To mother, as the not mom is to say, I am a safe adult who will never do anything unsafe or

unkind to your child.

I will show up when I'm invited to show up.

I will help them when they ask for help so that when they ask for help at two and three,

they will ask for help at 12 and 13.

They will ask for help at 22, 23.

It's just different.

It's different kind of help.

Hey friends, welcome to the Ruth Joe Simon's podcast. This month, in honor of Mother's Day,

I am sitting down with a couple of good friends to talk about the wonderful and sometimes crazy

journey of motherhood. Today's conversation is with my friend Annie Downs, who invests her life as a spiritual mom. She is a best-selling author,

speaker, and very well-known podcast host. She has poured into thousands of women through her ministry,

and I can't wait for you to hear her thoughts on what it means to be a spiritual mama.

Annie F. Dads, I am so excited to see your face and to be on this podcast together.

Oh, my goodness, thank you for being here.

Oh, I'm so happy. Thank you for having me. This is, A, it's such an honor every time I get

to talk to you, but particularly in this topic, what a gift you're offering all of us to go, like, mothering is such a big word. It is not a small, skinny word. It's a big word. And so thank you for letting me talk about it. Oh, my goodness. Well, when we talked about having this, like, an honor of Mother's Day series, we all, even I chuckled

and I was like, I want Annie, I want Annie on this. And we both chuckled because we were like,

well, you're not a mom to biological children or children in your home. You're a single woman.

But I see you do this so well, this idea of spiritually mothering

and investing in children and investing in younger people in your life and giving of your life

that way. And so tell our listeners, I mean, I know that our listeners already know who you are,

...