Episode 652: Use Discernment

[00:00:16] Greetings and thank you for tuning in to Dreas Point of View. I am your hostess, Dreya. And in the next 10 minutes or less, I will be offering you my perspective on a topic that I feel passionate about. So please make sure that you are following the show at Dreas Point of View on Instagram, Facebook and Threads, as well as at DreapointX.

[00:00:37] So I came across a story, Fourth of July weekend, that spread like wildfire about Nolan Wells, the teenager who went out on a boat with his friends and they came back without him.

[00:01:07] And I won't talk about the details because I'm sure you know what they are by now, but more so what I got from that. Because I read posts and saw videos, everyone gave their two cents and there seemed to be a recurring theme throughout.

[00:01:33] So I figured I'd make an episode out of it. One thing that people were talking about was that parents said they need to have that tough conversation with their kids about not leaving anyone behind.

[00:01:54] How often do you go out with someone, whether it be a group of people or what have you, and you come back without them? I'm trying to remember when I've ever done that, left someone behind. And honestly, I don't remember doing that.

[00:02:23] Yes, I don't remember doing that. And it's nothing that I was taught. I just, like, why would you? You know, especially being a woman, why would you leave your friends behind?

[00:02:41] A lot of parents were saying that they, before I get to the racial component, because there's always a divide, unfortunately. The story seems to repeat itself. There were stories in the past, and I won't name names, that where similar situations have happened where you are the only one.

[00:03:11] And the only one, the only person of color. Or maybe you're not, but in this case, you're the only person of color. And that's when you need to be a little more vigilant and not as trusting. It made me think about my childhood.

[00:03:36] And I read a lot of stories where people talked about, they told so many crazy stories about how they were in similar situations, where they were tested by their so-called friends. And their parents told them not to do this, not to do that.

[00:03:59] There was one story where she was an adult, and it was her co-worker, I believe. Her dad had a yacht, and she declined more than once because of her race, is what she said. She just didn't really feel comfortable, and her friend took offense.

[00:04:29] Once they fell out over it, but she stirred her ground. She didn't feel comfortable. I know there have been times being the only one. When I was a kid, I don't know. I grew up, times were different back then. We're talking like 30, 40 years ago. And I don't recall a moment where I felt uneasy with my friends.

[00:04:59] I know I had friends of different races. I was in the minority coming up. I went to a private school, and there were only a few of us. And I never was singled out. I never felt like a minority, which is important. And yes, my parents, they let me. I had parties. I went to their parties. They came to my parties.

[00:05:28] There was never any drama, really. I went to, I had sleepovers. There was never any type of, yeah. I never had a problem, and I'm blessed and lucky about that. As an adult, you know, that's when you really start looking at people sideways about their intentions.

[00:05:55] But the conversation was talking about how you need to have discernment, a sixth sense, intuition, how you need to decipher what's not obvious. Like, you know, we all have these people who are your friends,

[00:06:21] but when they get together with other people, and they dare you to do something, or they invite you somewhere, and then they switch up on you, you need to really have situational awareness about people. And I'm glad I do. It got into being a race thing, and I don't really want to get into that part of it,

[00:06:51] because although racial tension is, and has been, past couple of years especially, has been increasing, I don't just look at one race and say, oh, I don't trust them. I could put that across every race, really. My own race, other races,

[00:07:20] but I do know that it's, seems to be minorities against other minorities, too. So, I'm not going to put it all on, oh, well, because he's Caucasian, he's not right, because I remember being taught as a kid, it's not if they're black or white, it's if they're all right. And that stuck with me, because I've been, you know,

[00:07:49] I've had discernment with a lot of races. You have good and bad in every race. However, in this particular case with Nolan Wells, it happened to be where he was the only one. And I've always said, when you're the only one, it can be exhausting, it can be triggering, you're not always treated the same.

[00:08:19] And in those cases, you definitely have to have, in this day and age, you have to have discernment. Because everyone's intentions are not pure. There's a huge racial divide, and it by travels, I feel it in some places more than others. Some places are just more overt with it,

[00:08:48] and some places are covert with it. But it's definitely, it's definitely brought, it's definitely made my antennas go up with everyone, really, as far as who you should trust, where you should go, where you shouldn't go. I know the end of last year, I really gave it some thought into the places that I've been, the people that I dealt with,

[00:09:17] where I didn't feel comfortable. And I had to cut them out. I had to. And it doesn't matter if it's one time, two times, the first sign of disrespect, or the first sign of not feeling comfortable, why should you continue to do that? We all have free will as adults. I just, yeah, it's a horrible feeling, feeling uncomfortable. It's

[00:09:47] because of how you look. So, hopefully you'll take this episode and share it, leave a review. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Do you have discernment? Will you teach your children discernment? Because

[00:10:14] in today's time, it's necessary. it's not optional. The Drea's Point of View dot com is where you can leave a review or if you want to go on my page and give me your thoughts, I'd love that. I do have a free weekly newsletter comes out every Saturday night. Drea's Point of View dot sub stack dot com.

[00:10:45] I could use some subscribers over there. As always, I thank you for listening. This has been Drea's Point of View. Drea's Point of View