Gratitude & Angela's 4 Years Sober | Girls Gone Bible
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Hi guys, I'm Ari and I'm Ange and this is Girls Gone Bible, a Christian podcast aka Jesus for Degenerates. Jesus for Degenerates. So today we are, when this comes out, this is going to be probably the day after Thanksgiving, but we wanted to do a whole episode kind of talking about gratitude and what

what that means and why we should be grateful as Christians and why we celebrate Thanksgiving and just gratitude in general. Yeah, we have some really cool announcements to make. What's the announcement? Well, first and foremost, Angela is four years sober. Is it today? Yes.

It'll be yesterday when this comes out. Four years sober. Do you know how proud I am of you? Thank you. No, really. What? Go ahead. No, nothing. I love you. Thank you. I just want to say that...

You living this sober lifestyle is helping so many people. You're freeing so many people, helping so many people. The fact that you're so vulnerable that you can sit on, sit up on here and share your story. And because a lot of, I know how hard that was for you to be vulnerable, to share those deep, dark things about yourself and your past. And the fact that you can sit here and share your story to help others is,

I'm just so proud of you. It literally makes me want to cry. I'm serious. I love you so much. I'm so proud of you. Thank you. Wow. I go to the store, I ask them for a lighter. They give me this like 1980s strike a match box. Wait. Thank you. I wanted to get you something.

Okay, hopefully I don't light my hair on fire. Are we even allowed to? Are we? Yeah, whatever. Okay, ready? Wow, do I make a wish? Happy four years to you.

You just blew out my candle. I'm so sorry. You are so mean. Okay, action. Happy four years to you. Yo, we're gonna start a fire in here and get sued. Happy four years to you. Happy four years, dear sister. Happy four years to you. Make a wish.

Do I make a wish? I hope this stays over for the rest of my life. I'm just kidding. I will, obviously. Do you want to eat that? Maybe not right now. Yeah, maybe never. I knew you weren't going to eat this because you don't eat that stuff. Okay, so one thing I want to say is that Angela is very easy to please. She's very laid back. She doesn't need much in this life. But one thing that makes her...

light up like a Christmas tree is when we get to go to 7-eleven is it two times or three times a day maybe like twice probably times she so she we will pull into 7-eleven and you just see her face she is awesomely

- I don't leave the house. - To buy one of these. This is the, if you want the way to Angela's heart, just get her a Quest bar. Not any Quest bar, it has to be the cookie dough one. - I love that one. - So I say to her, "And just get a box." She said, "But the thrill of driving in and just buying them, it makes me happy." So I said, "You know what? If that's what makes you happy,

Thank you so much. It really is my birthday. Okay, why are you opening it? I don't know, I'm fine. I'm okay right now. It's like a dessert. I'm telling you, it's not for nothing. Okay. Wow, thank you. This is a beautiful day. So much to be grateful for. You know who will eat that later? You.

Actually, this is good because you always get mad. I don't like this actually. You with your mouth closed. Did you hear anything I said?

Okay. So yeah, for your sober today, I think that it's really fitting that I got sober on Thanksgiving in 2019. That is so crazy, actually. I know. When you think about it. It's the number one thing that I'm most grateful for in life is my sobriety. That's beautiful. If you're new here and you don't know, I...

had a little bit of an alcohol problem at one point, but it was really due to like severe anxiety and panic attacks. And I started self-medicating with alcohol. And it led to just a really scary, dark time in my life. A dark time that truly is, it's where I found Jesus. I had been

a Christian and praying a lot during this time, but I believe that alcohol and drugs will really separate you from God. I really believe that it clouds your spiritual life and you are unable to... I just don't even think you can have a spiritual life when you're drinking and doing drugs like that. And so I had been praying to God for a while, begging Him. I even have a journal entry that's a little...

I don't know if... I mean, Ari's done it, so I have to do it too. Do it every week. I needed him so badly. And when the time was right, he helped me by the grace of God, truly by the strength of God. It wasn't by my own might. On Thanksgiving, I picked up my last drink, put it down, and never picked it back up again. And I never will for the rest of my life. And it's been...

Challenging, of course, especially the first like six months after getting sober where like I wasn't even here. Angela was here, but the lights were on, but nobody was home. I was like a zombie. I was just like reacclimating myself and my body back into society. It was really, it's insane the effects that alcohol has on your physical health and your emotional health. But then after that, after like God healed me from the pain

from the damage that I had done. This has been the easiest thing of my life because I have, I am not in alignment with God more than anything than this decision to stop drinking. I,

I know that I can't drink and I don't want to. And that's why it's so easy. I know that God doesn't want that for me. And so I didn't go to AA. I didn't go to rehab. I don't go to therapy. I didn't do anything. Literally me and Jesus quit drinking and we hate it. And that's how I'm able to get through it. I don't need a sponsor. I don't need help. Like I know, you know. For anyone that's new, maybe somebody's going through this right now. Can you kind of go through...

the steps that you did when you got sober with God. Yeah.

I, so it was prayer, prayer. At that time, I wasn't reading the Bible yet, but I had so many people. I had my mom praying over me. I had my pastor in Florida praying over me. And I started praying for myself. I would go to church every single day and just pray. I started journaling. And I can't- Yeah, let's hear it. I would love to hear it. It's so sad. So this was written on November 15, 2019. And it's about like two weeks before I got sober. I was truly in-

The darkest point of my life, I was surrounded by darkness. I was filled with darkness. I had no light in my life. I had no light in my eyes. I was a slave to alcohol, to the drink. I would wake up every day and that was the ruler of my life. Wow. And...

As somebody who has an addictive personality, I have to be very careful with everything in my life. But honestly, even if you don't, like everybody needs to be careful because I went my whole life being like that. I would have never thought that I would be in a position that I'd be so...

in such a dark place. Like in my head, I'm like, I'm way like, I'm better than that. I'm bigger than that. Like, no, you're not. You never know. You let things in. You let the open doors. Like you make all the right wrong decisions will lead you to a dark place like that. And that's what happened with me. And that's what the enemy does. He will get you in little ways and then it accumulates. And then all of a sudden you find yourself in a position you never thought you'd be in. Yeah.

And then so I said on November 15, 2019, Dear Jesus, Jesus, I really need your help. I don't feel good. I haven't felt good in a really long time. When did this happen, Jesus? When did my heart become so sick? Nobody even knows. Nobody knows how bad it is. My thoughts are so loud. It hurts so much. I'm losing Jesus. Please, I'm losing. I need you. Please heal me.

It's funny, even when you were...

In the darkest time where nothing was going right, you still trusted him. And that's the one thing I love about you the most is you have such an unshakable faith and trust in Jesus. And that's what made my faith so strong with him. I love you so much. It's like, it's weird because the pain feels so far away now. I can't even access it. Like I, I, God has restored me.

every single thing in me that was lost and taken away, every, every thing that the enemy meant for evil, he turned for good. And I'm just so far from that person now that it's, I'm so happy I have records like this to show what I was actually going through. Otherwise I wouldn't remember. Like he really, the old is gone and the new has got like, God really did deliver me from all that and made me new in it. So I don't even remember what it feels like.

That's beautiful. And I thank you for sharing that because that's not easy to share such a personal thing like that. And so many people, especially...

LA and even back home where I'm from are just, they're addicts and they're struggling and they're dying and they need help and they don't know how to get out. So thank you because honestly, that is going to help so many people on their journey. Yeah. The journey with sobriety is a really interesting one and it's really

It can be the most daunting, scary thing of all time to think about getting sober because it's like, who am I without this thing? And I felt that for a long time. I was like, I'm not funny without alcohol. I'm not social. I'm not like cute. I remember I was dating somebody and I think I said this before, but I was dating someone after. It was like that night. I was probably still drunk. I was bawling my eyes out in these polka dot pajamas. And I said to Jake, I was like, I'm not going to be cute anymore.

What do you mean you thought by drinking like it made you? I thought that's why I had a personality. The enemy truly made me feel like I wasn't going to be funny. I wasn't going to be fun. Like I wasn't going to be dancing on tables. Like I still dance on tables. People are like, God, what did you drink tonight? I know. See, I mean, but there is a life out there for you. I promise a life with no alcohol and no drugs.

is so worth living. We are so happy. We've said it before, but we, because we don't have anything artificially stimulating us, we, I don't know what the, what the biology is exactly, but the chemicals in our brain, we experience such natural highs. Oh my gosh, that scared me so bad. That scared me so bad.

It's okay. We can just leave it there. Oh. So a hole in the wall. Wait, say it again. What the heck? We're keeping this on. We have... Can you get this here? So we have... Me and Ari, like, truly have...

We experience natural euphoria on a daily basis. We are truly high all the time. We laugh like crazy. When I was drinking, I was so miserable. I did not laugh. I did not because my, I don't know what it is, but like my receptor, my dopamine, my something was so depleted because when you...

do drugs or you drink alcohol, you like release all of it at the same time. And then when that's over, you're depleted and you have nothing. Whereas we have, we're like balanced all the time. And that took a while. I mean, for me, at least because my brain was so wired since I was a little girl to be in fear and to have anxiety and to be in constant defense because I, you know, I basically like raise myself and I'm like in constant defense mode. So that's why I do so much work. I think why,

why we are the way we are with Jesus is because we put so much work into him and that's what gives us such a freedom in our hearts and and that goes hand in hand with just leave it can you just leave it I we can't I'm so sorry it's okay the devil doesn't want us talking about this because because alcohol and drugs are the devil yeah truly so he's gonna knock down all these walls

Well, tear them down, Jesus! Sorry. Sometimes I get a little... They really need to... I know, we're trying to figure it out. I see that one coming down there.

Um, but that goes hand in, that goes hand in hand. Oh my God. That goes hand in hand. What we're talking about today, which is having a grateful heart and having gratitude and your gratitude and your grateful heart comes from Jesus. Yes. And, and okay. So today's episode really is going to be about gratitude. And I do want to touch on my point and even talking about the sobriety is that I, I,

Used to have such a complaining spirit and I was miserable and honestly like things had happened in my life that contributed to that So it's not that I was just choosing to be miserable but at the same time like while I was in such darkness I had no I I could not see I could not you could give me a hundred things to be grateful for and I could only focus on the one thing that was going on same and it's like it's a heart posture and it's like a brain wiring like it's it's you have to undo all of this stuff and

But my point is, God taking me through the most unbelievably painful, dark, and really awful point in my life.

I would do it just like you said yesterday. I would do it a hundred times over too, because I wake up every single day with a grateful heart because I have spent, I had spent a long time waking up in agony and in pain and in anxiety and being sick. I had a sick heart. And so every, I know what it's like to be down bad. So every day that I wake up and I didn't feel good physically either. And so every day that I wake up and I feel good and

And I'm not like being tormented by thoughts. Every day that I even feel slightly okay, I'm grateful for it. It's true. Because I know what it's like to be in a dark place and I never want to go back there. That's why the storms and the hard times are almost a blessing. They are. Because you live in such gratitude when you're on the other side. You're like, oh.

OK, like, you know, exactly. And I think, too, like getting sober is one of the most humbling things that can ever happen to you because you honestly feel like a child. It's very it's it's very vulnerable in a very weird spot to be in, to like go through withdrawals, to have to like it's just it's weird. And it's and nobody understands it unless you've been through it.

And so but being in such a humble place also brings out so much gratitude in you because it's like when you're arrogant, you feel entitled. And so you're not going to look at all the blessings, whereas I am so truly grateful to just have anything good in my life. You know what I mean? It's true. Humility. Yeah. When you get to that place of humility, you are just so grateful. Always. That's God loves a humble heart. Yeah.

It's the most important thing. You always keep a humble heart. That's why I'm like, go ahead, bring me through a storm. It's going to make me even humbler. And it's humbler a word. It's going to humble me. Take that out. I don't know. Maybe it is a word. I will say you and I like we're going to read a couple of psalms today, but you and I.

Me and Ari are like, we're very aware of the fact that, because if you don't know us, you don't know us, but anybody who meets us is often surprised by how we are. And we're very authentic to who we are on camera, but people even more so when they meet us, they're like, people even more so when they meet, can we just leave it? Yeah, yeah, please. People even more so are able to,

They're like, you guys are really nice and you're really humble and you genuinely love Jesus. And so we pray all that because we understand that like that's a blessing that we have. It's a blessing. And we never, God forbid, I don't think we ever will, but you never know because there's a lot of people who like they move up, they do more, they get bit, whatever, and they lose that. And we just pray every day that we never lose that gratitude, that grateful heart and that humility that we have. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, to always keep our hearts soft and keep us with a humble heart. It's the most important thing, you guys, before everything else. Because God will humble you so fast. He will humble you so fast. He's humbled me before, and I didn't like it. So I don't want to go there again. Thanks for my cake, sis. I know, I want to stick my finger in it, but... Okay, but I don't know. It's kind of gross.

Okay, we'll take that out. Okay, Psalm 100. A psalm of thanksgiving. No, I'm sorry. A song of praise for the Lord's faithfulness to his people. Wait, where are you? Psalm 100. Where? Why are you not? I asked you to get me there. I did. Please eat the cake. You're looking at it. Can you put it down? You know how I am with sweets. Just have a little bit.

- I don't wanna be like licking frosting off my finger on film. - Okay, sorry guys. - I truly look like I have a toupee on and I can't believe it. - This is all we talk about. Psalm 100. - Right, okay. Psalm 100, a song of praise for the Lord's faithfulness to his people, a psalm of thanksgiving.

Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before his presence with singing. Know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who has made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture.

If nothing else, truly. I'm so sorry. I thought you were reading the other one. I was like, oh, no.

See my face? Sorry, I came out hot. If nothing else, if you have nothing to be grateful for, you need to understand that 2,000 years ago, Jesus died on a cross for us. That is more than enough to be grateful for. I say it all the time. If God never did anything else for me again, that was enough. But he still chooses to bless me all day long when I don't deserve it. And still chooses to love us unconditionally and

do we sin and we don't do right and we mess up and we pick he loves us unconditionally it's what a gift he gives us so he literally says to us that like you will be punished if you go off course but if you choose to return back to me I will I'll take you back and it's like with open arms right where we are a call to worship in obedience oh come let us sing to the Lord let us shout joyfully to rock

of our salvation let us come before his presence with thanksgiving let us shout joyfully to him with psalms for the lord is the great god and the great king above all gods in his hand are the deep places of the earth the heights of the hills are his also the sea is his for he made it and his hands formed the dry land

Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.

I...

What makes me feel so grateful is when I do, when I bow down through everything, even when it's not going my way. And I'm like, thank you, Jesus. Thank you. I don't see what you're doing, but I know you're working it all out for me. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I never used to do that in my prayers. My prayers was always, please, God, why, God, please help me. Mm-hmm.

It was messing me up bad. Yeah. You know, and when I learned to really just sit and soak in his presence and thank him because there is so much to be thankful for. I know the first part of our prayer should always be praising and thanking him, enter into his gates with thanksgiving. Yeah. We should never be praying without first thanking God for everything he's already done. And there's so much. Like, there's so much. And we have the choice to...

to decide what we're going to focus on. And I, I too, I never, I've gone through times where I didn't thank him before. And I just came through with requests and it's like, no, you, you be thankful. You have, you show him gratitude for the things he's already done. Isn't it? Well, first of all, let's, let's, because Thanksgiving, it's funny. I always spend Thanksgiving with

The whole day cooking. Yeah. And then you say a prayer and then you eat and then people watch the football game. And we don't, I feel like we don't spend like this year. I really want to spend time talking about Jesus and why we're thankful for him. And what are we thankful for? Give me three things you're thankful for.

I'm thankful for Girls Gone Bible. I'm thankful for my health. I'm thankful for you and my family. We share one brain. I knew that's what you were going to say, too. Is that what you were going to say? I truly, I could write a million thousand things to be grateful for. I have, there's just so much to be grateful for. And I think I just, let's touch on the fact that like when somebody's not grateful,

like being grateful, a godly person is always grateful. God hates complaining. He really does. And you can always tell if somebody's grateful by the words that come out of their mouth. Yeah. When somebody is sitting there and I have a lot of people that I know that are like that. And it's not because they're bad people, but it's their heart posture. It's just how their brain works to always go to the negative, to focus on that. I can't even be around complaining. No. And I

My thing is, is like I've had friends and I don't ever leave people sad. I always want to stick because sometimes people go through things. You got to stick by them, whatever. But I have known people that speak such death all the time. So negative and nothing would come into their lives. And before I had God, I didn't know. I didn't understand God.

but it's the truth. You sit there and you speak only negative when there's so much beauty around you. I now can be in such a storm, but I know that I'm in, I'm so thankful because it's like, there's just so much to be grateful for. And I know everything's going to work out in the end. I know when it's all for a reason, God's doing it all for a reason. Um, but it's the truth. When you sit there and speak death, you taught me a lot about that. And I'll catch myself now if I'm being negative. And I'm like, I, I,

clip it right away. - Yeah, and it's normal to be like that sometimes, but I think it's, you're just doing yourself such a disservice when you sit there and harp on the negative and the things that are bad. We have so much more, we talk about it all the time, but we have so much more control over the way we feel than we think. Like we have, we're not a victim to anything. We have the ability to control the narrative, we have the ability

to choose where we put our focus. So I have a little bit of a story that after I got sober and I was still experiencing really bad anxiety, somebody had told me the power. They told me about the power of gratitude. And somebody, a friend of mine, had told me, this is what you're going to do. And I actually have it in my notes still. Somebody told me that

All throughout the day, open in notes, a little note on your phone, and then all throughout the day, every time you have a moment where you realize something happened that you're grateful for, write it down. And it trains your brain to look for the good, for the positive, and for things that you're grateful for. And I'm telling you, this was a driving force in my healing from anxiety because there's a lot of studies that show that once...

Wherever anxiety is in your brain, gratitude is also in the same spot. You cannot be anxious and grateful at the same time. So gratitude will actively work against your anxiety. It's the truth. Also...

I do this with my girlfriends a lot now. If we're sitting there and, you know, complaining, I'll be like, let's all go around the room and say three things we're really grateful for. When you do that, you watch how different the setting is. Everything changes. Everyone's demeanor changes. I'm sorry. I got. So this is this is January 9th. Only 2022. Yeah. So I like did all this stuff. And it's so funny to see.

that when I started doing this, I was grateful for random, like there's just the most random things. Um, at one point I said, uh, I'm grateful that I didn't really disassociate today. Truly. That's how bad of a place I was in. I was not, I was not right. Um, and then it's so sad. Another moment of healing slash faith that I'm going to get better and everything is okay. I am

This is real. This is real time. Like, truly. When was this written? January. It started January 9th, 2022. And I did it every day. But it's funny. As the time goes on, I started bringing Jesus into it more. Grateful for Jesus. I love you, Jesus. Grateful for knowing that nothing lasts. Meaning pain and anxiety does not last. It never has and it never will. It never does. It never does. Sorry. This is cool. I love you, Jesus. The healing breath.

Healing walks. I love Jesus. I started to like healing walks, you guys going on walks, looking at the trees, the greenery, the birds. Yeah. Thinking about what you're grateful on these walks. Yeah. This improves your brain and mental health. It really, really does. Let's talk about the practical steps to work on being positive and having a positive mood because of course, Jesus is the answer to everything. Absolutely. First and foremost, and reading the Bible and prayer, but

What are practical things you can do? This is a great thing. I really encourage you. Open a notepad in your phone and then all throughout the day just write things that you're grateful for. Literally, if it was me, I'd probably be like, I woke up and got to have a cup of coffee. That makes me so happy. It's something that I'm grateful for. It is. Another great way to be grateful is to stop looking at the past. Angela and I talk about it all the time.

You know, we can never be grateful when we're constantly looking at the past and and wishing what was. It's like we're rejecting God. He brought us to this point for a reason. So we cannot look back. We have to trust that there's something better in the future. Truly. And that will you will remain so grateful. Yeah. Like, OK, this is good. I trust you, God.

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It's training yourself to look for the good. Look for God's goodness. Like it's all around us. People say all the time, like, how can you be happier or how can you want to bring kids into the world when there's so much bad in the world? Yeah. Like, yes, there is so much bad in the world. There is so much good in the world if you choose to focus on it. And me and Ari and all of GGB gang, because you guys are just like us, we all choose to look at the good. Yeah. You know? And you know what else?

When you have this positive mindset where you're just like, I can't wait. Like, I can't wait for what's to come. Oh, I'm excited. Watch the flow of your life. Watch how God just... There's like a certain type of flow that happens. That's why you just have to practice gratitude, practice being happy, just...

It's insane how radical your life will change when you're in that mindset instead of staying in that scarcity mindset of being afraid and anxious and worrying all day. It's not going to change anything. Yeah, complaining. What's that going to do? It's going to keep you stuck. Yeah.

I love that so much because a negative heart will truly blind you to the goodness that God is doing in your life. Like he will literally be blessing you and blessing you and you won't be able to see it because you're just so stuck on whatever is not completely exactly the way that you want it. And the sooner you accept that there's going to be a lot in your life that's not going to be the way that you want it to be.

That's it. Like it will be. There will be so many things in your life that you want to change. But at the same time, you I know that you can think of 10 things right now to be grateful for.

Honestly, if me being in the pain that I was emotionally, which felt so physical, if I can get out of that pain that felt impossible to get out of just by going to church, just by talking with God, by building my personal relationship with him, by watching sermons, by being at church, if I could get out of that deep pain that I was in, anyone can. I can't even tell you...

like how much peace and happiness I have by devoting myself to him and building that relationship with him. Don't you feel like you, because you went through that pain now it's because I've heard you say it before that, like sometimes you're like when something happens, you're like, oh, this is nothing. You want to know what I went through a little while ago? You know, telling you one of the greatest gifts that I feel that I have from God is the gift of

coping. Yeah. Yeah. Going through hard times like that gives you the ability to cope with things better in the future. Yeah. Yeah. We say it all the time. Like I...

With the things that I've been through in my life, truly having to get sober, nothing compares to that. Like nothing that I go through compares to the pain that I experienced then. And so I'm just so grateful for it for that reason. Everything is like, well, I've been here. I can get through it. I've been through much worse. You know another thing that...

keeps us grateful and keeps us just alive. I feel like, especially when we're in the car together, worship. Oh my gosh. We will be in the worst traffic, the worst moods, and we will put on our worship music together or when we're alone and we will just sing out loud. Even when you don't feel it, just sing out loud. It guys, it interrupts you from getting into that darkness. It always will. Worship changes the atmosphere in a room. It changes your heart. It changes your mood.

there are times where I'll be like struggling so much mentally. And then all of a sudden I'll have a revelation and be like, what am I doing? I have the answer. This is so easy. Just put on worship and just start singing and praising. And you, even if you don't feel it in the moment. And that's another thing about gratitude is like,

It's a choice. It's a choice. It's not just something that's circumstantial that good things are happening to you and that means that you're grateful. It's a choice. You're choosing to be grateful. Just like being a victim, you choose to be a victim. I really believe that victim mindset is an absolute choice regardless of what has happened to you in your life. And

I'm radically anti-victim mentality because choosing to be a victim is a great way to make sure you never succeed in life. Oh, yeah. I could easily sit there and be like, oh, I went through this as a kid, never going to get, you know. Or you can say, no, I'm going to use this as a testimony to rise me up to be a better person. Exactly. And that's what we have to do when we didn't grow up, you know, in the best families or whatever.

- Yeah. - Maybe you did and you messed up. It's all a testimony to do better. - At the end of the-- - Not to stay in victim mode. - Yeah, at the end of the day, no matter what your story has been like, we all have trauma and the truth is that, imagine my trauma is very little but yours is massive.

Just because mine is little, that's massive to me because that's the most amount of hardship that I've been through. So we all, it's just, it's relative. So it's based on our personal experiences and what we've gone through. But like you do have the ability to take every bad thing that has ever happened to you. And that is what happens when you

give your life to Jesus is that you have the ability and the authority to overcome all of these things and that he will take all these things and use them for good. Yeah. And just for that alone, I'm so grateful. I just, I also, you know how you said like you never, um,

you never focused on Jesus during Thanksgiving. I like don't celebrate Thanksgiving. My family is not American. So, I mean, they'll like, we'll get together and have dinner, but it's not like, I don't typically like fly home for Thanksgiving. Um, so we never, but this year I truly, I want to have like a true Thanksgiving for Jesus, like have just a day devoted to being grateful to him, which we are, we really are every day. We're,

One thing that we encourage you guys in your walk with Jesus to have is this gratitude for God and for who he is and what Jesus did and for giving us his only son. Let's let's let's I wrote some things down. Let's go over what gratitude does.

Gratitude improves your brain and your physical health. Gratitude is the antidote of toxic emotion. Gratitude improves relationships. Think about when we keep speaking life and we stay positive and we just are so grateful for these people. There have been times where we weren't in the best positions and I would just look at them and be like, you know, I'm so grateful for our relationship. And watch the person's face when you say that.

When you speak life into them, when you will... Because people, you know, we always talk about people are really hurting and we need to constantly speak life into each other. That's what I love about you so much. You know, I'll be having the worst day and you'll just look at me and you'll be like, I love you so much, R. And I can't even tell you what that does to me and what that does to my day. I'm like, I'll literally be like... Oh, my gosh. That's the truth, right? That was so cute. You know? I...

I do want to say something about that. Which one was it? Gratitude improves relationships. We've talked about this so many times, but when you're in a relationship with someone, we haven't been married. I don't know why. When you're in a relationship with somebody, it's like there are going to be so many things about that. This is back to choosing the way that you feel and what you are focusing on.

Being in a relationship with someone, there's going to be so many things about them that are annoying. Like you can't share your life with someone and not be annoyed by them. But so you have the option to choose. Am I going to...

to constantly think about the things about them that are annoying me or am I going to actively choose to look at their good qualities and that is the only way for a marriage and a relationship to survive even friendships to survive me and Ari spend so much time together luckily we are obsessed with each other so we don't like truly get annoyed by anything we're like the same person

But we know even if there are moments of like, I don't like this or I don't like that, like we know bigger picture. We have so many things that are so beneficial to our lives in this friendship and so many things we love about each other. And we actively focus on those things. I'm not even kidding you. There are moments where I will look at God and be like, you have taught me such a lesson in my friendship with Angela, because it's the truth. We spend so much time together and there's things that like, you know, annoy us that

Like we fought at CVS. Wait, can I tell it really quick? Wait, we did. Remember? Oh, we fought, yeah. Okay, so we were walking into CVS and like I said on the last episode that sometimes I like won't, I have trouble admitting when I'm wrong. We're walking into CVS and Ari's telling me something that she thinks that I need to change. And I'm like, okay, okay, okay. But I feel like she was beating the point a little bit. I can't bring it up.

I kept like, and then so at one point we're walking into CVS and I go, okay, like I'm seriously, like I'm getting so annoyed. You're acting a little bit holier than thou and I just need you to like relax because you, I'm like, you've been saved for like two years. All right, relax. And then we go into CVS. She snapped out on me. We go into CVS and just part ways. We literally go into different aisles and in my head I'm sitting there being like, oh God, I'm not going to talk to her. I'm not going to like blah, blah, whatever. Five minutes later, I'm like,

Where's Ari? And we go and we find each other. And it was like nothing ever happened. But it's because we focus on the good. That moment means nothing compared to how incredible our friendship is. Yeah, I think I was like, hey, Ange, I love you. It's like you just got to let it go. Let it go. Because bigger picture, you love each other so much. There's so much good that you can look at in your partner or whatever it is. And it's just, yeah. I love that. Let it go. Let it go. Yeah.

That's that's one of the biggest things I think I've learned like in my next relationship you accept people for who they are You let it go look at the good focus on the good speak life into that bring them up Don't don't you know tear them down absolutely? Gratitude opens the door and people and opportunities. It's the truth it goes hand in hand with relationships and

when you meet people and you, you, you come in with a grateful heart and again, you, you, you speak life into them and you're, and you, you have a good heart when you communicate with them. It's watch the opportunities and how much people gravitate towards you. There's nothing more attractive than a grateful person. I'm telling you that joy that you will have in your heart from being grateful is like, it's electric. Like you walk into a room and people want to be around you. Yeah.

Nobody wants to be around a complainer. No. It's annoying. And just someone with a good, grateful heart. When I meet someone, I can see their hearts. I just want to hang out with them all day. But I don't want to be around someone who's negative and speaking bad about people and things like that. Absolutely not.

Oh, and gratitude is the evidence of your maturity. I mean, seriously, gratitude is so the evidence of your maturity. That is unbelievable. Yeah. That is so absolutely true and so good. Yeah. Spiritual immaturity is when you're constantly complaining. Yeah. You know? Truly. Truly.

I, because spiritual maturity is knowing what the gospel is and the gospel in and of itself is a story of absolute hope. You can't complain when you have so much hope and gratitude in your heart. So if you're constantly complaining, and I'm not saying this to put anyone down, but I just, I think you need to like,

relearn some things, reintroduce yourself to the gospel, like reeducate yourself on who Jesus is. He is, he is the light and hope. Like there is so much to be grateful for just in the story of Jesus and what he did and the fact that he literally died and then rose from the dead and defeated death and sin. Like,

Whoa. You know, I love when I love that you say that because that's been the greatest blessing with reading the gospel is hope. And when you have hope, even in the darkest times and you can be like, you know what? It's OK. I hold on to hope. That's when the grace of God comes in. And I think I just love that hope. Me too. You hold on to hope and know that everything is going to be OK. Yeah.

- We need hope. It's like when you lose hope, you're in big trouble. Hang on to hope, hang on to joy. The enemy wants nothing more than to steal your joy and to steal your hope and to steal your peace. And God does he wanna take your gratitude.

And so that's like the way that you actively fight the devil is being grateful, even when he's messing things up in your life. You can't be grateful and be depressed. And guys, I know what depression feels like. I know it's hard. I know sometimes you're in a rut and you just don't know how to get out of it. But there is always something to be grateful for. Say it out loud. Praise about it. Worship about it.

And I think real quick, the last thing I want to say is when you want to be grateful, you help people. You help people around you. You help people that are suffering. You volunteer. I can't even tell you. And, you know, the day that you and I went and volunteered, I had a really hard day that day. I came home with the biggest smile on my face, helping people,

will change your mind, your brain chemistry. It will just, you watch, you watch how good life will get when you help people. Absolutely. We're meant to serve people. And also even seeing people when we've gone to Skid Row, like just seeing the living conditions that other people have to be in. I get back in my car, which like is like, and go to my house and wear my clothes. And I'm just like,

What am I talking about? Like every time I've ever complained, what am I talking about? I remember looking at you being like, how could we be complaining about what we did? What we were just complaining about. So.

So, yeah, Colossians 2, verse 7, plant your roots in Christ and let him be the foundation for your life. Be strong in your faith, always overflowing with thanksgiving. Yes. Thank you, Jesus. We have so much to be grateful for. You guys have so much to be grateful for. And while we're here, let us say our number one thing that we're grateful for is you guys.

Really? You guys? We love you so much. Oh, and announcement. Girls God Bible Baptism, December 10th at Mosaic in Hollywood. We will put a description to RSVP in the bio. I know it's hard to travel. I know it might be a little expensive to get to LA. If you're able to, please, we will be there.

We're not going to be the ones baptizing you, but we will be there to give you a hug right next to you and literally be right next to you while you get baptized. I'm actually so excited to meet you guys in person. You have no idea. We can all hang out afterwards, spend some time together. We love you so much, guys.

Go and be grateful. Go and focus on Jesus. Go literally every time you feel yourself having a negative thought, choose to be like, what can I be grateful for right now? Yes. Yes. Yes. Even if you're in the storm, sit there in the storm and say, I am grateful for this. Yes.

God is going to get me through. I love you guys. We love you guys so much. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May he make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May he turn his face towards you and give you peace, hope, love, joy, and an extremely grateful heart. Yes. We love you so much, you guys. We love you so much.