This week on The Love Offering podcast, I had the privilege of sitting with Annie Mayfield to talk about her heartfelt and life-changing book, U Matter. Annie’s journey is one so many of us can relate to—the endless striving to prove our worth, only to discover that our value was never tied to what we achieve.
Annie shared how she spent years chasing accomplishments in sports, relationships, careers, and more to feel like she mattered. When life stripped away what she thought defined her, she came face-to-face with a raw truth: her worth had nothing to do with what she could do or earn. Instead, it was rooted in God’s unchanging love.
We explored the freeing message in Jeremiah 1:5—that our value is not a badge we earn but a title God gives us. Annie’s story is a beautiful reminder that real faith isn’t about what we do “for” God but how we walk with Him. She invites us to trust that when God says we matter, He means it.
If you’ve ever confused your worth with your achievements or felt the pressure to “prove” you belong, this episode is for you. Annie’s story will inspire you to step into the truth of your inherent worth and remind others of theirs too.
Listen now: The Love Offering – Rachael Adams – Christian Podcast
I hope Annie’s powerful message encourages you as much as it did me. Let’s embrace the truth that we are loved, chosen, and valuable—not because of what we do, but because of who we are in Him.
With love,
Rachael
P.S. Share this episode with a friend who might need a reminder of their worth today. Let’s spread the light together!
Summary
In this conversation, Rachael Adams and Annie Mayfield explore the themes of worth, identity, and women’s struggles in a performance-oriented culture. Annie shares her journey of realizing that her worth is not tied to her accomplishments and how this understanding has transformed her relationship with God. They discuss the battle against people-pleasing, the importance of recognizing one’s inherent value, and the significance of embracing one’s unique journey, including the experience of singleness. The conversation also touches on the biblical concept of love as service and sacrifice, encouraging listeners to find joy in their individuality and creativity.
Takeaways
Your worth is not tied to your accomplishments.
You can work from worth, not for it.
We live in a world that celebrates performance.
The battle is not between flesh and blood.
You are fearfully and wonderfully made.
You can borrow God’s strength and peace.
Your worth is there because you gave it to us.
Love is service and sacrifice.
We all have seasons and timing.
You are not incomplete; you are whole.
Sound Bites
“You can work from worth, not for it.”
“Your worth is not tied to your accomplishments.”
“The battle is not between flesh and blood.”
“You are fearfully and wonderfully made.”
“You are not incomplete; you are whole.”
“You can borrow God’s strength and peace.”
“Love is service and sacrifice.”
Chapters
00:00 The Journey of Worth and Identity
05:09 The Battle Against People-Pleasing
11:17 Finding Freedom in Worth
14:32 Balancing Work and Worth
18:42 Embracing Singleness and Fulfillment
22:45 Encouragement for the Insecure
27:27 Understanding Biblical Love
30:26 Finding Joy in Creativity
Transcript
Rachael Adams (00:01.574)
Well, hi, Annie. Welcome to the Love Offering podcast. I’m so happy to have you.
Annie Mayfield (00:06.252)
Rachel, I’m so, so excited to be here. You’re amazing. I feel like we’re already kindred spirits, long-lost sisters from South Carolina. I’m so excited. This is awesome.
Rachael Adams (00:16.528)
Yeah, me too. This is why podcasting is such a gift because it’s like, well, we should have met at some point in our lives already. And we’re like, how have we not? But I’m so glad we have it now because we are kindred spirits; we have so much in common. I know you have such a heart for the Lord and helping women believe they matter. And so do I. So your journey of mattering is so relatable. So, can you share more about the moment that you realized that your worth was not tied to your accomplishments, and how did that change your relationship with the Lord?
Annie Mayfield (00:50.584)
Gosh, that’s good. Think for the sake of transparency; that’s something I must remind myself of every day. You know, like, I think it’s funny. I always say writers write about or podcasters podcast about the things they struggle with the most because they know so intimately the tools they use to get through those things. And now they shine that back and say, Hey, for those going through the hard time I just went through, here’s my survival guide. Hopefully it will help you too. Every single one of my books, I think, was that. It was what I once used as a survival guide for myself. And it’s like, let’s write this down for other people. And all that to say, my last book, You Matter, is all about this, like confusing your mattering and worthiness with your accomplishments and performance. That’s something that I struggled with from a super young age. And I had this almost misassociation that I am only as good to people as what I can do for them or make them feel, And I projected that onto God. I am only as good for God as what I can do for him. It started at a young age, and I never even disclosed that I had the best parents in the world. I have the undeserved privilege of having the best parents in the world. They never made me feel like my worth wasn’t what I could do for them. And so I say that parents should feel free from feeling like they could be blamed for a kid feeling this way because this was really, I’m just an example of the world’s conditioning. I had such an amazing support system, but I’m in this world, and I go to school with people, and I hear messages of what women should be, how they should act, and how they should look. And so whether that was a boyfriend or sports or having the best personality or looks or what people thought about me, it was like I was killing myself over trying to get approval from people, not necessarily because I wanted to serve them, but because I needed that to make me feel like I was good enough to be here. I had to prove my qualifications and why I was here. And I think we live in a world that celebrates that. We celebrate the performance and the metrics over the fact that you didn’t earn anything to be here, but you were given it as a gift. And your job, if you will, is to be in a relationship with the one who gave you that gift.
Annie Mayfield (03:11.566)
And honestly, I would say the past couple of years through not a pretty process at all, through a lot of breaking, through a lot of losing things and not by choice, but by force, God broke me to put it in his kindness. Like he kindly took things away from me I was identifying myself with. And in that book, in this book, I write about it. It’s like last year I lost my corporate job, I’d lost a boyfriend that I thought I was gonna end up forever with. I had lost a lot of money in a business scam, and I was sitting there like, whoa, you’re talking about someone that put her worth in a boyfriend, put her worth in how much money she made, put her worth in what she could do for people, and there’s nothing I could do for anyone, not even for myself. And I remember telling God, like, I got myself in a ditch, and I need you to get me out. I can’t get myself out. What’s so crazy is my life now, less than one year later. The craziest, beautiful things wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t gone through what happened from that dark time. But the biggest thing is I know I didn’t get myself out of that hole. And my worth is not in what I can do because, quite frankly, I can’t do that much. But I was given my worth by a creator who called me worthy, called me known, and called me beautiful, valuable, and known before I was born. And because of that, I can work from worth, not for it. So it really is like, that sounds so good and it sounds so like bumper sticker worthy, but it is truly like the grittiness of it is it’s an everyday reminder. We live in a world trying to constantly sell you the idea that you have to earn your right to be here. And so, yeah, it’s an everyday battle, but I think, like in the past couple of years, it’s just been an awareness of where that comes from so I can go back to that thought when the thoughts do creep in that I have to like to earn my way back to why I’m here.
Rachael Adams (05:09.104)
Yeah, I mean, I could echo so much of what you said. I am achievement-oriented, perfectionistic, and performance-oriented.
Annie Mayfield (05:14.644)
Yeah. Are you a three on the enneagram? Do you do that? Same girl. Three wing two. All the way.
Rachael Adams (05:20.594)
Same. Well, and so much, and this is not a shameless plug, but for my book, A Little Goes a Long Way, 52 Days to a Significant Life. It explores the concept of how we all want a significant life, yet we feel insignificant. And so we’re constantly trying to earn our favor and worth. So when I was writing that book, I polled my podcast listeners, on a scale of one to 10, how much do you think you have to contribute? Like, and this is a Christian woman, what is your worth? And so, one was the lowest, 10 was the highest, and the average answer was a three. And then I said, it’s amazing that these Christian women who know our identity in Christ still struggle to believe that our contributions and what we do here on earth matter. And so I think that this is a huge problem. How do we get that head knowledge to our heart and truly live it out? And I think you’re spot on when you say it’s this culture; culture is just telling us it is bigger and shinier. Once you reach the chief goal, you must try to achieve another goal, as if it’s never enough. So how do you combat that messaging, and how would you encourage women today like us who are constantly in a daily battle wrestling with these thoughts?
Annie Mayfield (06:37.568)
yeah. Wow. That’s so like a three out of 10. That’s so humbling. But, like, what’s sad, too, is I’m not shocked. Like when you said that, I was like, honestly, yeah, like I’m not shocked because I feel like this is almost like an epidemic, for lack of a better word, of just not feeling worthy and putting our, or even the title from my last book, You Matter, it was like, to me, came to me as like matter is weight. It’s like, so it’s like, what do you put the weight of your worth in? Is it in what you do or like what Christ did for you on the cross? It was funny; I was listening to a podcast not too long ago, and this girl, I love her, her name is Sadie Robertson, she’s the sweetest person ever, but she was talking about how like what you bring to situations, whether it’s demanding situations, extraordinary situations, like what we bring is prayer. That’s our contribution. And I think for me, I won’t speak for everybody; I’ll speak for myself. I would answer that to be a three out of 10 because I’m looking at myself. I’m looking at Annie Mayfield. I’m looking at her fleetingness. I’m looking at what she didn’t do right, probably five seconds ago. I’m looking at what she didn’t say right, what she mumbled over, and the times she messed up and slipped up. I’m maybe even working, looking at her best moment and thinking, my best moment isn’t that great. You know, like I think sometimes it’s, think our worst moments are the worst it could ever be. There’s no one as bad as me. And then our best moments are, well, my best moment isn’t as good as their best moment. So, what can I contribute? It’s both instead of looking at who God is. Right before this, I was listening to a reel. I should have been praying, but I was listening to an Instagram reel of someone talking about how his mom, growing up, would tell him, like, when you don’t say, my God, because that’s saying the Lord’s name in vain. And he’s like, what I’ve realized getting older is that’s not the most common phrase we say when we say the Lord’s name in vain. The most common phrase when we say the Lord’s name in vain is anything derogatory about ourselves after we say I am because God tells Moses I am that is his name. So if you say, I am not good enough, I am not skinny enough, I am not pretty enough, I am not smart enough, that is saying the Lord’s name in vain, which is pretty convicting. I am not contributing enough. That is saying the Lord’s name in vain because the Lord’s name is I am. And so I don’t think it’s a coincidence that God put his name as I am so that we would be forced when we describe ourselves to look at who he is. Because literally, it makes us think, well, who is God? I am kind. I am gentle. I am a healer. I am a protector. I’m a prayer warrior. Like, I am faithful. Like, that’s who God is. And when we say that, we also talk about ourselves because we are made in His image. And so I think the way you practically combat that, to get practical, I’m all about the practicals; we always listen to the sermons in our heads. Say it out loud.
Annie Mayfield (09:31.276)
Like I bet you, if you said out loud what you’re thinking about yourself in your mind, you wouldn’t even have the guts to say it out loud because it’s probably so bad. I did this the other day. I was like, my gosh, that was so mean about myself. I can’t say that out loud. But when you speak out loud, say, I am, and then follow up with God, you must first know who God is. And I think we have a lot of Christians who believe in the Lord but don’t like it if I ask them what God’s promises are to you. Who is God? What are his attributes? I don’t think we meditate on this in the way that God wants us to because it’s a fight; it’s a battle. It’s not just cute, Jesus came into the world, picture stories, like it’s a battle every day. The struggle is not between flesh and blood like a spiritual one. We have to speak that over ourselves. So that’s what I would say practically: talk that over yourself. And when you say, am, it better be following up with an attribute of God, or else you’re saying the Lord’s name and thing.
Rachael Adams (10:28.762)
Yeah, that’s so powerful that it gave me chills as you were talking about it, and that’s something I think I will pray I always remember, and I think, too, we have to realize that he has created like we are fearfully and wonderfully made and we are made in his image and so is everybody else you know that’s the thing like to try to see ourselves as he sees us and see everybody around us that is the challenge but he can change everything because when we have that security and that freedom and dependence on him. It changes our every single interaction. It changes our confidence. It changes how we interact with people. And so, as you have started to take in this message that you matter, and everybody else matters, what’s been the biggest change you’ve noticed?
Annie Mayfield (11:17.454)
Honestly, so much. I call myself, and I still do, a recovering people pleaser. We live in a world filled with people pleasers, especially women. I very rarely meet a guy that’s, like, struggles with people pleasing. It’s mostly like, and it’s the goodness, it’s like you wanna serve people, all this stuff. When I realized, okay, I matter, it’s not tied to my accomplishment, other people matter, and it’s not tied to their accomplishments, the biggest freedom it’s had for me is recognizing where this need to please comes from. Even if it’s just like a feeling because the root of it is I feel like I have to please my way to worth, whether that’s getting affirmation from a boss or in college, it was a coach or readers or podcast listeners, friends, whatever have you. And what I realized about myself is like, because I don’t feel like I matter unless I have someone else’s approval. My need to please others isn’t this; I want to please others. It’s selfish. It’s not that I want to serve other people; I want them to see me in a certain way. It’s not necessarily about how I want to serve and please them. It’s I want them to see me as a pleaser. I want them to see me as a kind person. It’s about me. And that’s why I like, I will always speak for myself and not other people, because that’s a harsh reality. But I think that was something that, like the Lord, showed me you were killing yourself over trying to get affirmation from other people that one can’t give it to you because only God can give it to you. And two, affirmation you already have. So when you’re trying to pull all these levers to fill up a well, it’s like filling up a bucket with a hole. You’ll never feel full because Jesus is the well that never runs dry. And so I think. Honestly, the biggest thing I’ve recognized is that it is so exhausting to live your life trying to just please and please. And there’s a reason, like God says, that my yoke is easy. It’s not because life is easy, but because it’s set if you take that out and recognize your worth is there. It doesn’t fluctuate with the opinions of people. The energy and life you get back from just releasing yourself saves you from so much exhaustion. And that’s probably the biggest thing that I’ve seen in my own life is like, I can actually put energy toward things that matter, like getting in the word, like remembering who God is because you really do surrender to, like, God, you got their heart, help mine. Like take care of their heart, help mine. I don’t need to please my way to work anymore.
Rachael Adams (14:01.586)
You know, I think this is a battle for everyone, but even in our industry, people that write books and we speak, and we podcast, you can get lost in numbers and listens and follows and yet too, think like so many of us, while we’re here on earth, we do have a purpose. There is work for us to do, right? We don’t wanna be like in the Five Talents, the parable of the five Talents, and like burying our talents. We wanna be praised for God to say, well done, good and faithful servant, you used what I gave you, invested it wisely and well, and then multiplied. So how do you balance this idea of no, our worth doesn’t come from our work but there is value in our work.
Annie Mayfield (14:46.12)
and I think it all goes back to like the question, a lot of times I get the question of like, how do you know what you’re supposed to do or like what your gift is or what is your work? Like what is that thing God’s called you to do? I think there are a lot of different answers and avenues you can go down there, but I always come back to like the thing I feel like God’s calling me to do: one, it longs for me to get to know Him more and that like, as I do that thing, I see more of Him. And it’s almost as if it’s this gift, and when I open it up, God’s inside. And I get to experience more of Him. I think many people almost look at God as sometimes a means to an end instead of the end. And I think your gift is the means to the end, right? Like your gift is experiencing more of Him. Of course, we always have Him, the Spirit, within us, but the gift is a way to experience him more on an avenue independent of metrics; you would still be doing it. Cause you love it. Not to say it isn’t hard. Like, I love my podcast. I adore it. It is hard some days. I’m sure you can attest, Rachel. Some days, you’re like, I don’t feel like doing this, but you’re obedient cause God called you to it. But I think the other thing, too, when it comes to what is valuable, I mean, Jesus said the kingdom is heaven and is like a mustard seed. I think we call big things valuable. And that’s never been what God has called valuable. I think, excuse me, especially when you’re in this world. You look at a podcast. I have podcasts in my mind that I listen to, and they’re way bigger than mine. It’s like, well, does God love them more? Is God blessing their podcast more? Like, are they more meant to do this than I am? But you come back to scripture, and it’s like, A lot of times, God showed the highest regard for the hidden, small, and unseen things. Jesus hid in Egypt when he was a baby. Mary and Joseph hid him. Was he unimportant because he didn’t come in with a big bang? No, no. This Christmas season, I think that the biggest reminder is that God loves small things because small things are protected. And there’s a time for that seed to grow. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. That is tiny.
Annie Mayfield (17:06.732)
And it’s like, will you be obedient to do the thing, even if it isn’t loud and flashy? Not to say God can’t use the loud and flashy; he can use all of it, but it’s like, will you be obedient to do it because God called you to do it? And I think it’s like the pain of not doing it is almost greater than the pain of discomfort of just doing it. That’s how I would like to equate it to any time in my life, whether it’s a book idea or a podcast. I’m like, okay, I don’t feel like doing this. And I might look like a failure or be seen as starting small, which is terrifying.
But I can’t do it. It keeps me up at night, like an annoying mosquito that keeps bothering you. And so I think it goes back to looking at your creator. If your creator called you to it, who are you letting define your outcome? Is it people, or is it your creator saying, well done, good and faithful servant for doing things that God knows? I mean, maybe you won’t even know on this side of glory what your book did or what, for me, my book did or what my podcast did.
When I’m up in heaven and years and generations from now, someone way down in my family line is like, whoa, my great, great, great, great, great grandma wrote a book, and they don’t know God at all. And then they read it. They’re like, whoa, who is this God? And that changes the rest of my family line. God knows that. So, who’s to say what’s valuable and what’s not? And when you get stuck in what people think, I think that’s when we start getting discouraged.
Rachael Adams (18:26.962)
Yeah, absolutely. I know we keep focusing on your last book, but you have a new devotional. It’s called Single, Not Incomplete. So, tell us about what inspired you to write this and how it builds on your message of worth and faith.
Annie Mayfield (18:42.174)
my gosh, so Single, Not Incomplete, I… so I’m very much the kind of writer, again, whatever I struggle with is what I typically write about. And so this book came out about a year ago and is special for me. Like I… so I went through a long single season which for some… it was about three years, and for some people that might not sound very long, but again, putting my worth and accomplishments. As a young girl, I adored Disney princess movies and saw a girl’s worth to be with, whether she had a boyfriend or not or a guy liked her. And so I was a serial dater. I dated like I was in three nonstop relationships for about a decade. When I got out of college, I was set to get engaged, all that stuff, and I was still a fantastic guy, but it just didn’t work out. And so I became single for the first time in my adult life while all my friends were getting engaged and married. And we’re both from the South. So you can imagine I’m in the South. I’m 23 years old, and then I turned 24, then I turned 25, and then I turned 26. And I have been to all the weddings. I am a 27-dress girl. And I think that’s a very targeted book for singleness. Like I found one, I hated it when people would say, “You’re not like, you God’s got somebody for you. And that was so encouraging. But to me, it was kind of like, okay, yeah, but I really would like somebody, you know? And, I think I was like, wow, married people write all these books on singleness. And I think there’s something to be said about maybe someone speaking that out from the place of my singleness has not changed. So it was crazy. And this is a God story itself. That book came out, and it was. I did the book launch that day that very night. Who is now my fiance? We got engaged last Friday. That was our first date. Thank you. Our first date was that night of my single, incomplete book launch. And that was just so crazy, God thing. But I think that book means so much to me because it was singleness for me at that time. But I think all of us have that false belief that if I could get here, if I could just have that thing, whether it’s a job promotion, a baby, a fiance, a boyfriend, getting accepted into that school, being on the starting lineup. We all have that false belief that if I could get that thing, I’ll be good, and life will be good, and I’ll feel good enough. And that’s a lie. Going full circle again, we can see that our worth is in God and God alone because he gave it to us. And so you can get all those things. And at the end of the day, you’ll still feel like waiting; this wasn’t it. And you’ll go on this track of making yourself crazy if you keep striving for those things. So that book was unique because of everything that’s happened in the past year. But yeah, it was a cool one, and it’s pink, and that’s my favorite color. And so that is for sure my favorite book.
Rachael Adams (21:50.352)
That story is so much, and the full circle moment of that, and I imagine the women listening to it just gives so much hope. It’s like sometimes our greatest heartache, God sees us, and he knows us, and he cares, and he cares about the desires of your hearts and so many of the things, things that we hear him say to us that we think we heard him say, but it’s not transpiring in the time or the way that we think that it should. It will be in his best way and in his best time. That is so hopeful, as I’m just thinking about the women listening today. So, as we hopefully encourage those listening, if the woman today is thinking, I don’t feel like I have anything of value to give. I don’t think I am worthy at all. I feel very incomplete and feel down on myself. What would be your encouragement to her?
Annie Mayfield (22:45.998)
It’s funny because I felt like I was having a discouraged moment the other day. And I have these moments. In those moments, I’m like, God, we’re having an honest moment. I realized in the past that I used to pray almost as if God was grading my prayers based on how good they sounded and how grateful I sounded. And I reached this point where I was like, Lord, in my relationships. The best relationships I’ve had are the ones where I’m honest. And you’re God; if I’m angry, you can handle it. If I’m sad, I think you can handle it. And so a couple of years ago, I was like, God, this is an honest prayer. Right now, I’m upset and discouraged. I don’t feel like I have any value right now. I know you’re good, but I don’t feel you. I know you’re there, but I don’t feel you. I know you’re good, but the situation isn’t good. And I’m struggling to hold on to hope. And it’s funny because just saying that out loud is confession; it’s releasing something into the light of a God that can handle your feelings. God is not shocked by the moment you’re in. He’s not surprised by the emotions you’re feeling. What I love about our God is that we could not make our way up. So God came down, and Jesus came down. The other day, I was recording a podcast episode because I felt like this idea of the cross was so massive. When we say the weight of the world, all that sin was on Jesus’ shoulders, how do we feel that? How do we make that personal? Because it’s such a big thing. And I think when we think of the sin of the world, we think of these massive things. We think of poverty. Think child pornography, really awful things, which is true, which is true. It’s true. But sin is anything that misses the mark from God’s initial design. And so if you don’t feel valuable because your boss was mean to you if you don’t feel valuable. After all, you have tendonitis in your hamstrings and can’t sit, which happened to me recently if you don’t feel valuable because you didn’t see that bill coming. You don’t know where the money’s gonna come from, or you missed out on Christmas like you got the wrong white elephant Christmas present; it might seem like a little thing, but you can make sin, pain, hurt, all of that, that’s missing the mark from God’s initial design. So, that qualifies as a sin. And so for me, I just realized, wow, whatever place I’m in, I can literally picture Jesus feeling those things I’m feeling right now because he felt that on the cross. That was a sin. So like, as funny as it is, the other day I had a hamstring, my tendonitis was acting up and I couldn’t sit and I was so frustrated. And I just felt the Lord be like, You can picture Jesus with hamstring tendinopathy, which sounds funny, but it made me feel better. Like anything I go through that misses the mark from God’s initial design, Jesus felt on that cross for us. We need to take a concept that is so enormous and amazing and magnificent, but we have a God that also said, I’m making it personal for you, and we need to make that personal for us. And so for the woman who feels invaluable or feels like she doesn’t have worth or is confused. I would say one, it’s not that you don’t have worth, it’s that you’re looking for it the wrong place. If you look for the remote in the fridge, you won’t find it, not because you don’t have a remote in your house, but because it was never meant to be found there. And two, you can look at your savior and say, you know exactly how I feel, and you defeated this for me. And so I’m gonna borrow your strength. I’m gonna borrow your peace. I will borrow your love because I don’t feel like I have any right now. And God longs to give that to us. And it’s just one prayer away. So those are probably the two practical things that I would say.
Rachael Adams (27:02.832)
We are back with Annie B. She is talking today about our worth and value and how you matter to God just as you are today. It’s been such a good conversation. Annie, this is the question I’ve been asking all my guests this season. Is there a biblical concept of love that you think applies to this topic today since we are the Love Offering Podcast?
Annie Mayfield (27:27.34)
Hmm. Gosh, I love that question. So recently, now, my fiance and I, we’ve been like, we knew this was happening, so we’ve been talking a lot about love and like people have been asking us just like some of our mentors a question like, what is love to you? Like, what is that? And it’s so we’ve been doing a deep dive into big biblical concepts of love. And I think this is an excellent question because the one I will say might shock people. But when it talks about women submitting to their husbands, I’m saying this because I wrestled with that for a very long time. After all, I, an independent woman and firecracker, just really struggled with what that would look like and how that looks. And I say all that because I think it relates to love. People misinterpret that passage all the time. Like,
Women are supposed to submit to their husbands if the husbands are forwarded to the Lord. The Bible talks about how a husband loves his wife as Christ loved the church. What did Christ do for the church in a way that demonstrated the ultimate act of love? He laid down his life for it. And so I think the ultimate biblical concept of love is service. It’s sacrifice. I’m not doing this because it’s convenient, like the Good Samaritan, but that was a dangerous road for him. He needed to get his little booty out of there quicker than any of the other people walking by that man. But he inconvenienced himself to love that man by serving him. And so there’s a reason God says, love me with all your heart and then love my people. It’s because we need God’s love, because God is love, agape love, like God is love, that’s just who he is. He fills our well so that we have that fuel to love his people, which looks like service. And I say that knowing like service takes on a lot of different forms. Sometimes service looks like listening, sometimes it seems like speaking, sometimes service looks like giving, sometimes it looks like taking away. And I think that’s where there’s a reason we have to constantly be in relationship with the Lord because our spirits teach us what loving and serving other people well in the context and in the circumstance we’re in, what that looks like. And it requires us to be in constant step with the Lord. So, I think the ultimate biblical concept of love is just service. Like it’s a God that could create any relationship with us, but he said, I’m gonna make people that I’m gonna go down and serve. Jesus said, ” I came to serve and not be served, ” and laid his life down like that’s love.
Rachael Adams (30:19.794)
That’s such a good answer. We’ve been asking that question all season long, and that’s the first time anybody has ever said that. So I love that and would love to know what you love now. There are no rules to this one. Just anything that you first think you
Annie Mayfield (30:32.586)
No rules? My gosh. Okay. Honestly, I’ve been trying to find something. You know, you have two parts of the brain, and one’s a very logical decision. I feel like that one’s on overdrive all the time for me. And so I’ve been trying to find something that, I don’t like arts and crafts, but I’m trying to find something that activates the other side of the brain, and everyone’s like a coloring book. I’m like, I don’t want to do a coloring book. So what I found I love is making people’s bouquets. And it’s the best Christmas gift, but I had no idea until my now fiance, about a year ago, started dating like he’s so good at getting flowers. And I, it just, my mind gets lost on getting a bunch of bouquets, cutting them up, and then arranging them in little vases. It is so; even now, I have a bunch of sunflowers on my desk. It is so much fun. And it just turns my brain off and I can just, like a little kid. I love arranging flowers. So that’s what I’m loving right now.
Rachael Adams (31:37.116)
So I’m interested. I mean, obviously, right now, as we’re talking, it’s winter, but do you like to garden? Do you see yourself starting to have a floral garden?
Annie Mayfield (31:46.202)
I love that you asked that question. I would love a garden. I’m super into, I wasn’t much of a cook until this year, but now I’m super into cooking and like spices and everything. And so I would honestly love to have a garden with vegetables and then a massive flower garden wherever we go, when we get married, when we go and move in together, and like have a house. Like I would love to have, I think that, like, don’t know, there are always houses with gardens in the movies, and you’re, that’s the dream. That’s the American dream.
Rachael Adams (32:19.178)
So my daughter and I live on a farm. And so we have been asking my husband to build us like raised beds because we’ve watched that floret. Have you seen that on the Discovery Channel? You need to watch it. We, so we, it’s beautiful. She, I think, lives out in Washington. She just, and so basically, she grows just acres and acres of flowers, but then she saves the seeds, and then she sells the seeds. And it’s all her own, like hybrids of different colors and varieties, so my daughter and I want to do the same thing. It’s like we love having greenery and flowers in the house. And so if we could have our own instead of just going to the grocery store, it would be even more fun. So anyway, everybody listening, go look up for it and buy some of those seeds. Wouldn’t it be fun just to spread the love that way?
Annie Mayfield (33:03.139)
Yes, no, I love it. I also think two flowers are, I think I love it so much because they’re all so beautiful, but so unique. And I think, I don’t know, they remind me for, you know, not to get too, I’m a very deep thinker, but I’m like, it’s kind of like women or like the way God made women. I’m looking at a sunflower, and this is like a rose right now. I’m like, they’re both so beautiful. And I feel like we live in a world where if these were people, the sunflower would be like, I wish I looked like the rose, and the rose would be like, and they’re both so beautiful. And I feel like that’s just how God made his people. And we are all looking at each other like, I wish I had that or lived like that. Instead of just basking on who God made us, it made me think about that. Just the unique beauty and how that is the beauty is that it is unlike anything else, you know?
Rachael Adams (33:53.895)
I wish I knew who to credit this to, but I remember somebody saying, like, we’re not just a dozen roses; we’re like a bouquet of all kinds of flowers, you know? And like how beautiful that is. Not that a dozen roses aren’t beautiful, too, but just that variety. And I’m thinking about, like, I don’t know where the verse is, but how the lily is that the lily doesn’t spin and toil. When we don’t worry about it, it’s true. If God cared and made the flowers so beautiful, don’t you think he would have made human beings even more beautiful? So, and even just the timing of when they bloom, you know, it’s kind of what we were talking about previously with metrics. It’s like, you know, the sunflower might. I don’t know when flowers bloom, but the sunflower might take less time than roses. They’re both beautiful in their season. And like, you have no idea when you’re in season when you’re not, and you know, you think about trees when they need to have a winter, if they try to hold onto their beautiful leaves and miss out on the winter, they’ll sacrifice the beautiful leaves that are gonna come the next spring. And so we all have seasons and our timing, and it’s trusting the gardener of life, which is God, you know? And like, he’s the ultimate, he’s the ultimate gardener. He knows what he’s doing, you know?
Rachael Adams (35:09.914)
Yeah, and just so much growth is happening underneath, right? Underneath the surface and making sure we abide with him. That’s so beautiful and so encouraging. And Amy, I know I want to stay connected with you. I’m sure listeners are going to want to. So let us know how we can listen to your podcast, buy your books, follow you on Instagram and social media, and all the things.
Annie Mayfield (35:16.364)
Yes. I love them.
Annie Mayfield (35:27.542)
Yes, all the things. Well, when you’re done listening to the love offering if you ever have extra time, people can listen to Made to Shine. It is on, I mean, all platforms. So Spotify, Apple, anywhere else you listen to podcasts, YouTube, Instagram, Annie B Mayfield, and then books are anywhere you can find books. A lot of people buy from Amazon. That might be the quickest, but yeah. And my latest was You Matter. So that was a devotional that I wrote. So that’s where you can find me.
Rachael Adams (35:58.386)
Yeah, well, you shine. Your joy is infectious. Thank you for being my guest. Would you do us the honor of praying for us as we close?
Annie Mayfield (36:07.342)
I’d be honored. Thank you so much, Rachel. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you, thank you, thank you for these people tuning in. Thank you for Rachel. Thank you for the good work she is doing here. Lord, we were talking about flowers, blooming, and seeds, and I pray that whatever was spoken today plants little seeds in the hearts of the people listening in, Rachel and myself. And I pray that the Holy Spirit does the work that only the Spirit can do and grows and nurtures those seeds, gives them the nourishment they need to bloom into the flower that you want them to, whether that’s a new idea, whether that’s a new goal, or whether that’s just a new piece of encouragement. I pray for the people tuning in who feel like they don’t have value or feel like they don’t have worth or are just misplacing it in areas in which you would never be designing our worth to be found. Lord, I pray that they have a heart that turns to you, the creator and definer of their worth, and that they know you are always there no matter what. Even when they don’t feel you, you are there. Even when they don’t feel worthy, their worth is there because you gave them their worth. And you said, never will you leave us or forsake us. And if you give us our worth, their worth can never leave them, too. I love you, Father. We love you, Father. We lift this to you. Please be with us. I pray for your tangible peace in this Christmas season. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Rachael Adams (37:32.428)
Amen. Thank you so much, Amy.
Annie Mayfield (37:34.434)
Thank you.
*transcript is AI generated
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