S3 | Ep.6 Reflection Episode: Tracing Pat Domangue's Memorial Stones

In this reflection episode, Brenda unpacks three “memorial stones” from her conversation with author and Bible teacher Pat Domangue—Pat’s powerful night of salvation, the difficult process of releasing control to her Heavenly Father, and the spiritual practice of actively “remembering” God’s provision—then offers simple journal prompts to help you recognize where God has shown up in your own story.

Listen to the episode Brenda is reflecting on here. 

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About Pat Domangue Pat Domangue is the founder of On Fire Ministries and a dedicated Bible study author, teacher, and speaker. With a master’s degree in biblical studies and over 20 years of experience in women’s ministry, Pat has authored 13 Bible studies, including Quest for Wholeness, Equipped and Empowered, and her latest release, My Maker and Me. She is also the host of the HER Podcast (Healing Encouragement in Real Life), where she helps women find freedom and joy in Christ.

Connect with Pat:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | X (Twitter) | YouTube | TikTok | Pinterest |

Free Resource (Prayer Matters Bible Study)

Chapters
01:53 Pat's Journey of Salvation
04:58 The Power of Praise in Difficult Times
08:50 Identity Transformation and False Humility
11:41 Encouragement to Persevere and Document Memorial Stones

Start documenting your own "Memorial Stones" today.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Welcome to Remember God, a podcast where we practice remembering God in the midst of trials. Hi, I'm Brenda, and I help followers of Jesus recall God's miracles to successfully navigate current challenges. Welcome to Remember God, a podcast where we practice remembering God in the midst of trials. If you're a follower of Jesus who's in a difficult season and finds yourself wanting to take control of the situation instead of trusting God, this is the place for you. This is where we will help you remember the places where God has shown up in the past, giving you the tools and the strength to navigate through today's challenges. I'm Brenda Savannu, author of Memorial Stones, Writer Coach, and your companion on the journey of remembering what God has done. Today I'm reflecting on my conversation with Pat Domang that you heard last week. Pat is a teacher and author of 13 Bible studies and founder of On Fire Ministries. I so thoroughly enjoyed my conversation with Pat. When we did our pre-interview, we connected immediately. She was like a sister from another mister, and I cannot wait to reconnect with her. What was awesome about our talk was that Pat was so deeply vulnerable. She talked about the dark pits in her life. She talked about how she learned to use the word of God not just as a study tool, but as a lifeline. And so today I want to dive into three specific memorial stones from Pat's story that illustrate how God transforms our past and our perspective. So the first stone I want to trace in Pat's life is the night of her salvation. After years of living in rebellion, Pat said she found herself in bed watching a video of every awful thing she had done in her life. This video was playing out in her mind. She was weeping and convinced that she was too bad to be saved. And so she pleaded with God that at least save my children. Even if she was beyond help, she said, God, please just save my children. In that moment of total remorse, she picked up Max Lakato's book, God Came Near, and opened to a chapter titled He Forgot. She realized that while she was busy remembering her sins, God was busy forgetting them. That blew my mind. Pat learned that when God forgives, he erases the board and he destroys the evidence. She read an excerpt from that book and it was so, so powerful. I hope you heard that when you listened. This reminded me of Memorial Stone 11 in my book, Manasseh, um, causes me to forget. Joseph named his son Manasseh because God made Joseph forget his trouble. Remember all the things that Joseph went through, right? He was um betrayed by his brothers, and then he was framed by Potiphar's wife. And so he was unjustly imprisoned, and then he was forgotten by um the two, by the baker and the cupbearer, the king's baker and the cupbearer. So so Pat experienced this miracle in that moment where she was so overwhelmed by her sin, by the filth, right, of sin that was weighing on her. But God was saying, but I've already forgotten that. And so we often think that forgetting means just not remembering that thing at all. But as I wrote in my book, I think forgetting is also arriving at a place of healing where that memory no longer carries the pain, where you can remember that terrible event, but it doesn't sting. It doesn't sting at all. Not even that it doesn't sting the way it did before, but it doesn't sting at all because God has healed that place. So, friend, I have a question for you. Is there a season in your life that you are still remembering as though God is condemning you? Um, have you considered that God has already forgotten that thing? And what would it take for you to sit with God and to allow him to take those things and throw them in the sea of forgetfulness? I hope you consider that, friend. The next stone that I traced in Pat's life was when she shared about a dark season involving one of her daughters. She said she watched her daughter struggle in a dark place, and as a mother, right, it was hard. Her instinct was to fix what was happening with her child. But Holy Spirit told her, you cannot fix her. Your job is to love her. And while I am not a mother, I have friends who are mothers. Um, and so I see them wrestle with this very thing themselves, where sometimes they just want to fix what their children are going through. Um God wants to walk them through it himself. And so Pat said she remembered the story of Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20, which is also like that story and that portion of scripture. I mention it in my book as well. That is very meaningful in my life. And so Pat talked about that one as well, where she said she remembered how God fought for his people through their praises. So she began to sing praise songs to the Lord, and she was inserting her daughter's name into the lyrics as an act of faith. She wasn't praising because the situation was fixed. She wasn't praising because she had control over the situation. She was praising because she trusted the one who could do the impossible, right? She trusted the one who could route the army at the sound of her praises. And um that it was such a beautiful story to hear that she just sang praises over her daughter. And sometimes when we're in a difficult situation, sometimes the best thing we can do is to just sing over the situation, whether it's a person, whether it's, you know, um an illness, whether it's a thing that we're going through, right? Finances, you know, job trouble. Sometimes we just need to sing over it and watch God route the army. And I love that story of Jehoshaphat, that that example that he set, right, as king. We know that leaders, what they choose to do, it trickles down to the followers. So what Jehoshaphat chose to do, I bet you, was so impactful to the people of Israel as they saw the king choose to praise in the midst of trouble and then God come to their rescue. And so, of course, this reminded me of Memorial Stone 3 in my book, Judah, I will praise the Lord, where in my own story, I God reminded me that my moment of peace was actually through one of the most difficult situations in my life. And I got to praise because I was returning to who God created me to be, and I was returning to my true identity. And I discovered in that moment for myself that praise was the immediate response, right? And despite everything that had happened, but to look to God and to praise. So, friend, I have a question for you. Is there someone in your life whom you're trying to fix, who you're praying over, but you also want to fix the situation? Um, and if so, what is God saying to you about how to handle that? And is he calling you to praise? Because after all, God is faithful. So, how might that shift your heart to actually praise over this person, over the situation, rather than trying to get God to fix it the way you want him to fix it? All right, so the third memorial stone in Pets journey that stood out to me was her journey of her identity. She said that even after years of being in ministry, you know, having gone to seminary, all of these things, and Pets done some amazing things, she realized that she was still carrying this identity of being a bad person. And this was a remnant of her life before Christ. She struggled with false humility. Someone challenged her, right? Where she said, I don't know why God would use me in such a mess. And that person challenged her and said, You are opposing what God is saying about your life. He is calling you to this, and he's calling you to minister to women in this way. And yet you're saying you are such a mess and you don't know why he would use you. It's great to have friends like that, right? Who can challenge what we're thinking, what we're saying that's in opposition to God's word. So I really appreciate that friend of Pat's. I don't know who she is, but that's a great friend to have. And Pat also mentioned that through her latest Bible study, my maker and me, God took her on a refresher course to see herself as his beautiful vessel. She said she had to shed the label of wretched sinner and put on the robes of righteousness. And she realized that she is not enough because of her own rules or works. She is enough because of Jesus. And that resonated with me because that's something I struggle with is doing, checking off the to-do list, performing, pleasing, um, and thinking I have to do all of these works for God to accept me. But I'm I am enough already because of Jesus. So that was really impactful. And that reminded me of Memorial Stone 10 in my book, Benjamin, Son or Daughter of the Right Hand. Because during my Sabbath season, I went into this deep dive on finding my identity in God and finding myself as daughter, which is a journey I'm still on. Like this, there's still layers that we're going through. But that time for me just taught me who I was in Christ. And like Pat, I had to learn how to differentiate between the voice of the enemy, the voice of my past, and the voice of God, and who God calls me to be and what he's removing from my life. And so I really appreciated hearing that from Pat and saw that connection as well in my memorial stone. So, friend, my question for you would be: what old labels are you still wearing? What old robes are you still wearing that you need to shed for the robes of Christ, for the robes of righteousness, as Pat states them in her book. So those are the three memorial stones that I traced in my interview with Pat. I really enjoyed chatting with her. And as I wrap up this reflection on my interview with Pat, I'm still remembering how she talked about remember that whenever God remembers, he acts. And friends, that's the whole reason I wrote Memorial Stones, is to remember the place where God has shown up in the past so that we can navigate today's challenges. And as we're looking to the past and navigating today's challenges, we start to see what he's doing in that current season, in that current challenge. Um, and so if you are looking for a way to document your memorial stones, please definitely pick up my book, Memorial Stones, and start documenting these places where God has shown up in your lives. And um I want to encourage you with something else that Pat said in the interview, which was don't give up, persevere, right? Sometimes, you know, we just need to keep going. And I don't mean at our own expense, because even if all you can do is just cry out Jesus, then that's persevering, right? It doesn't necessarily mean trying to do all of the rules. If something's not working for you in a particular season, you might need to try something else. But the perseverance is keeping your mind fixed on Jesus and to keep going in that way. Because, you know, God, He eventually pulls us out of the dark pit. And to tell the truth, Jesus is sitting with us in these dark pits, right? Sometimes we we don't see him there, but he's with us there. And we eventually get pulled out, pulled out of these dark pits and things start to turn around. So yeah, friend, don't give up, persevere. So, friend, if you enjoyed the interview with Pat, I would encourage you to check out her website and I have all of her links in the show notes on fire-ministries.org. She has got a bunch of free resources there. She has got Bible studies there, she also has a podcast and a blog. So definitely check that out and see if that would be of help to you as well. Thank you for joining me again this week, friend. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. And if you haven't followed the podcast yet on Apple Podcasts, please follow as well as on Spotify. And if you're listening on YouTube, please hit subscribe and your notifications so that you do not miss any new episodes. Friend, if you would like encouragement coming to your inbox every week, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter. You can click on the link in the show notes to do that. And next week we will have an interview with my friend Jan Johnson of Just Talking About Jesus podcast. Jan interviewed me in December. And I'm so excited for you to hear me interview her. Stay tuned to the end of the episode so that you can hear the preview of my interview with Jan Johnson. Thanks, friends, for being with me again. And we'll chat next week.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

And again, another little god drop, but guy he says, he says, You realize that Howard was able to evangelize his son 35 years later.

SPEAKER_01 16:09

That's a memorial stone. Is that it just gave me shivers. So, you know, to your point of holding on to the joy even in the midst of difficulty, as you were going through that difficult season, and even the children, right? They lost their father. But then who knew that all of these years later, yeah, he would evangelize his own son through his words that he had written in that journal.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Just it's isn't it like, well. Who who would have thunk it? Did you even think that all those years ago? You know, and then and Howard had named him his middle name Evan for evangelist. And it's like, yeah, okay, right. We'll see about that.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

If this episode resonated with you, there are two things I'd like you to consider. Number one, rate and review the show. This will help other listeners find the show and get the same inspiration and encouragement you got from it. And number two, I would love for you to share this episode with someone you love and someone you think could benefit from hearing this particular episode. Also, if you would like to connect with me outside of this podcast, you can find everything related to me on my website, brendasavanu.com. There you can find my social media links if you'd like to follow. You can find a link to sign up for an email so that you can get weekly encouragement to your inbox, and you can find information about my book and coaching sessions. So, friends, thank you again so much for listening to this episode and thank you for considering sharing it with your friends. See you next time.