Latest / Dope Discussion With Normthegreat1 🔥 / Building Stronger Communities Through Personal Growth

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Building Stronger Communities Through Personal Growth · Dope Discussion With Normthegreat1 🔥

• Mr Normthegreat1: Welcome to Dope Discussions, where faith isn't quiet and truth isn't comfortable. We're having the conversations most people avoid about purpose, pain, leadership, relationships, identity, and the real walk with God. No pretending, no performance, no watered down gospel, just raw growth, real convictions, and kingdom conversations. and Kingdom conversations that challenge you to become who God called you to be. And now, here's your host, Norm the Great One. Yo, what up, what what up, what up, man? You already know who it is. It's the great one, we back in the building. Yes, Lord, we back in the building. Another day, another opportunity. You know, that's how we start every show by giving thanks to the Lord, say God, for all his many blessings, man, and all the many blessings that he's stored upon us, man. Just act the movement of our limbs, air to breathe, shelter, water, food, all the good stuff, man. So many blessings that we take for granted, man. We're just grateful for that, man. Every day we give thanks for that, man, just. grateful to be back in the building back behind the mic, man. That has been a blessing, man. Hope y'all been doing all right out there, fam. Hope y'all had a good weekend. Hope y'all had a good week so far, man. But you know, what we here to do is get you over the hump and get you ready for the weekend, give you a little motivation. We got a little good one today. Got a mixed variety of conversation, but you know, we gonna chop it up like we always do. And I wanna say thank you, man, for listening to me and checking me out and rocking with me, man, to everybody that just checking me out, man. I appreciate it, man. I really do. I don't take this for granted at all, man. I really don't. You know, sometimes I feel like I don't even want to do it this week. I don't feel like it. I don't got it. I'ma just play a whole show with it. I thought about it. I'm like, yo, people don't find it robbery to listen to me every week, man, from time to time. The people deserve to hear something good, because you don't know who going through what and who can you touch that week that need to hear something new or hear something fresh to... get them just to a moment of whatever they got going on. you know, I try to always vow to make myself, I make a vow to myself to try to be at every week, much as possible, man, and give y'all some good information or whatever the case may be and try to get my best, man, because I appreciate this, man. And I thank God for the opportunity, man. But nevertheless, let's get this thing started, man. I got a few things I want to talk about, man, but I'm. I know talked about that Houston stuff before, but you know, I was scrolling and I seen people with these STDs number and HIV numbers and all that stuff. I'm not sure if people take this as a game or a joke or whatever the case may be, man. You know, this stuff is real, man. You got a lot of things that you can't get rid of, man. You have to live with these things for the rest of your natural born life, man. And to think that... You would go out here and just, not even just at Houston or to be at a club or anywhere and just sleep with somebody randomly. Like, this culture right now is like trash, man. It's like everything is over sexualized, everybody naked, everybody just looking for their quick hookup to bang, bang, bang and toss to the side and on to the next, man. It's like crazy out here, man. You know what I'm saying? It's like everybody got all these options. Everybody got all these options. With social media, everybody DM loaded. You know, it was a time where you had access to the people that was around your neighborhood. You went to work, church, certain things, and that was that. You know, what people was doing in another state and all that, you didn't know all that. know, people doing halfway across the world, you didn't have no insight. mean, the news or had family or something that lived there, but now you can go on a computer and log in or whatever, and you got access to people in other countries. It's a whole nother day or it's nighttime in a whole nother country. You got access to people and so many access ain't always good man because the access give people more time and know, I don't mind as a devil playground. So it gives you more time to scroll and more time to get that DM or that conversation that you shouldn't even be having. But because of one day out of loneliness or you had an argument or something or you just. entertain that conversation one day and then now you just got it. So many people out there walking away from their marriages, their families and all different things for somebody gonna tell them some sweet nothings in the DM and conversation that they shouldn't even be involved in. And it's like, everybody think that there's something better out there. You know what saying? You know, they got the people that tell you, shouldn't settle for this if you're doing that. You deserve better. There's so many people online giving you advice for stuff that they don't even love. You know, everybody think that it's always something better, something better. And don't get me wrong, you know what saying? Every day you strive to be a better individual, to do the work on yourself, you know what saying? To sit around and think that, it's always the other person, that I can just always get a better person. That's not reality, man. That's not reality. Nine times out of 10, man, a lot of people are sitting around just trying to work on you to get to know you, try to pitch a little woo to you, just to sleep with you, you know what saying? Let's call a spade a spade. A lot of people not interested in you, a lot of people want to sleep with you, you know what saying? And a lot of people get that misconstrued because they post a picture and people give the hard eyes of people like, they don't like you. They want to get to know what's under your clothes and all that. It's not about trying to get to know you or trying to take you out or nothing like that. They just trying to have sex and that's where everything has been so over sexualized. You know what saying? Like everybody naked, everybody walking around with the skinniest, skimpiest clothes. mean, even down in Houston again with the rodeo. I mean, people actually wear cowboy boots and jeans and the hats and that's the culture. But they came in there with the booty shorts with the... half of their butt hanging out. I wanna ask this to the women that's listening. When ones that do, cause I'm not the one to put everybody in a box, but when you go outside and the bottom of your butt is hanging under your shorts, you don't know that, you can't feel that. And another question is, why do you think that's cool and cordial? You know what saying? Like, what's so good about having the bottom of your butt hanging out the bottom of your pants? What mindset do you have when you wake up in the morning? to just wanna get up and go out of the house with half of your rump hanging out the bottom of your pants. And then you walking around in the mall and you find the most busiest place to go to and all that. And it's like, why? They go to the mall and the road. I mean, you got the rodeo with kids out there, man. You know what I'm saying? There's no regards for anything, man. No regards at all. Like it's bar none. And back to my original starting point. when it's with these numbers and everything and they got people with pictures with all these stuff on their face and infected and all. mean, they go everywhere and turn it to a freak fest. Just having sex and just, it's like Sodom, man. Sodom and Gomorrah, just modern day Sodom to where they just out there, just a freak fest, man. know, just out there, just going out there and do everything they can do that's nasty and knowing the man. sleeping with strangers and everything and go back to their home city. And God knows who they're sleeping with at their home city, you know what saying? And just passing that stuff out. It's a scary time, family. You better be mindful out there, man. Don't take the chance. Don't take the risk. I'm telling you, because at the end of the day, man, it's a cold world out here and people don't care about you. Hurt people wanna hurt people. It's people right now, every time you turn on the news, you see some article. Some people knowing they have HIV or something like that, and they still sleep with people and say nothing and have nothing going on because they feel like their life ruined. why would they care about somebody else's life? So I'm telling you, be mindful out here, When you out here, you're grown and trying to do whatever you do, man, I'm telling you, man, it's best that you be mindful, man, because people don't care. They're reckless because they got these pills that talk about you, none. detective or whatever, but that stuff is still in your body. My thing is, I'm a grown man. You know what saying? I'm a grown man. I don't need all these extra bodies and people around to be messing with. I'm cool. Now, have I been an idiot in my time? Yes, I have. I have been an idiot in my time. I will say that and I will not back down from that, not glorifying it, but I have been an idiot and I have not always made the best decision. but I thank God for His grace and mercy that, you know, that looked over me, you know what saying? But what I will tell you is I've learned. I've learned. Thank God I didn't have to get a big knock aside my head to learn, but I just can't be it, man. I can't do it, man. It's just like, some people don't care about their health. They have no regards, man. It's like, it is what it is, you know? Throw caution to the wind. And I don't understand it, man. Like these, ⁓ Bike weekend, Daytona and everything. I mean, it just ready to go, man. Just do whatever. We got old, young, everybody that's out there just doing whatever. You know whatever, I mean, I'll leave that up to you. I've not even got to go no further. I mean, like, I'll ask somebody, like, at what point do you have enough, enough? Man, I'm good on that. You know, that's not appealing to me. You know what saying? Like, at what point do you get to that? You know what saying? But from what I see, some people, never get to that point because to them is always about a good time. And don't get it twisted, man. I'm not saying that you're not supposed to enjoy life. What I am saying is that you can enjoy your life and be cautious and be safe and have common sense too. You don't have to be in everybody's face or going somewhere with everybody off in the cut or doing some strange stuff. Like when I look at people on these videos that go in these places and doing these crazy stuff, it's a lot of void being filled. know, a lot of people are hurting and they don't know how to go about it so they act out. You know, one thing I learned, man, that from talking to a lot of people and just day-to-day life and traveling and different things, a lot of people will, you will see them and you will think that they have, they're so beautiful, they got this going on. But a lot of people have low self-esteem or don't like this, so, and it shows in a lot of their actions, you know, because you never understood how some people can do a lot of things that they do. But on the flip side, when you talk to some people, To be a person that was never accepted in their whole life in their 40s, never been accepted, never felt loved, never felt beautiful, and somebody telling them some sweet nothing. They know it's a lie or whatever the case may be, but to feel important to somebody, they were willing to pay that price just to lay with somebody, just to feel important or to do what that person want them to do, just to feel important. And there's a lot of people walking around like that, man. And that's sad, man. You you hear people say it all the time. I love that so. Y'all gotta give you that script about, that ain't me, because I don't have to miss you. Man, let me tell you, man, I'm telling you, a lot of people got big voids in their life that they try to fill with things. That's why they have so much hard time, because they want to be loved. They want to be accepted. And the things that they would do to be accepted and be wanted would blow your mind. And your heart and prayer is my thought. My heart and prayer go out to them that they find the peace, the past, all understanding, not the peace from this world. Peace from a man or peace from somebody that gonna use them. Peace that gonna get them in the place to understand that you are more than enough. And that's to anybody out there that listening to me that don't feel worthy today or don't feel like they are enough or never felt love. Let me tell you something, you are more than enough, man. When you get up, you get in that mirror and love yourself. Nobody will ever love you if you don't never love yourself. You got to love yourself. God made you the way he wants you to be. and it's okay if your nose big or you got big lips or whatever big eyes, whatever the case may be, embrace it, embrace that. God didn't make a mistake when he made you. He made you the way he wanted you to be. And it's okay for you to accept that. You ain't supposed to be for everybody. That's the thing. You're not supposed to be for everybody. Everybody ain't supposed to like you. That's fine. Everybody didn't like Jesus Christ and that's fine. You gotta be okay with that love. Now I'm not talking about in an arrogant way, but I'm talking about. and a confidence is a difference between arrogant and confidence. I ain't trying to get you to be arrogant like that. I want you to be confident, still have some humidity, you know what saying? But like I said, man, you know, with this social media thing, with the options and everybody coming at you, it's like everybody just vain to it, you know what I'm saying? They eating it up like, yeah, this, that and the third. But them likes ain't likes to get to know you. Them likes ain't likes to... get to know you or ask questions about your life, your upbringing or none. Them likes are just trying to get you to get to where you gotta go so they can talk to you in your DMs and try to, you know, woo woo woo and try to see what they can get at you because like I said, everything in this over sexual culture, that's all the balls down to, you know what I'm saying? Crazy, man. It's crazy that nothing is private no more. You know, you get online where people just blasting people and telling information, things that. You know, back when I was, I'm not that old, like I always say, I'm not that old, but things that people would kept to themselves. You know, some people would be ashamed of some things they did or some places they've been or whatever the case would be. Now people talk what it like is whatever, you know what saying? Yeah, that's what I do. That's what I did. I've been with the, I mean, just loud and proud. Mike. Goodness, I mean, you know, would be, you know, you did something wrong. You'd be like a little shade, you know, like, man, y'all did that for, whew. Man, what I was thinking, I should have devil-capped for a while. But nah, that ain't they claim, man. They stand bold, ten toes down on it, boy. They'll just go with it. Like, it is what it is, man. I did it and I'll do it again, man, you know? And it's like no conviction, man. And I think that's one of the biggest issues that we have, man. Most people don't have no conviction, You know what saying? Like, I remember when I was younger, I did a lot of stupid stuff, trust me. I did a lot of stupid stuff, man. Some stuff I looked back at like, yo, you was an idiot, bro. You was an idiot. It's like, you didn't have no conviction, man. You know what saying? I didn't have that conviction like that. You know what saying? Yeah, I went to church, you know, to play the role and all that. But as you got older, you really get into your word, you get into your stuff, and you had that conviction, man. You just be like, some things, man, you just, I'm good. Nah, I'm good, I don't want, I can't do that, man. And there's a lot of things that I did then that you couldn't pay me to do now, man. Like, I just couldn't do it, man. No, want no parts of it, man. Like, I'm not perfect by a long shot, but what I'm saying is that conviction, man, like, you think, like, you know, it's a question I ask myself all the time. Even when I'm going through something or somebody said something or you know how you want to respond or you want to whatever pop off or whatever the case may be, I always ask myself, and then what? So I was the question, and then what? After I come to you like that or whatever the case may be, and then what? And then what? Because I was that person that I had to pop off, I had to let you know, you know what saying? You ain't beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, you know that stuff. And then... I was like, yo, one day I was just sitting there like, just thinking to myself like, man, what the heck is wrong with you, bro? You know what saying? Like, you know, sometimes you have to check yourself. You know what saying? Like, it ain't always everybody else. Sometimes you have to check yourself, man. yo, you tripping, man. You need to gather yourself, bro. You need to gather yourself, right? And I started writing in general and stuff, right? And I started reading over my notes and stuff when I'm like feeling some type of way, whatever the case may be. And I started going back and reading over it. And I started to be like, man, okay, da da da, this, this, this. I started connecting the dots. I'm like, okay, okay. But, and along with the journaling, I started to get at my word more and understand more and things. And then once you get that conviction and you ask God to renew your heart and your mind, a lot of stuff where you think that you had to have the last word or you had to tell somebody, it don't even matter, bro. I'll tell you straight up today, you got it. You got it, man. You got it. I don't have for you. You know what I'm saying? I don't have pushback for you. You got it. All yours. Enjoy. It's all yours. Enjoy, man. I don't have nothing for you. As long as you don't come in my space and all that there, I'm leaving it, man. I don't have a desire to even get to that place with anybody, man. I'll tell you straight up, you got it. You got it, man. I don't have to have the last word. or I don't have to be right. But at the end of the day, as long as we have a conversation, we can agree to disagree. I'm not here to convince you of the way I see things or vice versa. But what I'm here to do is just we have the conversation and we don't, I'm good with leaving things the way they are and just keep it moving, man. That's what anybody, man. I try to a peaceful life as much as possible, you know, and I'm okay with that, you know. I try to live the most peaceful life as possible. try to give everybody respect. ⁓ I try to do things that are fair-seeming, that's even. I try to be, I don't like the word fair, but I try to be as fair as possible and understanding. And that's just that, man. Like I said, man, sometimes you have to check yourself. You have to examine yourself. You have to check yourself because if you don't, man, you're gonna be out here blaming everybody else for things that you need to work on. And you're not crazy. You know exactly what you need to work on. You know how you be doing things extra and all that. And sometimes you can be doing things so long that you think is normal and you think is right. But that's not necessarily mean it's right, bro or sis, cause you've been going at it too long. It's okay to change, man, to get better. And sometimes you have to isolate yourself and work on yourself. It's okay to take a hiatus and just go work on yourself. Do the work, man. I tell people all the time, man, do the work. Like when you in between relationships or you by yourself. Do the work, man, and be honest with yourself, man. I know y'all keep hearing me say, but my mama always told me, man, God bless her. So you can be as everybody else, but you better be honest with yourself, man. I'm gonna be honest with myself. I did not like how I reacted to certain things, how I carry certain things. And I know for sure, I mean, I can't go back and apologize to all the people, because I know I probably, I know I said some dumb stuff. reacted some way it shouldn't have reacted. I pray to God that, you know, that they forgave me for my ignorance, you know? But coming from a different man now, I would never react to certain things the way I did. It's okay to have a conversation. It's okay to disagree. But if you see things get in the way, get out of the way or whatever, it's always good to... leave that right there, because sometimes you have to leave things right where it's at and be able to come back and pick it up another time, you know? Not to avoid and say you're not gonna have the conversation, but at least for the moment, because coolerheads always prevail, man. But sometimes we get to that place that, no, you're gonna hear this, that they gotta get it off, they gotta get it off, and it's just gonna cause more issues, you know what mean? I'm telling you, man, you have to do the work on yourself, man. It's not everybody else, man. You've got to examine yourself because if you don't examine yourself, you're going to be like, you're going to be like thinking that everything is good with you and it's just the other people. If you have fun or two person, okay, cool, but it can't always be everybody else, man. I know some people, man, it's always somebody else. It's always somebody doing them. I mean, it ain't never them, it's always somebody else. And I don't know. That's all there, man. I pray that they get this off together, but it can't always be the other person, man. And you gotta have people around you, man, that have not say permission, but y'all have that mutual respect that they can pull your coat tail and be like, nah, bro, you could handle that better than that, bro. You trippin', you buggin' on that, you know what sayin'? But you gotta have people like that, but you got people that just go whatever you say because you said it. They're not, they're doing you a disservice, man. Them people in your life doing you a disservice and there's so many people that have yes man and yes women around them because they feed off of that. Somebody telling you whatever you wanna hear. I don't mind you saying what you wanna hear. I don't need you to tell me what I wanna hear. Tell me the truth. If you felt I could have handled that a little different, let's speak on it right quick. Let's speak on it, you know what saying? But at the end of the day, let's have the conversation. I'm always open to have a decent conversation, you know. Excuse me. Now, one time back, man, I ain't trying to hear nobody thought, what? Man, that's what you think. That's what you, you know what saying? But now, man, you know, it's more like, let's have the conversation. Because you might see my blind spots. You might see something that I didn't see or didn't pay attention to, ⁓ or, you know, didn't picked up on. But being that you did, let's have the conversation. Let's see. Maybe you saw a whole different thing or, you know. ⁓ Maybe I was thinking one thing and it was actually something else and you caught it. You know what mean? That's the type of relationship you need to have. But so many times, so many people don't want nobody to say nothing to them at all. At all, you know what saying? They only want you to tell them how good of a person they are. You know what saying? Like how good of a person they are, how perfect they are, how, you know, is everybody else. You know, that victim mindset that push everybody to that place to like, ⁓ yeah, you know, it's them. It's never you, you know what saying? But no, that's not reality, man. That's not reality. That's not reality. We all can look back at our life and certain things. Heck, we can look back yesterday or the weekend or whatever and look at some situations that we could have handled better. We could do that. That's like me, man. I'm always looking to ⁓ expand. I'm always looking to get better, you know what I'm saying? Because it's always good to do the work where they get better. You know what saying? That's all I'm working for. To me personally, hey, we got to come, I have a conversation with most anybody until I hear you, I'll to fill you out. And then now it depends on how your thought process is. Cause there's some people out here with some thought process. You'd be sitting here like, holy Jesus. How did you get that? And the fact that that's what they believe, man. You just be like, OMG, there's no way. Now I see why you are in some of the circumstances that you are. Your thought process, your thought process, man. Your thought process is crazy. And there's a lot of people like that. They thought process is out of this world, And you'd be listening to them talk and you'd be like, what? How? How did you get that? One plus one is two. So how did you get that? And like I tell people all the time, man, you know, I just like to have the conversation, man. I ain't better nobody. We all out here striving to get better. I want to talk about one thing, another thing, man. I had a conversation over the weekend with somebody about grief, man. You know what saying? You know, when I was younger, I lost my mom and then I lost like my grandma. I think it was like, not mistaken, I think it was my aunt, my grandma, my mom. It was like a cycle, man. You know what I'm saying? And I lost my mom when I was young. I didn't think, I don't think, when I come back to think about it, man, you know, I, I don't think I grieve my mom's death the right way, you know what saying? Like, I, I was never, I guess, I wouldn't say taught, I guess I could use that. I was never taught, I never learned how to grieve, man, you know what saying? Because you think about it, man, when you a young kid or whatever and your mom died, man, you know, it's like, The mom is like the glue, man, you know what saying? The whole family together and stuff like that. But then when you're like a young teeny bopper, man, like I think I was like 18, 17, even though, I mean, touching manhood, you know what saying? And I lost my mom just like that, you know what saying? To see your mom as a healthy person and just going down to like 90 pounds or something and just barely can walk and move, man, it's like crushing you like that strong woman that you would have conversations with and. You could have talked about anything and just like lay your head on her lap, man. It just had that conversation or whatever to be down to a person that was just like a baby learning how to do everything over, man. It was devastating, but the fact of the matter is when she passed away, man, you know, I think at the initial time when I saw that she died, man, I think I cried once, And I think I cried a couple of times after that, but I didn't think that as I went on. You know, I went on with life, relationships, different things, man. But from having the conversation, I never properly grieved my mom's death. And it was crazy when I figured out, I was like, wow. You know, my mom been going for a while, but I was like, you never really grieved it, but never understood it, man. And I think that's a lot of people's story, man, because honestly speaking, like, who taught us how to grieve? You know what saying? Like, who taught us that? Nobody teaches you how. to grieve, you know what saying? Ain't gotta be a parent. We lost a loved one, a kid, whoever. Nobody really explaining to you how you supposed to grieve or is there even a correct way, you know what I'm saying? Like how to grieve, man, you know? Because here's the deal with grief, man. You know, you still have to go on with your life. You still have to live and you still have to maintain your sanity, you know what mean? Because we all got a point in time and a day when we leave here. So I believe my mom, did what she's supposed to do and got to see best for her to come home or whatever the case may be. But with that being said, man, you know, we always think that our people gonna live forever. But when God called my mom home at that time, it was a shocker to me, know, that mom got sick or whatever and went down fast like that. But it was more so along the lines of what you supposed to do now, you know what saying? I got two sisters that's younger than me, of course. I'll leave that right there. And when my mom died, you know what saying? saw most of my pops died when my mom died because he was never the same. You know what I'm saying? And seeing my pops, and he buried his wife, his sister, his brother, his moms, buried most of his family, and I never really saw him grieve right. So, I mean, it's like, we're not taught that, and we're not learning it. So, it's just like, sometimes it just bottle up in us, and we don't know how to. explain it or work through it. But to be honest with it, I believe that it's something that you never really truly get over, but I think you learn how to deal with it and maneuver with it because that was my mom. It's not like you get another chance at that, you know what saying? You only got one mom. Like as we speak today, both my parents passed away. You know what I'm saying? God bless the people that still have a parent or both parents out there, man. Don't take that for granted. Love on your parents, man. But like I said, for me, man, it ain't just about parents. It's about loved ones and everybody. just use my parents as an example of we really don't properly grieve, you know? Like, you know, I guess I'm assuming go to therapy and just try to work it out, man, you know? Because one thing we have to do is understand that when your life goes on, it don't mean you're forgetting about the person that left. It's just that you're taking everything. How I really got over, not even say got over, but how I handle it, I accepted it. And my mom's no longer here. And I thank God for the time that I had with her. And I thank God for the lessons that she gave me and what she instilled in me because I didn't know that I didn't ever pay attention that the stuff that my mom was telling me, a lot of stuff that my mom was telling me, it wasn't for that time. It was for the time that. she was not gonna be here, you know what saying? And when she gave me them tutelage lessons and conversations, at that time, I'm teeny-bopper. I'm looking like, this one be crazy, you know what I'm saying? But she was preparing me for life out there and life for her not being here, you know what I'm saying? I always get up and I thank God every day for my mom. I thank God for allowing me to have the time that I had. And I thank God for my parents and the lessons and the they instilled in me and the childhood that they blessed me with and all the good stuff, man. You know, I had a pretty good childhood, man. I can't complain. I would redo it again tomorrow, you know, and say that had the best parents. And like I said, man, I never really understood a lot of the things that my mom was saying at the time. But as I got older and have kids and I got married, I seen a lot of stuff that she would say, man. I was like, ⁓ wow, it's nothing more crazy than going through something or in a place of life and your mom give you some tutelage at 15, 16, and you in your 40s and it hit and now you'd be like, whoa, that's what she was saying. It just come, it always come, no one said crazy time, but the time that it hit you was like, wow. That's the stuff that everybody never had an opportunity to have. But with me personally, I thank God for it because my mom was always instilling me for the future and what's ahead and what life to come, what to come with life, you know what saying? But to me at that time, I was just looking at it like jibba jabba, you know what saying? Or stuff that she just rambling. And I was like, man. I thank God for it, man. You know, I thank God for my parents. Well, like I said, I thank God that I learned how to handle grief a little better and how to work through certain things. I don't think it's a one-size-fit-all thing. And I don't believe that it's one-size-fit-all hat for everybody. I think everybody's routes can be different, but I think the foundation with the therapy and talking about it and working through it, I think that's the foundation. Now, how you frame the house after that, I think it's on the individual because some people wanna stay in that place. But like my mom always said that, it's okay to be down, but just don't stay there. It's okay to cry, but just don't stay there. Hold yourself up, hold yourself up. And it's a parent's job to teach you to live beyond their time, you know what I'm saying? And that's their job to teach you and train you and guide you. Cause one day they're not gonna be here. And you have to understand that. So many people have parents that are crutches to them. So when the parent leave, they are out of control. They don't know what to do. They don't even know how to make it. They don't know how to survive. They don't know how to do anything. And that's a lot of the issue that you're seeing now that a lot of people calling these kids, these kids don't know up from down, left or right. But if God was to call you home any day or whatever, your time is up. These kids are lost because they're so used to everybody doing something for them. know, and it's sad, man, you know what saying? Like most of these kids now can't even read on their level. They don't read anything. That's why if you look on YouTube, everything is shorts. Shorts are making everything possible. Then they got things now, apps and stuff where you don't even have to read the book. You put the phone on the book or something that tells you about the book or read for it, something like that. But it's crazy, man. It's creating lazy people. That's what all this stuff is, creating lazy people. And it's crazy because they lazy and they can't handle adversity because they're not built for that. You know what saying? They just like the convenience of it. And I never understood, man, how somebody can be a parent. Just, I get it. A lot of times when people have childhoods that were off the chain or whatever the case may be, they look at it as, don't want my kid to go through what I've been through or whatever the case may be. And I agree with that. I agree that you should put your kid in the best situation to win. But at the same time, you can't take every struggle from your kid. You can't take everything. They gonna have to go through something because if they don't know how to make it through something, then what are they gonna do when they get out in the real world? You fighting all they battles ain't gonna cut it. You gonna have to stand up to it son or daughter or whatever. You can't always be right there to run through it. No, I run to them to rescue them. You'd be there, it's supposed to be to assist them, you know? Because once they get out of your house and get out in the real world, then what you gonna do? You're gonna be old and hustling and bustling, running down there to try and protect grown people from doing this and doing that. And that ain't gonna work, man. Kids these days, when they started that, what you gonna call it? My goodness. What is it, no child left behind? Man, they just sliding kids through, man. These kids let you slide into a... to graduation, they done dumbed down everything. I know when I had to graduate, you had to take an exit exam. They ain't had to do nothing. I don't even think these kids have all their credits or nothing. They just sliding them through, sliding them through. You got kids getting diplomas and all kinds of stuff just sliding through. ain't did the requirements or nothing. So what do they set in society? Sending them up into society just to do what? Because what college you finna go to? Them professors and stuff ain't finna play with you like that. You're not finna be able to slide through with these professors with that nonsense and all that. Them professors don't have time to babysit you. They're gonna hold you accountable. Either you get it done or you're gonna be outta here. That's just that. So I mean, like, it's crazy how a lot of these kids is being coddled, man. And I remember when I used to coach basketball, man, you would see it, man, like, you gotta let these kids grow up, man. You gotta let them grow up. That's why you have to instill in them what you're supposed to instill in them. and you supposed to step back and guide them. Be there to guide them, you know what I'm saying? Like, if you go off the track, no, no, son, go this way, don't go that way. You know, just guide them, what they wanna do it for them. And you can't do that, man. We got grown men out here that can't keep a job. We got grown men out here that not on their stuff, not paying bills or doing what he's supposed to do. He just fine with just. make just getting through, you know what saying? Just whatever. Ain't no, it ain't nothing to it. He just getting by and it's cool. You know what I'm saying? That's not how it's supposed to be, man. We have to bring up young men with structure, man. You need that structure, that foundation, because the only way we gonna get the family structure back together, if we have strong men to take this, take this stand on what it's supposed to be. Far too often we got women in position. Well, man should be there. And I get it, sis. If ain't nobody there, you have to do what you have to do. I agree with you 100%. I don't take nothing from me. But at the end of the day, men got to step up and be men. And I'm not talking about in an abusive way and, you superior, no. I'm talking about leading like you're supposed to and doing what you're supposed to do. Because we got too many kids out here that don't have the father, the tutelage. to make it through the day in and day out because when they look up, they see no father. When they look up, they see no mentor. They see nobody, probably big mama or somebody trying to lead their way. But besides that, they have nobody. So for us to be better as a community, we have to have family and we can't have family until we have strong men in that position where they're supposed to be to lead, to guide and protect. Not grown men that trying to sleep with everybody. We don't need grown men that trying to have kids over here, kids over here, kids over there. If you a man, we already know you a man. We don't need you to prove that you a man by having Sally, June and all that over there. We need the men to be with their family and build families. So the guys, the young boys see how a man's supposed to treat a woman and vice versa. The young girls have to see that what a wife is, not a 304, not nobody on the ground with their butt out. I'm talking about a family, a wife. Not nobody that's turning up and getting drunk and just all over the place and just whatever, whatever, no. Somebody handing themselves with dignity, with class, not a party mouth that cuss every other word. I'm talking about somebody that got dignity and class because we have to get back to this, man. We have to. I know it seemed far gone, man, but we have to get back to that, man. Family structures. These kids need families, healthy family. not toxic families or whatever the case may be. lot of these kids are born and they're already behind the eight ball. They're already behind coming into a world of chaos with no father or no mother or with grandparents or just out there, just whatever. The devil always say he traveling to and fro seeking who he can devour. And a lot of these people make it easy for the devil because guess what? They got to feel like they belong somewhere, but we got to do better on that front. with raising these kids because these kids supposed to be the future. But my goodness, the future don't look bright at all. Most of these kids can't write a cursive. They can't do basic multiplication. They can't count money. Things that we had to do in school, we had to write in cursive. We had to know the multiplication. We had to know how to count money. You ever been to a store with one of these young kids and they're supposed to give you some change and they end up giving you... more back than what you paid for the product. And it's sad, but they got, long as they can put on the fresh J's and have the $15, $2,000 cell phone and all this other stuff, they don't care about nothing else. Look sharp, but dumb as a box of rocks. That's what we dealing with. Look cute, but dumb as a box of rocks. These the conversation that we need to have. Cause you can go on social media as a guru that do everything, but don't even live by the stuff they telling you. All this nonsense. how to get money from a man or how to get multiple women and that's what they teachin'. And that got the most views on how to get this much women and how to have the money and all this other nonsense. How about how to build basic foundations within the community with family structures? How about show the young brothers how to do something productive? What about showing the young ladies how to be young ladies? What about that? But if we do that, them views gonna be so little and so small because they don't want to hear that. We living in a time where toxic is popping. It gotta be toxic. If it ain't toxic, they want no parts of it. They don't care about that. They want to be toxic and ratchet and they glorify it. Fighting and cussing and killing each other and fighting some more. Shrieking with each other, man. Whatever the case may be, just having kids out of wedlock or whatever the case may be, they don't care. But I digress, I digress. I ain't come to preach today, but I digress, man. But that's pretty much all I wanna talk about in a nutshell, man. My time winding down, I hope you enjoy the show, man. I just wanted to put some insight on some things, man. ⁓ Like I said, I appreciate the love and the support. I appreciate each and every one of you, man. Like I said, if you got any comments, questions, whatever the case may be, man, you want to come on, whatever. NormTheGreat843 at gmail.com. Hit the email, send me an email. You want to chop it up about something, send me an email. You got the email. Like I always say, man, I appreciate it, man. I hope you all enjoy the rest of y'all week, man. And like I always say, man, if God willing, you know we'll be same place, same time next week. Peace. Thanks for listening to this episode of Dope Discussions, where faith isn't quiet and truth isn't comfortable. Continue on this journey with us, like and share on your favorite podcast platform. And for more real kingdom conversations, be sure to subscribe so that you never miss an episode.