Middle Mini (Living in Answered Prayers)

Today I open up about a brand new song that will be on my third album: “Prayed For This.” I share the story behind writing it while I was pregnant, why I wanted it to feel like an Ebenezer, and how the lyrics point back to tear soaked prayers and future blessings. I’ve realized that we can be surrounded by miracles and still complain, and our words can either grow bitterness or plant gratitude. I hope this episode helps us all remember the answered prayers we’re living in right now. After you listen, subscribe, share this with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a review so more people can find the show! See you next week for a special episode!

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Transcript

Beach Check In And Episode Recaps

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hey guys, welcome back to In the Middle of It. Hi from the middle of vacation. My family and I, we are in South Carolina in this lovely beach house. So if you're looking and you're like, wow, that's a different set, yes, it is. Um, we're at the beach and it's been so fun, but I was like, I gotta record my mini for the week and check in with my people. So hi from the beach. Thanks for listening to the podcast. I feel like we have to recap the last few episodes because they've been so good. Like Hope Darst episode, we recorded it several months ago, and so when it came out, I listened again that day, and I was struck again by just her wisdom. Um, I was so inspired and so encouraged leaving that conversation. Just I love her faith. I love how she just listens to the Holy Spirit in her daily life. Um, it was just such a good conversation. So if you missed the Hope Darst episode, go back and listen to that. And then last week with Cade Thompson was so good. I loved catching him in this newlywed season of life, um, talking about his new music, just so many good things in that episode. So definitely go back and listen to that one as well. And also next week, this is something that I love about the podcast. We never plan this out until, like, you know, it's gonna come out, but it's so sweet because Cade, the episode was like this newlywed, just freshly married perspective on marriage. And then next week we have a married couple that's been married a really long time, kind of giving their perspective on marriage. So we've kind of got both ends of the spectrum back to back on the season, which I think is so fun and so sweet. Um so stay tuned. Maybe at the end of the episode, I'll give you a little secret into who the guest is for next week. But I'm just telling you right now, you don't want to miss next week. Like if you don't have your automatic downloads on or whatever, you gotta set it and like set a reminder

The Story Behind Prayed For This

SPEAKER_00 2:05

because you don't want to miss next week. I'm so excited about it. So, anyways, um, this week on the mini episode, I just wanted to talk to you about this song that's gonna be on my third album. I've been posting it a little bit on social media, so you maybe have seen it, but it's called Prayed for This. And it just kind of talked to you about how God has been meeting me in my life with this song. Um, because man, it's just come back over and over again in the last year and met me in so many ways. Um, and so, anyways, I want to talk to you about Prayed For This. So I think to give you just like some maybe context, I'm gonna read you the lyrics to the first verse in the chorus, and then we'll talk about it. Okay, here it goes. If I close my eyes, I can still remember where I was. If you look close enough, you'll see the tear stains on the rug. The silent A pest control man has come to the door. Okay, here we go. If I close my eyes, I can still remember where I was. If you look close enough, you'll see the tear stains on the rug. The silent nights and tears I cried face down on the floor, wondering if I'd see the promised land I begged you for. Three years ago, if I had only known that I would see what used to seem so impossible. And here's the chorus I prayed for this. The blessings that you give, I can't get over it. Surrounded by the evidence of heavens, yes. The miracle I'm living's just too good to miss. So help me not forget I prayed for this. I wrote this song when I was pregnant with Owen. I think I was just like 14 weeks pregnant, and I knew that I wanted a song that was kind of a stake in the ground, like an Ebenezer of a song for me to come back to and just remember like, man, I begged God for this baby. I begged God for this season of life that I'm living in, and I don't want to forget that. Um, and it's amazing because it really has come back in so many ways in this first year of motherhood. Now I have a one-year-old and I look back at the person that I was writing this song, and I've just gone through so much, but also it's still as true as it was the day that we wrote it. There have been so many nights, like at 3 a.m. when I just feel like I'm on my last straw. Like, how can I get up one more time? And then, like, the moms out there know you guys, you just gotta like find a laster straw, you know? And this song has come to my mind in that moment. Like, okay, I prayed for this. Like, this is a blessing, this is a miracle that I'm living in. And so help me not forget. Um, it's just been like the cry of my heart over this first year of motherhood. It's so amazing to me how we can ask God for something and beg Him for something and pray for something over and over again. And then as soon as we get that thing, it's amazing how quickly we forget, like, oh, God gave this to me and now I'm moving on to something else. So I just wanted to record this episode today to encourage myself and also you to just look around at your life and what are the answered prayers that you're living in right now? What are the things that, you know, years ago you begged God for, whether it's the job that you have or the house that you live in or the spouse that you've met or the baby that you have, whatever it is, fill in the blank for what that looks like in your life. But I'm challenging myself to just remember the goodness of God and to not forget the miracles

Answered Prayers Versus Complaining

SPEAKER_00 5:45

that He's given. I feel like we see this so much in Scripture. Every time I read Exodus and Numbers and I read the account of the Israelites, like they're freed from slavery in Egypt. They go through all of these incredible miracles, like just massive miracles with being freed with the plagues and then going through the Red Sea and their enemies defeated, all of these things. And then they get into the wilderness and they're there for a very short time, and they're like, hmm, maybe it was better in slavery. Every time I read that, it makes me so mad. Like the Israelites are like, we're hungry, and God's like, here's manna, and then they're like, We're sick of the manna, and he's like, here's quail, and then we're thirsty, and he gives them water, and we need guides, and so he gives them a cloud by day and a fire by night. Like he just is satisfying their every need, and they're just grumbling and complaining the whole time, and it stirs so much rage in me when I read that every time. I'm like, oh, it's just so frustrating. Like they can't see that they're living in all of these answered prayers over and over again. And then every time I read that, it kind of hits me. This little voice of conviction, I think it bothers me so much because I'm the same way. Like my heart is so bent toward complaining and grumbling. And I think that's us as humans, you know, we are bent toward forgetting and grumbling and complaining. Um, but it actually really shapes how we view something when we grumble and complain about it. Like the way that we speak about something, I mean, the Bible says the power of life and death is in our tongue. And so if we're speaking negatively and complaining about the situation that we're in, it actually does make it worse. It actually makes it worse. Um, and so I'm challenging myself, even in harder seasons or in times where there's good things happening and hard things happening, to try to challenge myself to just focus on the good, to call out the good in the situation and to thank God, to bless God um for where I am. Actually, bless God was my number one song in 2025 that I listened to over and over again because I just needed that reminder. Like, bless God when my hands are empty, bless God with the praise that costs me, bless God when nobody's watching, like every chance I get, I will bless your name. It's amazing to me how I feel like in my life, when I look back, every season has both good and hard things that are happening at the same time. I feel like that's been a theme of the podcast this season is just realizing that there's gonna be good things, there's gonna be hard things. And a lot of times the good and the hard things are happening at the same time. And so, what does it look like for us as Christians and as believers to really just call out those good things, not to minimize the hard things or to ignore them, um, but really just to put our focus and our attention on the good things and on blessing God, thanking him for what we have in the season that we're living in. I mean, there are gonna be hard seasons where it's really hard to do that, but I think the more we can just look for the blessings of God, the better it's gonna be. Um, we're gonna be able to look back at a season and remember the good that God was doing, even if there's hard things that are happening too. I feel like for me, when I see things through a negative perspective, it's amazing how the negativity and bitterness and offense, it breeds more bitterness and negativity and offense. Like I think of um veggie tales, if you watch that growing up, like the rumor weed episode, where if you plant bitterness and resentment and negativity in your garden and your life, that just grows and multiplies and gets more and more. But if you're planting positivity and joy and gratitude and peace, that's what you're gonna sew. Like that's what you're gonna see in your garden. And so that image has been really important for me just in the last couple of years of my life of just what am I planting in my life? What are the things that I'm speaking in my life? Um, and how is that affecting how I feel and what I have space for and room for in my garden? Like bitterness and resentment take up a lot of space. And if we can let go of that and just try to plant joy and peace and gratefulness, um, that's gonna be a way better life and a way better garden. So I'm not trying to tell you anything that I am not also learning because man, I'm still in the middle of learning about all of this. Um, but it's just an encouragement that I feel like God has been bringing up in my heart and my life. And I just kind of wanted to pass it on to you and just challenge me and you to just be thinking about what are the things that God's doing in our life? What are the blessings that we have that we don't want to miss? Um, what are the answered prayers that we're living in that are so incredible? Um, I don't know, just I'm encouraging myself and you to look around and just remember what we prayed for and to thank God for it before we skip ahead and keep asking him for a million other things that I'm sure down the line we will have. But today, what's something that God has already given that we can bless him for and praise him for? So, anyways, that's my encouragement

Sneak Peek And Next Week’s Secret

SPEAKER_00 11:25

to you. Prayed for this is not out yet, but it is, I've been posting it on social media. So um, if you want a little sneak preview of the song, um, go to my social pages: Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, all the places, um, and you can hear a sneak peek of Prayed for This before it comes out. And yeah, okay, a reminder about next week. You don't want to miss this episode, and I feel like because you made it to the end of the mini, I'm gonna give you a reward. Okay, I'm giving you a reward, and I'm gonna tell you that next week's episode is with Stephen Curtis Chapman and Mary Beth Chapman, okay? It's gonna be amazing. Like, I probably shouldn't tell you that, and we should just keep it a secret, but I just feel like because you're here and you're watching, I'm gonna let you in on the secret. Don't put it in the comments, don't spoil it for everyone else. But I'm so excited about this episode. It was such an amazing conversation, um, and just like really blessed my heart to be talking to someone who is such a hero to me. Like Stephen Curtis Chapman's music has just been the soundtrack of my life. And to meet Mary Beth, like she's such a powerhouse of a woman and so funny and so sweet. Like it was the best episode ever. So you don't want to miss it next week. Make sure you tune in. Um, and in the meantime, I'm gonna go enjoy my vacation, and I'll see you next week. Thanks for listening.