WHOA That's Good Podcast - Be a 'There You Are' Person, Not a 'Here I Am' Person | Sadie Rob Huff | Earl & Oneka McClellan
Episode Date: May 10, 2023If you're needing an extra dose of encouragement, this is THE conversation you need today! Sadie is thrilled to speak with her new friends, Earl and Oneka McClellan who co-pastor Shoreline Church in D...allas, TX. Earl and Oneka share an incredible amount of wisdom on marriage, working in ministry as a family, parenting, even fashion advice, and much more. Oneka and Sadie discuss why our priorities are so important when it comes to fashion, social media, or influencer posts — what is your WHY on why you're doing what you do? Earl remembers when he first met Oneka and how he was "too saved" to begin pursuing her initially, but that changed after a missions trip! Plus, Oneka recalls Earl's incredible gift to her when their relationship was getting serious, which has Sadie remembering a particular snowy blessing shared with her and Christian. And how did a "simple" prayer request text message change the McClellan family? Finally, Earl and Oneka are passionate about being in ministry WITH their children and explain why it's so important to invite your kids into the call God has on your life! https://nativedeo.com/whoa — Get 20% OFF your first order with code WHOA! https://www.stitchfix.com/whoa — Get $20 off your first fix with Stitch Fix! https://athleticgreens.com/whoa — Get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D & 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase! https://losisterconference.com — Register Today for the 2023 LO Sister Conference in Monroe, LA - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,ers of Shoreline Church in Dallas, also with the popular podcast with so much love, E&O. They are so much fun and I had the privilege of getting to know them
at Passion Conference this year.
And now I'm so excited to further our relationship
with Yalvin on the podcast, so welcome.
We love you so much.
We're so excited to be on the podcast with you
and all the amazing listeners we were thrilled about this time.
Can't wait.
So excited.
These two are amazing because they're
getting me at my most out of breath state.
I literally had to cancel our first podcast
because I had to take a massive nap.
So y'all have been the best.
I don't know what that says about me
because I still love massive naps
and I'm not pregnant.
It's true.
We all can use a good nap sometimes.
Yeah, we can.
You know what I didn't say in the intro
and I should have said is that y'all are also
like fashion icons.
Oh, you are a fear.
No joke.
First of all, at Passion, I was like, okay.
But then I was like following you on Instagram and I was
like, forget Pinterest.
This is where I'm going for all of my info.
I will tell you, Onika is incredibly fashionable.
Is that the right word?
You are so sharp.
Literally, I will put clothes on without her walk out of the closet.
And husbands know this. You just get that look from your wife
like, full, better not be trying to wear this.
And I get shamed all the time.
She's the most, she's the most,
literally it's out of love.
You're the most encouraging person on planet,
except when I pick out my outfits.
Hey, that's good.
Sometimes you, you know, she's just trying to make you better.
And I will say, you all have his back. I was looking at your Instagram today just prepping for this podcast and you
inspired me to wear my pearls because I hadn't busted out the pearls and I saw that you
wore them on Easter and I was like, okay, I'm gonna wear my pearls today. Yes, no.
Listen, I Omega asked me to preach in some pearls.
And I said, it was so right.
It was so right.
It was what the moment in the fake haul for.
I'm a grown man.
I am not wearing pearls.
And I did not until we took the family pictures like, honey, please just put them on.
These are fresh.
They wear.
I'll do it this one time.
But our son, our older son, he was like, okay, I'll do it this one time, but our our son, our oldest
says, yeah, yeah, he was like, Dad, don't do it. It's personal preference.
I thought it was a great choice. It was right. And it led me to this moment. So thank
you for that. No, I mean, the past years wives in this generation have got some style.
I told Chad Vich when he was on his wife is also
You're added to that in my mind so
Excited to continue following y'all and seeing all the fits
But I got to ask you all the question to start off the podcast the same question ask everybody who comes on the wood
That's good podcast and that is what is the best piece of advice
that the two of you have ever been given?
Ooh, great question.
Where pearls?
You're great.
So good.
It's done.
So good.
I've got something my mom gave me a long time ago,
honey, but how about you?
You go for a show, yeah.
So I was raised by a single mom,
and she's awesome and wonderful.
Actually lives with us now.
Love my mom so much.
So if anyone's ever seen the show Blackish, that is my mom is basically a Ruby in that
show.
Yeah.
Watch an episodes.
Look for the character Ruby.
That's Earl's mom.
She's the mom on that TV show and that is my mom for sure.
Love Jesus.
He's very spirited.
Yes. Cuts. Cusses a little bit, but love Jesus.
Yeah.
But she sat me down one day,
and I was raised in the inner city in the northeast,
and she says to me,
Earl, don't let anyone else build your world for you.
Because if you do, they will always build it too small.
Wow.
And I am, I remember, I mean, I'm probably, I don't know, 12 years old.
Wow.
Yeah, she's sharing that with me.
And it really was encouraging and moving.
What she was trying to do is, you know, paint a picture for me to just dream big and trying to say,
hey, God's the one that made you. God's the one that fashioned you informed you in my womb. So,
let God have the final word in your life. So again, I'm raising church. This is the context that,
you know, a Christ-like home. So not really, you know, selfish and humanistic, but really saying,
hey, make sure you don't let people put you in some certain box and say, oh, you had a single mom.
So this is how far you can go. Oh, you were raised in this neighborhood. So this is your ceiling.
Oh, this is what you look like or sound like. So this is your, this is your lid. She was saying,
hey, make sure you don't let anyone else
do that for you.
God's the one that gets the final word in your life.
And it really helps shape me and mold me and dream big
and love people no matter where they're from
or what they're like.
So I would say that's the best piece of advice I received
from a human being that I know.
I have another piece of advice.
That's my favorite piece,
but I won't share that one yet, honey.
Which is what I would love to hear it.
I'm, well, from a human being.
It's so much, it's so much puppy.
It's so much puppy.
I was talking to a puppy.
You know, no, no.
From somebody that I knew,
because my favorite piece of advice is from John the Baptist.
Okay, this is good.
In John chapter three, verse number 30,
when he says of Jesus,
Jesus, he must increase, and I must increase.
It's good.
So that's my favorite piece of advice.
It's good.
From someone that I've never met personally,
and that has marked my life,
and is the mantra mantra if I have that
if I got a tattoo that would be the tattoo that would be on my I don't know my back my lower back
maybe well that's so good and I love the two of those piece of advice paired together actually
because the first piece of ice is so good and I'm thinking about that
from our own life. I mean how many things we're spoken over our family and us
like what can God do with a duck call right? Like we're my family and then they
have been doing it for 40 years. It wasn't very successful before the show took
off and then for me personally I wanted to do ministry but feeling
called to live in Louisiana which is a really small town, and how does that work, and all the things, and you know, you can just think of all the practical things that would make this not make sense, but thank God, God is so much bigger than our practicality at times.
So, I just, I love that you said that, but then also, I think that sometimes from a worldly perspective, you might hear that and be like, oh yeah, I'm going to go out and I'm going to live my dreams.
I'm going to blow it up.
It's about me.
Yeah, like do my thing, but it's so cool when you pair it with that.
He must increase.
I'm a Zikri.
So all this that I'm building, I'm able to dream big because he is big.
He has to be big things because he's been in me.
So I think those two, he says,
I mean, you see that lived out in your life
for both of you, but it's cool to hear that,
that's something that inspired you,
those two things together.
So I love it.
Onika, what about you?
Yes, a long time ago I heard someone say this phrase
and it's marked my life and it's tattooed on my heart.
For sure.
There's two ways that you can inter-room and I think you know what I'm going to say.
You can enter a room or enter a moment saying, here I am.
Like, here I am.
Like, I'm amazing.
Check me out.
Or there you are.
And it's good.
And it's made me my life, whole life be.
I want to be a there you are person.
Not a here I am person.
Every space I walk into when I'm with my kids, when I'm with Earl, when I'm with you,
when I'm with our church, when I'm at the store, just wherever I am, I want to exude
there you are.
Because I feel like our world is just needing to be seen.
And I think that when we inter spaces with here I am, we forget to see the people that
are on the other side of us.
And so I just want, that was the best advice I've ever received to live my life
such a way that says there you are, not here I am.
You live that out beautifully too.
I mean, every single person that spends any time with it on the onika ends up
feeling so loved and cared for and seen.
I know I've been married to you for, gosh, over 25 years now, which is
wild and crazy. But to be on the, to be the recipient of that has been absolutely remarkable.
Awesome. That's the best advice I've ever loved.
I love that. And that's so true. I love whenever people give their recipes a
vice and it's so obvious because it's the way that you live your life. And believe it or not,
you might think that I'm a super extroverted person.
And in some ways that am, but I get kind of nervous
to go and introduce myself to people.
And sometimes like, I'll just be a little bit more shy
and reserved and settings like conferences.
But when we were at passion conference,
I saw y'all over there and I was like,
I really just wanna get to know them.
And so I remember coming over to you and just saying hi
and you were like the nicest person ever. and just made me feel like so comfortable and confident and I just loved
even that one second of getting to know you. And then we saw you all again that night. It's like
11.30 after past year. We start talking. I'm like, I have to speak tomorrow but I don't even care.
Like y'all are awesome. And you do. You make people feel so welcome. I want to ask you because I knew this was going to happen with you all as soon as we start
talking, whatever I wrote down was going to just happen if it happened, but not if it didn't
go if it needed to go.
But I want to ask you because we talked about fashion and clothes and how y'all do look
so cool, but at the same time, you're so not about you.
You know, it's not like here I am, and you don't feel that from
you all. You do feel like there you are, even though you do look
cool. And so I want to ask you for people who care about fashion,
who do, you know, care about what they look like in a sense.
How do you carry that humble spirit in a room of not being like,
here I am, there you are, but also, you know know caring what you look like. How do you find the balance?
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Summer time is a great way for having fun in the sun.
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That's a good question. Yeah.
I would say I'm always for me personally, I'm always looking for
someone to love, well, and I think when that's your lens and your compass that's guiding you, no matter what you're wearing, you're not
thinking, even though you're having fun when you're getting ready, once you get to where
you're going, you're saying, God, help me to see someone today, help me to place value
upon someone, help me to speak life into someone. Just like Earl said, I dig, you know, I'm
a decrease that you can increase. And I think when you live your life with the lens
of who can I love well with the help of Christ, of course,
then you don't walk into a space,
even if you have a bomber on that you love
and I'm going through a bomber phase right now.
I love my bombers.
Because you can dress them up and you can dress them down
and you can wear them with a slip dress or you can wear them with jeans.
I love it.
But all that to say, I know my value and worth is not in my bomber.
So but when I set my sail on, who am I going to lead and love well today?
It's good.
Then it doesn't feel like I'm trying to get attention because I wore a royal blue bomber.
Yeah.
And then not.
I'm looking for attention.
I'm looking to give attention.
That's it.
That's good.
I'm looking for attention.
But looking to give attention.
No, that's really, really good.
I love that. I love that.
And you again exemplify this so well because you can see, you know, honestly, any situation
say it's even giving somebody being generous.
You can be generous because you want people to praise you or you can be generous because
it's the right thing to do
and it's Christ-like.
It's good.
It's the same activity, but the motivation and the heart
behind it is very different.
Yeah.
And what's difficult in our day and age,
and I'm sure you're on the other side of this way more than we are,
where people will interpret your motivation and intention
and it's different than what you know it to be.
Like here they are.
They just want to see it on the outside and they're going to say,
oh, this must be what it means.
Yeah.
Like you don't know me.
You don't know what I was going through today.
You don't know why I'm wearing what I'm wearing or saying what I'm saying.
And you carry that so well just so you know,
saying you do a great job of keeping.
You live that.
Yeah.
You live very much.
This is in the soft heart.
You live very much. There you are. Yeah. That. Yeah, you live there. You live very much. You live very much there you are.
Yeah, that's what we fun love with you.
That's the thing.
And Christian too.
Oh my gosh.
Yes.
Look at Christian.
Look how buff that guy is.
Come on.
He's got muscles on muscles on muscles.
Christian, when you hear this, I've got a picture of you on my mirror.
You are goals, my man.
You are goals.
But he's got all these muscles.
And he doesn't have this because like, oh, I'm so awesome.
He said, I like to work out.
I like to stay in shape.
I don't want to be good for the long haul.
That's why he's doing it.
Somebody else can look at that go, oh, you're vain.
You're about you.
No, you're not.
So for us, we want to live our lives for the glory of God.
We want to live lives that put a smile on the face of Jesus.
We recognize we fall short all you know, all the time.
But thank God for his grace and that what Jesus did on the
cross was enough to cover all of our sins and mistakes.
But at the same time with that, we get to live a life of joy and fun.
And I still like to play basketball.
And I still like to go hang out with my kids and my daughter was wearing some crazy shoes.
The other day, I don't know where they were from.
I'm like, man, I gotta get here some Jordans.
I'm not even gonna sneak her head,
but I was like, man, she's so seven, so cute.
I'm gonna hook her up with some jays
because everyone tells me that's what you should be wearing.
I still like to say, we don't get caught up in that stuff at all.
You have fun with it, but we don't get caught up in it.
Well, I definitely don't, because I'm not fashionable at all, but I'm thankful that I married
somebody who is.
I think that's so good.
And here's the thing.
I was going to say this last thing.
I think if we're just settled with who we are, so whatever that is.
So if you love wearing heels, wear heels.
If you love wearing, it's near a sneaker head, be a sneaker head. Like if you love cowboy boots, like rock
your cowboy boots, like I feel like people forget to just be them.
Yeah.
Celebrate who you are instead of feeling like it's more than you just like cowboy
boots you want to wear them that day. Yeah. It's not any more than that.
And I think your clothing can be part of art. It can be art.
Some people
are, you know, they like art in their coffee and they'll put little coffee designs in their coffee
and other people express it through fashion. So I just celebrate people and honor and love them
and don't want to put anybody in a box. I agree. That's so good. I mean, I went through a phase where
I didn't know, you know, who I was and so it looked like everybody else, right? And I remember,
my mom would make fun of me because
whoever my best friend was at the time, that was my fashion.
And it shows, like if you go look back at pictures,
like I went through all the phases and it was who my best friend was.
And then finally, I started wearing what I like
and it wasn't necessarily what was cool or trendy or whatever,
but it was what made me feel confident and it was fun.
And it really does come down to like your, your why, you know, why and, and your priorities.
Like, where does it fall on that list?
And this all made me think about, this is kind of funny, because sometimes you ask yourself
the why and you realize, oh, my why is wrong, you know, like for instance, back in the
day, I was about 18, you know, it was very popular to just post selfies, okay?
So I was taking my selfies, finding the lighting,
doing the serious face, and I was trying to get some likes, y'all.
And I, at the end of the year, my mom got me the gift of chatbooks
for Christmas, and it was like, your monthly chatbook.
I was so embarrassed because she took all the pictures from my Instagram
and she was doing it as like a kind of,
but I was so embarrassed because it was just like me.
Like it was like, I mean, it doesn't even have your caption.
It was just me and I was like,
this is like not what I'm trying to do.
This is not what I don't want to get attention.
I want to give attention like,
why am I posting this? I'm posting this because I'm seeking likes, I to get attention. I want to give attention. Like, why am I posting this?
I'm posting this because I'm seeking likes.
I'm seeking attention.
I'm seeking to look the same as everybody else.
I'm seeking for validation in my comments.
And I just realized that is actually not what I want.
That's not what I need.
That's not the direction of what my life.
That's not what I want my life to reflect.
And it changed the way I posted.
I was like, I'm going to post things for the glory of God.
I'm gonna post things that matter.
I'm gonna make sure my words are just as powerful
as the picture that I'm posting.
And I'm gonna post a picture that I know might not get
as many likes, but it's with my friends,
and we're having fun.
And it just changed, like it convicted me
in such a way that I was like, I need to fix the why, you know?
And so I think that sometimes you might be someone
who's been really into fashion and you're realizing,
listening to this, actually like it is about attention
or it is about being an expert,
or it's about looking expensive.
And there can be some things in your heart
that you can weed out with that.
And no shame, there's always time to change.
And you know, we're pinned to the other direction.
I've been there many times.
So I love that.
Now I do that too, Sadie.
You saying that is so beautiful,
the self-awareness that you have.
And not just the self-awareness, but saying,
whoa, Holy Spirit is messing with my heart here saying,
Sadie, I love you.
I'm for you.
I want the best for you.
And right now, you're going down a path.
That's not healthy for you. You know, turn, go another direction. Repent could be another word for you and right now you're going down a path. That's not healthy for you.
Yeah. You know, turn, go another direction. Repent can be another word for it. Right.
You know, I want you to turn here and it's so beautiful how God and this grace does that.
Yeah.
What's difficult in our day and age is how everyone else feels they need to be
Sadies Holy Spirit.
Mm-hmm.
They need to be the ones to tell you what to do
and how come, why are you doing this?
And I think that's, I recognize that's the world we live in.
But it is toxic and it does put us in positions of pride
and lording over people in ways that it's just not healthy.
And there I say it wastes a bunch of our emotional
and spiritual energy on things and people that we don't need to waste that energy on.
I don't need to be ultra concerned about what God is convicting you of.
It's good.
I've got my own things that he's trying to work and grow in my own life.
Yeah, great. in my own life. So, you know, with all the, you know, the listeners and followers that
you have, I think if there was just another element of humility, another element of surrender,
another element of us saying, wow, I haven't arrived yet. I don't have it all together.
We're all on this journey. We're all developing and growing and thanking God for his grace that's new every morning.
Thank God he's faithful. I think it kind of helps us stop taking everything so seriously,
getting so upset about, there are some things to be upset about, but not everything.
And we're on this emotional, mental, rollercoaster, and I don't think it's doing us well.
So thank you for being who you are.
And even, you know, stealing your heart in that moment
and allowing the Lord to go,
hey, Sadie, I love you so much.
Let's turn from this one direction
so you can go another direction.
It's good.
So proud of you.
I love it.
I said that.
Yeah, you're a fun follow.
I started following you before I met you
and I loved you before I met you.
And I appreciate just on the other side, like you're so, you're humility, you're tenderness,
you're so open, you're so real like one minute, you're like I'm having fun with my family,
another minute, you're like y'all I've been away for a second, life's been, life's been real.
Like you just bring everyone on the journey, which you don't have to, you could always just do
shiny glossy moments, but you take time sometimes to just like what you don't have to, you could always just do shiny, glossy moments, but you take times sometimes
to just like, what you don't have to, but you share like, I took a break for a second.
And it just, I just appreciate that about you.
Thank you.
Oh, I mean, so much.
Well, I feel like, you know, with our social media, and this is to everybody, not just if
you have a big following or you have a small following because every following you're making
impact on someone's life, which is no small thing.
But I think about how like, it's really easy for me to look at the
entertainment around us and be really frustrated because I'm like, man, like our kids are not,
they're not seeing a godly representation of a couple on TV. They're not seeing this. And it
is frustrating. But then I'm like, but wait a second, I have an opportunity to be that on my channel.
I'm not sure. I mean, on my podcast, podcast on my YouTube and be that in the entertainment world in the
sense through social media.
And I had a friend tell me that who's an actress and she said, you know, we have an opportunity
to represent to the world what a godly family looks like through social media.
And if TV isn't going to do it, then we should do it.
That's right.
And that comes with being authentic,
being honest and vulnerable and all the things,
but also not telling you everything.
You still have a private life here personal life
but bringing that part in.
But I love what you said to her all about
just letting the Holy Spirit can make to you
because it's so true.
People are gonna comment about everything in your life
and my mom always said,
it's really talks to you either way because they're either like too good a comment
So I'll puff you up or too bad a comment
So I'll tell you down and she's like so that is not where you need to get your feedback
Like get your feedback from the people that are actually in your life and doing live with you and
First and foremost from the Holy Spirit and allowing him to speak into and convey to your heart and that's true because
When I'm posting selfies
It's not like people are sitting there ragging me, you know
Yeah, they're clapping, you know, they're heart-izing, you know
So that's not good and then if I'm posting something else and they're judging me for my motive and why are you doing this and that's not good or
Even at passion people hated my jacket that I wore and it was like that jacket so ugly
You look like a grandpa all this stuff, and it's like that's not what it's about. And I remember
thinking how like it was so fresh. I loved it. Thank you. I like it too.
It looks good. All I have to say, it's like you really do have to be confident
in who you are about to what you said you have to be coming to New York, who let
the voice of the Lord in your heart, the people who surround you in your life,
and not worry about the weight of what the world's gonna throw on you.
No, you're okay, you're right.
You're right.
Oh, man, I'm glad you brought that up.
Well, you mentioned being married for almost 26 years, right?
Yeah.
It's so crazy.
Yeah, that is crazy.
And so inspiring.
And so I want advice and all the things.
But first, take us back and tell us how y'all met.
Because I got to hear this story.
I think it's awesome, but I want you
to tell your right listening.
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Well, I will say I liked him first.
That is true.
Thank you, honey, for putting yourself out there.
That is right.
That is so like him first.
She did like me first.
She was dressed very inappropriately and was trying to move me into her body.
That was not. No me into her body.
No, no, no, no.
If you did, honey, that would be fine.
But we met in college so long ago. I was on my way down to basketball practice.
And she was walking towards me. This is second semester of my freshman year.
She's from California. I'm from Rhode Island.
So here we are. She's transferred in. I'm from Rhode Island. Yeah. Wow. So here we are. She's transferred in. I'm walking down the
basketball practice and literally this I feel like I'm seeing the finest girl
I've ever seen in my entire life. I'm like, oh my god. This girl is so fine. Her
hair is perm. I mean, so straight. smile. So bright little Jean Jacket she had on. I gave her the,
you know, the what's up the head nod. You know, real quick, not too aggressive. But gave her a
head nod. She smiled back. I got down to practice. And I'm like, fellas, there's a goddess on campus.
This girl is so fun. If you've ever seen a music video, that's how fine this girl is.
And the music video.
I'm so good.
Come to find out.
She ended up being friends with a bunch of girls
and I was friends with.
And they were like, oh, you have to meet Earl.
You're like the, you know, the female version of him.
And then some of my guy friends were like,
oh, you got to meet Amika, but I was not really interested. Yeah, he it was so funny. Everyone at
our school was trying to put us together. They said, you soon as I came on campus, they said,
you have to meet Earl. You guys are meant to meet together. Week one. Week one. So I was like,
who is this Earl? Like, who is this Earl that everyone talks about? And so I remember meeting him
at like the cafeteria student center table.
She did not remember seeing me for the first time.
I remember when he first, I don't remember.
Which is okay.
But I do remember him at the cafeteria table.
And I do remember respecting him automatically.
He was like that guy on campus that everybody loved,
the school, the professors, the students.
He was just like the guy.
And so humility though, that he carried even then
when he was 18 years old,
I just have always looked up to him even in when he was a freshman sophomore in college.
But he was so focused on Jesus and basketball that he did not have any time in school.
He was a fast-talker. So he was like, I will not be distracted by a girl. So he gave me no hints or
clues, but I liked him first, not at first, but first. At first I was like, well was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like,
I was like, I was like,
I was like, I was like,
I was like, I was like,
I was like, I was like,
I was like, I was like,
I was like, I was like,
I was like, I was like,
I was like, I was like,
I was like, I was like,
I was like, I was like,
I was like, I was like,
I was like, I was like,
I was like, I was like,
I was like, I was like,
I was like, I was like,
I was like, I was like,
I was like, I was like,
I was like, I was like,
I was like, I was like,
I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I started liking him in that moment. But then he would not pay attention to me
because he was like, two spiritual.
Those guys that are just like, two spiritual.
Two spiritual.
Like this is my husband.
He was on a mission trip.
God was speaking to him about me.
He thought it was the devil.
Like that's how spiritual he was.
He was two spiritual.
I was very saved.
He was two spiritual.
He was like an over saved.
But I was in India. Yeah, I'd go on a He was too safe. She was like an over-save. But I was in India.
Yeah, I'd go out on a mission trip to India.
I was gonna be there for like two months
and it was an amazing trip, changed my life.
And I'm writing in my journal
and I remember writing this.
We still have this journal to this day.
I remember writing that girl came to my mind again today.
That girl.
That girl. And I didn't want to write her name
because I don't want anyone to read in my journal
like that girl came to my mind today.
Lord, I'm so sorry.
I can't believe a girl is coming to my mind.
Well, I'm on this mission strip.
Which was really God the whole time, yeah.
And so finally, because he was giving me no hints at all.
Earl was not.
So I was like, I'm going to take matters into my own hand.
So when he came back from the mission's trip.
I would like try to throw out hints, but not be too obvious.
So I said, we should get together and look at your pictures
from your trips sometimes.
And so good.
It didn't do anything.
And then finally, he asked me for my phone number
and said, hey, I wanna get to know you.
Because we had the same circle of friends.
But then finally, he asked me for my phone number.
And we got together in our school we had the same circle of friends. But then finally he asked me for my phone number and we got together in like our school
cafeteria and then the rest of history.
Yes.
But he was better than I thought that he would be.
Oh, you're kind.
And he was also for the girls.
So I was not like I became a Christian my freshman year in college, but I did not grow
up like my high school journey.
I was not like in love with Jesus.
I didn't know that like my body was a temple that God had someone for me. I didn't love with Jesus. I didn't know that my body was a temple
that God had someone for me.
I didn't know about purity.
I didn't know, I didn't know any of that growing up.
It wasn't until I went to college actually
that I learned about my value and my worth
and how God sees me and how I should be treated
in relationships, it was all new to me.
And so long story short, I had a crazy pass
before I met Earl.
He grew up in the church, did it the right way, made the right choices.
Had got not perfect.
Not perfect, but like you did it the right way pretty much.
It was not perfect, but his story was nowhere near my story.
Right.
And I remember the moment that I told you about my story because our relationship
was getting really serious.
Yeah.
And I just needed him to know like I wanted him to know my background.
And just some choices that I made in my past.
And I remember being really nervous
because I didn't want him to break up with me
or not wanna be with me, all the things.
I had all these lies in my head.
And I remember sharing with him
like just so you know,
before I didn't do it the right way,
before I didn't know my body was a temple,
and I just did not do it well.
And he said to me,
just so you know, you're the purest girl I know.
And the next day he brought me like a dozen white roses.
And I felt like that was Jesus through him saying that my past did not define my future.
And that God had just redeemed, cleansed, healed, made all things new.
And that's when I knew like he's a guy for me.
Like he sees me, how Jesus
sees me. So long. That's a beautiful story. Come on. That is beautiful. That's, I, you
need to share that everywhere. That is so beautiful and like so affirming and Christian and I had a
really similar moment. We had a night where we shared like all of the past and it was the good bad and the ugly ugly.
It was very hard.
I remember after that though, just affirming each other and who we were in
Christ and that we really are a new self and a new creation.
All that stuff.
And when we went skiing, I remember telling him before we went there that I can't
wait to be around the snow because it just reminds me, you know, of just the
purity that we have in Christ, like that he actually cleanses us as white as I can't wait to be around the snow because it just reminds me of just the purity
that we have in Christ,
that he actually cleanses us as white as snow.
That is so crazy to me.
And you know when the sun shines on the snow
and it gets like glistening, it's like dying.
It's like stunning.
And I was thinking about that's how it is with God.
When the sun, when your cleanse in that blood,
that's how pure you are.
It's so amazing.
And so before we went there, I'm gonna add a couple of that a few months before and then we were going skiing and he said
I can't wait to remind you of the vision God showed you and we're around the snow about your period.
And I was like so special to me as like a visual for this man to affirm me in my purity and
Christ knowing my past and for me to then affirm him and his purity and Christ, knowing my past. And for me to then affirm him
in his purity and Christ, knowing his past,
and truly believing for each other
that there was an old self and there is a new self.
And like having someone to believe that with you
and for you is just a game changer.
So the white rose is the flowers, the snow,
like just giving each other that is a gift.
And you know, for those who are listening who aren't married, who don't have that in
a spouse yet, even for your friends, like affirming them and who they are in Christ.
And speaking the words and the scripture over them as they are struggling to believe
it for themselves is huge.
It's so huge.
I love it, y'all.
Story.
It is amazing.
And seeing who y'all are now is so cool.
And I could ask you
more generic question, but I want to ask you more specifically. I was going to say like, what's
your best piece of marriage advice, but sitting here over the past 30 minutes and listening to y'all talk,
one thing I have noticed is y'all are so affirming to one another. Like y'all take time to say,
you're awesome, you're so good at that. I see that in you. And that is such a gift and you don't see that in every relationship.
And it's like y'all are like speaking words of life and it's making the two of you grow.
You know, it's making your voice louder and more confident and beautiful in the stories
that you're telling you're even better because y'all are affirming one another in 26 years
of marriage.
How have you seen that affirmation over one another, strengthen y'all as a couple?
Whoa, that's a great question.
Whoa, that's good.
Whoa, that's good.
But I'm fun.
Yes.
Yeah.
One thing, Christian, is always on me about
is drinking plenty of water.
He's always making shrimp drink in water,
especially during pregnancy, making sure and drinking water. But it's crazy that when making shrimp, drinking water, especially during pregnancy,
making sure and drinking water.
But it's crazy that when I do drink more water,
I feel so much better.
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I have been in an incubator of encouragement from the moment I met Onika, okay? I have been
Okay, I have been surrounded like a greenhouse of encouragement. It's good.
If I'm a halfway decent individual right now, it is because of God's grace and that I
have been the beneficiary of words of life, encouragement, wisdom, strength, prayers,
and love from this amazing woman that God has allowed me to
call my wife.
I, I without a doubt she speaks words of life.
It's awesome.
And it does matter.
You know, words really do matter.
And I know you might like to say, oh, they don't matter all that much or you, in our relationships
in the past.
We're not even relations. We were both raised by single moms. Yeah. And our moms are awesome. We're so thankful for them. We wouldn't be who we are without them.
But both of them were yellows, right? Okay. I mean, yellows. And if my mom hears that she's
going to be mad, I'm saying this, but you know, there was some cussing again she loved Jesus I was raised in church I am I am not who I am without her but both
of our moms were were yellowers so when we got married we did not want
yelling to be a part of our relationship we were both kids we remember we
remembered that we did not want that to be a part of our relationship. So right now, the level of
you're raising your voice in our home is so low compared to what some people would say
is normal, but it's just because we had like a zero tolerance for that. It has provided
a space for us to
I made that encounter on my hands the number of times you allowed our anger to overwhelm a situation and
tear the person down and you have to do a whole bunch of rebuilding because you said some things
Voice you say things that you regret because it's almost like
You know filter you have no filter. Yeah, just like at level 10 emotional. You decide what I feel. Yeah, because it comes out hot. And so
that's why we decided because we didn't want to say things to one another because so many of us
have had words spoken over us through friendships, through things online, through whatever that have
like marked your life where you're like, like God cleansed me from those words that I heard you know and so we didn't want that to be
of one another and because we both grew up in households where there was like it
was like level 10 yeah but I want to say this as well that even if you didn't
grow up with like an awesome marriage around you like some people the homes
that they lived in growing up they didn't have an example and so we didn't have
an example because we are both raised by single moms,
but we learned in church,
like what it means to be like a godly wife
and a godly husband and how to be a strength
and to support each other's biggest fans.
Like we learned that being planted in church.
Out of whole of each other's arms,
I didn't have a picture like in my family photo album
of like this is what,
how the marriage looks like,
but I got my picture and I found it.
It's getting church in God's house and other women came alongside me
even before I was married and mentored me
and just invited me into their lives shared with me
the things that they wish that they would have done better.
Should we share with me the things that they were crushing it
and we've always interviewed people that are before us
and try to be very teacherable.
We want to be students our whole life.
And so in being students, that's where we learned
that we should not yell at one another.
And it's like, I mean, people do it all the time.
So they look at us like crazy.
We'll just say we don't yell and we've been
in the snow.
And our mirror just not perfect.
We're not perfect.
We get, we get upset with each other.
We get on each other's nerves.
We have tense moments.
We have intangible.
Onika was totally snoring last night.
We were watching the show together. And I'm like, honey, we're watching the show together
You're just totally falling asleep right now. Yeah, like
We've also had seasons where we just have not been as grace filled as we would want to be
Yeah, sure. Like we're leading our church during during 2020. It was just
Lord Jesus help us all. Yes, and just leading anything during that time was very intense
Yeah, and so we've had several maintenance conversations.
For sure.
Like in your relationship.
Like these are the things that I'm doing well.
These are the things that I know you would want to do well,
but you're not doing well.
Yeah.
But all that to say, we have just decided that I want to be
his biggest fan.
I want him to feel loved well by me, believed in by me.
I don't want him to have to get that from other sources. I want to be like the number one source. Great. So we've just
decided that that's what's gonna mark our relationship is like words of life.
But also speaking the truth and love. Yeah. So he'll tell me like if I like
miss the mark in any area, he'll tell me to tell me how he's feeling. And it
took a minute because he didn't when we were newlyweds, he didn't know feelings.
Yeah. And didn't know feeling language. Remember that because he didn't when we're newly, but he didn't know feelings. Yeah.
And didn't know feeling language.
Remember that when you didn't know how to express what he was feeling.
Yeah.
It felt very weak.
It felt very like I'm not a man to share what I'm feeling.
And there was never a time I was in the locker room with my boys and they're like, hey man,
how you feeling?
You know, just like, you don't really share that.
Bro, what?
So, O'Niggas asking me questions and I did not really have language for it.
I was like, I'm good. That's how I'm feeling. Good.
And then you learn and now I've had, you know, get out of my own head to go, okay,
there's a level of humility and surrender.
Yeah. That's connected in marriage.
Yeah, it's good.
To say, hey, when you said this, I don't believe you had mal intent, but this is how it
made me feel.
And to actually put yourself out there.
And you know, O'Nee just said that she's wanting to be my biggest fan.
I'm wanting to be her biggest fan as well.
And it was year two that in our marriage because our first couple of years of marriage,
everyone told us before we got married. Marriage is so hard.
It's going to be so difficult.
This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. Oh, yeah. This is going to be so difficult. I'm eating out all the time, just decorating our little apartment together,
just living our best life. But then year two, or maybe it was year three, all of a sudden
Earl had an opinion. And all of a sudden he started saying what he really thought.
He really learned about his feelings and I'm like, oh, maybe I like it better when you're quiet.
We had to work through making decisions together.
For sure.
I had to learn how to accept, I learned how to learn how to apologize well
Yeah, because my lung language is feeling understood like that's so important to me is making sure you really understand my heart
Yeah, why do I do this? Yeah, I always like to tell you like, but this is what I was feeling
This is what I mean, but that was didn't help him when he brought something to me. Yeah. He overexplaining why I did what I did. Right.
She would explain it to go basically, there's no reason for you to be upset because looking
like it is. And I'm like, if you knew why, yeah, I don't care why you did it. This is how
it made me feel. Just apologize. And it's good.
Like, he had to learn to share his feelings.
I had to learn how to apologize in a way that affirmed it.
It's good.
And also acknowledge where I miss the mark.
It's so good.
So those things that helped our marriage last long.
They have that, for sure.
It's like being encouraging.
Encouraging, yeah.
Learning how to apologize.
Yeah.
Wouldn't you say those are two things you're remarking at?
Sure.
We're trying to out serve each other. Yeah. Well, you say those are two things that are marketing. Sure.
Sure.
We're trying to out serve each other.
Yeah.
Well, what I love too is like an underlying message and everything you said is just staying
committed to one another.
Like staying committed to the process, to the time it's going to take to change.
And I remember I was talking to my great-grandma one day.
She's amazing.
She's 92 years old and just incredible, but her husband passed away
Probably about 15 years ago at this point, which doesn't seem like that long ago, but it's been a while now
But I loved him so much was super close to him and might have been even longer than 15 years
So it was pretty young, but anyways loved him. He was amazing
And I always just wanted to marry a man like Peppa Shack.
Like he was like the best man in the world to me.
And just the way Memo talks about him, it's just like always so beautiful and so
encouraging and even that they're day in our family group.
Me, she sent, and she was like, this would have been our 72nd wedding anniversary.
Like love in my life.
Like still just, wait, she's on group me.
Yes.
No, she is on Instagram and Facebook and everything.
She is like, I tell her, I'm like, you are unbelievable.
She's been on podcast a couple of times.
She's amazing.
Like, she is so wise.
That's amazing.
That's awesome.
But anyways, it was just so beautiful.
And I remember I told her, I just wanted to maybe
someone like Peppah Shack and I remember she told me,
she said, honey, well, they don't start out like Peppah Shack.
And she said, even Peppah Shack didn't start out like Pippa Shaq. He grew into the man that he was and we did it together and even in the group
Me that she sent she said two young kids who I had no idea what was ahead of them but didn't care and you know
I think there is so much to that you just have to be committed like you have to honor the governor
Emerge and say there's gonna be hard moments,
there's gonna be times, there's gonna be months
that go by where we're not communicating well,
but we are committed to one another.
And even seeing like, you know, Christian and I,
same thing, we've only been married for three and a half years,
almost four years, there's not a long time at all,
but seeing like our growth from your one,
because we got married and then went straight into COVID and like it was like so crazy.
Yeah, it was just like everything we had planned just got canceled like everyone in the
world.
We were supposed to be, we were supposed to move to London together, be working at a church
and London all summer touring, doing all this stuff.
We had like the busiest year plan for our first year marriage,
and then we all of a sudden had nothing,
and we were living with my parents.
It was like, whoa, whoa!
Because he graduated college, we didn't have a place to go.
It was like, everything that turned upside down,
and then it was like, we realize, okay,
we do downtime a little bit differently, you know?
Like, I want to say,
I'm gonna say, yeah. Go, go, go go go make more plans and he's like
Why don't we just show because we have time?
That's a
That's a
Like learning that but now like we I mean that stuff doesn't even phase us anymore, you know
Like we've come to it so it's cool to look back and see like just the little things the conversations and even like the counseling that we've had that have got us to everywhere. But I agree like it was we went in and we were like this is so
fun. Then come a month in and COVID hit and then we're like oh we're actually
not the same person like we're different people. You're different than me.
I love you but that's annoying. But so good. Such good advice. I want to ask you all, because you all have a church or line of Dallas.
Did you all both want to plant a church?
Was that something that was on both of y'all's hearts?
How do y'all get to the point of doing that?
That's a great question.
Hey, hey, sisters and friends, y'all, we are so excited for September 8th and night
to get here
And I know it will be here before we know it
Elos sister conference is happening again and y'all last year was so incredible
But we believe this year is gonna be even better y'all we have such incredible worship leaders and speakers joining us
But we want you to be in the room
We can't wait to meet you to host you to be in a room together full of worship
So go get your ticket elosocisterconference.com.
Join us here in Munner, Louisiana.
Sign up for your breakout group today.
We cannot wait to see all that God has in store.
So don't forget to get your ticket today
at elocisterconference.com.
Yeah, we don't, I get that question a lot.
That's a really good question.
I hope you're interested in you answering that one.
Yeah, so no for me.
I went to school to be a broadcast journalist and be a news anchor and news reporter.
That was my little journey that I was on.
And so right out of college, I took a job at a news station.
I was an assignment editor, then a news producer, and then I did some reporting.
I was working my web because I wanted to be
like an anchor or an entertainment reporter.
And so that's what I've always wanted to do
since I was young.
And so the fact that I'm leading a church with my husband
was not the picture that I saw at all,
but I went to a women's conference
and during the women's conference,
there was a speaker speaking,
I don't remember who it was, but I just felt like God spoke to my heart. And we were, how many years have
you been married? A couple of years at the time?
We didn't have Parker.
Yeah, so maybe four years maybe.
Maybe four years we were married. And I remember hearing that speaker.
Five, yeah.
And I don't remember the topic, but I felt like God spoke to my heart and said you're
supposed to come alongside your husband in full-time ministry.
And I remember thinking,
what?
I was gonna be a member team at reporter,
or a news anchor.
And he gave me this word picture
that just basically said that there's water flowing
out of your husband.
But if you come alongside of him together,
you guys will be this like river together.
Wow.
And I felt like I was supposed to be-
And the king came a whole, too.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
And I felt like I was supposed to be obedient to king in the whole. Yes, yes, yes, yes, and I felt like I was supposed to be obedient to what I felt.
I was writing it in my journal and then I got off the plane, came home, told Earl about the vision
or the dream that God gave me. And remember him being so shocked because he never wanted to pull
me from my dream. Right. You always supported. Like he was willing to move to wherever to support my dream.
But then you let out like a side relief of like,
whoa, this would be amazing to do this together.
So that's how it started though.
Is that a women's conference?
So good.
When you just place yourself in the right rooms,
it's amazing.
And around the right people.
And around the right people,
it's the soil that you're in can cultivate.
These are so glad I went to that.
Even here in a podcast like this,
you do such a great job of trying to create a space for people
So they can just have moments to allow God to you know speak to heart and lead them and guide them
So yeah, but you did have this moment remember how long time ago did you have like a grandfather or a great grandfather something
That was a pastor or something like that. I did but it never made me want to go into ministry
I wanted to do like entertainment reporter.
So it was so beautiful.
Oh, Nika, since I have known her,
has been a leader, has loved people very, very well,
even more in the university together.
We went to Oral Abit University.
She was, you know, a chaplain and then, like a head chaplain
and always so tuned into God, tuned into, serving, laying down her life for others.
One of the first spaces I saw her serving
was not just in the chaplain program,
but we went on a mission strip together
with like, I don't know, 40 other people to Mexico
and seeing her interact with the kids there
was just so, so beautiful.
So she's always had strong leadership.
I've always loved you people.
I've always loved you people I've always loved people.
Well, now all the skills that she had with writing and putting things together and how things look
and feel and how they're communicated, it's fascinating to see how that's impacted the church
in such a significant way, but it was always rooted in a deep heart and love for people.
So sometimes people are like, oh, look at your church. I see this and love for people. So sometimes, you know, people are like,
oh, look at your church, and I see this, and I see that.
We're like, man, don't let this and that fool you.
We pray.
We send meals to people when they're in the hospital.
We go to dinners, lunches, and coffee to the people.
We send people text messages.
We show up at funerals.
We're there at their weddings.
It's like, you know, we're trying to love people,
like Jesus would love people,
lay down our lives, like Jesus laid down his life
at the same time trying to keep our marriage strong
at the same time keeping your thing engaged with our kids.
But we don't feel like those things
are competing against each other.
People like God called us to marriage,
God called us to be parents,
God called us into, to lead this church. So since he called us to marriage. God called us to be parents. God called us into, to lead this church.
So since he called us to do these things,
we don't feel like we have to put anything
on the altar if you will to sacrifice.
It's like Lord, we need to see God.
We just trust you to lean into the things
we need to lean into at the right times,
whether that's a business owner or entrepreneur
or a person leading a nonprofit or shoot somebody staying at home or they're a college student.
You know right now you just kind of lean into the season that God has for your obedient
to the thing that is put in front of you and then it's beautiful to see how you know
he continues to open up doors and give new opportunities and you have to kind of shift
your season like you guys are going from one kid to two kids, right?
I mean, that's a big, yeah, it's a shift right there.
It's a big transition.
Yeah, it's awesome.
I remember when we went from one to two, I was like, oh, they went from two to three.
We're like, damn.
I was not.
Yeah.
What are people doing this to themselves?
I love it.
I love it. I love our kids so, so much, but it's just a change of season and you don't want to,
you know, maybe you mourn a little bit of what it used to be, but you don't like memorialize
it so much and trying to live in the past.
You're like, man, God, thank you for new opportunities.
Thank you that you're growing me and developing me into the man a woman.
You've called me to be.
So for everybody who's graduating, college, it's like,
hey, it is different, but it's going to be better.
And there will be hard things.
There will be difficult things.
You'll cry a lot of tears.
And you'll wonder, what the heck am I doing with my life?
And you'll have your plan did not work out quite right.
But man, the steps of a good man and a good woman
are ordered by the Lord.
And he's gonna continue to lead you and guide you.
So we're glad we're doing this together.
We loved it.
We actually love it.
Like we really do love leading our church
and building our family together.
It's an outside of our marriage and our kids.
It's our favorite thing.
It's funny because sometimes we laugh and go,
why do we still love it? Because so many
people don't love it. Yeah, but we are so encouraging though. We don't really do. That's so encouraging
the hard. You need to hear people say that. I mean, it's the same thing with the whole Marisa
River. It's like, it's so hard, it's so hard, it's so hard. And you're like, yes, but it's also
amazing. And it's really wonderful. And the best decision It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing. It's amazing because O'Nicke, you said this to me that night at Passion and it's what sparked me to want to say,
I need you to be a podcast. Not just for everyone else to learn from you all, but for me to learn
from you all. When you were talking about how you should do ministry as a family, like do it
together. Like this doesn't mean just because you're having kids, you have to change whatever.
And I agree. Like God has called us to marriage and to be a mom and
also ministry and that they don't have to compete with it when they all go together. And I think in
the same way too, even with what God put in our heart and our desires, what I have come to see like
the the more you go about things is you think you know, well God have all these skills and I thought
I was going to be this reporter and I thought I was going to be this reporter
and I thought I was going to be this
and maybe God shifts and you're like,
okay, actually I'm going to do ministry,
but what he realizes is that the same gifting
that he was going to use in that area,
he uses in this one.
It's not like you, you know,
have to, like you said, lay down in the altar
all these gifts inside of you, you've got to put it in you.
It's going to come through in another way.
And it's also cool that even now you all have y'all's podcast and in some
sense, that's similar to interviewing people and you're on a camera.
You have a mic and you, you know, you're doing it.
And I remember thinking that because I thought, because my family was in
entertainment, I would do something in entertainment in front of the
camera because that felt natural.
And then I went into this ministry whole thing
and I was like, okay, this is different,
but when I look back, you know, I always love,
I was always having Bible studies,
I was always teaching the Bible,
I was always preaching the word like,
since I was five years old, so that makes sense.
But then when I started a podcast,
I'm like, I'm actually in front of the camera.
I'm teaching, It's like all
these things that he puts in as it's not we get so narrow minded. It's just one major.
It's just one job title. It's just one thing. But God's like, no, I have an abundance.
There's a level of pride that we sometimes have, Sadie, where we think we know what God wants to do
with our lives and what the deep thing is.
And it's like, how in the world would we,
as finite human beings, think we can know all that's
in the mind of the infinite, all powerful,
omnipotent creator of all things.
We have no idea the things that God has in store down the road.
Honestly, even our third child, we were fine with two kids. Sadie, we thought we were fine.
We thought we were done.
We were so good.
We were good.
Like our life was so full.
We were renovating one of our locations and we were just busy with our two boys.
And we thought we're done.
And then we got a random text message one Monday night about a little girl that was in
the hospital.
Well.
And the fan was trying to find her forever home for this little girl.
In Onika got the text message from a couple ladies on our staff team and they sent it
to Onika just to send it off because you know we would know people in the church.
Yeah.
And Onika says, Earl, do you think this is our daughter?
And I said, I don't know.
Put our name in the hat.
That was a Monday by Friday.
We were picking up our daughter and our life has been changed and transformed forever.
We weren't like on some waiting list. We were not in the adoption process.
None of that was going on. This was God saying, you have no idea what I have in store for you.
Just follow me. Just let me lead you and guide you. And he brought us the most beautiful,
my favorite child. Beautiful amazing little girl That's a beautiful, amazing little girl.
Wow.
She's changed her life.
And it wasn't in our plan.
It was not in our plan.
Yeah.
So just for our timetable.
Yes.
So giving God, just, I guess we don't have to give God
this freedom, but just creating space in our minds,
in our hearts, that the Lord knows the direction
and things that are 15 years down the road that we have no
idea of. So I want us to enjoy the journey and you said it Sadie so beautifully
and I think you're exemplifying this too. You know bringing your family on the
journey with you. I think your parents have exemplified this too but I know for
us we're like we don't want to Create in our kids brains that they are somehow competing yeah
With the call of God on our life. Yeah, no
God called our family
To this and they may not be in like full-time vocational ministry
But whatever you do you're going to be in ministry if you're going to be a business person That's that's ministry. Yeah, if you're going to be in ministry. If you're going to be a business person, that's ministry.
If you're going to be in the education world, that's ministry.
Because everywhere we go, we're going to be representatives of Jesus.
We're going to point people to him.
We're going to live for the glory of God.
We're going to love people well, serve people well, and be men and women of integrity.
Because that's who we are.
And we're not asking you to live lives of honor and surrender because you're a pastor's kid. Yeah. If we weren't working
at the church, this is the life we would be living. We'd be serving at church.
We'd be honoring people. We'd be in our bibles. We'd be allowing the Holy Spirit to
work on the inside of us. So we're not we're not trying to be like
professionals here. We are honored what we get to do. But at the inside of us. So we're not trying to be like professional here. We are honored
what we get to do, but at the end of the day, we're sons and daughters of God. We want to bring
our kids on the journey, want to laugh a whole bunch, and we want to do this together.
I love that. It's so good. Y'all are the most fun family too. And I love that about y'all.
You know, do so much good, so many good things and serious good work. But at the same time,
like the humor and the laughter is just such a joy. And I love it. Y'all have taught me so much good, so many good things and serious good work, but at the same time, like
the humor and the laughter is just such a joy and I love it.
Y'all have taught me so much from afar already.
And through this podcast, I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm going to listen to this podcast again.
And I'm going to go listen to your passion message again.
And I'm going to start listening to all your podcast.
You're awesome.
I'm truly like learning so much.
And it's so true, like, to invite your kids into Just the calling the guys you're like it's just so it's such a beautiful thing
And it's honestly so fun for us to get to do to bring honey to all the different places
And I had a moment last night where these girls ran up and they were excited to see me
And they say oh my gosh, can we take a picture with you?
And their excitement level was really high and it scared honey because she was she was
On the round she kind of looked and she was like what is happening?
And I said yeah, y'all can take a picture and honey was like sad and she said I picture like put me in the picture like
Yeah, that's beautiful.
And it was so it really was such a moment and I say yes, baby, I picked her up and she smiled for the picture
And it's like she just wants to be a part of it, you know?
Like it scared her to think you're about to do something.
And I'm sitting right, saying I don't get to be a part of it.
But put me in mom like I'm in the picture.
And it is true.
Like they're in the picture of our life.
So invite them into the story.
And so they don't have to compete their part.
And it's so beautiful.
But man, you're awesome.
I could talk to you all literally all day long. But I guess we'll stop here and we'll just have to compete there apart. And you know, beautiful, but man, you're awesome. I could talk to you all literally all day long,
but I guess we'll stop here
and we'll just have to have y'all back
on the podcast at another time.
And I also just want to convey,
but thank you guys for being on the podcast,
or being who you are, for living and leading the lives
that you live and lead.
Y'all are incredible, incredible people
and inspiration to so many.
So thank you guys. We love you so many. So thank you guys.
We love you so much.
We love you family.
We have your back.
Like if you're ever having a bad day
and you just need some encouragement,
you guys call us because we will just tell you
sincerely how amazing we think you are.
Yes, because God's hand is all over your life.
You still stolen our hearts.
Yeah.
Like our hearts are stolen.
It's so sweet.
Well, I definitely know who to call now.
Y'all are the most encouraging people on the planet.
Y'all are awesome.
Well, I love you guys.
Thank you so much.
I love you.
We love you, too.
Love you.
you