Having Faith When Things Don't Go As Planned

You’ve always wanted a VIP invite to the coolest party, right? Then you want to be an Instagram Insider. You will get all the current algorithm hacks and tips to grow your following, bring in new potential clients (and friends), and make some MONEY with the GRAM Here’s your invitation to the VIP INSTAGRAM INSIDER SCOOP INVITE!

Connect with Emmy on the GRAM  @theheyheyemmy or hang out on Facebook.

Our lives can throw us unexpected challenges, disrupting even the best-laid plans. Uncertainty really tests our faith. Reflecting on past experiences, I realized how easily our carefully crafted plans could go awry. We might have chosen a different path if we'd known about this hard time beforehand. It's always 20/20 in hindsight.

I never imagined myself becoming an entrepreneur growing up in a family of educators. Life had other plans for me. I learned that sometimes the unexpected can open doors we didn't know existed. Faith is important in these moments.

Hebrews 11:1 (NIV): Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV): Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

Having faith doesn't mean life will be easy. I'd say the opposite is true. Faith gives you peace and strength in unexpected times. When unexpected obstacles happen, it's easy to wonder why they weren't part of our plan. Faith reminds us that things will get better and that the best is yet to come.

Faith is a verb. We have to take action and trust in God's guidance. We're told to walk by faith, not by sight in 2 Corinthians 5:7. It means we're willing to keep moving forward even if we don't see the whole picture. Faith is based on personal conversations with God. During tough times, it gives us resilience.

Whenever life takes an unexpected turn, hold on to faith. Trust in the One who holds our future. With faith, we can overcome any challenge and keep moving. When we walk with God anything is possible. 

Connect with Emmy on the GRAM @theheyheyemmy or hang out on Facebook.

Transcript

Having faith when things don't go as planned can be really challenging. But the good news, sister is it is possible, and I would say that without a doubt. If it was not for my faith. I don't know about you, but I would not have been able to get through these last three years ever since we got hit in 2020 with a pandemic.

We thought 2021 would be better. Then we hit 2022. Now we're in 2023, halfway to 2024, and the things of this world are still going bonkers. Things are bananas. I don't see it getting any better. I don't, like I said, I don't know about you, but if I didn't have my faith, I. I wouldn't be able to get through the big challenges, the small challenges.

And so in today's episode, I'm gonna do my best to share with you how to have faith when things don't go as planned. And share with you a little bit more about some of the things in my life and in business that 100%. Did not, that was not the plan. But we are still here today. We are still moving forward, and the best is yet to come.

All right, let's listen to the episode.

Hey, hey, it's your girl, Emmy Cornwell, Instagram biz coach and social selling expert. Welcome to the Hey, hey, Emmy Show. This is a podcast where we talk about all things that will be helpful for you and your business. Everything from Instagram tips and tricks to health hacks to relationships, and definitely some Jesus.

Basically everything in between Proverbs 31 and Tupac. I am so excited to party with you in each and every episode because ain't no party like a Hey, hey Emmy party. Can I get Amen. All right. Let's get into it. Sister.

Hey. Hey. What's going on? How are you, sister girl? Happy. Happy day to you. Happy Tuesday. If you're listening on Tuesday, which is the day that these episodes drop, Right now we are doing one a week of the Hey, hey, Emmy, show all things Proverbs 31 to Tupac. We are the plan and we're talking about plans today.

The plan is to go back to two episodes a week. That's what we were doing for a while, um, until I got closer and closer to giving birth to Cam. And then after giving birth, things didn't go as planned with him. And so we have been able to do one episode a week. I feel good about it. I love podcasting. I love being here with you in this platform and in this, you know, different arena.

I feel like it's just so much more personable, more intimate. We get to talk more than 15 second story slides and you get to get to hear a little bit more context that I think. Adds value to both your business and life. And that's why I did this episode. And so the plan is to go back to two a week here shortly, probably closer to fall after summer, but we shall see.

So I'm your host, Emmy Cornwell, and we are gonna talk about what to do, how to have faith when things don't go as planned, because it can absolutely be challenging. I am a planner. I write to-do lists every day. I. Goodness gracious. I probably should write less to-do lists. I have seen the method where you're only supposed to write like three.

What are your three biggest priorities for the day? Just write those down. I am not that type of list maker. What type of list maker are you? Super curious. I am the list maker who writes, shower, writes well, especially as a mom now write to shower, write, eat. Write. Wake up. If I wake up. And if my lungs have breath in it, praise the Lord.

I am not done. Satan, better get scared cause my feet are going to the ground and I am gonna get running or crawling or moving. At the very least, we're always moving forward. And one of the ways that I'm able to do that, despite hard days, despite hard moments, despite challenging moments, despite things not going in plan, is because of my faith.

If it were not for my faith. I, gosh, I don't know where I would be. I, I really don't because there have been a lot of things the last lifetime, you know, I'm gonna be 40 here this year. That did not go as planned. But especially if I'm looking at the context of the last couple years, no one planned for a pandemic except for, I guess maybe the people who planned it.

Uh, whatever your opinion is on that. Anyways, we are moving forward from that. But whatever you've experienced in the last couple years, I'm guessing were weren't in your plans, weren't in your five-year plan. We're in your 10 year plan, were in your success and your goals and your vision for your life.

Cuz that's, that's the conversations that I'm having with people. We are living in a completely different world than we thought we would be. When I was young, I. I thought I was gonna live the American dream and you know, go to college and get my education and then go get my master's and have a job that paid me more because I had a master's and then get married and have kids and have the white picket fence.

Right. And that's not even what happened back in 2007, 2008, 2009, when I was getting my master's. And that was like one of the last big recessions. And if I would've known that happened during those timeframe, I wouldn't have gone and got my two year master's degree in sport management. I just wouldn't have done it.

You know, and through that, even finding entrepreneurship, I, it was not the plan for me to be an entrepreneur. My parents aren't entrepreneurs. They're both educators. No one in my family was an entrepreneur. My grandparents on my mom's side were both educators. My grandparents on my dad's side, my grandma was a nurse and my grandpa was a, a beach boy.

He was a surfer surf instructor. Like, um, that's where I'm, that's where my Hawaiian roots come from. So here's the one thing that you can always count on in life, is for things to not go as planned. And being flexible yes, helps, but having that firm foundation of faith, Is really what causes things to move forward.

And you know, the Bible and God has a lot to say about faith and I'm not gonna necessarily, that's Kim. You okay bud? You doing okay? He's a good boy. Yeah. Speaking of not going planned, that's one of 'em, right? He, I am gonna share with you some of my favorite scriptures in regards to faith. I'm gonna weave them in hopefully throughout this episode.

But you hear him, he's in my office with me. He's in his little seat. And the challenges that we're having with him, I had, that's not how my perfect Pinterest plan was of becoming a mother for the first time. Like to have a child with special needs, have a child who has needs with feeding, and so he is working on his.

Oral intake of food. His second swallow is not as strong as they would like, and he has what's called disorganized eating because the valve that we just, it just works, tells our food and our liquids to go down the right pipe, right When you, you know, oh man, it went down the wrong pipe and you like cough.

Well imagine that for a baby. So that's basically what happens to him. And so that can even happen with his spit and sometimes, so that's, He coughs like that and he is a okay. He's good, he's fine, but he is needing to work out all the parts together between his brain, his motor skills, so that ultimately he can get off his feeding tube and be able to take a bottle or the breast or ultimately solid foods when we start to introduce that here in a couple months.

That was not my plan and thank goodness for God. Thank goodness for the foundation of having faith that knowing that there are better days ahead, that the best is yet to come. You know, faith, the definition of faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. When you have faith,

  you're believing in something that you cannot see and you're putting trust in your creator. So I believe if you put trust and belief together, it equals faith. But I do love the heroes 11 one that says the definition is now faith is the insurance of all faith, hope for, and the convictions of things not seen.

What are you like? Let's just use the example of Cam, like, I didn't hope for this. I hoped for a beautiful, um, first couple months with my son and it has been, but the idea, the picture is not what I would say I hoped for what is actually happening. And so when you have faith, you your assurances for those things that you've hoped for and you have belief of things that aren't seen.

I believe that. Cam will get better, and I trust the God who created him, and that's how I have faith. I have faith because I'm able to look back at different situations in my life historically and say, but God, but God, did he come through? Yes. Yes, he does. He always comes through. Maybe not in the way that you planned for it, maybe not in the way that you imagined it, but he's God, his he is.

Like our imaginations can't even fathom what he can do. It's, it's insane. I cannot wait to meet the man, the man, the myth, the legend, the message, which is just like, uh, different, like the Bible has different versions, right? There's like, the King James version, which is like old school English taught, like how, like Romeo and Juliet think about that.

And then there's things like the N I V, which is like the new international version, and there's the E S V, which I think is the English standard version. There are just the N L T I forget what that stands for. Those are like what I grew up on, kind of those types.  The N I V and the N L T, I think, and then the King James on occasion, I think.

But I love the message that's newer and the passion translation. Those translations of the Bible put it into like today's terms. So here's what the message has to say about faith in things that we don't see. It's the fundamental fact of existence is that this trust in God, this faith is the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living in our handle of what we.

You can't see. The act of faith is what distinguished it, distinguished our ancestors, set them above the crowd. It is even today. And I think peace comes with, I mean, all the fruits of the spirit, uh, kindness, self-control,  there's a bunch of 'em. I think it all comes with faith, like they are like cousins I guess you could say.

But even today, someone was mentioning how like, Chill. I am with Cam like and everything that's going on, and it's because I have peace, because I have faith. I'm able to remain calm. Doesn't mean things aren't challenging, doesn't mean things aren't hard, doesn't mean I don't have hard days. Yesterday I was pumping and just had all these emotions and started crying, and I don't know what to do with all these emotions.

I'm mad. I I get mad and angry and God wants you to share all those things with him, but. It all starts with trusting in the Lord and, and not leaning on your own understanding. This is another verse, but it's true. This is Proverbs three, five through six. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways. Acknowledge him and he will make your your path straight. Meaning no matter what you're going through, he's gonna work it out for good no matter what you're going through. He's got you. He's your guide. If you, Acknowledge him and have faith and trust in him for the things that you've hoped for.

Lean on him. And that is absolutely what I have done with Kim. I know in my spirit that this boy, this sweet, sweet boy is in, he's the person who's in charge of his wellbeing is loves him even more than I do. And that's unimaginable, right? And so there's a lot that God has to say about faith. There's a lot that the Bible says, and.

One of the things too that it talks about is like, faith without works is dead. So that's a verse. It's James two 14. I wrote these down. I do not, I do not have these memorized. I have like bits and pieces of the verses memorized. I could paraphrase 'em to you, but I don't have, like, it's not my spiritual gifting to memorize Bible verses.

Um, But what that means, because I, I'm thinking about faith, right? We're talking about how to have faith in when things don't go as planned. Well, okay, I've talked about what faith is now. It's like, how do you have it? Well, you have to be in motion. And we talk about this in several different episodes, right?

Miracles, favor those in motion. But I'm just sitting and sulking. God is not going to bless us. You know? Can he? Yes, absolutely. But most likely he's not going to. So you have to be in action. Faith is an a, a verb. It means you're walking it out, right? Second Corinthians five, seven. For we walk by faith, not by sight.

So again, it's not the things that you can see and you're walking by. Faith walk is an extrover verb. So all of these things is you're seeing go together and it builds the foundation for when tough times happen. It's like, You're building your resilience almost right now. You don't have blind faith. And I talked about like historically being able to go back and tell your brain, your logical brain and be like, cause maybe you feel faith in your heart, but then your logic starts to, to click in and be like, oh no, what if this happens?

And then you go down to like fear, like, no, fear is not welcome here. Fear needs to go in Jesus' name. It's not, it's has no place here. But you have to historically kind of trick yourself almost and go back and be like, Okay, this is when it was challenging, but this is what happened and it worked out. Or you know, I learned a lesson.

There's so many things that can happen in challenging times that test our faith. Absolutely. But produce the perseverance and you know, there's a lot of talk with AI right now and so I thought it would be fun to see what artificial intelligence has to say about faith. I don't know if you've tried chat G P T, but it's pretty  It's pretty interesting and it's, I feel like it's spot on a lot.

It really depends on how you are, like what prompts you're asking. You have to like, the better the question, the better the answer. So here are some strategies that chat, g p t says and, and shares with how to have faith. Even AI knows about faith, okay? I mean, That's pretty cool. So how to have faith when things don't go as planned.

You want to acknowledge just outright, like I shared earlier, like things are gonna happen. Acknowledge that life is unpredictable. Not everything is gonna go to yours and OS and your ABCs and your one 20 threes, and however you have it mapped out in the blueprint that you have. This is for your business too.

This is not just for life. I've shared the example obviously with Cam, but do you remember. Sharing me sharing about my Instagram being disabled at 11,000 followers, and that was August 1st, 2022. Do you remember that? At first? And I still do at the end of the day. It, there could be a rollercoaster, but at first I was like super peaceful because I knew at the end of the day, God had got me.

That was my, that was me exercising my faith, partnering in prayer and having conversation with God and him telling me like, It's gonna be fine. I got you. Just pause and be still and then I'll give you next steps. And he did. Doesn't mean that later on I didn't get angry, cuz I did. Doesn't mean later on that I didn't get bitter because I did.

But I always have faith that what I am doing, if I am doing it unto the Lord, if I'm doing it as a, you know, giving him glor, everything that you do should be to glorify him your whole life. Is a testimony, your whole life is a message. How you do anything is how you do everything. And people are watching.

People are absolutely watching. I just mentioned about more about my alcohol journey, again on Instagram stories and asked if people wanted to hear more about it. Cause I don't know. And I, and I share more here on the podcast with you and I still need to do that episode. And it's coming, I promise. Talk to my editor, talk to Jen.

And we're doing it. It's probably gonna be two parters, cause it's gonna be long. It could probably even be a three part episode. It's an ongoing journey with alcohol. But even that, like, I don't know where I was going with it guys. I forgot. But have faith. Have a little faith. What's the, you gotta have faith.

Ooh, you gotta have faith to faith, to faith. Anyways, embrace the reality. That's unexpected. Events. Setbacks are a natural part of the journey. We're all going from glory to glory. You're not alone. Okay? Here's the second thing that chat Gpt said, is to have a positive mindset. Shift your focus from dwelling on what went wrong to finding the positive aspects of the situation, what went right.

Look for opportunities of growth. Look to learn something. Okay, what are the new possibilities that could arise? Because if you're partnering with prayer, here's what I was saying, then you're gonna have discernment. So again, it's not blind faith. You're not just following without. You have historical data, but also you have conversation with the person who created you and the creator of the universe.

And so you are gonna have guidance, you're going to be led by the spirit, your go. That's your blueprint, not our plans. I have a tattoo that's Proverbs 1921. It says, many are the plans of a man's heart, but the Lord's purpose shall prevail. And I got that when I was living my life solely by a to-do list.

And it was running my life and it was running me ragged. And I still, I still battle with that, but I have, I have gotten better in moments last couple years, though, I tell you, I don't know about that sometimes. So trust in the process. That's the third thing. Have faith of the larger picture. You're we're just all little ants on this tiny little planet.

And you know what? Things are gonna work out because God has got the ant farm. He's in control. He's the farmer. He is the one that is, is dictating your destiny. Partnering with free will, of course, which is another episode. But setbacks can sometimes lead to new and better things. God. Makes everything that goes wrong, he can turn it into good.

Okay. Have you considered that? Have you considered the closed door? Maybe an opening of a new one. What's the Garth Brooks song? Thank God for unanswered prayers. Well, that prayer that that person was praying, Mr. Garth probably it like wasn't unanswered. God just answered it in a different way. But you get for the reference, you get it.

Here's the fourth thing. Learn from the setback. Okay? Everything is working for you, not against you. View those challenges as learning experiences and reflect. Reflect on what you learn from the situation and how you can use that knowledge to improve future outcomes. Learn from it. I'm a lifelong learner.

I dobel, I, I mean, all of these things, honestly, like positive mindset, trust in the process. I have acceptance, like I feel like are me to a t and maybe they're not yours. So hopefully you're grabbing a hold of some of these and you can, and you can learn from this and put some of these into practice for your life and business so that when tough times do happen and things don't go as planned, as small as, as small as something from your everyday to as big as something like, you know, with my son.

But having that perspective can help you see those setbacks, stepping zones towards, towards the progress, towards your goals. Towards the hope and the vision that you have, and I love this one. Challenging times helps you practice resilience. How? Like how are you going to get through something if you've never been through something?

You know, with one of the reasons too, like with Cam, I feel like it's because I have had really a lifetime of practicing my faith. Which has created resilience in my life, and so you just get better, your tools get better when hard times come. You have tools that you've learned from previously that you can then use to help you through situations.

Building resilience, resilience, it is not just a coping mechanism, it it's a way, again, like you said, to just get better and you want to seek support. Through this all you wanna find people who are gonna uplift you, encourage you during these difficult times. You know you're go, you are gonna want people who are sharing with you and your concerns and your your thoughts and you want people who are gonna pray with you.

You want people who are gonna provide godly perspective and encouragement and really give you, um, just that support you need when things are, are tough because it is gonna be something you may have to have a long-term perspective on. Right. This is all temporary. What we are, this is temporary. This is not our home.

We are foreigners here, we are just visitors. You know, our, our home is heaven and life. Life is gonna be filled with ups and downs. And if you can stay focused on the long-term goal, the long-term vision, your true identity, right? Why are you really here? It's gonna help you maintain your faith during these challenging times.

And ultimately at the end of the day, practice gratitude, cultivate that gratitude, focus on the positives. What are you thankful for? This one, I used to do a gratitude journal every day. I used to write, like back in the day, not back in the day, but like a few years ago when Rachel was her face. Not Rachel Ray, not the cook.

 Rachel Hollis was kind of big. She was like big time. She had her start stage journals, which I actually like and. There's gratitude in there. And so I used to do that all the time and I've kind of gotten away from it, and I think I need to get back to it because I do need to recognize the things that I am grateful for, the things that I do have, because I'm such a dreamer and a future forward thinker, I tend to forget about like the present and I forget like what is in the moment.

And so I get dissatisfied because even today I'm thinking, I'm like, man, I'm in Pilates. I'm like, I just wanna change the world. Like, I know people say that, but like I actually mean it. I just wanna change the world. I just don't know how, where is my part to play in changing the world? And then I, you know, God took me back to like, what's your true identity?

It's an encourager to many. How can you encourage someone today? Em mean, did you encourage someone yesterday when you had a hard day? If you did great, that was a successful day and you're doing it. All of these things are gonna help you shift your perspective. They're gonna foster more of a sense of hope.

Trust, belief, and ultimately faith. And how do you get more faith? Well go back and listen to this episode. No, if you wanna continue to, to grow your faith even more, you do wanna get into the word. You do Wanna read your Bible ritual? Hollist, which said grow. Wash your face. Well, girl. Read your Bible, okay?

You don't have to like sit and go and have like all this quiet time. Trust me as a mom, I do not have a bunch of quiet time. Honestly, I'm loving the year. Um, it's a podcast. It's like eight minutes every day. It's by Daily Grace Co. And it's a year in the Bible and it's going chronologically. Cause the Bible, if you did not know, if in fact, was not written chronologically.

So this podcast, eight minutes a day, 365 days. A year, they're gonna go through the Bible chronologically and they give you context and there he goes again. Cough it out, bud. Anyways, I have been relying that on that this season because that's super quick. I can just put it on in the car and I'm learning a lot.

I'm learning a lot. So sister girl, I am just getting called from all different places. That's my alarm because Cam has his dietician appointment with his dietician, so. Perfect timing, though we are at the end of the episode. Hopefully you felt encouraged by this. Hopefully your faith grows when you hear other people's stories and testimonies of how they overcame challenging things.

That's one of the reasons why we share our testimony, is to build, build each other's faith. And so hopefully that was done for you today.  Even if it was a mustard seed. God says if you have a mustard seed of faith, you can move mountains and nothing is impossible. And I believe it. I believe it for myself.

I believe it for you. Remember, having faith doesn't mean everything always goes perfectly, but it does mean you have that trust. You have that belief and you understand that God has got you even when. You face uncertainty even when you can't see the future. Even when you can only see the, like the next step in front of you.

That too is when God can come in and work. We are, we're not supposed to do this on our own. We, we are not supposed to do this with our own strength. We are ultimately supposed to lean on him because he has a great, great God and he has got us. Oh. I'm feeling encouraged just sharing that. I'm feeling like I'm in a better mood today because of this.

This has been a great episode for me. So if nothing else, thanks for listening. If you enjoy this episode, do please make sure to take a screenshot and tag me the Hey, hey Emmy on your Instagram and share it to your stories. I would love to support you. The other day in my Instagram stories, I asked if there was.

Anything that I could pray for you about and so I would like to offer that that to you as well. At any time, if there's anything that you ever need someone to partner with you in prayer, 100%. I am absolutely here. Send me a message. I love to pray with people. I don't just say, oh, I'll be praying for you.

I actually like send you a prayer Sometimes. Usually, maybe it's a voice memo, but sometimes it's written out. It just depends. I wanna be able to do that if that's something that you need. Okay, sister, girl, I'm praying for you right now. How about we just do it? Father God, thank you Jesus. Thank you for each and every person that is listening to this podcast.

Thank you that they're here. Thank you that you had a divine appointment for them to listen to this podcast episode. At this time, you know exactly what they're going through. You know exactly what they need. Lord, I would ask you, I ask you right now in your son's name, that you would encourage them, that you would increase their faith, that if they're going through a challenging time, that you would give them peace, that they would be able to trust you, that they would be able to hope.

For the best because the best is yet to come Lord, and that you would just come around them and hug them and give them that peace that everything, no matter if it works out the way they planned it or not, would is going to work out for their good. I am praying that you would just bless their socks off.

Bless th bless them beyond measure, even through the challenging times that they would be able to see you, see your love for them and cling them to that as they move forward in their lives and be blessings to other. We pray this in your son's name. Thank you, Jesus. We love you. Amen.