Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Tomorrow can be different from today.
Our lives often leave us feeling hopeless—like nothing will ever change. But perspective is everything. When you know where to look, hope can be found in the spaces and places you least expect.
Join Jason Gore (Lead Pastor of Hope Community Church) for a fresh perspective, practical steps, and weekly encouragement that hope really is possible… even in real life.
There's a lot of examples in the Bible that, um,
talk about focusing on what is best.
And for me, that is investing in my relationship with God.
And in a lot of ways, like you mentioned,
that means investing in right now
and not in what's happening in,
in the future in 30 years from now.
Welcome to the Hope and Real Life podcast with Jason Gore.
Our team is passionate
and committed to bringing you more hope in the everyday
real areas of your life.
If this conversation and content is valuable for you,
please do us a favor, like, subscribe, and even share.
You never know how valuable it could be
to share a little bit of hope with someone else.
Let's get the conversation started.
Well, welcome to this episode of Hope In Real Life.
I am here with, uh, a young man that I would call a friend.
Uh, I've had, uh, the privilege of watching this, maybe a
Nephew, maybe A, maybe a nephew, probably closer
to a nephew, but also a friend, uh,
who I've had the privilege
of walking alongside a bit growing up.
And, uh, you know, we talk about this,
uh, in life right now.
The world is, um, is desperately looking for hope.
And so we're gonna take in a spin on this.
We're just bringing someone on the show who in a day
and age where it seems like we're hearing every time we turn
around, mental unhealth is in an all time high, especially
amongst young people and lacking purpose
and lacking direction.
Uh, we wanted to bring a young man on the, the show that
actually seems to be swimming upstream in spite of that.
And so Seth Sullivan, uh, welcome to the show. Thank you.
Yeah, man. Glad to have you here. Why don't we do this?
Let's just outta the gate. Uh,
why don't you just give a brief description of who you are,
where you are in life, and what's going on? Uh,
Well, I'm, uh, currently a senior in high school,
but, um, well, I'm a rising college
freshman at NC State Go Pack already.
It feels kind of crazy that I can say that now. Um,
In fact, like tomorrow's your last day of school.
Yeah, that's how close
Tomorrow's literally my last day.
Yeah. Um, so I'm gonna be going to NC State
to major in agriculture business management.
I'm super excited about that.
I own, um, a business, uh, called Thrive Plants, where I
grow and sell house plants
and teach people how to grow plants themselves.
Um, and that's why I'm hoping to pursue
with my education. So,
Yeah. So in
a world where we hear
that young people are finding difficulty finding purpose
and direction, we've got a young man who's graduating
with donors, headed to NC State and already has a business.
Uh, and so entrepreneurship is already, uh, under his wings.
Let's jump right to it, Seth.
Uh, what factors do you believe,
'cause we're talking about this idea
of hope in a potentially hopeless world
or hopeless, hopeless situation.
What factors do you think in today's world contribute
to a potential overall sense of hopelessness?
Yeah, um, just to speak from my like young adult context,
kind of, I think one
of the biggest things like going into college
or even, even if, um,
you're a young adult who's maybe like not going to college
and you have other, other options
after you graduate high school.
Um, I think that one of the main pressures
that we have is seeking a purpose and planning your future.
And like, I just wanna say probably
for the past six months-ish, number one question
I've been asked is, what are you gonna do after high school?
What are you gonna do after college?
What do you wanna do with your life? Those kinds of things.
So it can be a lot of pressure.
Um, and I think that's, that uncertainty is one
of the main things that contributes
to people's hopelessness,
because I think there's a gap in between.
Um, like uncertainty is one thing.
How can we ever be certain of anything,
especially when you're talking about like 30 years
down the road, right?
20 years down the road, whatever.
Um, there's a gap between that and hopelessness though.
And so, um, I just wanna say like, I,
it is definitely possible for you to be uncertain, um,
but to still have hope.
So what is it that gives you that hope
that others might be looking for, despite, despite the fact
that there can be a lot of pressure to know what's next
or to know how much Yeah.
You know, what are you gonna do
for the next 30 years of your life?
And you said that kind of creates a gap,
you know, that uncertainty.
What is it that you can actually focus on
that can actually bring you hope in the midst of that?
Yeah. Um, I think the biggest thing that goes along with
that uncertainty, especially for young adults is loneliness.
Um, yeah. And, and that's,
that word can be interpreted in a lot of different ways,
but I think in this specific context, it really goes into,
um, there's, there's this weird feeling of like,
when people ask a question, like,
what do you wanna do when you grow up?
What plans do you have for the future?
And maybe you don't, chances are you don't have an answer.
In a lot of ways, I don't exactly have an answer for
that when people ask me.
And I think part of the pressure is, um, there's not a lot
of people who can necessarily relate to you in that feeling
as a young adult, or it can at least seem that way.
If you look at people who are maybe in their thirties
or forties, they might be in a completely
different life situation.
And sure, like they've been there
before, they've obviously been a young adult before,
but it may have looked a lot different.
Um, or they might not have experienced the same feelings.
And then if you even just go
to like a junior in high school, a sophomore in high school,
they've never been through that experience
before where people are exactly asking them,
Hey, what are you gonna do next year?
What are you gonna do in five years, in 10 years?
So there's not a lot of people you can turn to,
but I think the main thing
that's like the most important is people being able to
find a community, um, around them that
can experience those same kinds of things together.
So for me, um, as, as someone who's 18 years old,
if I can find a community of people that's my same age,
sharing a lot of similar experiences, um, that can kind
of help me have, first of all, just like a group of people
to be able to talk to and,
and go through the same things together.
Um, but also for us
to just be an encouragement to one another too. Yeah.
Yeah. I think you hit on something big right now.
'cause in today's world, isolation is a big thing.
And I think what I see, especially in some young people, is
they don't actually recognize how social media, like,
seems like you're connected to a lot of different people,
a lot of different thoughts, a lot of different ideas.
Yeah. But if we're actually,
if there actually is something true to what you just said,
finding community, like finding real people
that you can connect with, if we don't live into that man,
it makes sense why we would experience, um, a bit of, yeah.
Hopelessness. One thing I know,
and this is gonna be off topic here for a second,
but I know about you.
I mean, so you, you've got great parents in my opinion, uh,
and not perfect, uh, you would probably be the first
to be able to attest to that, but,
but great parents, um, you got a cell phone sometime
around high school, I think maybe just before,
Um, I got a cell phone in seventh or eighth grade, seventh
Or grade. But it seems
like I remember a time where like,
whether there was a game
or something like that, like you felt like, you know what,
I was just, maybe I'm just a little bit too tied to, uh,
this cell phone or to this game,
and you made some changes in kind of your approach
to whether it was social media or that game.
Could you talk about that for a minute?
Or maybe the impacts of social media and what you do
and don't do and why?
Yeah. So, um, over, I believe it was during, um, COVID
and, and during this time where we were at home
for school all the time.
And, um, it, it, I didn't even,
I felt like I didn't even notice it happening, but
before I knew it, I was just like on social media all the
time, like wasn't even
paying attention to any of my classes.
And I convinced myself that it was okay
because like, it didn't really matter.
I was getting good grades. I, I had all A's still
because class was just like super easy during that time.
Um, and yeah, I mean, long story short, I convinced myself
that it was okay and every time I would just find myself
like wasting time, um, on social media.
And so finally one day, um, I don't remember exactly
what happened, but I just remembered like this terrible
feeling, like I had just like wasted all this time.
And I wasn't like building relationships with anyone,
much less just like even my spending time with my family.
And so I ended up, um, deleting all the social medias
that I had at the time, um, including YouTube.
I wasn't on YouTube at all for a while either. Uh, so yeah.
Yeah. And the reason why I bring that up is, I mean,
you mentioned one of the ways that you can find hope in a,
in a world that could otherwise seem hopeless is
through finding com a community.
But you also talked about, um, this idea of purpose.
One of the things that I've seen in your life
that it seems like you do really well
is you just tackle what's in front of you.
Like whatever the day is, you go about it with discipline.
You make a plan every week.
It sounds like, when I hear from your mom
and dad, you know what it is that you're supposed
to do each day, and you just get up and do it.
And I think so many people can get caught up in
that question of, Hey, what are you gonna
do with the rest of your life?
And you forget, man, that can just be, you can just drown in
that versus,
and realizing like, you know what I need
to do today, I need to take care of today.
That's good. And, uh, it's something that you do really,
really well that you don't see a ton of folks doing that.
I think we could all, even myself Yeah.
Could probably learn from a
Bit. And that's a way
where I think both, um, the, for me,
the foundation of the way that I was, that way
that I grew up and was parented, um, as well
as just my foundation, my faith has kind of had, um,
a big impact on me.
There was a story, um, that, uh, my parents,
like I, they talked about a lot when I was growing up.
Um, it's in the Bible, um,
and it's this passage where Mary Jesus is over in the house
of Mary and Martha,
and Martha is, um, she's cooking up dinner,
she's making all the preparations or whatever,
and she's getting a little stressed.
Um, there's a lot to do to prepare.
And Mary's over here just listening
and talking to Jesus, um, which is, you know,
sounds like crazy to say she's just over here listening
to Jesus, you know, just like we're right here.
Um, but eventually Martha comes in
and she's like, Mary, like, what are you doing?
Like, why aren't you helping me? There's so much to do.
And long story short, Jesus, um, there's this beautiful act
where Jesus just responds with grace towards Martha,
but also, um, presents her with this truth that
what she's doing is good, obviously, like,
if you're gonna have dinner, you should be cooking food.
It's really important. Yeah.
But Mary is investing in
what is best in that situation.
Um, and so for me, like that story just laid this foundation
of focusing on what's best,
which in many cases is just right now, in the moment,
it doesn't matter, like 30 years in the future.
All of that is uncertain.
And I think the main thing between that distinguishes
between that uncertainty
and hopelessness for the future is your ability
to just focus on what is best right now, be in the moment,
listen to what God is trying to tell you right now. So,
Yeah, man, that's a good word.
Uh, let's do this.
Can you talk about, since we're talking about hopelessness
and hope in the midst of that, can you just talk about a
time in your life where you had maybe experienced
a bit of hopelessness?
Yeah. Um, I already touched on it a little bit,
but, um, I don't think it was necessarily one specific
event, but like I mentioned
before, I'm a, um, senior in high school,
and for much of the first like semester
of my senior year, um, it was, it was very stressful.
Like obviously that's the time of year, November to
December-ish is the time of year where, um, we had
to make a decision on where we were gonna go to college
and what we wanted to even do in college.
Um, and I think the hardest part about
that is right now we live in this culture where it's like
decisions are glorified almost.
It's like if you are, um, if you're not sure
where you're going to college, it's like, I mean,
people aren't gonna maybe be directly mean about it,
but if you're not sure where you're gonna go to college
or what you're gonna do in college, it's like, eh,
you should probably figure that out. You
Know, like uncertainty could be viewed as
not having it all figured out yet, which could be negative,
Right? Yeah. And so
that was a lot of stress
and just combined with all the side things that were like,
Hey man, it's your senior year.
Like, are you gonna get involved in athletics?
Are you gonna do something fun for your senior year?
Are you gonna invest in these relationships
that you only have a few more months left to hang out with?
Yeah. So,
So, um, again, um, you're a young man that seemingly
goes into this world with optimism every day.
Um, we've got, like, you turn on the news,
you turn on social media, we have domestic issues,
we have global issues.
You hear the world is constantly changing.
Um, I can remember when I was your age, I used
to hear from people regularly, namely my parents
and grandparents, other people Yeah.
That age, Hey, well, back when I was growing up,
the world was X, y, and z
and the world's such a different place
and the world's changing so much faster, always, even now.
Like how do you balance that, like understanding
and being informed with what's going on domestically
globally, but not letting that overwhelm you as a young man
that doesn't really know
what the world's gonna look like tomorrow?
Yeah. Um, I think that there's this, there's,
it's, it's like this weird phenomenon with,
um, that we do with ourselves.
It's like this confirmation bias
of hopelessness that a lot of people have.
Um, and in a lot of, can I just,
Can I just repeat that again?
So this, this statement is this confirmation bias
of hopelessness, meaning one person
describes a situation or declares a situation as negative
or hopeless, and then someone else does it.
And maybe the media does that,
and then all of a sudden we're just supposed to believe
that things are negative and hopeless.
Yeah, yeah. Just, but, but then recognizing, okay.
And so what's your response to that?
Yeah. And, and like you said,
the media plays a huge role in that.
I mean, we wake up in the morning
and for many of us, the first thing we do is turn on the TV
and look at all the bad things that happened yesterday
and look at all the, all the wars
and domestic issues
that happened like last week, last month.
Um, and so I think in a lot of ways
that plays like a big part in us just having this bias all
around us to, um, to a feeling
of hopelessness and for the world
Hope in real life family.
I want to take a moment and let you know about a resource
that we have for you for your own personal development,
spiritual enrichment, and really a way for you
to find a bit more hope in real life.
We have a tool for you called the Hope in Real Life app.
It offers things like parenting tips, financial resources,
marriage insights, uh, if you're looking for it,
there's even Bible reading plans in there.
And there's a community
where you can even share prayer requests
and know that someone is praying for you for whatever it is
that you have going on in your life.
It's available right now in the Apple App
Store or in Google Play.
You can search hope in real life in both stores,
or you can use the download link that is in the show notes.
Remember, tomorrow can be better than today
and hope is possible even in real life.
And look, I just wanna recognize we got
a young man on the show right now that, um,
it's very possible some of our listeners will
be like, oh, a 19-year-old.
Do they really have anything for me?
And I'm, I'm telling you, I live in a world that says, um,
not only is the, that generation not hopeless,
I think we are, um, we're going
to be hopeless if we don't recognize the value
that your generation has.
Like, there are, um, young voices out there
that I believe are, is impassioned
or more impassioned than any generation that we've seen
to actually see the world move into a positive direction.
And, um, you know, the Bible actually even says, Hey,
don't let anyone look down on you because you are young.
And so I just want to, man, as we continue in this
time together, I wanna applaud you for being able
to be at your life stage
and to have a mindset of like, Hey,
I don't have to worry about tomorrow.
I need to worry about today. Tomorrow's gonna take care
of itself to be able to say, Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I understand there's negative things
that are going out there that are beyond my control,
but I'm gonna focus on what I can take care of.
And I'm telling you from what I've seen in my life, if all
of us would just worry about what's in front of us
and what we can put our hands to right now, uh, things
around us would be much better off.
And so I applaud you for that, Seth. Thank you. Yeah.
Um, I know you are a man of faith.
Uh, let's talk about how your faith influences, um,
this idea of hope or optimism in your life.
Yeah. Um, so for me, honestly, faith is in a lot of ways
the foundation for any hope that I do have.
Um, and just like I, I talked about
before, like there's a lot of examples in the Bible that,
um, talk about focusing on what is best.
And for me, that is investing in my relationship with God.
And in a lot of ways, like you mentioned,
that means investing in right now
and not in what's happening in,
in the future in 30 years from now.
Um, and the only way that we can truly have hope
for the future or,
or hope to make a difference in this world is
if we focus on right now.
'cause how are we supposed to say how is,
how are things gonna be better in 30 years if we don't
start, you know, putting our shoulder to the plow right now?
Yeah.
So you obviously interact with a lot of young adults,
whether it's high school, I know you're involved
with other ministries here at Hope,
you're involved in other, uh, things out into the community.
What, what role do you think young adults play in creating a
more hopeful and positive future?
If you had a young adult listening right now
and they're like, man, I want to be a part
of making this place, uh, the world around me better, uh,
what recommendations would you give
or what role do you think they can
play in making that happen?
Yeah. Um, so I think the main thing is, um,
you know, we talked about global
and domestic issues a second ago.
Um, I think it's really important to have this balance
where, um, it's important to be informed
of what's going on in the world,
because how can you possibly understand how
to make a difference if you don't know
where you're making a difference?
Yeah. Or, or where the needs even exist in.
Um, but also to have another foot
behind you in this community
that's gonna help build you up and keep you hopeful.
Um, and so I think, you know,
Jesus talks about in the Bible being a light in the darkness
or being a hope to others in a world where a lot
of things feel hopeless.
Um, but the truth is like,
how can we be a light in the darkness if we ourselves
don't go into the darkness?
Hmm. So I think it's important
to take a step into the darkness
and our light's only gonna shine in those dark places,
but also, like I mentioned
before, um, just being able to,
to keep a foot back in this community
that's gonna help build you up and keep you hopeful as well.
Yeah. So what I'm hearing is make sure you're connected
to a community that can actually keep you going strong.
Yes. But at the same time, don't sit back in that.
Like, we actually have to be willing
to take a step into the darkness, into the hopelessness
to actually bring hope into the places and spaces around us.
Um, I wanna, I want to kind
of go off script here for a minute.
I know we've got, um, we've been speaking a lot to
young adults, you know,
and you know what that world looks like
and, uh, you know, what the uncertainty that's ahead
and how to approach that and find hope.
Um, uh, I also know we, so we have a lot of listeners
that might be a little past that young adult Yeah.
Uh, stage and maybe they've got kids at home
and they would, um, you know, every now
and then we'll have folks on the show
that are living the parenting experts world.
Yeah. And, uh, and,
and so they have all kinds of things to say about how
to parent, what to do, what not to do.
I would say you're a young man while again, not perfect, um,
man, you're in a pretty good spot in life,
all things considered.
And so what would you say from a parenting aspect has been
valuable for you, um, to be able to ski on
and to stay on the path that it looks like
that you're on right now?
Uh, what words of encouragement would you have
to the parents that are listening?
Yeah. Um, just in my experience, it, it wasn't a lot
of, um, for on, on my part.
It wasn't a lot of like disciplinary
action, all that, all that kind of stuff.
Like it wasn't really Yeah.
Never seen your dad beat you or anything that
Yeah. It, it
didn't have a lot to do with, you know,
when I, I like maybe
Your mom, but Yeah.
When I did things wrong, you know, I,
I wasn't getting like, beat over the head.
But I think honestly, like more than anything, it was just
my parents were always someone, uh,
or always, always people that I could look up
to in any situation.
And they were just
so disciplined in like almost every aspect of life, um,
so disciplined.
And I really looked up to that.
Um, so I, it was more that they were just
an incredible example to me.
Yeah. Like, they didn't worry about punishing me
or rewarding me.
There wasn't a lot of worry in that.
It was just like, we're just gonna do our best to be,
um, to have the healthiest marriage that we can,
to stay connected with God as closely as, as closely
as we can and, um,
and stay disciplined in these areas of our lives.
And for me, and,
and I can probably speak for Brady too, that was just for
Those listening, Brady is his younger brother.
Yes. Um, for us, that was just something
that we both are able to look up to,
almost like really close friends
who are just super responsible.
Yeah. Um, so yeah,
Super responsible. Maybe
we'll have your parents on
and just make sure, I mean, I could see that in you,
but Brady's probably still got work to do.
You know, I I know he's been a couple years.
He did a couple years. That's right.
You know, another thing I've seen with your parents is
they both take very seriously just spending
time with you guys.
And, and what's interesting is while you say they're people
that are very disciplined
and that you can look up to,
I know if they were on here right now, they would both say
that they're far from perfect.
Um, and what I've seen in them is an ability
and a willingness and almost a desire to live life together.
To not pretend, but to live life together
with you and your brother.
And even when they do mess up,
to be pretty quick to own that too.
Yeah. And to model that
and say, Hey, listen, that probably was a bit out of bounds.
I could've handled that differently.
And I've just seen that play out in some really significant
ways, um, in your life
and in Brady's life as well, hope in real life family.
We just want to take a moment
and let you know about a resource that is available to you.
I know a lot of our listeners aren't necessarily active in a
church, might not even be a Christian.
We are still thankful that you're spending time with us.
However, we do get asked regularly,
how can we find out more about your church,
or even just about this Jesus guy.
And so if that is you, I want you to know you can tune in
to get Hope tv.
We have live services on Saturday, 4:15 PM and 6:00 PM
or on Sunday at 9:30 AM
or 11:15 AM Those are Eastern Standard Times.
If you can't tune in during those times,
we will drop our YouTube link as well
as our podcast link down in the show notes.
We would love to have you join in with us.
Let's keep sharing some hope. Okay.
Uh, fun question here for you.
So you, you mentioned earlier you are an entrepreneur. Yes.
You started a business called Thrive Plants. Yes.
And, uh, I would love for our listeners just
to hear a little bit about that.
Like what was the heartbeat behind that?
What made you want to get into whatever,
what is it that Thrive Plants does?
Yeah. What led you to get involved with that?
And then what led you to move that past a hobby
and into actually starting a company?
And then you'll, you'll forget,
you might forget these questions,
and I'd love to hear like what your hope is
for the future for Thrive Plans.
Yeah. So what got you into it?
Um, so as I'm sure you know, mental health
or mental unhealth rather Yeah.
Is, um, is something that is very detrimental
to just the world that we live in right now.
Um, it's, it's a big deal.
And so that's where a lot of the foundation of where my,
like my business is actually from.
Um, I grow and sell house plants,
and you might be like,
what does that have anything to do with?
Like, it's a lot health.
Um, but the truth is there is actually research
Sounds a lot less stressful than some of the things I do.
Maybe it would be more mentally healthy for me. Well,
You know, you get outside
and you walk a greenhouse for an hour,
it's a lot better than sitting at your desk.
Um, but seriously, there's, there's a lot of proven, um,
research on, first of all, just the benefit benefits
of plants to people's mental health, um,
and their, their ability
to cognitively replenish themselves.
Um, and so a lot of the focus of my business has to do
with not only selling people plants,
which are gonna give them those benefits,
but also, um, educating people on how
to grow plants themselves so
that they can share those experiences. Yeah.
So talk a little bit about some things you've done.
I think you've done some things, whether it,
and I could be wrong here,
but maybe it's with birthday parties or something like that,
or get togethers for young kids, or you actually teach them.
So we had, um, you may have seen if you're in one
of our services recently, um,
there was a video about Priority Farm
and we had an event there.
Okay. Um, the Fostering Hope,
uh, I forget what it was actually called.
It was, it was a Fostering Hope event.
Um, and I had the opportunity to come and bring, um,
and bring a, I brought like a bunch of plants
and then like these decoration supplies,
and we just let the kids, um, have at it
with all these craft supplies and these plants.
And they ended up, we did this craft
where they would take a little pumpkin,
um, it was around Halloween.
Yeah. So they took this little pumpkin
and they cut open the top of it as you would
for like a Jack-o-lantern or something.
Um, dug out all the stuff
and then planted a bunch of plants inside of it
and it actually looked really cool.
So I stole the idea and sold a few of them.
It was super cool. Um, but yeah, it was just great to see.
And the kids were like, so happy to do it. It's a
Great rule of business. By
the way, Ahad, I know you can attest to this.
Every idea does every good idea doesn't have to be yours.
How can you take it innovate and scale it?
That's how you make some money. All right.
Anyways, go ahead. That's a different podcast,
Right? So
yeah, that's just one example.
But, um, there's been a lot of times when I've been able
to come to events
and what I actually enjoy doing more than just like selling
stuff is being able to come
and like, just watch the joy on people's faces
whenever we're doing like a class
or a workshop on just like transplanting something.
Yeah. And you're like, wow, this is so,
and for me it's like, I literally do it every day.
So it's just like, oh yeah, you just like do this, whatever.
Um, and then these people show up
and they're like, this is so amazing.
Like, I can't believe this. And I'm like,
it really is amazing, I guess.
Yeah. Like, but it's super fun. So
What about long term?
What do you hope for, for Thrive Plants?
Um, don't let me say 30
and cause hopelessness or anything like that.
Yeah. Getting into too much uncertainty,
but you know, what, what do you hope Thrive Plants looks
like five years from now?
Um, I think that I, I really am intending
to keep the focus on people
and making a positive difference in people's mental health.
Um, how I'm exactly gonna go about that from year to year,
not exactly certain.
Um, and my hope is to let God kind of take the lead on that.
But what I really wanna make it about is, um,
using this gift that God has given me on a lot
of knowledge about plants
and a lot of passion for, for growing things.
Um, and be able to use that
to make a difference on other people. Yeah.
Well man, great young man, great, uh, business idea.
And I know you're doing some great things.
If some of our listeners we're interested in, Hey,
how can I support this, uh, this business?
Or how can I buy some plants from Thrive for my own home
and increase my own mental health?
Uh, how would they, how do
they follow you? How do they track you?
Yeah, so, um, I'm on Instagram you can follow at plants
that Thrive or go to thrive plants.org.
Okay. And that's where you can buy a bunch
of plants if you want.
Okay. Alright.
And we'll make sure all of that is in the show notes.
Hey, listen, what I really hope our listeners get,
and this is for you Seth,
and it's also for our listeners, is man,
we live in a world right now where hopelessness,
it does permeate, it is elevated.
You know, I heard someone say John Delony,
who's been on the show before Mm-Hmm.
Actually was talking to Dave Ramsey
and he said, we live in a culture right now
where like it's actually frowned upon to celebrate.
Like, if you celebrate good things,
it's almost like you're bragging or you're a bad person,
or you're elevating yourself.
Yeah. It's like the only thing we can really talk about are
the negative things, or if we're struggling.
And then it's like, okay, oh, let me lean in and listen
and as if that's okay.
And man, I just, when I see young men like yourself,
I'm reminded like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
There are young people out in the world
that actually are handling their business the right way
that should be celebrated.
And until we get to a place to celebrate those
that actually are making a difference Mm-Hmm.
In a, in a positive way, we're gonna lose sight of the fact
that it's even possible, much less
that it's actually happening.
And so I would say if you have young people in your home,
goodness gracious, don't lose sight
of the fact you are not there just to babysit.
You are there to equip and to empower
and to remind them, not to let them get distracted
by the uncertainty of the world, but just to say, Hey,
chase, after what it is that God has put in front
of you today, how can we make today better for ourselves
and for those around us and for the things
that God has entrusted to us.
And for goodness sakes, don't look down on someone on,
on this next generation
because, um, man, to be quite honest,
I believe your generation, Seth, understands, um,
what is going on in the world around us.
And not only that, but how we can actually adapt, be able
to make a difference and to impact in ways that even
my generation can't.
And so to parents, to those that are hiring young people,
I would say goodness gracious, find a way to continue
to equip and empower and let them run
and into folks like you, to young folks.
And I hate to say young, I mean, you're about to go
to college and I, you know, so don't I know you.
That's okay. It's okay positively.
But man, don't settle for the status quo. Don't stop.
Keep making the impact that God has created you to make.
And, um, it's been a blessing again for me
to watch you in this life and to see what you do.
So thank you so much. Thank you. Amen.
Keep following, stay humble, but keep chasing
after what it is that God has for you.
Thank you. Thank you all so much for tuning in
to this episode of Hope in Real Life.
Listen, if you've heard something that, um, uh,
you think would be valuable for, maybe it is a young adult
that's in your life, maybe it's for a parent that, um,
has some young kids at home that you think, Hey,
they would really benefit from hearing this, please,
um, don't just listen.
Uh, take an opportunity to share this
with somebody you never know.
What a difference it can make when you take a moment
to just share some hope.
Look forward to seeing you on future episodes.
We'll drop all the show notes
down to make sure you can follow.
Seth, thank you again for spending some time with us.
Thank you. I'm sure I'll see
you probably at my house or something.
Probably love you guys. We'll see you next time.
Let's keep sharing hope.
Thanks for tuning into this episode
of The Hope in Real Life podcast.
If this content was valued
before you don't forget, like, subscribe, share.
You never know how important it could be
to bring a little hope into someone else's life.
Uh, there's even a place here for you to comment.
We would love to hear from you and hear your feedback.
Until next time, let's keep sharing hope.