Win Over Fear, Find Courage to Pursue Your Dream, and Deal with Loss Artwork

Truly a Masterpiece Podcast

Truly a Masterpiece podcast is based on the Scripture that teaches, you are God's unique work of art, his masterpiece. This podcast is for those who are tired of wasting their potential and putting their dreams on hold while they struggle with the paralysis of self-doubt. My name is Craig, I'm your host. In 2014 I won the war over self-doubt. Looking back I can't believe how easy the war was to win. In each episode, you'll meet others who have won the war over self-doubt. They will share the dark side of doubt and how they overcame that "not enough" feeling to live the life they were born to love.

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Truly a Masterpiece Podcast

Win Over Fear, Find Courage to Pursue Your Dream, and Deal with Loss

June 11, 2024 • Craig Walker and guest, Kim Avery • Season 1 • Episode 12

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Listen to this interview with Kim Avery and be inspired to live life to the fullest. Kim and I discuss topics like how to overcome fear, find the courage to live your dream, and why it is okay to feel like you are not enough. We even talk about finding God’s love and comfort before and after her daughter's death in 2019.

Links:

Truly a Masterpiece, the course: https://mailchi.mp/craigwalkercoaching/truly-a-masterpiece-1

The Prayer Powered Entrepreneur, by Kim Avery: https://a.co/d/fFmHsmw

The Pace of Grace Podcast

iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-pace-of-grace-with-kim-avery/id1711387695

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2h3zlYwMyQN0rLWSm9uVsq?si=f0dcfa2d38844935

The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God, by Dallas Willard https://a.co/d/ivUYrFY

When God Weeps, by Joni Eareckson Tada and Steve Estes, https://a.co/d/crcgpvh

1:00:08

Hey, welcome back to the TruliaMasterpiece podcast. My name is CraigWalker and I am your host.Hey, it's a thrill for me to be here withyou today. I'm alwaysexcited to launch a new episode,but today's especially because we haveour first time ever to invitean outside guest to be here.Kim has never been through the TruliaMasterpiece training. She's never beenthrough Craig Walkercoaching, but she is someone who hascoached me, someone that Ihave come to see and admire asmodeling everything that I want to shareon this program. Kim isthe author of a book calledPrayer-Powered Entrepreneurs. This is abook if you want a 30-day challenge topray about anything,this is an excellent resource for you tofollow. She's also thefounder of Kim Avery Coaching andSoul Care Coaching, and she has her ownpodcast that she hostscalled The Pace of Grace. You canfind Kim on social media at Facebook andon Instagram. We'llshare all the links of whereyou can find and follow Kim inside thenotes today. Well again, thanks forjoining me. If you're new tomy program, I hope you'll click thesubscribe button so you'renotified each time new programsare published. Also, I hope you like itso much that you're willingto share it with your friendsand help us extend our ministry. Newepisodes are dropped thesecond Tuesday of every month withoccasional bonus episodes thrown inbetween. Now, without any more delay, Iwant to jump into ourtalk today and let you meet Kim. Allright, well today I have a special guestwith me. This is KimAvery. Kim is the founder of Kim AveryCoaching. She's also the author of thebook, Prayer-PoweredEntrepreneur, and she's the host of thepodcast, The Pace of Grace.I've known Kim professionallynow for about three years and been afollower of her. And today, Ithink Kim would be grateful,great if everyone can know you a littlebit personally before youget into any of the heavierstuff that we won't talk about. So tellus about you, your family.Oh, well thank you for asking.I don't know, it's embarrassing to admitthese days, but I guess I'mold enough to be a grandma.I guess that's the true story. Welcome tothe club. Yep, I have fourlittles, two granddaughters andtwo twin grandsons who are just chaos intennis shoes. And so mypersonal life is full of laughterand delight. Yeah. Amen, I'm sure it is.Well, you're married.Mm-hmm, I am. How many years?Thankfully. We have been married 40, I'mterrible at numbers. Myhusband would know right away,he's a better husband than me, but 40some years we've beenmarried. Oh, that's good. Kim, whatkind of things do you do for fun? Youknow, I am so boring. Other than playwith my grandkids and mydog, I have a labradoodle. I like toread. I've often thought I should have amore glamorous hobby,but the truth of the matter is, is I'mjust a nerd and I love toread. And so when I'm not doinganything else, that's what I'm doing.You're reading. Well, Iknow that you haven't alwaysbeen Kim Avery coaching, podcast host andauthor. You also have adegree, a master's degree,your licensed professional counselor aswell as a licensed professional coach.What have you done before? What you'redoing now? Did you used to have acounseling business? Wereyou involved in that as a practice? Yeah,well, I worked as acounselor. I was employed by someoneelse's practice. I worked here in thetown where I live, WinterHaven, Florida. And because I likevariety, I served adults and childrenranging from difficulties withschizophrenia and bipolardisorder to relational difficulties tooppositional angry children. So just thehuman need is so vast.It's just an honor to be able to sit in aroom with someone andwatch God show up and do thethings only he can do. Yeah. And knowingwhat you do now, that seems like thisbeen just God's makeupfor you. Tally, why aren't you put thatpassion in your heart? Yeah.You know, I should have askedthis when we're talking about you like toread who are some of yourfavorite people who've beenmost instrumental in shaping your life. Iam just a huge fan of DallasWillard. So I like to read orwatch anything that he put out before hepassed away. And I'vecurrently been really enjoyingJohn Mark Comer's stuff. He came out witha new book, "Reel toPractice the Way," which I think ofas kind of like Dallas for dummies. Soit's really good for me because it takesit and it puts it inmore everyday language than Dallas beingas brilliant as he wasable to do. So I do like toread about spiritual formation, again,just almost as a hobby because, well, allof life is formation.And so I'm endlessly fascinated by Godand how he seeks toinvite us into change.You know, I've just gotten to know MarkComer through Kerry Newhoff,John Stray. Yeah, he's been tremendouslyhelpful to me. Youmentioned Dallas Willard. Did you,the divine conspiracy then as one of yourfavorite books? Sure. One ofhis seminal works, yes. And ittook me three or four times through itbefore I really started tounderstand it. But I knew,I knew Craig, there was something soimportant about it becauseof the reality of the way helived. When you hear people talk abouthis life, who really knewhim, how he was able to live inthe reality of the kingdom of God, eventhough it's perfectlyinvisible to us, it was so visibleto him and the way that he chose to livehis life. I knew there was somethingthere that I needed tounderstand and grasp because that wasjust far from me at thetime. Yeah. Yeah, that would besomething good for me to put in the linkfor everyone just toencourage people to read thingslike that. The people I talked to arethose that are trying to win overself-doubt, learn to livethe life that God created them to love.And that'd be a richresource. So people interested,the link will be in the notes for you.Well, I mentionedyour coaching, the book,The Prayer-Powered Entrepreneur, and yourpodcast, The Pace of Grace.Is any one of those three,have that become a niche for you? Yourpassion now, or are you still all three?Well, I do love all three. I think ThePrayer-Powered Entrepreneurwas God's way of embeddingprayer into the DNA of my life, mypersonal life, but even more than that,my business life, becausefor some reason I've functionally livedmy business life somehowseparate from my spiritual lifewithout intending to. And so ThePrayer-Powered Entrepreneur was puttingthat in a book form waskind of my way of just really weavingthat into my life on a personal basis.And so that will alwaysbe there. My current passion project isThe Pace of Grace podcast andThe Pace of Grace community,because we're overrun with busyness inour culture. And busyness is a badge ofhonor. And I think weall know that we're over busy andoverextended andoverexhausted and on the verge of burnout,but none of us really know what to doabout it. I mean, justtelling ourselves to quit it doesn'tseem to be working. So my question in thepodcast and our communityand to myself again and againin this season of my life is, how do Ireally live and work at the pace ofgrace? Not rushing aheadof God, not lingering behind God, butmoving as that waterfall ofgrace comes down for whateverproject or conversation that he has infront of me. And so it's just,yeah, it's my current passionproject and I'm having a lot of fundiscovering new things and sharing them.Awesome. What are someof the secrets you've learned about justwalking in the presenceof God every day, making,experiencing his reality? I don't know ifit's a secret, but youknow, you can't hear someone orlove someone well when you're in a hurry.And it's a sad reality.And so just slowing down andlingering in the voice of God, I thinkit's something we all wantto do. We're all eager to do.But the other side of that same coin is,that means I amcurrently in that moment that I'mlingering with God, trusting that he iswith all the things that I'mnot present to. He's with myemail. He's with my spouse. He's with mygrandkids I'm worried about.He's with that client who'swaiting for me to finish a project. He'swith all of those otherthings. How do I release and trusthim to truly be present to those thingsso that I can fully bepresent to him? And so it's almostlike an act of faith. So spending moretime with him, right, is whatI want to do. But my mind isdistracted because I don't really havefaith that he's going to keep all theimportant balls in theair while I do that. And so recognizingwhy I resist something that I sodesperately want to do,right, is live all of life in thepresence of God, you know, putting wordsto my resistance. Myresistance is actually an issue of beliefand unbelief. Helps methen in micro moments, chooseto believe that he's, for example, whilewe're talking right now,he is being present to allthose things that aren't getting done andthen watching him befaithful, right? So we will endour conversation and we will move on toour next things and theworld will not have fallen apart.The house will not have caught on fire.The dog's bladder will not have anexplosion, you know,all of it, or it will. And God will besufficient for that. But just watchinghim be who he says heis in those micro moments of trust hasbeen just a fun walk for me.Yeah. Well, that's awesome tohear you say it. It's encouraging to me.It's also convicting because I don'talways do it that well.And even, you know, like doing thispodcast, I think I knowwhat you're talking about. Evendoing this podcast, I can be sitting herethinking, okay, I got tomake sure I ask the rightquestion or say the right thing. Makesure everybody'slistening. But even as you said,I'm really encouraged just really to slowdown, listen to you respondto that because God alreadyknows that's what everyone else needs tohear. And I'm glad you saidthat for the podcast sake,for my sake, so that we could do thisreally well. So you helped me to slowdown because I don't,I tend to be way too much of in a hurry.Don't appreciate themoments when someone calls andwants to sit down for a cup of coffeethat you can really take that break andgo spend time with them.I'm one of the last few that. Yeah. Yeah.Yeah. That's a greatword. Thank you. Is coachingand writing something you really alwayswanted to do? Or is thatsomething you've grown into?Well, I have to laugh. I'm still growinginto the writing. And thecoaching was definitely a stepof faith. I think, I don't know who saidit, but all growth happensoutside our comfort zone. Andof course, God is relentlessly committedto growing us into the image of hisbeloved son. So he'salways inviting us into things outsideour comfort zone. Socoaching, going from counseling tocoaching wasn't as big a step for me,going from coaching torealizing I was a business owner.That was a huge growth curve for me. Andwriting does not comenaturally to me. It's not my nativetongue. But God has for years, maybe adecade or more said, I hearyou and I want you to write.And so it's a discipline of obedience andagain, of faith andtrust and hard work andyeah, all sorts of those things. But Isee fruitfulness comesfrom faithfulness. So I'm justtrying to show up faithfully for thejourney and trust him to bringfruit. And then when he does,it's always fun. Yeah. And I'mexperiencing that as well. Back up justfor a second. And I've readyour book, Prayer, Power andEntrepreneur. I've read it twice and gotit highlighted, marked up. SoI just want to say to you, that's areally well done book. So it's obviousthat you have workedhard and it's not obvious that it isn'tfun. It's not obviousthat it comes hard for you.Your hard work is obvious though. Andyou've done a great job. So I knoweveryone will appreciatethat as well. How did you find thecourage to pursue those things thataren't natural for you?You said your growth comes not in thecomfort zone, but outsidethe comfort zone. So how didyou find the courage to do that? Well,and that's the other thing I think, notthe other thing. Oneof the other things I think I've realizedis that confidence andcourage for me never comes first.So as long as I sit waiting forconfidence and courage, I'llsit there in my prayer chair allday and say, "Oh, good idea, Lord," or"Oh, bad idea, Lord," orwhatever, but I won't move. Itactually functions as a result ofobedience. And so stepping into thatuncomfortable momentwhen I really don't want to, I put out anewsletter, Craig, andrecently I put a newsletter and Ishared a story of what I call the world'sworst book proposal. Andit really is. My publishereven uses it as an example in talks ofwhat not to do. Butwhat was so funny was, God,I've been laying on my heart, you need toapproach somebody about getting thisprayer work that you'vebeen doing put in a book. And I wasdragging my feet andembarrassed and feeling inadequateand overwhelmed and all the things. Andso I got to this particularmeeting one day and found outthere was a publisher in the group. Andso in my head, I said, "Well, Lord,basically, if you letme be in a conversation with thispublisher, then I'll know it's a sign.This is very like Gideon,fleece. Then I'll know it's a sign. Well,lo and behold, everybodygoes to sit for lunch andthere's no room at the table. There's twoseats at a side gardentable for only two people andit's me and the publisher." So do I takethat as a sign from the Lord?"Oh, good, now I've courage."No, I start making up other excuses in myhead. And I'm pepperingthe publisher with questionsabout his personal life, hoping there'llnever be a break in the conversation.What we have to talkabout books, et cetera, et cetera. Andthen finally, it's like theHoly Spirit pushes me overthe edge. I don't know if you ever havethat happen, Craig. It'sjust like, "Okay, I'm justgoing to have to leap and it's going tobe ugly." And it was. This is what Isaid. And I'm lookingat the ground, I'm not making eyecontact. So I kind of have an idea for abook that no one willever read and no one would ever want tobuy. Is that not themost impressive book?It's just lame. And then I startedlooking around for a rock tocrawl under it. And it just,it goes to God. This is all God's work.Because by the time we weredone with our conversation,he said, "I'd really like to see aproposal for that." And so just athousand times in my lifeand more, God has just said, "Don't worryabout making it elegant ornice. It's not your strength.It's not your adequacy. It's not yourtalent. I just want your willingness,Kim. Can I just haveyour willingness?" And so I show up inmoments like that reallypoorly and see God still work.And I think, "Wow." And so again, itbuilds my faith andconfidence in him. Maybe that's wherethe confidence is. I've been meditatingon a very familiar passage,Romans 12 too. And it really,I think it speaks to what you're talkingabout. You don't findcourage first, you act and thendiscover, "Oh, wow. I wish I'd done itsooner." That's kind of howwe feel. Don't be conformedthis world, but be transformed by therenewing of your mind. The oldertranslation, like the newAmerican standard says, "You do that,that you may prove the will of God isgood, acceptable, andperfect." We really were proving it toourselves. We're the doubters, but whenwe trust him and leaninto it, we prove, "Oh man, I wish I'dbeen doing this all along." And that'swhat I hear you saying,is that's just natural. That's the wayGod designed life towork. If we set and wait forthe courage, "Okay, I'm again encouragedto leave," we'll never leave. But if wesense his leadershipand follow into our fear, we find thecourage, we find everythingwe needed, the joy, and allthe things we're looking for. That'sawesome. That's beautifullysaid. I love that. I like tothink of it as venturing on God.Venturing on God. I'm going to venture onGod. That's a good one.I always find him faithful. Amen. Well,what was one of your biggest fears?You talked about the pitching the book.Is there anything that youjust really struggle with thatjust almost kept you from taking a stepto become Kim Avery coaching?Because I think you actuallyhad a counseling practice first. Is thatright? Or were you involved in acounseling practice?I worked at one. Yeah.Was that more of a secure relationship?You worked for someone else?110%. As a matter of fact, I was so naivewhen I decided to becomea coach. I actually didn'trealize I had just gone into business formyself. I don't think Iwould have had the courage to doit because I had to learn all thoseskills. I just wanted tocoach. And now all of a sudden,I needed to learn how to build abusiness, which is a thousand differentskills. It's not a skill,a thousand different skills. And I thinklike so many, it's a fearof failure, just for my ownprobably shame story, but also justbecause I love the Lordso much, just this weird,I don't want to let him down. Or I don'twant to say I'm going todo something and then it notwork out and people think poorly of God.So there's just a lot offear of failure in doinganything outside my comfort zone, I thinkfor me. And it'sbeautiful internal work. Again,God's inviting me there, because he hasthings to show me andteach me about himself and hischaracter. And so the fear is gettingbetter each time I findhim, prove him trustworthy.But I think the biggest fear is, yeah,this is just something'sgoing to fail. And evenwhen it does, of course, things go wrong.It's like, Oh, I lived. Oh, yeah. Yeah.Oh, I wouldn't get that client and I'dstill be alive at the end ofthe day. And that's wonderfullearning to, yeah. You know, I want tofollow it up with how didyou deal with that doom loopthat we tend to get into our head? Likethe wheels are going to falloff. This is all going to crash.It was just a dream. And it ain't goingto become a reality. I'mnever going to be successful. Howdid you deal with that? For me, thealmost the only way to bring that thatkind of hamster wheelthat exists in the darkness is to bringit out into the light andusually in the light with awitness. So in other words, a coach or asoul friend or, you know, atrusted person, if they'lljust listen to me talk, it's almost as ifI can hear that doom loopfor the first time for whatit is. While it's in my head, it justsounds true and real andjustified and bigger than me.But the minute I start saying it out loudto an empathetic person, Ican almost start to hear that,well, that doesn't really make sense. Andthat's not really going tohappen. But as long as it'sin my head, it has a lot of power overme. Yeah, that'spractical. So you would say,find a trusted friend that you can sharethis fear with, roll itout to them and listen toyourself. Tell your fear and not only areyou going to get feedbackfrom them, but just sayingit. You found power and just speaking theair. And not just thethings I fear, because I thinkI have to build a trust relationship withthat friend too. Sothat's why it's good sometimesto have a paid relationship like a coachor a counselor or somebodywho will hang in there withyou so that you can, yeah, so you knowthat they'll give you anhonest reaction. That if itreally is ludicrous, that they would havean aghast expression on their face orsomething like that.So just building trusting relationships,yeah, but living life outloud, I think is strangely hardand very important. Yeah, absolutelyimportant. You have in your book, ThePrayer-Powered Entrepreneur,one chapter specifically, I think it'd behelpful for people to hearyou respond to. And in a largeway you already have, and you make thestatement, "You are notenough." And that needs to be saidbecause in our positive world today,well, you are enough. Justbelieve and you can conceive.And your boldness, say, "You are notenough." And that's a goodthing. Explain that. Why is thattrue? Yeah, and it's funny because justeven well, well-meaningChristians, and I think they'reprobably saying the same thing I'm aboutto say, but just usingdifferent languaging.But say to us all the time, "You can doit. You're enough. You know you'reenough. Just tell yourselfyou're enough." And the hope is that Iwill dig down and findsome inner strength and innerresources to do this hard thing. And alot of us can musterthat up in the short term.But the reason we hear it again and againand again is because it isabsolutely not sustainable.Because to me, the reality is, andreality is always our friend, is I'm notenough. I'm actuallynot enough to write a book and get itpublished and have it sell onmy own. I'm actually not enoughto communicate effectively, to coach withbrilliance, to last in amarriage over 40 years.You can only guess, Craig, that all 40 ofthem were probably notthe happiest 40 years of myhusband's life. We've sustained loss inour family. I'mactually not enough. And when Ibelieve that, not as a shaming thing, butas a, "Oh, but I knowsomeone who is," it's just like,"Oh, because that is good and true andfaithful." I call it the God of all gaps.Whether my gap is like a sidewalk crackor as big as the GrandCanyon, God is big enough for anyand every gap. And I don't have to keeptalking myself into that.Like you said, I can just proveit to myself. And I know it's true. Andso it's just a huge reliefto me that I don't have towake up in the morning and find the innerKim and psych her up andtry to paint lipstick on a pigand make it look good. I can just, I canlook in scripture andlook at his beauty and hissufficiency and his wisdom and his loveand think, "Oh, I know whereto go." And that's going to bereally, really good. Awesome. My hearthas really moved listening to you saythat. And I want to putyou on the spot just for a second. And ifyou don't mind, if you would do this,just take just a fewseconds and just talk to those that arelistener and coach themjust for a minute on this verything. Help them. Can you do that? Yes.Oh, always. One of my favorite things todo. And again, this iskind of my way of bringing things intothe light. But for me, it's journalingfor you. It may be afriend conversation. But if I can takethe focus off myinsufficiency, because the closer I dialin with that magnifying glass ormicroscope, the more I'll see, becauseit's absolutely true.But it's also true, right? Turn your eyesupon Jesus like that old him would say,the more I dial in on his sufficiency,the more I see. So sometimes I'll eventake a piece of papermy journal and I'll draw a line. I'llsay, okay, here's my gaps. Idon't know anyone who can dothis. I have no idea how to get thatskill. I don't have theresources to pay for this. I mean,okay, good luck with this, Lord. Here'smy list. But then on the other side,right? Well, my fatherowns the cattle on 1000 Hills. So I guessI could ask him for his provision. Myfather is all wisdom.I guess I could ask him what he thinks.And I will for every singleline item. So I don't think vaguegeneralities, God is good necessarilyhelped me in those granular moments. Itreally helps me to say,here's the very real problems. Likehere's my electric bill. If I'm out ofmoney, right? Here's,here's the very real problem. What's yourvery real, and it'salways his character for me,because I don't know exactly how he'sgoing to provide. Is hegoing to send me a check from afriend? Is he going to give me a word ofadvice over a radio? Is hegoing to, I don't know that,but I know who he is. I always know whohe is. And that'sunchanging. So I'll go through hischaracter on that. And it's just again,it's like, Oh, I know someone who knowssomeone I'm good. Yeah.Yeah. Well, thank you for coachingeveryone else. Because I didn't need tohear that. I already knowall that stuff. Of course, of course weall do. Yeah, sure. And I'mgoing to get my journal outsoon as we're done and make my halfsheet. And I'm the sittinghere already thinking, Oh yeah,that's right. I don't know how I'm goingto do this. Oh, I don'tknow how I'm going to do that.I already have those. So that's anexcellent challenge. Iprobably should sign up for yourprayer challenge that you put outoccasionally. And so yeah, you can tellus more about that aftera bit. I want to give you a chance totell everyone that. Kim, I know justtalking with you now,no one can see your smile. They probablycan hear it in your voice. They can't seethe authenticity that I've come to knowand trust. But I'm just listening. Icould say that I wouldimagine there are people listening todaythat could think, gosh, if Icould only have been like her,if I could have been born so gifted, sotalented, so charismatic,so articulate. I wish I couldbe like her. And it kind of imagine likeyour life has always been abed of roses, which I knowthat's not the case. You've suffered too.It's a universal situationwe all have to deal with.I also know in 2019, you suffered a greatloss. You lost a daughter.Can you speak to us aboutthat just a minute? People dealing withloss. How did you cope withthat? Yeah. Well, first of all,for those of you who've lost someone youlove through divorce or through death,we don't ever get over it. And there'sno, as you said so well,Craig, there's actually noescaping it. We all lose things, losepeople, lose things, losestatus, lose position, losedreams, lose people. We all lose thingsthat we love. And sothe invitation for God is,"Who is he going to be for me in this?"And I will always, like withmy daughter, I will always bein this. I will always be grieving this.But I will say that byhis grace, the grief doesn'tparalyze me and has not paralyzed me. AndI think it's a two-sidedcoin. One is just not trying topush it down and pretend it's not there,that I'm supposed to move onor something like that. I mean,one of my favorite verses is crazy, is"Jesus wept." He knew he was going toraise Lazarus from thedead. He knew he wept. And so justpermission for my soul to besad and sorrow doesn't havethe final word. Even in this moment, joyand sorrow can coexist.And so just for me, findingthe tender, loving care of my father andopening my heart to that,saying, "I never knew I couldhurt this bad. And I know this means thatI will never feel loved thiswell." And so just one quickstory, Craig, the morning that ourdaughter died, so she died late in theafternoon. She lived inanother state with our micro-preemie,twin grandsons, and her husband. And sothe day started like anyordinary day. And I was in John 11, whichis the account of Lazarusbeing raised from the dead.My husband was in John 11, and we are acompletely differentdevotional plans. You know, I mean,like we don't even do devotions in thesame way. So that was just aGod thing, right? That we wereboth there. But I don't always write inmy Bible, but I literallywrote in my Bible that daythat, "Lord, when times get dark, help meto always see your light." So I wasreading the story ofMary and Martha losing Lazarus, feelingthe pain of Jesus not rescuing inadvance, not sparingthem the pain, right? Because he lovedthem, the Scripture says, because heloved them, he tarried.You know, so that was just morningdevotions. It was just aregular day. But my heart's cry was,"Lord, you know, when times get dark, Ijust want to see you andtrust you and move towards yourglory." And then of course, later thatday, we got the devastating news. Shedied of a sudden brainaneurysm. So nobody anticipated that. Butwhat's the first thing mymind went to? My father lovedme enough to prepare me in advance thismorning for the heartposture he knew I would needthis evening. He's not forgotten me. Hehas not forsaken me. He hasdropped, you know, glitter oflove in my heart saying, "I will alwaysgo before you. I know the wayand I will prepare you and bewith you." And it's those little eyesjust to try to look at himand not just at the hard thingsthat helped me see more and more how he'she's just present. So evenin my pain. So that was along answer. I'm sorry. Oh, that's agreat answer. It's kind of the core of mymessage, the core of mylife teaching is that if we can reallyget God's love, if we cangrasp it, become rooted andgrounded in it. This is poorly said. Iknow what I was going to say what I wasthinking. Life becomessimple. We make it very complicated. Wetry to figure everything out. Thatincludes me, myself,I'm trying to figure me out what's wrongwith me. Why can't I bebetter at this? Why can't I be morelike? And what I discovered is when Ifigured out not who I am, butwhose I am and and could restin that love, everything changed for me.And I have not had to dealwith anything like you have.I enjoy reading books by people likeJohnny Erickson, Tada,because I've always said if Icould have 30 minutes with anyone in theworld, that's who I wouldpick because she lets me seethat God is real in the worst that I canimagine. I couldn'timagine being locked in my body.I'd be so claustrophobic. I'd beimpossible to kill myself, but I'd wantto. And she said, "No,Craig, you can live with that." Andthat's what you'resaying you discovered as well,is the love of God was there even in thattime and before thattime. And he loved you enoughto prepare you for that. What would you,you know, you've alreadygiven a boatload of counsel toanyone, do anything, you have any just aspecific word you would sayto someone that's dating withloss, hang in there, how would you tellthem? Yeah, don't feelrushed to anyone's timetable,to any, you know, stages of grief toanything. I mean, justplease be present to your painand just consider the possibility thatGod is always present toyou while you're present toyour pain. It's his presence. I mean, wewanted to fix things andthat's called heaven, right?But having a loving father who's presentto me in my pain, likewhen your child falls or theirheart's broken and you hug them and holdthem, it transforms the veryexperience of pain. It doesn'ttake it away, but it changes it. And so,yeah, just be where you are would be myencouragement to you.And then maybe find someone who willreflect to you in theirpatience and in their posture andtheir presence. God's utter love andpatience with you as you ask the hardquestions and feel the hardfeelings. Yeah. Well, Kim, that'sawesome. Kim, it's been adelight to have you here as you aremy first outside guest. I've had peoplethat have been through mycoaching that I've had back on.You're the first person I've had from theoutside. And I was scaredto death to have someone on.And I thought, if I were to do this, whowould I want? And you arethe person that gained my mind.Because of your authenticity, I knew thatI'd be comfortable with you. And youwould put me at easeand you'd do a great job. I know thatanyone listening today hasbeen helped tremendously.And Kim, can you tell everyone here todayhow they can keep upwith you? Maybe how they canbenefit by following you orgetting to know you better?Well, thanks for asking. As I said, mycurrent favorite projectreally is my Pace of Gracepodcast. So it's just paceofgrace.com orthe Pace of Grace podcaston any podcast platform. So Iknow you're all your listeners arepodcast listeners, right? SoI would love to. And they'reshort form. They're like 15 minutesaround. So it's not a hugecommitment of time. And then ifyou ever would benefit from the prayerpowered entrepreneur, youcan get that. Thanks to mypublisher, actually letting me make abook proposal on that guestly day inhistory, which I wish Icould erase. You can get it at any majorbookstore. God was right.People actually want to buy thebook and read the book. And so that's afun prayer journey forpeople. And then you can find me atkimabrycoaching.com. Awesome, Kim. Thanksagain so much for beingwith us today. The links foreverything that I think we've talkedabout today, her booksand her material will all bein the notes down below. I hope you'llcheck it out. Thanks againfor joining me. And I will seeyou next time.