Newsletter for Friday May 24th, 2024

Authenticity, Transparency and No More Self Doubt

I woke up after recording Wednesday’s podcast with self doubt. My doubt was in my transparency and authenticity. When I record my podcasts I pray, I ask God and The Blessed Mother to speak through me and what comes through me is raw and authentic. I share from my heart and afterwards I question, “should I have said that?”

Do you ever feel that way? 

Do you question what you believe? 

I want to change! I want to embrace who I am and what I believe. 

Prior to going on my pilgrimage, I would never have thought that prayer and saying the rosary would give me so much peace, but it has. It has given me the strength to be my authentic self. Embracing that peace and knowing in my heart that what I may say may offend others or some may not agree is OK! When we are born, we are given the ability to choose and make decisions that are true for us, in our best interest and others may not agree and may be angered by our choice and that is fine! The truth is if we are honest and coming from a place of love then if we offend we can just say, “I am sorry I offended you but, this is my truth!”

In my opinion, these times of late have brought so much anxiety and unrest because I feel that society or at the least what the media portrays is that we all must think and act the same. We all must embrace this WOKE culture and accept things that we know in our hearts aren’t true. For example, the they/them, he/her pronouns. When did the sex we were born become such a hot topic? I believe it isn’t that complicated! Either you are a girl or a boy. It is one or the other. Society wants us to believe that it is an individual's decision and if you don’t like what you were born into, you can change it! I think that is just insane! 

When I was in Medjugorje and I spoke to the young people there about the US vs Bosnia Herzegovina the first thing they said was, “if someone in our Country tried to teach our children about a WOKE narrative we would shoot them”! I asked why do you think that it is happening in the US and they said without question, “Mental Illness!”

Today we keep our mouths shut and opinions to ourselves so that we don’t offend. We stay quiet and only speak to a small group that we know that we can be honest with. Fear of being judged as racist or simple-minded trumps being and saying what we know in our hearts to be true. 

It is funny, lately on my podcast I have been very forthright about being Catholic, loving God and being a Patriot. I support Donald Trump and with that I received many emails from listeners thanking me for being honest, thanking me for being strong! They say that I am courageous and fearless. Is that true? 

I don’t think that I am necessarily all of those adjectives, but I do know that I have strong beliefs and I know what I believe to be true. I can accept that I see things as right and wrong. I don’t and I am not wishy washy in what I believe at my core. This set of core beliefs were instilled in me at a very young age. As a family growing up it was not a choice whether or not we went to church! No excuse (besides being ill) would be accepted, you went to church Sunday mornings whether you liked it or not. Today, looking back, that is where I learned right from wrong. That is where I learned the 10 commandments and that God died for us. 

When I hit my teenage years I made choices now looking back were not always in my best interest. I chose not to go to Church anymore and I put all of those core beliefs in the back of my mind and chose to go and experiment! That is when I started drinking, became an alcoholic (I kind of believe I was born this way, I always had the alcoholic gene, and it wasn’t until I drank too much that the gene was triggered. Once you become a pickle you can’t be a cucumber again) and made choices that got me in trouble and brought on more regrets and shame than I could have ever expected. 

Today being sober and back to where I was when I was a child is a gift that I cherish more than money or words could ever express. God loves me (he loves you too) and he has given me this gift to be honest and authentic no matter what the cost. 

Friendships and followers have changed, some have decided to unsubscribe or have deleted my number and my social media accounts but that is the price I am willing to pay to be true to myself and to God. Life is about making choices and for many years I did things to make others like me and today I am who I am and voice who I am knowing that I am GOOD! I can sleep at night knowing that I spoke my truth! I ask God to speak through me and if it offends then so be it. 

My prayer for you reading this is that you have the courage to speak up and be your authentic self because God made you exactly the way you are. Don’t ever be ashamed of yourself if you are speaking from your heart, your core. Your beliefs are yours and they aren’t wrong even if they are different from mine. 

I respect others and love everyone even if I don’t want to break bread with everyone I love from my heart. 

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and if you could take some time to acknowledge the fallen soldiers that died for our freedoms (what are left of them) that would be lovely. Memorial Day of late has been about sales at department stores and the barbecue and not about what this day represents and that is our ability to vote, pray to whatever God we want and to speak our truths! 

God Bless America! 

Have a wonderful holiday and keep getting busy living sober. 

XO

Elizabeth Chance