LET'S DIG | Pierre & Danilee Aristil
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LET'S DIG | Pierre & Danilee Aristil
How To Relieve and Overcome Stress, Anxiety and Depression During the Holidays
During a seemingly perfect holiday season, stress can often catch us off guard, manifesting in surprising and sometimes physical ways. Sharing a personal story about breaking out in a stress rash, I reveal how even the most festive times can take a toll on our well-being. Together, we explore the tricky balance between cherishing family time and setting boundaries to keep holiday stress at bay. By highlighting our own experiences, we encourage you to recognize the signs of stress and make deliberate choices to prioritize what matters most.
Navigating holiday traditions and expectations brings its own set of challenges, especially when personal beliefs and cultural backgrounds come into play. We discuss the pressures of replicating magical childhood memories for our kids and how differing cultural expectations can lead to tension. By sharing practical solutions and personal anecdotes, such as opting for simple yet meaningful experiences, we provide insights into adapting traditions without losing the essence of the season. Trust and open communication become key tools in aligning holiday expectations with our current realities.
Finally, the true essence of Christmas shines through as we reflect on maintaining routines and finding strength in faith. We delve into the importance of staying grounded through physical, spiritual, and mental practices, even amidst the hustle and bustle. Celebrating the journey of Jesus and the hope He brings, we are reminded of the power of God's love to transform worry into joy. Spreading hope and kindness becomes our mission, as we encourage listeners to embody the teachings of Jesus, offering support to those struggling during this festive time. Join us as we discover the joy and peace that come from a deeper connection with God and each other.
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What's up? Let's Dig crew. Hey, do you remember last week when I showed up and all of my chest was broken out in?
Speaker 2:red hives?
Speaker 1:I don't know if it's hives, I don't know what hives really mean, but it was a red rash.
Speaker 2:I've never seen something like that before, all across my chest.
Speaker 1:And I was trying to think I'm like did I wear a weird necklace? Did I eat something that made me like have?
Speaker 2:an allergic reaction. I started praying, hoping that God can reveal to me what this thing was on your body.
Speaker 1:Well, he revealed to me it was actually stress. It happened two weeks ago, so that's what stress looks like.
Speaker 2:That's what stress looks like. What's that called Like? What is that Like? Stress, she, yo, she. She basically did this. She like almost flashed me.
Speaker 1:It was just like this she like almost flashed me, and she like, she like pulled down her thing and she's like babe what?
Speaker 2:And I was like father God Jesus set her free from this now, right.
Speaker 1:And it's like all red.
Speaker 1:It was. It was like so it started two weeks ago. It was just like a spot on my neck that was like red and rash, and I was like, oh, rash. And I was like, oh, that's weird. And I even texted my mom like, mom, what do I put on this? Listen, I'm 37, I'm still gonna text my mom of, like, what do I put on this? And then a week later it was on a different spot on my neck and like bigger and more. Yeah, and that's when I was like, oh, this has nothing to do with what I ate. This has nothing to do with what I ate. This has nothing to do with what necklace I wore. This has everything to do with what I just spent the last 20 minutes in the bathroom really thinking very hard about, and that was holidays, bills, children, all the things that are happening right now. And I realized, crap, this is stress.
Speaker 2:That's wild to me, that you like stress, like you stress yourself into, like breaking out, which I guess it's common to people.
Speaker 1:It's very common.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I guess that's.
Speaker 1:I've never really done it like that before, but yeah, everybody, every body shows stress in a different way and when the body feels that stress, it can come out in different ways, and some people it's their stomach acts funny. Some people they can't eat, some people all they do is eat Like stress comes out of people's personalities and bodies in different ways.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I get it.
Speaker 1:And apparently mine just likes to come out in a big old red rash.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think this is a whole conversation right now on managing stress and anxiety, especially throughout the holidays.
Speaker 1:Yeah, here's the thing y'all. We're going to talk about this today anxiety in the holidays. But I want y'all to stick in because even if you don't think that you identify with that phrase, or even if you don't think that you identify with that phrase, or even if you don't think you fall into that category, I'm here as someone to say you actually might. I'm a person that loves the holidays. I live for this season. I actually like when the time changes and it gets dark really soon, because I know that means the Christmas lights are coming.
Speaker 2:I don't like that here in Southern California because California people can't drive and all of a sudden traffic just jumped 30 minutes because people don't know how to drive in the dark. All of a sudden.
Speaker 1:It really does suck, but that signal of the time change tells me it's almost time for Christmas lights, christmas movies, like all the things like I love. So when people say, are you anxious, are you stressed out for holidays, I genuinely think no, I'm good, I love the holidays.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's wild man.
Speaker 1:At the same time, I'm the person standing in the bathroom with a huge old rash on my chest because I'm stressed out.
Speaker 2:Huge old rash. Okay, so we're going to talk about that, but let me take a moment to say what's up to everybody, to all of our new subscribers, all of our old subscribers, everybody. You all are part of LDC let's Dig crew. You guys already know why we are here. We are here to help you grow a deeper relationship with God, others and yourself Also. We took last week off without an announcement. We just went MIA and some people probably traumatized because you're like uh-oh, last time Eric Stills did this, they went MIA for four years. So we didn't record last week. We just didn't, we were just too busy.
Speaker 2:It was just family time we just had too much and we've learned how to prioritize. And you know what it was stressing me out a little bit. I was getting frustrated because, like yo, we have to record, we have to put something out. Every Sunday at 2 pm, pacific time time, we go, we have a video that goes out and I was like you know what, not this week, we don't. I'm not going to let it stress me, I'm not going to get anxious and I realized some of y'all listening to this.
Speaker 1:y'all don't even care, but some people were like wait, where's the episode?
Speaker 2:Where's the episode? So, to all the people that really do care, thank you for caring and also thank you for not reaching out, I guess I mean, or our DMs are mad silent, so maybe y'all don't care, but hey, we're here right now, we still gonna help you.
Speaker 1:And we're good, we're okay. We're good, we actually are better for not having an episode last week and just enjoying family time and Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2:Straight up facts right there. That's a fact, thank you. All right, so we're back, and while we're going to talk right now, we're going to talk about stress, we're going to talk about anxiety, we're going to talk about pressure from yourself, pressure from your partners, pressure from your family, pressure from society, pressure from culture. Some of it, a lot of it, I think, might be self-inflicted, because some of y'all be putting pressure on yourselves, like Danny Lee. We're going to talk about that because some of that stuff that was stressing you out, it was stuff that you came up with in your head and I had to come back as your partner and say, actually, babe, why don't we do something different this year? And I made love to her and then she was fine.
Speaker 1:What are?
Speaker 2:you talking about Yo? Do you guys see this hoodie I'm wearing right now? So this is the new life collection hoodie.
Speaker 1:Not the hoodie. His story is trash.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the hoodie is fire guys. It is heavyweight, it is oversized. I love it. This is the hat too. It's the dad hat. It's a vintage dad hat, perfect gift for the holidays. If you are a Christian that struggle with telling your story, if you believe that struggles, I don't know where to put my S's sometimes. Sometimes, I feel like S's are optional.
Speaker 1:That actually makes a lot of sense with your words.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just don't want to use S right now. Let me try this again. If you are a Christian that struggles with telling your faith, telling your story, telling people what God has done for you, I really do believe that you need to get this hoodie. There's a T-shirt. You need to get this hat. You need to wear something like this, which will be a tool to engage conversations. It will help people ask you questions, especially when you see the back. You can see the links right here. We'll make it available somewhere here in one of these corners. I'll never know where the corners be at, but you're going to see it. This will help you tell people your story, not just what he's done for you, where he's pulled you from and where he is taking you Cause I do believe that God is doing a new thing in this generation and his people this year, and so don't miss out, but let's, let's jump into it.
Speaker 1:All right, let's dig, let's dig, all right. So we wanted to share a few things that you know we talked about a little bit of. We are feeling some stress, anxiety, like the holiday is coming up, and again, I never associated with that statement. I never felt like I was one of those people that fall into that category. I thought those were just other random people that I don't know, like I don't know them, not me. And then here I am with a stress rash in December 1st. Literally, it was like December 1st.
Speaker 2:Say that again A stress rash, a stress rash Stress, rash Stress. You see, all the S's Can't say them.
Speaker 1:That is a lot of S's. It's like four right there, anyways. So all that to say, for me, what causes the stress is my expectations of what I want the holidays to be like, and I do put them on myself. I understand that. It is me. My childhood for holidays, it was pretty magical. I'm not going to lie. My mom killed it. My mom did everything to make them special. We had traditions that we did, even the small ones of like.
Speaker 1:we always got to open up a present christmas eve night, and that present always ended up being new pajamas it was rigged got it was rigged a hundred percent and we knew it and we loved it, didn't care yeah we never expected to open a toy saturday I don't have pajamas I my drawers.
Speaker 2:So that's nice. You want to get me new drawers for Christmas?
Speaker 1:Listen, I loved that. It was just so special to sleep in those new pajamas before we woke up Christmas morning in your new pajamas, like yeah, it was almost like a new outfit for Christmas morning. Toys, I don't know.
Speaker 2:That's funny. My parents did a really great job of making it feel very special and in the beginning stages of us as parents, we fought about this For sure, because you wanted to just copy and paste your childhood on your kids and for me I was the opposite. I didn't really have much magical moments for Christmas growing up as a child, yeah, so it wasn't that I was trying to mimic that or copy that for my kids. I just didn't want to take anything from my childhood for my kids.
Speaker 1:Right, so I wanted to take almost everything.
Speaker 2:I was like let's just start fresh, let's start brand new.
Speaker 1:And that was my world for a while.
Speaker 2:And that was because I didn't really have much stuff from my childhood. I was like, well, I want to roll over besides being in a Christmas cantata or playing in a chamber orchestra Right being in a Christmas cantata or playing in a chamber orchestra right or playing at a Christmas banquet, which you know, it was kind of forced to do it, which I guess it pays off. Anyways, all I'm saying is like, for me it was very different. I wanted to just have a fresh start with our kids and we fought about that very early on.
Speaker 1:And I think that is one of our big culture differences is that white people we love to do the same thing for the same year over and over again. Like I, have friends that their greatest joy in life is that, or one of their greatest joys. I don't want to minimize it, it's. It is really sweet, but like that their children play with their own toys, like so a toy that a friend has.
Speaker 1:Their kids are playing with that exact same toy now and that brings them a lot of joy yeah so why people we just love to like tradition, like you do the same thing every year, same present every christmas eve?
Speaker 2:um, I don't know if this is a that's a white people thing. I I think that's just there's. There's just types of people in general. There's. This is a big world I mean there's, there's cultures all over, from from c to sign shining c, those s's are getting you today.
Speaker 1:I can't say them S's today, but wait, but wait. Is there something in Haitian culture that you guys do do the same thing every year, all the time?
Speaker 2:Sure, so like when we look at Thanksgiving. Right, there's some holidays Like, for example, 4th of July. Where are you going to find Haitians in South Florida? Oh, that's true, at the beach.
Speaker 1:And that's so random.
Speaker 2:First, January 1st, what you think Haitians are eating.
Speaker 1:Soup Jumou.
Speaker 2:So you see what I'm trying to explain. Okay, there are some things customs, rituals that all, I think, all cultures have.
Speaker 1:They're just different in each culture.
Speaker 2:I think the issue is for us when we feel like our current circumstances does not allow us to roll over something that we're accustomed to doing. Sometimes it causes stress because it feels like you're either failing Right, won't be able to make this happen, and you put in your mind that other people are depending on you to execute that thing Right, which that's what I meant by saying that. I think it's self-inflicted sometimes because our kids don't know your childhood.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:They don't remember your childhood, and whatever might've been magical to you in the eighties or in the nineties, they're like you didn't have iPads.
Speaker 1:Actually, I saw a picture the other day and it was a Christmas tree and a house in the 90s with like presents, like halfway out to the room and they're like Christmas is different in the 80s and 90s Yo our son doesn't even want live presents.
Speaker 2:He wants me to cash app him bro.
Speaker 1:He's like cash app me. He's like yo send me some Apple Pay.
Speaker 2:Apple Pay, yeah, send me V-Bucks so I can get this digital money on Fortnite.
Speaker 1:That's hilarious, Like you see what I mean.
Speaker 2:But it's true. So I'm like, matter of fact, the kids are actually a lot simpler than I said. Oh, you want me to just, you want me to just sell you.
Speaker 1:That is so impersonal though, like I can, it did take me a while to wrap my head around the concept of approaching each year as a different year. Yeah, yeah, and realizing that we've moved so many times. Christmases were in different places all the time, and a lot of times we've shared it with y'all. We don't live near family, so majority of the time Thanksgiving and Christmas do not have family included.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so it is really up to us to be like okay, what do we want to do this year? And I have really enjoyed that and that's it.
Speaker 2:I think that's the biggest thing that we've added to our family. When it comes to holidays, every single year we go into it say what do we want to do this year? Yep, forget last year. Right, forget that tree. We don't have to go cutting down trees, which we heard a story about. Someone went to go cut down trees and then there was a whole infestation of spiders. It literally still creeps me out but what I'm saying is like we're not house y'all the spiders were on their presence oh, bro, burn their whole house down, just leave.
Speaker 2:Just go ahead. Leave the house. I'm done. Leave the house, oh yeah, so I think that was the best thing that we've added and and I really want to encourage a lot of people, man, that are listening to this right now you guys are going through the holidays and you feel like you're stressed out because you're comparing it to last year, you're comparing it to the year before, or you're comparing it to the Joneses, or you're comparing it to your neighbor. I think that's what hurts people too, as well, like everybody's at work bragging about what they're doing for the holidays, or someone may not even be bragging, they might just be telling you about what they're doing for holidays, and in your mind, you're trying to figure out okay, how can I keep up, or how can I flex? And some of it's self-inflicted, because the person you're talking to is not even expecting you to keep up with them. It's all in your mind.
Speaker 1:Well, sometimes it's even just. We live in this world of consumerism and so when a coworker is like, oh yeah, we're going up here and we're going over there, we're going to do this, we're going to do that, and I literally would think I'm going to bed no.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:No, I would think I wish I could do that for my family. I wish we had that option and we just don't right now. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And we just don't right now. So it is really hard, I think so we have a list we're going to share with you today. We've got a list of a few things.
Speaker 1:And one of them is managing your expectations. That was that one. It's managing your expectations, realizing that where you are right now is maybe not where you were last year and it won't be where you are next year. So just managing those expectations and realizing, like, what can we do for this year that will make it feel special.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think, even in expectations. I think for us that are married, for those that are dating, for those that just got into relationships, which, if you just got into a relationship before the holidays, just not a good move, bro, what?
Speaker 1:Why.
Speaker 2:Wait till after the holidays. No way Wait till after Valentine's Day the holidays are so romantic.
Speaker 1:I 100% want to be with someone during the holidays.
Speaker 2:If you're going to get into a relationship with somebody, wait for Easter or something. Take them to church.
Speaker 1:Why are you so full of trash today? What is wrong with you?
Speaker 2:Okay. But I do think that people need to do a better job at talking about their expectation right, what they're expecting for the holidays, right. So for us, before we go into holidays, we sit down and say, okay, what are the things that we want to see, what are the things that we want to experience? Right, let's talk about it. What are the things that we can't do this year? What are some things from last year we want to roll over Right, right, and last year we want to roll over right, right. And then our kids are getting older. So, actually talking with them, say, son, what do you want to do?
Speaker 2:yeah baby girl, what do you want? Because you'll be surprised the stuff that they're expecting. You're like, oh snap I could afford that.
Speaker 1:That's easy last year. But I wanted to take brooklyn, our four year. She was turning four. I wouldn't take her to disneyland. I want to take her to disneyland. I want to take her to disneyland. All that child could talk about was stupid. Chuck E Cheese Bro. And then I had to realize, like that actually is a lot cheaper. I like let's do a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese.
Speaker 2:Bro you over here stressing out because, like how are we going to take her to Disneyland? I said why don't we just ask her when you want to go? Chuck E Cheese, bro Wendy's. I'm like bro Wendy's, bro, I get you. That's what he went for his birthday.
Speaker 1:y'all was Wendy's Yep.
Speaker 2:Let's go to Wendy's and get an eight-piece nugget, two double cheese, junior bacon, cheeseburgers, a little smoothie, call it a day. You know what I'm saying Hilarious. So that's what I'm saying. I think it's just having conversations about that, all the expectations a lot of them are in our head, yeah for sure.
Speaker 1:I think another great way to help you stay balanced and not be so stressed during the holidays is actually volunteering. There was an opportunity that I heard about a few weeks ago, and it was a foster care house that housed kids and they were asking people to come and just play with the kids for a few hours, while the parents were taken out to get them Christmas gifts, and unfortunately my schedule didn't allow me to be a part of it, but I actually really wanted to, and things like that putting yourself in those positions can really give you perspective of what you do have and that it is enough.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's wild man I was talking to, uh, had lunch yesterday with pastor and um, I was asking him like how do you manage, um, when you sit down and meet with all people? People are always DMing him, writing him, emailing people wanting to meet the pastor all day long. Yeah, so how do you manage that? And he said several things, but I'll emphasize on one that really stuck out. That implies, or that's regarding to this he talks about how a lot of time he'll redirect them. But he said there's sometimes he meets with so many people because it helps him. It helps him stay grounded, it helps him stay humbled, it helps him stay grounded.
Speaker 2:I thought, wow, that's really big Right. You know, when he's like, like when I'm helping someone that can't do nothing for me, it makes him more grateful for his life, puts him in a posture of of, of Thanksgiving, a posture of gratitude, humility. And I think that lines up with what you're saying right now of stop making it about yourself this holiday and see if you can meet somebody else's need, not even someone else's want, but somebody else's need Like. You know what I'm saying, and so I really do agree with that Like. So, yeah, don't date during holidays. Volunteer at my church.
Speaker 1:Don't date during the holidays. Why?
Speaker 2:do you do this? I'm sorry Go ahead, okay.
Speaker 1:Another one is trust God with what you cannot control. Yep, I think that's huge.
Speaker 2:I think that's the biggest one.
Speaker 1:That's a massive one of like okay, I'm just going to trust God if he's going to make a way, or we're going to make the best of it, or I just literally am going to put all these things that are keeping me up at night in his hands and know that I'm going to do everything I can with what I have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's crazy. That's crazy. The Bible says without faith it's impossible to please God. It's impossible to please God. That means everything that we do it needs to be through faith in order to be pleasing to the father, because our life and our situation sometimes can seem so big. But we serve a God of the impossible. We serve a God that can do anything Right. So what happens is sometimes we make our problems bigger than God, yeah, and all we can see is our problem Right, is disrespectful and dishonorable to how big God is. Because God is so big that our problems should be nothing in his presence. It shouldn't even matter anymore.
Speaker 2:So when we're saying learning how to trust God, the more you trust God, the more you can sleep at night, the more you can leave things in his hand, knowing that my God is so big, like that old song, there's nothing my God cannot do. Our problems should be not even little in his presence. They should disappear. They should have no worth, no value in the presence of God. And so I think for us as believers that are going through this season, and even for those that don't believe in God, I'm telling you right now trust God, believe in him, put in his hand all of your problems. They will disappear in God's presence. They were, and when I say disappear, if you got bills, the bills are still going to be there. What I'm saying is, you won't lose sleep about it because you know it's in God's hand and God's going to provide he's going to take care of it.
Speaker 2:It loses the power over you. Anxiety leaves, depression leaves, yeah, stress leaves. Your bills are still there, your problems are still there. Because I don't want to be like one of those speakers that say that your problems are going to go away. Yeah, no, your problems are still going to be there. What I'm saying is they lose their power in your life and it gets replaced with joy, with peace, with peace, yeah.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and it gets replaced with joy, with peace, with peace yeah, absolutely. Another one that we really want to encourage is to take care of your physical body and your spiritual body, like making sure, if you work out, go to the gym still. Like don't lose sight of working out, eating, making good decisions in your food, because that really will make a difference. If you stop going to the gym and all you're doing is eating these sweets around you, you're going to feel terrible. But the more you take care of your body, okay, I'm going to stay in the gym, I'm going to focus on my nutrition, like I have set a goal for this month that I'm going to drop some weight and I'm going to really focus on my nutrition through the month of December. And some people would be like why would you do that? This is the hardest time, and I'm like that's why is because this is the time of most sweets, most candies, pies, all the things. And so I'm going to actually have extra focus in this season and be like I'm going to drop some weight, I'm going to focus on my nutrition, make sure I'm in the gym to keep myself regulated during the next few weeks. And then, on top of that, your spiritual man, self-regulated during the next few weeks, and then, on top of that, your spiritual man making sure that you are prioritizing time to pray in the mornings, to read your word like, don't lose focus.
Speaker 1:I think this is what I want to say. Going into the season, it can get so busy and if you lose your um, not your habits, but your routines, you lose your routines of going to the gym. If you lose your routines of praying, if you lose your routines of reading the word, all of these other things we're talking about will really start to shake you. But if you keep your foundation and if you keep those things that keep you regular and regulated in the spirit and in your physical body, you'll get through these next few weeks Like it won't shake you, won't rattle you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, ultimately you act how you feel.
Speaker 1:So if but, I'm saying again, I'm processing.
Speaker 2:Ultimately, you will act how you feel. That's true. You will act how you feel, yeah, meaning when you're feeling Physically strong, you're going to carry yourself strong, so true.
Speaker 1:But if I feel Like poop, I'm going to act and eat actually Like trash.
Speaker 2:If you feel broken, if you feel hurt, you're going to act hurt. It hurt, you're going to act hurt. It's true, you're going to act broken. Yeah, that's why hurt people hurt people. It's true. So when people get on our Instagram or on our YouTube or TikTok or trying to hurt us like there's people that go to our shorts sometimes and they'll just talk trash. One person I call me back. I said I'm so sorry somebody hurt you because I can tell you're trying to hurt me.
Speaker 2:That's crazy because hurt people, hurt people, broke people, try to break people. Like I'm saying people that feel down, try to pull people down. Yeah, so I think honestly, like what you're saying, in this season, where anxiety goes up, where suicidal rates are through the roof, where people feel like they don't want to live anymore, you act how you feel. That's why people act on that feeling of suicide. So what you're saying is stay strong spiritually, stay strong physically, stay strong mentally. Be careful who you're letting speak into your life. Be careful of the things that you're reading, be careful of the things that you guys are watching. Yo, your eyes is a door into your soul. You know what I'm saying. So, the things that we're putting in, we'll start acting on it. So ultimately, like what you're saying is like if you're feeling weak, get up, go for a walk, go to the gym. You'll feel better about yourself and you'll act better. If you're feeling spiritually strong, start praying more, prioritizing that time to be with the Lord, read the word and ultimately you will act how you feel.
Speaker 1:That's good, that's really good. And the last one is honestly just it seems simple, but it's so true is just remembering the whole purpose of these celebrations, the whole reason that we even have a Christmas season and that is the birth of our savior.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that that is why we get to celebrate. I get emotional every time. I'm like because if that baby never came, we would not be sitting here where we are today, forgiven, full of joy and peace, having a relationship with God and with Jesus, like we would never have those things afforded to us. So my favorite moment of a whole season is standing in church singing oh come, let us adore him. Like it is literally all that matters at this point. There are things that we have. There are things that you walk through in the season where you don't have your loved ones with you.
Speaker 1:You maybe not have all the things that you wish you did to pay bills or to take care of your family, or things that you may have needs Just because we're in Christmas season. Those needs don't go away, but knowing that you have everything in Jesus, yeah, and I think too.
Speaker 2:I think just to encourage those that, just to encourage those that have a hard time celebrating Christ through the holidays, don't just use Christmas as a time to celebrate baby Jesus, but celebrate risen Jesus. I think sometimes people make Christmas too much of a historical event. And celebrating the birth of Jesus, right, the coming of our Savior, but it's also celebrating the second coming of our Savior. Ultimately, it's celebrating this right here, that God loves us so much that he made a decision to come walk on this earth with us. And to me that's what Christmas is all about.
Speaker 1:It's not just the birth of baby Jesus, right, because it's the fact that Jesus came and he walked this earth and he healed and he saved and he delivered.
Speaker 2:It's ultimately just like man, God like left this throne, yeah, and said I'm going down there to walk with them.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I'm going to do it through a teenage pregnancy. Yeah, I'm going to do something that's impossible. I'm going to come and lay with donkeys and sheep, right and Bo the dog. Remember the movie Star?
Speaker 1:Such a cute movie or the donkey, yeah the donkey, we do watch the Star every year with the kids.
Speaker 2:But here's what I love about that story is that Jesus came and did not make it about the presence, it wasn't about the glam. He came through a manger, right Right there in a shed, in a barn, like I'm saying. And so to me, I look at that, I say, wow, all the other glam, all the other stuff, it doesn't matter. And ultimately, for Christmas, we're not just only celebrating the birth of Christ, but we're celebrating that God loves us, that he came and walked on this earth with us. He came, lived this human life, fought for us, died and rose again. We serve the only king that you can't find in a grave or in a box somewhere, like like what I'm saying, and it's us celebrating that he's going to come back again.
Speaker 2:So we're here to tell you guys, man, throughout the holidays, there's hope. God loves you, jesus loves you. That's why we're here. That's the only thing that should matter this year. All the other things, let them go. If you can't accomplish it, if you can't make it happen, if it's going to make you go into debt, if it's going to break up relationships, let it go, because it doesn't matter.
Speaker 2:Ultimately, god loves us all and there's hope for us. This should be a time of peace. This is a time that we celebrate the coming of our true savior, jesus, who is the truth For all of us that are out there. And you're a believer and you believe in God, you carry the truth. So when you're around, walking around a neighborhood, like when you're at your job, when you're in church, when you're in the gym, when you're at the car wash, doesn't matter where you are. If you see somebody stressed out, you see somebody anxious, you see somebody dealing with stress, you see somebody dealing with depression, you see someone and you can sense the spirit of depression or suicide on them. Christians, I'm asking everybody. It's time for us to stand up, put our arm around someone and say hey, bro, there's hope what's?
Speaker 2:the hope God loves us and all this that we're worried about. He just wants to take it from you and he's going to trade you and give you peace and give you joy and you're going to feel happiness. And here's what I love. He don't give us rest. He don't sleep like a baby. Because, all this stuff that will stress you out, you'll realize in God's kingdom, doesn't matter, Doesn't matter. That's all I got man. That's how we're going to over. That's how we've been overcoming and managing anytime we have stressful thoughts.
Speaker 1:Anytime we feel anxiety, that's how we overcome. So we hope that you resonated with this conversation and, for those of you who really, man, felt like that touched you, that said something to you or maybe we're just speaking straight to your situation Know that that was a God that loved you and that encouraged these conversations and led us in those conversations to speak to right where you are today. We were on TikTok and a girl was like man. I ended up right where I was supposed to be and it was because of what we were sharing.
Speaker 1:So I want you to know that this conversation, we prayed before we started this conversation, we prayed for God to guide every word that we say, and so if it resonated with you, know that that is a God that loves you and wanted you to hear this today, and if that's you comment in this today, and if that's you comment in this video, we're always writing back to people who comment to us, even the haters, but especially the ones that love us, Um, and so we want you to subscribe, we want you to click the like button If you feel led and you want to give a heart and give some love to this channel.
Speaker 1:It really just encourages us and knows that we are making a difference, uh, in your life and that we're helping you grow a deeper relationship with God, others and yourself. We love y'.
