May 7, 2024 • 14 mins
In episode 22, we delve into the inspiring journey of Melinda Schmiedeknecht, a successful businesswoman and organizer of two support communities for women. Rooted in Christianity, she shares her empowering journey of self-discovery guided by God's love. Her story is a beacon of inspiration for all moms, inviting them to reevaluate their measuring sticks in line with Jesus and His promises, rather than societal norms.
As moms, it's natural to measure our success based on the outcomes we see in our children and careers. However, Melinda offers a powerful perspective, suggesting that our measuring stick should be our commitment to follow God's path, using His direction and guidance in all aspects of life. In her own words, "The expectation is to love Him and love others. If I'm doing my imperfect best to love God and those around me, then that's my measuring stick for success." This shift in perspective empowers us to focus on our spiritual growth and personal journey.
Discover how you can overcome self-doubt and negativity that may be projected onto you. Learn to evaluate every word spoken to you, whether positive or negative. Find confidence in the positive words and consider the negative ones, checking whether they may hold any truth. Remember to brush it off if it only aims to belittle you.
Be encouraged in knowing that as long as you give your best and trust God, He'll take care of your failures. You can always strive for improvement and learn how to grow from weaknesses or past mistakes.
This empowering episode is not just for moms; it's an inspiring listen for every woman. All are encouraged to tune in. Remember, the ultimate measuring stick should always be Jesus.
Please follow and connect with Melinda on Instagram @mizschmitty
Subscribe to Jennifer's website at www.jenniferbosma.com
If you love the podcast, please review on Apple podcast by scrolling all the way to "Leave a Review" written in purple at the bottom of the page.
Follow Jennifer on Instagram @frontparkingspot
Looking for a book for the next baby shower with the "bring a book instead of a card." request? Order a copy of Jennifer's book, I Know the Plans at:
Christian children's books for all kids! — Jennifer Bosma
Thanks, Moms for listening and please share with others! Have an Ephesians 3:20 day as your go for the Front Parking Spot in your life today!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey moms, welcome to episode 22. I have a really encouraging podcast today,
and it's Dear Mom, Check Your Measuring Stick with Melinda Schmidte-Connect.
You're not going to want to miss this one.
Hello moms, welcome to the Front Parking Spot podcast.
I am so glad you're here. I'm Jennifer Bosma, wife, mom, grandma,
(00:21):
former teacher for 23 years, and now a Christian children's book author and
your podcast host. Are you a faith-based mom trying to live out a Christian life for your family?
Do you want to learn more ways that you can have power over your child's spiritual growth?
Inside this podcast, you will find tried and true ideas to grow in your faith
and be the best wife and mom you can be.
(00:42):
So listen in as you're cleaning up, doing the drive, or matching that sock,
and be encouraged to know that God has His front parking spot set aside for you.
Hello moms and welcome to the Front Parking Spot podcast. This is episode 22 already.
I am honored to share today that I have Melinda Schmidte connect with me and
(01:04):
we are going to be talking to you moms about checking your measuring stick. This is a great episode.
Let me share with you a little bit about our guests.
Melinda enjoys the challenge of juggling both left and right brain functions.
From spreadsheets and databases to graphic design and social media,
she has been fortunate to gain a broad spectrum of business experience.
(01:26):
Most important to her with any job is to believe in what she's doing and know
she's making a difference in others' lives.
A graduate of Liberty University, Melinda grew up in Texas where she met her
husband and promptly moved to Atlanta nine months after they married.
Her background includes working in the healthcare insurance industry,
training business and networking courses, supporting business development for
(01:48):
an international corporation, and operating her own web design and marketing business.
Currently, she is the organizer of two support communities for women,
called Women in Business Where We Met, and before that, Even Elementary School,
and Stock Market Sisters.
I want to welcome you, Melinda, to the Front Parking Spot podcast.
I'm so excited for your message today.
(02:10):
Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to share. Being a mom is hard.
And I had an epiphany, if you will, that completely shifted my perspective and
my trust, I guess, in a way with God.
So I appreciate the opportunity to share this with you and your audience today.
(02:31):
Hopefully it will be meaningful to someone else. Oh, yes.
And when we were chatting, we were talking about what we were going to talk
about today day at our Cobb Women in Business that we go to that you started, which is amazing.
And I really, really love this message that you shared to share with moms.
So let these moms know what your message is today. It was really,
(02:52):
it can be life-changing for many moms.
Well, it started from doing the Beth Moore study, The Quest.
And she asked a question early in the study that I couldn't really answer right away.
It wasn't an easy top of the mind, you know.
(03:12):
I had to simmer this question for a couple of weeks, really,
and come back, circle back to it.
The question is, what do you truly believe about yourself? self?
And then the follow-up question is, who told you that?
So the examples that she gives are, what do you believe about yourself?
(03:33):
Well, I'm dumb. I'm unlucky.
I'm sloppy, bad with money.
I'm homely. I don't have common sense. I'm a failure.
And then who told you that? Why do you think those things about yourself?
Why do you believe that? Well, it could be my mom. It could be my friend.
It could be even my pastor, you know, has said something from the pulpit that
(03:57):
made me feel like this is what I am.
So to examine, you know, who told you that? And then is it true?
And what does God compare that to what God says about you?
So I, I, where I landed I landed with this after really praying about it over
several weeks is I landed with, I'm a mediocre mom.
(04:22):
I'm a mediocre business person. I'm just, I'm not great. I'm not terrible.
I'm just middle of the road.
And as I was searching through, you know, well, who told you this? Why do you feel this way?
That's where my revelation of my measuring stick came about.
(04:43):
Because if my, I was measuring my parenting skills by the results of how my
children were behaving and my children were not behaving the way that I had raised them to behave,
you know, they were not making choices.
According to the biblical values that I've been trying to instill in them all their lives.
(05:08):
And I felt like that was a failure. They must not be following Jesus the way
I feel like they should or the Bible says they should.
It must be my fault because I haven't taught them well.
And then when it comes to business in social media, all these other gurus could say,
(05:29):
I'll guarantee you 5,000, 10,000 new followers in 30 days or something like
that, or videos that go viral and get a million views.
And I wasn't having that type of measurable statistic.
So therefore, I felt like I was maybe not the best at my marketing business.
(05:51):
But what God said to me in my heart through all of this prayer and soul searching
is that my measuring stick should be, am I trying to follow him?
Am I doing everything I can to be the best parent?
Am I doing everything I can to be the best marketing, social media service provider for my clients?
(06:18):
And by that measuring stick, I'm a great mom.
I'm a great business person provider.
He knows that I'm not going to get it right. You know, none of us can a hundred percent. Right.
And that's the beauty, your trust in him, that you're trusting him to take care
(06:41):
of your failures, your weakness, and to turn that around and use it for good in some way.
And if I'm truly trusting him that he's got my back,
you know, that he's going to help me recover from my mistakes or my kids to
recover from my parenting mistakes, if you will, if I'm trusting him,
(07:06):
then that's success. Yes.
And by doubting myself, by beating up myself, by saying, oh,
I'm not good at this, I'm such a failure, it's really saying I'm not trusting God with my weaknesses.
So that to me was just a huge shift in perspective.
(07:31):
Not that I don't keep trying, not that you give up and say, oh,
well, this is good enough.
The bible encourages us on a
continual path of sanctification through christ's righteousness and through
the renewing of our mind through his word so it's something that you always
(07:51):
want to keep working on and trying to get better trying to become more christ-like
trying to become more surrender to his will and not mine,
but I don't have to beat myself up for those failures.
I can trust him, confess my sins, let it go, but rest in the peace and the trust
(08:13):
that he's going to take care of my failures and that his expectation is to love him and love others.
And if I'm doing my imperfect best to love God and love others,
that's my measuring stick for success.
Wow. I love that. I love, I have taken so many notes because that's how we sleep
(08:35):
well at night when we give our best and we just turn it over to him and say,
okay, Lord, I'm, I, maybe I messed this up in the past. I'm depending on you.
I know you can do it. And, and, you know, just, I love what you said about trusting
in him and am I following him and our kids are going to make the decisions they make.
(08:56):
We're going to try to lead them and guide them the best we can.
But in the end, we have to trust God with our children because he loves them even more than we do.
And we love them oh so much. And he loves them so much.
And I also love what you said, Melinda, about you got to think of what the words people say to you.
And if you get a word that's negative
(09:18):
i remember my daughter had a teacher he
was in ap english class and she was a swimmer in high school and she was really
looking at some pretty like really great schools like really i mean she was
highly recruited for swimming and there was a teacher who said you're just going
to be a trophy wife anyways why do you want to go there and i was I was shocked.
(09:41):
I was shocked. And our kids have gone to the same high school.
And actually, that turned into a motivation for her to prove him wrong.
And, you know, from there, she went into NCAAs and two Olympic trials.
I mean, she was like, what?
And she runs a highly successful, you know, she's a businesswoman.
But those words, you have to think of the words that people tell you and do
(10:04):
not let them plant a seed of self-doubt.
Do not let them have that power over you because you know the power that Christ
has given you and what God has for you.
And that is the power you need to trust, the ultimate power through Jesus.
Absolutely. And when we do get words that are negative or hurtful,
(10:26):
or it may be we feel like it's hurtful, but it could be that they're justified.
It could be painful truth.
So there could be, that's why we need to evaluate.
Don't just accept the words that people, but evaluate the words that people give us.
Because if it is true that this is an area of weakness,
(10:50):
then I need to accept it and work on that and pray about, okay,
maybe it is true that I'm weak in this area and it's something that I need to address.
I need to pray about it. I need to look for guidance, for wisdom on how to improve
and strengthen in that area.
So it's not that words Words are always untrue, but we need to evaluate them.
(11:15):
And I think the reverse is also true.
When people give us positive words, sometimes as moms, we don't receive them.
We brush them off. We don't take it seriously because of our negative self-image
or our lack of confidence or our insecurity,
(11:35):
we will brush off compliments and encouragement when we need to take those seriously also.
And maybe we don't believe what they're saying about ourselves.
But we need to examine it because maybe that is true. And it's a belief that
we need to embrace in a positive way. Right.
(11:57):
Oh, man. This is really good. This is really good. And like you said,
check your measuring stick.
Who is your measuring stick? That measuring stick needs to be Jesus.
And take everything, the positive and the negative. Positive comments, like you're saying.
And so many times, I do the same thing, Melinda. I brush them off.
Like someone said, oh, this is great.
And I'm like, oh, it's just idle words. But no, listen to what they say and let that soak in.
(12:22):
And that could be a confirmation from God telling you, hey, you're,
you know, an encouragement from him.
But I like what you say, too, about the negative words. You use that,
use Jesus as your measuring stick to really evaluate.
Okay, could I improve in this area? And if he, if you just know it's a hurtful
comment, then you need to move on. Wow. Great message.
(12:43):
Thank you. How can moms find you? Because you bring so much life and you're so engaging.
And how can moms find you, Melinda?
The best way to connect with me is on Instagram.
My username is Ms. Schmitty. So that's M-I-Z-S-C-H-M-I-T-T-Y.
(13:05):
And I would love to have you follow me or DM me with thoughts or questions.
Or I'll follow you back or see if I can encourage you.
I love this. Well, thank you so much for being on episode 22.
There is a lot of people, moms, non-moms. I think every woman in the world needs to hear this message.
Thanks for being here today. Thank you.
(13:29):
Well, mamas, thank you so much for joining in.
I know you are super busy doing all the things that can consume your day,
but you took a couple of minutes to learn how God wants to build you up in your
faith, family, and life.
And He wants to applaud you for this.
Music.
Please subscribe and review my show. This helps other moms tune in as well.
(13:50):
I'd love to connect with you on Instagram at Front Parking Spot,
on Facebook at Front Parking Spot Mom Community, or my website at jenniferbosma.com.
Have an Ephesians 320 type of day, mamas, and be encouraged as you go for the
front parking spot in your life today. God bless.
Thank you.
Hey moms, welcome to episode 22. I have a really encouraging podcast today,
and it's Dear Mom, Check Your Measuring Stick with Melinda Schmidte-Connect.
You're not going to want to miss this one.
Hello moms, welcome to the Front Parking Spot podcast.
I am so glad you're here. I'm Jennifer Bosma, wife, mom, grandma,
(00:21):
former teacher for 23 years, and now a Christian children's book author and
your podcast host. Are you a faith-based mom trying to live out a Christian life for your family?
Do you want to learn more ways that you can have power over your child's spiritual growth?
Inside this podcast, you will find tried and true ideas to grow in your faith
and be the best wife and mom you can be.
(00:42):
So listen in as you're cleaning up, doing the drive, or matching that sock,
and be encouraged to know that God has His front parking spot set aside for you.
Hello moms and welcome to the Front Parking Spot podcast. This is episode 22 already.
I am honored to share today that I have Melinda Schmidte connect with me and
(01:04):
we are going to be talking to you moms about checking your measuring stick. This is a great episode.
Let me share with you a little bit about our guests.
Melinda enjoys the challenge of juggling both left and right brain functions.
From spreadsheets and databases to graphic design and social media,
she has been fortunate to gain a broad spectrum of business experience.
(01:26):
Most important to her with any job is to believe in what she's doing and know
she's making a difference in others' lives.
A graduate of Liberty University, Melinda grew up in Texas where she met her
husband and promptly moved to Atlanta nine months after they married.
Her background includes working in the healthcare insurance industry,
training business and networking courses, supporting business development for
(01:48):
an international corporation, and operating her own web design and marketing business.
Currently, she is the organizer of two support communities for women,
called Women in Business Where We Met, and before that, Even Elementary School,
and Stock Market Sisters.
I want to welcome you, Melinda, to the Front Parking Spot podcast.
I'm so excited for your message today.
(02:10):
Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to share. Being a mom is hard.
And I had an epiphany, if you will, that completely shifted my perspective and
my trust, I guess, in a way with God.
So I appreciate the opportunity to share this with you and your audience today.
(02:31):
Hopefully it will be meaningful to someone else. Oh, yes.
And when we were chatting, we were talking about what we were going to talk
about today day at our Cobb Women in Business that we go to that you started, which is amazing.
And I really, really love this message that you shared to share with moms.
So let these moms know what your message is today. It was really,
(02:52):
it can be life-changing for many moms.
Well, it started from doing the Beth Moore study, The Quest.
And she asked a question early in the study that I couldn't really answer right away.
It wasn't an easy top of the mind, you know.
(03:12):
I had to simmer this question for a couple of weeks, really,
and come back, circle back to it.
The question is, what do you truly believe about yourself? self?
And then the follow-up question is, who told you that?
So the examples that she gives are, what do you believe about yourself?
(03:33):
Well, I'm dumb. I'm unlucky.
I'm sloppy, bad with money.
I'm homely. I don't have common sense. I'm a failure.
And then who told you that? Why do you think those things about yourself?
Why do you believe that? Well, it could be my mom. It could be my friend.
It could be even my pastor, you know, has said something from the pulpit that
(03:57):
made me feel like this is what I am.
So to examine, you know, who told you that? And then is it true?
And what does God compare that to what God says about you?
So I, I, where I landed I landed with this after really praying about it over
several weeks is I landed with, I'm a mediocre mom.
(04:22):
I'm a mediocre business person. I'm just, I'm not great. I'm not terrible.
I'm just middle of the road.
And as I was searching through, you know, well, who told you this? Why do you feel this way?
That's where my revelation of my measuring stick came about.
(04:43):
Because if my, I was measuring my parenting skills by the results of how my
children were behaving and my children were not behaving the way that I had raised them to behave,
you know, they were not making choices.
According to the biblical values that I've been trying to instill in them all their lives.
(05:08):
And I felt like that was a failure. They must not be following Jesus the way
I feel like they should or the Bible says they should.
It must be my fault because I haven't taught them well.
And then when it comes to business in social media, all these other gurus could say,
(05:29):
I'll guarantee you 5,000, 10,000 new followers in 30 days or something like
that, or videos that go viral and get a million views.
And I wasn't having that type of measurable statistic.
So therefore, I felt like I was maybe not the best at my marketing business.
(05:51):
But what God said to me in my heart through all of this prayer and soul searching
is that my measuring stick should be, am I trying to follow him?
Am I doing everything I can to be the best parent?
Am I doing everything I can to be the best marketing, social media service provider for my clients?
(06:18):
And by that measuring stick, I'm a great mom.
I'm a great business person provider.
He knows that I'm not going to get it right. You know, none of us can a hundred percent. Right.
And that's the beauty, your trust in him, that you're trusting him to take care
(06:41):
of your failures, your weakness, and to turn that around and use it for good in some way.
And if I'm truly trusting him that he's got my back,
you know, that he's going to help me recover from my mistakes or my kids to
recover from my parenting mistakes, if you will, if I'm trusting him,
(07:06):
then that's success. Yes.
And by doubting myself, by beating up myself, by saying, oh,
I'm not good at this, I'm such a failure, it's really saying I'm not trusting God with my weaknesses.
So that to me was just a huge shift in perspective.
(07:31):
Not that I don't keep trying, not that you give up and say, oh,
well, this is good enough.
The bible encourages us on a
continual path of sanctification through christ's righteousness and through
the renewing of our mind through his word so it's something that you always
(07:51):
want to keep working on and trying to get better trying to become more christ-like
trying to become more surrender to his will and not mine,
but I don't have to beat myself up for those failures.
I can trust him, confess my sins, let it go, but rest in the peace and the trust
(08:13):
that he's going to take care of my failures and that his expectation is to love him and love others.
And if I'm doing my imperfect best to love God and love others,
that's my measuring stick for success.
Wow. I love that. I love, I have taken so many notes because that's how we sleep
(08:35):
well at night when we give our best and we just turn it over to him and say,
okay, Lord, I'm, I, maybe I messed this up in the past. I'm depending on you.
I know you can do it. And, and, you know, just, I love what you said about trusting
in him and am I following him and our kids are going to make the decisions they make.
(08:56):
We're going to try to lead them and guide them the best we can.
But in the end, we have to trust God with our children because he loves them even more than we do.
And we love them oh so much. And he loves them so much.
And I also love what you said, Melinda, about you got to think of what the words people say to you.
And if you get a word that's negative
(09:18):
i remember my daughter had a teacher he
was in ap english class and she was a swimmer in high school and she was really
looking at some pretty like really great schools like really i mean she was
highly recruited for swimming and there was a teacher who said you're just going
to be a trophy wife anyways why do you want to go there and i was I was shocked.
(09:41):
I was shocked. And our kids have gone to the same high school.
And actually, that turned into a motivation for her to prove him wrong.
And, you know, from there, she went into NCAAs and two Olympic trials.
I mean, she was like, what?
And she runs a highly successful, you know, she's a businesswoman.
But those words, you have to think of the words that people tell you and do
(10:04):
not let them plant a seed of self-doubt.
Do not let them have that power over you because you know the power that Christ
has given you and what God has for you.
And that is the power you need to trust, the ultimate power through Jesus.
Absolutely. And when we do get words that are negative or hurtful,
(10:26):
or it may be we feel like it's hurtful, but it could be that they're justified.
It could be painful truth.
So there could be, that's why we need to evaluate.
Don't just accept the words that people, but evaluate the words that people give us.
Because if it is true that this is an area of weakness,
(10:50):
then I need to accept it and work on that and pray about, okay,
maybe it is true that I'm weak in this area and it's something that I need to address.
I need to pray about it. I need to look for guidance, for wisdom on how to improve
and strengthen in that area.
So it's not that words Words are always untrue, but we need to evaluate them.
(11:15):
And I think the reverse is also true.
When people give us positive words, sometimes as moms, we don't receive them.
We brush them off. We don't take it seriously because of our negative self-image
or our lack of confidence or our insecurity,
(11:35):
we will brush off compliments and encouragement when we need to take those seriously also.
And maybe we don't believe what they're saying about ourselves.
But we need to examine it because maybe that is true. And it's a belief that
we need to embrace in a positive way. Right.
(11:57):
Oh, man. This is really good. This is really good. And like you said,
check your measuring stick.
Who is your measuring stick? That measuring stick needs to be Jesus.
And take everything, the positive and the negative. Positive comments, like you're saying.
And so many times, I do the same thing, Melinda. I brush them off.
Like someone said, oh, this is great.
And I'm like, oh, it's just idle words. But no, listen to what they say and let that soak in.
(12:22):
And that could be a confirmation from God telling you, hey, you're,
you know, an encouragement from him.
But I like what you say, too, about the negative words. You use that,
use Jesus as your measuring stick to really evaluate.
Okay, could I improve in this area? And if he, if you just know it's a hurtful
comment, then you need to move on. Wow. Great message.
(12:43):
Thank you. How can moms find you? Because you bring so much life and you're so engaging.
And how can moms find you, Melinda?
The best way to connect with me is on Instagram.
My username is Ms. Schmitty. So that's M-I-Z-S-C-H-M-I-T-T-Y.
(13:05):
And I would love to have you follow me or DM me with thoughts or questions.
Or I'll follow you back or see if I can encourage you.
I love this. Well, thank you so much for being on episode 22.
There is a lot of people, moms, non-moms. I think every woman in the world needs to hear this message.
Thanks for being here today. Thank you.
(13:29):
Well, mamas, thank you so much for joining in.
I know you are super busy doing all the things that can consume your day,
but you took a couple of minutes to learn how God wants to build you up in your
faith, family, and life.
And He wants to applaud you for this.
Music.
Please subscribe and review my show. This helps other moms tune in as well.
(13:50):
I'd love to connect with you on Instagram at Front Parking Spot,
on Facebook at Front Parking Spot Mom Community, or my website at jenniferbosma.com.
Have an Ephesians 320 type of day, mamas, and be encouraged as you go for the
front parking spot in your life today. God bless.
Thank you.
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