[00:00:00] Speaker A: But embedded in every crisis moment of our life and every challenge that we face, there's deep within it is embedded a divine strategy for a supernatural outcome. And I think that's part of the maturing process. As we start out with ideas, you know, younger, younger. When we're younger, we think about faith and accomplishment. As you get older and you reflect back, you think more about the providence of God because you can be reflective.
[00:00:44] Speaker B: Welcome to the Wealth Builders podcast. I am so grateful that you chose to join us today and you are going to be really blessed today. I am joined by David and Melta Briggs. Welcome, David and Melta.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: It's great to be here.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: So happy to have you. And many of you have seen David on the podcast, but we have his beautiful bride with us today, too.
[00:01:05] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:01:05] Speaker B: And I was sharing with you, Melta, that we heard stories about how you guys met. And so I think a lot of people are really going to be happy to see who is this Melta that Dave was talking about? And I would love to give you guys just some time to just share with our wealth builders family a little bit about yourselves. We've seen Dave, but, Melta, maybe just tell us a little bit about your story and even how you got connected with Billy and Becky, because we know that you have been friends with Billy, I think it was since college.
[00:01:37] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Almost 50 years, 48 years, I believe.
[00:01:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:41] Speaker B: Yeah. So tell us about David and Melta Briggs.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Well, if I may, let Melta tell her side of the story.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: I'm looking forward to hearing this. Let's see how these stories line up.
[00:01:51] Speaker C: Right? Let's see if he told the truth or not.
No, neither one of us were raised in christian homes and. But all I ever wanted to do was go to church and serve God. And my dad's mother took me to church to a little baptist revival when I was ten. And I remember gripping the back of that pew with conviction all over me.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: At ten years old.
[00:02:13] Speaker C: At ten years old. And I got saved.
And I would go to church with anyone, anywhere I would walk if there was a church close enough because my parents refused to go to church with me. And so I finished high school when I was 16, and I worked at the water company there in McGee in the office for about a year. And a lady in my church called me and wanted to know if I'd be interested in a job at southwestern assemblies of God college. And I just knew I was supposed to go.
So it's the end of May and I get there and the job is a student job. Well, I can't be a student because summer session's too far in. But the business administrator let me move into the dorm even though I wasn't a student.
[00:03:00] Speaker B: Oh, wow. That's favor.
[00:03:01] Speaker C: Yeah. And let me pay weekly rent. Well, after about a month, I couldn't find a job anywhere, and I didn't. I knew I was supposed to be there, but I didn't want to be there. I was extremely shy, very introverted. It was hard to make friends. And her daughter, the lady that from my church, when she told me about the job, she said, come by the house, and you can follow my son Tommy to school. And this is 1974, and she gave me $100 cash.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: That's a lot.
[00:03:34] Speaker C: That's a lot of money back then. So a month has gone by, you know, I still can't get a job. Don't know what really I'm doing there, except I'm supposed to be. And her daughter came and found me and said, excuse me. My mom wanted me to tell you she paid your car payment this month, which just blew me away. I had an old clunker of a car. I'd taken out a small loan for repairs. And so now another month has gone by. I found out my job was still available, my apartment was still available, and I could walk right back into my very comfortable life. And I'm loading my car up. I'm taking my last load out to my car, and who did I run into but David Briggs.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness.
[00:04:19] Speaker C: And he prayed with me, and he said, everything's going to be okay. So I took my stuff back in my room, and I left it packed just in case God would let me go home.
So her daughter came and found me again and said, mom wanted me to tell you that she paid off your car loan.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:04:37] Speaker C: And I said, okay, God, I know I'm supposed to stay here. And then just shortly after that, I got a job in the office there at the school, and it was the encouragement that I needed to stick it out.
And I found that lady 20 years later, and I got to tell her what that investment did for my life, because it literally turned the whole course of my life. I was a very poor little girl from Arkansas. And now today, I've literally been around the world and been able to see and do things that most people only get to read about.
And all I've ever wanted to do was serve God.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: That is so precious at ten years old. And I think a lot of people, because they didn't have parents that would take them to church? Maybe. I don't know. Or maybe people think there's no way that they could find a pathway to God if they didn't have parents who took him to church. And here you at, a young girl, had that desire. That's really beautiful.
[00:05:37] Speaker C: It really is. And it's just, you know, it wasn't a good childhood. It was very difficult. But it's just like God had me in this plastic protective bubble and just protected me from all the nonsense. And, you know, I should have been a really messed up kid, but goddess.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: But God and that divine appointment, David, with you, like, what caused you? Were you. Were you just out walking? Or did God put on your heart, like, hey, I think you need to walk here?
[00:06:07] Speaker A: I was really just out walking because when I first saw melt, I told y'all before that, she walked into the dorm. There was a multi dorm, girls on one side, guys on the other in the center. We'd play cards and board games. And I was in there playing rook, I think, you know, card game. And Malta walked in. She's wearing pink plaid pants, pink top, had a blue star sapphire ring on her hand. So.
But when I saw, I heard I call the voice of my conscience, you know, but.
So to put words to. What I heard was, David, there's your wife. Well, I said, you know, satan, I bind you in the name of Jesus.
Because I wasn't looking for a maid at that time. I'd had a bad experience with relationships. So anyway.
And I think she was wondering who she might have relationship with. And is it him? Is him. When she looked at me, she's like, well, I know it's not him.
But what it did, it gave us a safe. It gave us a safe relationship. We became friends first. So. But I was just. So I was just out walking and I saw her, you know, and I think that's when I put the Easter basket on your head. She can tell.
I just kind of do crazy things at once. There was this old Easter basket I found. I found on the ground.
So I stuck the Easter basket on her head like a hat.
[00:07:31] Speaker C: And I still married him. Oh, my goodness.
[00:07:34] Speaker B: You knew? Okay, this is what I'm gonna be expecting, right?
[00:07:37] Speaker C: I mean, I was taking my last load to my car. I mean, I was gonna go back in, get my purse, my keys and leave.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: And there you were.
[00:07:44] Speaker A: And there he was.
[00:07:44] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:45] Speaker A: But the Lord had settled in my heart that after a long series, you know, praying different things, that I knew that we were supposed to be together. And she did too. But we built a friendship first. You know, it's like everything that evolves in life, I think you start with a seed, an idea. Like, even in business, you know, you sow with a seed or an idea, and that. But embedded in every crisis moment of our life and every challenge that we face, there's, deep within it is embedded a divine strategy for a supernatural outcome. And I think that's part of the maturing process. As we start out with ideas and see how younger, younger. When we're younger, we think about faith and accomplishment. As you get older and you reflect back, you think more about the providence of God because you can be reflective. So there was a lot that we knew, but we had to grow together to come to a place where we knew that we were supposed to be together. And we had that concept. Now, we had that knowing in our hearts, but we didn't know what the journey held for us. So we had to blend together, merge together, become one unit, you know? But now that we fast forward, what happens with that? We grew in depth in our relationship, our friendship.
You know, I'm more in love with meltha now than I. Than I was when I first saw her. You know, I tell people she still cranks my tractor, but I think that's the process of anything that we go through. It's like, you know, mark five talks about when a seed's planted, the tender or the keeper of the garden. It said that he just rises day and night, and he waters. And he said it springs up. He doesn't know how, but yet as he's water, he said he sees the blade, then the ear, then the full corner. Then when he sees the harvest, immediately he thrust in the sickle to reap. So that process of growth and maturity is the ability to. To begin to perceive when fruit is there. And that takes a process of time. I tell people all the time, I don't know how a brown cow eats green grass, gives white milk, but at the same time, I can still eat cereal. You know, I don't have to understand the light dark phase of photosynthesis, but I can still eat salad. So there's a lot that we. Sometimes when you're younger, you're trying to figure out how everything works. You're setting your faith to it, you're striving, you're moving towards. But then when you get settled and you get in peace and you begin to enjoy the journey, all of a sudden, what maturity means. It's that understanding phase of our life. So we started out together knowing we were to be together, knowing that God had a purpose and a calling for us, but yet that was knowledge, but we didn't have the understanding and understanding. What establishes you so our marriage, our relationship, we begin to get established as we begin to understand one another, begin to blend together, understand our call. So that's where you begin to be more reflective and I think that's what causes you to. Our marriage today is a lot richer. We'll be married 50 years in December.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: I was just wondering about that. 50 years. Congratulations.
[00:11:02] Speaker A: And we have a better sense of knowing how we're blended together now than we did 50 years, years ago when we first started.
[00:11:07] Speaker B: So that's a really great description of the process. And you know, you two are just an inspiration to so many of us. And we were talking before we went live about how we're all, you know, at that point where a lot of people are thinking, oh, it's time to retire. And we were just talking about how now this is where we're just getting started. And you've got some really good insight on that process. You know, for people, if they're maybe in their sixties like we are, where they think it's time to retire, we can encourage them. No, this is actually where you are really going to flourish and have an impact. But David, you were sharing about the process. When people are young, I think one of the things we do, I certainly was like this is I wanted to shoot to the top of the bank fast, but you know what, that would have not been good for me. Right. And so can you just begin to share a little bit about that process that we go through in life that really prepares us to hit this point that Lance calls convergence? I think that's a good term for it or really the most fruitful time in our life as a culmination of our journey?
[00:12:16] Speaker A: Yeah, one of my favorite scriptures is in Galatians four one.
And it says that the heir as long, and, you know, we're heirs of God, join heirs with Jesus Christ. So all of our calling, everything we're called to do and become, you know, that calling and giftings without repentance and whether you're doing it alone or with a team or with your marriage or whatever, this is, the heir, as long as they're a child, differs nothing from a servant, though they be lord of all, but they're kept under tutors and governors to the appointed time of the father. So there's, there's an appointed time when you're, when, when you have, you know, you have who we are sons and daughters of God. Everything's in us, but yet it's in, like, the fruit's green, it's not fully developed in purple. So there's seasons in our life. And so the progression of that we can be, we can have accomplishment, we can do things, we can have a measure of success, but the true, most fruitful seasons of our life is as we mature.
And so that's why it says tutors and governors, you know, the scripture says that you can have, that. You have 10,000 instructors but not many fathers. And so a mentor or a coach or instructor, they're different. They'll offend your heart to help your head. They're not so much interested in, I mean, they're interested, but they're not obligated to father you into something as they are to train or teach you into something. A father's approach is to disciple you and Trent, but it's different because he's concerned about your heart in your journey, not just your head. So. But you need both of them.
[00:14:01] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: So a lot of times when we're younger, you know, we're accomplishment driven and we're not reflective. So, so there's, there's seasons in our life and so there's. If I had, you know, I could show a graph that, that the, that as we start out as a babe, that word babe is the word napios, which means a baby. You don't desire the sense of mark of the word. So we have a sense of what we're to do and all that, but we're not fully developed, we're not mature, but we have a lot of energy and activity. But activity doesn't always mean productivity.
[00:14:37] Speaker B: So true.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: You know, I was active about a lot of things when I was younger and not everything turned out well. You know, psalm says that the young, you know, a young lion, you know, a young lion will go out and hunt. He's got plenty of energy, but he'll bite a porcupine, he'll do whatever. He doesn't always bring meat home to eat. An older lion doesn't hunt as much, but when he hunts, he comes back with the kill. So we need to have the strength and the energy of the young lion, but the wisdom and knowledge of the older lion.
So you go from being a napios a child and that's what we call the dependent state because when you're a babe, you're dependent on others. So even you have all this potential and all this stuff, you still have to be brought to a place of maturity. You need counseling, coaching, fathering, all those things we talk about. So your fruit isn't as mature as it should be. And then you go from the Napios stage to the stage called a technon or Technion. That's what, that is what we call the team. Like a teenager. That's the independent stage. That's when you begin to struggle and pull away to find your own independence. So that's like, you know, when someone's, you know, like a teenager does, you know, I'm, I'm not my father. I'm not my mother or a young minister. You know, we're trying to find our own identity. And so we pull away. We have, we're moving, we're trying to grow and mature. We're not as productive in those seasons because we're trying to grow into who we are, finding our identity. And then you go from that, that Teknon stage to the Bible calls it the we os, or the fully developed sons and daughters. And that is the interdependent stage. That's when we begin to get settled, where we're not struggling to find our own identity, we're more mature and that we're beloved. Now, are we the sons of God? Yet it does not appear what we should be. We should be like him. That's when you begin to talk about convergence. That's when you come into. Your fruit is touched. You go from the beauty of, you go from the green to the beauty of the purple, the richness, because now it's not just knowledge and head knowledge, but you have, you begin to have enough life experience to where it's the richness of your maturity. And then you go. So you're interdependent. You're settled in who you are, and you're not trying to be everybody else. They always say, you don't, you don't, you shouldn't try to be. You're born individually unique, so don't die trying to be a copy of someone.
[00:17:03] Speaker B: Else so good, you know?
[00:17:04] Speaker A: And then you go from that, that interdependent stage to the pater or the fathering or the mother, that fully developed, mature stage. And that's where you get interdependent. And that interdependence means not only you're interdependent, you're growing, mature, but you also now are open to find out that you don't go alone, that there's teams that you're connected with. Who am I connected to? What am I a part of? So you're more open to bringing people in your life, to flow in rhythm and gait together. It's the beauty of the purple. And what I like about that is the scripture over in Psalm 90 212 14 where it says, those that be planted in the house, the Lord will flourish in the courts of our God. So you're planted, you know, and you're committed and you're faithful to something, but you flourish in the place of ministry. So a lot of people never get planted. So they never flourish. They never find connections, and so they're not ever enriched or matured. And it says about that if they're planted in the, in the house, they'll flourish in the courts. And then it makes an interesting statement. It goes on to say they shall bear, they'll be like a, like a palm tree and like a cedar in Lebanon. And they'll speak of two different things. A palm tree talks about a date. What's interesting about a date, it's a fruit that never spoils. It gets sweeter and sweeter till it turns to sugar. A palm tree that talks about your fruitfulness, you know, palm tree can bend in the wind. It's the ability to pivot and change and grow, and yet your fruit doesn't spoil. And then it's, and then the, the cedar of Lebanon talks about your strength, youre. And that's connected to, so they'll bear fruit in their old age or in their maturity in this season of our life. And they said, and they will be living proof of God's righteousness. And so I think what happens with that is really the most productive season of your life. In the course of 85 years or whatever is from that stages of about 50 to 55 to 70 or even later, 80. That's when your fruit is really, really ripe. And you're, because what happens is that you're not just speaking about things you've learned, you're not bilging out other information. But all of your life experiences, what you talk about, converge to what you believe and what you see. And you've lived life long enough to be reflective to where now there is richness in the fruit of your life and should be really the most productive season of your life. Because how you end your life is a whole lot more important than how you begin and how you start, what you're doing, how you end it. Because the command to older people, mature people, is to leave a heritage. That's what you believe and process and have, and an inheritance. That's the stuff to the children, the children's children. So that maturity, that's really the most productive season of your life, because not only you are accomplishing, producing, but now you're able to impart before you depart and you're able to leave a legacy and you begin to replicate yourself more in that season than you do any other season of your life.
[00:20:12] Speaker B: Wow, that's encouraging. And I can definitely see that in you. And David, I just have a question for you and melta. Did you see yourself where you are today involved with.
[00:20:25] Speaker A: Absolutely not.
[00:20:26] Speaker C: No.
No. Some things God has shown me ahead of time, in detail, and then some things God has surprised me with, and this has been a surprise. And I feel like it's. It's going to be the most productive years of our life. We've had a lot of rough times, challenges. We've had a lot of good years and everything. You know, sometimes people go, oh, I wish I'd known that sooner. But wherever you are, it's what you've been through has gotten you to where you are today. And that's what, so you can't just regret of what you didn't do, because everything has been a plan and a purpose. And I just feel like these are the best years to come.
[00:21:07] Speaker B: That's so encouraging. And going back to something, David, that you said, and I'd like both your perspectives on this, you said that a lot of people, they don't ever get planted. And in this process, if someone's not planted, they're not going to take root, they're not going to grow. So what, like, describe how people get planted so that they know this first step, how does that look like? What's practically the steps to do that?
[00:21:39] Speaker A: I think that it can be on several different levels. And being planted means surrendering to the environment that God has placed you in. So good. The Bible says the boundaries have fallen to me in pleasant places. I discovered that I have a goodly heritage.
The other man's grass is always greener, but it almost the same.
So when you're frustrated with your boundaries in your life and you don't steward the season that you're in, when your purpose becomes your prison, all you want is out of. And so that's why people can wind up in tragedy. That's why they can run away from something. They can disconnect before it's time. They can let go of something before it produces. And they have no root in themselves. So they're always moving from thing to thing, but they're never planted long enough in the process to come out with fruit.
[00:22:34] Speaker B: You said something. You said sometimes people's purpose is their prison.
Is that what you said?
[00:22:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Sometimes when your purpose becomes your prison.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: Okay, explain that. That is.
[00:22:46] Speaker A: Well, so, for example, we'll take marriage, for example. Melt and I both come from broken homes, divorce homes, and, you know, we just didn't have real good models in that. But let's say that melt and I in our partnership, or, you know, and this could work if your partners in business or whatever, you know, is that if we're both laboring together, that's where Luke five comes in. We're both laboring together, yet I'm getting all the fruit of that, and she's not sharing in that fruit. The shared reward of our journey, then what happens? Cold laboring does not produce intimacy.
And so what happens is, if she gets. If we feel like we're together, but we looking at circumstances or we're not, maybe where we should be, we're not being disciples or taught or coached or surrendering to the process of learning and interacting together, then you can say, well, you know, our purpose was to get married, but if it begins to feel like a prison, then you want to escape from it. You don't want to press. You want relief instead of release.
And so what happens is that you have to realize that your boundaries are pleasant, so you have to discover what you have. You got to work on what you have. So whether it's marriage or business or job or whatever, is that if you let the circumstances that surround you and what your challenge is, and then all of a sudden, you get frustrated in that purpose, it's easy to say, one day, well, it's God's will, we do this, and the next day, well, God told me to leave it. Well, sometimes we're leaving cause we're trying to escape something instead of steward something for us to have a fruitful outcome, because pressure the people that get into pressure situations, pressure always moves a person, without purpose, to panic. But pressure for a person purpose, it moves them to God's presence. So when you're trying to escape something, you're not trying to get answers, you're trying to flee from something. So that's. But when you have shared fruit and shared reward, you know, and intimacy is born out of the reward that you share. And the reward system was given by God, you know, and so purpose could be anything God's called you to, but you don't steward it well, because you've let the pressures and the challenges distract you, and you begin to look for what someone else has, and it becomes a prison. So sometimes you can feel like God's called me to this, but then when the pressures come, you start pressing your boundaries, saying, boy, that looks greener. That looks better.
[00:25:36] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: You can't run from God because he's everywhere you go. And you can't run from yourself.
And when you start running from yourself, sometimes it's not the devil that we have a problem with. It's the person between our two elbows.
It's ourselves.
[00:25:52] Speaker B: That is so good. So I really like how you described. I've never heard that before, that your purpose can become a prison. But just looking back, you know, even in business, people do.
[00:26:05] Speaker C: They.
[00:26:05] Speaker B: They hit pressure and then they leave. You hit pressure that you're describing, and you're going to run back home.
[00:26:10] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, right. My apartment was there. My job was there. I mean, I could just literally walk back into my life just like it was. But God sent that lady, and I didn't really have a relationship with her. And, you know, she maybe had invested maybe two to $300, but that seed literally turned the whole course of my life. And I could have gone back. But I look back and I think, man, what a turning point.
[00:26:37] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:26:38] Speaker C: I would probably still be in that little town, working in the, in the water company office. And that's why Tricord is so dear to my heart, because it wasn't a lot, but it was just somebody's obedience.
And so there are pivot points in our lives that God will just speak and we have to be obedient.
[00:27:01] Speaker B: That's beautiful and fantastic and the divine connection and timing of David coming across your path.
I do want us to talk about Tricord, but I want to ask you a question first.
When you. The word steward. Okay. We use that a lot. So if someone is not stewarding things or they hit that pressure point, what are the ways? Like, how does someone successfully walk through those pressure points where they are not trying to escape, but they're actually embracing it to see it through? How, how do we do that?
[00:27:37] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a whole subject within itself. It really is. But stewardship is really is just the faithful consistency to tend or care for things when they're at their most vulnerable season.
And it's like tending a field. You know, you're going to plow a field, you're going to sow a field. The Bible talks about the farmer or the husband patiently waits a for the fruit. And so stewardship is the ability to move in patience. You know, faith and patience are two twin. Two twin spirits. So forces, I mean, that we use so a lot of times it's being able to hear from the Lord, let peace and patience is how you possess your soul. Is hearing from the Lord about when to lay hold of something and when to let it go. So part of stewardship is like the tree that didn't bear fruit.
And the master of the field said, well, let's just cut the tree down. The husband said, no, let's wait a second. Let's fertilize it, let's dung it, let's prune it, and let's see if it will bear fruit in this season. If it does, we'll keep it. But then after the process of caring for it, if it doesn't bear fruit, then we'll cut it down. So sometimes we want to cut things down because we're not patient enough to tend it, to make sure that there's fruit in it. So I think patience is one way we steward. I also think that we have to go back and understand that patience is where the Bible says that if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives all men liberally and doesn't withhold. And it said, but, you know, to be that force of patience is how is how we keep from letting go of something. We retreat from it. Ecclesiastes says that to be patient in spirit is better than be proud in spirit. And it's a better is the end of the thing than the beginning thereof. So stewardship is the ability to be patient, to tend, to not disconnect from something, to pay attention to a long enough to get to a fruitful season, not just the laborious season. So stewarding means that you're faithful in the season you're at, with what you know to do. And I think, I think those that really is better, because that brings you to an outcome. And it's interesting, we talk about the sow, where sows the word and all that. And Luke, in Luke, it says that you guard and keep the seed with patience. Patience is that word. Hypo means to hold it off. So patience causes you to hold things off of you so your faith can go to work and you don't draw it back, because God takes no pleasure in those that draw back, but believe to the saving of the soul. So it's with peace and patience and being able to observe the harvest to where you're not understanding how everything's going on, you begin to listen for the strategies of life, not just looking for miracles to get you out of a painful situation.
[00:30:49] Speaker B: So good.
[00:30:50] Speaker A: So those would be some of the things I would say that would involve stewardship. It's the consistent ability to stay with something through the process till it comes from a harvest, but with the wisdom to know if it's not bearing fruit. How to disconnect. Billy talks about change. One statement he makes and change mastery is, is that retreating back to what's comfortable and familiar. And so you have to have faith to let go of something before you can embrace something new. So peace isn't always the tension of growth. Growth. And so you retreat back to what's comfort. Like melta was talking about go home because it's comfortable and familiar. And there's two forces that drive that in your life, practically the fear of failure and the fear of success.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: Interesting. Fear of failure and fear of success.
[00:31:38] Speaker A: Yeah. The fear of failure is you're afraid to fail at something, so you don't try and with. But the fear of success is the fear that you can't maintenance or maintain what you get to be successful. So you will abort your success because failure is a familiar friend. And so you know how to navigate failure, but you don't know how to navigate success.
So some people never try because they don't want to fail at anything. So that's just. That's just as damaging as. But the fear of success is I don't. If I get there, I won't know how to maintenance it, so I will abort it, whether it's a relationship, a job, or work, because. So they're afraid to get into the game, you know, because they're afraid if I get there, I won't know how to maintenance it. So they will purposely abort their journey and not steward it because they know how to navigate failure. There's familiar emotions, it's, you know, and those things. So it's easier to navigate that even if they don't want it. Cause they know how to survive there, but they don't know how to flourish somewhere else.
[00:32:45] Speaker B: That is so profound. And we're actually out of time. I can't believe this.
[00:32:51] Speaker A: I didn't put that.
[00:32:52] Speaker B: So we'll definitely continue this into another podcast. But I do just have one question on this topic before we sign off here.
Do people, are they aware that they have a fear of success? Or do sometimes they abort things without being aware and understanding what they're doing?
[00:33:11] Speaker A: I think it's a combination of both. Because we have three behaviors in life. We have our learned behavior. That's where from our parents, our extended family, those that are around us the most mirror that we had coming up. We watched how they managed pressure, managed problems. And so what happens is that that's what we're talking about. The sins of the father visit on the children. It's not that one demon jumps off daddy onto the kid. It is that they learn how they navigated those things, whether it's bad or good, that's our learned behavior. Then we get saved or we're growing. We get our desired behavior. We get information, everything. We get excited or challenged. That's the behavior that we want to have.
But then you have what we call survival behavior, and that's what you retreat to under pressure. And so you might not be aware of it. You have to learn it, or you might be aware of it, but it's a safe, comfortable place, and it's a cave. It's where you cloister. And in that survival behavior, you won't let anybody in the cave with you. That's where you're comfortable. That's where. So you retreat there to have some kind of self medicated peace, security. So whether it's emotional, whether it's drugs, whether it's overeating or whatever, you know, whatever environment you create, whether it's cloistering off and being a hermit, you get getting, you know, we're not supposed to get isolated. We're supposed to get insulated. But sometimes we get isolated in life. We draw away from connections. And so it's those behaviors that cause that. And so I think we can not be aware of it. But then as we grow and we get, we, you know, we get mentored, tutored, get in the Bible. God can reveal. So I tell people, pray about if I. If I am behaving a certain way, every time I get an opportunity or a challenge, go to the Lord and pray. And I, God, show me where my fear. Because, you know, anger is fear based. You know, what am I getting angry about? Why am I being reactionary instead of responsive? Go and praise of God. Show me what fears are driving me to disconnect from things. And why am I fearful to either try or why am I fear? You know, what is it that's driving me? And I believe the Lord shows you those things, or go to a coach or teacher or pastor, whatever, and get some insightfulness about that and get some knowledge about that. Then apply that knowledge so you can break those barriers off your life.
[00:35:47] Speaker B: That is so good. And I am so glad, David, that you brought us to like the solution. And I think everybody goes through these things. This is, everybody tells us, you know, we do. And to actually provide a pathway out.
And sometimes what I found is that I might have something brewing underneath, and then all at once, it comes out, and it's like, where did that come from? And I do think God, in his love and mercy, will start to reveal things to us so that when we're ready to deal with them, if we're willing, definitely. This has just been super helpful. My goodness. I always learn so much from you, David, and Melta, you as well. And I do. Even though we're at the end here, I really would like you just to share for a couple minutes on tricord, because, Melta, you mentioned it. And I would love to hear from your perspective about Tricord, because I don't think I've ever heard you talk about it before.
[00:36:46] Speaker C: Yeah, because Tricord, we started with just giving small loans and helping people get into business. And so the lady in my church, we didn't have a connection, we didn't have a relationship. But literally, that two to $300 literally turned the whole course of my life, because it was that encouragement that I needed right then, because my own mother didn't want me going to college, she actually came to take me, physically remove me. And my dad's sister was with her and talked to her out of it. And then about a couple of weeks later, I came out. My car was gone. My mom came and took my car.
[00:37:25] Speaker B: Oh, Melissa.
[00:37:26] Speaker C: So I think that she thought, well, if I didn't have transportation, then I would call her and say, hey, come get me. And so. But that. That was the encouragement that I needed at that moment. And then the fact that David came right as I was making that last load, and I hadn't told anybody I was leaving. I didn't have anybody to tell because I was so shy and introverted. And so the fact that you can take a very small amount of money and literally change the course of people's lives. I know one of the first ladies that we did alone with, I think it might have been dollar 50.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: And this is all in Uganda, right?
[00:38:03] Speaker A: No, this was in Malawi.
[00:38:05] Speaker C: In Malawi. Okay. And so she couldn't afford a whole bottle of cooking oil that we take for granted here. And so she got her loan, and she went through the training, got her loan, and she could triple her money on every bottle of oil. Then she started. Came back, got another loan, and she started having her family come and work with her in the market, and they started selling food in the market, and then she got another loan. She now has a convenience store about the size of a 711 in her village. And now she is employing people from her village and the influence that she has from a $50 loan because she was consistent, she kept pressing when things got hard. But to know that a small amount of money can change a person's entire life. And with her, it didn't affect just her, but it was her children, her family, and then her neighbors.
Yes. Yeah. So that's why it's so dear to my heart, because I didn't have anybody I never knew. I mean, my mom didn't finish high school. I think my dad went to third grade. And so it was a very poverty minded lifestyle that I had always lived. And so to see what a little seed can do is just amazing.
[00:39:22] Speaker B: That's amazing in tricord Global is people have an opportunity to actually invest in that. And so if you're listening, you want to learn more, I think they can probably email
[email protected] and we'll get you in touch. But what you also described, wealth builders, wealth Builders is a nonprofit. And these podcasts really happen because of our partners. And that seed is the wealth builders part is we are planting seed in the area of wealth building God's way, just like this podcast as well. And so there's so much that is happening within wealth builders with Billy and Becky that is sewing into people to give them this opportunity.
[00:40:07] Speaker A: And I don't know, because I know we're closely out of time, but here is what I appreciate about wealth builders more than just the different departments and the different in the menu of things that you can get. The fundamental foundation of wealth builders comes out of the vision that Bill and Becky Stewart, because they are actually the caretakers of that vision ministry. And God's brought us all together, but they believe so strongly in a growth environment. Yes. And that's the foundation. And so we talk about fear getting in the gate. All things were talk about change. The reason that I appreciate wealth builders too much is because it is the coaching. It is the coaching program isn't just a way to get smarter. It's the environment of taking people that they break off spirit of fear. They break off the spirit of fear of success and failure.
They get into an environment where they can, they get what's broken off of them is the invisible prison and the invisible chains that limit people to progressing in maturity and growth. Whether it's in business, whether it's being discipled, whether it's starting because, you know, with Tricord, it's not just money. Because it's not the dead aid that we give people in handing out money. But the real issue is, is teaching people how money works and teaching people how business works. It's the educational process that encourages them not to just get money, but how to make money work. From changing their mindset to where they're growing something that changes their life, changes their thinking to where their business scales or stays small.
They're coming into convergence in the kingdom and being empowered to be able to have the resource that they need spiritually, mentally, financially, to begin to fulfill the call and purpose of God in their life because they're in a growth environment. And the prison, the invisible handcuffs that is the whole essence of wealth builders tricord and everything. It's not just bilging out information or even in the investment, the investment pieces of it. You're investing in changing the dynamic of someone or some family's life. Empowering them to make a change in their village or their community or their city on a small scale or a large scale. Because now you're enabling people to be empowered to make a true difference in life, not only for themselves but for those around them where they are coming. Really we, I believe that born again christian people make the best civically responsible leaders in any community. And they're not a thermostat, they're a thermometer. And they set the environment and change whole communities. And that's, that's what I believe wealth build is about all, whether it's meetings, whether it's coaching, whether it's wealth Builders university, it's that heart that says we don't want you to be the same, we want you. When you encounter wealth builders, you encounter Bill and Becky or the coaches yourself or whoever, that when you will leave there different than the way you came because you're empowered to see your life truly change, to become what you should become and breaking off all the limitations that you've placed on yourself.
[00:43:47] Speaker B: Wow, that is so awesome. David and Melta, thank you so much. There is so much gold that has come out of you in this podcast and I just really appreciate you both for being here and for sharing and just imparting to people as you do. As you can tell, anytime we're around this couple, we are always learning and this is the wealth Builders family. This is what we're all about. So I just want to thank you both and I want to thank all of you, our wealth Builders family, for being a part of this and tuning in today. God bless you and make it a great rest of the day.
[00:44:20] Speaker C: Thank you.
