Podcast Transcript: Episode 5

INTRO

COURTNEY MOORE: Welcome to the Women & Work podcast, the show that inspires you to confidently step into your God-given calling and view your work as meaningful to the Kingdom of God. I’m Courtney Moore.

MISSIE BRANCH: And I’m Missie Branch. No matter if you’re the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, on staff at your church or a stay-at-home mom with little ones wrapped around your ankles, your work matters, and God wants to use you right where you are for His kingdom purposes.

COURTNEY MOORE: Thanks so much for joining us today.

GUEST INTRODUCTION: 

MISSIE: Courtney, I’m so excited about who we have as a guest today, I happen to have the privilege of being a friend of hers, and she is awesome. I love when I know famous people. She’s awesome. Her name is Jaelene Daniels. 

Jaelene grew up in Denver and played soccer in high school and college. In 2015, she was selected seventh overall in the National Women’s Soccer League College draft by the Western New York flash. Am I right? 

JAELENE: Yep!

MISSIE: She played there and then moved to North Carolina and joined the North Carolina Courage, and she’s played professionally in multiple leagues and with several teams. 

COURTNEY: Jaelene, we are so honored for you to be here today, we cannot wait to learn more about soccer in general, and we can’t wait to hear how the Lord has really worked in your life through the sport, and how you have to really lived for Him through a sport. So we’re really curious to hear about that. 

And guys, let me just tell you a little bit about how good this girl is in soccer. She’s got so many awards and accolades, guys, we really could not even go through it here, but I do wanna quote for you all, I read a quote from her coach in North Carolina, his name was Paul Riley. When she retired last November, she recently retired from the game, this is what he said of her, he said “Jaelene is unquestionably the best left back in the world. The complete modern full back, Tremendous engine speed, delivery, brilliant going forward and tough to beat one-on one. You can’t replace Jay, but you can look back and know that she had a marvelous career.” 

And so Jaelene, we’re just really honored for you to be here, I’ve never actually met a professional athlete before, especially a woman, and so I’m just thrilled to learn and hear about how you’re viewing all of this through your Christian lens.

JAELENE: Yeah, well, excited to be here.

MISSIE: But before we jump into that, we will let Jaelene tell us more about herself, but Court’s gotta introduce some things. 

COURTNEY: Yeah, well, Jaelene, one of the things we like to do when we have guests on is do this fun little game of rapid-fire question, we ask the same three questions to all of our guests. Are you up to play this?

JAELENE: Yes, of course. 

COURTNEY: Alright, Jaelene. So when you were a kid, what did you wanna be when you grew up?

JAELENE: I wanted to be a chef. I wanted to go to culinary school, get into the whole restaurant business. That was a long time dream before professional soccer, so…

MISSIE: I feel this pretty cut-throat, like sports, so…no pressure in your life

COURTNEY: Did you end up cooking a lot.? Like in the kitchen were you In there a lot? What was so interesting to you about that as a kid? 

JAELENE: Yeah, I loved cooking as a kid because I would cook with my dad. My dad actually did a lot of our actual home cooking. My mom had her specialty dishes that she always did, but I think my dad always experimenting things and did our grocery shopping, so I think it was more or less more bonding with my dad, and then I ended up actually loving cooking. I don’t do a ton of it anymore, but I think that’s why I wanted to make a career out of it.

COURTNEY: As I see. Yeah. 

MISSIE: Well, the second question is, what was your first job? 

JAELENE: My first job was actually a professional athlete.  I didn’t have any other job before that. Yeah, that was totally the Lord. And my parents being like, “You don’t need to worry about it. Just do your thing.”  So I was so blessed to not have to do some random job that… 

COURTNEY: That’s pretty amazing. Alright, our last question is, when you are 80 years old, what kind of work do you hope that you will be doing?

JAELENE: Honestly, I feel like when I’m 80, I would just wanna be with hopefully, my future grandkids, I don’t know about if there’s any work, I’ll still be wanting to do but we will see.

MISSIE: Well, Courtney, the thing that I’m excited about is that Jaelene’s life has been interesting and her career has been interesting, so Jaelene, I’m excited to jump in and just learn more about you. So our first question for you is, what role did your Christian faith play in your work as an athlete, how did the Lord use sports to grow your faith? 

JAELENE: For me, sports really was a reflection of just my whole life, so I think the Lord was just races to kind of meet me where I already was, and so I think sports just allowed me to… I think as the years went on, I had to do a lot more leaning into him, then I think just having sports as an avenue that most kids enjoy, and I definitely loved it, but I think sports kind of grew me in a sense of a deeper relationship with the Lord.  I think sports is a unique environment to be a Christian, and so I think it just propelled me into a deeper relationship. I think he used the different places that I ended up being in soccer to really push me closer to him as well. I’m such a homebody, and so I think all the places that I had to go because of Soccer really… I think, again, just I had to lean a lot into the Lord and always kinda go back to him for my confidence and my trust and what I was doing and the sacrifices that were being made along the way. I think just always counting the cost with Him as well, ’cause I do think sports definitely took some of my Christian community away from me as well. So I think that there was a lot of individual growth too in my sports journey, and especially with my walk with the Lord.

COURTNEY: Very interesting. Now, Jaelene, I just wanna go back and get a little background history, I’m kinda curious, when did you become a Christian, and then also, when did you begin playing soccer?

JAELENE: Yeah, so I started playing when I was four, and it was just because of my two older siblings – I have an older brother, an older sister, and a younger brother. And so my two older ones I grew up with played soccer and so that was kinda the one way I could connect with them. My older brother is six years older than me, and my sister is four years older. So it was just kind of hard to, I think, bond over anything else, and they let me play with them, so of course I went with it. 

And then in terms of my belief and faith in Christ, I grew up in a Christian home, and so I think for a long time, it didn’t really, I think sit with me all that I was blessed to have in that environment. For a long time, I wanted my testimony to be some radical conversion, and I think the Lord definitely held me in his hand and let me enjoy Him in His goodness for the majority of my life. I would probably say that I really dedicated my life to Christ in college. So it was a little bit later in life where I think I started to walk it out on my own and not just on my parents convictions or on what they believed.

COURTNEY: Sure, Sure, sure. And so you really… You played soccer since you were four years old, I’m sure you play all different kind of leagues and clubs throughout high school. You went to and played soccer, and then of course, as Missie said in our intro that you were chosen in the seventh… I don’t know the language because I’m not an athlete, but it’s the seventh round of the draft, or just put that in the right phrase…

JAELENE: So it was the first round and I was the 7th pick.

COURTNEY:  But to be that good, Jaelene, I am just thinking about the discipline, the physical discipline in to all of those years of practicing the hard work involved of just the physical aspect of the game. Becoming good, all of the work it took of just excelling on the field, and besides that, just the mental fortitude. So talk about how you got there, how… I look at myself and I’m like, I just… Wow, I really respect you guys. How did you get there? How did you endure? How did you create physical endurance. Mental endurance. And then, do you ever think about how that relates to the Christian life? Paul talks about bout spiritual discipline and physical. All of that. 

JAELENE: I think I was definitely blessed I had a lot of people in my corner. I did not grow up the confident kid on the soccer field, I didn’t feel like I was good, I didn’t really feel like that was gonna be an opportunity for me to play professionally there wasn’t a league yet. So I think just over the years, it was just something that I think in the back of my head was gonna hopefully play for college. At the time, a lot of women athletes’ desire was just to get a scholarship, ’cause there weren’t a lot of leagues with any back then. And so I think just along the way, I definitely had days where I wanted to quit. I definitely felt like I was giving up areas in my life that didn’t seem worth it at the time. Little things that I think now looking back are a little, but in the moment, missing a friend’s birthday party or missing a school dance or all the things that you feel like you’re socially missing out on because you’re choosing to go kick a soccer ball for 90 minutes. I think I had friends and my parents for sure, and even coaches that were just like…We see so much potential in you. 

 I had to wrestle with that for a long time because I definitely didn’t see the potential, but I think my coaches did. And I think it was just a lot of times you feel like coaches tell their athletes things they wanna hear, and if they’re good coaches, they won’t. But I just felt like, Man, I might just be another person that they’re just like, “Oh, you’ll get somewhere with this”- and so I think, just the Lord being gracious to continue to let me have some belief in what I was doing. And I really don’t think it was… Maybe until college, I was like, Okay, at least I’ll give it a shot. I remember having a really long conversation with my college coach ’cause I wasn’t even gonna enter the draft, and he was like, “You’re crazy. Why wouldn’t you do that?” And so I think just the mental endurance was probably the hardest for me, I think physically, for whatever reason, that’s always kind of come naturally. Just being able to run for a long time or to do different things with the soccer ball at your feet. My hands are useless, I can’t catch anything, but I can use my feet well, and so I think just the mental side was the hardest part, and I think relating that to the Christian faith for me was really important because I do feel a lot of our walk with Christ is a mental battle of just, Is this worth it? Is the cost of it really, what the Bible says it’ll be worth?

And so I think connecting those two for me, when it actually did connect, it was really special because I think I then flowed into the rest of my life. I still wouldn’t say I’m a super confident person, but I think because of the mental endurance that even Paul talked about- the physical endurance, running the race, those are all really comparable to an athlete that you can envision when Paul saying, I wanna finish this race well. I wanna run the race that’s been set before me. As an athlete, you’re like, Yeah, I wanna finish strong, I wanna receive the prize at end of this. And so I think just starting to mesh those two worlds more intentionally was really important and special to me, and I think that’s really what allowed me to keep going, I think in soccer as well, ’cause even on the days where it was like, me and I don’t know if this is worth it. I think the Lord would give me someone to talk to you about Christ in the locker room. Or seeing an opportunity to have an interview about my faith in sports, and I was like, “Man, I really can use sports in a special way as a believer..” and so I think that was…I think just seeing those two worlds collide and you’re thinking, I don’t know how it will ever work is… I just feel like an athlete in general is just so different than most. Just the athletes that I’ve met and been around, you just see the world I think a little bit differently and you, I don’t know, you take it all in in a different way, and so I think sometimes when you’re trying to mesh the two, it can feel challenging, but I think the Lord just brought a lot of good people and strong believers into my life to kinda guide me in that.

COURTNEY: That’s great. 

MISSIE: That’s beautiful. And that’s beautiful. One of the things that is on trend right now is the topic of self-care and really just investing in caring for ourselves, our body, our free time, and sometimes it can go to the idol level. One of the things that is really true in the Bible is that the Bible talks about our bodies being a temple, and that we should care about what we put in it, and what we know that what comes in is… What comes out is truly what is inside. So let’s talk about a little bit about using your body to glorify God, even through the soccer, through sports, but even being intentional in the way we carry ourselves and care for ourselves. 

JAELENE: Yeah, I think kind of what you already talked about, just like our bodies being a temple, I think sometimes it’s easy to neglect that aspect of our life because of the various things that we have going on. I mean, especially the last year, I feel like even though covid, it’s been crazy, everyone still had so much going on, and I think we all had to stop and process: how do I care for me so I can care for others? And I think, as Missie said too, it can become an idol if we’re too invested in ourselves, but I do think that there’s an element of, even as a Christian, in order to better help someone else, we have to know our worth and our value and be confident in that in order to extend a hand to someone else.  I think athletes for sure maybe just have to be, not even because it’s a Christian thing, but you have to be more intentional with your body. That’s your tool, that’s how you bring your paycheck in. If you’re injured or you’re not performing at the level you should be, it’s more often than not, it’s a physical problem that you’re facing. So I think there’s always been the intentionality, it’s like you hear a lot of athletes talk about, “I’m feeling my body this way”, or “I’m trying to get this many hours of sleep” and I think they’re all good things. We talked about it in the Bible- our body being a temple, I think not just for the indwelling of the spirit, but the physical endurance of it all, life can be hard and challenging. I think our bodies have to be ready to “perform” our day-to-day living. 

COURTNEY: Well, And it’s so interesting, Jaelene, because my background, I was called to ministry in high school, and so everything that I was always surrounded with- all of my friends, we were all in ministry, so we were always more focused on your heart and how your spiritual life is and so really, I feel like most of my even friends, and even now as a grown woman with children, I still really have not a lot of emphasis on my body, and so it’s just interesting how you really could go either way. You could kind of forget your body. God made this physical body, and it is good, and it is intentional. He had intention when he created us in these bodies, so we can’t, for me, I just kinda don’t forget it and not take care of it and not giving up sleep and so it’s just a very interesting… I don’t know. I don’t know if there’s a good balance there or not, but it is a very interesting concept to think that the body is good and that we should use it. At Women and Work, I talk a lot about using all of our gifts and all that He has put within us really to max out the full potential for his glory, and so I think that’s another reason with thinking about you and your experience, it’s really admirable to me that I can look at you and say, “Here’s a woman who said, This is the body God gave me, and I’m gonna use it to the max. I’m gonna be the best soccer player I can be on that field.” I’ve seen a lot on your Instagram, you really love the Colossians 3-23 doing all things to the glory of God and so… Very interesting.

JAELENE: Yeah, it’s hard to find the balance, I feel like, because it is so… Even now being retired, I feel like I have to be more intentional about being out and doing something because my days as an athlete- it was all planned.  I knew the exercise I was getting in, in and out of the weight room. And I knew I needed to eat this way in that way, and I feel like with the freedom that comes with not being an athlete, you almost… At least for me, the intentionality has to do so much more there, and thankfully, I do have a husband that loves to work out, so I get a little bit of boost there. But it is hard and then it is especially… we don’t have kids yet, but I can only imagine when you’re in charge of tiny little kids and you have all these things planned out in your day, and I’m sure the self-care becomes that much harder to be intentional about, so I do feel like the balance is a part of just the planning and intentionality, and I think even that can be a struggle.

MISSIE: I think it’s so sweet that the Bible says that Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial, which really just leans into balance and discernment, intentional thinking out your time and what you eat and the way you exercise… I don’t exercise it, you, I think you’re right too. And then also, Jaelene-, there’s a balance that we have to look for in that. 

COURTNEY: Right. We talked about a lot of the sacrifices you’ve made along the way, and one of the things you said was really… you felt like you had kinda missed out a bit on just being in a Christian environment, and so I wanted you to just share with us just what it was like to be on this team. I assume you were probably one of the few believers  through the years . Would you say that is accurate? 

JAELENE: Yeah, I would.

COURTNEY: Okay, so how would you talk about these girls… Women, I guess I should say. No doubt you- It’s so interesting because no doubt you love these women, you guys are unified in one sense- You’re all working toward that same goal but then under a few layers, you probably have different beliefs and all of that, and so how did you keep your faith strong in the midst of really an environment that… Wasn’t really pushing you towards that? Does that make sense? 

JAELENE: Yeah, definitely. I think the one thing that’s been great about our league is that we do have a chaplain, her name is Lori, and she makes sure that each team has a chaplain on if they want to, and thankfully- I guess it’s been wanting… But the two teams I’ve been a part of, there’s always been at least five or six of us that would like to do something intentional, whether it was like a Bible study or we would go and hang out at someone’s house and just try and build a community outside of the relationships that we had on the field. I think that was really important for me just to have at least one person keeping me accountable in what I was reading or listening to or watching. I think it’s huge because like you said, it’s an environment where that’s not really the focus of why you’re there. And it’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s hard to keep the focus of Christ when your whole focus is about winning games and tournaments and championships and it does become that much more trickier when you’re in an environment where the beliefs are so different, you kinda hit every part of the spectrum when it comes to beliefs, and you’re working so closely with these people, and I’m sure in other work environments, it’s the same thing.

But I think, especially on our team, it was challenging for sure, because I think the world of athletes is just a little bit more progressive in nature. I think a lot of the things that come about in the secular culture start to- I feel like the sports world is a little bit of a breeding ground for it and so you’re kind of always being challenged, which I think is great as a believer to really focus on why you believe what you believe and where you’re gathering that from and why it’s important to you to hold the value. So I think that was also really beneficial for my faith that I didn’t feel like I was ever stagnant, I was always thinking about something or processing with someone about something that was going on in our environment of the team. But I do think that there is a couple of us that do believe really had strong faith and were wanting to live that out together, and so I think I was just blessed to have at least a teammate or two that wanted to continue to pursue Christ in the environment that we were in. So that was definitely a huge blessing for me, and I can’t speak for all the teams, I know that most teams do have a chaplain, but you know some teams opt not to ever meet with them and some teams do meet with them. And so I think it was sweet that there was always a handful of people on our team that wanted to take that time to grow.

COURTNEY: Right, and just as you talk about all the different beliefs on the spectrum of… I feel like a really hot topic right now is the idea of transgender females, ie- Biological males participating in female sports. Since you’re a professional athlete- Have you thought much about that dynamic or just what are your thoughts about that topic?

JAELENE: Yeah, we haven’t had too much, I guess, of that conversation. I feel like our team was always talking about something, especially last year, where you have any conversation about everything that was happening in the world. But I think for me, thinking about transgender females joining women sports, I guess there’s a couple of different things that I’ve thought about and processed through and not being in that world, I guess it doesn’t affect me as much anymore, but I think there is a difference between men and women. And I think especially when it comes to sports and the physicality of it, men are typically faster, men are typically stronger. On the national team, when we would prepare for games, we would scrimmage boys. And when I say boys, I mean E15, E16 boys because we can’t keep up with the speed and agility and the physicality of boys much older than that. 

And so I just think when you’re biologically made one way, and then you enter into a sport, I think it takes away for the opportunity for women to excel who biologically were made with what they were given and the skills that they were born with and the things that they’ve had to strengthen and get better at and adjust to. So it’s hard in the sense of, as a competitor, it makes me feel like how am I going to compete with someone who biologically is a man that is identifying and has chosen to switch to becoming a female? I just. I think the competition part of me, maybe that’s just the fleshly part of me, but not a huge fan of that idea.

MISSIE: I think it would be interesting also to hear… I’m like you, so I’m not a professional. There’s no sport that I do professionally. I did run track, and I did one time, I loved it, and I do know that it is the nature of a competitive person to look for the person that you know you can beat. I do think that there’s a sense in which it almost feels like an unbalanced scale, but I do know that as Christians, it also would give us an incredible opportunity to love on and show the love of Christ in a space that we probably wouldn’t ordinarily. Would you agree?

JAELENE: Definitely, I think any opportunity that would arise in you being able to share the gospel as a win, ’cause that’s ultimately what we’re here for as believers is to point as many people to Jesus as we can, and if that takes a transgender female or a biological male to come into your locker room to have that opportunity then. I think- as you’re saying Missie- just the opportunity to have that discussion with someone that might not have, I guess the opportunity to hear about the love of Christ or be shown the love of Christ. I think if it were to come to the point where that would be a thing in the sports world, I think, yeah, believers should be the first ones to- by their words and their actions as you come alongside of those who would identify as such and point them to Christ. I think that would be a definite gospel opportunity. 

MISSIE: Well I know- I’ve had the opportunity to chat with you and be involved a little bit in your world when you had to show extreme courage in your calling in the sports world, and it’s actually really humbling to think through some of the decisions you’ve had to make that were public. A lot of us have a lot of courage on Twitter and a lot of courage on Instagram, but you have other things to have the courage in a space where I could be Booed or someone could  refuse to buy tickets- are all kinds of things. I know through the last couple of years, there were several social issues that you had to make a stand with, and one of them was choosing not to play with a jersey that celebrates Gay Pride Month. And one was choosing to take a knee during the National Anthem with the rest of your teammates to support from the value of black lives.

These are complex answers and everyone has the right to believe and think the way they want to, so we’re not taking that…I don’t want any of our listeners to hear that. But that means that you do too, and that tolerance is tolerating what you believe and everyone else on your team believes. But it takes a lot of courage to say what you actually believe. When what you believe is not the popular process. So what went into your decision-making process for these actions, what made you actually say, I am gonna take a knee or I’m not going… I’m not gonna play in this game.

JAELENE: Yeah, I think for me, for both decisions, it was a lot of prayer and asking a lot of people to join me in that. For people that are close to me and I trust would actually pray about what would be going on and that I knew would give wise counsel at the end of their time with the Lord on my behalf. With the jerseys, I didn’t necessarily have time to do that, but I took the time to do it anyway, just because it was a decision where it was like,” I have no idea how to address this” because I think it goes back to you as a believer you want to show love in all that do. And you know at the end the day, if you don’t wear something that would be perceived as loving, people are going to question your love. And so I think for me, a big part of what was so hard about that decision is that I am a big people pleaser. I think the Lord has had to really work on me for that not to be what determines the decisions that I make, and so in that process of- yeah, it was hard.

In the moment, it seems worse than I’m sure looking back, I’m like, Yeah, that really sucked. But in the moment, I felt like I was at the lowest I’ve ever been. And I think, again, that just goes because I wanted people to like me, and when you make a decision that goes against the majority of culture, no one’s gonna like you for that. And so that was really challenging, and I think the Lord really used it to show me, where my identity is, like who I am and where my work comes from, and it’s not from words on twitter or if people accept my views or not. And I mean, the Lord grew me a lot in that season, but making the decision was challenging. The coach at the time had a partner and she had a child, and that was the person I had to talk to about what I was doing and why I couldn’t do it, and so that was terrifying. I’m not a person of conflict and my whole conversation was pretty much telling her that I loved her, but I couldn’t wear something like this, and there was a quick tension that resulted from that for a while because it is hard to talk about those topics with people who are actually in it. Because that’s one area of my life I’ve never struggled with, so I feel like sometimes it can seem easy to say what you believe on something that you’re not in the middle of. And so I think just having that conversation with someone who had found someone to love and spend life with and to walk out her views, was challenging.

But I think that, like you said, just at the time, Twitter and Instagram, (they are still big), but really big. And when you’re… As an athlete, you’re always trying to, in a way, brand yourself. You’re trying to get endorsements, you’re trying to get people to come your games, you are advertising yourself in a sense and your team. And so when you’re publicly out there already, and then you make a stance that people don’t agree with, it’s only a matter of time before the voices come flooding in. And so it was really hard for me to not even read what was being put out there because of course you’re like, “Well, I wanna know what people are saying” and I wanted to defend myself. And every one of my- everyone that I knew was like, Do not do that. Do not become one with Twitter thumb. 

MISSIE: We all know that our Lord goes before us, so there is no need to do it.

JAELENE: Yeah- definitely in the moment, you wanna wanna pick a fight with everybody. I’m thankful for the smart voices in my life that were like, “Don’t do that. You don’t need to do that.”

And then I think just with the kneeling, as our team did that for the Black Lives Matter, again, prayed about it, and at the time, I didn’t… With the jersey, I hadn’t met my now husband, Matthew. But at this time, I’d been married for a couple of months. Which still seems crazy. And so I invited him into praying with me about it as well, and I think we had actually- He had talked to Missie’s husband  about it. ’cause we just wanted to know why this was so important, and what is our role in this? And I am mixed – I’m half black half way, and so I think for me, the tension too was like, I feel like I have a foot in both worlds, but how do I actually approach this from a place that’s gonna love on both worlds? And so I think in the course of praying, I felt it was a good idea on my behalf, and I felt like the Lord had affirmed that in my spirit when I prayed about kneeling because if anything, I should be able to say that black lives matter. And not necessarily the movement or all, maybe that’s behind all of the agenda that can come with things that are pushed forward and things like that, but I think just being able to demonstrate that there have been injustices and there are people that’s hurting and that need to be reminded that they’re equal. And that they are valued and that they are loved. 

My brother serves in the military, he was a Marine, and so I had a conversation with him about, this- this was no disrespect to America or my beliefs or the freedoms that I do have here, but just an intentional demonstration of -There are lives hurting, And if there’s one thing that I can do, it’s kneeling. But it has to go past the kneeling in that case, when you… kneeling is not good enough just to kneel and do nothing about it. I think our team really tried to be intentional as well- if we’re gonna kneel,  there’s also gonna be an action step after this. And so I just think biblically… In both situations, I think the Lord is really clear about his intentions with marriage and his intentions with men and women, and so with a jersey, it felt like that was the way that the Lord had called me to affirm biblically. But I think I also affirm what the Lord says biblically in scripture too, that we’re all made in his image and we are all image bearers. We can rally with people when it feels like there isn’t equality happening. They were quick decisions, I felt on both instances, I probably could have prayed for a month, but at the time it was like, you got three days or you got two days to really seek the Lord on this, and that’s where I felt his leading in both situations.

COURTNEY:  Jaelene, I read that you are an ambassador for an organization called A Seat at The Table, which is all about mentorship for women athletes, and so I just would love for you to talk about younger girls and boys, particularly young girls, how sports- team sports benefit girls. How did it benefit you? Growing up, playing sports.

JAELENE: Team sports, I think were really beneficial to me, ’cause I think, again, it just builds a lot of different characteristics and I guess just it helps you become more of a well-rounded person, I feel like.  So I think sports just taught me how to communicate, taught me how to be confident and taught me how to be dedicated to something, to get better at it. You build friendships, you learn how do you socially interact with people your age, to chase after something together. So I just feel like there’s so many things that sports prepares you for in the world, whether it’s for school or a different team sport or the work that you might do when you get older- there’s just so many different dynamics that go into sports that I think as a kid you may not even be realizing that you’re learning. But I know for sure, looking back on all the things that I went through by playing soccer, I’m like, Man, yeah, I definitely learned something in the process of all this. Not just how to become a better athlete, but a better person, a better communicator, all these things, so I think sports are huge for just any kids personal development, 

COURTNEY: Yeah so as a mom, we’re constantly thinking through just for our own kids, what we can put them in, covid really has thrown off all of the little league sports for us right now, and so we’ve been walking through that, but I just want them to grow in the ways you just mentioned,  

MISSIE: great, now we know that A Seat at The Table is a mentorship program for athletes right? For woman athletes.  One of the things that’s true about mentorship and discipleship that if you’re actually doing it authentically, it will keep you humble. 

But how do you deal with-what are other ways that you deal with the success you had?  We couldn’t even begin to list all of your accolades and all of your awards, that you received- even the fact that people… There is a world in which you live where people would be like, Oh my gosh, it’s… Jaelene Daniels!, You know what I’m saying? How have you been able to view your success to a Christian lens and maintain your humility and the down-the earth-ness that we all get experience?

JAELENE: Yeah, well, thank you. Yeah, I think a lot of it comes from scripture, and again, I know that we’ve already talked about mentorship, but I really do think that was a really big reason why I think the Lord has allowed me not to get ahead of myself. Because it definitely easy not just because of anything I’ve personally done, but even the teams I’ve been a part of, a part of have been super successful. And so it would be easy to prance around and be like, “We’ve won this and we’ve done that, and we’re gonna keep doing that:- And I don’t know, just to get really conflated in it all, and I think the Lord -just constantly being reminded that this is all a gift from God. There’s nothing that I’ve been able to do, or the success that I’ve been able to attain by my own means, and I think that oftentimes, that can be hard for people to hear from athletes because there is a lot of training, and there’s a lot of dedication and sacrifice, but again, I wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for the Lord and His saving grace and all the things that he’s done to allow me this opportunity and what my parents have done to let me keep playing soccer, Like the fact that my first job was as an athlete, most people are like, “I had to work like Starbucks or target..” All these little things were… And so I think there’s just been a lot of grace and a lot of outpouring in my personal life from other people that I think it would just be wrong of me to ever think that it was all my own doing. And so I don’t know it… And I think probably that I’ve never been super confident, it’s not really an easy thing for me to do of being like,” Yeah, I’m that good.” I dont know. 

MISSIE: We all know too- the Lord will find a way to put a hole in our big bubble. 

JAELENE: Sure. I mean, the one year, I think with my U-14 team, we won state cup and I was like, finally we made it! and then we get to regionals and we got… Absolutely destroyed.. I was like, Oh, okay. We had it for a while. I’ll just go back to my humble position.

COURTNEY: After having such a great career overall… What led you to the decision to retire last year?

JAELENE: It had been on the back of my mind for a couple of years. Honestly, I think everything that happened with the national team and just kind of re-building who I was and being confident in that again, took some time, which I’m really thankful I didn’t step away after that whole situation ’cause it definitely crossed my mind. But I think it had been on my mind for a while, I met my now husband And I’ve always wanted to be in ministry, and I still don’t really know what that looks like for me personally, but have always just had a heart for the church and wanting to be a part of that- and so when me and Matthew would sit down and dream together, we wanna plant a church one day, we wanna take on the call of ministry together, and so I think just kind of life situations happening,COVID hit. It gave me a lot of time to think about, Is this something I wanna continue pursuing? We were in a bubble for almost two months in Utah, and just kind of being separated from family and friends, and I think I do get older too, you to start to think about all the other things that you’d like to do in life and venture into and so I think just in the year that 2020 was, was just kind of like, This feels right, and we prayed about it and opportunities came up for us to move to Colorado and to start pursuing some of the things we both wanted to be in together, so it just seemed like a good fit. It wasn’t the ideal a year to go out- our team didn’t win the tournament- it t wasn’t a real season in some sense, but I still had a lot of peace about it and I’ve enjoyed it so far.

COURTNEY: So what are you doing now?

JAELENE: Well, I am working and that’s been an adjustment, not only working for two hours, but now it’s like six, so I’m like, This is new… but yeah, so I’m working right now with my sister, which is kind of cool, the bonus of it is I get to see my sister every day. And I am in school, I’m working on my Master’s of Divinity in Christian ministry. I really have a heart to- I hope one day when we have our church, we have a flourishing women’s ministry and I want to be apart of that. I am kind of in the middle of transitions in everything and just navigating as I go.

COURTNEY: Do you imagine that the Lord will… None of us know the future, but can you imagine that he will bring back around soccer somehow in your life or ministry, or could you ever imagine yourself stepping back into that world as even a chaplain, or are you guys more just like… No, we’re over on the church planning track now.

JAELENE: I think that there will still be some capacity of me being involved in sports somehow, as much as I thought I wouldn’t be… I have no desire to coach, that’s never really been on the back of my brain, but I have had a lot of opportunities to speak at FCA or to come out and hang with soccer teams, which I do enjoy doing those kinds of things. So I think in some way, I don’t know what that’ll look like, that I would still love to have some sort of role in sports and one that’s just to come on, fine other believers and encourage them in their journey as athletes… One of the chaplains in the league has asked me if we ever had a team in Colorado if I would chaplain. I was like, Well, if it ever came up. And the Lord pushing that way, I would do it for sure. So yeah, I haven’t taken it completely off the table, I’m definitely not pursuing it, so to speak, but I do think the opportunities that have come… I take them as they come.

MISSIE: Sure, yeah, yeah. So now that your career is -the most active part of your career- in sports is behind you, what advice or warnings would you give to younger Christian girls who have dreams of being professional athletes? And on the back side of that, what would you tell their moms… Trying to pursue that. It’s a lot to consider from both ends.

0:43:01.7 S2: Yeah, the thing I would tell younger girls that are pursuing careers in athletics is to not give up. I think there’s gonna be a lot of days where you’re probably gonna get tired of it, and like I said, there were times where I thought the sacrifices weren’t worth it, but looking back, I think the way that the Lord led was just sweet and that if I would have done anything differently. I don’t think I would have experienced all the things I got to, and so… Yeah, and I think just enjoying it, not taking yourself so seriously. I think now, oftentimes as athletes, we can get so caught up in, we have to do this to get here, and on to get here, we have to get here, and you kind of just get so future-oriented, and I know I did that on a couple of days- I think just being present, just enjoying the time that you have to do what you love, ’cause definitely now, I am glad, but with the choice I made to retire, but there’s days that I miss it. And I’m thankful for the memories I’ve made and the moments that I can look back on and be excited about, so yeah, I think just enjoying it and not to give up on the road.

And then I think for parents, specifically, I guess for moms with your daughters as athletes: Be ready for the drama. I think my mom definitely had to put up with a lot of my emotions in the process of being an athlete, just the competitive side, being too hard on myself on some days or not caring enough on other days, it’s just… It’s a journey for I think everyone that when you’re in athletics., So I think just the moms having the grace and just the encouragement, my parents knew nothing about soccer growing up, and I honestly think that was a blessing because there wasn’t like the car rides of ‘you should have done this, you should have done that”  Or how do you feel about this game or what do you think of that path… There was no… I think coaching for my parents, it was just like, “Man, we enjoyed watching you play!” Even on the days where I’m like, “I had a horrible game”, they were like, “We didn’t know you looked great to us!” So I think just that part of it too is just letting your kids enjoy it. And being there for them. 

And I think just as believers too, taking the time to remind them of where their gifts come from and who gets the glory at the end of it. My mom did a really sweet job of that- of always reminding me and my dad, he was like, “Well, did you do your best for the Lord?” And I was like, “Well, yeah..”, and he’s like, “Well, that’s good enough. you did, but you had to. And you tried your best.” And so I think that just sweetness of my parents always being my biggest cheerleaders, but also reminding me of where the talent came from. 

MISSIE:  That is good advice for all moms. There is more drama than we can handle, but you’re right, just being willing to meet them where they are, is what you’re saying is all good advice.

COURTNEY: And not pressuring them and letting them enjoy it….

That’s a great ending Jaelene- that’s for coming on. The Lord is going to bless your faithfulness to Him. 

CONCLUSION

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And with that we hope you’ve been inspired to more confidently step into your God given calling and view your work as meaningful to the Kingdom of God. Thanks!

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