 It's something so unnatural to me about sitting there on your phone and like scrolling through people like you're looking through a menu. Sometimes that's a very hard because it takes what is already a rough dating pool and it makes it go from this size to this size and pay attention to who reaches out to you when you're a little quiet. Hello, hello everybody, welcome back to The Walk Podcast. If you're new here, my name is Sam. I post all things lifestyle, faith, and occasional travel vlog. If you're here watching on YouTube, this channel is essentially a video diary of my life, but my focal point lately has definitely been this podcast. So I'm super happy you're here, episode 20, which is wild. Let's just get all the business out of the way, shall we? Maybe you want to listen to this audio only. If that is you, then I do have these episodes up on Spotify. They are all up there. The link will be down below. Support over there actually means a lot, even if you just want to listen to one episode over there, it really does boost the algorithm and where these episodes kind of meet people. So I would really appreciate your support over there. If you would rate the show, I would really appreciate it. And just thank you for being here. I love reading all your comments down below under every single episode or your DMs that I get over on Instagram, which by the way is just Sam on YouTube, Sam on YT. I will put all the information down below and on the screen for you should you want to follow it. I am also on TikTok. I will have my personal TikTok down below, which I am fairly active on as well as the TikTok for this podcast. One of the biggest goals for me this year was to really share my podcast and my social platforms with the world because I haven't always been really good with that. So that was one of my goals. So if you would love to support me on any of those platforms, I would really, really appreciate it. But like I said, we are on episode 20, which is crazy. I think we hit a year that I've been doing the walk podcast. I've said this before. When I started it, it didn't have a name. It wasn't even a podcast. It was just like, here's this video, I'm going to put it out. And I think to date the first episode of this was probably the most viewed out of all of them so far. So that's interesting. But it's just funny how I didn't know what I was doing, but things were happening. And now we're here at episode 20 and it's really cool. So I have decided that I think I'm going to do every 10 episodes will be a Q&A and we'll kind of split it up that way. So you guys are in control of this episode. I asked you guys over on my Instagram story yesterday for topics, questions, anything that you wanted to talk about said you are in control of this episode. So I have kind of skimmed through a little bit but not too much and we're just going to kind of dive in because these episodes tend to be a lot longer the Q&As, but I'm excited. So without further ado, here are all the questions. There are always a good amount of them. You guys always pull through and I really appreciate it. I have cat hair in my nose. Luna is here. She's sleeping actually thank goodness. She's getting better with being more independent while I film, but she's still a pain in the butt sometimes. But she is starting to lose hair. She definitely has, she has a lot of hair. She's a Siberian. She has three levels or three layers I should say of fur. And so I knew that going into it especially because this is molting season for cats. So I'm finding little pieces of hair everywhere. But it's okay. So if you see me scratching my nose, that's why. All right. So let's just dive into these. I say this always. I probably won't get to all of them because then this would be like a four hour long episode and ain't nobody got time for that. Well, you guys might. I have to go to work in a few hours. So I don't have time for that although I would love to. But some of them might be repeats because that usually also tends to happen. So I'm going to try to get through as many as I can in the time that we have together. And I'm excited. So let's jump into it starting strong. Someone said pros and cons of using dating apps. That's a good one. Actually, you guys know I'm in my dating era. Lord help me right now. And it is fun. I will say you should have fun with it. I think the moment that it stops becoming fun, I think maybe you just shouldn't be doing that right now. I had to take a couple steps back, you know, a few months ago where I was just like, wow, this is draining. I'm not having fun. And I took a couple months off of dating and apps and all the things and it was actually a really peaceful like four months or whatever it was, it was nice. So I will lead off with that. And I will say that yes, dating should be fun. But if you're really serious about it, you should also be dating with intention. So yeah, let's talk about dating apps. I am not the biggest fan of them. I will I will say I am on two of them. Okay, I have hinge and I am trying upward, which is supposed to be like a Christian dating app. But honestly, I don't like labels. Anybody could go on that app. And just because they slap the label Christian, it doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean you're going to be compatible. But so I'm trying it. Okay, I'm trying it. And I will say I am not going to sit here and be like, I don't think dating apps work. I have multiple friends that are either married or engaged to be married. That met on dating apps. So it's very, it's very possible. But it just, I don't know, okay, let's pros and cons. So I'm probably going to come up with more cons just because that's how it works in my brain. But I think there are some pros as well, right? If you work maybe odd hours or you don't really know where you would meet people, you know, you know, you're not going to meet them at your job or you're not going to, you know, it gives you more options, right? But with that, I think that is where it becomes part of a con at least for me. I think there's something so weird and sometimes when I'm on them, I get a weird feeling and I have to get off where is something so unnatural to me about sitting there on your phone and like scrolling through people like you're looking through a menu. It's just weird. It makes people feel less like a person and more of just an object, truly, which I think is one of the things wrong with dating in this era and this generation. I also think one of the problems in dating is the amount of options. I think there are too many options and if you can sit there on your phone and just endlessly scroll and scroll and never run out of people, that makes people feel like the person you're talking to is kind of disposable, right? If they say one little thing that you don't like or one little thing, you know, okay, just ghost them or get rid of them and start talking to the next person or talk to five at the same time or, you know, whatever. So there's a lot that feels unnatural to me, but I am also open to them, which is why obviously I have them. I think God can move in any way. He can bring, you know, somebody across your path through an app, through in person, through a job, through church, like there's, you know what I mean? So I'm just open to it. It's kind of like, Lord, however you bring my person to me, I'm open to it. Another con I would say is that you're meeting a complete stranger, right? So more often than not, you don't have other people like mutuals that can attest to their character that can say, oh, yeah, so and so, like, he's a really good person. He's going to treat you right. You know, he's he loves his family. He blah, blah, blah, blah, because when you're meeting a person on an app, right, all you know about them is what they're showing you. They're putting their best foot forward. They probably will for a while. That's you've heard, like, you don't really truly know who you're dating until like a year or so in, which I can attest that that's true. So that's another thing that you're very I'm weary of, because you really don't know them. There's no one to really talk about their character, at least for the first couple months or in the beginning. So I am not going to say that the dating apps make it impossible. Like, I don't think they're impossible to find love. I think it's just you need to be more on your toes. It takes a lot more energy out of you, I think. But I'm open to them. Like, it probably sounds like I hate, I hate them. I'm not the biggest fan, but I don't hate them. I'm open to them and the way that they can work. But just know that no matter what app you're on, you're probably going to have to, like, for every one good person you meet or interact with, you're going to have to probably interact with 50 that are, I'm not going to say that they're bad people, but they're just not going to be for you. So, yeah, there's probably a lot more I could say about dating apps and just dating in general. But those are just some, those are just some at the forefront of my mind. Um, OK, let's see what else we got. Advice on getting back into dating after not dating for years. That's a good one. That's a big one. Been there, done that. It's scary, but you're just going to have to, at some point, do it. Now, don't do it if you really, you'll know when you're really ready. And if it really feels like, wow, I would rather do anything else other than this, it is OK to not. Don't let anybody pressure you into feeling like you have to. I know I've been, I've felt pressure before with people in my life where it's like you're 20, you know, back when I was like 25, 26, right? Maybe like you're in your mid 20s, like you're supposed to be dating. You're supposed to be, I'll never forget, somebody said to me once and it was like a grown man, a man in his 40s who I've known for years, but a grown man, he was like, you should be going on a date with like three different guys every single week. Like, what are you doing? And for a split second, I remember sitting there and I'm like, am I doing this wrong? Like, am I supposed to be doing that? And then I kind of took a step back and I was like, no, I don't want to do that. No, so I'm not I'm not going to do it. So don't let anybody make you feel like you have to. OK, but when you once you know that you are ready, it should be like I said before, it should be fun. Don't treat it as I know I I went into dates when I started going back into the dating world a year ago, actually a year ago this month. Happy anniversary to me a year ago in April. I went on my first date after getting out of a long term relationship. And in the beginning, I remember I was going on these dates and what was in the forefront of my mind was, oh, I hope they like me. I hope I don't say something stupid. I hope like it was never I never sat down to be like, do I like them? Would they fit into my life? It was always like the people pleaser in me that was like, I just wanted to make sure that I was liked that he made that he thought that I was pretty, that I was saying all the right things, that I was, you know, having the right date etiquette and all the things. And that's what I was focusing on more than I was focusing on. Do I actually like this person? Would they work for me? So I would say approach it like that. Just go and sounds cheesy, but go and be yourself. I would always like hype myself up and be like once I started to learn from from my ways as I started navigating the dating world again, I would kind of have to hype myself up and be like, you're just going to meet a friend. That's it. You're going to make a new friend and you're going to see how compatible you are. And if if that first date with your new friend ends in a first kiss, OK, that's cool, too. But like before that, you're just going and you're being yourself because why would you put on a front for somebody if like you're genuinely, especially if you're looking for a genuine relationship, like a long term something, why would you want to present a version of yourself that's not the real you because then you're going to have to put on a facade for the rest of the relationship. So just go and be yourself. Be like, I'm going and, you know, it's fun to get dressed up and look pretty and whatever. Don't go too overboard because again, you don't want to look like somebody that you're not, but. Just address it and like approach it and like going to hang out with a new friend, you know? And I will say, too, like be wary of. You know how they say like you should feel butterflies and fireworks and this and that that's actually equated to like the chase, right? Like you want you you're chasing a high, right? And I saw something that was like you shouldn't be looking for fireworks. You should be looking for a warm campfire. So it's OK if they don't make your stomach do somersaults, but if you feel peace in your heart and you feel comfortable with them and you feel calm, that's actually better than somebody who makes you feel like you want to throw up, even if it's in a good way every time you see them because that also fades. And then once that kind of fades, once that feeling fades, it's not as exciting anymore. But if you feel that comfort right from the beginning, that comfort usually doesn't go away. So look more for a warm campfire than fireworks. I heard that a couple of months ago and it really stuck with me. And now I like whenever people ask me for advice, I always I always like jump back to that. OK, let's see. There's a lot of dating questions. I told you guys that you were in control of this episode. So whatever you want to talk about, we're going to talk about it. Somebody else said similarly, though, but like in a different from a different angle, what is dating like as a Christian? So I will say this. So a year ago, I was kind of going on a date with whoever, right? It didn't matter if they, you know, went to church or, you know, prayed or read the Bible, like it didn't matter, right? I was just like, oh, you're attractive. We had a good conversation. Sure, let's go on a date. Whereas now I am and I've said this before where I have really like narrowed it down where I'm just like, I know that if this person doesn't have similar faith, who doesn't have the same priorities of like going to church and like serving at church and not saying that has to consume every single part of their life, but it has to be the biggest part of their life like me or else it won't work. And so I will be honest, sometimes that's very hard because it takes what is already a rough dating pool and it makes it go from this size to this size. It severely, severely, especially where I live, severely cuts down the dating pool. And sometimes that's discouraging. I will be fully transparent with you. To I think it was two weeks ago, I redownloaded Bumble and because I was just like, I want like the hinges and working, right? I'm going to download Bumble. I'm going to see spoiler alert. I no longer have it. But I remember when I first downloaded it and I was swiping and I was like, wow, so many attractive people, right? And I was getting matches and I didn't message a single one of them. Do you want to know why? Because none of them said anything about faith or or being a Christian. And I knew already I knew I had that conviction in my heart. I was like, that's not going to work. So don't even waste their time. Don't waste your time. So that was the reason I got rid of Bumble because I just wasn't I wasn't using it. I was sitting there to swipe and it felt icky and I didn't like it. So I got rid of it. But I had that moment of like my dating pool now is so small. And I'm like, I'm seeing all these attractive people. I'm like, I could probably have a good life with them. Like I'm I'm not perfect, guys. I'm human. I have these temptations where I'm like, I could do it. And then maybe like invite them to church. These thoughts, I know that they're they're not the thoughts I want to be having, but I have them sometimes. I'm like, I can invite them to church. And then I really have to stop myself and I'm be like, what do you sit and pray to God for in a future spouse? And I look at my list and I'm like, the top of that list is sharing similar faith is wanting to serve Jesus. So why would I settle for less that I'm that I'm praying for? And it doesn't mean, like I said, it's and I've said this before, doesn't mean that they're bad people at all. But we just might not be that compatible because that's not what I feel in my heart. I want somebody that I can serve with that can come on a podcast episode with me and talk to you guys about this stuff, you know? And so many people, right? Like I get messages from I'll be honest, I get messages from guys all the time and I'm like, oh, you're cute or whatever. But I know it's not going to work. And sometimes I question, I'm like, am I shooting myself in the foot? But then I'm like, no, I don't want to settle for less than what I'm believing in God for. And people will look at me and be like, you're too picky, you're too picky. I am picky, I'm very picky. But can I tell you why I'm picky? I'm picky because not only am I looking for a partner for me, I'm looking for a parent for my future children. I want somebody when my child is sick, will lay his hands on them and pray for them. Or when my marriage is going through a little bit of a funky time, he will sit with me and pray with me and pray over our marriage rather than going to seek comfort in another woman or seeking comfort on a website that he shouldn't be on. So that's why I'm picky. And it's hard. I want to give in all the time. But I know better. I know better. So to answer your question, dating as a Christian is hard. But you have to kind of keep the faith and like, you know what you're praying for. God hears your prayers. His word says that he will give you the desires of your heart. You just have to be patient and you have to trust him. And so I struggled a long time with the dating apps, too, because I was like, I hear all the time a man that finds a wife finds a good thing, a man that finds, right? He's doing the searching. The wife isn't doing anything. She's being found, right? And so some people can take that and interpret that as you just have to sit and wait for them to come and you don't have to do anything. And like news flash, she's not going to show up at my door and be like, surprise, God sent me. I'm your husband. If that happened, I'd probably call the police. You know what I mean? So that's why, like I said, I'm open to the apps. I'm open to, you know, I'm open to everything because who knows how God can work. But dating as a Christian, yeah, it's it's hard. Like dating is hard. And then you add the fact that you want to find somebody of a similar faith who not only do you have the similar faith, but you also like there has to be attractions there. Your personalities have to match. You have to find them like somewhat attractive. You know what I mean? It can't just be like, oh, he's a Christian. Cool, perfect, done. You know what I mean? Obviously, if that was the case, I'd probably be married by now. You know what I mean? So it's hard. And I get tempted to settle all the time, all the time. But I know what I'm waiting for. And thankfully, I'm able to kind of pull myself back every time. And I also have, you know, friends that are also accountability partners and I think also like having this platform where I talk about these things online holds me accountable to because I never want to settle for less and then come on here and be like, hey, guys, so I actually didn't do that. Not just with dating, but just with anything. It's like, hey, I actually didn't do that. But you know, it's OK. You know what I mean? So it's hard, but I know it'll be worth it. And yeah, so if you're in a similar boat, I am with you and I understand. I understand. OK, let's see if there's anything. No, we'll take a little break from from dating for a second. Someone said, I hope you had a lovely Easter weekend. What is Luna's daily routine? OK, I won't talk about this too long, but I will tell you kind of her routine. So Luna is three and a half months old now. She is already quite big. So I am equal parts, nervous and excited to see how big she gets. She is going to be anywhere from 10 to 15 pounds. You add all of her fur on top of that. And she's she's going to be a pretty big girl. But she let's see her daily routine. She is good now in that she will stay in bed with me until I'm ready to get up, which is such a blessing. I remember when she first came home, she was getting me up at six thirty seven thirty seven thirty in the morning and get with my work schedule. I usually get out of bed around nine. So she will stay in bed with me until it's time for me to get up. I feed her. She eats twice a day now. I feed her around ten in the morning, nine thirty ish. I try to push it as close to ten as I can. And then she kind of she kind of chills. She'll kind of like clean herself, whatever. Sometimes we play if I have time and then she kind of she loves her cat tree now. I have it right here by the window. So she looks out and right now it's raining and I think the the sound of the rain actually kind of relaxed her because now she is like dead asleep right now, which is great. I try to spend as much time with her as I can. Like I cuddle with her in bed for like 20 minutes before I get up because I'm gone for eight, nine hours of my work day. So when I am home, I want her to see that I'm here and then I will spend time with her and that I love her. I brush her twice a day because she, like I said, is losing is losing hair and she doesn't even have her full coat yet because she's still super young, but she's losing hair. So I brush her twice a day so that doesn't get all over everything else. And that's been working really nicely. I leave around to give her a little treat before I go to work. I drop her some dry food. I have an automatic feeder for her that I can feed her from my phone and I can watch her from my phone, which is great. I feed her around seven thirty, drop her some dry food. And then when I get home at 11, 11, 15, I give her the rest of her wet food. We play for 20 minutes at night so I can tire her out before bed. I wipe her down with a wipey before we go to bed because she she shares my pillow with me. And so I'm anal about the cleanliness. Brush her one more time and then we kind of just kind of go to bed. So that's her. She she lives a she lives a good life. She's a little queen. Let's see. How do you get out of a dry season in your faith? That's a good one. So another way of saying dry season is like lukewarmness where like you believe but you're not super you're not feeling super close with God as of right now. Or maybe you're not talking to him as often or you don't read your word or whatever. That was me forever. I was a Christian that didn't read the Bible for a long time. Right. I was going to church sometimes two three times a week and I didn't I didn't know the Bible stories. I didn't know who anybody was. I didn't know who Abraham was. I didn't know who you know what I mean. I didn't know anything. That's kind of lukewarm. And so in my case unfortunately it was like a bad experience and some pain that brought brought me back out of my dry season. And that is true for some people. Definitely. But the fact that you're asking this question means that you're already on the right track and that you're looking which is great. And the Bible actually says like seek me and you will find me knock and I will answer. So if you're looking and you truly go look for God you will find him and he will answer. And there's many ways to do that. I mean I've said it before and I'll say it over and over again. The Bible is your place to do that. Reading your word is reading God's words. So if you want to get to know him that's how you do it. It's a great place to start. And I remember a couple months ago my pastor actually talked about this where it was like getting out of a dry season and he was like remember what it felt like when you first fell in love with Jesus when you first really started just being all about your faith. You were on fire. He was like what did you do back then that was like your honeymoon stage of the Lord like or with the Lord. What were you doing were you reading your Bible every day were you praying first thing in the morning were you doing this were you doing that go back to that go back to that everything that you were doing back then do it again the exact same way. It's almost like you know a married couple that's been married for years and years and years and years and years and they're not in their honeymoon phase anymore but they want to be they want to like re reignite their marriage so they always tell you date again right like act like act like you did in the beginning. So that would be that would be my advice the word you know there's plenty of sermons online or finding a local church really just surrounding yourself with the word and with God's presence and just search search and you will find and even just like be like hey God like I feel far from you but I don't want to feel far anymore so like will you help me and he will just I've said it before I'm a big proponent of it like just have a conversation with him and ask him for help and he will help you so I hope I hope that helped there's one person who asked like a couple of questions and it's all about my new church so like how did I find it what kind of church and how did how did I get involved there so I've always been like non-denominational so this church that I go to is a non-denominational Christian church they're very big on just like come as you are doesn't matter what your faith traditions are or we're growing up or if you've just never even been to church like they don't matter it's very much just come as you are which I love and I think is beautiful so I always just say I'm a non-denominational Christian I'm just a Christian right it's less about religion it's more of just like my relationship with God how did I find the church so the church opened actually a year ago but they were they were a church for years and years and years they were a traveling church but they never had a home and so they moved into the building that they are in now last March and I saw the building being built it's not that far away from where I live and so I spent a lot of time in that area where the church is and so I would walk by and I would see it being built it used to be it used to be a CVS actually the building and I remember peering in the window actually with my ex believe it or not it's funny how everything happens for a reason I don't know if I would have really found the church completely if it wasn't for my ex because he was the one that was like I think that's gonna be a church so I remember we crossed the street and looked in the window and I saw like there was nothing in it it was empty and I remember so vividly being like I want to I want to visit here I want to go here I want to check it out one day and I did just turns out that I went by myself and that turned out to be so much better so much better than I originally planned it's just funny that's how God works and I went to visit once in July of 2023 and that was it I went once and I then I went again a couple weeks later and I never left I never left so it kind of happened very organically it kind of just stumbled upon it and it was kind of one of those things or once I like saw it for the first time it like never left my mind which is how I felt like I like I knew I was being called to go there because I just I couldn't forget about it it was constantly on my heart it was constantly on my mind it just took me a while to go because it's scary when you go by yourself I went by myself for a long time I didn't talk to anybody and then I just kind of started saying yes to every opportunity I was presented with do you want to volunteer here do you want to do this do you want to do that do you want to get involved and I would just do it and that's how I met people and then the more people I met the more things I wanted to do because I wanted to do it with them and so it was really hard and uncomfortable at first and the things that are usually worth having are worth the work and the uncomfortableness so that's just a little background story of that let's see when things get rough how do you seek advice from scripture that's a good one and actually I I thought that for a long time like before I really knew the word I was like okay I have a book here and everybody says I need to read it but like how do I know what to read it's a big book I have literally googled if I'm sad or if I need comfort Bible scriptures for comfort Bible scriptures when I'm scared I just google it and it literally gives you a whole list of them and it gives you a place to start so hopefully that's that actually I really recommend doing that it's easy to google my motto in life is literally Google everything to Google everything okay let's see any advice for girlies approaching their mid-20s who feel behind in their career I think I could answer that I mean everybody's different but I can answer this not even just for the girlies although I love the girlies but this could be for anybody I mean listen the older I get the more you kind of realize that nobody really has it all figured out like even even your parents like the older you get especially if you're like the first child like I'm my mom's only child on my dad's first child the older you get the more you kind of realize that they didn't really know what they were doing either they were just kind of figuring it out as they went so none of us really have it all figured out I don't know where my what my forever career is gonna be I pray about it every day I still don't know and yeah it's scary you know I have friends that have been promoted in their jobs four or five times already and make a lot of money and I'm so happy for them but everyone's timeline is different just like in dating just like in you know people are buying houses at later ages you know it's everybody's timeline is different so don't you know kind of put your blinders on and just don't worry about what everybody else around you was doing because if you're not looking from side to side you won't know whether you're behind or not and that's no that there's no such thing as being behind or ahead it's just it's your timeline and take comfort in that you are where you are supposed to be at this time where you are now what your job is that is where you're supposed to be because say you were somewhere else the next position that you have coming your way maybe you wouldn't be at a place where you could take it or you would even maybe you would even miss you but because you're here right now when you meet it it's gonna hit you does that make sense so just take comfort in knowing that you are exactly where you're supposed to be and you'll be okay I promise I promise let's see dealing with fake friends friends that show true colors when you need them yeah I mean as you get older too sometimes your your friend pool also gets smaller I would just say be attentive and pay attention to who reaches out to you when you're a little quiet or when you're a little different who is it that's reaching out to you and being like hey you seem a little off what's going on you know those are the people that you really really want in your corner and like sometimes you'll have friends that you're like friends with you're like good friends with but then you'll have like your ride or die friends and honestly sometimes you only need two or three honestly even if you have one I think you're winning and I would also say you know be the friend that you would want to have so like me for example I try to be that now if I want that then when I notice that Sally over here I'm one of my good friends I don't have a friend named Sally but you get it when Sally I haven't heard from her for a couple weeks right or she's silent on social media when she's normally not or whatever hey Sally just wanted to know that I'm thinking about you and that I love you would love to hear from you whenever you're able be the friend that you want to have and if you feel like you don't have those friends I've talked about it many times on here like community find your community and I've talked about another episode so I won't talk about it too much but there are ways to do it community so important and having like-minded community is so important and I really believe that you will find that and I'm excited for you okay let's see what else do we have here I saw a good one is questioning your relationship with God a bad thing does it make you a bad Christian sometimes I struggle listen we're all gonna question things actually we just talked about it this past Easter weekend at church where when Jesus rose from the dead right he the tomb was empty his own disciples his best friends didn't even believe they had to see it for their own eyes they didn't they didn't even believe right so no it doesn't make you a bad Christian you can't be a bad Christian you have we also have to remember I think people forget this that being a Christian is no such thing as like a good or a bad Christian because it's not our actions that are making us a good or a bad Christian we're it's not our actions that are are making us closer to God or that are saving us it's that we are saved through what Jesus did it's not by what we do here on earth because we would never we would never go to heaven if it was just based on that right because none of us were all flawed we sin every day it's what Jesus did so there's no such thing as being a good or a bad Christian my opinion not even in my opinion that's like a thing that's a thing it's not just my opinion it's a thing so please don't ever think that a thought that you have or like you did one bad thing or you said one bad thing and like oh I'm a bad Christian God hates me impossible literally impossible I promise you it says it multiple places in the Bible okay and then if anything I think it's good to question it's healthy to question because it exercises your faith just like you exercise a muscle you're moving it around the more you move it the more you exercise it the stronger it gets the bigger it gets so the more you question things and you investigate for yourself the bigger your faith is gonna be the stronger your faith is gonna be and it's gonna continue to grow so no don't ever think that questioning it I question sometimes don't ever think it makes you a bad a bad Christian it's okay to struggle it's okay to question and if you want to pray also that God will strengthen your faith he'll do that as well you just have to ask him but there's nothing that you could do that would make you a bad Christian there's nothing that you could do that would remove his love from you okay this one I debated if I wanted to talk about but I'm gonna talk about it what is your take on sex before marriage I'm 26 and I want to wait for marriage dot dot dot but girl I get it this is one that I've never really talked about because I'm still learning and I'm still figuring it out full transparency I didn't wait I'm 27 years old I did not wait I believe that God designed sex sex is a great thing I think he designed it though to be best used within the confines of marriage and I had to do I have done a lot of soul searching a lot of praying a lot of I went back and forth for months and I'm still not perfect but it's one of those things where you know you hear people be like well you already did it so like just keep doing it who cares right but it's not about that that's not what it's about it's about honoring God with your marriage or your future marriage and the only thing I'm not gonna talk about this too much because I think one day this is something especially when I'm more confident in this I want to talk about more and like maybe have a whole episode dedicated to it but what I will say on this topic is one of my biggest pet peeves in the whole world is when people say you're gonna buy a car without test driving it now I get it but my response to that is you can test drive a Prius you can test drive a Honda can you even test drive a Jeep no offense if you have those cars I had Jeep I had a Honda okay you understand go with me here you can test drive those you can test drive those as many times as you want you can buy a car one of those cars that has been that has been test driven by five other people you know you can't test drive a Maserati a Lamborghini all those high high value cars you're not allowed to you're not allowed to touch them you're not allowed to drive around it's one of those things where you know that when you get them they're gonna be perfect so you don't need to test drive it because it's that high quality of a car of a machine that's all I'll say with that and let me just also say like you said you're 26 and you're just you're struggling with it I get it I'm 27 and I think it's even harder when it's something that you have done right and you know what it feels like you know that it's fun you know that it's that it feels good you know all the things and then you're like oh now I don't have it anymore that sucks but I want it I think it makes it even harder but I think honoring God by following his design in the end makes it so worth it and you have to know what your trigger points are too like I had to stop reading romance novels because that fills your mind with stuff with a lot of lust that is hard to shake it's different for everybody maybe watching certain movies maybe you fast-forward some parts it sounds stupid but I'm telling you those things really fill your mind and if your mind is not filled with those things then you don't think about it as often if you don't think about it as often then you don't struggle with it as much but it's a struggle I get it that's all I'm gonna say on that topic because again that's still that's I'm I'm not perfect I'm still learning and that's a really that's a really hard one especially because you a lot of times now you go to somebody and you're like hey I don't want to do this they're gonna be like hook bye I'm gonna go find somebody who will give it to me because that's the world we live in now and it sucks and it's discouraging sometimes but you know that's what we signed up for right so I can't believe I just talked about that one on camera but here we are I always pray before these videos and like Lord you know what these people need to hear you know what I need to hear just give me the words and so here we are um what else what else what else what else um have you ever I'm sorry no have you been learning to speak Spanish a little more hey no I actually have a lot of my new friends at church pretty much all of them most of them are like fluent Spanish speakers and I'm always joking I'm like joking but not joking and I'm always like can you like teach me please teach me some Spanish so sometimes like one of my friends like my friend Carlos will like give me a phrase or a sentence and I'll like try to repeat it but no no no it's a little intimidating for me to tackle now to try to learn the language but never say never right what are you most excited about when you become a mom and a wife oh man I have such a passion on my heart to have a husband that I can serve with like serve the Lord with you know go to church with serve at church doesn't mean we have to serve together be glued to each other 24-7 that's not what I mean but just to be a good example of what it's like to to have a relationship rooted on faith it's something that the world is lacking so much right now and I just want to be a good example of it and I think God knows that I think that's why he's kind of keeping me hidden for now until my time comes um and to be a mom oh man I just to have a little me running around like it makes me want to cry it's just like like you're half of me my body made you like God's design is crazy where I can grow a human in my body and give it my nutrients and give it my genes and my husband's genes and then it's gonna come out and be such a blessing and my best friend just had a baby and we were talking about it and she was saying like because I was asking like how does it work like the milk production and like how much he needs to feed and blah blah and she was like my body is learning to make enough milk for him so as much as he needs my body is producing that much and I remember I was just sitting there listening to her say this and I was like look at God like that's amazing you know what I mean I just think it's so amazing and I have it like it makes me emotional every time I talk about it because I just have such a heart for just wanting that like I've never been I guess career is important I love my YouTube platforms I love my job I love all the things but my passion passion is to have a family and to be a mama and you know just to live that lifestyle and I know it's not going to be perfect white picket fences all the time and all the things but you know it's going to come with some real trials and a lot of sleepless nights and a lot of you know building a relationship is hard oh man but I think it's going to be so worth it and I'm just really I'm excited for when the day comes and we'll come back to this episode and we'll we'll watch it and be like remember when you said this and now look you have it I really believe that um okay let's do a few more what are all of your past jobs just for fun I actually have an ASMR video about this but I'll see if I can do them really quickly I worked in a fro-yo shop I was a waitress for years and years uh one at a country club another one for a catering company I worked at a community center in the front office so I was like a host slash I did paperwork and things like that um directing television I've been doing that for like seven the past seven years now I babysat for a while what else did I do I did a lot of volunteer like photography and stuff for years at my old church um but because tv has taken up my past seven years um I think that's pretty much it but the fro-yo one was the first one actually waitressing at 15 was the first one but then once I was able to get my working papers um I worked at a fro-yo place so I was a senior in high school or junior so I was pretty young my parents were very much like yeah you're getting a job so those are just a few of them some are plans um I'm going to Vegas in June for a bachelorette party terrified um and that's something I'm gonna very have to I'm gonna have to carefully navigate but we'll see um but it'll be fun it's for one of my best friends and then she's getting married in August I am in her wedding so that's gonna be cool I think I'm going to Colombia it's not nothing's booked yet but it's looking like I'm gonna go to Colombia also in August for a long weekend never been excited very excited um what else my best friend Marissa and I we might do a trip no idea where yet uh that's really it I did a lot of traveling last year and this year I need to kind of like chill I also have Luna now so I can't travel as much as I used to you know I've had family to help me watch her and stuff but you know she's my child I don't want to just pass them along to pass her along to them just whenever I want you know what I mean I have to be a little more considerate but um those are a few of my plans so nothing nothing too too crazy but I'm really really excited for summer for sure any collaborations coming soon I don't know collaborations as far as like not with any other podcast that would be cool that's like my dream one day um my best friends from church they have asked if they could be in a podcast episode and I really really want to do that I just have to plan it I also have to figure out what the heck the setup would be because it would be one two three four five six of us I don't know how I would set that up technically technically speaking but I really want to do that hopefully at some point by the summer I'd love for you guys to meet them I would love for them to share their testimonies my friend Carlos may I let him tell you but he has such a testimony and God has just done such a 180 in his life in just the last eight months he got baptized last year he reads the bible every day he knows more of the bible than me and he just he's so encouraging and he has such a passion for it and he just man like I have never seen a 180 in a person like that that quick and it's just amazing to witness and yeah that's gonna be a good episode I just like I said I really have to figure it out because I'm a little stressed about it but well there's a way there's a way even if we have to sit on the floor and sit on top of each other we'll make it we'll make it happen but I think that's gonna be I'm really excited for that I also want to do a mother's day episode at some point I've not asked my mom yet she also doesn't really like being on camera too much but if I kind of like coax her and be like let's to honor you from Mother's Day maybe she'll do it let's do one more could you see yourself as a guest evangelist you have a great communication style I've never thought about it honestly I don't like I said like I don't really like labels I just will I just want to be an example of Jesus to anybody that will that is there that you know that they're like oh there's something like different about her like you know I will say it is on my heart to do a missions trip I almost went on a missions trip this summer but just with the wedding and with everything going on and and being newly with Luna I was just like it's on my heart but I think I'm gonna do it in 2025 so next year that is my goal I want to either go to South Africa or I'm not really sure yet but my church partners with a lot of different missionaries and a lot of different organizations and sends a couple people out with every trip and I think they're doing they're doing a lot there's like six of them or something to choose from so that's really on my heart to do that I have learned in the past year that I have I really have a servant's heart I love just serving people not even just sitting and talking about Jesus or being like have you read this in the Bible like not even that just going and serving them people that are underserved people that are in need just to be there and be a light for them and just make them feel seen and make them feel loved and smile at them and hug them and that's just it's really yeah it's really on my heart so stay tuned for that because you know I'm gonna I wouldn't vlog it because that feels disrespectful but I would definitely come home and like make a whole video about it and so that would be next summer so you know like a year and a half from now but it's something that I'm already thinking about so um but yeah guys there are more but yeah I answered most of the really big ones couple of them were repeat I saw a couple that were like how do you begin a relationship with Jesus where do I start reading in the Bible my last episode episode 19 is literally all about that and I don't want to sound like like I'm like I'm trying to plug it go watch the video and just so I can get more views out of you that's not what I mean but it's just there's so much to say that I don't have time to say it in this video but if you go watch episode 19 it's literally all about that how to get started where to start reading in the Bible what to do to to get to know God and to get to know Jesus and all the things how do you get involved in a church community that it's literally that whole episode is about that so I will point you into the direction of that it is on this very same channel it's the video right under this one um and I hope that that will help you but thank you guys so much for your questions I'm sorry if I didn't get to yours but I do think I got to a decent amount of them um but thank you because you you fueled this episode I wouldn't have been able to do without you literally so thank you for being here thank you for your support as always with this podcast it's like my little baby I have so much fun with this podcast and I will be here as long as you guys are here wanting to hear more so again thank you for the millionth time and I will see you guys in the next episode bye guys