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here's the deal desires they might be
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good they might be bad but even good
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desires are not a prediction of the
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future and they're not necessarily the
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voice of God
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[Music]
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hi and its father Mike Schmitz this is
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essentially presents so I recently I was
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in a conversation with a young woman
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who's talking about the fact that she
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had this great relationship with this
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great guy good in a holy man she was
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driving after the Lord he was driving
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after the Lord was going on great and
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then the relationship ended but she
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still had this really powerful desire
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for the relationship and this really
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powerful I guess what I might turn maybe
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she's used the word conviction that this
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is what God wanted because she had this
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deep like the desire was there the
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desire of like wait a second this is
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good this is a good desire to along for
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marriage with this holy man it was
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really really great
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in addition let's talk about this in a
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second in addition there are many people
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who came up to her during retreats or
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doing other kind of things in prayer and
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these would be semi reliable people in
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in other context who would say you know
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I think you're really called to marriage
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you know what I think you're really not
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called a religious life here's what I
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really think yeah and no keep in mind
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this isn't after like living in a
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convent for a month this is after kind
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of like here's a weekend retreat and so
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it's the amount of information they had
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was very minimal and also their role in
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like discernment for people's vocations
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in their religious community was really
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minimal as well note on this I find this
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happens quite a bit when someone we we
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can have a tendency to place a lot of
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weight on someone who tells us tells us
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our vocation or tells us here's what I
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think your vocation is maybe especially
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if what they're telling us is the one
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thing we want right so I in this context
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this young woman she wanted to be
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married and she's like she's open to
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both or to all vocations right she's
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open to being a religious sister in her
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heart she knows she follows the Lord she
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loves him she wants to go wherever he
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leads her they're also kind of like
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there's something like wow and I really
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wanted to do is get married have family
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awesome no big deal the problem is when
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we give people a little too much power
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if they speak into our lives and say hey
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I think you're called to X they don't
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know this is the reality they don't know
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they have no idea they might sorry
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clarification they might have an idea
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but unless we unless you're talking to
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Padre Pio a
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is very very unlikely that they actually
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have like special insight into here's
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what God is is they're not also the
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predictor we're tempted to let other
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people be the predictor because we've
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talked about this before because it's
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much more tempting for us to let someone
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else make the decision for us than it is
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for us to make the decision and assume
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the responsibility ourselves that makes
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sense so if someone has ever said hey
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you're called to this attend to it but
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they probably aren't Padre Pio back to
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our story she was concerned because
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these people are telling her this also
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she desires this relationship with this
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guy and then you know as life goes on
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the guy has a relationship with someone
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else and the question is wait how come
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God would put this desire in my heart
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that he didn't want fulfilled and how
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would he why would he let it grow if he
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didn't want me to wait around for this
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guy to come back and that's when we just
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have to have to kind of a maybe possibly
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the hard word first word about desires
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our desires are not predictors of the
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future that's just bottom line our
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desires are not predictors of the future
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and they actually aren't even the voice
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of God right so just I know there's a
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lot of good things about discernment of
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our desires so our desires are not bad
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as Christians we're not we're not
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supposed to like kill our desires our
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Quelch our desires we're meant to attend
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this the second part when to attend it
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to our desires like so we we examine
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them and look at them and say okay so
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what is being revealed in this desire so
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just because the fact that oh I'm really
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attracted to this one individual that
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doesn't mean or had desire relationship
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with them that doesn't mean that that's
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what's supposed to happen
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get us out a predictor of the future
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it's not necessarily the voice of God
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but what I want to do is I want to say
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okay wait what's going on inside of me
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that what do I desire what is it that
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I'm desiring I mean this is true when it
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comes to I mean think about any even
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like kind of secular decision or
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discernment that a person has to make I
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remember uh maybe I shared this story
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before when Houston when she was a young
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girl she has an older on cousin very
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famous singer and she's going to her
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auntie or cousin and said hey I want to
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be a singer too and a question
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clarification
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and that she was asked was okay do you
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want to sing or do you want to be a
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singer because if you want to sing you
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love singing the church choir is a great
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place and you have a beautiful voice and
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you'll have the solo every Sunday like
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if you want to sing you can sing there
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or do you want to be a singer which
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means you're gonna live a certain kind
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of life and probably scrape to make ends
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meet and you're to live this life of
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just like you know singing again and
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after day after day you know you're
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gonna have to live a certain kind of so
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what is it you really want
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I just desire to sing mm-hmm attend to
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that desire because it's gonna reveal a
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little bit more oh I don't just want to
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sing I want to live this life of an
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entertainer of a singer like okay same
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thing is true for virtually any of our
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desires that appear good we attend to
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them and ask the question okay what is
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this revealing about my heart what is
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this revealing of what isn't this
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revealing about what I really really
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want so in this scale situation and so
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many of our situations like okay I'm
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attracted to this guy that must mean
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that she wait for him well two things
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one is no it doesn't flat out it
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probably means that you are attracted to
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the good true in the beautiful here's a
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guy who is seems good and he's pursuing
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the Lord it is really good for you to be
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attracted to that kind of person but why
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is it keep growing like this if I'm not
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meant for this person well it keeps
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growing because whenever you go to
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prayer and discern and talk to the Lord
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about your vocation he keeps coming up
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yeah why does he keep coming up it's not
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from God because you keep bringing him
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up right amen can I get the little
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retweet that's what happens in our lives
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and I keep bringing back the same stuff
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to the Lord why do I want it more
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because I keep feeding it that's not
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that's not me saying that someone's
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being silly if they do that it's being
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normal it's being human if we do that
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the reality is because that desire has
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grown does not reveal that that's God's
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will it just reveals that I've been
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placing a lot of my heart into it so
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desires
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could be good I could desire good things
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that could be desire bad things that's
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almost irrelevant
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the question is what is that telling me
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not about the future not about
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necessarily even God's well what is that
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telling me about me what does God want
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me to attend to when I
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into those desires and say wow it
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reveals that really long 4x okay what am
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I really longing for at the bottom of it
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it Whitney Houston I just want to sing I
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want to be a famous singer so I desire
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Fame
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I desire notoriety I desire recognition
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not just in my local community but
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whatever you know I'm saying our desires
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good bad doesn't matter they are not a
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crystal ball they are not necessarily
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the voice of God what I do is I take
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those desires I attend to them I try to
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understand them where they're coming
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from what they are and what they're
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pointing to and if I can do that over
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cut over time then I can say God
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revealed through my desires that yeah I
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was called to marriage and family or God
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revealed through my desires I was called
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the priesthood already entered the
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convent or I was called to my desires to
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enter this this particular field that
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makes sense
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hope it does but I really appreciate she
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just had such a good heart and she was
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like sharing this with me
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and I thought I would share her good
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heart and that and that that desire she
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has for goodness and holiness and for a
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great relationship with you all because
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I imagine that if you're watching this
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listening to this you probably have
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pretty good hearts too and at the same
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time can't trust everything in our heart
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that's the Mac back to the matter so you
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have a good heart don't trust it yeah
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you have desires don't trust them but
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it's into them and let the Lord unfold
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what he wants to unfold apparently
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that's all I have for you today for all
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of us here to Center presents my name is
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father Mike god bless
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[Music]
