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Full Transcript:

Note: This is an automated transcript and misspells or grammar errors may be present.

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.

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Org. Join us as we start another important conversation about effective parenting in a fallen world. Hey, welcome to the show. We’re so glad to have you here. We’re talking about staying the course because sometimes it’s not easy to. Right? Sometimes it feels a little discouraging out there.

I mean, okay, let’s just be really honest. Today we were talking and this is going to be kind of raw in the sense that we can relate to this. Absolutely. Absolutely. Even when you don’t feel like it, the.

More you try and do really good things, better things than normal, usually you’re kind of sticking out.

You’re tired and you’re tired. You’re depleted.

It’s hard to see.

You feel like you’re pouring yourself out like a drink offering, like how Paul talks about.

And then you start going, why are we doing this? Why do we keep picking the harder route?

Yeah, it’s kind of a lot. But I will say today is going to be an encouraging podcast. So if you relate to feeling like, man, I’m just so tired. I’m exhausted. I don’t necessarily want to keep homeschooling. I don’t want to keep working. Right? I mean, sometimes guys feel that way, sometimes.

They do, or they want to feel or they want to work, but it’s just like, I can’t get it to work. I can’t figure out the problem. I can’t solve it.

Exactly. What about working out? Sometimes you just don’t. I mean, I hit that slump. I was just talking to my girlfriend about that today. We’re out at the gym early in the morning. One of my neighbors. We go and work out, and we’re like, man, we’re both in the slump. We hit the slump and we’re like, we have to keep going. We have to keep going. And it’s. But it’s hard. Like, there are times when you just even though you’ve made a habit out of something for six months, you’re just like, uh.

It’s especially hard if you haven’t experienced the fruit yet. I remember the first time, for example, you know, being part of a church where kids sat together in church and we were doing that right. And I remember because we hadn’t really we only had little kids, so it it’s hard to see what the positive outcomes were that were at the time. I’m so glad we stayed the course.

I know I am too, and that’s part of why we’ve kept going, is because we were able to see the fruit. And that fruit that we’ve seen in our older kids is part of why we keep going. The way we’ve been going with the other kids.

Any number of things like it could be rules. You have family rules. And as your children get older, they’re starting to butt up against it. They’re starting to question why that’s a rule. And, and and sometimes you might secretly, of course, feel like why is it worth the battle?

Oh, yeah. I mean, how many times have you thought that, right? Like, I even think about right now. I look at my garden and it’s lush and it looks amazing. And it’s like full, full force harvest season every day. I could probably be, you know, harvesting 20 to £30 of produce. And I’m tired, I’ll be honest. And I have so much that I need to preserve. Otherwise it’s going to be a waste. And so this year, because of the church plant and different things. I’ve been given tons of stuff away just simply because I can’t handle the burden of looking at all that I need to do. I’m exhausted by the end of the day. Absolutely. And so it’s. But but this is the thing. Like, do you stop? Okay, so when you’re exhausted, here’s the question everybody thinks of, right? Like, do you get to a point where you have too much on your plate or you’re doing too many things where it is a good idea to take some things off?

We’ll talk about the test. We have a test. We’re going to give you three steps to really test if you should stay the course, or if you should shift gears on something. Um, and we have really good encouraging scriptures. So no matter where you’re at, what you’re dealing with, this episode is meant to be encouraging. And we have an unprecedented time times tip at the very end as well. Angie, you’re going to talk about master books in just a second, but I did want to mention that also, this could be challenging with friendships. It could be challenging, you know, in how you maybe you’re volunteering for church and you feel spent and you’re like, is this worth it? Should I keep doing this? You know, and these kinds of things. Homesteading. You mentioned working out. I love that one. But think about your reason right now. What is your your thing that you’re, like wrestling with? Is it worth it to stay the course with this?

And it’s easy for people. I just want to just before, you know, think about the working out like that’s one of those things that’s like, you need to stay faithful and you need to stay continually doing it. Whereas some of the other things that maybe you have on your plate are seasonal for like different seasons of your life. Right. And, you know, we’re not going to talk a lot about the John 15 scripture that talks about pruning, because we have some other really important scriptures that we want to bring into today. And we’ve already talked about the John 15 Scripture in regards to pruning a lot, but that scripture, I’m just bringing it up because there is a point in when it comes to the things that you’re doing where you do have to prune things like God says, he prunes the bad fruit, but he also prunes good things. So good fruit so that there can be even better fruit, right? And we talk about that in regards to the vineyard. Yeah.

You have to cut half the fruit off so that it helps the nutrients in the ground. And all the energy goes to the remaining half of the fruit to make it worthy for, you know, making products out of it and so forth. Yeah.

It’s just interesting how that is so true today in regards to just the things that you have, the plates you’re spinning, all the different responsibilities that you have at different times. And so we’re excited because I know that while we are going to share some of the stories and things that we’ve learned over the years because we’ve walked through these seasons many times, you know, we are about to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.

Yeah.

That’s right baby. 25 years. So of course, in 25 years, there’s been many times where we’ve had to evaluate and go, hmm, maybe not right now. Maybe that’s for in the future, right?

Yeah. You got to get your seasons right.

You got to get your seasons right. But at the same time, I know that regardless of what season of life you’re in, there will be a time where you will come across these kinds of feelings like, should I stay the course with this? Should I keep going? And there are things like parenting, like disciplining, um, maintaining, being consistent with the expectations you have for your children. You have to stay consistent with those things. Just like you need to stay consistent with working out. You need to stay consistent with eating healthy, like there are certain things in life that you can’t just like go, oh, I’m not going to do this anymore. Right? And so there is a message of needing to stay the course and not most things.

I’m so glad we stayed the course with most things. There are times where I’ve felt like I’ve stayed the course too long in some areas, and so it’s good to be wise in this, and we’re going to give you some encouragement on that. But first Angie is going to talk about.

Yes, I’m going to talk about master books. So as you guys know, we’re a good probably a month into using new curriculum. And this year we’re using master books for a lot of different curriculum choices. And I just wanted to share with you guys that there’s a few weeks left for the giveaway with master books. So if you go to Master Books.com Forward slash courageous, you can learn about that as well as get some free tips of book recommendations. Because not only does master books provide a curriculum for each grade level and provide you the opportunity to swap out different sciences or different history curriculums within that grade level, they also have awesome books that are published through them, but they’re by Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis. And so some of those books are in the giveaway as well, because we just absolutely love the stuff that they’ve created. It’s been super helpful for us as we’ve been discipling our children from the the youngest of ages to the older ages. In fact, one of the things that I wanted to share with you guys for a while now is the older answer books. Many of you guys are aware that Answers in Genesis creates a series of volume series of answers for kids, which are little books that answer the most common questions that kids ages like 3 to 10 years old. Ask about God, about life, about all different kinds of topics. And they have really short, clear and biblical answers to all of those questions. And it’s just like a one page thing. So those are great for table talks, devotion time, lunch time with your kids.

I love master books because it’s vetted biblically. You know, any of their curriculum is going to be biblically sound and coming from a good place and well done, like quality books and workbooks and so forth.

But one of the things I’ve appreciated is with my high schoolers, we have the answers books that are also a volume series, but they’re obviously much bigger. They’re like textbook size as far as being able to know what you believe and why. And so their apologetics program is just awesome. So if you have older kids, check out the apologetics program. Check out their sciences. They also have an online academy called Master Books Academy, which has basically tutors. They’re teachers that are online in classes that are teaching through different subjects like civics and Constitution, but they also have math classes, and all of their science curriculums also have that option as well. So check out Master Books.com forward slash courageous. And hey, be willing to even evaluate if maybe you just want to try out one of them this year, because you might be surprised and go see.

What Angie’s favorites are on that page. Put the courageous in at the end and you’re all set. You enter the giveaway and see what she likes.

That’s right. Okay, so let’s dive in and talk more about this topic of being weary and staying the course. So maybe you have a lot of really good things going on in your life. And you’re you’re just feeling tired. Maybe you feel or sense or you fear that you’re nearing burnout.

And I think it’s so important to evaluate why you’re feeling this way, because some of the reasons why are not valid reasons to change anything at all. In fact, I would say usually they are not good reasons to create a change. We may be doing too much. That might be true. We might need some rest, but making big decisions when you’re feeling down, when you’re feeling discouraged, when you’re feeling a lack of rest, is a bad time to actually make a decision. It’s a good time to start considering to talk to your spouse, to pray about it and so forth.

But maybe take a break. But taking a break can happen without giving something up entirely. And it’s funny because I’ll be honest, I think I tend to be more of an all or nothing kind of person. You probably can attest to that, right? And so for me, when I start to feel overwhelmed, or if I start to feel like I have too much on my plate and there’s no way I can possibly catch up, I tend to be the all or nothing. So then I go, oh, nope, I got to get rid of it. I got to stop, right? And then Isaac talks me down off the ledge in that sense and goes, oh, honey, lots of ledges. Nope. You need you need to you need maybe you just need to take a break. It’s okay to take a break. It’s okay.

It’s a way for her to express to me too. And as we talk, we can. I can discover what the core real issue is I can discover if I’m part of that. Like maybe there’s a way I can help. Usually there is actually a way I can help that maybe wasn’t communicated, or she communicated in a way that wasn’t clear enough for me. And then it becomes really clear. And that’s healthy for our marriage, because then there’s no bitter root developing or blame coming my way because we’re actually communicating about it. So, husbands, it’s so important to proactively talk to your wife if she looks burnt out, feeling down sometimes she can’t even pinpoint it, but he asks the right questions and he asks questions long enough and you’re willing to listen, not fix. You’ll discover what the core of it is. And wow, maybe, maybe we’re not going to stop doing something, but we’re just going to do it better and we’re going to do it more as a team.

Yeah. You know, it’s interesting. We’re going to talk about here one of the very first things that we want to walk you guys through is evaluating why you feel this way. Right. And so for some some people it might be that they have too much on their plate. You already said that. But for other people, it might be that maybe they’re feeling this way because they’ve allowed sin to enter in to creep in. Maybe they’re believing a lie from the enemy or from the world, from the culture, the lies in the world that are tempting us. Right? There are many messages out there that are very, um. Feel good. Indulge yourself. Oh, you shouldn’t be working so hard. You should be sitting on a beach with a pina colada. Kind of like.

Angie. Why don’t you make your life easier? Why do you choose hard things? I mean, Angie, you know, you you just don’t do the garden, right? I mean, why are you doing that? I mean, you already have your homeschooling. I can barely keep up with that myself.

I know, I bet you hear stuff like, oh, I do, I do. I’ll hear that from friends sometimes. Or or they’ll be like, um, just even there’s there’s even the thought of feeling like maybe people judge that I’m not doing everything well enough because I have so many things spread thin. I’m spread thin right now. Dust in your corner.

I know you better stop the garden.

I know right, my. There’s dust on the fans in the house. I guarantee it, because they haven’t been dusted in a week and a half. I’d rather have a garden. Okay, well. But. So I will say, though, that there’s there is a temptation for us to compare. So comparing would be a sin in a sense. Right. To have discontentment with the fruit that’s in your own life. Or maybe you’re comparing the realities of your life to somebody else’s highlights, or what they portray to you, when in reality you don’t actually see their reality because they’re good at hiding it, right? And so that would be sin, that comparison. Right? So we’ve talked about two different potential kinds of sin. That and this is why it’s so important to evaluate. Why am I feeling overwhelmed? Is it because I am believing the lie that I’m hearing from culture that I should, at this point in my life, in my 40s, I should have more time to myself, I should be able to relax a little more, read a book, things like that. Right? But really, my life is so full and and so when you when you evaluate it and you think about that, you can start to feel kind of down because you’re, again, comparing to the standard that the world has set out there for you.

By the way, we’re not saying you can’t read a book, relax and things like that. No, it’s what she is saying is not to compare. We all have different responsibilities. We have different magnitudes of mission, actually, that God is calling us to that vary and or look different amongst different families, different spiritual gifts, different callings, uh, frankly, different capacities for handling things, doing things.

Can I just say something about the capacity for a second? So, you know, that is one thing that is a big deal. And it’s dangerous to compare your capacity to somebody else’s capacity. Yes, it is. And it’ll hurt and break friendships and it’ll stall friendships from ever going deep if you do that. First of all, that’s my number one thing I want to say. Number two thing I want to say is your capacity grows over time. So let me just take children, for example. I didn’t have all nine kids at one time. Thank you, Lord Jesus.

We couldn’t even imagine.

I could not imagine that. I know that people have triplets. I know that people have had quadruplets. Lord did not give us that. And I’m so thankful because he gave us one at a time, because that was what he blessed us with. But also, I think it was partially what he knew we could handle. Right. And and I think that for me, every time it was a boot camp of learning more about the selfish selfishness that was wrought up in my heart that I had to surrender under the foot of the cross, it was a choice to choose to surrender it and to walk through that boot camp over and over and over again. And it was sanctifying, and I still am in that place. Even though I’ve been sanctified through many fires, I still need it because I’m human. Yeah, and I still struggle with selfishness at times. And so when I when I share this with you, I hope that it’s encouraging and not discouraging, because many of you who maybe have three kids are thinking, oh, I was hoping she would say, you finally arrived and you don’t. But the reality is that we all need to be honest about our humanity and understanding that God knows our hearts and he also knows how he created us. And he also came to earth. He was sinless, but he walked on this earth and he knows the temptations of man.

I think a lot of times it’s the caring too much about what people think around us. Now we should care what other believers think about us. Absolutely. But at the same time, we also shouldn’t think too much, care too much what people think about us when we know we’re doing things for the Lord, when we know we’re doing the right thing, even if it’s harder, even if even if people around you aren’t doing this really good thing, that’s harder. But you know God’s calling you to do it. You can’t listen to that. You can’t listen to the noise, because sometimes people will indulge you with comfort, even to sometimes make themselves feel more comfortable when it shouldn’t be like that. But it should. But that can make you feel like, wow, maybe I shouldn’t be doing this. Good thing that is great for the Lord and produces more fruit in the long term. Because you know what? It’s hard to stay the course, you know, on those things. We’ve always decided to keep staying the course. We’ve never. I hope this is true. I’m pretty sure it is. I’m pretty sure we’ve never not stayed the course on something good that God’s calling us to do because of what people think. I’m pretty sure that’s true.

That’s pretty true. We both kind of held ourselves accountable to that, because there have been times where I’ve been tempted to. And then you’ve gone, hold on, we’re not going to jump full feet.

We’re not following, man. We’re not following people, man.

And sometimes that’s been hard for me because to follow man might have been a more popular route or an easier route, but it wasn’t God’s path for us. And so we want to share with you guys from Hebrews chapter 12. There’s actually quite a few different scriptures we’re going to be in here today, but we’re going to start out with verses one and two. And this really applies to this whole concept of evaluating, evaluating why you feel this way, why you feel like you want to quit, or you are having a hard time continuing to stay the course even when you don’t feel like it. And so it says in verse one, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight. So right there we were just mentioning staying the course when even when you don’t want to. That’s a weight that’s a heavy burden. Weight. Right. And maybe you’re feeling heavy right now. This is saying let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely. Wow. That was that was serious. Serious Thunder.

Lightning and thunder. Thunder.

Yes. Okay, so let me just repeat that in case you guys didn’t hear me. It says and lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. So he had a joy. Yeah. For the joy that was set before him. He was visionary. This is that’s what it’s talking about. The joy that was set before him. He knew what was going to occur when he willingly surrendered to endure the cross. He knew what that was going to do for all eternity. He knew what that was going to do, and that brought him joy. So for the joy he endured the cross, sometimes we have to have that vision. We have to have the vision of of the joy of the fruit that will come from the hard thing that we’re doing to be able to endure it today. So make sure.

You focus on the fruit when you’re feeling down, focus on the promise of the work you’re doing. You may not see for a while.

I love this scripture so much because it’s talked about the weight that you know, that weight, that heaviness, but then it also talks about the sin which clings so, so closely to us, which we talked about, that is this a selfish thing? Are we not wanting to stay the course because we’re being selfish? That’s sin. Are we comparing that sin? Are we discontent? That’s sin, you know. Are we putting other expectations on ourselves that are not biblical? That would be sin, right? And so thinking through, is there any sin which clings so closely, people pleasing. There’s one. Right. But then let us run the endurance. It says, let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, not the race that’s set before your brother or your sister, the race that’s set before you. What is the race that God has set before you? That is a personal message looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. Here’s the next part Despising the shame. I had to talk to Isaac about this. I was like, honey, what is despise? I mean, I know what the word despise means, but when you look at it deeply, it’s like to not even think about it. Mhm. So let’s just put in to not even think about the shame. What does shame come from? Shame comes from other people. It’s the judgments of other people. We were just talking about that right. And so this is saying despise the shame. So don’t make your decisions based upon what other people think of you. Despise the shame that the mocking or the doubts that people have because you’re homeschooling. Can I just say that or despise the doubts that other people have? Because you believe that God’s telling you to move your family to a different state. And we experienced some of that too. And so there have been many good, hard things that we’ve chosen to do over the years, where there were times where we had to despise the shame and obey God.

And people might not think you’re qualified for something, right?

Exactly right. So here’s the last part of this despising the shame. And he is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. And then let’s just look at this. This is interesting because we’re going to talk next about like the test and the solution. And what’s interesting is that the very next verse gives us what the solution is for when we’re weary. It says, consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. That’s exactly what we’re talking about today. Being weary, being fainthearted. In your struggle against sin, you have not resisted to the point of shedding your own blood. So if you you haven’t resisted to the point of shedding your own blood. So you got a ways to go. We got an example of Jesus for whom the joy set before him he endured the cross. We have yet to do something like that. Yeah, and he calls us to lay our lives down for him.

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.

Another reason that you might be feeling this way is maybe it’s the wrong season, or God’s not calling you to do it right now. You know, and that we do have to consider in Matthew 633 it says, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So that’s the answer. That’s the beginning of the answer, right? Is to seek God’s will. And how do you do that? You have to seek God. So you have a close relationship. You’re in communion in communication with God so that you can hear from him. Are you praying? Are you in the word? Are you going that way? That is the first go to. How could you possibly make a decision to stop doing something that appears to be good? That’s hard, that maybe there’s pressure to go against you, to not do it, to know if it’s God’s will for you, or if there’s just pressure that you need to ignore and persevere through. And how are you going to know that unless you’re walking strong with the Lord? So that is super, super important. So we have another scripture for you that really helps you determine if you should stay the course, or if it’s something you should prune from the analogy before, which is.

Galatians six nine. You probably know this by heart, some of you, and let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. Wow. How close are some people to the fruit they’re looking for? But they give up short of it because the pressures come. I think the enemy doesn’t. I know the enemy doesn’t want fruit in your family’s life. He doesn’t want fruit in you as a dad or you as a mom. He doesn’t want that fruit. So he’s going to challenge. There’s going to be challenges. You’re going to be on issues which we talked about potential sin and things like that. But there’s also an enemy. There’s a spiritual battle, too, that we have to pay attention to. And, you know, people that persevere in the right directions, doing the things they’re called to do that are good are usually harder than the common things and the normal things that Christians are doing. And you might get mocked for it. You might feel like you’re alone at times, but if you can see the vision of it like Galatians is talking about, you will reap if you do not give up.

You know, I think that one of the things that’s super important when you’re feeling this way. I mean, I was actually just talking to my good friend about this this morning when we were laughing about how we were both in a slump at the same time. And I said, but hey, there’s a scripture in the Old Testament that says that two are better than one, so that when one falls down, the other can pull the other up. What’s going on? Why are we both in the slump at the same time? And we kind of like, laughed and we, you know, in that sense of like, hey, no, we’ve got to keep going at working out. Right. And but, but the whole point of like having somebody to speak truth into your life, I pray and hope that you have that in your marriage. I know I’m blessed to have that in my marriage, but it’s also important that you have community around you that is going to speak life into you and not be constantly the antagonist. That’s like, maybe you should just not do that this season, right? Like, I remember when I was on bedrest with my sixth, was homeschooling, had five little kids at home. Really. I was only homeschooling one one, you know, first second grader and then a kindergartner.

But I felt like a failure and I was tempted to put them in school many times. And I had and I had people pressuring me to in my own family saying, just put them in school. You can’t even walk. You’re on bed rest. But no, you know what? We had a community of women who came into our home. And those older women, they were the feet and hands of Jesus. They cleaned my house, they cooked food for my family. They sat and did some homeschool with my kids. They brought materials so I could do school on the bed with some of my kids. And you know what was amazing about this? And I share this story in my book, Redeeming Childbirth in the Unrest That Comes with Bed Rest Chapter. And one of the things that was crazy is we had a kid that was having a hard time reading, and because I was sat down, God had allowed me to sit down. I couldn’t get distracted. And I sat and I worked day in and day out with that kid, and he began reading. And it just took a little extra time for that kid. And I was a busy mom of five.

I think there’s a side message right there. Are you in a good biblical community? Are you cultivating good relationships with other moms? You might be like, I’m going to church, Isaac. I’m going to church. But I’m having a hard time connecting with people and building friendships. Well, you know, you need to find it. You need to be diligent, do hospitality and these things. But you know what? Make sure your church also is a culture of that. Make sure there’s a culture of not just being entertained on Sunday, but people are looking for something more than just a sermon. Sermon is very important. It’s only one piece of what church is about, though. And if that’s all people are looking for, guess what? All you’re going to get is sitting in a sermon and leaving because that’s all anybody else is looking for.

You know, Paul gives us a good example of how a friend should be praying for their friends and should be speaking life into their friends lives. I look at Philippians chapter one and he starts out in verse three. He says, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you. Can you imagine if a friend was to say, I thank God every time I’m remembering you? Doesn’t that make you feel good? And then he continues, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy. Because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. So they’re walking in biblical fellowship. They understand that they both have a heart and a desire to disciple other people, and they’re doing that good work, just like you are in your home with your kids. You’re doing that good work. Let me be Paul in your life for a moment. I believe you’re doing a good work with your kids, and maybe you have not heard that from somebody for a really long time. And if you haven’t heard that, hear me now. You are doing a good work discipling your kids. And then verse six, and I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. You just have to stay the course with some things. Right. And so it’s kind of like when when we were talking about that long list of things like, oh, maybe you’re having a hard time staying the course with work. Maybe you’re having a hard time staying the course with managing life. Do you know how exhausting it is sometimes for me to have to manage life? You do this, you do this, you do this. Okay, I’m going to be doing this. I’m going to be doing that. You’re going to do that. And sometimes there’s just like days where it’s like it’s all hands on deck. And that can be exhausting, delegating and managing life. But you can’t stop doing that. You can’t stop parenting. You can’t stop being married. You have to really work at the relationships.

I also just don’t see examples in the Bible of or direction of seeking a comfortable, easy, chill life. No, I don’t see that.

No. Never. Nowhere. In fact, retirement isn’t biblical. Yeah, you’re all going to hate me for that. But it’s not anywhere in the Bible.

By the way, we love relaxing. We’ve gone on, you know, month to three month RV trips around the country.

But it wasn’t relaxing. No, it was choosing the hard.

It was definitely choosing.

Really good, but it was hard. I loved it. I can say that with a smile on my face.

It’s true. I worked during my day and then drove during the night. And then you’re doing all the work and in tight quarters and homeschooling and sightseeing and driving them around while pregnant, dropping me off at the coffee shop. It was a lot and hot weather and.

Oh my.

Foreign places. Dangerous places. New York City.

Oh yeah. Eight months pregnant.

That was rad. That was a memorable experience. So good. So good. Okay. Best trip of our lives, right? Wait, what? That beat Hawaii. Just lounging in the sand? Absolutely.

It was way more memorable.

Oh my goodness. So many lessons. The bonding, the everything. So, so good. But we enjoyed it hard. We’ve enjoyed our Hawaii trips too. Yeah. Yeah. Just not as much.

Not as much. Yeah.

Okay. Second Timothy four six through eight says this is good for I’m already being poured out as a drink offering. And the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing.

So there it is.

How are we living it out? What are we living for? We’re pouring ourselves out here on earth because we’re living forever in eternity. And there’s treasures with the Lord.

Well, we want to take as many people with us, right? By sharing the gospel and praying for them and and hoping that the Holy Spirit does the work. You know, I just want to share with you guys a little bit. That’s before that. Now that Isaac shared that that drink offering, that’s a really it’s a good convicting scripture about keeping going, keep going, keep going, stay the course.

I think we’re preaching to ourselves, too. You know.

We totally are today. But, you know, we were talking earlier about how one of the things that you evaluate in your life is, am I feeling this way? Like I want to quit because I’m of sin and the sin of selfishness, of I just don’t want to do it anymore. I want to have a break. I want to, you know, and and I and I when I say sin, I’m talking about the selfishness that’s in our heart. It’s not a sin to take a break. It’s not a sin to sit and relax and read a book. No, you need that to be filled to. I was reading a.

Book last night, I.

Think. Yeah, but it was at like 11 p.m.. But but the point is.

Are you disqualifying my book reading?

I just don’t know how relaxing it was. You were probably equipping yourself.

I was learning about Israel.

It was so good. It was great. It’s so good. But you guys, my point is, is it’s not a sin to to take time to relax and rest. God’s word tells us to be still. God’s word tells us to work six days and take a day of rest. God knows that we need to rest. He created us in his image and he rested a day. And if God needs rest, how much more do we as humans need rest? We need rest, right? And we need to listen to our bodies and take care of ourselves when we need rest. Otherwise, we won’t be able to do any of it. Well, I fully believe that. But what I’m talking about is when we believe the lies of desiring a different kind of life, that’s easier. And we start to grow in selfishness, and we start desiring less hard when the hard is actually good. Hard. That’s the sin that I’m talking about. And so here we are in second Timothy chapter four, and the few 3 or 4 verses that are right before what he was talking about, about pouring yourself out like a drink offering. Do not forget that. And it talks about fighting the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. That’s what we’re called to do as Christians. Okay, listen to this. Now, with all of that in perspective, I charge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who is the judge of the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with complete patience, and teaching, for the time will come when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.

That’s exactly where we’re at. Yes, that’s exactly the season of the world right now.

Is just like that post that you made. Today I saw it on Facebook, on your personal Facebook page where you quoted the LA times, and you it was you said, no, this is not biblical. Children are a blessing. And the article was about how it’s shameful to have kids or something like that. Right. And it’s this very, um, wayward secular worldview perspective. I read the article. I know you read the article, and while you can have compassion and pray for and feel sad for people and the trauma that maybe they’ve experienced in their life, the one thing they all had in common is they were indoctrinated and brainwashed by the same California college to to have climate control as their god. Earth is their God, their idol, their making an idol out of the earth to where you should feel guilty for bringing children into this world. That is just terrible. It’s anti-God, it’s anti-biblical. And so I hands down think that it was also a very, um, focused group of only interviewing a certain type of person. Obviously, they were all indoctrinated by the same college as what it looked like. Um, but my point is, is there’s itching ears. There’s there’s they’re not enduring sound teaching, having itching ears. They will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. That’s what’s happening in this.

World, to be convicted. Nobody wants to be called out. People want to find a message that suits their life versus finding a biblical message that changes their life. So here’s your.

Biblical message, and hopefully this helps you to evaluate if what you’re doing that you’re growing weary in is something you should keep doing. Evaluate it. It says in verse five as for you, always be sober minded, so don’t fall for all those lies that are out there in the world. Endure suffering. So if you’re experiencing some suffering because you’ve made some hard choices that are good choices, endure the suffering, meaning, endure the persecutions from other people who don’t believe in you. Endure them. Do the work of an evangelist. So if the things that you are doing are pouring out like a drink offering for the sake of the gospel because you’re doing evangelistic work, it’s saying, do the work of an evangelist and fulfill your ministry.

Therefore, your decisions are never going to let your children be confused by any wayward philosophies. Anything out there. You’re never going to sacrifice your children for family members and their well-being and their purity or anything, or what they see. You’re never going to over delegate the discipleship of your children. You’re going to care about their education, and you’re going to remain, whether you homeschool or not, the most important educators in their life, people they look to. So in the teenage years, they still respect you, want to learn from you and glean wisdom from you and ask advice of you. So there’s just a few nuggets.

Okay, so this is the last scripture. And then we’re going to give you the unprecedented times tip. Are you ready? Back to Hebrews chapter 12. I told you we were going to be in it a few times. This is the third time in this podcast, verse 12. So chapter 12, verse 12, therefore lift up your drooping hands. Do you have drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees? This so applies to if you’re feeling weary and feeling like you don’t want to continue. Therefore lift up. Lift up your drooping hands. Let’s go. Strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet. So that what? So that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather healed. Strive for peace with everyone and for holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Is the things that you’re growing weary in doing, like parenting like that. That’s the Ministry of reconciliation. You’re all day correcting. You’re you’re trying to mediate. Keep peace between siblings. Da da da da da. All the things it’s saying. Strive for peace with everyone. So maybe you’re growing weary and going. Maybe I should just cut off that friendship. Maybe I should just not go to that.

Church with that with other parts of the Bible, to which is peace isn’t a sacrifice of what’s true, right? You never. There is no peace at the sacrifice of righteousness or truth.

Biblical peace and righteousness. Kiss. Kiss what?

Proverbs says I think it’s Psalms. Oh, and so it’s really, really important that we understand that the best love sometimes that we can give to people, not always sometimes is telling them something they need to hear, but don’t want to hear in the way they’re willing to receive it, or saying no. When someone wants you to say yes that you love because it’s best for your kids. That is love. And sometimes it causes a lack of temporary peace. But what it’s yielding is real relationship that should lead to long term peace.

Yes. So strive for peace with everyone. So all the work that you’re doing that you are having a hard time staying the course with, you actually have to stay the course with. That is actually what this is saying to me. Strive for peace with everyone and for holiness with which no one else will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, and that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled. When you say yes.

Too much bitterness can root up because you knew better, right? And you went ahead because you got pressured, versus you’re doing.

What God called.

You to. Now you have a more scared to talk about it when something already happened, which can take a moment to listen about. You thrive, our children going through this this summer. And it is so good to feel the gaps of financial education. We’ll be right back to the show.

Parents, we know you want your children to thrive as they transition into adulthood, and fortunately, they’re facing economic challenges you never did starting out because of rising costs and deteriorating wages, but because there’s little room for error. Today, it’s a non-negotiable that they learn financial literacy skills to get ahead and not live paycheck to paycheck. Youth Thrives Academy Ultimate Personal finance course is filling that gap left by traditional educational curriculum. My kids are taking Youth Thrives Online course now, which was created by a former CIA economic analyst. And they’re learning valuable life skills like career readiness, budgeting, saving, investing, borrowing and protecting their assets. Go to you thrive dot Academy forward slash parents. That’s the letter U. And get this online course for only $99, which comes with lifetime access and is exclusive for only our listeners. Use courageous at checkout before it expires. So I just want to make a point, though in verse 13 it says, make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather healed. Maybe you don’t have a straight path for your feet right now, and you’re confused because you’re going in many different directions. This is a very strong word for you. Lift up your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet. Maybe you’re in a in a in a season where you do need to simplify so that you have a straight path for your feet, so that what is lame is not put out of joint so that you don’t become more hurt, but rather so you can be healed. Why? So that you are equipped and fulfill so that you can pour yourself out like a drink offering. So you might have to cut some can’t give, might.

Have to cut some good fruit off so you can. More energy is going to create even better fruit in your family. So here’s the test. The test is three things. This is what we basically do is one. Is it good? Okay. Is this thing we’re doing a good thing okay. It doesn’t mean we keep doing it because it’s good. Because you have to sometimes sacrifice things that are good for better, for better. Or there’s two good things, but there’s only so much energy. So you have to cut one. So this one good thing that’s the same becomes even great. Yeah. But too often I think sometimes we just gravitate towards that. And then all the things that could have happened don’t happen potentially to. So you have to weigh that. So here’s the second thing. Well first thing was is it good. The second thing does it prevent better.

Oh that’s a big thing. What is the good things potentially preventing sports.

Is sports good. Yeah. We have our kids in football right now to two of our older kids. Is it good? It is good actually. We’re seeing good things about it because they are strong in the Lord. If they weren’t strong in the Lord.

It would not be good.

We wouldn’t have said yes. Yeah. Um, okay, so that’s good. But does it prevent better for us right now? It’s not preventing better because they’re older. It’s the right season. It’s not interfering with church. No games on Sunday, no overnights. It’s a.

Good experience.

It’s a good experience. I’m able to go, um.

They’re learning a lot of lessons.

So for us, it’s not. But if we would have put them in when they were younger, it would have prevented better, which is discipleship in our opinion.

Yeah, yeah.

So but that’s for everybody to decide. I just use one example. So is it good? Does it prevent better long term. Right. And the third thing is what is the spirit leading you.

And that’s not cookie cutter. I mean with some things the Bible is really clear, right. What things you are to participate in and and not partake in not be a part of. But then there’s the things like if your kids play football or not, right. Like that’s not a cookie cutter answer for everybody. And so that’s where you have to really seek the Lord. You have to make a wise decision. And then you pray hard and you wear your t shirt that says, I’m fine, it’s fine, everything’s fine.

It’s so cool watching them. I mean, you know, drew, it’s his senior year. It’s the first time he’s ever played. He just played his second game ever. And Luke is 16 and they’re both playing all the time, like they’re just having the whole game.

Except for when drew got.

Drew just.

Sprained ankle.

He’s got a sprained ankle. But that but that happened. So here’s our unprecedented times tip. Okay. This I hope was encouraging episode for you. And the goal is is this is the whole episode is encouraging to you. But I’m not going to not say what I feel like the spirit wanted me to say, just because I want to keep the whole episode encouraging. So we’re going to end it, and I hope you find this encouraging or funny. Are you ready for harder? That’s just truth. Yeah, it’s just truth. Because if you’re in America, I know people listen all over the country. So in some parts, some parts of the world, like if you’re in Iran, China, Ukraine, Russia.

You know, harder.

You know, harder. Okay. So I’m not necessarily talking to you. Okay. But in America, Canada. Maybe Canada. Canada does no harder now, actually, in some ways in some.

Parts of Canada.

But in America, I don’t think we know harder yet. And there’s a good chance it’s coming. So we’ve got to be good at everything we’ve already talked about, so that we’re ready to be able to handle harder. That’s the unprecedented time to be.

Able to withstand. There’s a Scripture verse for you, Ephesians six, to be able to withstand, you know, and that is the testing of your faith. And so, you know, the older you get, the more tests you have in your life. Um, and it’s all for God’s glory, right? Um, and I think that, you know, there’s, there’s many opportunities that we have in this life to point to his glory. But if we if we don’t look for him and we don’t invite him into it, then we miss the opportunity. And that’s really part of why we’re here, right? Is to just be pointing to him.

So thanks for joining us.

See you next time. 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.

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