Life After Divorce and Depression – Soulmates are Real
There is life after divorce and depression, and soulmates are real. Discover life after divorce through healing, hope, faith, love, and spirituality. Explore powerful stories of relationships, marriage, personal growth, and self-discovery. From adversity comes transformation, trust, and purpose. With prayer and spiritual guidance, love can rise again—stronger, deeper, and more divine.
Best Soulmate Quote EVER by Toure Roberts
“If you don’t have sense of purpose…you have to know who you are. How are you going to give yourself to someone for the rest of your life if you don’t even know what you’re giving them? Seriously…. If you don’t have a sense of purpose you aren’t ready for your soulmate….The last thing you want to do is get into a [serious relationship]…and find your purpose. Because your purpose will change your life. It will change your direction; it will change your focus; it will change a lot about your life. And what happens if you wake up after you find your purpose and find that you’re not the person who got [into this relationship]?
[If] a counterfeit version of [yourself] commits to [a relationship before you know who you are and what you were sent here to do], then one of two things will happen. Either you or [your partner] will sacrifice [your] purpose for the [relationship], so that the [relationship] then becomes more important than the reason why you were born…and that would be sad. Or, you have to go through the painful process of sacrificing the [relationship] for purpose. Sometimes things can work there; I’m not saying that these are the two absolutes…but these are the two highest probable things.”
-Toure Roberts
Watch the full video below!
Definition of a Soul Contract
- A soul contract is often initially mistaken as a soulmate because it has a similar “vibe.” It is a two-way contract between you and a soul who—in a pre-earth life—made promises to you, and you likely made promises to them in return: “If/When you need [specific] help, I will feel your energy and I will find you. I will help you in [these ways]. And you will help me in [these ways]. We will get through [these challenges] together.”
- In committed relationships, a soul contract often involves two “broken” people who have “voids” to fill. As a result, they will usually “need” or “use” the other person to fill the void until there is no longer a void to fill (i.e., they heal), or they move on to someone else who fills the void “better.”
- A soul contract was CREATED BY US and ACCEPTED BY GOD in the presence of spiritual witnesses. It is legal and binding. However, it does not guarantee that the people involved will not breach the agreement or fail in their efforts to excute their promises optimally. (We are talking about imperfect, developing persons here, who don’t remember making the contract, and who must respond to their intuition as a guide for meeting the terms. That’s not always easy for any imperfect human to do).
- A soul contract ends when 1) The conditions of the contract have been met, or 2) One or both parties involved in the contract request and addendum, rewrite, or cancellation of the contract and the request is granted.
- A soul contract can develop into a soulmate contract if the soulmate conditions (listed above) are met.
- Most of us experience many soul contract relationships over our lifetime.
Definition of Soulmate
- A soulmate contract is renewable, and requires the agreement of three parties: you, your soulmate, and God. It comes into your life when you are ready to accept and fulfill your soul purpose. Your soulmate will offer complimentary help, support, and challenge you in ways that encourage you to rise to your life calling(s).
- In committed relationships, a soulmate usually involves two “whole” people who do NOT have “voids” to fill. Contrastsingly, each have innate hope, joy, and confidence that amplifies once they unite. Neither person will feel that they “need” the other to survive, but both will value and desire the companionship and contribution of the other in the relationship.
- A soulmate relationship is CREATED BY GOD and ACCEPTED BY US. We do not have to FIND a soulmate. God will BRING a soulmate TO us (Genesis 2: 18, 21-22).
- A soulmate contract is created with the intention of an eternal union—one that does not terminate or end.
- God’s soulmate choice for us does not guarantee a successful union if one or both parties use their agency in ways that take them away from God and each other.
- Most people have more than one potential soulmate. In very rare cases, a person has only one. I have many reasons to believe that my mother was one of these rare cases, and that my father was specifically raised up and chosen just for her.
Want to Heal Faster?? Get the Overcome Depression Workbook!
Get The Overcome Depression Workbook for each #Chapter of the Overcome Depression Podcast and maximize your healing power!
Full Transcript: Episode 29: Life After Divorce – Soulmates Are Real
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (00:00)
was very traumatic.
opened me up. like I turned on like a neon light every demon within a thousand miles, a million miles away and they saw that I was down. Get her.
John (00:12)
Yeah?
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (00:13)
And that year was the hardest year of my was
that Hope is important, but it has to be paired with faith and love for it to be an effective force for change, because if it’s just hope, it’s just not enough. And will tend to lose hope after a time. It’s almost kind of like willpower. There’s only so much of it before people will lose hope, if that’s all that they’re
banking but their faith or connection to God and their ability to forgive and transcend above their circumstances are not part of the equation. My story and Mike’s story is a really good example of that because of what we went through in our first marriages where we both hoped, I mean hoped from the time I was a little kid that
I was going to have an amazing marriage. That was very important to me. I wanted husband, have an amazing family, and I would always think about how I was going to do things better than everybody else when I was married. And it was a very rude awakening for me when I got I think I was such a broken human being at that time that I had very little real…
love to give. It was admiration. You can go down the line of all of the nice qualities that I had. I was kind. really tried hard to be a good wife and a good my heart was rock cold and I didn’t know why and I didn’t know how to fix it. And so the connection wasn’t there. And so I really believe that we find someone who’s
energetically vibrating at the same frequency that we are. So basically, you’re a sick person as I was, really angry, really depressed most of the time, pretty pessimistic, you’ll find someone who’s just as sick as you are, but in different ways, usually. So it can be kind of a yin and yang where you fit like toxic to toxic and you’re like, bing, you know, and you connect and you feel that understanding and that connection. But it’s
It’s the…
I don’t know how to say it. It’s not trauma bonding in my case, I don’t think, but just you’re connecting for the wrong reasons.
John (02:20)
So often than not, I’ve gotten back into the whole dating thing. And one of the reasons I left years ago was because I met so many women who were broken and they thought that getting involved with somebody else would fix them. You know, instead of trying that void–
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (02:37)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Fill that void.
John (02:40)
Yeah, so instead of looking at themselves and trying to, fix themselves, it’s almost like looking for an easy answer, an easy way out and saying, well, I’m broken, but if I get married, he’s going to fix me or she’s going to fix me. I’ll be happy because getting married is the key to repairing everything that’s wrong.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (02:48)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah, I’ll be happy after I get married.
John (03:02)
I think that’s fundamentally where a lot of people make those mistakes.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (03:07)
Well, in my case, it was very selfish and didn’t see it at the time, but I was in no place to make another person happy and I knew it. I was kind of a miserable person to be around, but I found someone who asked me to marry them and I said yes, and I loved him. Again, the best that I could at the time, but it wasn’t very good.
I didn’t love very well and he was about as loving as I was. And so that’s not a really good foundation for anybody in any relationship whatsoever. But our first two years we had that honeymoon stage. Those first two years are usually pretty easy for most marital couples. feels good.
The next eight were horrifically hard. And I just kept hoping that things would change. I had lost all hope in overcoming depression. think it was possible. And so that was off the table. think So what I was doing was externally wishing that everything around me would change so that I could be happier because I didn’t believe I could
change that part of me. When I realized that I could change that part of me. I came upon that realization and I talk about that in the podcast number two, that I could heal myself through diet. And then after that, it was, What else can I do? I wanted to know everything. And I went on this intense journey
trying consistently to get better and better and better and better and just layer upon layer and line upon line. the hard part of it was that my spouse, who I’d married when I was sick, was not making the same progress that I was. And he didn’t seem to have that desire to change as much as I did.
grew apart. There’s no other way to say One of the reasons was because our way of dealing with conflict was very, very different. Our way of dealing with money. Those are like the top two reasons people get divorced.
So when I would want to confront a problem, his style of confronting problems was not to confront the problem at all. Don’t get mad. Don’t talk it out. Just be good and walk on and we don’t need to talk about it. It’s just fine. Let’s just be fine. That was his way of tackling issues. And I wanted to duke it out. Right. You know, my style was even to the point of yelling,
which isn’t the best, but in my opinion it was better than not trying to resolve it at all. But he would just run away. So eventually it got to the point where he was never home. He didn’t want to be around me. So he’d find every excuse he could to work or do whatever he was doing. And he just wasn’t there. So I was pretty much a single parent the majority of our marriage, I was very much alone, very lonely, didn’t have money,
and didn’t really have a spouse either. When he was home, he was sleeping or just kind of checked out. so while I still, I’ll say it again, I believe he was doing the best he could and I believe I was doing the best we could. I there was no love in this marriage. It was a business partnership at best and the business wasn’t even working. It was falling apart. And it got to the point where he lost his faith.
and there wasn’t much left holding us together. And the pivotal moment though was when I lost hope. And I remember the moment because I don’t usually give up. I am very, very stubborn. My willpower is stronger than most. I don’t give up. And yet talked about wanting to do another business. And I was like, please no, please, please no, not another business;
just can you just get a job at a nice gas station? I don’t really care at this point. Just bring home a consistent income. I’ll be happy with that. But he really, really wanted to start this business. And I knew if I didn’t let him do it, he would, he would resent me for it for the rest of his life. I just knew I couldn’t tell him no. And so we agreed that if he started this business, he promised to do it slowly and to not put any money on the credit card.
and to do it that way. You keep the job he was doing, he was doing some construction type work at the time and to build this other business slowly. Well, he got excited and he broke that promise. And I could see he was breaking the promise and I confronted him about it and he kind of blew it off like, it’s fine, know, I’ll pay off the credit card.
I said, if you do not get this paid off, like this month or next, close the business, we gotta be done. Like this is it, I can’t do this. I can’t do this again. And he agreed. But then that following week, I got a letter in the mail. And it was for a bill that was due from the year before that he’d forgotten about, that he hadn’t told me about, because he thought he could pay it off and I’d never know. And…
John (07:37)
Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (07:38)
when I opened that letter and I saw it, was for a thousand dollars, which for me was a lot, but in general, okay, most people can handle a thousand dollars, but it wasn’t the thousand dollars. It was the deception and the realization that he’d done this many times and I realized he’s not going to change. And it hit me very physically. I remember breaking.
My soul felt like it was dying. I felt like I’d been shot. I called him up and just cried. And it was not a very response on my part. I cried and I yelled and I screamed. I was so upset. And that was the moment I gave up.
decided I’m going to be stuck in this miserable marriage for the rest of my life. And I’m just gonna have to endure it and suck it up. And maybe when I’m dead, I’ll get rewarded for it. And that was my thought. But in that moment, it’s like something changed. And believe very strongly, what I know now, that when we go through things like that,
was very traumatic.
And it opened me up. It was almost like I turned on like a neon light to every demon within a thousand miles, a million miles away and they saw that I was down. Get her.
John (09:01)
Yeah?
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (09:01)
And that year was the hardest year of my
because I was trying to hold onto this belief that no, I can’t get divorced. I married this man in the temple. I made promises; he’s not a bad person.
But the temptations that were thrown at me that year were unbelievable. I could not believe the amount of temptation I received. I’d never been tempted in the ways that I was tempted in that year. One man after another, I had never been attractive to men. Not really. was the depressed one. Nobody really, I wasn’t that attractive. And yet after that event, when I gave up hope, it was like…
All these men started hitting on me. And the horrible part about it was that I liked it. I liked the attention because I had not gotten any attention from my husband. He wasn’t happy with me for so long I’m not justifying it in any way. But that’s where I was at. I realized I like this attention and I realized this is dangerous. This is not good. I walked away from a potential affair more than once.
I didn’t give in, but the emotional affair was definitely part of that year. And the hardest thing I’ve ever been through to walk away because I was walking away back to what I felt was a hopeless situation. And what changed my perspective was I was working with a life coach,
and we were working on my desire to work on my marriage because I had no desire left. It was like 0.0001 or something like that. And we’re like, we got to work on your desire if we’re going to get anywhere. I’m like, but I don’t want to. And several sessions later, I remember lamenting to her about my hopeless situation. Like I’m damned if I do. I’m damned if I don’t. If I leave, bad Jennifer. If I stay, miserable Jennifer. It’s misery everywhere. There’s no way out.
And she stopped me and she said, Jennifer, you have to believe and know, and this is really important. And so I was like, okay, I’m all ears. She said, You decide right now you’re going to be happy. You’re going to be happy. You’re going to be happy either in a happy marriage that you’re going to fix, or you’re going to be happy outside of your marriage, either single or married to someone else.
And I remember in that moment, the hope coming back, that I felt this glimmer, like, I felt the truth of it. Yes, okay. All right. And I just let go of any outcome. And that was the first time I started putting my faith in God, that I can’t fix this, but you can. Because before that, it was all, I fix it. I have to fix this. I have to fix this. I didn’t think God could fix me. I didn’t think God loved me.
John (11:33)
Yeah.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (11:41)
I mean, I just didn’t feel that love of though I knew logically He loves me, but I didn’t feel it. And this was the first time that I felt that connection and hope like, He’s got promised He can heal anything. And so as I moved forward with that hope that did get me through that year, that one conversation gave me the hope I needed to get through that year.
But one of the things I was told before I could leave my husband, I was going to the temple and saying, can I leave now? I’m ready to leave. I want to leave. feel like I need to go. And I got a very strong no. I was like, but why? I don’t want to stay. I want to be free of this. I feel so trapped. I feel like I’m in a prison in this marriage. I can’t do it
And I got the very strong impression that it was a voice to my mind. You have to learn something first. And I go, what? What do I need to learn? Anything. I’ll do anything. And then I heard, you have to learn to love him.
Oh no.
My heart just sank because I was like, I don’t know how to do that. I had so much resentment by this time. And I was like, okay, well, you’re gonna have to show me how, because I don’t know how I’m gonna do it. And I can sincerely tell you that I learned to be happy in a miserable situation those last few months
I felt I had given permission to go. But I also felt this strange love for my spouse I’d never felt before. Not that I should stay, but that this was a child of God who I’d hurt terribly through a lot of actions on my own part, things I’d said, things I’d done, the way I treated him. And it wasn’t all his fault. And I felt this God-like love for him that this is a good person who deserves so much more.
And then I’m giving him and I want him to move on and find someone else who can give him all the things that he wants and needs can’t get what he needs from me. vice versa; we were going to keep pulling each other down. And I realized that didn’t leave, it was going to literally ruin everything. Both of our life paths; and that it had to end. And that’s probably strange for some people to hear.
not condoning divorce, but in my situation, I feel that I was given permission to and that that was actually the thing God was telling me to do after all this time of saying, no, I can’t do that, I can’t do that, I can’t do that, that that was actually the answer in the end once I learned what I needed to learn. So it was rather odd. next few years were pretty good and not so good. I felt a sense of freedom.
learning more of what I did and didn’t want, I was definitely coming off marriage in rebound mode, dated a lot of different people, married another very quickly, and it ended very quickly. It was tragic. And really hurt my confidence in ways that I wasn’t prepared for. But then again, it forced me to connect to God again. husband.
I think I chose my second one. What I wanted; what I thought I should have. While I did feel the sense of, Yes okay, go ahead and marry them, I don’t even think I gave God the chance to pick for me. I just didn’t. I made the choice and he said, It’s a decent choice for where you’re at right now, go ahead. You’ll learn what you need to learn through this one.
John (15:04)
yeah, life is a series of experiences and the more you go through, the more you learn and oftentimes you learn by mistakes. you’re, If you’re not making mistakes, you’re not learning. And sometimes those are easy mistakes to overcome. Sometimes they’re difficult mistakes to overcome. I think we all go through that. I know I did too.
There was a period of my life when I thought I didn’t need God. I could do everything myself. I could depend on myself. And then it wasn’t until I was completely broken that I started trusting God and really listening to what He had to say.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (15:41)
Mm-hmm.
That broken heart, that cold heart I was talking about, that’s what it took for me, was breaking my heart over and over again allowing God to put it back together.
John (15:47)
Yeah.
And that’s the key too, especially for people that are having difficulty with hoping again, is to realize that some of the strongest material is made, when you break it and then reforge it, and you break it and reforge it, and you get very strong results from such a thing. you have a question Mike?
Or a comment?
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (16:21)
mean, Hope is crafted and transforms
The right frequency of hope comes through the Savior and our Lord; paints that picture of to hope for. And as we learn through our experiences of hope and disappointment, which is, I believe, why we’re on this earth.
learn through these cycles. hope…
we come closer to Christ time this cycle happens. closer And we can hope things, more direct things going to tie into our identity our Savior, like our true identity.
as a child of God and that actually looks like. It gives Him permission to…
show us when we’re in that broken place and we’re trying to recreate ourselves and find that hope. And through prayer can discover really what he wants us to become like it’s like he’ll lend you his eyes
sometimes for a second and you can see those people around find forgiveness and then you can find purpose direction and sometimes it’s just so clear
what you have to do and become overwhelmed with excitement because shown what you can then you spiritual high like that, opposite, a test of faith on the other side. And so
John (17:59)
in many ways Coming from a teacher perspective, God teaches us a lesson, He tests us to see if we’ve learned it. And if we have, then we move on to the next level. If not, then He reteaches.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (18:07)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I was told that by a mentor too
when I was single. She’s like, you’re just learning over and over and over again. How long do you want to During the time that I was going through all this, Mike was having his own refiner’s fire through his first marriage and all of the things he went through.
I was married for 10 years.
We were both married about 10 years. Yeah, I I I don’t know how much of my story talk about, my testimony origin God came when I was little….
I had to be about eight years old, give or take was old enough to ride a dirt bike. and, I’d listened to my parents talk to me about prayer.
and how important it is to pray protection against, dark forces, right? And, and other things, but, prayer is I was learning how to ride a dirt bike at the time and I was,
kind of graduating from pedal bike to dirt bike and, I had this small CC XR dirt bike. I, as I got more confident riding this bike and got further and further away from home, one point in time, it was evening hours. And I was.
probably about 10 miles from home, a little bit further than I should have been. And I didn’t let anybody know where I was at. This was before cell phones or anything. Keep in mind, I, was raised in farming community and there wasn’t a lot around. There’s lots of mountains around where I lived and I was in, in this canyon.
and I had this chain come off. Yaknow when your chain comes off it’s hard to get that thing back on again and being young the dirt bike chain was a little bit bigger and thicker than a pedal bike chain and I was having difficulty trying to get it to click back onto the sprocket.
Usually you get it started and then you can kind of roll the tire then you can click it and it jumps back on the sprocket. fought with it for what seemed like forever and I was getting concerned because it was evening sun was starting to go down.
But I kneeled down on this dirt road and I said a prayer; asked Heavenly Father for help.
And after that prayer, I opened my eyes and the chain was on the sprocket.
There wasn’t a single noise in that process. It didn’t like click back on. It was just on the sprocket.
At the time I was like really excited that I could go home now. And I jumped on and went and everything was fine. But when the gravity of that kind of soaked in, especially through the years of how powerful prayer is and faith and hope….
But this experience was the beginning of my testimony and
relationship with God.
I’ve had a lot of miracles in my life, a lot of things happen, but that was it stuck with me. And it still does. Yeah. And then as I got older, I got married. I felt good about choosing my wife at the time.
John (21:21)
keystone moment.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (21:30)
prayed about it
don’t think it was ever wrong choice.
think the choice we made was based on where we were at the time and God knew that we would learn what we needed to learn by moving forward where we were at. If we were to wait, we just would never learn. And when I got married, I never thought about getting divorced
John (21:47)
Yeah.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (21:50)
thought, you know, I would be with this person the rest of my but the interesting part is how we can grow apart. And not only that, how agency can affect the other people in our lives. And not only that
the things that we choose to feed upon with our minds literally can change who you are. And over time, if you’re not paying attention as a couple, like some people are scared about getting married because they’ve heard of people getting but is the point of and faith and prayer because you’re both on that same page,
It’s never gonna be an issue. Like divorce will never be an issue for you you’re both subscribing to that. believe that wholeheartedly. That As in hope, faith and love. I think both of us in our first marriages were just banking on hope and maybe a tiny bit of faith. Hoping and,
There’s so many expectations associated with it too, like certain outcomes. And then when those expectations don’t happen, then you’re sad and then you get angry at the other person. And anyway, my ex at the time, I’ll go ahead.
John (22:55)
I just going to ask, often I’ve heard that one of the keys to a strong, successful marriage is God at the core. do you see that that wasn’t strong at the core at the time with the other marriages? or?
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (23:05)
Yeah
Yes, for me absolutely I thought I was marrying someone with a solid testimony thought I had a pretty solid testimony but it was more ritualistic I think than anything else. I really wasn’t connecting to God and I don’t, I mean I would occasionally but it wasn’t consistent.
And God really wasn’t at the center of it. was hard also as I, again, as I started healing and connecting to God more That became the biggest issue of them all. I think if we had both anchored ourselves in Christ and God that could have handled anything. And…
years after getting divorced, my center was still off. I was still looking for partners who would turn me on or were really attractive or, some of the things on my list. I really wanted a spouse who I was attracted to; that was on the top of my list.
I finally gave up on that and realized ‘I am stinking this picking a good person thing,’ and I finally got to the point after dating so many different people and them just ending one after another less and less capable as that continued to occur that
are pretty up, aren’t they? And so I said a prayer to God. It was only about two weeks before I met Mike. And I said, I am ready to surrender my will for yours. I want you to pick. I’m ready to give up all the things that I think important that I think I should want. And I’m only requesting three things. Please let
his faith be impeccably strong that he puts you first. was my first and foremost. I want a man who puts you first. And my second was I want a man who loves me and my children.
John (24:50)
You want-
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (24:58)
And the third one was incredible testimony. Someone who couldn’t be wavered, someone who was strong. And I said, okay, I’m sure he’s going to look a lot different than anything I’ve ever seen or dated. So when he shows up, help me to recognize him and not turn him away. I was using the mutual app at the time and I was who, God?
Who should I go out with? Who’s nice? And I stopped looking at their faces or even the profile and I would just go by feel. Is this person nice? Should I go out with them? And I went on like nice people dates, just nice people, really good guys. I went out with Mike and I wasn’t actually sure at first. I’m like, this is a nice person.
Steven and Jaren that swiped on me. Yeah, I was letting them choose one day. I’m like, here, up on people that you think look nice. My kids who were what, a nine and 12, something like that. I was letting them.
John (25:45)
I you what,
that’s good decision. mean, the eyes of a child, they’re the closest.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (25:49)
Right?
So they, they, I think they swiped up on Mike. They’re like, he looks cool. He flies planes. And so that’s how started. didn’t happen for me until I let go of what I wanted. And I said, clearly, I’m toxically attracted to the wrong people. And this should be a red flag for me. If I like someone, it’s probably a big fat no. I’m not picking very well. And
had been dating some different people. He’d just gotten out of a relationship. You can tell your story back up a little bit so you can catch up to mine. All right. So and he answered his question. Do you think God at the center is how important was that? Did you have that in your first marriage? I felt like I did. but like Jennifer said, I think it was a lot of just box checking or or just kind of going through
the functions of the religion, if you will. knew God and I had faith, I had a testimony, dating,
my ex-wife another reason why I felt like it was right was spiritually speaking there was a lot of spiritual battles I was facing dating her and going through that process. She wasn’t religious at all. She didn’t really believe in God
There was something special that I connected with about her spiritually. She went through a spiritual journey of her own and eventually she got baptized. Then we got married and
through this process, spiritually I was attacked. This started in my early 20s; I remember the first time I was asleep, it was nighttime, and I woke up and I felt,
a heavy weight on my chest and I couldn’t breathe. And there was this noise in the ears, almost like white noise, but it’s hard to describe. As I looked around, I saw dark figure next to my bed.
John (27:29)
gonna say.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (27:45)
It felt like it was going to consume me and kill me. It would happen in the moments of sleep as I would transition from kind of an unconscious mind to a conscious
as I was seeing this I was like, “No
No, this can’t happen. I have power over you. And the second I said that, in the second
I thought about Jesus Christ in that moment, I’m coming from kind of this unconscious, vulnerable state of mind to a conscious mind, my eyes are open and this is what I’m seeing.
The second that happens, it’s gone. This happened to me several times since then. think even once.
or twice since I’ve met Jennifer. I saw one one morning and I’m like, what was that, Mike? Are you okay?
John (28:46)
Yeah, Yeah, ⁓ as soon as you started describing, know someone who experienced that. And I’ve also heard many stories of those types of attacks on people. Yeah. So I, That’s pretty common, believe it or not. The closer you get to God, what happens is at that moment, Satan expects you to give into the fear.
And the moment you give into that fear, you create the opening which he takes advantage of. But the fact that you did not give into the fear, the fact that you immediately went to Jesus, that scares him away. So he takes off.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (29:19)
so I was listening to the podcast, believe it was the first one that you and Jennifer your description, at least of that dark figure, the way that you described kind of that murky, there wasn’t, there wasn’t a clear definition, but
I was like, Hey, I, know that, and I guess to kind of bring this whole circle, if there’s a devil, there’s a God, so reinforced my testimony. but it
It also helped me know at the time that, I was actually on the right because being attacked. the potential of this is something huge that I may not understand right now, is something So my first marriage, was a lot of and downs
I believe in finding forgiveness for, you know, people that take advantage of our vulnerabilities for sure,
John (30:07)
Yeah.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (30:10)
I don’t want to speak ill of her by no means. loved her know the fight that she was facing. She was dealing, bipolar depression she was dealing with a lot. knew if there was anybody
that could love her, God put me here to do that. And I I didn’t know that before we got married. happened after, through marriage, it got to a point where…
her agency and choice led her down a path that,
Well, I couldn’t follow. And we both agreed to get divorced.
John (30:44)
longer aligned. Yeah.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (30:50)
interesting because about three months before we got divorced, I sensed there was something not right. There was like spiritually, and I had a dream and I saw the devil laughing at me. Like I got you. And I didn’t even know at the time what was going on.
but he had her in a snare. And that manifested months later, but neither here nor there. The results of that were I wanted to save the marriage or do everything I could to save it, but want to.
John (31:16)
Yeah.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (31:26)
That’s honestly one of the reasons that I trusted Mike so much. Because he had tried so hard in his marriage to save it. He didn’t want it to end.
John (31:33)
Yeah.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (31:36)
It opened my eyes to how vulnerable we are. Like, any one of us, it could happen to any one of us.
didn’t realize that until that point was at a pretty low point after I got divorced and
spiritually, that was rock bottom for me in a lot of ways too. Like
I just remember how lonely I was. And I knelt down. I knelt down on the floor and I prayed.
moment turning point,
manifesting my future to God.
I want good person in my life. I just want a family. Why is this so hard for like with my ex-wife, we couldn’t have kids.
She had a lot of health problems. anyway, to this point, I’m just like, why is it so hard?
and I started thinking about.
my future wife.
From that point forward.
listened to…
that direction of the spirit that guided me in my life, and the worked at Coca-Cola. It was a good job, is a good career in a management position. Everything was looking up.
A lot of opportunities opening up for me in that position.
It didn’t feel right to stay there. Enjoyed good healthcare, good benefits, something that a lot of people would fight for, the spirit telling me you need to do something
I in my notice and it’s funny because these doors just opened; a flight school that I could get into and
everything just came together go focus on that for a year and get through that program.
Got my commercial pilot license. That led me down here to Phoenix. Now I’m from Idaho. So all of this was going on up in Idaho.
I was working on my CFI.
And I was in a program up in Northern Utah. And as soon as I got my commercial pilot license. And as soon as I got into that CFI program up there, it was almost like I ran into a wall. Something was telling me. What’s next? Yeah. You need to go somewhere else.
John (33:55)
What’s next?
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (33:58)
And I had the prompting to go down and visit my brother down in this Phoenix area where he lives. And I fought that prompting actually for, a couple months. did. yeah, I, I, fought.
John (34:11)
I’ve
been there, that, yep, yep.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (34:13)
I fought that prompting and
it was almost like this blockade and things just didn’t feel right anymore what I was doing but I kept trying to tell myself no this is what I’m supposed to be doing I got confirmation to do this so God this is what I’m supposed to be doing but it wasn’t I kept getting this prompting to go down to Phoenix and visit my brother and so I’m like okay okay.
And after about two months of torment, chose to come down to Phoenix. And I only was planning on being here for a week.
it was interesting because I was driving down here. A long drive from, Northern Utah. It was about a 12 hour drive from where I was at. And so by the time I got into the valley down here, it was nighttime.
as soon as I hit the valley, I felt peace. Like,
peace that I hadn’t felt in at least two months, I knew this is where I had to be. There was a hundred percent confirmation. And it’s interesting how God speaks to us. The truths he speaks are simple. They’re short and they penetrate to the heart.
And that’s how you know it’s true. Like it is can’t do that because he can’t speak truth. has to manipulate truth, which requires more words and effort to create a false truth. kind of a side tangent, but the peace that I felt it’s just so simple. It’s so simple and it penetrates right to the heart.
I knew this is where I needed to be. I’m like, okay, God, why am I here? had some things planned with my doing some hikes, eating some tacos; I dated a girl for about six months up in Utah and I was just breaking up with her and
I’m like, I’m not getting back on this mutual dating app. I’m I’mdone with dating,
I was not impressed with what was out there. Yeah. Iwas I’m not downloading this app. After I was like, God send me a really nice person. I’m on Mutual! Yeah.
John (36:14)
The choices. Yeah.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (36:23)
And funny because looking at CFI programs all week. is like aviation Mecca down here. And so I was driving around all the different airports in this area, checking out CFI programs and trying to listen to what the spirit’s trying to tell me. I do this one? had like three of them lined up that I was looking at.
None of them really felt right and I wasn’t even really sure why I was here and I kept getting the feeling to download Mutual dating app. I’m like, that is so silly. And like the last few days I was here, I downloaded the one of the first people on the app was Jennifer.
And wasn’t like I had to swipe through hundreds, all the letdowns, all the conversations you try to have or initiate because you’re the guy you got to initiate the conversations….
swiping, swiping, swiping. I’m like, I’m so over this app, right? I did not want to download it.
fact that she was right there and I with her immediately and we set up a date. There wasn’t anybody else. God’s like, open your phone. There she is. And.
John (37:35)
you
Yeah I can totally relate with similar stories with me and God sometimes I’m so stubborn He has to hit me with a baseball bat. He has to smack me before I realize that he’s trying to tell me something. Just because I’m stubborn and I’ll hem and I’ll haw I listen to myself too much.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (37:57)
I just make a wreck of things.
I’m like the wrecking ball and he’s like, you ready to stop? I can make it easier for you.
John (38:02)
Yeah.
I know.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (38:04)
But that essentially catches us was here for a week, but I ended up staying and I’ve been here for five yearsnow, story short. Our first date was on a hike the first time I saw you was your profile.
And I remember you turning to me and going, ⁓ Oh, hi. First words you ever spoke, off of the he just opened completely up, told me his whole life story on that hike. Iwas pretty gun shy. I’d been hurt a lot, been through a lot of guys who pretty much used me up and spit me out. It’s kind of how it felt. And was ready to be rejected the moment I started dating someone.
was just like, how long is this one gonna last? But with Mike, it felt different. And I wasn’t sure why, but I knew there was something there, like, okay, I’ll give this a chance; something different about this one. Again, I wasn’t 100% sure because he was so different from anyone else I’d ever dated. And it didn’t take very long, I think three weeks, we had…
both had the that we should date for a year. We both got married way too learn from this mistake and date longer and make sure we really know each other before we get married. two and half maybe weeks later, Mike’s going, actually, I think I’m ready to marry you. And I’m like, what? What? What? My family’s gonna kill me. Like if they find out I did this again, I don’t. And he goes, Will you go to the temple
and pray about this? Well, I couldn’t turn that down, so I said, okay, I’ll go to the temple. I’ll pray about it. And while I was at the temple, I can’t remember if it was exact words or just the feeling that I had, but that it doesn’t get better than this. This man is willing to give up everything to be with you. He loves you. He loves your kids unconditionally.
It’s not going to get better than this. your person. This is your soulmate. Because asking God to send me my soulmate. And when I realized that he was the man that God had sent for me, I felt the truth of that penetrate my entire being. And up to this point, my attraction for him had been ho-hum.
I really liked him. I was attracted to him on some level, but I just wasn’t sure. And in that moment, everything in my spirit and body wanted him. He became the most attractive man I had ever met and have ever met since. That feeling still remains, but it felt like a complete change of perspective and heart that was like this gift of, help you see him the way I see
from the Lord and I knew, like, okay, I’ll marry him after knowing him for three weeks, I will marry him. And I could not wait to get home and just love all over him in every way possible other than breaking the law of chastity. I was so excited and I just knew, like that was it. told him, I’m not telling my family, was during almost,
It was just just before COVID. I’m like, I can’t tell my family, they won’t understand. They’re going to be so worried. I’m just going to let them figure it out. And Mike was like, that’s fine. And he told his family. they were, which surprisingly, they trusted him like after three weeks, really. But they completely were on board. They were excited too, which was cool. I was not in a rush either.
John (41:04)
You
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (41:18)
I believed in dating somebody for a long time, getting married to them for sure. I wasn’t really looking for another relationship, but
when I met Jennifer, I knew that she was it. And so for me, this journey from that moment when I prayed, on my living room floor
It was clear to me when I saw her this was it. is why I’m here. thought you were going to go back home. I thought, you know, well, maybe we’ll try the long distance thing. He didn’t indicate he was going to stay until he just stayed. I’m like, you know, aren’t you going back home? And he was like, no, think I’ll stay with my brother for a while. I’m like, I’ll stay another week. Yeah.
John (41:58)
⁓
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (41:59)
And
then he never left. never after two weeks of the spirit spoke to me that way and the peace that came with it and knowing,
would I
waste time to put a ring on that finger? At this point, we’re ready to tackle life together.
Why try to complicate things
put some kind of expectation, eight months or a year before we get married the spirit has already told you so abundantly clear.
is it. I think that people need to hear too is a lot of people feel like they need to know if they’re sexually compatible before they get married. We made the choice we weren’t going to do that. And I think both of us were a little nervous because we’d both been rejected on that level quite a bit, we couldn’t make the other person pleased or happy in that regard. And
we were finally willing to let God choose for that part of the marriage was so much better than I ever could have possibly known or imagined. And we had never tried it beforehand. So I just think that that’s an important piece that when you let God choose for you, He knows it all. He really does.
John (43:15)
Yeah, yeah.
And I think the key element there was as soon as you felt something, you both went to church and prayed about it together. And that’s always a key. That’s what a lot of people, especially those who don’t have faith, who don’t have hope, you know, they don’t see that connection.
One of the hallmarks of a successful marriage, of course, is that it has to be God and the hallmark of a successful marriage, as far as what I understand is if your spouse, your significant other helps you get closer to God, then it’s a good marriage because that’s
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (43:53)
Yes. Yes.
John (43:58)
the key that while you’re going to share a life here on earth you’re going to hopefully have children or not as the case may be the key though is that you’re aiming for eternity so the person that you’re matching you not only have to really be compatible here I mean earth is a good place to find out if you’re compatible but afterwards you’re gonna be with them for eternity so you want you want to make sure they’re cool to hang around I mean so
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (44:23)
Yeah.
John (44:24)
Making sure
you hey God, you know, we’re gonna be together for a while here.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (44:27)
For,
Yeah it’s interesting though, for a long time I didn’t even want to ask God any questions about when my second marriage ended because I had prayed before my first and my second marriage about the person that I was going to be marrying both ended terribly. So I was really confused. But I think the difference was that I had made the decision before I even went and prayed, if that makes sense.
verses saying, God, you choose, help me recognize it when it shows up and I will receive it or receive him.
John (45:05)
You kind
of placed your will before his will.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (45:08)
Yeah, I had an idea of what it should be, what it should look like. looked like a Ken He was gorgeous, but made me quite miserable all said and done. So, your idea of what paradise looks like isn’t necessarily going to give you the paradise you think it will if you’re not centered in what God wants for you, He knows what you need.
John (45:31)
The world is preoccupied with physical appearance because that’s all the world can see. But I will tell you, mean, coming from someone who has been given the gift of looking into person’s soul, there’s an indescribable beauty
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (45:36)
Yes.
John (45:49)
in a soul that can never be reflected in an outward physical appearance as we are now. Maybe eternity after we have glorified bodies if you go on that route and what not then yeah sure; but right now I will tell you what’s instantly attracting to me is a person’s soul. I can sense that. I can feel that
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (45:56)
Mm-hmm.
John (46:13)
And on the same token I can look at someone who is quote extraordinarily attractive according to world. But when I get close to them or I glance at them I immediately wince because I can feel the darkness that emanates from within. And I think if people learn to accept those little sensations because we all can do it.
Some people’s gifts are more developed in that regard, true beauty comes from within, always.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (46:46)
Yeah, I had a friend, I was trying to set her up with one of Mike’s nephews and I contacted her and sent his picture and said, Hey, I think you guys would be a really good match. And her response was, well, I’m not attracted to him. And I was just like, grr, you idiot. And then I’m thinking, Oh…. I used to be like that. She’ll have to learn the hard
And Mike’s a really good looking guy, the way, if you can’t. Thanks. I appreciate it.
John (47:10)
⁓ yeah, she’s you know, Jennifer’s going
my last husband was like Ken Barbie doll and I’m here looking at my goin’ Wow, come on. I mean, yeah, he could give he could give Ken a run for his money.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (47:18)
He’s very good looking. So I don’t want anyone to get the idea
that he’s super homely or anything. He’s handsome inside and out. Well, I appreciate that.
John (47:25)
Nah.
a guy I don’t want to come off and say, yeah, he’s handsome. because people say that.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (47:32)
Yeah,
right. Yeah, no, I get Yeah. To speak to what you’re saying about, recognizing people, I do feel, especially when you get close to people, sometimes it could be even be in the grocery store. I’ll be standing there and someone will walk by
you look and you’re like, what was that? And they might look like a completely normal. It might not even be them. It might be what’s following them. Or like you said, an extremely attractive person, look at them, maybe to the world’s perception. You’re that’s accommodating.
John (47:48)
Yeah.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (48:06)
is something that is amiss. feel it. And as I converse with people, you can tell kind of what they prioritize in their lives focus on. And if they are worried about what the world thinks about them. Yeah, that’s what I loved about Mike too.
He doesn’t care very much about what other people think, at least on the level that other people that I’ve dated did.
John (48:30)
Another interesting story going back on what Jennifer was commenting on I had a priest who was a friend of mine…. One of the hardest years for him was his last year in seminary. They have to train for seven years before they actually go and become full priests And up until that point in college where he was learning
he never had a single girl hit on him. Not once. But that seventh year, his final year, he said he had to hide. They would come up from nowhere and just throw, And he said that was his most difficult year because of that. for.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (49:04)
You
Like the distraction
or…
John (49:11)
Yeah, just the distraction
and wave after wave of temptation, temptation. But then again, in that essence, that was God training him, God teaching him, how to become stronger because God will always allow Satan to attack your weak points. That way you discover what those weak points are and then you can learn.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (49:16)
Mm-hmm.
John (49:34)
how to grow and how to strengthen them.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (49:37)
and protect them in the process. Because sometimes when you’re not strong enough, I’ve prayed many times, I can’t do this. If you’re going to have to do it for me, I’m not strong enough to guard this weak spot enough, and to consistently pray for that help while it’s becoming stronger.
John (49:38)
Yes.
I’ll give you example where that just happened to me yesterday. I have just come off of a pretty routine and yesterday I was feeling very spiritually burnt out I need to take a break today. I need to pull back because I’m tired. I can’t focus on the prayers anymore.
I know how I get, you know, you get the high, you get the low. And I was definitely coming off that high about to crash down into the low. So I told God, tonight I’m going to take it easy. I’m not going to do all the prayers. I’m just going to do this one simple prayer. Then I’m going to go to bed. Then I’m going to relax. So I decided to watch this channel and there’s a discussion about whether or not this certain individual
did a satanic performance live on TV and this person was decided to talk about it yesterday and I wasn’t expecting that and they’re like, Oh, here’s what they did. You tell me what you think. they rebroadcast this. And as soon as that did that, I was You idiot.
I literally felt the evil pouring out of the TV and flowing at me. I shut everything off and I’m like, no, no, no, no, no, not now, not like this. And then I’m sitting there. Then all of a sudden, boom, boom, boom, the portal, opened Even it was so brief, but it was big enough that all of a sudden
they started coming in on me and I’m like, great. I was like, all right, God, you got to do this. I can’t. So I ended up doing more prayers than what I had originally intended because I had to shut down all the portals that just got opened. I had to hedge all the attacks. So I didn’t go to sleep until
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (51:35)
You
John (51:43)
Gab darn it! No. So tonight tonight. I’m gonna go get some sleep tonight. I’m gonna try and get some sleep because this is a good podcast good people so I’m not gonna get blindsided by that garbage normally it’s a good channel, but for whatever reason it just last night was just timing was worst possible.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (51:51)
Yeah.
I would love
for Mike to talk
John (52:03)
Well, I have some questions. I got a nice little reading on hope here since this is the podcast and
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (52:07)
Ooh, thank you. Please.
John (52:10)
question is how does inner joy and peace help identify a person who’s hopeful? What’s your thoughts?
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (52:20)
So that’s a deep question.
Why don’t you answer that first while I think about it? I think you can see people glow. I think you can see light in their eyes. The most devastating part both of my marriages that ended, don’t mean to condemn them in any way, it was where they were at, but the light left their eyes and I saw it leave their eyes. And it was like,
John (52:24)
hahahaha
Right.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (52:49)
they had spiritually died. Like they were still walking around, but I could see that their eyes no longer had light in them. And it was almost, almost terrifying to me; I was desperate, like, don’t, please come back. What have you done? you, Where are you going? Why is it gone? And it, it was alarming.
John (53:04)
I was going to say this.
Yeah, I was about to say the same thing. It’s always the eyes. The eyes are the mirror to the soul. I mean that’s been said so many times and it’s so very true, but you can usually tell if someone still has hope; inner joy, that inner peace, that inner desire, you can still see the glint of life in their eyes no matter the circumstance. It’s still there.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (53:11)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mike had light in his eyes. That was the first thing I noticed about him was he has kind eyes. And that’s what I was first attracted to.
Yeah. Any comment, Mike? He likes my Disney eyes. She’s got pretty eyes for sure. I would say, for her, it was definitely her spirit. remember distinctly the first date we went
John (53:39)
Okay.
Heh.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (53:55)
was kind of at
her spirit she prioritizes spirituality and God in her life far more than any other woman that I’ve been with or dated. It felt so to see that; to see where her priority was, but I could see
the glow, but she is a rock in
And I could not pass that up with any right mind. I could not pass that up. I would be a fool if I did, right? Of course. Yes, absolutely. I will say, I realized this, God started helping me to understand that men couldn’t stay with me because just the
John (54:33)
Yeah
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (54:43)
who I am. And I saw it years later in my chart. I’m like, that’s validating. Cool. I wasn’t wrong. that it’s Pluto in the seventh house. It pretty much suggests, and it’s right next to Mars and Saturn too. So it’s like all of this required discipline, energy of massive wanting to improve constantly. Like that’s just what I do. I’m constantly trying to grow and develop.
in new and exciting ways and the men that I was with before could not tolerate it. It’s almost like the person I’m with almost is required to transform and develop over and over and over beside me in whatever way that is for them in order to stay. Like it’s almost like they’ll just fall off if they don’t. And
Mike has been that person. He’s been willing. And he’s even made the comment that I understand now why people couldn’t stay with you. When I heard that I was like, ouch, like, geez. And he goes, No, let me explain. No actually felt that if I am not on my own relationship with God, she is going to leave me in the dust.
John (55:40)
The truth hurts.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (55:52)
I, ⁓ yeah. Yeah. It. And vice versa. Mike speaks his mind and will tell me things I don’t want to hear. And it’s not easy for me, especially being so stubborn, like whatever. And then later I’m like, yeah, you’re right. But he helps keep me in check.
John (55:52)
She challenges you,
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (56:09)
allows Lucifer to our weak spots. Yeah. Our weak spots. he knew that we would be perfect for each other because we would, kind of fuel the fire to look at our weak spots. She helps me
John (56:11)
Weakness, yes.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (56:24)
look at mine, a balance. And I guess I help her look at hers weak spots. And then, you’re right.
John (56:30)
and and
And I like what you said there. It’s a balance, not a competition.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (56:37)
Yes. And I would say a really big difference in this relationship too I’ve actually heard from Esther Perel, it just kind of comes naturally to us, which is nice because we don’t have to try so hard. But those who are struggling in their or new in their marriages struggling yet, This is, I think the number one most important thing to keeping your marriage strong is expressing appreciation on a regular basis every day.
Thank you. I appreciate you. I appreciate what you’re doing. And using the words, “I appreciate you,” NOT “appreciate that.” There’s a big difference. I love it when you come home and spend time with me. And other times when I’m like, you just got home and you’re ignoring me, spend time with me. But then amount of
appreciation that we give each other, that fuel helps us to navigate those times we’re struggling, when we’re not feeling very appreciative, that it’s enough to carry us through.
John (57:33)
if you’re thinking of carrying it through, here comes another good question for you. What does it mean to have hope in the future? How do you hope in the future?
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (57:43)
We’ve been talking a lot about that this week actually, because we’ve had different ideas about certain aspects of our future. And he’s like, if we can’t align, it’s gonna be really hard for us to manifest this amazing future that we both want. We need to come together, least, you know, see each other’s perspective and mold them together. I’m quite a good manifester once I know what it is and I focus on what I…
feel like God wants for me, then it happens. So he knows this. And pretty good manifesto too, but together I think we can actually move mountains. So being able to converse and understand and then come together in prayer. read that the most, I think it’s like a 2% fail rate on marriages if you hold hands and pray every day.
2 % fail rate. I mean, that’s huge. If you could just pray together and hold hands. We’re still working on doing that consistently, but that alone, mean, that it’s so, think taking what you want, what he wants, vice versa, and then bringing God. What do you want? And then being able to come to that understanding of what that looks like you can do anything together, make anything happen.
John (58:55)
Any thoughts Mike, are you good?
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (58:58)
would say at sometimes we’ve been hoping for, opposite things, going in opposite directions. But yeah, finally got together and we’re like, we got to get on the same page. Otherwise,
not gonna obtain any specific directions in life. Specifically we were arguing about whether we should build a guest house in the back someday or what we should do with the property. Yeah it’s the way that we see our life constructing and, finances
coming together in her priorities and my priorities. And I’m like, We gotta on the same page with this because if we’re not on the same page, not going to be putting energy in opposite directions. we’re going to be We’re going to burn out.
That’swhat it comes down to, actually consecrating our actions. And our resources to God. And that’s what we were talking about this So-our increase, money we earn, the things that we own, our home, our property, consecrate this to God.
What do you want us to do? And would you like us to move forward? and this has just kind of been something actually the last week or so we’ve been,
discovering the surface our conscious mind.
identified that Mike maybe has a little bit of greed and I have a little bit of lust. And so we were working on maybe handing those over to God and make us into something else.
John (1:00:27)
Good, good, good. Because Then the next question I had was, you how is expressed and nourished in your prayer life? All right. I don’t know. I think you guys have come pretty good with that. Has there been any… Okay.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:00:38)
We do a lot of gratitude prayers, or at least
where we just thank, thank, thank, thank, thank, thank, thank. Grateful for this, grateful for that, and we don’t ask for anything. And if we have a request, we do it in the form of a gratitude. I’m grateful for this thing I haven’t received yet that you’re going to bring. Because I feel it in my heart, you know?
John (1:00:54)
Well, let me ask you this, you just said like, I am grateful. you noticed that you do more, we are grateful as opposed to just I am grateful, you know, as a couple towards God?
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:01:03)
Hmm.
When we pray together, yeah, we use the words we. I’m gonna have to think about it. Do we? Yeah, we do. Yeah. Sometimes I’m dragging Mike out a bed; You didn’t pray with me. Words are important though in prayers. They are.
John (1:01:10)
Okay.
mean, that’s.
See.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:01:22)
We’ve definitely had ups and downs, times when we were both not very happy with ourselves and each other and had a lot of growing up to do. I mean, you don’t come into a marriage like this without baggage, especially after two failed on my part and all of the dating and Mike’s failed marriage. And I don’t know if that’d call it a total
successful experiment that you can learn from when it doesn’t work out and look at it that way. And not look at it as a total failure if you learned.
John (1:01:50)
Yeah, one of the things I-
Yeah, that’s just it. That’s what I always try and students. Not that they always believe me, but I say any failure that you can learn from is no longer a failure. It’s just another learning experience. Chalk it up and keep moving forward. don’t give up. That’salways the key. I think
as Catholics were in of lent where we really focus on those, 40 days and I always just think the way of the cross How much suffering he endured but he still kept going he never Stopped he kept he never gave up because he knew goal at the end was worth it. So he
And he never gave up Jesus himself is a great example of
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:02:35)
He had what they call
perfect hope. I think that perfect hope, and when it’s perfect, faith and love are just part of that equation. They’re completely there. all there.
John (1:02:38)
Yeah, perfect hope that’s a good way to, yeah.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:02:49)
And I can carry you through anything. had mentioned that I wanted to talk a little bit to the Viktor Frankl Man’s Search for Meaning. And we could do that. And we don’t have to spend a whole ton of time there. Mike hasn’t read it yet, but I know you got a copy. I was excited to see that. But just such a testimony builder. Some of the things that
John (1:02:57)
yeah, I started reading that.
I’m a little bit into it.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:03:14)
stuck out to me in that book was the physical and mental, spiritual things that they had to endure blew out of the water any scientific evidence that said that a person could only take this much. die after a certain number of days without this much food, or that
most people break under circumstances, which a lot of people do, but the amount of abuse that they took was not possible by the current standards of that society at the time. They didn’t believe that a person could endure that much, and yet they did. a lot who died, and he said that actually the best of them did not survive, and the reason for that…
was because there was a certain quota every day that the Nazis had to kill. And they didn’t care who, they just had to get their quota. So the people who were the survivors were usually the ones that were hiding. They were making sure their friends survived, or they would barter or do different things to make sure that they didn’t die, but they knew that if they didn’t die, someone else was going to die in their place. And that’s just how it was.
The people who survived had a purpose. That’s why it’s called Man’s Search for Meaning. What is their purpose? And those who felt they had a purpose, either reuniting with their family or writing a book. In his case, of course, he wanted to reunite with his wife. That didn’t happen. He lost everyone except, think, one brother or something like that. But that picture, that seeing the future and saying, I’ve got to get out of here. So I got to survive so I can do this after.
pivotal to survival. Additionally, those who survived and got out of it with their minds intact and who were better off after, who did very well, were those who put God at the center, who had the faith to believe and give over their will to God that if I die, I die. And they just gave up any power over that. Whatever happens, happens. And they would just focus on that moment, that day, that challenge of if I can get through this day, they can’t control my mind.
They can do all these things to me. They cannot take God away from me. And when those who focused on that hope and that love and that trust and that faith that it’s not in my control, were the ones who got out and were able to, like Victor, help other people afterwards who maybe didn’t do so well. He was a psychiatrist and so he would help people after the fact to heal from a lot of those traumatic events. Contrastingly, Night by Elie Weisel. That’s a very depressing novel. It’s
very different from Victor’s because he completely loses his faith. He survives, but the darkness you feel at the end of that novel is very real. You feel his hopelessness, his his despise for humanity, his loss of faith. He lost his faith in God or that God cared at all. And so he got out of camp a bitter person.
versus a better person. And I think that’s where hope can carry us through in a lot of situations. Hope can keep us alive. But when you get out at the other end of it, who are you after that? And that it will be determined by your faith in God and surrendering and allowing Him to make you into the person he knows you can be through that situation rather than succumbing to the other side and becoming more like that side.
John (1:06:41)
I can understand that philosophy myself. That’s how I’ve gotten through some very real scenarios with me and boggles people’s had the virus and I was down for three weeks and
a lot of what I went through people didn’t even know I was going through. the very end, one of the things that got me through it, because worst point, I was literally coughing non-stop for three days straight. I had no sleep.
No food, no water, because I couldn’t… I mean, I was that bad and I was on my couch. And nobody knew what was going at that point. And it wasn’t until my one friend came afterwards and saw me and his face went white when he seen the state I was in. But the one thing that got me through that was I just kept having hope. I’m like, I know where I’m at now.
I know what’s happening. A year from now, I’m going to be okay because God’s going to put me back together. He’s tearing me apart. And there’s a reason for that. Why he let that happen. I know he’s going to put me back together again. Like he always As long as I had hope in the promises that He made me.
That gave me the continue on and to endure all that sorrow and suffering that I was going through.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:08:15)
I think too, for
you, you actually knew God had told you you were going to continue to live and there’s a difference between wishing and knowing.
John (1:08:24)
Yeah, interesting side story I can give you from an experience. One time me and my friend Carl were having a friendly disagreement. When I was telling him, said, Having visions of the future, knowing what’s going to happen and yet being unable to do anything about it is very heart wrenching and very
hard to do. like that this was horrible, you know, hard suffering. He, Carl, came back on me and says, Well, not knowing and going in blind, that’s suffering, that’s hardship, that’s trial. And so we had this disagreement that we were going back and forth on. So we, the one day when we went into the church and we prayed together, we prayed to God and we said,
Can you solve this for us? who’s right? Who’s wrong?
Leave it to God to do something out of the blue. God loves curveballs. He loves the underdog and he loves to throw curveballs. God swapped our gifts.
After we got done praying, we realized something had happened and we realized at that moment our gifts had swapped. I could no longer see things, I understand things, I was totally blind and had everything funneling into his head.
God left us for about two weeks to experience that. At the end of the two weeks, we both went back and prayed to God and like, Oh my gosh, Carl, I get it. I understand. This is horrible. How do you live like this? And Carl’s like, no, man. I was I don’t want to know this stuff. Take it out. Get rid of it. I’m better off not knowing. And then God switched us back, but it was in that moment,
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:10:14)
You
John (1:10:17)
He literally let us experience each other. ⁓ it was, it was a great gift and I haven’t complained, never again, you know, well, one other time I did complain about something, but my gosh, I did not like that lesson either. so yeah, it’s just those sorts of little happen and you’re right. I do have a certain advantage.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:10:20)
What a gift.
Yeah.
John (1:10:38)
in that regard in that I do have hope because God has given me promises. He tells me certain things I just I have hope and I trust that it will happen the way he says it does. And of course he doesn’t always tell me directly it’s always in a riddle. He loves
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:10:56)
Has it ever not
happened the way he said it would? Like has God ever lied to you?
John (1:11:06)
No. again, he likes to talk in parable and He tries to make me think so he’s never direct. There’s always symbology involved and I have to try and figure things out and sometimes I figure things out wrong. But no, He has never lied to me and things he has told me.
that I didn’t want to accept, that my human nature rebelled against and said no no no.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:11:33)
Mm-hmm.
I did that when my dad died.
I knew a year before he was going to die, and I still tried to save him.
John (1:11:45)
in point had a lot of private revelations about me myself I don’t share those generally But I’ll share one a God gave me a vision in the vision I saw Beth He told me in that vision that she was my first love
And in that vision, she came up to me and smiled and then she got a sad look on her face, turned around and walked away and vanished. And God gave me the knowledge that Beth was going to be leaving my life. And at the time I totally disregarded it. I like, no, I said, we love each other. It’s great.
I’m going to get married, we’re going to raise a family. How is Beth going to leave my life? It’s not going to happen.
And then within a year, events happened and she left my life exactly as He said she would. You know, Then my friend,
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:12:45)
I’ve made the mistake
of assuming things would play out a certain way and thinking, ⁓ it’s just going be like this. And I was so certain. But it ended up looking very different than I thought it would. But didn’t go against what He told me. I just filled in the blanks and I was wrong.
John (1:12:50)
Yes.
Yeah. having hope in God is all part of just letting go and getting to the point where you can trust Him. and accept.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:13:12)
Don’t get fixated
on a certain outcome.
John (1:13:15)
Right. And to give you an example, restarted my life three times. I think now I did twice in a sideways slide. So after Beth died, I had to restart my life. I was an engineer for eight years. Then it came a time I had to restart my life again because that job had a falling out and
For six months after I had been laid off and everything, I tried to find another job. Nothing was working out. Nothing was working out. And one of my friends told me, he’s like, you used to do corporate training as part of your job. I’m like, yeah. He’s like, you like to teach. I’m like, yeah, I do. I really did. He said, did you ever think about changing careers and becoming a teacher? Like just doing a total. I’m like, okay. So that’s what I did. And I explored that option.
went to school, got my teaching degree. And then when it came time to do a job, I mean to accept a job, I was up for two interviews. The first interview I went to New York. I was interviewing at the school for the diplomats. So all the diplomats at the United Nations
their children went to a private school and I was up for a job to teach at that school. That was one of the first job offers I got. So I literally drove to New York, visited, talked with everybody and I realized that if I accepted that job, I would literally have my thumb on the pulse of world events because
talking to the children of the diplomats that are running everything.
I had another offer to come West Virginia. New mean, you want to talk about marble floors, beautiful and it was a magnificent, beautiful structure. I came to West Virginia where one of my friends was teaching.
Our county has an 80 % poverty rate, one of the lowest paid counties and small town, middle of nowhere. And they said, as I interviewed, why don’t you just hang around and walk about the school and just tell us what you think.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:15:20)
Mm-hmm.
John (1:15:32)
And I was just like, this feels where I’m needed. I feel like this is where they don’t need me in New York. This little town in the middle of nowhere. I just left it up to God. I said, This feels right. Then I went to a local restaurant and that’s where I
my friend’s they ran the restaurant and it was filled with all this religious, I mean, it was like, Oh wow, cool. And I kind of felt like, all right, I think this is where I need to be. I’ll stay here for a few years. You know, I’ll stay here for a few years, get my feet wet and then move on from there.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:15:57)
Hmm.
John (1:16:17)
So I stayed at that school for 10 years. Then when I felt that it was time, I got that urge. I’m like, I need to do something else stagnate. There’s not much more for me to do. There’s not much more for me to learn. And then the job opened county over out of nowhere. The teacher was retiring after 30 years.
and they needed someone to take position. So I’m like, okay. I applied. Next thing, you’re hired. When can you start? And I’ve been there for six years now. So this is my sixth year. So coming to West Virginia, I was only supposed to be for a few years. Now I’m here for 16. All because I just, and I’ve learned so much. I’ve met so many
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:16:46)
Hmm
Hahaha.
John (1:17:01)
really interesting. Again, I mentioned how God lets people, find each other. Like I said, I found my friend’s mom who had a near-death experience. She wrote a book. She’s pretty famous. And then I found out all these people were visiting her, coming from all across the country just to talk with her and spend time and learn with her. Next thing I know,
she’s like, yeah, we had a diplomat that came through here on their way to DC. Or I knew this Senator…. town, middle of nowhere. And yet all these people just come, they just come through here all the time. It’s wild.
And it’s been an experience I never realized I needed. I’ve learned lessons I didn’t even know. And God’s taught me so much and I’m forever thankful for that. And I’m glad I trusted Him.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:17:43)
Hmm.
John (1:17:53)
You Youjust have to be open and willing that if God says something, you can hem and haw all you want. When I told God, I was like, I don’t want that. I don’t know if I can do that. And then He just smiled and says, I made you. I know what you can do.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:17:52)
Mm-hmm.
Hmm.
John (1:18:11)
Trust me.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:18:14)
I also feel like there’s times in my life when I’m stalling and God starts putting fire everywhere around a symbolic sense, where there’s like, out over there. See the opening? Go. You know, so it forces me in a certain direction. When I’m really getting stubborn and He’s like, No; I know you’re trying here, but you’re not getting it. Let me help you out. other times it was actually
John (1:18:28)
Yeah.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:18:38)
my divorce where I was in a really bad place and I knew it and I knew I couldn’t stay there. Temptation was at its height and I the shortest prayer I’ve ever given and I said, Lord, I’m ready to move. Shake it up. Like, I don’t know how, don’t have the inner strength to do this myself, but ready. And my entire world fell apart.
And as it was happening, I felt panic, like, Whoah; this is too much. This is too fast, help. And He’s like, Nope; we got it. gave the go ahead. I got angels behind you, go. And I didn’t even have a choice, but I’d made the choice that I’m ready. I’m ready to move. Shake it up. And I mean, that’s a very brave prayer for anyone who wants to say it. You will see miracles in your life, but boy, it was intense.
John (1:19:26)
It’s really interesting how happen. even this whole podcast, I know I’ve told you that I was hemming, hawing. as God’s like, you need to contact her. You need this. And I’m like, I don’t want to, why do I have to really, I’m interested, but really she’s going to think I’m crazy. You know,
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:19:40)
But I don’t want to.
John (1:19:48)
here we are next thing I know…. and it’s I did not you to be as open spiritually or as spiritual and it’s like wow where did this come from? I know
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:19:57)
and I want to end with my gratitude for both of you. I’m so grateful for Mike. He’s my biggest encourager. He’s the one when I’ve been like, is this worth it? I’m putting so much money and time into this, not making anything, and you’re going to have to make more money to pay for my podcast I could not do this without him. He’s been the one who’s like, no, I love what you’re doing. I think it’s important.
So what? You get 12 views? Those people see it is going to impact their life in a positive way and I’m behind you 100%. And getting that support is something I’ve never had. And I can’t express the difference that it makes in my life and in my marriage. Well, you have changed my life already. Yeah, he likes my podcast.
John (1:20:45)
Yeah.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:20:48)
He’s like,
do it for me.
John (1:20:50)
And
I’m grateful been a new experience.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:20:54)
I’m the queen of new experiences. Let’s try this thing I’ve never done before. you can’t be afraid to put yourself out there because once again, are you worried about what other people think?
Everything is spiritual in this world. we as carnal beings, we don’t want to acknowledge that stuff sometimes cause in this physical realm, but ultimately we’re here to understand
spiritual relationship that we have with our Savior the atonement. actually Everything has a spirit. Even this earth has a Why would you be afraid to share what you know is true? At least…
what God has communicated to you and has confirmed in your own life and, Let your light shine, right? And not put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and share it with And who cares about the critic; who cares about the guy who’s going to criticize because there’s always going to be a critic.
If we’re dictated by that fear of critics, then we’re not in control of our lives. But to sit down and have a podcast like this and converse about these things that are real and true in the light and love of our savior. The world needs more of it. The world needs a lot more of it. And so.
We need not be afraid to share our experiences and try to help other people who are fighting and struggling, maybe in a worse Maybe we can give them hope, simply painting that picture of what that might look like for them. And then
they’ll have the strength to do it themselves. That is definitely my hope. I want people to know that we can heal. in the Atonement, for without Christ being willing to atone for us, there would be no hope. The fact that the Atonement allows us to get rid of the darkness and change. Otherwise, we’d just keep piling it on. It would never leave. That We can be as bright as He is someday.
That is where my hope has always come from. I believed it was true. And that’s really what growth is all about. It’s trusting in that, that we can be transformed love. Love of God, love of the itself.
John (1:23:12)
No, couldn’t have said it better myself.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:23:15)
yeah, Thank you for your time, John. And thank you for doing this. I know he was nervous. He was nervous. You did so good. You did so good. She’s like, I want to bring you in and do this. I was like,
John (1:23:22)
Yeah, I’ve seen that.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:23:29)
Thank you. See, he loves me so much. He’s willing to do these things.
John (1:23:30)
that’s…
that’s a good sign of a good man. Yes, definitely.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:23:34)
It is.
You are listening to the Overcome Depression Podcast. I’m Jennifer.
John (1:23:39)
I’m John.
Jennifer Stirling-Campbell and Mike Campbell (1:23:40)
Mike. We’ll see you next time.
Legal Disclaimer: The author of imaqurius.com is not an attorney, medical professional, psychologist, psychiatrist, therapist, nutritionist, or dietitian. All social media, emails, podcasts, videos, live streams, text, dosages, outcomes, charts, graphics, photographs, images, advice, messages, forum postings, zoom or other video meetings, and any other material or publications on or associated with imaquarius.com is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to substitute for legal advice, nor for medical treatment, nor for diagnosis including (but not limited to) treating, curing, mitigating, or preventing any type of disease, medical condition, or emotional/psychological condition. Before beginning any type of natural, integrative, or conventional idea, process, treatment, or regimen, it is advisable to seek the advice of a licensed healthcare professional. No guarantees or warranties are expressed or implied. Any reliance on or application of any information or material provided by imaquarius.com or persons appearing on the [Site/program/email] at or through imaquarius.com or 3rd parties recommended by imaquarius.com is at the reader’s discretion and is his or her sole responsibility.