Ep 51 - Don’t Quit, Just Keep Going

In today’s episode of Messy But Motivated, I’m opening up about some of my own failures—the moments I wanted to quit, the setbacks that hurt, and how God taught me to turn those failures into fuel instead of excuses.

We’ll also look at the greatest example of perseverance: Jesus. He endured rejection, betrayal, suffering, and the cross because He knew what was on the other side. If He didn’t quit on us, we shouldn’t quit on the purpose He’s placed on our lives.

If you’ve been discouraged, feeling behind, or wondering if it’s worth continuing, this episode is for you. Your story isn’t over. God isn’t finished with you yet.

If Messy But Motivated has encouraged your walk with Christ and you’d like to help this ministry grow, you can support the podcast through my Buy Me a Coffee page. 👇

buymeacoffee.com/Mrsmotivated2025

 Every donation helps us continue producing episodes, improve the podcast, and put Bibles into the hands of people who need God’s Word. Thank you for believing in this mission and helping us point more people to Jesus.

Remember: Failure doesn’t have the final word—faithfulness does. Keep going.

Thanks for being a listener, stay blessed friends. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to Messy But Motivated. I am your host, Melinda. Welcome back for another week. Um Wow, I'm here in Florida. I don't know where you are, but this rain, it has not listened it has been raining, like non-stop here. It's crazy. Um, usually it'll rain and then it stops, and you can go, you know, it's just like it's not raining all the time. But it's been raining and it has not stopped here. Like it has not stopped. So yeah, oh, I'll tell ya, but it's okay. We keep going, we keep moving forward. There are days I'm like, oh, I just want to lay in bed. I don't want to do nothing because it's raining. Let me just lay in bed. And then I'm like, girl, get up. Get up. What you gonna get done in your bed? I will tell you, I've been watching some good true crime. Listen, one thing about me, can I tell y'all? I follow the Lord, but I also follow true crime. I like true crime. I like it. I like listening to the to all the things like now I know my limits. Whoa, whoa, whoa. We all know I went through that really weird time in my life, which I think a lot of us do, and we don't even recognize it. It took my therapist to tell me there are times in my life where I was like kind of borderline depressed, kind of like, and those are the times I should not have been in true crime. I should not have been watching true crime. I have not, I should have been watching the Hallmark Channel or lifetime. Something. All right, listening to Worship, something, and I didn't. And next thing you know, what happened? I was all espresso depresso, and my therapist was like, Well, think about this. You watch true crime, you listen to true crime on podcasts, you read books about true crime, like what do you expect? And I was like, Oh my gosh. But it took somebody to say it, and then I just stopped for a while. Um, now, now I have seasons, so it's coming up on the season where I'm not gonna be watching too much of true crime, probably like one episode a week because I start my Gilmore Girls. Every fall I start Gilmore Girls over, which I'm kind of mad. Netflix took it off. What somebody said I can find it on other networks. I don't know. I'm gonna, I haven't even went down. I will. Don't worry, I will find it. If not, I got those DVDs. Yep, I got all the seasons. DVDs, I will put them in. I don't know, I'll find a DVD player somewhere. I don't know where. I'm sure. Listen, I'm sure I could find one. Somebody in my family has one. I know they do. But yeah, so I go through seasons, so then, and then after that, I go into the Halmart channel.

unknown 2:42

I know.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

Y'all are like, Melinda, that is so cheesy. It is, it is. They are all cheesy, but I like them. I like them. I like a little bit of cheesiness in my life. I'm like, oh, that's so cute. And I could predict it from the beginning. I already know what's gonna happen, but that's okay. I like it, I love it. It's around the Christmas season, and that is that's my that's my jam. That's my jam. Listen, I like what I like. Mind you bit. Okay, mind it. All right, so yesterday we went, my aunt's here. Yeah, my aunt's here. Um, she's visiting from Clear Lake, Iowa, where we just moved from, and it's been great, great visits. And so yesterday we were like, okay, well, we've been trying out this church, let's go to this church, you know. We don't know what we're doing. Can it can everybody listen? I want everybody to realize we have you guys have been going along this journey with me. I have no idea what I'm doing. I went to one church for a month, it wasn't for me. I'm at another church. Uh, yesterday would have been the month of this, yeah, four sermons. And I don't know. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know if I'm staying or going. I don't know my ass from my elbow. Excuse my language, but I will tell you, I'm gonna figure it out. Yesterday's sermon, though, was a little bit of a ooh, ooh, I don't know. I don't know if I belong here. Now, it's nothing on so remember I told you there's a new pastor coming on. I don't know who the new pastor is, but they had a guest speaker and I was like, ooh, at least I know that's not the kind of preaching I like. Okay, so I don't like when people are stomping around and yelling at you, yelling the sermon, basically. Like, I don't like that. Like, I'm like, ooh, ooh, I don't remember Jesus stomping around and yelling and listen, let's let's let's calm down. Like, I listen. So that's too much for me. It's too much. I can't do it. So if somebody gets up there and they start like, whoa, whoa, whoa, we can have parts like that, all right? But let's not do the whole sermon like that. I know what I like now because I had that and I'm like, okay, this isn't for me. Now we'll see what happens. If I if I if if I find out that's the that's the new pastor, then obviously I'm gonna have to go somewhere else. I can't go to a church that I'm like, mm, this isn't for me. So who knows where I'll be? I don't know. I have no idea. I just know that on Sundays I like to get my cup filled, so I better figure it out, right? I better figure it out. There's so many churches around here though, like it is, I'll find my people, and this will all just be a thing of the past. This will all just be a funny story to tell. Um, and it might be at this church. I don't know where it is. Guys, I don't know. I don't know. I'll let you know. I'll let you know. Only the Lord knows, and he's probably giggling right now up there. He's like, girl. But it was, you know, sometimes the Lord will show you what is not good for you. Like, is it what you do not want. And we have to take it as that. Don't take it as, oh, that was a horrible sermon. No, because other people enjoyed it. That's just not your style of what you like. There's other people that love that, they love the stomping, they love the hallelujah. Give it to me, Lord. But I'm not that girl, okay? I want to sit there, I want to hear what you're saying. And when you're yelling at me, I'm sorry. PTSD from from boot camp. Listen, I'm I don't want you to stop. All you're doing is yelling at me. I shut down. I'm like, I don't know. I gotta shut down. I can't do it. Which is so funny that I that I just said that because before I did this, I prayed and I'm like, you just let them be your words and not mine. And the fact that I just said that, it really just made me realize that's what the problem is. I don't like being yelled at because I hate to say this. My mom's gonna get mad at me. But my mom yelled my whole childhood. My mom's a yeller, and it's not, listen, my mom's a Mexican mother, okay? She's just loud voice. If you know anything about my mama, you know she's great, she's loud. So my whole childhood was yelling, and then I went into boot camp and all they did was yell at me. And then now I got like kind of like, ooh, so there ain't much yelling happening in this house. Well, not much. I mean, there's never yelling going on in this house. Um, I kind of like shut down, so it makes sense. It that just all the pieces just kind of came together and said, that's why you didn't like it. Because you don't you don't like the yelling, the shouting, the yeah, you that's not that's not for you. But yeah, anywho, um, enough about that. Uh, my aunt was such a blessing. She got us organized. Y'all ever try to be organized? She said I was, but I think she's just being nice. Y'all ever try to get organized and you're like, okay, I'm gonna have this in a file and this file, and then next thing you know, you're busy, and so you're just throwing stuff in a pile. Like, what I mean by that is, oh, Chloe got me this pretty picture. Um, I'm gonna put it in this file. And then Carson got one. Oop, that should have gone in the other file, but instead I put it on top of that file. So now they're all mixed together. My aunt went through everything and she categorized, oh you guys, I'm it's amazing. So what a blessing she was. Her and Chloe are actually going out for like a little girl's day. They're going thrifting and to Ulta and all the things. So I told them, I said, Mondays are so busy for me with this podcast. Like, I'm I'm not kidding you guys. I usually the mornings are my only like downtime on Mondays because the rest of the day I'm editing, I'm posting, I'm clipping, I'm doing all the things. Now there will become a time, now there will be a time in my life where I'm paying somebody to do that, but as of right now, we are not there. We're not there. I will tell you, I'm super proud of myself. So many of you know when we moved from, or maybe you don't know this, I don't know if I've told people this. Let me get comfortable, let me get comfortable. When we moved from Iowa, we took a big leap of faith, you guys. And I'm telling you, like, whoa. So much so that Mike was making, I think he left there probably making uh, I think his base pay was like $90,000. And then above that, like he got a huge bonus every year, um, based on how well they did. And he they always did good. So he really got he got great bonuses. Well, so when we decided to move, you guys, there ain't no harvest around here. There ain't no grain bins that he can that he can come out here and run. Okay. And he ran the grain bin out there. So he's like, he took a a pay and by pay cut, I mean he ain't working. Here's the balance. Mike hated that. He was good. My here's the thing about my husband, he will do good at anything that you that he puts, he will do great. He will give any job. If those of you who know my husband know he will give 110. He don't give 20, he don't give 50, he don't even give 80, he will give 110 every time. That is just who he is. I think it's also part of why he was so successful as a sp in special forces, like all those things. I I think he's just any company that gets him, uh man, they are lucky because he will just give it all. Okay, even as a cop, he went above and beyond. He was amazing. Um he doesn't I think he even did like the world, not the world record, that would be funny though. He gave the record for his police academy. Like, I think it was a 30-minute um what was it? A 30-minute uh uh plank. Yeah, 30-minute plank. And he said the only reason he stopped is because everybody wanted to go to lunch and they were getting annoyed. So he stopped. But he's just a beast. My husband is a beast, okay? And I he hated it. He would come home, you guys, and he hated it, but the money was good. So when we f we really started digging into our faith and like going to church and doing all these things, it was kind of like the Lord was telling us if he hates it, and we know that that seasonal depression is just it gets him every year because not only do you hate your job, but now you're going to work when it's dark and you're leaving when it's dark, and all the things and the mixture of it, he was even he was he got hit hard around around uh the fall. He would get hit really hard. Like he would just and it would affect all things, his parenting, our marriage, all the things, you know. And so it was like, what can we do? What can we do? Because are we just doing this because of the money? Because if that's the case, we need to put our faith in the Lord and know that he's gonna provide for us if we are obedient and step away from it. Because he was telling us that he needed to leave there. He was he there was all the signs saying, uh that is your issue, Mike. That is your issue. You need to leave. Like, that is not for you. And so ultimately we ended up just saying, let's do it. Let's just you you leave. And I remember looking at him and I'm like, all right, let's do it. I know what he brought home every month, and so in my head, I said, All right, I gotta step up my game a little because I was kind of coasting with social media, I was kind of coasting with everything, um, which was a blessing. And I was like, I have to step up my game because if we're gonna make this work, I have to put all my faith in the Lord, but also because I know he's gonna provide, he's always gonna provide, but also I need to do my end. It that's just like saying you're gonna lose weight and then don't do anything about it. Like I knew I had to do something, so I was like, all right, what am I gonna do? Well, I have to step on my game, I have to do more posts, not just two a day. I have to, you know, those brand deals that they want to do brand deals with you, and you're like, uh, I just because brand deals are a lot of work, okay? Listen, you gotta send things, invoice, all the things. And I was avoid I always avoid them, okay? I always avoid them. I'm like, yeah, they're great, but also it's just a lot of work. So I was like, all right, you gotta start doing them. You gotta do it. And I am happy to say I made, I think like maybe $500 short of what Mike usually brings home last month. So God, you guys, God is so good. He will always provide. We were in the car yesterday, and I was telling my husband, because I was, you know, kind of just adding everything up uh at the end of the month. And I said, Well, I was like, here's what I brought in. And he was like, Wow, really? I said, Yeah. This life that we're living right now is I I can't, I never imagined this life. My husband is getting to leave every day um and go hang out with my son. They've been fishing so much. Um, my husband just loves it. Oh my gosh. So not only is Mike giving getting some off time, because when's the last time that man hasn't worked? You know, he's focusing on school because we're both in seminary, but he's getting to have this time with my son that he's never had before. They are, I think today they're even going, like they go so much. And our kids are only young once. So he's getting to go do things with us. We're going to the beach a lot, we're doing all these things, and it's such a blessing, like that I can do that. That I can say, you know what, I I can make that extra post. I can do this, I can do that, and let me do it so that we can have this life. And just being able to wake up and we drink our coffees together, we talk, we, you know, I kind of tell them my agenda for the day, and we kind of have days like this day. I have a podcast, I gotta do all this. This day, let's do the house cleaning, this day, let's do that. It's just been such a blessing. And I'm so, it's not me. I want everybody to know that it is not me. I'm the one doing the footwork, but also it's all God. It is all God, and that's what I want this episode to be about today. If you, I have been behind the scenes helping people with social media, it's mainly my friends and my family. They're like, hey, you know, I want, I want this, I I think I can do it, and I I have this thing. If you have any inkling, I don't care what it is, any like just a smidge of it, try it. If you think you, if you are like, man, I could do that, do it. Do it. The problem that people have is they are worried about what other people are thinking of them. And I'm guilty of that. When I first started this, you guys, it was kind of embarrassing. I'm not gonna lie. Actually, my husband's probably gonna listen to this and he's gonna be like, oh, I didn't know that. But I'm gonna tell you guys something that I've never told anybody. You ready? There was a time I was just starting social media, and I was like, I'm gonna do this. I can do this because I listened to Gary V. I don't know if you guys, if you ever need inspiration about starting social media, go to Gary V's account. That's where I learned everything. Um, everything I learned from him. Stop, get out of your own head, post, post, post, do this, do that. He taught me everything. Okay. So after I really like dug in and I got it all, and I'm like, okay, let's do it. I started doing it. Now I didn't know what I was doing. I look back at all my videos and I'm like, oh, that's funny, but hey, you gotta start somewhere, right? And and I want you to know you're gonna look back too and be like, oh, that was funny. Yeah, it is because we all have to start somewhere. But I remember posting, and my husband, I thought had always been this like huge fan of me. And he was like, you know, do whatever, do do your thing. And I remember one time he had his phone out on the counter and he was texting my brother. And I looked at it and he was actually making fun of he's like, Yeah, she's doing this TikTok thing again. Like, yeah, she's posting like she's a celebrity or something. I don't know what the exact words were, but you know what that did? Do you guys want to know what that did? That lit a fire in me. It lit a flame, like I was like, okay, all right, you because you know we weren't seeing anything, you guys. You have to understand we weren't seeing anything. Nothing. I all I all that happened is I said, I don't want to do what I went to college for. I went to school for business, I got my degree in business, and I was like, man, started a business, and I'm like, ooh, this isn't going very well. You guys, that's the thing. I've had failed businesses before. Once you guys understand that. And I was an adjuster and I was like, this is not for me. Like, there was just things like it was just all these things that I'm like, man, this isn't for me. This isn't for me. I don't like that. What can I do that I'm gonna like? Because I'll be damned if I live my life not liking what I do. And I that's just the person I am. I'm not going to settle. I do not want to settle. Just like my first marriage, you guys, I'm not ashamed of that. It was something I did it and I said, you know what? This isn't for me. Uh, I'm gonna move on. This isn't, I'm not gonna live my life like this. When I weighed how my life was gonna be if I stayed with him and in that marriage, and I weighed if I left, sorry, I'm leaving because this is not the life that I want. Doesn't mean he's a bad person. It's just not the life that I wanted. So that lit a flame in me. And I was like, you know what? I'm gonna show him. I'm gonna prove because if he's thinking it, my own husband's thinking that, what is everybody else thinking? What are they all thinking? I I can tell you what they're all thinking. They're all thinking Melinda's crazy. They're like, girl, what are you posting that for? Why are you showing, like, what are you doing? And so I said, you know what? I'm just in a I'm not gonna stop. I'm just gonna keep going. I'm just gonna keep going. And if I don't stop, then I can't fail. That's the secret sauce. So people ask me, what how did you do this? I didn't stop. I still haven't stopped. We're still going. We're still going. I started this in what 2020 during pandemic goofiness. Uh I just didn't stop. And here we are. I have not stopped. I figured out that in order to succeed, is being consistent. I had to do the things that people didn't want to do. I there's days I don't want to post, but guess what? I'm posting. There's days I don't want to show you guys the the negative that's happening within my house. Look at what we went through. Look what I posted. I posted when I was going through the depression. I posted when I was going through all of that. I posted when I found the Lord. I post, I just kept posting. And then something in me says, okay, well, maybe you should start a podcast now. And then what did I do, you guys? I just, it was like a makeshift. I turned on a camera, my phone camera with a mic, and and and here we are today. Here we are today. So what happened? I did not stop. And that's the thing about it. I will not stop. I will not give up. Because I know what I'm capable of doing. And one of the things that's gonna get me there is consistency. I have, I'm delusional. I want everybody to realize when you think about what you want in life, we all have to aim at something first. Let's start there. We all have to aim at something. We are humans, you have got to aim at something. You cannot just live idle, come home, watch Netflix, and think that you're gonna have this successful life because you're not. If you are not aiming for something, you are going to hit that every time. Nothing. You have got to be aiming at something. Whether it's I want to for me, I'm gonna use me for instance. I knew I want, I want a ministry. I want a ministry. After I had that encounter with the Lord, I said, you know what? He's calling me. I have to do something with it. Because if I don't do something with it, he's gonna call somebody else who's going to do it. I need to stand up, I need to do the work, and I need to, I'm I need to make it happen. So what can I do? It was a year ago that I said, you know what? I've gotta, I've gotta figure out what I want to do. I gotta, I gotta change some things. I gotta change some things. And I I kind of looked at where I was and I'm like, ooh, where was I? I was doing drugs, I was drinking, I was cursing every other word, I was all the things. And I said, that's not, but I was in my Bible, that was the thing. I was in my Bible, but then I, if you guys remember, I was kind of like, hold on a second. I was just surface level Bible. Like I was reading it every day, I was taking the notes, but then it's kind. Of like Melinda, where's the fruit? Where's your fruit? You people are seeing you in the Bible, but where is your fruit? Where is the fact that you have this changed life? Because your faith should change you. Your faith should there should be something different about you. People should see the old you, and when you found the Lord, they should see the new you. And people weren't seeing that. I had to say, what is it that I can do to make myself really go for what I want to go for? And if it is a ministry one day, what can I do now to get me there? Because I'm not there yet. This is just a step. We're all on this is a stepping stone. You guys are all here in the stepping stone. So congratulations, you gonna see it all work out. Because it's gonna work out, it is not gonna fail. And what did I do? I started saying, okay, well, I'm gonna stop cursing a little bit. I'm gonna stop cursing so much. Because I grew up around people that cursed all the time. No, I was a sailor, literally a sailor on a ship, and all we did was curse. Um, so I'm that's my small step I'm gonna take. I'm just gonna stop cursing so much. And now today I can tell you, I look back at my videos and I said, oh my gosh, every other word I was cursing. It was embarrassing. Every other word, and I'm like, ooh, e, uh, no. Other thing, little steps. I have to stop drinking. I have to stop drugs. I've got to stop doing those things. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be under a ministry of people who are on drugs all the time, or relies on drugs, or is drunk all the time. So I knew where I wanted to be, and I said, okay, so what can I do? Because the person that I want to be, I'll just tell you the person I looked at, and I'm like, man, and it's kind of funny because she's younger than me, but I looked at her and I was like, that's that's what I want. Um, Sadie Robinson. I would watch her podcast. I think that, man, you know, she's right when women are called upon. So many people tell us we can't preach, we can't preach. And I'm not saying I'm coming out here and I'm preaching the word. What I am telling you is that God did go to women and use them to go tell other people. The woman at the well, he went to her and he said, Hey, yes, you know, in little or no words, I'm the messiah. She knew that he was the messiah. What did she do? She went and told everybody. He came to me May of 2025. And guess where we are right now? I'm here telling everybody about it. So I believe he is using me, and I have to be like the woman at the well. Go tell everybody. I'm not saying I'm gonna be on a stage one day preaching. I'm saying that I'm never gonna stop doing what I'm doing right now. My ministry is going to do things. I don't know where it's going. Right now, it's I'm like Ezekiel, I'm eating the scroll. I've said it many, many times. I'm gonna say it again. I'm eating the scroll. That is what I'm doing right now. I am taking it all in. I started seminary. I said, what can I do? Start seminary. You were already watching all the YouTube, you're learning other things, but my thing was, how do I know this is right? How do I know what I'm reading and what they're teaching me is correct? Because I want to teach the right things. I don't want to teach things I'm hearing from other people. So what can you do? I joined seminary. So, okay, and now look at now I'm in it and I'm literally just I'm taking it all in. And I'm saying, okay, this is gonna get me closer to this goal that I have of one day having having a ministry. And that's all it takes. It takes you taking these little steps to where you want to be. It takes you waking up on Monday, guys. I slept like crap last night. Oh, sinuses going on. It's been raining, it's gross here. So I lay down, man, sinuses. So I was up until two in the morning using a back massager on my neck because I'm like, is it I don't know what's going on. Every part of me said, Don't do your podcast today. Don't do it. Wait till tomorrow. It's fine. It takes getting up and doing the things that people don't want to do. My flesh was telling me no. But my spirit was saying, get up. Get up. You have this goal of being in ministry. Get up. Show them that you can do it even on the bad days. Get up and do it. So many of you want the success, but you don't want to put the work in. You have the goal of owning the business, but also that's a lot of work. You have the goal of uh becoming uh a nurse practitioner and you're all already and you're like, oh, it has so much work. If you just want to start it already, think about that. So when I'm teaching people in social media, I'm telling them, because that's not, I like to teach people. I love to share my knowledge because you guys, I've already done it. I cracked the code, I know how to do it, I know how to make the video go viral, I know how to do the things, okay? I want to give it to people, but I don't like teaching it. So people are like, you're so good at this. Why don't you teach it? Listen, if you want the knowledge, come to me and I'll give it to you and I'll give you a game plan, but it's not what I love to do. I I I'm here to give you it, but also I just it's not it's not something that I'm like, oh, I can teach it all day and enjoy it. And one thing about me is I'm gonna do something that I love. And one thing I do love is I will preach, I will teach you the word all day, every day. I don't care. I mean and my aunt were talking last night, and I said we were talking about the difference between she grew up Greek Orthodox and um I I'm in seminary. So I was like, hey, you know, asking her, I was picking her brain about some things because I'm in a um religion class right now. And so I was just picking her brain and I said, sorry, Auntie, I said, I could talk about this all day. She's like, no, it's okay. I was like, I just am so like it is, it feeds my soul. I want to know all of the things. I mean, and there's things me and her like I was teaching her a few things, and then there's things that came up, and I go, you know what? That's a good question. I don't know the answer to that, but now I want to go look it up. So I want to teach things that I want to teach versus the things that I'm like, oh yeah, I can help you. I can help you, and don't feel bad. Ask me. I'll tell you, I'll help you, but it's not my passion. It's not my passion. And honestly, it was a lot of work. It was a lot of work, and my main thing to tell people is consistency. You don't want to post that video, you don't want to do the shop videos, you don't want to do this, you don't want to do that. But I promise you it's all gonna pay off. You just have to put the work in. You have to be consistent. So yeah, don't give up. There is no secret. There's no secret. Don't give up. Don't give up, and you're gonna you there is no way you can fail if you don't give up. Use your failures in the past. See, that's it that's another thing. Let's get there. Some of you are so stuck in the past. Oh, Melinda, I can't, I already had a fail business. I did too. I did too. You know what I use that as? Data. It's data. I know what made me fail. I know I was there, I witnessed it. So guess what's gonna happen? I'm not gonna do that again. Oh, but that marriage, I'm never getting married again. I already me too. Me too. I can tell you what failed. I've been, but I've been married for almost 13 years now to the love of my life. So I was married for five years to somebody that it was just it wasn't for me. But I can tell you now I'm happily married. So what did I use? I use that as data. That's what I didn't want. That's what didn't work. It didn't work for me. But you know what is working? Obviously, what I got going on right now. Use your past as data. Your failure should be data. Use your past as wisdom. I got so much wisdom from things that I failed at, you guys. So much wisdom. And it wasn't even, it wasn't from other people. It was just me sitting back being like, what happened there? What did I do? Oh, oh, all right. All right, well, we know not to do that again. Stop thinking that your past doesn't qualify you for your future. I'm gonna need you to stop doing that. Guys, because man, so many people, and I and this is just in life in general. Have you ever met somebody and they're like, yeah, you know, I've had a hard life. My mom, this, I wasn't, I wasn't, I was adopted, I was this, and they're just all about their past. And you're like, yeah, but what do you do now? Like, what do you and it's uh the nope, they want to go back to their past. And it's like, what are we doing? Because I one thing I don't want to talk about is my past. All right, did it make me who I am today? Absolutely. Absolutely. It made me who I am today. Did I get sexually assaulted? Yes. Did I grow up in a broken? Yes. Did I have a failed marriage? Yes. Did I have a business fail? Yes. Did I get told that I would never have kids? Yes. I mean, it goes on and on. But guess what? Here I am, and I'm nobody special. I am nobody, I am just Melinda. So if I can do it, what makes you think that you can't do it? It's all in your head. You are listening to the lies that Satan is putting in your head. I can't do that. Who's saying you can't do that? You scroll social media all the time and you're like, oh, she just said she made $3,000 in one month. I wish I could do that and not have to go to my job. I wish I could. Who says you can't? Do you know what it takes? You learning it. Get on YouTube, learn the things. How do you think I got to where I am right now? I learned it on YouTube. I learned it on TikTok. I saw what other people were teaching and telling me to do, and guess what I did? I took it all and I executed it. That is it. You can do anything you want to do. It's up to you. It's up to you to get out of bed and record the podcast when you're not feeling good. It's up to you to turn the camera on and make the video that's only gonna take you 10 minutes in total to do, edit, and post. It's up to you. The ball's always in your court. One thing I've learned about my faith is this. We have the Holy Spirit within us. We know that. We know that for a fact. When Jesus left, he left us with the Holy Spirit. And so many of us are treating ourselves as if we don't have it. And we sit back and we say, oh man, I wish. Or man, I don't know. I I can't do that. And I want to ask you this. Think about if Jesus said, I can't do this. Think about it the first time that somebody said that he he was lying and that he was he was a false prophet. Think about that. What what if he just said, Oh, yeah, okay, I this is too much for me. I'm just gonna go take a seat. I can't push back. I can't push back. Think about that. Think about if he said, you know what, I I can't this right here, father. I know you want me to do this, but this is a lot. This is too much. He is such a good example of how you should live. There will be people, I promise you, pushing back. There will be people making fun of you. There will be the mean comments. There will be people saying, What is she doing? Oh yeah, that girl. But you know what? Weed those people out. The people that are there and they're supporting you, they're sending the text, they're clapping on the other end, they're saying, Hey, I see you. Those are the people those are your people. Those are your people. His disciples. Everybody else was leaving. Everybody else was like, uh, he's yeah, yeah. This is too much. Uh-uh. Uh-uh. And who stayed? His disciples stayed. They said, you know what? No. Because I know him. I know him. I've seen it all. I know him. So it's just like all those people around us. We have to think of that. Who are they? Are they gonna support us or are they laughing at us? Because if they're laughing at us, we need to put some walls up and some boundaries. Or let it light a flame under you. Because I promise you that works. I've done it. Let the people laugh and say, okay, I got you. I got your number. And and let it light a flame under you. Just know that Holy Spirit living inside of you is your helper. It is your helper. You need to tap into it. You need to say, you know what? There are so many times you guys, before this episode, I went and laid in bed. I first had music on worship music, and I turned it off because I said, no, I need to, I need to hear what's going on. I need to hear what I need to be talking about today because I was like, tell me what I need to talk about. Do you know how I figured out how to talk about this today? It came to me as I was laying there talking to the Lord, tapping into that Holy Spirit. And then also, I was like, I'm gonna go get ready and turn on a podcast. First episode that came up was about this very subject. Not giving up. I said, okay, I hear you. I see you. So tap into that Holy Spirit. Use the Holy Spirit as a helper. Say, you know what? I don't want to do this today. I don't want to get out of bed today. I slept like crap last night. I don't want to. I don't want to do this. I don't. I understand. Yes. But guess what? Do it. Tap into that. And I promise you, you will get up. There are days I will be honest with you that I'm just like, you know what? I don't want to do that. I don't want to do this. I don't want to. I just, I'm not feeling it. I turn on one of my favorite podcasts, Mindset Mentor by Rob Dial. I'll listen to it, put on a good episode, and guess what? I get up. I listen to Gary V. Go on YouTube. Go on the shorts. Go on TikTok shorts. Go on TikTok. Go on Instagram. Find the person that motivates you and turn, watch a few videos. Just watch a few of them. And you'll get up. I have to do that all the time, honestly. And we all have that one person. We all have that one person. Mine, Gary V. But a lot of other people, uh, Maxwell, Maxwell, uh, there's a few uh, you know, whoever it is to you, watch a few of their videos. And say, all right, I gotta, I'm gonna, I need to, I need to get up. I can do it. Let's do it. And then once you do it, you guys, I promise you're like, yes, we did it. Every Monday at the end of Monday. You guys, Mondays are my busiest days. I'm always like, oh, I did it. Pat on the back, all everything's scheduled for the week. Listen, so I hope if you took anything from this today, it is that we should not give up. I want to leave you with this verse in Galatians 6, and it is verse 9. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Now, I know that may pertain to evangelism, but in this, I want you to understand that verse holds me up. Don't give up. Because just like in evangelism, yes, I don't give up, I keep planting the seeds, I'm doing all the things. Those people will eventually come to the Lord. I know it, I feel it within me. Even the ones that are like, oh never, one day they will come. I know they will. We have to remember that if we just keep going, we will, we will succeed. I see, I like I said, I'm delusional. I see a big ministry, I see it. I don't, I, I, I listen, I'm sure people think I'm crazy. They're like Melinda. No, I see it. It's there, it's at the distance. I can see it though. It's kind of some days it's creeping in, and I could see a light shining on it, but it's gonna happen. Everything that I'm doing right now is getting me to there. You have to have yourself so delusional sometimes and and set these big goals and say, what is it that I want? Who do I want to look like? Who do I want to become? The first thing you need to do today is say, what is it? Because a lot of you are listening to this, you're like, man, I don't know what my goal is. Everybody needs a goal. I don't care who you are. You need a goal. You want to, I don't care how old you are, you need a goal. Maybe it's to crochet that blanket. Maybe it's to declutter that house because you got so much crap that you don't even need, and you can't take, honey, you can't take it. You can't take it with you. I promise you. I promise you, the Bible says it. We can't take those things with us. So guess who's gonna be left with it? Your family. And I promise you, there's a yard sale coming. So maybe it's to declutter. Maybe it's to become an organized person. Maybe that one step a day, maybe it's to become a good reader. Maybe you want to read 20 books by the end of the year. Maybe it's to learn how to do hair because you want a little side hustle. Maybe it's to learn how to do makeup. Maybe it's to, I want to learn social media. Maybe I want to start posting. Maybe it's something I want to start posting so people know how to crochet. Whatever it is, as long as you don't give up and you are doing steps every day to point you towards that and not go away from it, you will succeed. You will. All right. I'm sorry. Was I preaching too much? I love you guys. Oh, I love you. This podcast would not be what it is today without you guys. So thank you so much. Um, would I still keep showing up even if one person watched? Absolutely. Absolutely. Because, like I just said, you if you don't give up, you will always succeed. Now, yeah, I might not succeed until episode 1723. But guess what? I showed up, didn't I? And you can only get better, like the editing and all these things. You learn things as you go. You learn things. See, yeah, I'm going back to preach. Anyways, if you guys want to support this podcast, there is a link down below, and it is called Buy Me a Coffee. Go ahead and press that link. I will let you know there are big things in the works right now. And uh, I'm not ready to speak on it. I don't know the time frame on things, um, but I'm I'm moving in silence at this point. But just know I do need your prayers, and amazing things will come from this. If you took anything from this today, I hope it's wisdom. Wisdom that says, you know what, if Melinda can do it, I can do it. There's nothing special about Melinda. There ain't there ain't nothing special about her. I can do it too. I hope you take that and you say, you know what, you're right. Because who do I keep my eyes on? Who do I keep my eyes on? The Lord. And one of my idols is Jesus. Oh my gosh, it's Jesus. Look at him. He kept going. Everybody told him he was not real, he was a false prophet, he was this, he was that, he was the other. And guess what he did? He kept going. He kept going. Even when he cried to the Lord, and there are days you guys don't see that I cried to the Lord and I say, Is this what you want? Is this what you want? And guess what? I just keep going. He did it, we can do it. You have got to understand. You are capable of amazing things. You are so capable of doing that thing that you want to do. It takes you to do the work. Tap into that Holy Spirit. They're a partner. So yeah, start appreciating good. Look at me. Anyways, so yes, buy me a coffee. That goes towards this podcast. Uh, we will have sponsors soon. I listen, if you need to get a hold of me, Melinda at missesmotivated.com. And yeah, I will be back here next week. We'll do it again. I hope that you took something from this podcast today. I love you guys. Stay blessed. I will see you next week.