Living Full #alittleQC

Hey everybody, it's me from my closet, but I'm not actually in my closet. I actually am taking this Monday off to do some things with my family and to hang out. But because technology, I'm recording this in advance and I wanted to share a couple of things with you. Number one, it's December. It's official. You can now start preparing for Christmas. I know some of y'all started in October. I know some of y'all revved it up in November. But if you've been waiting, you can go ahead, get that tree or put up the tree or whatever you're going to do. Number 2, just because it's the season for all things merry does not mean it's the season where you have to lose your mind and not rest, which is what I'm doing. I'm resting. And because I'm resting, I wanted to share a message with you that I'd already given, already recorded, and my hope is that it will bless you. Um, I speak pre-COVID and I get to share in lots of different places, uh, from God's word and in a practical way from a stage. But, um, those talks did not happen very often in 2020. And so I figured I would just pull one of those talks and share it today with you. My prayer is that it is a blessing to you. And that you are challenged to look at your life, to live differently, and then to live with no regrets because you were living intentionally well. All right, y'all, here we go. Hello, how are you all doing tonight? Listen, I was asked to dress in 80s attire. And for the life of me, I was like, what is '80s attire? Because, you know, when you have lived in the '80s, you don't know what '80s attire is. You were just doing what you were supposed to do during the '80s. So then I walked in and I saw the leg warmers and I saw the colorful eyeshadow and I was like, oh yes, the '80s. Do you ever think, why was I dressing like that? I mean, you know what I mean? When you look back at the pictures, we've been looking at a lot of old pictures lately, and that is always the case. It's the glasses that were Coke bottle, and at the time, they seemed to be right, you know? Or the haircut that was asymmetrical, and at the time, it seemed to be the cool thing. Or the frizzy hair that at the time seemed, it's like, "How big can you get it?" It was just the right thing to do. I'm grateful to be here with you tonight, and I'm grateful that you all are having a good time, and I'm glad to be a part of it tonight. I wanna always give thanks Thanks to my husband who allows me out of the house, because it's not about me being out of the house as much as it is who I leave in the house with him. Sometimes if you have kids, you know this to be true. You don't care what they do when you leave, as long as when you get back, they're alive. That's all I ask. Just like, when I get back, if they're alive, I'm happy. It doesn't matter if they had cereal, pizza, cold deli sandwiches. It doesn't matter. Just make sure they're alive when I get back. So I have a picture of my whole family I wanna show you because I use them ruthlessly as illustrations. So this is my whole family and my husband and I. There are 3 girls, 2 girls rather, and 3 boys. My husband and I got married 18 years ago, and on our wedding day, we gave each other the gift of a girl. And so we are a blended family, and then we added 3 boys after that. Now, there was a tall boy on the end. He's married to my oldest daughter. And they've got 2 children, which I don't know how that's possible that my daughter has children, because that means I'm a grandmother, and that just does not seem right to me. Now, I love my grandchildren. I really, really do. It's just that if my daughter is 27, and I am too, I don't know how that's possible. So, my youngest son is 11 years old, and then I've got 2 grandchildren also that are One is 4, almost 4, and the other one is 2. So I have a lot happening in my household. In fact, I think I've got a close-up picture of my grandchildren too, because I must be a grandmother 'cause I take pictures with my grandchildren and my actual children not in it. It's like, "Children, you can get out. I need a picture with my grandchildren." It is what it is. It is what it is. But I will tell you that one of the things I was just talking to my daughter about, my oldest daughter about, was the speed at which she's living her life. And I said, listen, I have to tell you, I have to tell you a part of the problem is that you've learned living at a high speed from me. As a single parent for 10 years, and then as a wife to a husband who traveled all the time, which meant I was virtually single parenting, I just know what it is to have a lot on my plate and be the only person who can do all the things. And so when I was a single parent, I was trying to make it, trying to make money and do all the things. And then as a married woman, I was just trying trying to keep everybody, you know, well and happy and whole. And when you're moving at the speed of light, sometimes you don't realize until time has passed really, really fast that you would have slowed down just a little bit if you could do some things over again. And I was telling her, as she's 28 years old, I said, "Listen, I want you to slow down because what I'm telling you, which is what other people told me, is true. Life goes so very fast." And if you're not intentional about living undistracted and attentive, you will realize that there were things that you really weren't stopping to take notice of and fully enjoy the way you wish you would have. And what I wanna talk to you about tonight is what it looks like to live an undistracted life, to live in a way where you are intentional about being attentive to who you are and what God wants for you in your life. It is possible to live attentive to your very soul. Because here's the thing, there's a lot of things in this world that are distractive to you paying attention to your soul. You are always being drawn to be attentive with your eyes, with your ears, with your senses to the crowd. The world is vying for your attention, but you only pass this way one time, and I want you to get the most out of it. We were out of town, and we were out of town in East Texas, and I was with my mother. We were coming in from town into a little place we were staying at, and we had had so much fun shopping. Actually, my mother had had fun shopping because I actually don't like shopping. Is there anyone in here who doesn't like shopping? Now, shopping on Amazon, that doesn't count. Does anybody have a problem with Prime? Can I just take a divergent case to the left or to the right? Does anybody have a problem with Prime? I'm telling you, I'm a proud Prime member. I mean, I even this year decided to put the little basket on my front doorstep so when all these Amazon people come to the door that I can give them some holiday treats, some— and you know what? Sorry, this is totally on the left, but this will make sense in a minute. My chips and my cookies and the bottled water kept disappearing and I wasn't getting any packages. I was like, something is not adding up here. And then when I was talking about this out loud one day, I said to my family, I said, I don't understand what's happening to my snacks and my water because my Prime packages are not even— I'm not even in the mode of getting the Prime packages delivered. And as I was expressing my confusion and looked around my dinner table, everybody just looked Guilty. And that's because other people than the prime people were picking up the snacks. But anyway, I don't like to shop, but my mother does. So, we were on, in town, in East Texas, we were shopping. And one of the things she loves the most is a sunset. And where we were staying, we had a view of Lake Palestine. The sun setting on the lake is absolutely beautiful in East Texas. So we found ourselves racing back so that we could see the sunset. And while we saw it going down, down, down, and realizing that by the time we got back to the place we were staying at, the sunset would have already dipped below the horizon, I heard my mother say, "Man, we should have not spent that last 15 to 30 minutes shopping because—" We're missing the thing I enjoy the most. And often life is a lot like that. It's not that what we're doing with our lives, with our time, is that horrible. It could totally be stuff that we enjoy, but it's not until we realize that there's something we appreciate more, love more, value more, enjoy more that is dipping below our sightline that we realize what we've been spending our time doing really isn't that important after all. So, the question I wanna ask you tonight is, what's really important to you? What do you think when you are 20 years down the road, 30 years down the road, 40 years down the road, that you will realize is now setting, and the whole time you've been living between now and then, you haven't been attentive to that thing? What is it? Because if you think you're gonna get around to it another day, the likelihood is that you will only pay attention to it really on the day you realize that it's now outside of your grasp. We were just living in the '80s, were we not? I remember writing on a paper in the beginning of January after I got back to school, January the 6th, comma, 1984 and thinking, "Man, how am I ever gonna get used to writing this number now?" The year changes over and all we have to do is remember one digit and it just seems so foreign until we realize that it took 12 seconds to get through 12 months and now the number is changing again. Time passes, y'all. And only what we do for Christ will last. And the beautiful thing is, is that the only thing that Christ wants us to do is what he has pre-planned for us to do, each individually through who he has created us to be. There are some things in this world, in your life, that only you can do the way you can do them, and he's waiting on you to decide that what he has for you is important enough for you to get to doing it right now. Now? There are usually things that our hearts cry out for, that we desire, that we crave, but it's not that we are not aware of it, we are just not making room for it. What are you waiting on? Because I wanna tell you that time is passing. In the book of Ruth, there's a lady named Ruth. Amazing, isn't it? There are also two other ladies. There's a lady named Naomi, and there's a lady named Orpah. And these three women were married to three men. Naomi had come to the land of the Moabites with her husband, Elimelech, and she had come because where they were from was having a famine. So, she followed her husband, and she ended up in a place where she didn't know anybody. She didn't speak the language. She didn't know where the grocery store was. Where she was, she didn't have any friends. She was not of that nationality, but she came with her husband and her two boys. And those two boys married two girls, Ruth and Orpah. And I wonder sometimes what plans Naomi had for her life. But sometimes the plans that we have for our own lives get derailed. And it's, that's okay sometimes, you know, it's just the way it is. But I can tell you that what happened next is not what she planned on. She didn't plan for her husband to die. She didn't plan for that husband to die and leave her in a foreign land, a place that she would not have gone to on her own. And then her sons that were married to the girls, Ruth and Orpah, those sons, they died too. I can guarantee you that Naomi, when she left her homeland, did not plan on not only leaving everything that she knew, but also ending up in a place where she would now be a widow and now have lost her two children. That was not the plan. That was not the plan that she had for her time to pass, what would happen over her life. And so, at one point she decides, "You know what? I'm gonna go back home." Ruth chapter 1 tells us that not only was she gonna go back home, but she was gonna go back home with her girls. She heard that things were better back where she was from. And she said, "You know what? I came here with my husband and I came here because there was no food. But now that I'm here, there's actually food back home. And now that I'm here and there's food back home, why am I staying here when I don't even belong here? I'm gonna go home. And I'm gonna go back home with my two daughter-in-laws." We know this because it says in verse 7, verse 6, "So Naomi and her daughters-in-law got ready to leave Moab to return to her homeland." 'And with her two daughters-in-law, she set out.' So she was planning to go with them from the place where she had been living. And they took the road that would lead them back to Judah. So Naomi liked her daughter-in-laws, which is something not everybody in this room can say. So that was a blessing. And then it says, 'But on the way.' And you know, when I first read this, I thought, yeah, but on the way, Naomi said, wait a minute, they not married to my sons no more. Epiphany, stay home, stay here. You belong here, I don't. We don't have to stay together, we can part ways. But actually, no, Naomi loved her girls, these girls. Because it tells us in the Word that when she turns around and says to them, "Go back to your mother's home. May the Lord reward you for your kindness." To your husbands and to me, may he bless you with the security of another marriage. I wish you well and thank you for even being willing to stay with me. So you have to understand, Levitical law said that when you marry into a family, into a patriarchal family, you are forever, as a woman, you are part of that family. And so they were obeying what was an Israelite law to stay with Naomi. They didn't have to do that though. They weren't Israelite girls. They were Moabite girls. So she said, "You know what? Wait a minute, this seems familiar to me. I have spent all of this time in my life following my husband, trying to do the right thing, trying to surrender my wants, my dreams, and I've done all of this. And now here I am with nothing. I have no husband, I have no sons, and I remember that I left what I knew, and I remember how that felt. I don't want you to go through that. I actually like you girls, and I intended for you to come with me. And then I'm realizing that might be selfish. That might be selfish for me to want you to stay with me, because really, you're not bound to me by any kind of Israelite law. You could stay right here and have your life. You won't miss your life like I've missed some of mine by staying with me. This is not how I want you to spend your time. Stay here, stay home, go back to your mother's house. And be comfortable. That's basically what she was saying. Be comfortable. 'Cause I know you probably miss your mama anyway. And this is your home. Spend your time in your life well. Stay home, start over, get a man, have babies, have a home, enjoy your life. And the two girls say, "That's not how we wanna spend our time." We don't wanna get distracted, even if it's a good thing, by being too comfortable. We wanna go with you. We wanna stick with you. We are willing to sacrifice something that would make us feel so good to stay with you. Now, I happen to know the reason why these girls were with them, and I'm gonna prove it to you in a little bit. A part of the reason these girls were going with them, of course they loved her, But the part of the reason they were going with her is because they were interested in her God. I'll prove it to you in a minute. But they were like, "We're not gonna be distracted by being comfortable." Can I just tell you that one of the biggest ways in this life that you will be distracted is by wanting to stay too comfortable. We serve a God who is really, really interested in taking us outside of our comfort zone. One of the most difficult things for me during this holiday season is going to be the hard decisions I will make to not go out and do a certain thing. Because really what I want to do is stay in my onesie in front of the Hallmark Channel. Is anybody sucked in already to the Hallmark Channel? Listen, I have a spot in a chair. And if I come downstairs in my onesie, it signals to everybody in the house, "Get up outta that chair, bring her the blanket." Because once I sit in that chair, that's it for the rest of the night. And there are times when literally I have to say, "I really gotta get up and go do this thing. I've gotta get up and get this work done. I've gotta get up and go see about this certain thing. I've gotta get up and be responsible, a responsible adult." Imagine that with children. I have to feed them. Pfft. But y'all, in real life, aren't there places where we're just comfortable? We're comfortable in this group of people. We're comfortable in this neighborhood. We're comfortable in this job. We're comfortable with this habit. It's not that we don't even think about changing it sometimes, we do. It's just too uncomfortable to get up and do something different. And so because of the distraction of comfort, of comfort, we actually don't do with our lives what we're supposed to be doing. And if we're not careful, we'll wake up one day and realize that even though the onesie was great and the Hallmark Channel was wonderful and staying inside felt great and good, that we missed something that mattered. I wanna challenge you tonight to ask yourself this question, what is it that I'm waiting on What have I put on hold? What is waiting for me to get to it? And is the reason why I'm delayed because I'm just too comfortable? Naomi tells the girls, "Go home and be comfortable." And they say, "No, no, no, we're staying with you." Naomi then continues, she said, "Why should you come with me? Can I still give birth to other sons who could grow up and be your husbands? No, go home 'cause I'm too old to marry again. And even if it were possible, if I were to get married tonight and bear sons, now what?" So what, are you gonna wait for them to grow up and refuse to marry someone else? So here's the thing, remember I told you about that Levitical law? So when you get married in a patriarch's family, you are that response, you are responsible, or they are responsible for you, that family's responsible for you. So if your husband dies, you know, big families, they have other children. And so one of the other sons is supposed to then take responsibility for you as a widow, make sure that you have an heir so that your heir can inherit your husband's heritage or legacy or wealth. 'Cause as a woman, that was not your right and privilege. You had to receive it being a part of a family and being a part of a family that had a male for you to attach to. So what Naomi is saying is, you're supposed to stick with me. If you're trying to be obedient to the law, you're supposed to stick with me because I'm supposed to have another son. I don't. So even if I were to meet a fine man tonight, and if I were to get busy with that dude tonight, what are you gonna do? Wait around for 20 years until that kid grows up? That's what you're gonna do? Waste your life? And I was trying to do the math. I was like, was she even being for serious? Was she being for real? Because I mean, how old was she gonna be? Y'all, I just went to the doctor yesterday, and I was at the doctor's office, and he was telling me that he was the youngest of 6 kids. And I was like, "Really?" And he was telling me about how old his parents were. And I was like, "Well, how old was your mother when she had you?" And I'm thinking, you know, he's gonna say 39, 40. He said 48. Y'all, I almost fell outta my chair 'cause I'm 47. Right, woo! I always kid with my daughter. I tell her, "You know what? The next time you have a baby, maybe I'll have a baby. We could be like that whole Steve Martin movie thing where the wife—" You know, like we could do a real-life version of that, and she's so highly offended by that. She's like, "Mom, you're too old for that." Naomi was like, "I'm too old for that. What you're trying to do, how this is supposed to work, it's not gonna work out that way for you." So not only does it not make sense for you to stay with me, it doesn't make sense for you to stay with me because this does not add up. How this is supposed to work, it doesn't add up. So you're gonna make this decision of a lifetime. You're gonna be uncomfortable with this decision of a lifetime. Not only are you gonna be uncomfortable, But what you're doing doesn't even make sense. You're going to throw away your whole life for something that doesn't make sense. Sometimes, y'all, we can be totally distracted by trying to make it make sense. Sometimes it doesn't make sense. Often When you are following God, which I'm going to prove to you that these girls were doing, or at least one of them was, what he calls you to do, what he asks you to do, whether it's direct words of obedience in the Bible or if it's something that by the power of the Holy Spirit he's put in your heart, in your soul, a desire, a thought, an unction. When you're not obedient to that because you're waiting on it to make all the sense in the world, don't you realize that his thoughts are higher than our thoughts, his ways are higher than our ways. And often the God of the universe who sits high and looks low doesn't make sense. That's what actually makes him different than us. But he's just waiting on you. He's waiting on me to say, I'm gonna read your word. It may not make sense to me, but I'm gonna do it anyway. Because I actually believe that the God who orchestrated and was the architect of my life has the ability to make my life more exciting and more enjoyable than I ever could. So I'm just gonna enjoy him on this walk of faith. I told you my youngest son is 11, and I like roller coasters. My youngest son does not, which is a problem because if I take my 3 boys to any kind of amusement park, we're uneven, which means that I can't get on the roller coaster if he doesn't wanna get on the roller coaster. So I took my children to Disney World. My husband was with us, but he wasn't feeling well that day. So, we went into Disney World, the 4 of us, even number, which means everything that we do, we have to do together. And so, Space Mountain, y'all know about Space Mountain? That's not even the most crazy roller coaster ride that there is, but it's fun in the dark. It's totally scary. So, I said, "You know what? This is the best ride ever," 'cause you couldn't see it, it's in a dome. I said, "This is the best ride ever, and I think you should try it." He said, "Is it a roller coaster?" I said, "It's a little one." No. Now, if you have ever been to Disney World and you've ever been in the building, in the dome for Space Mountain, you realize that once you get in, you can hear the roller coaster. You can hear the roller coaster moving. You can hear the people screaming. You can hear all the things. So, by the time we got in the dome, he starts looking like, "Wait a minute, have I been bamboozled?" Mom, I'm not so sure I want to ride this ride. I said, "Oh yes, you do. It's gonna be the best ride ever." And as we get closer and things get louder and people scream more, he's like, "Mom, I don't know if I wanna do this." And he's getting a little louder. And I kind of walked closely to him and I said, "Be quiet, be quiet, be quiet." Because the people around me were starting to look like, is this mother making her child get on a roller coaster ride? So as we turn the corner, and right as you turn the corner to get in the line for the ride, you know, they will have the rows where you have to, "Get in line for your seat." And we were turning the corner and he saw the car zip in from the left, stay here for about 20 seconds. People get out, get in, and then it zipped off to the right. He turns around and he says, "I don't wanna ride." And the lady behind me, she says, "Do you not wanna get on the roller coaster?" And I was like, "Lady, stop it. This is my son. I've got it." And he said, "I don't wanna ride." And she said, "Let me tell you, I didn't wanna ride either, but I don't even like roller coasters, but this was the best ride ever. I think you should do it. You'll have some fun." I was like, "Thank God." We get up, we get in our line. It's time to actually get in the car. And I told him that I would sit next to him. What I forgot is, on this ride, it's single seats. So, he had to sit by himself, and I'm sitting in the seat behind him, and he puts his hand over his shoulder, and he says, "Mom, can—" I know, I'm a terrible mother. And he puts his arm behind him, and I grab his arm, and I said, "It's okay, it's gonna be all right." And the operator looks at my son and says, "Are you scared to ride this roller coaster?" And he said, "Yes." And I was like, "He's fine." But anyway, the roller coaster operator said, "You know what?" I promise you, this'll be great. He said, "Have you ridden any other rides today?" He said, "Yeah, I rode the Mine Train." He said, "Oh, that goes like 43 miles an hour. This only goes 33 miles an hour. You'll be just fine." And so my son said, "Okay." And then, you know, we took off. And I promise you that everybody else in that line heard my son say, "We're gonna die!" He hollered his whole way through that thing. When we got off, we got to the end, he looked very shaken, and as we walked out, I was holding his hand, and I'm feeling totally guilty, kinda sorta, not really. We walked out into the light, and I said, "Joel, you're gonna be okay." And he just said, "Mom." And I was like, "Yes, can we write that again?" Listen, often there are things in life that God will ask you to do, that you will feel called to do, that his word will command you to do, that won't necessarily feel good or make sense. But if you've ever talked to somebody who has been walking with Jesus for any length of time, they will tell you that the ride or walk of faith is the ride or walk of a lifetime. There's nobody in this world that can do life like God does life. And if you don't trust your life to him, if you don't trust your time to him, if you don't take the chances on him, you're missing out. What are you waiting on? What act of obedience has God called you to? What thing do you kind of know? I kind of know I should go to church more. I kind of know I've been meaning to study the Bible. I kind of know instead of talking about it, I should pray about it. I kind of know, I kind of know. Well, why aren't you doing it? What are you waiting on? Do you have any idea that the God of the universe is better at planning out the surprises and the great parts of your life than you could ever be? What are you waiting on? And if you're waiting on it to make sense, well, it might not ever, but it totally might in hindsight if you trust him. These girls were like, "Well," were willing to be uncomfortable, and then Naomi challenged them about it making sense. And it says they wept together in verse 14. And there were two girls, remember, Ruth and Orpah. Like I said, there's a book in the Bible named Ruth, and there's a girl in that book called Ruth. After this point in this part of the Bible, we never hear about Orpah again. I'll tell you why. Because when Naomi said, "You know what? This doesn't make sense," Orpah said, "You know what? You are right. This makes absolutely no sense." And she put two fingers up and said, "Deuces, I'm out." Says she kissed them, she wept bitterly, she felt bad, but she left. And we have a book named Ruth, not Orpah. At this point, Naomi says, "Look, Orpah left. She got the message, you should leave." And Naomi says this beautiful poetic statement that often we hear spoken at weddings. 'Where you go, I will go. Wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people.' And here it is, the proof. 'Your God will be my God.' See, I've lived with you, Naomi, and I've heard you talk about God. I've been with you when y'all celebrated the Sabbath. I've heard the stories about God, and I'm a Moabite. I'm outside. I'm an outsider who's getting a chance to look in and to actually see what it looks like for a family who loves God. And you know what? I want him. You've given me such a great picture of this God, and I know that I don't even belong. I know that I might not be an accepted person even in your culture, but I'm willing to risk it all. I'm not gonna wait. I'm not gonna stay here and be comfortable and hope that one day I have another opportunity to pursue God. I'm gonna come. I'm not gonna wait until it makes sense or when I've added up all of these things in my life, 'cause it doesn't make any sense for me to almost commit to being a single woman for the rest of my life with no kids kids in this culture because that's probably what's gonna happen when I go with you and go home. No one's gonna wanna marry me. I'm an outsider, but you know what? I want God and I'm not gonna wait. They get to the city. Naomi walks in, Ruth walks in with her, and it says, "And the women said," in verse 19, "The women said, the women said, the women said." It says the entire town was excited about their arrival. Is that Naomi? This is what they were really saying, "Girl, is that Naomi? She look toe up, don't she? Well, you know she went over there to Moab to follow her husband." "I know, but she didn't have to let herself go like that, did she? Well, you know her husband died and her two sons died." Yeah, but you don't have to be just like that for this long. She needs to get it together, especially if she gonna come back here. We have standards. Now, who is that with her? Oh, you know that's one of her daughter-in-laws. She brought one of those girls back. Why'd she bring her back here? She doesn't look like us. She doesn't talk like us. I hope she doesn't think she's coming to my Bible study because you know what? Our group is full. Our group is full. Well, you know, she's very pretty. Oh, I know. I know. And I hope she doesn't think she's about to walk in this town and take my man. She doesn't belong. You know what else will keep you waiting and distracted? Being worried about what other people think. You'll work so hard to make sure you don't offend. You'll work so hard to make sure that you can belong. You'll work so hard to make sure so you don't look weird. And you'll be living your life for the benefit of other people who don't care that much about your life. If Naomi and Ruth had let the voices of other people get in the way of them walking in those doors, there would've been no Naomi and Ruth. There would've been no Ruth and Boaz. And Ruth would not have again had the opportunity to marry and then to have had a son who became the father of a son who became the father of a king. Ruth decided not to wait. She decided that being distracted by being comfortable, by being distracted by what makes sense, by being distracted even by what other people were doing, that she didn't have time for that. She said, "I gotta do what I gotta do to go after God, and I have to trust that when I do, he will come after me and make a way for me, that he has a plan for my life, and I'm not gonna be too distracted to follow him. I don't wanna miss it. I don't wanna miss it." Every day you live your life, every day is a gift. And if you work so hard to get through today so you can get through tomorrow, you're missing today. You're missing the gifts of a brand new morning. You're missing the beauty of the people in your life. You're missing the lessons you can learn right now. 'Cause I can guarantee you, regardless of where you are and what you like about it or what you don't like about it, there's something to learn. There's a way for you to grow. There's something that God can put in this season that you will never understand why you need it or how he can use it until you get 10 years down the road. But if you don't show up right now, pay attention right now, love right now, forgive right now, work right now, Work hard right now. Be excellent right now. Whatever is right in front of you, it'll be 10 years later when you look back and you say, "Oh, that's what I was supposed to enjoy in that season, learn in that season. This is how I was supposed to grow in that season. And I need that thing now, but I didn't do it then because I was so distracted about what comes next." What if you decided to pay attention? To your life right now and decide what's important right now and make the room for it right now, create the margin for it right now. Stop making excuses for why you can't and catch the sunset or whatever that thing is that means something to you. What I can guarantee you is whatever your sunset is, The biggest thing to pay attention to is your relationship with God and what he wants for you in your life. And the next thing that I wanna encourage you to pay attention to, particularly on the verge of the season that we're in, is to pay attention to you and to not run so fast, be too distracted, not have enough time to be attentive to you? 'Cause women, we're so good at being attentive to everybody else. We're really good at that. But have you ever considered for just a second that you're God's daughter, and if you are not being attentive to his daughter, he cares about his daughter too? Be careful about living distracted because you might just miss the thing that's really important that's right in front of you. What are you waiting on? What are you waiting on? My mother said to me just the other day, I don't know what I was doing. I probably looked busy, distracted, overwhelmed. I don't know. But she grabbed my hand, she patted my hand with the other hand, and she said, "Chrystal, you gotta smell the roses. Don't go too fast to miss and miss the roses." The good news is, if you are here tonight, one is you made it past the '80s. You made it through the '90s. You made it past Y2K. We're all still here. We're on the cusp of a new holiday season going into a new year. You're breathing, which means you still have life. And if at any time you start to feel a little regret about years that you've lived distracted, things you haven't done, the things you have been waiting to do, bah! Don't spend your energy there. Flip that script and remind yourself that you're still alive right now. And as long as you still have breath, you have the gift of making a switch. It's not too late until it is too late, and if you're still here, it's not. You're right on time. But now tonight, the question I have for you is, what are you waiting on? Y'all, I love A lot of things. But one of my favorite, favorite things that I love is to spend time with family. And I had this desire in my heart a couple of years ago to have my cousin, my sister, my sister-in-law, my cousin-in-law over for Mother's Day. And I'm not that kind of person with the china and all the things and But I have china, it just never comes out. So I was like, "You know what? I'm gonna pull it out, I'm gonna do something special." And I could not explain to you why I felt so compelled to do it, but I knew that I did. And I remember thinking to myself, "What are you waiting on? Pull out the china and enjoy it." That Mother's Day was the last Mother's Day I had with my cousin, who was like a sister. And I'm so glad I didn't wait. I have had so many moments like that in my life where there's something in my head or in my heart, and I believe Holy Spirit breathed where it just felt like, "I need to do it now. I need to do it now." And every single time when I listen and do the thing, I don't know why I'm feeling that way, but I'm glad I did. And every single time I feel that way and I don't, I wish I had. Naomi didn't wait, and she didn't know why, but she was glad she kept moving and following God. I don't know what you're waiting on. I don't know what you've put on hold. I don't know where you're making excuses. I don't know where you're staying comfortable or where you're hiding away from what doesn't make sense, or even waiting on what other people are doing in your life. What I'm trying to tell you is, don't be distracted. 'Cause life will move fast. Pay attention to what God is saying to you through his word. Pay attention to what the Holy Spirit is saying in your heart. And when there's something that you're compelled to do, even if it's as simple as watching a sunset, show up, show up. What I can promise you in beyond a shadow of a doubt, is you'll be glad you did. You'll be glad you did. Lord Jesus, I'm grateful for this night that we have tonight where we can dress up, have fun, have community, 'cause this is one of these things that we girls have to work to make time for, just having a good time, being with friends, being in your house even. So God, as we just talk tonight and are reminded about the story of Ruth and about the importance of doing what you would have us do when you want us to do it, not waiting, not living distracted, but paying attention to what you're saying and what you're putting in our heart, in our hearts. God, I pray that you would make it crystal clear for every woman in this room what she's been waiting on. And if she's been waiting on focusing on you and her relationship with you, getting to know you, accepting you as her personal Savior. If she's been waiting on being more intentional about her spiritual life or her family life or getting her finances in order or going back to school or honoring you by focusing on the gifts that you've given her and developing those gifts. Whatever it is that she's been waiting on, how we could not wait and honor you by living our lives full. Would you compel her specifically with that thought, with that dream, with that act? Would she not be able to shake it, God? And would you allow this message to come to her mind and remind her that there's no better time than the presence to obey, that there's no better time than the present to act, and that there's no reason to wait when you have put something in our heads or in our hearts out of your word or out of the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. Help us to be girls of action who don't talk about it, but do it. Help us to be girls who don't just look at what everybody else is doing or what makes sense or what makes us comfortable, but be willing to do whatever you require. Help us not to wait. Oh God, help us to live full. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.