Every Bitter Thing is Sweet Sara Hagerty Ep 143
Don't Mom Alone Podcast
Don't Mom Alone Podcast
5 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 21 November 2016
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Life seems to be a series of highs and lows. If my happiness depends on the circumstances around me, I’m in for quite the roller coaster ride.
Even this past week we received heartbreaking news about my mom’s health. BUT God has been faithful and present and steadfast to show up in the details. Including the timing of this interview. . .
Sara Hagerty’s book “Every Bitter Thing is Sweet” released in October 2014. I started reading it in May 2015 when my dad was diagnosed with colon cancer. Her words soothed my aching heart. Her honesty about her dad’s cancer diagnosis and God’s faithfulness through it brought me peace.
Then the day after we got my mom’s diagnosis I’m on Skype interviewing Sara. Well, first she and I cried and prayed together. . .then we recorded this interview.
Like I said, God is in the details.
Sara knows the struggle to believe God is good when life doesn’t turn out the way you’d hope. From marriage struggles, financial insecurity, parent illness, infertility exhaustion, etc, Sara discovered her only place of true security came when she prayed back God’s Word back to Him in adoration.
One day while sitting in her kitchen, utterly exhausted by life, God gave her these words:
The satisfied soul loathes the honeycomb, but to the hungry soul,
every bitter thing is sweet. (Proverbs 27:7)
Thanksgiving week is full of remembering all that God has done for us. Who couldn’t use an extra heaping helping of gratitude these days?
Sara reminding us about adoration, takes gratitude and turns it towards who God is. Praising Him not for what He has done for me, but who He promises to be. Which then shifts my heart to believe He is who He says He is.
In control.
Almighty.
Beginning and End.
Lover of our souls.
Binder of the brokenhearted.
If you need to hear a word of encouragement and be reminded of who God is and why He can be trusted, then this episode is for you, sweet sister. Happy Thanksgiving!
What we chat about:
- Discovering life with God is often NOT like a treadmill, always gaining speed and strength
- God’s revelations to Sara through the pain of infertility and marriage struggles
- Facing bitterness and the nagging feeling “God is good, he’s just not good to me.”
- Recognizing the hunger that lies beneath bitterness; God’s “divine alluring”
- Intentionally seeking God in the places your heart comes alive
- Adoration as a spiritual discipline: speaking scriptures (even the hard ones) back to Him
- Honesty with God on areas you struggle to believe instead of just splashing some “Jesus juice” on it
- How God sees all of the “hidden parts of life” of moms that often feel unnoticed
- Vulnerability not for it’s own sake but with the intention of God’s restoration
- How God not only restored Sara’s marriage, but how He used the hard times to bring more to it than she thought possible
Links Mentioned:
- EveryBitterThingisSweet.com
- SaraHagertyAuthor.com
- “Every Bitter Thing is Sweet” book **
- Psalm 139
- 2 Corinthians 12:9–Our weakness is the place where God moves.
**Amazon affiliate link
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You're listening to episode 143 of the God Center Mom podcast with me. Heather McFadden |
| 0:09.4 | and today I'm chatting with Sarah Haggerty about how every bitter thing is sweet. |
| 0:16.1 | Part of the power of adoration is actually bringing the admission that I don't believe |
| 0:22.2 | his word. And we never want to say that, right? Like I mean, I'm saying like, soundationally |
| 0:26.8 | I believe his word. But on a day to day basis, I if I'm really honest with myself, there |
| 0:31.9 | are truths in his word that are really hard for me to believe. And so bringing that level |
| 0:38.0 | of honesty to God saying, God, I am really wrestling to believe that this is true. |
| 0:44.9 | Instead of trying to put some kind of as my husband says, Jesus, juice on it and like |
| 0:48.7 | make us feel like, you know, like, oh, I'm great. God is good. You know, like, let's just |
| 0:54.2 | be honest and go, I really am wrestling to believe this part of your word. But I know |
| 0:59.2 | that it's true. So God, can you bridge the gap and take me from this place of unbelief? |
| 1:05.5 | Exactly what you said, that prayer help my unbelief. And then believing that the power |
| 1:10.6 | of the Holy Spirit through the word really does shift us. And I would say almost every |
| 1:16.2 | time I engage in adoration, I walk away going, you've helped my unbelief. Something is |
| 1:23.9 | shifted in me on the inside. |
| 1:26.6 | You all know I'm big on connections. And it's hard for me to not see God's hand in a |
| 1:31.7 | lot of details. When I discovered Sarah, it was a little over a year ago. My parents were |
| 1:40.0 | living with us when my dad was working through a diagnosis, colon cancer. And I was reading |
| 1:46.0 | Sarah's book, Every Better Thing is Sweet. And it just struck me. I mean, you know, when |
| 1:50.4 | someone's writing words and it meets exactly where you are, that was that time. Well, |
| 1:56.1 | fast forward. And I've been trying to get Sarah on the show and life circumstances. And |
| 1:59.9 | she was working on her next book. And we just couldn't get it together until this last |
... |
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