Parent Compass Radio

Nicole Mullen: The Lord showed me a blueprint that is mine to seek help, to operate in forgiveness, to do the right thing even in the midst of the wrong thing being done to me, and then to allow Him to decide whether to get or quit. He is good at His job. The Lord is. He can be trusted.

Real Christian Families: Welcome to Parent Compass, where we walk together with God in the right direction. We're very excited to have Nicole Mullen with us today, a nine-time Dove Award-winning and Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter known worldwide, especially for her song, "Redeemer." If you haven't heard it, you've got to. It's a soaring declaration of faith and hope.

Nicole makes her acting debut as Elizabeth Freeman, a slave set free, in the Heroic Pictures film, "American Miracle." And now her new book, which came out last September, "It's Never Wrong to Do the Right Thing." Nicole recounts personal experiences of hardship, including abuse and betrayal, and how God redeemed those dark days with His unwavering love. We're really excited you're with us, Nicole. Thank you for being here.

Nicole Mullen: Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure.

Real Christian Families: How in the world does it feel to have nine Dove Awards and be Grammy-nominated? Because I'm never going to know.

Nicole Mullen: I'm honored for it, but I also know that it is a part of the crown that I will have to lay down at the feet of Christ and that I give to Him. So, although I am honored and thrilled to have them, at the end of the day, it's to God be the glory because without Him I'd have nothing. Whether it's an award or not, I'd have nothing without Christ.

Real Christian Families: Tell me about those nine awards. What were the songs?

Nicole Mullen: A couple of them were for Female Vocalist of the Year. There was Song of the Year, Contemporary Song of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, and things like that.

Real Christian Families: What were the songs?

Nicole Mullen: One of the first awards that I won from the Dove Awards was for "On My Knees."

(Singing) I get on my knees. I get on my knees.

Jackie Velasquez sang it first, but I was a part of the trio to write the song. After that, I won an award for "Redeemer."

(Singing) I know my Redeemer lives. I know my Redeemer lives. All of creation testifies. This life within me cries. I know my Redeemer lives.

Then "Call on Jesus" and a couple of other songs. The Lord has been good.

Real Christian Families: That's just so fabulous. I was hoping you would sing sometime during the interview. Your whole life has not been all peaches and songs, running through the daisies. You have this book out, "It's Never Wrong to Do the Right Thing." In it, you talk about some of these difficult things. What choice did you make as a young person that set a path that caused pain?

Nicole Mullen: There were a couple of things. I will say this, even in the book, it highlights a lot of stories of other women and men who faced hard decisions as well, but had the choice to make the right or the wrong. Sometimes they chose poorly and sometimes they chose righteously, but in it all, when they gave that decision to the Lord, He was able to work it together for their good.

For me, personally, I grew up in a Christian home. Life looked like it was just peaches and cream throughout my younger years. I went to Bible school at the age of 17 and I met someone at the age of 20. 20 is when everything just began to change. I met someone and Mom said he's not the right one. I thought I was going to prove that this could be the will of God.

We proceeded and for the next three years, after I said I do, he beat me physically, spiritually, and emotionally. There were times that I thought he was going to kill me. There were times that I asked him to just go ahead and finish it as he had my neck against the wall. There were times that I remember asking God if He would take me in my sleep. I remember feeling that low, dark feeling of hopelessness.

In the midst of it, that's where Christ showed up. When I thought that God was going to say, "Okay, you got yourself in it, good Christian girl. Now get yourself out of it," He didn't. He was like, "I'll join you. Yea, though you walk through the valley." It was there that He began to breathe hope into my spirit. He began to surround me with good people who could help me. He showed me stories from the Bible of people that He delivered out of hardship.

One of them I wrote about in my book is Abigail. I wrote about how she had a difficult relationship and how God gave her wisdom, intelligence, strategy, favor, and eventually, He gave her deliverance. He handled the one who was doing her wrongly. She didn't have to get them back. God got them back.

The Lord showed me a blueprint that mine is to seek help, to operate in forgiveness, to do the right thing even in the midst of the wrong thing being done to me, and then to allow Him to decide whether to get or quit. He is good at His job. The Lord is. He can be trusted. I'm here today because the Lord delivered.

From that season, I went into another season and I've had the ups and downs like anyone else has. But it was in the midst of the hard times of life where God began to sing over me and sing through me. I found myself in a season of not knowing what was going to happen next and I read the Book of Job. Job is not really a book in the Bible that you read when you want to be encouraged.

However, there's Chapter 19 that's smack-dab in the middle. In the middle of it is where Job begins to hope against hope. He doesn't know the end of the story like we know. We know that at the end God's going to restore him, give him twice as much wealth, health, and His children back. Job doesn't know this in Chapter 19, but he begins to say, "I wish somebody would write this down for me." And they did.

He said, "But I know that my Redeemer lives and in the last day, He's going to stand up on the earth. And though my body be destroyed, in my flesh, I'm going to see God." He hoped against hope in the night season. He didn't wait until the day came and everything looked great again. It was in the midst of his heartache.

I sat there one day after reading this, and I was in the midst of my heartache, and I thought, if Job can say this about God and what he's gone through, and I haven't gone through an iota of what he's gone through.

Real Christian Families: Mention what he went through.

Nicole Mullen: Job went through his wealth being taken away, all ten of his children killed in one day, his servants were murdered, his animals, his reputation. His body was infirm to where he had sores from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet. His wife told him to curse God and die; she had turned on him. His friends came from out of town to encourage him but they began to discourage him and blame him.

He didn't know that there was a conversation that went on in heaven about him. It was between God and the devil. God actually baits the devil and He says to the devil, "Have you considered my servant Job? Job is blameless." Sometimes we feel like I'm doing the right thing, Lord, and this happened to me. You just don't know if God has a good bet on you, that God is pulling for you, saying, "But guess what, she's going to come through. I'm going to pull her through."

The devil said, "Yeah, but Job only serves you, God, because you've given him all this stuff. If you take away all the blessings, I promise you Job's going to curse you to your face." God said, basically, "Take the bet. Let's see." The devil went and he was allowed to do damage to Job, but the stipulation was he could not take Job's life.

Job wanted to die. Job was hoping that he could die. He was in so much pain inside and out. But again, that's where in the midst of his night season, he saw a glimmer of hope. I believe that what he said in the middle of his night season is what hastened the day to come.

My encouragement to people often is you might be going through a hard time right now, but be careful what you say. Make it your declaration to declare who God is, even if you don't feel it, even if you don't see it yet, even if you don't know how He's going to get you out. Make it your declaration to say what Job says. "But I know. I'm assured of this right here. The one who is able to buy back my pain and my shame." That's what a redeemer does.

He is alive and because He is alive, He sees me. He hears me. He knows me. He cares about me. He loves me. And He's going to get me out of this situation and He's going to get the glory and the praise from it. So He brought me out and in my night season, He gave me that song and I've been singing it ever since as a battle cry, as a mantra, as a declaration, as my sacrifice of praise because not only is it true, but it is the truth of the Word.

Real Christian Families: It's fun to see the Lord's army join in the world to either listen or sing. It's so popular and it doesn't matter how many times you hear it, you want to hear it again and again. It's wonderful. Thank you for blessing people. I honestly didn't realize that it was from Job.

Nicole Mullen: Isn't that something? Who would have thought? Old Testament. God vindicated him. At the end of the day, double for his trouble. He really did. That's what's waiting for us. Double for our trouble, absolutely, and then some. No eye can see or ear can imagine what the Lord has in store for us. It's beautiful. Hold on to hope, hold on to the Lord in the midst of whatever you're going through.

Real Christian Families: He can cut through even what's going on and give us that piece of heaven right now.

Nicole Mullen: That's what He did for Job. He didn't just say, "Job, when you get to heaven, I'm going to give it to you." No, Job experienced redemption here as well. Twice as much as his wealth that he had before. He experienced health in his body. He experienced longevity of life. He experienced ten more children. There are things in this life and in the life to come that are ours to have if we believe in Christ.

Real Christian Families: Obviously, you're this incredible singer, but you also went to Bible school. You love the Word.

Nicole Mullen: I love the Word. I have since I was a kid. I think it's because I love the God of the Word. He can be trusted and He has great stories in there. I say all the time, if you want romance, it's in the Bible. If you want the supernatural, it's in the Bible. Whatever it is, it's found in the scripture. There are stories in the Bible about every facet of our lives, from parenting to relationships to finances to health.

God has something to say and He has good models in the scripture for us to be able to use as a blueprint. That again is why I wrote the book, so that we can see, "Okay, when I'm in this situation, what did so-and-so do? So let me borrow the same wisdom. Let me operate out of the same intelligence, out of the same knowledge and the heart of God in my situation so that we can have success in what it is that God has called us to do and to have."

Real Christian Families: Were there other people in the Bible that helped you through that very difficult time?

Nicole Mullen: Abigail, of course. Jochebed. I love how she protected life and how she was a part of the adoption of her son. She preserved his life even in the midst of the government saying that you have to eliminate, you have to kill your newborns. She decided, "I'm not going to do that."

She, in essence, without even knowing the scripture, she did Matthew 6:33. "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness," His right way of doing things, His right relationship, His right standing. And then He said everything else that you have need of will be added to you. She sought the heart of God, and it facilitated an adoption into the royal family. Eventually, her son, Moses, became the deliverer of over a million children of Israel from Egypt toward the promised land.

Hannah is another one of my "she-roes" that I've learned from. What do you do with a broken heart? She wanted a child and she was barren. She wanted to be a parent. She was being made fun of by the other woman who was able to have children and would taunt her year after year.

Hannah figured out where to take her broken heart. She knew that she could get back at the other woman but that wasn't going to satisfy or solve her problem. She took her broken heart to the one who could make a change. She brought it before the Lord and she hurt so bad. Sometimes the best prayer you can pray is just tears.

The Bible says she was crying, she was praying in her heart, but she was making no sound. There were no words coming out of her mouth. We've all been there with whatever the details were. God heard her even in that and she made a vow to God. She said, "If you give me a son, I'm going to give him back to you all the days of his life." God heard her and God was like, "Gotcha." God allowed her to conceive and she gave birth to not just a regular child but to a child that she named Samuel because she asked God for him.

God allowed her son to be the leader of the whole nation for a long time. Samuel anointed the first king of Israel, Saul, and the second king, King David, who is famous. He installed those kings and he was the leader, but it wouldn't have happened had his mother Hannah not cried out to God and made a deal and taken her sorrow there and believed God that He would do the impossible.

What God did for her is Him showing what He can do for us. It's for us to gain faith and not just say that was a nice Bible story. That just happened back then. No, that's what happens now because He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. God doesn't change. And if we're honest, neither does human nature. We still need Him and He's still faithful to His Word.

Real Christian Families: There's someone in your book that I saw the movie, "American Miracle." I loved it. Embarrassingly, I had never heard of her. No idea about that story.

Nicole Mullen: Her name is Elizabeth Freeman. This is my debut as an actress on the big screen. I had never heard of her before until they asked me to play the part. I had to go and investigate a little bit. She was a slave that lived in the 1700s. Why they didn't teach us this at school, I don't know.

I think this would have been healing for so many of us on every side had they taught the truth of what happened in a lot of aspects and not just harped on the bad. Elizabeth was a slave in the 1700s and she couldn't read but she could retain. She could hear. She had heard her master and his friends who were lawyers. Her master was a lawyer and then became a judge. She kept hearing them talk about the Sheffield Resolves.

They were in Massachusetts and they were putting together resolves for them to let England know that they wanted to be free. She retained it. Then she heard in 1776 that based off of the Sheffield Resolves, the Declaration of Independence was written. It was saying all men were created equal and independent of each other and free. She's thinking, "Okay, all men."

Then she heard it the third time. The Constitution of Massachusetts was written and it says all men are created equal, independent of each other. She's like, "Wait, hold up. Something's got to give." She and her mistress had an altercation. She had gotten beat a little bit. She ran away. She ran away to one of the lawyers who was a friend of her master. She said to him, "Okay, I've heard you all talk. I've been listening and you've been talking about all men being created equal. Pretty much you all want to be free from the crown and I want to be free. Does 'all men' mean me as well? Am I included?"

He had to sit back and think like, "Well, I kind of got caught in that right there. How do I...?" He said, "Yes, you're all mankind." He decided to take her case. He took it before the court and they had an all-white jury in front of an all-white judge. All of them unanimously agreed that she should be free.

They gave her her freedom in 1781 and then in 1783, all of the slaves in Massachusetts were freed subsequently. After that, it took another hundred years for the rest of the slaves in the United States, but hers was granted because she asked. She was willing to take what she heard and to apply it and make a request.

Real Christian Families: She was hit with something.

Nicole Mullen: An iron from the fireplace. It was awful. The burn was like a branding iron thing that you use in the fire. She kept the wound exposed all winter long so that people would ask her what happened. When they'd ask, she'd say, "Ask madame," like ask mrs. because she did it. That was kind of her revenge.

Eventually, because of that, it facilitated her saying, "Enough is enough." I think sometimes God will let us grow uncomfortable in our situation so that we will crave a change and to let us know that He has change available. He has something different for us. I think that if her life remained comfortable enough, she may have just settled for, "Ah, it's not that bad." But because of that particular wound right there, it was like, "Okay, no, I can't live with this."

I think the same is true with us, even as parents. When it's time to deliver a child, it's not the fact that we are feeling so good about everything that makes us say, "Now it's time to push." No, it's the discomfort. It's the, "This hurts so bad," that lets us know that new life is about to begin. New life is about to be birthed through us.

I think the same is true oftentimes with us. Sometimes we want to put a period where God is just putting a comma. This pain is not the end of it. It's just a part of it. It's a part of the process to bring you into what it is that I have for you. The thing I'm going through is not the end of me. It's the beginning of me. It's the beginning of a new chapter. It's a part of your story for the glory of God and for the good of you.

Don't be afraid of that process. In that process, cry out to God like we do as women. "I need you, Lord! Can you help me?" Every single time He's there. Either He's going to walk us through to the end on this side or He's going to walk us through to the end on that side. Either way, we win. The victory is already done in Jesus Christ. Either way, we win.

Real Christian Families: Going back to your situation where you were being beaten for three years and obviously verbally abused and spiritually abused, how did you get out?

Nicole Mullen: The Lord, at the right time. There's an appointed time. I remember one of the times I had left and I felt like I had escaped a hundred times and I kept going back. But I say there's a proper season for everything. At the end of it, it was like I knew this was the time. The push is here. The contractions are leading to something different and it's not this.

I remember looking around the room and he was arguing and he was about to start the same cycle. I looked around the room and I said, "Okay, my shoes are over there, my purse is there," and just had to map it out because he was going to take a shower. As he went into the bathroom, I walked over to my things and he came back out of the bathroom and I didn't know it. I was like, "Oh my goodness," so I left those things alone because I didn't want what was going to come next.

Then he went back in and I heard the water change because the sound of the water hitting the body is different than the water hitting the tub. I gathered my things and I ran down the stairs, the flight of stairs that we were... we were in an apartment. I remember sleeping in my car that night and I told the Lord, I said, "Lord, I can't do it. I can't go back. I just can't do it."

I felt like the biggest failure. I felt like, my parents had been married for forever and a day, my grandparents, and I was like, "I just can't do it." I thought the Lord was going to be mad at me, but instead He shielded me. Instead, He delivered me. Instead, He kept me. He gave me friends and family members who said, "You can sleep on my couch tonight. You can sleep in our extra bedroom tomorrow night. You can go over here." He showed me He had places for me to stay until I was in safety.

He kept me and before I knew it, I came to Nashville. It was the worst of times but He allowed the worst of times to become the best of times. During the worst of times as I'm running, God allowed me to sing background for Amy Grant, people that I had grown up listening to. I couldn't believe it.

I was like, "How is it that in the midst of my night season, in the worst of times, you would allow it to be my best? That you would give me something that I didn't deserve? That you would shower me with love and with safety and with care?" But that was His nature. That's who He is. I thought He was somebody different, but He's like, "No, I am who I say I am. I'm not who people say I am. I'm who I say I am." And He is good.

He kept me and then from there, He allowed me to travel with other people. Just like Abigail in the Bible when I wrote about her in my book, I didn't have to try and seek retribution on the one who beat me. Mine was to forgive and to allow God to decide whether to get or to quit. God decided to get.

I forgave. Eventually, I got a phone call many years later and he had remarried and he had children. I didn't have any children with him. He had passed away from a heart attack. It wasn't mine to... I didn't rejoice and I didn't mourn, but I prayed for his spouse and his family.

My point is God did it. I didn't have to take it in my own hands and I learned that from Abigail in the Bible. God did the same with her husband Nabal. He was a narcissist. He was mean. He was wicked. He was evil. That's how the scriptures described him. Eventually, after ten days, God took him out. God dealt with him. Abigail did the right thing in the midst of a hard season.

Ours is to be found faithful in the midst of our hardship regardless of if your story is similar or completely different than mine or anyone else's. The principles are the same. That's why I wrote the book, so that we would know how to navigate scary times. We would know how to cling to the Word in uncertain times, in our own insecurities when we don't know what to do or where to go. This is what the Word says. Let me break it down for you. Let me not water it down but break it down into bite-sizes so that you can consume it and then you can live it out and you'll know what it says and how to do it.

Real Christian Families: I heard a domestic violence person talk and they had all kinds of statistics on the person who's the perpetrator. What they were warning Christians against is don't think it's okay to go to the person and say, "I'm leaving." According to the statistics, he will be worse to you and may even kill you. So what they say is what you did. You need to completely escape without telling them.

Nicole Mullen: You have to have a plan. You don't want to tell the abuser your thoughts of, "I'm thinking about..." No, just keep that between you and Jesus and a trusted few. I had to seek wise counsel from pastors, from godly people. I had to walk in their counsel. Based on their counsel, they made certain judgment calls that were for the betterment and the safety of me and my family.

Was it disappointing? Yes, not with them but with the person who caused the disappointment. I still have to do the work. I forgive. I don't hate. I'm not out to get someone. But the Word still works even in the midst of things that I don't know how they're going to work.

Even in that, I trust God. I say, "Lord, you're faithful." I choose to make my life an altar and on that altar I put my sacrifice of praises. In that I still say, "My Redeemer lives." This life has hills and it has valleys, but God is always good. He's always strong. He's always true. Keep me in your prayers even in that because I know what I've gone through. A lot of women are going through it. I hear it all the time.

We can sometimes on the outside appear to have everything together but the truth is, is it together here? Is my allegiance to God? Am I walking upright before Him? Am I being found faithful to Him? If so, the rest of it may come and go. That song says:

(Singing) Rain came wind blew. Rain came wind blew. My house is built on you. I'm safe with you. I'm gonna make it through.

The rain's going to come for all of us. The wind's going to blow on all of us. It's going to beat upon that house, the Bible promises that. But the only houses that will be standing strong after the storm are those of us who have found our foundation and made our foundation Jesus Christ and the Word of God.

That's how I live my life. Relationships come and they may go. People may die, people may change, people may do things they shouldn't do. But may our hope be founded on Christ who is the ultimate Kinsman Redeemer, who is the lover of my soul, who is my ultimate husband, my ultimate father.

Real Christian Families: I love the comparison of building the house on the sand. That's the one that just is destroyed by the storm. That's when we choose something outside of what God has for us.

Nicole Mullen: Outside of the right thing.

Real Christian Families: How do you encourage people to make these right choices? Because every day you have choices that are going to affect your life.

Nicole Mullen: We do. Sometimes we don't think about the ramifications of our decisions either. Sometimes we think that oh, this is just a little decision, it doesn't really matter. But every decision matters. Not that we should live paranoid, but we should live saturated by the Word of God so that we have a better chance of making the right decision on every occasion possible.

The more I get a chance to know the voice of God, the better I am in discerning the right from the wrong. Have I perfected it? No, but am I a work in progress? Yes, I am. Am I learning every single day? Yes, I am. But that comes from me knowing what He says and it starts with the Word of God. The more I read His word and His word reads me, the better I am to discern.

My dad, he's in heaven right now. He was a wonderful father, married to my mom for 54 years. My dad, we had great conversations. He was always encouraging me. He sang like Nat King Cole. We had conversations on almost everything. Now that my dad is in heaven, because I knew his voice, I knew his thoughts, I knew how he thought on certain things, I can now apply that to other situations and go, "Okay, I know how Dad would have... I know what Dad would have said about this." Because I knew his voice.

Well, the same is true. The more I get to know the voice of God by reading His word, I get a chance to know, oh, this is how what you think on parenting. These are instructions that you give me to follow. Now I know what you think concerning this particular relationship. Now I know your heart on these other issues.

If I seek you first, seek what you think, how you do things, if I seek first your kingdom and your righteousness, again, everything that I'm in need of will be added to me. But it starts with me knowing His word so that I can hear His voice, better discern in my choices whether they're small or great. Because sometimes it's the small ones that turn into the greatest of benefits.

The small choice to write a song and to sing it. To read the Book of Job that day. That small choice has turned into millions of lives that have been touched, not because of my brilliance, but because of God's goodness and His glory. He breathed on it. Might He want to breathe on your decisions too and allow it to be multiplied for the good of many?

Real Christian Families: He's waiting there for us to just be willing. How much more will God give good gifts to those who ask? Specifically in Luke, it says what that good gift is and it's the Holy Spirit.

Nicole Mullen: You need power. I talk about it in the book. You'll receive power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. He's the same spirit that says over in Genesis that how when God made Adam, he lay on the ground as a corpse. And then God breathed into Adam the breath of life. Breath, and that's the same word for spirit, breath, wind. And man became a living soul. It gave life to him.

We were born with a spirit, the spirit of God, but then that spirit in us became corrupted by sin. But Christ came to pour out the Holy Spirit on us again to redeem us, to renew us, and also to give us the power to be a witness. There's a whole chapter in the book about that, my upper room experience as a kid and how the Lord has anointed my tongue to be able to speak for Him as someone who was an ex-stutterer. Yes. I still speak fast, I'm still a fast talker, but that's the Lord.

There's a difference between the Spirit of God coming on you and the Spirit of God filling you. He wants us to be continually filled with the spirit. Be filled with the spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms, in hymns, in spiritual songs, singing and making melodies in your heart to the Lord. And that comes from also being filled with the spirit.

And of course, there's all the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Love, joy, peace. He tells us if there's a choice between the gifts of the spirit, the things that can make you look good, speaking in tongues and the laying on of hands and giving all your stuff away to look good, I'm helping people who are poor. If there's a choice between the gifts of the spirit and the fruit of the spirit, the fruit of the spirit trump the gifts of the spirit.

Paul said, though I have the gifts, though I speak with tongues of men and of angels over here the gifts, and have not love, the fruit, he says I am nothing. The fruit of the spirit, the proof that the spirit of God is on the inside of you, is not that you just do all these wonderful things over here, but that you have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, temperance, meekness, gentleness, self-control. That's the fruit, that's the proof of the Holy Spirit being on the inside of you. Then after that, I think the icing on the cake are the gifts of the spirit. But if you had to choose, choose the fruit.

I believe that God has placed what I call gold inside of all of us. I think we all have purpose, we all have a calling, we all have general things that we're all called to do, but then there are specific purposes that God has called each and every one of us to fulfill. I love encouraging people and I want to help them to be unleashed. I want to unleash the dreamer on the inside of them.

I'm putting together a free masterclass if people want to go through it and just learn what it is that God has actually put inside of them to say, "Okay, what is it, God, that you've endowed me with?" Mine may have been singing, but yours might be something far greater. It may not feel that great. It may just feel like it's what I do. Singing is just what I do. But God is able to take the little and multiply it. What is your little? What is your gift that He's given you?

He's given all of us gifts and He's given all of us talents. According to the scripture, our gifts are to be given, our talents are to be monetized. My heart is to see people excel in what God has for them, to know the Word and then to live the Word. To know it and to do it.

In the knowing section, of course, I'm doing music still. I have Psalm 91 War Songs that help you declare the Word of God through song. If you sing the songs, you will have sung the entire chapter word for word, as a sword from your mouth and to the heart of the enemy. I love that. You can listen to that even now on Spotify, iTunes, Apple, wherever you listen to music.

War Songs, Psalm 91. I'm singing it in English but there's narration in French, another narration in Hebrew, another narration in Chichewa. I'm working on Psalm 139 as well and other passages of scripture. Many ways that people can connect.

At the end of the day, I want them to know that they're loved. I want you to know you're loved. You're seen, you're heard. Christ has not forgotten about you. He knows exactly where you are. He knows what He's placed inside of your heart. He knows what your contribution is and how to allow you to bloom where He has planted you. You're no accident. God wants to use you there. Don't take for granted the small. Don't despise the day of small beginnings because God is able to blow on the small and make it into something great because He's God. Give Him your natural, let Him put the super on it and together we have the supernatural.

Real Christian Families: "You are God's workmanship" or "masterpiece." Created in Christ Jesus to do good works that God planned in advance. You don't have to worry. God has planned purpose and it is so joyous. The Lord says we are co-workers in His service, we are Christ's ambassadors. We have a lot of fun things that we can do to just say yes to Him.

One way we can partner is we need to all go out and get "It's Never Wrong to Do the Right Thing." It's on sale on Amazon right now. I would highly recommend the audible book too. They allowed me to read it. You can do the dishes and listen to the book. You can drive, you can fold clothes and be listening to an encouraging message. But also hear the Word, the Word of God through my storytelling and then also hear some of my own stuff too, but hopefully at the end of the day, you will be uplifted.

Real Christian Families: The book is "It's Never Wrong to Do the Right Thing: Courageous Stories to Inspire Godly Decisions." Thank you so much for being with us and taking the hard work to make songs and to be willing to bare your heart so we can all breathe in God better and walk in our lives better. And the hard work to make a book, too.

Nicole Mullen: In our weakness He is strong. Thank you too, Natalie. Blessings to you.