Embarking on a Faith-Fueled Journey to Success in the New Year: Season Finale

What's up, guys? Welcome to Demo with Moe. I'm your host, monique Simmons. We'll be discussing dating, engaged and married objectives from a young Christian's perspective. Are you guys ready? Let's dive in. Hey, what's up, guys? Welcome to a new episode of Demo with Moe. I am your host, monique Simmons, and today is our season six finale. I can't believe how quickly we have gotten here, but we're here. I hope you guys have enjoyed season six. I have thoroughly enjoyed recording this season. I have enjoyed it a lot. Today we are going to be discussing how to set ourselves up for success. Last week's episode we discussed trusting God with 2024. I hope you guys have had some time to think about your New Year's resolutions or your word for the year, or your goals and your desires and what you want to focus on and the things you wanted to accomplish this year, even if you haven't thought about what you wanted to accomplish for the whole year in itself, because something that I try to do is do quarterly goals things that I want to focus on achieving for every three months, even if you want to break down your goals or things that you want to achieve that way, whatever helps you to get to where you want to be Again. As I talked about last week, whatever helps you be the best version. Be the best version of yourself, or becoming a better version of yourself. That should be our goal. Being better than what we were last year, or being better than just who we were on yesterday. Just striving to be better. That should be our goal each day just being better than what we were the day before. If you have not had a chance to listen to last week's episode, please go back and check out the episode Trusting God with 2024. That is my desire for this year. The reason that I'm even bringing that episode back up because it's going to tie into our discussion for today on today's final episode for this season is because, whatever your resolution is, whatever it is that you desire to achieve, to accomplish, to focus on for this year Because it may be your marriage or your relationship you wanted to be better than what it was last year. Maybe you had a hard relationship with your partner last year. Maybe you guys struggled the whole year. That's not what you want to do this year. You came into the year and you said we're not going to go through this year like we did last year. We're not going to do that. Maybe you struggled with your kids as a parent last year. Maybe, just like this year, I declare we're not going to go into 2024 the same way we did in the prior years. That's not what I'm going to do. Maybe it's your finances and you're saying I'm not going to struggle and barely make it the way I did in previous years. I'm going to be a better steward. I'm going to budget my money. Maybe I'm going to sit down with a financial advisor and talk to someone about our finances. Maybe, on my job, maybe I've been complacent and I've just been going through the motions, but I'm not satisfied. I'm not happy on this job, but maybe I need to go back to school or get a certification, or reach out and step out on faith and talk to my supervisor about getting a raise on my job or what I deserve or what I'm worthy of, or all of the things that I've done to prove myself. Maybe I just need to desire and ask for more. Maybe I'm not going to stay quiet in the way I did in previous years. Maybe I'm going to speak up for myself this year. Whatever it is, whatever it is that you're desiring and wanting to achieve for yourself, your resolution for this year, what it is that you're asking or expecting or wanting for yourself this year, designing and Desiring. It is not enough without a game plan, some kind of way that you've thought about your part in this. What can I do? Because just trusting God, even though trusting God is gonna be a major part of it, that's gonna be your first step, because we're gonna have to trust God for it, but also trusting God is not gonna be the only part. What is my part in this? When you go to the Word of God, we see again. If you have not listened to last week's episode, I want you to go back and listen to that even before you finish this, because listening to this without listening to last week's episode, it may not make sense to you. But when we discuss the fave heroes last week, god not only did what he was going to do. If you go back, read each story of each one of those fave heroes. Each one of those people did their part before God did his. So you need to figure out what exactly it is that you need to do. What is my part in this? What is it that I need to do? We have to have a game plan. We need to figure out what my part is in this, because I can't just sit around and do nothing and expect God to do it all. So today we're gonna figure out what is my game plan, what is my part in this? To set myself up for success. For whatever it is. I don't know what it is that you expect from God, what it is you're desiring from God, what it is that you're wanting out of 2024. It could be your finances, it could be your relationship with your family, you may be having a strange relationship with your partner, it could be with your children. It could be so many different things, but just wanting something, just desiring something, is not enough. What's your game plan? What's your part in this? What is it that you're going to do? So many times we're expecting everything from God, but we don't wanna do anything. We want God to do everything. We don't wanna make any changes. We don't wanna make any sacrifices. We don't wanna have any obedience. We don't wanna give up anything. We don't wanna let anything go. We wanna remain the same, stay the same, continue to live any kind of way, treat people any kind of way, do whatever we wanna do, but we want God to do everything, we can continue to live like that. What I'm saying is if we're going to be different, if we want something different in 2024, we're gonna have to do things differently. If we're expecting something from God, we're gonna have to be different. We can't continue to do things the same way. If we want our relationships and our marriages to be different, we can't continue to do our relationships and our marriages the same way. I know some people may say well, I didn't see those examples, I didn't come from that family, I don't know how to do things in that way. There are so many resources out there. I didn't come from that, I didn't see those things, but that's not an excuse. There's so many resources out there where we can find this information. There's podcasts like mine. There's so many podcasts out there. There's books. I read so many books and I've read so many books because I wanted to learn. I didn't want to use the excuse of I didn't come from that. I didn't see that. I didn't know that. You can get in community with people. You can get with like-minded people. You can read your Bible. We use social media for everything, but there are groups and communities with people that sharing this information, people that have this information that's readily available to us, but we can't use the excuse that we didn't come from and we don't know it when it comes to our finances. There are so many resources, programs like Dave Ramsey, there's so many apps and so many budgeting apps that are free A lot of these things you don't even have to pay for. There's financial advisors. There's YouTube videos. There's so many resources that are available to so many different programs. They're out there. All of these TikTok videos. It's just so many things that are available to us. If we take the time to research, the same way we scroll on social media to be in celebrities, business and to see what everyone else is doing in their lives and to keep up with everyone else, we can use these same resources to find the information that we need to set us up for success and our finances and our relationships and our marriages and our families with our children, on our jobs, just like in our careers, if we want to better ourselves and if we want to grow in our careers, if there's something that we desire. A lot of this stuff doesn't even require us going to school anymore. There was once upon a time you had to go to school, you had to get degrees, you had to spend two to four to eight years in school to get these degrees to even better yourselves on your jobs. But there are so many things now. Well, we don't even have to do that. You can get certifications while you're still working. You can take these classes online, these programs that aren't even lengthy anymore. Even now, your jobs are offering programs like my job, the certification that I have on my job. For me to be in a position that to work the position that I work on my job, it requires a specific certification. And I have to do this. Take the risk. I have to recertify every two years on my job. My job, I'm able to take the certification While still working and get paid for the time when I'm going to take the certification, and my job also pays for me to take the certification. So it's times are so different now where we're able to move up and get these different certifications and move up on our jobs and get these different positions, if it's something that we desire, and it doesn't always take a lot Like times have changed so much, so it's just taking the time out to do research and to look for the things you want and network and talk to people and build community and just open our mouths and setting ourselves up for success. Trusting God is not just not doing anything. It's not just sitting at home and waiting on God to do everything. Trusting God requires action, action. God for direction, action. God for wisdom. God, how should I move? Who do I need to talk with? Where do I need to go? Who are the right people that I need to link with? Who are the people that I need to reach out to? When should I say something? When should I be quiet, reading your Bibles, getting in your Word, being in tune with the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is a person. The Holy Spirit will speak to you. The Holy Spirit will lead you, direct you, guide, you, bring back to your remembrance the things that you've read in God's Word. This is a person. This is a real relationship, but we have to begin to set ourselves up for success. No longer should we go year to year to year not doing anything. Sam, we trust God, but our actions not reflected in that Sam. We believe in God, but our actions not reflected in that Sam. We surrender to God and he's the head of our lives but our actions not reflected in that, if we say we trust Him with our relationships and our marriages, let us do those things that say that we trust Him, we believe Him, we surrender to Him when it comes to our relationships and our marriages. What does that look like? Well, what does His Word say I should be doing? Let me do those things. And if I don't know, let me get in His Word and see what it says. Let me get into resources to see how do I do those things, because maybe I'm not sure. Let me get with people who would encourage me, hold me accountable to do those things. Maybe there's been some hurt there. Let me get into therapy and do the work to work through these hurts that I've been holding on to. But let me not just stay the same way my finances. I feel stuck. I feel like I'm struggling. I can't keep up. Let me budget. Let me figure it out. I don't know how to budget. Let me look up some resources, maybe find some budgeting apps. I don't know where to start. Let me look at some YouTube videos. Let me listen to some podcasts people who talk about budgeting apps and ways to budget. Let me look into some free resources. I can't afford any of that stuff where it costs, but let me look into some free things that won't cost me anything. Let me start there. Maybe some of my friends or some of my close family that I have good relations with, that I know that it's good with money. Let me reach out to some of them that I trust that I know won't be spreading my business. I can reach out to some of them. What do you guys use? Any of these things work for you? Maybe you can point me in the right direction. Where do I start? That's setting yourself up for success. But don't continue to do things the same way that you've been doing them. It's okay to ask for help. It's okay to reach out to other people when you don't know, but set yourself up for success. We have to have a game plan. I don't care what it is that we're dealing with. I don't care what it is that we're facing. I don't care what your New Year's resolution is, what it is you want to achieve, what it is your goal is. Whatever it is, have a game plan to set yourself up for success. They say you, if you fail to plan, plan to fail. And it's so true, it is so true. We have to have some kind of plan. So, whatever it is that you want to achieve this year Finances, a better marriage, a better relationship with your family. You want to get out of debt, you want to start your own business, you want to move out of state, you want to buy a new home? You want to get your kids moved out of your home, you want to send them out to college? You want to start therapy? You trying to break a generational curse in your family? Whatever it is, no matter how small it may seem to others, no matter how big it may seem, it may seem impossible, because we trust in God this year. So some of the things may seem completely impossible to you. I encourage you, write it down, make a plan, make a game plan Because, again, you setting yourself up for success now. Make a game plan and you don't have to be a big, detailed. You need to know everything because you're trusting God, you're stepping out on faith and you're trusting God, so you don't need to know the beginning from the end. That's not what I'm saying at all. The only person that needs to know everything is God. That's it. What I'm saying is have some kind of plan. Don't go into this year saying let me give you an example. There was once upon a time, years ago, in my marriage, my husband and I we've been married a long time now, but we got married at the ripe age of 21. We had no idea what we were doing and things were really hard, like really hard in the beginning, because we had no idea what we were doing. We didn't come from a family of marriages where we saw healthy examples of it. We just we didn't know. And in the beginning, instead of trying to find out how to do it on our own, we would just say we'll figure it out, I'll figure it out, he'll say he'll figure it out. We just ignorance out of ignorance. Just now, thinking about it, it was just pure ignorance. We'll figure it out, we're going to work on it, I'm going to get better, you're going to get better. And just month after month it's not going to get better. And so we really figure out some, get into some real resources, do some real work, get into therapy, get into the right community, just saying things to get better, and we'll figure it out. That's not a game plan, because you won't just figure it out, things won't just get better. And so I got to a place because I only can speak for me. And so I got to a place where, well, how are you going to get better? How are you going to figure it out? What is going to be your game plan? What are the resources that you're going to use to get better? I got to that place where I decided to really change and figure out how I was going to make a real change. I really got that in my heart and my mind. There was not going to be a change in me. Once that change happened in me, that's when a change happened in my marriage. That's when I got a game plan. I began to listen to podcasts that talked about marriage and talked about how to have a healthy marriage. I got into my surroundings change with my community, with my friends and the people that I surrounded myself with and the things that I listened to and the things that I consumed. I began to get in my word and really build my relationship with Christ. That thing got real personal to me. I began to let the Holy Spirit lead and direct my life. Things really began to change for me because I had a game plan. Now I wasn't just talking Things going to get better and things going to change. I just stopped talking at the side of my mouth because just talking won't work. But it had to become real to me and I really had to begin to make a game plan. I'd only make a game plan, but I had to implement that game plan and begin to make real changes to my life. That's when I began to set myself up for success. I not only set myself up for success, but set my marriage up for success. I began to see that thing happen. I encourage you to do the same thing so that 2024 can be different for you, different in the years prior. Again, we trust in God with 2024, but we're also going to do the work, because God is not going to do everything while we do nothing. We're going to make a game plan, set ourselves up for success and we're going to trust God with the results. You guys, I am going to miss you, but we will be ready and we're going to come in high in season seven. I hope you have enjoyed today's episode. Remember I love you, but God loves you so much more and I will talk to you guys soon. In the meantime, follow me on social media on Instagram, demo and mode podcast, and on TikTok and Facebook at demo with mode, and join our relationship group on Facebook at dating, engage and married objectives. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye, I hope you guys have enjoyed Follow me on Facebook at demo with mode. If you have any questions you would like answered here live on my podcast, email them to me at democom.