 Hey, no matter the trials, no matter the shortcomings, no matter what's going on in the world around you, the Bible says this, every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father who listened, never changes. So I believe that God has something ready for you. Get ready for God's goodness to meet you, like never before. I'm here with the Angela, Matt and Angela. What we got going on today? Oh my goodness, Matt, I love that you open, talking about the goodness of God. But we all have messy pieces, times and spaces in our life. Even now, you may be looking at your life, wondering how any of what you're going through could be purposeful or redeemed. Well, today we will sit down with author and podcaster, Cynthia Yanoff, to help us see God at work in the messiness of life, to uncover purpose in the seemingly ordinary places and to get us to laugh more along the way. You know, Matt, life is messy and as believers, sometimes we have a hard time reconciling the messiness of life with the goodness of God. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's why we have to be reminded that God's goodness and mercy follows us all the days of our lives, because we can't avoid the mess, unfortunately, but we can make the choice to live in a life of knowing God's goodness and mercy always follows me. But speaking of good things, I'm not sure if this is good or not, because, you know, we're in the Yinsir town, you know, the Steelers aren't going to the Super Bowl, but it is Super Bowl Sunday this weekend. Who are you voting for? Now, listen, Matt, I don't have much investment in this. I'm going to be all the way honest, okay? But I have been following the news with the whole Taylor Swift thing and to mess with my husband and some of his friends, I'll just say, I know Taylor Swift's plans. Oh, man. But who are you rooting for, Matt? This kind of hurts for like all the men watching right now, you know, but it's hard because, of course, you wouldn't pull for the Steelers and they're not there. So I would say I would almost have to go for, and for no specific reason, I think I'm pulling for the 49ers though. I like it. I like the 40, now that's my father-in-law. I know he's watching, Glenn, we're rooting for you, we're behind you for those 49ers. I'm excited. I know, are you doing a big Super Bowl party? Our church is throwing on something, but we'll see how it goes, you know. Yeah. It's always if the, I get all worried around the Super Bowl, all the commercials and all of that. So, yeah, we'll see how it ends up in our home too. Well, hey, today is Fun Friday. Listen, today on Fun Friday, Angela and I had to really think through a hard question of a fun fact about ourselves. Angela, this was hard for me to think of, so I'm gonna start with you. What's one fun fact that our audience should know about you? So one thing, when you're watching Matt and I on Fridays, we're always in the spirit here coordinating with our outfits. That's something fun. Let's go, let's go, look at gray, black, come on now. You can watch and wonder, are they in the spirit today? But beyond that, in the light of Super Bowl and sports, something fun about me is I actually worked for the Red Sox. What? I sure did, when I was in school in Boston, I worked for the Red Sox and their PR, and I don't know if anybody remembers, but that big debacle with the World Series, the fight breaking out in the pool pin of the New York Yankees, I was there running all them reports back and forth. Wow, wow. Now I feel like I can't even top that. I don't even know what to say about myself. It's funny, like when you're trying to think of a fun thing about yourself, you feel like your life is boring, but it's not. Okay, one fun thing about myself, I can't remember if I ever shared this before, but I was in this band years and years ago, and we opened up for new kids on the block. Let's go. New kids on the block. I know there was probably some people fan favorites out there, whatever it might be, but what was funny about it is as we're opening up, you know, we're like, no way, we're just this little hometown cover band, and people are coming up to us, taking our pictures, and they're like, oh my gosh, you guys are opening act. I'm like, yeah, we're nobody, but take my picture. So it was kind of fun opening up for new kids on the block. That's a really fun fact now. I never really got the gift of the vocal singing thing, so anytime I hear something like that, I'm enamored and amazed at it. Well, you know, guys, God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good. Any of you who are watching right now and grew up in church, you can effortlessly finish that statement, but sometimes it's hard for our head to believe that when life gets messy. Today's guest, Cynthia Yanoff, is a wife, mother, podcaster, blogger, and author who has found that some of her messiest moments have actually provided her greatest gifts. In her new book, Life is Messy, God is Good, Sanity for the Chaos of Everyday Life, Cynthia invites us to reframe our perspective so we can in fact see God at work. Welcome to Hope Today, Cynthia. Guys, thanks for having me. And after all I just heard, I don't know if I have anything to add. I mean, you guys have, we've got new kids on the block, we've got Red Sox, and we're talking Super Bowl, you guys, I'm in the land of the Dallas Cowboys and it's a sad situation here. So I feel like I might need to put a bag over my head. I don't know. Well, Cynthia, I think it is just perfect that you are joining us for Fun Friday because girl, reading your book is so much fun. It is full of faith and encouragement, but what I love about your story and your writing style is that humor is all throughout it. So I appreciate that and I know we're gonna get to dive into some of that today. Would you say all of your life, you have kind of used humor to approach it? Yeah, I think humor was a currency in my family growing up. Like it was kind of something that was valued and I'm so grateful for that because now as I'm raising my own kids, we've tried to impart that. My husband, I have as well with our kids, like my mom would say, if you're gonna laugh about it in a year, like laugh about it today. And so we've really tried to do that in our house. Like just, if you can laugh at yourself, it goes a long way in life going a little smoother. And so, yeah, I think it's one of those things and especially as a girl who grew up in church and a believer, like I guess I went through this phase of thinking that like only the God things were the serious things. And so, you know, those moments where it was serious and there are, of course, our faith is very serious. And there are many times where it's the serious things. But I'm like, if God's only in the serious, then I'm in trouble because 98% of my life is a mess up. It's funny. It's off script. And so, how do we do that? Like how do we mesh those two together? And that was my hope, just that we can laugh a little bit and maybe don't have to have such a curated, perfect looking life and say, yeah, it gets kind of rough. I love that. And scripture does tell us a merry heart does good like a medicine. And really, as I was unpacking and reading through your story, Cynthia, your book does, it brings healing. It brings medicine. It brings joy. But life is not always easy. And that's what you're alluding to even from the start, from the title of your book. You express that in the messiness of our marriages, in the messiness of life, it's really, really important for us to focus that it doesn't just need to be discarded, but that it actually matters. How can we know that it does? Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, you have to think for the beginning of time until the end of time, until the second coming at any point in there, we could have been created and on earth. And so it's very intentionally that it's now. And so, so why is that now? Why does it matter now? And I think we've gotta be, if we're believers, then we know that our theology is the Bible, right? That's our theology. And if our theology doesn't match up with the realities of what we're living, then it's not really theology. It's just kind of some good advice that we take or leave. And we want a theology that meets up with reality. And so that's where I think the rub is. Like, how do I find that intersection of what I heard on Sunday or what I read this morning in my quiet time? Does that actually meet up with carpool? Does that meet up with my kids or making ridiculous decisions? Does that match up with where my marriage is tough or my finances have gotten strained? Like, how does God show up in that? And I think the key to all of this, and there's a lot of different ways to go at it, but it's just having a long memory and being observant of where God's been present. And he shows up. And sometimes in a moment, it's so hard to see. But if we can look back and say, okay, I can see where God has been present. I can see some signs of why this was going on or how he was using this. It's a game changer. And so we've got to get curious a little bit and say, okay, I don't understand it in the moment, but I do know God's been faithful in the past. I can see it. And if he's the same yesterday and today and forever, then his faithfulness and goodness in the past will be, faithfulness and goodness in the present. But I do think one other quick thing on that is we've got to realize that we are God's favorite children, but I like favor when favor looks like, you know, job opportunities or speaking, you know, opportunities where my kids are doing the right things. Like, that's God's favor that I enjoy. God's favor does not always feel favorable in the moment. And that's where the mess kind of comes in. We've got to have a longer view of it. I love that perspective on finding that hope in the middle of it by looking and remembering how he's been faithful in the past, even if we have to borrow stories from the word, right? That's why it's there. You know, Cynthia, you've gone through a lot in your life and one of the stories I've really been touched by is your foster story. Could you share with us a little bit of that story and how it taught you precisely what you're sharing with us now that you can find meaning in the middle of the mess? Right. Well, yeah, our family, we kind of felt called into foster care. And I remember when it first started, I was like, oh gosh, foster care, surely not us. Like, that's where I think more spiritual people, people that like maybe don't let their kids play sports on Sundays. And like, you know, I had every excuse. I literally, Angela Mann, I literally told my husband, I don't think there's any way I could fill out all this paperwork. And my husband's like, yeah, you used to be a lawyer, so I bet you can do the paperwork. I'm like, oh yeah, good one. And so we went into it dragging our feet. And I always sum it up kind of this way. I was scared going into foster care, scared of what it'd do to our bio kids. I was scared of what it might look like spiritually, emotionally, financially, in every respect. I went into foster care scared. And we came out on the other side of it. We're scared of who we'd be if we had not done it. You are changed people when you do the things of God. And the thing that I think gets me the most with that is whether that's foster care for someone listening, that could be your calling. And this may be your nudge to like do the thing. But for all of us, there is a calling the Lord has on our lives. And so what is that thing? And I always, I think I believe that you had to be like, I'm all in, yes. And I figured out with foster care, like we gave the most reluctant yes, you could ever give. It wasn't like, we're a hundred percent. And it was kind of like, okay, Lord, maybe. And he changed us. I mean, he changes your family when you do the things you're called to do. And my family will never look at life the same. We took our kids into parts of town we had been trying to avoid. And honestly, and they saw things, stories that we had never hoped for them to see at such a young age. But when you sit in CPS offices and kids have everything they own in a trash bag waiting on parents, like you can't help but be changed because of it. So I mean, it's such a great gift that we got to do foster care that we got picked for that journey. I love that quote that you share about, we're scared of how we would have been if we hadn't gone through it. And that's such an encouraging word for people who are questioning. Do I go after this thing? It's scary, I might fail. What is something else, Cynthia, that you would share with our viewers that they can look at this obstacle before them, this calling that they had that they can hold on and say, okay, I'm gonna give it a shot. What's another word of encouragement that has served you well? Yeah, I think that for me, I don't know if my parents just kind of planned this in me. I know the Lord did, just having this bigger perspective and I would encourage you, it's so easy to get caught up in the moment. I mean, I have three kids and I mean, it's unfair, you guys. I have college, high school and first grade. Nobody should be like finding menopause at the same time they're trying to go on the zoo field trip, right? Like that doesn't seem right. But in the moment, it never seems convenient. It never seems right. It's always when my kids get older, the finances look a little bit better or it's somebody else that has more authority or seems more equipped. And I would just say, listen, step back from that. Have this bigger perspective and know God's plans are not thwarted. Like it will get done, but you miss it. You don't get to be a part of it. And that's I think what challenges me. I'm like, I don't wanna miss it. And it's so just like anyone, like there's a realities of every day of the things I have to do that need to get done. But I don't want the realities to take over the perspective, the bigger purpose that God has for my life and for your life and all of ours. We live in a culture that desperately needs us to chase after the God-sized dreams and the God-sized plans. And it doesn't happen when we are so caught up in the everydayness that we don't have the margin to do the God things. And so my encouragement is don't wait for the better time. Don't wait for life to look a little differently. Don't wait for someone to give you some artificial authority that you don't need from that person. If the Lord's calling you to something, it won't be easy, but it's right. And just because it's not easy doesn't mean it's the wrong thing. And so I just challenge you to get in there and get it done. Your attitude of go and get it, do the hard things is so inspiring. And Cynthia, I love the story you share about basically doing life in a dirty suit. Can you share with us that story and tell us how we can apply that to our very own lives? Absolutely. So I end my book with that story talking and it's a good friend of ours I'm talking about and he's a secret service agent, still is. And so he protects presidents and dignitaries, does all the things and he's a survivor of 9-11. And that morning he talks about how he had met up with Secret Service there all there in their clean suits, ready for their day, looking all professional like they do. And the first plane hit the trade center and they didn't know what exactly was going on but from their training they knew is terrorism. And so this friend of ours, same's Darren, Darren and two or three other Secret Service agents they grabbed some medical supplies, they just headed out and they went in the first tower and helped evacuate people. Went in the second tower helped evacuate people. He survived thankfully both towers was able to get out, spent the whole rest of the day just aiding and helping. And he says at one point like I kept thinking where are all the firemen? There's so many ancillary fires and then he realized like they were in buildings. And so the end of the day you can imagine what he looks like, right? He has got soot all over him. He's black from soot and his shoes are melted to his feet, bloody torn suit and he walks back in. They had called the Secret Service to meet back up. And so he walks in this different new location and as he walks in he sees a lot of the men that you've seen that morning still sitting there in the perfectly clean suits. And one of them seeing him was kind of taken aback and said where have you been? And he responded, now where have you been? And he talks about like that is his life mission. Like I'm not gonna go to heaven with a clean suit. And whatever that is that God calls me to do that hard thing, that significant thing, that messy thing, I'm gonna get out there and do it. And that's a challenge for all of us, right? Like that's marked me. I want us to live with a dirty suit. Like when we get to heaven like don't walk in with your clean suit. Don't walk in having waited for the right time or are not sure you heard God right. Like get out there and do the thing you're called to do and come into heaven looking beat up and tattered at all the things but knowing that you followed God's purposes. That is such a powerful story. Like I left that moment of reading that and thinking, man, do I have something to live up to? I wanna live a life in a dirty suit. You know, Cynthia, I think that a lot of us as we even hear that story, we think 9-11, wow, what a hero. You know, but there was a truly ordinary decision that he made that had extraordinary results. Could you speak into the camera? Look at the one who right now is that mama who is sweeping up those Cheerios again and in the messiness with her bun and you know, the house of wreck and just really encourage her or that man who is in the ordinary to do the extraordinary in the middle of what they're doing right now. Yeah, yeah. I think we live in a culture that tells us that doing the extraordinary means platform. It means at a boys, it's significance and acknowledgement, all of those things and I think we've gotta be careful with that. I think we are in a culture that thinks ordinary is not enough and we, you know, I tell the story of my family. We got the great privilege of spending two Disney trips worth of money on our foundation and in Texas, you know, your foundation shifts a little bit and so I thought they would come the foundation company and be like, oh, you need one or two peers. No, you guys, they told us 19 peers under our house and so we did that and spent a small fortune on it and to this day, not one person has like been walking their dog and been like, hey, nice foundation, yeah, an officer. Nobody's like come to dinner and been like, oh, they had a nice year last year. Look at their foundation, like nobody cares, right? But at the end of the day, we can have like beautiful hardwood floors and maybe some custom furniture or beautiful window treatments, whatever the things are, but if our foundation is not on solid ground, what do we have, right? And that's why in the Bible, it talks about that story. You know, you have two builders that build houses, one on rock, one on sand and they look the same by all purposes that same houses and they're both doing fine. They're clipping along until the storm comes and the deal is you guys, the storm reveals your foundation and so my encouragement for you today in the ordinary is be building the foundation that's on solid ground. Go out there, do the things that aren't gonna get you to out a boy. They aren't gonna, everyone's not gonna come around and be like, look at her go. You know, it's not gonna be postable on social media, but it's the very things that are building the peers underneath our families, putting us on solid ground on rock and that's doing the things, showing up for your family, spending time in the word, getting involved in community that's gonna point you towards the Lord, like doing those everyday things, reading the stories to your kids. You know, those are the things that the world calls ordinary, but I believe the Lord will call holy and he will reward that. So get in there and dig into it, lean into the ordinary. Thank you for that, Cynthia. I truly love that because most of our life, even those who are on stages and playing in the Super Bowl, right? That's one or two hours of their life in all the years that they've played. But I love that you inspire us that even in our ordinary moments, they have extraordinary significance. And just in closing, could you share that story about your son with his football experience? Yes, it's such a good moment for me. My son, we're in Texas, you guys, and football reigns. Now, never mind the Cowboys, but Friday Night Lights is a big deal here in Texas. And so my son, it was his year, his sophomore year of high school and this is the year at his school that you would get to play on Friday nights. And I mean, he's played since Pee Wee and we're ready to go and first game happens and he doesn't play and he's like, put me in coach and stretching and all the things, right? Second game, third game. Into the season, the kid barely played and we were all kind of discouraged. I know he was. And we went to the football banquet and I was said to my husband, do we have to go celebrate all this again? And our kid didn't even play and my husband's very, very, he's awesome. He's like, yeah, we're going. I was like, oh yeah, we are. So we go to the banquet, they hand out all the wards, it's awesome, they celebrate all the kids. But here's the thing, at the very end they called up my son and I'm like, oh coach, you got the wrong kid, right? I mean, he didn't even play. But he started talking about the scout team. And you know, the scout team is the team that gets, he didn't say this, I am, but it gets the real team ready to play. And so the scout team takes all the same hard hits. The scout team does all the same practices, long hours, all the things. They don't get the glory, they don't get the Friday night. But he named my kid the MVP of the scout team. And the reason I always tell that story is because his coach knew something I didn't. He took a perceived failure and he named it a success. And I think we've got to be in the business of that. If we're thinking longterm, we're thinking eternal, so we've got to start naming perceived failures a success because God is in those things. He's in the heart, he's in the mess, he's in the difficult. And so we need to be the ones to say to our kids, like, listen, I know at this moment, this looks like a perceived failure, but I'm naming it scout team. I'm calling it a success. We need to be doing that in our own lives. We need to do that in the lives around us. And I don't mean in a Pollyanna way of like everything we've done right. No, like we're gonna get it wrong. Our kids are gonna get it wrong. But here's the great thing about our God is that he takes all these things and he puts them together and he makes them something beautiful. If we just let him, if we just follow him, if we confess our sin and just honor him. And so that's my encouragement. It's like, instead of sitting in the muck of it and being like, man, that's a mess up, this is horrible, like start naming scout team, name it for yourself, name it for the kids around you, name it for your own kids and start saying that just because your name wasn't called on loudspeaker doesn't mean it was a failure. Just because you didn't see the Friday Night Lights doesn't mean your contribution didn't count, right? And so scout team. I love it. Let us be like the scout team and see the goodness of God, even in what seems to be failures. Cynthia, thank you so much for being with us today. Thanks for having me. It's so nice to see y'all. Thank you, Cynthia. Stay with us because when we return in 60 seconds, we're going to look at a scripture that can help strengthen us when troubles come our way. We'll be right back. Jesus' two greatest commandments are love God and love others. Learning how to love better is a lifelong journey. This month with your best gift of Cornerstone Television, we'd like to send you Love Like That, five relationship secrets from Jesus by Dr. Les Parrot. Discover how to truly love those in your life with this revolutionary guide. Blending the latest research in psychology and sociology with biblical insights, Parrot shares five practices, being mindful, approachable, gracious, vulnerable, and empathetic to help you forge meaningful, fulfilling connections with others. Love Like That will revolutionize every relationship in your life. Ask for your copy of Love Like That, five relationship secrets from Jesus by Dr. Les Parrot when you give this month to support Christian Television through Cornerstone Network. Give online at ctvn.org slash donate or call us at 888-665-4483. Hope happens here. Well, hey, thanks so much for staying with us. I want to read you this scripture in Romans 5 verses three through five. It says, And listen to this. In this hope will not lead to disappointment for we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. Wow, Angel, what a perfect scripture. Seriously, that I probably need today too, but I love this. Okay, so another translation says that we can count it all joy, knowing that this develops us. Like it's all development. Like Cynthia is talking about everything. It might not look pretty. It might not seem like the perfect timing. You might feel unqualified or have all these questions, but bottom line is it's development. And then I love how this puts in the LLT. This is confidence. This, or this hope will not lead to disappointment. Angel, I mean, what can we take away from that and combine it with anything that Cynthia isn't saying? I mean, it's true. Like everything that we go through either develops us or defeats us. And we have to choose how we're going to see it. We have to choose in this moment when the things that I've hoped for, they haven't come to pass. When all the things that I planned for my children, they're not stepping into, you have to be willing to sit and trust that God is good. And if it's come this way, God, you're going to work some things out in me, make it for my good to develop me and for my future. Yeah, yeah. One thing that Cynthia said that I feel is powerful for every one of us is a lot of these things is when she was talking about the favor of God, sometimes it doesn't look favorable, but they could be the very things that are building our foundations. Bottom line is if you and I don't have a firm foundation built on the word of God, ultimately built upon the love of God, understanding what God's love actually is for our lives. Well, then that's why we're going to question. That's why we're going to worry. That's why we're going to be concerned, anxious, depressed. But here's the deal. The one thing that you and I have in common, though we all have different problems, the thing that we have in common is we have a solid rock. The same rock that we get to build our lives upon that shall not be shaken. That's unmovable. And that keeps us stable through every storm. Cause like we talked about early, we're not going to be able to avoid the mess, but we can choose to root down deep in the solid rock that will keep us through every storm, Angela. That's right. And I love that you brought that up, Matt, because I think we can look very easily. If we see that we're shaken and the insides of our being are all shook in and peace is lacking, we can know that we've lost our footing on the rock. So it says, he says, come back to the rock. You know, lean into him. Look to where your help comes from. And these places, these moments where we intentionally turn our gaze to the father will bring us an assurity that he is with us, that he will not see his seed begging for bread. He will not leave you nor forsake you. That he will not tell you a promise and then give you something else that's less than that. He's not setting you up for disappointment, but he's setting you up for a hope and a future. Today, if you are watching us and you are sitting in the muck and the mire of life, we all have been there and we all will be there again. But the beautiful thing about Jesus is he gets down in the dirt and in the ditches with us. And he says, I am for you. I have allowed my body to be broken so that you can find wholeness even in this moment. Today, turn your gaze back to Jesus, rely and rest on him, and he will surely deliver you from all your mess. God bless you. Are you tired of just getting bills in your mailbox? Find inspiration instead by subscribing to the Cornerstone Television's Hope Today newsletter. Each month we'll deliver good news about what God is doing in our region and world through CTVN's ministry. We'll keep you in the know about our latest special programming and our full program guide will keep you connected to all your favorites. You'll also find a new Dashing Dish recipe every month. As you read our Hope Today newsletter, stay encouraged knowing your generosity and giving to CTVN is making a difference and building God's kingdom. We can't do it without you. Sign up today to receive your inspirational free Hope Today newsletter every month in your mailbox. Go to our website at ctvn.org slash news or call us at 888-665-4483. Thank you for being a part of our Cornerstone Television family. Hope happens here. Cornerstone Television wishes to thank all our faithful viewers whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible.