The Radiant Mission
The Radiant Mission
115. Anxious for Christ: Navigating Spiritual Warfare with Tiffany Parsons
Ever felt like you're just going through the motions without a true sense of direction? Tiffany Parsons knows that feeling all too well. Raised in a church-going family, Tiffany shares her incredible journey from religious ritual to a genuine relationship with Christ. Her life took a significant turn at the age of 16 during a Christian camp, marking her first encounter with spiritual warfare and anxiety. Despite facing tumultuous relationships and periods of straying from her faith, Tiffany's story is a testament to the unyielding grace and guidance of God, which ultimately led her back to a place of spiritual fulfillment and a marriage to a pastor.
Join us as we explore the often-unseen battle of spiritual warfare and its impact on our lives when trying to grow closer to God. We'll discuss practical tools like the armor of God and scripture to combat these challenges, and highlight personal experiences that illuminate how spiritual attacks often occur when we're spiritually rejuvenated or strengthening relationships. Tiffany and I dive into the balancing act of managing life's complexities—whether as a spouse, parent, or professional—through the steadfast foundation of faith. Our conversation emphasizes the importance of surrounding oneself with supportive believers for accountability and growth.
Our episode also touches on healing generational trauma and managing anxiety through faith and community support. We explore the transformative power of forgiveness and personal healing, as well as the role of occupational therapy in addressing developmental challenges in children. Tiffany shares her journey of integrating faith into helping children with hypersensitive reflexes, creating a niche in homeschool and private Christian school communities. We wrap up with Tiffany's favorite scripture, Proverbs 3:5-6, as a reminder to trust in the Lord for guidance and clarity in our paths. Join us for an episode filled with heartfelt experiences and invaluable insights on faith, resilience, and purpose.
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Hello and welcome to the Radiant Mission podcast. My name is Rebecca Toomey and we are on a mission to encourage and inspire you as you're navigating through this life and with your relationship with Christ. We've been in a series on being countercultural in a secular world and today I welcome a very special guest. Out of love for her Savior, she just wants to serve and share Christ at any given opportunity and, through some personal experiences, some spiritual warfare and sanctification, she desires to share the knowledge and grace that God has so graciously given her. Being a prodigal child, suffering with anxiety and balancing work and home life are just some of the glimpses of her testimony. So joining us today is a pastor's wife, bonus mom, mother of twin boys and homeschool occupational therapist, tiffany Parsons.
Speaker 1:Tiffany, thank you so much for being with me today. Thank you, rebecca. I'm very excited to hear more about your testimony. I've heard little bits and pieces, so I'm excited to hear it all out today. I know you're going to be such a blessing to our audience today, so let's jump in. Can you share a bit about your background and how you came to know Christ as your Savior?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. I was raised with a single mom with three children and we were raised in church. But admittedly, looking back now, I was just going through the motions. I knew all the stories, I knew all the songs from Sunday school, vacation, bible school, but it never really clicked. That salvation was through faith, by grace, and I still was leaning heavily on works. So I thought, you know, going to church and being a good person, that was enough. So I believe that God saved me when I was 16 years old at a Christian young life camp. I don't know if you're familiar with that ministry, but I feel like that's when God truly saved me and I saw a change in my life. I saw a desire to read his word, a desire to be obedient.
Speaker 2:But with that is when the spiritual warfare began. It was almost immediate. So you know, I would read my Bible every night before bed. Well then I had a nightmare about being demon possessed because I had just read that in the Bible and that was the start of my anxiety. And I didn't know that it was anxiety at the Bible. And that was the start of my anxiety and I didn't know that it was anxiety at the time, for the first time ever I had these thoughts like what is my purpose in life, why am I even here? And the fact that I could think that was scaring me. So, anyways, and just one thing led to the next. So then you know, the enemy, like he does, brings in stumbling blocks. Well, here's a boyfriend and that relationship went on for six years and, you know, slowly I can look back and see the enemy is really good at what he does and, being an immature new Christian with, honestly, quite not a lot of mentorship or guidance, I just slowly got pulled away from church. I got pulled away from Bible studies. I just fulfilled the desires of my flesh honestly, and I believe a Christian can do that. I believe you can still be saved and you can quiet the Holy Spirit. You, you can hear that still small voice and be like, no, that's, I want to do it my way, but God says that he will complete a work that he started in you. So, despite all the things that I did, you know, going off to college, living with a man, unried, fornication, drinking, partying God was still with me through it all and I can see that now looking back and you know it wasn't until you hit rock bottom. The relationship ended. I got baptized in 2015. Baptized in 2015. Um, and then 2016,. I met my now pastor husband and then we got married in 2017.
Speaker 2:Um, but God drew me back and he provided what I needed. Um, something that I sought a lot was attention from men being raised in a single um uh sing by a single mom, it you have this desire to please a man and not having that spiritual father figure in the household. Um, I feel like I was seeking attention from men and when God provided a godly spiritual leader in my life, I could see just him sanctifying me. I was growing through the word and um, and it was. It's truly amazing to see how that all happened, how it all played out. Um, at the time. You don't see that. No, not at all. You're living in it.
Speaker 1:There's so many questions that I want to ask you from that period Right Kind of one comment on what you mentioned about quieting the Holy Spirit. The Bible does say refer to being lukewarm, and so if there are temperatures to our faith, then certainly I think that that makes sense right, because I have a very similar story to you that I grew up in the church, grew up going to VBS and youth groups and all that kind of stuff, but then still went astray in my late teens, early 20s, and really honestly, our stories are very similar in that way twenties and really honestly our stories are very similar in that way. And I think that you are pointing out something very important for believers to be aware of when it comes to new believers, especially our youth, is this aspect of spiritual warfare, because I think that it is something that isn't talked about enough to say, because I was about I think I was 16 or 17 when I got baptized and then it was shortly after that I'm off the path and the enemy doesn't want us to be close to God. I think you actually, before we started recording, mentioned Job and I recently was reading the story of Job again and how Satan was taunting. Satan was like oh God, you are clearly protecting Job and he only loves you because of that protection.
Speaker 1:And it kind of is mentally bringing me back to this idea of what about us protecting the youth that were new believers, or those that are new in the faith, and really sharing with them what spiritual warfare is. That's actually one of the reasons I wanted to do this series is because spiritual warfare is such a huge thing but it's not really talked about that much. You know, in the context of how we're constantly going to be in a battle forever. It's not like we become a believer and then suddenly everything is easy. If anything, the more you talk about God, the more challenges you tend to see in your life.
Speaker 1:Right, A thousand percent, yes, so talk to us a little bit about what spiritual warfare means to you and kind of maybe a little bit more about that experience and kind of what you've seen, maybe with you, but also with others.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. For spiritual warfare, like you said, the enemy doesn't want you to get close to God Now. He can't take our salvation away, but he can taint our testimony. He can discourage us from, say, sharing the gospel with someone, um, or being brave to talk to. You know somebody that could lead to a gospel conversation, um, so it's definitely real.
Speaker 2:I think the main thing, though, is awareness, like you said, knowing that it's even a thing, because, as you mature, when the trials come and they will now I can say this the spiritual warfare, what we're about to do this weekend at church, it's going to be big, and the enemy knows that. So we just had a women's conference this past September that our church hosted, and it was a wonderful time. In the Lord, my cup was overflowing, I just truly felt the presence of God there, just blessing it, and the week after was horrible, and I just knew the enemy did not like that. We were so on fire for the Lord. You know things, just everything seemed to be happening, and same thing with my husband. He went on like a Christian retreat, and that week that was horrible was in between our women's conference and his Christian retreat and my husband's. Like you know the enemy does not want me to go to this, he knows it's going to bless me, he knows it's going to, you know, kind of relight that fire in me and give me that zeal again for the Lord. And so it's definitely real.
Speaker 2:But I think awareness is the first step and then you can go into battle with everything that the Bible provides for us. You know the putting on the armor of God. I mean going studying what the word says. Satan knows the word and we see that when he tempts Jesus and he uses scripture. But it's a little bit twisted. And so what is Jesus' defense? Scripture. So we need to know that in order to go into battle. So Absolutely.
Speaker 1:It was such wonderful points that you're sharing here. I had mentioned to you that this podcast. I see a lot of spiritual warfare whenever someone is going to come to talk specifically about their testimony. And it was crazy. I had an entire series that was on sharing testimonies specifically and every single person canceled Every single person.
Speaker 1:Now they rescheduled many of them, but it was always at the last minute, always something coming up, right, yeah, and my husband and I did a marriage class called re-engage. I don't know if you've heard of that one and the I think it was the first day that we were in there. They said you know, just be aware that now that you're working on your marriage, the enemy is going to be after you because you're working on your marriage. So every week you know, right as we're approaching our time, that we're going to get together, be in prayer, because you'll find that weird things happen and you have this kind of spiritual warfare that comes around you. And, sure enough, I noticed that with many of the couples. You know they'd have just strange things or they get into an argument and then they wouldn't want to come because they were fighting.
Speaker 1:And I'm like this is the time you need to come. Come, air it all out, let's. Let's work it out together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it seems silly. Like last night, I swear I was woken up like every hour for one reason or the other, and my kids, of course, are going through sickness just this time of year, nothing crazy. And then this then, right before we got on, I went to print my stuff and my printer wasn't working and I'm like, really, you're like?
Speaker 1:everything is just stay away. So I share very early in the in this podcast and for those listeners that might be new, definitely go back, because that's actually the first topic we ever talked about on this podcast was spiritual warfare, and what encouraged me to start this podcast was some spiritual warfare that I had when I was literally about to give birth to my second son, who was a home birth, and it was like the enemy just came and tried to totally wreck my relationship with my husband the day I was going into labor. It was totally crazy, but those are the types of things that happen in our lives and, like you said, awareness and just being aware of when we're trying to draw closer to God and stumbling blocks or things come into our path, taking a moment to say, wait a second, is this of God? No, then you know what path or what direction am I going to take from here? And, of course, this is very countercultural, which is the topic that we're kind of in right now, in that our world is very me, me, me and very selfish and very about you know. Oh, I'll just tune into my intuition, and God did give us intuition for a reason, but he also gave us his word, like you said, and that personal relationship with him. That it's not about trusting ourselves because we're told our hearts are liars, right Like our own. We can be lied to by ourselves, and I think that that's an important part to kind of focus on. But, anyway, I really like the focus that you have on new believers and so, if anybody is listening and is a new believer, definitely get people around you that are going to hold you accountable.
Speaker 1:You and I actually met because of a Facebook group and I'll shout them out called Biblical Tea, and I really appreciate the very strong women of God in love. Speak truth to people, because there's a lot of riffraff happening in there now, where people are asking the most crazy things, and there's a lot of women that are like I want to get out of this group, this is crazy. But the women there are some women that are just so rooted in their faith that are like listen, sis, I'm going to tell it to you straight. Here's what the Bible says and that's what we need to do is to steer each other along. Keep it, help, encourage each other along the path in a biblical way, right? Not just you know, we're making up our own.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's okay, because I think that it's okay. Yes, anyway, I'm going on a tangent here, so I'd love to hear a little bit more about how your life has kind of transformed, because it sounds like you know, you went through a lot in your early 20s and whatnot, and then you got married and became a mom and you're homeschooling or a homeschool occupational therapist. How do you balance all of that and how has your faith shaped your approach to your responsibilities?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a lot.
Speaker 2:So my goal is for my faith to be at the center of each role.
Speaker 2:So, like you know, how am I to love my husband, as I ought to, if I don't know the love of Christ? And how am I supposed to die daily to the needs of my children, put their needs above my own, if I didn't already know how to die to myself every day for Christ? You know, how am I supposed to be a light in the world when I'm out, you know, outside of the home working, when I don't know the light of the world, when I'm outside of the home working, when I don't know the light of the world? So I have to remind myself who I am in Christ, because it is hard, and one time I did a study it was a mom's night out for homeschool moms that I led and I talked about balancing life. And it's so hard because I think I saw a video you posted when you're like how do you do it all? And you're like, no, I don't, yes, I don't Hilarious, because it's true, and I feel like we don't really see the truth a lot on social media.
Speaker 2:We show our picture, perfect home put together. But there's balance. But my point of the whole study was the balance and the. You know, the priority of what we need to be doing the most is loving our husband, showing our children how to love our husband. So we're one Praying, so making sure the dishes are overflowing in my sink, but, buddy, we prayed before our meal because that's what our kids are going to remember Forgiveness. So when I go to my children sorry, mommy, yelled like that, I was really overwhelmed, can you please forgive me being consistent with those things in life, being consistent with the things that are going to matter.
Speaker 2:Obviously we try to balance. We try to drink enough water, we try to exercise, we try to get enough sleep. It doesn't happen If I do good in one area then I'm lacking in the other. But it's important that we're balancing the things that are important and that we're putting those at the top of the list for our priorities and not the other mundane things, though they are important. It is essential to do. But making sure that you know those little things are instilled in our children, because that is what's going to be important when they grow up and have families of their own.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, it's all about balance and it's hard to carry it all, especially when you've got kids and work and homeschooling, and obviously marriage is a very important thing to keep intact and all of those things have value, but our relationship with the Lord, if we put it first, is going to set the stage for everything else. You're absolutely right. By the way, that video where I was saying I can't do all of this, it took me I'm not even kidding you, I think two weeks to get that laundry. That was all crazy. I worked at it every day and it took me two weeks to finally get it to normal again. Right?
Speaker 2:And then, if you don't do, it every day.
Speaker 1:you're going to end up back there. I am yeah.
Speaker 2:So I like their doors on my laundry room.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I actually have a laundry closet in my hallway that is like a laundry staging area, but it was so full I couldn't fit anymore. Laundry is a big problem around here. But I want to ask you a little bit about you had described yourself as a prodigal child, so tell me a little bit about that and what your journey back to faith. You mentioned a little bit but what your journey back to faith was like and really potentially some pivotal moments that led you back to God.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. If you think about the parable of the prodigal son, the son was basically saying, dad, I wish you were dead because he wouldn't have got his inheritance unless his dad was dead. Because he wouldn't have got his inheritance unless his dad was dead. So by asking for that, that's kind of the insult that he was giving his father. So then he goes off and, just like him.
Speaker 2:I was very selfish in my living, you know, I wasted my money, I wasted my talents on things that were not glorifying to God. But you get to a point, like he did, where he remembered his father. So I mean, he's literally in the pig pen, would have ate what they were eating. And I feel like I can specifically see myself. You know, after I went through what, I went through a breakup and you know, I graduated college and I remember sitting in my car I was almost afraid to even listen to Christian music because I did not want to feel the chastisement that I knew that was going to come. But there I was, in my car and I heard a song and I can't remember exactly, but it said something along the lines of when you don't have the words to say, just say Jesus. And I remember just sitting there and like crying and just saying Jesus, jesus, over and over again, and that was like my moment, my prodigal son moment. He remembered his father and so he goes back and his father was waiting for him. He was looking for him. He saw him from afar off. He would not have seen him had he not been looking. So that was me.
Speaker 2:You know, for those who have strayed, and you know you're afraid to come back because you're embarrassed and maybe we're prideful. Your father is looking for you and he's going to run to you. And the parable the father lifted up his robe and ran, which was shameful. At that time Men did not expose their legs, so the father brought shame on himself to run to the prodigal son. And it's a beautiful correlation of what Christ said. You know, he brought shame on himself by being plastered on the cross. Um's a beautiful representation of Christ and a believer. But the father ran to him and he didn't even let him finish saying what he had planned on saying Father, I'd send against you. And he said you know, here's my signet ring. We're going to have this party.
Speaker 2:And I feel like that's what it was like. You hit rock bottom. You remember your father and you go back to him and you don't even have to do anything to regain that relationship because he's already there waiting for you, and so that's kind of. After that, you know, I got back into church consistently and, uh, you know, it was about a year later that I realized I had never been baptized. And you know, that's one of the sacraments and it's important. And so I made that public profession of faith and from then I just feel like God started blessing that obedience and that desire. I had to know him and his word. Things just started falling into place.
Speaker 1:So that's beautiful and what a beautiful correlation, and I think anybody who is a parent can relate to that. You know, imagine your child runs away, leaves home. You would do anything to get them back Right and you would drop everything. You'd bring any shame to yourself to have them back in your arms again. So I love that we have that depiction and that story and that's such a great correlation to what you experienced with your relationship with God. Thank you for sharing that, absolutely. I also have a lot of questions about anxiety. That's actually a topic we haven't really had here on the podcast and I know that a lot of believers struggle with anxiety or feeling anxious. So can you talk to us a little bit about your experience with anxiety, how it impacted, perhaps, your faith and your spiritual walk, how you've overcome anxiety and just anything that might help those that are struggling with it?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, like I said, my first experience with anxiety, I believe, was after salvation, and at the time I didn't know what it was and it only continued to get worse as I left home, the comforts of my home. You know I had a wonderful, loving mother who took care of my every need and then some. So I go off to college without her and again just crippling anxiety. And I still didn't understand what it was. I thought it was TMJ. That held a lot of tension in my in my jaw and in my neck and shoulders. And eventually you know, after seeing doctors and counselors, that the university provided they actually put me on anxiety medicine and you know it worked. Looking back now I realized I was a bit of a zombie and maybe slept a little too much, but I thought I was doing great going through life and I took myself off of the anxiety medicine.
Speaker 2:Around the time I met my husband because he pointed out to me that I slept a lot. I didn't realize I slept a lot. I would come home after work, I'd nap, I'd get up and eat dinner and I'd go to bed for 12 hours. It was great. He said if you want kids, do you realize you can't sleep this much and I'm like I don't know what you're talking about. And then I was like, okay, now's the time I'm going to try to wean myself off. And I mean, mind you, I had been on it for years. But then, when I was planning our wedding, which was nothing elaborate, but amongst planning the wedding, knowing I was going to become a stepmom, it was a lot and I began to experience a little more anxiety again. So again, I tried the medicine again and tried to get cleaner versions and this, and that, a year, year later, when I found out I was expecting, I weaned myself off of the medicine and I never started it again.
Speaker 2:Um, now, with that being said, I still have moments of anxiety. Um, a a lot of times they're triggered by being in the car, because I had had a panic attack in the car before. Just weird things. You know, there's no rational reason for me to feel the way I do when that happens, um, but I can now recognize what it is. I can now, you know, sing, worship music, quote scripture. I can usually talk myself out of it.
Speaker 2:But, like you said, this is not a topic that's talked about often amongst Christians, because there is a belief that if you have anxiety that you are sinning. But I do like to point out that there's more than one type of anxiety. We can have anxiety from a chemical imbalance in our brain that comes from the fallenness of this world, and it can be hereditary. It can be situational, caused by trauma in your past. You know that our brains perceive things the way they do. But then there is an anxiety that we have maybe out of a lack of trusting God and if that were the case then that would be sinful If we're anxious because we don't trust that God's going to take care of us or trust what his word says. But there are factors where we just can't control the way we feel. And people look at you and if you look normal, then you are normal. It's not like a broken leg or something you can see on an MRI or an x-ray. It's in your mind and so unless you've gone through it, you don't truly understand what it's like and how debilitating it is and how it can affect your quality of life.
Speaker 2:So I am by no means against taking medication. I understand that some people need that to live. I personally, you know, try to stay away from it and, again, just recognize what's happening. I remember Paul had a thorn in his flesh and he asked God to remove it. And can God remove it? Yes, he could, but does he always? No, because his grace is sufficient. So if this is something that I have to bear, knowing that every time it happens I run to God, then that's just what it's going to be. I will always continue to raise awareness about anxiety. I in fact started a local anxiety support group for women which is called Anxious for Christ. I recently discontinued meetings because just lack of participation. But again, it's hard to ask somebody who's anxious to show up to a group of other women.
Speaker 2:I get that. I'm probably not your typical anxious person, because I'm very social and I love to speak to people, but I still have the Facebook page. I still, you know, share encouraging quotes or verses, things like that, and if God leads me to do it again, and maybe in a different form in the future, we have technology now. Maybe I can have Zoom support groups and people would feel more comfortable in their own funds of their home.
Speaker 2:But anyways, that's kind of. You know, god used me. We did it for about three years. We did meet for about three years. We didn't meet for three years and I can honestly say we met once a month. There was never a time where nobody showed up. There was always, you know, usually a handful of people, but there was always at least one, and if there was one, I knew that they needed like one on one conversation. But the time that there was zero, I knew that this was it for this season and I needed to turn and focus on something else that God, you know, is laying on me to start in ministry. So, but I'm passionate about that topic and you know I'm willing to talk to anyone about it.
Speaker 1:I love that. I have to ask you do you still sleep for 12 hours?
Speaker 2:No, I don't think I've slept through the night. No, I don't think I've slept through the night for six years.
Speaker 1:Oh no, oh no, that's okay. So I want to kind of back up to one of the things that you mentioned about trauma and anxiety, because I think that one of the things that's cool about being in our generation and I'd assume you're around my age, around millennial times is that we're starting to really focus on healing the wounds of our childhood that are often generational right, things that are passed and passed and passed down from generation to generation, because we're starting to realize or at least I would say that there's people that are in a lot of professions that are starting to realize that the first three years really matters for children and how the attachment that they have to their mother and father, but particularly the mother, is the most important person to a child's life. And so if we think about many millennials and older generations, of course, where there were working moms and there were maybe latchkey kid situations and there was a lot of disconnect and maybe there wasn't a lot of harmony in the relationship between mom and the dad, I think that it lends to a lot of experiences for some people later in life as to why they had anxiety or why they had kind of issues processing their feelings or communicating or with forgiveness or just with interpersonal relationships. So that's something that I do think is a really neat thing to talk about and kind of dig into is how does our childhood play into this? But here's the big thing is it's not about digging up our past and digging up our childhood to say, oh, my mom did it all wrong, or my mom and dad did it all wrong. It's to say they did the best that they could do, given what they are. I mean, none of us get a guide on exactly what to do and say, right, I mean, we have the Bible, but we don't know how to do everything the right way all the time. And parents are doing the best that they can, and so the best thing that we can do as we come into consciousness, I would say about these types of things is say I see what happened and I forgive, and I am going to work on healing myself in order to move forward and, like you said, pray to the Lord about whatever that particular thing is. If it's anxiety, you know, help me to overcome this anxiety.
Speaker 1:But we all have those things that we mentally what happens with us? Then I'll use your example of you grew up with a single mom and it was something that you felt like you were looking for for men, you know, for attention from men. All of us have stuff like that where something didn't happen a certain way and so we're we. We act a certain way. I know that, for me, I always wanted to have my own home. I always want to have my own kitchen, my own, my own space. That was a thing that was really important to me, and so whenever I would have roommates or I would live with other people, I became kind of controlling about things because I'm like I want this to be my space. So we all have those things. But it's about recognizing it right and saying, all right, here's my shortcomings and where I'm falling down. Lord, help me to overcome these things, rather than victim blaming type of behavior, which I don't think is healthy for any of us, because then we just live in it in a cycle right Over and over.
Speaker 2:So Well, by bringing up the trauma, you're speaking my language. When it comes to being an occupational therapist, yeah, tell us more about that. Many people don't know what occupational therapy is. It's kind of in the shadows of physical therapy and speech therapy. They usually say, well, I've heard of physical therapy, but I've never heard of occupational therapy. And because of that, many think, oh, maybe this is a newer profession. But honestly, they came out the same year, really. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, that's interesting.
Speaker 1:So it is Y'all are getting the short end of the stick on that. I know it's so occupational.
Speaker 2:I mean sometimes you may be confused because you would think like a job. But you know, really our job is is to live, um and to have a good quality of life. So out of college I worked in inpatient rehab with adults and so that's usually post stroke, hip or knee replacements, tbi, things like that. So when you ask an adult what are your goals, they say, well, I want to walk again. And you're like that's great, but are you going to do it naked or are you going to like how are you going to get yourself dressed? So it's like we call them activities of daily living, adl. How are you going to bathe yourself? How are you going to dress yourself? After a hip replacement, you have what's called hip precautions. You can't bend over. So I got to teach you to dress your lower body with adaptations and tools. So that's an example for, say, adults.
Speaker 2:But in the last five or six years I've been working in a pediatric population. So what is occupation for a pediatric? Occupation would be to meet those developmental milestones that we are to meet. That's their job, to meet them. It's through play. It's a lot of play therapy.
Speaker 2:But I will say in the last setting I worked at an outpatient, I learned so much about reflex integration. So it starts in utero. Your reflexes are being formed in utero and they help with the birthing process and then from there they help with the developmental milestones and they seem to disappear, but really they're maturing into lifelong reflexes. We don't want them all of them to hang around, even though they do sometimes. So we're looking at that. But reflexes are for survival and they're to help meet these developmental milestones which a lot of doctors these days are dismissing. Those milestones, oh, they don't need to crawl, they don't need to roll, but they do. And we don't see those deficits until they're maybe adolescent. And then they're struggling with reading or writing because they didn't develop these depth perception skills that they would have during crawling or if they skipped rolling. Maybe they have poor emotional regulation because they didn't mature their mouth spine rotation, which helps with flexibility and thinking. It is wild, oh that's fascinating.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So when it comes to trauma, though, I see I used to see a lot of kids in like foster care or adoptive situations, and we don't always know their past, or they may not have received any prenatal care and you know their mother could have been on drugs, and so we see these reflexes are so off and they may be stuck in fight or flight because they've had to live that for so long. It becomes part of their survival that they have lived in fight or flight that they continue to be in that stage. So trauma truly has an effect on the way that our brains have worked or work and are wired.
Speaker 2:There are ways to naturally repattern that, but it takes a lot of time and some of these children are exposed to things that you and I had never been exposed to in our of time. And some of these children are exposed to things that you and I had never been exposed to in our whole lives, and they were exposed to those very important times of development, whether in utero or outside of utero. So you know that trauma is very, very impactful and how you deal with situations as you get older, and I see that not only in children, but you know my husband experienced some childhood trauma that you know. I'm helping him recognize now that he's an adult and so it is very interesting. But we know that God can do all things and you know he could truly break those chains of any generational. You know curse or you know whatever that goes back. God can truly take care of that.
Speaker 2:But there are really fascinating things out there, and that's, you know again, part of this knowledge I feel like God has blessed me with that. I just want to share with everybody. I feel like God has blessed me with that. I just want to share with everybody.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, I think you would like. We had a woman named Joanna Melty on Maliti, I'm sorry On not long ago, a couple of weeks ago. She has some homeschool tutoring pods and her focus is on mild learning disabilities, and she specifically mentioned eye tracking. Yes, and that was the first time. I had never heard of that before, and so she started talking about how she works with occupational therapists quite a bit, because an occupational therapist is going to help with someone who has an eye tracking issue, which is more common than you would think, and people often think that someone has dyslexia and it's not dyslexia, it's actually just an eye tracking issue which could be related to, you know, muscular things and just not, like you're saying, not things not developing in its entirety or being perhaps in a fight or flight or whatever the case might be. So it's very interesting.
Speaker 2:There's some reflexes on our back too. If they're hypersensitive or immature they can kind of be irritated or set off easily by our clothing or the back of a chair. So those are the kids that you see. They can't sit still. They're wiggly in their chair, they fidget a lot, and a lot of times these days they're going to the doctor and they're saying, oh, they're wiggly in their chair, they fidget a lot, and a lot of times these days they're going to the doctor and they're saying, oh, they have ADHD and they give them medication, when really it could be something as simple as repatterning the reflexes on the back with some hands-on exercises to help mature those reflexes and desensitize that sensitivity in their back. But it is really interesting what they're finding out these days and ways that we can help.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And now you specifically work as a homeschool occupational therapist. Did I read that correctly? Yes, yes, I mean.
Speaker 2:I don't know, because I made it up. I just quit my job at an outpatient clinic. I was working there part time, so September 30th was my last day because I wanted to focus on educating my children here at home. But again, you can't take the OT out of me. I just I want to share my knowledge. I just I want to share my knowledge. So my children are considered homeschool.
Speaker 2:We did find what's called a micro school or a cottage school. That's nearby, so they do go two days a week. However, I am their kindergarten teacher, so it's still all me. But in that setting I realized, oh, so-and-so could use help with this. So, like I'm just constantly analyzing kids and I realized there was just a lack of services for this up and coming setting of homeschool and private Christian school communities. So not only am I, you know, wanted to provide services. At the boys micro school, I realized that there's homeschoolers out there. They don't have a teacher to say well, they should be doing this at this age. Maybe you should, you know, go to the doctor and get a referral to OT or PT or speech when you're homeschooled you. It's not important for you to have your child potty trained by a certain age because you know it's not a necessity, whereas at school they'd say, well, they need to be potty trained by this age. So it's like the certain self-help skills and independence levels that maybe they need to have that you're just not really aware of because it's not a requirement at home. So, anyways, this is definitely unprecedented grounds. I feel like the Lord laid this on my heart.
Speaker 2:At the end of the summer, I started sending emails out to people just to see if anyone would be interested, to some private Christian schools and some co-ops, and I really got no response. There was a few people interested and it wasn't until I quit my job. And I feel like it was a test from the Lord to say are you going to trust me with your finances? Because I'm not going to lie. I made pretty decent money. Um, so you know for me to say you know what I'm going to trust you, lord.
Speaker 2:Obviously it was my husband's ultimate decision. He was the one who said I think you need to quit your job, I think you need to stay home, and so we did it. It was a little scary, but as soon as I did it, I started getting these emails and these phone calls and I'm like Lord, are you, you know, opening this door now Because we were obedient and did what you wanted us to do? So it's a little overwhelming because I'm starting from the ground up, but I know this is an area that has a need and I'm passionate about it. I want to support those with like-minded families that want to do alternative to public school and raise their children in a homeschool or private Christian school setting. I want to give them the support that is lacking with all the knowledge that the Lord has blessed me with.
Speaker 1:So that's amazing. That really is what a testament to trusting God and trusting him in your life too. You're like I'm going. This is uncomfortable for me. I know that there's a lot of women listening, I'm sure, who are feeling that pull too, because it's you know, when you have young children and you're homeschooling and doing those things and splitting your time in many ways, it can be very, very challenging. So that's amazing. You stepped into it and now God is opening other doors and I think you're absolutely right. The homeschool community does need you and they need someone who has the training and knowledge and education about things that can step in and say, hey, I can help out or maybe, you know, pursue this avenue. So that's awesome, I love it.
Speaker 1:So I've got a question about kind of navigating. You know we live in a very crazy time in a very secular world, and we've talked about spiritual warfare. Our youth, our teenagers and grown women are experiencing a lot of challenges. So, even as Christians, I know that we here in America aren't facing the same cultural oppression that maybe a missionary would face going into a third world country, but we are facing the enemy right. So how do you stay grounded in your faith and really maintain a biblical perspective despite all of the pressures of the world around us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's important to know and be confident in your standard of truth. So when I come up to somebody who's not a believer and you ask them what is your standard of truth, they don't have one. They don't have one. It's not consistent. It will sometimes. You know it doesn't. It contradicts itself, it doesn't line up with you know other things, contradicts itself, doesn't line up with you know other things. So having that Bible as my standard of truth, I think, is the biggest thing that you can have, because every answer to any question that somebody can ask you is found in the Bible in one way or another, not only in our lives personally, but you know with what they're going through. So you know, especially in family, that we are ministering to not only a local body, but my husband is bivocational. He works as well outside the home. A lot of people will come to him either with trapping questions, like trying to trip him up, knowing that he's a pastor and you know he's working in a hospital, a secular setting, or people will come to him truly seeking answers because they know that he has them, because he follows what the Bible says. So I think it's really important just to know your standard of truth and to just wholeheartedly believe that and be confident in it, so that when you show them this is what the Bible says, it makes perfect sense to us. Until God opens their eyes, you know and believers they'll always be skeptical.
Speaker 2:But you know, God's word is true. It doesn't contradict itself. Jesus fulfilled prophecies hundreds of years before his birth. I mean, and even the way the Bible is written. If it were written by man, my husband always says this, like in the gospel of Matthew, which he's expository preaching through right now, he'll say the disciples question God. He's like, if I were a disciple writing this, I wouldn't say that I questioned Jesus. You know, he's like. I probably would have excluded that which goes on to prove that it was inspired by the Holy Spirit. It wasn't just man writing for the sake of writing. So absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah Right. They're just writing the best parts. Only, are there any specific scriptures or resources that you feel have been instrumental in your life that you'd like to share with our listeners by chance?
Speaker 2:So I actually did write a couple down. I feel like this one's pretty common, found in Philippians 4. Philippians 4. Let me see here yeah, be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God. So obviously I speak a lot about anxiety and the Bible is literally telling me not to be anxious for anything. And and that's where you know, being anxious for the sake of being anxious, for the sake of not trusting God, I do feel like that's when we could be in sin. So you know, I just remind myself. There's no reason to be anxious. What do we need to do? Be in prayer, have Thanksgiving to do? Be in prayer, have thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God.
Speaker 2:And then what happens? The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus, and that's something I don't think that especially unbelievers can comprehend. How can a Christian be filled with joy and have peace when they're going through some of the hardest times in their life? And I've seen believers do that. You know they smile through some of these trials, through loss of a loved one and things like that, and that truly comes from the peace that God gives us, knowing that we have a hope and a future destination that's not in this world. So I think that is one of my favorite verses to meditate on when I'm going through a hard time.
Speaker 2:And then I was going to share my husband's life verse, which is Galatians 2.20. So it says I've been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live yet, not I, but Christ who lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh. But now we're living for Christ because he first loved us and that's just a beautiful life verse. That he's always claimed to be his life verse. That's beautiful, but yeah, yeah, I love that. And then also, just personally, I really love and enjoy the Daily Grace Company studies.
Speaker 2:I'm sure you've heard of that company. Oh yeah, yes. So if anyone ever asks me about that, like always, I always recommend it as well. Study on anxiety there's one called Never Alone on depression. I've really found that they're pretty solid biblically and they're aesthetically pleasing. They're very pretty, which we like pretty things and then they're reasonably priced. So they have sales all the time. So I think that's a good resource to have for family devotions and they have book studies, but then they also have topical studies, so I think that's a good resource. That's helped me and I use to, you know, recommend other people to get.
Speaker 2:So, awesome.
Speaker 1:Thank you, those are great resources. I will include links in the show notes, by the way, to those for anybody that might want to check that out after the fact. Yeah, now I think my last question I want to ask you would be what is one thing that you hope those listening today take away from our conversation? I know we've talked about a couple of things, but maybe especially those that are struggling with their faith or finding their path back to God, or just trying to get it all figured out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say just do it, just do it, don't wait. I always say the only thing that I regret about being a Christian is not becoming one sooner or taking it seriously sooner. Now some will argue that we don't have a choice. Whatever I say, today is the day of salvation. If you're not sure, we can be sure. The Bible says we can be sure we're not promised tomorrow.
Speaker 2:We need to repent of our sins.
Speaker 2:We need to believe on what Jesus did on the cross, that finishing work on his death to cover our sins. We need to believe on what Jesus did on the cross, that finishing work on his death to cover our sins, on his burial, on his resurrection, because we need to be eternally minded. One day we will resurrect with him, if we're in Christ. So you know, today is the day and, like we've said today, it's not going to be rainbow and flowers and roses through your walk, but God will bless you for your obedience. He will provide that peace even in the midst of trials, because our mind and our perspective changed to heavenly things, eternal things. You know, we're focusing on the hope that's to come and not what we're going through now, knowing that this is not the end. This world's not our home. So it definitely makes navigating life a lot easier when you have the scripture that tells you the truth and you have that hope in the future of what Christ has to come for us. So that would be my words of encouragement. Beautiful that's beautiful.
Speaker 1:Thank you for sharing that and, tiffany, thank you so much for joining today and sharing your story so encouraging. Thank you. And if you are looking for Tiffany some resources and I'll have these in the notes you can find her on Facebook. She has a page called Anxious for Christ and then she has another page on Facebook called the Homeschool OT and Tiffany Parson. So definitely go connect with Tiffany on social media and thank you all for tuning in and for being on this journey with us, as always. If you would like to join outside the podcast, you can do that at Instagram, at the Radiant Mission, facebook, at the Radiant Mission Podcast, or, if you're not watching this on YouTube right now, can watch this on YouTube at youtubecom forward slash. My name actually Rebecca Toomey, and today we're going to close with Proverbs 3, verses 5 through 6.
Speaker 1:These are some other favorites of Tiffany's and have really helped her to continue to get her focus off of she says off of me and my circumstances, and on him and his will. I love that. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, submit to him and he will make your path straight. We're wishing you a radiant week and we'll see you next time. Bye everyone.
Speaker 2:Bye.
