You Are Made New

Have you ever found yourself standing at the foot of a mountain called 'Change', unsure of how to take that first step? As we reflect on the powerful lessons from our 31-day challenge, I invite you on a journey to declutter your life, both physically and mentally, while fostering a spirit of gratitude and joy from the moment you open your eyes each morning.

 There are no guests this episode — just us, our shared experiences, and a commitment to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary, one sunrise at a time. So, come along as we redefine what it means to live with purpose.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

Hey guys and welcome back to that Girl Radio. It is your lovely host here, ricky Lee, also known as that Girl, and I am so excited to be back here on the podcast giving you your weekly supplement so that you can live and design your best life. For this week's episode, I want to remind all of you that you've been made new. For those of you who are new to the podcast, last month we did a 31 day challenge and 21 day episode run through of working together to really just invest in ourselves, love on ourselves and do everything we needed to do to set ourselves up for success in the year of 2024. We talked about tons of different things and through and through, we built a beautiful community of so many strong, like-minded individuals who are just in the pursuit of better. But I want to remind you that you are not chasing the win. What you are doing is chasing purpose and in that that means that you are being made new each and every day. But you have to invite the newness, you have to acknowledge the newness and you have to embrace the newness. Especially, by the end of today's episode, you will feel really joyous about the idea of being able to wake up each and every day and get an opportunity to do it again, and not just do it again, but do it better. So, first and foremost, one of the most important scriptures that is going to be the guide for our discussion today is 2 Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 17. It says therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone, the new is here. Now I can speak from experience. I have a lot of pain. I have a lot of situations and things that I had to overcome from last year in order to show up as a woman I am today. But the key word was overcome right.

Speaker 1: 2:14

To be made new is to be willing to do away with what you've been, what you've known and what you believe, and sometimes that's really scary. It's extremely scary, because doing away with your belief system, your values and what you've always known to be true is really allowing yourself to be vulnerable to what is out there. It's like saying the sun actually isn't yellow. Now we know that to be true. Guys, we see, we walk outside every single day. The sun is yellow, but if you are someone who only rises midday, okay, yes, the sun is yellow. But if you adopt a new attitude. If you allow yourself to see things in different ways, then you would see that at sunrise and sunset, the sun isn't just yellow, it's also slightly orange, it's also slightly red, it has very beautiful hues and different colors at different times of the year and in different locations in the world during the year, and so a lot of things can be true. We can believe them to be true. That is our reality at the moment. But until we open our eyes and open our hearts and open our spirits to the ideas of accepting something new, we will only be able to acknowledge and see what we've always known to be true. You may always have known to be true that you are not enough, because you continuously put yourself in circumstances and in spaces where people are given ample opportunity to remind you that you are not enough. But what if you tried going into a space where you are? What if you tried venturing out into a work environment or a church community or a friend group that actually celebrated and applauded the person and the being that you are? Then it would be true. So it's all about perspective, and I want you to wake up every day with a fresh perspective.

Speaker 1: 4:24

What is that song by Natasha, unwritten. She says, staring at the blank page before you open up the dirty window, let the sun illuminate the words that you cannot find Reaching for something in the distance. Nothing like that. But she's basically saying Release your inhibitions, feel the words on your skin. I don't know the exact words, guys, so please do not crucify me, but the whole premise of that song is the rest is still unwritten.

Speaker 1: 4:59

So many of us have written off certain outcomes for our lives because we believe that they cannot be true. We believe that they cannot come to fruition because of what everyone else has said. But this person said what that person said, what this person has done. What hasn't happened for them can't happen for me either, and I'm just here to tell you it's unwritten. We've talked about this several times from the podcast before. You are but a co-writer in this lifetime, right? No one else gets to write your story but you and God, and so you can't allow other people to write off for you what is to come next, because they do not have the credentials to do so. So you have to have that fresh perspective every single day that anything is possible. We could write into my storyline today that I'm moving to New York City and I'm going to start the largest digital marketing agency in the world. Because it's unwritten, it's not set in stone just yet. The possibilities are endless and, yes, god orders our steps, but he also orders our stops, and you have to be willing to have that fresh perspective, to take on the stops and say, okay, he's causing me to pivot, this isn't what it is anymore, and when you're made new every single day, you have to be willing to do away with what you've been doing.

Speaker 1: 6:22

What you've been doing probably hasn't been serving you, and it's no one else's fault. It's because we're habitual creatures. We've been taught to have routine, we've been taught to do things a certain way, and so when you're stuck in your ways, it's almost impossible to think of doing anything differently. And that's why I've been loving the space that God has been putting me in in this school year, because I've been forced to coexist with a lot of people I wouldn't normally choose to, and I've learned so many different things about how they choose to live on the day to day, how they choose to work, how they choose to work out Like. I'm hearing so many different things about their habits, and it's causing me to reflect on my own habits and what I do, and that's what causes me to stress that you are the average of your five closest friends. What are they doing? Do they have a fresh perspective? Because if they don't have a fresh perspective, their limiting belief systems are going to limit you as well, because when you come to them with big dreams, with big ideas, with big purpose, they are going to project their limiting ideals and limiting truths and beliefs onto you, and that is going to hinder you from seeing the big, big, big possibilities that are at your disposal for your life. And so, again, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the old has gone and the new is here.

Speaker 1: 7:55

If you have people around you who are constantly reminding you of who you've been and not necessarily who you are or who you can become those are not people you should have in your lifetime. For a lifetime. They are very much so seasonal, because there's nothing worse than trying to step into your big faith shoes and you have someone continuously stepping on your toes and trying to remind you of how, girl, your feet are way too small for these big old shoes. Like, what are you trying to do? And it's just like why are you doing that? Why are you being a hater? Why do we have to do that? Like, come on, I'm a fill in these shoes real soon. Give me some time. I'm doing the work.

Speaker 1: 8:38

You want people that are going to encourage you, that are going to remind you okay, yes, we're a little bit closer People who are going to track your progress for you and remind you of how far you've come, not of who you've been and trying to take you back to where you came from, but people who serve as a reminder of like look, babe, like you set a goal for yourself and look at how far you've come. These are little markers along the way. These are the people who, if you think of life as a marathon, these are the people who are the different checkpoints cheering you on. Those are the type of people you want to have in your life, not the individuals who are at the beginning of the race, yelling and screaming like girl mm-mm. Yeah, I don't think she's going to do it. I don't even think she's going to make it.

Speaker 1: 9:24

I don't even know why I came out today and there are a lot of people who are in your circle who are like that and you have to take notice of those individuals and write them off. Write them off and write them out. Talk to God and say give them a graceful exit, because they are not going to allow me to be made new. They're going to make me stay the same, because a lot of people require for you to stay the same. In order for them to stay above, to stay above you, you have to remain the same, and a real woman, a real sister in Christ, is able to applaud and celebrate you in knowing that that doesn't dim her light any one bit, because she is celebrating the next woman. If anything, it makes her radiant, it makes her glow more, it makes the room shine even brighter because you have a collective of individuals who celebrates one another. And those are the type of spaces that you want to enter.

Speaker 1: 10:21

But you have to take on your authenticity and you have to have that fresh perspective every day that anything is possible for me. So if you've done the work and you've listened to all 21 episodes of January, you are likely on the cusp of unearthing something that is spectacular and that in and of itself is amazing. But I have to remind you that you're new today, you're new tomorrow and you're new the day after that and so long as you take on that perspective on the regular, there is no reason why you can't continue to flourish. Because in Genesis, chapter one, verse 31, god says he saw all that he made and it was very good. And I want you to be able to say at the end of this chapter whatever it is for you for this year, this will be the end of my chapter 22. I want to be able to look at the end of chapter 22 and say all that I made was very good, all that I am is very good and all that I've done is very good.

Speaker 1: 11:33

Be proud of the things that you write on every page every single day. What are you doing? What are you accomplishing? What are you being? How are you interacting? Those are the things we have to take note of on the day to day, because every day we get an opportunity to do it differently, to do it better, and so many of us only look at our lives in progress, in financial wins, in promotions at work, or if you have a man or not.

Speaker 1: 12:09

And I want you to do away with those markers of success in your life and redefine what that looks like. What does it look like to elevate in other ways? Does elevation look like? I helped one individual today? I kept a clean home for more than just three days. I was able to facilitate a wonderful Bible study. I was able to gather all of my lifelong friends for a fruitful dinner and we laughed and we smiled. I was able to reestablish a relationship with my father. I was able to mend a broken friendship. Those are also big steps in life and we should no longer choose to write those off as just like whatever. That is also success. Those are also major wins.

Speaker 1: 13:12

So do not measure the success of your life based on just financial gains or work gains, because you're elevating in every aspect of your life. When you've been made new and I know in the past 69 days I have elevated exponentially in every aspect of my life. I've seen financial gains, I've seen spiritual gains, I've seen friendship gains, I've seen love gains. I've seen gains in every single part of my life. And it reflects on how I glow, and it's not just on the outside, guys, it's on the inside as well. I radiate a really different fragrance these days of light and laughter and joy, because I'm no longer in a fight or flight spirit. I'm actually flourishing. I feel like I'm flying and I'm soaring through every single day because I'm taking care of myself and I've taken on the fresh perspective that every day is an opportunity to be new, to be better and to just be me, and that in and of itself is a blessing, and I take that blessing with the utmost care.

Speaker 1: 14:35

And so, every day, the way that I take on this work because life is work I wake up and I steward my home, I steward my mind, I steward my space, my relationships, my spirituality. I steward all of these things because these are blessings that God has given to me and I know that I've been made new and this is a new opportunity for me to get it right. So I wake up and I steward my body, my vessel, and I go in the bathroom and I have a non-negotiable meeting with myself to do self-care, no matter if it's two minutes or if it's one hour, I am going to sit in that mirror and I'm going to put myself together in whatever way that I possibly can before I head off to class or before I head off to work, and that is my way of renewing myself every morning. But before I would even do that. In January I was doing a Proverbs series with my mother and I would steward my spirituality at the very start of the day by reading my word, and this was a way for me to awaken myself and not just be so into the world immediately, but into my word, and it really just gave me a posture of grace and humility and love at the very start of my day because I understood the great responsibility that I have as a woman in Christ, that I have to be an embodiment of his word, because I'm in my word at the very start of my day.

Speaker 1: 16:09

So for some of you, if you do have the time in the morning to have a slower routine and to get into your word and do that, that is a great way to be reminded that you have been made new every single day. When you resort back to your word at the start of your day to get going, it's like man, I'm here, I get to read his word, I get to be amazing and meet amazing people and do my job. I'm living in my dream home. This is great and you go about your business, and that in and of itself is renewal the opportunity to get up and get out of bed and put yourself together and go to work and go to school. Those slight differences from I have to to I get to is the renewal, that is the posture of renewal, because I don't have to get up this morning, oh, I got to get out of bed. Like I get to get out of bed this morning. You know, like that's amazing.

Speaker 1: 17:12

Thank you God, because for 31 days, when I was getting up in the mornings and I was reading proverbs at the start of every prayer, we would say thank you God for waking us up this morning and giving us the opportunity to dive into your word and not just the habituality of doing that every single day. Just ingrained in my mind that, wow, it's a blessing to even wake up in the morning and it's something that we all take for granted, but it is. It's a blessing to wake up every single day and be able to get to do your dreams, to get to do your manifestations and to get to do your prayers. And so don't take that for granted.

Speaker 1: 17:56

Sometimes the day to day can feel very regimented and like you are quite literally going through the motions. You're like on a military base and everything is clocked by the time, and if you are someone who has that perspective on your current life, maybe you should try switching things up a little bit, inviting in more opportunities for activities that spark joy on the day to day, because in order to be made new, you have to do things that bring you joy, because God calls us to be joyful beings. He doesn't call us to be depressed, anxious and sad all the time. I think that's something that is very new and extremely common these days, and I don't think that that should be normalized. It is common, and I am an anxious girlie, so I'm not saying that it is not common, it is but I'm saying that it shouldn't be, because we should be stewards of ourselves and the people around us in our community. We shouldn't be requiring people to work so much to the point where it drives them crazy. That's not just a personal thing, that's a community thing. That's a we all have to take responsibility for the mental health and the mental state of everybody, and that looks like being better, but sometimes that starts with you. In order for you to be better for others, you have to be better for yourself, and so what I want some of you to understand is that things can never be better. There can never be a brighter side until you take action to make it better.

Speaker 1: 19:43

And a great example of this is my closet. My closet is like the number one indicator that my mind is in a ruckus, because my clothes will be everywhere. Nothing will be folded, you know. Like things won't be on hangers. I will have like five and six hampers full of stuff. Like that is a huge indicator that I have walked out on myself in hopes of pleasing the people around me, because that shows me I haven't been sticking to my routines. I haven't been sticking to the things that will continuously allow me to flourish. When my space is cluttered, that often is a reflection of my mind being cluttered right. And so when I take certain times of the year to really get this closet and my space back in order, it's like I'm reclaiming my mind, my body and my spirit. It's like I'm getting rid of all the bad juju, because everything is reorganized and it's made new right.

Speaker 1: 20:46

And so the same thing happens with us. We have very cluttered minds, we have so many things that are on our plate and it's just crazy and we don't really see the signs, but we're like we're just keep going through the motion until you reach a point, like for my closet, where it's like I have nothing left to wear and in life I have nothing left to give. I have nothing left to give. And then you have to figure out okay, how am I going to fix this mess? And by this point it's really bad and it's going to take a long time to get it together, theoretically and in reality, when you're looking at your closet and it's a mess, that's like a week long project of getting rid of things, washing things and then finally putting things away. That's a week long process. And for your mental health, that is a week long, month long or possibly even quarter long process to putting yourself back together. And when you are made new every single day and you take on the fresh perspective that this is an opportunity for me to not only love on myself but for me to love on others, you take on the great responsibility of taking care of self. And you realize that, okay, I can't walk out on you. If anything, I walk into every day with the perspective of like, okay, how can I, like you know, like skip into the sunset with me because I care about you, get what I'm saying. So think about that.

Speaker 1: 22:13

For me, my space was a mess for like half a year. Nothing was really organized, everything was kind of chaotic. I was just throwing things in places where they could go. And the moment that it hit rock bottom was also the moment my mental state hit rock bottom and I said you know what? God? I have to make a change. But I had to make the choice to make the change. I had to want something different, and so I chose something different.

Speaker 1: 22:42

I chose to look at ways that I could spark joy in getting myself ready every day, because I'm just like you know what, this is something that I have to do every single day. I have to put on my clothes, I have to get ready, like, what am I going to do? How am I going to make this a really fun and fresh thing for me every single day? And I decided you know what? Let's revamp, let's make a new this closet right. And so I invested in it. I got really cute acrylic displays, I got some handbag displays and I got these really gorgeous sculptures that I could display my necklaces and my bracelets on. But that small shift and that small repurposing and like renovation of my space, renewed my mind and my heart and my spirit to want to serve myself every single day. Because now I get to go into my closet and I feel like I'm at a boutique and I'm shopping for, like, okay, what jewelry am I going to wear today, what perfume am I going to put on, what kind of attire do I want to dress myself in? And this is in just one area of my life.

Speaker 1: 23:50

Guys, imagine if we went by room by room and redesigned things to spark joy for us so that we feel like we are made new every single day. What if you were to buy yourself some new Bible highlighters and you were to buy really cute flags for all of the chapters of your Bible and you made the experience of getting closer to God new so that it sparked joy for you to explore a relationship with him? What if you were to make new your vanity and your bathroom so that you re-spark joy and and putting yourself together, even though you've been experiencing acne? What if you made new the process of cooking yourself every meal of the day by just buying, you know, maybe a 20 to $40 new cooking set, or like new spatulas, to really invite a fresh and new experience of doing that same thing.

Speaker 1: 24:50

There are so many things that we have to do on the day to day that I'm sure we look at as like, oh, I got to do that again, like I just don't feel like it. But I promise you, when you add in those slices of joy, it makes doing the monotonous and, like you know, very unenjoyable things joyous again and that makes you new again. It's just the same way for any woman that has like a midlife crisis and she decides to go to Turkey and get a facelift. And now she's back and she's going to Cabo and to Loom and to Greece and all these places, because she feels new again. And so don't get so caught up in the mental rut that you're in right now, because this is just season, but you can make a decision today to be new tomorrow. I mean, it just happens like that.

Speaker 1: 25:38

I went on Amazon and I said you know what I'm tired of, the way I've been getting ready in the mornings, like we got to do something about this, like my everything's a mess, I can't find anything, like I just don't know what to do. And it was the same in my life. I have nothing left to give in all of these spaces because I'm stretching myself extremely thin. What am I to do? Well, girl, reinvent yourself. Um team say that you're someone who doesn't really involve themselves in X, y and Z. You don't like to do this type of work. When you reinvent and you set boundaries, you allow yourself to be boundless and you allow more room for the things that you want to do and you make the things that you don't want to do a little bit better, so you enjoy doing that.

Speaker 1: 26:21

So, in the process of making yourself new, I want all of you to sit down and just kind of consult with yourself and think about, like, what are the things that I do on the regular? And think about, if you were your most high self and you were living in your dream home and you were doing your dream job and you had your dream body, how would you be going about that? Think about that and then figure out, well, where you are right now. How can I do that? And often, guys, it's just a choice. It's a choice because if I were to say to you, in a more simpler example, if you had your dream body right now, just got off the table, or you just finished a six month sprint of, like, building that body, what would you feed that body? Like, where would you take that body and what type of clothes would you put on that body and what type of grocery stores would you shop out for that body? And then, once you finish compiling that list right, think to yourself oh well, I could make that choice today, like there's no difference for that body and the body that I have now. Like, if I would choose to do that for my dream body, then why am I not doing it now for this one? It's a choice, that's literally all it is.

Speaker 1: 27:45

And so many of us choose to deprive ourselves of wonderful experiences, fabulous things, because we feel as though we are undeserving, because we feel like we're still old, we haven't become the new version, the better version of ourselves. So once we get there, then we can do that. And I'm here to tell you you know you can do that now If there are specific organization tool systems that you've seen on Pinterest that absolutely excite you. And you're like man, if I was rich, like I would love for my pantry to look this way, I'm here to tell you it's just a choice. It's a choice. There's a way that you can make that happen for yourself by just going to the store maybe going to at home or a Marshall's or any of those discounted stores and finding cheaper organizational tools, because you don't have to go to the container store and you can spark that same joy for yourself without breaking the bank. It's simply a choice, and a lot of us are choosing to deprive ourselves of the very things that could make us our highest self. So what choice are you going to make today? I'm hoping you're choosing yourself and you're choosing better. Choose better today instead of tomorrow, because, baby, you are made new.

Speaker 1: 29:06

I love you guys and I really do hope you enjoy today's episode of me talking about how each and every one of you have been made new, and I hope that you come back for another episode of that Girl Radio, where we are dropping weekly supplements for you to live and design your best life.

Speaker 1: 29:23

If you're not already following the podcast on Instagram at that Girl Radio, make sure to do so. You can also follow your lovely host here, ricky Lee, at RickyLeeco on Instagram. I'm also on TikTok, very active on there at the Ricky Lee, and you can also find me on YouTube dropping weekly vlogs to help you live and design your best life at RickyLeeTV. I love you guys, and if you enjoyed the podcast as much as I did, make sure to share it with a friend who needs to be reminded that she has been made new. And if you enjoyed it a lot, a lot, make sure to leave us a review or a rating wherever you listen to your podcast, because it helps us out a ton so that we can reach more women like you. I love y'all and I'll catch you next time.