God in My Story: Jason and Jayme Foster part 2

Part 2 of a testimony from Jason and Jayme Foster.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Welcome to the Life Church Podcast, a place where the word of God comes alive through scripture teaching and real stories of faith. Each episode we dive deep into the Bible and share what God is doing in and through Life Church Windsburgh. And we're going to hear powerful testimonies from people walking daily with Jesus. Whether you're seeking spiritual growth, encouragement, or a closer relationship with Christ, you're in the right place. No matter where you are on your journey, our prayer is that this podcast flees your soul, strengthens your walk with Christ, and draws you closer to the heart of God. Let's get started. Again, welcome to our live church podcast. I am Jason Foster, and this week's episode is a continuation of our conversation from last week. Last week, we published the first half of the testimony shared by my wife, Amy, and myself during the weekend service from a few months ago. The scripture focus for this testimony is Psalm 37, verses 3 through 9. This week, we continue giving our testimony about how we're able to see God's wonderful work in the life of our family over the years. Thanks for listening. For us, it has been a journey of us looking back and seeing how the Lord uh has worked and how faith how he is faithful. And that's exactly what it says in verse 5 when it says, Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him, and he will act. King James says, He will do it. And then the NIV also said he says that he will do this, and then speaking of making your righteousness shine like the dawn and your justice like the noonday. So it's a matter of being intentional with what the way that we live. Commit your way. In verses 3, it talks about doing what is good. It matters how we live our life. It matters what we wear, how we talk, the how we use our money, uh, the TV shows and the movies that we watch, the things that we take in and put out, all of that matters to the Lord, and we we must be intentional. Ron spoke uh two Wednesdays ago and he was speaking about being double-minded from from James uh James chapter one. And I love the book of James, and in fact, I love that double-mindedness. This is my favorite illustration to give. The old, anybody, y'all familiar with the old karate kid, not the new karate kid like the the old karate kid with Daniel's son. All right. So the wax on, wax off one, okay? So uh at one point Mr. Miyagi is talking to Daniel, and he tells him that if you walk on the left side of the road, you'll be okay. If you walk on the right side of the road, you'll be okay. But if you walk in the middle of the road, squish just like grape. All right. That is the best illustration I can think of, is what it means to be double-minded. You cannot walk in the middle of the road. You either uh you serve the Lord or you don't serve the Lord. There's no halfway about it. Uh that word commit your way, Brother Eric, you ready for this one? Commit has a connotation of rolling your burdens onto the Lord or having confidence in him. It uh makes me think about a dog who rolls over for his master. I looked it up and I read that a dog will roll over for two reasons. One is that they trust you and feel safe, which can be seen by the wagging of a tail, or they will roll over because they fear they are fearful, which can be seen through tense muscle muscles, trembling, or urination. So whether you are doing it with a wagging tail or wet pants. He's proud of that one. I'm proud of that one. You must commit your way to the Lord. Be intentional. Sometimes it's a little of both. And sometimes it is a little of both.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

We've had those moments where we're both wagging our tail.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

We like the idea of having a relationship with the Lord because we we trust him and we love him. But when it comes down to it, if you are just literally scared of going to hell and that drives you to seek Jesus, he will work that relationship out and turn your fear into that trust and that love that we want and talk about. So sometimes we do work out our salvation or we walk with the Lord, sometimes with a wagon tail and sometimes with wet pants. But the fact of the matter is that we must do it. And when we do, he will act. And that's the experience of being able to look back in 30 years. I'm glad to see our youth here tonight and young people, and this is not just for young people, but I'm telling anybody who sits and wonders if what your future holds, if you will walk with the Lord, he will plant desires in your heart, and 30 years from this time you will be able to look back and say, Thank you, Lord, that you gave me. You told me what I what I needed, and that's what I wanted, and here I am with it today. My grandpa foster is one of the best things he told me the difference between needs and wants. Uh, we would work for him in the summer, so we'd have money being kids. We didn't, you know, didn't have anything we had to spend it on. We were walking through the mall, little kiosks. Y'all remember when they used to have like Chinese throwing stars and ninja swords and all that kind of stuff in the mall, you know, in the mall. So I passed by and I wanted something. I don't know, Chinese, I don't know if it was the sword or the throwing star, something frivolous. And they said, Well, why do you want that? And I said, I want it. And he's the I remember him saying there's a difference between want and need. God will give us, he will tell us the things that we need, and those will become the things that we want. This righteousness, it's talking about the righteousness and the justice being shown as uh in as the noonday. It's not just necessarily talking about the our right standing with God. It's basically saying your good decision making is gonna be made known. 30 years from now, you'll be able to look back and say, hey, I made a good decision. And what good decision did we make? Not on where we went to school or what cars we drove or where we lit, you know, what clothes we wore, the friends, those kind of things. It's not about our material things. The good decision that he's talking about is the decision to follow the Lord. When you commit your way to him, God will make it clearly known that you have made the right choice to follow him. The only good thing that I have ever done, the only good decision I've ever made was to trust in the Lord and to commit my way to him. And he's worked everything else out. Because, like we said, I didn't know how to get here. We didn't have a plan. We weren't able to look at mom and dad and say, there it is right there. Making this righteousness, you know, when uh y'all are so uh good to us, and when y'all compliment uh our children, uh I want to say, who are you talking about? Uh but I am, you know, not my kids aren't the best yet. I don't think my kids are perfect by any means, but when I hear compliments on my kids and I see my kids where they are now and doing the things that they're doing, I I say, thank you, Lord. You you did it, you brought me here. Verse 31 and Psalms 37 talks about the instruction of God being in our heart, and uh our steps do not falter. I I never second guessed my relationship with Jamie from the from the day that I saw, laid eyes on her. Uh there was never a moment where I ever thought that maybe there's something better out there because you know, like I said, I was insecure and I knew I wasn't getting any better than this. I had to hang on and hang on tight and not let it go. Uh but I I knew I never second guessed it. I knew that this was right. I knew when we you know got married, I knew it was the right thing to do, and raising the kids and the decisions we made. We I never second guessed, you know, you second guess some things, but I never second guessed going to the Lord. I was intentional about the growing up, so in the household that I we went to church sometimes, we moved to Florida, didn't go to church at all when we were in Florida, except for that one time when my mom ran over a dog and didn't stop. And I said, Mom, you ran over a dog. It's okay, it got up and ran off, and we just we kept going. So we um we moved back to Louisiana, still didn't go to church. Uh trouble in the household, me and my older brother went to live with my grandmother. Once that was over, my mom said, Hey, your sophomore year, you got to come back home and live with us. So while I was living with my grandmother, I got back in going to church, started growing in my relationship, moved from being a Christian into being a disciple. At that point, I started uh understanding what it meant to be a disciple, to follow Jesus and to grow and to be like him and those sorts of things. So when we I moved back home, uh I told my mom I was driving at that point, I'm going to church. I don't care if you go to church or whatever. She's like, fine, bring your younger brother and sister with you. And uh, so I made the commitment to go to church at that point. I made a commitment to date somebody who was uh equally yoked, even though she was only been a Christian for a year, and I had been a Christian for I don't know how many years at that point. We were, she was, she was up here. She was so much more mature than me and still is. Uh but I was intentional about the girl that I dated. I was intentional about the the life that we have, intentional about the uh the way we raise our kids. But the intention, I wanted to make it clear that it is not a matter of luck. Emma was signing and she was signing, she had her signing day for softball stuff last year, and uh the coach got up at one point and said this. I don't know if y'all any of y'all were there for that. He got up and he said, Jason Foster, you're the luckiest man in the world. I want to go buy a lottery ticket with you or something like that. And I should have, and I wanted to at that moment grab the mic and say, it has got nothing to do with luck.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Or even with us, sorry. Or just like you know, people they'll say lucky, and it's like I don't even know that I can't take credit. I mean, whatever good, whatever you want to list out, like even with our kids, it's not because we made all the right decisions at all the right moments for them, or like I'd whatever that's whatever it was, he acted on our behalf. He acted on our heart to just for our kids to have, I hate to say everything we didn't have, but for our kids to have what we did, like the opposite, bringing that, you know, of life and where that went as far as um spiritually, uh the home life, the um seeking out uh goals as far as like what whatever you want to study, where you what you want to do for living, like in so many different ways. I d but it's not a matter of taking credit. I guess that's and I even had the note, like people I I remember you you think people, you know, time and time again, people talking about how lucky we were, how lucky for this, how lucky whatever it was, and it was just you know, it's I've I've never thought of myself as lucky.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

I just I've never I've never been lucky. I don't it's uh tell you a secret. I've been to a casino. And uh I don't I don't go regularly, but I have been to a casino. And you know, it's thinking through the idea of of gambling and stuff. Like I have friends, and and it's my opinion is is that you know, we all waste money in some ways, and if you can go and you're not spending your bill money and your food money, and you can go to a casino and have fun putting nickels in the slot, then then you you know go. That's it. But it that's not fun for me because the whole time all I'm thinking is I'm wasting money. Because I do not I have no hope that I will get lucky. So I've never thought of myself as well.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

And I I wouldn't be okay with you wasting money. Well, right.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Not in that way.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

No, in ways that I'm okay with, not in that way. So moving into verse seven and eight. Well, no, I want to say I guess that what I want to just cap it off. What I have here when you when I think about like looking back and um over just the results of the last 30 years, um you the notes that I put down, and uh when we were still in college, Jason was a youth minister at a church in Prairieville, Louisiana. And the preacher, I don't even in what context, he made mention of how we were called to be a peculiar people. And I think that even I don't know if that's based on the Hebrew of some verse, I don't even remember, but that's always kind of sat in my head that you know uh Christians were called to be a peculiar people. And I feel like if that's probably one of the things when I look at our adult life and raising kids, that you know, because we we've been called lucky, but we've also I think called been called quirky and odd for some of the decisions. It's funny sometimes when things will make it back to you, especially like in a smaller community. Um at one point I had a this is when the twins were still babies, like diaper babies, and we were having a play date, and somebody um in the community came and played, and I served hot dogs for lunch or something like that, and she made a comment about how, oh, I heard that you didn't serve you know processed foods or whatever kind of like whatever she had heard about me, and I'm like, well, no. I mean at that time I was a penny pincher and I always have been, and I made baby food, but it was because it was cheaper, so I'd go and buy frozen Walmart peas and put them in a blender, and my kids my kids ate that instead of like the because it was a lot cheaper. I was a cheapskate. So, but for whatever reason I that turned in, and I was like kind of particular because when the kids would go to nursery and all and they would shove them full like of sugar, and I was just like, I just I don't think my eight-month-old needs like sugar candy all the time. Anyway, so I guess whatever that was translated, so we were quirky, odd, and you know, lucky or whatever. But um when I think about like if I were to give advice or the statement of looking back, the hindsight, this is what I wrote. I said, be brave, go where you are led, have faith, don't question the improbable or the impossible, or what doesn't make sense. When you are at those moments and you have those pivots because of job changes or life changes or loss or a gain or whatever it might be, um there's points because when you follow God and God who is sovereign, we can be blindly obedient and we can trust that the things that don't really make sense or that people will ask questions because I guess you know there were times when I would tell people about whatever it is that we were doing, and they were kind of like, you know, why would you do that? I I started working from home um around year 2000. I didn't have kids, it was just something that was laid on my heart. I asked my job, my job said yes, and I've been working from home since 2000, so 25 years now, which ended up unknowingly creating a way that when I had kids, I could stay home with the kids because the job was flexible and I could do that. And by the time we had four kids, there's not a job that I could acquire that could pay for somebody else to keep four kids that it would make it worth. So it was even practical at that point because there's no way that I could we could we couldn't afford um you know if if I wasn't able to stay with them. Um even honestly, the decision we made to stay here in Windsboro to raise our kids was a a decision that um we felt led to do that I don't think people were expecting, but I couldn't be more grateful, and I don't know that there's any other place, you know, that we could have had the life that we've had or that or our kids have the life that they've had. Um and even through the years raising our kids with our convictions. If you were at the high school, I don't know how it is now, but for many years there, like our kids and being the activities they were in, they were like the only ones who didn't have social media. And so if something was communicated by social media, there was a designated person in that group that had to let my kids know by text because they weren't if you had to bring a pink bow to practice that day and it was put out by the captains on something that they didn't have, somebody had to be designated or there was a game change. So, like they were, I guess, just walking out the convictions, even when it made us the odd ones or the quirky ones. Um to me, that I guess looking back, it was hard in the moment because I didn't know that I was necessarily looking to be the parent that was the odd one or the quirky one, or kind of going that far against the flow. Um, but looking back, I'm very grateful. Um, and it um I feel like that's the to me that's what it for for me committing the future of the Lord, trusting in him, and letting him act on our behalf, trusting those decisions made the difference. Um and I guess now I'm gonna transition to the next verses. Um I'm very grateful that when everything was overwhelming, um, when I had those moments, and I mean raising kids just think it just comes when you doubt every decision you've made, when you want to give up, when you think that what you're doing is completely wrong, when you would do anything to make it right, like just those truly heartache moments. Um I'm very grateful that God stayed the course. I don't know that it was me that was consistently paving the way, but it was God who stayed the course when I was doubting and I was struggling. Um and so as transitioning into the next group of verses, um, to me they speak of what to do when you're at that point, when you're overwhelmed, and the circumstances are um confusing, and even maybe the voices that are all around you are confusing.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

Um we're bringing this thing in for a landing. Landy, you want to do the Pentecostal loop now? All right. Verses 7, 8, 8, and 9 uh just highlight some of the things it says. Be silent, wait expectantly, do not be agitated, refrain from anger, give up your rage. Basically, what David is saying, and I like it in the New English translation, it puts exclamation points at the end of all those. He's he's making an emphasis, like saying, You must be silent, you must wait expectantly, you must do not be agitated, you must refrain from anger, you must give up your rage. And so to me, that speaks of our emotions, and it's very important for us to control our emotions in life. Uh I we moved to Windsboro, and I'm telling you, when we when we came up to Windsboro, interviewed with the church, uh, to interview with the church, I we came into Franklin Parish. I we came into town and I saw the girls' softball fields and the little windmill and all of that stuff, and the Lord said, This is where you're gonna be. I knew from that that that moment we were moving to Windsboro before we even got to the interview. Uh, and it was kind of like God saying, This is your home. That stability that you wanted to raise your kids in. So I never knew where to call home. You asked me now, where's home? Well, I don't know. I was born in Beaumont and lived in Lake Charles for a little while, and then we moved around. I graduated high school from Lafayette. Uh I wanted my kids to be able to leave saying, I know where home is. And when we came into town, I knew that home was was Franklin Parish, Louisiana. And I knew, you know, I knew the direction I was going. My grandfather was, uh my my dad's dad, oh my grandfather's my mom's dad too, you know, were men that had the same job for 50 years, you know, and I wanted to be that kind of guy. My my dad jumped around and moved a lot too, did not have, did uh didn't have a steady job for very long, and and I did not want to be like that. I wanted to be the man. I knew I was coming to Windsboro and I was going to be the preacher, local preacher here for many years. I knew that like that's but three and a half years later my plans changed. And in the course of, well, over the time, I had four job changes. Uh one of those, I made the decision, and three of those, the decision was made for me. You know, and uh I can look back now and and there was there were emotions that were involved with that, and there was bitterness, and there was some anger and the resentment and all that. And just the simple Lord, what now? I thought I had it figured out. I thought we were safe. I thought this is where you wanted me to be. Well, how how in the world am I gonna raise my kids here when number one, all I was educated to do was to preach? I got an undergraduate degree and a master's degree from a Baptist seminary. I don't know how to do anything else but that. But guess what? I haven't missed many, I haven't missed. I don't know that I've missed any meals. Probably had a couple extra meals. But even in the the moving and the and the job changes every few years, those things brought up in all that childhood insecurity and instability and and not knowing what was next. And and uh I was so convinced that this is where God wanted our our family to be, and that's what led to uh I don't I'm not I didn't get out of ministry. I'm not out of ministry, I'm just not behind a pulpit every Sunday. And um Jamie and I went to the Lord and we said, we don't know how this is gonna happen, but we both on our own individually sought the Lord and then we came together and agreed and said we don't know how it's gonna happen, but we feel like this is where the Lord wants us to be. And so we made the decision to stay, and he's worked it out. Not necessarily the way that I would have wanted it to be worked out, you know, it wasn't always comfortable for me. There was a lot of emotions involved with that, emotions that probably affected, you know, my family. Uh but we have got to control our emotions, or as it says at the end of verse 8, uh it will it will uh only bring you harm. Now, sometimes our emotions, sometimes we need help controlling our emotions. There is counseling is necessary, sometimes medication is is necessary, but in whatever way we can control our emotions, we must control our emotions. I think about today, it seems like people want to wear this word anxiety as a badge. And I'm not, you know, they just there are people out there that talk about my anxiety, my anxiety, and I feel like those people are just trying to get attention for themselves. And I understand there's true people that have real anxieties and those sorts of things and need help. But I feel like some people are just wear that as a badge. They they talk about their anxiety all the time. Uh in fact, I overheard this is a true story. Overheard a girl uh telling a story about a cat who had uh been neglected and was losing its fur doing due due to its anxiety from being neglected. This cat was losing its fur because it was neglected. And uh she was going on about this cat's anxiety, and I wanted to say so badly, ma'am, that cat does not have anxiety, it has fleas. Give it a bath, a flea collar, and a hug, and it'll be okay. I want to ask these people uh you know, do you read your Bible? Do you go to church? Can I talk to you about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? We have to control our emotions. If I allowed those emotions from that, you know, I could have made wrong decisions. If I would have made a decision based off of, well, fine, you don't want me here, well, I can go find another church and show you. But before I made a rational, emotional decision, we went to the Lord, and the Lord's answer came back and said, Stay put. And here's this uh this this entire psalm is uh say littered, peppered with the idea of inheriting the land. The first verse that we read talked about dwelling in the land. It's kind of sounds like a temporary thing, but after that it talks about inheriting the land. Verse 9, it says, those who put their faith, uh put their hope in the Lord will inherit the land. Verse 11, verse 22 talks about inheriting the land. Verse 18 talks about your inheritance lasts forever. Verse 29 says, You will inherit the land and dwell in it permanently. Verse 34 says, wait on the Lord and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land. And verses 23 through 25, which I could not skip. I don't want to read those. The man's steps are established by the Lord, and he takes pleasure in his way. Not it, it's not God taking pleasure in God's way, God taking pleasure and in the things that we do. He establishes the steps and he likes watching our journey work itself out. Uh though he falls, he will not be overwhelmed because the Lord holds his hand. I have been young and now I am old, yet I have not seen the righteous abandon or his children begging for bread. Thank you, Lord. I uh we live on six acres of land. I'm not just dwelling in the land. That's my inherited land. I I I look at it in a literal sense that the Lord said, This is yours, and I was talking with Brother Kevin yesterday, and my hopes are that at some point when I get to when we get when we get when we get to an age where we need help, that one of my kids will move on to my land and let me die on my land. Because I honestly feel like the Lord gave me the land. He said, This is your home, Franklin Parish is your home. This is this is the answer to your prayers. Not just the land, but everything that we've had given to us. But you will be, this is exactly where I wanted to be. 30, something more than 30 years ago. This is exactly where I wanted to be, and the Lord has brought me here. And I'm thankful for it. All right, it's uh 7.09.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

I was trying to figure out what you were trying to tell me. All right, so I'm saying it's after 7 o'clock. Why? Okay, so my takeaway points. Hey, you're the one that I get to share the mic with a preacher. Didn't you say that to somebody? I don't have that much written down. Okay, my takeaway for these verses. To me, you've got to have anchor points. Jason referred to before. Like, I haven't I had to go dig for this Bible, but I did remember Miss Deborah having me write this in my Bible. So, like to find this again. I remember um when we were in college and we hadn't committed to be married at that point, but it was definitely kind of on our minds because we had been dating and it's kind of one of those things where it's like, all right, what's gonna happen next? And um, and I remember sitting and I love, I guess for me, I don't know if it's for everybody, God to me is very practical, and I also feel like he communicates to me with a little bit of a sense of humor because I but that speaks to me. Like I love to get that, I can I guess I appreciate almost the um the personalized part of that. So I was sitting in a logic class, legitimately, it was a logic class. It was being taught by Dr. Love, that was her name, and it's the only time that I feel like if if you could say I heard the audible voice of God, like it felt like a speaking voice. And I would so I God told me in my logic class while Dr. Love was preaching to Mary Jason, and it was that that was it, Mary Jason. It was that that point in my life where I did not want to control the relationship. I was like open-handed. I didn't want to be the one because I have the control issue and and all that, but um, but I this extra laughing over there. I made a face. I I fully admit it. I mean, it's I but but that and that's an anchor moment. Like all the in in every marriage needs, and yeah, to me, I like I I needed that, not because I doubted our relationship, but when things were at some of the the most difficult points or the most challenging or confusing or whatever it might be, I can walk it back to that point. And but like I said, it was as audible as like any other voice. And and that's I can go back to, and this is not, and that helps me remember this is not a mistake. It was not a bad decision. God gave me this decision. My salvation is not a mistake, it's not a thing of imagination. I can go back and I can look on June 7th, 1990. I sat and talked with Miss Deborah. I don't like I might have doubts, but I can go back to my anchor point. So to me, faith anchor points are so important to be able to go and see and and hold fast when you need that, when you everything else around you makes you want to doubt it. And the other thing for me is, I guess you had mentioned about the script scripture, memorize scripture, read scripture. I love now with the phones. I I like to listen to scripture. Like I will just to have it sing scripture. I love the praise music that is almost word-for-word scripture because it challenges me. There are moments when I will be listening to praise music and something steps on my toes, and I have to stop, and it's like, and I'm surprised. Like, is that biblical? And you go kind of look it up, it's like, yeah, that's actually word for word, stepping on your toes because you might need to stop and think about that moment. So to me, scripture is such a key to being able to kind of put that one foot in front of the other. Um, and because the longer you're at it, time allows you to forget. Time allows doubt or other ideas or distractions to kind of creep in, and you can forget that moment when you were convinced, as long as it did start, you know, from God. Um and to me, sometimes it is good to have some blinders to the world. Like when those you're at those points in life where it's literally one step in front of the other. Um, all you can do is just keep moving along the path that God has put you on. Um, and you can't focus on other people. There's a couple places in this chapter that refers to um like don't fret over the success of the wicked. The wicked will be wiped out, like just referring to the wicked. Like we don't know anybody else's story. Sometimes I feel like we can look at somebody as wicked, but truthfully, they're probably just fighting their own battles. They're as lost as I was lost. I'm as wicked as they are wicked. I don't know that, you know, we stand side by side at some point I'm that much better. Um, but we don't know any of the stories. And we often can't see God's work on our behalf or God's rescue of us until we can kind of look back and see the progression of the path. And in the middle of it, you can feel alone, you can feel like there's no way out, that type of thing. But to me, it's that step-by-step, one step in front of another. Um, it's also, and I guess the older I get and the more time has gone by, I think it's very important to remember how temporary everything about this life is. And that's not just a flippant thing, but it it is truly when we have faith, when we have a relationship with Jesus, when we have eternity to look forward to, what we're doing here is so temporary. And whatever consumes us right now, even when it is justifiably consuming our lives, uh, raising kids, figuring out um what to do in an unexpected change of life, a loss, whatever that might be, give it a year, five years, 10 years. I mean, even now, if you think back what was consuming me 10 years ago versus 20 years ago, um it's worked itself out. And I don't know that looking back, those like the worst of the worst moments, that I could go back and say, I just want to erase that. I want to pluck it out and remove it from my story because I don't know how that would affect today. And I don't know that there's anything about God's sovereign plan for my life, the good, the bad, the challenging, whatever it might be, um, that any of it should be. I I could look at it and remove it and and and be now now that's all my life is perfect. Um so I guess my to sum it all up, um God is sovereign, his plan will prevail, and I'm very grateful I didn't get what I deserved. Thank you, Lord. And and I and I don't mean that in a uh silly way. I mean that is quite honestly the the takeaway from the 30 years for me.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

And we've we've been blessed, we've been very blessed. And you know, I don't we don't we don't want to come off as oh, this is like I said at the beginning, this is the way that you got you got to do it like we did it, because life happens sometimes, and as we talked about, plans don't turn it outright, and sometimes you have good intentions and divorce still happens, and families break up and your kids curse you and run off, and you know, all that kind of stuff. And so I you know, I sit and I think, you know, well, how does our story match with reality? Because I say that you know, we've I feel like we've been very blessed and on things and haven't had to deal with with some of the issues of life, and and you know, all I can say to those situations is that if you, as long as you are the one seeking and following the Lord, you've still made the right decision to seek and follow the Lord, despite what tragedies come your way, or failures, or whatever happens, you still made the right decision, and in some way the Lord is still bringing you to that inheritance that He's got for you. It's not gonna look like you maybe you thought that it was gonna look, but he's still bringing you there. And so you're that this encouragement is for all of us, not just for the young that are sitting here looking at the beginning of their life, it's even for those that are midway through. It's for those of us that are closer to the end of our journey. All of us should trust in the Lord, and he will bring us to the place that he wants us to be. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for listening to the Life Church Podcast. We pray today's conversation encouraged you, challenged you, and brought you closer to Jesus. If you enjoyed the podcast, consider sharing it with someone so that they might be encouraged as well. To learn more about Life Church Windsboro, get connected, or find spiritual guidance, you can find us online at VLC.us or follow us on Facebook. But the best option is for you to join us in person each Sunday, 10 30 a.m. at 23 30 Highway 15, Windsboro, Louisiana. Jesus says, the one who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit. So until next time, continue walking with Jesus, allowing yourself to be fed from his work.