- Terri Matthews [00:00:03]:But, ultimately, if we know that God wastes nothing, right, and we really believe that, that He will waste nothing, and what the enemy meant for you, well, God will use for good, then we have to think about that in every single scenario and situation that we come across.
Introduction
- Kim Moeller [00:00:19]:Well, I’m excited for you to meet my guest, Terry Matthews, today as we begin the first part of a three part series connected with the Women Doing Well mission of helping a woman figure out her purpose, her passions, and her plan for generosity. So today, we’re going to look all about what it means to explore your purpose. And Terri’s got an incredible story of how God has used her around the globe through wonderful times and through challenging times. And I think you will be very blessed by listening to this conversation. So thanks for being here.
- Welcome to the Generous Girl podcast. Today is a great day. I have Terri Matthews Woodall with me, and she was voted one of the top 10 business experts and women to watch in business.
Meet Terri
- Kim Moeller [00:01:13]:She’s an international award winning serial entrepreneur, consultant, and author with more than 25 years of experience.And she’s also a philanthropist and she is committed to mentoring and financially investing in women entrepreneurs by teaching them how to build sustainable business models with operational effectiveness to help take their businesses to the next level.And she’s a generous girl. So welcome, Terri.
- Terri Matthews [00:01:40]:Thank you so much, Kim, for having me here. This is exciting.
- Kim Moeller [00:01:44]:
First of a Three Part Series
- It’s so exciting. And this episode kicks off the first of a three part series that’s connected with the organization that I refer to frequently called Women Doing Well. And Terry was highly recommended to talk about purpose because purpose is something that when somebody goes through the Women Doing Well curriculum, which you can go to their website, women doing well dot org, purpose is key, and it’s foundational, and I will let Terry unpack why that is the case.
Purpose
- Terri Matthews [00:02:15]:Well, I would say, you know, when you think about purpose, first of all, I think what happens in the world in general, and especially I call it in Christendom, we throw a lot of words around, and we don’t necessarily understand it. Often times, we’re on a search for what our purpose is. And I believe, really, all of our purposes are the same, which is to point people to Jesus Christ, but the vehicle of how we get there can vary. So what we’re looking for is our identity, more so that aligns with our purpose that God has called us for. We are designed by God. There is a reason and purpose that He has created us. The Bible says, for I knew you before you were in your mother’s womb. That means that God had an intention and a plan no matter how you got here.
- Kim Moeller [00:02:59]:That’s right.
Pointing People to Jesus
- Terri Matthews [00:03:00]:No matter what your life circumstances were, you were spoken into existence. Mhmm. He has equipped you and gifted you to do a specific thing in the Earth. My purpose is to point people to Jesus, and I definitely believe that’s all of our purpose. But the vehicle in which we do that, whether it’s by business, whether it’s by the generous girl podcast, whether it’s running organizations like Women Doing Well, we are all gifted in a specific thing that points people to what our ultimate goal is. And so I see purpose sometimes just a little bit different, but Earth or I like to say on the Earth, on this side of heaven. Yes. We have a tendency to think about how is purpose defined here. Right? And how do we define what God has called us to do with the gifts, skills, and talents that we have? And that’s what we look at from this side of the earth is what is purpose.
- Kim Moeller [00:03:50]:And I believe, if I’m correct, when you did your two word purpose statement through Women Doing Well, it came out as Inspiring Hope.
Inspiring Hope
- Terri Matthews [00:03:59]:Yes. And I can say this. I think, Kim, when we first initially spoke, I think I shared this with you.I was like Inspiring Hope. That’s it. Like, I didn’t really I don’t want that. Isn’t it funny? We’re always telling God what we don’t want. Yes.Terri Matthews [00:04:13]:But it’s interesting to me. I wrote this note down to myself specifically about this. It’s about aligning my life with God’s will and understanding so that I understand the unique role that I play in God’s larger plan. So when I think about aligning my role, inspiring hope, and I was like, thumbs down, until I talked to Mary Tomlinson, and she was like, hey. Wait a minute. That’s my 2 word purpose statement. And when I really thought about what Jesus did and the importance of inspiring hope, if you even think about sometimes, I have had situations where I’ve ministered and prayed for people whose family members have gone through suicide. Often times, it’s because they’re not killing their selves about the future.
- Terri Matthews [00:04:55]:They’re committing suicide because of the pain and things that have happened in the past. So a part of Inspiring Hope, whether it’s physical suicide or just mental suicide, we often times don’t realize that we give up on ourselves because of experience in a sense that we’ve, had. Right? Like, we think that can never happen for me. Somewhere along the lie our our life, we stop believing God and trusting God that it’s possible for us, especially if we’ve been in the waiting room of a prayer for a long time. Right? We think, okay. It’s just simply not going to happen. But it may not happen the way that we anticipate or expect, but it will happen according to God’s plan.
So that’s why I say aligning your desires of your heart with the will and plan of God because our ultimate purpose is in Him.
Kim Moeller [00:05:43]:Mhmm. So, talk a little bit about your story, how you got to where you are now. I am looking at your bio. You know, you’ve sold a company. You’re doing consulting, and you have a beautiful son who you learned at some point was autistic, and that changed your trajectory. So just all the things that God has woven into your beautiful story, different than the listener over here in Texas, different than the listener in New York, different than the listener in California because everyone’s is unique, and everyone’s story is unique for, like you said, the purpose that God has them to live while they’re here on this earth. And I think that alignment is so important because we can fight it or we can align with God’s purposes and see the beauty that He brings from things in our lives where we might not want that. I just listened to, Tara Lee Cobble, the Bible Recap. We’re doing this Bible reading through the year, and it’s on YouVersion, but she was talking about how she prayed. She was sad that she was not this small wallflower introverted person.
Kim Moeller [00:06:57]:She’s always been just very talkative and loquacious. And if God would have made her that way, she wouldn’t be the host of this Bible Recap program now. And she’s grateful that He didn’t answer a prayer and she figured out, okay. I need to embrace that this is my calling.This is who God made her to be to lead this Bible Recap program. So I think our human side can definitely resist what God has in mind for us, and it we are much happier when we’re eventually surrendered and aligned to His purposes.
Overcoming Adversity
Terri Matthews [00:07:32]:Amen. Well, it’s interesting that you mentioned the adversity. So the one thing that I had to learn, I have not always number one, been here. There have been a lot of tears and there has been a lot of growth and there’s been a lot of letting go of my own will and desires of my heart and surrendering. Right? Because when you come into the world there are all of these expectations. Right? You should be married at a certain age. You should have children at a certain age. You should graduate from college.
Terri Matthews [00:07:58]:Well, hopefully, you graduate from college before you get married. But if your life’s been round and round like mine, maybe it’s not been just, you know, this perfect plan. And, I really realized that for me, there have been tons of adversity, but God has built me and my boldness specifically out of my brokenness. Adversity is a key part of my story and also what gave me the holy boldness and courage, to believe God that He’s capable of bringing me through certain situations. Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, I don’t look like the fiery furnace that I’ve come from. Right? Mhmm. And so there’s that piece, and then there’s this building that God has for us to do, but it takes our own personal experiences, I believe, with the Lord. We have to go through something so that we can build trust, so we can build faith, so we can build belief. And the other thing is, instead of always chasing what we believe our calling is, we first need to identify who God is.
Terri Matthews [00:09:00]:And when we recognize who He is, then I think that we step into what we’re called to do. And once we understand what we’re called to do, we understand our identity. Right? And so, we’ve always thought backwards. It’s, you know, find out who I am. You know? What am I supposed to be doing on this earth? Right? I think if we find ourselves in our Father, we will find a reflection of who he’s actually called us to be. So similar to what you’re sharing, you know, about this woman, the variety of adversity in my life, and it’s helped me in different areas, whether it’s been marriage or business or children or becoming a good friend and, specifically with my son who was diagnosed with autism.
You know, I look back over my life and I thank God, because through my son, I learned what unconditional love really was. Right? I learned how to over communicate or become even a better communicator.
Learning Through Autism
Terri Matthews [00:09:53]:I always thought I could communicate, but having a nonverbal son initially taught me communication. It also took me around the world. I had an opportunity to go to different places in the world, but I met with 43 countries in reference to what autism looks like. I didn’t even speak their language. I remember meeting the First Lady of Japan, and all I knew how to do was appropriately bow and and say Kanichiwa. Right? And so you have no idea in a sense the challenge that God allows you because the Bible says He causes or He allows. So nothing that we’re going through, it’s not that He doesn’t know about it. And what we don’t really realize, because the enemy will tell us differently, is that He has equipped us for what He has caused or allowed.
Kim Moeller[00:10:36]:Right? Sifting through His hand.
- Terri Matthews [00:10:41]:And, you know, I wanted to bring up this one Scripture that is in Philippians 2:34. It says, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, count others as more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his or her own interests, but also to the interest of others. So in that passage to me it urges us as believers, specifically to serve others in humility. And to be honest, as a young child that had gone through as much adversity that I had gone through, I learned firsthand what it meant for someone to serve. So when I grew up in the world, I did maybe better than where I’ve come from, I recognized this was not more about me, me, me, what I can accomplish, what I can gain, all of the bios and alphabets behind my name. Right? But these were all specific tools for God to place me in a place, in a position where other people would pay attention to that, but He would hold me accountable to deliver his word.
- Terri Matthews [00:11:39]:He would hold me accountable to inspire hope in those particular spaces. Right? So the fancy stuff might get me in the door. But God was entrusting me to deliver the good stuff, which was His word, and to inspire people to what was next. Because when we get to heaven, God is going to say, well, what did you accomplish down there, Terri? What kind of recipe did you make? What about how much money did you make?
- Kim Moeller [00:12:03]:Right? What’s on your LinkedIn?
- Terri Matthews [00:12:05]: He’s not going to do that. How many likes did you have? Yeah. Is anybody following you on social media? What He is going to do is say, how did you steward my time? Mhmm. How did you take what I’ve given you and be a firsthand example of what I can bring somebody through to do something different in their life? Right? And sometimes, we’ve all been there. We all need levels of encouragement. I need levels of encouragement Absolutely.
- Terri Matthews [00:12:29]:Right? Like, the thing is that when we go through these particular things in our lives, He’s shaping us and fashioning us. He’s helping us recognize that we are equipped by the Holy Spirit to use the gifts that God has given us. And if we tune in and listen and develop our relationship with him, then we’re anointed by the Holy Spirit to do the things of God. Right? And for me, I feel like it’s interesting that my word would be Inspiring Hope when all that I had was that. Because in my life of growing up or even just using my son with autism, all I did was have hope. Right? I didn’t know that today my son, who was nonverbal, would speak. They told me to take him home, love him right where he’s at, and accept that he’s going to have a low IQ. My son is now a senior.
- Terri Matthews [00:13:16]:He goes to a private school. He’s a senior. He’s number two in the state of track and field, specifically in his area. He speaks not only English, but takes basic Spanish and can communicate in that. But all I had was hope and trust in God that even if He didn’t change the circumstances, He would change my heart in it. So my trust in that was like, if you don’t answer a prayer in reference to allow my son to speak, my prayers went from, please let me hear my son’s voice and so I can have conversations with him to, God, your will is sovereign. And I’m going to trust you even in this process. And I’m going to go and I’m going to serve.
- Terri Matthews [00:13:54]:And going back to that Scripture, it took the specific things in my life for me to understand that God is capable of. And even if He doesn’t, He’s still sovereign. It’s like the thorn in Paul’s side, right? It’s the same sort of idea, and I’m using my son as an example. But the truth of the matter is, for me, and I believe for many of us, it’s across all areas of our life. Because if you think about it, the adversity that I went through, to even go to those countries now that are unsafe and third world, was incredible. I walked through some messes as a kid growing up.
- Terri Matthews [00:14:32]:I grew up in the hood somewhere. You know what I mean, here you had to duck a bullet at times or two. But the thing was that what the enemy meant for evil, God did use for my good because he took that courage and tenacity and strength and the ability to kind of walk through things. Back then at a young age, He used it for me to walk through third world countries and to be able to serve and use limited resources, the same very thing that I used as a young kid. And not only has He done it in autism, He’s done it across my career as an entrepreneur. He’s done it with me as a TV show producer, where I’ve written a show that’s been Emmy nominated specifically around autism. There’s just been all of these things that if I look back over my life, my training ground was the adversity in both my trust in Jesus, to believe His promises over my problems, and it was also the area that He inspired hope in me. And so to choose me, with all of the chaos that I had been through, the world if I had gone by world standards, I would have said, listen, I’m not worthy.
- Terri Matthews [00:15:35]:I don’t even belong on your podcast.Right? Like, I’m the product of a pimp and a prostitute. My parents went through drug addiction. I was out on my own at the age of 15. You know, I’m the oldest of of 7 kids. I had my first baby at 18. I wasn’t even married.
But God…
- Terri Matthews [00:15:52]:I would look at all of those things, but God says, listen.
- Kim Moeller [00:15:55]:But God.
- Terri Matthews [00:15:59]:Yes, but God. This mess that you’re in is definitely going to be the message, and I don’t need you to elevate. I need you to be humble, and I need you to serve. It’s God who elevates us. Right. I didn’t wake up and say I wanted to be an entrepreneur.
- Terri Matthews [00:16:09]: I couldn’t even spell the word.
Kim Moeller [00:16:15]:How did you take that step into being an entrepreneur? I’d love to hear it. Like, what kind of clicked in your mind or what did you see that inspired you to go, wait, I want to build something?
Terri Matthews [00:16:26]:First of all, Kim, I was an entrepreneur and somebody had to tell me that’s what I was. Right?
Terri Matthews [00:16:32]:Mhmm. And, you know, it was crazy because as I began to build businesses. You have to learn how to negotiate and be cool on every block with every person. And, you know, I looked a little unique as well. Right? When I grew up, I’m a biracial kid. My mother is Norwegian Hispanic. My dad is black, French, and Indian, and so, you know, it was kind of like, what are you? So you had to I had to negotiate with everyone on the playground. I had to negotiate in preschool.
Terri Matthews [00:17:09]:Right? And I’ve learned all of those things very early on. So when I look back over my life, you know, I always say I didn’t come from entrepreneurial parents, but in some ways, I did. I mean, they had to hustle before their lives slid the way that they did, and they went the direction they did. Often times, I spent a lot of time watching them negotiate a place to live because they were a black and white couple, all the way down to just different things that I’ve watched my father cross lines and become in relationship with people. I watched my mom serve people that had, not a whole lot of the least of these, if you will. Right? And so I’ve seen all of these examples early on, not for a long time in my life, Mhmm. But what would occur would be when I would grow up and I would work, there was something in me that felt like I needed to do something differently. I always wanted to add more.Terri Matthews [00:18:01]:
Beauty From Brokenness
- I came from brokenness, but in the brokenness, I was always responsible as the oldest for fixing everything.Kim Moeller [00:18:07]:Right?Terri Matthews [00:18:08]:Right. Whatever it was, it was, you know, fix something for my siblings, fix something for my parents, fix something for my home. You know, we needed to be fixed. I know that’s broken English, but you understand what I’m saying. So I needed to be fixed. And so I didn’t realize that God would use those very things for me to have both perseverance, to see things that aren’t said, to be very detail-oriented in things, to be able to negotiate and barter and bargain. Right? And so all of these things in a sense that I learned, I didn’t learn from college or a boardroom. I learned very early on when I had to go stand in food bank lines, and I had to say to them, look, I know you only give 1 peanut butter, but that’s not going to be enough for our family.
- Terri Matthews [00:18:50]:Right? I had to learn those things when I had to sleep in a shelter or make do with what we had. Right? I look back at those particular things and realize that a lot of that skill set came into the boardroom. It came in to starting even before I was in a boardroom, to becoming an entrepreneur, to sitting down and talking with people that even when I opened my first smoothie bar, I remember going to the president of the bank. And he said, ma’am, you’ve never even worked in fast food. Don’t you realize that restaurants have a 70% rate failure rate? And I remember doing all this crazy chaotic stuff to prove to him, and he said, I don’t know if this restaurant’s going to make it, but your perseverance is what’s going to let me say yes to your loan.And it took that moment of hope for somebody to believe in me.
Perseverance
- Kim Moeller [00:19:37]:That’s right.
- Terri Matthews [00:19:37]:Mhmm. And I went on, you know, from there. So I don’t know when exactly I started. I think I’ve always, in my own way, been an entrepreneur. I was selling freezy, you know, little cups of KoolAid that were frozen or selling things, you know, because we needed to eat. And so I wasn’t old enough to get a job, so I had to come up with something smart. Like, here you’ve got this kid that needs to stand on the step stool to even have a yard sale and put a sign up. You know what I mean? Like, I think to your point, it was always there.
- Kim Moeller [00:20:07]:Yes. And I love that he took a chance on you. You know, when we look back in our stories, we all have those people, whether it was a teacher, whether it was a pastor, a coach, someone who saw something in us that they could see that we couldn’t see, but they believed in us, gave us hope, and helped us to, you know, go to that next place. What if he wouldn’t have believed in you? Your story might have gone, you know, a different direction. Obviously, in God’s knowledge, He knew where you were going to go, but He used him to be generous. And if it failed, He was taking a chance, but He believed in your innate characteristics, your character, and your perseverance. And then, eventually, fast forward, you end up selling one of your companies for multimillions of dollars, which is a fun story to think of, like, you’re saying, you know, your humble beginnings.
- Kim Moeller [00:20:59]:And I know all of us have humble beginnings in one form or another. But tell us how you’ve sold your business and your bank account looks different than it did when you grew up. How did God mold your heart, shape your heart toward philanthropy? Because as you alluded to, to whom much is given, much is required.
- Terri Matthews [00:21:26]:Amen.
Our Generosity
- Kim Moeller [00:21:26]:And you stewarded that all throughout your travels. But when you look at your resources in conjunction with your time and being a philanthropist, how talk to the listener, talk to me about how you look at that because you’re a generous girl and with all of those things, you serve with Women Doing Well and then you’re helping these younger gals and mentoring them. So I love philanthropy. Obviously, it’s my career that I’m in, and I think it’s how God uses our generosity to fuel his economy. So I’d love to hear more about that side of your life.
- Terri Matthews [00:22:08]:Well, it’s interesting. That’s another one of those words that I later learned, but didn’t really realize that I was already generous. I grew up learning to be generous because someone had given to me. Right? And so there’s a level of passion that you have, towards certain situations, homelessness, sex trafficking, drug addiction. Right? Or just a woman who wants to learn. How can I grow a company? How can I scale a company? What does it look like to go up the career ladder? Right? And we don’t realize that we can be generous with our time,which is the most expensive thing that we all own, right, along with the money that we have.And I think to your point, as we say the Scripture says, to whom much is given, much is required. It’s required of not just our money.
- Terri Matthews [00:22:55]:The money is the easy part to write a check, quite honestly. It’s really the time in helping someone develop the path and increase their faith that God can do it also for them. Money doesn’t solve every problem. It’s a vehicle to solve a problem, but it doesn’t solve every problem. And so I feel like in this season, that’s one of the businesses that I’ve sold, but this was my largest sale yet. And I think what God did was give me freedom so that I can pour in the most expensive thing was time. You know? I help solve world problems. I’m actually at an office now doing that for another believer.
- Terri Matthews [00:23:36]:And so I’m able to step into organizations and see things sometimes they can’t see, which again was birthed out of my adversity and my brokenness, which was the very thing that helped me.And I can come alongside of people, pray with them, but also see things within their business that they’re not able to see. You know, things have gotten foggy and it’s changed, and so giving up myself in that particular way to serve somebody for their next level. Because when you are in it, sometimes you can grow weary doing good things. Right? You get tired, and you feel like, hey, this is tough. And as a philanthropist, I think that people also when we think about philanthropy, we might think about all of the common issues in a sense that are out there. Yoknow? Sure. I give to the school or the autistic families or the homelessness or food insecurity.
- Terri Matthews [00:24:26]:Right? Those are all the common things. But I also feel that I’m built, specifically also to give back to organizations, which is why I serve places like Women Doing Well, right, where they might need some certain skill sets around them to continue to grow the organization so they can fulfill the call that God has on this organization. And so, you know, being able to give not only just money, but also time and a level of what I would call as gifting. Right? I’m not so good. It’s the Holy Spirit that’s in me, but it has given me the ability. When I sit at a whiteboard, for example, there’s, like, a whiteboard that’s behind me. Uh-huh.Terri Matthews [00:25:04]:I get on these whiteboards, and I’ll get downloads on something. Right? Like, oh, this is how this needs to change, but it also is my radar to help me understand I’m not supposed to be there anymore. Because what happens is it’s not a natural flow by the Holy Spirit. There’s an anointing that I have to do the specific thing that He’s called me to do.
- And often times, many times, I’ve given up myself and my time where somebody may, you know if I were to be hired, they technically couldn’t afford me right now just because of the age of their business or their revenue isn’t there. But if I can come in and bring certain things into a company to help them fulfill what it is that God’s called that company to do, it’s my marketplace ministry. Right. Right? And get them prepared where they can generate revenue so that they can have the right people, you know, that are in there, and they can be sustainable.
- Terri Matthews [00:25:55]:Because on this side of heaven, we use money to give, and they can’t give what they don’t have. Right? And so there’s a way and a sense of injecting certain things into them, and sometimes it can be cash and capital. As an investor, I do that. But other things, it’s organizational infrastructure and design. How do you actually build a business that’s a sustainable model that you’re going to merge one day or sell one day or even work in and generationally create legacy within your family one day? And how can you generate revenue so that you can continue to give back? You’re producing jobs is one thing, but I always have a lot of these businesses that I support. What can you be doing to get back to the Kingdom? And we have pulled God out of so many things. Right? Yes.
- When people would come into my offices, they would be like, wow, you have the 10 Commandments, or there’s God written on your wall, or there’s a Bible on your desk.
The Lord Owns it All
- Terri Matthews [00:26:49]: This company is owned by the Lord. Our core values and principles are built on are in Scripture. And we have removed God from something, but we’re also asking God to bless something. So I come into organizations with a different perspective. And, you know, sometimes they say, oh, this is going to be hard because you have a board, and, you know, some people may not believe and they don’t pray. We don’t force them. But what we don’t do is, decide not to choose God and bring Him into it. Right? So for me, philanthropy is not just the common things that I might be known for.
- Terri Matthews [00:27:24]:Right? But it is the other uncommon areas where you can find the loss. There’s a woman who was Muslim one time in our company who prayed, and I remember she would not join us in prayer. But before she left that organization, she would be at every single prayer holding our hand. And, you know, she confessed Christ. I don’t know if her heart ever went where she was really sold out for Jesus. But I will tell you is that that was Inspiring Hope, right in a marketplace where they say, Jesus, we can’t talk about religion. Right? And so I say that because of the everyday woman that’s out there that says, well, maybe you don’t have a lot of money to give right now, maybe you have more time than money to give, and that’s fine.
- Terri Matthews [00:28:06]:Maybe life has changed. Maybe there’s a skill set that, you know, you’ve retired and gone on, or you’ve been like me and sold your business. What can you do? You know, I’m not ready to hang up my cleats. I’m still asking coach Jesus to put me in the game.
- Kim Moeller [00:28:18]:100%. Right. Well, you’re still here on Earth.
- Terri Matthews [00:28:21]:Yeah. So what do I do with that? Right? This is not I’m not in the season of, although I love a good beach, but throwing my feet up, you know, up in the sand and just retired. There’s so much more that I feel like the Lord has for me. So I’m walking through this and ultimately every goal is, Lord, I want to point people back to you and how can I use the things that I’m doing today in my life, the resources that I have to further the Kingdom business, you know?
- Kim Moeller [00:28:48]:Right. So, so beautiful,Terri. And I think that’s the excitement as we each grow older, each decade. I think the world’s way of looking at it is you’ve passed your prime or you’re not as you were when you were 25 and just lies after lies because we’ve now lived that many more decades with all the experiences that we’ve had, with the wisdom, with the discernment, and we have so much more to give.
- Like, I just want to encourage someone. Sometimes when somebody has a birthday, they’re sad. I’m getting, quote, older, but it’s two things.Kim Moeller [00:29:32]:One is you’re one day closer to meeting the Lord face to face, which is going to be beyond amazing and unbelievable. But you’re also another day wiser and further along to help another person. And, honestly, I feel like each decade gets more and more exciting because it’s sort of like all the seeds you planted earlier. Maybe it’s children growing up seeing who they’ve become or it’s your career that you’ve invested in where God’s called you or maybe it’s volunteering. But it just feels like everything just builds on each other in a beautiful way. You know, you mentioned the word legacy and, you know, working with the National Christian Foundation. I love what I get to do because people come to us to figure out, hey, I’m really passionate about something.
- Kim Moeller [00:30:17]:God’s laid on my heart to give this very large gift, or maybe it’s not a very large gift to my local church or this organization, and we are basically the conduit, the how that helps deliver the resources – whether it’s cash or it’s appreciated securities or it’s non cash assets. We are the Switzerland neutral that helps that gift get to the organization like Women Doing Well. And it’s just fun to watch people with what God has given them. Maybe it’s some windfall. Maybe it’s not. Maybe it’s just the widow’s mite that is beautiful. And it is a privilege that we have our health, that we get to be living for the Lord and let Him use us because I always like to say, if we say no, like, we’re not in the game, take me out, He’s still going to keep that game going and the ball going down the field. But someone else gets that tremendous privilege of getting to go to Japan in your shoes because He wanted someone to go to Japan, that story you shared.
- Kim Moeller [00:31:17]:If you didn’t say yes, I guarantee you, He would have found someone else who would have brought that message that He wanted to bring to Japan, and you would have missed out on the blessing. So that’s the part. It’s even though the surrender is so hard and and sometimes giving financially feels so hard when we’re giving by faith, wondering how we’re going to make it work or we’re giving our time, like you said because generosity is time, talents, and treasures. How can we do this? But God multiplies. He multiplies all of those things. And honestly, a lot of times it doesn’t make sense. It is not two plus two equals four. You’re looking at the numbers going, I really don’t know how this all happened.
- Kim Moeller [00:31:55]:But God is how it happened.Terri
- Matthews [00:31:57]:Amen. And, you know, it’s interesting. I’m grateful for what I’ve gone through because it makes me think about how I spend or what I do differently. I’m also really from an authentic space because I’ve had some of the experiences that I’ve had. The areas that I give to or operate as a philanthropist in is interesting to me that, you it comes from such a deep seated space of wanting to make change and truly make a difference.
- Kim Moeller [00:32:28]:Yes.
- Terri Matthews [00:32:28]:Right? It doesn’t also mean, though, that you don’t ever ask yourself those questions. Right? Like, woah, that’s a whole big number. Lord, you sure you want me to do this?
- Kim Moeller [00:32:36]:Exactly. Exactly. Exactly.
- Terri Matthews [00:32:38]:Control over the Earth. But I think the Lord is just trying to get a hold of our heart. Mhmm. Right? He wants us to love the giver greater than the gift that we receive and even the ones that we give out. And I think, often times, it can be hard sometimes when God is pressing upon your heart to do something specific. I remember when the Lord started me out with $50 because $50 at that time in my life was a whole lot, and it carried me from one paycheck to the next paycheck. And I remember sitting in the pew and the Lord said, give this family this $50 It was a husband and wife, and she was pregnant at the time. And I’m thinking to myself, Lord, I need this $50.
- Kim Moeller [00:33:17]:That’s all I have.
- Terri Matthews [00:33:18]:It’s all I have. And I was delayed in giving it. And I walked away, and there was this something, obviously, the Holy Spirit. I’m saying something, but the Holy Spirit came over me, and I was like, wow, I was so disobedient in that. And I felt very sorrowful to the Lord. And I remember, like, try me again, try me again. So I’d go back every Sunday, the same church service and time and time again, that couple would not be there.
- Terri Matthews [00:33:42]:I didn’t get to tell God when and how, but the long story short is, He ends up placing me in a position where I am tried in that spot again, and my operation to obedience became faster. Right? I realized, you know, my whole thing was, Lord, if I have to go without because I’m serving you – I’m going to do it. And that became my attitude across everything. Now, the bigger the zeroes got, the harder it got. Mhmm. But I also realized that I had made money an idol. I realized that I had a scarcity mindset. Mhmm.
Scarcity Mindset
- Terri Matthews [00:34:14]:Right? God had brought me. I didn’t come for money. And I had created generational wealth for my family.
- Kim Moeller [00:34:20]:And then you were like, oh, I don’t want a lot.
- Terri Matthews [00:34:23]:Exactly. So I really realized I was like, oh, there’s that Scripture. There’s my treasure. Right?That’s where my heart is. Right? And so you think because you’re giving and you’re doing, you can be deceived. You can think I’m doing all of these great things, and I’m giving, and I’m doing these things, but what happens when God asks you to do something that’s uncomfortable or abnormal or causes you to sacrifice.
- Kim Moeller [00:34:46]:Everybody would say you’re crazy, Terri.
- Terri Matthews [00:34:48]:Yeah. Absolutely. Well, you know, I’ve been called that a time or two.
- Kim Moeller [00:34:52]:So have I.
- Terri Matthews [00:34:55]:But you know what? I would rather stand before Jesus and hear him say, well done, my good and faithful servant. And if I’m being honest, that’s not always easy. Right? You know, we’re talking about this, and we’re talking about giving and purpose, and, you know, a lot of us want to find what our purpose is. Our true purpose is to execute whatever gifts, skills, and talents that God has given us to point people back to Jesus, but to align the desires of our heart and our will, right, with what God wants and not what we want. Andto not allow the enemy to speak into many of us, because what if you didn’t start this podcast? How many women would not hear these everyday stories of everyday women who look like them? We don’t share a lot, right? We have been, especially in this generation of social media where things need to look perfectly packaged and there’s a lot of competing and comparing, and there’s not a lot of complimenting, and nobody’s sharing the journey. I didn’t just arrive here. Right. And to be honest, I’m still not weird.Terri Matthews [00:35:59]:No.
- Kim Moeller [00:36:00]:No. Or you’d be finished if you had arrived. You know? You’d be good.Terri Matthews [00:36:03]:Absolutely. We are always consistently a work in progress.
- Kim Moeller [00:36:06]: That’s right.
- Terri Matthews [00:36:07]:And I think the idea is to continue to come closer to God, be willing to take heed and humble ourselves, be servants of the Lord. And what does that look like, right, to be a servant, truly, of the Lord, and to give of ourselves wholeheartedly? God gave His best, which is His son, Jesus Christ. We can never out give God. And so I think that instead of us looking over all of the pain and the problems and the things, we need to go back and look at ourselves and say, God, You allowed this. You caused or you allowed. He spoke it into existence. You knew all of these things would happen. There’s nothing new, right, for you.
- Terri Matthews [00:36:43]:There’s no surprises to you. You’ve equipped me and called me. I have to walk through this journey to build trust and faith and, perseverance in your Word and all of these things, but you have something greater for me. And I want to know what that is. And this might be a painful moment and I have to have a wisdom circle and people to stretch out and reach out and lift me up before the Lord. But ultimately, if we know that God wastes nothing, right, and we really believe that, that He will waste nothing, and what the enemy meant for you, well, God will use for good. Then, we have to think about that in every single scenario and situation that we come across.Kim Moeller [00:37:17]:That’s right. No. It’s so good, Terri. And I just thank you for your transparency. And I love that you called that out of this podcast because you’re absolutely right. One of the purposes of this podcast is to allow the listener to take the next step. And that’s going to look different for every listener and where she’s at. But I’ve heard enough podcasts where it’s almost intimidating. You listen to the story and you just think, oh, that person just arrived, you know, years ago and great.
- Kim Moeller [00:37:48]:That’s lovely. But what do I do with that? And that’s not how I want this podcast because I believe just as you said, we all have stories. We’ve all had hardships. We’ve all had hard things that we’ve had to go through. So by hearing Terri’s story, the goal of this podcast is, wow, Terri could get through that. Wow. She has an autistic child. Wow.
- Kim Moeller [00:38:14]:God brought her to 43 countries. Wow. She sold a company. Okay. I am in this situation here. I can take my next step and live for the glory of God because ultimately that’s why we want to encourage everybody to take that next step. Because, you know, my purpose statement is either encouraging significance or liberating greatness. So it’s just pulling out of that woman who God’s made her to be and helping her to see herself that way, regardless of the things that have held her back in life, to claim the territory that she’s been given because no one else has been given that territory.
- Kim Moeller [00:38:52]:So, well, it’s just been so great having you on the podcast and I just thank you for encouraging everyone. And, you know, I almost want to fast forward 10 years. Let’s hear what God has done through your story. I’ll share what He’s done through my story. Well, the listeners would share what God’s done through their stories because it’s so exciting. I mean, we serve an incredible God. So I’d love to just close with the 3 questions we usually ask our listener, your favorite Bible verse, current book that you’re reading, and then any recent bargain.
Book, Bible, and Bargain
- Terri Matthews [00:39:23]:Oh, I would say, so I’ll start with a book. It’s called The Gift of Influence. It’s by Tom Spalding. He actually wrote Heartfelt Leader as the initial book that he wrote, because I remember being an entrepreneur and wanting to believe with my heart. So I’ve learned to just accept that. I’d say Mark 10:45.
- Terri Matthews [00:39:46]:This is becoming a new verse for me. It says, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. This verse emphasizes that Jesus himself came to serve others, setting the ultimate example for believers. You know, it’s easy to say we’re going to serve, but service looks like and is different for all of us. And so I want to lead a servant’s life. Right? And I want to lay down my own agenda, my own accomplishments, my own goals, my own everything. How can I serve Jesus in a way that I authentically show up in the spaces and places that He’s called me in so that I can Inspire Hope? So, you know, that’s that. And my bargain. Well, you know, sometimes late at night, I’m on some of these websites and I’ll be shopping for different things.
- Terri Matthews [00:40:37]:But I would say the biggest bargain I’ve had is with groceries. Because I don’t know about any of you, but it has been expensive to go to the grocery store. And I think now, at this particular moment and time in my life, I don’t know. I think I see everything. You know, I think about it’s crazy. I’m in the grocery store, and I think about other families who have to pay this. And I would I’d go through the checkout line, and I’m always, Lord, Lord, thank you. But the Farmers Market has been a great place where I could support small owned businesses and also see a good savings for myself.Terri Matthews [00:41:14]:I can get more than ten peaches and it not be $30.
- Kim Moeller [00:41:21]:Oh, no, that’s, that’s great. And it’s always great to support local. Well, as we said at the beginning, this is the first of a three part series. So in two weeks, you’ll hear our guest, Sandy Swider, who’s also very connected with Women Doing Well. Yay. Yay, Sandy. And we’ll explore passions.
Today has been all about purpose, and we’ve looked at, you know, Terry’s family, the two pillarsof family and faith that have just woven been woven throughout your story.Kim Moeller [00:41:47]:And I look forward to exploring passions in two weeks. So thanks again for your generosity. I know your time’s valuable and I really, really appreciate it too.Terri Matthews [00:41:56]:Same. God bless. Thank you for having me, Kim. Have a blessed day.
Kim Moeller [00:42:00]:You too. Absolutely. Bye. Thanks so much for joining us today on the generous grill podcast.We’re so glad that you’re here. And if you know of someone that you think needs to be a guest on this podcast, please reach out to us. New episodes are released every other week, and youcan follow us on YouTube and on all platforms. Thanks for being here, and we’ll see you nexttime.
