DIG DEEP: Conversations with Christian Leaders
DIG DEEP: Conversations with Christian Leaders
Connecting the Ruths and Naomis
In this episode of DIG DEEP: Conversations with Christian Leaders we are talking to special guest Mother Esther L. Jones about connecting younger women with more seasoned women of the church. Why is there a disconnect between our generations? How can we rebuild stronger relationships with one another?
Let's DIG DEEP!
DIG DEEP is sponsored by Jaria Chanee Ministries.
Become an official DIG DEEP Community Member at www.jariacaljoe.org/membership
Submit your private prayer requests here
Connect with Dr. Jaria on social media!
Hey, everybody. Happy, happy, happy Wednesday. I hope that you are doing well. It is Dr. Daria C. Augio here with Conversations with Christian Leaders. On tonight, we are talking about connecting the roots to the Naomi's. I'm so glad that you all are tuning in and joining us. Please make sure that you like and share. We have a very special guest for this evening, my state supervisor. I'm so honored to have her here. with me tonight so for those of you that don't know um I am a part of the church of god in christ um and so with the church of god in christ we have jurisdictions we have uh districts and all this other fun stuff we can talk about it later but tonight I want to just help kind of make sure that you have a little bit of context here so in a jurisdiction there is a supervisor of women and tonight I have my jurisdictional supervisor coming on to talk with us about connecting the younger women to the more seasoned, more older women, if you will. And so this jurisdictional supervisor, she basically oversees all of the programming and the initiatives and the services and supporting the women in the jurisdictions. So she has a very, very big job and we love her in Connecticut Second. Connecticut Second, if you are watching, I need you to throw some hearts up, some likes up and post in these comments how much we love our supervisor, the one and only Mother Jones. I'm so, so very grateful and thankful to have her here tonight before we bring her on. But she's not here. All right. There we go. Hi, Mother Jones. How are you? I'm fine. And you, how are you doing? I'm doing good. I'm doing well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for being on with us on this Wednesday evening. It's good to be here tonight with you. Thank you so much, Mother. So let's get into our questions for this evening. If this is your first time watching, I want you to post in the comments and let me know this is your first time watching. If you're returning, let me know in the comments as well. I thank you and appreciate you for tuning in. I'm your host, Dr. Jeria C. Aljo. I am hosting and facilitating this conversation. I do this about once a month where I have different conversations with Christian leaders. We talk about a number of different topics. And tonight we are talking about connecting the roots and the Naomi's. So one of the things that I thought about when coming up with this topic. was how there seems to be, not everywhere, not always, but in some instances, there seems to be a bit of a divide between the more younger women and the, we'll call them more seasoned or older women, if you're okay with that terminology. And so I thought about Ruth and Naomi in the Bible And if you are familiar with that story, I would encourage you to read that story. But it talks about how Ruth clung to Naomi, how she just said, you know, where you go, I go, your God is my God. And so I thought about how can younger women and more seasoned or older women get to that point in a relationship with one another where where they are learning from each other. I think a lot of times there seems to be a disconnect between the various generations in our church, especially among women. So I thought who better to have here and have this conversation than my own state supervisor, Mother Jones. So Mother Jones, if you would please just tell us a little bit about yourself, who you are, something that you love to do in your spare time and what you are most looking forward to this summer. Well, I'm the mother of one daughter, my Marie, and I'm also a grandmother and a great grandmother. If I can say anything, and to be honest about it, I love people. I love people and I love young women. And I love sitting, talking with young women and sharing with them the different things in life that I've experienced. be it good or bad. I've shared with them and I tried to encourage them through the difficulties I faced in life to take another road, to take another look at life. Just don't jump in and do stuff to be doing it, but to take another look at life. And my goal in life is to try to reach as many young women as possible. But one of the things I think that we have to do in this season is learn how to listen to one another. Hear what they're saying before we push them aside. But listen to them with our heart, with our heart. And then ask God to give us the understanding how to entreat them. Because I do believe there's nobody that hard that you can't win. You could win them. You could win them to the Lord and to anything you just so desire to do. But it's how you, it's our approach, how we approach young women. So that's my, that's my assignment in life is to reach as many young women as possible. Through prayer and through just listening and sharing with them. Taking the time. Setting aside time for them. You have to set aside the time. We're not an overnight wonder. You have to set aside that time with them and encourage them. Because some come up in difficult situations that we know not of. And it would do us good as senior women or seasoned women, women who's been through difficulties of life, to be able to help them, to show them that you can make it. So that's my assignment in life, I believe. I love that. This is why you came to mind when I thought about this conversation, because I know that that is part of your testimony is being able to connect with young women who face a lot of different challenges. and your approach to young women is very refreshing, I'll say. And so thank you again for that and for being who you are. So if you're ready, Mother Jones, we're going to get into these questions tonight. So what is something young women need to understand about seasoned women or older women in the church? What is something young women need to understand about seasoned women in the church? I think when young women come into the church, they just assume that the older mothers would be loving and sweet and tender. But sometimes because of what life has dealt and what they've been through, they might be a little abrupt. They really might not be as tender as you would think that they should be as a young person. But I do believe if you learn how to entreat one another, sit down and just listen. I've met many challenges in my life as a young woman coming into the church. because a lot of times I just didn't understand, you know, when you're young, you're just way up on the mountain and you say a lot of stuff you don't think about, you don't mean to, to insult or to even, how do you say, quick mouth. You know, sometimes we can get so quick at our mouth, we'll start to think about it. And sometimes that can turn older people off from you. But if we have seen a season change, ones can listen to what they're saying, understand their pain. And let me just share this with you. Years ago, when as a young woman, when the Lord saved me and I came into church, I knew nothing about holiness. I knew absolutely nothing about it. So it was different. It definitely was different. You know, And I always had a tendency to watch a lot of stuff and everything. So when it came time to testimony service, I wasn't familiar with testimony service. So I was just following what others were saying. I'm going to be just talking way up on the mountain and whatnot. It's a lot of stuff I wasn't even going through. But instead, it was applauding others. I figured, hey, let me get on with them so they can applaud me too. But one of the older mothers in the church, I'll never forget it, Mother Annie Brown, She called me up and she said to me, she says, Sister Jones. And I said, oh my God, here we go. Here we go. What did I do now? And she said to me, you troubled me. And I said, hmm, I troubled her. But I didn't answer back. I didn't say anything. And she says, but the Lord told me to help you. That senior mother embraced me in such a way. She began to pray with me. helped me in my marriage. She was such a great encourager until that woman that I looked at, I thought she was strange and everything, that woman I was able to embrace because she mothered me. She showed me there is a better way. There's a better way of how to do things, a better way of how to say things. So that was one of the experiences that I've experienced in church. It's when you get to a certain age and when you get to a certain age, we too have to be careful. We have to be sensitive to the younger woman. Because she's struggling too. She might not. They don't always tell you everything you can discern that they're going through. But if we could just learn to reach. Just learn to reach. Just learn to reach. I watch people and I just, whatever the Lord gives me to say to them, I just go ahead and say to them. Sometimes I love you. You can make it. hold your head up, continue on the path that you're on. Those are very encouraging to young people, especially from senior mothers, especially from senior mothers. And now that I'm a senior now, you know, it makes it, I'm very mindful of that. Because I know how I hurt when I wasn't heard. And I knew how it was when I was put aside. So I remember those days, and I often remember Mother Annie Brown. I remember Mother Annie Williams, how these women were there for me when I just cried about everything. And everybody look at me now, they probably can't even imagine me crying about stuff. I used to cry about everything. I come to church, I be boohooing. But these older mothers, they embraced me. They embraced me to help me. They taught me how to walk right. Because you don't always get it from your peers. You don't always get it from your family. But I do believe that God always have a people that will reach you, that will encourage you, and you can make it. I think it's really important. You did, you did, Mother. So I think it's really important, some things you said. was learning how to entreat one another. When you talk about the young women and the senior women, learning how to just communicate to one another. I think you mentioned something important for both young women and senior women to really just approach one another from the mindset of, we don't really know what all baggage this person is carrying. And so trying to get to know someone for who they are And really, you know, being Christ-like when we're connecting with them is important when it comes to building relationships and building connections with one another. And then you also talked about just loving on each other and how you shared how the mother that was in your life loved on you and, you know, prayed with you and prayed for you and really modeled the way because, you know, you did not have someone that could do that. And I think that's really powerful, especially for women who don't have, you know, they didn't grow up in church or their families didn't grow up in church or that sort of thing. And they don't really have those examples at home. I think it's important to know that as a mother, as a senior woman in the church, that's really what your assignment is. That's really what you're called to do is to kind of model that behavior for young women who maybe don't have that example at home. Right. Because it's so important. It's so important that we remember where God brought us from and what it took for us to be where we're at today. I really believe when you lose your focus, then you have aborted the mission. Because once you lose your focus, what are you going to do? I think we have to keep our, even though, when I thought about you, the Naomi's, the roofs and the Naomi's, even though Naomi was bitter about the loss of her, the death of her husband and her sons, but yet she had this love, this something was in her that drew her daughter-in-law to her. She had love. She still had that even though the exterior might have seemed rough. But inside of her, there was love on the inside. And that's what Ruth was able to glean from. I always think about that because sometimes people will look at you and they'll judge you by, The way you speak or how you look. They don't take the time to really get to know who you are. Because looking at a person from the outside, you really can't tell what that person is going through. But if you take the time and just ask God if you really want to help that individual, because you can't help everybody. But I do believe God always have an assignment for you to do. And if you ask him, God will show you how to do it, when to do it. Timing is everything too. Timing is everything because sometimes you can approach the thing at the wrong time. Not that that person don't need it, but it's not the time right there. So when you're a seasoned woman, you have to be... Anything seasoned is spicy. It's like a, well, I hate to say it, like an aged wine. Even though we don't drink wine, but it's like an aged wine. Come on, wine. Even though you don't want to say that. You don't want to say that in the church, you know. But it's the truth. I mean, I'm a firm believer in this. Daughter, I'm a firm believer. If you can't be honest with yourself, who are you going to be honest with? Yes. Yep. So you got to be honest with. Right. And so that's the only way you can reach people is through honesty. You know, just walk in your integrity. Walk in your integrity. Walk in what God has poured into you, not what he's done with somebody else, because they're assigned to feel different. That's powerful. Walking your integrity and not as somebody else because what God has called you to is different than what God has called someone else to. And there's plenty of things that need to be done. We don't have to try and mimic other people. We don't have to try and be anybody else. And then you also talked about timing is important. So I think back to when I was first saved and I had almost no church clothes. And I used to get so annoyed at the people and the mothers of my church. that would always have something to say about, you know, well, your skirt is a little too short and wear your stockings and all this other stuff. And I usually get so irritated because I didn't have anything else to wear. And, you know, I grew up in a household and go to a church where, or grew up in a church where wearing pants to church was unacceptable. And so I wanted to be in church, but all I had was clubbing clothes. And so they weren't wildly inappropriate, but certainly not, you know, all the way to my knees, let's say. But Right. When the mothers were approaching me about that, they had no idea that all I had, that's all I had to wear. Right. And so thinking about timing being important, being able to say to someone, oh, I love that skirt. That's so cute. You know, let me, let's go shopping one day and you go out shopping and then you're buying things that are appropriate and not to say that you have to buy clothes for people. If you can, that's great. But just, I think, like you said, understanding where people are coming from and not judging based upon, you know, what you're seeing, because you have no idea what that woman who is coming to church has gone through or sort of any challenges or obstacles that she's overcome to just get to church. And so you can sometimes really be, people can be discouraged by what, what is said to them and shared with them. So I love that you said that timing is important. So it's not that what you're saying is wrong. Cause you know, I hear a lot. Yeah. I hear a lot. It's everything, yeah. I hear a lot of people say, you know, years ago, you didn't do this, you didn't do that. I can remember when the Lord saved me, I wore hot pants, micro mini skirts, and all of that stuff. But one of the things I can remember vividly in church, no one ever had to tell me what to put on. Yeah, because there's something about the Holy Ghost. It works on the inside. People don't understand. Even that girl, like you stated, like that girl or that girl might not have the garments that she needs to wear on the outside. But there's something on the inside. And we can we can just learn, let people close, let God close people from the inside out. Because you can have on the best garment, look holy, and be dead on the inside. You know what I'm saying? And so all these things, only a seasoned woman, and it has nothing to do with your age, neither. It has nothing to do with your consecration before God. If you lay before God, God... He will show you. He will show you. I'm a living witness to it. That's why I don't bother to have on. Now, if a lady comes in church naked, now it becomes your job to go to her and love, you know, and cover her. But you don't have to do all this stuff. Well, Ty, you don't come check it. Well, girl, stop. Please stop. Now you're in another area that you shouldn't be in. That could be you. It could be your sister. It could be your daughter. We live in a society today where we judge too many people from the outside. We really do. We judge people from the outside. And sometimes we say people are saved that are not saved. And I be saying, ooh, child, y'all missed that one. If you're going to judge, at least see through the eyes and let God show you. Stop seeing it with your own eyes and stuff like that. So a seasoned woman has to really... You can be spicy, but don't be so spicy where you will miss stuff. Just miss it. We argue with people wearing pants. You shouldn't wear this. Stay in the word of God. Get away from all that stuff. Let God transform your mind. Just let him transform your mind. He'll show you. God will show you. He's done it for me. I'm telling you, he's done it for me. I have a prayer line. I've been having a prayer line for eight years. Every day, seven days a week. It's not about tearing folk down. It's about building people up. It's about building them up. That's our assignment. Even your assignment with the podcast, that's your assignment. That's your assignment. We don't have to see everything. We don't have to know everything. Just know what God told you to do and keep it moving. That's just who I am. I can go on all night with that, but we ain't here for that all night. I want to be seasoned. Be a woman. Be a woman or even a man of integrity. Stop playing. Stop playing. You can't lead people where you haven't been. You can't lead nobody where you haven't been. If you haven't been there, baby, please take checkmate. Let's move to the side. And wait till God tell you to go. Don't go before time. There's so much air. Well, go ahead. Well, I think that's a great segue into our next question because you're talking about, you know, we are talking about tonight, the younger women connecting with the more senior women and how are they able to, how are those two groups of women, how can they better connect with one another? I think it's always this question of like, what is the first step? How can senior women better connect with younger women in their church? Well, we had quite a few. senior women in our church, and we have a few younger women in the church. How I do it is by getting to know people, by getting to know that young lady, listening to her. And sometimes I have to help. I'll do all those things to win, because my assignment is to win. I think in our churches, and we would just take, they have YWCC for young women. What they used to do years ago, and I can't speak for all the churches of the Church of God in Christ, we would meet once a month. They would come together. They have a topic that women could discuss. And the older mother would be there. And she would help the younger woman to help us to understand those things that we that we need to fine tune. We knew some stuff, but we didn't know a lot of stuff. And then we had the fellowship with them, sitting with the older people, talking to them, not at them. Listen to what they have to say, and then they, in turn, will hear what you have to say. And sometimes, young women, if you've got a car or you've got something that you could do to help an older person, do that. That's building a relationship. The problem I find today is that we don't build relationship. And we need to build relationship. I can't help you if I don't know you. I had to build a relationship. I had to find out, you know, get to know you. Just by saying hi, you know, or when you have little teas at your church, a little dinner, talk to one another. Work with one another. Don't critique so much, but work with them. Show them how to do. Because we live in the days now, everybody wants to tell you what to do, and nobody don't want to show you nothing. But you have to. You have to. As a senior person, I don't know anything too much about computer. That's why I be listening to you all. I be falling out laughing because I be saying, Laura, I sure don't know, but I'm open to it. You have to be open. It doesn't make you ignorant, but it makes you just a willing vessel. You want to know. Why do I want to know? Because I want to better myself. That's all it takes. Somebody help me. And the hard job is to help someone else. You don't have to... There are young women in the church. Some of them have good education. Some of them have talents and ability. Young women that have not even been tapped into is because we don't reach We don't reach. We got to know how to reach beyond ourselves. You know what I'm saying? I've learned that this, you know, I used to be able to run. I can't, you know, I can't run no more. If I, you know, run, I get all out of breath, get winded. But there's young women that the things that I used to do can't do now, they can do. Teach them how to do different things. Show them how to do things. Show some of the young women don't know how to cook. Teach them how to cook. Teach them how to cook. There's a lot of things that we can do. So when we say they don't listen, they don't listen because you're not saying anything. You got to meet them where they're at. You really do have to meet them where they're at. Now you come around me, you're going to do something besides look at me. That's just who I am. I reach young people because I have seven sisters. Five of us living now. And one thing my mother always believed that we had to do, we couldn't just sit there. You know, we listened to, we respect the old people. Yes, ma'am. No, ma'am. Yes, sir. No, sir. So when we got older, we trained our children in the same mannerism, you know, to go and respect older people. There's so many old people that need help. So many that need help that if you get into a relationship with one, now everybody's not going to let you in. Always remember that. Everybody's not going to let you in. But that person that lets you in, embrace that individual. That might be just your diamond in the rough that you need. You can't walk by people and act like they don't count because they're not where you think you're at. But in order for you to get to where you're going, you're going to have to stop by these older people and get to know them. And the same thing with them. I always tell young people, like I said, you're coming. I'm going. So I'm going to do all I can to help you in your travels so as you get older, you can help the next group that's coming. To me, that's very important. That's very important. I think you're talking about... Oh, I'm sorry about that. Go ahead. We can connect through prayer. We can connect with them through prayer and through the different auxiliaries in the church. A lot of auxiliaries in the church. A lot of them. We don't utilize them today. but we should utilize it. And you'd be surprised the connection that you develop, that you'll help in those areas. Now, mother, do you have a thought as to why, and again, not all, because there are some churches where So different auxiliaries, right? For those who are not aware, let's just talk about like an auxiliary would be like the women's department, if you will, or like the music department or evangelism. Then within the women's department, you have, you know, Young Women's Christian Council, Christian Women's Council, the Sewing Circle, Sunshine Band, all of these different groups, if you will, that are designed to help people connect with one another based on, you know, like young women's Christian council is, uh, 18 to 39. Repeat the question. So I was asking about, um, why do you think it is that some churches, um, don't have like active auxiliaries? Like, why do you think that is happening? Are you saying that some churches don't have youth between 18 and 39? Just auxiliaries in general. I didn't get the whole question. Sure. Can you hear me okay now? Why they don't? A lot of times churches don't have the auxiliaries because the leader don't know. You don't know. If you don't... You can't put out there what you don't know. He says, why do you think some churches do not have active auxiliary? Because they don't know. These auxiliaries are a benefit. They're very beneficial to your local church. If they would just utilize it instead of, a lot of times, you know, I hope I'm not getting off the subject. A lot of times we complain about what we don't have and we don't utilize what we do have. When you have young people in your church, young people lay idle in the church. It has a lot to do with the head because everything stops with the head and trickles down. It doesn't come from the congregation up. It comes from the head down. So if you want to, if you have a women's department, if you've got a women's department, that woman should be, she should know She really should know. She shouldn't just be over the mother's board and not know the assignment. She should not know. No woman has to be over anything in the church and not know what her assignment is. And even to call her a mother of the church and she not know her assignment, there's something wrong. Okay, because there's too much information. There's too much information out there. Especially in our denomination. us to say we don't know okay so um that's that's a battle with me when I when I hear people say it because um you take like the people follow music but music is a ministry too it's it's a it's a ministry it should be developed you know and all of that um the Sunshine Band, the Purity Class, the YWCC, now the CWC, the Mothers. All of these auxiliaries were designed to build as a structure in your local assembly. But if people don't take on the assignment or Everything starts with leadership. Everything starts with leadership. And that's not to be negative about any leader, because I don't know what's going on. But I do know everything starts with leadership. If you don't till the ground, you don't break the ground, don't look for a harvest. We got to stop saying we don't have and look at what we just lay to the side and waste. Because it's there. It's really there. And as a mother, it can be very disheartening. Because I don't think no mother, even in a home, and a father in a home, you work and you bring all your substance into the house to build a house, and they take it and throw it out. Act like it's no good. But that's valuable stuff that we need to be using. All those are very valuable. That's one way the young women is going to get to know God. Young men are going to get to know God. They're going to come to the saving knowledge of who God is. You know, all this other stuff is jump, jump, jump, jump and run around the circle. That's fine. But after it's all said and done, they need to settle down and listen to the word of God. That the Lord may, you know, that they'll be thoroughly equipped. The work comes to equip us. It comes to mold us and come to shape us and take out all the debris and all this dross that we have on the inside of us that shouldn't be there. Okay. So as we're thinking. So it comes to the hand. Right. I'm over the women's department. I have an assignment to do as of the women's department. My assignment is to work these auxiliaries that Bishop has. the vision and I have to carry the vision through auxiliaries and ministry. And to bring women together so women can connect together. There's nothing that you can't utilize if God put it in the midst. He put it there for a purpose. And when we don't use it, it's us. It's us. Failure's in us. So what I'm hearing is just being intentional about why we're coming together. And so your church might not have, you know, like a young women's group or, you know, what we would call a young women's Christian council, but you are gathering or connecting women together and maybe another way and being intentional behind that and not just doing it just for the social aspect. That's certainly helpful and important. But also what I'm hearing is coming together to strengthen one another and to allow the word of God to equip us to be better women and better Christians. And as I think about being a better woman and being a better Christian, I think about, you know, what when you first gave your life to God. what is something that the more senior women shared with you that encouraged you during difficult times? Because as I think about giving your life to God and being saved, it's never easy. And especially depending on when you give your life to God, you're going to face certain ups and certain downs. And so when you first gave your life to God, mother, what are some of the things that the more seasoned mother shared with you that encouraged you during difficult times? Well, how the senior mothers helped me during that time is because I thought when I got saved, it was over. I don't have no more problems. But what I didn't realize that all the hell opened up in the demons with it, everything that was standing there with it. So they taught me how to navigate through that, through prayer, through Bible study, And through fasting. And even times how to be quiet. To be quiet. Because sometimes I think the worst enemy can be self. When you're newly saved and you don't know and you think you know. Because you have all these anxieties and stuff like that. But I had to learn how to just settle myself and just listen. Just listen. I remember it wasn't easy for me starting out because when you're the only one saving your home, it can be very difficult. So I had to learn how to be saved, how to really be saved. Because what I had to understand that even though you can look at people and critique what they're doing, But you're still not ready, God. He was fixing me all on the inside, changing how I look at things. Because I was very quick, very quick. The Lord didn't want Speedy Gonzalez. He didn't want that coming at me and stuff. So the Lord had to work in me. He allowed the Holy Spirit to work in me. And I spent a lot of time crying about things. And it's now an overnight wonder. No one is an overnight wonder. You have to learn how to persevere through the storms and the tests of life. You have to learn how to keep your feet, not just when something goes wrong, you're just going to jump up and leave. You can't, you know, if you just got to learn how to just stand still. I had to learn all of that, all of that. And that's where I learned how to hear I had to learn how to listen and hear what's being said. I can always think, I thank God for this because God always gave me somebody to go to and talk to. I always had somebody to talk to. Now, when something got on me and was just too loaded for me, hey, I went to somebody where I could unload and just really shared my field where I was going through. Sometimes I was right, sometimes I was wrong. You know, and sometimes I was just off the chart, you know what I'm saying? But I had to listen and just receive the instruction, receive the instruction. I found that very hard for me, receiving instruction. I'm telling you, I found it very hard for me. It's not that I was never in church. I came up in a Baptist church, but I wasn't saved. See, it's different between knowing about God and knowing him. I knew about him, but I had no relationship with him. So now things were different. All those things that I thought I knew, I was like, okay, you got to get rid of that. You can't carry that. You know what I'm saying? It's a lot of things. I've been encouraged a lot. I was encouraged a lot. I went through a lot. I went through a lot, a lot of difficulties. But I found out later in life was the Lord making me over again. Making me over again. And I look back now, I laugh. I said, Lord, thank you. Because nobody could have done it but him. Nobody could have done it. And it changed my house. It really changed my house. Because at that time, I was very radical, very radical now. I stood on what I believe, and I still do it today. I believe it, honey. I'm going to leave it. I believe God, and I believe his word. I just believe. If I say I'm not going to do something, Esther's not doing it. Trust me. You can bank on it. But I had to learn that. That didn't come easy. I didn't learn that. I was quick to fight, too. I was really quick to fight physically, and he had to let me know that. You can't be doing that. Stuff like that. But you learn through trial and error. Don't think that you're always right without being smacked. So different things in life. I learn a lot of stuff. And the more seasoned women, the more skilled women help me because they've been through the same thing. I'm going to tell you, you're never alone when you go through difficulties in life. It sounds like the more senior women can kind of help talk you off that ledge when, you know, flesh rises up and you just want to go to fight and you just want to go. And even if you're not a fighter with your hands, but you're a fighter with your words, right? You're very sharp tongue. It's sounding like seasoned women can help you to navigate those challenging times by Encouraging you to pray. And then also one of the things I talked about in our Facebook group for the Dig Deep community recently, I posted about May being Mental Health Awareness Month. And I talked about the power of being able to go to licensed professionals online. who can support you through challenging life circumstances as well. And so, yes, we believe and know that Jesus is able to do all things. And I also think that it is okay for us when we're facing challenges to get professional help, along with having our faith that God is going to work things out, but also talking to professionals to figure out how to navigate that. Yes, thank you. So, Mother, as we come to... I didn't hear the last part of that. Oh, I just was saying how it's important for us to, you know, as we're navigating challenging spaces, making space for licensed professionals to help support us because it is, I've talked about it being Mental Health Awareness Month and talked about how, you know, you can go to licensed professionals to help you navigate challenging times as well. As we are nearing the end of the conversation, yeah, go ahead. As a young person, as a young woman, I suffer with mental health, and I was saved. I was saved and sanctified Holy Ghost field, but I had mental health issues. I had to take pills. I mean, I took pills, I think it was three times a day. and whatnot. During that time of my life, I just didn't tell anybody in the church that because at that time, like I said, people did the Jesus thing on you that, you know, and you didn't want nothing but I know because they'll think you're fruit nuts and granolas. So I didn't tell anybody, but I did tell the pastor about it and whatnot. And I stayed on the altar. I mean, I stayed on the altar praying, asking the Lord to deliver me, to deliver me. And I'll never forget, I went to Memphis, Tennessee, and the saints was praying. And that whole place became an altar just for me. And I heard the spirit of the Lord said to me, you don't need those pills. And at that very moment, I said to one of the saints with me, what the Lord said, and she said, don't take them. And I didn't take that pill. And I'm telling you, it's been almost over 40 years now. But it's a process, you all. Mental health is real. It's real. Sometimes we carry stuff that we shouldn't carry. I mean, that pain was real inside. I mean, I would cry. And sometimes people see you because you laugh and you're like, you know, you're laughing, you kid around a lot. People think, oh, that person's okay. But sometimes that person's broken on the inside, just broken and don't know how to express his or herself. But I'll tell anybody, you need, if you need professional help, seek it. It does not make any sense to say you need help. That you don't see it. That you don't, that don't mean that God cannot heal, that God cannot deliver. He is still God. He is still God. But sometimes we're just not in that place to receive what God has for us. You have to get in that place. You have to, I have to learn, you have to get in that place where to receive that. In the meantime, it doesn't matter what people say, because people are going to Talk about you. That's human nature. People are just going to say things. And if you've got a problem, take care of that problem. And be around people that's going to encourage you. Don't be around people who tell you, you're okay. You know you're just as nutty as the day is long. They're telling you you're okay. You're ready to jump off a bridge and they're rubbing you down telling you you're okay. No, get the help that you need. Get the help that you need. Be prayerful. Just seek the Lord. I tell anybody, you seek the Lord. Please, just don't let yourself, that's with anything, even with your health, mental health, your physical health, anything got anything to do with your well-being. Baby, you need to get help. You need to really get help. Women is known to have these mental issues. And they have these breakdowns. And some people say they're menopausal. No, you're not menopausal. You're a little off. You're just a little fruit, nuts, and granola. And you need a little help. You just need a little help. And sometimes they need a little encouraging. Because we don't know what kind of homes these people come out of. Homes are broken. More homes are broken now than ever. And young people have to endure that. And some of them come to church, they don't say nothing. They don't say anything. So it's better that we become sensitive to the spirit of God. That way you can identify certain things. When people come to the altar, embrace them with love. Don't send them away saying everything's going to be all right when they broke it. And next thing you know, they did something they had no business doing. I tell anybody, if you need help, mental health, I see it all the time. I see it. When you hear kids get angry, there's anger. There's an underline there. There's an underline there. And we need to ask God to give us how to reach it. Now, everything I can't do, everything you can't do, but you can always direct them where to go. You know, we ought to be a change agent. Everybody ought to be a change agent to help people. Just don't let people, you know, all child gone, sick, you'll be all right. No. Be concerned about that soul. Be concerned about souls. Amen. Thank you for sharing your personal testimony with us as well. I know you've talked about this in other services where you've been the main speaker and you've talked about, you know, your mental health struggles and mental health challenges and how you were able to overcome them. So I appreciate you sharing that with us this evening. As we get ready to come to the close of our conversation, Mother, one of the things that I wanted to ask you is what do you hope your legacy will be when all is said and done? Mother, were you able to hear the question? Integrity. They said, what do you hope your legacy will be when all is said and done? That I was honest. I'm very honest. I'm very open. That I care. I truly care. And I try to maintain a positive attitude, try to maintain that. And I think it's important that we listen, even the more, listen. And acknowledge people, don't just act like they don't exist. Acknowledge women, you know, especially women that are productive. Acknowledge them, encourage them. Encourage them to be the best they can be. And even that one that don't know what direction to go. I want people to remember that about me. And that I love God. I truly love God. And I love my church family. I love the church family. I just love people. I love people. And I pray that I will always be a woman of integrity. Always be a woman of integrity. And I hope you always remember this night, as you journey on into greatness, I really hope that for you, that you'll be a great encourager to other women other women, young women, even middle-aged. There's some older women that need your knowledge, your expertise. That's my prayer for you. And if I could say this, and I pray for every woman in Connecticut Second, that we will be all that God would have us to be. And even those women that are to come, because there's more women coming. We might not see it, but there's more women coming. and that we will be that light for them, that we'll be that encouraging, and that we will all be women of integrity. Mother, thank you so much for joining me tonight. And thank you for your kind words to me. I am going to ask that you would... My cousin Sharon is on. Oh, hi, cousin Sharon. I hope you had a wonderful birthday the other day. I can't wait to see you in Orlando. Okay, let me focus. So mother, before we ask you to pray, I do just want to make a couple of quick announcements. Coming up, we have... um the dig deep women of the word conference coming up october 4th and october 5th this year so very thrilled to be bringing this conference back we had an incredible time last year we are currently in early bird registration and that is ending very very soon okay so you need to get the early bird registration prices um the information is scrolling at the bottom of the screen If you connect with me, Jaria C. Aldo on all social media, or if you visit jariacaldo.org, we have all of the information up there, including our workshop facilitators. So since I saw her in the comments, I haven't announced who the workshop facilitators are just yet, but I saw her in the comments. I don't know if she's still watching or not, but I'm going to actually, this is an exclusive. I'm going to go ahead and actually announce... one of our workshop facilitators for the conference. I'm really excited. This is a chance for women of all walks, from all walks of life to come together. As we talked about, you know, coming together in fellowship and coming together, wanting to strengthen our bond with God and deepen our relationship with God and even with one another. So one of the conference workshop facilitators is actually going to be none other than Evangelist Laverne Campbell. I'm super excited. She is Connecticut, one of Connecticut Second's own. She is going to be talking about navigating your call to missions. Sorry, Justine said that it was loud because I was typing. Yes, I'm sorry, y'all. I was trying to multitask and type at the same time. I don't know if y'all can hear me typing. Sounds like you could, so I apologize for all the extra noise in the background there. So if you did not hear what I said, I'm announcing our workshop facilitator, For one of the three workshops at the Dig Deep Conference, Women of the Word, none other than Evangelist Laverne Campbell. She's going to be talking about navigating your call to missions. If you feel that you are being called to the missions field, we need missions workers, not only overseas and different countries, but we need mission workers right here in the United States. And if anybody knows Evangelist Laverne Campbell, she has a heart for missions. She is so passionate about it and also incredibly skilled at it. And so she's going to be coming to talk to us at the workshops on Saturday, October 5th, about navigating your call to missions. This is for you if you feel that you have a heart for missions, you're interested in doing a missions trip, you want to learn more information about that. It's all about coming out to the Dig Deep Conference, Women of the Word. Make sure you get the early bird registration. Again, that early bird registration is ending soon. And once that ends, those prices will increase. You want to make sure that you lock in those discount prices. Now, visit JariaC.org or you can connect with me. You got the exclusive here. I've announced it here to you all first. I'll be dropping that information in another Facebook Live in the next coming days. Just going to announce the workshop facilitators. But thank you all so much for tuning in tonight. It has been a pleasure to have my state supervisor, our state mother, none other than Mother Esther Jones on talking with us about connecting the Ruths and the Naomi's, how to connect the younger women to the more senior women, how we can come together. We can learn from one another. We can hear the wisdom from both sides. And as we connect with one another, we can help each other grow in our relationships with God. And so with that, Mother Jones, I would ask that you would end us in prayer. And if you could focus on praying that the relationships among women will be strengthened, will be deepened, especially as we try and connect the younger generation to the more senior generation. So Mother Jones, we are in your hands. Okay. First of all, I want to thank you and thank God for allowing me to be a part of your Dig Deep conversation tonight. And I thank God for all those that are online tonight. Continue to pray for one another that the Lord may strengthen each and every one of us. You want me to close out with prayer? Okay. Eternal God, we thank you tonight. Father, we thank you for your love, your kindness, and your tender mercy. Lord, thank you for this time, God, of fellowship, God, and encouraging, Father. God, we just want to say thank you tonight. Lord, I pray, God, that you will bless every daughter, young and older like God, who tune in this night, O God. Bless Dr. Jaria, God, and her endeavors, O God. Lord, I pray, God, that you're an angel who will camp around about her, God. And she... Move, God, according to your will and your divine purpose. Pump the household of faith everywhere, God. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thank y'all so much for tuning in. I will see you right here next time for Dig Deep, Conversations with Christian Leaders. Thanks for tuning in, everybody. Thank you.
