{"id":21309,"date":"2026-03-11T10:55:03","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T10:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/uncategorized\/chewbacca-mom-now-candace-payne-opens-up-about-trusting-god-and-saying\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T06:11:54","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:11:54","slug":"chewbacca-mom-now-candace-payne-opens-up-about-trusting-god-and-saying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/inspiring-stories\/chewbacca-mom-now-candace-payne-opens-up-about-trusting-god-and-saying\/","title":{"rendered":"Chewbacca Mom Now: Candace Payne Opens Up about Trusting God and Saying No"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Candace Payne\u2019s life <a href=\"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/inspiring-stories\/stories-of-faith-and-hope\/chewbacca-mom-shares-how-her-life-has-changed\/\">transformed forever<\/a> in May 2016 when she posted a video of herself laughing hysterically while wearing a Chewbacca mask. The video went viral and \u201cChewbacca Mom\u201d became a household name. The stay-at-home mom could not have imagined all that happened next.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cWe all have seasons,\u201d Candace said in an interview with <strong><em>Guidposts.org<\/em><\/strong>. \u201cSome seasons are going to be busier than others. Some seasons are going to be more restful. Now I\u2019m a stay-at-home <em>working<\/em> mom.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-ada4f91 e-con-full e-flex e-con e-child\" data-id=\"ada4f91\" data-element_type=\"container\" id=\"home-banner-stn\">\n<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-72e6e8eb elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"72e6e8eb\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Community Newsletter<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-261bcec elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"261bcec\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n<h3 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Get More Inspiration Delivered to Your Inbox<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"elementor-element 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\/>\n                <script id=\"nf-tmpl-cell\" type=\"text\/template\">\n            <nf-fields><\/nf-fields>\n        <\/script><\/p>\n<p>        <script id=\"nf-tmpl-row\" type=\"text\/template\">\n            <nf-cells><\/nf-cells>\n        <\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In the two years since <a href=\"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/angels-and-miracles\/miracles\/gods-grace\/how-chewbacca-moms-prayer-was-answered\/\">the video went viral<\/a> Candace has published several books, starred in a TLC web series and went on tour with Mandisa. She\u2019s made appearances on late night talk shows, met J.J. Abrams and, as she shared in her Guideposts cover story in November 2017, was able to fulfill a dream of taking her family to Disney World. It\u2019s been a busy, but joyful time.<\/p>\n<p>Her latest project is <em><a href=\"https:\/\/shops.candacepayne.me\/products\/consider-it-joy-journal\">Consider It Joy: A Six-Month Guided Bullet Journal<\/a>, <\/em>a follow-up to her 2017 book <em>Laugh It Up!: Embrace Freedom and Experience Defiant Joy<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cI feel like people need a tool in their hands to actually uncover and get the joy that they are fighting for,\u201d Candace says. \u201c[The journal] has habit trackers to help you keep account of how much space and time you are devoting to things that aren\u2019t worth it in comparison to the joy that I know I could have?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cultivating joy is something that has always been important to Candace. She never expected her video to go viral or the opportunities that would come from it. But she saw God\u2019s hand at work.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cThe opportunity afforded me was not a forced open door,\u201d Candace says. \u201cI think a lot of people are trying desperately to push things open when you just have to be obedient in the little things that God&#8217;s asking of you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A few weeks before the Chewbacca video went viral, Candace had an <a href=\"https:\/\/gpbookstore.org\/articles\/prayer\/bible-resources\/4-one-word-prayers\/\">intense prayer time <\/a>with God.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was asking God, \u2018Are you real? If so, I\u2019m all in,\u2019\u201d Candace says. \u201cTo this day I feel like I\u2019m just walking through open doors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Candace, the real challenge has been believing that God trusts her to handle the opportunities in front of her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful thing to finally realize that God wants to trust you with [things] because He loves you and has a plan for you,\u201d Candace says. \u201cI think a lot of people hold back from walking into what they\u2019re meant to do because they don\u2019t feel as though they\u2019re trustworthy to God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Part of trusting herself has required being confident in saying no. From the outside it may look like Candace is doing it all, but she says she actually so \u2018no\u2019 to business propositions more than she says \u2018yes.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>She uses a simple tool to evaluate whether an opportunity is right or her.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI say all the time to my husband and team, \u2018That doesn\u2019t belong on my beam,\u2019\u201d Candace says. \u201cWhat I mean by that is I have a balance beam that I&#8217;m asked to walk every single day. As a mom, as a wife, as Candace, as a speaker, an author, whatever. There are only so many things that I can balance at a time. I have to realize what belongs on there and what doesn&#8217;t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the heart behind the <em>Consider It Joy <\/em>journal.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cI really wanted to give people more than just advice about joy,\u201d Candace says. \u201cI wanted to give them the ability to actually own it in their every day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Candace Payne\u2019s life transformed forever in May 2016 when she posted a video of herself laughing hysterically while wearing a Chewbacca mask. The video went viral and \u201cChewbacca Mom\u201d became a household name. The stay-at-home mom could not have imagined all that happened next. \u201cWe all have seasons,\u201d Candace said in an interview with Guidposts.org. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,225],"tags":[57,15,258,39],"ppma_author":[467],"class_list":["post-21309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-stories","category-life-advice","tag-creativity","tag-faith","tag-goals","tag-joy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Chewbacca Mom Now: Candace Payne Opens Up about Trusting God and Saying No - Guideposts Articles<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chewbacca Mom Now: Candace Payne Opens Up about Trusting God and Saying No\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Candace Payne\u2019s life transformed forever in May 2016 when she posted a video of herself laughing hysterically while wearing a Chewbacca mask. 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