Fueling Faith
Welcome to the Fueling Faith Family, where we encourage, inspire, and motivate people to grow closer to Christ through personal stories and testimonies.
Fueling Faith
Bridges Over Battles: Stacey's Enlightening Evolution
Have you ever felt like a 'human doing' rather than a 'human being'?
Stacey Cargnelutti's journey from the sun-soaked beaches of Los Angeles County to the depths of her own soul is a story of transformation that many may find eerily familiar. In this inspiring episode of the Feeling Faith podcast, we sit down with Stacy Carnelluti, a remarkable individual whose life story is a testament to resilience, transformation, and the power of faith. Stacy takes us on a journey through her early years in Southern California, from her struggles with surfing and finding her passion in water skiing and cheerleading, to her academic and professional achievements. However, beneath the surface of success, Stacy grapples with personal challenges and a search for deeper meaning in life.
Her story takes a pivotal turn following a life-altering incident, leading her to confront her inner turmoil and embark on a spiritual quest. Stacy candidly shares her experiences of hitting rock bottom, the wake-up call that changed her life, and how these moments paved the way to her profound spiritual awakening. She delves into the transformative power of therapy, the impact of rediscovering her faith, and how these elements reshaped her identity and purpose.
Listeners will be captivated by Stacy's journey from a life focused on external achievements to one deeply rooted in spiritual growth and helping others. Her transition from a worldly life to a godly one, her insights into marriage and relationships, and her current role as a life coach offer valuable lessons on the importance of aligning one's life with spiritual truths and the pursuit of genuine fulfillment.
Join us in this episode as Stacey Cargnelutti shares her compelling story of overcoming adversity, finding her purpose, and living a life dedicated to glorifying God and guiding others towards their true potential.
How's it going, family and friends? My name is Cal on stop. I'm here today with my guest, stacy carnaludy Stacy, thank you so much for coming in how you doing today.
Speaker 2:Great. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:All right, thanks for coming in. You got some Awesome stories that you're gonna share today. Yes, we're gonna save the best for the end, so make sure you guys stay all the way through. Um, but tell me a little bit. I want to start at the beginning of your life. What was your upbringing like? What was the family life like, like start with where you were born.
Speaker 2:All right Um Los Angeles County, california. Grew up on the beaches of southern california. Dad served brother surf professionally like surf beach family.
Speaker 1:Nice and did you? Were you in the water too?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for a while, but I have to say, my dad tried so hard to teach me to surf and I Like I would just get really, really angry and really sad and I would be bawling my eyes out and he'd be standing on the pier like keep going, and I just you know, and finally he gave up and I'm a water skier. I wasn't supposed to be a surfer, I was supposed to be a water skier. So you know. Now I know the end of the story, but yeah he couldn't.
Speaker 2:You know, you get to a point where you just can't force your teenage girl, of course, to do anything. You'll, you'll.
Speaker 1:No, no, I get it, I got two daughters and I'm already learning. She's four and I'm like all right, so that's awesome. So grew up in southern california and what was your? What was your upbringing like? Tell me a little bit about your childhood.
Speaker 2:You had a, your sibling, one or two, yeah one brother year and a half younger than me and, um, my mom and dad sent us to a christian school. Like I was in fifth grade, my brother was two grades behind me third grade so we started in public school. Then, for some reason, they sent us to a christian school, so we had teachers praying for us. You know, didn't go to church. My dad had kind of a Mormon background, my mom had a catholic background and they didn't go to church. They just really wanted us to find our own way, and so there was no real spiritual like Training or upbringing in my home.
Speaker 1:Yeah, interesting, a lot of moral education. Yeah, lots.
Speaker 2:Yes, lots of core values like yeah, yeah, so it's very interesting yeah.
Speaker 1:And did you play any sports growing up?
Speaker 2:I was a swimmer, a synchronized swimmer. I started out like speed racing and then my coach was like you are too pretty when you swim, you need to go to the synchronized swimming team. And so after A year or so of just coming in last Over and over, I'm like okay, so I did synchronized swimming, which is awesome, it's amazing sport, yeah, yeah. And then cheerleading, and then played the piano by ear. Start playing piano by ear. My parents bought me a piano, baby grand, because they were like, oh my gosh. So then I started taking piano lessons and then high school Cheerleading came and and then I quit piano and then my life was cheer, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you're a cheer girl. Yeah, all the way through college. Cal State Long.
Speaker 2:Beach cheer. Yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:College cheer Yep. So you, you took it all the way all the way all the way, that's awesome. Yeah, it's a. It's a whole nother level at that point whole nother.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it really is. It becomes everything. It's like a sport.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so what? What sport did you cheer for?
Speaker 2:basketball and football in college, just those. Well, even in high school, yeah yeah, yeah basketball football yeah, nice.
Speaker 1:All right, cheerleaders are the best. Yeah, I was a football player and a basketball player, so it's always nice to cheerleaders on the side. Yeah, rooting you on.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. So tell me a little bit about your upbringing you. So, once you got into high school, were you still going to a christian school, or no.
Speaker 2:so I went to the christian school Gosh, not that long, because then seventh and eighth grade was back in public again and um and high school, public high school, and so it was just these few years it was four years when I was young. We went to the christian school and then back into the public school and I'm still friends with a lot of the people that I went to or the public school, junior, high and high school, but just saw him last night as a matter of fact. So a lot of great relationships, yeah, yeah, great, great people. But it just wasn't a church upbringing, it was just a lot of good people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's good. The school system is a lot different now than it was back then.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness yeah.
Speaker 1:I could imagine going to a christian school. I didn't have the the pleasure of of learning that my parents that teach me a lot of really good morals and values. But to have that at an early age Is that there's a lot of value there.
Speaker 2:Well, I think that's how I came to the lord later is because people were praying for me and there there was something laid down at a young age that just got as faithful you know, and there was a lot of seeds sown, even though we weren't going to church as a family, even though all that seed was never watered. I'd look back and I'm like wow.
Speaker 1:That's amazing.
Speaker 2:It really, is it really?
Speaker 1:is. I love that yeah. And so you went to college, and then after college, where'd you end up?
Speaker 2:That's when things got crazy. So, um, I married the high school sweetheart.
Speaker 1:Oh, love those stories yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, this wasn't the person I was supposed to marry, but I didn't know god and so I did the best I could. So you end up marrying the person that kind of feels like Love. You don't know love until you know. Until I encounter him, I didn't really know, but, um, he's a great guy and my dad loved him, my mom loved you know, and so I got the job. I was teacher, got my teaching credential. Um, bada condo Got the job. Bada condo dog got married, like the whole thing when I graduated from college.
Speaker 1:Check off the list.
Speaker 2:It's just boom, boom, boom boom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I had, I had a list.
Speaker 2:Like you got it. You got a graduate, you got to get the teaching credential, got to get the job, the dog, the car, the house. I mean check, check, check, check, check. And then all the sudden Things got crazy because I didn't have a vision. And you know how the Bible says without a vision, we perish. That word perish is like you cast off all restraint, like without a goal or a vision, like you're just like, well, there's no reason to really Live a certain way or discipline my life or whatever, because I'm already, I've arrived, just wondering. I kind of thought I was. I kind of thought like I I'm here now and I had money and I had time and my husband worked at nights and I worked in the day. So, uh, you can imagine it just was a setup, for I won teacher of the year.
Speaker 2:I was very successful. I was doing exercise videos for Jane Fonda. I went to Europe to travel and promote video. So I was very like Succeeding in the fitness industry and then doing great in education teaching the kids. I was training teachers. So I had a lot going on.
Speaker 1:I was successful in the world.
Speaker 2:Yes, I appeared to be very successful and I I knew how to get success professionally, and that's part of my work. Today is like Working with people that have that same story, like on the outside everything looks great, but on the inside, like Health and relationships. That's where that's what was really lacking, even though I'm in the fitness industry, looks like I'm healthy, but all kinds of crazy stuff was going on inside. So a lot of drinking, a lot of overworking, a lot of overthinking, a lot of achieving right, like anything, to avoid feeling the reality that I was creating, you know. So I didn't feel anything. I just disconnect from my body and I lived a happy life, you know, I mean, I thought so but the average American dream, as they call it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah but the reason I knew something was off is like my husband kept saying, do you want to have kids, are we gonna have kids? And like I was like no, and I knew that was weird. I'm like wait a minute, I'm married, I have a job. I have like, why, what is this? And then the next year like no, and then the next year was like no, like it kept getting more intense, no and um, and by year five I knew like yeah, something's going on here, bad yeah so.
Speaker 1:I'm too caught up in the world. Yeah, okay, so tell me a little bit about that time, like at year five what happened? What happened during that time?
Speaker 2:Good question, so up to up to there.
Speaker 1:You didn't have really the Lord, you weren't no, oh, no I didn't have any type of relationship with Jesus none, zero, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I. So I, I Was working with a producer, we had done an exercise video and he said we're gonna Launch the video. Do you want to come out and see the first? What's it called the premiere? And so it was on a Friday night and I'm like, yeah, he's like, bring a date, bring a friend.
Speaker 2:Well, my husband's working, so I invited a friend and this was a problem of mine is that I had other people that would fill in the gap, you know, and I started like seeing other people, kind of Platonically, but not like I just was deceived, and so a friend of mine, we drove up to past LA and we watched the premiere and on the way home, got in a car accident. And I mean, we spun on the four or five south across four lanes, slid off the side of the freeway and hit a tree. We didn't touch another car. It was so miraculous when I think about it. And Hit the tree, my car was just, it was a little Honda, brand new Honda, and and the first thing I said was like, run. I told him to run because I knew I wasn't supposed to be with this person, and so he ran, jump the fence and then pretty soon the cops came because people were calling the cops because it looked pretty horrific and and then they came and gave me the test and I was wearing my high heels and like, and I Failed and it was drunk driving arrest and so I got taken to jail that night. Yeah, yeah, I'm got arrested, taking a jail for dy 27 or 8 somewhere around there, and and and.
Speaker 2:So, as I'm sobering up in a jail cell At about like three, two, three o'clock in the morning, I just remember sitting there and looking around and there was like all of these beautiful women Around me and I noticed like eight, ten, and I'm like why? Like where? I'm just thinking I'm in like a holding cell or whatever. And I didn't know why, but it wasn't, I wasn't alone, and All these women are beautiful. And all of a sudden I was like, oh my gosh, like they're all just empty inside, like we're all in the same boat, like here I am in a jail cell with all of these women and we all kind of look the same and what's the deal? Like that's when I realized my own decisions had landed me there and this was not who I was like nothing about this was resonating, I'm like no, no, this is not my. The end of the story.
Speaker 2:I didn't identify who I am yes, yes and Um, it was like boom, that was my moment. It really was and it wasn't. I still hadn't come to the Lord, but he was drawing me in, like it was radical, working on your heart.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's amazing, because sometimes the Lord has to allow us to get to those we some call it rock bottom. Yeah, some people have deeper rock bottoms, yeah, others yeah. But yeah, for us to wake up, yeah, to life, yeah, and to our spiritual life, yeah. So you're in that, you're in that cell, you're there, you realize that. And then what happens once you get out?
Speaker 2:and then my husband gets off Work in his deputy sheriff uniform and picks me up from jail. So he has to go pick up his wife from Orange County jail. He works in LA County Gang Enforcement Team and he picks up his wife from Orange County jail and he literally saw me. Yeah, I mean it, it really is. Like the whole thing is just, it's just crazy. And he looked at me with like a smirk like oh my gosh, you know, we both had this like very, we were very much alike, kind of a mutual respect, but very, we were both Doing the same thing. Like it's crazy, it's, it's horrible, and yet he's like my little brother kind of guy, you know. Like I can't, I don't know. Yeah, we grew up together and did the best we could, anyways. So he picks me up and then the next morning I wake up to reality that my cars totaled. They had taken it to the junkyard or whatever. I had no car I. It was just this surreal kind of Moment.
Speaker 2:And so I got information from the court saying that I needed to show up in court at a certain date Because of the arrest, and so that's when I got a court order to sobriety. They said you can't drink for six months and you need to go to this school it's called school 10 and it's where you learn, you kind of explore your relationship with alcohol and you learn all kinds of good things, right? Well, I was two weeks into sobriety and I couldn't handle myself. This is when I realized I was really using alcohol to just avoid Myself, right? I think that's what we do. We just don't want to feel anything, and that's what this human experience is about is having some feelings, not be governed by them, but having them. And I refuse to feel anything. And so you just know, yeah, so I was really good at numbing, and after about two weeks of not being able to numb, I was like, oh my gosh, and my neighbor came across to she goes, you need to call this person. And it was a therapist. And I'm like, okay, like I knew at that point, like, yes, that's exactly what I need to do. And so I got myself into therapy.
Speaker 2:And and then, do you want to hear what happened next? So I'm sitting in this chair and this therapist looks at me and she's like so tell me who Stacy Carnaludia is? Say no, my name was not carnaludia at that point. Tell me who Stacy Benson is. And I was like that was my other name, the married name, not my maiden name, but that was my first marriage. I was divorced one time, so tell me who Stacy Benson is. But she didn't say Benson, she said Stacy. Sorry, I'm not even like she even used last Name. Tell me who Stacy is. And so I sat there and I was like I was totally stumped and All the sudden, I mean I was literally like no words. I'm like this is so sad that I can't even answer this. Seem like a basic question, yeah, and so I started like giving her my resume. I'm like, well, I'm a teacher and I'm an aerobic instructor and I'm an accomplished fitness trainer and I.
Speaker 2:Yes, teacher of the year, and like, yeah, and so, after my long list of all these things, she looks at me, she goes oh, so it sounds like Stacy is a human doing instead of a human being. This is what the pain is. And then tears, just, she got to me. She finally made me feel something and I cried because I knew like well, that's pretty serious stuff right there, yeah, and so that's when I stayed in therapy and she started giving me books to read and 12-step programs to go to.
Speaker 2:And so my journey started in by acknowledging my feelings of powerlessness, we used to say, acknowledging that I'm powerless over this thing. Well, now I know we feel powerless, were not? God has given us great power, but at the moment I had to admit like I'm powerless right here. I need help with alcohol, I need help with relationships, I need help with food, I need help with you know. So I'm going to like a different 12-step meeting every night. I was so tenacious I'm like I've got to get answers. So I was on a quest for truth. Really is what happened. And I would read and go to meetings and do my Thib, do my work at the beach. I would bring books and, you know a journal like I was always writing and I just took it really seriously.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so during that time of your life, because there's there's a few different areas that we have to focus on spiritual, mental, physical, financial, emotional and relational.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:You have the physical, you have the financial. You didn't have the others, right, right spiritually or Bankrupt. Yeah, yeah, you're actually bank, yep, emotionally Empty yeah. So, mentally whacked how did how did this lead you? How did this lead you to God?
Speaker 2:It. That's, this is the great part. God is so good to meet us where we're at. He met me right where I was at and he was leading me all the way. He was protecting me, because that's what he does. And then he was leading me. Yes, I should have died. How many times right have you? Like most of us, we can look back and go. I should have died there, I should have died there, and he had. He has his hand on us.
Speaker 2:But see, I was so sincere in my quest, like I wanted answers, I wanted the truth deep down. I knew that truth would set me free. So I was on a quest for truth, and I think it comes back to the elementary school, like the Mrs Diffenworth was praying for me and she gave me a little thing that said Jesus loves you. And I didn't understand. Jesus Love me. I'm like I didn't ask him to love me, I didn't ask him to dine across. I don't understand. I didn't understand any of that. But see, the seeds were planted, so now it was time for this harvest to come, and so I, I'm just like pursuing quit, you know, mike.
Speaker 2:And then, all of a sudden, my mom sees an old friend from high school at a wedding and Says how is Stacy? My mom tells her she's going through divorce right now. Jacqueline's like, give me her number. She calls me. She's like I thought you were Christian. I'm like, well, yeah, like I live in America, I went to Christian school kind of thought I was. But she's like, okay, well, if you're Christian, then why are you doing that?
Speaker 2:She started hammering me. Well, she was full on saved and born again and in the ministry and I didn't know it. She started calling me, giving me scripture and praying for me, and then I opened up the Bible that had sat on my dresser for my whole life and dusty. Like I would open the Bible, I couldn't read it like it didn't understand it, because you need to be alive spiritually to understand. It's not written to the natural mind. Well, the sudden she's praying for me and I I kind of awakened and so now I'm reading the Bible and I understand it and I went straight to Proverbs, like I needed Proverbs give me wisdom, Lord yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:And then I saw Ephesians like wait a minute, if I ask him for a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, he will give it to me. I don't have to like grow it, he will give me that spirit. And I literally found that passage asked for a spirit of wisdom and revelation, the knowledge of him. And Read Proverbs and like boom, boom, boom, boom. I mean I just start applying scripture and Everything changed Like that, like no drinking, no, my language changed, no more physical anything with. Well, we'll got there, go ahead.
Speaker 1:So your friends front shoes? A friend from school high school.
Speaker 2:Wow freshman, like early on.
Speaker 1:She had pops into your life, not out of nowhere, for divine purpose.
Speaker 2:Yes, my mom sees her at a wedding, like I didn't see her by my Crazy that's so cool.
Speaker 1:That's how the Lord works. Yeah it is a small world.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. So are you guys still talk today?
Speaker 2:Yes, she has a church. She started a church out here. Yeah, amazing.
Speaker 1:So after that experience and you started making these changes and transitions, tell me a little bit about kind of the Going from a worldly life to a godly life. What was that transition like for you?
Speaker 2:It felt like God literally picked me up out of all these people and then put me over here into like a group of whole new group of people, and I still was like I loved all those old people, but not all people but the the older friends. But he was like putting me in a different world and We've all seen toy story.
Speaker 1:Yes, you know how, when Woody and Buzz get stuck in the claw machine, exactly little aliens and they're like trying to pull on. Yeah, right, that's like the enemy trying to like pull on yes, or as God's just picking us up and drop.
Speaker 2:That's exactly yeah that's exactly what that image is for me. It was like a claw and he just went like this and he just put me over here with the people that I needed to be with, and these were all people in ministry. They weren't just lukewarm Christians, they were like fire from the loins up and the loins and we were together every single weekend and Friday night, bible study, worshiping God, and all of a sudden, my life just I did the divorce I ain't divorced that guy and then Just began a brand new life. I mean, everything just changed. It was, it was miraculous.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he'll do amazing things and bless us with awesome communities to Surround us and support us, especially in those times of needs if we seek him right, that's it.
Speaker 2:Like I was seeking truth and I ran into him. Like that's the thing is. Like, sometimes you're not Seeking God. It says no one seeks after me, right? Nobody like chases after God we don't. I just wanted answers and then he was. He's the one that's in relentless pursuit of our hearts.
Speaker 2:And I had an encounter I remember one night. My friend said you want to go out? And I was like I'm gonna stay home and have a date with Jesus. She must have thought it's so crazy. You know, I'm like. I made a fire. I lived by myself at this time. Kick the husband out. I bought the house, had my friend live with me, who also is now saved. It's just so cool.
Speaker 2:But anyways, I was home alone that night, made a fire and opened up my Bible and sat in front of fire and it was me and Jesus. And he began to show me myself in the pages of scripture, mary and Martha. I was Mary sitting at his feet, david and Bathsheba I was like the one cheating on my husband. And then the adultless woman who Jesus said like you, who has no sin, cast the yeah. And then he said to her like go and sin no more. And like those three stories just were so personal for me. I was balling. It was like he. He met me that Friday night and just told me like love never fails, if your marriage failed, it wasn't love. If the thing fails, god's not in it. You're trying to do it without him, you know. So let's start over and invite love you know to the table. And and he just opened up the scriptures to me. And then that became my new roadmap.
Speaker 1:I love it. That's amazing. Yeah, and it's true, because God will speak to us through his word, like if you want. If you're seeking God, open the Bible open ask.
Speaker 2:Ask him to give you understanding and he will.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like he for sure will, yeah, and he'll give you Story after story story yeah and it's amazing because it truly is the living word. Yes because, like you could read one passage, I could read the same exact passage. It's gonna apply to your life way differently than it's gonna apply to mine, but God can speak to both of us through the same message, right, and so that's what I find amazing is how God will truly meet us where we're at.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the same scripture will change over the years. You're just like wait a minute. I've never seen that before in that verse, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Amazing through the seasons.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But at the end of the day, that's what life is really all about. Of course, you know. Loving and serving God, spreading the good news right, sharing our testimony. Yeah, we have been called totally being fruitful and multiplying, yeah, but also character growth, like I truly believe that we're here to continue to be refined and so that our character can grow, and I love that, like your, your gift will bring you before the great people or the king, but your character will keep you there.
Speaker 2:Like, without the character development, we won't be able to like take hold of the good thing. We'll lose it. It's like winning the lottery and losing all the money, kind of thing you know. It's like you can't hold on to the blessing of God and till you learn how to steward all that he has for you. And that's just huge yeah.
Speaker 1:I tell people all the time too. I'm like, look, if life was easy and everything was perfect Number one, it would be boring, and number two, like you would never grow. Yeah, and we all love growth. Everybody just naturally loves growth. And when you do self reflection, you can look back into your life and see like wow look how far I've come and you especially.
Speaker 1:Through those years and through those transitions and through the trials and tribulations that you've faced, you've been able to grow exponentially, which is just absolutely amazing to see that feeling of like you experience it once and you're like, okay, wait a minute, he's got me and there's a purpose in all of this.
Speaker 2:So now, no matter what we go through, we can rest in, like God's here, like as long as God's with me, it's gonna be okay and I'm gonna come out of this fire with gold, Like everything is just purposed and so it's.
Speaker 2:I heard a story of it was a research study done with rats, of course, and they put rats in water and the rats started to like gasp after 15 minutes and then they pulled them out of the water and then they waited for 48 hours or whatever, a couple of days, put them back in the water and they kept going and going and going.
Speaker 2:They were waiting to see how long the rats would go before they were almost drowning and 60 hours later they started to kind of get weary and then they took them out. And this is what they said. They said it was because the rats knew that they were gonna be saved, that they had endurance. They were able to go 60 hours because in their mind or whatever, they were thinking like somebody will save us. So let's just conserve our energy and keep paddling, whatever until somebody picks us up and I just think, like he said, you have need of endurance. Like just chill, it's not a sprint. Know that I'm here, I'm gonna pick you up, like you're gonna be okay, and that knowing just gives us the ability to go through whatever we gotta go through to get to where we're going.
Speaker 1:You know 100%. Yeah, I just thought that was so wild. That is, that's so cool and it really applies to faith exponentially because, at the end of the day, like our faith, is that God's word is true? We know that it is. If you've read the word, you're like okay, it's true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, nobody could tell us otherwise.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but it is written, it is finished, as it says right. And so knowing that gives us the faith and the continued hope to keep striving through this crazy world that we're living, in through a place that we don't call home.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:But you know the world calls it home and that it's not our home.
Speaker 2:I don't know, we're just passing through this. Yeah, yep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just as Jesus was passing through the desert for 40 days, we're just passing through the earth for however many years we get.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So tell me cause you brought a purpose. Now tell me, what do you feel your purpose is?
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, you know, just to bring glory to the earth, like glorify God with my life, with my gifts, with my everything in me, right that my breath would be praising God. It's funny, because I don't want anything else, Like everything else seems so meaningless to me now, like a chasing after the wind or whatever I, unless it feels fruitful, like unless it produces something of eternal value, I don't, I'm not interested anymore. And that's what changed for me, Whereas in the olden days I would just do things for I don't know you just stay busy and have fun or whatever. But now it's like well, is that gonna produce anything worthwhile in my life? And if not, then I just say no.
Speaker 1:But I do. It's gonna come from this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, and the fruit is love, of course, and that's defined by joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. So that's the character piece. There's gonna be fruit in my own life, but also, what can I pass on to other people? So I did start a coaching business 10 years ago. I realized that I was like doing that anyways, I have spiritual gift of counseling and teaching and people would come to me asking questions all the time.
Speaker 2:And then all of a sudden, god was like this is what I want you to do. I want you to help people live out the truth of who they are, to start asking questions that really provoke people to thought and confront them at a really deep level. That stirs them up. And so I noticed when people would talk to me like they'd just be quiet and two weeks later they'd be like I remember when you said that thing. And then all of a sudden, these light bulbs came on and I started paying attention to my influence on other people or my impact. And again God showed me like this is what you do you provoke people to thought, you confront complacency and you really do support them and guide them in living out the truth of who they are, so they could be free and fulfilled and effective, and fruit producers as well. Right yeah, and that's the only thing that really settles our heart.
Speaker 1:That's so cool, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you're coaching now, yeah, and you've been doing it for 10 years. Yeah, love.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:Love it.
Speaker 1:What's the biggest value that you feel you provide to your clientele?
Speaker 2:I mean I could say freedom for sure, power. I mean it's like after the first or second session with people, their minds are just blown. They don't realize what they have because nobody's really opened up the truth to them. And when I just helped to shift their perspective a little bit, they're like you mean what? Like what you know? So it's just continual like perspective shifts to bring the truth and bring the light of God's word into a situation. It's so life changing. So I give them peace.
Speaker 2:I just have finished working with a married couple. I didn't finish, they signed up for another three months, but after three months I'm like well, what would you say? You know before and after? And she's like gosh, just, she stopped smoking, stopped drinking, stopped fighting with her husband, stopped hating herself, started eating again. You know like there's so many changes, you know.
Speaker 2:But if I were to boil it down, I would say health, like to get all the anxiety and all the fear out of the body. People are so scared and they don't recognize the nuances of fear, like you can't discern it because it's so deceptive. So when I'm able to say you know, help people see where the fear-based decision making is in their life, that is just so freeing, and so it's amazing. So we use faith and we use love to govern our lives, and truth instead of fear. So once you can recognize the fear, then you can deal with it and move right into it, because it's just a stupid illusion, right, anyway. So she's so powerful, but she goes. I just have peace. I can't explain the peace. The peace is just amazing. She's sleeping through the night. No more nightmares, you know, anyway. So now they want to do another three months to really like learn how to just cultivate more intimacy in their marriage. It's just amazing. Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1:I'm a huge fan of coaching. I think everybody should have a coach. I've done a lot of coaching over my years. I'm actually about to get my team coaching through a guy, randall Smalls which is yeah, which is really, really awesome. So I'm a huge fan. Big Tony Robbins, jim Rohn and like all those guys.
Speaker 1:Zig Ziglar. So personal development's huge and most people really underestimate the value that you can get. Yeah, but when you have individuals and coaches like yourself that have years of experience and development that they've gone through to be able to have something at that magnitude, somebody that could compile all those years into months, or days, sometimes right, depending on the we full time for people.
Speaker 2:That's what we do. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:So that's absolutely amazing to be able to have that value and for you to provide that value to your clients. Yeah, it's cool, so I love it, I love it, I love what you're doing.
Speaker 2:Thank you, it's such a blessing oh.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so as we kind of start wrapping things up, I have a few more questions for you. So how can other people experience God? Maybe somebody who's going through the same situation as you, maybe a different situation? You have a lot of good experience and multiple stories. I'm sure we probably only covered small small pieces.
Speaker 2:Yes, we got lots of stories to say. You know what I would say? Number one get honest. Get honest, like talk to me about the pain in your life, because we don't want to admit that we're in pain, that we need help. Or just get honest with God, pour out your heart before Him. Or even if you can't imagine that, you know, using your imagination. He gave us our imagination to imagine the spiritual realm, because we can't see it right. So all the invisible things, the spiritual realm, we have to use our imagination to be able to just envision this. But there is somebody that's here, like there is a God that is present. And when you just acknowledge the pain in your life or the struggle or the frustration, it opens you up to the willingness to receive some kind of answer or some kind of comfort or some kind of help.
Speaker 2:And then you open up your Bible and you find Ephesians one and you look at the verses like 16 through 19. This is where it says that Paul was praying that these people would, that God would give these people a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. That's all we need. So once you get that spirit in you, then you can understand the Bible. So then you could open up the Bible and it will come alive to you and it will minister to your heart and you will feel like he is so real that nobody will be able to take that away from you ever. Like you will know God, you will just have an experience.
Speaker 2:That word, no is ganosco means like an experience with God and experiential knowledge, and that's what we all need were spiritual beings. Amen, we were having this human experience. But we're spirit. And you know what else? I think of God, who's omniscient. That means he knows everything. Like what, if we knew everything, would life be boring, kind of right. So I kind of feel like Jesus was, like I mean, he came to earth to like die for our sins so we would have some way to reconcile you know ourselves to God, or God could reconcile us to himself.
Speaker 2:But I think of Jesus coming to earth, he came here for a human experience. Amen, to be human, like to not know everything. It said he had to come in lowliness of mind, like he had to put all of that knowing aside for a minute and just live as a human and feel and not be governed by his feelings, but like feel. He cried, he got angry, he got. All of it is good. It's all good, that's what we're here to do, but we're not governed by that. When we're in the spirit, we can make our decisions from the spirit, but we could still have a human experience and connect on an emotional level with people, and that's so beautiful and I think that's missed sometimes 100%, and that's so cool that you bring that up, because I think about that all the time.
Speaker 1:Right, it's like I use the analogy if you built a car, you'd want to test drive the car. Right, yeah. And just like God built the world. Oh, I love that Like he wants to test drive the world. He built humans like. He wants to live in the human. He wants to experience something that he hadn't experienced before yes. So how would he show or tell or lead us in the way of life if he had never experienced it in a first person?
Speaker 2:perspective.
Speaker 1:right, that's it, so that's why I think the Bible is so amazing and God and his love for his children and what he has done for us is he was willing to give up the God. Hey, I'm big almighty, come down to a human form and live a life so that he can say, hey, I know what it's like, I get it, I understand Totally. Just do this, do that, do this, do that. You don't have to do those things, but if you do these things, your life will be easier.
Speaker 2:I promise, I promise it will be so good. Like it breaks our kids, you know, making the wrong decision, how it just like, ah, you disobeyed again. Like I was talking with a mom this morning about that, just, she has a little two year old, you know, and who's just testing, testing, testing, and I'm like there's a, there's a pun, sin has a weight and if you don't get punished for your sin, you're carrying the weight of that sin around. And so as adults we can understand oh, jesus carried the weight of my sin, the punishment, and so we receive what he did for us. But when the kids are little, like take that sin off of them by giving them a punishment right away and the punishment is like you disobeyed mommy, period, just disobedience Cause, when you disobeyed mommy, bad things happen, like you're not going to be happy, you're not going to be healthy, it's not going to work out good for you. Out of love, out of love, all love, all love.
Speaker 1:Totally.
Speaker 2:You know I get it.
Speaker 1:It's love I recently heard somebody say the ages of zero to five are the ages of discipline. Amen. The ages of five to 10 are the ages of training, from 10 to 15, it's coaching, cool Right, and I'm like, wow, that is so true.
Speaker 2:Yeah, totally.
Speaker 1:Nobody kind of broke it down like that and then mentoring after that. Yeah, and then mentoring, and then they grow up and then you're their friend.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's exactly it. Boom yes, don't be a friend at eight. They need a trainer. It's crazy. They need a floor like you're the authoritarian when they're little. They need that, like they need to know that mom and dad are safe and that they care for them and they they're going to lead them and guide them in the ways that are going to bring good things into their life. You know, yeah, and then the moral reason why that training stage like five to 10, help them to understand these things, right? Oh gosh, I'm that's, that's everything, and I think it's gotten lost. So it's a huge message. You've got to get out there and preach it.
Speaker 1:Yeah Amen, especially now with all the baby sitters. Yeah, resistance parents.
Speaker 2:No parents. It's so sad. These kids are just on love Like they they're looking.
Speaker 1:I'm here to change that, though.
Speaker 2:That's why we're doing this. That's why we're doing this.
Speaker 1:Part of this is getting the message out of sharing with, with families removing the iPad, baby sitters.
Speaker 2:Amen.
Speaker 1:Restoring families. That's why you know we got the ranch and what we're doing with our family to kind of bring back the roots of life. Yes, we just have animals and teach our kids Life, life, life. This is not life.
Speaker 2:Not my life, but him life.
Speaker 2:He said I'm the life, I'm the way to everything you want, I'm the truth that's going to free you to get it, and I'm the life that you long for. I always come back to that John verse because in him is every good thing Like it is crazy, and you don't know that until you experience that. But go to him, man. It's like just look up or look in. I think about building the temple. You're such a builder right now. This, this is the temple of God. Our bodies and when we take care and we grow, you know the personal development, the spiritual development, we get mentorship, we get coaching. All of that is helping us to build the temple Right. We don't want the gates of hell to cause us to cave in any way, shape or form. If this thing isn't working right, if our mind isn't working right, if our emotions aren't working, if our physical body isn't, if it's not working, we can't do what we're here to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, and there's a Bible verse that talks about it. Right, it's because we are where the body and God is the head. Yeah, right, yeah. And the hand can't work without the head. Yeah, the whole body function as a whole. Yeah, not independently.
Speaker 2:And that's the problem right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and that's even with, like, the church today there's so many, there's all these different denominations, and you know what I?
Speaker 2:get it. We need those, I know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I get it to an extent, but at the end of the day, we're the body of Christ. Yeah, the enemy wants division. God does not want division. Right, it's that religious spirit. Yeah, to where it's understanding. Hey, we're all the body of Christ. We need to share the love of Jesus. Yeah, yeah, that's our purpose. I don't care if you believe in the pre-tribulation rapture, post-tribulation we don't believe in a rapture at all. Yeah, I don't care, right.
Speaker 1:It doesn't matter to me. What I do care about is whether or not you know and love and have a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what matters, right yeah?
Speaker 1:And so that's really the purpose of our life is to live as the body. Yeah, and the enemy does not want that.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 2:Like what we're doing here right now, like the enemy doesn't want, he doesn't like it, yeah, and the marriage is like such a heart for marriages because we don't understand how it works, because we've gotten too far away from the truth of the word. Yes, but like a man and a woman, they fit together really beautifully when you have the man in his masculine power and the woman in her feminine. But you get two men in the same house and it's just competition, yeah. And I think that's what's going on is these women are just fear-based thinking all the time. They think that they have to carry their own weight, and so now there's two men, yeah, and the poor man isn't like able to do what he's called to do, which is protect and provide and pursue. And I don't know, I just have a passion for that too. So you're with the family thing, I'm with the marriage thing, yeah, and honestly, I love that.
Speaker 1:I'm so blessed that my parents, before we got married, they sent us to a conference by the Ingritches. It's called Love and Respect.
Speaker 2:Amazing, you got it down.
Speaker 1:It was a three day like that. That helped really shape our marriage. And then we did pre-marriage counseling and then we read a lot of books, we read the five love languages. We really understood and learned about each other. And then, most importantly, we had God at the center, we had the Bible together and we have those core values, or evenly yoke, yes. Yes, on the opposite side I saw my parents and when I grew up we had no influence of God Like we would go to church, sometimes once in a blue moon, maybe on a Christmas or maybe on Easter, just randomly. It was just like, oh, that's kind of what my dad kind of had and my mom didn't really have much of that growing up either. And then when I was in high school they both found the Lord.
Speaker 2:And they started going to church. Oh wow.
Speaker 1:So that was amazing. So I got to see the transition of a non-existent God in a marriage to a core. God is the center of this marriage, and then they fell away and then they ended up getting a divorce and this was a couple years ago, wow. And so I got to see the stages of not with God, with God, not with God, and I saw the ending. Then it ended good.
Speaker 1:Right, right but when they were walking with the Lord and they had a relationship with God and he was really the core. That was the happiest that they have ever been, and even still to this day. I'll ask them and they're like, yeah, that was the best. If I could go back to that, I would Right. And so that's why in your marriage, you just have to have God at the center of it. You can never lose that. If you lose that, chances are you might lose your marriage. So keeping God at the center of it is just the most important thing that you can do.
Speaker 1:So I love that you have a heart and a passion for that.
Speaker 2:And I hear that story and I'm just like send them. I want them both. I want to restore everything, everything that the locusts have eaten. You know that's the heart of God is like let's fix this Redeem, restore there's answers. There's answers as long as there's a will, like if you have a desire for something that's of God, right Desire. Do you know that D-E means of Sire, means father, the deepest desires of your heart, the deep, deep, not the lust of the flesh, but like the deep desire is of God, it's of your father, like it's OK to follow that because he'll show up and show you great and mighty things that you don't know, you know.
Speaker 1:That's incredible. I still stand on the fact that God is going to restore their marriage. One day they will come together. I'm leaning, I'm praying and I'm telling them Cool, they say otherwise, but as long as, like you said, as long as they want, the desire as long as they have an open heart. If you have an open heart my wife just shared this with me the other day If you have an open heart, god can do anything, anything, anything. But if you have a closed heart, nothing. He can't help you out, that's it.
Speaker 2:That's it.
Speaker 1:He can't do anything. Yeah, so have an open heart.
Speaker 2:He won't violate our will.
Speaker 1:That's right. Guard your heart for everything you do. Close from it.
Speaker 2:All of life flows from the heart. Yeah, yeah, that's it, mm.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. Is there any story that you want to share before we wrap this up, any particular God story that you have?
Speaker 2:I'm wearing this watch. I don't know why. This is a silly story, but we were at church one day and the pastor's wife came up and stood up before the congregation and she's like is Stacy here? And I was. I wasn't at church, actually, my husband was. I was at a conference, so he's like Stacy's not here, but I am white Comes up and the pastor's wife goes I want her to have this watch. Well, this watch I had picked out the week before I went to the store and I put it on hold and I said I will be back on Friday to pay for this, because I thought money was coming to me on Friday. Well, the money didn't come on Friday. She didn't know anything about this. And then a week later at church, this happens it's the exact watch that I had put on hold at the store to purchase myself. Just secret, nobody knew this. My husband didn't know it, nobody. I just really liked it. Wow, and I mean that's so silly. But it's those little things that I'm like God, you are so real. Like what in the world? Why would she come up and say this belongs to Stacy? Like only God. I don't know. It's crazy.
Speaker 2:But we also went through house issues, like forgot to get the physical mail. We were going through a refinance with our first house in Canyon Lake, forgot to get the mail and I guess that there was some mail that we were supposed to sign by a certain date and didn't. And these two guys come to my door one day, knock at the door. I open the door, it's these two agents. They said we just purchased your house at an auction. I'm like what? Our house was not for sale. And they're like yeah, this happened to us before. Can we come in? We'll tell you? We lost our house like right out from under us. It was crazy. That was a big, huge lesson A poor stewardship right. We should have been getting the mail. It looked like everything about that was like we deserve to be punished for this, right. It looks like that. Well, in the end we ended up losing that house, walked away with a bunch of cash because there was still some equity there that we got to have, but God sent us to this other amazing house on the lake with a beach. So we were at this incredible house for over four years, had all kinds of parties and memorable times with our three kids and I just look at, like that could have never happened.
Speaker 2:That was the grace of God. We made a mistake, but so God was bigger than our mistakes and that's just what I want to encourage you guys with like, no matter how many mistakes you've made, no matter how much you've screwed up because we all have he's bigger. He just is a God of redemption. He just wants to restore everything. And whatever Satan intends for evil, god intends for good, like intends. That's what it says in Genesis 50, verse 20,. Whatever the devil is doing, like, god is going to use it all for good. If you'll just look to him and just surrender, like give it to him right, like, oh, I give up. Like I have messed up long enough. And you know, I look at our past and it's just nasty, but God is so good and so big, and so I just encourage everybody to keep looking to him. Just look to him. He's real, he's so real.
Speaker 1:He's so close yeah. So true, yeah, just the uniqueness of life in and of itself. Our DNA, like the individuality and uniqueness that every person has you included Behind the screen right now. God made you on purpose, for purpose and with a purpose, so knowing and understanding that. So thank you so much. We really appreciate you sharing your story and your testimony and what God has done in your life Very encouraging. I know our viewers and our audience will be extremely encouraged and hopefully that this will change somebody's life.
Speaker 1:And I know that it will, and so I just want to encourage you to keep sharing your story and keep sharing what God has done. Where can people find you?
Speaker 2:stacyccom with a E-Y-S-T-A-C-E-Y-C dot com, and then on social media. I'm on Facebook and Instagram and I'm going to be getting a lot more active on LinkedIn soon with my business. So yeah, Awesome.
Speaker 1:All right, and if you guys need coaching, please reach out to Stacey. She is phenomenal.
Speaker 2:I won't let you down.
Speaker 1:She had to hear her story, her story today. Obviously, she's been through good trials and tribulations. She has a lot of experience, both in the business world and the spiritual world and in a relationship with God. And so marriages, you like marriage? Yes, oh, my gosh, marriage If you're struggling in your marriage, please reach out. I love that story about that.
Speaker 2:I am doing right now a program called Supernatural Health and it's really about getting your love life right. And it's for women, because when our love life isn't right, our health is jacked up. So there are so much stress in your life you don't even realize when your relationship isn't right. When there's a strain in your relationship, it's affecting your health. So, anyways, we talk about all of it.
Speaker 1:It's amazing. Yeah, awesome, yeah. All right, make sure you guys follow her. Thank you guys so much for tuning in to the Feeling Faith podcast. We'll see you next time.
Speaker 2:Amen.
