181. How I Distracted Myself from Worldly Pleasures, Part 1

Yes, my mom was strict, but I could have rebelled too because of her strictness. Being the oldest, I had all the excuses to be like. You know, I don't have to stay here. I'm past 18. I'm 30. You know, sadly, at 30, I had to bury my mom, you know. But you know that's these life challenges, like that's what's important. You know, family love.

Welcome to the Call by God podcast with Adne Godin and myself, Nixon Sylvain. This show is about dialogues of biblical characters and testimonies of Christians who submitted to the will of God. Each week, we bring on one guest so that they can share their story of how they were called by God. I hope this show inspires you. Enjoy. Welcome to the Call by God podcast, a podcast where we share personal stories of faith and discuss the Bible teachings on salvation. I'm your host, Brother Nick, and I'm here with sister Adne Godin, and we are honored to share these powerful stories with you.

Today we have a special guest, Yolande Batista, who will be sharing her testimony of how she came to know Jesus as her Lord and Savior. Yolande will share her struggle before finding salvation. In addition, she will expound on how her decision to follow Christ and how the decision has had a positive impact on her faith journey and her life.

Yolande testimony will remind us that, no matter our past, god's love and grace are available to all who seek Him. It will also serve as a reminder that salvation is not about only getting into heaven, but also about the transformation that occurs in our hearts and lives when we accept Jesus as our Lord and our Savior. So join us Call by God podcast family as we listen to Yolande powerful, god-given testimony. Sister Yolande, welcome, welcome to the Call by God podcast. How are you doing?

Hello, hello, hello family. Awesome, great to be here. Thank you so much for the invitation, hey man hey, y'all, y'all, where else are you?

I know she's a little bit laid back right now, so we're off, see. See, this show is going to be real special, right? Because we're island folks. Island folks, we might mix it up a little bit with a little bit of English, a little bit of French, a little bit of Creole. So we might mix it up with a little bit of everything.

Hey, yolande brother, they just took the whole conversation. Hello, how you doing, sis, how you doing Good?

good.

How the baby. Thank you, they're awesome being natural.

I love it.

This is going to be a special episode, so I'm going to be testing out my Creole a little bit. Just don't make fun of me, y'all. So to all the French people out there that's listening to this podcast, please have mercy on me and extend your grace upon me, because these two sisters that I have here, they showed me how to speak French and Creole. I think well, creole. Yes, they're Creole. They don't speak it very fluidly. They always mess with me. I bear up if I try to put a word or two out there, but Sak Pah, I guess Sak Pah say Sak Pah say Not Boo.

Le. Yes, they're going to Boo Le. What's going on, sissy?

Yolande, just take a few minutes not few minutes, but a few seconds to tell our guests a little bit about yourself. Before we get into your initial question, just tell our listeners what you're about.

Okay, basically, I like to start off by saying I was conceived in Haiti. I was born in Miami, so my mom traveled in the boat while she was pregnant with me and my first language was Creole. So that's all she knew. And I grew up in a Christian background. I would say Baptist, automatic, always praising, always fasting. I would say seven weeks well, it's not seven days of the week church ongoing nonstop. So, yes, a little bit of that. I was into sports and school, of course, medical background, many years. I would say I love family. I'm the oldest of four siblings but I raised in the household of seven total siblings. So that's me. I had step-brother and step-sisters. That was a challenge in itself, but you know what my mom, being a Christian, taught us how to have togetherness and I love that. I can say my struggle growing up was the fact that, because I only knew Creole, I had a hard time with English. I started really speaking at age five. That's one thing a lot of people might not know. So English was not really easy for me growing up. I did struggle in college because of English being my second language. I did go to Esau, but I overcame that with God's grace. Yeah, that's a little bit about me.

Hey man, I love it. I mean, you said a mouthful right there, so but we're going to dive a little bit deeper into your background, your story, and I don't even know how much time we got, but we're going to try to do this as smoothly as we can, and I know sometimes when we share our testimonies, they could get deep, and you shared so much, from Haiti, from being a Baptist, until you plan sports, your upbringing. So I want you to really go more in detail and provide a glimpse into your upbringing, and it don't have to be lengthy, but try to go more in depth. I know you know initially when you was telling our listeners what you're about, but try to highlight or capture some moments, those moments about your upbringing. I probably never asked you that before, but just to sit back and just to hear you, I want to know a little bit more about your upbringing and background.

So, yes, it was just me and my mom, because I didn't grow up with a father. I did grow up with a stepfather, like from age seven to probably 20s, but it wasn't a good role model. So my mom had to play both roles. So taught me how to cook, clean the wife's duties, get me prepared for marriage. I would say I was 19. What stood out to me when it comes to my mom? The fact that she was strong and driven and she was determined when it comes to the Christian life. I say you know what? I need to experience that for myself, whatever she's talking about. And this is why, like in high school that's one of the testimony I want to highlight, the fact that I thought I wasn't going to graduate high schools. I said let me see what my mom was talking about when it comes to fasting and praying, because I want to graduate with my friends. I don't want to be here 30 years old, 12th grade, so I fast and pray in church. So my eyes was red like I was smoking and my knees was ashy because I stayed on my knees and I said, lord, that cannot be me. I need to experience myself who you are. I want that for myself. Lo and behold, after taking this test three times, I passed on a fourth try and I exceeded what they asked me. So I said I said there's nothing wrong with serving God, you just got to. You got to want him for yourself. And this is why I stuck to the verses like Matthew 22, verse 37 to 39. It says love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul and mind. And I stuck to Psalm 51 because I said I know I'm not perfect, I know I got to keep working myself, working on myself. I would say no one's perfect, there's nothing wrong with me. So I said I got to stick to those verses because that's what she taught me to always repeat these verses. I'm a sinner, I got to do better. The Psalm of David, psalm 27,. All these verses helped me and I owe this to myself. In which we've heard it before garbage in, garbage out. And I said why not just keep the positive in? And that would be to absorb what my mom taught me, the foundation of Jesus Christ. That's what helped me as a youth. And of course, I have other other things that helped me because I know I have challenges. You know, being a girl, you know you have a certain look and you're like a target and people will get you like something got to be wrong with you because no boyfriend, no husband and what's going on. Or are you? Do you like? Girls? Do you like? What is it? You like older men, what is it? I mean, that was that, was that's what I had to deal with growing up and I said no, I kept strong. I was saying I was stubborn. I would say stubborn and what else. And I was distracted. I kept myself distracted so I can like dismiss all these negative things. So it goes to one year out out the other end. Also, what helped me maintain my faith was listening to audios like John Hagee, joyce Mayer. At the time they knew how to target certain points Like, and most of all, I would say, music, music. It has a profound and multi faceted impact on you know, the human mind and emotions. So I say you know, I'm going to use that to like push out any negative words or demon, demonic, anything. And I know my knowledge is as you know, it regulates. You know my mood. So I say I'm going to have to stick to that. It's therapeutic. That's what helped me. It removed stress. So I said you know, I can't rely on man to help me when it comes to, you know, being positive or giving, you know, instilling positive words. I have to do it for myself and have to stick to the word. So that's one thing I know. My mom mom left with me to help me as a young it would say beautiful young lady. Another distraction would be, of course, sports. I was into basketball, I also played volleyball, I also played tag football. So all these things they got me distracted. And, of course, church get into church groups. Singing that's nothing. I had music background. My father used to DJ, he used to sing. My mom used to sing. I used to join her the elderlies group. All right, the younger one, I used to join that group. So that's what helped me to stay focused. You know, life throw us red flags and yellow tapes, because yellow tapes are warnings, also said don't cross that line. So I said you know what I got to pay attention. If I fall, it's not going to be the Lord's fault, it's not going to be my mom's fault, it's going to be on me, because it's all written. You know how I'm supposed to live my life.

I think you have a very interesting upbringing and I know I know you know I have a real crowd too, sister Yolande, and I want you to one of my the preachers at the church will say I'm going to try to hope somebody, I'm going to try to help somebody, and I know I hear a lot of your mother in a conversation and even that ties with your relationship with Christ and I know that had a lot to do with your upbringing and I know that could be varied. That could be challenging when you're trying to live in a sinful world but yet at the same time, you try to do things that pleases God and also to not disappoint your mother. That could come with some challenges and I want you to go a little bit more detail now. When you said that you know that people thought, hey, do you like girls, do you like boys? Because I know there's a, there's a degree of purity. Right, when you, when you carry yourself in a certain fashion a God, like fashion there's a, there's a degree of purity. So when individuals look at you, especially if you're a person that that deemed to be attractive to them, they're going to be like hold on, like I'm trying to highlight you Like there's there's a purity. You know they like man, I want a church girl, so and I know you talked about that but what? What are some of the things that you believe and again, I'm trying to hope somebody what are some of the things that you you believe that were taught biblically, that you kept intact, that you didn't decide to conform to the world, and I know one of the things you you mentioned it and I want you just go into detail, whether or not it's a relationship or dating or sleeping around, like what were some of the things that you did? You felt that you kept intact, like I'm not going to do this, no matter what, I'm going to keep myself pure. I want you to respond on that.

Oh, like, yeah, that would be like I said distraction that's my and, of course, being stubborn like I was saying before, if I know I have a problem with drinking. I'm not going to stop by the bar. I'm not going to do that. If I know I struggle with gluttony, because I know I love food, I'm not going to go to the buffet. I just set myself up and this is what I mean about there's yellow tape and there's red flags. Some things are like, it's like in your face and I say I got to protect me and I got to make sure I mold myself and prepare myself for the person that deserve me and I'm sure he's being molded to for me. And I said you know everyone's different. I know we're fearfully and wonderfully made. It's not because I'm privileged. I said it's a choice. It's a choice Because I can jump on a bandwagon like everybody else. But I say I choose to be different. That was for me. For my personal reason. I try to shed more light, say something more positive. Let's say let's go bowling as a group. You don't have to be just two people or maybe four.

Because of your Haitian upbringing and the fact that your mom is raising you in the church, there's a level of standard that is impressed upon you, right? And then wanting number one, to please God and to please your mom. And how did you maintain keeping yourself pure, number one for God and number two to please your mom and everything, how she raised you and what she expected of you? And I'm thinking that's the best way to ask you that question, because when we're raised in the Haitian culture, we're raised with a completely different level of mindset when it comes to a relationship with Christ and understanding how we are to keep ourselves pure.

I always make sure I kept myself busy, like I was saying. I think I said not too long ago that if I have to learn a little language or go back to school for something else, that's a way of not thinking about, you know, desires that the world trying to enforce to me. I know I want to make my mother proud most definitely, and I know I could have disappointed her too, but, like I was saying before, it's a choice, because I know people look at me like they were looking at me. They said you're the oldest, your sister is married before you, your brother married before you. I was the last one, but all that could have bothered me. I said there are words that are not helping me. It's not uplifting me, it's not telling me. You know your time will come. I was not getting that, I was getting. You know what do you call Andrea? That means there's 30 days in the calendar, 31, and you're about to be 32, still not married. It's like all that negative. I said you know what? Try to look, try to find a positive way of doing things so you don't think about what's not helping. So, like I said, if I had to go to gym, if I had to go running. I just kept myself busy and the time was just going by real fast. You know support groups. I attend support groups, youth groups. If we have to go to the camp, we do that. I just found myself in place where it's godly or spiritual. I would say that's the only distraction that helped me to keep the word in me, so that when you speak to me it oozes out. I mean, that was my goal every time, because I said it's easy to jump in the bandwagon, you know. But I'm trying to set myself to be different, you know, especially being a role model, being the oldest, you know it's easy to point the finger. You know this is not right or you're not doing it right. You know she got to do this. You know, I know it's not easy, especially nowadays, because girls are flaunting their bodies and you want to be able to be weed out. You want to weed out. You don't want to mix with the grass and the weeds, you want to stand out. You want to be a flower in the garden, just stand out. And I've heard the saying. You know you're not meant to fit in, you're meant to stand out. You know this is what we're born to stand out, and it would be best to stand out for Christ, you know, to show that he's real and that it's possible. But you got to be determined. You got to, like I said, be stubborn, just like they're stubborn on their end. We got to try to do the same for our Christ. We got to try to do the same. We got to do the same and that's what I meant, like as a youth. You know, yes, my mom was strict, but I could have rebelled too because of her strictness. Being the oldest, I had all the excuses to be like. You know, I don't have to stay here. I'm past 18. I'm 30. You know, sadly, at 30, I had to bury my mom, you know. But you know, that's these life challenges, like that's what's important. You know family love. You know. Take care of your family Love. Learn something, if you know. If you know Crayol, you're good and fluent. Try to learn Chinese. Keep yourself busy. Or if you're already an engineer and you're bored of being an engineer, go do agriculture. Find something to do, find something else to do. I mean, especially now. Technology is awesome, you don't have to do nothing and you make money. You know TikTok and all this, but like I would use that to my advantage. You know, to spread the word if it is like through TikTok. You know, spread the word or share your talent. Try to put light on your talent. You know that God gave you your gift, I would say. I would like to say, like, focus more on these things that will help someone else. You know, not just for yourself. Don't think only for yourself. Think of how you will impact others. You know, I mean, that's what helped me.

I would say, this concludes Yolande episode. Stay tuned for part two of the remaining episode and be blessed. That's it for now, but before we go, please continue to listen, subscribe and share our podcast. Also, if you want to support our show, please scroll down to the bottom of the show notes and click on the link that says Buy Me a Coffee. We were greatly appreciated. Thank you for listening. I remember God is good all the time, and all the time God is good, and also Jesus Christ loves you. Thank you, Zealand smelling beautiful.