Hello and welcome to the third season of the Excel Stillmore podcast.

I am your host, Chris Emerson, and I'm here to encourage you with tips and strategies

to help you deepen your faith, build stronger relationships, and do the most with your life in Christ.

Thank you for joining.

Let's get started.

Welcome back to the program as we kick off the month of February 2021 with the exciting and exhilarating show topic,

I am discouraged. And this isn't as much a confession as it is an awareness project. While I am not

discouraged today, and I don't plan to live this year that way, I do confess, I have been.

I can tell you that in the last 12 months from today, I have said these words on more than a few occasions, and maybe some variety of it, like I am disappointed or I am disheartened.

I've typed it, I've said it, and I've shown it. Have you? I think the answer might be yes,

as I have conversed with Christians in the last year, friends and family.

I have heard these same words spoken or illustrated in a variety of different ways and associated

with a wide range of topics. In fact, I sat down one day this week and tried to type out the

different topics concerning which I have heard Christians express their discouragement. I thought I

would come up with maybe ten different things, but the list quickly exploded to 39 different things.

And I would like to read that list to you as we get started.

In this list are a few things that associate directly with me, but not all of them,

and maybe a few of these things will be squarely within your view when you look back at

things you've said or thought recently, and lest this list seem inconceivably bloated to you,

just to remember how difficult these last 12 months have been.

I know that there are always things that people can become discouraged about throughout all of history,

but did you know that we are approaching the one-year mark of the COVID effect on the United States of America.

...