Don't Waste Your Minutes

Um, I have been, uh, as many of you have been thinking about and trying to figure out what in the world is going on. Um, but I'm talking, um, to some smaller groups. I've got an inner circle and a Facebook group, uh, the Sister Circle Facebook group, and I've got a bunch of girls that are going through a 90-day experience with me right now. And I've been speaking some encouraging things to them because we've been kind of together anyway working on progress and goals and moving things forward in our lives. And I mentioned something yesterday as a part of that conversation that I wanted to share with you because I just— I need you to understand something that's crucial. While our stuff is getting shut down and the kids are home with us and we are, you know, not able to go to work, or we're not able to make enough money, or we're trying to figure out, you know, What do we do when we can't go to church and when we, you know, when we're trying to practice social distancing and all this stuff, y'all, that is just beyond anything that many of us have ever experienced. I don't want you to miss something, okay? I don't want you to miss something. And this is important because if you're not intentional, if you're not intentional, you'll miss it, okay? And I need you to understand something. And I, again, I try to be super intentional and available to smaller circles because I want to be available. And so I don't come on here as much because y'all, it's a lot of y'all, and I want to respond to everybody and I can't. So just know my heart is here. This right here, this is what I want to tell you. This is for everybody and y'all can't miss it. Okay, this is what I want to say. So in my former life, okay, in my— I've had multiple lives, y'all, but in my 20s I worked in money management, okay? I worked for a mutual fund company, a very large mutual fund company, and I had my brokerage licenses. I helped people make investments in mutual funds, pick stocks, move money around, all those kinds of things. So I had a lot of training to help people navigate difficult traumatic dips in the stock market. And I knew just what to tell people when they were calling to pull their, uh, pull their money out. Okay. Um, and so then after that, I went to work for a, um, a mutual fund company, another mutual fund company, an institutional money management company. And this was for companies that had pensions. So they were managing it for firefighter funds or the school district. So these are millions of dollars, okay? This is me in my previous life before I got married and decided to stay home with kids. That's my previous life. But even then, it was the same messaging. And here's the message— are you ready for the message? When things are at their worst, that's when you invest. That's the message. When things are at their worst, that's when you invest. Now, y'all, there have been multiple stock market crashes. There's the big one in 1929, uh, there was another one in 1987, there was the tech crash, uh, you know, just, you know, 20 years ago. So we've had multiple times where the Dow, the S&P, uh, you know, all of these indexes, right, they, they dip, and people are looking— they're getting their statements from their mutual fund companies or from their 401s, and they're freaking out because things have been on a, on a rise and a run, and people have been excited because they've been able to, to invest and have their company double down on their 401, and, you know, their savings have gone up and all these different things. And then you get that statement where everything went down 20%, 20%, 15%, and you're like Oh Lord Jesus! And the reaction— what you want to do is stop investing. The reaction is, I gotta pull my stuff out now while I'm safe, while I still have something. And that reaction is the wrong reaction, because the people who are going to make a boatload of money right now— and it's not about money, in case you haven't gotten that yet— the people who are going to make a boatload of money Right now, it's happened. Now, this is, you know, history is not a guarantee of the future. That's what we used to always have to tell people as brokerage people and investment advisors. I have to say, I can't promise you that stuff will go up and be better. I can't promise you that, but I can tell you that based on history, what I would do, and what I would do right now, is invest. Cuz if you don't use this opportunity where things are low to invest, you're going to wish you had later. Now let me bring this all the way down for you, okay? I'm about to bring this all the way down. Listen, listen here, everybody. This is your— this is your big sister Chrissy talking, okay? This is Chrissy talking, and I'm trying to tell you something, and I need you to listen. Are you listening? And then if this is helpful to you, I need you to share this video because everybody is having the same reaction that you're having, which is, oh Lord Jesus, I got to go get my money. Okay, they got to, they got to stop investing. They got to, they got to pull the plug. They have to slow things down because they're afraid. And y'all, fear is an emotion given to us by God to warn us against things that are coming. However, y'all have heard me say it once, you're going to hear me say it a million times. Fear should not be the only thing that determines what you do. Your emotions should guide you, they should not govern you. Don't forget that. That's from my book She's Still There, y'all. There's a whole chapter on not having your emotions dictate what you do. So it's information, it's great information. If you feel the skin rising on the back of your neck, yeah, you need to turn around and look. And if you feel like, okay, what is this teaching me? I need to be prepared. I need to, I need to— yeah, you need to go to the store. If you haven't gone and gone to the store, y'all, and got some, please go to the store. Go to the store. They are, they've limited their hours. Go get what you need and go early, by the way. Get your tail up out of the bed and go early so you have a better look at getting whatever came in off the truck last night. But here's the point. It's not about money. This is the point. Invest in you. Many of us, even if you still have to work, you will have more discretionary time in the next 2 weeks than you have had in the last 20 years. Because you can't go to church, unless you already had a home church, can't go to church. All your kids' sports are canceled. You can't go to the concert. The wedding is probably not happening. Your small group, if your small group has over 10 people, you're not doing that. Uh, the restaurants are closed. You can't go out to eat. If you wanted to watch movies, you can't do that either. Okay, all of the things that you wanted to do with your discretionary time, where you wasted time— are you listening to me? Where you wasted time, okay, they disappeared. You know that scripture, Psalm 23? He makes me lie down. I'm not saying God did this. That's not what I'm saying. Don't anybody misquote me. That's not the theology. What I'm trying to tell you is right this here, right now, right this minute. Every now and then I have to talk, be a little, little country. That wasn't a good smack. Let me try. Hold on. It'll come. Come back when I'm not planning for them. I was trying to punctuate that statement with a good smack and it didn't happen. Listen, you will have more discretionary time next couple of weeks than you've had in a long time. What I need you to know, use the time wisely. Use the time wisely. Listen, I have a whole printable. I'm gonna earn it with my email list. If you're not on my email list, go get on it. Just go get on it because it is a grid. You can do this in a spiral notebook. So don't think this is magic. Get a spiral notebook, write down on the sides the times, 5 AM to 12 PM. Or if you like, ah, that's not me, I'm not getting up at 5 AM. It doesn't matter. 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM, whatever your time is for the day, okay? Do it in half-hour increments and decide now how you're going to invest. Come on now. Now listen, I don't need you to do deep things. You can do deep things if you want to, but I'm telling you, are you behind on getting your photos organized and you keep saying I don't have time? Boom, y'all. Now you got time. Are you— is your— are your drawers a mess and you need to clean them out? Do that. Have you not been studying God's word? Now you have no excuse. No excuse for not cracking open your Bible. No excuse for not getting online, cuz the internet ain't shut down. The interwebs are still alive and well. So you have no excuse for not studying God's word, listening to some sermons. You have no excuse for not piping encouraging music through your home. You have no excuse. You have no excuse for not getting that schoolwork done. See, y'all, people are freaking out because their kids are home. My kids are like, fair, everybody else stopped going to school and nothing has changed for us. You, you right, you're right about that. Because now I'm like, great, now we totally invest in time together without interruption. So we're gonna play all these board games and puzzle that y'all never did for, uh, Christmas. Guess what's about to come? Shelf. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! This is what's about to happen. Listen, all the things that you say you never get to do, this is your time to invest in you. Because when things start increasing again, let me tell you what you're gonna say. You're gonna say what everybody else has said all through time when you look at that stock market, and that is, daggone it, was quiet and I was freaking out. I should have been investing. I should have been investing. I've been seeing some quarantine books float around on social media. Make your list. What will you do with your time? Because time is the greatest commodity we all have. Time is the thing we all have. We are— none of us are time poor. We all get 24 hours in a day. So since you have been an equal starting point, what will you do with the time that you've been given? So y'all, I have so many things. Oh my God, I have so many things. But don't get fat. Use the time to cook good meals and stay out of those Oreos. Note to self, I'm on a, I'm on a limit. I'm on a limit. You know how you would go in and get the toilet paper and they said you can only have one per family? Okay, y'all, I got an Oreo. It's hidden from my kids. I'm on a limitation of Oreo Thins per day. Just help me, because we went to the store and got a whole bunch of stuff that we didn't need. Okay, we got the toilet paper, but on the way out, we passed by that candy aisle, we passed by that chip aisle, we passed by that frozen food section aisle, and we got the things that we didn't think— listen, you could live without that. Ration yourself, okay? Ration yourself. Don't get fat. Learn to cook. Spend some time in them in the kitchen. Don't waste your time on social media. Spend time with the people. Will you invest in relationship? This be some of the greatest opportunity to be with the people. Okay, you can't in person, do it online. And just on a call this morning with my team to talk about exactly what can we do, what can we do to encourage people in very practical ways, because I got 8 interns right now that are chomping at the bit to serve you. Encourage people, what are the practical ways we can get them engaged and involved in meaningful decisions during this difficult time in their life, how to live on less income, what to do with it now that you got here all day, okay, how to stay clean and healthy, what do you cook when you can't always get to the store, or what you need is out, you know, like practical stuff. So I'm gonna be back soon with some practical stuff, y'all, because listen, practical is my favorite thing to do, is to tell you how to do something. And I don't know everything, but if I don't know how to do it, I probably have a friend who does. That's what the Sister Circle is all about. But I need you to say, what am I going to use with my time? Have you been a friend? One of the girls on the intern thing, she was talking about self-care. It's like, I haven't done my nails in forever. So she did her nails. Yo, this don't have to be deep. This is not deep. And what I don't want you to do, end of 2020, and say I had a whole doggone 2 weeks, or I had a month or y'all, based on what's happening in Italy, it could be 6 weeks. I mean, I'm not trying to put fear into you. I'm saying whether it's 2 weeks or 2 months, you will look back at 2020 and say, I wasted it. I should have been investing. I had time to get ready. I had time to prepare. If you have never budgeted in your life, now's the time to learn. Now's the time to learn. And then after things start swinging up, you keep the habit, you keep the practice because you invested in you and you learned how to do the thing. Telling you, y'all, this is your time to invest. Don't miss it. Don't miss it. If you're almost— I'll be sending you that. It's something I created for the girls who were in the 90-day experience, but too good not to share. I'll be sharing it with you so you can plan the heck out of your days. These doggone kids that are at home with you. I have to tell you the truth. Here's the truth. My kids play video— they play video games nonstop for the last 48 hours. And you want to know why? Because they're with me all the doggone time. And I was like, you know what? I have to get something out of this as well. I mean, this is their spring break too. So it's like, you know what? Normally during their spring break, I always find them something to do. I went ahead and said, you know what, y'all? Enjoy yourself and leave me alone. Because I was investing in me by staying in the bed. So anyway, anyway, uh, I just wanted to tell you to invest in you. Don't waste the time, don't waste the moment, and, uh, don't forget that God is still in control. And here's the good news: while I cannot guarantee you on the upswing, or that they'll be on the upswing in July, What I can tell you is that the hope that we have when you believe in Jesus— and listen, y'all, I've had a whole lot of reasons lately to evaluate my belief in Jesus Christ. Is this just a story? Is the Bible really an ancient book that tells me a good story that I'm holding on to, and it's a wonderful fairy tale that we hold on to? Or is it— because listen, when people that you love pass away and you're sitting there going and you're quoting all those scriptures about this is not the end, I will see them again. You think about that. Am I going to see them again for real, or have I just been telling myself this story the whole time? So it's not like I haven't had questions, because y'all know out of my family, I'm the one that's going— if there's a question, I'm gonna ask it. Howsomever. However, Here's the times when you either believe it or you don't. And if you believe it, you act like God is telling the truth. And here's the truth: if you believe— in all seriousness, playing aside— if you believe that Jesus Christ was a real person, that he did live, that documented in the Bible and elsewhere in historical documents— Google Josephus— that there was a man named Jesus Christ who died a horrific death, and he did that coming back to life the third day. And that because that no one else on this earth has done that before, I would have loved for my mom to be the person number 2. I was like, Jesus, you Lazarus, you can wake my mama, come on now. He didn't. So the reality is, um, if we believe because he is different than us that we can believe what he said and we can believe what he did, and that because we can believe that this isn't it, then guess what? Just like the stock market has always come back, good living will come back. And even if it's not on this side of eternity, good living is. This world is not our home. So while we are investing in you. Don't miss that. Do it. Don't forget to invest in eternity. Your spiritual life matters just as much as your physical life does. And some of y'all are gonna practice social distancing because you're trying to stay well. Well, this is the time to practice spiritual distancing, meaning I'm gonna use this time to grow my spiritual person. He want me to do with my life? Where does he invest? How does he want me to spend my time, money, spend my resources, my time, talents, and my treasure? Because at the end of this journey, not this Ebola situation, this coronavirus situation, at the end of my situation here in life, I want to have invested so that when it's Tashin, I have something, have something. Y'all, don't miss it. Don't miss the opportunity to invest in time for time and in time for eternity. If this has been encouraging to you, share it, y'all. Hit share, tell me to watch it. And no, I'm right here with you. Yes, I homeschool my kids, but they still normally are gone. Them two boys are 4 days a week, and my oldest one is driving. They, they leave and don't bother me. In all seriousness, this is what it's all about. Glad we have social media, glad we have the internet, glad we can still stay. But y'all, I'm gonna need you to get off sometimes and do your thing. What is your thing? I don't know, but get quiet and ask God, what is— how can I serve my family? How can I serve my neighbors? How can I serve my people? Can I send some cards? Can I Can I make some phone calls? Can I text? What do you want me to study in your word? Show me what podcast you want me to listen to, what show you want me to watch. Show me, guide me. Give me that devotional on my shelf that I don't answer. Let me start that. I've never just cracked the Bible open and just read it. Do it, do it. Take all those beauty products from under your bathroom door and try them. Buy stuff you don't need, only try one time. All those recipes you've been collecting, cook them! Get the sleep, clean out the closet, read the book. And they didn't tell us we can't go out— outside. Watch that fat demon and go for a walk. Alright, y'all. My rant is over. My rant is over. Real talk. This is your time. When everybody else is jumping ship and wasting time. Be a wise woman or be a wise person. Let me tell you what Lolo would have done, or Lala, as my grandmother called my mother. For Y2K, she was ready. You know what I mean? I wasn't ready because I was gonna go to my mama's house if something went down. She was ready. She prepared. Many of us are not prepared. And I felt a deep— I'm gonna say this and I'm gonna get off because I gotta, I gotta stop talking. I got stuff today. But my mother, uh, as most of our mothers have been for us, make us not worry because if we don't got it, they got it. Have enough butter or toilet paper. They thought, because they knew their kids would come calling. And I just told somebody, I just told, I said, I want my mommy. I want my mommy because I want her to tell me all the things, tell me what to do, even though really she told me all the things I needed to know. That's one of my grateful things. She gave me everything I needed. But I want my mommy. I want to know that somebody has it for me, that I can forget something and she has it, that if I run out, she's got a double I want my mommy. Because now my siblings and I, we are the ones who take care of my dad. We are the ones that take care of our children. I am the one that takes care of my child and her children. I am the one who my family looks to. But the thing is, I've always been the one. Now's the time though when I gotta put my big girl panties on and act like I believe that is true. Let me tell you something. Everything— this ain't a bottle of liquor, y'all, just in case somebody wants to see. Y'all, Chrystal was holding that 40. No, this is Mountain Spring Valley water. Praise the Lord for home delivery. But listen, you have this encouraging word for you. You need to write this down, put it on your mirror, put some lipstick on the mirror, tell yourself this truth, and you believe it. You everything. How do I know this is true? If you're— you have somebody you can talk to. You have— and you also— the Holy Spirit inside of you, if you believe in Jesus, who will show you all that you do not know, who will guide you, the Bible says, into all truth. So if you've been feeling a little like I've been feeling— I want my mommy, I want somebody to do this for me, I want how to do it. Now you're gonna have to do the work and develop your skill and your muscle and learn how to throw some stuff down in the kitchen and learn how to be that person, sister, be the auntie, mama. You're gonna have to exercise yourself, but you got it. You got it. You have everything you need. Quit nursing worry. Quit nursing anxiety. Quit spreading the panic and quit living in fear. Now's your time to invest in you and to be the person that God has always known you could be. But you're gonna have to put your big girl panties on or your big boy boxers and do the thing. And this is me telling you that you can. Love you with my life. See you later. A great day.