Rhonda Stoppe: Don’t Waste Your Hurts

Chrys Howard (0:06)

Hey, I'm Chrys and I'm Shellie. And we are so happy you're with us today on Rocking It. We've got another guest, if you've been listening to us. We started back over with our new rebranding.

Shellie Tomlinson (0:18)

Happy to be at Echo.

Chrys Howard (0:19)

Happy to be with Echo. We love it.

We're so excited. And we love our Rocking It name because we're out here just rocking whatever we're doing in life. And today we have a guest who, I mean, she seriously rocks it. She has, she's like us, she's got a hundred grandkids and she speaks and she writes books.

Shellie Tomlinson (0:39)

Right.

Chrys Howard (0:39)

And she teaches.

Shellie Tomlinson (0:40)

And as soon as we knew we were going to Echo.

So we're talking about Rhonda Stoppe and we're going to breathe and let Rhonda Stoppe speak in a moment here. But as soon as we knew we were coming to Echo, we were both Rhonda like, well, we've got to get our favorite people in early. And so of course, that was Rhonda Stoppe.

Chrys Howard (0:59)

Yes, your name came right up. So Rhonda, welcome to our show.

Rhonda Stoppe (1:04)

I love you guys. I'm so excited we get to do this together. And I don't know how we can be sisters from another mistas, but we are.

Shellie Tomlinson (1:13)

But we are.

Rhonda Stoppe (1:14)

I know the saddest thing. I'm the West Coast version of all y'all.

Chrys Howard (1:18)

I was going to say the saddest thing is she lives in California. We live in Louisiana, so we're never in the same space.

Shellie Tomlinson (1:25)

Which may be providential.

Chrys Howard (1:27)

It may be.

Shellie Tomlinson (1:28)

It may be providential because the Lord is like, I need y'all separated.

Rhonda Stoppe (1:33)

That's right.

Shellie Tomlinson (1:34)

Instead of all together. Rhonda, I have some bio here all about you, but why don't we let Rhonda tell us about Rhonda?

Rhonda Stoppe (1:43)

Well, the most important thing y'all need to know about me is I have 15 grandchildren and I am just captivated by them. Most of them are very young, elementary school aged or just preschool. I have two 16-year-old granddaughters that are starting their junior year of high school, which it's going too fast.

Shellie Tomlinson (2:02)

I know.

Rhonda Stoppe (2:03)

Married to Steve Stoppe, love of my life for it'll be 45 years. He just retired as a senior pastor at the same church for 25 years. If you're in ministry, you know what that means.

So yeah, I have a bunch of books I've written. Harvest House is my publisher and I love them. I love that they are so devoted to producing work that is sound and doctrine. So I love them. My newest book out is called Moms of the Bible, Life-Changing Lessons from the Fearless, Flawed, and Faithful. I couldn't be more excited about how well that book is doing. The Lord is just sending it far and wide, and it just came out in Spanish, so I'm really excited about that too.

Shellie Tomlinson (2:44)

Oh, I love that. So Rhonda Speaks, she writes, in addition to all those grandchildren and that love of her life, she's an author and she's a speaker, and she does all the things. She's a friend to many, and she's a friend to this program. And Rhonda, most of your work, predominantly a lot of your work, is along the theme of no regrets. You're all about living this life with no regrets. And we were, Chrys and I were talking before we came on about your message to women. What would it be for the women that, let's just jump right into it, and the hard things. The women that would be listening, and as soon as they hear no regrets, you know what happens? They start thinking about all their regrets. Because we have people listening to us today that do regret how they raised their children or didn't raise their children, or different things in their life. And I know that you are such a mentor to them as well. What would you say to them?

Rhonda Stoppe (3:41)

I would say, I have regrets. I have things that as soon as you think about, it crosses your mind, those things you wish you could have a do over. But I always say this, I can write a letter to my younger self. It doesn't do anyone any good. But if I write it in the form of books or articles, or if I get to speak on these shows, and I hand it to the next generation, and you can learn from my regrets, then there's value.