Agape Love: A God Kind of Love

In this heart-expanding episode of Unrelated Sisters: Truth & Grace Conversation, Shannon and Deb dive into the deep, unconditional, and sacrificial love of God — Agape Love. What does it mean to love with a God-kind of love in a world that often only values romantic or transactional relationships? We unpack the biblical foundation of agape love, what it looks like in action, and how to live it out even when it’s hard. Whether you’re wrestling with forgiveness, learning to love yourself, or trying to love someone difficult, this episode is your invitation to love the Jesus way.

Key Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:4–7 — “Love is patient, love is kind...”                             John 3:16 — “For God so loved the world           Romans 5:8 — “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Lamentations 3:22–23 — “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed…”

Ephesians 2:4–5 — “But God, being rich in mercy…

Prayer:

“Father, thank You for loving us with an everlasting, unconditional love. Teach us how to love like You — when it’s easy, and when it’s hard. Fill us with Your Spirit so that we may be vessels of Your grace and compassion. Heal our hearts where we’ve been hurt and soften them where we’ve grown cold. Let your Agape love flow in us and through us, in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

Spiritual Encouragement:
You don’t have to manufacture this love — you receive it from God, then release it to others.

We want this to be truly interactive podcast. Please go in the fan mail at
https://unrelatedsisterspodcast.buzzsprout.com and tell us your stories and let us know if it’s okay to share (no names). Let us know if you need prayer or how we can support you in your journey. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen. Follow us on Facebook @Unrelated Sister's: Truth & Grace Conversation Podcast or Email us at unrelatedsisterspodcast@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:14

Hey, this is Deb, and we just want to start out by praying today. So Lord, we just lift you up, and we thank you for this day. We thank you for this opportunity. And God, I just pray for each person listening today, God, whatever they're struggling with today, God, that they will find you in their struggle, Lord. And I just pray that you would just speak through me and Shannon with boldness and confidence. In Jesus' name, amen.

SPEAKER_00: 0:43

Amen. Hey family and welcome back to Unrelated Sisters Truth and Grace Conversation. I'm Shannon and I'm joined by my sister in Christ, Deb, today. Today we're diving into one of the deepest truths in all of scripture, agape love. This isn't the kind of love the world sells in movies or pop songs. This is the kind of love that laid down his life for you, the kind of love that doesn't keep score, the kind of love that never fails. So let's dig into the word and discover what this love really means for you, your relationships, and your faith of walk. To define the word agape,

SPEAKER_02: 1:23

that means no strings attached. Agape is a God kind of love. It's the unconditional love, the love that God is. God is the agape love in the Bible. In 1 Corinthians 13, 4-7, it says, Love is patient, love is kind. And that love is the agape love. Agape is a choice, not a feeling. I know so many times for me, I would say, Oh, I love, because we use the word love so loosely. I love this. I love that. I'm in love with him. I'm in love with her. I think I've been in love so many times that it ain't even funny. I didn't even know what the word love meant. I didn't know the true meaning of love. I remember on my third divorce, my dad asked me, what's your definition of love? And I didn't even know. I didn't even know what love was. I based it on feeling, how I felt at that moment, what you can do for me. It was conditional. My love was always, because I was such a selfish person, my love was always a conditional, not the God kind of love, not the agape love.

SPEAKER_00: 2:34

You know, saying love is a choice and not a feeling, that kind of hits a little deep for me, right? Like, when you brought this to me, I didn't really know what agape love was. I had never heard it called that, right? And I thought about this, and When I was in addiction, I loved you if you had the best to feed my habit. And then when you couldn't feed my habit, I kicked you to the door. I used people like doormats. And when I got clean, that was a part of my guilt. I had to go back to some of these people and apologize, whether it was male or female, whether it was a friend or someone I just met. There was people that... I ruined their lives in that moment, right? Because I played with their feelings. Oh, yeah. And I, too, didn't understand love. And agape love that chooses to act for good, the good of another, even when it costs you. Wow. Yeah. You know what I mean? Sacrificial. That just... I don't even know what to say to that. I do know that I think I understood it most the day my son was born. And I held him for the first time, and he looked up at me. And that was the one thing God knew that was going to bring me out of where I was at. It was going to bring me out of addiction. Because all I ever wanted through the whole time of addiction was for somebody to love me. for who I was, right? And I searched and searched and searched and searched. And even after Dylan was born, I didn't just wake up one day and know what godly love was or agape love was. You know, I still struggled with that. I dated a guy and he was divorced and he had Two children of his own. And he was an amazing dad to his kids. He was such a nice guy. And he was so sweet and so good to his kids. And when we started dating, he took Dylan in just like Dylan was one of his. And he was good to me. And so I thought, okay, this is love. Right. He's good to me. He's good to Dylan. And Dylan needs that structure. Dylan needs a daddy. I was convinced at the time that Dylan needed a daddy. And so this guy asked me to marry him. And I said, yes. And we went and we. I bought a wedding dress and we started planning this whole big wedding. And then I started getting anxious, so anxious about it. And he kept saying, well, let's choose a date. Let's choose a date. So we chose a date. We went and picked out a cake. We went down, paid all this stuff. We went and rented a house. We furnished a house. We went and did all this stuff, right? And Went and bought these fancy invitations and I went and bought, you know, I had to buy like five books of stamps to mail all these invitations. And I leave work one day and I go to the post office and I am sitting in the parking lot at the post office going to mail these invitations to our wedding to a man that I told him I loved him, who was good to me, who was good to my son, who was going to be good for my son. Right. And I cried and I sat in that for over an hour in my car and I couldn't get out of the car. And I felt so bad and so guilty because I had led this man on, even though he was a good man. You know, I had led him on when I wasn't emotionally ready for what he was trying to give me. And reading through this agape love, it makes me want to go find this man and apologize to him and explain to him or, I don't know, maybe let him see the difference in me now. It's weird, right? That's good.

SPEAKER_02: 6:58

Yeah. I like what it says. God's love for us. God is love. 1 John 4, 8. Jesus demonstrated love. His love for us by going on the cross. He said he could have called down angels. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. And he didn't. Even knowing that we were going to do the things we did and turn our back on him. I know for me, I've cursed him and all kinds of things. And to know that he still loved us to go to the cross for us. That's a God-paid love. I can't sit here and say that because I've had a lot of bad things happen to me, and it's hard to go say I love that person. No, I've not arrived yet. I'm trying, but I've not arrived. It's

SPEAKER_00: 7:51

okay. It's okay. But you realize that they're not healthy for you, right? You've created boundaries with that. Yeah. You've forgiven them, right? You may not ever be able to go up to them and tell them you love them. But I think forgiveness is just as much agape love as going up and being able to tell someone you love them when they have hurt you emotionally, physically, emotionally. I think that has a big thing to do with it. And it said, you know, in Romans 5, 8, it says, while we were still sinners. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 8:36

In our mess. You can just think about one of your deepest, darkest times when we were. And we had many, many thousands. Many thousands. He loved it. So it's hard to even grasp. Right. Because nobody else could love me. I couldn't even love him. And we was unlovable. You know, I didn't even love me. But he loved me. In that moment. He loved us just as much then as he does now. And it's so hard to wrap our minds around sometimes. Because I feel

SPEAKER_00: 9:02

like I'm a total, you know, that was somebody else. That's not who I am. So that's not me. That wasn't me then. It isn't me now. Right. And I get it. It's just insane. You know, we've been... We've been watching The Chosen, the new show, you know, and don't say nothing because we're only in season four. I know season five is out, but we're only in season four. And so we've been watching. We've got one episode left of season four, and it's leading up to him going into Jerusalem to preach his final, you know, to do the final supper and stuff. You know, across the Jordan, and they came back across the Jordan, and he brought Lazarus to get up and walk out of the tomb. And in the show, And it's probably the closest thing to the true story of the Bible that I've ever seen. But in the show, one of his disciples had lost someone that he truly loved, and he keeps questioning God or Jesus. Why save Lazarus? Why not save this woman that I loved? You've created all these miracles, and that's where the episode went off at. And I'm excited to see what the next episode brings. But it's okay to question God because he does love us unconditionally, right? And you may, you know, when you ask a question, because I know when you asked me a question earlier, You know, I have to ask you, do you want the politically correct answer or do you want the truth? Yeah. Right. So you have to be prepared. You have to be prepared for that because when you ask that question, God's going to give you the truth. You may or may not like the truth, but you're going to get the truth. You know, the cross has an ultimate expression. Agape is not about how lovable we are, but how loving God is. Yes. Yeah, I'm not

SPEAKER_02: 11:05

always lovable.

SPEAKER_00: 11:07

Right? Like, my husband. He'll tell you. Your husband will tell you. You know, as humans, we're not always the most lovable people, right? And when you're working through your own garbage or your own mess, it puts you in a place sometimes, right? Like, you know, I've always said the devil knows two things. He knows the two people that can push me forward. To be the person I don't want to be, right? The two people that can influence me to backtrack or to feel self-loathing, right? To feel lesser than. And it's my son and my daddy, right? Like, I love my daddy. I love the man he used to be. I love the man, even in his worst days, I've always loved my daddy. And Even though I have to have boundaries now, that doesn't mean that love has changed. It's just harder to show it to Him. But reading through this agape love has made me kind of reevaluate some things with Him, which is kind of weird.

SPEAKER_02: 12:19

Yeah, it teaches us how we're called to love others. John 13, 34 talks about loving like Jesus. You know, people say that all the time. What would Jesus do? You know, A lot of times if you really would put yourself in that, and when you're in a moment, you have a choice, right? Not going off our feelings. This is something I'm really, really working on right now because my feelings will get me jacked up sometimes and I'll react instead of thinking about. Are you a

SPEAKER_00: 12:48

Karen sometimes? Yeah,

SPEAKER_02: 12:49

I'm a Karen sometimes. And not really react, maybe not react. You know what I mean? Shut down. Shut down. That's even worse. It is. And so I'm learning that. And my dad, he was praying for some people last week at the Tent Revival. And I was just amazed at probably out of the 10 different people that came up at the end, probably seven of them were praying for their marriage, were literally standing in line for their marriage. And I was like, well, just let me see where the enemy fights the most, where the enemy's fighting the most right now. And some of the words he was saying was, even when you feel like you don't love them, Don't go off your feelings. Your feelings will lie to you.

SPEAKER_00: 13:30

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 13:30

Because, you know, there's so many times, oh, I'm not in love. When they do something we don't like, I don't love them. That's crazy. You know what I mean? Because your feelings will definitely lie to you. And then when you're over that moment, oh, you're all back in love again.

SPEAKER_00: 13:42

Oh, yeah. You know? Well, and that's, you know, and I try to very, very hard and you were laughing at me downstairs. It's not that I don't love you anymore. I just don't like you in this moment.

SPEAKER_02: 13:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 13:51

Right. Because I used to be the same way. I just don't love you anymore. But it's not that I don't love you anymore. I just don't like who you are in this moment. So I, and you know, we've talked about it. Your words, words are strong. Your tongue is strong. And if you speak, I don't love you anymore out into existence. How easy is it for the, you know, for the enemy to step in there and be like, he didn't love him yesterday. Why do you love him today? You know, and forgiveness and grace and humility is, And how we're called to love people, you know, forgiveness is, is one of the things that it's hard in love. It's so hard forgiveness. I mean, forgiveness is hard on a normal day, but if it's someone that you have that loved you was supposed to care for you was supposed to, you know, that you give your heart to, and they, you, you have to give, forgive them for something that's hard. And it's, And that's where grace and humility comes in.

SPEAKER_02: 14:56

I think about when we're going over this, I'm thinking about Judas and how he betrayed Jesus. And Jesus knew. He knew he was going to betray him. And he washed his feet. Washed his feet? Washed his feet. Now, if I know that somebody's going to stab me in the back, I don't know that I'm going to go wash their feet, Shannon. I know. Well, I know, I know, I know. But that's just the love that he

SPEAKER_00: 15:20

has. The love that he had. You know, in the episode we were watching on The Chosen last night, he was talking to his mother when they went to see Lazarus and he was talking to his mother and he's talking about being human and being frustrated. And I was like, oh. And that's how I knew when I was watching that last night because usually I play my game and I kind of watch what's going on and I don't really pay it. I didn't play the game last night. I watched the whole episode last night. And, um, I knew that's when I knew we had to talk about the agape love this morning because I knew you were coming today. And, uh, but he was talking about being human and being frustrated because the disciples wasn't getting it right. He goes, I've told them three times, but they're not getting

SPEAKER_01: 16:01

it,

SPEAKER_00: 16:03

you know, but then he just gets up and does it again and does it again and does it again, you know, and, and, I was watching TikTok earlier today, and there's this new mom on TikTok, and she is trying to be a better mom. But her house is cluttered. Her house is dirty. Her house is, you know, and she talks about, there's just some days I just don't, I just can't. Right? And instead of people... cheering her on for what she is accomplishing they're just bashing her they're just bashing her and you know and and i sit and i think well maybe you could say something to us but then i don't do it right because i don't want to get in the middle of all the all the stuff i don't want to get in the The TikTok account is for this podcast, right? So I don't want to put my two cents in because I don't want to bring negativity to the podcast. But then I sit here and I think about Agape Love and that's what she needs, right? Like she needs somebody to stand up for her and she needs someone that understands. I mean, when I lived in addiction... my place was no place for a kid.

SPEAKER_02: 17:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 17:27

You know, when I was depressed, no, my place was no place for a kid. You know, I mean, when Dylan was younger and me and my mom both were depressed, you know, our house got very cluttered and very dis, you know, there was just stuff everywhere. And it's not that it was nasty. There wasn't bugs or rats or nothing. It's just stuff and stuff makes it nasty. Right. And, um, You know, so when he started school and stuff, like, he was ashamed. Like, he didn't bring people over. He didn't bring friends over to the house. And I get it. But

SPEAKER_02: 18:01

I can't pay love. Yeah. Right? Loving people right where they're at.

SPEAKER_00: 18:05

Loving them right where they're at. And it's hard. It

SPEAKER_02: 18:08

is. And the Lord has to remind me of that sometimes. Like, when you are praying for something, and maybe our next segment we'll get into this in our waiting season. But... Just praying and loving them right where they're at. I know my daughter was going through the things she was going through a few months ago. That was one thing I prayed for. Lord, help me to love her. That was something I was intentional about. Let me love her right where she's at. Because everybody else, her sisters, were bashing her and telling her, you need to do this, you need to do that. But you know as well as I do, when you're in addiction and you're out there living the world, you ain't trying to hear all that. We're just pushing her away. So I was like, Lord, help me to love her right where she's at. And she's come back now and she'll tell me, Mom, I thank you for that because I wasn't preaching to her. I would just, I would message, I love you. Please keep your location on so I can at least see where you're at. I already know you're out doing the most, but I love you. And I would encourage her and tell her that God hadn't changed his mind about her. You know, sometimes people need to hear that. And she said, now she'll tell me, she's like, mom, that hit my heart. You know what I mean? Every time you said it. Yeah, because she knew she had a calling on her life, but she was out there. But sometimes we need... To be able to love people right where they are and call them up to their identity, not bash them because of what they're doing wrong. Oh, no, I

SPEAKER_00: 19:32

get it. When I was in addiction, and I started at a young age, I started getting high at 17. And when I was in addiction, like... I lived with my mama for the, and she knew she wasn't stupid. I mean, she'd lived with my daddy for 10 years. So she knew, um, she never said nothing. Um, she never ding, you know, she never got on me, but I'd hear like, if I'd get up and go to the bathroom, I'd hear praying. Right. And I was like, I'd be like, really? She's praying. Like after everything God's let us go through. And after everything that's happened, you know, she's in there praying. And, uh, but I always knew, uh, no matter where I was at, no matter what kind of house I was in or what kind of person I was with that I could go home without judgment. Right. I knew she was, I knew she would, you know, she'd be mad at me. Yeah. She'd be disappointed, but she would be mad at me, you know, but I knew if I knocked on the door, she was going to open the door. Right. And the only, the only thing she didn't do was let me bring whoever it was being mean to me home. Yeah. Right. Um, And, you know, and, and after I came out of addiction and after, and it took many years, like I didn't run a home and tell her how much I loved her, but, you know, I've asked for her forgiveness for the things I disrespected her in her home for some of the things that I've done, you know, and, and we talk about it freely now, you know, where I, before it was, it was, it took a, it took a while, but she, she, showed me true agape love yeah through my time you know and then my daddy of course he was getting high with me so there was he didn't know how there was never no judgment from him you know but i always felt like there could be judgment you know but agape in real life in your marriage choosing to love even when you're tired or drained

SPEAKER_01: 21:33

yes

SPEAKER_00: 21:34

in parenting laying yourself down day after day So me and Haley, I don't know if you got to listen to the episode that came out Friday. We talked about this. We talked about choosing, right? And the one thing she said that I cannot get out of my mind was she lives by, I get to get up and go to church this morning. I get to serve at my church this morning. I get to get up and take my kids to school. I get to do this. Not I have to, but I get to, right. And I know, right. Because sometimes life to me, it's like, Oh my God, I gotta go to work. Oh my God. I gotta go sit and watch my kid, you know, play baseball for five hours or what, you know what I mean? Like, don't get me wrong. I enjoy doing it, but there's just days that I just want to call in the bed. Yeah. Right. But I'm going to try to be more intentional about it. I get to get a big go to work today. And then you brought me this yesterday. And I was like, oh, my God, it's perfect. Because in ministry, serving people without applause or return, that's hard, right? Like as humans, like even at work. My son came home the other day, and they had a big visit. Their regional show came to the store, and my son was out working on the garden center patio. And the regional came out, and he said, he goes, you know, I've met the market manager two or three times, and he has never called me by my name. He said, but Jerry stopped, introduced himself, and called me Dylan.

UNKNOWN: 23:22

Wow.

SPEAKER_00: 23:22

And he goes, and that right there is, well, I will respect that man forever. Right? Like he didn't treat me like I was just some lonely associate. You know, he treated me like I was a human. And he goes, and that's the first time I felt that way in months in the store. And I was like, if we just take a moment to ask them their name and say their name. Yeah. Make them feel wanted. Right? And that's simple. Like, why is it so hard? I know. When in real

SPEAKER_02: 23:56

life. It's easy for us

SPEAKER_00: 23:57

to

SPEAKER_02: 23:58

say negative. Excuse me. You know. You caused a negative in our department. Yeah.

UNKNOWN: 24:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 24:06

But that, you know, that's real life stuff. Yeah. Right there. That's real life when it comes down to it. And it just, I don't know. Yeah. Agape means dying to self. But in that death is resurrection life. Yeah, that's good. Dying to self. That's complicated. Yeah. Right? And necessary. But necessary. Yeah. For sure. But complicated all at the same time.

SPEAKER_02: 24:36

Especially if you want to walk in agape love. And you're not necessarily going to get up and be like, okay, I have agape love for everybody. Like you say, it's got to be more intentional. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00: 24:48

It's a choice. It's a choice. It's definitely a choice. I

SPEAKER_02: 24:55

choose to love you today despite how you treated me. I choose to not backlash you. I was thinking of all these scenarios. You know what I mean? Right. I'm going to choose to love you despite your circumstances.

SPEAKER_00: 25:09

You know, and I can tell the difference in me. Over the last 10 years, once I truly laid everything down at His feet, and every day it gets easier and easier to love the chaos in the world, right? And I don't mean like be a part of the chaos, but to be able to love the people in the

SPEAKER_02: 25:31

chaos. Because we were the people in the chaos.

SPEAKER_00: 25:35

Yes. Yeah, we probably started the chaos, if you want to get honest about it. But it's easier to see them where they are because of where I came from. It's easier to love the person next to me than it used to be because once I learned to love myself... Through Christ's eyes. Yes.

SPEAKER_02: 25:56

It's a game changer. It's a game changer.

SPEAKER_00: 25:59

And that is where it has to start. You can't wake up today and say, okay, I'm going to have agape love. I'm going to love everybody.

SPEAKER_02: 26:05

You better start loving yourself

SPEAKER_00: 26:06

first. You've got to see yourself through Christ's

SPEAKER_02: 26:10

eyes.

SPEAKER_00: 26:12

Yes. And then you're able to see it. And I've seen a quote the other day on social media, and it said that everybody is abusing Christ. God loves you where you are. And I thought, excuse me? What? Yeah. And then he paused for a second. And then he says, God loves you where you're at because he's there to help you get to the next step. Right? So you can't keep saying, well, God loves me where I am and continue to be the same. And I thought, oh, that makes a lot of sense. Because I remember trying to come out of addiction and thinking, oh, Well, I'm not doing meth anymore. Just because I'm getting drunk four nights a week doesn't mean I'm doing anything wrong, right? I'm a better person today than I was yesterday. And, you know, I mean, I wait till I put my kid to bed, you know, and then I go out to the club just because I can't get up with them in the morning doesn't mean anything. You know, I'm a better mom today than I was yesterday. And Jesus loved me where I was at. But he also was kicking me to get drunk. to where He wanted me to be. And I don't want anyone to misconstrue us all the time saying God loves you where you are and we love you where you are because we do. We truly love you where you are, but we want to help you get to your next steps and your next purpose because what is your purpose? I truly believe that we go through tragedy and we go through trauma and we go through... life because somewhere preparing us for something down the road you know and this is perfect how do you love with agape how to love with agape you know we can't produce agape love it's a fruit of the holy spirit right how do we get that fruit How do you get that?

SPEAKER_02: 28:12

Pruning.

SPEAKER_00: 28:14

You got to plant the seeds first. You got to go through some stuff. You got to go through some stuff. You got to let him plant some seeds around, you know, in your valleys. You got to let him plant the seeds in your valleys. Also, songflowers. Yeah. You know, you have to let him plant the seeds in the valleys. And then you have to trust that he has the watering can. Yeah. Right. And you have to trust that he is watering them because water, from seed you know it starts out small and if you just back up and let it go it'll it'll it'll grow in

SPEAKER_01: 28:47

the

SPEAKER_00: 28:49

valley you know we strive to be on the mountaintop but the more and more i think about it like the seeds that he's planted through my valleys That's when I've

SPEAKER_02: 29:02

had the most encounters.

SPEAKER_00: 29:03

I know, right? I could just lay in the valley and, you know, in the flowers, in the wildflowers, you know, that's the way I picture it now is because of all the seeds that I know he's planted inside of me in my world and in my bubble and all of the different things. And like, I have a valley full of wildflowers, you know, I can run through that all day long. It's not about climbing the mountain. It's a About seeing the seas in the valley. Right.

SPEAKER_02: 29:36

Some practical tips that will help you love with agape. Pray. Pray before reacting. We just talked about this a while ago. I'm really trying to be intentional. I'm like, I don't have to say that. I have to choose to be kind. Choose to love. when there's animosity going on around me, this has been a really, uh, rough couple of weeks at work. You know, I felt like my house kind of simmered down a little, you know what I mean? And then work starts. Right. Oh yeah. And so I've had more marvelous opportunities to act out of character, but I've really had to just talk back. Well, people are watching too. You know what I mean? Like they're, they're not, they're expecting me to not expecting me. Should I say to, uh, not that I was cussing them or anything like that, but I was telling them about their self, you know what I mean? And I wasn't real, real nice about it. But then I was, so after the meeting, I was like, hey, if I was rude in there to y'all, which I immediately went to the girl and I'm like, if I was rude, I'm sorry, you know what I mean? But some of the stuff y'all were saying, like I had to stand up for my department, you know? And, um, So she's like, oh, no, no, you weren't rude. But the Lord convicted me. Maybe I wasn't rude, but I wanted her to know that, hey, if I was, I apologize. My tone was not very nice. I know that for a fact. And so I don't ever want to be ugly to people, you know what I mean, just because I'm not— They're saying something that I don't want to hear. I do that a lot. Lord, help me to speak this with your words and not mine. I don't want to make this a bigger mess than what it is. He will. He'll help you. He'll give you the words to speak. Ask God to fill you up and to do that. We got to empty ourself of us. Right. If there's anything in me that's not pleasing to you, I surrender it, empty me so I can be full, so I can be overflowing. My dad used a good passage. He's been preaching on being filled up. He was like, just like with a water pot, if you take that pot and you put it under the faucet and you just let it fill up, it's going to start overflowing. But as soon as you move it, It's not. You know what I mean? It's not going to be filled. You can pour it out. You can pour it into a cup, whatever. You've got to get back under the spout. And that's what he was talking about. Staying under that, being in alignment with God and staying under the spout. Where he's at, being in alignment with God so we can be filled on a daily. Because especially with us in our positions, I know we're pouring into people all day long, whether we realize it or not. Oh, I know. And it's so important that we're doing things like this, even. It fills me up. It does me too. You know what I mean? And getting in that prayer time or whatever, your worship, and being filled back up daily. And you have to choose obedience over emotions. That's right. Yes, help me, Lord. We're still working on that one. You know, and

SPEAKER_00: 32:45

choosing obedience over emotion. Wow. Okay, so emotions. Let's talk about some emotions first, right? So it's easier to react than it is to choose, to not react. You know, as humans, it's easier to be... you know, emotional and get all emotional. And it's easier to overreact than it is to underreact, right? You get excited, you get angry, you get, you know, you get mad or you get scared or you have fear or, you know, it's so much easier to overreact in all of those emotions than it is to choose to obedience and agape love right to to choose love over them you know i sit and i think about um haley you know in the uh last episode she talked about the meme where god is putting her hand over your mouth right and and i think about the words that come out of my mouth sometimes and it makes me it makes me want to ask the question was that god Or was that in my emotions? Right. And in, in more times than, than I like to admit, I think it's my emotions, you know, I think it's my emotions coming out, especially when I feel anger behind it or I feel disappointment. Right. I'm not saying you can't be disappointed and I'm not saying you can't be angry.

SPEAKER_02: 34:17

You

SPEAKER_00: 34:19

just can't act out on it. Right. Like I got in trouble at work one time. I was a boss and, um, the people that were supposed to be collecting the carts in the parking lot, wasn't doing a very good job. And there was three of them out there and one had went to lunch. And so one side of the parking lot was empty and the other side of the parking lot was empty. But the boy that was doing the middle had went to lunch. So the other two boys were just standing around because their sides were empty. And I was like, what are y'all doing? And they're, Oh, that's not my responsibility. Excuse you. And they're like, And he said a few things that I'm not going to repeat. And it bowled over me. Like it hit me like a ton of bricks. And before I knew it, I was like, I don't care. Can somebody get the dad blasted courts like that? Well, a customer called my boss and complained because he thought I cussed. Right. But out of anger, I may have said some other choice words, um, you know, I'm not going to say I did or didn't, but the customer said I did, you know, and he come and he's like, Shannon, he goes, what were you doing? And I was like, I was so frustrated with the two of them because that other kid, they just left him out to dry. And I was like, they should be a team and they're this and they're that. And he's like, yes, but did you speak out of anger or did you speak out of leadership? And I was like, I don't like you. Yeah. You know, and he was right. I spoke out of anger. I didn't think before I spoke. And because 98% of the time I speak out of leadership in that position. That 2% is the worst. Yeah. Right. It's when you don't think before you speak. And it's took me a long time to get where I'm at today because I don't always think before I speak.

SPEAKER_02: 36:14

You know, my dad has a saying, you can't never go wrong by doing what's right. Right. You can never go wrong by doing what's right. So I have to think about that sometimes. And sometimes when we see the word obedient, we're like, especially if we're control freaks, we're like, obedient means you've got to do this, this. No, it's just doing the right thing. It's just doing the right thing. It's just doing the right thing.

SPEAKER_00: 36:33

You know, the definition of integrity is doing the right thing when nobody else is around, you know, when nobody else sees you. Yeah.

UNKNOWN: 36:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 36:44

that's no different than obedience. Integrity, obedience. And

SPEAKER_02: 36:48

the Bible says that obedience is better than sacrifice. Right? So you can give all your stuff away, but if you're not being obedient, you know what he's really asking you to do. Right. So, just

SPEAKER_00: 37:02

love. Just love. Okay. Sisters, we hope today's episode reminded you just how loved you are by God and how powerful it is when we love others with the same agape love. Let's stop waiting to feel love and start choosing to live it.

SPEAKER_01: 37:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 37:24

Follow us on Facebook or TikTok at Unrelated Sisters Podcast. Share your stories with us and ask questions for any upcoming episodes. And don't forget to share this episode with your bestie, your mom, or that coworker who needs some love today. Pray us

SPEAKER_02: 37:41

out. Amen. Until next

SPEAKER_00: 38:09

time, keep walking in truth and grace. You are loved, chosen and covered in agape. Yes. Till next time. We love y'all. We love y'all.