Episode 10 – Interruptions Can Be Divine

Welcome to Marriage Mixed with Spencer and Shirley.

Marriage Mixed is a resource that opens the door on interracial marriage.

We share real experiences from our interracial marriage, and let me tell you, it has not been easy.

But it is rewarding.

We talk about our differences, what has worked for us, what is still difficult.

We also share our views on important topics, like food, from a white guy's perspective, and from a Haitian girl's perspective.

What is our goal?

Our goal is to reach people, like you, who may be struggling in an interracial marriage, and, through the sharing of our own story, prove to you that you are not alone.

The battle for your marriage is real, and thankfully, you have reinforcements.

Our hope is that by using this resource, you will grow in love and grace for your spouse, and ultimately find hope, help, and healing for your marriage.

Sometimes it will be tense, and other times you will be laughing with us as we discover new things about each other.

Thank you for joining us and enjoy this episode of Marriage Mixed.

Hello, welcome to Marriage Mixed with Shirley and Spencer.

Can you guess which one of us is black and which one is white?

If you don't know, it's probably pretty easy to guess.

What, from your voice?

Your name, it sounds white.

From, from like hearing us speak if they listen to previous podcasts, like your phrase, phraseology, if that's a word, is more white than mine is not.

I'm not, well, yeah, but you also don't sound black.

Like if you're talking like American black.

What do you mean?

I mean, I'm not American black.

Yeah, like that Southern, like American black kind of sound.

You don't have that.

What are you saying?

That you don't sound like, if you say-

Like I don't call people sweetie honey?

I don't know how to explain it.

How about my maxing?

Controversial, you can't say it, huh?

Cause you're white.

If you were black, you could.

But you don't want to get-

I don't want to start imitating a black accent and get called a racist.

Yes, that's hard to do, to describe another race.

Cause black people can probably talk about white people and it's okay, but white people can't talk about black people.

It's not okay.

All right, so I'm going to use another question from the speed friending sheet from a women's group I'm a part of for our question that you can ask your spouse.

So this is a good question.

This is a question like if you just over dinner or after the kids go to bed or on a date night or something, like just if you want something to ask your spouse, here's a question, you can even pause the podcast and have a little mini conversation with them.

What, tell me something you're proud of.

It's a good question.

So you tilt your head back and raise your eyebrows.

My guess is probably going to be something to do with calisthenics.

Yeah, that's the easiest thing, like immediate accomplishments that comes to mind.

Achieving a 90-degree hold feels good.

But I guess there's other things, like if you're talking about character and stuff like that, those are the things that, like those accomplishments would be what I'm most proud of.

That's nice.

Because I wouldn't think of character or something.

I would think of something I've done.

Really?

Yeah, I don't think when I read that question, I don't think of my character.

I think of what have I done?

I think of like the times I've stood up for what was right and when it was really hard.

And like those are the things I'm most proud of.

They're like the hardest.

You sound like a book.

A book?

Yeah.

Hmm.

Well, like that's legitimately what I'm most proud of.

So yeah, those things are not easy.

How about you?

What is something you're proud of, honey?

Something I'm proud of.

My sister was reading a book to my daughter over our daughter over FaceTime today.

All the Places You'll Go by Dr.

Seuss.

And the book is like saying like if there's like there's there's like roads that you might not want to go down.

And in that case, you'll head straight out of town.

And like in my mind, I was thinking of like when you kind of go off to college, if you go off to college, like maybe you'll choose to do something in your town, but maybe you'll choose to leave it.

I thought that was good.

I don't know if I'm proud that I left.

I think left my city, my home, like where I grew up for college.

But for some reason, I thought of that.

You're comparing it to yourself.

I had no idea why you were talking about Dr.

Seuss.

Yeah, I mean, but I don't know if I will answer that as something I'm proud of.

But you brought it up, so you did answer.

I mean, I'm thinking, I just thought of it.

You didn't just randomly start talking about it.

You said that in response to the question, so you are proud.

I would say I'm proud of Shirley.

I'm proud of, I don't know.

What am I proud of?

You're proud that you moved out of town to go to college.

Maybe.

What about that gives you pride in yourself?

I don't know if I would be proud of that.

I don't think I would classify as that, but my brain connected to it.

Well, let's get away from that then.

Tell me about it.

What was challenging about moving away?

What was challenging?

I don't know if it was like super challenging.

I just had it in my head and I'm leaving.

Peace out.

I mean, it is hard to leave.

I mean, what's it?

I mean, whatever.

Once you were out, were there challenges?

Like things that you had to learn that you didn't know?

I mean, of course, you have to learn a lot when you leave, but I feel like I learned a lot when I left.

What are a few things that you learned?

I mean, I had to learn how to cook on my own, do my own laundry, like, you know.

Are you going to share the potato story?

Yeah, whatever.

Manage them.

You got to share it now.

I definitely didn't start off as the greatest cook.

One time I burned boiled potatoes, but that might have been more because I was not paying attention because I was like probably studying at the same time or doing other stuff at the same time as cooking.

But yeah, I literally boiled, burned, boiled potatoes.

So all of the water that was boiling the potatoes dried up.

So yeah, I learned a lot on my, when I left on my own.

I think it was good.

I'm happy I left.

For some people, it's probably better to stay when it comes to college.

But for some people, it's better to leave.

And for some people, it's better to not go to college.

Like college is not for everybody.

But for me, I'm happy I left and had the experiences I had.

And live in a different city and know different people and got to get away from like a lot in Miami.

It's where I'm from Miami.

Yeah.

I'm thinking about your college experience and part of the topic that you wanted to cover today on divine interruptions and the very significant divine interruption that you had.

But I didn't know if you wanted to go into that at all.

Yes, I would say, well, I thought of something a while ago.

It was just like interruptions are divine.

So is there a divine interruption that has happened to you in your life, big or small?

Like traffic lights could be a divine interruption.

Like sometimes you might be so mad that you missed that light, but maybe God was protecting you from a car accident, or maybe he wanted you to be just 10 seconds or a minute later or something.

Something that happened to me in my life was when I was in my second year of college.

I got in an accident, a pretty significant accident, and I had to basically stop going to school for that semester.

And then I had to stop going to school.

I couldn't return back to school in the following semester, which is pretty devastating.

I had to move back home because I couldn't really walk.

Yeah, so I had like a bone fracture, like my fibula, I think.

The fracture wasn't why you couldn't walk though.

But that was like kind of minor to bone peel on its own pretty easily.

But besides that, I had like, did they call it a...

De-gloving?

Yeah, like a de-gloving of the skin on my leg.

So that might sound gruesome for some people who don't like that stuff.

But yeah, the skin on my leg was like very gone.

It was like basically like, yeah, it's called like de-gloving basically.

If you like medical stuff, you can look up what de-gloving means.

I don't look it up.

You're going to see some of the most graphic images in the world.

It's like if you're wearing a wedding ring and your hand got stuck in a machine and the skin gets peeled off or something.

Basically, this is kind of gruesome.

So yeah, it was pretty bad.

And they had to try to make my skin survive, I guess.

So it was a pretty intense thing to happen to me.

I don't know if I remember all of the things I've learned from that.

Can I share?

Yeah, I mean, I had more to share, but you can go ahead.

Well, I mean, there's such a story there, but I just remember after you got in the accident, before we were dating, going to see you, and you were so sad.

You were just crying so much and not eating.

You were like so focused on wanting to get through school.

It was really hard to see you so sad.

I don't know if I've ever, yeah, I don't think I've ever seen you so sad.

Well, maybe, I mean, we had some pretty sad moments, but and then coming full circle when we were dating, and you were recovering, and we did a lot of active stuff.

I just remember you being so happy and just like when we were ice skating, saying like, don't hold back.

Like, you're just so full of joy.

And yeah, it was like you had a new lease on life.

You're just not holding back.

So refreshing.

Remember skating past all the people watching as we'd go around the quarters and they just light up as soon as they saw you.

The women were like, oh, it was nice.

So yeah, I was very active before that.

So I ran like cross country and track and failed in high school.

And then I still ran on my own when I went to college.

So one of the things I learned from that is to like not make running like an idol basically, because I would run very often, like not not as much as I used to when I was in high school.

But like I would be late for class, maybe, or like barely making it on time for class, because I went to run before getting ready to go to school.

So one of the things I learned was just like, you know, running is not the most important thing.

It's not wake up and think about running.

It should be wake up and think about something else like God.

I don't know my exact thoughts back then.

Do you remember what you were drawing from that?

What do you mean?

Like, was it just you really liked feeling strong or you liked beating your previous times or?

I liked running and I wanted to run probably a certain amount of times a week or I probably was trying to still achieve like a certain thing, like do this many miles a week or I don't know.

I was just trying to still do something even though I was I wasn't in high school anymore because high school is a little easier.

You're on the team and they make you run.

I'm now on my own.

One of the verses that I really took away from that whole thing is Proverbs 19 verse 21.

Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails.

So my plans were definitely not to get an accident and have to move back home for several months.

And stop college, which was completely devastating for me.

And like, you know, be behind in behind air quotations, because, you know, who cares when you graduate, really?

You're not on this timeline.

But yeah, so definitely, God definitely taught me stuff in that during that accident.

I remember feeling like I had community around me, which was nice, my community group for my church.

You know, just people loving, loving me from afar and stuff was nice.

So I wouldn't wish an accident like that on anyone, but God can definitely use it.

And I didn't put like running first when I came back, when I was back.

And it's not like I was able to just snap back.

Like when I was when I was able to walk again, walking was like so like hard to do.

Like, yeah, I had a skin graft surgery, which was extremely painful.

And they don't let you walk for like they don't let you get out of bed for like five days because they want the skin to take.

And the first time I like walked, it's like you can't even walk.

It's like your body forgot how to like hold weight.

It's like crazy.

Like I thought I could and I really could not like at all.

But when I started walking more like, however, much longer after the accident, like I remember the first my first time on campus walking around campus.

And it was hard because like my one leg is doing like so much work and hasn't even been walking much itself.

But yeah, so that was an interruption I planned for myself, but God definitely taught me stuff through it.

And Spencer realized that he loved me.

We weren't dating yet or anything.

We had just met each other like probably a couple.

Was it like a couple weeks before that accident?

Like a couple months, like two months or something.

Maybe two months.

And Spencer realized that his heart could not go without me.

I don't remember it going like that.

How did it go?

I can't remember if it was when you were gone for your accident or if it was when you went on your medical trip.

When you came back and I felt very clearly that I loved you.

You felt that you loved me?

Oh, in what type of way?

Because we weren't dating.

Oh, in a very placid, just flat, platonic way.

What are you trying to say?

You're saying in what kind of way and I'm making a joke like that I had no romantic feelings at all.

How could you love me?

We weren't dating.

I loved you.

Oh, how did you love me?

No, when you, so I think it was after your medical trip.

You had recovered from your accident and then you were going on a medical trip down south for a while.

And you were gone for a couple of weeks.

And like the first few days, I kept thinking about you.

And I got really tired of that.

My mind easily obsesses on things.

So I was like, I'm not going to think about Shirley.

And I just quit thinking about you and it was great.

And I was at church and then you sat down one seat away from me.

And like my whole heart left when you sat down.

And I was so like excited to see you.

This sounds like a lovey-dovey thing.

It's just the truth.

I was very surprised like in myself, what I felt when you came back.

Then I realized, oh wow, like these feelings are very genuine.

I was flattered that you sat down.

With one seat of space for safety.

You know, we weren't dating or anything.

I couldn't give you the wrong message.

What message that you liked me?

I didn't like you at that time.

But I did think you were super cute before I met you.

What were you thinking when you sat down that day?

I don't know.

I just sat next to you, but not right next to you because we were nothing.

So what would I say right next to you?

But before I met you officially, I thought you were like super handsome.

Anyway, so do you have any examples of divine interruptions in your life, big or small?

Me?

No.

You in the first row.

Divine interruptions.

I feel like I've had a lot of course changes, but I don't know.

It's like an interruption.

I feel like I'm being stopped from going in a direction that I want to go.

That comes to mind.

All sorts of sad dating stories that didn't work out.

So I guess I don't know if that's like an interruption.

But wanting something to work out that didn't.

God, they didn't work out.

Even though that's probably hard to hear.

But I'm glad I'm the one who has you.

No, sweet.

Do you have any other topics since you don't have a divine interruption story?

I don't know.

You know what the pastor said about being God putting you where you are for a reason.

I feel like it's pretty easy to doubt.

Yeah, just to be overridden with doubt and think that things aren't happening the way that they should or that something in your heart or if I'm talking about myself, something in my heart needs to change before things will be right enough for them to happen the way that God wants or to go where I'll be happy or whatever.

And realizing that life isn't like two days ahead or a week ahead like life is right now.

And God has me and you right where we are right now for a reason.

It's not a mistake.

We're learning something that we should be learning.

And we're getting to do something that we should be doing.

And that can give a lot of hope when you feel that way, when I feel that way.

Because like there's so many things in our lives right now that I would love to change if I had the power to.

And I've had to learn in this season to just like let go of so many different things and fall into my father's arms and trust him.

I think something I learned recently from, I memorized Psalm 23 when I was a kid, but recently when Spencer had laryngitis and lost his voice, something Spencer does with our daughter at night is read a Bible story and review these Bible memory verse cards.

And I think for a little bit, I was thinking like she knows these verses, like we need new verses, but we didn't have any new verses.

And I thought that I should teach her Psalm 23, but when Spencer lost his voice and he was asking me to read the Bible story at night, I decided to try to teach her Psalm 23 or something like that, because I also was teaching her in the morning when he was at work.

But something I've learned from reading, from memorizing it, because now I'm memorizing it in NLT.

When I was a kid, I memorized it in King James Version.

Something I'm learning is that we are basically completely helpless, because like it says like the Lord is my shepherd.

I have all that I need, like the Lord is our shepherd and we are the sheep.

And basically, like the more I learn about sheep is that they are like literally like helpless.

Like we really don't have control over much things.

Like we would like to think that we have control, but we really, we don't like, can we control like the second we fall asleep or when we'll wake up tomorrow morning or like anything really?

Like we do have control over some things, but like we're really quite helpless people.

Something you said made me think about that.

A book that I listened to via audio recently is called like A Shepherd's Look on Psalm 23 or something like that.

I think a lot is lost in our culture in that chapter because we are not in the farming culture and we don't really understand all of those, like all of the analogies, if that's what it's called in that chapter.

So if you're looking for like something to listen to via audio, I mean, you're listening to a podcast right now, so maybe you're an audio person, I would recommend A Shepherd's Look at Psalm 23 by W.

Philip Keller.

A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23.

I was listening today to a pastor named Will Ramirez from Calvary Chapel in Orlando, Florida, and he was talking about Psalm 23 at the end of his sermon, but he was talking about David and how just the whole story arc of David, which I think fits really well into this, where it's something I've never known about David, but after he's anointed king, Saul hates him and he's hunting him down, David made a ton of mistakes when he was being chased, which basically equaled him not trusting God and trying to take matters into his own hands.

And he did, and he managed to survive in some very shrewd ways, but it involved a lot of lying and changing allegiances, like he joined the Philistines, the people that he killed are Goliath.

He lied and ended up getting all the prophets killed because of his lie.

He lied about the mission he was on.

He did all sorts of stuff, and it cost a lot of lives.

And then it kind of comes full circle where he learns not to do that anymore.

Then he starts trusting God and turning to God.

And when he's being hunted and about to die instead, now he's praying and like, God, what do you want me to do?

And God's like, you're going to die if you stay here.

And he's like, OK, I'll move.

But now instead of just running by default, he's literally asking God.

And there is a pretty cool story where Saul actually gets the better of him.

Now it smarts him, manages like David's on one side of this hill running from Saul.

And instead of chasing him on that side, Saul goes around the other side and outpaces him.

So when David gets to the other side of the hill, Saul's already there.

And he tries to start retreating, but he can't retreat because Saul has way too many men.

And it's basically all over for David.

And in the past, this is when David would pretend he's insane or do something underhanded to try and get out.

And instead he didn't.

And at that very moment, Saul and his army get word that the Philistines have attacked Israel.

And now there's no army because Saul brought the entire army because he's ridiculous to try and kill David.

And then Saul has to retreat at that very moment and just leave David standing there.

And then the pastor transitions to Psalm 23 and says you have to understand how much this psalm meant to David, like when he wrote it later in life, like going through the valley of the shadow of death.

Like he was in a valley at that time.

And he's surrounded on all sides.

And it's basically like, okay, God, I followed you and this is the end.

And then who could have guessed that the Philistines would have attacked right at that moment, forcing Saul to leave?

You know, it's just God saved him because of his faithfulness.

David didn't even have to do anything.

He just sat there watching Saul and all his men leave.

He's like, is this a dream?

That's crazy.

It's crazy how God can just do crazy stuff.

So I loved hearing that story.

I'll probably never look at Psalm 23.

The same again, like David, when he wrote that, he had the shepherd experience.

He had that experience.

Like no one was more, like had more to back up that Psalm than he did.

I have all that I need.

You know, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

And the pastor even pointed out that it says that Saul, or he tried the retreat and he was afraid.

And he's like, it doesn't even, the actual Hebrew doesn't say afraid.

It just meant that he hurried.

He's like, I don't know why they translated it afraid.

He wasn't afraid.

So I will fear no evil.

No, talking about that specific story.

It said that like David was afraid and ran, but it's actually just saying that he ran.

He wasn't afraid.

He was making a strategic move like, oh, there's an entire army in front of me that I didn't expect I got to turn around.

But like this time he wasn't afraid.

And other times he was afraid.

He was terrified of Saul.

It's crazy that in the drop of, how do they say it?

How do the white people say it?

How do the black people say it?

Tell me.

I don't know.

They probably don't say that.

In the drop of a hat.

What does that even mean?

Two wags of a sheep's tail.

Is that a saying too?

It's crazy that in the lamp's tail, that sheep blink of an eye.

Like they had to leave.

Like God still performs miracles.

So cool when he does that.

And it's a miracle.

God's like, I got you.

David had to be like, okay, I'm a changed man.

I got to trust in my shepherd.

Yeah.

So cool.

It's really encouraging because like myself, that's basically where I find myself, where I'm like running Hiltr Skelter, trying to do so many things to make ends meet for our family.

And just remembering that, like you were saying, a very small amount of power, and that God has so much more.

And that my resources come from my father and not from me.

Thank God, I have very limited resources, but he has abundant resources.

You know, he was in control of the Philistines.

He's like, all right, Philistines, now it's time to attack.

You know, they chose the exact right moment to end up saving David.

So I want to trust him that he'll come through for us at the exact right moment, not too late, not too soon.

Mm-hmm.

Can be grateful for what we have, for sure, instead of...

It's like just humanness to always want what we don't have.

Yeah.

But it's godly to be grateful for what we have.

Mm-hmm.

But yeah, I liked what you were talking about earlier and just what that pastor was saying, like, God has you where you're at.

Like, yeah, he might be calling you to something great, or he could call you to something like a big calling, like a big yes, a scary yes, but maybe he just has you where you are right now for a reason.

Mm-hmm.

Talking about the story of Esther for such a time as this, like, maybe he has you in this, like, job, like, around these people to influence these people or whatever, your boss or customers or, you know, or, like, in this season of motherhood or wherever you are, like, maybe he literally has you where you are right now for his divine purposes.

It might not be when you get to this grand thing.

It might just be, like, right now.

Hmm.

Do you have any examples of God performing miracles in your life?

Yeah, lots.

What?

What?

Um, there's so many different things, like dating you, like, going back and forth in my head if I should or, like, shouldn't, and not sure.

Yeah, I got over that.

But, um, yeah, just not, I don't know.

It's a big decision to make.

And who knows if you're feeling the right things and how much of it is a decision, how much our feelings, how much our facts.

So you consider something like that a miracle?

Well, I've been getting to that.

I was just at a point where I was going back and forth a lot.

And I had bought a ring after a breakup that I had that I called my God's Got a Covered Ring, which is what I wore on my ring finger, or not my ring finger, my other finger, just to remind me that I really wanted to be married and have a family, but God would take care of that because that was something He put on my heart and it came from Him.

And as I was debating in my head, it just like popped off my finger when I was in the shower and it had never fallen off.

That's before you asked me out?

No, we were already dating.

It was just a step along the way to proposing.

That was one thing that just came at the exact right moment.

And, you know, I feel like it's easy to, it doesn't really matter what other people think.

You know when God does stuff for you.

You can just tell.

But lots of things with my career, taking steps that didn't really make sense.

When I was working at the factory and told my boss I wanted to be in sales, you know, it's not a strategic move to tell your boss that you want a sales job when he's refused to let you transfer.

I told him, yeah, I want to be in sales.

And he filled my position as fast as he could, kicked me out.

He didn't like kick you out that quick.

No, he didn't.

He tried to keep me as long as he could because he felt bad.

But I didn't know where I was going.

I just knew I did what God wanted.

Then I applied everywhere under the sun and got turned down a million times and got turned down on what was like my last hope.

Put on my best clothes, went out to apply a few more places.

Basically got a job that day.

I loved the work, but hated the pay.

I weren't making anything.

I was crying in the bathroom praying, All right, God, I don't know how I'm going to make ends meet today.

I know I'm following you though.

And ended up getting a job that covered for the exact amount that I had asked him for a few weeks before or months before.

Plus, even more, that very day, like the guy came in that hired me.

Can't make that stuff up.

Or like, quitting my job by God's leading recently.

Not that recently.

Well, a year ago, but that's what...

Over a year ago?

Yeah, a year and a half ago.

But that's what this ministry was born out of.

It's that act of faithfulness on our part.

I'm very grateful for that.

That's not to...

I don't want to say that to like, bolster us or something, but hopefully it's an example that God can use.

God does...

There is a reason, you know, and we're still in it.

Like there's things that we desperately want and need to change right now.

But God knew what he was doing when I was unemployed for six months.

He still knows what he's doing.

I thought it was interesting in that story of Esther, how it was saying like, like if you won't speak, like deliverance for the Jews will come from someone else, but your family will perish.

It's like if you choose not to answer God's call, someone else will or he will deliver his people through someone else.

I mean, I don't know the whole significance of that, those verses, but that statement is like quite convicting.

Like, you know, if you don't do it, someone else like, you know, God's gonna have it happen.

I'm still.

But if he's gonna deliver the Jews, why does her Jewish family have to perish?

I don't know.

Like if she didn't do it.

It makes me think of Lord of the Rings.

I don't know if you remember when they're in the caverns and Frodo's sitting there with Gandalf, and he's like, I hate that the ring came to me or something like that.

And Gandalf's like, so do all who face times such as this, you know, and like encourages him.

He's like, nobody wants to deal with a burden like the one that you have.

But here you have it.

And what are you gonna do?

You're gonna carry it through to the end, you know?

What are you thinking?

Deep stuff, scary stuff.

It's not that scary.

I mean, that's scary.

But it's not at the same time.

God's word is, it's powerful.

Mm hmm.

Another good thing that I heard was another pastor talking about just how blind we've all become to Christ or just God working and how it's easier to believe our peers than it is to believe what God says and how everybody's kind of just bumbling along, believing whatever they'll believe until the moment that God chose that he's real, you know, and it's happened many, many times in history where like the Jews are just, like Israel is kind of, you know, everybody's just off doing their thing.

Like his example is like Noah, like everyone, you know, they're all just doing their thing and boom, like everyone drowns instantly.

And it's like, oh, everything Noah was saying was true.

And we just ignored him, you know, like just because it's not happening at this moment doesn't mean that God is any less.

And that's, you think about it like that's the scary thing.

It's like the punch you don't see coming, you know, but I don't know if that really relates to this.

It was just interesting.

I think it can be encouraging to remember that just because he's not revealing himself in a way that makes everybody have to believe in him, that he's still real in there.

So Spencer, what's your Spencer tip?

My Spencer tip?

Your Spencer, yeah.

Something Spencer is good at is forming habits.

Can you enlighten us on that?

Habit forming?

By the way, what's the name for the person who's not a free spirit?

The nerd.

So in Dave Ramsey, there's something called like, in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University curriculum, at least, there's something called like free spirits and like the nerd.

Like people who are more like spontaneous, I guess, or more spenders versus savers.

So I guess, yeah, you probably don't want to be called the nerd.

Anyway, like, what are your tips on your habit formation habits?

Your habit, habit formation.

It's a good habit.

Thank you.

The first thing that came to mind was just not borrowing everything at once.

So like, if you have a goal you want to get to, or maybe you're not even thinking of it as a goal, you're just like, I want to, you know, for me, like, achieve this move in calisthenics or something, or I want to go to bed at this certain time or something, or I'm weird and I like taking, punishing myself and taking cold showers.

By taking cold showers is not fun, but it's good for you.

Just not borrowing all of it at once.

Like, I'm going to do this for the rest of my entire life till the end of time.

Don't do that.

Just one day at a time.

Great advice from Recovery Circles.

Just one day at a time.

I can do it today.

Not tomorrow.

I'm not going to do it tomorrow.

But I will do it today.

And then tomorrow rolls around and you're like, you know what?

I can do it today.

And then it kind of keeps going and going.

And it goes back to how God designed this because he's continually telling Israel, you have what you need for today.

Don't gather more manna than just for today.

Or else I'm going to make it go rotten.

Just what you need for today.

You can't.

You're too finite.

You're on a linear path of time.

You're not God.

We always want to be God and go further out.

So that's one thing that helps me a lot.

That's good.

Because I wouldn't see you as the type of person that says, like, just going to do it today.

Like, I wouldn't see you outside at all.

I would.

I feel like, I don't know if you would tend toward, I'll do this forever, but I feel like you would be tend towards a more longer term view of things.

Mm-hmm.

I didn't know you were, like, actually thinking, like, think of it differently.

The harder the thing is, the more you have to think of it that way.

The easier the thing is, you know, you can borrow bigger time segments.

Like, the more inclined you are to it.

Like, exercise, I'm pretty inclined toward, so I don't have to do it like that.

Like, I enjoy it and want to do it.

But, like, cold showers, like, that's really painful and uncomfortable sometimes.

And other things in life.

Mm-hmm.

Thanks for asking me.

Can you tell us what we need to do to be beautiful?

We're created in the image of God, so...

You look like your father.

Just pretty great.

You have traits like God.

Humans do.

Do you want to pray to close it out?

Um, you can pray.

Thank you, Father, for this time with our audience and with each other.

Thank you for all the ways that you teach us by your grace.

I pray that we would learn to rest in you and trust you, and that we would walk in the paths that you put before us, but that we wouldn't think we're more than sheep kind of just bumbling along, following your voice.

You say your sheep know your voice, and they come to you, so I pray that we learn how to hear your voice so that we can follow you, that we just trust you as we bumble along.

If we fall, trust that you'll pick us up, and that you would lead us by.

Green pastures and still waters, give us the things that we need, help our unbelief.