SS 007 Yeah Right – You Were Healed?

Standing Stronger Podcast episode number seven. That's right, it keeps getting better. Welcome back to another episode of the Standing Stronger Podcast. My name's Shannon. And I'm Sally. No, that's wrong. I changed my name. That's wrong. Just kidding, I'm Shannon. That's right, we have the same name. She's sick of me saying it, so she changed her name. That was a good one. You threw a wrench in it, baby. Gotcha. Welcome back, guys. Welcome back. Hey, today we have an exciting episode for you. We're going to continue the story of how my wife became a crackhead. And no, it's not crack. It's because she had brain surgery, and we talked about that in last episode.

Yeah, very important, like, mom, go back and listen to episode seven. She was, like, freaking out on Facebook. What do you mean a crackhead? This is actually an edit. It was episode six, not episode seven. It was the last episode. This is episode seven. Yeah, I got in a lot of trouble. Mom, I think you would know if I really was a crackhead. It's not due to drug-induced, which, by all means, we're not trying to make fun of anyone, but my mom, of all people, should know that I have not struggled with drug addiction. If you want to know why I'm a crackhead, you have to go back and listen to episode seven. Mom, it's okay.

I put the title on there, and she sends us a message and a text, and she's like, What are you guys talking about? Take that off of Facebook. She's terrified that everybody's going to think on Facebook that I'm a crackhead. Yeah. Please listen to episode seven. Yeah, it'll explain everything, but to kind of bring you up to speed on here is we went through Shannon's story of how she had to have brain surgery and what happened and the time in between there, and we got all the way up until she came out of recovery. That's kind of where the story ended.

However, unfortunately for us, that's where the story picks right back up again because it was not easy sailing, I guess you could say, from that point on. Yeah, brain surgery didn't fix everything like we thought. Just to recap when we finished that, I was going to come out of brain surgery and have to learn to most likely learn to walk and talk and read and normal functions that you learn as a child, learn to do those all over again, and that was a high percentage risk for us doing the surgery, which we were willing to go through, obviously. That was the only way to fix the grandma seizures that I was having, but coming out, I was able.

It took a while to get words together and things like that in that first week. I always say it's a week that I lost of my life. I don't recall a lot of it. I remember, like I said, some things when I was in the neuro ICU. I remember waking up and events that happened there, and I remember being in the room, my hospital room, and you being there, my mom being there, my sister, and my friend Jackie had driven down from Jacksonville. I remember them being there. Leaving, so where we leave is we leave the hospital. I was able to feed myself. I was able to recall long-term memory. I mean, I knew who I was. I knew who my husband was. I knew my family. I knew events that happened when I was 15.

I knew all of those things, but we were quick to realize I had very little to no short-term memory, meaning that I would say something, and then five minutes later, I would say it again because I had no idea that I had already said it. Yeah, her short-term memory, it was pretty crazy because you would have a conversation with her, and then 10 minutes later, like she said, you would have the same conversation. I remember Shannon would tell me stories over and over and over again, like the first time our son walked. That was a story that was repeated. Can you believe Jordan's walking? I really didn't know what to do, so I would just go with it. I'm like, really? What happened?

And would just go with the stories. Yeah, everyone in my life was very good at just letting me talk, and we'll go a little bit further with that in a minute, but I would purposely start trying to jog my memory of things, medications, and I couldn't give myself my own medications. We started learning. Yeah, we had to. I do not have short-term memory loss anymore. You would not know that, but. For instance, what we would do is for her medication, one time she overdosed on, what is it? Dilantin. Dilantin. Her Dilantin levels were through the roof, and what we found out. Well, no, no, no, no, no. That's not just because of me. I was overprescribed Dilantin. Yeah, you were overprescribed as well.

However, what would happen is before I would go to work, I would give her her medicine, then I would go to work. Then she wouldn't, throughout the day she would think, well, did I take my medicine? And no, I didn't take my medicine. She would go and take her medicine again. So what we had to do was we got the pillbox, like you would get for an old person that has 70,000 pills, and we would put our pills in there each and every day. We had a pillbox for AM and a pillbox for PM. And Monday during the AM, we would give her the pillbox, and then if she thought, oh, did I take my medicine?

Instead of going and getting the pills, what she would do is go to the pillbox, open the pillbox, see if the pills were there. If they were not there, then she took her medicine. She didn't have to take it again. That way it would keep her from overdosing on her medicine. Yeah, we even, in the beginning, oh, I can fill my medicine box, and it was like I was trying to do it myself. And then we realized, well, did you fill your medicine box? I don't know. I don't know if I did it or not. I don't know if I took it or I didn't do it. So that became an issue. So then Shannon had to fill the medicine boxes for me.

If Jordan was sick, I could no longer give him medicine because I would say, I think I gave it to him. Well, did you or didn't you? Because he's sick and he needs medication, and I had no idea. And that was very frustrating. For me, that was the most frustrating point because before the surgery, I could remember everything. I could do multiple things. I could cook dinner and talk on the phone and feed Jordan and whatever needed to be done, I could do it all. And like most women can. And that was stripped for me. There was no more. It was focus on one thing. You know, I even tried to make a batch of cookies one time to prove that I could follow a recipe and bake these cookies.

And what was so horrible is it took me over an hour just to make the batch because I kept going back and forth to the refrigerator and not realizing, well, did I already get the egg? Okay, wait, I did put the eggs in. How much flour? It was over and over. It was horrible. It was a very frustrating, frustrating time. And like he said, I would tell a story over and over again. I would learn to look at their faces. They were really good and nobody can see us right now, but it was the turn your head to the side and drop your chin, head cock. And it was like, here we go again. That's how I looked at it. And I would stop my story and say, did I already tell you this before?

And him and my friend Michelle would both. Yes, you already said that. And I would get so mad at them and say, well, then why are you letting me just continue to talk? Just tell me I already told you. Well, we don't want to hurt your feelings. It doesn't matter. Just tell me. It was very frustrating. Yeah, and she couldn't read either. She could read the words, however, because she couldn't comprehend what she was reading because she would forget what she read. So it was crazy because she would ask me, will you read the Bible to me? And I would read the Bible to her. And for the longest time, we were in a small group and a small group is basically a group of people.

We go in, we have Bible study, we talk, we laugh, we have fellowship, eat and all that good stuff. Well, during those times she wouldn't read because she could read, but she couldn't, if that makes sense. And a lot of things going on. Plus to add on top of that, she was still having seizures. Yes. Which they had said, would the brain surgery, that could be a side effect. You just opened your body up and it could continue for a little bit. So that became a little annoying as well. Basically what they said is your brain's healing. So these seizures will keep coming. Now they weren't grandma seizures anymore. Some of them were. Some of them were, some of them were not.

So I pretty much remembered them, and that was very difficult as well, because you have no control over your body. And you can, in the end, your body has just released all of its energy, and it's depleted you. And I would lay there, eyes closed. I could hear everything. I just couldn't talk. I couldn't tell them I'm okay, things like that. And that was frustrating. I mean, all of it was a very frustrating time, because it wasn't me. Right. And they would try all types of different medications and everything else. And I'm always the one that has struggled with, if you hear the baby in the background, again, that's our beautiful daughter Mackenzie. She's here with us.

We do this when we can, and sometimes she wakes up, and she's waking up now. But I'm the one that always struggled with depression, panic, anxiety, things of that nature. And they would switch up her medicine and go from different medicine to different medicine. And when you are on these type of medicines, you can't just stop and then take another medicine. You have to wean yourself off, then start the new medicine. Well, she started one medicine, which I think was Keppra, right? Yeah, that's it. Yeah, Keppra. And all of a sudden, she turned into crazy psycho woman. I mean, it was nuts. I'll never forget this. We went to, what the heck is it called? We went to a marriage class.

Yeah, it was a marriage class. It was a specific one, though. I forget what it was called. But we went to a marriage class. And basically, the marriage class is so that you have a better marriage. We're like, our marriage is great, but we'll go anyway. Well, one of the exercises is tell your spouse something that they could probably do a little bit better than what they're doing now or something they're doing wrong. Something they're doing wrong now that they can improve on. Something like that. So we're going through this exercise. I give Shannon a couple of things she could probably do better. And in the middle of the group, she starts screaming at me. She's screaming.

And I'm like, what is going on? We get into the truck. She's yelling. I'm yelling. Everything else is going crazy. So then out of nowhere, Shannon all of a sudden grabs Will. She's like, just drive into that pole. I want to end it all right now. Now, at that moment right there, I knew something is going on because this is not my wife. And come to find out that Kepra, one of the side effects is it could cause suicidal thoughts and craziness in someone. And it did. It definitely did. Yeah, I was very thankful for that because I've never had a suicidal thought in my life. And I really did think at that point, I don't care. I don't care what happens. I don't care anymore.

I'm done feeling the way I feel. And let's just all go. And thankfully, I'm so thankful my husband didn't continue to argue. He didn't try to figure things out. He just said, this is not my wife. And we're calling the doctor. And I remember the conversation with the nurse because I said, yeah, this is what happened. And she said, well, this medication, you cannot just stop. You have to be weaned off. Are you going to be able to do that? I said, well, here's the phone. Talk to my husband because I don't know how much more he can take. And they did. They weaned me off of that. And we went on to something else.

And, you know, there's all different types of medications that they use to treat seizures. And a lot of them are mental, like if you have bipolar or ADHD or depression, suicidal tendencies, things like that, to treat seizures. And for someone that doesn't go through that, I started to learn what it was like to kind of feel that way. Because those medications just they really do mess with your mind quite a bit. So we went on from there. We started getting very deep into the word because the doctors pretty much said you're probably going to live your whole life like this. Yeah, we did sleep studies and it showed unusual brain activities inside of her brain.

We took out her tonsils and her adenoids because we're like, well, maybe you're not getting enough oxygen. And that's why it's happening. I mean, we tried everything and it just it wouldn't work. Her seizures were there. Her short term memory loss was there. There's nothing we could do. And the only thing we could possibly do at that time is look up. And that's what we did. We said, Lord, we don't know what to do. What else can we do? I met with an elder at our church during that time and spoke with him on the phone. And I remember him asking me a big turning point for me with with scripture was, you know, do you believe God can heal people? And I told him, well, yeah, God's God.

He can do whatever he wants to do. And he said, well, let me ask you this. Do you think God can heal you? And my answer was, why would he? And I just broke down in tears. And he told me at that time, that's what you need to seek. You need to seek why he would heal you. You know, and I'll say right now, you know, because we've learned this with other things that we've gone through with our family members and friends. Everyone doesn't get healed. And we know that. But there is a plan. We've learned that, you know, there's something else we're going to talk about in just a few minutes.

But, you know, not everybody comes through the way you think they should come through, you know, or the outcome is as dandy and as bright as what you think. But there is a plan. And fortunately for us, mine was to be healed. And I'm very, very grateful for that grace and mercy. And we went on and studied scripture very deep at that point. You know, I used to think when people would say, oh, God spoke to me. Okay, well, I don't know how he spoke to you or I've never experienced that. But then I did. In the middle of the night one night, I just, I couldn't even tell you the scripture anymore. I just know it was in 1 Peter.

And I got up out of bed and I went and wrote it on your whiteboard in your office so I wouldn't forget it. So I could look it up. But out of nowhere in the middle of the night, I just heard this little voice just whispering to me, 1 Peter, and what the scripture was. And it was amazing because the more I seeked him, the more I learned about him and the direction I needed to go closer to him. And started praying really deep. And then it happened. So you can tell that part. Well, before we go there, let me kind of explain. We're not health and wealth and everything's going to be fine and dandy and everything else. And let me kind of explain why we also believe that and give you a reason.

One of the reasons that turned my life around and turned it towards seeking God and got me on the path. During all of this time, my dad is fighting cancer. So my wife is going through brain surgery, seizure disorder, short-term memory loss. And my dad is fighting for his life with lung cancer. Stage four lung cancer. Stage 3B lung cancer, one of the two. And it's bad. So I'm going to kind of tell you the story of the last time that I spoke to my dad. And my dad ended up passing away. Now, the day before or, yeah, I guess the day of the day before, however you look at it, they called us. And my dad was really sick. I mean, he was down to 100 pounds, had a tube in his chest.

He had a tube in his stomach. And he was going downhill. However, he started getting a little bit better than this happened. In the middle of the night, he got what was called a fistula. And basically what that means is he started coughing. His one lung was full of infection. It popped a hole in his trachea, which let all the infection down into his other lung and filled his other lung up with infection. So he could not breathe. Now, the doctors called us and said, hey, listen, you need to get here now because your dad is not going to make it. He's going to die very, very soon. So we all jump in the car. My mom had just left there that night to get a good night's sleep. We jump in the car.

We drive up there. And the doctor said, listen, every vital sign that your father has is in the dirt. His blood pressure, his oxygen level, his respiration, everything that says you're alive is going down. And it's going down fast. We do not think he's going to make it through the night. And at this point, my dad still had his brain. I mean, he was still conscious. He was still alert. And he was still really him. So we said, you know what, we got to go in there. We got to talk to him. We got to let him know what is happening. And so we go in there and we tell him, he said, listen, dad, things are bad. There's nothing that we can do. And, you know, this is most likely it.

Now, what happened next was amazing. And I tell this story all the time. And, you know, it's hard for me to get through it. But my dad, he set himself up in the hospital bed. And he started breathing in through his nose and out Great, this is really good. We now have hope. We now have hope. And they said, you know what we're going to do is we're going to start with a CT or a CAT scan. We're going to take them down. We're going to see what everything looks like and see what we can do to try to correct this problem. And we're like, that's great. Well, my mom, my sister, and my wife decided to go to get lunch while he was going to get the CAT scan because it takes a long time.

And during that time, I stayed with my dad and we weren't really talking or anything like that. And he was just calm and at peace, I guess you could say. And I look at him and I said, dad, you know, I'm so proud of you. I am so proud of how you're handling, you know, this situation. I'm so proud of you. And he looked up at me. He's like 100 pounds and he's got these big blue eyes. And he looks up at me and he said, don't be proud of me. Be proud of Jesus. You know, at that moment, my dad had no hope. He had no hope of seeing his son or his grandson go to kindergarten. He had no hope of walking his daughter down the aisle, which I had to do. He had no hope to hit his 30th anniversary.

That was just a couple of days around the corner. However, he knew that his pain was going away. He knew that he was going to a better place and that he was finally going to be at peace and praising at Jesus's feet. That was the day I decided, you know what? I'm going to give my life to God because I want to see my father again. Now, we're in the part of the story where we're going to tell you about some amazing things. However, like Shannon said, not everybody gets healed. But there's a plan for everybody. I say it and I think about it all the time. I'm like, my goodness. I was so bad. Did my dad have to die to save my life?

Did my dad have to die so that I would have a relationship with God? You know, all these things. And it's a time in our lives that was really bad. I mean, my dad just died. Shannon's suffering through, you know, seizures and this memory loss. It was just bad. I had panic attacks, anxiety, everything else. It was a real, real, real difficult time. However, things, like we say, do get better. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. And we're going to start talking about the good stuff now. You heard the story. You heard the sad. Let's get to the good because there is great that comes from this story. Yeah. So, unfortunately, we did lose your father.

And he was a great man and a great servant of the Lord. And those things you do question, you know, there are so many awful things out there. So many people make horrible decisions. Are there, you know, this and that? Why are they still here and he's gone? Again, we don't know that answer. Why was my story different than his? We don't know that answer. You know, like you just said, you know, everybody has a different story. And, unfortunately, that was the end for him. But his story is just continuing to go on because of the work that's being done in the rest of us. So if it wasn't for his foundation and his leadership of our family, then... We would not be where we're at today. Right.

So I'm going to let you start with where we went with the rest of my story. Well, when Shannon would have seizures, I would freak out and I would call 911. Every single time she had a seizure, I would call 911. Finally, they said, listen, Shannon, every time she has a seizure, you do not need to call 911. The only time you need to worry is if she has a seizure that's longer than two minutes or so, or if she has multiple seizures back to back. And I said, okay, so whenever she'd have a seizure, I'd just make sure she's okay. They would go through what's called a post-ictal state and all this crazy stuff. But once you're used to it, it kind of gets easier to go through that with them.

So we'd go through it. Well, one night we're driving down the road and we're in our truck. We're in a gray pickup truck, F-150. It's just not the extended cab. So we have my son in the passenger seat. My wife is in the middle and then me. And she has a seizure. So she goes into a seizure and falls down on the floor. And I'm like, oh, goodness. So I pull over. And once I pull over, I get her up out of the bottom of the floorboard of the truck, pull her up, and she has another seizure right there. I'm like, oh, no. Well, I happen to be literally a quarter of a mile away from the hospital. So I take off down to the hospital.

It's literally down to a red light, make a left, and then right into the hospital. I get in the hospital, and as I'm pulling in to the parking lot, boom, she has another seizure. So now this is like three seizures in a little under five minutes. So I'm really worried now. And at this time, I'm trying to drive. So she's stuck down in the floorboard, and her head is the only thing that's on the seat. And my son is—how old was he at the time? Like four or five? Maybe four or three, something like that, young. Almost four. Yeah, he's patting her head, and he's going, it's okay. This is the first time he's ever seen Mommy have a seizure. And he's saying, it's okay, Mommy.

You don't have to shake anymore. It's okay, Mommy. You don't have to shake anymore. I jump out of the truck, run into the emergency room, and I'm like, someone help us, someone help us. My wife is having seizures. So they come out with the—there's another part of that story, but we'll tell that later. They come out with the wheelchair and put her into the wheelchair. As soon as they pulled her into the wheelchair, another seizure. So she's now had four seizures in a row. And the crazy thing is if they wouldn't have gotten her out when they did, because I couldn't get her out because she was all crumped into the floorboard and stuck.

So it took about three of us to get her out of the car or the truck. Once we got her out, she had another one. If she had had it in the truck, she would have seriously, seriously injured herself because of the way she was positioned. So they take her in, and we call her neurologist, and they decide, hey, we need to get her to Tampa. So this happened on a Saturday night is when that happened. The next morning, I decide to go to church. Now this next part is going to sound crazy, and I believe in God, and this sounds crazy to me. So I'm just preparing you. This is going to sound crazy.

So I go to church, and I tell everyone that's happened, and we're praying for Shannon, and we're in praise and worship, and we're just praising. I have my hands up. I'm crying. I'm just like, just help us, God. Help us. And this is where the crazy part comes in. I see a hand, and the hand touches my wife's head during praise and worship. Now what I do is I go home. As soon as I see my wife, I'm like, babe, you're never going to believe what happened. You are healed. And I said, you're crazy. Yeah, she laughed at me. She's like, whatever. I just had four seizures, and I just got out of the hospital. Yeah, she's like, you are cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, my friend. So that was Sunday.

Sunday they had released her out of the hospital. Monday we were to go to Tampa General to go and do the seizure test. Basically they were going to induce her into seizures. So we go to Tampa General. They put the diodes or whatever they call them on her head so they can run the EGGs. That's what it's called, an EGG, right? Yeah. So the EGGs, and they have her wrapped up like a mummy. And basically what they do is they took her off of all of her medicine to force her into a seizure. So the first day goes by, no medicine, no seizure. The second day goes by, no medicine, no seizure. And they're like, this is crazy. You know, you should have a seizure by now.

We're going to give it one more day. And if you don't have it by the end of tomorrow, we're going to bring in the flashy light thing and force you into a seizure. So the third day comes, no seizure. So they bring in this thing that is like goggles that go over your face. They put the goggles onto Shannon's eyes, and basically it's a strobe light. Now this thing, if they put it on your face, if they put it on my face, it would force you into a seizure. That's what it does. It forces you into a seizure. So it forces her into a seizure. She has it. They monitor the seizure, everything else. And then they come in, and then they give us the news.

Do you want to tell them the news, or do you want me to tell them? You can tell them. Okay. So they come in, and they say, you know what? I don't know what's going on here, but you're fine. You know I told you so, babe. I told you. And Shannon starts crying. Well, I felt crazy at that point because now I'm sitting here for the past two years. You're telling me all these things that were wrong with me, all the things that were wrong causing the seizures, and now you're telling me I don't have a seizure disorder. So it made me feel like I was crazy. I'm not crazy. There was something wrong with me. And they're like, yeah, but there's not anymore, so go home.

And I'm like, what do you mean go home? I've been on all this medication. I've been going through tests and tests and tests, and now you're just telling me go home? What am I supposed to do now? Yeah, and I looked at her and I said, babe, don't you understand what just happened? I'm telling you, you got healed. He actually got upset with me and he finally said, you can be angry all that you want, but I'm going to tell you right now, this is what we've been praying for and this is what happened and you have to truly believe that you were healed. And until you can accept that, you're going to keep being angry. And it took me about 24 hours to, I mean, I was upset.

I was crying in the bed, you know. What do you mean? Not that I wanted something to be wrong with me, but it made me, it really made me feel like I was doing it to myself. And I was, I think, at the car ride home when it finally hit me of I was able to be healed. You know, I started to believe it. I was reading in the Bible. I believe that, you know, I was worth something to God. I was worth, you know, all these things, but to actually experience it was like, okay, this is what we prayed for and you answered our prayer, so okay. Now, that healing was short-lived, right? What? That healing was short-lived, right? No. No? What are you talking about? No. I'm just saying. Why would you say that?

No. You got to tell them now why it wasn't. What are you talking about? Why was it not short-lived? Do you give the answer? How long has it been since you've had a seizure? No. Since 2009, so five years. Five years, that's right. Sorry, we have no script that we go off of, so I have no idea where you're going with that. No, it was not short-lived, you know, and it was hard even for my mom. My mom is like that crazy Christian jump up and down, like dancing, you know, when you see that. She's not crazy Christian. She is a full believer in God's work. You see the videos and you're like, that's a crazy Christian.

Yeah, that's my mom jumping up and down, praising God, and I love her, and I love the way she praises God. I'm not making fun of her. I'm just saying I love it. However, just to give you an idea, my mom struggled with it. She's like, well, you know, just be careful because, you know, what if you have another seizure? You know, well, I'm not going to have another seizure. I think it was hard for everybody, you know. Anyone just, it's not every day that you hear about miracles but that you experience them in your everyday world, you know, and so for people that knew us and lived it every day with us, that was hard for them too to think and believe, and we believed it so much.

We finally had to say, don't say it anymore. I will not have another seizure. God is good, and he has healed me, and we believe it, and by you doubting hinders our belief. So if you feel that way, just don't vocalize it to us. Yeah, and I think my mom, not consciously, I think subconsciously though, she always wondered maybe why Shannon and not Tim, which was my dad, but we don't have the answers for that. And I wish my dad was here, and unfortunately he's not. So there's not a happy ending in our eyes for everyone.

However, there is a happy ending for everyone because even though my dad's not here, he's in a better place, and even though my dad's not here, he's inspired things like this to happen, you know. So great things have come from that as well. Yeah, and just to go a little bit further with that, we, during that time frame, our blessings have just continued to pour, and we continue to seek God every day, even today. I mean, we've been Christians since 2005 and walking with him, and it's hard. Every day is hard, you know, and there's some weeks that are easy and some weeks that aren't, and to always put him as the center of our life, you know, that takes practice, I should say.

It takes faithfulness. Yeah, and with that point that you're saying is during this time, since 2005, I lost my dad, you had brain surgery, I tried to kill myself, depression, anxiety, panic attacks. It's been super cool. So, you know, a lot of people say, believe in God, everything's great, and it is. However, that doesn't mean that challenges don't come up in your life. Without God, I can see where the downward spiral continues. We luckily realize with God, there's going to be valleys and there's going to be mountains, and even though we love being on the mountaintop, we're thankful for the valleys because it's brought us closer to Him, and we've learned more and more through every valley.

Now, with that, Bruce Lee, he actually said, do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one. And, man, I mean, that just resonates with me because I don't want all frills and foo-foos and happiness, which would be great, but I want to, I do want that, I shouldn't say I don't want that. However, I want to know that when times get tough, I have the cononads to actually, you know, endure and get through it. Yeah, you know, again, the mountains and valleys are always going to be there.

Just what you do during the storm, you know, there's a song, I'll praise you in the storm, and just different things will sit with you at different times, but know that just because you're in the valley right now, there will be a mountaintop, but you have to choose the path to get there, and you have to focus on the positive side to get you there. If you constantly dwell, I mean, we could have fell right on our faces. We could have, it could have been disastrous for us, but we're not those people. You know, we chose not to be those people. It's not that we're not those people. You're right, we chose. We chose not to be, because believe me, we could have.

There's many times where each of us actually did fall on our face. The great thing is we had each other to pick us back up, and that's why we're doing this podcast, because if you have no one, you have God, but you always have God, but we also want to be there to say, you know what, get up, here's my hand. Get up, because it's going to get better. Yeah, and it didn't necessarily get better in a day, a week, a month, the year. You know, something was always happening. You know, he listed all the things that we went through that just kept getting worse in our lives, and everybody's struggle was different.

You know, this struggle, you might not be able to relate with, but there's someone out there that is struggling just like you or worse than you, you know, in the sense that the things we were going through, like he said, we had each other. You know, that could have been worse for us not to have each other. You know, there's just always different ways of looking at it, and believe me, during that time frame, it's not so easy to just say, well, that mountain's going to be here. When's it coming? It's not. It's a process. That's right, and here is a couple things you can do. Number one is we believe in the five pillars of fulfillment, faith, family, fitness, mindset, and finance.

You do the first four right, the fifth will follow. So number one, what you need to do is you need to rely on God. You need to realize that you are not alone and that he is there. Number two is you need to stand strong with somebody else. It's always difficult to stand there by yourself. If you have no one, start going to a church. Find a small group. Get a support system. If you have no one, listen to us. We also have a daily podcast. Go get help at a Christian counselor. Do something. Don't just stand there. Number two is fitness. I believe emotion moves with motion, and what I mean by that is if you feel bad, go out there and start moving, and you'll feel better.

Your emotion will move with your motion. Your emotion will move with your emotion. Number four, go out there and start thinking right. Read positive books. I mean, my library is filled with Zig Ziglar, Jim Rome, Brian Tracy. What is that one? Robert Kiyosaki. You know, Eckhart Tolle. I mean, the list goes on and on. I read hundreds of books. Why? Because I'm anxious to learn, yes, but two is I struggle with depression, so I need that positive reinforcement, and I use that through books. Lord, we just thank you for this podcast, Lord, and we just lift up the listeners to you and we don't know their struggles.

We don't know where they're at today, but we just pray that they know that you're with them. May you use the words we said today to help at least one person, God. We thank you for the mountaintops and we thank you for the valleys, and more importantly, that we can praise you in both. And we thank you for the people that you place in our lives during our valleys and continue to place in our lives. We have valleys all the time and that we just remember to put you at the center, God, so that we can praise you at the top.

And we thank you again for your grace and mercies and your healing power, God, and always wrapping your hands and arms around us, that we always come to you with anything that we're going through to help us get us through it. We love you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you, guys. Have a fantastic day. And hopefully we'll see you on the beaches of the world. Theme song!