Challenge Your Mind - Coffee with Chrystal #alittleQC

So they'll have to jump back on. Yes, I did say howsomever. I did, I did. Thank you, thank you for joining me again. Sorry about that. So I'll give them a chance to get on. So basically, I want you to get up because, because even if you just sit at the edge of the bed or take me, um, in the phone with the phone to the kitchen, go ahead and make yourself a cup of tea, or do like me this morning and grab your water. Some of y'all are up and you're working. That's awesome. But I know, I know some of y'all are still in the bed. So I'm not talking to those of you who are up and working. And yes, y'all, I didn't— I kind of cut myself off. I was switching from my Wi-Fi to my Ethernet. I probably should have just left it alone. But anyway, when I did that, it cut me off. So I'm sorry. But if you're in the bed, I want to encourage you to get up. You don't have to get— you don't have to get dressed. You don't have to, you know, I'm just saying get up, mosey into the kitchen, straighten up from the night before while you listen to me. Put your AirPods in, you know, and, uh, get your tea, get your coffee. If you've got a rocking chair on the front porch— oh yeah, you're looking at my hand. I'll tell you about that in a minute. If you got a rocking chair on the front porch, go sit in it. Like, you know, enjoy the morning. Enjoy the morning. And I want you— I don't want you— this is what I don't want, because y'all, I'm gonna do this and then this will come to an end. I can't do this every day for the rest of my life. Maybe one day I'll be grown enough to have a radio show, but Erica Campbell's got me beat. I can't do it. This is— that's like stamina. But I'm committed to being here, um, week by week, week by week, as long as we need to do this. But one of my reasons for doing it in the morning is to get you going. So if you're in Australia, you're like, I'm already in the bed. But if you're in the US and it is your 7 o'clock, 5, 6, 7, 8 AM situation, wake up, wake up, get up, sit up, sit up. Okay, so here's what— Jesse just walked in. Jesse, the people have been asking for you. By the way, the people have been asking for you, so just one morning you're going to have to stick your face in here and say hello. Fair enough. Okay, so y'all, what had happened was on YouTube and Facebook I was trying to fix something technical and then shut myself off. You know, this is my— this is my life. Oh my goodness, on Instagram you said the one morning I stay in bed because it's my day off, you making me get up. No, no, no, if you get up every other day You know your life. I'm just trying to give encouragement to the people who are not getting up. They just lay there in the bed every morning and just watch me. That's fine. But if it's your morning and you know that's your norm, come on, wake up. Okay, so y'all, yes, I'm sitting here with a tissue. I don't even know what this tissue was used for, but it was here. And the thing is, is Joel and I yesterday— I'm gonna put up who I am for you first-timers. Joel and I yesterday were playing basketball. That was supposed to be a very simple game. We were shooting free throws because he doesn't think I can ball, which I really can't. But anyway, I can make a few shots, you know. And so I was, I was out there shooting with him and he kept being distracting and I kept telling him, stop doing that, like stop stop hitting me, pushing me, not hitting me, but like, you know, tapping me on the back, trying to be distracting. And so he wouldn't stop. So then I started like playing basketball. I started like going to the hoop for a layup and stuff. And he didn't like that because, um, because I can beat him then. I can rebound because I'm taller. I can defend myself because I'm larger. He didn't like that. So then he started getting mad. And, um, because he's a sore loser, he started getting mad because I was winning. And I said, but the thing is, you cheated first. You cheated first. So once you start playing dirty, you don't know what you're dealing with over here. And so, um, I won the game. And when I tell y'all, the whole neighborhood heard him. He was screaming and hollering. Did you hear him when he was out there doing that? He was screaming and hollering. And I mean, just, and I said, calm down, calm down. The only thing you have to do first of all is keep it clean and then play by the rules. And then you won't have anybody trying to disrupt your situation. And so, so anyway, all that to say, I said, listen, you don't have to worry about me being better than you. All you have to keep doing is coming out here and challenging yourself. And I guarantee you, even smaller than me, you'll be able to beat me. But right now I'm a challenge. I'm presenting a challenge to you because of my size, because of my age, because of my height. But if you keep working at it, you can overcome. So don't be a sore loser. So y'all, here I am. I'm Chrystal Hurst. Because there's always somebody new, you know. It's like there's always a first-time visitor at church. This is not church, but you can be a first-time visitor. I don't know if you can see on Facebook and YouTube my shirt. You like my shirt? It says, "Your story matters." We had these shirts for our volunteers, our interns, um, from our last year's retreat. And for those of you who have asked about this year's retreat, y'all, We're waiting. It's very possible it still might happen, but we're waiting. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry about it. Just make sure you're on my email list because everything you need to know, I tell people on my email list. There are a couple of things I say every morning. Y'all could probably give my announcements for me, but somebody's always new. So the couple of things are, um, Facebook group, chrystalhurtz.com. Facebook group. And then also Inner Circle. Cool thing about Inner Circle is one level has been open because the rest of the levels, we've been on a journey. Tomorrow all the levels are open, all the available levels. They'll be open until Sunday, May the 3rd. So bookmark that page, come to it tomorrow. You can go to it today too, but you can go to it tomorrow because we got a 21-day challenge coming up. And then after that, we got a 90-day experience coming up. And here's the super cool thing. There is a Sister Circle, not retreat, but an online event coming up, uh, Friday and Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. It's coming up, y'all. And, um, gathering all the info, getting all my peeps, releasing information soon. And the Inner Circle A gets to come to the lives for that event for free. If you're at the coaching level or higher, you get to come. And the second thing is, if you want to do all of the sessions, you get a discount. So I want you to know about those two things. And again, all the levels are open tomorrow. So you have to be at the coaching level or higher. And that's what that is for. There's a reason why I started talking about Joel this morning and about his challenge, because I wanted— I was talking, just giving y'all some time to come on. We've got now about 800 or 900 of y'all on. It's cool. Typically by the time we get off, we've got about 1,200 people who are on. I cannot believe y'all stick with me. I said I was going to talk for 15 minutes, but y'all, I've been doing that. I've been not doing that. And people, I have friends who are like business, business-minded friends who are like, you're giving away too much information. You shouldn't be giving away all that. Like, I can't help myself. I like to help. And when I see there are questions, I want to answer the questions. It's like, ah. So anyway, I see y'all on Instagram too. Thanks for keeping me company. Okay. So challenging. Here's why I wanted to talk about challenging. So I made some notes because maybe I won't ramble so much if I don't come to y'all with my 3 points, but I actually come to y'all with like more detail, more thoughts. How about that? All right, so here's, here's the deal. Basically, I want you to understand some practical things that you can do to challenge your mind, okay? That's actually one of the tenets of the online event. We're going to be talking about what it looks like to nourish your soul, how to challenge your mind, and how to choose to live. I think we were still working on the 3 points, Monique, so if I put it out and it's not the right one, you can correct me later. But I think those are the 3 points. Nourish your soul, challenge your mind, choose to live. Because here's what I don't want you to do. I want you to set aside time to focus on the girl in you because she needs you to show up for her. She needs you not to come out of this situation and be like, I cannot believe, I cannot believe that I did not use this time. I cannot believe that I didn't sharpen my axe. I cannot believe that I did not use this time to do the things that I said I was going to do, and I want to resource you, um, with tools. Okay, and so there— yes, I'm a Bible girl, I love Jesus, and there'll be everything from a scriptural basis. But this is not a Bible event. This is going to have some Bible in it, but it's not a Bible event. It is an event. It's kind of Titus 2 where it says teach the women how to, and the scripture says love their husbands and take care of their homes. But the Proverbs 31 woman did a whole lot of stuff. She was a businesswoman. She was resourceful. She was making money. She was taking care of her home. She was also managing people. I mean, she was doing a whole lot. And so we want to resource you with the how-to, okay, with the practical, because y'all know I'm a practical girl. And so when we talk about challenging your mind, what I wanted to do, just in brief, um, a brief segment here, is to tell you some things you need to think about adding to your life or, or being committed to in your life because your mind— I'm so glad you started Couch to 5K. I see you on Instagram. Awesome, awesome. Um, I want, I want you to, to come out of here saying, okay, this is how I'm gonna be, this is what I'm gonna do. I'm— yesterday I talked to you about resetting your rhythms and I talked about focusing on the finish. And if you haven't watched that Um, then you need to, uh, you need to watch it. Okay, those will be up for a little bit and then they come down and they go to the Inner Circle Library. Somebody said I get you tired. How do I get you tired, Tracy, on Facebook? I'm not trying to get you tired, but, uh, you need to decide who you want to be and then you've got to challenge the way you think about what you do in your life because the way you think influences what you do, right? And if you don't change the way you think, then you shouldn't be surprised that you're not changing what you do. Aye to the men. Aye to the men. Okay, let me give you an example. This is not about homemaking, but I'm going to use homemaking to give you— to challenge you. And then I'm going to jump into 3 things that I want to tell you about what it looks like to challenge your mind, okay? Because it's a, it's a discipline. It's not, it's not what you're learning necessarily. It's the discipline of being committed to challenging yourself. So I remember I asked a friend of mine, I mean, I'll call her out, I asked Tammy Franklin years ago. She was pregnant with Keziah, their last son, and I said, um, so what do you— I know you're home with your children right now. Now this is when I was single and working, or maybe I had just got married and I was working. And y'all, I was ballin', thought I was somebody working at Institutional Money Management, picking stocks, all the things. So excited to finally be making money after being po' and just struggling to make ends meet. And I finally got a job where I got bonuses and stuff and was making decent money and had the opportunity to progress. So in my mind, I'm like, you know, I'm a mom, but I'm trying to do something because I'm a single mom and I gotta, you know, I gotta make those Benjamins. And so, um, I said, what do you, what do you want to do when you're, you know, when you're done with, uh, you know, having babies and sending them off to school? And she said, well, I still, you know, just want to focus on taking care of my home. I was like, what? In my mind, I totally— well, and then I said, I thought, what? And then I, and then I said, Well, yeah, but like, in what ways do you want to, like, what is your passion and what is your, like, what is your thing? And she said, it's taking care of my home. Like, I love being a wife to my husband and I love being a mom to my kids and making sure that home is a place where, um, they don't have to worry about things being in order because I'm taking care of that. Now here's the thing. I value homemaking. I do, but I don't think until Tammy answered that question, um, that I had ever thought that if what you wanted to do was take care of your husband and your children and your home, like, you didn't have to have anything else. Like, I was— if that was novel to me because my mom took care of our home, but then she, you know, she stayed home for a while and then she went to work, and she always had passions and dreams and things she wanted to do. So it didn't occur to me. Now, when I was a little girl, that's all I wanted to do was be a mom and a wife. That's all I wanted to do. And, um, and now, y'all, I could totally do that. I mean, I have a lot of things I enjoy doing, but I get it now. Here's what I realize now. Here's what I realize: when you change your thinking— because her thinking was different, right? She was not only totally satisfied taking care of her husband and her children, she was also totally fulfilled knowing that there is a job that she was doing that nobody could do like her. And she knew that her having the foundation for her family, creating that foundation of rhythm and routine and care, enabled her family to do all of the things they could do. And any great man who has done great things will tell you that he has been supported by a great wife, because there are things they don't have to think about. Let me tell you why I know this. Let me tell you why I have challenged my mind in this thinking. And then let me tell you some practical ways I want you to think about challenging your mind. Let me tell you what happened. What happened is I went to work, but I went to work gradually. And, um, yes, and her whole family is amazing. Um, I went to work gradually, and that's, that's no shame for you if you work. I'm just talking about, I'm talking about the mindset that says this is enough if this is what I want to do. Okay, I went to work slowly, gradually. I started writing for my dad, and then I started doing some work at the church, and then I started writing more and speaking more. And this was gradual, gradual. And then as a part of that gradual, I told you, I think yesterday, that my husband always made sure I had a, a high school student. Listen, some homeschool girl that had 7 siblings, and she was the oldest, so she knew what to do. Um, I always said, so I, I started adding to that. Okay, so I've— as I've done more, I've had, I've had help. If I'm going to keep my kids here, y'all, I have to have help. They gotta— I gotta have help because they go to school, or I gotta have help because they're staying home. One way or the other, gotta have help. Let me tell you something, no matter how much help I have— oh dog, my light went off. Hold on, let me fix that. No matter how much, uh, help I have, nobody is me. You hear me? Nobody is me. Nobody can cook the way I cook. Nobody takes care of my husband. Nobody takes care of my husband the way I take care of him. Nobody can do the things and handle the family business like I can, because I'm the one who's invested in this place. I'm the one who's invested in my people. I'm the one who cares about the success of everybody in my household. Do you understand what I'm saying? So no matter who you hire to clean your house, no matter who you hire to nanny your children, no matter where you send your kids to school, public or private, no matter who you pay to handle your bookkeeping, Nobody's going to care about your stuff the way you do. Do you understand what I'm saying? So once I understood that, once I challenged my thinking in that regard, then I don't care about saying I'm a homemaker. I don't care, because you want to know what? Nobody can make that thing happen like I can. Hold on, I just got preachy. Hold on, let me turn my light back on. This is what happens when you do everything yourself. See, nobody is you. That is your superpower. Nobody is you, and that is, my friends, your superpower. But that also applies not only to who you are as a person, it applies to where you serve and who you serve and what you do. So do not belittle whatever you're doing in your life right now. Show up like you're supposed to be there and then believe that it makes a difference. If you can get in your head that nobody's like you and that what you bring to the world at your job, in your home, to your husband, to your children, uh, if, if nobody can do that and you bring yourself wholeheartedly in that, you've just challenged the way you think and it changed. You don't have to apologize for what you're committing your time to because your brain is telling you this is worth it. Okay, it's all about renewing your mind. Romans 12:2, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. It is a spiritual principle, but it is a psychological principle. Uh, how I think influences what I do. So a man thinketh, so is he, right? All right, so it's all about challenging your mind. Now, I'm not going to get into who you are and what you do and your kids and all that kind of stuff. I really want to talk about the discipline of changing the way you think. Okay, so let me run through this because I already talked for 20 minutes. Who does that on an introduction? Okay, praise the Lord, everybody. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Okay, challenge your mind. Um, there are 3 ways I want to encourage you to challenge your mind. Okay, I'm gonna give you the 3 things up front. One is learn God's word, learn something new, and read. That's it. Learn God's word, learn something new, read. I'm going to repeat it: learn God's word, learn something new, and read. If you are in the discipline of challenging your mind and saying, I'm constantly going to review what I'm thinking and hold my thoughts against an objective truth— if you will commit to doing that, you will notice your life start to change. Okay, there's, there's a thing called a, a poverty mindset. Okay, versus an abundant life mindset. And you see a lot of like motivational guru people talking about that. Um, poverty mindset says, I'll never have this again, so I've got to do it all right now. It's a poverty mindset that has you eating, uh, when you say you're going to go on a diet. And so before I go on that diet, I got to eat everything I need to eat. That's a poverty mindset. Like, I'll never eat this again, and so let me stuff myself with the thing I want more of right now. That's a poverty mindset. An abundant life mindset says, I'm going to make a decision today because there's more where that came from. I heard Michael Hyatt say that one time. There's more where that came from. And when you lead with that mindset, it changes what you do. It changes how you spend. It changes where you go. It changes who you give your time to. That one thing— there's more where that came from. And having an abundant life mindset or a poverty life mindset changes how you interact with your world. And I want you to think abundantly about your life. And the way to do that is to say, what does God say? What is true? What does God say? What is true? And having an objective standard, because if you try to be your own standard, you'll mess up every time. For those of y'all who have She's Still There, because this is all in here, it's a principle, um, this is the book She's Still There. It's a book I put out in 2017, and it is— the chapter is called Coach Yourself, chapter 22, and then 23 is Coach Your Head. It's all about the way you think, okay? So learn God's word. So let me tell you specifically, this is a teaching, teaching, teaching, teaching, okay? Remember, you don't have to take notes on the links and things. I'll put all the links and things in the resources, which is why you need to be on my email list. Read the Bible, just read it, just, just read it. Get a version that you like. I grew up on King James, so I can read that. Um, in, in school, in a Christian school, and then when I went to public school, there was no Bible there, but my dad always taught from the New American Standard Version. New American Standard Bible. My personal Bible that I tote around everywhere, which is over there, is a New American Standard Bible. It's a Kay Arthur inductive study Bible, has lots of room to write. Read it, just read it. Get a one-year chronological version of the Bible. We'll put that in the show notes. I like reading the chronological Bible in the New Living Translation. I also like the Common English Bible, just plain speak, or The Message. Just read it. Like, don't get hung up on trying to get two verses in deep study. Just read it. Any other book you would just read, you wouldn't like read 2 sentences and then, you know, put it down and come back to it for 2 weeks. You would just read it. You'd read a chapter. You know, there are reading plans if you look on YouVersion that will help you read the Bible in a year, 2 years, 3 years, but you can also read it 90 days. Maybe I should add that to the 90-day plan for some of us who just need to read it. Write that idea down, y'all. Marissa, Brittany, Yeah, I got interns. I'll be putting them to work while I'm talking. Thank you. So grateful, so grateful. Couldn't do what I do without them. And of course, there is Mo— Mo— Monique. Read it. Just open it up and read it. Pick a book, give yourself a go. Pick something short. James, y'all listen, and I'm gonna get to this in a minute, but James is short. It's 5 chapters. Just read it. Just read it. Okay, read the Bible, study the Bible. Now there are so many online tools, y'all. There's a million. I'm gonna run through just some resources to get you going, but I want you to know that on my website there's a blog post called 20 Ways to Study the Bible. You can find it simply by going to chrystalhurst.com/20. If you just type in 20, it'll fill in the rest of it for you. And there are 20 ways plus to study the Bible. Um, but when I say study, then that means you slow down and you say, okay, right now I'm going to study topically. I'm going to pick a topic. I'm going to study expository, and I'm going to read a scripture passage or a book, and I'm going to go slowly and dig in deep. Now, how do you dig in deep? Well, that's one of the things we'll be talking about at the online event that's coming up. But one of the ways that I have been taught to dig in deep is BSF. Now, I'm going to put a scripture on— a scripture— a picture on the screen because y'all know I like to be extra with all of my, with all of my things. Um, let me see here. Okay, so first of all, here is a picture of my Bible shelf. Now these are not all the Bibles that I own, but when I tell you to read it, there's no reason you can't read it, y'all, because you have a doggone phone. You have a phone. Use YouVersion, for goodness sake. There's a million Bible— you have a million ways to study the Bible. Okay, but I've got, I mean, a million different versions up there with a commentary, with a concordance, and of course my Tony Evans Study Bible, which is not on that shelf, but it does exist in my home. Read it. And if you can't physically have physical differential Bibles, okay, then you need to have BibleGateway.org. Have it deliver something to your— I mean, there's like, y'all, we are living in a day and age when you have no excuse, none, for not reading the Bible because you can carry it with you in your hand. No, you can carry it with you in your hand. Okay, so those are my Bibles. But I love, you know, I love different versions because reading different versions teaches you different things, and that's actually a part of studying it. Read different versions to see how different people looked at the original Hebrew and Greek and translated that, okay? Because meanings of words change over time, and the reason why we have different versions of the Bible is people say, okay, the people, the way they read, the way they listen, the way they learn is different than it was 30 years ago, so let's put out a version of the Bible that speaks more common speak now. So it's not that people keep changing the way the Bible is, it's that the way we communicate changes. We don't speak in these and thous and all those things anymore, So King James Version, some of us love that, and I do love it because it's so Shakespearean, you know, which makes me feel literarily smart. But the reality is, is that if you don't understand that, don't read that. There are too many other good translations and paraphrases. Translations are word-for-word translations, or thought-by-thought translations, or paraphrases that just give you the meaning of the idea, uh, for you not to just to, to Pick a scripture, pick a Bible that makes sense to you. But let me also show you something else I did for years. Okay, this is my BSF shelf. So for years I went to Bible Study Fellowship. It's free, it's everywhere all over the world, and now they're online. So when I started traveling, I mean, I'd stopped for a while. I went for 8 years and then I stopped, and then I wanted to go, but my schedule was crazy and it was really hard for me to come up with other things for me to do in the evening, to leave my family when I'd just been gone that weekend. And then they had online groups. Now they're coming to the end of their semester, but they will start again in September. Find the Bible Study Fellowship. It's, uh, bsfinternational.org. Find the Bible Study Fellowship near you and then go, because you can learn the Bible, y'all. You can learn the Bible. And these binders are all of my years, because some of them are thicker than others because I did some of the I've read some of the studies 2 or 3 times. And that's my shelf and I keep my notes. So now when I'm studying the Bible and I'm reading something and I'm like, "Man, I already studied the book of Acts. What did I already learn about this passage?" And I'm gonna talk about going back to your notes, okay? BSF, I wanted to show you one other thing I do. So on my shelf in my office, I don't even know if you can see this clearly, but these are binders that I keep things in like speaking engagements, all of my speaking talks go in there. Life on Life is the Bible study at my church. Books of the Bible. So when I studied on my own and just took notes on my own, I stuck them in there, and I'm basically building my own commentary. Like, not to publish, I'm just saying my notes, Chrystal Hurst's notes on the Bible. That's, that's what that is. Okay, um, and then topics of interest, anything I've collected on motherhood, parenting, um, home management, um, homeschooling, um, interesting books I've read, the notes that I want to keep, business uh, managing a team, any random things, I collect them there. Okay, so while I do take notes on my Bible stuff, y'all, I take notes on everything. I, I'm not— and I want to prove to you that I'm not as organized as what y'all think I am, because right now this is what's happening on the floor. The room that I'm in, that's the floor. So I just want to— every time y'all see my organization, y'all think, oh, she's so organized. No, no, nope. And I'm sorry, on Instagram you cannot see this. I will share pictures after the fact. Basically what they're looking at is a stack of miscellaneous papers, and they're also sharing, uh, seeing a bin with a bunch of random paper. I mean, it's craziness. So when y'all say, oh, you're so organized, no. Every now and then either I make the time when I should be writing a book or doing something else, and I get totally distracted by trying to, um, trying to do it. Um, Somebody said Facebook is off. Is Facebook off? That's whack. Is it off? No, y'all are on. So I think it went off and then it came back. So y'all are on Facebook. I see people on Facebook. Okay, so I want you to understand that you don't have to have a beautiful system. You just need to start doing the thing. Do you understand? You just need to start doing the thing. Just start, just start reading and studying. So here's some other quick tips for studying the Bible. Again, you can take notes, but you don't have to. Be BSF, uh, Blue Bible Gateway, Bible.org, Blue Letter Bible. You can go in on Blue Letter Bible and drill in and say, what does this word mean? What is the Hebrew word? And what does that Hebrew word mean? Like, not the English translation in one word, but the whole idea. I already told you about chrystalhurst.com/20, 20 ways to study the Bible. And then there are wonderful online resources like Proverbs 31. They do online Bible studies, uh, Kay Arthur inductive Bible studies to teach you how to study the Bible yourself. The one of the reasons why I love her Bible, and she didn't put a— she has cross-references in there, but it's not— there's no study stuff in there. There's no— it's because she's like, you need to study it for yourself. What is God teaching you? Don't read my thoughts, read your own thoughts. So when I read my Bible, I'm not that I, I appreciate commentaries, but when I read my Bible, I am forced to say, what is in it here for me? And then I go look at what other people said. Because you don't want— see, one of the problems why we don't study the Bible, y'all, is because we're addicted to what the pastor said on Sunday. And we can have a great pastor, and a great pastor is like a helicopter parent. Sometimes you just need to let your kids figure things out for themselves. And if you keep making decisions for them, keep feeding them all the information, keep doing all the things, they're never going to mature. They're never going to mature, right? I just told my sons, we got to pick classes for next semester. And one of my sons, like, whatever you pick, I don't care, you know, I don't like school anyway. I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, no, no, no, no. When you go to college, I'm not doing this for you. I'm not doing this for you. You're going to pick. So I said, here's the link for the community college because you're doing dual credit. Here's the link. We discussed together. We looked through the course catalog. What are the course areas that interest you? Great. So I gave them the link to the course catalog. And I said, based on these categories, you need to look at all of the classes available in these categories. And then you need to get back to me with the classes you're interested in taking. Then we'll narrow it down because I do— I am your high school counselor and I will guide you. Once we narrow it down, then you're going to go back online and find the schedule for those classes. And then you're going to make your best schedule. Because if I don't teach you how to fish but keep feeding you fish, I'm not doing you any good. And most of us have become addicted to our pastors feeding us. And we have not had the discipline to challenge our minds and to do what it takes to learn ourselves. And there are too many resources out here, y'all, for you not to challenge your mind and learn how to study for yourself. There's just too many. Okay, read the Bible, study the Bible, memorize scripture. My children have memorized the book of James. I did that with my oldest two girls, and then my younger sons, to their chagrin, I did it again with them. So if my current 16-year-old and 15-year-old and 11-year-old— when they were 10 can learn to memorize the book, not the first chapter, the book of James. 5 chapters, y'all. You can too. Now I know young minds are a great thing, they're very flexible and they have room, and we're all stressed out, but it's about challenging your mind and disciplining. Do you know that one of the things my grandmother used to do is work word puzzles? Word puzzles. She loved those. She loved Scrabble. Super, super sharp lady. Always super sharp. My dad's mom. I mean, everybody's super sharp, but she was especially committed to Scrabble and word puzzles. Okay. And so, but I asked her one time, I said, you just love doing those. And she just, you know, she was doing it and she just casually said, girl, you got to keep that mind sharp. Memorization, even if you think it's difficult. And when I hear people say they can't memorize stuff, yes, you can. Yes, you can. There's a lot of things that you've memorized. Let me tell you what it is. It's about doing the work. I— if, if I knew your phone number pre-iPhone number one, because I got the first iPhone, I still know it. I can tell you the phone number of some of my childhood friends. You want to know why? Because I rehearsed it. I called it all the time. I knew 972-22-this-222. I knew that number. And so in my 40s, I still know the number even though I haven't called it in 20 years. Priscilla, stop heckling me! She's heckling me again, y'all. We're talking about the Bible, Priscilla. Do you have anything to add? Yeah, my children learned music when they were little. They went to Awana. We set music— we set scripture to music. And here's the thing, mothers, when you're teaching your children, you learn the scriptures too. But the point is, y'all, learn the scriptures because it actually is a challenge and a, a a physical challenge, an actual physiological challenge for your brain, okay? And then the Bible does say in Psalm 119, hide the word of God in your heart. It's about hiding the word of God in your heart, and you can recall what you need when you put it in when you don't need it. So you don't wait until you need it to hide it. You hide it because that's what the, that's what the instruction is, and then when you need it, it bubbles up. My mother would say, a lady in our church, Annie Mercer, said, and my mother said the same thing, when they were not well, the scriptures that came to mind the most were the ones they learned on their mother's knee. The ones they committed to memory as adults. It's not the ones that they kinda sorta vaguely knew. It was the ones they had committed to memory. There are whole systems, y'all, online for scripture memory. There's an app. I mean, if you just search in the, uh, for sure in the iTunes Store, if there's an app— I'm gonna see if I can look it up on my phone. Um, I think I deleted it off this phone. This is my old phone. But scripture memory, I'll look it up and tell you what it is. But there are lots of apps, multiplicities of apps to teach yourself scripture. But y'all, let me tell you what you need to do. Here's what you need to do. Do you eat? Print out the scripture that you need to memorize, put it on your fridge. And refuse to get anything out of your fridge without rehearsing the scripture that you're working on. So if you're going to work on James chapter 1, you say James chapter 1 every time you open your fridge to get some milk, every time you open your fridge to get an egg, every time you open your fridge, you know. And if you know that you go to your pantry for an Oreo Thin, back to— Priscilla, stop heckling me. She's like, oh, so should we go back to memorizing phone numbers then? Every time you go to get an Oreo Thin, wherever, wherever you know you go the most frequently Okay, I mean, listen, if you're on diuretics and you're on the pot all the time, put the scripture in front of the pot. I mean, wherever you're going to be, whenever you take that action, go there and say, before I do what I'm going to do, I'm going to rehearse this scripture. Then once you got that scripture down, you add to it. You do a second scripture. Okay, it is a discipline, and you can decide. Uh, my, my, uh, one of the tips I got was every time I put various scriptures in my kitchen cabinets, so every time I open the cabinet to get a coffee mug a scripture met me. And if I came to get a coffee mug, I would not take the coffee mug out until I rehearsed the scripture. Okay, same. So you just got to figure out a way to do it. But there are apps. There are apps. Okay, so y'all, we again, we live in a day— yes, I said diuretic seller— we live in a day and age when you have no excuse. On the fridge, verse by verse, in your window, a scripture memory app. Write it down. Remember I talked to you last week about the importance of writing things down? There are other ways. Uh, Love God Greatly My friend Angela Parrott, she talks about memorizing the scriptures as you study the word. Here are some other words to get that word in you. Now we all know about the Beth Moores and the Priscilla Shires of the world. We know about, you know, Kay Arthur, but I want to list off some people you may not have heard of that are dedicated to scripture study and scripture memory. Katie Orr, Stacy Thacker, Laura Williams, Jada Edwards, Casey Van Norman. And then as I told you before, Study Gateway, if you're on my email list, you already know that Study Gateway right now, um, is today the last day? Yeah, I think today's the last day, April 30th, where you can go on, um, um, somebody text me the, uh, somebody on my team texted to me. It is Study Gateway because I want to give it. It's Study Gateway. And I think it's something about 360, but I can't remember. You have to text me because my other phone. Yeah, text me. So anyway, I'll come back to that when I get the text. But here's what you need to learn. Learn Lisa Harper. Yeah, there's lots of them. There's lots of them. Okay, say the name slower. But again, you don't have to take notes. They'll be in the— they'll be in the thing. Uh, Katie Orr, Love God Greatly, Angela Parrott, Stacy Thacker, Laura Williams, Priscilla Shire, Jada Edwards. Yes to Lisa Harper. I mean, there's so many, y'all. There's so, there's so many. Um, hello mornings, Cat Lee. And here's why I'm telling you to learn God's word, because we're talking about challenging your mind, because most of us are not studying God's word because we don't have the discipline to invest in learning. Okay, the Bible is one of the greatest literary work— it is the greatest literary work ever. It is a book written over thousands of years by 66 authors that lived in different time periods that never talked, that have one message. The Bible is a book that can explain itself. You don't understand something in the Old Testament, you go to the New Testament to explain. Like, it is— if you can study Shakespeare, if— then you should study the Bible. Like, and that's a class in some, in some schools, like college and high school. It is a discipline to be able to be well-read in studying God's word. It is cultural literacy. So I'm telling you, Jen Wilkin, she's another one, I'm telling you She's a great one. I'm telling you that studying the Bible is a discipline of the mind. Yes, you want to know God, and you will know God because in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God. But also, also, um, I may have to divide this into parts because I spent the whole— this whole situation on learning God's word. We're gonna have to say this is Challenging Your Mind Part 1 because I've only done part 1. There's part 2 and part 3 to do. It's a discipline. Studying God's word is a discipline. Okay, um, I want to teach you this. I've been talking about how when I get up in the mornings, you know, I pray. Um, oh, and then you can listen to the Bible. Y'all just listen to it. But I do want you to study it too. I want you to read it, study it, and memorize it. Okay, but I need you to understand it is about getting to know God better, but it is also about a discipline. Of challenging your mind. All right, I'm going to make this a part 2. So many things I wanted to talk about. I was going to talk about working from home tomorrow, but that can go into next week. I'm going to finish this tomorrow because I want to have time for your questions, and I don't want to keep y'all on here all day. Y'all are— and listen, y'all need to live for these comments. Do you hear me? Because, because the people are putting suggestions in the— I mean, I can't even keep up with them. Salty's Kid Praise 5 for your kids. I've got scripture memory CDs. When your kids are in Awana, buy the music CDs. Make your life easier. Let them learn it on their own. I mean, like, I mean, um, Sing the Word is another resource that— I mean, there's so many, so many, so many things. Google scripture memory tips for your kids. Like, like, this is where you challenge your mind, and if you don't know, you figure it out. You know what I'm saying? Okay, so here's what I want to say. I always talk about prayer in the morning. I wanted to give you my prayer. Now, this prayer is actually in my book. It's in my book, She's Still There, but I want to give it to you, right? Lord, today I surrender my will to your way. Help me to be an instrument of your grace, your love, your compassion, your mercy, and your power. That was my prayer from 2016. Then at the beginning of 2017, I added this to it. What one thing can I do today that brings glory to you? How can I be a part of what you are doing today, God? When you read God's word, pray and ask him for understanding. But remember, I told y'all, when I get up in the morning, I say, I say this prayer: today I surrender my will to your way. Help me to be an instrument of your grace, your love, your compassion, your mercy, and your power. Because I'm an instrument of power as well. And then you can add to it, what one thing can I do today that will bring glory to you? How can I be a part of what you're doing today? I want to add to that prayer. This is my 2019 add. Guide me as I study your word. Pray that prayer anytime you want to. As I open your word and as I read it, show me what you need me to see. Because don't you know, my dad was talking about this as he recorded one of his sermons. There's the Graphé, the Logos, and the Rhema. Um, there is the what it says, what it means, and what it means to me. And honestly, y'all, that's all Bible study is. What does it say? Can I read it? Can I— do I understand the basic words on here? What does it mean? That's where you get into Bible study, commentaries, cross-references in your Bible, Bible, you know. All these things. What does it mean to me? And what you need God to do— uh, somebody said, can we quote that prayer and post it? We should make a printable. Great idea, Marissa, write that down. Monique, do you hear that? That should be a printable for the printables that we mail out every month, or maybe a physical download or something, a freebie, something, I don't know, screensaver. When you open up God's word, say, I don't just want to read it, and I don't just want to study it, I want you to tell me what this means to me. I don't want just the graphe, the written, the, the— is it which one? Wait a minute. Graphe is written, right? Logos is what does it mean, or do I have that backwards? See, this is what happens when you don't put it in your notes. But rhema, I know what that means. Rhema is what it means to me. And this is what you need. You need the Holy Spirit to tell you when you read it, when you learn it, when you memorize it, when you study it, What does it mean? And then you need that Spirit to bring the Word to you when you need it. You need to know when you need to make that decision. What does God's Word say about the matter? You need to know when you're about to go into business partnership with somebody, what does God say about being unequally yoked? You need to understand when you're trying to make decisions about your money, what does God say about money? You need to understand when you're trying to parent your kids, because don't we wish that our kids came with a handbook? We do. But they don't. You want to know why? I believe that one of the main reasons why our kids don't come with specific handbooks is because God is like, no, because I want you to ask me. I want me— I want to tell you what to do with these kids. I want to tell you what to do with each individual kid because they're all different. I want to tell you how to love your husband. I want to tell you what your neighbor needs. I want to bring the person to mind for you who you need to serve today. I want to teach you. I don't want you to go by a list because I'm not about rules, I'm about relationship. And you're not going to understand what I need from you or what I want from you or what I want what I want to see in you unless you come to me. The Bible says in Jeremiah, you are like broken cisterns and you refuse to learn from me. You're not going to stay full on your own. You want to know how to live this life, you got to come to me. There are some answers, y'all, and I'm preaching now. I'm sorry. There are some answers you're just not going to get in this life unless you come to God. You can read all the books, you can, you can get all the opinions, you can do all of the spiritual counsel, and all of those things are awesome. I'm going to talk more tomorrow about challenging your mind and about reading and studying and what that looks like to grow and learn. We're going to talk about that. And yes, get learning, get wisdom, but in all of your wisdom, do not miss out on the fear of the Lord being the beginning of wisdom. That's what the Bible says, that the fear of the Lord is me. So that's why, that's why smart people can be so dumb. You have anybody, you have anybody in your life that just have book sense but they don't have any common sense? You understand what I'm saying? The only way that you have true wisdom, the only way that you have true wisdom is by starting with God's word. That's probably why this needed to be its whole situation. You gotta start with God's word because you have to understand, in the sea of all of these opinions, what does God say about the thing? Can— what does God say about the matter? Here's why New Age stuff is— will screw you up, okay? Let me tell you why. Because I, I actually learn a lot from a lot of different people, and everybody that I read is not a Christian, then everybody that I am listening to is not a Christian. But I know God's word, so I can sift through what they say to say, oh, they said that really cool, and all they did was repeat God's word. That's why when some of y'all got on my case about going to see Oprah, I didn't pay y'all no mind, because I could listen to her and say, that's good. And this is a woman who's in her mid-60s who has wisdom to share with me, who has lived a lot of life and who has experiences. But I know God's word, so I can hear what she says and sift through what she says and say, you know what, all she did is repeat what Jesus said. Half of all these people out there that are speaking truth— because all real truth is God's truth— half of all these people that are speaking truth are only repeating what God said. Now you have to be strong enough to sift through it, and if you're not, then you stay away. You understand what I'm saying? You have to stay away. But if you are studying God's word and you know God's word, then get wisdom. Get wisdom. Because if we would say we would never learn from anybody ever, anybody ever who doesn't know Jesus, none of us would ever go to college. But we went to college, a lot of you, didn't you? I mean, think about that for a second. So you have to know. That's why you can train your children, then send them away and say, I have given them— my dad, um, always compares it to a real dollar bill. You will know a, you will know a, a counterfeit piece of green because you know what the real green looks like. So quit studying the counterfeits and learn what the real thing looks like, and then you will know what to approve or disapprove of. Okay, so, so, so I'm on a soapbox here because I want you to understand. Uh-oh, my husband says stop fussing. He just yelled at me. He said, stop fussing, Chrystal, stop fussing. I'm gonna stop fussing now. I'm sorry. I sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Ah, it was a rant. It was a rant. I'm sorry. I'm saying, y'all, learn the word. Learn the word and it will frame with the fear of God how you frame wisdom in everything else. Be careful who you read, be careful who you listen to, be careful what you see, but know that if you can filter everything through God's word, you will be all right. That's why you need to make sure you're listening to people who actually know the Bible when they're teaching it. And that's why, somebody gimme a drum roll, You need to study the word for yourself because you need to know when somebody's in that pulpit and you're listening to them, is that what God's word says? I don't think— let me read that scripture. Because y'all, I have heard preachers— I'm so glad my daddy preaches the word. There are a lot of great Bible-believing, Bible-teaching, expository, you know, reverencing the word of God preachers out there. But let me just tell you this, let me just tell you this, there are a lot of preachers out there that don't know their Bibles, y'all. They don't. They quote things and I'm like, that ain't, that ain't what it says. So don't be quick to listen to somebody that you are not also double-checking the scriptures. You, you need to, you need to be able to ask your pastor, ask your Bible teacher, where did that come from? I don't, I've never heard that scripture before. Can you give me the references? You need to take notes and Google it, look it up. What does the Bible say? So I'm just saying there are a lot of people in these streets that are speaking truth that are not giving God the credit. So if you just study God's word, you're ahead of the— you're ahead of the game. You're ahead of the game. You're way— you're not even— you've won if you study God's word, okay? And there are too many tools out here in these streets for you not to do that, okay? I done got myself all hot and bothered. Hadn't even had a drink of my water not one time since I'm sitting here. Okay, Jesus, help me. I'm sorry. I was not trying to go all out on that. Howard Hendricks said, he's a teacher who I never had the pleasure of taking at Dallas Theological Seminary in person, but they use some of his teachings online. So I've had a chance to watch them online as a part of classes. I gotta get back to my theology degree 'cause it's something I wanna learn. Okay, and then after that, I want to go get a positive psychology degree, not necessarily from a Christian university. I want to learn, so we'll talk about that tomorrow. Valerie Burton has me wanting a positive psychology master's degree, but my husband is probably downstairs going, oh Lord, she gonna do something else. But, um, my point is, this is what he said. I messed up my computer. This is what he said. He said some of us need to stop reading new things and read the books we've already read and remind ourselves about what we already know that we're not doing. You want to know why we have to keep going to church? Because a lot of us, y'all, we've been in— not everybody, I know everybody, this is not your story— but a lot of us, we've been in church our whole lives, but yet every Sunday you go back, you hear something that your pastor said 15 years ago, and you're still not doing it. That's why you need to memorize James. Don't be just hearers of the word, be doers of the word, because you're actually not growing until you're doing the thing. That's how you know you're growing, is what I'm reading, what I'm doing. And if I read it before and I can look at my Bible and I even made notes about it but I never did it, did I learn it? No, you didn't. I was late up late last night going over anatomy, the anatomy study guide questions with my son, module 9, because we're a little behind. And we're getting caught up. Am I irritated? I'm sorry, do I sound irritated? I'm sorry, I'm sorry. He's telling me to stop fussing, but I was going over that with him last night. We were going over it. He said, I know it good enough. I said, no, you don't, you don't know it. If I can't ask you this question this way, if you can't work this out, if you can't actually have memorized the parts of the eyeball and the nose and draw it on the diagram, you don't know it. You don't really know it. I need you to study it where when I put the blank piece of paper in front of you and you have to put what you know into action, that you can do it. So I said, you need to study some more, and then we're going to pray, and I will know that you know it when you can actually do it without the bumpers. I saw somebody on Instagram say, I've been there 40 years with no growth. Well, here's the good news, here's the good news: it doesn't matter if you're 20. First of all, if you're 20 and you're watching anywhere If you're in between, if you're between 20 and 30 or 30 years old and you're listening to this, give me a wave or a thumbs up or something. You know, I just want to know that you're on here because here's the beauty for you. Do it now. Do it now. Don't have regrets. I want to know that you're here. Let me know that you're here. But here's the good news for everybody else. It's never too late. What'd you say, Jesse? It's never too late. I see y'all millennials. It's never too late. And if you start now and run hard to the finish, God can do in a short period of time what you could have done over a whole lifetime. Don't discount what God can do, not just with your wasted time, because you still learn something back there, and God wastes nothing. Romans 8:28. But what he can do with you right now. So whatever season you're in, just get going and don't waste time because you don't even know how much time you have. Praise the Lord if you've wasted 40 years, that you had 40 years to waste. But now get busy, get busy studying the word. So here's the deal, y'all. Instagram— I'm gonna cut Instagram off before it cuts me off, and then I will stay here and answer a few questions. Like 10 minutes worth of questions. That's all I was gonna do today. That's what I'm saying, y'all. Hold me, hold me accountable. It's never too late. Here's the beauty of it never being too late too. If it's— if there are some things in your life that are too late for you to do, it's never too late for you to set somebody else up to do it. We understand this financially, you know, want your children to struggle, so you save for them because you didn't have money, you know, you didn't have a great start, so you want to give your kids a great start. With money. Well, guess what? You can disciple young women. You can disciple your peers. You can hold the Bible study that you never had. You can learn as you go. You can set up your kids for what you didn't have because you've decided to study the Bible and teach them as you're teaching yourself. One of the things that I loved about BSF was I took my kids. I took my girls. My boys haven't gone, but they about to. But they, they, they, um, I took my kids and they, um, Oh, you heard Instagram is not cutting you off anymore? It sends you to Instagram TV. That might change the whole situation. Listen, I'm living for these comments. I need y'all. But so what I was studying in BSF, what I was— I was studying with my kids. We were all studying the same thing. That's one of the things I loved about homeschooling too. Whatever I was studying with my kids, what we were doing, Sunlight or My Father's World or Awana. We were doing those things together. Right now there are books on our shelf, we're reading them together. So don't feel like you have to do something different than your kids. People say sometimes, Chrystal, how do you decide what you're going to teach? Like when you're going to write things and talk about things and teach when you go— y'all, y'all are just getting what I already was teaching my kids at the kitchen table. When I tell my kids at the end of my teaching, and in closing, that's, that's what's happening. I'm teaching— I mean, really, as I teach my children, God is teaching me. And as God is teaching me, I'm teaching my children. So you just need to know that it's not too late. That's my point there. All right, so Q&A. If you got a question, pin them up. We'll see what we can do. Now let me tell you what I'm not, y'all. I am not a Bible study scholar. I am not a Bible study scholar. No, it's saying, y'all, I got 2 minutes on Instagram, so I'm gonna shut y'all off. I love you. If you want to join the Q&A, come over to Facebook or Instagram. Y'all make sure wherever you are that you subscribe or like or follow or whatever the things are. So when I go live, you'll see. And then if you think this is useful, then share it with somebody. Don't forget about the Inner Circle. It's open tomorrow. Don't forget about the Facebook group if you're needing community and be on my email list so that all the things I talked about today, you will get in your email. All right. Instagram, Instagram, Instagram. I'll see you on Facebook or YouTube. All right. There we go. Questions. Yes, coming in. Okay. All right. Here come the questions. I see y'all homeschoolers saying, yes, we just learned with our kids. Totally. Learn with your kids. Now y'all, there's a delay. So when you put the questions in, just know it takes me a minute. Um, BSF is Bible Study Fellowship. Um, bsfinternational.org is the web address. Okay, here come the questions. All right, I knew y'all were gonna ask me that. Here it comes because I mentioned it. Okay, so here's one of the reasons why I don't talk a lot about homeschooling. I mean, I talk about it, but I don't because I'm not the homeschool person. Like, there are a lot of people who have committed their whole lives to leading, guiding, and directing homeschool people, and they want to give you all the things. So what I want to tell you to do, and we'll put this in the notes, is go to— I have a YouTube on video, a video on YouTube that's about homeschooling, and it's like an hour, and I do a fire hose of all the things. Okay, one of these days I'll take my time and go back through. I think there are— if you go to my blog, chrystalhurst.com/blog, if you put in the search bar homeschool, there may be some other posts that I put up. But I can tell you what we've loved over the years. Um, when I— y'all, I use a whole— my husband can tell you, right, Jesse? I use a whole lot of stuff. He used to come to the Homeschool Book Fair with me. The first time he came, he was like, oh, it's not just you, like there are other people like you. Because the Homeschool Book Fair had thousands of people showing up in a whole convention center in Arlington to shop for their school curriculum. It was like Heaven! But I would come home with all this stuff and he'd be like, so how much did you spend? I said, don't worry about it, your children are going to learn. One of the— there's two that we've loved over the years, core curriculums that are spine curriculums for Bible history and English. And then they gave their recommendations for math and writing and grammar and, you know, all the other things. Sunlight and My Father's World. Sunlight has forever created in my home a a, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? It has forever created in my home a temperature, a culture, a culture of reading. We have books everywhere, and my kids read a lot of books. And then they read the books that we couldn't get to during the school year throughout the summer. My Father's World, instead of having you buy all the books, which Sunlight— you can buy the Sunlight curriculum, but you can also buy all the books. You just get a box of curriculum and books, and I always bought the books. Um, My Father's World gives you the curriculum and it's a lot cheaper. And then they say, here are the books we recommend. You can get it from your library or you can buy them if you want. But I didn't want to have to keep running back and forth to the library. So I, um, I do that now. In early years I didn't, I bought the curriculum. So anyway, the bottom line is there are two things that kind of do the same thing different ways. My Father's World is a little lighter in terms of because you can't even get to all the Sunlight books. We had to read them during the summer. Um, Sunlight is very— mom, you pick and choose what you want to do. But both of them are— you can't learn history without learning the Bible because Bible history is a part of history. And so you learn what's happening in history, not just American history, but internationally, what was happening all at the same time, the Bible included. So I love that way of learning. And then you're not writing about these random things, you're writing about books that you're reading that happened during the time in history that you're studying. So all of those things, it's called a core. They go together. That way of learning, Sunlight and My Father's World subscribes to. Now, y'all, there are a lot of curriculums that I— honestly, there are a lot of things I have bought that I've— I shouldn't say this while Jesse's in the room— that I haven't used. But, um, they've come back around. Maybe one child didn't get it, but another child did. Y'all, I have so much stuff. And what I want to tell you is it don't take all of that. AmbleSide Online, free. It details by year what you can do by your kid and it links to free resources. I mean, so anyway, go watch the YouTube video, check out Sunlight in My Father's World. But I promise you, like anything else, once you get started, the rest will come. Cause I don't want anybody to say, well, Chrystal Hurst said this is what she used and it didn't work for me. It has to work for you. And that takes It's like eating. You have to find an eating plan that works for you, you know, works for your lifestyle and works for what you can do. Okay. Yeah. And by the time my kids get older, I don't teach them. I'm not teaching them pre-calculus and plane and trig geometry. They go to dual credit for that. Memoria Press. I got my, um, my handwriting from there and some of my map work from there. Um, Culture of Reading. Okay. Looking for questions. Okay, I love this question. Okay, I think it's Cherylise, maybe Cherylise Gore. As a teenager and young adult, I was very devout in studying the entire Bible. I was too, and then I went to college. For those of us that have studied cover to cover, how do you suggest we go back over what we have studied? Great question, great question. So I think that when I look back at my notes I'm basically asking myself, um, well, first of all, I mean, I wish I had my Bible handy, but I don't even see it over there. Yeah, I don't, because if you take one book out of that stack, Jesse, the whole thing is going to come piling down. And I think he's trying to help me, y'all. It's okay, don't worry about it, because I don't want you to go on a wild goose chase. Um, I write in my Bible, and when I take notes for BSF and stuff, I write on those. So the question is, is what did God teach me already? What did God teach me already, you know? And did I learn the lesson? It's not— it's in a bag downstairs. It's it, I think. And then like I have my One Year Bible over there, but it's, it's the whole— it's okay, Jesse, don't worry about it. Um, but the question is, what did God teach me already and am I living that out? That's the question. How did I— once I read this, this was 5 years ago. I also, when I write in my Bible, I put the month and the year because I want to know when I learned it. I want to know when that happened, um, just real small. But I'd say go back over your notes in your Bible or the notes that you took and say, what did— did I learn it? And what does God want me to learn now? That's one thing. And if you read it but didn't study it, then study it. I can guarantee you, if you commit to studying God's word You will always learn something new. I have done the study of Acts 3 times with BSF, and every time I do it, I go deeper. Every stinking single time. So that's what I'd say. Go back over your notes. And I, I, I have not been a consistent notekeeper, but I have been a diligent notekeeper over time. So I have notes, y'all, from— I have journals and sermon notes from when I was in high school. And so I think that if you just go back and look at it, then, you know, you, you will do that and say, "Did I learn it? Did I, did I learn it?" Okay, so hopefully that's helpful. Um, and then go deeper. Do somebody else's study. If you studied Acts with BSF, pick up a Kay Arthur study. You know, if Beth Moore has a study on that, do that. Because the reason why, y'all, we keep having to study the Bible and the reason why Bible teachers keep teaching it the same thing over and over again is because what Beth Moore studied and what Priscilla Shire got out of it and what Chrystal Hurst or Lisa Harper got out of it or Katie Orr or Stacy Thacker or Laura Williams or Jen Wilkins is because we see it through our own frame. We, we interpret it differently, right? So the word of God doesn't change, but how we see it changes based on where we are and who we are. And that's why going back over your notes is helpful because when you heard that message at 25, you were one person. But when you see that message again at 37, you're another person. New revelation. Your knowledge builds. Love that. Precept upon precept. Okay, I'll take a couple more questions. Battle Rhythm Pursue, you're not late. You can catch on right now, and then you can go back and listen to the rest of it. Okay, I love this. Lanica Barbie on YouTube. Mrs. Hurst, first of all, she called me Mrs. Hurst. I don't even know, I don't even understand. I mean, when little babies call me Chrystal, that's not okay. I have had to put some of my children's friends in place. I'm like, I'm not your friend, you need to put a handle on that. Miss Chrystal will do if you feel the need to put a handle on it. Mrs. Hurst. Am I Mrs. Hurst? Am I somebody's Mrs.? I am. But anyway, I struggle reading the Bible. So she's following, which means you probably don't attend, which means you're following Transformation Church online. Pastor Mike Todd, he's a fiery preacher of the word. The message relates to me and I don't find reading the Bible fun. Okay, well, are you in school? Are you in college? Do you have a job? Are any of those fun? I just want to challenge you on the fun word. Maybe it's not supposed to be fun. Maybe it's an act of obedience. Maybe it's what you need in order to progress to the next season of your life. And I'm not fussing at you, I'm just challenging you. But I also want to say the Bible can be relatable if you read it in a version that you can understand. I believe that you should study the Bible, but I also believe you should read it in a version you can understand. So that's why I talked earlier about New Living Translation paraphrase and The Message and Common English Bible. But I want you to understand that beyond the obedience and beyond the rules of reading and discipline of study, you are getting to know a person. And I think once you realize that getting to studying God's word is helping you get to know God, What does he think about you? What does he want for you? What does he say about life? Then you will realize, oh, this is not just about— I mean, when you go on a date, some dates are like fun, and then some dates you're like, wait a minute, this is going to the next level, and I need to ask you some questions. I need to understand who you are. Who are you? What you doing? Listen, y'all, my husband forever talks about the time we were talking about getting married, but we weren't engaged yet. But I wasn't playing. I wasn't playing. I said How much money you got in the bank? We were talking, it wasn't like just a hypothetical, like, like boundary question. We were talking about getting married and we were talking about like what it means for us to combine finances and make decisions about how we live. I was like, so you know all my stuff, how much money do you have in the bank? That wasn't a fun conversation. It was a necessary conversation for us to get to know each other. I know y'all are trying to respect me, Valerie. I just feel like it makes me sound like somebody's mother, Mrs. Hurst. So I want you to find a version that you like to read. I want you to read it, but then I want you to study it. Get a Bible study, be around— we talked about yesterday setting yourself up for success. Get around other people who are studying, and right now that means virtually and online. Find a group. I need interns. I need y'all to give me a list. It's an intern assignment of online Bible studies that people can participate in right now. Then we need to send that in our one of our emails that goes out so we can tell them how to, you know, where to go. If you use the hashtag Bible study on Instagram, it will open up a whole new world for you. There are people that I follow on Instagram, listen, all they do is open up their— they show you like, this is what I studied today, these are the notes that I took, and here's a picture of my Bible, here's how I marked it up. Find a precept study in your— like, everybody's gone online, so you have no excuse, right? Find a Bible study so you can get around other people. Yes, I'm a grandmother, so I guess Mrs. Hurst is appropriate, but I just want to not be old. That's what— Faith Gateway, Study Gateway, Lifeway, like— but you know, let's think about this. Get around people who are loving what you love. Right now, media, totally, it's the Netflix of Bible study. Um, and, and you will discover it's like eating healthy. It's not fun at first until you realize that you feel wonderful, and then your taste buds adjust, and then you're like, awesome, I don't want to eat that other crap. But you start with what you know you should do, you understand? You start with what you know you should do. You said acceptance. I'm not accepting that I'm old. I'm not, because I'm not. I'm not old, but Mrs. Hurst makes me feel old. I do appreciate it. I do appreciate the respect. Okay, I will take one more question and then I'm logging off because I went too long. Y'all were supposed to be telling me to log off. You didn't do your job. You didn't do your job. Mm-hmm. Simple question: how do you sign up for my email? Because, you know, I put these things on, but we all get on at different times. The email list, you simply go to chrystalevanshurst.com, and right there you will see a box to put your name in it. All right, there you go. Um, questions? I'm scanning for questions. Rochelle Grant said— she's one of our Inner Circle peeps— said one author said that reading the Bible without the envisioning without envisioning the personality of Jesus is like watching TV with no sound. You have to see Jesus as a real person, and then everything that he wants to impart to you, you can receive by reading his word. You said, well, I got you out of bed. Hey, ooh, this is a tough one. And I feel like I don't have all the answers to this. I don't. So I'm going to put this on screen because I think this is a great question. And I just want you to know, y'all, that I'm not the theology person and I'm not a pastor, okay? I'm a girl who loves Jesus. And while I do believe that pastoring is an active verb and I can pastor people and shepherd them, I'm not a pastor, okay? This is a hard question. My Christian daughter's engaged to marry an unsaved Muslim man. We have talked, prayed, and cried about being unequivocally yoked to no avail. I cannot give my blessing or attend the wedding. Please pray. So, um, here's the deal. We have to make tough decisions with people in our lives based on our belief system all the time, all the time. Whether or not, you know, everybody who's watching this would not go to the wedding or not, and that's a matter of personal conviction. And I know some people who don't go to the weddings if their children marry an unsaved person, and some that do. But the point is this: they will know we are Christians by our love. They will know God's love by how we love. And I just want to encourage you in two things. Keep loving your girl. Whatever you do feel permission to do, do it to the max. Let her know that this is so painful for you, if that is the decision that you're going to make. But let her see that you are so all out in every other thing of celebrating her, being there for her, loving on her, praying for her. She should not doubt your love even if she disagrees with your decision. That's number one. Number two is you can always do more for people on your knees than you can do with your mouth. And if God's first children, first physical children, Adam and Eve, had the perfect parent and chose to go their own way, then we have to know that our children, no matter what we say, no matter what they do, no matter what we do, no matter what we try to explain, are gonna find their own way. And that's where coming back to your knees is helpful. Because God can reach your kid in a way that you never could. So you keep praying. And I know many a person who has been praying for their children and they waited a year or they waited 10 years and then they saw God work things out in their life to draw them back to you. There is not a guarantee, but there is the promise of the principle in scripture that your chances of, of your, you heighten your chances of your children coming back to God or following his way, when you've poured in. And so if you've done the work, rest in that. And here's the good news: if you haven't done the work, God was the one drawing all men to him anyway. The Bible says, "If I be lifted up, I will draw all men unto me." It's his job. Parents help, but it's his job. So I just want to encourage you: cry about it, lament about it, grieve over what you thought it would be. However, I want you to know that you can still love, you can still pray, and you can still trust God to do what he's gonna do best. Listen, uh, and this is all said from a girl whose parents still loved her when she was living a little ratchet. They didn't agree and they set boundaries, but they still loved. And what they put in, I think they're getting a return on their investment. Study the word, y'all. Learn the word with your kids. Learn the word with your friends. Learn the word with your spouse. Memorize scripture. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The Bible is the greatest literary document ever written for so many reasons. There are whole professors dedicated to studying this one book. How much more should you dedicate your time to doing the same? All right, I'm going to close this by praying for you since we talked only about God's word on this one. Let me just do that, and I'm going to include Larissa in that request. Lord Jesus, you see all of us. You see our desire to know you. We want to know you. We want to know that our lives count for now and for eternity. We want to know that as we study your word, we're hearing what you're saying and that you are giving us the power to do what it is that we've heard, not just to be hearers but to be doers. For every person that's been watching, would you guide, lead, and direct? Would you share with them the way that they can connect with you? Lead them to the right Bible study, to the right small group, to the right pastor, to the right church. Lord, help them to the right method for memorizing scripture and let them give themselves— remind them, Holy Spirit, to give themselves grace for learning how to do what works for them. But let them never stop pursuing you because the beginning of knowledge is fearing you. Renewing the mind starts with knowing truth and truth comes from God's word. Would you help us to prioritize the studying of your word, the reading of scripture and prayer, so that we can have the objective truth operating in our hearts and in our minds from you, and so that we can measure everything else in our lives against it. I pray for Larissa, and I pray for who she represents, all of the parents who have poured themselves into their children, their children simply aren't turning out the way they had hoped. They're not following you, they're not living, uh, righteously. They're not even maximizing their gifts and potentials. They're not going to school, they're not going to work. They're trying to get them to launch, relaunch out of their house. Lord, I pray for those heartbreaks when you've poured yourself in and you're not getting the return. And to that end, all the people that have poured themselves into their career and now their career fired them, or they have poured themselves into their church and now their church is discarding them, they poured themselves into whatever and it's just not going the way that they anticipated. Lord, I pray for healing of the heart. For your comfort to cover their souls, and for you to lead, guide, and direct all of them, particularly Arisa, and what she does, and what we all do when life is not turning out the way that we should. Holy Spirit, be clear, speak loud, give us a rhema word that teaches us not just what we need for now, but give us a word that is such a great word that it overflows and douses everybody in our presence. That our children are affected, that our husband is affected, that our roommates are affected, that our parents are affected, that our coworkers are affected, that our neighbors are affected, that who we are connected with on social media, everybody knows, ooh, she's doing something over there because it can't be hidden. Moses said in the scriptures that he wanted to go into the mountains and he said, listen, I want to see, I want to see you. And you said, you can't see all of me, but I'm going to pass by and let you see my back. And after that, Moses was shining and came down and the people were in awe because it was clear that Moses had been with God. Lord, we just want to see you. And then when you pass by, when we get that scripture in the word, when we get that chapter that teaches us, when we get that sermon that renews our mind or that podcast that helps us to grow, would you please, would you please allow us to experience some of the glory from what we have learned and allow the glory of that to overflow and infect everything else that we touch? Because ultimately we want to know you so that everything we do in life points back to you. And so that because we know you waste nothing, that nothing in our lives would be wasted too. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I hope that prayer was a blessing to you. Y'all, if this has been helpful, share it, share it, tag your friends, post it. We'll leave it up for a little bit. Um, we will, we are sending emails out once a week, twice a week sometimes. So we already sent the one out late last night. I pushed send. That had the podcast in it. If you're not following me, if you didn't get the email and you still want to listen to the podcast, just go to chrystalhurst.com/256 because it's about toxic relationships. So based on Larissa's comment, y'all listen, I'm not saying your daughter's toxic, I'm saying just navigating relationships. Oh my goodness, watch that, listen to it rather, listen to it, listen to it, and then pay attention because tomorrow Inner Circle 21-day journey opens up, and I'm so excited about that. I will be back tomorrow with the second part of Challenging Your Mind, the part that we're going to talk about other activities to keep your brain sharp, to keep you growing, to keep you learning, and to keep you active in your life. Y'all listen because I'm here, because I love you with my life. Have a great day. Get going. I will talk to you tomorrow. See you in the morning. And listen to that podcast by Gary Thomas. It's awesome.