For over 25 years Proverbs 31 Ministries' mission has been to intersect God's Word in the real, hard places we all struggle with. That's why we started this podcast. Every episode will feature a variety of teachings from president Lysa TerKeurst, staff members or friends of the ministry who can teach you something valuable from their vantage point. We hope that regardless of your age, background or stage of life, it's something you look forward to listening to each month!
Kaley Olson:
Hello, friends. Thanks for tuning in to The Proverbs 31 Ministries Podcast where we share biblical Truth for any girl in any season. I'm your host, Kaley Olson. I'm here with my co-host for today's show Amanda Bacon.
Amanda Bacon:
Hi, Kaley.
Kaley Olson:
Hey, Amanda. I'm so glad that you're here with me, and, friends, just a reminder for those who haven't heard Amanda's lovely voice before, which side note: You're one of my favorite people to listen to.
Amanda Bacon:
Thank you.
Kaley Olson:
Yeah, I think I said it on the last show, but you're just very calming. She ... you are on staff at Proverbs 31 and have been for seven years. And, Amanda, you are a wealth of wisdom, and I'm so excited to have you join me on the show today because it's just a great episode. And speaking of today's episode, do you want to give our listeners a little preview about what they're going to hear?
Amanda Bacon:
Yeah, absolutely. You guys are in for a treat. This conversation with Bianca, this teaching is for the woman who is absolutely worn out. She's burned out, and she's asking, "Is anything I'm doing making an impact or a difference at all?" I think you guys are going to love it.
Kaley Olson:
Yeah, it's so powerful and just a fresh perspective, I think, on the daily grind and just a heavenly reminder of what we're doing really does have eternal significance, and it's a reminder that we all need to hear, especially on our hardest days. But, guys, I'm sure that there's a few of you who are listening to this conversation and may think to yourself, Bianca is a really good storyteller. She can communicate well. She knows how to do so in a way that is captivating, and I want to do that. How do I do that? Because maybe there's a story like Bianca, and I'm not going to spoil it, but maybe you're going to hear her story and say, "I want to do that, but I don't know how," well we put together a free resource called “How To Share Your Story.”
It's a guide that includes a five-step process to start writing about what you've experienced in a way that others can relate to. You can grab it using the link in our show notes for free. And, guys, no matter if you're a communicator or not, I mean this is such a really ... It's a great resource to just get it out of your head and out of your heart and onto paper, right, Amanda? I feel like that exercise, just in and of itself, is very freeing.
Amanda Bacon:
It's so good for all of us to do.
Kaley Olson:
I know. I know. And just talking about impact is really, really great. Friends, we've got a lot to catch up on with Bianca, so let's go tune into the rest of the show. All right, Amanda, I'm so excited today for our guest, and I'm going to try it because she's on the other side of the line. And before we started recording, she said, "You have to say my full name," and well, she didn't say that I had to, but I told her I would try.
Amanda Bacon:
We'll be impressed.
Kaley Olson:
So today we've got Bianca Juarez Olthoff. Did I do that right?
Bianca Olthoff:
You did that so well. Yes. I mean you went Hispanic and German on me, girl. A-plus-plus.
Kaley Olson:
A-plus-plus. I'm so excited, Bianca; you're not a new face to Proverbs 31, but you are a [new] voice to the podcast. And so I'm thrilled to finally get to have you on the show. For those who do not know who Bianca is, let me tell you a little bit about her more formally, and then we'll do something a little bit more informal. Bianca is an author, podcaster, ministry leader and Bible teacher who you'll soon learn is incredibly passionate about helping others learn to live like Jesus did. We have had her for She Speaks before; she's just been around the Proverbs 31 Ministries for a while. We love seeing her face, one, because she's a great teacher and a great student of God's Word, but also she does her makeup really well.
Amanda Bacon:
She does.
Kaley Olson:
And we talking about that earlier, Bianca. So we might need to have you on for another episode on a tutorial for the best makeup practices. But outside of that, Bianca, I have a very important question for you that's really important to just you and me and maybe some listeners who are also passionate weenie dog owners, but you have a weenie dog, don't you?
Bianca Olthoff:
First of all, let me say I will give a makeup tutorial any day, OK? Because I believe that the Lord gave us makeup as a fun gift.
Kaley Olson:
I agree.
Bianca Olthoff:
It's like a kiss from heaven. Secondly, I mean we have an inordinate love for our weenie dogs. I mean, nobody understands —
Amanda Bacon:
If you have that.
Bianca Olthoff:
[Inaudible] Right of my heart, it's his face.
Kaley Olson:
It's his face.
Bianca Olthoff:
OK? He's literally my row dog. I'm obsessed. And for anyone who is a dog lover, they might appreciate that even at this moment for this podcast, my dog is seated on my lap, and he's part of this podcast community, so you're welcome, friends.
Kaley Olson:
I love that. And his name is Ricci; is that right?
Bianca Olthoff:
Ricci Messi Olthoff. Yeah. We're a big soccer family, and so we named him after some of our favorites.
Kaley Olson:
At Proverbs, and Amanda knows this, Slack is the way we all communicate as a team, and we have a lot of fun with Slack. We do serious business over Slack, but we also have some fun channels. And one of the channels on Slack is called Dog Slack. And so if any of us are working from home, we would send pictures of our dog at the moment. And so, Bianca, if you were a part of the Dog Slack conversation, you would totally be sending us a selfie of you and Ricci recording the podcast episode in Dog Slack.
Bianca Olthoff:
Absolutely —
Kaley Olson:
Everybody would love that.
Bianca Olthoff:
I would spam you guys.
Kaley Olson:
Because that's the content we all need. But anyways, thank you for being here. Thank you for being a fellow dog lover and makeup enthusiast. But you know what? Those things are not what we're really here to talk about today. What we're here to talk about seriously is leaving a legacy. And honestly, I feel like, Amanda, it's something I don't think about a lot because I live so in the moment and day to day. But, Bianca, I'm so glad that you're here to talk with us about this topic today because I feel like it's really important and something that is going to be worth chewing on for a long time after we listen to this.
So Amanda and I are going to turn the mics over to you, and we can't wait to hear what you have to say.
Bianca Olthoff:
Thank you, friends. Well, to the podcast family, if you are friends of P31 or of Lysa, then hey, I'm considering you my friend as well. What an honor and privilege it is. Just to have a conversation about the power of leaving a legacy. Then maybe it's because I am 40 now, and this is roughly about the halfway point of my life that I'm beginning to ask myself some questions. And now I'm not morbid, but I started asking, "What is the story that I want to be written that people read after I'm gone?" Essentially, that's legacy. And if I were to ask you the fact that you were making, you might be able to think about a broad or nonspecific either statement or value, or maybe even a metric of your family or your business or your organization or your impact.
Now, any entrepreneur business leaders might be familiar with letters like R&D, ROI, P&L, and all those other letters that people will use in business. But I don't want to have an assessment conversation. I want to have an impact conversation. And it's going to begin with asking ourselves a very simple question: Can you assess legacy? There isn't really a number or a metric or "I've had this many successful friendships, therefore I am leaving a great legacy." Or "I've had 18 kids, and I home-schooled all of them, and they all went to vacation Bible school, therefore that's my legacy." I don't know if we really know the impact of our legacy.
I mean, but think about it. Did Mother Teresa know that her name and impact would be known around the world years after her death? Did Nelson Mandela know that his years sitting in a jail cell would be a legacy that would bring freedom to South Africa? Did Paul the Apostle know that the letters he penned in prison would be read over 2,000 years later and spam the globe? Did Flor Maria Otero know that the decisions to serve the Lord would reverberate for generations?
Now, you might've been familiar with some of the other names that I mentioned, but Flor Maria is a woman whose story bears repeating. She was born on the island of Puerto Rico, and if [you’ve] never been to Puerto Rico, it's a beautiful island with clear blue waters and chirping birds that wake you up in the morning. And there's a cute national animal called a coqui; it's a frog that singsongs only at night. And Flor Maria found her home in Puerto Rico, and she would wake [up] to the sounds of the island, the beats and syncopated rhythms that would make everyone on the island move. And this is what I do know about Puerto Rican people: If you aren't moving, you are missing out. If you're not dancing, then you're dying.
And I know this because I am Puerto Rican, and our people are as frenetic as the waves and as warm as the island weather. But like many women experience in the Caribbean and other less fortunate places to live, there isn't a whole lot of opportunity. And by default, this leads to vulnerability and lack of opportunity. Like so many women from the Caribbean Islands, Flor Maria left her family and her home, and she fled to New York. She had a dream of leaving the island and creating a home for her future children and quite possibly her children's children. She worked in a sweatshop in New York and was underpaid and paid under the table, as she faced horrible working conditions and pay. Did she know what her legacy would be? I mean, do any of us know what our sacrifice today will bring tomorrow or in the following year or in the following decade?
“Legacy” is an interesting word in our culture. When my generation as a millennial and Gen Z speaks about legacy, it's often connected to and synonymous with money, with influence and affluence. But that's not what Scripture says. In fact, I have a Bible boyfriend. Don't judge me. I can have a crush on dead old guys, OK? But Paul the Apostle, when he wrote to his friends in Philippi, in Philippians 2:17, it says about how he lived his life that it can give us a little insight to how we should live our lives. He says this in Philippians 2:17, "But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you" (NIV).
Paul the Apostle loved using word pictures in his writings. If you're familiar with his writings, he gives us a word picture like runners, and we're running our race, or soldiers and we're in battle, or farmers and one day we will see a harvest. But in this verse, at the heart of this verse, is the image of Paul "being poured out like a drink offering" (Philippians 2:17, NIV). Now, why would Paul use the word picture of being a drink? The Philippians were living in a pagan, Greco-Roman culture, and there's a pagan practice of pouring out wine from their glass as a sacrifice to a god. And note that is a little god. When people wanted to seek their god in a special way, they would pour out some of their wine as a sacrifice that would help pave the way for their prayer. Well, over the years, it became a custom for some to pour out just a little bit from the cup that they drank as a little sacrifice to their god.
Paul ever so brilliantly took a cultural practice that the Philippians would've recognized and he wrapped it in biblical Truth. So when Paul said, “I am being poured out as a drink offering,” he meant his life was poured out as a sacrifice to the one true God. Paul's goal: die empty. He said, "My goal is to pour myself out like a drink offering to the Lord." Now, the idea of being poured out might feel wasteful or accidental, but for our boy Paul, it was intentional. In the mindset of Paul, if his life wasn't being poured out, it was being wasteful. And this verse comes from the letter like mentioned and that Paul wrote to his friends in Philippi, and he was in prison as he was writing this letter. He was in Rome writing this letter. His crime? Preaching the gospel. His punishment? Potentially, his life. His posture? Filled with joy and rejoicing for his friends.
The pouring out was not complete at the time of Paul when he was writing to the Philippians, but by the time he wrote his son in the faith Timothy, it was. In the very last letter that Paul wrote to his son in the faith, he said this in 2 Timothy 4:6, "For I am already being poured out as a drink offering" (ESV). That's the same Greek word that he used in the book of Philippians. "And the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:6-7, WEB). At the end of his life, Paul had everything. Paul viewed everything [that happened] to him as a sacrifice for the gospel. He died fully poured out. In essence, he died empty.
When we look at Paul's life holistically, we see that this was a sacrifice that was practiced daily. He was poured out the entire time that he lived. He gave up what was so important to him and to anyone else in [the] culture: his education, his pedigree, his social clout. And he went as far to tell the Philippians that his background, his religious heritage and his accomplishments were counted as loss.
In writing to his friends in Philippi, he said in Philippians 3:8, "What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ" (NIV). Every day, Paul poured himself out for others, for the gospel, for the Lord he was giving of himself instead of doing things that would've pleased him. Paul gave his life as a sacrifice without knowing the legacy that would be left for us. When Paul walked away from his social clout as a top Pharisee or religious leader, did he know the audience that he would have with political and religious leaders? Did Paul know that he would train up the next generation of the Christian Church? Did Paul know he would perform miracles? Did Paul know that he would write letters that would be read for over 2000 years? Did Paul know how his life and his writings would shake the Church forever? No, I don't think he did. Paul had no clue where the Lord was going to be taking him or what would be asked of him, but he continued to obey and his obedience led to his legacy.
As a follower of Christ, I'm believing that the same is true for us: that our obedience will lead to our legacy. And as a follower of Jesus, what is the definition of legacy? The definition of legacy for a Jesus follower is far deeper than bequeathing money or a property left in a will. The idea of biblical legacy includes our contribution to the next generation. Our biblical legacy is an inheritance. It is your gift of service to others. So my definition of biblical legacy is this: your contribution to the next generation and the belief that it will have an eternal impact. The children that you raise, the business that you build, the scientific contribution that you make, the classrooms that you impact, the starving children that you will feed, this will be your legacy, and it will impact future generations.
Benjamin Franklin put it this way: "If you don't want to be forgotten as soon as you die, either write something worth reading or do something worth writing." Our legacy is shouting to a deafened world and believing that it's true. "One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts" (Psalm 145:4, ESV). Often, we don't realize the weight of our decisions. We think that our choices, our decisions, are isolated, independent; they don't affect anyone. Oh, but, friends, it is so much more. Whether we want to admit it or not, our decisions could have a lasting impact on generations to come for the positive and the negative.
Please hear me: Pouring out is inevitable. We are pouring out our lives on something. Maybe you find yourself pouring out your life on ambition and acceptance. Maybe you're pouring out your life to acquire finances, influence, [or] status. Maybe you're pouring your life out for the pursuit of happiness or the American Dream. And the truth is, when you pour out your life on your plans, it could lead to a wasted life. Your life could be poured out on your ambition and your desires and your pleasures, or your life can be poured out on people, places and the promises of God. Where will you choose to pour?
Almost two years ago, I had this dream in my heart to go to Puerto Rico and pour into the next generation of women. And a couple of months ago, I had this amazing insane opportunity to host a young women's conference for the girls aged roughly 13-18, and my heart was to partner with an organization and have a sponsorship program that would provide opportunities for education, for resources, and even for afterschool programs that would help resource them and encourage them through education and through the gospel to make decisions that would impact their life.
And it made me think of Flor Maria Otero. Where would this woman have been years ago? Better yet, who would she have been if somebody spoke her God[-given] identity over her? Well, by the grace of God, Flor Maria worked hard and sacrificed, and she raised a daughter who would be my mother. Today I get to stand in the wake of a woman, my grandmother, who taught me that our life is to pave a way for others. And so, the idea of going back to an island that my grandmother was from to give opportunities for the next generation to see an impact that could be had — not just for your life, not just for your children's life, but for your children's children's life — that is living a life worth leaving a legacy.
I was able to gather over 150 girls, and we worshipped the Lord. And in true Puerto Rican form, dancing broke out. I mean, people who think that dancing shouldn't be allowed in church, they clearly haven't been to Puerto Rico because though I didn't say they had to stop, I was even a little bit taken back. But we had fun. We had snacks. We gave them books and resources. We were able to open up the Word of God and speak identity over them, speak life over them, speak Truth over them. And using my story in my life, I got to look in their faces and see the future Flor Marias, who would have the opportunity that my grandmother never had.
When we think about our lives like a drink offering, it means that we pour out, we pour out, we pour out, we pour out, all while not knowing what our legacy would be. With every step closer to our purpose, with every sacrifice endured, with every promise that you hold on to that God has given you, with every trial that you survive, you are adding to the foundation of faith for the next generation to stand upon. And the ripple effect of your life will reach future generations for good or bad. Whether we want to or not. You are making a mark one way or another. So the question I'm asking is: What legacy will you leave?
Now, life might feel tumultuous. Life might cause a sense of anxiety. Maybe you feel like you were in a place and a season in your life where you want peace and all you got was the storm. Maybe you feel like you were disappointed and there is no reprieve for the war that is waging within you. Let me remind you today that God has not abandoned you and the decisions that you make today will impact your tomorrow. There's an idiom, an expression, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." And I do believe that in a sense. But I think without an understanding of why, our labor will feel in vain. What is your “why”? Why are you doing what you're doing? Why are you making the decisions that you're making? If our lens and focus isn't about today, and maybe even not about tomorrow, our motivation will be fueled by what we are building for the next generation and the following generation.
And look at Paul, and he's my rubric for success, not as the world defined success but living a life poured out, not for myself but for others. And when we do this, we are leaving a legacy no one can destroy. Friends, I pray that we too, like Paul, can say in the face of whatever storm we're facing, whatever trial, trauma or tribulation, we stare back and say, "I pour myself out as a drink offering, an offering unto God." Don't give up. If you're not dead, God's not done. So leave a legacy and live a life worth living. Thanks, friends.
Kaley Olson:
Wow. Amanda, I keep sitting here thinking that we need to hear more stories like Flor Maria's story because, Bianca, I'm so grateful that you shared not only your teaching with us in a fresh and relevant way, because legacy is really important, but sharing the story [of] who we found out was your grandmother, which is so neat, but we don't know her. But now we know her name. And even just getting to hear her name I think makes God smile so big because it is the Pauls, it is the Mother Teresas, it is the Nelson Mandelas or whoever you mentioned at the very beginning, those names are all really, really important. But I think we all, if we are listening to this and we have faith, there's somebody in our life that we're looking back at who is either alive, or not alive, and going, "You know what? They got it right. They didn't get it all right, but there's something about the way that they live that really impacted me.”
And I do have a question for you, Bianca, but as you were talking, I started thinking about my grandmother, and she passed away last year from Alzheimer's, but she was one of those people who had just really, really incredible faith, and her story is probably very similar to your grandmother's story. She grew up in Mississippi, really, really poor, and her parents didn't go to church, but there's a lady down the street who drove a pickup truck and would pick up, literally, the kids around the neighborhood who wanted to go to church, and very, very rural part of Mississippi, so you can imagine in the '40s, very poor kind of the Delta area. And my grandmother was the youngest one. And so her spot was the floorboard seat beneath the driver's feet.
And I don't know who that lady is, but I think about that lady and her being the one willing to take my grandmother to church, who then changed my grandmother's life. And my grandmother was one of the people who, in the final years of his life, led her dad to Jesus. And if it's not for people like Flor Maria or people who are like my grandmother who don't give up on the gospel and live their life in such a way ... and I mean she didn't do anything special for all intents and purposes. I wrote something; do you mind if I read it actually? This is part of her.
Bianca Olthoff:
Love it. What's her name?
Kaley Olson:
Her name was Katie. But we called her Ammama. Because it was supposed to be Grandmama, but the first cousin couldn't say Gs, and so it was Ammama. But in her obituary, I got to write something on the back of it. And it says, "Although her simple life wouldn't be described as outstanding by the world standards, we know in our hearts how outstanding her impact was on all of us. Today we're able to celebrate not only the life she lived but the way she lived her life and who she lived it for. She was one of the few that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 9:37, and as we continue in our lives here on earth, she's getting to see plentiful harvest from a heavenly perspective." And side note: Matthew 9:37 is "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few" (NASB). Back to what I wrote.
"I wonder if after she laid all her crowns at Jesus' feet, He walked with her to the house He built, maybe it had a big wraparound porch, flowers to grow, grass to cut, and a dining-room table to seat many. And as she stood in awe of her forever home, perhaps He said, ‘Katie, I've got someone who's been waiting to see you.’ Among everything so perfect her eyes were taking in, she may be locked eyes with her dad. I imagine his first words to her were, ‘Thank you for being one of His workers. If it weren't for you, I might not be here.’ The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. What a lady. But more importantly, what a God! How kind is our heavenly Father that He lets us be part of her life and see how He used her for His Kingdom?"
And I just thought about that when you were sharing this, because it's the everyday living that so many people were at the church, lined up around the building in this tiny country church last year for her funeral to just say thank you because she led GA (Girls in Action). She just lived life normally, as Jesus would've lived, [and] didn't try to make a legacy out of herself, like you were talking about Bianca. And that's what I appreciate so much about your definition of legacy as compared to the world's definition of legacy, which is significance. It's like, "I have to think about what they're going to say about me," and while that's important, it's still not about you. Your life is meant to pave the way as a drink offering for someone else.
So my question to you is, I think one of the biggest mistakes that we make whenever we talk about legacy or think about legacy these days is we associate it with vocational ministry. It has to be like a Mother Teresa kind of legacy or a Billy Graham kind of legacy, or maybe one day, Bianca, it'll be a Bianca Olthoff legacy in the future, somebody who does ministry. But most people who listen to this show are not people who do ministry. They're like my grandmother, or they're like anybody else right now who is a nurse or a teacher or a mom. So, Bianca, what do you think we are missing out on when we isolate legacy to a vocational career?
Bianca Olthoff: I think that we don't give God the props and the credit that He deserves through our everyday living.
And so we have this divide between the secular and the sacred, like those that do ministerial work have a greater impact and they're the ones leading legacy, and that's absolutely, fundamentally not true. And so we take a look at what different people are called to do in the scope of Scripture and the legacy they're called to leave. We can have that conversation, but my fear and my hesitation is that there's so many people [who] are saying, "Well, I'm not really living legacy. I am just a stay-at-home mom," or, "I am just a baker." When I think that we can look at, and I would love for people to start looking at the work of their hand, everything, whether it's changing your 75th baby diaper that day or you made a loaf of bread in a bakery, is that you are aiding in somebody's welfare in life, no matter what we do.
And people might still argue against it and say, "Well, I just work from home, and I don't interact with anyone." When you go to the market, do you bring a sense of the Spirit of God with you that when you say, "Hello," when you smile, it might be the very thing that that person needs in that moment. When the Spirit of God is nudging at you to go have that conversation with that homeless man or give an extra tip to your waiter and ask them, "Hey, how can I pray for you today?" that is part of us leaving a legacy.
Every single day, we are pouring ourselves out and building something. I just want to pause and have people think, do you know that every day that we're making a deposit into our eternal legacy bank that one day we're going to look back and see dividends here on earth maybe but definitely in heaven. And everyone's perspective could be like, "Everything that I do, the kindness that I exude, my contribution in the classroom as a teacher or my contribution in the medical field as a nurse or a doctor, I am impacting someone's life for the glory of God."
And if we walk around with that, then we should hold our head up high and say, "Today I am living with such a sense of purpose that I get to bring Jesus to earth, that I get to be His hands; I get to be His feet. I get to use His words to impact the life of somebody." And if that's our lens and filter, then there's no way that we can walk around and say, "Well, I'm not making an impact." I wonder if Ammama Katie would look back at her life and see all the people that wrapped around the church building to honor her for her life in ways that she didn't even know. That is what I'm excited about. And the goal of living isn't to have 500 people at your funeral. That's not what I'm saying. But I just think that [we’re] grossly unaware of the impact that we get to have simply by believing that our words, our actions and our choices have an eternal impact.
Amanda Bacon:
So good. Bianca, we love that you just said that. That is so good; it makes [me] think of the woman listening today who ... she's worn out like we talked about. She's poured out, she's maybe guilty, maybe really sad because she wants to leave a legacy but she doesn't feel like she can because she's so overwhelmed. What would you say to her today?
Bianca Olthoff:
So I first want to say, because I've been her, that your will to choose to live today is an act of resistance against the enemy wanting you to give up and just shut down. I'm also going to encourage you to sit and say ... I love that my Bible boyfriend Paul says to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17, ESV). And in the season, I am a stepmom. And I came into the kids' lives, and they were 3 and 5, and I became an instant stepmom and a wife. I worked for a global anti-human trafficking organization. My husband was on staff at a large church, and I felt like I in a season where I could not pour out; surviving was my pour out. And the Lord gently reminded me that I have a weapon in my arsenal that I'm not using, and that's prayer.
And so, though we didn't have the financial resources to be philanthropists and I didn't have time to serve at the local food kitchen, what I could do is I can maximize my time in prayer. And so, I feel like what are those moments where we could just have a few moments where we can text somebody a word of encouragement, or we could just hit our knees and pray for somebody who's in pain or war for the nations in the 10/40 Window, that they're facing spiritual opposition and persecution. I wonder if we, instead of saying, "I can't, and I don't, and I won't, and I am too exhausted," I wonder if it's in the twinkling margin hours that we could say, "God in this time, how can I maximize this to bring hope, joy, love, and build a legacy worth living even with just this fringe margin that I have?"
And so, I think the shortest way to distill this is say: What time do you have? The widow had her two mites; do you have two minutes? What can we do that may not feel significant to you but will be significant in eternity? I would love for us to start shifting our mind and thinking of different ways that we could look at our calendar and our life and say, "With the little that I have, got to turn it into a lot."
Amanda Bacon:
Love that so much.
Kaley Olson:
I do too. And, Bianca, I kind of want to wrap up on what you said earlier. It was tucked maybe two-thirds of the way into your message where you equated legacy to obedience, and you said, "Our obedience leads to our legacy." And I think the two being synonymous is something that is unique to this teaching, because so often we think of legacy outside of everything else that we're doing. Kind of like it's on top, almost kind of like we think about talking to God on top of everything else, when it should just be synonymous and eventually a habit that just is so normal. And I love the word "obedience."
I think about, Amanda, the woman who is tired, like, Bianca, just like you said, she can still show up where she is, but even if what is tired is what is a result of obedience, then I think there's a way that she's showing up and still choosing to do what she can that also shows other women who are also burned out and worn out a way to not just like push through until, because that's also a mindset that's really hard, but just to keep showing up because God's given her the strength that's right to do this.
Amanda Bacon:
That's so good.
Kaley Olson:
And I think it's just the daily obedience and not giving up. And that's one of the hardest things as believers too, when it feels like so much and it's so overwhelming not giving up. Amen.
Bianca Olthoff:
Oh, I love that. That is the perfect way. Mic-drop moment, friends, mic drop [inaudible] —
Kaley Olson:
I would drop the mic, but that would sound really bad. Anyways, Bianca, thank you so much for coming on the show today and just for giving your time to not only teach us about legacy and really all the things that you have learned about it but to share with us and our podcast audience. That's what I love so much about the way that we do podcasting here: We just give Bianca the mic, and we say, "Girlfriend, you are a teacher. You teach us and let us listen." And I love what we get to do because we get to hear it in real time and ask questions and process for our listeners.
So thank you for coming on the show. And, friends, we have linked ways for you to get connected with Bianca on social media or her podcast. If you go on social media, you can see her weenie dog there and comment about how cute he is or all the fun things that she posts about. But I did want to mention her newest book that's available now called Grit Don't Quit: Developing Resilience and Faith When Giving Up Isn't an Option. You guys can purchase this in the show notes, but, Amanda, I think that kind of speaks to your last question. Bianca, can you give a very short synopsis of this book to promote it to our audience and tell them why they should purchase it?
Bianca Olthoff:
Well, it goes on the heels of the question that was asked about, "Well, what do you do when you're exhausted and tired and you feel like you're tapped out?" Listen, I am a girl who just believes that if we don't give up, then God's going to get the victory and we're actually going to see the fruit. So Grit Don't Quit is essentially speaking to building grit and resilience in your life when you feel like, "I just am tired and want to give up." And then my favorite part is actually the appendix, and Lysa actually was the one that encouraged me to also talk about what are healthy boundaries when we feel like the season is done and we need to walk away. That's the bulk of the book; it’s about not giving up and how to make it tangible and practical to build resilience in our lives.
Kaley Olson:
I love that. And I love that it includes boundaries. We love boundaries.
Amanda Bacon:
Yes. We love them here.
Kaley Olson:
We love boundaries.
Amanda Bacon:
So good. Amazing. Well, in light of today's conversation with Bianca about leaving a legacy, as I was listening to you talk, Bianca, I was just imagining that there were so many of you listening that have a story to share. So we have a free resource for you called “How To Share Your Story.” Super clever, right? And we've linked it for you in the show notes; whatever you've been through, there is a purpose in it. And within this resource, we'll help you overcome your fear of being transparent with our five-step process to start writing about the transformation you've experienced in a way that your readers can relate to. So we'd love for you to grab this for free using the link in our show notes, and we can't wait to hear your story.
Kaley Olson:
Yeah, I really like that we're including this resource after Bianca's teaching, especially when we all talked about there's not only our story and our legacy, but then Bianca talked about Flor Maria, and we talked about all these other people, I mean, who have impacted our lives, and we've got a story to share too. And I think that more people need to get it out in writing, and they just don't know how, and it's really important to tell other people's legacies in your life.
So all right, friends, that is all for today. What a great conversation. As always, we believe we know the Truth and love the Truth, it changes everything.