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In Ecclesiastes 3:11, we read that God makes everything beautiful in its time. It is comforting to know that nothing is wasted in God's economy, but all of it will be used for our good and His glory. You're invited to join us for poignant conversations and compelling interviews centered on believing for His beauty in every season.
Shannon Scott (00:11.478)
Well, hello, hello, hello, Ms. Patsy Clairmont. Thank you, thank you, thank you for being on the podcast today. This is a treat for me and for everyone else, I can assure you.
Patsy (00:23.748)
Well, thank you for having me and may I say this is the way my daughter -in -law approached me about doing this. She said, you know that chick you love so much from my church? She would like you to be on her little talk show. And I said, I would love to do that with Shannon.
Shannon Scott (00:45.89)
Thank you so much. You have been so sweet and encouraging the couple of times that we have talked. And I just have to tell you, you have a gift for meeting someone, assessing them pretty quickly and giving them a word of encouragement. And your words weigh a million pounds because they are so, so valuable. So thank you for your encouragement over the years.
I have, of course, a million things I want to talk to you about, but I would love if you would be willing for you to just take us back to the beginning a little bit. So many people are so familiar with your teaching ministry, your writing ministry, and I know we'd love to just hear a little bit about how you became Patsy Claremont, which is a lot of stuff that we don't know. So tell us a little bit about that.
Patsy (01:32.89)
Well, I had southern parents, but I was born in Michigan, so I was the first little northerner in our little caboose. I had a brother who was nine years older than me and a sister 13 years younger. So we were a space age family.
Shannon Scott (01:52.276)
Mm.
Patsy (01:54.758)
I was a middle child, but I also was the youngest child and I also was the oldest child and for a while I was the only child. So I filled all the slots which kind of explains a lot about this crazy girl that I grew up to be.
Shannon Scott (02:11.896)
you
Patsy (02:13.818)
I was rebellious in my teenage years. I was a high school dropout, a teenage runaway. I was married by the time I was 17. I would have married him sooner, but I couldn't talk him into it. And we were married, it shouldn't have worked, but we were married by the grace of God for 60 years. And he passed away two years ago.
which was a great awakening within me to additional truth I had never understood because I had never had to live it. And now I understand that when two become one and those two become individual again, there is an unraveling that it takes time to figure out. Now, who am I now?
and my identity in Christ never changed, but my marital status certainly did. And I miss him deeply and daily. After we were married, I had our first child when I was 20. And I began to unravel then in a different way, and that was emotionally.
Shannon Scott (03:25.164)
Mmm.
Patsy (03:42.342)
I became an agoraphobic, which means I was emotionally and physically housebound for several years of my life. It would be two years of going into the agoraphobia, starting to develop one fear after another. And then it was two years in the house and then two years learning.
how to come back out the other side and be sane. And that was through a moment of crisis. And what happened was I woke up and I realized how much trouble I was in because not only was I not leaving home, now I didn't want to get out of bed. And it hit me, the question came, and where will you go from here?
And I thought, dear, they're gonna lock me away if I don't do something. And I cried out in prayer and I knew about the Lord, but I didn't know his Lordship over my life. And I cried out to him and I said, I'll do whatever you ask of me, but I need you to rescue me. And I heard inside of me the words,
Shannon Scott (05:00.183)
Hmm.
Patsy (05:08.21)
make your bed. And I thought, well, that's ridiculous. Make my bed. I'm in it. Well, that was the point. Get out of the bed. I got up after I got through arguing with him, I told him I'd do whatever he wanted me to do. And then I argued. And I caught myself and I said, no, I said, I do whatever you asked of me. It doesn't make sense.
Shannon Scott (05:14.765)
you
Patsy (05:36.248)
But neither do I. So I got out of bed and I said, do I have to make both sides? Could I just make this side? Because I slept here and you know who slept over there. Shouldn't he make his own side? And he said both sides every day. Okay, so I made both sides and I stood back and for a moment I felt dignity.
come into my being as if doing the right thing mattered and could be part of the pathway of restoring my emotional and mental health. so I began trying to listen closely to what he asked of me and then doing it. And it started with putting things in order around my home. And the more I did that,
Shannon Scott (06:12.524)
Mm.
Patsy (06:35.02)
it felt like the more orderly I was becoming. And then he began to bring people into my life, which is his way. And because I didn't go out, the way he did it was a friend told her friend who called me and we started phone conversations. And when I would talk about a fear I had,
She would refer me to scripture and not just refer me to them. She would say, do you have your Bible? Well, yeah, I have a Bible. We'll go get it. And then she'd say, now open up to the table of contents and look for this book, Philippians, a book of joy. And then now I want you to find it. Look at the page number and find it.
and go to the fourth chapter. I want you to go down to this verse and I would like you to read it. And I said, well, you already have it, you read it. No, I it would be good if you say it through your own lips because you'll hear it better. Well, it didn't make a lot of sense then. It makes absolute sense now. And so I would read the verse and there would be the words.
Shannon Scott (07:41.998)
You
Shannon Scott (07:47.766)
that's so good.
Patsy (08:01.678)
you know, and it is the living counsel of God that gives us and feeds and nurtures our hope and brings us into some level of maturity. And so I would read the word and she'd say, now you need to memorize that. And I would think, there's a lot of verses here. I can't memorize all this. She said, let's just start with one verse.
and I'll memorize it with you, we'll say it together, and then we'll check back with each other. So she helped me in accountability and she always gave me just as much as I could handle. so portioning it out for me to receive was a brilliant way to keep me involved. And so we had
hours and hours and hours of conversation and talk about scripture and she would say, now what do you think those words mean? And how would you put that inside your own life? So it was going to be something God would use then, later, and now. It is something about His words. They never grow old.
and they always have applicability to what's going on in your life and what's going on in your head and what's happening in your heart. And my head was a mess and so I was given a lot of verses for my mind. It didn't take my friend long to know that I would also need a lot from my mouth. My mouth was fast and could be exceedingly sassy and deeply cutting.
And so I spent a lot of time in Proverbs. There was a lot of correction there for the mouth and a lot of insight into the impact and value of words. And so that was extremely helpful as well. Eventually, she would invite me to come and be a part of a ladies group in that area that held retreats.
Patsy (10:28.746)
And she asked me if I would like, because I love books, if I would like to run the book table in the back of the room. I was so excited about that. And that would be the first time I ever heard anybody do a book review. And that brought me to life. There was something in me that jumped.
Shannon Scott (10:52.608)
Wow.
Patsy (10:56.378)
toward joy. That woman in succinct ways gave insights into books I loved while making the audience laugh and listen. And I thought, the next year they had me up there doing the book reviews. And that would lead me into speaking. that was not a place
I thought I would ever be not with all of the fears I had collected. And I found that it was an avenue for me to live out of gifts I didn't even know I had, but had been identified and validated by a circle of friends who believed in how God had designed me.
I really encourage people don't hold back when you see a gift in another person. Don't be afraid to validate them. Don't worry they'll get too big for their bridges. God will take care of that and if nothing else, life will catch them and teach them about some humility. I really was thrilled at
Shannon Scott (12:04.674)
you
Patsy (12:20.302)
doing book reviews, was not as thrilled at being a speaker at first. I wasn't sure what if I fail and what if I forget what I was going to say, which happened several times and more times than I can count actually, but God always swept in and helped to pull things together.
because my prayer is that I would not leave anyone confused, but they would hear clearly the love of the Savior and His redemption and His glorious plans.
Shannon Scott (13:08.896)
Yes, I love that you talked about needing the correction and the discipline in the area of words and the kindness of the Lord because of what He had prepared you for, what your ministry would be, both written and spoken with words, the kindness of the Lord to put people around you, to open His word to you, and for you to receive that correction.
And I think oftentimes it would be tempting for us to think that the area we struggle the most would be the one we need to run away from and engage the least, but it actually may be the very place that God wants to use us once he has refined us in that area. I know for me,
Words are the thing he wants to use and so words are the thing that he has to bring the most correction to in my life. So I'm so grateful that you shared that. It's also a good reminder to us that often without a season of refinement like that and a season of correction and course correcting, we're not quite ready for something like You Would Be Handed, which is a public
platform teaching ministry that you were gifted for but had to be prepared for as well.
Patsy (14:35.3)
Well, I sometimes think I'm still not ready and I'm pressing hard on leaning into my 80th birthday in the spring. it's not our worthiness, but his, it's not our clever plan, but his holy writ upon our heart that is
Shannon Scott (14:39.062)
Hehehehe
Patsy (15:04.312)
been there before we were even formed in our mother's womb. I mean, he's got this figured out. I sure don't. I mean, if I picked someone, it wouldn't have been me. So I'm grateful that he did, that he showed me what he can do and only he can do in the way of redemption. And I still have to go to him on a regular basis.
Shannon Scott (15:13.421)
Mm.
Patsy (15:33.702)
and be held accountable for things. And I'm so grateful for the work of the Holy Spirit who comes purposely to lift up Jesus and us. And part of that is through the obedience to his counsel. that's pretty, it's reassuring to know that we have a savior and a
Shannon Scott (15:36.78)
Hmm.
Shannon Scott (15:52.792)
Yeah.
Patsy (16:02.43)
a Holy Spirit and a Heavenly Father. I mean, the fullness of all of that takes my breath away.
Shannon Scott (16:13.993)
So, so good. I am in awe of your story and yet on you know on my side and so many people listening we are familiar with the public ministry platform side of your life and it has been so successful.
that it would be easy to think it was easy and it came easy and it was gotten easily. And I think it's going to be encouraging to people to hear, no, no, it wasn't easy. There was a day that God had to tell me to make my bed. So get on a stage all over the country and the world. It would not have been in the cards, but that has been what has happened.
So talk to us a little bit about women of faith because what a legacy women of faith created for all of us coming behind. I was just a little young for those years, but knew of them. And I really think everything women's ministries are trying to do now is some sort of recapturing that kind of magic.
So I wanna hear a little bit about that, but I also wanna say, I don't know if you consider yourself a pioneer in this way, but you really are a trailblazer in the concept of women communicators, not only being able to be deep, but also funny.
So you have mastered funny and deep. And so I don't know if you realize that you've blazed to that trail for many of us who like some humor in our Bible teaching, but talk to me just about how that came about. Women of faith, your involvement in it, and then how it morphed over the years.
Patsy (18:12.91)
Yes, it was a thrilling thing to be a part of that. I was apart from day one until it closed its doors. And out of all those years, I only missed one. And I actually was there for that, but had a family emergency and I had to leave and fly home.
It was a real part of my life. There were years we did 35 weekends out of the year and our weekends started, we had to arrive on a Thursday and leave on a Sunday. So it didn't give us much turnaround time before we left again, you know, so it was a, me who never planned on getting on an airplane.
Shannon Scott (18:57.111)
Yeah.
Patsy (19:02.938)
and much less a stage, found myself constantly on the run for the plane and then dashing up on stages with, I think our highest count was 25 ,000 one weekend. And I had never experienced such a thing.
and we had four cameras and a jumbotron. And I was, never wanted to see myself that big or that close up, but there I was. And I came to love the cameras. And the reason for that was one of the cameramen took me aside and he said, I notice you avoid.
the camera, you stand in between all the cameras. And he said, let me tell you this, you can see how many people when you're standing there. I said, I can see a couple hundred. He said, yeah, the problem is there's thousands in the room and you can't see them. That means they can't see you. When you look in our camera, you get to speak directly to every woman.
Shannon Scott (20:27.224)
Mm.
Patsy (20:27.66)
in this whole arena. Well, then I couldn't find that camera often. I looked like a camera over here, over here, because I wanted to convey personally from a deep place, a joyous place, the recovery that could be theirs, how they could resolve this constant crush by
identity, who am I? And then things change, now who am I? And figuring some of this out together as women, it was so important to me for them to know Christ and Him lifted up. going on the women of faith journey was a journey we did not know it was going to be popular.
And even when we did the very first one was in a church. And when we got there, we found out it had sold out and they had an extra room in the back that had filled. And we looked at each other and said, well, this area must be in great demand for some activity.
And then the next weekend we went to another church in another state and it was bigger and it was sold out and they had a room on the side and we thought, well that's hard. I wonder what that's all about. So halfway through the year we realized God is up to something. That's what this is.
Shannon Scott (22:09.57)
Mm -hmm.
Patsy (22:09.694)
And so they talked about going to an arena and being a woman of great vision. I said, that'll never work. And I said, let me tell you why. Because there's no lace on the arms and you don't serve tea and they got to walk up cement steps and the chairs don't have cushions. It just isn't going to work. And so they...
discarded my great insight gratefully and the women flooded in and I watched them scale those steps right up to the ceiling and snuggle into that wooden chair like it was comfortable and laugh and cry and sing.
And one of the things about women of faith is they always started with a circle of worship. And it set the atmosphere for people to listen and hear and feel good about being where they were at, feel a sense of belonging. And we all long for that.
Shannon Scott (23:22.392)
Hmm.
Shannon Scott (23:27.586)
Yeah.
Patsy (23:31.07)
Women came in very skeptical because their families and their friends, it dragged them along or bribed them or promised them, I'll give you this if you'll do this. And they would show up and their lives would be changed and we would be overwhelmed with gratitude to our God that he worked in one.
Shannon Scott (23:49.367)
Hmm.
Patsy (23:59.418)
as well as one in thousands. And so it was thrilling for every one of the speakers. We would often be in tears because we could not believe the seats would fill up or the stories we heard from the people in the audience or how women brought their mothers and their children.
and their grandchildren. I mean, it just was such a place of safety for the family. And so it was a thrilling thing and we felt very humbled to have the honor of being a part of that.
Shannon Scott (24:48.354)
Well, it lasts even though, as you said, it closed its doors. That legacy certainly lives on the generational impact, even just as you mentioned, of several generations of women attending together in one family. It has been.
really, really special. So thank you for the stewardship of that for so many years. It has not gone unnoticed and it still continues its impact even today. So just know that for certain.
Patsy (25:23.652)
Thank you. The Lord was very kind to the staff in that there was constant ministry taking place behind the scenes within our own lives. There was ways we were able to rally and come around each other and
have real meaningful times, whether it was in learning how to adjust to each other's very different approaches or whether it was because a word was spoke hastily or a word was misunderstood by another staff member and we would have to make sure we kept short accounts because it put us in a better place to go to
the women with truth.
Shannon Scott (26:18.25)
What a profound insight and to know that, I mean honestly I think that speaks to the longevity. Anything can be successful in the short term if you kind of know all the right ingredients, but the longevity of something and something carrying God's favor for that long is a testament to how you were caretaking your souls behind the scenes.
before you got on stage and attempted to export that to other people. And I think things that we see, I would describe as like a flash in the pan, like, ooh, that was really great. Whatever happened to that? Often you find that it could not sustain the level of talent or visibility because that exact thing that you're talking about was not happening behind the scenes. So that's so encouraging to hear. And that's why
It was as successful as it was for as long as it was. So that's so encouraging.
Patsy (27:18.934)
And Mary brought in a prayer director, a woman with great heart and passion for prayer and what it would do in the preparation of our own hearts to stand before others. so that was extremely helpful because we might've forgotten in a rush.
Shannon Scott (27:36.214)
Mm.
Patsy (27:48.268)
she never forgot and we didn't go out till we got done with business, know, the business of having our hearts in the right place and our attitudes. So it was, it gave us opportunity to grow even more. And it was a privilege for me to work with women, not only of diverse gifts, but of...
Shannon Scott (27:50.135)
Mm.
Patsy (28:15.386)
very impressive credentials. And that was a lovely thing. It was an education for me. And they were so willing to pour into me in areas that I didn't know about that they did. then we had the also life -expanding chance to go to Africa and be in the villages and
I remember Sheila Walsh and I sitting at the others had just left this hut and the hut belonged to a woman that we were giving support to and she was showing us what she had produced, what she had planted and the Lord had produced in the way of a little crop for her that she could sell.
tomatoes and things like that. but we were sitting there and we were amazed at how little they had and yet what great joy this woman exhibited. She was the grandmother. She had buried two of her married daughters behind the hut.
Shannon Scott (29:31.853)
Hmm.
Patsy (29:42.188)
and she was raising three of their children. And she had so much joy. You felt like if you had a basket, you could have caught a lot of it to bring home with you. She was amazing. And she talked about when she met Jesus. And it was so dear, so very dear.
Shannon Scott (29:46.539)
Mm.
Shannon Scott (29:57.943)
Wow.
Shannon Scott (30:05.676)
Ugh.
Shannon Scott (30:09.996)
That's so sweet, goodness. I wonder that we didn't prep for this or anything. So this will be off the cuff, but I'm wondering, you know, when something like women of faith with that amount of reach and longevity ends, that has to be a particular feeling. Even if everyone knows that it's time and I don't actually really know how the end occurred, but
I know that for us often, we might know how to begin things, but it's difficult to know how to end them. And oftentimes when things end, even if they needed to, or even if everything was quote great or nothing was quote wrong, there's still something in us that...
struggles with endings. And so I wonder if you could talk a little bit from your experience about when things end. Sometimes it's, you know, organizationally, like with women of faith, but sometimes it's relationally, like we just are not in relationship anymore. What is some of the secret sauce for navigating endings as a believer?
Patsy (31:28.218)
Well, I think I learned a lot about endings by watching the maturity and the grace with which Mary Graham, who acted as our president of Women of Faith, watching the dignity with which she handled this and the counsel which she sought to make sure she was thinking correctly.
took in wise counsel. That's one of the things that's a really important part of it. And then she didn't rush into it, but she made measurable advances toward closing it off in a way that showed regard and respect for the years of ministry he had given us, which was 20. So for 20 years, we
traveled together and during that time we couldn't help but become family. So the thought we wouldn't all be together that much, that often, that was jarring. I thought this is going to be a great loss for me. I wasn't worried about the platform. I believed very deeply God brought me there.
Shannon Scott (32:42.861)
Mm
Patsy (32:54.426)
he would take me wherever I needed to go next. But also, I had been in ministry by then for almost 40 years. And I thought, you know, I think I could sit a spell and be all right. My husband's health was not as good as it had been. And I thought I'd like to be right there and just fuss over him. I think after a while, he was ready to send me back out. But anyway,
Shannon Scott (33:03.724)
Mm -hmm.
Shannon Scott (33:08.672)
You
Shannon Scott (33:17.42)
Mm -hmm
Patsy (33:22.778)
because I can get real fussy. So it was helpful to watch the kind of closure, the wisdom with which she moved forward and the way that it was accomplished so that there weren't a lot of stray ends. Now there were a lot of disappointed people because they counted on it as a yearly trek and some of them came twice a year.
which always surprised us. thought, they must not listen the first time. There's so much going on and so many people involved. You could never take it all in one sitting, but people certainly tried to take away a whole heartful and live on that for a while. And that is what they would tell us. So.
Shannon Scott (33:56.492)
You
Patsy (34:19.322)
The journey, the way that it ended, would be a script I would look at even at the end of my marriage. You know, it's hard to say. I've never said that term before, end of my marriage. But when Les went to be with Jesus,
Shannon Scott (34:38.444)
Yeah.
Patsy (34:46.872)
That was another closure that while I could see that seemed to be the direction we were headed in, I didn't know what it would really be like. I didn't know the depth of loneliness. I didn't know I would struggle with nightmares, sleeplessness in the night. And so those were just portions
Shannon Scott (35:07.84)
Hmm.
Patsy (35:16.182)
of the journey. wasn't the whole journey. There was still much joy, joy in my family, joy in my friends, joy from creation, joy from my relationship with Christ. But there was a who am I dilemma that I needed to reconcile.
Shannon Scott (35:41.004)
Mm
Patsy (35:44.758)
And the only way you do that is by stepping through, doing the next step, bringing closure to that and stepping forward. I believe that progress and maturity is meant for the rest of our lives. I don't think we get it all figured out at one point and then we glide home. I think we will always need more grace.
Shannon Scott (36:01.207)
Yeah.
Patsy (36:13.282)
will need to respond to deeper levels of conviction. We'll need to allow God to open up truth in a verse we may have known since we were in Sunday school, but suddenly he has another purpose for it. I never get over how endless the counsel is of God through these.
And I love that he speaks to us through nature. I love that he's given us the capacity for laughter. People say times are so serious, you shouldn't be laughing. Well, we came into the world laughing. And the first time a child, a baby laughs out loud, the whole family is filled with joy.
Shannon Scott (36:41.773)
Yeah.
Shannon Scott (36:58.219)
Mm -hmm.
Patsy (37:07.608)
You know, I remember my babies when they left, I wanted to go door to door and say to my neighbors, listen to this. Because it was so amazing that they could not speak, but they could laugh and to see the joy that came when they were loved on. I...
Shannon Scott (37:16.524)
Ha
Patsy (37:34.86)
I think there's so many lessons written here in life that we would never be able to complete our education. It will always be ongoing and there will always be more.
Shannon Scott (37:52.33)
Yes, so, so much more. I love that thought of we're never going to arrive at, okay, now you're fully mature until we see Jesus face to face. And that is comforting to me in a host of ways. I know that you do a lot of coaching, like writing and speaking kind of coaching if...
If we were being coached by you, all of us who are listening, and we said, okay, we think God is asking us to write or to teach, what would you, what would be like a crash course you would give us in the next right step?
Patsy (38:36.344)
Yes, I don't think everyone is supposed to write a book. I think everyone has a book in them. And I think it's healthy to get the book down, but it doesn't mean that it's going anywhere. Even those books that are said to have gone somewhere may not have gone very far. There's so much out there and people are so busy.
Shannon Scott (38:55.48)
you
Patsy (39:01.978)
that it may and it may not be your turn, it may not be the time, it may not be the story, it may be for your family, it could be part of your inheritance to them. My life first is Psalms 1 -3. I want to be like a tree. I used to be five foot tall and the nurse laughed and laughed recently.
Shannon Scott (39:12.503)
Mm.
Patsy (39:28.834)
when she said, now, how tall are you? said, I'm five feet. And that's when she started laughing. I said, well, I don't think we're going to be good friends. And she said, well, just stand against the wall for a minute. She said, let me see. And she got out her measure and she said, no, honey, you're not five feet. You wish you were five feet. I said, let's.
Shannon Scott (39:39.137)
you
Patsy (39:56.834)
Let's keep it a secret. Let's not tell anyone. So I have definitely lost hype. But I thought I don't want to be a scrubby little bush. I want to be like a tree planted by the waters that gives forth their fruit and their season. And when seasons get hard and questions arise and
doubt fills your mind. You want to still be able to be available to what God is doing. So I tell people in that I want to be like a tree. Our roots shoots in fruit and the roots is getting the foundation right in Christ, in his Word. And then and it says it's the roots
Shannon Scott (40:41.91)
Yes.
Patsy (40:55.674)
and the tree are by the river. It doesn't say the tree was planted in the river. If it was that easy that we could just grow up in the river, we wouldn't have roots because they would never have to do the hard work of digging through the earth in search for what is water. So that's a real important thing for us to...
Shannon Scott (41:03.873)
Mm
Patsy (41:24.64)
understand is the roots and then the shoots is doing the next right thing. If you want to write, write. I used to write the worst stuff you ever saw and I was pretty proud of it then. I am so grateful nobody saw it but me. I went back and read it years later and thought this is really bad. But it was, if we don't put in practice
Shannon Scott (41:38.338)
you
Shannon Scott (41:49.634)
you
Patsy (41:53.528)
We're not going to ride the bicycle. If we don't put in practice, we're not going to ride the book. We need to put in practice time. My friend used to call it pit time, putting in time. Don't expect that the first thing you write is going to be brilliant. It might be really good, but it might not. That doesn't mean it's not going to work. It means you're going to have to work.
Shannon Scott (42:09.57)
Yeah.
Shannon Scott (42:17.005)
Mm
Patsy (42:22.026)
if you want to become a writer. I say you want to be a good writer, be a good reader. Read books that are well written. This will help educate you the whole time you're reading. You're learning more than you know. You're learning vocabulary. You're learning how to get to a point, how to tell a story, how to bring truth.
Shannon Scott (42:33.536)
Mm -hmm.
Patsy (42:51.796)
into a part of the book where people can grasp it. I love words. I love words that are full of life. They might be little words like cab. Isn't cab a great word? All of a sudden you got a yellow pad of butter zipping through the streets. I love words because they help people see.
Shannon Scott (43:15.757)
Mm -hmm.
Patsy (43:21.698)
you can transport them from their living room into that place in Africa. When I went out in the dark morning and saw fire shoot through the darkness into a balloon and the balloon filled the sky and the basket start to lift. That was thrilling.
Shannon Scott (43:31.725)
Mm
Patsy (43:51.726)
but we can take them on the ride and then we can point out what we see and they can see it with us. So when they close the book, they will have an experience that will benefit them. I was in the basket when the basket went up as daylight came and
Shannon Scott (43:54.21)
Yeah.
Shannon Scott (44:15.224)
Mm.
Patsy (44:18.11)
I turned, I don't do heights, so this was very exciting. I said to the driver of the balloon, what is your name? He said, my name is Moses. I said, you're kidding. I said, he didn't even make it to the promised land. Are you kidding me? You're telling me this now?
Shannon Scott (44:22.253)
you
Shannon Scott (44:37.154)
You
Patsy (44:44.702)
And then in a little while he said to me, get ready, we're going to crash. And I said, that's not funny, Moses, that's not funny. And he said, it's not meant to be funny. This thing doesn't have brakes. He said the way a balloon basket stops is we let the air out and it hits the earth. It crashes. And then it bounces until it stops wherever it chooses to stop.
Well, that was an experience of a lifetime and one that I took great joy in writing about. But I didn't know if I was going to get out of the basket. I obviously did.
Shannon Scott (45:23.382)
Mm -hmm.
Shannon Scott (45:29.24)
It makes sense. Yes, it makes sense that Moses was in a basket, but I definitely was where you were like, wait, he didn't make it all the way there. That's so good.
Patsy (45:35.226)
Thank
Patsy (45:43.162)
So finding the humor will help you with your writing. It's easier to talk humor and act it out than it is to write it on a page. reading humorous writers will give you an indication of how they're able to make you laugh out loud. Next time you're reading a book and it makes you laugh out loud, mark it and then go back and say, how did they do that?
Shannon Scott (45:55.337)
Mm. Mm.
Patsy (46:13.07)
How did they make that happen?
Shannon Scott (46:16.256)
Yeah, such wisdom. That's I know there's some people who are furiously taking notes and going to be rewinding to listen to that again. Do you have anything coming up? Any projects you're doing? Anything that we want to know about and keep an eye out for?
Patsy (46:33.924)
Well, first let me back up a little bit and say on the rich fruits and fruit. When you've been obedient, when you've done the hard work, when you make yourself available, then he produces the fruit. We don't get to pop an apple. We don't get to do that. The fruit comes about from his work within us. So,
Shannon Scott (46:39.371)
Mm -hmm.
Shannon Scott (46:49.225)
Mm. Mm.
Shannon Scott (46:54.882)
Yeah.
Patsy (47:03.094)
because I put a work element to the roots, a work element to the shoots, but the fruit is about him, it's not about us. And that's important for us to know. I don't have an exact plan. It's taken me two years to gain my footing, to be able to say yes to anything.
Shannon Scott (47:12.278)
Hmm.
Patsy (47:32.362)
And so I'm doing a little hosting. Well, it's really not a hosting. It's a morning devotion for the singing group. Wait a minute. Just left me this singing group with the three girls that live here in this area that I've known almost all their lives. Point of shoot. Came to me at the last minute.
Shannon Scott (47:32.516)
Mm.
Shannon Scott (47:47.245)
you
Shannon Scott (47:55.512)
Point of grace, yes.
Shannon Scott (48:01.464)
you
Patsy (48:01.666)
like resurrection, let's have a party. Okay, so they're having a gathering and they've asked me to come and do morning devotions and I thought, whoa, am I ready? Am I ready? And I thought if I wait till I feel ready, if I base it on my feelings, I won't make progress. I have to have a mindset and then move forward.
Shannon Scott (48:26.018)
Woo.
Patsy (48:30.776)
trusting. So that's where I'm at.
Shannon Scott (48:34.614)
Ooh, say that one more time. So if you base it on your feelings, there is no progress.
Patsy (48:38.796)
Yeah, no, you're not gonna, because feelings fluctuate and they're full of vanity. You know, one day I feel really pretty and the next day I feel ugly. One day I'm feeling like I could do anything, next day I can do nothing. None of those feelings are accurate to the truth. And so to stabilize, especially if you're
person like me that's rather excitable. To get into a healthier balance, you need to have a mindset. For the mindset on the flesh is death, but the mindset on the spirit is life and peace. And so we need that in our life to steady us a plan for when the feelings come up. Otherwise the feelings manage us.
Shannon Scott (49:33.25)
Mm.
Patsy (49:36.034)
and that's not a good way to live. It's an unstable pattern. And to get into a good rhythm, we need to be able to replace, not deny the feelings, but replace the unhealthy ones or the bad pattern that we know leads us into unsteady places that instead.
that we choose to do the right thing because we have a mindset in the direction of this purpose is.
Shannon Scott (50:11.996)
Preach. is, yes. That's convicting to me. I'm gonna be rewinding now to listen to that part again. Okay, so this will be, I can't wait to hear what you respond with to this, but if you could grab your younger self by the shoulders.
If you could grab young Patsy by the shoulders and look into her eyes and tell her one or two things, what would you tell her?
Patsy (50:43.18)
I would tell her that she was trying way too hard to be loved. And I would tell her that there was a future for her, that she wasn't lost and alone, but there was a purpose for her life and that it would be accomplished because the purpose was made by a holy
God who is forever dependable. And we could take refuge in the truth that he was working all things out for good. So not that it's easy, you know, but and that's another thing. I would say grow up girlfriend. You're kind of lazy. You'll do. You'll work hard.
Shannon Scott (51:30.423)
Mm
Shannon Scott (51:36.577)
Hmm
Mm.
Patsy (51:41.892)
hard for happy, but you don't know anything about joy and you get stuck in your sadness far too often because of that.
Shannon Scott (51:49.356)
Wow.
Shannon Scott (51:56.996)
well, I know people are going to be yelling when I say that I'm going to ask you the last question because they want this to go on for hours like I do. So you have to promise to come back and dispense more wisdom to us. good. Well, the question we ask at the end of the podcast to all our guests is if you could architect your
Patsy (52:14.092)
I did.
Shannon Scott (52:24.856)
perfect, beautiful day because this is the Everything Made Beautiful podcast. We know that God is always in the business of renewal and we know that there is beauty here, not just in the life to come. So if you could architect your perfect, beautiful day, what would it look like from start to finish?
Patsy (52:46.936)
Well, even though I have been spent years in public groups, I really enjoy being with someone that I have built relationship with or am building relationship with where I know there's a compatibility, whether that be our faith or
We get each other's comedy. Some people look at me very strange or we get each other's clothes. Hello. We get each other and have a small group and spend the morning in a garden. And then.
Shannon Scott (53:22.423)
Mm -hmm.
Shannon Scott (53:28.61)
You
Patsy (53:41.784)
be able to move through the day in mutual interests, maybe a museum, a great bookstore. I love to talk books, so books would be fun conversations for me to have. And then I would like a lovely dinner.
It might just be spaghetti and meatballs, but if it's my friend Anita's, it's the best in the world. just enjoying a private dinner and then ending with blessings on each other. That would be a lovely, lovely day.
Shannon Scott (54:13.815)
Hmm.
Shannon Scott (54:24.381)
That's good.
Shannon Scott (54:29.086)
that's so good. I am so, so thankful. And I just want to tell you again, and I just want to honor you for how well you have stewarded your gifts, the way that you have shared them with so many of us, the difference that they've made for so many of us. And I'm just so thankful that you were able to come and share with us. I already know that this is going to be the legend.
Patsy Clairmont is on this podcast and it will meet people so profoundly exactly where they need to be met. So thank you for that.
Patsy (55:06.788)
Well, thank you for the opportunity. And may I just say that you are incredibly gifted. You sow your gifts bear witness with my spirit that God has done many good things in you. And the fact that you are such a great storyteller and you are funny and you are deep and you have an incredible capacity for people and understanding how they receive the good news. I just love all of that. I love who you are.
Shannon Scott (55:48.309)
Thank you so much. That means the world to me. That will carry me. I'm so grateful for this time. And for those of you that are watching and listening, I will put all of Patsy's information in the show notes. You will want to get her books. You'll want to go back and watch Women of Faith content. It is the best. She is the funniest and so profound.
in the depth and richness with which she talks about the Word of God. So I'll put all that in the show notes and you should follow her on Instagram and be on the lookout for what she's doing next because I know it will be amazing. Do not forget to be looking around you for all of the ways that God is making everything beautiful, including you. And we'll see you next time.