What Are You Adamant About?

I want to be like Lisa Bevere when I grow up. There, I said it! I’m her biggest fan! Who is Lisa Bevere? She is an amazing author and speaker that I only could aspire to be. But she has so many more hats and titles than author and speaker. She is a child of God, a mother, a grandmother, a wife, and a co-founder with her husband, John, of their ministry, Messenger International.

But who am I? I’m just a small town girl (you know you just sang Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” in your head) born in the hills of an Appalachian coal mining county in the corner of Kentucky. I now live in the opposite corner in Virginia. I’ve lived in Virginia since marrying Jesse Smith, the Virginia boy who swept me off my feet five years ago. Don’t ever swear you’re not going to live somewhere because you will end up living there. The only part of Virginia I was used to seeing was flat farm land with literally nothing around. I have to at least have my Wal-Mart y’all. Something.

So why am I starting this blog? It all started just days after we lost our baby, Arden Isaiah Smith. After a beautiful, perfect journey of pregnancy and not too bad of a labor, Arden passed within just minutes of being born as a result of his umbilical cord being wrapped around his neck. After our horrible tragedy, I discovered that I had found a voice…and that I would have to be his voice. I found I had a lot to say. I felt I needed to write, start a blog, do something! But I was too scared. I had never done anything like this before.

Back to Lisa Bevere. She recently wrote a book called Adamant. I listened to all her podcasts and read the Adamant devotional on the YouVersion bible app prior to reading the book. I listened to her podcast as she interviewed person after person about what they were adamant about, which made me start to think of the things I’m adamant about.

According to dicitonary.com, to be adamant is to refuse to be persuaded or to change one’s mind; utterly unyielding in attitude or opinion in spite of all appeals urging. Other, related words I love: uncompromising, determined, firm, immovable, set, fixed, unshakable, unbendable, set in stone, unswayable. I first think about my faith in God. I’ve been raised in church my whole life but it wasn’t until I was in my late teenage years and early twenties that I found myself being really determined in my faith. That’s when I started laying roots and foundations that would not be destroyed.

This is what I find I’m adamant about lately: 

1. My real home. You may be thinking, “Um, what do you mean ‘my real home’?”. The moment I asked Jesus to come into my life I became a citizen of Heaven (Philippians 3:20). You cannot convince me that there is any other truth other than The Truth (John 14:6). There is only one God who was, and is, and is to come. The one who was the beginning and who is the end. The one who CANNOT lie (Hebrews 6:18). The one who loved you and me so much that He died. Not not only that, He rose from the dead so that we can be conquerors through Him and He prepares a place for us when eternity comes. I have eternity inscribed on my heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Well how do you know this Hannah? Because I’ve experienced Him for who He is. I may not understand His ways all the time but I know His thoughts and ways are higher than my own (Isaiah 55:8-9). I have found Him to be consistent through every season in my life; good and bad. I’m adamant about helping and seeing people finding their true identity in Christ. I have never felt more free and more myself than I have since finding myself in Christ. Lisa Bevere wrote something in her new book that has become my new favorite quote and sums it all up for me: “In Him, we do not become less ourselves; rather we are freed to become more of who He created us to be.” Matthew 10:39 “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

2. My earthly home. You cannot convince me that there is anything better than being from the South. The way we talk, our food, our hospitality, our manners, and our way of raisin’ (not the dried fruit) are better than all of y’alls. Now don’t start thinking I’m a closed-minded, bigoted hillbilly. With my relationship with God I’ve been filled with His love for people. That’s people of all color, shapes, and sizes. I love learning about people, their languages, and their cultures. I listen to people, I may not agree all the time, but I listen. The south is home. I’m sure you feel the same way about wherever you’re from. I bet I couldn’t convince you that my home is better than yours. There are people who don’t have the privilege of being born somewhere where they can love and call home. They may not have the privilege of getting all the warm and fuzzy feelings home gives you. Many people don’t know that feeling of safety and security. I’m blessed beyond compare. I’m thankful for my heritage. Then there’s that other thought you had. “Poor thing she doesn’t know any better, she was born in the Bible Belt. She was raised in the hills of southeastern Kentucky so she probably isn’t that educated and doesn’t know anything about the world.” It burns my biscuits when someone thinks the way I talk or the region I was born in makes me stupid. I’m adamant about showing people otherwise and all things south of the Mason Dixon line and tea being sweet.

3. Being a voice for the 1 in 4 women who have lost their babies through miscarriage, stillbirth, and infant lose. Yes, in the advanced world we live in today, pregnancy, though a beautiful experience, can also be a very unpredictable, scary, and dangerous experience. Literally anything can happen. No, I don’t know everything and I still have a lot to learn. I just lost my baby five months ago and I’m still healing, but I feel like I have a responsibility to help women who have suffered just like I have. It’s my responsibility to show them what God has done for me and the hope we have as mothers. I also feel like it’s my responsibility to be a voice for those babies who don’t have a voice. The voice of millions upon millions who are being killed. Not only me, but if you’re a child of the cross, you too should be a voice for those who don’t have one.

So with this blog you will find me talking about these three things a lot. I may talk completely off topic sometimes, but there are no rules, right? This is an outlet for me and I hope along the way it can help you and those who need it.

– Hannah Jo xoxo