Jessica Luttrell

First and foremost, God. I have been literally through some of the worst things imaginable on this earth. And the only thing that I can say about them after having overcome them, having healed, having got past it, is that if it were not for God putting me through all that pressure, all those things I kept questioning him on in the moment because it was my faith that was dwindling at the time, I would not be the diamond I am today. Diamonds are only created under pressure. You have to go through all the hard, all the bad, all the lessons that you don't understand now, but maybe figure out years later. It's all a part of the process to make you ready for what you were sent here to do. And if you don't understand that, and you have no alignment with God itself, you have missed your purpose.

To endure and to overcome. Patience and persistence are your friends. A strong verbal and emotional relationship with the Triune God is very important. You need to be grounded and have purpose in anything you do, not just in this industry, but this industry is difficult. Customer service is difficult in and of itself, but when you reach the manager level of customer service in restaurants, you're getting interactions on a daily basis with people in the community that hold different titles, have different tax brackets, and are so diverse and different. You have to interact with them for positive things, for negative things, and for recoveries. Having a foundation and knowing that you're there to serve a purpose can help you, definitely, to get through. The uncomfortable truth about faith is that most people want blessings, few want the pruning. It's easy to pray for increase, but it is harder to pray for removal because removal feels like loss, and loss feels like failure at times. But sometimes, what leaves your life is not a mistake, it's misalignment. When you ask for truth at any cost, you are inviting disruption. When you ask for guidance over gratification, you're volunteering for refinement. It's not soft spirituality, it's surrender. The question is simple and unsettling: Do you want what you want, or do you want what is right for you? The answer determines the depth of your faith.

I'm rarely a hater, but when I am, it isn't impulsive or personal. It comes from ethics, from nuances, from sitting with something long enough to see past the surface, from noticing patterns. I ask, who does it protect? Who does it cost? And who is expected to stay quiet to keep things comfortable? I don't arrive at dislike easily. I exhaust empathy first. I give context its full chance. So that if something earns my rejection, it usually is because it survived my curiosity, my patience, my benefit of the doubt, and still failed to sit right. It's not hate for the sake of rejection or reaction. It's discernment with a backbone. That's evolutionary growth in females, if you ask me. I assess something, look at it from different perspectives, and if it doesn't align with my values, it's okay, I let it go and find what does align.