0:08

What's the scissors and brands? Happy Monday

0:10

everybody! Yeah, we are about to get

0:12

our week started off so great together

0:14

because I have a good for not.

0:16

her name is Joy and I've actually

0:18

known her for a pretty long time

0:20

but we'd just actually got to know

0:22

each other. You're really this week and

0:24

I'll tell you how this happened in

0:26

it's so Beautiful my teammates remedial joy

0:28

to she's going to help out some

0:30

with l a sister conference and they

0:32

said they call me Adrien said Cd.

0:35

You've. Got to have joy on the

0:37

pie gas leak. Her story is so amazing

0:39

She's so inspiring She is like men toward

0:41

us essentially while we sat there with her

0:43

in there about conference as like when the

0:45

Worley I know her but we've never had

0:47

a conversation so I said look I'd love

0:49

that but I don't know her story so

0:52

see if she would go to coffee with

0:54

me and them all talk about it So

0:56

we went to car he et al are

0:58

called seven hundred Years she hat like yes

1:00

she has been high as like a sap

1:02

and so we have for today and that

1:04

was just. A couple of days ago that

1:06

we had coffee and fell in love with

1:08

who you are in your story. and I'm

1:11

so thankful that you're on the Pike as

1:13

soon as it. Thanks for joining us, Thanks

1:15

for having me and I know your your

1:17

team. They're amazing but they are. It was

1:19

a really good conversation with them as well

1:21

and I'm I'm It's fireball of you and

1:23

your work in on. I think

1:25

that you know. Any of our stories

1:27

that we have can help somebody else. He's

1:29

gone through something similar or can be relayed

1:32

a more so sorry and help in that

1:34

way I would love to. Well I know

1:36

she's going to and I know it's gay

1:38

inspire you by I will say before even

1:40

start you are not used to doing it

1:43

and api guess are you know like one

1:45

why don't Why are they are crowd the

1:47

whole town here at the gay I'm I'm

1:49

going today they are on think okra well

1:51

I wouldn't say Allen's it up you will

1:53

get on this couch and the tears come

1:56

by know I. love that you're doing this because

1:58

i know it can be It can

2:00

be hard to step outside of your comfort zone, especially share something

2:02

like your story. But first, we'll just

2:04

start with people getting to know who you are and

2:06

what you and your husband do because that's how I

2:09

got to know you guys. So what

2:11

are you guys up to right now? Well,

2:13

we currently own, I

2:16

guess the easiest way to say it is Bayou

2:18

Joy LLC. And so we have all of

2:20

our short-term rentals under that, I

2:23

guess, umbrella. And our

2:25

flagship short-term rental or

2:27

Airbnb was Bayou Longbeard, which

2:30

we created back in 2018. And well,

2:32

I guess we started in 2017. And

2:35

it went live on Airbnb 2018.

2:39

Two days after we got married, so it's kind of our baby.

2:42

We actually don't have children of our own. I

2:45

have three from a previous marriage and Clay

2:47

had never been married. So we got

2:49

married March 10 of 2018. We went

2:51

live with Longbeard, not

2:55

really knowing that it was going to take off

2:57

and do as well as it has done. Clay's

3:01

parents had this space where his

3:04

grandparents had lived. And once they passed away,

3:08

they were like, what are we going to do with this space? And

3:10

Clay said, you guys should Airbnb it. I'm going

3:12

to go back to Nashville. But

3:15

I think God just before y'all were

3:17

dating or dating, whenever that happened. So

3:19

we probably should write a book so

3:21

we can put all the details in

3:23

it. But really what happened is Clay

3:25

and I, we dated in high school.

3:27

So we've been friends since we were

3:30

15 and 16. And we've

3:32

just been friends all these years. And then we

3:35

graduated high school and went our separate ways. I

3:37

got married at 19, had three children. I

3:39

was a stay at home mom for 10 years. Clay

3:44

randomly got into the music industry and has

3:47

traveled the world for 25, 30 years. With

3:51

some really incredible people. And he

3:53

says he can't believe it's a job. But long

3:56

story short is Clay's grandfather passed away in 2019.

4:00

The. Sweet. Sixteen and he came home

4:02

for the funeral and so it wasn't uncommon

4:04

for Clay to ask me if I wanted

4:06

to go to lunch or dinner or maybe

4:08

a group of our friends from from here.

4:10

On a lot of times we would meet

4:13

up at Johns beats of because you know,

4:15

if he's Lithuanian ammonia, you know that's right

4:17

on. as he says, right? So we actually

4:19

went to die sad day. For

4:22

a Sunday lunch after church and it was

4:25

to my shoulder in one of their friends

4:27

and mean climbers catching up. It

4:30

felt very different that som om.

4:33

And. After a six hour

4:35

lunch there, we ended up as

4:37

place parents' house and we were

4:39

sitting in the space talking about

4:41

Michael. What? Did they want to

4:43

do with that space? You know And I

4:46

mean I literally like entered the chat day

4:48

off slow. they are just very different bothered

4:50

the day before so. It

4:53

was all very fresh but he no

4:55

place said ya said Air B M

4:57

B it We weren't dating as to

4:59

Tom but the next day on. Peace.

5:01

And I want to see you again before

5:03

I leave town and I said well near

5:05

the kids are going to have friends over

5:07

so you're have come there we can hang

5:09

out you know on the force or whatever.

5:12

I'm sorry member of the conversation. It

5:15

is so different that I had no idea that he

5:17

was gonna ask me if I wanted to date. you

5:19

know and I'll as a slight. Sir

5:21

we can date, but I'm never gonna

5:23

get married again. Com. The. He

5:25

he always shows because he made a joke

5:28

that night. He said that's fine, I'll change

5:30

my last name and it's hundred as. You.

5:32

Know so I don't have a lot

5:34

of on moments that it went over

5:36

my head like our i really never

5:39

thought that I'll get married again especially

5:41

you know not to play Casey. bet

5:43

on which is a walk and on

5:45

and things just went for a turn

5:47

so was so we did started dating

5:49

I guess really that day on that

5:51

he went back to Nashville and on

5:53

the as a busy single mom working

5:55

full time and him traveling. yeah thought

5:57

this could work Chino because. Of. So

6:00

in his past, relationships

6:02

really hadn't turned out because when somebody's

6:04

on the road for months at a

6:06

time, it's hard to maintain

6:08

a relationship with somebody. And he said

6:11

he always had a great life. And so he didn't

6:13

want anything or anybody to mess it up. So he

6:16

was good with where he was. You know, it's funny

6:18

because whenever you were telling me that story, the whole

6:20

time I was like, oh, that's so cute. Like y'all

6:22

did in high school. And then you were telling me

6:24

about that walk and about him asking you to be,

6:28

I guess you said it like, do you want to start

6:30

dating? And I was like, oh, and you're like, yeah,

6:32

but it's actually like awkward to start dating at

6:34

your age. Like you were saying that. And I

6:36

think that, you know, we have a lot of

6:39

mom listeners. We have a lot of like, we

6:41

have all age listeners. Like truly, we talk a

6:43

lot to people my age because I am my

6:45

age. And so you naturally talk about that, but

6:48

we have all age listeners. And so I just

6:50

wanted to say that because I thought that that

6:52

was just like an interesting part of your story

6:54

where you were just acknowledging that like, yes,

6:57

it's sweet, but it wasn't like

7:00

butterflies and rainbows. I was like,

7:02

okay, we can date, but I'm not going to get

7:04

married. Like you had kind of been in this

7:06

time where I had gone through

7:08

a divorce and you're like, it's not really

7:10

what I'm looking for. But I have to

7:12

say just for the Airbnb that they have.

7:14

So this is kind of how I got

7:16

to know you guys. Aside from Clay and

7:18

I ran into a lot of the same

7:21

circles and walls because a lot of the

7:23

people that he worked for on

7:25

tours and different things, people

7:27

that I know and got to do things with. And

7:29

so Clay and I definitely had a lot of connections,

7:32

but y'all's Airbnb is like, we got to

7:34

stay there. We fell in love with them.

7:37

We think they're so amazing. It was kind of

7:39

like an oasis for Christian and I. So

7:42

many people that we know have stayed there

7:44

after, you know, they got married and just

7:46

like significant moments in people's lives. And they've

7:48

just been so awesome. But another thing about

7:51

you guys is just y'all's love for our

7:53

community and how you've taken like what

7:56

y'all have with these spaces and you've made

7:58

them to be. these like

8:00

truly like little havens, which actually I wrote

8:02

in your book at your Airbnb when I

8:05

say there and then named our daughter Haven

8:07

and you remind me of that. I ran

8:09

across that note and I texted you and

8:11

I was like, like, did you

8:13

even know you were going to name your child Haven? No. You

8:16

wrote this as a Haven for us. Not at all. I

8:18

thought that was really cool. Not at all. And it

8:20

was, it was like it was a Haven. And that's

8:23

like one of the things when I named Haven, Haven,

8:25

like that word is very special to me. That

8:27

word often. And

8:30

that was like a Haven for us. Y'all,

8:32

y'all hospitality. And when I stepped in there,

8:34

it was like, wow, this is so beautiful.

8:36

And what I love, especially about it is

8:39

it's in Monroe, Louisiana, which a lot of

8:41

people don't associate with beautiful

8:43

things. They're like an amazing place to stay or

8:45

an incredible experience, which is something we're trying to

8:48

change. Something we're working hard at. One of the

8:50

reasons we have our tour. I mean, our conference

8:52

here, we want to revive the city as

8:54

we're spiritually revived. You know, we want to see

8:56

that revival happen. We want to host people well.

8:59

We love where we live. It's shaped us. It's

9:01

molded us. It's been a beautiful place for us.

9:04

But a lot of people in this town don't see

9:06

it like that. You know, you even talked about you

9:08

didn't see it like that before you started dating Clay

9:10

and y'all were doing this. And I think

9:12

so many people listening to this, you might

9:14

be like, oh, I want to move

9:17

to Nashville. I want to move to

9:19

LA. I want to move to New York. I want to move to

9:21

the big city. I want to do the cool thing. Like what

9:23

I think is so special about y'all story is like y'all

9:25

did the cool thing where y'all are

9:28

at and y'all made it cool because

9:30

y'all are cool people and brought your

9:32

uniqueness to it. So

9:34

inspiring. I love it. But

9:37

on the note of making something in the

9:40

middle of Monroe, a haven, which

9:42

is something that

9:44

I think you have to put intentionality behind

9:46

to do. Tell me a

9:48

little bit about just that love for

9:50

hospitality and bringing that into creating the

9:53

spaces you guys have created. You

10:00

know, I'm starting to think that pretty much everyone's

10:02

schedule is busy, no matter what season of your

10:04

life you're in, whether you have a toddler and

10:06

a baby like me, or you're in college, or

10:08

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10:10

and sometimes our schedules can get in the way

10:13

of our time with the Lord, but thankfully, the

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10:58

personally love listening to things I learn. I

11:01

think maybe even in some ways the

11:03

best whenever I'm listening to things, I like

11:05

to listen to audiobooks. I like to listen

11:07

to music, obviously, and I

11:09

definitely like to listen to Scripture being read. I

11:12

think that sometimes just without the distraction of everything, when

11:15

you're taking it in and listening, it helps so much.

11:17

And so this is a great thing for you. If you

11:19

have a hard time getting into the Word, just let someone

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11:46

so interesting enough,

11:49

when Clay left after we

11:51

started dating and he left and went back to Nashville,

11:55

it was like a few weeks later, he said,

11:57

I'd love to fly you to Nashville. show

12:01

you around the city I've lived in for so long. It's

12:04

so funny because I was like you want

12:06

me to fly on an airplane like alone

12:08

because I had fallen once in my life

12:11

but well I'm sure short of that was

12:13

I spent a few days there and then

12:15

we actually had a road trip back to

12:17

Monroe for Thanksgiving with our families but

12:20

I vividly remember leaving Nashville

12:22

and telling Clay that I

12:25

feel like I'm the least creative person on the

12:28

face of this earth yeah I didn't tell you

12:30

that the other day there's just not enough time

12:32

for all these details but I did because I

12:35

just remember everywhere that we went in Nashville whether

12:37

it was a restaurant or a concert

12:40

or someone's home like people

12:42

are creating there whether it's art or food

12:45

or music you know

12:47

murals are everywhere and I just didn't

12:50

think that I could create like I really

12:53

I guess I didn't feel like I had an outlet

12:56

or I didn't even think about the fact that I

12:58

didn't have an outlet or maybe resources or whatever but

13:00

I think really what it was is if it's

13:03

in there and then you have somebody

13:05

that gets behind

13:07

you and champions you to

13:09

do those things and so I remember him saying

13:11

yes you do like you take great pictures or

13:14

you know you can do any of this stuff

13:16

like you're amazing and he just that's how our

13:18

relationship started was him really just cheering

13:20

me on so when when

13:23

you're paired up with someone else who who

13:26

is creative because he is and who's been

13:29

exposed to like the world and all these

13:31

amazing people that I feel like have shaped

13:33

him you

13:35

can become a really cool team you know so

13:38

I feel like I feel like

13:40

it was in there but something had to bring

13:42

it out and I feel like clay and and

13:44

the timing of all the things in our lives

13:46

the way that things lined up brought

13:49

that creativity out so with long beard

13:51

I was working full-time clay

13:53

was traveling and I still had two children

13:56

at home so

13:58

he kind of commissioned a friend to help

14:00

us with long beard. And we kind

14:03

of put together a color palette, a theme,

14:06

a vision board

14:08

type thing. And our friend

14:10

Heather Land helped us curate

14:13

that and she's amazing

14:15

if you know her or have

14:17

ever been in her home. It's just very

14:19

eclectic and that's what

14:21

we wanted. We wanted something cool that didn't feel

14:23

like you were in Monroe, you know. And we

14:26

just said if it doesn't turn out to be

14:28

a great Airbnb then we have a cool extension

14:30

of this home, you know, which ended up later

14:33

being our own home. So

14:36

that was fun and we got to put the

14:38

final touches really on that and we moved furniture

14:40

all the time and we changed things up. And

14:45

then I think just the hospitality part of it

14:49

is where I felt like we

14:51

really zoned in on that first

14:53

before we created our second

14:56

Airbnb which is where I think my

14:58

confidence for creating something really was

15:00

boosted because we did

15:02

it all by ourselves. That

15:04

one's called Monroe Mojave. It's like a little

15:06

desert oasis. Y'all have to come stay in

15:08

that one too. Yeah, I get to see

15:10

it. We haven't stayed in it. But I

15:13

was like it literally feels like we're in

15:15

Cabo right now. We're in Monroe. Yeah, that's

15:17

we're always like, you know, mission

15:19

accomplished whenever somebody says that. So yeah,

15:21

as far as hospitality goes, I

15:24

didn't realize that so many things in my

15:26

life through the years were really leading me

15:28

to this point of of

15:31

hospitality being my life and even

15:33

being a ministry like for

15:35

us, we

15:38

connect with so many people, we

15:40

have so many meaningful conversations and

15:42

we share our story with people

15:44

that come through there and I quit my

15:46

corporate job a year and a half ago

15:48

to focus on this full time. And there's

15:51

just been so many opportunities where, you

15:53

know, if if I was still working a corporate

15:55

job, I wouldn't be there for coffee

15:58

on the porch or a a boat

16:00

ride at Sunset to have

16:02

these conversations with people. And

16:06

so I realized that even my corporate

16:08

job at Vantage Health Plan has shaped

16:11

me a lot for hospitality. And

16:14

I think Clay even realizes that his

16:16

career in the music industry has really

16:18

shaped him for what we are doing

16:20

together, which is

16:23

creating cool spaces for people where

16:26

we get really nerdy

16:28

about making it so cool and touching

16:31

all your senses so that you have

16:33

the best possible experience. But what that

16:35

does for our city is, if

16:38

you come into our city and stay with us and

16:40

we can give you a good experience and then tell

16:42

you where all the great local things are, tell

16:45

you about our city, all the history, the culture,

16:48

then those guests

16:50

leave Monroe and West Monroe feeling like,

16:52

wow, that's a cool city. And

16:55

so we're not against hotels at all or

16:59

other Airbnbs, but if somebody comes

17:01

through Monroe and they stay at

17:04

a place that wasn't inspiring or

17:06

wasn't clean or didn't smell good

17:08

or feel good or whatever, they're

17:11

gonna leave thinking about that.

17:15

And it doesn't matter to all people. Not everybody

17:17

cares about an experience when they're somewhere, they just

17:19

need a place to lay their head. And

17:22

we've had those people come through

17:24

our spaces, but they leave and they're like,

17:26

wow, I can't believe that was in

17:28

Monroe. Well, it's true. And you do, even if

17:30

you say for a second, like you base, so

17:32

many times we often like, for

17:34

better, for worse, and sometimes for worse, we

17:37

can make a judgment on something based off of

17:39

like the five seconds we encountered it, you know,

17:41

like the first few seconds. And I think that

17:43

that's like the hard thing about like

17:46

people who are celebrities and some would put

17:49

me in that category of like a famous

17:51

person. And it's hard because you

17:53

meet someone and you know, you have this

17:55

one encounter with them. And then that is

17:57

the encounter they're gonna take away. going

18:00

to tell everyone that's who you are as a person.

18:02

Oh, I met that person one time and they were

18:04

blah, blah, blah. And there's this one person that comment

18:06

on my Instagram and she

18:08

like made it out to like make sure everyone knew

18:11

that I was not who I said I was because

18:13

one time I was at the beach and I was with

18:15

all my friends and back in the day, this is before I

18:18

was married and I used to be like, if I was

18:20

with all my friends, it would embarrass

18:22

me when we would be out and people would

18:24

freak out over who I was because like, you

18:26

know, you're with your friends and you're trying to

18:28

be normal. And I was just

18:30

like, it would just make me feel like, Oh

18:32

man, I don't want my friends to feel uncomfortable

18:34

by this moment. And we were at

18:36

a place where it's super crowded. And so the

18:40

buzz started going and everyone

18:43

can just like kind of hear it. And I was trying to

18:45

just kind of ignore it, like keep going, like no one had

18:47

said anything. And then

18:49

someone had said like, Sadie

18:51

or whatever. And I

18:54

acted like I didn't hear them because I was

18:56

just going to try to like ignore the moment,

18:58

try to just keep the normalcy that

19:00

I could and maintain this moment. And

19:04

I do feel bad for ignoring it, but now

19:06

you see the context of what that was coming

19:08

from. Well, this girl will come on every Instagram

19:10

picture of mine for so long, just letting people

19:12

know that I was so rude and that I

19:14

ignored her and letting people know what I was

19:16

really like. And I ended up

19:18

DMing and being like, I'm so sorry that

19:20

that was your experience with me, you know,

19:23

because that really is not who I am.

19:25

Right. But to your point, you know, people

19:27

have one experience in Monroe and it might

19:30

be a negative one. And then that's what that

19:32

city was for better or for worse. And so

19:34

I do think like the intentionality behind you

19:37

know, that can go from hosting and how you present

19:39

or just being who you are. You

19:41

know, it is important that you present yourself in

19:43

such a way that makes people feel loved and

19:46

special in all of those ways. And so, and

19:48

that particular story that I shared, I think it's

19:50

important for the other person to have grace on

19:52

you too and know that there's certain moments, but

19:54

I love that you guys carry that like I

19:56

want to be a person that when you come

19:59

here, you feel that love. You feel

20:01

like it's a haven, like it's above and beyond. But

20:03

what I love about your story is, there's

20:06

so many things I love about your story, but

20:08

one of the things I love about it is,

20:10

it didn't actually start with this like gifting of

20:12

like, oh, I'm so creative and I'm so good

20:14

at interior design and I can make something look

20:16

so cool. That was actually not it. Really, from

20:18

what I heard, it

20:20

was that love for hospitality and making

20:23

people feel special and taken care of.

20:25

And I think so many people in

20:27

this day, it's like they desire to

20:29

be like, to have that gifting,

20:31

but they might not have the heart and the

20:33

right place. And I think that it's so

20:35

important that before you get into like what you're

20:38

gonna do, you establish why you're gonna

20:40

do it. Because if you know

20:42

the why, the what comes naturally. But if you

20:44

only know the what and you don't have the

20:46

why, then the what does not come naturally. It's

20:48

a grind, it's striving to get there. But man,

20:51

if you know that why, it's like

20:53

the what just follows. And when

20:55

you told me about working at, your

20:58

corporate job advantage, tell us

21:00

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21:02

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21:05

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23:01

for you to either only for the

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say know that we think you they're.

23:09

Actually, I was working for a C

23:11

P A which has I had a

23:13

couple of only backup hours. the sale

23:15

mom for ten years I'm at it.

23:17

Finished college com. It's.

23:20

To me as a time at eighteen

23:22

it was, It was too hard to

23:24

carry a fulltime job and com. And.

23:27

To go to school for some which and ours.

23:29

Is. A really common thing for a lot

23:31

of people like I didn't really feel like

23:34

I had it in me to get to

23:36

get all that done to like accomplices. The

23:38

yeah had very low I think self esteem

23:40

and just. As very

23:43

shy and like me can quiet

23:45

and calm. And so

23:47

is a very chaotic like upbringing.

23:49

And so when I got married,

23:52

arm and. ended up pregnant like

23:54

a year and a half i had my first

23:56

baby after i got pregnant i mean after i

23:58

got married on est home for 10 years

24:00

and so I didn't finish college. And

24:03

so I went through a divorce in 2008. And

24:07

I was the lady that didn't have anything

24:10

under her belt to like start a career,

24:12

you know. But I

24:14

made the choice to, you

24:16

know, to go

24:19

through the divorce and then just try to figure it out. So

24:22

it's weird because I was probably the

24:25

most likely, least likely person

24:27

to say I can

24:29

do this like on my own. But

24:31

I didn't know what that was gonna look like. So I had

24:33

a couple of jobs that were really great

24:36

but I didn't have benefits for

24:38

me and my children. So I had a

24:40

friend reach out to me to

24:42

let me know there was an opening at Vantage Health Plan.

24:44

I had no idea what Vantage was. At

24:47

the time I remember seeing like all of

24:49

these yard signs popping up around town with

24:52

Affinity Health Group. And

24:55

so Vantage was growing rapidly and she

24:57

was like, there's this position in

25:00

human resources that I think you would be great for.

25:03

And I was like, what's human resources, you know. So

25:07

I knew that I loved people. I knew that

25:09

I had a lot of life experience but I

25:11

didn't have a college education. I didn't have a

25:14

degree in HR. And so

25:16

I was like, I mean, I'll interview

25:18

but I'm probably not gonna get the job. And

25:23

the guy that interviewed me that ended up being my

25:25

boss later, he also like knew

25:27

my story and some of the history, with

25:30

my divorce and things like that. So I

25:32

thought, he's not gonna hire me. Like, I'm

25:35

just not the one for the job. And

25:37

I remember Brad Burcham telling

25:40

me that, there

25:42

are people that can come in here with five degrees but

25:45

they don't have like the

25:48

innate ability to connect with people, people

25:51

like you do and life

25:53

experience sometimes can be

25:55

more valuable than a college degree. And so

25:57

not that college degrees aren't Valuable.

26:00

I think they're amazing. I

26:02

think it's on. it's hell's that. You can

26:04

also sick with something and and accomplish and

26:06

and I think it would have been really

26:08

cool for me to do that one day.

26:10

But and it in and so on. Are

26:13

you know I do? You want to

26:15

say that like you can have a

26:17

career with without having gone through college?

26:20

Or you you can be something without

26:22

having graduated college. So yeah, whatever. Patty,

26:24

she's like. It's. Okay

26:26

to find something that you love and eight

26:28

your past and balance out his happen to

26:31

be forty years old when I realized while

26:33

this is what I was made for yeah,

26:35

I'm. The Way That Vanish

26:37

Health Plan. On

26:39

the job, they're really shaped. Shape

26:41

to me and so many ways

26:43

and connected me with some amazing

26:46

people on throughout the community On

26:48

but I was able to really

26:50

surf evil and love on people

26:52

through advantage with you know twelve

26:54

hundred and sixteen hundred employees that

26:57

we served bad as people would

26:59

come through the doors by to

27:01

interview for jobs or to me

27:03

with our executives com. And.

27:05

Just had this like. I

27:07

had this and burning desire to make

27:10

sure that they felt comfortable and the

27:12

had everything they needed. If they were

27:14

nervous out I wanted to chat with

27:16

them and just like trotted. Com.

27:18

Their nerves because I was a girl sitting

27:20

in the inner receive at one point saw

27:22

know and I would itself like to. In

27:25

a to come in and it's funny to the

27:28

console like that to they come in to area

27:30

to you Again said sometimes if you don't know

27:32

it's it's facts are you don't know what someone's

27:34

going to ask you like you know the nurse

27:37

can be really crazy we're interviewing for our official

27:39

if you really want the job Yes so the

27:41

serves the servants hearth that are that are had

27:43

and that I was able to. I really. Am.

27:48

Really? I guess

27:50

to display and my job they're on

27:52

helps me to realize like how much

27:54

I love. I'm. hospitality

27:58

and and serving people and and

28:01

I wanted to do that full-time. So

28:03

for five years, we actually had value-long

28:05

beard and I worked the corporate job.

28:07

So there were nights at midnight where we were

28:10

cleaning. We did all the cleaning

28:12

ourselves for five years. We just enlisted somebody

28:14

to help us and it's still hard to

28:16

delegate that out because I'm so

28:18

picky about. I wanna make sure that it's

28:20

a perfect experience for when our guests check

28:22

in and you have

28:25

to really trust somebody else to

28:27

make sure everything looks and feels the way that you

28:29

want it to. So

28:31

living next door does help. But

28:35

I would sit at work advantage and think

28:37

about how I could be home, nesting

28:39

or creating something else or

28:43

getting ready for the next guest. And so I really

28:46

had to decide where

28:48

I wanted to be and where I wanted to focus

28:52

all my energy. And

28:55

it was full-time hospitality with

28:57

our short-term rules. Yeah, well, it's so cool

28:59

because I think about this. You

29:01

know how everyone says, Taylor Swift is the

29:04

queen of Easter egg hunts. You know, it's

29:06

like the Easter eggs all throughout. I'm like,

29:08

no, God, God is king of Easter eggs

29:12

because you look back at your life and you

29:14

see all of these little Easter eggs that

29:16

is planted in your life. And you're like, oh

29:18

my gosh, I'm finding all these. When

29:21

you look back and you think about you at

29:23

Vantage and you're like, I'm not the person

29:25

for the job, all this stuff, which

29:27

kind of is a theme of like disqualifying

29:29

thinking like, oh, you know, I'm

29:32

not creative or I'm not the person for

29:34

the job because you know me from this

29:36

and you might think that or I'm not

29:38

gonna get married because this and whatever. So

29:40

many times like I'm not calling you out

29:42

in a sense of you do this, we

29:44

all do this. Like we all like so

29:46

often like disqualify ourselves for the thing that

29:48

God's like setting up for us. He's like

29:50

setting this up. And actually like you

29:52

are prepared for this because look at what you just

29:54

came from. And so you're sitting here at Vantage thinking

29:56

like, I'm not the person for the job, you get

29:58

the job. And you don't just do

30:01

the job, you do the job well with purpose and

30:03

passion and you start to realize, like, you know what,

30:05

I'm not just like sitting here at this desk, I'm

30:07

gonna make this like a welcoming space for people and

30:09

I want people to feel comfortable and I want people

30:11

to feel loved when they walk in this room and

30:14

I want people to feel prepared for what they're stepping

30:16

into. And you cultivate

30:18

this servant-hardness and this hospitality

30:20

mindset in the Spanish office.

30:23

And like now you're doing

30:25

that on a bigger scale

30:28

with Airbnb's and hosting people in your home

30:30

and making sure that they feel comfortable and

30:32

they feel loved. And as you were talking

30:34

to people there and preparing them for that,

30:36

you're doing the same thing now. You're talking

30:38

to people and having discussions. And so God,

30:41

you know, every season, there's not a wasted

30:43

one. Every season has its purpose. Every season

30:45

God is cultivating something in you and that's

30:47

why I don't like the term like, oh,

30:49

I'm in like a waiting season, you know?

30:52

And I know we often use that and there's

30:54

nothing bad about using that term, but why I

30:56

don't like it is because I think so many

30:58

times when we think of waiting, like think about

31:00

like a waiting room before you go into like

31:03

the doctor's office. It's like purposeless, you know? It's

31:05

useless. Like you're sitting there and like you're just

31:07

scrolling and you're reading some magazine that's from 2018

31:10

that has nothing to do with now. You're watching the

31:12

TV, you know? You're waiting for the purpose of being

31:15

there is the appointment. And I think sometimes we treat

31:17

waiting seasons like that. Like, oh, well, there's nothing really

31:19

here for me. I'm just waiting until I get that

31:21

break or I'm just waiting until I get that job

31:23

or I'm waiting until I get married, I'm waiting until

31:26

I have kids. But like,

31:28

no, like every season, there is something

31:30

in that that I believe every day,

31:32

God is cultivating something in you that

31:34

is making you become who you're gonna

31:36

be and who you're gonna need to

31:39

be for the next one. And so

31:41

I just love that that time there

31:43

was, it

31:45

wasn't wasted, it wasn't waiting, it was

31:48

preparing you for all that you're stepping

31:50

into now on

31:52

the note of just making people feel comfortable

31:54

and going the extra mile. He

31:56

mentioned this a second ago, like having coffee with people

31:58

and going on boat rides. That is the

32:00

extra mile thing that y'all do for y'all's guests.

32:02

Like you make yourselves available if they want to

32:06

be with y'all. And if not, you don't, I remember the

32:08

first time we stood there, you're like, you won't even see

32:10

us. And we didn't. But if there

32:12

is a guest, it's like, Hey, we want to hang

32:14

out. I know you've had moments like that. Are there

32:16

any that you feel okay with sharing that you've been

32:18

able to kind of speak into some guest life? Sure.

32:23

There's always two that come to mind like

32:25

really quickly when people ask us

32:27

that. And I remember

32:29

there, there was this lady, she,

32:32

she booked. Um, and she,

32:34

you know, if you've ever booked an Airbnb,

32:37

um, it prompts you

32:39

to tell the host why you're coming, you know?

32:41

Um, and so a lot

32:43

of times people will just say,

32:45

you know, ball game or family reunion, or

32:48

some people don't say anything. Um,

32:50

but as a host, I like to find

32:52

out like really, what are you coming for?

32:54

Is there anything that we can do extra

32:57

for you? Can we make any local recommendations?

32:59

Um, I remember this one lady in particular, she, um,

33:03

we always offer a Bayou biscuit board and

33:05

then, um, a sunset cruise if the weather's

33:07

permitting and we're home, you know? Um,

33:10

so I remember in my conversation with her

33:12

back and forth, um, just on the Airbnb

33:15

app, uh, she was very just

33:17

cut and dry. She didn't conversate

33:19

a whole lot and she, you could tell she

33:21

didn't want to come and like visit with us,

33:23

which is fine. We, we respect that. Um, we're,

33:27

we will be very hands on with you

33:29

if you want us to be, but if

33:31

not, you can just have your private space

33:33

and we respect that and we'll make sure

33:35

that we do everything to like protect that.

33:37

So we knew, we knew that this lady

33:39

was coming in for, um, to

33:41

visit her mom's grave. And, um,

33:44

so that immediately feels like very solemn. And like,

33:46

of course, she's, you

33:48

know, not there to make friends or

33:51

whatever, but, um, I remember later that

33:53

night, uh, I was cooking dinner and

33:55

she, um, sent me

33:57

a text message and said, can I take you up on

33:59

that boat ride? And we were like, sure,

34:01

like turn the oven off, like let's go. So

34:04

I remember Clay and I

34:07

went out, got everything ready. She met us

34:09

down there. We had this amazing

34:11

conversation on the boat. And we got back

34:13

up to the porch and we

34:15

share our back porch with Bayou Longbeard. So

34:18

there came a time where we

34:20

would go into our door and she would go into

34:22

her door. And we just sit there and

34:24

talk for like 30 more minutes and we end up sitting on

34:26

the couch. It just turned into

34:28

like a conversation until midnight. And she opened

34:30

up a lot about some

34:32

things with her children and the

34:35

church, just some of the disappointment that she had

34:38

had in the church. And so

34:40

long story short, the next

34:42

night she asked, could we do it again? And

34:44

she's been back probably seven or

34:47

eight times. She lives in

34:49

Fayetteville. And we've gotten to be really good

34:51

friends with her. We've helped

34:53

her shop for real estate because she's from Monroe

34:55

and she would love to have like a piece

34:57

of property on the bayou. So that's one. And

34:59

then we had this other couple come from, I

35:03

think Austin, Texas moving to North

35:06

Carolina. And so because we're on the I-20 corridor,

35:09

we get a lot of people that

35:11

just need light to break their trip up.

35:14

So these guys were there and

35:18

they actually took us up on the offer for

35:20

a sunset dinner cruise. So I remember

35:22

we set the table for them and

35:25

they were walking down the dock and they

35:27

saw like everything we'd done for them and

35:30

which we would do for any of our

35:32

guests. We'd treat them all the same way.

35:35

They just started crying. They were just

35:37

so blown away that these

35:40

strangers loved them and did

35:42

this for them and opened their home and

35:44

opened their schedule at night for them. So

35:47

we had a really great conversation with

35:49

them. Clay ended up on the porch

35:52

with them later that night talking more

35:54

about just life. And there's so many.

35:56

I mean, I should probably write them

35:58

all down because. There

36:00

are so many. So I think that if you like

36:03

continue to show up in a space like

36:05

that and make yourself available, really

36:08

cool things can happen. God timing

36:10

is everything. And Clay and I

36:12

saw that with our relationship. There's

36:14

been so many moments where

36:16

I was like, man, where were you at like 15 years

36:19

ago or 10 years ago? But

36:22

Clay says, neither one of us

36:24

were ready for this relationship with

36:26

one another. And timing

36:29

is everything. So there's

36:31

just been some really cool moments where we

36:33

feel like to that, that's just like our

36:36

ministry. I mean, I think you can have

36:38

a ministry of your

36:40

life wherever you are, whether it's at the

36:42

grocery store or the doctor's office with your

36:44

friends or at church or whatever like for

36:47

us, we feel like connecting with these people

36:51

is what we're supposed

36:53

to do. It's like, it's our purpose right

36:55

now. And so creating,

36:58

making sure that everything is perfect for those

37:00

people that come through is just, it's

37:03

what we do. We love it. You

37:10

know, it's crazy how fast the girls are growing right now,

37:12

especially Haven, 10 months, it is wild how

37:15

much change happens and how much they

37:17

grow. I'm constantly getting rid of clothes

37:19

to fit her better. She's getting so

37:22

tall, but one thing that we can

37:24

rely on, from the time they are

37:26

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37:33

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37:39

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37:41

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37:44

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37:46

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37:48

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37:50

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37:53

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37:55

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37:57

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38:19

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38:22

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38:24

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39:27

you know, it's so cool that you touched

39:29

on that. It is a ministry, it is

39:31

y'all's ministry and hospitality is something that we

39:33

are called to, I believe as believers as

39:35

the church, I believe to welcome people in

39:37

and sit at our table is something really

39:40

important. And here's the thing

39:42

about that, because so many of you hearing this

39:44

might go, oh, one day whenever I have enough

39:46

money to have an Airbnb, then I'll be hospitable.

39:48

Or, you know, whenever I have a great house

39:50

or whatever. But like, that's not what it's about.

39:52

That's not what the heart of hospitality is. Can

39:54

you speak to a little bit about that? Just

39:56

for those who are listening who are like, okay,

39:59

what? What does it look like for hospitality to

40:01

be in my life when I don't have the

40:03

resources that I would like to have to bring

40:05

people in? So

40:09

yeah, I think back over

40:12

the years where I

40:14

would have not

40:16

had the opportunity to curate a

40:19

space like this or have the resources to curate a

40:21

space like this. And I've thought about it a lot.

40:23

And I remember back in 2019, I wrote

40:26

a little post on Vaiyalongbeard's

40:28

Instagram page about hospitality

40:31

and just how we all can be

40:34

hospitable. We all can invite people to have

40:36

a seat at our table. You don't have

40:38

to have a fancy tablescape or

40:41

be an interior designer, which I don't

40:43

credit myself for, but I am pretty

40:45

proud of the spaces that we've created

40:47

or have a lot

40:51

of money to lavish

40:54

your guests with things or food or

40:56

drinks or whatever. But you

40:58

can just initiate simple invitations.

41:02

And whether that's like, hey, can

41:04

we meet for coffee or have

41:06

a group of friends at your house,

41:08

everybody brings something. You don't have to

41:11

have all of these resources to be

41:13

hospitable. But

41:15

I think creating small moments

41:19

where you can love on people

41:21

and just be in a space where

41:25

conversations can happen with people that

41:27

can be very meaningful and change people's

41:29

lives. Just like with your team the

41:31

other day, like we just, we were meeting to talk

41:33

about Low Sister Conference and then we ended up talking

41:35

about life. And I

41:38

always love sharing some of

41:40

my experiences with anybody, but especially

41:42

younger girls. And

41:46

it's like if you can prevent people

41:48

from going through some of the things

41:50

you went through or help them come

41:53

through things that they're going through. I

41:55

think that, like you said earlier, all

41:57

of our experiences are like, they're meaningful.

42:00

meaningful because they've shaped us and then they can

42:02

help other people. And

42:04

that's what happened a lot of times in HR

42:07

advantage is that I was

42:09

able to share my story or

42:11

encourage people who are going through

42:13

similar things or hard things, whatever.

42:16

So you can just initiate those moments in

42:18

your life wherever you are. You

42:21

don't have to create an Airbnb to

42:23

be a host, like host wherever you

42:25

are. You can be a host in

42:27

other people's homes in other group settings.

42:29

Like, you know what, if you

42:31

have a passion for hospitality, jump

42:34

up and help, like see where you can help.

42:36

Like I'm, that's why I'm so passionate about, I'm

42:39

so thankful that you chose to bring, you know,

42:41

you chose to come back home, raise your family here,

42:44

be with your family, and then bring

42:46

the conference here. And so I just, I want the

42:48

city, you know, I want everybody

42:50

to get behind you and support you. And

42:53

that's why I feel passionate about, you

42:55

know, like what can I do with, with my

42:57

gifts and my skillset to

43:00

help this conference be everything

43:02

it can be. You know, so much. And

43:04

when she said that to make coffee the

43:06

other day, I was like, it makes me

43:08

tear up because like you even like hosting

43:10

us and welcoming us back here

43:12

and then like helping us so much with the

43:14

conference and everything. Like, I think ultimately like what

43:16

it comes down to is this, like every single

43:18

person in the world wants to feel invited and

43:20

wants to feel welcomed in and wants to fill

43:23

up when they're there. Everybody

43:25

wants to feel that way. And if you're

43:27

able to give people that feeling of feeling invited

43:29

and feeling like they have a food at the

43:31

table and welcomed in your home or wherever the

43:33

space is, it doesn't have, like you said, you

43:36

don't even have to be at your house in

43:38

a room full of people who, you know, 90%

43:40

of people feel awkward being

43:42

in the room because it's just social awkwardness

43:44

and intimidation. Like, just make that person feel

43:47

loved and welcome. And that person was already

43:49

invited and like that goes such a long

43:51

way. And I think that's like being a

43:53

good host. Like that is being hospitable. It's

43:56

making people feel welcome. It's making people feel

43:58

at home in a sense of. home,

44:00

no matter where they're at. And

44:03

you do that so well, whether I'm literally

44:05

at your Airbnb or at coffee with you

44:07

or in a meeting for a conference, like

44:09

you see that thread throughout your entire life.

44:11

And I was so excited

44:13

to have this conversation because I

44:16

think that, like you said,

44:18

everyone has a story, everyone has their own

44:20

set of ministry. And I love like having

44:22

people on this couch for sisters and friends

44:24

that it's different than like the typical interviews

44:26

that you would hear. It's real

44:28

life, real stories, what you're doing on a

44:30

regular basis. Not a

44:32

normal job, because it's different, but having

44:35

a normal job. And from that, like

44:37

it's birthing this really cool thing. And

44:39

like, I want you to see yourself

44:41

in joy and understand that like, wherever

44:43

you are, no matter your story, God

44:46

can use it to do significant things,

44:48

big things, big impact. She's making impact

44:50

on every single person's life that steps

44:52

into her home and huge impact

44:54

in my life before even had a conversation with

44:57

her just by letting her home be a haven

44:59

for me. And so it's just amazing what you

45:01

can do right where you're at. If you actually

45:03

do it for the glory of God. That's what

45:06

I love that verse, like whatever you do, do

45:08

it as if you're working for the Lord and not for man.

45:11

And I know you've used your story

45:13

to help so many people, even with your

45:15

divorce. Like you told me about talking with

45:17

several different young women who have stayed in

45:20

the house or walking through that same thing.

45:22

Who are like, can we talk? And so

45:24

just like making people feel welcome, telling your

45:26

testimony, it says that the enemy's going to

45:28

be defeated by the blood of the lamb

45:30

and the power of our testimony. And

45:32

Jesus shed his blood. Now we got to

45:34

share a testimony and you do that

45:37

so beautifully. Just to put a book

45:40

into this incredible conversation, you started out

45:42

by talking about Clay and y'all's relationship.

45:44

You guys are a power team. You're a

45:47

power couple. Y'all are amazing. It

45:49

kind of shocks me when you say it's always

45:51

shocked me when you said you got married in

45:54

2018. Cause I'm like, what? I feel like y'all

45:56

been married forever. Just because it's like the dynamic

45:58

that y'all have. You're

46:00

like, why should we knew each other 10

46:02

years ago or whatever? But like the timing

46:04

is everything and God makes all things work

46:07

together for good. When you think about

46:09

you and Clay and just through a demptive story,

46:11

what do you want to share for people

46:13

right now who have lost their messy things

46:15

like divorce and hard things? Like how

46:18

have you seen God take something that was hard

46:20

and work it together for good? Like how has

46:22

Clay been a part of that redemption story for

46:24

you? I love being able to

46:27

share my story. I think it's

46:29

important to when you've walked through something like

46:31

that, like not to

46:33

place blame, to take responsibility for

46:35

whatever it was that you might have played a

46:37

part in or what you learned from it. And

46:42

I think so many times when we walk through those

46:44

hard times, especially like divorce, you're so

46:47

broken and you don't feel like worthy

46:49

of love again. You think you can never love

46:51

again. And

46:54

then if you're older and you have

46:56

children and you have baggage, as

46:59

a lot of people call it,

47:02

no one's going to want to marry you. I

47:05

just got to a point where Clay's

47:08

actually my third marriage and I just got to a

47:10

point where I was like, I don't want to walk

47:12

through that again. I don't want my children to go

47:14

through that again. So I'm just going to be in

47:16

control and just say, I'm

47:18

never going to get married again. Let's just call

47:20

it that. And

47:23

as you can see, God has different plans in

47:25

all of our lives. And so if you

47:28

can just let go and trust

47:30

God's plan, I think

47:33

that beautiful things can happen. And so

47:35

when I told Clay that I wouldn't

47:37

get married again, I really didn't think that

47:40

I would. Like I really, really didn't.

47:42

I thought this guy's never going to get married. I

47:45

can date, but it's just

47:47

going to be very shallow, I

47:49

think. And he was already my Christian

47:51

brother friend. So it was

47:54

going to be comfortable. And

47:57

I think that the way that Clay has loved

47:59

me. has helped me

48:01

realize that even like

48:05

you said earlier the things that you

48:07

go through aren't without meaning and purpose

48:09

in your life and I just

48:11

look at some of the hard things you know

48:13

whether it's the mistakes I made or the

48:16

things that have happened to me as

48:18

stepping stones to get to where I am.

48:25

Y'all we all grew up at camp around

48:28

here we are camp kids we love camp

48:30

love a good camp game camp song all

48:32

of it is so fun. Summers at camp

48:34

are definitely awesome and my kids are too

48:36

young for camps I gotta have some other

48:38

things to entertain them and KiwiCo is a

48:41

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48:43

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48:45

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48:47

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48:50

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48:52

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48:54

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48:56

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48:58

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49:01

mentioned our love for camp my mom actually

49:03

was the craft director at camp all my

49:05

life and so she was always doing new

49:07

crafts and teaching us crafts and led all

49:09

the kids in that and so it really

49:11

is fun to get to do some crafts

49:13

with the kids at home especially with KiwiCo

49:16

because they always have an educational element to

49:18

them for no matter what age

49:20

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49:22

crafts that KiwiCo has sent are great because

49:24

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49:26

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49:29

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50:12

they do, they have shaped me. I

50:15

mean, you can ask my friends and family, I'm definitely

50:17

not the same person that I was, you know,

50:19

15 or 20 years ago. And

50:23

with with Clay coming in and

50:26

knowing my history, my past, my

50:28

baggage, and deciding like that

50:30

he chooses to love me. One

50:34

of the things that I told your girls the other day at coffee

50:37

was I'm a

50:39

very emotional person. If you know me, I'm super sensitive.

50:41

I'll cry at the drop of the hat. And have

50:44

been like even

50:48

chastised for that in the past. And some

50:50

of my relationships, like you, you cry so

50:52

much or you're so sensitive or whatever. And

50:55

when someone beats you down in an

50:57

area of your life like that, that is just,

50:59

it's like a part of who I am. Like

51:01

I feel like God made me an emotional person,

51:03

you know? But what I didn't realize

51:05

is that I think even

51:08

like emotionally, I wasn't super

51:10

stable because of some of the things that I'd

51:12

gone through. So I remember

51:14

telling Clay like, early

51:17

on in our dating relationship, when he would leave for

51:19

tours, like, or when he would turn to Monroe and

51:21

see me and then leave, I would

51:24

cry. I would just be like a 15 year

51:26

old girl who missed her boyfriend, you know? And

51:30

there was this one time where I walked

51:33

in and Clay had like 15,

51:36

12 or 15 handkerchiefs laying

51:38

out on the table. And I was

51:41

just like, what is this? And he said, I

51:43

just want you to know that like, if you

51:45

need to cry, I'm going to always have a

51:47

handkerchief for you. Like it's okay to cry. It's

51:49

okay to be sensitive, be emotional, and I'll try

51:51

not to cry right now. But just

51:54

him like embracing that

51:56

part of me and

51:59

loving me. It's actually made

52:01

me more emotionally stable. And it got

52:04

to where I didn't cry as much when he would leave.

52:06

And he was like, are you still gonna miss me? Like,

52:09

you don't cry like you used to. And I just feel stronger,

52:12

but I'm just so thankful that he might get

52:14

embraced that part of me. And there's so many

52:16

different things that I

52:18

could tell you about him, the way that he loves me. I've

52:21

never been loved that way or this way. And

52:24

I feel like that he is for sure my

52:26

redemption story. And I think that a lot of

52:29

women go through divorces and think that they

52:31

can't be loved again or love

52:33

again. And

52:36

you can, you know, I spent about a

52:38

year in between my

52:40

second divorce and dating

52:43

Clay before. Like, I really just

52:45

spent that whole year focusing on

52:48

being healthy and independent and just being a

52:50

mom. And I think sometimes when

52:53

you focus on that, instead of like, you

52:55

know, where's the next person? I

52:58

mean, even when we started dating,

53:00

I think when you're younger, you date people

53:04

like with the intention of, you know,

53:07

I'll marry them. And if I'm not gonna marry them, then

53:09

I'm not gonna date them. You know, I mean, we even

53:12

get tossed out in church. Like, don't date somebody that you

53:14

wouldn't marry. But

53:16

as a 40 year old, like, I

53:19

wasn't really thinking like that. Like, I wasn't

53:21

thinking, I wasn't like nonchalantly

53:24

dating, but like if I wanted to go

53:26

on a date with somebody, like that's fine.

53:28

I'm not thinking about marrying them. It's more

53:30

of just like a companion to just having

53:33

somebody to go to dinner with or do

53:35

this or that with. And so it's

53:38

very different when you're older and you're dating. But

53:41

I think if you focus on getting

53:44

yourself healthy after something

53:46

really hard like that, you'd

53:49

be surprised at really what God can do in your

53:51

life and who you can bring into your life. And

53:54

for me, it was Clay Casey and I'm

53:56

just so thankful because he has enhanced

53:58

my life a million times. He's really special. If

54:00

you don't know him, you should know him. I love

54:02

y'all so much. Y'all are the best. And it's the most beautiful story truly. I said

54:04

to the girls listening to those same guys that if you're listening to those, I hope

54:07

you see yourself in joy. I see myself in you in so many different ways. It

54:10

was a not very healthy relationship. You're a

54:12

good person. And I was like, I'm not a good person. I'm

54:14

a good person. I'm a good person. And I was like, I'm

54:16

a good person. And I was like, I'm a good person. And

54:18

I was like, I'm a good person. I see myself in you

54:20

in so many different ways. And I was

54:22

thinking about, I had been in a relationship

54:24

before where I literally cried every day. It

54:27

was a not very healthy relationship. And that person

54:29

would always say, you're so, you're so sensitive. You cry

54:31

so much. You know, it's a bad thing.

54:34

And what's funny is after that, then I went

54:36

opposite. I'm like, I'm not going to cry. You

54:38

know, I'm just going to be like a stone

54:41

wall. I didn't cry for a long time. And

54:43

then when I met Christian, he was

54:46

sensitive. Like he would cry

54:48

at like, like sweet things and like,

54:50

like sweet things. Like he had a

54:52

sweet emotion about him and his mom

54:54

does too. His mom is like the

54:56

sweetest, like if she will cry with

54:58

you, like she is the person who

55:00

will like cry with you, hug you, hold

55:02

you, do the whole thing. Like she will always shed a tear with

55:04

you. And I just saw

55:07

the beauty that they had surrounding like

55:10

emotion. And Christian started to

55:12

teach me that tears are such a good

55:14

thing and they're so healing. And that Bible

55:16

even talks about tears that God, that he

55:18

knows the tears that fall from me, your

55:20

eyes. And I just remember being like, wow,

55:22

that is so beautiful. And

55:24

then it's so cool because I began to

55:27

like cry out of like sweet things. Like

55:29

sweet things make me cry. Like I cry

55:31

during worship all the time. I cry. I

55:33

literally always, this is so funny, like championship

55:35

games. Like when someone wins, I always cry.

55:37

Like I'm so happy for them. And like,

55:40

I don't even have anyone that I know playing

55:42

this game, but I'm crying with you. I

55:45

love it because it's like brought so much redemption

55:47

to emotion in my life. But like I cry

55:49

in like appropriate times now. Like I cry when

55:51

things are sweet and things are happy. And then

55:54

I cry whenever like tears are meant to be

55:56

shed. And like Christians invited me into that, like

55:59

The healthy side of it. The emotion and on. she's

56:01

really really beautiful and yeah and I'm in

56:03

a don't cry of the things that I

56:05

used to be sensitive like from negative things

56:07

that don't even feel the need to cry

56:09

or any we are You realize now that

56:11

it was because of virus because the legacy

56:14

way to I Honestly it is ironic that

56:16

the prison time and chromosome is the one

56:18

that's making me how to tie me down

56:20

and it's healthy place and I'm I'm I'm

56:22

not an emotional person right and I that's

56:24

actually not who I am A to add

56:26

because I had a son that relationship that's

56:28

not really who I am and then I

56:30

get healthy as a person make Christian and

56:33

he taught me than more the beauty of

56:35

that and say when I heard the handkerchief

56:37

sort of oh my gosh have to tell

56:39

that story because you know these are just

56:41

two women who experience a very similar thing

56:43

and I were not doubt that many of

56:45

Ulysses as pie gas pipe the same her

56:47

name is this the first time you're hearing

56:50

some of the the beautiful and redemptive side

56:52

of and maybe at some he hadn't walked

56:54

into. Yes those he this friend you know

56:56

has to meet demand you get married a

56:58

sign that redemption story and you'll. Have to

57:00

get the job that you're going to have

57:02

to sign that redemption story. That redemption story

57:05

starts with Jesus and the relationship yet we

57:07

have with him and really only Jesus can

57:09

truly he'll use and the way that you're

57:11

longing to be healed and and from that

57:14

place man there's so much blessing to Tom

57:16

I'm and he has so much easier for

57:18

this Easter Eggs that really gets us. Come

57:20

upon your life of first start with that

57:23

relationship with him and from the overflow that

57:25

man the fruits, the spirit, the love, the

57:27

joy, the peace even the hospitality that will

57:30

flow to your life will be so rewarding

57:32

and says thank you joy For be honest

57:34

Pike as think you guys for listening and

57:36

will assign accent.