Listen to “Modern Motherhood Podcast #3: Beth Moore” on Spreaker.
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We love Beth Moore! If you haven’t checked out her Live Events yet, they are happening THIS WEEKEND in Cedar Park, TX. Get your tickets today and don’t miss this weekend of refreshment!
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Today on the AllMomDoes The Modern Motherhood Podcast I’m your host Julie Lyles Carr and I’m still pinching myself friends. We get to talk about so many different things. Kids and Technology. Charles Spurgeon. Why your family should be playing bingo. And a whole lot of legacy in ministry. Today’s guest is Beth Moore.
Julie: Beth Moore. What on earth.
Beth: It’s makes me so happy to be with you guys today. It makes me so happy.
Julie: We are just thrilled to have you. Thank you so much for being with us. You know I refer to it, I mean to a lot of us you were that big sister. For some women you’re the little sister, for some of us you’re the big sister, you’re the peer, you’re the mama. You have been walking alongside so many of us in faith for such a great period of time with such an integrity filled ministry and we thank you for your voice and your heart. You know how do you see current culture now as opposed to when you began in ministry and how does speaking into today’s world compel you, you know fire you up, or concern you. What are you seeing out there that is different from when you started?
Beth: Good grief, yes. I got to rewind on something you said really quickly because I I really cannot even hear those words without getting a lump in my throat. The privilege to walk beside women, both those that were older, who are getting to be fewer, Julie, and I say that with a smile, yes I do have big sisters but I have fever than I did 10 years ago or 20 years ago. This is my life and my calling. I have had no greater privilege and it is a tremendous honor to me. And, man, has it changed. Primarily in good ways, I think, because of the potential for outreach is unlimited with the Internet. And that is the point. Going out into the world, spreading the gospel over the globe. That is the point. That is the commission. Our outreach potential is absolutely unlimited. But, those same avenues that offer unlimited outreach also offer limitless distraction. We get to speak out more but we are also criticized and hated more. They are speaking back and sometimes in greater numbers than we spoke to in the beginning. We get to disciple more but we are also probably, listen to this carefully, I wish we could break this down, we do get to disciple more but we are probably going to be disciplined more by God, that’s just the way it is. Much is given and much is required. And then we are going to have far more opportunities but we are also going to have to face the fact that we cannot, Julie, do 10,000 things to the glory of God so we’ve got all these opportunities and we’re going to spread ourselves across all of those and we’re going to pick out like 20 things. I love all 20 of these things. There is lots of things I feel passionate, but, God what am I called to do. What am I called to do for the glory of God. I cannot do 20 separate things to the glory of God. Girl, it’s tough.
I have to throw one more thing in there because I think it’s huge. I truly do believe in the events that scripture teaches and that Christ himself taught. And what I believe that is as time goes on there is a great outpouring of the spirit but we are living in days that are increasingly evil. So face that. Revelation 12:12 says that the enemy is serious because he knows his time is short. All of those things make it more challenging but they also make it, if we are willing, make it exhilarating and put iron in our blood.
Julie: Right. I think our voices can resonate more than ever, but so can those things that we maybe shouldn’t have said. I love what you are saying about clarity within ministry because I can be focused on plenty of things. I can be like a squirrel in a cubic zirconia factory. Focusing on that one element over there or those 20 things over there is not a problem, it’s that clarity issue, particularly when we have the whole world at our fingertips and the ability to speak into that world in so many different channels. I love that wisdom about getting really clear.
Beth: I saw a very simplistic thing a few days ago on Twitter. A young woman, and she spoke for all of us, this isn’t the young, this is all of us. She said how eye opening it had been to realize that she had plenty of hours to get her work done. It was not that she didn’t have enough time but that she was so distracted in the time she did have. That sounds so obvious. It is the truth. If we are going to be fruitful there will need to be a pruning away of the things that are great but they aren’t really what we’ve been called to do. And we are going to need to get focused.
Julie: Absolutely. How do you think that motherhood has changed? Since your girls were little and you were in the beginning steps. Obviously we are in this culture in which we can even be super distracted from our kids actually if we aren’t thoughtful about it.
Beth: I wish I had something original to say, but I think we all keep saying it because it is the absolute truth. In a word: Phones.
Julie: Oh yeah.
Beth: This is the thing. Listen, I love my phone. I am a phone addict just like most people are. I get this in every way. But if we let our kids dictate how much time we are going to spend with them. If they get to say we are going to get to spend with them. Because listen…parenting is engagement. It is engagement. This is the biggest challenge for this day and this culture. The pure challenge of engaging our kids and if they get to dictate it we can kiss it goodbye. They are not going to choose their parents naturally. Not very often. In some ways, Julie it is the natural course. In adolescence they are emotionally preparing to launch. There has to be…there is this widening, a little bit of independence but you need to be overseeing or supervising. You can’t just control them every minute. YOu have to let them exercise what you hope you have taught them and let them make the mistakes if they didn’t. It takes a lot of wisdom and I certainly did not always have it. But, what I am saying, is that this engagement issue today, to be able to hang onto it and to be able to have courage enough in this day to restrict, even with a 16 year old how much they are going to be looking at the face of the screen, because what is happening is that where we would be on with one person on the phone in the evening when I was growing up.
Julie: Right with the long long cord you’d try to drag into the pantry. You’d hide in the pantry where you would try hide that 15 foot cord.
Beth: Right you would pull it so hard it would come out of the phone. That’s now what is going on now. And now, it could be 500 voices at once. As much as their addicted to it. As much as we are addicted to it. Julie, can I be bold? I need to stop and say something.
Julie: Preach.
Beth: The reason we aren’t getting them off their phones is because we are on our phones. Maybe we don’t have time to get into that, but if we would just do them the favor. We are going to come to some hours here – we are going to come to the supper table and we are going to have this and you know we are going to go to the ball together. We are going to go to the movie together. And you are going to hand me that phone. Because I’m paying for it and I’m your parent.
Julie: Right.
Beth: I’m being bold, but I truly do think that’s it. I’m watching my daughter and my son in law do such a good job with it. And, it’s a fight. They have to fight for it with their kids. They are literally having to fight to get them to understand that they don’t get unlimited access to a screen. And that doesn’t even get into the problem of access to all sorts of inappropriate stuff. That’s another conference. This is purely just being too distracted to engage. Okay, I’m done with that.
Julie: You are fine. I find, with my kids too, my mothering career spans 27 years so I’ve got kids who are now adults that when they were in this preteen teen years and we didn’t have all this stuff. We just had flip phones. And now we have younger kids that have the access are carrying around smartphones and it’s been really interesting the things I thought I’d figured out as a mom with those older kids. And now we have a whole new set of rules with these kids. And you know with personalities too. I have some children who are more about that human connection and it isn’t a big deal for them to set down that screen. But then I’ve got some that they, boy howdy, would prefer that screen any day of the week. We’ve gone old school. We’re doing a lot of board games. My 16 year old son sat down and did a jigsaw puzzle with me over Christmas. It’s hard for me to sit but it’s been a really powerful tool to get our eyes back into each other’s faces.
Beth: I was playing bingo here recently. I didn’t even give anyone a choice. The whole family was over and I get it out and I just told them, I even have prizes. We’re all playing bingo together. I handed out the cards. And, everybody, at first was like okay this is so silly and then we laughed and laughed. You have to give it, let them pout for about 30 minutes. And then they’ll have fun and they’ll give in.
Julie: Stay. Stand. Be Firm.
Beth: Yes.
Julie: Well I recently took a group of women in my home church through your Entrusted study which is one you put out a few three years ago. It was a beautiful experience that looks at Paul and Timothy’s relationship and I got to tell you. What just kept rolling over me over and over was your burden to share what you’ve gathered in your walk. It was so powerful. Give us a few things that are making the top of your list about what you want this generation of women and women leaders to know. You’ve been our pioneer girl whether you’ve intended to be or not you have been. Tell us what you want us to know.
Beth. I love watching what God is doing in young women. This is another thing in which it is really really hard for me to keep from getting a lump in my throat because just seeing young women’s eyes opened for the scripture and to the fact that God has a purpose for them is just about more than I can handle and I just love seeing the relationship, the linked arms between the generations. It is good. It is more than good. It is imperative for both sets. The older and the younger generations. Just imperative.
But I think that for now what I would want to say most that he is getting across to Timothy, that I would want to get across to someone in the faith is expect it to be difficult. Expect it to be a battle. Listen, whoever said it would be easy, that it would always be fun that it would always be comfortable…I don’t know where we are getting that. That if we just had enough faith things would go well. That Is not what Jesus told his disciples. He said, I am sending you out as sheep among wolves. Not wolves among sheep. I am sending you out as sheep. That word is plural and I love it because it reminds us if you go out by yourself and you are going to get eaten alive. The sheep, we sheep need to have one another. He sends them out by this is what he says it is going to be difficult but this is what I’m going to do for you. So what I would want to say to all of them is expect what is going to be fierce. Expect that you need to be courageous and brave. But also expect and insist on what Jesus gave you as part of the abundant life. He said rejoice I am your joy. That my joy would be in you and your joy would be complete. That we have abundant love, abundant meaning. That our lives are just boiling over with purpose and I think that is what gets through. We are going to do it to the death. Paul in that letter to Timothy was saying, “Man I can see the finish line. I’ve done mine. I’ve done mine.” The crown of righteousness is waiting for me. You fight the good fight. You take your share of suffering a good soldier for Christ Jesus” He talks about the joy it’s going to be an dhow God is going to deliver us safely. It is profound So expect all the difficulty but also expect with every you have, everything Jesus is going to give you. The abundant spirit of Jesus. Go for everything he is willing to give in that process.
Julie: I think that is so powerful because i think sometimes we think, “Yes, Lord, I want to serve you” and we are not thinking battle. We aren’t thinking of taking ground.
Beth: Yes, we are going to think that Jesus lied to us.
Julie: Right.
Beth: He warned us.
Julie: He gave us a heads up of what it is going to be. I think every generation with have its nuances of what it is going to be from the previous generation but something I think we sometimes tend to do is romanticize the generations that have come before us and sometimes we need to re-read, I don’t know, a biography on William Tyndale who died trying to get the Bible into English for us. And that wasn’t all that long ago. I am reminded, Hey this has been a battle since the beginning, and it can’t surprise us today.
Beth: I recently read Aaron Ivey and Matt Carter’s book Steal Away Home and it’s on Thomas Johnson and Charles Spurgeon and it is flabbergasting. We’re read all these things, because who wrote with more beauty and affection and even more emotion for scripture than Spurgeon. And we look at the level of his suffering and we think about how much time he spent in his bed. He was so physically impaired he could barely get it up. And we think it is always suppose to be easy. Look at the price they paid to be mighty in Christ. And what came against them they would need to believe Christ in the midst of these overwhelming circumstances. I think this is what gave them their might.
Julie: Yes, and I think it becomes part of the beautiful tapestry that, if you think it was Paul who wrote Hebrews, he tells us that we’ll be there, which is that cloud of witnesses, which are those people that have gone before us, that cheer us on. And that you know in Spurgeon’s case his wisdom still speaks for us even though he is gone. What an incredible thing to carry forward in his legacy.
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Julie: You are getting ready to take all of this passion and zeal that you bring to the table for us and you’re getting ready to do it face-to-face. You’ve got The Living Proof Live Tour kicking off very soon, and one of the things that I just thought was amazing is that you’re going to customize and change your message for every city you go to. You’re going to be in Seattle on Feb 9th and then on to Florida and North Carolina Wisconsin and all kinds of great places. Tell me about this decision to change the message each place? Because, the reality is, we would probably be thrilled to even hear you read a recipe to us. But you are taking the extra time and listening to be really specific. Tell me about that decision.
Beth: Well, that is not a new thing. That has really been true of Living Proof for all these years. It does not mean I repeat a concept, what is part of my life message will pop up here and there. And then is how strongly I feel about the pursuit of Christ. And my story, part of my story of course does not change. It keeps going. It keeps evolving as I keep living the next season and the next. But that earlier version of the story does not change. And it isn’t like I can’ feel like I can repeat a concept, I certainly do, I feel like there is a lot of value in that. But, I’ve got to tell you what drives is that I truly do love the research part of it. I love that part of it. I love having to say, “God what do you want to do there.” Kind of being in the process that I don’t have a message yet. And it doesn’t feel pleasant at the time, but it’s part of this thing he and I have practiced where this event is concerned. I’m waiting for you to show me. I’m in your Word every single day and I’m going know when that thing is a thud in my spirit – when it lights up, I’m going to know it. And he’s already begun to do that for Seattle. And I love research. And I love to just see it unfold. I love commentaries and that kind of thing so probably it is more for me, but the bad part of it, of course, is that I teach a whole lot of untested material and I may not have my timing down right or often I don’t have my words exactly but to me what I lack in good delivery and it’s not easy I make up for in the pure delight and passion for the Word. His Words I will read plainly. My words I may get all over the place but it’s still the way I feel most comfortable.
I need to tell you this Julie because I think you’ll get a kick out of it. I think it is because if it’s fresh to me I think it’s going to be fresh to them, even though in my head I know that’s not true. I used to be a Sunday school teacher. I taught Sunday School for 23 years straight to adult women. I can remember starting at 23. By 27 I had been invited by my pastor to open it up so it wasn’t just the same age women as I happened to me. He opened it up to an ungraded class. And I was in such learning mode oh my word. I studied scripture every day and I could not quit talking about it. Well I would go into that class and because it was new to me I would teach it like they had never heard it. Now mind you there was 50 year old women in that room who, of course, had heard it. But, because it was fresh to me my delivery was just excited and it just felt fresh to everybody. I don’t know how to say this except to say, and I can hardly say this without crying, that God saw to it that it would often be true. So I just don’t know. It’s not the perfect choice to use a lot of untested material but it is, for now, my choice and it is a heck of a good time.
Julie: I think it is amazing. I think it leaves us leaning as God. As Christian communicators to be really disciplined to leave that space for God to do something that can be different, that intentional improv is a really beautiful thing.i love the courage you engage to be able to do that, to be so specific to these cities. Now, do I remember this correctly, did you move around quite a bit as a young kid? Or was that just me?
Beth: Not too terribly much but they were pretty profound moves. I was an army brat. I was born when my dad was in the reserves in Green Bay Wisconsin but our home was Arkansas and he had a dying parent and was asked when I was itty bitty to be transferred back to our town and to teach ROTC at a University so we then got to go back home. Then when I was in the middle of high school then I moved back to Houston and then the school split up after the year and I had to go to a new school. So it was just like that and I’ve been in Texas ever since. I’ve moved at some major points.
Julie: Right. I moved around as a kid quite a bit. My dad was in the shuttle program and then my husband Mike and I have made some moves and you know there are those times when we can think, “God, is this really where you have me? Is this really where I’m supposed to be living?” and, I don’t know but “Why can’t we be over there closer to family,” or there that’s prettier or there that doesn’t have these mounds of snow for months out of the year. And, yet, I keep coming back to this verse in Acts 17:26-27 in which, it’s so fascinating, Paul talks about how from one man God made all the nations. I think this is the part that is amazing. That God marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands, the places they would live, the times in which they would live that it would draw people. What do you think would change if we really got hold of, “Hey God has me in Seattle for a reason.” What do you think would change in our lives? If we really got hold of the fact the places us even as Army brats where he needs us.
Beth: I don’t think there is anything that can be more transformational to our thinking than to realize that God is deliberate. And that even in his providence, he is deliberate. Even when you weren’t praying that God would really move you to the place that would allow you to bear much fruit, even when it seems like, man I didn’t even think of this, or praying through a job move or even when it wasn’t a priority to you, even when we think we can’t really see and we didn’t include him or see him at work, our God is sovereign and he is very deliberate. He is continually I believe, moving us like players across a chess board. Putting us in places where we are saying we are in a dry and weary land. Guess why? Because, as believers, we have the living water inside of us and if you can live that out there you really really can and I really really can, testifying life, testifying love and testifying the Word and he will continue to crack open the doors, if we are patient and if we don’t have to be driven to do something great. We can be driven to do something good. There is always something, Julie, there is always something. Meet the next need. Just meet the next need and somehow testify about the love of Jesus as you get the opportunity. That you are just meeting the next need and you aren’t worrying about how to do the big thing, just the next thing right there in the dry and thirsty land.
Julie: Beth, I so appreciate your thoughts on just how to embrace where God has us exactly where he has us. And I love that you are going to be really praying through each of the cities that you are going to, that you are modeling that for us. This very thing that we have been talking about. And so, I know you are going to be so excited. Tell me about this first event in Seattle. What can people expect of the evening? It is going to be February 9th & 10th. What does an evening with you look like?
Beth: Well, we do the same general format every single time we meet. You can expect 2 things. You can expect worship and you can expect the Word of God. That’s what we are going to do. In all three sessions, so we start on Friday night and then we come for half a day on Saturday, after that Friday evening. So we have all three sessions introduced the same way. We have Praise and worship and then we have study. I think you’ll find whether you are brand new or seasoned Bible students, one of the things we’ve really asked God to do, is that the holy spirit will speak to whomever comes. He is just so faithful. His Word will never return void. I try to choose language and stories that anyone, that an unbeliever could walk in and understand and, I pray, compels them as well as then allows those who do not have a strong grasp of the Word to think up. We really trust God for that broad appeal and reaching the broad spectrum of people. We sure do ask him to do it. We will serve absolutely everybody. There is no way to be unwelcome at Living Proof Life. I don’t care what shape she’s in, what belief system she comes from, if she feels fit to be in a Christian environment. Listen, just come as you are, as raw as you are, as big a mess as you are or as put together as you are and let’s see what God will do.
Julie: I love it. Ya’ll, Living Proof Life is a safe, welcoming place for you to come to hear someone who is such a thought leader and hert leader for us over the many years. As one who has been so faithful in serving God’s kids. Thank you so much Beth Moore for being on The Modern Motherhood Podcast presented by AllMomDoes. Seattle, she’s coming for you. Be ready Feb 9th & 10th.
Beth: I had a blast Julie. Thank you.
Julie: What an inspiring conversation with Beth Moore. And you know miss Beth. She loves her some Twitter. Be sure to follow her at @BethMooreLPM. She has hilarious things to say, inspirational things, thoughtful. She’s just great to follow her there. Follow me @julielylescarr. Special thanks to Donna Totey, our producer and our Content Coordinator, Rebecca Beckett. They make it happen each week!
Hey, do you love to laugh? I know I do! Join us next week for comedian extraordinaire, Anita Renfroe. We’re going to laugh. We’re also going to be talking about jump starting a career once you get those kids raised. She’s got some great ideas. See you next week on The Modern Motherhood Podcast.
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Bio: Author and Bible teacher Beth Moore is the founder of Living Proof Ministries and speaker at Living Proof Live women’s events across the continent. Her mission is to lead women everywhere into a richer, more fulfilling relationship with the Father through biblical literacy—guiding believers to love and live God’s Word. Beth loves the Lord, loves to laugh, and loves to be with His people.
Living Proof Live in Seattle, WA, will begin at 7:00 P.M. on Friday, February 9, and conclude at 9:30 P.M. before getting started the next morning at 8:30 A.M. and dismissing at 12:15 P.M. on Saturday, February 10. General admission seating for this two-day event is $79. Group rates are available for groups of 10 or more. Not in Seattle? More Locations available.
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