Burn-Break&Become Unstoppable B3u

Greatness Is Painful

• Bree Charles

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Have you ever felt like giving up when the daily grind seemed too overwhelming? When raising children, advancing your career, building a business, or navigating relationships pushed you to your breaking point? That's exactly where transformation happens.

In this deeply personal episode, I share my journey as a single mother of five who joined the military at age 30, survived a toxic marriage, built multiple businesses, and completed my college education at 53 after recovering from a stroke. These weren't just challenges—they were the soil in which the fruits of my labor grew.

Many of us struggle silently, wondering if our efforts will ever pay off. I've been there—waking before dawn for military PT while my children slept, facing younger superiors who didn't understand my life experience, launching businesses without adequate funding, and returning to school decades after dropping out. Through each struggle, I discovered that greatness emerges directly from pain.

The most valuable lesson I've learned is that nothing worthwhile comes easily. When we build our lives brick by brick through experience and perseverance, we create something far stronger than what could ever be handed to us. But there's a crucial balance—like a car that won't run without gas regardless of its mechanical condition, we must remember to refuel our spirits when life demands too much.

Your current struggles are the seeds you're planting for future harvests. Water them with faith, nurture them with persistence, but don't forget to care for yourself in the process. The fruits of your labor will come, and they'll be sweeter for the journey you took to grow them.

Speaker 1:

Hello everyone, hello, hello, welcome to a segment of B3U. I am your host, brie Charles, and I'm very happy to be here with you guys today. I just wanted to comment. You know, let's talk a little bit. Let's talk about the fruits of our labor. What are some of the fruits of your labor? What are some of the things that we constantly labor on daily?

Speaker 1:

Okay, some of us have children, marriages, careers, businesses, education, some of us in school relationships, and we all know the struggles and the trials and tribulations that we go through in getting some of these things. For example, our children, our children. If you are a single parent or a dual household with both parents, it is a struggle. Children, what do we say? Children don't listen, especially if you're a single parent or a dual household with both parents. It is a struggle. Children, what do we say? Children don't listen, especially if you're a single parent and you're out there and you're accomplishing things on your own and you work in a job and children not listening. They don't clean, they don't do what you tell them to do, right, but you constantly are instilling in them the right things to do Clean your room, pull your pants up or you know those things that kids just tend to think that we get on their nerves with Right Career. Maybe you're laboring in our careers. When we labor in our careers, we're trying to get that promotion our careers, when we labor in our careers, we're trying to get that promotion.

Speaker 1:

I know in the military, you know, starting out, I was 30 when I joined the military. I had no idea what I was walking into Just a young lady from West Philadelphia joining the military. I ain't never been out of the state of Philadelphia, I'm out of the state of Pennsylvania and I come into the military getting up at five o'clock working out, somebody yelling at me constantly. But I knew that this was the career that I chose and the purpose that I chose it for. And I started off as an E nothing, e1. Nothing. He won Okay, and I knew that that career that I chose I wanted to make it to the highest level of leadership that I could be.

Speaker 1:

And then some of us business, right Business, starting out, new business. And maybe you're starting a new business, okay, and you're just starting it out. I know now that I am now managing and the founder of Free Business and they're, you know, starting out right. And then we have marriage, okay, new marriages, old marriages, it doesn't matter, right? The struggle and the care and the concern and the work that it takes for a marriage relationship, okay, new relationship, old relationship that you want to take further, to go, that lead up to marriage, right? So what are some of those struggles? Like I said, you know where, let's look at children. I want to take children role quick because children are the closest, uh, to my heart. I love the children, I love children and I love the seniors. Uh, my heart is really big for those two.

Speaker 1:

And in raising my children as a single parent I'm going to speak from a single parent because I really didn't have the luxury to grow up with a two-parent household when I was growing up and I raised my children, unfortunately, in a single family household. But I know that when I was in the military, it was a struggle raising five children, four that lived with me. It was a struggle raising four children. I would clean your room, I had to get up, oh dark, 30 in the morning, okay. So I had to have my children and I had one son and my three daughters that lived with me, okay, and they were in the age ranges of 12, all the way to four.

Speaker 1:

So, starting off it was like my, my youngest daughter. She wasn't in school yet, so I had to get up early, five o'clock and my children were still mainly sleeping at night or sleeping early in the morning. They didn't get up for school until like six. But they knew the day before like hey, get to get up, get ready for school, take your sister to the, the babysitter or whoever was going to babysit her, or you know. Until I um found daycare or took, no matter of fact, until she went to school, I had to have the other children, you know, take care of themselves, clean the house. Well, of course you know you come back home after, you know PT. Well, pt for us was like over at about 7 o'clock I want to say so the kids are already in school and, of course you know you come back. Nothing was done.

Speaker 1:

So now, in a time you're trying to relax your children and do what you're told, I know when growing up it's like just do what I asked y'all to do. I only asked y'all to get good grades. Clean the house, you know, do the things that a child's supposed to do. It just was like they were so into playing with their friends going going to school. They were living the life of a child. They didn't know what it was like for me as a single mom to get up every morning, struggling to go out here to make this break, people yelling at me. They didn't know what I was doing, but they just know that they were living good, they in this nice house. And you know they had every, and my children had anything that they possibly thought could think about to ask for. I gave them most of what I could provide for them at the time, so life was good for them. They didn't have any idea what it took for me to make their dreams and their wishes come to play.

Speaker 1:

So it's like what I'm saying is you know, we look at our children, but I always would. When I did have the time off, I would sit and I would talk to my children like, hey, and I would talk to my children like hey, I really need y'all to do what it is I asked you to do. Please go to school. Go to school, get this education and we teach our children that so they don't go through the struggles that we do as parents. We may have experienced something that we don't want our children to experience. So this is what, you know, I was instilling in my children at the time is because I don't want y'all to have to grow up and you know you drop out of school early, you get your GED and then you decide to, you know, join the military at a later age. You know I want to prevent you guys from doing this. So this is why you know we may be instilling in our children the proper things to do so they don't have a repeat of what the life that you live, you know, and at the time you know it was.

Speaker 1:

It was not easy at all because of course you know I will say for the most part my children did go to school. Some had the best grades, some had the best grades that they could get, you know, but all of my children finished school, which I am very proud of, because that was just like there was just no goals in my household and the no goal was like you will not drop out. I was very passionate about that because I dropped out of school in 11th grade and I went back and got my GED at a later age and I was like this will not happen to my children. I am going to make sure. If I have to walk them my dad oneself, you know, if I have to drag them because you know they didn't want to get up and do it, things was just as a kid was so hard for kids, right? This thing, little thing that you ask children is so hard. But you have to keep. You have to keep instilling and keep pouring into them and don't give them the option of failure. Don't give them the option of failure. Don't give them the option of failure, right? So that's with the children. What is the career? The career for me, like I said before, I wanted to.

Speaker 1:

I came in as an E1. I'm 30 years old. The people that are around me are 10 years younger and I'm like what in the world? I just joined a big old daycare. You know I'm coming in and it's like, you know, I would see some of the leadership that was before me. I had leaders that were younger than me. I'll never forget it was just she was horrible. God bless me. You know she was my squad leader and here I am, you know, in my 30s. She may have been in her 20s and I used to get so annoyed just because, like what in the world. Who are these people that they're putting in charge of me? Like you know, the appearance of how she carried herself as a leader, how she dealt with me as a soldier, was like I ain't listening to that, I'm not following that. So you know.

Speaker 1:

And then I had a person that was just like, had no sense of leadership skills herself. She didn't know where, as a young person, where I was coming from, you know, she didn't know the struggles that I had, so she just looked at me as a soldier that needs to go back on the block, so to speak. And you know they wanted to put me out, but they never took the time, the time to learn who their soldier was, you know. Then, as for the young soldier, you know people get that. You know how it is in the workplace. You get that person that get that promotion and, oh my God, they are God's best given glory because look at me, I got the rank you do what I say, but had no sort of leadership skills, right. So we all know and have those people in the workplace.

Speaker 1:

But I know that for me, and the fruits of my labor with my career, was I wanted to become a noncommissioned officer so I can lead people better than what I was being led. So I, diligently, I made some mistakes and bumps along the way. Mistakes and bumps along the way. Okay, I was, you know, introduced again to this lifestyle that I, you know. I was pretty much sheltered. I didn't know that it was so many other people in this world outside of Philadelphia. Okay, so, when I got in, but I knew that I chose that career to better myself and my children's way of life. So I went through those struggles of my career. I went through those struggles of raising my children that didn't understand, struggles that I was going through and I was always instilling in them how to be a better man, how to be better women. So you don't have to repeat the things that I went through.

Speaker 1:

So then now as for business. My struggles, well, I will just say, is being a entrepreneur who is now. I'm a lover and a care, a caregiver. I'm a servant, a servant to God, I'll put it that way. My first business is a nonprofit where I shelter homeless families, domestic violence victims and I service the low income family, the low income family. That's my first business. I started that business had no idea what I was doing. I just know that there were breadcrumbs that were being dropped. That said, this is the path and the direction that I should go, because I've lost so many people in my life so I want to be a servant. So I took that, started that have still look, still in the struggle of my business.

Speaker 1:

Why? Because grants, grants are. There may be many out there. I will say that people always say, well, there's many grants, a lot of grants out there. You just got to fill out for them. I did that. Grants and everybody know it takes money to make money. Well, what if you don't have that money? What if you don't have that money, those finances, to build your business? And that's with my other two businesses, my business here. You know, be For you.

Speaker 1:

I'm a motivational, inspirational speaker. You know I my goal is to is to inspire and empower people to be them their better self. Well, it takes money to try to get out there. Right, it takes money to get out there. Continue to write your content. And you know you have all kinds of scares and feelings and doubts. And what if you know you have all kinds of scares and feelings and doubts? And what if you know only 50 people viewed it when you see that you only have 50 people view it, but you want to touch the heart of 50,000 or 50 million and it's like you start feeling like it's a struggle to just get out there, right. Then I have the grocery store Again, another service need to the community, and the idea is we have a mobile bus to service the community that has a food desert. Well, now it's the struggle. Of course. You need what money? Okay, you need money to get the bus. You need money to design the bus and put in the refrigeration. You need money to. You need money, money, money, money, money, money. I don't care if it's a non-profit for profit. The big thing is you need money, right, but I still grind to make my businesses connect and service the need and service the goal that I'm trying to get to.

Speaker 1:

So now some of us have marriages, some of us are involved in marriages and relationships that we want to work. My first marriage, five children later, it was a failed marriage and I would think to myself. I would always say to myself I tried, I stayed as long as I did not because I feared my ex-husband, who was very abusive. But number one I wanted the marriage to work. And number two was, at the time I really didn't have anywhere to go. I didn't have any family. I know that I tried and I tried and I tried, but after a while it was just like God, I need a way out. Give me a way out, because this is not working. Although I wanted it to work, so bad I was putting more in than I was getting out. Then I was getting out. So I also then did not want my children to experience the one-parent household that I had to experience. But okay, the fruit of my labor, of trying to keep that marriage together, just was. It wasn't the seed that I should have been playing, okay. So now I am happily, overjoyed, remarried, and now the fruit that of my labor with this marriage is we are both pouring it. We are both pouring into the marriage to what we, what we are both pouring it, we are both pouring into the marriage to what we are sowing is very prosperous and growing very well. Because I can see that as long as we are both sowing and putting into it, it's good, right, and that's the same thing with anyone who is Right, and that's the same thing with anyone who is involved in a marriage or any relationship.

Speaker 1:

You know there are some, there's young women out here that you know I applaud for being a strong woman and not just accepting anything that a man is who is not mature enough or ready. I really don't like to downplay or downgrade young men, because maybe I look at it as going at a stance, for maybe they just weren't taught the right way. So I don't want to downgrade them. So I don't want to downgrade them. I just, you know, what I try to do is think about. You know, maybe you don't know where they came from, how they grew up. You know, we as women, again, we wear many hats. So some young ladies are teaching their men how to be a better man. But what I would say with that is I applaud some of the young women out here who just don't take anything that's given to them.

Speaker 1:

Some people will look at these young women like, oh, she's, you know, she's too many, too many men in and out her life. Or oh, she got a lot of boyfriends. Oh, she, she got five baby fathers and five kids and five baby daddies. Oh, my goodness, you know. They look down and they frown up behind that and I look at it this way, because I have inside me firsthand, you know, and that's that.

Speaker 1:

That was the other thing that I wanted too in my marriage. I didn't want to have kids by a different man. So, you know, I wanted all my kids to have the same father. That's another reason why I stayed in my toxic marriage. At the same time, too, I wanted all my kids to have the same father. But now, you know, I have daughters who grew up or grown up, and I have inside view to where my one of well, both of my daughters have five children and my one daughter um, cause, I have two that's married, and I have one daughter who is not married and I looked at her situation, you know, and my children have experienced things from the things that I go through and they say, mom, that's just not going to be me. I don't, you know, want to live that way. So my daughter, you know people may look at her and say she got five kids and she got five baby daddies or whatever. She's been married.

Speaker 1:

Once she was in an abusive relationship and she had the sense and also the sense and the support to say nah, and also the sense and the support to say nah, no, that's not what I want to do. You know, and I always tell people again to I especially, you know, I talk to my children like, hey, don't you ever feel down or don't you ever feel bad, because you have five children and you know five different fathers. Number one you were young, okay. Number two children are a blessing, okay. And the thing about that is she did not settle. She did not settle.

Speaker 1:

You know, sometimes, and you know when you're in that dating game and she, I'm telling you, she dated the church goer, she dated the older man. She's dated. You know, she's dated quite a few things where you know she's thought well, if they're older, they're more mature. No, oh, he's in, he's totally into god, this should be good. No, okay. So you know she's been through her stuff but she had the sense enough to not stay in it because mistakes were made. You know, sometimes things uh, look shiny until you get into y'all know what I'm saying. You get to the relationship and you find out like it's a dead.

Speaker 1:

So I applaud her for not staying, knowing her worth and her value and then just getting to the point where she's like you know what, okay, oh, but first you know, um, she did things the right way where her second child. What did she do? They were both uh, he was in the military, and you know what. They got married okay. So she said, well, I'll the military, and you know what they got married Okay. So she said, well, I'll get married. And you know this should be good. We're going to do things right in the eyesight of God. We're going to make it happen, no, you know. So she was like, okay, well, I'm not going to get married because you know we have a child. You know I'm not going to do that anymore. So again, there are other women out there that I can applaud that take those stances.

Speaker 1:

But someone on the outside looking in it's like, oh, they got, she got, they got too many kids. And she this, that? No, I don't. I don't ever down someone for the decisions they have made. As long as you're not continuously making the same mistake, it's like, okay, when are you going to wake up? And you know, kind of realize that that's not for you and you know I pray for people to get out of that. Okay. So those relationships, those failed relationships, okay. So the failed relationships, the behavior, your promotion, not having enough money for your businesses, not enough experience for your businesses. These are all struggles, but this is something that I want to say to you here today, with all the things that I have said and all the points that I've said to you today about children, marriages, relationships, businesses, career. Okay, education, okay, I didn't talk about education, but let me talk about education real quick.

Speaker 1:

As I already explained to you, I dropped out of school in about the 11th grade, didn't finish school, I was pregnant and I, you know head was in the clouds, thought I found Mr Right in the clouds, thought I found Mr Right, right, and, as you, um, as I've shared before with you, my first child was a child born through an unwanted sexual uh encounter. So when I met my husband, my ex-husband, uh, I was pregnant. Uh, again, again, he said that he would father and I didn't have to share anything with anybody. He would be the father of that child. So I hid my great child and then I had another child just to make him happy. So I dropped out of school and I had child after child and I think I went back to school at the age of 28, I believe.

Speaker 1:

I think I dropped out of school. I think I was about 17, 17, when I dropped out of school and I was like, ok, at 28, you know, I knew within me that there was something more. I knew within me that there was something more. I wanted more. So here I am, 28. I get my GED. That was a hard thing. I've been out of school now for what? Almost 10 years. So I decided to go back and get my GED.

Speaker 1:

So I'm going to fast forward you now to where I joined the military and throughout my military career I still was, you know, taking some college courses. It was kind of hard for me because I was so more focused on my career than my education. I just, you know, I got 20 years to, you know, do this education, so I got time. You know. And just you know, I got 20 years to, you know, do this education, so I got time, you know. Then, you know, then, of course, I run into some more things and realized I didn't really have the time.

Speaker 1:

So now here we are, in my mid forties, I will say, and I, you know, I'm now, I'm retired, medically retired from the military, and I'm like, okay, I got to get this thing, this, this, this school thing done here, so I might have been, yeah, mid 40s and I was due to graduate in 2020, right before I hit 50. Right in 2020, right before I hit 50, right, and I struggled. I struggled because now I am also a stroke survivor, so I have some deficits from that to where. It's not that I'm, you know, incapable of learning, it just takes me a little bit more time to learn. So I had accessibility learning and I went to St Leo College, st Leo University, and I'm telling you it's like, oh my God, the things that I would say, like I'm too old for this, this is too much, my brain don't work. The struggle, but I, again, I just knew that I couldn't give up. What happens? Right, everybody knows what happened in 2020.

Speaker 1:

Covid, covid hit and all I have to do is an internship. Well, they didn't have any backup plan for COVID and there were people that were just out there well, how do we finish this? It came to the point where they wanted me after they figured out that COVID wasn't getting nowhere, you know. But we, we got to come up with a backup plan. Their backup plan was to have me take two more classes.

Speaker 1:

I graduated myself the first time. I graduated myself in my garage because I was like, oh no, I earned this degree and COVID is not going to stop me. There was no graduations, there was nothing at that point in time going on. So I graduated myself in my, in my driveway, and my husband got me the cake and everything, and I had a couple of good friends, neighbors come over and they applauded and I stood at the podium. I mean I did the whole nine yards, you know, and it was because I was like I'm not going to let this COVID defeat me of getting my degree. So, you know, I graduated myself. So now here comes a moment in time where I want to do something, but I need my degree in order to finish, and so I can, you know, do this other goal that I wanted to do. So now I needed to finish my degree.

Speaker 1:

Y'all talking about somebody who was like over school, because now, at this time, I'm down 53. I'm 53 now and I'm like what? And I think I think this woman, this woman, she's a good friend of mine and she encouraged me. She was like don't you give up, you know you go back. And in my head I was like I can give up. You know, I already graduated, but I didn't have the paper. But so what? I ain't got the paper. I know what I did. Well, story short, this, this woman. She stuck by me. She encouraged me go ahead back, girl, get that degree, take some more classes because I needed a certain GPA. Go back, take these courses, do this. And I took her advice, I took her motivation and I went and I actually took two more classes, matter of fact, I think in total I took about four more classes to raise my GPA. Get my degree. I graduated from St Leo University October.

Speaker 1:

Fruits of my labor, right so now? Children, marriage, career, business relationships, education, all the fruits of my labor. I want to tell y'all that greatness is pain. Greatness is pain because all the things that you are pouring into your life daily, your children okay, children are hard-headed, children ain't listening, children don't run us, we run them, we run them into making them.

Speaker 1:

If you give up on a child and if you give up and just say you know what, I'm not doing it because this is too much, then you will see the fruits of your labor that you gave up on. What are they going to do? They're going to give up too. Well, she gave up, or he gave up or they gave up, so I'm going to give up, and then you're creating that generational will of failure. So that's why I say the fruits of your labor. When you're pouring into your children and they're being hard, because kids are going to be kids, they're not going to change. Kids are going to be kids because they don't understand the value of everything that mom or dad or mom and dad are creating for them to be successful.

Speaker 1:

Keep your foot on a net Right, because they're going to come back and say mom, dad, thank you for the things that you have done. I'm grateful for you being strict, for you being hard, for you being encouraging, for you to keep motivating, for you to keep doing what you're doing, because look at who I am today, your children, well, thank you. That is the greatness. That is the greatness of your fruits and your labor and your tears and your pains and your brokenness. Okay, that is the fruit of your labor with your career. Everything that I had to endure in my career because I was older, I still retired medically as a staff sergeant. With all my dignity and all my honors and all my accomplishments, my goals and my medals, I still retired successfully. That greatness was painful. It was a painful thing to go through to get where I am today, for the fruits of my labor. My businesses are still. That's my greatness.

Speaker 1:

Okay, it's painful, but what I know now is that if I just keep going, if I just be patient, it's going to come. I don't care how many subscribers I have today. My thing is, what will I have in a year from now, three years from now, five years from now, ten years from now? What will I have then? I'm going to look back then and say I did that. I've helped millions of people and I truly, truly believe that. I truly believe that my nonprofit is already two years and I have already helped maybe 200, if not more.

Speaker 1:

But I know that if I continue to keep on that path, that is very, very painful. I'll reach more, so I'm not worried about it. Very, very painful. I'll reach more, so I'm not worried about it. I'll be able to feed maybe just these people here in Lawrenceville, virginia, with this mobile grocery store. But who knows, and years from now it may not just be one, it could be many all over the globe, who knows? But I'm going to keep steadfast through all the trials, the struggles, the tribulations and just starting, because I don't have all the ends.

Speaker 1:

But I know that if I keep going through, I'm going to learn as I go. I'm going to learn as I go and I'm going to endure the pain. I'm going to endure the struggles, just as I did with my kids. All my kids are doing well. They're great, they're successful, they're raising great and successful men and women. Okay, I endure the pain to know, to get out of the wrong, toxic marriage, the relationship that I've endured. After that. I'm grateful that I went through those so I can know what right looks like. Ok, are you seeing here what I'm doing? And I see and I know that if I keep going through the pains and the struggle of this business, it will be free education. I went through all those struggles and trials and tribulations, didn't want to go back, but I did. I kept moving the needle forward and I have sewn into this beautiful thing of life and I'm walking in my person, educated. Okay, so what I will say is through all these experiences, greatness is painful.

Speaker 1:

You don't want anything that comes easy. Anything that comes easy is not a lesson. It was given to you. So what have you learned? You learned nothing, so you don't want any, you want the hard right, so that way you can say you know what. I started this from the ground up. I had children.

Speaker 1:

Parenting does not come with a manual. Nobody that has children. Somebody came in and said hey, this, this is the way you know. We may have had support from somebody else who been through it to say this is how you change a diaper, this is what you use a diaper, this is what you use for a rash, this is what you, you know. But have they been there every step of the way to tell you everything you need to do to be a parent? No, you have not, because parenting doesn't come. You have to learn along the way.

Speaker 1:

Nobody knows what they're going into. When they're going into their career, you have to learn, or you go to school to learn, but when, even when you go to college to learn a thing, you still don't learn that that career, until you get hands on Hands on knowledge, is what creates your greatness, because you can be book smart. All you you want know all the things, and I'm sure that when doctors go to school, they learn the thing. A surgeon, they learn that, but they really don't get the the understanding and the greatness of it, until they have hands-on of doing that, heart surgery, hands-on experience, learning, maybe on live things or things, whatever. Hands on is the experience. So you don't want anything to come to you, you want the knowledge of building yourself, your children, your career, brick by brick by brick by brick. Your marriage, brick by brick by brick, that new relationship, brick by brick by brick. Okay, and one thing don't stop, okay. Don't stop what you're, what you. You have to continue to pour in to yourselves.

Speaker 1:

And I want to say that we always get overwhelmed. We get overwhelmed with the things that we're doing. When, when a car is out of gas, right, a car is out of gas, has, right, a car is out of gas, has no gas in it. You can change the battery, you can change the alternator, you can do all those things. You can change the spark plugs, you could change that and turn that key on and that tank is in. Is that car going to go anywhere? That car is not going to go anywhere because it's out of gas.

Speaker 1:

And that's what I want to say about our lives. Okay, in our lives, okay, we can recharge our brain, we can get all the knowledge that we need to do. We can have our heart, you know, the heart motivated, ready to do it. You know, continue on going, keep pushing, keep going. Okay, that's it. That's with anything parenting, careers you know we got the mind for it, we have the heart for it. But what happens? If we don't sit back, refuel, rejuvenate ourselves? We won't go anywhere. We're out of gas. We are out of gas. We have to sit and take the time through all the hard work that we do okay, raising children, marriage, careers, business.

Speaker 1:

If I keep going at all the things, my children are all grown and in my blended family we have nine children in total. Do you know what it's like to have nine children, 17 grandchildren? Okay, nine children, 17 grands, and out of the nine children, only four of them have children. So that means the other five are still young and don't have any children yet. So the family is still growing, have any children yet? So the family is still grown.

Speaker 1:

Every day, I'm a mother, a wife, a grandmother, a sister, a friend. I am constantly, constantly. My brain is working on how to help the next person, on how to do the next thing and how to make more money and how to make this person's life a little bit more easier, and how I'm going to feed my, what I'm going to feed my husband and how I can keep my marriage going and how I can keep my marriage healthy, and how can I give my sister this advice and how can I? How, what, what? But if I keep going that way, I'm going to burn out my heart. My heart and my mind is aligned, but my spirit is empty. I'm going to burn, run out of gas and I will be no good to anyone.

Speaker 1:

What I will say is this what does the Bible say? Okay, the Bible tells us that troubles don't last always, and it says that we will reap what we sow. But we have to learn when we get overwhelmed and we're filled up with so much that we have to take that time to sit back and refill our tank. I have a Dodge Charger with a handle. It holds 17 gallons of gas. 17 gallons of gas. If I keep riding that charger as fast as I can and as long as I can, eventually it's going to run out of gas. I could change everything in it, but still I feel that tank, that car, is not going to move anywhere. That's the thing that I think about my body. I'm hard charging, I go hard. And there's others charging I go hard. And there's others out there that go hard and charge just like I do. That's wearing many hats my brother, my sister, I would say.

Speaker 1:

Number one our blocks. Okay, our mistakes. I'm sorry, our mistakes Our building blocks. We want to learn from our mistakes. I'm sorry, our mistakes are building blocks. We want to learn from our mistakes. We also want to know that the fruits of our labor will become greatness from all the pain that we endure. I've endured a lot of pain, endured a lot of pain, but I can look at the greatness of the fruits of my labor and say I did it. It wasn't hard raising those children by myself, but I did that. It was hard to let that marriage go, but I did that. Look at me now. Now I know what not to do, what to do. It was hard in my career, getting as far as I did from where I started. It was hard to look at my breakthrough. I'm now retired, I'm successful. Okay, it was hard getting an education, but I did it.

Speaker 1:

I want you to look at the things that you are sowing and you're seeding right now. What we got to learn to do is plant the seed, water the seed. And we water the seed by knowing that God is so ever faithful. He's so, ever faithful and his words are true. And if we do all of that, we allow God to allow us to keep growing and allow God to allow us, allow God in our lives to allow us to grow. He's the savior, the provider, he's the everything that we need in our life. And know that God says trouble don't last always, but joy cometh in the morning.

Speaker 1:

So, if you are going through hardship of children, career relationships, doing evaluation, look at the fruit or the seed that you're sowing. Is it good? Okay, look at all the things that you do throughout your day in your life. Is it a time where you feel like you just can't go? No more, you just can't go? That's because your tank is empty.

Speaker 1:

You need to sit back, take the time out to evaluate what seeds am I sowing. Is my fruit good? Will my fruit be good? Because you don't want to grow and have something be rotten and there's no use to you or anyone else. So that's the time that you need to take. Know that God is always faithful. God is always faithful. Fill and fuel yourself so you can be good to others and know that greatness is pain. Nothing you don't want, anything that comes easy. I thank you all for joining me on today and just allowing me to share that with you. Continue to please. Continue to like, share and subscribe to my channel. I wish all of you nothing but the best in your success and I will see you all around.