Ep. 264 How To Fight For Joy In Life - Part 1

[00:00:00] Welcome to Hustle in Faith, this podcast is dedicated to helping women who want to analyze,

[00:00:18] apply and amplify their God-given gifts. We accomplish this by discussing topics such as business,

[00:00:24] self-improvement, health and beauty and my random thoughts about life from a Christian perspective.

[00:00:30] I'm your host Latasha Johnson.

[00:00:35] Are you tired of feeling less than enough just because you're single? Then you'll love my new

[00:00:40] book How to Live an Extraordinary Life with or without Mr. Wright, a Christian woman's guide on how

[00:00:47] to survive and thrive on single avenue. It's time to acknowledge, address and dismantle the harmful

[00:00:54] limited mindset many single Christian women have internalized. Take the first step to discover

[00:01:00] and embrace the plans God has in store for you. If you want to be notified when the book is released,

[00:01:06] please check out the Hustle in Faith website. I cannot wait to share this with all my single ladies.

[00:01:11] You have everything you need to live an extraordinary life with or without Mr. Wright.

[00:01:41] Because this is one story that is incredibly wild. Now, despite how difficult these weeks have been,

[00:01:50] God has shown me a more than one occasion that he's with me. The reason why I was able to see his hand

[00:01:56] in the situations that I've been dealing with is because I was actively looking for moments

[00:02:03] for me to celebrate. And I know that sounds kind of crazy, but I've been trying my best

[00:02:10] to live out what the Bible says in James 1 verses 2 through 4. And it reads,

[00:02:18] How did I'll joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing

[00:02:24] of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect

[00:02:31] and complete lacking in nothing. Did you catch that? Regardless of how dark your situation looks,

[00:02:39] I've lived long enough to know that it's always darkest before the dawn. The number of obstacles

[00:02:44] that you encounter serves as an indicator as to how big the blessing God has in store for you.

[00:02:52] Sadly, so many of us myself included give up before we get a chance to see the blessing God wanted

[00:02:59] to give us materialize. And so there have been times I've delayed or missed out on some blessings

[00:03:07] God wanted to give me due to losing hope and fear. And the list goes on. So when I find myself wanting

[00:03:14] that throw a pity party, I remind myself you have to fight for joy. And this is a phrase that my

[00:03:23] mom yelled, I mean did I say yell? I meant said to me when I went complaining to her about my

[00:03:30] situation. I remind you the same situation that she's been going through as well, but with a

[00:03:37] completely different demeanor. If you can't steal my joy was a person. You would definitely see

[00:03:45] a photo of my mom. She literally has a piece that surpasses all understanding because she focuses

[00:03:54] on Christ. The world could be completely falling down around her and she would still be cool,

[00:04:00] calm and collected and we'd be able to quickly determine the best course of action in order to

[00:04:06] avoid being hit by the debris. I'm jealous of how she's been able to stay happy and calm despite

[00:04:15] being surrounded by chaos and destruction due to my unwillingness to fight for joy once again,

[00:04:23] I have forfeited or delayed so many blessings. Joy is not just a temporary emotion, it's a state

[00:04:32] of being that can bring about positivity and resilience in our lives. Even in the midst of life

[00:04:38] storms, we must intentionally focus on the good and cultivate gratitude. Now, I'm well aware that I

[00:04:46] am a never ending project. So one of my goals in life is to consistently prioritize joy.

[00:04:54] Doing so will ensure that my mind, body and soul are aligned which is crucial for our overall health.

[00:05:04] So how do we fight for joy? It starts with making a commitment to be intentional and not

[00:05:10] allowing negativity to overshadow how we approach our circumstances, people, family, finances,

[00:05:18] careers, marital status and health. Regardless of how well you prepare, you will encounter

[00:05:25] circumstances that are out of your control and this is one of the reasons why it's imperative

[00:05:30] that I start my day in prayer. I couldn't imagine living my life without Christ because whenever

[00:05:37] I find myself going down the rabbit hole of despair, I remind myself about all the other fiery

[00:05:45] darts satan through at me but Christ didn't allow to penetrate my shield of faith. And that's Ephesians

[00:05:53] 6-10-11. Okay, so that will definitely get you feeling in a more appreciative mood real quick.

[00:06:02] Remember, as Christians if we're not in sin, God does not allow us to endure more than what

[00:06:09] we can bear. In fact, He causes all things to work together for our good if we put Him first.

[00:06:16] None of the situations we undergo will be in vain. However, one thing that I have noticed is

[00:06:25] that if we live our lives on offense more than defense, we will be a lot happier. I go into that

[00:06:30] analogy a lot more in a video called how to handle retaliation with strength and it's either going

[00:06:35] to be here or here. So just check. Too many of us live our lives complaining about what is done to

[00:06:41] us and I get it. Life is unfair. There are systems in place that I don't foresee changing in my

[00:06:48] lifetime. Since this is the case, what are you going to do to rise above those obstacles? For me,

[00:06:54] I know God has already made plans for me and causes me to lean on Him even more and ignore what

[00:07:01] random people have to say about how I live my life. Now, I'm not about to buy things I don't

[00:07:06] need with money. I don't have to impress people I don't like. This is why I'm very picky about the

[00:07:11] people that I allow into my world. Who we surround ourselves with will influence what we believe,

[00:07:18] and feel. The words we allow people to speak and accept play a major role in shaping our world.

[00:07:25] Life and death are in the matter or in the power of the tongue because words matter.

[00:07:31] And now we're from our sponsor for this episode. Love me hair dot com.

[00:07:36] Regardless of your style, love me hair allows you to slay every day without spending a fortune.

[00:07:41] Love me hair is a women-owned business with nearly a decade of 100% human hair wig expertise.

[00:07:47] They develop high quality, beautiful, easy to install, undetectable, glueless lace wigs.

[00:07:53] Love me hair offers exchanges and returns of unused wigs within 30 days of receipt.

[00:07:57] For this week only go to lovemehair.com and use the promo code HIF27 to save 27% off of your

[00:08:04] purchase. It's time to experience effortless elegance with love me hair. Back to the show!

[00:08:11] And this is why I don't accept whatever nonsense people project.

[00:08:18] Insecure people love to place limitations on people they feel threatened by because your success

[00:08:25] reminds them of their failure. Rather than put in the work to achieve their own goals,

[00:08:30] they would much rather prevent you from achieving yours. Yet so many of us, myself included,

[00:08:38] have still tried to please these types of people. Now I think we do this deep down because we all

[00:08:43] want to belong to a family, right? We're constantly bombarded by negativity from people who really

[00:08:49] shouldn't matter so it's only natural that we seek refuge among our family.

[00:08:54] However the term family is relative. If that person isn't living up to their title of mother

[00:09:00] brother sister father cousin whatever, then you need to make sure that you don't allow this

[00:09:05] person to contribute to your world. Family is more than blood families are made up of people

[00:09:12] who have your best interests at heart. They tell you the truth even when it hurts they want you

[00:09:19] to achieve your dreams and will help you remove anything that prevents you from doing so.

[00:09:26] Sometimes it may take a while for us to achieve our dreams right due to a lack of funding

[00:09:31] trust me as someone who has been broke. Not to say that I'm rich, I am not, but any means.

[00:09:37] But as someone who's been broke, I realize this is not an ideal situation.

[00:09:42] Okay? However you don't have to allow being broke to cause you to lose your joy. During my broke

[00:09:48] periods, I became super resourceful. I couldn't pay for the services I wanted to purchase. So I took

[00:09:54] that time to invest in myself to learn those skills. Shout out to the School of YouTube because I

[00:09:59] learned a lot from this platform. Instead of being upset about not being in the position to

[00:10:06] purchase the products and services, it brought me great joy to gain this knowledge because it

[00:10:13] allowed me to change the trajectory of my career. Learning new skills allowed me to create new

[00:10:19] opportunities for myself. It gave me a sense of freedom knowing that I had the ability to leverage

[00:10:24] these skills in order to help motivate others in their goals. This is going to sound kind of

[00:10:30] crazy, but one of the main reasons I attribute to the ability to have joy is because I embrace my

[00:10:36] marital status. Now my marital status is single. A lot of people would be like, oh my goodness,

[00:10:43] I'm so sorry for you. And it's like, you don't have to feel sorry for me. I am perfectly happy

[00:10:49] being single. Being single and not having any children has allowed me the opportunity to pursue so

[00:10:57] many different passions that I quite frankly, knowing who I am and my personality and everything,

[00:11:04] I just would not have been in a position to be where I am if I were perhaps married with children.

[00:11:14] Now I'm still open to the possibility of getting married, but it's not

[00:11:21] something that I have to have. It's just not. And as far as kids go, love them, but I don't want them.

[00:11:28] All right, so I have come to terms with where I am in my life and I know it's very different

[00:11:35] than what society deems as happiness. But again, because I have rejected society,

[00:11:42] society is norms in general, in terms of the whole marital status thing. I have found so much more

[00:11:50] joy in my life because now I'm like there's this imaginary pressure off of my shoulder that I put

[00:11:57] on myself by the way. My mom has never in any way, shape or form. You know, been one of those

[00:12:03] parents that's like, yeah, I am married to have kids. She's never been like that. So

[00:12:07] I go into this a little bit more in another video that I'll link somewhere in here. But

[00:12:14] that's another reason in another area that we need to really think about incorporating

[00:12:21] into our desire to have joy is where are we in our marital status and so many people that are

[00:12:26] single oftentimes despise their marital status as single. So that's one of the reasons why I brought

[00:12:33] that up. And last but not least, another area that we need to make sure that we are having joy in

[00:12:38] is our health. Health is something that we tend to put on the back burner when we're going through

[00:12:45] trials and tribulations and things of that nature. But it's one of the things that needs to be put

[00:12:50] in the forefront because you cannot pour from an empty cup, right? So if you're not taking care

[00:12:56] of your health, you're not going to the gym, you're not, um, and you don't have to necessarily go

[00:13:00] to the gym. But you know what I mean? Like working out at home or going to the gym or just

[00:13:04] making sure that you're having at least 30 minutes of some sort of activity of exercise

[00:13:10] is going to place you in a position to do so many more things that you're going to want to be

[00:13:16] able to do in the future. So you have to take care of your body now so you can be in a position

[00:13:22] to do some of the things that you wanted to do in the future. You don't have to wait for retirement

[00:13:28] to enjoy your life. You can enjoy your life right now but you need to make sure that you're taking

[00:13:33] care of your health first, that is very important and there's all sorts of aspects of health,

[00:13:39] right? So we've got our physical health. We need to take care of our mental health. Again,

[00:13:43] that's why I was telling y'all get rid of the toxic people whether they be family, whatever,

[00:13:48] just get rid of them from your life completely because you know you don't want unnecessary

[00:13:53] people in your life stealing your joy, okay? Because you only get one life. And here's the

[00:13:58] funny thing with health. In terms of health, there are so many little things that you can do

[00:14:04] to really boost your mood and so one of the things I like to do is I enjoy every now

[00:14:11] and then going to get my nails done, right? Getting my hair done or here's another thing.

[00:14:17] I'm doing a sponsorship with love me hair. If I want to change up my look, I can

[00:14:26] hey put on a wig and call it a day and just pretend that you're somebody different. Whatever

[00:14:31] you got to do to make sure that you are enjoying your life and having your you know putting

[00:14:37] making sure that you're putting your health first is going to place in a better position

[00:14:42] to do all the other things that we just spoke about. So in the event that you are in a situation

[00:14:50] that you're just like I just don't know what else to do, I want to encourage you to fight for joy.

[00:14:56] So this is actually going to be a two-part series. So I think this video is just going to be

[00:15:00] fight for joy part one and next episode I'm going to focus a little bit more on how to fight for

[00:15:08] joy in business because I think that you know a lot of what I've discussed today could easily

[00:15:15] apply to business. But I really want to go into a little bit more detail regarding that. So

[00:15:21] be on the lookout for the next video, how to fight for joy in business and I thoroughly hope

[00:15:26] that you enjoy today's episode in the event that you feel that there is someone else that could

[00:15:31] benefit from seeing this content. Be sure to share it with your friends like the video and be sure

[00:15:37] to subscribe to the channel.