Michelle Hensley shares her powerful journey from tragedy to triumph after unexpectedly losing her husband to cancer in 2014. With remarkable resilience, she transformed from a pastor’s wife with no business experience into the founder of the nation’s leading mobile gift wrapping company that now serves the White House.
• Facing life as a 51-year-old widow with no workforce experience after 14 years as a pastor’s wife
• Learning basic financial skills from scratch, including how to pay bills online
• Starting Nifty Package Company with friends and family in 2015
• Developing the innovative mobile gift wrapping concept in 2018
• Growing from local service to working with celebrities like the Kardashians
• Winning a contract to provide gift wrap design for the White House in 2024
• Creating “You Are Special,” providing small grants to help other widows start businesses
• Developing an app to help women monetize their creative homemaking skills
• Finding purpose through pain and seeing God’s hand in difficult circumstances
• Embracing the philosophy of “launch and learn” rather than waiting for perfection
Visit Michelle at michellehensley.com or niftypackageco.com to learn more about her services, book, or mobile gift wrapping opportunities.
Transcript:
Speaker 1:
If you’ve ever struggled with fear, doubt or worry and wondering what your true purpose was all about, then this podcast is for you. In this show, your host, sylvia Worsham, will interview elite experts and ordinary people that have created extraordinary lives. So here’s your host, sylvia Worsham.
Speaker 2:
Hey Lightbringers, it’s Sylvia Worsham. Welcome to Released Out Revealed Purpose. And today is Michelle Hensley and man. Does she have a story of transformation to share with us? Michelle, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 3:
Hi, sylvia, it’s great to be on here. First of all, thank you for having me. I mean, we hit it off right away with the stories we have in the background and I look forward to sharing what God has done in my life as a result of difficulty and tragedy. Behind a frowning Providence lies a smiling face by Thomas Watson and it’s such sad. You know, there’s a lot of sad things we walk through, but at the same time there’s purpose in all of it. But I just want to say hi, michelle, owner, founder of Nifty Package Company, which I started and ran and run currently after my husband passed after my husband passed.
Speaker 2:
You know, when I read your story, I got on Instagram immediately when they sent me the, james sent me your profile and I thought, wow, this woman has been through a dark chapter and I know that we briefly got into it prior to the interview and I really want you to take the stage and make it your own and just let us know a little bit about you and that amazing story of transformation.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, thank you. Well, as we shared before in 2012, everything I had done prior was to serve my family and to serve the church, serve my husband. I was a pastor’s wife. I’d been out of the workforce for about 14 years, homeschooling children, getting them launched. I still had two left to launch when Eric got very sick and I was.
Speaker 3:
I had started and run a working non-profit feeding the working poor. So those who were working during the economic crisis of 2000 started in 2005. Most people got hit right then and it took a terrible dive over the next several years. But basically to feed people and that my family was very involved in. Um I’ve been. I have two master’s degrees, so well educated. I was also a counselor specializing in the field I was in in orange county, california. A lot of churches would send people to me, but everything was pro bono. So I had a very strong ministry mindset and supporting my husband in history, which was to grow, you know, build and grow a church, a biblical church.
Speaker 3:
So, 2012, as I was counseling a doctor and his wife, my husband said said hey, I have a mole growing out of control and it’s concerning me, so would you be able to look at it? So he said, sure, come to my office tomorrow. So he went, eric went, and the doctor did a test and he gave us back the results within a couple days and he said, eric, you have stage three metastatic melanoma and you have to go in ASAP and have some scans. So you know, in my mind I’m thinking okay, I have a strong faith, I love the Lord, eric does, we’re praying and we’re going to bleed for his healing. We’re not never even thought. It kind of made me nervous, but I never even thought that there would be an end to this. And so within 30 days, it went from stage three to stage four and we basically were at a run on chemo and trying to handle this cancer. He went into remission I want to say maybe four months later, which was quite interesting and then it came back with a vengeance spreading to his bones and then eventually his brain, and then took his life May 28, 2014.
Speaker 3:
So I was a pastor’s wife. I never just like you said earlier I never thought about the widows. I took care of children, I took care of the poor and when somebody was a widow, I befriended them like I would anybody else, never thinking about the silent suffering that goes on behind the scenes. You really don’t hear much about widows, but the amount of women becoming widows every year, especially from the boomer generation, is blows your mind. So I the church paid me a stipend for about a year, and rightfully so. It needed to be passed over to the associate pastor, whoever was going to take over the church. I ended up having to close the non-profit, that non, that nonprofit. I started with five dollars in an envelope and it grew to feed 73,000 people a year by the end of 2015, and so I was not sure where I was heading, and you know it’s very.
Speaker 3:
I had a different mindset at that time. I went from corporate America to pastor’s wife raising, raising children, homeschooling and now I’m very different. I am 51 years old and I hadn’t been in the workforce. Who’s going to hire me? I had an interview with somebody who was a volunteer. I had about 45 volunteers with you Are Special at that time. Currently side note you Are Special is a great organization where I give small grants to widows so they can start their own businesses, just give them a kickstart. So anyway, I wanted to give that up. Actually, mypa said don’t do that. You’ve put a lot of work into this. So keep it and just, you might have to repurpose it, which is what I ended up doing later, when I felt prepared for that. So, anyway, one of the volunteers said I have somebody who’s interested in hiring you for work, because now I had to get a job because the stipend ended in july or probably june 2015 and I closed the non-profit and it had been a year after eric passed, um. So I went interviewed in july and this gentleman great, wonderful, rightfully so said you know, you’re going to be working 60 hours a week and, um, we have a five-star company. So just know that the expectation is high because I was going to be working 60 hours a week and we have a five-star company. So just know that the expectation is high because I was going to be a director. There’s like 300 staff. And when he’s telling me this, I just got tunnel vision. I thought, oh my gosh, I still have two kids.
Speaker 3:
The second year of grieving is far greater than the first year, and people ask me about this all the time and it really is, because now you have to embrace your reality. This is my, my new reality and, whether you handle it right or not, it’s still your new place. So the kids become, you know they have to handle it themselves and that becomes a little bit difficult. So on my way home, I was praying. I’m like lord, I have a again, a very strong faith. I’m up 3, 30, 4 o’clock every day seeking the lord. I will study, prayer, everything and had for 29 years. So, um, I’m driving home and I’m like lord, what am I gonna do? I don’t feel led to work for this company Is there? I love the Uber business model. Now, keep in mind, I didn’t even know.
Speaker 3:
The whole finance side is another story. I didn’t know how to pay a bill in line. I was terrified just to drive my car because it was just a weird feeling. Well, there’s something I educated myself very well during that time on what these phenomenons are because I was also a counselor for 12 years. So I went back to study all the things that widows go through and I had to become that person which I didn’t have. How do I learn? I needed practical skills.
Speaker 3:
Okay, he was gracious but at the same time, put me at a deficit because I did not do anything and it was just an awful time. So I created classes and taught at the local college hired a finance coach so I could learn all things finance and figure this out. So I wasn’t quite sure where the lord was leading me. Anyway, um, I became board certified as a life grief and finance coach and that was a huge deal because I’d already have a master’s degree. So that was a step up for me to be able to do that. Didn’t want to be counselor anymore because the pathology on that’s difficult. You have pasts to deal with and you have a lot of things that you can’t control or help the person unless they really want to change. So, um, all this was hitting me at the same time.
Speaker 3:
Anyway, driving home from that interview, I thought is there a way I could start a business where I could work when I wanted and could, versus have to? And if I like that and I love the uber business model, would any other woman like that? So when I got home that day, my why was first woman like that? So when I got home that day, my why was first not what I did? So I got home that day and I was telling one of my sons about this and he said Michelle, mom, you had a gift basket business when you were young. Why don’t you start that again? So I said that is a great idea. Hey, gals, this is my sister, my friend, my daughter, one of my daughter-in-laws and a couple of women that were around me. I said I like this idea of working from home. What do you guys think? Do you think we could start a gift basket business and do that? Every one of them said, yes, let’s figure it out. So I launched a business in October of 2015, starting out with gift baskets.
Speaker 3:
Now, keep in mind I’m completely transparent here. I am in that 70% of women who know nothing. I didn’t understand what a cost of gifts was. I didn’t understand how to make a profit. I came out of ministry, where you give everything away and now I have to figure out how to make money. The idea was great, but I launched. Then I learned. So, um, that started to take off. We started to figure out how to work. Well, when I was out networking, which I had to learn to do again, I had to learn to do everything over again. And who’s going to hire a 51 year old at this point, getting ready to turn 52? So, um, that actually started off really well and I started just going to meetings and learning and terrified, but standing up and introducing myself, I had this gift basket business and then we all started learning how to work remote and just do everything remote and then come in and work on projects. So, um, some men I’m sure they meant well, but were teasing me about it’s not going to work. There’s no remote, just isn’t going to work. So I thought, okay, ladies, I feel like it can work, can we keep? You know, we kept plugging away. Well, I had to go back to work full time because I had to create an income, but I again wasn’t sure what to do. So I ran Nifty in the evenings. All the other gals worked on the projects that needed to be done. So that leads me into 2018.
Speaker 3:
And the holiday 2018, I’m praying. It’s probably November, end of November when I was when this happened. But I’m praying and I see my van sitting out in the front and I think, hmm, that van isn’t utilized. All the time I make gifts. I wonder if I could drive around and wrap gifts Like, does anyone even do such a thing? Like I really like the idea of mobile and driving. So I put up a web page that day, added that onto my current website and I got a call within about four days from one of my current clients and he said michelle, I hate wrapping gifts. Can you wrap my gifts? I was like, yes, I have my first client. So I put all my paper, all my supplies in my van, drove over there. I was so excited. I wrapped all these gifts and I stood back and forgot to label them. So I had to unwrap and rewrap every gift. But I learned I got an sop, a standard operating procedure out of that what to do and what not to do and then I had a baby instagram. You know, I just really I didn’t know what I was doing. I did not know what I was doing. I did not know what I was doing but I would put a picture up.
Speaker 3:
So the next March 2019, I got a call from a company called Two Face Cosmetics and they’re an edgy brand makeup brand and asked if I’d do a design for them on gift wrap and if I would do a fulfillment job. So I said yes, keep in mind, I’m still working full time, so trying to manage this while working full time that job. We received a million hits on their Instagram for that job. Now, they didn’t necessarily tag our name in it, but it was all our work. So that launched us into some celebrity work, because the summer of 2019 end of the summer side note I did not watch tv, I didn’t watch entertainment news and I get called from somebody, called somebody the estate manager from the kardashian family and I called my kids and I said hey, boys, by this time everyone was out, everyone was launched, everyone was done.
Speaker 3:
Um, I I received a call from the Kardashian estate manager and she said hey, michelle, we’ve been following you, we’d like to know if you’d do some design work for Kim and Kanye. So I said who are these people? And then my son said oh, my gosh, mom, they’re the number two influencers under President Trump right now. So you’ve got to do this job. So I talked to my team, I pile my team together, drive out there to Calabasas and present to her all my ideas, and she did not like any of them. And I walk out. This is when I transitioned from pastor’s wife. This is when I transitioned from pastor’s wife, grandmother, mom, to business owner. So I have about seven of my team there and she has her team there and she didn’t like what I presented. So I walk outside. I’m like Lord I am not going home without a sale. So please help me have an idea.
Speaker 1:
You know.
Speaker 3:
So I walked back in and I asked if anyone had any fabric and, um, one of the gals said I have some fabric, so, you know, here you can use this. I did a fabric wrap and I said, um, it’s a fear of shoky wrap, and Kim said she loved it. So that launched us into working this family. And that was just 29, 2020, everything shut down. So we had already been prepared when everyone else was trying to figure things out. So you just see God’s hand through my life and these, even though I walk through these difficult, dark moments, as I stated in the beginning, behind a frowning providence lies a smiling face because you wouldn’t. I mean, it’s just like with Naomi and Ruth. You would never. She could, david would not be born if Ruth and Boaz were together, and so there’s a purpose behind the pain there’s always a purpose behind pain he teaches us something.
Speaker 2:
And when we look back and reflect on it, we see his hand in absolutely every chapter of our life.
Speaker 3:
Yes, and even though some days were so difficult because I didn’t know what I was doing, I was being trained, and trained on a bigger scale for different things, something unique. So, by a miracle, over the years we grew the business and I was asked by many colleges and universities how did you start this? Because then it began to spread. I began to train people remotely and grow Nifty the gift wrapping side in several states. So then what I did is I went back and created classes and training, which I was actually had been doing for widows because I also have a full class for widows just practical skills on how to transition from where you were to a financial advisor. How do you so you don’t make mistakes and that you’re well prepared?
Speaker 2:
Exactly.
Speaker 3:
So I created these classes and now I train other women and now we are the number one mobile gift wrapping business in the nation. It’s hard because I’ve bootstrapped everything and you know there have been some really dark moments in this, but I believe God’s hand is in all of it. And then this year we were uh approached by and this is another story but we’ll move off of this one but approached by the white house in january. Um, this small little business that came out of a small little church and asked if I would do the designs for the new administration the president of the united states, uh, first lady melania, vice president vance, his lovely wife, second, lady usha, and secretary of state marco rubio. So we actually won that job and now we are the gift wrap designer devil fold gift wrap team, because they do gifts all the time. But we became the supplier to that, to the white house.
Speaker 2:
So you know it’s amazing your journey and you and you know god’s hand is in all of it, because what we deem impossible to him it’s very possible and it just it. It’s wow, like what a wow moment.
Speaker 2:
And I know that a lot of women listening will likely say if she can do it, so can I that’s someone who didn’t understand an sop or anything to do with money can get from that journey to to where she’s at right now, gaining these, these contracts that are putting you in international, sometimes national, news, but truly international, because it’s a president of a country and I’m just, I’m wowed, and I know that the dark chapters were there. You kind of mentioned them, that you’ve had some dark chapters. Kind of tell the listeners how you get yourself out of those dark chapters.
Speaker 3:
Well, I think for me, because my faith is very serious and very strong, I pray and seek God’s wisdom. And okay, what am I supposed to learn? You know, a lot of times in those dark chapters, just like when we’re in high school or junior high, we’re taking an exam, the proctor, that is quiet, and I think we think that God should be speaking super loudly, but you know, we’ve heard it over and over again he whispers and shouts in our pain, and so the struggle is like you know, I had a really, really hard time in 2022. I lost like thirty five thousand dollars in revenue. And, you know, your first thought is OK, do you hate me, god? Like, why did this happen? But the truth is, I had to learn why. Like, why did this happen? But the truth is, I had to learn why it happened. Like that was the test. Well, you know, and I learned that I read and study all the time business stuff all the time.
Speaker 3:
And, um, there’s a gentleman, michael gerber. A lot of us probably have heard of him and he really talks about systems. Well, he has a co-authored a book about the cfo, the chief financial officer, and and in there he said if you don’t know why you did well, then you’re not going to know why you did that or poorly. And he said then that’s being impertinent. And I thought, oh my gosh, that’s such a great statement. So I had to go back and figure out why I lost that money and it was because the cost of goods increased 30% and the cost of shipping increased 35%, and I did not add that into my sales side. So I learned through that hardship to increase my prices and not be afraid of doing that, and so that next year I grew 187 percent. But that’s because I had to go back. And then I learned other lessons in marketing and copywriting and things like that, because along with your business growth comes business problems. So you can look at them as a problem or I can look at them as okay. How can I figure this out? Or pivot? You know I have to make a change, and so those are the lessons I’ve learned.
Speaker 3:
And still there’s dark moments. How are you going to survive? Last year was a very hard year for a lot of small businesses because of just all the problems that were going on politically and especially in the state of California. So I’m just hanging on. You know, lord, if this is your will. You’re going to provide for me. You know, if you have called, you will provide. And sometimes it has a lot to do with our pride, you know, and being humble and asking for help when you need it, and that was the lesson learned from last year. But you know you, you stay in the fight and you don’t give up and until it’s over it’s just like with my husband and when he was sick you don’t stop praying until okay. Now life has given me another set of challenges. How, how am I going to overcome that? And sometimes you don’t overcome them. You survive it and eventually you thrive, but anyway so.
Speaker 2:
But you always have to survive it first, and I think most people want to skip over that and just go to the thriving. You know the instant gratification, and you and I both know that when you journey through it you learn so much more that you can look back on and say if I can do that, I knew this, this is easy.
Speaker 2:
That one was hard, you know, and it gives you that empowerment piece that I think most women miss, because we’re too busy checking off a box being successful according to what they think is successful, and we miss the journey and even the hardships. What do you think has been the toughest lesson you learned from God?
Speaker 3:
I think the toughest lesson that’s a great question would be that, even though it’s dark, that God has not abandoned me or you and that, um, god is still good.
Speaker 3:
You know he’s good whether we have a cross to bear and everyone’s cross is a little different and it’s made perfect for them and that you know, a lot of times too, you do have to listen to wisdom, but at the same time, maybe god is testing you to see if you will obey, despite other people’s opinions and thoughts, because everyone has an opinion and a thought, um, and I have three sons and they all have opinions and they want your well-being, you know, and they don’t always want it to be hard for you, but sometimes it is hard.
Speaker 3:
Sometimes you have to embrace the hardness, the cross, and keep moving forward. But I think the toughest lesson is knowing that god is for me and he has not abandoned me, even if it’s very quiet and and stormy. Stormy and marty, and had a book title that I’ve never forgotten and it’s just enough light for the step that I’m on. That was her book title, and whenever I feel it’s dark, I have enough light for that step that I’m on today and you know that it’s going to be okay, you know that’s, it’s one step at a time.
Speaker 2:
We want to jump to the conclusion of things, we want to push it forward quickly because we don’t have the patience, and we have to remember that God’s idea of time is very different than ours.
Speaker 3:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
It is something that I’ve learned in my journey. Patience in this timing was just something that was really tough for me. It was just the toughest one, and I had to remind myself don’t be a Rachel or a Leah. Do not take matters into your own hands.
Speaker 3:
Oh my gosh, I know.
Speaker 2:
You can’t actually make a muck of things, you know. So I’ve actually made a muck of things and now I’m like, okay, well, all right, you made a muck of things, my child, let’s see what we can work with. And then he has to come back in and reset up the things he had put in motion and in place. But because I didn’t listen to the prompting and did not act on the prompting in a timely fashion, now I’m back to square one and so there’s a lesson in that as well, it’s true.
Speaker 3:
It’s true, it’s true. There are many scriptures that have carried me through even my foolish decisions, and one of them is Proverbs 16.1. And it says Preparations of the heart belong to man. The answer of the tongue is of the Lord. So, even though I might have made a mistake, there is purpose even in that. Otherwise, god is not provident, you know, and or sovereign, and so the mistake had to be made for a purpose that we don’t know about, and you know, gosh. Otherwise, gosh, it’s so easy to beat ourselves up every day. I’ve done it, and it’s easy to do. Then, just going back to something you said about patience, you know we live in a door dash society, so if we want something, ring, ring, we can have it at our doorstep and I do it. I have a mobile gift wrapping business, but at the same time, that’s not God’s hand and it really is trusting in those very difficult moments.
Speaker 2:
It is, and I found there’s so many parallels in your story that there are in mine and the major crossroads and the pivots, and our faith is something that connects us very deeply, because I am a woman of very deep faith and right now I’m in a season where I ask God to sift out the remnants of things that were blocking me, the strongholds that were keeping me in my own cage, and to just sift it out for me.
Speaker 2:
And what came of that? When you were speaking of other people’s opinions, a vision came to me, and that’s how the Holy Spirit speaks to me in visions, and I am in a space right now where he’s asking me to fully submit to my marriage the way I’ve submitted to him and for years. The word submission would give me the worst feeling inside, because I came from a Mexican background and it was a very she knew when to speak and when to not speak, and my father’s very demanding and always came across as very bold and just a very different view, yeah, and they never fought in front of us, which did not give us a lot of conflict resolution technique right. So when we get married, we don’t know how to have a, you know, a conflict.
Speaker 2:
That’s healthy and so you I saw that modeling and told I’m omitting that from my vows. So my first marriage I omit it, I will not obey you. And then the second marriage, the same thing happened. And then, in 2018, god came to me and said I’m going to teach you what true submission looks like, and it’s not what you think it is, and I’ve detailed this in my book and faith I thrive. That’s the title of my book finding joy through God’s master plan. It was released last year in September and that’s chapter 14. And he comes to me and he goes you’re going to learn how to submit to me first, and then you’re going to learn and then, based on that lesson, you’re now going to submit to your marriage. But you need to learn a couple of lessons in between lessons in humility, lessons in acceptance, lessons in compassion.
Speaker 2:
And what transpires from 2018 to now has been like I can see his hand in absolutely everything and, as you’re speaking, I’m just like sitting there, smiling, going. Yes, I know the timing of this interview is really priceless for you, and I’m sure you’re smiling from heaven saying you see, child, I had a message for you, michelle. Deliver it. And and I’ve always known that about him. So the vision was this I had met up with, I had made a list of all the women or the people that I had held wrongs against, because the scripture that kept coming to me was the love is patient, love is kind, love doesn’t envy the whole, love is not self-seeking and it does not keep a record of wrongs. Those two in particular kept being highlighted by the Holy Spirit, saying you’ve got to remove the sin from your tent and you’ve got to be. You have got to go back to some of these experiences and take accountability for your role in it.
Speaker 2:
And that’s helping me be able to have that full submission in my marriage and come clean to my husband on some of the things that I’ve like messed up in our marriage. But in order to prepare me for that, he had me make a list of all the experiences and people, attached that I had kept a record of wrongs. So what I’ve been doing in the last couple of weeks has been approaching individuals and saying you know, I need to repent and say that I have kept a record of wrongs and here’s why and it’s not a good excuse I’m just simply repenting and you can forgive me if you want. If you don’t, I’m totally okay with that too.
Speaker 2:
This whole exercise is for me to truly repent and have humility, a heart posture of humility. And they’ve looked at me like I’m crazy, because they’re like nobody’s doing this. Why are you doing this? And I said well, it’s just, it’s something that God had asked me to do. So this is truly radical obedience, and to its highest levels, and I’m putting myself on that standard because I don’t want to live my life anymore based on human standards.
Speaker 2:
I want to base it on God’s standards and if I’m truly going to live a God-centered marriage, this is what I must do, and so one of the conversations had been like well, you don’t necessarily have to apologize to everybody. And like, well, you don’t necessarily have to apologize to everybody you know, and you don’t necessarily. And so all these things that I now see is that’s not God’s.
Speaker 2:
God talking to me that is doubt and that is possibly the enemy coming in to like ensure that I don’t achieve my purpose with this because he knows that a strong marriage is not something Satan loves, you know so it’ll try to destroy it and divide you and kill your joy every which way he can do it, and sometimes people listen more to the enemy’s lies than they do to God himself.
Speaker 3:
And because it’s easy to justify, it’s easy to justify, and then it’s easy to justify, it’s easy to justify, and then it’s easy for that person to justify in terms, of, well, it wasn’t that big of a deal. Well, the reality is it is. And you know, you’re right. And there’s a book by Ken Sandy, probably my top favorite, and it is peacemaking for families, and it does a really good job describing what you’re talking about. You know, walking in humility, you cannot control what this other person does or does not do, but you can control yours, and that’s yeah.
Speaker 2:
So to come to my husband and he’s the one on the top of my list but I remember I’m taking a course from a couple their marriage ignite on Instagram. That kept popping up and kept popping up and I was like, okay, this must be the holy spirit saying follow. So I’m like, okay, fine, I’m gonna follow.
Speaker 2:
And I started to read her stuff and my, my heart like got full and and I thought to myself she knows what I’m going through, and so I started to listen and go through her trainings, and one of the first two steps is like to have a heart posture and to pray incessantly and I’ve been praying incessantly for a long time, but the heart posture was the one I was mostly struggling with, and humility is a big one for me. Me and my pride has stepped in more times than I can count and my need oh my gosh, I think it is for everybody.
Speaker 3:
You know, gosh, I really think about it, it’s like how do I free myself from this cage?
Speaker 2:
and the only way to free myself? And and I remember it’s like the word will give you the, the answer. And I, I have a war room, you realize, and so I had scripture up and I, just one of the promptings was, read the scripture. You put on your wall because the answer is right there, and one of them was remove the sin from your tent.
Speaker 2:
And I thought remove what I missed, that part, the sin from your tent and I think that comes from job, one of the scriptures I had up on my wall and and forgive me because I’m not very good with scripture I’m yeah, no, I’m just, I’m very interested and remove the sin from your tent.
Speaker 2:
I kept reflecting what’s my sin and then that scripture from first Corinthians of like love is not self-seeking, and I started to look at all the conflicts in my life and I was like I was self-seeking. And I started to look at all the conflicts in my life and I was like I was self-seeking in that conflict and I was. I was keeping a record of wrongs here and I must repent in all these situations to free myself of the sin in my tent, which I, when I read tent the word that kind of or the vision that came to me was like anything that’s in your heart that’s keeping you captive is what you need to remove. And if you want to be blameless like me, which is going to be very difficult because I am Christ- and you are not.
Speaker 2:
But if you want to live to my standards, you’re going to have to do this. And that’s where the radical obedience comes into play, and not listening to the subtleties of people because they mean well, you know, they’re like, well with me, but they’re not. You have to also know like who are these people that you’re allowing to influence you, and are they believers or not? All right, are they in God’s will or not? And if they’re not in God’s will, that’s where you have to be careful, because that’s the doubt creeping in and that’s the pride, and the enemy will take any of those steps and just magnify it.
Speaker 3:
And.
Speaker 2:
I’ve always. Now I know because one of the books that they told me that was so good.
Speaker 2:
The Bait of Satan, and I started to read that and oh my goodness, the hair in the back of my neck like stood up. I was like, yep, that’s me, that’s me, that’s me, oh my goodness. And now I’m like reading it very slowly and just allowing it to kind of like sit with me. It’s like, okay, is this within god will? And if it is within God’s will, it’s going to happen, it’s going to come to pass, just like the example you gave with Kim Kardashian. It’s like, god, if this is in your will, please make it happen.
Speaker 2:
And then the idea comes to you immediately because it is within God’s will. And I’ve known that with my marriage there’s been so much of God’s providence in our lives that it is undeniable that this is what I’m meant to do, so I’m like okay, he hasn’t given up on my marriage, so I should not give up on my marriage.
Speaker 3:
That’s right yeah.
Speaker 2:
To do in our society nowadays. It’s so easy to do because people just want the easy way out, just want quick, and that’s not marriage, that’s not the covenant of marriage. It’s very, very different. So I’ve come to like a full circle and now my husband is is finally starting to to realize why I kept pushing for a god-centered marriage. At first he was like what is that? I’m like you’ll get there you’ll get there eventually.
Speaker 2:
If I tell you, it’s not going to mean anything to you. But if the holy spirit tells you it makes you aware, that’s a whole different ballgame all right because now you, you feel like this is your next step, versus you’re hearing somebody else tell you all right, it’s very different. So I I have so much to say about what you had to say. There was just so much alignment. I know you gave such amazing tips. Now tell me more about do you think this is your divine purpose? Do you know? Is this it?
Speaker 3:
Or do you see yourself changing? Yeah, that’s a great question. I think there’s a couple more things on the horizon, and I’ve developed an app, for my whole thing is this I want to help women and I want to create a movement for women over 50 that feel like they don’t have the skill set to do some type of business.
Speaker 3:
So I want to encourage them that you do. It’s just latent or you don’t know how to do it. So that’s one thing, and the second thing is is currently I am developing an app and that will give other women in their creative, small creative sides the ability to earn income right where they’re at. So that’s, you know whether that’s cooking food? I mean, there’s such a lost art of homemaking and just the value of homemaking, um, setting a table, but somebody can hire you to do that. Uh, how about you know baking pies? Or you don’t want to set everything up, but you want to go to the prep food for them. Or you know, some people do house cleaning, but this is beyond that. It’s decorating or Christmas tree or whatever. So I’m creating an app for that. I’m almost done with that. Then I’ll be launching that. And the next.
Speaker 3:
There’s a franchise that I am working on, which is in this, in this, here, but I’m waiting for god’s hand to bless me to do that. It’s very expensive to run a franchise, um, and I don’t want a private equity. So there’s that, but this because of what I do, it. It’s not something that has to be started by someone who’s young. However, I work with homeschool moms, um, and getting their kids the ability to work and create income on their own without having to work for a company, you know, so they can be their own company. So I see that I don’t see myself marrying in the future. You know, I don’t think that’s going to be God’s plan for me. I’m over 60 and the world is very different today, and if that was the case, then he’d have to bring someone to me and it had to be very clear, um, but yeah, I, I mean, you know, I have grandchildren, so my desire is to eventually have more time with my family.
Speaker 2:
Well, you must be a very young grandmother, because you look amazing. Thank you. I was like wow, I’m blown away. This is one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen.
Speaker 3:
Oh, my goodness, thank you, you’re so kind. Yes, I have nine, all biological grandchildren.
Speaker 2:
My goodness, my goodness. But that’s also a chapter that my mom talks a lot about. Being a grandmother is like. Oh my gosh then having your kids and having to raise them and keeping them safe and and with grandkids it’s like here you can have your kid back.
Speaker 3:
You know, yeah. And I get to raise them like they get to learn skill sets in the business. To raise them like they get to learn skill sets in the business.
Speaker 2:
So they get to work with me and the value there is huge. Well, the thing is, they receive the message from their grandparents, so differently than they do from their parents right, you know this is that we, we dig our heels in when it’s our parents telling us what to do, but when it’s our grandparent who we have this beautiful bond with, it’s like, oh, she’s just my, you know, it’s kind of like my friend, kind of guiding me and they’re neat, it’s very very easy you can do that.
Speaker 2:
My mom has taken that role with my oldest. I have a 20 year old just from 20 and he’s just, you know, an anxious kid. He’s been through a lot and and he’s kind of doing life at his own pace, which is very different than the way you know. All these kids are living in the U? S, although there’s a new trend with kids now that they’re not wanting to learn how to drive, they want to stay at home for college. There’s a lot of different trends that are so different than when I went to college. My husband and I were like what is going on? Like why is this happening? But what he’s telling is like every kid has his own journey at his own pace and god is in control. It’s in god’s will and I always just try to guide my kids in their faith as much as I can, but we can’t control them and we can’t you can’t force them.
Speaker 2:
You can pray you can pray about it and and the only one that can transform and change is god, and that’s what I’ve always told my husband. I was like you can tell me all these things to make me aware, quote unquote, and I’m saying this very specifically.
Speaker 2:
I said but the only person that can change me is god yeah he’s the only one that can speak to me in a way that makes sense to me. He knows my, my heart, he knows what I need, he knows what my purpose is and he can guide me, and the same goes for you. I, for the longest time, tried to control my husband and try to control the circumstances of our marriage. And this marriage ignite a couple are like no, no, no, no, no. That’s the mistake that we both made, and as women we make it a lot because we’re used to, we’re the nurturers and the gatherers you know back in like the biological way of looking at things, and we’re managing the entire household. And so sometimes we manage our husbands the way we manage our children. Our husbands totally different role, totally different way of being, and we are constantly pinned one against the other from the moment we’re little.
Speaker 2:
And that’s not the case, because men are meant to be our partners. They’re meant to guide us and protect us and provide and it’s not just provider, financially speaking provider in many ways right. And so the more I read scripture and the more I allow it to like just seep into my bones and in my heart, I start to god starts to reveal things to me, and I think it’s happened with you as well, like oh, yeah, the revelation and you see his providence and you see how he’s been there even in the toughest of seasons.
Speaker 2:
And I I never knew, I could never understand the term. Faith sustained me until my father passed away. I could not. I could not wrap my head around it and I remember I would sit in my war room when I, when I heard my father had a terminal diagnosis because my father had a brain tumor.
Speaker 3:
Oh goodness, I’m sorry to hear that.
Speaker 2:
That he got because of a service in Vietnam. He was exposed to Agent Orange and a lot of those veterans from those years, from 1968 and on, had either Parkinson’s disease or meningiomas and it’s been documented and so, as a veteran you know he discovered it in 2001. He was at the peak of his career. He was a urologist and he decided he consulted with um it wasn’t MD Anderson, it was the Mayo Clinic and they told him well, you have choices here. You can wait and have it surgically remove, like wait and see what this thing does, or have it surgically removed. And so he waited two years, when he was 63, had surgery but then had a major ischemic stroke afterward. So it cut his professional life short and he had been my mom, had been his caretaker for the last 21 years oh my goodness when we finally got to a point because the tumor kept coming back.
Speaker 2:
It was super aggressive. He would get it cut out, it would grow back, it just it was never ending. And finally he’s like 83 years old and they’re like we, you’re too old, like if we do surgery and you’ll die on the surgery table. We have just to let this kind of take its course and you’re going to lose your balance, you’re not going to be able to walk. Eventually, you’re going to have seizures and all these things. All these stages were explained to you know, my brother, my sister, my mom and I, and that was August of 2023. My son was going into college. So many changes like so many things coming up.
Speaker 3:
Oh my goodness, yes.
Speaker 2:
And I just, I told myself, told myself, I, my soul felt a pull and said I just need to release all of these, all of this pain, all of this grief, to at god’s. I have no other choice here, there’s no control here, and so I would go into my war room and I would just release and release and release every day, all day, pray, pray, pray. But I knew it was terminal, and then my father ended up passing away on father’s day oh, my word so I’m great.
Speaker 2:
So we know he’s his um one year anniversary. He’s coming up in about what is it um? He died June 16th, so it’s’s coming up shortly.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, and sorry to hear that.
Speaker 2:
But you know, in this grief journey I have found that the more I release him, the less I feel peace, because I read a book, as my father was dying, that just gave me the greatest peace ever of how people were going to be received in heaven. It was Imagine Heaven by John Burke, who is the pastor of the church I attend to here in Austin. He’s the founding pastor and now it’s been passed on to somebody else because now he’s writing books and they’re like New York bestselling author and these were based on near-death experiences clinically died, went to heaven across the board.
Speaker 2:
All religious religions were um were followed in this study and they just followed them for like 25 years or so and they found very clear um, they all had the same testimony and there was similarities in how they presented and everybody that said that they got up there and they just felt this love that was so beautiful. They didn’t want to come back and the colors that they saw were like, unlike any colors we see here on earth, and they had a committee of people receiving them, people that had passed on before them and who were receiving them and were explaining to them how it was going to go, and they had a review of life and all of them they were atheist, agnostic, jewish buddhist catholic, I mean across the board, and they all came back with the same testimony and I just remember reading that book and saying this is how my father is going to be received in heaven, and so that gives me peace and he’ll be whole and he’ll be able to have a full like, like his body won’t be in pain anymore.
Speaker 2:
And so when he finally passed away, I just it was. It was devastating, but it was peaceful at the same time. It was so hard to explain, but that, to me, is how, now I see, faith sustains me. It does, and that’s why I titled my book in faith. I thrive, because when I’m in faith and I trust him, I thrive yeah when you’re in his will. So I’m just, I’m so blessed that that james introduced us, michelle.
Speaker 3:
Thank you for having me on.
Speaker 2:
It was such a beautiful conversation of tips Any last minute thing you want to say to the listeners of Release Down.
Speaker 3:
I would say, you know, embrace your difficulty and see that there is joy eventually that comes out as a result. You know, know and know that we each, as I said earlier, have a cross we might need to bear and that through that we’re being trained. Um, I’d say, if anyone wants to call me, email me. I’m open and I have two websites. There’s my personal brand, which is michelle, and hensleycom. There is another, michelle Hensley. I think she’s an author. I also have a book, so they can I’ll ship my book for free. If they’re interested. They can check it out on that website. Also, they can, you know, reach me at niftypackageco.
Speaker 3:
We are the number one luxury gift basket business too, so we do very high-end work. Um, anybody has an interest in becoming a mobile gift wrapper. They can check that out as well. It’s on the brand, my personal brand. It’s actually on both sites, um, and I have a youtube channel where I, you know, I meet up with podcasters like you in terms of involved in gift wrapping or gift basket space, or women who are over 50, who have successfully sold a business or started a business and done well.
Speaker 3:
I like that. Anybody can start their business. It doesn’t matter what age. It’s a little bit more challenging when you’re older because you have the problems in terms of you hold yourself back. You know, because if you mostly fear I don’t know what I’m doing, I did not know what I’m doing. So launch and learn, and perfection is the hindrance to progress. We, just as women, we want everything perfect, but we’re very good business owners. So it’s been shown and proven over and over again. Anyway, that’s all I have to say, but thank you so much for having me on your story. Your personal story as well is very inspiring and, as we talked earlier, you’re the only person I know who can relate to what my husband experienced at his end of life, and so that’s a great story.
Speaker 2:
So thank you for sharing yours as well, of course, of course. And to the listeners of Released Out Revealed Purpose, remember Matthew 514, be the light. Have a wonderful week, stay safe. Love you all. Bye now.
Speaker 1:
So that’s it for today’s episode of release doubt reveal purpose. Head on over itunes or wherever you listen and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week who posts a review on itunes will win a chance in the grand prize drawing to win a 25 000,000 private VIP day with Sylvia Worsham herself. Be sure to head on over to sylviaworsham.com and pick up a free copy of Sylvia’s gift and join us on the next episode.