Lorissa:
And so we’re going to talk about that a little bit today on this episode, which I’m really excited about. It’s a beautiful study and I can’t wait to ask Kara all about it, but first of all, you guys, I want to tell you this, Kara has a beautiful story of how she has come into the faith. Both Kara and Sterling are converts, and I I’ve been born and raised in the Catholic faith. And so I always love to hear from my friends to hear from like stories of what brought them into the church. And so Kara, I’m going to kind of turn this over to you. Just tell us a little bit about yourself, your past. I know your life has been filled with, with faith and a love for God, but what, like also like through that path, that journey, like what brought you into the Catholic faith? Oh,

Kara:
Okay. So as we all know, that’s, it’s usually a million stories in one story, right. And so for this, the purposes of this I’ll try to hit on just the big stuff, but I have to say that the Catholic church is probably the last possible place I would have ever, ever seen myself come into. And in fact, in a lot of ways, I, I pretty much kicked and screamed the whole way to it, it was, it was very unexpected, very, very out of the blue in anything I could have orchestrated. And I really have to look back now and just say, Oh, okay. That was only God only God could have done that. So I, I was a Protestant and I didn’t even know at this point like that there was a Protestant and a Catholic of things.

Kara:
I really just thought that I knew and loved Jesus. Right. And my pursuit of faith in that was, was always trying to find Jesus and trying to find the truth. And I actually went to Bible school after college, and I was preparing to enter into youth ministry. I had actually started a youth ministry and I was involved heavily in leadership and, and some of the the larger churches in the area you know, working alongside of them to, to just really try to minister to our community and to the youth in the area. And so in that I had had a running Bible study at my house for several years, just we were going through various books of the Bible and just, we always had this kind of open door policy at my, my home. I lived by the the Boise state university campus. And so we had a steady stream of events there for all of the college kids. And one day a man showed up there his name was Jim.

Kara:
And I didn’t give him the time of day because I thought, well, well, at this point I was as you know, older lady out of college, because at this point I was like that the old age of, I think maybe 24 or something. Yeah. But I was like, you know, here, I was still having my house open to these young college kids, you know? Yeah. And so so then I met this man, his name was Jim and he had just moved into the area, had met some friends and they had invited him to this Bible study because he was trying to get plugged in. So I didn’t give him the time of day because I thought, well, he’s way younger than me, you know, whatever. I thought he was very handsome, but whatever. And so then you know, lo and behold, it’s my future husband.

Kara:
We met, we fell in love you know, all of this stuff. And throughout this phase, my husband Jim had been Catholic, so he’d grown up Catholic, but then, and this was his own story. But, but from his standpoint, he was seeking a I guess a depth and a vibrance that he didn’t think he could find in the Catholic church. And so sadly he actually walked away. And then that’s when we met in the Protestant circles. And so we got married, we had had one child and then I was about nine months pregnant with my second. And my husband came into, we were in the laundry room of all places. I’m like doing the whites, you know, here. And then he comes and says, Hey, honey, I think I need to go back and be Catholic again. And that was probably, I mean, clearly I was not emotional.

Kara:
I was not sad about that at all. All right. I, I was pregnant totally Proverbs 31 here. And and then I mean, it really just, the implications of that kind of started this ball rolling of, Oh, it was horrible, Lorissa. Like I thought my marriage was done really. I thought we are unequally yoked. I had been raised in this place of thinking that the Catholic church was dead and that the faith was more of just a rules and religiosity instead of any sort of relationship, like a growing vibrant relationship with the Lord. And I thought that was the farthest thing from what I wanted. It was right. Yes. Yeah. And then you know, that was a great wrestling match for awhile with my husband and I, and we happened to no, these wonderful people, the horn family. And and we got to spend a lot days with them and I watched this amazing Catholic family take me somebody who sadly looked down my nose in a lot of ways at cath Catholicism and the Catholic faith, because I just didn’t think that was really grasping who God was and gosh, was I wrong?

Kara:
But they were just beautiful. You were beautiful and loved me and my family in so many ways. And, and so throughout this whole time I had just weirdly been praying, you know, now I was a mom and a wife and I was in this different phase of life where I really, really desired a community and adaptive phase. And we church hopped in from the Protestant side. Do you church hop, it’s almost like this dating relationship because you, it, you cry. They kind of say like you haven’t found home yet. Like, you’ll know when you enter the doors, if you are, when you’re home. And I think they, they mean that, that is kind of like this culture that you die with, or, you know, each church has their own sort of way about Guzman and we just couldn’t find it. I thought it was just, we were in this different stage of life and there wasn’t a church around us.

Kara:
But after this huge rift of my husband saying I’m Catholic you know, it was kind of this just now what moments. And I remember he said, you know, I am sorry, because when we met I wasn’t Catholic and I’m wanting to honor that journey with you and I will keep going to church with you, but I have to go to mass. And so we began this very difficult journey of, you know, wrangling two kids through a Protestant church service. And then he would leave at the dinner time rush and go to mass by himself. And I was not gracious with that. Sadly I, of course it was the worst time of the day. My kids were always melting down. I thought he was, I really kind of felt abandoned and actually betrayed in a lot of ways. You know, and at this point I had, I had taken it kind of as a secret shame.

Kara:
Like I had married the wrong person, even I here I was, I had tried so hard to honor God and wait for the right person. And I had tried so hard to live my life in accordance with what I thought God wanted me to do. And suddenly I found myself in this position of I know it sounds dramatic, but I really thought my whole world was kind of just crumbling around me and I really didn’t know what to do. And so I had confided in a few friends Protestant friends, and I had had, you know, all of them praying for my husband.

Kara:
And and then what’s really crazy. Lorissa is that I remember one day I was praying and I was pleading with God, Lord, I don’t understand this. I don’t know what’s happened. This mazing man who I love has thrown this curve ball at me, and I feel like our marriage is now really unequally, yoked. I am sorry. I don’t know what happened. Please help. And in this moment it was like the Lord just kind of put his hand on my shoulders in a way that just sort of like, like deep breath, like into my soul was like, you need to trust me. You need to just know that I can take care of myself and I love your husband more than you do. I can stand up for the truth and you need to just support your husband and what he’s seeking because T seeking truth.

Kara:
Right? And so once I, I sort of stopped bringing him over the head with, how could you, how could you do this? You know, what is this going to mean for our marriage and our kids and of this stuff, and you’re wrong and started to see that, you know, maybe we, we actually were on the same page and I wanted to see what he was seeing. And I kind of jumped the fence back over to, you know, we’re on the same side and we are married and we need to find unity somehow. And so I need to just try to support him and see, see what he is pursuing. And so very slowly the alerts started doing that, but really what happened is you know, just so many different things to treat it as kind of succinctly wrap this up. The, the Lord does over the course of the next couple of years, we had a lot of, we call it, he calls them pillow, pillow talks, but I call them pillow fights because it was just, yeah, I mean, he would bring up a topic, you know, we just, we made less and less and less of all the things that I had that either I didn’t understand or couldn’t grasp, or just really flat out thought was wrong.

Kara:
And we walked through every single one of them. I mean, Mary was a huge, huge stumbling block for me. The real presence of the Eucharist was really hard, really hard for me. I was taught, you know, it was just a representation of that. And then Oh gosh, church’s authority. I mean, all these things, right. We know like there’s a lot of things. There’s kind of the hot button topics and they were all, I had all of them. And so my husband just graciously, we walked through all of them. We, he would find apologetics. He would walk with me like through all the questions we started reading books and you know, met with various deacons and pastors and priests. And, and then even like, you know, just talking to you about some of the stuff and really, it was just all this time.

Kara:
Jim was still going to mass by himself. He would go with us in the morning to church and then go, you know, by himself to mass. And I really, I just watched his faith takeoff and his spiritual life transform. And I really just saw his example. I really just saw how he was trying to lead me and our family closer to the Lord and Catholicism was how he was doing it. And then it was through that example that I really started to see like, okay, you know, we’ve, we’ve knocked out all of these things I had learned and studied. And, and we, I really kind of knocked down all the walls around me, you know? And one time father Mike Schmitz had come over to Boise and he had done a thing for IC YC which is the he had done a talk and he had brought, he did it on the Eucharist.

Kara:
And at this point I was pretty right there. I had, I had done a lot of reading on you know, Scott Hahn and then Brandt Petri did Jesus and the Jewish roots of the Eucharist. And I was kind of there. But then after that talk, I was like, Oh my goodness, this is, this is it. And he actually brought down brought down the Eucharist into kind of, you know, the, the crowd, so to speak and walked us through and we were able to just adore it. And that was the first time I really truly like knew that that was Christ himself right there. And it, it had transformed my view of Catholicism from this place of distance from God and this place where God just sat almost aloof and at such an arm’s length, it wasn’t a personal relationship to this place of beauty and depth that I will be able to spend my whole life digging into and never reached the bottom of, and that was huge for me, you know, like that.

Lorissa:
Yeah. I think that’s so amazing. You’re like choke up, [inaudible] it out? Just like hearing you speak because I mean, what a transformation yeah. Really to get to that point of knowing that Jesus is there and he agrees that I need those, your words are so right on, like we could spend our entire lives contemplating the depths of all of the mystery of God, what he’s revealed, even through our Catholic faith and never even scratch the surface of all the beds.

Kara:
I mean, my heart was longing, longing for this depth and this community. And here I was, feverously trying to shove away what God was like bringing right into my life for, you know, years. And then, gosh, I, you know, just was able to see this flip-flop and see the beauty that is the Catholic faith. And there is nothing like it, there’s nothing else, you know once you really, really, truly grasp that, that is Jesus coming every single time. Once you understand the mass I mean, it just is everything

Lorissa:
I know. And both Scott Hahn’s book, like the I don’t know if you were like the lamb Supper or yeah. Was that it, and then Brant Petris a book on the Jewish roots of the Eucharist. I mean, you can’t read those two books and not just like, be like blown away. Yeah.

Kara:
And what’s crazy is I had, I loved apologetics, you know, I went to Bible school, like I had said, and we it’s this weird phenomenon and I do not want to bash like the Protestant side of things in any way, but I, you know, like went to Bible school and I never got below Martin Luther. Like we, wouldn’t basically there’s this gap between the apostles and Martin Luther and it’s the weirdest thing, you know, and I never really questioned that until I came face to face with it, with the episodic succession and, you know, the church authority, I, you know, it was basically asking these questions of the Catholic faith, but then I realized, I’d never asked myself that in the first place. Yeah.

Lorissa:
Yeah. And then you start, yeah. You start reading the early church fathers and like the ones that just were so living and out right after the time of Christ and yeah. Celebrating masses and yeah, it’s so incredible. I think that, you know, I’m so thankful that you, you kind of just shared all of this. And I think a lot of times, even in our master’s program or coaching women, a number of times it’s come up the topic of, you know, maybe it’s like, kind of for me, because, you know, we, we work mostly with women that are already Catholic, but a lot of times I will hear women who are struggling in their marriages because their husband’s not there. He’s not a practicing Catholic or he’s not, you know, maybe like, so kind of like how you and Jim were almost flip-flopped. And so I think it’s really powerful to hear you talk about like really, like, I mean, obviously so many different factors in this, and eventually you becoming open, but the fact that he was such a witness to you, like you saw his faith really come alive.

Lorissa:
And so I just want to say, I think that for any woman that’s listening to this right now, who maybe is excited about her Catholic faith, but maybe her spouse is at her, husband’s not on board or isn’t, you know, going through that. And maybe experience is experiencing similar struggles with how you felt like, are we equally yoked or, you know, I’m wanting to move forward on my faith. I just think that your, what you just said about Jim is so powerful about his commitment to the faith and to wanting to grow and how that brought you along then, like you started to see that in him. Yeah.

Kara:
I mean, that’s my deepest desire about this is to just, you know, bring encouragement to, to people in marriages like that. Because if I would have, you know, stood on the other side of this story and really, truly just stopped where I thought it was done. I don’t know where, you know, what would have happened. I mean, I lost all confidence, God, in my marriage, like I had a complete just identity crisis in so many ways. And it was through obviously the grace of God and through the Otter patience and persistence of my husband doing his own walk, he wasn’t trying to force feed me. He wasn’t trying to granted he would put on like Tim Staples at night, like on podcasts when I was like, I just want to sleep, you know? But like, God awesome. You know, it was like he would go mowing the lawn and have it and be listening to apologetics. He would, he would seek out godly counsel and, and he would always come back and tell me, like, I love you. I’m praying for you. It was never like, I just hope you become Catholic someday. He actually, if you asked him, he never actually thought I would be Catholic, his whole point was just hoping that I could understand where he was coming from.

Lorissa:
Right. Yeah. And how beautiful is that, that he wasn’t trying to change you or trying to rub on you? He was just trying to respond to what God, what he felt God was calling him to do and doing it. I mean, like what I think that is a beautiful, powerful example and for you and your love for God and in your love for him to also respond and at least in with enough respect to be like, okay, well maybe I’ll never be Catholic, but I at least want to know what my, what, what is it about this faith that’s stirring within my husband and actively seeking that. And I guess ultimately that’s our hope for all couples is that they can enter into that kind of love and respect for each other, that they’re willing to ask the difficult questions and keep walking together, even though it’s really hard.

Kara:
I mean, and it really goes back to gosh, even the, you know, the mindset stuff that we worked so hard on. You know, in the master’s program, I really have seen that come into play in my marriage too, because now I can not only identify my own anxiety, where were the places where I feel you know, I’m almost offended by some of the things that like, you know, as far as like with the Catholicism versus Protestant and the really rooting of all the things I thought I knew I had a really big tendency to just, just really get anxious and grasp. And of course you never come off. Like you want to come off in that moment, but I’ve learned enough about the, you know, sort of movement that we’ve been working on. And it’s really changed my marriage too, because I can, you know, work to monitor my own self, my own feelings and my own thoughts.

Kara:
And then it actually gives me such a bigger, I guess, a window, if you will, into understanding my husband and where he’s coming from too. And allowing him the space to be able to you know, fully be authentic, but things, and to just, I guess, just really help each other on that plane where we can, we can see the things that we’re not saying and deal with the deeper issues. You know, I think a lot of times you, you hide. Whereas when, when he was really pushing me about my faith, as far as his actions were really causing this rift in my own soul and making me just really had to really think a lot about my own beliefs and my own past and my own, like the truth that I thought I knew. And when your ground of faith gets shaken so much, it is so hard to not come out lashing. And so, so really grasping hold of this mindset stuff through this whole thing has been huge for me because I’m able to see the reason why I might be coming off a little bit sharper or a little bit closed off because it’s in reaction to my own fear and my own.

Lorissa:
Yeah. Yeah. I think that is like so much of what we do in masters brings us to a far greater, like deeper self-awareness. Yes. So then we, like, we almost can see ourselves as things are unfolding and go, okay, that’s why I’m acting this way, or that’s why I’m responding this way and pinpoint what it is. And so when you can, once you realize, okay, the reason I’m acting this way is because of this fear, that’s there. And then you can dive into why is the sphere there and what are the thoughts that I’m having that’s causing a sphere so powerful to do that kind of self-reflection in a way that actually helps us. And, you know, we’re not just spinning, but like there is like, there’s a direct way of doing it. That gets us to these deeper answers about ourselves. I think that’s what God wants for us is to be able to have that.

Lorissa:
So, okay. Thank you for sharing that. And I wanted our listeners to hear this because I think that understanding the, you know, our, the story of in our lives and how things unfold and how God is working is so important, especially as we’re going to be talking about this Bible study that you wrote inspired by David for Catholic mom’s Catholic women. I think it just helps us to have that kind of, kind of glimpse into your journey. So let’s talk about that because well, why don’t you tell us, you’re going to be watching that at the 1st of June. So tell us the details a little bit, and then we can type, like, talk about what the study is about. Yeah.

Kara:
So, okay. I believe it’s the second. So whichever is the Wednesday. I think we’ve decided, and I actually need to talk to Sterling about this time. We’re not totally sure on the time yet, but it’s going to be weekly. And we’re going to try to actually do it in four weeks. This is going to be our maiden voyage on this study. It’s an eight week study, but we’re going into summer. Moms are busy. It’s crazy. We don’t want this to be another sing on top of somebody else’s shoulders. So really what we’re trying to do is just to create a community iron sharpening iron, where we can really dive into deep biblical truth, but then also see just as beautiful example David is one of my favorites. And, and he was before, you know, doing mindset work, but now after doing mindset work, I can’t unsee it, you know, with him, he, he has given us this beautiful gift throughout scripture of so many areas where we can look at the things that he’s saying through songs and match it up to some of the circumstances in his life, which were not always favorable.

Kara:
He faced a lot of really hairy situations. Some by his own doing right and then some by just life circumstances. And then we can match that up with just watching him transition his mind and his thoughts from, you know, maybe a place of anxiety or fear or frustration or pain into a way of turning that into praise and adoration and deeper trust for God. And I, I just have gravitated towards him in so many ways, because I just love his authenticity throughout the biblical passages.

Lorissa:
Right? Yeah, totally. I mean, he is one that like is so vulnerable and just so you almost like, feel like you just get this glimpse, like him either like sitting in a field or like in his home or wherever, just like crying out to God and like happening. Like we can all relate to that. And then, you know, a little while later, he’s like, I praise you, God, in this way is Catholic moms can totally get that while we’re just like in the midst of the craziness and going, what is this? And then, you know, we have these moments where we’re just like, okay, God, we trust you. I see what you’re doing. But what it was I mean, what is your, okay, well, let’s talk about this, first of all. So for all of our masters members, if you’re in the masters program, then you will have access to, well, you already have access to the Bible study.

Lorissa:
So you can, what’s really cool about it is you could do it with a group of friends. You can print it off, you can do it by yourself get together with a group of girlfriends, do it on your own or whatever. But if you want to do it with our masters members, then they can join you Kara in the first week of June and there’ll be a set zoom date, and you guys will get together. I love I’ve, I’ve read through it a number of times, it’s such a beautiful study. It’s what I love about it is like for Catholic moms, it’s short. It’s not like, that’s what I think you were going for is, you know, short, like really meaningful and significant scripture passages. And then like there’s some St quotes in there that kind of tie into it and then some really meaningful questions to ponder reflect on. And I think that that’s, what’s going to be so beautiful for the women that participate in, this is just this opportunity to pause, to reflect on the scripture passages, but then she reflect on their own lives and then to be able to share it together in, in a group. So do you have any yeah,

Kara:
I, yes, that’s exactly what it is. And for anybody that, you know, kind of is thinking about wanting to do a Bible study or, or whatnot, and David, the life of David seems a little bit off. Like I have to say when I started writing a study for this, this purpose and this intense this was not where I saw it going, but the alertness really put David on my, my heart and my mind. And what’s really interesting is that as I’ve been doing it and rereading it and getting ready for this study, I see that it just really fits with our, our theme at masters. You know, it really, really hones in on just, you know, seeing the things that are happening in your life and then also being content with the place that God has you right now, knowing that it’s such a great encouragement for me to, to read through some of these first lessons, because you find David in a very humble state, he has been anointed King, but he’s still a shepherd.

Kara:
And he’s actually a very young shepherd he’s out, you know, cleaning up after a family sheep. And I really honestly equate that to motherhood, right? I mean, I feel like it’s just this weird paradox where it’s like, David is able to see that God has, God has called him to do something big with his life, something beyond what he probably ever saw coming. And he wrote this on David’s heart, but then he sends them back out into the field, you know, go take care of my sheep. And I find it so clickable to moms, because I think sometimes we can get felt. We can feel a little stuck between like a dream and a desire, but then also the demands of family life. And so what I wanted to really do is, is to use this study as an encouragement for moms to say, Hey this might be what your life is right now.

Kara:
And that is a good thing. You are being called to do that thing. Maybe it is wrangling, you know, the, the herd, so to speak, picking up after them, you know, protecting them. But what what’s really, really neat is that God never lets those things go by the wayside. He always uses the things that we’re learning now, even in the midst of motherhood, even in the diapers and the dishes and you know, all of that stuff, I’ve really come to see that God uses everything for everything. And it’s kind of just become this, this banner in my life where I can’t maybe see that something that I’m doing that I might label instantly as meaningless or unimportant may come back to actually be the thing that prepares me or be the thing that, you know, creates the importance. We never know what God’s gonna do with our time and our energy, our, you know, main thing is to be faithful with what he has on our plate right now. And so my hope is to just give encouragement in that.

Lorissa:
Ah, I love that. And I think that we hear that a lot with women. I mean, women feel like, Hey, I do have certain dreams on my heart. There’s things that I feel like God has placed there that I want to do. But I also want to honor, I also want to honor my vocation. I know my vocation is my primary responsibility, right. And, and yet I think in a lot of times we can have, we can have the dreams and we can have, we can honor, we can do both. And sometimes, you know, part of that’s waiting on God’s timing for it to all unfold in the way he had it. I remember five years ago, God placing the dream of life coaching on my heart and it took five years for that to unfold, right? Like, but the dream started. And I think the dream actually started way before that.

Lorissa:
I just didn’t know how to articulate it. But we still, you know, we all have these, these things, these longings, and to know that we’re not alone in that, that’s what I think is going to be so beautiful as you’re like, as women join your study too, to be able for them to share in the group their own dreams and what God is placing on their hearts and how he’s working in their families and stuff. And for them to be able to share that. So if you are, if this is something that sounds like you want to do this, like you want to be a part of this beautiful community that Kara is forming within our masters, our larger masters community, then please sign up for masters, come and check it out. That’s going to be starting up the 1st of June. We also have a number of other things we’re going to be kicking off a 60 day weight loss challenge and all of that’s going to kick off in June as well.

Lorissa:
So this is a perfect time to join masters, to get the, to join the study, the weight loss stuff, all the other content that’s in there. So much good stuff. So right now is, is the best time to join or like, right. You know, right at the beginning of June to get access to all of this goodness into this great community. Is there anything else, Kara, that you can think of that anything that you want to encourage women about the masters program or things that you’ve experienced by being a part of it that you think would be valuable to share?

Kara:
Yeah. I mean, you know, we’ve kind of coined this term that it changes everything. You know what, once you start, start on this journey and, and doing this mindset work, it really, really changes everything, everything. And once you, once you go that direction, you really can’t go back and it is such an exciting thing. And it’s such an exciting thing to see in the lives of other people. I’ve seen it in, in some of our other members. I’ve seen it in myself, I’ve seen it in, you know, Lorissa and Sterling. And it’s just such a glorious experience to be able to come alongside other moms, other Catholic moms who are just running that race. You know, we are just throwing off the things that hinder us and we are striving towards sainthood and we are striving towards just honoring God in, you know, the monotony and the crazy and everything in between.

Kara:
And it’s just, Oh, it’s, you know, especially after this last year where so many of us have been isolated and sort of felt a little bit cut off and a little bit lonely, even this community is such a godsend. And so not only are we getting to just saddle up beside each other and, you know, run together, but we’re able to just encourage one another and able to Oh God willing, you know, we’re making a Mark for eternity and just learning how to be the best wives and moms. And to create that legacy in our family that can just impact, you know, heaven. Like there’s nothing better, in my opinion, it’s, it’s such an honor to be able to be a part of this.

Lorissa:
Yes. Ah, so good. I think that you just like wraps that up perfectly and thank you. It really is where we’re all in this together. Like you said earlier, iron sharpens iron, and we need each other. We, as women, as mothers, as Catholics, as women striving to be sane, squalene need each other, and we also need to manage our minds. That’s what the saints did. I think that’s what made like that was a huge part of what made them saints is that they actually understand, knew how to manage their minds in a way that they could use their intellect and their well, and kind of like get it in tune with God’s heart and God’s will, and, you know, do the difficult things every day. The things that make us strong, you know, like we, weren’t made for comfort, we’re made for greatness.

Lorissa:
And these are all the things that we focus on in the master’s program. So I was so excited for women to experience this David’s study. Thank you, Kara so much for just opening your heart. I know that so much prayer and time and reflection, and really like sitting in a place of like asking God, like, God’s show me what my sisters in Christ need right now. And you, I know you prayed that so much and that you really tried to listen to God, speak to you on being able to minister to the women in this, in this group in a very special and profound way, tying, you know, your, I know your questions that you were asking were very, very specific to helping women grow and discover these things. And even some of like the mindset stuff, all of it’s all like woven into that. So I just thank you for your heart, for the gift of your faith and for the ways that you love so fiercely and the way that you love God and the way you’re just running towards him. Cause it’s inspiring to all of us that know you and love you. So

Kara:
Thanks for having me and mama has come join. We are like so excited to dive into this and to just learn and grow from you in all of this. I mean, we can, the questions we all ask each other is just such a learning experience. So thanks Lorissa.

Lorissa: Thank you, Kara. Alright, mamas. This is what we’ve got for you today. We hope you have an amazing week. Come check us out at the masters program, but go to our website made for greatness.co C O, and we hope to see you in masters. Have a great week and God bless!