Ep 28 Divine Worth Podcast: What Am I Willing to Go Through

Karen: Welcome to the divine word podcast where we are letting go of our self doubt, anxiety, fear and limiting beliefs so that we can step into the divine roles that God has for us. I am your host life coach, Karen Pappin, and together we are embracing our divine worth and potential.

Welcome to the divine worth podcast. Today’s special guest is Kristen Walker Smith. She is the creator of the one minute scripture study podcast, a BYU education week speaker. EFY teacher and Deseret Book Masterclass teacher. Kristen graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Brigham Young University, where she met her darling husband of over 20 years.

They are the parents of three wonderful, rascally children. And when Kristen isn’t teaching the gospel, you can usually find her rock climbing, listening to Elder Holland’s talks. Or eating peanut butter frequently all at the same time. [00:01:00] So Kristen, uh, thank you so much for coming on here and talking with us about divine worth and potential.

Kristen Walker Smith: I’m excited to chat. Let’s get to it.

Karen Papin: I’m excited to have you on here. To begin, can you tell us like the first time that you really started to recognize that you are a daughter of God? Um,

Kristen Smith: It’s a terrible story, actually. This is a sad one, and it doesn’t end well. So let’s just start. With some depressing news guys get your tissues out.

So I I when I was five My parents sat me and I’ve got four older sisters. They sat us all down And we were all sitting in this horribly ugly little corner booth that we had in our kitchen. It was 70s green, you know, like just The ugly little spot, but I remember it so clearly. I remember I was sitting there and I was on the edge and my parents told us that my dad had cancer [00:02:00] and it wasn’t getting better.

Like the, the treatments were no longer working. And I got off of the little edge and I walked back to the bedroom and I bet my mom and dad were like, Oh, she’s so sad. Like, what is she going to do? And I came back a minute later and I said, Oh, I just prayed. Don’t worry. Dad’s going to be fine. And I think that is the first.

recollection I have of realizing I was someone that God would listen to, right? Like I’m his daughter. And so I say a prayer and just like my dad would do if I’m asking him for something good, of course, he’s going to give it to me. Like, this is an awesome thing. And so I think pretty young, like around five, I remember knowing that and knowing that I’m his daughter.

He, he cares about me and he listens to me. The sad part of the story is it didn’t end. Well, my dad ended up dying and so that created a huge conflict within me where I knew I was the daughter of God, but I didn’t know if I could trust him. [00:03:00] Right? Like, this isn’t the same as my earthly dad who would only give me nice presents.

You know, Heavenly Father kind of gave me exactly what I had asked not to receive. And so I knew he was real, but I didn’t know if I could trust him for a very long time.

Karen Papin: So what were kind of the things that helped you to be able to start to develop that trust in him?

Kristen Smith: It is actually, gosh, how old am I?

So that happened. My dad died when I was seven and I am, I think I’m 43. I forget. I have to ask my husband all the time. He does the math, but I think I’m 43. So it has been, help me do the math here. 36 years, since I lost my dad and I still have to work on trusting God all of the time. It’s very interesting.

These childhood experiences. Seem to it’s like how you can learn languages so much faster. Right? You like you learn everything faster as a kid and it’s almost like the bad experiences get branded [00:04:00] into your brain into your spirit and it’s very hard to undo the branding. And so I still. I still struggle to totally trust God.

One of the reasons I think I have obsessive compulsive disorder is because I have this need to control things because I can’t fully give it up to God and say, well, he’ll take care of it. Whatever he decides will be best because I know what his best sometimes looks like, and it’s scary. So it’s ongoing.

It’s better, but it’s ongoing.

Karen Papin: I think there’s different levels of trust, too. And so it’s like once we feel like, okay, I, I kind of got those down, but it’s like, Oh, now he, now he’s asked me to do this. And I’m like, wait, what?

Kristen Smith: And no, and I actually, I recently had an experience where I was reading in the scriptures. I love the scriptures so much. Like there’s an answer for everything in there. And I had an experience where I was reading, actually, I believe it was in first Kings.

So I was studying in 1st Kings chapter [00:05:00] 18, and this is the story of Elijah, the amazing Old Testament prophet who does such miraculous things, and he is basically having a showdown with the priests of Baal. So The king and the queen at the time are super evil and they’re just like, they’re, they’re supporting the priest of Baal and they’re trying to kill all of the prophets of God.

And Elijah is left over and he meets up with these priests and he is about to have a showdown with them of who can get their sacrifice on the altar to burn without starting a fire. Who’s God will start their sacrifice on fire ends up being Elijah, no surprise. But before he does this great sacrifice, he asks them a question that really.

It stopped me in my tracks. And this was just a couple of weeks ago, but in 1 Kings 18 21, he asked the priest of Baal question. He says, how long halt he between two opinions. And as I read that, I was like, Oh, he’s talking to me. Dang it. This has to do with me [00:06:00] because I realized I’ve been halting between two opinions.

God is either trustworthy or he’s not. And I haven’t for 36 years been able to make up my mind. And I realized that everything I’ve read in the scriptures, everything I’ve learned about him, everything I know about God, tells me he’s trustworthy. And so I just have to choose to believe that God is trustworthy.

I can’t halt between those two opinions anymore. I’ve just got to choose one or the other. Is he trustworthy or is he not? And so I’m choosing. to believe he is trustworthy. I’m choosing to believe that no matter how awful it looks right now, he is doing something for my best good that I can’t understand, and I have to trust him through that.

And so that scripture, 1st Kings 1821, really hit home for me just recently that 36 years later, I have still been wishy washy on do I trust God. I am a total covenant keeping person. I follow what God says, but I have not learned to trust him in my personal life. And I’ve decided this is just a choice I have to make.

There’s nothing that’s going to happen that God’s [00:07:00] going to be like, I won’t make any more trials happen in your life. You’re fine. This nothing bad will ever happen that I’m not getting that promise. And so I just have to make the decision to trust him regardless of what my life looks like.

Karen Papin: I love that.

It’s like we’ve been given this beautiful gift of agency and here you are using it and making that decision. And since you’ve made that decision, like, what are the feelings and thoughts that kind of come up?

Kristen Smith: Um, terror. It’s hard to give up the illusion of control, especially as I mentioned, I have OCD.

And so I love to wash my hands and I love to make everybody come inside the house. and like at Christmas time, I’m always so nervous. Someone will get sick at Christmas. And so I’m like, let’s not go anywhere for the week before Christmas. I love to do what I can to keep my life looking the way I want it to look.

And so there is honestly a bit of terror to say, okay, [00:08:00] from now on I’m just going to say, Lord, what will thou have me to do? And then do it. And it looks like a lot of listening, a lot of listening, a lot less action. And that’s hard for me. I’m like, let’s go, let’s do it. And now it’s like, I have to sit back and let God decide where I’m going.

And I have to listen to know what that is. So that’s not a very, uh, comforting, comforting truth, but terror and listening are the two things that I’ve, I’ve felt more of after making that decision.

Karen Papin: Have you, like, have you started to see a shift yet?

Kristen Smith: There have been small ones where, okay, here’s the interesting thing.

So with OCD, if you don’t know about it, between every stimulus, And when you have OCD, it’s almost like that gap between stimulus and response closes, and you no longer feel like there [00:09:00] is a time in which to make a decision. It’s stimulus. I must take this action and so over the years, with a lot of treatment and therapy and the help of amazing medical professionals, I’ve been able to lengthen that gap where I have this little piece period of time where there’s a stimulus, you know, like someone comes in with dirty hands from school or, heaven forbid, I touched a public doorknob, right?

Like these scary things happen. And then I have to have, I have this moment now where I can make a decision on what will my response be? Will I immediately wash my hands? Will I spend the rest of the day upset if I don’t wash my hands? Like, what will that response be? And I have noticed , it’s it’s not like the gap is easier, but it’s wider and I feel like I have even more space where it’s not just my brain helping me deal with that stimulus, it’s also the spirit helping me to be okay [00:10:00] with that stimulus.

So that’s been the first thing I’ve noticed. And the main thing I’ve noticed since making that choice. Yeah.

Karen Papin: You kind of. I started answering this question with the spirit helping you be able to notice that. But how, what are some of the ways that you’ve seen God in this journey that you’ve had with OCD?

Kristen Smith: Oh, he’s been everywhere. I actually want to, so backpedal here. A lot of you listening probably have no idea who I am.

Hi, I’m Kristen. So I have OCD. And it didn’t start. I did not experience any anxiety throughout my entire life until my first pregnancy. And then it was almost like a light switch. And suddenly, and because it started with my first pregnancy, I was like, Oh, this is though. Those like new mom jitters, you get like the, the little fears you have as a new mom, except it was times a thousand but I thought it was normal.

And so I spent [00:11:00] seven years. In and I apologize for my French, but I call it hell and I’m not saying that lightly. It literally was every waking moment and even sleeping moments. I have panic attacks. I actually had a panic attack in my sleep last night, but I would have panic attacks in my sleep. I would have nightmares about.

The things that my OCD, would bring up, so every moment of every day was a feeling of, incredible fear and depression, and that lasted for 7 years. And so if you can just imagine, like, your worst day, your most depressing day, every day for 7 years, that’s what it felt like. And it’s interesting though, because I came to a point where I realized this trial was bringing me to Jesus like nothing else ever had.

I was desperate for his help. And I think these are the kind of prayers God wants us to say all the time, right? Like, you know, that prayer, the middle of a trial prayer or the, I need a blessing [00:12:00] prayer. I was saying those prayers every day. for seven years. Like I had this amazing relationship with God and with Heavenly Father.

And one day I was holding my third child. I ended up only well, and I apologize for saying this for anyone who dealt with infertility, but I had the capacity to have more than three kids, but we decided to stop at three because of the mental toll it was taking. And that was really hard for me to, accept that.

My eternal family was being limited based on my temporal, my physical body. And so I, 1 day was holding my last baby, my little 3rd baby. And one of the blessings of having OCD is that you have no hobbies or friends, and so you make the scriptures your friend.

And that’s really fun. But one day I was reading in the New Testament, and I’d never really read the Bible before, but I read the whole thing. New Testament, Old Testament, and I was reading the words of Paul, who talked about how he had a thorn in the flesh. We have no idea what that thorn in the flesh was.

was it could have been a physical [00:13:00] ailment. It could have been a mental illness. It could have been whatever. We don’t know, but he says he besought the Lord thrice for him to take it away. And I’m assuming he wasn’t just like, Oh, heavenly father, please make this go away. Like these were pleadings of Paul.

And then he says what the Lord said to him. And he said unto me, so this is the Lord’s speaking. My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness. So the Lord is telling him. My grace is enough, right? And Paul says this, Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong. And that’s 2 Corinthians 12, verses 9 and 10. And those verses hit me like a freight train. It was like I could see myself. I was like, I’m standing right here with Paul and I’m realizing I will do this forever.

[00:14:00] I will live with fear and terror and depression every day if this is what it takes to feel this close to Jesus. And that was such a huge point where it actually switched things for me and I started to see the blessing it was. And it was interesting because once I saw the blessing in it, things got better.

Like, it was almost like Heavenly Father was just waiting for me and he’s like, ah. Now you got it, girl. Let’s go. Okay. And so it started being easier because I could see that this wasn’t just God being mean to me. God wasn’t punishing me. I hadn’t done anything wrong. He wasn’t just messing with me because he was bored one day.

Like he isn’t a Greek God who messes with mortals. He was letting me feel this and experience this because it brought me to a place where I came to him like I never had before. And it also brought me to a place where I could help others like I never could. without experiencing this. When someone comes to me with their junk now, I’m like, Oh, let’s sit down.

Let’s cry together. I could never have done that before because I didn’t know what that junk felt [00:15:00] like. And so now I feel like I can be that listening ear for so many people, because if you’ve wanted your life to be over, I’ve wanted my life to be over. If you’ve thought God hated you because your life is so awful, I felt that too, right?

Like it just brings you to a different place where you can help people in a different way.

Karen Papin: That is such an amazing perspective to have on the different trials and circumstances that you find yourself in. And so I love that you were able to turn it around like that. Thank you. And, just ask ourselves one, am I willing to go through I love that question.

What am I willing to go through to be closer to the savior? So, thank you. It’s a scary question, .

Speaker 5: It’s,

Speaker 6: yeah,

Karen Papin: it’s. But thank you for sharing your experience of that, because I think that is something that can really help people to kind of put their trials and struggles in [00:16:00] into a different perspective. That actually draws them closer to the Lord.

Kristen Smith: Well, and I think the great thing too is you and I both like to speak publicly, right? You and I are like, Hey, let’s start a podcast and talk to the whole world. Not everyone feels that way. And I remember when I was in the middle of my OCD being, and I literally, I was homebound. Like I did nothing except for stay home, take care of my kids.

And if I had to, I would go to the grocery store. And I also went to church because I had to like I didn’t do anything else and I felt very small and I wondered how can God use someone as small as I am to do anything in the world and. I think that one of the blessings of this trial was realizing that God can use absolutely anyone as long as they’re willing to let him teach them how to use what they have to bless someone else.

Some of the greatest [00:17:00] ways, like, and I speak on, on public stages and I do a lot of stuff, but some of the greatest ways I feel like I’ve been able to be used by God is one on one with someone who is struggling and just needs me to listen and have zero judgment for them. And so Being a daughter of God isn’t about, I’ve got to be online.

I’ve got to tell everyone about Jesus. I’ve got to do all this big stuff. It’s will I serve where God needs me? And one of the experiences I had, it was so funny because I was still in the middle of like my OCD struggles. but I was in the temple one day. The temple was very, very hard for me in the middle of my OCD struggle.

So much human contact and just being in a public place. It was very hard. But I knew after a session you go and you sit in the celestial room because that’s what a good Mormon girl does. Sorry for saying the word Mormon. And I was sitting there and just kind of like doing my time until I could leave.

And as I’m sitting there, there is a woman. Sitting by [00:18:00] herself and I noticed that she’s crying and I’m like,

Speaker 5: oh

Kristen Smith: that is so sad I hope that her friend or whoever’s with her comes soon and nobody comes and it’s been a couple of minutes and I’m like Where is a sweet little white haired temple worker to help this lady?

Like there’s gotta be someone who can come help this woman cuz it’s not gonna be me. I am NOT I am not in a place where I can sit down and talk to this woman. I’m having a hard enough time sitting in my little, you know, OCD bubble here, but no one came. And as I’m sitting there, I had this overwhelming feeling and thought nobody should have to cry alone in the temple.

And I went, because I knew what it felt like to cry alone in the temple. I had done that many a time. And so I stood up and I went and I sat next to this lady and I said, I don’t know you, but can I give you a hug? I don’t know that I had hugged. Anyone outside of my husband and my kids. [00:19:00] It’s six years at this point, but I said, can I give you a hug?

And she leaned into me and I gave her probably the most awkward hug ever given because I’m like, get as little germage on me as possible, right? While I’m hugging this woman and she just leans into me and is sobbing. And she sobs for minutes. And she finally calms down enough that she’s able to speak.

And she said, thank you so much. My husband just died. And as I was sitting here, I prayed that I could feel one more hug from him. And that was when I had sat next to her. That moment. I was not the best person in the world to give her a hug. I gave her the worst hug. If they graded hugs, I got an F minus.

But I was willing to listen. And I was willing to do what God asked me to. And that’s all he needs from us. He doesn’t need us to have a big platform. He doesn’t need us to do big things. He needs us to listen every day in small ways to do the little things he needs us to do every day. [00:20:00] And so, as we recognize who we are as daughters of God, I think that’s an important thing to realize.

God can use you every day. There’s something he can have you do every single day. We just have to be listening.

Speaker 6: Wow.

Karen Papin: I just want to sit with that for a minute. Because I love that here you’re thinking, I’m not the right person for this. I, I’m not doing a good job at it. And yet it was exactly what she did.

Speaker 5: Hmm.

Karen Papin: It was. And, and he, you were willing to listen and do it. Well, you There was some resistance there, but when he hit me on the head.

Kristen Smith: Yes, I listened.

Karen Papin: Yeah,

Kristen Smith: you still did it. Yeah. And I think that is one of our wonderful powers as daughters of God. I have an amazing husband who thinks that we should never get in anyone else’s business. And he’s and I think that’s kind of a man [00:21:00] thing. You’re like, oh, they’ll take care of themselves.

Right. And I think as women of God, especially, there is an inherent gift of, empathy that we have for others that we see someone crying. And we want to help them, right? And so I think that God can use us as his daughters to do things, that maybe other people miss. And so I just, I hope that we recognize, even if we don’t feel like we have any major gifts, like, Oh, I’m not as good as this person.

I’m not as attractive. I’m not as smart. You have a good heart and your heart is ready and willing to do what God needs you to do. And he’ll tell you how to do it. We’ve just got to listen.

Karen Papin: What are some of the things that have really caused you to kind of forget? , who you are,

Kristen Smith: the bathroom scale, like, to be honest, I hate the bathroom. I think [00:22:00] comparison truly though, cause when I get on the bathroom scale, I’m comparing myself to, Oh, back in high school, you were, you know, however much I weighed, or when I look at what someone else has and I think, Oh, I wish I had that.

 Because. As a daughter of God, I am exactly who I need to be right and God has helped me get to a position exactly where he needs me and my weight and what the Joneses have have nothing to do with my inherent value and so the thing that brings me around and that I actually work on pretty regularly is.

Gratitude for what I have and gratitude for what others have. And what that looks like is, I happen to have some really wealthy friends and I have made it a practice to be so happy for them when good things happen to them. So someone gets to go on a cruise. I just think, oh my gosh, that is so amazing for them.

I’m so excited they get to have that experience. That’s taken time. Like, and I’m not perfect at it. I sound like I’m some [00:23:00] angel here. I’m not an angel, but that is a practice that I have worked on for probably 20 years now and I’m getting pretty good at it. At being excited for the gifts other people get, even if I don’t get them.

 Cause just cause they get to go on a cruise. Doesn’t take away from my happiness. Like just because someone else gets an amazing blessing doesn’t mean God’s taking away a blessing of mine. I still have the same amount of amazing blessings. And so I’ve tried really hard to turn comparison into gratitude for what others have and just be so excited for them that God has blessed them to have enough money to go on a cruise or to have a son who’s really smart and valedictorian or whatever.

I just try and get really excited.

Karen Papin: I love that. And it helps you to be able to have more love and compassion for people, too, when you have that perspective.

Kristen Smith: Right. And it’s like, it’s team us, right? We’re not in a competition. If Karen goes to the Celestial Kingdom, it doesn’t mean there’s one less spot for Kristen, right?

We can both make it. And so [00:24:00] just being a team player, team Heavenly Father, I think helps a lot.

Speaker 6: Yes, I love that. We’re all we are all on the same team.

Kristen Smith: Yes, I think we could break out into a high school musical song right now, but let’s not. So true. So true.

Karen Papin: What is. Uh, well, first, is there anything else that you would like to share with us about divine work?

Kristen Smith: When I was in college, for the first time I decided to make a serious study of the gospel. And so I started studying, by topic actually, and I made this binder where I was like, I’m going to make my own. Dictionary, like my own, what are those called? They’re bigger than dictionaries. Encyclopedia.

I’m going to make my own encyclopedia where I learn everything possible on all the topics that interest me. And as I started studying, I was diving into general conference talks and books and scriptures and all this stuff. And I got a serious case of, the Envys [00:25:00] and I, as I would read, president Holland.

Oh, I love that man. But as I would read President Holland or Neil Maxwell, or Bruce r McConkey, or, oh my gosh, Jesus the Christ, James e Talmage, as I would read from these amazing authors, I was so envious of how close they were to God and how much they knew, and I really felt like, well, I guess unless.

I ever get called to be apostle. Not gonna happen. I can just never be this close to God. I can never know what they know. And then one day I was reading, something that, Bruce R. McConkie’s son wrote about his dad. And he said that people often came up to him and they’re like, how did your dad become such a scholar?

Like, how did he learn all this stuff? What was, what was his trick? And he’s like, hard work and time, you know, like there’s no trick. It’s just consistently trying to get closer to God and trying to learn more about him. And I realized in [00:26:00] that moment that I was the thing that was holding me back that if I wanted to be as smart as president Holland or as great of a speaker as him, or if I wanted to know Jesus Christ, the way that Joseph Smith knew him, or if I wanted to be this amazing example, like Sherry do.

I was the only thing standing in my own way and there’s actually this amazing, amazing, pastor Aiden W. Tozer. I believe he lived like around the time of C. S. Lewis and he wrote about this and about our potential, our divine potential. And basically what he was saying is that God has no favorites. Of course, what he’s revealed to one of his children, he wants to reveal to all of them.

And this one line that he said really made such an impact. And he said, the difference lies not in God. But in us, and so. I just think that’s so important to realize is that if you’ve got a gospel hero, if you look at Nephi and you’re like, oh, he’s so cool, or if you look at Abish and you’re like, man, I wish I could be like Abish and so brave.

The only thing holding you back from being that amazing is [00:27:00] you, right? Like we all have the same amount of potential. Every one of us can become like Heavenly Father. And if we want to be that. Then be it do the work. It takes work. Like that is the only thing standing between us and who we want to become.

So that’s my thought on divine potential. There’s literally no cap. I think that’s actually a new word that the kids say no cap. I think that’s like not lying or something. But anyway, for us old folks, there’s no cap on your potential. And that has nothing to do with what the teenagers say about cap.

That’s

Karen Papin: awesome. And I love that. Like, if we can remember that there’s really no cap on our potential, that,, that it’s like, that should give us hope. It’s not about beating ourselves up that we’re not there yet. It’s that, Hey, we have the opportunity to be able to do this. So let us start to take those actions to be able to get us to where we want to be.

Kristen Smith: Yeah, and the awesome [00:28:00] thing is, I mean, we know there’s a millennium coming, so we have at least a thousand years. We have a long time to work on this stuff. Doesn’t happen, have to happen today. We just start on the path to being who we want to be.

Karen Papin: Awesome. We have time. Love it. What is your favorite Divine Wars scripture? 

Kristen Smith: I think my favorite divine scripture comes from the book of Moses chapter one and This is a situation in which I don’t think we can ever even imagine what Moses was experiencing. Like, he has just been run out of Egypt. He is Egypt’s most wanted. And God tells him, Oh, I need you to go back to Egypt, not in hiding.

You actually have to walk up to Pharaoh and ask him to let go of his, million slaves and just let them leave. This is ginormous. Like, if you’ve ever thought you had a hard calling, Moses’s was much harder, right? And so he’s on his way though. He’s like, Okay, [00:29:00] I’ll do this. And so he’s walking back to Egypt and he has this experience on a mountain with the Lord in the middle of it.

And it’s almost like the Lord has so much pity. He’s like, let’s have a mountain pep talk. And so on the way back to Egypt, that’s where we get the book of Moses. And so what is amazing, it says the words of God, but Old Testament God is Jesus Christ. So this is Jesus Christ speaking to Moses and he sees him face to face.

And over and over, he says to him, behold, thou art my son. And he says in verse six, I have a work for thee, Moses, my son. In verse seven, he says, this one thing I show unto thee, Moses, my son. He talks to him over and over and lifts him up so much. And he reminds him, if you’re my son, guess what that means about your potential.

Right? Like, it’s limitless. You can do anything if you’re my son. And then I love this because this is what happens is you have an amazing experience. You know that God loves you. You know that you [00:30:00] have amazing potential. And then what happens to Moses? is what happens to us. Satan comes, and he tries to get him to doubt who he is.

And in verse 12 of Moses 1, Satan’s there, and he calls him Mos he calls him Moses, son of man, which isn’t false. He really is a son of man. He has a dad, right? But he’s trying to get him to lower his view from who he truly is eternally. But I love what Moses says to him. He says, Who art thou? For behold, I am a son of God in the similitude of his only begotten.

And where is thy glory that I should worship thee? He’s like, this is the ultimate set down for Satan. He’s like, literally, when I was in the presence of God, I had to be translated. I fainted afterwards because it was so amazing. And I could just look at you like you’re nothing. And then he says this. In, verse 18, he says, I will not cease to call upon God.

I have other things to inquire of him for his glory has been upon me, wherefore I can [00:31:00] judge between him and thee depart, hence Satan. And I love that. That is the ultimate reminder that when we are thinking down here, that Satan’s view that he wants us at, and we have got to come back up to that celestial view.

Think celestial. Right. Where. You and I, yes, we have families. Yes. We came from families where maybe like I was the brat in my family. And so often I’ll think, Oh, I’m just Kristen, the brat. Heavenly father doesn’t want me down on that level. He wants me thinking up. I am his daughter. And so that is my favorite scripture because it’s so real life.

It’s like, these are the powers fighting for our attention. And we’ve just got to give our attention to God because that’s where we can make the biggest difference.

Karen Papin: I love how, like, actionable that is, too. It’s like, if you are having these thoughts of self doubt and fear and anything kind of trying to bring you down, it’s like Get the hand Satan, you know,

Speaker 6: say it out [00:32:00] loud.

Karen Papin: Yep. Oh, great. Well, Kristen, thank you. Oh, I do have one more question, and that is how can people connect with you?

Kristen Smith: I’m super creative guys. And so I have really fun names on Instagram and my website where you can find me. It’s it’s so original. It’s Kristen Walker Smith dot com. On Instagram at Kristen Walker Smith, so not easy to not find me, but Kristen, by the way, is spelled K R I S T E N, but you can find me there.

Karen Papin: Great, Kristen, thank you so much for coming on here. It’s been so fun talking to you about all this.

Kristen Smith: Thank you.

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You are of worth. You have a purpose. The Lord loves you, and He believes in you. And only you can make the impact on this world that you are meant to make. Join me next time as we talk more about divine worth and potential.