Stephanie's Story; Power in a Pause

Announcer: 0:00

The following program is sponsored by Ron Meyers Ministries.

Speaker 2: 0:05

It's time now to get the hell out of your life. A weekly broadcast with real people sharing real struggles and offering real hope. Today's show will encourage, inspire and empower you to face life's challenges with a bold confidence and renewed hope. Now let's join our host, ron Meyers. The Provider.

Ron Meyers: 0:26

Hello, my friends. It is so good to be with you, boy. I have been waiting for today. I have had a very hectic couple weeks. Two weeks ago I had my big Christmas City gift show the 40th anniversary where 14,500 people came in and shopped with vendors from all over the United States. A week later I had a ballet production, a ballet magnificat out of Jackson Mississippi, incredible production. But I've been wore out, I've been tired, but I have been looking forward to come back and visit you, visit you, welcome to my neighborhood.

Ron Meyers: 1:12

My name is Ron Meyers. I call myself the promoter because I promote Jesus. I promote peace, love, destiny, and I do this by interviewing people that share their stories of God's amazing grace, forgiveness and everlasting life. You know so many times that we are in trouble in this world we turn to the political gurus or we talk, or to the talk show host for answers, and the point of this show is to always point you to Jesus, because it's all about Jesus, and today's story you're going to hear from Stephanie.

Ron Meyers: 1:57

Now, stephanie wow, what an incredible lady. She was on my board of directors of my ministry years ago and she is just a type, a personality, energetic, just a dreamer, a visionary and very successful at what she does, but something happened in the middle of this journey. She got so busy that her story is one to remind us that we need to stop, we need to slow down and we need to enjoy life, enjoy family, enjoy our friends, because friends without that, you may end up wealthy, you may end up popular, but you will also have regrets in your life and you will find yourself lonely one day because your friends, those $100 bills, those 401Ks, the houses they can't love you, they can't hold you, they can't tell you how much you are special to them. No, so let's listen to Stephanie's story and when we come back, well, I believe I have some encouragement for you that you're going to say I'm glad I listened to that show today. I needed to hear that Stephanie, welcome to the studios and tell us who is Stephanie Shaw and what is your story.

Stephanie Shaw: 3:37

I operate a real estate brokerage here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I have been in federal law enforcement previously and I've just had a really nice, neat life, appreciate all the hat that I have and all the opportunities that I have been given and the last year talking about my brother. It's been six years and the way that I live life now is so differently than I did before. I was very centered on success being professional and not being something personal that I would examine. So before my brother passed away, my mom's been a realtor here on the coast for 44 years and I was the president of the Gulf Coast Association of Realtors in 2014. I had a record breaking year for our company and I was just on cloud nine professionally and I thought personally I really live very strong in my head, very academic oriented, just very reward centric professionally, and so I really was flying at the height of my game in 2014. And, of course, the years before that built up to it.

Stephanie Shaw: 4:50

So a typical day is hundreds of emails, phone calls, offers, buyer, sellers and now, as a broker, working with agents, and so it was a lot to juggle. Tell us a little bit about your brother. My brother was four years younger than myself. He lived in Ohio and had then just moved to West Virginia. He was not terminally ill. He was just your average healthy, easy, go lucky kind of guy, had two daughters and just was living his life in West Virginia. He sent me a text message I received that he died four days after the text was sent. I got it about 10 days after that. So the text message he sent was he had seen me on Facebook, he was super proud of me, I looked really good and he loved me, and so I know most folks would probably stop their day, or maybe they wouldn't.

Stephanie Shaw: 5:47

When you get a message like that, it's you know, do you stop, do you check your messages, especially when it's from a loved one, or you anticipating it being something that's just gonna add another problem or challenge to your day?

Stephanie Shaw: 6:02

The text message I got the text message when I went away for a couple of weeks after he passed away and I just kind of sat down and I got out a legal pad and I just started making a list of things I needed to do. I needed to contact people who had called and sent things to us and who had tried to been very helpful with everything that happened since he died so suddenly and so unexpectedly. And so I went through all my emails and made my notes of who I needed to reach out to. And I had gone through all my voicemails and emptied my voicemail box and the last thing on my list was my text messages and I just kept going through text message after text message and I got to this text message and it was still in bold and I opened it and it was not from the number that was programmed in my phone that identified him as the sender and that's probably why I didn't look at it immediately, but nevertheless I didn't see it.

Ron Meyers: 6:53

What happened when you read that?

Stephanie Shaw: 6:55

I was just. I was paralyzed. It was like a ghost. It was probably the worst feeling that I've ever had in my life that I missed a message such as that. It just stopped me dead in my tracks. You know, I was talking about being on top of the world in business and stuff, and it was like somebody just took the rug and pulled it out from underneath me. Wow, yep, that was.

Stephanie Shaw: 7:19

The hardest part is there was no way to make amends for that. I couldn't call him, I couldn't text him back, I couldn't respond in any way, and so I think the hard part about that is I couldn't call my mom. She had just lost her son. I would have never added to the burden she was already carrying. It's not something you want to call your best friend and tell them. I was so embarrassed and so ashamed of missing and being so busy, and so I really had to just deep dive into myself to evaluate what could I do differently. Not what could everybody else in the world do differently, but what do I need to do differently to live a better life?

Ron Meyers: 8:03

What's the first thing you started doing?

Stephanie Shaw: 8:05

I started reading and writing a lot and I do what's called a power hour.

Stephanie Shaw: 8:10

I'll read for 20 minutes, write for 20 minutes and reflect for 20 minutes, and I noticed some people an hour is unobtainable or they feel like it is, and I certainly did when I first started. But there's always 20 minutes or 30 minutes and if it is your priority, you will find the time I know for me. I started looking I hear everybody talk about having an extra week. If I just had one more week of time, what I could do with it, and I started realizing that I was spending 20 or 30 minutes a day looking for keys, glasses and cell phones to get out the door. So I made a designated spot for each one of those items and they go there every single time and I created 30 extra minutes in my day. If you rontate 30 minutes extra a day that you free up over the course of a year, you have an extra week for your life. So it's just a matter of managing priorities and managing times, and it is the little bitty things that are the time sucks.

Ron Meyers: 9:14

Yes, what you're talking about is living life intentionally. How does a person start living life intentionally?

Stephanie Shaw: 9:23

You really have to do some soul searching. The reading and writing that I did. I take my. What I did was I took my calendar and I time block and I started looking where's my time going and I started making a not to do list instead of a to do list. And there are so many things that we do and is it serving you or is it serving the people that you're trying to help? And if it's not, taking it off the calendar. So we always talk about adding things to our list and our calendar, but I really take stuff off and I evaluate that monthly. Now I used to wait until the end of the year and reflect and take stuff off, but now I do it every single month.

Stephanie Shaw: 10:04

I have learned to say to folks when they ask me to participate or an invitation to do something, I have two responses now no, but thank you for asking. And then no, thank you for asking, please ask me again. So if I don't want to do something, there's no need in going into it and making excuses. So I've just left that off. And then, if I really and truly do want to do something with this person, I do want them to know please ask me again. I just cannot make that commitment right now.

Stephanie Shaw: 10:33

And I'll tell you the really interesting thing I love to watch people in the workshops that I do now, based on time management and living more intentionally. I take and write left blank intentionally on a day of the week every week, and people shutter to think Now, this is not the day you go, run all your errands and take care of everything for yourself and everybody else. This is time to stop and do and read and reflect and really take charge of yourself. Because run people are so afraid of leadership. They think it's this title and this grandiose thing. And it's not, because if you cannot lead yourself and you cannot lead your family, someone else is leading you and your family. Wow.

Stephanie Shaw: 11:20

And so breaking leadership down to just a personal personal.

Ron Meyers: 11:25

You stated in the story you sent me that you had to forget about finding value and being busy. What do you mean by that?

Stephanie Shaw: 11:33

Well, I think people are very uncomfortable with silence and with a pause and I have really turned that around to realize how much power there is in a pause and we're just more comfortable the more we have to do and we just get our kind of self kudos for, oh, I accomplished this and I did that, and then we want the rest of the world to recognize that, oh, she does this, she does that. You call me a mover and shaker and and I appreciate that it's so hard for me to hear that because I certainly want to be known. My reputation is important and being in this business of real estate, that's certainly important but I just want to be known for being very intentional, and so when you do not have your sight on intentionality, you're just all over the board. And so people who are busy for the sake of busy, are uncomfortable with themselves. Is what I really decided? I was so uncomfortable to be. Still Tell us about your faith.

Ron Meyers: 12:37

Did you get angry at God?

Stephanie Shaw: 12:39

That's a good question. I did not get angry at God, and that was one of the few things I was not angry about. I really felt, after about three weeks of just not eating and not sleeping and just really beating myself up, I literally physically fell to my knees and just said I didn't create this scenario. You created this scenario for whatever reason. It was his time Help me with this. And from that moment forward, after I got up, I just had to hand this over to God and it was, I feel, by his grace that I wasn't angry at God. That had to be a liberating moment. It was liberating. I would not be who I am today unless he had this. All had happened.

Ron Meyers: 13:31

So if a person out there says you know what I've got to? Start intentionally living, start prioritizing things and making the right choices, they're going to have a lot more peaceful and productive life, aren't they?

Stephanie Shaw: 13:44

It's unbelievable. The mindset of the more we do, the more we have and the more we accomplish is not the case at all. My whole life has changed for the better, personally and professionally, since I did this analysis, and it's amazing what we can do without.

Ron Meyers: 14:00

Well, now the number one question how do you get the hell out of your life?

Stephanie Shaw: 14:05

You know you got to turn the machines off. I really believe that social media and television and the 24 hour news cycle creates a lot of the noise and you have to be willing to stop and be still and be quiet.

Speaker 2: 14:26

You're listening to get the hell out of your life with your host, Ron Meyers. Real stories, real struggles and real hope.

Speaker 5: 14:35

What's your story? We're looking for stories of hope and overcoming life struggles with God's grace. Your story validates God's love, mercy, restoration and forgiveness. We want to help you share your story with the world. Visit our website, thepromoterorg, and click on the share your story link and submit your story. Your testimony of God's amazing grace will change a person's destiny for eternity.

Speaker 2: 15:05

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Ron Meyers: 15:35

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Announcer: 15:42

If getting old has you depressed growing up sometimes scares the daylights out of you.

Stephanie Shaw: 15:47

If you want to know what the future holds, get in touch with the one who holds the future.

Ron Meyers: 15:50

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Speaker 5: 16:14

It's about Jesus Christ. Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, but by me.

Speaker 2: 16:23

Well someday when I stand before God and he asks me why should I let you into heaven? All of this is going to matter if I knew Jesus or not, and that's what it's all about.

Ron Meyers: 16:59

Welcome back listeners. Stephanie's story. I took a few notes living life intentionally. There's power in a pause. I love that because sometimes we find ourselves going here, there, everywhere, and never taking time for ourselves.

Ron Meyers: 17:22

I encourage you on a regular basis to have conversations with Jesus. These are absolutely vital to my peace and purpose and even my destiny. In the morning, I'm having coffee outside or driving or walking on the beach and it's my time to reflect over yesterday or what I'm going to do today. Or, lord, what is it that I will do today? What are we going to do when I share maybe my mistakes or some things, or anger that I might have had, and you know, I wish I could control this more. Lord, I'm just giving me the discipline to do things, and it is that dialogue, it's life changing. My friends, I'm telling you I don't understand why we don't hear this more within all the Christian circles, whether it's church or it's radio. There's a lot of things to do, do, do, but sometimes we need to just sit at the feet of Jesus and let Him pour in this inspiration, this encouragement, this empowerment, because when we allow Jesus to be who he is our friend, our mentor, our teacher. After all, he resides inside of us. We have new ideas. We have thoughts. We have rest. We need to rest more in the finished works of Jesus.

Ron Meyers: 19:11

I have this little plastic cup. It's a transparent cup, a little frosty look to it, but when I put hot water in that cup it turns pink. It's really cool. It's a chemical reaction. It changed the color of the cup. When we invite Jesus into our heart, he pours His Spirit into us. He gives us a new heart, a new life. We are a new creation. He begins the 30, 40, 50 year process and, turning us into the person he created us to be, we begin to dream dreams that we never knew, we even had. We begin to smile again, we begin to laugh again because we've realized that there really is a change taking place and it's a beautiful change.

Ron Meyers: 20:15

And often you will ask yourself why did it take so long for me to discover this beautiful peace with Jesus and friends? You have to intentionally spend time with Jesus. No, you can't say, well, I'm too busy, well, I have to do this. You have to make time. And here's the most difficult part about this new, exciting relationship with Jesus. He's going to start changing some of your beliefs and your thoughts, and sometimes our first reaction is resistance because it's not what we were taught, it does not go with our personality.

Ron Meyers: 21:00

But Jesus is changing us from the inside out and he is teaching us to be dependent upon him, dependent upon his spirit, and his spirit will lead us to exactly where we need to be. Even though sometimes we think that we're in the wrong place at the wrong time, god is actually placing us in the right place at the right time. So Stephanie's story today is a story to remind us that we don't want to be so busy that we miss an important message from somebody that loves us. We don't want to be so busy that we miss that still quiet voice of Jesus leading us to something that will bless another individual today or tomorrow. Friends, this is your time, this is my time, this is our time to be everything that Jesus created us to be. As the world gets darker and darker, our light is getting brighter and brighter, because it's all about Jesus, isn't it?

Speaker 2: 22:18

You're listening to Get the Hell Out of your Life with your host, Ron Myers. Real stories, real struggles and real hope.

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Announcer: 23:01

Ron will be back in a moment to wrap up today's conversation. Did you know what Ron did before he discovered his destiny? He was a promoter of secular entertainment and, by his own admission, he promoted anything he could make a buck at. At the pinnacle of his success, he walked away from it all so he could follow Jesus and discover his God-given destiny. That was over 20 years ago, and he has never looked back. Ron put his story in a novel entitled the Promoter, and he wants to give you a copy. This book is a message of hope. To request your free copy, visit our website at thepromoterorg. Now back to Ron.

Ron Meyers: 23:42

Well, my friend, I hope you have been encouraged. I hope you realize that it doesn't matter what you have gone through. What you have experienced today is a new day. It's never too late for a new beginning. I am excited for you because I know what a destiny with Jesus is all about From my experience.

Ron Meyers: 24:14

I thought I knew everything by being religious, but I came to the conclusion that I was as dumb as a rock, trying to do all this stuff on my own. And when I merged with Jesus, when I united with Jesus and he lives in me, inspires me, encourages me and empowers me, I'm like a whole new person, and you too, you will be a whole new person. Isn't it time to laugh again? Isn't it time to smile again? Isn't it time to just enjoy your life? You know, I told you when I opened up the show that I was wore out with my Christmas show a few weeks ago. It was just a lot of work. I do everything with the spirit of excellence. Well, one of the things I didn't mention is that one of my workers, gwen, who has been with me from the beginning, was so excited to be part of the 40th anniversary.

Ron Meyers: 25:22

Unfortunately, cancer took her life and she died on the Saturday of Christmas City and then Friday evening at Shoppers Paradise, I found out that another dear friend of mine, very dear friend, has an inoperable brain tumor and is on hospice.

Ron Meyers: 25:50

So I think of Stephanie's story and I think of the stories I just told you.

Ron Meyers: 25:56

But you know something I was sad, but I had no regrets because my relationship with those two people were as best as I possibly could be. I had no regrets and I think that if we go through life by loving people, not judging people, by having more forgiveness in our heart, by talking to people when we really don't want to talk to them, that's what the spirit of Jesus is going to do. You're going to do some things that are uncomfortable, but when they are done, you're going to be so happy and so relieved. So my words of encouragement as you go out this week in the world is love more, laugh more, encourage more, inspire more and empower more. And if you can't do that, well then maybe it's best not to open your mouth at all. Hey, check out my website, the promoter dot org, and remember this I love you, jesus loves you, and when you give Jesus your heart, he not only takes the hell out of your life. He inspires you to become everything he created you to become.

Speaker 2: 27:30

Today's show was produced by Ron Myers Ministries. A listener supported ministry. For a copy of today's broadcast, please visit our website, the promoter dot org, and would you prayerfully consider making a tax deductible donation so that we may continue to share stories of God's amazing grace with the world and join us next week for another broadcast of Get the Hell Out of your Life. No people sharing real struggles and offering real hope.