Kelly Rowland said that her life changed once she began giving to others, and giving helped her break away from a “rich broke” lifestyle of keeping up false appearances.
The Destiny’s Child singer openly shared this and more with her pastor, Erwin McManus of Mosaic church in Los Angeles in an interview published on YouTube.
“No one would believe this and it actually will be the first time that I talk about it, where I almost lost everything, ‘cause I was so busy trying to keep up,” said Rowland at the 28:28 mark. “Whether it was the look, whether it was the wardrobe, whether it was the car, whether it was the place … All that silliness.”
Her pastor described it as being “rich broke,” a term Rowland agreed summed up that time of her life. She said that she decided to talk to her best friend about keeping up phony appearances, and that friend said the best way to turn things around is by giving to others. The R&B star remembers that piece of advice changing everything for her.
“She goes, ‘When was the last time you gave, Kelly?’”
‘”I don’t know,’” Rowland replied. “‘But I can’t afford to give right now.’”
Rowland’s friend then told her to give once she received her next check, which she did.
“I give. Literally, the following week, things just started to happen,” the singer explained. “Just good things, and it wasn’t even like necessarily financial. It was like ‘oh, that’s already been taken care of you’re okay’ or ‘oh, you just had something that came in from like 10 years ago, a check that just came in from something you did 10 years ago’ … It was just certain small things or just grace.”
Rowland then said that she was encouraged after learning what giving did for her, so she continued.
“I remember calling my business manager. I said ‘This month I’m giving 20 percent,’ ” she recalled. “He’s like ‘you have lost your mind.’ I said ‘No, no, no … I have not.’ I said you just watch how God is gonna flip this. Literally. For what I gave I got back double.”
Last month, the mother of one displayed some of that generosity when she donated 70,000 masks to prison and jail inmates in Harris County, Texas, where she was raised, and Fulton County, Georgia, her birthplace.
But that’s far from the first time Rowland has given back. In 2010, she launched “I Heart My Girlfriends,” a support group for teenage girls that focused on date violence prevention, self-esteem, and being involved in community service.
Rowland also said that she’s passing the concept of giving to her 5-year-old son Titan, which she explained in a 2019 interview with Romper.
“I’m not raising an entitled kid,” she explained. “For me, when I had my son, I was like even though we are blessed, I can’t do that to him. That’s poisoning him. We can’t have a generation where kids have these moments where they feel like everything is theirs.”
-Atlanta Black Star