Who’s going to win the presidential election? With three assassination attempts so far, mass illegal immigration and perhaps more devious moves ahead in an effort to move America away from its constitutional framework, we must be prepared for the possibility that the America we know could further erode to satisfy the global initiatives. So how do we parent through this? Who do our children see that our hope is in? What are sound actions steps to be taking now in our parenting?

Isaac and Angie Tolpin answer these questions to help Christian parents be biblical strong examples in their actions; the balance between being activated citizens and standing for what’s right while also keeping our hope firmly in the Lord. Our children are watching and learning every day, so let’s do this well during these chaotic months ahead.

 

Main Points in This Episode:

• This is the most important election of our lifetime
• Why it’s important to vote for Trump
• It’s very possible Trump won’t be the next president, although we want to believe he will.
• Our children are watching so it’s vital they see that our hope is in Christ, but it’s also vital for them to see that we are activated citizens.
• One of the most important actions to take is to make sure you are part of a strong local biblical community.

 

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Master Books

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Samaritan Ministries

• This is what the Tolpin’s use instead of health insurance, hear why

Creating A Masterpiece

 

Register today! Includes 13-page roadmap download

Scriptures From This Episode:

– Romans 12:9-13 –  “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.¹⁰ Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.“

– 1 Peter 3:7 – “”

 

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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 Isaac.

From Resolute Man Together pursuing the mission to impact 10 million families and their legacies for the Kingdom of God.

We’ve been married for 23 years and are seeing the fruit from raising our nine children biblically. Based on the raw truth found in the Bible.

We can no longer let the culture win the hearts of children, as too many from Christian families are walking away from their faith by the age 18. And it doesn’t have to be this way. It shouldn’t be this way.

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Reorg? Join us as we start another important conversation about effective parenting in a fallen world. Hey, welcome to the show.

Hey guys.

I’ve been wanting to have this conversation for.

A while. Parenting through the election chaos.

I think this is so important. You might have littles, you might have middles. You might have teenagers. You might have adults. If you’re like us, you have all of them, including grandchildren, which was a wild ride, but I couldn’t imagine any other ride. It’s great.

That’s right. In fact, this last week we got two more kids registered to vote. All right, there we go. That was a deal. So now there’s a lot of tulpas out there. That feels good.

It does feel.

Good, actually.

How do you impact the world? Have some children.

Yes. So we’re excited to talk to you guys about this because this can be a stressful time. Yeah, this can be a time where you’re potentially tempted to be anxious, um, to fret, to to be sourcing all of your resources into one area because you’re scared of certain things, potentially outcomes from the election. Things like that. And so we’re going to dive into all of those conversations. But before we do, we want to just share with you guys that one of the tools that we’ve been using this year is master books.com/courageous. You can find out a lot about them. This is the curriculum that we’ve been using with our teenagers and our kindergartener. He is loving it. And there’s actually a civics and Constitution curriculum that I just want to highlight with you guys today. I know I’ve brought it up before, but because it’s an election season, obviously it’s a really great curriculum for teaching. Um, even about the the different process of election. Um, my 14 year old is going through an American history, um, curriculum this year that is by master books as well. And there’s the whole process, the due process, which, by the way, we saw some really wild stuff happening, especially on the left side in regards to Kamala. Right. Being a she’s now the running nominee, even though she wasn’t necessarily elected. And so it’s interesting because going through these curriculums with the kids, they’re like wanting me to explain, how does this work and what about the electoral process and different things. Right. And so I appreciate having a biblical curriculum that has been really well written and just looked at, made sure that it’s accurate as a tool that I can use to describe it. Because to be honest, I didn’t fully understand it even when I graduated high school.

When you find the toolbox, the tools and the toolbox, and I think of master books like a toolbox, they don’t just have 1 or 2 tools. No, they have not like a full toolbox. And when you have that, it builds your confidence to be able to homeschool and homeschool all the different ages. So I highly encourage that. I highly encourage you, if you’re not doing it, to jump into that. And master books is a great place. And if you’ve been a seasoned like Angie, she loves it too. So hey, let’s let’s dive in. Just a quick summary of of what’s going on and why we’re doing this topic on a parenting podcast right now and so forth. Well, the elite left, uh, tied in with World Economic Forum and the global elites and whatever you want to call the deep state and so forth seem to need to nullify the United States economy and so forth and take control. It’s all in the name of power for a vision that they have a very humanist vision because they don’t believe in God. And so because of that, they want to take over, own everything and assume you’re going to be happy, as the WEF says, when they do. Right? So of course we’re not. We’re created in God’s image.

We’re meant for making progress. We’re meant for some independence, not complete independence, because God wants us to be dependent on him. We hope and pray right that our children are dependent on him. But how do you get power when there’s such a powerful country? Well, you have to create division. You have to create chaos. So there’s so much chaos happening. And sometimes that can be extra weight and burden on your shoulders that is difficult to bear when you’re doing the important work of mothering, when you’re doing the important work of fathering and being a marriage team together, and even just working on your marriage with everything that’s going on, they seem bent on cheating. Absolutely. They’re cheating in so many ways. They want to change the country in whatever way they can. Illegal immigration this time in other ways. So it’s just a fascinating time, actually. At the same time, God is sovereign in control, loves us dearly, and has a plan. And so we have to live in these both of these worlds where we need to take responsibility of the jurisdictions, which includes parenting at the same time, trusting God at the same time, being an activated citizen during these times. And so that’s kind of the summary. How did that sound?

No, that was so well put, because I think that that is the overwhelming part, is that a lot of moms, I’ll just speak for myself. I’ve been a mom for 24 years and and every time there’s an election season, it’s like a time where I have to. I feel this responsibility to know what the measures are that are on the ballots, to not be deceived, because sometimes when you read a certain bill or, or a measure that you’re, you know, whether this year it’s prop one is one of the things that can be confusing to people. And so there’s a lot of information out there trying to educate people on why you should vote a certain way, why you shouldn’t vote this way.

Definitely no on that one.

Exactly. But my whole point is that there’s confusion. That’s why people have to be bold and try to influence. Right? So then then you, then you’ve got the influences, you’ve got all these voices. As a mom, maybe I’m for me. I’m focused in my home. I’m a homemaker. I’m trying to cook three meals as much from scratch as possible, as much from what I grow as possible. That takes time. There’s only so much time in a day, and then I have to help clean it up. And then I’m homeschooling. And then there’s just normal household chores in addition to that, right? And that’s enough to fill my day. Trust me, that’s enough. But I’ve got relationships. Yeah, I got relationships with my husband. I have a relationship with my husband. I have relationships with my kids, relationships that I care deeply about, and I wish I even had more time. Like, I wish I could spend more time with the grandkids. And so, you know, it’s just there’s. And our older kids, by.

The way, they all came. The whole family was at the football game this last Friday.

It was so fun. The whole family. Oh, we still.

Got to share that picture. What a glorious picture. Oh, the grandkids and Caroline’s pregnant with her third. Kelsey and David. And yes, just a wonderful time.

Yeah, it was awesome. So anyway, we’re we’re just we’re loving the season of life. We adore our kids. But, you know, there’s just never enough time. And then you got this election and you have all these people talking and trying to influence you, and and you need to be able to determine truth from lies, good from evil, and the world is a really weird place. I feel like in the last four years there’s been this unapologetic call evil good and good, evil, switcheroo bait and tackle kind of thing. And for women who we just want to be moms and we want to focus and we want to be reading our Bible, and we want to have joy, to be constantly bombarded with the influences. It can bog people down. Personally, just a little insight into Angie’s brain. I actually kind of like learning and studying about that kind of stuff, but I’m weird. And so, you know, while some people love history, other people love languages. You know, I will say.

There’s a parenting price that could be being paid in many homes, Christian homes across the world. I know people listen from over 190 countries. So I know we talked about the United States often. That’s where we’re from. But our heart goes out to everybody. And I think this is a issue at hand, which is there’s really true two truths happening here, which is it’s the most in the United States. It’s the most important election of our lifetime. And it also impacts the entire world. And the second truth is, regardless of who wins in the United States, God is still good. And we have to be very careful how we operate around this. And whatever happens in the election with our children watching and we because we.

Don’t want to misrepresent the truth that’s in God’s word accidentally by being overly disappointed or even overly hopeful. Right? Because that could lay an impression upon our children that our hope is in a mere man, when in reality it needs to be in Jesus Christ. Right.

Yeah. So we need to be activated citizens. We need to be registering to vote. They need to see us doing that. They need to stand firm in the faith. Never going allowing the government or anybody to make us or influence to do anything that goes against biblical truth and standing up for what’s right. So all of that is true. But at the and so this first point right here is it’s the most important election of our lifetime in the United States, because there’s a lot of evidence that if Trump does not win, it may be the last real election because they’re going to influence it through illegal immigration and always get the vote no matter what. If they get in and change laws that are advantageous to them.

It was really interesting. I recently saw a post by Charlie Kirk. I like a lot of the stuff that he puts out there. He’s good. Um, and he recently said, in the last 32 years, um, we’ve seen Barack Obama, George Bush, Clinton. He just went through and he listed all of the presidents. And then there was a four year Trump and then but all of the rest of them. And they’re saying that, you know, they have all the answers to all the problems in America. Yet out of 32 years, there were only four years that they were not in office. So if they have all the answers to the problems, then why didn’t they fix them? And that’s the other thing that I think is important for us in discerning what is true in a lot, because a lot of candidates will make promises. And the truth is, is we need to look at the character and the track record of people. And we’ve already had Trump in office for four years and we saw what he accomplished. He accomplished a lot, actually.

Yeah, right. He did all the things he said he would do for the most part.

And not only that, but the economy was incredibly strong. Yeah, people were thriving after not thriving financially in any way.

But he’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination.

But let me just say, I just want to finish with this. But Kamala has also been in office for the last four years. She wasn’t president, she was VP, but she also has a track record. And so for her to be making promises, it’s like, well, you’re actually in office right now. And some would even say she’s potentially running the country. So if she really believes that, why doesn’t she make that change Now.

You know what’s so funny too? Is that the funniest I never thought I would see this is she tries to distance herself from Biden and his policies and that she wasn’t part of it. And then he’s the very same day he purposely makes a press conference and says, no, we sing the same tune. We we same playbook. We’re all doing the same thing. So Biden’s burnt and he’s he appears to be trying to hurt Kamala’s election. But it’s just kind of fascinating when.

She’s in interviews to where she’s asked questions like if there was anything that you do differently than Biden in the last four years, is there anything she’s like, nope, nope, I wouldn’t change anything, you know? And you’re just like, okay, so four more years of what we’ve just had. So let’s talk.

About parenting though. But so it’s the most important election and our children need to see us as activated citizens is important. But we have to be careful not to put make it the impression to our children that our hope is in who gets elected or where lacking hope. If someone else gets elected, The truth is, it does look devastating if the Democrats get in power with Kamala and the way everything’s going. So it looks very challenging for the United States. It’s challenging for the world, frankly. It falls in line with the Wef’s goals, deep state goals and so forth. Power and control and less freedom. Okay, so that’s true. But we got to make sure our children see that our hope is in an all powerful good God. Most importantly. And that’s what I want my children to see in me. Yes, they can hear the conversations, they can see these things and and so forth, and they should be educated. But at the end of the day, did they see me in the Bible? Did they see me just joyful and hopeful because of my hope in God and eternal life and in his power?

Totally. I also think that there’s an importance on this topic of influence and people influencing us. I just want to I want to bring up a fact here. The fact is, is that campaigning is happening. Yeah, right. There’s millions of dollars, billions probably spent on campaigning. Their whole purpose this year has been to campaign to win people’s votes. To do what? To. To win people’s votes. That means they’re going to influence people to get their vote. Yeah, actually, and that’s the whole point of campaigning. And as Christians, we’re called to be a light and to be salt and to influence and impact other people. So when you get other people potentially persecuting you or challenging you and saying that you shouldn’t be influencing in a certain way or another, I just want to say that that’s a lie from the enemy, because we should be trying to influence, including influencing our children. One of the things that, you know, for years, when our kids were little, I remember thinking back and going, I don’t want politics or faith God to ever be topics that are like no, no, can’t talk about those at the family. Those are the.

Things we got to talk.

About. Exactly. But do you remember this? We had this conversation when the kids were little, and I was like, I don’t ever want that to be like, back when we had like three kids. I just remember thinking, I want to have Thanksgivings where we can talk about this kind of stuff, where there’s so much like mindedness that we’re spurring one another on. We’re even working together, right? Because there’s this, like, common ground. And I just have to say that only happens by influencing your kids. And so right now, while you may have this wow, this is a really intense time. There is a potential, you know, another assassination attempt on Trump, right? That would be the third so far. They arrested a man the other day and, you know, realizing, okay, yeah, there’s some heavy stuff that’s going on. But this is actually let’s flip that around and not be a half glass empty kind of person, but instead let’s be a half glass full kind of person and go, wow! Right now we have all kinds of opportunity to be teaching our kids and influencing them so that they understand the why behind why we vote a certain way so that they don’t just grow up going, mom and dad vote, right? Or, you know, these people vote this way and they don’t just like label you, but they actually know about the issues they’ve been talked to about hard things like abortion. They’ve been talked to about hard things like immigration. And what does the Bible say about these things? And how can we be loving, um, while also being protective of our country? And like, you know, I just think there’s just this is an opportunity. This is a time. Parenting through election chaos is actually every time something chaotic happens. It’s an opportunity, parents, to teach your kids something really valuable.

And to circle back on the vision she’s talking about is when your children are older, you want to be able to have Thanksgiving together where there is that like mindedness. And it happens through the daily, weekly conversations, work and talking about real things and really discipling them. Discipleship is most importantly about spiritual things, and that should be the main focus. But it’s also about the ways of the world and a biblical perspective on those things, and it’s influencing them in directions that are supportive of the Bible and policies that are supportive of the Bible.

It really is an essential part of discipleship. I think that sometimes when people think of discipleship, they only think about teaching their kids about the salvation message of the gospel, which is incredibly important. It’s the most important. But there’s this element of when you are regenerated and you’re born again in Christ, you want to you’re hungry for the Word of God, and you want to keep reading more. And then you start seeing how the Bible actually changes your worldview. And when your worldview becomes biblical and it’s no longer fleshly and worldly. Your viewpoint changes on everything.

Yeah, it’s like there should be maturity happening, whether in our home beyond the norm. Like they should be activated citizens by the time they launch from our home with a biblical viewpoint on all the hot button issues and potential ones in the future. Like even I dynamics and things like that. We have to be thinking about all these things because there’s so much, there’s so much coming. It’s like, you know, it’s just fascinating. Like Elon Musk just had this, this big press conference and he had robots walking out, and he had this shuttle that his autonomous shuttle driving out. And then he had the robotaxi, which is a car with a, you know, wing door. And people are putting these memes up of this movie called I, robot with Will Smith. It’s an old movie, but it’s about when these robots look exactly like what Elon Musk just created are out, and the shuttles and the shuttles even look the same and the cars look similar. And I think.

His smiling and laughing, not because he thinks it’s awesome, but because he can have the joy of the Lord. And I think that that’s one of the biggest points is do your kids see this? Do they hear you teach them about what’s happening in the world today?

Yeah, I was teaching you.

But do you have fear?

No. No fear.

You don’t have fear because we know who we are in Christ.

There’s not an underlying element of fear when I talk about these things. And they don’t feel it either because they understand, because it’s way more lopsided, gospel focused biblical focus and so forth. By the way, the Courageous Parenting Program is essential for this. I just encourage you to go to Courageous Parenting.com and check it out. It is an essential tool to equip you to understand how to really disciple your children during these unprecedented times, which is takes more intentionality than previous generations, you know? And there’s so much more in there than that. But I’m so.

Glad that you brought it up, because I’m even thinking about the wayward Um, agenda that’s being pushed specifically by the left side. And we see their massive support for that. I mean, we have it’s gone from being a pride month to now. There’s like all kinds of holidays, and people are just flamboyantly asserting themselves. And on impressionable children everywhere that did not exist when you and I were kids. Can I just say that we did not grow up without our parents, did not have to worry about us potentially being abused or molested just with our eyes? I mean, there’s a molestation of the eyes when people are out in public, half naked or fully naked doing parades. Right. And so what’s happened today? What’s been allowed to happen because of our government? I’m just going to throw them under the bus. It is their fault. Yeah. That this is happening. And so because of our government as parents, we have to be more vigilant at equipping our children and protecting them and the Courageous Parenting program helps so much the entire session on purity. And then I think that’s session three and then session six, which is the courage one, where we’re talking about the hard topics like rape and abortion and drugs and and sex and all of the things that are important, conversations that parents need to be equipped to talk about from a biblical perspective. We just dive into the word and we share with them. It’s really an awesome opportunity. I hope you guys take advantage.

And we just made a change to it, where when you purchase it, you can start it in all the contents there.

And we also.

Change from how it used to be.

We also changed the price.

Yeah. You have to go look at Courageous Parenting.com. I think you’ll be very shocked and surprised in a good way. Okay.

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

What Angie and.

Isaac have 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 who 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 mind.

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 your self 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.

We’re no longer fearing dark days ahead, but we’re so excited to raise lights to be leaders for the next generation.

The second thing is, regardless of who wins, this one is so important to talk about because, um, there is a very good chance that Kamala wins, actually. And it’s not because she would win in a fair way. I literally believe that’s impossible. But she would win either through cheating or because Trump gets assassinated, which we’re praying for him, I hope doesn’t happen. And so forth. But with three attempts right now, it is proven. There’s several teams backed by Iran, some with some some very portable rocket launchers and things like that. It has been said there’s reports out that Trump has changed a vast number of ways. He operates so that he can’t be detected as easy when he’s traveling and things like that. So it is it is a real threat. There’s there’s like we’ve never seen before, uh, already three attempts on his life. And so, you know.

That’s a really big deal.

Regardless of who wins, he’s.

Still going to be in danger.

He’s still going to be. Even even if he wins, they’re going to want to take him out even more. He’ll be even more protected, which is good. But also, who can we trust, right. That’s around him and these kinds of things. So regardless of who wins? God is good. That’s gotta be. The ultimate answer is that we have to be activated. We have to be praying for, uh, for.

All the leaders for.

Good things to happen in the election and so forth. We have to be doing our part. But at the same time, most importantly, we have to be obeying God. Trusting God. And our kids need to see that. Otherwise they might get a lopsided view of where hope is. Yeah, for sure. And we don’t want that to happen.

No we don’t. Well, I want to share with you guys from Romans chapter 12. You know, this is one of the courageous parenting favorite verses is in Romans chapter 12. It’s actually verse two that says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that you, by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. We love that verse. Um, but if you read down a little farther to verse nine, it says, let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, and hold fast to what is good. Amen. Right now we’re in this election season. There is a definite like obvious for those who have eyes may see, and those who have ears may hear. Which the Bible also says, for those who have eyes and ears, you can see the evil, and so you know what to cling to, which is good, which is the Word of God. It says, love one another with brotherly affection. Okay. During this chaotic election season where there’s a lot of division, are we loving one another? Right? Are we teaching our kids how to be good at disagreeing? Hey, I just want to do a plug for last week’s podcast episode where we went in depth and how to teach your kids how to disagree and still love one another. That’s an important conversation, something that I’m still learning, but it’s something that Isaac actually is very good at. Oh thank you. We both we both kind of share about how that that how important that is.

I’ve got a few things I’m good at at least.

No, you are very good at that. Yes. Okay. So love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Outdo. It’s like a contest. I’m going to outdo you in showing honor. Imagine if people operated that way in their relationships, where they outdo one another with showing honor to one another. That’s a good word for the election season where there’s division. Here’s another one. It says, do not be slothful in zeal. Do not be slothful in zeal. What? We were just talking about the importance of using this as an opportunity to influence others. Use your voice to influence others. That’s being an active citizen is influencing others for good, especially if you have a biblical perspective on things. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit and serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation. Hey, listen. Rejoice in hope. It’s the hope in Jesus Christ, not in the hope in a certain person getting elected. But it’s also saying be patient in tribulation. So if the person, regardless of who wins, if the person you don’t want to vote for wins. Be patient in tribulation, Be constant in prayer. I read this and I go, you know what? Hard times actually challenge Christians to do those three things more than they normally do in their normal life. When things are flourishing, when there’s a thriving economy, when things are a little bit easier, when you when you feel protected by your government versus in danger because of your government. Right. Which right now I’m looking at what’s happening with Hurricane Helene and Milton and what are we seeing? We’re seeing the government not following through and helping taxpaying citizens, but instead giving money to illegal immigrants.

Well, Milton is because DeSantis is actually taking control and not allowing FEMA to, you know, mess things up. But yes, but yes, your point is valid.

But the other states like North Carolina, South Carolina, they have suffered greatly. In fact, they’ve even confiscated I’ve heard of testimonies of people getting their donations that they personally brought there confiscated by FEMA.

No question. There’s weird. There is so.

Much weird stuff happening. So here’s the deal, though. What did I just read? So when when we’re in those kinds of times and we’re, like, worried that the person that’s going to get elected is not going to do what they are making an oath to do? It would be like a doctor, you know, making an oath, the Hippocratic Oath, and then killing people, which has also been a big issue in our country. And that’s why we’re for the whole Make America wealthy Again initiatives. That’s like exciting to think about, right? And so there’s a need for us to be in prayer when there are hard things happening around us. Don’t we tend to pray more? Yeah, that’s why it’s an awesome opportunity. Be patient in tribulation. Be constant in prayer. This is what God commands us to do. He says, don’t be slothful in zeal. Don’t be slothful in zeal. Serve the Lord. You know, a lot of people could potentially, during these chaotic times, stop serving in ministry. Mhm. I mean, I’ll be honest, you guys, for those of you who have followed our ministry, you know we’re about to plant a church.

This Sunday is going to be the first Sunday of Rooted Bible Church. You can go check that out at rooted Bible.org. And Isaac is preparing. He’s been preparing for a long time. The first sermon message, um, there’s just been so much we’ve been remodeling the church and investing in that both time, resources, talents, all the things. Here’s the deal. We’re in the midst of an election season. Do you think that there has been a challenge, a wrestling within both of us, probably with thinking, man, right now there’s some crazy stuff happening. We probably should have extra oatmeal. We should have extra this, we should have extra that. And we’re not buying that because we’re actually serving the Lord over here. What does this say? Says be patient in tribulation. Says don’t be slothful in zeal. Be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. So don’t stop serving the Lord and just only focus on hoarding toilet paper is, I guess, what I’m saying. Do you know what I mean? Like we’re called to serve the Lord. We are.

And my perspective is what’s the most important thing during challenging times? Running the race with strong believers in proximity to you? Yes. That seems to be the most important and.

Which is one of our actions.

Why we’re planting a church is to reach more people, and to strengthen the people and to unite the people and for Christ. And so.

Yeah, it’s it’s an awesome mission, and it’s one that our hearts have totally committed to. Totally committed to to where once you’re totally committed and serving the Lord in something, you tend to sacrifice things of personal things without feeling like holding, wanting to hold on to them as much. Yeah, the more that you exercise that muscle. And so I think that we have some action steps that we want to give you guys here on parenting through election chaos. One is to use this time as an opportunity to teach your kids when you’re discipling them, It’s discipling them. Yes. And where their hope is found. Understanding that God is a good God all the time, regardless of circumstances. That he is sovereign, that he loves us, that we can have joy in trials. Um, but but then there’s also this this challenge to evaluate and audit. What does my community look like? Am I a part of a strong biblical community or have I isolated? Yeah.

You don’t want to isolate. You need each other. You need to know who you can trust. You need to run the race. You need to spur each other on. Uh, people who run alone end up, you know, usually dead in the desert. So it’s a that’s a that’s a word picture. But that’s.

A sad word, but it’s.

A spiritual death, you know, it’s like it’s like, uh, you know, we can’t do it alone. We need each other. So it’s super important. It’s a very.

Sad word picture. But yes, it’s true.

You know, I deal in reality here. No. It’s true. So you got to do that. You got to, you know, prepare. What do you need to prepare? What do you need to be ready for? You know, those are not in a fear based way, but in a practical sense, what habits need to change, you know, do we need to be, you know, getting an earlier start and in the Bible together. Do you need to be, you know, praying together as a married couple? Do you need to be, uh, doing hospitality more, having more people over? Yeah.

No, I love that. I want to finish reading this little scripture because it goes with what you just said in, in the next verse. So rejoice in hope. Be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints. So don’t forget those who are spiritually serving in your community. Yes, contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. So regardless of what is going on in your life, it’s literally saying be patient in tribulation. So this is a time of tribulation, but it’s also saying seek to show hospitality. Yeah, even during tribulation. I know that for us, we had walked through some tribulation a few years ago, right about 7 or 8 years ago actually. Wow, it was a long time ago now, um, with the business failure. But we still hosted church at our house. We still gave, we still contributed a meal for every potluck. We still God provided and and we still sought to serve. We still practiced hospitality. It was a joyous time, but that was. But can I just say in faith, when you choose to practice hospitality, I’m just gonna use that as an example. It could be anything. But didn’t we see God’s miracles the most in those times? I remember one time going, what am I going to serve for Potluck Sunday? I mean, I could do oatmeal.

And then I found a bag of frozen apples that had been cut up, and I was like, oh, I can do an apple crumble with oatmeal. And I like. And it ended up being so yummy, right? And so then I that Sunday, I contributed a big dessert to the meal. But, you know, there’s just so many ways that God provides where you don’t end up being without. And then it continues. It says, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them. That’s a powerful one for people who are in division. So here’s a question for you. With people that you’re in community with or in family with. And you see not the same. You do not see eye to eye. Maybe there’s tension. Maybe there’s avoiding one another because of political disagreements. Do you bless them and not curse them? Do you bless those who persecute you? That’s a good word for us during this time. And your kids need to see you do that. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate. Associate with the lowly. That’s huge. It is huge.

It is huge, you know. And so think about what are the conversations that happen in your home and how often are they happening, and is there a balance to them. Because that’s what children are hearing and growing up with. And that is forming their worldview, that is forming their trust in God or their trust in man that is forming idolatry or focusing on God as, as, as the, the, their motivation. So it’s so important that we really think about that. And during this election time, it’s important to think about all those things. So in John 1633 it says, I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart. I have overcome the world. Take heart. I have overcome the world. Right. Jesus said that before he died on the cross. Isn’t that cool?

What’s amazing is that we can have peace in him. Yeah, and? And teaching our kids that he has overcome the world and that we don’t have anything to fear that this life is like a blink. Right. It’s like a vapor. And when we recognize that and we have that eternal perspective, it changes everything. So, you know, you guys, we do want to encourage you when it comes to discipling your kids. Um, evaluating your strong biblical community. Maybe there are some habits that need to change. Maybe you’ve made an idol out of prepping. Maybe you haven’t done any preparatory work where maybe you’re maybe you’re finding that happy balance in that. I know that for us, we always try to keep a certain amount of surplus on hand just because we’re a big family and we go through a lot very quickly. And so we’ve always done that right. But it would be a good idea just because of what’s happening during this time. You don’t want to be caught in a weird space. Um, but, you know, here’s another thing to think about when you’re buying the things that you’re buying is your heart that you would share it with someone in need if that became a problem. Because you should prepare your heart and your kids hearts for that.

Since we talked about politics, I do want to say I do believe Trump is going to win. Um, and so I just want that to be said. Secondly, it’s not because of who he is, it’s because of the policies he puts forward. And as a believer, it’s about what the policies actually end up being that get put forward that matter most. It’s not so much about the human and where they stand spiritually and things like that. And so it really is when you look at how what government does and how it influences things, it really is the policies put in place. Are they in alignment with the Constitution or are they out of alignment? That’s what matters. And that’s what we’ve seen. We’ve seen a track record on the Trump side for the most part, meaning nobody’s perfect. And the most important one, I would say is the abortion issue. And I wish he was, uh, you know, better on that issue, obviously. But when you look at the whole landscape, on what policies actually get put in place, that’s what matters.

Yeah. And it’s interesting when you compare them next to one another, the two sides, the two, the alternative of policies, even though, you know, obviously we’re very pro-life, we believe that life begins at conception. And so for us that’s a hard issue with him. However, the alternative with Kamala is even worse. And so, of course, we’re going to side with the most conservative policy that is likely to get into office.

And I think it is the most important election of our lifetime. So let’s make sure you’re registered to vote. Let’s make sure everybody’s registered to vote. Let’s make sure your older kids are part of the process. And we want to snuff out any beliefs that are out there in anybody, that your vote doesn’t matter. Your vote absolutely does matter. And that’s part of raising up your children in the right way. They will get influenced by other people around them saying, oh, my vote doesn’t matter, your vote doesn’t matter. These kinds of things.

It’s simply not true.

And it’s simply not true. And that’s that’s a natural thought. I mean, I remember when I was young, I had that thought. And so it is a natural thought to have. And so we have to counter these. That’s part of being a proactive parent in uncertain times, is you have to be proactive in some newer areas even than in the past. So it’s so super important. Join us in the Courageous Parenting Program. You can find all resources at Be Courageous History.org too.

Thanks so much for joining us today. And if you have time to check it out, check out the new heart of the home podcast, which you can find on Apple or anywhere there’s podcasts. Hey, thanks for listening and being a part of the 10 Million Legacies movement. Go to be courageous ministry. Org for more biblically based resources, ways to switch where you spend your money that support the mission, and information about the incredible Be Courageous app community for believers.

Also, 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, we release a video session with a downloadable parenting packet to make it easy for you to incorporate those teachings directly into your parenting.

This is an incredible, self-paced program where we cover everything from tending to their hearts, handling obedience to overcoming mistakes most Christians are making. But more than that, it’s a supportive community. You’ll have access to our private group in the Be Courageous app, live webcast, and direct access to us.

If you’re interested in joining our next online Parenting Mentor program, secure your spot now at Be Courageous History.org that’s Be Courageous ministry.org.