Think val day this is the first day of and then we start man I I was in that I was in that meeting last night homecoming and we as foram we as for PR nobody well nobody here that I have to go so some of the old told me they said
I 2 people they said well I figed you but check check mike check testing one talk people and they got good evening everyone and welcome to lean in Bible study and I want to wish everyone a Happy Valentine’s Day and also let you know that this is the first day of
Lent so uh I’m sure the p Pastor will have more to say on that when he comes uh to uh the stage now we’re going to have an old time devotion all right you notice there’s no musicians so you stomp your feet and sing along with us and uh we’re going to
Uh enjoy ourselves for the next 10 minutes all right now we’ll start off the song with deacon Stevenson I will do the scripture and dickon Kenny Davis will do the prayer without any further Ado good evening okay now come on stand up on your feet and just thank the Lord cuz
Here we are we are here this evening why because he let us be here again not that we’ve done anything great but it was God who allowed us to be here it’s a valentine day it’s all about love but that’s who God is he is love so we’re
Going to keep that hype going we’re going to kind of slow it down with an old school song that I’m pretty sure that all of you know Pass Me Not My [Applause] Cry Wild on th call do not pass me by talking Saor here my C On th do not pass me by let be at the Throne of Mery find us sweet Really kneeling there KN there inep my un I’m Saying here my humble cry other thou do not pass me by let’s say it again SA My Cry call do not pass me thank you so much like for you to turn in turn to your Bibles to Matthews 4 I’ll be reading uh Matthews 4 1-1 and uh I’ll be reading from the revised Standard Version I say again Matthew 4 veres 1-1 One More Time m Matthew
41-11 and it reads says thus then Jesus was led up by the spirit Into the Wilderness to be tempted by the devil he fasted 40 days and 40 nights and afterward he was famished the temperer came and said to him if you are the Son of God command
These stones to become loaves of bread but he answered it is is written one does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pentle and
The temple saying to him if you are the Son of God throw yourself down for it’s written he will command his angels concerning you and their hands they will bear you up so that you will not Dash your feet against the stone Jesus said to him
Again it is written do not put the Lord your God to the test again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their Splendor and he said to him all these I will give you if you fall
Down and worship me Jesus said to him away with you Satan for it is written Worship the Lord your God and serve him only then the devil left him and suddenly the Angels Came and waited on him I have read Matthew 4: 1-1 of the new revised Standard Version and uh
May uh the Lord have a blessing to the reader the reading the hearer and the doers of his word amen before the prayer we’re going to have one more song uh since we’re kind of doing old school I just kind of think about Deacon Smith and the song that he used to sing
That used to bring a lot to us so if you are hanging with me on this way my hope is BU on oh my hope my hope is SP [Applause] Jesus Jesus love and rightousness oh my hope my hope is BU oh my hope my hope hope Jesus blood Jesus blood and [Applause] rightousness and I dare I not Tret oh I dare I dare not trust theet I dare I dare not TR holy the holy Jesus amen amen amen let’s go to the Lord in prayer Almighty and everlasting God we come this evening in the name of Jesus Christ under the leading of our
The holy spirit thank Father God we come in awe of your majesty Your Glory your dominion and your power we thank you Lord for giving us an opportunity to come out tonight to worship to praise and to pray we thank you Lord for your Tender Mercies and your loving kindness
We thank you Lord that you’ve not dealt with us according to our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities father when we think about your glory your majesty your dominion and how you’ve created everything it causes us Lord to want to Humble ourselves and confess our sins yes Lord Lord we
Confess that we have been a stiff neck and rebellious people we followed our own ways we’ve done things that you told us not to do we’ve not done things that youve told us to do so forgive us father forgive us for being short with other people forgive us for anything Lord
Clean us of and cleanse us that we might be a life that’s Le pleasing to you father God we thank you we thank you for life health and strength we thank you for the opportunity to meet here tonight we pray for all of those that have gathered in this place and for those
That are not here for whatever reason father we ask you to bless every organization auxiliary of this body of Believers continue to lead God our pastor Lord surround him with wise and encouraging people uh help him to stay humble and seeking you Lord and doing doing the things that is pleasing to you
Every auxiliary every part of this church Lord we pray that you will lead guide and develop us and not now Lord we ask that in our own lives that you will help us to live a life that’s pleasing to you that we would desire to have more
Love towards those that hate us have more compassion more peace more love in a world that’s so filled with t turmoil and hatred and division help us father as Christians those that are called by your name to seek your kingdom and spread the good news in our life in the
Way we live and the things we say continue to lead guide be with us bless us and keep us and help us to always give you the glory the praise and the honor what is in Jesus name we pray amen amen and we’ll pass it on to the Pastor I work at Louis Chapel of course I’m usually one of the first ones here usually the last person to leave I work at Louis Chapel of course I get asked for help while I’m on the way to help somebody I work in Louis Chapel of course I know
About life groups have you joined one today I work in Louis Chapel of course I’ll be representing ENT on HBCU day join us February 25th for our annual HBCU day see you there all right all right thank you Q thank you to our digital media uh Ministry and Happy Valentine’s Day to
Everyone happy Valentine’s Day to all of you tonight the reason you see these chairs here is because we’re going to have we’re going to have a discussion we’re going to have a discussion tonight and uh some people have volunteered to be a part of that discussion and uh
We’re going to have a discussion tonight it’s going to be about love and relationships about love and relationships so I look forward uh to that uh to I have one empty chair just in case somebody wanted to volunteer to be a part of this um conversation
Tonight and also and also oh and let me say there there no this ain’t uh people chasing social media clout trying to ask you got you questions we just going to matter of fact I’ll tell you what the first question is just so you can already be ready for what the first question
Is I can’t remember what the first question is I I’ll let you know just one oh what is one of the lessons you have learned about love in your experience of your relationships one of what is one of the lessons that you’ve learned about love that that’s that’s how we’re going to
Start this conversation so it’s that kind of conversation it’s about it’s about relationships and and uh compromise communication and this we’re going to talk about those kind of things now also also want to say that uh if this conversation required perfect relationships or relationships that had
Not struggled or failed none of us could have these conversations because none of our relationships would fall into that category it is from the ups and downs the up and flows of our relationship that we learn the most and how to navigate it all so as we have this conversation tonight just understand
That these are these are people just in relationships just like yours so good Bad and the Ugly who who are who are brave enough to have this conversation with all of us so yeah I think I’ll I think three cuz I don’t see we had three
Up the chairs so yeah so if you feel so moved just give me a and now you know we we’ll we’ll we’ll get going so but before we get there let me share this with you Saturday somebody say Saturday Saturday we are going to be
Meeting here from 10 to 1:00 from 10 to 1:00 we will be having uh we will be having our dance rehearsal with our African-American dance Ensemble from Durham North Carolina uh they’re going toach teach us dance and African drums and then the following Sunday the very
Next day at 8:30 and 11:00 we are going we’re going to uh perform that as part of our uh Black History Month celebration and our black Excellence that we’re celebrating here at Louis Chapel so all of the dancers in this space and are connected with us right
Now can’t wait to see you Saturday 10: to 1 we will have some refreshments and things that nature CU we know we’ll be here for 3 hours uh so we’ll have some food and some refreshments uh for you uh so some beverage and so on and so forth
So see you there look forward to seeing you there and yes I’m saying I’ll see you there because I will be participating as well look forward to it all right and the last Sunday of this month which is the fourth Sunday and the date of that Sunday is whatever the last
Sunday of this month is we are going to be we we’ll be closing out Black History Month Grant a spectacular way uh we’re going to have a uh a choir comprised of our fraternities and our sororities it’s going to be a good time with that we’re
Also uh at the close of that 11:00 worship going to go over to uh the rack and we’re going to have some soul food I don’t know exactly what’s on the menu I don’t maybe oxtails maybe chicken feet maybe pig feet are those only two feet we eat is chicken feet pig
Feet cow feet that’s a hoof people eat cat hoof where y’all from no seriously people cow cow hoof I see a whole lot of head going up and down how you prepare a hoof is that board fried board hoof if I leave the entirety of my life and never experienced
That it Is Well with My Soul but I will take yall word for it it is it is delicious so I we’re going to have some good soul food we’re going to have some good soul food I don’t know if chitlings will be there uh I do I have
Any chitling eaters in the house all right shout out to all of the chitlin eaters but of course not just anybody chitlings right okay God bless you Lord have mercy all right so on that Sunday we we’re going to have a we’re going to have a uh special choir we’re going to
Have uh we’re going to meet and have a good time out at the rack fellowshipping and eating so mark your calendars and join us there uh and and then next month we have a multitude of things coming up like our uh our Women’s Day celebration on third Sunday we’ll be celebrating our
Women that week of the 3D Sunday so uh just be on the lookout for the announcements that are go that are that’ll be H happening concerning that there is some stuff I can mention right now but uh maybe I’ll wait till about Sunday and I start to let you know but
Our uh women’s ministry are they are preparing some uh some wonderful wonderful uh activities and celebrations for that third week the 11th through the 17th I believe the 11th through the 17th so uh God bless you now let’s take them Oh and before I go any further let’s give our deacons a
Hand for uh for leading Us in [Applause] devotion Brothers you did well Brothers you did well now uh so let’s prepare now to give to give today to give today to bless the Lord through our giving we know that God is such a good God and every believer that has grown in their
Faith reaches a point where they are convicted by the word of God that they that it shows up in not only their presence that it shows up in not only their praise but it also shows up in their giving my brother and sister all of us had to reach that point at that
Are givers so if you have not reached that point perhaps this is your week that you feel so convicted by the goodness of the Lord so moved by the grace and goodness of God that you you begin to give the tithe and the offering as well so my brother and sister we take
This moment three ways you can give you can give in the envelope you can give at Louis chapel.org that’s lwi chapel.org and you can give um an app called gify all these ways have been made available so that none of us have to miss the blessing of giving our music
Ministry all out on Valentine Day so they’re all out of time of Valentine so thank you thank you to our deons for leading Us in devotion and uh we do need one more song while we give uh deacons y’all going to sing that song or do we need to open it to the
Congregation we all right say amen for the deacons we doing old school we’ll go with another older one blessed a Jesus is mine oh what a foraste of Glory Divine you going have to cut that off Sal purch of God Bor of his wased in his blood this is my
Story this is my Song praising myor all the day long this is my story this is my Song praising My Savior all the day Long thank you Brothers all right with those individuals who are going to be a part of the panel y’all come up and you can join me now thank you thank you for thank you for helping me to have this conversation about love and relationships y’all can yeah y y’all
Come on yeah yeah y’all Y y’all come on and and anyone else that would like to be a part of this conversation y’all can come on and join us as as well Um y’all doing a lot of talking y’all y’all coming or not yeah all right so let us begin and well before we begin if you could just introduce yourself I believe the microphones already on and then we’ll we’ll launch into this conversation I’m matter of fact I’m move
Over here that way I can see all yall see me okay that’s better all right uh yeah you can just introduce yourself yeah name and whatever else you would like to say by way of introduction all right good evening my name is Danielle Bell um I am here representing for the Single Ladies
Um I am an assistant principal at brenwood elementary school and I’ve been in education for for 12 years I like to shop travel work out that’s it long walks in the park no but yep and I just turned 37 my birthday was Sunday that’s it good evening my name is Ashley Wilson
Um recently married newly we 111 yeah to this handsome young man right here um my claim to fame um I am a mother of two beautiful daughters I am a basketball Enthusiast and that about SS me up and I’m and I’m becoming the best wife you ever want to know yes
Yes has a big smile he got a big smile on his face doing a good job uh good evening everyone my name is uh is it over okay my name is Larry Wilson uh this is my wife Ashley um recently well I retired last year from the Army after 20 years and I
Currently um I’m an army Jal TC instructor down in uh West Columbus uh High School uh and my my um I guess off time I do high school basketball referee as well as uh semi pro basketball referee and a you and aals things like that um so thanks for having me yeah so
Y’all are both referees that’s how we met that’s how you met okay all right did y’all disagree on the call and that’s how kind of I’m teaching him everything he knows got it got it there always must be a teacher somewhere listen here’s the opening question for the conversation tonight so once again
Our conversation is going to be about love and relationships I I think we see conversations that are dominated about relationships but nobody’s talking about love they’re talking about what you bring to the table and all that kind of stuff but nobody’s talking about love and relationship and those other kind of
Integral things that must be present in the relationship so here here’s the opening question what’s one of the most important lessons about love and relationships you’ve learned in your experiences and observations okay I’ll started off so um I think the the most important thing I’ve learned uh one word patience love
Is patience um understanding things not going to go your way all the time and and right you could be mad if just go up the hallway or go to the the the Wilson cave if you will what the case may be and um just you know breathe think about
It come back with a sensible head so that’s what I would say patience for me um and this is new unfortunately I think the most important thing that I’ve learned about love is to love myself first and um a lot of times we try and put so much energy into everybody else around
Us and as a mother um I put a ton of energy into my children um I think that if they aren’t happy then I’m not happy and of course recently I’ve got married so all the rest of the energy that’s not put into my children has been put into
My husband so I kind of Leave myself it makes me a little emotional because I love really hard I love really really hard and I forget to love myself a lot of times so I’m practicing and I’m working on placing me first or not necessarily first because God is first most
Definitely but um myself not last yeah not last at all but to love myself as much as I love the people that are around me that’s ironic that’s actually one of the questions that was that was uh on on my list how do you balance the importance of self-love with the demands
Of loving other people uh because we can’t be anything for others we have not learned how to be for ourselves so what is one of the lessons about love and relationships that that you’ve learned so my mom always taught me and it’s it’s kind of like the opposite but I guess it
All goes hand to hand was to love God first others second and yourself last so with me I’m more so about the actions than the words you know we sell people all day long I love you I love you I love you but with me I really want to
Make sure that I show that love that I show that love at at school you know to my students to my staff so I’m just an action person so so I guess the lesson is that if you’re going in that order that it’s the balance you know I’m all
For self-love you know I take myself out on dates all the time but I just make sure that whatever I’m doing that it’s the act and how I carry it you know or how I give it you know it’s different Love Languages so I just make sure that
Whatever I’m doing is in love you know it might take me a second but I try to find the love in it and you know just try to think like how God would love at work or am everyday life but that that one of the questions that I contemplated
Asking but we really gone into this organically is what does love even look like so just think about that for a moment does anybody want to share a lesson that you have learned about about love and relationships it’s all thanks good night um I want to love for me and I’ve learned this
After making my mistakes being divorced and all I learned that to show love it’s not what it’s not what I want meaning I may want someone to hold my hand but that’s not what the person requires of me so I don’t give them what I think I would want allbe it love each
Other as I would love myself that of course is is the is is the gold golden standard but how do you want me to love you and I’ve learned that with my son um I’ve learned that with my mom I’ve learned that with my sister sister and
I’ve learned that with my friends how do I serve you even as I take care of me and even though even as I seek to be of service to others so let me ask this question as we talk about love um and thank you so much um no that no no no no
No no no brother St brother St we good I’m moving on I’m moving on to the to the next question uh in what ways do you think modern technology social media has affected people’s concept and perspective of what love and relationships are so if I may um so your algorithm on
Social media feeds you what you are accustomed to I suppose so say lean towards in a way correct so say for instance you have a bad day and you’re looking for some particular thing on social media well once you click like then it’s going to continuously feed you
The same thing over and over and over and again and I was just having this conversation with my friend and um he was just talking about uh how he was got out of a bad relationship and then he started to share things that felt comfortable to him regarding that last
Relationship and then everything started to come his way about bad relationships about what didn’t work in his relationship and then he started to latch on to the things that you know kind of happened in his relationship so now that algorithm is feeding that information to him and as
It is because that’s what you’re feeling today but that’s not necessarily how other people feel because I definitely didn’t feel that way so your algorithm like what are you what you’re feeling in this particular moment social media is going to feed that to you and then you
Know they entice your brain or change your thoughts so for me I unfortunately I think sometimes it has ruined relationships because when we’re scrolling all day long and we’re looking and we’re liking this and oh they they dressed alike oh I want to be like them and yeah these relationship goals yeah
This this is what I want but then so you mean people see other people’s relationships and they be like relationship go based on the picture based on because I see that and I want that yeah because a picture it says a thousand words like they’re on vacations
They’re on trips but you’re never going to get the full picture and I think that takes a lot of maturity to understand that but when you’re just scrolling all day long and you single and it’s just you and it’s just kind of like that’s what I want but is that really what I
Want you know cuz we don’t know what transpired before that picture we don’t know what’s going to transpire after that picture and now was videos so if pictures say a thousand words you can’t imagine what the videos say so it’s hard it’s really hard even like on Pinterest
I have a whole wedding board I don’t know when I’m getting married but I have all these pictures of everything that I want the dress the ring you know and that’s that’s like in my mind because that’s what I’m looking at and that’s what I want but even I don’t even know
If that’s really what I want I don’t even know if that’s really what God wants for me you know but it’s just it’s right there on my phone all day long all day long anything you want to ask um well Pastor um congregation I don’t have
Social media uh I just have Yahoo M [Applause] so um it would a would anybody like to add anything into this conversation if so you you can raise your you can raise your your hand um social media is a monster is a monster and uh you know
There are good there are good monsters to a degree there are bad monsters to to a degree and it it can feed the best of us and they can feed parts of us that are the worst of us and that’s part of what you talking about
Ashley and that’s part of what you were talking about Danny it can it can really give you a perception of a thing and I don’t know if y’all know this or not but um social media has become one of the predominant things reported in divorces I don’t know if y’all know this
Or not but social media has become one of the predominant reasons as people report their reason for divorce so uh so it it is it has become a a major factor in relationships in one way or another here’s another one when you’re dating somebody when do you make
That public do you make that public how do you make that public you know so there it is just created a it was a whole lot of that it must have been a did y’all have to navigate those Waters uh for for for the most part um
Um like I said I don’t have social media so um my wife will it’s mainly like basketball stuff so she’ll send me something on Instagram or whatever and I watch it then I swipe up and was like how this stuff just start coming up coming up coming up so um that’s my
Interaction with social media is when my wife sent me a video something about basketball and then she asked me a question about the call was it right or wrong things like that so I only post on social media about for the most part about my children and their accomplishments and basketball and every
Now and then I’ll post a picture of us every now and then I mean it’s very sporadic so I don’t necessarily think that’s a concern but he did ask me when I was going to change my last name on Facebook so you so that’s a conversation
Of course you have to have because and that conversation several years ago did not exist so these are just these are just some of the things some of the challenges uh that social media has added to the Dynamics of relationships that can make them easier or for the most part more complicated yes
Sir I just want to add uh my my little perception of that what I’ve encountered uh throughout I’ve been I’ve been married for a little while over over half a century and so for almost 50 years wow uh 53 years ex 53 but uh but that’s not the main point though my
Point that what I have uh discovered down through the years and raising daughters and sons and uh grandchildren and talking with them is what they what I discovered is shivery uh has been taken out of courtships and togetherness and what has done that is the social media that’s
What that’s what I has covered so so if if if if like what you just said you uh I’m sorry for you you said you don’t have a Facebook so you treat your wife a lot different than what the those that does have Facebook does and not alone
Than that with more respect thank you yes sir um I think one of the most important things that that um my dad and my granddad taught me um was how to treat a lady simply which side of the street you should walk on holding the door um opening the door pulling out her
Chair things like that so absolutely I agree with you sir absolutely you were raised right I was raised the same way I was raised the same way my my grandmother my grandmother uh my my mom’s mom in particular uh when we were out I mean
Even when I was a kid she walked up to the door she would touch the door that’s it if I was you know behind or whatever she stand at the door and wait till I got there and I’d open the door it it was just it was just part of how I was
Raised to to treat women yes well I was previously married and then I was divorced and I’ve been divorced well I was divorced for seven years So within that span I became a very independent individual you know um so I didn’t have I didn’t necessarily have gentlemen opening doors or demanding
That they open the door and I stand there and wait so that was that wasn’t comfortable for me initially and we actually got into an argument about it and I mean like we didn’t talk for a day because I opened the door and yeah I mean you know it’s something
That ladies have to be you know eased into I believe as well women because Independence is such a huge thing in our society now so um I don’t want to take Shy from you amazing gentlemen but just kind of be patient with us new age women
And you know you can teach us a thing or two but me I’m I’m standing there I’m I’m going to stand there every time you going to St every time yeah I’m not getting out the car I’m going stand right there at the door now Savannah I’m not saying I get
It every time but I try to get it more often than not yeah I try to all right well listen so this really Segways us into the next question uh very very well because that’s part of what y’all had to do there so let me ask this what does
The word compromise mean to you in regards to relationships compromise compromise and of course anyone that would like to add into the discussion you you can feel free but uh what does compromise mean as I said I was divorced before so um I had to take some of those things
That I learned in that past relationship and unlearn them um so you know I became an independent person this gentleman was his own person an adult male so he had his own way of doing things I had my own way of doing things and then when we
Merged there was a budding of heads in several instances so um I don’t necessarily want to concede because it’s really easy to concede and just say okay whatever we’ll do it your way but I want to understand why he wants it done this way or why why I am so strong about it
Being done my way so that in the future when we have to visit this again we understand why we’re doing it this way so we have to meet in the middle with our thought process and you know our experiences and past situations and kind of figure it out so that we don’t
Have to cross that negative River again yes sir Pastor I was going to say uh after having messed up a couple of times or two or three or four or whatever but anyway who’s count right who who’s count I read a book called uh five love languages and it spoke about
You understanding what the other person want and as far as compromis that’s what you do you understand what the other person want and you learn their language or what makes them take or what they want and then that’s what you give that’s compromise to me I I think um the gentleman here and
Then the young lady over here spoke about it as well in regards to uh Love Languages and you trying to love someone based off how you want to be loved I think that was one of the biggest issues that I had when um my wife and I got
Married um I’m thinking okay well I I might want to one of the love languages for example is uh gifts okay um that’s not her thing she doesn’t like it she she likes quality time for example um and what I realized through this um this uh I want to call it ordeal but
The this one specific situation um the most precious thing you have is time right because once you get your time away you can’t get it back it’s gone so um like like the young lady over here said uh loving yourself first and then being able to love someone else that’s
What I had to learn so when it comes to compromising as the pastor spoke on um compromising to me is more more or less not necessarily putting yourself to the side but also um you’re not putting yourself to the side but you’re making time for the one you love then coming
Back to yourself and regards to loving yourself okay compromise to a degree neither person is going to get everything that they want if if one person is getting everything they want there’s been no compromise so both have to have given up something and reach to reach the
Decision of whatever it is but if you got 100% of what you wanted you didn’t compromise you just stay with what you wanted yeah and then I was going to um mention it’s F it’s fun as y mentioned compromise so you have to look at like relationship as like Teamwork because
When you think of selfish um the word um self is in there so you thinking more of yourself so um I believe I’m just saying with me for instance like God put you through like a series of tests so that way learn how to work together as teamw
Like with me being an entrepreneur so I have learn not to think more of myself but think and consider other people feelings and other people side of story so you have to um see it as a team building work to work collectively together that’s how I see it
As and I think one of the main things with compromise is communication um and just not holding everything in to just you know for the sake of oh I don’t want to argue but everything doesn’t have to be an argument I just want to let you
You know my perspective I want to let you know how I feel so at least I voice that so if it comes up again it’s not like oh well you was cool with it and then why is it different now because I’ve already let you know so from
Someone that’s dating I’m very vocal I’m very I’m going to let you know what it is before you know be before it even becomes a conflict or an issue and then once I see that it is an issue then I know like this might not work so communication to me is very key
Communication is absolutely key um you ever thought you explain something like as well as you possibly could and then it was like no you didn’t no y’all you I mean like absolutely like man I broke that like I broke that down you know what I’m saying
And it’s like oh no that’s that’s not not what I’m talking about yeah that’s that’s not what I how many effective communicators do we have in here in in your own estimation effective yes communicators do we have in here and yet and yet you are communicating in a way you can
Understand and communicating in a way you can understand really doesn’t mean anything if you don’t learn how to communicate in a way they can understand and that becomes the effect of communication uh too of which I am I’m taking day by day when I am taking it day by day all
Right okay um what kind of shared values and goals do you think a couple should have what kind of shared values and goals I mean you don’t have to get a a long list if you just want to say one or two because it’s not like
Whatever you say you can cover it all so uh but what kind of shared goals and are values do you think a couple should have um I think the the first to me the most important one is God first if if God is in everything you do as a couple
Whether it’s your home whether it’s soon as you get up in the morning you pray before you head out the door whatever the case may be God first um and then secondly to me teamwork um with teamwork knowing that the other person got your back regardless of the good day or the
Bad day whatever the case may be when you come home that’s your sanctuary that’s where you all can just talk and have everything jelling and everything is good to go uh I try to decompress before I get to the to the house so that way I’m not bringing anything from the
Work into the house um we have two two daughters that’s left in the house right now so it’s to me it’s very important that they see how a man should enter how a man should act how a man should be in regards to everything we do in regards to our home
Um for me it’s definitely God first so that goes without being said but um the upbringing of our children um I am from Mississippi so we Mississippi Mississippi what part of Mississippi Meridian Mississippi right I2 I he Meridian Miss ific kind of rough not as bad as pay bill
Really shout out to y’all fnam shout out to y’all fnam okay all right all right so so um I I think our values I mean they may differ we’re Deep South we’re Bible Belt um spare the rod spoil the child you know right that’s I tend to I don’t necessarily
Raise my children the way my parents has raised me but um what they instilled in me is there and my children are yes ma’am no ma’am yes sir no sir children um they absolutely honor their parents without a shadow of a doubt and that’s expected I mean I don’t put the fear of
God in my children but they fear their parents um and you know and I just think that our beliefs on raising our children must be very similar because I put a lot of energy into my children all right so for me of course God first but now that I’m older one
Thing that is really important to me is how you were raised you know like I can’t I grew up in a two parent household so I want to know what kind of household did you grow up in how did you treat your mom like was your dad around
And then like family life like what are your plans I mean I’m 37 my clock is ticking so if you want 20 kids I don’t know if I can help you out right there but you know still like those are conversations that I want to have
Because I mean we need to put that out there in the beginning cuz I don’t know I don’t know you know what God has planned but um your family and how you were raised um your job your goals finances you know just you know you don’t just say it all at once but
The those are values that matter to me now that I’m older all right we only got a few more questions about six or seven minutes which do you feel is more common love at first sight or love that develops over time I love that develops and I and I’m
Saying I’m and I’m I’m saying both exist from what I hear from from what I hear right uh cuz I I’ll hear people say yeah I saw her I walked up to her and I was like you going to be my wife and I’m like for real
That’s that line worked uh but it then they got married and stayed together so I was like yeah it does and then there were people like I really couldn’t stand in when we first met so there are there you know both of those things exist I I
Um but which do you feel is the more common and of course this is just this your opinion my opinion is love that develops we our thought process differs when it comes to this but um I I don’t necessarily I appreciate attraction but that’s not or physical attraction but
That’s not most important to me um I must connect with my partner um on a a level of intellect um on hobbies and parenting and so on and so forth so we must connect um mentally um and not necessarily physically we can say that from my past relationship they weren that cute
But so for me it’s more common I’m a love and First Sight like First Sight type of person like like see him across the road and Bam yes immediately I love you I love you immed I love you immediately but no but that’s just you know in
My let’s get married yes let’s get married I yes but again that’s just because I’m older but I do I and I’m like a Vibe person like an energy type of person so once I’m attracted to your energy your Vibe your space then come to 21
Questions then I want to know you go to church like all of that type of stuff but I love it first sight all right um I didn’t believe it live First Sight I’m going be honest with I I didn’t believe in it and then there I was standing in the gym with my
Uniform my referee uniform on and she walked in I know that’s right hey proof is in the pudding proof is in proof is in the pudding I I I am curious I am curious kind of what the congregational fi is no no no I I I
Don’t need them to talk I’m I’m moving through this you want to talk should came up here so but I am curious but I am curious um what the y’all know I like to do with congregational survey and those of you that are watching us uh in our connected
Campus those of you that feel more often than not it is love at first sight raise your hand oh okay all right all right so and and those that believe it is a love that develops over time you got it got it all right hey you know
What the beautiful thing is both are true it just depends on your own life personal experience so and that’s see that’s the thing about the internet people go on and they argue their opinion is truth but it’s just your opinion and your life experience that that reflects it oh Dad I just remember
We got to do a Ash Wednesday imposition of Ashes so I’ll get one more question and then we are then we are done um I didn’t know let’s give our panelist a hand because it’s already it’s already time us so thank you so much thank you
So much for being brave and bold enough to talk about relationships especially in this particular climate now it is for those of you that do not know it is Ash Wednesday and no I ain’t talking about the thing that’s in between your fingers and I ain’t I ain’t talking about that
Ash no I ain’t talking about the the white that’s on your knees when you don’t I’m not talking about that ass so uh Reverend C David stack house he’s going to come set the house in order and for those of you that want to participate in the imposition of Ashes
That is when you get the uh the a the ash cross on your forehead symbolic of the beginning of lint season but we’ll give explanation of all of that at this moment as I move expeditiously in the presenting of the teaching of Ash and Ash Wednesday anyone here remember Palm Sunday remember Palm
Sunday and you remember the brother Hopson back in the day we they would give us we pent be in the sign of a cross and now we move towards having actually having a small palm branch that we wave and you know those of us and I I don’t take it for granted that
Everyone know why we lay you know the The Palms you remember when Jesus rode down the V Del Rosa on his way to Calvary people laid their garments and those who could not lay their garments ran to the palm trees and got trees of palms and they laid them
Down that’s Palm Sunday well the Wednesday after that started to commemorate Palm Sunday the the coming of the passing of and the coming of the Cross well that also what we would do traditionally is Save The Palms the branches and on Wednesday Wednesday about 11 o’ we burn those Palm
Leaves and then we take the Ash and many times today and matter of fact we’ve done it here right here before at noon we share what is called the imposition the placing of the ash on your forehead with the four with your stum with thumb and we place the ash on your
Forehead and we say from dust we came and to dust we shall return that’s what we why would we do that because our sign anyone here in the fraternity or it’s a royy you have your sign any sports fans especially especially your for sport fans who follow that big star that’s your
Sign as Christians the cross is our sign and that’s why we share let me give a little bit more theological context to it because that’s how we get the ash I want y’all to understand why we do the ash so in the Bible ashes are representative of loss and of
Sacrifice and as we going through the lent season the lint season on starts on Ash Wednesday it goes for 40 days up until Easter Sunday it is the penultimate celebration in the seminal moment of of our faith so in the in the lurgical calendar this this day is
Called Ash Wednesday the day of loss and sacrifice that we start leading up to Jesus dying on the cross and being resurrected in the Bible they would put on sackcloth and Ash and sit in ashes because those those things represent loss and sacrifice now I know y’all like
I don’t want that with loss on my forehead you’re losing anyway all of us in life have to lose something Sometimes some stuff we want to lose some stuff we don’t want to lose but this is an intentional loss this is saying that I am losing on purpose something out of my
Life because I’m anticipating God is going to replace it with something greater a lot of people use lint season as a time to diet that’s why you will see a lot of fast food uh places start to advertise fish sandwiches you know why cuz a lot of people give up beef and a
Lot of people give up chicken for lint because they are in a process of loss in sacrifice in the hopes that as they make that loss God fills that void with something better and something greater so this is also this is also that Ash is representative of I am in
The season of Lent I am in the season of intentional loss and intentional sacrifice in the anticipation that God is going to fill that space and that void with something better that he has purposed for my life and so it is not only our sign of Christianity it is our
Sign of intentional loss and sacrifice and belief that God has something greater and the church said amen it’s a free we will if you so desire to come our lead Pastor will be on one side of the pool pit I’ll be on the other side and what we’ll do is we’ll pray so
That uh after You’ received your ashes you can you can hang you can make your exit but uh but you’ll have the uh Liberty to make that decision at that moment uh Reverend C David will you please give us our uh closing prayer before we do the uh ashes on last last
Night in our Bible study as I shared the teaching concerning as Wednesday I simply was teaching this thought people said that I changed changed a lot but I said a lot changed me people said that I changed a lot but I said a lot changed me that’s
That’s my I’m mansters I go through this season of Ash Wednesday well God I ask I humbly ask that as we give up and lose and take a loss with things that’s dear to us I pray that as we give up during this season that most of all we would take
On take on just just just to be more like Christ to be just a little Kinder just a little sweeter just a little slower to anger just just to extend Grace one to the other this I ask in the mless name of Jesus and God I am so thankful that Can’t
Nobody Do Me Like Jesus Can’t Nobody Do Me Do Me Like the Lord amen bless us and keep us as we leave this place I asked it and I count it done that we should never be the same anymore for we shall be changed in the name of Jesus somebody shout amen
Anyone who desire you can come on my left you can come on my right s your pastor stand there and I stand Here I Am So Good
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