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It's Live in the Bream with the host of Fox News Sunday, Shannon Bream. Okay, this week on Live in the Bream, we have such a fun, interesting guest. Some of you, I suspect, may know her. She is also a TV person. She has been an international reporter traveling around the world. She's a best-selling author.
She's a speaker. So she's got decades of experience in journalism and she is at CBN based in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She is a senior reporter there and co-anchors Christian World News. But we are here to talk about her fantastic newest book, Wendy Griffith, the author of You Didn't Miss It, God's Best is Worth the Wait. Wendy, welcome to Live in the Bream. Bannon, it's so great to finally meet you. I've been a fan of yours for years and this is so
so awesome. I love being on your show. Thank you. Well, thank you so much for doing this and for the book and for sharing your story because it is one I think is very encouraging, inspiring, whatever you're waiting on in your life and you feel like
Is this dream going to be unfulfilled? Is this prayer going to be unanswered? Your story is just a reminder that God is always working. And we see that through so many stories through the Bible. But you give us a modern day, you know, example of that as well. And your journey is about waiting until you found the right man sent by God to get married at 54, which, by the way, you look a lot younger than you are. So I had to double check that was actually real. But thank you for sharing your story. So tell us about that.
the waiting about this story and why you decided to be so transparent about it, not just when you had the happy ending, but all along the way. Well, like you said, I was 54 and a half because after 50, you got to count the half years. Exactly. 54 and a half. When I walked down the aisle for the very first time, I met Bill in the summer of 2017. I was 52, almost 53. And
And by then, Shannon, I had, believe it or not, I had finally got to this place where I was content but still contending. I still wanted to be married. Because I had spent most of my 40s and early 50s, I was just, I wouldn't say happy.
desperate, well, okay, maybe desperate, feeling desperate, like this got to happen by this timeframe. And God did something in my early 50s. It wasn't that I surrendered it completely, because I don't even believe in that. People say, oh, don't make it an idol, lay it on the altar. Yes and no. I mean, I think you always got to keep praying. I mean, the Bible talks so much about...
persevering in prayer and not giving up and keep knocking and keep asking and keep. But there is that sweet spot.
where, you know what? You're like, God, I am blessed. I am blessed in my single life. I'm blessed with my family and this great job. And at the time I was co-hosting the 700 Club with Pat Robertson, who I dearly loved and we miss so much. But I was in this really sweet spot with God, with my relationship, with trusting him and just knowing, still believing that it would happen. But I was
When I met, when I got introduced to Bill,
It was sort of almost like, okay, you know, it's great to go out with somebody, but I'm not like going out and buying my wedding dress tonight, you know, just because I'm going out with a guy, you know, with someone from the office of sex. So, and it took me a while to realize that's what God was waiting for. He was waiting for me to be content. And I love explaining that to people that are still waiting because waiting is so hard.
And I talk about, you know, waiting is not punishment, it's preparation and the fact that God is a God of order. So it was Terry Meeusen that told me that one time. She's like, Wendy, you know, God, you know, she said there's purpose in the waiting. And when she said that, it was just so anointed. I was like, oh, OK, right. You know, like God, he's not a mean God. He's not holding out on us.
There's a purpose in the waiting. And so I had to learn all of those things before I got to that sweet spot. And then that's when it happened. And I think that's so true with whatever season that you're in, if your heart is kind of sick over that hope deferred, whether it's a sweet spot or a sweet spot, it's a sweet spot.
whether it's personal, professional, some dream you feel like the Lord has laid on your heart. And I agree with you. I think that we continue taking our wants, our desires to him. I saw a clip of you speaking somewhere and Psalm 37, four was on the screen behind you. And it's so funny because that was part of my reading this morning, this first that people will recognize, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. I mean, really he is to be our first priority and our first priority.
Um, you know, what we're pursuing and what we're at, what we're after every day is about growing in him, um, serving other people, growing his kingdom. But we can be experiencing a lot of life in the meantime. I know for me, there was a season I lived with chronic pain and I'm like, what in the world purpose can there be in this?
But you can see things sometimes when you're in it, sometimes it's later, whether you become more empathetic and are able to, you know, really minister to other people that go through some of those same seasons that you've been through, which I know you do now with people. And I love your saying, don't get discouraged, get ready. So tell us about that. That's a big part of your story, too. I'm all about enjoy the journey until it happens. And, you know, back to back to Psalm 37, 4.
That is such a key scripture because it's such a powerful promise from God. You know, like you said, delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Not he might. I mean, God is not a man that he should lie. And what really helped me is I just started taking the Bible so literally. I'm like, God, you said.
You said that you will give me the desires of my heart and being married is a desire of my heart because people will say, oh, well, there's nowhere in the Bible that says, you know, God says you'll be married. True. But there's so many scriptures that say that say he will give you the desires of your heart if you're following after him. And I think those promises like they're like checks you can take to the bank and cash them in. Now, that doesn't mean that you'll get your answer immediately. Right.
But I like to do what I call work the word. I mean, just tell God what he said. And he knows what he said, but it helps us remember. And then it builds our faith in that expectation. You know, God says, you can't please me without faith. And I know a lot of people that are single have lost hope. They've lost faith.
And you got to get that back because that's what pleases God. And when we believe and we take him at his word and we trust him, that's when he can release the blessing. And so I'm all about, you know, when I wrote my first book, You Are a Prize to Be Won, I was single and heartbroken. God told me to write it and I did. And then
when I got married, I didn't hear, I didn't feel like God was saying, you've got to write the happy ending. But I had a lot of people asking me for, you know, how did you meet your Boaz? How did you meet your husband? And so I'm like, yeah, I'm going to write this because I did hear this in my spirit. Take your message of hope around the world because hope is what we all need when we're in the waiting season. Because the Bible says faith is a substance, right?
of things hoped for. So you can't even have faith without hope. So hope is the foundation, right? So you've got to have hope. Then you can have faith. Then God can release the blessing in His perfect timing. You know, it's not a vending machine. I mean, you do have to still trust Him with the timing. But who else knows better the perfect timing to bless you than God?
And I was already over 50 when I heard God say, because I was praying again. I was like, Lord, where is he? And I heard the Holy Spirit say, when you are ready, there he will be. And I'm like, God, you got to be kidding me. I mean, the world says I've already missed it, you know? And so I had to trust God. Okay. Actually, I remember getting that word because...
And for your audience, it's like not familiar with, you know, hearing words. It's not like an audible voice from God. It's just something you, you know, you, it was not something you made up and that it just kind of bypasses your, your brain and goes right into your spirit. And you just hear God say something to your, to your spirit. And I, I was so relieved because I thought, okay, God, you're working. You're, you've got this. You see what I'm going through and you understand the waiting is hard. And you're saying, okay,
when I'm ready. And I was already over 50, which only we can only conclude that, you know, I was a late bloomer and perhaps emotionally, you know, not ready. I don't know why I wasn't ready when I was over 50 Shannon, but God said I wasn't. Now also my husband was going through his own stuff. He was going through a painful divorce and he,
He was not available. So he had to go through his own journey. And then at the perfect time, God brought us together.
Yeah, I mean, it is his timing, which is always better than ours. And I do like those moments when we can see in life, ah, this is why this roadblock was there. This is why there was this moment of something that I had to learn. And I've known enough that I've been in some valleys where I've said to the Lord, like, okay, drop the lesson on me. It's terrible down here. I want to know what it is so I can move on to the next thing.
But we all know every single human probably listening to this has been through valleys and you know that that's not how the process works. There is a learning. And I love what Terry said to you. There's purpose. I think that God is too good to give you pain without a purpose. I mean, I think there is always working there. And I think so much of
of Hannah, you know, her story in the Old Testament, she was so heartbroken over being infertile and desperately wanting a child and all of the waiting and all of the hurts that came to her before God said, okay, this is the timing. And this is why this makes sense now. I think about Elizabeth in the New Testament, like way past the time that anybody thought she would be having a baby, but her giving birth to John, who was the predecessor to Jesus and their work together in ministry. I mean, all of that
makes sense in retrospect, but it is hard when you're in the middle of it and you're sitting in that waiting, but you found ways to enjoy it. I mean, you were traveling the world, pursuing your career, having all kinds of adventures, and you're open about the fact too, that there was somebody in your life in your mid to late forties that you thought, okay, maybe this is it. Maybe this is the answer to my prayers.
How hard was it to look at that situation and say, this is not the person for me? When you've waited all these decades of believing that God is going to send someone and feeling like by the world standards, like, okay, the clock is ticking here. What was it for you, that journey, that part of the journey, realizing this isn't the one, this is going to be hard. I've got to walk away from this and just trust the process. Yeah.
Shannon, it was the worst pain I've ever experienced in my life. And people say, oh, it was just a relationship. It was just a breakup. It took me several years to get over it. And after about a year of still like,
really going through this crushing heartbreak of thinking, you know, why didn't this work out? A friend of mine said, Wendy, you know, maybe you're believing a lie. And I said, she said, ask God, you know, what you're believing. And I immediately heard it's my fault. And
And when you're going through heartbreak and you think it's your fault, it makes it so much harder to get to move on because you keep rehearsing it and going back and thinking, if I had just done this, he would have stayed. If I hadn't said that, you know, if I looked like this and all of these things just torment you. And God set me free when my friend told me. Now, I had to walk it out. I had to say, okay,
you know, keep reminding myself, this is why it's not my fault. And he would have, you know, like TD Jake says, if someone's going to walk, they're going to walk anyway. But it was the hardest thing I ever went through was that heartbreak. And you know, what's crazy now is I look back and I'm like, thank you, God. Right. He broke up with me. Thank you, God. Because I was in my late forties and I thought, this is it. He's a Christian. He's,
you know, tall, dark and handsome. And, and I'm now I look back and I'm like, Whoa, I really, really missed a bullet. And I don't know if I would have had the strength to, I'm telling you deep down, you know, I, I knew deep, deep down something wasn't quite right. I was ignoring all the red flags because I,
I wanted the fairy tale. I wanted the wedding. I wanted the honeymoon. I wanted the bridal showers. I wanted everything. And I was so tired of waiting that I was willing to ignore the red flags. God in his mercy caused this guy to break up with me. And God bless him, you know, wherever he is today. But I, you know, it was still...
the hardest thing I ever went through because I had to deal with rejection on a level that I'd never dealt with it before. I hadn't dealt with the spirit of rejection. And that's why God allowed me to go through this, this horrible pain so that when I met the right one, that, that issue, I mean, when you bring a spirit of rejection into a relationship, it's almost impossible to have a healthy relationship if you're
If you're always feeling rejected. Now, I'm not saying I'm 100% free of that, but I am light years from where I was. And so again, God did not waste that pain, but it was brutal. And I don't wish it on anybody because I remember thinking, Lord, I don't want to do this.
I just wanted God to fix it and make it and have him like, you know, have us get back together. And I'm just so grateful God did not do that. We'll have more Live in the Bream in a moment. Start preparing for your future at Liberty University and join thousands of LU alumni like Shannon Bream. From a flexible K-12 online academy to doctoral level programs, Liberty University has a range of
Thank you.
I've got a couple of those too. Not that they're bad guys. They weren't the right person for me, you know? And I think about...
what our relationship may have been like had we ended up together it would have been nothing like my sweet wonderful amazing husband like you're saying about bill
Like I'm with the right person. And I'm not one of those people. I don't know if you are that think like, oh, there's only one soulmate match for you out there. And if you miss that person, you've missed everything. I don't personally subscribe to that. I do think that, you know, God has his best and will guide us to people. And I'm just really thankful that I ended up with my husband because like we always say, we are not perfect, but we're perfect for each other. I mean, our strengths and weaknesses are
fit together in the right way. And again, we're talking to Wendy Griffith, the author of You Didn't Miss It, God's Best is Worth the Wait. Such an encouraging, fun read, full of good meat, spiritually and otherwise, that you will enjoy. Now, I got to ask you about this too, because you actually host
retreats in which people who are single, I guess this is men and women. And who knows, maybe you make a love connection there. I don't know. But it's about embracing where you are in your life, being, as you said, not discouraged, but ready. You've got one coming up in June. What is this about? Who's it for? Who should come? Well, last year, about this time, I don't know how we started talking about it. My husband just said,
Maybe you should have a singles conference. I think, oh, because I was telling him about how I came to CBN originally back in like 1999. They were, I was a local news reporter in, in West Virginia and they,
they announced they were hosting a singles conference. And I was, you know, in my early 30s. And so I went. And anyway, he said, why don't you have a singles conference? Because the book, because you didn't miss it, had just come out and people were really pumped about it. And I was getting to be friends with a lot of the readers. And I'm like, that's a great idea. So we put on the singles conference last summer in Virginia Beach at the Wyndham, right on the oceanfront. And of course,
We didn't make it one day. We made it two days, two and a half days. But it was so fun. We had more than 100 singles come from all over the country. We had three ladies come from Canada that were a blast. We just made so many great connections. One of the ladies that attended last summer is now married. I don't think they met. She didn't meet him at the conference, I don't think. But she's now married. So I asked her if she wanted to come back and tell her testimony.
But what I loved about the singles is they found each other at the conference. They hung out. They made new friendships. Because what I love to tell singles is enjoy the journey. Because when you're having fun, it's going to be so much easier to meet somebody. When I turned 50, I climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. Amazing. Thank you. I got into high elevation climbing.
I went on all these adventures and I'm like, you know, I might meet him at the top of Kilimanjaro. I didn't, but...
When I went on my honeymoon with Bill, we went back to Africa and we stood at the base of Kilimanjaro. And it was such a full circle moment. And that's in the book. Yes. I just, I loved it. You know, one of the things we did at the singles conference is I have a great friend who's a Christian. He's a personal trainer. And we did a beach workout Saturday morning right on the sand. It was such a blast. Yeah.
And he made it so, you know, anybody of any exercise level could take part. Love that.
Yeah. So, but we just did so many fun things. We had incredible speakers. We had incredible worship because that to me is like the key to everything. And, but yeah, so we can't wait to do it again. It's June 13th and 14th at the Wyndham hotel. Everything's on my website, wendygriffithauthor.com or Insta Wendy Griffith TV. Everything is there to sign up. And yeah, we're, we just had so much fun with the singles that we want to do it again.
Well, it looked like a lot of fun based on the clips that I saw from it. And who doesn't want a chance to go to the beach? I mean, I'm always down for that. That's always a good place to be in my perspective. Again, the book is You Didn't Miss It, God's Best is Worth the Wait by Wendy Griffith. Thank you for sharing your story, all the different parts of it and all the different stages of it, because it's not always easy to be vulnerable and transparent when
But I think that there's so many great lessons to learn from all of these different seasons that you've walked through. And we could do a whole nother podcast on marriage because while it is amazing and wonderful, it's also not a perfect thing. You're two imperfect people coming together and there's growth that continues in that. But man, what a blessing it is to have.
kind of your partner in crime with you, your best friend. And what a blessing when you know that God has brought you together. And when times get tough, that he is there to hold you together and to work through the things that will come. Wendy, thank you so much for making time to join us on Live in the Bream and for all that you've shared and will share, I know, in the years to come.
It's my pleasure. And thank you so much for having me, Shannon. God bless you. You too, my friend. Listen ad-free with the Fox News Podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts. And Amazon Prime members can listen to this show ad-free on the Amazon Music app.
On the latest episode of the Fox Nation Investigates podcast, Evil Next Door, female serial killer Eileen Wuornos, a Florida-bound hitchhiking prostitute, rose to infamy after killing seven men. Listen and follow now at foxtruecrime.com.