Counteracting The Culture (Bringing Your Gifts To The World)

There's so many areas where we have left those spaces and then they were overtaken. So I want to encourage you, whatever space that you feel called to as an ambitious woman of faith, whatever dominion you feel like you are meant to occupy and go into, whether that be government or entertainment or education, maybe a space or place in your own community.

I want to encourage you to bring the best of what you have to give to those spaces because it's needed. Hello and welcome to today's episode of Ambitious Woman of Faith. I am thrilled to have this conversation today. Normally, I have an outline of what I'm going to be talking about. I know the points that I'm going to be making, but today is going to be more of an open discussion.

I've thought about off and on probably over the last several weeks. And what brought this conversation to air today was I was on I want to say it was tick tock a few weeks ago and I, honest to goodness, don't even remember exactly what video I came across. But it was something where I saw this video and it really just seemed like it was the depths of this person's mind.

They just aired for all to see, and I really don't remember what it is they said or what they were showing. I don't know if it's a skit or just them airing their thoughts, but I just remember thinking there is no filter on social media anymore. Like you can air any thought, even if it's the darkest, worst thought that you have ever thought.

Like people feel the freedom to share the depths of their depravity. And then I was listening to the Candace Owens show actually a few days ago, and I think the things that she shared ties into where I'm going to go with this conversation. She was talking about how she had gone to this website, Pornhub, and she was looking at the titles of the latest or hottest trending titles for these pornographic videos.

And they were all titled Something Related to Incest. And I share this to say, I know it's been going on for a long time where obviously the worst of the worst is available on the Internet to see, but it's become now mainstream to where you can even see the worst of the worst of what goes on in the human mind, even on social media.

And while the conversation she was having was the mainstreaming of pornography and what I had had seen on TikTok was, again, I don't even remember exactly the video. It was it was just almost like whatever they were saying was like, most people probably would filter that thought, but they were just spewing it and glorifying it and making it available for all to see.

It really made me think about how if the worst of the worst is available to see and consume, what if we showed up with the best of the best? I mean, all's you have to do is look through the titles and the thumbnails on Netflix and the other streaming platforms to have access to someone's idea that they then turned into a movie which was then produced and now available.

And sometimes those movies are great and sometimes they're not great at all. It's like you think who thought up this plotline? Who thought up the story? Why did it need to go that dark? Why did why was that necessary for this film? Like, there's plenty of shows that I would love to sit down and watch with my kids, but because the storyline went too far, or they added things in that weren't necessary for the plotline, we can't sit down and watch many films and shows that I would love to watch with my kids.

And so not to digress, but it really made me think if other people feel free to share deepest, darkest parts of their mind, what if you came forward with the creativity that you have to offer the world from your perspective and your experience as an ambitious woman of faith? And it got me thinking. Last year, I actually felt like God was laying it on my heart to have a media production studio.

And that's something that's in the works my husband and I. One of our big dreams and goals is to have a media production company and something that we're praying into and contending right now. But even as someone who's personally invested and interested in this, because I want to fill this space and pioneer this space, I think that this applies to everyone, every ambitious woman, a face.

If you decided to show up in your world and your sphere of influence with the best of the best that you have to offer, I believe it would do so much good in the world because there really is so much to consume out there that's not healthy. It's not good. There needs to be more of you and the health and the vitality and that they feel perspective that you bring to the table.

I think there needs to be more of that in the world, but so often we get hung up on the fact that we feel like we can't do it perfectly or it's not going to be as highly produced as the next person because maybe you don't have access to equipment or technology or know how, but I'm not asking you to show it perfectly.

I think that as ambitious women of faith, we are meant to fill the world with the goodness that God has poured out into us and the gifting and the perspective and the experience that we have as ambitious women of faith. And it's so hard as moms to navigate this world of how much exposure do we give our kids to the Internet because there's so much negative to consume.

But at the same time, we don't want to completely cut them off and have them be completely naive when they're 18 and entering the world. So it's always a fine balance in motherhood and parenthood of knowing where your child's maturity level is and how much goodness is a part of what they're consuming versus some of the bad stuff that they'll be exposed to.

That's a decision every parent has to make for themselves, and we're all going to choose and navigate that just a little bit differently based on our own family and our own child's maturity level and uniqueness. Because I've seen moms who have completely sheltered their children and then when they're 18, they want to go out and try it all because they've been so repressed and oppressed.

And I've seen parents who have like no filter and just let their child see whatever and they can go one of two ways as well. They can have been negatively influenced by that, or they could make the choice on their own to still make good choices and wise choices for their life despite what they grew up seeing. So I think there's this fine balance that we all have to make for our own households with, of course, the advice and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

But I really wanted this conversation to inspire you and encourage you that what you have to offer and give is needed and value. The world is filled with so much depravity. I mean, you don't have to look very far on Instagram and social media to see so much of the overexposure that goes on of people's intimate lives, of their bodies, of things that are just no longer even sacred anymore.

I mean, there's been so many times where my kids have been watching YouTube or we've just been watching one of the streaming platforms that we have. And there's been a commercial that's come on where I'm like, You've got to be kidding me right now. This is a commercial. This is a commercial. And I've just been floored. And my kids and I will look at each other and we're like, they're cringing.

They're like, Oh, my gosh, I cannot believe this is what I'm watching right now. And we see this 32nd clip of a commercial while we're just trying to watch a television show. So actually, in response to some of that, I went ahead and purchased the higher priced package of this particular streaming platform. So we didn't have to have exposure to some of these gross, disgusting commercials.

But I say that to say sometimes we do need to pull back from things. But there's also times where I feel like we need to show up in spaces that are dominated by evil and by worldly standards. And I can even take this conversation to the entertainment platform where years and years and years ago it used to be a thing in the church that you couldn't go to movies at the movie theater.

It was like if you were going to be a member of the church, maybe it didn't happen in every church. But I know this was a part of the church I grew up in. It was like a rule if you are a member, you shouldn't go to the movie theater. And I think that was at that time like a thing in churches.

But so we left this space of entertainment. We left it to Hollywood, we left it to the world to overtake and dominate because we chose not to show up in those spaces. And I think that did more harm than good because now we we fight for air time, like in a lot of the movies and the Christian things that you see produced can kind of be cheesy or cringeworthy.

The acting isn't that great, the writing's really not that great, and there's certain movies, of course, that break that mold and that become mainstream. But I think we're still living in the consequences of where we, as people of faith, have left certain areas to be overtaken by darkness. We see this even in government. We see it in the education field.

There's so many areas where we have left those spaces and then they were overtaken. So I want to encourage you, whatever space that you feel called to as an ambitious woman of faith, whatever you you feel like you are meant to occupy and go into, whether that be government or entertainment or education, maybe a space or place in your own community.

I want to encourage you to bring the best of what you have to give to those spaces because it's needed. And that doesn't mean you show up in that attitude of, I know it all. I come from a place of being a person of faith. So I have all of the answers. I don't think that's a healthy way to show up in any area of life, whether you are coming from a faith filled perspective or a different perspective altogether.

But I think it's really about showing up as the light and being a light. I know one thing I've recently been telling my kids as they get out of the car and they go about their day is go be a light wherever you go. And that doesn't mean being preachy or or pushy or anything like that. Maybe it means just like bringing a smile, changing the atmosphere in a room because you're not the one that entertains gossip and tears other people down.

When other you hear other people talking about somebody else, maybe it means you show up as the light because you go and talk to that person who everybody's ignoring. Maybe you show up for the other woman at work who everybody ignores because they think she's an idiot or they think something negatively of her. And you go and you show that person kindness and love and friendship, and you're a light in her life because maybe she just needs a friend.

Maybe she needs a smile, maybe she needs a positive influence in her life. Maybe that person that rubs you the wrong way that you have to interact with on a regular basis is just operating out of all that they know. Maybe they grew up, they didn't have a good example in a parent and they've had experiences that have just given them this spirit of rejection.

And maybe because they show up abrasive early and they just rub you the wrong way, it's been hard for you to make a connection. And I'm not saying that you have to connect with people that walk all over you. You have to accept being treated poorly. But it's also about recognizing the place that other people are coming from and then knowing that you don't have to allow their attitude and their negative energy to affect you.

You can still show up as a positive light in the spaces that you walk into and in your spheres and places of influence. And so I really just want to wrap back around to what I started with there is so much out there that's put out into the world for entertainment and absorption. So I want to ask you, what is the best of the best that you can bring to the world?

And I want to encourage you to go for that. It doesn't mean that I'm saying that you have to produce content, if that's what you're saying, but you can still shop in those places that you feel called to bringing the very best of you. And when I say very best of you, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying the perfect version of you or the Polish and Immaculate version.

I'm not saying that all. I'm just saying that we as ambitious women of faith can counteract the culture. There's so many areas to do this. And I mentioned showing up for our children from earlier in the conversation when I talked about getting in with a group of parents and we made an impact on the school board to counteracting in whatever space you feel God is calling you and leading you to.

So I would love it if you would let me know what you think of this conversation. If there's an area of your life that you feel that God is calling you towards. So if you enjoy this conversation and you would like to hear more conversations centered around culture versus personal development, send me a DM and let me know.

That's all we've got for this episode of the Cold Floor podcast. One thing that would really help both us and other new potential listeners is for you to rate this show and leave a comment in iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you tune in to listen. Also, make sure to link up with us at WW dot downtown dot com. That's Dawe and t o, w and Ecom and on social media.

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