Life is a Freakshow with Tess Scott

Guest Bio:
Tess Scott, former black sheep turned “Jesus Girl” is mom of 8 boys and spunky “Grami with a heart above the i” to a whole slew of adorable grandkids. She began the Listen Sister- Encouragement for Women ministry in 2020 where you can find her blog posts at tessscott.com and her Listen, Sister pages on Facebook and Instagram. She continues to live her life of hilariously awkward moments in Sarnia Ontario to the ongoing embarrassment of her family.

Get the Book: Listen Sister, Finding Hope in the Freakshow of Life: https://amzn.to/3q6a1hI
Connect with Tess: https://tessscott.com

Host Bio:
Teresa Janzen, M.Ed., ignites a passion for abundant living through radical service. She is an international speaker, author, and podcast host. Her experience in leadership and global ministry drives her to share inspiring stories with wit and insight. Her candid and personable style is sure to capture the heart of any audience.

Teresa is a Board-Certified Christian Master Mental Health Coach (BCCMMHC), oral Bible study trainer, and professional life coach helping people experience God’s amazing abundance in life, work, and relationships. Her credentials include a Master in Education from West Texas A&M, a graduate certificate in Bible Exposition from Liberty University and a certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Teresa also serves as a mentor to presidents of Word Weaver’s International online writing groups and facilitates a Mastermind group for the Advanced Writers and Speakers Association.

Connect with Teresa: https://teresajanzen.com

Transcript

0:02

Like I had my face in the green carpet of my bedroom for weeks, begging God not to let him leave. And there is some shame in the church still about divorce yet. He let it happen. Welcome to radical abundance. I'm your host, Teresa Jan. Sometimes life is just a freak show. And I know you agree with me. Today's guest is test Scott and she knows all about the freak show of life because she wrote the book about it. Welcome test to radical abundance. Hey, thanks for having me on today. I'm so excited about this. I just love the title of your book. Listen, sister finding hope in the freak show of life. So test tell me why do you see life as a freak show? What exactly does that mean to you? So my life I'm a mom of eight boys. And, uh, one is adopted special needs. So we had a big family and growing up with all these boys in our house at one time, five were teenagers. Like just the milk alone that we went through was an astounding amount. Okay. We could have had our own cow that would've helped and life wasn't perfect., you know, there was lots of things happening just in the everyday mothering things, not to mention, you know, the girl things, you know, the hormonal things or the, you know, traffic mishaps or just life. Life is not perfect. Nobody's life is perfect. And when I was younger and I was, um, a mom, I met with my friends more in real life or on the. and I learned that their life also wasn't perfect. You know, I heard their kids in the background yelling, or, you know, we did life together and, and I saw my life is just like their life. It's all a freak show. And I think now women often see their friends on social media. They see that beautiful house on Instagram. You know, the one with the beautiful wreath and the pumpkin on the porch. And it's a perfect house in a perfect life and women think, wow, everyone else has this perfect life, but that's not true. If you walk into that woman's house into her living room, there is laundry on her couch, just like your house. Nobody has a perfect life. We all live in this freak show of life and that's what I want to encourage women. Yeah, for sure. And I know, yeah, you would find laundry on my couch and and definitely a little bit of a freak show going on, but we try to clean things up for the external appearances. One of the things though, I appreciate about the younger generation, uh, right now is. They are a little bit more comfortable with the freak show and they are more open with that whole thing. Whereas when I was a young mom, when I had kids at home, you had to try to look at least like you had it all together, but TES, I have to tell you eight boys in the house. That is a freak show. I can just imagine. And, uh, yeah, you should have invested in that cow because we, we didn't have, we had six girls and two boys and a gallon of milk a day in my house. It was the toilet paper though. We went through. I should have bought stock in Charon. That's all I can say. that's right. See your, your freak show just looks different than mine, right. But it's still a freak show. Yeah, absolutely. And hopefully there's some comfort that can be found in this sisterhood. What has that been like for you in communicating with women and helping people? Some comfort comradery, group therapy. I don't know. What has it been like for you? I think women want to hear that they're not alone. You know, often if, um, I'm speaking, people will say, women will say, yeah, yeah, me too. Me too. You know, we all wanna know we're not the only one and that other people maybe went ahead of the us and they made it. You know, like, oh, I'm not the only one you've been through this. And look, you came out at okay, and you have most of your hair and everything is gonna be okay. That's what they need to hear. We need to encourage the ones coming after us. So before you got to this point though of accepting the freak show, embracing the freak show, and then even encouraging other people to, um, join in and, and find comfort in that. What did life look like for you? Or were you always just comfortable with your freak show? No, I was I wasn't a fan. Um, actually I will say my, in my past, like my past, past I was a black sheep, you know, I've been married four times and I made so many mistakes in so many. Bad choices, but this is the thing, God redeemed that. And he's redeeming that time. And I am so thankful. And to think that God would use me to encourage women. It just blows my mind. Now, I, I can't just let that slide and I hope you're comfortable with this test, but wow. Four times there's gotta be a story there. Well, there's lots of stories, but the, the first time I got married, I was pregnant at 19. Right. And in the eighties, when you were pregnant, you got married. That's what we did. Right. It was, it's what I did, I guess. Right. But a lot of people did back then. It was more than norm. Right? If you were pregnant, you got married. So I got married. I was married about a year and um, at 19 then divorced and then I got married again. I don't know how many years, five years later or something and had some kids with that has been. And then that I was married about 10 years. And then that marriage ended. Then I married Rick, my husband now. And we were married for about 10 years and I think 10 must be. My limit or something. I don't know. Not really, but we were married about 10 years. Yeah. And I was following the Lord. Like I gave my life to him. I'm doing all the things. I'm in the Bible study. I got the small group with women. Everything is just, I think, going along okay. Like marriage isn't perfect because we have two imperfect people in this relationship, so it's not easy, but I think it's going along. Okay. And my husband came to me and said, yeah, I don't love you anymore. I'm out. I'm leaving. Man Theresa, I was devastated. Like I had my face in the green carpet of my bedroom for weeks. Just begging God, not to let him leave. Like I don't wanna be divorced again. I'm not even a celebrity. Okay. And there is some shame in the church still right. About divorce. Right. And, um, but yet God did. Yeah. Yet he let it happen. and we separated after a year, I came to him and said, can we go for counseling? You know, I really wanna get back together. He would have none of it. So we got divorced. And then after three years of being divorced, God put our relationship back together. We started kind of hanging around. He asked if we could just be in each other's lives, he wanted to come back. He was a totally different person. And, uh, so we worked on things for about a year and got remarried. Like it's an absolute miracle. Absolute miracle. That is a miracle, you know, to be divorced in three years and to remarry, to reconcile and have God restore that relationship sounds like quite a journey and, um, a point of growth for both of you really I'm thankful for those years, because, um, during that time that we were a part I grew like I needed God for each breath. I mean, not even day by day, like sometimes minute by minute, I didn't know what I was going to do. It was just, that was all I had. And so it really is a precious time. Now don't hear me say, I ever wanna do it again because I don't, but I'm thankful for that time. And I would not change that. You know, I would not change that. and, um, so I, so I can be thankful that that happened. So you're talking about some really tough stuff and you're talking about it. So normally, all right. Eight boys, mm-hmm, three marriages, four marriages, three husbands, all of this stuff in the church. Mm-hmm guilt and shame and all the things that go with all of that. And you're talking about it, just like, you know, what you had for lunch that doesn't come normal and natural to people. How did you get to the point of being able to share your story the way that you are? Yeah. Well, I didn't want to. so I have to be honest here. Uh, after we got back together, we got married on September the ninth and three weeks later I was diagnosed with cancer. And so the first year of our marriage was my husband walking through cancer with me and chemo and radiation and losing my hair and like so many hard things and like, really God, that's what I said. Like, really like you gimme my husband back. I have this, this great, our family's back together. And then this happens, you know, um, But in the end, like later, not at the time later, I learned that that was actually the best timing because that allowed my husband to show me, he loved me and I had to let him, right. I had to be vulnerable because I couldn't take care of myself. So I had to let him also, my kids could see that my husband was there. Like dad is in, in. This is hard and look at what he's doing. And so really if there's ever a good time to have cancer, which there probably isn't, but, um, it was God's timing. It was a good, it was a good timing because. You know, all those things happened had I got sick and then my husband came and said, you know what? I wanna get back together with you. I would've been like, I don't think so. I would not have trusted him. I couldn't have trusted him, but he had no idea. I had no idea. So I'm, I'm thankful for that timing. And as time went on, like, I guess it would Bebo maybe the next year. I felt really strongly that God wanted me to share my story to encourage other women, but I'm not a writer. I have no formal training. I have no, um, experience writing, but yet it was just relentless in my mind. Like you have to share whatever this looks like. And I didn't know. I thought I was going to talk to women, maybe one on one, maybe write whatever it is. But again, I said to God, like, I don't think I'm the person for this. I, you know, I'm just me and who would listen to test Scott? Oh my goodness. You heard my track record. But yet he was just relentless in asking me to do this. Well, that is another amazing, amazing story to add into this whole mix. So let's talk about that book a little bit. Since you have found the courage, you've stepped forward, you're sharing your story on shows like this, but then also you have written it, which is such a. Permanent record of something. Mm-hmm uh, let's talk about the book. How, how did it come to be who's it for and how can they get it? Okay. So. What happened, how this, how this actually came to be was as I was arguing with God. Um, and I was getting ready for work. My eyes were kind of blurry one day, but as you get older, you know, your prescription changes. And I just kind of thought I'm, I'm getting older, which I am. And then the next day, my, my smile was crooked, you know, but I still went to work because nothing could happen without Tecot opening the door. Um, not true. anyway. And then my speech became garbled. So I ended up in the hospital. They thought I was having a stroke. Um, it was a Tia, which is like a little warning stroke with no permanent damage. So when I came home, I said to my husband, oh, it was just a false alarm. And my husband wise, as he is said, TES, maybe this is a real alarm. You need to do what God is asking you to do now. So I quit work. I went back to work and said, I'm, I'm going to quit work in a couple weeks and, um, be home and start writing stories. And, um, I sent a book proposal to Morgan James and I had a book contract in a couple months. And wrote the book and here we are, and it came out in June. So it's June 20, 22. It's, it's kind of a crazy whirlwind of, of things that are like, obviously this is God, because te does not know what she's doing and look at what happened. Right. Right. So I'm trying to figure out which audience this book is for, because you've talked about so many different, really incredible things that you have endured and overcome and seen God glorified through. And, uh, maybe it's just for anyone who has that freak show going on in their life. Who, who is it really targeted toward? So the book is targeted to women. Women of all ages are loving it. Um, the book is not about specifically, like it's not my biography of life. It's, it's short little stories, kind of like a chicken soup, sort of. Like a couple minutes while you're waiting for your kid to be done soccer practice or you're in the bathroom, but you only have one minute and they're banging at the door or, you know, you're enjoying a nice afternoon because your kids are all outta the house. Um, whatever that is. So, and it's stories of raising eight kids stories of growing up on a farm. Stories of having cancer stories of, um, my marriage story. Like, and most of them are really funny. People say I laughed and laughed and laughed. And then the next chapter I cried. So I'd like to make women laugh until they pee their pants, if I can, and then also make them think, and each story has, um, has a, you know, the real life awkward, funny story that really happened. And then it has the lesson. The lesson that I learned that God taught me through that and then scripture at the end of it. So does it read like a devotional or read more like a ING stories? Yeah, it reads like it reads like a demo, a devotional, but it sounds like it's something that is really great for women because it's small doses and it's real. I can really appreciate. So thanks for that, keeping it real for us. Yeah. So test tell me if people wanna get in touch with you. What's a great way for them to do that. How, how do you get to test Scott? Yeah, so I have a website which is test scott.com. Pretty easy to remember if you're looking for test Scott, test scott.com. And from that there, all the links are there for Facebook, Instagram, all, you know, all the social stuff. So you can find me right there. And the book is available at, I guess, all bookstores. Um, We're in Canada. So chapters indigo in, in the United States would be Barnes and noble walmart.com. Of course the Amazons, all that kind of thing. So it looks like it's out there. I heard that it was at the two big bookstores in England. I heard this week. So that's encouraging. That's very encouraging. Wonderful to hear. So, and if someone walks in their local bookstore and they don't have it, remember I love a local bookstore, but remember, do your authors a favor and just go to the clerk and say, Hey, can you order this for me? Cuz that's just a, a really wonderful thing. So test, thanks so much for sharing a little glimpse into your life, but I know that you have something that you want to leave us with. Words of wisdom out of all of these things that te has been through and that God has taught you. What, what can you leave us with today that, you know what Theresa, I think the most important thing, and because we're all still in freak shows of life, whatever, they just look different every day. The most important thing that I'm learning is to fill your head with truth. Know what the truth is. And the only thing, the only thing I know in 2022, that I know that I know that I know is true is God's word. So know God's word, fill your head with it. So when you have a thought, you can compare it to truth. Is this true? Because sometimes things that aren't true. Sound true. And I need to know what's true. So fill your head with truth. Wonderful. That's a great takeaway. And wow. I'm gonna hang onto that one myself for today, for sure. Tess. I'm gonna put all the links to the book and the, and your website, everything in the show notes. So people can find you easily. Thank you for being on radical abundance. And I wish you a radically abundant day. Thanks so much.