Look What God has done: Reflecting on Truth & Grace

In this special solo-hosted episode of Unrelated Sisters: Truth & Grace Conversation, Shannon takes you on a heartfelt journey through the first 14 episodes of the podcast. From uncovering your true identity in Christ to navigating forgiveness, battling depression, celebrating God’s love, and preparing your heart for His presence — this is a spirit-filled moment of gratitude, reflection, and renewed encouragement. Whether you've listened to every episode or you're just joining us, this episode will remind you that God is faithful, intentional, and always at work.

Prayer:

Father God,
We thank You for every story, every episode, every woman and man who has tuned in to Unrelated Sisters. Lord, You have met us in our weakness, our joy, our waiting, our pain. You’ve reminded us over and over again that You are faithful.

I lift up every listener right now — meet them exactly where they are. Whisper truth into their hearts. Wash them with grace. Strengthen them for the journey ahead. And Lord, let this podcast continue to be a space where You are glorified and Your daughters and sons are loved well.

In Jesus’ name,
Amen.

Bible Emergency Numbers:

When in sorrow: John 14

When you are worried: Matthew 6:19-34

When God seems far away: Psalm 139

Music:

Come to the Table- Sidewalk Prophets

Feels to be Free- Steven Malcolm & Sanctus Real

The Truth- Megan Woods

What If- Consumed By Fire

We can't thank God and the listeners enough. I am so blessed and humbled. To God be the Glory!

We want this to be truly interactive podcast. Please go in the fan mail at
https://unrelatedsisterspodcast.buzzsprout.com and tell us your stories and let us know if it’s okay to share (no names). Let us know if you need prayer or how we can support you in your journey. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen. Follow us on Facebook @Unrelated Sister's: Truth & Grace Conversation Podcast or Email us at unrelatedsisterspodcast@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:16

Dear Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for your mercy and your blessings. We just want to take today and we just want to thank you and to praise you and to give you all the glory. Not only have you given us this opportunity, but you have helped us to find ways of healing in ways that we didn't know that we needed. Me and Deb are so grateful, and we are so full of gratitude for the opportunity to pour into other women and men who are going to or are going through some of the things that we went through, Lord Jesus. And today, we just want to glorify you and give you all the glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Hey, everybody, and welcome back to Unrelated Sisters Truth and Grace Conversation. I'm your host, Shannon, and today is a special one. This is episode 15. Can you believe it? Time has truly flown by, and as I sit here solo while my amazing co-host Deb enjoys a much-needed beach vacation, I'm filled with gratitude, awe, and joy reflecting on what God has done. Whether you've been with us from day one or you just found us, this moment is for you. This episode is a pause in the rhythm, a slight breath, to look back and say, God, we thank you. To every listener, every woman, man who has cried with us, laughed with us, or whispered a prayer because of something she heard, this one is for you. Let's celebrate the journey, reflect on His faithfulness, and remember the truth and grace that has carried us through it. So, you know, let's take a second and let's just talk about some things. So, our very first episode, Your Identity and Cross. You know, we kick things off by talking about where our true worth lies, and not in what We do or wear or achieve or not, you know, but who we are in Jesus. We reminded ourselves that being chosen, loved, redeemed and seen by God is the most unshapeable truth of all. But let's just talk about it. Like we released our first episode on April the 25th of 2025 this year, and we have done 14 episodes this year. episode here will be our 15th episode. We've had 448 downloads. We are in 10 countries and 80 cities in the United States. And whether they've listened to one episode or they've listened to five episodes or you've listened to all 15 episodes, I'm so grateful. that you have chosen to listen to us. I am so thankful that God has brought you to us. I hope and I pray every day over each and every one of you. I may not know your name and I may not know what you're going through, but there's a prayer set for this podcast and for the listeners of this podcast every day. We are so humbled that you have given us this opportunity to talk to you and for you to listen and i and i think i can speak for deb as much as me but i have felt these episodes just as healing for myself as it has been for the people that have reached out to us and texted us and told us how you know, thanking us for doing this and for, you know, being the hands and feet of Jesus and for just giving that moment back. You know, your identity in Christ is where it all starts. And I think about it, you know, I think I've been here lately, I've been trying to find the difference between hope and joy. And between happy and joy. And there's a true difference. You can be happy in life and not have true joy. And finding true joy is the grace of God. God's grace is the one thing that will give you true joy. When you wake up and you realize that no matter what you have done, no matter what you have seen, what you have said, what you have done to other people, what you have done to God, that He will love you. And He loves you. And He loves you where you are. And He loves you enough to not keep you where you are if you want to give Him the opportunity. You know, the next episode, we talked about chains we don't talk about. And it was a deep dive. From addiction to shame, past hurts to secret struggles, we boldly brought light to what tries to keep us bound in the darkness, bound in the darkness. And, you know, everybody has a past. Everybody has done things that they're not happy about that they've done. They've done things that they're ashamed of. They've tweeted someone a certain way or they've talked about somebody a certain way, it may not be as deep and dark as addiction. And it may not be the shame that I went through or the struggles that I went through, but you've had struggles. We're human. We've all had struggles. And sometimes we think we get through it. And Deb said in one of these, in this episode, she said that her dad always says, I don't know. Why don't you pick the chain back up and play with it, right? And we do that. We do that a lot. Like, we, you know, we think we're through it. We think we're over it. And we think we're done with it. And then, oh, let's just play with it just a little bit more, right? And so, you know, chains that we don't talk about, the people, You know, it brought boldness. We had a lot of comments. A lot of people texted us being like, oh my God, that's what I do. You know, I let it go. And then, you know, and then just one day I want to play with it. And it's just, you know, and the different things. And then the next episode, episode three, we talked about forgiveness and You know, forgiveness was hard for me. It's still hard for me. It was hard to let go of things. It was hard to, you know, instead of forgiving somebody, I would rather just pretend like it didn't happen. Yeah. Instead of talking about something, I would rather pretend like it didn't happen. So, you know, that episode touched so many people, you know, because it's hard when someone has hurt you, whether it's mentally or physically. It's hard to let go and it's hard to forgive. But the one thing that we wanted to stress in that episode is that, you know, to find freedom, it comes from letting go. And not for them, but for you. Forgiveness is hard. But if you don't forgive, it'll harden your heart. But forgiveness is hard, but it's holy at the same time. And you do it more for you than you do for the people that have hurt you or wronged you. You know, those first three episodes, they were very, I was so excited when we started this podcast. And I could just hear every, like every week I could hear God telling me what to say, telling me what to talk about. And I think that I've always wanted to, I've always wanted to share my story, but I've I've always seen sharing my story in a different way. I used to sit and think about what would I say if I shared my story, but I wanted to tell the story. But telling the story isn't sharing my story, but showing the grace that God gave me by sharing my story. The next few episodes, we dug into God in the details. And sometimes you have to get a little honest about who you are. You have to get a little honest about who you are in Christ. You have to get a little bit of honesty about what we do. God gives us truth. A blueprint. Your Bible is a blueprint for what's happening, what's going to happen, and how to deal with everything. But we want to come to God when we need Him and not be bothered with Him when we don't need Him, when everything is so good. It's like we forget sometimes that it's good because of him, right? So we talked about are you high maintenance? You know, and we make jokes and we kind of laugh because, you know, Deb is one of those. She gets up and she fixes her hair and she puts on the makeup and she likes to have her toes done and she, you know, she's world, you know, and physically she's high maintenance, right? But that wasn't what we were talking about. We were talking about your spiritual hot magnets. Like, if we would spend 15 less minutes getting ready to go out into the world, could we spend that 15 minutes with God? You know, and do we demand from God without giving Him? what He wants, right, without giving Him our heart. And truly, that's all He wants, right? I mean, as a mother, all I wanted, all I've ever wanted was for something to love me as much as I love it, right? And I've told the story. I truly believe that that's why God gave me my son. It's because He knew that's the one thing that I wanted. I just wanted somebody to love me. That's all. That's all I've ever wanted. Somebody to love me without conditions. But it's hard to have that spiritual maintenance. I am squirrely, if you ask people that know me. I am very squirrely. I am easily distracted. So sitting down and reading the Bible for 20 or 30 minutes a day or 10 or 15 minutes a day is hard for me. My brain wants to go other places, and I know that I should be able to do it. But boy, I can sit and talk to him for 20 or 30 minutes. Like, I can just sit and have a conversation. Just don't expect me to comprehend what I'm reading. One of the— One of my associates that worked for me last Christmas, he purchased, he bought me a Bible and it's a women's study Bible. And in the margins, it has pictures that you can color while you're studying your Bible. And that was probably one of the best gifts I've ever received. It definitely helps me to dig more into the Bible. It keeps me focused because I can read and then color a little bit. And then I can read and I can color a little bit. And coloring has always kept me centered. Our next episode was Open Wind, God's Letters to Us. You know, we went through... His truth for every season, right? There's so many seasons in life that you go through. And some of them you go through more than one time. Some of them you go through, you think you've come out of it and you're really not done. You know, when you're in a season, you're climbing up the mountain, right? And you're trying to get to the top. But then it's a season coming down, right? And you have to, you know, there's a song, Flowers, you know, and she's asking God, why? And you have to remember His truth during those times. You know, and He says, trust me, I'm a good gardener, right? I'm planting the seeds. I'm holding the water can, you know. So He's getting you ready. So You know, we talked about seasons of being tired and lost, waiting and ready to give up. God's Word speaks, and we opened it together, right? So, open wind, open. came from listening to the radio where the DJ was talking about her son graduating this year and going off to college. And, you know, he was the oldest. He's the first of her kids to go away, to leave home, to go to college. And, you know, she was like, You know, I want to do something special for him. And one of the listeners called me, and she said that when her first kid went to, when he left for college, that she sat down and she wrote him some letters. And it would say, open when you're lonely. Open when you're hungry. Open when you're homesick. And there would be a little letter, a little note in there from her, you know, with affirmation and with encouragement. and letting him know that she loved him. And then when you're hungry, there was a gift card. When you're lonely, there was, I don't know, like a fun card so we could call home or whatever, just different little things like that. And God left us letters just like that in the Bible. Open when. Yeah. You know, I have a little card and it says Bible emergency numbers. So when in sorrow, read John 14. When man fails you, Psalms 27. When you have a worry, Matthew 6, 19 through 34. When you're in danger, Psalms 91. When God seems far away, Psalms 139. You know, those are just a few of the letters that God has left us. Our next episode was the blessing inventory. And it reminded us that gratitude isn't about big, flashy miracles. It's about counting breaths, hugs, healing and sunrises. It's the small things that make our lives holy. You know, we don't live in a time of sadness. David and the giant. We don't live in the time of David, you know, in the lion's den or Paul and Joe or James, you know, the fish, you know, fishing all night long and then, you know, not catching anything and then having more than they could catch. You know, we don't live in a time of two fish and two loaves and feeding 5,000 people. But do we? Like, you know, I don't think my podcast is going to feed 5,000 people. Fish or bread. But I do believe it's going to touch the people that God wants it to touch. And I do believe that taking the time to share my story and taking the time to talk about real life and being raw and honest about it, I do believe that that is a small blessing, right? We talked about... The things that we don't appreciate, right? Like I don't always appreciate my husband for all the yard work that he does. Like he spends a lot of time taking care of our yard. And he loves doing it. And that's why he does it until somebody that's never been here comes over. And then they talk about how beautiful it is and how gorgeous it is. You know, and that's, you know, that's a small blessing. Right. Not everybody has that. Not everybody has a husband that cares enough to plant Bermuda grass and plant different flowers every season. You know, he takes me to the waves and I pick them all up and things like that. You know, we just got back from the beach and we went fishing. We had some couples come up and spend a couple days with us, and we got up every morning, and we went and had breakfast together. And then we went back to the room, and he got ready, and he left with his buddy and went and played golf. And I went home to the beach, and I got in my chair, and I listened to podcasts, and I listened to the ocean, and I spent some time with God, which is what I enjoy most. And then I was asked, well, does it not upset you that you're on vacation together and he wants to go play golf with his buddies? No, not really. Because we would have went to the beach and he would have frustrated me, right? Because I love my husband, but he doesn't want to sit still. He's good for about 10 minutes and then he wants to do something. So he'd be wanting to play in the sand or play in the water and he'd be wanting to get up. He'd be wanting to do this. He'd be wanting... And that's not what I wanted to do, right? I wanted to spend, I needed to spend some me and Jesus time. I mean, that's what I needed. I was feeling burnt out. I was feeling neglected. I was feeling tired. I was feeling empty. You know, I was feeling all these things and that's what I needed. And, you know, I'm thankful and grateful that my husband gives me the time when I need it the most. You know, He gives me what I need. The next couple, the next three episodes that we did, you know, we started talking about when life gets heavy. That next episode, when the house feels heavy. That was the week that We kept trying to do the silent battle, which is the episode that we actually did after when the house feels heavy. That was the week that I couldn't hear God. That was the week that... My partner needed to get something off her chest, and she needed to talk about it. We talked about emotional clutter and mental awareness and spiritual distance. We invited God back into our lives and into our homes. We talked about how sometimes we let things in. And we don't even realize it. And we don't even see what's happening until it's already starting to start. And you have to be aware of your surroundings. And you have to be aware of where you're at. And sometimes, I don't know, sometimes it's hard. There's so much chatter in the world today. And there's so much... negativity in the world today and there's it's in the palm of your hands like I think the world has always had its issues right it's always had its problems it's always it's always been very heavy but it was different because it wasn't right there like you had to wait to the six o'clock news to find out what was going on now it's in the palm of your hands so you know But we talked about emotional clutter and about, you know, just being lost. That's what we talked about. The next episode was the silent battle. And that was probably one of the most vulnerable episodes for us. Deb opened up about her depression, her anxiety. attempted suicides, she opened up how it didn't just affect her, but it affected her family, and that every time that something happened, it was always a big movement for her family, and the devil would be at his strongest. We talked about faith and hope, and we talked about how silence doesn't mean absence, right? Sometimes when God is silent, He's just sitting there waiting. Sometimes you don't want to hear it. Sometimes you just want somebody to listen. You talk about something. You don't want nobody's opinion. You don't want to know what they have to say about it. Most of the time, you already know how they feel about it. Sometimes it just needs to sit there. Jesus will sit in the darkness with us. He will sit there right next to us while we are in our darkness. And He will slowly shine a light on you. And you will feel it. And you can feel His presence. You just have to ask for it. And then we talked about, is your house ready? So we reminded us to not only prepare for blessings, but prepare for His presence. It was about getting spiritually dressed for eternity. Now. So we compared this to... This OCD. app that I have. Anytime anyone's coming to my house, I have to clean my kitchen and I have to wipe down all my counters and I have to wipe down all my tables and I have to vacuum my floor and I have to spot mop it and make sure there's no spots. Everything has to be in its place and there can't be, like right now, there's shoes on the floor and there's probably a shirt laying across the couch. The blanket's not folded and put where it's supposed to be. It's just kind of laying on the couch Because nobody's here but me, right? And nobody's, no company's coming. But when company comes, I mean, what's the first thing you do? You clean your house, right? You don't want anybody to walk in and think, oh, that's dirty. Or, oh, that's cluttered. Or, oh, that's disorganized. You know, you just don't want that. And I do it at work, too. I clean my office constantly at work because I don't want people to come in. And I am the most disorganized person that you'll ever meet most of the time. But it is what it is. But is your house ready? And it wasn't about your physical house being ready. It was about, is your heart ready? If Jesus knocked today and said, it's time to come home, are you ready to come home? Are you ready to stand in front of Jesus? Are you ready? If you had asked me this question 15 years ago, I would have been so full of shame. I would not have been ready. If you had asked me this 10 years ago, and I will be married 10 years in October, I still don't think I was completely ready. I still had a lot of skeletons in my closet. I still had a lot of hurt and trauma to deal with. Am I ready today? I am. I am ready. I know He loves me. I know He loves me for who I am. I know that He has given me grace and that He has given me gratitude and that He has humbled me in so many ways. And that... So yeah, I'm ready. I'm ready to stand before Him. I'm ready. The song says, am I going to dance with you, Jesus? Am I going to have anything to say? I don't know. Or am I just going to be in awe of you? Part four, the next few, we talked about who you are and who He is. We followed up with more than enough. You know, where we dismantled comparison and insecurities, you know, our youth of today, our younger generations, you know, and I'm not talking about eight-year-olds. I'm talking about 12-year-olds, 13-year-olds, 14-year-olds. I'm talking about 20, 21, 22, women in their 30s, right? Like... Comparison and insecurities are what they are, right? You have been born into a generation where everything is at your hands. Everything is in the palm of your hands. You can see what all the rich are doing. It's not just Hollywood, but you see everything. Everybody, you know, people are, their lives are on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and everybody's so happy and they're always so positive and everything is so wonderful. But where's your heart? You know, when we first started this episode, I told you that I've been trying to, I've been working on you know, having happiness and finding true joy in my life. And, you know, my true joy definitely comes from Jesus. And insecurities and comparison will take your joy. And no one or nothing deserves your joy. Your joy is yours and yours alone. So then came, maybe you're the blessing. You know, I did this episode with Haley Lewis, the founder of Hud's Heart. And, you know, it still just gives me some kind of chill to think about me being somebody's blessing, right? Yeah. i get it i pray with people all the time and you know and i do nice things for people like i pay for their meal um you know i just uh bought a kid and who's been in foster care for uh for 15 of his 17 years and i just bought him a brand new nice backpack a laptop, some pens and some pencils and some paper and just a few necessities because he got a full scholarship to a college. And I wanted him to have what he needed to succeed because he has taken the opportunity to break those generational curses. He wants to be better than where he came from. And I want him to have all the opportunities that everyone else has. And we've actually been buying this kid a backpack for the last three years. And when we gave it to him, they were like, usually the college kids don't get nothing. And I'm like, he deserves it. He deserves it. He deserves everything that he's getting. But we were fraying. what it means to be strong. You know, the world says strength is dominance, and God says that it's discernment. And maybe your heaviness is proof of your calling, right? So discernment, you know, Haley talked about the yes, discernment, and about how in ministry sometimes you want to say yes because you can, but you need to ask, is this right? Is this my blessing to give or is it somebody else's? Because you definitely don't want to take someone else's blessing. And I'll list the other three questions in the description below. And then came Agape Love. And when Debra brought Agape Love to me, I Googled it and it did not... Its definition of Agape Love was not... the definition that we were looking for. But we dove into God's kind of love. Non-conditional, not based on any behavior, but covenant, eternal, and pursuing. Unconditional. There's no conditions to God's love other than you love Him. And people say, well, I'm not ever going to be different. I'm not ever going to be different. That's why I don't want to be a Christian, or that's why I don't want to love Jesus, because I'm not ever going to change. I used to be one of those. I used to always say that I'd smoke pot till the day I die. I'd get high. smoking pot every day until the day I die. Like, I will never give up smoking pot. I like the way it makes me feel. I like how it calms me down. You know, I will never quit smoking pot. Then I got clean, right? And I quit meth. And then, you know, I still drank. I still smoked a little pot. You know, on and on. But Then I felt Jesus and I truly was humbled and given grace and I haven't thought about smoking pot in a long time. You know, I haven't thought about it because it's not about what I've done. It's about finding peace. You don't find peace with drugs and you don't find peace out in the world and you don't find peace searching around. You find peace when you hit your knees and you talk to God. The wait and the witness. Our next stop was, what are you waiting on? I've been trying to dig more into the Bible, right? And we've talked about this. And so what are you waiting on was a look into the 400 years of biblical silence and how even when God seems quiet, He is never still. He is always working. So in the 400 years of biblical silence, that's the time that Moses and the Israelites were wandering around in Egypt, wandering around in the desert after leaving Egypt. And And every time they were almost to where they were supposed to be, they would start grumbling or griping, complaining, whining about, you know, where is God? What is he doing? Blah, you know, just ugh kind of things. And, you know, we broke it down. And during this time when all of this was going on in history, the Romans were coming in. They were building roads. They were building infrastructure. They were building all of the cities. And they were preparing the world for Jesus, even though they didn't know this. But that's what they were doing. And the Israelites couldn't take the moment to figure that out, that Jesus was coming. So when he came... He didn't have to wander around in the desert. He was able to walk on roads from city to city, and he was able to have housing, and there was wells dug, so there was water, and there was, you know, there were cities, and there was things to trade, and there was just, it was a lot easier than it would have been if he would have came before during those times. You know, And then our final and latest episode is one that I believe will touch so many people's hearts, so many people's minds. I believe that it is a God-filled testimony. My God is faithful, the heart's story. Haley, the host that helped me to do Baby, You're the Blessing, she told her story, her testimony of her son, Hudson, and how, you know, how it, Haley's testimony, it's real, it's raw, and it's redemptive. When she talks about Hudson and she talks about what her and Joey went through, it's heartfelt, right? It's definitely, yeah, It's definitely a sad story to hear. But at the same time, you know, it reminds us that God doesn't just bring beauty. That God doesn't just bring beauty from ashes. He builds ministry from them, right? Haley dove into her faith when she was going through all that and dug into God and said, He helped her through it, and he helped her to come out of it on the other side stronger and more anointed and more in her faith. Haley is probably one of the strongest women that I have ever met, and I feel very blessed to have met her and to have her in this journey with me. from now until whenever and in the season of my life. So that's all 14 episodes. And if you haven't listened to any of them, if you've only listened to one of them, if you... heard something today that makes you want to go back and listen to another one please do if you've heard something today about one of the episodes that you think you know someone that needs to hear please please share the podcast with everyone um Take a moment to go to our Facebook page, Unrelated Sisters Truth and Grace Conversation Podcast, and drop us a note. Drop us a comment. We've posted every episode to our Facebook page. Drop us a line. Find us on TikTok. I'm not very good at posting on TikTok. I'm trying to be better. You know, God has been on me about making some videos and introducing ourselves to the world, and I'm not ready. But you know, I'm not usually ready when He wants me to do something. So I want y'all to... So here's the heart of today's episode. We're not just making a podcast. We're building a community of truth and grace. I'm not perfect. I don't have it all together. But I show up and I tell the truth. Me and Deborah, we cry, we laugh, we trust in God together. And it seems every week to work itself out. It just seems to be what it's supposed to be. And the months before we started this, that's all I prayed. Let it be what you want it to be. Let us be your hands and feet. Give us what you want us to talk about. And there's some weeks I know exactly where we're headed. And then there's some weeks I don't know until the day before we post it, where we're headed. To every person listening, man or woman, I want you to know you're not alone. You're not forgotten, and you are not too much or not enough. You are my sister and my brother in this house of faith, and this podcast is your seat at the table. This is your outlet. If you want to tell your story, contact me. Let's tell your story. If there's a topic that you want us to talk about, tell us. I'll pray on it. And it may not be today's episode. It may not be next week's episode. Because some of these episodes we recorded first, but it wasn't the one to release. Everything we pray, we pray for everything that we do. You know, I just want to thank you for spending this reflection moment with me. It's been an honor to grow, learn, and worship alongside each and every one of you. And Deb, if you're listening from your vacation spot, we love you and I miss you. If this episode has blessed you, please share it. Leave a review. Don't forget to connect with us on Facebook and TikTok, Unrelated Sisters Truth and Grace Podcast. We want to hear your stories, your struggles, and your testimonies. Father God, we thank you for every story, every episode, every man and woman who has tuned in to Unrelated Sisters. Lord, you have met us in our weakness, our joy, our waiting, and our pain. You've reminded us over and over and over again that you are faithful. I lift up every listener right now. Meet her, him exactly where they are. Whisper truth into their hearts. Wash them with grace. Strengthen them for the journey ahead. And Lord, let this podcast continue to be a space where you are glorified and your daughters and sons are loved. Lord Jesus, I am so humbled. I'm so grateful. And we give you all the glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Until next time, keep walking in truth, keep resting in grace, and remember, you're not alone and God's not done with you yet. We love you.