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Listen Linda! Hosted by Jacquiline Cox
Music commentary
Listen Linda! Hosted by Jacquiline Cox
Are You Wearing The Heavy Tiara?
Have you been measuring your worth by your achievements? Are you exhausted from trying to earn your place at tables where you don't truly belong? This soul-stirring conversation with author Amber Wiegand Buckley might just be the permission slip you need to put down that heavy tiara.
Amber opens her heart about the years she spent equating her value with checked boxes and completed tasks, only to discover that God never tied His love to her performance. With refreshing candor, she shares her journey through lupus, fibromyalgia, thyroid cancer, and mental health challenges that led to the birth of her book, "Flowers Find a Way." Her story reminds us that even in life's hardest soil, God's light finds a way to break through.
The conversation takes powerful turns as we explore how women often dim their light to accommodate others, why God frequently chooses the "disqualified" to carry His message, and how to discern between divine assignments and distractions disguised as opportunities. Amber's vulnerability about her own psychiatric hospital experience and her upcoming book on mental health brings a deep authenticity that resonates with anyone who's ever felt broken or unworthy.
What emerges is a liberating truth: you are not your accomplishments, your failures, or others' opinions of you. You are a daughter of the King, fully loved and purposefully designed. As Amber beautifully puts it, "If you could see how heaven sees you, you would see a well-decorated soldier, a well-decorated princess."
Ready to release your authentic voice and bloom where you're planted? This episode offers practical wisdom for women tired of performance-based identity and eager to walk in their God-given purpose. Join us for a conversation that might just change how you see yourself—and give you permission to put down that checklist once and for all.
Hey, y'all, it's your girl. Listen, linda. Welcome to the book club live, where faith meets fiction, devotion meets discussion and stories meet the soul. Every week, I bring you the reads that inspire, challenge and change lives. From devotionals to drama, testimonies to triumphs, this club has it all. And the best part, it's not just about the books, it's about us. We laugh, we cry, we pray and we grow together. This isn't just a book club, it's a family. So grab your journal, grab your coffee, coffee and let's dive in, because here at listen linda, book club live, every story has a purpose and every purpose deserves a voice girly, that is the cutest intro I've ever, ever seen.
Speaker 3:Girl when. I take that you just made that like 20 minutes before we go. Oh my goodness.
Speaker 2:Girl. Well, thank you for having me on the show. I'll let you do your thing, Girl, she didn't even let me Look, y'all.
Speaker 3:She didn't even let me get my welcome out. This show is going to be off the chain. I already know. Okay, I'm gonna start over. No, no, no, that's all right, you girl, you go? No, no, no, no. Listen, linda, y'all already know what time it is. It is the listen linda book club and I am your host, dr jaceline Cox, your Mrs Illinois USA ambassador 2025. And today I'm too excited because God lined this connection up. Let me tell you, when my spiritual mama, dr Velma Bagby, says, jacqueline, you need to meet this woman, baby, I do not question it and she didn't miss because, as you guys can see, our guest today is the amazing Amber Wiegand Buckley, correct, or white? Yes, no, wiegand, you just totally ignore the I. Now I'm gonna tell you about this crazy lady, okay, author, encourager, designer, storyteller, just a full bloom of God's favor. Welcome, amber, to the Listen Linda stage.
Speaker 2:I am so honored, jacqueline, I just am in awe of you and how much you do and how much you are striving for excellence and how much you have on your plate besides everything else people see. And I'm just honored to be on the podcast with Miss Illinois. Can I introduce her to you? Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:I try to wet my crown. Sometimes I'm definitely sitting in the back.
Speaker 2:Remind me, I'm a queen Amen, girl girl, yes, amen.
Speaker 3:Okay, so y'all know how I do, when I do what I do. We have to bow our heads in prayer before we get started. Father God, thank you for another chance to sit together in love and purpose. Thank you for Amber's gift and the way she uses her testimony to uplift others. Lord, I ask you to bless this conversation so it doesn't just entertain, it heals, it teaches, it restores. Cover Amber, cover me, and cover every person listening to the sound of our voices right now. Let them walk away with something planted that will bloom in this season In Jesus' mountain name. Amen, Amen, All right girl. So let's get into it, sis, yes, yes, let's get to it. I want to know the woman behind the brand honey. Who is Amber, when all the titles Find the brand honey? Who is Amber when all the titles, the platform and the projects are put down? Talk to us about Amber, the woman, the wife and the friend.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I am a woman without pretense. That's what it is. And I think, if I could say anything about who I am, it's why did I, how did I even get here and how did I even get these titles? And God pinched me because, you know, sitting in the favor of what I get to do in the framework of heaven is an amazing thing. But you know what I'm? A toilet friend. You know what I say is what I mean is I let people see who this woman is after 52 years being on this planet? Goodness knows, I am tired of the makeup and I am tired of performing and I am tired of the platform. Yeah, I mean, how are you Listen? I mean Jacqueline, it is. It's tiring to hold all these titles, isn't it?
Speaker 3:Oh, yes, it is, but heavy is the head that wears the crown. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Much is given, much is I need to get a tear today oh goodness, girl you know what, see.
Speaker 3:I love that because sometimes we only see like the highlighted real but not the heart, and I knew that you had a big one. I really did from the moment I saw you. I'm like she is so loving um, just our conversations that we had, even when we were like talking about like the magazine. Um, amber was featured as one of the top 25 awesome authors of 2025 in the Listen Linda magazine, the July edition that I just looked on Amazon and it is still number one bestseller.
Speaker 3:Wow, what a blessing it did not lift that bestseller status, so congratulations on that.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you so much Thank you for allowing me to be and speak into that issue and speak into people through that issue. Girls, we need to stick together. We need to be the voice.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Now. As you mentioned, you wear so many hats. Author. Encourager strategist Honey, I'm tired just listening. Okay, I know how I do it.
Speaker 2:I don't know how you do it either.
Speaker 3:So, god, how do you balance it all without losing yourself in that?
Speaker 2:Can I tell you for many years I lost myself. Can I tell you that for many years I equated my worth to a to-do list and everything I checked off that list was success, and everything that was unchecked I counted as failure. Girl, girl, we are called to check off our lists, but we can, must not become our lists.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. We cannot find us in our work yes, oh my goodness.
Speaker 2:and if I even allowed myself to, to, I had to allow myself to reframe in the framework of a child, a daughter loved by god, who didn't, didn't even care, didn't even care if I'd started, if I finished one check Mark on that list, if I prayed enough, if I prayed enough, if I did my devotions, if I went to church. Somehow I was failing my father. And you know, know what? I have to throw that list away because it was holding me back from walking in the fullness of who God calls me as his daughter. Yep, and I feel that God is wanting to release his girls absolutely and and release them. I want to tell you, girl, release them from the dirty dishes in the sink, release them from the piles of laundry that are. I know I have Mount Kilimanjaro right in front of my laundry. I mean, you know, there are things that have been shoved on us as women that we should have never taken on. Yeah, and we need to claim that stronghold removed from our lives, because to-do lists should not be a you are list.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. It should not define who you are as a person. No not at all, girl. It should not define your amount of success that you have. It should not be based on that list and, to be honest with you, that was who I was, maybe about three years ago.
Speaker 3:I want to say, because I was almost finishing up college just three years ago, because I've been through so much, and those on my platform no, no story If you don't go, get mountains, yeah. But I felt like if I don't do this, if I don't do this, if I don't accomplish this, if I don't accomplish that, my kids won't have something that they're proud of. Or, you know, you want to do so great because you want your kids to be great at everything that I do. It would revolve around my children and I wanted to because you know my husband is a prominent figure, right?
Speaker 3:He is a decorated war veteran, three times deployed um army infantry. Now, he wasn't in the kitchen I'm saying not saying I'm wrong with the people that chefs in the kitchen, but he was infantry. He fought in nine in the 9-11 war. He went over to afghanistan. He was one of the first people to go in and capture saddam hussein. We, we got Saddam Hussein in our house. My husband, that man, okay. So if he does nothing else, even though now he's a serial entrepreneur, but if he does nothing else, now he's done enough for this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's done enough where he can rest if he choose, even though he don't, but he chooses to Right. And so then you got me Right. I was at corporate for a while with DCFS, former foster child, and it just seemed like I was doing other audience jobs when I got sick with lupus and with fibromyalgia and thyroid cancer.
Speaker 3:So I got all this stuff going on and I would do, you know, cna work. I would do like I was telling you earlier, foster care, I would do work from home, and it seemed like nothing would just stick and work for me. So when I started doing writing, and then I went into podcasting, and then all these things just start coming. I get a Lifetime Achievement Award Wow, honorary doctorate. I get a Forbes Black Community. Oh, I get Top 100 Stellar Business Award. I get like all these awards.
Speaker 3:And then people start to be intimidated by that and it's just like, oh, yeah, girl, the accolades. I was doing it more so. So my kids can say, ok, my mom is this, you know right. Yeah, girl, the accolades, I was doing it more so. So my kids can say, ok, my mom is this, you know, right, right. But then I had to catch myself. I want to do what God called me to do, because I was doing it so well. I just knew that this is what he wants me to do. It's like, okay, jackie, you got enough accolades, because if you let it define you, people will hold you to that stature and then you can't be anything less than that now. Now, you can't give yourself permission to fall short. You put yourself accountable for every single thing, thinking that you're going to be judged if you don't do something.
Speaker 2:Just as great, oh my goodness, oh my goodness, every single time you put out a new magazine, girl, do you feel it? It has to be better, it has to be brighter, it has to be, it has to be more excellent. Yeah, but I want to tell you right now you know you're talking about all the decorations and all that and I want to tell everybody right now if you could see how heaven sees you, you would see a well-decorated soldier, absolutely. You would see a well-decorated princess, you would see a well-decorated daughter, because God sees us with all and gives us all the good things and gives us, and he sees the exercise it takes to move when he calls us to move, absolutely.
Speaker 2:And you know what, jacqueline, you are, you are, if you see Jacqueline way up, you know on, oh my gosh, this beautifully manicured, manicured woman. I just tell you, girl, you know you are so much without anything at all, without any award at all, and I just tell you, I think that that's where women are today. Yeah, women are today, that they think they need to win. I mean, I have awards on my wall, just like anybody else. I mean not anybody else. I realize I am blessed. God has put my name in places that I have never imagined them to be before, and that is not because of me, it's because of him, through me.
Speaker 3:Absolutely Put you in those rooms because I'm going to tell you, when I got that presidential lifetime achievement award, I was 35.
Speaker 3:I was one of the youngest people in the room and when I was there, if we're going to be frank, the people in that room made me feel so uncomfortable, it made me feel like I did not belong there. Ok, and by the time I got up to accept my award, now this was just what they were looking and looking at me. I'm young, my husband, our kids there, and when I got up to accept my award and I spoke on the things that I do in my community because my mayor is the one who referred me, gave me my letter of recommendation. So it's like when I start speaking on the things I've been through to, speaking on the things in my community, and everybody, by the end they were up clapping yeah, oh gosh, because it's like you. And that's why I told them you never judge a book bass cover. No, never judge a book bass cover. You don't know what I've been through. You don't know god will put you in rooms, because he does not call the qualified, he qualifies the call.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that's one of the reasons God brought this book into and he threw it back into my lap. He said there are things that you wrote in and I haven't talked about this yet, but I had a huge mental health break. I had my titles of licensed minister, I had all of these things and my bones couldn't take the way of the titles, yeah, and I was going through a mental break. I mean, literally, it was crazy. I'm writing about that in the book that's coming out in May. It's a humorous book about my mental health journey and how I facilitate my daily life.
Speaker 2:But this book that I wrote, the Flowers, Find a Way, it is all about I wouldn't have made it, I couldn't have done it without seeking the light in the most darkest places of my life. I couldn't have done it any other way. Right, looking for curls, looking for cracks, looking for cracks, girl. And we all have to look for the light or we'll never get to the surface. We'll never surface if we're not intentionally pulling towards the light. And that's when God God brought these.
Speaker 2:Another and I have a lot of my, a lot of my journal entries, a lot of my poetry in this book, Um, and and also devotionals because I'm I'm a humor girl, I love humor. I'm like I dance with humor. My husband's British and so that explains a lot and I love. I always say I'd rather laugh than I have to laugh or I'll cry. So this has a lot of my secrets in it about having plastic plants in my garden. I cannot, I cannot grow flowers. This book is a lie the titles of this book, but it's also it is also true to the dirty, because flowers find a way, but I have no capacity to grow them in and of myself. They need divine watering, they need the light and they need my laughter and they need my voice to speak what God is doing as you grasp and pull towards that light. It is a hard thing, it's a workout, but God is faithful to every single grudge we do to get to that top right. He's saying just reach out to grab. Just reach out, girl.
Speaker 3:I love you. Now I want to ask you something, because I know you've built a strong community, but I want to flip it. Who's been the community that pours back into you?
Speaker 2:I think every woman I serve, every woman I serve, has been brought into my life for divine purpose. Every woman and I have to allow myself to be served as well as to serve, and that has been the greatest challenge in my journey. When you work to please others, you do not fill up the well of your soul. You run dry, and God doesn't hold you accountable for running dry. He knows, he knows our mind, he knows our hearts, he knows our desire to serve him, he knows our desire to love him. If we don't stop and allow ourselves to be filled up with the people he's placed around us, even the people we are called to serve have a greater purpose in our lives than just to serve.
Speaker 3:And listen y'all. That's why we need people in our corner that don't just take but they, because a lot of people have this, um, this idea or ideology in their mind that Take everything, give nothing you know everything, give them nothing, and I think that's so selfish and I think it's so.
Speaker 3:I want everything from you, but I don't want to even try to help, to give you anything, and a lot of that sometimes I've realized in the last six months is, you know, the devil will come to steal, kill and destroy, and he will come as a damsel in distress or somebody that you may think is your assignment, right, right, everything to help this person, right, right everything to help this person and they're only doing that so they can distract you from what God has called you on your life.
Speaker 3:So yeah, you have to use discernment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, cancel those assignments. Yeah, we want to cancel the assignments of the enemy. We need to cancel the assignments that people come to give us. Yeah, in spirit of those of the enemy, the enemy of our souls. We got to cancel that. We got to say this, we got to say this no, girl, I didn't mean to talk over you, sweetheart, it's okay. What were you saying? No, that's all right. You go ahead, girl.
Speaker 3:Oh me and Emma. We was doing this the whole time. We were just like I think it's just like we mesh so well and we get into it so well that we're super excited when we're talking about certain things. It's definitely true, you know, learning who you are, you know in Christ and learning who you are as God's daughter, as royalty.
Speaker 3:A lot of times people will take our gifts for granted and use you and use you up in the moment that it does not benefit them anymore or they think that the well, they think that the well is dry, yeah, they will cut loose and you won't hear from them no more. And when it's time to pour back into you, you're sitting there. But God will reveal. He will reveal it if you ask him, and I was telling my husband this the other day. I was telling him I said a lot of times we ask God to reveal things to us and we ask him to show us who is not in our corner. Show us, you know the enemy is trying to use and the moment we see, we get upset.
Speaker 3:Who do you think it was going to be an enemy? Of course somebody in your camp. Of course you ask him to show you these things. Of course it's going to be somebody in your circle, because you know the enemy is an enemy, right you. When you ask God to reveal the people who are hurting you, that's because you don't know it, because you don't see it, because you're right there in your circle. So when you see it, you take a note and you ask God OK, so what do you want me to do? And he answered to that. A lot of times those people will exit stage, left their cells, Right. Yeah, it's like God would do. God will make them leave because you want to hold on to people so bad, even though they left you. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's true, and we have to be careful. Be so careful, as ladies, about who we let speak into our lives, and we need to stop it at the door, whether that be people who undermine our self-worth. Anything that steals, kills and destroys is someone who is a not builder. And what do we say as the enemy of our souls steals, kills and destroys, and if we have messages that are stealing and killing and destroying us, we have to rebuke those. We have to take authority, in the name of Jesus, over those.
Speaker 2:And a lot of times we have listened to those voices. Those have been planted in our lives and they have been planted in our hearts and the minds because they go way, way back to the childhood that we've experienced and they get stuck like a broken record. And those are not the words. Even if you think they, you're hearing yourself, you are not hearing yourself. Let me just say you're not hearing yourself. You are hearing the lion that steals, kills and destroys, and not the lion of Judah. Amen. You're hearing, and and and I want to say um, girls, if you have been struggling with moving because those voices that say you can't do it, you're a failure, you've you've done bad things, even if it was a mess of your own making. God is in that mess and he says he wants to shine. Shine right through it, shine, right through it. We don't have to be ashamed, girl. We don't have to be ashamed. Stop living with shame, regret and fear of the future.
Speaker 3:I'm going to say something too, because a lot of times people think because they've done bad things in the past or that they are not, you know, up to society's you know standard quote or status quo of what a woman or a woman of God should be. I want to say this when Jesus went looking for his disciples, he did not go to the church. No, he got thugs. He got tax collectors. Right, peter was a G Okay. So it's like you know, god does not. He already felt, okay, people in the church, they're in the church, but God will use the people that people throw away because he wants people to see that he is real. And how else? How you going to see it by people who are already saying that they're of the church? No, he's going to use the ones that they disqualified. He's going to use the ones, the black sheep. He's going to use those people to carry his word and to carry out his plan. So people could say nobody did that but god no, no, I will use you.
Speaker 2:and we have to really be guarded about what table we're trying to get to um in life. You know, you know the samaritan woman I mean not samaritan, she was. She was just trying to get get to Jesus and he was surrounded by all these church people and she was like I just want to get to him because my child is dying, my child needs him. And she's trying to get to a table. She was never called to, but she knew that God had called her there to meet with him and he gave her something. He gave her the ability to this woman. It was a smart woman. He knew that if he gave her an opportunity to retort, even you, even the dogs, get scraps from the table.
Speaker 2:What kind of amazing woman takes to say something like that. And I tell you what girls get some more attitude, yeah, some more. You got to say you this is, this isn't right. You know who do you think you are telling me I don't belong here, god says. Jesus says I belong here. And in that vein, you may. You may be trying to get to a table you were never met and you were never invited for, but there is a table where everyone is invited.
Speaker 3:And I'm going to tell you, and that's the lowest table. And I'm gonna tell you something else that happened to me too. I was trying to fit into a certain group of people, a certain group of women, and I was doing everything I could for these women. Do you hear me? I would go all out of my way just to prove like, oh, I need a seat here, I to sit here, and it was so much mean girl energy. And God said you know what God said, you know what I'm going to put you, I'm going to put you on the mountaintop honey. And when I tell you, he gave me all these gifts just within the last three years and he has taken me and placed me global. So now, when you didn't see me, you see me now. Yeah, you see me. Now he's going to show you that the last will be first. Right, right, right.
Speaker 3:Same person that you was judging, or you was saying, oh, she don't need to be over here, or who she thinks she is, or she this or she that, and using me for my gifts, using me for my talents, but the moment it needs to be reciprocated. You find a way to, to to this band or whatever, not a problem, god will bring you the desires of your heart. Right, two and two write it down, make it plain. Yeah, make it plain. He said make it plain, write it down, make it plain. He said write it down, make it plain. So I wrote down everything that I hoped that I could keep.
Speaker 3:And when I say that God said give me that little teddy bear because I got so much bigger for you behind my back. I just need you to let that you know that picture. It really stands out to me. It's a little. Give me that little teddy bear because I got so much bigger for you behind my back. I just need you to let that you know that picture. It really stands out to me. It's a little girl. She's holding on to this little teddy bear and Jesus has this huge teddy bear behind his back. Oh, yes, I love that picture. Oh, my goodness, it speaks to me every time I think about it. Like I get so emotional about it because it's like okay, I know, I want this, god, I want it. I want to be at this table with these girls. They're so cool and, oh, my goodness, I just want to be accepted. And God said no let that go.
Speaker 3:Let that go Let me and I got something so much bigger for you 20 countries worldwide. People are listening to you. They're listening to what you have to say. When someone else tried to cut your voice off, I will give you the two. You need to spread my word and people will come. Girl amen, to be traditional Christian. Be traditional Christian. It does not have to be what other people feel like you should be doing it this way because we've been doing it this way for decades. No, I called you because I like your style. I like the way you talk, I like the way you move when you move. I like that about you. And guess what? The people that are not of Christ right now, that don't know anything about the church. They're going to see themselves in you and they're going to see what I do in you, and then they're going to follow suit. And that's how you bring people to Christ.
Speaker 3:You don't go to people that think they already know Christ. You go out and you meet the people, like Jesus went out. He met the people where he was and they wasn't talking about oh well, he's only 33. People where he was and they wasn't talking about oh well, he's only 33. He came because he's only 33. Jesus was 33 and people followed him.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, yes, girl today, yeah and we're going to church here with pastor jacklyn right here. That's, that's her girl, you know. That is right here about this book.
Speaker 3:You know I can go day, sunday, when you get the girl. People try to tell they will try to they. They are so intimidated and what god is doing in your life as a young girl, 36 years old, and people always say, oh, you, you can't tell me nothing, you still wet behind the ears of this today. But jesus taught you. You're reading that bible, he was 33, so was he wet behind the ears? You cannot tell someone that god did not give them the gift to teach. You cannot tell you that god did not. You was not there. You was not there when I was talking to them. You cannot tell people oh, if you don't, if you listen to this type of music, or you or you or you dress like this, then you're not a type of music, or you or you or you dress like this, then you're not a woman of God. Let me let God handle that with me, yeah.
Speaker 4:And.
Speaker 3:God, handle that with me. Yeah, what I'm going to do is I'm going to meet the people in my audience where they are. Yes, I'm going to meet them where they are, because you cannot judge people on their journey, because you may be 10 steps ahead and they may be 10 steps behind you. It does not mean that they are bad people, does not mean that they are on the wrong path. And while you're trying to find you better, remember that just 10 steps ago you was right where they was at.
Speaker 2:Can we get some organ music here. Somebody bring some organ music. This needs to be God's showing up right here. God is showing up, jacqueline, you are blessing people right there. Oh, my goodness, yes and amen to this time together.
Speaker 3:Oh my goodness, I was found a way, okay.
Speaker 2:We're going to take an offering right here and donate to listen, to live.
Speaker 3:You can cash out my, my kids right here. Okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:We're going to pass around the offering now, so donate right there okay, we're gonna pass that offering plate. Everybody you get it and you, you bless. You bless a Jacqueline today because she, she is given, she's a. I, the holy Spirit, is right on you, girl, and it's all fire. It's all fire and the fire hurts, but it is revealing something in you that is very extremely special.
Speaker 3:Dr Thelma and the Bible have said a lot about the refiners fire. Thank you to the refiners fire to burn off all those ends that God don't need.
Speaker 2:And when you come out, polish girl, no, you know what I? I just feel like I've you've taken me to church. I don't, I can just leave now.
Speaker 3:No, I can leave. Okay, this book. Baby, it is dripping, okay. And transparency what birthed this book? What's even season of your life did this come from?
Speaker 2:you know, I don't, I I really cannot pinpoint um every season that this came from, because this comes from so many seasons of birth and blessing and buried under a rock.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And I think the best things come from being buried under a rock and then seeing the blessings when you're buried under the rock.
Speaker 3:Man we were just talking, you were just praying for me earlier about being a rock child, so you know I know, oh gosh, you know what.
Speaker 2:We can get caught up in the buried, but we need to see the bloom and that's what flowers find a way. You know, I don't like selling anything good night. I just feel like I want to do what god, just I just want to do what god has called me to do and I want to let him release my voice. You know, I'm sure most of people seen the little mermaid in the aerial, you know what the, that big, huge octopus, black woman with the I mean the black tentacles that is. That is the epitome of the who the enemy is in in, in in life. You know, and I'm not talking about anyone brown skin.
Speaker 3:Please don't think I am any no, no, no, we know who you're talking about.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness we've seen little mermaid. We know, yeah, we know, we know, in fact she's oh my gosh, she's some sort of drag queen, yeah, but she steals what she sees is beautiful and she, she, she counterfeits that. She counterfeits that for some guy, some guy, and she fools her into thinking that she has to have legs to do to find love. She convinces her but what a beautiful thing. And she puts that voice in the bottle. I'm like, oh, good night, she puts that voice in a bottle. But what happens when she finds her voice again? And I feel like it's a divine impartation that I've come into of discovering. You know, it's like that golden orb that comes back in and all of a sudden your throat's loosened. It's a divine impartation of our voice that has been stolen by the enemy. Right, we are 100% and you know, we have to be confident enough to know that God's golden orb is desiring to open our throats and find our authentic voice, and we don't need to be at the table with a bunch of church people.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go to the prodigal's party. I'm signed up. I'm signed up to go to the prodigal's party. Yeah, and everyone is welcome to that.
Speaker 2:And why would I want to be anywhere else? Yeah, why would I want to be anywhere else? Yeah, why would I want to be anywhere else? And, and, um, because you're having the stuff, suits and the and the perfect makeup and, jacqueline, you have to set up with the, suck it in and be measured a certain way, um, so I mean, the tiara is a heavy crown, um, on the stage, but the tiara in heaven is not heavy, it is glorious and light, glorious and light. And I am so thankful that I have chosen the glorious, light tiara, because this head can't hold the big one, this head is not made to hold the heavy tiara and I want the light one and this is about this is the light. I want the light yoke, I want the light of God's goodness, I want the light Absolutely.
Speaker 2:And you know, in the book it's a lot of my journal entries and I know I got off point, jacqueline, you just inspired me today. The book it's, it's a lot of my journal entries and I know I got off point, jacqueline, uh, you just inspired me today. Um, jesus, thank you, um, thank you for showing up, um, but, um, you know, a lot of these poems I wrote and I I am. I wrote when I was very ill and I saw a theme coming out. And I saw the theme coming out of hey, no matter how deep I got, no matter how desperate I got, no matter anything hell, high water, the fire and the pit. I was saying girl, look up Girl, look up Girl yes.
Speaker 2:Girl. Look up, look for the crack, fight, fight, fight. And you know what, when we release our fight into God's hands, it becomes light. It becomes the light fight, because the light comes in and it pulls us to the surface. And we did nothing. All we do is have to see, amen. All we do is have to perceive, all we do is have to recognize the reality of our father reaching for us, because it is always our reality, because it is always our reality Absolutely. It is always there, and do not let your eyes be blinded to the reality of the light Sometimes.
Speaker 2:You know one of the things I'm writing actually a new book, my fifth book, and you know what I said I would never. I wrote another book with my friend, with my friend Lisa Burst Burns, and actually Babby Mason. I don't know if you know. Babby did our forward leading ladies and it was such a blessing and that's that book's coming back into print, back into print. But but, um, uh, I realized that God was calling me to something that I had I was scared to death of doing. I was scared. I'd written magazines for 26 years but I was scared to death to put a book together Cause I had ADHD. Yeah, I was scared together because I had ADHD. Yeah, I was scared. I said I can't do this in my capacity. Well, you can never do it in your capacity, don't fool yourself. Yeah, because that's just the heavy tiara. Yeah, that is the heavy tiara. Girls, yes, refuse to wear the heavy tiara. And then I, I was about ready to give up. I was about ready to give up. Sorry, I'm, I'm, I'm losing makeup here it's okay.
Speaker 3:So I didn't put nothing on. I was like I'm not gonna put nothing on today. I really didn't put makeup on I I am. I ain't drawn no brows, or nothing.
Speaker 2:But I shouldn't have put the. I shouldn't have put like the shimmer on. But you know what it's the thing about. It is is I was scared to death and God said just take one step and I'll multiply it. Just take one step. The step is faith. Someone had to bake the bread that the fishes and loaves were multiplied from. Someone had to catch that fish. Someone had to do action for the faith to come into it and the miracle to be multiplied. What is that one step of faith for you? What does that look like today in your life? Absolutely Maybe. Just maybe. That's shutting someone down who's trying to tear you down, and it's allowing that door to be closed, that access that they've had into your life. Allowing that door to be closed in the name of Jesus and saying you have no right to speak that to my life because they do not have that right. They don't, they are not there.
Speaker 3:I tell people all the time I didn't see God come down and get you no gavel God. When did that happen? That's the thing, the change in the other world. I tell people what and you know what I used to let people who I put on pedestals or right always, you know, admired or whatever.
Speaker 3:I used to put them on this pedestal and whatever they said, whatever they said I should do or shouldn't be doing, or whatever I did it or I didn't do it right. And I'm just telling me, amber, I'm just telling you, within this last month or so, you have seen a blow on me that you hadn't seen before. I'm on here every day, baby, I'm cute, i'ma wear what I want, i'ma sing what I want, i'ma dance, i'ma do girl way to live life. You speak my language. Or Because people say, oh, she thinks she cute, oh, that's all she got going for herself. Is that she cute? I'm going to let you say what you want to say, because the reality of it is, is that one, the winners focus on the win and the losers focus on the winners?
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh goodness Girl, you know what? And you are something. You are something, jacqueline, you are something, and every girl out here needs to realize that they are something. But they need to take themselves off the pedestal of achievement to come into the presence and the platform that God has for them that says no, you cannot steal this from me, because the father has given it to me and he won't let you. He will not let you, no.
Speaker 3:And you cannot be afraid of achievement. And I tell people this all the time Don't go looking for achievement, but if God sends you there, don't let the trick of the enemy trick you into losing what God has for you. And what I mean by that is that I would play myself small or I would hide my talent.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I wouldn't outshine anyone else, but a real person that's for you and a real person that's that's, that's your people will never tell you to dim your light. They will never tell you to stop achieving. Okay, because a lot of people that was in my circle was all older than me, right, they're in their 50s and their 60s. So they'll say, hey, you know, you doing this, you doing that. Why you got gotta get this, why you gotta get that, why you gotta think everything got to do with accolades. But you're already accomplished, right things in life. Yeah, you don't need. You don't need me or get me to suppress my talent. Why should I have to dress down when I'm in a room with you Because you're going to feel intimidated? I'm not doing that, no more.
Speaker 3:No no no, if I'm shining and you shine, we're going to light the whole place up. It's not for me to play dark and you'll be like girl, you can shine brighter because, if we put in the words of kelly roland, light attracts light. So if you standing next to me and I'm standing next to you and we both shining, all we're gonna do is shine brighter together.
Speaker 2:All right. So, oh my goodness, jacqueline, I just I just am so blessed by you because you have you. I mean, the spirit of God is all over you, all over this, all over this podcast, all over everything that has come out of your hands, over over this podcast, all over everything that has come out of your hands, and you know what we have to. It was exciting for me because you know what we a lot of times we live in our lack right, we live in what we don't have instead of glorying in what we do have.
Speaker 3:I just want to say today I just be thankful for the what I say. Let me just really quick. I literally just posted this before we came on. Don't forget to look around and appreciate the things that are going right. Oh, focus on everything that's going wrong in our life. We never step back and appreciate the things that are going right now I complain all day.
Speaker 3:Every time you call me you told anybody call me and they talk to me the first thing they say is um, hey, so how everything? Um, I can't complain. What good is that gonna do? Right? What are you gonna complain? For 10 years ago I was not where I am right now. Right, three months ago I wasn't where I am right now. So I'm sitting around. Oh, I ain't got this. Oh, I ain't got that. I'm looking at a Louis Vuitton bag.
Speaker 2:A real one Right right, right right.
Speaker 3:Put it out in the hollas, don't. Let's keep it real now. But look over here to the right and say I got a closet full of clothes. I got a bathroom. I did not. I was homeless. Wow, girl, I was in foster care. I was homeless. I slept in parks. Let's talk about it At a young age Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. When you come from that and you get to where you are. No, I may not be in a mansion, but my house is 27 square feet 27 square feet. I may not have five or six cars, but I got a nice Volvo in my driveway and God gave it to me. He gave me gifts and your gifts are your inheritance. It's not saying Don't go and work a nine to five, but just know that he gave you gifts, right, all your needs If you put them to use. He gave me so many gifts I can do whatever I want to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know it's so funny because you know we see everything from the polished outside. There's times, even in ministry, that I've prayed for a dollar to find that in my floorboard, to get iced tea for McDonald's, and I prayed and God gave that to me. I prayed for four quarters, Four quarters quarters in my house. We've lived here since. We've lived here for 26 years and bought our house for $59,000.
Speaker 2:I live in the hood, $59,000 in the hood. But you know what God, just in his infinite blessing, he told me this year he was going to renovate the things that are unused in my life. He was going to renovate it, and I tell you what I sit right here in an office that used to be an old sunroom that broke, was breaking down around me. It wasn't even supported by good walls.
Speaker 3:And look at your walls now.
Speaker 2:You know what he showed me? He showed me Okay, girl. He showed me. He showed me Okay, girl, I. I after, after the first month of going through this and refinancing and doing everything that we did, we ran out of money, and every month he brought it in.
Speaker 2:He sure did, he sure did. And then, when the our, our good construction suite construction worker was doing our floor, all of a sudden I just realized that the padding underneath the laminate flooring in my, in my office, is gold. It is gold laid down. I am standing on the glory of God's promises right here and right now, in a 12 by 25 room that used to be falling down around me, and now God is using this place to open my voice and let it be what it needed to be, and let me walk into a season in my 50s that.
Speaker 2:I was so afraid to walk in and I'm not regretting. I'm not regretting anything. I've walked through. I'm not regretting anything. I've been through because it's all made me who. It's all made me who I am and I don't want to hear anything from anybody about criticism. I don't want to hear any. You know what, when I told everyone, you know what, when I, when I, um, I told everyone, you know I, I shared my story, shared it real. I've shared it. All my life.
Speaker 2:I've turned on jobs because I said I cannot, I, if I cannot talk about my mental health journey, I don't want this job. This is not meant for me, absolutely. And um, cause, because people will try to steal your call with money, whoo, people will try to steal the shine, the things that they think that will help you, uh, provide for you, and that god saying no, no, girl, that's not for you. Yeah, and what he has taught me in this season is to look for him, yeah, absolutely, look for him to show up, look for him to bring. You know I'm not a name and then claim it kind of girl. But you know what I'm claiming every prayer that has ever been prayed over me, amen. I'm claiming every prayer of heaven been prayed over me. Amen. I'm claiming every prayer of heaven. I'm a good one. Ah, I'm praying. Oh yeah, there's only good prayers. Everything else is curses, girl. Everything else is curses.
Speaker 3:Girl, my grandma used to tell me that all the time Don't let everybody pray for you. Yeah, no, oh gosh, oh gosh.
Speaker 2:No, the blessings, you know sometimes. Sometimes the enemy uses holy vessels. Yes, they do. Sometimes the enemy of your soul will get that person right down. That old woman who says girl, you're wearing too much makeup, your dress is too blah, blah, blah. You need to get this sorted out before you do anything. That's a curse. That's another curse. We should toss that aside and put that down where it needs to in the pit of hell.
Speaker 3:I'm telling you back to the pit of hell and once it came.
Speaker 2:And you know what God gives his kids good things. God gives his kids good things. Don't be tricked, don't be shortchanged. If I could leave anyone with a message and I know we've gone way over time, jacqueline, but I feel like God has called us to hear in this time together, because someone out there needs to hear this and they need to hear this this moment.
Speaker 2:Don't let yourself be shortchanged by the lies of the enemy. He wants you to know you are fully loved by the lies of the enemy. He wants you to know you are fully loved. He wants you to know you are fully released, but this time, this place, and he wants your voice. You're the only one. He wants your voice. He's saying it right to you, girl, whoever I'm talking to here and, jacqueline, he wants you to and he wants your pure voice and he doesn't. You don't need to be another Beth Moore. You don't need to be another Priscilla Shire. You don't need to be that. You don't need to look what's selling in the marketplace. His God is going to propel you forward and his marketing is better than any marketing out there.
Speaker 2:He's, he's, he, he's there and he's going to promote you. It may not be. It may be. It may be, it may not be. You know, you may not have a limousine in your drive. You may not.
Speaker 3:You may be eating ramen noodles, right now, but that does not determine what you're gonna have in the future no, and it does not stop you from seeing your blessings now, and I want you to.
Speaker 2:Just in the name of Jesus, I just pray over everyone who sees this, everyone who hears this word today. I pray that your oil of anointing would pull out, push through any impediment that has come against anyone. Oh gosh, your girls, your girls need us, your girls need you. We need you, girl, we need your voice and God needs your voice. And today, god's asking where are you at?
Speaker 1:Where are?
Speaker 2:you at, girl. I'm calling your name when, where you at, where you at, girl. I'm calling your name where you at, because I'm right here and I'm ready to dish out some good things. Stop holding on to the old oh, my Amber oh, geez, as I said I I'm sorry. I know, jacqueline, we've taken a way too much time. I don't even, I don't even want to talk about my book. Let's put it aside, okay no, this is the truth.
Speaker 3:No, just you know what. Everything happens in divine order, and a lot of things that we spoke about is the same things that you talk about in your book yeah so you know, in a sense, only thing that we didn't do is go by the questions that I wanted.
Speaker 2:God had a different. God had different dialogue.
Speaker 3:You know, what is so good about this conversation is because it it it places a mirror in front of the pages that are actually inside of your book. So it gives people just a sense of who you are, the person behind the book, and why they should get the book and why they should get the book. So, um, the book is, I have it on my Kindle, Um, and I read it and I'm blessed by it and I know that if you guys get it, you will be blessed by it too, you can tell, by the author who wrote it very powerful, very uplifting and encouraging woman of God. So you know, if she laid it here in an hour, imagine the work and and and and everything that you can get out of the book that she took some time to write.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, no, oh gosh, you know what I just have to say, jacqueline, I didn't take time to write this book. I want to. I want to apologize for that. No, you know what? Um, I, I took a year a year with my coauthor to write the first book and, um, uh, the second book, sisterhood, which is coming out in May with abundance books, uh, god challenged me to write it in three and I was already ready to give up writing this book. I couldn't even. I couldn't even. I couldn't even believe the word. Three months came out of my mouth when the author said and you know what, every book that I've gotten a book deal, I have never written a proposal for how much is that, god? How much is that God? And then I, and then this last book, which I was writing just to challenge myself to put together interiors and I've done covers, a lot of book covers, over 250, which is another I don't think we have enough time in another series of podcasts.
Speaker 2:But God started pouring out in me after I wrote the first book. He started just pouring and I couldn't stop writing. I couldn't because all of a sudden God was pouring into me and he said there's some things you have put on the shelf, that you have held back because and you've forgotten about you need to pull those out again and you need to let those journal re-entries see the light of day. And you need to. You need to pull out some. And then, as I became obedient, he started to book cover all in one month. Yeah, one month. And I have no, I have no room in my schedule. I have no room, girl, I have to make the bread and butter for a lot of this, a lot of this. What you see here I have. You know, it's not, it's not an easy life, it's not an easy journey.
Speaker 2:This girl we all have to make the I know so many single women yeah, I know, but it's not, it's not easy, it's not easy I know so many women who are struggling just to get by, single moms, there's no time in your day, but maybe God has something on the shelf that you've put to the side and he's saying pull that out again, pull that out again. And then this next book. I'm writing a book that God, he just won't stop. It's amazing he's not stopping. He's not stopping with the one-month book. I'm writing another day, a book I'm 18 devotionals in, and that happened before the other book was gone, done, and it's called Enough for the Day 30 man, a moments, 24 hours at a time, and it's basically everything that God has. Let me see the big things in the small things where he's poured out glory and he's allowed me to see the small things of glory in the big things of glory. I'm going to have to stop. Okay, I'm going to have to stop. I'm going to just like Before we go.
Speaker 3:I cannot let you leave without doing them. Listen, Linda, lightning round Okay.
Speaker 2:Listen, linda. Okay, let's do this. Coffee and tea. My husband's British, so, um, I am an. I am an english breakfast tea and pg tips with milk and sugar early bird or night owl, night owl favorite worship song right now oh gosh, that's hard. I, I love the hard fought hallelujah. Oh my gosh, it's not worse. I guess it is. That is a worship song.
Speaker 3:Yes, it is one word that describes this season of your life. One word gold gosh.
Speaker 2:One word um expansion scripture that keeps you grounded expansion.
Speaker 3:Scripture that keeps you grounded.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, that is so hard Scripture that keeps me grounded. Oh gosh, why did you have to ask me this, Jacqueline? Well, I have my Soak it In card. I love it. I love that. So I'm going to just get my cheat sheet out. This is one of the things I've put yeah, Psalms 91.9. Soak it In. This is my spa card. She who dwells in the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow of the almighty.
Speaker 2:Abide just a good one dream I love to sit down with oh, god's given me so much of my dreams, um, and because I've interviewed so many amazing people and that's the beauty thing of of God giving you some amazing things I can't even believe it. Dream person, dream person.
Speaker 3:I can't. They can be dead or alive. Just a dream person.
Speaker 2:Dead or alive, I like. I love Anne Lamont. I just love her, I just love to sit down and pick her brain. And here's my favorite Maya Angelou. That's definitely one.
Speaker 3:No, that's my girl, and here's my favorite. If you had a billboard in Times Square, what would it read? Oh gosh.
Speaker 2:Hmm, be released Ooh.
Speaker 3:I knew you was going to say something similar today, because we've been talking about let it go, listen, linda family y'all catching this? Are you guys catching this? Okay, that billboard answer literally just preached to me, okay, literally just preached to me Before we go, because I know you always got something blooming, like them, flowers, the yard, with the ones on the paper. Tell the Liz and Linda family what's next books, events where they can follow you. Give us the scoop.
Speaker 2:I have a podcast with my co-author, my beautiful Lisa Burris-Burns. It's called Coffee Chat with Amber and Lisa. It's on all the podcast platforms where we just sit down, I roll out of bed and messy bun it and we just talk about the things we struggle with as women and that we feel that disqualifies us. That actually just is a framework for the glory that God has in us and through us and for us. I have, of course, the Flowers book Leading Ladies Discover your God-Grown Strategy for Success. It's being re-released soon. It's in its second edition. And then I have the I'm so excited about this um sisterhood of the short yellow pencils. It's coming out in may.
Speaker 2:Um, on abundance books, it's uh, mental health mayhem. One sticky note at a time and where I dig into my psychosis, which is very hilarious. Um, and my time behind the psych ward doors. Yes, I went to the psych ward and then I realized they're a lot like me and I'm really excited about that book because they're marketing in the mainstream with that book, even though it's definitely a book, a humorous book from a Christian girl's perspective about how she walks through her time behind the psych ward doors and in my present struggle with ADHD, and my husband does a chapter, my British husband and how he supports me as a woman who has mental health issues and I just love hearing him speak and he's not a writer but man with the accent, and I wrote that all in British spelling for him.
Speaker 2:But he said he said the greatest thing I did when I is is I agreed to go to counseling because our marriage was on the rocks. Oh gosh, I'm going into another thing. Our marriage was on the rocks. And he said into another thing Our marriage was on the rock. And he said I went to counseling because I realized it wasn't a weakness, it was me saying I'm, I'm a knight fighting for my queen. I'm willing, I'm willing to fight for you, I'm willing to fight for us. So I'm praying. Every woman here knows that she is a queen who deserves her night.
Speaker 3:Amen.
Speaker 2:And you need to get rid of the old. You need to listen to Dr Velma girl. Anybody who's needing to listen to Dr Velma girl, anybody who's needing to listen to Dr she needs to come on again. I think she needs to be. I love her. I love her so much. I love Dr Velma. I love you. I love you, dr Velma. Get her catch series. Get her catch series Because you need to know who to throw back into the water.
Speaker 3:Or you can go back and listen to uh the listen linda podcast, or iheart radio. She got like 10 or 12 episodes and she was last month's edition of listen linda jacqueline, I could talk to you all day.
Speaker 2:I could, I should. I could talk to you all day. You have blessed me. Thank you for letting me come on here, and you know what I'm at with you I cannot thank you enough for blessing us today.
Speaker 3:Y'all better go support this sister. Okay, go grab flowers, find a way, because you know what?
Speaker 3:It's not just a devotional, it is truly a lifeline, and let me just say, Amber, you are proof that even in hard soul, God still brings forth beauty, Always, always, always. Father God, we thank you for this powerful time. Thank you for Amber's honesty and her heart. Lord God Bless her family, her projects and her ministry. Lord God Bless every person who listened today. Remind them that, just like Amber said, flowers will find a way, because you always make a way and she's a mighty name amy.
Speaker 2:I want to let people know that they can find the book on uh in in amazon, but they can also find it barnes and noble anywhere. I'm in walmart, which is a real high like I. I never knew that one day I would be have my book in Walmart, so go get it. I'll be in the produce aisle signing autographs. I love you girl, I love you. You are amazing. Thank you for what you do and what you do for ladies and what you do for us authors, giving us our voices. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3:Jacqueline, oh, you're welcome. I love you, sweetheart.
Speaker 2:Well, you take care and you sign us out.
Speaker 3:I'm not in charge of this podcast Look she's going to be in charge over there when I go over there on her side. You best believe I'm going to give it back to her baby. Best believe I'm going to give it back to her baby. I love you, sweetheart.
Speaker 2:I love you. You have a wonderful day and I hope you guys have a blessed week, you too, sweetheart.
Speaker 1:Bye-bye.
Speaker 4:There's a story inside you, but for years it's been silenced by fear, procrastination and not knowing where to start. You've survived storms, you've walked through valleys and now it's time to turn your pain into purpose and your story into a book. This is your moment. Welcome to the 21-Day Author Boot Camp, where aspiring writers become published authors in just three weeks. Become published authors in just three weeks. You don't have to do it alone. You just have to say yes, turn your testimony into a title, turn your journal into a journey, turn your story into a book that outlives you. The 21-Day Author Bootcamp Enrollment is open. Visit wwwlisten. Linda presents 1.com to sign up. Spaces are limited. Financing available.
