Abigail's Wisdom: How Can Strategic Thinking and Faith Defuse Conflict?

Bible, Women & Bathrobes, Episode 44

Bible Women: Abigail

Summary

Marne, Amy & Tamara discuss the first half of the story of Abigail from the Old Testament from 1 Samuel 25, highlighting her wisdom and courage. Abigail's husband, Nabal, is described as churlish and evil, while Abigail is noted for her good understanding and beautiful countenance. David, on the run from King Saul, seeks provisions from Nabal, who refuses. Abigail, understanding the situation, prepares a generous gift and intercedes with David, averting a violent confrontation. The hosts emphasize Abigail's generosity, strategic thinking, and faith, drawing parallels to modern-day challenges and the importance of problem-solving with God.

Main Takeaways

• From Amy, “I have lived by a principle for many years that you cannot give yourself poor when you're doing God's will in the in his world. And I think for me, the takeaway of this is that you can never be too generous financially, temporarily, but you can also never be too generous with your compassion, with your love, with your it just can never be too generous of spirit. You just can't. You just can't. And so I love, I love watching Abigail be generous like Jesus Christ is with me every single day.”
• From Marne, “Abigail is inspiring. She was a woman of action, and she reminds me the importance to know my own voice, but to also be in alignment with the Savior, and then use that voice for good, for peacemaking, for harmony, to bring light and love and to see the big picture. I love that she did not let her circumstances stop her. She could have feared. She could have frozen and not done anything, and the story would have played out completely different. So I love that she invites us to ask the question, What can I do? What's the next step?”
• From Tamara, “I think my takeaway from Abigail is problem solving with God, because you can tell she really was one with God, that she acted as God wanted her to act and to be a solution to this problem. When she says in verse 19 to her servants, go on before me, I almost feel like God is also going on before and that He is inspiring her in what to do. And I love that we can apply that in our lives today, whether we've been confronted with someone who's angry at us or at our family, or something like that, and we feel emotions rising within us that we can pause and pray and ask God, how do I solve this problem?”

Today’s Podcast Hosts & Guests

Tamara K. Anderson

Tamara, founder of Women Warriors of Light, is a dynamic speaker, award winning author, and a podcaster. She is driven by her Christian faith to inspire faith in Jesus Christ. Alongside her husband, Justin, she navigates the joys and challenges of parenting four children with autism, ADHD, and mental health hurdles. You can find out more about Tamara on her website: https://www.tamarakanderson.com/

Amy Johnson

Amy is a member of our Women Warriors of Light Advisory Board. She is a leader of women, a homemaker, and a licensed cosmetologist. Amy enjoys nurturing women through betrayal trauma to becoming a beacon of support and inspiration.

Marne Traasdahl

Marne is a speaker, a coach trainer for FLCA. She is a certified faith based life coach who helps women connect to their true identity and purpose.

Transcript

Tamara Anderson  0:00 

Would you like to learn about the wife of a foolish, rich, junk, drunk, unkind husband who ended up saving her household? This story is in the Old Testament, believe it or not, and I'm sure there are some women out there who can relate to having a drunk and unkind husband. So stay tuned. We're going to learn what we can from this amazing woman today.

Tamara Anderson  0:27 

Welcome to Bible, Women & Bathrobes, the podcast where faith meets comfort. Join us Tuesday morning as the gals from women warriors of light and their guests don bathrobes and dive into the inspiring stories of women in the Bible and the teachings of Jesus Christ, from Esther's bravery to the Sermon on the Mount. We explore it all with warmth, laughter, sisterhood and maybe even a few sleepy eyed moments. Tune in live or at your leisure, as we learn lessons from scripture which empower women today.

Marne Traasdahl  1:09 

Hello and welcome to another episode of Bible, Women and Bathrobes. I'm your host, Tamara K Anderson, and joining me today are two amazing women from our women warriors of light advisory board. Amy Johnson, Amy, thanks for being here again.

Amy Johnson  1:23 

Thank you,

Tamara Anderson  1:25 

and today, I get to introduce you to one of our new board members, Marne Traasdahl. Let me tell you a little bit about her. She is a speaker, a coach trainer for flca. She is a certified faith based life coach who helps women connect to their true identity and purpose. Thanks for being here. Marne,

Marne Traasdahl  1:46 

thanks, Tamara,

Speaker 1  1:48 

we are so excited. And today, you guys, have you heard of the woman Abigail In the Old Testament? she is an amazing woman, and the more I have been able to dive into her story, the more I admire her. I really, really do. And we're going to kind of peel back the layers on the chapter. We're going to spend this week and next week talking about Abigail and her story.

Tamara Anderson  2:14 

And so today I'm going to start by introducing Abigail. And before I introduce Abigail, I kind of have to tell you a little bit about her husband, Nabal. And we are going to be in Samuel chapter, first Samuel chapter 25 today. And this pertains, this is in the time of the story of King David, and he is on the run from King Saul, he's already David has already slain Goliath, and he's been anointed to be king. And Saul is not very happy about it.

Tamara Anderson  2:50 

And so basically, David and those who follow Him are on the run, and they have kind of gone into this part of the country where Nabal and his family live, and they have lived side by side with Nabals servants, and they haven't interfered with or stolen any of their sheep or any of their camels or any they haven't taken any of their food. They've kind of been like a protective barrier against any people who would come and take from Nabal. And Nabal was very rich. It says in verse two here that "there was a man in my own whose possessions were in Carmel. And the man was very great, and he had 3000 sheep and 1000 goats, and he was sharing his sheep in Carmel." So this is important to know in the story, because basically it's kind of the time of the harvest of the sheep. They're getting all their wool. It's a time of celebration that that it's been a productive year with the sheep, and so it's a time when the wool is sold. There's money flowing in. Nabal is getting even richer.

Tamara Anderson  4:08 

And and so that's where we pick up the story. It says verse three. "Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife, Abigail." And here we learn a few of the first characteristics of Abigail. "And she was a woman of good understanding and of beautiful countenance, but the man was churlish and evil in his doings, and he was of the house of Caleb." Okay, so we're going to pause here, and I know you're a wordy Amy, so we're gonna let Amy tell us what in the world churlish means. Because to me right now, I'm just like, what

Amy Johnson  4:52 

churlish I am. My understanding is it kind of means surly, kind of like not, kind of mean, just surly and kind of mean and Nabal, his name used to mean the root of it meant wilt, but then it came to mean failure, and then came to mean that he just shamelessly improprietous, like, just not a nice person, like just Surly and mean and evil. And it's interesting because I don't know if Nabal was his actual given name or his actual nickname, but I find it fascinating that that's his name, because actually, I think we do know that it was given to him because he was mean, I think I read that in here anyway, but I we've talked about before. I've talked about before where you live up to your name. You really do become what your name is. And so I do believe we'll read later on that that Abigail uses that in her plea, but, but whether or not, I don't know, but he, he lived up to his name for sure, because it meant Surly and mean and evil and all the things.

Tamara Anderson  6:16 

And he was, he totally was.

Amy Johnson  6:19 

He was not a nice person. No.

Tamara Anderson  6:22 

Marne, any thoughts so far on what we've read?

Marne Traasdahl  6:25 

Well, even to the point that Amy made in verse five, it talks about David saying, greet him in my name, so he's going forth with a culture and custom of the times that meant something when David's name was presented. And I'm sure you're going to tell the next part of the story about what happens. But names are powerful,

Tamara Anderson  6:44 

yeah. So, um, we know Abigail was beautiful, sweet and kind, and we'll talk a little bit more about how she probably was that and probably became more so of that married to this not so nice man. And so we, as we kind of let this story progress. David and those who followed him were kind of living off the land. They didn't have a lot. They were like I said, they were on the run from Saul's men. And so when, when David knew that it was the time of shearing, because his men were hanging out with Nabal servants, you know, and they were kind to them and stuff like that.

Tamara Anderson  7:23 

We we hear later in the story, David says, "go greet him in my name," as Marne said in verse five, "and say unto him, peace be both to thee and Peace be to thine house and peace be unto all that you have." So basically, go and greet him in my name with kind and peaceful intentions. And basically what he tells his servants to ask Nabal is that, because God has blessed you so much, will you share some of that with us, since we're on the run? as you know, I mean, everybody in the kingdom knows the story and what's going on with Saul and David. This is no secret. The Israelite Kingdom knows what's going on.

Tamara Anderson  8:08 

Um and so he said in verse eight, "Wherefore, let the young men find favor in thine eyes, for we come in a good day. Give I pray thee whatsoever cometh to thy hand, unto thy servants and to thy son, David." So he's basically importuning him, you know, saying we've helped protect your assets, you know, out here on the plains, from any who would thieve or rob or anything like that. Will you give to us? Will you reward us for this, or and, and here in verse 10, we see a little bit more of Nabal's character reveaed. "And Nabal answered David's servants and said, Who is David and who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master. Shall I then take my bread and my water and my flesh that I have killed for my shares and give it unto men whom I know not wence they be?"

Tamara Anderson  9:03 

And so he is totally rebuffing David's servants. He's giving some lame old excuse because he loves his money, he loves his possessions. He doesn't want to share. He doesn't care if his servants were mingling. And I'm sure at this point, and we know this, that his servants were like, Oh shoot. Our Master just defended these servants of David. They're going to go back to David. We've been hobnobbing with these guys and and David probably isn't going to be very happy about this

Marne Traasdahl  9:34 

Tamara. Can I just insert a point really quick?

Tamara Anderson  9:37 

Yes, please.

Marne Traasdahl  9:38 

In verse 10, he asks, Nabal, asked, Who is David? And it's not because he didn't know who he was or what he was about, or what his lineage was if they were both of the same tribe, but he basically, it's a it's a check of ego of how could he be more important than i i feel like, and even I just want to address this as well. Is. If you go back to verse six, it talks about David had nothing but peaceful intentions. And that's really important to our story. He started out with very warm intentions. "Peace be to thee, to thy house and to all that thou hast." He had very generous wishes for this man. So then to see the extreme behavior that comes after is very telling. But go ahead,

Tamara Anderson  10:22 

no Amy, any thoughts?

Amy Johnson  10:23 

It is really important. And it's important to note too, that as we follow this story, Samuel just died. David's grieving and and obviously he knew he was, he said, Who's David? Who is the son of Jesse, like he knew who he was, but, but David, David's coming at this and saying he's not taking, he could have taken what he wanted, right? He's asking for it, and you're right. His intentions are really pure, and I think that is really, really important to remember, because I'm I have come to learn in my life that that there's plenty of money in the world, and God controls all of it, and he will move it where he wants it to go, even though somebody who's very high and mighty thinks that they did all the work to get it. And so that's kind of what Nabal reminds me of, right? He's like, Well, it's kind of, you know, I made this, I did this. I Why should I give this to David? And so I and, and I think we can get in that mode ourselves where we're like, well, you put yourself in that situation. Don't talk to me. So I think that's really interesting, too. Think youre, right? Fair point.

Tamara Anderson  11:45 

Yeah, I love these insights. Thank you. All right, well, let's continue with the story. I wish there wasn't so much for us to get through. And we're going to dive more into Abigail here. So basically, David's servants come back, young men come back, and they told them what Nabal said, and verse 13, and David said to his men, "gird on every man his sword, and they girded on every man his sword. And David also girded on his sword. And there went up after David about 400 men and 200 abode by the stuff." So he had at least 600 men with him. I mean, holy snap. I you know this is enough to decimate Nabal in his house, and their intentions were to do them harm, to kill all the men.

Tamara Anderson  12:32 

And here is where we see that perhaps Nabal was the head of the house, that Abigail was the heart, and that she had more wisdom than her husband. Verse 14, but when one of the young men told Abigail Nabal's wife, saying, "Behold David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master, and he railed on them, but the men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt neither missed wheat anything as long as we were conversant with them when they were in the fields." So we can see that they were intermingling. "They were a wall unto us, both night and day, all the while we were with them, keeping the sheep." And then he says that "they intend to do evil against our master because of what he did."

Tamara Anderson  13:22 

And it's interesting, they use a phrase here twice in this chapter. It says, For evil is determined against our master and against all his household, for he is such a son of Belial that a man cannot speak to him." Servants would know that right, because they're taking this problem to the wife, like we're gonna all die. We're gonna die. This man is a son of Belial, and I did look it up, but did you want to say what that means? Amy,

Amy Johnson  13:51 

I think if I remember right, I kind of was thinking that that's when they do that. That's just kind of how that that's really a derisive term, right, isn't it? I mean, I don't know that that well, but it seems to me that when you're doing that, you're basically saying he's the son of the devil.

Speaker 1  14:12 

Pretty much, yeah. I mean, worthless, wicked, yeah. And, and Abigail uses that same phrase when she goes to plead to David. He's son of Belial, yeah, and he's not following God. You can tell by his actions, right? Anyway, any other thoughts on that little section? There any insights on those verses, guys?

Amy Johnson  14:38 

I just keep thinking about Abigail and at the beginning, when it said she has she's a woman of understanding and of a beautiful countenance. But then I keep thinking, she's married to this mean person. And so many times we have said on this podcast, I think, talked about how. Hurt people, hurt people or bullies, bully bullies become bullies. And somehow she didn't. And that, to me, is a Christ like characteristic, because Christ was bullied and he was spat upon and he was, they talked evil of him all the while he lived on this earth and he never became a mean spirited bully. And so living in a situation where you're under the thumb of a bully and not becoming a bully, I think that's pretty remarkable. That shows a woman who chooses God above all else, because it's really easy to contend when someone's contending with you and

Marne Traasdahl  15:52 

I love actually, that it gives us this awareness. Typically, in that time frame, there were arranged marriages, so it was probably out of her control who she ended up with, but he had prestige, and maybe the family thought this will elevate her and us. And yet she didn't allow her circumstance to change how she showed up. She knew her voice, and as we go through the remainder of the story, she shows herself to be a peacemaker.

Marne Traasdahl  16:17 

And she knew when to probably interact with him and when she needed to take action. And that's one point when you mentioned in the beginning this word drunk. It's not just substance abuse. A spouse, husband or wife, can be drunk with stress, can be drunk with shame, can be drunk with habits that are not are healthy. They can be drunk with anger, and we start to learn, when do we engage and when do we have the wisdom to take action? And so I love how this story plays out. She's such a beautiful example of walking with Christ and staying in the integrity of who she is and looking at the big picture and not being reactive in just that moment. We have things to learn from Abigail.

Tamara Anderson  17:01 

Oh, yeah, and I can't help but also think I've met women whose husbands are similar to Nabal and it, and who there are so many of them who are these sweet and meek but smart like they learn to watch people's reactions. You know their facial cues, they learn to be very wise as to what is going on in the circumstances around them. They they learn how to diffuse situations very well, which you will see in this next part of the story really comes into play. And so it's interesting the characteristics she has developed. Maybe she had some of them before she married Nabal, but certainly being married to Nabal, she has learned. It's been an education in and of itself and who she is. Any other thoughts on that?

Marne Traasdahl  18:04 

Just as you were speaking, I find the language of Abigail's beauty. It talks about this countenance, and when walking with God, when Christ is the center of our heart, we cannot help but radiate. So there's got to be something in here. It wasn't just her physical beauty, but this beauty of soul. So I just want us to be mindful that as we read the rest of the story and wonder, how did she get that beauty,

Tamara Anderson  18:30 

Absolutely before we do this next part of the story, I'm going to do a quick shout out, since we've been talking about bullies. If you have a child who has been bullied, I have a book, great book recommendation for you from one of our Christian endorsed provider authors, and it is called Scaredy, like being scared, but Scaredy, book one of the Adventures of Lusair. And let me tell you a little bit about this book: follow eight year old Rudy as he confronts his fears and discovers his inner strength in a magical new world with bullies on his trail and his best friend Billy by his side, Rudy's courage is put to the test in an epic quest against evil. This is perfect for young book chapter readers, and this heartwarming adventure teaches valuable lessons about bravery, friendship and self discovery and standing up to these bullies. So get your copy of Scaredy. You can find it on Amazon or on author, our author's website. It's Sharon Leino author.com and that's Sharon l, e, i N, O, author.com and you can also see a spotlight of Sharon on our on our Women Warriors of Light blog. Or you can get links to all this on our endorsed providers list on our website.

Tamara Anderson  19:46 

So if you want to become an endorsed provider too, there's information about that as well.

Tamara Anderson  19:52 

Alright, let's continue on with the story of Abigail. We are in first Samuel, chapter twenty-Five, verse 18, and it said, Now that Abigail's learned what's happened. Said. "Then Abigail made haste and took 200 Loaves and Two bottles of wine and five sheep ready dress and five measures of parched corn and 100 clusters of raisins and 200 cakes of figs, and laid them on asses. And she said to her servants, go on before me and I come after you."

Tamara Anderson  20:23 

But she didn't tell him Nabal. She knows when he's in a mood, and she is not going to broach this with him right now. And so she rode out and met David. Okay, this is very brave, because she's assuming that David, at this point, is kind of like her husband, Nabal, a little bit angry. And she knows how to deal with angry people.

Tamara Anderson  20:43 

And she's just such an example. Here, she said, and it says in verse 21 "now David had said, Surely, in vain have I kept all that this fellow hath in the wilderness so that nothing was missed of all that required." Basically, David's like, I have not touched this man's stuff and and so he has decided that, because this man has rewarded him evil for the good that he done, that he's going to take care of him. And said verse 23 "when Abigail saw David, she hasted and lighted off the ass and fell before David on her face and bowed herself to the ground and fell at his feet and said, upon me, my lord, upon me Let this iniquity be. And let thine handmaid, I pray thee speak in thine audience and hear the words of thy handmaid."

Tamara Anderson  21:39 

So she's immediately just bowing down, totally humble and contrite, and saying, Let this iniquity pass and and then she says in verse 25 "Let not, My Lord, I pray that you require this man of Belial, even Nabal, for it as is his name, so as he Nabal is his name, and Folly is with him. But I thy handmaid saw not the young man of my lord whom thou didst send, and she said, Now therefore my lord, As the Lord liveth, as thy soul liveth, seeing the Lord hath withholden thee from coming to shed blood and from avenging thyself with thine own hand. Now let thine enemies, as they seek evil to my Lord, be as Nabal. And now this blessing which thine handmaid hath brought unto my Lord, let it given unto the young men that follow thee." And we'll pause there. She keeps going but thoughts so far in this beautiful spiel that we hear from Abigail.

Marne Traasdahl  22:46 

I think one of the most courageous sentences probably in all of Scripture is when this woman comes and says, "upon me, upon me." And twice she says that language and she says, I'm thy handmaid. Upon me. I have Allegiance. I know who you are. I know where I stand. You have my heart. And I love the imagery also of the Savior who said, upon me, upon me in the garden and on the cross and was willing to take all for us.

Marne Traasdahl  23:13 

And I love in verse 26 how she brings the Lord with her. She's testifying of Him, "As the Lord liveth.". She knew she was a believer, and it changed the outcome. Because not only did you have to understand, not only did she set the intention, but the Spirit had to be there to touch David's heart. This is not her working alone. So in our conversations, in our hard work, in our daily struggles, can we remember this pattern that she gives us, what an example. I just think that's so powerful. And she's trying to stop the shedding of blood, because she loves deeply and she cares. And she knows that this moment in time several, several moments earlier, talks about she made haste. She took action to be a peacemaker, not to be reactionary. So she was in this zone of complete intention that takes a lot of practice, and until we get there, let's follow her pattern.

Marne Traasdahl  24:13 

Amy's nodding her head. Amy, do you have anything

Amy Johnson  24:16 

I totally agree with that. I totally agree that she was acting. You can tell she was acting because it her in her actions were intentional, and it wasn't just this. She may have felt fear, but she certainly wasn't acting on fear because it it would have shown in her actions. David suits up for armor in his grief and his frustration and his anger, right, she comes in in faith and and brings with her and the words that just keep running through my brain about Abigail is generosity and compassion, and instead of coming to David and being like, look and freaking out and crying. My mom, years ago, when I was much younger, and trying to figure out how to be an adult and and work with people, she specifically of men, she said, Men don't want your emotion. They want your facts. And that's what I feel like happens here. Like, I don't feel like she's, like, freaking out. And please, men don't want your emotion. They want your facts. And so she, she's puts forth some really good points. Look, this is his name. That's really who he is.

Marne Traasdahl  25:36 

And said that, how many times in our lives do we have the opportunity to be like Abigail? And you notice, if we're bringing this into our modern time, 2024 in the daily living with families and in-laws and work all of it, she did not make this about her, but she became a change agent. She didn't make Nabals behavior seem something about her worth. So let's plug that in, just going to put the coach's hat on. How many wives need to be careful and cautious about not making the mindset of those that they are with about them. But they can stay in their power. They can ask for through prayer. Who am I? How do I use my voice? How do I take action? How do I make haste when I need to, and how do I slow down when I need to? So that ebb and flow of choice on the daily and how it impacts our relationships, and it takes practice. We don't know what wee don't know if we haven't done it before. It's very hard. So I love, I love this story, this woman that's just standing amongst these men making a difference. And how can we be like her?

Amy Johnson  26:44 

Yeah, not with, with unseeming like it seems like, not fearful at all. She's just saying, this is the way things are and, and I, I really am a big advocate of if, if you want to behave in a way that will be influential and effective, it can't be personal. And and life hits us from all the angles. Downtown Salt Lake right now, I went for my run this morning, and even in the dark, I could see the massive trees that have been felled by the wind last night. And and so the winds beat all around us all the time. And so we get to decide. We get to decide whether we are going to panic and freak out or whether we are going to not. It's not personal. God, what would you have me do? And Abigail's name actually is the female version of father of exaltation. And so then, if you really think about that, and you think about how her everything she does here, leads David to Christ and so and and it sets an example for her men who will watch, and the men of David who will watch what happens. Understanding you can't change somebody, but you can be the means to lead them to the Savior.

Tamara Anderson  28:18 

I really love that. That is powerful. I love how she knew what to do, and I'm sure that God was guiding her as as as she was on this journey. And I also love that the lesson that she didn't approach her husband right away. And sometimes when we're feeling, uh, emotions towards somebody, and I'm sure she was feeling a lot of frustration with her husband at that time, that's not the right time to approach them. You know what I mean? Sometimes you need to work through some stuff in the back end, and then you can approach. you know? And so I love that lesson also that sometimes it is prudent to wait and to pause and to figure out how the best way to react is, or what needs to happen first before I approach them and and that is a great example to me as well, because I can even see this in dealing with teenagers sometimes, or adult children, right?

Marne Traasdahl  29:26 

It's a fair point, because you're actually speaking also how the brain works. And when we are in fight, flight, freeze, there's not a whole lot of frontal cortex going on, and we're again, it's getting back into that reactionary and again, being able to have the wisdom to just slow down, especially in the timeline that we live in, where there's so many distractions and so many things to plug into, just slowing down and checking in and getting centered so that we have that clarity.

Tamara Anderson  29:58 

Oh, this is. So, so beautiful. We're going to have to pause our story here and continue it next week, and I hate that we have to do that, but we're out of time, and so I'm just going to pause here and say, takeaways? What are some takeaways that you have learned so far in the story of Abigail? What lessons do you love? What lessons can we learn? What lessons can we apply today? Any thoughts? Let's start with you. Amy,

Amy Johnson  30:28 

I have lived by a principle for many years that you cannot give yourself poor when you're doing God's will in the in his world. And I think for me, the takeaway of this is that you can never be too generous financially, temporarily, but you can also never be too generous with your compassion, with your love, with your it just can never be too generous of spirit. You just can't. You just can't. And so I love, I love watching Abigail be generous like Jesus Christ is with me every single day, where I can I have what I like to call a dynamite personality. And I can, I can really, I can really get angry and really get frustrated and and yet, if I can just step away from the situation, judge what's really happening in the situation, and remember to be generous in spirit. It's life changing. And there's, there's, you can never, ever be too generous.

Tamara Anderson  31:50 

Marne,

Marne Traasdahl  31:50 

I love that Amy that was beautiful to me. Abigail is inspiring. She was a woman of action, and she reminds me the importance to know my own voice, but to also be in alignment with the Savior, and then use that voice for good, for peacemaking, for harmony, to bring light and love and to see the big picture. I love that she did not let her circumstances stop her. She could have feared. She could have frozen and not done anything, and the story would have played out completely different. So I love that she invites us to ask the question, What can I do? What's the next step? And whether that be gathering a multitude of abundance to share with others, or to gather the abundance of our heart and share love our kind word. It doesn't have to necessarily even be something temporal that we do, but it can be a gift of the Spirit. Where can we uplift? Where can we say, be it upon me. So I'm so grateful for her example that she she didn't fear. She used faith to live her life and again, didn't let circumstances stopped her to use them as the opportunity they were meant to be.

Tamara Anderson  33:04 

Oh, those are both just powerful examples and lessons to learn from Abigail. I think my my takeaway from Abigail is problem solving with God, because you can tell she really was one with God, that she acted as as God wanted her to act and to be a solution to this problem. When she says in verse 19 to her servants, go on before me, I almost feel like God is also going on before and that he is inspiring her in what to do. And I love that we can apply that in our lives today, whether we've been confronted with someone who's angry at us or at our family, or something like that, and we feel emotions rising within us that we can pause and pray and ask God, how do I solve this problem? You know which I'm I'm sure she did. I have no doubt that this whole time she was praying, help me know to say, help me know what to do. Lives are at stake here, and that we can have that same prayer. God, help me know to say, help me know what to do. Go before me. Take the blame, even if it's not yours. Sometimes we have to do that. Bite our tongue a little bit, and when God opens up miracles, so you have to come back next week where we finish the story of Abigail. I hate that we're leaving you on a cliffhanger here, but it's worth coming back and listening to the her story. So thank you so much for joining us today. We hope that you have learned something from this amazing story of Abigail. She is such a woman of compassion and courage that we can all emulate.

Tamara Anderson  34:56 

Thanks for tuning in to Bible, Women and Bathrobes hosted by Women Warriors of Light. We've loved exploring the stories of remarkable women or the teachings of the Savior today with you. If today's episode brought someone special to mind, be sure to spread the word, and don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you never miss a moment of inspiration and sisterhood Just a friendly reminder, all opinions we share are entirely personal, as we are trying to decipher and apply Bible teachings just like you are until next time, stay faithful and may your journey be blessed and illuminated by God's love.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai