Beauty in the Brokenness- Christian Women (Bible Study, Faith, Sexuality, Freedom from Shame)

Why Beauty in the Brokenness? New Name. Same Heart.

• Teresa Whiting

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Teresa Whiting unveils the podcast's new name, Beauty in the Brokenness, reflecting her 11-year passion for finding God's beauty in the midst of pain. She shares her journey of letting fear hold her back from embracing this message and how she's finally stepping into the vision God placed on her heart years ago.

We discuss: 
• The difference between beauty after brokenness vs finding beauty in the midst of pain
• Finding glimpses of beauty in everyday moments
• Understanding "the ache" we all feel
• Commitment to Bible-based teaching that connects Scripture with real-life struggles
• Same podcast content and mission, just with a new name 

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Teresa Whiting:

Hey friends, welcome back. I am so excited to be back with you again after taking the summer off. As you may have noticed, some things have changed around here, and that's what this episode is all about. I'm going to tell you what's changing, what's staying the same and what it all means for you. Hi, friend, if you've ever wondered how God's Word connects with the messy, broken parts of your story, you're in the right place. Welcome to Beauty in the Brokenness, formerly Find Hope here, where we have honest conversations about the Bible, our real-life struggles and the hope God brings for healing. I'm your host, teresa Whiting, an author, bible teacher and trauma-informed life coach, but mostly a friend and fellow struggler. I'm here to hold out hope right in the midst of your mess.

Teresa Whiting:

If you don't mind, I'm going to start this episode with a little story.

Teresa Whiting:

So back in 2014, I had taken a day to just relax, to rest. It was a Sunday, so I was using that as a Sabbath and I was like this is my day, I'm going to unplug, I'm going to sit in my hammock and journal, and at that time I was coming up with a business name because I had started a little business where I was flipping furniture. I was taking old, discarded pieces of things that know, things that people left on the side of the road. I was fixing them up, painting them and selling them, and I was trying to determine the name of my business. But more so I was trying to think about what is the message like, the thing that God has burned into my heart, and that's when I came up with the name Beauty in the Brokenness, I think I wrote in my journal. If I could spend my life declaring one message to the world, it would be this God is still creating beauty in the midst of your brokenness, not after the brokenness is over, not 10 years later, when you can look back on your life and see how all the things worked out. No like, right in the middle of it there is beauty to be found. So I came up with this name Beauty in the Brokenness. You guys, that was 11 years ago.

Teresa Whiting:

I was so certain that that was the mission that God had me on. I bought the domain name beautyinthebrokennesscom, I set up an LLC called Beauty in the Brokenness Ministries, and then I let a thousand little things stop me from fully putting my message out there. First of all, I started with a furniture flipping business. What I really wanted to do was write and speak and teach women the Bible, but I was too scared and so I was like, well, I'll just flip furniture and I'll kind of subtly put that message out there. Well, it didn't take too long. About three years later, I had my first speaking engagement and God really made it clear to me that that was the passion of my heart. I mean, I love sharing scripture and sharing stories with women, and so that was still my passion. I actually started my website in 2017 and it was called beautyinthebrokennesscom. You can still go there. It'll take you to teresawitingcom Same website, same content.

Teresa Whiting:

But when I started my podcast two years ago, I thought this is when I'm going to use beauty in the brokenness, and I didn't. I let these silly things stop me. Let me tell you why. Because you might be thinking well, why didn't you just name it Beauty and the Brokenness from the start? Because obviously, that's been your passion. Well, let me tell you why Fear. Fear is the only thing that stopped me. I would kind of pitch the name out to people and I would say what do you think of the name? Beauty and the Brokenness? Beauty and the? What? Beauty and the broken Like oh, that's a lot, that's a mouthful, that's confusing. Nobody is searching beauty in the brokenness, nobody's going online. You have to be searchable and you have to have something that people want to look up. And nobody's looking up beauty in the brokenness. But really and truly, it was this one moment.

Teresa Whiting:

I was part of a writing group and we used to do these Tuesday calls where they would have experts on the line and these experts would call in and share their stories. And I remember specifically one day Emily P Freeman was interviewing this expert and she said to her is there anything? You're just tired of things, you just don't want to hear anymore. And this woman, who I don't even know who she is to this day, said I'm so tired of beauty in the brokenness, it's so cliche. And I was like what my mouth literally dropped open. I was like I thought I made that up and surely she had not been on my website. So I let that comment completely derail the passion that God had put on my heart. And so when I started my podcast, I called it Find Hope here, which I do love that and that is something I am really passionate about spreading hope. So it's not like it was so far off.

Teresa Whiting:

But every time people would ask me what's the name of your podcast, I'd say find hope here and inside. I'd be like, but I really want to call it beauty in the brokenness, because that's the message that God birthed in me. It's not just beauty after the brokenness, it's beauty right in the midst of it. Now, you may have heard of the art form, kintsugi, and that's where people take a broken piece of pottery and they repair it with this gold filling and that's really beautiful and I love that illustration. But that's not what I'm talking about, because even in kintsugi you're looking at after that broken thing has been repaired, you can stand back and say, oh, wow, look at how beautiful that turned out in the end. And it highlights the scars and it highlights the brokenness. And yes, yes to all of that.

Teresa Whiting:

And also I want to hold out hope to people who are still in the middle of the mess, like when the wounds are still fresh, when the pain is raw, when the ashes are still smoldering and nothing around you feels redemptive, when you're looking around at your life and you can't even find anything that resembles beauty. It's still there. There is beauty here and now, no matter what season you're walking through, no matter how dark or bleak it looks, there is beauty to be found. Sometimes it's just little glimmers that you can hold onto. You'll be walking down the sidewalk and see flowers pushing through the cracks, or you'll see a beautiful, fiery sunset where the clouds are backlit by the setting sun. Or maybe it's just a moment of silence and for just that moment you feel a sense of God's peace. Maybe it's walking barefoot on the sand or watching raindrops race each other down a windowpane.

Teresa Whiting:

Sometimes, often, it's in the face of a friend who shows up and says I'm here, I'm going through this with you. Sometimes it's a text that simply says I see you. It's in the worship songs you can't sing because of that lump in your throat. Sometimes it's in the face of the woman at the grocery store who you know. Her heart is breaking just like yours, and all of a sudden this compassion wells up in you. That is beauty in the middle of your brokenness. It's in the sisterhood that we feel when we know that others have walked a similar path. It's in the Psalms that help us voice our pain and our praise. This is the beauty I'm talking about Not faking, not pretending oh, I'm fine, I'm fine, you're fine, we're all fine.

Teresa Whiting:

No, not denying the pain, not turning a blind eye to it, but facing it and saying even here, even in the midst of this situation, my heart will fight to find the beauty. Because you and I don't live on a movie set, we don't live in some kind of filtered TikTok reel or social media post. We live in a broken post, fall under the curse world, which will one day be restored. But until then, everything aches. The whole earth groans. Every heart carries this deep, unnamed longing, which I have come to call the ache, the thing that says, oh, something's not right and it isn't. But instead of being angry at the ache, instead of scorning the pain in our lives and just numbing ourselves out or trying to avoid it, we can face it and we can say you know what this is. This is a signpost. This ache is a longing that reminds us that our sure hope goes beyond this world and anything this world has to offer. We have longings that will never be filled this side of heaven.

Teresa Whiting:

Listen to this quote from CS Lewis. The Christian says Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger. Well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim. Well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire. Well, there is such a thing as water Men feel sexual desire. Well, there's such a thing as sex.

Teresa Whiting:

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably the earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise or be unthankful for these earthly blessings and, on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I think the ache that we feel is a reminder that the story isn't over yet and that we're not home yet. One day, those desires are going to be fulfilled beyond anything we could ask or imagine, because we're heirs to an inheritance promised by the creator and sustainer of the universe.

Teresa Whiting:

But we don't have to wait till heaven to find that joy, to find that beauty, because God gives us glimpses of it here and now. And that is the passion of my heart. It's about finding, discovering, beholding the beauty God gives us right in the midst of the brokenness. So this has been my passion for years and years and finally, 11 years later, I am stepping into it, I'm owning it, I'm saying I'm sorry, ms Editor, whoever you are out there, if you're tired of hearing Beauty in the Brokenness, maybe you won't like this podcast.

Teresa Whiting:

But for the rest of you who feel that ache, who want to say how do I find the beauty in my broken life? This is the podcast for you in my broken life, this is the podcast for you. Okay, so what are you going to find on a regular basis on beauty in the brokenness? You're going to find hope, still hope and redemption that, whoever you are, you are not defined by the brokenness that you have walked through, have walked through. God is a God of redemption, restoration, rescue. His heart is to bring you into a place of beauty. You're going to find authenticity and truth.

Teresa Whiting:

I am committed to not pretending. Okay, let's get this out here right at the beginning. I am not an expert, I am a fellow struggler. I am here to walk beside you to say, hey, here is what I have learned from God's word and let's look at it and let's study it together and let's have conversations that talk about our real, actual lives that maybe are somewhat uncomfortable in other settings or maybe the church hasn't addressed, but you're thinking about it. This is a place to have those conversations. Also, you can trust that this podcast has the Bible as its foundation. I am committed to God's word. His word is the truth, it's the source of life, it's our light, and so the things that I teach, the conversations that we have, will be reflective of people who believe that the Bible is true. I want to help you connect with God and his heart. We don't study the Bible just so we can get a bunch of information and check our box. We study the Bible to get to know God. That's where he reveals himself to us, that's where we spend intimate time with him, and so this podcast is going to be committed to scriptural integrity.

Teresa Whiting:

Another thing you're going to find on this podcast is a voice of empowerment and freedom. I am here to help you break free from things like shame and labels and lies that the enemy of your soul whispers or shouts at you on a regular basis. I want to encourage freedom in the areas of sexuality and trauma and relational heartache and financial struggle Okay, heartache and financial struggle and I want to invite you to respond to God's grace with worship, with wholeness and with an expectation that God is going to show up in your life. Our empowerment doesn't come from ourselves. It comes from God at work in us and through us. Comes from God at work in us and through us. And then, lastly, I want this to be a place of community and connection.

Teresa Whiting:

Doing a podcast is kind of weird, because I'm talking to you but you're not getting to talk to me, which is why I started a new thing that kind of coincides with this podcast, and it's a sub stack called Beauty and the Brokenness. That's an opportunity for us to kind of expand this conversation. It's a place where you can leave comments and interact with other listeners. Now, if you're like, hey, I want to go deeper, well then I want to invite you to some of the events that I have, where I am either speaking and sharing messages from God's word, or we're having intensives or workshops where together we can work through some of the things that we're talking about on this podcast. I do not want to be a talking head just spouting information at you. I want to be a participant in helping you heal your brokenness.

Teresa Whiting:

To that end, I just got certified as a trauma-informed life coach because I want to understand the inner workings of what life in this trauma-filled, broken world does. I want to be a voice of hope and encouragement and truth to you in your brokenness. You know the word trauma gets thrown around all the time and I just want to say that the whole Bible is a trauma story. Okay, it's the story of us turning our back on God, living in a now traumatized, broken, fallen world, and it's the story of God's rescue and redemption. It's the story of him coming out and pursuing us and finding us and letting us know that we're seen and we are not beyond repair and we are not beyond his ability to redeem and restore our lives. So if all of that sounds good to you, I hope you'll stick around and be part of the Beauty in the Brokenness community.

Teresa Whiting:

You can join on Substack. You can just listen to this podcast and share it with your friends. However you want. To be involved would be a delight to me. So what's changing and what isn't. Honestly, most stuff isn't changing. I have a new name, beauty and the Brokenness, but it's the same message and the same methods. Actually, we're still gonna have honest conversations with amazing guests. We're still gonna dig into the Bible and look at God's word and what he says and the story he is telling. We're still gonna have practical life suggestions that you can take away at the story he is telling. We're still going to have practical life suggestions that you can take away at the end of each episode. The name is changing, but the heart behind this podcast is exactly the same.

Teresa Whiting:

If you've been around a while, you know that this podcast has always been about finding hope. My intro used to say this is a podcast about holding the messy, complicated, painful parts of life alongside the beautiful, joy-filled hope that Jesus promises. And that is what Beauty in the Brokenness is all about. It's about finding hope in the midst of the mess. So really, this is a pivot more than it is a change. Now it just has the name that's been burning in my heart all these years and I've stepped up to face my fear of calling it what I've wanted to call it.

Teresa Whiting:

All along I've been told that anytime you make changes, you lose people because nobody likes change, and I guess that means podcast listeners don't like it when you change the name of your podcast. So I'm asking for your help to combat the natural way of things. I'm asking you to join me in preventing this natural decline. So would you yes, you listener do three simple things to help me out. First of all is follow the show. If you're still around, you probably already are following the show. The second thing you can do is to share the podcast with your people. If you've liked Find Hope here, and if you think you're going to enjoy Beauty in the Brokenness which is really the same thing, just more of it would you share this with your friends and family? And then the third thing and I know you've heard this before is to leave a rating and review. Many of you already have, and I thank you so much. If you haven't yet, you can jump over to Apple Podcasts and leave a five-star rating and a review that tells Apple that this is a podcast worth listening to.

Teresa Whiting:

Now, before I close, I just wanted to mention one other thing that's not changing, and that is the music. I know, for me, whenever I am listening to a podcast and I hear the music. Come on, I'm like, oh, it's that podcast, I love it. And so if you have come to hear the music of Find Hope here, it is the same in Beauty and the Brokenness. Plus, it took me a really long time to find music that I liked, so why go through that Again? I feel like the music I've chosen still goes with the heart behind Beauty and the Brokenness, with the heart behind Beauty and the Brokenness.

Teresa Whiting:

Thanks for hanging out with me today on Beauty and the Brokenness. To find anything I mentioned on this episode, go to TeresaWhitingcom slash listen, or you could even go to BeautyandtheBrokennesscom slash listen. It'll take you to the same place and that's where you'll find all the show notes. I pray that you have eyes to see the beautiful redemptive work of Jesus in the midst of your broken life. In closing, I want to leave you with this prayer from Numbers 6, 24 to 26. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.