This is episode 82 identity. You're listening to the Rise up and Shine podcast with Claudine and Ashley as an empty nester and a mom with young kids. We have both shared very similar and very real struggles from chaos to coaches. We now help other women live an authentic and meaningful life. So tune in weekly for girl talk and tips on how you too can rise up and let your light shine bright. This is the Rise up and Shine podcast. Yeah, welcome back everybody. I get to be here with Clotting in the flesh once again after our crazy few weeks of Just life road trips. I've been with my family, I mentioned in our last podcast in the intro that you know we had a special guest, our friend Quinta and I have been with my family because my grandmother recently passed away.

So now we are getting back on track. You're in town. I am. It's nice to see your face. Bc it's good to see your face. Thank you. I know it's always good to see my face but today I'm really excited about this episode. This is something that is so important for all of us to just listen a little more about and learn a little bit more about and it's our identity. Sometimes we can really struggle in our own identity and I hear this even from multiple generations in our identity who we are, how we view ourselves, how other people view us and I want to start this episode off with dr Caroline Leaf. She is a christian neuroscientist and in her book called the Perfect You, she wrote it is how you uniquely and specifically think how you uniquely and specifically feel and how you uniquely and specifically choose. These are functions of the mind in action, the intellect, emotions and will the mind in action builds thoughts, thoughts are the roots of your unique words and behaviors which in turn are the visible manifestations of your perfect you.

It is the manifestation of your particular worldview and that is how she started this book and summed up identity and I loved this book because I was wrestling with that in my own identity. Have you wrestled cutting with your own identity? Always, always. Well an identity we think of it as who am I, A lot of us wrestle with that and I looked up the definition in Webster and it says it's the distinguishing character personality of an individual and in this day and age we can really struggle with figuring out who we are. And I know several episodes ago you had made a comment that said our role is not our identity and that would be really hard because I think for me I so often identified with my role, I thought that's who I was and you and I were talking earlier when I was a teenager, a lot of a lot of the ways we identified, we learned as Children are as teenagers and when I was a teenager, I was an athlete, I was a gymnast, I was very thin at the time, that kind of was my different distinguishing character and individual thing was, I was really thin.

So all my friends had little nicknames for me, some of them were really nice, some of them were not, but that's how identified, like I'm an athlete and I am thin. So what happens when that's no longer the case anymore, which is what happened when I grew up and then obviously I wasn't a gymnast anymore because I didn't have a high school team to play with anymore and I certainly wasn't good enough to go any further along. And then after having three Children, um, I wasn't necessarily skinny and thin anymore. And so much of my identity had been wrapped up into that. And so what happens when those things aren't there anymore, then, who are we? So of course, I definitely struggled a lot in my twenties and thirties with my identity? Yeah, well, there's so many influences that have shaped us, right? I mean, our own parents, our own environment as Children, school friends, tv media. Now, we have social media, uh politics and teachers and anyone. Everybody has influenced us. We are, we cannot go through life without being influenced by outside forces and it's so true.

It it changes a lot of who we think we are changed and so that's why I think it causes a lot of it can cause a lot of anxiety because we're confused, like this confusion well, but I was this way and now I'm not and it it's weird, it's like, I don't, I don't really know how to function that way and especially knowing more about our brains and our brains were so ingrained and trained and conditioned to think a certain way and think about ourselves a certain way that when we grow in certain areas and we're developing, you know, this awareness of who we really are and growing and, you know, our confidence in our identity. Um then our brain is still going to try and go back to those old ways and those old patterns and thoughts and but, and live like, you know, we're still teenagers, live like our child self and a lot of those things are even beliefs, you know, as we mentioned, beliefs about who we believe we are and that's where today we're talking about identity is exactly what you said. Our role is not our identity.

And I really struggled with that being married and having Children and I totally felt like I lost myself, I didn't know who I was, I didn't know what I like, I didn't know I was always, I still can wrestle with making decisions for other people, not even for myself. I mean, case in point like, what do you want to go to eat on a date or something or with the family and I'm the last to even say I'm going to let everybody else decide because I don't want to decide. And, and that was my comfortable place. And I think a lot of that goes back to my childhood, my personality or life circumstances in our environment as well as being the youngest child. So that still plays a role very heavily in my adult life, but it has impacted who I believe I am right. And the beauty of it is that we have a choice in so much of this, which is what we're going to dive more into today. Absolutely. And you said a couple of key things are circumstances in our past are not who we are and certainly as Children or even as teenagers, we could have had labels put on us by our parents, by our teachers, by friends.

Um, that was one of the things when I was really little, I had buck teeth, I think I've burned or destroyed all the pictures of this and um, my face was not super in proportion. So I remember my best friend teasing me and telling me how ugly I was, that was my best friend. So then you start thinking, okay, well I'm the ugly one. Like all my friends were really cute and pretty and they got a lot of tension. I was like, okay, I'm the ugly one. So it took a lot of years to realize that wasn't my identity, that was one person's perspective, although granted we were young and that was my primary, my best friend. So I took that to heart. I was like, oh, she thinks this, so it must be true, right? My interesting, We automatically default to think, oh, that they're saying must be true, especially when we're young are prefrontal cortex isn't developed. We can't process it. So someone tells you something, you're like, wait a minute. Yeah, what do you know? Right? You don't know? You just think, oh, that's why I felt ultra sensitive and protective of my Children.

Yeah. You know that, right? And it's so good that you have all this knowledge now to help raise your Children differently, not attaching labels to them and speaking in a way that affirms their identity instead of um, maybe assigning value or rolls to things that aren't going to be lifelong that aren't eternal and that certainly aren't their identity, but that's what we're talking about today. And, you know, for most of us, where do we even figure out who and what we are. It is by those people around us. And now, like you mentioned, we have social media talk about a identity killer that can be a really painful place to go because we think we're something and then we go on social media and we're like, oh yeah, I don't fit that mold or I don't look like that or I don't talk like that or I don't furnished my house like that. There's so many ways that can really cause a lot of confusion and pain and then we've got a whole other things now. I mean there's so much going on with identity in our day and world right now, that's even deeper a lot.

Oh my gosh, then we're going to dive into today that really affect people's identity when you know, I feel like we've really gone a long way from, it takes a village to now this village, we just compare with each other, you know, when we criticize each other or we talked down to ourself. So we've really switched viewpoints and how we live our lives, you know, just the ways that we think different patterns that we think and what you said a little bit earlier about mold, you know, what is the mold that we fit into? And I think that is so powerful to think about and I don't think we always stop to really ask yourself that question. And I think a bigger question is, well, who created that mold? Who was the one that got to set the standard? And I've been saying that to myself a lot, even with different circumstances or conversations with people relationships, um I'm even telling that to my Children now and you know, it just as they're growing up and seeing other people's influences, whether friends, family tv anywhere.

I've been asking who's the one that gets to set the standard for your life. You know, you set the standard for your life and you get to choose and the same for us. I mean we get to choose who sets the standard. And I for one say jesus, that's who I want to set the standard. Well, we're choosing that christian women and that's the choice. We've chosen God to be our standard is word to be our standard. And honestly, once I made that decision 30 years ago, that's when I started finding my true identity and I could find security and confidence. But even in the Bible when we look at moses here, he was, God had this great plan for him. He really had plans for moses to rise up and shine. Really right? Well, he knew his potential, right? He knew he knew and moses was filled with self doubt. He's like, no, I can't do that, that's not who I am. I'm not a great speaker, right? Made a mistake. I'm not the right person for this job, man for this job. And I was like, yeah, I think you are. So you're going to do this.

But it was interesting even seeing that in the bible that moses wasn't totally in tune with the identity with the plan that God from God psalm for who he truly was. But moses still had self doubt. And I think so much of us, I think about hands that God has for each one of us plans to prosper us and not to harm us. He wants us to do great things. He wants us to really rise up and shine and yet were filled with self doubt. We have, we've talked about it over and over, you know the mean girl in our head, the critic, the negative committee, whatever you wanna call it, constantly undermining our true identity and who we really are and how we are made when when we think about it, what like I say over the last three years when I have really gone through my healing and transformation, I have learned to ask myself a lot of questions and I think that is a great you know, that's one great practical. I'm going to put that in a little early because I didn't write that down in my notes. Um but it to ask yourself these questions where where did this come from, who you think you are, how you see yourself, where did that come from?

Does it really feel true to you? Does it feel like you're true, authentic self? Or do you think that you have been influenced? You know, I mean, think of your relationship with your mom, think of your relationship with your dad, What are your experiences, how was your experience at school? How was your social life when you were growing up, how your siblings, you know all these different things because I've really learned that my identity not my true identity, my false identity really was coming from, a place of pain. That was the deeper root. So, I remember I mentioned this one time on one of our episodes how I was trying to really struggle with my identity who I am, because I was just lost. Like, I mean, I had very young kids at the time and my husband, I had lots of challenges in our marriage and and I was trying to write down my strengths and I could not think of one because I was in such a painful place. I couldn't even think of it.

And I was so detached from my authentic self that I didn't know who I was. I was just, all I knew is I was completely lost and I have no idea like identity crisis. There you go. That's what happened to me. But I realized that I was carrying a lot of pain and I was taking on all these influences through those painful experiences and that is what shaped my belief about myself. That's what shaped my, like I say, my false identity and that's who I thought I was. That's the person I was living as. And then as I was going to counseling and doing a lot of work on myself and growing and healing myself and researching and reading and watching ted talks and anything, you know what I was trying to better myself in any way possible. I learned that that was not my true authentic self. And we hear it said your past is not to find who you are. We say that by knowledge, but we don't always live that out.

We don't live that way. We can still live from that those places of pain. They are such a huge influence on our identity and they basically cloud are true perception that keeps us down. Yeah. Knowing is not believing two separate things when my kids would tell them to do their chores or whatever and they were like, I know, I know I'm like, I know but knowing and doing are two different things. Same here. Knowing and believing are two different things. We can know something and not believe it. And that's part of the work is really starting to believe. First of all they know who we really are and then to believe it and come from that place because when we come from that place, it comes from a place of love and not a place of pain, not a place of fear. And so many of us have had things happened in our past either to us or we've been labeled or we've been things outside of right. Yeah. And they shape us and we're still holding on to things from 2030, 40 years ago that no longer serve us. I remember one time, I can't remember which of my parents, but one of them said I was lazy.

Now that was completely shocking because I was a great student. I was an athlete. Um, I cleaned my room every saturday so I didn't feel like I was lazy and I don't even remember which one of them said it, but it stuck with me for years and then I started to live out the I'm not lazy. So then I was an over worker and an overachiever because I didn't like that label. I am lazy so then I had to compensate and then just run myself ragged and then one day I woke up, I'm like I'm not lazy, wait, I don't know why that is still influencing me today. Like I'm not lazy now I do like to rest. I build in a lot of rest time but we'll call that self care now so popular. But it it really stayed with me for a long time and it didn't help me. It was painful. It didn't come from a place of love and it wasn't who I really was. It's just a comment um in another situation that happened, this is funny, it's kind of similar. But my husband, I were getting marriage help from a great couple in our church, very well respected, very well known and um in our churches and one day he said you know you two are the two most selfish people I have ever met and we were so like wow convicted were like were the two most, I mean he knows thousands of people worldwide and were the two most selfish and so it really challenged us because we didn't want to be the two most selfish people that someone we totally respected.

That's what he thought. And so years later I ran into him and I said, I just want you to know we've really grown our marriage and we're not so selfish anymore. And he laughed, he goes, oh I tell everybody that it's just so funny. Like you know, he laughed and I was like, games won't work because we were like, oh my gosh, it was so humbling. We all a little selfish. So there's truth to it. But yes, but apparently not the most selfish people in all of the world because he knew thousands of people globally. But the point is sometimes one comment, we can choose that and then it becomes we adopted into our identity is not really who we are. It was just someone perspective someone's opinion and they can be having a really bad day like your husband, your spouse, your kids, your coworker, your neighbor. They could be having a really bad day and they make one comment and then we adopted as oh my gosh, this is who they think I am. This is who I am and it's not at all. Yeah.

What you said about our past shaping us, it definitely does shape us. It doesn't define us, but it does shape us. And that's what we have to distinguish. You know, I mean as I said with my past and things I've experienced. I took on certain beliefs in my mind because my brain had to make sense of things going on and it was inaccurate because we didn't have our prefrontal cortex fully developed. So we didn't have that logic and rationale and understanding at, you know, as a child. And so, but those things still carry with us to adulthood and we don't always stop to think that we don't always stop to realize that, wow, I'm still thinking like my child self, right, you're still functioning, going about life and we all do it, we all do it. But when we can be aware and say, hey, that was a thought or belief that I needed that I needed in that time because it helped get me through, it helped me survive.

I mean, really our brain is wired to survive, right? To be comfortable to be safe to survive. And so, and that's what it did. But we don't have to keep that for the rest of our lives because like their seasons, right? There's times where, okay, now I can let that go, I can change that. I can reword that I can think differently now because my brain is fully developed now and I know it doesn't apply still it applied then and it helped for the time being, but now I can choose differently and that's the beauty of the neural plasticity. We can choose to think differently, those beliefs, but we have to be aware of them, right? And like I said, when you really start questioning yourself out of curiosity, no judgment ever are just curiosity, you know, just make sure you're just like discovering like, oh, how did why do I think that way? Why do I just see the connections? I mean, it's become now fun for me when I start connecting dots, even from painful past experiences, but when I connect the dots to those things, two things now or in different situations, it's like, wow, that's so weird, it's so amazing and it's powerful and then you're aware and you're like, okay, well I'm going to be more conscientious of that now that I know this is kind of my pattern and I think this way or I believe this, I'm just going to be more aware of it because I don't want to keep living that way and that's really what it is.

We just really have to dig out all those beliefs, all those labels we were given. Um and remember most of those stuff were outside of us, right outside of who we really are. So we just kind of have to let go and detach two and dig all that stuff out to reveal again and be aware of, oh this is me, this is who I am and I have been embracing that a lot more. I remember, gosh, that's probably two years ago when I was went through my healing and I was joking around more because that was one thing I knew inside, like I am a silly goofy person, I love that about me when I would go to visit my family, that person comes out because now I'm daughter again, now I'm sister, now I'm aunt, but then when I'm home I'm on like I gotta be wife, I gotta be mom, I gotta be house, you know, take care taker, I got it, you know, all the responsibilities and so that person hides, you know, it's just covered under all the responsibilities and I remember I would just feel depressed and I feel anxious, I just feel sad like I just not feeling good about myself and then what I learned all this stuff, I started letting that person out again, letting the goofy silly, making me funny and responsible.

Imagine that I love that. Not at all, but my brain did not think so my brain, I was like, oh I got to be on, I gotta do this. Um and then obviously I wasn't having the best time breast relationship with my family because I'm so like, oh you got to do but come on guys, Oh gosh, so I remember my daughter saying mom, you act so different when we're visiting our family, you know like I know, do you like that person because that's who I really am, you guys don't always get to see it, but I'm working on it, I'm working on it, but I became an intentional because I feel better and I'm happier. I love being silly and I love laughing and I love just having a good free spirit time, you know, that's who I am and but for so long it was just buried because of a lot of pain because pain and just responsibilities of life and the beliefs that I mean obviously there was a belief that being responsible, you couldn't be goofy and silly, which you can be both.

But you know, one thing that I realized also because it's not like you have this epiphany and then everything is good. Like I still catch it, I still do that at times obviously right, we're human, we're still going to go back to those old ways, but I realized that when I'm Goofy, I started paying attention to the responses I got from the people in who was being goofy around and if I just got stone cold faces or like a weird look and okay, then it crushed me that it actually made me sad and feel like they don't love me for my goofiness and so I can't be Goofy and silly around them because they don't know, just so funny because then that's a reflection of them, not of you, we shift our identities for whoever we're with, Can you imagine how many different people we'd have to be to please everybody in our life we couldn't possibly doing Yeah, that's why I'm depressed, pressed I can see that be all things to all people.

It's like no, you know, working here at writing shine, we talk about things because we really believe that we can overcome absolutely and rise up and shine. We can be our authentic selves and live our best life, not that's really what you and I are both going after in our own personalized and helping others achieve in their own lives to with our clients and our families and everyone else like we can live our best life now and we can rise up and shine and for me I'm going to share real quick before you share practical. But one of the things that I had to go back to when I was starting to have my identity crisis and just kind of going, okay, life is falling apart from me. I had to go through that to who am I really like who am I? And I decided as you have to, I was going to use God and his word is my standard. I wasn't gonna let social media, television, um random neighbors, friends, whoever they weren't going to be my standard. God was going to be my standard. And for me it started with just I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

That was my first one. I just had to keep repeating that to myself when self doubt when criticism, when negative thoughts bombarded me. I had to keep saying who am I, I am fearfully and wonderfully made. That's a truth that I'm going to hold on to Another one of of them was I am a child of God and it's funny because I used to have this t shirt that I would wear to youth camp, we were the princess's, although there was a bunch of us women on staff and we, I don't know how it started but went on for years were the princesses and then we started wearing pink and we had crowns and we had want, I don't know it evolved. But anyway, I finally found the shirt one day and said yes, I am a princess, my father is the king of Kings and I really was like I need to adopt this, I need to not just know this, I need to believe it. Another one was, I'm a new creation. So whatever was in the past was in the past, I'm a new creation, what you and I teach with neuro plasticity with our brains and our neural pathways, We can be a new creation every day. We just have to think new thoughts and believe new things, Our brains are plastic, we can reshape the actual structure of our brain with our thoughts and that was really powerful for me when I learned that I was like I really am a new creation and I can continue to become a new creation on and on and on.

I am forgiven another powerful one. A lot of us have things in our past that haunt us that keep us down that we identify with. They may be something we've done, that we're not proud of, that. We feel shame or guilt or that's not who we are. It's just something we did. But we know that in christ we are forgiven, were overcome, ear's big one. You and I share about this all the time. We both overcome a lot. We're worthy. That's a huge one. A lot of us may not have felt worthy as Children. We really struggled with our worthiness, feel unimportant, unloved, unlovable. That's unlikeable, on and on and on. But that's who the bible says we are, We are ready and we are chosen. And so I have a list of these. I know you're big on affirmations, but I have to start retraining my brain with who am I really who does God say the truth? The actual truth. Because sometimes the beliefs we have, they feel so true and that's where we live and that's what we think and then we choose right based on those beliefs, but they're not true.

They feel true. But then that's why having that standard and really those beliefs, those are the beliefs we need to be reciting to ourselves. This was life changing for me to practical is just keep reaffirming these truths of who we really are instead of things that people that we've all fall short, right? So why do I need people that fall short around me define who I am. I might choose the eternal God who said Yeah, perfect one, she's the Perfect one. And he says this, I'm gonna choose to believe that we know it, but believe it has been life changing well, and that's where reciting those affirmations over and over. That's where the knowing becomes believing because a lot of times Oh yeah, yeah, I know. I know, I should think that way, I should believe that, right? But in order for your heart to connect to that as well, you actually start believing it. You have to that's the wiring of your brain, you know, that's what you have to keep saying over and over and over and meditating on that because then the knowing will turn into I believe it now, what a place to be right.

What a place to live. It's wonderful. And even in the beginning when it was so hard for me, I agreed that I am fearfully and wonderfully man. And I didn't feel it. I didn't believe it, but then I had to talk to myself, I'm like why are you going to call God a liar? Like probably not yourself very nice. I did correct myself there and like, well he's not a liar. So I'm just gonna believe what he says, even if I don't feel it now, of course, I feel it. It's like you said, the constant use and rewiring and all of a sudden it's such a great place to come from, where you just feel loved and secure and it takes time. Because what happens is if we do it once or twice and oh, I'm not believing it's not working well. No, it is, it will work. You just gotta be patient and let it keep at it and stay consistent. It will absolutely work. And you'll see it's amazing. So that's my identity. I love it. So that was a really great practical those affirmations. That is exactly what I wrote down. Affirmations. They were life changing for me because it took my beliefs that I formed to believe in actual truth and that's that's where the disconnect comes and that's where we're connected or disconnected from ourselves and our authentic, you know, and our authenticity.

And so just really I mean like we've talked about this over and over sticky notes right on your mirror with the dry race Margaret, wherever. Right it all over the place. I put it on my screen saver on my phone. I put on my computer, right? But everywhere, because you need that, you know, it's like brainwashing. You basically need to brainwash your brain and your brain yeah, wash your brain start believing those truths the actual truth. So and another one we talked earlier is the getting curious, you know, and being aware and discover. I love we've all heard, oh get away or be aware, awareness is huge. I like to call it Discovery because I feel like it's less intimidating just personally. Um but ask yourself those questions, try to you know where my identity, okay, I feel this or let's give an example, what would you like to have for dinner? This is a very simple question, but for me and for some others it could be very uh anxiety inducing. What would you like to eat for dinner?

Um If you ask yourself that question or when someone asks you that question, if you really think about what do I want, what do I want to eat? Rather than, well I'm just going to choose something that I know everyone will like because I don't want to hear everybody complain and I just want to do the easiest thing because and I'll feel comfortable if everyone's in a good mood so why don't you just go ahead and make the choice and I'll be good with it. I think of the difference between the two, right? There have been times I have been actually intentionally during the week when I do dinners most of the week, I try to make what most people will like, one is an exception because he doesn't eat anything. Um but there will be once or twice a week I'm going to make what I want to make and I can make what I feel like eating today and that is okay and that's just one simple little way that I was able to, hey Ashley, what do you want to have today? You know, make my own choice and feel good about it and if they started complaining, it was like, but I love in it, you can eat chips later, you know, so just getting curious about that.

Another practical that I wrote down was aligning your spirit with the Holy spirit. So this was so crucial and this goes along the lines with the affirmations in God's truth. And I had to really like we talked about who sets the standard. So I had to really ask myself and I still over and over how do I feel when I get sucked into cultures mold, quote unquote mold and how do I feel when I'm living by the spirit and by God's example and jesus example and aligning my spirit and even my thoughts and my feelings and my choices with God, like how do I feel? I mean, I've done both, you know, and so how do I feel and I've learned that I feel more myself, I feel more peace, I feel more joy. I feel more rested, I feel the way I want to feel when I'm letting God set my standard and I'm trying to align my spirit with the holy spirit and you know, that go that direction versus the comparison and seeing what everybody is doing and what I'm not or how everybody looks and I don't look that way or you know the constant comparison or what we should believe.

So you need to vote for this president or you need to think this way, you need to believe this belief in you know, where that's causing more chaos and anxiety and anger. So how do I feel when I make these choices and just think about that? That's such a good point. I mean when we really are living authentically, there is peace, there is joy. There is a calmness when we're living authentically. It's so true when we're confidence, there's this constant inner tension, right? Because we're trying to be something someone else wants or we're trying to live up to an ideal that someone else set for us. But when we are living our authentic self as God designed us to be, there is peace, there is calm their confidence and when we're not, there is conflict and chaos, right? It's our choice, conflict, conflict or confidence. I'm gonna pick confidence, but it's work for sure. It is definitely work. It is definitely a absolutely and the last practical and when I mentioned is boundaries and boundaries is really important for relationships, right?

We've learned that. But boundaries, it's also super important for us to live authentically because I learned how co dependent I was but a people pleaser I was and I got those were my identity right? I thought that was my identity I'm just a co dependent people pleaser. But really it wasn't my true self, It was my fake false, sure had to cope self, it was mike Exactly, and I learned how to cope self and that was out of fear. That was not out of love when we're living our authentic self. We live from a place of love, right? When we're living in authentically, we're living from a place of fear or hurt pain, anger. So really recognizing that boundaries when there were times where I had to say no to something, it was so hard for me because as I mentioned, you know, I just want to appease everybody and make everybody else's life easy at the sacrifice of my own and I was not living authentically, and I had to learn that having boundaries, being able to say no teaching others how I want to be treated, that's part of boundaries.

Um you know, just really paying attention to that and practicing those boundaries because it will help you to live your true self. You know, you're not going to be living from that place of fear and there's so many different examples and we do have an episode on boundaries, so go back and listen to that that dives much, much deeper. But this was a practical, I had to include because that was a huge factor in me starting to turn and live more authentically and understand and being confident in my own identity and not still be influenced by others liking me because a lot of times, that's what we do, that's the pain, right? That's living from the place of fear and pain and we want to be liked and it taps into those beliefs where I'm unlikable or I'm unlovable and so I had no boundaries because I want to feel like and I want to feel loved, but that's inauthentic. Well those are some great practical, I hope that everyone listening has gotten something out of it. I hope that you feel confident and joyful and at peace in your authentic self and your identity.

I know this can be confusing times about who we are and what we are and where we are and all of that. But you know, I leave you with this, why is it so important to know and understand and believe in our identity and our authentic self And I believe it's because when we do that, we reflect God. It springs out our true identity and our purpose and were great stewards of God's creation and Gloria and I think it makes him incredibly proud when we live authentically as he created us to be in each one of us is so unique and so different and it's kind of like the parable of the talents when we really rise up and shine and live out who we were to be. We really glorify God. So I hope this has been encouraging to you all and uh until next time. Thanks all right everyone. Thank you for joining in on our conversation today here on the Rise up and Shine podcast. If you haven't already, please take a second to hit that subscribe button.

So you never miss an episode. And while you're at it share this episode with a friend who you know it can bless today if you want to visit us as well on our websites, you can catch Claudine over at clotting Sweeney dot com and Ashley at Mind over chaos dot com are links are in the description. We also have some free resources there for you as well. So remember, ladies, no matter what you are facing in life, it is never too late to rise up and shine and live your best life. Mhm.