What an opportunity for a faith growing experience we have right now! Our kids learn the most from what they see us do during challenging situations. Let’s let them see our faith in God versus worries about the present. Resurrection Sunday is upon us, yet if we aren’t careful it could be overshadowed by what’s happening in the world. Let’s redeem this quarantine by filling our homes with spiritual protection, love, Biblical wisdom, and keep our focus on the Lord who is our hope and salvation. Free resources for easter traditions and parenting down below!

In This Episode We Cover:

1. Spiritual Focus or Worldly Focus
2. Reflections
3. Resilience & Resourcefulness
4. Community

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Full Transcript

Welcome to Courageous Parenting Podcast, a weekly show to equip parents with biblical truth on raising confident Christian kids in an uncertain world. Hi, I’m Angie from Courageous Mom and I’m Isaac from Resolute Man.

We’ve been married 20 years and I’ve seen the fruit in raising our eight kids biblically. Based on the raw truth found in the Bible, we can no longer let the culture win the hearts of children. Too many children from Christian families are walking away from the faith by age 18. And it doesn’t have to be this way. It shouldn’t be this way. Join us as we start an important conversation about effective parenting in a fallen world.

Welcome back to the podcast, everybody. Wow. Heavy week going on in the country.

Yeah. You guys, if you’ve been listening to our podcast the last few weeks, we have shared a lot about homeschooling, working from home, doing church at home, all the things that people are experiencing globally. Yeah, right. Because we’ve actually been doing those things for many years now.

And we we try and listen to the spirit about what to do in these podcasts. We decide the week of what the topic. We do a one take. We hit play on the video and audio and we go and then our amazing son edits. But he hasn’t anything out. That’s right. There’s nothing cut out. So you get the raw, real deal in the episode. And I think that’s important because we really want to invite you into a discussion as if you’re right there. if we were cutting things out. That wouldn’t be the raw, real conversation.

Well, no, not completely.

So though we’re into it, so we’re talking today about redeeming quarantine. OK. So the president just came out with, you know, April 30th is the new deadline to have the strict rules of 10 or less people and all the different things, the social distancing and trying to be at home as much as possible, not going out. So, so redeeming quarantine, resilience, resourcefulness and the resurrection.

Yes. So this was actually some layers really laid on our hearts. You might have been so overwhelmed by everything that was going on and getting ready to be quarantined in your home that you might have forgotten that Resurrection Sunday is less than three weeks away.

And we don’t want our kids to think it’s about, you know, candy and eggs and Easter bunnies. We want them to leading up to it to have a real reverence for what easter is really about.

So in this episode, we’re going to share with you guys some things that you can actually do at home to help make God real to your kids, to share with them the true story of redemption. And, you know, I as Isaac and I were talking about this, we really felt like it was the Holy Spirit that just really laid this on our hearts to to remind you guys to keep your eyes on him in the midst of this quarantine.

We can easily be distracted by, oh, do we have enough flour?

Do we have this or enough toilet paper to have enough blood thinner?

There’s practical things leading to family trust when we have kids. There’s practical things that pay attention to. But we don’t want the over dominating spirit or the home to be about practical things. We should have it be about faith building things, spiritual, great things, especially in this important time of year.

And we don’t want our kids to become so inward focused because if they see us focused on getting things that we need right, then that can easily translate into being focused on ourselves. And that’s really selfish.

This is not an anti preparation message. Wisdom says you should be prepared also. But we’re saying, hey, what the kids are experiencing should be spirit filled. Faith building. Right. Leading into easter.

I think that this is this whole thing that the world is experiencing right now. I mean, obviously, it’s.

It’s hard. It’s really a lot of different people are suffering on multiple levels, not just sickness, illness and the pain, losing jobs.

Right. Yeah.

There’s no security able to go back to work where you work working before you get to the financial hit to kids, not knowing if they’re going to have to redo a grade or not missing their friends, not having school sent home with them. Actually, there are a lot of people that we’ve heard from that the school systems did not actually send homework home with the kids. Which is surprising.

There was a horrible article out, I forget who wrote it, but it was about how this can be devastating to kids because of Washington, because home schooling doesn’t it doesn’t work. Yeah. And all the stats prove otherwise. So if you ever been homeschooling, just dismiss that article because. ignore it, it’s a bunch of lies.

All of the stats show that people who are home schooled have way better statistics than for all things from like tests taking all the way to being a productive part of society than actually contributing.

Now you might be saying, well, but I’m their teacher and that’s different than other teachers out there. If you know what I mean. Don’t disagree. Be discouraged because maybe you’re new to homeschooling, things like that.

You with your kids, teaching them whatever you decide to teach them is going to be so fruitful.

Right. And this not it. I told our kids yesterday we were actually watching the presidential address and ill.

I’ll just share candidly that our our our younger boys were kind of getting bored. They were like, okay, we’ve been listening to this for an hour and a half and we don’t watch it every day. I know he’s doing briefings. I know that was important is an important one that we. And it was one one, actually. I think we’ve only done this twice that we decided to watch as a family together and then discuss it. And what does this mean and all this sort of thing? Yeah, but do some of the younger boys were like, do I have to watch anymore?

They were bored and then wanted to go jump on the trampoline and and we didn’t force them to stay and watch. But one of the things that I felt compelled to tell them was, guys, you know, you can go jump. But I just want to tell you, like you’re living through history right now. What is going on right now will be written in textbooks and there will be. This is part of a huge aspect of history.

And so, you know, if if the Lord doesn’t come back and you’re able to live till you’re 80 or 90 years old, you’ll be telling your great grandkids the stories of how you watched the the rising numbers of those suffering with the coronavirus on the television and you watch the president talk about what the potential devastation could be. And then you can you could actually give them the accurate numbers versus what will be written in textbooks, which is usually not the complete accurate story.

And they literally just sat there going, oh, by the way, if you don’t think this is a serious deal, I think most people probably do now one way or another. But if it continues on the trend that we’re in now, doubling every three days or so. I just did the math on a piece paper 21 days later. The number is staggering of how many people die on that 21st day. So it is super important that we lead the efforts to quarantine, to obey the authorities, as Romans 13 talks about where to do that as believers.

And we talk more about that scripture in the very last part. So you can go listen to that.

But I just want encourage everybody for the safety of everyone to adhere to that and to lead well with that. We’re gonna go into four really important points here. And this isn’t only about Resurrection Sunday, Easter, but it’s also about resilience and resourcefulness, because right now is an incredible time to really have some reflection and look at, hey, how what do we do to generate income? And maybe we need to rethink about some of that. Yeah, depending on what’s going on right now, we’re going to share personal stories around that. But anyways, we’re gonna go into second. But I just want to say thank you. The One Million Legacy’s movement is just incredible to be a part of with you. It has been such a blast. All the people in the parenting mentor program, the hundreds and hundreds of parents that we’ve been able to engage with in a deep way, that’s been so fun. The comments we get from you through Instagram and Facebook is amazing. All of the shares, all the reviews on i-Tunes and other places, written reviews, we read every single one and the five stars if use hit tap and it gives a five star review, that’s important. Not for our ego, but it’s important for the further in the movement because everything’s algorithm based and now gets it out there. So we just thank you for all of that. And by the way, even the donations have been coming in as we’re doing this full time.

Yeah. That’s been amazing. We shared in the last podcast that we felt compelled to give away the postpartum course. Yeah, free for a week. You know, did that for you. It was Tuesday through Friday.

We had over. 400 women take advantage of that. Yeah, 400 moms are now going to know how to heal naturally from common postpartum discomforts because they’re listening to the podcast or somebody shared it with them and that that like really it really blessed my heart because. Yeah. Maternity care is changing drastically and women are not going to be able to get the care that they want or they’re gonna be scared to get the care. And so that was huge. But, you know, that’s one way that we support our family. And so when people donate, it actually helps us to be able to do stuff like that.

And yes, and we’ve given the parent who mentor program out before to and by the way, I’ll just be honest, I was a little reserved about that idea first. This is how we pay for bread and things.

So.

So she’s like, I just want to give it completely away for free. And I had a I had a pause in my heart. I’ll be honest with you. And then I’m like, no, this is a time we all need to get together and help each other. And yeah, of course, these moms need it.

Yeah, let’s give it away. I mean, I had a little bit. I had to negotiate at first I’m like, well, what if we lowered the price to just $20 dollars? And then I’m like, you know, let’s just. You’re right. We just need to give it away. And I was. It felt God. It felt amazing, you know?

Two thousand at full price.

How much it would have cost. So. But that was just awesome. And all those women are gonna be helped in a time where there’s anxiety around us. God knows.

And he always provides for us. So I’m not concerned.

The total is total and remembering. That’s great.

Yeah, but I just you know, we’re not sharing that too. Like to impress you in any way, but to impress upon you the thought. Like, here we were in the midst of quarantine and we’re think we’re seen actually inspired by other people who are helping in different ways.

Like people are generous, trying to be generous. And I just was like, I have this tool that could literally change health for babies and moms and the families of those babies, of those moms. Like, why would I not anyway? And so it just.

So that’s one of the things when you donate. We are committed to giving and it enables us to do more of that. And that’s our heart’s desire. So so we’re super, super excited. And also, obviously takes care of us to be able to do full time ministry and bring all this same.

But what does quarantine reveal? Yeah, lets just jump into that question.

It reveals that the two sides of a coin reveals selfishness, but also reveals the incredible generosity going on that we were just talking about.

Yeah. So there’s both the good and there’s the bad, right? Not that. And again, when we say selfishness, we’re not saying not to get things that you need not be prepared because you do. But at the same time, are you thinking like in the sense of like if you need? I don’t know if you need flour or you need something. You go to Grocery Store and there’s two there. And you’re literally thinking, well, I could not going to the grocery store in a couple weeks if I bought two.

But instead, you choose to just get one off of the shelf knowing that somebody else is probably going to come into the store and need that other one. Yeah. Like that. That, in my mind is like not worrying about tomorrow as much. In a sense. It’s not that you’re not getting what you need.

I love hearing all the stories of people helping their neighbors to making sure especially the senior citizens around them are okay and to be conscientious about, you know, not sharing the virus to companies, helping to. Yes. Companies paying full salaries, you know, during when they’re not working. I know not all companies can do that. I’ve led companies before and I understand sometimes that’s not the case. And so if you can’t do that, you can’t do that. Right. But it’s just need to see all the things that are happening. And so. Right. I think we should dive in.

Right. So during this time, when you’re in quarantine, it could also reveal.

Maybe not just as a focus on self, but it can reveal that you become consumed with what’s going on. So much so that you forget the other things that are really important, such as the resurrection.

I mean, that’s what we do. And so that, you know, for us, we really wanted to share some resources with you, which we’ll get to in a few minutes. But we want to just challenge you to like think for a moment.

Try to put yourself in your kid’s mind. If you’re Johnny or Jimmy and they’re watching mom and dad and you’re together 24/7. What do you think they are perceiving is the reality right now in the world, in your home and your family and your family economy and the world economy? Do they feel safe and secure? Are they frightened and scared?

Are they holding some of those things back? I think that this is an important time to be thinking from our kids perspective now because we are really modeling for them.

That fine line between, like you said, being prepared but being generous and also not worrying or fretting and having anxiety, still living our life as much as we can within the walls that we need to live our life in.

Well, let’s dive into it. They give us scripture for us. point one we can talk about is are we focused on the spiritual things or the worldly focus and where to go into the Easter stuff? Yes, in this in resources for kids in this way.

So 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

I delivered to you, first of all, that that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he rose again on the third day, according to the scriptures, and that he was seen by Caiaphas and then by the twelve.

And then it goes into more. But what’s interesting about this scripture is that here you have the author writing to us saying first thing that I’m delivering to you, I also received.

So there is clearly other messages that he’s giving in this book writing in First Corinthians, two to the Corinthians. Same for I delivered to you, first of all, that which I also received, that Christ died for sins, according to the scriptures.

This verse alone was super convicting to me as we were planning out what we were going to be doing for this podcast, because like, OK, we can talk about being resilient, we can talk about being resourceful. Those things are really important.

We can talk about redeeming quarantine, being resourceful in that time. Right. But we also need to deliver the most first important message, which Paul is saying right here, that Christ died persons as according to the scriptures. And as I was thinking about this, a lot of parents who might be listening might forget, because we’ve heard the message of the Lord so many times.

Right. We’ve been to many Easter services. We know that Jesus was sinless and that he was crucified. We know the excruciating, the excruciating details of we’ve read the scriptures or watched the passion.

But our kids are kids, though they may not fully know the story of the resurrection, the death and resurrection of Jesus. In fact, a lot of them this could be a really confusing and troubling, actually history. You know, if you think about from a kid’s perspective here, you are reading Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and you’re falling in love with Jesus. Wow. This guy’s amazing right now is and people is super nice. He’s defending people. And then all of a sudden he starts getting tortured when he’s not guilty and then he’s murdered. It’s not really the type of story you’d want to tell a child, actually, like if it was a different story, not about our savior.

Of course, we all know this has an amazing ending. Yeah. And that he brings about redemption for all of us, that he died once one man died for the forgiveness of all. And that’s the power of the gospel. Right. So we want our kids to know and understand it.

But how do we do that in a way where they’re going to know it and they’re going to experience God and it’s going to they’re going to realize the reality, but also not be scared by it. Right. And so a lot of parents, I’ll be honest, a lot of parents probably relied a lot on church and Sunday school to do that job for them.

And churches aren’t meeting anymore. Churches are not going to be meeting in in a few weeks. Now to be able to do that. So I think that it’s really important that we recognize this as courageous parenting. We have to rise up and we have to be able to lead our kids to Christ. And it doesn’t take a theology professor to do it. It doesn’t take a degree from seminary to share the gospel.

I would say, by the way, pastors are incredible. It’s them. It’s the hardest leadership job that exists because they’re leading volunteers. And it’s a different kind of leadership than, say, in the marketplace. Very amazing and powerful. And so I just want to give importance to that before, say this. But at the same time, if your kids listen to an Easter Sunday message livestreamed, no matter how well the pastor prepares that message, it is not as powerful as you sharing scripture about the resurrection. And talking about and discussing it with your kids.

So the first resource that we want to share with you guys is actually God’s word. Yeah. Because the best thing that you could be doing is reading just from the gospel itself and sharing that and asking your kids questions.

Now, some of you might have a 4 year old is your oldest kid in your life. Well, I don’t know if I want to go into all of the details of Jesus’s crucifixion, for example. Right. Well, you can tell them that he was crucified. They’ve seen pictures of crosses. They there’s the kids are inquisitive and they know a lot more than we think they do. So if we just dodge around it, then it actually makes us look less honest. And then we could actually lose trust as being a teacher in our child’s life. So I just I’m putting that out there. But you can get resources, I’m going to share two resources. And actually, there are a million we have probably like six different books about Easter Sunday. This one by Paul Mayor, I really love because the illustrations are beautiful. But it also is a story with the actual scripture written right in here. So this is a good one to read with your kids. If you go to courageous parenting.com and you hit podcasts and then the latest episode show notes will have links to these different resources for you guys, along with some blog posts that are on courageousmom.com. We actually have like five or six different resource blog posts that have our chock-full with reviews of different products. But another thing that’s super fun to do with little kids are the resurrection eggs Isaac. So like this is Benjamin’s box. And there’s I mean, we also have the Mrs. Pattycake Resurrection Egg book as well. And we have a egg carton of eggs. And each one you open up matches a specific coin. So here’s the coin in the story. So real quick.

We don’t believe in just adopting like we don’t do the Easter Bunny, things like that. But we also believe how can we instill faith while still having fun, too?

And so that’s making it alive to the kids, remember?

Yeah. Using eggs in spirit. Faith. Growing experience.

Yeah. I mean, there’s actually another book called The Legend of the Easter Egg. I have it right here, too. And that comes in a hard book also that tells a really sweet story about the legend of the Easter egg and how it’s actually can be a reflection of the resurrection as far as like an egg hatching from the egg or chick hatching from the egg. In a way, that’s another one that you can look at. My point is, is with little kids, there are stories there that are books like The East, The Legend of the Easter Egg that may or may not be a true story. It’s a fictional story for kids. That helps you to tell them about the resurrection when they’re three or four years old. Benjamins box is fun for kids up to age like nine. I’d say maybe even 10. It actually literally goes through the scripture that’s in the Bible and tells the story from a little Jewish boy, Benjamin’s perspective as he’s watching Jesus walk through the streets and then it has the scripture in there. But then at the same time, you can bob the younger kids and they can open up the egg and look at the little toy donkey that’s in it or whatever.

So those are really good resources for that. And like I said, there’s a ton more on the Web sites. We’ll put links. But here’s some other ideas that we’ve done over the years. We did a Resurrection Cross. Remember that. Anytime. And so this I think this is the first year we’re not doing it because we did not save our Christmas tree. We live in a neighborhood right now and we had HOA laws. So we didn’t keep our Christmas tree. But every other year for the last like 14 years, we have saved our Christmas tree and assigned one of the kids to with a saw carefully start, taking all the branches off and then they get to build a cross with wire and nails and they cut they cut the trunk in half. And it’s a really fun project for boys. If you guys have like even a a tree. And this might be something you tuck away for next year. Wood. Lumber. Yeah. You just making a resurrection cross and then having that in your house. And I know some people do like an Easter.

Yeah. So I put it in the Christmas tree stand. And then we put like a purple tablecloth and cross is actually one year.

I couldn’t even find that purple tablecloth. So I think I used one of the kids purple capes for doing dress up. Anyway, the point is, is that you can just you can make involved. Yeah. And so another fun thing is to do like a Last Supper or a Passover Seder meal. Isaac always likes to emphasize that you do not have to do a Passover meal. We have freedom in Christ.

Yeah. I think it’s I think it’s a great fun experience. I just don’t want people to think that that’s part of our doctrine. Right. Yeah, we think we need to do that. No, that’s not the case.

But we have really enjoyed doing. And every year we cause something different. Sometimes we’ll call it a Sader and we’ll do something that’s more like Jewish Sader type dishes and we’ll teach the kids about Jewish history. And guys like it’s not just at Easter time. There was two years where I did a curriculum called Teaching God’s Heart for the World. And at the end of every week, we made a traditional meal that went with that countries anyway. So like this is just a fun thing that you can do with your kids. But this book right here called The Secret Sader, I wanted to share it with you guys because right now we’re all quarantined and we can’t necessarily get together and have people over for saders. And this is a story about a Jewish family during the Holocaust that had to secretly meet in quarantine. Actually, you know, in a sense to have a secret Sader. And so it’s just kind of a fun historical fiction story to help your kids to see that what they’re going through has actually been experienced by other little kids. It’s told from a child’s perspective. So it’s really it gives you a lot of insight into what the Jewish people experience, which I think is important. It’s historical. Another tool that I’ve personally liked for myself is this book called Messiah and the Feast of Israel, which talks about how the different faiths actually are about the prophecies of Jesus and then how the Messiah Jesus fulfills those prophecies. And we’ve used this as a great tool, along with a few other books that we share on the blogs to teach our kids when we’re doing something like a Passover meal, how Jesus is the fulfillment of that prophecy. And it’s just a really good way to bring the Old Testament to life.

And so these are all things that you could be doing in the next two or three weeks. That could be really fun. Think of all the learning that you would be doing and then passing that learning down to your kids. This would actually be a great home school unit study to be studying over the next two weeks or three weeks that could talk about redeeming quarantine and the fact that new families are homeschooling right now if you want something to do. Yeah, I would say do this, you know, talk about Jesus while in the Bible.

2 Corinthians 5:14-17. Probably read a little more than that.

But this is great scripture to read with your kids regarding the resurrection, for the love of Christ compels us because we judge thus that if one died for all, then all died, and he died for all that. Those who live should live no longer for themselves.

What a good message for us right now as we see living soul and selves, we sometimes if people are fear based or something, starting to only think about themselves. We don’t want to do that.

That actually makes me think of the quote first question we asked, which is what is quarantine reveal? Like if you.

Not you. But if if someone was calling themselves a Christian. But yet they’re scared of death.

While we’re in this on this quarantine and why there was acting that way, I would I would actually start real convictions. Yeah. But for him who died for them and Rose again.

I love talking about the resurrection because that is the difference maker from Jesus and all other supposed gods is real evidence, proven evidence that he rose from the dead and and in the first scripture that showed it was who saw him when he rose from the dead to see you can go back to 1 corinthians 15. Over 500 people saw him.

Some. Yeah, that was the next verse. That’s there’s five.

Therefore, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh yet now we know him, thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. So and then it goes on. We should actually read this now. All things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the Ministry of Reconciliation. So that is so powerful right now.

Just think about this and we should be focused. If if our faith is alive and real, it should be we should be so excited about Jesus doing the cross for us, because it makes us have a direct relationship with God.

And yet he able to. And that’s right. It says he gave us the Ministry of Reconciliation. We actually get to be a part of the great commission that is the Ministry of Reconciliation. And right now, like, what can you do in the midst of quarantine to redeem quarantine, to share this gospel, this truth with people who need to hear it so that they can actually experience the freedom from the fears, the freedom from the illness of sin. Right.

And right now, you know what’s in the headlines? The number of people that die daily and because of this virus. And of course, people die of all other kinds of things. But this is an accelerating thing. And so death is on the minds of people. So what better time to preach this good news? Yeah, I mean, it’s just incredible. It and you and your kids need to hear, you know. And if they only you might be hiding any kind of news about death from your kids. And that’s up to you to decide that. I think if they’re at a reasonable age, you know, they shouldn’t for five, six, they should start knowing some of it because how you going to explain how God redeems all this? If they don’t understand what’s happening?

And I think it makes Easter even more important to everybody, including your kids, when they understand kind of what’s going on in the world.

There’s one more resource that I wanted to share with them regarding this. And it’s actually a lint study that families can go through. It’s called Amon’s Adventure, A Family Story for Easter.

And we have used this about six years ago when majority of the kids were younger and was trying to think back to when I was going through this. And you can do it a few different ways. You can start on Palm Sunday and you can read a couple chapters a day and finish it and go through that. It has like stories of ciaphases house, like images and different things. It has another way you could do is you could start on the fifth Sunday before Easter, which would have been two weeks ago, and you could read a chapter a day until you start. You can start on Ash Wednesday and read a couple a chapter every couple of days. So it’s really able to be used multiple different ways. And so this is you would literally be reading a story of this little boy’s perspective during the time of Jesus’s death and resurrection.

And it has a lot of scripture in it. And so my point is, is there are tools out there to help parents with kids to make it fun. It’s kind of like a little homeschool curriculum.

And how would you respond and challenge and we’ll end this point by this book, which is James 1:2-8

And it says, My brother count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing your faith produces patients. But let patients have it’s perfect work that you may be perfect, incomplete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom let him ask God, who gives to all liberally without reproach, and it will be given to him. Here’s a key point. But let him ask in faith. Have your kids ever said praying doesn’t work? Oh, I can’t go to sleep. Praying doesn’t work. I’ve heard that before, and we need to teach our kids that praying does work. But we must ask in faith. and are you praying in Faith? Do you actually believe God’s going to act when you say words to him and your kids? See that conviction in your prayers because they need to see that, but let him ask in faith with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind, for let not that man.

Suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double minded man, unstable in all his ways now. God always hears our prayers.

He doesn’t always answer how. We want because he’s so much better than that. If he answered how we want, it wouldn’t be as good for us.

It would be our will. being done, not his.

even in the short term, it seems like it would be better for us to to get what we want. But that’s not always the case. And we need to trust that.

I think that that verse is one of my favorite. Well, passage of scripture is James one, because it really shows us what it means to have to experience redemption out of trials, which is what we’re talking about today.

Yeah, I’m redeeming quarantine redeeming. What can you do to redeem quarantine while Jesus is actually the Redeemer? But we get to partner with him when we choose to count it all, Joy, right.

Because he’s telling us to actually be the one that counts it all. Joy. Why? Because it grows. Perseverance, character, hope.

These are that’s how when we walk through the testing. Not tempting because God doesn’t tempt us. When we walk through the testing of our faith, the more refined in that fire, we come out of the crucible. On the other end, more like him actually with a stronger character, with more perseverance and all those things.

And that’s what we want for ourselves. But that’s what we she-wolf our kids. That’s what we should want for labor.

And how’s your prayer life right now? It should be taking off. Your kids should be seeing daily prayers. How is your prayer life with your marriage? You know, I was we had church through zoom with a small church that we’re part of with seven other families as eight total families. And we did a zoom meeting on Sunday yesterday.

And we had our family had to be zoomed away and have a special wide angle camera so that we could see all of us.

But my brother Cody, just give that tip to everybody just to be praying. As a married couple, which we’ve heard that before. Right. But I just realized, wow, I haven’t been praying with my wife in that way. And last night, we had a nice little prayer time. So I appreciate that.

Yes. So I’ve be doing that. It’s yeah, it’s an important thing that we’re modeling that we’re also because we pray together all the time with the kids. Yeah. But to also and we pray all I pray all the time by myself and you pray all the time by yourself. But to be setting aside more time to be together. And I think that that’s really important for couples that are in quarantine because it’s hard to get away. A lot of couples might be used to doing date nights. Yeah. And having that time together then where it’s undistracted time. But you know what? There’s a time when your kids are both napping or there’s a time when your kids are in bed. And we need to really be purposeful in that time, even if we’re tired.

Hey, real quick. We have to go quick on these last few points, but they’re very, very important, especially finances are concerning. Or maybe you’re questioning your career path or things like that. We’re going to share a personal story and we have some really valuable tips for you that may help you or others that, you know, that might be dealing with those things. But first, let’s do a quick reference to the parent mentor program, because this of all the things we’re doing, seems to be one of the things that God is using to create some permanent change in legacies and implementation, implementation of the biblical parenting program that we’ve seen fruit on fruit from last 20 years raising our kids. And I guess 19 years, but 20 years marriage. And so it’s been really exciting to be a part of. Let’s hear from people who’ve been through it.

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

But 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 for 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 yourself a favor and just do it.

one of the best things that we’ve done this year one of the best investments we’ve made this year. And I could not recommend it more. we are no longer fearing dark days ahead.

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

Awesome. Let’s dive into the next point briefly, which is right now it’s an important time to reflect and to have some reflection and some questions I would encourage you to ask. Are is are the if if you’re wondering what we’re gonna do to provide for the family or create more income, or maybe you’ve had one stream of revenue coming into your family and now you’re wondering if that’s smart to only have one. And these kinds of things is to ask yourself the question, what have I been sacrificing for the thing ive been doing?

And is that still what God wants me to do? Another question is a question I have asked myself before is persevering in this direction. Actually, what I’m supposed to be doing? Perseverance is admirable, but what I’ve learned, especially when my company, failed me in a big financial failure is sometimes perseverance in a direction isn’t what God wants, and he wants us to persevere in a new direction.

So sometimes we have to think about that. And I think challenging times are when we need to be introspective and we need to be clinging to God in prayer in the word and really asking these questions in the scary sometimes because we crave comfort, no matter how independent and strong you think you are inside. There’s this little comfort thing in you that just craves the same. And we need to sometimes break out of that area of comfort to be able to fully express and do what God wants us to do. So it’s good to think about that. And I’m not saying change what you’re doing. I’m saying listen to God. And here’s another point to this. You’d rather be proactive in this than be forced to be reactive in this. So when you have wisdom, what’s the writing on the wall? What the signs we’re seeing about the the likelihood that I’m going to be able to provide for my family in the same direction. And maybe it’s amazing. Praise God for that. In this point isn’t relevant to you, but might be relevant to somebody, you know. And this is a time especially there’s some people there can continue to get payed and there’s some people that are going to get money from The government has passed this two trillion dollar bill on a portion of that’s going out to families, which is great. And so there’s some time to be able to do that. And for some people, this might be a hard working time from home of really figuring this out and working on some things in a new direction. And you may go back to work, but at least you’ve harnessed some of this free time to be able to start a side hustle or side thing that could develop into something that takes over.

I think that, you know, as interesting as talking to the kids, a totally unrelated topic about the Great Depression and how the men were away at war and the women had to rise up and become industrious and in creating revenue and providing for their families. Right. And anyway, so we were just talking about that particular time era of history. And there was a lot of questions. And I immediately I went, you know what?

This is what needs to happen in families right now, actually, is this idea of going okay, were we on the right path that God wanted us on. And some people are. Some people really are. But some people aren’t. That’s the reality that we’re facing. Right. Like, is your work the best thing for your family and for your wife? And if it’s not right now, you have a really rare opportunity in the next month to tell however long that this is going to last. And we don’t know. Actually, right now it’s just till April 30th, which is, what, like 33 days or thirty two days more than what we’ve just had. What are we going to do with that time or we’re just going to begin to be proactive, productive, or are we going to become idle?

Talk to our kids about this actually this week, which is at the end of 30 days or 60 days or whatever it is. Are you going to look back and go, I really love how I spent my time.

I really was active.

I finished that curriculum. I got this done. What are your things? Right.

And so we like ask them because in 30 days is such a long time, you can get so much done in a direction in 30 days. We’ve lived it. And that goes into point three. And you have a scripture.

So Ephesians 2:10 says for We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

So what should you be walkingin? And maybe it’s exactly what you’re doing. But even if it is, isn’t it good to reflect on that? To ask? God was always good. And not only just for the provide, because we should provide. That’s honorable. Were called to do that. Yeah, but the how we provide sometimes needs an adjustment, especially if the sacrifice is too great. Two things that matter most. And so we just have to think about that. And the third point is resilience and resourcefulness. And I just remember when my company failed, we had 43 employees and we ended it up. We mostly funded it ourselves or some investors, unfortunately, lost money, but and went out of business. And that was a tough time. And a half million in debt followed us from the business. And obviously we made some unwise choices in that process, but very difficult when you have big payroll to pay and all these things and you want to be honorable, tell your employees, which we were all the way to then. But I remember that.

And we just had another baby and her part of the story before, but in that time I think God honored our faith and that we trusted him implicitly and completely. And miracle after a miracle happened, we’ll do a whole episode on this someday. But miracle after a miracle. And you know what came out of that lot of growth. A lot of growth in our kids because we included them, the processing. We loved having their prayers and showing them the miracles happening. And we grew up together and did things. But also the best the best things sometimes come out of the hardest times when you respond correctly. God wants our response to be good faith. OK. And so if you’re in a challenging time, you know somebody, you might share this upset with them because everything we’re doing now that generates revenue income for a family. Came out of those hard those hardest times. It’s true. And you know what? I would’ve never chosen any of these directions because I had other ideas about what I thought was important and God smashed what I thought was important and says these other things are important. And I can tell you I love doing these things way more. And so it’s just fascinating how when we let God work and we operate in faith that he directs our steps and gives us the path and provides.

And that’s the resilience. Yeah. The point of resilience right there. And and resourcefulness in being reflective and going, okay. God, what do you have for me? What more do you have for me? You’ve given me this opportunity of 30 days. What can I do to serve you in your kingdom? Reveal your gifts to me. Reveal the talents that you want me to share with the world. How can I bless other people? And you know what, guys? It’s also about holding on to our faith. Like some people right now are really in the midst of suffering, maybe not financially, but maybe they’re sick. We know that there are thousands of people that are sick right now. Some more severe than others dealing with illness and death of the elderly even, or people who are immune compromised. There is suffering that is happening. And I have a word for you regarding this resilience and its hold on to your faith, which is what we were talking about before the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That gives us eternal life and the importance of sharing the gospel with people, you know. Yesterday, I went on a walk to go get our mail. I when I walked to go get her mail, your favorite part of the day. It was my favorite part of the day. I was quiet outside. There was nobody outside. And I walked over there and I noticed something new that I have never noticed before the library. We have a lending library in our neighborhood. And, you know, it immediately came into my mind.

I need to put Bibles in there for different age groups. And he put a kid’s Bible in there. I need to put a teenager Bible in there. And not that I mean, like, you only need one Bible, but. But if you do that. Imagine if a kid looks at like the action Bible. Yeah. All right. or one of those common Bibles. And we put out a ton. So I only started a pilot.

We just have to wait until we’re out of quarantine. We don’t know if he has. No. But we’re pretty positive we got the virus. But mild version so far.

Praise God every word have one kid that’s still fighting it with her lungs. Her lungs have been hurting more serious pretty seriously. You can be praying for Megan.

We’re very careful. When you went to the mailbox, you didn’t touch anything.

No. I had my key on my when I opened it. When we’re not gone. Right. That was it. And but I will tell you, though. Hold fast to your confession. How can you share the gospel? For us, it’s this podcast. It’s social media. But how can you share the gospel? Right. Like, if you don’t have coronavirus, I’d be knocking on doors and sharing with people. Right. But here’s our last scripture that we want to share with you. It’s in Hebrews Chapter 10. I’m actually instar a couple verses before because it literally is this.

I love how she does this. She loves scripture so much. Show is adds to the plan. Cool.

Ok. Therefore Bretheren having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. There’s the resurrection by the blood of Jesus. By a new and living whale. Way, way, which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Mary put that in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promised is faithful. And here’s the verse that we had planned. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another and so much more.

As you see the day approaching, and as we do this point four is community is so important we need to be walking arm in arm with others and not forsaking the meaning.

But what can that look like when you’re in quarantine? Right. And when we re after we have to address that because right now it might be a little different. And this is part of the reflection in for some of you may. You may go, praise God, I’m so thankful for my community. And if that you we are really thankful for that along with you and with prays with you. But it might actually be a hard reflection for a lot of people because they may have thought that they had their local community, but we are part of a church.

But then they’re sick with the Corona virus and no one has even reached out to them or you kind of have this facade that you’re in community, because when you go to church, everybody’s nice and you say hi, which is a good thing. But then when you’re not actually physically going to church together and you’re just streaming a sermon, all of a sudden you realize I’m not neglected. Did not connected in, by the way. No offense again to pastors because that is incredibly important. Honorable, admirable thing. But streaming a sermon, a sermon is a commodity.

What I mean by that is you can Google and find a good sermon anywhere. OK. Not anywhere, but a lot of places. You got a desire and God, you can find really good sermons from there. I don’t agree 100 percent with anything and about anybody I mentioned necessarily, but they give good sermons that have got some sound for the most part.

Even a Mark Driscoll, I think he’s awesome. He’s he’s been redeemed in a lot of ways and he has some great stuff. I think, you know, there’s a lot of good stuff out there. Francis Chan Love listening. Yeah, go for chant. David Platt, David Platt and people like that. And your pastor, if they’re streaming, of course, you should listen to your pastor. If you streaming, but you suddenly realize that’s a commodity, that’s that is just such a small Manute part of church. And you might be more aware of that now because what’s not a commodity?

Relationships.

Those take time and investment and being a part of the body of Christ takes time and investment.

And, you know, all of a sudden we all realize we’re not in control of really anything and everything. Maybe we were idolizing is been crushed.

Whether it’s your 401K or whatever it is okay.

Things are getting crushed left or right. That’s interesting, isn’t it? God doesn’t like idols.

And when we’re in need, who do you call? If you are in your greatest need right now, who’s the person you think of that you would call?

And are they a part of the body of Christ that you’re a part of because you’re a member of them?

And then what’s the second person you call? Because a lot of people just can only think of one.

And now so this is interesting because as we’re talking about this, what we’re definitely talking to you about your needs. But the truth is, is that we don’t become a part of the body of Christ, get grafted in just for ourselves. We’re actually there to give them and giving them better than receiving. And so. Have you reached out to anybody in your community? Do you even have cell phone numbers to text people? That’s a good question, because if you don’t, then the truth is, is that you don’t actually really have family member, body member yet happening.

If you don’t know the people and hey, resolute men out there that might be listening or the wife’s listening, share this with your husbands, this episode. I really encourage you to lead and prepare a sermon for your family every Sunday during quarantine. It’s a unique opportunity. It is more powerful than anybody else giving a sermon. Doesn’t matter if you’re less eloquent or less you don’t have the good stories or whatever. None of that matters. It matters that your dad, you’re the God authorized most important leader with your wife, as well as important leader in your family. And it’s so important that you lead. Use this opportunity if you’re pastors, stream in a sermon. Sure. Use that as a Wednesday midweek service. You should be Sunday.

amen? amen.

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

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

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

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

That’s CourageousParenting.com.