0 Backstory of The Savvy Sauce and Introduction to the Team

0. Introduction to The Savvy Sauce 

 

**Transcription Below** 

 

Revelation 12:11a (AMP) “And they overcame and conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony,"  

 

Laura Dugger loves Jesus, is married to her best friend, Mark, and is a joyful mom to (update: 4) beloved daughters. She acquired a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Illinois State University before receiving her Master’s Degree from Richmont Graduate University with a specialization in Christian sex therapy. As a licensed marriage and family therapist, she started her career seeing clients in a private practice in California, then taught as an adjunct professor in Indiana before creating The Savvy Sauce while living in central Illinois. She and Mark have moved 9 times in marriage and now Laura is excited to combine her love of people, curiosity, and learning through questions to start her dream job as host of The Savvy Sauce.  

 

Natalie Baker loves the Lord and is a wife, mom, nurse, and sound engineer for The Savvy Sauce podcast.  She grew up in a small town in the Midwest where she and her husband returned to raise their 3 children.  She has a Bachelor’s degree in the Science of Nursing and is a Certified Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nurse with a background in Wound Care and Hyperbaric Oxygen Medicine.  These days, Natalie can most likely be found at home with her sweet and active 3-year old son, experimenting in the kitchen for her husband, or coordinating her 7- and 9-year old daughters’ Irish dance, swim, gymnastics, drama, rock climbing, and soccer schedules.  She is a lover of Jesus, coffee, and travel.  She is happiest when road-tripping with her husband and kids.  

 

Lauren Sauder has been married to her husband, Steven, for 10 years and keeps busy with 3 little kids-a son and two daughters. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a double major in Education and Spanish and attended graduate school at Moody Bible Institute for Spiritual Formation. She and her husband were missionaries in Thailand for 6 years where they started a real estate company and a food truck. They have since moved back to Central Illinois and Lauren likes to call herself an "accidental farmer's wife". Being from a big city, small-town farm life has been an adjustment, but she loves the community and slower pace of life. When she's not having dance parties with her kids, you can find Lauren in the kitchen cooking or running the social media outlets for The Savvy Sauce.  

 

Connect with The Savvy Sauce on Facebook or Instagram  

 

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Our Favorite Things…  

 

Life: Beautiful Magazine  

 

Fair & Simple Linen Origami Pouches  

 

Liv Thai Bracelet  

 

Samples of encouraging Scripture God revealed as we pursued launching The Savvy Sauce:  

 

Luke 7:47 (NIV) “Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven-for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”  

 

Luke 1:45 (NIV) “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!”  

 

Matthew 6:33 (KJV) “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”  

Proverbs 4:5 (AMP) “Get [skillful and godly] wisdom! Acquire understanding [actively seek spiritual discernment, mature comprehension, and logical interpretation]! Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth.”  

 

James 1:22 (NIV) “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”  

 

Mark 12:29-31 (NIV) “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”  

 

Mission: We exist to invite you to a space to meet with Jesus and be filled to overflowing  

 

Our prayer for The Savvy Sauce: Dear God, we ask that The Savvy Sauce will be a loving, safe, warm, welcoming, inclusive, encouraging, generous and fun environment, where we do hear Your Word and we understand how to apply it personally! We ask you, God, to use Your Holy Spirit to specifically and uniquely speak to everyone who listens. In Jesus Name, we pray, Amen!  

 

Laura's Values: Reminders for her to personally to stay on track…feel free to hold her accountable: 

 

1. Be inspired.

2. Share!

3. Sow generously

4. Don’t compare! 

 

We believe all Truth is God’s Truth. We don’t feel the responsibility to agree with 100% of each guest’s beliefs, but we do believe our guests have been given some piece of God-given wisdom and we want to do our part to share it with you! Some guests you may agree with more than others, but we encourage you to help us make this a safe, inviting, welcoming space where we can have these candid conversations and hopefully learn something new to apply to our life to make each day a little bit better and brighter! That’s the heart behind this podcast 😃 Thanks for joining us!  

 

Gospel Scripture: (all NIV)  

 

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”  

 

Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”  

 

Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”  

 

Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”  

 

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  

 

Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”  

 

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  

 

Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” 

 

Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”  

 

Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”  

 

Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession- to the praise of his glory.”  

 

Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”  

 

Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“  

 

Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“  

 

Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”  

 

**Transcription**

 

[00:00:00] <music>

Laura Dugger: Welcome to the Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here. 

[00:00:17] <music>

Laura Dugger: Hey friends! We're so glad that you're here, and we wanted to let our first episode be an introduction to our team, where we can also share the backstory behind The Savvy Sauce. If you prefer not to listen to all these background details, simply click over to Episode 1, where we have a fantastic guest waiting for you.

If you do choose to stick around, we're going to hear from our current team, our editor and my sister, Natalie Baker, our social media lead, Lauren Sauter, and me, your host, Laura Dugger. We'll then briefly share how The Savvy Sauce came to be, and near the end of this episode, we're going to let you know how to participate in our first Rafflecopter giveaway. 

Okay, so let's get started. Natalie, can you tell us more about yourself?

Natalie Baker: You bet. So, sis, you and I were raised in a Bible-believing, church-going family. We were surrounded by a wonderful community of believers. [00:01:19] When I graduated high school, I decided I wanted to become a nurse, and I chose a state university with a four-year nursing program.

I had heard from a bunch of family and friends that the program was really difficult once you got into your junior year. And I guess I kind of took that as a challenge to have as much fun the first two years as I could. 

So I started attending parties on a weekly basis. I really was just looking for ways to have the most fun. But there was this large group of students from our hometown and from our church, and they would get together every week for Bible study. And I noticed they had a support group, they seemed to be having a great time, a lot more so than I seemed to be having at the parties I was going to, and they had a purpose to what they were doing. 

The more I sort of evaluated the Christian life, the more I decided I was crazy not to want it, but I still had no idea what it meant to live as a Christian. I gave my life to Christ one night after talking and praying with our brother and some friends. [00:02:21] And I will never forget the feeling of peace that washed over me as I was beginning to just understand what it meant to live for Him. 

Growing up, we had memorized scripture, we had read the Bible, we had gone to Sunday school, and I felt like I had a pretty good knowledge of what was in the Bible, but I had never experienced the joy and intimacy of really knowing the God of the Bible. And I was so humbled at how much He cares for us, each individually.

Not long after becoming a Christian, I formed a small, close group of friends, including my amazing husband, Luke. And I wouldn't say it was necessarily love at first sight, because we are two strong personalities who often disagreed, but I had so much respect for him. He's extremely intellectual, and I enjoyed being challenged when I was around him.

By the time I graduated the nursing program, God was working in each of our hearts to bring us together, and we will celebrate our 15-year anniversary this December. We have three sweet children, two daughters and one son, ages 9, 7, and 3, who keep us busy with all sorts of fun activities, and never cease to amaze us with their curiosity and endless energy. [00:03:26] 

We love to travel every chance we can get, and we're trying to preserve that sense of wonder that our kids have about the world around them. My greatest joy and challenge is to be a good wife and mom to the wonderful family God has entrusted to me.

Laura Dugger: We couldn't be more thrilled to have you here, so thank you for sharing your story. Lauren, you're up. Will you share a snapshot of your story? 

Lauren Sauter: Okay, so I grew up in a Christian home as well. When I was in third grade, my mom had a near-death experience. We were at my brother's Little League baseball game, and she had a cardiac arrest. She was clinically pronounced dead for more than 10 minutes. It was a very traumatic experience as a nine-year-old, but by a complete miracle, she survived and ended up making a full recovery.

As I look back, I can realize and see that it marked my life as a 9-year-old and kind of put me on a path of believing in Jesus. I remember her coming home from the hospital, sitting me down, and telling me that she had gone to heaven. [00:04:27] She explained in full detail, telling me how beautiful it was, how at peace she was. She talked about this warm, embracing light she felt, the people she saw, and how she didn't want to leave. 

That was something that was striking to me as a little girl, very attached to her mom. The fact that, you know, my mom had three young kids, a 9, 11, and 13-year-old, and how she had gone to heaven and didn't want to leave. So that kind of really struck me. 

She had told me that she had this conversation with her grandma while she was there, and her grandma had told her that she had to go back, and my mom said that she didn't want to. She wanted to stay in heaven forever. But her grandma had said, "You can come back, but now's not your time. Go take care of your husband and your kids." And so that was when she woke up in the hospital. 

So from a pretty young age, I felt like I understood, as much as I could, and grasped that heaven was a very real place and that faith in Jesus was the way to heaven. [00:05:30] So that kind of put me on this path of following Jesus. 

And I would say, though I had ups and downs throughout the course of my teen years, I still had a really strong faith in Jesus. I ended up going to college at the University of Illinois, so fast forward through a lot of years, but somehow, by the time I had graduated college, I had fallen in love with a farmer and wanted to be a missionary.

So, if you would have known me growing up, you would know how funny that was. I grew up in a swanky suburb outside of Chicago and honestly didn't even know that farmers still existed. So it was a very different plan than the one I had growing up. But like most things, God's plan is always better. 

I married my husband, Steven, a couple years after we graduated, and we headed off to Thailand as missionaries. My husband is an entrepreneur at heart, and so we went there to do a thing called Business as Mission, which is just essentially starting a business to help impact the community, your customers, and your employees. [00:06:39] We thought it was a great way that we could use our gifts while also allowing just a lot of opportunities for us to bless those in Thailand. 

And so, yeah, I think it would be impossible to sum up our time in Thailand in a couple of minutes, so I'll just say that it was really hard, but God was faithful even when we weren't. We were in Thailand for six years, and now we have been in central Illinois for about two years. We have three kids, and my husband is farming, and so now I'm learning how to be a farmer's wife.

My vision for The Savvy Sauce and social media, if I could sum it up in one sentence, I would say I want to use social media for good. I just want it to be a space that allows people to connect. We want to hear from you guys. We want to hear your stories and see how listeners are applying what they're learning from the podcast into their everyday life. [00:07:39] 

We also just want it to be a place for pictures of giveaway winners, feel like you're a part of a greater community, share your best practices of what you're learning, and any upcoming Savvy Sauce announcements. 

Laura Dugger: That's so awesome. We're very grateful to have you leading that charge. 

Lauren Sauter: Okay, Laura, it's your turn. We obviously want to hear all about the host, so share your story with us. 

Laura Dugger: Okay. I grew up the youngest of three siblings in a tiny town of 2,000, which I loved. My family all actually became believers before I did, and they totally did their part to set me up for success, which is one reason I cringe when I think of the poor decisions I made in college before I was a Christ follower. 

But there is some encouraging scripture that God revealed to me later, and it's from Luke 7:47. It says, "Therefore I tell you, Her many sins have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who has been forgiven little loves little." [00:08:39] 

So growing up in a family with a long line of believers behind us, I knew that Jesus died on the cross for my sins and was raised to life after three days. I knew God was real, and I even talked to Him during prayer, but I had never fully surrendered my life to Him. So one day I realized that Satan also knows God, and he's talked with Him before, and Satan even knows all about the cross, but he does not get to spend eternity in heaven. And that realization rattled me. 

It then led to a few defining moments in college. First, I told God that I knew the difference between right and wrong, but I simply didn't care, and that was starting to scare me. So I asked Him to give me my conscience back, which He did when my dad invited me to be a part of a Bible study one summer. That's when I started reading the Bible, and I noticed that my heart became softer to genuinely caring about right and wrong.

A few months later, my mom invited me to a church event where a young marriage and family therapist was speaking, because mom knew that that's what I wanted to study in graduate school. [00:09:46] I loved what the speaker had to share, and after the event, I went up and asked her where she went to graduate school. She told me about Richmond Graduate University in Atlanta, Georgia, which just happened to be a Christian school.

So I went home and had another defining moment. I told God I would put all my eggs in one basket. I wouldn't apply anywhere else for graduate school. But if He got me into RGU, I made a deal that I would be His before classes started. 

So fast forward to after I'm accepted and it's the day before classes begin. My parents are moving me to Atlanta where I don't know a single person and I get to meet my sweet roommate Val that Sunday night. 

But first, they took me to church, and it suddenly hit me around noon in church that I had not done a single thing about my end of the bargain with God. So I started silently praying, "Jesus, I don't know what this looks like, but I'm yours." 

I was pretty nervous, and when we got back into our van in the parking deck, I just crawled up to hold my parents' hands and hung my head, and just started weeping. [00:10:48] My dad asked what was wrong and I simply said, "I think I'm ready to make that change." And instantly I felt this washing and cleansing sensation come over me and I was immediately free from all my past and I had this indescribable joy and excitement.

I found out later what was happening in that moment when I read my Bible, specifically Romans 10:9, where it says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. That is my prayer for every listener. Life has never been the same, and God just continues to be near, dear, and clear. 

As school began and I was studying to become a marriage and family therapist, I chose the specialization of Christian sex therapy. But I had no idea that it would someday turn into a future opportunity to share about sexual wholeness on The Savvy Sauce. I anticipate hosting many guests to speak on this topic. [00:11:49] 

A few months later, I met my husband Mark through our church, and other than salvation, he truly has been the greatest gift ever given to me. I absolutely adore him, and I will probably refer to him a lot throughout this podcast.

We got married in Atlanta and then started our adventure of marriage in San Diego, where Mark chose to leave his career with IBM in lieu of pursuing franchise ownership of a Chick-fil-A restaurant. I started seeing clients at a private practice and I also worked part-time at the local Chick-fil-A by his side, literally register by register, so that we could both learn this family business.

After about four years of marriage, we welcomed our first daughter, and now we are blessed with three girls. They're ages four, three, and one at this launch date. And I think we've moved nine times in nine years of marriage, often cross-country moves for work purposes. But as long as God has us in central Illinois, we plan to put down roots here, where we enjoy hosting other families for dinner, spending time with our three sweet daughters, and going on weekly date nights. [00:12:58] 

Natalie Baker: Ah, sis, I love hearing your testimony. So what can listeners expect from you as the host of The Savvy Sauce? 

Laura Dugger: Well, I'll mostly be asking questions of the weekly featured guests. You won't really hear me interjecting my opinions or stories often because I've always appreciated hosts who were able to get out of the way of their expert guests that they were interviewing.

And I think also because my training in marriage and family therapy conditioned me to be most effective by listening about 80% to 90% of the time and only offering my input if it was beneficial to the client. So I hope to do the same for all of our listeners.

Lauren Sauter: Okay, so that's us in a nutshell. Now we each have selected one of our favorite things that we want one of you to be the recipient of. 

Laura Dugger: So, Natalie, what is your favorite thing? 

Natalie Baker: Well, I love organization and travel, and right now I am loving this set of linen origami pouches from my friend Molly's company. It's called Fair and Simple. [00:13:56] Her business supports fair living wages and safe work environments for people in impoverished areas. 

Laura Dugger: That's so fun. I love it. And now Lauren, what is your favorite thing? 

Lauren Sauter: So my best friend in Thailand, her name's Liv. She started a business called LivThai that connects artisans in Thailand to the worldwide marketplace. Her tagline is connecting cultures through beauty

But my favorite thing that she sells is this leather wrap bracelet. You can check it out and all of her other things at LiveThai.com. 

Natalie Baker: Oh, I love that, Lauren. Laura, what's yours? 

Laura Dugger: Sure. Because I love to read, I've chosen to include a copy of my favorite magazine, Life Beautiful. It comes out quarterly and it's not only beautiful for your eyes, but also for your soul. 

Natalie Baker: This is so fun. Lauren, do you think we could put a picture of all of this stuff up on the site? 

Lauren Sauter: Yes, totally. It will all be up on social media and you can find it on Instagram and Facebook under The Savvy Sauce. You'll have all the details on how to enter and see what we're talking about. [00:14:57] 

Natalie Baker: Awesome.

Laura Dugger: All right. So keep listening if you want to learn how to enter that giveaway. 

Lauren Sauter: So Laura, I think we need to hear a little bit of the backstory and how The Savvy Sauce came to be and your heart behind it. 

Laura Dugger: Of course. God kept giving me this desire to start a podcast, and I told my husband that this thought just kept coming to me every morning as I read my Bible. And it was something I told Mark that I would love to do in like five years when all of our kids are in school. To which he gently responded, "If God's speaking to you about this daily, it sounds like a command and you need to be obedient." So that was exciting to hear that. And I realized that this dream actually might be able to happen quicker than I had expected. 

When we started sharing this idea with family and friends, we were met with lots of support. For instance, I was nervous about the technical side because I definitely lack that skill set. And that's one reason that I'm so thankful that you, Natalie, are a sound genius and that you quickly said yes to being the editor. [00:15:57] 

I also knew that my lane was not social media because I wanted to focus more on being present to respond to comments that come in through our website. But I value social media and wanted a presence there where people could come to build community. And that's why I'm so thankful that you, Lauren, can use your unique skill set to run our social media page.

These are some simple examples of how God just kept placing the right people in the right spot and He frequently revealed scripture to provide encouragement to me along the way. 

So here's one piece of scripture that's been especially meaningful. It's from Luke 1:45 and it says, "Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished." 

I envision this podcast to be a practical way that we can grow in wisdom. We know that plain knowledge can sometimes puff us up, but wisdom, as my husband says, is simply knowledge applied, and the Bible seems to encourage that a lot. [00:16:57] 

So my husband Mark and I were discussing this goal of growing in wisdom, and that's how we landed on the tagline, practical chats for intentional living. And now we're excited to share this labor of love with all of you. And we hope you always find encouragement and inclusivity and generosity here. 

Natalie Baker: Our real hope is that you will not listen to this podcast as an end in itself, but our prayer is that it will actually inspire you to know God more, for you to read His words in the Bible, to reach out to Him for help and guidance through prayer, and to connect with other people who can encourage you along his journey. 

Laura Dugger: Absolutely. To sum it up, the mission behind The Savvy Sauce is one line. We exist to invite you to a space to meet with Jesus and be filled to overflowing. 

Lauren Sauter: So something you'll notice in every episode is one reoccurring question that Laura will always ask the guest. The question relates to our title because "savvy" is synonymous with practical knowledge, and we want our guests to be able to share their tips so that we can replicate their savvy ways. [00:18:00] 

Laura Dugger: Yes. So Natalie, you get to be the first guest we ask, what is your savvy sauce? 

Natalie Baker: Okay, mine is to get out and travel. Growing up, vacations were always a big deal to our dad, so they were something we were all excited about and looked forward to. And now with a family of my own, I just love it when we can get away. 

There's something about being in a different place that almost seems to give you permission to be the freest, lightest version of yourself. And we don't have a huge budget, but we have made traveling a priority. And we plan to expose our kids to as much of the world and the people in it as we possibly can. 

Laura Dugger: That's incredible. I love it. Lauren, now same question to you. What is your savvy sauce?

Lauren Sauter: As I said, I am now a farmer's wife, which means that my husband works really long hours in the fall and spring. And I think I was complaining a lot to my husband because he kind of sat me down and was like, Okay, let's problem-solve. And thankfully he's an amazing problem solver. [00:19:01] I don't always want him to solve my problems, but in this case, I did.

We sat down and we talked through what it would realistically look like for me to get a break on a weekly basis to just recharge. I told him that I just wanted to go grocery shopping by myself, it sounds really silly, or just have some guilt-free time to run errands or read a book or go ride with him in the combine if I wanted to. 

And so he looked at our budget and what we could afford each week for me to get a babysitter for just a few hours. We're not talking like I'm gone a day at a time or whatever, but just a couple hours. And then multiplied it by 52, which would cover me for the whole year. And then he wrote me a check for that amount of money. I know it seems silly that he would write me a check, but it was amazing. 

Like I literally ran to the bank and I cashed the check and now have this special stash of money that's just for me to use guilt-free. [00:19:59] 

Natalie Baker: Oh, I love that. That's awesome. Laura, your turn. What is your savvy sauce? 

Laura Dugger: I would say my savvy sauce is to ask questions and then listen well. I know that I'm energized when I'm learning something new and I found that the best way to learn something daily is simply through listening and asking questions.

You just never know what kind of adventure you're going to go on through conversations. And I would say my heart behind asking questions is to intentionally consider others and focus my attention on them so that they ultimately experience love. 

Natalie Baker: And let me just say, you do it well. 

Lauren Sauter: So well. You are the best. 

Laura Dugger: It's so humbling to hear that. Thanks, guys. 

We have so many people to thank and we could not conclude this intro episode without listing all these people. So Lauren, why don't you start us off? Who do you want to say thank you to? 

Lauren Sauter: Yeah, I just want to thank you, Laura, for entrusting me with the social media aspect of The Savvy Sauce. [00:20:59] I was surprised when you asked me, but I think it's a huge honor to be able to serve in this way and be able to connect with all of you out there. I'm really excited.

I just want to thank my husband, Steven. He's always my biggest cheerleader when I am scared to do things or am intimidated to try something new. He just believes the best in me and thinks that I can do whatever I put my mind to, and so he's always the one saying, go, do it, have fun, and learn and grow from it. And so I'm just thankful that he's in my life to push me to do things outside of my comfort zone.

Laura Dugger: Natalie, how about you? Who would you like to thank? 

Natalie Baker: First of all, I want to say thank you to my husband, who has supported me in this editing role from the very first time I mentioned the crazy idea to him, and who also works out all my technology issues and makes sure that I have some kid-free time to edit each week.

Thanks to my pops for his support and guidance and for instilling a strong work ethic in me from an early age. To my mama, who is an amazing cheerleader and an example of sacrificial love. [00:22:03] And to my in-laws, who are so supportive and always willing to watch the kids. And to you, sis, for trusting me with your heart's work in this podcast. And mostly thanks to God for His unspeakable gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. 

Laura Dugger: Thank you, sis. 

Lauren Sauter: Okay, Laura, your turn. Who do you want to thank?

Laura Dugger: Okay, well, we wouldn't be here without my incredible husband, Mark Dugger. He's daily been my hilarious, consistent, and loving advocate. His hard work to support our family is actually what makes this podcast financially possible. He is truly my favorite person, and I just respect and admire and love and adore him more than I could possibly express here.

I also want to thank my family and my in-laws. Their instant response was purely encouragement, excitement, and even sponsorship. My mom is one of the most merciful and loving people that you'll ever meet, and she's the one who first introduced me to podcasts. [00:23:02] And my dad is one of the most well-respected, amazing men that you'll ever meet, and he has agreed to be a future guest on the show.

I also want to say thank you to our Bible study group, Allison, Angela, April, and Jesse. You all even created The Savvy Sauce swag before we were a real business. And that's in addition to the two of you here, Natalie and Lauren, who are also in that same Bible study group. This podcast would not have been launched without the two of you, and it would not have been this much fun without getting to work with you two.

Thank you to my neighbors who joyfully babysat and poured into our girls while we recorded. Thank you to Richmond Graduate University, where I learned this important work of serving others in the realm of marriage and family therapy. 

And thank you to our Chick-fil-A family, who continues to teach us about servant leadership. Thank you to our graphic designer, Brittany [Zeltwanger?], our friend Kevin Malone, who created the music that you're going to hear paired with the gospel message, and our other friend, Nick Maloof, who helped us design our website. [00:24:09]  

Thank you to our amazing guests who said yes and are willing to share their time and bring many people knowledge and inspiration. And thanks to you, the listener, for giving us a chance. You are who we exist to serve.

Finally, but most importantly, thank you to God. He really gets the credit and the glory for supplying us with never-ending ideas, truth, and support, especially through His written Word that He's so graciously preserved for us for thousands of years, and His Holy Spirit that He promises to give us when we become His. This is my offering back to Him as an attempt to do my part in bringing Him glory. Thanks for listening. 

And as promised, we want to let you know how to enter to win this giveaway of our favorite things. Just go over to our website, thesavvysauce.com, and click on our "Giveaways" tab. We'll have a Rafflecopter giveaway set up for you and there'll be easy instructions to follow for your chance to enter to win. Thanks for participating. [00:25:12] 

One more thing before you go. Have you heard the term "gospel" before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you. But it starts with the bad news. Every single one of us were born sinners and God is perfect and holy, so He cannot be in the presence of sin. Therefore, we're separated from Him.

This means there's absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So for you and for me, it means we deserve death and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved. We need a savior. But God loved us so much, He made a way for His only Son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute.

This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with Him. That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life we could never live and died in our place for our sin. [00:26:12] This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus. 

We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished if we choose to receive what He has done for us. Romans 10:9 says that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 

So would you pray with me now? Heavenly, Father, thank You for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to You. Will You clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare You as Lord of their life? We trust You to work and change their lives now for eternity. In Jesus name, we pray, amen. 

If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring Him for me, so me for Him, you get the opportunity to live your life for Him. [00:27:12] 

At this podcast, we are called Savvy for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So you're ready to get started?

First, tell someone. Say it out loud. Get a Bible. The first day I made this decision my parents took me to Barnes and Noble to get the Quest NIV Bible and I love it. Start by reading the book of John. 

Get connected locally, which basically means just tell someone who is part of the church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you. 

We want to celebrate with you too. So feel free to leave a comment for us if you made a decision for Christ. We also have show notes included where you can read Scripture that describes this process. 

Finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." [00:28:15] The heavens are praising with you for your decision today. 

If you've already received this good news, I pray that you have someone else to share it with today. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.