How To Stay Passionate | Ron + Hope: Unfiltered

Foreign.

Hey, everybody, it's Ron and Hope. Unfiltered, real, raw and relevant. We are so glad you're here today. And I have my hubby here who just had surgery. Yes. Not yesterday, Monday. You're in the studio two days after your surgery.

This drops on Thursday, doesn't it?

Yes.

So two days after that.

Yes.

Yes, I am. A lot of people I heard wanted an update. How would you define me? I haven't been aggravating. Don't say I've been aggravating.

I think you're doing great. It's just normal.

I had two tears in my knee, two tears in my meniscus that really just all of a sudden kind of came on me. I haven't ever had a knee problem in my life. Had a ton of broke bones.

It's because I beat you in leg wrestling, okay?

That's what you want people to think. But it got to the place I couldn't weather the pain of it no more. So I finally got an operation and I hadn't been in any pain, but it is totally incapacitated me. And am I handling that well?

I don't think you had realistic expect.

Okay. I can't walk on it at all.

Right, because you just had surgery at all.

I can't. I don't know what I was expecting. I've had 18 broke bones. I've been in casts, all so many different, but I ain't ever had anything that just put me down. Well, this thing right here, you put the least bit amount of weight on it, but it will light you up, that whole joint. So they went in, they had to cut me on both sides because I had a little tear on the right. They had a huge one on the left, they said. And I don't know when I did it. I said, is it wear and tear? Because I've always been real active. And they said, not the one on the left, they said, the one on the left, they said, that's an injury. I have no idea when I did it or how I did it. And I've never had to be cut on because of an injury, but I had my first one and it's. I'm doing good. I'm not in a lot of pain. I really am. I'm just in a lot of discomfort. And everything is cumbersome when one of your appendages is just not working.

You paid for it too last night, didn't you? Up yesterday a lot. Paid for it this morning, doing meetings the day after surgery. They told you to elevate your leg. You did not. I've heard about doing good yesterday. For six hours you were on the computer.

You told me you were going to come on here and tell everybody I did good.

And you didn't elevate it. You didn't ice it. You would not take any Motrin.

But when we watched TV, I elevated it.

That was at 10 o' clock last night. You wouldn't take any Motrin all day yesterday or last night. And you woke up in pain, hurting.

This morning I got up about 5, 45, 6 o'. Clock. And you know what? I didn't wake you up. I didn't click clack with my crutches. I got out, went on my crutches and made me some coffee and didn't bother nobody. Talk to me.

Why do men talk to Jesus? Okay, this should be a podcast. Why do men think that they are experts on every subject. Ron's an expert on orthopedic surgery now. Ron.

And you draw that conclusion from what?

Because you say, no, I don't have to do that.

She said, I couldn't drive for two weeks. I said, hope that. That just ain't gonna happen.

Right. See, he's an expert.

Two weeks. I can't move my leg from the brake.

Yeah, because you don't. Right now. You're telling us you don't even. You can't even put pressure on it.

It's two days. She said two weeks.

I can't listen. He's supposed to be somewhere next week to go do something in San Francisco. He said, yeah, I'll drive there. I'm like a week after surgery. No, you won't. In all that traffic.

I got here to the office today and she had him wheeling out a wheelchair.

Mm, sure did.

That's what, 2 inch opposite ends of the spectrum. When she came out in a wheelchair.

Lord have mercy.

He let me just look. Let's look, okay? We call this real raw and relevant. I had a raw moment with you around the house. I like to take care of things. Would you say that?

Yes. You like to.

I like to take care of you.

Take care of me and take care of me.

I like to take care. Not just you. I like to take care of things. I do like to feel like I'm taking care of you. And for some reason, I don't think it's a personality profile. I don't know. I get a lot of satisfaction knowing that the things I'm responsible for are taken care of. I get fulfillment from that. So when I know that you're all right. I get. I mean, that makes me feel good. And the fact that, I mean, I'm sitting there and I have to have a sandwich brought to me and, you know, somebody has to bring my reading glasses to me and has to get. I am not used to that.

That is the nature of surgery and recuperating.

And I've sat with you through several different surgeries. You've had surgeries on your hips and different things you've had over the year. You know, you had to have a lump. You had to have a lump taping out of your breast. You had thyroid. And I've sat with you, and I'm used to that, but I'm being on the other end of it. And I told you, I didn't get emotional, but I did look at you and tell you. I said, this has been hard on me. Just 48 hours into it, not being able to function like I function. And as a lot of people say, well, you know, welcome to our world. They've had things happen and they can't function normally. But I've never been in that position. I've never been in a position because even kind of. I'm the kind leader. If I got a sinus infection, I just kind of plow through it or whatever I got to do. You don't plow through this. You're not stepping on this leg right now.

Nope.

You're just not going to do it. The two or three times I've tried. I mean, like, buckled under me. I just can't do it. So I would.

I'm sure driving would be real easy.

Like lifting your leg. Even though I talked to the surgeon. Even though I talked to the surgeon.

Traffic. I'm sure that's going to be real easy.

Even though I talked to the surgeon, I don't think in my mind I was thinking, like, wheelchair status. I knew I wasn't going to have a. I knew we weren't going to Disney World, but, you know, I wasn't thinking wheelchair status.

So you are hard.

Anyway, I'm having. I haven't been. But I. But I haven't. I haven't made you crazy with that. I just let you know it's hard on me, but I hadn't been doing dumb things and all that. I just tried to sit up at my Zoom calls and do my work yesterday, but I didn't elevate my leg. I paid for it a little bit last night and. But I'm doing good.

You wanted to get out last night and go out to eat.

Good.

And now you're saying you want to go out to eat again tonight?

We're here. We got traffic on the way home. We might as well stop and get something to eat. You want me going and cook?

Jesus. No. But I've been cooking because I've been cooking.

You cooked me a big old pot of soup.

I sure did.

I've had about 17 bowls of it, so.

Cooked your breakfast two days.

You have. You have.

Made you sandwiches.

I'm grateful. Makes me feel bad, but it makes me. I feel grateful. But anyway, I'm doing good. I really am, guys. And the surgeon tells me the surgery went well. And it's just. Now it's just time. It's just gotta heal because I've been. If I showed you, I've been cut up pretty good on my knees, but they said they got it fixed and I'm ready to go back and be active again. But I'm going to try to do it the right way. We wanted to take some time and talk about maintaining your passion. We actually. You let me come in on your inner circle a few minutes and what, about 15 minutes, probably. I gave some of my thoughts on maintaining passion, but we just don't want to talk about maintaining passion in a career. We want to talk about it in marriage, in a relationship. Just the general things we do. Now, I always want to tell you guys, we don't go read a book and then come in here and tell you the seven keys to maintaining passion.

Talk about what's worked for us.

These are things that have worked for us. So I don't even know if they're noteworthy, but if you do want to delve into Ron and Hope's world, out of all the things we've done wrong, there's some things we do right. And one thing that I really think we've been able to do is we've been. We got a lot of miles on us. We're not old, but it's like the car. It ain't old, but it's got a lot of miles. We work hard. We grind at what we do. We're still grinding maybe a little bit too much. But I think I can speak for both of us. We're deeply in love, and we love every minute we get to spend with each other.

And we also love what we do.

We love what we do.

We love what God's called us to do.

And I do think there's some keys.

Do we get to that?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And I also want to say there's this element to maintaining your passion and success. There's never a time where you just get to spend all day doing what you love. That life does not exist. If you're chasing that life, let it go. That life does not exist.

You can't laugh every single day, all day long.

Even great things. If you are in the greatest life that you ever could have dreamed of. There are always things that you. I always say you got to do things you hate to get to do the things you love. But maybe you don't hate them.

Yes, there's a time for everything. It would be great to sit around and eat ice cream and french fries and watch your favorite show all day long. And it's Christmas every day.

We worked on the farm. You should have seen my uncle's at harvest time because it was millions of dollars. Millions. These were big time farmers. These were millions of dollars. When they went to the farmer's market, when they started selling the hogs, selling chickens, carrying the crops in. It was a great time. But I remember us working from night to night. So even the thing that you love, you're doing things you hate to get to the thing you love. I don't think there's any way around that. I heard Elon Musk the other day. He was talking about his rocket. What do they call it? I don't know, I can't think. The thing where he's building the rockets and he's landing them. Nobody's ever been able to land rockets ever before him. And you know, John Glenn and some of these other astronauts were his heroes. And they were really kind of getting on what he did and would not be supportive. They said it should be a government thing. It should never be private. That, you know, astronomical work should not be anything that is a private business. Why do they think that? And the guy questioned them about it. Yeah. And his eyes filled up with tears and, you know, he's the richest man in the world right now. But he looked at the guy and he talked about how much that hurt him, that his heroes didn't support him. And then they started talking about his wealth and his mind and everything else. And he got emotional again. He said, I don't think you want to be me. The guy said, why? He said, because you don't just turn it off. So everybody would look at him as the ultimate success. And I saw him sitting there crying about all the things that he don't like to get to do. The things that he does. Like.

Well, even Jesus, Ron. He didn't want to go to the cross.

Let this cup pass from me.

I mean, he sweat, drops of blood, the anguish of the decision of for the good, for salvation, to get to be with the people that I love. I don't want to do this, but I know it's the only way.

If everything about life and even if you're highly successful and I could. I have a different way of defining success. I'm not going to go there. But if you're highly successful, even Jesus said, count the cost.

Yeah.

Why would he say count the cost? Because success has a price. Your goals have a price. Your marriage has a price. You ending up on the good end of things is always going to have a price tag. And Jesus said, before you build, make sure you can finish.

To have a better knee, you had to go through some pain.

Exactly. And she told me, with stem cells, she said, I can get rid of.

The pain, but you don't fix the problem.

And I said, no. I said, I want it fixed, I don't want it broken. And I'm masking pain. I said, I want it fixed. And so here I am. It's aggravating. It's cumbersome, it's aggravating.

But you know, there's a prize at the end.

Exactly. Right. I want to be a guy that.

The prize is worth the process.

I want to have long term mobility to my life. I don't want to lose my wheels. And so this meant a lot to me, not to wait till I'm 70, you know, to come back and try to fix it. So, you know, Jesus said, before you go to war, make sure you can take your 10,000 and defeat him. Who's got 20,000? There's always something where you got to stop and say, you know, I have to embrace. There's going to be things that are distasteful to get to where I want to go.

That's right.

And am I willing to drink that cup of sorrow to be able to laugh on the other side?

That's, you know, that's the people who don't understand delayed gratification. That's the people who. And that is the bottom line of most. They say, most addicts is that they want instant gratification. They're not willing to wait to get gratification. So that's why they're not willing to go through the pain of counseling maybe or process rehab.

Yeah, the journey.

It's the journey.

It's.

We want to enjoy life now. It's going to. We'll do whatever it takes to laugh. Right now or to drown our sorrows. But your life just spirals down. It never moves forward.

You don't want the journey, the process, the apprenticeship, the learning, the growth. You can't. There are no shortcuts. No, there are no shortcuts to success. And we've been around a while now. We've been doing what we've been doing a long time, and we've had our bumps. And our bumps have been well chronicled, not only by news, but you wrote your own book about our bumps. So getting past that, we're still here. We spent two hours this morning drunk coffee, held hands and looked at each other. Baby, I'm just going to tell you, a lot of marriages don't have that. They've lost it. So I'm going to ask you, I'm going to do a little bit of an interview. How do you maintain that you get aggravated with me? You got stuff about me that you don't like. I mean, but how.

How do I maintain my passion?

How do you maintain. Let's start with the relationship. How do you maintain I still want to get up and I just want to be with him.

Have you looked in the mirror?

You got this. You like. You asked me for this beard, didn't you? You asked me for this beard, then.

The mirror at yourself.

And I was kind of oily when I did.

Could I not be passionate?

All right, now, let's be serious, Ronald, be serious. You fine, because looks can't hold it.

No, because things start drooping down.

Things change.

Yeah, things change. So I think it's truly. I mean, I.

We know people at our age are sick of each other.

Yes. But we teach this at our marriage conference. You know, there's different kinds of love. The Bible has different kinds of love. And let's tell.

Eros is sex love, and Phileo is brotherly love. Stracheo's family love. But agape is the love of God. And it is love without condition.

That's love without condition. That's how we're challenged to love one another. However, I do believe that there are strategic things that you can do on purpose, physically and real, every single day.

That's what I want to hear.

Fills up the other person's love tank so that they have those feelings for you. You do those for me every day.

Name a couple.

You get my coffee for me in.

The morning, which don't sound like much.

You help me get in and out of the bathtub so I don't fall. You open the door for me. You're Very thoughtful. You know, the things that I like to do, you know, the things mean a lot to me. Like, you know, there's certain places I love. I love Paris, I love New York. You let me invest in going to do things that like, make me get giddy. Things like that. You for me. For you. When you're doing that for me, you're filling up my love tank.

Right.

So I'm having feelings for you.

Right.

You're creating the feelings in me.

That's good.

So then I am on purpose. Know your love language. And it's sex. It's the only language you know.

No, I got a couple other languages.

Just kidding.

But no, seriously, that's a big deal. You have to deal.

You have to know what fills that other person up. So you're constantly trying to fill the other person up so that they continue to have feelings for you. If you have filled them up with feelings, they can't lose their feelings for you. So if I have a marriage that comes to us and says, I just don't have any feelings for him anymore, you know what that tells me? He has not put those feelings in you.

Wow. Say that again. Say that again.

So if you have a marriage, because.

We hear that and we hear it all the time, I just don't feel anything.

I don't feel anything.

I'm not in love. I'm not in love. I'm not in love. We get it all the time.

That the other person has not taken the time to invest into the feelings of their spouse. You're always investing, pouring into my love tank. I'm always investing, pouring into your love tank so that you have those feelings, period. You can maintain those feelings by doing and pouring into the other person's love language.

Exactly.

Bottom line.

So if one, if I just stopped.

One day and I expected you just to go off of agape love just because God says do it, you could do it.

I could do it for time.

But it's hot. That's miserable. No one wants to be in a relationship like that where.

Where it's all commitment.

No feeling.

No feeling. That's not fun.

No. And it doesn't have to be that way, but it's going to require something.

But how many times before we got married did people come up? Well, you know, you're not going to. And sometimes you just got to stay.

Well, you know what? You won't if you're not doing the right things.

And I told you, I said, I don't know if I'm an anomaly. I don't know if I'm different. I don't know, I said. But in our worst days, we've had some bad days. I've never got up in the morning and looked at you and felt nothing.

But I think that's because we've always been intentional. Even through my struggles, even through identity crisis, we still always made time for each other. We still always sewed into each other, no matter what was going on at work or what was going on in other, you know, family aspects or our finances. We still dated. We still spent time together. We still were kind on purpose, always. And I think that's why. And it's not that you're a superman and that you are different than any other man or I'm a superwoman and I'm different than any. No, it's because we have done the necessary work to pour into each other so that the other person's full, so that our passion's full.

And may God have mercy on us, because I don't ever want to. That would scare me if you walked into the room and I didn't feel a thing.

Right. So that's why I keep sewing into you.

Yeah, I mean, so that you'll feel it. I don't want to ever feel that.

So you keep sewing into me so that I'll feel it for you. It's work, but it's worth it.

The. The maintaining of your passion. Let's move a little bit from relationship to life. I told your inner circle, it's just a few minutes. What a big deal. You just let me come in on the backside of you.

So good.

I told him. I said, I started preaching in the fall of 1986. Wasn't really preaching. It was more giving my testimony at youth services. But that's when I started speaking publicly for Jesus.

Yeah.

38 years.

Hope it's a long time.

In the 38 years, we had spans of time where I was preaching five to eight times a week, traveled a lot, five on Sunday. I'd travel on like a Thursday. We had Wednesday night Bible studies. So, you know, 300 times a year, Sunday. I'm 56 now. 38 years. 200. 250. 300 times preaching a year. I couldn't wait to preach. I couldn't wait. Almost couldn't worship, because I wanted to get this word out of me. How do you do that? How do you do that? And I told the folks in your inner circle, I keep promoting it for you. By the way, it's the fourth time I've said it. Your inner Circle. I said I had some mentorship tell me that the way to stay passionate about what is important to you will not be what you say yes to in life, but it will be what.

You say no to. Say no to.

That don't sound deep.

Oh, but it's.

But that revolutionized me because I thought as a good minister, if it's good, you say yes to it. And I found out how sorely wrong I was. There's a lot of good out there because there is. There's so much good.

But you can't do everything.

But I can't be a part of everything good. And I think as you go forward.

Your time is limited.

You're a limited resource.

Yeah.

You personally are a limited resource. And so to maintain my passion, here's what I had to do. We've done a restructuring here at the church. Major restructuring. I don't mean tweak and move some. We have gone through our whole org chart, restructured, re personelled. It's major what we've been going through. And I told a lot of people on the staff, I said, I'm not tired. I said, I don't know alarm to go through here. And how much longer is Pastor Ron going to do this? None of that's happening. I said, but I am tired of doing certain things right.

Yeah, you're not passionate about anything.

And this restructuring, what am I doing? I have things that I am going to start saying. I'm not doing that. I've done that 25 years at this season in my life. I'm not doing that anymore because that is a drain on me. I'm not doing this anymore. I'm not even good at it. I did it because there was nobody else to do it. But I'm in a different season now. And so I want to encourage some people. There are things you have to do that you don't like to get to do the thing you love. But as you grow older and as you mature in your journey, there should be a slow weeding away where your life comes into a greater focus to where you get to apply yourself to the thing that you really want to do.

Well, you know, that's what focus is anyway. It's with a camera, a lens, anything to get it focused.

I don't want all this in the picture. I want this in the picture of.

The picture so that you can have.

A. I just got a series. What do you want in the picture? So the lens is wide open. I got all this. I don't want all that. Yeah, I want that right there. So I got to focus in because that's the only thing I want in the picture. That is where we are right now.

That's it.

We've talked about how much we're coming off the road. That just these random preaching things that take you to Texas and take me to Ohio and we're talking on FaceTime. You know, if we're not in relationship with people, if they're not in our fellowship or something, we're just not going to do it right. Because it's a drain and it's not where we are anymore. And we want to maintain our passion to do what we do. You love that inner circle stuff. I see you light up because I.

See the best of me coming out in inner circle. You are good at it and I see people's lives becoming better because of it.

You're very good at it.

It gives me fruit. I see the fruit of what's happening.

Because it's easy to give to it because it immediately gives back.

Yeah.

So you've created that rest of process.

I see the testimonies, I see people's response, I see people's lives shifting and changing.

But like, you know, saying no. I was invited to come to, you know, swearing in of a mayor in San Francisco and start off with the prayer. The prayer. I've just had an operation and I have a bunch of other stuff to do. And you know, a lot of people say that's a good thing. And I had to tell it no, because when I looked at everything in my week, you know what it's going to do is just take a beating on me.

And because right now, recovery, you can only do spans of time before you're worn out or your knee starts to swell. So that that thing, although it was good, did not fit in the span of time for that day that you needed.

Now, 30 year old Ron would have done it, would have made that happen. The 50 year old Ron. You know what? It's good. And even though it's good, I'm still saying no to it.

But you're not 50.

That is 56. 56 and a half on the backside of 50. Wow. Another thing about maintenance. You look good. You like his beard?

Truth?

Yeah.

You know, it's not my favorite. I've told you this a hundred times.

You can grow one like in five days and it's not patchy, it's like clean.

The problem is it's itchy to me when you want me to kiss you and hug you and all that, it's itchy and sticks me.

Well, in that case.

You gonna shave.

It.

Because your love language is hugging and kissing.

I can't do without kisses. Okay, I want you to mess my mind up. Now, what was I going? Oh. Another thing about maintaining your passion. I don't know. Hope that you can underscore to people what your personal relationship with God does at keeping you grounded. Alive.

Yes. Grounded and alive and making the main thing. The main thing, keeping your focus on him.

It's hard to have a vibrant relationship with God and be depressed and be empty.

Yeah. Depressed and anxious and feel like you have no purpose when you have a relationship with God and everything else falls into place.

And I tell people, I say, I think one of the greatest keys to maintaining my passion is that I've always had this personal relationship with God. Me and God got this thing, and it's all the time. It ain't like just a prayer closet thing. It's just his awareness. I'm aware of his nearness and his working and recognize him and even the details of my life all the time. He's the first person I say good morning. He's the last person I tell. Thank you. Before I close my. And I keep that alive in me. And I just want to tell you it has everything to do with me. 30, 40 years into this, still wanting to do it with all my might. Just a personal relationship with God. And I think if that. If I were to ever let that fizzle, then all that would change. But see, that don't excite people. Ah, relationship with God.

Or I hear people say that. Does it really matter that much? Or they roll their eyes. But you know what? The ones who are rolling their eyes and ask, does that really matter? They're the ones that are miserable. They're the ones going nowhere.

You know, I talk to God about everything. I talk to God, my friend. I talk to God about. You talk to God about my family. I talk to God about my hurts. I just talk to him all the time. He is a friend to me. You know, that's not cliche, but he's my friend. Yes. When I'm hurt, I know where to go. I know who will listen to me. I know who to tell. And those things. Right. There have been so much in me being here 38 years later and Sunday, I could not wait to freaking preach. I know a lot of people that have been doing it this many years, and I've watched them. They would have a visiting preacher every week if they could because they're tired of It. I heard one of the greatest preachers in a generation. Tell me about it. Two years ago. Said, I'm about done preaching, and I'm going to leave this thing with you boys. And I thought to myself, please, God, don't ever take that from me. I don't ever want that taken. I don't ever want to feel like I'm done with it.

No, because it's the greatest message.

I don't want to feel like I'm done. Y' all can have it. Oh, man. Man, please have mercy on me, God. Don't let me ever feel that feeling. Because I always want to do it. Like, I want to do it right now, you know? And another thing. Let me do one more thing. In maintaining passion, I'm trying to remember what it was, because I didn't write.

It down, what to say no to.

What to say no to. And I'm talking about my personal relationship with God.

Ah.

What was it I told him last night? I'm trying to think. Should have brought it with me. Maybe I should have made notes on this one.

It's in your phone.

I know it is. Talk to him while I pull it up. Because it was good.

Y' all pray for me while I deal with this one. Because he has not lost his passion.

I am not that bad.

He has not lost his passion. He wants to get up and go, you are not that bad. But I tell you, I think it's a man thing. I think it's testosterone, really. And that's not a bad thing. You just sitting down and resting is just not your flow. I get that. I can rest, but I'm giving you a Benadryl tonight.

But, like, we're fortunate. We have a pool behind our house. Monday's our day off. If California weather provides. When we're on the west coast, we'll take our Mondays and just spend some time around our pool. And I can sit there with you for two or three hours. It's not being still. It's being unproductive. Like, right now, I can't. And I know I can't. I can't go work out. I can't help you cook. I can't clean off the table. I can't even hardly get in the shower by myself. You know what I'm talking about? I'm like, well, you carry my coffee to the car. I can't even carry my coffee.

That's temporary.

I know, and I don't like that. But here was the other one right here. Gratitude.

In maintaining your passion.

People would Never put those two things together. Living with the understanding nobody owes you anything.

You can't get depressed and discouraged. When you constantly see the cup half full entitled now when you see the cup half empty, that's ingratitude.

And entitlement is a gratitude killer. When the world. When people owe you something. If people listen to me on Sunday, I thank the people every Sunday for coming. Why? They don't owe me anything. They don't have to be here. And you got options. Thank you. How many options do they have to go on virtual service with somebody on Facebook Live? If you stopped. I have a whole pre video that I make every Sunday that does nothing but tell the people who stopped scrolling. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I'm still at the place in life where somebody in the church comes up and says, I just appreciate you being my pastor. And they bowl up a 20 and slide it in my hand. I just hug them and thank you. It means so much to me. You're not at a place in life. You ever outgrow that. And I think gratitude keeps you excited because you don't take anything for granted.

Yeah, but I think gratitude is directly tied to what we just talked about, our relationship with God. If you don't have a good relationship with God, you're going to get cynical, critical, depressed. But your gratitude is tied to knowing that you don't deserve anything, that it's the grace and the mercy of God that you're even here today and nobody owes you.

I just. Gratitude is what helps you enjoy everything. If you take everything for granted, you can't enjoy everything. But when you're grateful for everything in your life, Lord, thank you that I had the resources to go out and eat, Lord. I put together, Lord. Thank you. I remember a day where I did not have 75 bucks to fill up my tank. Thank you, Lord. And you're like, you know, Pastor, where you are in life now, you still thanking. Absolutely. Absolutely. What do I say to you when you prepare that meal and said it for me? Thank you, baby. Thank you. After 30 years of marriage, you should expect her to. No, thank you, thank you. And it's a lifestyle of gratitude. And we both are that way toward each other and I think we live that way toward God where we haven't gotten to the place where things are no more meaningful because we've exceeded that.

We believe we deserve it or we.

Believe we deserve it, or we're in a place we're entitled to it. Anybody does anything for me, I'm. I start off all our Staff meetings. I'm so grateful for you. I get on our zoom meetings, guys. Thank you for everything you did Sunday. Wouldn't be able to do it if you weren't here. It's just a part of the fiber in which I live. And what does it do? There's something about it that keeps life enjoyable. And I'm going to tell you one of the things, Hope I tell you that I can't stand is when I get around ingratitude, right? When I get around people that just feel like they deserve everything and they're not grateful for anything, that probably makes me want to shut down on somebody quicker than any. That is the most repellent. That's the biggest attitude repellent I can't stand is just ingratitude. And I've told you many times, I'll do anything for people. Just be grateful, right? You don't got to give me anything. You ain't got to do me a favor.

Just have a good attitude.

You ain't got to repay me. Just say thank you. Just say thank you about it. But these are some of the things we talked about just in maintaining our path. They don't come out of a book. You can tell they're not scripted. They're just things that we do. And we employed our life because we do have some things that we believe have kept us together and let us do what we do at the level we do it today. And I believe if other people employ these same things in their life, they will make a difference.

If you are in a marriage or a relationship where you feel like, I just don't have that passion anymore, try what we've. We've talked about today, sowing feelings into doing something that would make them be endeared towards you. Pour into their love language. I promise you, I promise you. I promise you it's scientifically proven that their feelings will change towards you. Listen, you've got to do something. You've got to create something in the relationship to make them feel good towards you. Try it today and listen, talked about inner circle a couple of times and I know I've invited you many times to be a part of it. And you may have just discounted it or didn't do it or whatever. We are growing. We are becoming better. We are getting tools like this like we had last night to end the year strong and to make our life better. We do fingernails. We spend. How many of you do manicures and pedicures? We spend. Probably the average person who does it consistently spends a hundred dollars or more on your fingernails. What do you have to do in two to three weeks? You got to go do it again and spend another hundred. If you keep that up. So what is the lasting effect? There's not one. You're just throwing money, really, just to get your fingernails polished and your toenails done this. But when you are spending money to invest in this, your life will always benefit and go to another level. Come join us. It's $29 a month. If you join, you get the first month free and you get my book for free. Then you get people like Ron Carpenter, Christine Cain, Real Talk Kim, John Maxwell, other people, guests who I come in and pour into you. Come on. Don't you want to be better? If you're already in the inner circle, I would encourage you to gift the inner circle to somebody for Christmas this year. You say, you know what? They don't need another sweater. They don't need any more socks. But they do need their life to look better. So sign them up so that they can grow with us. Go to hopesinnercircle.com and get signed up today.

And I got something to be paying attention that I'm going to roll out. AI is not the devil. AI is something that just like everything else, the world will try to take it like they did the Internet, like the Internet, and we got to take it and use it for good. AI is something else where we've made a lot of investment a lot of time and come up with a product that I believe can be so beneficial. It's not quite ready to roll out yet, but I can't wait to tell you about it. Be coming to you a little bit more and should be ready around the first of the year. And I think it can be so helpful to so many of you that want it. Anyway, until next time, we just want to say bless you. Keep praying for my knee, for a speedy recovery so that Hope ain't got to keep walking around, grabbing my iced tea and making me sandwiches. All right? Anyway, I love you, babe. Thank you for all you do. And it's real raw and relevant. Until next time, Ron and Hope unfiltered. We'll see you soon.