Welcome back to the Generous Girl podcast. I am so lucky and thrilled today to have with me in the studio, Ines Franklin. And Ines like the Apostle Paul, had her own life transformation in Christ at the age of forty. And what has happened since is that she now helps Christians mature in their faith and that’s become her life’s work. She completed a Master’s of Divinity at Fuller Seminary. She serves on non-profit boards such as Priority Living, the forum of Christian business leaders. And Ines’ husband James Franklin, owns and manages a commercial real estate business. Watercrest Holdings LLC. They have a blended family of 5 children and 9 grandchildren affectionately called the Franklin smoothie. and they live in Irvine, California. So welcome, Ines.
Ines Franklin [00:01:32]:
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. It’s such a joy.
Kim Moeller [00:01:35]:
We are just so happy that you’re here. And I know that you have been a teaching leader for a while now and have amazing content, amazing ability to connect with women, and most importantly with your story. And you feel called to be obedient to the story that God has allowed you to live and and now he uses that story. And I think it’s a story of beauty and brokenness as we all have in all of our lives, to one degree or another. So when I was really thinking about this podcast, I thought, you know, you and I could sit there and do the typical. Tell me about your story. Where are you from? Where’d you grow up? But there’s a beautiful video that someone put together for you that’s 9 minutes long. And if someone is listening to this podcast, they can go ahead and listen to the content that I’m going to play, or they can actually go to the studio on YouTube and see the lovely photography that went along with story. So, at this point, we’re going to go ahead and let that video tell your story, and then we will join the video as soon as it’s finished afterwards, we will continue with the podcast.
Ines Franklin [00:02:49]:
Sounds good.
Kim Moeller [00:03:01]:
My story brings up pain and others. pain for the woman whose husband left her. There’s pain for a woman who can’t have children. and she sees that I’ve aborted too. There’s pain for children whose parents have divorced. So what happens is that when I tell my story, I have to tell it in such a way that I nurture them, and care for those people, but at the same time, agree with them. There is something truly remarkable about the fact that Jesus would love someone like me. but he does. Shame is failing in your own expectations. feeling deeply broken because of it. Feeling damaged. because of the choices. shame holds everything that’s good about us back, and it sends the wrong message that there’s no way out of our mistakes.
Ines Franklin [00:04:35]:
I had a dream, to do beautiful things, to do great things. I would have been valuable in some sense.
I would say the word I would put to my life was survival.
Ines Franklin [00:04:56]:
If a guy liked me and he was kind to me, that was good enough. I needed help to live.
I ended up getting married very young. And within 4 years, going through a divorce, I thought, okay. I made a mistake start over, met someone else. I thought this is it. This will be the answer, and I got divorced again. continuing on the journey of survival to entering into a relationship with a married man. I think it was a time in my life where I started to feel like I was doing real damage to others. My survival was hurting other people. to abortions, one affair, 2 divorces.
At the rock bottom of my light showing me that I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t be that good person. I wanted to be, but I just kept making a mistake after in in this it’s amazing to me that one can make so many mistakes with such good intentions.
I think from that place of despair, that was the beginning, a place of beginning to experience grace.
The beginning of God rebuilding my life.
The 1st seven years of my journey of faith, I carried a U- Haul truck of shame.
I think God looks at shame and goes, no. You’ve made mistakes. Yes. But that’s not who you are.
And so I went on this journey, not only forgiving people that hurt me, but also seeking forgiveness from those, or at least apologizing to those that had hurt. I got to a place where I had to own the forgiveness I was given. I got rid of this massive load, the U Haul truck load of shame from the carnage of the life that I had created.
We have to almost rip it out and throw it away. And that’s when I really embrace the grace of Jesus. Today, my biggest act of obedience really is telling my story. It’s the most important thing I get to do.
I have to tell my story so that I can constantly remind myself that I’m no longer a victim of shame, that I’m free. So if I were to speak to that little girl again, I’d say, Yes,Ines, God wants you to endure because He has a great plan and a purpose for your life.
And God wants you to know He is going to be with you every step of the way. Even when you make mistakes, in his radical grace, he will somehow work it out to do good things, things you could never imagine. Listen to this God. He is good, loving, and merciful.
My name is Ines Soccoro Franklin, and I seek to love people the way that God loved me. That’s the beauty of it. Jesus takes broken people. and he makes beautiful things.
Kim Moeller [00:11:48]:
Well, that is such a powerful video and I, again, I think you have a lot of courage to be telling your story. Do you want to add anything to what’s been involved with getting your heart to that place of having the willingness and, you know, just the tenacity to go forward and tell your story?
Ines Franklin [00:12:14]:
In a way, it has been my source of freedom because every time I share my story, I am reminded of god’s costly grace. The costly grace that Jesus really gave us on the cross. And so every time I tell my story, I have to go back to do I really believe in what Jesus did for me on the cross? It was it truly significant and complete enough for me to live in the freedom of sharing some very deep and personal and painful and ugly parts of my own story and still knowing that I am loved that I am cherish, that I am, god can use me, that god is in my life and, and having that, those two things together is what really lets me live in freedom because and, you know, I have to tell you, when I first started telling my story, I couldn’t do it without massive amount of tears and a great deal of shame. It took many years for me to really engage in that freedom. And, it was someone saying to me, you don’t really believe in grace, do you? Because you’re still living in shame, and grace is yours to be free from shame. And I then I was able to transition from shame to sadness. So I do still have sadness for the choices that I’ve made in the past. I realized that there are consequences that I was hurt. People that I love were were hurt.
Others were hurt. and that there are still consequences to this day to the choices I made. And that is okay to mourn that and grieve that and lament that And so I still have those feelings, but I don’t have shame because I have put that on the cross and given it to Jesus. And every time I get to tell my story now, I get to shine a light on the grace that God is giving us. And that’s a privilege and I’m grateful that, people give me an opportunity to share the story. And so anytime I ask, I I want to say yes. I say yes quickly because I know that God’s going to be the one receiving the glory.
Kim Moeller [00:14:19]:
That’s beautiful. Well, obviously the older we all get, the more we all have pieces, parts of our lives where we go wow. That wasn’t the path I thought was going to happen or kind of wish that wouldn’t have occurred kind of thing. So, let’s talk about that, because a lot does involve obviously the renewing of our mind and what we believe about who God is, as you said, you know, what his grace is all about. So, talk a little bit about the big decision to go back to seminary because that must have been pretty pivotal for you to really spend those hard hours, you know, getting this seminary education.
Ines Franklin [00:14:58]:
Yeah. So two years after I gave my life to Jesus, I blew up my life. I, started going to church and I met Jesus. I started to read the Bible for the first time. And two years into that journey, I really wasn’t this place of like, okay. I want to live my life differently. God, I want to do your will, not my will. I was praying the words of Isaiah. Here I am. send me. I I’m your vessel. And two years into it, He gave me this vision. It’s actually was in the middle of me writing a prayer that these thoughts sort of came into my mind of writing books. And I thought, oh, that’s weird. I’ve never seen myself as a writer. And so I actually ignore those thoughts for a while, but they didn’t go away. And over a process of a whole year of praying and kind of saying, okay, God. Is that you speaking? Am I trying to make myself into something? So I really question my motives or whether or not I really heard god’s voice. Was it just my own making And it was a whole year of that, a whole year of that turmoil with the lord. And then 2006, in one of my prayers, I just felt the Lord saying like, okay. It’s not about deciding whether you heard. It’s about obedience. Mhmm. It’s about obedience. So I started I said, okay. Alright. Okay. I’m going to do this, but I had to go learn the Bible. I had, you know, skipped a few of the minor prophets. So I thought no one gets better without reading the Bible and really and studying it. So, I joined women’s bible studies, which were wonderful, but they only study 1 book a year. And a lot of the women weren’t doing their homework, and I came already to have questions and discuss it and you know, that wasn’t working out for me and someone recommended that I go to seminary.
And I was, at that time, forty three years old, and I thought that sounds crazy. I didn’t even finish my college education because my English at that time was pretty minimal. And so I I had to dropout after the 1st year of college. And so I thought, how am I gonna get a seminary? But God. But Jesus. So I applied. I applied. I did all the work they asked me to do, and I first got denied. but they told me if you do these things, we will reconsider your application. And so I did. I went to junior college to, English classes. I did all kinds of stuff. and wrote papers and got letters of reference. And eventually, I did get in. And then I was on probation for 60 of the 144 units that I couldn’t get below a certain grade. And so it was just an act of obedience. Like, okay, Lord, I’m here. I’m here to learn I know you’re trying to equip me for this work and so I’m doing it, but I have to tell you. There was one time I was I drove around to learn my Hebrew words. And I park my car, by the beach, and I’m looking at the beach, and I’m learning Hebrew words. And I thought I have lost My mind. What am I doing learning Hebrew words? By then, I was, like, forty five years old. My daughter’s in high school, and I’m thinking, What is this that I’m doing? But it’s like reminding myself, no. I was called. I’m being obedient. I don’t have to know. I have all the answers. I just got to stay on the path. So that’s how I ended up in seminary. And I thought I was gonna come out of seminary writing books, and what’s amazing is God in that place, not only did He make it clear that he wasn’t just asking me to quote write or teach. He was asking me to tell my story.
Ines Franklin [00:18:33]:
But also, He called me to be a pastor. And so I’m a pastor today, not because I saw that coming or desired that, but because the Lord said, okay. Well, this is where we headed. And on that journey, I became a teaching pastor and that’s what I do today in online and at the church. And I never saw that coming, you know, just obedience and knowing that God knows what the future holds.
Kim Moeller [00:18:57]:
And people can find you, I believe, at inesfranklin.com.
Ines Franklin [00:19:01]:
That’s right.
Kim Moeller [00:19:04]:
Excellent. And that’s spelled inesfranklin.com. That’s correct. So, you mentioned writing books and fast forward. I want to have time on this podcast really to talk about this book that you recently released in March called Uncharted. So again, my desire for the podcast is that any person listening, whether they’re out on a run or driving in their car, cleaning their house, whatever it is, I want them to hear the guests that I’m interviewing their story and really take something away, like a little nugget of truth that will transform and impact their life. And as we talk today about family and then We talk about generosity and finances. You’re on the various boards that you serve and your husband is on a board for California for NCF as well, which is wonderful.
So I want the listener to hear in this book uncharted. Wow. What is it that I should take away? Like, Ines has this very you can make a movie about your your life and how God has redeemed it. And, you know, we often hear beauty from ashes and how each of us has everything can be messy, beautiful, and we all have beauty from ashes that has happened in our own lives. And we take a mess and we allow god to make it beautiful. But I think the way you’ve been able to take your story and then learn to be a communicator so that women hear this story, men and women hear this story, And then they think, you know, what is that next step that I’m listening to the story that’s supposed to impact me? So I know we touched upon and the video touched upon shame. But can we start with talking about shame, generosity, gratitude? Cause I feel like that’s the core and that’s sort of like a Venn diagram of where everything intersects, especially for the purpose of what we’re talking about on this podcast.
Ines Franklin [00:21:14]:
Yes. Absolutely. So my book Uncharted is about the mysterious nature of the journey of faith. that walking with Jesus isn’t necessarily going to give us a perfect map or a perfect, like, okay, this is formula you follow. You follow Jesus. You do these things and life is going to be perfect because we all want to have control of our future or our circumstances And Jesus is calling us to a walk of faith, which means it’s hope. We’re walking in hope for a future that He really is the only one that knows. And so in my book, I I tell my story. And of course, by chapter 6 and 7, I’m talking about my mistake and the the sins that I’ve had made and the shame that I lived under.
And at every chapter, I have spiritual practices or 2, to apply what we’re learning and really use it to grow on our journey of faith. increase our faith in in our dependence in God. And when it comes to this idea of shame, my spiritual practice was gratitude. And as I show with you before, in order for me to tell my story as I do with, you know, no filter, you know, no minimizing being You know, absolutely blunt with honesty is because I have gratitude for the grace that I’ve been given is out of that place gratitude and abundance and freedom that I can then give of my ugliest parts of myself openly knowing that God is going to redeem that and use it to help somebody else. And I’ve seen that happen time and time again where people see themselves in some part of my story and they are renewed in their desire to embrace the fullness of god’s grace in their lives. But maybe they make as big a mess as I did, but they need and they want to embrace the grace of god. So I believe gratitude is one step we can take anytime we feel ourselves lock up in shame. And remember, I’m talking about the kind of shame that I call unhealthy shame, the kind of shame that says you are bad. You are unlovable. You are so broken. God could never use you. You are you are now on the sideline. God has given up on you. That’s kind of shame. Those lies of the enemy are we combat with a heart of gratitude–
Ines Franklin [00:23:39]:
Yes, I did do these things. Yes, those were wrong things to do. Yes, my actions have done damage to others. Have hurt others. There are consequences from actions. I’m going to agree with you on that.. However, I am grateful for the grace that I’ve been given. I don’t deserve it, and yet, That’s his heart. He gave me unconditional love through grace through the cross, and I’m gonna choose to be grateful for that. and not live in shame. So gratitude to me is like an important step towards being free from shame.
Kim Moeller [00:24:12]:
Absolutely. we have Ann Voskamp’s book with 1000 gifts and we just take a few groups of women in Orange County through that book. and just the simple power of waking up every day and making a list of things that you are helpful thankful for. and how it changes your perspective. And, you know, again, the United States, like, many people live in that top percentage of the world of our resources. We have access to our education, just everything. And Sometimes, we get just so myopic to forget all the things that we really do have and and need to be grateful for. And I love you sharing that because I think with the shame piece for all of us, it can limit our ability to live the full life because then we can just be locked in a, like, locked in a room of lies, basically. And, if we believe those lies, then we’re not going to be as generous with ourselves, our time, our talents, our treasures, because one life feeds another lie. So, when we can allow things to be brought into the light, as you’ve done with telling your story, then God is able to use that brokenness and just make beautiful things out of it. So, tell us more about like how you structured the book uncharted and what you were, you know, hoping for the reader to receive from reading your book.
Ines Franklin [00:25:46]:
Yes. So I divided the book in four sections, and I think of it more of a rhythm. So they’re not hear 1234, you’re done, but it’s really 1234. 1234. 1234.
Ines Franklin [00:25:58]:
It’s a rhythm. And so the first section is about knowing that god has really good desires for us that we are created by him. And therefore, he cares about his creation, and anytime we, you know, we make a really good dish. We wanna serve it to people. Right? We when whenever we create something, we want to take care of it. We want to share it with others and God’s the same. And so we don’t need to try to control things. We don’t have to create formulas. We just have to trust in His desires and seek them out. The second section is about the fact that, okay, god has good desires for us. It doesn’t mean we’re not going to deal with obstacles. We’re going to have challenges on the journey of faith. We’re going to have an enemy that’s after us. We have broken people in our lives, and we’re broken ourselves. And so we’re going to always have challenges on the journey of faith. That should not surprise us or discourage us from maintaining our journey and maintaining our commitment to the journey. And So in that chapter, I talk about the mistakes that we deal with the questions that we might have, the doubts we might have, how do we cover from shame.
And then the 3rd section is about obedience because Okay. I know god’s desires. I know I’m going to deal with obstacles. I know now how to go through those obstacles. But now god’s calling me to do something to you know, share something to be obedient, to be generous. All these things that god calls us to. And now sometimes it’s just an act of obedient. We may not understand it. We may not know where this is going. We may never see the fruit of what we are doing and yet. obedience, this was going to give us the massive blessing that we so desperately want and that god wants to give us. And then lastly, the last section is at being in that posture, looking for God’s desires, understanding how to overcome obstacles, being obedient, no matter that what’s happening, We have to pursue a deeper thirst in God. So we shift to this way of being of, like, how we stay in that posture is always pursuing a deeper thirst for God. And God wants us to do that. He’s going to satisfy our thirst but we need to continue to give our thirst to God because we have, like, a hole in our hearts. Right? We are broken, fallable people that self deceive and we’re constantly having to go back to God with that hole and say, God, fill it. You fill it. You fill it.
And then that intimacy, we go right back to the top. We get to know more of God’s desires. We know how to overcome challenges. We maintain our obedience. We thirst for more, and this is a constant cycle. And like I said, I I make it very practical by giving people actual steps to take. And going back to gratitude, I don’t want listeners to get the wrong impression that we’re saying, be grateful. I remember hearing that. And, of course, that’s true, and it’s good. But I didn’t know how. How do I become grateful?
And so what I did, early on, because I know I have a hypercritical mind and that I can be a perfectionist. I always see what’s broken. Not was good. And in my own heart, I felt like I couldn’t be grateful because I’m such a mess. I make such a mess myself. And so I prayed for a heart of gratitude. I literally put a sticker on my mirror every morning when I was getting ready, putting on my makeup. I could see that prayer. Lord give me a heart of gratitude. And I did that for an entire year. from May to May. And I tell you over that period of that year, god helped me develop a heart of gratitude. Now my practice is I have a jar, a gratitude jar, and it’s literally in the hallway between our bedrooms and the kitchen. And every time I go back and forth and, you know, we all do that. Right? We go back and forth in our house.
There’s that gratitude jar and has a sticker on to say, God is good. He’s done good things in your life. talk about it. Write it down. And so I pause. It depends on right there. The paper’s right there, and I write something. Doesn’t have to be every day. I am not legalistic. It’s just always there an invitation for me to choose to be grateful. And so that’s a practical way that I maintain a heart of gratitude anytime I feel like, hey. I’m not putting anything on that jar. I go back to step 1. God, give you a heart of gratitude.
Kim Moeller [00:29:59]:
That’s great.
Ines Franklin [00:30:01]:
I hope that helps people be put it into practice.
Kim Moeller [00:30:04]:
That’s a great call out because you’re right. We can’t none of us can just say, oh, yeah. Be grateful. And you have something super hard going on in your life right now. No. It just it doesn’t work that way, but it is a lot of tiny, tiny steps that we have the ability to take or to think in our minds, what are we choosing to believe? I remember one time Beth Moore shared how she would go grocery shopping and she’d have these little in cards on their shopping cart, and they would just have a scripture that she wanted to be really memorizing at that time. And she goes, well, you laugh. but, you know, I was bound, but now I’m free. How about you? And so she was literally working on rewiring her brain, her mind, what she dwelled on what she thought about because so many times studies have shown, like, we can think the same thoughts just over and over and over and over for and it is that conscious choice like you’re saying to write something down. So that that is really neat. I I like that example. So, okay, for this season, then of life, what’s happening with your book? Are you on a book tour, or are you teaching it in any venue, or I know people can go ahead on Amazon and purchase it. But anything else you’d like to say in that regard?
Ines Franklin [00:31:16]:
Yes. I am. You know, book tour look very different today than they used to. Podcasts are a book tour of sorts. So I I’ve been on quite a few, podcasts. putting out the message and letting people know here’s another example, of course. I’ve been on several radio shows and TV shows that have also interviewed me there. And I have been speaking. I have a few more, speaking engagements coming up this year. where I get to share the message, which is such a privilege. I’m so, so grateful for that. I did put together an 8 week study guide for the book that is available on inesfranklin.com for free. at this time, you just download it. It’s a beautiful pretty large document. It has self study, material, and group study questions. So someone can do it on their own, or they can do it with their friends. a little bit of a combination of a book club slash bible study because the study guide includes both reading the book, but also reading scripture and studying scripture. And so I’m I’m putting that out there for churches or small groups to consider. And, yes, I am continuing to teach at our church. actually, right now.
The big thing that’s happening is that I am preaching in Spanish as well as in English. So once a month, I teach at our Santa Ana campus, a the sermon in Spanish. And my mother tongue is Spanish, but When I came to the US at 16 trying to, really learn English, I stopped speaking Spanish. And, of course, I became a believer at 40. So I don’t have the biblical words, right, in Spanish. Uh-huh. So I I’m I’m kinda like learning all over again. It’s like I’m learning Spanish all over again and but I’m in front of people and I’m teaching god’s word and it’s pretty scary and humbling. And, I feel like god’s has put me right back to that place of total dependence on him as I teach his word in Spanish. And so, yeah, that’s a big thing I’m doing. I’m speaking in English and in Spanish. And I hope one day soon, I’ll be able to translate uncharted into Spanish because quite a few people are like, please, please get it translated to Spanish. But, you know, these are big processes. And so I want to be sure that there’s enough of an audience that will be able to take advantage of it. Or when the lord says, I want you to do this no matter what, I’ll do it then too. So
Kim Moeller [00:33:40]:
— I oh, I can so relate to the 2 languages. I lived in Sweden for my junior year in college. So I took 2 years of Swedish, and then all of my classes at the university in Sweden were in Swedish. And then I worked the 2nd summer over there as a waitress, And that was actually the biggest test of my Swedish. I felt. Like, I would be fired every day. It was like, I love Lucy and this little Swedish steakhouse But I’m actually going there this summer with my husband, and I have been doing duolingo and it keeps going through these different vocabulary sets where I never learned that section of the words. And so for me, my goal is to teach in Spanish in theology. That’s a much higher level. Mine is just be able to survive, like, and they speak such great English over there.
Ines Franklin [00:34:29]:
You know my heart. You know how hard it is.
Kim Moeller [00:34:31]:
It’s so hard. Okay. One other thing I wanted to talk about is I remember reading about, like, your blended family and the generosity component and how your kids and grandkids like you’ve involved them in giving toward charitable organizations and you have meetings. So tell the listener a little bit about that because I wanted to make sure we touched upon the generosity financial component in the podcast too.
Ines Franklin [00:35:00]:
So one of the beautiful things that God has done is really redeemed our family. So, you know, we’re blended. Our gym has 2 daughters from his first marriage. I have a son and 2 daughters. And then our grandchildren are also blended. So our 2 oldest daughters, Jim’s 2 daughters married men that already had children. And then our oldest had a baby, so they have they have a mixed family themselves. And then our other daughter who married into marriage with a daughter adopted that daughter. So we have adopted and haves and steps all kinds of blended. That’s why we call ourselves this smoothie family. And what’s beautiful is how god has redeemed our family, And I do believe it’s through this posture of generosity. in fact, in chapter 9 of my book where I talk about having a heavenly mindset, the spiritual practice is generosity.
I really believe generosity, the kind of generosity that is heavily is coming again out of that place of gratitude and abundance where we give not to make ourselves a name, not to make ourselves look good, but we give because we are created by a god who’s a giver who gave it all for us. And so we were so grateful for the grace we receive that as soon as we started this blended family, generosity was essentially an important part of that. out of that place of gratitude and a seeking of having a heavenly mindset and not an earthly mindset. And what’s really fun is to watch our kids and our grandkids participate in that journey generosity. And so We have funds that we have set aside that we allow our kids to direct through our NCF fund. And they in turn, participate include their children in making those choices. And so we we know that our responsibility is to teach our children generosity, and we empower them to teach their children generosity. But we want to make it possible to do that. And so once a year, we get together, in fact, we’re doing it here at the end of July. We have our family vacation, and we have a a day where we meet and talk about generosity. We’ll watch videos on generosity. Wow. Me. We talk about our journey of generosity, and we talk about the things that we’ve got involved in. And it’s so fun to watch the passions that each of our kids have. They’re all different. Uh-huh. And what they’re learning about the journey of generosity through those meetings and, you know, that we get all charged
Kim Moeller [00:37:32]:
— I love encouraging because, like, the videos if the listener wants to go to www.generousgiving.com, they can see a lot of videos and some people have heard about the journey of generosity where you’ll see these videos. But that’s so neat to show those during, you know, like, an afternoon.
Ines Franklin [00:37:49]:
They’re very challenging. You know, they really stretch us tobe more courageous and trust god with being more we generous and we keep stretching. Like, God does not drop us. You know, it’s the things we learn and the joy that we experience, as we have said, yes to God, more and more and more it blows my mind. You know? Like, He loves it when we’re generous.
Kim Moeller [00:38:18]:
Yes. He does. And that’s my job at NCF. I get to work with all these amazing, generous people, which is just like, twist my arm. Yes. I would love to do that.
Ines Franklin [00:38:28]:
I love it.
Kim Moeller [00:38:29]:
I love it.
Kim Moeller [00:38:30]:
Okay. So at the end of every podcast, I like to ask 3 questions, your favorite Bible verse, the current book you’re reading, and any recent bargain, but before we finish out any other, like, high level thoughts from your book or your current season of teaching that you wanna share with the the listener?
Ines Franklin [00:38:49]:
Yes. I think especially since the world is so confusing right now. my whole heart for the book is for us to double down on our faith, to commit to it, to go deeper, to say no matter what happens in world, we’re going to we’re gonna say yes to god and trust the of god god’s goodness. And so, yeah, my my desire for people as they read the book is they If you feel compelled and encouraged and challenges to say, let me take a deeper step into faith and say, god, I’m gonna trust you with more today than I did yesterday. And so that’s my heart for people and that is pretty much what I’m talking about everywhere is, like, Let’s commit. Let’s double down. Let’s not be lukewarm.
Kim Moeller [00:39:34]:
Right. Not be lukewarm as it says in Revelation 32 because he’ll spit this out of his mouth. So we don’t want that. But you you, yeah, you talked about in the end of every chapter, you have these spiritual practices. And on our last podcast. I actually interviewed someone who is a spiritual director. And I was talking to the audience and saying that, you know, for years, I didn’t even know that was a profession. I didn’t know it was a person that you could pay people to help you, you know, discern god’s voice here, god’s voice or maybe see what’s happening in your own story from a spiritual perspective. So I think the combo of having a spiritual director, working with 1, and on our own learning spiritual practices It just give an example from your book that might be helpful for the listener of what one of those decides like writing down the gratitude.
Ines Franklin [00:40:27]:
Yes. So that’s important thing to know is that these spiritual practices are not things that people are not familiar with. Prayer. Prayer is a spiritual practice. worship, generosity as we talked about. Gratitude is those are all ways in which we open up ourselves to experience more of god and allow god to come into our lives and do what he does best, which is transform us into the image of Christ. And so we’re we’re kinda creating a space for god. Anytime we engage in one of these practices, my book begins with a practice of presence. remembering the god is always, always presence. He doesn’t leave us or forsake us. And we don’t have to go searching for him. and he doesn’t even have to go search you for us. He’s right here. He’s always always right by us, but weird sometimes I’m not aware of the fact that he’s with us.
Kim Moeller [00:41:17]:
And
Ines Franklin [00:41:17]:
so it’s literally like sitting down and thinking, okay, god’s on that chair over there. You know, he’s just imagining that he’s there listening to our conversation right now. And, like, that itself, just even having that moment of, like, that sitting right here changes our posture. Right. And so that’s just, for example, the spiritual practice. So in my book, I do explain each of the practices and give practical Here’s what you do and how to do it. And here’s some verses to, kinda get you thinking in those ways. So there’s plenty of verses in the Bible that remind us that god is always present. So I have a lot 4 verses that we can read and go, oh, that’s right. There’s no place I can go where god’s not gonna be with me, for example. Yeah.
Kim Moeller [00:41:59]:
Oh, that’s beautiful. And, you know, I think as you journey through each decade in life, sometimes it can be easier to kind of look back at the prior years of, oh, this season was so fun or that season was so great and, you know, wish that was happening now. And then I think we forget just the beauty of this whole season prior to us, you know, finishing our time on earth And even though we’re older, like, there’s so many radical, amazing things that god wants to do through us, but there is a responsibility on our part to do what you’re talking about, like, to practice this spread, to pray, and generosity. And so those are, like, things like where I could sit here all day and wish I could get in shape. But if I’m not actually going to the gym or I’m not doing the right things, you know, with how I’m eating, etcetera, sleeping, drinking water. Like, all those things, it’s just not gonna happen And so I think a real corollary as you’re talking that way, it makes me think of just he’s given us these different through the centuries, you know, practices that really help us all grow closer to him. And then it’s up to us in our busy lives in Southern California. Are we gonna just carve out the necessary time to show god that this is so important to me? And I want to learn and grow in these areas so that as, you know, I don’t know. I don’t know if I have however many decades left, but I want those decades ahead of me to be even more exciting than the decades that are. Amen.
Ines Franklin [00:43:37]:
Yes. Me too. Me too. And, again, all of those practices are ways to build relationship with god, not to earn his love. Right. We already have that. We it’s not it’s not a way of earning anything, the favor of god. It’s just building relationship. And we have relationships where we invest in. Right? We call our friends. We send them cards. We go out to lunch. This is what these practices do. They’re ways of us building relationship with God. Mhmm.
Kim Moeller [00:44:02]:
Oh, so well set. Okay. What is your favorite Bible verse?
Ines Franklin [00:44:06]:
Well, right now, I am part of Philipp 121, to me, to live is Christ and to die his game. And that’s been, like, I have a lot of wonderful passages I love. I love Psalm 63 is my number one Psalm. But right now I’m parked on Philipp 121 because I want that kind of mindset that my life matters, and there’s there’s purpose to every single day and everything I do because everything points to Jesus. Mhmm. But if he takes me, there’s gay. And so just living with that freedom is really what I’m parked right now.
Kim Moeller [00:44:41]:
Oh, I thank you. Thank you for sharing. How about a current book that you’re reading?
Ines Franklin [00:44:45]:
So I’m reading a book called seek first, is written by Jeremy Treat, and it’s about having a kingdom mindset. So the the book is called seek first how the kingdom of god changes everything. And so loving it. He’s a pastor and wonderful thinker. And the book is very practical and helping us kind of have this mindset of if we understand that we live, we are in the kingdom of god, and we are made on a purpose for purpose in god’s kingdom. That changes the way we see everything and the way
Kim Moeller [00:45:15]:
we work. Yeah.
Kim Moeller [00:45:16]:
Well, that is the joy of doing this podcast. I keep getting these awesome book referrals, but now I gotta carve out time in my life to read. I hate
Ines Franklin [00:45:23]:
them all.
Kim Moeller [00:45:24]:
This this one sounds really, really good. And what about a bargain?
Ines Franklin [00:45:29]:
I am not a shopper at all. So I I saw that I saw that on your list, and I thought I wish I could give you a tip but I don’t like to shop. My husband does our food shopping. I wear the same clothes over and over and over again until My family is like, okay. We’re buying you your shirt for Christmas or something. I don’t shop. So I okay. Wait. That is the lie. I shop for books. I love socks. And they’re not a bargain. So, yes.
Kim Moeller [00:46:00]:
That’s okay. Sorry about that. That’s right. I am thinking of one bargain. I could share with people that someone told me about called goodwill finds.com. And, you know, instead of, like, looking, driving all over to different goodwills, and we’re looking for something. You can actually just go on that website and put in your favorite brand. And then, you know, believe it or not, the goodwill online will have it and ship it to
Ines Franklin [00:46:24]:
you. Wow.
Kim Moeller [00:46:26]:
I know. And so I started doing that. Like, all the things, like, look, who say you know, cookware kind of thing, and it brand new in the box. And then I’ll get these emails from Goodwill finds even though already significantly discounted, and then it’ll say take another $20 off your order of x. And so it’s like, okay. This a pretty good deal. And then I can just sit at my house and place the order. So — I like that. That’s really good. Good tip. Well, thank you so much, Annette. It has been just a real treat. And I feel like we’ve been sitting in a cafe, having this conversation over a cup of coffee, and I hope the listener feels the same way. And I I love your story and god’s beauty through your story. And I want each of us to feel the same way with our own story that we see god’s beauty through our story, through the things we’ve loved that have happened to us through the things that, you know, have been really painful that he’s allowed that we’re still able to have the attitude of gratitude for his love for us and how through the mess and through the pain, he’s been able to bring beauty from the ashes in in each of our lives for a bigger purpose for a bigger story that none of us are going to be able to appreciate until the other side of heaven. So so wonderful spending this time with you. So thank you so much. And just god bless you on your journey as you continue sharing your story with so many other people.
Ines Franklin [00:47:58]:
Thank you, and god bless you as well. Thank you.
Kim Moeller [00:48:05]:
Thanks so much for joining us today on the generous girl 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 you can follow us on YouTube and on all platforms. Thanks for being here, and we’ll see you next time.
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