“What If You Died Suddenly?”

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Episode Summary

What will the testimony of your life be if it ended today? We answer this and more in this important episode.

This a question all parents should ask themselves. What if it happens to you? We aren’t to live in fear, be we are to live with purpose. Will your children have seen an example of loving Jesus and living out the great commission? Will they have seen a loving marriage? Is there anyone you need to forgive or ask for forgiveness from? We discuss all of this and much more in this episode.

 

 Main Points From This Episode:

  • Are there areas of your life that need to be re-prioritized?
  • The truth is, as Christians we are always supposed to live this way
  • Let’s make sure we aren’t just religious, but they we have a vibrant relationship with God.
  • Truly understanding God’s grace enables us to have a greater grace for others.
  • What relationships with others need to be worked on?
  • Have you nourished meaningful relationships with others for your family to continue to run the race with?
  • What would the testimony of your life be if it ended today?

Scriptures From This Episode:

Titus 3:4-7 –  But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,  so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

Proverbs 1:8 – Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching,”

Proverbs 6:20 – My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching.”

Matthew 28:19-20 – Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Romans 3:10 – “as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;”

Romans 3:23 – “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Romans 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 5:8 – “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Matthew 6:15 – “but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”

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Full Transcript:

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

CP Ep. 228 final audio.mp3

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 for 21 years and have seen the fruit from 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 their 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 and the following. Hey, Welcome, everybody.

Hey, guys.

Glad you’re here. Interesting title today, but it is important to talk about right now.

Yeah, we are talking about what if you died suddenly? So obviously I would. I would hope that every person that’s ever lived has asked themselves this question, you know, get all their all their their stuff, if you will, because there’s a lot that goes underneath that title in order, you know what I mean?

As always, there will be practical insights that help you in parenting, marriage in your life. We’re dedicated and committed to always bringing whatever the Spirit’s prompting us to bring, and we really felt strongly that this was a topic we need to talk about. We all need to think about. In fact, as Christians, it’s something that should always be on our mind. I mean, we’re supposed to live like Jesus is coming back tomorrow, right?

But we also plan as if it could be 100 years from now or 2000 years, right?

Yeah. So I think it’s a good reflection. And this will help you in your leadership, in your home, whether your mom or dad, in raising your family to to think about this. Because living this out, living these this reality out is important. A lot of times we can get stuck in a rhythm of life and going through the motions on things. And it’s really, really important to think about this stuff. And in addition, what do we see happening around the world right now? People dying suddenly. And obviously our opinion and it appears to be accurate, is that people that got vaccinated are dying suddenly, Not everybody, but there’s a good portion. Many are. And there’s a real tragic thing happening. And our heart goes out to anybody that’s, you know, that that’s happened to or anybody that’s happened to. It’s terrible. But I think that it brings to mind, like this is, you know, even if you didn’t get the vaccination, it’s important to think about and just realize, just look at what’s happening now. There’s news that they want to put it mRNA inside food so the vaccine resistant will still get the mRNA technology in their bodies. And what does that tell you then, if we’re seeing people suddenly dying yet they want to get it in everybody’s body. So I think that we’re not to live in fear at all. God tells us not to. He says to revere me. Trust me, don’t fear anything in the world. And that’s so important. Friends, as we think about these things that we can talk about difficult topics, but have it not create fear in us, but then have it create actually godliness and alive action towards glorifying the father through our lives.

Yeah. So, you know, as we’re talking about this, we’re going to we’re going to talk about a lot of different relationships today, actually. So you probably didn’t think that. But what if you died suddenly? We’re going to talk about relationships. And, you know, one of the things you actually said something the other day at breakfast. Can I share it?

It’s sure. I don’t know what it is.

It was this very insightful thing Isaac always talks about. Well, we read through scripture. We’re actually going through revelations with our kids again right now because we just keep going back to that. Everybody loves Revelation. So we have been meeting in the mornings for many years, and Isaac usually reads Scripture shares about current events that are going on. Ask the kids if there’s anything they need to share with the group. We have a little family meeting about the day or whatnot, what to expect, and then we kind of we pray and we break. Right? And the other day he was talking about how a lot of people were dying and we were having this conversation. And he said something that I would have never well, maybe I would have thought of, I don’t know, but I didn’t think of it. I thought it was really insightful. And that is, if you know people or you have people that are dear to you in your life that have been vaccinated, then you just want to you want to make sure that you love, you know, that you check in with them, that you if there’s anything you need to forgive them for, you do that, that you have a clean slate in that sort of thing. And it really like hit me hard, actually. And I’ve been really thinking a lot about that, and I probably have some calls to make for sure. But but that being said, hopefully that is an encouragement to you because, you know, today, as we’re talking about this topic of what if you died suddenly, what if someone you loved died suddenly? Right. Have you had those important conversations with them?

All right. So enough talk about vaccinations. The rest we will not probably. So it’s a lot of good practical insights, but we definitely appreciate. I was just reflecting today, actually, just how much I appreciate being able to do this with my wife. Just incredible.

I didn’t know what I was going to say.

That’s so special to be able to do what God’s called us to do and do it together while not sacrificing our family and. Being diligent to go after a big goal that God, I believe has for us, which is impact 10 million legacies. And whether you share it really means a lot to us. Like when I write, when I read, I know it’s true for you too. When I read those reviews and stuff, it just really moves my heart. It keeps me going, encouraging. There’s a lot of mundane things to do, a ministry like this and a lot of writing and a lot of social media pictures and captions and a lot of customer service and communicating with people just about basic things. And there’s a lot of behind the scenes stuff. And so it just really encourages us to press on and keep doing it in faith. And we literally walk in faith on a financial basis too. It’s like literally, Thank you, Lord, and we’re so thankful for all the ways people support us.

You know, as you are listing all the things that go behind it. I was also thinking like there’s also a spiritual battle that we’re in actively. Like we just always are because we’re doing ministry and we battle not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities of the darkness of this age. Right? And so like if you guys have it so on your heart to be praying for us, we always appreciate being prayed for because our family is in full time ministry and the enemy doesn’t like that. And so as we keep trying to serve and bring you guys biblical content that is going to inspire you, motivate you, exhort you, maybe rebuke sometimes, maybe encourage, maybe empathize, you know, it’s really like we love doing it, but sometimes it’s a battle to get this out. Like, if I’m going to be really honest about today’s podcast today it is Monday at three. Right now that we are shooting the podcast, it has to actually go live around midnight tonight, right?

Six in the morning.

Six in the morning. So Isaac and her daughter Megan are probably going to be working on this very late tonight because there’s been a lot of things going on just in our life, a lot of actually attacks in different things. And so be praying for us. And I just want you to know that, like, that’s our dedication to you is that we are going to do whatever it takes to be faithful and getting the podcast out on a weekly basis.

Praise the Lord over four years now. Never missed a week and incredible. Just are so thankful that we’ve been able to do that full episode every single week.

We’re not going to let the devil win, right, babe? That’s right. It’s the.

Battle. Okay, well, let’s go into this. So there is a sense of I think, that thinking about this concept gives a sense of urgency that’s important for us to have to to live godly lives. Yes. But to glorify God, even more importantly, which has to do with living godly lives, but also to not live in fear, to be brave and be courageous. I think a lot of times because we’re afraid to lose something on Earth, we’re not courageous in the way we need to be. What is the thing that we’re afraid to lose that holds us back from speaking truth in love to somebody? Maybe you’re afraid to lose a relationship, so you allow somebody to meander and depravity.

Yeah. Or you’re you’re. You’re scared that you’ll lose the relationship. So you never confront things. You never talk about the ways that they offend you or what they’re doing. Right. And that’s what Isaac’s talking about. Like letting them just meander in sin, right? Is like, the only. The only way that we actually find true peace, right? Is living and walking in truth, because there is no peace apart from the truth that God has for us in His word. But sometimes we need a brother or sister or a husband or wife or a mom or a dad or somebody to come up and go, Hey, you got a blind spot here? There’s this sin over here and I care this much about you, that I don’t want you enslaved in that trap. Right? And so when we don’t do that because we’re afraid of losing the relationship, that person does get enslaved and entrapped. Unless somebody else loves them enough, loves them enough, and more than their relationship to speak truth.

You just said something about peacemakers. I just want to make sure you guys listen to Blessed Be the Peacemakers. An older episode from my brother in Christ, Steve Crain from Eagle Christian Church, just a godly man. And he gave a sermon we heard and we invited him on the podcast. And you’ve got to listen to that because I think that is a core thing where a lot of people get what being a peacemaker is completely wrong. So we’re not going to go into that because that’s not what this episode is exactly about.

But but there is one aspect to that where I think a lot of relationships, because that’s what we’re going to be talking about. Like if they see sin, they’ll sweep it underneath the carpet thinking that if they don’t bring it up or it’s not brought up, then there’s more tranquility in the relationship. But they call it peace, like they’re pursuing peace. But really all it gives you is fake peace. And that’s really the point that we’re trying to make. Like that’s. Actually fake. It’s not real. What God wants us to do is be iron and iron in each other’s lives and to hold each other to a higher standard, which is walking biblically like he’s called us to his Christians. So let’s talk about relationships.

Yeah, absolutely. What’s your relationship with God? Not only yours, but we’re going to talk about your family and others as well. So important to reflect on this. We all should be. And I think that we need to make sure that we don’t just have a religious rhythm going.

Or we’re not living legalistically like Pharisees. Right? Yeah. And instead we need to really, truly, like, have a humble heart posture, like an honest look at who we are by studying the word and abiding in Christ and recognizing how holy he is and how holy we aren’t apart from him. Right. And and when we get that, like, real view of who we are, we’re humbled by that right. And that’s when God can teach us and trust us. If we think that we can do things on our own, then we humanity does that every time. Like as soon as they get boastful and they think too highly of themselves, they try doing things on their own. They lean too much on their own understanding, not on God’s understanding.

And the more we think we’re perfect, the less we understand the grace of God. In my opinion, I think it’s really important that we’re so reminded that we really understand what Jesus stood on the cross for us and we understand the grace, and we’re not comparing ourselves, Oh, wait, I’m better than this person or that person. But instead we’re just totally understanding of our need for Jesus and not only a need for Jesus, but a need for his wisdom, a need for closeness, a need for Him being allowed to penetrate our hearts on a daily basis, a real relationship with God and if you died suddenly today, would people go, Wow. They had such a strong relationship with God. Look at how they touched other people because of that.

Well, and that’s really the goal, right, is that our relationships would ultimately point back to Jesus every time. And so, like, as we’re talking about our relationship with God, like making sure that we’re in a right relationship with him is important, that we don’t end up getting to I’m just going to use an image. We’re not getting to see Jesus and him saying to us, I don’t even know you, right? We’re crying out, Lord, Lord. And for him to say, Who? Who are you? I don’t know you. Like we need to ask ourselves, do we know the Lord? Are we seeking to know him by reading the word? You know, it’s interesting. This last week our women’s group was talking about how to study the Bible and everybody was going around sharing different ways. They study the Bible. And actually, my daughter in Love, Carolina, love her to death. She shared that one of the things that she was excited about when she was reading the Bible was just getting to know who God is more versus going to the Bible and studying it so that she can get something from him like wisdom. I want wisdom. So we read the Bible. Well, that’s a good thing to like seek for wisdom in the Bible. That is a good thing. She even was talking about this, but she’s like, There are a lot of times we selfishly go to read the Bible versus relationship building, reading the Bible. And so, you know, I bring that up because that was really a beautiful thought to me is like because a lot of times I’ll study the Bible and I love to study sentence structure and what does this mean? And word studies and all this fun stuff.

And you’re a good student.

It’s just fun. I love the Bible, but but it was really a sweet reminder. I love that my daughter in law brought it up. Right. You can learn stuff from your kiddos and I’m learning stuff from a daughter in law. You know, just a good reminder from the kids. I do. And it’s a good reminder, though, like in our relationship with God, do we read the Bible to know him so that then we can make him known, not just know his laws or know his commands or know his wisdom or know about him and and know what his character attributes are so that we can try to do those things or be that way. Like know, do we know him because we just love him. Right? And I think that as Christians especially, like the more mature you get, it’s like sometimes you forget like, that’s the point actually, is to know him, to have relationship with him so that at the end of your life and you say, Lord, Lord, he doesn’t say, I didn’t even know you, but instead he says, I do know you because you had a relationship together. That goes both ways. Yeah.

So that’s huge. So just ask yourself, what is your what is your relationship with the Lord? And, you know, it’s amazing that what God does for us. So just think about that.

We have a really awesome verse here in Titus chapter three. We were just reading through this together this last week, so we’re going to share a couple of verses in this, in this chapter, verse chapter three, verse three four. We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hatred by others, and hating one another. Wow, that’s intense stuff, right? Can any of you guys relate to any one of those things? But when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our savior appeared, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. I just love that. Because it’s not salvation. Like what if you died suddenly? Like the good news of the Gospel is not about our works. It’s not about being good enough. Those things don’t save us. Jesus saves us. And so go to him, you know, go and try to know him. He is the God that came to Earth to be able to relate to us, which.

Is so sometimes people have is they have these things in their life that they, they realize are not good and they understand that God is perfect and amazing. And they were like, and they don’t reach out for that strong relationship with him. Even if they know him, they might be saved. But they don’t really have that ongoing relationship because of how they’re living and they don’t feel good enough. And the truth is, as we’re going to read right next, is none of us are good enough. That’s not what it’s about. It’s that even though we’re not good enough, God sent his only son to die in the cross for. Or the forgiveness of our sins bridge the gap between us and God. A sacrifice that makes you clean, that makes you right. That’s precious. That’s amazing. And understanding God’s grace is so powerful. Because if we don’t understand God’s grace, it’s very difficult to have grace and other people in our lives.

Amen. So here’s another scripture in Romans chapter three. We’re going to dive into the a little bit of the Romans Road. I love this here, and this can be super helpful for you as you’re sharing with other people as well. Can you just you’re going to want these verses, so jot them down. Romans Chapter three, verse nine and ten, because it’s actually one whole sentence. So half of nine, it says, for we have already charged that all both Jews and Greeks are under sin as it is written. None is righteous. No, not one. That is very clear. It is so clear. And then if you skip down to verse 23, you really could read all of Romans chapter three, you guys. But for sake of time, verse 23 says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. This is so powerful. We have to remember that that all have sinned and that Jesus died for all the word. All is used multiple times in this passage. We need to remember that because that’s what keeps us in a humble posture, remembering who we were, that we have sinned, that we still struggle with sin at times. Right. And that while other people, while we’re able to maybe see, like in our minds, we’re able to see greater sin. But really, is there anything that’s greater since in a sin in that sense, but also like when we’re seeing it, we need to the way that we’re able to actually share the good news of the gospel and help people to come out of the slavery, of bondage, of sin.

We can’t do that if we’re prideful in thinking that we’ve got it together and oh, they’re just a sinner. No, we have to humble ourselves like how Jesus humbled himself and recognize that for all have sinned. Jews and Greeks are were under sin and that no one is righteous. No, not one. And so then we are able to empathize and have compassion and understanding and speak to someone at that level. And that if we can’t do that, then there’s something wrong with our relationship and understanding of the gospel. And so if you’re listening today and maybe you’ve been a Christian your whole life, but you’re you’re like, Oh, I have a really hard time with being critical spirit towards other people, especially other Christians. Like, I’m not saying you don’t point things out. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying you do, but you do it at a in a humble posture like Jesus did. And sometimes I have a hard time with that too, because I get really passionate about God’s ways. But we have to we have to love God enough and put His ways above our own. And part of his ways is that we would remember who we are.

Amen. Amen. And so this enables us then to have right relationships with other people, with our family and so forth. A mom that has the Holy Spirit in her in an active relationship with Christ. Understanding the grace on her life. In the same for the dads out there are so much useful in equipping children to someday glorify the father.

Guys, listen. I mean, the next verse that we were talking about is Roman. Six 2223 It says, But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end eternal life for the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. You as a parent, if you are saved, if you have accepted Christ this, you have been set free from sin like it says here, and you’ve become slaves of God. So now you get the fruit of sanctification that leads to sanctification, and it’s in eternal life. We have to teach this truth to your children. That’s what’s so imperative about this. And then if you go back one chapter to chapter five, verse eight, it says, But God shows his love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So convicting, so good.

So if you were to die suddenly, how are your relationships with your family, with each child? Just think about each of your children right now. How is your relationship with so and so and so and so and so and so? I think we need to live that way first with our relationship with God, but then our relationship with our spouse and then our children. Like, what is your relationship with your spouse right now if you are no longer here? That is important to think about. I want to take a moment and give you something for free if you haven’t got it already. Is the date night one sheet. It is a beautiful document you can download that will have some key questions on it for your date night. Just get in alignment about what’s most important for your family. No matter what time of year, it’s always important to recalibrate. You can get that by going to courageous parenting dot com and subscribing to our mailing list. Also, you can get all of our show notes and everything at courageous parenting dot com. And I also just want to share real quick about the parenting mentor program. So many families are being transformed by going through this. It’s the six week self paced program with live engagement from us in even direct interaction. So if you want to join us, here’s a little bit more about it. You can find out more at courageous parenting dot com.

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. It’s also important that we recognize that we’re looking at like our spouses relationship. Like, obviously we aren’t going to fully know their relationship with God because it is a personal relationship and it’s the same with our kids. But we don’t use that excuse as parents and go, Oh, well, I don’t really fully know their relationship with God because I’m not them, so I’m not even going to talk to them about God. We don’t do that as Christians because God commands us to instruct our children, to teach our children to disciple our children. He also tells us that when you’re yoked in marriage and you’re one, there is a we were just doing this video in our app, actually, we have the Be Courageous app and we have Q and A’s and monthly lives that we do. And there is so fun and people always ask us questions and we we were talking about marriage and one of our lives recently and we used a scripture that was talking about how two are better than one. A cord of three is more what was the verbiage? It’s less likely to be broken. Right? And that is obviously an Angie paraphrase right there. I have to go find scripture. But we were talking about marriage and how when two come together, it turns into a three chord because of God. Right. And and when we’re both seeking God and we meet at him, there is a powerhouse, there is a strength, there is a protection that is there where we’re working as a team and. There is an element of knowing your spouse’s relationship with God. If you are living out biblical principles. Let me give you an example.

When you’re praying together with your spouse, don’t you get to see a little glimpse the heart of their heart and their heart for God and their their relationship. You get a glimpse of the things that they talk to God about and the way they talk to God about those things. That is kind of knowing a little bit about your spouse’s relationship. When you see them studying the word and you see them taking time to not do all the other things that they do, they need to do because, you know, they have other things to do, but they’re putting God as a priority. You get to see how much God means to them. And so when Isaac says, like, how is your spouse’s relationship with God and how is your relationship with your spouse? Like, those are two very different but very important questions. And don’t just think that you can’t know your spouse’s relationship with God. There are ways that God lets you see glimpses of that, and He also lets you to participate in it because you and your husband are one. So when you’re reading the word together and you’re studying the word together and you’re both like, Oh, and what about this? And oh, oh man, that reminds me of this other verse and, and oh, that’s convicting. And you confess something to one another and then you pray for each other and enriches your marriage. And like, think of all the ways that reading the Bible or praying together or worshipping together or leading worship or doing hospitality or hosting church, like all the things you get to do with your spouse.

And, you know, I was thinking about this topic this morning, and, you know, because I was thinking about this, I made sure I kissed my wife before I left. And I was just like.

And you’re just going down the road. I’m just.

Going down the.

Road. But I like that way.

We don’t want to take anything for granted. The God has us breathing today, and so let’s just not take our spouses for granted. Because you know what? There’s a there’s an awesome relationship aspect of that, but there’s so much fruit in your parenting because of it. The number one parenting tip. Well, I’d say number two. Number one is your relationship with God. And number two is your relationship with your spouse. Those are the two most important things you could have, right? To be a good parent.

You know what it reminds me of Isaac when? Because I really was super encouraged when you kissed me goodbye, when you before you left. Right. I was just like, Oh, it’s amazing how just that little thing will get you thinking and just happier or whatever. And I was reminded as we were sitting down and talking about relationships and doing our little dry erase board that we all do. You guys would laugh if you were a fly on the wall.

But how eloquent our whiteboard is.

Oh, yeah. But I remember a long time ago. I don’t know where I heard this. It’s very common. I’m sure you guys have heard this before, but outdo one another and love in in regards to marriage, I think it was many years ago here and at a marriage conference that people were like, can you try to out love one another or OutServe one another? And I just think of like, how amazing would a marriage how how amazing would a marriage be? How amazing would a marriage relationship grow if that was the focus of like, I’m going to try to out love them in whatever way possible, whether that’s listening well, serving them, helping them.

And that’s the answer to if one of the spouses is difficult for some reason or.

Even disobedient to God.

Is to love them so well that you win, you win them over to Christ.

By your conduct, by all the things you do, the ways you look at them, the ways you talk to them.

The way we get them. Question That’s the answer.

Back Yeah, it’s first. Peter Three, five. I’ll just throw that out there. You guys can.

Love her mind is just like she just has the verses imprinted in her brain.

You guys were literally just having a conversation. If in case anybody is listening to our podcast for the first time, yes, we have a dry erase board and we spend usually a half an hour just kind of like, okay, let’s whiteboard it, Let’s like what are our thoughts? Let’s do it. You know, what Scriptures does the Holy Spirit lean on your heart? And we just talk about this and God always brings it together. But truly, when we’re sitting here, we’re chit chatting. None of this is written on our dry erase board. It’s a sorry. And also I’m kind of known for throwing in extra verses when Isaac’s like Angie.

Hates the cap or I kind of know just a little behind the scenes. If we have three or four verses, it’s going to be about 30 to 35 minute episode. If we have more, it’s 50 minutes to an hour. Like just more like you just add one more. If for some reason it just becomes a 15 minute to an hour.

He’ll look at how many verses we have and he’ll go up. It’s going to be an hour. You can’t do this anyway. That’s a little insider on.

Our goal, by the way, was always to have 30 minute episodes and I think episode one and two, we achieved that. And then nevermore.

You’re so funny. We’re one minute away, babe. Let’s keep going. Okay, so we have a couple verses on, just like when you’re evaluating your family, when you’re evaluating your relationship with your child, your children in regards to their relationship with God. And I just mentioned that, like we’re commanded by God to disciple our children and teach his commands. Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. Right here in Proverbs one eight, it says here, my son, your father’s instruction and forsake, not your mother’s teaching, for they are graceful garland for your head. That is such a good scripture to teach your children.

So obviously, if God’s telling a son or a daughter not to forsake these things, the teaching of the mother and father, then clearly he wants the mother and father teaching.

Yeah. And Proverbs 620 also says This is a good one, my son. Keep your father’s commandment and forsake, not your mother’s teaching. Wow. If you were gone today, you would want that to be instilled not just knowledge, but embraced by your children. Yeah, for the remaining spouse. Right. It is so important that we’re instilling things we can’t take for granted how long we’re going to be around.

And I just want to say something to you, because maybe you’re thinking about your mother’s teaching and your father’s instruction or commandments or the way he was living his life. And and maybe you weren’t raised by Christians, maybe you weren’t raised by people that you would necessarily want to follow out in every single thing. Obviously, what God is saying here is if they’re living biblically as best as possible or they’re teaching the Bible, that’s where he’s saying don’t forsake them. Yeah, obviously you wouldn’t be not forsaking something that was unbiblical. Like, that’s not what we’re saying. So I just want to put that out there because I know a lot of people don’t come from Christian homes. And that is an important thing that we can leave a new legacy.

So relationship with God, relationship with your spouse, relationship with your children, and relationship with others in extended family as well. Where are you at with those things? And you would you would hate to miss an opportunity that God has been prompting on your heart, a conversation to have with somebody, some kind of situation that’s undone, you know? What are those? Relationships that are undone, that aren’t because of that aren’t giving you peace. And if you weren’t here anymore, it would be regretful that you didn’t say something or to talk to in love about something or mend a relationship or forgive somebody. It’s so important. Forgiveness is important. We’ll talk about that. And that is our next point, which is relationship with others.

Yeah. So and this this topic of forgiveness really goes into every one of those categories. So we kind of were like, we have to when we’re talking about forgiveness and we read you this verse that we have this so compelling, this applies audit your relationships, your husband, your parents, your children, your extended family, church friends, somebody you work with, maybe someone from your past that hurt you, that had that had a charge against you, maybe someone who unfairly accused you of something or doesn’t have the ability to forgive you for who you were when you were a teenager or before you were saved. Or like there’s so many situations that you could think of, right. Where, you know, you’ve repented, but maybe the other person doesn’t have grace and forgiveness to be able to give it to you. How can you forgive them for not forgiving you? Right. And there’s so many levels of this and God is so good. He says in Matthew 615, he says, well, 14 first for if you forgive others their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your father, forgive your trespasses. So as you’re considering yourself, what if you died suddenly? That’s the name of this podcast. If you died suddenly, there would be an eternity. You’d be in eternity and you’d be standing before the father. Right? And if you didn’t forgive other people. It says here that he will not forgive you your trespasses.

I mean, I pray that God would have mercy on you. And. But that is what it says.

So that is what the gospel says.

And so let’s let’s clear clean house a little bit if there’s anything that needs cleaning in these areas, because it is so important. Another thing to think about, obviously, guys, especially. But you know, if you died today, who in your life would you be able to trust in helping your family? It’s one thing to have the financial thing set up and all those things which you may or may not have.

But you shouldn’t have anxiety. I’m just going to put something in there. You shouldn’t have anxiety about this.

Have you been diligent and intentional building, biblically based relationships with trustworthy people that you know would help and incur courage and, you know, maybe, you know, whatever the case is? So I just think that is important is that you’re running the race with biblically minded people and you might go, Well, how do we do that? It starts in your home. Each home, a friend of mine once said, is like an embassy of God and the light of Christ shines out from it if you allow it to. And it’s a place to bring people through hospitality and having dinners and meals together and building and forging strong bonds. And while church is an awesome place to have fellowship, a lot of times church is a is a is a building with believers that go hear a sermon and worship the Lord for 30 minutes and then they leave and they jockey for positions at restaurants afterwards. And so I just think that while church is amazing as the Bride of Christ, I’m not dissing it at all, but you need to be intentional and lead in doing hospitality and.

Doing that and being biblical relationship with people. And you know, what I think of when I think of that is if something was to happen to you or to your spouse or to one of your kids, or what if something happened to one of the people that you think you would, you’d say, Oh yeah, I go to church with that person there in my biblical community. Well, something happened in their life that was severe, like they lost a spouse. Would they feel comfortable coming to you and asking for help? And when I say help, I mean like, will you continue homeschooling my children because now I have to go to work. Will you help pay my mortgage? Will you help? Like, are there ways that you could help people? Are you willing to do that? Are you that are you that willing? Right. And if you’re not, then how can you say that those would be the people that you would be calling on? Right. And so this is a really good thing to audit and reflect on your relationships. And if you’re saying, oh, yeah, I’m in biblical community, but you don’t have anybody that you would actually say that of and that someone could say that of you, then I’m just going to be really point blank. You need to be more intentional in your relationships and go deeper.

Absolutely. So important. And our final point is, was your life a testimony? Conquest say it’s done. Oc You’re going to heaven. But was your life on earth a testimony? Did it glorify the Father? Did you live with the right priorities so that you could glorify the Father? Did you live like sometimes people live for tomorrow. They’re like, Someday I’ll once I. Then I’ll guys do this a lot. I can relate. When I had young kids, I’d be like, I would spend time with them. I was a very intentional dad, but I’m way more intentional today. And I would have this thought, Well, while they’re young, I’ll hustle and I’ll save. And then so when they’re older, then we can go do all the things in the world, right? And I can provide in any way possible for them and do all these things. And that’s wrong thinking. The life you’re living is your life. So the life you’re living today is your life. And we need to live like that. We don’t live for some day. We should be fully living. That means that we need to love on our spouses today. We need to equip our children today. We don’t. You know, as soon as I do this, then I’ll start discipling my kids. Then I’ll start spending time at dinners and things like that. No, you need to start doing today. Now, I also agree that balanced life is a myth, meaning that there’s seasons of extra work and there’s seasons and so forth. Totally understandable. I have experienced that. But we don’t want to live a myth and we want to live in reality and we want to live in an intentional way to where, wow, I’m really proud of what God has done through me. I’m really excited about what He’s doing through me today.

It’s an honor. It’s a it’s a privilege to partner with Christ, even in the Great Commission. Right. And and that can be and should be can I just say should be first and foremost, your closest jurors? Well, your closest relationships, which are your first jurisdictions, your marriage and your children. And I even think about your marriage like if if you were to suddenly die, not just reflecting on your own life, but did your marriage bear his image? Did it bear the image of the relationship between Christ and his bride? Because that is actually the purpose of marriage, is to be an image bearer to the world of Christ relationship and that he died for the church. That’s why it says husbands die to yourselves, love your wife, and it’s like, be willing to die for her and loving that. Well, wives, are you cherishing your husband, respecting your husband? Are you helping your husband or are you selfish? Are you? You know, there’s so many ways, like at the end of the day, when we’re evaluating these relationships, we also need to look at our our oneness in our marriage because that is one thing also and go, hey, I need to I feel convicted. I really need to work harder so that my marriage is a better image bearer of Christ to the world so that when I’m gone, people what they remember of our marriage pointed them to Jesus. And we should all want that obviously, for our own personal lives.

But is what Isaac’s talking about. But we also need to pass the baton to our children so that they catch that flame, so that they catch the faith, that they catch the purpose. One of the collective purposes that God created us all for was to make Him known, to glorify him. So was your life a testimony or was your life all about you and the things that you you got versus being glorifying God and sharing with people like the amazing miracles experiencing him. Recognizing all that you have is actually from him and not taking credit for it, but giving it back. And I think that that’s it’s important. I think that sometimes it can be convicting. I remember years ago, one time a pastor’s wife, I was just saying, oh, hey, I love your house. That’s a this is amazing. And it was really incredible. And she was like, oh, thank you so much. It’s such a God story. And she she started sharing with me how, like people had given the house and the land that she had to her because her and her husband were in ministry and that they it was like they literally gave it to them. And I remember thinking this was an I remember thinking, whoa, how do you ever even get to that place? Right? And now here we are to where we get to tell that story, that God gave us this house like we are recipients of his good gracious gift.

And we’re yeah, we’re on some land. It’s amazing. And but it’s not something that we. Striving, striving. Lee Striving. Lee got it was because of miracle after miracle and God orchestrating things through people and circumstances and whammo, we’re in this amazing place. And but I remember. At that time thinking, Wow. But then I also remember at that time going, Oh, I mean, come on, aren’t you like kind of giving like, I’m sure you guys work really hard and I’m sure you made sacrifices. You did give something right. And I remember again a few years later when I started experiencing the miracles of God and really starting to adopt that thinking into my own brain that everything I have is actually God’s. And I realized the reason why I was asking that question before was because I didn’t actually fully believe that. Have you? So let me ask you a question. Have you ever been around someone where you go, Oh, I really like this? And they go, Oh, isn’t that neat? And they tell you someone, someone gave it to me, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you’re like, Well, why did you just like or you got it on discount. Why did you just discount that? If you’ve ever thought that it could be a sign that maybe you’re not viewing things fully the way that you should, that they are all God’s?

Amen. Amen. And Jesus gave his disciples a final mission. And it is also our purpose in life. And it’s at the end of the book of Matthew. You know what it is. Well, here it is. It’s in Matthew 2818. It starts all authority in heaven on earth has been given to me. Go there for and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I’ve commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. There you go.

That’s our purpose.

We don’t need to read any books about discovering your purpose in life. That’s our purpose in life. And first and foremost, are we doing that in our own families?

And we and God.

And it takes courage to do that in today’s distracting world. There’s so many things. And if you’re not saying no to some things, you might not be fully doing that.

I even think of how we we oftentimes will pair this this chapter in Matthew 28, along with the first and second greatest commandment that Jesus says, Right, love the Lord your God with your whole heart, mind, soul and strength. And the second is this, that you love your neighbor as yourself. And that is, if you take all of those verses that we just those along with the Great Commission, that sums up today’s whole podcast. Right. What is your relationship if you died suddenly? What is your relationship with God? Do you love them with your whole heart, mind, soul and strength? Was your relationship with others? Are you loving them as yourself? Are you and loving them as yourself? As being willing to walk through hard things? It’s willing to go where other people won’t go. Rejoice with those who rejoice, not be competitive in that way, where you can’t rejoice with people. It’s about really bearing his image. So we really hope you guys are encouraged. And if you think of someone too that might be encouraged by this podcast, would you share it? Because we really are our mission to reach how many legacies?

10 million legacies and all shownotes and free resources and others are at be courageous ministry dot org. Thanks for joining us.

See you next time. Hey, thanks for listening to this episode. For more resources, go to courageous parenting and courageous mom dot com for free online workshops, blog posts and best selling courses. Also, we wanted to quickly tell you about our six week online parenting mentor program. Isaac and I created a powerful biblical curriculum. Here’s how it works. Each week we release a video with a downloadable parenting packet to make it easy for you to incorporate those teachings directly into your parenting.

This is an incredible, self paced program where we cover everything from obedience training to overcoming mistakes most Christians are making. But more than that, it’s a supportive community. You’ll have access to our private online group, live Webcasts and the courageous parenting text message line where Angie and I can send you weekly encouragements straight to your phone.

If you’re interested in joining our next online parenting mentor program. Secure your spot now at courageous parenting dot com that’s courageous parenting dot com.

 

Written By Angie Tolpin
Angie has been married to Isaac for 19 years and together they have eight children, whom she homeschools. She is the Founder of CourageousMom.com, a doula, the author of the best-selling book Redeeming Childbirth, and the creator of the first ever Christian Postpartum Course. Angie loves ministering to Women and has created a few online Bible Studies on Biblical Friendship and Motherhood.

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