Saved By Choice with Christina Price

We created this podcast to open dialogue about some of life's most taboo topics, things most folks don't want to talk about through the lens of a millennium married couple. Dead ass is the term that we say every day. So when we say dead ass, we're actually saying facts, the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Were about to think, Bill talk to a whole new level. Dead ad starts right now. This story time is gonna take me back Tooklyn circa Wow. I remember saying my prayers.

I was no a matter of fact, Circle Circle nineteen ninety. I was saying my prayers and I remember thinking to myself, now, I laid me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. And I remember thinking that's some scary ship like at six, and I remember thinking like, am I going to die in

my sleep? And then I remember going to church and just having like a whole bunch of questions and nobody ever answering any of my questions and being offended if I ever asked questions. And then I just remember being very fearful every time I went into church or every time I had to like think about God or Jesus. It just seemed like this lumin presence over me that

just had me like in so much fear. And the fear was always death, like you know, you do something wrong that you just might die out of nowhere and go to Hell. And that's that's how I grew up thinking about my relationship with God. It's tough karaoke. This is gonna take us back to Jefferson City, Tennessee. Circa people follow on Instagram and in YouTube, you'll know this song. It's one of the kids favor Oh, I think I know what it is. Might I've been singing this last night.

We are love me Jacob Let, We are clamby Jacob Letter, We are clamby Jacob Letter, Soldier Oh the ro Yo Martha Davis Baptist Church. They used to sing that song. Was that like a staple? Was one of my favorite songs to sing. Miss Agnes would be on the piano, the deacons to be singing. They have their deep voice. It was like one of my favorite songs of I just want to know real quick, are there any other lyrics the song? Or is that just I don't know.

I just know that they kept saying that part of the song and we would just be singing along with the And I know your Path will be proud to know that this song has been sung to his great grandson, Edward Ellis Path. I miss him. He was he had Christen cast for us. That was such a special religion and family, family and faith. Yes, he was the patriarch that I grew up watching my entire lifetile passed and

not my father. What a good man. Yes, all right, let's say a quick break, handle some ads and then we'll be right back. Alright, we have a special guest today, someone who is a new author, and I'm super proud of UM. And when talking about you know, topics for this season and what we wanted to kind of encompass coming out of our whole pregnancy stint and stuff we

wanted to touch on a pull different things, UM. And when we think about faith and religion, that's always a topic that I feel like we can always learn more about UM learning from other people's experiences and see how God shows up in this podcast for us and for everyone else. So today we have with us Christina Price, who happens to be a dear friend of ours UM.

And I think it'll be better if Christina introduces herself, because I don't want to leave any of her you know hats out, because you wear many hats, Christina, But first and foremost a dear friend of ours, and you can take it away and just tell everybody a little bit about who you are. Yeah, Hey, guys, First of all, thank you for having me on. I am so honored and blessed to be a part of your podcast today. But I am Christina Price. I am a believer of

Jesus Christ. I'm a mom, I'm a career woman working in corporate America for the past over sixteen years in HR operations. UM, I'm a sister, I'm a friend, and just as you said, the latest title that I could add to my array of things is an author. I just published first book, thank you, UM, this past year and it's it's been good. That's good. Devout and I have embarked in our book Journey as well too, and

that's no easy test. It's no easy test. And I remember when you reached out to me and you said, you know what, I think that I'm being called to document this process and to share it with people in some capacity. So you were talking to me about like a book, and I was just really admired by your drive and like you really saying this is something I want to do and finding your own way to do it. And before I knew it, you had a book, then you had an audible, and I was likely way to

say it, what is this person? And it's never doubt. It was just that, you know, sometimes people talk about things they want to do, throw it out there, but I'm happy to see it come into fruish And so I have a copy here of course. UM. Saved by choice. UM, so yeah, Christina, mother, career woman, sister, friend author. Her book Saved by Choice is a devotional memoir detailing her

experience in developing a relationship with Christ. She grew up in a Hindu household and was introduced to Christianity as a teenager, and after falling off or away from faith for a while, she wrote Saved by Choice to reconnect to God, or as she reconnected to God. So Christina's faith is empowered by her freedom of choice, which she encourages other exercise as well on a day to day basis. And that's what we're going to talk about today. Um

So Christina, let's dive right in. Did you have any questions you wanted to start out with, babe or should we just have or tell us about this journey she was on. Now, I do have a question what made you go from Hinduism to Christianity? Um? I think the probably the overarching factor had to be relationship. So growing up Hindu, so I'm from a Caribbean family. Um, there was a lot of rituals and a lot of traditions

and a total language that I didn't understand. So it was a huge disconnect to follow something that I didn't understand. You know, I feel like the generation. You know, we're millennials, We're Americans. We have a lot of questions. We want to understand the why and the how and and to make a connection to things. And when I would ask, you know, I would get ostracized just for asking a question. And sometimes my parents are the people around me didn't

even know the answer. It was just such tradition that was passed on from generation to generation, and it's just this is how our parents did it, so we continue to do it. And I couldn't find up to that, like I needed to understand what I was praying to how I was praying, what I was saying, and what it meant. Ultimately, so Hinduism that disc connected also understanding them the idols that they would worship too. It was

a bit um off putting to me. It just didn't look anything that was safe or you know, something that I would even want to um worship too. So so for me when I was introduced to Christianity actually by my mom who was Hindu and she converted to Christianity, UM, it was understanding who Jesus was and building that relationship.

So it was more so taking away from the rituals of doing this to be blessed versus you know, making a connection with someone to understand what love is for myself to then be able to transcend that to others. So I would definitely say it's the relationship MCOs we can all relate in that sense that we had some sort of uh disconnect or just kind of fear or an uneasy feeling about the traditions of religions. I know, for me, growing up seven day Adventist, I was always wondering,

you know, why I couldn't wear pants to church? Like that was just something to me that was just so in the time miniscule, and I'm starting like, okay, so God is going to feel a way if I came to church wearing this pants suit, you know, like is it really something that I should be cast out for? Or wearing earrings? You know, it was something we're in the morning. If I'm coming downstairs, my grandmother's like, take off your earrings. You can't wear those to church? And

I'm like, why can't I show up as I am? What? You know, it was more about um, the other human beings in the building versus what God was really thinking of me showing up. And they would say come as you are. But if you did come as you were, then you were prepared to be looked at sideways? You know, did you have that experienced pa, Oh hell yeah, well I'm nean not say that this episode. Yeah, there was a connection with church and me. That connection was fear.

You know, like everything through church just seemed painful. We went to Bethlehem Baptist Academy. They used to eat us there, you know, like it just seemed like everything was very controlling. Um, they didn't appreciate or like free thinkers, people who asked questions or people who bucked against the system. For example, even at our Churchurre we grew up, Salele Missionary Baptist Church, we sung come as you are every time we asked people to come to the altar. But women were not

allowed to wear pants. You know church as well too. Year they well they would say they preferred, it was never not allowed, but women that wore pants. There was always that undertone if there were women wearing pants. When when the pastor got up to speak, he would make mentions of women wearing pants, or if they cut their hair,

it's a women's hair as her crown and um. Even with men, you know, if you didn't wear a jacket to church, if you just wore a sweater and you you know, or just wore a shirt with a tie. You know, it was always spoke about like men should a jackets or it wasn't even just the rules on women, it was just rules on the tire in general. And I was just like, yeah, I'm not feeling this. Did your mom take you to Hindu I guess where is it as a temple or what did that look like

for you? Yeah, it's called him Mander And she totally did. And it's the same thing, you know. I felt like it was a fashion show you kind of walk in to see who had the latest stories or who had

the latest outfits. Um, And I felt it was hypocritical because it's the same thing you're walking in, people are looking at what you're wearing, probably judging you for what you're doing, who you are in your life, and totally taking the attention off of God and putting it on other people, which is not where the focus should be.

So I do think that that deters I know that that deters people from religion because we're a judgmental society, Like we just look at people and want to judge based on their actions or their appearances, and not look on the inner man, which is what we should be doing. And it's unfortunate because that, I do believe it causes that church hurt that make people just shy away from the whole religion and God in general. What what trips

me out is that. And I've heard one pastor say to me, you know, you shouldn't judge people who come to church because if you go to a hospital to get fixed, everybody in the hospital is broken, right, so everyone is sick. So when you go to church, don't go to church looking for perfect people, because then you're just as guilty as the people who are doing the judging. My head, I was gonna say something similar, it's about the gym, to like, oh, don't make people in the

gym trying to get their body back in order. But my thing is when the leaders of the church are the ones responsible for shaming people who are sick for coming into the church, that to me is a problem. You know, every church is about leadership, and even the Bible Ist says three fourths of the churches are going to do it wrong when they try to do you know, church, you know, it's going to be done wrong, which means the vast majority of the churches we see are messed up.

So how do you know you at the right church? You know? And not only is it being controlling, but it's also a huge business. Church is a huge business in America. All these mega churches with a bunch of money and private jets and big arenas just seemed like a huge show, you know. And and the connection is the most important part. But it's hard to practice your religion when the religion is encompasses everything else outside that so worldly for sure. Do you know what influenced your

mom to go from Hinduism to Koeni Christianity? Did she ever tell you why? That is a great question, you know, I don't know. I would I would. I would think it's her friends, because I know that she had a lot of friends that were around her that probably that definitely introduced it. But I don't know what that turning factor was because she converted maybe about three or four years right before she passed away, so it was like I feel like it was like a pretty quick timeline

of it all. Mm hmm. What was that experience like for you transitioning from Hindu to Christianity, And did you ever feel any kind of guilt or can fusion or that you were maybe intern shaming some of your family for stepping out, because I know you did mention in your book, Um that you were on this, uh, this path or this journey, and you said most of your family and friends were just like, oh no, Christina just drank this proverbial kool aid. As you put it's like

they're just like, they're not understanding what went on here. Honestly, they still don't know what to do with me or where to put me. Um, And I know where you stay right, but it's it's it's okay because well the first part of that question, that I feel any guilt, No, I've never felt any guilt because I felt once I made this choice and it felt it gave me peace.

I knew it was the right thing to do. Um. Now, operating in a in an environment that hasn't changed, but you've changed, is very unique because I know that they're now looking to me to see how I represent I felt as a Christian. And I also know what prejudice feels like. I know what it feels like to be judged, and I'm not trying to portray that on them because their views are different from me. So I'm not more

focused on them. I'm focused on myself, Like, how do I represent myself to represent Christ in a way that is appealing to them, because at the end of the day, I want them all to be saved as well. But if I'm over here calling them, you know, just throw in the Bible at their faces every day and judging them for all of that they're doing, it's not going to encourage them or show them a different path. So it's it's pretty hard, um to operate in this space

of just being the only Christian because they're they're still Hindu. Um. But I don't I don't judge, I don't make them feel any different, and I just try to love them in the best way that I can. That again, shows Christ through my behavior and my actions. M that's a good that's a good strategy. How do you work to

or not work too? But how do you, I guess, encourage them to maybe seek God in their own way or their own path, Like do you have things that you do or you try to include them somehow, maybe inviting them to churn. Oh yeah, I think I invite them every week to come to church. It's now to a point where they don't even respond to me. They're not they're not going to a Christian as much as they love me, they're they're just not going to do it. And look, I get it, because everybody has to come

at everything at their own time. Like, I can't force you to want something in the time that I want. But I'm not gonna stop. It's not gonna stop me from inviting you. It's not going to stop me from praying for you. It's not going to stop me from from loving you in a way that I can do so with the piece that I have to give. So it's I guess what I'm trying to say. I just don't stop, and I don't take it personal if they don't want to come either, Like I know, it's not

a luck. I have a question. This is my belief, all right. I believe that God exists, but I also believe that God shows himself in many forms. So I do also believe that you can find God through Hinduism, through Christianity, through Islam, through Judaism. I feel like you can find God in different types of religions. You know what, I'm saying, I don't think that you have to choose one, because if you think about it, if you have to choose one, whichever one you choose, you feel like every

other religion is going to hell. That to me does not seem very godlike. You know what I'm saying, What are your thoughts on that? Well? As a Christian, to get to heaven, it is believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And I agree that everyone has their different truths and they believe that their truth is

the right truth. Um, but it's it's it's hard to it would be blasphemous for me to say as a as a Christian to say that the views of of Islam or Hinduism is right, because that's not my truth. So I just feel it's going to be dependent on what you choose to learn and what you choose to accept.

So the same thing with the you know, with the book, it's like, although we're saved by grace, like I really highlight your choices in every aspect of the matter, because your choices is what leads to your behaviors and ultimately leads to where you're going to be. So it's it's really going to be a personal choice for you as to what you believe your truth is and how you will get there and how you see God. So as a Christian again, for me, it's through Jesus, that's how

we get to Heaven. That's how we're saved. And this is the reason why I asked that is because I feel like through the practices of Christianity or Hinduism, it's how you make the right choices in life. Right, if you practice discipline, if you practice being a cheerful giver. These are things that religion tries to teach people how

to constantly make good, conscious choices with God and mind. Right. Um, we had a cousin that told us God to him just meant good orderly direction, which means that you didn't necessarily have to pick with religion. But if you use the direction passed down through profits from God, you'll always

be on the right path. And not for nothing. That made me feel the most comfortable, because I personally don't want to have to feel like I have to condemn other people in order for me to go to heaven, you know, Like that was one of the biggest questions I had as a young man because my godmother was Puerto Rican, she was Catholic, we grew a Baptist. There's completely different traditional beliefs in Catholicism and then Baptist Baptist religion.

And I felt like, so realistically, if I'm Baptist, I would have to believe that Catholics are going to Hell, or if I was Catholic, I would have to believe that Baptist are going to Hell because we don't do confession, which to me just seemed like a practice created by man. And also thinking that I know so many amazing people who are Jews or are we not amazing Muslim people?

So like those people who are as we know to be really raising good human beings, I don't being lost because they were introduced to God a certain way, you know what, Like for example, what if you were introduced to God through Hinduism your whole life and you just practiced every single thing to be the best Hindu person that you could be. I just can't first see God saying you go to hell because you didn't find Jesus, you know what I'm saying. And the same thing for Christianity.

I can't see someone who follows Christianity the best they can and follow us the practices and really lived with good, orderly direction being told now you're going to hell because you didn't do it to that point, but do you also think it can be based on their exposure because we're raised and we're grown to absolutely yeah, to adapt to know what we know. So and and of course to your point earlier about you know, a lot of

these traditions are man made. They definitely are, and they kind of get away from from what who God is, which is just being of love and sharing love and loving one another. Um. But that that exposure, I think it also leads to people's train of thoughts. So just kind of tying it back to what you said, it's like, do you think that although we know of all these good jew people, all these good Islam people, all everything, it's just based on everyone's exposure at their time of

their life and where they are in the world. So it's just it's just it's just so hard to kind of say. I guess what I'm trying to say. It's it's not that it's not my place to condemn anyone because my belief is different from there. That's that's not where I'm coming at. And that's not where I where my religion where I see God to be. So I I totally hear your aspect of it, but I just kind of want to put that spin on the exposure part of it too, because depending on where people aren't

who they are in their lives, it's things now. And I agree with you on that, because the exposure is is how you practice your walk with God. You know, if you find God in a certain way or a certain region of the world, you may not be introduced

to different religions. You're introduced to that particular religion. But um, that goes to what our theme for this season has been so far, and the theme has been to not shame people who live differently than you, regardless of what they're sexual orientation is, their religious beliefs, their financial uh decisions are. How about we learn to listen to people who think differently from us, try to understand their perspective.

And you don't even have to agree, but let's agree not to shame them, you know, and for me, that would help a lot of people when it comes to religion, because religion, not so much spirituality, because there is a difference, but religion is big on shaming you know, and when I was growing up, it was a lot of finger pointing don't, don't, don't. You know. It was always just don't, don't, or you better do this, or you're going to hell. You know. That was just that's what turned me off

to religion. And a lot of people when they write in they asked us about the kids, and this is what I want to ask you. Um. They said, what are you going to introduce to your children? Because you grew up seven day inventors, I grew up Baptists. How are we going to introduce to them? And under what circumstance? And a lot of times I'm like, shoot, I don't

I don't even really know. I'm afraid we still struggle with um, I think, and you know, we have the children saying grace over their food, and we have them saying their prayers at night and things like that. Um. But I remember talking to Cairo and we were saying grace and he was like, you know, why why do we saying grace? Because you know, our five year old Cairo is very intuitive and he'd been here before us, so he was to know exactly why we're doing what

we're doing. Because I don't if it coincides with his past life. But anyway, he was literally like, so, so why are we assize that, well, we're thanking God for the food that we have, because some people don't have food. Um, they don't have a restaurant to go to. Because this is actually when we were on our date together, um

and everything. And he was like kind of processing it, and I could see the little wheels in his head turning, And in that moment, I was wondering, am I doing him a disservice by not having a better answer or you know, being able to give him a little bit more direction or should he be in Sunday School or stab at school? You know? So, uh, in piggybacking off of a devous question, what do you think about that? Chris? Yeah, So my kids, I think have seen the transformation in me,

probably more closely than anybody. Um. So they're teenagers now too. Well, I guess when I when I've recommitted and I really started to submit myself to God, they were early teens. So it's to an age where they're a little bit older than Cairo, where they can, you know, they can practice things a little bit more. And then they're also coming into their own wanting to make their own decisions.

So I realized that I couldn't just again just shove the Bible down their throat and make them, you know, want to believe into something that I say is okay, even though I'm their mom, this has to be a personal decision for themselves because ultimately it's it's it's how they're going to choose to live their life. So you know, I'm under the accord that I don't want the world

to teach them how to live. Like I feel like they should be grounded, they should have a foundation before they head out into the world because they're gonna they're gonna be hit with so many different you know, societal pressures, opinions, all of these different things. So I just wanted to have a foundation that they can always come back to. That's my hope. You know, the Bible says raise up a child in the way that you want some when he's older, he won't depart. So that's that's my That

was my goal. And I knew again I couldn't do it by just like sit down like and I tried. I was like, every day, we're gonna sit down and we're gonna read the chapter of the Bible, and it was like talking to the wall, like nobody's nobody's listening to me. Like it was just painful. So I kind of had to just take a step back and just say, you know what, they're going to see it through me, like they're going to see it through my actions. They're gonna see how I how you know, if I'm gonna

speak it, I have to live it. So how am I interacting with other people? How am I interacting with their father who you know, he and I had a really contentious relationship, so they could see like God working through me to try to show more love. How am I helping my community? How am I how am I being to them, you know, like you know, between my my stress and my patience level and let them make their own decision. And sure enough, you know, of course I prayed for it to like I pray for everything,

so just praying on that, I think. But I know that they saw the difference and it was something that day they decided to kind of also follow. So they chose, they chose God, and you know, last year they were baptized, and it just wants my heart because again it's just always something for them to fall back on and as they go through life. Like it's not saying that because you're a Christian you're not going to go through any

hard times. No, not at all. It's just knowing that you have something to always fall back on and someone who is always with you. So that was my goal with them. Mhm. You mentioned or you touched on their relations or your relationship rather with their dad who you're now divorced. Um. And I know that in that there was you know, you trying to also find yourself now Christina, single woman again, divorced and all that, and that was

a process in itself. So would you say that that was one of the major turning points in your life that made you feel like you wanted to now change or seek christ I noticed that a lot of people go through some sort of um, either trauma or events or some sort of um experience where they feel like they need to fall back on something or lean on something. And was the main driving voice for you to really

um strengthen this relationship or find this relationship? Yeah, yeah, totally. Um. Right before this, I was listening to a sermon by Tony Ovens and he said, your greatest ministries are through your greatest miseries, And I like, I thought of my divorce immediately because that was something so aside from my mom dying, like that, my divorce was the second biggest

death in my life. Like it was something that of course I didn't want, but it just impacted me in ways that I didn't respect the weight at that time, because life happens and you kind of just keep moving. You gotta you gotta just survived, so you don't really take time to heal or take time to understand the feelings that you're going through. So around the time where I really resubmitted was after the divorce, where I just kind of hit rock bottoms, Like anxiety was just like

gripping me. I was depressed. I was blaming everybody like I was a vic him. Everybody makes a problem, not me, everybody else was everybody else was a problem, and I

just couldn't keep running like that. Um and now becoming a newly single mom having a co parent with someone I just didn't like, It's like, how do I even operate in the space where you know, it's just so new to me, my my peers, no one else is going through this situation so I feel like I'm kind of spearheading all of this, nowhere to run or turn to. So it did lead me back to God to kind of say, you know what, I can't do this by myself,

Like I can't do this on my own. Just help me, show me how to maneuver, how to guy, and just how to guide through all of this. So yeah, I would definitely say that. You know, it's funny to hear you talk about that. I you, spirituality is my way to understand that I'm not going to understand or be able to control everything. You know, some people go to therapy because like I need to fix all my problems

and figure around all the everything in my life. Spirituality taught me that you don't even have the capability to understand or fix everything in your life, and that's okay. You know, sometimes it's okay to close your eyes, meditate, let things go, and let God handle it. You know, he'll give you the strength to control the things you can but the things you can't control, you need to

let that go and let God handle that. Spirituality taught me how to handle that because before I found my place of peace, I was trying to control every aspect of my life and I felt a lot like you. I felt like I can't control this. My kids don't listen to me, and my wife always arguing me, and my friends don't get along. I'm not where I want to be in my career right now, and I was just like, why I'm doing everything that I'm supposed to do. And it almost hit me like a light bulb. You know,

you can't control every aspect of your life takes. And the more you try, yeah, the more loss you are. And that pressure you put on yourself to control it, it starts to mount and you can't get from underneath that pressure, and that's where the depression comes from. So that's how spirituality helped me. So I could definitely relate to what Chris talked about this for sure. So tell us about the book, Christina, say my choice, Um, what is that choice that you believe we all have to make?

And how can we dive into your book and learn a little bit more about that? Yeah? So you know, the book is really a guide again. It it centers around Christianity, so it shows, um, it talks about God's love, it talks about worship, it talks about understanding your identity. UM. And the choice behind that is that you you have to make the choice to want to accept these things. You have to make the choice to want to accept

Jesus Christ into your heart. You have to make the choice to want to accept God's love into your heart. I feel like a lot of time times we UM, we underestimate the power of choice because we kind of just let life happen to us and we just like to take things as they come, UM, but don't realize

that we have that power to choose right or wrong. UM. So I really wanted to reinforce that, even through all the fundamentals of understanding who God is, understanding who Jesus is, and using my experiences to to share UM so that people can relate to it. I wanted to highlight the choice and that to put it back to the reader to say, Okay, well, today, as you hear this information, what will the choice be for you to do to better yourself? Um? And its action plan? No, And it's

like you guys talk about this all the time. It's just like we can't be lazy, Like we can't. We have to put the work to want to better ourselves to then better the people around us, and not allowing ourselves to be that victim. And I'm not saying that traumatic things don't happen in life. They absolutely do. Um, but at some point we all have to want to just be an active participant in our life and just

not allow things to happen to us. So that is really just what I wanted to drive home in the book, and just you know, again sharing my experiences about God, talking about him, but then really turning it back to the reader to say, Okay, what you gonna do, like, what your choice is going to be in all of these matters. M hm. That's interesting because at no point when I was growing up, or maybe I was just

too young to understand, because I ain't gonna lie. You're sitting a Baptist church and then the preachers of it to talk for an hour. It's just words in the Adventage church is two hours of words flying over your head. But the idea that the choice is yours and you have to be deliberate about choosing God doesn't sound like fear. But growing up, all I ever heard or thought about was fear as opposed to a choice, you know, and then they preach to us that God is love, God

is love. God is love. But if you don't listen, you go to die or hell. Mean you know what I'm saying. Okay, I think the title of the book is so appropriate. Say by choice, that this is a deliberate choice that you have to make. And then, like you said in the book, Christina, being obedient to the word in your practice and how you you move through life.

You know. But yeah, I can't agree. I can't agree with that, baby right, But it sounds like a good a good way to even introduce it to your teenagers, you know. Um, I personally, I feel like kids may be too young to ever understand the power of God or even the power of choice. So trying to explain the principles associated with religion to a five or six year old is going to lead any five or six year old to feel like fear is the only thing

I'm getting here. I remars, looked at me, looked at me confused, like I'm gonna listen to you because your mom right, food, But I still don't know why I'm doing it. Start to traditions and just rituals and just things that you do, It's like, damn, kids just really hit you with stuff as a parent where you're just like, why am I doing this? You know, and then you have to find a way to break it down and you know, make it a lesson. Um, so yeah, I

still learn. It's a learning process for us. No, But I think with Jackson, though he's yeah, I could see him opening up a book, reading a scripture and then saying, how does this apply to my life? For sure? Attend he can definitely do that. That seems like a more mature way to introduce religion. Not that you want to wait till their tend, but we wait for certain ages to talk to our kids about stuff. We talk to our kids about drugs, alcohol, sex, life at a certain age. Yeah.

The level of comprehension always grows as the older. Yeah, so I feel like that pre teenage is a good age. Just start saying, listen, your spirituality, your choice. You have to figure out how are you gonna make that choice, as opposed to pressuring them in here are the tools.

So god Mother, Christina, how appropriate? Jeez, Jackson's god mother, Maybe you can find an age appropriate book for him that we can start to maybe do little devotionals with him, so that way he can just at least be introduced to it to see this is something age appropriate. He can comprehend this homework. You got listen up. I take I take it gladly. But you know what, I also don't want to put the pressure around books, especially the Bible.

Bible can be very over overwhelming, and it's like you can you can pick a chapter and it's talking about death, but then you can pick another chapter just talking about love, and it's just talking about all the good things. So it's it's I feel like it's very hard to kind of just say go into the Bible and and just find your way. I really believe it's going to be through action. It's going to be how how we treat others, and then how we relate that back to God. That's

that's going to be the powerful thing. Because they're looking at us and they they want to be like us at the end of the day. So if we're and we could tell them to do all of these things but then act the complete opposite, which will confuse them as well too. So and so what do you have to say about people who don't go to church? They say, I don't go to church, but I have my own relationship with God and I live a good life and I'm good to people. Can that be true for you

to have a relationship with God and not be in church? Like, is that feasible? And is it? Um? Does that impact your connection? I guess or the strength of your connection. I go to church really for the community aspect of it all. Um, I go to be a part of the body of Christ. Um. You don't have to go to church to be a good Christian. I don't even know what this good Christian title is that. Um. I

feel church is one day a week. I mean, what you go in there and you retain is not going to last you through seven days of just different trials and tribulations that you may go through. So I feel like the churches is it's just a building. It's just a place where we can commune. It's really what you do every day of your life. It's how are you connecting to God and strengthening your relationship? Just as how you guys are married, you work every day to strengthen

your relationship. How are you strengthening your relationship with God every day? Minus the building? The building is just a plot to me. It's just like it's this thing that I can go and congregate and be with other people and be part of the community and be in the body of Christ. But it's it's not the end all be all, too where I need to go there to feel connected to God. One of the men that he used to go to the gym, I was an older man. He was Islamic. That kind of made me really think

about spirituality. He said to me, even about church or going to mosque. He said, he carries his church with him every day and how he presents himself to people. And that was like very interesting to me because he was just like, I could invite you to my church or my mass or my synagogue, but you may or may not come. But when you're in my presence in that moment, you're in the presence of my church and my God, and it's my responsibility to share my church

experience with you every time I come across people. That goes back to what you said, you see in your behavior, your interaction, your interaction, And what he was saying to me was you don't have to try to convert people if you carry God with you all the time. God exists in all of us at all times, and it resonated with me. But he's not Christian, He's Islamic. So to me it was like, wow, why did these words

resonate with me so much? And he does not practice what I grew up practicing, but what he's saying sounds like what I thought church was gonna be. You see what I'm saying. So um as far as taking people to church or going to church, he says he goes when he can, but he doesn't go quote unquote religiously because it hasn't become a tradition. But he carries it and he doesn't mind talking to people or answering questions. I even asked myself, you a pastor like and he's

just like, no, I'm just a man of God. And I was like, man, even the humbleness reminded me of like Jesus, you know, because they said Jesus was amongst the thieves, you know, the thieves and the horses. He was around everyone. He didn't hide in some little mosque with synagogue a church and say come seek me. He was out. So I was like, man, that's it's interesting how much of all these different religions kind of cross paths. And that's what made me feel like God can present

himself to so many things. Oh yeah, and just thinking about different ways that God shows himself or just sends out confirmation. Think about we have a quick story about be going out to your rap dinner. Oh man, that was this moment, Christina, and I've did mean to tell you about it. We and at the wrap dinner for we had an impromptu rap dinner because you know, because

of COVID, there was nothing planned. So a couple of the casts mats that were still here we got together and Pastor John Gray ran into Crystal at the basketball game, so him and his wife came. So we had no plans for you know, anyone or any clergy to be there. The dinner was supposed to go from a dinner downstairs to the cigar bar, which was advocate party all this other stuff. It ended up becoming like a devotion because, uh, John Gray prayed over us and pretty much spoke what

he saw happening for all of us. Right, But that's not even the best part. We were there until about three in the morning. They kept the restaurant open for us. They didn't push us out. It was almost like we were having church in the restaurant. We leave everybody's gone. Our driver was a little bit late. So we're sitting there waiting and a homeless guy walks over to us. And if I was about to leave to go back inside to the bathroom, and I laughed and I was like,

don't leave me. This homeless guy's coming over here, Like, don't leave me. I can't by myself. So first of all, I wasn't going to leave the homeless. She told that story as if I saw the homeless guy coming and I was like, I'm going back. Both of us were still there, But let me get back to my story. Thomas guys coming over to us, and he just walks over to us and he says something told me to

pray over you guys. Yes, completely well spoken, you know, he just seemed like a man that maybe just was on hard times, but it was just like f off. He started the conversation by saying, hey, y'all look nice, and we were just like, oh, thank you. He was just like, yeah, I got kids. I was like yeah, four boys, and he's man, four boys. Wow. Wow. Then he leaves across the street and turns around and comes back and he was like, can I have like another

minute or two of your time? Something told me to pray over y'all and Christina as if we weren't crying inside that restaurant, Like my eyes are literally tearing up thinking about it again. Right, He literally prayed over our lives, our kids. He prayed for protection, protection, and abundance. Abundance, yes,

like God what. So we were blown away by the whole thing because I was prepared to just say, oh, I was gonna give him a couple of dollars or something like that, but he blessed us more then we could have ever blessed him. Then he walked away, and I was like, I don't want to cheap in a moment by giving him something, but I feel like I should. So we called him back and we ended up giving him a gift, and he didn't even really seem that

interested in it, to be honest. He just came back and he's like, oh, thanks, No, we appreciate you, brother. Because if you just know the church we had in there, and then we had the after service out here, I was just like, oh my god, what a night that was. It was almost like further confirmation for us that everything that we were doing, the path that we're on, um the plans that we have to continue to help people around us. It was just that much more confirmation for us.

It was just crazy that moment. And I think that's that's how God shows up, right and and you know, just you saying that story like I have stories on top of stories like that that where God has shown his face like that to me for me not to I can't believe anything otherwise. So that's how that's how it happens for me, and I think for us to get away from the religion of it and look at the relationship aspect of it. You're only going to be in a a relationship with someone that you truly love in

a door. You're not gonna want to be in a relationship with someone that you fear and that it just makes you feel judgmental and just like not your best. So hearing that outpouring that God is finding all of these different channels to talk to you guys and just show you so much love. For me, that's what I connect to to say, that's what I want more of.

I want more of that guy that's going to tell me I'm doing it, and not to say that he doesn't tell me what I'm on the wrong path, but It's never in a judgmental way to tell me like Christina, like you're going to hell. No, it's just like a course correction. Get on, there's grace on that, and like let's let's fix it and let's move forward. But I still love you, and that's what I'm a practice to. And we love you, Christina Saved by choice, a journey

out of religion and into a relationship with Jesus. So where can we find you, Christina? Where can we find the book? Tell everybody all your handles and all that good stuff. Yep. I am on Instagram and Facebook at Christina Price. And the book is available on Amazon. So it's available on paperback, audible which I actually narrated, and book form so I can listen to your voice all a day to be to this audible version too. Well,

thank you so much for your time. We appreciate you, appreciate your story, and we're hoping that someone found a takeaway in this. I know I always do every time we talk, because we have our talks um. But we love you, we appreciate you, and thank you so much for joining us today. All Right, we're gonna take a quick break and get into some ads. And then get into these listeners letters. We'll be right back. All right,

So we're back. We're bad, are going to be They're gonna be a little bit more religious religious or saved because let's need to listen letters to save or not. Yeah, yeah, I'll be wiling. I'll be having these stories. But I love it. Though you want to go first, let me go first. I go. My older sister just got engaged to her bull of five years. I've been more than

happy for them and their union. I'm one of four girls, so when they started dating, I was super excited to have a quote unquote brother in the family and potentially a close relationship. I soon realized that that will not be the case. Drama plot twist um. Although I think he's a great person for her and they make a great team, I do wish he valued having a genuine relationship with myself and my sisters. Another part of this

dynamic is that I live with them. When I graduated from nursing school, they just bought a house and asked me to move in as one of their tenants. I agreed, although my gut told me that it was time for me to have my own space. Living with them has been an extreme reminder that my gut was absolutely right. It has gotten to the point where he does not even reply when being spoken to by myself or by

my other sisters. I've thought about telling my sister, who's engaged to him, and how he lacks respect for his siblings but always asks my always talked yourself out of it. It's sad to say, but I don't think that she would take my feelings about She would think that these oh my god, sorry y'all sling and struggled times this time around sleep deparation is real. Um. It's sad to say, but I don't think that she would think my feelings about this are valid and would find some way to

wholeheartedly defend his actions. Have either of you dealt with conflict with your other spouses siblings? If so, how do you resolve it and how do you wish and do you wish that you were closer to your spouse's siblings. I don't know if we can get much closer to our bosses siblings because we've all been pretty close. But I mean, do you like everything that your siblings or

your spouses siblings do all the time? No, because they're human beings, UM, And there's conversations that I have to have with my siblings that I don't necessarily want to have, and the same thing with you. I'm just being honest though, Like her story is like, you know, I just moved in there and he just stopped talking to me. I'm pretty sure there's that happens. It happening mean that she's not sharing, so it's hard for me to even give her specific advice. I don't know what sparked him not

talking to her. I doubt which could be the case. It could be wrong with someone says, hey, don't you move into be our tenant? So I can't ignore you, But I doubt that that's what happened. I'm pretty sure there were other things, for example, and it's for sisters. It's like I'm pretty sure, I'm pretty sure they know and probably be in their business, and he probably like, I don't got time to be dealing with what your sisters think about our marriage because a lot of times

it happens. That's true, that's true, and maybe he's ignoring her because you need to just The further question can be are you at what capacity are you involved in their marriage? Potentially? UM, you know, what does that look like? Because he really didn't like her, he wouldn't asked her to have been a tenant like they about a house. He could have got a tempted somebody. And sometimes just living with people in close quarters, baby girl, that can

totally make things. Harry, I wish she would have just gave it's a little bit more context. Did you have any kind of you know, not altercations, but any miscommunication and debates and arguments? You you have issues, right Like me and Kay's brother don't always get along. We don't agree on philosophies of life all the time. So what do we do? We sit down and talk about it. We've known each other since I was eighteen, he was fifteen,

so he's like my little brother. So you know, we there's sometimes when we you know, getting the fights and arguments and you do was talk about it and caves like listen, y'all men, Yes, y'all deal with that. The dynamic is different because we're both men. Would be different. But even with Sakari, Sakari and I have had our differences and we've sat down and just talked about our differences. Like I didn't like when you did this I don't

like when you did that. It's like, all right, well, and there's definitely like a level of respect that my sister has for you. So when you do talk to her like brother and sister, I think she listens and she takes into account the way you feel or what you may be saying. Um, so yeah, we need more context. Is but they've been together for five years. It's a little bit different with us. We've been together for almost

twenty years. So I've watched your brother. It's just to actually grow up into be people like Kari with seven when I came wrong. So at this point, the vast majority for life she's known me. You know, five years in the course of a relationship or life is really not that long. It seems long because I go a half a decade, but when you think about how long life is, five years is not that long, right. And I am just not a proponent for being uncomfortable in

your living space. So if that's not working out for you, maybe you need to move and go and find your own space, you know what I'm saying. You know, you may be helping them out by being a tendant, so it's helping with that, but nothing's really holding you there. I think that's the best, to be honest, I really do think that's the best. Sometimes that space is needed to then salvage because your brother lived with us, and he used to get on your nerves more than he

got on my nerves. But I guess that's also us being men. You know, we have our own way of doing things that could sue. Yeah, but you know, cleaning after man and whatnot. I'm like you, sometimes space, sometimes space is the best thing for a relationship. You know, they're they're not intimate partners. You know. First of all, a tenant landlord relationship can be contentious for any two paper strangers. Yeah, let alone be your sister in law or your brother in law. So that's a tough one.

So I think I think maybe you should get your own space and maybe trying to have that conversation. Just sit down and have an open, honest conversation maybe with him. If he does not want to talk to you by himself, talk to your sister about it and talk to him. But um, your your feelings are valid. There's one thing Kadina and I talked about yesterday. No one can tell you the way you feel is not valid. If someone has done something to you to make you feel a

way you didn't ask to feel this way. You feel this way, so talk about it. Talk about now. Why you feel this way may have little to do with that person. It could be some other triggers or some past trauma, but the fact that you feel that way, he's always valid. So never let anyone tell you that you're not valid for feeling that way. And one more thing,

the relationship you have with your sister. If y'all are closed, you should be able to have that conversation with your sister without necessarily her just running to his defense, especially if your argument is valid. So let's hope that she's of level mind to see both sides and you guys take it from there. So good luck to you on that one. Number two, Hey, Condinian DeVoe, My boyfriend and I have been together for almost four years. We just

started doing long distance. That's tough. He just graduated undergrad and I'm now and it's now a chiropractor is now in chiropractic school, while I'm still finishing my undergraduate degree. Up until last month, we would call every night or every other night and text occasionally. He should surprise me with weekend trips down here, and if I didn't have games, I would visit him as well. Recently, he started flaking on promises when coming to visit me and has now

asked for some space. He says he still wants to be with me and doesn't see himself on anyone else, but he just wants to be able to focus on school in his job. Part of me believes him and wants to be supportive, supportive of his asking for space, while the other part of me is crumbling, thinking he's just going to leave. I don't know what to do. Yeah, So it's like you, you already got distance, but now you want more space on the distance. Yeah, you're talking

about red flags? That sound like it? Do sound like a red flag? Listen? That sound like a red flag. I ain't even gonna lie to you, Okay, I ain't gonna lie to you. If someone is far away asking for space, that's like the prequel to a breakup? Am I wrong for that? How you far away asking for space?

So you can't we can't call text FaceTime regularly? I mean, baby girl, I think he's either I'm not trying to judge, found somebody else, or Yeah, ex options or he isn't like the fact that you already have space and it's making him uncomfortable, so he has to find something that works for him. I honestly feel like that's what it is. I wouldn't you know, don't you gotta listen to us? But I would say be directed asking him, Hey, what's going on here? We already have distance? How could you

want more space from distance? You know what I'm saying. That's the part that has me a little ah ker plunked, flabberga, flabber gaid. Yeah, because I know, like, for example, when we did the long distance thing that every other week seven Yes, he was in Detroit. I was in New York, and any chance I got to be able to be in Detroit, I was there. And there was no FaceTime. So we was on the phone every day every day. There was no maybe something every end of the day,

every day. And if I didn't get that phone call from her when I got out of practice at six thirty, if my phone didn't ring, or I didn't have a mis call or a text from her, I was like, yo, yo, yo, at what's happening here? What he used to also made me do is like, Yo, I want to see you, want to see you? I'm like, how can you see me? I used to have my little actual digital camera to

take pictures on my camera. Then I used to have to put the memory card in my laptop, upload the photos to my laptop, then attached them joints in an email and email his ass pictures in me. So I got like a whole bunch of pennies. And Lord, don't have to scrub our devices because the ship floating around the abyss that facts. You know, you had a bunch of boudoir shoots like every day while I was practicing, while he was at practice. But I had to do what I had to do because that's what he was

asking for, and we missed each other. Like so that distance with additional distance, that sounds like a flag. Baby. All y'all, if you want to be featured as a listener letter, be sure to email us. Don't be damning us, don't be putting in the comments. Email us at dead as Advice at gmail dot com. That's d E A d A d v I c E at gmail dot com. All right, time for the moment the truth you want?

First moment of truth? Um, I think based on our conversation, because sometimes a listener letters get me all out of what we were talking about. UM, but the task in hand, going back to our conversation with Christina and UM, the means saved by choice and her whole journey. UM, it just further lets me know that I sometimes look for reasons to talk myself out of getting in the Bible or finding my relationship and or deeper connection with God.

But I feel like He sends me messages and people just throughout life that I need to be more in tune with and instead of me searching for something more tangible, realizing that He may be sending me those messages through people and through instances and through circumstances where in that sense, I need to be more obedient in that moment and build a stronger relationship with him, if that makes sense,

Because that's something that I noticed that I do. UM, that I have the resources and I have those moments where I'm like from and it's not even running from them, but it's more so investing the time to do that because then I feel like I can be a greater resource to my family and to my children if I do strengthen my own connection God. Absolutely, that's my moment of truth. That's a good one. You know what I

got today? Two is that you don't do story time because if you did story time, you would add homeless people chasing after us and I would be running away. This is what yo. I'm I am a grown protective man. Husband. You've got people here thinking that. So this homeless guy and he was gonna go back his side and I was like, don't leave me. I was giving detail, and I think everyone who knows us knows that that is not something that you would ever do. I saw the

homeless guy before you did. Definitely fair to say fair to say so just to let you'all know when your wife tells the stories you're gonna have you look in a loof out here like you in streets. Now, let me get to my moment of truth. But my moment of truth is about this homeless man. It is about the older gentleman at work at the gym. I don't

know why. His name is oh Raphael Raf. Yes, yes, yes, m church is a building, but you carry your church with you, or your mosque with you, or your syning God with you, and how you approach people every single day and you have a responsibility as a man or woman of God to continuously represent what your religious beliefs

mean to you and how you interact with people. That's the best way to be an event angelist is to just live and exist in that space continuously and hold yourself accountable with how you treat people, because how you treat people will reflect on your beliefs and your spirituality.

I love that because that circles back to my moment of truth, where if you are encountering people like a Raphael or like a Christina on a day to day basis, that may be the message that you need that God sending you absolutely absolutely seeking, absolutely seek me right now, absolutely by now, and be sure to follow us guys on social media. The podcast page, of course is dead Ass the podcast on Instagram and you can find me

Cadina I Am and I Am devouting. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, be sure to rate, review and subscribe as ya as. Dead Ass is a production of I Heart Media podcast network and is produced by Dinorapinia and Triple Follow the podcast on social media at dead As to podcasts and never is a Thing