Interview - A Woman Directed By God

Teachable Woman Podcast

Interview: A Woman Directed by God

Reverends Michele Owes and Diana P. Cherry

[00:00:00]

Reverend Michele Owes: Welcome. Welcome back to the Teachable Woman Podcast. We're excited to be with you. I am Reverend Michele Owes. I am with Reverend Mrs. Diana P. Cherry, author extraordinaire, and together we are teachers of good things. Mrs. Cherry, say hello.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Hello Podcast family. We're so delighted that we're able to get back with you again. We look forward to what God's gonna do in this podcast, and we pray that you will be blessed outta your socks. Another little saying that my husband used to use all the time, but be blessed as you listen to and pray for this podcast.

Reverend Michele Owes: Amen. Well, today we are going to be talking about Mrs. Cherry's newly released book, A Woman Directed by God. [00:01:00] I shared in our last podcast that I was just in awe of the openness. In all of the, just share from the heart, that was taking place in this book. There were so many details about her life that I, of course, never knew and didn't expect to know, but it gave us a better glimpse of who you are, because the experiences that we have do help to shape who we are. I love, there were some things that Mrs. Cherry did in the book that we're gonna talk more about. One is that after sharing a chapter, she gave us some wisdom from her, as it relates to whatever the subject area was at the time. And, That I thought was an absolute blessing. It was not just a narrative of this is what happened to me in my life, but this is what I wanna share with you about what happened.

Reverend Michele Owes: And, [00:02:00] this is the wisdom that I would leave with you. And that helped us to see it. The way you saw it,

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Cool.

Reverend Michele Owes: it didn't, it didn't give us room to either paint something negatively or look at something and, and think differently and come out with all these different opinions. It's like, no. And you always brought it back to the word of God,

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Yes.

Reverend Michele Owes: beautiful.

Reverend Michele Owes: So I, I love that. I am an absolute fan. I'm not 100% finished, but I am close. And, so Mrs. Cherry, would you share with us. Just what was on your heart and what caused you to write this second book? A Woman Directed by God.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Well, I promised in the first book Seekers of Righteousness that I would write a second book that would be based on my life, because a lot of people thought, not a lot of people, but a few, Professional people thought that in seekers of righteousness it was, more like a report. And so [00:03:00] I thanked the person who made that comment and said, that's exactly what it is.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: It's a report of our stewardship in the ministry. And because of the comment of that. Couple of people. Of those, couple of people, I made a promise that I would write my autobiography and that that's why I did it. But then as I share in the book, I found papers that I had written from, the early days of ministry, and I had outlined.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: some things about my life and I was shocked to find that I did not realize that I had written papers, so maybe I was planning to write an autobiography way back then. And then when I went further in research, I found papers and information from high school days that I had written. And, we were required to write something.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: I don't know if it was an autobiography, but mine was an autobiography and I entitled it Footsteps In the [00:04:00] Sands of Time. And I don't know if I was led by the poem that's entitled that I don't remember ever reading that poem. But anyway, so that's kind of how I. Evolved into writing the story of my life and in writing the story of my life.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: One of the saddest things for me was to realize that I have no memory, no pictures, nobody I can talk to about Deanna p Cherry, the little girl. Or Deanna Peach, cherry the baby. I have nothing. And so I'm really big on memories and pictures and establishing those kinds of things for your children, for your grandchildren, so that another child doesn't have to be a grown 80-year-old woman realizing that I have no.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Knowledge of my childhood, except [00:05:00] for about the age, maybe 6, 5, 6 or seven, something like that. So that was the most eye opening thing about my life at that younger age.

Reverend Michele Owes: That is amazing. When you shared, in the first chapter about your life, and you talked about your humble beginnings, I'm going to put it that way. now if you compare the humble beginnings. To the life that you have been blessed to live now, what would you say is the gap between it all?

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Wow, that's an interesting question. one thing. I innately have always had in my heart was a desire to be successful, was a desire to succeed and a desire not to ever let how I was born dictate what I was capable of doing. [00:06:00] Because as a young person, through about 13 years of age, I never really thought I could learn.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: I never really thought that I had anything near average intelligence. I never felt dumb, but I just didn't think that I had the ability to succeed academically, and that's probably because of the upbringing, having gone to a school for five years with one teacher, in one classroom, teaching all five grades.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: I always used to hear my maiden name is Young, and I always used to hear that the Youngs don't do well in math, that the Youngs can't do math. And so I grew up with that, stigma. And until today, I'm not sure that I could do well in math, but I managed and I think the most, Helpful thing to me was when I had an [00:07:00] opportunity to go to Catholic school in the sixth, in the seventh and eighth grade I think it was, and I, I realized how backwards I really was and how poorly I spoke the national language and I realized what I didn't know, but once again.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: I graduated from high school, or I finished two years of middle school, I guess it would've been regarded as. And, those hard years in Catholic school prepared me so that when I went to a regular public school in Virginia, I knew that I could do it. I figured if I made it through Catholic school, I can learn and I can do and I can succeed.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: So I think that those two years in Catholic school really was like the modulating factor in my life. I didn't like it at the time. And, I'm thankful for those two years of living with a wonderful, godly, [00:08:00] Catholic family and, having the opportunity to go to Catholic school.

Reverend Michele Owes: Amen. I remember. Listening to. One lady shared at our women's retreat that you were melting candles, and making more candles out of what was left, and she was just so amazed. She felt as though, you were wealthy enough that you could just toss a candle at the end of it, but you were making more candles then. Is there a connection between how you can conserve and or maximize what you have? there a connection to the humble beginning?

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: I believe it is for me, I have met two kinds of people, people like me, who had very humble beginnings, and as a result of that, they're very conservative, very much, very economical, very [00:09:00] wise, very frugal. And then I've met the opposite extreme people who raised like me, who once they came into resources, they, they're just spend it.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Buy the biggest, buy the best, do this. So for me, I know that my humble beginning. kind of controls my life to an extent. The, I never want to be wasteful. I never want to be high-minded. I, I like good things and I like quality things, and I basically got that from my husband, but I don't ever want to just buy just for the sake of buying.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: So now in my life at home, I'm looking at everything that I have that I can use up. Before I buy more. So that's my current frugal campaign. And, if I have three or four bottles of let's say, shampoo or body wash, I want to [00:10:00] use every bit of what I have. And I'm striving now at 82 and a half to try to leave my house.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: So decluttered. So organized that when my children, come in after me or my grandchildren come in after me, they'll have a minimal amount of stuff to deal with. And there are things that I don't want to throw away, but I'm putting them aside with a note that's saying, this was important to me, but it is junk.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Pitch it, So I know that my beginning, I know that my beginning, Made me very, very appreciative of everything that God has done in my life through my life and for my life.

Reverend Michele Owes: Amen. And I think that's an encouragement to people who have had humble beginnings but may not know how to. How to regard that in their lives. But it is a [00:11:00] wonderful foundation for when God does bless you to have some things that how to be a base and abound if you will.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Yeah.

Reverend Michele Owes: know how to serve, how to maximize what you have.

Reverend Michele Owes: And I think, I think that is absolutely excellent. there are a lot of things that I do because I learned of what you do. To get every penny of what you purchased, I'll cut the bottle top off of the lotion and use all that. I can get down from the bottom and stick it in a Ziploc baggie so it'll stay moist until I get back to it, or put a bobby pin on the end of it to get it closed. I will get what I paid for. Absolutely. I did learn that and and I think it's a wonderful thing. It keeps you from overbuying and it's amazing how long, how much more is left in that container and how, how long it will last. Right. You think you gotta run out and get it today and you gotta a week's worth left.

Reverend Michele Owes: So[00:12:00]

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Yeah.

Reverend Michele Owes: thank you for

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Yeah.

Reverend Michele Owes: it.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: And toothpaste.

Reverend Michele Owes: mentioned and Yes, exactly.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: it has no life in it, and then I cut it open and use every.

Reverend Michele Owes: And toothpaste is expensive. So that's good. That's a good thing. you mentioned to us in the last podcast that you are going back to college, Mrs. Cherry, kudos to you. That is so exciting. In this book, you share with us, when you left college and why you left college. What is, what is resting on your heart from then to now to cause you to go back in your eighties?

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Yeah, well my husband taught a message called Finish, and when I was writing the book, I remembered that I didn't finish college. So how can I really be. How can I have a testimony of finishing if I have that big? That's a big area of your life. [00:13:00] And if I have that outstanding in my life, how can I be credible in teaching other people that they must finish whatever they start?

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: And so that was the impetus of it. It was the teaching that my husband did. And then, writing the book, I realized that because of the mistakes that I made in college or made in my early young adulthood, and you have to buy the book to find out what I did to leave college,

Reverend Michele Owes: We not

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: right?

Reverend Michele Owes: trade

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: We're not tell, we're not, this is not a tell all, but because of what happened to me.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: I decided that I should go back to college. Let me share this with you. I don't like school. I don't like studying. In an academic setting, I'm not interested in getting, a degree in a specific area. So my college is going to be a general education degree taking courses that might help me with other areas of my [00:14:00] life.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: For instance, computer knowledge, which I have very little of, even though I've done two books on a computer and I wanna take some, Maybe gerontology classes, because I desire to start a ministry for widows, and I plan for college to be as much fun as possible and as easy as possible. I'm not trying to impress anybody with A's and B's.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: If I can see my way out of it, I'm gonna be happy to be a C student. I am not

Reverend Michele Owes: The double meaning in that, if she can see

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: right. Right, right. Yeah. If I can see my way out of, college, I'm gonna be totally happy. I'm not gonna judge myself. Because I know it's a big undertaking. I know it's not gonna be easy, and so I'm looking forward to what God's gonna do. But my main purpose in going back to college really is to be a credible [00:15:00] witness to others so that I will never teach something that I've not strived to live in my own life.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: And that I will go to heaven not having any unfinished projects. I pray. That is my fervent prayer. So that's, that's it.

Reverend Michele Owes: Oh, that's beautiful. That is beautiful. You're working for that. Well done. On this side. Excellent. Excellent. So as, as a young mom. How, what message would you share with your mom today? Thinking back on your young mom days we have so many young moms who are, making sure that they do their best to expose their children to as many opportunities, extra curriculars, so on and so forth, and are so busy. That, our first two words to our children all the time is, hurry up, we gotta do this. Hurry up, we gotta do this. Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up. [00:16:00] What would you just share in love

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Yeah,

Reverend Michele Owes: our young moms?

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: well, I think the most important that I was an unmarried mom. We'll just put that out there. You can read the book to find out the rest of it, but I was an unmarried mom and I was a young person. I was 2020 or 21 when my daughter was born. And, the number one thing that I decided was I would not allow anyone to be a part of my daughter's life that I didn't think was worthy to be a part of my daughter's life, including the sperm donor.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: And so that was a major decision that I made and I lived my life. I know that people judge unmarried women, especially back in that day, more harshly than they do a fornicating, woman who doesn't have a child. So I was not going to allow myself to be victimized by the birth of my daughter [00:17:00] and to be dependent on any, no.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Good man. And so I determined early in life that I could do bad by myself and I would not allow anybody in my life, to be an influence in my daughter's life. That was not. Someone that I thought was worthy of it. And so I never allowed my daughter to call any man anything like uncle this and uncle that, but Mr.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Whoever, if I, I didn't do a lot of dating after, do. After I gave birth to my daughter, but I didn't allow anybody to have, an impact in my daughter's life. I thought that was just not good for me. That was my decision, and I did the best that I could to give her the best education that I could give her and continue to work to build a career.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Because remember, I'm still being driven to be a success. So the pregnancy was [00:18:00] just a detour, but it didn't cause, it didn't devastate me. so that was one of the major things that I did was to protect my daughter from, from just worldliness. The second thing that I, I did, that I wish people would do more of now is let a child be a child.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: I hear stories now of, and moms and dad do this for the baby, for the, for their own sake. I, I had a gentleman who delivered my car from after I had gotten it service and he was, telling me about his baby was turning 1-year-old and he's having this exor exorbitant party. I'm like, why? we do things now that.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Plant things in the minds and hearts of children, that this is normal. That if you do this for my one year and I see the pictures of it, well by the time I get seven years, you gonna do something really big for me. [00:19:00] Right. And I had had a man to tell me the other day that he has a young girl, a granddaughter turning 12, and the parents are planning all this stuff.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: We have got to stop being persuaded and, impressed and pressured into doing stuff that we can't afford to do. So I, I've always been kind of realistic. I'm not gonna do something because somebody else did it. I tried to raise my child with everything that she needed, but I did not go overboard trying to compensate, for the mistake that I made in becoming pregnant outta wedlock.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: I wasn't gonna be guilt ridden and try to buy her because, her dad wasn't in our life for me. Him not being in our lives was good riddance, and, I, I'm just really a basic person. I'm just down to earth and basic, and I try to instill that in my daughter. Before, we [00:20:00] met Mr. Cherry and Mr.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Cherry, asked me to marry him, so.

Reverend Michele Owes: Yes. That's some excellent advice. That is some excellent advice, to share with our young moms. And I pray that they would heed very simple and basic, Tidbits

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Yeah.

Reverend Michele Owes: parts of wisdom that you're sharing with us today. And in addition to that, I think it's important in the book you talked about that the fact that there were times that people chose to pull you aside and speak wisdom into your life or to give you advice or to with you on a one-on-one basis, and, and it was so. I was so impressed with the fact that you followed that wisdom then you were also able to share how God blessed you as a result of the fact that you followed the wisdom that was given to you. Do you wanna just say [00:21:00] a little something about that?

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: I think God's hand has always been on me. I really, I firmly believe that. And because I've always loved the Lord. I didn't know God really, but I, I always thought that there was somebody out there and I, I really liked being, I really. I relished being a good girl. I really did with all of my heart.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: One of the most devastating things that ever happened to me was getting pregnant outta wedlock because I wore my virginity like a badge of honor. I really did. I had no idea that I was being self-righteous. Not righteous because I hadn't been taught anything about righteousness even during the couple of years that I lived with the family, the Catholic family, and went to Catholic school and Catholic, services.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: I didn't learn about Jesus. I didn't learn anything about the Holy Spirit. But when an elderly lady came to me, my godmother's mom came to me and said, little girl. You [00:22:00] need to go? No. She wrote that later, but she said to me, you need to go back home to your mother. My daughter is not old enough to be your mother, and she's acting like your mother and she really is not treating you fairly.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: You're required to do way too much living here, and you need to go back home to your mother. And so that was life changing to me. So that's when I left the Catholic school. Left the Catholic home, went back home to be with my mother. And in my high school, yearbook, the same lady wrote to me, dear little girl, many people hear wisdom, but few people act upon it, and I know exactly what she was referring to.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: And throughout my life there have been people who've just pulled me aside to give me counsel. In college, one teacher told me, I know the students, a lot of students plan to leave the campus this weekend, but don't you dare leave. You're not like them. I'm like, how do you know me? And in high school, another teacher said to me, [00:23:00] Deanna, as you go through life, if you are the only person looking up.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: You keep looking up, don't be persuaded by what others are doing. So those things had deep meaning in my heart and for those reasons and many others. I say that I think God always had his hand on me. I really do believe that. And I'm thankful and I'm glad I was, wise enough to follow the council that was given to me.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: And as a result of the council that was given to me, someone wrote. Someone I respect dearly re reviewed my book and they said, you sound like you preaching in the middle of these, this, this your story. I said, well, I'm a preacher. So what she said to me caused me to put at the end of certain paragraphs, wisdom from my heart.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: And that's because I was not offended by, and she [00:24:00] pointedly told me this. I was not offended by what she said, but I maximized it and used it. And in the beginning of the book, I say I'm a preacher. I will be sharing wisdom from the heart throughout the book. Bear with me, but I am a preacher and I gotta preach.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: So if I can't do it verbally, I'm gonna write it, but I'm gonna preach. And so that was another example of wisdom. Yeah, but that was another example of wisdom. I could have said, who are you to tell me about my book? This is my book. But I didn't, I used it and I, I said, I cannot take this out of the book, so how shall I deal with it?

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: And the Lord led me to put the wisdom from the heart. wisdom from my heart regarding different situations and circumstances. I say all that to say that it's important to receive wisdom when we, when we do get it, it's important to receive it and act on it. Yeah.

Reverend Michele Owes: to be offended because there were more, there [00:25:00] was more in that conversation that you could have been offended by than there was not.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Mm-hmm.

Reverend Michele Owes: also instructions in it, but she also said, I see a situation where you're not treated fairly. That would've been enough for most of us.

Reverend Michele Owes: Somebody's not treating me fairly, but, but you still speak so highly of the people. Who you were told weren't treating you fairly

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Right.

Reverend Michele Owes: This is, if you hadn't read the book, you wouldn't even know that happened because you speak of them often, but you never once said that you weren't treated fairly.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: No.

Reverend Michele Owes: and so you took the part that you could grow from and you left the rest there for us to read, you took the part that you could grow from and that would add to your life, and you left the rest.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Yes.

Reverend Michele Owes: a beautiful way to do that kind of conversation.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Yeah, that I will never, ever. be ungrateful. For those couple of years that I lived with them, they [00:26:00] were life changing years. I learned how to speak English properly because I lived with them. I learned about church attendance and a dedication of a family that served the Lord. I learned about, care for my body.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: I learn how to cling properly. I learn, good food. I've never had a decent. Food. Really not, not all of my days of my life. I learned that families do eat together. They do pray together, and I learned the value of having, things in the refrigerator that you could just open the refrigerator and freely eat.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Oh, I learned so many things. That was. They were just foreign to me. So I'm always grateful to, Bobby and Grace for what they did for me in my life. I'll never, ever speak negatively of them. And then the Catholic church did teach high morals. But they just didn't teach that you had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and you had the power of the Holy Spirit and you [00:27:00] didn't have to sin.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: So that's, if they had just taught me that I probably never would've gotten pregnant outta wedlock. I might not have even been married. I might have been a, a nun. That's how, that's how I regarded it.

Reverend Michele Owes: That is beautiful. That is beautiful. And that is going to bring us to the end of this podcast. This has been such a wonderful opportunity to talk with you about this book. And as much as you're willing to share, we're, we're willing to listen and hear more about it, but we don't wanna give all the details away in the of the book.

Reverend Michele Owes: We want you to buy it.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Yes,

Reverend Michele Owes: and we want you to read it, and we want you to grow from the wisdom that is there for you,

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: yes.

Reverend Michele Owes: and even wisdom that you can share with others. So thank you again, Mrs. Cherry, for taking the time to ink this for us. We, we needed it and we may not have even known we needed it, but we needed it.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: Just wait until you read what to do before [00:28:00] you say I do. That book is really progressing well. I've written probably about half of it.

Reverend Michele Owes: Well, we're looking forward to it. We're looking forward. If it's as open and, and transparent as this one, we know it's gonna be really good. We're looking forward to it.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: That one is more instructional.

Reverend Michele Owes: with us. Ah, okay. And thank you, Mrs. Cherry. We love you, and we'll see you on our next podcast.

Reverend Diana P. Cherry: God bless you. We love you.