Hi guys, welcome back to True North. My name is Angel and today I am with a very good friend of mine, Amber.
Hi. Hello. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks, I'm happy to be here. Thank you for agreeing to come on.
So you already pretty much gave you the backstory on the podcast. How are you feeling today?
I feel great. I feel great. I cannot complain. I mean it's kind of dreary outside, but I am mad about it. I am still good.
Yeah, so you are a first mom. You just had your first mother's day. How are you feeling about that?
I did. It was super duper sweet. I don't know. I've been dreaming of becoming a mother for a very, very long time.
As long as I can remember. At least from the age of four. So now to finally be here, it's still surreal. It's like, oh, that's my baby.
Yeah, he's so adorable. Looks just like you. Thank you. I see you so much in him. It's like, oh, it's going to be good. Yeah.
Yeah, it's going to be good. Yeah, adorable kid. Thank you.
Watching you grow in your belief in God and just staying strong. That's always one thing I've always admired about you.
Was how strong you are in your faith. And no matter what, you will always stand on your belief. Just no matter what.
I'll go ahead and say it, Angel. It's only because of him. Yeah, we're here.
Yeah. And it's funny because when I found out that you were getting married, I'm like, oh my gosh, I was so excited.
I was genuinely so happy about you. My mom was too. She was like, she's finally getting married because she was actually the one that told me we were getting married.
That is so exciting. And then I found out you were pregnant. I'm like, yay. Love that.
Yeah. So yeah, that was very excited for you to watch you grow into this new chapter in your life.
Yeah, it definitely didn't come all of a sudden. Obviously, you've been walking with me through it.
Yeah. But it's just been amazing to see the Lord's faithfulness. And I literally am able to live each day and reflect like, wow, I'm really living out what I prayed for.
So it's now like, okay, well, what's next Lord? And just, I don't know, being led by him and everything, knowing that the pinnacle of my life is not marriage.
The pinnacle of my life is not motherhood, but rather just being this disciple and vessel for Christ in his sake.
Yeah, 100%. And like watching you grow, like, because you're part of the family now.
Like my mom, like my entire, like my mom, she loves y'all family. Like y'all are family does.
And like just watching you, like watching your journey from when I first met you to now like your mom, your wife, you know, like just watching you go through all of these amazing things.
Yeah. It's just, it's mind blowing to me to be able to watch you be led by God and, you know, have all of these amazing things happen in your life.
So it's just, it's really amazing to watch.
Oh, I'm going to him. It feels nice to hear this from you because, you know, there's only so much I can see going through it, which is the majority of it.
But hearing other people's perspective as they watch me progress is very nice to hear.
Yeah. And like, I've seen you grow in like so many different ways, like just with your music. Are you even still singing?
So funny story. During my third trimester, my voice is kind of like gave out.
Oh, wow.
The Lord convicted me recently, like this don't mean stop praising me, which I haven't, but I'll be going as hand as I used to go.
And you might be able to hear it even in my speaking voice. Like there was a time where it was super duper raspy, but it's coming back slowly, but surely I was serving as the worship director with our church.
Okay.
That was nice. But yes, I still sing. I sing to my baby. I sing to the Lord.
Yeah.
At least you're still doing that.
Yeah.
Um, so your husband, he has his own church, right? Or?
No.
So you might have thought that because that's what like my parents are speaking over him and everybody sees it, except the Lord hasn't released that information to him yet.
Yeah.
But no, he's in medical school.
Oh.
So yeah, girl.
Okay.
That's what we're doing.
Okay.
Oh, good luck to him.
Yeah.
So that's gotta be hard.
Yeah.
Especially having a family and then me as a wife.
That's his own feet in and of itself.
Yeah.
So we're really blessed to have one another.
Yeah.
I bet like just watching how it grow together, like just as one, like not just individually, like y'all are growing as one.
Yeah.
Like and just working on y'all's selves, like in y'all relationship with God and just with each other.
It's beautiful.
Like that's, I love that.
And when I actually first started the podcast, like when I first had the idea of starting it, I'm like, I've got to get Amber on this.
Like you were the first person that popped in my mind to come onto the podcast.
Like I've got to get her on this so she can just share her story and her journey of, you know, just walking in her faith and just constantly staying strong in it.
Yeah.
And your parents, your parents too.
That's why I was like really excited to get them on as well.
Like these are like, y'all are like an amazing family, like an amazing family.
And I love y'all.
You love you.
Yeah.
And I was, I was talking to, no, I wasn't my mom.
She was talking to Omar the other day and he asked about y'all.
Oh.
Because they're all him, Ali, and they're Julian and one of the other friends are in Florida.
Okay.
So they've been doing.
I think Michigan.
That's wrong.
Yeah.
They were in Michigan.
Okay.
And they were in Los Angeles with his dad before he passed and then they moved to Florida and then started the Airbnb stuff out there.
Okay.
Cool.
Yes, I did hear about that.
Yeah.
So they're doing that down there now, which is, I think is going good from what I've been hearing.
I don't know.
So, so they've been, they've been doing good with that.
So hopefully it continues to go good.
I don't know, you know, but yeah, my mom is like so on them about like, y'all needs to go to school.
Like, mom, they'll figure it out.
Just, you got to let them do what they're going to do.
Yeah, that's very true.
That's very wise coming from you.
Like, they'll, they'll figure it out.
They'll figure it out.
Alicia asked about y'all too, my sister Alicia.
She just, well, not just had her second baby, but she got a little girl now.
Looks just like her.
Does she?
Yeah.
Like, oh, not everybody out here having babies now.
And she asked me like, what are you having baby?
Not any time soon.
Like, that is not in the cards for me right now.
Yeah.
Like at some point, maybe.
Definitely not right now.
That's fair.
No rush.
There's no rush whatsoever.
Not at all.
Tommy and the Lord, my husband and I would say while we recording, do time, proper time, perfect time.
Yeah.
That's what it is.
Yeah, she's like, okay, now, so now that you're in this space in your life, like in motherhood,
and just being a wife and just being a devoted servant of God, how was that, you know, whole process from where you were to where you are now?
Like, do you see a change in yourself, like spiritually, emotionally?
Almost definitely.
So back story is through, oh Lord, what time, what age was I when I got married?
23, because it was our Jordan year.
So I was 23 years old, but for 23 years of my life, I had been single, never dated, never did that whole thing.
And my husband was my first boyfriend because I pledged to the Lord, Father, as I'm obedient to you, I want my first boyfriend to be my only one.
And I was really believing the Lord for that as I remain faithful and just saw after his guidance.
And so it's funny because Malachi has the same testimony, his first girlfriend.
And so that's just how we lived out our lives during our singlehood.
And so I could talk about singleness all day long because I've only been married for three years, but I've been single much longer.
Yeah.
And so I feel more equipped to talk about that season of my life as opposed to marriage.
But in transitioning into married life, I could definitely say that I have seen many changes in myself and learned so many different things in that, like, oh my gosh, I'm selfish.
What?
Like, I've always been such a great friend to other people, like, what do you mean?
I think about myself a lot.
And so when you have somebody that's constantly serving as essentially a mirror to you, you will see yourself and be like, oh my, like, I did not know this was in me.
You know, like, when you're single, you can walk away and you're not with somebody constantly all the time.
And so I came to terms with that. I feel like that was like the major eye-opening thing of like realizing that, I don't know, like, I just thought I was more selfless.
And I went into marriage thinking I was going to be this perfect wife, which obviously not perfect, but nearly, you know.
Yeah.
And so I always, the expectation I would have of myself, my flesh yields itself to perfectionism, which is not of God, because we know that only the Lord is perfect and complete and whole.
And so for me to have that expectation on myself is doing myself a disservice and also just, I'm lying, right?
It's nearly sinful if I don't recognize my own humanity and the likeness that the Lord has made me.
And so I say all that to say, I'm not perfect.
I'm not the perfect wife.
And just really the steep learning curve of what it looks like to be in this intimate relationship with someone having never been in a relationship before.
So it was like a really steep learning curve for us.
And so I'm very grateful for this transition.
I feel like now, like, we pretty much know each other.
But it's wild because we were literally talking about this the other day that we will never, like, know each other as much as the Lord knows us.
And so having this relationship that's centered on him, and that's why our singlehood was so pivotal when we're, it's just really us and the Lord.
And so now walking into marriage, having us, the two twain flesh becoming one with Christ at the center is so crucial.
And quite honestly, I don't know how other people do it without him.
Yeah.
I understand you're going to do it all.
Yeah.
Like, you learn, well, from what I've seen, and like, you learn a lot about each other.
Yeah.
And about yourself.
And like, you will continue to learn not only just about each other, but can you continue to learn within yourself.
And just continue to like, stay grounded on your faith in God.
It's like, no matter what, it's like, I look at my sisters and my brother, because they all have kids.
They all have two kids.
And like, just watching them from, you know, where I'm at now, it's like, all of y'all are unmarried.
You'll have two kids.
Like, I love y'all to death, but like, y'all, like, they were young when they had kids.
Like, they were all like in their early 20s when they had their first kid.
It's like, come on out.
Like, I love y'all, but y'all should be like, we were always raised in the church, especially me and Alicia.
Because, you know, we went through foster care together, always raised in the church, no matter what house we're in.
We're always in the church.
It's like, I'm not, I'm not like, on fuzz, I'm not going to fire with her.
Like, I'm going to just, you know, I'm going to let you walk in your whatever this is right now.
Yeah.
Because you'll, at some point, figure out, you know, you got to go back to God at some point.
Yeah, that's really good.
And hearing you say that, and it's just very reminiscent of my own thoughts watching my friends and even some family members.
I'm like, what in the world are you doing?
Like, we learned what was right, you know, first comes love then comes marriage then come to baby and the baby carriage.
And this is not to shame or to fault. I know people have significant life situations that just certain things be happening.
Yeah.
You got to roll with the punches and keep it moving.
And the Lord can and will be glorified even in the midst of our shortcomings.
So I totally get what you're saying. And I just knew for myself, I needed to be different.
Right?
I saw how every single relationship, even in high school, it either ended up in marriage or there are breakups.
Yeah.
Like, that's literally it. And more often than not, it was the breaking up.
Yeah.
So I knew that I didn't want to be, I don't know, just making those decisions so early in my life, but rather just keeping the Lord at the forefront.
Yeah.
And, you know, watching, well, Alicia is the perfect example for this. I don't mean to throw her under the bus, but like, because her and her boyfriend, they met in high school.
They were really young when they first met. And then just straight out of high school, she had her for her son.
Now she had her daughter last year in July. She'll be one in July. And I'm like, what are you doing?
Yeah.
What are you doing? Like all of my siblings, they had their first kid straight out of high school.
Okay.
Yeah.
Okay. And then one of my friends, she just had her baby. I'm like, okay.
Yeah.
And I also double as a labor and delivery nurse. And so there was a time in which I would get so upset at seeing like, okay, backstory.
I've always loved labor. I've always loved delivery. There was a show called the baby story on TLC and I would be watching it with my mother, like from the age of four or five.
And in those shows, it was always a married couple, right? There was no teen mom show that I had that didn't exist at the time.
And so that's what I thought I was going to see all the time being a labor and delivery nurse.
And it was a rude awakening to see like these situations where maybe the father of the baby isn't in the picture.
Maybe he is and he's doing X, Y, Z and oh, you're in high school sweetheart. Oh, you had to stop your college classes.
And for me, it would be difficult to do my job because I'm like, oh Lord, I want these people to be married or this baby is coming into this world and it would grieve my heart.
Maybe it's coming into this world and I know the joy and the blessing that it is to have a two parent household, but they parents don't look like they've been to stay together.
Yeah.
And the Lord would actually have me pray for these children and praying for their upbringing and praying for their parents.
But I realized that there was some bitterness in my own heart.
And it was only until Malakama husband had let me know because I told him like this is grieving me like this is even difficult to even say congratulations sometimes.
And he reminded me of the fact that they chose life in a world that is so quick to be like, go ahead and abort that baby and essentially murder that child.
And so we honor what the Lord has done because it's true what his word says that children are a blessing and they are a gift from God.
And so despite the order in which people decide to live out their lives because for the record, y'all sex makes babies. That's what it does. That's what happens when you engage in that.
And the safest sex that you can have if you don't want to have a baby is no sex. It ain't latex is none. Don't have none.
Never the last I digress.
But I now have this perspective of, okay, even if this is not God's perfect design of getting married and engaging in this activity that is honestly glorifying him and having these babies that are fruits of this marriage,
even if somebody doesn't choose that route, I can still pray for this child. I can still pray for the parents of this child and trust and believe that God is going to be glorified through and through.
And you even see Biblically stories of maybe one of the best situations, but these children are born and the name of the Lord will be praised.
And so even in we have family members as well who maybe did not do the path that is less the road less traveled.
But you see these situations and people are able to come to the Lord and have every choices.
Yeah. Yeah. And like always so always so Alicia is like you should bring the kids to church because like she'll come every now and again when she's not working.
Like you should bring the kids what you want time. It's like I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do it. Never bring something like I'm gonna just pray for you.
Yeah. I'm just that's all I can do because at the end of the day you're going to do what you want to do. So I'm just I'm just pray for you.
So that's all I can do for you right now because clearly you and channel vision right now. So I'm just I'm just pray for you.
So that's. And I think sometimes people put prayer as a last resort and I'll speak for myself.
I know I have like all I can do now is pray. But that should be my first response in all things and my auntie I was speaking to who I consider a mentor.
She had told me in everything allow your response to be worship. Yeah. And I thought that was so so good.
But the fact that that is what we're called to that is my purpose in this life is to worship the Lord. Yeah.
I think it's very easy to say like to just put prayer as like last ditch effort when really that needs to be the first thing that we do.
And it's the best thing that we can do. The best thing is better than any conversation that we could have.
Like you could be praying and interceding for folks girl. God will do it.
Yeah. I'm like I'm not going to sit here and fuss at you and fight with you. I'm not going to do that because at the end of the day you're grown.
You can do what you want to do. I'm not going to treat you like you're a little kid. No you're grown. You can do what you want.
So I'm not going to argue with you. I'm not going to keep talking to you about the same thing over and over again when you're clearly not hearing what I'm saying.
You just want to hear what you want to hear. So I'm just keep praying for you. That's all I'm going to do.
If you want to sit down and have a conversation at some point that's fine. We can sit down and have a conversation but I'm not going to fight with you.
That's what I'm not going to do. We're both way too grown to be sitting here arguing about some petty stuff. No. I'm not doing that.
There you go.
I'm going to believe in what I believe. All of my siblings know I'm very strong in a God. I have a very strong relationship with God.
All of my siblings know that. They know not to argue with me but I'm not arguing with you. I'm going to pray for you.
It's good.
Don't even come to me with an attitude because I'm not going to talk to you when you have an attitude.
Come to me cool, calm and collected so we can actually have an adult conversation. Like adults. I'm not going to sit here and bicker and fight over something that's completely irrelevant.
If you're going through something God puts you through it for a reason. So what do you want me to do about it? I'm not God. Go to God and pray about it.
I'll pray for you but at the end of the day you need to pray over yourself and your own family.
I can only do so much with prayer. But it's really between you and God.
You're reminding me of a text actually. In Galatians I believe it's either chapter 5 or 6 and it references the fact that we are to bear one another's burdens but it goes on to say,
uh, but each person got to bury his own. Essentially that's the neighbor version but let me go to it real quick.
Alright yeah, through the Spirit of Galatians 5 it must be 6, right?
Oh Lord.
Okay, brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such in one in the Spirit of Meekness, considering thyself lest you also be tempted.
Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill all of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing he deceives himself.
But let every man prove his own work and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden.
So it's like I had to reconcile the fact that when people are going through things or making decisions that really just impact their own life, I can do my best to help them and bear their burden.
But I got to take that to the Lord that's not just meant to be on my back, but to take it to the other person, especially in circumstances where they're really unbothered by it.
And they have all this stuff and you see it and you're like, let me help some so help them out. I got to, you know, take these burdens for them and they not even worried about them.
And so I would end up exhausting myself, exhausting my own energy, exhausting my own resources for the sake of people who don't even realize they got burdens to begin with.
And they're actually quite comfortable. So I do better to just pray for them and intercede on their behalf than I would to pick all this stuff up because at the end of the day, everyone is to bear their own load, carry their own load essentially.
There's only so much I can do. Yeah. And so I got the end of the day. That's between you and God.
Like, I'm going to do my best to pray for you. I'm going to do my best to do what I can do for you. But I can't do everything.
I don't know what you expect me to do, but I'm not God. So go to Him, pray. I'm going to pray for you. I will always pray for you, but that's the conversation between you and God.
That you've got to sit down and have for yourself. And like, because my brother, he's good for that.
He's like, oh, can you pray for me? Oh, I've been praying for you this whole time. But you need to sit down with God yourself and pray and talk to Him and understand Him.
You know, like, because that's something that, you know, I'm not going to be able to fix all of your problems by praying for you.
Like, I'm going to do the best I can. But at the end of the day, like, that's between you and God. Because he had lost one of his eyes when we were kids.
And he was supposed to be getting a new eye. It was like, oh, can you pray for me?
So I've been praying for you for years, okay, since you lost your eye, even before the end. I'm going to always do that. You're my brother. And I love you. But you need to sit down with your Bible and pray.
Yeah. Yeah. That's really good. Yeah. I just reflect on actually this devotional that I was reading today with my grandmother.
And she called it the pineapple, pineapple principle. And essentially, she was saying how she loves fresh pineapple, but she would often settle for the canned fruit because she ain't know how to cut it.
And that's very real because I'm gonna lie. I had to look up a YouTube video to learn how to cut pineapple, but it's totally different.
Like the taste of a fresh pineapple versus can is unmatched. It's ridiculous how much better it tastes when it's fresh.
And so one time she went over a girlfriend's house and she was like, oh, little girl, you want a snack? And she was like, yeah.
And she watched her cut this pineapple. And she was like, oh my gosh, this is not even that hard.
I use cut off top cut off the bottom and then you're pouring it and cutting the slices into little bite size pieces.
And she reflected and she was like, well, I could have been doing this instead of settling, you know, wetting my palate with this canned pineapple.
That's basically when I eat it is telling me there's better. Yeah. This is cool, but there's definitely better.
And she said that and she related it to the word of God and how so often we'll read devotionals or just read these books about people who have already passed through his work.
And we'll pass through his word as opposed to eating it for ourselves because it can become daunting.
And you know, it's a large book. There's words that some people may not understand and it's difficult to digest, but the Holy Spirit will help us.
And so I say that to say in relation to hearing people asking for prayer and not really being as inclined to do it themselves.
I think you're giving a very wise advice of I have been praying for you, but you need to go to the Lord for yourself.
Yeah, because I can't play savior for anybody.
And we might be doing people a disservice.
In fact, when we are essentially packaging something as this real pineapple when really, no, that's that's between you and the Lord.
Yeah, you know, but people take comfort and it might be a thing that's checked off of their list.
And I've been prone to it as well when I read devotionals and recently the Lord convicted me like you need to sit down with the sweetness of just my word, just my word, not man's word, just my word.
Yeah.
And so even in prayer, it's beautiful when people are able to pray with you. But at the end of the day.
Yeah, look, that's a conversation you gotta have with God.
So yeah, it's like it's only so much I can do.
The word says that we are to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.
And I think if there's anything that is lacking in modern day Christianity, it's this fear of the Lord.
Yeah.
This reverential fear of the Lord that we are called to have and we treat God as such this casual commodity, if you will, when he's so much more than that.
Yeah.
He's literally everything, but especially Western Christians in America.
Yeah.
And it's just like watching the world evolve to just darkness and chaos and like just all of this unnecessary violence going on.
It's like, why are we doing this?
Because we're human.
Like there is no need for us to be killing each other, shaming each other. It's like we are all God's people at the end of the day.
He's gonna love us regardless. Like it doesn't matter what you look like, how you sound. Like it doesn't matter. He's gonna love you regardless.
Yeah. Yeah. I guess what we're just seeing is the effects of having a Godless people.
And this is what happens. This is humanity.
Yeah. Yeah.
So, there's a guy in Atlanta. I think he was either a Marine or in the Navy.
But he got shot up by the police. Like that is so sad. Like it's such a sad world.
And I was like, okay, come on now. You all are gonna have to realize that at some point we're not each other's enemy. Like there is no reason for us to be fighting with each other.
There is no reason at all. So at the end of the day, we all have a common enemy that is the devil himself.
Like we're God's people. There is no reason for you to say, oh, this person, this and this, they deserve to die. Okay. Yes, they do that.
They need to repent to God for what they did. You know, because that's not something for me or you to judge someone for.
Okay, I'm not gonna judge you. I'm not gonna spy you. I'm not gonna shame you. That's between you and God.
Yeah. Lots of heavy stuff going on in the world. And I feel like a lot of it is just distractions from essentially what you're saying that the real true enemy is the devil.
So whether it's disunity or just using our differences against us. It's sad to see, but when you know him, him being the Lord, and when you pray for your vision to look like,
Lord, I want to see what you see. I want my heart to feel what your heart feels. It's an entirely different perspective that you'll have.
Yeah. You will essentially see the world in a different lens. You know, like it's like putting on sunglasses. You see the world completely differently now.
It's like, wow, this is what the world looks like. Okay.
There's a scripture, I believe it's in one of the Corinthians that says, fix your eyes on those things which are unseen and not the seen things for the unseen things are eternal, whereas seen things are temporary.
And so when we really have this mindset of, okay, I want to see the things that I really can't see or set my side, slow it on the things that which reflects your kingdom and bring to light anything that doesn't and having this spiritual vision.
It's life change. It's game changing. It is game changing. And then you'll realize like, Oh, I ain't meant to wrestle against flesh and blood. This is a principality.
It is a force of darkness to be reckoned with in the spiritual realm.
Yeah. Yeah. And I don't know if you remember my sister, Leah.
Yeah, so she's like, because she had leukemia, went into remission right before she was half-bossed to have a stem cell transplant.
And like the effects now from that, like her back is completely shot up now from like, like, and I'm not, I'm pretty sure it's like not even from the leukemia now, because like her oncologist is like, Oh, you're having this problem, this problem because of leukemia.
It's not because of leukemia. She's been in remission for three years now. This has been going on for three years. I'm pretty sure it's not from the leukemia.
It was like, she was supposed to have surgery. Doctors didn't even put in the order for her to have a biopsy. I'm like, girl, I'm gonna pray for you.
Because you, like she's in constant pain all the time. It's like, I'm gonna pray for you. But like, I've been praying for her.
Like, you gotta, you gotta have a conversation with God. Because that's the only way you're gonna get any kind of relief. It's just to sit down and pray. Say, girl, I love you. But you gotta, you gotta pray with God yourself.
That's a, you and him conversation.
That's good.
It's like, I love her to death, but it's like, girl, sit down and talk to God for like a good minute. Like sit down. Because you're going through it. Like, I'd like just watching her like being pain all the time.
Like she literally can't even work because she's in so much pain all the time. Like, girl, I love you, but pray. Pray. That's the only, it's the only way you're gonna get any relief. And any answers, like real answers that you want.
Yeah, that's so good.
I agree.
So, my mom too, like she, every time we turn around, she's like got a sinus infection. She always sick and pain.
Like, y'all gotta sit down and have a conversation with God. Like, I love y'all, but I'm gonna continue to pray for y'all, but that's a you and God conversation.
I forgot this. I didn't turn this one off.
No worries.
Okay.
Yeah. It's like, yeah, I'm gonna continue to pray for y'all. I'm gonna pray for my whole family because like, that's the conversation that's all I'm gonna have.
Like, no matter what you're going through, where are you out of your life, you gotta, you gotta pray. You gotta pray.
Like, because now, because like, I've had to pray for myself.
Because like, I first had the idea of what the podcast, like, when I was, before I even graduated, because I graduated in 22, I'm like, and I sat down.
I'm like, okay.
I sat there and I prayed about it. I'm like, okay, is this something you want to happen now? Or is it something you want to be sat on and come back later too?
And so, I'm like, okay, we're gonna sit on this.
And this is something that's not meant to be happening right now. I'm not in the right season to even be doing this in my life right now.
So, we're gonna just put it in a light slow box and put it aside.
And then, I think I had a, no, I actually had a dream about it coming back to it recently.
I'm like, okay, that's, that's good.
And because when I first had the idea, I didn't have a name for it, nothing.
And then I had a dream about a compass.
Like, that's what we're doing with the podcast.
And then that's when we came up with the idea of True North and, you know, like, everything with the podcast.
I'm like, okay, we're going with this now. We're in the right season. We're in the right headspace to start it.
Everything comes in due time.
Like, everything will happen when it's meant to happen. Don't force it to happen.
I'm not gonna sit here and force something to happen when I'm not in the right season for it to happen.
Like, you know, you gotta be in the right headspace in the right season for something to fall into place.
And so, like, it's this, the podcast has finally fallen into place because I'm in the right season for it.
So I was like, okay, I'm gonna listen to what you're telling me and I'm gonna walk with you.
Yeah, that's good. What you just said is, remind me of Galatians chapter 6 verse 9 where it says,
Don't get weary and well-doing for the proper time you'll reap a harvest if you faint not.
And so that's essentially what you're doing. You're not giving up, not losing heart, not getting faint,
but rather I encourage you to keep pressing toward the mark of the higher calling that's found in Christ Jesus.
And it's beautiful that you can even recognize the importance of seasons even so early on.
Yeah, because, like, I'm literally gonna be, I'm gonna be 21 in June.
It was like, because I was actually having a conversation with one of my managers and she was like,
How are you so strong in your belief at such a young age?
Because I found God at an even younger age. That's, like, my grandmother literally brought me to church.
Like, as a, like, two, three years old. And I've been in the church for my entire life.
Like, that's the only reason I am so strong in my faith was because of my grandmother.
And when she passed, you know, like, it hurt, but I knew she was in a better place and she was sitting with God.
You know, because, like, that's the only reason, like, I'm so strong in my faith and my belief.
And, you know, knowing, you know, it's like, okay, this isn't the season for this.
So we're not gonna start this right now. I'm not gonna push it. I'm not gonna press it.
I'm gonna leave it where it's at and then come back to it when I'm in the right season for it.
So it's like, okay. And when my sister, my, well, I had a younger sister, Aliyah, she passed away.
You know, it hurt, but she is with God now.
Not gonna push it. Not gonna press it. She's in a better place.
You know, I'm just gonna leave it alone, you know, because, like, when God calls you to be with Him,
you're in a better place, you know, like, you're doing, like, you're not here.
Like, you don't have to stress out, you know, you don't have to worry about, you know, rent, you know, like,
you know, I need a job getting laid off. I was like, oh, how much are you gonna get paid?
You don't have to worry about that. You know, you're living eternal life with God.
It's like, you're not gonna, you don't have to worry about getting sick, death, you know.
Nope.
Okay. That's one thing that I've always believed in, like, my faith in God.
Like, I've always known that when people go to be with the Lord, they're in a better place now.
Like, and I don't have to, like, yes, I'll get excited about it.
But I always come back to the realization, like, they're fine.
Like, I will see them again.
At some point.
It's not gonna be right now, but at some point I'm gonna see them.
Yeah.
This was great.
I agree. I enjoyed it.
I did too. Thank you so much. Do you have anything else you'd like to say?
Um, just to any listener. Keep pursuing the things of the Lord.
One of my favorite phrases that my friend Patrice had coined is to honor progression, right?
And just like Glacier 69 that I quoted earlier, just don't get weary.
Don't get weary. Even if it's half a step forward, you honor that progression of half a step.
And the Lord will surely strengthen you and see you through.
I love that.
Thank you so much for being on the podcast today.
I appreciate you so much.
I appreciate you. I love you.
And I loved learning from you.
It's also one thing that I wanted to do with this podcast was learning.
Like from all of my guys, like you know, with their story, with their walk of faith.
Just learning.
And I learned. I'm happy I did. Thank you so much.
Of course.
Love you.
Love you too.
That's that's it, you guys.