Before the Streets: Learning to Value My Foundation

By It’s Ya-Boi Wayne • Companion reflection to Episode 3 / Testimony Series, Part 1 of 7.

Hello Family. It’s Ya-Boi Wayne.

Before the streets, there was a foundation. I was raised by my mother, and the father figure in my home was my stepfather. They worked hard. I grew up in a middle-class home with love, care, rules, and expectations.

There were chores. There was a curfew, usually around ten or eleven at night. School mattered. Respect for elders mattered. Church attendance was part of my life. At the time, I did not appreciate all of that structure.

Looking back, I can recognize care in things I once experienced as restrictions. That does not mean I liked every rule. It means I can now ask a better question about those rules: What were the people raising me trying to protect and build?

Proverbs 1:8–9 calls a young person to receive instruction and value a mother’s teaching. Those verses invite me to think seriously about what was placed in my life before I understood its value.

I had much of what my family could provide, yet I felt there was something more I needed to find. Material provision did not settle every question about freedom, identity, or success. I could be surrounded by stability and still feel closed in by it.

That is part of why I am telling this story. I want a younger person to pause before assuming that fewer guardrails mean a better life. The question is bigger than whether I can do what I want. Where will my decisions take me, and who am I becoming as I make them?

Matthew 7:24–27 connects a firm foundation with hearing Jesus’ words and doing them. Familiarity with church and Scripture matters, but each of us also faces the personal call to respond to Jesus.

My foundation did not remove my responsibility for the choices I made. Looking back helps me recognize both the care I received and the choices I needed to own.

Reflection: What instruction have I dismissed because it limited what I wanted? Who has tried to protect me? What would it look like to receive wise counsel today?

Three takeaways to practice in 2026

1. Name one valuable lesson from your upbringing, even if your story also contains pain or disappointment.
2. Separate freedom from impulse. Before a decision, ask what it will build in your character and relationships.
3. Receive wise counsel today. Hearing advice and acting on it are different steps.

From the Spotify conversation: an early published response offered encouragement through fire emojis. Thank you for walking with this testimony. The invitation now is to reflect on the foundation in your own story.

Prayer: Lord, help me recognize the care and instruction You have allowed into my life. Give me humility to learn, wisdom to choose well, and courage to follow Jesus in my next decision. Amen.

Listen to “Before the Streets: The Foundation | Testimony Part 1 of 7” for the opening conversation in my Testimony Series.

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