A (0:01)

We're so done with new Year, new you. This year it's more you on Bumble. More of you shamelessly sending playlists, especially that one filled with show tunes. More of you finding Geminis because you know you always like them. More of you dating with intention because you know what you want and you know what? We love that for you, someone else will too. Be more you this year and find them on Bumblebee.

B (0:27)

Hello and welcome to who is she? A podcast sharing the voice I wish I had in my 20s and navigating how to thrive in your 30s. I'm your host, Danielle, and I'm so glad you're here. This is a safe space to talk through all the in between moments, consider different perspectives, and ultimately go for the life we want to live. Get comfortable and let's get started. Hi, guys. Hi, it's me. I'm so happy to be back with you. Life updates. I have taken on two 4 week old Foster puppies and I have had my hands full. Okay, These little things are pooping everywhere. They're pooping everywhere. They're running through it and they're just little babies. They don't know they need help. Okay. And I don't really know what I was thinking, but I got inspired from someone that I work with who fostered like a whole litter of little baby pit bull puppies. And I just, my heart melted and I work from home and so I just thought, hey, I should do that. And now here I am, I think shout out to Humane Society, specifically of Silicon Valley, but all the humane societies and shelters and stuff, because number one, the work that they do is just incredible. And number two, I've been in situations where getting involved with non profit organizations is actually like really difficult because they're so underwater all the time with what they need to get done that adding new people in is like a hard thing. Like they're not scaled to be able to do that well. But my experience onboarding with the Humane Society of Silicon Valley and I hopefully it's the same like across all humane societies was really easy. Like I applied online, I got outreach from a couple people with information and like next steps. Almost immediately I got accepted to be a foster and had like a volunteer mentor reach out to me to answer all my questions and then was able to schedule pickup of these puppies like within the same week. And it was kind of cool and refreshing to be able to jump in to volunteering or charitable work without kind of like that delay, like even getting plugged into a church sometimes. Because of that reason where everyone's so underwater and it's pretty much all volunteer work anyway, it takes forever. This was not that. The other thing I want to shout out is if you have been thinking about fostering 1000%, you should do it at least with HSSV, Humane Society, Silicon Valley, they will opt for taking like, let's say, okay, I have four week old puppies, the policy and you know, I've seen some comments on this. It's not my choice, it's the way that the world works because they're trying to be responsible in getting these pets homes and not having overpopulation of animals that people can't care for. But anyway, the puppies get spayed and neutered at eight weeks. And so for my case I was like, I will try to do the whole thing. I'm going to take these puppies from four weeks to eight weeks, which is one month. But in my conversations it was made very clear that, you know, this is an ongoing thing. Communicate with us what you need and we'll make it work. If that means you need to bring them back, that's totally fine. We will figure it out. And on the flip side of that too is we would rather take someone who can give one or two weeks out of the four weeks than nothing at all. So I thought that was really cool because I kind of just envisioned it in my mind as something that you have to go all in for which the care and the level of care you have to provide. Yes. But if you only have a week or two, or you only want to try it for a week or two, that's available as well. And then you bring them back and someone else picks them up. So it's kind of a cool thing that they've got set up for. So if you work from home and you have the bandwidth and capacity, you got a little extra love in your heart, you want some puppies or even there are foster dogs. The other thing I learned, this is so cool going on a whole rabbit, rabbit hole here. The other thing I learned is that in addition to doing traditional fostering for like adult dogs, they have a couple different programs for like doggies day out. So you can literally pick up a foster dog and just have a day with them, take them to the park, take them to the beach, take them, you know, to have the best day ever. And then you drop them off at night after they've had the best day ever with you. And that's like doggy's day out. I don't know what it's actually called. And they have like an overnight program. So if you don't want to take a long term foster, you can bring them home for the night and just have a sleepover. Like, so there's so many different ways that you can get plugged in that it's not just like a, yep, I've got these dogs until they're adopted and you know, you're just locked down. You can give parts of your time without fully committing. You know what I mean? And something is better than nothing. So that was a really cool thing that I learned this week. Okay, so the topic of today is something that is just rapidly unfolding before my eyes. I've had revelation in the last two weeks where I've really been applying this and it has been, it's been wild. Like things that I, I guess I've always believed could be unchanged and I have no power over. That's false because I have a connection with God. I have the ability to connect and ask God for things. So we're talking about prayer and I guess when I'm, you know, introing this, I've just been praying and stuff has been happening, all kinds of stuff, emotionally, physically, mentally. And it really started I shared on Instagram with like a miraculous, physical, healing prayer. And that was coupled with praise and worship. So that's like a whole other dimension. But basically the long story short, because some of this might be a repeat for you, but the summary version is I was on schedule to be on the worship team for a week or two and we're going into a worship, praise and worship series where we're just really like entering into God's presence with the highest praise, which unlocks so many blessings and also confuses the enemy and allows you to enter a different dimension of prayer with him. And it's just this whole thing. And I also simultaneously had this lump on my throat, which I had an ultrasound on, and it turned out to be a cyst. And it was already a blessing because this could have been something really bad with my thyroid. So God was already like going before me, protecting me, all of that. And basically I started praising and worshiping God and praying a healing prayer over myself and laying hands on myself, just putting my fingers right on my throat where the lump was. And the lump used to be so visible that I was getting messages and DMS and even emails, if you can believe it, of concerned people who follow me, wanting to make sure I'm okay and doing the right steps. And it was visible. And now it's shrunk so much that you cannot see it to the naked eye. And I. The update for you guys, like, I. I'm still in communication with my doctor. I believe that God gives us also different tools on earth in order to solve problems. So, like, God gives us knowledge that is applied through doctors that can then provide healing. It's not just, you know, there's no limit to how, how much God can work. So I'm still in communication with my doctor. I said, hey, why don't we just, like, watch this and see if it keeps shrinking? He's like, sounds good to me. So it was a cool way to back into this because a physical healing in my body, to me, when I think about it, feels so extreme. But it opened up the perspective in my mind to be like, yeah, I could pray for anything or pray over anything, and God can work. God can do anything. It just gave me a new level of faith because I'd never had the opportunity, which is also a blessing. I've never had something physically wrong with me to the point of needing prayer over it. Hallelujah. Praise Jesus for that. But I did, and this, this was my testimony, and that's what happened. So from that point, I just was like, okay, there's no limitation here, so why don't I just go buck wild with this? And I started praying over other things. And I also got really inspired by some other Christian creators. Ali Yost, who is just a breath of fresh air. She's becoming my Whitney Simmons. I mean, they're just so different. But, like, you know when you get obsessed with someone online and you just love everything they do and they make you feel good and they make you think differently. She's really hitting home for me lately and pulling me closer to Jesus, which is really cool. And I think that's the whole point. But she. She's talked a lot about prayer. I've listened to her episodes of. She has her own podcast, Christ with Coffee on Ice, that is a specifically Jesus focused podcast. So if you're looking for that type of content, definitely check out Ali Yost, Christ with Coffee on Ice. But anyway, I've listened to a couple of her podcast episodes. I've listened to some of the collabs she's done with other Christian creators. And I've just been really inspired. And so that, coupled with my own experience and testimony over that prayer of healing and my body being healed, has led me to the point where I have started to pray over everything frequently. And I. I don't even know where to Start with this. So I'm gonna just. I'm just gonna talk. You know when you feel. You start to get feelings, right? Sadness, anger, anxiety, worry, panic, whatever. And I'm leaning more negative emotions here. Okay. Because we don't typically. And we'll get to that in a second. We don't typically feel the need to pray when there's nothing wrong. But I find that I don't remember to pray when it's just like an inkling of a feeling. And I've started to do that, and it is so powerful. Like, when I. There's been something that I've been dealing with for the last, like, couple weeks, like, mentally, emotionally, and. And everything's fine. It's not like, dire. It's just something like. It's a recurring cycle. It's a pattern that I've identified. It's something that, like, is not new to me, but it's all the same familiar feelings. And. And it's like. Even when I'm talking about it, I'm starting to get. So we'll do this in real time, okay? I'm starting to get, like, heightened. I'm starting to get, like, that anxious feeling. And what I've been doing is just in that moment. The second. And I just snap my hands. The second that I start to feel that feeling, I start to pray. And I'll say something like, lord God, I thank you so much that you are the God of every everything. And God, I thank you that you do not give me a spirit of fear or anxiety, but of peace and love and a sound mind. God. And I. I thank you, Jesus, that you can remove this from me right now in your name, because it is not from you. I thank you, Lord, that you remove this fear, this anxiety, this spirit of pressure from me, God, and I thank you for it in Jesus name, and it is done in your name. And I'll just sit in that for a minute and then I'll resume my day. And it's crazy because sometimes it's immediate. Like, sometimes I'm like. Because it's the physical act of letting it go and giving it up to God. But sometimes it'll take a few minutes, maybe an hour or so, and I'll just feel completely different. And I have no other explanation for it other than it's God and I never thought to apply him. Like, we think we have to get to these huge points of, like, our life is in shambles or things are really going wrong in order to pray. But no, like, we have this tool in our Arsenal, we have this connection and relationship because of Jesus to God. To be able to pray over things and have him move in a way that no one else can, nothing else can. And that's the whole point. That's the system that's designed. And I think that's what we miss is that if we weren't, if we were able to solve all our problems, we wouldn't need prayer, we wouldn't need God. If, if it were only reserved for the times, the extreme times, then God would be less involved in our lives. And God really wants to be involved in every aspect of our life. And that's what that means. I feel like there's a lot of religious, religious buzzwords, buzz talk of God wants to be so involved in your life and bring him into every situation and scenario. And if God's not in it, then you know, you shouldn't be doing it and whatever. But applicably, sometimes that doesn't make sense. Like, what does that actually mean? And I think that's what it means. It means bringing him in to those decisions, to those feelings that you're experiencing that no one else can feel. Because he's the only thing that can be with you in every aspect. Mind, soul, body. No one else can do that. And that's the whole system. And I think that's what that means. I've been really into like trying to deeply and deeper understand. You hear things all the time and they just don't make sense, but you hear them all the time in terms of like Christian culture and things are just starting to make sense for me. And so what I'm doing here is just trying to express what I've figured out. So there's that. I also want to say and be totally real with you guys that like I said in the beginning, this hasn't been in like all the time thing. First of all, I came to faith about five years ago. The first, like two years of that were like baby, baby Christian. So I was just learning and, and I'm still learning, but I'm just trying to say that like, I am nowhere near perfect. None of us are or will ever be. And there was a post that Ali Yost shared today from a different account, and it said, if you are coming away from. I, I don't. Oh gosh, I'm going to butcher this. But it was basically like, if the, if the feeling of being involved with Christianity has left you more like guilty than it has brought you joy, then you've experienced religion and not faith, not relationship with Jesus. All this to say that the beginning of the episode, the end of the episode, everything that we're saying here is not intended to make you feel like you're not doing enough or to make you feel, like, guilty or you should do this, and you shouldn't do this, and I hate that. I hate that. I think just my intent and my heart here is that I want to share my experience, and I want us to learn together, and I want you to have a good life, and I want you to be able to use the tools that are in front of you in order to have that joy and access that, like, I almost. I feel like we're standing next to a treasure box. And I know that this key works, and I just want you to have the key. You know what I mean? But it's not at all to make you feel guilty or any of those negative things that sometimes, if we're being real, can. Can be pretty prevalent in Christian culture. So with that said, we'll go ahead and get started. The outline that I have here, I pulled an article that has it summarized some scriptures on prayer, and I pulled a couple of those out of the article. So if you're interested to see the full article, I'll have it in the show notes. But I was gonna try to organize this, but I just think I'm gonna flow in and out because there's just so much here, and it just felt wrong for me to try to order it. So we're gonna pull scripture, we're gonna read it, and then I'm gonna, like, break. Break it down the way that I understand it and what I. What I hear from it, and hopefully gives you some. Some good nuggets. So the first scripture we're going to look at is Matthew 6, verses, 5 through 8. And note if you. There are different translations of the Bible, so it might have slightly different words, but it should all sound pretty much the same. Okay. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard, for their many words, do not be like them. For your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Okay. Oh, Shoot. Okay, I made a mistake. I'm just gonna pray over the word we're learning here. Okay. Lord God, thank you for your word. God, thank you for the ability to read your Word, God, and be closer to you. And not only that, God, we thank you that we're able to read the Word and pray over your word Go that the things that you have for us will come to pass. We thank you that the Bible and the Word are keys to unlock things in our lives. We thank you, God, for the power of prayer and being able to connect to you in this way. And I just thank you, Jesus, you are so good. You've been working in my life and I feel you. I feel all the different ways that you've been working. God, I'm just so thankful. In Jesus name, amen. Okay, so going back to the scripture, another thing I think some of these Ali Yost reviewed in her podcast, but it's scripture, so it's sort of. We are all. We all have the same book. So the first part of this talks about, like, where and how you should pray. And the context is not that we shouldn't pray in public, but that we should not pray for the show of prayer. In other words, are we just going to church and going through the motions of prayer and not actually doing the prayer for what it's meant for, which is each of us individually having this connection and ability with God to communicate. So that's what I think it means by don't be like the hypocrites. It's almost like they're doing things for show, but they don't actually believe it. And then it says, when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father, who is in secret. So it's just there's value in having that personal relationship with God. And I think that there's things that you can feel in different arenas. So, like, we're going to get to a point of prayer and agreeing over things in twos or threes, which is prayer and community. So there's value there, too. But I think there are things that you can pull or only pull from different ways of prayer. And so one of them is, you know what. What you'll hear as referred to as your prayer closet, which is any place in private that you can just be alone with the Father. And then it says, and catch this, because it's so important when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard for their many words. Breaking this Down. He's saying, listen, you don't have to come up with all these fancy words or try to sound like the Bible, or try to sound better than you are, smarter than you are, or more intelligent, more holy. No, you just gotta talk. I mean, there's a posture to approach God, which is the fear of God, which is understanding how mighty and powerful and amazing and loving he is. But he loves you just the way you are, so you don't need to. I hosted a women's life group a couple years ago when I was first embarking down this faith journey with a bunch of baby Christians. Like, we were all pretty fresh to the scene. And one of the things we talked about is these women were not quite sure how to approach prayer or how to even do it. And it kind of felt silly at first because they'd never done it before. And this scripture is really just encouraging you that there's no magic words that you need to say. You just gotta be with God. And there's no extra things that you can add to it that's going to make your prayer, you know better than if you didn't. He just wants to talk to you. And then the last part about it that I really like is, do not be like them. For your father knows what you need before you ask him. Your father knows what you need before you ask him. This is so cool. And we forget this. God knows everything. God is everywhere. He is omnipresent. He knows everything. So not just like if you put God in the room and he's observing, he knows your thoughts, he knows your feelings, he knows your heart, he knows your intentions, he knows everything. And so whatever you pray to him is not news to him. Okay? Whatever you pray to him, it's not news to him. And so if we really think about that, it's not to inform God. Prayer is not to inform God of what he already knows. Prayer is to connect God with you and have relationship with him and communicate with him and authorize him. Since we have free will and free choice to move in your life. That is so good. That is a word. Whoo. My God, that is good. So you don't need to come to God with a report card. You don't need to come to God and say, listen, God, I did this, this, and this, and this, as if he doesn't know. Feel free to share those experiences. But he knows. And so the point is, prayer is for you. Prayer is the gift that God has given us in order to connect with him. And like I said, let him move in our lives, but it's not informing him of anything we don't know or he doesn't know. Okay, next verse is Hebrews 4:16. Let us then with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So the first thing that I want to identify out of the scripture is the difference between grace and mercy, because those are usually used interchangeably, but that's incorrect. And my pastor talks about this a lot, but quick Google search here. Mercy is the act of withholding deserved punishment. You did something, and now there's going to be a consequence. But God grants you mercy, and so you don't necessarily get what you've got coming. You know what I mean? While grace is the act of endowing unmerited favor and dowing endowing unmerited favor. So walking with favor, walking with blessing. And this scripture says that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So it's basically covering both. Now, the way that my brain is working, I'm picking some things up here. It says we may receive mercy. And the word receive, you think about like, that's like give and receive. So it's like a gift. But we find grace. And when you think about find, that's like you're searching, you're seeking. So we receive the blockade of what we have coming to us from God. He's protecting us as a gift, but we have to seek the unmerited favor or blessing of grace. I thought that's interesting. And the real part of this that I wanted to pull out is basically when this should happen. It says in time of need. It doesn't say when your entire life is falling apart. It doesn't say when you're at your wit's end. It says, in time of need. And a time of need can be depending on how close you want to be with God at any point in your life. Like I said, like, I started doing this the moment I started feeling feelings. And it's been revolutionary. And I don't think I can ever go back because it's been so good. So I just want to encourage you with this verse that it lets us be close to him in whatever time of need that we're in, no matter how big or how small. All right, the next verse is first, Thessalonians 5, 16, 18. And it says, rejoice always, pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. So there are a Few pieces of this. Rejoice, always give thanks in all circumstances. All this is basically saying, no matter what the circumstances, whether you're in the trenches or where they're really happy, rejoice and give thanks. And so this is sort of the posture that I was talking about, and my pastor does a lot of teaching on effective ways of prayer. All prayer is good. And I know we just talked about there's nothing that's going to make your prayer better in the eyes of God. But the Bible does teach us about a way to approach him and just like a posture. And what that is is rejoice, always give thanks in all circumstances. So what that sounds like is, lord, I thank you for whatever you're thankful for. And that's a really great way to start your prayer. So if you have no idea where to start and if you don't even know what you're thankful for, I just want to encourage you that what you can always start with is, lord, I thank you that I have the ability to pray to you. Lord, I thank you that even though my life is in shambles right now and I'm really hurting, I have you, God, and I thank you for that, because that is the one thing that will never change. Everything could be going haywire in your life, and you could really be hurting. And I believe you. And one thing that we know to be true is humans, by our weak nature, will always let each other down. We don't necessarily want that to be the case, but it's just no one can be God, and God is the only one that will never, ever, ever go back on his word or let us down. Okay? So being thankful for that and approaching God that way, and then it says, pray without ceasing. And I thought that was great because it's like, it's not something that we just do. Alios talks about the difference between a religious practice and something that you do because of faith and relationship. So it's not like, oh, I, I'm gonna read my Bible today, because I should. It's, I'm gonna read my Bible today because I am just hungry for the word of God, and I just can't envision my life any other way. And so this pray without ceasing just reminds me of how often this can be infused into our daily lives. You wake up, you can pray, you start to feel feelings on your way to work. You pray, you're about to give a presentation at work, you pray, you are unsure of a decision of, you know, whatever it is. I'm not sure. You pray. Things are really good in your life. You pray and you give thanks. Just pray without ceasing. And I just really liked that. All right. The next one I really love, and it is Philippians 4, 6, 7. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Oh, there are things that are coming out of this. I've heard the scripture over and over and over again, but there are things that are just like, my mind is being renewed constantly by the, you know, what's been happening between me and Jesus the last couple weeks that, like, new things are coming forward for me. Okay. So the part that I've known for a long time is, don't be anxious about anything. In everything by prayer and supplication, let your requests be made known to God. So this has been translated basically to say, worry about nothing, pray over everything. And that has been actually the start to some of my more straightforward, shorter prayers is God, you told me that I have the ability to worry about nothing, but pray over everything. So I'm praying to you now. And that has been so effective. And I actually feel, like, such a shift of, like, my heart and mind and, like, worry and anxiety off of me when I pray that prayer. And it's using this scripture, and then it says, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And so this is super cool because it says with the same posture of being thankful. So, Lord, I thank you for. And then whatever you're thankful for, you can also let your requests be made known to God. Tell God what you want. That is so cool. Now, there are things that. Okay, I'm going to give a specific example. And some of you may know this, some of you may not. There are things that if it doesn't align with the will of God, and you keep praying over it, God's going to be with you, and God will comfort you. But it's. He's not just. It's not like a. If you pray for anything and everything, I will give you whatever you want. It needs to align with the will of God. And so my example of this is I had someone that I was in love with a couple years back, and I really. I wanted to marry him. And I. And he did not want to marry me. And I waited. We, like, separated. He moved away, and I thought he was going to come back crawling to me. And Being like, I love you. Will you marry me? And that did not happen. Not even close. But I prayed. I prayed so hard. Every night I prayed. I. Oh, gosh, I almost said the same. I prayed over him to. It was just incorrect. I was like, please let call him Bob. Please let Bob just realize he's in love with me and come back to me and ask me to marry him. And. And it just. It didn't align with the will of God for my life. And there were also things in that relationship that didn't align with the will of God. And so it's. There's a different way to everything that you want to pray for. Everything that you want in life, there's a perspective and a way that you can pray over it. So instead of saying, lord God, please let Bob be in love with me, I can dig a little deeper and I can say, lord God, I thank you that you are always there for me and that you are protecting me from what I can't see. And so, God, if it's your will, I thank you that he will come back into my life and we will pursue a relationship that glorifies you. But if it's not your will, number one, God, I thank you that you are saving me from it, because you have so much better. And, Lord God, you put the desires in my heart for a reason. And what I'm praying over now is a relationship and a marriage and a happy life. And I know that you want that from me. So I thank you that you put that desire in my heart. And because you put that desire in my heart, God, I thank you that you're going to deliver it. So you see how there's a shift from, like, trying to manipulate someone's will and emotions outside of yourself to relationship with God. That's the shift. Okay, what else do we have here? All right. The next scripture that I have is therefore. Sorry, Mark 1124. Therefore, I tell you whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. I think this is so great because it's another posture of prayer. My pastor talked about this in a series last year, I believe, where a lot of times we come to God in, like, a begging fashion. We're begging him and sort of, like whimpering for him to do things. When the Bible clears clearly tells us that we can approach him in bold faith, in thanksgiving, and that we can come to him in that way. And what we will ask, we will receive. And what's also cool is it's a way of thinking about how you're doing it. So instead of praying over things as if you don't know they're going to happen, pray like it's going to happen. And I think that's a key that a lot of people miss, is that you don't actually believe that it's going to happen. And going one step further, maybe you don't believe that God can actually do it. And I think that's the part of faith that's so cool, that's embedded into prayer, is because God knows everything. He wants you to believe that he can do it before he delivers it. That's a word. So it's just the way that we approach prayer. Instead of, Lord God, would you please maybe have me do well on my test and, and get a good grade? It's God, I thank you that you prepare the way for me, God, that you clear my mind and that you give me ample room to study and that this test is going to be so easy for me. And I believe that in Jesus name. Did you hear the difference in those two prayers? One was like a. A measly asking, sort of begging, could you please possibly do this? And the other one was like, I thank you that I know you're already going to deliver this. And I think that's good. All right. The next scripture is James 5:16. Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has a great power as it is working. This is so cool and something I experienced in the last two weeks as well. So I've been struggling with a particular sin. And I remember going to church and just feeling so hypocritical and so dirty and so just hypocritical, like, how can I do this and then also be here in the presence of God? And that's a lie from the enemy, by the way. If you ever feel that way, if you feel shame and guilt, the enemy will try to use that in order to pull you further away from God. Because God already knows that we're not going to be perfect. God knows we're sinners. That's why we have Jesus. That's why Jesus did what he did so that we could have this relationship with God and have Jesus in and around our lives through the Holy Spirit. Like, that's the whole setup, okay? And so. But I remember that feeling. And even as someone who has faith, as what I'm trying to make a big part of my life, I had those feelings and I was standing next to my friend in church. And I remember thinking, like, am I going to disclose this? Am I not? And I didn't. And I just, I remained in the church service and it was great and. But I still had that on my heart. And later that day we got together, me and my friend, and she came forward to me to say that she was struggling with the same sin. And I'm just so thankful for her because we have so much power in praying in community. And part of what this scripture says is confess your sins to one another and pray for one another. There's power in us confessing or just sharing what it is that we're struggling with in community. There are things that we cannot reach by ourselves. And God designed us to be able to come together in community and trusted groups and share that with each other. And I just thought it was. God was working so good. He was working overtime in that moment because he was like, danielle, fine, if you're not gonna, if you're not gonna do this, then I'm gonna bring her forward in order to. So you guys can talk about it, okay? And I just. That was so good. And I, I want you to be encouraged that it's okay to come forward with what you're struggling for. With. It's. That's the purpose of community, is to be able to share those things and pray with and for one another. Now I also have experienced the other side where I have had friends, where I bring that forward, whether that be sin that I'm struggling with or whatever it is. And I feel like their reaction is more of the religious judgment than the support and prayer over each other kind of thing. And so I just want to tell you that it's important to have a good Christian friend or friends that fall into the other bucket. And you're not required to, in my opinion, confess your sins to everyone. That's an intimate thing. And I feel like it's ineffective to confess your sins to the wrong people who are not equipped to be able to encourage you the right way and pray over you instead of just making you feel shame. Because if shame and guilt could have fixed you, it would have done it by now. Okay? And so I'm not saying that you should keep your sins secret. I am saying that that's an intimate part of you and not everyone deserves that intimacy. Okay? And that's another prayer that you can pray is, lord God, I thank you that you will deliver me a loving, Christ filled group of friends that will never judge me, but rather pray over me and with me in what I struggle with. Yeah, okay. Kind of on the same note. Matthew 18, verses 19 and 20, agreeing together in prayer with others. Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there. There am I with them. Sorry, I couldn't see the words. This is so cool, because this is literally saying, like, when two or three gather in the name of Jesus, there he is. And whatever you guys come in agreeance over, it will be done. So this is yet another aspect of prayer and something that you would not be able to get if you were praying by yourself, which is why it's so important to have someone around you if it's just one of one other person. Because you're one, they're two. When two or three gather, just one other. So I encourage you now that if you don't have any Christian friends, I encourage you to try to make one. Introduce yourself to someone at church. Maybe there's. Okay, this is like an extra stretch. This is something I would do. I don't know if everyone would do it, but if I had no Christian friends and I had felt like I'd gone to church and I didn't really see any opportunities to be friends with anyone, which that's kind of, you know, neither here nor there, because I feel like you could always be friends with someone. But if that was too much for me and I couldn't do it that way. Maybe you reach out to someone online. Maybe you find an online community. I'm sure there are a lot of Christian Facebook groups or Instagram groups or channels or just different online presences where you can get into some sort of community to be prayed over and pray with. Okay, and then the last one, which is actually a verse that really encouraged me in my first, like, couple years of coming to faith, because it was the time in my life that I was completely rebuilding my life and I was designing my life from the ground up. And it's Luke 11, 9, 13. Seek and you will find. So I say to you, ask it. Oh, gosh, sorry. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. He who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will he give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children. How much more will your father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Oh, I just love this. This is basically saying that your efforts will not come up void. So ask, seek, knock, start putting feelers out for the things that are pulling on your heart. My examples of this, I I think it's how to live your dream life. I talked about how I did the rebuilding of my entire life and designed, custom designed my life according to what I believe my design is. And that involved auditioning and making it onto my praise and worship team. It involved making a core group of friends and hosting on a regular basis and being more social. It involved getting plugged into my church to serve in the babies department. It involved getting plugged into serving with dogs in some capacity because I love dogs. And at that time I didn't really know about fostering and so I did, I was doing photography for foster organizations. But just basically like, I thought about everything that I like because what I like is part of my design. And I was like, how do I infuse this into my life? And this scripture was part of what encouraged me because it gave me a guarantee that if I start asking, if I start seeking and if I start knocking, something is going to happen. You can't put actions and words and efforts out there and have them just nothing happen. It's impossible. Now this doesn't mean that the first time that you knock, that means that door is going to be open and everything's going to work out perfectly. It just means that, number one, if you put those efforts out there, something is going to happen. And from my experience, it's usually good or it leads you to something good. And the other part of it is the verse says, if we as humans who are weak and evil natured, basically we've got sin all around us that we're combating on a daily basis. If we can give good gifts to our children and we can understand what our children asks for and give it to them. How much more is this all knowing, all powerful, all loving God to us as his children? It's just wild. Like there's no limitation to what God can give us. Okay, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I. I'd like to have a disclaimer here which maybe should have been at the front end of this episode. I think I did a little bit on that, that this is, I'm doing my best and I'm learning. So if you disagree with anything that I said, just give me grace if you could or Mercy. Since we talked about the difference. I'm doing my best in my walk with faith and my understanding and my diving deep and understanding into the word and. And I'm. I'm just doing my best. So that's that. All right. I love you. I will see you next week. Next week. I am so excited. Okay. This is so good. So you know how you guys know me? Probably from my advice, videos, things I wish I knew, big sister advice, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I've got this friend, Daisuke, who I grew up with, and he is obviously a male. He's a boy, he's a man. And we had been talking months ago and he supported me. He thinks that, you know, what I'm doing is super cool. He's one of the people that, like, admires the Hustle. Like, there are some people that see what I do and are just totally either icked out by it or scared of it or like, ah, like kind of step back from it. But he. He recognizes the hustle. He thinks the pursuit of, you know, purpose is really cool. And he's one of the people that is just a good supporter. And so we had talked months and months ago about, like, wouldn't it be cool if I brought you onto the podcast and you gave the male perspective of questions that we have as females? So I polled if this is going live. This episode right now that you're listening to is live on Tuesday, March 12, on my Instagram story for the next 24 hours and in my broadcast channel, which is the Baby Sisters channel. You can access this that by going to my Instagram profile and right below my bio, it'll say baby Sisters. Click on that and you can join. But anyway, I pulled my audience of questions from the girls for the guys, and when I tell you this list is so on point, it's so good. You are not going to want to miss next week's episode. So make sure that you have. If you're on Spotify, there are two things you need to click. You need to click the follow button that'll put my podcast in like, your queue. And then click that little bell that will actually notify you and pop up on your phone the minute that episodes drop. So click those. And then I think on Apple podcasts, it's just following. I don't know if they have like a little subscription alert bell. I'm not sure. But you're not going to want to miss it. It's going to be so good. All right, I love you. I'll talk to you later. Bye. This is the part of the podcast where I ask you to follow and leave a five star review. It really helps me out and it'll also notify you when I have a new episode dropping. Share this with your friends that you think it might touch. Even if you want to screenshot this and tag me on Instagram so then I can repost you, I'd really, really appreciate it. I love you. By.