Circle 31 Podcast

Note: Please note that the text below is an uncorrected transcript of the audio captured for this podcast. We pray the Lord uses these words to bless you as you seek Him!

Kendra LeGrand: All right, everybody. We are back again. But we're back with somebody new. And so last week, we got to talk to the author of The Hidden Prince, Tessa. And this week and next week, we get to have our biblical content specialist on with us.

Her name is Wendy Blight. You know her. You love her. If you don't know her, I promise you will love her. Wendy, we're so happy that you're here.

Wendy Blight: A lot to live up to now, but I am so I'm more excited to be here than I ever thought I would be. So

Kendra LeGrand: Oh, yes. We're gonna get one that might be true, Wendy. And so let me give you some fun facts about Wendy.

First, like I said, she's a biblical content specialist, which is fun because you review every book that we do at Circle 31 to make sure it's biblically accurate. Also, you are a Baylor Bear. Y

Wendy Blight: Yeah, I am. Yeah.

Kendra LeGrand: You went to school in Texas. So that's quite fun. That's where you met your husband.

Wendy Blight: It is.

Kendra LeGrand: You also we talked a little bit about it.

I'm not gonna say you're a clean freak because I don't know if that's nice. But you and I both, we just like cleanliness. And so an organization, which I think is great to know about you.

And Wendy, let's see what else is there to say about you. You have two children, but you also have a wonderful son-in-law.

Wendy Blight: Yes. I feel like I have three.

Kendra LeGrand: Yes. Three children. And you love Disney.

Wendy Blight: And I absolutely love Disney, and I love college football.

Kendra LeGrand: Oh, and college football. Yes. And it okay. So we're reading this book in June. So you're listening to this in June. But Wendy, you also are pretty good at your March Madness bracket.

Wendy Blight: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Kendra LeGrand: So okay.

You can hold your own in this club. I can hold my own in college basketball. So That's right. And so okay. Girls, we are talking about part one of The Hidden Prince.

And so I just wanna know from each of you, what are you loving so far? Because Circle 31, we talk about books here. Of course, we talk about what the Lord is teaching us. But we like to read good books. And so, miss Wendy, what are you loving about The Hidden Prince?

Wendy Blight: The fact that I love it. Because about that. Because here's the thing. I was not excited we were doing this book. I'll just be honest. I shared that. I was not excited about doing biblical fiction. I, went from being a lawyer to a Bible teacher, which to me, it's all facts and taking facts and reasoning and making arguments and convincing people, persuading people.

And to me, I just didn't wanna read it. But, honestly, Tessa won my heart over in the first chapter in, the just the way she navigates developing characters, the way she writes. But most of all, what I loved is how she weaves in scripture without you really knowing it. There's no there's no, you know, addresses for the verses or anything. It's just woven in so beautifully that I can't wait to read another one of her books.

Kendra LeGrand: Yes. We should have that's what we need to ask her is what book, you know, should we read to follow-up the story. Right? I know we're not even done yet.

We're in part one. And so this is

Ellen Adkins: But that's how good it is. We're already looking forward to reading more from Tessa.

Kendra LeGrand: Okay. Wait, Ellen, before you answer about what you're loving, Tessa told us something, Wendy, that I think is good for all of us on the Circle 31 team. We were calling it biblical fiction, which is the genre. But she was like, I kinda don't like biblical fiction. I like saying fiction set in biblical times.

Wendy Blight: Oh, that's so good. Yes.

Kendra LeGrand: And so I just think that's good for all of us.

Ellen Adkins: Yes. She did say that she understands the skepticism some might feel coming into a biblical fiction. But we're changing that.

Kendra Legrand: Yes. We are. Changing it. That's right. Okay, Ellen.

What are you loving in part one?

Ellen Adkins: Okay. So part one, I don't wanna give any spoilers. It's hard to talk about this without giving any spoilers. So I would say this is like a very maybe a spoiler.

So oh, okay. Prepare yourself? Yeah. So in part one, there is something that happened.

There's a pretty significant accident that happens. Accident is a good word. Oh, yeah. Really life altering. Life all it is life altering and it really kind of sets the course of Keren's life.

But here's what I love. Okay? Is that this thing that for from Karen's perspective probably is the end of her life. Okay? And it happens in part one of this book.

And so it was very cool reading it knowing, wow, we still have three quarters of a book left. And I think that's just such a good reminder because sometimes in life things happen and you're like, this is simply the end, but it's not. And you're we're gonna see God working in Keren's life even, in the midst of some difficult circumstances.

Kendra LeGrand: That's a good foreshadow. Yeah.

Ellen Adkins: Was that too spoiler?

Wendy Blight: No. No. No. No.

Kendra LeGrand: No. No. Good. Because you did not give any details. Good. Yeah. No. Yeah. No details here.

You just gotta read it for yourself. Yeah. So something we did as a Circle 31 team was we got together and we really wanted to make sure Tessa does a great job about steeping it in scripture. We had it read by our biblical content specialist. But we also wanted to add an element of, of the Bible to take things a little deeper or to help us really focus on God's character, what he's doing.

And so we have a theme each week. Last week, we talked about the theme. This week's theme is God's favor. So Wendy, I remember sitting in a meeting with you, and we were talking about how to bring in different themes of the book to help us focus on God's character. And one of the themes that you saw instantly when reading the book is God's favor.

And so our mark our Director of Marketing said, “Hey, Wendy. Can you give me a quick definition of what God's favor is?” And so what is God's favor according to our biblical content specialist? And then would you say we all have it? So what would you say?

Wendy Blight: What I would say first is it's important to know you don't earn God's favor. Like, God gives his favor, but it's not earned. And I think that's something I learned as I studied this. It's a byproduct. And what it's a byproduct of is having a deep and abiding relationship with him, and that relationship is characterized by what I like to call a surrendered heart that loves him deeply.

It's a humble heart that just is seeking to always walk in step with the Lord, watching for His handiwork in your life, listening for His voice, responding to His Word. And when we do that, God begins to display His favor. In many ways, it can be divine blessings. It can be protection. It can be open doors that only God could open.

And each time we keep walking with him and stepping into those places, his favor increases more and more with us. And the reason is because he sees us being faithful stewarding what he's already blessed us with, and then that spending time just getting to know him in his heart and his voice and his character.

Kendra LeGrand: I love that. Yeah. Stewarding what he has already blessed us with.

That's so good. And what can that look like? Maybe that's like, maybe the people that he surrounded us with or maybe a job that he's given us. I don't know.

I'm just trying to think of, like, practically when you say, like, stewarding what he has given us. Is it you just look around and just see —

Wendy Blight: Well, I can give a good example of my daughter when she was, working at a secular you know, a big corporation, and, she just sorta would talk about her faith every now and then, but God began to give her favor more and more professionally. But at the same time, she ended up joining, like, a little bible study with some girls from work that couple weren't even probably what you would consider strong Christians that would be in a bible study. So things like that where he's giving you favor, but along the way, you look and listen and watch for ways that you can also share the faith that you have.

Ellen Adkins: As you've been reading, this week, we're in part one of The Hidden Prince. How have you seen God's favor show up in the life of Keren?

Wendy Blight: I love it. I love this. It makes me wanna cry because remembering you kind of already foreshadowed what you said, Ellen, earlier.

God has already written her story. Right? He writes all our stories before time began. He knew the call he had planted deep in her heart. He knew the path that she was gonna take to get there, and he knew it was gonna be hard.

But he just began placing his favor from the very beginning, putting her in a family that was gonna open the door for he her to even be able to go into Daniel and the and the castle and where he was. And, so open those doors for her to be trained by the best, to be the best scribe by Daniel. I mean, Daniel, our one of our favorite characters in scripture. And he served as her mentor, and then he gives her this vision of these hanging gardens, so that's more favor because then those gardens all the way through this book are just a thread to show her when she sees things that that's going to be her life, even in the midst of hard things.

That lush, lavish garden is what the vision he gave her because he had gone before her and prepared her.

Kendra LeGrand: I googled after when I got to the Hanging Gardens, I think isn't it one of the seven wonders of the world or something like that? Yeah. Okay.

Ellen Adkins: Of the ancient world.

Kendra LeGrand: Oh, of the ancient world. I googled what that could look like. And the pictures are, you know, they're like they're like big drawings and whatnot. They're beautiful of what they could have possibly, you know, looked like back then. And so I love that. That was a reminder for her as she goes through her life that the Lord kept bringing, you know, those little glimpses in of, like, no. No. I'm still I'm still here.

I'm still around. Yeah. Yes. I got you.

Wendy Blight: I think and but going back to what we talked about earlier, if I could just say quickly that God did all those things, and he will do the same for us.

It's just surrendering the hard things. She surrendered the hard things in her life to him instead of staying stuck in them. She surrendered them, which allowed her eyes then to be open, her ears to be open, her heart to be open, to walk in obedience even when it was hard. She was trusting, and then she had that vision. And that's when we're in the word, that's what we get.

God that's how we may not have a Daniel there, but we've got the Holy Spirit speaking to us through his word that can give us the promises to hold on to get to that place. Such a good reminder, Wendy.

Kendra LeGrand: Such a good reminder. All right, you brought up, trust and, what we love is we love offering you guys resources completely free, downloadable, that just help you engage with scripture, go to scripture and just see how, you can learn and see how you can grow in your faith. And so if you look in the show notes, we actually have something for you. It's called “Choosing to Trust Over Taking Control: 10 Compassionate Devotions That Will Increase Your Faith While Decreasing Your Doubts.” And I'm gonna go with you guys.

After the accident happened, which we talked a little bit about, that maybe Karen was doubting God's goodness or how anything good could come from it. And so if you might you might be in that place, and so that resource is for you in the show notes. And luckily, this is not the last time we get to hear from Wendy. And so, Wendy, we'll be back next week with us as we talk about part two of the book. Maybe we can even give a little more color to the accident now that everyone would have read it.

And so we're gonna talk a little bit more. But thank you for joining us. And everyone, thank you. And we'll talk to you guys soon. Bye, everybody.