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[00:00:00] Welcome friends to the life on purpose podcast. I am so excited to have a new guest on today, Gina Fox. She's never been on before, but she has a new book release that we are so thrilled to talk about. So welcome Gina. Hi, Amy. Thank you so much for having me today. Oh, my gosh. I'm so excited to just like dive into this book.
I think it's such a relevant topic. And I think sometimes these topics are the ones that kind of just get bluffed over, but we don't really go too deep because sometimes going deep requires us to have to do a little more work and it can be a little bit painful too at times, but this is a light.
So I don't want to discourage people either thinking this is some, something very heavy. This is something that I feel like is a wonderful resource. And I think you've laid it out really well. So before we really dive into the book and I'll share the title and all of that after, can you just tell the listeners a little bit about yourself and how you ended up becoming an author?
Yeah, sure. So I always knew [00:01:00] I wanted to write a book. My first book wasn't when I was seven with construction paper pictures taped on all that kind of stuff. It was, the fun, the fun first grade, second grade project. But in the meantime I became a nurse and that's my day job. I'm married to my husband, Matt.
We've been together for 25 years. We, do not have any children. That's one of the stories I talk about in the book. But we have four fur babies. We have two basset hounds, a beagle mix, and we have a Maine Coon. We've got a busy house, even though we have no children. We also get to be aunt and uncle to a lot of my friend's kids.
And I have five nephews from my brother. So like I said, I, I work as a nurse during the day, but back in 2020, I went through a freedom journey through a 13 week journey with a local hope and healing center where I walked through a bunch of things from my past finally became free of those.
And that was in 2020, when everybody was getting shut in, I was getting freed out. [00:02:00] And That's when Anchored by the Sword Ministries started floundered a little bit, and then within a year, I actually started the podcast, and that's where Anchored by the Sword podcast came from. And then the book actually came out of the podcast episodes where, when I was looking through everything, there were four major themes, which we're going to get into that seemed to rise up out of all the episodes and the people who were agreeing to be a part of it fell into one of those four categories.
So that's how everything came about and that's how we're sitting here today. Plus, you were also on an episode of my podcast back in the day, too. Yes. Yes. It all comes full circle. I think God's timing never looks like the timing we want it to be. Right. Maybe the process we want it to be, but so first of all, let me just say I love that you went through this freedom journey.
I think that that is. Thank you. I feel like that's something we could all utilize at some point [00:03:00] in our life. And yeah, what a time for you to have gone through that. That's pretty incredible. Yeah. It was crazy because The class had actually been mentioned to me a couple of years prior. When I started working the job I presently work at.
And I was like, no, I don't want to deal with it. I don't want to go through it. Well, at the end of 2019, I went to a conference with my with one of my friends and the speaker happened to be the same person who ran the class. And so it was one of those things I was like, okay, I guess I'm ready for this.
And then. What three months in, we all get shut out and I end up, I still ended up going to the facility to do the class in a separate room. We were hearing each other, myself and the leader. We were hearing each other twice because we could hear each other in the other room and then online as well.
But yeah, it's, it was a 13 week journey walking through stuff from my past sexual history abuse other things that had happened in the [00:04:00] past and other things that I had done to people as well. And it was a really hard journey. Soul ties were broken and I wouldn't be here if I wouldn't have went through it, but God knew it was the right time.
Yeah. I love it. I think that's an amazing experience. And maybe you can share more on that when I, at the end of the conversation, I'm going to have people reach out to you with resources and all of that. And that might be a great resource for someone who needs that as well. Well, let's get started in this book.
So it's called anchored in freedom, turning trials into testimonies of triumph, which I love because I think that that is. So significant, right, is to look at our trials as something as a future testimony, as a triumph in our life. And I think a lot of times when we're in that season and we're going through it, as you are well aware, it doesn't feel like that.
I know that for topics that you go over our mental health, grief and loss, survival and healing and And I do think that those are topics that at some point, it doesn't matter who it is. [00:05:00] And you feel like somebody hasn't, even gone through a lot. Someone is having been affected by one of those four things.
So as what, what were your reasoning for picking those four topics? Was there something that stood out to you or those were just personal to you? And you felt like I must not be the only one. What was that process like for you, Gina? Well, when I started to really think about writing the book there was a couple things that were coming up and I was like, should I write a full devotional?
Should I write a book where I bring the stories in? So I was really thinking about it and I just put it out there for some of the people who were on saying, hey, Would you want to contribute? And so when I got people contributing I started to see a theme and there's been a theme on my podcast, too where People talk a lot about mental health.
It's something that I personally have dealt with myself. I have anxiety depression and adhd I've also walked through bipolar with my mother And seeing a lot of different things [00:06:00] with other people. And I also have a degree in psychology from back in 2001. So I just dated myself there, but it just, that was a big theme that was coming up then with grief and loss.
Not only have I gone through my own stories of grief and loss, I also walked my best friend through the loss of her mom. And she contributed to the book as well. And then survival. I mean, we've all survived something. We've survived a hundred percent of our worst days because we're still here and we're still breathing.
Right. So we've all went through something and I know I have, and one of my best friends she talks about how she survived post divorce, but she's also had to survive post death of her husband. And there's that story is to be continued. She'll share later on, but Then healing. There's so many different types of healing.
There's physical healing, there's mental healing, there's relational healing, there's spiritual healing. So there's so many different types of healing that was coming out and I've went through my own struggles [00:07:00] with it. And I was just like, these are the four that I feel like I'm supposed to be at.
And they all really coincided well together. They worked really well. And the stories that came out of it, I was just so blessed by each person who Agreed to be a part of this project, and I just couldn't have asked for a better project for my first one. Well, I think when you know that these topics are real issues that people have dealt with, and you're putting a voice to them There's something impactful about that.
You feel like, okay, even if one person reads it, right? So that was the thing when I was on your podcast years ago, is that I think when you start out too, when you're launching a book and you're launching your story or anything personal out into the world first of all, there's an added pressure just being a new author, right?
And you will know that there was also a point where I felt like, what? I have to follow the obedience that God led me here. And if one woman reads it and is impacted [00:08:00] and affected by it in a positive way, she has to be enough. And so I think that's the thing when you're talking about these topics is that there's always going to be one.
You may not know who she is, but the fact that you're being vulnerable enough and willing to put that out there. I think that that's really special for sure. So I want to talk a little bit about the suicidal ideations and fertility, family loss and relational healing as it relates to you personally. I know you mentioned like some of your friends and all of that, but is, is every topic in here, there's been a thread of something that you've experienced in that realm or just some of the contributors.
Oh, no, I've experienced each one. The suicidal ideations. I dealt with that once when I was a teenager. I was really bullied because I was a very sick kid. I was in and out of the hospital. The local Children's Hospital was actually my first home for my first 12 years, 13 years of my life. I was there a lot.
And so I, I would get picked on because the kids are like, Oh, we can't be [00:09:00] around her. She's weird. She's, she's contagious. I mean, kids were mean, sure. And that was back in the eighties. So I dealt with that then. And then in 2014, I literally lost so many things at one time. My grandma was diagnosed with cancer.
She was more of a mom to me than my own mom due to our relationship or lack thereof. And then my grandma, she, when she found out she had cancer, she was fine. She's I'm ready to go. And so I was her power of attorney and I walked with her. I was there almost every day, walked with her for nine weeks.
It was nine weeks from diagnosis till death because by the time they found it, it was already stage four. So I lost her. I also lost a friend that was a best friend to me for 12 years, and she had started to pull away from me because of some situations in her own life to which I wasn't, I didn't want to be involved in.
We'll just put it that way. And so she deserted me on the day of my grandma's funeral. [00:10:00] And then I broke my wrist like a couple weeks later and I couldn't work and I was trying to finish my nursing degree, my bachelor's degree. And so I still had projects to do and it was just all this stuff at one time was hitting me and I was like, God, I can't do this anymore.
Like I'm screaming like a banshee around my house. My husband was thinking he was going to have to call the squad on me to take me somewhere around here. Cause I was losing my mind and I like screamed into the pillow and I knew that there was a gun in the drawer. And that all I had to do was get my head up, move over, and we wouldn't be talking today, but I didn't know it at the time because I just restarted my relationship with God about six or seven months prior.
And I didn't realize it was Holy Spirit keeping me down. And. Keeping me there for a reason, because I mean, if it was my own strength, I'd have been up, but it wasn't. And so then flashback or rewind a little bit, the infertility part that was earlier [00:11:00] on in 2014. So I had a hysterectomy in 2014, so that kind of, left the whole never going to have kids thing there, and it was a huge struggle for me especially because it says in the Bible that we're supposed to multiply, create and multiply, and all that kind of stuff, that we're supposed to come together with our husbands and be able to have kids, and raise them, and that's what we were supposed to do.
And I couldn't do that. So I felt like less of a woman. I felt like I, it was hard for me to find purpose, even though I had these nephews but it was really hard to see people who could just get pregnant by sneezing. And, I couldn't even get pregnant once. So that was a real struggle that I walked through and I'm 10 years removed from it.
And I still have days I know I don't go to church on mother's day. I had to start putting my own boundaries up with that. And I share that in the book. So I've survived that. And then I've survived numerous other things that I talk about. And I've also survived bad [00:12:00] relationships certain things I haven't talked about yet, or I've talked about them on other podcasts, but I haven't read about it yet.
I've survived certain traumas and then the healing came after, unfortunately it was after my mom passed. And she passed in 2013. And my dad and I, we had not spoken for three years prior to that. Because my mom, we, we went through lots of periods without talking. And so my dad and I, we walked through our own healing journey.
We had to heal our relationship. He was always, I was a daddy's girl growing up. And so we were just, that was what we were. And so we had really had to walk through our relationship and now we talk almost every day. And it's been an amazing thing that God has restored. And so I've been able to share the stuff about that and also just, learning how to just heal from things that you didn't have control over here.
Healing when that person was alive, like my mom. Right. I didn't have a chance to reconcile our [00:13:00] relationship. So I've had to walk through that and reconcile that myself and with God and it's really helped and writing in the writing that in this book really helped as well. Oh, I, I would imagine. And I think that, there's something, when you're talking about the reconciliation piece.
And so I had a my oldest brother passed away and. And, and it's amazing when you're able to step back, I mean, time is really, it's such a cliche, but it really does give you perspective on when you're not in that moment of heavy grief of how other things came together. After he passed away.
And and, and, sometimes you can see God's work and all of that later on. But one of the things too, that I, I love that you're talking about is the is the boundary component. And also, when you're, when you're talking about whether it's not going to church on mother's day, or, even your, retaking up this relationship with your father [00:14:00] and reconciling that.
And I think too, a lot of times, and I obviously am not going to speak for you, but for myself, when we have a relationship where we feel like we haven't had the proper closure, let's say it is, it does become almost our choice, our responsibility to. Not worry about either, whether it's the forgiveness piece on their end because they're unable to do it.
And, and then I'm not even saying this with your mother, but with relationships, we're talking about toxic friendships, whatever that breakup looks like or ending looks like. Sometimes there's just healing in knowing that it doesn't matter what they could or would have said. You have to just forgive yourself or move on from that because sometimes too, and I'm sure you recognize this in different relationships, and I'm not referring to your mom, of course, but sometimes those people don't really care.
About your feeling and that's a hard, that's a [00:15:00] hard thing to acknowledge and process when you're somebody who does fully care. And I appreciate the boundaries because that's always been, that's been a huge component for me with overcoming anxiety. And green for sure. And I think it's really important for people to establish what those look like.
And they're different for everybody like yours. I love that. That's different from anything I've heard, but it makes sense. And it, and it's important to you really at the end of the day, that's all that matters. The other thing I would just want to ask you aside of that is your career as a nurse, was your past or experiences or even your health issues as a child was that a like something that provoked I want to be a nurse and help somebody else, or just something entirely different that brought you to that career path.
I think some of it was because I saw how good in general people were that worked at the hospital. Also my nephew, he was [00:16:00] two 2005. So walking through that, that was a really hard thing for the entire family cause he's so young and it leaves people to, question a lot and wonder why God's taking this child.
And you have to walk through all that healing stuff. It's it's not, there's just the world is how it is and it's broken. And unfortunately this happens. But at the same time I was like, you know what? I want to help people, but I will never be a pediatric nurse. I will never, I can never walk with this with kids because it broke my heart.
And I worked on a car, on a heart unit. I worked on a like a intensive care step down unit called telemetry unit. I did that for seven and a half years and it was really hard because that kind of floor, number one, it was very high turnover. Number two some of the patients were really bad off. Now we got a lot of repeaters.
Or frequent flyers as [00:17:00] they like to call people just because you get the same people in with congestive heart failure like after you knew they were coming after Thanksgiving, Easter, and Christmas because you eat too much ham, you eat too much of this stuff, you swell up like a balloon, and then you have to go in the hospital and get medication, but you would have people that were just on a slippery slope and you had to deal with that every shift and then you had to, like, when someone dies or you go through that, you have to literally stop, take a breath and then go right back in with your other five, six patients that you have.
Right. It was, like I said, walking through all of that, I mean, number one, it made me stronger. Initially becoming a nurse, I didn't know what I was going to do. I just knew I was older than a lot of the other nurses. A lot of the other students. I mean, 28. I'm talking like 26 28. So I mean, I'm not that old at that time, but I'm not 18 19 just starting my life like I've already had careers by this point.
And so I knew it was going to be hard. I didn't go in it blind. I didn't go in it [00:18:00] thinking it was going to be wonderful because I already knew I worked in the medical field for a while. So I knew what I was getting into. But like I said, it, it just I don't know. It's just been it's been a transition, I guess, because now I don't take, I don't do patient care.
I stopped doing patient care about nine years ago. So now I work for an insurance company and that's been a blessing because I actually have been able to do the podcast and do the other things. On lunch breaks because I work from home. Perfect. It works out great. . Well, the one thing I will say, and you're probably one of the first that I've talked to that's almost alluded to this, is that when I was going through, after my son and my brother had passed, it was only a, like a less than two week period when that happened.
Mm-hmm . One of the things that was really a, a trigger for me and ended up. And what I found was that becoming a boundary was like you had talked about before we're talking about, like doing certain things and not doing certain things. And so I find it interesting how you were able to, and you do, you [00:19:00] get to a point where you're able to recognize.
This may be this particular unit or a job aspect or whatever it is, is not working for me anymore. In essence, sometimes it can really be holding you back. And I know I had felt that way with not only it sounds silly, but not only just with people I was working with. Hanging around with at the time that I felt like we're bringing me down a show that I would watch.
I mean, I went through a 10 to 15 year period, and still now to this day, where I typically I'm only. Drawn toward lighthearted, something funny and anything, anything heavy is always just been off the table. That was just a trigger for me. And so I think it's really important. And I love how you're saying that even with your job now, it, it, sometimes you just need to make that pivot and, and for your, for your good, for your own healing, for just the next step.
And I think sometimes we can feel guilty about it. Leaving one area where we [00:20:00] were, but we're not that same person. And I think it's important to, to move ahead and make sure that we're aligning ourselves in a place and positioning ourselves where we can keep thriving and healing because it's not an overnight process.
And with that, I want to ask you with all of these things that have occurred since. Like your childhood and all of that, have there been additional things that have led you to this freedom journey? In addition to that, one stint where you went and had this experience is, is every experience now do you feel like as part of a freedom journey, like, how do you collect that as you're, as you're moving forward?
Yeah, I feel like we're constantly on a journey and I think we'll be on a journey until the day we see Jesus. And I feel like. Each step that I've had to take in life has brought me a different type of freedom. Like for instance I wasn't diagnosed with ADHD until a couple of months ago. And this is [00:21:00] something that was bothering me for a long time thinking that I had this, but nobody was like acknowledging it.
I've also been in menopause for five years, or, 10 years was the start. And then once I had the ovaries removed, I was officially in everything. But So I felt like I was going crazy and I couldn't make thoughts together. I couldn't do things. I was always losing everything, including my mind.
And I was like, I don't know what's going on, but that was a level of freedom when I finally got the diagnosis and started getting treatment that I needed. I feel a thousand times better. Like I feel free in that way. The other step that friend that I talked about, her and I ended up meeting at a local Applebee's and we talked for three hours about the whole situation.
So there was some closure there, but there was also still a boundary where it's okay, I'm glad we had this conversation, but we cannot go back to the way things were because we're not the same people because I can't have that type of friendship again. But yeah, I just, I just think [00:22:00] we keep building and building and our freedom story keeps growing and growing and growing and it keeps getting different roads, different avenues, and it all comes back to the same thing.
It all comes back to what God's doing in us and trying to do through us. And we just have to be open to it. Willingness is the key, right? Is being willing mm-hmm . And sometimes it's hard to be willing, but I think it does pay off in the end. And, and when I'm hearing you talk and, and even just the experiences and you're talking about like meeting up with your friend and that was another level of freedom, having some type of reconciliation there, whatever it is.
I think it just like you said, one thing just builds on the next and that ultimately I think helps create a level of, of confidence. And where you are today and who you are and what you've gone through and what you are going to be able to go through. Recently I just wrote a piece on taking time to remember.
I think a lot of times we forget once we've gone through a hard season what it was like when [00:23:00] God actually carried us through. Through that hard season when we're in it at the moment, everything, all of a sudden we revert back to our old ways of, Oh gosh, what's going to happen. And we have so much anxiety and fear and all of that, but if we could pause and just remember for a moment of our last hard season and how God got us through that, we'd be much more confident.
Knowing he's going to get us through the current season that we're in. And so I think this book does a really good job when we're talking about freedom. And helping build that it is a slow build, but it's possible. And I think it's just a matter of being willing. So before we leave this conversation, the one last thing I just wanted to ask you was, what would you, what is your goal for a woman maybe who's kept her story in and hasn't really shared with other people and is internally struggling?
What is your goal for her in reading this book? Well, my goal, let me, let me turn to the verse here. It'll just take me one second. Sure. Is to [00:24:00] remember Genesis 50 20 you intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people now in the Bible That's Joseph talking about how God had brought him to a place where he could not only help The nation that he was working with with it, you know in Egypt and everything, but also his brothers And his brothers who had harmed him, who had done all this stuff to him, who had thrown him away, thrown him in a well all this kind of stuff.
But he talks about how that stuff Ended up being the thing to help save many people the thing with the book the thing with the things that i've gone through And none of us are perfect. We all screw up daily weekly all that kind of stuff. Thank god for grace But the thing I really want somebody to understand is somebody needs to hear your story that Yes, you screwed up, or yes, something bad happened to you, but at the same time, there's somebody [00:25:00] who needs to hear it.
And that's what I've had to wrestle through in writing this, and also talking about some of the things I've talked about that, Somebody needs to hear your story. Your story is for one. It's not meant so that you can hog it in and not share it with anybody. Because then what did you go through that test for if it's not going to be a testimony, right?
So don't be afraid to share. Even if it's just to someone in your circle, someone in your church, someone that you work with, even if it's that, even if it's your best friend, you Anybody just start with one person because there's always that one person who needs to hear it But start with the one and then live with open hands and open heart and open mind and see what god does with you That's so true.
That is so true. And I do think that it does make a difference when we are when we Feel like we can transfer from the just being transparent to being vulnerable and the other thing, and I [00:26:00] don't know about you and your podcast, but I know for mine, one of the greatest gifts, I think, in interviewing authors and, and speakers like you is that I also think that if there's really.
unbelievable power in hearing somebody share their own story in their own words. And so I could, I could get on and I could just do a podcast episode in sharing your story, but there's, it's, it's, there's so much more power in, in listening to the actual person who has gone through something. And so I'm always feel extremely blessed when I have a guest on, who is able to do that because you just don't know who that one person is listening that needs to hear it from.
Gina's perspective, not Amy's. And so I really appreciate that. So Gina, before we wrap up, can you I'd love for you to stay in touch with any listeners. Can you just let them know where they could find you access to the book, any events that you have coming up, anything like that? Absolutely. [00:27:00] I am at the email that you can email me at is Gina at anchored by the sword.
Org, that is where you're probably most likely to connect with me, but also I'm on Instagram at anchoredbytheswordpodcast. Facebook, just Gina Fox. Also we have a page for anchoredbythesword. The book is available on Amazon. So I don't have it anywhere else yet. I'm working on that. I got to figure out how to do all that because this is a self published book.
So it is on Amazon. It is available with a Kindle. My website is anchoredbythesword. org. And right now there's a link in there where you can go and find the book on Amazon. I don't have any speaking engagements.
So if you have an event, you need a woman to come and speak look me up, come on and email me and let's get connected. I'm actually about ready to do a big revamp on my website. So there'll be a booking page here soon. Not when this comes out, but it's coming out or it's going to be soon. The one last thing [00:28:00] I did want to say when you were talking about the voice, keeping with the voices, that's why it was so important to me and that's one of the reasons why I self published this book.
Is because I wanted to keep each voice authentic because there's 18 other voices in this book and I wanted to make sure that those 18 other voices were well represented in the book. So that's, I wrote all the devotionals, but all the stories are not mine. So I wanted to make sure that their voices were heard as well.
That's I'm a keeper of people's stories. I love it. Go listen to the anchor by the sword podcast. I just released episode 238 today. So there's a lot for you to listen to if you got time. So it's anywhere you have, where you can listen to podcasts. Oh, well, we're thrilled to have you and definitely I'll, I'll put that in the show notes where they can contact you, but definitely take a listen to angered by the sword podcast.
And again, thank you so much, Gina, for being on. I hope this book speaks to the [00:29:00] one woman who needs to hear it. I'm sure it's going to be hundreds and thousands more, but at least the one. And again, we may never know who the one is, but it doesn't matter. God knows who she is and he's leading her to you. So thank you for being willing and obedient and putting your words out there.
Amen. And thank you so much, Amy, for having me today.
