Just Talkin' About Jesus
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Just Talkin' About Jesus
Overcoming Stories and Inspiring LIves with Bambi Lynn Makowski
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https://justtalkingaboutjesus.com/
Bambi Lynn Makowski tells a powerful story of redemption and transformation through faith. It discusses how trauma can distort perceptions of oneself, others, and the world, but emphasizes the possibility of replacing these lies with God's truth to gain a new identity. The narrative follows Bambi's journey, highlighting her experiences with childhood abuse, suicidal attempts, failed marriages due to infidelity and domestic violence, and how she found purpose and salvation through faith. Despite the hardships, Bambi's story is one of hope and resilience, showing that past traumas do not define one's identity. She now helps others see that God is still good and that they can find healing and a new identity through faith. Bambi has also written two books, "The Journey of Josephine" and "The Treasures of My Heart," which further explore her experiences and the lessons she has learned1.
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Jan: Welcome to Just Talking About Jesus. I'm Jan Johnson, a seasoned believer who loves relationships and, you know, just talking about Jesus. So you've been collecting stories. Tell me about that.
Bambi: Well, I guess it would start, you know, I had always dreamed and always knew that I was going to write a book. And I would just. Every year I would go on my birthday, which I just celebrated my.
My birth, and I just turned 55 on January 8th. But every year, I would go to the beach, I would go to the water and ask God, is it time for me to write my story?
And every year it was no. Every year I knew that it was no. And I've been doing this since I was about 28 years old. And every year was like, no, not yet.
Not yet. And then two years ago, I actually moved from Buffalo, New York, to the Golden Isles of Georgia. And so my whole life happened in, you know, in New York, but yet God brought me to the Golden Isles, to Jekyll island, for me to write my story.
And on my birthday of two years ago, I said, God, is it time? And I just felt like, wow, okay, something's. Something's different. And I came home and I saw my rag doll sitting on my headboard in my guest bedroom, like, oh, my goodness, that's my book.
And when I was, like, six years old, six or seven years old, for Christmas every year, my mother would give my sister and I a doll. And when I was six or seven years old, my mother gave me a rag doll, and I named her Josephine Priscilla after a movie that I had saw that was called the Orphan Train.
And it was all these little kids in New York City that went onto the train and they were sent out West. Well, one of the little girls there, she was a newspaper boy, but she was really a girl, but she had to dress up.
And her name is Josephine Priscilla. And so I named my Dao Josephine Priscilla. And that day two years ago, when I got back from the beach, I began to start writing my story.
I wrote my story. And it took me three and a half weeks to write it because it took me 52 years to live it, because I knew that it was there and I knew that it was time.
Every night, I would share my. I would share what I wrote to one of my dear friends. And she.
She was an editor, but she said, bambi, I can't edit this book. There's no way. I don't want to edit your voice out of it. And so I had to find a different editor.
I didn't understand the whole Process of all this editing and what it cost, you know, I had no idea. I just knew that God had given me my story and for me to write my story, when I finally.
My. When my book finally was published and it came out and it came to my door, you know, for the first time, you know, that was such an exciting, you know, exhilarating thing that, oh, my goodness, your.
Your book is in your hand. And I spent that evening reading my book. And I spent the whole night just reading, crying, spending the time of. Of what God was doing, healing in my life, that he was rejuvenating me.
He was taking all the pain of my life, and he was just renewing me. It was like an onion that was peeling piece by piece. And when I closed that book, I'm like, God, I'm not that same person anymore.
I'm not her anymore.
And I realized at that moment that I didn't write my story for me. I wrote my story so that other people could be brave enough to write theirs. I realized that my story was for me to go on this journey to find these women that needed bravery, that needed courage, and they needed somebody to be vulnerable enough to tell her story so that they can tell theirs.
So I have been on a journey of finding people, and not even me finding people, but God, finding these people, finding these opportunities for me to be able to share my story, for people to read my story.
I did win an award on my cover and on my writing, which is so amazing because I'm not a writer. But when I was in seventh grade, I had an English teacher that called me into her office and she said, you are going to write someday and you're going to represent the school because you have a gift of writing.
And I didn't understand stuff like that at stuff. You know, in seventh grade, it's a. You know, was a young girl. We didn't talk that way. You know, our parents didn't talk that way to us kind of thing.
But I remembered when my book came out and I won the. I won an award on the COVID and I won an. I won a silver on my writing.
That was like the most amazing thing ever to. To have somebody believe in how I. How I wrote.
Jan: But you have a new identity because.
Bambi: You are a writer.
I know I'm an a published author.
So I do have two books out. The Journey of Josephine is my first one, and the Treasures of My Heart is my second one. And. But God took me on this path to meet people and to hear other people's stories.
And to realize. I thought for my whole life that I lived inside of a globe, you know, like the globe that you shake, thinking that I'm the only one that's going through this, and I'm watching the world pass by me.
But as people picked up my book and read my book, they would contact me and they would say, this happened to me. Thank you for sharing your story, because now I'm brave enough to share mine.
I remember sharing my story with a single woman that lived in, you know, a tough time, a tough part of town. She was a black woman. She began to tell me that in their culture, you don't share, you know, things about your life you don't share the stories with inside of your home.
And so we began to talk, and I gave her a copy of my book. And the next day, she. She called me and she said, oh, my goodness. She told my story.
She called my. You told my story. And we're not even the same culture, and we're not even the same color, and you told my story. She was. Your story spoke to my soul that I can.
I could feel some healing that was taking place in my own life.
I believe that the more that we tell our stories, the more that we're not different than each other. We all have same. We all have scars.
We all have things that have taken our lives. But it's what you do with that. You know, there. There are thousands and thousands and thousands of women that were little girls, that were molested by family members.
There are thousands and thousands of thousands of girls that were raised in alcoholic homes, that had been sexually assaulted, that lived in poverty, that were victims of domestic violence, that were victims of infidelity.
My story is no different than some people. The difference is, is that I have allowed God to. To mold me and to transform me. I've allowed him to put me on the potter's wheel and say, we got to get rid of this, Bambi.
We're going to need to get rid of this. I've allowed him to take the ashes of my life and turn them into beauty. I've allowed him to take every part and every nook and cranny of my life and transform it and to do a metamorphosis, you know, of it.
You know, I think about. I tell the story all the time about the. The whole process, even of the oyster and the pearl. That oyster has no pearl in it until it's gone through some stuff.
That oyster stands alone without that pearl until the parasites and the sand and the hurricane and the Winds and the distress of life. Then when you look inside of that pearl, after they've gone through all of that, the oyster, you open up the oyster and you see this beautiful pearl.
And sometimes that pearl is small, and sometimes that pearl is really big because it's about the condition of what. That. What that oyster has gone through. That's our own life.
That's our life. And what my book and what my story has been able to do, it's brought me to the door.
But the lessons that I have learned through the heartache of life has brought me inside the door. Because there's a time that people don't. You know, you have a time that people want to hear your story, but then there's a time that people are like, okay, we've heard it enough.
So what are you going to do with that? How many excuses are you going to make from your behavior because you've been through something. It comes to a point that the elephant in the room no longer is the person that violated you.
The elephant in the room no longer is the person that you were a victim of domestic violence. No longer is the elephant in the room have to do with what you've been through.
Now the elephant in the room is the reflection of yourself, of what you. Why you chose this, what happened. What are you going to do, you know, with these situations?
How are you going to use these to heal? I can't blame anymore, you know, I'm not angry anymore for what people have done to me. I'm not angry anymore for the life that I have lived.
I'm not angry anymore that I had to go through this. I'm more hurt.
I. I was more hurt now that you did that to me. And I no longer blame them any. I. I don't. I don't put blame on it anymore. And it's not my fault.
I don't have to carry it anymore. And I think that that's what would victims have to realize. You come to a point that it doesn't matter. You could have worn anything you wanted to wear.
You could have done whatever you wanted to do. You could have. You know, my ex husband, that was. I was a victim of domestic violence.
It's not about that. I didn't pray long enough. It's not about that. I didn't sacrifice. It wasn't that I needed to be silent anymore. You chose to do something to me that you had no right to do.
And so you begin to start saying it's not my fault anymore. But you take accountability for your healing and that's what my book did. My book began to start having women take accountability, you know, for what they have been through.
And the more that we tell our stories, the more set free we become, and the more that we become a tribe and realize that we're all no different than each other.
Jan: And I think we have to allow.
We have to allow God to make us into a new creature, a new. Absolutely, you know, and I mean, he's standing right there waiting to do that for us. But we have to say, yes, I want you to make me and you show me how to do that.
Show me how to go about that.
Bambi: And it's hard. And, you know, the Bible's really clear about seven times your fall. It's not the falling that manners, it's the getting back up that manners. It's not the pit that you have that you have been placed in and that you have to crawl, you know, it's us crawling ourselves out of it and grabbing hold of his hand.
That's what it's about. It's about grabbing hold of his hand and hanging on for dear life. It's not about the woman with the issue of blood that she spent 12 years with this issue, and people have taken her money.
She was in hiding. She couldn't go out because, you know, she had a menstrual cycle. It wasn't about those 12 years, but it was about that moment that she was brave enough to go out and to grab the hem of his garment.
Yeah, that's what it's about. That's what God wants. He's showing us. Grab my hem.
Sit at the foot of the cross.
Renew your mind of how you think. I look at you and believe in how I do. Look at you.
You know, he wants us just to surrender it all and just say, God, you know, I surrender all to you. I surrender. And it's not about what we go through.
It had nothing to do with the woman with the issue of blood, of what she went through, but it was that moment in time that she grabbed his hem. And that's the story is.
That's what the story that God wants us to remember is the grabbing hold of the hem of his garment.
Jan: He's a good daddy, isn't he?
Bambi: He sure is. He sure is. He sure is.
Jan: Where can people find you?
Bambi: You can find me, you know, on all kind of social media platforms under Bambi Lynn. I am on TikTok that it is healing through stories. And then in parentheses is my name.
You also can go on my website, healingthroughstories.com and I do have, I am running that if anybody signs up and anybody, you know, subscribes to my website, there is a pop up for a 10% discount, you know, with a code, you know, if you want to purchase my books or my T shirts, you know, most authors, you know, I'm no different than anybody else would rather you come to my website, you know, would rather you, you know, purchase from my website and then you get a personal, you know, auto, auto, you know, author sign, you know, from me, you know, to do that.
I also blog weekly, you know, so that is something I love people to subscribe. And I have been on over 120, you know, different podcasts that people can look me up even on YouTube is that if they wanted to hear more of my story, you can do.
You do that. And I am now looking for speaking engagements, you know, for my story, to be able to present my story, you know, out into the world on a platform.
So if you know anybody, you know, that's looking for a speaker and looking for somebody with motivation, Christ, like motivation and inspiring, you know, I'm also available and you can go on my website and send me an email.
Jan: That's awesome. That is, yeah. So much that people will be able to relate to just because even if you're raised in a, a healthy home environment, that doesn't mean your whole life was filled with that.
You know, there's other twists and turns of things and trying to figure out who you are and whatever.
Bambi: But absolutely, I tell this story and we can end after I do tell the story. You know, when I turned 49, one of my friends said, bamba, you have to do something special before you turn 50.
You know, how about get a tattoo? And I'm like, no, I'm not getting a tattoo. And I had just read a book called the Five Second Rule. It was by Mel Robbins.
She was a motivational speaker. And she just tells you that your brain goes to, when it goes to six seconds, it immediately starts fearing and it immediately gives you all of these aspects of why you're not going to do something.
So I decided she, my girlfriend said, why don't you go skydiving? And I'm like, okay, sure, go, go skydiving. You know, because I just read this book and I'm going to put it to practice, you know, so I had an opportunity with one of my daughters to go skydiving.
And here, you know, they suit you all up, you know, you're all in harness, you know, to protect You. And I had these words written on my. On my hand that said, live, no doubt.
And I was a little cocky. I was a little like, you know, I'm a mother of six. I have these grandchildren. I'm, like, a little cocky. We go up into the plane at 17,000ft.
I'm the first person that is coming out that is going to be. Have to jump out of this plane. The guy says to me, get to the end of the.
You know, get really close to the edge of the plane. They do not count because they know that somebody's going to take their hands and, like, push them out, and you're not going to get me out.
So they tell you to sit at the edge of it. And as you're sitting in the edge of it, you're just waiting for that push.
And finally a push came, and I went out into. In it from. It starts from seven minutes. It takes about seven minutes for you to get from top to bottom.
And I was screaming, I was yelling, I vomited, I dropped gum in my mouth. You know, like, I was like. He goes, isn't this fun? And I'm like, no, my, my.
You know, my cheeks are flopping in, you know, in the wind and stuff like that. And he tells me, he said, when we get to the bottom, don't land on your feet and on your knees.
You have to land on your butt.
So I'm like, oh, my goodness. I'm trying to, like, figure it out how I'm going to land. I landed on my butt. He says to me, when we land, and I'm like, I'm feeling like morning sickness.
It just, like, hit me and says to me, would you ever do this again? And I don't mean to yell, you know, to swear to your audience, but I said, hell, no.
No way. That's life. That is how life is. That's ex. You know. So if anybody wants to know what is life about, go skydiving, because that will teach you what life is all about.
That you're as cocky as I'll get out because you're little girls. And we played, you know, how to be, have. Have house. We played how our husband's going to be.
Be for our whole lives. We, you know, we knew what our children are going to be like. And then we get into it. We get into life, and we get thrown out, and we land on our butts continually.
Because that's the definition of life.
Jan: Yeah, in a nutshell. Oh, that sounds just terrifying to me.
Bambi: Well, life is terrifying, isn't it?
Jan: Sometimes it can be terrifying.
Bambi: That is absolutely terrifying. So I figured I'd leave that with your, you know, with your, with your guest. You know, it's. That's just life.
And sometimes you're gonna land on your butt, but you're gonna have to give back up.
Jan: But we also have Jesus right beside us.
Bambi: Absolutely.
Jan: Through whether we see him or recognize him or not, Right?
Bambi: Absolutely right. And he wants you to fall because he's gonna pick you up.
Jan: Exactly.
Bambi: So that's the moral of the story. Yeah. You're gonna fall, but he is going to pick you back up.
Jan: Absolutely. Thank you, Bambi.
Bambi: Thank you so much for having me. I know, you know, so much to your listeners and if they, you know, ever want to reach out to me, please don't hesitate, you know, to reach out.
Jan: Yeah. God's timing.
Bambi: Absolutely. Thank you so much. You bet.