The Hamilton Corner

September 19, 2024 · 49:34

Heidi St. John returns to “The Corner.”

Bible & Theology

Show notes

0:00 - 15:00. Esther 8:16. For there was light, gladness, joy and honor. 15:00 - 31:00. Heidi St. John returns to “The Corner.” 31:00 - 48:00. Courage isn’t the absence of fear. Courage is persisting in the face of it. www.afaaction.net/life To donate call : 877-616-2396

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Transcribed with OpenAI Whisper (base.en). Timestamps are approximate. Lightly cleaned for readability; quotations from on-air callers may include filler words. Use the audio player above for the authoritative recording.

  1. 0:00Darkness is not an affirmative force.
  2. 0:03It simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light.
  3. 0:07This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
  4. 0:11It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite.
  5. 0:15Delivery people out of the bondage of mainstream media.
  6. 0:18And the philosophies of this world.
  7. 0:20God has called you and me to be his ambassador.
  8. 0:24Even in this dark moment.
  9. 0:26Let's not miss our moment.
  10. 0:29And now the Hamilton Corner.
  11. 0:31Good evening, everyone.
  12. 0:35Welcome to the Hamilton Corner here on American Family Radio.
  13. 0:38I am your host, Abraham Hamilton, the third broadcasting live.
  14. 0:42Day two from the Home School Legal Defense Association's
  15. 0:45National Leaders Conference here at the beautiful
  16. 0:49Sheraton Music City Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee.
  17. 0:55I know y'all thought you would have to ask,
  18. 0:56so you always have to opry land.
  19. 0:57Not today.
  20. 0:59Not today. I am so excited that you have made the decision to join us here on the program.
  21. 1:06I am joined as usual by the corner contingent right across from me again seated to my right
  22. 1:12produce extraordinaire often imitated but never duplicated the real J. Matt ladies and gentlemen
  23. 1:17and back on the home front we have my man a hundred grand man in the controls there
  24. 1:23It was a DJ, you might have called him on the was and twos.
  25. 1:30Mr. Bobby Rosa.
  26. 1:33We are ready to rock and roll.
  27. 1:35With today's edition of the program,
  28. 1:37I had the opportunity this morning to address.
  29. 1:40I think I was told it was nearly 500 leaders here
  30. 1:44from homeschool associations
  31. 1:46and conventions all across the country.
  32. 1:49All over this land, they are homeschooling groups.
  33. 1:53in each state of the country.
  34. 1:55And this is a conference to help you encourage,
  35. 1:58to equip, and to inform, and sharpen leaders
  36. 2:01so that they can go and serve in their communities.
  37. 2:04HSLDA's website is a great website
  38. 2:08for to kind of serve as a clearinghouse,
  39. 2:10hslda.org is a great website.
  40. 2:14Let me make sure I got the website now.
  41. 2:16Cause I tend to, that's right, hslda.org
  42. 2:20It's a great website to get involved in your local homeschooling group.
  43. 2:25And it was said here by veteran homeschooler, Zann Tyler said,
  44. 2:30don't homeschool without being an HSLDA member.
  45. 2:33It's been an amazing, amazing conference.
  46. 2:35So far I'm looking forward to the rest of it.
  47. 2:37Uh, I brother in the Lord, Dr.
  48. 2:39Renton Rathbund spoke.
  49. 2:41I just left a breakout session.
  50. 2:43Uh, he is the director of worldview at Bob Jones university.
  51. 2:46And this brother is such a blessing to the body of Christ, man.
  52. 2:49It was, it was amazing.
  53. 2:50He talked about how do you know if you're doing apologetics correctly?
  54. 2:55How do you know if you're doing it correctly?
  55. 2:57It was such an encouraging and encouraging presentation.
  56. 3:02I'll give you a small hint.
  57. 3:05The word of God is pre-imminent in your involvement.
  58. 3:09What an amazing time.
  59. 3:10Thank you again for tuning into the program at this very moment.
  60. 3:12Many of you, if not most of you are making your transition from your part time jobs
  61. 3:17where you generate an income to your full time jobs, where you cultivate an outcome.
  62. 3:22And as you do so, I want to remind you to make that move with intentionality, understanding
  63. 3:27the primacy that God places on the family.
  64. 3:33Before there was a New Testament order of the New Testament church, before there was an
  65. 3:37order of priests, an order of prophets, the modern iterations of civil government, the
  66. 3:41first human institution that God established was the family.
  67. 3:45That is not a coincidence.
  68. 3:46That is not a mere happenstance.
  69. 3:48That is a, is a, is a, the feature of divine design.
  70. 3:53God established the family as his primary institution to establish multi-generational
  71. 3:59faithfulness to him and his kingdom.
  72. 4:03We must, we must, we must be about our father's business.
  73. 4:06And in order to do that well, we need to understand the primary to the God places on
  74. 4:09family and welcome His primacy to inform our approach. Glory be to God. We will never be able
  75. 4:23to out politic or even out church deficiencies in the home. That is not God's way. Because what
  76. 4:31goes on in your house is far more important, far more important than what goes on in the White
  77. 4:37House. Back to the word of God we go today. We're going to return to Esther chapter 8 because I want
  78. 4:42to talk to you some more about this. Yesterday we described as the story of Esther, her Hebrew name,
  79. 4:52Hadassah is recorded for us in scripture. How she ascended to become the queen of the Persian Empire,
  80. 5:00the Aggagite Haman developed, well I should say, had a deep-seated hatred for
  81. 5:08the Jewish people, put money aside, 750,000 pounds of silver to bribe the Persian
  82. 5:17king Xerxes or a hazardous, is the Persian name recorded in scripture, to
  83. 5:23annihilate the entire Jewish ethnicity within the entire experience of the Persian
  84. 5:28Empire. Mordecai found out about it, informed his cousin, Haddasah, who he had raised as his own
  85. 5:36once Haddasah's parents had passed away. The scripture unfolds in a time period that gives us
  86. 5:40clear indication that both Mordecai and Haddasah were most likely born outside of the geographical
  87. 5:46boundaries of Israel, outside of the geographical boundaries of Judah. The Bible gives us clear
  88. 5:50indication that both Haddasah and Mordecai were Benjomites, descendants of Kish specifically,
  89. 5:57and we know that part especially especially for Mordecai. But when the plot
  90. 6:05to annihilate the Jews was learned by Mordecai, he wept, he prayed, he wore
  91. 6:12sackcloth and ashes, he appealed to Hadassah to Esther to intervene. Once Esther
  92. 6:19recognized the gravity of the situation Mordecai showed her a printed copy of
  93. 6:23the decree. It was a decree that was issued in the first month of the year that
  94. 6:27and said that on the 13th day of the last month of the year, of the 12th month of the year,
  95. 6:32that would be the day that all Jews would be annihilated in the entire expanse of the
  96. 6:37Persian Empire. When Adasah learned what was the gravity of the situation, she asked Mordecai
  97. 6:42and the believing remnant to pray and to specifically fast for her for three days, then she would
  98. 6:49appeal to the king. She ultimately does so, discloses to the king that Haman's plot would
  99. 6:57include her own annihilation to which King Xerxes didn't take too kindly. He ended up
  100. 7:04ultimately elevating Mordecai to a position of authority in the Persian government, gave
  101. 7:08Mordecai the authority to write the decree, to nullify the previous decree to annihilate
  102. 7:15the Jews. But the decree that Mordecai wrote gave the Jews, not just like an Ijumudrini
  103. 7:25blink of the eyes, blink, everything is over with. But it gave the Jews the authority to
  104. 7:31fight for their own lives. And I said yesterday that many of us have become somewhat conditioned
  105. 7:38and even developed an expectation that deliverance from the Lord looks a certain way. You know,
  106. 7:43we think, you know, it looks like the prison door is opening and the chains falling off
  107. 7:48and us walking out. When that's not consistent with what the scripture reveals, the scripture
  108. 7:52reveals that yes, that those types of things happen sometimes.
  109. 7:56But the scripture also reveals the Lord's deliverance
  110. 7:59sometimes looks like being given the opportunity to fight.
  111. 8:05And I'm gonna revisit that text again.
  112. 8:07So I'm gonna go back to Esther chapter eight.
  113. 8:10I said I was only gonna go to one verse, Jeff,
  114. 8:12but I'm gonna go to more than just one.
  115. 8:14I said I was gonna go just to eight, 16,
  116. 8:19but I'm going all the way back to verse 8 and read up through 16.
  117. 8:24And this is what the word of God says.
  118. 8:27Verse 8 begins with quoting King Xerxes.
  119. 8:29Now you speak into Mordecai.
  120. 8:32Now you write to the Jews as you see fit in the king's name and seal it with the king's
  121. 8:37signet ring for decree which is written in the name of the king and sealed with the king's
  122. 8:41signet ring may not be revoked.
  123. 8:43So the king scribes were called at that time in the third month.
  124. 8:47That is the month of seven.
  125. 8:49and on the 23rd day, and it was written according to all that Mordecai commandant,
  126. 8:54that all that Mordecai commandant to the Jews, the satrips, the governors,
  127. 8:58and the princes of the provinces which extended from India to Ethiopia,
  128. 9:02127 provinces to every province according to its script,
  129. 9:05and to every people according to their language as well as to the Jews
  130. 9:09according to their script and their language.
  131. 9:11He wrote in the name of King Ahasaras, that is Xerxes,
  132. 9:14and sealed it with the king's signet ring,
  133. 9:16and sent letters by couriers on horses riding on streets sired,
  134. 9:21sorry, riding on steeds sired by the royal stud.
  135. 9:26In them, the king granted the Jews who were in each
  136. 9:29and every city the right to assemble
  137. 9:32and to defend their lives, to destroy,
  138. 9:35to kill and to annihilate the entire army of any people
  139. 9:39or province which might attack them,
  140. 9:41including children and women and to plunder their spoil.
  141. 9:45On one day in all the provinces of King Ahasaras,
  142. 9:49the thirteenth day of the twelfth month,
  143. 9:51that is the month of Adar,
  144. 9:53a copy of the Edict to be issued as law
  145. 9:55in each and every province was published to all the peoples,
  146. 9:58so that the Jews would be ready for this day
  147. 10:00to have binged themselves on their enemies.
  148. 10:04The couriers hastened and impaled by the king's command,
  149. 10:07went out, riding on the royal steeds,
  150. 10:09and the decree was given out at the citadel in Sousa.
  151. 10:13Then Mordecai went out from the presence of the king,
  152. 10:16and royal robes of blue and white,
  153. 10:17with a large crown of gold and a garment of fine linen
  154. 10:20and purple, and the city of Sousa shouted and rejoiced,
  155. 10:25for the Jews there was light and gladness and joy and honor."
  156. 10:33Now some might ask, well, why couldn't the king
  157. 10:35just say all right, now you know, can it annihilate the Jews?
  158. 10:38Well, the previous decree was an irrevocable decree
  159. 10:41signed with the king's signet ring.
  160. 10:43So the only thing he could do is order a subsequent decree
  161. 10:47that doesn't nullify the previous one
  162. 10:49but gave the Jews the opportunity to respond accordingly.
  163. 10:54So the first decree would allow their annihilation.
  164. 10:57The second decree gave them the privilege to fight.
  165. 11:04The decree also gave them access to the spoils.
  166. 11:08You read the scripture you find
  167. 11:09that the Jews didn't take any spoils,
  168. 11:11they just defended themselves.
  169. 11:14This passage of scripture is what gives rise,
  170. 11:17book, I should say, in his culmination in chapters 8, 9, 8, 9, and then 10 record the introduction
  171. 11:25of the Feast of Purim in the Jewish experience. The Feast of Purim is directly connected to
  172. 11:34the 12th month, the 13th day, and the 14th day being days of deliverance for the Jewish people.
  173. 11:42But the deliverance didn't come to them with the eye dream of Jeannie Wink of the eyes. The
  174. 11:46the deliverance that they enjoyed was a right to fight.
  175. 11:52And when they learned that they were given the right
  176. 11:56to fight, look at the reaction, verse 16,
  177. 11:59there was light and gladness and joy and honor.
  178. 12:09Light, gladness, joy and honor.
  179. 12:12Why?
  180. 12:13Why?
  181. 12:14Man, now I have a chance.
  182. 12:16Now I can fight back.
  183. 12:18Now I can be engaged. Now I can be involved. I'm sharing this with you because too many,
  184. 12:24in too many circumstances, especially enjoying the environment that we enjoy, we can take the right
  185. 12:29to fight for granted. We can take the right to fight as if it's something that we should be
  186. 12:36guaranteed by virtue of breathing. When that ain't always the case. The Lord warned the people of God,
  187. 12:44both the believers in Rome and the believers in Colossae, I'm writing to the Colossians
  188. 12:50so that you would not be deluded.
  189. 12:52I'm writing if the delusion is allowed to metastasize, it could grow into full-blown captivity.
  190. 12:58The deliverance in the book of Esther that the Jews enjoyed was the right to fight.
  191. 13:06I'm continuing to emphasize this because I don't want us to misunderstand what God could
  192. 13:10be making available to us.
  193. 13:14You've heard me saying this program numerous times.
  194. 13:16Sometimes they're a prisons of constriction and lack and deprivation and even, you know,
  195. 13:22impoverished circumstances.
  196. 13:24But the enemy also works in prisons of luxury and prisons of neglect and prisons of abundance
  197. 13:34because we become easily seduced into a lethargy to where the concept of actually standing
  198. 13:41up and responding is a foreign idea.
  199. 13:47where engaging with you. Oh, that's too stringent. But I want you to peer into this and I pray
  200. 13:54that the Spirit of God would minister to you beyond the words that I am conveying to you.
  201. 14:00Because the deliverance that the Jews enjoyed in the Book of Esther, that culminated in the
  202. 14:04Feast of Purim was them being made aware. Oh, you thought annihilation was your portion,
  203. 14:09but now you have been blessed and delivered to the privilege of fighting back. You've
  204. 14:15I've heard me say in this program, I never intended for it to become like a jazzy saying
  205. 14:20or anything.
  206. 14:22But God has ordained you and me for this very moment we live in.
  207. 14:25Acts 17, God determined before time, before time began, He and His divine foreknowledge established
  208. 14:34the times in which you and I will be alive and the geographical boundaries of our habitation.
  209. 14:41That is the what, and then He gives us the why.
  210. 14:43Why?
  211. 14:44that men should seek God.
  212. 14:46This is the moment that God is ordained for you and for me.
  213. 14:49My prayer for this audience is that we do not,
  214. 14:52and we will not miss our moment
  215. 14:55because the right to fight is a blessing
  216. 14:57that God has given such a time of justice.
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  219. 15:03she wasn't sure where to turn.
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  224. 15:15When a mother looks at her child through a sonogram, it does something to you.
  225. 15:27You know, I ended up deciding to keep my son, who is now five years old today.
  226. 15:33He's amazing.
  227. 15:34He brings absolute joy to my heart.
  228. 15:36I could not imagine life without him.
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  235. 16:13Shiting light into the darkness. This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
  236. 16:25Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner, Abraham Hamilton the third here. I am delighted to
  237. 16:30have on the program with me. A woman who many of you already know, she is host of the Heidi
  238. 16:35St. John podcast. She's an author, speaker, podcast host, mom, woman of God. I would also
  239. 16:44add a fearless warrior who I'm honored to have on the program with me today. Heidi St. John.
  240. 16:49Hey. Hello. Great to be with you. Great to have you here. I should have also added a member of the
  241. 16:56HSLD board of directors as well. And actually you forgot MAMZY. My grandkids call me MAMZY.
  242. 17:01Well, you know, I thought that that was something if you wanted to share with a few of our friends.
  243. 17:05that would be something you would share,
  244. 17:07but I thought Mamsey was kinda cool.
  245. 17:09Such an honor.
  246. 17:10Yes.
  247. 17:11I love it, I love it.
  248. 17:12Nothing better than being called Mamsey, it's great.
  249. 17:14Well, I wanted to have you on the program
  250. 17:16for a host of reasons, but I wanted to start here
  251. 17:19because I know you are just,
  252. 17:21you have been on the front lines
  253. 17:23in contending for the faith,
  254. 17:26and particularly, particularly including
  255. 17:29ministering to women and ministering to your own family
  256. 17:34and encouraging others with the reality
  257. 17:35that you can train your own children.
  258. 17:36You don't have to outsource them to the government
  259. 17:39for the shaping of their hearts and their minds.
  260. 17:41And so would you just talk a little bit about that,
  261. 17:44how you got to the place where that became
  262. 17:46central to who you are and what you do?
  263. 17:48Well, I think it's important to frame the conversation
  264. 17:51and that I did not ever anticipate being a homeschool mom.
  265. 17:54I grew up, my grandparents put me through a private school,
  266. 17:57through a Christian school.
  267. 17:58Interesting, my granddad and my grandmother
  268. 18:01really understood the power of education.
  269. 18:03And so from a very young age,
  270. 18:05they were like, you're not going to a public school.
  271. 18:06This was a long time ago.
  272. 18:07I mean, dude, this was in the 70s, in the early 70s.
  273. 18:09And so we went to a Christian school
  274. 18:12and my parents couldn't afford it.
  275. 18:14And so everybody kind of pooled their money together
  276. 18:16and they put us in a Christian school.
  277. 18:17So I have had a framework for Christian education
  278. 18:19my entire life.
  279. 18:20And what the Lord did in my heart
  280. 18:22when our youngest daughter,
  281. 18:24who's now in her mid 30s herself,
  282. 18:26she's soon to be a mother of five,
  283. 18:28when she was in second grade and she was in a public school,
  284. 18:31we couldn't afford a Christian school, right?
  285. 18:33So we get, you know, Jay and I get married and you know, I'm 19, he's 21.
  286. 18:38And he's a pastor so, you know, we're broke.
  287. 18:40And we're trying to put our kids in a Christian school and we just couldn't do it.
  288. 18:45We just couldn't do it.
  289. 18:46We couldn't figure it out.
  290. 18:47We did it for about a year and a half and then thought, man, we're just going to have to try
  291. 18:49the public school.
  292. 18:50And I didn't hate the public school.
  293. 18:52I didn't have a terrible experience there.
  294. 18:54But what I noticed happening was that, you know, my daughter would get on the school bus like
  295. 18:58all the other kids in the neighborhood and comes at like 7.30 in the morning.
  296. 19:02I noticed that she was the school had her for the better part of the day and then
  297. 19:06she'd come home in the afternoon her little sister would come running out to
  298. 19:09meet her and Savannah was tired and kind of just couldn't care less when to come
  299. 19:12home and sit in front of the in front of the television and I was starting to
  300. 19:16just feel like really there's there's got to be more than this there's got to be
  301. 19:20more than this but I didn't know what that more was and to be perfectly honest
  302. 19:24everyone who I knew homeschooled I thought they were super weird I was like why
  303. 19:27would you guys do that I mean I'd I know paradigm for that like why would a
  304. 19:30woman in her right mind, keep her kids home all day long when a yellow bus come take away
  305. 19:34for free. And you get a shower by yourself and relative peace and her house stays sort
  306. 19:38of clean and maybe get something done. And so I just didn't have a framework for it. And
  307. 19:44when we went to enroll our second daughter into the school, she missed the cutoff by a
  308. 19:48couple of weeks. And here I have this inquisitive little girl who I think is just ready to learn.
  309. 19:53And so I made the fateful decision to go down to a homeschool supply store and say, Hey,
  310. 19:58Could you give me something so I can buy some time?
  311. 20:02And they gave me a book called Teacher Child to Read
  312. 20:04in a Hundred Easy Lessons.
  313. 20:06And God did such an amazing thing in my heart
  314. 20:09in the three months that followed.
  315. 20:11And I realized, first thing I realized was why,
  316. 20:12I've been massively lied to.
  317. 20:15I went to one of the most prestigious private schools
  318. 20:18in the Portland area and in Oregon.
  319. 20:20And somehow I didn't feel equipped
  320. 20:22to teach my own totter to read.
  321. 20:24Graduated with honors from high school,
  322. 20:26went off to Bible college and did pretty well.
  323. 20:29And for some reason, I had it in my head
  324. 20:32that I wasn't smart enough or capable enough,
  325. 20:34or called enough, or equipped enough,
  326. 20:35or educated enough to teach a five-year-old to read.
  327. 20:37What is wrong with that?
  328. 20:40And I realized I'm spending 20 minutes a day with her.
  329. 20:43And not only Abraham is she learning to read,
  330. 20:46I am loving teaching her.
  331. 20:48I love it.
  332. 20:49And so while her older sister is at school,
  333. 20:52I'm teaching Sierra how to read.
  334. 20:54Well, a few weeks go by and her dad comes home from work
  335. 20:57and I be like, you know, Sarah, tell your dad what we did today.
  336. 20:59We learned, what did we learn today?
  337. 21:00And she would say the word, you know what I'd be like,
  338. 21:02I did that, I don't know that, that was me, that was me.
  339. 21:04And before you know it, I've got the alphabet,
  340. 21:07you know, up around the ceiling, you know,
  341. 21:09ceiling tiles in our living room
  342. 21:11and I put posters of the president's will to be fair,
  343. 21:14only my favorite president's up on the wall
  344. 21:16as is my right as their mother.
  345. 21:19And pretty soon we're teaching history and Bible,
  346. 21:21and I'm loving every minute of it.
  347. 21:22and the Lord said to me, just in my prayer life,
  348. 21:26one day this responsibility never belonged
  349. 21:28to the school in the first place.
  350. 21:29It's always been yours.
  351. 21:31And I'll equip you if you'll trust me.
  352. 21:33And so I went to my husband, maybe a month later,
  353. 21:36on a Saturday morning really early,
  354. 21:37and I remember just sitting across from him,
  355. 21:38just saying, honey, what would you think
  356. 21:40if we homeschooled our kids?
  357. 21:41And the man about dropped his coffee
  358. 21:43and was like, who are you?
  359. 21:44What have you done with my wife?
  360. 21:46That's a crazy idea.
  361. 21:47Remember how we've always talked about how crazy that is?
  362. 21:50And I said, would you pray about it?
  363. 21:53You pray about it.
  364. 21:53And the Lord got ahold of his heart,
  365. 21:55like you got ahold mine.
  366. 21:56And at the end of that year, knees knocking,
  367. 22:00trembling, I went to Savannah's teacher who actually loved.
  368. 22:03And I said, we're gonna pull Savannah out of school,
  369. 22:06and we're gonna homeschool her.
  370. 22:07And she looked at me and I know this was the Lord Abraham
  371. 22:10because I needed to hear it so desperately.
  372. 22:13She said, Heidi, if I could start over again,
  373. 22:15I never would have put my kids in school.
  374. 22:17She said, you can do it, you can do it.
  375. 22:19And that was the beginning of a journey
  376. 22:21that we've been on now for the last 25 years.
  377. 22:23All the rest of our kids, we have seven children.
  378. 22:26The rest of them never darken the door of a public school
  379. 22:29or a private school for that matter.
  380. 22:31And now their parents themselves and entrepreneurs
  381. 22:33and some of them have gone to college
  382. 22:35and some of them haven't.
  383. 22:37But the main thing is that they're walking with the Lord.
  384. 22:41And I care less about them going to Harvard
  385. 22:43and nor about them going to heaven.
  386. 22:45I want my kids to know the Lord.
  387. 22:46Someone asked me why do you teach your kids to read
  388. 22:48so they can know God's word.
  389. 22:50That's the reason.
  390. 22:51And if they get a great job out of it, awesome.
  391. 22:53And you can read a contract, super great.
  392. 22:56But I want them to read the word of God
  393. 22:57and know it and understand it.
  394. 22:59And God's given us this word as a guide.
  395. 23:02Your word, if I hid in my heart,
  396. 23:03that I might not sin against you,
  397. 23:04how will they know if they can't read his word?
  398. 23:06And so that was the impetus.
  399. 23:08And it was a decision that changed the trajectory
  400. 23:11of our family.
  401. 23:13And eventually, of course, I started writing books
  402. 23:15and blogging, and that's a whole different story
  403. 23:17in and of itself, but our youngest, our seventh child,
  404. 23:20is now in high school.
  405. 23:21And the rest of them, the six of them have graduated.
  406. 23:24We've got one left.
  407. 23:26And like you and I were talking about yesterday,
  408. 23:28don't blink because you miss it.
  409. 23:29It goes by fast, such a privilege.
  410. 23:31Absolutely, absolutely.
  411. 23:32Let me mention this before I forget to do it later.
  412. 23:33HeidiStJohn.net is Heidi's website.
  413. 23:36All things Heidi can be found there.
  414. 23:38H-E-I-D-I-S-T-J-O-H-N.net.
  415. 23:44You can get links connected to her podcasts, her blogs,
  416. 23:46her books, you can find her speaker schedule,
  417. 23:49she speaks all over the country all the time.
  418. 23:52She really is a great blessing to the body of Christ.
  419. 23:54And you mentioned about the Lord doing the work in your heart
  420. 23:57and it begins with you and your family.
  421. 24:00And then it grew to you wanting to encourage
  422. 24:03and really strengthen others to recognize
  423. 24:07that they could do it too.
  424. 24:08What was that journey like?
  425. 24:09Well, I think it came out of a principle
  426. 24:11that the Lord really showed my husband and I
  427. 24:13as we walk out our marriage.
  428. 24:15And this is sort of this principle of abundance, right?
  429. 24:18That God says love me with all your heart,
  430. 24:20so mine is strength out of an abundance
  431. 24:21of what God does between me and him,
  432. 24:23I pour into my husband.
  433. 24:24And out of an abundance in our marriage,
  434. 24:26we pour into our children.
  435. 24:28And out of an abundance in our family,
  436. 24:30we are called then to pour into the community.
  437. 24:33And the reason I always start with that
  438. 24:34is because I think some people get it backwards
  439. 24:36in this age of social media.
  440. 24:37We're pouring into other people,
  441. 24:38but our families are a mess.
  442. 24:39And so I always tell people,
  443. 24:40this is the foundational piece that God blesses
  444. 24:43and he has ordained, which is the family, right?
  445. 24:45And as I looked around, my husband was pastoring up in Northern Washington.
  446. 24:49And as I looked around, I realized, you know, I needed community.
  447. 24:53And what God was doing in our family was so phenomenal and so unexpected.
  448. 24:59I came from a broken home and didn't really see parenting done right.
  449. 25:04And God was doing a work of healing and restoration as we were focusing on what He says to focus
  450. 25:09on, which is training up your children.
  451. 25:11When I started, you've known me now a little while, if I learned something, I got to teach
  452. 25:15it.
  453. 25:16And so we started a homeschool cooperative up in Northern Washington and Mount Vernon, Washington,
  454. 25:21thinking that maybe we'd get 15-20 people come out for a first meeting, took all my kids
  455. 25:25around and we put little posters up in the grocery stores and the coffee shops and we said, hey,
  456. 25:29we're going to start a homeschool co-op.
  457. 25:30If you're interested in homeschooling, come out.
  458. 25:32And I thought, you know, 15 people show up and if 75 people show up at first meeting and
  459. 25:36we started a homeschool cooperative out of that-
  460. 25:39So 75 came to the first meeting?
  461. 25:40Wow.
  462. 25:41And I realized, boy, there's a need.
  463. 25:43You know, what is happening in our public schools
  464. 25:45and people need to understand this.
  465. 25:47Education is not neutral.
  466. 25:49There is nothing benign about education.
  467. 25:51People think, oh, reading, writing, and arithmetic.
  468. 25:53Well, how did we get to the place
  469. 25:55where we've embraced socialism and communism
  470. 25:57and gender ideology and all the ridiculous things
  471. 26:01that we see coming out of the alphabet mafia?
  472. 26:03Well, that didn't start in college, dude.
  473. 26:04It starts in kindergarten.
  474. 26:06And it's coming from our schools.
  475. 26:08And so I realized, okay, I'm not the only one.
  476. 26:11And maybe more people need to hear this message
  477. 26:13that God's given to me and my husband,
  478. 26:15even as we're walking it out,
  479. 26:17even as we're learning it ourselves.
  480. 26:19And so that began the very fruitful ministry
  481. 26:23that God gave us.
  482. 26:24Eventually my husband stepped out of full-time ministry
  483. 26:26in churches and he and I started working together.
  484. 26:28We've been working now full-time
  485. 26:30in the homeschool community for,
  486. 26:32for gonna say, 17 years, I think.
  487. 26:34So a long time and outside,
  488. 26:36And inside of that, my passion for just reminding women that their primary responsibility that
  489. 26:42God has given them inside the home is to train their children up to love and serve the Lord
  490. 26:45and that the feminist movement has taken so much from women.
  491. 26:49It has robbed us body, soul, mind and spirit of the thing that God gave us that makes us
  492. 26:55special.
  493. 26:56And that's the ability to carry a nurture human life.
  494. 26:59And so to remind, and it's everywhere I go, and as you rightly pointed out, I mean this
  495. 27:03time next week and I'll be in North Carolina. Everywhere I go, the message is resonating.
  496. 27:10Because women are realizing, wow, I missed something. Well, it's in the Word of God. It's
  497. 27:15right there. And it's a message that I think is needed now for this generation probably more
  498. 27:19than it's ever been needed.
  499. 27:21You said several things that I want to just explore a bit more. But I want to pick up
  500. 27:26at that last one first. You mentioned that the feminist movement has robbed, I would say,
  501. 27:32nation, our men and our women, frankly, from glorious revelation, insight, purpose and understanding
  502. 27:40that God has provided for our female bearers of God's image and our male bearers of God's
  503. 27:46image.
  504. 27:47Would you just speak a little bit more about what are some of those things that we have been
  505. 27:50deprived of almost willingly as a result of embracing the lives of feminism?
  506. 27:55Well, think how many women, I mean, how many times have we heard anything a man can do,
  507. 27:59I can do better?
  508. 28:00saw at the Portland airport and maybe this may be a couple of years ago, a woman walking
  509. 28:05through the airport with a shirt on this at the future's female and I laughed out loud
  510. 28:09my husband was like be quiet don't do that don't fight with the leftist in the important
  511. 28:12airport why not this would be a great place right and I'm sitting right there by the way
  512. 28:16I can see him but I can see yeah that handsome hunk of burning love that guy is mine I'll
  513. 28:21leave that assessment to you yes and we're coming up on our 35th wedding anniversary next
  514. 28:25weekend actually congratulations so but anyway I saw I see this this woman and I'm going to
  515. 28:30And I'm thinking the future is female.
  516. 28:32I mean, how, what a stupid, ridiculous statement.
  517. 28:36You do realize that if the future is female,
  518. 28:37there is no future.
  519. 28:39Right?
  520. 28:39Hello, newsflash.
  521. 28:40But I'm thinking of all of the lies
  522. 28:43that we have believed as women that are roles as mothers
  523. 28:48and as women who are able to nurture life, right,
  524. 28:53has been stolen from us on so many levels.
  525. 28:55Long time ago, I went to the Seattle School of Midwifery
  526. 28:57and actually dropped out of the program
  527. 28:59because it was run by a bunch of angry lesbians
  528. 29:01who actually hated men.
  529. 29:02They just assumed to deliver your baby as a board it.
  530. 29:05And I realized that in midwives,
  531. 29:07and I realized that in the midwife community,
  532. 29:10it's very spiritual to them.
  533. 29:13But it's about empowerment in women's bodies
  534. 29:15and what women are capable of doing.
  535. 29:17They worship the creation rather than creator
  536. 29:19who's forever blessed the Bible says right.
  537. 29:20And so this upside down ideology that we have embraced
  538. 29:25as women says, we'll put off childbearing as long as you can.
  539. 29:28And for women, having a baby is a pretty stark biological reality.
  540. 29:33I mean, I'm 54 years old now.
  541. 29:34I'm not having any more babies, right?
  542. 29:36And women have been told, oh, put that voice inside of your head that says, maybe I might
  543. 29:42want to have a family.
  544. 29:43Well, why would you want to do that?
  545. 29:44Isn't earning a living much more important, you know, make money.
  546. 29:49And so we put these things off.
  547. 29:50And then when we do have babies, we're told, I remember, you know, people making fun of
  548. 29:53Jay and I when we had our fourth baby, like, why would you do that?
  549. 29:56Well it turns out that God's ways are the best ways.
  550. 29:59He says that children are a blessing.
  551. 30:02How counter cultural Abraham is the word of God to what the world is telling us.
  552. 30:06The world says children are a burden.
  553. 30:08God says no they're a blessing.
  554. 30:10God said I made you male and female in my image and here we are trying to distort and
  555. 30:15up the end the very image bearers that God has given us in the form of male and female.
  556. 30:20And so we need to start seeing these things as what they are.
  557. 30:23They're a tax on creator.
  558. 30:24these are spiritual attacks, every single one of them, which is why I'm so passionate about politics, right?
  559. 30:28Politics determines policy, policy shapes a nation. Why aren't Christians shaping the nations?
  560. 30:32Why aren't we doing that? Well, we're not doing it because the narrative's been stolen and we've actually given it up like we
  561. 30:38seeded the territory. You guys go ahead and take it. We'll just sit back here and watch. We'll hold a net downstream.
  562. 30:43And God calls us upstream. He calls us to the headwaters. And at the headwaters right now is the discussion of male and female.
  563. 30:51at the headwaters right now is this idea.
  564. 30:55I mean, you talked about this earlier
  565. 30:56in your general session today,
  566. 30:58that this idea of rapid onset gender dysphoria,
  567. 31:01which I've been talking about for years and years,
  568. 31:03and it's a social contagion, right?
  569. 31:05Because these young women, especially,
  570. 31:07are being influenced by this.
  571. 31:08Think of what the enemy takes from a 15-year-old girl
  572. 31:11when she signs up for a radical mastectomy,
  573. 31:13and will never understand how beautiful it is
  574. 31:15to breastfeed a child.
  575. 31:17Think of what the enemy is stealing from these young women
  576. 31:20when they go in and they have hysterectomies
  577. 31:22and they're starting to take testosterone
  578. 31:25and they lose their feminine mystique
  579. 31:28that God gave them is so precious, right?
  580. 31:31And so I'm like, boy, God made us male and female.
  581. 31:33If God made it, it must be beautiful.
  582. 31:35Why aren't we embracing what God says?
  583. 31:36Oh, I know because we bought the lies of the enemy
  584. 31:39and we decided that we know better than what God said.
  585. 31:42And you can almost hear Satan in the garden.
  586. 31:44Did God really say?
  587. 31:46This is an attack against Creator God
  588. 31:48and the people that should be speaking to it
  589. 31:50are the men and women of God.
  590. 31:52And now is the opportunity, now is the time,
  591. 31:54and we mustn't waste it.
  592. 31:56Amen.
  593. 31:57So well said.
  594. 31:58So well said.
  595. 31:59I one time described the feminism trajectory
  596. 32:03as the talking snake suggestion being embraced
  597. 32:07by people to where,
  598. 32:09oh, I'm a woman, I'm just as good as a man.
  599. 32:12To where I'm a woman, I'm equal to a man.
  600. 32:16I'm a woman, I don't need a man.
  601. 32:17I'm a woman, I can be a man.
  602. 32:20That is, has been the byproducts
  603. 32:23of the feminist movement, frankly, on our nation.
  604. 32:28I wanna toggle back to something you said before,
  605. 32:31which is profound, that you mentioned your own upbringing.
  606. 32:35You came from a broken home.
  607. 32:36Yet, that circumstantial reality did not deprive you
  608. 32:40from responding to God's call for your life.
  609. 32:44Indeed.
  610. 32:45which is something that I think is worth revisiting,
  611. 32:48because sometimes people yield to the lie,
  612. 32:50how can I do this, look where I came from?
  613. 32:54But the circumstances of your arrival
  614. 32:55don't dictate the destination that you are to pursue.
  615. 32:58But for God.
  616. 32:59But for God.
  617. 33:00So I wanna delve into that.
  618. 33:01One more, two more things on the other side of this break.
  619. 33:04You're listening to the Hamilton Corner.
  620. 33:05My guest is Heidi St. John.
  621. 33:15Are you being honest and dependable
  622. 33:18in your personal money matters?
  623. 33:20Honesty is one of the first things
  624. 33:22Jesus requires of new believers.
  625. 33:24When some tax collectors approached Jesus to be baptized,
  626. 33:28they asked, teacher, what shall we do?
  627. 33:30And he said to them, collect no more
  628. 33:32than what you have been ordered to.
  629. 33:34You need to be honest, to be effective
  630. 33:36for God's kingdom work.
  631. 33:38Tune in to Faith and Finance with Rob West.
  632. 33:41Weekdays at 9 a.m. Central on American Family Radio.
  633. 33:50Hamilton Quarter Podcast and One-Minute Common Terrors
  634. 33:53are available at eafr.net.
  635. 33:56back to the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
  636. 34:01Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner,
  637. 34:02Abraham Hamilton the third here,
  638. 34:04having a conversation from the HSLDA National Leaders Conference
  639. 34:08at the Sheraton Music City in Nashville
  640. 34:10with my sister and the Lord's fellow member
  641. 34:12of the HSLDA board, author, speaker, podcast host, former,
  642. 34:18US Senate candidate.
  643. 34:20Yes, Congress, yes.
  644. 34:21From the Pacific Northwest,
  645. 34:22Heidi St. John, her website is Heidi St. John.net.
  646. 34:26All things Heidi can be found there.
  647. 34:27I wholeheartedly encourage you to go there, visit,
  648. 34:31get resourced up so that you can be fortified
  649. 34:35for the times that God has planted us in.
  650. 34:36Before we went to the break, we were talking.
  651. 34:38And you mentioned something that I wanted to revisit
  652. 34:43because one of the lies that is, I think,
  653. 34:46and you said this during the break
  654. 34:48and it's gonna feed into our conversation,
  655. 34:50that the willingness or the ease with which
  656. 34:54many have fallen prey to feminism
  657. 34:56is because of a lie that's not only told but has been practiced, that would
  658. 35:01communicate something other than women being fellow Bears of God's image just
  659. 35:06as much as men are. I have said on this show repeatedly that men and women are
  660. 35:10equal qualitative Bears of God's image. The reality however is that God not even
  661. 35:17however the reality in addition to that is he's made us complementarily distinct
  662. 35:21from one another with different roles. The differences in our roles does not
  663. 35:26communicate a variance in degree of quality before the Lord.
  664. 35:29And that is one of the lies that not only is often told,
  665. 35:32but more often practiced, that has led to many of our sisters being
  666. 35:38being easy prey for feminism.
  667. 35:40Well, and they're wounded.
  668. 35:41I mean, how easy is it to pick off someone who's wounded?
  669. 35:44Right.
  670. 35:45I mean, a person who's wounded is easily preyed upon.
  671. 35:48This is why you see wolves.
  672. 35:51If they're looking to go hunting and they see a flock of sheep,
  673. 35:54they're going to look for the outlier.
  674. 35:55they're gonna look for the wounded lamb.
  675. 35:57They're not gonna go for the one in the middle, right?
  676. 35:59They're gonna go for the wounded one.
  677. 36:00And I think, you know, we have an opportunity as God's people
  678. 36:05to reframe the message, right?
  679. 36:07That God says, no, I made you in my image.
  680. 36:09You got different roles.
  681. 36:10It's a beautiful thing to be a woman.
  682. 36:11I want all five of my beautiful daughters
  683. 36:13to know how beautiful they are.
  684. 36:15In the sight of the Lord and in the sight of me
  685. 36:17and in the sight of their father,
  686. 36:18one of the things I've loved as I've watched my husband
  687. 36:21raising these girls, you know, which is, yeah,
  688. 36:24hormones on the whole thing, it could be bumpy.
  689. 36:26And I would watch him periodically throughout the years
  690. 36:30and they would come downstairs time.
  691. 36:31And every once in a while, my husband would just
  692. 36:33stand in amazement at the bottom of the stair and go,
  693. 36:36what is this image, this beautiful young lady
  694. 36:40coming down the stair and you could see the countenance
  695. 36:43of my daughter just changed to now.
  696. 36:45Her dad said she was beautiful.
  697. 36:48It matters, right?
  698. 36:49We have different roles to play.
  699. 36:52And it's a beautiful thing, this complimentary in these roles
  700. 36:56that God has given us.
  701. 36:57And my husband has often said,
  702. 36:59I gave my wife a house, but she made it a home.
  703. 37:03Now women are multipliers by nature.
  704. 37:06God's given us the ability to be multipliers.
  705. 37:09And we have the opportunity to influence,
  706. 37:13we have tremendous influence in the lives of our husbands,
  707. 37:15tremendous influence in the lives of our children.
  708. 37:16Women are heartbeats of homes.
  709. 37:18Incredible role.
  710. 37:20not to be mistaken for the leader of the home,
  711. 37:22which God said, I gave this role in the authority
  712. 37:24to the husband and to a father inside of a home.
  713. 37:27These are gods, this is God's created order.
  714. 37:29And when we don't abuse it and malign it
  715. 37:32and twist it upside down on its head
  716. 37:34and then market it as if God said it.
  717. 37:36If we actually read the scripture and apply it,
  718. 37:39it's not that hard to understand,
  719. 37:41but in our quest for significance.
  720. 37:43And I think I've seen this in my own life,
  721. 37:46absolutely, when I got married,
  722. 37:48I struggle with it because I grew up in an abusive home.
  723. 37:50My father was very abusive toward me.
  724. 37:54And when I read Paul's admission,
  725. 37:57especially when he said women are be silent on their show,
  726. 37:59I'm like, that's enough, I've had enough of that.
  727. 38:01I don't wanna read that.
  728. 38:02And my husband was like, let's read it again,
  729. 38:03let's understand what's happening.
  730. 38:05I needed healing to happen in my heart
  731. 38:09so that I could see God, I could see my husband the way God saw him
  732. 38:13and see my role the way God created it to be.
  733. 38:16And having this wonderful, like I told you,
  734. 38:19Jayna, we're very young when we married.
  735. 38:21And when Jay married me at 19,
  736. 38:22I was about as broken as a 19-year-old girl could be.
  737. 38:24I was literally broken physically, broken spiritually,
  738. 38:27broken emotionally.
  739. 38:29And God took this broken woman
  740. 38:33and through the process of this wonderful man
  741. 38:36and learning his word and the sanctifying process
  742. 38:39of becoming a mother, God's been healing in my life.
  743. 38:42And I want women to hear that.
  744. 38:45because we have a very unique role to play.
  745. 38:47And when we give that role away
  746. 38:49or when we misunderstand the preciousness of it,
  747. 38:53we miss the blessing.
  748. 38:55And it is such a blessing.
  749. 38:56I love being here.
  750. 38:57I mean, I love serving on the HSLDA board.
  751. 38:59I love writing books.
  752. 39:00I love speaking.
  753. 39:00There's no place I'd rather be in the whole world
  754. 39:03than at home of my kitchen making sourdough bread
  755. 39:05with my grandbabies.
  756. 39:06There's just no place I'd rather be.
  757. 39:08And God's put that in me.
  758. 39:09I also know I have a part to play in the culture right now.
  759. 39:12and that my job largely of raising children,
  760. 39:15which I poured myself into for 20 some odd years,
  761. 39:18God's shifting what he's doing with me right now.
  762. 39:20And so I think it's a question of,
  763. 39:22are we listening for the Lord?
  764. 39:23Are we willing to walk out what God asks us to do?
  765. 39:26And in part of that is embracing what God says
  766. 39:28about men and women in his word.
  767. 39:30And it's beautiful, why?
  768. 39:31Because God made it.
  769. 39:32And what did he say?
  770. 39:32He said it was very good.
  771. 39:34Very good.
  772. 39:35Leave it to people to mess it up.
  773. 39:36Yeah.
  774. 39:37Absolutely.
  775. 39:38And you mentioned something,
  776. 39:39and I don't want to go back here entirely,
  777. 39:41but just run a highlighter over it, that it wasn't a hindrance perpetually for you having
  778. 39:48come from brokenness in your home, but you met the healer.
  779. 39:53And in the process of having met the healer, you were allowed and drawn to flourish even
  780. 40:00in spite of that.
  781. 40:01There's some listening to us right now, they're experiencing all kinds of difficulty and have
  782. 40:05no concept of thinking, but God, do something in me and through me and you are exhibit A
  783. 40:12of what God can do no matter what the background may be.
  784. 40:16And you mentioned something else in the previous segment
  785. 40:18that I thought it was worth revisiting.
  786. 40:20You mentioned that you and your husband, Jay,
  787. 40:23were moving into what God was doing in you
  788. 40:25and in your own home.
  789. 40:27And then as that abundance overflowed,
  790. 40:29you moved on to offering what God had offered you
  791. 40:32to others as you were still learning.
  792. 40:34You didn't sit and wait.
  793. 40:35I'm gonna wait until I become an expert in all things
  794. 40:38before I take one step forward.
  795. 40:40But as you were learning,
  796. 40:41you were willing to offer what you had,
  797. 40:43I thought that was something worth revisiting.
  798. 40:44Yeah, well, I think the beautiful thing about that is
  799. 40:46that God says His power is actually found in weakness.
  800. 40:49And the culture, you know, the culture is steam's power.
  801. 40:51And our weaknesses. Right, absolutely true.
  802. 40:53And the culture is steam's power.
  803. 40:55We don't esteem weakness.
  804. 40:57We esteem strength, right?
  805. 40:59And God says, no, I'm gonna meet you in your weakness.
  806. 41:00Why? Because He gets the glory.
  807. 41:02Amen. You know?
  808. 41:03I imagine sometimes, as I'm getting older, especially,
  809. 41:05I imagine sometimes my homecoming and what it will look like.
  810. 41:08And I often think, you know, I'm gonna get to heaven,
  811. 41:10You know, my hair's gonna be stinged,
  812. 41:12and my knees are gonna be bloodied,
  813. 41:13and my elbows are gonna be scuffed up,
  814. 41:15and I imagine the Lord Jesus just going,
  815. 41:17hi to your hair, boy, you look bad, but you are here, right?
  816. 41:20I wanna fall flat on my face, lift my hands to the heavens
  817. 41:24and say, thank you, Jesus, that was all you.
  818. 41:26Because it is all him, and we misunderstand
  819. 41:30any success that we have in our lives
  820. 41:32when we don't give glory to the one who gave us that success.
  821. 41:36And I think that comes in parenting,
  822. 41:37it comes in homeschooling, it comes in in marriage,
  823. 41:40absolutely. And to look to the healer, he said, his grace is
  824. 41:43sufficient and his grace is actually found in our weakness.
  825. 41:46And so when we acknowledge the weakness, let me say Lord, work
  826. 41:49through me, right? And we find this is true. I'm parenting. It's
  827. 41:53sanctifying. I was just having this conversation with my
  828. 41:55daughter who is getting ready to have her fifth baby. And boy, she
  829. 41:58is she is in it to win it at this point, right? She's got she
  830. 42:01feels like she's got kids just coming out of her ears. And the
  831. 42:03other day, she's like, Mom, I just don't think I can do it anymore.
  832. 42:06And I'm like, Congratulations, you're right where God wants you.
  833. 42:07You're right where he wants you because he's gonna do a work in your life through the sanctifying
  834. 42:14process of raising these little ones and you're gonna know him in a deeper way and he'll be
  835. 42:19the rescuer, he'll be the lifter of your head.
  836. 42:22That's what he wants to be.
  837. 42:23And where do we find that Abraham?
  838. 42:25We find it when we cry out to the Lord.
  839. 42:27We very rarely find it in the mountain top experiences because we're people, we get all prideful.
  840. 42:31Stay up on top of the mountain too long and we start thinking look at me I'm a really good
  841. 42:34mountain climber.
  842. 42:35The wink.
  843. 42:36Right?
  844. 42:37God wants to meet us where we are.
  845. 42:39And it's one of the things I love about walking with the Lord.
  846. 42:41He's not looking for perfection.
  847. 42:43He's looking for surrender.
  848. 42:44Man, I'm so grateful even for you sharing that experience because our culture has this
  849. 42:49lie that once they're 18, they're grown and gone, but you're even sharing your own family
  850. 42:54testimony that you're even revealing how you as Mamsi, you're continuing as a ministerial
  851. 43:00resource for your own daughter.
  852. 43:02Like you've known her through adolescence.
  853. 43:04And now you're knowing her as a mom, mother of five herself, and her recognizing even at
  854. 43:09that stage, she still needs help from mom, but just in a different way.
  855. 43:13You're no longer, you know, it's not the pedagogical offerings, it's not the adolescent
  856. 43:16development, but now you're still there for her.
  857. 43:18Kind of like Jethro was there for 80 year old Moses.
  858. 43:21That's right.
  859. 43:22Well, and think about how backward again our culture is.
  860. 43:24When we esteem retirement, you know, just can't wait till we get to that magic age, whatever
  861. 43:29it is, 65, 70, we'll just retire, we'll go live in a golf course.
  862. 43:33Where is that in the Bible?
  863. 43:34I would really like someone to tell me.
  864. 43:36It is in my book of first flesh alone.
  865. 43:38Yes, I think it is.
  866. 43:41The very first time I ever did an interview with my friend Dr. Dobson was probably maybe
  867. 43:45twenty years ago now.
  868. 43:47And he could tell that I was nervous and he was trying to get me to talk about something
  869. 43:50that didn't make me nervous.
  870. 43:51And he said, Heidi, what do you think about retirement?
  871. 43:54Well, I'm pregnant with my sixth child.
  872. 43:57And I was looking down at my burgeoning belly and I was like, well, it's nowhere in my
  873. 44:00future.
  874. 44:01in any kingdom, person's future.
  875. 44:03He said, God's gonna use us until he takes his home.
  876. 44:06And the seasons change, and maybe our ability changes,
  877. 44:09and maybe our energy changes.
  878. 44:11But the mission remains the same.
  879. 44:13So the question is, God, what do you want me to do now?
  880. 44:15So at this stage, and now I've got, you know,
  881. 44:18soon to be six grandchildren,
  882. 44:20and I'm loving every minute of it, you know.
  883. 44:22Praise God, we say in our local church,
  884. 44:24we don't retire, we refire.
  885. 44:25Yes, come on.
  886. 44:27If we don't retire, we refire.
  887. 44:28Let's go.
  888. 44:29Occupation may change your mechanism of an income generation may change
  889. 44:32But what does not change is your devotion to the king of kings and the Lord the Lord of lords and
  890. 44:36Willingness to obey him by keeping your hand to a plow. He has placed before you. I love it
  891. 44:42Yeah, I love that one other thing because the disrespectful clock is here, too
  892. 44:45Again, we'll have a few minutes left
  893. 44:48It's not like you have nothing else to do right. You're just sitting around popping bonbons
  894. 44:53I think it's sourdough.
  895. 44:54I'm sure you're waiting on what else can I do amongst all of the things you're doing?
  896. 45:00You're writing, you're speaking, you're, you're, you're, your podcast, you're traveling all
  897. 45:03over the, all over the place.
  898. 45:05And you agreed to join the board of HSLDA.
  899. 45:08Why would you do that?
  900. 45:09I love the mission.
  901. 45:11I love the mission of the Home School Legal Defense Association.
  902. 45:13We've been a part of it now for about 25 years.
  903. 45:16And I believe in what they're doing when Mike Ferris called and said, Hey, we're, we're,
  904. 45:19we'd like to know if you'd consider, you know, being considerate.
  905. 45:23for the HSLDA board.
  906. 45:24I thought this is probably one of the highest honors
  907. 45:27I've ever been asked to participate in outside
  908. 45:29or just being a mother and a wife.
  909. 45:31And yeah, and shockingly, they invited me
  910. 45:34to sit on the board.
  911. 45:35I'm the first woman to sit on the board of HSLDA.
  912. 45:38And I love the mission of advancing homeschool freedom.
  913. 45:43And really, HSLDA is the watchman on the wall
  914. 45:47for homeschool freedom in here in the United States
  915. 45:50and actually even globally in many cases.
  916. 45:53And I think we're going to live to see more attacks
  917. 45:56against the freedom that we have.
  918. 45:58People are very comfortable in it right now,
  919. 46:00but we're starting to see attacks come from the academic
  920. 46:02elites and people who think that they know better
  921. 46:04than you do who should raise your children
  922. 46:05and who should make those decisions.
  923. 46:07And HSLDA has been defending homeschool freedom since 1983.
  924. 46:11It's such an honor.
  925. 46:12It's an honor to serve with you.
  926. 46:13I love the prayerful attitude of the board of HSLDA.
  927. 46:17I think God blesses it when we come before him
  928. 46:19and say, okay, Lord, we're gonna talk about a bunch of stuff,
  929. 46:21but we recognize if you don't give us wisdom,
  930. 46:23we ain't got nothing.
  931. 46:25You know, we got nothing without the Lord.
  932. 46:26And that has been the humble attitude
  933. 46:30of the men that have started HSLDA,
  934. 46:32and it continues today with the staff.
  935. 46:34It's an extraordinary organization that I'm proud to serve.
  936. 46:37Man, it is, you know, this is my first
  937. 46:40National Leaders Conference with HSLDA staying
  938. 46:43for the whole conference,
  939. 46:44and I was able to attend my first board meeting
  940. 46:46in person here at that conference,
  941. 46:48And I didn't know what to expect.
  942. 46:50And we started that time, that meeting off with nothing but prayer.
  943. 46:55Yeah, it's precious.
  944. 46:57The first thing I told my wife when I got there, I said, baby, wouldn't believe this.
  945. 47:01These are our folks.
  946. 47:02These are our folks.
  947. 47:04And one of the board members said that they know for a fact that the successes that God
  948. 47:09has afforded HSLD as an organization are directly proportional to the prayer that is engaged in
  949. 47:16by the leadership of the organization.
  950. 47:18And I always move personally, frankly,
  951. 47:20not just for the business of the organization,
  952. 47:22but to recognize to, which I knew before,
  953. 47:26which is why I agreed to join the board for sure.
  954. 47:28But to-
  955. 47:28It's different when you're,
  956. 47:30that was my first reaction to,
  957. 47:32I've served now for about four and a half years
  958. 47:33and my first meeting that I went to in person.
  959. 47:35I was just so moved by the fact that we all just,
  960. 47:37we went around the table for quite a long time.
  961. 47:40It was like two hours.
  962. 47:40Yeah, two hours.
  963. 47:41Yeah, yeah, yeah.
  964. 47:42And just share, I mean, really deeply personal things.
  965. 47:45And there's not a perfect person that sits on that board.
  966. 47:48And these are all people that are surrendered to the spirit.
  967. 47:50It's beautiful thing to watch.
  968. 47:52And you rightly pointed out that's the blessing, right?
  969. 47:55Behind it.
  970. 47:55Also the blessing of the country.
  971. 47:57Amen.
  972. 47:57The United States under the blessing of God,
  973. 47:59because our founder sought the wisdom of heaven.
  974. 48:02And that's what we need to be doing.
  975. 48:04So well said.
  976. 48:05Heidi St. John, ladies and gentlemen, I know we have like
  977. 48:08a minute and some change left.
  978. 48:12You can probably tell why I asked her to join the show.
  979. 48:13If you've been listening to the wild, you kind of get an idea where I am.
  980. 48:17And I kind of identify people who identify with me.
  981. 48:21And I consider hiding among those.
  982. 48:24Among the things that you're facing and what you've been doing in the ministry in about
  983. 48:2830 seconds, what do you think is one of the most important things you could say to the
  984. 48:31people listening to the program now?
  985. 48:32Well, I'd say God has you here for such a time as this.
  986. 48:35Get involved, get off the bench, get onto the battlefield.
  987. 48:37We need to engage.
  988. 48:38Christians are needed in every sphere of the influence right now.
  989. 48:41We're needed in education.
  990. 48:42We're needed in politics.
  991. 48:44We're needed in entertainment.
  992. 48:45We're needed in medicine.
  993. 48:46God's people are needed.
  994. 48:47This is no time to sit this thing out.
  995. 48:49We've got an election coming up,
  996. 48:50get involved, ask God for wisdom, and then do your part.
  997. 48:53Do your part.
  998. 48:54Thank you for tuning into the program.
  999. 48:56One more day live from HSLDA.
  1000. 48:59Hey David, he's saying, hey daddy.
  1001. 49:01My brood has come into the room.
  1002. 49:04One more day live from the HSLDA National Leaders Conference.
  1003. 49:08We'll be live again tomorrow, right from this exact same room.
  1004. 49:10Thank you for tuning into the program.
  1005. 49:12You guys know it just like I said, on a daily basis, darkness is not an affirmative force.
  1006. 49:17It really reoccupies the space that is vacated by the light.
  1007. 49:21Let's light up the darkness.
  1008. 49:24The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American
  1009. 49:29Family Association or American Family Radio.

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