It's A Single Mom Thing

When Sin Wins

Shepherd's Village Season 6 Episode 9

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0:00 | 18:52

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It didn’t start loud.

It started as a thought…
 one you didn’t even think needed to be challenged.

A voice that sounded familiar.
 Comforting.
 Reasonable.

And before you realized it…
 you weren’t just hearing it.

You were agreeing with it.

This isn’t just a story.

It’s a glimpse into how something subtle…
 can quietly take hold.

Maybe it’s not your exact situation…

…but you might recognize the voice.

Because this isn’t just one story.

This is a we thing.

If something felt a little too familiar, don’t keep it hidden. Share it with someone you trust.

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It's a Single Mom Thing, Not the Single Thing That Stops You!

Welcome And Why We’re Here

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to It's a Single Mom Thing. The show for Single Moms by Single Moms. This is Sherry, your host, and I am happy you are here today. It's a single mom thing, and not the single thing that stops you.

Money Pressure And “Just For Now”

When “Safe” Becomes A Snare

The Trap Of Small Escapes

How Compromise Hits Parenting

“Hello Girl I Am Sin”

Authority Starts By Not Agreeing

Bring It Into The Light

Repentance Forgiveness And Real Help

Prayer Line And Closing Charge

SPEAKER_01

It didn't introduce itself right away. It just showed up in a moment I didn't even think mattered. I was tired, not just physically, the kind of tired that sits behind your eyes and whispers You can't keep doing this. The kind of tired we carry quietly, especially as single moms trying to hold everything together. And that's when I first heard it. Not loud, not demanding, just present. You carry a lot, don't you? I didn't answer, but it stayed. No one really sees how hard this is for you. And that one, it landed, because it was true. That's the thing about sin. It doesn't start with lies. It starts with truth. Just twisted enough to pull you in. You've been so strong for so long. You deserve something for yourself. After everything you've been through, why should you still have to be the one doing what's right? And then suddenly, it didn't feel like temptation. It felt like permission. I didn't notice when I started listening more closely when its voice became familiar, comfortable even. It showed up in small moments. Scrolling a little longer, entertaining a message I shouldn't, replaying conversations in my head where I finally say what I wish I said. It never pushed, it just stayed. Sin it doesn't just visit anymore, it learned my schedule. It knew when I was strongest, and it waited for when I wasn't. It liked the nighttime the most, when the house got quiet, when the kids were asleep, when there was no distraction left between me and my thoughts. This is the part no one sees, huh? And suddenly I didn't feel alone. Sin, it will sit with you. So you don't notice what you're sitting in. It loved when I made promises like this time it will be different, I'm going to heal, I'm gonna do the work. Sin didn't fight that. Yes, yes, do better girl. And that's what confused me. Because it didn't stop me from starting. It waited for me to get tired. When the work got heavy, when healing started pulling things out of me I didn't want to look at. This is too much. You've already come far enough, girl. Why dig up things that are just gonna hurt you again? And then suddenly, well, quitting, it didn't feel like failure. It felt like relief. And just like that, I didn't fall back overnight. I drifted right back to the version of me I said I was leaving. Then it found me at another door. Money. I can do this. I'm going to get out of this debt. I believe that too. Budgeting, planning, trying until it got tight. Until the numbers didn't stretch, until the pressure got loud. And right on time it showed up again. Ooh girl, you don't have to struggle like this. Oh he, oh yeah, he could help you. Even if he's not good for you, well, he's good for right now. And that's how it says it. Oh not forever, just for now. And suddenly peace gets traded for provision, safety for survival. And I told myself, oh, it's just temporary. But sin loves temporary because temporary has a way of becoming normal. And then he showed up. Not loud, not obvious, just there. Kind, attentive, consistent, at least at first. And then sin got very quiet. Because this didn't feel like temptation. It felt like an answer. See, God hasn't forgotten you, girl. Maybe this is him sending you someone. And I had committed my life to Christ. I was trying to do things differently, trying to heal, trying to rebuild. And girl, ooh, he felt safe. That was the word. Safe. And sin always knows the word you are craving most. It didn't rush me. Just small shifts, conversations that lingered a little longer, boundaries that softened just a little. You're not doing anything wrong. You deserve to feel love, girl. You have waited long enough. And somewhere between what I knew and what I felt, I chose what felt right, not what was right. And for a moment, it still felt okay. Because consequences, well, they don't always show up immediately until one day. And he wasn't holding anything at all. The call slowed, the presence faded, the safety disappeared. And suddenly what felt like provision became another place I had to survive. And maybe you're listening right now and something in you is saying, That's me. Well, not all of it, but maybe just a part, a thought, a pattern, a moment you didn't think mattered, but you felt it. Have you ever been there? Where it didn't feel big, but it didn't feel right either. Where it wasn't obvious, but it just kept showing up. And if you did, girl, I need you to hear this. This isn't just me. This is a we. Maybe it wasn't the same situation, but it was the same feeling, the same quiet justification, the same internal conversation, the same slow agreement. Because sin doesn't play favorites, it studies all of us, it learns all of us, and it whispers to each of us in a way that sounds personal. Then there were the nights when everything felt like too much, not dramatic, but just heavy. Girl, you deserve to feel better. Just take the edge off. Just this once. Just one drink. Just one scroll. Just one conversation. And for a moment it works. That's a trap. Sin doesn't just seduce, it satisfies. Just enough to keep you coming back. But what it gives, it quietly takes back. Peace, clarity, self-control. Until one day you're not reaching for it because you want to. And then it showed up in my parenting. Not in big ways that would have been obvious, oh no. In the small ones. Girl, you tired. Just give it to them. One toy to keep the peace. One show so I can breathe. One yes because I don't have the energy for a no. And again, it works. But something else got louder. The lack of boundaries, the shift in respect, the realization that I wasn't leading anymore, I was reacting. And just like that, I wasn't just compromising me, I was compromising for them. It was just a thought, just a moment, just survival, but just add it up. And somewhere along the way, I stopped noticing when it was speaking and when I was. At that point, I didn't know where sin began and where I ended. And the scariest part, ooh, the scariest part, it didn't feel like deception. It felt like me. Have you ever had a thought and you weren't sure it was you or something you had just believed for so long? And then one day, I got quiet. Really quiet. And for the first time, I stopped responding. I stopped agreeing. I just listened. And that's when it set it. You've been hearing me for a while now. I figured it's time you knew who I am. Hello girl, I am Sin. I have been with you longer than you think. I was there in the thought you didn't challenge. In the moment you said it's not that big of a deal. I don't rush you. I just stay close enough until my voice sounds like yours. I never needed control. I just needed your agreement. And in that moment, oof, I saw it. Not just what I had done, but what I had believed. Because all along I thought I was fighting temptation. I thought I was losing the sin. But that wasn't the deepest loss. Oh no. The deepest loss? Oh, that was when I believed I didn't have the authority to say no. I believed what I felt was stronger than what I knew. I believed my situation had more power than my savior. I believed I was stuck. And sin never corrected me. Because the most dangerous thing sin ever, ever convinced me of wasn't just to do wrong. No, check it. It was to believe I had no power to do right. But that's not the truth. Not for a daughter of the king, not for a woman covered in grace and filled with his spirit. I wasn't powerless. I was persuaded. And the moment, the moment, the very moment I saw it, everything changed. Because you can't unsee the truth. And once you realize you have actually, once you realize you actually have authority, sin doesn't feel as intimidating anymore. On the contrary, it feels exposed. You don't have to fight ladder, you just have to stand differently. So now the question isn't, did sin show up? Because it will. The question is, did you entertain it? Did you agree with it? Or will you interrupt it? Because sin doesn't need your life, it just needs your agreement. And once it has that, it wins. But hear me and hear me now, we are the ones who have already won, and we know that. Because it started, listen, it started with a thought, quiet, almost unnoticeable. And that's exactly where it shifts back. Not in a loud moment, not in a perfect one, but in a quiet decision to stop agreeing. To hear the thought and not entertain it, to feel the pull and not follow it, to recognize the voice and answer it with truth. Because you, my sister, are not powerless. You are not stuck, and you are not the voice that's been speaking to you. You're the one who gets to decide which voice you follow. And this, listen, isn't just me. This isn't just you. This is a us. And maybe we've called it it's a single mom thing, but this isn't a single mom thing. This is a we thing. This whole podcast is a we thing because sin doesn't just show up, it singles us out, it isolates, it convinces you're the one and the only one thinking it. You're the only one feeling it, you're the only one struggling with it. Lies and deception straight from hell is what that is. I went there. But you're not. And listen, you never were. Because the same way sin works in one of us, it works in all of us. Which means we don't just fight this alone, we overcome it together. Can I get an amen? Learning to stop agreeing with what pulls us away and start standing in what's already ours. And listen, if something in this episode, I am challenging you girls, if something in this episode felt a little too familiar, don't sit with it alone. Share this with someone. Talk about it. Because listen, the things that stay hidden tend to stay powerful. And this is just another place where sin wins. Not because it's stronger, but because it stays unseen, unspoken, unchallenged. Because what we don't bring into the light, we tend to sit with, don't we? And what we sit with long enough, it starts to feel normal. Have you ever noticed that? That thing you didn't say out loud is the thing that kept showing up again and again and again. That thought you kept to yourself is the one thing that kept growing. Because silence doesn't weaken it. Silence feeds it. That's why sin loves hidden places, because hidden things don't get corrected. They don't get exposed. They don't get interrupted. But hear me, it doesn't have to stay that way. Because the moment you bring it into the light, it loosens the power. It loses the power it had in the dark. The moment you say it, confess it, talk about it, pray through it, something shifts. And maybe that looks like being honest with God. Not the cleaned up version, but the real one. God, this is where I've been agreeing with something I shouldn't. This is where I've been believing a lie. This is where I have crossed the line, God. That's repentance. Not perfection, not punishment, just a turning, a recognition and a return. And maybe, just maybe, it looks like forgiveness. Not because they deserved it, but because holding on to it has been holding you in a place, in a holding pattern. So maybe you say, God, help me release this. Help me let go of what I keep replaying. Help me stop carrying what you never asked me to carry is heavy. And maybe, girl, maybe it looks like saying out loud to someone safe, a friend, a mentor, a counselor, whatever, whomever that is, because what it stays hidden, what happens? When it stays hidden, it stays heavy. But what's brought into the light starts to loosen its grip. Not all at once, not perfectly, but honestly. And that's how we start to win, not by pretending that it's not there, but by refusing to keep it hidden. And that's how we start to win. Not all at once, not perfectly, but honestly. Because sin, it may be patient, but so are we. Sin may wait, but we don't have to sit with it anymore. And maybe today. Winning doesn't look like everything changing overnight. No, maybe, maybe it just looks like this. Recognizing the voice, calling it what it is, and choosing not to agree. Because that's where it started. And that's where it shifts. So if something in this episode felt a little too familiar, girl, don't brush it off, okay? And don't minimize it either. Bring it into the light, talk about it, share this with someone because the things that stay hidden tend to stay powerful. But not anymore. If you need someone to stand with you in that moment to pray with you, to remind you of what's true when it feels hard to see it. We have a 24-hour prayer line that you can call anytime at 855-82 to pray. You don't have to fight this in silence, and you don't have to fight it alone. Because this isn't just a single mom thing, it is a wee thing. And sin may try to single this out. But we overcome it together. So with that, I'm gonna bid you a wonderful week, and I want you to remember it is a single mom thing, but today single thing.

SPEAKER_00

Love you, girls. Peace. Thanks for listening to It's a Singam. I hope you enjoyed our time. If you have a lot of questions about how to have a relationship with Jesus, visit us at Dub Duppy.