Jeff & Steph talk how following god is simple but not easy, they also talk 13 tests all Christians must pass

Through the Bible, God tells us what we need to do and are expected to do.  They seem pretty simple, but why are they not easy?  Everyone who follows Jesus will be tested,  Joseph Mattera came up with a list of 13 tests all followers will have to take and must pass.  Jeff and Steph talk about these tests and how they measure up.  They range from test of lack, test of persecution, test of betrayal to test of unanswered prays and loving people unconditionally.   And of course you will hear about Jeff's cats and Steph's big move.  

You can watch and listen to Stephanie on her YouTube channel - In the Service of the Queen - where she talks about the blessed Mary     https://www.youtube.com/@InTheServiceOfTheQueen

You can catch Jeff on numorous podcasts   https://coolcasts.cooolmedia.com/

Please follow These Times on whoever you listen on, so that you don't miss an episode.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Waiting the day night sounds. I'm gotta get to the
star bugs, get some magic beings me on my way.
Magical as was my phone. We don't know, says there's
no for that today.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Well, hi everyone, I am Jeff, and welcome to these
days with Jeff and stuff. Of course I have Jeff
Steph Howerts in Nashville.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Things are going great today. Actually, I just had lunch
with one of my favorite priests, and uh, it's pretty interesting.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
So do you turn your water into wine for you?

Speaker 1 (00:43):
I should have asked he probably, he's so holy. He's
one of these young holy ones, you know, he's like
thirty seven, you know, does confession and adoration almost every
day of the week. Told me actually that he just
started adding because he said, they I didn't know this
priest are required to pray the office five times a day,

(01:03):
and so he him and another priest just started adding
it six thirty in the morning and I think four
point thirty in the afternoon to do the nighttime one
and opening it up to the public for he said,
only two or three people are coming, but he said
they've gotten a lot out of it, and it's been
really cool to pray it with parishioners, and not just
them because they usually are praying it alone. Right, he says,
this is pretty powerful. But yeah, he's an amazing priest.

(01:27):
I'll tell you more about our lunch. But how are
things going out there in Colorado?

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Geller Man, we lost summer all of a sudden, that
it's all cloudy and rainy has been for a weig
kind of a nice change, though. I guess it's going
to hitting the nineties again here in a couple of days,
so that would be nice. Get a little cool down
before he's back up, I guess.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
And I know you don't want somewhere to go, No,
I do not.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
You have a lot going on in your life, from
moving and all kinds of stuff. I think he touched
on that, how's the move going?

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Well, it's just crazy because, like I said, this priest
actually they just made him second in command to the
bishop as well, and so he just got this huge
promotion and he's really busy. And I worked with him
only for a few months several years back, but we
always had like this instant connection and really good friendship.
But it's not normal that we would even meet for lunch.

(02:13):
I might actually see him in person and sit down
and talk to him once a year. So it's interesting
that God arranged it because this was actually a lunch
I canceled. I was going to talk to him about
starting a grief support ministry and then this whole podcast
thing with you and I came up. And I had
emailed him and said, I think I'm meant to do
this and I can't do it all right now because
I'm moving and I'm starting a new job. And he said, no,

(02:36):
I definitely feel your call to media and it's great
that you're discerning that. And I had even said, so
we don't have to meet for lunch, I know how
busy you are, and he was like, no, let's go
ahead and still do it. So it got delayed a month,
but you know, God's timing, so I ended up meeting
with him. He took me to lunch. Actually I tried
to pay for it and he wouldn't let me. And

(02:57):
it was just like I felt Jesus just really coming
to me through him and blessing me before I'm about
to have to make this big move in two days,
you know, leave my home. And it's just like it's
the best of times and it's the worst of times.
I keep saying that because it's like such a deep
pain and sorrow. It's even you know, it feels like
it even feels like I'm losing my dog all over again, Tiko,

(03:19):
who I had here for ten years, and you know,
I put him down on He was on the front
porch and I have this little wind chimes that someone
gave me to commemorate him. And I was in the
yard and I was just remembering when when we first
moved in, how he would be running through the yard
with a stick in his mouth, and how my husband
sent me a picture that said Tiko's place and had
a little picture of Tiko. And it's just like, I

(03:41):
don't know, it's just like I'm leaving behind such a
huge part of my life and it's really sad. But
I definitely feel that God is calling me to do it,
and He's put so much just like lunch with father
or Fi happening right now, and everything I need kind
of just magically showing up. Like I was thinking I
need box. My neighbor's like, hey, I left you boxes

(04:02):
on your front. Everything I need I don't even have
to go get it. It's just like it's coming to me,
and that's cool. And then so father, fine, I We
have this conversation that goes from I can't even tell
you we fit like six months of a conversation into
an hour, and he's really big into Lord of the

(04:22):
Rings and like he even wants me to get a
group together, and he said he'd come over every Monday,
and he's like, there's nothing that would excite me more.
He's like, get two or three people together if you can,
but do it on a Monday because that's my day off,
and I'll come over and we'll like, nothing would excite
me more than two. He goes, He's funny because he's like,
do you want to hear this? Because I could really
geek out on bord of He goes, if you don't
really want to hear it, I won't say it. But

(04:43):
I'm like, no, I want to hear it because I
kind of I was like, well, what's it really even about?
Because I never read the books or saw any of
the movies. And he was like, okay, well, if you
really want me to tell you, and then he spent
you know, the next twenty minutes saying if there's nothing
that would make him happier than getting a little watch
party together, and he could see it through our eyes
people that hadn't seen it or experienced it before.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
Right, geek out?

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeah, he could geek out. So he tells me the
whole theme of it, and I guess what I want
to say. There's so much to say. We couldn't even
fit it in a whole episode. But because there's just
like there's so many miracles, and I think magic that
happens when when I'm giving the grace to have one
on one time with him, because he is such a
holy priest, and that's the miracle of holy priests. You know,
the world needs more of them. But I took a walk,

(05:27):
so I took a break from all my emergency responder
cardiac arrest How do you administer CPR videos I'm having
to watch right now. And I was like before this,
before we were doing the podcast, so like I need
to take a walk and process just everything that me
and Father Fi had talked about. And I'm thinking about
Lord of the Rings and I'm walking and I'm thinking
about my life and everything I'm going through, and this

(05:48):
is what came to me. And I'll just say this.
Before I know we were going to talk about like
these thirteen graces of suffering. But this kind of leads
into it because what God starts speaking to me, it's
just cool. Help Father File was saying, well, when you
have prophetic gifts, you can see an interconnection in a
deeper kind of story behind everything is. So I know

(06:10):
on the Lord of the Rings, the rings represent the
dark side of humanity. At least that's what he was
telling me. I don't know because I haven't watched it,
but God star speaking to me about the marriage ring
and marriage and how powerful marriage is. And that's and
every sacrament that he's in. You know, it's a sacrament,
and it's called a sacrament because it's sacred, and if
he's involved in it, there's enormous power and we overlook

(06:32):
that power. And he started just like breaking down marriage.
So I just want to do that for our listeners
because I'm living it and this could help some people.
It's very simple, but it's not easy, and I think
that's the whole spiritual journey. It's very simple, but it's
not easy. And so marriage, this is what God was
just saying on my walk. And I only have the

(06:53):
grace of I think because I had lunch with Father
five of getting it like this, but we get this
like fairy tale or Disney version. We think what marriage
is supposed to be all love and happiness and blah
blah blah. And it's what marriage actually is is a
deep inner healing to make us holy. And so when
two people come together what real love does, and it

(07:14):
can only be real love through the sacra, through the
sacrament of marriage, because Christ is involved. And if Christ
isn't involved, it's not real love obviously, because love comes
from Him, and you can't have the grace of real love,
which is suffering, without him being involved. But anyway, so
when he's involved, love opens up our wounds. And here's

(07:34):
the breakdown of it. What he gave me. Love opens
up our wounds. Real love does that because God can't
really get in there and heal them until they're opened up.
And what most people mistakenly do when we start getting
our wounds opened and triggered by love, it's painful. In
order to heal it, we're going to have to have
the courage to feel the pain and to God into it.

(07:55):
And our spouse already has the grace because of the sacrament,
to walk through the pain with us, to walk through
the fire with us and to hold that pain with
us and to help us. And that's the beauty and
the magic of marriage. But what we do a lot
of times instead of instead of being having the courage
to walk through the fire together and to be vulnerable
enough and courageous enough to face those wounds and invite

(08:17):
God in and say, okay, because we're all broken and
we all have wounds, and we all need healing in
certain ways, and love is going to expose that and
trigger that. And what people sometimes do is they get
scared instead of walking through the fire, at the first
sign of a little heat or a flame, they immediately
want to jump ship and run the other direction. And
they think, oh, you're causing me pains. I need to

(08:39):
get away from you. I'll just get divorced, get rid
of you, and then my problems are solved. And no,
you still have your wounds, you still need healing, and
you miss the opportunity, this powerful opportunity that God was
giving you in marriage to actually get those wounds healed
through the sacrament of marriage. And yes, He can still
heal them if you're on your own and dealing with God.
But the beauty of marriages. He was giving you somebody

(09:02):
that had the grace to walk through the fire with you,
and you would do it for them to you know,
it's mutual, and actually help each other heal that and
become holy. And of course you're going to have to
go through spiritual warfare because if you were to actually
heal and use that power of God's giving you in
marriage to heal your wounds and would come holy, then
you would be this powerhouse couple building up the Kingdom

(09:24):
of God. And Satan doesn't want that. So you know,
part of marriage is you are going to deal with
a lot of spiritual warfare too, And I think that's
important for people to understand.

Speaker 2 (09:34):
Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
That's basically what I got on my Lord of the
Rings discussion with Fotherfy at lunch.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
Well, you're right, it does segue into it. This is
more just kind of like introspective kind of fun and
all that kind of stuff, because like you're talking about
throughout the New and Old Testament, throughout the whole Bible,
it talks about people they're going to have to go
through tests in God, and a lot of people they
think they're being tested because they're being punished, or they
think they're being tested because it's all satan. They don't

(10:02):
really realize sometimes they're being tested because God's using them
to try and make them grow them stronger and spiritually
in all aspects of their life. So this guy, Joseph Materia,
he came up a thirteen tests that he thinks every
Jesus follow you know, he's going to have to face
and pass during their lifetime. So I guess, so all
these tests, I guess the whole thing is when you
hit when these tests, just pass it the first time,

(10:23):
then you don't have to take it again, right, right?

Speaker 1 (10:25):
If only it were that easy. Like I said, it's simple,
but not easy.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Okay, So as we go to see how we do
on these tests.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
Here, Yeah, let's see what you got.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
Good? What about the test of lack? I mean, how
do you act around God because your faith challenged or
anything when resources are scarce?

Speaker 1 (10:43):
Absolutely, I think that that's a cool test that he
wants us to rely on him and sometimes he'll take
resources away to prove to us that we can rely
on him and that He will show up for us.
And well, my perfect example is like I don't haven't
had health insurance for four months. And the last time
my cat bit me, I went to the clinic and
got a shot and got antibiotics. And because cat bites

(11:06):
can be bad, this time I had a lack of
health insurance, so I was forced to go, God, what
do you want me to do? Can't go to the clinic.
And he literally I heard him say, call Teresa and
do whatever she says. And then I was telling Father,
pry this too. It was like, she sends me this
text of this piece of paper that says here's how
he'll skin infections. And it's incredibly useful. And I thought, oh,

(11:27):
this is hippie dippy stuff. But I did it and
it's like hot water, cold water. Then you put a
graded potato on it. I did it three times and
it worked. It actually worked.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
Well, there you go. Yeah, the potato test a potato test.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
But yeah, I mean, in lack, I think God's wanting
us to rely on him more.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
Right now, we're only on the first test. But I'm
wondering though on some of these tests there'd be totally
different in different phases of life, like the test of lack.
Now you're getting ready to move, I bet moving now.
It's a lot different than when you were twenty thirty
years ago, when you were you know what you.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
Explain right right? Like I said, I was going to
be without like my furniture delivery for a week, and
I was thinking, when I moved here at twenty one,
it was kind of fun to sit on the floor.
My TV was on a box, and I didn't care
that I didn't have the money for a couch, and
I just waited till I could afford it. And now
I'm going, gosh, I wish my furniture gere soon.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
Yeah, it's kind of funny because you can handle the
lock easier when you're twenty, but you probably still trust
God more when you're fifty. Though.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
That's true, that's true. My faith is much stronger now.
But I think that's like you said on one of
the shows, like God's breaking me out of my comfort zone.
We get comfortable, and he doesn't want us to really
get comfortable, because we stopped growing when we're comfortable. So
when you're young, you're kind of used to not being comfortable.
You haven't really had a chance to get comfortable, so
you can adapt a little easier.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
Okay, the next test is the test of suffering. That
one really sucks for that's but that's one that you
definitely have to go through, and you definitely have to
to pass because I mean that's a big one. That's
kind of like going because basically that's one of those
big ones when your faith doesn't waiver. Then he passed
that one.

Speaker 1 (13:09):
Yeah, and you just went through a lot of suffering
with the loss of your mom and taking care of
her and and I mean loss is stuff, and we
all go through death and loss. That's that's a lot
of suffering.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
Yeah, and it's that once again, I think we'll just
stick with us. We're not our old us when we
were younger. So yeah, now you're just kind of like, Okay,
I know this is part of life. I know it's
going to get better, and I'm not going to falter
as much as I would have. I guess it's not age.
It has to do with your spiritual growth though. I mean,

(13:40):
if as long as you are really you firmly believe,
it makes it a lot easier to go through suffering.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
Yeah. And what God's shown me is that your your
prayers are a lot more powerful and have more merit
when you're suffering. I've learned that from listening to some
it's formation to like listening to Father Ripperger talk. He's
an exorcist that does a lot of very intellectual and
scholarly and he just talks about like when you have
merit and you really suffered. All the saints you know,

(14:06):
had a lot of merit because they had a lot
of suffering, and you do notice that God shows stuff
for you and your prayers are answered very quickly. I
have found when you're suffering, right.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
All right, the test of praise, Now, can you accept
accolades and applause and all that kind of stuff. Yeah,
without letting them go to your head. That's kind of important.

Speaker 1 (14:25):
It is important. Yeah, I think I don't think that's
a stumbling block for me personally. It might have been
when I was younger, not now. I've been through enough
suffering that I'm like, you know, walk up in the
middle of the night the other night to go to
the bathroom. And I don't know why I said this.
I think I said it out loud. I just said,
I am dust. I'm like, I felt the weight of

(14:45):
my humility, like I am nothing. I mean, without Christ,
we're all nothing. That's a good place to be. I
finally think I've gotten.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
There, right, And I think in that one too, where
it gets dangerous is you have had success and your
in your applause and your accolades and all that kind
of stuff. Then are you seeking the accolades more? Or
are you still after God's approval? I mean, are you
pushing God away me just because you just left her?
I mean even if you did a charitabac, let's see
somebody you helped a homeless person, you know, or you

(15:16):
built the homely shelter, okay like that, Oh you're so good.
Look at this homeless shelter you built and all this
kind of stuff that you did. Good. So I'm going
to build another homely shelter. But you're not building because
God to all the other day. You're doing it because
you want all those out of boyds, right right.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
I just think about Mother Teresa and how she always
refused to do interviews and she didn't want any attention
on herself, and she would always say, because I think
it's so important that we do have to continue to
ask God what he wants us to do, and we're
not doing checking our motives, that we're not doing it
for the wrong reasons, and you know she would she said,
I'm just the pencil and he's the hand that moves me.

(15:50):
And she did. She, you know, worked tirelessly for God.
She gave herself no credit whatsoever.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
A I was writing on my daily podcast was talking
about her other day came across another fact that after
she died, and you know, she was being prepped and
all that kind of stuff, they noticed her feet. You know.
Of course, when you saw videos, you said, well, that's
just because she's eighty years old. He's walking like that.
Her feet were all messed up because she would constantly
when the donations had come in, she would constantly take

(16:17):
the worst shoes out and if the shoes were worse
in the back, then she'd put her shoes back in there.
She always made sure that she had the worst shoes
that were going out to everybody.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
I know what a saint. I mean. I can't even
her level of humility. I don't think it's it's just
it's extreme. I'm not very I'm not on that level
for sure.

Speaker 2 (16:37):
Okay, this next test I want to be tested on.
I want God bringing on. It's the test of affluence.
Can you right? Can you be good? With God. When
he gives you wealth, can you handle it without corrupting
your soul? I want bring it on. Give me all
the money you want. I'll show you. I think I
can pass that one.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
I think I could too, because I've lived without it
for so long. But I don't know. No, we have to.
I think we always have to be careful because Satan's
so tricky. But yeah, I would like that test too.
I would like that test. It's like, I promise I'll
give like thirty percent to Saint Jude's every month.

Speaker 2 (17:14):
Well, and it would be a lot of cause there isn't.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
It right, it would. I could do a lot of
good with that money.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
But yeah, God's listening here. I don't want to get
to heaven and then say, hey, I never got my
test of wealth.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
Yeah that's what I want mine being tested on as well.

Speaker 2 (17:30):
This is when you're good with though test a spiritual warfare.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
No Lord, Yes, yeah, I've had. I feel like I'm an.
I feel like I should be promoted to general now
in the army for Mary. Yeah, that's a lot, you know,
Like I always tell us, we even have to pray
before we start this podcast, or the computer is going
to mess up and it's going to go down, and
it's just it's it's constant. But I guess that's good.

(17:54):
Someone said that if you're not, if you're not you know,
being attacked, and you're not, you're not playing for the
right team exactly, And.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
I think I think a lot of that one too, though,
is you have to recognize, you know, what you're up
against too, you know, because I mean it can come
at you in different ways. Because I think a lot
of these well what would you call pop culture trends
or something, you know, like got don't we don't want
to get a contra transgender and that kind of stuff
where people, oh, you know, we're being really nice to

(18:22):
these people and you're being mean if you don't believe
in them, Well then then if you don't stand for
what you believe, then you're you're losing the spirits or
what the devil got you. From a different angle, the ediency.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
Coming right, compromise, Yeah, like what Jesus told us, we
can't compromise our beliefs, Like we have to speak the
truth and love. You don't need to you're not supposed
to judge people, but but yeah, like you have to
speak the truth, and I actually did that. I worked
with the gay guy in the last job I had,
and it was difficult, but I think I did pass

(18:53):
that test. You know. I prayed for him. I loved him.
I told him I prayed for him. I never said outright,
I don't agree with your lifestyle or you need to
change something, but I just tried to live. I tried
to live, you know, as an example. And then one
time he did kind of talk about it. He said
he had a dream that his house burned down, and
he was like, Stephanie, what he didn't actually he said

(19:15):
what do you think that meant? And he was asking
three of us, not just me. He was like, what
do you think that meant? And I said, well, since
you're asking, because you know, I don't think we should
just I don't think we're called to just like bombard
people with our opinion if they're not asking. But I said,
I think since you're asking, and I said, I love
you enough to tell you the truth. I started with that.

(19:36):
I said, I love you enough to tell you the truth.
But I think we're entering a season where you're going
to see everything that's not built on Christ is going
to be burnt down in your house that you're living
in right now is not built on Christ. I said it.
He kind of ignored me. He ignored it and went
on with this day. But you know, we still talk
and we're still friends. So like we made it through that, right, And.

Speaker 2 (19:54):
I was kind of thinking about for me it kind
of the one that kind of cavers is abortion, because
you know the Hollywood and all that you know there,
How can you not even think abortions?

Speaker 1 (20:05):
Right?

Speaker 2 (20:05):
And so I think a lot of young guys and girls,
you know, just to fit in. Yeah, I think abortion
should be I hate this one. I disagree with it,
but I think it should be legal. I think that's
the biggest cop out you can possibly do. If it's
not right, why would you think it should be legal?

Speaker 1 (20:21):
It's crazy now, I will I had did stand up
for that one at my last job, but to the
point where I got in a heated argument with the
girl and I was like, she goes, I just want
and it ended with and it was it was wild.
I felt the Holy Spirit come down and like put
peace back between us because we had to work together.
And God is so good because I said up for
the truth that she goes, I just want young women
to have a choice. I said, I just want five

(20:44):
thousand babies a day not to be killed, or I
had the actual right figure in my head at the time,
I can't remember. I had just seen it at the
Dominican campus because they'll put signs out, you know. But
she was like, I just want young women to have
a choice and to have their freedom. And I said,
I just want five thousand babies a day not to
be murdered. And then it was a silence and we
went back to peace, and I was.

Speaker 2 (21:02):
Like, well, this one kind of follows that one. The
test of persecution. You still, you know, give God all
his credits even if you're getting your butt kicked for it.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
That one is hard.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
That one's really hard. Yeah, it's sitting there doing okay, Like, well,
let's just say that that you and that girl were
getting into it and your supervisor walked in and she
cited on that girl side, and then you got fired.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
Actually that did happen to me. It wasn't because of
that incident, but yeah, it was. It was because of
who I was and standing up for Christ that I
did get singled out and written up, and that's why
I left that job. So yeah, I do know what
persecution is like.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
And then and when we think about it's like what
you you went through there that just actually lose your job,
that some of these people and other places around the
world you talk about being persecuted for Jesus Man, they really.

Speaker 1 (21:52):
Have right to actually be killed, yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
Or even named or you know anything.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
You know, it's kind of like you, I know what
you were saying another day, the news never talks about it,
and like how many people died in Rwanda or it
was something like that, how many Christians were dying?

Speaker 2 (22:08):
Well, just the other day they came out in Uganda
they had one hundred and eighty Christians who were just killed.
And it never got on any national wire service anywhere.
Nobody ever figured it out at all. The Sudan they've
gotten some killed again, and I think not Ethiopia and
the other one Atrida they just had another massacre of
Christians there too.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
And so that's persecution because not to think about it
here in the United States, like sadly, when we're doing this,
we just found out that some Catholics got shot up
in at school up in Minnesota. Now that's you think
how bad that is? But that'll make the news. Some
of these other poor people, they're just being slaughtered out
in these small villages and no one even hears about
what they're going what they're dying for.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
Yeah, they don't, but you know, God, God knows. And
as I'm moving, you know, it's like throwing away a
lot of stuff and even like stuff from my parents,
and it's like, what does it even matter? Like our
life is and you know what the Bible says, it'll
be withered like the grass here today, gone tomorrow. With
all the stuff we accumulate, none of it really matters.
All that really matters at the end of the day

(23:09):
is I think, did you love and did you really
try to bring the lot of Christ throw you into
the world.

Speaker 2 (23:16):
You know, this next one might hurt the most, the
test of betrayal. Oh yeah, that one hurts a lot.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
That one hurts a lot. I think that's the most
painful thing that you can actually go through. And Christ
went through it.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
Too, right well, I mean, of course, with Judas, I
don't think people I don't know. With Peter, you know
what I'm saying, You're going to deny me, you know
you're going to do it. And of course Peter did,
and but you never really since he knew that was coming,
did it really hurt.

Speaker 1 (23:46):
It's like I think, you know, I just listened to
something talking about how much it hurt. It hurt Jesus
for Peter because Peter walked with him. And it's like
when when the when somebody that you that's supposed to
be your friend, that you know and that you love,
that you that you're walking alongside, betrays you. It's indifferent
than just somebody who you kind of never trusted, you know,

(24:08):
like he's somebody who was supposed to love you betrays you.
Then that that does really hurt.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
I think one of the biggest betrayals, well, Judas would
be the biggest betrayal in probably world history, I would
have to think. But I think number two it might
be Daniel with his son, you know, trying to take
his dad's throne. That was a pretty bad one.

Speaker 1 (24:25):
Yeah, to do that to your own father, Yeah, and
he did. Well. I'll share a little thing that you know,
one day I was crying my eyes out in the
in the Adoration chapel about just everything going on in
my life, and Jesus put me in my place, and
I loved. I love how he does that. He said,
how do you think I felt, Stephanie, how do you
think I felt? I gave my life? I suffered all this?

(24:46):
And yeah, I know what. I know what rejection feels like.
I know what betrayal feels like. Like he took it
all on. We've all even even you know, you and
I everybody, We've all rejected him at some point in
our life. We've all betrayed him. And he was, you know,
all loving and perfect and didn't deserve it, right.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
You know this is a total side. Do you want
to go? Do you carefully swerve a little?

Speaker 1 (25:08):
No?

Speaker 2 (25:10):
This is one of the coolest stories I think I've
ever heard. It was a man, It was the black
guy up in Chicago, and he had been doing that,
working to do everything to try and keep his son
and his family intact in a really bad neighborhood up there.
Well as son ended up getting shot in the drive
by shooting. And I think this is just gonna I
don't know, I don't know anyway. So he was in

(25:32):
church and he was mad at God, which I think
it's okay to be mad at God. That proves that
you love him. He was mad at God, and he said, God,
where were you when my kid got killed? And he said, fame,
same place I was when mine was killed. Oh wow,
I thought, Wow, that's a pretty deep concept kind of
what you said. How Jesus you know? God, you know?

Speaker 1 (25:53):
And and and that's the glory of Mary, you know.
And Protestants don't get. While we love Mary so much,
she lost her husban. She knew from the moment she
accepted the angel's request that her son was going to
be beating and bruised and killed for our sins. And
she she said, yes, I'll do it. Her loyalty to
God never wavered. She knew the suffering she was taken on,

(26:14):
and she had to watch her son be brutally murdered
and killed for our sake. And so yeah, there's no
suffering that we go through that Mary hasn't been through
as well. That's why she's such a good mother.

Speaker 2 (26:25):
Now, this one's a tough one, but not like okay,
that test of delayed answers to prayers.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
That is a hard one too. Yeah, that is a
hard one because you don't you don't get your prayers
answer right away. Sometimes God will tell you something in it,
maybe years before he actually.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
You know, and that's why throughout the Bible of the
numerous times when God was taken too long, somebody else
tried to just do God's job for him and it
never turned out. Well wow, so yeah, you go back
to Abraham and Sarah.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
Yeah, it pays to have patience, which is a hard
lesson to line. That's a hard virtue to get anyway.
I think I'm not the most patient person, but I'm learning.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
And that's that's another one. Like you said, you know,
patient and persistence. Okay, so let's say that you're praying
for something. We'll make it superficial. God didn't need a car.
I'm tried to taking the bus, you know, give me
a car. I need a car guard. Let me figure
out how to go. Well, you ask God for a
car for a month every day I went with then
you stop. You know, well why would he then give

(27:29):
you the car? You know, I mean this is pretty simplistic,
but I'm just trying to you know, you got to
keep that in God. You know, you know, you can't
just stop.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
No, you can't stop. And He's shown me he doesn't
allow me to stop praying for things that he's put
He knew like that there was a there's a Bible
verse that talks about like the desires of your heart.
He gives you the desires of your heart, and he
wouldn't give them to you if he didn't want to
fulfill it. So if it's truly a desire from God,
he's going to fulfill it. You just got to keep,
like you said, persistent, patience, and when he thinks you're ready,

(28:01):
not when you think you're ready. When he thinks you're ready,
he'll give it to you. Well.

Speaker 2 (28:05):
And the reason I think that you need to be
persistent when you read the Bible, do you sometimes in
your head is when you're hearing the story, do you
kind of in your head create character of what the
people look like. So there's the story of this old
woman and she goes to this judge every day and
she wants I don't remember what she's even after, and
she's like going, he asks this judge against some neighbor

(28:27):
or something. She's asking a judge for something. Judge is like,
I'm not giving it to you. Judge is like, and
she does this for a long time, every single day.
So finally the judge just says, all right, I'm giving
it to you. I'm tired of hearing it, you know,
and then it's all yours, take.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
It right and leave me alone, right.

Speaker 2 (28:44):
And Jesus kind of says, well, if that's all she got,
just imagine what your father would give you if you
keep asking him, right. And so I think it's kind
of as a human being, you get tired of somebody
keep asking you. But God he might use it to
kind of like, Okay, you said your personally, you earned it,
and I'll.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
Give it to you, know exactly. Yeah, perseverance is a
great virtue to ask for.

Speaker 2 (29:10):
Lack of affirmation Now that one is kind of under
the radar one. You know. It's when people don't realize
what you're doing. You know, are you still keeping it?
Nobody knows what if you're going and you're cleaning the
church every day or twice a week, let's say you're
going in, you're cleaning the bathrooms and all this kind
of stuff, and no one knows about it. You know,
after about six months, do you want somebody to just say, hey,

(29:33):
step you're doing a great job man, or do you
just kind of nobody cares? Why am I doing this?

Speaker 1 (29:39):
I have seen myself grow out of that. I used
to be that why, like you said, and you know
I did. It's working for the church. There were times
that I would go do things that I was trying
to offer up to God, just like use this for
some you know, somebody suffering or whatever, and not want
any credit or anyone to see that I had done something.
But then you do do It's just I think of

(30:01):
spiritual worker. The devil gets in your head and go,
you're working so hard, nobody cares, nobody acknowledges you, and
everybody takes you for granted. I mean, it's just those
lies that you got to watch out for. But I
don't know, I think that's the that's the refining fire
of suffering. I think once you suffer to a certain degree,
you do learn that when you offer things up and
you do them in secret, if your Father in heaven

(30:24):
sees you and he does bless you, and you do
get to the point where that's really all you care
about if you keep at it, which, like you said,
persistence is the key there.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
Right, And I only you do have to believe that, Okay,
nobody knows what I'm doing here. Well, one person does know,
and he at some point you will be recognized for it.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
Yeah, God knows, and like he'll show me, he sees me,
and he'll he'll bring little things that happen, and it's
like it's like even today something happened. I wanted to tell.
It's like I think I almost texted you and I
was like, oh my gosh, like this happened. It was
so miraculous. And then God's like some things can just
be between us, Stephanie, like like I did this for you.

(31:02):
You don't have to tell anybody the minute. You know,
Like sometimes I need to learn just to like accept
some of His goodness and I don't have to always
tell everybody.

Speaker 2 (31:10):
Yeah, I mean it's not a bad thing because you
are trying. You're not taking credit for it. You want to.
I want everybody to know God's power and God's in
as long as you know, I'm cool. So he didn't, yeh.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
Right, So I guess it's just discernment because some things
He does want you just to keep to yourself. But
and but you're right, like we do heal people from
our testimonies and just to let people know how awesome
God is, and yeah, He's good.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
This one frustrates everybody anybody who loves Jesus and you've
gone through this your test of God's silence.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
Oh yeah, that's a hard one.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
When you go a week or something your are you
still up there? I mean what I'm not feeling you,
I'm not hearing from you. What is going on here?

Speaker 1 (31:54):
You know? I have to say that he must think
I'm so weak, and so I'm so saint like and
so weak that he doesn't. He's always showing up for me.
Almost I start crying out for like confirmation and consolation,
and I'm almost always get it because I don't think
I could go. I think I would literally fall apart
if I was in the I'm not strong enough. You
see the Saints go through those periods, but I don't

(32:16):
think I'm strong enough to go through that silence. Well,
because if I don't hear from him for like a
few hours, I'll be like, have you abandoned me? I mean,
I'm like, have you abandoned me? Are you still there?
How can I get through this without you? And then
he shows up?

Speaker 2 (32:29):
Well, you've read your Bible a lot, so I'm just saying,
and you should know this is coming. Like you said,
the Saints are went throught they did. I know everybody
in the Bible wondered, where are you a God? Yeah,
but nothing could be as bad as Job. And if
he was able to do it, I think we can
all do it.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah, I guess so. But even even he got to
the point where he was like, I'd be better if
I was never born, he was like, God, this is awful.

Speaker 2 (32:53):
Not only did he say, but his wife should.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
It's like when you talk about this damitia between that's
why this guys going through everything and his wife's telling
he stupid for believing in.

Speaker 1 (33:02):
God, right, and people want to skate over his suffering,
Like I don't know, Like, yeah, he did get restored
double everything like his but even if God brought me
the best dog in the world, it wouldn't you know,
he lost all his children, and he did have more children,
but I'm sure he grieved those children. I mean, you
can't replace like I know, if you can give me

(33:23):
any dog, this awesome dog, and it would never take
the place of Tiico. I'm gonna miss Tiko till the
day I die, and I still have dreams about him
and every like I just think, like, you know, even
though Job got all this stuff, back, he still lived
with a suffering and a grief his whole life.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
I'm sure, right, you know this next one I'm pretty
good at sometimes with's that one people unconditionally?

Speaker 1 (33:46):
Oh good, Yeah, I like that one. I like that
one because I've actually learned how to do that too,
just recently, Like I feel like I've been tested in
it recently. And actually I think betrayal is part of
the process, because how do you know you can love
someone sez he loves some one if they're always like
good to you. But you don't know that you can
love someone unconditionally until you've experienced betrayal, I think.

Speaker 2 (34:07):
Right, betrayal or not even well. When I always think
about like love your enemy, I always kind of think
of like soldiers, you know, like and war and you
know you're fighting and someone's hurt. It's like and you
were just trying to kill me, and I have to
give you water and medical aid, you know, and that
kind of stuff. Right, But it can still be the same.
It can be something simple like you're at work and

(34:28):
you're up and for a promotion against somebody else and
they get the job. You know, it's kind of like
can you be happy for them and it really sucks
for me. But okay, congratulations. That's kind of hard, right.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
Yeah, it's to love unconditionally too. I think it's it
does require that you're willing to suffer for that person,
because I mean Christ loved us unconditionally and he was
willing to suffer and die for us. So that that's
a hard one. That that's a hard one because I
don't know that I would be willing to suffer for everybody.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
Well, this is one that I use to win the argument,
but we're not going to going to it out here.
Do you believe love is an emotion or is an action?

Speaker 1 (35:04):
I believe it's an act of your will.

Speaker 2 (35:06):
That's right. That's what I think too, because a lot
of people think love is totally and emotional, and I
think love emotions are involved, but love itself is all
in action, you know, like God so loved the world,
he sent his son Jesus, so love is done, you know,
And so like you love somebody, it's the actions you
do for the respects you show them. You know, you
can you can be totally in love with somebody, but

(35:27):
you think is emotional. But if you're not gonna do
anything to help them out, Well, then you don't really
love them, right.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
And emotions come and go. I mean, emotions are up
and down. But when I say an act of your will,
what I mean is it resides in your spirit more
so than your heart or your mind, you know, like
it's an act of forgiveness, is an act of your
will too. I've learned that through spiritual warfare you can
you can be still angry at somebody, very hurt by

(35:54):
somebody devastated, but you can still say, as an act
of my will, I choose to forget this person.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
That is the where I hopeing you were going with
that one, Because in order to love unconditionally, you have
to be able to forgive.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
You can't do it absolutely.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
Yeah, there's no way you can live under conditioning and
not forgive. I mean that's most of the time. That's
I mean, it can like, like we've talked to all
of them, love, un betrayal, all that kind of stuff.
You're going to love unconditionally like Jesus did, and like
God does. You know, you have to forgive and that's
one of the biggest hardest things not to do.

Speaker 1 (36:27):
But really it's I think it all comes down to surrender,
because I don't think we can forgive or love unless
we have completely surrendered our will to Jesus and then
he gives you the grace. And it's like without that
grace as humans in a broken world or a fallen world,
I don't think we have the ability to love or
forgive really deeply.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
Right, And I think people we need to since where
I forgetness O keep people I think get the wrong impression.
You know, they think it makes them weak if they
forgive and all that kind of stuff. Now, when you
forgive somebody back, if you said you have fired and
that other girl whatever things, Now you forgave that person
who fired you. Now you aren't hoping for her to

(37:08):
get a new car or something.

Speaker 1 (37:10):
Yeah, it doesn't mean I like her. I don't have
to like her. Yeah I do not like her. Let
me make that clear.

Speaker 2 (37:16):
And when you forgive them, it's yeah, okay, I forgive you.
I don't know what your whole story is. God knows,
and that's God's taken care of it. But plus frees
you up.

Speaker 1 (37:25):
It does. And a priest said this one time and
it helped me a lot. He said, forgiveness is really
just you wish them. You wish good for them, you
wish conversion for them, and you don't wish bad things
on them. It doesn't mean you have to like them
or want to hang out with them or you know,
go to dinner, but you just you want their conversion.
Really is what you want.

Speaker 2 (37:46):
And it's like, like we said, to love somebody unconditionally.
I mean it's because there are some people that I
think the hardest part to do if you're going to
actually ant commis night you have to be able to
love people who are unable that they're and they can't
accept love. That they'd be the hardest ones you'd have
to do. And I think you've really been in that.
Some of these people they can't accept love, and that

(38:07):
how do you love them?

Speaker 1 (38:08):
Yeah, it's like you just have to love them in
your spirit, I guess and not and you can pray
for them because there's really nothing else they're going to
accept from you. I mean, there's nothing that they're going
to accept from you if they can't receive love, like
you said, so you just you can pray for them
and then hopefully they receive that in some way.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
Right, And you think about these horrible crimes that are done.
And then lots of times, not a lot of them,
lots of times you'll hear somebody who'll go, Okay, I
forgive them. You know, they like they murdered and murdered
their kid or something like that. In order for me
to move on, I have to forgive them. So basically,
you're loving somebody that's unlovable, you know, it's like this
despicable human being. And so that's actually tougher than I

(38:47):
thought when he first started talking about it.

Speaker 1 (38:49):
When yeah, I mean, and I don't think it means
that you have to really like them. You can will,
they're good, and forgiveness is like a freeing thing for you.
It's just means you're not going to hold onto the
pain and the anger anymore.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
That's a tough one though, That unconditional love. It's easy
in uh, basically in a social setting or something you know,
and a group like pretty much anybody your church or
your work or something like that, you could just yeah, okay,
you know I don't like her, but you know it's
easy for me to unconditionally love you. Just you know,
I hope you're good as a Christian, and God can

(39:24):
deal with what a bad person you are, you know,
but right, but when you deal when you throw in
the rest of the world. I mean, you have you're
driving down the street and not even doing anything, and
you have somebody cut you off and then flip you off,
and I like that. It's like, you know, I really
have to love them. Look at them their jerks.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
I know, I know it's hard to eat. I mean
it helps to realize, like everybody's wounded, and everybody's you know,
reacting from those wounds. But there are some genuinely just
bad people out there that you know, I don't know.
I don't think we have to.

Speaker 2 (39:54):
I don't know, well, because we already said though it's
not an emotion, so right, you can have like a
serial o killer and you don't have to feel anything
good for him. Well, what do you have to do
is love? If it's actually an action. You have to
make sure they got food, you have to make sure
they got water. You know, that's basically your act of
love is all your you know, that's pretty much your

(40:14):
actor love.

Speaker 1 (40:15):
I would say you pray for their conversion because I
can feel that that seems like rational and logical to me,
Like even if it's a serial serial killer, somebody who
molests children. So you know, doing something that you think
is horrible and like, well, you deserve to go to
hell for that, or you kick a dog in mind,
you deserve to go to hell for that. But but

(40:36):
I can say I can love somebody in the way, Well,
I pray for your conversion. So I pray for your
heart to deeply understand what you've done wrong and change.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
Actually, I think that's all it really matters, is if
you're even if you're not, if you're not capable. Like
let's say a woman's in an abusive relationship with her
husband and beats her up and all this kind of stuff, Well,
as long as she prays for him, I think that's
all God cares about. It's like going, it's going to
help her move on, and she doesn't have to have
any contact with him, know nothing. But if she praised,
you know, God, please help him know that he did

(41:05):
bad and all that kind of stuff. That's all he
needs to do, right, And.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
That is love, because all God cares about is the
conversion of our heart.

Speaker 2 (41:11):
Right. I think this one might be the most personal.
What the test of physiological pain? So basically, how do
you glorify God? When your body's failing you, like it's
sick or you're hurt or anything like, you know, when
something's wrong like throw you got a big old cat
fight that gets all infected and it's sore and they're
thinking about cutting off your arm. You know, how do

(41:33):
you glorify God when you're going through something like that?

Speaker 1 (41:35):
That's a hard one. And well, like we talked about
all in Ice, that guy, that prophet, I'll listen to
that I like a lot. And he was about to
be a professional athlete and now he's in a wheelchair
for ten years and him and said he went through
like a year of depression and suicidal thoughts, but now
he overcame it. Now he's like doing so much for God.
And I think you have to get past the pity party.

(41:56):
And once you get past the pity party, then then
you can finally Even with my situation now, it's like
once I got past the pity party, and it still
comes up on me every day. Like I said, I
give myself like five minutes to cry day and then
after that I'm like, Okay, that's enough, and now I
can watch melrose Place or whatever. I've been watching melrose
Places because it's a good escape, and it's actually pretty

(42:18):
clean because you don't realize the TV shows from the
nineties were so much cleaner and better than today. Like
but yeah, so when you're suffering and it's something physical, Yeah,
but you got a lot of power in your prayer.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
Yeah, I mean, you got the one rugby player. But
there's a lot of people who can't get over that
pity pottery.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
I think God really uses that to purify people though.
I Mean, there's a guy the apartment complex I used
to work at, this poor guy, and the more I
got to know him, so we would go get his
trash because he wasn't that old. He was maybe in
his early sixties, and he every other day he would
call and he'd be like, Okay, now my lungs are failing,

(42:57):
my heart's failing, and I'm on these die things. He
had so many things wrong with him, and so we
would go get his trash and take take his trash
out for him, and we would always call to check
on him, like once a day and say do you
need anything from the grocery store or anything like that.
At one point he asked me that if I would
start coming over once a day and changing his bandages
on his back because he couldn't reach him. And we
started talking and he's the sweetest guy, and he was

(43:20):
the most positive guy, and I would At first, I
was like, how is he so positive when he's got
so many things wrong with him and he could die
at any moment. And then I started realizing he'd telling
me his stories about his younger years. He was pretty wild,
and he partied it up, and he drank a lot,
and he corralsed a lot, and he was with a
lot of women, and he would get on boats, and
he had money, and it's just funny, like he recognized

(43:42):
that he had basically been living up his life and
living the shallow life and that he didn't have God
in it. Now he reads the Bible every day, and
it was like, but he has this joy in this
peace that he will tell you suffering brought to him
through the physical failing of his body. And that was
so amazing to me.

Speaker 2 (44:00):
Yeah, because I believe it, because like when you uh,
when you read the Bible, like Jesus's apostles after he died,
you know, they'd be all in prison and beaten, being
scourged and all kinds of stuff and they loved it.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
You know.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
It's like, yes, I'm closer, and I was like, how
in the world can you how? You know, It's like
I love it, Jesus, but this really hurts.

Speaker 1 (44:19):
It's just like, I don't know. The more the more
we go through the fire, the more we're purified, and
then the more we can actually connect to God and
then you actually feel joy. It's it's a weird.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
Thing, that's true. Yeah, the last one we've kind of touched.

Speaker 1 (44:32):
On I had all the way through thirteen.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
Yeah, I don't. I don't. I don't want to get
graded though, I won't write to go ahead. This is
the test of delayed promises, you know, so how can
We've talked about unbund their prayers and all that kind
of stuff, but this, when you you've been in your soul,
you know you've been promised this, you know, because like
I guess it'd be David. You know when he You're

(44:55):
gonna when they annoyed him, You're going to be king someday. Okay, well,
now I have to to deal with all this. So
if you see something going on, like okay, you're in Nashville,
how many of these people in there believe that they're
called to be singers and it's just not taking. They're going,
they're trying, and they're trying. Can you still have hope
and patience as you're trying for these promises you believe

(45:16):
are coming.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
I think the answer to that is what God's been
teaching me is to live in the present moment. And
the answer again is simple but it's not easy. That
should be our title for this podcast. Simple but not easy,
like living in the present moment. Even father, if I
said that today I started talking about something in the future,
I started talking about some prophetic stuff, and he was like,
one day at a time, Stephanie, one day at a time.

(45:38):
And I'm like, yeah, that's that's where we find peace,
is just the present moment. Because well, my neighbor, I
love that she's always she thinks she's going to die
any moment, all the time, and she's like, none of
us may be here tomorrow. She's always in that we
may be gone tomorrow, Stephanie, we may be gone tomorrow.
So like she's asking me if I'll need a help
moving and I was like, no, I'm okay, and she's like, well,

(45:59):
we may be we may be gone tomorrow. I might
not even be here to help you tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (46:03):
So well, that doesn't look like a lot of hope.

Speaker 1 (46:07):
No, but I mean that's the key to happiness really
is living in the present moment and just like I think,
trying to function with Okay, God, what do you want
from me right now? And what can I be grateful
to you for right now?

Speaker 2 (46:22):
Yeah, and reading after we took the test and all
that kind of stuff basically from just the I don't know,
just the don't get inside. I mean, just keep your faith.
I mean, all these bad things are going to happen
to you. It happens to everybody. It's happened to everybody
throughout history. So don't just think that you're the one
being picked on. Just kind of suck it up, keep
believing and move on.

Speaker 1 (46:42):
And like you said, the promise in the good News
is that we have eternal life, and that's what you know,
I guess we should be you know, Father five, It's
funny things keep coming up from the lunch. He's only
thirty seven, and he started talking about lot. He goes up.
He's very quirky. I love him because he's quirky. He's
like I try to think a lot about when I'm
going to die. He goes, I've been trying to He goes,

(47:04):
have you spent a lot of time with dying people?
And I was like, no, not, not really, and he's like,
well I have. And he goes, when I'm annoyinging them
and they're about to die, and even my mom and
dad they're starting to lose their sight, and he goes,
you know, I've got a lot of energy right now,
but I know that's going to go away. God's going
to start taking things away from my body. And I
try to really focus on that. And all the saints

(47:25):
did that, like try to focus. They say, the more
you can focus on the end of your life, the
more maybe the better or the happier you'll live today.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
I guess I don't know. I think as a priest,
you're you're you're you've got death to deal with every
day almost. I mean something someone's either going to die,
they have died, or they're scared of dying, and so
they come to you. So you have to deal with
death all the time. So of course you're getting no
matter how old you are as a priest, you're going
to be thinking about it because it's going to be
constantly in your mind, but I don't.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
Know, it probably get morbid to you. But I think
what I'm trying to say is it puts into perspective
maybe all the silly things that would stress us out
or we worry about what I.

Speaker 2 (48:05):
Think a lot of it too. If you accept it,
you know, it's kind of like these people who're still
in their back of their mind. I think maybe they'll
be the one that can cheat it. There's something like that,
you know, maybe they can beat it. But if you
accept it, Okay, I'm going to die, and as long
as you totally believe you're going to have and you
totally believe in God and you're good with that, well
that's I think that's all you really need.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
Yeah, And then you start, let if you know you're
going to die then and you know your days are numbered,
then maybe you'll try to live, you know, just get
get the most out of it while you while you're here.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
Yeah, And that that's that'd be the vice, he Mike.
Just enjoy it. You know it's gonna be all gone
way too fast. But then you get these morbid people
than depress them kinds of what's the matter. Then I shouldn't.
You know what, It doesn't matter. Well, I'm going to
die anyway, it doesn't matter whether they do this or not.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
Right, No, I'm not. I don't think we should live
that way. And as and as heartbroken as I am,
I'll go back to my dog. Analogy is that I
lost Tiko. I would not try. I had him for
sixteen years and he brought me so much joy and
so much love and comfort. I would not trade those
sixteen years that I had with him for the pain
that I have to, you know, live the rest of
my life with because he's gone.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
Well, you know what, And I just on my daily podcast,
I end with somebody who died that day in a
quote from him a couple of days ago. From that,
a couple of days ago from Neil Armstrong, you know,
the first guy on the moon.

Speaker 1 (49:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:24):
The quote I read from Neil was, every person has
a finite number of heartbeats. I don't want to waste
any of mine.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
Well, I love that. That's beautiful. And then there your
cat jumps in your lap. Now, which one is.

Speaker 2 (49:36):
That the old he's the oldest one. He's the old timer.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
He's pretty solid black.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
Yeah, So it's a how do you think we So
you said, how confident you about dealing with those thirteen
think you can handle? Mom?

Speaker 1 (49:49):
I think they're challenging, but I guess that's what That's
what life's here for, right, Like we're in training for heaven.
That's how I view it, Like we're in training for heaven.
And when you're in t for something, you're gonna be
working out and it's going to be painful and hopefully
you're building up some strength.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
Yeah, and I was kind of joking about it. It's
kind of true. Once you pass one, then you can
move on and worry about the others too.

Speaker 1 (50:13):
Yeah, that's true. That's true. It's a little easier. I
deal with spiritual warfare a little easier now than I
did in the past.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
That is cool. So when all you out there listen,
thank you for joining. Hey, if you go to coolmedia
dot com, it's cool with three us and you'll go
on to these days with these times of Jeff and
Steph and you go on there. There is a little microphone.
All you have to just click on that and you
can either just leave a voice message or you can
actually type something in if you want to hear us

(50:43):
talking about something or you can even join us and
give us your story about from a Catholic point of
view and how God's affected your life. We'd love to
talk with you, right, Steff, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
Please leave a comment and give us feedback any show
ideas you'd like to hear us kind of go over
let us know right.

Speaker 2 (50:59):
Well, thank you for joining another episode of These Days
that Jeff and Steph Oh, here's hoping that you don't
lose

Speaker 1 (51:04):
Hope absolutely, and remember we're all in it together in
these times.