September 29, 2024 • 22 mins
Have you ever wondered how to stay positive in a world that seems dominated by negativity? I promise you'll gain invaluable insights on this episode of Faith Unmuted, where I begin to unpack the crucial tools for maintaining a positive outlook amidst adversity. From personal stories about navigating difficult business relationships to the transformative impact of prayer and meditation, I cover the essential elements of setting healthy boundaries to protect your mental and emotional well-being. Discover how surrounding yourself with uplifting individuals and practicing gratitude can shift your perspective and bring about significant change in your life.
In this discussion, I delve into the power of personal resilience, beginning your day with quiet contemplation, and staying true to your values, even in the face of challenging situations. Reflecting on a tough meeting, I reveal how centering yourself can help manage emotions and respond constructively, leading to personal growth. I also explore the profound effect of living unapologetically and challenging ourselves to ask the crucial questions that propel us forward.
Ready to embrace faith and self-expression? Visit www.esthergraham.com to continue this journey, share your thoughts, and spread the message to friends.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to Faith Unmuted.
The place where Christian womenget the opportunity to press
the button and say what theywant, how they want and exactly
how they feel.
The one place where, together,we can collectively walk through
our truths, liveunapologetically and stop hiding
.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
How to live up in a down world.
It's not just global, but it'seven also very, very personal,
and it's a question that I havehad to ask myself, simply
because of so many challengesthat we face.
We face challenges in ourpersonal lives, in our business,
(01:12):
our careers, and then, ofcourse, when we're looking at
the world, there's so manythings that's going on that if
you pay attention and you takeit all in, you would really be
living in a down spiral world.
You know there's wars going on,people are hating on each other
(01:38):
.
You know there's all kinds ofdiscrimination.
You know, and while many thingsthat was happening,
discrimination has always beenthere.
It's been overt.
Now it's very covert.
You know we're living in acancel culture.
You know, if you don't agreewith me, I don't agree with you,
(02:00):
if we don't have the samebelief systems, then you get
canceled out.
And it's not, it's everywhere.
It's everywhere.
So no one is void of it, noreligion is void of it, no
denomination is void of it, itis everywhere.
And everyone, everyone iscritical or they're down about
(02:23):
something, they don't haveanything positive to say.
And so the question is then howdo we live up in a down world?
Things that I've experiencedand what I have had to do just
(02:44):
to make sure that I stay up wheneverything else around me may
be falling apart and I reallydon't know what to do about it
or how to even address it.
And this is in, you know, mypersonal life, my business.
And this is in my personal life, my business, my community and
(03:08):
even when I'm looking at thingsin the world.
One of the darkest moments I hadin my life, which I thought
everything was just going down,was as a business owner.
I hired someone to operate mybusiness and they were doing a
(03:28):
great, great job and thensomething just snapped,
something happened and thatgreat job was not being done
anymore.
And I remember just goingthrough months and months of
things happening and trying tofigure out how was I going to
(03:49):
face it, how was I going to dealwith it?
I was at the brink of losing mybusiness not good and every
time I would try to talk to thisperson, it was always Debbie
Downer.
It was always.
They saw everything negative,nothing was good, everything.
Even if I would try to bringthe positive and say, well,
let's try to do this, let's dothis, it was always.
(04:11):
Always something was wrong.
Something was always going down.
It was always so negative and Ijust you know, after a while it
just began to affect me.
And that's what will happen whenyou know you're so, when you're
always around people that livea pessimistic life all the time,
(04:34):
or they never see the good,they always see the bad, or
you're always around that personthat if you don't agree with
them, then you're the wrong one.
You know you're wrong and theycancel you out.
They cancel your thoughts out,they cancel your opinions out.
You're insignificant nowbecause why you don't agree with
(04:57):
me.
And that's the world that welive in, and the bad part about
it is that it's affecting us inevery area.
It's all over, it's all over,and so we have no choice but to
live in it.
So then, how do we deal with it?
And one of the ways I found inmy own situation.
(05:21):
I could give you several,several stories, but this one in
particular, in my business,where I was just watching things
just fall apart, trying to fixit as much and trying to really
be there for my leader,including her in things, always
(05:46):
bringing the positive, wheneverything was always negative
and negative.
And so what I had to personallydo to just move forward was
really begin to refocus myattention on what was important.
What was important to me had torefocus my attention on what I
(06:13):
wanted to accomplish.
I began to look at theboundaries, my healthy
boundaries, and so I began toset healthy boundaries, and the
boundaries even meant thecommunication that took place,
one of the most important thingsfor me in living up in a down
(06:37):
world, especially wheneverything around you is just
seems to be falling apart andeven you could look at the news
and you sometimes someone saidto me they look at the news just
to maybe to get some own peacein their life, and I was like,
wow, just think about that.
You look at the news where it'sall down to get peace in your
life.
That means that sometimes yourlife may be in that much, that
(07:00):
much shambles that you feel asif you don't have control, that
much shambles that you feel asif you don't have control.
And so one of the things when Ibegin to think about it for
myself, I just begin to go to aplace of prayer and meditation.
I have to find that quiet placeI have to, where it's just me
(07:25):
and my God and myself.
I guess that's me, myself and Iand my God, and we have to have
conversations.
In my quiet place I do a lot ofmeditation.
I begin to think about thethings that brings me joy and
brings me peace.
I may have something to read, Iread a scripture, and I may
(07:50):
have a scripture posted to whereI just can keep repeating it
all the time to remind me of whoI am and where I am and what
I'm doing.
I begin to be grateful for thethings that come into my life
and I begin to speak something,so those things that I'm
speaking can come into my life.
(08:17):
I choose who I hang around.
I don't hang around people thatare always negative.
I chose people who are movingforward, despite what may be
going on in their lives or inthe world.
I chose people who can speaklife into me.
I choose people who are readyto talk about the positive and
(08:41):
not focus on the negative.
I choose people who will bringjoy to me, who will bring
happiness.
And it's not that we don't havereal conversations and it's not
that we're living in this worldthat, oh, we're just going to
block out.
You know we're not.
You know flower kids, you knowwhere.
We're just going to focus onthe positive.
No, no, no, we're reality, butit's bringing the reality in of
(09:07):
joy and peace and happiness.
It's saying this is what I wantin my life, and so this is how I
could influence a negativeworld, a world that's going down
or it appears to be going down.
This is what I can bring to thetable.
It's choosing to see the goodthings that's happening and
being grateful for all thosegood things.
(09:28):
It's waking up every morningand doing mindfulness activities
and being grateful for the daythat you've been blessed to have
.
That's how I live up in a downworld.
Live up in a down world.
(09:52):
It's deciding in the morning,when I wake up, and being very
intentional about how my day isgoing to go.
And what I have found for myselfis that when I don't take that
personal time, when I don't takethat time in the mornings to
pray and to meditate and justset some rules for myself, some
limits for myself, then I allowothers and other things and
(10:14):
things that are happening tocontrol my day.
And so you have to control yourday.
Basically, beginning in themornings, I have a rule that I
don't want to be disturbedbefore 9 am If there's a meeting
that I control.
My meetings never start before9 am.
(10:37):
My days I may be up, I'm up,but until 9 am my day belongs to
me.
It belongs to what I want to do.
It's my coffee, it's my prayer,it's my meditation.
If I choose to listen to thenews, that's what I listen to,
(10:57):
but I always focus on what'sgoing to lift me up and not
what's going to bring me down.
It's my time to haveconversation with my husband.
It's my time to really thinkthrough how I want my day to go.
That's how I live up in a downworld.
(11:18):
That's so important because Ihave to be very intentional
about setting that time.
Very intentional because if I'mnot, then it will be taken away
from me, or I'll give it away,because sometimes we give those
things away.
I take the time to look at whatis it that I really value?
(11:40):
There's a word that I love, asaying that I love, that says
where your treasure is, that'swhere your heart will be, in
other words, what you value.
I read it this morning in myquiet time, in my devotions, as
I sat with my daughter and shesaid oh, this is really good,
(12:02):
read this.
And I read it and it broughtback memories.
Yeah, where my treasure is,that's where my heart will be.
In other words, where what Ivalue, that's where my heart
will go.
So you want to begin to thinkabout what is it that I really
value?
What do I want to really comeinto my life?
I value my children.
(12:23):
I value my family time.
I value my personal time.
I value my God.
When I begin to think about whatI value, that's where my heart
goes to.
That's what I want to do.
I value people.
(12:44):
I value loving, I value serving, and I don't want to do it on a
mediocre level.
I want to do it on a high level.
I want to do it on a deep level.
I value being present, and thefirst thing I have to do is
(13:16):
understand that I need to bepresent with me first.
How do I live up in a downworld?
I show up authentically everysingle time.
I show love, even in the worstsituations.
How do I live up in a downworld?
(13:40):
The time that I need to go awayand step away from the world, I
do that and I take the time tocry.
If that's what I need to goaway and step away from the
world I do that and I take thetime to cry if that's what I
need to do.
I take the time to have somedeep conversations with myself.
I take the time to evaluatewhere I'm being authentic, where
(14:01):
I'm not, where I'm in integrity, where I might not be.
I begin to look at what are thethings I value, what are my
core values and what do I wantto bring in.
And so, in my business, when Iwas going through this situation
(14:25):
with my leader there, I reallyhad to step away.
There I really had to step away.
(14:46):
I remember the day that theycame in to work and I sat to
meet with them and ourdiscussion that they led off
with was I will be leaving.
And I remember I didn't knowhow I felt about that.
I had conflicts of feelings.
You know and know what wasgoing on, and I sat there and
what no one knows is that Ifought back tears Because this
(15:09):
particular leader wasn't just aleader to me, she's family,
because this particular leaderwasn't just a leader to me,
she's family.
And I knew that them leavingwould bring a bridge in the
(15:32):
family, and I also knew that thebridge would be hard to rebuild
or to mend, might not beimpossible, but it would be
extremely hard and I really hadto think about what my role was
going to be in that and how canI live up in everything that was
(15:53):
happening in my business, withthem as a you know, with my
leader in my family.
What was I going to do?
And as I sat there and foughtback the tears, and as they
walked out the door and slammedthe door, I sat there for a
(16:16):
moment and I said God, what next, what now?
Because that moment alone.
Have you ever had that definingmoment?
That's, that's going to defineeverything your business, your
family, your life, justeverything.
And at the moment, honestly,what else was going on in the
(16:39):
world did not really matter,because that is what was going
on in my world.
I often think that if thatmorning, if I did not go into my
quiet time, if I didn't pray,if I didn't meditate, if I
didn't encourage myself, if Ididn't speak to myself, if I did
not go into my quiet time, if Ididn't pray, if I didn't
meditate, if I didn't encouragemyself, if I didn't speak to
myself, if I didn't look in themirror and say Esther, you've
got this, god's got you, you'vegot this.
(17:00):
You can do this.
You can have this meeting.
Yes, it's going to be tough,yes it's going to be hard, but
you got this.
If I didn't sit and just reallybegin to speak to myself, I
probably that day in thatmeeting, later on that morning,
would have snapped and it wouldhave dictated what I did.
My response to it would havedictated the outcomes.
(17:23):
So, as they walked out and Isat there and tears rolled down
my eyes out and I sat there andtears rolled down my eyes, I
wiped my tears and I got up andI went out to face my staff and
I said there will be a change inmanagement, there will be a
(17:45):
change in leadership.
I'll let you know what willhappen.
And I wrote a letter in themidst of my anger, because I
can't lie and tell you that Iwasn't upset.
I was pissed off, I was hurt, Iwas pissed off, I was, I was
all these emotions going on inmy head and while I have one
(18:05):
side with all of the emotions,I've got the other side with.
What is it that I value?
What can I do?
How could I face this?
Yeah, told the rest of thestaff.
I wrote a letter to all of thefamilies saying that there's
going to be a shift.
From that day to this day, Ihave worked profusely on me, on
(18:33):
what I value, to stay up in adown situation Because, while
everything else is going on inthe world, if I could begin to
control my own world and how Ireact and how I face it, then I
believe that I can control or atleast be able to have the right
perspective with everythingthat's going on, or at least be
able to have the rightperspective with everything
(18:53):
that's going on.
And so when I see this personand I still see them, not often
I have to speak to myself so Icould remain up, so I could
remain positive, so I couldremain powerful in my thoughts.
And I wouldn't be able to do itif I didn't spend that time in
(19:13):
prayer and meditation, if Ididn't spend that time filling
my cup and realizing what'svaluable to me, being grateful,
being thankful.
I wouldn't be able to do it atall.
(19:34):
I wouldn't be able to stand upand say this is wrong and this
cannot be tolerated anymore.
I realized that one of thegreatest things that happened
was when they left.
It was when they left they didme a favor.
That's the good thing, and soI'm grateful for that.
The bad thing is that there'sno relationship there and
(20:04):
there's nothing I could do aboutthat Except to pray and to
continue holding my values dearto my heart and to keep walking
and to keep moving.
I made a decision that, as muchas I can, that I'm going to
(20:25):
reach further, I'm going to godeeper, I'm going to live higher
.
That's it.
And what I'm not going to do islet everything that's going on
in the world bring me down, andthat's how I'm going to live up.
I speak the words that willlift me up and lift others up.
I've made a choice that I'mgoing to always see the glass
(20:50):
half full instead of half empty,because I know it's according
to my perspective.
And if I change my perspective,if I change my mindset, if I
change some of the way I viewthings, if I say I don't know
what's going on in that person,but I know that they need to be
healed, and so if I begin topray for them, like I pray for
(21:10):
the world and everyone else,then it begins to change my
perspective and that I couldlive up in a down world.
That's the world, the externalworld, that's the internal world
and that's right, right whereyou live, in your community,
even in your home.
That's how you live up in adown world, and it begins with
you.
It begins with you being trueto yourself.
(21:32):
It begins with you being trueto yourself.
It begins with you knowing whatyou value.
It begins with your quiet time,when you spend time with just
you and your God.
Yeah, that's it.
That's it.
It works, y'all, it works, itworks.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Wasn't that episode amazing Living unapologetically.
Faith unmuted has allowed usonce again to ask ourselves the
kind of questions that will helpus get to the next level and
live this life unapologetically.
Your next step head on over towwwesthergramcom and let me know
(22:12):
what your favorite episode isAsk a question or share this
with a friend.
I can't wait to be with younext week as we dive deeper into
redefining what it means to bea Christian woman and redefining
what it means to live in ourtruth.
You are listening to Faith Unmuted.
The place where Christian womenget the opportunity to press
the button and say what theywant, how they want and exactly
how they feel.
The one place where, together,we can collectively walk through
our truths, liveunapologetically and stop hiding
.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
How to live up in a down world.
It's not just global, but it'seven also very, very personal,
and it's a question that I havehad to ask myself, simply
because of so many challengesthat we face.
We face challenges in ourpersonal lives, in our business,
(01:12):
our careers, and then, ofcourse, when we're looking at
the world, there's so manythings that's going on that if
you pay attention and you takeit all in, you would really be
living in a down spiral world.
You know there's wars going on,people are hating on each other
(01:38):
.
You know there's all kinds ofdiscrimination.
You know, and while many thingsthat was happening,
discrimination has always beenthere.
It's been overt.
Now it's very covert.
You know we're living in acancel culture.
You know, if you don't agreewith me, I don't agree with you,
(02:00):
if we don't have the samebelief systems, then you get
canceled out.
And it's not, it's everywhere.
It's everywhere.
So no one is void of it, noreligion is void of it, no
denomination is void of it, itis everywhere.
And everyone, everyone iscritical or they're down about
(02:23):
something, they don't haveanything positive to say.
And so the question is then howdo we live up in a down world?
Things that I've experiencedand what I have had to do just
(02:44):
to make sure that I stay up wheneverything else around me may
be falling apart and I reallydon't know what to do about it
or how to even address it.
And this is in, you know, mypersonal life, my business.
And this is in my personal life, my business, my community and
(03:08):
even when I'm looking at thingsin the world.
One of the darkest moments I hadin my life, which I thought
everything was just going down,was as a business owner.
I hired someone to operate mybusiness and they were doing a
(03:28):
great, great job and thensomething just snapped,
something happened and thatgreat job was not being done
anymore.
And I remember just goingthrough months and months of
things happening and trying tofigure out how was I going to
(03:49):
face it, how was I going to dealwith it?
I was at the brink of losing mybusiness not good and every
time I would try to talk to thisperson, it was always Debbie
Downer.
It was always.
They saw everything negative,nothing was good, everything.
Even if I would try to bringthe positive and say, well,
let's try to do this, let's dothis, it was always.
(04:11):
Always something was wrong.
Something was always going down.
It was always so negative and Ijust you know, after a while it
just began to affect me.
And that's what will happen whenyou know you're so, when you're
always around people that livea pessimistic life all the time,
(04:34):
or they never see the good,they always see the bad, or
you're always around that personthat if you don't agree with
them, then you're the wrong one.
You know you're wrong and theycancel you out.
They cancel your thoughts out,they cancel your opinions out.
You're insignificant nowbecause why you don't agree with
(04:57):
me.
And that's the world that welive in, and the bad part about
it is that it's affecting us inevery area.
It's all over, it's all over,and so we have no choice but to
live in it.
So then, how do we deal with it?
And one of the ways I found inmy own situation.
(05:21):
I could give you several,several stories, but this one in
particular, in my business,where I was just watching things
just fall apart, trying to fixit as much and trying to really
be there for my leader,including her in things, always
(05:46):
bringing the positive, wheneverything was always negative
and negative.
And so what I had to personallydo to just move forward was
really begin to refocus myattention on what was important.
What was important to me had torefocus my attention on what I
(06:13):
wanted to accomplish.
I began to look at theboundaries, my healthy
boundaries, and so I began toset healthy boundaries, and the
boundaries even meant thecommunication that took place,
one of the most important thingsfor me in living up in a down
(06:37):
world, especially wheneverything around you is just
seems to be falling apart andeven you could look at the news
and you sometimes someone saidto me they look at the news just
to maybe to get some own peacein their life, and I was like,
wow, just think about that.
You look at the news where it'sall down to get peace in your
life.
That means that sometimes yourlife may be in that much, that
(07:00):
much shambles that you feel asif you don't have control, that
much shambles that you feel asif you don't have control.
And so one of the things when Ibegin to think about it for
myself, I just begin to go to aplace of prayer and meditation.
I have to find that quiet placeI have to, where it's just me
(07:25):
and my God and myself.
I guess that's me, myself and Iand my God, and we have to have
conversations.
In my quiet place I do a lot ofmeditation.
I begin to think about thethings that brings me joy and
brings me peace.
I may have something to read, Iread a scripture, and I may
(07:50):
have a scripture posted to whereI just can keep repeating it
all the time to remind me of whoI am and where I am and what
I'm doing.
I begin to be grateful for thethings that come into my life
and I begin to speak something,so those things that I'm
speaking can come into my life.
(08:17):
I choose who I hang around.
I don't hang around people thatare always negative.
I chose people who are movingforward, despite what may be
going on in their lives or inthe world.
I chose people who can speaklife into me.
I choose people who are readyto talk about the positive and
(08:41):
not focus on the negative.
I choose people who will bringjoy to me, who will bring
happiness.
And it's not that we don't havereal conversations and it's not
that we're living in this worldthat, oh, we're just going to
block out.
You know we're not.
You know flower kids, you knowwhere.
We're just going to focus onthe positive.
No, no, no, we're reality, butit's bringing the reality in of
(09:07):
joy and peace and happiness.
It's saying this is what I wantin my life, and so this is how I
could influence a negativeworld, a world that's going down
or it appears to be going down.
This is what I can bring to thetable.
It's choosing to see the goodthings that's happening and
being grateful for all thosegood things.
(09:28):
It's waking up every morningand doing mindfulness activities
and being grateful for the daythat you've been blessed to have
.
That's how I live up in a downworld.
Live up in a down world.
(09:52):
It's deciding in the morning,when I wake up, and being very
intentional about how my day isgoing to go.
And what I have found for myselfis that when I don't take that
personal time, when I don't takethat time in the mornings to
pray and to meditate and justset some rules for myself, some
limits for myself, then I allowothers and other things and
(10:14):
things that are happening tocontrol my day.
And so you have to control yourday.
Basically, beginning in themornings, I have a rule that I
don't want to be disturbedbefore 9 am If there's a meeting
that I control.
My meetings never start before9 am.
(10:37):
My days I may be up, I'm up,but until 9 am my day belongs to
me.
It belongs to what I want to do.
It's my coffee, it's my prayer,it's my meditation.
If I choose to listen to thenews, that's what I listen to,
(10:57):
but I always focus on what'sgoing to lift me up and not
what's going to bring me down.
It's my time to haveconversation with my husband.
It's my time to really thinkthrough how I want my day to go.
That's how I live up in a downworld.
(11:18):
That's so important because Ihave to be very intentional
about setting that time.
Very intentional because if I'mnot, then it will be taken away
from me, or I'll give it away,because sometimes we give those
things away.
I take the time to look at whatis it that I really value?
(11:40):
There's a word that I love, asaying that I love, that says
where your treasure is, that'swhere your heart will be, in
other words, what you value.
I read it this morning in myquiet time, in my devotions, as
I sat with my daughter and shesaid oh, this is really good,
(12:02):
read this.
And I read it and it broughtback memories.
Yeah, where my treasure is,that's where my heart will be.
In other words, where what Ivalue, that's where my heart
will go.
So you want to begin to thinkabout what is it that I really
value?
What do I want to really comeinto my life?
I value my children.
(12:23):
I value my family time.
I value my personal time.
I value my God.
When I begin to think about whatI value, that's where my heart
goes to.
That's what I want to do.
I value people.
(12:44):
I value loving, I value serving, and I don't want to do it on a
mediocre level.
I want to do it on a high level.
I want to do it on a deep level.
I value being present, and thefirst thing I have to do is
(13:16):
understand that I need to bepresent with me first.
How do I live up in a downworld?
I show up authentically everysingle time.
I show love, even in the worstsituations.
How do I live up in a downworld?
(13:40):
The time that I need to go awayand step away from the world, I
do that and I take the time tocry.
If that's what I need to goaway and step away from the
world I do that and I take thetime to cry if that's what I
need to do.
I take the time to have somedeep conversations with myself.
I take the time to evaluatewhere I'm being authentic, where
(14:01):
I'm not, where I'm in integrity, where I might not be.
I begin to look at what are thethings I value, what are my
core values and what do I wantto bring in.
And so, in my business, when Iwas going through this situation
(14:25):
with my leader there, I reallyhad to step away.
There I really had to step away.
(14:46):
I remember the day that theycame in to work and I sat to
meet with them and ourdiscussion that they led off
with was I will be leaving.
And I remember I didn't knowhow I felt about that.
I had conflicts of feelings.
You know and know what wasgoing on, and I sat there and
what no one knows is that Ifought back tears Because this
(15:09):
particular leader wasn't just aleader to me, she's family,
because this particular leaderwasn't just a leader to me,
she's family.
And I knew that them leavingwould bring a bridge in the
(15:32):
family, and I also knew that thebridge would be hard to rebuild
or to mend, might not beimpossible, but it would be
extremely hard and I really hadto think about what my role was
going to be in that and how canI live up in everything that was
(15:53):
happening in my business, withthem as a you know, with my
leader in my family.
What was I going to do?
And as I sat there and foughtback the tears, and as they
walked out the door and slammedthe door, I sat there for a
(16:16):
moment and I said God, what next, what now?
Because that moment alone.
Have you ever had that definingmoment?
That's, that's going to defineeverything your business, your
family, your life, justeverything.
And at the moment, honestly,what else was going on in the
(16:39):
world did not really matter,because that is what was going
on in my world.
I often think that if thatmorning, if I did not go into my
quiet time, if I didn't pray,if I didn't meditate, if I
didn't encourage myself, if Ididn't speak to myself, if I did
not go into my quiet time, if Ididn't pray, if I didn't
meditate, if I didn't encouragemyself, if I didn't speak to
myself, if I didn't look in themirror and say Esther, you've
got this, god's got you, you'vegot this.
(17:00):
You can do this.
You can have this meeting.
Yes, it's going to be tough,yes it's going to be hard, but
you got this.
If I didn't sit and just reallybegin to speak to myself, I
probably that day in thatmeeting, later on that morning,
would have snapped and it wouldhave dictated what I did.
My response to it would havedictated the outcomes.
(17:23):
So, as they walked out and Isat there and tears rolled down
my eyes out and I sat there andtears rolled down my eyes, I
wiped my tears and I got up andI went out to face my staff and
I said there will be a change inmanagement, there will be a
(17:45):
change in leadership.
I'll let you know what willhappen.
And I wrote a letter in themidst of my anger, because I
can't lie and tell you that Iwasn't upset.
I was pissed off, I was hurt, Iwas pissed off, I was, I was
all these emotions going on inmy head and while I have one
(18:05):
side with all of the emotions,I've got the other side with.
What is it that I value?
What can I do?
How could I face this?
Yeah, told the rest of thestaff.
I wrote a letter to all of thefamilies saying that there's
going to be a shift.
From that day to this day, Ihave worked profusely on me, on
(18:33):
what I value, to stay up in adown situation Because, while
everything else is going on inthe world, if I could begin to
control my own world and how Ireact and how I face it, then I
believe that I can control or atleast be able to have the right
perspective with everythingthat's going on, or at least be
able to have the rightperspective with everything
(18:53):
that's going on.
And so when I see this personand I still see them, not often
I have to speak to myself so Icould remain up, so I could
remain positive, so I couldremain powerful in my thoughts.
And I wouldn't be able to do itif I didn't spend that time in
(19:13):
prayer and meditation, if Ididn't spend that time filling
my cup and realizing what'svaluable to me, being grateful,
being thankful.
I wouldn't be able to do it atall.
(19:34):
I wouldn't be able to stand upand say this is wrong and this
cannot be tolerated anymore.
I realized that one of thegreatest things that happened
was when they left.
It was when they left they didme a favor.
That's the good thing, and soI'm grateful for that.
The bad thing is that there'sno relationship there and
(20:04):
there's nothing I could do aboutthat Except to pray and to
continue holding my values dearto my heart and to keep walking
and to keep moving.
I made a decision that, as muchas I can, that I'm going to
(20:25):
reach further, I'm going to godeeper, I'm going to live higher
.
That's it.
And what I'm not going to do islet everything that's going on
in the world bring me down, andthat's how I'm going to live up.
I speak the words that willlift me up and lift others up.
I've made a choice that I'mgoing to always see the glass
(20:50):
half full instead of half empty,because I know it's according
to my perspective.
And if I change my perspective,if I change my mindset, if I
change some of the way I viewthings, if I say I don't know
what's going on in that person,but I know that they need to be
healed, and so if I begin topray for them, like I pray for
(21:10):
the world and everyone else,then it begins to change my
perspective and that I couldlive up in a down world.
That's the world, the externalworld, that's the internal world
and that's right, right whereyou live, in your community,
even in your home.
That's how you live up in adown world, and it begins with
you.
It begins with you being trueto yourself.
(21:32):
It begins with you being trueto yourself.
It begins with you knowing whatyou value.
It begins with your quiet time,when you spend time with just
you and your God.
Yeah, that's it.
That's it.
It works, y'all, it works, itworks.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Wasn't that episode amazing Living unapologetically.
Faith unmuted has allowed usonce again to ask ourselves the
kind of questions that will helpus get to the next level and
live this life unapologetically.
Your next step head on over towwwesthergramcom and let me know
(22:12):
what your favorite episode isAsk a question or share this
with a friend.
I can't wait to be with younext week as we dive deeper into
redefining what it means to bea Christian woman and redefining
what it means to live in ourtruth.
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