Hello everyone. Welcome to the Honey and Grace podcast. I'm your host, Veronica Waldrup, and I pray that we can taste and see a little bit of God's goodness through today's episode together. Let's do it. Welcome back to the Honey and Grace Podcast. I'm so glad that you are listening today, and I pray that today's episode will bless you whenever you're listening to this. I um usually at this point I would say I'm super excited for today's episode because I have a special guest. But today I do not have a special guest. It's just me today. But I wanted to come on. It's actually been a while since I have talked with you all. It's been over a month for sure. I just want to say I'm so so happy with how our February theme turned out this month. I am aware that we're in March now. But I have listened to a few of those episodes multiple times. They were all so good. If you missed any of them, I highly recommend for you to go back and listen. Not just because I'm saying this like for my own podcast. Genuinely, I was so blessed by the episodes. Starting off with it was just me and my friend Anna. She's amazing. She has a podcast called God's Favor. If you haven't checked it out, definitely go do so. We talked about the whole theme basically of the month of February, which was God is love and all the forms of love that stem from him. So we talked a little bit about God being love in our lives when we're single and all those different things. Week two, I had Brother and Sister Robinette on. They're absolutely incredible, an amazing couple. Um, and they talked about their book, Making Love Last Forever. It was so good. If you have not, if you have not checked their book out or listened to that episode, I definitely recommend, especially if you are married or about to get married. Week three, I had Brother Danny and Sister Trina on the podcast. They talked a lot about, they talked a lot about being intentional on who you marry and also being called together into the ministry. They are such a powerful couple that's used mightily by God. And I'm so grateful that I was able to connect with them. They have ministered to me so much. And so I was so grateful to have them on. If you haven't listened, definitely go listen to that. And then the last episode, I had Sister Hannah Moats on. She is a pastor's wife. She is full of wisdom, she's so funny and kind and loving, and she just really had so much to say about how it matters who you marry. And that episode was so incredible. If you are single, if you are dating, if you're even engaged, I definitely recommend for you to go listen to that. She pulled out a lot of great things to pray for in your spouse, things that we should be expecting, things that we should ask God for, and red flags to pay attention to. So definitely go check out that episode. This month, I have been able to have two incredible people on as well. Brother Cornelius Williams. I know that a lot of you have probably heard of him. He is a mighty evangelist and preacher, man of God. And he came on the podcast and talked about his book, about submission, prayer, all those great things. It was so powerful. And if you have not read his book, Will You Follow Me? I highly recommend to go grab one. It's such a great read. It's not super long. It's really a quick, good read, and it will have you definitely looking over your life. And then this past week, I was able to have an amazing woman of God on, Sister Zarissa Robinson from Grace Life Pentecostal Church. I know her personally, and it was awesome to have her come on and share a little bit of her story and her upbringing and what God is doing in her life now. So now that you've heard me summarize the last month of the podcast, I hope that you would go and be encouraged by any of these episodes if you have not already. I also want to say I'm blessed and shout out to One Praise Ministries. It is another podcast done by Brother Jacob Cofield and Brother Jeremy Garcia. They are brothers and they're doing a wonderful job at their podcast. I was able to be a guest on their podcast this past, it was about two weeks ago, I think. And I was able to be a guest on their podcast. I was so honored that they would have me on. And on there, we talked about all things business, entrepreneurship, um, being young and starting a business and and just all the ins and outs. And so I recommend for you to go check out their podcast for sure. One Praise Ministries. I believe it's available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. And go listen to that episode if you haven't. Hopefully it would encourage you and bless you in some way. It is currently March. It's the I think the third week of March. It's the third week of March when I'm recording this episode and that this episode will come out. I am so so thankful to have seen so much sunshine recently, guys. If you know me, you know that I just love the sunshine, flowers, and all of that. It just brings me so much joy. And um, I was able to take a little break, a little vacation with my family and my bestie Anna. We went to the beach this past week for spring break, and it was just a wonderful time, very relaxing, very fun. I got to get away and all of that. And while I was while we were there, it was so warm, and then we came home back to Mississippi, and today I kid you not, it was snowing. Literally, it was snowing. It got up to like 70 something degrees yesterday, and then today we woke up and it was like 30 degrees, and it started snowing when I was at work. So I'm not really sure who like is like who decided this was a good idea, but I'm not a fan of it. I really don't want to feel coldness anymore. But hopefully we will get through this very soon, very soon. I'm praying in Jesus' name that this winter feeling will go away as soon as possible. But if you are like me and you're eager for the seasons to change, and if you've been listening to the podcast for a little while, you probably know that I am a lover of changing seasons. I love the way that God has created all things in nature to glorify him and magnify him, and there's so much detail in everything he created. And I love the way that the seasons change and the way that our lives often reflect what the seasons do in nature as well. We have good seasons, we have bad seasons, we have dry seasons, and sometimes we have seasons that are just full of overflow, and that is just the very real truth about our lives. But if I could just encourage you today, just a little bit, whenever you're listening to this, that God has placed you exactly where you are, right in time for this season, and he is working it all out for your good. I don't know if you guys have heard, but this song called Working It Out by Pentecostals of Sydney is like my favorite song so far of this year. I have a couple. I'm really liking the song Touch of Heaven right now. Those two are probably like my two favorite songs right now, and they just coincide so well with my word for this year, and so it's kind of like really cool to me. But I love those songs. I listen to them every single day because I'm not one to get tired of songs really, but I definitely recommend to go listen to those. Working it out has been such a such a good song for this season of my life. And I was reflecting, I actually posted a thread on this on the podcast page and my page recently, but and I want to kind of just talk about it a little bit because it's something that's been so heavy on my heart. The scripture at Proverbs 3 and 5 through 6 has been very heavy on my heart the last few weeks, maybe even the last month. It says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct your paths. I feel like this scripture is pretty widely known. You've probably, I mean, if you're the Christian, you know, you've probably heard this scripture before. It's used kind of a lot and it's put on a lot of Hobby Lobby signs, like a lot of different things like that. So you've probably heard this scripture, but recently I have been like examining this scripture with my heart and breaking it down into different pieces that it is. So if I could just do that a little bit with you, trust in the Lord with all your heart. That is such a powerful thing to say. And I know that we we kind of say it casually and we get used to those words, but I've began to question myself am I really trusting in the Lord with all of my heart, with everything in me, knowing that every step that I take, he's going to bless it, or everywhere that I go, he's going to be with me. Trusting in him. Trust is not the easiest thing to do. I mean, if anybody that has relationships knows that whether it's a friendship, whether it's an intimate relationship, you have to get to know somebody and build a form of trust in order to confide in them. And that can take time, especially depending on things that you've been through. Maybe you've been through trauma. Maybe you have maybe you have a lineage of family dysfunction that has kind of affected your trust in other people. But the scripture says to trust in the Lord with all your heart. It's not a question, it's actually a statement. It's a command to us to trust in him with everything. Then it says to lean not on your own understanding. To lean not on our own understanding means to not try and figure everything out ourselves. To understand something, sometimes we have to break break things down in our mind. Like I remember in school when I was learning different equations and math problems, algebra, geometry, whatever it is, in order for me to be able to understand things, I needed to see it worked out. I needed to see somebody else do it. I needed to see the work in order to know what the answer is. But we are not able to examine the things God does in our lives and understand them. He has a way of doing things that's out of our reach and out of our comprehension. And that's the way that he likes for things to be. So we can't lean on our own understanding because we won't understand it simply. We have to lean on his understanding. And then the next part of the scripture says, in all your ways, acknowledge him. And this part has really been convicting me personally because it says, in all your ways, in everything that you do, and everything that you say, and your your work life, in your school life, in your social life, whatever it may be, it says, in all your ways, acknowledge him. Know that he is perfect and he is good and he is kind, that he gives and he takes away. So whatever situation you're in, acknowledge him in it. Whether it's a dry place or a season of overflow. We have to acknowledge him in the good and in the bad. And he shall direct your paths. He will show you where to go and what to do. Shall means that it's like a promise unto you. He will direct your paths if you trust in him and lean on him. A lot of things he does do not make sense to us because we are not able to comprehend the supernatural. We are not able to see or or understand why he does things the way he does. But what we do know is that he is working all things out for the good to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. God created everything to endure a process and a season, and he does the exact same thing with us. Joseph was put through many tests before he ever saw the palace. David was tried for years before ever being seated on the throne. Moses endured the wilderness his whole life for the Israelites to see the promised land. Daniel was taken captive before he ever gained authority. Esther was basically a nobody her whole life before God chose her to become queen. Noah was ridiculed before ever seeing the promise. Jesus himself suffered humility, hatred, rejection, and temptation before ever being resurrected and glorified. His ways are always higher than ours, and his plans are always bigger. His thoughts are better, and he gives and he takes away. In the last little bit, in the last season of my life, I will be very honest and vulnerable because I know that that's how I can connect with someone more. I've wrestled with God wondering why he places me in situations that I find myself in. How, how God, when I serve you, when I seek you, when I love you, how could you let me feel this way? How could you let these things happen? What is the purpose? Do you see me? Do you hear me? Do you love me? And he always reminds me that it's all by the work of his hands. I prayed for favor. I prayed for blessings. I prayed for prosperity and elevation. I prayed for closeness to him. I prayed for business opportunities, relationships, friendships. I prayed for this. And he's giving these things to me, but in a way that I didn't expect, in a way I don't understand, because his sovereignty is a mystery to us. And the things that he creates in you throughout these seasons, the beauty he makes out of ashes, and the purpose and anointing that flow in healing is beyond beautiful. He develops closeness, faith, fruits of the spirit, giftings, and more when you go through these seasons and these trials. When I was at the beach this past week, one of the days um we decided to rent a boat, and we went on this boat out into the ocean, and we always love doing this. It's something that we've kind of started doing when we go to the beach. It's so fun. We all just enjoy being on the boat and being in the sun all day. So we went on this boat and we got out pretty far to it, wasn't near the beach area, but it was more like a harbor area. You could see houses and we could see the land, we could see the houses, but we weren't like super close to it. And out of nowhere, our boat, the motor stopped working. And so we ended up calling for help for somebody to come out and fix the boat or just help us get out. And so we were just kind of rocking on the waves on this boat, and we were all fine, you know, it was okay. And then out of nowhere, out of absolutely nowhere, this like storm kind of came in, and it wasn't really a storm to where it was raining and it was super harsh on the waves, but it was super, super foggy and cloudy, and it got so cloudy and foggy on the water that we could no longer see the land, and it was just complete fog every direction that you look. We couldn't see anything but fog, and honestly, it's kind of scary when all you can see is fog and the water. That's all you can see. But thankfully, the guy actually ended up getting there just in time and he got on the boat with us, and he even had to get a GPS out because he couldn't see where he was going. We had to go by GPS, and while we were riding on the boat, and I was just looking around at all the fog in front of us, behind us, beside us, we literally couldn't see anything. And I thought to myself, sometimes this is what it's like to lean not on your own understanding. Everywhere you look, every what everything you see, sometimes there's no hope. You're like, I don't know how I'm gonna get out of this, I don't know why this happened to me, I don't know how I'm gonna get through this, I'm not strong enough, I'm too weak, I'm exhausted, whatever it is, you look around and there's nothing but fog and you can't see anything. But God, when you're leaning on his understanding and you're leaning on his perfect will and his promises, and you're trusting in him with all your heart, he is literally guiding you even in the darkness, even in the fog, in the storm. You can't see where you're going, but he's just bringing you right through. And I just begin to think this is what it's like to trust in the Lord with all your heart, because he makes a way when we can't see a way. He carries us through when we don't have the strength to get through anymore. He lifts us up when we are weak and exhausted and tired. It's all by his hands that we are able to endure the struggles and the fights that we have in life. But through each of these seasons, he produces so much fruitfulness in us. He produces a blessing and prosperity. He can't elevate you if you're just already on a high mountain. He needs to take you through things to be able to show you what you need. I'm currently watching The Chosen right now. This is kind of funny to say this at this moment. But I'm watching The Chosen right now. Thanks to Anna and Lauren for putting me on. I've always heard that it's such a good show, but I've finally taken the time to start watching it, and my goodness, you guys, you need to start watching it. It's so good. And it really they did an amazing job of bringing the Bible to life. But I'm watching, I'm but I'm watching it right now, and in the very first season, we see the scene where Peter and the disciples are out fishing all night, and Peter and the Peter and the disciples are out fishing all night and they don't catch anything. And the next morning they run into Jesus in the show, and Jesus tells them, you know, try again. He tells Peter to try again. And so Peter does, and then we see Jesus reaches for Peter and tells him to follow me. And he tells the disciples, you know, you guys are fishermen, but I'm gonna make you fishers of men. And it's not necessarily recorded in the Bible, but they painted a picture in the show of Peter being so hesitant and confused and and not understanding what it means when Jesus tells him he will be a fisher of men. And I love the way that they painted it because throughout the show now, people will mention to him, you know, Peter, God said you're gonna be a fisher of men. And every single time someone mentions that to him, Peter goes, Well, I just don't know what that means. I just I still don't I don't know what that means though. And I as I see every time I see him say that in the show, I think to myself and I think of our own personal lives when God calls us to something, and when God when God places us in certain situations and he gives us positions or he places burdens and callings and and different things on our lives to where we feel like we need to do something, but we don't understand what it is. That's exactly how we feel. We sometimes we want to look at God and be like, but I don't know what that means. Like, what do you mean, God? I don't I don't know how I'm gonna do that. I don't know how I'm gonna fulfill that role. I don't know how I'm going to be what you're calling me to be. But he but he he knows what he's doing and he appoints us all to something that he has called us for. He knows exactly what season you're in, and he knows that this season that you're in is producing what you need to be able to fulfill that calling and to fulfill that purpose. He knows what he's doing and he's working it all out for the good. He is going to direct your paths, and he's actually directing your paths right now. He already sees where you are and he knows what happened because he appointed you for this. So if I could leave anything with you today, it would be to be encouraged, lift your head up because God has called you, God has chosen you, and he knows what he's doing right now. Believe in him for what? Believe in him for all the things he has in store. He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. Above everything that you've asked and prayed for, God has already seen it and he already has greater in store than what you're praying for right now. He knows what he's doing. We just have to trust him with all our heart and acknowledge him in all of our ways. I do have one more super exciting announcement for you all. I know I have mentioned multiple times on the podcast to make sure you go get registered for dear for Dear Girls Conference. If you are a lady, if you are a young girl, this conference is for all ages. It is a true time of worship, fellowship, impartation. It's truly like one of the most incredible conferences I have ever been to. I have not been disappointed, neither have any of the girls I've brought, and it's been such a blessing to us. So I highly recommend to go get registered for Dear Girls Conference as soon as possible. It will be in Memphis, Tennessee at Grace Life Pentecostal Church. They have an amazing lineup of speakers. And even worship leaders coming. They're gonna have some super fun stuff happening throughout the conference. I believe it is the last week of July, and I'm super excited to say that I will be there with a Honey and Grace podcast booth. And I'm super excited to be able to meet some of you and talk with you. And hopefully, maybe you'll want to grab some new merch. We're gonna be doing some really fun things at the booth, and I just cannot wait. So come see us, be there if you can. Make plans this summer. Bring your friend, bring your mom, bring your grandma. My Nana goes and she loves it. Shout out, Nana. Bring the girls in your youth group. It will definitely be a life-changing time. And I believe that you will be empowered to fulfill your God-sized potential in Jesus' name. Thank you guys so much for listening today. I pray that this episode has blessed you, and I cannot wait to talk to you all again next week. Bye!