A Sister Chat - Chat with Priscilla Shirer

Hey there, it's Chrystal Hurst, and you are either listening to me on the podcast, watching me on Facebook, or watching me on YouTube. Now I have been going live every week on YouTube and Facebook during the year 2020. Called it a little QC, a little quarantine content, so you can exercise some quality control in your life. Did it weekly for a long time, did it daily for a a little bit of time, and I enjoyed doing that while I also continued to share podcast content for those of you who listen through the podcast player on Apple or Stitcher with Google, or maybe even Spotify. We are really excited about putting out a lot of content for you this year, and that being a continuation of the audio via podcast and the video via YouTube and Facebook. Today, I'm not with you live, but I am excited to introduce a conversation that I'm gonna be having with my sister, Priscilla. This is a conversation that was a part of our QCs earlier in the year, but like most of my interviews, I took that one down and put it in the library for the Inner Circle. I'm resurrecting it and sharing it with you today. We're gonna talk about her hair because everybody wants to talk about her hair, and also talk about food because she and I like talking about food. But then we also get serious and we talk about what it means to hear from God, how to hear from God, and what it means to live your life with a rhythm of rest. Because don't we all need to be reminded to do that? Before I jump into my conversation with Priscilla, our resurrection, our revisiting of our conversation from earlier in 2020, I want to tell you what's going to happen in 2021 and how you can make sure that you're on board to be a part of it. I will be going live every Monday still, but I will only be going live with the Inner Circle. The Inner Circle is a group of people who've decided to engage with me by supporting my content and also to do some work on them. There are a lot of levels to the Inner Circle, and most of them right now are closed except the co-producer level. And that level is the entry level for the Inner Circle. That level is also the level at which you can watch me live record every Monday around 7-ish o'clock those mornings. You can go to chrystalevanshurst.com/innercircle to sign up to join me live every Monday. But if supporting me right now is not what you can do or not what you want to do, you can still catch me live on— or not live, you can catch the replay on Mondays. Um, we're gonna talk about the time a little bit and give you more details about that soon, but it'll be on Mondays and you can join and just watch the replay. How will you know? What I'm doing and when I'm doing it, here's the most important thing I could tell you. Make sure you are on the email list. Go to chrystalevanshurst.com. We send out a weekly newsletter with what I'm doing and other things you need to know. And that way you'll always be in the know about where to catch me on video or audio. The podcast, uh, obviously the audio from today is what you're listening to. And next week we'll have brand new content, brand new interviews with me and friends and other people that are new friends for me that I want to introduce to you. So You can watch me encourage you on YouTube and Facebook weekly, or you can— and you can— listen to me encourage you with friends on the podcast every week as well.

Now you got to make sure you've told all the people in all the places what you want to hear and be reminded about.

So subscribe on YouTube, hit those little 3 buttons in the corner on Facebook and say, "Yes, I'm following Chrystal, but make sure you notify me when she is sharing content." You can also make sure that you're subscribed to the podcast, whether that's on Apple Podcasts, or Stitcher for Google and Android, or on Spotify. Just make sure you're signed up so you don't miss anything. But if nothing else, chrystalhurtstv.com, because I'll tell you all the things. There's one more thing that I want to tell you about. It's completely free, and I'm so excited to share. It is the 28-day prayer journey, which is free, and it starts on January 18th. But you do need to go to faithgateway.com/obs in order to sign up. So if this is a year where you want to get better about your prayer life, or this is a year where you want to investigate other angles of how to pray and keep your prayer life fresh, this study, this Bible study is for you. And I would love for you to participate. We've joined hands with Faith Gateway and they put together a wonderful program based on the Bible study that I created, the 28-Day Prayer Journey. So lots to do, but today, today I want to make sure that you are able to enjoy the conversation that I had with my sister, Priscilla. So without further ado, I'll stop rambling right now and let you hear it. See you next week.

Y'all, my name is Chrystal Hurst, and I got mascara in my eye this morning, and I'm on with Priscilla, and I'll bring her on the screen in just a second. But we are here to talk about really whatever, because basically I just know y'all want to talk to Priscilla. Mainly we'll talk a little bit about hair, but we will talk a little bit about Jesus and about what it means to rest in this season as well. Because I was ripping hair out of my face last night. Anyway, we'll get to that in just a minute. I want to go ahead and bring Priscilla on the screen. Here she comes. So there she is. There's Priscilla. So we're both sitting at home, you know, trying to be somewhat together, kind of, sort of. And Priscilla, man, we've had a little trouble getting on today. At least I have. I'm trying to do too many things at one time. You see me putting lower thirds on the screen and all that. Can you see that? Are you not really? Because you're looking at me in Skype, right, girl? Yes, I got your name underneath your picture so when people see this it'll be all fancy. I know, this is me.

You are always doing the most.

Always doing the most, honey. Trying to do— trying to be somebody. Trying to be somebody. I'm just kidding. So y'all, first of all, I want to tell you that if you, um, have no idea, uh, who I am, again, I'm Chrystal Hurst. This is my sister Priscilla Hurst. I'm sure you know who she is, but I want to let you know that what we're trying to do is to be helpful. But we're just going to chit-chat about stuff we want to chit-chat about, stuff I think would be helpful to you if we chit-chat about, like what is happening in the kitchen, because food nonstop is a situation. It's nonstop.

It is a situation. I will say I have used the Crock-Pot, which I use anyway.

Yeah.

But I have used the Crock-Pot a lot and I really love it because you can put— I have this recipe for Crock-Pot ribs. Okay. I'm going to tell y'all real quick because it's so easy. So if you eat ribs, grab 2 racks of spare ribs, clean them off, cut them in half. And then you might not need 2 racks. I have 4 boys in my house, my husband and 3 sons. So then you just kind of layer the racks of ribs in your Crock-Pot, which mine is big enough for 2 racks like that. And they're just kind of layered. And I put meat tenderizer on each side of it, like the kind that looks like salt, basically meat tenderizer on each side, salt and pepper, very generously on each side, and then I cut up onions and you put it in there. You could do it on low if you want to do it for 8 hours, you could do it on high if you want to do it for 4 or 5 hours, and you just let it cook literally all day long. The last hour or so, you take some honey barbecue sauce, and I put the whole bottle of honey barbecue sauce all over the ribs, and it cooks and soaks into it, and my boys devour that thing. So the Crock-Pot for recipes like that— are incredible because you just start in the morning, throw some stuff in there, and then add some broccoli at night and some cornbread, and you're done. And you're done. So I've been doing stuff like that.

You have that recipe typed up somewhere, I think, right? Because did you share that one when we did the Legacy in the Kitchen with Mom?

I feel like I did. I feel like I must have.

But if you find it, send it to me, because anything that we talk about in our conversation that's like something to reference, I have a little reference page on my website so they can go in. Collect all the fun stuff. Y'all, I think, I think I'm going to do— I have this recipe for vegetarian chili and that's getting dumped this morning in a Crock-Pot. So Crock-Pot is a lifesaver. You don't have an Instant Pot, do you?

I do have it, but I don't think I got the right size. It's a little small for my whole family to get a meal out of it. So I'm trying to negotiate that and I haven't used it enough for it to be my go-to yet. I don't feel real comfortable and confident with it.

Yeah.

Yeah. So I'm working toward that. But you just mentioned vegetarian, and I think that I'm going to start trying to eat less meat. Did I tell you that?

No, but, but I think that that's great. I think, you know, you— it's hard to be in a household full of men and, and as a household not do meat. But when I did that, I said, Jesse, so I'm thinking that we just need to eat less meat. And he just looked at me like this.

Exactly.

He was like, you can do whatever you want to do.

Yeah, I mean, meat, because to them a meal is not a meal unless it has meat in it, which, which is fine. It's totally fine.

Yeah.

But I think that the older I get, the more I realize that certain foods aren't making me feel great. One of those which I'm having a hard time getting over is bread. Well, no bread. You know, I already didn't eat a whole lot of bread and pasta and stuff like that. I still like it, but I did. That's— that doesn't make me feel that great. So years ago, I started cutting way back on that. But right now what I'm discovering, Chrystal, is dairy.

Oh, so basically you need to be gluten-free, dairy-free, fat-free.

I mean, I'm not gonna do it. I'm not doing it.

Cheese is goodly— is godliness, basically.

Basically, I want to bathe in queso regularly.

Y'all listen, when we go to a Mexican restaurant, I just push the chips towards Priscilla. Because she's gonna salt them. She's gonna salt, yes. And then if they're not hot and warm from the kitchen, she's gonna take the basket and say, "Sweet server, we would so love a basket of fresh chips." And then she orders queso with, you add for extra tomatoes, is that what you do?

You add? Cilantro. I like the pico de gallo. I put extra cilantro on that.

Yes, extra cilantro. So she is very Tex-Mex specific.

Yes, because I love Tex-Mex. It's probably my favorite.

Yes.

And if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it.

Yeah, I know. So yeah, so she likes cheese.

But if I eat the queso, Chrystal Hurst, the next morning, I just always don't feel good the next morning. And I know it's the cheese. It kind of gives me a headache.

Oh.

I can tell that I— yeah, I wake up just feeling like I've got a headache. I feel real lethargic the next day. I can just tell it's not great for me. And sometimes you know that, and you still eat the whole pizza. I mean, that actually will preach. Oh, totally. Totally. So I'm just trying to think, all right, do I want to feel this way anymore? You know, the older you get, sometimes you just start going, is it worth it? Yeah. To feel bad the next day. So anyway, I'm thinking about the things I might need to cut out of my diet just to, so I can feel good.

But you're really disciplined about that. Like you'll decide to do a thing and then you'll, you'll do it. And then that's the end of that. Me, on the other hand, I'm very double-minded and unstable in all my ways. How about that?

No, you're not.

Well, I'm extreme. So me and the same 40 pounds have been really good friends my whole life. I say goodbye and then we say hello and then we say goodbye again and then we say hello.

Okay. Well, you are extreme. I think we should talk about that a little bit. So let me pry.

No, because I'm interviewing you.

You're not interviewing me. This is not the Chat with Chrystal Hurst. Okay, so, but I do want to ask you about this Netflix situation because many times, uh, over the past few weeks I have called you, texted you.

I've been telling all my business. I've been telling all my business.

No, I'm not telling all your business. I'm just saying, um, the mascara is still having its way with me. But anyway, you have been enjoying and, and requesting recommendations for things to watch on Netflix. Because absolutely, you have decided— the bigger context of this, which is where we'll end up after we dip into hair just for a second, um, the bigger context is you, you are a person who believes in rest. You believe in rest, and you believe in not being stressed, and you believe in taking the opportunity to enjoy your life when life presents itself. And so in this season where there's lots to do and where things that you and I both have had to do that have been canceled, um, we're home, you've like, you know what, I'm gonna make sure I make room for something I enjoy. And spending time watching a good show is something you enjoy. Do you have any recommendations for us to, to look into in our Netflix situation? Because your Netflix game is strong. You got a strong Netflix. Anointing.

Okay, first of all, let me just say that this is a tough question for me to answer, and the reason it's a tough question for me to answer, Chrystal, is because anytime I make a recommendation, if within that novel or in that movie or in that show there is anything questionable, then I get railroaded about the fact that I recommended it. So you've asked me a hard question because I can't vouch for every episode of every show. I can't vouch for all the whole novel and whether or not there's a little bit of questionable morality or, or cursing in there. I can't vouch for everything.

Well, here's the beauty of it.

Here's the beauty.

You are on my Facebook channel, my YouTube channel, and my Instagram. So if anybody comes for you—

I mean, they come for me too. I can't seem to do anything right in my life.

If they come for you on this tip, you, you go, you go company.

OK, I'm going to tell you, if you have not yet watched Self Made, which is Madam C.J. Walker's story sort of in dramatic form with Octavia Spencer, it's great. There is questionable morality in it, but it's a true— it's kind of a true description of this woman who lived in the early 1900s and came up with the stuff that made Black women think differently about their hair. It's worth watching, Self Made. If you've not watched The Crown, Oh yes, it got ratchet in season 2.

My boy—

I haven't even watched season 2 yet.

My boys watched season 1. That's how great it was. They watched season 1, and then we were all ready to watch season 2, and I was like, boop boop boop boop boop boop.

Oh really?

It gets questionable?

Yeah, there's some same-sex stuff.

Oh shucks.

So I didn't—

and there's hints of that in Self Made too. And I was like, I wonder if this is true or if they just are— now the agenda is so strong that they just have to put at work. Yes. And that's, that's so unfortunate. Um, so unfortunate. Um, and then there was one other thing that I was going to say that I would recommend. Oh, if you've not— never seen— it's another period piece, but it's called Call the Midwives. I've never— have you even heard of it?

Oh, I've heard of it. I heard a lot of people enjoying it.

Girl, it is so— Chrystal, you have got to watch Call the Midwives. Whole season. I mean, there's several seasons. I don't even remember how many because I watched this a little while back. And when the last season ended, I still sometimes go on to, to, um, Netflix and just make sure that they didn't make a new season because I think it's over. I think the show is over. But I mean, it's incredible.

Okay, all right, y'all, so you have, you have 3 recommendations with the disclaimer that I can't vouch for all the morality. Listen, uh, somebody, somebody on Instagram, I glanced over there, they said WE in all caps Release you.

Hey, I felt that in my spirit. I felt that releasing in my spirit. Thank you, sister, whoever you are. Thank you.

Oh my goodness. Okay, well, let's discuss that.

Let's discuss that. Yeah, let's discuss that for no reason. You go, you start.

Yeah, because you, you, that guy. Okay, so listen, y'all, here, here's the deal. We love Jesus.

We do.

We love Jesus. Um, and the reality is that because we want to lead well— and Priscilla has, you know, she's been doing this Bible study thing a lot longer than I have, and I'm— and I have a story that people make assumptions about me. They're like, oh, that's the one that got pregnant in college, we know she's a little bit off to the side. But then when we put people on pedestals because of it, and, and And, but we have to give each other grace. And sometimes I'll see people ask me questions and they are concerned or they do, they are a little shocked maybe at something, but they ask me a question because they seek to understand. That's one thing. It's a whole nother thing when people go, oh my gosh, I'm unfollowing you. I just don't think that that is becoming. I mean, they just are—

Railroad your character.

Yes, they railroad your character. And here's the other part of that, y'all. I have found in my experience, and then when I get on Priscilla's thing, and let me tell y'all, when I see people coming for her, um, I, I— there are two issues. Number one is I know her, and it, and it just drives me crazy when people do that. It drives me crazy that don't—

that have no—

that have no relationship, kindness in their communication. Even if they have an opinion, their judgment is just raw and unkind. That's the first issue because it's her. This. And I know she really desires to lead well and not do anything that would cause anybody else to stumble. And then she makes a lot of decisions in her lives for the benefit of people not stumbling. So that, that's, that's what I see is all the work and intention that goes into that. And she, she puts a little more intention into her situation than I do into mine. So I'm, I'm very— I, I'm— I want to honor that, and I want other people to do that too. The second thing is Y'all, just in general, in general, not as a rule, but a lot of the time, the meanest people, the ones that have the most to say, the ones that are the nastiest the way they say it— can you feel me rising up just a little bit?

I feel it, girl.

Those people are the ones that talk about Jesus. And I'm just like, do y'all actually expect that people who don't know Jesus are going to see how you're talking about your own sister in Christ and be attracted in any way, shape, or form to the kindness of Jesus, to the love of Jesus, to the long-suffering of Jesus, to the forgiveness of Jesus, to the come-as-you-are of Jesus. And so when I see that, I'm just like, y'all, hello, hello, can we be a little kinder to each other for the sake of those who don't know Jesus and who will say, if this is what Christians are like, I'll just be a good person because the good people I know are a lot better than this. So that just rubs me the wrong way for a whole list of reasons, y'all. And then when people— when that happens, I have to wait a while to respond because my clapback game is strong and I don't want to mislead anybody with my clapback game. So, um, y'all just need to pray for me. But y'all need to know for real that there's a lot— and this is why you, when you're thinking about Priscilla— Priscilla's been a blessing to you in your life because of her Bible studies, her books, her teaching. You know, when she comes to mind, when you see something on Instagram, when you see a post, when you can't— just allow that to let the Lord let you just to give a quick whisper of prayer for her, because you have no idea when people do what she does and the amount of eyeballs are on her life, the target that is on her back that the enemy has to destroy her, destroy her family, destroy her health. So I just want to encourage you When you see that, instead of having your clapback game be strong— because we got to watch how we clap back— just let that lead you to pray for the people who have pressure. Because what is it now? You got—

you—

I always say, y'all, I'm holding strong. I got 10%. If I look at my Instagram numbers and look at Priscilla's Instagram numbers, if I'm holding strong at 10%, I know all is well in the world. But you got 3/4 of a million people that are following her. That's a lot of opinions and a lot of mouths. And while she's a good person and not letting that rock her world too much. It gets to you when Chris— when people questioned your Christianity because you said you're a Black woman. That got to you. That got to you. Do y'all not see her hair? She's a Black woman. Let her, let her off the hook. Do you need to say anything else, or did I take care of that for you?

Girl, you took care of that whole situation.

Wow. Jesus.

Yes.

Help the people and help your daughter over here to not misrepresent your name with a clapback. A good one.

Okay, girl, you are all on your soapbox.

I mean, I feel risen up on the inside. It's just It's a mess.

Yeah, it's hard when people come for you like that and you, you really are trying to live with integrity, you're trying to honor the Lord, and you're trying to respect the fact that you are in leadership. So you do want to be careful about causing— and so when you're mindful about that and then something that somebody finds somewhere that they're questioning about what you've chosen to do and they railroad you for it, it is, you know—

yeah, I mean, and I know how to ignore it, it just, it just I mostly don't respond.

Yeah.

I mean, it's just like, I'm not even going to lend an ear to that, but it still is a thing. So this was a teaching moment. Let's just call it that.

A teaching moment. Well, you taught that thing.

I mean, you can add something. I'm sorry. I got riled up.

I got nothing to add. I think I'm looking at everybody saying, amen, Chrystal Hurst. Big sis ain't playing no games. That's right, girl. She's not playing any games.

Yeesh. Okay. But it was something else I was going to ask you about. Because we're going to talk— I want you to talk about rest because that is your giftedness. But for just a second, girl, all the people in the world— yes, girl, all the people in the world. Listen, the last live— the last, uh, church thing that we did, uh, March the 22nd, um, when we watched it back with Dad, he was— he had his iPad in his hand and this is exactly what he did. He had his church on Sunday, our church service on Sunday on March the 22nd, that particular day.

Yeah.

Um, this is your father. Woo! Her hair is like a lion.

Is that—

I mean, it's just a lot of hair. Wow. I mean, this was your father.

Well, if your father was doing that, he always likes hair.

If your father is doing that, let me tell you something. All the people in the world were looking at your hair going, what does she do to get her hair like that? So, so go ahead.

Okay. I'll just do an abbreviated hair conversation because I decided yesterday or a couple of days ago, we were on live. People ask me a lot of hair questions when I'm on live, even if I'm talking about Jesus, the book of Nahum, they're like, yeah, but your hair though. So I said, I'm going to do a whole live about hair because hair is a deal for women. It's ministry to discuss hair. However, I will just say that the part that people really don't want to hear are two things. Number one, um, well, I went natural about 20 years ago, so this is before anybody was doing it. It was before it was a trend.

Yeah, because your hair was falling out.

I remember your hair was— it was thin. It wasn't responding well to the chemicals that in the '80s and '90s Black women were putting in there, so I cut it all out. My, my whole family thought I was crazy.

They tried to almost lock you out. He almost locked you out the house.

Listen, Jerry Shire was not happy about it. And, um, they— y'all tried to be encouraging, and you were, especially you, Chrystal Hurst, you were very encouraging. But I knew that behind my back you were like, oh no, this is a disaster.

Actually, that was my husband. I was like, it'll grow back. My husband looked at you and said, oh, Priscilla, your hair is so cute, it's so cute. Girl, you walked out the door, he turned around, he said, that is a mess.

And I didn't know this until years later, years ago. But I know that 20, you know, 15 years before that, he had been thinking that in his mind about my hair. So anyway, but it was the best decision I ever made. So getting all the chemicals out of my hair, so I don't put any chemicals at all in my hair, not even coloring it. I tried it once to color it with like a natural hair color. My hair was still dry and brittle, so I don't put anything in it. But the point is, I had to look at my childhood pictures to get an image of what my hair would be like if I went natural. So I think what we do, especially with the rise of social media, is we look at other people's hair we admire, 'cause I do it too. I follow these people on Instagram whose hair I admire just for their hair tips. And when I follow them and I see what their hair is doing and how their hair is responding to certain products or something, I'm like, oh, I'm gonna use that product and it's gonna look like that on my hair. That's not necessarily the case. You need to go look at yo' baby pictures. Look at your 10-year-old, 9-year-old, 11-year-old pictures, what your pigtails look like then. That's the texture. Don't think that it's gonna automatically mirror somebody else's. So that's the first thing you have to know. And the second thing you have to know is part of the reason why I do think that my hair has flourished, which I've been very grateful about, and there's a whole spiritual component to this, me and the Lord, that I can't get into right now 'cause it's too much. But one of the just practical reasons it's flourished is because I literally rarely, rarely put heat in it or use, do a style style that I have to manipulate it a lot. So most of the time, Chrystal can tell you, over the past 20 years, I've worn my hair in twists. My hair has been in the two-strand twists, and I just wear it in a ball on the top of my head. Or as it was growing out from being very short to as it got longer, I just wore two-strand twists. And, you know, I did that every 6 weeks. So for 6 whole weeks, it is— there's no heat, there's no combing, there's no manipulating on my hair. So I think that's the part that's hard for us, the hurdle to get over, is we want to do our hair, we want to curl it, we want it to be out all the time. And if my hair were out all the time, it wouldn't retain its length and its fullness.

So I mean, that actually right there preaches, actually.

Yeah, you're right.

For actually the season that we're in.

I mean, quarantine life.

Come on, quarantine content.

I'm saying quarantine your hair is what I'm saying. Listen, quarantine your hair.

Quarantine your hair.

You need to write that down. That might be a chapter.

That might be a chapter. And by the way, I will do a live, y'all, separately, just a whole thing on hair, because it would be fun to do that and tell my whole hair story and give you some tips on hair. But I just want you to know, in a little book called Radiant, it's the first time that I've been able to write about hair. So I think chapter 2 is a whole— my whole sort of hair story. The point of Radiant, the book, is on self-image and self-esteem. And I wanted to tell that story as a part of it because the Lord used my addiction to straight hair to show me how my significance was illegitimately attached to my appearance. And if I was willing— for me, I'm not talking about for everybody— but if I was willing to damage my health, in my case, which I was, the chemicals were damaging me. If I was willing to damage my health just to maintain a standard of beauty, then what did that say about the significance that I had illegitimately placed in my appearance? So for me, it was a whole thing God used to help redirect my— where I found my significance.

Listen, I mean, I'm not trying to be convicted over here, but you might have just convicted me. I can't— but I like my straight hair though. I do.

Well, and also, but your hair is natural.

It is natural. It is natural, but I can't find a natural style.

A natural style that works for you.

Well, that I like that doesn't take forever because, you know, if I'm going to get my hair twisted and then, you know, then before I do the twist out, I got to wait. So there's this whole, like, if I'm going to go speak and the way I prefer to speak is with a twist out, that means at least 3 days before I had to wash it and twist it, which means a whole lot of forethought and scheduling has to go into all that. Versus I can wash my hair before I get on a plane, blow dry it, get to the hotel and curl it and keep going on about my life. It's fa— like I'm, I'm better at it. I'm faster at it. But, um, you know, we've been talking about this for a long time.

But there are little things you can do to make those decisions. Like you can say, I'm gonna do the wash and blowout part, but then I'm just gonna pin curl it all over. So, which you do sometimes, you'll curl it, but then the next nights you'll just pin curl it so that you don't have to do that every day.

Keep putting heat on it. Yeah.

That's right. So there are, you know, everybody has to do little things that work for them. I ended up, honestly speaking, in my hair twisted is not my favorite either, but that was one of the hurdles I just was willing to get over.

You were just like, it's time to see.

Because my goal was, that's right. I was like, I am not gonna do anything anymore that jeopardizes the health. So I went to an extreme. Most people don't have to cut off all your hair, which is what I did. You don't have to do that. But I did it because I was like, this is deeper than just what's on my head. There's some stuff in my heart that God is trying to uproot. And so 20 years ago, at 24 years old, I guess it's been 21 years ago now, that was a whole situation in my early 20s that I'm glad I did it. And one of the reasons I'm glad I did it, which I wrote in the book, is that I, you know, I could have never known that years later the Lord would be calling me to this ministry, or that I'd be on a screen with War Room, or I Can Only Imagine, Overcomer. And I can't tell you the amount of people that have written me letters or sent me emails or whatever. And they appreciated the message of the movie.

But they were like, thank you.

What freed them up was seeing a head full of natural hair on a professional character in a movie, and in a faith-based movie, where, honestly, African-American characters haven't been highlighted in faith-based film at all.

Right.

So for some women, seeing that did more for them in just letting them relax into just their natural hair. And I said, the Lord knew at 24 when he did that work in my heart, I couldn't have cut my, my hair off a year before we filmed those movies. Yeah, this was a 20-year thing that he was positioning. So that I'm so grateful, not only the women in our family, because after that it was a ripple effect, right? All of us went natural over those 20. Most of the women in our church now are. It was like this ripple effect. And now in our community and in, um, just people that have been influenced by just looking at us, that don't know us from afar. It's one of the things that they say is, hey, thanks for telling us we can just be ourselves.

Yeah. And even, even that will preach, that it was 20 years ago, a decision that you made that had an outcome 22 decades later in your life that had a positive thing. Because sometimes we make decisions and, you know, we look at those decisions in an isolated way and, and we don't know what the payoff of that is later. We just know that right now, you know, that just speaks to obedience. I mean, I know that that wasn't like an obedience from the Lord thing, or maybe it was for you. Yeah, but, but I think sometimes when we're obedient in these small things that don't seem to connect in any way, shape, or form to anything else, you cannot see the ripple effect. But what you can do is be obedient and let God work out what the ripple effect is in your life. And, you know, just getting back to what you were saying, because I do want to ask you about rest, because rest is a thing. Like you're a good no. You have the anointing of no on your life, and you just believe that if something— and you can talk about the positive and negatives of this— but if something brings out too much stress, if it brings out too much drama, you'll be like, oh, I don't need to. Where I kind of run towards it, the more stressful it is, the better, you know what I mean? My adrenaline is my friend kind of thing. I mean, You're kind of like, no, I don't, I don't want to. You, you, you are good at saying no. You are good at resting. You are good at waiting. You don't feel the frenzy. Like when we talk about a lot of women who are, they'll come up to, you know, you and say, you know, I want to do what you want to do. And they're in this frenzy to make it happen. You know, how do I speak? How do I write? How do I? And you're just like, I just, you know, be faithful in your local church and let God do what he's going to do. Because you didn't— that wasn't your MO to go and create, um, that way. You, you operate from a place of rest, a lot like Winter. You and Winter are alike in, in that way a little bit. So can you talk about what you've— y'all, Winter is our cousin, if you don't know, um, who's more like a sister, who passed away a couple of years ago. So, and she napped all the time but wrote 10 books in 4 years, so there's that. So anyway, okay, so talk about what you think people need to understand about rest and what you've learned about that, maybe by design, and what we can work on in that department in this season?

Well, I think that our entire culture pulls us away from, um, anything that is God's image created in us, because we are a reflection of the very image of God. So all the aspects of God's character that he wove into our beings our culture, because it's the world and evil is prevalent, it's going to pull us away from all of that. Rest is one of the components of God's character. It's one of the very first things we see him display. I mean, just, you know, I'm just going back for a second before I just get into practical ways it looks for me. Yeah, but, you know, he rested on the seventh day, and it wasn't because he was tired. It was because rest was the capstone of creation. And so it's a part of his image that is supposed to be reflected in us. Now, of course, we live in the Western world who has sort of demonized rest, that, that it's something we need to feel guilty about, that we need to be afraid that we're missing something, that the world is moving on without us. Hustle is celebrated, ambition is celebrated, and there's nothing wrong with any of those things. I was actually just thinking back— I'm 45 now— and I was thinking back over the past 20 years. And I'm like, oh my gosh, looking in the mid— in the moment, of course there were times I felt like it, but in, in the moment when I was doing it, I didn't feel like I was hustling. I just felt like I was writing the Bible study that was on my heart to write, or I was doing that project, or I was raising small kids, or, you know, you're doing your thing. But I look back on it and I'm like, oh my goodness, the pace at which we were producing, whether it was babies or whether it was ministry materials or whatever, I look back on it and go, wow, thank you, Lord, for that season. But it does not mean I have to keep up that pace for my entire life, that it's okay to also rest. And that rest is an achievement in and of itself, because in the culture that we live in, it is countercultural to choose that reflection of the image of God in our life. To just rest. So I do have a no anointing.

You do?

My life, that is true. And those nos are not always easy. I said no in the last couple of days to so many requests for things like this. But the requests, yeah, to be a part of these, you can just think, oh, that's so cool, I'll just do— I'll just do this, I'll say yes to this, I'll say yes to this. And if you guys are like me, then what you know is when you say yes to stuff, sometimes it's not until you get to that day that you have all the yeses to fulfill that you look at it and go, oh my goodness, I didn't even realize that every yes meant that there is a no to the fact that my kids are here at home. Now I'm not eating breakfast with them, or we could have taken a walk this morning. Now we're not going to, or I could have time to read that novel. That regular life pace has never given me an opportunity to read. And now I still can't do it because I've said yes to 800 things. So to your point, Chrystal Hurst, I'm always checking in with myself to see, is this particular yes worth whatever the cost is?

Mm-hmm.

Okay. Sometimes it is. Like, for example, I am up at 7 in the morning with my sister. So I will tell y'all that I used to be an early morning person. I'd get up every morning— Chrystal Hurst will tell you— before the sun came up, and I would walk, run in the neighborhood. I love that. And then come home, get breakfast ready for the kids.

That's—

that was my— I'm an early person. But the last— I don't know what is happening to me. I don't know if it's age. I don't know if it's If it's war bones or just honestly the last couple of years that we've had. Yes, the last couple of years that we've had. And then on top of, you know, our mom passing away this last December, um, the lull of that and then going into the surgery that I had to have, I have not been able to muster up a get up in the morning situation. And so my point in saying all of that was was. There's a couple layers of that, but one is that my sister's saying, let's do this together. That's one of the things that's a yes, because it's my sister saying, let's do this together. There is a value, there's a cost-value balance that you have to look at. There is another call that I got to do something I would have loved to done with a lot of— love to do with a lot of people in ministry, Chrystal Hurst. But when they sent the request through, it wasn't going to be an interview like this. They gave me 10 and I needed to develop a message on those 10 words from the scriptures, and I needed to record it, pre-record it, send it in at a certain time, I would love to do that. But when I felt the strain and the pressure sort of rising, when am I gonna do that? My kids are home. How am I gonna sit down to develop my thoughts to make sure that I communicate clearly? Where am I gonna record at? 'Cause there's a lot of noise in the house right now. When it's not early in the morning, where am I gonna record? When I started to weigh that and just check inward and think, wait a minute, I'm starting to feel stressful. Stressful. Is it worth the stress right now with the dynamic that I have going on in my home and the other yeses I've already said? For that one, I had to say no. And I would have loved to do it, but it wasn't going to be worth the cost right now. So I think we don't take enough time to check inward and go, wait a minute, what is this doing to my blood pressure? There's enough demands, things that we have to do for life. We have to cook, we have to clean, we have to wash those dishes, we got to help the kids with the laundry, we've got to make sure they're homeschooled now. We got to homeschool these jokers. We have other family obligations, and we want to have time. I want to have time to breathe. Yeah. Our mother said to us, particularly— she said it to us, period, but particularly in the last days of her life, over and over again she said, "Y'all need to stop and smell the roses." She kept saying that. Because the truth is, our mother had a beautiful life, but she was clear with us that if she could go back and do something differently, it would have been that she would have stopped to smell the roses more frequently. So I am determined not to get to the end of my life and realize I hustled and hustled and did all this stuff, but I never actually just enjoyed having a cup of coffee with a friend, or having a cup of coffee by myself in the room, or watching a program that I wanted to watch, or reading a novel, which I am right now. I love theology books and all that, but sometimes why not make room to just read a novel? Mm-hmm. So no, saying no to stuff is what leaves margin for you to have nothing on your calendar so that you can just enjoy.

That is so good. And you know, I, I was thinking, um, you've told me too, because when I'm trying to make decisions, you'll say that is, is the yes worth the cost? But another layer of that is, is you're like, think about Will this still be something that you're glad you did? Like, get something in your head that you would be sad that you missed. So it might be like, for me last year, the decision was a football game. Because if I'm going to go out of town and I have to fly in on a Friday night, I'm going to miss a football game. So that became kind of my sursi, you know, my little thing that makes— made me think, is this little thing worth the cost of that? And I have to go out sometimes. It's a part of what I do. But is this event worth that cost? So you have to get that thing in your mind and kind of juxtapose the decision against that one thing. And that made it easier for me because I didn't know what the football schedule was going to be. I couldn't plan a year in advance to know exactly when every single game was going to be. So I had to say, if I miss it and I'm going to have to miss some, is this event worth missing that? Or is this commitment worth missing that? Because some of these I'm going to miss. And some of them, y'all, I left my schedule open for. And you, and you just don't know until you get there.

Come up.

Yeah, you just don't know. And sometimes it was a weekend at home, and I would look up and be like, am I at home?

And like, great!

Oh my gosh, and he doesn't have a football game, and we can just have a weekend as a family to just go to the park. Like, sometimes it's just nothing, and you don't even know that you need nothing until you get there.

Yes, and it takes Courage.

Yes.

Because when you say no to that incredible opportunity, what you're saying is, I trust God enough that if I let this go for what I feel like he's telling me is a better yes, that if I let this go, if this thing is for me, it's coming back around. It's coming back around. I don't have to— yeah, I don't have to do it now. The opportunity will still be there. And if it's not, it's okay. Because there will be something better that comes along. There will always be ministry opportunity. There will always be opportunity to write the book later, another year, whatever. So I just think we have to have enough courage to know, to trust God. He's got us. I don't have to be in everything. And also, can I just say, 'cause now I don't wanna forget this, and also I saw somebody asking what I'm reading.

I knew they were gonna ask. I was gonna ask you, but I was afraid.

I know, and I'm gonna tell you with the disclaimer that I cannot vouch for every single thing in the book, but it's Jodi Picoult's All Great Things. Oh, I'm reading Jodi Picoult, y'all. All Great Things, which 800 people have told me.

It's incredible. It's incredible.

I'm about 3/4 way through and it's really good. She's an incredible writer too.

But I will give you the disclaimer. I will give you the disclaimer because how far are you in it?

I'm about halfway, 3/4 through, and the language isn't great the whole way.

Yeah, so that is the disclaimer. But the reason is because I mean, it's still to me, yeah, to me, I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't certainly let kids read it for sure. But the content, the cultural phenomenon, what you learn about races and the way they see, yeah, it is, it is a great novel. Incredible.

And if you're looking for another good novel, one of my favorite of all time is called The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. It's a legendary story. It's great. Now you have to know going in, it's fiction. So it's based on the biblical story of the 12 sons of the love triangle of Jacob, Rachel, and Leah, um, from Dinah's perspective, the youngest daughter. So she talks about all that trauma, but it's a novel, so it doesn't— you might be offended because you're like thinking it's got to follow the Bible by the letter, but you have to remember it's a fictional story. And if you go in with that perspective, then you can just appreciate the fiction of it. But I mean, it is a— whoo, it's a captivating story.

Okay, but what's the other— oh, but what's the other book? Is it Redeem?

Redeem? Redeem?

Redeeming Love.

Oh, Redeeming Love.

Yeah, Redeeming Love is another really good fictional Christian-based book. Faith-based book.

Okay, go ahead.

What were you going to say?

This is what I was going to say, back to the whole resting and saying no. Not only does it give you margin, but this is what I love about my nose in this day and age. What I love about my nose is that it leaves room for somebody else to say yes. I love that. If I say yes to every— everything that everybody in my setting wants me to speak at— this is my case— wants me to speak at, or every book they want me to co-write, or every even film that they want me to be a part of, or every— if I say yes to everything, every organization people want me to be the president of, at the PTA, and you know how it is with your life. People want you to do everything, and they volunteer you, and nominate you, and it makes you feel so good that they want you to come. But if you say every yes to everything and run yourself ragged, not only are you ragged, but you haven't left empty space for folks coming up behind you to have room to, to receive an invitation like that. I love that there's space left that some young minister, young woman, um, or older woman, whoever that when I am not able to look at it, to come, the committee goes back to the table and goes, "Who else can we invite?" And they look down the list and they find other women who are capable and who are called and who are gifted to step into that role. So, I think it's a gift to others when we don't run ourselves ragged saying yes to everything.

It's true. It's a gift to others, including those people you just mentioned. It's a gift to our families. It's a gift to our friends. Friends, that when a friend has a need, that actually I'm not out of town this weekend and sure, I can come to your birthday party. Like, all of those things, it makes the matter.

Okay, and it's a gift to ourselves.

Yes, girl, I know, but I need to accept that gift a little bit more often because, you know, so let's talk about you. No, no, no, this is not the Chat with Priscilla, but I'm working on it.

Are you?

I am working on it. Like, like, this all— this whole situation right here It's actually fun for me.

It's relaxing for you.

Yeah. Like, like I like to read and I do do that. Um, I've got a, you should see the stack on the side of my bed right now. But, but I also love technology and gadgets.

Yeah, you do.

I do.

You do.

So, so last night, Anthony did a live and he called me. He said, do you happen to know someone who has a ring light? I was like, I got a ring light. You know? I had to go film Daddy for something the other day. I came and brought all my gear and he was like, why do you have all this? I was like, because I just, I do. You love all that.

Yeah, I do. Okay.

So before we bring this to a close, I do want to take some questions. I also want to tell you before I ask Priscilla a couple of questions, if you feel alone and you're like, I actually am in need of community, there is a Sister Circle, The Sister Circle Facebook group. You can find out more about that at chrystalevanshurst.com/facebook. Facebook group and there's a great community. There's 4,000 women in there and we'd love to have you join. Okay. Priscilla, now how are you feeling? The people want to know, how are you feeling? You got half a lung. You walking around on this earth with half a lung. How are you actually feeling? How are you doing?

Your father is, is so on me about this virus situation because I have half a lung. So every day he's like, okay, are you— you're not around people, are you? You can't be around anybody. You have to stay safe. You're gonna wear your masks, wear your gloves. It's so funny listening to him. I'm like, Daddy, I'm still around nobody. It's okay. I'm okay. But it's really great. Anyway, thank you guys for asking. I'm feeling really good, and I think my sister could vouch for that to say that I have had such huge progress. It's been, I think, 10 weeks since— if you don't know, I had something in my upper lobe of my left lung, and they couldn't just take the thing out. It was too embedded in my lung. They had to take my whole upper lobe out of my lung. And it was a tough surgery. I didn't think I expected that. I think I kind of minimized what it was going to be like. And it was tough. And my sissy was in the hospital with me spending the night and taking care of me. And then it took a lot to recover. And I'm still recovering, but just a little tenderness on the side now, not really hurting anymore. I'm sleeping well, and I just— all I have to do now, the biggest thing, the hurdle to get over, is the increase in lung capacity. So the Lord designed our bodies to where our lungs expand. So my lower lobe on that side should begin to expand and take up the space that is lost there now, or that is there now because I lost a lung or a lobe of a lung. So that just means I have to walk, which I am walking in the neighborhood and riding stationary bike and just using my lungs. That's the way you have to increase capacity.

So I keep— That's a whole sermon in and of itself. You do realize that, right?

Because when you want to sit around all day during the quarantine watching Netflix, you got to go outside and get some exercise and sweat a little bit and build up the capacity. So that's the only way my lung capacity will increase. So I'm working on that. And it's going to take— it's going to take a while. They said it would be 6 months to a year before I feel like I'm not breathing heavy.

Because you tried to do a push-up the other day. And your body was like, "Love said not so." I know.

It feels so weird because, you know, I'm a push-up kind of girl regularly.

Yeah.

And I was doing the push-ups, Chrystal, and I got through the 10, but I mean, there was a strain over here that I was like, "Oh yeah, my body's not ready for that yet." Yeah.

But I can't resist. I can't resist. When you were in the hospital, you know, immediately the next day they want you to get up and walk and you're like, "You've got to be kidding me." And they said, no, we need you to work on your capacity, like from jump. And the only way that you're going to do that is to get up and walk. And you didn't want to walk. You didn't feel like it. You were in pain. You were like, are you joking? But they were like, the only way to ensure that your lungs will do what they're supposed to do post-surgery is to exercise, is to move. And I just think, y'all, here's the deal. There are a lot of things in life that we don't feel like doing, but the only way you'll build up the capacity to take up the space that you're designed to take up in your life is to do the hard thing. And you don't feel like it. You don't want to. You might be in pain. You might be crying because you were crying a lot in the hospital. But now—

I don't remember that.

That's because you were highly drugged. I remember that. And I also think, you know, you were not only highly drugged and you were in pain, but we have been— we had been, you know, you had your surgery, what, 2 weeks after we buried mom?

Oh, One week after we buried mom.

Yeah, two weeks after. So I just looked at you and I just thought, because you said, in the recovery room, you kept saying, I don't know why I can't. You had tissue on the bed. You were just pulling tissues out. You're like, I don't know why I can't stop crying. And then crying was making your lungs hurt. It was a mess. But I said, you know, but Priscilla, we probably, we've cried, but we haven't cried, cried. We went into funeral mode and then we went into Priscilla has to have surgery mode. And those drugs, girl, opened the floodgates. So you had no inhibition with tears for pain or tears for mom. And, um, you know, that's a whole nother thing. But anyway, I just wanted to encourage y'all, when life is hard, do the hard thing. Keep moving because it builds up your capacity. Okay. Um, yeah, somebody just asked, how are you guys handling the grieving process? How do you think you're handling it, Sil?

You know, that is a very good question. I'm not sure. I think that one of the benefits— and I say this gently because I know that the quarantine has been very hard on a lot of people financially and economically and relationally. Oh, it's tough. But if there is one of the benefits, I think for us it's been that we've had time to sit down somewhere and feel stuff because we have been busy, like Chrystal just said. Our grandfather passed away a month before our mom, so we had to plan his funeral, basically clean out my father's childhood home, which was the home my grandfather still was, was in, you know. So we had to go clean that out, get all the stuff we wanted to keep for posterity's sake, because that, that was our last real, um, tangible link to Baltimore, which is where he's from. So we did that in December, then our mom My mom passed away at the end of December and we had this surgery. I mean, it— craziness. Planning a funeral was like planning a major conference. I say that because there were 4,000 people that came and were in person.

In person.

In person.

And then it was livestreamed.

We're livestreamed.

Yeah.

Which we weren't trying to make it a production. When you have— my mom was a pastor's wife for 49 years. I'm sorry, 44 years. They were married 49 years. So when you have— when you're in a community, embedded in a community for that long, we know 50 people aren't coming. So the whole thing was filled to capacity. We had to plan for overflow in the gym across the street. So anytime you're planning for people like that, oh my gosh, it takes so much work. So we were working through that. Then, of course, recovering from the surgery. So I think sitting here, there's just this ability to sit still for a minute. And feel stuff we weren't feeling when we were busy. So I feel grateful for that. And every time we go over to Dad's house, which is basically every day, one or both or more of us are over there.

He's like, why are y'all coming back? We were like, because we love you.

I know. And it's not like we didn't like being at our parents' house before all this. So now we're all up on him. And I spent the night the other night on Saturday night and Sunday morning, girl, early in the morning, I tiptoed in there and I just got it that I laid on the edge of the bed and I folded up in the blanket. And so then we went— we both went back to sleep. We talked for a little while, then we slept in there for, for a while. And that was really cool. But I was going to say, going back to the house, I love just going through mom's stuff, you know. So just, we, we'll all go through there and comb through her stuff, smell her clothes, look at her jewelry, remembering her, taking the time. Yeah, taking the time, look at her little journal stories.

Yes. Yeah, I mean, and I think I'm making room for that. I think I'm making room that— I mean, I went over there, um, yes, when nobody was home. Yeah, nobody was home. Like, Dad went out of town and I was like— and y'all, I just went— I was actually looking for one thing. And, uh, y'all let me know if y'all can hear me, and then Priscilla, when you see me, you can jump on. But I was looking for something and I just, you know, when Dad's there, I don't— he has given us permission to look through. I just I still feel like, you know, I don't want to do all that when he's at home.

Yeah, rummaging through everything.

Yeah.

So I was happy that he wasn't there so that I could just do what I wanted to do. So, um, anyway, I went in there and I just busted out crying, but I was just in the house crying and talking to her for like 3 hours. So I feel like I'm grieving the way I need to grieve and making room So I think I'm making room, and I think that's the thing. I think in life— Mommy, when her dad died, one of the things she said is that she was not doing well, and she went to the doctor, and the doctor said, your dad died, and have you actually—

you, you—

it takes at least a year to be physically in a normal place. You need to make the room to grieve your dad. And I never forgot that. So she just slowed down. She just slowed down.

She sure did. She slowed down.

And so that's to me, like, I agree with you, Priscilla. This season is a slowdown season, which gives us some room. But I'm also creating that. I'll just look at my husband and I'll just be like, I gotta go. They'll be like, where are you going? I'm going to Dad's house. Is your dad okay? Yep, I'm just gonna go sit there. I don't even know if he's there. I'm just gonna go sit there. I just want to sit with her things. I want to sit in her house. I want to look around and just be there.

Mm-hmm. Um, yep.

Yeah. And then on when I feel like crying, I do.

Yep.

And I think I'll always be crying for the rest of my life. Maybe not as often. And from everything I've heard and read, grief just becomes a companion. It's not anything that you ever get rid of. It just becomes a part of your life and something that stays with you all the time. Mommy will be with me for the rest of my life.

Yeah.

And I think including her, even when sometimes that makes me sad, is okay.

Yep.

Yeah.

You, you, you, you feel sad because you loved well and were loved.

Yeah.

You had the opportunity to love. So as the tears come down, okay. I'll just give you one more question, I think. Um, okay. Um, This is a good question. She said, how can people rest right now in the quarantine season if they are continually being pulled by live broadcast, churches, businesses, everybody's online doing something? Does it come down to a personal responsibility to say no and just to log off?

That's exactly— yes, that's exactly what I was thinking. You control how much content is consumed by you. And that is consumed in your home. You— this is your— your home is your place. Your mind is your place where you get to control what comes through the windows of your eyes and into your mind. So if you are not able to sleep at night and your anxiety is high and you are stressed out because you can't get off of Instagram or social media or watching the news, then you have to take personal ownership of that. And you have to do that not only for you, but for your family. You're the gatekeeper for your family. Okay, this is one thing that Chrystal is so good at that I, I have to work on more. Chrystal will put on a certain kind of music that she wants to hear. I do that as well, like worship music through the house. And there are certain hours of the day for us, it's mostly in the morning, where they're not— they can't have earbuds in or earpods or air phones or air fixtures or whatever everybody else has. They can't have that in because I want them to be in the context I've created. So I'm going to play a certain kind of music. And at Chrystal Hurst's house, it's so programmed into their life that now the kids get up and go, Mom, what do you want me to put on today? And she— then she tells them and they put it on. They can't change it to what they want to listen to because she's in control of the atmosphere she wants to set for her house. So I would say the same thing to you. That if you feel like you can't handle the influx of information, turn it off. Turn it off. It's like going to a movie theater. I don't want to go see movies that stress me out. That's my choice. I can go see the horror movie that just came out. It's there. It's available for me. I can go see the shoot 'em up action thriller, whatever. I can go see that if I wanted to. But I choose not to because the state that, that puts me in the stress that I feel that is not conducive to me enjoying this salty, hot, buttery popcorn I'm gonna consume with this Coke. So what I want is a lighthearted something. So if I'm gonna go to the movies, that's the choice I'm gonna make for myself. Mm-hmm. So that's the same thing with your house and with your own mind and with your life. Choose the things that are actually gonna be conducive to the kind of atmosphere internally and externally that you're trying to cultivate.

Yeah, and, and just so you know, it's not that we don't ever listen to their music. I just— that's at a certain point during the day. And somebody's asking, what am I listening to? It's a Pandora station that's usually tuned into Hillsong, Bethel, Travis Greene, Kierra Sheard. You know, I'm going gospel, but it's usually the Christian spectrum. Sometimes it's massage music, and Joel says, Mommy, turn off the sleepy music. Um, sometimes it's classical, but I just decide. Um, Spotify playlists work as well, so you can control the atmosphere in their home. But then at a certain time, um, my kids like video game theme songs. They on the Spotify turn that on and I listen to that crap, but it's okay. Like, we, you know, plenty of room in the family. Um, as we leave, somebody wants to know what time are your boys getting up in the morning? Like, now that you're into your swing, what is your household rhythm? Do you have one yet?

No, I don't think we really have a rhythm yet. They're They're kind of waking up when they want to wake up. Like around 9-ish, I would say, is when everybody starts to move around. And I'm OK with everybody waking up when they want to at this point. And just when they do, they know— I know I'm going to get their attention because they don't have electronics. They can't turn on anything. We only have one television upstairs. So there's not like there's a TV in each of their rooms or anything like that. So I know they're coming down. They're going to have breakfast together. We're going to be together. It doesn't matter as much when they do, but as soon as everybody starts trickling down, which is like when we get off this call, we'll be together for a little while and we don't really have a rhythm. And honestly, Chrystal's more of a rhythm, organized, here's the way our day is going kind of person. And I'm not that way. I have to work toward being rigid like that. I'm not really like that. So I don't know if we'll ever get to a— because I'm kind of like, as long as y'all's Work is finished and done. Your chores are finished and done. You've been responsible with your time. Then I'm good with that. And you know, they're teenage boys, so a lot of times they're not. And then I have to go, all right, well then you got to be up at a certain time. And, but I'm kind of, yeah, letting them be.

We're getting up. We normally get up at 7:30. We've been, uh, and down for breakfast at 8-ish. I moved it, everything back an hour. But now they have classes online. So like Trey and Kanan have an English class this morning at 10 o'clock on Zoom. So I got to get them up and feed them breakfast and get them going. So there's kind of, you know, there's external landscape that we have to consider.

Yeah.

Priscilla, thanks for joining me. Sorry about the technical difficulties, but thanks for being flexible.

It's okay. But we have one more question we have to ask. Someone just asked, what chores are our boys doing? And I just thought that was really cool.

I'm crashing out the phone because I thought you got to go. Listen, so you can answer whatever question you want to answer.

Well, I just want to answer because I thought it was a fun question.

Yes, it is.

So my boys have to do their own laundry and they have to clean their own spaces upstairs, and then they have to participate in the stuff that we all convene around, like the kitchen. So we all participate in the kitchen and that sort of thing, but they got to do their own laundry. And this is why I wanted to answer this question, because Jerry's mom has been living with us for a while now, a bit over a year. So their grandmother is here. So I noticed that their laundry was folded in these perfect squares. I was like, this is amazing, boys. Congratulations on your laundry. But I also was a little suspect because there's nothing about their folding potential that has reached that level of excellence. I don't even fold like that. So anyway, I notice now they are washing and drying their clothes. Then they take the whole basket and they put it in front of Granny, and she has been secretly folding all of their clothes for them.

Well, listen, I want to, I want to tell you that we had a rude awakening because I do, I mean, it's honest. I do have somebody that helps me clean, which we, we, we both agreed that right now let's just, yeah, let's both agree. So I looked at my boys and I said, y'all, um, our friend is not coming this week. So they do their own laundry and they do clean their spaces. They do help with dinner. They do wash dishes. But they had not mopped in a while. Yeah, they had not scrubbed their toilet, you know, beyond just like keeping it up. Like, they keep it up, but in terms of like deep clean, they hadn't deep cleaned that bathroom in a while. And I said, well, y'all, now's a good time to practice. They were like, what? I said, absolutely. Let me refresh, because I said, listen, here's the blessing in this for you. One day you're going to love your wife, and you're going to want to know how you can help her, bless her, support her when she goes to work and you go to work, how y'all can work together as a kid.

Clean the toilet.

Yes, clean the toilet, do the dishes, know how to chop up some onions. You don't understand, right now I am blessing you for the rest of your life. As you walk in, you want to say hi? Come in, say hi. Huh?

Is that Kanan or Jolie? It's my nephew Kanan. I love you, Kanan.

Go do your personal care. I'll be down there. It's oatmeal today because I know you're gonna ask me, but it's always oatmeal on Mondays. See you in a second. Close the door.

See how organized she is?

Because no, that's not organized. It's because I don't want to think. So every Monday is oatmeal. Every Tuesday is a smoothie and some kind of bread— banana bread, pumpkin bread, biscuit, toast. Wednesday is bacon, eggs, and toast. Thursday, it's gonna be— what is Thursday? Like a— it's, it's a hodgepodge day. Hodgepodge days. Like cream of rice, something like that. Fridays, every Friday, every Friday for 18 years I've made pancakes every Friday. But now they make the pancakes, but we have pancakes on Friday. I just don't want to think. So meal planning is a way that I don't think. So it's not, it's not.

And also you're very organized.

Yeah, but you— I plan it, you do it. I'll be planning until the cows come home.

I will have a plan.

It'll be beautiful.

I have photo albums, like I print pictures and I put them organized.

They're done, they're printed, they're done, they're labeled.

Because I, I just am overwhelmed by all the digital pictures. I still wish for the days of— I sound so old, but I wish we had film because then you had a thing, you printed the pictures, you got the photos, and you're— you can view them, you know, people can see them in your photo albums or whatever. But now, Chrystal plans to, to print pictures. And she would—

and I—

beautiful pictures.

I'm the one with the DSLR. I got the lighting, you know, I got— look, light, light, all this stuff. But do my pictures get printed? Nope.

I just take a photo and, and write something beside it that reminds me.

So you do things. There's a value in not always planning because you actually then do the thing. I have a million planners.

You are an overthinker because because you are an overthinker, we all look smarter because we can ask you any questions and get responses.

They call me their walking Google.

Pretty much.

They're like, Chrystal knows. All right, we gotta feed our kids.

I'm gonna go make some coffee for myself this morning and enjoy the fact that I'm up early, and I have not been for this whole quarantine. I have been a little unable to get up. This early.

Yeah, and I know I've got to leave myself some time to put on my eyelash. Are you wearing eyelashes today or you're not going to bother?

Well, if this is like— TBN is like international.

Yeah, so you're going to put on your eyelashes?

I, I might. I'll see how they look with just mascara on. If they look pretty presentable, then I'm not going to put them on.

Yeah, I'm gonna go put on my eyelashes, my magnetics. They're wonderful.

Have you tried magnets yet?

No, they're really a blessing to the body of, of Christ.

I'm kind of anti-eyelash— lashes.

But what happened? You were getting into a regular every Sunday thing.

No, just a couple times I did it because I just— what happened?

I thought you were like, this is great and I'm getting good at putting them on and stuff.

But I'm talking about just the idea of wearing fake eyelashes as a regular part of life.

Oh, they're not regular, just for TV.

Well, it does— it does on television. When I watch it back, I go, oh, I, I do You see the difference. It just helps you to look— your eyes look more clear on camera. So I get it, but it's just this whole, like, I wish we could all just relax a little bit and not have to be so decorated all the time.

I'm on, I'm on with that. The reason being is because, you know, I don't want to get dressed on a daily basis anyway, so there's that.

We'll discuss that on the next slide.

Yes, I'm trying to fix something here. You guys, I'm going to let Priscilla go. I want to let you know though, if I can fix this. I don't even know if I can fix it.

Volume. Yeah. She says we need volume in the eyelashes. I understand. I understand. I'm going to put some on, sis, because you said I need some volume in the eyelashes. I'm going to do it. OK.

Trying to be helpful.

Oh, well, can I tell you all about an interview I did?

Please.

We're doing this little blog series at goingbeyond.com, and it's just 10 questions that we send to interesting people., and they answer them, and then we put it up on our blog. You know, old school blogs. So anyway, right now, um, there's one— Jackie Hill Perry was first, and then Emmanuel Acho, who we grew up with, and he's now an ESPN correspondent, and he loves the Lord and doing his job. So, um, every other week I think we're putting up a new interview. We've got some great people lined up to just answer 10 fun questions. So if you go to Going Anthony Oh, you're at my sister's house. You're at—

he had to, he had to bring me the ring light back because I need it for today. He had to bring me the ring light back, that's why.

Y'all are together without me.

But y'all, yes, go to goingbeyond.com. Priscilla writes for sure, but then she also has great interviews and great blog articles, so don't Basically, y'all, we want to be helpful, and email is the way we can do that. So check out her site, check out mine, and now we have to go check on our kids because—

yeah, because they're, they're waking up.

Thanks, Priscilla, this was fun. It always is.

It was fun. Is that Mandisa? Mandisa, hey girl!

Girl, Mandisa's coming on with me Wednesday.

Is she?

We're gonna, we're gonna talk about being single.

20 years.

We're gonna be, we're gonna talk about being single in the quarantine and being alone and community, like that part of it.

Yeah.

Anyway, we love y'all. Have a great day. Say no, say no. Quarantine your hair, read a good book, watch a good movie, and ask God what he wants to teach you in this season. Mine is on the screen. Oh, if you're not on Instagram, it's not. It's chrystalevanshurst.com. Chrystal Evans Hurst dot com. Priscilla's is goingbeyond.com. And we both want to resource you and serve you, and email helps us to do that. Chrystalevanshurst.com. Sign up for the email list. Going Beyond, you can sign up for her newsletter, and that way you won't miss a thing.

Bye!