Saved By Choice with Christina Price

When it comes to religion, Millennials are questioning what we were taught to believe. From the judgment we faced in church, to the condemnation of people whose lifestyles don’t gel with church folk, nowadays, adults are finding their own way to connect with God. In this episode, author, mother and born again Christian, Christina Price, shares her story. Dead ass.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Your real talk. Religion still trips me out dead as
dead as I can agree. Um, but part of me wonders,
is it really just all about the religion aspect of
things or is it about that personal connection that you
have with a good Look. Hey, I'm Cadine and we're

(00:24):
the Ellises. You may know us from posting funny videos
with our boys and reading each other publicly as a
form of therapy. Wait, I'll make you need therapy most days. Wow.
And one more important thing to mention, we're married. We are.
We created this podcast to open dialogue about some of
life's most taboo topics, things most folks don't want to

(00:47):
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

(01:09):
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,

(01:33):
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

(01:59):
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.

(02:23):
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

(02:45):
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,

(03:20):
We are clamby Jacob Letter, Soldier Oh the ro Yo
Martha Davis Baptist Church. They used to sing that song.

(03:42):
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

(04:03):
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

(04:26):
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

(04:50):
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

(05:11):
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

(05:33):
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

(05:56):
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

(06:17):
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

(06:39):
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

(07:00):
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

(07:22):
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

(07:44):
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

(08:04):
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

(08:25):
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

(08:46):
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

(09:08):
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

(09:29):
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

(09:51):
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

(10:13):
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

(10:34):
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

(10:57):
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,

(11:17):
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

(11:37):
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.

(11:58):
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

(12:19):
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.

(12:41):
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

(13:02):
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.

(13:25):
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

(13:45):
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

(14:07):
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

(14:28):
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

(14:48):
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

(15:11):
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

(15:32):
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

(15:53):
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

(16:13):
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

(16:35):
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,

(16:57):
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

(17:19):
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

(17:41):
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

(18:02):
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

(18:24):
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

(18:49):
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,

(19:10):
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

(19:30):
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

(19:53):
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

(20:15):
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

(20:38):
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.

(20:58):
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

(21:20):
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

(21:43):
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

(22:04):
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

(22:27):
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

(22:49):
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,

(23:11):
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

(23:36):
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,

(23:59):
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

(24:20):
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

(24:42):
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

(25:05):
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

(25:26):
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,

(25:49):
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

(26:10):
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

(26:33):
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

(26:54):
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

(27:16):
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

(27:38):
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

(28:00):
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

(28:20):
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

(28:44):
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.

(29:08):
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

(29:28):
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

(29:49):
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

(30:12):
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,

(30:33):
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

(30:56):
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,

(31:18):
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.

(31:40):
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.

(32:03):
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

(32:24):
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.

(32:45):
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

(33:06):
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

(33:29):
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

(33:50):
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,

(34:12):
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

(34:32):
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.

(34:53):
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

(35:15):
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

(35:36):
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

(35:58):
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

(36:21):
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

(36:43):
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,

(37:05):
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

(37:28):
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

(37:51):
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

(38:11):
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

(38:32):
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

(38:52):
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

(39:13):
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

(39:33):
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

(39:56):
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

(40:20):
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

(40:41):
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

(41:05):
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

(41:27):
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

(41:48):
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

(42:10):
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.

(42:31):
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

(42:52):
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,

(43:15):
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

(43:37):
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,

(43:59):
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

(44:21):
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

(44:41):
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.

(45:05):
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.

(45:26):
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

(45:46):
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

(46:07):
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

(46:27):
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

(46:48):
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,

(47:10):
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,

(47:41):
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

(48:02):
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

(48:23):
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.

(48:45):
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

(49:06):
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

(49:27):
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,

(49:50):
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

(50:11):
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

(50:33):
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

(50:55):
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

(51:18):
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.

(51:41):
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

(52:02):
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

(52:24):
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.

(52:45):
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

(53:08):
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

(53:28):
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

(53:51):
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

(54:14):
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

(54:34):
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

(54:56):
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

(55:18):
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

(55:40):
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

(56:02):
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,

(56:26):
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.

(56:46):
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

(57:10):
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

(57:32):
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.

(57:53):
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?

(58:13):
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

(58:35):
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,

(58:56):
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

(59:18):
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

(59:43):
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

(01:00:03):
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

(01:00:25):
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

(01:00:45):
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

(01:01:05):
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,

(01:01:29):
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

(01:01:52):
Heart Media podcast network and is produced by Dinorapinia and
Triple Follow the podcast on social media at dead As
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