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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.
Everything Made Beautiful (00:48)
Hey friends, welcome back to the Everything Made Beautiful podcast. Today, I'm super pumped to have my friend, Meshali Mitchell on the show. She is a storyteller, portrait artist, and world traveler whose work is saturated with heart and soul. An Arkansas native now rooted in Texas, Meshali believes every person has a story worth telling, and she's made it her mission to help others share theirs with beauty.
and bravery. Her images, her photos are some of the most gorgeous that you'll ever see. Through photography, writing, and the deeply personal restoration of her 1886 Dallas farmhouse, Meshali invites others into the redemptive healing work of Jesus, one that mirrors the transformation she's witnessed in her own life and in the lives of those she serves. Her book, Restored,
reflects her journey and passion for helping people encounter the God who makes all things new. Meshali's story resonates deeply with the heartbeat of everything made beautiful, that God's handiwork can be found in every broken place if we have eyes to see it. But beyond all her gifts and accolades, she is my dear friend, forever bonded by our shared love of Southern gospel music and the beauty of stories that sing of redemption.
I think this conversation will be a balm for your soul today and it will meet you in a really special place if you let it. So sit back, relax. You definitely need a comfy blanket and probably a cup of coffee and maybe a pen and paper as you hear this conversation with my friend, Meshali Mitchell.
Everything Made Beautiful (02:30)
Well, hello, welcome back to the Everything Made Beautiful podcast and welcome Meshali Mitchell to the podcast. I'm so excited about this conversation today. Thank you for being on the podcast.
Meshali (02:43)
Oh my goodness, thank you so much. I just told you and sang your praises, but love you and respect you so much. You and your ministry and everything you're doing. And I feel so honored just to be on and always love chatting with you. hey, win, win for me.
Everything Made Beautiful (02:56)
Well, exactly
win-win for both of us. I've been so excited. I have to say we knew of each other for a long time before we knew each other because our mutual friend, Christy Nockels who we both adore has been singing our praises to one another. so then
Meshali (03:09)
Yep.
She's sung your praises
to me for a long time and finally got to meet and you blew me away.
Everything Made Beautiful (03:24)
Yes.
Well, you're sweet. We got to meet finally and I thought immediately, she's a kindred of mine. We will be friends. And we bonded over our mutual love of Southern gospel music.
Meshali (03:36)
Absolutely.
Yes we did.
That's when I knew that you were my soul sister. Christy had told me, but when we bonded over it, when I found another kindred sister that loves some Southern gospel music, I was like, hold on, hold on now. This is, this is my girl. If you can hang, if you can hang with the gathers, then you can hang with me, you know?
Everything Made Beautiful (03:54)
Yes.
I was scrolling through, yeah, yes.
And I was scrolling through our texts and I was like, I love a text thread that just has random Sandy Patty or Gathers or clips in it.
Meshali (04:09)
you
Yes, yes, I love it
so much. Yes, I knew immediately. Yeah, when you loved Southern Gospel, I was like, this is my girl for life.
Everything Made Beautiful (04:22)
Yes. Well, you know, I'm excited to talk to you about your project. Now, a lot of people, and I said this in the intro, know you or have seen your work, even if they don't realize it, because you have photographed everyone I know and everyone I know of as well. I remember years ago seeing someone's headshot and thinking,
Meshali (04:28)
you
Yeah.
Everything Made Beautiful (04:47)
Good grief, that headshot is stunning. And when I saw that it was you that did it, I started noticing a pattern in all the headshots I thought were stunning of all my speaker author friends. And so you have been a prolific photographer for a long time, but now you have written a book. And I have to say, because the theme of this podcast is everything made beautiful and that we believe that God is in the business.
Meshali (05:03)
Thank you, Shannon.
Yes.
Everything Made Beautiful (05:16)
redemption and restoration and making everything beautiful in its time. Your book speaks to me in a very deep way. So just talk to us the title is restored and I love that title but I know it carries significant meaning beyond even just what we know that word to mean from a definition standpoint. So what does the title specifically restored mean to you personally?
Meshali (05:18)
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah, I was telling someone yesterday that here, you you see the book back here with the big word restored. And you're right, that word does hold significant meaning. Every time I pass it, I've been seeing the word restored because that's what restoration, biblical restoration is, is he restores us to better than new. He gives us a new story. And I know in my own life and testimony,
Everything Made Beautiful (05:58)
Mm.
Meshali (06:09)
he put the kingdom narrative over my life and I began to partner with that and he restoried my life. And so that's what the book is about in a very Cliff's Notes version in a nutshell that he comes in and restores us and gives us the kingdom narrative as we partner with him in making all things new and healing what's broken and giving us back better than before. And it's a beauty for Ash's story in all of us. So.
Everything Made Beautiful (06:16)
Mm-mm.
Meshali (06:36)
The word, I could go on and on. The word is so special to me, but that is the biblical meaning is when he gives back better. And so, yeah, I just, I love the word.
Everything Made Beautiful (06:47)
Yeah, will.
I hearing restoried, I will literally never look at the word restored again in the same way that is that is profound. And you you mentioned experiencing a cataclysmic crash at age 12 in your life, which those those words are heavy, but it was when your parents divorced. And so how did that?
Meshali (06:52)
Yeah.
Well.
Yeah.
Everything Made Beautiful (07:14)
shape you and shape your perspective on life and even your perspective in writing this book.
Meshali (07:20)
Yeah, so chapter one, call it's called Paradise Lost because I talk about how we're all born into this world and we all kind of come into this what we think is this paradise and there's a point in all of our lives, all of our stories look different, but where there is a deep brokenness, everybody I've sat and talked to when I've shared my story, they've seen themselves in it, even if our stories are totally different. And we all experience this deep brokenness in our life in this Paradise Lost.
Everything Made Beautiful (07:25)
Hmm.
Meshali (07:49)
I do share a story about the trauma in my childhood and then I experienced some deep brokenness. So I was raised in a ministry family. I had a very non-traditional ministry family because I wasn't a pastor's kid, I was an evangelist kid. So I was raised in a small town in Arkansas.
Everything Made Beautiful (08:08)
Mm.
Meshali (08:09)
listeners can probably hear a little bit of that in my accent voice, but raised in a small town in South Arkansas, like I said, in a ministry home, had great parents. I was raised in ministry. And when I say that, a lot of people assume I was like a pastor's kid, but we had a very non-traditional ministry home because like I said, my dad was an evangelist and traveled all my life. And my mom was a stay at home mom. I experienced, know, ministry as a kid,
I talk about this paradise, everything seeming perfect and we experienced some deep brokenness at, I was 12 at the age of 12. My parents went through a very, very hard divorce and I was the oldest of three and I've never been able to put my finger on exactly why it was such a hard, you know, deep wounding on my soul, but that's the first.
kind of big, I talk about trauma and brokenness that I experienced as a child. That was kind of the first big hit on what I call just deep in my soul. There was something that happened, some sort of deep brokenness that occurred. that event and some things that happened after, I just experienced a brokenness of spirit. Something broke my spirit during that phase of my life. My parents, I talk about this in a very aerial kind of 30,000 foot view in the book.
Everything Made Beautiful (09:26)
Mm.
Meshali (09:32)
because it's always been important for me to honor everyone in my story. And so I did experience that. We all were struggling. We all were suffering and hurting. So it was a hard time on all of us, kids and parents alike. soon after that, during those developmental years, I experienced sexual trauma, sexual abuse. And in our household, we were having some issues with mental illness and addiction.
Everything Made Beautiful (09:36)
Yeah.
Meshali (10:02)
All of that to say it was just a very, very hard time during some developmental years of my life, even as believers, even in a ministry family. And I had a hard time. Something about it was crushing to my spirit at that time. and we were trying to put the pieces back together and recover, but it was...
It was a deep wounding in my soul. And so I carried those things, say even as a believer, I carried those things into my adulthood. I did not deal with those in the correct way biblically and allow the Lord to come in and really heal those spaces. So I went to Bible school, you know, at 18, just continued life and hoping and praying maybe Bible school would heal me and fix me. And it didn't.
Everything Made Beautiful (10:32)
Yeah.
Meshali (10:53)
And I all the right
Everything Made Beautiful (10:53)
Mmm, yeah.
Meshali (10:54)
Christianese, the right things to say, but I was living very, very limited, very, very small. And so, yeah, so that crash that I refer to in the book that I experienced really early on in my life, around the age of 12. And then I carried those things. We had kind of hit after hit, but through my teen years, you know, that was going on. And it just, was, I experienced some really deep brokenness.
Everything Made Beautiful (11:15)
Yeah.
I can resonate so deeply with, okay, we're believers, now something difficult has happened. We know we can't just fold up and go home. We believe all these things about God. So I guess we just keep going and we keep doing what we think we should do. And then isn't it so true that at some point in adulthood, usually we go, I'm not okay from those things.
Meshali (11:31)
I'm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm not okay.
Yeah.
Everything Made Beautiful (11:52)
And I think this is going to really meet specifically believers in some sweet places where maybe things that they've not dealt with or known how to deal with, maybe this will be a process for walking them through that. And in the book, I love this, you use renovating a 140 year old farmhouse.
Meshali (11:59)
Yeah. Yeah.
Absolutely.
Everything Made Beautiful (12:17)
as the analogy. So what inspired you to draw that parallel? Because I know that's not just a fun concept, that's your real life.
Meshali (12:26)
Absolutely,
absolutely. Well, I purchased an 1800s farmhouse in 2018 and had no idea what the Lord was doing. He was pulling off what I say is an Ephesians 320, something bigger and better than I could have ever dreamed or imagined. But I was purchasing my first home in 2018 and had my sights kind of set on newer homes, something already done and, you know, the glitz and the glam and all that. But the Lord had other plans. And I came across this old
Everything Made Beautiful (12:40)
Mm.
Meshali (12:54)
run down farmhouse in Texas and felt drawn to purchase it and didn't know why at the time, but did. And as I began to restore the home, you know, I talk about this in the book, I wish it could have been an HGTV thing where I bought it one day and the next day it was a move that bus and I had a big red bow to tie around it. But that's not been the case. It's been a very slow, methodical, room by room, piece by piece process.
Everything Made Beautiful (13:10)
You
Yeah.
Meshali (13:23)
And so I bought the house and naturally as a photographer and a person that loves to write and kind of a deep thinker, I began to slowly but surely go in room by room, piece by piece. And I started, you know, gutted each room and took pictures and then wrote about it. And the Lord began to just speak to me, speak to my heart about me and the parallel of my heart, know, sanctification.
Everything Made Beautiful (13:46)
Yeah.
Meshali (13:50)
bringing me into wholeness and it hasn't been an overnight process. You I was raised Pentecostal charismatic and we love the miracle moments and the altars and we love, but I got to a point in my life where I had to reconcile this isn't, this healing isn't coming in a moment. So what do I do with that? So in this home, you know, just like in the home, my heart and life and the restoration and healing from brokenness has been done, you know, by the Lord in a process.
Everything Made Beautiful (14:08)
Yeah.
Meshali (14:20)
Um, so anyway, so yeah, I began to, like I said, just kind of never knew it would become anything. Never knew it would become a book. My lands never knew that, but, um, but yeah, I began to go in and restore these rooms slowly, but surely and bring life and bring resurrection to each room and make it beautiful. And the Lord began to speak to me about how it parallels with our stories of restoration and, uh, begin to write it. So that's how everything was birthed is saying yes.
Everything Made Beautiful (14:29)
Yeah.
I love that.
Meshali (14:49)
Yeah,
never knew that was coming, but just saying yes to the Lord and even the purchase of the home.
Everything Made Beautiful (14:52)
Yeah.
Well, in your background in photography, mean, obviously that, photographers look at life in a very specific way and you see things that I don't necessarily see. And so how does that influence the way that you see this restoration process that you talk about? But I would say certainly in things, but also in people.
Meshali (15:03)
Yeah, we do.
Yeah.
Yeah, well always say I love a good before and after, you know, in photography, in photography in this home now. And you know, that's the gospel story. The Holy Spirit sees us not as we are, but what could be and should be, I say, and thank the Lord for that. He doesn't leave us where we are, but he sees what could be. And so, so yeah, all of that has kind of been, it's been a theme of my life. I mean, the older I get, I'm like, I do love a good before and after.
Everything Made Beautiful (15:25)
Mm.
Meshali (15:50)
man, know, photography. But yeah, the same way, like I said, I saw the home. You know, a lot of people passed up this home and never gave it a second thought. But when I came on site, it's hard to explain it, speaking of how I see, and I believe it was the Lord in me. It was almost like I had blinders and I tell people I saw what could be. I mean, the house was very, it was loved and cherished by the same family since the 1800s and they're precious. I know them now.
Everything Made Beautiful (16:02)
Mm.
Wow.
Meshali (16:20)
But even they would tell you the home had just, they had moved to another place, you know, other places and the home had become run down and a lot of people just overlooked it, you know. But when I came on site and saw it, I saw what could be and should be. And, you know, and so that's how the Lord sees us. And so I just have, I have a love, I have a love for a good before and after. I can't get away from it.
Everything Made Beautiful (16:43)
that's so good. Yeah.
What are some of the unexpected lessons that God taught you through the process of writing the book? Like what are some of the, I can't believe that I did not think of this before kind of things that you learned?
Meshali (16:57)
Yeah,
yeah. Honestly, just personally, this house and even this book has brought out, I've learned a lot of lessons about myself and putting my hand to the plow and the grit of working and how the Holy Spirit transforms us as we partner with Him and how He transforms all the places. one of the things that
lessons I've learned and things that it's revealed to me is what a perfectionist I am. You know, things like that, perfectionism and how it brought that to the surface and made this process very difficult during certain seasons. Another thing, the Lord's delivered me from so much fear. That's another lesson He's taught me through the process. And because of the trauma, because of some of those old narratives I partnered with and believed,
Everything Made Beautiful (17:37)
Yeah.
Meshali (17:51)
I was living out, know, even purchasing the home went against my nature because usually I dealt with so much fear and living small and fear of man and all those things that were residual from that trauma and those old lies and you know, so through this process the Lord has really cleaned out, you know, all those things and part of that has been up to me. I always say transformation requires a partnership with God.
Everything Made Beautiful (18:02)
Yeah.
Meshali (18:17)
Like I said, I wanted to stand in the altar and ask the Lord for all these things and just expected Him to rain down all this healing and He has, but it's required a partnership on my part. So there have been so many lessons like that where He's brought healing and transformation, but it's required something of me. It's required me partnering with Him and believing the kingdom narrative I talk about and walking in that.
Everything Made Beautiful (18:18)
Yeah.
So good.
Meshali (18:45)
Before I could tell you all the scriptures, all the Christianese, I was good at it. I was raised in ministry. I knew the drill. But when I laid my head on my pillow at night, and it was just me and the Lord, I came to that place, like I said, in my mid-twenties where I wasn't experiencing that abundant life that Jesus promises us. John 10, 10, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I've come to give you life and life more abundant.
Everything Made Beautiful (19:10)
Yeah.
Meshali (19:11)
And so, yeah, this is a story of him bringing me into that abundant life and all those areas I dealt with so deeply, perfectionism and fear and living very small have faded away as I've partnered with him and walked into healing.
Everything Made Beautiful (19:27)
Yeah, I
like that you used the term partnered with because I often say that especially when I'm teaching like, especially for women, there are just lies that we partner with. It's not just we're being lied to. It's that at some point, we're partnering in that lie. And I think figuring out in the same way that
Meshali (19:31)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Absolutely. Yes.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Everything Made Beautiful (19:55)
transformation requires participation with God. I think trying to identify where we've not only heard lies or fear or whatever the case may be, not only just where it has come at us but where we have also picked it up because I think that is where
Meshali (19:59)
and
Absolutely.
Everything Made Beautiful (20:18)
That is where there's a chance to change a behavior and to go a different way than that. So I love that you used that word. I'm wondering and people are probably going, oh, this is precious. So sweet, Meshali like she's a fabulous photographer. She's had all the success. She stumbles upon this farmhouse. Now it's a fabulous story. Everything's getting restored. There is a bow, all of that.
Meshali (20:21)
Yes. Yes.
You
Everything Made Beautiful (20:45)
But were there moments where you doubted restoration was even possible? Like did you know the whole time this is gonna be great or were there moments where you thought, well maybe this just isn't gonna ever be great?
Meshali (20:45)
man.
Absolutely.
Absolutely. No, I say to people in the book and on these podcasts I'm doing, have not, I still have not tied a big red bow around the home or my life. And I'm not like, you know, going to walk out. get the question a lot. How done is the house on a scale of one to 10? And I always say it'll, it'll never be done for as long as I own it. There are still, and I want people to hear this. There are still things in my life that he's sanctifying and restoring and making new.
Everything Made Beautiful (21:08)
Mm.
Yeah.
Meshali (21:28)
Some of this, to be really real with you, some of this fear I talked about before and those narratives in my head where I'd made agreements with old narratives instead of the kingdom narrative have really caused me to struggle. They've tripped me up and there's been a lot of days in this house. You people see the house on Instagram and all the beautiful rooms. There were some rooms I didn't post on Instagram, you know?
Everything Made Beautiful (21:40)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Meshali (21:52)
There were a lot of mornings I woke up and I thought I can't do this. I can't do this like on my own I can't you know all of those things and even spiritually and stepping into this new book season and I'm not naturally inclined to do this It's very very hard for me. So I share that a lot with people like I don't know I don't know what image people have of me I really don't As far as you know the photographer and the home and all those things, but I really want
Everything Made Beautiful (22:06)
Yeah.
Hehehe.
Meshali (22:21)
people to understand that I'm not in the flesh naturally inclined to do any of this every single day. And I mean this, I'm leaning on the Lord, you know? I even thought this morning, like we have this treasure in earthen vessels because I just, I'm just, you know, a vessel right now, even doing this, Shannon, like these podcasts and writing this book and putting all this out has been a complete, and I mean this, a complete walk of faith. And it's like,
Everything Made Beautiful (22:26)
Mm.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Meshali (22:51)
It's scary, you know? So there's no, there's no, all that to say there's no big red bow tied around, you know, me or the house at all. I'm still very much walking out a sanctification process and glory to glory. And he's continuing to reveal himself to me and heal me in deep places. And so I hope that people listening hear that.
Everything Made Beautiful (23:14)
Well, and I think I would hope people know, but we'll just say it in case they don't, that nobody writes a book on something and then is from then on the expert who never struggles in the thing they wrote on. It's almost, at least I know for me, I usually write out of my struggle and the thing I will probably continue to struggle with. So it is never.
Meshali (23:26)
Absolutely. Yes, absolutely.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Everything Made Beautiful (23:40)
a well now I'm the expert so I can put that down because I've conquered it and so yeah we
Meshali (23:42)
That's it.
Yeah. I know want people to hear
that the Lord's done so much, that testimony of that, but I also want them to hear we're all living in that tension. There's still a deep work being done in me. So I'm walking right there with you, you listening, you know.
Everything Made Beautiful (23:50)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yes well and
restoration physically and spiritually is slow and usually messy. You usually get a lot dirtier before you get all you know gussied up. So what what encouragement would you give to people who are listening who are like well I'm glad she could see something in that farmhouse and she could see something in her life but my
Meshali (24:08)
Yeah.
Right.
Yeah. Yeah.
Everything Made Beautiful (24:28)
My story is too broken for redemption. Like it's the one that can't be fixed. What would you say to those people?
Meshali (24:30)
Yeah.
Yeah,
I would first of all, I would say I get it. Doing what I do, I used to sit in rooms and conferences and I would travel and I would shoot authors and speakers and I would hear people talk about even as a believer, I would hear people talk about healing and restoration. And my internal narrative was that I believed I would sit in rooms and I believed that God could do it. If I was honest, could do it. I believed he could for everybody.
but me. I thought my internal narrative was that my story was a little bit different or a little bit too hard or I was a little bit too broken. And that's when the Lord began to pull me out of that, you know, through this process I talk about in the book. And I came into a narrative where I began to believe and I switched gears at this point where no restoration. I had to kind of search out what narrative I was partnering with and get really honest with myself.
Everything Made Beautiful (25:04)
Mm.
Meshali (25:32)
And I switched gears in my life when I began to believe, not just say, but believe no restoration is possible for me. You know, even scripturally with man, all things are impossible, but with God, nothing is impossible. So he took a very broken girl, and that story is very loaded from Arkansas, and he's restored me and...
made me really believe from the inside out. Now I see it. It's like Job, you know, I'd heard about you with my ears, but now my eyes have seen you through suffering and brokenness. And I believe now, I can say it and believe it, that he truly does restore. He truly does take the most broken situations and renews and mends and heals and makes new. And so because of the process of me walking that out and partnering with him, now I can honestly say that. And so
Everything Made Beautiful (26:02)
Yes, yes.
Meshali (26:24)
you know, to people listening that are dealing with brokenness, they feel, you know, it's too far gone. I would say search out your heart and really get honest with God on what narrative you're believing and pray through that and begin to partner with a God who really does make all things new, no matter how broken. Yeah.
Everything Made Beautiful (26:39)
Yeah, so good. Yeah.
And he's the only one who can make what seems so broken and so far gone for us beautiful in any way. He's the only one who can. So you're partnering with something. And so why not partner with the truth of scripture and the truth that God is in the business of restoration?
Meshali (26:46)
He's the only one.
Yeah. Yeah.
So good, absolutely.
Yeah.
it's so good.
That's so good, Shannon. We're
all partnering with something that's so good.
Everything Made Beautiful (27:10)
Yes, yes and
and often you know I love that God is also repairer of the breach and a lot of times the breach seems like an endless and bottomless chasm that we cannot possibly get over but God is repairer of the breach and that's so
Meshali (27:19)
Yes.
So good.
Beautiful.
Everything Made Beautiful (27:34)
encouraging to me over some of the breaches in my life that I wonder if they can be repaired and the truth is that they can. So what would you so kind of on the positive spin of that for someone who's going, I want to after listening to this after reading Meshali's book, I want to try to take one step toward restoration in my life, what would be
Meshali (27:38)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Everything Made Beautiful (28:00)
practical steps, even small ones, kind of in the direction of restoration that people could take.
Meshali (28:02)
moment. Sure.
Yeah, I talk about several practical steps in the book. We go through several chapters because I wanted to give people practical tools in their process, restoration. And for me, know community and getting healthy people around me and vulnerability was one of my first practical steps. I had to drop the perfectionism and drop this whatever image I was trying to portray.
Everything Made Beautiful (28:15)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Meshali (28:36)
I had to drop that and allow people and that looked different for me. So in my own journey, I do share details about this in the book, but mid twenties, I talk about putting basically came into this place in my life where I was putting band-aids over bullet holes and pain demands to be felt. So I was bleeding out, know, some of this trauma I talk about, I was bleeding out and it was coming out in different areas of my life relationships. And just, you know, I was just bleeding out all over the place and
Everything Made Beautiful (28:36)
Yeah.
Mm.
Meshali (29:05)
I came to a place where I got really honest with myself and my journey looks like this. I began to see a really, really great Christian counselor. That was one of my very first practical steps and those walls began to come down and I applied James, I think it's James 5 to my life where you confess your faults one to another so that you could be healed and I began to actually, instead of talking about that verse, I began to live it out.
and apply scripture. And when I applied scripture, scripture is truth. So what did that do? It began to bring transformation to my soul. And some of that stuff is a mystery. I don't know how to even explain it, but the Word of God is true. And I began to apply it and walk that out. And it was a process, but slowly but surely I began to see and feel transformation. So counseling, I began to surround myself with true, honest, godly community.
Everything Made Beautiful (29:32)
Good.
Meshali (29:58)
So kindred spirits that really, really knew me, not this image I portrayed or tried to keep up with, but they really, really knew me. Changing my thoughts, I had very, very negative thought patterns because trauma affected how I saw God, how I saw myself, and how I saw others. So, you know, and I always say we talk about fighting our thoughts and, you know,
Everything Made Beautiful (30:02)
Yeah. Yeah.
Meshali (30:24)
But the important part of that is replacing it with truth. can't just have a, you know, not think about something and, you know, you have to replace it with scripture. So begin to actually, instead of just talking about the Word, begin to apply it to my life and live it out. So, and I go into a lot of details in the book, like I said, about, you know, walking people through practical tools in my journey and offering help to them. So prayerfully, that'll be a help to people.
Everything Made Beautiful (30:28)
Yeah.
great.
Yeah,
that's so good. I know you and I both have such a deep love for scripture. I don't know where I would be without it to be frank with you. So how has that carried you in your personal process of restoration? Like what are there any specific scriptures that you just like immediately come to mind that have really carried you through? Because I think people
Meshali (30:57)
Yeah. man. Yeah.
one.
Everything Made Beautiful (31:16)
underestimate the weight that scripture can actually hold of what we're dealing with and it can and it can carry us. It's living and it's active because it can carry us. And so what are some of those scriptures that have carried you?
Meshali (31:19)
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.
Right, so good.
Yeah, I had to mature in my faith in this process and partner with the fact that authority, Scripture was the number one authority in my life. As a creative and an artist, can be, everybody knowing me is probably laughing right now, I can be really emotional and I can be a deep thinker and so much of my life I let emotions dictate.
how my days went or, you know, speaking of what I partnered with. And I came to a place where I had to make a decision that scripture was the ultimate authority of my life. And so there are many, many verses and the book really is packed with scripture. But there are things I stood on, know, Philippians 1, 6 when Paul talks about, you know, being confident in this, that he, I I held on to this scripture through this process on so many days.
Everything Made Beautiful (32:19)
Yeah.
Meshali (32:24)
But being confident of this, that He, not me, but He who began this good work in you, He will bring it to completion. So days like that, the weight, I partnered with that and believed it. The weight wasn't on me. You I partnered with God and believed that He could do things that I could never do and that my part was trust and surrender and obeying, but that He was working. You He was carrying the heavy load, not me.
Another one that really spoke life to me was Joel 2.25, I will restore the years that the locusts have eaten. just that, some of that grief I dealt with, just believing that God, and He's still doing it, was able, the God who stands outside of time was able to restore even time to me and things I may have lost or things I was grieving that He was able to even restore that. And so,
Everything Made Beautiful (33:10)
Yeah.
Meshali (33:17)
Standing on scriptures like that on days that I wouldn't, you know, in quotes, I wouldn't feel in it. I was feeling like I wanted to quit and sell this house and, you know, and so believing those and that scripture and that authority over my life is what carried me through and strengthened me.
Everything Made Beautiful (33:23)
Yeah, yeah.
You
Yeah.
Yeah, that's so good. And restoration, though the word is beautiful and hopeful, I think it doesn't always look like we imagine it will look. like I said, are, there's a, you know, if I think just about the restoration process in a home, in a physical process like that, there is a tearing away. There is a...
Meshali (33:43)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Everything Made Beautiful (34:02)
pulling down, there is a gutting, there is a cleaning out, there's a this all has to go in order for this stuff to come in. How did you, how were you able as you realized that this physical restoration was also a spiritual one, how were you able to trust the process and did that end up being true spiritually that there were things that had to be torn away before healing could come?
Meshali (34:07)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah,
absolutely. Yeah, I do go into depth about this in the book, so for me, know, really, well, really not for me, but for all of us, repentance is a key in restoration. There has to be a tearing away and a leaving behind of the old to step into the new. I had to gut these rooms and, you know, for in order for me to replace them with beauty and restore them and make them beautiful, I everything old had to go.
Everything Made Beautiful (34:42)
Mm. Mm.
Meshali (34:57)
all the mold behind the walls, everything had to be torn down to be really built back up. so repentance, so for me even practically, repentance, I had to repent of some of those old narratives and things that I was partnering with. So repentance was part of the process of restoration for me. The old had to go. It couldn't stay for the new thing to come.
And so, yeah, and it has been, you know, even that it's a process, you know, and it's there's a part in the book where I talk about living in the mess, you know, because we're being renewed and being restored. asking the Lord to search me was a huge part and still is daily of what needs to go. What needs to go.
Everything Made Beautiful (35:32)
You
Yes.
I know so many people
who have decided, you know, to gut their kitchen or to transform their downstairs or whatever, but they're living in the home and, and talking about what it's like when the kitchen has been gutted, but you still live there.
Meshali (35:53)
Absolutely.
Yes.
Everything Made Beautiful (36:02)
But that feels so, like I resonate with that illustration that it isn't like, let me move into a hotel, Lord, while you got everything and I don't have to be in the mess. Yeah, it's, I have to live in this while it gets renewed and that, ooh, that's hitting me. That's hitting me today.
Meshali (36:07)
Yeah.
Absolutely. Let me just type this. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I I live in the house.
People ask me that a lot. Did you live in the house since the beginning? Like have you? And I have. So since day one, all this gutting I talk about in the book and the physical restoration of the home. As a perfectionist, I don't know how in the world I did other than just grace. But that was one of the hardest parts of the process for me because as a perfectionist and an artist, a visionary, I see what I want everything to look like.
Everything Made Beautiful (36:37)
Yeah. Yeah, that's same, same.
Meshali (36:48)
and I want it done today, you know? And so living in the mess has also taught me so much about myself and the Lord.
Everything Made Beautiful (36:56)
Well if you could, yes, yes.
And it doesn't stress him out like it stresses me out. Well if you could say to readers, here is what I hope you experience as you read restored, what would you say?
Meshali (37:04)
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I would kind of go back to what I said earlier. Most people that pick up this book are going to be picking it up because they are experiencing, first of all, there's so much brokenness in the world right now. The world is groaning and crying out for restoration. So everybody I've talked to, maybe our stories have looked different, there's different situations of brokenness, but most people that pick up this book are needing healing or restoration in some area of their life.
And a lot of stories I've heard have been very, very hard. But like I said, I remember sitting in rooms where I had this agreement that my story was just a little different and just a little bit too hard for God. And so my hope, my simple hope is that every single person that picks up this book through their restoration process and partnering with God comes into an agreement that God is not, restoration isn't just for everybody else, it's for them.
So that's been my hope this whole time is that it would bring great healing to areas of people's lives that feel impossible.
Everything Made Beautiful (38:25)
Yeah, it's, mean, I hope that people listening today feel seen by God. It's always my prayer that anyone that listens to or watches a podcast will be doing so in kind of a for such a time as this moment and that there will be a word in season for people. And so that's my prayer for this podcast. I know it's your prayer for this podcast that it would meet people.
Meshali (38:31)
Yeah.
Yes.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yes.
Everything Made Beautiful (38:52)
maybe who feel hopeless and feel like something is beyond God's ability to redeem, but scripture says his arm is not too short to save. And so I'm prayerful that that will be people's experience. And I'm just so thankful for you and for your willingness to steward that opportunity with the house into something of spiritual, you know, treasure for those of us who
Meshali (39:01)
I love it.
Thank you, Fran.
Everything Made Beautiful (39:17)
need this word and I know I need it. I know I speak for so many who need it and so I'm so thankful that you've done this and that you persevered and that you went through it all the way. A lot of people want to write a book but you got it all the way there and so thank you for that gift.
Meshali (39:27)
Thank you.
Yeah, yeah. Thank you Jesus, truly.
Everything Made Beautiful (39:37)
I want to, I want to make sure that I ask you the question I ask all my guests as we end, because this process is about everything being made beautiful. So if you could design your perfect, beautiful day, what would it look like from start to finish? And there are no limitations on your perfect, beautiful day. So if you need to time travel or hop back and forth in an instant to different states, you can do that.
Meshali (40:07)
You know what? This is so fun. And my answer is probably going to be, you're like, Ms. Shaili, the simplicity of this answer is just, you know what's funny? I am kind of a simple creature. I'm a homebody and I travel so much and do so much. My beautiful day, perfect scenario has kind of changed over the years. So now this is probably going to be boring to the listeners, but I mean this with all my heart. My beautiful day.
It's a great night's sleep, getting up in the morning, having my coffee, know, kind of having introvert, Meshali time, call it. Being here at my house, you know, working with my hands and then being honestly going to the front porch, being surrounded by people I love. I don't know the time travel thing. If they come here, if I go there, but, you know, seeing people I love and finishing it off with a great dinner. And I know that sounds so simple, but.
Everything Made Beautiful (40:43)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Meshali (41:04)
That is like my ideal, that's my ideal perfect day.
Everything Made Beautiful (41:05)
It sounds perfect.
Yeah, that
I feel that that feels like a perfect day. And I think the older we get, yeah, yes, for sure Mexican food. I do think the older we get, the less we need in a perfect day and the more space and time and breathing room resonates with us. So I get that very much.
Meshali (41:15)
Yeah, maybe getting some Mexican food, you know what mean? Mm-hmm. That's for dinner.
Yes, yes, that's good. Yes, I know,
It used to have been loaded with other things, but now I'm coming into a season of my life where that truly is my ideal, perfect day. It's mainly about the people I'm surrounded with and time with them and beauty of God's creation and doing all, you know, that's enough for me.
Everything Made Beautiful (41:52)
Yeah, yeah, I, yes,
I agree.
Meshali (41:55)
The thought of going
somewhere kind of wears me out, you know what mean?
Everything Made Beautiful (42:01)
yes, 100%. I'm a raging introvert and all evidence to the contrary for a lot of people that know me because they only see me in a certain way or doing a certain thing that requires extraversion. But if given the opportunity to stay home and not leave, that's me.
Meshali (42:06)
Yeah.
I know.
Totally. Yeah.
But you have such a brilliant mind, Shannon, and a brilliance to you. I'm actually not surprised that you're an introvert. I really am not. I'm not. So I get it though. I get it. I tell people I need my introvert time.
Everything Made Beautiful (42:31)
You're so sweet.
Yeah. Well,
yes, and I need more of it, not less. Thank you, thank you, thank you, friend. I can't wait until we get to be in the same space again and hang out and talk, but I'm cheering you on and celebrating you as this book comes out. And I will put all of this information in the show notes. You'll know where to find Meshali and you will get to the point in your life that I have.
Meshali (42:41)
Mm-hmm. I feel that.
you
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Everything Made Beautiful (43:04)
where you will see a photo and say, Meshali Mitchell took that photo. So I highly recommend you follow her, follow her work, read her book. It will be a word to you in season and it will be a gift. So thank you, my friend.
Meshali (43:20)
Thank you Fran, love you.
Everything Made Beautiful (43:22)
Everybody, thanks for listening and please, please, please be on the lookout all around you for the ways that God is making everything beautiful because he is including you. And we will see you next time.