Hello, hello, hello ladies and gents and welcome to this week's episode of the bot in

BELOVED podcast. My name is Kirby Kelly, also known as Kirby as a boss on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. And welcome to this week's episode. I'm sure that as you can tell by the title of today's episode, I have an amazing guest with me today, my friend Grace Valentine. Grace, how about you briefly introduce yourself before we even begin with our conversation today because I want everyone to know who you are, what your heart's about, what you're passionate about, and we'll just jump straight on in.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited about being here and just what God's doing through this podcast in general. It's just really cool to see like what you're doing for the kingdom. And I've seen, and I've listened to your podcast plenty of times on my own for encouragement. So it's very cool and comes full circle to be here. But my name's Grace Valentine. I live in Orlando. I'm 24 years old. I'm an author of two books. My second book just came out called, is it just me? And I just have

passion, basically, for telling young people, especially college age 20, something about Jesus, just how you can find adventure and joy in who he is and how with him, he's worth trusting because I think a lot of times we all have our own past hurts. We'll have trust issues. And that's just something I feel very passionate about in general. But yeah, I'm a podcast host too, but I mainly just enjoy telling people about Jesus opportunities that get to tell other college students or when I get to travel places and just being a friend to people, which I'm sure

you understand too. Oh yeah, absolutely. I totally get that. And I'm so happy that you listen to the podcast. That's so stinkin awesome. Well, I'm glad that you're here today. And that's actually why I want to bring up and talk about today is your new book that you just put out. Is it just me? And I've read bits of it. And from what I've read so far, it's so good. Can I just say that you really are like a talented communicator and a relatable communicator. But with that being said, I kind of want to know

and to my listeners out there, this isn't me just plugging a book for the entire podcast. I really want to dive into just like the the heart behind what she has experienced what she has gone through. I know that it'll speak to you guys as well as you're listening to this. But I kind of want to know what was the heart behind writing your book. Who was it written for? And just a little bit about maybe that testimony of where this story was birthed from that you just were ready to share with other people.

Yeah, that's a great question. Well, the idea for the book came from when that song issues was popular. I don't know if you remember that it's like, I've got issues. You've got to, which obviously I'm not a singer. And I remember me, my friend in college were like laughing at our trust issues. Kind of how we couldn't really trust people because we've been burned and hurt. And it was like, we were acting like it really brought brought us together. And it was like something that was helping us relate to each other. But truth is, it was bondage. And I later that night was like, why? Why?

Why do we laugh at our trust issues? And the purpose of this book was basically I really felt like I felt alone in my hurt or just trying Christianity out for the first time. In college, I was, I went through a crazy phase. I guess you could say, but I just went through sin. And I struggled to believe that obedience could be cool. And that being a Christian would mean that I wouldn't miss out. And when I was living in that said, I felt so alone. I then just feel alone, like without feeling Jesus, I felt alone in my friendships. I felt alone in my relationships.

And so the whole point of this book is to be like, okay, yes, we all have past hurts future fears and current doubts. Like sometimes we don't feel like God speaking to us. Sometimes we're going to remember the betrayal of our past friendships. And it's going to make it hard to have new friendships. And sometimes we have rejection from past relationships that are romantically. And we end up barfing on that in our future. But when you look at Jesus in front of you and he's saying, come as you are, take that step towards me. You'll notice that it's something that can give you true trust, even when you're overwhelmed and annoyed.

Even when you have hurt in a past that's a little messy. But yeah, honestly, what birthed my book was basically feeling like all the feeling of being alone was just me. And I was like, I don't want anyone to feel that way when I finally came to the conclusion that my Lord and Savior is there. And also there is community who loves me well and that they're out there. They're not perfect. But they do look at Jesus and they chase Jesus with me. That was what I wanted others to know. That's so good. And I think that like, especially in the times that we

live in right now, like regarding COVID, regarding just the state of our world, like even beyond COVID, I think our generation, you know, young adults, Gen Z, even older people who are probably listening to this podcast can relate to the fact that either at some point in our life or even currently there might be some issue kind of like how you were saying like baggage or trauma or just a mentality where it's like you feel like you are alone.

Based off of your own experiences, based off of the specific situations, maybe your community has left you feeling like there is no one there who can relate to you and understand you. And that's hard. Like I totally get it. I've been through those seasons where I have felt crippled by anxiety. I've been through those seasons where I've endured trauma and I didn't know how to process it. And it can be so easy.

And almost tempting in a way to just want to sit back to retreat and to not do anything about it because it weighs you down so much you just want to sit there and and feel it so deeply. And although there is a time and place to process and to feel those things because they're valid.

It's so true in that like we have to turn to Jesus with those things because the reality is is that although the things that we're going through although the the moment those things are happening and it is the biggest and most important deal in our life.

It really is like we have to we have to go to the Lord. And yeah, that does require making that decision.

And it does require some degree of strength to choose to pursue after him, but at the same time it's him who strengthens us. It's him who encourages us. It's him who equips us with the tools to pursue healing.

And so I know that in your book, you know, you you explore all kinds of relevant topics. What you talk about business. You talk about marriage. You talk about singleness. You talk about all kinds of issues and seasons and and all that stuff. But I guess within your book is there.

There is a specific topic or season in your life that was just really personal to you as you were writing it. I would love to hear a little bit more about kind of like your personal experience with that.

Yeah, well, I think a lot the reason I think a lot of struggle feeling alone is because we're trying to do life alone. And that's something in which we're building our life on what's not actually something that is Christ like. And so that one of my anchor verse with the whole book and my biggest prayer that I kept going back to.

It comes to Isaiah and it's even youth go tired and we are weary young men some will fall, but those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength or his strength.

Most of our wings like people's a walk in that cafe. And I felt like as a 20 something that was so relevant because people are like, you're so young. You have so much life ahead of you.

But like we're going to grow tired and weary. We're going to be overwhelmed. And during COVID, I like many Americans got furloughed. And so that's funny because I was right before my last book edits came in.

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