Everybody, what is going on? You know what time it is. You're listening to join the Journey podcast with your host, Emma, daughter. Thanks for joining. Today, we are reading Matthew 13 through 15, and I am in the podcast studio with faithful watermark member, Emily Carter. Hi, Emma. Thanks for having me.

You're welcome. I feel like, you know, I had some

scheduling issues on my end, so I'm glad this day has finally come. For those who don't know you,

Emily, would you mind sharing a little bit about what God's done in your life and then what you're up to

today? Yeah, of course. So I was born and raised in Louisiana. I was a really good kid growing up, wanted to follow all the rules. So if you looked at my life from birth through high school, I was a really good kid. I was the valedictorian of my high school class. No way. Yeah. I didn't know this about you. I know. I don't throw that out often. But that paints the picture. It does. Yeah, sure.

Valedictorian in my high school class was FCA vice president, so knew who God was growing up,

but did not actually start a real relationship with him until way later in life. I was also a really

good basketball player, so I moved over to Texas to go to TCU on a full ride basketball scholarship.

Go frogs. Go frogs. Which was super fun. But what I learned about my walk with the Lord is that really

growing up, it was more to please my parents than to actually walk with him myself. So my college

years were marked by sheer rebellion, just running from him in a lot of ways, a lot of

partying, a lot of rebelling, some really broken relationships. And so I came out of college just

feeling a lot of guilt and shame about who I was and moved to Dallas after I graduated and met

a friend, a co-worker who invited me to the porch,

which is Watermark's young adult ministry. That's right. Which we love so much. And that was my

first introduction to Watermark. And so really jumped in all the way here, but was still living

with a lot of guilt and shame from my past and was living with things I swore I would

take with me to the grave and said that as I walked into this place, but started to slowly be more known.

And really the stepping point for me was when I decided to go through regeneration, which is

Watermark's 12-step recovery ministry. And that's where I really learned how to confess my sin for the first time to repent and

turn away from that sin and then just to walk in freedom.

And so going through Region, it really helped me connect my head knowledge of Jesus

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