Stop Waiting for Validation

In this raw and faith filled episode of The Belief Effect Podcast, Nadine shares an honest conversation about self doubt, overthinking, visibility, and the pressure to seek validation through numbers, views, likes, and recognition. She opens up about the internal battle of wondering if her voice, content, book, podcast, and purpose were truly making an impact and how Jesus Christ reminded her that obedience matters more than applause.

Through personal testimony, Bible study reflections, entrepreneurship lessons, and real life experiences, Nadine talks about learning to keep showing up even when the results are not immediate. She shares how God uses small moments, one on one connections, and quiet obedience to change lives in powerful ways.

This episode is for anyone struggling with comparison, fear of not being enough, burnout, anxiety, purpose, content creation pressure, or feeling unseen in the season they are currently walking through.

Inside this episode:
• How to stop seeking validation from people
• Trusting God when you feel unseen
• Entrepreneurship and faith
• Overcoming fear and insecurity
• Christian encouragement for hard seasons
• Finding purpose beyond social media metrics
• The importance of obedience over popularity
• How God works through small beginnings
• Learning to serve without recognition
• Biblical encouragement from the story of David

If you’ve been questioning your impact, your purpose, or whether what you’re doing even matters, this episode will remind you that God is not asking you to go viral. He is asking you to stay obedient.

Listen now and remember that one life changed is still purpose fulfilled.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back, beautiful. You're listening to the space where faith meets real life, where the breaking becomes the becoming, and where we talk about the woman you're growing into through Jesus Christ. I'm Nadine Maldonado, your host, and today we're planning a new seed of belief together. Welcome to the Belief Effect. Welcome back to another episode of the Belief Effect Podcast. And today I want to say that it's actually taken me a little bit of courage to get myself on to video to record for another podcast episode. And it just reminds me of how many times as individuals we get into our own mind and our own way with our stinking thinking of the things that we desire to do. There's so many times that we allow ourselves to believe that we are not making the impact that we have in our head that we know that we can make. Or that we need to learn more or do more in order for us to feel ready for the next assignment that God has for us. And this is all the things that I was facing. And it wasn't until yesterday evening I host a Bibles Women's event here in my home every Wednesday, a study group, and everything's meeting. But I had a woman's group at my house on Wednesday evening, and there's a sister in Christ there that's having a really hard time in life. And when I hear her story and I feel her pain, and I see her just grieving all of these different parts of her life, I know every single one of those moments. I know what they feel like. I know the fear, the anxiety, the chaos in our heads, the depression, the worry that is just so heavy on our shoulders. And I there's times where I still speak to women, and in those moments I almost feel like I get frozen because I can feel it still so as if it's real, as if it's still happening. Because it's just not that long ago that I was going through a lot of those things. And she was just sharing, and we were praying, and we were just doing the things that we know how to do as sisters in Christ to help one another while we're going through a hard time. And after we were done, towards at the end of the event, she said, I love all of you ladies. And she goes, Nadine, but it's your book, it's your podcast, it's your YouTube that I can listen to and I can connect to and I can know that this is where I'm headed, like I'm gonna be okay. And I don't think that she knew in that moment how much I needed to hear that, right? Because of the own battles I was going through in my head or the things that I was facing, and it is just a clear reminder, you know, and I believe that God uses all of us to speak his word, and I believe that in that moment God used her to remind me it doesn't matter about the views, it doesn't matter who's seeing it because the people that are meant to see it, the people that are meant to be touched by it, they're the ones that are seeing this. When they say in the Bible how Jesus left the 99 for the one, Jesus didn't leave the one to gain the audience of 99. No, he said, that's great. I love the fact that you all are here, but I'm gonna go over there because that one is lost. And so, in this world that feels so focused on likes and algorithms and content and views and engagement and all this kind of stuff, like God is not asking us for that. God is asking us for those one-on-one personal relationships that move mountains, that break strongholds, that take people out of bondage. And I have to remember that that is the assignment I'm on. Even as a real estate professional, there's many times where I can look at people and say, wow, they're just killing it in the business, closing 10 homes in one month or whatever their numbers are. Being that I've been in real estate for what, a year and a half, almost two years now, and God's never let me be without clients. He's always put the clients in front of me. And yeah, maybe it may not be 10 clients in a month, but he's no. Those two, three, five, six, whatever clients, those are the clients that need your help right now. Those are the ones that I'm calling you to serve. And so when I make that prayer in the morning and I say, God, allow me to be your servant, allow me to be your hands and feet, I'm not telling him, God, give me an audience, give me all the views and all the subscribers and all of the likes and the most popular and you know, all of this. I'm just asking him to be his hands and feet. And if we think about Jesus' story, yes, Jesus eventually created crowds, right? But it was when he did some of his most deepest work working with his disciples, working with his 12 disciples. He had the most in-depth conversations, and then those people were able to go out and help others to change. And so the story that I'm trying to get at what's saying all of this is that I have to be obedient in the gift that he's given me on my transparency and my vulnerability, and to come on here and not think about who's not seeing this, right? Who's not liking it, who's not subscribing, who's not engaging, and I have to think about who it is. And the people that I don't even see, I think that's even the most beautiful thing is even like my book, I don't know who orders my book all the time. I don't get a report from the different retailers that it's out on market with that says, oh, Becky from Atlanta ordered your book. So I don't even physically or knowingly know who all has my book in their hand and who's being impacted by it. But that's not my job to know. It is my job to be obedient in what God is telling me to do. So this leads me to how do you act when you're not receiving the reap of reward and recognition in front of you? And for me, being somebody who absolutely loves recognition. I literally, one of my first businesses that I did, I fell so deeply in love with it simply because the amount of recognition I got. And maybe that was some childhood trauma that I needed to heal in myself that I just wanted to be seen and known and recognized for the things that I was doing. But who are we when we are not being recognized or being acknowledged for the things that we're doing? How are we when we're being obedient, but we're not seeing the return? And the return can be in anything. It can be in finances, it can be in recognition, it can be in crowds, it can be in whatever that looks like for you, right? Endless amounts of clients, um, lots of friends, bigger family, whatever that looks like for you. But who are we when we don't get that recognition? But we still have to be obedient in the orders, in the word that God gives to us. And so that is what led me to come and do this podcast, right? And again, I don't come on here with a script. I don't come on here, even most of the time, with an idea of what I'm going to say. This week, because I was so inside of my own head, I couldn't even really formulate what topic I wanted to uh go over. And then I said, I'm just gonna sit down and I'm gonna start speaking, and whatever comes out of my mouth comes out because then I know it's not from me. It's not this formulated idea of A follows B, follows C. No, it's what God is telling me to say because whoever decides to watch is gonna be the one that needs to hear the word. And so, how are we being obedient when those types of things are against us and we're in our own heads and we're like, but God, I don't know what to say, or God, I I have nothing great to say. God still called you to the job. Like, I see, and my relationship with Christ is so much bigger than this, but I'm gonna I'm going to give an example or compare this to like what it is to work a full-time job. As I am working as one of Jesus' disciples here outside, it is my job to know that I have a job for him to do every single day. So I have to clock into that. And number one, that starts with reading my Bible. So being on this consecration from social media, which I'm currently no longer on, but during that time of not being on social media, the point of that was so that way I was putting God as a primary and not as something that was a backburner or a second choice. And so I was getting into my Bible every single day. And so in the month of April, I finished the book of Hosea, I finished the book of um Samuel 1 and 2, and then I jumped into Corinthians. And it wasn't just reading the Bible, I was reading the Bible while also taking notes and making sure that I understand exactly what was being said to me. So if I didn't understand, then I was doing a deeper dive. Okay, what does this actually mean? What is this story actually trying to teach me? And through that, I found so much. So in the book of Samuel, it's the story of David, and I love that there is this part into Samuel verse or chapter 22, is going to God and basically saying, Lord, this is everything that you are to me. You appoint me. And it was so beautiful, everything that he said about God. And as I said in one of my last videos, that when the Bible says you are, it means that I am. If God is all these things for David, then he is all those things for me as well. And so I went a step further and I put all of these things that David said into Samuel chapter 22 that God is, I put them on sticky notes and put them inside of my or by my where I get ready in the morning. So that way, while I'm getting ready, I am reminded that he is my shield, he takes me out of deep waters, he protects me, he rescues me, he is my lamp, he likes all of these things, as because we all have things that we're struggling with. Every single day we wake up with a new type of struggle, right? And sometimes it's these big giants that we don't think that we can face. And sometimes it's just the littlest things that are just really irritating us and throwing us off of our game. But if we remember the God that we serve, then we remember that we serve a God that does all of these things that David said he does for us. And I need that reminder sometimes. And so, mind you, I read that I'm doing these things as an obedience, right? And it plays into so much deeper than me because what I think starts for just me ends up being for other people as well, right? And this is what happens when we ask God to let us be his hands and feet, let us allow him to serve people andor allow us to serve people in the way that he sees fit. This is what he does. I go so deep into the Bible, into this story, and that even in my Bible study yesterday, I'm I told him, I was like, ladies, I everything we're talking about, like it's things that I've been reading in the Bible, I want to read this. And so I go over this chapter. And the individual that I was speaking of that was having a difficult time, I saw her sobbing. I had no idea that she had this strong connection in real life. David. So look at how God used me in that. God said, get off of social media, get into my word, put me first. Don't just open up the Bible and act like this is a check mark list that you need to do in your day. I want you to understand what it is I'm saying, right? I want you, you love to write, you love to journal, then that's where I want you to take this to. And then I want you to be confident enough because now you're understanding my word and what I'm saying. And I want you to be confident enough, maybe, to speak this word over people, to remind people. And I'll give you the opportunities to do it. Don't worry, you don't need to go stand on the side of a street to go preach my word. I'm gonna put the people in front of you where you get to use that word and impact them and remind them of what my word says. And that's exactly what happened. And so it's this form again, it's this form of obediency that I'm learning in just a different way. And it's so beautiful because, like I always say, I wake up with my own plan, we all do, and I gotta die to my flesh every single day. I think that all I need to do is create good reels and things are gonna happen, but God's no. And coming from like an entrepreneur background where everything was listen to the podcast, listen to the next mentor, and get all these different ways on how to be the best entrepreneur you want to be, and all those things were so great, right? And I believe in them wholeheartedly, but I had to lay that way down of getting up, grinding, doing all this stuff, and I needed to put on the armor of God every single day so that way I could defeat these thoughts and these worries that I wasn't good enough or that I couldn't do, or that who would want to hear me? And I urge you to go after your day, to go after the things that you desire with that same type of passion. And it may not always make sense. Um, 90%, I always say this too: 90% of the things that I've done in my life just simply don't make sense. Like right now, I'm in the process of planning an event, and in my head, it doesn't make sense. But until it does, because of our God, and that's something else. Like, I think those are like my statements of the year. You know, it doesn't make sense until it does, because that's how God works. And it's just being brave. And then as you continue to overcome these things or do these things, like today, I get onto this podcast, I record it, I'll edit it, and then after I release it, I've done my job. I'm no longer responsible to make sure that it gets views or subscribers. Yes, there's tons of things we could do through paid ads and all this kind of stuff, but that's not what I'm being called to. I'm being called to put it out there and let who it lands into their lap, let it be that. And that is the obedience. And my entrepreneurship mind says, no, numbers and growth and charts and blah blah blah blah blah. God says, hush that. That will all come. And if it doesn't, we're still serving a purpose here, you know? And like I also met a friend this past week, and he was telling me about a church that he was a part or he's a part of, and he's like, Yeah, it started as a few people in a house, then it grew to 150 people after a couple years, and at that point it was really hard for us to continue to meet in the house, and so we had to move and get to a building, and it was now we're at like 500 people, and this was over many years, like many years of this growing, right? But it was the constant of showing up, one person walked through the door, five people walk through the door, 20 people walk through the door, and we had that same kind of mindset that we're all on this path of just wanting quickness and hurry up, let it happen. But God says, one by one, I will change your lives one by one, and in each individual different way, and we just have to be so thankful for that. And so maybe this is a word for somebody who is like in their own head, or maybe they're wanting to see more of a result, and they're in their head, making themselves believe that they're not where they're supposed to be, or they're not doing enough. That's the enemy speaking. That voice of not doing enough and that I need to be doing more will lead you to burnout, will lead you to exhaustion, will lead you to doing something that you don't want to do because you're too overwhelmed of what it is that you're at right now, the emotion of not being enough. But God already says that I'm enough. So let me not be scared and let me not fright over the things that I wish I knew and just be obedient, the things that I know that I'm being told to do. And everything will be figured out and everything will make sense. And you'll know when God pivots you. When God pivots me from something and I know that something's no longer for me, I feel it like this tension that I like right now. If I'm talking to you right now, I feel very good in my shoulders, I have no tension in my neck, I feel clear-headed in my mind, I feel relaxed and at peace. And once I start to feel that constant feeling that something is just not right, I know that's when an adjustment needs to make. Because God does not give us a life of heaviness. Don't get me wrong, he will give you a life of tests, he will give you a life of having to learn things, but he will not give you a life of heaviness where you're burdened all the time. And when you're in those moments, you need to ask, God, what is it that you're trying to reveal to me to relieve this burden off of me? Clear my sight, close my eyes so I can see you, God, so I can see your face and what it is that I'm dealing with. And then allow him to speak through you and allow him to work through you. Today I got the courage to come on here and speak and to give this word simply because God gave me the courage to. That's all we need to do. I hope this message gave you some encouragement and empowerment to go after the things that you desire and not to allow the things that may not make complete sense or may be hard or may be confusing right now to stop you from your God-given purpose. Get up, get at it, and I hope you have an amazing day and thank you for tuning in. I'll see you next time. This is the belief effect, where healing meets becoming and faith meets transformation. If today's book's you, share it with someone who needs a reminder that their story isn't over. I'm Nadine Moldonado, and remember when belief takes root, everything changes. See you in the next episode.