Our Faithful God: Katie Davis Majors

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Our Faithful God

Guest:Katie Davis Majors

From the series:Safe All Along (Day 3 of 3)

Air date:December 4, 2024

Katie:They taught me about the Bible, and they taught me about Jesus with their words. But I think what was so much more impactful is they lived that way. And so it came second nature to me to want to love others in that way. And on the one hand, I think they were a little bit surprised when I made the life choices that I did. But on the other hand, I think maybe they weren’t so surprised; because I think that that was who they raised me to be.

Ann: Welcome to FamilyLife Today, where we want to help you pursue the relationships that matter most. I’m Ann Wilson.

Dave:And I’m Dave Wilson. And you can find us at FamilyLifeToday.com. This is FamilyLife Today.

Dave: If there’s a topic that everybody can relate to, especially this time of year, it’s anxiety.

Ann: —and stress, for sure.

Dave:I mean, December; but Christmas—and again, we’ve talked about this—how I feel about Christmas: we spend way too much money on gifts for the grandkids. We don’t even buy each other anything. But the anxiety of the bank account, for me, is just something that keeps me up at night.

Ann: It doesn’t keep me up; I’m so excited to give people gifts. But I do stay awake, thinking: “How am I going to get all of this done,” and “Who am I forgetting?” And there’s just so many things we can all think about and go through.

But I’m excited to have Katie Davis Majors back with us today; because Katie, you’ve written a book called Safe All Along; which is, Trading Our Fears and Anxiety for God’s Unshakeable Peace. And you’ve lived this; this is part of your story. Especially, this time of year—we’ve already been talking about it for a couple days—but man, we need this.

Let’s kind of review: give us a little snippet of your family, where you’ve been living for the last many years; but for the last three years, it’s different; so give us a little.

Katie:Sure; so I moved to Uganda in East Africa when I was 18 and founded a ministry there. I met my husband there; and together, we adopted our 13 daughters. And then, we have 2 biological sons; so we’ve got 15 children in total.

We had planned to live in Uganda for all of our days—for the rest of our lives—but very unexpectedly, about three years ago, we ended up moving to the United States, right as I had kind of started the process of writing this book. I felt like God gave me an opportunity to take this message, that He had put on my heart, and really start to live into it—because I was in a completely unexpected place—in a place where I didn’t know how to do a lot of things in America that most adults do and take for granted. I had to really look at my own life and heart, and begin to kind of live this message, and ask the Lord: “God, I see in Scripture, that you promise me peace—peace that passes understanding—but I don’t feel that. So how can I experience Your deep peace?” Jesus and Paul talk a lot about not being anxious, and it feels easier said than done.

Ann: Well, I’m imagine you moving here—with 15 children—your youngest is two, and your oldest was—

Katie: Twenty-six.

Ann: —twenty-six. You haven’t lived in the United States, at this point, since you were 18 years old; and now, you have a huge family. I’m even thinking, car-wise: “Do you have a van?”

Katie: Yeah.

Ann: You do have a big van; you would have to! Talk about stress and anxiety.

So you have had to live out what you’ve written in these pages. And can I just say: you’re homeschooling; you’re an author; you have these kids; and you’re 36 years old. God has put a lot on your plate; and yet, I think, now, we’re all on the edge of our seat: “How do you not be anxious in the midst of all this?!”

Dave: I’m anxious just listening to that thing.

Ann: I’m feeling guilty—I have three kids and seven grandchildren—and I’m barely making it. And so honestly, I think we’re all on our edge of our seat: “How can we have peace, especially not just in our lives, but at this time of year? What does that look like and how do you attain it?”

And we asked the question yesterday with you. You talked about spending time with God; and I’m like, “How in the world are you doing that, with all these kids, being in the Word? What does that look like, practically?” Because we, as moms, want to know.

Dave: —and dads.

Katie:Right; one of the things that caught me off guard the most, when we moved to America, is just the pace that a lot of people in the United States are living at. There are a lot of cultures that don’t live like this; they are not in a hurry the way that we are.

Something that I think I’ve really had to learn—it feels like swimming upstream, quite a bit, in the current culture—but just kind of not living at this hurried pace that the world tells you: “You have to.” And that’s, again, a lot easier said than done. But I think part of that is just, sometimes, we have to say, “No” to things that are really good. Sometimes, an opportunity presents itself, and we think, “Oh, that would be so good”; but we have to kind of look at our current lives and prioritize. We can’t let something squeeze out our time in the Word and our time in prayer.

For me, that can be the first thing to go—because I feel like: “Oh, I know what the Bible says. I’ve spent a lot of time, over the years, reading it”, or, “Oh, I’ll pray about that later,” or “I’ll pray about it before I go to bed,”—and then, I don’t know if anybody else is like me, but I’m asleep within seconds of my head hitting the pillow. Sometimes, my poor husband is telling me a story; and I’m just asleep in the middle of it.

And so just making that a priority and not an afterthought. My kids know, in the morning—sometimes, I have to wake up early—I don’t love to wake up early; but if that’s the only time in the day that I’m going to have time with the Lord, then I’m going to wake up early. I have to—my life depends on it—and being able to be the mom that I want to be, and the friend that I want to be, and the wife that I want to be depends on if I am having connected time with God. That can mean saying, “No,” to the extra hour of sleep that I really want, especially as it gets dark and cold.

But my kids know, when they wake up, they’re going to find me on the couch with my Bible open. My little guy will come cuddle up to me, and he’ll say, “Oh, can you read me this book?” And I’ll tell him, “In ten minutes, I can read you the book; but I’m talking to Jesus first.” And that’s something I learned from my own mom when I walked downstairs every morning—as a child; and then, as a teenager; and then, even as a young adult, when I would come visit and stay in her house—she would be in her one chair with her Bible open and her highlighter.

A big thing for me—that is an unpopular opinion—but has been taking social media off my phone; because when I have five extra minutes in line at the grocery store, when I have ten extra minutes in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, I can scroll on social media and become consumed with anxiety about what I should be doing, what my house should look like, what my holiday traditions should look like, what stuff I need that I truly don’t need. Or I can pull out a book, or the Bible app on my phone; and I can read Scripture.

I had a really good friend in Uganda; we were having babies at the same time. And when you have a newborn baby, whether you’re nursing them or bottle feeding them, you’re spending an inordinate amount of time keeping this human alive; you’re sitting, and you’re feeding the baby. And when I adopted my first infant, I didn’t have a smartphone as I was rocking her in our rocking chair; or I would strap her in a carrier and walk around the block to get her to go to sleep. All the moms are nodding. I didn’t have a smartphone, so I would sing-worship; and I would practice the Scripture that I was memorizing.

And then, by the time I had my son, I did have a smartphone. I would sit in the rocking chair; but I would be looking at stuff or scrolling through stuff on my phone. A good friend of mine, who was having babies at the same time as me, challenged me that we were going to memorize Scripture in that time instead of scrolling. I would hang it up on the nursery wall so that I can see it; but I also, would set it as the background on my phone so that, if I reached for my phone to start to scroll, I was like, “Ah, there it was”; and I would practice. We would check in with each other, to say, “Hey, have you memorized this Scripture?”

My husband, right now—one of his best friends—they do this with each other all the time. They’re called Fighter Verses; and it’s this app, where you get a Scripture that you’re going to memorize. His friend will call him, in the middle of the day, and say, “Okay—Philippians 4—go!” I’ll hear Benji start reciting the Scripture verse. Or they’ll pull each other aside—we were out to dinner the other night—they pulled each other aside and they said, “Okay, go!” Memorizing God’s Word—hiding it in our hearts—so that, even in the middle of the crazy situations, where maybe you can’t reach for your Bible. I mean, technology makes it easy; now, if you don’t have a Bible app on your phone, just go ahead and put it there.

Ann: Or you can even listen to it.

Katie:Yes, you can listen to it. There’s an app I have where you can change the guy’s voice who’s reading it to you, whatever accent you want.

But having God’s Word so hidden in us that it starts to inform our thoughts; it starts to inform our speech. I mean, I mentioned yesterday, in a season of really intense anxiety for me, I would wake up in the middle of the night; and my thoughts would just start going, and I would be worried about everything. I could get to a point where, in the middle of the night, I wasn’t even sure if I believed in God anymore. I mean, it could get that—

Ann: —dark.

Katie: —dark; and I would not be able to fall back to sleep. I memorized Psalm 91; and I would just say it to myself—over, and over, and over again, in the middle of the night—and it became a lifeline. Because God’s Word is living and active, it’s different—

Ann: It’s sharper than a two-edged sword.

Katie: —yes, it’s different than memorizing something else—whether we see it or not; whether we feel it or not—it is changing us, from the inside, out. And I don’t know how other than by God’s goodness and grace, but I am a different person today than I was three years ago; because I have prioritized memorizing His Word.

It sounds like a simple thing. Maybe, to some listeners right now, it sounds like an ad: “Oh, another thing to do.” I would say, “Man, say ‘No,’—to whatever you have to say, “No,” to—to make God’s Word a crucial part of your day.

Ann: I am “Amen”-ing all of that. I remember, as a young mom, walking downstairs when my sister was visiting. She’s up at 4:30, with her cup of coffee, and her Bible; and she had four little boys. I remember saying, “You get up at 4:30 every day?” She said, “You don’t get up at 4:30 every day? How can you survive a day without His Word?” I was so convicted; I’m kind of that night person. But I remember watching that, and admiring that, thinking, “This is really important.” I was younger than she was. And the other thing that happened—because I watched her so faithfully—she ended up passing away of lung cancer when she was only 45. But the Word hidden in her heart continued; she would stand and worship—in her last days, worship—that’s what got her through.

I remember, Katie—maybe, you can relate to this, too—after having babies, I needed a stress release; and so I would go work out. I’d always get my workout in. And that’s the thing—we get our stuff in that we really value—you might get your Starbucks in, or you might get your workout in. I remember having this—coming home from a workout, and I hadn’t spent time with God in quite a few days—and I was younger, probably in my 20s. I remember God kind of posing this question: “What would it look like if you made Me more important than even your workout?” And so I made this commitment: “I’m not going to go work out until I have spent some time with God.” That was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made, because of the importance—He transforms us in our time with Him—doesn’t He?

Katie: He does!

Ann: And if He can do that—if you’re doing that with 15 kids—

Dave:That’s what I was going to say—I’m serious—the listener’s probably going, “Yeah, but you don’t understand my life. I don’t have time.” Well, do you understand who just told you this?—15 kids! And she’s saying, “Somehow—

Ann: —and homeschooling!

Dave: —and homeschooling, and writing; I mean, I probably don’t know half the other things you’re doing. But the fact that you still have anxiety and all that; and yet, you’re saying one of the best ways to combat that is the Word of God and prayer.

I want to ask you this—you mentioned your parents—you’re [at that time] 18 years old; you literally decide, “I’m going to Uganda.” They let you do that.

Katie:Crazy; they let me do it!

Dave:Yeah!

Ann: That’s awesome.

Dave:I mean, help our listeners; because a lot of our listeners are parents; and they’re like: “Man, I would love to have a daughter turn out like Katie,” “I’d love to have a son who goes on mission and changes the world.” What kind of things did they do? I mean, there’s no formula; but as you think about it, what gave you that vision?

Katie:Yeah, my parents are pretty incredible. And the older I get, the more I realize that. Isn’t that how it goes?—the more you parent your own kids, the more you’re like—“Wow; my parents were unbelievable.”

They did love the Lord, and they prioritized being part of a faith community. They prioritized devotions around the table; they prioritized family meals. Family was really a rock for me. I mentioned that I saw my mom frequently with her Bible open; she prioritized Bible studies that she went to. But they taught me—from a very, very young age—that I was very privileged; and that there were many, many people in the world who did not live with the same amount of money, the same amount of provision that I had. From a young age, they encouraged [serving]; we served, as a family, in different homeless ministries around the area.

When I was a young teenager, I began serving with my mom in a halfway house for women who had been previously incarcerated and struggled with addiction. And both of my parents/I mean, my dad still gets up so early every Saturday morning to drive the bus for “The Room in the Inn” program with our church to make sure that these unhoused people in our area have a warm place to sleep through the winter months. I watched my parents be very others-focused and very service-oriented. My mom does not meet a stranger. It does not matter if you are from a different place, or if you don’t have a home, or if you look a little bit different than her, or you speak a little bit different than her, she’s so kind to everybody, unequivocally. She was always hosting things; we had different people stay in our home: exchange students or people who needed a place to go.

And so really, I think they taught me about the Bible and they taught me about Jesus with their words. But I think what was so much more impactful is that they lived that way. And so it became second nature to me to want to love others in that way. And on the one hand, I think they were a little bit surprised when I made the life choices that I did. But on the other hand, I think maybe they weren’t so surprised; because I think that that was who they raised me to be.

Ann: When you wrote your first book, Kisses from Katie, what was their response?

Katie:By the time it published, that was like three years in; so by that time, they were pretty on board and excited. There was a time—probably the first year or two that I was in Uganda—I think they just really wondered if I was throwing away a lot of opportunity. I was choosing not to go to college; and they had worked really hard to set me up very well on this specific path, where I would have lots of opportunities open to me.

Ann: And so they were thinking, “Oh, this is a gap year.”

Katie:Yeah; “Gap year; and she’ll come right back, and she’ll go back to normal adult life.” And so I think there was definitely a time where they were very concerned that I was throwing away opportunities. I’m like, “What?! I’m going to live in Uganda and serve people for the rest of my life.”

My dad tells a story that he had a very clear moment. I was back in the United States, doing some fundraising for the ministry that I had founded; and I was telling a story in front of a group of people. He would say that, during that time, he really felt the Lord say to him, “Scott, don’t stand in My way.” He didn’t tell me that story for years; he told me that story years later. I think both my parents, because they were prioritizing time spent with God and time in prayer, they were able to hear from Him. He was really kind of prompting them to say, “Let go. Let go of your hopes, and dreams, and expectations for your child; and let her walk in what I’m calling her to,”—which well, now as a parent!—

Ann: That’s what I was going to say.

Katie: —with teenagers, I’m like, “Ooh, that’s so hard!”

Ann: I know! That’s what I was thinking!—you have teenagers now. So to let our kids go off on this wild, crazy dream—

Dave: Talk about anxiety;—

Katie: Yeah!

Dave:—that’s what you feel.

But as you were saying it, I think—and we’ve talked about this many times on this program is—parenting is so much who you are, not what you do. I mean, what you do matters. You want to have a strategy; you want to know what you’re trying to do, as a parent, but our kids are watching; we’re modeling. It sounds like your parents, whom we have never met, were living the life you’re living now, in a different way.

Katie: Yeah; they were!

Dave: They weren’t in Uganda. They were here in the United States, but they were living a faith-filled,—

Ann: —open-handed.

Dave:—open-handed, eyes seeing those around them who were less fortunate; and saying, “God has blessed me…”

And I do want to mention this: you guys did a devotional at the kitchen table?

Katie:Yeah.

Dave:Really?

Katie:Yeah.

Dave:And here’s a daughter, who wrote a devotional! We’re going to have you read something from that devotional. Again, I think it’d be great for our listeners to hear.

But I want to let our listeners know that the devotion you’re going to hear Katie read from—that she wrote—is a gift that we’re going to send to you for you sending a gift to us. You make a financial contribution to FamilyLife this month—it will be doubled—for any amount, by the way. And we’ll send you Our faithful God, which Katie’s going to read right now. But here’s how you do it: go to FamilyLifeToday.com; you can make a gift there. Or call us at 1-800-358-6329; that’s 800- F as in Family, L as in Life, and the word, TODAY.

Katie:I am so excited that FamilyLife is making this devotional, Our Faithful God, available to you guys. I really just hope and pray that you’ll get a copy, and that you’ll be so encouraged in God’s Word. If you’re somebody, who’s having a hard time staying committed in God’s Word every day, this is designed to be short and doable, and give you some direction in your time in the Word. I really pray that you’ll be encouraged by it.

Dave:Alright, what are you going to read us today?

Katie:Okay; this is fun because the one I picked to read today actually really goes well with what we were just talking about. It’s called “God Who Gives us Courage to Stay.”

At 18 years old, I moved across the ocean to a village in East Africa, with a suitcase full of crayons and construction paper, and a heart determined to change the world with the gospel. I was bright-eyed and optimistic. It is beautiful and brave to set off for a foreign land to follow His calling into the new, the unknown, the exciting. But I’ve learned that, sometimes, it takes just as much courage—perhaps even more—to stay; to dig in where it seems old, familiar and unexciting; to not grow weary in doing the good that He has placed right in front of you, right here and right now.

Early on, in my adult life, God did a lot of pretty radical things together. Together, we grew a big ministry and a big family in the beautiful country of Uganda, which I called home for more than

15 years. He used that bright-eyed optimism; blind trust; and often, naivety in ways that I never could have imagined. The Lord would take the darkest and most difficult places of my life and make them the places where I knew Him more intimately and deeply than I had ever fathomed possible.

I hung laundry on the line, more often than I cared, for the dying; and I made huge pots of spaghetti; and changed diapers; and mediated sibling rivalries as my amazing team of Ugandan staff worked on the front lines, providing for our community and sharing the gospel. As I folded mountains of laundry, I began to wrestle with a longing to do something bigger for the kingdom. As I chopped carrots, and checked homework, and wiped noses, I wondered if this was what I was supposed to be doing for the gospel.

At night, after I tucked warm little bodies into bed, I’d sit down to plan the next day’s spelling lesson, and wonder, “What of value, if anything, I had accomplished that day.” In the quiet, God whispered, “A secret obedience is always the bravest.” This daily laying down of myself for my family, for my neighbor, for my community, is just as beautiful to the heart of God as any grand gesture or dramatic move.

When I ask myself: “What I want my children, my friends, my community to remember of me one day?” I want them to remember me curled up on the couch with my Bible; I want them to remember a warm smile when they walked in the door and a warm meal on a cold night. And most of all, I want them to remember that, in all of it—the big and the small; the miraculous and the mundane—my joy was found in Jesus alone. I want to be the one: brave enough to stay; courageous enough to share about what God has done for her, again; and daring enough to do little things in obedience to Him.

Where is God calling you to grow your roots deeper? Wherever it is, ask Him for the courage you need to love extravagantly and not grow weary of doing good.

Ann: Man, I love that.

Dave:That’s so good. And I’ll just say one more time: we’d love to send you that—this book, Our Faithful God— as our gift to you for sending us a financial gift. Just go to FamilyLifeToday.com, and we’ll send it to you.

Ann: And you can get her book, Safe All Along, in our store, here, at FamilyLife Today.

Katie, what a good reminder: “God is with us; He sees us. Even in the mundane, the miraculous can happen; and that, He’s with us.”

Katie:Yes.

Ann: Coming up tomorrow, we’re going to have Melissa Kruger with us. We’ll see you then on FamilyLife Today.

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