Reflecting on a Year of Growth, Love, & Online Dating Lows

As the year comes to a full circle, Imagine standing on the brink of a new year, the bittersweet taste of farewell on your lips as you reflect on lessons learned and challenges overcome.

Shifting gears to the digital realm, my dating escapades highlight not just the laughs and the letdowns but also the critical need for honesty and setting firm boundaries. It's a chapter from my life that underscores the rollercoaster of emotions involved in seeking connection and the triumphant power of self-respect.

Lastly, we toast to the spirit of love that should infuse the entire year, not just the holiday season. As I recount the bittersweet emotions of adapting to family moves and evolving traditions, we're reminded of the resilience and creativity that come from such changes.  So, grab your comforting cup of choice and join us for this intimate session, as we wrap up the year with reflections meant to heal, inspire, and warm your soul.

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"My Husband Chose the Homewrecker Over Me! Now What?! A Guide to Rebuilding, Discovering, and Moving Forward After Infidelity and Divorce!
By Yolanda Randolph & Roshonda N. Blackmon
Available Now! https://amzn.to/3HoCQxX

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to Matters of the Heart. Podcast with Rishanda Sunday Thoughts episode edition. Sunday Thoughts are stories I've experienced in life and I relate those stories to God's Word in a way where you can understand. It's never about preaching, but a discovery and trying to find God's voice and pick up a few lessons to be learned in our daily lives. This Sunday, let's take time to reflect and think about those experiences. Most messages are often hidden in plain sight and everything that happens to us, whether good or bad, hey, everyone, welcome back. I bet you say welcome back, girl. Where have you been? Okay, I have been around. I have been around.

Speaker 1: 0:44

Listen, this is Rishanda, just in case you forgot who I was. Listen, and if the beginning credits didn't anyway, you're probably wondering where have you been? What's been going on? I know I said I was coming back with a podcast, some episodes and all this stuff. Listen when I say life happened. Life definitely happened. It kind of put a brown paper bag over my head and honey took me in an alley and I have been locked up. Okay, it's just been one of those things.

Speaker 1: 1:15

You know how sometimes you just you have really good intentions to like do something I mean like really good intentions, but sometimes your heart intentions don't always, they don't always play out like you planned. So I thought what better time to come on, because it has been a lot happening. Listen, we're about to embark on a new year, like a brand new year. Can you believe that? It seemed like it was just yesterday, it was January, and I closed my eyes and opened it again, and here it is December and we're about to go into a brand new year. That's just how quick, like, everything I feel like has been going this year. So you might say what's going on, girl, listen, this is unscripted. I'm just coming so we can have like a little chat with a whole lot of intentionality, you know. So it's going to be a little bit of this, a little bit of that, but it's going to be kind of like a wrap up of the year.

Speaker 1: 2:15

There's some things that I've learned, a lot of things that I've experienced, and just, hey, we're just going to have a talk. Is it okay, like, if we like have a little conversation, because that's what's going on. So you know, get your popcorn. You know, if you just ain't got nothing to do today and you like, hey, I just want to turn something on and listen to it. Hey, you might get something out of this podcast, because I got a couple of tips. You know that I've learned that maybe can help you, you know, especially as we go into a brand new year. So, hold on, get your tea, get your popcorn, get your chocolate or whatever. Whatever floats your boat, okay, and come back and let's just, let's just talk, all right, so I'll be back, okay. So here we are.

Speaker 1: 3:17

Listen, I don't really plan for this podcast to be very long because I really don't want to bore you, but at the same time you know it's just there are two things about going into a new year. It can be very exciting and it can be very scary. Exciting because January is like a new beginning for everybody. Okay, everybody, everybody. Okay because everybody going back to the gym, all right, if you, like me, you don't have a gym membership and you ain't been in a year, okay, we're going to fix that this year, but anyway, so it's like it's a new beginning for everybody. It's almost like a reset. You know to just kind of do things different, do it over. Hey, if at first you don't succeed, try and try again. Right, and for some of us we try and try again every January. But you know. But it can also be scary because you just never know what the year is going to hold. You know, you don't know. You know once the new year come in, or once January you know, comes in January 1st you just don't know from that point on, from January 1st to December 31st, what's going to happen, what's going to take place, you know, and whatever, so that it can be a little scary. So you know. Hence 2023 for me.

Speaker 1: 4:38

You know it came in, I had all these, you know, good ambitions and goals and things. I really don't like making resolutions because you know, I mean, you started January the first and, honey, most of those resolutions are out the door by January the 28th. Okay, it's like before January is over. Okay, two weeks in and it's over, resolutions out the window. But so I just kind of like try to keep you know in touch with myself or what I'm doing and making sure that I'm doing that well, or keeping track of, you know, maybe, some things that I want to do.

Speaker 1: 5:17

But I have to say this year for me has been very surprising. It has been very sad, it has been an eye opener and I learned some things along the way. So I kind of want to talk about that. I'm just kind of kind of do this in spurts. You know we're going to talk about death, we're going to talk about dating, we're going to talk about career changes and closing doors and family changes and being intentional and all that good stuff, except for the death. That wasn't great.

Speaker 1: 5:49

So, you know, january came in. It was great, and I know the last podcast that I did before I took like a hiatus was in May and I was talking about mental health. How did I know that I would really need that and I should have taken more than three months off? Because I called myself taking three months off, you know, just taking a break, because sometimes you can kind of get overwhelmed with doing things. You know you put too much on your plate and next thing, you know you overwhelmed and it's like, okay, I need to let some things go, I need to take a mental break from this, or you know, kind of let this go or step back from this, and I called myself doing that, and so I was like, you know, I'm gonna come back in September. Well, september didn't happen and I ended up coming back in October, you know and whatever. And I was like you know what? We're going to end this year with a bang and all this stuff, and I feel like I got banged. I ended up, you know, a little bit. However, the year didn't? It's not leaving with it's. With this case of, you know, bad news, I felt like I got bad news after bad news after bad news on this year.

Speaker 1: 7:04

I know the podcast that I've recorded in May, if I'm not mistaken, I think I had just found out that my cousin had passed away and that was very devastating, that was. That was very hurtful To find out, and she was very young and she left two children behind, and so, you know, I needed a break, you know, from that. You know, whatever and I'm gonna be very transparent I didn't talk to my cousin like that. You know how it is. You grow up with your cousins or you grow up with people, and then, once you guys get a certain age, it's kind of like you go your separate ways, you know. And so it was kind of like that, like I hadn't talked to her and I don't know when, the last time I think I had heard something about her.

Speaker 1: 7:47

My mom was talking to her and was trying to, you know, kind of help her with some life. You know issues and some life changes that she was going through at the time, but I had not personally Talked to her. It just hurt me for two reasons because, one, she was very young, she was like early 30s and Two, you know, she had two children and I feel like she just got taken away way too, way too early. And so you know, when times like that come, sometimes you wish that. You know you kind of had a reached out or you kind of had a, you know, talked a little more, maybe if something you could have said or did to change somebody's mind or their perceptions about things. And you know and Sometimes it doesn't matter what you do with what you say, you're just, you won't ever change anybody's mind. Once their mind is made up about something, that's pretty much it. And so you know she was just that person. But you know God rest her soul.

Speaker 1: 8:49

So after that, up on the high eight is in the break that I took, you know it seemed like more deaths just kept coming. You know, one of our beloved pastors from our church passed away. That was very hurtful, you know she was going through a Terrible sickness and you know we was believing God that she was gonna get well, but Unfortunately that did not happen, and so you know that was very hurtful and honestly, it was very taxing On the church as well. So you know it was, it was just, it was just a really, a really sad time. That was in June and then, come August, you know, my sister passed away, and that was hurtful. I think that was like I Don't even know what to say about that. That was, that was. Words can't describe what that was. You know, we had just, you know, reunited with one another, like in 21, and so I'm grateful to God for the Year and some months that I got a chance to get to know her.

Speaker 1: 10:01

It was something about her, though that it's just. Even when we were kids, when I found out that she was my sister, I just always wanted I felt like I always had this attachment to her, or I always wanted to Us to talk, and I kind of hate that. Life is life, you know, and we just lived in two different states and you know I reached out to her one time before when my nephews, her sons, were like really, really small. They were like in daycare, I believe, and or maybe early school, you know, because our kids are like kind of back-to-back in ages but um, and we kind of lost touch because I moved and I just hate that I didn't. I didn't get in contact with her sooner, but I thank God that I got in contact with her when I did and you know, and she just reached out, you know, because I had reached out to my dad. For those of you that don't know, I just reunited with my biological father after 28 years, in 2021. So it's like when I reunited with him, then I also, you know that's when she came about and she just reached out to me and Just started talking. And you know, we had some some pretty good conversations and she texted me all the time. You know, I still got her text messages and stuff, but Last year, you know, when she told me she was sick, it just hurt me to my heart.

Speaker 1: 11:28

You know. It's one of those things where you pray and you like God, if you don't do nothing else in the world for me, do do this one thing. Like, do this one thing. If you don't do nothing else, do this one thing, god, and you know, and I'll serve you forever. Not that I don't serve God because I do, I am a believer but it's like you know, you just you just want people to live. You know you just want people to be healed, like you don't want nobody to be sick or you know, or whatever. Hopefully, you get what I'm saying, but it was one of those things, and I prayed for her, got my church to pray for her, got the intercessory team to pray for her, the prayer team and all this stuff and Come August, she passed away, and that was hurtful, and I got an opportunity to go back to my hometown and to to go to her funeral and and everything, and it was just a really, really sad, sad time, and it kind of did something to me.

Speaker 1: 12:33

It really got me to thinking, though, that you know, she had just Like really came into her dream job, which is being a teacher and on teaching kids, and, from my understanding, she was really, really good at it. You know my sister was smart. You know she had degrees and and all this stuff, and just came into her dream job. It didn't really get a chance to, um To.

Speaker 1: 12:59

You know, I have the years in it, like I think she would have wanted to have, and that was the sad thing, and so you know, it just makes you realize that life is just so, so short and we have to take, um, we have to take one day at a time, but enjoy your life, do the things that you feel like you can't do and that you know that you will. It's my age, you know, or you know well that it's too late for that it's I know, and I tell people it's never too late for anything. As long as you got breath in your body, okay, it's not too late. Okay, as long as they not rolling you down the middle aisle of a church to sit you in front of all these people that probably you wouldn't have known if you was living. You know it's not too late, it's not too late to do anything. Quit putting things off to the last minute and I'm preaching to the choir here, like, quit putting things off to the last minute, just do it. You know, um, get it done. You know, and so it's just you know I did learn something, um other than that from her funeral, and that's just. You know, enjoy life. Enjoy, like, travel more. You know, do more and and whatever, because you just never, never know, you never know. And speaking of never know, so I did get mine just off to a lighter subject.

Speaker 1: 14:28

I did get my chance into dating this summer. Okay, thought I would try. After three years I thought I would try the dating circuit and get back out there and put myself online and stuff. Even after I said, um, I was just gonna wait, I wasn't gonna try to do the dating thing because I just suck at it. But I was like you know what, I'm just gonna do it, I'm just gonna do it. It was more of a practice for me, um, just to see you know, because sometimes when you've been single for a long time and you haven't been on a date and you don't know, when it's kind of hard to kind of gauge like what, what, what's out here, like what's going on, what's the language, what's the lingo, you know what you, you missing out, you know, and sometimes I I will say this you need like that interaction with with a guy or with a woman, just to see you know. Okay, am I kind of sharpen up your, your skills a little bit? Kind of dust, you know, dust yourself off a little bit. You know, um, you know and whatever. But I tell you what this dating circuit has not changed? It has not changed.

Speaker 1: 15:40

People are not who they say. They are online, you know, and you could have the greatest intention about getting online and being this wonderful person and presenting yourself to these people. You know, I mean, I'm always true about who I am, okay, but everybody else isn't like that. So I got online and I'm, you know, I met a couple of guys and, you know, had some some okay conversations, but it was this one guy. I'm the type of person like this. You know, if you're not looking, I wasn't looking to be online like that because I don't like going through after guy after guy after guy, just doing whatever.

Speaker 1: 16:20

It was this one guy. He was like, you know, he had been on there for a year. I had just been on there like maybe two weeks, three weeks. He was like, hey, you know, he felt, I felt like he was really interested in me. So we kind of, you know, talked and, um, you know, and whatever things was going okay at first.

Speaker 1: 16:38

But let me tell you something you really have to read through the red tape, okay, when it comes to people, because he told me he was like, yeah, he was like, you know this last relationship I was in, you know she was bugging me about going out on a date. You know, time out, we had been together a month and she was like let him tell it tripping okay, because they did not go out on a date. And I was like, oh, and he was like, yeah, it's time. She don't understand. You know I'm busy, I got things going on, I got things to do and all this stuff and I'm like, well, boo hoo her. Yeah, you know. I mean, if she can't, you know, if she can't wait on you, you know, for a mom, you know I'm sitting up here I'm like got his back, yo.

Speaker 1: 17:26

When I say we were talking for almost maybe two and a half months and he had not even mentioned a date to me. It was like every time I mentioned, like us meeting up or going out on a date, he always had an excuse. Now he say he didn't have nobody, because I know what you're gonna say maybe he had somebody. Let him tell it. He didn't. He was taking care of his you know his children and he was divorced and whatever, but he worked so much he had no time for for me, he only had time for his kids and his job, you know, and I met him maybe twice, you know, or whatever, but it was like a five minute meetup because he had to go home. It was like almost like he was just getting off of work. It was almost like those type of meetups.

Speaker 1: 18:14

But let me say this this is to men and women If you're not ready to really date, okay, if you're not ready to like, take it to the next level. Or if you're getting online and you know you ain't gonna take nobody out on a date, you just ain't got time for that. Just say that up front. Like, just be like, hey, listen, my life is really busy, you know, the only time I have is to talk to you on the phone and which, might I add, we only talked on the phone once in like two and a half months, because everything else was text messaging. And I get the text messaging, it's okay. But you know, sometimes, you know a phone conversation helps, but then I say that, but when I did get on the phone with him, he cursed.

Speaker 1: 19:01

Like when I say he cursed from the time the sun up to sun down to the snacks, to the appetizers. He was it vets to my spirit, so much because he cursed so much. Every other word I'm like, is that like your first language? So I was glad about not talking on the phone with him, I'm like because I don't want to hear that. But the text messages was okay.

Speaker 1: 19:23

But then they got a little vague and then it was almost like well, you know, every time I mentioned about hanging out, it was like I always had to mention it or I always had to bring it up, and the crazy thing about it is he didn't see anything wrong with it. Because when I mentioned like hey, you know, we can't spend time together, we can't, you can't make time to at least go on a date, then you know I'm gonna have to, I'm gonna have to tell you bye. But it's like he got real defensive. He made it seem like he was the victim, I was the problem and all this stuff, and I'm like what? Basically, what I found out is that he was gaslighting me. You know what I mean and I'm like okay, but anyway, long story short, I was just like I don't have time to for this. You know, life is too precious. I just ain't got the time and I had to end up letting him go. I'm like listen, bro, you gonna have to come better than this, because you know.

Speaker 1: 20:23

But he made me feel like I was crazy, like maybe I shouldn't have asked him for a date. As a matter of fact, I shouldn't have had to ask, because if you were really interested in me you would have been saying, hey, well, let's, let's meet up, or let's meet up for breakfast, so let's go to lunch, or something. So it kind of made me think, even though he said he didn't have anybody, that he did have someone, or maybe he was just interested in someone else and he just was a coward and just didn't know how to come out and tell me, which is cool. But anyway, after I kicked him to the curb, I was like I am not getting on anybody else's dating site. And I got some friends and you know they had this other dating site that they were trying to get on. I had one friend who did, but I was like I think I'm gonna call that, I think I'm gonna call quits on that, so anyway. So yeah, so just be real, when you, on these dating streets, make sure that you really listen into the person you know. The Bible tells us to be quick to hear, slow to speak, okay, slow to rap, but listen at what it said, be quick to hear, okay, so, just be quick to hear about what these people are saying and what's going on, because more than likely, the red flag is somewhere in the conversation. Okay, and so, um, so, yeah, just just be on the look out for that.

Speaker 1: 21:46

Um, I had some career changes this year that you know it's crazy, because I prayed to God for a career change. I actually wanted to leave my job and I thought the conversation that I had with the Lord, I thought he understood that, that I wanted to actually leave my job and go someplace different. But the career change that I was telling the Lord about was like I just want a career change, I just want a different scenery, I just want to do something different. Well, god gave me all of that. Um, however, it was in the same job, um, just not on the floor that I would normally work on, it was just on another part of the building.

Speaker 1: 22:31

But, and that has been very interesting, um, and I'm still, you know, and talk to God about that, because it's been as they say, it's been a roller coaster override and I'm like, okay, god, I know when you put us in things. It's, it's for our good, there's a lesson in it. But you also say you won't put no more on us than we can bear and I think I think the rubber is kind of meeting the road, but hey, I'm gonna stick it out. I'm gonna stick it out. I don't want to leave if God is doing something or if he's trying to show me something through this. I don't, I don't want to abort the missions. You know, before the lesson, you know what I mean, so I'm gonna stick around. But it's, it's definitely been some career changes, a lot of learning, okay, a lot of learning, and I'm also learning to keep doors closed, like for good, this time.

Speaker 1: 23:32

God has dealt with me in the past about closing doors and I wrote a blog post one time about the pain of closing every door, the pain of closing every door, and God has been dealing with me about closing doors closing doors to certain things, closing doors to certain ideas, closing doors to certain people, you know, closing doors to certain atmospheres, and just you know, just starting afresh, and just you know, because what I'm learning is that when we keep those doors open, like when we really keep those doors open, we're tying God's hands because he can't. He can't move us where he wants to move us because you still got a door open. Maybe you got a door open right now in your life, a door that you need to close. Okay, before 2024, before 2024 even come in, you need to close that door. Like maybe God has been dealing with you about, hey, okay, and I don't think God is gonna keep telling us to do things. You know, after a while you gonna suffer. We suffer the consequences of the things that we don't do, so your consequence, or our consequence, could be not moving forward.

Speaker 1: 24:45

Have you ever heard people say, man, I feel like I should be so much further down the road. You know, then, where I am right now. And so with that, it's like, yeah, you should be, like we should be, but we have to check our lives, like look back over your life and like, okay, what am I doing, what, what? What door do I still have open that's supposed to be closed? So and I know God has been dealing with me heavily about that this end of the year of 2023 like, close that door, walk away, move, you know, or you're gonna miss it. You're going to miss it, you know, if you don't walk away, you're gonna miss it and I don't want to miss it and I know you don't want to miss it. So, whatever doors that you need to close, make sure you closed them okay. Close them doors okay, spiritually. You know, maybe you attach to some things physically. Some of our doors need to close, you know, and just let the Lord, like, lead and guide you.

Speaker 1: 25:55

You know, and whatever I had to close a door that I really didn't want to close, but I just feel like, especially the last, the end of this year, it's been a whole lot of shifting, shifting from what you want to what you need. You know, is it serving us or no? You know, do you find yourself going into like this pattern? You feel like this hamster on this hamster wheel that's going round and round and round and round and it's not going nowhere. The hamster think he's going somewhere, but he's not going nowhere. He's just going around and around and around in a circle and some things have to shift. You know, is it serving you? Is it? Is it is it? Are you the hamster on the hamster wheel? And you just keep going around and around and around and you don't know why. You keep going around like why am I in this cycle? Is it serving me? Is it? Is it doing me good? Is it making me happy? Is it making me better? Is it making me money? Because if not, then I don't need to make time for it. I need to shift. Okay, I need to open my doors or bring, or, you know, open my mind to things that are really going to serve me, and that's that. I'm going to get something out of it. You know so. So that's something.

Speaker 1: 27:19

Let me see family changes. I've had some family changes this year and making new habits and traditions, especially for the holidays. So my sister we used to live like 45 minutes away from each other, but she moved to Texas this year, her and her family, and that's been very taxing on my mind and my heart. You know, the crazy thing is is that God told me that she was going to move, that they were going to move, so I was prepared. But you know how it is when God tells you something and a lot of times he tells you something but it doesn't happen right then and there it's like a forewarning, like I see it up the road and I'm just getting you prepared for it right now, because this is gonna hurt you. I'm, you know I'm trying to lessen the blow. Then, you know, you find it out and it really tearing you down. So I'm just I'm just kind of preparing you now for it, you know. So get ready. But so it was kind of one of those things. So when she told me that you know they were God who had been dealing with them and they were moving to Texas, it wasn't a surprise but it was hurtful.

Speaker 1: 28:32

And I didn't realize how hurt I really was until the holidays rolled around, because usually for Thanksgiving and Christmas I'm at her house and we're doing things. She's cooking, you know, they don't trust me to cook. You know I'm kind of like the paper goods. You know, I just bring the paper goods, I bring the drinks, I bring the sweets from the store and I, you know, I bring the plastic spoons and forks. So in the napkins, yeah, yeah, so that's that's usually what I bring. Everybody didn't know me was shown to bring you the paper goods. Girl, I'm either bringing paper goods or I'm bringing the food from the store. Okay, nobody wants. Nobody wants my food, it's okay, it's alright. Hopefully God bless me to a husband that can cook.

Speaker 1: 29:24

But the thing is is that I realized that I had to make some new traditions this year and they were very hard. So, because I'm not a cook, we ended up going to Golden Carrelle for Thanksgiving this year, which was different, and I felt bad about it at first because everybody was like what, you not gonna cook, you're not gonna at least try and whatever? Look, I know my gift things. Okay, I know what works for me and cooking it's not one of them. But the thing is is that it's nothing wrong with making new traditions and and everything, and so that was a new tradition for me and my kids. It's just going to the Golden Carrelle. However, I realized that there is also a lot of other people who don't cook on Thanksgiving, either, okay, or they don't have family. That you know, that they mingling over their house or friends and stuff, so don't let the holidays trip you up. Like you know, everybody is with a family, everybody's with some type of friend or something. That is not true, and I learned that from the Golden Carrelle. Okay, when I say that line was out the door, it was out the door. No, people was literally running over each other, okay, to eat their food, so, yeah, so I think that would be my tradition, holiday tradition for Thanksgiving, probably, you know, at least for the next year or two, okay, but for Christmas.

Speaker 1: 30:49

You know, christmas is what you make it. Christmas is all about love and sharing and just being with family and friends, and that's what it was for me and the kids. You know, we got in our work, we had our jammies on, we was watching movies and we all cooked up our own food and you know, that was it. It's not about what you have or what you do, what's in the fridge, who's cooking what, but it's about spending time with one another and just loving on each other. It's about love, in which one of my favorite quotes is love doesn't take a holiday. So it doesn't take a holiday to show love. We're really supposed to show it all throughout the year, but of course, the holidays are really really special days, for when you do get with family, you know, you draw a little closer to your family or the ones that are around you and you just love on them.

Speaker 1: 31:40

And I will say this be intentional when it comes to your family for 2024. For those of you that have good, good relationships with your families, understand if you don't, but be intentional. Be intentional about family time. You know, I have a friend who you know it was like they are, so they were so programmed with working until you know they got invited to a wedding you know family wedding and they could not think about, they couldn't really take out time to enjoy the family because they were so busy thinking about working.

Speaker 1: 32:17

And this is the thing we don't know what the next year is going to hold, which is pretty much what I said in the beginning. It's, you know, the year can be exciting but it can be scary too. The people that we love on and that we cherish this year, they just may not be here next year. You know, they may not be here in 2024. And that doesn't always mean in death, but it could be like my situation with my sister. They move away, you know, and maybe you don't have the funds or or the means or you know, or whatever, to go and be with them. So that's, you guys are separated, so it doesn't necessarily mean in death, but death is like a big part of it, like somebody you loving on today could not be here next year.

Speaker 1: 33:04

And so we really need to be intentional about family time, taking out time, because I'm going to tell you, having lost, you know, quite a few people, one of the one of the main things that come back to your mind after a person passes is regret. You don't immediately think about the good times you had or you know, and all this stuff. No regret comes. Regret is like a bully. It brings up the things that you didn't do or that you didn't say, or that you didn't have time for, and it it punches you in the face and the gut. So, you know, spend time, be like, really, really intentional with family and friends for 2024,. You know, call people, take out time. That's the best gift that you can give someone is your time. Even if it's a 10 minute phone call, hey, that's your time. You know you spent time with that person and you know, and everything. So that's um. So that was pretty much my year. In a nutshell.

Speaker 1: 34:11

Listen, I don't know what 2024 is going to hold as far as the podcast is concerned, but I'm just praying that. You know, I'm just allowing the Lord to guide, allowing the Lord to guide, allowing the Lord to guide and he, he do what he do. So normally I would do a first Sunday and a second Thursday. However, I don't know how that's going to go for 2024 because I have, like some really big changes coming up in my own life, um, so, so, yeah. So I may not be as consistent with the first Sunday and the second Thursday, but, hey, I will be doing some podcast episodes. Let me just say it that way. I just don't know when they're going to come. But just stay tuned to this channel. Listen, don't give up on me.

Speaker 1: 34:55

Sometimes I will post to my YouTube channel. Inspirations with Rishanda Um, you can follow me over there. I posted two videos over there and I think I'm going to do I don't know, I don't want to say what I'm going to do, because then life happens and I may not end up getting the chance to do it, but you can follow me over there. Inspirations with Rishanda you know there's plenty of videos and stuff over there is God life and tips. So if I'm not here, then you can follow me, you know, over there. So, anyway, I hope. I don't know what 2024 is going to hold for you. We all don't know what it's going to hold, but I will say this make sure you keep God at the forefront. Okay, allow God to order your steps you know, to lead, guide and direct you.

Speaker 1: 35:43

When I was in my prayer time, um the other morning, I closed my eyes. I woke up with a song um order my steps. It's by Matt, the GMWA Mass Choir, and um, that was that song was so prevalent in my spirit and it's one of my favorite songs. However, when I closed my eyes, I saw 2024, and right beside 2024, it said in your word so that means that we're going to have to be in the Word of God this, uh, upcoming year. As you can see, as far as church is concerned, there's so many things that's coming out um about you know, different people I'm not going to say names, but different people in the media, different churches and leaders and things of that nature.

Speaker 1: 36:31

Listen, it's a prayer in time, and God doesn't want us to to really follow the leader, but follow him. Okay, follow him as the leader follows him. But if the leader is not following him, then you know we should be following God first and foremost. Okay, but, um, but there's so many things and I I've heard a lot of prophetic forecasts and people saying that, um, you know of what 2024 is going to be. But I will say this ask God for wisdom, ask him to order your steps and make sure you are in his word, because there's safety in his word and there's safety and secrets in his presence. Okay so, listen, I love you, have the most amazing day and year ahead.

Speaker 1: 37:24

Listen, I know I will be back, lord's, will you know, posting some things, but, um, but yeah, I just wish you the best, but I just wanted to get on and just do a recap, so hopefully you got something Okay From this podcast episode. But, um, but be blessed. And um, um, yeah, 2024 is going to be a year. It's going to be a year. I just feel it. It's going to be a year. It's going to be good, it's going to be good, but let's just make sure we are definitely doing a whole lot of praying. Okay, so, listen, stay tuned, have the most. I already said this. See, you know this is the thing with me. I don't know how to say, just cut things off. So I'm just going to say this be blessed and I'll see you next time. That was it for today's episode. I hope you were inspired and feel positive vibes whenever you spend some time with me.

Speaker 1: 38:23

Roshanda and the matters of the heart podcast. Thank you for tuning in and don't forget to join me next time as we dive deeper into our spiritual, mental and physical journey. You can follow matters of the heart podcast on Facebook to stay tuned for what's coming next. Feel free to share the episodes while you're here. Also, stay with me by subscribing wherever your favorite music and podcast stations reside and, as always, watch your heart, because its actions will follow. Thank you for listening.