One thing about me is I NEVER tell people what they should believe. That is not in my nature to force my opinion and understanding of a matter on others. But anyone who knows me, knows I do love sharing things that appeal to me with anyone interested in the same things I am. Or, with anyone willing to listen. That's probably because my "love language" is quality time. So, sharing is one way I express quality time. Therefore, I share what I share on social media because it is a reflection of my personality – my “love language,” which is quality time. When I post content on social media, I never am looking for likes, shares, or whether a person agrees with me or not, or accepts what I am expressing or not. I share what I share because I love to see people better themselves, and sharing is one way I feel I can help people to grow if that is truly what they are interested in doing.

Let me add this. Quality time is more important to me than hugs, kisses, expressions of I love you, gifts, etc. I'm not saying I don't enjoy those other things because they are important. But quality time is at the core of my soul. That will always win my heart, friendship, closest, trust, respect, and loyalty, more than those other things I mentioned above. 
​

At any rate, the point I want to arrive at is that we are all at different levels when it comes to understanding and even interpretation. And that's a good thing, especially if what you know and understand is beyond what I know and understand. Therefore, I can learn something from you. I'm always looking for people from all different walks of life whose knowledge, maturity, understanding, insightfulness, and wisdom are beyond my intellect or natural abilities. I yearn for these kinds of people in my life who can challenge me to think beyond my own mindset, habits, knowledge, and understanding. In fact, I am drawn to these types of people, whether young, old, in between, black, white, purple, red, or whatever.

For instance, it's not a day that goes by when my 6-year-old granddaughter pushes me in some way to become a better person because I allow myself to be corrected and taught by her. In fact, she has even corrected me scripturally one time concerning something I taught her to do. In that situation, from her perspective, I violated a principle I taught her and she immediately called me on it. Initially, I wanted to correct her because she’s 6, she was looking at it from the wrong perspective and I was trying to justify my behavior. But I caught myself and said. No, despite the fact she is 6, she was right from her perspective. She was right. So, I acknowledged and received this 6-year-old counsel. Why? 
​

What's my whole point? We have too many Christians whose own personal knowledge or opinions are more valuable to them than actually growing spiritually. Therefore, they miss the value and truth behind the Scripture principle that says, "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another" (Proverbs 27:17).

Some of y'all prefer to operate with dull knives that are coated with only your opinions, your views, your understanding, your interpretation. Therefore, you will cut people in order to force them to see it your way. To accept your truth, your understanding, your knowledge, your interpretation. Instead of applying WHAT THE LORD SAID HERE. “… Iron sharpens iron….”

In the case of two knives, even when they both are dull. One is always sharper than the other. And when you rub those two knives together, what does science say happens? They both become sharp. Like brand new knives.

​This is what Christians are supposed to do for and with one another. SHARPEN! Sharpen one another. That's what I love so much about the group GOD is building around me. We all have different views, personalities, backgrounds, understanding, knowledge, interpretation, etc., about stuff. But we never allow our differences to divide us or be the determining factor in whether we can like, support, or can roll with each or not. Instead, we sometimes debate about our differences in a HEALTHY way. In such cases, sometimes one changes the other's mindset about a matter. Other times, we realize that we both are right because we are either looking at a situation from different perspectives. Sometimes we realized a person has a deeper understanding and knowledge of a matter. Sometimes we just don't see eye to eye concerning a topic and so it's best to leave it there and agree to disagree. But we NEVER force our views, understanding, opinions, or knowledge down the throats of one another. That’s the standard, a requirement I place on my group, my inner circle, and those that I'm close to in my family as well as friends. If we cannot do that, then we have nothing in common. And as I tell every and anyone that I sense I am drawing close to or they express they want to have a closer relationship or friendship with me and I am agreeable to that. If this cannot be the standard that we are building here, let’s go no further. Because it certainly won’t work for me.
​
If the church as a whole can ever grow to the points I expressed here –  especially this point. NEVER force your view, understanding, opinion, background, and or knowledge down the throat of one another. Then the church as a whole will be in a much healthier state. Because iron sharpens iron. IJS

My music career has completely transformed over the years. I have to admit, I am completely pleased with the level of success I have experienced.

I have built a pretty decent music catalog. I have seen my music grow from responding to a dare from one of the artists I was managing at the time. To see my music, explode on an international platform. The last time we kept track, our music had been released on the radio, in films, and had played in more than 21 countries such as Argentina, Canada, Germany, Italy, London, Japan, Mexico, Peru, United States, etc.

Although I love music and I did find a level of release and enjoyment in writing music. I never saw it as a career path for me. I did not truly see the music industry as a good fit for me. I certainly did not imagine the level of success for myself as I have experienced. At one time I had major record labels like Def Jam Recordings and Virgin Records pursuing me to submit some of my music to their labels. He does not know that I know this, but even 50 Cent took a serious look at my music when Ace Reign, Kruixfy, and Lacy B recorded my rap/R&B track – Love Conspiracy. Okay, yea, that track is popping. It really expanded my music to many different international markets. And I had a lot to get off of my chest with that one. I’m just saying. 
​

As I said before, my problem was, that I could not see myself building a career in the music industry. Well, not as of yet.

Despite my reluctance, for years, I continue to write songs for other artists in the Country, Hip Hop Rap, and R&B genres. And I was starting to expand out into other categories. Plus, I was making some money off of my singles. And to this day, I am still collecting some royalties.

But for a long time, I really did not know what I wanted to do with this newly discovered gift I had. But everything changed in 2014. About two years after Felicia and I met. Somehow, Felicia discovered that I wrote music and had some tracks out there that were having some success. She started asking me a lot of questions about it and I really was trying to avoid the conversation. It was not that I was trying to keep that part of my life a secret. I just did not take my songwriting career seriously despite my level of success. To me, it was a hobble. A hustle. A way to bring in a little extra cash. I just did not see the true value of my writing ability or any value of establishing a real songwriting career.

But then Felicia did something I completely was not prepared for. She pulled out a suitcase of songs she had written since the early part of her childhood. I was completely overwhelmed by the number of songs she had written. So, I pulled a few out and skim-read a few lines of several songs. THEY WERE REALLY GOOD. I MEAN REALLY GOOD. But I wasn’t sure how each song I pulled out sounded. So, I pulled out a song and asked her, “sing this.” And when she sang it, I was flabbergasted. So, I pulled out another and another and another. And each time she sang each song, I could not believe what I was hearing. They were so perfectly written and beautiful and emotionally moving. And I couldn’t believe these songs were just sitting in her dirty old suitcase. There was no way I could continue to let these well-written songs sit in this suitcase and nothing is done with them. 

​And that was my turning point. The point when I start to look at a music career differently. I started to explore the possibilities. But initially, Felicia and I were heading in the wrong direction – mostly my fault. (Compare to Matthew 18:19-20; Amos 3:3; Colossians 3:7; 1 Corinthians 1:10). This created a lot of clashes and friction between what I wanted to write and what I was comfortable writing about and what Felicia desired to write about. 

The day finally came when we reenacted the scenes from the movie, The Clash Of The Titans as it related to our preferred styles of writing music. All I knew at the time was Hip Hop/Rap, Country, and R&B. But more than 98 percent of Felicia’s suitcase full of music was Gospel, Worship, and Christian style of music. Something, I knew nothing about. At the time, I really was not exposed to any Christian, Gospel, or Worship music that she was familiar with. All I was acquainted with was that old Gospel hymn music with that old organ sound that I hated. So, I had not listened to any Gospel songs since my childhood, and that was only when I was in Church.

So, before Felicia and I ever get started good, it appeared our music ambitions were not going anywhere. But she did agree to write one Country song with me called No Other Love.

We produced it with Nashville Song Services and that track did really well as well. We both won quite of few songwriting competitions with that track. And I accomplished at the time what I wanted to achieve with Felicia. I wanted to build her confidence and exposed her to other options than what she had written in the past.

But even with the success of that track, Felicia lost interest, which left me snatching my head. But then she showed me an album of songs that she had already written called Total Access. 
​

Out of all the songs I had seen in her suitcase, I did not hear any of these tracks. So, I asked her to sing them. And once again I was dumbfounded and amazed by how really good all these songs were. I really like every one of them. And I realized she had given much thought to her lyrics, the production of her lyrics and the music composition, and the recording of each one of her tracks. And at that time, I had not. So, this album of hers, began my journey of self-examining myself from a musical standpoint and what did I really want to do if I wanted to help get Felicia’s music out there? What was I willing to give up as well as contribute? It took some time, but this journey with Felicia really helped to transform me and changed my mind set and outlook toward music. How I saw it. What do I want to write about? And how do I want my music to be portrayed by others? 

But my real change did not take place until about 8 years ago – in late 2014. I was driving to work and I really hated my job and my crazy boss. I really did not want to go there. I just wanted to turn around and go home or find something different to do. Plus, I had not been too long out of a homosexual relationship. So, my hormones were off the chain as well. So, I was physically and emotionally unstable and really frustrated with my job.

At the time, all I could say, as I was pleading with God – attempting to pray for help, was GOD. GOD! GOD!! As tears started to stream down my face, I heard myself sing. 
​

As I was driving, I immediately grabbed a pen and a piece of paper. And right there, as I was driving to work, I wrote my first Gospel/Christian song called I Need You. I wrote the entire song right there in my car. Now, of course, in this post. I am purposely leaving some of the lines and words out of the track but….

It was then that I knew that it wasn’t Felicia that needed to be more open. But it was me. I needed to narrow down my focus and make some different decisions. If I was going to do this music thing, I need to pick a specific genre and stick with it. That was the only way I really was going to create my own brand/style and get really good at this art of writing music. But I also knew, Felicia was not going to be interested in writing any other genre but Gospel and or Christian music. So, either I need to move in the same direction she was heading. Or, just put on the brakes and give this up right now, before I waste my time and hers.

So, I prayed about it and 3 more songs came out of my belly. I even had one dream where I was in heaven and I heard an entire song that I actually wrote down later in the middle of the night called Glorious LIGHT. Since then, I have written enough Gospel/Christian tracks to produce at least 3 albums if not more. I finally knew what GOD was calling me to do with my songwriting abilities. 
​

And today, since 2020, I have completely committed myself to writing music for the LORD ONLY. I am more confident in my songwriting abilities and know that I know that I am called to this along with many other giftings and talents, and natural abilities the LORD has anointed and gifted me with.

The only missing piece, that is in Felicia and my future is the right music producer and recording artists to record and produce our music. Over the years, we have been matched up with some very talented and professional recording artists and two great and talented music producers. But to me, SOMETHING was always off – it wasn’t JUST RIGHT. Not the perfect fit I know GOD wanted for us.

Then Felicia and I realized three things. 
​

​GOD IS CERTAINLY GOOD, WISE, AND PATIENT. And HE knows how to transform the heart and minds of people and get you heading in the right direction. (Compare to 2 Corinthians 5:17).