224: "When God Leaves Something Out" with Jill Atogwe

The Gospel-Shaped Life Podcast

Jill Atogwe is a wife, mom of 4, writer, and author of a brand new children’s book, “Left Out: Believing My Story is for God’s Glory”. She is passionate about encouraging others with the truth of the goodness and wisdom of God’s plan - even when it doesn’t look like we want it to. Our prayer is that you would come away from this episode deeply encouraged and better equipped to walk the path of your own unique and challenging life story.

What We Chat About on This Episode:

~Jill’s new children’s book, Left Out, what led her to write it, and what readers can expect

~The things we feel like God left out when He made us and how that part of our story is for our good and His glory

~The reality that this book is for our hearts as adults just as much as it is for kids; how its message ministered to my own heart personally on a difficult path I am walking myself

~How Jill has come to discover for herself that what God left out is part of her story, for her good, and God’s glory; how she has helped her kids understand this truth for themselves

~How Jill has helped her kids to embrace their own uniqueness and differences

~Jill’s advice for parents who want to know how to foster a positive self-image and confidence in their kids

~Teaching kids to be noticers

~Getting our kids to think for themselves

~Helping parents to understand how they can address more sensitive topics with their kids in a way that is inclusive and respectful

~Training our kids to be both curious and kind

~How to help kids who are dealing with anxiety; Jill’s own experience with OCD

~The power of memorizing Scripture with our kids

~Choosing our kids and their wellbeing, even when it’s hard and exhausting

~Understanding that if God left something out of our story, that thing He left out would not have been good for us (even if it’s something we really wanted!)

~Delighting in the Lord and not in what we think we want

~Being encouraged during hard times of trial by heroes of the faith

~What Jill has learned from hard trials she has gone through and trials she has watched loved ones experience

~Comforting others with the comfort we have received

~The good that comes from trials

~Learning alongside our kids

~And more!

Inspiring Quotes to Remember:

“The things we feel were left out when God made us are the things that can make us feel left out as we grow. And the heart of the book is that what God left out is part of our story - it’s all for our good and all for His glory.”

“It’s a blessing for us to be different, not just us set apart singularly, but for all of us from one another, that God is so creative that He made so many different things happen to serve a purpose. It would be so boring if we were all exactly alike.”

“When stuck in fear and anxiety, it can be so helpful to expose our children to the Word daily, to have special hymns to go through together that are comforting, and to read stories of a real God who created us in a special way and did not make any mistakes. This is how we help our kids and ourselves to learn to trust Him.”

“We can look back on our life and see big capital T Trials and moments of deep struggle and see how God transformed us through them and used those moments for His glory. So when I’m in the thick of it, that is what I look to. I also look to heroes of the faith and to people in the Word like Paul and David. I look to people who have gone before me and am encouraged and comforted by their examples.”

“This won’t be forever. The brokenness of this world and the brokenness of our bodies is not forever. But while we are here, we need to be honest with our friends and loved ones so we can all walk in this together and be lifted up by those around us, trusting that the Lord will comfort us in our time of need so that we can comfort others.”

“Psalm 119:17 stands out to me, where the Psalmist says it is good for him to be afflicted so that he might learn God’s decrees. He goes on to say that the law from God’s mouth is more precious to him than a thousand pieces of silver and gold. I can always look back and see (though I can almost never think it in the moment when it’s so painful) that it was good that I had to walk down hard paths. Hindsight is a gift.”

“It’s difficult to train our kids in something that we’re battling ourselves. Sometimes we can feel hypocritical and end up avoiding things like that with them. Or maybe we feel it is tender to train our kids in a subject that we are struggling with. But I would encourage parents to lean into it. We can learn things right alongside our children. We don’t have to have things perfected in our minds in order to train our children up in the way they should go.”

Resources Mentioned:

Left Out: Believing My Story is for God’s Glory

BearTown by Fredrick Backman

Anxious People by Fredrick Backman

A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman

Where You Can Find Jill:

Substack: The Gold Standard

Instagram: @jillatogwe

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