 Hello, hello, welcome back to Conversations with Carrie. I'm so excited to talk with you today. And side note, I feel like I say that every time, but I really am. So I feel like when the Lord downloads something to my heart, I'm excited to share it with others and encourage you. So let's jump right into it, shall we? This week, I wanna talk to you about the idea that God waste nothing. And I actually got this from one of the ministers at my church. She's amazing. I've mentioned her in previous videos, but she's just been walking with me through some things. And side note, you also need some Godly wise counsel to help you see some things just for the record. But as I've been like studying and spending time with the Lord, this really came to life with Romans 828. So that's what I'm basing this little time together on. And Romans 828 says, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. And if you've grown up in church or been around church, this is a scripture that comes up a lot. And I love the emphasis. I actually underlined it in my Bible. And we know, not that we think, not that we hope, not, maybe, no, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Not your purpose, His purpose. And this scripture has really stood out to me as I've been like walking through, you know, it's a new year, I'm in the new position at work that I absolutely love. And I actually talk about this over on my blog, CarrieLee.com. But back in my college days, which seems so long ago right now, but back in my college days, I actually was what you call a community educator. So we called it a cue. So my job was for my dorm, I was supposed to create activities from a cultural standpoint to educate the employee, educate students and also give them a sense of belonging. Okay, so that was back in my college days. Fast forward to now, that is actually my full-time role for my corporation, is that I work as a team under equality and belonging. You've probably heard like diversity and inclusion or some other buzzwords around that, but my job is to create a sense of belonging for all employees so that they feel like their voice is heard, they wanna stay with the company. Cause you know, happy employees equals a happy company and productive employees. But as I was just looking back on that, this is a position I've wanted to get into for a while, but I was waiting for the right time. I even applied for this type of work years ago, about three years ago, and it wasn't the right time. And I remember I was like a little disappointed at the time, but I was like, okay, I'm gonna, you know, bloom where I'm planted. And sure enough, God opened the door and allowed me to now do this as my full-time job. I'm like, I, full-time, I get to do this for a living. So it's so amazing. But what I learned with that is that that experience back in college, more than I think we're at what, 17 years later, that experience now has, all of it made a difference to what I do now. And that just reminded me that God waste nothing. There is always a plan. I know we sometimes hear different scriptures and you wanna believe it, but maybe you don't believe it. No, let me tell you, I want you to believe it today. God always has a plan for you. He has plans to prosper you and not to harm you to give you a hope in the future. And he has all of this lined up for you. And he wastes nothing, every experience that you had, because maybe if I had gotten that role three years ago, could I have done it? Yes, because he would have gave me the ability to do it. But what I learned in that three years is that I got to experience the world of diversity, inclusion, equality, and belonging on a different level. And I got to have a very different impact. And there are things that I gathered that helped me to be able to do what I do now on a much larger scale. Like there were Black History Month events that I was able to put on. I was able to work with other partners within our company that I probably would have never worked with. I got to build relationships. All of that, again, leading up to this now. But that's just my story. I also wanna give you the story of good old Joseph from Genesis. If you don't know, Joseph was the youngest or he was the second youngest of 12 brothers. And he was very favorite by his father. Like he was, you know, he was a favorite. That's what he was. His father really loved him. His brothers were extremely jealous. So his brothers actually ended up selling him into slavery. But before they sold him, Joseph had a dream. He had a dream that the representation of the dream is that his brothers were somehow bowing down to him. Now, you know, if your brothers don't already like you, you come talking about, yeah, I had a dream that you were like serving me or you were bowing down to me. Lord, poor Joseph, he was setting himself up. But either way it goes, his brothers, they're like, oh, we really hate you now. And they sold him into slavery. He went and worked in Egypt for Potiphar. He was accused of rape by Potiphar's wife, put into prison. And when he was in prison, he actually ended up serving some of Pharaoh's team. And he ended up interpreting the dream. And then when that person got out, it was a cup bearer. When that cup bearer got out of prison, forgot about Joseph for two years. So he was literally in prison with the favorite God of pointing, but he was still in prison for two years. And then Pharaoh has a dream and he needs it interpreted. And the cup bearer is like, oh, yeah, let me go get that Joseph, dude. The one who was in prison that helped me get out, that helped me translate my dream. Yeah, let me go get him. And not only does Joseph translate Pharaoh's dream, but he also becomes second in command to Pharaoh. And then he's actually used to help save his brothers and his father and during a horrible famine. Again, Joseph was left in that prison for two years. I mean, he got sold into slavery. He was accused of rape. All these things, I'm sure at one point, Joseph was like, I had a dream. Lord, I know you gave me a dream. Where is the manifestation of it? And little did he know God was working behind the scenes and he had it all taken care of. And let me tell you, I share that story to let you know, God has the same thing for you. He is not wasting any experience in your life. If you're wondering, well, why did I not get that promotion or why did I not get to buy that house or why have I still been looking for a job for so long? Please believe, have faith, trust, read your words that you can know, God waste nothing. All of it, all of it is working to your good. You may not see it now. And I know that's so difficult. You're talking to somebody who has lived through this multiple times. Sometimes I'm like, Lord, I just need to see you. I need some encouragement. And I'm somebody like, you've given me a dream. Like show me what it is. You didn't give me this dream for any reason, just for no reason. But I encourage you, look for God in everything because he really is working on your behalf. And I know it may seem really complicated, but it's not if you simply trust in the Lord and know like, okay, all right, Lord, I got laid off from that job. You waste nothing. So somehow this is gonna work to my benefit. It's gonna work for my good and your glory. Or you know what? Me and my parents got in the big fight. I don't know what it's supposed to do, but Lord, I know that somehow this is gonna work to your good and me, excuse me, for my good and your glory. So maybe the Lord's trying to humble you because you're gonna need to be in the humble position of submission in some time later on in life. Literally, don't even look for just the physical, tangible things. Also look for what God is teaching you about your character or about his character. Maybe he's building your faith because you're gonna need that in another state of time in your life. Or maybe he just wants you to rely on him because he has something amazing planned for you that he's gonna need you to listen for his voice so he can walk you all the way through it because you've never been there before. Whatever it might be, just know that every step God has already planned and he is not wasting any experience in your life. So while other people might be like, oh, that was just a coincidence, you can know and you ain't gotta even tell them. You can just think to yourself, no, that wasn't, that was the Lord putting things in order for my path that he's already planned. Like we are his masterpiece. He's already planned amazing things for us, for our future. If you believe that and you walk in it, you won't be so discouraged when things don't go your way. You can know and flip it on the side and know, okay Lord, that didn't work. But I know that you have something else planned because again, all things will work together from my good and your glory. And I think it's such a humbling process to realize that, but also it's a time of surrender to understand that I can't control this and I don't control this. That's actually a release of pressure off of my shoulders to know that it's not all on me. God already has it all set up. All I have to do is follow his plan, take, go to him for everything, look for him in everything and know that he's working it all out. So I encourage you today, even though things may not be exactly where you want them, please believe. You can look at me, you can look at Joseph, read your Bible, learn about all different stories and know that God wastes nothing. He is taking care of everything and he has it all working for your good and his glory. Y'all being blessed, okay? Don't forget to head over to carrylead.com and be sure to like and subscribe so you can get this goodness on a regular basis. Hope you join me next time for Conversations with Carrie. Take care.