5 Minutes with Jesus is a daily devotional series for people in the midst of real life, whether facing anxiety, grief, questions of purpose, or simply needing encouragement and connection. Hosted by Sheila Walsh, each five-minute episode offers Biblical truth, honest reflections on faith and emotions, and closes with a moment of prayer.
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| Sheila Walsh: Accept His Grace Today | 5 Minutes with Jesus | April 8, 2026
- We can spend our lives making pearls.
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- Every time something hard comes in
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- And you know it well, we can coat that in prayer and worship.
- 00:00:05.651 --> 00:00:09.988
- And we can live a yes lord life.
- 00:00:09.988 --> 00:00:14.159
- Maybe not knowing what we're saying yes to,
- 00:00:14.159 --> 00:00:17.296
- But we know who were saying yes to.
- 00:00:17.296 --> 00:00:24.169
- So i brought three things with me today.
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- And i wanted to show them to you
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- Because they speak to the legacy that my own mum left for me.
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- And i really pray they'll speak to you, too.
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- This.
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- First of all, this is my mum's bible.
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- She was given, it says, presented to miss betty nicole
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- In appreciation of her splendid wildflower collection.
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- Six of december 1942.
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- Isn't that amazing?
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- But the reason i love my bible so much is
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- It's written in the
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- Back in her handwriting when she was 12 years old.
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- When she got this.
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- This is what it says.
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- This is grace is undeserved favor.
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- It is love.
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- Stooping grace is undeserved favor.
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- It is love. stooping.
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- You know, i saw that in a powerful way
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- On my last trip to cambodia, in panama,
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- When i was speaking
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- And working with girls who had been trafficked, sex trafficked.
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- And we were bringing them out into place of of freedom.
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- But i was with a particular group of women who were living
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- In one of the worst areas i've ever seen in my life,
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- Just little shacks that were built over a garbage dump.
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- I'd been there all day, and it was about 100 degrees or so.
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- Hot, and the smell was so bad.
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- And at one point i just stepped outside
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- To kind of
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- Get a breath of fresh air and just honestly to pray
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- Because it was so heavy in there.
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- But i saw something interesting because here you have
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- This area of devastation with people that are
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- The poorest of the poor, but right beside it was this
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- Brand new buddhist temple with beautiful golden domes.
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- And so i said to my translator,
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- Do you think i could talk to one of the priests?
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- Because here's what i wanted to ask him.
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- My question to him
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- Was, do you ever think of taking
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- Some of the money that you have
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- And giving it to those who are on your doorstep
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- For literally dying on your doorstep?
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- And he said, oh, absolutely not.
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- The poor do not deserve our help.
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- If they will take the little they have and give it to us,
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- Then perhaps they will be reincarnated into a better life.
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- You know, when you think of the christian faith
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- That is the opposite of grace is the opposite of karma.
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- That's what they call it. karma. you get what you deserve.
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- We get what we don't deserve.
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- We deserve to be judged for the ways that we've fallen,
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- The ways we've blown it, and the ways with messed up.
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- We do.
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- You realize we're the only ones
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- Who have our savior shed his blood for us
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- So often, you know, we'll see things happening on
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- On television.
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- We'll hear of different religious groups who demand
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- That their followers will martyr their lives,
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- And then they're offered a place in heaven.
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- Know christ gave his life to give each one of us a place.
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- I think we understand the grace of god the most
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- When we think we deserve it.
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- The very, very least.
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- I have to be careful with these.
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- These are the pearls that my mum wore on her wedding day.
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- I really treasure them.
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- I have a photograph of my mum and dad
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- On their wedding day, and.
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- And there she is with these beautiful pearls.
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- And i treasure them.
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- But, you know,
- 00:03:38.263 --> 00:03:39.398
- There's a huge lesson that we can learn from pearls.
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- A pearl is formed.
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- I don't know if you know this.
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- When an oyster gets a grain
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- Of sand trapped in its soft flesh inside the shell,
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- And this piece of sand irritates the oyster, and it responds
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- By coating the grain with layers of saliva and calcium.
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- And it can actually take about three years
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- For perfect pearl to be formed.
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- So if you think about it, a pearl is the product
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- Of suffering, and it's a hidden work.
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- A pearl is simply a victory over tribulation.
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- You see, i saw that in my own mum's life
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- When my sister called me to tell me
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- That my mum was safely home in the arms of jesus.
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- I flew from dallas to london, then on up to scotland.
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- And in scotland we don't have what's traditional here,
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- You know,
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- Often we'll have a viewing here, but
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- They don't do that in scotland.
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- But i called the place where they were
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- Holding my mum's casket and i said,
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- I know this is not traditional,
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- But do you think there's any way
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- That i could, come and see my mum?
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- And they said, sure, we'll put her in a separate room
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- And i'll open the casket so that you can spend a little time.
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- And i knew my mum was not there.
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- I knew my mum was safely home with jesus,
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- But there was something i wanted to do.
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- I went in and i just knelt beside our casket and i said,
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- Well done, mum, well done.
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- You made it all the way home.
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- See, my mum was only 33 when my dad died.
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- I watched the struggles trying to make ends meet.
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- But every time, a difficulty, every time a grain of sand came
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- In, she covered with faith and prayer.
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- My mum spent her life making pearls.
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- She coated every struggle with prayer.
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- Like i even think of one point
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- When she was working on a very limited budget.
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- I didn't have much money at all,
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- And my brother hit one of those spurts that boys do
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- When they suddenly grow like three inches overnight.
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- And you needed new long pants for school.
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- And it wasn't in her budget as a widow.
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- And so we sat by the fire one night
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- And my mum said, okay, we're going to talk to god
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- About your brother's pants.
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- And she just prayed very simply, lord,
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- Thank you that you know our needs
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- And thank you that you will provide.
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- I remember thinking this god keep long pants and heaven.
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- I mean, a few days later a friend of mum's came over
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- And she left a parcel when she when she was leaving
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- And inside were three
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- Pairs of long pants and i said to her, mum,
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- Did you tell aunt mary that we needed those?
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- And she said, no, darling, don't you remember?
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- We told jesus my mum spent her life
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- Making pearls, going through things that were hard,
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- That were difficult, that were challenges.
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- She coded every struggle with prayer and worship.
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- You can too.
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- God is making something beautiful with your life.
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- And i don't know what
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- Tough times you're walking through right now,
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- But would you see it as differently?
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- Would you see us making pearls?
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- Would you see it as an act of worship?
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- The last thing i wanted you to see is a very simple thing.
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- It's this little picture and all it says
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- Is, yes, lord.
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- You know,
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- When my sister and i were going through all my mum's things,
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- My mum had alzheimer's in the last year.
- 00:07:08.907 --> 00:07:10.976
- But our church did something. i think every church should do.
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- It was so amazing.
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- They bought an older house,
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- Big house, and they had all kind of changed
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- To make accommodations
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- For 11 senior members when they were older,
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- And so my mum had been able to be there.
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- She was with people that she'd known all her life,
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- That she'd worshiped with all her life, and her friends.
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- But once mum passed, my sister frances
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- And i went to clear out my mum's room because we knew
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- That someone would would be wanting the room after her.
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- And my sister said that
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- Mum wanted you to have her engagement ring,
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- And she wanted me to have a watch
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- And we couldn't find the ring.
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- And i said, well, i'll just go ask the matron.
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- So i went and i asked the matron,
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- I said, hi, i'm betty walsh's daughter.
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- Do you get a chance to know what her engagement ring is?
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- And she told me that my mum
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- Had exchanged it for a box of chocolates
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- That one of the residents had,
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- And she said, don't worry, i can get it back.
- 00:08:01.760 --> 00:08:03.395
- And i'm like, no, my mum ate the chocolates.
- 00:08:03.395 --> 00:08:05.664
- Let the woman keep the ring because honestly.
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- This was all i wanted.
- 00:08:10.869 --> 00:08:12.871
- Now remember my sister frances sent me sheila.
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- That's worth nothing.
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- And i said, frances, it's worth everything to me
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- Because my mum later had on the pillow
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- Every night under that picture that was there
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- All the days of my life that i.
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- That my mum was alive.
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- She would lay her head on the pillow
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- At night under that declaration.
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- Yes, lord.
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- She would get up in the morning
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- With those two words on her lips.
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- And when i was a smart alecky teenager,
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- I would say to her, you don't know what you're saying yes to.
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- She'd say, no, sheila, but i know who i'm saying yes to.
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- So mum's
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- Bible grace is unmerited favor.
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- It's love stooping.
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- Accept that grace today
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- We can spend our lives making pearls.
- 00:09:00.585 --> 00:09:03.421
- Every time something hard comes in
- 00:09:03.421 --> 00:09:05.023
- And you know it well, we can coat that in prayer and worship.
- 00:09:05.023 --> 00:09:09.361
- And we can live a yes lord life.
- 00:09:09.361 --> 00:09:13.531
- Maybe not knowing what we're saying yes to,
- 00:09:13.531 --> 00:09:16.668
- But we know who were saying yes to.
- 00:09:16.668 --> 00:09:19.671
- Let's pray.
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- Lord, what a joy it is to say yes to you.
- 00:09:22.173 --> 00:09:25.110
- Because we trust you,
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- Because you're good, because we know that you love us
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- And you have our best possible outcome in place.
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- Lord, i want to thank you
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- For the example of those who've gone before us,
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- Who lived in such a way that they draw closer to you.
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- I want to thank you for the reminder of your grace.
- 00:09:41.693 --> 00:09:44.929
- I want to thank you for the beauty of how a pearl is made,
- 00:09:44.929 --> 00:09:47.966
- And that we are invited into that process with you.
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- But, lord, together as a family, we just want to say to you
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- Two words yes, lord,
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- Because of jesus we say yes in his name.
- 00:09:58.877 --> 00:10:02.947
- Amen.
- 00:10:03.181 --> 00:10:03.181
