Scripture In This Episode:

2 Timothy 1:7 – “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”

Luke 21:11 – “And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.”

Matthew 24:21-22 – “For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.”

Philippians 4:6 – “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God;”

Proverbs 31:10 – “Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies.”

2 Timothy 3:1-5 – “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”

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Full Transcript

Welcome to Courageous Parenting Podcast, a weekly show to equip parents with biblical truth on raising confident Christian kids in an uncertain world. Hi, I’m Angie from Courageous Mom. And I’m Isaac from Resolute Man. We’ve been married 20 years and have seen the fruit and raising our eight kids biblically based on the raw truth found in the Bible.

We can no longer let the culture win the hearts of children. Too many children from Christian families are walking away from the faith by age 18. And it doesn’t have to be this way. It shouldn’t be this way. Join us as we start an important conversation about effective parenting in a fallen world.

Hey, everyone, welcome to the podcast. Hey, guys. So if you’re watching on YouTube, might see that Isaac and I are lookin like we’re just in snow.

Oh, yeah.

Welcome to March 2020. Interesting things going on out there. So we’re talking about the Corona virus and being wise but not having fear. So super important.

Yeah. This is going to be a powerful conversation if you have been wondering what to tell your kids. This is the episode for you because we’re going to talk about what we have been teaching our children and what we’re doing in being wise.

Well, it’s by. Yeah.

You know, an ah are what we are doing is not necessarily a prescription for what you need to do. But we’ve been getting a lot of questions about this. And so we just thought that we’d be transparent and share with you guys. And of course, as always, we’re going to dig into the word of God together, because God’s word has a lot to say about this, actually.

Yeah. So let’s dive in. So we’ve got four points for you here. And the first one is you’re not going to believe it, but it’s the greatest time to be alive. Angie was adamant. That was our first point. I say that a lot. She’s like, oh, we got to have that as our first point.

Like Isaac, you kind of talk about that because it is actually something that you’ve been reminding the kids of.

In light of all of this too, you might be wondering with all the things going on, all the news headlines and so forth, this is the greatest time to be alive. Yeah, it’s important to have perspective. And I believe now that the reasons I’m going to share in this episode are different, the more I’m about to say. But these are also reasons, I believe, which is all the advancements in technology, the ability to not have to go to college and make great income for your kids. The ability for them to do their art in the world because there’s so many resources, they’re so cheap and all these different things. Right. We can we can stream live for free content. Just unbelievable things. So I could go on on the practical, economical lifestyle living opportunity side. But that’s not what this is about.

Well, yeah, and actually I was just even thinking of something else while you’re talking about it, like it’s the greatest time to be alive, because if you’re alive, it’s God’s will you’re alive today, man. And it’s good to be walking in his will. Right.

Yeah, absolutely. The other side of it, on the spiritual side of things, it also is the greatest time to be alive because it when there’s challenges, when things are changing, when we’re getting closer to the end and we all go to heaven, it’s going to require real conviction to show up. And when there’s challenges and things happening in the world, you start to see who’s really holding on to God and has that faith and belief that they’re going to heaven and what Jesus did on the cross and people who are giving it lip service.

It’s interesting because in light of understanding that it’s the greatest time to be alive. We also need to teach our kids that part of that is that God has a purpose for us to be alive. And that’s actually a huge, huge aspect to this. Right. Because a lot of times when stuff like this happens, like there’s an illness or earthquakes or anything else like this, that could potentially happen. What what’s the tendency of people’s reactions?

They think about themselves and become survival of the fittest. Very self-focused in that way. Right. But we want to raise our kids to be God focused and people minded, mission minded in a sense. And part of that means that if we’re teaching our kids that God made us born in the generation that he made us born in and for a reason, and that our purpose for being alive is actually not even about us, like God wants to have fellowship with us because he loves us. All right. But we are here to know God and make him known to the world. And what better time to share the gospel with people than when when people even the most independent people who probably seem like they don’t need God, who have even said they don’t need God. Right. Those people are now faced with the reality that they don’t have control over whether or not they are going to get the coronavirus.

And when people are made aware that they don’t have control of their life, they start thinking more and being more receptive to the gospel.

They start thinking more about God or if there is a God and heaven and hell. They start wondering about these things. Yeah. They realize that.

They can’t escape death, which, by the way, can I just say none of us can ever escape death. Yeah, right. Like that is the inevitable end for all humankind. Yeah. And so the reality though, is that when stuff like this happens, people get anxious. They get worried.

They start thinking. And as believers, we can have a peace, actually, because we know where we’re going.

Yeah. We’re going someplace far better. And you know, when you really believe that you have a joy that never leaves you and super, super important. Now, another reason to be talking this way with your kids only do it if you believe it, because kids are authenticity detectors.

Yeah, that’s right. If you’re a hypocrite, they’re going to be like.

But you don’t want your kids scared. And if they’re scared, they’re lacking faith right now. Different age kids, different things are appropriate. You be the judge of that as we talk. But, you know, obviously, you guys know we have four teenagers and then all the way down to two years old with a kid.

Soand they are all home right now, Kelsey’s back. Great. Yeah. Yeah. And and Kelsey. I mean, you and Kelsey were both flying this week. Yeah, and just got back. And so, of course, there was like, you know, it’s the thought went into my mind. Oh, yeah. He could be exposed to coronavirus. Right. Like. Yeah.

I ran the training for a bunch of people and, you know, people were still shaking hands in those kinds of things. And I just was Kelsey was at a college campus. I was really vigilant to wash my hands. I wasn’t touching my face. I was doing the things that were going to tell you we’ve taught our family, so. Yeah, super important. You know, they say that you kind of start knowing if you have it after four days or so. So I have been careful. Kelsey and I’ve been careful just to not just kind of lay low for four days just to make sure we don’t want to be a conduit of passing to tell other people.

Yeah, yeah. We’ve all been careful for a little bit, but we don’t want kids to be scared that when they when they understand what Jesus did on the cross and they understand our perspective and we’re leading with joy. Yeah. And not need and not fear. Right. It’s it’s a very positive thing.

It’s it’s this is where your kids get to see your real conviction.

And if you actually believe what you say, you believe, you know. Right. And if you have a secure foundation in Christ right now, you don’t question if you’re going to heaven or hell, because you know the gospel, the real gospel, and you know that nothing you do can ever get you to heaven right now. And you’ve repented. Right. Like you just have that piece, you know? Yeah. And so then you go about life in a different kind of way.

And of course, we’re not just talking about the virus. Right. And the potential danger of that. We’re not we don’t know fully yet. Right. We don’t know really fully how bad this is. We can see what’s happening in Italy. We can see what’s happening in other countries. Very, very bad in a lot of cases. So we have to be mindful of that. So we don’t know the full scope of it. But what we do knows the economy is fragile, is starting to tank. We do know people get different when that happens. And so it’s good to have some preparations, which we’ll talk about later. So I think we have a scripture.

Yeah. So in first Timothy or second Timothy, 1 5 or.

Yeah, 1 7, it says, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind that’s perfect going into point two which is not to fear.

We are not to fear anything in this world. We’re not to be worrying. Now part of what makes us not fear obviously is is revering God. And the more we revere God, the less we fear anything in this world. The more we fear things in the world, the less we tend to be focused on what we know to be true. But maybe our heart isn’t being led there, which is fully embracing the truth that God is sovereign and he’s can take care of us.

And you know what part of this it’s interesting. So I’m just going to bring something up from way back when I was pregnant. No, I just had he had Kelsey, 9/11 happened and you were actually in a meeting go at the Space Needle.

Right. Yeah. And that was later apparently near. That was apparently like their next target at one point, according to my maybe. And like, well, that’s what they were saying on the news. And I’m watching the Space Needle on TV and I’m literally like, okay, I’m gonna be widowed with a baby. And I’ve only been married a couple years. And I remember, though, that a thought went through my mind, which was okay I just need to trust.

God.

And I need to pray hard because God listens to our prayers, just like he listened to Abraham, who begged God to save lot out of Sodom, right.

However, the Bible actually predicts that these things are going to happen. Yeah. And so we shouldn’t be like shocked, surprised that this is happening if we know what the Bible says. I just wanna share a couple versus here. Actually, it was 21 eleven. It says there will be great earthquakes and in various places, famines and pestilences and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. Again, it says in Matthew, 24, 21 through 22, it says for then there will be great tribulation such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now. No, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, in those days it will be cut short. Anyway. If you just like even work to spend time really studying what the word of God says about like end times, which happened once Jesus left. Rightly, we’ve been in this period, right. And there have been famines, there’s been pestilence. There have been earthquakes. There have been tornadoes. This is another virus. Yeah.

And the can the stock market tanked the biggest day since 1987. There’s all kinds of things you can be alarmed by. But this is frankly nothing compared to what’s coming, actually. Exactly. It’s just going to get worse. So you know what? Better and worse, both are happening at the same time. I’m sure you’ve noticed that people are becoming receptive to the gospel. And if you notice that, I know.

What are you preparing your kids for? You’re preparing them for like 10 years from now when you launching and think how old they are right now. Well, is it five years now? Is it 10 years from now? Is it 15 years from now when your kids are launching from your home even more? What’s the world going to be like then?

How many different things are gonna be happening? And so we need to lead by example, revering and fearing God and that different kind of fear, respect for his authority and control over our lives and love of God and understanding the person do anything enjoy versus, you know, the panic and the anxiety and the what ifs and all these things.

Okay. So super important. So we’re supposed to have the joy of the Lord, right? And joy is different than happiness. A lot of people mix that up.

So it’s interesting. I wrote a whole chapter on this in redeeming childbirth, actually, because I think that when women are pregnant and they’re like struggling with either morning sickness or you towards the end of your pregnancy and you’re not feeling well, it sometimes can be hard to have joy. But and that’s why it’s in that book. But this particular just searching with the joy of the Lord was it dawned on me that says it’s the Lord’s joy. It’s not our joy. It’s not something we can contrive. Right. Like the Holy Spirit is in us. And the Holy Spirit is one with Jesus. One with God. Is a try God there three and one. And he’s he’s in us. We have the Holy Spirit that our joy is not dependent upon circumstances. That doesn’t mean that we’re not going to be sad at times. Like we did that whole podcast on our miscarriage and how in Ecclesiastes 7, it says that a sad heart or sadness makes the heart better. Right.

And it doesn’t mean we’re minimizing the danger of this especially for people, over 60 years old, the government is saying do not travel right now if you’re older because it appears that this virus unfortunately is way more dangerous for people who are older. So we’re not minimizing the danger of this, but no matter what happens, we’re called to be joyful.

Yeah. And that actually is one way we can be a light and fulfill the purpose that God has for us while we’re here on this earth. Being the great commission being the light. Right.

Is that people would see something different about it when we are going to the grocery store to get groceries for our kids, that that we wouldn’t be like household and bumping into people or rude or mad that there’s nothing no toilet paper. Right. Because that’s happened to me. But instead, you just kind of chuckling you just see interest and you go, wow. And then say a prayer that people who really need it in that moment would be able to find it like for us as a family of ten.

But anyway, so I just there’s this part of me that like I believe that in those circumstances we have an ability to be a joy and have a different countenance about us, which is the joy of the Lord.

But Philippians 4 6 says Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication. With Thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. We get to pray about this. Yeah. Let your requests be made known to God. People forget that. That’s a huge part of this, is that we can pray what our requests are. Yeah, right. But when you submit that to God’s will and we pray with Thanksgiving looking for opportunities, everything by prayer and supplication, do not be anxious for anything. And the peace of God. Not our own peace. The peace of God. Which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. And this is really important because it’s God that’s guarding your heart, not you that’s guarding your heart. Now, the Bible tells us to guard our hearts and minds to take every thought captive. Not your own thoughts. Every thought that means the news, thoughts, the social media thoughts. You’ve to take them all captive under the obedience of Christ. You know, actually and that’s one of the keys to not allowing this to steal your joy, to be a temptation to be anxious or full of fear. Right? Yeah. Because if we take our thoughts captive, then they can’t own us.

Yeah. So we’re gonna the next two points are being prepared and what we’re doing. However, I want to pause for just a moment and share. Thank you. First of all, because this week the podcast got rated number 75. One of the days in the top 200 under religion, spirituality. How many on i-Tunes are there total? I don’t know, 50000 or something like that. So. Or more. thats awesome. So just. Just amazing. And the five stars. Now all you have to do is tap it on i-Tunes to do that. Or wherever you’re at. Giving us a review helps us. And then a written review is amazing. We read every single one. Also another way because we’re full time ministry. Another way that helps us and can help you. I mean every single person has gone through has given us good feedback on it, which is the parent mentor program. And you’ll hear from people who’ve been through it just a second. But also, there’s a free 30 minute workshop, Anchorage’s Parenting.com hit podcast and hit the notes for this episode. You’ll see it there. Any Scripture’s, any resources. We mentioned this episode and notes and the full transcript as well. So pretty cool. We’d love to have you in the next parenting mentor program. Get to know us more. We get more direct contact to find out more about that at courageousparenting.com as well. Let’s hear from people who’ve gone through.

Steven I realized that we were getting too comfortable with the world’s vision of how to raise our children.what

Angie and Isaac had done in creating. This is literally phenomenal.

this program provided awesome scripture based teachings and just some really great practical applications. This class has just really rocked my world.

It has given me a vision for not just the different things that we might focus on as parents are trying to raise our kids biblically, like how our kids are behaving or what we’re doing with discipline, but also the things of the heart.

We now have a game plan to how we want to raise our children we have so many answers to the questions that have been in our minds.

It’s not just these hypothetical situations or it’s not just this. Here’s what I think you should do. It’s let me show you where in scripture this is. Do your legacy a favor and yourself a favor and just do it one of the best things that we’ve done this year, one of the best investments we’ve made this year. And I could not recommend it more or no longer fearing dark days ahead.

But we’re so excited to raise the lights to be leaders for the next generation. Okay.

So now point three, we’re talking about being prepared, but being prepared doesn’t mean we’re fearful. You’ve seen some people out there writing prepared equals fearful. And we’re saying prepared does not equal fearful. It doesn’t need to. It could go both ways. But part of having wisdom is preparing for things that give enough indicators to be a problem. Now, husbands, you may be leading in knowing what’s going on. I’m not saying have mainstream news on cable TV. in Fact I think is a horrible idea. They just keep creating as much fear as possible to get higher ratings and all the stuff. None. You know, watch some of it. Maybe online. You can watch stuff. You can read stuff you can see was trending on Twitter. See what the president is talking about regardless of what you believe about the president. It’s good to know what the president’s talking about. these kinds of things. So you need you to be in the know. And I’m going to share some things that I see are going on. You may disagree with some of these things. That’s OK. We can still love each other. But here’s for my family. Here’s what I see is going on. I see that obviously this happened in China and it exploded and then it got to Europe. Specifically, Italy became an also South Korea became a big problem where it was spreading fast.

Italy, once it started becoming a problem, they really did a lot of things right. Yet still twelve hundred I think eleven hundred people have died and it’s growing at a rapid pace over there, even though everybody’s pretty closed. Everything except stores and pharmacies is a fourth. And that’s about they’re about two weeks ahead of where the United States is at in terms of numbers. And when people first started getting exposed, United States, one of the reasons were two weeks be hind is because I think Trump did a very good thing of closing off flights from China early on in Europe, did not do that. And so, you know, maybe we won’t see as big of a deal in the United States. We’re hopeful. Right. But what’s happening in washington State and New York and around the country is is showing a similar trend. Two on the same timeline. If you look at it as what happened in Italy of what’s happening there now, a lot of times people are arguing why all the hysteria caused so many people died of the flu and all these things. Well, there’s a lot of unknowns and unknowns creates anxiety in people. I’m not saying we should be anxious because of unknowns, but there are some things that looks like it has it a higher rate of death than the flu.

There is some evidence doctors are saying that when somebody sneezes and has the virus, that it’s a finer the virus goes into finer particles. I dont know from saying it correctly, but they can float in the air and go further. When someone sneezes in, hang out in the air and hang and also stays alive on surfaces for up to three days ive read, you know, who knows if that’s right. These are things I’ve read. And so just the nature of it and what it’s doing, what really got me is I know Trump goes away. Think about the president. He cares deeply about the economy. He really does, because he knows that’s one of the things that helps him get re-elected. And he decided to make a very public announcement that this is kind of a big deal. And here’s the things we’re doing. And he knew that would hurt the economy and the economy tanked. And then afterwards, here’s another interview with him just saying, well, our people, every single life, every American is more important than our economy. And I thought that was pretty cool. But what is telling of is that this is a deal. This is something we should pay attention to. We should not just gloss over. We should do what we can to be wise.

He wouldn’t do like, you know, re-election, suicide by, you know, shooting down the one strong point.

Interesting guy. Newt Gingrich, he ran for president a long time ago, but he lives in Italy now as a U.S. citizen. And he just wrote article today just talking about how well I’ve seen how diligent they are here in Italy to combat this thing and all the precautions and it still spreading like crazy. I sure hope my friends in America are being super vigilant because of this. Very this could be a big deal. And so we just you know, maybe it’s not. I’d rather be prepared and have it not be a big deal than be unprepared in is a big deal right now on the topic of being prepared to say anything else that you wanted to share about what was going on.

No, I mean, I think that’s good. Yeah.

So regarding being prepared, I’ve got a lot of questions from people who have been asking, so how how many days in advance are you trying to get prepared? All those kinds of things. You know, we’re not actually like thinking out days or weeks or whatever, and we’re not going to be complete isolationists. Isaac just took the kids snowboarding because that’s a pretty.

But we were careful. We didn’t go in the lodge. They know the rules, which is, you know, not touching your face with gloves on, the masks on.

And playing in the snow, there’s just different, different things. Right. And I have gone to the grocery store. I even managed to make it to Costco. You came with me? Yeah. And part of that was that we had gone in a long time. And and just being out there and seen people and what they’re doing and being able to like make eye contact with people and smile when other people are not, that’s not their agenda. And they’re just. And, you know, it’s not that I’m being idle and I’m taking forever. That’s not it at all. Like I’m on a mission.

But I still take time to be considerate of other people and say, oh, excuse me. And, you know, just different things like that.

And I would just encourage you guys to do that as well. But one of this passages of scripture that came to my mind and I shared this on a IG TV, but I’m going to share it again. It’s in Proverbs 31 and talking about who can find a virtuous wife, don’t we, as women. we’re talking the wives right now and then you want your wives to be virtuous wives, right? That’s a huge blessing to you. It says here that her worth is far more than rubies.

That’s God’s value, right? A virtuous wife, the heart of her husband safely trusts her. Mm hmm. That’s important. So he will have no lack of gain. She doesn’t. Good and not evil. All the days of relief, she seeks will and flask and willingly works with her hands.

She’s like merchant ships bringing food from afar. She also rises while it’s yet night and provides food for her whole household and portions for a maid servants she considers a field and buys it for herself. She plants a vineyard. She girds herself with strength and strengthens her arms. So she’s working hard, not idle. Look at this. She’s she’s an entrepreneur here. She perceives that her merchandise is good and our lamp does not go out by night. Now, listen. She stretches out her hands to the distaff, and her hand holds the spindle. She extends her hand to the poor.

She would be able to extend anything to the poor. She didn’t have anything to give them. Right. Right. So you have to be prepared to be able to give to other people, which I think is a huge. It says, yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy. OK. That’s something that we as virtuous women and men. All right. Well, we’ll have hearts as believers to love our neighbors, as ourselves and to be looking at this as as such a time as this. We are here with the ability with the gospel to be the hands and feet of Jesus to people who are in need.

Yeah, I know. We’ve gotten extra things just with that in mind. Yeah. Hey, what have you know?

What if our neighbor, you know, who are older, you know, get out and they need, you know, chicken broth and just different things like that. Like, we would love to be able to make them bone broth and take that to them and to help provide anything that they might need. Yeah, but you can’t do that if you’re not prepared. That’s right. And so you have to be prepared.

Right. And that says she is not afraid of snow for her household. So it’s telling me how she’s not afraid of the winter. Right. For all her household is clothed with Scarlett. She makes tapestry for her hands, her in it goes on and on and on. Her husband sits in the gates. A lot of stuff. It’s all these things.

But the point is, is she is she doesn’t eat the bread of idleness. That’s right. Right. And it says here, trauma’s deceitful. Beauty’s passing. But a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.

There’s a true to when someone has anxiety, fear, worry, they’re more idle, actually. And so when is taking action in whatever they’re supposed to do to prepare or be equipped or ready? It also helps with that anxiety and stuff, too. Yeah. So I you know, it’s it’s cool to help other people want an opportunity right now. Maybe there’s some elderly people in your neighborhood. Here are some things on our mind where both sides of us actually use some elderly people. And they may not want to go out to the grocery store.

I read something. Oh, there was a story online in the news, I think, where a lady was walking this story, younger lady, and there was a older couple in the car. And they rolled down the window and said, Miss. And they’d been sitting in the car for forty five minutes looking for the nicest person as they walked by him. Hey, would you mind going in the store? Were just super scared to go in there. And you know what? For a young person, if they get the virus, it’s likely they’re going to get sick and get better. I mean, that’s what we’re seeing right now.

But they just needed food and that they just needed food before for some. But the death rate for older people is like 10 percent percent depending on the age. And so it’s high. I mean, that’s what they’re seeing right now for some of the older, older ages. So it’s just really important to be helping other people. And maybe this is a way we can show the light of Jesus and in all that and help, you know.

So, you know, and thinking about this. This is what I would be teaching my kids to, is to be considerate of the reality of what this will do to the older generation. And when they’re getting together with other people, if they feel if if you feel like you are under the weather, if your kids are under the weather, don’t have them go hang out with other people’s kids because they could be carriers of the virus and not know it. And then those other kids might get it and might go see their grandparents and expose them because they could have it for four or five days or even longer without knowing it, right? Isaac? Yeah. And so just teaching your kids that like basic common courtesy of putting other loving people well being react realistic, not being selfish about wanting to get together people because you’re just being selfish in the moment but like literally thinking about it. And isn’t that what our savior did. This is what we’ve been teaching our kids is what our what Jesus did. Jesus helped other people. He met their physical needs. Think about the feeding of the 5000 he met there, physical needs before he shared the truth. And they came down. Right. He’s in control. He also met their emotional scars.

He met their emotional, as I think, of Mary Martha when Lazarus died. The shortest sentence in the Bible, Jesus wept. Right.

He met their emotional needs. He he tells us to weep with those who are weeping, that we have an opportunity to weep with those who are weeping when they do experience loss or when they’re fearful. And to meet their emotional needs. And he met their spiritual needs. Now, we can’t save anybody, but we can definitely introduce them to the person who can know that Jesus Christ who can and he can meet their spiritual needs of salvation. Right. And he healed people. Let’s not forget that Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. We have the ability to help other people with their physical needs when they’re sick. And so maybe you have extra essential oils and a diffuser and you take it over your neighbor or maybe you have extra vitamins. You get some extra vitamins. You take it your neighbor or medicine, if they need medicine, whatever it is. Right. Like, how can you help other people? And then don’t forget prayer. Like this is an opportunity for us as families to really get on our knees, to be praying for other people, to be praying for those who are sick all over this world, to be praying for opportunities to serve other people. This is this could actually be so transforming, like, you know, that passage of scripture that says if my people would humble themselves and pray, that has just been on my mind. Over and over again that we all should just be praying. And it does. Isn’t that what God wants from us all the time, not just.

And then what is that show your kids? It shows your kids that you trust him. You’re joyful. But we’re gonna pray because God acts when people pray. Yeah. And not always exactly how we want. But he listens to all prayers and it’s awesome.

And he cares about our physical needs, but he cares even more about our hearts. Yeah. And he wants all people to know who he is. So you know what? Sometimes he allows suffering because he wants people’s hearts.

And, you know. I also think that Ephesians 6 is a huge like opportunity to teach your kids because even in this one part here, it says in Chapter 6, you know, obviously finally brethren be strong in the Lord and the power of his might put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of this dark age, against spiritual house of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all to stand stand, therefore, and then it continues on and on and on. This would be a really good passage of scripture to be reading with your kids, to remind them that like, yeah, there’s a physical battle going on right now, but there’s also a spiritual battle going on. Think of all the people who are potentially sick, who are not saved, and the best spiritual battle in their mind right now, where they are literally like, am I going to go to hell or am I going to go to heaven? That is a spiritual battle. Yeah.

And who is there to point them to Jesus?

You know, it’s when you respond well in things like this.

It’s one of the biggest faith growing experiences for kids by watching it and being part of it. And here’s the fourth thing. Here’s what we’re doing. So two parts. What we’re doing to prepare as parents and what we’re teaching our children is the same point here. So we’re family of 10, right? So we go through things quickly, like if we make sandwiches. It’s more than one loaf of bread.

Yeah. For example, who loves? Because we have six sons also and five lots of teens is big.

I mean, so you’re like how do they afford that? Well, you know, God provides one month at a time, right.

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But we. So with that in mind, we go through a lot quickly. And by the nature of just what’s happening, there isn’t a lot actually in stores. It’s getting bought up. Yeah. And so we are making sure we have what we need.

Now Angie’s always, you know, done a good job of buying in bulk and doing it cheaply.

But we are way, way short on toilet paper. We’re doing it way in advance.

And so she is off to the store as much. And so I just made sure I’m extra sensitive to that because if she doesn’t have to the store, that’s the better. Right. You know, less your chances.

And that’s how we’ve always kind of operated, too. I mean, there’ve been years where things were a lot less. They were tighter. And so it’s harder for me to be as prepared. But like back in Damascus, I had a couple of freezers and we have a little one and a half year old I’d hate to see him go through getting this virus. And, you know, so we’re just we all kind of are that way. We’re being really careful, like we’re definitely. But this is the thing.

We’ve always had that lifestyle of taking our supplements, taking our vitamins, getting it, trying to get more sleep when we keep your mind him up.

So that’s something. Get exercise. Yeah.

Although they aren’t going to be going to the gym for a while just because that could be a really had just temporarily.

Yeah. We’re kind of seeing how things play out here. Yeah. So. So food provision we definitely have that. We made sure economy’s fragile right now. Whenever the economy’s fragile and there’s fear around something like this. People get a little different and strange. Sometimes crime can go up, things like that. Not that they were worried about that are fearful, but in wisdom, we’re just, you know, making sure we have what we need.

So this is the thing.

Like regardless of if you think the virus is a big deal, the reality is, is that our economy is reflecting that it’s a big deal because our economy is fragile right now.

And whenever the economy’s fragile, people do strange things. So. And that’s what we’re seeing right now, especially like in the grocery stores, our kids can see that. Right. And what’s interesting is that the Bible talks about this, too. in second, Timothy, three, one through five, it says, but understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to the parents and grateful and wholly heartless. And it goes on and on without self-control, brutal, treacherous, reckless, swollen cash. I mean, this is it says avoid such people.

Now, I will say that we our life is already oriented in a way that fits into what people are having to shift to right now. For example, we homeschool so our kids. So if there is a. Change even more change for other families and you might be listening, maybe it’s your family. Yeah. Where you can’t work is much because that hits your finances. So I feel for you there. Yeah, on those kinds of things. So our kids are already at home. The other one is I also work from home. So that’s already the case.

And although you won’t be traveling anymore. Yeah. Yeah. So it’s just there’s a lot of people who are struggling with that. If you are now in that position where your kids are home and you’re looking at curriculums and staffing your like. There’s gotta be something better. Yeah. I mean, reach out. I would be happy to give you a couple recommendations of websites to look into. No problem. You can find me on social media.

Yeah. Might be a little travel, but very little travel. Yeah. So. So here’s what we’re doing. Teaching our children. We’re saying, hey, because we have teenagers that go out without us drivers. Things like that. So, hey, if you’re out. Cool. Be vigilant. Be careful. You know, wash your hands frequently, especially after touching things. And while you’re out, just don’t touch your face.

Just like I am right now. Or if you need to touch your face.

Go wash your hands. Touch your face and then you’re good. But while you’re out, just be vigilant in that way. But you know, as far as who you’re spending time with. Spend time with people who, you know, are being wise, who aren’t just blowing this off. Are being wise about it. Here’s the thing. Young people sometimes only some of them sometimes get cavalier about things like this because they’re not older. And really who this affects most are older people, but what they and people with weak immune or weak immune system. So they fail to realize they’re kind of being selfish. They fail to realize that if they get it and they’re around other people, it could be very deadly to other people. And so you. So we did talk to him about that. We talked to him that because we know other people are talking to our kids influence our kids, they see things on Instagram, in stories, things like that. And so we’re saying I just told them, hey, some people are gonna be cavalier about this. Some people are just saying it’s all hype, hysteria and so forth. I hope so. By the way. I hope so. But we’re preparing in case it isn’t right. So we’re telling our kids that what’s what we’re sharing, what’s actually happening, but we’re not creating fear and our kids are used to us sharing what’s happening. So you have to ease into that if you haven’t been doing it. And it depends on their age, too. I mean, Solomon’s at the table, but he’s not really paying attention.

He’s four and a half and he’s just like not even really aware. But we are praying as a family for people. Yeah. And I think that it’s important. This is you know, if you guys haven’t listened to our podcast, it’s about raising your kids through life struggles. Then you need to go listen to that podcast, because that’s specifically on that. Also in our podcast where we had a miscarriage, we talk about how we talk to our kids about it and how we walk through that life, transition of loss with them and grief with them.

And I think that both of those podcasts could be really relevant to this because you may experience some loss in your family. I hope not. I hope not. I genuinely hope not. But the reality is, its going to happen in the world. And so we need to be vigilant. We need to be proactive in teaching our kids, not reactive. And we want to lead well, because they’re watching how we react and how we are their models right now. So we need to live what we preach right now and we need to preach the gospel and we need to preach God’s word to our kids. And so know that Isaac and I and our kids are praying for all of you out there. And we want to encourage you guys to be the church. Absolutely. Be the church, the church. Be ready to give an answer for what you believe to anyone you know and teach your kids to be ready to give an answer for what they believe.

Be lopoking for divine appointments. be looking for them, because often I know of experiences of my life when I’m not looking for them. They’re still happening. I’m just not aware. And then when I start looking for them, I start becoming aware of where those divine appointment could be. My demeanor, my receptiveness to conversation with people, things like that, seeing someone in need, you tend to not see that unless you’re looking for it. Yeah. So let’s be the church. And I hope this episode was helpful. Bless you guys.

Yeah. The last thing I just want to mention to you guys, too, is one other thing that I’ve been doing. Because a lot of people go, oh, well, gospel, that’s great. But how do I as a mom be the church, How do I help people. And I’ve been really trying hard the last week, especially to help equip moms and knowing how to care for their family. Oh, totally. A lot of people don’t even know how.

You have so many questions about what I take.

I’m kind of essential oils I used for this and what vitamins do I take and how old can my kid be when I use that? And what about? So that’s been exciting to be able to equip other moms to the courageous mom essentials team. And if you’re interested in that, you can find my Instagram handle at CourageousMomessentials. You can message me there or you can just email me at andget courageousmom.com. Awesome. Thanks for joining us. See you next time.

Hey, thanks for listening to this episode. We wanted to quickly tell you about our six week online parenting mentor program.

Isaac and I created a powerful biblical curriculum. Here’s how it works. Each week, Isaac and I release a video with a downloadable parenting packet to make it easy for you and your spouse to incorporate those teachings directly into your parenting.

It’s an incredible program where we cover everything from obedience training to overcoming mistakes. Most Christians are making, but more than that. It’s an incredible community. You’ll have access to a private online group, live Webcast and the courageous parenting text message line where Angie and I can send weekly encouragements straight to your phone.

If you’re interested in joining our next online parenting mentorship program, Secure Your Spot now at CourageousParenting.com. That’s courageousparenting.com.