You are Qualified in Christ :: Jada Edwards [Ep 248]

Jada Edwards is a Bible teacher and truth speaker. She brings the word with fire and conviction. Her words encourage and gently convict as she points others to God.

But, her story hasn’t always been pretty and her platform hasn’t always been large. She’s wrestled with shame and doubt and feeling unqualified.

I try be like David when he says, ‘I keep my sin before me.’ Not because of shame, but because of that reminder that every time God uses me, every time someone is encouraged by something that comes out of my mouth, I think, God is good. He can use anybody. There's a fine line between feeling disqualified and just feeling grateful and humble. So I try not to let that send me into a place of immobility.

I’m personally grateful that Jada is following after God’s call on her life. She has so much passion for teaching and preaching the word. She has a new Bible study series out with Zondervan on women in the Bible called Known by Name that focuses on the same three questions we all still ask today: How does everyone else see me? How do I see myself? How does God see me? Good stuff!

We talk about her journey to motherhood and how inviting others to be influences in our kids’ lives can bring a freedom for the places we are weakest. She has some great suggestions for how to not mom alone and why we don’t have to strive to be a mother that we’re not.

I think I day-by-day I find my footing a little bit saying, ‘Okay, these are the kids God has given me to shape and I know there's going to be deficits. I know there's going to be gaps, but I'm going to trust the Lord for the gaps and I'm going to do what I can with who I am. I'm not going to try to be anybody else. I'm going to be a failure at trying to be like my mother, it's going to go badly. I can be the best mom that I can be. And then where I'm lacking, I can be honest about that.’

What we chat about:

* What it was like to adopt children after 12 years of marriage and 5 years of church planting  * How Jada starting teaching and preaching God’s word* The importance of walking through obscurity and the wilderness before coming into a public ministry* Jada’s experience wrestling with faith in college and her journey of working through doubt* Living in the tension of feeling grateful for what God has done and not getting stuck in shame or feeling disqualified* Mothering in your strengths and feeling confident in how God made you to operate* Not trying to mother like someone else, but relying on God to fill in the gaps for areas you aren’t gifted in* Friends, family and community bring a roundedness to our kids’ experience growing up. We don’t have to be all things for them.

Connect with Jada:

* Website: http://jadaedwards.com* Instagram: @jada_edwards* Twitter: @jadaedwards1721

Links mentioned:

* One Community Church: http://www.visitonecc.com* BraveLove https://www.bravelove.org* Zondervan "Known by Name" Series:* Rahab: Don't Judge Me, God Says I'm Qualified*** Naomi: When I Feel Worthless, God Says I'm Enough*** Hagar: In the Face of Rejection, God Says I'm Significant**

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