We’ve had the most incredible responses from last week’s episode of the “WHOA That’s Good” podcast with Elisabeth Hasselbeck! The wisdom shared in this conversation is one that deserves pen to paper!

We are bringing ALL the gold for you on the blog today.

For those of you who don’t know Elisabeth, she is a former cohost on The View, a contestant on the TV show Survivor, and author of her brand, new book, Point of View.

Sadie referred to her as “Tinkerbell in human form.” She simply carries so much joy.

Elisabeth is asked the question Sadie asks all of her guests, “What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?”

Elisabeth shared about the relationship she had with her dad. At a young age, she was self-diagnosed with FOLPD, aka “Fear of Letting People Down.” Her father knew this about Elisabeth and often encouraged her with this truth: “I see you. I know you. Go show them.”

This gave her a baseline understanding of how God saw her. It also served as a reminder that she is to show God’s love reflecting off of her.

God tells us, “I see you. I know you. Go show them.”

WHOA That’s Good!

Another strong woman, Maria Goff, was mentioned in the episode. One of Elisabeth’s favorite pieces of advice came from her: “Sometimes when you’re looking for an answer to a prayer you’ve prayed, God sends a friend.”

There’s a beautiful connection.

Elisabeth looked back and saw God’s provision and protection over her through the people He has sent into her life. What a sweet picture of God’s love through community!

Elisabeth encouraged Sadie to be a mentor in her own life. She profoundly said, “Don’t always look up. You can look over and to the generations around you.”

WHOA That’s Good!

In her new book, Point of View, Elisabeth shares about her experience on the TV show, Survivor.

Elisabeth described it as being life changing, but goes on to say it was heart changing as well.

She knew she needed the word of God in her life, but something surprising on the TV show let her know how much she needed it. Roger Bingham, one of her fellow Survivor players, ended up being a good friend who taught Elisabeth how to fish and build a fire. But, the most important thing he taught her was it would be her faith that would see her though the tough days of Survivor.

While Elisabeth brought a headdress as her survival item, Roger brought his bible. She says, “His survival item, in a time where we had no shelter, gave him a shelter.”

In her book, Elisabeth says, “Our alliance with one another was built on our alliance on God.” Elisabeth knows God sent Rodger to show her the importance of getting into God’s word and using it to shelter her and protect her.

WHOA That’s Good!

The show was one of the first times that Elisabeth really depended on the words of God to get her through the day. This began a hunger for the Word in a new way.

This continued to carry her through her seasons on The View. It was a completely different scenario, but the survival guide was the same.

The Word is the best kind of survival guide. It always delivers the best point of view. Reading God’s word in the morning is a crucial survival step.

“Read the good news before the hard news,” said Elisabeth.

During another season on Fox and Friends, Elisabeth would wake up at 2:30 in the morning so she could read her bible before her day would begin. She knew she needed to be grounded in God’s truth before the news of the day flooded her mind.

In a world that is flooding us with really tough news, we need to be grounded in what God says about us and what He says about this world. Elisabeth did an amazing job pointing us to this truth.

WHOA That’s Good!

Sadie and Elisabeth talked about a “joyful busy” and how to keep an attitude of optimism in the Lord’s work knowing that His promises are true.

Isaiah 40:31 says, “But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Paul also says in Galatians 6:9, “Don’t grow weary in doing good.”

We can keep a joyfully busy spirit when we understand that “obedience sometimes looks like waiting.” God can always see what we cannot see and what we think is “waiting,” God is calling character building. When we trust that God follows through, we can persevere in the waiting.

Elisabeth went on to talk about relationships. She explained what it looked like to love her co-host, Whoopie Goldberg, while hosting The View. Elisabeth explains that, “We don’t think the same, but we love the same.”

What a challenging thought.

“How did you live that out and look past the differences?” Sadie asked.

Elisabeth said the answer is “looking at others through the lens of love.” When it comes to relationships, she says it this way in her book, “…we decided that being right with each other would require being a little more wrong. Wrong enough to give someone the right of way.”

God delights in the way we love, not in the way we are right. Trying to always be right is exhausting and never a good way to develop meaningful relationships.

We don’t want to be so “right” in our relationships, that we are “wrong” (in our behavior) with the people we love.

WHOA, That’s Good!

What we stand for as believers is important, but not more important than the God we stand under together. This is God’s “ask” of us. This is what we’re fighting for. To simply surrender to God’s will.

Truth is, we are never going to always get this right. Elisabeth relates surrender and forgiveness in this process of love in relationships.

For a long time, “Forgiveness math” for Elisabeth looked like this:

Forgiveness from me= you saying you’re sorry.

The problem with the “equation” is that this is a long way from the example we have in God. God did not, does not, wait for us to say “I’m sorry” before he forgave/forgives our sins. Instead, He poured/pours out grace on us while we were still in our sin.

He forgave first.

He loved first.

Therefore, to live like Christ, our forgiveness cannot wait on an apology. We have to offer forgiveness immediately and leave the rest up to Him.

God delights in unity, and His math is SO much better.

WHOA That’s Good!

One more thought from Elisabeth or you today: “Paint the Pineapple.”

Elisabeth tells the story of painting a pineapple. One day she was in her garage with her children when she challenged herself to do something she hadn’t done in a long time and that was painting and her subject would be a pineapple. Eight hours later, a very large pink pineapple was done. It served to remind her to not get stuck in one version of herself. There was more to her and for her to do.

We so often deny the version of ourselves that we were created to be. You might be confused about who you are, wondering which version of you is really you. Be like Elisabeth and challenge yourself. Branch out and try something new. Or perhaps go back and do something you did years ago, but you haven’t done it in a while.

Start again. Walk back in to who God made you to be. What is your pineapple moment?

And don’t worry if no one loves your pineapple. Do it for you! If it’s you doing what you love to do, God will delight in that.

God always delights in YOU.

I hope you hear that today, friends.

We have been so blessed by this podcast, and we hope you are too!

If you want to listen to Sadie and Elisabeth’s conversation from the podcast, click here to listen!