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!

Ellen Adkins: Welcome to another week of the Circle 31 Podcast. I am your host, Ellen Adkins, and I am here with my cohost, Melissa Taylor. Melissa, how are you doing today?

Melissa Taylor: Hi. I'm doing great. I'm so happy to be here.

Ellen Adkins: Oh, I'm so glad you're here. We are reading Five Mere Christians this month in Circle 31 Book Club, and last week, we heard from authors Jordan and Kaleigh talk about how work is not just what you do to get paid to do, but there is a lot of different types of work that God has set out before us to do. And so today, we are in for such a treat because we have one of my very best friends in the whole wide world on this podcast, miss Brooke Swift. Brooke, welcome.

Brooke Swift: Hi, Ellen.

Ellen Adkins: Hi. I'm so glad to have you here. And we have Brooke on this podcast because she spends her days in the trenches. She has three children and one on the way and spends her days as a stay-at-home mom. Wow. How are you doing, Brooke?

Brooke Swift: I'm good.

Ellen Adkins: Good. I'm so glad. They didn't all come at once. So yeah. They didn't all come at once, which is a grace from God. So, before we get started with our conversation, I would like to have a little icebreaker with you two lovely ladies. Is that okay? Okay. Go for it. Go for it. I'd like to know, when you were a kid, what was your dream job?

Brooke Swift: Mine was to be an author.

Oh, was it really? Yeah. I wrote a lot and, like, wrote little stories. And in the first grade, my teacher actually let me, like, read them to the class. Oh. So, I had a little bit of a complex. I thought this is so easy. Oh, yeah. And then you just could have, like, people will just listen to you and talk to you. So, yeah, I wanted to be an author. That's what I thought would happen.

Ellen Adkins: I wanted to be a National Geographic photographer. That was my dream.

Melissa Tayloe: I can actually see that. Too.

Brooke Swift: I can totally see that. Yeah.

Ellen Adkins: Thank you.

Melissa Taylor: Yeah. I was like, that might still happen.

Ellen Adkins: Yes. It could. Who knows? Oh. So, what about you?

Melissa Taylor: Okay. Mine is gonna sound super silly.

Ellen Adkins: No. It won't. I can't wait.

Melissa Taylor: This is like when I was seven years old. I wanted to be in the circus. Yes. And I told even would lie to my friends and told them that I rode my bike in the circus.

Ellen Adkins: Oh my gosh.

Melissa Taylor: Yes. But for like for Christmas I got stilts. Oh wow. And I mean I wanted to learn like what could I do that the circus would want. Oh, wow.

Obviously, here I am, not the circus skills. Yes. Yes.

Ellen Adkins: Really just brushing up your resume. I think that's great. That is great. That's fun. Okay. Brooke, since you're on the podcast, I would love to hear just a little bit about yourself, your journey to being a stay-at-home mom. Was that always the plan for you to be home with the kiddos, or is that something that God kind of, shifted you towards in different ways?

Melissa Taylor: Ellen knows.

Brooke Swift: Yeah.

Ellen Adkins: It was a leading question. I know the answer to this.

Brooke Swift: Yeah.

So, I right after college, went to seminary. I started following Jesus in college, and, I think, like, probably most people that, have that change in college start following Jesus had just a lot of zeal to go do ministry. And that was also affirmed by some leaders and people in my life. And so I went to seminary, and shortly into that, of some mentors of ours invited us to help, start a church in Charlotte, which is how we got to Charlotte.

Ellen Adkins: And Brooke and I both.

Brooke Swift: That's how we got to Charlotte. Both got to Charlotte.

Ellen Adkins: Yeah.

Brooke Swift: So, I, at the time, thought that I would do something with teaching in some capacity, maybe writing. And I got a surprise at the in the middle end of seminary, which was getting pregnant.

Yeah. And like a friend told me in that season, nothing quite clarifies, the will of God, like a surprise pregnancy.

Melissa Taylor: Right. Mhmm.

Brooke Swift: And so that was that was also during COVID.

It that I found out in October 2019 about the baby and was completely shocked. And so, yeah, then everything shut down, and we were getting ready to move. And so, I think had world circumstances been different, I don't know what would have happened, but there was a very clear, like, I think staying home is going to be what happens. I don't know if there's a natural thing to move on to. And our pastor was very clear, like, you can't come to this church plant expecting a job.

I have no idea if we'd ever be able to pay you. Yeah. So, the expectation moving down here was there's no paid ministry work waiting for you. So that's what brought me to being a stay-at-home mom.

Melissa Taylor: Wow.

Brooke Swift: It wasn't, the thing that I that I picked necessarily or first saw, but definitely see, like, the Lord's hand in in orchestrating that. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Ellen Adkins: How has being a stay-at-home mom helped you look more like Jesus? I feel like that's such a big, loaded question, but I'm just gonna kick it to you and see what you say. Yeah. See what happens.

Melissa Taylor: I said to Ellen, I was like, well, some days it really doesn't make me look like Jesus at all.

Brooke Swift: I can tell you how it makes me look like a big fat sinner. Yeah. Yeah. No. But I, thankfully had some time to meditate on this.

Mhmm. And I think that the thing that really stuck out to me, I heard a pastor once say that the gospel can really be summarized for as, like, Christ's life for yours. And so, I was thinking about that, like, my life for yours and thinking about how much that applies to motherhood. But any motherhood, whether you're working outside the home or staying at home, I think maybe just staying home, it's these twenty-four seven things, but this my life for yours, like, my comfort for yours, my body for yours, my sleep for yours, like the list goes on. I think you could we could spend so much time thinking about ways that moms give up something of themselves for the flourishing of their children.

And so, I think that motherhood has been a really tangible way that has allowed me to share in Christ's suffering on behalf of bringing life to somebody else. And that made me think of in Romans eight when it talks about how we can share in Christ's suffering, which allows us to experience his glory. And so, I think that motherhood has been a forced way to experience that, not necessarily me choosing the high road, but God being like, all right. Go into the pressure cooker and you will share in my suffering Right to experience my glory.

Melissa Taylor: Right. Because since your first, which you said was right after COVID Yeah. There's been two more. Yeah. Right?

Brooke Swift: Yep.

Melissa Taylor: And now one on the way.

Brooke Swift: And now another one on the way. So yes.

Melissa Taylor: How wonderful that you are at home with those sweet kids.

Brooke Swift: You know? Yeah. And now this this thing that started out as a surprise is definitely now something I would choose Right.

Melissa Taylor: Warts and all. Kinda paved the way.

Brooke Swift: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yes. But the rest, it just happened. Yeah.

Ellen Adkins: Yes. Yeah. Yep. And it's sweet too because I think God and his kindness also for a season allowed you to you, she worked part time Yes. At our church in the as the children's director.

And so, it was cool too just seeing how God worked in Brooke's life to, you know, allow that for a season as well. Right. Yeah.

Brooke Swift: And that that's I think that another thing that this has taught me too is that ministry doesn't look always doesn't necessarily look like being on staff at a church or a, like, a public facing ministry. Right.

And so, I think through stepping back from that, I've worked for a couple different churches over the years, and I think that, stepping back from that, I've had to evaluate, like, what does it look like to just be a member of your church Mhmm. Or to just be a member of the body. I say just as if that's, like, a thing that's beneath. But do you know, just to like, you're not you're not in front of people, but you're in motherhood, I think, is often, like, the unseen position Mhmm. In a lot of ways.

So, I think that that's been really growing too.

Ellen Adkins: Yeah. Yeah. Melissa, prior to working at Proverbs thirty-one, you spent many years at a stay as a stay-at-home mom. What encouragement would you give somebody like Brooke who is wanting to honor God while they are, as I said, in the trenches of, everyday motherhood?

Melissa Taylor: Well, I would say first looking back, I don't think I appreciate it enough. Or I guess I was so stressed a lot of the times, or I would beat myself up for not, you know, maybe not getting it right. But I look back and I think it was the best some of the best years of my life. And, I would just say, first of all, I can tell you honor God in in the way that you're raising your kids and in what you do and but just don't forget to give yourself that grace when you feel like maybe you're not. And, that time spent taking care of your family is time well spent that no one can ever take away from you.

Yeah. And to put other things off to, slow down for them, I don't know what honors God in this season for you more than that because it goes so fast. I mean, just like that, it is like boom, gone. And then also, I don't know if you ever have this, but I know that when I started having kids, especially when they started walking around, I would get up early, try to have my quiet time, and then here comes somebody calling in my lap or wanting something. And I'd be like, oh, can I ever get my quiet time?

And then I just felt God say to me one time, you know what? Just pick them up in your lap and just love on them. That is time with me. You know? If they need something and you're doing it, then you're serving me too because that child is ultimately mine.

And so, if the kids are the reason that you can't do maybe some things in your life you thought you would do or you can't have that quiet time, it's gonna be the best decisions that you ever made in your life. You're totally honoring God. Yeah. That that way. And I don't think I realized at the time how much I was honoring God Yeah.

Just by being again, not just by being, but by being a stay-at-home mom at that time. That was right for me. Yeah.

Brooke Swift: Yeah. Thanks for sharing that.

It, I think that the thing that I've been telling myself a lot over the past almost six years is that, like, everything we put down for the sake of Mhmm. Serving Christ, like, he is holding for us. You know? And so, like, yeah, in in God's kingdom, like, we don't have to self-protect our time or our bodies or whatever we think we need in a lot of ways that that God is caring for us and holding on to us. And so, I think that example of quiet time is such a tangible example.

Yes. It's ironic how willing I will be to sin against my children in the name of peace and quiet. Yes. Yes. Even baptized, and this is quiet time with the Lord.

Melissa Taylor: Yes. Well, I love how you said my time for yours. Mhmm. That was such a great example Yeah. Of how you honor God.

Brooke Swift: Yeah. Thank you.

Ellen Adkins: Yeah. Well, Brooke, thank you so much for this conversation. I just love you dearly, and I'm glad that other people are getting to hear a little bit of your heart.

Next week in book club, we're going to be reading chapter three of Five Mere Christians as we learn all about the life of Ole Kirk Christiansen, who is the founder of LEGO. Brooke, you know a thing or two about LEGOs, don't you?

Brooke Swift: The pain. Yeah. It is funny because I Step on one in the middle of the day.

Ellen Adkins: You know that pain. Bought my car from Brooke and her husband, last year. And just this past weekend, I laid down the seats, and I found a bunch of LEGOs. And I was like, I know who those belong to. Yeah.

So, Love it. Little sprinkles from the kids. All right. Guys, it's been wonderful, and we will see you back next week for another episode of the Circle 31 Podcast.