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Episode 13:  How Our Past Shapes Us but Doesn't Have to Define Us image

Episode 13: How Our Past Shapes Us but Doesn't Have to Define Us

S2 E13 · Rootlike Faith
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Mentioned in this episode:

Romans 8:14-17

Romans 5:5

I Peter 5:8

 

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This podcast is produced and edited by Angie Elkins Media, Inc. 

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Transcript

Introduction to Root Like Faith

00:00:02
Speaker
Hi, I'm Ruth Schwank and I'm so thrilled you're listening in with us at Root Like Faith. It's our deepest desire to encourage and equip men and women to be rooted in God's Word, transformed by the love of Jesus, and moved by His mission in the power of the Holy Spirit. Nothing is more important.

How the Past Shapes the Present and Future

00:00:19
Speaker
On today's episode of Root Like Faith, we'll examine how our past can shape who we are today. We'll talk about why it's so important to look back and allow God to heal us so that our past doesn't control our present or our future. This is going to be good. Let's get going.

Childhood Memories and Their Impact

00:00:41
Speaker
Okay, so we are talking about our past and the different ways our past can shape who we are. And I think, I mean, I just need to stay up front. Some, some things, there's some things from life that are funny from, you know, when we're younger that really shape who we are today. Honey, do you have anything funny that you can remember? Like from when you, well, you know, I mean, this is, this is how we roll. This is a conversation. So wait, so when, is there anything from,
00:01:08
Speaker
Oh, okay. I thought you asked me a question. Well, I did, but I wasn't done asking it. I'm getting mixed signals here, honey. What do you want from me? Right. So from when you were younger, is there anything, cause not, I want to start with the good here. Anything from your past, uh, that's like funny or good that kind of has shaped who you are today that you can think of. That, that is a, I mean, funny. I don't know. Like my sisters are going to be really upset at me for sharing this because I know they listen in. They're super fans, super listeners.
00:01:37
Speaker
Yeah, but I have a vivid memory of them putting pantyhose over their head and jumping out of my closet. Okay. And scaring me, like that, that. But how has that shaped your future? Well, because I'm just jumpy now. Like that was the beginning of a jumpy life. You know, I get spooked easily. But I don't know why that came to my mind. I mean, I do have all sorts of memories, you know, growing up that are really good and some that are not so good. I mean, one of my favorite memories
00:02:05
Speaker
When I was a kid is we had this big old chair We lived in Iowa at the time my dad was a church planter and pastor and he so he planted a church in Iowa And I remember in the basement if I if I'm remembering right it was in the basement of the house But there was this big chair kind of like a lazy boy chair and it looked like somebody had skinned an elephant And draped you know drape this this you know gray fabric over that that's always the image Okay
00:02:31
Speaker
Anyway, so he just had that sort of that look to it and my dad would sit in that chair and watch Monday Night Football. And as a kid, I would sit in his lap and I had this matchbox car and I would, you know, you know, take it and run it along his arms.
00:02:46
Speaker
you know, into his armpit or shoulder or whatever. And that was like one of my favorite memory. That's one of those memories I have of just being a son, you know, sitting on my dad's lap. And it didn't matter what was happening in the world, what was happening around us. I was like a, I was just, I was a son, you know, and just to sit on my dad's lap and to enjoy that. That's, that's a memory that I have that was really good. And I think, and very formative.
00:03:10
Speaker
But what about you? Let me turn the tables here. You and I are very different. You don't have a lot of memories.

Influence of Childhood Experiences on Adult Preferences

00:03:18
Speaker
I don't remember a lot from when I was younger. But I do like these are just kind of nuts. You know, they're just silly examples, I guess. But you know, like I think about the food that my mom used to make like pierogies.
00:03:30
Speaker
Oh, yeah. I love pierogies. We had pierogies all the time. And so that's something silly, but it really shapes what I like today. Or I think about, I started going to U of M football games when I was like two years old. And that really, I am a diehard Michigan football fan. Why have we not met Coach Harbaugh yet? I don't know. You have been going to games since you were two years old.
00:03:59
Speaker
You look for him. You look for him everywhere in Ann Arbor. Let's just be honest here. I'm looking for him. We've passed him on the road before. But anyways, not to not to hijack your your story. Well, well, there's not much more to tell except for that. You know, I just think it's interesting. We can see, of course, there's many more serious memories that, you know, we can see the things in our past that shape us for the good. But we also can see, you know, the things that maybe shape us for the bad.
00:04:29
Speaker
And that's, I think, what we kind of want to talk about

Healing from Past Hurts for Spiritual Growth

00:04:33
Speaker
today. Our past comes with hurt. Every single one of us, our past comes with hurt. And we see this in all different ways, whether it's with our parents, whether we had a bad relationship, a good relationship. One of the memories I have
00:04:49
Speaker
One of my only memories, I guess, from being younger is I remember my dad leaving to go to treatment. He was an alcoholic. And, you know, I guess, you know, it's just interesting to me that's like seared in my memory. Now, praise the Lord, he got sober and has been sober ever since.
00:05:10
Speaker
but there was a large part of my childhood where he was an alcoholic. And so, you know, it could be your parents. There was something, there's a memory there, something within your home, family dynamics. Maybe it was friendships or any other relationships. It could be like a boyfriend or a girlfriend or a marriage. I mean, really, there's so much from our past that really can affect our future that comes with a lot of hurt.
00:05:39
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's why we want to talk about that today is that as we think about growth, as we think about just being a disciple, a follower of Jesus, you really can't continue to grow and mature and become holy and righteous without revisiting your past. If you don't revisit your past, your past will revisit your future.
00:05:56
Speaker
And so there's so much, I think, that God wants to do in us that requires us going back to sometimes those early years. We don't want to. We don't want to. It can be painful. And so it's so important for us to go back and to revisit
00:06:12
Speaker
those parts of our past and to sometimes experience healing and forgiveness, sometimes to just have our memories sort of corrected, go, wait a minute, I don't know that I really remembered that. I didn't interpret that the right way. And so I think that journey into our past is so important when we think about just growing and maturing as the disciples of follower Jesus.

Role of Family Dynamics in Identity Formation

00:06:34
Speaker
Yeah, because I think there's a lot of us that are just walking through our everyday life
00:06:38
Speaker
with these issues, these past events, these past realities, kind of bubbling under the surface. And I think at some point ... Or just oozing out of it. Right. Well, that's true. Just oozing out. I had a professor at Biola, he said, you don't sometimes send by choice, you just send by oozing. And I thought, oh, that's ... You use the imagery of a Nerf ball with water. You just sort of squeeze the Nerf ball and the water oozes out. Oh, and the water comes out, yeah. That's what we do. But you're exactly right.
00:07:03
Speaker
Yeah, and I think what happens is some of us do a really good job of holding that under the surface and holding it together. But there's a point that it eventually begins to interfere. And a lot of times it's interfering with our personal interior life. Maybe our exterior life, it isn't showing, but eventually it's going to interfere and dominate our lives if we don't deal with it. So let's talk about why it's so important.
00:07:32
Speaker
Yeah, I think exactly what you're saying. I think one of the primary ways, one of the first ways that we really do get shaped or we get formed or we might say get discipled is by the relationship we have in our home with our parents. So I think that's such an important place to begin as we think about revisiting our past, going back
00:07:53
Speaker
to the way that we were shaped or formed by our parents and our home. And so as you were already kind of talking about, just even asking the question, well, what was my home life like? Was it volatile? Did I feel like I was walking on eggshells all the time? Sometimes people come from abusive homes where there's emotional abuse or physical abuse. Sometimes we grow up in homes that,
00:08:20
Speaker
your parents are your friend one minute and they're for you one minute and then the next minute they're not. And so there's just sort of this very unpredictable environment. And of course the best case scenario is that you come from a home where you had a loving, caring parent or both parents or maybe a relative. And so depending on what environment you grew up, what your home life was like and what your relationship was like with your parents,
00:08:44
Speaker
I mean, that has a huge impact, really, on who we are. Yeah, it definitely does. And like you said, I love that so much. If we don't revisit our past, our past will revisit our future. I mean, we just we can't get away from it. We have to deal with it. And you were kind of mentioning the different things that can happen in our life and why they affect us or how they affect us, I should say. Let's talk a little bit more about that.
00:09:11
Speaker
Yeah, so one of the first things that we gotta do when we go back and visit our past is to really look primarily at the relationship we have with our parents or within our home, but I think also just looking at key events or experiences we had. One of the most helpful exercises I've done over the last year, year and a half,
00:09:27
Speaker
was basically just sort of, I took 40 different post-it notes and wrote all of the memories that I could think of, all of the experiences that I could think of on each of those post-it notes. And so I wasn't assigning any value to them at all. It just were things that I remembered and began to write them one on a post-it note and then began to sort of organize them. Did that happen when I was a child? Did that happen as a teen or a young adult?
00:09:53
Speaker
So it was kind of like a timeline of your life. It became a timeline and so you're kind of writing your own story and you're beginning to look at some of those key events or experiences that you remember that shaped you and then beginning to go, okay, well, how did I interpret that?
00:10:08
Speaker
You know, I have a memory when my mom, you know, she's in heaven now, and I don't think she would be upset. I've shared this story before. I've shared it with her when she was still alive. But I have a memory of her one time I picked a bunch of daisies, or I'm sorry. Oh, this is kind of a sad story. Yeah, it is, it is. But I remember picking a bunch of dandelions after church. You were little. I was very little.
00:10:29
Speaker
And I thought they were, I was just going to give her bouquet of flowers. Yeah, they're beautiful flowers. And this bunch of yellow flowers, little did I know they were weeds. Right, right. And so I had picked a bunch of them after church one day. We had a ton of these dandelions in the front yard of our church, and I picked probably 30 or 40 of them and gave them to my mom. And I remember later on Sunday afternoon, I found them in the trash can.
00:10:49
Speaker
And it broke your little heart. It was sad, yeah. And I don't know that it meant a whole lot to me at the time, but it obviously, as a 40-year-old, I remember when I was writing that story several years ago, it was in my early 40s, I remembered that. And I interpreted that in a certain way. And so that's another example. You go back, not only do you identify what kind of relationship I had with my parents or what was our home life like, but looking at some of those key events and then the interpretations that you draw from that.
00:11:18
Speaker
Can tell you a lot. I mean you get shaped in that in those in those ways Yeah, and so I think those are just a handful of ways that we can look back some of the trauma. Maybe we experienced losses You know loss of a family member and illness I mean all of those things in our past have a way of shaping who we are today And like you said we can drag those things right into the future and they sort of ooze out of us when we

Identity Issues from Past Dysfunction

00:11:42
Speaker
don't even realize it
00:11:42
Speaker
Yeah. And I think those experiences then can affect us in different ways. And this is why it's so important that we, that we revisit our past so that we can, you know, rewrite our future, I guess. Um, and I, so here's some, just some things that I think some ways we can see ourselves affected, um, every, you know, our identity, we think we have to earn our worth. Um, maybe it's our identity is in what we have.
00:12:10
Speaker
what we do, how successful we are. I mean, that's one big way, don't you think? I think that's huge. I mean, I think so much of how we get wounded early on is, are we lovable? Are we accepted? Are we of great value? And so if you have dysfunction in your past, which all of us do to some degree, if you have dysfunction in your past and you didn't have it, maybe you didn't grow up in a loving, nurturing environment,
00:12:38
Speaker
that's gonna be a deep wound for you. And so you're gonna now base your identity or being of value or worth on what you do versus who you are. And so you're gonna try to find that worth either in getting into the right college or having the right degree or living in the right neighborhood and having a certain size of a house. I mean, there's all sorts of ways that even as adults, we're really looking for ways to validate us and to cover those deep wounds.
00:13:04
Speaker
And I'm kind of thinking of these like red flags, you know, like we should be like, oh, that's a red flag. What is it, you know, from my past that I need to revisit? So like we said, it's, you know, our identity, we're struggling with that. Well, I mean, you look at social media today. I mean, I love, I'm not somebody who beats up on, I know there's some Christians that are just anti-social media altogether. Yeah, obviously we're not.
00:13:27
Speaker
But you do begin to look at that and go, okay, well, why do I need to post that picture? What is it that I'm really after when I share that Insta story or that on Facebook? And so social media has become a one giant fig leaf for a lot of people, and I'm using that biblical imagery of Adam and Eve. They cover their nakedness.
00:13:48
Speaker
with fig leaves and they're really covering up their sin, their dysfunction. There's a struggle to find worth and identity in that. I think another red flag is just when we are overcome all the time with anxiety.
00:14:04
Speaker
Um, or we overcompensate or we are, we have avoidant behavior where we avoid situations or, you know, if something gets hard, this is my tendency. If something's hard, I'm definitely an avoider, you know, like, okay, I just got to walk away from that. I can't even handle that. And really that's, that's something probably from my past that's affecting the way I react today.
00:14:28
Speaker
Yeah, or if somebody's a perfectionist. I've heard people talk about that perfection is really a search for divinity. We're after God, we're after perfection, and we can't get it, and we know that we're imperfect, and that bothers us, and so the perfectionist is oftentimes driven by unresolved wounds. They're searching for something that only God has,
00:14:50
Speaker
And so a perfectionist, well, on the one hand, that seems like a great thing. That oftentimes is a red flag for a wound that has not been dealt with. You talk about avoidance, overcompensating the perfectionist. That's what they're doing. They're overcompensating. They recognize that there's insufficiencies or weaknesses or imperfection. And so they go beyond what they need to to try to get what only God can give them.
00:15:17
Speaker
And then, yeah, I think another red flag would be, and this seems a little more obvious, but like addiction or compulsive behaviors. I mean, there is something deeper going on there. I think that's what we need to understand when we have people in our lives that are struggling with addiction or compulsive behaviors of some sort. These are unhealed wounds and they're trying to soothe unhealed wounds
00:15:45
Speaker
With something that obviously we know will never never bring peace never bring will never suit them Yeah, I think you know some of those deep wounds. I mean I think there's you know Different sort of core wounds that people talk about but you know we've mentioned some of those already But you know some of those core wounds might be that you know I just feel unlovable You know I'm unworthy I've experienced rejection you feel devalued I mean those are just a handful of
00:16:11
Speaker
of, you know, ways that we, you know, sort of express deep wounds that have never been resolved.

Healing Through God's Grace

00:16:16
Speaker
And so the journey inward or the journey backwards, maybe, you know, looking back at our, we talked in the last episode about journey inward, this whole process of visiting your past, so your past doesn't revisit your future, is really very much a part of that journey inward. And so it's so important for us to get to the wound and to have some of those sinful habits and tendencies
00:16:39
Speaker
exposed to us by God's grace so that we can ask for forgiveness, we can turn from those sins, but we can also confess some of the wounds and experience God's love. I mean, that's what God is after, is reminding us that it's okay for us to come out of hiding. We don't have to pretend, we don't have to fake it, we don't have to earn His love or approval, but we are created by Him, we're loved by Him, and by our faith in Jesus, we're fully accepted by Him.
00:17:07
Speaker
Nobody can take that away from us and to live out of that is such an important place to get to. That's what God is after, is helping us know and really believe at the core of our being that we are His beloved. And to live from that place now is a healthy place, but we need
00:17:23
Speaker
deep introspection, reflection, you know, to get to that place. And so much of that has to do with revisiting our past. That's so good. And just, I think it brings such security. When we've, when we've kind of revisited and walked through that, and, you know, God is changing us and bringing healing in that, there is such a security walking forward with that.
00:17:44
Speaker
I'm just convinced that everybody needs to revisit their past. I just think it's so important that you go back and you do some of the hard work and we'll give some practical steps to do that.
00:17:55
Speaker
I know I've shared this before, but sometimes I just cringe who I was, well, yesterday. Or last week. Or five years ago, 10 years ago. But hold on, I feel like I have to stop. Part of your issue that I think that you've worked through is you are hard on yourself. That's something from your past right there. Let's be honest. Honey, please don't judge me.
00:18:16
Speaker
I'll have to talk to Dr. Greg about that. But I know I understand what you mean. And that's why I feel like we need to remember to have grace with one another. Yeah. I mean, you just don't understand what people have grown up in. Right. What they've walked through and how that's affected who they are today. And I remember just so many times, even growing up, I feel like my parents told me this and we've certainly told our kids this.
00:18:41
Speaker
You know, when like when a child is a bully, there's something bigger going on there. And so we've always told them to have grace with that with that other child. And I feel like as adults, we need to learn that same principle. We need to have grace with one another because we don't understand what somebody has walked through or what they're walking through.
00:19:03
Speaker
Yeah, I think it gives you perspective. Again, all of us, we have different stories, and God uses those stories. He redeems those stories. Yes. And by His grace, He transforms us, and He takes the good and the bad, and He uses that for continuing to shape us and mold us and grow us.
00:19:22
Speaker
But it does, I think it just gives perspective when you begin to realize that all of us have experienced some dysfunction from our past and it's sobering as a parent. You go, boy, even as the best parent in the world, you're still gonna wound your child in a variety of ways. And apart from God's grace, they're not gonna turn out like we need God's help.
00:19:40
Speaker
and his saving work in our life and our kids' lives. But it does. It gives you perspective. When you just recognize that all of us, we sort of get beat up along the way. We get wounded from family members or friends. We interpret things sometimes rightly, sometimes wrongly. And so we just really need to have a tremendous amount of grace and patience with one another as we're contained to grow in maturity towards Christlikeness.
00:20:03
Speaker
I think one of the things that as we sort of begin to kind of talk about maybe some practical things that we can do, really what God is ultimately after in revisiting our past is He wants us to form an identity that's based on Him and His love for us.

Rooting Identity in God's Love

00:20:18
Speaker
And so we revisit our past and we explore some of the ways that those relationships have shaped us and formed us.
00:20:23
Speaker
But ultimately, it's so that we might experience, again, more of God's love and His acceptance. It's the good news that Jesus really has done something significant for us at Calvary, that the cross really has been a decisive moment in our life, that we are forgiven, that we're loved, we're accepted.
00:20:40
Speaker
And now we have an identity that's not rooted in my career or my online platform or my friend network or my zip code, but it's rooted in Christ and what he's done for me. You know, Romans chapter eight, verses 14 through 17, I think is such an important verse because it's really about rooting your life in Christ and what the Spirit is constantly saying to us and wanting to communicate to us. But Paul writes in Romans chapter eight, verses 14 through 17,
00:21:10
Speaker
He says, for those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you receive does not make you slaves so that you live in fear again. Rather, the Spirit you receive brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father, the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. And he goes on to say, now, if we are children, then we're also heirs, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. If indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
00:21:39
Speaker
And so, you know, one of the things that Paul is saying in that passage is that God pours out His Spirit in our hearts. And one of the primary tasks of the Holy Spirit is to testify that we are a son or a daughter of God. And so the Spirit of God is always saying to us, you're a son, you're a daughter, and reminding us
00:21:59
Speaker
of who we are. And that's really what Paul will say in Romans chapter five, verse five, that God's love has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom He's given us. And so one of the main jobs of the Holy Spirit in our life is to point us to Jesus as the expression of God's love for us. And so it's so important for us, just in a very practical way, to remember to root ourself, our identity in Christ and what He has accomplished for us, that we really are the beloved, that we're loved by God, we're a son or a daughter of God.
00:22:29
Speaker
I'm thinking about how, just like I mentioned before, there's such a security that comes from that. And I'm thinking about the listener who is just so desperate to feel that security and that safety. And also I'm thinking about the listener who maybe they don't feel that way, maybe they've kind of revisited their past and they've been through this.
00:22:52
Speaker
but there's somebody in their life that they don't know how like they're like please you like to get help would be so good for you like how do you well we're going to talk about practical ways obviously how do you tell a friend they need help well yeah i mean because yeah i know but there's so many of us that need to say to a friend yeah yeah
00:23:12
Speaker
you know, I want you to get help because we know how life changing that would be for them. Um, so obviously because we're moving into the practical, I feel like we should talk about that for just a minute. Like what can I do when I have a friend who I know is really struggling. Um, maybe they're just really emotionally unhealthy and I don't know how to tell them,
00:23:38
Speaker
You really should get some help. It would bring you security and safety like you've never experienced before.
00:23:44
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, obviously that's a very tricky, tricky conversation. And you always want to enter into those kinds of conversations with great humility and grace. And sometimes I will tell somebody, hey, who am I to say this or to suggest this? And so I think that might even be part of the answer is just sharing your own story. And so to be able to say, you know what, this is how God really changed me. And I was really wrestling
00:24:09
Speaker
with anxiety and I was always so nervous about what other people thought and I realized I'm a people pleaser. And you know why I'm such a people pleaser? Because I really discovered that I was wounded in this way and these things happened when I was a child and I've been believing this lie for a number of years and somebody helped me to really discover that. I can't tell you how transformative that has been. So sometimes, just like in the Christian life when you're sharing the gospel, just sharing your own story,
00:24:34
Speaker
how helpful that can be in the life of somebody else. And so I think as you're working with a friend or talking with a friend or family member that you think might really benefit from some kind of counseling process or a process with their pastors, just sharing the ways that God has revealed that to you and motivate them to do that. Yeah, the impact that we can have by just sharing that and making it normal, making that normal to need, we all need help in different ways.
00:25:02
Speaker
But I think also just not being afraid as you're kind of talking, I'm thinking, you know, there are people we have, we all have plenty of people that come to us that for advice or for help, you know what I mean? Or for prayer. And I mean, maybe that's our opportunity, you know, to gently say, hey, and you probably would really love this counselor.
00:25:22
Speaker
I've been to or you know what I mean I or it'd be a really good idea for you to go talk to Pastor Pat you know what I mean like I think that that's always you know I think we can feel we can have courage in that and it's really important for the spiritual life

Steps for Revisiting the Past for Healing

00:25:37
Speaker
So what can somebody do then, the listener that's listening right now, that they're looking to kind of revisit their past so that they can change the narrative going forward. What practically, obviously we've talked about seeking out counseling. We've talked about that many times in the past. So we'll state that right up front. Of course, seeking out a Christian counselor or your pastor, that's a great place to start. But what are a couple of other ways, honey, that somebody could kind of work through their past?
00:26:06
Speaker
I think you've mentioned seeking out a Christian counselor, your pastor to help in that process. I think secondly would be just to begin intentionally asking God to show you those things just in your own quiet time, your own spiritual disciplines as you're spending time with the Lord in prayer and Bible study. I mean, God is so good. He's so gracious to show us
00:26:28
Speaker
things when we're ready. God is good that He doesn't show us everything. At the same time, people use that analogy of an onion, God sort of pulls back one layer at a time. And so I think just, second thing would be just to begin asking God, God, would you show me those areas that maybe I've believed lies or I've been wounded by my past, things that I really need to see so that I can turn those over to you, whether there's sin that I need to confess or wounds that I need to ask you to heal me from.
00:26:55
Speaker
I think thirdly would be, you know, we talked about this a little bit already, but beginning to just kind of journal your story. And so if just, you know, taking, you know, I would suggest, you know, take, you know, an hour, two hours, get alone somewhere, you know, lock yourself in your bedroom where your kids can't find you or the bathroom, wherever, whatever your quiet place is and write out, you know, 10 to 12, you know, life events or memories
00:27:21
Speaker
that you would say have shaped you and begin then kind of filling in the details of, well, okay, and that story that I remember when I was seven, why do I remember that? And what did I begin to believe about myself or believe about God because of that event? And so I think that can be a really, really helpful practice to do as well. And then I think the last thing
00:27:43
Speaker
is I think as you begin to ask God to show you and to give you eyes to see those things, maybe you're walking with somebody else, a spiritual director, counselor, pastor, maybe you've done the journaling of your life story, but then really beginning to stay alert to your wounds and to your tendencies to sin in a particular direction.
00:28:03
Speaker
Peter talks about that need for us to stay alert, to be alert because the enemy prowls around like a roaring lion, 1 Peter 5, verse 8. And I think one of the reasons why we discover our wounds or we ought to discover our wounds is we want to get to our wounds so that we can see how the enemy is using our wounds against us.
00:28:22
Speaker
And so I think really understanding that in this spiritual journey in the life with God, we're to run the race with perseverance, but we're to throw off everything that tangles us, that ensnares us, that causes us to stumble.
00:28:37
Speaker
whether that's sin or deep wounds. I mean, I think to stay alert to those areas that were vulnerable, the need for people's approval, the need for success, the strong desire to feel valued or accepted, like to stay alert in a conversation or in the workplace or in a relationship so that you don't get taken by the enemy. And so you're staying alert to those things and your own tendencies. You're really guarding your weaknesses and your wounds and your sin.
00:29:07
Speaker
I love that. Those are all great practical ways that you can move forward. And just as a reminder, if we don't revisit our past, our past will revisit our future and we can change that narrative. God can change that narrative. I love that.

Conclusion and Listener Engagement

00:29:24
Speaker
Well, friend, we are so grateful that you have joined us. If we haven't met, we want to get to know you. So be sure to follow us on Instagram at Patrick W. Schwank and at Ruth Schwank or on Facebook. Also, don't forget everything we talked about will be at rootlikefaith.com forward slash podcast. Again, we welcome you into our family here at Root Like Faith.
00:29:46
Speaker
Would you do us a big favor and leave us a review or rating and share this podcast with your friends. It just takes a second and it is a tremendous help to us as we spread the word about root like faith. Oh, and be sure that you tag us on social media when you do that. We're so grateful for your help in getting the word out. All right, friend. Well, we will chat soon and we hope you have the best week.