Beyond Sunday
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the Podcast that takes you deeper into the Word of God throughout your week, with your Host Pastor Lee Day.
It's Time to Inspire, Uplift, and dig deeper. Beyond Sunday starts now!
Beyond Sunday
A Young Entrepreneur’s Road From Party Culture To Purpose In Christ
The room can be crowded and your soul still feel alone. Kinley's story walks straight through that tension—viral growth, luxury goals, and a booked-out salon on one side; sleepless nights, a laced-weed scare, and a gnawing ache for something real on the other. We sit together and trace her path from lukewarm faith to a crisis that forced her to pray for herself, not just live near someone else’s prayers. You’ll hear what it’s like to show up at church and judge the room to avoid letting God judge your heart, then the sentence that broke the stalemate: if you’re tired of running, you’ve come to the right place.
We go deep on the choices that quietly shape a life—friend circles that normalize the first hit, parents who apply hard boundaries while trying to stay approachable, and the slow creep of attention-chasing that never satisfies. Kinley names the moment conviction got practical: clearing the closet, ditching the wine glasses, and admitting that God doesn’t want a partitioned heart. Within 24 hours of surrender, her curated comfort collapsed into an old trailer and a loneliness that finally taught her to listen. It wasn’t punishment. It was formation. The potter remade the clay.
She set new boundaries in her relationship, learned to right what culture calls normal, and watched her salon become ministry—Scripture in conversation, prayer at the chair, and a weekly Bible study where clients find more than a haircut. If you’re a parent of a drifting teen, a young adult pulled by the crowd, or an entrepreneur who feels successful and hollow, this conversation offers hard-won clarity and hope. God was still making plans while she wandered. He’s still making plans while you listen.
If this story sparked something in you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs courage, and leave a review with the moment that hit home.
What's going on, everybody? Welcome to Beyond Sunday. I am Pastor Lee Day, and I pastor Christ Family Outreach Church, located here in the one and the only Amelia, Virginia. And today in studio, I have a very special guest. It is her very first time on the podcast, and many of you know her as Kinley. Uh, she has been very successful business owner of Howdy Lose Hair Salon. But I am blessed to know her as my niece, and I've had the privilege of watching her grow up into the woman that she is today. So, Kenley, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_01:I'm good. I'm excited and nervous to be here, but I'm excited.
SPEAKER_00:And I'm glad that you are here. So I appreciate you being willing to just humble self and come on and share your testimony. Amen. Because I know that what God has walked you through, and I think that's the important piece to put in here, is going to help other people and not just people your age and younger and older, but I think that there are also going to be a lot of parents, maybe even aunts and uncles or grandparents, that are going to hear this testimony from a young woman and they're going to send this to their children or to their grandchildren, depending upon how it can affect those in their lives.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Amen.
SPEAKER_00:So I'm I'm really excited. So uh as I mentioned, I've I've watched you grow up and uh I'm honored to still have the opportunity to witness your growth even today as a woman and as a daughter, a child of God. I've I've seen not just the physical growth in your life uh over the years, but especially the past year, I would say I have been able to, I've been blessed to witness the spiritual growth in your life, which is really why I've asked you onto the podcast so that you can share that walk and as I mentioned, bring hope to other people. Amen. So let's let's jump right into it. You were you were born and raised uh early on in life in Virginia, okay? But from the ages of eight to twelve, and maybe this is something that not a lot of people know about you, but from ages eight to twelve, you grew up living in Arizona. I did. In your testimony, Kenley, it states that your childhood was pretty lukewarm. So explain what you mean by that, because here it is. You went to church, right? You were doing the things that church had to offer out in Arizona, okay? But for those listening right now, what did lukewarm mean for you and what kept you in lukewarm?
SPEAKER_01:Um, so growing up when I was four years old is when we moved to Arizona. And I don't remember ever really being in a church for the first couple of years that we were there, and then we found like a megachurch. And I'm just speaking from like personal experience. I'm not speaking on anyone else. I think that it's often hard times to get plugged in and really involved in a mega church because there's just so many people. I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm just saying it's a lot easier to slip through cracks sometimes because there's so many people involved. Um, so I think that that was kind of like our way of checking a box and going to a church. But it was like, it was easy to go and it was also really easy to not get too involved in it because it was just, I mean, it was stadium seats in this church. Um so we very easily fell out of that. And then we did end up like we would not go to church, we would go to church. And I do remember kind of some seeds being planted, and that seed was you sending my mom CDs of your sermons. Actually, you would send them in the mail.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I'm gonna be honest, we did not watch them.
SPEAKER_00:Totally appreciate the honesty.
SPEAKER_01:Um, we did not. And like I remember one thing my dad always did was pray with us before we went to bed, and we would spend our summers here in Virginia with our family, and those summers were great. I remember coming to see a family.
SPEAKER_00:They were fun times. Yeah, it was a fun times.
SPEAKER_01:I think I had one of the most loving, joy-filled childhoods because we had like three months of just bliss here with family, and it was so fun. Um, but overall, it was around the end of us living in Arizona that we really did find a church home and start getting plugged in. But other than that, we were always in and out.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Not, I mean, we'd pray over dinner, but other than that, there was not much else involved in it.
SPEAKER_00:Right. Yeah. I'm gonna have to call my sister and talk to her about not watching those servers. Maybe I'll have her on the podcast and uh she can she can address that. But we're gonna we're gonna move on. We're gonna move on. Uh at the age of 12, your family moves back to Virginia. Yes. Y'all come on back where you where you belong.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:And and you guys come to CFO church.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:And so now you can't you can't like not open the CDs that came in the mail and the DVDs that came in the mail or whatever anymore, right? So you're you're in the room. The room does matter. Yeah, amen. You're in the house. Uh, and from the age of 12 to 13, uh, there's this time where, in your words, you describe it as pure joy and bliss.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Explain why.
SPEAKER_01:Um, everything was back where it was supposed to be. You know, when I was a child, my parents built a home. We rented it out over the course of the amount of time that we were in Arizona. Then when we came back here, we moved back in the house, um, very close to family, obviously. Grandparents live right down the road. And because we had been gone for so long, when we came back, it was like maybe you guys had done it the whole time we were gone, but it was like if if to me, it felt like family dinners. You know, me and Elijah, my little cousin, for those who don't know, um, played in the woods every day and we built forts. And Josiah was a little, like he was a toddler at the time, I think. It was just so much fun. Like, I don't even I don't even remember doing school. Like I remember doing school to go outside and play. I think me and Elijah were like, if we wake up at 5 a.m., we can go play outside by nine. And that was like the most, like that is that was my childhood, and I would not change a piece of it, honestly. It was amazing.
SPEAKER_00:Amen. Back again, like I said earlier, back home where you belong. Yeah, amen. At age 13, uh, the family received some news that would change so much of what you thought normal life looked like. Yeah. You you found out that your older sister had cancer, and in your testimony, you said that you feel like this is when you felt like your testimony actually begins. Why is that?
SPEAKER_01:Throughout my life, there were times. If you know my mom, my mom knows how to pray.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:If there's someone that knows how to pray, it's my mother. She's a prayer warrior. Yes, she is. And although, don't get me wrong, I don't want to shed light on my childhood when it was lukewarm because my mother still prayed, and she my mother has always known how to pray.
SPEAKER_00:She don't open up DVDs, but she prays hard.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes. I mean, it may not have been consistent, but there was always times. And I'm saying that to say this was the first time when I had to pray. Like this, my if you know my father, my father is the man of our house, and there had never been a problem that he could not fix. And this was the first time that it was like you can't do anything. Yeah, you know?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what a testimony to your dad. Obviously, he he's he's my brother-in-law, and and I love him to pieces. What a testimony to him that uh his his daughter, one of his daughters says, you know, up until this point, my dad could fix everything in life. So that that is a great testimony to just a dad being a true dad. Yeah. But here, you're right, he he has to face this thing called cancer, and and and really it's out of his hands. Yeah. It's something that no parent wants to hear a diagnosis of. If they could trade places with their child, I'm sure they would, yeah, right, with with with without hesitation. But here is something that you growing up, seeing your dad is like Superman. Yeah, right? Like, like your superstar, you know, your hero. And all of a sudden, here's something that's out of dad's control.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And at 13, you had to watch this happen. So either your household is about to spiral down or it's about to rise up. And I know I wasn't on the inside all the time. A lot of the times I was outside looking in, but there were times where I got to see the inside. And I know no household is perfect, but I know that your family chose to take the rise up option. Absolutely. And rather than been beaten down, they trusted in in help from God. Yeah. And it's through all of this that you said the very first time you remember ever talking to God on a deep level. Yeah. Right. And so maybe maybe there's some listeners out there right now finding themselves in a very similar boat, Kenley. Uh they've been going to church for years. They talk to God here and there, but just not on a serious level. Uh, not on a deep level of conversation. What would you say to that person that does not understand the importance of serious time spent in prayer with God because it did impact your life?
SPEAKER_01:I think for a long time I did not pray on a deep level because I felt as if like I did not know how to. You know, like, like I said, my mother, she knows how to pray. And I looked at her and I was like, I just can't pray like that. Like I was like, this is like a gift that she has and I'm incapable. But the truth of what God truly now, speaking to my testimony now, even so much more than then, was like, God will take you in the prayer that you're at. You know, like I remember someone at church one time had told me they were like, you know, like when you have nothing to say, sometimes your tears are enough for God, and that can be your conversation. And that truly has just stuck with me through my whole life in the moments of I don't know what to do, I don't know where to go, I don't know how to handle this. Just giving whatever it is that you have to God, even if it's just tears to shed, like He will take that and He will use that for so much glory to bring you through something when you didn't even think you had anything to offer. But that's enough.
SPEAKER_00:That's so good. Yeah. That's so good. It's just enough. Yeah, He takes you right where you are in the moment, how you can come.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You know, as long as we give him truly our whole heart.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's awesome. Your sister, praise God, hallelujah, she's now cancer-free. Amen. Yes, she's been cancer-free for quite a while now.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Uh, but during the beginning stages of the battle with cancer, you said it was the first time that you paid attention to your family really walking in the light of Christ. Yeah. You you really took notice to that. So not the first time they did, but it was the first time maybe that you paid attention to it. So explain that for a moment because the spiritual growth you witnessed taking place in your family, uh, do you think God was using this in efforts to also get your attention? Yeah. Having to watch your family lean on God teaching you that you should do the same.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. Like I said, in that moment, there was no other option. I mean, like to us, I think, you know, the Bible says when you train a child up in the way that they should go, they will always return to it. And I think for everyone in our household, like that was our returning moment of like what we knew was true. Like when you don't know what else to do, that's what you come back to.
SPEAKER_00:Let's get into for a moment, because the your let's say that your friends, your close friends, the friends that maybe used to party with back in the day, who maybe listen to this right now and thinking, mm-hmm, well, all this is good stuff, you know. This is when Kenley was little innocent Kenley, but is she really gonna expose? Is she really gonna open that closet door? Is she is she really gonna share what I know about her, right? And that's what we're getting ready to jump into next, because um, sometimes certain chapters in life tend to take over. And they're not always good chapters, they're not always pretty, sometimes they're ugly chapters. Yeah, but nonetheless, the chapters need to be there to make up the part of the story of what God is doing, and every chapter has a reason. Yeah, you know, so we're gonna we're gonna talk about that because at the age of 15, you smoked weed and you vaped for the very first time.
SPEAKER_01:I did.
SPEAKER_00:Uh what was it that made you turn there and what was your friend's circle like? And and again, we're not blaming it on no prior friends, but what I'd like for people to hear, young and old alike, is that your circle really does matter. Absolutely. That the room you're in matters, and the circle you put yourself in matters. So what was it that made you turn there and what was that's that that that circle of friends like?
SPEAKER_01:Um, so one thing about me to date, this is still accurate information, is that I have always had friends that were older than me. That's just what everybody did. Like at the time, Instagram really was kind of like the biggest newer thing. I mean, it it's huge now, but then it was like really cool. And I was homeschooled my entire life. Um, I was always very well known in the county, though. There's not many people to this day. People come in my business and say they knew me from school and I never even went to school with them. Saying all that to say sometimes it was easier for me to get in with kind of the people that involved themselves in these activities than the people that were well put together because I just wasn't like there to know them on a deeper level. Right. Um, so it's easy to get involved with the worst crowd because nine times out of ten, the worst crowd is gonna be a bigger group than the ones that are well put together. So that was kind of the beginning of it.
SPEAKER_00:And they accepted you in. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:They accepted you in. Now, your testimony says that your parents put a stop to it the best way that they knew how. I remember those, I remember that time in your life. Um, and and they were they were temporarily successful. Yes, temporarily successful, but then you said this, and and and I'm gonna quote you on this. In your testimony, it says this not much gets past my father. He knew how to handle it, right? Yeah, knew how to handle it. So, so dad does what dad knows to do. And dad's good at it, and he's good at it, and and and that's what a good dad does, yeah, right? That's what a good dad does. For the parents listening out there right now, Kenley, who may have a wayward child or or maybe they've got a wayward grandchild, they're not doing as they want them to do, they've fallen into the trap of the world worldly things. Do you have any advice on how to handle the child because you were that child?
SPEAKER_01:Call Joe Norman and ask for advice.
SPEAKER_00:Uh-oh man, just put his name on the air.
SPEAKER_01:No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Um, I think the biggest thing that I could recommend, honestly, now looking back, the way that my parents handled it probably was the better route, but something that children would be open to is meeting them where they're at. Like, hey, I just want to let you know out of love, what you're doing, the things you're partaking in, the people you're hanging out with, they're not okay. We want more for you. We're here to support you, not support the things you're doing, but support you because we love you. And you might have a slip up because I did. And I can say, I'm not judging my parents for the way they parented me. That's not it. But they were so against it. I could never come to them and tell them when I was struggling because I was so afraid of the hardcore discipline that they gave me.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_01:And I think that that was amazing. Don't I'm not dissing my parents. I don't want anyone to think that, mom, if you're listening to this, please don't think that. But um I think that it is really good to like remove them from the situation fully, I do, but also to be open to meeting them in the middle and just letting them know like it's okay if something happens. Like we're here for you either way.
SPEAKER_00:So that makes perfect sense to me as a dad of two boys, right? So you're saying, hey, completely remove them from the spot that that is causing them to mess up. Yeah. But also be open enough that if they slip up, right? Because even as parents, I think one one thing that we forget as adults is we still mess up too. You know what I'm saying? Like we're not perfect. The Bible says for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, amen.
SPEAKER_00:And so we need to be willing to accept our children in in their failures. Yeah. And say, okay, I got you. Appreciate your honesty. We're gonna pray harder against this, and yeah, and and and we're gonna move forward. One of the things I learned as a dad was that right now, like for instance, my oldest is is 20, so obviously he's not a child anymore, but but even for my youngest, like I he's 13, but I'm raising a 13-year-old. I'm not raising a 44-year-old man right now. Yeah, you know, now I'm 44, and it's so easy at times to expect my 13-year-old to be where I'm at. Like, hey, man, I don't do these things, so I expect you not to do these things, but I quickly forget what I was doing when I was 13. And again, I'm not I'm not justifying it, right? I'm not making excuses for it, but I think oftentimes as parents, we're we're raising children with adult grown expectations. And I think that also that's what keeps our children from being able to listen to us as adults because we're we're trying to get them to an adult level rather than understanding that that's just not where they're at. You know, I again, I'm raising a 13-year-old teenager right now. I'm not raising a 55-year-old grown man. Yeah. Right.
SPEAKER_01:I think something that has been like the biggest thing that I've been saying this year, and I know everyone thinks it's funny, but I'm being so serious, is that my frontal lobe is developing. And if I could go back, I'd just want to say, like, you're not dealing with someone that has a frontal lobe yet. And like I couldn't comprehend it. You know, like in the time I get it, you're saying weed leads to cocaine and cocaine leads to meth, and meth leads to something else, but I'm just having a good time and you don't get it. Right. Because you don't want to have a good time. You're old.
SPEAKER_02:Right, right, right, right.
SPEAKER_01:I didn't have a frontal lobe, and my parents did. And I know that's so funny and it's laughable, but it genuinely is true. Like you're looking at the bigger picture, I can't even comprehend the bigger photo yet, you know? And that that's like the biggest thing.
SPEAKER_00:That's such a great takeaway. Uh, here's where things begin to take off because at the age of 16, you graduated high school early. I did. Okay. And for those who do not know Kinley personally, uh, she is a very smart, business, savvy young woman. Um, and and and she's a she's a don't get in my way type of girl.
SPEAKER_01:That's a really good way of putting it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think that's a fair way of putting it. And I think anybody that knows you is probably chuckling at that right now. But but you're also the type of woman that, hey, I see the vision and I'm gonna go get it, type of gap. Thank you. Right, which I think is a gift that God has given you. It's a drive in your life. Um, I also believe, Kenley, as I was preparing for this podcast, I believe that that's one of the reasons why the enemy, Satan, has tried so hard to keep you from turning to God because the enemy knows, and he knew, that if you ever surrendered to God, you would use all of your gifts and talents for God's kingdom purposes. Thank you. So God's impact on your life, Kay, is far greater than just the life of Kinley. It goes beyond that. It it it really, even with your social media things, it has the potential, if it hasn't already, to be global. So so you just never know like what God is doing beyond that. I I know even right now, uh this this podcast is is is listened in in over 22 different countries and territories across the world. So like about think about how God is using your testimony right now, even to be heard from people that tune in in Brazil, in in Japan, in in uh Germany. It's just people all over uh the Philippines that that listen and they're hearing your testimony right now. And I believe that this is just one more piece that the enemy didn't want you doing here at this table. Amen. Sharing your testimony, and you do such a wonderful job of sharing the love of God in your life now. Thank you. But I really believe that just as much as you're a go-getter, right? The enemy didn't want you go getting it for the kingdom. Amen. And he was trying, he was trying his hardest. Uh so this is when you begin trying to earn your parents' trust back, right? Dad caught you, they they got you, they're trying to enforce and lay down the law, right? Yeah. Um, this is when you're trying to earn their trust back. You begin working full-time in your career. As I mentioned, you graduated early. Very proud of you for that. Uh, but but you still haven't sold out to God at this point in your life. You're still walking in worldly ways, but not as much because you're trying to keep it a secret, right? Because if dad finds out again, you know what I mean? Like you know how big the hammer was that fell the first time. You don't want to run that gauntlet again with your dad, right? So now at age 17, let's get there. Because this this part is is so important to even be a warning to our listeners.
SPEAKER_01:Amen.
SPEAKER_00:At 17, you end up going to a party.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, and you smoke some weed, not knowing that the weed had been laced with something. The next thing you know, your testimony says that you wake up to someone shaking you, yelling for your friends, and you were covered in your own vomit, and your body was shaking uncontrollably. Yes, and you're foaming at the mouth.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:God spoke so clearly to you that night. What was the warning that God gave you?
SPEAKER_01:Wake up. You know, what are you doing? And to backtrack just a tiny bit, and this is where I struggle as someone who aspires to be a parent soon, was that I was not supposed to be at that party, so I didn't have my phone. Um, I left my phone at a friend's house. So not only I I mean, I thought I was gonna die. Like I remember I was in church every Sunday. I couldn't tell you what a sermon was on, but I said the salvation prayer in my head in that moment. I could I could not speak. And not that if I even had a phone, I could have called for help, but I didn't have a phone. Um, might I add, my parent or my friends were in no condition to help me. No one at that party was. I'll never forget the boy that um shook me. So I smoke and I should have known because the guy whose party it was always had weed, but he didn't smoke. And looking back, that's so weird that he did that. Um yeah. So I wake up in the back of a car. His car, we had smoked out of his trunk. Um I wake up in the backseat of his car, so this boy, he's shaking me. And I open my eyes, just like, I don't know if you've ever really like heard of like the out-of-body experience, it feels like where you're like a foot beside yourself. And I was like looking at myself. And past the vomit and the foam and shaking, I was just so disappointed. I was like, you know, I'm not only taking off in my career, I had gone really big on social media on TikTok, and I had people driving a very, very long ways to come see me to get their hair done, but I wasn't even licensed to do hair yet. And I was like, you have so much going for yourself. This is embarrassing. I mean, I was embarrassed. I like looking at myself out of body, I j I was mortified, but feeling it, that was to date the scariest moment of my entire life. It was. And everyone around me is just screaming. I mean, it's like I don't I don't know where everybody went. I guess they smoked and thought I was just hanging out. I mean, I don't I it that wasn't a rare occasion for me to do at the time. Um, but I I don't know how long I had been laying there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and and praise God that He's merciful enough to give you another chance. Amen. That it didn't end that night.
SPEAKER_01:Amen.
SPEAKER_00:You're you're going to church during during this time in your life, but it was simply because your parents required that of you. Yeah. Right since you lived in their home. And in your testimony, you say this, and I quote, I may have been there at church. I may have been there, but I was not there. Explain that for everybody.
SPEAKER_01:I was there because I had to be. I was not there. You know, God is open. God wants you all the time, but you have to be open to him, you know. And again, I say, like in my childhood, I checked the box of coming in the building. I checked the box of standing up during praise and worship. I was even probably taking communion at the time because I thought I was saved, you know. I thought it was enough. And the sad thing is, back when I was partying and stuff, there was other people there that went to church with me on Sundays, you know? And we all kind of thought, like, oh, we go to church. Like that, that's how you go to heaven. We go to church.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But I couldn't tell you what a sermon was that I took away. I couldn't tell you that I raised my hands during worship, you know. I I was not, I was not checked in, but I was physically present.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. So you chose to ignore the warning that God gave you in that out-of-body experience. You continued smoking weed before bed. Okay. Why why ignore the warning?
SPEAKER_01:Because it was easy. Um, I think that at the age of 16, 17, 18, like that young adulthood. It's a very lonely road to walk because there's very few people. I like to say like my sister. My sister has always just been like a very like faith-driven young adult when she was like in her young teenagers. And there's very few people like that. And I'm I'm a very personable person. I like people, I like having a lot of friends. And I think that it was just like so easy. It's just so easy and fun to hang out with everybody else. It was, I mean, I can even say now, like, I had some good memories messing up. I mean, there are some funny stories. There were some good times. Overall, do I miss it? Absolutely not. I'm so thankful that I walked it to have the testimony that I do now. I would not change it looking back because if it has completely shaped me into who I am and how God has used me, not only in younger adults' life, but even some of my clients. You know, if you sit in my chair, you've come to a church service, sit down, buckle up because we're gonna talk about the Lord most of the time. Nine times out of ten. And God has used that and it's amazing. Um but it was just lonely, yeah, not partaking in it. Honestly, I think if I if I could go back and if you were to look at me and say, what are you doing? I'd be like, Who am I supposed to hang out with?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and where do I go from here?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, what do I do?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Talk about talk about for a moment chasing a dream because at the age of 19, you begin the process of opening your salon. Yes, right. You go on to open actually a couple other boutiques in the process, and God told you that it was going to be a ministry that he was building for you. And that's a faithful father. Amen.
SPEAKER_01:Amen.
SPEAKER_00:But living living the way that you're living, you didn't think much of it at the time. Right? You you're just successful, things are rolling. TikTok famous, right? Just just people know you. I don't know if I get to that explain. Popularity. I I I think I say so. But but Kay, that just shows the goodness of God. And I want to touch on that piece for a moment. It shows the goodness of God, it shows the faithfulness of God that just because we go off course, God doesn't throw away his plans for us.
SPEAKER_01:Amen.
SPEAKER_00:You know, and like when I was preparing for this podcast, that's one of the things that the Holy Spirit was just really blessing me with, is that God still makes plans.
SPEAKER_02:Amen.
SPEAKER_00:You know, we we we we may be ruining them in the in in the moment, but God's still making plans. Yeah. Because he loves us, because he's faithful. Right, you know, right, and I just want to encourage the listeners, write that down somewhere in your house. Like God's still making plans. So when you wake up in the morning, you look in the mirror, and no matter how bad it was the night before, how bad you're feeling when you wake up, read that to yourself. Confess that over your life that my father is still busy making plans for my life. Second Timothy chapter 2, verse 13 says this 2 Timothy 2, 13, if we are faithless, he, God, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. And I just love that because when you were faithless to your heavenly father, your heavenly father was remaining faithful to you. So you continue to go on and and and party, but not as much. You've you you've scaled back, at least in the public eye. I'm a business owner now. Yeah, you're a business owner. There's a little reputation that you gotta have, right? So in the beginning stages of success, uh this is when you when you begin driving uh luxury vehicles, right? You've you've got the money to do so now, and and and there is financial success taking taking place. You you go on even at this early age to live in a home that you paid for yourself. Um, you are becoming very popular on social media platforms. By many, you would be considered the it girl. So from the outside, Kenley, you are looking extremely successful, and you are. But the truth is on the inside, you're just a hot mess. Chaos, right? Chaos. I think that's a great word for it. Uh you said that the drinking and the smoking never fulfilled, they they never satisfied. And and even this, and this is something that I really thought was really just deep in in this part of your testimony. You said the drinking and the smoking never gave fulfillment, and even more of that was still never enough. And it's such a good word that even more of it, even more of the world, more success without God present is just never enough. Yeah, just never enough. Um, you said this, and and and I wanna I want to quote you on it. You said I loved attention, and I began dressing provocatively, displaying myself on the internet. You went on to say that you had lost it all. Kinley, the worldly stuff just wasn't working, was it? Matter of fact, you've gone like 180 on that thing. Yeah, even even you're recently married, but before you got married, you posted a video that showed you were getting rid of all those provocative clothes that that did not bring honor to you or your body and that would dishonor your husband if you wore it. And maybe there's some people in your circle that just don't understand that right now because they're not there. So they wanted the clothes, right? So they're not there, no, they're not there just like at one time you weren't there either, right? But I love just how real you're being in that moment when you're like, look, I love the attention. I begin to dress in a way that I should not be dressing. Yeah, but that's not where you are today.
SPEAKER_01:Amen.
SPEAKER_00:That's not sh share with us, if you will, like what made you make that change?
SPEAKER_01:Of getting rid of my clothes.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Um, I had been having a really hard time sleeping. And God was waking me up and I I I kept this is this this is a recent testimony. I kept making a big mistake of talking and not listening. And you know, I've I've also spoken, I'm not gonna rabbit trail on this, but I've spoken a little bit about me and my husband now. We I moved in with him before we were married, and if I could go back, I would change that. And it's hard to rot right a lot of wrongs when you do that, such as just sexual immorality and things like that. And by the grace of God, we did walk in the call. That he called us up to.
SPEAKER_02:Amen.
SPEAKER_01:But up until we got married, like there was just such an uneasiness in our home. And God woke me up every night and I kept talking. But finally he was like, shut up. Like, just listen. I'm trying to talk to you.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And he was like, there are things in this home that you have got to get rid of. Like, not just like the wine bottles, but the wine glasses. What are you keeping those for? You know, like what do you in case someone comes over and brings a glass of wine? Like, what is it? And it was my clothing. That was one thing that he was like, you are holding on to this because the truth is, I I can be an adult enough to say this. I still have friends that still live that life. I do. I don't, I don't hang out with them very often. They don't want to hang out with me very often anymore. And I'm very thankful for that. But um you have no business going where they take you. And if you have nothing to wear there, I know you well enough of all people, you are not gonna go.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And that is where God was like, it's time, you know? And not only that, as someone I was engaged um at the time, this was right before we got married, he was like, What respect are you publicly not only having to me, but to your husband? You know, nobody needs a wife out here running around looking like this. And if you have it, you're gonna wear it one day. Like I knew that that that was my moment of accountability. That was it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's so good. And and just to give people an idea, like we're probably talking thousands of dollars.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Thousands, oh yeah, thousands, thousands of dollars of clothing that you just had to say, I can't do this anymore. And you didn't let what I love about that testimony is you didn't let the price tag convince you to keep it. Right? I did, you know. Um, hey, I gotta get rid of this stuff.
SPEAKER_01:I even had further conviction because I was gonna take it and sell it. And God was like, Well, what type of example are you setting to let somebody else buy this stuff? And I was like, oh, okay, Lord. So if you want me to be honest with you, I have not thrown it in the trash yet. It is still sitting in my home. I'm not, it's going. It's I'm not tempted to wear it again. I just haven't dealt with it. Um, but it is, it is out of my closet and it is not going back in my closet.
SPEAKER_00:Amen.
SPEAKER_01:There's a lot of money and clothing that is.
SPEAKER_00:Time to get rid of.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it is.
SPEAKER_00:I've got another quote from your testimony. I want you to explain to the listeners because this is deep. You said, and I quote, I refuse to turn to God because I knew enough about him to know that he didn't just want part of me. God wanted all of me. So explain that because you also said that you had surrounded yourself with people who would you who would think that you were crazy if you had turned to God and surrendered to him. So just explain that. I I I knew I knew enough about God to know that he didn't just want part of me, he wanted all of me, and therefore I refuse to turn to him.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you know, um, I looked at the people in my life that did have God, and like a few people that just instantly come to mind are like you and my mother, you know? And you you guys don't really have any junk, you know, like none. Um everybody has junk, but nothing, any spiritual leader that I looked at didn't have like any lukewarm areas. Right.
SPEAKER_00:You gotta be all in. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because I'm I make mistakes, right? But but I have I had devoted my life to be all in. Yes, but by the grace of God.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. And I didn't want that. Like the clothing, like I knew something that God recently, unfortunately, has convicted me of is the luxury life that I've lived. And that that's what I knew he was gonna do, you know. He was like, You drive a Porsche for show. I don't even drive it anymore. It sits in my driveway. I should get rid of it. Because that that's not for you, that's for everyone else to say, she's a successful business owner. She's got it going on. You don't know what my bank account looks like. I could be in the negatives and you would have no idea, you know? Right. Everything was for show. And that is why I did not want to devote myself because I knew that I had so many areas in my life that even I questioned. Should I be doing this?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That I knew God was gonna take.
SPEAKER_00:You knew God, you knew God's answer, didn't you?
SPEAKER_01:If I questioned it without a frontal lobe, I knew the Lord with the frontal lobe was gonna be like, okay, girl, go on.
SPEAKER_00:At the age of 21, you become exhausted. Yeah. Tired of running. Mental chaos. And and I think that every person who's running from God can can can say that, hey, this this is the part where I crashed, right? You you just become exhausted, you're tired of running. You said that Satan no longer came after you because Satan already had yeah, he did. And and there was there was a girl who ends up working at your salon, and everything just seemed like it was going good for this, for this sister in Christ, right? For this girl in her life. And she's glowing, and in your testimony, it says that the light of Jesus Christ was shining forth from her life. You decided to go to church with her, okay, and and you go, and you said that that Satan was just all over you, distracting you. When you get there, you judged everyone in the room. You you judged the person who's preaching. Uh it was you. Was it at CFO? Okay, so you're judging, you're judging your uncle, are you? I was talking about that when it shows over. I'll explain. So, so you're judging, you're judging the preaching, okay? And and here, here's the thing that I was like, man, isn't the devil just a dirty devil? You even judged a woman's hair sitting in front of you. You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_01:Not just the one in front of me, everybody. I was looking at everybody, I was like, I know they don't come to howdy lose. Where do they go?
SPEAKER_00:So, so so so your mind, I think it's safe to say that your mind's not even on church, right? It's it's not even on where it needs to be. Um, what did you what did you hear in church that day? There was something in your testimony that you heard. Yeah, I'll never forget. You're just tired of running. And and at that point you said that you heard this word out of everything that you heard in church, you hear this word that if you're tired of running, you've come to the right place. Explain that feeling because you say that that moment is where it all changed for you in your life.
SPEAKER_01:I remember just saying to myself, if I can get to the car, I can have a breakdown. But I can't do that in here because my mom would know she got what she's been praying for. And in that moment, I I knew that I wasn't ready to fully surrender.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So I didn't want anyone to know that I'd gotten that word. And I know that that sounds so silly, but if someone's listening to this right now and they're running, they know exactly what I'm talking about. Yeah. You know, because then someone's gonna be like, oh, Kimley was at church on Sunday, she was crying, God is working in her life. Let me send her a text message and encourage her. I didn't want no encouragement. I was like, Lord, why'd you like, you know, like in that moment, it was such a bittersweet because I was so tired of running and I was so tired, like so ready to be there. But there also was just like, you know, like they say, like devil on one shoulder, the Lord on the other. And the devil was just like, oh no, you love your car, you love your life, you know, you love everything that you've built for yourself. You live in an immaculate home, you're gonna lose it all, you know. Um, and I didn't want to, but it was time.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Time to step into the plan that God had for your life. Amen. You know, because that plan is is far greater than any plan that you could create for yourself. Yeah. You you end up asking God to take control of your life and to show you what he has for you. And within 24 hours, I I just kind of smiled when I read this. You give your life over to God, and one would think, okay, everything's gonna be great. Everything's gonna be fantastic, right? Within 24 hours, you're homeless.
SPEAKER_01:I am.
SPEAKER_00:So it doesn't always work out the way we think it does, does it, Kay?
SPEAKER_01:No, it does not.
SPEAKER_00:You know, but sometimes here's the deal the the potter has to break down the vessel.
SPEAKER_01:Amen.
SPEAKER_00:You know, the the potter, he he's so good that remember what I said earlier, we're doing our thing, but God's still making plans. Yeah, and he's got to break some things, Kay, that that weren't in our life according to or shouldn't have been in our life according to his plans. So he's gonna have to destroy what we've built up inside of us that does not belong, right? Pride has to go, jealousy, envy. If people are out there struggling with that, it has to go. Worldliness, sinfulness, ungodliness, it all has to go. He's so faithful and he wants to create in us a clean and a pure heart, as David says, create in me, O Lord, right? A clean heart, uh, a new heart, a pure heart. So he he's got you right where he wanted you, and then you begin to see God's plan for your life.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You know, and I guess I could we could also maybe look at this too as like, is the enemy potentially trying one last shot to get you back? Like, okay, you come to God, now you got nowhere to go. You know, you're homeless. Like, remember how good I gave it to you over here? Remember how good you had it when you weren't sold out to Jesus?
SPEAKER_01:You know, the whole portion of my life of that time, after um about four weeks went on, I would say that I I just about did go back to it. It was probably like three weeks in. Um, I was again, yep, God stripped me. I was homeless. Um, I did get what I prayed for. I was laying in bed, I was sobbing, I was hysterical, and I was like, God, just if you I know that you're faithful enough to make everything work out, just give me faith to trust the process. And yeah, about a little, it was probably like 18 hours later. Um, I was homeless. I was at my parents' house crying on their doorstep. And one thing about my dad, he's there's not many things he can't fix that. He he fixed it the best way that he knew how. And um, he gave me a place to live, but shortly after that, I cannot live with my parents. I've been living on my own since I was 18 years old. So um I go and I get my own home. And mind you, wait, God stripped me. I went from a half a million dollar home to like an 80s trailer, you know? So, like this talk about humble. That this is this is this is the definition of Kenley's humble moment, you know?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And um I just about did go back because it was hard, you know, and it was, might I just add, it was lonely. It was so lonely because the people that I had surrounded myself with for so long, they did not get it. They were like, girl, you prayed to huh? And he said, What? And you are where with who? Like, what is going on, you know?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So that was the moment that I know for a fact God allowed me to be lonely for a little bit. Because if I wasn't talking to someone else, I had to talk to him. And if someone else, if my if I had girlfriends that knew I was living by myself, they would have come over and had a sleep over, but then I wouldn't have been talking to the Lord, you know.
SPEAKER_00:So he got you in a place, yeah, it's like he isolated you. Yeah, absolutely. Just with him. Yeah. So that you could listen and you could also speak with him. Yeah. So homelessness didn't mean to end. No. You know, uh, it it meant a sign of new beginning, uh, a sign of God saying, Okay, Kenley, you've done it your way. Now, now we're gonna try mine. Yeah, right. And at age 22, you are a new creation, a new creature in Christ. You surrendered to God, you've allowed him to take over, and look at you now, sister. Uh, 2 Corinthians 5 17 says this. Paul writes, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is passed away. Behold, the new has come. And Kenley, I am so blessed to see that your new is here. Amen. And it's not over. God still, I believe God is still showing you and still yet to show you what is more to come. I I think you're just on the cusp of it, to be honest with you. I think you're just, I don't even think you've even begun to see the pinnacle of what God has for your plan. This is just another chapter of what I believe is going to be a very beautiful, long, long story. I know you said starting a relationship without Christ can be difficult, but God is teaching you how to right your wrongs.
SPEAKER_01:Pre-getting married, I really devote my life to Christ when me and Jordan started dating. Like that was really the time frame when there was like true, just like devotion to the Lord. But we did start out on a rocky foot, you know, like we were we were partying all the time. A lot of our friends have side-by-sides. We got side-by-side riding. We go to bike week, you know, like there's there's some really good times in there. But also, like, sorry to talk about this because you are my uncle. But like the thing the world says is so normal is sexual immorality. Like, I mean, that is just like you got to see if you're compatible with someone, you know, like there's just so many things that the world says, like you have to, it's you're crazy if you don't, you know. Um, but I'm thankful for a God that is faithful and forgiving. And I'm thankful that he gave me a man that trusts me when I say things, you know. And when I first kind of was like, hey, we really should stop partaking in this, he was like, huh? What are you talking about? You never talked about this before. Why are you talking about it now, you know? Um, and I was like, but if we want to receive blessings and the fullness of God and walk in his glory and have peace over our home, like we've got to, you know, we've got to.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So we did get rid of a lot of the our things, a lot of things in our life at the time, such as those. And that was closer to us getting married than not. Honestly, like I really would say that was in the past like six months or so. Um, now married, now where I'm at, and not all this is just since I've been married, but just generally speaking, um, you know, God spoke that word when I opened Howdy Loose that this is going to be a ministry one day. And I I so like I just kind of forgot about it. And recently he reminded me of it. And I host a Bible study there now, you know, and I think that's so beautiful that like the plans that we have when we're living in such disaster, we don't know what we're doing tomorrow. I don't know. Don't ask me. I don't know the answer. God had a plan for my life years ahead, you know? And I think to the parent that is struggling with maybe their child going astray as my parents did, or to the person who is astray and they don't know, God has a plan for you to come back, you know? And it was like just that like prophetic word that he put in my life that I don't even I took with a grain of salt. Now is like you loved me so much before I treated you so bad, and before I took your name in vain, and before I treated the people around me horribly and lied to them. I mean, I painted this whole life to my family members. Y'all had no idea. I mean, maybe you could take your guesses, but no, no one knew just how bad it was. Went on behind my closed doors in so many levels. Um, and it's so beautiful now to be like, you had such a plan, and I I hate that I did these things, but I love that it was your plan all along to use them as testimony, you know. That's so that's so beautiful. So also saying that, if you have someone in your life that's struggling and you have a word that you're like, one day, this person's gonna get it together, hold on to that. Yeah, because I never even told anyone God had said that because I didn't feel like care what anybody had to say about it. And now look at it, you know?
SPEAKER_00:Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01:It's so beautiful.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. And he's not finished with it. Yeah, he's he's still making plans for your life.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Amen.
SPEAKER_00:Amen. Let's pray. Father, I am so grateful for this time that we've had here together at this table because it's more than just Kenley and myself. Uh, Father, it's about the ministry that you're gonna do with this episode. And Lord, I pray in the name of the blood of Jesus that you would use it, that you would take it far beyond any far beyond any level that we could ever comprehend. That it would hit the the hearts, the ears, the minds of the people that need to hear it, and that they would be willing to share it with those that also need to hear it. Father, we thank you. We thank you for the power that is in the testimony, that we give you all of the honor, all of the glory, all of the credit, and all of the praise. And we just encourage right now in this moment, anybody that may be listening, that's struggling, they want to do right. They need that little push, they need that nudge just to begin to do right. Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit will begin to convict them and show them the way in which they should go, that today they would cry out to the name of Jesus for help. For it is that name, the name of Jesus, that is above every name. And we ask all this in the name and the blood of our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and all God's people said, Amen, amen, and amen. God bless you, and until next time, continue to serve the Lord.
