Kathie Lee Gifford, HELLO LITTLE DREAMER
[0:08]Hi, I'm Zibi Owens and you're listening to the award-winning podcast Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books.
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[0:53]Hi, everybody. So today, the sponsor for my podcast is my other podcast.
[0:58]I am launching Moms Don't Have Time to Lose Weight. It launched Monday, October 12th.
[1:04]And hopefully, it'll stick around for a long time. It features women talking to other women about their journeys of their bodies and getting tips and
[1:14]commiseration and all the things we need so that we don't feel alone in trying to make our bodies feel better tomorrow than they do today.
[1:21]So check out Moms Don't Have Time to Lose Weight. And it's also a community now on Instagram at Moms Don't Have Time to Lose Weight.
[1:29]So if you will fall into that category like I do and so many of us come join us, the doors open.
[1:35]The second episode of my week of Children's Vic Blast is by Kathy Lee Gifford.
[1:41]It's called Hello Little Dreamer. FYI, Kathy Lee also has another book that's coming out in December called It's Never Too Late.
[1:49]Make the next act of your life, the best act of your life. And she wrote that with Dolly Parton.
[1:54]And it's coming out in December. And we touched on that in this interview as well,
[1:58]but just stay on the lookout for that. But today, we're mostly talking about Hello Little Dreamer.
[2:03]Kathy Lee Gifford is a four-time Emmy Award winner. It's best known for her 11 years co-hosting
[2:08]the popular fourth hour of the Today Show alongside Hoda. Gifford continues to pursue her dreams
[2:14]as an actress, singer, songwriter, playwright, producer, and most recently director.
[2:19]She has authored numerous books, including her most recent children's book,
[2:23]aside from this one called The Gift That I Can Give. And for New York Times, best-selling books,
[2:27]including The Rock, The Road, and The Rabbi. Hi, is this Vivi? Yes. Hi, I'm sorry. I'm this is Kathy.
[2:34]I'm sorry. I believe we're having some trouble getting through to you, but here I am.
[2:37]How are you today? Oh, I'm sorry. Good. How about you?
[2:40]Now that I've got you, you know, you have a little panic. I gotta be honest.
[2:46]And then you're good. I feel like everybody who joins my show is like recovering.
[2:51]It's like PTSD because it's always so many technical issues getting on Skype or Zoom or whatever.
[2:56]So I've been a live performer my entire life. I do not respond well to this world.
[3:04]I bet. I'm too old for all of this. Anyway, thank you for having me today.
[3:11]Well, thanks for coming on. I am so excited to talk to you about your many exciting projects you
[3:16]have going on starting with a little dreamer, which I read out loud to my two
[3:22]minimalist kids and they just loved it. So thank you for that.
[3:25]Oh, one for five minutes. I'm so happy to hear that. You know, I mean,
[3:31]a little long time since I had little ones. You know, but I'm still a little kid at heart.
[3:36]I guess so. I don't know. I I'm grateful to hear that from you because that's the whole point.
[3:41]You know, we we wait too long with our children. I do to instill extraordinarily important values.
[3:47]The most important things, the most important truths. We wait too long.
[3:52]Frank and I rarely fought over things, but the one thing we disagreed on was how long we should wait
[3:56]for our little ones to learn how to say, please. And thank you. And I love you. And I'm sorry.
[4:02]And all those things that you're going to need in life many times. And he's a Cassie is only
[4:09]two. He's two. I said, yeah, I'm pretty soon he'll be 12 and it'll be too late.
[4:16]I know. That's the thing. I have the most polite children. You will be you. They for everybody.
[4:22]Cassie was terrible because she just took it so to heart. And I'd say Cassie has to both of them.
[4:29]You say, please. Or you do not get it. You say, thank you. Or you know, or I take it back.
[4:34]Then we start all over again. And so they believe me. So what Cassie was better at it.
[4:39]No, Cody was really good. I mean, but when the middle of the night, when he even go potty,
[4:44]and I didn't care if he hit the toilet or not, I just wanted him to say, thank you after I got back with him.
[4:50]And so he'd wake up and he'd come on me, potty, please. Potty, please. And I'd go, yes, I gotcha.
[4:59]Then I'd put him back to sleep and go, thank you. Thank you.
[5:05]I don't know. Cody Frank came to believe that it was true, but Cassie took it way further than that.
[5:11]And we'd be at a restaurant or something. And she'd give her order and she'd go, thank you.
[5:16]And the way it was wouldn't respond to she spoke for the waiter. Cassie would go, thank you.
[5:25]Until finally, the waiter or waiter said, go, you're welcome, kid, Josh.
[5:31]You know, or they'd walk away and Cassie would look at me and go, they didn't say,
[5:34]you're welcome. I mean, she was, she was insane about it.
[5:40]I guess I did go a little overboard.
[5:42]Oh, at least you did your job well. I mean, you know, check plus on that.
[5:48]Well, I was raised that way and I can't stand, you know, little brats going to bratty adult.
[5:54]They just do. If nobody takes them aside and teaches them what's right, and I'm not saying
[5:59]how to vote and how to believe in your, you know, whatever. I'm just talking with a basic
[6:03]decency, courtesy thing. And kids today just have not been taught them from what I see and some
[6:10]have. And it's so rare that I go, gee, somebody raised you right, you know, but it's been lost in
[6:16]our culture like so many other things. I think it takes like a relentless focus on it because you
[6:20]can't just say like, all right, say, please and thank you. It's every single interaction when they say
[6:25]it. You have to like catch it and say, thanks for saying, please or whatever. And then you have
[6:30]to catch it when they draw. You've got to reinforce it constant. So yes, reinforcement. I call it
[6:36]resentless. Yes. Oh, I love that because because they're going to resent you, but you got to be
[6:43]relentless about it. I'm coming to you from my parenting advice for now on when I'm feeling like
[6:49]all my reinforcement is making no difference. I'll remember that no, no, it totally will. It's a
[6:58]guarantee that the Bible says, you know, raise up your children in the way they should go and when
[7:02]they're older, they will not depart from it. And I've seen that with my children. Oh, gosh,
[7:07]whether one of them's 30 and one's 27 now. And, you know, I had my son's getting married in two weeks.
[7:12]My daughter got married two months ago. So it's a, it's a whole new world. But if they don't teach
[7:17]their, their children, these common currencies grandma will blam. I want to be called glam. I will
[7:22]teach them blabbing. Well, that's exciting. I have so many huge milestones happening in your life
[7:28]all at the same time. That's great. Well, I think people tend to thank you. I think people tend
[7:33]to believe that, you know, because of COVID, the world has come to a standstill. And that's not
[7:38]true at all. Certain things have, of course, but, but God's Spirit has never stopped moving.
[7:43]And Holy Spirit's never stopped moving in our own lives. So there's lots of good stuff to be seen
[7:49]and to be experienced. If we, if we have our spiritually antenna out for it, God is doing great
[7:54]mighty things in spite of it all. Just as he has through all of time, he never changes. So it's
[8:00]the world that changes and people that change, but never, never got himself.
[8:05]You know, I was actually my, my mother-in-law right now. And I know this will air later when
[8:09]who knows what will have happened. But my mother-in-law is in the ICU with COVID and has been
[8:15]served so far. Thank you. And she's only 63 in all the rest. But I have
[8:21]too young and asking, like so many people to pray and to reach out. It doesn't matter what
[8:26]religion and whatever. And when I was reading a little dreamer and what, you know, on your Instagram
[8:31]and your whole sort of faith and, and determine, you know, even in the book, how your neighbor
[8:36]sold you the house, because they just felt it from God. And anyway, I was like, there's this
[8:41]why I'm talking to God like every today when I have like my life at the moment. So anyway.
[8:48]No, I'm sitting on that same porch right now that, and I was talking to her yesterday,
[8:53]because she's just now moving into the home that they recently built. They could have moved in
[8:57]in April, but the COVID kept them at their, their late place. But in that, yeah, a great friendship
[9:02]came from that. And I'm literally five feet from the spot where she yelled out to me on my little
[9:09]doubt balcony across the way. And it's just a miracle. I didn't put this in the book because it
[9:14]looked like too much. But I'm really what happens as soon as I bought the house from them,
[9:18]I was walking home to my brownstone. And to call my, my real estate guy to say, okay,
[9:24]I got to put mine on the market now when my dear friend Angie, whom if you read that book,
[9:29]obviously said, Kathy, don't call your, don't call your real estate agent. I said, why?
[9:33]She says, I think I have a buyer for your yours. I went, I'm just bought the other one five
[9:38]seconds ago. And she goes, no, no, no, can they come by this afternoon? And I went, yeah,
[9:44]these people came bought it immediately for $100,000 more than I had bought it the six months before.
[9:50]Oh, my gosh. I mean, God knows it's so the miracle, but nobody would believe that, you know,
[9:55]and I don't want to make people feel bad like their prayers or an answer or something. But I thought
[10:00]was enough of a miracle that these people sold me their home
[10:04]just because God said, sell it, sell it to Kathy Lee.
[10:08]And I cannot, oh, the blessing it has been sent.
[10:12]It's just extraordinary.
[10:13]So what I'm tempted to have a pity party,
[10:16]which we all are in this world,
[10:19]I just look around and I go really happily.
[10:22]You're gonna have a pity party.
[10:24]What are you forgetting all of God's faithfulness to you
[10:28]through 67 years of life?
[10:30]Really?
[10:31]So you can have a pity party right now?
[10:33]And I just, you know, oh, no Lord, I'm not gonna do that.
[10:37]You know, because look at these real life,
[10:39]they weren't the Israelites then, they were the Hebrews.
[10:41]They had no sooner had the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea
[10:45]than they get across Pharaoh's chariots
[10:48]or deep in the water.
[10:49]They've been redeemed from slavery.
[10:53]And they wanna go back, they want the food, they miss.
[10:55]You know, and I go, Lord, I'm no different from them.
[10:58]So I want my husband back.
[11:00]I want my youth back.
[11:01]I want that back.
[11:02]I want all these things back and God goes,
[11:04]are you not gonna finish this race with me?
[11:07]Are you not gonna go forward, Kathy?
[11:09]I don't go backward.
[11:10]I go forward.
[11:12]You go with me or not.
[11:13]And I feel so ashamed of myself at times.
[11:15]I mean, not, not that I like to get condemned,
[11:19]but just remind it.
[11:20]Remind it, no, I am the God of forward.
[11:24]He is with us presently and he is always leading us forward
[11:27]by his counsel.
[11:29]And he leads us ultimately to glory, the word says.
[11:31]So I don't wanna go back really.
[11:33]It's just at times when we're weak
[11:35]and we are, we never stop being weak at times.
[11:38]That never ever happened.
[11:40]We as we perish inwardly, I mean outwardly,
[11:45]in our bodies and our world decays and everything else.
[11:48]You know, we are being renewed on a daily basis
[11:50]for eternity's sake.
[11:51]And I, it's just easy to forget that.
[11:54]You know, and especially when everybody's facing
[11:57]so many hard times today, they really are.
[11:59]That's the other thing the Lord reminds me of,
[12:01]Jimmy, all the time.
[12:02]But, oh, Kathy, some people are truly suffering.
[12:07]Let's remember them cry out for them.
[12:10]I see you, I see your needs.
[12:12]I know them without you speaking them.
[12:14]Trust me with those, as you always,
[12:16]you have in the past and really lift up those
[12:19]who are desperate, desperate for my help.
[12:23]I've got more friends right now.
[12:25]I don't know if it's because of my age,
[12:26]but more friends that are on life support
[12:29]or needing an operation or going into chemo
[12:32]who had, I think it's the most at one time.
[12:35]I've got the longest prayer list of people
[12:38]that truly need healing.
[12:40]There's always one or two in our lives.
[12:42]You know, that are facing those things.
[12:45]But it's a much longer list now.
[12:48]And a lot of it is because of COVID.
[12:51]Although I have not lost a friend to it yet.
[12:54]I praise God for that.
[12:56]I know people who have been lost to it,
[12:58]but none of my dear friends have been lost to it.
[13:00]And I'm grateful for that.
[13:02]And I'm sorry for your mother-in-law.
[13:04]You said, is she gonna be all right?
[13:06]I don't know.
[13:07]I hope so.
[13:08]I pray that you will, but we'll see.
[13:10]But I'm sorry too.
[13:11]You're right.
[13:12]Not at all.
[13:13]So many people are suffering.
[13:14]And I'm sorry your list is so long on your prayer list
[13:16]right now.
[13:17]That's okay.
[13:18]That's okay.
[13:19]But you know, one of the things I found with your book,
[13:25]it's never too late.
[13:26]And even hello, little dreamer is all of your emphasis
[13:29]on what's coming next, right?
[13:32]Like what?
[13:33]It's never too late.
[13:34]It's perfect, right?
[13:35]Like the dreams that you want.
[13:37]You know, you left the fourth hour of today's show
[13:40]to pursue your dreams now.
[13:42]It's like so inspiring.
[13:44]You want to be, you want to like go off
[13:45]in a whole different direction and tell me a little bit
[13:47]about like why it's never too late to dream.
[13:51]And how much life is left.
[13:53]Your whole sort of theory on life.
[13:56]Tell me a little bit about that.
[13:57]Well, life is left until we run out of it.
[14:00]You know, if I wake up in the morning
[14:02]and I have a pulse, that means I still have a purpose
[14:04]that God wants me to fulfill.
[14:06]And I think a lot of people give up on life
[14:08]when they think that nobody needs them anymore.
[14:10]There is no reason to get out in the morning
[14:12]and or they don't have the energy for it anymore.
[14:15]And you know, I was just praying to the Lord the other day.
[14:18]You know, I said, Lord, if you're done with me,
[14:19]then take me home.
[14:21]I'm ready.
[14:22]You know, I get very exhausted from things
[14:25]and then discouraged and disappointed like everyone does.
[14:29]Even if somebody looks at my life
[14:31]and it looks like it's full and it's vibrant
[14:33]and it's often often is.
[14:35]I still have those moments where I just go,
[14:37]okay, I'm done, Lord.
[14:39]I'm done, take me home, I'm ready.
[14:41]And I have a beautiful home.
[14:43]I've been blessed with beautiful homes for a long, long time.
[14:46]But this is not my ultimate home.
[14:48]And you know, I'm a widow now
[14:50]and there's that always that ever present
[14:53]gnawing at your soul that you're alone
[14:57]and that I'm not alone.
[14:58]I mean, it's a constant, yes, you are.
[15:00]No, I'm not.
[15:01]Yes, I, who, who, what's little voice are you gonna listen to?
[15:06]You know, and I can look around and say,
[15:08]yes, my husband is not here with me.
[15:11]My children have moved on to their lives.
[15:13]But I'm not alone.
[15:15]I have the Holy Spirit present within me.
[15:17]I have the, his presence all around me
[15:19]in my friends and in my, in my work.
[15:23]I'm doing more important work now.
[15:25]I believe that I've ever done in life
[15:27]with the encouragement I'm trying to be to others
[15:30]in terms of especially the Word of God
[15:32]with the books that I'm writing,
[15:33]they rock, road, and rabbi series,
[15:35]which we're trying for two more of those.
[15:38]And because that, that is meeting at that deep hunger
[15:42]in the world and that nobody's more surprised than I am.
[15:45]I thought there was complete, that complete,
[15:47]but almost complete, total illiteracy about the scriptures
[15:51]and that people just weren't interested in growing
[15:53]in their faith.
[15:54]And I was, that book has been surprise, super bestseller
[15:59]and much to my delight because it shows that people
[16:02]are hungry for the Word of God.
[16:04]And when people, you can't fly to Israel
[16:06]anymore, but right before COVID,
[16:08]it was the most purchased and most read books
[16:10]on all the planes going into Israel.
[16:13]People about every faith.
[16:15]They were reading it in anticipation of going
[16:18]to the Holy Land and studying,
[16:20]which just is such a blessing
[16:24]because my faith was look warm for many years
[16:28]because I wasn't being fed either in church
[16:31]or through the Word of God.
[16:32]Now, why wasn't I?
[16:33]Because I wasn't reading the true Word of God
[16:36]because I was reading bad translations.
[16:38]And I was going to churches where they were preaching
[16:41]the true Word of God.
[16:43]And it's just so simple, go to the source
[16:46]and the source is what's going to refresh you.
[16:49]The source is what's going to empower you.
[16:52]And the source is the Old Testament in the Hebrew
[16:55]and the New Testament in the Greek.
[16:57]And if you're not learning that and not memorizing that
[17:00]and not quoting that and not building your life on that,
[17:04]you're building it on sinking sand your whole life.
[17:08]And I need a solid rock underneath my feet
[17:10]because I will go astray without this type of bill.
[17:14]And I'm just like anybody else that's just human.
[17:17]And what the fire that lit in me when I started studying
[17:22]rabbinically was profound, profound.
[17:26]And so I wrote first-orderio, the God who sees
[17:29]with my friend, the beautiful and talented
[17:32]Nicole C. Mullen, that led to three more oratorios,
[17:35]which I'm now about to start filming next week.
[17:38]I filmed the first, the first new scene
[17:41]from the New Oratorios.
[17:43]We hope to have them done by the end of the year.
[17:45]And that will be one and a half hours of symphonic oratorios.
[17:50]Wow.
[17:50]They're called the way, called the way,
[17:53]that we hope to give us a gift to the world next Easter.
[17:58]So that'll be two years, basically,
[18:00]after I left the today's show.
[18:03]I've got two more books.
[18:04]I told you that we're signing for the two books coming out,
[18:07]my movie that I did with Craig Ferguson, Ben K. Mu,
[18:11]is finally coming out in a month from now.
[18:14]So these theaters, if theaters are open,
[18:16]it'll be in theaters, if they aren't open,
[18:18]it'll be being streamed.
[18:20]So yes, that's been in my back view mirror for,
[18:25]rear view mirror for too long.
[18:26]I've been two years since we wrapped it
[18:29]and finding the right distributor,
[18:31]especially in the world of COVID, has been challenging.
[18:34]But that's happening.
[18:36]Yeah, I must feel like I was singing on the first day
[18:39]of Christmas, you know, because it's like,
[18:41]four, two, three, two, three,
[18:42]three, two, three, two, three,
[18:43]and a partridge and a character.
[18:45]I mean, it's just like it's overwhelming.
[18:47]I woke up this morning and said,
[18:49]okay, I know I have three interviews today.
[18:50]What are they for?
[18:52]Well, they for Lord remind me of which process.
[18:56]So it's fun.
[18:58]It all just like speaks to your whole point,
[19:02]which is that there's so much more to come in life.
[19:04]I just wanted to read this one little passage
[19:06]from your book because it's so inspiring.
[19:09]You said, if you're my age or getting clothes,
[19:11]it's probably been a long time
[19:12]since you last thought back to those days
[19:14]when you had dreams of what or who you wanted to be
[19:16]when you grew up, but it's time friend.
[19:18]It's time to ask yourself,
[19:19]what would I do if I could toss out the phrases I can't
[19:22]and I don't know how and start dreaming about the what if
[19:25]that might get you off that couch
[19:27]and back into something you want to do.
[19:29]Maybe me sharing my story will give you some perspective
[19:32]and do that for you.
[19:33]And you say, are you ready?
[19:35]It's never too late to dream.
[19:36]So awesome, I love it.
[19:40]Well, thank you, but it's because it's true.
[19:43]And when you study the scripture,
[19:45]you realize that dreams are an intricate part
[19:49]of your inner being.
[19:51]We I believe that the scripture is flawless
[19:55]and God used people dreaming and their dreams all through.
[20:00]about history to impact culture and impact lives,
[20:04]millions of lives, and God has not stopped placing dreams
[20:10]in people's hearts.
[20:11]As we said before, he doesn't change.
[20:13]So women who are pregnant right now
[20:16]with their children, God is at work
[20:18]in that secret place the Bible talks about,
[20:21]in the darkness of the inner womb,
[20:24]which is a sacred place, a sacred place.
[20:27]I wish our culture and our world understood
[20:30]how sacred that is.
[20:33]God is at the moment of conception through,
[20:37]I think there's a line in my new oratorio,
[20:39]the God of the house, when it says,
[20:41]oh Lord, you were there before the world began.
[20:44]You created everything, each woman, every man.
[20:47]You placed, what is it?
[20:49]You wrote their stories in their mother's wounds
[20:53]and then you carried them from their cradles
[20:56]to their tomb.
[20:57]And it's true, the God of creation Jehovah Elohim
[21:01]never stops creating.
[21:04]And every morning of every human beings' life,
[21:06]whether they are just being born or they're dying,
[21:10]is an act of creation by father,
[21:12]God Jehovah Elohim, which in Hebrew means creator God.
[21:17]And if we can look at our lives with that perspective,
[21:21]it gives each moment purpose.
[21:24]Every moment has purpose because the great,
[21:26]we think about it, the greatest day of a believer's life
[21:32]is the day that God calls them home.
[21:35]The greatest day, it's not a tragedy.
[21:38]It's a triumph, it's a triumph.
[21:41]And that's why I could hold my dead husband in my arms
[21:44]and cry peers of joy and rejoicing.
[21:48]Not because I was glad my husband was dead.
[21:50]I was thrilled to know where my husband was now
[21:54]and who he was with.
[21:58]And you can't do anything but rejoice
[22:01]when you truly understand that scriptural truth.
[22:05]He will lead us onto glory.
[22:08]We either believe that or we don't.
[22:11]And so grief is an important thing.
[22:15]But I don't allow myself to stay in grief.
[22:21]I allow myself to grieve appropriately.
[22:24]And then I make myself move on in the promise of the future.
[22:27]I have to because the evil one would keep us there.
[22:31]The evil one would love to keep us in grief
[22:34]because we're paralyzed.
[22:35]And he comes to steal and kill and destroy.
[22:38]But Jesus came that we might have life and life abundantly.
[22:41]And the word and the Greek for that word
[22:43]abundantly is the word Zoe.
[22:46]Z-O-E, which means beyond.
[22:48]It cannot be contained.
[22:49]It overflows.
[22:50]It cannot be withheld.
[22:53]And that's what I want for my life
[22:56]as long as I am alive, Zoe.
[22:59]And when it's not there,
[23:01]it's because I've moved away from God
[23:03]and not the other way around.
[23:04]My life is about God's faithfulness to be.
[23:07]Not my faithfulness to God
[23:09]because I have failed him way too many times.
[23:11]I'll fail him today in one way or another.
[23:14]But I don't stay there.
[23:16]I stay there in the promise of, yes,
[23:17]but that's why you still need me, Kathy.
[23:19]You still need me.
[23:21]And it's more of a sort of place ourselves as Paul did
[23:26]that in my weakness he has made strong.
[23:29]Even Paul was one of the greatest apostle ever.
[23:34]And I think a close second would be Billy Graham.
[23:37]Or in terms of how the impact of a one-to-life
[23:41]on the world, I mean, there was Martin Luther,
[23:44]there were Billy Graham, there were those
[23:46]who truly changed the course of history.
[23:49]And, but we could all change the course of some people,
[23:53]somebody's history.
[23:54]We can do it right now.
[23:55]Today is the day of salvation, you know?
[23:59]So how did you just quickly, I know we're almost at a time,
[24:02]but you were born?
[24:03]We are?
[24:04]I know, I know, it's like, it was so fast.
[24:06]I had like a thousand more things to you,
[24:08]but I was just curious, you were born Jewish,
[24:11]if I have this right, and you even called your dad
[24:14]sitting Shiva because he was part, is that right?
[24:17]Like, tell me about this and how you became,
[24:20]I guess, such a devout Christian hat, like, what happens?
[24:24]Well, first of all, I'm not devout.
[24:28]I'm really not.
[24:29]I always say I'm a very bad follower of Jesus
[24:31]who was perfect.
[24:32]I'm not.
[24:33]All right, maybe that's the wrong one.
[24:34]Who do you know what I'm saying?
[24:35]Okay, let me say I'm passionate.
[24:37]Not devout, passionate.
[24:38]How about that?
[24:39]That's great.
[24:40]And I'm sincere.
[24:42]I'm a sincere follower of Jesus, yes, yes, yes, yes.
[24:45]And I don't belong to any church body.
[24:47]I belong to be church, which means I could say it in Greek.
[24:52]It doesn't mean a building.
[24:54]It's fine to be a member of that,
[24:55]but I don't identify that way.
[24:57]I am a follower of Yeshua, the Messiah.
[25:02]Now, my father was Jewish.
[25:03]His father was a progression Jewish immigrant,
[25:06]but my mother was born also of immigrants.
[25:08]Her father was a part of the immigrant from Canada,
[25:11]but she was not a Jewish race.
[25:13]And you know, there's a Jewish faith
[25:15]and then there's a Jewish race.
[25:17]My father was not raised in the Jewish faith,
[25:19]but he was born of a Jewish man.
[25:21]And so I was raised in both cultures to some extent.
[25:24]Mostly my mother's culture in America.
[25:27]My father did not grow up going to Temple or synagogue at all,
[25:32]but he was stoned.
[25:33]I think I talked a little bit about that
[25:34]and he was rocks were thrown at him.
[25:36]And it was called a Christ killer
[25:38]when he was still a child.
[25:39]It was awful.
[25:41]And his pheism is still rampant
[25:43]and growing in our world today,
[25:45]along with all racism, it just is.
[25:47]And it would come a long way,
[25:49]but we have a much longer way still to go
[25:51]to understand that all God's children are precious.
[25:54]So Jesus died for everyone,
[25:56]even the ones who are stoning him today
[25:59]and crucifying him yet today
[26:00]and blaspheming him yet today.
[26:03]He doesn't matter, he says, forgive them father.
[26:04]They don't know what they're doing.
[26:06]He's still the same.
[26:07]He rose 13, eight, right?
[26:09]Anyway, yeah.
[26:10]So my father was the first in our family
[26:13]to actually come to know Jesus,
[26:15]but he didn't tell us about that till much, much later.
[26:18]He was eight years old when he went down
[26:19]to an African-American little church
[26:21]in the middle of the summer to go to vacation Bible school
[26:24]because his mother said,
[26:25]get out of this house,
[26:26]you little healthy, and his baby was basically with hot.
[26:29]And she was, they were in her way
[26:31]and it said, go down to that little church.
[26:33]And my daddy didn't at the age of eight years old,
[26:36]asked Jesus into his heart.
[26:37]So yes, and I believe,
[26:40]and I tell the story in the book
[26:41]of how my father forgave his father
[26:44]and said, I forgive you, punk.
[26:46]And I think a great blessing fell upon my father
[26:50]and his family at that time
[26:52]because there is such a thing as generational sin.
[26:55]Unconfessed sin is passed on
[26:58]in terms of the repercussions of sin.
[27:01]Not the original sin of it,
[27:03]but the repercussions of it.
[27:05]We're passed on genetically things like alcoholism, things like,
[27:09]you know, I don't know,
[27:10]we're discovering more and more and more
[27:11]what is genetic and,
[27:13]but God who is a God of genetics can also change things.
[27:17]God, I've seen God work so many miracles
[27:19]that look like no way there was hope for this situation.
[27:23]No way.
[27:24]Well, God is the God of hope.
[27:26]Is it Romans 15,
[27:28]13 of Romans 15, 17,
[27:30]I think it says,
[27:32]Oh, now made a God of hope,
[27:34]fill you with all joy and peace
[27:36]as you trust in him
[27:38]that you may overflow with hope
[27:40]on the power of the Holy Spirit.
[27:42]The God of hope is alive and well today on planet Earth.
[27:46]And his hope is available
[27:48]for every single person who calls upon the name of Jesus.
[27:52]I believe that with my heart and soul
[27:54]and nothing will change it.
[27:56]There is nothing will change that.
[27:58]Yeah, so it didn't stand in my father's way
[28:01]that he was born to a Jewish father.
[28:02]And I think it's God used it powerfully in me
[28:06]later on the first time I went to the Holy Land
[28:08]and was so moved by the fact that I felt a sense
[28:12]of ancient understanding, ancient knowing.
[28:16]I came from here.
[28:18]Oh my gosh, I came from here.
[28:20]I'm born.
[28:22]I'm a daughter of Abraham.
[28:24]And it compelled me going forward
[28:28]to want to know his word,
[28:30]to want to visit the land where it all happened.
[28:32]And more and more, as I studied,
[28:35]more and more, there was a fire in my gut
[28:38]to pronounce it, proclaim it, and explain it.
[28:41]The more I came to understand by teachers
[28:43]who know far more than I know,
[28:45]I had to share it, or at first,
[28:48]I did it last night and I am second.
[28:50]I didn't know anybody was gonna call on me.
[28:52]I went, she goes, will you share a word?
[28:54]And I said, my friend Angie, I said,
[28:56]well, I don't have a word, but I know the word.
[28:59]So I proclaim what he's told me,
[29:01]and I, under the power of the Holy Spirit,
[29:03]started speaking, I have no idea what I said.
[29:06]I never write a speech, well, I just,
[29:09]I just, in him we live and move
[29:11]and have our being, the scripture says in Acts.
[29:14]And if we just trust that, God will use us.
[29:17]God will fulfill us.
[29:18]God will continue that redeeming work.
[29:21]He does in his people every day,
[29:23]renewing and refreshing and restoring.
[29:26]All the Rees are done by the Holy Spirit.
[29:28]All the Dees are done by Satan.
[29:31]Destruct, destroy, disillusioned, be all those,
[29:35]are of, try to notice them, recognize them
[29:39]in your life and come against them with the ours.
[29:42]I've come to restore, I've come to redeem,
[29:44]I've come to refresh, and they call things new.
[29:48]Okay, wait, come back to the book for two seconds here.
[29:51]Let me just ask about writing for you.
[29:56]I want to just to know what the writing process
[29:59]was like, you write children.
[30:00]You've written memoirs, you've done advice,
[30:02]you've so many things.
[30:04]What's your process like when you write?
[30:06]And then what advice would you have for aspiring authors?
[30:10]I think everybody's process is different.
[30:12]I wrote my first book when I was 18 years old
[30:15]and I'd forgotten that I'd written it
[30:17]and it had been a bestseller.
[30:18]That's how much I didn't think I was a writer.
[30:21]I'd remind myself, oh my gosh, that's right.
[30:23]My first book was called The Quiet Riot
[30:24]and it had three printings.
[30:27]I forgot I was so busy being an actress
[30:30]and a singer and pursuing those dreams.
[30:32]I literally forgot about it.
[30:34]And now that's 20 books ago.
[30:36]Yeah, everybody's got a book in them
[30:38]because everyone has a story.
[30:40]Whether they write it down or journal it,
[30:42]whatever, everyone's story is precious to God.
[30:45]He wrote our stories in our mother's womb
[30:48]and then he carries us from our cradles to our tomb.
[30:51]He never stops writing our story.
[30:53]So my process is letting the Holy Spirit move
[30:57]and not trying to control it.
[30:58]I often wake up at two o'clock or three o'clock in the morning
[31:02]and the Holy Spirit speaks to me and says,
[31:03]get up, go down and let the process begin.
[31:07]Open be a channel, be a channel for my creative energy
[31:11]and my creative juices to flow through you
[31:13]because I can't do anything on my own
[31:15]but I can do all things through Christ to strengthen me.
[31:18]So I sit down not knowing what the Lord has for me
[31:20]and then I thrill to it.
[31:22]And sometimes it's a Broadway show.
[31:24]Sometimes it's a lyric.
[31:25]Just a lyric, I write a song or half a song
[31:28]or the lyrics to thousands of songs
[31:30]or it's part of a book that becomes a book.
[31:33]Or it's, as you say, just a written jingles for commercials.
[31:38]I write constantly.
[31:39]I bet my friend gave me a placker in my office.
[31:42]It says, 80% of the words in my brain are lyrics.
[31:48]You know, because a life is a song.
[31:51]You know, all of creation sings out to the creator
[31:54]and I'm just part of creation.
[31:55]So I try to get out of God's way.
[31:57]I truly do and there are many, many times.
[32:00]I can't even count them that I have written a lyric
[32:03]and I write it down and I can't get it out fast enough
[32:06]and I stop and I look up and I go,
[32:08]you are unbullable because it's a perfect lyric.
[32:13]It's a perfect rhyme, it's a perfect lyric
[32:16]and it says perfectly what I need my character to say
[32:19]or I want to say in whatever rhyme writing
[32:22]and I know it doesn't, I know a good song when I write one
[32:26]but I know an anointed one when God writes one
[32:29]and more and more and more I want the anointing.
[32:32]I want the anointing.
[32:33]Yeah. And I'm writing with the finest writers
[32:35]in the world now down here in Nashville
[32:38]and it's a tremendous privilege
[32:42]that they've embraced me the way they have
[32:44]because I certainly has never been known as a songwriter
[32:47]but I've been writing songs since I was 20 years old
[32:51]and I just never did it in a professional way
[32:53]until I started writing really for theater
[32:55]and that's just been my Broadway show
[32:58]even though it was certainly not a hit by far.
[33:00]Not that I was a disaster basically on Broadway.
[33:03]It was Tony nominated.
[33:05]It was Tony nominated.
[33:06]I don't know how to write Broadway shows.
[33:08]I don't know how to write oratorios.
[33:11]I don't know how to write books.
[33:12]So God knows how.
[33:14]So if I just put myself in his hands,
[33:16]he uses me to do those things.
[33:18]I didn't get it.
[33:19]I left college.
[33:21]I left college before I graduated
[33:23]and I sat there for three weeks and wrote my first book
[33:26]waiting on God to see where he would leave me.
[33:28]He led me straight to Hollywood right after I finished that book
[33:31]thinking that nobody would ever read it
[33:33]except my daughter if I was blessed to have one one day
[33:36]and look at what the Lord has done in the in the ensuing years.
[33:41]That was in 1975.
[33:44]Well 1975.
[33:46]Uh huh.
[33:47]So what would you tell someone else who's just starting out?
[33:50]What would you tell an aspiring author?
[33:52]I would say go back to your earliest memories
[33:55]and ask the Lord to show you what your dreams were.
[33:57]If you've forgotten them, show him he'll restore those.
[34:01]He will redeem it all.
[34:03]He wants to.
[34:04]He is the redeemer of all things and he wants to make
[34:06]all things fresh and new.
[34:08]He says look what I do behold.
[34:09]Do you not see what I'm doing?
[34:12]Open your eyes basically.
[34:13]I am making, you know, a garden from the wasteland.
[34:17]Streams in the desert.
[34:19]All of those things are still inside you no matter what
[34:22]the world has thrown at you.
[34:25]He says I have overcome the world.
[34:27]They take courage.
[34:29]The word for courage when he says let your heart be troubled.
[34:31]Take courage.
[34:33]The word is canah meaning canah.
[34:35]What was his first bat town of canah is known as the one
[34:39]in the place where Jesus performed his first miracle.
[34:42]He demonstrated his glory in a way that was profoundly human,
[34:48]you know, to supply human needs for a glorious celebration
[34:52]of two people becoming one in God's sight.
[34:56]And God still celebrates and all that.
[34:58]I'm celebrating two weddings right now in my children's lives.
[35:01]And we don't have as many people at them,
[35:03]but we're celebrating and we're serving my wine now,
[35:05]my family wine, my, you know, I have a line of wine.
[35:10]And I just think how glorious of the Lord, yeah.
[35:13]But the dreams that I, as a mother,
[35:17]as I was carrying these children to birth,
[35:20]God was doing a great and profound work of creation
[35:24]in my children's inner beings that will continue long
[35:28]after I am gone.
[35:30]And I praise God for that.
[35:32]I don't worry about my children's future
[35:34]because God holds their futures in his hand.
[35:37]Long after my hands have gone on to embrace him,
[35:42]my God will be there for my children
[35:44]and their future generation.
[35:45]That's a promise straight from the Word of God.
[35:49]And I cling to his promises.
[35:52]Wow.
[35:53]This has been such an interesting conversation.
[35:55]I've loved hearing you talk about all your beliefs
[35:59]and passions and convictions and experiences.
[36:02]No, thank you.
[36:03]Thank you for sharing them with me and my listeners.
[36:06]And thank you.
[36:07]And everything you have coming forward, coming ahead.
[36:10]So thank you.
[36:11]Oh, your dear.
[36:12]Thank you so much.
[36:13]And bless those sweet little ones of yours,
[36:14]and please be the same.
[36:16]Thank you.
[36:16]Okay.
[36:17]Bye bye.
[36:18]And your mother-in-law, sweetie,
[36:19]and your mother-in-law.
[36:20]Please, Lord.
[36:21]Thank you so much.
[36:22]Okay, I mean, good talking with you.
[36:24]Bye bye.
[36:25]Bye bye.
[36:26]I hope you've enjoyed day three of the book last.
[36:28]I hope you listened to the whole week of episodes.
[36:31]Share some with your kids too.
[36:33]I hope you enjoyed today's episode.
[36:35]I know I enjoyed recording it.
[36:38]Don't forget to check out my new podcast,
[36:40]moms don't have time to lose weight.
[36:42]Pretty soon moms won't have time to listen to podcasts.
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[36:47]that goes along with it.
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[36:50]please request to join.
[36:51]It's for anyone who wants to feel body better
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[37:02]Moms don't have time to lose weight.
[37:03]Thanks for listening to this episode of Moms,
[37:05]don't have time to read books.
[37:07]Don't forget to follow me on Instagram,
[37:09]at zebi Owens, and at Moms don't have time to read books.
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[37:19]Thanks so much to Steve and Ryan at Textures Sound
[37:22]for the Sound Editing.
[37:23]And thank you to Morning Moon Productions
[37:25]for providing this fantastic intro and now trim music.