0:01

Welcome to Matters of the Heart . Podcast with

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Rishanda Sunday Thoughts episode

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edition . Sunday Thoughts are stories I've

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experienced in life and I relate those stories

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to God's Word in a way where you

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can understand . It's never about

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preaching , but a discovery and trying to

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find God's voice and pick up a

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few lessons to be learned in our daily

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lives . This Sunday , let's take

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time to reflect and think about those

0:24

experiences . Most messages

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are often hidden in plain sight and

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everything that happens to us , whether

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good or bad , hey

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, everyone , welcome back . I

0:36

bet you say welcome back , girl . Where have you

0:39

been ? Okay , I have been around . I

0:41

have been around . Listen

0:44

, this is Rishanda , just in case you forgot who I was

0:46

. Listen , and if the beginning

0:49

credits didn't anyway

0:51

, you're probably wondering where have you

0:53

been ? What's been going on ? I

0:56

know I said I was coming back with a podcast

0:58

, some episodes and all this stuff . Listen

1:00

when I say life happened

1:03

. Life definitely happened

1:05

. It kind of put a

1:07

brown paper bag over my head and honey took

1:09

me in an alley and I have been locked up . Okay

1:12

, it's just been one of those things

1:15

. You know how sometimes you just you have

1:17

really good intentions to like

1:19

do something I mean like really good intentions

1:22

, but sometimes

1:24

your heart intentions don't

1:26

always , they

1:28

don't always play out like you planned

1:31

. So I thought what better

1:33

time to come on , because

1:35

it has been a lot happening . Listen

1:38

, we're about to embark on a new

1:40

year , like a brand

1:42

new year . Can you believe

1:45

that ? It seemed like it was just yesterday

1:47

, it was January , and I closed my

1:49

eyes and opened it again , and here it is December

1:51

and we're about to go into a brand

1:53

new year . That's just

1:55

how quick , like , everything I feel

1:57

like has been going this year . So

2:00

you might say what's going on , girl , listen

2:02

, this is unscripted . I'm just coming

2:04

so we can have like a little chat with a

2:06

whole lot of intentionality , you

2:09

know . So it's going to be a little bit of this , a little bit of

2:11

that , but it's going to be kind of

2:13

like a wrap up of the year

2:15

. There's some things that I've learned , a

2:18

lot of things that I've experienced

2:20

, and just , hey

2:22

, we're just going to have a talk . Is it okay , like

2:25

, if we like have a little conversation

2:27

, because that's what's going on . So you

2:29

know , get your popcorn . You know , if you just

2:31

ain't got nothing to do today and

2:33

you like , hey , I just want to turn something on

2:35

and listen to it . Hey , you might get something out of this

2:37

podcast , because I got a couple of tips

2:40

. You know that I've learned that

2:42

maybe can help you , you know , especially

2:44

as we go into a brand new year

2:46

. So , hold on , get

2:48

your tea , get your popcorn , get your chocolate

2:50

or whatever . Whatever floats your boat

2:52

, okay , and come back and

2:54

let's just , let's just talk

2:56

, all right , so I'll

2:59

be back , okay

3:16

. So here we are . Listen , I

3:18

don't really plan for this podcast to be very

3:20

long because I really don't want to bore

3:22

you , but at the same time

3:24

you know it's just there

3:27

are two things about going into a new year

3:29

. It can be very exciting and

3:32

it can be very scary . Exciting

3:35

because January is like a new

3:37

beginning for everybody

3:39

. Okay , everybody , everybody

3:42

. Okay because everybody going

3:44

back to the gym , all right , if you , like

3:46

me , you don't have a gym membership and you ain't been in

3:48

a year , okay , we're going to fix that this year , but

3:51

anyway , so it's like it's

3:53

a new beginning for everybody . It's almost

3:55

like a reset . You know

3:57

to just kind of do things different

3:59

, do it over . Hey , if

4:01

at first you don't succeed , try and try again

4:03

. Right , and for some of us we

4:05

try and try again every January . But

4:07

you know . But it can also be scary

4:09

because you just never

4:12

know what the year is going to hold

4:14

. You know , you don't know . You

4:16

know once the new year

4:18

come in , or once January you

4:21

know , comes in January 1st you just

4:23

don't know from that point

4:25

on , from January 1st to December

4:27

31st , what's going to happen

4:29

, what's going to take place

4:31

, you know , and whatever , so that it can be a

4:33

little scary . So you know

4:35

. Hence 2023

4:38

for me . You know it came in

4:40

, I had all these , you know , good

4:43

ambitions and goals and

4:45

things . I really don't like making resolutions

4:47

because you

4:49

know , I mean , you started January the first

4:52

and , honey , most of those resolutions are out the door

4:54

by January the 28th . Okay , it's

4:57

like before January is over . Okay , two

4:59

weeks in and it's over , resolutions out the window

5:01

. But so I

5:03

just kind of like try to keep you know

5:06

in touch with myself or what I'm

5:08

doing and making sure that I'm

5:10

doing that well , or keeping track

5:12

of , you know , maybe

5:14

, some things that I want to do . But

5:17

I have to say this year for me

5:19

has been very surprising . It

5:22

has been very sad , it

5:24

has been an eye opener and

5:26

I learned some things along

5:29

the way . So I kind of want to talk about that

5:31

. I'm just kind of kind of do this in spurts

5:33

. You know we're going to talk about death , we're going to talk about

5:35

dating , we're going to talk about career changes

5:38

and closing doors and family

5:40

changes and being intentional

5:42

and all that good

5:45

stuff , except for the death

5:47

. That wasn't great . So , you know

5:49

, january came in . It was great , and I

5:51

know the last podcast that I did before

5:54

I took like a hiatus was

5:56

in May and I was talking about mental

5:58

health . How did I know

6:00

that I would really need

6:03

that and I should

6:05

have taken more than three

6:07

months off ? Because I called

6:10

myself taking three months off , you

6:12

know , just taking a break , because sometimes

6:14

you can kind of get overwhelmed

6:16

with doing things

6:18

. You know you put too much on your plate and

6:20

next thing , you know you overwhelmed and it's

6:23

like , okay , I need to let some things go , I

6:25

need to take a mental break from this , or

6:27

you know , kind of let this go or step

6:29

back from this , and I called myself

6:32

doing that , and so I was like , you know , I'm gonna come

6:34

back in September . Well , september didn't happen

6:36

and I ended up coming

6:38

back in October , you

6:41

know and whatever . And I was like you know what ? We're going to

6:43

end this year with a bang and all this stuff

6:45

, and I feel

6:47

like I got banged . I ended up , you know

6:49

, a little bit . However , the

6:52

year didn't ? It's not leaving

6:55

with it's . With this

6:57

case of , you know , bad

6:59

news , I felt like I got bad news after

7:01

bad news after bad news on

7:03

this year . I know the podcast that I've recorded in

7:05

May , if I'm not mistaken , I think

7:07

I had just found out that my cousin had passed

7:09

away and that was very

7:12

devastating , that was . That was very

7:14

hurtful To find out , and she

7:16

was very young and she left two children

7:18

behind , and so , you know , I needed

7:20

a break , you know , from that . You

7:23

know , whatever and I'm gonna be very transparent I

7:25

didn't talk to my cousin like that . You

7:27

know how it is . You grow up with your

7:29

cousins or you grow up with

7:32

people , and then , once you guys

7:34

get a certain age , it's kind of like you

7:36

go your separate ways , you know . And so it was

7:38

kind of like that , like I hadn't

7:40

talked to her and I

7:42

don't know when , the last

7:44

time I think I had heard something about her . My

7:47

mom was talking to her and was trying to

7:49

, you know , kind of help her with

7:51

some life . You know issues and some

7:53

life changes that she was going

7:55

through at the time , but I had not personally

7:58

Talked to her . It just hurt

8:00

me for two reasons because

8:02

, one , she was very young , she was like early

8:04

30s and Two

8:06

, you know , she had two children and I

8:08

feel like she just got taken away way

8:10

too , way

8:13

too early . And so you know

8:15

, when times like that come , sometimes you

8:17

wish that . You know you

8:19

kind of had a reached out or you kind

8:21

of had a , you know , talked a little

8:23

more , maybe

8:26

if something you could have said or did to

8:28

change somebody's mind or their

8:30

perceptions about things . And you

8:33

know and Sometimes it

8:35

doesn't matter what you do with what you say , you're

8:37

just , you won't ever change anybody's

8:39

mind . Once their mind is made up about

8:42

something , that's pretty much it . And

8:44

so you know she was just that

8:46

person . But you know God rest

8:48

her soul . So after that , up

8:50

on the high eight is in the break that I took

8:52

, you know it seemed like more

8:55

deaths just kept coming . You

8:57

know , one of our beloved pastors from

8:59

our church passed away . That

9:02

was very hurtful , you know she was going through

9:04

a Terrible sickness

9:06

and you know we was believing God that

9:08

she was gonna get well , but Unfortunately

9:12

that did not happen , and so you

9:14

know that was very hurtful and honestly

9:16

, it was very taxing On

9:18

the church as well . So

9:21

you know it was , it

9:23

was just , it was just a really , a really sad

9:25

time . That was in June

9:27

and then , come August , you

9:31

know , my sister passed away , and

9:34

that was hurtful . I

9:36

think that was like I Don't

9:39

even know what to say about that . That was , that

9:43

was . Words can't

9:45

describe what that was . You

9:49

know , we had just , you know , reunited

9:51

with one another , like in 21 , and

9:53

so I'm grateful to God for

9:55

the Year and some months

9:57

that I got a chance to get

10:00

to know her . It was something about

10:02

her , though that it's just . Even when we

10:04

were kids , when

10:06

I found out that she was my sister

10:09

, I just always wanted I felt like I

10:11

always had this attachment to her , or

10:13

I always wanted to Us

10:15

to talk , and I kind of hate that . Life

10:17

is life , you

10:20

know , and we just

10:22

lived in two different states and you

10:25

know I reached out to her one time before

10:28

when my nephews , her sons

10:30

, were like really , really small . They

10:32

were like in daycare , I believe , and

10:34

or maybe early school

10:37

, you know , because our kids are like kind

10:39

of back-to-back in ages but um

10:42

, and we kind of lost touch because I moved

10:44

and I just hate that I didn't . I

10:46

didn't get in contact with her sooner , but

10:49

I thank God that I got in

10:51

contact with her when I did and you

10:54

know , and she just reached out , you know , because

10:56

I had reached out to my dad . For those of you

10:58

that don't know , I just reunited

11:01

with my biological father after

11:03

28 years , in 2021 . So

11:05

it's like when I reunited with him

11:07

, then I also , you know that's

11:10

when she came about and she

11:12

just reached out to me and Just started talking

11:14

. And you know , we had some some pretty

11:16

good conversations and she texted

11:18

me all the time . You know , I still got her text

11:20

messages and stuff , but Last

11:24

year , you know , when she told me she was sick

11:26

, it just hurt me to my heart

11:28

. You know . It's one of those things where

11:30

you pray and you like God , if you don't do

11:32

nothing else in the world for me , do do

11:35

this one thing . Like , do this

11:37

one thing . If you don't do nothing

11:39

else , do this one thing , god , and

11:41

you know , and I'll serve you forever

11:43

. Not that I don't serve God because I do

11:45

, I am a believer but it's

11:47

like you know , you just you

11:50

just want people to live . You know you just

11:52

want people to be healed , like you don't want nobody

11:54

to be sick or you know , or whatever

11:56

. Hopefully , you get what I'm saying , but it was one

11:59

of those things , and I prayed for her , got my

12:01

church to pray for her , got the intercessory

12:03

team to pray for her , the prayer team

12:05

and all this stuff and

12:07

Come

12:10

August , she

12:12

passed away , and that

12:15

was hurtful , and I

12:18

got an opportunity to go back to my

12:20

hometown and to to

12:23

go to her funeral and and

12:25

everything , and it was just

12:27

a really , really sad , sad

12:30

time , and it kind of did something

12:32

to me . It really got me to thinking

12:34

, though , that you know , she had

12:36

just Like really

12:38

came into her dream job

12:41

, which is being a teacher and on

12:43

teaching kids , and , from my understanding

12:45

, she was really , really good at it . You

12:47

know my sister was smart . You know she

12:49

had degrees and and all

12:51

this stuff , and just came into her dream

12:54

job . It didn't really get a chance to

12:56

, um To

12:59

. You know , I have the years

13:01

in it , like I think she would have wanted

13:03

to have , and that was the sad

13:05

thing , and so you know , it just makes

13:07

you realize that life is just so

13:10

, so short and we

13:12

have to take , um , we

13:15

have to take one day at a time , but enjoy

13:18

your life , do the things that you feel

13:20

like you can't do and

13:22

that you know that you will . It's

13:24

my age , you know , or you know

13:26

well that it's too late for that it's I know

13:28

, and I tell people it's never too

13:31

late for anything . As long

13:33

as you got breath in your body , okay

13:35

, it's not too late . Okay , as long as they

13:37

not rolling you down the middle aisle

13:39

of a church to sit you in front of all

13:41

these people that probably you

13:43

wouldn't have known if you was living . You

13:46

know it's not too late , it's

13:49

not too late to do anything . Quit

13:51

putting things off to the

13:53

last minute and I'm preaching to the choir

13:55

here , like , quit putting things off to the last

13:57

minute , just do it . You know

14:00

, um , get it done

14:02

. You know , and so it's

14:04

just you know I did

14:07

learn something , um other than

14:09

that from her funeral , and that's just . You

14:11

know , enjoy life . Enjoy

14:14

, like , travel more . You know , do

14:16

more and and whatever , because you just

14:18

never , never know

14:21

, you never know . And speaking of

14:23

never know , so I did get mine

14:25

just off to a lighter subject . I

14:28

did get my chance into dating

14:30

this summer . Okay , thought

14:33

I would try . After three years

14:35

I thought I would try the dating

14:37

circuit and get back out

14:39

there and put myself online and stuff

14:41

. Even after I said , um

14:43

, I was just gonna wait , I

14:46

wasn't gonna try to do the dating thing because

14:48

I just suck at it . But I was like

14:50

you know what , I'm just gonna do it , I'm just

14:52

gonna do it . It was more of a practice

14:54

for me , um , just

14:57

to see you know , because sometimes when you've been

14:59

single for a long time and you haven't been on a

15:01

date and you don't know , when

15:03

it's kind of hard to kind of gauge

15:05

like what , what , what's

15:07

out here , like what's going on , what's

15:09

the language , what's the lingo , you

15:12

know what you , you missing

15:14

out , you know , and sometimes

15:16

I I will say this you need like that interaction

15:19

with with a guy or with a

15:21

woman , just to see you know . Okay

15:23

, am I kind of sharpen up your

15:25

, your skills a little bit ? Kind of dust

15:27

, you know , dust yourself off a

15:30

little bit . You know , um , you

15:32

know and whatever . But I

15:34

tell you what this dating

15:36

circuit has not changed

15:38

? It has not changed . People

15:40

are not who they say . They

15:43

are online , you

15:45

know , and you could have the greatest intention

15:48

about getting online and being this

15:50

wonderful person and presenting

15:52

yourself to these people . You know

15:54

, I mean , I'm always true about who I

15:57

am , okay , but everybody

15:59

else isn't like that . So I

16:01

got online and I'm , you

16:03

know , I met a couple of guys and , you know , had

16:06

some some okay conversations , but

16:08

it was this one guy . I'm the type of person like this

16:10

. You know , if you're not looking

16:12

, I wasn't looking to be online like that because

16:14

I don't like going through after guy

16:17

after guy after guy , just

16:19

doing whatever . It was this one guy . He

16:21

was like , you know , he had been on there for a year

16:23

. I had just been on there like maybe

16:25

two weeks , three weeks . He

16:27

was like , hey , you know , he felt , I felt like

16:29

he was really interested in me . So we kind

16:31

of , you know , talked and , um

16:33

, you know , and whatever things

16:36

was going okay at first . But

16:38

let me tell you something you really have

16:41

to read through

16:43

the red tape , okay , when

16:45

it comes to people , because he

16:47

told me he was like , yeah , he was like , you

16:49

know this last relationship I was in , you know

16:51

she was bugging me about going out

16:53

on a date . You know , time out , we had

16:55

been together a month and she was like

16:58

let him tell it tripping okay

17:00

, because they did not go out on a

17:02

date . And I was like , oh , and

17:04

he was like , yeah , it's time . She don't understand . You know

17:06

I'm busy , I got things going on , I

17:08

got things to do and all this

17:10

stuff and I'm like , well

17:13

, boo hoo her . Yeah , you know

17:15

. I mean , if she can't , you know

17:17

, if she can't wait on you

17:19

, you know , for a mom , you know

17:21

I'm sitting up here I'm like got

17:24

his back , yo . When

17:26

I say we

17:28

were talking for almost

17:30

maybe two and a half months and he had

17:32

not even mentioned a date to me . It

17:34

was like every time I mentioned , like us meeting

17:37

up or going out on a date , he always

17:39

had an excuse . Now he say he didn't have nobody

17:41

, because I know what you're gonna say maybe he had somebody

17:43

. Let him tell it . He didn't . He was

17:46

taking care of his you know his children

17:48

and he

17:50

was divorced and whatever , but he worked

17:53

so much he had no time

17:55

for for me

17:57

, he only had time for his kids

17:59

and his job , you know , and I met

18:01

him maybe twice , you know , or

18:03

whatever , but it was like a five

18:06

minute meetup because he had

18:08

to go home . It was like almost like he

18:10

was just getting off of work . It was almost

18:12

like those type of meetups . But let

18:14

me say this this

18:16

is to men and women If you're not

18:18

ready to really date , okay

18:21

, if you're not ready to like

18:24

, take it to the next level . Or if you're

18:26

getting online and you know you ain't gonna take

18:28

nobody out on a date , you just ain't got time

18:30

for that . Just say that up front

18:32

. Like , just be like , hey , listen

18:35

, my life is really busy , you

18:37

know , the only time I have is to

18:39

talk to you on the phone and which

18:41

, might I add , we only talked on the phone

18:44

once in like two and a half months , because

18:47

everything else was text messaging . And

18:49

I get the text messaging

18:51

, it's okay . But you know , sometimes

18:53

, you know a phone conversation

18:56

helps , but then I say that

18:58

, but when I did get on the phone

19:00

with him , he cursed . Like when I say he

19:02

cursed from the time the sun up

19:05

to sun down to the snacks , to

19:07

the appetizers . He was it

19:09

vets to my spirit , so much because he cursed

19:11

so much . Every other word I'm

19:13

like , is that like your first language

19:16

? So I was glad

19:18

about not talking on the phone with him

19:20

, I'm like because I don't want to hear that . But

19:22

the text messages was okay . But then they got

19:24

a little vague and then it was almost like

19:26

well , you know , every

19:28

time I mentioned about hanging out , it was like I always

19:30

had to mention it or I always

19:33

had to bring it up , and the

19:35

crazy thing about it is he didn't see anything

19:37

wrong with it . Because when I mentioned

19:39

like hey , you know , we

19:42

can't spend time together , we can't , you can't

19:44

make time to at least go on a date

19:46

, then you know I'm gonna have to , I'm

19:48

gonna have to tell you bye . But it's

19:50

like he got real defensive . He made

19:52

it seem like he was the victim

19:55

, I was the problem and all this stuff

19:57

, and I'm like what ? Basically , what

19:59

I found out is that he was gaslighting

20:01

me . You know what I mean and I'm like okay

20:04

, but anyway

20:06

, long story short , I was just

20:08

like I don't have time to

20:11

for this . You know , life

20:13

is too precious . I just ain't got the time

20:15

and I had to end up letting him go . I'm

20:17

like listen , bro , you

20:20

gonna have to come better than this , because

20:22

you know . But he made me feel like I

20:24

was crazy , like maybe I shouldn't have asked

20:26

him for a date . As a matter of fact , I

20:28

shouldn't have had to ask , because if you were really

20:31

interested in me you would

20:33

have been saying , hey , well , let's , let's

20:35

meet up , or let's meet up for

20:37

breakfast , so let's go to lunch

20:39

, or something . So it kind of made me think , even

20:41

though he said he didn't have anybody , that

20:44

he did have someone , or maybe he was just

20:46

interested in someone

20:48

else and he just was a coward and

20:50

just didn't know how to come out and tell me , which

20:52

is cool . But anyway , after I kicked

20:54

him to the curb , I was like I am

20:56

not getting on anybody else's

20:59

dating site . And I got some friends

21:01

and you know they had this other dating site

21:03

that they were trying to get on . I

21:05

had one friend who did , but I was

21:07

like I

21:10

think I'm gonna call that , I think

21:12

I'm gonna call quits on that , so

21:14

anyway . So yeah , so just be

21:16

real , when you , on these dating streets

21:18

, make sure that you really listen

21:20

into the person you know . The Bible tells

21:23

us to be quick to hear , slow to speak

21:25

, okay , slow to

21:27

rap , but listen at what it said

21:29

, be quick to hear , okay

21:31

, so , just be quick to hear about what these

21:33

people are saying and what's going

21:35

on , because more than likely

21:37

, the red flag

21:39

is somewhere in the conversation

21:42

. Okay , and so , um

21:44

, so , yeah , just just be on the look out for that

21:46

. Um , I had some career changes

21:48

this year that you know

21:51

it's crazy , because I

21:53

prayed to God for a career change

21:55

. I actually wanted to leave my job

21:58

and I thought the

22:00

conversation that I had with the Lord , I thought

22:02

he understood that

22:04

, that I wanted to actually

22:06

leave my job and

22:09

go someplace different . But

22:11

the career change that I was

22:13

telling the Lord about was like I just want a career change

22:15

, I just want a different scenery

22:17

, I just want to do something different . Well , god

22:19

gave me all of that . Um

22:22

, however , it was in the same job

22:24

, um , just not on

22:27

the floor that I would normally work on

22:29

, it was just on another part of the building . But

22:32

, and that has been very interesting

22:34

, um , and I'm still

22:36

, you know , and talk to God about that

22:38

, because it's been as

22:41

they say , it's been a roller coaster override

22:43

and I'm like , okay , god , I know when you put us

22:46

in things . It's , it's for our

22:48

good , there's a lesson

22:50

in it . But you also say

22:52

you won't put no more on us than we can bear and

22:55

I think I

22:57

think the rubber is kind of meeting the road

22:59

, but hey , I'm gonna

23:02

stick it out . I'm gonna stick it out . I don't want

23:04

to leave if God

23:06

is doing something or if he's trying

23:08

to show me something through this . I don't

23:10

, I don't want to abort the missions

23:13

. You know , before

23:15

the lesson , you know what I mean , so

23:17

I'm gonna stick around . But it's

23:19

, it's definitely been some career changes

23:22

, a lot of

23:24

learning , okay , a lot of learning

23:26

, and I'm also learning

23:28

to keep doors closed , like

23:31

for good , this time . God has dealt with me

23:33

in the past about closing

23:36

doors and I wrote a blog post

23:38

one time about the pain of closing

23:40

every door , the pain of

23:42

closing every door , and God has been

23:44

dealing with me about closing doors closing

23:46

doors to certain things , closing

23:48

doors to certain ideas , closing

23:51

doors to certain people , you

23:53

know , closing doors to certain atmospheres

23:55

, and just you know

23:57

, just starting afresh

24:00

, and just you know , because what I'm

24:02

learning is that when

24:04

we keep those doors open , like

24:07

when we really keep those doors open

24:11

, we're tying God's hands because

24:13

he can't . He can't move us

24:15

where he wants to move us because

24:17

you still got a door open . Maybe

24:20

you got a door open right now in your life , a

24:22

door that you need to close . Okay , before

24:25

2024 , before 2024

24:28

even come in , you need to close that door . Like

24:30

maybe God has been dealing with you about , hey , okay

24:32

, and I don't think God is gonna keep

24:34

telling us to do things . You know , after a

24:37

while you gonna suffer . We suffer the consequences

24:39

of the things that we don't do , so

24:41

your consequence , or our consequence

24:43

, could be not moving forward . Have

24:46

you ever heard people say , man , I

24:48

feel like I should be so much further down

24:50

the road . You know , then , where

24:53

I am right now . And so

24:55

with that , it's like , yeah , you should

24:57

be , like we should be , but

24:59

we have to check our lives , like

25:01

look back over your life and like , okay

25:04

, what am I doing , what

25:06

, what ? What door do I still have open

25:09

that's supposed to be closed ? So and

25:11

I know God has been dealing with me heavily

25:13

about that this

25:16

end of the year of 2023 like

25:18

, close that door

25:20

, walk away , move

25:23

, you know , or you're gonna miss it . You're

25:26

going to miss it , you know , if you don't

25:29

walk away , you're gonna miss it and I

25:31

don't want to miss it and I know you don't want to miss

25:33

it . So , whatever doors that

25:35

you need to close , make sure you

25:37

closed them okay . Close

25:39

them doors okay , spiritually

25:42

. You know , maybe you attach to some

25:45

things physically . Some of

25:47

our doors need to close , you

25:49

know , and just let the Lord

25:51

, like , lead and guide you . You

25:55

know , and whatever I had to

25:57

close a door that I really

25:59

didn't want to close , but I

26:02

just

26:04

feel like , especially the last

26:06

, the end of this year , it's been a whole lot

26:08

of shifting , shifting from what

26:11

you want to what you need . You

26:13

know , is it serving us or

26:15

no ? You know , do you find yourself

26:17

going into like this pattern ? You

26:19

feel like this hamster on this hamster wheel

26:22

that's going round and round and round and round

26:24

and it's not going nowhere . The

26:26

hamster think he's going somewhere

26:29

, but he's not going nowhere . He's just going

26:31

around and around and around in a circle and

26:34

some things have to shift

26:36

. You know , is it serving you ? Is

26:38

it ? Is it is it ? Are you the

26:40

hamster on the hamster wheel ? And you just keep going

26:42

around and around and around and you don't

26:45

know why . You keep

26:47

going around like why am I in this cycle

26:49

? Is it serving me ? Is

26:51

it ? Is it doing me good ? Is it making me happy

26:54

? Is it making me better ? Is it making

26:56

me money ? Because if not

26:58

, then I don't need to make time

27:00

for it . I need to shift . Okay

27:02

, I need to open

27:04

my doors or bring , or , you

27:07

know , open my mind to things that are

27:09

really going to serve me , and that's that . I'm

27:11

going to get something out of it . You

27:13

know so . So

27:16

that's something . Let

27:19

me see family changes . I've had

27:21

some family changes this year and

27:24

making new habits and traditions , especially

27:26

for the holidays . So my sister

27:29

we

27:31

used to live like 45 minutes away

27:33

from each other , but she moved to Texas

27:35

this year , her and her

27:37

family , and that's

27:39

been very taxing on my mind

27:42

and my heart . You know , the crazy

27:44

thing is is that God told me that

27:46

she was going to move , that they were going to move

27:48

, so I was prepared

27:51

. But you know how it is when God

27:53

tells you something and a

27:55

lot of times he tells you something but it doesn't

27:57

happen right then and there it's

27:59

like a forewarning , like I

28:02

see it up the road and I'm just getting you prepared

28:04

for it right now , because this

28:06

is gonna hurt you . I'm , you know I'm

28:08

trying to lessen the blow . Then

28:11

, you know , you find it out and it really tearing

28:13

you down . So I'm just I'm just kind of preparing

28:15

you now for it , you know . So get ready

28:17

. But so it was kind of one

28:20

of those things . So when she told me that

28:22

you know they were God who had been

28:24

dealing with them and they

28:26

were moving to Texas , it wasn't a surprise

28:29

but it was hurtful

28:31

. And I didn't realize

28:34

how hurt I really was

28:36

until the holidays rolled around

28:38

, because usually for

28:41

Thanksgiving and Christmas I'm

28:43

at her house and we're

28:45

doing things . She's cooking , you

28:47

know , they don't trust me to cook . You know

28:49

I'm kind of like the paper goods . You

28:52

know , I just bring the paper goods , I bring

28:54

the drinks , I bring the sweets from the

28:56

store and

28:59

I , you know , I bring the plastic spoons

29:01

and forks . So in the napkins

29:04

, yeah , yeah , so that's that's usually what I

29:06

bring . Everybody didn't know me was

29:08

shown to bring you

29:10

the paper goods . Girl , I'm either bringing paper

29:12

goods or I'm bringing the food from the store

29:14

. Okay , nobody wants . Nobody

29:17

wants my food , it's okay , it's alright

29:19

. Hopefully

29:22

God bless me to a husband that can cook . But the

29:24

thing is is that I realized

29:26

that I had to make some new traditions

29:28

this year and they were very hard

29:31

. So , because I'm not a cook

29:33

, we ended up going to Golden Carrelle for Thanksgiving

29:36

this year , which was different

29:38

, and I felt bad about it at first

29:40

because everybody was like what , you not gonna cook , you're

29:43

not gonna at least try and

29:45

whatever ? Look , I know my gift things . Okay

29:48

, I know what works for me and

29:50

cooking it's not one of them . But

29:52

the thing is is that it's

29:54

nothing wrong with making new traditions and

29:57

and everything , and so that was a new tradition

29:59

for me and my kids . It's just going to the

30:02

Golden Carrelle . However , I realized

30:04

that there is also a lot of

30:07

other people who don't cook on Thanksgiving

30:09

, either , okay , or they

30:11

don't have family . That you know

30:13

, that they mingling over their house

30:15

or friends and stuff , so don't let the holidays

30:18

trip you up . Like you know , everybody

30:20

is with a family , everybody's with some

30:22

type of friend or something . That

30:24

is not true , and I learned that

30:26

from the Golden Carrelle . Okay , when I

30:28

say that line was out the door , it

30:31

was out the door . No , people was literally running

30:34

over each other , okay , to eat their food , so

30:36

, yeah , so I think that would be my tradition

30:39

, holiday tradition for Thanksgiving , probably

30:42

, you know , at

30:45

least for the next year or two , okay

30:47

, but for Christmas . You know , christmas is

30:50

what you make it . Christmas is all

30:52

about love and sharing

30:54

and just being with family and

30:56

friends , and that's what it was

30:58

for me and the kids . You know

31:00

, we got in our work , we had our jammies on

31:03

, we was watching movies and we all

31:05

cooked up our own food and you

31:07

know , that was it . It's not about what you

31:09

have or what you do , what's

31:11

in the fridge , who's cooking what , but

31:14

it's about spending time with one another

31:16

and just loving on each other . It's about love

31:18

, in which one of my favorite quotes is

31:20

love doesn't take a holiday . So

31:23

it doesn't take a holiday to show love . We're really

31:25

supposed to show it all throughout the

31:27

year , but of course , the holidays

31:29

are really really special

31:32

days , for when you do get

31:34

with family , you know , you draw a little closer

31:36

to your family or the ones that

31:38

are around you and you just love on them

31:40

. And I will say this be intentional

31:42

when it comes to your family for 2024

31:45

. For those of you that have good , good relationships

31:47

with your families , understand if you don't

31:50

, but be intentional . Be

31:52

intentional about family

31:54

time . You know , I have a friend

31:56

who you know it

31:59

was like they are , so they were so

32:01

programmed with working until

32:04

you know they got invited to a wedding

32:06

you know family

32:08

wedding and they could not think about , they

32:10

couldn't really take out time to enjoy the

32:13

family because they were so busy

32:15

thinking about working . And

32:18

this is the thing we don't know what

32:21

the next year is going to hold , which

32:23

is pretty much what I said in the beginning . It's , you

32:27

know , the year can be exciting but

32:29

it can be scary too . The people

32:31

that we love on and that we cherish

32:34

this year , they just may not be

32:36

here next year . You know , they may not be here

32:38

in 2024 . And

32:41

that doesn't always mean in death

32:43

, but it could be like my situation with my sister . They move

32:45

away , you

32:47

know , and maybe you don't have the funds or

32:49

or the means or you know , or whatever , to go and

32:53

be with them . So that's , you

32:55

guys are separated , so

32:57

it doesn't necessarily mean in death , but death

33:01

is like a big part of it , like somebody

33:03

you loving on today could not be here next year . And so

33:06

we really need to be intentional

33:08

about family time , taking out time , because I'm going to tell

33:10

you , having

33:13

lost , you know , quite a few

33:15

people , one of the one of the main things that come back

33:17

to your

33:19

mind after a person passes is

33:22

regret . You don't immediately think about the good times

33:24

you had

33:26

or you know , and all this stuff

33:28

. No regret comes . Regret is

33:30

like a bully . It brings up the things

33:34

that you didn't do or that you didn't

33:36

say , or that you didn't have time for

33:38

, and it it punches you

33:41

in the face and the gut . So

33:43

, you know , spend time , be like , really , really intentional with family

33:48

and friends for 2024,

33:50

. You know , call people , take out time . That's the best gift that you

33:52

can give

33:54

someone is your time . Even

33:56

if it's a 10 minute phone call , hey , that's your time . You know

34:00

you spent time with that person and

34:02

you know , and everything . So

34:04

that's um . So that was pretty

34:08

much my year . In a nutshell

34:11

. Listen , I don't know what 2024

34:13

is going to hold as far as the podcast

34:16

is concerned , but I'm

34:18

just praying that . You know , I'm just allowing the Lord to guide , allowing

34:21

the Lord to guide , allowing the Lord

34:23

to guide and he , he do what he

34:25

do . So normally I would do a

34:28

first Sunday and a second Thursday

34:30

. However , I don't know how that's going

34:32

to go for 2024 because

34:35

I have , like some really big changes coming

34:37

up in my own life , um

34:39

, so , so , yeah . So I may

34:41

not be as consistent with the first Sunday

34:44

and the second Thursday , but , hey , I

34:46

will be doing some podcast episodes

34:48

. Let me just say it that way . I just don't know when

34:51

they're going to come . But just stay tuned

34:53

to this channel . Listen , don't give up on me

34:55

. Sometimes I will post to

34:57

my YouTube channel . Inspirations with Rishanda

34:59

Um , you can follow

35:02

me over there . I posted two videos over

35:04

there and I think I'm going to do I don't

35:06

know , I don't want to say what I'm going to do , because then life

35:09

happens and I may not end up getting the chance to

35:11

do it , but you can follow me over

35:13

there . Inspirations with Rishanda

35:16

you know there's plenty of videos and stuff

35:18

over there is God life and tips

35:20

. So if I'm not here , then you

35:22

can follow me , you know , over there . So

35:25

, anyway , I hope . I don't

35:27

know what 2024 is going to hold for you

35:29

. We all don't know what it's going to

35:31

hold , but I will say this make

35:33

sure you keep God at the forefront

35:36

. Okay , allow God to order

35:38

your steps you know , to

35:40

lead , guide and direct you . When

35:43

I was in my prayer time , um the

35:45

other morning , I closed my eyes

35:47

. I woke up with a song um order

35:50

my steps . It's by Matt , the GMWA

35:53

Mass Choir , and um

35:55

, that was that song was

35:57

so prevalent in my spirit and it's one

35:59

of my favorite songs . However

36:01

, when I closed my eyes , I saw

36:03

2024 , and right beside 2024

36:06

, it said in your word so

36:08

that means that we're going to have to

36:10

be in the Word of God this

36:12

, uh , upcoming year

36:15

. As you can see , as far as church is

36:17

concerned , there's so many things

36:19

that's coming out um about

36:21

you know , different people

36:23

I'm not going to say names , but different

36:26

people in the media , different

36:28

churches and leaders

36:30

and things of that nature . Listen

36:32

, it's a prayer in time , and God

36:34

doesn't want us to to

36:37

really follow the leader , but follow

36:39

him . Okay , follow him

36:41

as the leader follows him . But if the

36:43

leader is not following him , then you

36:46

know we should be following God first and foremost

36:49

. Okay , but , um

36:51

, but there's so many things and I I've

36:53

heard a lot of prophetic forecasts

36:56

and people saying that , um

36:58

, you know of what 2024

37:00

is going to be . But I will say this

37:03

ask God for wisdom , ask

37:05

him to order your steps and make

37:07

sure you are in his word

37:09

, because there's safety

37:12

in his word and there's safety and

37:14

secrets in his presence

37:16

. Okay so , listen , I love

37:19

you , have the most amazing day

37:22

and year ahead . Listen , I know

37:24

I will be back , lord's , will you

37:26

know , posting some things , but , um

37:29

, but yeah , I just wish you the best

37:31

, but I just wanted to get on and just do a recap

37:34

, so hopefully you got something Okay

37:36

From this podcast

37:39

episode . But , um

37:41

, but be blessed . And

37:43

um , um , yeah , 2024

37:46

is going to be

37:48

a year . It's going to be a year . I just

37:50

feel it . It's going to be a year . It's

37:52

going to be good , it's going to be good , but

37:55

let's just make sure we are definitely

37:57

doing a whole lot of praying

38:00

. Okay , so , listen

38:02

, stay tuned , have the

38:04

most . I already said this . See

38:07

, you know this is the thing with me . I don't know how to

38:09

say , just cut things off

38:11

. So I'm just going to say this be

38:13

blessed and I'll see you next time . That

38:16

was it for today's episode . I

38:18

hope you were inspired and feel positive

38:20

vibes whenever you spend some time with

38:22

me . Roshanda and the matters of the heart

38:24

podcast . Thank you for tuning in

38:27

and don't forget to join me next time

38:29

as we dive deeper into our spiritual

38:31

, mental and physical journey

38:33

. You can follow matters of the heart podcast

38:36

on Facebook to stay tuned for

38:38

what's coming next . Feel free

38:40

to share the episodes while you're here . Also

38:43

, stay with me by subscribing wherever

38:45

your favorite music and podcast

38:47

stations reside and , as always

38:49

, watch your heart , because its actions

38:52

will follow . Thank you for listening

38:54

.