למצוא את האמונה ואת שביעות הרצון, בלי קשר להצלחה חומרית | שיחה עם אן לסלי סמית'

Today we hear the story of author and former radio host Ann Leslie Smith from marrying into the legendary Huntington Railroad family to serving as a police chaplain. She has navigated extreme highs and lows. She shares how faith helped her find lasting contentment when material success wasn't enough. We had a lot of ups and downs and can you walk us through some of the ways you came out of some of the harder times that you had to go through? And I look at it as, is, you know, ups and downs. It's, I call it like different rooms in your life that you discover. My first marriage I married into the family that started the railroad. California Railroad. No, Transcontinental. Wow. You know, and their family, you know, was, drove the Golden Spike, you know, at Promontory Point, Utah to join the, you know, the East and the West together. No, we're talking Transcontinental Railway. Yes. So that was an interesting room to be in. And of course, when you enter, like I'm talking about different rooms in your life, they're going to bring highs and lows because none of us are equipped to deal with, with what the unknown is in those kinds of situations. Now, in that situation, it looked like all was perfect, you know, and, and I had everything in the world, but, you know, behind closed doors, it's always a different story, you know, and there's, there's the perspective that I have seeing it as a learning situation helps, you know, helps kind of any of the thoughts that you had, oh, I was a failure or something like that. I didn't do well in that situation. You know, I was deficient at that. I think that when you adopt a different perspective as to a situation that didn't turn out the way you thought it would, I think it really helps level, you know, instead of driving you crazy. Does that make sense? Yeah. You just keep going, basically. Yeah. Well, you just see it a different perspective, so you don't end up coming down on yourself like, oh, I am a failure, like a lot of people do when they start drinking or something like that. You know, I failed in that. I'm such a failure, you know. So believe in yourself and, and, and move on. Well, consider it a huge learning experience, you know, one that you wouldn't choose on your own. Some of, probably the, some of the situations that, that happened to me at that time, I wouldn't choose those situations at all, you know, but, but they, they do happen. And then you, you have to have faith to, to say that there is a tomorrow to all this. Speaking of faith, can you tell us about faith and the importance that faith played in your life or plays in your life? Well, I was raised, you know, believing in God. And did I believe in God, you know, the way I believe now? No. God was sort of there, you know, and sort of, you know, kind of a thing growing up. But when you go through some, some tough roads, you, you have to turn to something that isn't moving, you know, something that's stable. And that's where I, that's where I found God at the end of my rainbow, at the end of my dreams that didn't come true. And, and that's where I found God. But looking back on it, it's kind of interesting because how finding God's like a great thing. It gives you a lot of lift in your life, you know, a lot of light and creates, I think, opportunities that you can't do on your own, in your own humanness, you know, although we do all try to do that. But I know that I learned to depend on God, like, solidly, like, not just for fun, like, it was my survival. And then I found the scripture in the Bible. What was it? It said something like, if you turn to me, you know, I will make things happen in your life or something like that. That's just a, an easy way of saying what the scripture was. But I said, you know what? God's not a liar. So I'm going to try that. So I went and found, seek first the kingdom of God and all things will be given to you after that. And I'm like, wow, that's, that's quite a scripture, isn't it? Wow. You know, to someone who, you know, had the dreams come true, come crashing down, it's like, that sounds pretty good. And I'm going to try it. So I started engaging in, in what his kingdom would be, you know, and trying to find out what that meant, you know, and it's been, it's been an experience and I'm still finding out and it's fabulous, you know. What would you say is your definition of success and materialism for that matter? Well, that's changed over the years, of course. Today, I would say that success is just being content with whatever situations are put in front of you. Because success, I think in a lot of people's minds means happiness. At the end of the day, you want to be happy. The problem with that is, is that happiness depends on happenings. And when the happenings dissolve, where are you, you know, then you're not successful. Oh, that's, that's, you're setting yourself up for trouble right there. But when you're content, you can kind of slide through, sail through calmly, you know, the ups and the downs. Content. Yeah. Bay Area Innovators is a talk show that puts the spotlight on influential figures driving change, creativity and progress. You can watch more of this interview on NTD Plus, or Epoch TV.