Episode 20 – Hope Ingram, Meth Baby To Miracle Of Hope

Jacob Paul: Welcome to the Truth in Love podcast with your host, Kimberly Faith. The Truth in Love podcast seeks to present God’s timeless truth through the lens of his remarkable love. 

Kimberly Faith: Welcome back to the Truth in Love podcast, and I am so excited about our guest today. If you all listened to last week’s podcast, you heard from Melissa Sharp. And today we also are joined again by Melissa. Good afternoon  Melissa.

Melissa Sharp:  Happy to be here. 

Kimberly Faith: Yes. And her lovely daughter. Actually, lovely isn’t really a good enough word. Gorgeous. Drop dead gorgeous daughter, Hope Ingram. And welcome, Hope. 

Hope Ingram:Thank you. I love to be here. 

Kimberly Faith:  And we’re so excited that you’re here. And today, we’re going to hear your story because your story is remarkable. And, just to give our listeners a little bit of a background, I’ve been practicing law for a long time, and, Hope’s story, intersected with my law practice, several years ago, back when, Hope, you told me you were born. Is it okay if I tell your age?

Hope Ingram:  Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: Okay. Back in April on April 14, 2005. And, I really, want Melissa, I really just want you to take the lead on the story. Okay? Because it’s a miracle.

And I want to lay some foundation. In my law practice and in our circuit and in the state of Missouri and probably many other states, I know for a fact many other states, we see the scourge of meth. We see the scourge of drugs on children and what it’s doing to a whole population of innocence. And in my law practice, I see this over and over again where children are born to parents who are addicted to drugs and  just the havoc it wreaks, just the horrible consequences of the sin of drug abuse. And, Hope, you’re a miracle.

You’re a miracle, and your life is a miracle, and your story is a miracle, and I’m not going to cry. And I think your story needs to be told because, I’m sitting here looking at you, and you are just I just look at you. You’re a miracle, and I think your mom is going to fill us in on probably what that looks like. And, so  without further ado, let’s go and and start at the beginning, Melissa.

Melissa Sharp: Okay. That’s, gosh. There’s so much to our story. But just like we said back in April of 05, I was a mother to my son, Luke, and he would have been about 7 at that time. Now, previous to this, I couldn’t have any more children after Luke, because well, there were a lot of different things, but it wasn’t safe for me to ever attempt another pregnancy.

And I had always prayed to have a little girl. Right? And, God is faithful and he is good and he gave me a little girl, however, not in the way that I had thought it would happen. 

Kimberly Faith: Better  way. Right?

Melissa Sharp: And it was her for sure, he’s amazing. So as you know, Kim, my father, was dating a much younger girl who was addicted to drugs. She did, you know, meth was her primary thing, but she did whatever she could get her hands on. Inevitably, she got pregnant. And, without going much into detail on that, when Hope was born, when she went to deliver Hope, she didn’t even get prenatal care until the 3rd trimester.

There were a lot of complications because Hope was born addicted to meth and several other different drugs. Plus, there were some STDs. There were just all kinds of things. She was in intensive care for a couple days. And then, at the 3 day mark, DFS delivered her to us.

My dad had called me, when she was born and laid out the situation, and I had already assumed that this was what was going to happen. That Hope had been taken. The state of Missouri had taken custody of her because she was in meth withdrawals. And that, she could go to a family member, but not to him because he wasn’t willing to give up the girlfriend. And so I threw up a flare prayer, and I said, Lord, if this is what you want me to do, you know, and, I asked my husband at the time if this was something we could do, and he said yes. And, so I agreed to it on the stipulation that we would be able to adopt. I was not going to take her and give her back to the mother. That was the stipulation, and that was agreed to. 

Kimberly Faith: Did you know about the mother’s history of drug use?

Melissa Sharp: Yes. Everybody in town did. 

Kimberly Faith:  Okay.

Melissa Sharp: They all knew. 

Kimberly Faith: And, ironically, you mentioned that she had not had any prenatal care. Your biological father is actually a doctor.

Melissa Sharp:  Retired now, but yes.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And so did this situation surprise you?

Melissa Sharp: No. He  was not known to be a man of great character integrity. It disappointed me

Kimberly Faith:  Right. 

Melissa Sharp: But it didn’t surprise me.

Kimberly Faith: And it was the state of Missouri pretty, adamant that he was not to have her. 

Melissa Sharp: Yes.

Kimberly Faith:  And so with that in mind, tell us about the first time you met Hope.

Melissa Sharp:  Oh my gosh. When they brought her to the house, it was a social worker. And, this is the one that you met that one time, that so graciously after she found out she was adopted, her social worker came and had a meeting with her and explained everything that happened on that day. But she was the saddest looking thing, Kim.

Her face was so broken out and her complexion, and she was so tiny and she just looked like she was very sick, and she looked sick. She looked very sick. And when they gave  Hope to me and I held her in my arms, I just cried. I said, oh my goodness.  This baby looks so sick, Lord.

But, anyway, she was in active withdrawals for, you know, for quite a while and it was hard. The first two years were actually very hard because she got overstimulated easily. She wasn’t good at managing emotions. She’d have outrages. She did this really weird thing too.

She would suck on her 2 fingers and she would hit herself against the couch. Just bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang. So hard that it would actually shake the couch. 

Kimberly Faith: What did you say, Hope?

Hope Ingram: It was, like, peaceful. It just, like, was very calming.

Melissa Sharp: Yeah. She would go like this back and forth like this.

Kimberly Faith:  Wow. 

Melissa Sharp: As she got older. But when she was a baby, to get her to sleep, I mean, we’d have to put her in a vibrating chair and put her on the dryer, and then she’d quit breathing. A lot of times, especially in the beginning at night, we’d have to kind of tap her on her little chest as she, there was just,it was a very hard couple of years, and we finally got to adopt her right after the age of 2.

Kimberly Faith: How long did the meth stay in her system?

Melissa Sharp:  Well, the symptoms went on for at least 3 or 4 months. Now there were residual I mean

Kimberly Faith:  Right. 

Melissa Sharp: You know, I mean 

Kimberly Faith:  No, I mean, the drug itself. Like, I mean, she was born with meth. I mean, she was obviously addicted. Right? Because her mother had been taking meth while she was pregnant.

Melissa Sharp: Right.

Kimberly Faith: But, did the actual presence of the drug cycle out pretty quickly? Because you mentioned that when we were talking before we started the podcast that she even had burns on her legs from

Melissa Sharp: Well, the vagina area would 

Kimberly Faith: Okay. 

Melissa Sharp: There were burns there. So it seemed to cycle out pretty quickly. However, the neurological effects, the things that were left behind 

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

Melissa Sharp: Which, you know, they told me that they thought, that the doctors thought that she had hearing problems, probably some vision problems, but definitely some neurological problems and, you know, and some learning problems and, you know, all kinds of things.

And I did the research because I’m definitely all about research and there wasn’t a whole lot of research on meth babies at the time. So I had to research crack babies. And, you know, crack babies, they were very easily overstimulated. There were just a lot of behavioral problems, lots of outbursts of anger and I just was like, Lord, this cannot be this child’s fate. 

Kimberly Faith: Right.

Melissa Sharp: I just I’m going to pray to you and I’m just going to keep praying and praying and praying that you will completely heal her and that she will go on to take this kingdom and to do big and mighty things in your name. And ever since she was born, before she found out, we didn’t want to tell her she was adopted because I didn’t want to tell her the way that she came into this world because to me, she was mine.

Kimberly Faith: Right.  I can imagine not wanting to argue with you about that.

Melissa Sharp: No. And I didn’t want her to think that her birth or the way she was conceived took away any of her value because she was a daughter of the king. For the most part, she was my daughter. She was my little girl, and I loved her. So, up until she found out she was adopted, I had to prepare her. I would always tell her, we would talk about what she would do when she got older. And I said, you know, just remember that, you know, you’re in your perfect job when you take in all the experiences that God has given you and you use it to help other people, which she understands now.

Kimberly Faith: You know, before we were talking, I asked you, Hope, what you wanted to be when, you know, ultimately, what do you think that your dream job is? And what is that?

Hope Ingram: My dream job would definitely be to work with kids and work with people with mental health because I think that going through the experience I did, it just made me resentful of parents who don’t take care of their kids.

Kimberly Faith: Right. So when you found out at some point, you found out that you were adopted. Tell us about that.

Hope Ingram: It was just shocking. I didn’t expect it.

Kimberly Faith: You just thought of this beautiful lady. I mean, she’s been your mother. Right? And did you feel resentful for that?

Hope Ingram:  A little bit, but it definitely made me more grateful for sure.

Kimberly Faith: That’s so beautiful to me and it’s a tribute to the way you’ve been raised. That you would feel grateful, and also the heart that Jesus has given you. Now  your mom, who led you to the Lord? 

Hope Ingram: My mom. 

Kimberly Faith: Your mom did. Tell us about that. How old were you? Do you remember?

Hope Ingram: Oh, I was, like, super little, and she would just always bring me to church. So that’s kind of it’s just what I’ve always known.

Kimberly Faith: And so you accepted Jesus Christ as your lord and savior at age 7, I think, you told me earlier. 

Hope Ingram: Yeah. 

Kimberly Faith: And, you were baptized. And, have you grown up in church then? 

Hope Ingram: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: So do you think that growing up in a Christian environment had a big effect on overcoming the obstacles that could have otherwise affected you when you found out you were adopted and the situation was what it was. 

Hope Ingram: Oh, yeah. For sure.  I think it’s made it easier to forgive people because it just makes you more at peace. You don’t have to worry about it or anything. 

Kimberly Faith: That’s such a blessing that you have recognized that. Because when Jesus forgives us, you know, and saves us, I always like to call it my 4 trillion. Right? I have $4,000,000,000,000 in forgiveness in the bank.

And so I can give out $5 all day long and never run out. Right? And what happened in your situation, the circumstances of your birth, really, those are, they’re obviously produced what could have been a very horrible end for you. But the Lord intervened with your life, and he has given you an amazing life now. Right?

And a great story too of overcoming. So do you want to tell us anything else about that journey, what that list looked like for you? You said it was easier for you to forgive. 

Hope Ingram: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith:  And what else has that added to your life? In other words, the fact that you came from this, precarious beginning. Right? And now you have this amazing life in front of you, but the start was rough.

Hope Ingram: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: Has that given you a more empathetic or compassionate spirit?

Hope Ingram: Oh, yeah. It’s definitely made me more compassionate because other people would sit there and, like, judge, like, drug babies or, like, parents that are addicted to drugs, but I’ve like, I went through that. So it’s just easier to be, like, okay. You know, I know what that’s like, so I can show people compassion that it’s going to be okay.

Kimberly Faith:  Yeah. And your journey. Right? Your journey is going to be your story to say, hey. I exhibit God’s faithfulness. Right? 

Hope Ingram: Yeah. 

Kimberly Faith: And, I think that’s fantastic. I really do.

Melissa Sharp: And I think that’s why she’s chosen a field that she’s chosen, so she can redeem that, you know, because she could make those ashes allow God to turn you into a thing of beauty because she can talk to people from a viewpoint that many people can’t.

Kimberly Faith:  Right. 

Melissa Sharp: Because not many people can come and say, I know what you’re feeling. I know what you’re going through. I understand what you’re going through.

Kimberly Faith: Right. And we don’t even really know the psychological effects from, you know, what you’ve been through. We don’t understand all that. I don’t think there’s any psychiatrist or psychologist worth their merit who will say, oh, yeah. We have a grip on this.  But God does. And it kind of reminds me of the verse in Ephesians 2:10 that says, we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared that we should walk in them. He’s prepared those beforehand and which kind of reminds me also of the Psalms, the psalmist that  says, I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Right? And that God, before you were even shaped in your biological mother’s womb, you know, bless her heart, just a mess, you know. He had a plan for you. And he heard the prayer of your mother, Melissa. Right? And, answered her prayer in a way that probably is a bigger story and a more blessed journey for her than even if she had given birth to her.

Melissa Sharp: Absolutely. Because, you know, like, we’ve talked about this, you know, that God gave God, you know, God gave me Luke as my son. But my goodness, what a gift from the Lord.

Kimberly Faith:  Yeah. 

Melissa Sharp: To be given this child and to just be in charge of her and to be able to pray for her and to watch God work, Kim.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

Melissa Sharp: You know, there were so many people. Even my own mother, I know that when I chose to adopt her, there was so much animosity between my mother and my biological father at that time because of, you know, the many times he had cheated on her and the other children that he sat out of wedlock. I mean, there’s just a lot to it. Then there was so much animosity between her and me that it all, 

Kimberly Faith: Because you wanted to adopt.

Melissa Sharp: Because I wanted to adopt her, and she was angry with me for even doing anything for my father. And she was mad at him, of course, because he was so irresponsible.

 Kimberly Faith: Right.

Melissa Sharp:  You know, first of all, he was, I think, almost 40 years older than this young girl. He knew what was going on. He knew she was on drugs and yet he continued to have a relationship with her. And then when Hope was born, they continued to try to fight me to get custody. I mean, there’s so much to it.

Kimberly Faith:  I remember that.

Melissa Sharp:  Oh my goodness. There’s so much to it.

Kimberly Faith:  It’s a miracle. 

Melissa Sharp: Yeah. I had to fight them to get custody and I had her since she was little and she and anyway, long story short, I just, my mom, after all this I remember I went to a ball game of your brothers and I had Hope and she was in her little bouncy thing. Right?

And I was tired, Kim. I was tired because she had not been sleeping. I mean, she just had been going into withdrawals and just crying uncontrollably and I was stepping over a bleacher. My mom was there to watch my son play and my stepdad. And I remember cutting myself from the side of the bleacher and just it was one of those ones that just get your flesh but they bleed like it’s nobody’s business.

And my mom was there and I was like, oh my goodness. Oh, this is the last thing I need. And my mom said, give me the baby. Let me hold the baby. I said, no. You don’t even like her. And my mom said, give me the baby. Give me the baby. She sat and she looked at Hope and she fell in love. And less than a month later, that got my mom and my stepdad. They started going back to church. They eventually gave their life back to the Lord. They were born again again and then they were, you tell them, the best grandparents in the world.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, it’s interesting that you were a catalyst for your grandparents coming to Jesus. 

Hope Ingram: Yeah. 

Kimberly Faith: Right? And, you know, Melissa brings up an interesting comment, being born again. You know, of course, we know that you’re you’re,  so when you’re saved, you’re once saved, always saved. Right? 

Hope Ingram: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith:  But a lot of us walk away from the Lord and, really become, I think I’ve mentioned this term before, practicing atheist.

Melissa Sharp: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: You know, where God is not the lord of our life. And, you know, whether they were born again to begin with or whether they were born again. Well, you know, after you came into their life, Hope, as long as they know that when they die, they’re going to go meet Jesus. That’s the most important thing. And what a beautiful thing that you played a part in their eternity.

Hope Ingram: Yeah. 

Kimberly Faith: That’s incredible. And I’m sure that they’re aware, very aware of how precious that is. And isn’t it amazing how God can change the hearts of people just like overnight?

Melissa Sharp:  And Hope has healed. Just her mere presence in our family has healed so many wounds.

Kimberly Faith:  Wow. 

Melissa Sharp: So many relationships. When Hope is just, I’m just so blessed to be her mom, but just her vibrant personality and her love, her absolute love. My mom alone, Hope, can attest to that. She has gone through, she has had strokes and aneurysms and just all these other things.

Kimberly Faith: Oh my.

Melissa Sharp: And then my stepdad died, a couple years ago and she says that if she hadn’t had Hope, she would just give up. She just said, that’s just it, Lord. Just take me.

Kimberly Faith:  Really? 

Melissa Sharp: Yeah. But being alive for Hope was the one that brought her the most joy out of anything in her life was having Hope as a granddaughter.

Kimberly Faith: Wow. That’s pretty powerful, Hope. 

Hope Ingram: Yeah. 

Kimberly Faith: And so did you choose the name Hope? 

Melissa Sharp: Yes. Yes. She was given another name, Caris Juanita. I was not a fan, not a fan. So we named her Hope Emily.

Kimberly Faith: And why did you pick that name?

Melissa Sharp: Because I had hoped and prayed for a child and she was what I had hoped. She was evidence of the hope and God’s faithfulness in my life. Now, you know, it’s so funny because she’s gone obviously. You know, she got married in January. She lives in Georgia and you can just ask people.

When I start talking about her, I just start crying. You know, it’s because, you know, in Psalm 13:6, David said, I will sing the Lord’s praise for God has been good to me. That’s her. And every time I talk about her, I think about her, I start crying just randomly because God’s so good to me.

Kimberly Faith: Did you say you do too?

Hope Ingram:  Yes. I hate being away from my mom. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. Well, I can see that you all have a very strong bond.

And, you know, in the last podcast, we talked about how hard things, hard times, how trouble forges a strength in us. And, like, when you’re going through you’re pushing through the next mile,  that mile where the pain, you know, it’s still there, but you’ve overcome it. I feel like your description of caring for Hope the first 2 or 3 years of her life is, what a bond. I mean, even though maybe Hope you weren’t necessarily, cognitively aware of this care, you know, at some point, you understood that bond at whatever age that was. Right?

Kind of like the time you became aware that you needed to accept Jesus as your lord and savior. Right?

Hope Ingram:  Yeah.

Kimberly Faith:  It’s like and you glomped onto that and now you have this amazing relationship. And, you know, Melissa, you shared something earlier before we got on the podcast about some of the attachment issues. Could you tell our listeners about that a little bit? 

Melissa Sharp:  Yeah. So the first two years of her life, she did not want to be held. She did not want to  be comforted. She just was not  and I loved her so much and I just wanted to hold her.  And as a mom, that’s hard, you know, when your child does it.

Kimberly Faith:  Was that something related to the meth?

Melissa Sharp: Yes. Yes. And it, she was just very overstimulated and she just,  it seemed like a light bulb went off, you know, after that 2 years but  I remember the time in church and  I usually held her but we were, I had her down, beside me and I had my right hand, I remember this, lifted up in praise and worship and my other hand was down by my side and I felt her little tiny hand. I know it makes me cry and she held my hand. We always make this joke that I say you have to come home because I want to hold your little hands because I love to hold her little hands. I just hold them all the time. But when her hand reached up, I just looked down and I just started crying. And it just seemed like after that and then she got more loving and more loving and now she’s like Tina. She still sits on my lap and

Hope Ingram: I’m not going to let you go. 

Kimberly Faith:  Oh, I’m going to cry.

Melissa Sharp:  No. She doesn’t. It’s we, yeah. She’s the most loving child you absolutely ever meet in your life.

And you know what, Kim? I would not be the Christian I am today without this little girl. Wow. She made me strive to be better for her and just to, she just, and it was just such a show of evidence of the faithfulness of God in my life to answer my prayer in that way, you know, even though it was hard. 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah.

Melissa Sharp: We’re better for the hardships. Right?

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. You know what? Your story reminds me of what hope is.  I like to tell people and tell myself when I’m loving people who don’t respond, you know, that love is never wasted when it comes from God. It’s never wasted. It never goes away.

Never goes away, because we’re not doing it for a result, we’re doing it for the, because we love the Lord. And, you know, I think about the investment of love that you put into Hope for those 2 years where she did not respond. Where she was, you know, assuming, so overstimulated by what happened to you in vitro that you probably couldn’t stand to be touched early because of the effect of the drugs on your system. But now you have this bond because of the love that was poured from God . Out of you into her. We don’t even understand that.

Melissa Sharp:  No. We don’t. 

Kimberly Faith: We can’t wrap our mind around the love of God and aren’t you glad we can’t wrap our mind around God? Aren’t you glad that we have a God we can truly worship because he is who he says he is. He is the I am. 

Melissa Sharp: And doesn’t give up on us.

Kimberly Faith:  He doesn’t give up on us. He loves us as far as the east is from the west. And we can’t wrap our minds around his love. And isn’t that a fabulous thing.

Melissa Sharp: And you know what I love about it too is his great love is just it allows her story to be told. You know, because her beginning, it could have, her life could have gone in such another direction 

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. 

Melissa Sharp: But God.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. I mean, I represent kids. Well, I represent families, foster families who try to adopt and children who are born addicted to drugs and and unfortunately, if the system doesn’t get them soon enough, we see them just, you know, these foster families love on them and give them everything, give them Jesus. And these kids are just so, their brain is just not able to comprehend love because they’ve been neglected for so many years and it’s, and I’m not saying God can’t do miracles. He certainly can. But it’s such an uphill battle and then they end up going back to the person who abused them as adults. And there’s only a few instances of these types of things that I’ve heard of, but just one is bad enough. 

Melissa Sharp: Yes.

Kimberly Faith:  You know? But you were mercifully, you’re you know, I guess, captured out of the system by Melissa, and, you know, what a miracle.

Melissa Sharp:  Yeah. They went on to have another baby too again, and that baby was taken. And he is now 16 or 17. He’s with a family in Arkansas that adopted him and he wasn’t as lucky as Hope. He’s got some long lasting problems. Not to the point where he’d never be able to function or to live alone, but he definitely, you know,  that’s just the way it goes, you know. But luckily, he’s got a Christian family that loves him and love can overcome a lot.

Kimberly Faith: Yes. And it’s, you know, again, it’s the scourge of sin. I love what Jesus taught us in the beatitudes. He said, you know, after he said, blessed are the poor in spirit, he said, blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. And, you know, what is the object of our mourning?

It should be that we hate sin because sin causes all of the horrific things that destroy lives. And when we mourn, not just other people’s sin, but our own sin.

Melissa Sharp:  Yeah. 

Kimberly Faith: The sin that crucified Jesus. You know? We are able to draw close to him and funnel his love because we’re not snuggling up to the rot and filth that crucified him. You know? And I hate to be so direct, but we need to be direct.

Melissa Sharp: Yeah. We have to be.

Kimberly Faith: What you went through as a very innocent child, as in you know, child in the womb and a child after you were born, that’s ugly. That’s horrific. And it’s because of selfishness. It’s because of self centeredness. It’s because of, you know, just this out of control, self centered person or persons. Right? And love is selflessness and you got to experience both of those extremes and you have come out on the other side and are a picture of all that God wants for every person, beauty, grace, kindness, hope, you know, love

Melissa Sharp:  Forgiveness. 

Kimberly Faith: Forgiveness.

Melissa Sharp:  You know, I will tell you, I was very angry the first years.

Kimberly Faith: I imagine you were.

Melissa Sharp: And I’m going to be brutally honest. And I have just dreamed of doing things I probably shouldn’t have.

Kimberly Faith: Don’t admit the mommy error.

Melissa Sharp: I know. But I feel but I harbored such hate in my heart for both of them. I was so angry, Kim.

Kimberly Faith: I imagine. 

Melissa Sharp: Oh my gosh. 

Kimberly Faith: Because you’re suffering for this whole thing with her.

Melissa Sharp: Yeah. And they’re fighting me in court. 

Kimberly Faith: Yes. 

Melissa Sharp: To go, he’s funding her lawyer bills to fight me. And I’m just like, what is the deal? I am trying to protect this child.

Kimberly Faith: Right. 

Melissa Sharp: And you only want her back for selfish reasons. And I was angry. And I tell you what, and I will share this story with you.

It’s right before we got to adopt her. And I knew I had to get rid of it. I knew it. The holy spirit was convicting me and I’ve had a particularly hard night for her and I left her with my mom and I went for a run and I ran hard, very, very hard as fast as I could. And I was on a gravel road, and I remember just nicking a rock, and I went down, Kim. And I went down so hard, I slid, just tore this up, tore I had, holes in my pants. My knees were bloody, and I sat there in a ball and I cried. And I said, Lord, I can’t do this anymore. And I remember the holy spirit, I felt it and I heard him say in my spirit, that’s right. You can’t. Stop. Stop it.

Kimberly Faith:  Wow. 

Melissa Sharp: You know, you need to forgive and you need to go on. And I remember sitting there on that gravel road with the sun shining down on me, and I cried and I cried. And then I got up and I started laughing and the joy had been restored.

And I went home and, I remember we had some people working on the house and I was just laughing and just so joyful. And I had by this time, the dirt was in the blood and it was, and they were like, are you okay? And I’m like, never been better. I’m good.

Kimberly Faith:  Oh, wow.

Melissa Sharp: But I just remember that day that that was a turning point. And so for that listener out there, if you’re saying to yourself, man, I don’t know if I can forgive. Let me tell you what. You have to because unforgiveness only hurts you.

KimberlyFaith:  Right.

Melissa Sharp: They didn’t care. They could care less if I had forgiven them. And if Hope and I had not forgiven them, we couldn’t stand here and talk about the love of Jesus because 

Kimberly Faith: That’s right. 

Melissa Sharp:Jesus forgives us and so we have to forgive each other.

Kimberly Faith:  Right. And, again, I don’t know if my little analogy about 44 trillion makes sense. 

Melissa Sharp: I love it. Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: But it’s so true. I mean, we have been given more forgiveness than we can ever give away in our entire life. And, you know, and to not forgive is to drink the poison that’s going to kill you .

Melissa Sharp:  That’s exactly right.

Kimberly Faith: And you know, the old saying, if you don’t forgive, it’s like you’re drinking poison and expecting to kill the person

Melissa Sharp:  It only hurts you.

Kimberly Faith: It only hurts you. And, your story is, I mean, for you, it’s a story of hope and forgiveness. Right?

Melissa Sharp: Oh, yes. Yes.

Kimberly Faith: And for you, it’s a story of an amazing life gift. Right? And, also forgiveness. And, what a wonderful story. Well, Hope, I’ll ask you this question. What do you want to be known for?

Hope Ingram: I want to be known for definitely being compassionate for people and trying to help people for sure.

Kimberly Faith: Yeah. And of course the greatest help is to give them the keys of the kingdom. Right? 

Hope Ingram: Yeah.

Kimberly Faith: And, the gift of salvation and the gospel and but you have, you just I’m just sitting here looking at you and you let people see your soul, and that’s amazing. I can see your soul, and that your soul belongs to Jesus, and that’s amazing. 

So thank you so much for joining us. And, Melissa, thanks for joining us again on the podcast and for sharing your story. And, boy, I just know, I guess we’re going to have to make an agreement on the air so everybody knows it’s true. You’re going to come back and see me again, right, and tell me all the things you’re doing. Okay. Well, that’s a promise I’m going to make you keep. 

So you’ve been listening to the truth and love podcast with our guests, Melissa Sharp and Hope Ingram. And I just pray that this story has given you hope and that no matter what you’re going through, God is always bigger than the storm. He’s always bigger than the problem. He is above the storm, but he is willing to get in the ditch with you and help you out of it, if you’ll let him. And so we pray that this podcast was a blessing and have an amazing blessed rest of your week.

Jacob Paul: You’ve been listening to the Truth in Love podcast with your host, Kimberly Faith. To discover more answers to the big questions in life, visit us at gofaithstrong.com.