Hello and welcome to another episode of Upfront and Undivided with Luke and Dean'na. Hi. Hey babe. How's it going? It's good. I have an almond in my tooth. Uh oh. It's okay. I'm sucking on a cough drop. I was eating a Hershey kiss with almonds before we started and you were like, you want to dump them all out? Nope. I want to make a lot of noise and now like I literally have an almond stuck in my tooth. It's fine. It's fine. Hi. Hi. How are we?
And see, I'm thinking back to there was one episode where I was doing that, where I was trying to like get something out of my tooth and it like distracted you. You're like, what is wrong? And I'm like, I've got something in my tooth. Yeah, something in my tooth. I'm fine. And I was also looking up a scripture at the same time while you were recording and I'm like, okay, like I'm trying to multitask and stay focused and pay attention and be like, hi, here we are. How are we? We're good.
We are good. Sort of. There's there's there was a wave of, of ick that went through our home. A wave of ick sickness. There was also a wave of heartbreak. I'll just, I'll, I'll go ahead and, um, uh, we, dang it. I laugh because I have trouble processing my emotions in a healthy way. I know. Um, so yeah, so it started off with me being sick, uh, Tuesday. So Gabrie and I went on a campus walk, which was great. So, um, to check out a college that we think that we might be doing.
So you guys be in prayer with us. Um, she's got some steps that she gets to go through. Um, and she's ready. She's ready. So her head space is kind of where she's at and which is good. Um, it's a beautiful place when you start walking and just trusting God in a new space, right?
Like even in the midst of the hard, when you can trust him and say, I know the, I know the plans you have for me, God, they're, they're depressed for me and they're for good and not to, to help me succeed and not to harm me and all of the things. Right. So that helps. But then we noticed that I was starting to slowly not feel good to the point where I almost had a one Oh three temperature and, um, kept dealing with that off and on, off and on.
So we loved on me, got me better sort of, I mean, we're still dealing with the lingering. Um, and then, uh, we had the parade, uh, yay, cause the chiefs won and, um, those people, um, nationwide, even worldwide, probably there's a good chance that a lot of people understand or maybe saw on the news. Um, we had a tragedy. It was global. Yeah. Um, that, uh, we, unfortunately, um, some people got injured.
Um, one person lost their life and our beautiful girl and a couple of her friends were down there. And so, um, unscathed, unharmed, but she was within a block away. And um, we are grateful for the Holy spirit. We're grateful for God's protection and we're grateful that we've taught our girl to put her head on a swivel and to be very vigilant, very, um, uh, uh, what do we want to say? Listening to that still small, that's it. That's it.
Because like the urgings, the nudgings, because they talked about going closer in and where they ended up staying, um, for the parade actually was probably the absolute best place for them to be. So, um, so we dealt with that and then, uh, we slowly watched have been watching our sweet, um, fur baby this past couple of weeks now she's been throwing up and she wasn't, um, she wasn't able to keep anything down.
Yeah. And she's 18, almost 19. And so you and I took her Friday and, uh, they did all the tests, all the things, basically long story short, her little kidneys. And liver. We said our final goodbye. Yeah. Yep. But not final goodbye. Well, final goodbye. Yeah. Cause we'll get to see her again. We'll get to see her again.
Cause we, we are in this, in the space that God loves animals and he overcame death, like period, like death, not just death in people, but death in, in just every good thing that he has created. Right. And so, um, before, uh, before we let her go, I, I whispered to God that I want her back. Yes. I want this to be one of those gifts that he gives me. I don't want to crown of anything. Um, I just want my puppy.
And so, uh, you, you built her the sweetest little box and, um, Sebastian had the idea to put all of our thumb prints on the box and our sweet Sarah came over and gave us little footprints for to do with her. And then, um, we buried her in her backyard. So, but it's, so it was a somber. Yes. And on top of that, I got sick. You got sick. Sebastian got sick. Sebastian got like wicked high fever sick. Uh, and then Gabriel just going through the grieving and the product.
And that was what was beautiful too, that, um, we don't, we don't like that any of this happened, but I think the beautiful thing is, is God knows what we need when we need it. I mean, I, I actually, I mean, I believe that with everything in me and even though he's not the one that creates the heartache and the tragedy, he does use it to bring forth healing. He, nothing goes wasted with him.
And so our sweet girl was having a hard time even processing Wednesday and the emotions and in the fields. And so when Friday, um, we brought ginger back home to us, um, I had her wrapped in her blanket and I brought her to Gabriel and, and then the flood works and then same with Sebastian. And I think it opened up all of the places that needed to open so that way the grieving could come because that's a natural thing. And placed that inside of us for a reason.
And we are a family that, um, I will say for me, we're not afraid to cry. We're not afraid of emotion, whether we do it or not is one thing. But the fact is that, um, if you are someone that, that cries in front of us, we will hold you. We don't make fun of you. We don't call you weak. Um, we, we say it is part of the life. It's part of the process. It's what we do. And, um, God gave them to us, gave us those emotions and we're going to use them properly. So that has been our last week.
So, um, but it's been good. It's been good. And then today, um, we've just been cleaning and just kind of moving things around and picking some of her stuff up and putting it where it needs to be and figuring out what to hold onto, what to let go of that in itself as a process. That's probably a podcast in itself. Um, and, uh, so it's, yeah, it's just, it's been a lot, but it's been good because like God's very much here. Yeah. He's, he's in the space with us and, and we rejoice in that.
So, um, so yeah. Yeah. So I'm gonna go blow my nose while you tell people what we're going to talk about.
Okay. So, um, to kind of follow up from last, uh, episode, because last episode was extreme dating and we talked about, uh, expectations, boundaries and all of that because you know, but what we do, especially as parents will trickle down to our kids or will trickle down to, um, you know, the, the generations and stuff that are behind us, you know, because, um, you know, cause we, we had a season where we had a couple of young, uh, ladies live with us.
Um, and it was, it was kind of cool because it was like, they were 20 years younger than us and then 10 years older than Gabri. And it was, you know, you, you looked at them both square in the eye and said, whatever you do, know that Gabri is watching. Know that, know that she is going to catch, catch whatever you're, you're bringing. Yes. Um, whether you think she's looking or not. Cause it was, um, it was a vision of a stream.
Um, I want to say my old, one of my oldest brothers actually had had, I wanted to say it was Bobby. This sounds like something that Bobby would say. So I'm going to give my brother credit, but, um, I, I have brothers, uh, it's funny. I don't, it's like, all of a sudden I was like, do people even know this part of our, our lives? So, um, I have brothers.
I've got, uh, I've got sisters too, but like, as we always say that they're from separate litters and, um, so I have, uh, two brothers, uh, the three of us are from the same parents. Let me say it that way. So the oldest of the three of us, um, he's seven years older than me. And then the next one is six. And so, um, anything that they did little sister wanted to do, right? Like it's kind of a, I, they're, they're my idols. I look up to them. I still kind of do. I mean, you watch it.
It's like, I absolutely adore my brothers. They're really, they're good people. I'm really blessed. And so, um, I remember my, I want to say my brother said, uh, if I am upstream and I'm peeing, I mean, actually even pooping, I think that's he went that, that extreme. Like if I'm using the restroom in the stream and my children are downstream and they're drinking from that stream, it's going to make them sick.
And he says, so whatever it is that you do upstream, even if you think it, it's not affecting anybody, or you're, oh, well, this is far enough of a way or it's enough of a distance. Nobody's going to notice. Um, it will, people will notice, um, it will affect them. Um, the word of God even says, you know, the sins of the father will fall onto the sin art will fall onto the children. Right. And it's like, um, but also in, in that regard, so will the blessings.
If, if you are somebody that walks, tries to do your best to walk in the righteousness of God, to try to, um, love your neighbor as yourself, to do good, right. To, to be that example. Like we were telling Gabri talking to her just the other day, um, Gabri, our goal in life is that you and your brother are good humans, that you love God, you love people, that you are kind, that you're merciful, that you're that right.
And if, if you do nothing else in this world, except that you're kind and that you love God, you love people, we have succeeded as parents. And um, that takes an example. Like that takes an example. And so, um, what we, we told the girls what you do, even if you think it's in secret, the fact is that the spirit realm, the principalities and the powers of the air, the strongholds, the things that the spiritual warfare that's out there, whether you believe it or not, it's there.
The spirit realm is, is actually the thing that affects the physical realm. It's not the other way around. We might be praying and pulling down those strongholds, but ultimately those things are the things that are manipulating the things of the flesh. And if you allow sin into the camp, it will affect the whole bunch. Yeah. And so with keeping that in mind and between last week's or last episode and the idea that, you know, anything that we do gets passed on.
Yeah. You know, it's, it gets observed. You know, they, they always say, you know, like your kids will always, you know, it's, it's, they're going to do what you do. It's more caught than taught. It really is. And so there was something that was said to us once, one time we were telling our story and this has happened a couple of times, but what we wanted to talk about today is other options. Other options.
There are other options, you know, because one time we were telling our story to somebody, to a young gentleman and we were talking about how, you know, we didn't, we didn't even kiss until we got married and he looked at us almost dumbfounded, but kind of almost like shocking off of, I didn't even know that was an option. And that's literally what came out of his mouth. Yeah. I didn't even know that was an option.
Yeah. And so I, we want to talk about kind of, we kind of want to talk about that today that there are other options, you know, that just because you haven't done it before in your lifetime or just because it hasn't been, it wasn't an example in your family or, you know, whatever or even in your friends groups, you know, it's, there are always other options, you know, and you can always look at, you can always look at the word of God.
You can always go pray and say, you know, God, how do you want me to do this? And you know, and keep in mind, sometimes he's, sometimes he might not say anything. Yeah. Sometimes he might say something that seems random, you know, but it's just, you know, keep in mind that there are other options. It's like, I keep harping on that. It's like, I, cause I think in my mind, it's like, I really want that to come across that, you know, because I mean, I know we were talking about this earlier.
And you know, you were kind of like, you were joking with me, you know, like, well, you probably didn't know that was an option. And I'm like, no, I knew it was an option. I just didn't want to try it. Yeah. No, absolutely. And my joke was, you know, I know Tofurkey is out there, but I don't want to try it. Right. Right. So, so, but when you said it, I was like, you know, I've never tried that before.
Yeah. You know, I mean, prior to me coming to the church that we go to, I had never been to a church like that before. Right. I had seen jokes about it in movies. Sure. But I didn't know churches like this actually existed in, in real life. Yeah. And it wasn't a farce and it's not something that's like, like, it wasn't a show, right? You know, that's good. No, I like it.
Yeah. Yeah. You know, because when I, when I came to this church and when I actually encountered God, I was like, I'm not going to believe it. Yeah. You know, I found, I found Christianity and people, pastors that were authentic. Yeah. You know, maybe not always transparent. Yeah. But they're authentic. And they, you know, they basically looked at the Bible and said, this is what the Bible says. Yeah. This is what it meant when it was written. Right. And that's how it can apply to our lives.
And it's like, that was, it was, it was simple. It was brilliant. It was, it was hard hitting. Yeah. And again, you know, I've, we've seen it before and we've, we've, we've seen it, we've, we've talked about it, but it's so often it's like, when you encounter God, that encounter makes you want to change. That part. Yeah. That part. And it's like, you know, you can sit here and say, I want to, I want to do better. I want to, I want to change. I want to change who I am. I want to change what I do.
Yeah. But it's like, if you don't have that encounter, if you don't have that experience, if you don't have that, the shaking of your foundation, nothing's, nothing is going to change. Right. I even think about like relationships, because as you're talking, you know, how somebody says, okay, the negative, well, I can change him. Yes. Right.
But then you also see, I'm going to say the positives when you encounter something that is genuine, when you encounter something that you go, wow, that actually I desire, that makes me better. Like, like there's joy there, there's peace there, there's goodness there, even in a relationship, like Valentine's, we just celebrated Valentine's Day last week. Right. And so the, the little meme that I, I sent you, and it was, he doesn't realize that he's healing something that he didn't even hurt.
Right. And it's like, when you encounter the goodness, not just of God, but the goodness of God in people, that starts, that starts bringing hope, that starts, that, that provokes change, that provokes something inside you that says, like somebody will say, well, I just want to be better when I'm around this person, because all of a sudden there's the option, oh, I actually can be.
And I think there's also a point where you see the changes that have happened in that other person and you say, I don't want to damage that. Correct. You know, I don't, I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to cause them to stumble. Exactly. I don't want to be the reason that they've all of a sudden like deterred from this path. You know, I mean, you and I, we've seen it in relationships, you know, all our lives. I mean, we did it with ourselves too.
We said, God restored you and I so much to the point where neither one of us wanted to do something that was going to cause the other one to stumble. Yeah. But no, I was, I was talking about, we've seen it throughout our lives. Oh gosh. The whole, oh yeah. Oh gosh. Yeah. It's been done to us and we've done it.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it's, but it is, it's, it's when you see that, when you encounter that, when you know that when you change, all of a sudden it's like, there's, there's these, it's, it's almost like not to be cheesy, but it's almost like you feel like a superhero. You do. I can do cool things. Yeah. Sincerely. Watch me do cool things. Yeah. And it's like, go, go do.
And you know, and it's just, it is, it's, and sometimes it's, it's the simplest of things that you don't realize are going to make an impact. Correct. But sometimes those small things end up being one of the biggest decisions in your life. Yeah. You know, again, you and I sitting down at a Barnes and Noble Starbucks cafe and you know, talking about life, talking about what we would like to see in a relationship or not see in a relationship.
And you know, you saying that, you know, you saying the next time somebody kisses me is going to be when the pastor says, you may not kiss your bride. Yeah. And me being taken aback because I had never heard that before. I mean, I had heard it before because, you know, growing up and you know, everybody talked about abstinence, but it was like, but it, we were always taught abstinence was just no sex.
And you and I talked about a little bit about this today after the gym, like, you know, that thing where you say, oh, well I, me and my first husband, we didn't have sex before we got married, but we did do other things. And it's like, how far can you push that envelope? You know, like, oh, well, is this really considered sex or is this, you know, or, you know, all of the, all of the things.
And I've, I've, I've met people that, you know, they, they, they will jump through so many hoops to convince themselves that they didn't do anything. And that just, and that just breaks your heart, doesn't it? It does. I mean, it's funny. It's, it's funny at the time, but it, it, it does. It's heartbreaking now.
Yeah. Cause it's like one of the things, like I brought up a scripture, but this is kind of, and I might be bouncing around just a little bit, but so yesterday when we were talking as we just, we spent, we, we took the day to heal again, our whole family's getting past being sick and just, just mourning and grieving. And so we took time as a family.
And one of the things that we talked about was when, when we try, like you're talking about the other options, when we try to force an option, when we try to force something like, well, this is God or this is what, you know what I mean? Or well, this is God, this is what I want. So I'm going to manipulate this into a space. Right? Yeah. And one of the pretty sure we've talked about manipulation, manipulating God at least once or twice. I think so. Yeah. But it's definitely bears repeating.
But one of the things was the scripture was Psalm 16. And I'm going to start at nine and I think it just goes to 11, but verse 11 is, is really what kind of hit me, but I'll start at nine. It says, therefore my heart is glad in my glory. My innermost self rejoices. My body too will dwell confidently in safety for you will not abandon me to the netherworld, the place of dead, nor will you allow your Holy one to undergo decay. And this is the scripture.
You will show me the path of life in your presence is fullness of joy in your right hand. There are pleasures forevermore. And it's like when we, when we try to go outside of God's hand or when we try to push his hand, let me say it that way. Right? Like he's, you and I've said it before, like sometimes we think, well, God, you didn't hear me. No, you heard him. He just said no. And you didn't want to hear that. Or even he says, not right now. And you didn't want to hear that.
You wanted what you want when you wanted it. And when we were talking to our daughter and, you know, we were discussing all of this, I said this, this, this one little phrase kind of hit me. And it says, what if just not being able to walk in full joy is the natural consequence of not going, giving God complete permission to be Lord of your life. Yeah. Because too many times we see people say, well, you know, well, we had sex before we got married and you know, we're fine. We're married now.
And it's like, yeah, but are you walking in the fullness of joy or is there still the enemy unless God has healed you? Cause we do have friends that have gone that route that God has completely healed and just delivered and, and, and they are solid. Right? We know that God can heal you in that space.
We also would want to say, we also know others that haven't been healed in that space that they, they so decided that they were going to outrun the, the con, the boundaries, but you know, the, the, Hey, this is, you're supposed to do it this way. X, Y, Z again, in the word of God, there are certain things that he says do it a certain way. So if you try to out go, and I'm not even going to say like even sex or even relationship, just, just life.
But it's, it's, it's kind of like you said last episode, you know, if you have to go outside of God to get what you want, then you're going to have to stay outside of God to keep what you want.
Yeah. You know, and it's, it's also kind of like, I know I've, I've used, I've, I've used this example before, it's like, even if you're doing something that is, you know, good for the kingdom, you know, if that's not where God wants you, it's not always going to be a struggle, but there's going to be struggle. There's going to be more struggle than if you just did what God wanted you to do.
You know, if you're like, well, I feel like I'm really called to, you know, preach to the people on the streets and, and, and clean up the homeless and stuff like that. And it's like, well, no, God's calling you over here to this like background role, but you're like, but I'm, I'm bigger than that. I've got more education than that. Right. I've got, I've got more followers on social media. I need to be out there, you know, but it, it's, but that's not where God's calling you. Right.
It's not the path that God wants you to take. Right. You know, and again, even if we trip up, you know, God, God can forgive it. Absolutely. I love, I love using the example of David because how many times did King David mess up, like massively mess up, but he always realized it and went to God, got on his face and said, God, I'm a bonehead. Yeah. Please forgive me. Yeah. You know, even that time where it's like, you know, what was it? He wanted to prove his strength.
So he's like, I'm going to count my warriors. Yeah. And the, the men of God, the prophets were like, don't do it. God doesn't want you to do that. He's like, no, no, I need to know my strength. Okay, fine. Go for it. Yeah. Okay. And, and he did it and God was okay. You done messed up again. Yep. Yeah, I did. I'm sorry. And God's like, okay, I can take it out on all the people. I can take it out on your armies or I can take it out on you. Take it out on me. He's like, take it out on me.
Yeah. Take it out on me, God. Yeah. And you can get blessed by that. Yeah. You know, you can, you can always, you can always, always, always go back to God and say, I messed up. I want to do better. Yeah. I want to do better in you, for you, with you. Yeah. You know, I mean, again, I love our example of Patty and Stuart. Yeah. They had really messed up. Yeah. You know? Yeah. And, and they proved that with God, nothing is too late. That's right. There nothing is too far gone. That's right.
That's right. God can't fix it and repair it. Absolutely. And bring it back to flourishing, flourishing life. Absolutely. Absolutely. And you will also hear though in them where they will say the time that we wasted, the time that we could have used, right? Like, and then it's back to don't let the enemy take you there. Don't, don't let the enemy take you there. Like here's our, here's our, what's wrong? Oh, I'm thinking about that time that Patty came to you. Oh baby. Yeah. That was, yeah.
And she, she came up to you and said, I have too much blood on my hands. So God still use me. No, she said, okay, let me give you a quick backstory. So Patty and Stuart have some of the most amazing children on the planet. Yeah. And her, their little guy who is not so little anymore. He's married has his own little guy now. He was doing, anyway, he had some sort of something, an outreach thing that he was doing and we came to support and we were all excited for him.
And I was like, this is fantastic. And I'm kind of giving her accolades like, man, look, look, look what you did, mama. Like you, this is because of who you are and, and you raising your son up into a space again in the midst of Stuart and Patty's mess because they turned full circle and repented and said, okay, God, you deal with us and you rebuild, right? Rebuild, rebuild the ruins and make us better, make us, make us the original intent. And their children see this. They've known this.
They understand it. And it's beautiful what God can even do in the midst of that because our children see our mess. We come to them, apologize, repent, make things better, right? And then they learn from that to where they don't have to maybe make as hard of a mistake. So I'm saying this to her and I'm looking at her and she says, there's too much blood on my hands. God can't use me anymore. So I've got to raise up the next generation. And I said, who lied to you? That's right. Who lied to you?
Because that's not who my God is. Because if that was the case, then none of us, not one of us should be doing anything for the kingdom of God. Not one of us should be allowed into the throne room of grace. Not one of us. It's because of Jesus that any of us are able to do anything. It has nothing to do with our works. We show our faith with the works. It's not, we're not trying to earn it.
And so it's like, and then since then with God healing that, she's now written a book, Mamastry and ministered to hundreds of women and then loving on couples and families and even children and people and bringing people into their home. But it's like, if we allow the enemy to shortchange us, even in the midst of the mess, right? That's why when we look at our girl and we keep telling all of you guys, there's other options.
Just because you got knocked off track or just because you might've messed up or just because maybe even the route that you are going, man, like I'm following God, but you can, Luke, Deena, I'm following God. Like I, what's going on? I don't see any fruit. Stick with the plan, man. Like stick with the plan, follow the Holy spirit. But why are you doing it? Like check your heart.
If all of a sudden you start getting, you know, like you start becoming weary and well-doing, if you start getting grumbly and start complaining a little bit, like we say this with our girl, we say this with ourselves, right? Like, okay, God, I have a really pukey attitude right now. Okay. Why? Find your why? Why are you doing what you're doing? Are you doing it because you trust God? Or are you doing it because you're trying to get something out of God? See there's two different things there.
Like you want to obey God. Yeah. Sebastian and Gabriel, they want to obey their parents because it's right. And you get, you get promised long life. Okay, we get there. There's blessings in that, but you also want to do it because you want to do it. Yeah. There's, there's something that eventually has to switch over that you say, I'm not doing this out of a religious obligation. I'm doing this because I have a relationship with the King of Kings.
Yeah. And again, there's, there's those times where it's also, you know, it's, it's like, if you don't hear that answer when you're seeking his, his guidance and his answers, you know, it's always fall back and remember what the last tasking was. Yes. Yes. It's like, you know, if he told you to march east, keep going, keep going east until you accomplish what you needed to accomplish or until he says, okay, now turn north. Okay. So this is what I heard.
Stop asking other people on the journey, their opinion. It says your journey, not theirs. True. Like, I mean, there's wise counsel, right? We understand that your spouse, things of that nature, we get that to a point, but to a point, ultimately you've got to work out your own salvation here. You got to work this out with you and God. Yeah. So my salvation, my walk, I, yes, does it absolutely affect you? Yep. Babe, it does. But ultimately you're not, it's not dependent on you.
You are not in my head. You are not, you are not my savior. You're not my, you're not my Holy spirit. Can you be used by the Holy spirit? Can you help lead me into a certain space? Can you speak into that noise and cause peace to come? Absolutely. That's what we're supposed to be as the people of God. But if you sit here and you're spewing opinion, or if you're surrounded by people that have certain opinions, well, I should have been married by now. Well, I should already have children by now.
Well, I should already be this far along in my education by now. I'm kind of far, far behind the curve or should own a house by now. You know, I, I, I should, I should have my first, however many millions. I should already stop it. Shut up. Says who says who? Because even if you, even if you had to detour, man, I lost a lot of time. I probably shoulda, coulda, woulda. Okay. But where is that going to get you? Nowhere. Okay, father, here we are today. You can restore time.
You can restore the things, but I also know that there's natural consequences to some of my disobedience. And so I'm willing to take responsibility for my bonehead. And I'm speaking out of my experiences. There's a lot of opportunities that I've lost along the way that I've missed that I know. But the fullness of joy that God restores back when you finally just, and all you have to do is an about face, father, I trust you. Because again, I'm, I'm going to, I'm going to point back to the Bible.
Yes. You know, Moses, Moses killed a man. Seriously. Yep. God said, okay, you got to wait now. Yep. Yeah. Natural consequence. You know? Yep. And it didn't change who Moses was going to become. Yeah. But it just delayed it a little bit. Yeah. You know? And you know, I do, I think back to, you know, kind of what you were saying with, with Patty, how, you know, how they were talking, Patty and Stuart were talking about how they, they wasted so much time. And it's like, I don't think you did.
No. You know, because, because they, they, the fact that they were able to come back stronger and it's almost like now they're almost like better equipped. Oh man. They're so fun to watch. They really are. You know, and that's- They're some of my favorite people. And that's kind of what I'm, I, I, I mean, that's, that's kind of the meat and potatoes of what I wanted to talk about today was, you know, just because it doesn't look right or, or it doesn't look what you think is right. Right.
You know? And, and even if you think that you've lost time or wasted time or, or got delayed some way. Yeah. Sometimes that can make you stronger. I agree. You know, sometimes that can make you even more prepared for what's coming up. You know, all of a- Who says that's not part of your journey? Yeah. I mean, in my mind, all of a sudden I was thinking about a, a, like a boxer or somebody getting ready for a fight.
Yeah. And all of a sudden they're like, oh, that, you know, the, the other guy got injured or something went wrong with the promotion, with the, the, the venue fights been delayed six months. Yeah. And you could look at, oh my gosh, I'm going to miss out on a payday or I'm going to miss this. I'm going to miss that or whatever. Or you can sit there and say, okay, that's now six more months. I get to prepare. Yep. Yep. To be better. Yep. Yep. No, that's good. I like that.
Yeah. I think we need to not think of these things in such a negative space, right? Like just in a negative space. Yeah. It's more of, I, I kind of like, like part of, I know that you didn't want to really want to talk about it, but I'm, I think it's kind of equitable. What am I saying? Applicable. Yeah. Applicable. There it is. Found it. Yay. I'm getting there.
But like, so with the parade and you meet and then the tragedy after, and then people going, you know, well, are you going to let your daughter go anywhere and do anything like that again? And it's like, well, of course, like Holy Spirit's inside of her. If the Holy Spirit says you don't go, you don't go. Yeah. If the Holy Spirit says you go be the light of the world and let your shadow heal people and change the atmosphere. So that way maybe the tragedies don't happen.
Then that's what you go do. Yeah. But you, you, you become the, you become the other option. Yeah. You become the other option. You show that there is a better way. You show that God is very much on the throne and that he can do whatever he wants to, however he wants to, when he wants to. That you know, even in the midst of death, right? Like our sweet ginger, she's not with us anymore. Okay, father.
But at the same time, it's like, all right, father, what is, I don't know about you, but the last two days I've been walking around the house going, what is the next step? What would you like to do now? Because you bring forth life out in the midst of death. You open up and you, you heal in the midst of hurt. You even in the, even in the hurt, it creates a deeper compassion. It creates, it creates, um, it knits our hearts tighter.
The four of us, it's our houses felt good, even though it's been heavy, right? Like it's, it's opened up conversations to where we're able to just talk in spaces and, and show each other how to process things properly. I'm disappointed right now. Well, I'm really mad at this situation. I don't like how this is going down. Okay. But how would you like to do this? God, you know, constantly going back to our source. What is, what is your source? You know, it's Jesus.
How is he telling you to do this? Whether it's a relationship, whether it's finances, whether it's your, your children, your job, just even what is, what's the next thing that I need to do around the bend? What do you want to do? There's options. There's there's more than there's, there's no way outside of Jesus that he's the only option, but we're talking about when it comes to the kingdom and who he is and how he wants to take you on a journey.
A lot of times it's just, it's uniquely between you and him.
Yeah. And a lot of times if you're, if you're having, if you feel kind of like you're at a road block and, you know, and, and maybe you aren't either understanding what, you know, you're hearing in prayer or you're not sure how to take that step, you know, find, find a mentor, find somebody that is, I don't want to say excelling, but find somebody that's kind of in a position or a place where you want to get to, you know, or, you know, they're doing
better, you know, they're, they're doing the things that you want to do. So go tap their brain. You know, again, I, I think I said it on, on one of my recent podcasts with the guys is, you know, they, they always say that if, if you're, if you're, if your friend group is like five entrepreneurs, you're going to be the sixth. If your friend group is five gym rats, you're going to be the sixth. You know, you will emulate the group that you surround yourself with. Right. So that's it.
Surround yourself with people that are going to even help you excel. That will push you, that will keep you accountable. I mean, it feels like we're going back into that again, but it's true. It's true. It's everything is so intertwined and interlinked that it's like, you know, what are you even saying to yourself? Like, well, I, I've never seen it done, so it can't be done. Well, if the Holy spirit's leading you to do something, then he's going to help you accomplish it. Follow his lead.
You know, if he's telling you to break it off with somebody, you break it off with him. If he tells you to go after that position, you go after that position. You know, God, I'm not qualified. I don't, I don't feel qualified. That's not what I told you. I told you, go do it. I didn't ask if you were qualified. I just said, go do it. And then God will give you favor. He gives you favor.
Like even in our beautiful girl here, you know, she's got to write a paper to even be, you know, considered for this program that she's wanting to go for. Right? Like, well, mom, what do I do? How do I, how do I make myself rise above everybody else? And it's like, you talk about you, you say the beautiful, amazing qualities that God has placed inside of you and then you watch the hand of God, the favor of God. And if this is supposed to be yours, it will happen.
But if it's not, you definitely do not want to try to manipulate and push something and push yourself somewhere. You don't belong because what it's going to do is it's going to cause harm. It's going to cause exhaustion. It's and you're not going to have the fullness, the fullness of joy. The peace that goes beyond the understanding.
There will always be that thing inside you that says, well, I had to scratch and scrounge and manipulate to make this happen instead of walking, trusting, believing and praying and knowing that God was very much in the midst. That's right. So with all that being said, you know, seek out the other, seek out the other options, you know, seek out the alternative, the alternative way of doing things.
You know, again, if, if it's always, if you've always done X and it's always turned into Y maybe try not doing X. Yeah. If you're not a fan of Y. Yeah. So you know, seek God and say, I want to make this better. I want to change. Yeah. I want to change the outcome. How can I do this? And you might be the denominator that needs to change. Yeah. It might be something inside of you that he's wanting to improve.
Something that he's saying, this was not the original intent of even who your personality. Well, God, that's not my personality. That's not even who I am. Yeah. No, you're right. That's not who you are at all. The world has so morphed you into something or you have, you have tried to people please, or you've tried to, I'm going to keep up with the Joneses or you've, you've tried to be something that you're not, that you can't even recognize yourself anymore. And God's like, I loved you so much.
I want the original intent of who you are back so you can walk in joy and peace and the goodness of me and have abundant life, not just survival mode. That's right. It's good. Yes, it is. Anything else? That's it. We are going to have a better week. Yes, we will. We're going to feel better. Yes. What is it? Sorrow may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Yeah. Have the best week guys. Enjoy the journey.