Emmy Award-winning TV host Kathie Lee Gifford chats with Father Dave about her new children’s book, her faith, and the loss of Regis Philbin.
Kathie Lee recently penned the book “Hello Little Dreamer for Little Ones,” which encourages kids to follow God’s dream for them. “The book is about self-worth,” she says. “I think real self-worth starts when we understand where we came from and who we belong to. David, in the Psalms, talked so beautifully about how he was wondrously and fearfully made. That’s a bad translation. It means wonderfully and awesomely made … God who saw us before the creation of time, saw us also as we formed in our mother’s wombs, and not just into a physical human body, but into a mind and into a soul all made in his image for his glory. When we don’t know that that’s where we came from, then I think we don’t know where we’re going.”
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“We live in a culture right now that’s trying to cancel people out because they’re different. I think that’s the exact opposite of what God wants us to do. He wants us to include everyone in his kingdom and in his family. It’s a good little message, because in our culture we ask kids, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up?’ And I think a far better question to ask our children from the very beginning is ‘What has God already created you to be?’ ‘What is it you love to do more than anything else?’ I believe that’s put there in your spirit, in your little bodies, on purpose. Because God has a plan for your life.”
Kathie Lee shares how got involved with her faith. “I grew up in a beautiful, loving home. We honored God in our home, but we didn’t have a particular church or anything like that. We certainly weren’t totally secular because we had a knowledge of God as our creator and that’s a good place to start. I went to a movie called “The Restless Ones” in a little dilapidated theater in a bad part of Annapolis, Maryland. It was being put out by Billy Graham’s organization. It’s just so beautiful that God would meet me right at the point of my need. I already wanted to be an actress and a singer. At the end of the movie, I heard the voice of the Lord say, ‘I love you, Kathy. And I want to make something beautiful out of your life if you’ll trust me.’ That’s when I knew that if I made that decision to invite Jesus into my heart, he would change everything and the whole trajectory of my life would change. And it did. It was the best decision I ever made in my whole life.”
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Kathie Lee shares that she was able to see Regist Philbin a few weeks before his death. “We were having lunch at my house two weeks before he passed. I’ll cherish the memory of that, because we laughed for about three hours. The day after he passed away, I was on the phone with his wife. And she said, ‘Kathy, I just want you to know that the last time I heard Regis laugh was at your house with you.’ And I said, ‘Well, isn’t that just like the Lord to do that? To give us that memory.’”