Working With What God Gives You

Gifts from God are more than things, people or talents. They are also the trials and triumphs we walk through in life. In this episode,  we explore how embracing faith can transform our past experiences, the good and the bad, into tools for fulfillment. Lanée shares a single sentence that changed the course of her life, insights on adjusting to new seasons and situations, and the unexpected blessing of an ailment that led to a healthier lifestyle. Sandy opens up about receiving divine reassurance through dreams, her reflections on empathy born from challenges, and the encouragement to stay true to ourselves in our personal and professional lives.

We intertwine the messages of our own stories with timeless biblical wisdom, highlighting how even the most challenging moments can be stepping stones to a more fulfilling path when viewed through the lens of faith. This episode of the Imagine Yourself Podcast isn't just about storytelling; it's an intimate session of sharing, caring, and preparing to handle life's wide range of situations with grace and acceptance. Everything can have a meaningful impact when we partner with God.


So grab a cup of coffee, experience the comfort of conversation that feels like sitting with caring aunties, and let's delve into the reality that with divine guidance, we're never alone in rewriting our stories.


RELATED:

7 Ways to Use Your Past to Set Up Future Success

Do You Wish God Would Speak to You?

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Imagine Yourself is hosted by Lanée Blaise and Sandy Kovach. Lanée is a TV writer and producer, motivational speaker and podcaster. Sandy is a radio personality, voiceover artist and podcaster. They come to you from the Detroit Metro area and invite guests from all over the world to help encourage you in your health, career, faith journey and more!

Transcript

Lanée Blaise [00:00:01]:
Hello, everybody. Thank you for joining us at Imagine Yourself podcast today. I'm Lanee, here with Sandy. And today, we're taking a little look back at the most recent episode where we talked about 7 ways to use your past to set up your future success, but we wanted to really dig in with a more faith filled approach and reflection on it. We wanted to kinda give some examples. We wanted to really prove to ourselves and to everyone listening that there is a way in this life to work with what god gives you, the mistakes, the problems, the failures, the good days, the bad days, to embrace all of it and use all of it because God deals us a hand and, you know, we gotta work with the hand that we're dealt. But if we take it from a a really godly perspective, sometimes that can cushion it and make things feel a little bit better and feel like even though it's not going the way we expected, there's still some hope. And, Sandy, you were the one who came up with this beautiful perspective, and maybe you can shed a little extra light on it too before we dive in with the actual example.

Sandy Kovach  [00:01:23]:
For sure. Because I was thinking about our last episode, 7 ways to use your past to set up future success, and we did that in a very practical sense, talking about experiences that we've had and how we use that and, you know, wisdom we gain, etcetera, but, really, everything is god given. And I was thinking about the path that god gives you in life. But, you know, we have free will, and sometimes we don't go in the best direction. Sometimes we go in circles. Sometimes we walk backwards. Sometimes it's 1 step forward, 3 steps back. But you know what? No matter how far you walk away from God, it's a very, very short trip back.

Sandy Kovach  [00:02:00]:
We can always ask him for help. He uses everything and anything. He uses our trials. He uses our good times and bad times. So when we talk about our past, whether it be from yesterday or, you know, when we were 5 years old, there are things that can kind of guide us.

Lanée Blaise [00:02:18]:
And this is exactly why we wanted to really just prove to ourselves, prove to, have you proved to yourself that you can take a few things and really work with it. I wanted to share 3 things of mine. 1 is a direct message that god gave me, One is an ailment, and one is a new season in my life or the recognition that I was entering a new season in my life that God made me aware of and how I was able to use it to turn it into a benefit, turn the whole lemons into lemonade thing. Yes. Ifyou like that

Sandy Kovach  [00:02:59]:
. Beyonce.

Lanée Blaise [00:03:00]:
Yes. And I'm sure I'm sure she has a few things in her past that she's like, you know, I really learned from that and I I made something great out of it. But, the first thing that I wanted to share, and it's it's something that I really think can help a lot of us out there was a direct message that God gave and it was because I had just kinda spiraled out with the way I was doing things. This was back in 2017 and a message kept coming to me, slow down, stop rushing. And it came so often that I end up had having a little bracelet made out of it that I could put on my wrist and it it was engraved and it would slow down, stop rushing, Lanee. Because when you go around and you rush, you could either literally fall down or you could figuratively have things fall down or fall apart. And when you go slowly, as much as it's kind of a counterintuitive thing, you can savor life. You can have more success.

Lanée Blaise [00:04:05]:
You can enjoy the experiences. You can do things. It's more likely that you'll do them the right way instead of having to go back and fix your problems. So getting a message based on the way that I was doing things, it really helped me change paths. I was able to get on a better pathway that was more hand in hand with God and definitely more amenable to my life.

Sandy Kovach  [00:04:28]:
Now when you say you got this message directly from God, was it something that got dropped on you suddenly or just like little things over the long term? Or how did that work?

Lanée Blaise [00:04:39]:
It was when I would literally stumble, fall, bump into something because I'm trying to just go so fast and then noticing the you do something all the way through and you're rushing, especially technology, and then you go and then you push one thing because you're just going so fast and you accidentally delete the whole thing. So then you have to start all over again. You know, different things like that kept coming up. And it was that moment when you're about I'm about to melt down, about to start crying. And it's just this peaceful slow down. Stop rushing, Lanee. Stop. Slow down.

Lanée Blaise [00:05:17]:
And then a sense of peace washing over. And after getting that multiple times, I wrote it down, you know, the whole write it down on a sticky note and kinda stick it up on your bathroom mirror, and then going all the way to I was actually in a bible study, and they were like, what words have been coming to you lately? What what message has God been sending to you lately? And that's when the bracelet was made. Slow down. Stop rushing. Wow. And I know there's people out there who maybe don't need that message. But I bet money there's a lot of folks who also could use the entire slow down, stop rushing, like I said, for physical reasons of not falling and for figurative reasons of not having things meltdown, crash. That's the way.

Sandy Kovach  [00:06:08]:
I love that. That's so cool. I didn't know the whole backstory. I remember the stop rushing message, but I never got the whole backstory of that. So let me just do one that's kind of like that. It was a direct message from God that I had in a dream, and I think I discussed it on this podcast before when I was worried about my my son because he plays in bands. And I had this dream that and I won't go into it completely now, but, basically, it was assuring me that Joe was gonna be alright and everything was gonna work out.

Sandy Kovach  [00:06:38]:
And sure enough, not too long ago I mean, there was a a good period of months between this. It wasn't like I had the dream and then the next day, but, I trusted God that things were gonna be okay, and he has joined a Paul McCartney tribute band. And they, you know, it's very wholesome. It really is. And the thing that the gig that they're playing over the summer is at a theater on Mackinac Island, and I was, you know, looking it up. And the shows are in the afternoon, and they're family friendly. So I'm not saying Joe will never play in clubs again. He still has his other band.

Sandy Kovach  [00:07:13]:
But I just thought that was a nice thing. And, of course, he's a grown man, and I trust him in whatever situation he gets in. But this is an exciting thing for him for the most part. He loved the Beatles since he was, a little kid, and it's just a dream come true for him. And he had been, you know, working after college just in corporate jobs and whatever and always kinda wanted to make music a full time thing. And it's just, you know, it's a scary thing jumping into music full time, but it reminded me too of when I jumped into radio full time, people told me, ah, you're gonna get fired all the time. And I worked at one station for almost 20 years. So other times I got, you know, fired.

Sandy Kovach  [00:07:48]:
But I mean, for the most part, it was a pretty consistent job. So all that to say, God has been speaking, I believe. You know, I don't have any proof, thus saith the Lord, but I believe God has been sending me messages and dreams. And that's another way that we can experience the gifts from God, having him speak to us. Sometimes he gives it to us the way you were talking about. Sometimes it's something like a dream. Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:08:14]:
And that's the part too. Again, God uses anything. He can use your experiences. He can use your dreams to make sure that that message gets through to you. And I don't know if you realize this, but friend to friend, Sandy, it was 7 months ago. And I know 7 is always kind of a number that a lot of people see as a, you know, very divine number, but it was 7 months ago that you had that dream about Joe. And so now 7 months later, you're seeing because you were reassured by god that he would be okay, but now you get to see the proof that he's doing this wonderful, successful opportunity, and it's just all beautiful.

Sandy Kovach  [00:08:57]:
Yeah. And I'm sure, you know, there'll be challenges in it, for him and there'll be challenges for me, like missing him.

Lanée Blaise [00:09:04]:
Yes.

Sandy Kovach  [00:09:04]:
But, yeah, I didn't know that. That's crazy, Lanee. That is absolutely crazy.

Lanée Blaise [00:09:09]:
It was October. I remember because I was over with my mom and it's like mid October and now it's mid April. Bam.

Sandy Kovach  [00:09:16]:
Bam. And Jesus was in that dream, and it was just it was very biblical, and I got answers out of the Bible. So it's not just some random dream. I wish I could remember the, do you remember where we talked about it? What episode we talked about

Lanée Blaise [00:09:30]:
it in? What episode was that again?

Sandy Kovach  [00:09:33]:
I'm pretty sure it was the one called do you wish God would speak to you? Because both of us were talking about different ways that God had been speaking to us, and that was back in December. And, you know what? Maybe we'll link up to that in the show notes because I don't have time to go into the whole dream, but it was pretty cool.

Lanée Blaise [00:09:48]:
No. It was amazing, and it has that dream itself has inspired me as well. And, again, proven how God can get to you when he wants to get to you. And like you said, even if you you said to me earlier today, even if you go a million steps in the wrong direction, it can take one step back to get to God.

Sandy Kovach  [00:10:06]:
Yeah. That's right.

Lanée Blaise [00:10:08]:
So, Sandy, I wanna tell you this too. As far as your son, he is starting a whole new season in life and in his career. And that kinda leads me into the next section where, you know, to imagine yourself, we're always talking about our next season in life. And I realized that I am in a different season in life overall. And I just wanted to kinda share that with everyone too because it kinda threw me off for a minute, and and I'm kinda getting my head adjusted. But we talked about getting support from others in the last episode. And I realized something that's really a gift, if you look at it right. But lately, lots of people in lots of different areas of my life, in my writing career, in the podcasting world as a friend, different organizations I'm in, few people have been calling me auntie or saying that I'm like a sweet aunt or like their auntie.

Lanée Blaise [00:11:10]:
And, Sandy, I don't know if you remember, there was even a review for Imagine Yourself that said that whenever they listen to our episodes, it just feels like 2 wonderful aunties giving great advice each episode.

Sandy Kovach  [00:11:24]:
Yeah. I remember that.

Lanée Blaise [00:11:25]:
You remember that?

Sandy Kovach  [00:11:26]:
I think it was like, having coffee with my 2 aunties or something like that, but given, you know, advice. Yeah. And at the time, we were like, dang. But it's a compliment, wisdom and

Lanée Blaise [00:11:38]:
Yeah. I mean, it's wisdom, and it's every single time, it has been in the most loving and kind way possible. But it does remind me that I am getting older, and it reminds me that I have been around a lot of people lately who are not a part of my actual family, but they are people who feel cared about and comforted and helped and nurtured by me in the ways that I show up for them. So all that to say, you know, first of all, I now see it as an honor that I embrace, but also I still believe that it's something that God has been allowing so that I can see, you know, how my life is changing and how I want to continue to do these things and continue to have people in my community and even in my family who see me as that type of person. And, Sandy, I don't know how how you took it, but I just feel like that's who we can be now. You know? Because also the other part too is all my kids' friends are like, oh my gosh. You're so sweet. You're just like a second mom.

Lanée Blaise [00:12:46]:
You know, that's another one that shows you obviously old enough, yeah, you know, to take on that role. But to just when we are all looking over and reflecting on our lives, see some of the ways that you have been infused in other people's lives and, you know, what that means in in these new seasons that we're entering, in the new areas that we're entering?

Sandy Kovach  [00:13:08]:
Yeah. I I won't go into too much detail, but there have been a couple people in my life, and they've been younger, not like way younger, but I've been able to kinda be a sounding board for them and listen to them. And they've been people that I've had certain things in common with that I could maybe understand their perspective more where other people couldn't. So, yeah, I would say, especially, it seems like okay. I don't wanna say especially, but even when it's something negative about your personality or some traumatic experience you may have had or, you know, something Lanee mentally going on, there could be someone else that you find that you can show empathy to that other people out there might not.

Lanée Blaise [00:13:52]:
Yeah. That's that part where God won't waste it.

Sandy Kovach  [00:13:54]:
God won't waste it.

Lanée Blaise [00:13:55]:
Can end up have you helping someone else who's going through that same situation then in a way that only you would understand and be able to be there for them.

Sandy Kovach  [00:14:06]:
Exactly. Another thing that we talked about in the episode, and perhaps it's something that you can pray for for open doors with people or just to be in the right place at the right time for people. Or you can be praying for your family like I was praying for Joe, or you can be praying for anything. But a lot of times, we feel frustrated because it doesn't feel like God answers prayer. He answers it in his own time, and we've given examples where he did answer prayer and he did use things. But sometimes we're in the middle of something, and we don't see any light. And so I thought about one of my favorite quotes from Max Lucado, who said, our attempts may be feeble, but since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference. You know how sometimes we don't know what to pray, and we're like, God, here's for the millionth time.

Sandy Kovach  [00:15:00]:
Please do so and so. Please this. Please that. But keep on praying. The Bible says, knock and keep on knocking. Another quote, and I can't remember who was to credit this with, but prayer doesn't necessarily change the situation. Prayer changes you. I think that might be CS Lewis.

Sandy Kovach  [00:15:18]:
So we get peace, and we get a new perspective on things sometimes when we're in the middle of a situation.

Lanée Blaise [00:15:27]:
Yeah. The praying too, like you said, it changes you. I have one tiny little one. This one isn't even my example, and I'm I'm gonna hope my husband is okay with this. He he needs to tell everybody about it anyway. But this is one where he has an ailment. It's gout. The gout? He has the gout.

Lanée Blaise [00:15:47]:
And like I said, he tells people about it a lot. But it's something where we weren't eating the best. We weren't drinking water the best. We weren't doing the healthiest things in general. And as I mentioned, we're in a different season in life, and it starts to become a little more important that you pay attention to those things. I mean, poor guy, he thought he'd broken his foot. And my daughter's like, you did not break your foot. And she looked at it, and she's she's in med school.

Lanée Blaise [00:16:15]:
Kayla said, I think it's gout. And he's like, no. And not gout. That's for older people. And he's she's like, you actually fit the bill pretty good for all the things. So and and, you know, and your things the way you do your diet, all the things. And sure enough, we came to the conclusion, in this case, now this is a not the worst ailment ever, but that we have a gratitude to god for the gout because it really forced us both to go into a healthier mode. So, again, I'm not saying that god gave it to him or was trying to teach us a lesson, but he has a predisposition.

Lanée Blaise [00:16:53]:
He has to deal with it, but we can use it. Even in the midst of the yuck, we can use it for good. So we're just on this better health journey now as a result of the ailment.

Sandy Kovach  [00:17:05]:
That's kinda like, I mean, the same thing that I went through with my surgeries and forced me to eat a lot differently. I'm not grateful for all the pain or all the things I went through, but I eat a lot different now because I I can't not eat healthy or I just bad things happen.

Lanée Blaise [00:17:22]:
And that's one of those things where, like I said, we're not taking the worst of the worst types of ailments and throwing it on this podcast. But some of the little things just I just challenge everyone to pay attention and see if there's not some kind of good nugget that perhaps you can extract from it and and use to your benefit and might even end up, Sandy, what if this ends up giving us a longer healthier life? You, me, and my husband.

Sandy Kovach  [00:17:49]:
Yeah. And you know what? My husband's actually eating a little healthier too. Out of my example, he doesn't have any conditions at least yet, but he drinks Pepsi like you read about. I mean, it just I've never seen anybody drink so much pop. But he likes it, and right now, it's okay. And he still looks good and seems healthy. But at some point, he's gonna have to give it up.

Lanée Blaise [00:18:12]:
Because, yep, because that new season in life, sometimes it's not what you expected. It's not what you want, but we gotta be flexible. We gotta be adapt we talked about that in the last episode also. You gotta be flexible and adaptable. And that is one of the ways that we're telling people too, hey. You're out there listening. You're not alone. We are also going through these these things too.

Sandy Kovach  [00:18:33]:
Yeah. Absolutely. So, my last one is well, first of all, I'm gonna circle back to another dream, and then it's kind of more in the career Lanee. And we talked a little bit about that in the last episode. And it's gonna take a second and a little backstory to figure it out or to, you know, make it clear. So I've been having a lot of dreams about being in, working in a radio station again, which I spent most of my life doing. And so I dreamed I went back to my old station, and my old boss was there. And I wanted a job, but he wouldn't give me a job.

Sandy Kovach  [00:19:06]:
And he was saying, you know, I listened to you on the radio, and, he was talking about what we call in radio bits or little things people say on the radio. They might talk about, you know, celebrity birthdays, or they might talk about an experience they had with their kids. I mean, it can be anything. A lot of times people talk about TV shows. And in this case, it was about TV shows. He said to me, stop talking about New Girl. I don't know if you remember that show. And start yeah.

Sandy Kovach  [00:19:34]:
And start talking about Star Trek. And it's like, what? Why would I talk about Star Trek? Because I always thought that, like, I'm a Trekkie, but I don't consider that something that I've ever really would talk a lot about on the radio because I don't think it's that common where New Girl is kind of a pop show show and a lot of people, especially, you know, women have seen that one. But what it told me when I thought about it, it was like, talk about what you know. I don't think I've seen a whole episode of New Girl, but I've probably binged every season of at least the old Star Trek Voyager and new Next Generation and Deep Space 9 and all that. So talk about what you know and be who you are in radio and many jobs. And I know you work for television and write, and you've got certain demographics you're trying to hit. And sometimes you do have to go for a different demographic that's not you. But you gotta put yourself into it, too.

Lanée Blaise [00:20:29]:
I love that advice. I think across the board, any industry, I love that advice. And it's something that sometimes social media will have us trying to be someone different and not staying in our Lanee. But I love that. Talk about what you know. Yeah. And that's where your success lies.

Sandy Kovach  [00:20:50]:
To end this podcast, right? We're talking about what we're doing.

Lanée Blaise [00:20:54]:
Exactly. But in your dream, you know, you were transported back to someone that you knew and trusted to give you that advice. But, again, I believe it's God just pushing because we all know that some of us have really dumb dreams. But the more meaningful ones, I hope that, you know, we're all starting to kinda embrace or maybe even pay a little more attention to the dreams that seem to have more substance. Maybe even wake up and write it down. But Yeah. God doesn't waste it even while you're sleeping.

Sandy Kovach  [00:21:24]:
That's right. That stuff's all in your subconscious and, you know, God pulls out when he needs to pull out.

Lanée Blaise [00:21:28]:
And and are you gonna use that advice as far as for your career?

Sandy Kovach  [00:21:33]:
Am I gonna stop talking about new girl? I don't Are you gonna

Lanée Blaise [00:21:36]:
I didn't talk much. Yeah. Talk about stick to what you know and be who you are. Like you said too, you know, being who you legitimately are and genuinely are?

Sandy Kovach  [00:21:48]:
I think so because, you know, I get it. In any career, you certainly have to go within the company line or, if it's a movie or a radio station, work within the demographic. But if you don't put yourself in and what you know and it's not just career either. It's like work with, work with what you know.

Lanée Blaise [00:22:07]:
In relationships. Mhmm. Even in your in your health journey, you might have to do a little different than

Sandy Kovach  [00:22:14]:
because I'd be eating chocolate and all the things.

Lanée Blaise [00:22:18]:
Nope. We don't want that. We that that because that's another one too that we learned from the other episode as far as when something's not working for you, stop doing that. You you you see from the past that was not working. And and we have, you know, Imagine Yourself, of course, has podcast episodes with actual nutrition and wellness coaches and health coaches and stuff to kinda help you when you realize that you do need to switch lanes.

Sandy Kovach  [00:22:39]:
That's right.

Lanée Blaise [00:22:40]:
It's all a process. It's all a process. But as you can tell, our whole goal is to really try to speak to your soul first and then your mind and then your body. And we just hope that everyone has gained a little bit from this reflection time and can do some of these things using your own examples from your own life. So, everyone out there, imagine yourself sitting still, looking upwards, looking inward, thinking about your past, your present, your dreams, all of these things, and putting a smile on your face because you realize that God is in the midst of you. God is walking with you, and you can work with what God has given you.

Sandy Kovach  [00:23:31]:
Thanks for listening. We love to get your feedback, whether it's on social media or through our website, imagine your podcast.com. A review and a rating would be great too. You could do that right in the app. Until next time when we have something new to imagine. Blessings to you and your family, and we'll talk to you again soon.