Be the Brave Ones
Helping you live brave, build community, and pass on courageous faith to the girls around you, we are the Be the Brave Ones Podcast! We have meaningful conversations on the podcast that inspire you to live out your faith with courage and encourage you to have meaningful conversations of your own with the girls in your life! We are the official podcast of Brave Girls Gather. Pull up a seat and join us at our table of brave conversation! Learn more about Brave Girls Gather at www.bravegirlsgather.com
Be the Brave Ones
Make Room Series, From Routine to Fervent Faith with Taylor Akinola
Have you ever felt your devotion to Jesus was like checking off a list of spiritual to-dos? We’ve been there! In our latest conversation, we dig up ways we can shift from routine faith to a more truly fervent one. Together with our guest Taylor Akinola, we dissect the misconceptions about perfection when it comes to our faith and delve into the benefits of buying from Jesus!
Growing up the older of 6 kids, Taylor has always been a natural-born leader. After temporarily walking away from her faith in college, she later recommitted her life to Jesus. When she’s not leading groups or mentoring others, she works as a wedding florist and also a student. She also does her best to love on her husband and, in this season, prepare for the newest addition to their family, their baby girl!
We talk with Taylor about bringing scripture into our everyday moments, including the anxious and chaotic ones. Taylor also gets real about her struggles with doubt and how God used it to help her become a girl equipped and ready to defend the Gospel today! She encourages us to lay down our “almost Jesus” ways and pick up the good stuff!
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I think that we can often buy almost Jesus instead of buying Jesus. Like spending time with him, spending our energy and our thoughts towards him, talking to him, speaking with him, sitting and having a quiet time with him, and instead we're like I listened to worship music for five minutes this morning. That was good enough. I heard my favorite pastor talk about this subject I'm dealing with. That was enough. Those are all wonderful supplements to Jesus to like help our faith grow, but they are not going to leave us himself.
Speaker 2:Helping you live brave, build community and pass on courageous faith to the girls around you. This is Be the Brave Ones.
Speaker 3:Podcast. It's Mandy and, of course, I'm here with Delaney. Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast. We are on episode three of the Make Room series. But, delaney, before we jump into this conversation, I have a question for you, and that is what is something that did not go well this morning? Maybe there's nothing, but is there something where you're like, yeah, this did not go well this morning.
Speaker 4:Oh man, I got mad at my dog. I know it sounds silly, but like it was literally right after I just spent time with the Lord and I got up and he was making tracks in the house and his dirty feet was all and I caught myself too, thankfully. I was like, ah, banjo, his name is Banjo. I could just feel myself getting heated. And then I was listening to myself and I was like ew. But the conviction, mandy, happened so much sooner because I just came from time with the Lord and I was like whoa, what is what is going on? And so I quickly like became a more like, sweet, motherly dog person. I was like, oh, banjo, come here, your feet are so dirty and like my floors are still dirty I don't even care about it. Like, I'll get to them later.
Speaker 4:So that did not go very well. Just shows that, like, even when we make room for Jesus, like perfection is not the goal, you know, and it's it's not even performance being the goal either. It is just the what did, what did we say earlier? We've talked about this before perseverance, yeah, and and like we'll we'll talk more to today about like passion too. Like it's the passion Like I, I really wanted to persevere in that moment and, like I didn't, I feel like, okay, my dog does not owe, or I don't owe my dog, forgiveness. It was my own heart. You know, I wasn't sitting against my dog, I was sitting against God, who I literally just spent time with asking for fruit of the spirit, a gentleness, and I was like, yeah, forget that I'm going to scream at my dog. I will say I did wake up at five five 40 in the morning, so that may have something to do with it too.
Speaker 3:But well, if we can celebrate that, you recognized it. I think that's the fruit of your time with Jesus. Because we're human, we're going to have our moments.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean, I don't think that there's there's probably not a single dog owner out there Delaney that can relate to what you just shared. Like you're the only person getting mad at your dog. No, no, everybody has that moment, but you recovered. Let's celebrate the recovery. Yeah, oh, heart check boom. Yeah, okay, shift, and you shifted.
Speaker 4:Yes, the shift, and it was truly just the Holy Spirit. Like that was not Delaney. If it was just Delaney, I would still be mad at my dog.
Speaker 3:So well. Something that did not go well for me this morning is one of my children is sick, and you know this. They have a cult, right, they have a cult. They came home from school yesterday and so no fever or anything. So it's like, okay, you can go to school today, but it's my son, I'll let the cat out of the bag and he's walking through the house and he's coughing, but he's not covering his mouth, right, and I'm just like cover your mouth, the teacher is going to send you home. Like and I was. I had that similar feeling of like, just angst, right, like I need you to cover your mouth and I'm trying to say it nice, but it's not coming out nice. And so that was my didn't go very well moment this morning, but I kept encouraging him to do it and then eventually, on the way to school, he's got his arm up, he's coughing in his arm and I am praising the Lord, going. Thank you God, yeah, anyway.
Speaker 3:So we are talking today about Revelation 3, 18 through 19. We're honing in on two verses in our key scripture, and those verses say starting in verse 18, let me just pull it a little closer to my microphone. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see those whom I love. I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. And so, delaney, I'm curious when you looked at these verses, what stood out to you?
Speaker 4:I have gotten in a habit recently of always having a dictionary by my Bible, because when I do scripture reading I have to just leave my phone in another room, and so I'm like I need a dictionary and I have an actual dictionary in my house, you guys, it's real.
Speaker 4:And so I looked up zealous, because I feel like I kind of knew what that word meant be zealous and repent. But I wanted the actual definition of it and it is full of passion and being devoted to a purpose. And so I kind of just rested in that and really prayed and focused on what does it mean? What is Jesus asking us to have passion for, to be devoted to what is our purpose? And clearly, our purpose simply is to know God and make him known, and so being devoted to that, what does that look like? That's what he's calling us to. So that's kind of what I rested in and like I smile every time I hear that or read it like be zealous and repent those whom I love, like he loves us, and let that fuel our zeal and our repentance. So that's what stood out to me.
Speaker 3:And when I hear you share that, I think of that word right before that repent, which means to fully turn around, so passionately turn around. You know how sometimes we'll be like, oh I think I'm gonna do this, like maybe I'll do it tomorrow, but God's like. Jesus is like no, do it Fully, turn around with passion. And so I think that he's calling us to that. And so when I read these verses, I thought about how we are a consumer society here in America. We like to buy, and this was a church that liked to buy. So I can definitely see here where this scripture can relate to today and the society that we live in, and I think that that means that we should go. Man, I should really listen to this, I should really try to understand this, because I see all kinds of places where we buy into what the world is selling us and it makes me ask the question what am I buying? Taking an honest inventory of what I'm buying and then looking at the three different things that Jesus said to buy, which is gold, and gold survives fire. I think it even says in the scripture gold refined by fire. There is not too many things that we can hold in our hands that's not gonna burn in fire. And I think that that means like when we're going through the hard place, when we're in that place where it just feels like life is way too hard. If what we're holding in our hands is burning and that can just equate to my incredible levels of anxiety, fear and worry and feeling debilitated, then that might be an indication that I am not holding the gold that God has for me.
Speaker 3:And then the white garments. There's only one place in the world that we can go to get our shame covered, and that is Jesus. And I don't think we recognize the power that shame can have over us and how it can cause us to make really stupid choices, cause I've made them In my shame, I've made really dumb choices, and so we need those white garments. And then the last one I feel like is so important to us today and that's salve for our eyes, because we need to know the difference between what is right and what is wrong. And I believe that Jesus is saying here I'm gonna help. You see, you need to get with me so I can give you eyes to see what's really going on here, and all of us wanna know what's really going on here on so many levels, on so many things, and Jesus is like come sit with me, I'll show you. So that's what I saw.
Speaker 4:That's so good. We could stop the podcast there and then be done, but we're not going to because we have a sweet special guest today. I'm excited to introduce her. Her name is Taylor Akinola. She is a dear friend of mine and a woman who truly fears the Lord. You guys, growing up as the oldest of six children, she has always been a natural born leader. I've seen her lead, I've been under her leadership and she's seen many ways that God has used that for his greatest good. It is her passion to show others that reading God's word is a personal experience of meeting and abiding with God and not a hard, hopeless and confusing endeavor. So when she is not leading groups or mentoring others, she works as a wedding florist and is also a student. Right now she does her best to love on her husband and in this season, prepare for the newest addition to their family, their baby girl.
Speaker 1:Welcome, taylor, thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. I'm excited you're here. I'm familiar with the whole podcast. This is my first time doing this, but I'm very excited.
Speaker 4:We're glad you're here. So we are talking about making room for Jesus in this series. This is episode three, so we've learned from a lot of other listeners what their time with Jesus looks like. But it differs, like as every season of life that you're in, who you are, it's different too. So we wanna know, Taylor, what has time with Jesus looked like for you lately?
Speaker 1:Recently, and also just throughout my journey of being with the Lord, it's been looking like letting go of the perfectionism of the like aesthetic quiet time and not being pigeonholed by that specific like need to feel like I need to check that box, like I, and it needs to look like a certain way. It needs to have coffee, it needs to have the certain Bible study method, like I have to study like this person, or I have to get something specific out of it. But it's really looked like putting my mind in a place where I'm always inviting Jesus into what I'm going through. Because my mind is constantly moving, it's constantly working, especially in this time of transition where I'm going from like my regular job and school and things to it's going to prepare for a baby. I can find myself like in these mind holes of like I am nervous about this, or I'm panicked about this, or this bill isn't done, and I can have a choice as to whether I'm going to invest my mind space into like anxiety or if I'm gonna go and invest it with the Father. So I'm gonna say you know what? I just wanna think it about right now and I need you to help me through it. So I think inviting him more into those everyday thoughts throughout my day has been a really big thing I've needed recently.
Speaker 1:Then, yeah, it's not that we don't need the time that is specifically set aside for the Lord, because we do we also need him in the rest of the day.
Speaker 1:It's not just like this is my God time and then this is the rest of my life where I'm gonna go live, and then I'll pick you back up tomorrow at 8 am or Sunday when I go to church or when I go to small group.
Speaker 1:But it's every moment that I can think of that I'm possibly letting my mind wander elsewhere, that I could bend it back to the Lord. So I've been looking like right now I even have I typed out, because I know there's some specific things in my mind but I've been continually going back to as far as like anxieties I'm having or challenges I'm having in my marriage, and I printed out five verses and five confessions that go along with those verses that are like I am going to be gentle, I'm gonna lean on the Lord, I'm not going to like feed into my anxiety. So having those like when I notice there's a track playing in my brain that is negative that is not going back to the Lord. I really focus, like Philippians tells us, to focus on what's true, what's honorable, what's just, what's pure, what's praiseworthy, what's excellent. I have to bring my mind back to those things. So having like the meditation that I can keep coming back to in the Word has also been very helpful.
Speaker 4:That's so good. I love that. I think we all kind of have our own, but it's really important for our listeners to know find what works for you. Like, especially when it comes to meditation. Like, don't think of meditation as like you're sitting and you're just being. I personally, I need to train my mind to meditate, which is why I like have sticky notes. Oh, I think I shared my acronym of the word behold. I need my mind to focus on something and so, like I love that you said that you use scripture and point out declarations and you have something to go back to when your mind is lazy or when your mind is wandering. Just training your mind, Cause it is training, is it sounds like a lot of work, but we need that, especially when it comes to making room for Jesus. So that's, that's really good.
Speaker 3:I'm going to use that too. It reminds me of what we were just talking about, delaney, about having gold right, like when you're feeling anxiety, taylor, you're grabbing the gold that God offers, and that's what it's about. It's when we're, when we're feeling some kind of way, we're like, okay, where's the gold? What gold do I need in my hands right now? What scripture do I need? That's going to last, it's going to carry me through this moment, and I have a pastor who says imitation leads to innovation. Imitation leads to innovation, and what I mean by that is when we have a structured time with Jesus, or for using something like an acronym what you were talking about, delaney, your behold acronym, which we have placed into a document and you can get it for free at be the brave ones, giftcom. We have that for you listeners. If you want to download Delaney's behold meditation, you can do that at be the brave ones, giftcom.
Speaker 3:But when we practice something like that and we imitate it over and over and over again, eventually it develops into more. So for that girl or that woman out there who's like I'm not talking to Jesus all day, start with that daily time and have that heart posture of I want them all day. I want them all day, and maybe you're going to use that behold acronym and that's going to help you. Okay, well, I want to go back to Jesus. How do I do that? Well, first I'm going to be with him. I see the B is be with him, delaney, I'm just going to be with Jesus right now, and then I'm going to think about eternal things. Okay, think about eternal things. So that's just a way that imitation can eventually lead to innovation, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:I totally think that being with Jesus for, like, I used to struggle with the word abide a lot and because I didn't really know what it meant so like do that on a practical, daily basis.
Speaker 1:But when we talk about, like making room in 1st Thessalonians 517, we're told to pray without ceasing and like that doesn't mean that we go in a cave and we be on our knees, but it means I had someone explain it to me in a way that if you were on the phone with your best friend and someone called and then you just switch lines and then you talk to that person, you came back to the line that you had on hold that that conversation constantly continues.
Speaker 1:So that's the way that I've been thinking about it in my day to day is that like I put the Lord on hold but I haven't hung up on him and I'm going to come back at any moment that I need him, at any moment that he's trying to speak with me, that he needs to get my attention. That's what we're going to do. So, yeah, I think that there's so many different ways to continue to be with him and and buy into what we can get from him, as opposed to just like hanging up on him or leaving him on hold all day until the next.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, he is a real person, so that picture is absolutely accurate. He is constantly with us, listening to us and our other conversation. He's there, he's waiting. Taylor, you are clearly someone who makes room for Jesus, but how did you get there? I want to know a little bit more about your story. How did you come to love Jesus with all your heart, mind and soul, as you do today?
Speaker 1:It's not a straight journey. I was raised in the church. I was raised going to Bible study and Sunday school and my parents made it a point to take me and my siblings to church and I was very much involved in the leadership. When I was a teen I was a part of several churches actually in there like youth groups. But I was also struggling with perfectionism and performance, in which case I was showing up for everything that I needed to be there for enthusiastic, and I was performing in a way that no one would have seen that I was struggling with my faith, but I was showing up like everything was okay and then so I went all the way through up until I graduated high school, being a leader, being someone like people look up to but really not understanding how to have a relationship with Jesus. It was more like I'm showing up and then I smell like I had a double life.
Speaker 1:I was still living with the values of Christianity was just funny. Like I was living like the religious values but I didn't have it in my heart, like I had it sitting on the surface but it hadn't penetrated. So by the time I got to college it was like I had all these questions and I had all these things that I hadn't wrestled with when I was younger but I had to come face-to-face with because I was in New York. I wasn't even here where, where my family is, I have a car, so I couldn't go to church. I was in a Dorm with people who were definitely not Christian, who had completely opposite values for me, and so I was the only one who had to like I basically had to run my faith on my own, with no community, with no real outlet. I felt like that asked questions because I had this. Like I said, I was feeling with perfectionism, so I didn't feel like I could be vulnerable and tell people that I had questions.
Speaker 1:So I fell away from the Lord when I was in college and I took a couple years off trying to explore other things, learning about other religions, especially Eastern ones. Like I kept looking for something to be as good as Jesus. I kept comparing this thing I read to like, oh, this is what I know about the Lord. Like, looking back at it, it's funny because, like I said, I didn't really let things penetrate, but some things penetrated anyway, and it was like I was still looking for the goodness that I knew with the Lord, but I swear like I was looking for something to be just as good, and it was like I could find pieces or I could find moments, but I couldn't find that everlasting, eternal, something that was gonna last.
Speaker 1:And so I ended up coming back to the Lord, driving to work one day and Grumbling the rendering like alright, god, I guess if you're up there you could help me, not like I'm super holy, like I'm not gonna hold my hands, there's like what playing in the background? You know, it was like I've been beaten up and I like have to crawl back to the cross. So I find I guess, if you want me to follow you, I'll follow you. And then from there, because I had all of these questions and I had all of this doubt, that was like still there, even though I had surrendered myself to Jesus. But it wasn't that I became this like new holy angel of a person overnight. It was like I've said I know I have all these questions and I have to do something with them, because if I don't do something with them, I'll just return for where I was, like feeling lost, feeling like I don't have a real relationship.
Speaker 1:And so I went to a young adult ministry at my church and I just started asking all the questions.
Speaker 1:I was like you know what, if you guys want me to be here, somebody's gonna answer them after there gave me a lot of resources which stirred my heart towards the apologetics, which, if you're not familiar with apologetics, it's basically the defense of the faith. So after diving into apologetics really hard, I Then started going okay, well, how do I access the scripture? Because I can read, obviously, but sometimes reading the Bible feel like I'm reading a calculus textbook, like you also. You know letters and you know numbers. Be like putting them together and then trying to solve the problems. You're like, yeah, that's not computing, like it's not hitting my brain the way it needs to, and that's kind of how going into the Bible felt like for me. It was like I was reading a calculus textbook but I didn't know how to like do the formulas or anything like that. So I had to figure out how I could make that applicable for me. And then, once I learned like really how to dig in and dive into scripture, to when I started to fall in love more with God's word.
Speaker 4:I love that. Now I'm so eager to know, because you have such a passion for the word and, like the understanding of it, making it clear for others. I'm eager to know, when you looked at Revelation 3, verses 18 and 19 that we read earlier, what do you see when you look at these verses? What stood out to you?
Speaker 1:Thought it was interesting to talk about buying because, I mean, I don't think we really think about it in that way. That's like canjubbly buy something, but with all of the choices and all of the thoughts and all of the actions we do every day, we choose what we support and that's what, like when we have our actual physical dollars and we go to Walmart or we go to Target or we go to Amazon online and we buy, we're showing our support for whatever the thing we're trying to receive is. Like I think that this is gonna add something to my life, so I'm gonna get it. I mean, most of us don't just throw money to random businesses and just, you know, get stuff and hope it works. We put our money in intentional places, and so when God is asking us to buy from us so that we might be rich, it's like the currency we used to buy from Him is not monetary. It is our time, it is our energy, it is our focus, and we have a choice, 24 hours a day, all the minutes and the seconds of the day, to choose to invest or to waste. And so we either are going to invest, and that means, like I'm going to put my thoughts I'm going to put my actions, I'm gonna put my words into life-giving things, into things that are going to remain and are going to continue to give life. Or I can waste my money, my time, my efforts, my energy, my gifts, do any other things that may feel good for the moment but are eventually gonna get burned up by fire by the day, by anything I mean, we have the choice to speak life. We have the choice to speak death.
Speaker 1:We have the choice to marinate on our anxiety and when we were talking about meditating earlier, that's something I tell people all the time. I'm like meditation is not hard. We do it all the time, especially if you struggle with anxiety, if you go, man, I have a test coming up but I don't know all the answers and then I just feel like I'm not gonna do good and you just keep rolling those thoughts over and over. You're meditating on anxiety. Or you have the choice to buy from the Lord and say you know what? I'm gonna give my anxiety for the Lord with Thanksgiving and he in return is gonna give me peace. That surpasses all understanding and that is gold that's so good.
Speaker 4:I just thought of something too, and especially as followers of Jesus are witness. I don't know about you guys, but when I go on Amazon, I look at the reviews thoroughly because I wanna know what other people have experienced with this purchase. They've purchased it, they're certified purchasers. What do they have to say about this product that they're buying? And for us as followers, when we choose Jesus, when we make those decisions to choose the truth of scripture versus the lies that our mind can meditate on?
Speaker 4:Peace over anxiety, when we buy from Jesus, what are we telling other people about that decision?
Speaker 4:Like, do we just like oh, I'm gonna keep that to myself. Like no, when I find something that's really good, I don't leave reviews, but I have for the things that I absolutely love, and it's only been like one or two things that I'm like I'm actually gonna review this because I really want people to experience this as well. Or, on the flip side, when I have found something that like broke within a couple of weeks, like I'm gonna let people know about the brokenness of this product. And so I'm thinking through, like the witness and the zeal and repentance that we can receive and that we have, that Jesus talks about too, Like when we purchase from Jesus, like we gotta tell people about it and when we buy from the world. We also need to tell people about the experience and sometimes it just flows naturally out of us, but a lot of times it needs to be an intentional conversation, Like I'm gonna reach out and say this in public, like what my experience has been like with this.
Speaker 3:I think it's good to consider too, delaney, what you're sharing there about what hasn't worked for us. Like the testimony of like this is what buying what wasn't good did to my life.
Speaker 3:You know Like that's such a testimony. And the testimony is and this is what I got when I bought Jesus Maybe just what I bought from him this morning and how it helped me. And it was funny, taylor, when you were talking about things burning up right. I was thinking like I can burn things up right, like our conversation earlier, delaney, like burning things up with our attitude right, like because we don't have Jesus in front of us, we become the fire that destroys, and so we gotta make that room.
Speaker 4:That's so good. Taylor, what do you see as some of the biggest threats coming against this present generation, the generation behind us, even when it comes to picking up what the world is selling versus buying from Jesus? Like we have this desire to purchase things of Jesus, but like what are the threats that stand in our way?
Speaker 1:Big threat, especially for those who have already decided to give their life to Jesus, is buying almost Jesus. Products with arts and fit in our time, meaning like memes, selling Christian pages and getting like a hit of scripture here and there, or like podcasts, are fantastic, they're a great supplement, but they are supposed to be supplements. You can't live on vitamins and minerals. You actually need to eat real food, and so I think that we can often buy almost Jesus.
Speaker 1:Instead of buying Jesus Like spending time with him, spending our energy and our thoughts towards him, talking to him, speaking with him, sitting and having a quiet time with him and instead we're like oh, you know well, I listened to worship music for five minutes this morning. That was good enough. I heard my favorite pastor talk about this subject I'm dealing with. That was enough. Those are all wonderful supplements to Jesus to help our faith grow, but they are not Jesus himself, and we have to make sure that we are buying with at least a good amount of our time, attention, energy and talents, time with the father so that he might be able to grow us, and not that's getting like a second or third or fourth step away from him, that kind of said Jesus somewhere in there or kind of said God somewhere in there wasn't actually participating in communion with the father.
Speaker 4:Yes, that's so good because he wants your heart. You guys, not just like a little tiny piece of your mind, not just this one section of your day, like he's after all of you heart, soul in mind, and, like you said, taylor, like we can't Like sometimes, like we are the ones only giving him part of us, like he he's ready to receive us all, he's ready to give us his all. But what did? What did you call it? Like almost Jesus is there's a better word, I think you said, for that but purchasing things that are almost Jesus, like we are so prone to do that and it hinders us. It truly does. It hinders us from the intimacy. Oh, my goodness, I'll.
Speaker 3:Taylor, like if I had fire emojis, like I would be dropping him. Like as you were talking, I was like oh my gosh that's so good, and we were talking listeners before.
Speaker 3:We had this really great conversation Just before hitting record and I was like man, I wish that was on record. But I'd asked Taylor and Delaney how they came to know each other and Delaney shared how they met through a ministry, but she didn't really get to know Taylor until they went on this run together. That was when she remembers. Like I really got to know her then and it just reminded me that when we get together with someone one-on-one, we really get to know them, like if you have a friend group and you always hang out the friend group and then all of a sudden you just hang out with one of the friends. That's when you're like your relationship goes next level when you just hang out with one. So we just got to hang out with one with Jesus.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's an own, better one-on-one. Not through the grapevine, through another friend, through the voices of someone else, like don't let someone else's Time with the Lord be your time with the Lord anyways. What fires up your zeal, taylor, like you seem so passionate, so devoted to the purpose of Knowing God, making him known. What are some practical things that girls can do and take from you, learn from you to give you that zeal that Jesus calls us to have?
Speaker 1:some point in my journey I pulled myself. I wanted to know scripture in the way that Sometimes, when people are talking, you automatically think of a song. You know. Like when people start like talking, you're like, oh, yes, that's me. Or like, oh, you say something and, like that, make you think of this movie quote. Like I wanted to know scripture in the way that was like, when people are speaking, I know in my heart where I can validate that, because if not, then I'm going to Not have really a base for whether that is truth or that is counterfeit.
Speaker 1:Earlier, when I was talking about some of those verses like in Philippians or in first Thelonians, those are ones that I felt like I've needed in my life and they weren't just mean Totally great to get a list off of, like Google, that's like specifically memorized. If that works for you, then that's great, but for me it was like each time I really needed something, especially if I kept coming back to something like anxiety, for example. I know a lot of anxiety. This because I was having panic attacks a certain point in my life. So I wanted to be like I wanted to have karaoke. Mind of when, like I start hearing the, the enemy go. Oh, this is gonna be terrible. This is gonna turn out careful. And for me to go up, no, the lyricals do not be anxious. I need to like, present all my requests to him and he will give me peace. And it doesn't have to be perfect, right, it's not about perfectionism, like I said, that's the main thing. So I have to remind myself like it's about knowing God's word in my heart.
Speaker 4:I love that. My biggest takeaway from that was, like the the purpose behind our Memorization of scripture is not like a vocab test that we need to memorize what this word means, or multiple choice like you study To pass a test. It is for this, like ongoing Survival skill when it comes to living like we're gonna need to know that I am. I love that you likened it to knowing songs, because I'm so guilty of knowing all the lyrics to so many songs, like the amount of song lyrics that I know compared to the amount of Bible verses, y'all. It's it's night and day and it shouldn't be that way, but it is because of just like I hear more songs and I hear scripture, but like if I were to listen to scripture and listen to songs about scripture more than I Like listen to Taylor Swift or whatever, I would probably know scripture better. So I love that. I think that's something that is so simple and something you can do with other people too. Like you know, like quiz each other, you know and like what is this, what is this? And don't make it about like academics, but make it more, like you said, about like syncing. It be on the surface level, to Heal your heart in those circumstances where you're feeling anxious or you're you're believing this lie or you're buying this Thing of the world, when you need to know what is true, what is honorable, what is just and pure. That's so good. So we don't want to miss out on digging deeper.
Speaker 4:We love to round table scripture as well here. So, in addition to revelation 3, we also sent you an advance Proverbs 31, 10 through 31, and I Love that. I don't know whose idea. This was Bandy, but pairing this scripture and Proverbs 31 with this scripture and revelation, like looking at them side by side, I was like this is this is really good. So I don't think we'll have time to read them all, but we did send you this in advance Proverbs 31, 10 through 31. Readers not readers, listeners Go read it again.
Speaker 1:Even if you're a reader.
Speaker 4:Be a reader. Yes, so if we are looking at these verses from the perspective of us, whether you're married or not doesn't matter. The church as the wife of Christ, the wife of Jesus, jesus is the husband. What do you see when you look at these verses? When it comes to gaining Jesus and losing the world, taylor.
Speaker 1:So cool about the Proverbs 31 woman is that she, she does so many things. She also is the calm woman of the world and we also see what number, what verse. But she laughs. We see her having joy, we see her being able to delegate. And I think a lot of the times we can feel like we need to be an octopus and we read this like she had the keen arms and she did all the things. But really she knew how to lean on the Lord and to use Him as her strength and to go from the inner of her heart and to go out into the things that she had to perform into the world. So what I look at that, as is when we were talking about the verses earlier he had to buy into her spirit the Lord. She had to buy that energy from Him, she had to buy that focus from Him so that she could be dedicated to taking care of her household, she could be dedicated to running her business, so she could be dedicated to just being a lovely presence in her house.
Speaker 4:Yes, yeah, I think one of the reasons we chose this specific proverb was because this is a great example of a zealous woman. Jesus calls us to be zealous and repent and like. This is just a really good example for us to like. Okay, what does it mean to have zeal? Like, look at how much passion she's dedicated into the things that benefit others, that bless others. She is devoted to her purpose of serving one another, being a blessing, fearing the Lord, having dignity. Like those purposes show her surrounding people who God is and she knows her maker, and so she is committed to that. And I will say I feel like I've heard it once where this woman. It's not very likely that she did this all in one day. So if you're like, oh my gosh, I need to be an octopus, she probably did this in a week. Like this is what her week looks like you guys Calm down.
Speaker 4:But at the same time, like it is, it's so inspiring to see her. Fervor Mandy, what's it up to you?
Speaker 3:Well, first of all, I think that I've heard a lot over the years like we talk about the Proverbs 31 woman and we're like I am not the Proverbs 31 woman, like that's the other lady at church, but I want to be this woman. When I read this fresh recently when we put this in the study, I was like I want to be this woman, I want to be like this. But I decided I'm just going to pick out two verses to share with the audience today, and the first one is verse 12. She does him good and not harm, all the days of her life, and when I think about Jesus, when I think about God, I feel like this is a word for all of us. If we're not sitting with Jesus, are we doing him good or are we possibly doing him harm by representing him inappropriately, by misrepresenting him to the people around us, and then we call it some harm because we're hurting his relationship, potentially with other people, because they look at us and they're like, if that's what you follow, I don't want to follow that. And so I think this can come down straight to as mothers with our kids, you know Like we have to emulate the love of God to them, so they go. I want that. I want what my mom has. My mom isn't it perfect? My mom gets angry. You know my mom can do this, my mom can do that, but she says she's sorry and she strives to be the loving mom that she wants to be and I know she loves me.
Speaker 3:And then verse 15 is she rises while it is yet night. She's getting up early and provides food for her household. And I remember you, delaney, and I talked and Lauren had a conversation about this, I think, on Voxer about how she's bringing the food, which is the word like she's getting up early. She's getting the word. She's getting the food that she needs for her household, which can be for her family, which can be for the friend she's gonna encounter today, which can be for that conversations she's gonna have later this afternoon. She has the spiritual food to give away. She's not empty-handed when someone is in crisis or is in need of encouragement.
Speaker 1:All right, that's good to say that she already has the food to share. And that's kind of what I was trying to get at earlier when I'm saying you have to try to invest it, and already with you, so that when someone is in need you can give it. It's not bad to be like I'll support Pete's bread, I'm gonna go buy it and then I'm gonna go give it to them. By how much more convenient if you already have it on you and you're already ready to give it, and then with that you're being a blessing and you're able to share Christ with that person. So, yeah, I think that having the wisdom already on you is what that day-to-day coming back and buying from the Lord is about. It's about getting the storehouse ready so that when people come to you and they need it, or when you need it, or when your kids need it, or your sisters and your brothers, your best friend needs it, you already have it so that you're able to give it away.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's so good you guys. Taylor, thank you for joining us, seriously, so, so grateful for all that you shared. This is gonna be one of those episodes that I'm gonna keep going back to every year, probably even later this year. And just like, what did she say? Or like what did we talk about? Cause there's so much here in the scripture and revelation it talks about, like, the discipline of the Lord and how, like, some of the hardest things in life are only cause he loves us and he chooses to stay with us, and so many practical things, too, that you shared, taylor. So thank you for being here. We are so, so grateful. If people wanna like hear more from you or, I don't know, they have a wedding and they want some flowers, where can they find you? How can they connect with Taylor Akhandola?
Speaker 1:Yeah, right now I'm on a small hiatus cause I'm gonna have a baby, but probably doing flowers cause I don't think I'll ever really get rid of it. But on Instagram you can find me at bossbabe blooming, which is my flower brand. I like to share all of my work there and I'm super into getting to know people. If you send me a DM and you're like do you have a question about this thing? I love sharing resources. I have so many that, especially if you're new to getting into the word, that I think that would spark this like how I can start investing in buying into the word. I have so many resources for that. I also have done a couple of sermons that you can find on Spotify. I'll also send you the link for. But, yeah, the best way to get into it is probably Instagram bossbabe blooming, love it.
Speaker 3:Oh my goodness, the Proverbs 31 woman was such a bossbabe. I love that yeah.
Speaker 4:Agreed.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's so great. Well as always, friends, thank you so much for joining us for this conversation about making room for Jesus. If you want a free gift from us to you, please visit bethebrave ones giftcom and you'll receive a copy of a prayer and meditation guide that will help you fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. You can also send the link bethebrave ones giftcom to a girl in your life to encourage her and her time with the Lord. And don't forget we have more content for you over at bravegirlsgathercom. Join us next week for our last episode in this make room series.