Send us Fan Mail

Contact Melissa Jean Rod on Instagram.

Her memoir is The Daddy Files, an award winner that reads like a memoir and a workbook together, with questions and prayers at the end of every chapter.

Some stories are not for scrolling past. This one belongs to Melissa Jean Rodd.

She grew up not knowing her birth father. As an adult she found him. Then, years after he had died, she learned he was not her birth father at all.

Her mother knew who was. She would not say.

Melissa had to play detective and find out on her own.

Somewhere in the middle of that, she started grieving a second father she had already grieved once. She describes standing at her kitchen island stomping her foot like a two year old, reminding God of every promise He made in the Bible and telling Him to make good on them.

He did.

What she found on the other side is the thing she now tells other women. It stopped mattering who her earthly father was, because she knew whose she was.

That distinction runs through this whole conversation. Knowing who you are is one thing. Knowing whose you are is another, and it is harder to reach when the picture of father you grew up with had a hole in it.

Melissa also talks about forgiveness, which is the subject of her signature talk. She calls it the F word, and she means the harder one. She had to forgive the man she believed was her father for not being there. Then she had to forgive her mother for the lie. She is clear that forgiveness is not a free pass for anyone, and that it is not one and done. Sometimes it is forgiving again two seconds later because it came back.

Her line at the end of the episode is the one to keep. It is not for him. It is for you.

She used to hate speaking in front of people. Radio interviews made her a wreck. Now she speaks from stages, because she figured out that God's purpose for her story does not move if she stays quiet.

She has a hundred day devotional called A Daughter's Quest with her editor now. And she is one of fifteen authors in a collaboration called The Gratitude Project.

Find Melissa at melissajeanrod.com. Her book is on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and her website.

This is The Calling Table Sessions on the Stuck No More Voices Podcast. One seat. One woman. One story handled with care.

If you are a Christian woman leader with a story that could reach the woman you used to be, there is a seat here for you at theresacroft.com/yourseat.

Share this episode with the woman who came to mind while you were listening.

Subscribe on YouTube. Share on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Hosted by Theresa Croft, a Visibility Strategist who helps Christian women move from their calling to their story to being found with a message for their ideal audience.

Register Click HERE: The Story Gold Method: Learn to connect to your audience with stories from your experiences. The best strategy for content? Your Story

Home TheresaCroft.com
Instagram: https://instagram.com/theresacroft
Facebook: https://Facebook.com/theresamcroft
YouTube: https://YouTube.com/@theresacroft
More Podcast Episodes on Apple and Spotify