Rooted & Rising: Growth from the Greenhouse

About Fear and a Sound Mind

• E's Greenhouse • Season 1 • Episode 22

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Fear has a way of sounding wise. It borrows the language of safety, responsibility, and planning—until you realize it’s been quietly shrinking your life. We tell the truth about it through stories: the nine-hour flight across the Atlantic with gale-force winds that forced a choice between panic and surrender; a son’s failing truck that vanished and somehow turned into exactly the provision we needed; a house we couldn’t imagine as home until every door opened in sequence. None of it was tidy. All of it became proof that trust moves farther than control.

Along the way, we dig into the work that changed our days. Dyslexia isn’t a flaw to fix but a design to understand, and the Hidden Genius approach has turned discouraged students into confident, high-performing learners. Marriage got healthier when we finally said what we actually needed—hold me first, then let’s talk—and when anger was reframed as a signal that something wasn’t going our way, not a license to wound. We talk about money as flow rather than a dragon to guard, and college funds that appeared at the exact moment of need. We trace how a “book of remembrance” steadies the mind: recording answered prayers and unlikely breaks so the next storm finds you calmer and more grounded.

What ties these threads together is a simple charge: you weren’t given a spirit of fear. Power looks like taking the next right step. Love looks like staying close when life shakes. A sound mind looks like releasing control and remembering how far you’ve already been carried. If you’ve felt stuck—by anxiety, by budget, by decisions that refuse to resolve—this conversation offers a different map and real stories to walk by. Listen, share it with someone who needs peace today, and if it helps you, subscribe, leave a review, and tell us: where are you ready to trade control for trust?

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SPEAKER_00:

Hello, I am really glad you joined today because I have my sister Joyce with me today, Joyce Powell, and we're gonna be just talking about um times in our life where fear really kind of held on to us. But remember, God says you haven't been given a spirit of fear, but power, love, and a sound mind. And we want you to remember that today. We hope that as we share, that you get strengthened in your inner man to remember that when you're going through hard times. So, Joyce, uh, tell us a little bit about yourself, and uh then we'll get into our conversation.

SPEAKER_01:

So I'm married to a wonderful man for over 30 years. We have three kids, they're all grown adults now, and amazing kids.

SPEAKER_00:

They're amazing. One of them's becoming a chiropractor, and we're already cleaning his services. He has something gotten out of school yet. We're so excited.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, and I have two grandchildren who are precious and everything to me right now just wonderful. And I work with kids with dyslexia. The name of my company is Hidden Genius.

SPEAKER_00:

Hidden Genius! Yeah, you know what you've heard me before say. Like God created us, he called us by name. So we were with him before we ever got here. We were knit together by him. He breathed his life into us. He's Yahweh, which means the breath in our lungs. Like it breathe in, breathe out. He is in there, and we want him to come fully out. And when when you have a child, or maybe it was you that was diagnosed with ADHD, I wasn't diagnosed with that, but clearly that would be one of my gifts. And I have a granddaughter who has been diagnosed with dyslexia. I think it's her gift, it's her power. And so I'm so excited when my sister chose to go into this whole field of helping kids to be powerful in their gifting that God gave them.

SPEAKER_01:

I work with dozens of kids with dyslexia, and every single one of them is just got a special gift, just like you said. And they're all very, very smart kids. Yes. It's just it makes me sad when they go unnoticed because if they don't get remediated, a lot of them end up in special ed and they and feeling bad about themselves. And that's the thing. So when my kids go through our program, then they come out making straight A's and they're so confident. And it's just it's life-changing, not just for the kids, but for the whole family.

SPEAKER_00:

And I love that you turn it into an online success. So you can live anywhere and you could help them with the and you have your own like little tweaks and things that you've learned over the years that have developed into your own program.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

And it's very successful.

SPEAKER_01:

It is, and I love it, and I wouldn't want to do anything else. Yeah, praise. Uh every day I wake up, I know I feel good about what I'm doing that day. So I love that success. I couldn't ask for a better gift. I mean, that's not what I asked for. I literally asked for that. I said, let me have a job where I can get up and feel like I'm doing good for your kingdom. Oh, praise God.

SPEAKER_00:

And he answered you.

SPEAKER_01:

And it didn't just happen overnight, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

We we are being prepared. We are all like if you are 16 and you're listening to this today and you're thinking, what's my purpose? Well, your purpose really, it's super easy. It's to be a light in this dark world. And you do that by being reflecting the Father's light. You love God with all your heart, you love the people that he sends you to uh like you love yourself. That's your that's your mission. But he is going to take you through all of these experiences, and he will not waste one of them to produce something that is so unique and so wonderful for whoever God has called you to serve. And that really encourages, it encouraged me when I was younger uh a lot. I read a story called The Mover of Men and Mountains about a guy named RG Laterno and how God took him through learning all of these menial tasks that one day resulted in a great mission. And I thought, okay, I can be patient through these seasons because you're creating something in me, and now you're saying it, Joyce. He created something in you using all of those talents. Yeah, like it's amazing. My kids just give me joy, yes, you know, I say you do too. You give them joy. You went through a period in your life where uh Satan really tried to mess with you in with giving you a lot of fear about stuff. Yeah, and you know, we have the verse God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind. But that's like the devil wants to kill, still, and destroy us, he wants to keep us from the joy that you have now. Um, that period of time kept you from traveling with a husband that was traveling for work, and you could have gone a lot. Okay, so talk to us about that.

SPEAKER_01:

So um I I didn't like flying at all. In fact, when I was in high school, I flew for the first time to Washington, DC, and um my mom and sister dropped me off, my other sister, Alice, dropped me off at the airport, and I went, I was with my two best girlfriends, and uh I was terrified of flying, just terrified. I guess I hadn't flown a lot, but um, and I cried the whole way there, and my friend was like, You're gonna mess up your makeup. So I was like, Oh, you're right, I'm gonna love it. And then I had the best time in Washington, uh, but still was not comfortable flying at all. And uh my husband was flying all over the world, I mean, everywhere. Um, and we had two kids, so obviously I couldn't go all the time, but this one opportunity came up for me to go to England with him, and I didn't want to go. My I had one uh young daughter, my youngest daughter had peanut allergies, and so I wasn't comfortable leaving her. And um, so that just added to all the not wanting to go. But uh, I had to go. Everything around me was screaming, you're going. My husband was not happy with me for not wanting to go, first of all. And when you got my ticket was paid for miraculously, miraculously by somebody. And so there was just no way I could say no. My mom agreed to watch the kids for 10 days we were gone. So anybody who would say yes to that, I mean, I think it was time for me to go. So I went and it literally was life-changing. It was like a honeymoon, it was fun. In fact, I didn't want to come back the night before I was leaving. We were like, let's call mom and see if she'll stay a few more days so you can stay. Because he was going off to Cambridge. No, not Cambridge, uh somewhere in Cambridge, and he was going somewhere else, and I was coming home because he had a little more work. And no, mom didn't want to stay too for a few more days. I came home. I realized that traveling, you know, it gives you a different perspective on life, you know. You see different cultures, different architecture, different I don't know.

SPEAKER_00:

I just came back a different person. Well, I saw you, so I from my perspective, it wasn't just flying that you had fear about. You had a lot of fear in your life before you went on that trip. But when you came back, it was like you had just shed that. You were like, oh my gosh, I'm missing some great opportunities because fear has stopped me. Right. And it wasn't like overnight, but you just started saying, you know, yeah, that's out there, and yeah, I'm gonna pay attention to this, whatever it is, but I am not gonna fear it anymore. And it just didn't.

SPEAKER_01:

I'll show you what happened. Okay, because those flights were nine hours, okay? On the way over there, they had a screen right in front of me on the back of the chair, which showed me going over the ocean, which was horrifying to me. And so the whole way I was just like, oh come on, just get close to just watching and watching, and my husband was just in his seat, fast asleep. Yeah, not worried. I couldn't fall asleep. But coming back, I was alone. I wasn't with Patrick, and I get in the plane, and they have something called Gale Force Winds. I'm sure you've heard of them. Oh, yeah. Hurricane winds. Hurricane winds, okay. That was happening when I left on the plane. The whole plane was rattling from the very beginning. I felt like the seats were gonna come off the hinges, and I was like, this is not good. And I'm not gonna have okay, God. I have two daughters, and I you just have to surrender. Like it's and then you you realize life is in his hands. It doesn't matter how hard you try and control things. Yes, it doesn't matter, you know, it it's a waste of time to do that, honestly. Like if there's one thing I could tell like my kids and the and the people who are watching today, is just realize who's in control. And when you do that, you get such a peace about you. You know that if I'm not supposed to go on this trip, he's gonna find something that's gonna get in the way of it. If I'm not supposed to, you know, take this student or whatever, he's gonna take that. I know he's in control every little step because I can look back, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

I can look it's your book of remembrance. It tells us when we remember what he's done, then when we're going through something again, we say, wait, he already was there then. He's gonna take care of this when we have like you know, I'm going through all this blood pressure craziness right now. That's what I say.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm like, you've been there before, you're gonna come through it again.

SPEAKER_00:

And if I don't, I get to be with him. It's just returning to where I know I was right before he ever knit this body together, right? And that means it's like I've done what I need to do. Viration is done. It's okay, everybody will be okay, and I'm gonna be okay because we're gonna see each other again. So that's right. So um we fast forward uh just a couple of months, and we find out a surprise came from that trip.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh yes. So I came back, and uh there was some sad news when I came back. My father-in-law was uh in the hospital dying, and my husband was still there. He got a call from his brothers and he had to come back early. And um, I had already been home for a little while and I wasn't feeling right, and so yeah, I uh got pregnant with my and how old was Sydney at that time? She had just turned six, you know, turning 30, and I thought, you know, I started having kids early. I didn't want to go into later life, and I was like, I want, I want a boy. You know, mom always said, You gotta have a boy, you gotta have a boy. I said, Okay, well, I can't, I'm not in control. Yeah, yeah. So we decided that year, that 38 year that we were just gonna see what God had planned for us, and writing was planned for us. Thank God.

SPEAKER_00:

Because if not, he's the car, he's someone that will be the chiropractor.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I mean he he's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, they all are. Jordan. Jordan is wonderful. Well, you've seen Sydney, she was on our show. Sydney is is Joyce's daughter, she's her second daughter.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, um, all of my kids are fantastic, they're very good.

SPEAKER_00:

I feel that way too. You know, they're it's just like a gift, you know, not that they're perfect because they're not. They're not, but neither am I. But we are not, but what a joy to just have seen, and you see yourself in your children, and that's a really neat thing. You learn so much about life from your kids. Yes, you do, you do, if you listen.

SPEAKER_01:

I think God shows you through their personalities and the way they approach life, little things about yourself that you might have a common. And yeah, you can connect to them to them.

SPEAKER_00:

So so fast forward a little bit to or quite a bit, because now he now Ryan is two years away from getting out of high school. Tell us the truck.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh gosh. We bought this truck from a friend of ours. Um, my husband got it, bought it for$11,000. It was GMC, double cap truck. It was a real pretty uh truck at the time. And so he drove that, um, knowing that it was gonna be for our son who was about to get his license. And so then um when it came time to give it to Ryan, he drove for all through high school, two years into college, and in that second year in college, he there started to be really big issues with the child. The transmission was slipping, the brakes weren't working, and I was like, God, what do I do? You know, right now isn't a good time to take on another car payment or because he's in college, he's in college, and we have all these extra things. So I just asked him, you know, what do we do? And um this really sounds weird, but let me just tell you, God works in mysterious ways. And that's not a joke, okay? There was a rash of break-ins over at the near the university, and um my son's truck got broken in two, and they ripped the whole dashboard out trying to steal it, I guess, and they couldn't, and uh so I needed to get that fixed, and then I bought him one of those what the club or something, yeah. So to lock it so they couldn't steal it, so got that. Well, they got through the club and they stole that vehicle. So I was like, oh gosh, what am I gonna do now? Yeah. But it was at a really uh most of you might remember when used cars uh right after COVID, the used car market went skyrocketing. And so that truck was worth 10,500 from the insurance. So you'd driven it for six years. No, more than six. So for$500.

SPEAKER_00:

So it was that was$500 for all those years is what they spent on their truck. Yeah, that was a good thing.

SPEAKER_01:

That was a huge blessing. So then you were able to get him something else. Yeah, then we were able to use uh that money to put down, you know, on the next car. So no, I mean it took the burden off.

SPEAKER_00:

It took the burden off and it like easy. So many uh times when we think, well, that's why should have God doesn't want to hear this little problem or this little problem. All you know, when I'm in big trouble, I need to talk to him. But the little problems he doesn't care about. Yeah, he does. Do you care about those things with your own children if you have children? Um, like everything that causes us, our children a problem, we care about and want to do something about. But he's the God of the universes, that's who he is, and he is our dad, he's our Abba, and he wants it's his good pleasure. It's that's what he says. It's his good pleasure to bring us joy, to meet our needs, to give us more than we can ask or imagine so that we can give, so that we can have our needs met, but also so we can give to every good work. Like that's who he is. He wants us to have what we need to be able to be mighty in this land on this mission. And you know, some of you might say, Oh, well, he wasn't working in that. That was coincidence. No, it wasn't, because I could tell you hundreds of the stories. You could probably tell hundreds of stories. Like I needed a couch once, and they were too expensive for, you know, I knew that I would have to go into debt to get it, and I don't think you're supposed to go into debt. I think God will provide. And then miraculously, we found this couch that was a showroom couch for$300.

SPEAKER_01:

So it was normally$5,000. Yeah, tell a story. First of all, I was moved to move by God. Like I I knew he wanted me out. Uh, and I so I called my best friend who's a realtor, and I told her, and she is a mover and a shaker, you know. And so the next day she's like, Okay, we've got to get the people in to start painting, fixing. And I I just paused for a minute and I was like, I don't, I don't know if I'm ready to do this. I don't know. Okay. And I didn't even know why I was moving, but I knew that I was supposed to move. I just felt it. So, anyways, we went through everything, and uh I didn't know where we were moving. We just knew we were moving. Yes, okay. And he was good with it, he was trusting that he was hearing that was the weirdest part. Yeah. Okay, that was the weirdest part because my husband wouldn't be doing this. So everything I always tell my kids, if it's meant to be, it's all gonna fall into place. And y'all are gonna be in agreement.

SPEAKER_00:

And y'all have to be in agreement because I think that's for your protection. God gives us those men, those that this relationship, us for them and them for us. If you're not in agreement, you need to stop. Because that agreement is okay, well, that's hearing from God, so it's the right direction, right? Otherwise, we may be hearing a voice we don't need to be hearing.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, right, right. So, no, so we continued. The house sold, uh, we got three or four offers on the first day over what we were asking. Oh my gosh. Which was incredible. But I had priced it, I told her, let's price it high because I don't know where I'm going. Yes, yeah, and we don't know what is going to happen. We are not really sure. So, but then they came back, you know, had priced it high, so they went even over that. Oh wow. It was such a blessing. We had looked at a a few houses, we had looked at a friend of ours' house, uh, one of our son's friends and one of my bet great friends at the time was uh moving. She was moving to Dallas, and she said, uh, why don't you look at the house? You know, why don't you come? And it really wasn't the house that I wanted, you know. I at the time I had I wanted to move in ready. I didn't really want to do anything. And it it's a beautiful home, but I just I couldn't see it the way I wanted it. So we decided we weren't that wasn't for us. And we kept looking, kept looking, and um thankfully my sister let us live with her for a few weeks while we were, you know, transitioning. But uh finally she called me and said, Can you come back and look at it again? I really want you to come look at it again. And uh she was asking what she wanted for the house, and what we could afford at the time was a different amount. And I and I told her, Don't please don't be offended. But she she kept persisting with me. So I said, you know, this is what we can afford. And it turned out that was what she she needed. I mean, she was and um so we made her an offer, she counted it with a like an extra thousand or something, and we agreed and we went forward with the house. But the best part is Patrick's parents had given us this beautiful piano, uh, like an antique piano. And you don't just move those things willy-nilly, you know. Yes, yes. So she agreed to let us move the piano into her house before we actually closed all that stuff. So that was incredible. Like all of it just kind of fell into place. I knew I was moving, I was doing God's plan.

SPEAKER_00:

It was just all everything was lining up, yes. And I can say you've lived that house for how long now? Ten years, and like that her house is where we all gathered. It is. It's like the perfect house that we saw what you couldn't see right in the beginning. It's it's so your house now. It looks like you, it feels like you and Patrick. It's so welcoming and easy to be in. And we've got so many memories in the house and the backyard. I love the backyard, you know. Uh so that's the thing too. Like you have to you have to walk forward. He's gonna close the doors that need to be closed. He'll open wide the ones that we're supposed to walk through. Even if your feelings are not aligning yet, if you trust in him, he gives you your heart's desire, right? I just think that's so cool.

SPEAKER_01:

And he and he gave me a lot of treats in that house that, like you said, little little gifts, little pieces of sugar around that I was like, thank you, like things I never prayed for, but I he knew that I liked because they were all there, like you know, the plantation shows, the the speakers all over the house. Things little things.

SPEAKER_00:

Little things that really you didn't know you liked. I was always like, Wow. And and because your husband, he's an engineer, software engineer, but he is a musician. Yeah, and so music has always been really important to him. So that was like something that was the extra watch him on Spotify. Say it again, Patrick. He's cactus flats. Cactus flats, yes. And you may be playing in Wimberly soon. Yeah, we might we might another good reason to come visit me in Wimberly. Thinking back, like when you and Patrick first got married, I know when Lee and I first got married, just thinking about fear, how the devil you know really can get in there and agreement with your husband is so important. But we didn't know that when we first got married, right? So, do you have any stories about that season where you felt like you were just digging your heels in and probably you shouldn't have been? But does that anything like that come to mind? Uh and then how God has changed you over the years.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, he certainly has changed me over the years. Both of us. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Liz changed. There is power to a praying wife, so uh power for a praying wife? I love that because we can't. No, seriously. Seriously, yeah. Like both of us are completely different people than when we got married. Yeah, but in a great and wonderful way. I'm still coming.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, and we are too, which is like weird because like not that many people experience that, but like Lee is exactly my opposite in initial personality. Like, I'm pretty outgoing, Lee's very quiet, he likes individual conversations, so parties are not his thing, but he'll go because of me. Um, I can uh the crowd is like energizing to me, you know, talking to each person from time to time, not always, but so we we had these extreme differences, and the way we communicated was very different. Like um, I wanted when I was mad about something, it would build up for a long time, and then it would just hit him in the face. And I wanted him to argue with me. I wanted the argument. I was like ready because I was I'd had it, I'd had it up to there. And Lee would walk out of the room. He's like, I've told the story, I don't know if I pulled it on here, but uh we actually drove to a motel set two hours away, had kids watch, somebody watched on kids. Uh, and the whole way I argued with him and I found out, oh my gosh, if I get him in a car and have to go somewhere, he's gonna have to listen to me. Oh yeah. Pardonly, but it was partly, but it really worked out good because he could finally hear me and I could finally hear him. But later I realized when I got that angry, it usually wasn't because of Lee, it was because of all the frustration that was building up in my life. And he was the only one that I really thought would let me forever. And so he would take that. And so then we got to the point where it was, but this is what we got to the point where I just said, look, we were when we were not mad at each other, I said, you know what I really just need in those times is for you to take me in your arms and hold me and hug me and tell me. It's gonna be okay. And he goes, Really? That's easy. Yeah. So then, you know, we went from I would scream, he would leave, then I caught him in the car and we talked through stuff, and then he'd hug me, and then we could sit down and we could really have conversations that were meaningful. That is so wonderful.

SPEAKER_01:

Sometimes you do that with Patrick too. You kind of have to tell them what I don't know. Women are kind of more needy than men, but well, they're just different. You just don't want to be loved, right? They don't always know. So if you tell them, they wanna they wanna love you, I think, if they love you. And they'll work on things like that.

SPEAKER_00:

Um well and you start working on things like like finally I realized I'm hurting him when I'm yelling at you. You are, I think.

SPEAKER_01:

But he does take it still, like if I'm very I want to say something about anger, yeah. Uh that I've heard and that I've I found a lot of truth in. That anger comes from something's not going your way. Yeah, yeah. And so that's a problem that and it and it and that we need to, you know, surrender that to God.

SPEAKER_00:

That's right.

SPEAKER_01:

And so when you realize that, you don't get angry as much. You know what I mean? No, that's like well, I'm not in control, you know. Yes. Yeah, yeah. I mean, we're human and we we can go into it.

SPEAKER_00:

And we are gonna, you know, like we but we can't. I think anger is violent of a feeling. Yeah, yeah. But you know, you say things and then you say the next day, like, really, I didn't mean that. I know, you know, and I'm so sorry. But if you do that long enough, you hurt somebody and and it drives them away and we don't want that. So God protected me because it didn't go long before I was able to somebody said to me, You need to tell your husband how you're feeling and what you want. Because if he does, I do. Yeah. We went through a real big scare when he got prostate cancer, which he was older, we were both older. But you know what he needed during that time when he was out of control, because men are even more so wanting to have control and order in their lives. He needed hugs, he just needed me to hold him. So I feel like, yeah, and the it's human, but got guys are, you know, they're supposed to be our protectors. So it's so, so hard for them when they go through something that they have zero control in. They have to surrender to God. They need to feel those hugs too, and that everything's gonna be okay, you know, just you you've got shelter from the storm. And Lee was relying on God all through that, but he did need hugs.

SPEAKER_01:

So I also heard this, and you're marrying this person to help them and them to help you getting to heaven. Oh, praise God, I love that.

SPEAKER_00:

That's good. Okay, so we're right at the end of our time. But if you have something that you would like to share with these women that you hope they remember from a lesson we've learned, please do. And then I'll pray and then we'll close.

SPEAKER_01:

I uh reiterate what I said earlier is not to fear. You know, I had a lot of fear when I was first married with two young babies, trying to control everything. And I look back now and I didn't need to fear. I didn't need to fear. I I worried about providing for college, and uh I worried about my kids going to public school. Every step of the way, God was leading me in into doing the right things to get them through this. And then in college, he provided the fund. I mean, we were we didn't save tons of money with our first child, so we didn't have everything for her to go to college. But I'm telling Patrick, if she's supposed to go, she's gonna go. God's gonna provide. And he provided big. I won't say how, but he did. And it was unmistakable that that was for her college. And so every time we give money, it goes to our children, and and we are blessed even more when we like my kids say, sorry, mom, I I don't want you to give us, you know, have to do this for me. And I said, you know what? That's what I'm here for. Like every time I bless you, God blesses us. So it's because you're just blessing us.

SPEAKER_00:

Because do you know like that? Money is flowing through us. We're not supposed to like no hold on to it. He gave it to us what Lee and I would laugh after a while because, like, when we need something, we pray, and all of a sudden, the funds come in for that thing, but uh then it goes out the door for that thing, and so we don't have and we're laughing, like you know, but that's exactly how he works. He's if you're trusting in him, he just takes care of every need right at the right time. He speaks to you, he speaks to y'all. If you ask, he's gonna speak to you, he's gonna speak to you, he wants you to know him, and he will meet every need in your life. You don't have to manipulate things, just ask him and keep asking him, and until you see it, you stand on his word that he'll provide for every need. Let me pray for us today. Um, Father, I just thank you for this wisdom that has come to the surface about fear. And the reminder that you didn't give us a spirit of fear that comes from the enemy, but you gave us a spirit of power and love and a sound mind. And his chief, us, we hear your voice, not the voice of a stranger. So we just trust you today to make that real for any girl right now that is just hurting, that is in a place that she doesn't understand. Help her to know that fear has no hold on her, that your power and love and a sound mind are in her. Help her to lean in and reach out to your love today and reach back in such a profound way that she will know you are with her and fight for her in Jesus' name.

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Denise Jackson

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