up is that my dad would take me on like daddy daughter dates to go see motorcycles. And so that's probably I have like, I don't know, I'm covered in tattoos. Most people don't see that but covered in tattoos. And so it was
00:02:14
Speaker
Over a year ago, it was like February 20th, I had kept cutting my own bangs and they looked really bad. And so I called my mom and I was like, will you come over and shave my head? So I actually shaved it. Oh my goodness. So it's just been, this is the grow out process so far, so. Okay. And you were just like, I just want to try it. Yeah, it was a bucket list item and I'm really glad I love shaving it, but I'm glad that
00:02:42
Speaker
I had the grow up process mostly through quarantine because there are some days when you're like, I can't do anything with this.
00:02:50
Speaker
It's true. I was just thinking of you because I put my hair off when I broke my leg. I had a bob and I had one hair before that, but I couldn't do my hair with a broken leg. And so I was like, I have always wanted a pixie cut. I was never brave enough to do it. Can't do my hair anymore. So I'm just going to do it. And so I feel like everybody's pixie cut story is different. Well, obviously we didn't invite you on here to talk about pixie cuts. Although that is super,
00:03:19
Speaker
super fun.
Brenna's Background in Faith and Family
00:03:21
Speaker
I gave a slight little intro about you to my audience who's joining us tonight, but I would love if you could introduce yourself, your family, and a little bit of what you do before we get into our questions. Okay, so I'm Brenna Blaine, and I am a Christian speaker and teacher. I ended up going to Multnomah University in Portland, Oregon to get my degree in biblical studies and theology, and I finished
00:03:50
Speaker
see the end of summer 2020. And so that was exciting. I was kind of happy I didn't have to walk at graduation. I am married. My husband's name is Austin. He's three years older than me. We met at church when I was 14. We didn't talk for about four or five years till after that, then we started talking.
00:04:09
Speaker
And then I have a son named Rudy. He's two and a half years old. And then we have a second on the way who we decided to name Rory because we wanted to make it confusing for everyone. And so I'm due in at the end of August. So it'll be nice and big for summer and nice and sweaty and not really looking forward to that, but excited to have two boys. Awesome. Awesome. Congratulations. That's so exciting.
00:04:39
Speaker
So I think as we're talking and going over the questions tonight, a lot of these questions go back to your personal testimony. And you have your testimony right on your Instagram. But can you give us a little bit of a summary of your story before we dive into the theology and the biblical backup for what we're going to talk about?
00:05:05
Speaker
Yeah, so I grew up in a Christian home. My dad was actually a pastor for the first couple years of my life. And so I was in the church my entire life. I knew the Bible. I knew who God was. Although I don't think I had a personal relationship with him. I just knew the attributes of God and who Jesus was.
00:05:26
Speaker
And just kind of went along with that. And then when I was nine years old, my grandma, who was a huge real presence of who God is, like someone who loved God well because she also loved other people well. And so she lived what she preached, but she also talked about what she preached. She died from cancer. And that was like really heartbreaking for me, especially because, you know, I'd spent all those years praying for healing and so on. So that was,
00:05:56
Speaker
That was in August. And then a few months later, my parents sat me and my siblings down and said we're getting separated. And I had no idea why
Struggles with Faith and Personal Trauma
00:06:05
Speaker
at the time. And my dad was moving out of the house and I was really, really close with my dad. And so that was really heartbreaking. And then a few months after that, I ended up being molested by basically a total stranger that coached one of my youth sports events. And so.
00:06:22
Speaker
My parents, they didn't find out about that at the time. And so at a really young age, I was going, okay, all these people say God is good and God is with us. And I have all these terrible things that have happened to me at such a young age. And like now, so I was like going to church and they'd be like, well,
00:06:40
Speaker
God still loves you and cares for you even if you lie to your parents and I'm like sure sometimes I lie to my parents but like I was abused and I didn't even have the language to say that and so for me there was this huge disconnect that was like okay if God is good why would all these terrible things happen but also even if he is good through that how come no one's talking to me about that and so by the time I was 14
00:07:05
Speaker
I really realized two really kind of shocking things. And the first was that I was attracted to, or I am attracted to women and someone as growing up as someone in the conservative, theologically conservative side of the church. I was like, wow, I'm damned to hell. Like that's my life. And I also realized like, I can't trust men.
00:07:32
Speaker
because I had this difficult relationship with my dad that felt really broken, at least on my side of things. I think my dad was pretty unaware that I felt that way, and I know that my dad would have made an effort to fix things if he knew, but he didn't know. And I obviously didn't trust men because I was taken advantage of and was abused by men.
00:07:56
Speaker
It's really important for me that I clarify that I don't believe being abused caused me to be same-sex attracted, but it did make things more difficult for me when going. Is being with man ever going to be an option for me? At 14, I was like, okay, I don't think so. I was really depressed, my self-harming, my parents were really active, and my parents actually ended up staying married,
00:08:23
Speaker
a beautiful story of redemption in itself but I was you know I didn't recognize that back then but um so they put me into counseling and a few I had a really unique upbringing because I did theater my mom started a Christian theater program
00:08:39
Speaker
And you, but you didn't have to be a Christian to be in it. And so I knew a lot of people in the LGBTQ community. And then I had a lot of friends who were maybe some stay progressive and some say open-minded, but I had friends where I was like, I could talk to them about this. So I shared with a few close friends for me because I couldn't date at 14. I was like, okay, I don't think I'm going to come out to my parents now, but my options are like.
00:09:04
Speaker
I, for me, I was like, I'm
Reconciling Faith with Identity
00:09:06
Speaker
already going to hell. So am I going to go to hell doing what I want to do, or am I going to try and explore this, these faith questions more? And so when I was 15, I'd been going to youth group pretty faithfully and I was still really just interested in God and faith altogether, but I felt just cared for and had friends there. And someone at my church found my Tumblr.
00:09:30
Speaker
And if you don't know what a tumbler is, it's a blog, you retweet or you repost pictures most of the time. And mine was very obvious that I was same sex attracted. So someone from my church found it, shared it with my small group leader who shared it with my youth pastor. And she told me that she did that and I was so scared and nervous and like I prepared going to youth group that night being like, I'm going to get asked to leave or I'm going to get kicked out. I'm going to be told like, this is wrong and all these things.
00:10:00
Speaker
And I remember my youth, Pastor John, just said, hey Brenna, you're not alone. You are not the only Christian that struggles with same-sex attraction, like lots of Christians do. And you need to know that you're welcome here. Like that's all he said. And for me, when I think about that conversation, like if he would have told me what their church as a whole believed, which was a conservative view,
00:10:26
Speaker
which is ultimately what I believe now, I think I would have left. I really do. I think I would have just left. And so for him to say, like, we care for you, and we see you, and we want to meet you where you're at, that was huge for me. Even if, you know, I didn't, I still didn't tell people after that, like, he didn't threaten to tell my parents, which was huge for me. So this was still like a secret that I had. But I was like, okay, I feel like it can still come.
00:10:53
Speaker
which was interest, I mean, not interesting, it's God's providence. And like later, a year later, they did a sermon series about the question was like, is being gay a sin? And the guy speaking talked about the difference between temptation and action, which I'd never heard before. It's for me, like, like I said the entire time, I was just like, I am attracted to women, therefore I am sinning and I'm going to hell. Like that's it.
00:11:22
Speaker
And I prayed multiple times like, Lord, would you take this away from me? And it just like never happened. And so when he was speaking and saying like, even Jesus was tempted, but because Jesus is good and because Jesus died on the cross and sent the Holy Spirit, not only like the Bible isn't calling gay people to be straight, but I think Jackie Hill Perry says it so beautifully that
00:11:48
Speaker
God is calling us to himself and God gives us a way to live in radical obedience. So then for me, the question became, okay, do I live this life that society is telling me will make me happy or do I live this life that my faith is calling me to? And it wasn't for about a year after that, that I was finally like, okay, I want to step into this, this life of
00:12:17
Speaker
My thing was, okay, maybe I'll never get married. Maybe I'll be alone for the rest of my life. But I think if God is calling me through this, I think I at least need to try it. And I remember just this overwhelming sense of peace. And so a lot of people, I mean, I said earlier, I'm married, I'm married to a man. And so my view of marriage changed as I got older and a lot of, well, basically just that changed for me. But as I grew closer to God and got to know God more,
00:12:47
Speaker
this life of same-sex attraction and wrestling with it became something that I was more willing to talk about publicly. And so right before my husband and I got engaged, right around that time, we had that conversation. He was super supportive. And then right after that, I told my parents, because I was like, I feel like so many Christians struggle with this, but they just hear
00:13:12
Speaker
you know, the super conservative side or the super progressive side, right? Yeah, the nuance. And so I was like, man, I feel like I need to start talking about this more publicly.
The Role of Confession and Community in Faith
00:13:22
Speaker
And so I guess that's kind of why we're here. And yeah, I'm not now. So, wow, thank you so much for sharing that. Because I think
00:13:33
Speaker
Your story just points out the problem with that super conservative or super progressive. Like, the only 2 angles that we hear, I think, especially in the conservative church, and correct me if I'm wrong, but this is what I've seen. There's this sense of urgency that they need to know.
00:13:50
Speaker
that this is a sin. It's so urgent that we make sure they know it's a sin, but as you said, like you shared what was going on internally with you, you already knew all the facts from that, from the conservative church, and you were searching for what your youth pastor did, which was to say, I see you and I love you. And I think that's so interesting because it transcends all sexual struggles, I think, because when I was
00:14:18
Speaker
12, 13, 14 and struggling with a sexual addiction of a different kind or sexual issue of a different kind. That was something that I think would have actually caused me to struggle much, not as long. I wouldn't have gone so many years hiding it if someone had been, I'd felt comfortable to say, you know, I'm struggling and they had said,
00:14:44
Speaker
other people struggle too and we're going to be here with you as you do this. So I just, wow, what an example. Um, I just love hearing that in your story. Okay. So my first question for you, obviously you had some really great people in your life throughout this, your testimony throughout your story and still do, but at any point did you think or feel
00:15:08
Speaker
that you were done with Christianity because of your attraction based on either how you were treated or even based on what scripture says. Yeah, it's interesting. I was talking to my mom about this question.
00:15:21
Speaker
I think even it wasn't that I like understood scripture really clearly as a young person but I with scripture for me I saw and heard people talk about bearing your cross and dying to yourself. So I was like okay well this is a hard thing but if you're gonna follow Jesus, Jesus is things that he calls you to do difficult things. So I think the scripture part
00:15:49
Speaker
hadn't ever been like a huge issue for me. What was an issue was not how I was treated because I never came out until I was married and had a different story, but it was how other people were treated. And that was, that was hard. I think when I was young, the Westboro Baptist thing was really prominent and just really heartbreaking.
00:16:15
Speaker
and then again just no conversations that held any room for nuance and so just seeing people being asked to leave their churches or people not feeling welcome and then other people going well they're they are welcome but then not leaving really any room not showing hospitality and so i think for me it was like you know i never wrestled with like if i came out all my parents gonna kick me out because my parents were super loving and never talked
00:16:45
Speaker
poorly about people in the LGBTQ community. I knew what my parents believed, but they weren't hateful. And that was significant for me, but I think there were, you know, even now I think about sometimes I'll get DMs from people who are like, you're going to hell repent. And I'm like, whoa, I think you just saw maybe like what the title of a video and like, didn't even read it. And knowing that.
00:17:13
Speaker
You know, I have a different story, but people who have a more progressive view have to deal with that, with those conversations that don't, don't lead out of love is really, really heartbreaking. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for pointing
Navigating Faith and Same-Sex Attraction
00:17:29
Speaker
that out. Cause I know it's again, it goes back to that. Like so many Christians, I think have that urgency to correct.
00:17:39
Speaker
When I think this happens in so many arenas that we as Christians are talking about, I have to correct you. I have to get you on the right path. And we start forgetting that the Holy Spirit is always at work.
00:17:52
Speaker
in people's lives, right? And we try to like, I'm the Holy Spirit. They need to know right now. And it's like, well, you know, yes, the Lord may have you speak up about something, but the Holy Spirit will be the one to tell you and give you the words, right? So maybe wait a minute and don't just go message Brenna off the top title of one of her videos.
00:18:18
Speaker
Okay, so how about this question? How do you respond to people who say that acknowledging same-sex attraction is not a low in Christ to fully sanctify you and your desires? That's a really good question. I do definitely believe that there are people who, not just with same-sex attraction, but any struggle, any sin in their life
00:18:48
Speaker
have prayed for God to take those things away and that that has happened for them. But my question would be to those people, and I think I've done it, you know, I've done it myself in my own life would be, am I, am I putting more barriers around what God requires of us when it comes to salvation?
00:19:11
Speaker
And something that made it really clear for me was just reading through the New Testament and seeing like followers, like Jesus's disciples who physically walked with Jesus and Jesus could have turned at any moment and said like, Peter, I'm going to take your doubt away from you. Or even like later on with Paul, the thorn in his side, I'm going to take this from you. Um, you know, why didn't Jesus do that?
00:19:38
Speaker
And so I don't believe that there is scripture that calls gay people to be straight, but I do believe that, you know, we live in a broken world with evil and God doesn't cause evil, but because God is good, he can work through struggles and work through evil and work through sin. And so for me in my own life, I go, yeah, like I've prayed that God would take this away. And if he wants to, he can do that. He can do that now. He can do that later.
00:20:08
Speaker
But does this stop me from being saved? I don't think so. And does God, have I learned more about who God is because I struggle with this? I think yes. And you know, something that maybe not a lot of people know about me is like, I have bipolar disorder. So I get that same question a lot with that as people are like,
00:20:31
Speaker
We talk so openly about your mental health, but do you pray that you're healed? And I'm like, yeah, I do all the time. And I will be healed when I see Jesus face to face. You might do that earlier for me, but does this stop me from living a life chasing after Christ? Does this stop me from being saved? I don't believe so. And I think it enables me to
00:20:58
Speaker
trust God and have something that I have to wake up every day and say like, I have to be dependent on God for this to get me through this, to work through this, to sustain me. And for me, even though same-sex attraction is still a struggle, it's also a really, it's a beautiful struggle that I get to commune with God through, and I get to know who God is better because of it.
00:21:28
Speaker
Wow, that's powerful. I think, you know, what you just said is so palatable for someone when they're talking about anger, right? Like if we're talking about, um, I don't even know laziness, like, I think commune with God, even if I am struggling with laziness or anger or whatever, the things that we see as more okay things, you know,
00:21:56
Speaker
And the reality is every single evidence of the broken world that we are facing.
00:22:03
Speaker
is an opportunity for us to commune with the Lord and be drawn damn through that struggle or be pushed away, drawn away by that struggle. And I think that was like, I just loved how you answered that. Can I ask you off of that, can you tell us a little bit of like what that communing looks like or if you have any spiritual disciplines that you practice?
00:22:29
Speaker
that help you to walk with the Lord through either mental illness, same sex attraction, or whatever else, frustration, anger, anything. Well, confession is huge. It's huge. I know someone the other day messaged me and they're like,
00:22:48
Speaker
I think that you don't know that you're Catholic.
The Importance of Spiritual Disciplines
00:22:51
Speaker
And I'm like, maybe, I don't know. But practicing confession has been such a freeing thing. And I have a mentor who has walked with me since I was 13. So 13 years now, almost. And that has been huge for me. But the fact that I'm able to text her and not
00:23:13
Speaker
like fall into a place of shame and say hey like I'm really struggling with this lately or hey this happened and this is how it made me feel and this is what I want but I know this isn't right or whatever has been really really helpful and then I also I remember when I um
00:23:32
Speaker
when Austin and I got engaged and he told me this story about this guy who was out of town for work and he went to the hotel bar and the lady left her room card for him and he like wanted to go and but instead of going he went up to his room and called his wife and said this just happened um would you just can you just talk to me can we just talk on the phone and when Austin told me that story that was like
00:23:59
Speaker
huge for me because all of a sudden I was like, I can talk to him about this stuff. Like I don't have to hide it from him. And like he's, he's so understanding. I think it's so true when we talk about like the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. This idea of so many things that fester in our heart when we don't speak them out loud and
00:24:24
Speaker
Yes, we have that communion with God, but God also called us to have that confession with people in our lives. And I think God has so beautifully used people in my life through that. And then out of that, it creates accountability, right? And so I have people, both my husband and my mentor, who text me regularly and who ask me questions regularly. And so that's the biggest one. I think the other one is just,
00:24:54
Speaker
just prayer and journaling has been really big, especially because there's just something about like being able to sit down and just talk to God and be like, yeah, this is what I'm struggling with. And this is what I feel, but how do you feel about this? And what can you tell me about this? And going both to scripture, but then also like hearing God and spending time with God is so
00:25:22
Speaker
fulfilling. It's such a hard practice to do regularly. I'm guilty of not doing it well. But yeah, I think just this wide idea of not giving in to shame and not giving in to darkness and being able to speak these things out loud and say like, I struggle with this. I know that people struggle with this. God, what can you tell me in this moment? What truth can you give me in this moment? And so, um,
00:25:50
Speaker
Those are the two biggest things.
00:25:52
Speaker
That's so great. I'm so happy to see many Christians actually going back to some of the spiritual disciplines that I think have been considered Catholic, or like contemplative up till now, when a lot of them are simply Christian, and they maybe had different names, you know, throughout church history, but are so helpful to us that, yeah, it's interesting, even James, I think it's James who says, confess your sins to one another, maybe healed.
00:26:20
Speaker
It's not just physical healing that comes through that. It's that inner healing that comes being able to say to someone, I don't have to carry this burden alone. I don't have to carry the weight of my sin. Sometimes it's not even sin. It's just a grief or something you're going through that you can confess.
00:26:42
Speaker
was at my own Bible study this last Saturday.
Building Inclusive Church Communities
00:26:46
Speaker
I did not plan to confess something that had been weighing on my heart, but they prayed for me for 20 minutes and it was just such a weight lifted. It's just so beautiful because when we neglect those spiritual disciplines and inviting people into our struggles, we miss out on one of the biggest
00:27:05
Speaker
blessings of the church you know okay that's i could talk with you about that for quite a bit because we could probably go down a rabbit hole yeah confession for sure but i have one more question for you and i want you to highlight kind of where everyone can find you because i can see for the comments that people are so excited to follow you
00:27:26
Speaker
and hear more of what you have to say. So here's my question. I often hear that hate the sin, love the sinner is how we should go about these conversations. But this usually works out to be more hateful or at least more hateful in tone than it sounds loving.
00:27:46
Speaker
So how can we genuinely show love to Christians who are same sex attracted, well, and non-Christians too, who are same sex attracted, especially family members? Yeah, all right. When I was thinking about this and thinking about being young, being struggling with it then, something that comes to mind that I think is easy, but
00:28:12
Speaker
It's very practical, but odd is a language of inclusion. And I know that sometimes saying that it's like, oh, that's super PC, like inclusive language. But this is what I mean by that. When I was in youth group.
00:28:30
Speaker
whenever we would talk about addiction or lying or any of these sins when we had small groups, the conversations were always like, how have you struggled with these things? It was very inclusive, right? So anyone in a small group could deal with addiction or could deal with lying or whatever it was. But when it was conversations around
00:28:52
Speaker
Intimacy or romance or sexual attraction. It was always like, because I was an all-girls small group, it was always, well, what boys do you like? Or how do you struggle sexually but just like towards the opposite sex? And for me,
00:29:08
Speaker
I think if someone would have made it a more inclusive conversation because I knew where that church stood like it wasn't a question of where they were theologically. I think that I would have in my brain like if they would have said art like who are you attracted to or like what do you struggle with whether it's the same sex or the opposite sex to me I would have gone oh my gosh they're attempting to see me where I'm at.
00:29:33
Speaker
Gotcha. And so I feel like when we have conversations with people, like allowing Christians to have sin sex attraction is like a huge, it's a huge door that you're opening up because a lot of people just never like, yeah, it's just, it's never a question, right? You go to Thanksgiving and your family's like, what boys are you dating? And you're like, none.
00:30:01
Speaker
I think when you have more inclusive language, no matter where you fall on the theological spectrum, it just allows people to feel seen where they're at and then have those conversations more candidly and be able to say, oh, well, for me, I think I would have said, well, I think I'm attracted to women. It would have been scary to say.
00:30:24
Speaker
but then I also would have had a place to talk about it. And I think as parents, right, we always like, for me, I'm like, I want my boys to hear about porn from me for the first time because I don't want the school to inform them and I don't want their friends to inform them.
00:30:38
Speaker
But I feel like I know the truth about sexuality, then I want to be able to be the one who presents that to them first and have those healthy conversations.
Fostering Trust and Meaningful Conversations
00:30:47
Speaker
And if the church wants to do that, then I think, or Christian, then I think we have to like be proactive about it and make it a possibility. And so.
00:30:58
Speaker
There's that I think also being willing to listen to people, you know, I have a friend who's gay, who was on my podcast, it's like the second episode to like almost two years ago. And just talking to him because his parents are pastors actually at the church that I used to be on staff at. And just hearing, you know what he looks because he has an affirming view, and I have a non affirming view. And we just talked about
00:31:24
Speaker
Well, how can we love each other well, even when we disagree? Like, let's just say we are always going to disagree on this. Just hearing how he would talk about like, you don't have to always like bring up the fact that you think I'm wrong. And so I think when someone seems like they're attracted, whether they're trying to live by conservative theological view, progressive theological view, being willing to say, hey, how are you doing? How's your heart? Like, have those conversations that you would have with someone who's single.
00:31:54
Speaker
without saying like, well, you know, I don't believe that, or this is where I fall. You don't have to say that every single time you have that conversation. You can just genuinely care and check in with someone. And I found in my own life, people are more willing to ask me why I believe what I believe after I've had several conversations that have nothing to do with what I believe. Right. You've built trust with them.
00:32:25
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I think for those of you who are coming in, make sure you go back and listen to the whole interview with Brenna so you can get context on everything that she's saying and her story.
00:32:38
Speaker
I just, I love this you bring up that this isn't, I think there's always that anxiousness over endorsement. Like I don't want to say something that seems like I'm endorsing. And I think when you look at this as I'm walking side by side with these people in my life, all different people, right?
Closing Remarks and Ways to Connect with Brenna
00:33:02
Speaker
Then it's not, some of that urgency is removed because you will speak
00:33:07
Speaker
about, like, have these conversations, like you mentioned, you know, maybe a few visits in about the, about what you believe and things like that, as trust is being built and life is being lived alongside people. It doesn't mean you're never speaking up the truth, right? We're never talking about what scripture says about sexuality, but you are doing that in the context of a relationship and following the Holy Spirit's leading on your words. And it's that like holistic picture
00:33:37
Speaker
that I just feel like so often today we either have truth with zero grace and love and patience, or we have grace with zero truth about what sin is doing to our lives. And it's like, well, you know, God wants you to be happy. And it's like, well, he knows what your happiness will be, how it will be best accomplished. So I appreciate that.
00:34:06
Speaker
Um, that you have been so vulnerable with us and, and shared all of this with us, Brenna. Thank you. Yeah. Can I ask you where people can follow you and find you and learn more about what you're doing? Yeah. So I do almost everything on Instagram, like about people these days and my handle or tag or whatever it's called. And I don't know is at bun on my head.
00:34:36
Speaker
All one word, all lowercase. I used to wear my hair in the messy bun for like all of high school. So that's the nickname I got. And it just, I can't change it. Even though you have no bun anymore. Right. Right. It's irrelevant now, but yeah, you can find me there. I try to do like devotional videos there. And then if I speak, I'll share clips of that on there. And then linked to that Instagram is my podcast.
00:35:03
Speaker
Um, that talks about difficult topics in conversations and then pretty much any time I'm speaking live anywhere that will also be. Presented on Instagram, so Instagram is the way to go awesome awesome. Well, I'm so excited that people can join you there for those of you who are watching this interview with.
00:35:24
Speaker
Brenna will be saved to my IGTV and the audio will be pulled to Verity Podcast, so you will have other options for sharing and listening. And eventually, once I get the transcript of our interview and the audio, it will be pulled to my blog as well. So thank you again, Brenna. I appreciate you taking the time to hang out with me tonight. Thank you so much for having me. It was a huge honor.
00:35:45
Speaker
I think all of us have been at a women's conference where we were told, you are a beautiful daughter of the Most High King. And it's true, but it's not the whole truth. The beauty of being God's daughter has some backstory and it's left out in a lot of messages preached to women.
00:36:04
Speaker
So if you're tired of hearing the watered down Christian teaching and you're hungry for a deeper spiritual life, I have something for you. It's my brand new book, Stop Calling Me Beautiful, Finding Soul Deep Strength in a Skin Deep World. Stop Calling Me Beautiful is a book about going deeper with God.
00:36:21
Speaker
I'm going to talk about pursuing the truths of who God is and who we are in relationship to Him, how to study scripture, how legalism, shallow theology, and false teaching keep us from living boldly as a woman of the Word. I'm so excited to put this book in your hands. You can grab your copy on Amazon or for more information head to my website FeliciaMasonheimer.com and click the book tab.
00:36:48
Speaker
Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Verity. You can connect with fellow listeners by following me on Instagram at Felicia Masonheimer or on our Facebook page by the same name. Also visit FeliciaMasonheimer.com for links to each episode and the show notes.