From Fire Insurance to Real Faith: A Mom's Journey to Authentic Christianity

Show Notes

Join Kristi and her husband Jesse in this intimate first episode as they explore her transformation from a 'lukewarm Christian' to a woman of authentic faith. Through raw conversations about marriage struggles, supernatural encounters, and the challenges of balancing motherhood with entrepreneurship, Kristi shares how God worked in mysterious ways to shape her life. She opens up about overcoming infertility, running multiple businesses while raising kids, and finding genuine joy without worldly crutches. This episode offers practical wisdom for young couples, insights into Christ-centered parenting, and honest discussion about maintaining faith through life's toughest moments.

What is Your Walk Podcast?

Your Walk Podcast is about real people and real faith. Through testimonies, praises, and struggles, we talk about what it truly looks like to walk with God even when it’s messy, painful, or confusing, and how He remains faithful through it all.

y', all, welcome to the first episode of youf Walk podcast. I'm Christy, and today my husband will be interviewing me. So this will Be fun. And he'll be asking me some questions that my friends actually sent me. And we're going to be talking about my testimony, motherhood, marriage, and all the things. So this is the first episode. I'm so excited. Let's get into it. First, I wanted to say that I'm so excited to get out of the house. Oh, yeah. The snow has been terrible. Yes. If y' all see me in the video and I'm fidgeting around, it's because we have our tiny little terrace toddler sitting over here. Yeah. Lainey is in the building, so she's. Just sitting here being crazy. But, you know, I'm happy that she's with us. Carter is at therapy right now. Six days stuck in a house kind of does that. So kids as well as adults, so. It'S nice to be able to get out and enjoy the community. What's been your favorite part of being stuck in the house? Honestly, just time with y'. All. I mean, we've had some ups and downs, but it's been overall really good to. To be able to be with y'. All. And the kids did not like the snow at all. But we'll try next year. Yeah, there's always going to be next year. So let's kind of dive right in. Let's introduce you. Who are you? What do you do? Okay, so my name is Christy Johnson, and I've lived here forever, my whole life. And I own a business called Hometown Flair, and we're going to get into all the businesses later. I also own a wedding company called Events by Christie. So I'm a wedding coordinator and Shameless plug. Yeah. And what else do I do? Oh, I have a Christian bookstore inside Hometown Flair. Yeah. For the one you have, your Bible store. And it's a great place for people, especially the younger generation, who are seeking God, who want something that's a little bit more on their level. There are some Bible stores that are great for people, but they don't. They don't really touch that new generation of Christians coming up, and that's where you kind of fill the gap. Yes. Okay. So sorry. I'm trying to keep my daughter from pole vaulting off the chair over here. Yeah, she's next to Jesse right now. Okay. All right, so let's get into the first question. This is from one of your friends. What was your breaking point where you decided there has to be something more and then you tried Jesus. So, first, whenever I was younger, I grew up in church, thankfully, you know, with my mom and my Grandmas. I grew up in church, and I always knew that from an early age that you had to accept Jesus to be able to go to heaven. And I didn't really know fully what that meant. I just knew I wanted basically what you say sometimes, fire insurance. And the relationship was not there. It was just the fire insurance. So then as I got older and, you know, I went to my friends churches, or, you know, the church that I go to now, I did grow up in that church, and I just learned a lot more that the relationship is more important than just the fire insurance. So I was really thankful that I grew up in church. So I got saved when I was 14, and it was at my house, actually, a few people from my church came and told me about Jesus and asked me questions that I really couldn't answer. Even though I grew up from birth to 14, I could not answer their questions because I didn't have that relationship and I wasn't reading the Bible or fully understanding it. And then my relationship part didn't actually come into place until. Honestly, until Jesse came into my life. Then that's when the relationship started. And I have noticed huge growth that I'm very thankful for. So thank you. Yeah. And it's. I mean, God works in mysterious ways. He does. And, you know, there are relationships that come in your life that are just there momentarily. There are relationships that come into your life that challenge you what you know, what you believe, and in a good way. You know, there's this quote that I like. It says that growth doesn't come from just continuously doing everything. Growth comes from friction. It comes from persevering through tough things. And that challenge, we go back to the passage of iron sharpens iron. Well, if you think about how iron actually sharpens, they don't just sit there next to each other. Iron clashes. That's how the sharpening happens. It's that constant rubbing and clashing. The people around you should be constantly trying to refine you to a better, sharper Christian. And sometimes I might get on your nerves. I know I do. But I love watching you grow in your faith and discover new things about yourself and motherhood. And just as you continue to grow. Yeah. All right, so question two. What's been the biggest God moment in your marriage? You talked a little bit about this last night. We went over all these last night. Yeah, we did. I had to be prepared, I would say, when we first got. But actually, it was before we got married, if y' all don't know. I want this to be out There, because other people are going through this, too. But Jesse and I actually lived together before we got married, and I got pregnant with Carter before we got married. So that was the difficult in itself to deal with all that. But when I was pregnant with Carter, Jesse and I, we went through a major, major rough patch. That God was. You could definitely tell that God was in that situation, trying to pull us out of it. It was like a. I don't know what you would call. It was an absolute demonic attack. Yeah, it was. There was so much going on. Every situation just. It didn't feel like me. No, it did not feel like you. The whole situation didn't feel natural, but in that moment, I couldn't see that it wasn't natural. What snapped me out of it originally. I mean, I'll say it because, you know, it's my story. I mean, I was not a good guy to her for a good portion of it. When I first met her, I was. Yeah, he was great. When we. It started when we started talking about getting married and doing the right thing, and that was where everything started to happen. Like, the devil started attacking, and I started being mean to her for no reason. Everything was setting me off. In my eyes, it felt like she was against me. In her eyes, it felt like I was against her. And what it was, was, you know, of course, you know, when you're saved, you know, a lot of people don't talk about this, but when you're saved, the devil can't possess you, but he can oppress you. He can oppress your mind. He can lie to you. He can manipulate you. He may not be able to take. Take over your soul and your spirit and your body, but he can sit there and make you think the world is out to get you. And it wasn't until that moment when everything had boiled to a point and you were so stressed out and you said. You didn't say anything, but I heard it. It was like a scream. This is when you cried out for help in the bathroom when you were having pains because you were pregnant at the time. And that broke something in me. And I ran to you and I saw you again. That was the thing. It went from me. Not even every time I looked at you. I didn't see Jesse. I saw something. It just wasn't something wicked. Yeah, it was not you. And then I still struggled with it for a little bit, but that moment is what caused me to realize there's a battle going on. I'm in the middle of a fight, and that's when I realized I need God in this. Like, because that entire time, I had not been praying. I hadn't been opening my Bible. I hadn't been doing anything. I hadn't been going to God. And that moment's what really opened my eyes to that. And you had went to our friend's house that night, and I was at home, and I said the first strongest prayer I have in a long time. And I said, God, whatever it is that's going on, I pray you give me the strength to fight this and overcome it. It's like I'm putting it in your hands. I know you got my back, and I need you to clear this path. I need you to illuminate so I can see the enemy for what it is. And, you know, you came home that night, and we sat in the car and talked, and we. This is where we saw the devil who had been in this whole situation. We were sitting there talking, and we prayed. And I'm so thankful Ta question, though. We prayed, and I just felt like a quick blackout. Like, I just went down. And then I felt something yank me and I hit the door. And right in that instant, as I was coming up, what did you see? I just saw something. Black. Yeah, at the moment you said, I just saw something huge and black over shadow our house. So that's where I realized that there was a demonic oppression actually happening. So that's where we saw God work the most at the beginning of our marriage, because after that, we got married. And, I mean, we still have our moments, obviously, but that's where God cleared the way for us to do what's right by God. to the third one. what? How do you pray intentionally over your family without it being empty words? So what I used to do is I used to pray because I thought I had to pray that specific prayer. I saw other people praying about it, and whenever I prayed, it just. Just didn't feel like, I don't know, the relationship part to it. I was just praying because I thought that that's what I was supposed to be praying. Religiously whenever I started praying only what I was going through, that's when it became not empty prayers. So if I'm not going through that, then I just wouldn't pray it. So, for example, you know, moms are supposed to, like, pray over their household and their kids and stuff like that. But instead of it being empty, like, as far as just praying as a whole, I was starting to pray specific prayers that were actually going on. So, like, if. If I was struggling with motherhood that day, I would pray over that specific area of motherhood, not motherhood as a whole. So I would just pray over what I was going through in that time instead of just in general. Yeah, in general. So you pray with intent about things that were actually a problem. Yeah, that's a good thing. So number four, how do you and Jesse keep finances Christ centered, especially when it seems to difficult to stay afloat? I pray before I shop. I usually will have like a grocery list if I go to the grocery store. We always try to make sure that we have stuff at the house first. And I look and see if can I make this or do I have to buy this or whatever. And that kind of saves us some money too. But I always pray over my finances, and I'm sure you do too, but don't just individually before I go into the grocery store. And I just balance money, like, I don't know. Yeah, I think another thing is like praying over our business, praying over our income and our bills and things like that. And then also not just praying like, hey, God, take care of this for me. It's God, provide me a way to take care of this. Because God's obviously not a piggy bank. But, you know, we want to pray with the intent of God giving us a ability to take care of our situation. And it's stressful sometimes. It is very stressful. We don't have the same patience and time and God does it. We're like, God, we need this now. And he's like, I know, but this is my plan. And we're like, but I want it now. It kind of reminds me of us parenting Carter right now because he's wanting everything right then and his way. And then whenever I'm correcting him, he throws a fit and it automatically reminds me of, I bet this is how God feels right now. He is a. He is a father. Yeah. And I don't know, sometimes I think about that being a mom. It really does change you for sure. And I'm sure being a dad, being a father. Yeah. I mean, Your kid wants chocolate cake and it's 12 o', clock, and I'm like, you can't eat that right now. You're gonna get a stomachache. But they don't know that. They just see that. They think we're being mean, but it's not. It's because we're looking out for you. And that's what God's doing to us. He'll let us have some chocolate cake later, but just not when we want to. Yeah, but, yeah, of course you would. Use the chocolate cake reference. I'm sorry, I'm a fluffy dude. All right, all right. How do you juggle motherhood and the business? That's a big question for a lot of, you know, entrepreneur parents. I, I take them with me. Laney is sitting right next to Jesse right now watching some. A show on, on his little tablet thing. So, I mean, it works out. But Jesse and I trade days and I think that helps a lot. So whenever I'm at home, I do home stuff. Whenever it's my day to be at the. I try to get all my store or my business stuff done. So all the businesses that I have, whether I have to place an order for the bookstore or if I have to do a wedding timeline for a bride, I will always work on that stuff during my business day. And then whenever I'm home with the kids, I focus on being a mom at home. Sometimes I do have to balance during the day while I'm with the kids, but I usually try to do all, like, my phone stuff while they're napping, so I can do extra timeline stuff or make phone calls or anything I need to do. I usually try to schedule that around. Their nap time because, of course, we want to be intent to the kids when they're awake. Yeah, yeah. You know, from my side, you know, we both try to take a lot off of each other's shoulders sometimes. That can create some miscommunications in it and it creates a little bit of stress sometimes. But for the most part, us just each working together helps a lot because I'm sure if it was just me working every day and you at home, you would be stressed out and vice versa. It's. And it's a little bit different. It's not like one of us works a full time, you know, job and the other one's just stay at home. We are very, very fortunate for our situation, for sure. Yeah. I mean, there are plenty of people that are in a situation where like, they're both having to work full time jobs, and then they don't get to be around their kids. I'm thankful that we get to spend time with our children pretty much every other day. And because that's something I've always wanted. I love being around my kids. I know you love being around our kids. We just got done doing six days straight in a. In a snowstorm, so, yes, it was fun. I wish the kids enjoyed it more, though. They will when we can actually play outside better. All right, what is your favorite thing to do to de stress? I know I'm gonna get a lot of hate for this, but Tick tock. Tick Tock. And let me. Let me say why. There is a reason behind it. My Tick Tock algorithm is Jesus stuff. Homemaking, like homesteading chickens and just, I don't know, making bread and cookies and all the things. So that's what my Tick Tock is geared towards. And I learned so much on there that I'm able to put towards my family. So cinnamon rolls. I'm able to look up, you know, how this person made it on Tick Tock. And then I make it for my family. Or like, there's podcasts that I listen to on Tick Tock and I don't know, just different people that have different views on things. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I didn't even think about that. So I just de stress through Tick tock, really. And I'm not on it a whole lot anymore. I've really cut back a lot. But I don't know. Tick Tock is really my way. I. It used to be hammocking, but I can't really hammock anymore, so it's hard to find time. Yeah, I can't really find time. The last time I went to go hammock, there was a fire on our property, so I had to leave. As soon as I put the hammock up, I sat down in it, and then I automatically had to get up. So that was the last time I went hammocking. Oh, yeah. All right, next question. What inspired you to be a mother? I'm just watching Lady Dancing. What inspired me to be a mom? Kind of several things. I wanted to. At first, whenever I was younger, I wanted, you know, the cute babies. And, you know, I just wanted the baby because it was so cute. I. My mind didn't think about, you know, the raising part. The diapers. Yeah, the diapers and all that stuff. But then whenever I got a little bit older, then I was like, oh, this is job. Yeah, some of it's kind of Hard. And growing up in the church meant that I was able to look up to the women in the church who raised their kids, which were my friends. I would go to their houses, and then I was like, oh, I really want this. Whenever I get older, I want to be able to have my kids friends over and to be a great role model for them and, you know, to just have that village or that community, you know. And also because one day I saw a video where this older lady didn't have any kids, and she was just at the house with her and her husband. And I know that that is for some people and that's great, but for me, I was like, that's really sad. I really want a ton of people at my house all the time, kids and grandkids. And I'm not going to be able to have that if I don't have kids. Kids. So I was like, I. I really want to raise kids. And then whenever I got into my relationship with Jesus, it changed. Then it was, I really want to raise godly children. And I have a verse right here. It's in Psalm. Let's see, Psalm 127. I was there earlier, but then I switched to the other verse. All right. Sons are indeed a heritage from the Lord. Offspring, a reward. So Jesse kind of showed me that verse, so thank you. Yeah, I mean, your children are a blessing from God. And, you know, there's a lot of great things that come from being a parent. Getting to watch them develop into their own person and knowing that that's a direct reflection of who you are as a Christ follower, as a mother, as a father, it's rewarding. You know, our son has the funniest little quirks, and then there's things that he does that we wouldn't think he'd ever do. Like he smiles like your father, which he never met. He. That's so that's like something like God, kind of like, hey, there's something to remind you of your father. But then he does things just like us. Sometimes he acts just like you, sometimes he acts just like me. And same thing for her. She's starting to develop into her own little tiny person, and it's a blessing to get to watch that. And I think that one is a testament to how great of a mother you are. Thank you. You are a very good mother. You're a good wife, and I'm blessed to have you. Thank you. That's sweet. Also on that, I did go through infertility for a long time, and I did not think I was ever going to be able to have kids. So it. It does put a different perspective on it. When you're longing for that child and it's just not happening. And then one day it finally happens and you're like, oh, wow, this is amazing that you thought that it would never happen. And then it did. And then I've also gone through a miscarriage. So just a lot of things that other women go through, it's. It's tough. And that kind of is a testament to God's goodness, because you see that as going through that. Like God is just punishing me. Maybe I'm not supposed to. But what it is, is God made sure he had kids with the man that you were going to be married to for the rest of your life. God had a plan. I mean, when you look back at it, you know, Everybody says hindsight's 20 20. When you look back on something, then you see the plan actually in action. And you just gotta be thankful for things like that. Things that God brings you through to get you to where you are now. Yes. So next question would be, how do you balance your personal time with Christ, your marriage, motherhood, and everything else. It's a lot to go through, for sure. My calendar. I take my calendar everywhere with me, and in it, I've got my weekly and my monthly, so I'm able to have both. And then in my weekly, I have, what do I need to do that day? And I just focus on that day. And if I don't, there's times when I don't do everything for that day, and I just try to delegate that for a different day. It is very hard, but I just also have. I delegate my time and my resources, which is also kind of hard. But like with our store, if you and I have to do something at the same time, then we find somebody for the store. And our vendors have been great. Our booth owners, they. They will help out, and it's been great. Yeah, very grateful. Yeah, very thankful for them. So they are able to take up the store hours when we have to go do something or if someone needs to watch the kids. Then I'm. I have my group of people that I ask, and they're usually able to. To take over the kids. So I don't know, we just kind of delegate our time. And with business stuff, I usually know in advance when I have a wedding or when I have an event or something like that. So I'm able to have enough time to. To delegate all of that. Yeah, I think there's a song from Aerosmith called Living on a Prayer. And I feel like that's 90 of our life. Yeah. It's just pray and sometimes you gotta wing it. But, you know, you plan for the boast the best you can. My life is just winging it. Just wing it and pray. People ask how you do it, and I'm like, oh, no, what's that? Tick tock video goes around. It's like, how do you do that? I don't know. I just do, man. What is the most recent addition to your testimony? I would say I'm giving Jesse some credit here, but Jesse is a very good, good addition to it. Because before Jesse, I did not really have a strong relationship with Jesus. I would consider myself a lukewarm Christian for sure. I was not doing anything that I was supposed to be doing. I was out drinking and partying, and I was like, oh, it's okay. You know, I'm still going to heaven, so it's fine. I'll just keep doing it. And then something just clicked after I got with Jesse and I was like, this is not what I want to be doing with my life at all. So I quit drinking. I quit doing all the. The partying, and I just stay home and I love it. I mean, it saves money that way. Yeah. I remember when me and you first got together and I was very anti alcohol. And you're like, but we're just going to hang out and stuff. I'm like, what's the big deal? And I think that's when you started picking up on. It's not my. Obviously I didn't. I'm not the reason because I'm just as wicked as everybody else is. But it was God in me at the time where you were seeing that and you're starting to. It made your worldly part of you very uncomfortable, but it ignited your. It ignited the holy spirit inside you. And it's like, that's how I want to get. And I think that's where you started to recognize growth needed to. Needed to happen. Well, and also I thought that you had to. Basically, you had to drink to have fun. Alcohol needed to be in the vicinity to have fun. But then whenever I got with you, you're a goofball. Yeah, we have all kinds of fun. And we had fun without alcohol. And I was like, I don't even need alcohol. This is not even. So anyway, I mean, I'm glad I'm out of water. We had plenty of stories that don't involve alcohol. Yeah. Yep. Transporting dogs across America. Oh, yeah. That'd be another story for another podcast. Yeah. All right, so can you give an example of where your faith took you when you absolutely could not see a way to get there? I'm gonna say hometown flair. Your business. The business, definitely. When Jesse and I wanted to start the business, we were already nervous, or at least I was. I was nervous to start because I was like, okay, this is a thing now, so we're just gonna go with it. We had to get a building and the booth owners and, you know, I was new to it, so it was just getting everything started. I had to have faith and all that. And then whenever we wanted to switch buildings, that was very scary. Yeah. And then we had to switch buildings again, and that was scary. So, like, each time we've had a milestone, I. I did not want. I was really scared to go to the next milestone in our business, but I ended up having faith, and then we just did. That reminds me, one of my favorite quotes from Will Smith said, God puts your greatest blessings on the other side of what you're afraid of. And that's good. You know, this was a big situation for us. I just got done with doing outage for the nuclear plant. I didn't have a job at the time. You had just quit cuz you were pregnant from your job. We were pregnant, no money coming in. And God just laid it on your heart. And you know, you prayed about it, you couldn't shake it. And you know, you're like, I think this is where God's taken us. Like, I feel like this is what we got to do. And you're like, you know what, let's do it. And God has just been there every step. We've had some tough times. We've had moments where we're like, I don't know how we're going to pay for this, but God's always pulled through. I cried a lot. A lot of crying, a lot of stress. But God has always taken care of us. There's not been a time where we've had to go without because God has been there every step of the way through that process. Yes. That's just a testament to faith. Next question. When you think about the values you want your kids to have, which ones do you most find challenging for you to model and why? I would say me getting angry, but my anger is not like. I mean, for the people that don't know me, my anger is not like. Yeah, she's not going off on a rage. Yeah, smashing the house a bit. Me getting Irritated quickly. And it could be like the. With the kids or with Jesse or with something going on or whatever. Like, I'm. I'm human. I get angry. But it brings me to the verse of James 1:19. My dear brothers and sisters understand this. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. So I'm really trying to make that my. My verse for the year, the 2026 or 2026, and just work on that, because I don't want them to see me get angry at all the things. And I'm not putting this verse into place. Like, I'm not using this verse in real life. So I need to live what I read and what I highlight in my Bible. I need to live this and not just say that I want to change it. I think that's a great thing about grace and love of God, is that, you know, God's not asking to be perfect. He's just asking you to be willing to let him make you perfect. We're not going to always have it together. And that's. That's the part that humbles us because, like, we're nothing. God is everything. And so we're still going to fall. We're still going to have those moments that are. We struggle. But God is there to lead us through those. Those spots of life where we get stuck in the mud of our anger or our depression or anxiety or whatever it is. God's there to get you out of that. God doesn't want you staying in those spots. And I've been depressed, like, severely depressed several times in my life. And I remember each time I would be depressed for like, three or four days out of, you know, a time period. And then I would get myself out of it enough to be able to pray. And I'm like, God, please get me out of this. I just have, like, the tiniest mother mustard seed of faith. Can you please just get me out of this? And it happens every single time. Yeah, every time I've been able to get out of it, God shows up. He does. All right, and last question. How did motherhood change your marriage? And what advice would you give young couples? two questions of this. I'll do the first part. So how did motherhood change my marriage? When Jesse and I first got together, we did this really fun job with my Mom. And it was pet transport, so we were able to go across the US and transport dogs. It was hard. It was still hard. But it was fun because we were able to go explore the US but it was a job. Myrtle beach on Valentine's Day. Yeah, Myrtle beach on Valentine's Day was a highlight for sure. So Jesse and I were able to talk about our future and really get to know each other in that moment. So we just focus on each other. But then whenever you have a child, then your focus is not fully on each other, and now it's both on the child. So we just needed to learn how to put each other first and, you know, just relearn how to love each other like we did. Yeah. You know, being a parent, you learn a lot about your partner, your wife or husband. A side of them, of course, you never got to see before, because you've never been in that situation. And you learn their strengths, and you learn their weaknesses. And in that moment, you learn where you can help out, where you can help them. Hey, let's practice some patience. Hey, let's practice, you know, teaching over, you know, correction, stuff like that. And you have to help me a lot with that, too, because I have. We both get angry. Not bad. But we get irritated. I wouldn't say angry. We get very irritated with things. I know I don't really know the word for it, because it's not like we're. Yeah, we're not flying out the handlebars or anything. It's just. We get irritated because the kids do things that are just consistently annoying. But they're kids. And something I've been trying to work on is their kids. And something you've been working on is their kids. One funny thing that happens with the irritability thing is one thing that Laney loves to do is get in our way when we're trying to walk. She literally backed up yesterday just to get into my path of walking. Yes, she will get in front of you and stop to where you can't walk. And then when she starts to walk, then she might bend down and pick something up to where you still have to stop. And then she'll. It just keeps going. And then in that moment, I'm like, can you just move out of the way? To explain, for someone that doesn't have kids, if you have pets, have you ever had a pet that just runs in front of you and falls over as you're walking and you trip over them? That's what it's like with our daughter. Yeah. Carter does it, too, but not as much. He. He kind of gets it. Like, I probably shouldn't be doing that. Yeah. But, you know, the biggest thing is they've only been this age once. This is the first time they've ever been this old. That's the same for everybody. We got to give everybody a little grace and patience, especially, you know, your kids. I mean, it gets annoying, but, I mean, through parenting, you learn a lot about your spouse, you learn a lot about yourself, and then you learn a lot about where you need to grow and give it to God. The second part of that question is, what advice would you give to young couples about marriage and life and things like that? I would tell them that when you are married, and because I know a lot of couples deal with this, I have several friends that are going through this exact same thing. So I would just tell them that when you are married and you're going through a struggle and you have children, my. I'll just say my experience, and then it could just be taken for, you know, when I had Carter, I had so much love for him that I. Whenever I got pregnant with Laney right after, because I had them back to back. As soon as I got pregnant with Laney, I. The thought in my head was like, how am I going to love this second child? Because I love Carter so much that, for one, I was. I was terrified to be a girl mom. And also, like, I just didn't know how I was gonna love her the same. But whenever she arrived, I actually had different love for her, but it was still a massive amount of love. So I found love in me that I didn't know existed. I didn't know that it could. Even though if I love someone so deep, I. I could still love someone else so de. Or, like, have more love in me. So that kind of ties into marriage. If you're struggling in your marriage and you're like, I. I don't think I can love this person anymore. Like, I think I'm done, then just kind of, like, in my situation where I didn't think I could love anymore, I ended up loving more. So you can kind of tie that in with your marriage, like, maybe pray for more love or, you know, how am I going to love this person? Show me. Show me the love that you. That God has for you to show someone else. Yeah. Because love is a choice. Love is a choice. It's not something you just. It's not a. Just an emotion that you fall into. It is a decision you make every single day. A strong Love is somebody waking up and choosing. They may have agitated me, they may have really ticked me off, but in the end, that's my person, and I'm stick by them and I'm gonna love them through this situation. And that's where you let God show. God shows up in that and then, like my advice and, you know, speaking to the guys. But for couples, I mean, you need to make sure y' all are on the same page before y' all ever get married, y' all need to sit down and talk about what you believe, how you want to raise your kids, you know, finances, where y' all want to go together. I got her. But, you know, where do you want to be in 20 years? Like the Bible says, don't be unequally yoked. That doesn't just be. I mean, don't be with people that have a different belief than you. That means make sure they have the same foundation as you, they have the same desires as you, they have the same. Having the same. I mean, I guess it's everything as a whole. Yeah, it applies to a lot of things. It's about making sure that that person is on the same level you are. You don't have to be exact on everything. You don't have to have the same hobbies, you don't have the same likes and stuff. But when it comes to the foundational stuff, like the core of that person, y' all need to make sure y' all click. Like, it's gotta fit. It's. It's not like you can. You know, I'm a Christian and I'm an atheist. I mean, that can work if God works on them, but that's going to cause a lot of stress or I want kids and I don't want kids. Well, now y' all got a problem in the marriage. Y' all need to make sure y' all are on the same page. Otherwise, I'm not saying you can't, but I'm gonna say it's not idea for a godly marriage and a godly family to be in a situation like that, because you're putting a lot of stress on your family. If y' all do have kids, then you gotta question, like, do they really want your kids? And stuff. And you don't want to have to sit there and worry about that. All right, well, that's all the questions. I also wanted to add in that your Walk podcast, the name came from Lance Fetters, which is our Sunday school teacher, but also. Yeah, I've known him forever, but he. Whenever he would teach our classes, he would always go around the room and say, how's your walk? How's your walk? How's your walk? So that just kind of gave everyone. I don't know how you would. It kind of just gave me the idea or gave you the idea. Fetters. Whenever he would go around the room and say, how's your walk? To each person, it kind of built a community of, okay, well, I see that they're struggling just like me, or I'm doing really well, and so are they, so that's awesome to see, too. So this podcast is just talking about everyone's testimonies, their praises, and struggles with their relationship with Jesus, and Next week, we have Jen Brown, and she will be talking about her testimony as well, so I'm excited to have her. So y' all keep watching.