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Full Transcript:

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

Welcome to Courageous Parenting Podcast, a weekly show to equip parents with biblical truth on raising confident Christian kids in an uncertain world.

Hi, I’m Angie from Courageous Mom and Isaac.

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

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

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

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Or even if you purchase courses and merch, or join the Be Courageous app community, enjoy the coffee or support financially. We’re so thankful you are a big part of the 10 Million Legacies movement.

If you want access to all the episodes, show notes, and other biblically based resources, go to Be Courageous Ministry.

History.org join us as we start another important conversation about effective parenting in a fallen world. Hey, welcome to the show, everybody.

Hey, guys.

So glad you’re here. Appreciate you being part of the ministry of the 10 Million Legacies movement. Please go check out all that’s happening at Be Courageous Ministries. Org make sure you’re on our email list. We’re constantly thinking about how can we help and send good things out to people. And also if you want to support the ministry, you can there too.

Hey, I also wanted to just say something. So this last Sunday was our first our church’s first Sunday. Oh my goodness. Unbelievable.

We’re allowed to get personal, right?

Okay. Yeah. This is just going to be a little personal moment for a second. Many of you guys have been following our journey of where, you know, the last 25 years we’ve been married. It almost. I hate to say this because I know God has a big plan. Big plan with this, and this is about him. But for our own personal journeys with the Lord, I feel like we’re arriving to this place that God’s been preparing us for all along. Even though we were like, there was definitely purpose in all of that. It just was like, incredible. I’m excited. I’m scared. I’m I have all these mixed emotions. I have more respect for pastors wives or church planters wives now than more than I’ve ever had before. I’m learning so much that I did not know.

Yeah. I mean, it’s been crazy. You guys know we’ve done home church and, you know, preparing full sermons and, you know, a lot of things involved with that, all of those things that are in the bigger church. But there is something to when lots of people are involved. And 164 came to the first Sunday. That’s way more incredible than we even imagined. So we were.

Shocked in a good way. They had.

To roll up the back of the tent and.

Bust open a wall.

The walls, all chairs used standing room only. Not enough communion for everyone. Uh, of course that’ll all be fixed for this Sunday. But yes. Amazing. Wow.

I know, it’s just incredible. Another church came alongside us too. After that, an elder came from another church and and said, hey, we want to support this church plant.

And just in time so we can expand the tent.

Yep. It’s going to have to get bigger. I’m excited for it too. That’s gonna be awesome. Anyway, we just wanted to give you guys an update because we want to say thank you for praying for the church rooted Bible Church. You can find it at rooted Bible.org and just be praying. We’re working hard on all things. Be courageous ministry and the church. And it’s fun.

It is fun and it’s incredible to see what God’s doing. Of course, that’s my part time thing. Be courageous. Ministry is my full time thing. Yes. As I was making my to do list this morning, it was interesting. I’m like, okay, I need to separate this out. We got church to do list. We’ve got be courageous Ministry to do list. Of course there’s way more on the be courageous ministry side. But it is it is interesting. So what’s cool about that. And you can take this to whatever with your own churches is that, you know, there’s a lot of pieces behind the scenes that are happening. And serving is so important. It has to do with today’s episode, but serving is so important. In doing it as a family is so important. But there’s more work than I think everybody may realize. I think I’m waking up to that fact of how much work goes into church and all the things behind the scenes.

Specifically, planting a church is different.

Make no assumptions that when in your church, if everything’s looking like it’s going great and all these things, it doesn’t mean you’re not needed. And and being needed is part of being part of the body of Christ. And we’re just experiencing once again, how important it is as a family to be serving. And you might serve differently than we are because we all have different gifts. But serving is so important, which is today’s topic.

So today’s topic, we went back and forth between two different titles, but we’re essentially talking about this concept of like raising your family and cultivating a culture that is about serving God together and not just serving God together, but also that they would really like that that seed would be planted in your kids hearts, where they have a desire to want to build God’s kingdom. Right? And so we want to ask you guys a question are your kids learning to build God’s kingdom? However that may look, which is exciting. This is a big conversation because it doesn’t look one way and everybody has different gifts. And we’re going to talk about that today. But before we do, we wanted to just give a shout out to one of our awesome sponsors, Master Books.com forward slash Courageous. You can go there and find out more about them. But today I wanted to highlight something. You guys, if you’ve been listening to the podcast, you know I’ve been ranting and raving about their homeschool curriculum. We love it. We’re using it with our high schoolers, with our middle schooler, with our eight year old and five year old. We’re using some of the things kindergartner’s going through everything. Um, but did you know that they have books? They have a whole, like, portion of their website is devoted to books.

And I, I wanted to share this with you because they’re content. They’re a publishing company. So they’re the number one publisher for Ken Ham for Answers in Genesis. We’ve told you that before, but they have a whole bunch of other authors that they also publish their books as well and sell their books. And one of them, I didn’t realize that they were. It was bankruptcy of our nation. I read this probably five, ten years ago. It’s like a survival guide for financial wisdom. It is so good. I actually required my older kids to read this during high school for financial literacy. And so I just wanted to pinpoint like that there’s a whole selection. It looks like hundreds of books. There’s a few I want like ten things a minister’s wife needs to know. I need that book. You need the one that says ten things a minister needs to know. Yeah, yeah, but there’s a whole bunch in there. There’s stuff for parents of teenagers, of girl teenagers specifically. And then there’s one here that says it’s called remote control. The Power of Hollywood in today’s on today’s culture.

Yeah. So good stuff.com/courageous. That’s right. Make sure you add the courageous on. So important. Hey, let’s dive in. So, um, we, uh, are so excited to talk about the power of serving as a family, no matter how old your children are. This is vital. Think way. Fast forward for a second. We don’t know what the world’s going to be like. Exactly. But when your kids are older. But fast forward for a second. And do you want your children to be part of a biblically sound church? Do you want your children to be part of that body or just in a tender on Sunday? Do you want your children, when they’re older, to be running the race with other Christians that go to that church? And do you want them to serve and use their gifts to know what their gifts are, and to use those gifts for the glory of God? Of course you can do that outside of the church. Absolutely. Lots of ways to do that. Most of my life. I’ve done lots of that outside of the church and some of it in the church. But what do you want for your children? And then the question comes back to what are they seeing happening today. Mhm. And are they seeing it.

That’s right. Are they seeing it on a daily basis. Not just on Sunday mornings. Right. And I think that that’s part of like our heart for even with the church plant has been like oh that we’d be running the race during the week and recognizing people from church and being a part of this bigger community, which is part of like, I want to I want to share that vision with you because wherever you are in the world, like, who is your biblical community and are you running the race with each other, or are you only seeing each other on Sundays? It shouldn’t be that way. We need that encouragement to continue running the race that God has set before us, whatever that race is, because we all have different lanes that we’re in, right? But all for the glory of God. Matthew 513 through 16 says, you’re the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand. And it gives light to all of the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to the father who is in heaven.

Let’s not forget the very last part of that sentence. See your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven. This is the thing when we’re as Christians, when we’re when we’re working, we should be doing it diligently as unto the Lord. Not for our eyes, not as people pleasers like that we see in Ephesians chapter four and Ephesians six, but instead our heart should be to just serve the Lord and build his kingdom. But this is even saying that so other people see it and they glorify your God in heaven. That’s the whole point, is that people would be glorifying God in heaven, that they would be challenged and exhorted by the way we’re living our lives to be more purposeful and intentional in building God’s kingdom, not their kingdom. Right. And so our number one like mission statement, or if there was like four points that we’re going to kind of cover in today’s podcast, the first one is mission like, are you as a family on mission together for God but also are you. That starts first with the parents, like each individual. Are you on mission for God? Is your marriage on mission for God? And then it goes on to is your family on mission for God?

It takes doing things to discover things. If you’re not doing things, you don’t discover what your gifts are. Some things you try and do for the Lord may not be in your gifting, and it’s uncomfortable and it’s awkward. And maybe you don’t continue down that path, but you’re learning and your children need to learn that too. And so serving is a wonderful way for children to learn. You know, how to do that and how to learn things. So we have right here in Matthew 633 but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So that’s got to be the number one mission of our families. Not just said, not just heard on Sunday, but heard from the dad, heard from the mom, and who are the most important influencers in their lives. And we have to take that baton that God has given us to and insert ourselves the one of the biggest flaws in leadership. If you read the business books is leaders underestimate the value of their influence. They underestimate the power of their influence. They underestimate how powerful their words are on a daily basis. So then what happens is they don’t carefully choose their words because they’re just going through the motions. Just, hey, we’re just trying to get dinner done. Hey, we’re just trying to get them to bed. Hey, we’re just trying to get to church on Sunday.

Hey, we’re just trying. We’re just trying to. It might feel like survive. And I want to challenge you in how maybe you’re spending your time. Because if it is just a feeling of survival, we might need to to think about, okay, where are there opportunities to spend our time better? Where are there opportunities to be more efficient so that we can be a little more calculated in how we use our words, how we use our influence, and using our influence? Maybe we need to carve out some time to have a marriage date, and to really talk about how are we using our words in alignment, right. And if you want help with that, the Courageous Parenting program at Courageous Parenting.com is the answer. It is incredible. The Bible is the answer, but it is incredible. It goes through a lot of Scripture. Powerful because really, men and women are so different and we have to come together. But if you don’t have a tool to come together on, it becomes challenging, because we get in a rut of communication that’s hard to break out of, onto a better road, and to get out of that rut onto a better road. Sometimes you need tools to do that. God had us create an incredible tool to do that. So I just want to make sure you knew about that.

Yeah, I think also when it comes to getting in alignment as parents, when you’re trying to come up like as a couple, as a married couple, when you’re a visionary together and you’re sitting and you’re planning out what, what is the mission that we want our kids to remember? Like when they look back on their childhood, what do we want them to walk away with? Remembering the most? Obviously, every parent wants their kids to have good, fun memories of their childhood, but there’s other things that are more eternal that we should also be focused on leaving as an inheritance with our kids, those spiritual inheritances. What are we leaving with our kids? Are we leaving them with this seed that’s planted in their heart of selflessness, of servanthood, of wanting to fulfill the purpose that God created them for? Do they even know what the purpose is that God created them for? And understanding that while there may be individual, unique purposes that every person has, and that’s a beautiful thing. That’s something we want to like individually, call out in our children and encourage them on. And we’re going to talk about that in the next point, in just a second, about how we all have different gifts. But understanding that there’s a collective calling that God has called all of his people to. And as each individual, a husband and a wife, understanding that we are a team, but we’re also a team of the body of Christ. We’re a team. We’re God’s people. We’re his children. We have brothers and sisters. We have spiritual segregate big sisters and spiritual mothers. In a sense, with the Titus two ministries and understanding that God has called us all to be activated with the Holy Spirit pursuing the Great Commission, that’s something all Christians are called to.

But what does that look like individually could be slightly different, right? Yeah. And so let’s just read that scripture together really quick. I think that this is super powerful. It’s in Matthew chapter 28. We’ve read this so many times, but today, something else stood out to me that was a little bit different. Yeah, let’s hear it. So verses 16 through 20 is a great commission Scripture, right? So just after, just before this, Jesus resurrected that he appeared to the disciples. And it was this, like mysterious time, right, Isaac? There’s some of the disciples are in shock. They’re all excited, but some are doubting and struggling also. Right. And then here’s the deal. So now the 11 disciples went to Galilee and to the mountain where Jesus had directed them. So Jesus had told them to go to the specific mountain. And when they saw him, they worshiped him. But some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 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 age. We have read this scripture specifically 18 through 20 a million times. I bet that it’s in at least 200 episodes in the Courageous Parenting Podcast, just relating to different topics over and over and over again. But you know what hit me today? When when I was reading it.

I can’t wait for you to share. It’s so cool.

It’s in verse 17 right before Jesus says to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. It says some doubted. And when they saw him and worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, he didn’t say to the ones that weren’t doubting, he said to all of them, go and make disciples. So here’s the thing. This is why I want to share this with you. Some of your kids may not be believers, yet. Some of your kids may be struggling and doubting with different aspects of faith. You know what the answer is? Jesus gives it to us right here. Serve. Serve. Go and make disciples. Start sharing the good news and the truth. And he’s really clear about what is supposed to happen. 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, and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

Well, what’s the best way to learn something? What’s the best way to embrace something more deeply is to teach it. When you teach something.

You learn it more, you.

Learn it more, and you discover more and you consider it more. And if your children are being raised up in a way where they’re doing things that are teaching or helping or serving or being around people that are teaching, being around the church, that it’s becoming on their heart in a stronger way. God is able to use that, so it equips them.

It’s kind of like, you know, I was thinking about gardening and just having the kids in the garden with me and all the things that they are learning without me sitting with a textbook, teaching them how to do something. They’re like experiencing it, right? Their hands are in the dirt. They’re there. Mom is saying, this is a squash bug. We need to vacuum up every single one of these. Here you go. Can you do this? This is a hornworm. Let’s go get the flashlights and go find them. This is what they look like. You know what I mean? Like the experiences that we have had with the kids. It teaches them the gardening skills so that that’s a life skill that they have. They’re never going to forget what hornworms are. They’re never going to forget about the need for what is happening to a tomato when there’s black underneath, and that they need to add calcium like baking soda to it. Right? Like there’s these different things that the kids have been learning over the years just by way of being with me in the garden. And I want to share this with you, because guess what? If you’re bringing your kids along with you as you’re going to serve in your church and you’re, let’s say you’re even cleaning up the property and you’re weeding and you’re doing maintenance stuff from all of that to sitting in the back of the room while you’re leading a Bible study, Steady. Your kids are learning. It is not in vain. It is 100%. They are literally experiencing God alongside of you. Which goes back. I’m sorry I didn’t even think of this. Deuteronomy six. How many times have we brought that scripture into podcast to teach them? When you rise, when you sit, when you lie, when you walk. That’s what you’re doing.

Always be teaching them. Always be pointing them to Jesus. And that’s what you possibly can. Yes. It’s not these events. You know, I said in church yesterday, it’s it’s it’s not about programs. It’s about people. You know, it’s people over programs. Not that there will never be a program, but we have to be careful not to rely on events, but instead to equip parents, to equip adults to be there for their children. If the family is strong, the church is strong. If the church is strong, the family is strong. But it goes both ways. Yeah.

No, you’re totally right. And you know, as we’re looking at this, this first point of mission being on mission together. Yeah. Um, one of the questions you and I were discussing as we were preparing today was that question of, are you building your kingdom or are you building God’s kingdom? And I think that this has been, um, a topic for like, influencers online a lot, right? Especially Christian influencers. You want to make sure that you’re building God’s kingdom. Um, when we started Be Courageous Ministry, it was not about us. It was about it was about building God’s kingdom. And part of that was this motivation of like our hearts were heavy for parents out there, biblical parenting today because we’re seeing like a lack of that being taught in churches, for sure. Um, oftentimes feeling alone in the race, we’ve had seasons where we’ve felt alone. We’ve had seasons where we’ve been walking strong with a lot of other people who are being intentional parents, too. And that’s been really encouraging. Um, but understanding that it’s all under. It’s all under the the main vision of building God’s kingdom. And I think that for people who are not influencers, this is a huge this is a huge question to ask. Like, do my kids see me doing what I’m doing, whether I’m a garbage man or a pastor, but doing it to build God’s kingdom? Yes. Do my kids get are they going to leave our home with the heart of wanting to build God’s kingdom and contributing in whatever way God has for them to contribute, whether that’s like, oh, I have this side hobby of playing guitar.

So I’m going to be I’m going to contribute to the to the worship team. Or is it that I know how to keep a property tidy, and I’m going to come with my leaf blower and I’m gonna come with my chainsaw and trim up the trees like our our neighbors did just a couple days ago. You guys, like, one of our boys was down there helping them, but we had a neighbor and another guy that’s coming to church, and we just said, there’s cleanup that needs to get done. Can you guys help with this like haul? And they went down there and they went above and beyond. They did. I saw I saw Dave up there with the chainsaw and or clippers and he is trimming up the tree and I’m like, we didn’t even ask for that. Like all to God’s glory to be a light to the community of we’re going to keep this property cleaned up. And like I go, I say to myself, it’s the members who all have the giftings. God impresses things on their hearts and they just go do it. That is building the kingdom. Yeah, actually.

What needs to be done? What could be done even better? How could the church help these kinds of things and bringing your family into the fold with that? You know, it might take some prayer. It might take some thinking through talking through. It might take talking to another family. Maybe there’s some way to help the community, and maybe you’re probably you. Many of you are already doing these things and our hat goes off to you. But maybe think about how to involve the kids even more, right?

Kids can pull weeds.

How to involve them. You know, I can’t wait to wait for 0.4. It’s my favorite point. No, no, we’re not there yet. We’re not there.

Yet. Okay, let’s go to point two. It says, you know, one of the things we were talking about earlier with you guys is this idea that it’s going to look unique, right? That God has a unique calling on each person’s life in in regards to the gifts we read in first Corinthians 12 and in Ephesians that the Holy Spirit distributes the gifts amongst the body for the edification of the whole. Right. We also know that I’ll be honest, there are many things I’m just not good at, and there are other things that I’m better at. And I am really just so taken back and overjoyed and just kind of sitting like I was thinking about this earlier. I’m in awe, like after church on Sunday. Oh yeah. I’m in awe of the giftedness of some of my sisters in Christ and what they’re contributing and helping with it wants. I literally want to cry. Just even just saying this out loud because I can’t do it on my own.

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.

Oh, I was in awe just watching as too many people came for this big tent. 1200 square foot tent. Commercial grade. Huge tent. And they start putting chairs on the outside of the wall.

In faith that even more people were.

Coming, people would come and another gentleman comes up who had never met before and says, I’ve been praying. This is before everybody got there. I’ve been praying that there would be too many people to fit in this tent today. Really? And I’m like, wow, really? And then and then another gentleman was like, I think we’re gonna have too many for the tent. So we start setting up chairs outside of the tent and there’s a tent wall. And then what we’ll do when more people come is we’ll roll up the tent. And then it got even better. Then I have this video I just posted on the on on the Rooted Bible Church Instagram, on a story on Facebook of of the guys rising to the occasion and lined up across the back of the tent, rolling it together in synchrony, so that everybody else could see in all those chairs would be accessible to all being one together as we experience the service. So it was just beautiful.

It was crazy. But to, to really like, understand that building the kingdom is about God and His his name being magnified and people knowing him. And it’s about the Great Commission. But on the individual level, each of the little things that we do, whether we’re bringing something to potluck or we’re giving baskets to be used for communion, or we donate something for the little kid’s fingers to keep them busy. Like so many people, so many hands and feet on the ground, the AV setup, the sound system, the moving things. There was so much that went into a Sunday. You know, it.

Was interesting to. Sorry to interrupt, but it was interesting too, was we didn’t talk about giving one time. No I didn’t. It wasn’t in my sermon. It wasn’t in the service and people gave. There was an offering box. I didn’t even say where it was. And people gave and another church gave and and.

Now that’s great because we can. Lord willing, we can expand the tent for next week a little bit.

I’ve been all volunteer so far. There’s no no staff. People are getting paid.

Which is a lot of work. So we can be praying for that because we definitely it is a lot of work. And even the volunteers that are helping, we’re so grateful for them. But they’re working hard. I mean, even our friend, our new friend who’s coming to the church was up till three working on slides the night before for the sermon. And, you know, it’s because literally every day there’s so much that we’re doing, we’re just we’re working, you know, but what we’re seeing, I.

Think why we’re bringing it back to the topic is why we’re bringing this up in today’s episode is because we always want to be fresh and teaching you what we’re learning to in real time. And this just happened yesterday. We’re shooting this the Monday after the Sunday. This comes out on Tuesday. And, um, it’s just it’s just.

It’s so powerful, you guys. Even our kids like seeing the kids being involved with it. I came in, I came in here to shoot the podcast I want Isaac. I don’t want this episode to be about the church. I want like.

But that was the impact. Our children, what it’s doing to our family.

What we’re doing to our family is like, we’re it’s like we’re on a missions trip together and they’re.

All into it and they’re so fired.

Up. They’re all serving. And it’s but it’s here in our hometown. And it’s like, what can you guys do to build the kingdom together where you are? I mean, I feel like this is part of the legacy. Yeah, that we’re all called to leave with our kids. This is an eternal inheritance from the Lord. It’s not about your lives. It’s not about how much money you’re leaving them. Because wrath, rust, and moth will destroy those things. They will burn with the earth. But to understand that when you are planting seeds in your kids hearts, and they’re experiencing being part of the body of Christ. And they can’t forget that. And they desire that later in their life. I’m not promising that they’re always going to be faithful to following God, because that’s a personal journey between them and the Lord as they grow up. But it’s part of our command from God as parents to teach our kids God’s commands. And one of his commands is to go and make disciples of all nations, and love your neighbor and take care of the needy and the poor and all of those things. And I just I’m sorry, I’m overwhelmed.

But you know, what’s interesting about these unprecedented times is that when there’s challenges, when we experience challenges in society, it’s when we take less for granted and and we start helping each other again. Yeah. And people start seeing the value in having deep relationships because they need each other again. And so there is a flip side to challenge, which is people start banding together again. And I would just say proactively be doing that now because we believe it’s going to be even more important very shortly down the road. Yes.

Colossians 323. Sorry. 323. You guys have heard this. You probably have it memorized. Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord and not for men. That kind of wraps up like those first two, those first two points of being on mission together. What is the mission? Build God’s kingdom, not your kingdom. What inheritance are you leaving for your children? Spiritual inheritance is the only thing that is eternal. Yeah it is. That’s why we’ve said when we’ve had babies, we’re building treasures in heaven. Right? And to understand that when you’re sharing and you’re giving a Bible to someone, that’s part of the seed of building a treasure in heaven, that evangelism, the going to making disciples that’s building treasures in heaven. And what can you do as a believer in your community, in your neighborhood, in your church, to help build God’s kingdom. Is it supporting your pastor because they need prayer. They need support. They need encouragement. Is it actually mopping the floors or cleaning the toilets at your church? Is it running a mom’s ministry and touching the hearts? Is it leading Bible studies? Is it writing a Bible study? It might be.

Hospitality.

Oh yes.

Inviting people in your home. We’re not trying to put burdens on anybody because everybody’s in different seasons. You might have just had a baby. You might have, you know, four young children in your home. There’s seasons, right, for serving in different ways. But but maybe it’s making a meal for someone. Maybe it’s having someone over and not being so concerned about your house and things like that. But be concerned about relationships. Relationships over cleanliness.

That’s right. Okay, so let’s wrap up this, this section on like how we all have different gifts. Obviously we want to read from the Bible, Romans chapter 12, another passage of Scripture. We’ve quoted a ton here. And be courageous or the Courageous Parenting Podcast. You know we usually are sharing the ones that say verse one of chapter 12, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That’s. And then it talks about discerning, testing, and discerning what is the will of God, the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. But listen to this verse three. It says, for the by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. So God’s assigned measures of faith keep listening. Verse four. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function. Did you hear that? Not everybody’s supposed to be a pastor. Not everybody is supposed to be a greeter. Not everybody is supposed to be fill in the blank maintenance.

We all have different functions. Verse five. So we though many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. This is exactly what we’re talking about. There’s a collective calling. And then we all have unique individual callings, right? Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. Let him. Let us use them if prophecy in proportion to your faith. If service in serving the one who teaches in his teaching. The one who exhorts in his exhortation, the one who contributes in generosity, the one who leads with zeal. The one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness. I’m going to stop there, even though verse nine. No I’m not. Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil, and hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Anyways, I. This scripture just it touches me so deeply because we experienced that in such a tangible way with so many different people actively working. And there’s something special about how that serving together builds stronger relationships, which is point three of today’s podcast. Like why we’re saying, are your kids learning how to build the kingdom? The thing is, is if they experience the depth of what it looks like when they’re invested, when you serve, your heart is invested. That’s just how it is. You know, one of my favorite.

Parts of yesterday was the people that stayed after and just cleaning up everything together.

That was your favorite part?

I think it was one of my favorite parts. That’s awesome. Which is strange. Normally that’s strange. Normally that wouldn’t be my favorite part, but it was just like, okay. I was like, we’re doing something together. And people, nobody had to be asked.

It was interesting. It was just cool. Okay, you guys have to know something like. So Isaac, Isaac’s an introvert. Yeah. And he gets tired around people. I was shocked after yesterday that you came home and you sat on the sofa in our room, and the little boys go, daddy, you want to play a game? He goes, yeah, let’s go play a game. And he goes out and starts playing games with the little kids. I’m like, I need a nap. And he usually needs a nap.

Well, I did, I could barely keep my eyes open, but there was something.

But you had a different energy about you. That’s true. And I think that when you are living on purpose and you’re fulfilling God’s calling in your life, God sustains you in a different kind of way. Not that you’re not going to be tired in the future, and I don’t have that expectation of you every week. It’s okay to be tired, but I think that there’s something so energizing about serving together and building it is stronger relationships. And so when your family is serving together and you’re serving with other families in the body of Christ, like you build stronger relationships and then those relationships are invested in, but you’re doing it all for God together. That’s why it’s like so the bonds that you have with people, if you’ve ever been on like a missions trip, like a short term missions trip, I did 12 of them when I was in junior high and high school and college, and every time I went on it, I came back closer and more committed to the church. But I was closer to those people, the other people who I served with. That was like the eternal. There was this eternal bond, right? Like we built houses together. We were in the dirt together. You know, we saw each other with no makeup, like, because we were we were in Mexico. We were working hard, you know, and being through.

Something together.

And serving God together and watching God move and witnessing it together. You witness the miracles together and you’re like, how did that just happen? And we just experienced that with our kids.

And I think it’s better that families do it together than one person from the family going and doing it without them.

And then they grow and they come back and they’re like, oh, you don’t know me. I felt that way. I felt that way as a teenager. When I went away and I came back, I was like, even to my parents. I remember thinking, they don’t understand. They’ve never done this. They don’t know me. They weren’t with me. They didn’t experience what I experienced. And it almost created a little bit of like because because it is hard to acknowledge the spiritual growth in your child’s life if you haven’t experienced it with them or seen them grow. But also, kids know that they’ve grown. But it’s hard to explain in words the spiritual growth that you experience in something like that. So when you as a family are serving God together in whatever capacity, taking care of the widow next door and mowing your lawn together and taking her meal or whatever it is you like, grow together and you acknowledge that growth.

Some people might be having a struggle with this, because maybe a certain vocation the dad has makes it hard to do things together to add anything into it. And I get that. I’ve had seasons like that. You know what? I gave a resolute man a podcast episode where it was just me on that particular episode. I can’t remember the name, but it was recently where I talked about, maybe you need to re-orientate your life. Maybe you need to re-orientate what you do. What are the priorities? What else is possible? How could life look different? How could a family look different? How could living somewhere else look different? You know. Sometimes we believe we start believing that there’s no other way. This is the path. This is the way I provide. This is your things. And I just. My experience is that you got to leave that your hands open and you’re not giving something up. I gave up an unbelievable career. I was an independent contractor, but it was like a career and unbelievable income, unbelievable freedom, unbelievable opportunity. And I’m so glad I did. God sometimes wants to disrupt what’s good for what’s better. Just like on the vineyard, you have to prune half the fruit off so all the energy goes into some fruit to make it worthy of doing something good. And so it’s the same thing. Sometimes we have good things, but what’s God’s best things? And sometimes we have to recalibrate. We have to think about and be willing to risk in a obedience to God. Maybe God’s calling your heart a little bit in a direction, it’s hard to see how that’s possible. It may take a couple of years, but if you don’t start being open to that possibility today and praying about it, you’re you’re not orientating your life in a way that could create the change, even if it takes two years.

You know what I also thought of when you were sharing? That was so good. Thanks. But I also remember those years, 14 years of our 25 years of marriage, where you were working as an independent contractor, but you we were always on purpose to glorify God in that and to witness. And I just want to put that out there too. Maybe God doesn’t have you leaving, but he has your heart shifting towards being open to being more evangelistic, more hospitable. Yeah. Um, being willing to go out on a limb and ask people, what’s your purpose in life?

And I do want to say, though, there is a challenge. Yes. Amen. Amen. And that works in a lot of cases. But as I think back to what I was doing, that would be impossible today. The way the world has changed for me to do it in the same way I was doing it back then. I would have had to be even more held back. I would have had to be.

More.

Careful. I would have been more muzzled in that environment because of how the population has changed and what people are allowed to talk about. Because you know what things I talk about impacted other teams around Washington, Oregon, and and those managers and their livelihood. And so if I said something that offended anybody on their team, that would have hurt their business, right. And so I think about when I used to use Scripture in front of a thousand young adults on a stage today, I don’t know, I really question, I really question if I would have been able to even do that today because my managers would have been starting to lose people, or not wanting people to come to those events, and that would hurt their business. So there’s a real that we are living in different times. There is a difference. So we have to think about, am I being muzzled to a level that is preventing me from doing all that God wants me to do. That’s a good question.

It is a good question. And I think that that is a huge witness to your children because they’re watching you, right? Like your sons are watching you choose, um, what’s more eternal over what’s more earthly in some cases, right. In some in certain situations. Like, you never want to compromise. You never want to compromise your faith or what God has called you to do as a Christian. Um, for a job. Right. And so, but, but but a lot of times there isn’t a compromise. So. But only you know that deep inside your heart. Know that we’re praying for you guys. In Philippians chapter two verse four, it says, well, verse three says, do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each one of you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. I think that at the end of the day, you know, this is a scriptural exhortation, guidance, command from the Lord that he’s saying, Christian, living Christians, this is how you should be operating in your relationships with other people. Be selfless. Don’t think about yourself. And when you’re serving together, that is something that your kids are learning. They’re exercising a muscle. It’s a muscle. They’re you’re watering a seed, a seed of selflessness and servant heartedness, serving others that has been planted in their hearts. And guess what? Every fleshly human nature desire in them is going to fight against that spiritual character quality seed that you are trying to put in your child.

And throughout their life there will be temptation over and over and over again for them to be pulled back into being selfish, to be. They’re going to be tempted to be selfish. They’re going to be told, no, it’s okay to care about yourself. How does what do you feel like? What does your heart say? And that is the opposite of what the Bible commands us to do as Christians. So the more that we can exercise this muscle, help them have habits of exercising the muscle of selflessness, the better off they are going to be, because that’s like one less thing that they’re going to be tempted to falling into. As far as sinfulness goes. And then in first Peter 410, we have another scripture for you guys. It says, as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace. Whoever speaks as one who speaks oracles of God, whoever serves as one who serves by the strength that God supplies, in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to him belong the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. And I it just kind of sums up this whole conversation of whose kingdom are we building? To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Not our kingdom, right? We’re doing this for the for the Lord. But our final, our final fourth point. Oh, I.

Love this point. I can’t wait to give it to you. I’m going to give it to you right now. Is kids rise to the value you believe about them. Did you hear that? Kids rise to the value you believe about them. And somebody was asking me about someone shared something about wow, I was so it was so amazing because we’re rooted Bible churches, age integrated. We’re all sitting together in Sunday service and there was lots of children there. It was wonderful. And the children were so good. The children were not too loud. We heard some noises and I loved it. It was great, did not affect me. I loved the sound of children. I have nine children, okay, I can preach through and we can talk through just about anything. So we’re experienced in that, right? And so it’s like it was wonderful. But I think one of the reasons that it works is because you I would talk about the value of them from the front of the room. And I think that’s so important that when children feel valued, they want to rise to that picture you give them. And sometimes we’re catering to the way they are, but instead we need to have a vision for what they can be that they can rise up to, because that’s how humans are. And that’s part of leadership that’s so important. And you are leaders. You’re leading your family, husband and wife, you know, influencing your family forward in a direction. And we need to see that. We need to speak value the value that God has for your children. And we speak that into them and they rise up to it. Yeah. And I think that’s beautiful.

It was interesting because a lot of the kids were just so quiet and someone even mentioned, like they were shocked. They were like, I was doubtful this could work, but wow. You know, and it’s like, yeah, I mean, when you are valuing children and you’re, you’re including them and incorporating versus excluding them, there is something powerful about that. First, John 318 says, little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. The verse right before it, though, is really interesting. If anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Question mark. Okay, so God’s like challenging his people, but he’s calling his people little children. He’s saying little children. He’s literally not necessarily talking to the little children. He’s literally talking to all of us. Let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. God is not being condescending to any of us. He’s calling us up to something. He’s patient and long suffering with all of us, and so we need to be with our children also, understanding that they are actually grasping so much more than we think. They are not just sitting in church, but in serving. Like, what is it that we can ask our kids to help with? Can you hand them a rag and say, can you go wipe down that table? Can you go pick up the little toys that got left on the floor and put them in the baggies? Can you like what is it I’m thinking through and trying to make a list of things that I can be delegating to Solomon and Eli and Zander after church for cleanup.

Sometimes, you know, we’re doing potluck after church. The mess of it is the opportunity.

Exactly.

The mess of it is the opportunity.

That was the problem yesterday. We had this. We had a mess. Yesterday we had something emergency happen five minutes before church. The streaming wasn’t going to happen to the tent. Right. And it was like a mess.

And we had a little building, 1000 square foot building. Then we had a 1200 square foot tent. I was going to be preaching in the building, and then we’re going to stream to the tent. Once the 68 chairs in the building are filled up, and then the video stream wasn’t working to the tent, big 70 inch TV.

But we always wanted everybody to be together. And so many people were showing up.

And I literally think because everything worked the night before, I literally think God’s like, no. And it was.

Working that morning.

My will, not your will, my will is you’re all going to be together, you’re all going to be in the tent, and I’m going to force you to switch that. And that’s exactly what happened.

And it was beautiful. What? What happened? Everybody helped and pitched in. Every member had to grab a chair, help.

Those 68 chairs from the building moved very quickly outside.

They did. But like, how many people were, like, experienced participating versus just being a spectator, which is what our whole thing has been about. Like why we were attracted towards home churches. I think it was a.

Catalyst for the culture we want for.

The church. But but in the moment, it’s easy to get frustrated. You didn’t though, know you were so calm. I mean, you just handle conflict and different things like that so well. But I was like, what? He literally told me afterwards I went, what? That’s crazy. Anyway, so our encouragement to you guys is to believe in your kids. And here’s our unprecedented times. Tip for this for this week. Okay, experience working together. Find something to build with your kids for the glory of God.

Because it’s even more important during unprecedented times. You’ve got to work that muscle now so you’re ready for what’s ahead.

Thanks for joining us. Hey, thanks for listening and being a part of the 10 Million Legacies movement. Go to be Courageous Ministry. Org for more biblically based resources, ways to switch where you spend your money that support the mission and information about the incredible Be Courageous app community for believers.

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Full Transcript:

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

• Private Group for Christian Moms with weekly lives with Angie Tolpin
• Weekly podcast Q&A with episode behind the scenes content. Just type in your question!
• Exclusive biblical resources such as the Courageous Marriage and Redeeming Childbirth series.
• Exclusive access to the courageous kid’s podcast. Play it for your kids to stir up good discussions.
• Monthly LIVE Q&A with the Tolpins; ask the anything.
• Powerful Biblically minded community.
• Topic-based discussion groups.
• You get your own profile and can connect with others.
• Growing libraries of LIVE replays

All Ministry Resources: becourageousministry.org

Our Courses

• Parenting Mentor Program, self-paced online program that equips you to biblically parent during unprecedented times.
• The Homeschooling Blueprint, the online program to boost your effectiveness & help your kids thrive.
• Postpartum Course, The First-Ever Christian Postpartum Course.
• Cultivating Biblical Friendships  The course that helps women build lasting Godly friendships.

• Financial Giving, is important to support our family and expand the impact of the ministry. We aim to impact 10 million  legacies. We are in full-time ministry as a large family, so everything makes a difference. 

Thank you for being part of this movement to equip 10 million families and their legacies with Biblical truth to raise confident Christian kids in an uncertain world.

Full Transcript:

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

Welcome to Courageous Parenting Podcast, a weekly show to equip parents with biblical truth on raising confident Christian kids in an uncertain world.

Hi, I’m Angie from Courageous Mom and Isaac.

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

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

Hey everybody. Today we are talking about the desensitization of evil, and we’re encouraging parents to hold the.

Line on Halloween. But more than that, too.

Yeah. I mean, I think that this topic is a bigger we’re going to be talking more about just evil in general today, although it will apply a lot to Halloween as we’re in October.

But it’s so important to know where do you hold the line? What are you talking about? Like, yeah, I get it, but how far do we hold the line? You know what I mean? By the way, talk about parenting pressure. Pressure on parents. This has got to be one of the largest pressure points on Christian parents, I think.

Other topics that I think of would be like, if you’re going to allow your kids to do sleepovers or not, in addition to if you homeschool or if you do public school or private school. Right. Like all of these issues, there’s this element where parents experience parental peer pressure from their friends, from their community, even from family, where sometimes you feel like, oh man, am I going to create division that like people pleasing aspect of you can start to come out. I know that for myself, that was always something that I fought against in regards to like choosing to rise up and take on the authority that God had given me as a mom and say, hey, no, this is what I’m choosing to do or not do with my kids, and just standing firm in that decision, not imposing that upon other people per se, but but being willing to like, take a hard line and go, no, we’re not going to participate in that. And I think that, you know, for us as moms, especially women, struggle with the whole people pleasing thing more than guys. Yeah, right.

Like guys struggle with maybe allowing some time sometimes, maybe allowing more, you know, exposure to things than the moms.

I mean, guys, there is this element to even talk about movies for a second, right? Because there’s definitely like, um, a whole conversation we could do about movies and what movies are okay to watch. As Christians, we’ve actually never talked about that before. Would you guys be interested in that? Would that be a podcast episode? I know sometimes.

With my older boys, I’m like, wow, they can handle it. And you’re like, oh, I don’t know. I mean, sometimes we have these conversations, so.

We do a lot because as a woman and just how I’m wired, I have the gift of spiritual discernment. And so things tend to get to me more so than they do Isaac. Like, I don’t even like watching movies that have to do with war and stuff like that. Whereas like, guys tend to me and.

The boys tend to really enjoy.

It. Yeah. So anyway, but before we dive into this topic, I do want to share with you guys something really special, something really important in regards to, um, home education or even in the summer months or in Christmas break. Um, there are opportunities as parents where we need to step into the role of examining our kids education and seeing if there are any, um, holes in their education and the things that they’re learning. And you know, that Isaac and I have shared briefly in the past some of the different things that we have chosen to add into our kids curriculum, if you want to call it that, their education so that they’re more equipped and prepared when they launch. I mean, it’s an important thing to do. And a lot of parents, they think that for so many generations now, parents have been used to just putting their kids education in somebody else’s hands. And so one of the things that we’ve been using this year is master books. You can find out about them at Master books.com/courageous. Um, they have a whole host of different curriculums and subjects. Um, I know I’ve mentioned before the Constitution, the civics and Constitution curriculum that our teenagers are doing, as well as the apologetics books that they’re reading and the curriculum, the questions that you get to ask your kids. I think that, you know, when it comes to issues of today, current events, parents need to be proactive in educating their kids and telling them about it. Not just like looking at Instagram, seeing a video and going, oh, I’m worried about this. Did you know this is happening? Although it is important to be aware of what’s happening in your world, whether you’re going to X or to Epoch Times or to other places, you know, to get your news. Um, the reality is, is that our kids need to be equipped. Right? And so one of the places that we’re just super thankful for is master books, because we’re using their curriculum with a lot of our kids this year, and we’ve enjoyed it so far. So go check them out.

Speaking of news, I just found a new resource Wnt. Org. Some of you probably already heard of it, but they I think, developed the world magazine, all kinds of other news, online news that from a biblical perspective, um, seems like a fantastic organization at first glance. I’m still diving into it. But anyways, let’s dive into this. This is a tough subject, important subject, especially with Halloween showing up. And in the past it was interesting because we’ve talked about this before, but in the past it would be like, wow, this is a time where the other side, those proponents of evil, uh, are really amping up their game. And I just made this interesting point before we shot this. Well, I think we’re in a time now where the game is amped up every single day, right?

There’s just evil happening every day, whether it’s just sinful fleshly desires being overtly expressed outwardly. Um, people are just then there’s this like push for tolerance of sin, right? Or normalization of sin, if you will. Um, and as Christian parents recognizing the battle, you guys know that with Courageous Parenting and Be Courageous ministries, one of the biggest battles that we have seen is that kids are leaving the faith by age 18, 18 to 21. The church. Yeah. Or yeah, they’re leaving the church by age 21 ish, 18 to 21 whenever they’re graduating high school, um, in droves, like in massive quantities. Right. And so obviously, what parents have been doing, what the church has been doing at large in America has not been working, actually, I would.

Say and I would say on that subject, too, it’s more of a parenting problem than the church problem. But the church solution isn’t the solution. It should be the icing where the parents should be the actual cake. And and God is the baker. So, you know, to use a poor analogy. But, you know, it’s really, really important that parents realize, wow, you have so much influence. And you’re you.

Do have influence. And that’s why I guess, like today, just talking about this concept of like parents holding the line, rising up and choosing to be the parents in their kids lives. First of all, if I could just say like point one, you were giving your kids by God and you are called to a mission in their lives. Obviously, if you’ve been listening to the podcast for any length of time, you know that you’re called to discipline them and to disciple them, to bring them up in the instruction and admonition of the Lord. You know what your role is as a Christian parent, but then how does it play out in everyday life, especially when you have events or For holidays, right. That come up, such as Halloween. Right. Which, by the way, happens to also be. It’s October 31st every year, which also happens to be Reformation Day. I know that Catholics have in the past celebrated All Saints Day. Um, that also was on the same day. We actually talk about these a lot in some of our other podcast episodes, and we’re not going to be diving into the content that we talk about in those podcast episodes. But if that’s super interesting to you, I want to encourage you to go find podcast episode number 39. I believe it’s in season one. Um, and it was our the very first one. Should Christians celebrate Halloween was what? You can also.

Just google courageous Parenting and the topic Halloween. Yeah. And you’ll find them.

Yeah. There’s another one though. That’s episode 266, season five. It’s navigating Halloween as Christian parents. Um, and, you know, obviously we have a ton of resources that we’re going to be giving you guys this week, actually. Right. So we always send out an email the week that we’re for every episode weekly regarding like what are the basic bullet points, what are the scripture passages and references that we tackle? What are the key points in this week’s podcast episode that goes out by email? So if you’re not on our email list, you’ve got to sign up for our email list. Just go to Be Courageous Ministry. Org and this week when we’re sending out this episode, we will also send you guys the free Pumpkin Gospel. We will send you the free Candy scriptures, um, as well as links to the podcast episodes and the blog posts that are just so important for parents to be reading and learning.

So subscribe so you never miss the episodes. You might be listening to this a couple weeks later and you’re like, I missed that. Well, don’t miss it. Subscribe on your favorite app and I will send it again Friday through email. So make sure you get that you know.

On this topic just for a second. You know, I got a lot of messages on social media this week because I was making laundry detergent and I was cleaning the bathroom floor using shaving cream. And people were like, what? You’re up to.

Some weird things, weren’t you?

Well, no. No. Not weird. Yeah, I made laundry soap for years, but but the point is, is I shared about it, you know, and I don’t usually share about all the homemaking things that I do, but because we have the heart of the home podcast, I thought, hey, I’ll start sharing some of these tips. And one of the reels is already over 20,000 views. It’s doing really well, and that was just teaching people how to clean grout in a bathroom floor to get urine out. Right? Because when you’re potty trained, believe.

What she used. We’re not going to tell you you got to go to Instagram. But you know, it’s crazy.

But but what I do want to say is if you’re on the email list, you’re going to get those recipes. Because we did send out the laundry, the dry laundry.

Since our newsletter just went out, I’m gonna send it out again end of this week to it has that recipe in it.

Okay, that’s a good idea. So anyway, just make sure you’re on the email list. That’s the point because that’s where all the important information comes from. So you guys obviously we’re talking about Halloween. And so our first point is that you have to be sober minded and recognize that there is an agenda, a spiritual agenda by the enemy to make your kids comfortable with evil. Yep, you heard me. The enemy wants them to be okay with listening to evil, watching evil, participating in evil. That that’s ultimately he wants our children’s hearts and he wants our hearts.

Over time, it develops an appetite for evil as well, which is really interesting. In fact, there’s proof of that with some of the endorphins that are released, right?

I mean, yeah, so if we were to go into like some of the aspects of Halloween. Right. There’s trick or treating and obviously there’s a candy high. When kids get candy, there’s what goes up must come down. Um, personally, I’ll just put a little side note in here. One reason why we don’t do the trick or treating aspect, and the main reason is because of the fear factor. Okay. It’s just the scary costumes that are out there that people like to scare kids and it’s just creepy. What if it’s creepy walking up and.

But what if. I mean, I know I’m supposed to do this part later when I see the opposite side for a second just to challenge the thought. But what if my kids are already desensitized? We’ve been doing this for a long time.

Well, then that’s an issue that you need to actually confront your kids about. And saying, I didn’t do this right. Like I realized that I exposed you to way to many things. And I said things like, oh, it’s not scary. It’s not real, when in reality, like, it’s it might not be like someone wearing a scary mask with like, an axe coming out of their head or something like that. Like, yes, it’s not a real axe. Yes. That’s not real blood. Yes, that’s a mask. Yes. It’s not like technically real. But should a kid not be scared of that? Actually, I think they should be scared of that. We should be frustrated by that. That should, like, irritate our souls because it’s not holy.

Well, I think what happens too is, is everybody wants a little bit more. They want a little bit more. I don’t know if you’ve noticed this. You know, if you go watch a movie that’s a good movie in a theater. And the previews come on beforehand. You see, sometimes these previews of, like, crazy films, right? And I can tell that these films have made progress in trying to make it scarier and scarier and scarier and scarier. These certain kinds of thrillers. Right, right. That we don’t watch, we don’t like those. But but, um, and it’s to to is to is to appease and a growing appetite within people because they always want to experience just a little bit more scary. And where does that go. And so it’s important to think about that. If we’re feeding our children these things and they’re becoming desensitized, well, there’s actual and a little bit of an addiction that can happen with some people because there’s an adrenaline rush. It releases endorphins. Even some people can release dopamine, which they like. And it’s actually natural. It’s a natural high that develops and it becomes addictive. And you want more of it. That’s right. And so you want your kids to want more of that.

Or. Well, you don’t want your kids to want more. That’s the question do you. Yes. And so asking yourself that question is like, wow, okay. I didn’t really realize that when they’re getting scared, it’s all in the name of fun, quote unquote. But the reality is what is it that it’s actually doing to our kids physically is what you’re talking about, right. And recognizing like, we all know that there are people out there that are thrill seekers, adventurous adventure junkies is what they call them, right? Sure. Where they love the thrill, the the adrenaline rush of living on the edge and different things like that. Right. And, and this is like a smaller version of that kid size, actually, where they get scared about something, right? And then they’re like, oh, that was fun. I want to go do it again. Right? Whereas some kids are like, I don’t want to do it anymore. And I remember years ago just to share personally, it’s not like. You know, Isaac and I have been parenting for a really long time. I mean, comparatively speaking, we’ve been parents for 24 years, and and when we first had our first 2 or 3 kids, this was a really hard thing for us.

Um, right away, you guys probably know part of my testimony as to how we got into homeschooling. We put our oldest in a Christian preschool and six weeks into it, guess what? Halloween. And I just didn’t feel right about Halloween. And I was confused why. At a Christian preschool, we were celebrating Halloween and there was no like, regulations about not dressing up like a witch because witches are real. Like, okay, witchcraft is a real satanic thing. It is a real religion. And so for kids to be dressing up as witches, it’s like, really, are we going to play with the devil? I just like in my mind, I just felt icky about it. I didn’t have a clear conscience about it. And here I had my three year old daughter and I had to make this first time decision. And so we decided to pull her out of that school. We tried a different school that also did not work out. And so thus then began my first journey with homeschooling, which.

Is more there were more things than just the one thing.

Yeah, but that was like one of the that was one of the biggest aspects. That was why we pulled her out was the Halloween experience and just what was going on and trying to opt out of it. And, and I think that, you know, what dawned on me, though, is that most parents just go along to get along. Yeah.

And on this topic, you almost have to if you’re putting yourself in mainstream situations, right?

I mean, if you think about school.

But you’re putting yourself into pressure points.

Yes. For sure. Yeah. I mean, even churches, if you think about the majority of churches today hosting what they call harvest parties or trunk or treats or different things like that, um, they are also, you know, and I get it, I understand from an outreach perspective, lots of people from the neighborhood come to the church, and it’s sometimes their first introduction to the church. I get that they’re trying to offer a place that’s safe, because guess what? It isn’t actually safe out there in the real world anymore. Yeah, I just said that, like alone, the fentanyl drugs that have come across the border over the years that are killing tons of Americans.

Since you’re on that just real quick, there is a lot of evidence that China is purposely funneling fentanyl through the Mexican border, and it’s coming in in droves for the purpose of hurting our country, specifically.

Kids.

Specifically kids. And it’s even being designed in certain ways that kids might like and looking like candy. And then you have to think about gateways for terror. Terrorism called terrorism would be to, you know, infuse this. I mean.

I, I’m not a fear based parent, but I, I’m just going to say something that just came to me the minute you said terrorist activity. We are in October. This is an election year. There’s all kinds of crazy things happening right now. Halloween is literally happening four days before the election. Okay? Four days before the election. And so that kind of puts a different spin on things in regards to the terrorist attack. Potential terrorist attacks. Right. Like they’re there. The enemy is clever. He’s a schemer. I personally won’t have my kids anywhere near anyone else’s candy because they have found ways to make the fentanyl look like candy. So.

So anyways, you know, that could be just a unique opportunity to do something terrible. So I think it’s important to be sober minded about it. It’s super important. And to be thinking about that, you know, we have to do hard things as parents. That’s why you listen to courageous parenting. We’re always talking about, you know, what we feel is most important to talk about in a given time based on what’s going on in biblical truth. And this is super, super important. It’s not just the desensitization, it’s the safety of your children. And we’re living in unprecedented times. I don’t care what anybody else says. Some other Christian out there saying, these are not unprecedented times. I completely disagree. There’s a whole podcast episode on that. We are living in different times than previous generations of parents, so we have to parent more intentionally and differently.

I mean, the same evil has always existed. There’s the same source, which is Satan, right? Um, and and sinful nature in humanity. But there’s the technology has just changed the game drastically. And so just being aware as parents, I know that there just feels like today there’s so many things to try to be aware of. And you do have to pick your battles. And so, you know, it’s it’s okay as a parent to go, wow, I’m like maxed out on my battles. We’re just not going to do this this year, right? Um, and I just want to share a Scripture verse that actually is a call for us to be sober minded. It’s in Galatians chapter six, verse six through nine. It says, let the one who has taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever one sows, that he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up that aspect of like picking your battles like it’s a weary job to be a parent and we cannot give up. We need to hold the line when it comes to choosing what we are going to be teaching our kids. Our actions actually speak way louder than our words do. And so if we are participating in things and we’re okay with celebrating pagan holidays, for example, that is actually something we are teaching our children. We’re either teaching them to be okay with it, or we’re teaching them not to be okay with it. There’s no in between.

Here’s the tide against you and me. In 2023, $12.2 billion was spent on Halloween, $3.6 billion on candy, $3.9 billion on decorations, 2 billion on adult costumes, adult costumes, uh, more was spent on than children’s costumes, which was at 1.4 billion. Which brings up the point why are so many adults dressing up? Well, they do, because a lot of companies do work parties. So there’s a lot of events and things like that where adults go to. And unfortunately, it gives kind of an excuse on that day for all kinds of inappropriate dressing, frankly. Yeah. And and true debauchery. And we just need to lead by example. I think that’s so important. So if we have a conviction about what our children should do, we should do the same thing. If you don’t, hey, it’s okay. We can still love each other. You don’t have to agree with everything we say. We can still love each other as Christians. Um, we’re going to love anybody that disagrees with us on these, you know, extra things. No big.

Deal. Not salvation issues. But I do think that as we’re raising our kids, Jesus is not something that we get to choose to compartmentalize when we’re saved. When we’re a Christian, we surrender all to the Lord. And that’s every aspect of our lives, right? Even where we work goes under the heading of Lord, is this your will for my life? Literally everything we do as Christians should go under that question of God. Am I walking in your will? God? Am I leading my children the way you want me to lead your children? Because they’re actually yours? They’re not mine. And so taking on that, like that really contrite heart and in humility and understanding like this is a big deal. Yeah, parenting is a big deal. And it’s hard sometimes, but just shying away from the hard topics and not wanting to dig into them is not what we as Christians are supposed to do. We’re supposed to rise up, dig in, read Scripture, pray fast, be in alignment with our spouse, and then hold the line, whatever that line is for us. Right? And I think that for us over the years, we’ve we’ve learned a lot. We’ve we’ve tried a lot of things. I mean, years ago, I remember reading this book by focus on the family. It was called Redeeming Halloween, and that was the first thing that I could find. That was like pointing out that a lot of evil happens on that night.

And what are some ways that you can ensure safety? And I was like, okay, that’s that’s a good thing, right? I get that safety is important, physical safety. But today we’re talking about spiritual safety. Like we’re not to play with evil or or tempt our children to play with evil, right. Which I just want to share something with you guys because, um, we have a few different blog posts that we have written over the years. One is called engaging but Not Encouraging Halloween. That’s a really important one. It has a lot of scripture in it. I just want to share that with you guys briefly in here. It talks about actually what the Church of Satan says about this specific day. And what’s important for us to understand is that there is a Church of Satan This is celebrated as it is a pagan holiday. It just is. But does that mean that it’s a bad day? No. I think that from a Christian’s perspective, when we understand who the creator is and who God is, we can actually have joy in the Lord. On October 31st, because it’s the day the Lord has made. Satan does not have any ability to create a day any more than he has any ability to create a pumpkin. Guess what? Pumpkins are God’s. God created pumpkins and so pumpkins are not evil. Right? And so understanding that there are these neutral things that God has created, but it’s up to us as Christians to reclaim them when they’ve been tried to be stolen by the enemy.

We as Christians rise up and we reclaim them in the name of the Lord. So guess what I grow pumpkins. Yes, I do, and I love pumpkin bread. And we eat pumpkin seeds and and we, we do this thing called the pumpkin gospel, which I wrote many years ago when I was a youth pastor and Sunday school teacher and I did this object lesson. Gosh, that was so long ago. It was before our oldest was born, 25 years ago. And then I shared it with you guys in 2008. Since 2008, it has been on my blog and you guys can get that for free. It’s called the Free Pumpkin Gospel and it teaches your kids about their sin that’s in them. While you’re carving out a pumpkin, and you’re teaching them about how God puts his light in them. It’s so good. It’s just such a really beautiful purpose. But you guys, I just want to share, though, that when it comes to Halloween, it’s not like you have like October 31st. You don’t need to hide in your house with the lights off, pretending you’re not there so that other people don’t come knock on the door fearful. That’s not what this episode is about. We don’t hide from evil. We hold the line and we stand firm and we be a light, right?

So let’s make sure we get to kind of some recommendations on that. But first I want to kind of be on the opposite side of things here. Steve and 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 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.

I’m going to come against Angie on some of these points, right? As a Christian that maybe disagrees with her, I don’t disagree with her, but I just want to do that. I think it’ll be helpful. First, I just want to mention that we changed the name of the Parenting Mentor program to the Courageous Parenting Program. It’s still in the same place. Courageous Parenting.com. If you have a marriage that’s not in alignment about these things, not just Halloween, but what they’re exposed to and being more intentional as parents and being in alignment, making these decisions and discipling and being biblical and having hard conversations when they’re needed and when to have them, and how to disciple your kids and how to do discipline and consistent follow through all of those things. That’s the courageous parenting program at Courageous Parenting.com. And there’s great news, by the way. This is the first time it’s ever been this way. You can start whenever you want. Now, we used to control when you start now, you can buy it and start and have it forever. And so anyways, you can check that out. But hey. So Ange, yes, you know this thing about, you know, not letting kids dress up in costumes and do the candy and go to the events and things like that. It just being the, the, the, the negative viewpoint for a second.

You can call it what it is that people call it the devil’s advocate. It’s actually interesting because it’s a satanic holiday.

All right. It’s just so legalistic.

To not do these things. Yeah.

Don’t be legalistic.

Well, what about it makes it legalistic. What about opting out? That would be my response. Like what is legalism? Legalism is actually doing things to work your way to heaven. I’m choosing to not participate in something evil because I don’t have a clear conscience about that. So what about that is actually legalistic?

Yeah, that’s a good point.

It’s a good point. I think that, you know, it’s important that we also, when it comes to opting out of things, understanding the the foundation of where that even started to happen. It’s important. And one of the blog posts that I mentioned earlier, there’s a there’s a little quote from an interview with an occult convert who was part of the Church of Satan. I’m just going to I’m going to share with you guys for a second, because this is from their website. It says, this is what the Church of Satan says. We see this holiday as a night when the mundane folk okay, when the mundane folk, so mundane folk try to reach down inside and touch the darkness, which for Satanists is a daily mode of existence, which you mentioned Satanists. It’s a daily mode of existence for them, right? But the mundane folk try to reach down into the darkness, particularly in the United States. Halloween is a time for celebrating monster films, wearing costumes of macro nature, evoking the thrill of fun fear. Okay, children of all ages can indulge their fantasies by donning costumes that allow for intense role playing and the release of their demonic cores, quote unquote. The parts of their personalities that are often hidden from their friends, coworkers, and families. This is a quote from the Church of Satan.

Are you the mundane folk? Do you do you like that title? Do you want to be called the Mundane Folk? I’m not mundane folk, but.

I hope you’re. The thing is that they’re literally saying, this is a time where people can reach down and grab into their darkness and practice their demonic, dark self. That is not something that we even are supposed to play with.

Let’s not roleplay that, okay? Okay, I have another one for you. I’m gonna be the devil’s advocate. Okay, okay. Yes, you call it. Um, can’t we just dress up? I mean, we could do it, you know, at at church, or we could do it at different places that are safe. It’s just so fun. It is so.

Fun. I mean, I have kids that are dressing up in superhero costumes, which, by the way, we got on discount after Halloween because that’s the best time to get the cool. Um, you can get them like 75% off all the things that they don’t sell, which is fun for kids, like during the regular time of the year. Right? To play dress up. However, I will say that this is important that we understand something. A kid’s play is practice for life. A kid’s play is practice for life. I want you to say that a few times. A kid’s play is practice for life. So if we are letting them play evil, dark, sinister things, what are they practicing? Role playing. And should we be shocked when they are lacking character? Or are mean, or are a bully? Or are. I mean, I don’t even want to get into all the worst things that we’re seeing happening with kids today.

What if they dress up as Captain America?

I understand that, and that can that can be a fun quote unquote thing. That’s where you’re coming from, right? Oh, it’s just fun. And they don’t. What if they don’t wear those scary costumes and that sort of thing? And I get that. So let me let me just share with you. Did you know that October 31st is actually Reformation Day? We mentioned this at the very beginning of the podcast. We talk about it a lot in our other previous podcast episodes that I mentioned to you already. And if you want to be that parent, that’s like, you know what? I’m going to I’m going to reclaim this day. We are I’m going to use this as an opportunity to teach my kids about darkness, but also host something that’s fun so my kids don’t feel like they’re, um, missing out on having fun. We can have fun and celebrate something totally different that’s actually worth celebrating. Reformation day was one of the most significant days in all of modern Christendom because it began the Reformation. So what would they dress up as? They could dress up as monks. They could dress up as. As priests. They could. I mean, you could dress up. You could have a Reformation Day party because October 31st is Reformation Day. Um, you could even have them dress up as other reformers that have happened since then, since those days when they reform things like John Calvin, John Wesley, those guys, we don’t celebrate the actual day that they made reformations. Yeah, but Reformation Day.

That doesn’t sound like fun for a kid to dress up as.

Well, it’s all about. Who are we teaching our kids about? Do your kids even know what those who those guys are. Or do they only know who Captain America is? Because there’s toys everywhere and consumerism that is puffing him, this fake person up to be somebody that they think is real, when in reality we have some really amazing modern day heroes that would be better to have as heroes in our kids minds that they would look up to, that were real people in real life that made massive, significant sacrifices for all of us. And it’s why we’re living with the freedoms that we have today. I mean, I just get super passionate about that idea is that your kids need to know who those people are, and they should be heroes of theirs. But that’s just my personal opinion.

I just don’t want my kids to feel left out. I mean, you know, it’s I don’t want to be those boring parents. I don’t want the kids to look back and go, wow, I didn’t get to participate in all the fun things. And, you know, I don’t want to lose my kids hearts either, because I don’t let them do the fun things. I want to be the fun dad. You want to.

Be the fun dad, the bestie, the bestie dad.

I’m being the devil’s advocate here. Not my.

Real self. No, I yeah, not your real self. I think that, you know, in reality, if you are, if you have a good, healthy relationship with your kids, you’re going to have times where you’re having lots of fun, you’re going to work hard, play hard, you’re going to be teaching them things. You’re going to be having really fun moments with your children, doing fun things. You don’t have to have Halloween be a core memory that your kids have. They can have many other good, fun memories to help build your relationships with them. But I know that for us, we use this as an opportunity to teach our kids about evil, to teach them why in the Bible we are choosing not to participate, right? We’re going to engage it because we’re not going to be fearful Christians. So what does that mean to engage it but not participate in it in a way. Right. Well, you know what Jesus said in his word that there’s this scripture they call it ask, seek, knock. And we have an entire blog post on it where you’re diving into Matthew and you’re looking at the Scripture and you’re reading it with your kids, and you’re talking to them about the importance of when people come and knock on our door. Are we going to actually answer the door like Jesus would? Jesus would answer the door, right? And so we choose to go above and beyond.

We’ve had big candy bars with Bible verses, scriptures that we put on the candy bars because it’s an opportunity. Most people don’t ever come to your door to just say hi, right? And so if somebody’s coming to your door, why wouldn’t you use that as an opportunity to give them a tract? But obviously if you give them a just a tract, they’re going to be like, oh, that’s lame. They’re not necessarily saved, right. Like you’re you want to be giving them something they came for, which is a piece of candy, but then also give them something that shares with them eternal life. Right. And In truth. And so you can be a part of that and be a light and be the salt without having to be participating in it yourself. Right. And I think that finding that line for your family is important on what you teach your kids. And so this was just something that over the years, Isaac and I just grew more and more a deeper conviction on what we were doing. And I think you grow more confident, too. Can I just say, I think a lot of times Christians have a hard time with saying no to the culture.

But Angie, I mean, I celebrated Halloween when I was younger and I turned out okay.

Oh my goodness, you did not just say that this is.

Are you saying I didn’t turn out okay? Yeah.

You didn’t turn out okay. No kidding. No. Okay. This saying we hear all the time in regards to people putting their kids in public school in regards to all kinds of things. Okay, why don’t we just praise the Lord for where you’re at right now and make a declarative sentence that is proclaiming God’s glory, that praise the Lord, that the Holy Spirit saved you from a whole lot of things that were meant for you. Praise the Lord that you had God’s protection over your life. Praise the Lord that you knew who he was. Praise the Lord that you know who he is now, right? Like, but we don’t know what is in store for our kids future. So we have to parent in the here and the now with our eyes open, rose tinted glasses off, not thinking that the world is the same way today. That it was when we grew up as kids. I’m sorry. I was riding my bike until like it was pitch black at night and was gone for hours upon hours in the summer months. I would never allow my kids to do that today. That is dangerous. That’s just not safe. That’s not wise. Parenting. In today’s day and age, with all of the sex trafficking and all of the things that are happening in the world today. And so as parents, you have to be realistic and aware of what’s going on, knowing who the safe people are in your neighborhood. Like, I just it’s shocking to me when people live in neighborhoods and they don’t even do, like, a search for, um, sex offenders. Registered sex offenders. Like, that’s a wise thing to know about.

But, Angie, I mean, receipts have contaminants on it. That puts it on my fingers. I mean, they’re spraying stuff on the grocery store. That’s chemicals to make it look better. They are. You know, there’s stuff people believe. There’s stuff in the sky coming down on me that’s being sprayed from airplanes. I can’t even believe.

It’s.

Happening. I can’t even, you know, turn on the news without World War three being coming. I, I mean, I’m trying to educate my kids, but it’s so hard, you know, I don’t know if I have the right curriculum. I’m trying to bake bread, but it takes someone along. I don’t, you know, I’m trying to provide, but it’s hard to to make it happen these days. And you just got to pick your battles. You just can’t do everything. And this is one of those battles that is just too hard because everybody’s doing it.

Just say no. Just don’t do it. Think about this. Think of how much money you’re going to save. Think of all those numbers Isaac put out there for costumes. You don’t have to spend money on costumes you don’t like. I kind of think when there is that long list of things, I just kind of go, wow, no. Like, we are opting out because that’s not something I’m going to choose to invest in. Like, you have to make your choices on what are you going to invest in? And there are so many other good things that you can invest in. And when you look at what it actually represents and what is happening that night, guys, it is an opportunity. We don’t want to miss this opportunity to teach our kids about evil, to pray against the evil. Can I just say pray against the evil? So if I was to like start going into our unprecedented times tip right now, I would say for it. First thing is pray. Yeah. Pray. Pray and ask God to convict your soul on what his will is. That is a scary prayer when you say, Lord Jesus, I want to live my life fully surrendered to you. Would you convict me of any wayward way in me, and help me to make a wise decision on how I should be approaching Halloween? Would you please lead me, Lord? Would you please bring me and my husband into alignment? Pray. Pray for kids safety for all the kids that are out there.

Because I do think that there is a massive danger. Over the years there have been issues with fentanyl looking like candy and kids eating it and dying. That is a truth. The reality is that fentanyl is 550 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Like, you touch it, you’re toast. It’s not okay. And so when you’re out there and you’re with people who are dressed up in costumes, you don’t know who people are because they’re all dressed up like that. Just doesn’t even seem like a wise thing for me. Like, you don’t necessarily know who’s coming, Who’s out there? You know what I mean? And so be wise. Pray and ask for discernment. Um, teach your kids that there there is a need for us to be praying against the demonic forces. Because clearly, when you read and you even have a link in one of the blog post to the Church of Satan and the different activities and sacrifices that they do on that night, which are very real, by the way, they are unapologetically proclaiming what they do. When you go and you look at that, you will literally be like I had for me. I had no idea. And it made me sick to my stomach, like literally wanted to vomit. And when you realize that as a believer, it leads you to your knees in prayer against that and for protection of kids that are out there. And you guys, this is not something that we want to play with.

I remember back in the day, if you would have told people there is a Church of Satan. There wasn’t really evidence on the surface of that meaning that would be like.

Back before there was the internet.

Yeah, it’d be like, oh, come on, whatever. But now they actually are erecting statues and states. They’re actually proclaiming they. Have social media been around forever? They have websites. You know what I mean? This is but I’m just proving a point that these things weren’t front and center back in the day when we’re first raising our kids. And we heard about these things and we actually believed them, that they were real and so forth, because there’s evidence, there’s people that were interviewed and so forth 20 years ago that we heard stories about and so forth. So but so we as parents, maybe even desensitized because there’s so much more out in front now, but it doesn’t make it any less worse. I mean, it’s not a good thing.

I think the ultimately, we need to recognize that, that these are things that we need to engage. We need to hold. Hold the line is not hiding, like rising up and engaging and running towards the battle and being bold and teaching our kids the why behind it. Yeah, when they get older, they’re going to have to make decisions for their kids.

Okay, so what do we do? So what’s what’s running towards it?

Running towards it. Like for us we chose to to have an open door policy in the sense of like if people are going to come, they’re going to get a big candy bar with scripture on it.

Generous candy.

That’s right. But we don’t let our little kids go answer the door, because there could be some scary costumes that then give them night terrors.

And what do you have on the back of them?

The scripture is on it.

Yeah. The kids are preparing. They’re cutting them out.

They’re you know what I think we will probably do this year. We’ll probably on the back side of that, even put the the address of the new church, because people who are going to be coming would be coming locally. We want them to know, like there is a church that is here that you can go to. You’re invited. We invite you to come visit Rooted Bible Church. Yeah. And so that’s an exciting thing that we can do now as well. But I think that, you know, in the past we have done reformation parties. We have done prayer vigils that we’ve hosted that were like a potluck and our kids all got together and the kids were still able to have candy. We had bowls of candy so they were able to have some candy. We did a bonfire and we prayed and we sang worship music, and we declared the name of the Lord Jesus and we had fun. Yeah, they had games outside and all kinds of things, but it was not. It wasn’t Halloween. It was not Halloween party. The focus was to be praying against the enemy and to be praying for God’s name to be known on earth, and recognizing that it was an opportunity to really instill in our kids that there is good and evil. There are too many people in this world that think that sin doesn’t exist and is a lie from the devil. There are too many people that think that evil doesn’t exist. That’s also a lie from the devil. And so when we have opportunities like this, we can’t hide from it. This is the perfect opportunity to teach our kids no, this is evil. We want to be on God’s team. We need to be praying for the lost souls that are participating.

All right. Share this episode. So more people kind of woke up about this, you know? Yeah.

And I think that, you know, if you guys want more resources, make sure you’re on our email list so that we can send you the free pumpkin gospel, the candy scriptures, all the things that we’ve been using for many years.

There’s nothing to fear. No, we only trust God. And there’s nothing to fear in this world. That’s what the Bible says. Don’t fear anything. Trust me. Right. And if we trust God, the more we trust God, the less we’re going to fear. But we do have a responsibility. We have a huge responsibility to parent well, and parenting well goes Buck. You have to buck against the system. Remember, loving people well is never with the absence of truth, right? Truth and love must go together. And so, so often we’re people pleasing, thinking we’re loving, but we’re actually just allowing more of the wrong things to continue.

Mhm. You know I just want to say something to if you’re looking for more scriptures and you want that. Oh man. We have lists of scriptures on the blog post and in the other two podcast episodes that we mentioned to you, which again, it’s episode 266 and season five and podcast episode 39. And there’s a lot of scriptures in both of those in the blog post as well. Um, but you guys, as Christians, we are not supposed to partake in evil. We’re not supposed to support evil, and we need to be aware of that. And so, um, I just would pray that, you know, as you are parenting today, even if you get pushback from family members, use it as an opportunity to just share with them, hey, this is just my personal conviction, and I believe that I’m going to be held accountable for raising my kids. And this is something that we have chosen not to participate in this year. And then you just stand firm. That’s what holding the line is, is stand firm. Standing firm in what? Your personal.

Convictions. I was wearing my stand firm hat the other night, and someone this kind of strong guy comes up to him and he goes, hey, what does stand firm mean? I go stand firm in the faith. And then he just goes, yeah, give me a big hug. We gotta stand firm in the faith. Yeah. Thanks for joining us.

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Full Transcript:

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

Welcome to Courageous Parenting Podcast, a weekly show to equip parents with biblical truth on raising confident Christian kids in an uncertain world.

Hi, I’m Angie from Courageous Mom and Isaac.

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

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

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

We’re praising the Lord that the ministry continues to expand and impact more legacies. We couldn’t do this without you. Whether you pray for us, give us five star reviews, or share on social.

Or even if you purchase courses and merch, or join the Be Courageous app community, enjoy the coffee or support financially. We’re so thankful you are a big part of the 10 Million Legacies movement.

If you want access to all the episodes, show notes, and other biblically based resources, go to Be Courageous Ministry.

Org. Join us as we start another important conversation about effective parenting in a fallen world. Hey, welcome to the show. We’re so glad you’re here. Hey, guys, we’re talking about warning will your kids want to have children? This is such an important topic because even if you would assume that your children, of course would want to have children, I think this is this episode is about making sure we’re sober minded. We’re thinking clearly about what’s real, not just being an optimist, because what’s real is what’s real.

We can’t just assume that our kids are going to want to have kids, because maybe we wanted to have kids, right? And I think that a lot of people do make that natural assumption, and especially for like, daughters, right? If they like babies when they’re girls and they like babysitting and all that sort of stuff, it’s easy to just assume that they’re going to want to have kids. But the reality is, is there’s some lies in the culture, and we’re going to go over those in today’s podcast to make you aware of what you need to be fighting against and teaching against, actually. And there’s also your kids.

There’s also things parents are doing and saying Christian parents and they don’t even realize it, but it likely could be deterring their children. Your children, perhaps from wanting to have more children way down the road.

We could have named this podcast do you want to have grandchildren? But but we thought, oh, maybe they won’t be thinking that far down the road. But for us, we’re already grandparents. We love our grandchildren. And you know, this reminds me of Proverbs 17 six, which says grandchildren are a are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers. So true. And so this is a scripture that just, hey, listen, there are crown. There’s a glory in having, um, children and grandchildren. And we should have that perspective. If we don’t, we need to check our perspective with the Bible. So we’re really excited to dive into the word with you guys.

Hey, real quick, I do want to say you’re part of the 10 Million Legacies movement. By listening. It helps every listen helps get the word out. And if you share it, give a five star review wherever you play. The episode at Spotify or YouTube or, you know, uh, Apple, wherever it is. Courageous. Parenting.com. We so appreciate it. And we’re about to launch, uh, a giving campaign to the ministry for the purposes of being able to continue doing what we’re doing, but also grow the impact of the ministry. I don’t know if, you know, there’s three podcast shows coming out every week right now. Monday’s hard at home Tuesday. This show haven’t stopped for almost six years. Every single week. Never missed a week. And now Wednesdays for almost a year. Regular show as well. So, um. Hard. The home’s been pretty cool.

It’s exciting. I mean, the heart of the home is the weekly Bible study that I lead on Friday mornings, 10 a.m. Mountain Standard Time in the Be Courageous app. Um, they’re usually about an hour and 15 to an hour and a half long. Um, obviously the replays are available in the app as well, but we have been doing this since last February, which is so exciting that we’re nearing our year first full year of doing this every Friday. Talking about topics related to being a homemaker, a biblical woman, a wife, and a mom. And now you can get a taste test of the Friday morning Bible studies that also have a Q&A. You can get a taste test of that by listening to the heart of the home podcast. Yeah.

Completely free. And if you want more and all the things, be part of the Be Courageous app. So, uh, this is such an exciting time. I by the way, you might be wondering if you’re watching the YouTube why we have different chairs, where are our normal chairs? And we need to.

Go get them back there in the new church building temporarily.

We borrowed them for the open house.

We borrowed a bunch of our stuff for the open house. My house plant. My plant that was in here too is was also gone. Um, quite a few things got borrowed, so we have to go get those still. Yeah, but.

So anyways, be courageous ministry.org and you can see the give button right there. The fundraising campaign. You can read why and what it’s for and so forth, which is really exciting. There’s a lot of good things coming.

So before we dive into our topic of the day, which is warning, Will your kids want to have children themselves? You know, one of the things that we’re going to be talking about in this first point is all about the cultural lies, the things that are not biblical, that are being impressed upon the world today, and how do we equip our children for that? And I want to just share with you guys a resource I’m using this year with my teenagers, with my my high schoolers. It’s an apologetics program by Master Books. Awesome. I am actually already starting to read some of this with the kids, because this is something that we’re going to be working on throughout the year, but they have two different volumes on how do we know that the Bible is true? This is written by Ken Ham and Brad Hodge, and they go over a lot of different things. So if you’ve ever gotten in a conversation with someone where they’ve brought up. Oh well, the Bible contradicts itself or they bring up. Well, what about this? If the Bible says this, what about this? We know that this is true, and they’re antagonistic against the truth that we find in the Bible. These books that are part of an apologetics curriculum help to equip you in knowing what does the Bible actually say, that it’s sufficient and that it doesn’t contradict itself. The other two resource books that we have here are by the same authors as well, but they’re called Demolishing Supposed Bible Contradictions, volume one and volume two. So I’m excited to be going through these volume one and two of these books and of these books, which is Adam and.

Eve, real people. What about the Apocrypha? What about how can I use hell in evangelism? Wow. Very interesting.

And some of the chapters are by Ray comfort, if you’re familiar with his ministry at all. Um, but it’s really a powerful resource. There are other books as well for younger kids. Like the answers, books that are written by Ken Ham and Answers in Genesis. Those are also really great books to get started with your younger kids. If you’re diving into apologetics, it’s just this is a time more than ever where we as parents need to be aware of the lies that are in the culture. And the reality is, is there’s constant temptation to just believe something that you see on a regular basis or you hear on a regular basis, not knowing that that actually goes against a biblical worldview. So as parents, it’s it’s helpful to have tools. Where do they get it? They can find it at master books.com/courageous. We still have the giveaway going. I think that this is going to be the last week. So please go and sign up there. You can also see what other favorite curriculums I have.

So well hey let’s dive in. So our first key for you guys in talking about this is parents. It’s the parents duty to offset the cultural pressures. You already know that because you’re courageous parents you’re listening to this. You’re intentional to even listen to this podcast. Right. Um, but there’s a lot of pressures in culture, and it’s not just protecting your kids while they’re young. You have to equip them to be ready to protect themselves as they’re with peers, as they’re with other people. And it really doesn’t matter as much as you might think it does that. Oh, but my kids are only hanging out with Christian children that I approve of. Well, even in those circles, everybody’s parenting is different. Everybody’s children are exposed to different things you don’t even know about. It is important not to make assumptions. It’s important that we understand those influences will even come through Christian peers. And it’s really important that our children know how to stand against that.

You know, I think it’s important to realize when children are going to church, usually they’re going with parents who call themselves Christians, right? Yeah. You know, but the reality is to understand that those kids are not yet spiritually mature. Many of them have not actually been born again and received Christ as their eternal Savior. And so they’re going to church. They’re obeying their parents, they’re being taken to church. But there’s a whole lot of unsaved people at church. So just because your your kids meet friends at church, it does not automatically mean that they are like minded, that they believe the same things, or that they know the same things or have been protected from the same things. And so I think that it’s really important that we realize that Ephesians chapter two is one of the first places we’re going to start out in Scripture today says, and you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world. So today we’re going to talk about the course of this world, the messages that they give following the Prince of the power of the air. Who are we talking about here? Obviously it’s Satan. He’s the prince of the power of the air, the spirit small s that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. This is the spirit that is at work in the sons of disobedience all over the world right now, okay, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh.

So there’s this temptation, right? We have to put off the old self, put on the new self, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. So this is literally saying all of mankind was actually born the the nature children of wrath. But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he has loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Jesus Christ. I think that you know this scripture. When I look at this, it’s like, okay, this obvious, Contrast of the world and what it’s like to live in Christ, who we once were. Who we now are in Christ. So as we start sharing some of the realities of the messages that are in the world and how it can negatively impact being obedient to what God’s Word says in regard to even having children. Right? Because that’s something that God designed. God designed the family. He designed our bodies to work that way.

So let’s talk about some reasons why. You know, the culture is the pressures of culture against having children, any children at all. And then we’ll talk about ways parents are causing challenges in this too. So first of all, maybe it’s money, right? There’s impression that it costs too much money to do it. In fact, there’s articles out there. Not that your kids are reading these articles, but they’re probably going to hear about these eventually. They’ll see these as they become young adults and so forth. And are you preparing them for this? You know, there’s an article, uh, in US news report that says it’s about 25,000, uh, for one year to have a young child, right?

That’s a lot. And inflation.

I’m already negatively influencing you, but we’re going to fix it in a second. And then there’s another article that talks about it’s about 310,000 to raise a child in your home for those 18 years and so forth. And I just think that those numbers aren’t necessarily true. They might be true for people that do lots of child care, for example. They’re factoring that in. They’re factoring all these things in. But see, when people see those numbers they don’t understand it. Like if, if you’re, you know, not doing lots of child care because or.

Maybe you’re not nursing your baby, so you’re buying formula and you’re, you know, there’s like there’s a way of living that is a lot more expensive. Yes. Right. When you are, um, dependent upon being a consumer.

There’s also economies of scale. There’s as you have more children, it’s like it doesn’t cost that much more. You know, you’re.

Passing down clothing.

You’re passing down clothing, you’re making larger meals, which is more efficient. It’s taking the same amount of time.

There’s less waste.

Propane or electricity on the stove. You know, and these kinds of things, you could just go all kinds of ways. Right. And, you know, it’s interesting because, you know, climate change becomes the the next thing. It’s like fear of hurting the world. And even if you have a more biblical perspective about the earth and what’s going on and so forth. Right. Does the Earth change in temperature? Absolutely. Is are we going to uphold the Earth as an idol over human beings? And no, that wouldn’t be a biblical view at the same time. Are Christians supposed to take good care of the earth and the plants and the animals? They’re supposed to have dominion. Absolutely. Right. So there’s this balance. But, you know, this climate change thing is being used for evil. It is very, very clear. And one of the ways to do it is, I believe, to depopulate the earth and really influence that. Well, it’s.

Something that they’re unapologetic about. It’s not just something that we believe that they’re doing. It’s not A hunch anymore, right? You hear people constantly talking about how we have too much population. It’s it’s a it’s a message that’s being spread everywhere. And in addition to that message, it’s being taught in colleges.

You know, they call it they call it a carbon legacy. I was just looking at the WEF website earlier today in preparation for this. It’s a carbon legacy. So that’s what people are talking about. Well, what is your carbon legacy for you and your children and your offspring in your family? What is the carbon footprint of that? And you should be concerned. Having too many children is bad, they say. Right. Because you’re creating a larger carbon legacy or footprint. And what I would say is now let’s create a godly legacy that shares the gospel generations forward and more people are in heaven because you had more children raised up in the way they should go.

Mhm. It’s interesting too because they’re not actually looking at the they’re not exposing the truth about the science of how plants grow. And they need Carbon dioxide, and then they put off oxygen, which then we breathe. It’s the same kind of ecology of life for us. So we cook and there’s literally zero waste on our food because we eat a lot. But then we give scraps to our chickens, and then our chickens create eggs for us, which we then eat. But then their poo becomes the manure that creates the new dirt, that then grows the next set of plants the next year. And so we have this whole cycle going on where there’s this self-sufficiency, and it’s how God designed it to work.

Yeah, absolutely.

So I think that when you recognise how they can work together versus looking at just one isolated thing, that’s why you have to have a big picture. You have to read the whole Bible, right? And not just take different verses out of context, because I’ve heard of other Christians who will well, they’ll say they’re a believer and they probably are. That’s between them and the Lord. But then they’ll be very judgmental and opinionated on this climate change thing and say, no, I’m not going to have any kids. I’m just going to adopt. Right. And just I just want to say something for a second. If you’ve adopted or you cannot have children because we are talking about this or your kids can’t, because infertility is becoming a bigger and bigger issue, especially with the health crisis that we have in the world, with all of the processed foods and the vaccinations and all the things, the toxins that we’re exposed to that we’re exposing our children to, it may be harder for our children to have kids. And so that being said, there is a need for us as Christians to rise up, to foster care, to adopt, to offer respite and support for families who are adopting. And that’s amazing. It’s not just a just adopt. It’s kind of like saying, I’m just a mom. That’s a huge, awesome responsibility, role and jurisdiction. And honestly, society is built on the backs of families.

Yeah. On the website, the World Economic Forum, WEF. There’s an article that they did a study, and they said 39% of young people globally are hesitant to have children all over the world. Right? And the reason is they’re concerned about climate change. And it also said climate anxiety is a natural response to climate change and can lead some young adults to avoid having children. So they’re normalizing a belief right there. They’re influencing through climate. Anxiety is natural response. Of course you would have that response. That’s a normal.

Thing to do. That’s the loving thing. It’s kind of like when there was the pressure of, oh, do you not love other people? You’re not wearing a mask or you’re not vaccinated. Do you remember this? It was that there was this manipulation.

Be a good Christian and get vaxxed. Otherwise you’re not loving, right? Or lots of top pastors in the land.

Oh push that. Yep, that’s a soapbox different podcast episode. But in reality there’s Christians that are even and people who will play that card regarding climate change. Change with Christians. Don’t you love people? You’re having too many babies. Don’t you know what prevents that? Oh, wow. You’ve got your hands full. All this negativity surrounding children as if they’re a burden. They are the future. They are the future. And not only that, but we know what God’s Word says about children being a blessing. We’re going to look at that in a little bit, because we need to instead turn our kids eyes towards the truth that’s found in God’s Word. When the world is filled with lies from the enemy that all lead to death, which we just read about.

I would just relisten to this. If you’re not in a place where you can take notes, because these are talking points to weave into your tabletop conversations at dinner or morning times and these kinds of things, not all at once, but just weave them in. What are some of these points to enforce? Well, another problem is selfishness in wanting to have control over our lives in a way that makes us not want to have any children, right?

I want my.

Freedom. That is part of the culture. That is the cultural norms that are out there right now. And then. The last culture spreader is fear. It’s just fear of of of the world. The world where things are going, all these kinds of things. And that’s of course, equally, I would say, unfortunately, seems to be in a lot of Christian circles too, is that fear of the world. And so it’s really important that we diffuse those things. In fact, in Romans eight verse five, it says, for those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death. But to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit. In fact, the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. So this is a very clear distinction of how we are to look at things and we’re not supposed to be fearful.

Well, and it’s there’s this challenge that we have right to recognize what is of the flesh and what is of the spirit. Yeah. You have to use discernment. And as your children get older, they’re going to have to make decisions for themselves and you can influence them. But right now, when they’re living in your home, you have the most impact and influence on their life that you will ever have in the future. There will be other voices. There will be what their future spouse believes about children. Their future in-laws believe about children. There will be coworkers. There will be neighbors, people that go to their church, people that are in their generation that they either went to college with or they’re co-workers with. The reality is, is right now, for those of you who are listening, if your kids are living in your home right now, you have the biggest influence you will ever have in your children’s lives. And so you have to teach them the difference of being able to discern when something is a self-absorbed, self-focused, selfish, prideful, um, way of being and all of the things that we’ve just given you. All of the points, whether it’s how much they’re saying it costs to raise a kid over their lifetime or even in a year, or if it’s, oh, I won’t be able to afford the fancy vacations if I have too many kids, or I can’t pay for them to also have a car and a college tuition and all these things, that’ll be too expensive.

I’m sorry. You do not need to buy your kids a car. We both bought our own cars and we’re better off because of it. We also both paid for our educations in in some sorts. And so there’s like this need for people to understand that when your kids have to work hard for something, they appreciate it more and they learn how to take care of it. And more people in the older generations used to understand that there’s been something that is disconnected from one generation to the next that has led to wayward parenting, And that it’s just simple things that have created an entitlement attitude that then creates self-indulgences, right where people are like, no, it’s about me. I want to live my dream, my best life, my this. I don’t want to have kids. I want to be a dink. That’s a real big thing right now. Like if you look on social media, this generation, the generation Zs, there’s this phrase that they use where it’s it’s called being a dink, where they want to grow up, have their own career and not have kids.

That is a terrible word. Like, I don’t even know what it means, but I would just acronym. I would just never say that about myself without even knowing what it means.

I mean, it just sounds really lame. What does it mean? You’ll have to look it up, okay? Or I’ll look it up while we’re talking here, but. All right. Hey, guys. Thanks so much for listening to the Courageous Parenting Podcast. We just want to take a moment to highlight some of our awesome sponsors who are actually there making the Courageous Parenting Podcast possible. And so let’s just take a moment and listen to the sponsors, and then we’ll get back to the show. I’m not naturally artistic, at least not in the fine art sense. So when my kids showed early on that they loved art, I wanted to nurture that creativity. That’s why we love creating a masterpiece. They’re award winning art programs are for everyone ages four ish through 104. Plus, your family gets to practice drawing, using watercolors, charcoal sculpting, painting, and so much more. And the best part? You get to do it all together. Building relationships, making memories, and letting creativity grow. Visit Creating a masterpiece.com/courageous to sign up for one low rate for your entire family that’s creating a masterpiece.com/courageous because anyone can create a masterpiece. But I want to share with you guys from Romans chapter 12 verse two. We’ve quoted this scripture so many times, you know this, but we’re going to start with verse one. It says, I appeal. I appeal, that’s not that’s like when Paul saying, I urge you, brothers, I beseech you, I appeal.

Please do.

This. Therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. You know what I wrote? Redeeming Childbirth because I believed that there was this there was this relationship I had with the Lord where there were times where I was scared to have another baby, and I had to work through that myself, and I had to come to a peace of like, Lord, what is your will for my family? And that is our story. That may not be your story. I’m just sharing part of our just a little bit of our story for a second. During those times, in prayer and in study of Scripture, I had to come to a place where I recognized that I was offering up my body in as a spiritual act of worship, to present my body, to say, Lord, use me as a vessel to bring forth life in a way that glorifies you. I’m willing to partner with you in bringing forth life again, and I’m going to trust you to take care of me. I believe you’re calling me to do this. I’m not going to disobey you in this because I knew that it was something he was calling me to, but I was reluctant and and it was all because I wanted an easier life.

Actually, it was all it was about me. I was really struggling. Oh, I don’t want to be puking again. Oh, I don’t want to feel that way. Oh, I want I just got out of diapers. Blah blah blah blah blah. Like, you could think of so many things, but I had to come to a place where I was willing to sacrifice a little bit of time, nine months of hardship because my postpartum were not as hard. Maybe for you, postpartum is harder and you have a great pregnancy. It doesn’t matter what it is. There always comes a time in parenting where you have to lay down your life for your child. That is called good parenting. It’s also helps us to understand the gospel and how Jesus laid down his life for all of us. That is something that God the Father did when he gave his only son for us. We have to learn what it means to sacrifice, and this scripture calls us to something higher. First two it says, do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind. Which, by the way, that only happens by reading the Bible. That by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is the good and acceptable and perfect.

So your children need to be discerning. Discerning. They can only be if they’re reading this in their own time, unprovoked by you. Meaning they are choosing that the Bible has wisdom. I’m going to go read that. If you don’t see evidence of that as they’re being raised in your home, what makes you think that something’s going to change once they’re in a youth program or once they launch from your home? Right. It doesn’t just change because they have a social environment. Oftentimes those social environments aren’t lending towards more of reading the Bible anyways, so it’s really important. Second thing is, do your kids feel like a burden or a blessing? We’re going to talk about the parenting responsibility, what Christian parents might be causing, in addition to worst peer pressure and cultural pressure. Now we have these issues too that could be perpetuating this in your children. If you want to have a legacy of faith, if you want to have grandchildren someday, then you have to take these things to heart, which is. And we do too. Do your kids feel like a burden or a blessing? Meaning how we talk to them. How we talk about them? Um, the issues of moments of correction. Um, is there a lot of yelling in the home? Um, you know, there’s an episode about yelling. You can find it, by the way. You can just Google or whatever browser you use. Courageous parenting in a word like anger. And you’ll find the podcast, the podcast episode on anger, most likely. Right. Courageous parenting on, um, you know, burden. You’ll find season four, episode 218, which is do your kids feel like a burden or a blessing? So we have a whole episode on this point, so we’re not going to talk at end about it, but it’s something that you definitely need to think about and consider and talk to you.

And the reason why it’s so important is because if your kids grow up feeling like they were always a burden, then they may view children as a burden and not want them, right? But if they view them the way God talks about them as a blessing, which is something that you first have to read and then also speak and treat, it’s how you treat your children, right? Um, but then reiterating and really loving and valuing life. Like, are you in a culture like a community even that just really values life, that wants to celebrate life, that wants to have baby showers, that wants to, like, bless the mama and bring meals and support? Like when you are in a community that is like that. It is literally the most influential thing on your daughter’s and on your son’s for them as they grow older so that they have a biblical view of kids. If you’re not part of a community that’s like that, if your church isn’t like that and you’re just too separated to where they don’t even know when someone’s had a baby. There’s no meals coming. There’s no, like, baby shower support, whatever. Like, then you need to find a different church. I’m just going to say it because life, this is literally one of the first things that God commanded Adam and Eve was to be fruitful and multiply. It is near and dear to God’s heart, which we’re going to look at in a few minutes. But when you are raising your kids, it’s hard when you feel like you’re the only one.

Yeah, and I think that for us, like there are many things I can think of, like homeschooling, for example, we’re a first generation homeschoolers. Some of you might be. Also, it can feel like you’re a salmon swimming upstream. Like like there are people that don’t believe in you. There are roadblocks. Maybe you you feel like you don’t know if you’re doing enough. You’re afraid you’re going to fail your kid. Like all of those things are very real. I remember feeling them a lot the first eight years that we were homeschooling, especially obviously now 21 years into it, I have graduated three. It’s like, no, this is what we’re doing for our family. This is the best thing for our family. But I remember how it felt being alone. And if you are a person who is trying to raise your kids to value life and to not fall into this trap and lie of make an idol out of the earth and worship the earth and worship the animals and and feel bad and be a skeptic and a sinister, you know, just being a cynical person about, oh man, my my own life is not even worth living because I’m ruining the earth. Like that is a depressing way to live. We don’t want our kids to catch on to those kinds of messages that are being pushed on them from school, from friends.

If I could just correct that thought, that message from somebody that you wouldn’t expect, you might have heard this. But Elon Musk says if people don’t have more children, society is going to crumble. He has said this over the last three years. Charlie Kirk and Tucker Carlson. Yeah, but those are those are normal ones. But you know, Elon, you know, here’s somebody who’s even aware. He’s even aware. It’s from a mathematical standpoint, there’s not enough replication. There’s not enough children being born to replace what’s happening. We’re on a decreasing. And it’s from an economic perspective. We will not have enough jobs. We will not have enough people in the world. We need more people. And by the way, when I was looking this up, there’s a lot of articles that refute what Elon Musk is saying. And I’m just like, okay, the guy that understands economic situations in a way where he’s a CEO of several companies, started several companies changing the world in all these ways. I’m not validating him from a spiritual perspective at all. I hope you don’t get me wrong here, but from an economic business mindset, smarts, mindset, understanding what’s happening from an economic standpoint, I would much more trust what he’s saying than these liberal articles that are trying to refute him on every single point. So we know, you know this. We’ve we’ve watched something called demographic bomb, like 15 years ago.

Oh, I’m so glad you brought that up. I literally was going to talk about it. We’ve been.

Talking about this for 15.

Years or longer. I mean, I think Kelsey was maybe eight years old back then when we watched it and stats.

Were already there.

It was already there about what countries are going to be taken over by what people groups, based upon the fact that they’re believing this lie and they’re their population, their children, parents to children was 1.4 kids per family back then. And now there’s hardly any like France is taking over. So we watched.

This when our children were little and we didn’t even have them all. We were on an RV trip to the Oregon coast and we literally in the RV watched it together. Yeah, I.

Remember the first time I’ve watched it so many times because.

Why did we want that? Because of this very point. We don’t want them to get caught up in the negative culture that was there 20 years ago. Yeah, we watched it with our kids. We watched it because we were setting them up for this very point that we’re teaching you now. We’ve done for 15 years or more already with our children. It’s so important.

They can actually watch that on Prime. I’m pretty sure someone recently mentioned it to me. I would recommend it. It is worth watching. Remember that it was actually made like 1015 years ago and they interview even non-believers, but their demographic specialists all around the world talking about the population and the different issues and the crisis that they are predicting ten years, 20 years, 30 years down the road. And it literally now that it’s like 15 years later, everything’s getting predicted. It all happened. It’s all happening right now. It’s totally.

True. Another point I just want to bring up, and we’ll go into our final point in our unprecedented time tip, which is the two best things of this episode, um, is that I was looking up. You know, a lot of people believe that the mRNA vaccinations cause infertility, and there’s vaccine injuries and these kinds of things. And I was trying to look up and find a reputable article about that. And every single article was denying that the mRNA Covid vaccinations had any issues with infertility, miscarriages, things like that. I thought I was blown away by that. Fahrenheit 450. And then? And then I go, well, I’m going to use my brave browser and my brave browser. I couldn’t find one either. And so I can’t with authority because I wanted to have a source share that that’s a thing. But it’s certainly when you talk to Christian doctors and nurses, it appears to be a thing.

No it is. And when you know people who have been injured, so I’m going to circle back.

My point is something different, actually. The point is your children are going to be in a society where you can’t look up things and get a balanced perspective. You can’t look up things and find a viewpoint that’s accurate. You know what?

On that note, I want to interject. There are two really good books. We’ll put them in the blog post that I’ve read. One is called Turtles All the Way Down. It is fantastic. It was written by five anonymous Israeli scientists and it evaluates vaccinations from top to the bottom. It is fantastic. Hands down. Best book I’ve ever written on this. Have books because the websites are an issue. So you have to invest in having some books so that you can pass them on to your kids to read.

Build your library, but also teach them about that. Use examples. Google something you know is going to be censored, and only give them one way and show them that yeah, show them something they know is true is being shown as not true. When you look it up that education, real life education of how the algorithms work, how technology, big tech in Silicon Valley is working, how much different is it going to be in the future than that? Oh my goodness. Well, with AI.

People are not trained enough to read anymore. And the literacy rate, or rather illiteracy rate in America is going up. Literacy rates going down. Look up.

Uh, Google courageous parenting, critical thinking, and you’ll find an incredible episode about helping your children be good critical thinkers, to not get fooled by AI in the future and things like.

That. You know, I think, okay, so we are talking about the importance of being careful about the conversations that you have in your marriage. This is our point. Three be careful about the conversations that you’re having in your marriage when there’s little ears listening. Um, but also be intentional about the conversations you’re having in your marriage, knowing that little ears are listening and bigger ears are listening and middle ears are listening. So use your authority. Use your jurisdiction to equip and to prepare your children to know what they believe and why. By being intentional and teaching them, I just want to share a couple verses ones. In first John 215 it says, do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. And then it just continues on this whole passage. Memorize verses like this. Memorize verses like Colossians three two that says, set your minds on things that are above, not on things on the earth, right? Like, this alone is like a perfect verse for saying, hey, don’t make an idol of the Earth. The Earth is temporary. You’re. You’re like a sojourner on a traveling spree. You’re only here for a short period of time. Focus on the things that are eternal. Focus on the Lord. Teach your kids what the Word of God says so that they know what God. How God views children, which is the next thing we want to talk about. Right?

So and just just realize that there’s so much in the last three, 4 or 5 years. There’s so much that has happened, I guess since 2020. There’s so much that has happened, so many things to talk about, the knowledge, so many people talking heads, not in a negative way, but so many influencers talking about things and so many people tapped into that, that parents are naturally having conversations about their conspiracy theories that came true. I get it. We have these conversations right. They’re not conspiracy theories anymore. If all of them are coming true. Right. So but what’s happening when little ears are hearing this, little ears are hearing this, and it’s not given in a balanced view. It’s okay. We trust me. We educate our children on the things of this world. They probably know more than a lot of adults do. But, but, but here’s the thing. We balance that, and I have to be purposeful about it and think about it, because I don’t feel like I need the balancing myself, even though I really do. But our children need that from you. They need a biblical view. They need to have hope in their future. Do your children have hope for their future? And they likely won’t. If you’re not that balancing act, sharing scripture with them, giving them a vision for the future and what their family’s going to be like. It’s so important.

Okay, so we’re going to share a few verses that would be really powerful for you to read with your kids, and not just once. You need to bring them up, talk about them many times over the course of the years. So like, if you’re even only imagine if you were only reading these three verses, these three little passages of Scripture with your kids once a year. Do you think that that would make an influence? I mean, maybe, but what if you were doing it once or twice a year? What if you were doing it three times a year? What if it was 4 or 5 times a year? Plus, they’re hearing it from people in their community, and they’re hearing you reference it in regards to when a baby is born and you’re like, oh, we’re going to go to the store, you’re going to come with me. We’re going to pick out a baby shower gift because children are a blessing from the Lord. They’re a fruit of the. And then the kids are going to say womb, you know. And so, like you, you want your kids to have these verses ingrained in them. The first one we’re going to share is Psalm 37 verse four.

It says he will bring forth righteousness. Oh, wait. Sorry. Delight yourself in the Lord. So how do you delight yourself in the Lord? First, I just want to say again this is reading the the Word of God. We see in Proverbs the beginning of Proverbs. I meditate on your law day and night and this like overwhelming over and over again. We see throughout the Psalms and the Proverbs. Lord, thank you for your word. I’m meditating. I’m thinking on your word. I’m obeying your law. I want to obey your commands. We see that in John 14. Four times. If you love me, you will obey me. Obey me. And then I know you will love me, right? And so there’s this. There’s this call for Christians to be in the word. Delight yourself in the Lord, and then he will, it says, and he will give you the desires of your heart. So as you are cultivating and and growing in your child a desire to have children, you have to teach them to delight themselves in the Lord. First and foremost, it’s about seeking his will and discerning what he wants for his people. And then you go to Psalm 127, verses three through five.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb, a reward like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them. He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate. So hey, you got to have a vision for the future, and you got to share that vision with your children for the future. Do they have a vision for their family? Do they have a vision for what their future looks like? Is their vision for the future tainted by hearing conversations amongst you, amongst others? Amongst peers? Hearing the dialogue in society compounded even in church. They could be hearing things, you know. What are they hearing? And messages repeated over time get implanted as truth, as doctrines they hold on to. And we don’t want any bad doctrines to be held on to with your children. Paradigms of how they look at the world, what is their paradigm of their future. And it’s going to take work to make sure it’s even as good as yours might have been for having a family and raising a family. So it’s really, really important to have that vision. So let’s give an unprecedented times tip.

So we were talking about this for a while, and I think that the biggest thing is an encouragement to dream more with your kids, to not get bogged down about the realities of what are happening in the world, and to think negatively about the future, but instead to be hopeful and to be excited about the future, and to give your kids that hope and that vision, and to believe in the blessing of children, because that is something that the Lord promises. We literally just read it. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord and the children.

The future needs your children’s children.

That’s right. Psalm 128. So right after the scripture that Isaac just read in Psalm 127 says, blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways. Are you going to raise your kids to walk in his ways? It says, you shall eat the fruit of your labor, of the labor of your hands. You shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house. Your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. And then it just continues on. But it says, May at the very end, verse six, it says, May you see your children’s children, peace be upon Israel. And I go, whoa, look at that vision that God gives us of what it looks like to be blessed by him, what we’re called to as God’s people, to be faithful, to love the Lord, to work hard and that what his vision is, I’m going to bless you. And it’s not in the it’s not in the eyes of the world kind of blessing. It’s spiritual blessings which are treasures in heaven. It’s children. They’re the only thing you can potentially take with you or people in the sense of sharing the gospel. So here’s.

A challenge. Do you believe that Scripture? Do you believe it’s the infallible Word of God? And you’re going to say, yes, I believe it. Well, then let’s make sure we speak it. Let’s make sure we share it. Let’s make sure our children are indwelled with that truth that there is vision for them in the future, that God has a plan for their families and their children’s children and believe in that. We don’t know when Jesus is coming back. You know, we need to act like he’s coming back today, but we also need to understand that he may not come back for generations upon generations. No person knows, no matter what their end times theology is. They don’t know for sure he’s going to come like a thief in the night. So we need to act like we’re going to live a long time, but also live like Jesus. Come back tomorrow. We need to live in that duality, and we need to help our children to live in that and have a long term vision. And accidentally, too many Christian families are going to serve up a short term vision, and they’re going to reap the bad rewards of that way down the road 3 to 5 years from now. The big complaint, the big worry, the big concern amongst the Christian church is going to be children are not that are now adults are not having children themselves.

So what can you do? What can you do right now? Dream more with your kids. Read the Bible more with your kids, specifically these scriptures in Psalm 127, Psalm 128, Psalm 37 um, constantly speaking life to your kids and dream with them. Won’t it be fun when you have a baby someday? And I get to be the grandma and like, just dreaming? What? What do you want on your wedding day? And, like, thinking about those different milestones in their life is so important as they’re growing up. Otherwise they’re going to be left to get their vision from the world and from what they see elsewhere. And it might not be biblical. And so we just want to encourage you guys today knowing what’s happening in the world, not being fearful of it, not being focused on it. Keep your eyes on the Lord. Keep your eyes on heavenly things and on the truth. But evaluate right now. What is the message that you’re sending your kids? Is it one that’s going to encourage them to have children, your grandchildren, or is it going to discourage them?

Thanks for joining us. See you next time.

Hey, thanks for listening and being a part of the 10 Million Legacies movement. Go to be courageous Ministry. Org for more biblically based resources, ways to switch where you spend your money that support the mission and information about the incredible Be Courageous app community for believers.

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Full Transcript:

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

• Private Group for Christian Moms with weekly lives with Angie Tolpin
• Weekly podcast Q&A with episode behind the scenes content. Just type in your question!
• Exclusive biblical resources such as the Courageous Marriage and Redeeming Childbirth series.
• Exclusive access to the courageous kid’s podcast. Play it for your kids to stir up good discussions.
• Monthly LIVE Q&A with the Tolpins; ask the anything.
• Powerful Biblically minded community.
• Topic-based discussion groups.
• You get your own profile and can connect with others.
• Growing libraries of LIVE replays

All Ministry Resources: becourageousministry.org

Our Courses

• Parenting Mentor Program, self-paced online program that equips you to biblically parent during unprecedented times.
• The Homeschooling Blueprint, the online program to boost your effectiveness & help your kids thrive.
• Postpartum Course, The First-Ever Christian Postpartum Course.
• Cultivating Biblical Friendships  The course that helps women build lasting Godly friendships.

• Financial Giving, is important to support our family and expand the impact of the ministry. We aim to impact 10 million  legacies. We are in full-time ministry as a large family, so everything makes a difference. 

Thank you for being part of this movement to equip 10 million families and their legacies with Biblical truth to raise confident Christian kids in an uncertain world.

Full Transcript:

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

Welcome to Courageous Parenting Podcast, a weekly show to equip parents with biblical truth on raising confident Christian kids in an uncertain world.

Hi, I’m Angie from Courageous Mom and Isaac.

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

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

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

We’re praising the Lord that the ministry continues to expand and impact more legacies. We couldn’t do this without you. Whether you pray for us, give us five star reviews, or share on social.

Or even if you purchase courses and merch, or join the Be Courageous app community, enjoy the coffee or support financially. We’re so thankful you are a big part of the 10 Million Legacies movement.

If you want access to all the episodes, show notes, and other biblically based resources, go to Be Courageous Ministry.

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

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

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

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

It’s hard to see.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yeah.

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

Yeah. You got to get your seasons right.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I know you better stop the garden.

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

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

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

We couldn’t even imagine.

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

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

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

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

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

Lightning and thunder. Thunder.

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

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

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

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

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

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

What Angie and Isaac have done in creating this is literally phenomenal.

This program provided awesome scripture based teachings and just some really great practical applications.

This class has just really rocked my world.

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

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

It’s not just these hypothetical situations or it’s not just this. Here’s what I think you should do. It’s let me show you where in Scripture this is.

Do your legacy.

A favor.

And.

Your self a favor and just do it.

One of the best things that we’ve done this year, one of the best investments we’ve made this year. And I could not recommend it more. We’re no longer.

Fearing dark days ahead, but we’re so excited to raise lights to be leaders for the next generation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was definitely choosing.

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

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

Oh my.

Foreign places. Dangerous places. New York City.

Oh yeah. Eight months pregnant.

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

It was way more memorable.

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

Not as much. Yeah.

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

So there it is.

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

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

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

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

Book last night, I.

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

Are you disqualifying my book reading?

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

I was learning about Israel.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Biblical peace and righteousness. Kiss. Kiss what?

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

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

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

What God called.

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

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

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

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

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

It would not be good.

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

Good experience.

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

They’re learning a lot of lessons.

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

Yeah, yeah.

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

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

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

Except for when drew got.

Drew just.

Sprained ankle.

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

You know, harder.

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

Parts of Canada.

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

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

So thanks for joining us.

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Full Transcript:

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

Welcome to Courageous Parenting Podcast, a weekly show to equip parents with biblical truth on raising confident Christian kids in an uncertain world.

Hi, I’m Angie from Courageous Mom and Isaac.

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

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

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

We’re praising the Lord that the ministry continues to expand and impact more legacies. We couldn’t do this without you. Whether you pray for us, give us five star reviews, or share on social.

Or even if you purchase courses and merch, or join the Be Courageous app community, enjoy the coffee or support financially. We’re so thankful you are a big part of the 10 Million Legacies movement.

If you want access to all the episodes, show notes, and other biblically based resources, go to Be Courageous Ministry.

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

Hey, everybody.

So glad to have you here. This is an important topic, especially in times where there’s this tendency to want to really protect our children, which we’re not saying that’s wrong, but at the same time, we have to make sure they’re learning their lessons and growing up to be resilient for a different world in the future.

So resiliency is something that’s going to be cultivated in kids when we’re not overprotecting them, but we’re also not overly permissive to where they’re irresponsible.

So where is the perfect balance? Well, I promise you, we won’t give you an exact equation for your family today. But we will give principles, talk about stories and as much insights as possible. After all we’ve launched. I don’t know if you know this, but for adults already.

Well, it’s interesting. We yeah, we have four kids, 18 and over. Um, two are out of the house and we have seven more that we are in the midst of training. So this is something that we deal with even on a regular basis. In fact, one example I was thinking about this earlier when Isaac and I were preparing, and there was a time I was thinking about this scenario where I wanted to. I was near a store to get a specific thing that one of my kids needed, right? And I had already told them multiple times, hey, you should get this. Hey, hey, you should just order it online. So you get it in time. Yeah. Have you gotten it yet? And, you know, we had an event that was coming up, and I saw the shop, and I wasn’t with them, and I thought, well, I could just go in and get it for him. And so I said this out loud to Isaac, and he goes, no, they need to get it themselves.

They need to experience the pain of their decision making, of.

Their forgetfulness, of their choosing to be more lazy or procrastinate.

Isaac. It’d be easy. You’re already there. It’s an hour away to get it. You got this thing you know that was coming up. And why not just go in and get it?

It would be blessing your child.

I was like, no, let’s not do that. That? No, because we have to think a little differently than what’s natural. Naturally, we want to nurture, protect, provide help in every way. And by all means, we need to do those things. But there are some times where we need to purposefully make sure our children experience sowing and reaping while they’re in our homes.

Well, and sometimes we can be enabling our kids, right? If we’re just doing everything for them. And so that was one of those situations where I was like, not necessarily thinking about it. I was just thinking, oh, I’ll be helpful. I’ll go do this. My heart was right. And Isaac went, no, this kid needs to learn this lesson. Like, they need to feel the little bit of pain, of not having followed through on the thing that they know they need, like let them experience that so that they don’t do that again. Right.

So we’re going to talk about there’s some things you can do. You might have littles, you might have middles, you might have older kids. And this will be relevant to whatever age your children are. We have all at the same time plus grandkids. So we know what you’re talking about or dealing with.

I mean, yes, yes. There are times when with the littles, I’m like, I feel like I’m doing everything for them. And then there are times when I go, oh yeah, I need to like, really believe what I like, live out what I believe, which is that kids are more capable than we think they are of doing things. Do you know what I mean? Like sometimes I do, I actually create more work for myself by doing too many things for them sometimes, right? Um, and then they miss out on learning how to do those things. Like cooking is one of the best examples for little kids. How many moms don’t want to have their kids in the kitchen because it takes too long and it’s too messy?

It’s importance of delegation, right? And not having mommy guilt about it.

But if you think about it, just even that thought of like letting them in the kitchen, how many people grow up and don’t know how to cook well and don’t enjoy it?

So much to unpack here, plus more than we’ve said already. Uh, get all the show notes and resources. Be courageous ministry.org. Make sure you give it a five star review if you love the show, and share it on whatever your favorite player does. You know we’re on Spotify, YouTube, we’re on Google Play, Google, We’re on Apple, we’re everywhere Amazon. So you can just search for the podcast and subscribe. So you make sure you get it every week. By the way, we haven’t really talked about this, but heart of the home podcast is out. There’s two episodes launches every Monday, all the same players. And it is unbelievably good practical insights for mom. It is so good. And if you want the bonus footage and you want the Q&A and ability to be there, live and powerful community, then you can get all of that. Plus the library of episodes that have already been shot in the Be Courageous app too.

Yeah, I believe that this Friday I’ll be, um, live going through the 26th heart of the home, right? 31st or 31st. Wow. I’ve been doing 31 weeks in a row anyway. It’s just been a really great time. Um, with the ladies in the Be Courageous app. So if you want to join me in the Courageous Mom group, they’re in the app and be able to be answering, you know, asking questions, be a part of the Q&A at the end, which is not actually on the podcast. That’s exclusive for the app only.

But the free podcast does stand on its own in the valuable content. So go get it. That’s right. All right. So you. We’ve got curriculum to talk about and then we’ll dive in.

I know, so you guys, one of the things as a homeschool mom, this is our 21st year homeschooling. Wow. That’s a lot. That’s that’s over two decades I’ve been homeschooling. That’s kind of crazy to think about. I’ve used all kinds of different curriculums, and one of my favorite curriculums that I’m using this year so far is master books. I don’t know if you’re familiar with them. If you haven’t looked them up, you got to go to Master Books.com forward slash courageous. You can look through the different things they have there. We have a giveaway going with them as well, which is super awesome. So you got to check that out. There’s only a few weeks left of that. Um, and you know, one of the things that I want to encourage you guys with is when you’re homeschooling over the years, one of the things I’ve experienced is that sometimes my kids, certain kids, will thrive in certain subjects over others, like one kid might be like two grade levels ahead in math, but be behind by a year in spelling or in some other subject, right? Like science or something. And it can be different based upon how your kid is wired and what comes like natural to them and what they’re really good at.

And my motto has always been like, keep your kids stimulated, right? So that’s why, like some kids will get ahead in science, some kids will get ahead in writing, right in reading and things like that. And it’s different for every kid, which is kind of cool to see how God wired them. But one of the things I like about master books is that you can get a grade level curriculum, but you can swap out different subjects. So if you have a kid that’s already done some of the most fundamental science curriculum for grade four, you can switch it out and get a totally unique science curriculum for them and swap it out. Same kind of goes for history and different things like that. So it’s I like that it’s a plug and play kind of curriculum, which goes well with a mom who has kids that are thriving in different subjects at different seasons. So anyway, go check them out. Master books.com/courageous. All right, let’s dive in.

Let’s dive in. You know think about for a second your relationship with God God’s relationship with you. It’s a two way street right. And imagine for a second that when you prayed to God he gave you everything you prayed for. Of course, we all know that’s not true. That’s not biblical. We know we don’t believe that. But imagine if that were the case. Would that be good for you?

Mm.

That would not be good for you. Because so many times we think we know what’s best for us and we pray for things and God hears us. But he answers that prayer in a completely different way than what we asked for. And sometimes it is in his will, and he does give us what we ask for. And that’s just an amazing thing. But he is so good. He’s like, he is the perfect parent. None of us are perfect, so he can discern perfectly what we need and what he allows to happen, and what he answers in prayer and how he answers it and so forth. But it certainly is not just giving us what we want. It’s not just doing everything for us. And so therefore we want to model ourselves as best we can after God. We don’t want to just give our children everything they ask for. We don’t want to just do everything for them. Obviously, if they’re babies, that’s different, right? But as they get a little bit older, they need to start to experience the spiritual law of sowing and reaping. They need to start to work the muscle of following through and doing things on their own. And not just mommy, not just daddy doing things for them.

Right. And I think that one thing that we need to recognize is that God as our father in heaven, he models for us what we as parents should be following his example and how we are to parent. Right. And so, Isaac, you have a scripture you’re going to share in a second. But for the parents that are listening this scripture for me. When I listen to this from the perspective of a parent looking at how God as a father is treating those he loves, that’s convicting to me because I go, oh, wait a second. I’m always trying to protect my kids from experiencing tests, trials, suffering those kinds of things. And I’m not saying that like, none of us want our kids to suffer, right? Like, God doesn’t want us to suffer. But sometimes we as parents, because we love our kids like we try to help them not to experience so much of the consequence when there is a bad decision that’s made. And one of the things that we’ve talked about, we talk about this a lot in the Parenting Mentor program, right? Is that when your kids are littler, letting them experience some of the consequences, like, for example, if they are riding a bike, not always being there to make sure they don’t fall over like they need to fall over so that they know how to get back up. It’s the same thing with your kids. When they’re crawling or learning how to walk you, they have to fall over. But do you as a parent, sometimes with your little ones, maybe move the coffee table out of the way and stuff and and that? I’m not saying that that’s a bad idea. We did that with our kids, right? Because they would bonk their head on it or whatever. Um, but there is an element of not over protecting to where they never learn. And then all of a sudden they’re they’re out there and they fall and they get really, really hurt.

I think everybody just needs to think about their own children, their own relationship with how they’re parenting, and be honest about it and just think about where they might be micromanaging, overprotective, where they might be too permissive on the other side. And we want to be on that good firm road that’s best for your family. And Psalm ten, Psalm 66, verse ten through 12, it says, for you, O God, have tested us. You have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net. You laid a crushing burden on our backs. You let men ride over our heads. We went through fire and through water. Yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance. I love that scripture because it really does show that things, challenging things happen and we learn through that. Right. He allows us to go through the fire using silver as an example. How do you get pure silver or very close to pure silver? It needs to be refined in a melting pot. And and it’s a refining process. It’s burned to burn all the impurities out. And I really think as we look at Scripture in so many places, that’s what God is trying to do in us. And could parents sometime be preventing the refining that God wants in their children because they’re overdoing it in some areas, or underdoing it in some others.

And so we just need to find out. Okay. Are there areas sometimes it’s just one of the parents. And this is an important marriage conversation. That’s where the parenting mentor program is so helpful because Angie and I teach together and you can allow that to be something that brings up these conversations and to work through them in a six week process, of course, is self-paced. But anyways, I think that’s so important to think about. So God’s relationship with us, we talked about that, and he is a perfect example of how we should also parent, which is allowing things to happen sometimes to our children so that they learn those lessons so that they’re strengthened. Aren’t we strengthened when we have those? When you think back of those times where you’re like, wow, God is so powerful. Not every time, but many times, that has to do with difficulty and how God brought you out of that. And many times he brings you out of that, not in the way you expect. And those are God stories. That is faith strengthening. And so we want to make sure your children have those experiences.

You know, first John three one is a beautiful scripture that shows that how the father views us. It says, see what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called children of God. And so we are. We are called children of God. Your children are actually called children of God. And I think that there’s this aspect, as parents where we have to learn to trust the Lord with his kids. See, I think that a lot of us, you know, you know, that overwhelming feeling when you just have a baby and you have them in your arms and all of a sudden you didn’t think that you could love them any more than you already did when they were in your womb. And you are just flooded with even more love. And the more that you experience parenting and they’re growing up, and you’re experiencing all the fun experiences that life has for you as a parent and a child. You just continue to grow and grow and grow and more and more love for them, right? And the truth is, is that I think that God puts that in us. We are made in his image, and he has that same kind of love for us that we are his children. But I think that for parents, you know, we we as parents struggle with this, this illusion called control. And I say it’s an illusion because there are there are some things that we might have control over in our life.

We have control over the decisions that we make. Right. And then those decisions have consequences, whether it be good or bad. There’s repercussions. There’s you reaping and sowing. Right. And the reality is, is that a lot of us rely on our own strength, and we don’t get pushed to have to trust God with a lot of things, actually, because we’re pretty capable people. And when we’re using wisdom and we’re making wise decisions, sometimes we don’t experience that many hardships in life. Right? And the truth is, though, is that life is humbling in a good way. It reminds us who really is in control, who really is sovereign. It reminds us that we’re not sovereign. It reminds us that we are not like God. We are not all knowing. We are not wise. All all wisdom is from him. So even though we can have wisdom from the Lord and we can seek wisdom, we are not God who is all knowing and all wise, right? And so, as parents, who is the best person that you could ever trust your kids with? It’s God. He he. Not only is he the most trustworthy, but he loves your children even more than you do. He created them in your womb. He knit them together as what we see in Psalm 139. And so understanding when we’re in these different decisions that we have to make as a parent, we need to ask ourselves, hold on a second, am I doing this because I don’t trust God? Am I doing this or making this parenting decision out of fear.

Now we talked. We’ve talked a lot about how our anti fear based parenting. Right. We have a whole thing that we talk about in the parenting Mentor program on this. Um, and I just want to bring part of that into it. So fear based parenting is not biblical parenting. We are not called by God’s Word or even made. If we have God’s Spirit indwelt in us, we will not be walking in a spirit of fear. We’ll be walking in a spirit of power, love, and self-control. Right? And if we as parents are making decisions out of fear, then we need to repent of that. We need to evaluate why are we making these decisions this way and change our ways? But for us as parents, part of that is remembering that God is the father of our children. Mhm. So, you know, as we are continuing in what we’re talking about, there’s a few examples that we see in God’s relationship with us. One is he doesn’t always say, yes, I think you talked about that. He also disciplines those that he loves. And I just want to share a verse with you guys in Proverbs chapter three, verse 11 and 12 says, my son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof. For the Lord reproves him who he loves as a father, the son in whom he delights.

What a perfect scripture for what we’re talking about here, right, is because we want to mimic that. We want to be like that because the challenge is this is our next point, which I think is a weighty point, something we hadn’t really put to words until preparing for this episode. But we want to share it with you, is that it is possible. Just think about this for a second. It is possible that we might warp our children’s view of God away from what’s accurate to the way he has a relationship with each person. Because if if we’re overdoing it and catching them in every failure, in solving every problem for them and all of these things, that is not in the way that God treats us. And then when we’re not right there with them, and then they’re on their own and relying on God or, or walking with God, what happens when that test comes and the parents aren’t there to catch them? And God’s also not catching them how they’re used to being caught by the parents. And now that could hurt their trust in the Lord. That could hurt their relationship in the Lord. Because it wasn’t the foundation wasn’t built right in the way the parents interacted with the children.

Yeah. You know, I even think about how we as parents, if we are jumping in, let’s just use an example of like a little kid and we’re jumping in to correct them. Imagine. So when we did co-op years ago, the kids always would bring a presentation with them and they would have to present it, whether it was like a show and tell kind of item that they were bringing in, and they would tell about what it was that was the smaller kids, or as the kids would get older. And if and I was always tempted to remind the kids, right. I’d be watching them. And I knew what they had been practicing at home and in the van on the way to co-op, they had been practicing their little speech of what they were going to share. And then sometimes you know how it is. You get in front of a group and you forget some of those main points, right? Yeah. So as a mom, it all of a sudden they’re done or, or a kid asks a question of them in the middle of their presentation. This would especially happen with the five and six year olds, right? And they would get kind of like come combobulated in their head and they forget what they were supposed to be saying, or how would they feel as a mom.

When you have it memorized and you know, and you’re just staring at the situation and I’m like.

And I’m nodding. If you’re watching on YouTube right now, you see me like doing this whole like, you know, the look, right? You’re giving your kids the look in the back and you’re like, kind of trying to whisper with your mouth. And then they start looking at you and they’re trying to read your lips. You mess it up even more, and then. And then they get embarrassed, and then they get red in the face, and then they get upset and they don’t want to do it right. And what is that? What is that urge in a mom to try to get their kids to do it perfectly, the way they had practiced it, or the way that they had made it, versus just letting them experience what they experienced. And I think that this is the thing is, sometimes we can create more anxiety in our kids by having these expectations of the way we want things to be done, versus just letting them experience it and have the good growing experience of that and going, oh yeah, I forgot to say this, but it was okay. You know, and it’s just chill. And now they’re not scared to get up the next time. And so it’s like this, this urge. And every mom has that urge. We all want to like jump in and save the day and remind our kids, oh, you were gonna tell this. You were gonna say that, right? But. And our hearts have good intentions. We don’t want them to walk away going. Oh, but I forgot to say this and this and this, you know, and and we so we just want to help. But sometimes it’s over helping.

So I think what helps with this is to see beyond the moment, to actually think about what the learning opportunity could be by allowing this to happen, things that aren’t going to actually hurt them, right. You’re always going to protect them from being actually hurt, like in a serious way or something like that. But you have to discern this. But in those opportunities where you’re watching them struggle, you’re watching them fail at something, and you now see, okay, this is an opportunity for me to follow up and talk to them about that experience and have a deep conversation about what happened, how they feel, how did they do it next time, what they learned from that. Because remember, the best learning some of the best learning is from our failures, is from our mistakes. And of course there is no failure if you keep trying right and keep working towards the future, right? You’re going to teach that to your children. But how do you teach that kind of thing if there aren’t those challenges? And let’s face it, we’re preparing them for a challenging world that they’re going to launch into. So not having fear about that, but being sober minded, the Bible tells us to be sober minded, clear minded about the reality of situations. And while they’re in the protection of your home while you’re raising them up, isn’t that the perfect opportunity to allow them to experience trials and then talk through it with them and watch them experience doing it a better way in the future, and then acknowledging and anchoring that behavior and go, wow, you did so much better this time. Well, look at you. If you didn’t have that other experience, you probably wouldn’t have excelled now in the way you are because you learned from that past experience. Right? And what does that teaching your children? It’s teaching them a full cycle of how life actually works and how God works in our lives to to purify us, to test us and help us to build stronger character.

You know, it’s also interesting, as I’m thinking about this, one of the things that God doesn’t do to us, but I think we as parents do to our kids unknowingly. Like we wouldn’t purposefully try to do this, but any fear that you might have had as a kid, you can impress upon and portray through your child, right by the way that you react or overreact or overcompensate or over protect or whatever you want to call it, you can actually like, you can actually challenge your child in a negative kind of way to struggle with the same thing you yourself struggled with.

I think that’s a natural inclination as to where our past hurts are, is where we’re trying to overdo it with our children. That’s an opportunity to look for. I mean, I.

Even think of parents who struggle with vicariously living through their child in sports or in music or whatever. The thing is that they wish they did when they were younger and like, really pushing their kids to it, when it might not actually be something their kids want to do. So, you know, there’s a lot of aspects of parenting where we can evaluate, like, Would God parent me this way? Hey guys, thanks so much for listening to the Courageous Parenting Podcast. We just want to take a moment to highlight some of our awesome sponsors who are actually there making the Courageous Parenting Podcast possible. And so let’s just take a moment and listen to the sponsors, and then we’ll get back to the show.

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So what we were just talking about is we might might you have to be the judge of this for yourself in your own family. But we might warp our kids view of God and ill equip them for how they’re walking with God later in life, which could hurt their their walk.

You know, one of the things that I think of in regards to that, that would be a huge warning in warping a kid’s view or image of God, because we as parents are like that image bearing example of of that father child relationship. Right? And I when I reflect on myself as a parent, especially of like younger kids and middle aged kids, because there’s a different growth, you have to start letting go and letting your kid more and more and more, right? You’re more hands on when they’re little. And then as they get older, you’re more hands off. At least that’s what we teach in the parenting Mentor program. Like let them start growing up. And then when they’re even older in their pre-teens and teenagers, you should have already established through discipleship, training, teaching and discipline to where there isn’t a lot of that having to happen anymore when they’re teenagers. You know what I mean? And so, you know, as parents, one of the things that is difficult for us is when when we step into soon, it’s actually being impatient. And God the Father is totally patient with us. And so that’s like a perfect example of how we can warp our child’s view of who God is or or even what a parent should be or shouldn’t be, right. If we are impatient with our children, like if they’re doing a project and they’re not doing it fast enough, or if they’re not doing it right, if they’re not loading the dishwasher, it’s okay, honey, I’ll do it. I’ll do it. You just go. You just go. And because they’re not doing it your way. Right. That would be an example of being impatient and taking over. And God doesn’t do that with us.

Showing them that they’re not capable actually. Right.

But God, God doesn’t parent us that way. We are all children of God. He is incredibly patient with us, with us. I even think of the example. I’m not going to read through it in depth, but in Luke we see the prodigal son and we see the father of the prodigal son when his son takes his inheritance and flees. Yeah, and he squanders it. What is the response by the father when he comes home? He is patient, he is rejoicing, he is forgiving. And forgiveness is another thing that I think that as parents, if our kids screw up and we are like, and we get, we get anxious, we get, you shouldn’t have done that. I’ve I’ve done this before. Many times. You’ve witnessed it where like the first thing I do is I told you not to do that. And I have whenever it comes out of my mouth, I tell myself that’s not the first thing that should come out of your mouth, Angie, because I know that God’s not saying that to me the first time I write, when I screw up or when I fall. He’s not right there going, I told you not to. When they need to be comforted. Instead, it’s like they need to be comforted. They need it. Like we need to understand that how we respond to the the mistakes, the falls, the, the, even the sins at times need to be as much as possible. And this is a message for me too, because I’m in it. They need to be reflective of how the father responds to us with forgiveness and love and patience and self-control.

And once they feel that, then teaching the lesson right is everything settles down.

Mhm. Yeah. So good. And it’s interesting because if you respond that way versus the anxious control I’m going to fix it. You shouldn’t have done it. Why didn’t you write that response doesn’t open up the ears of the listener to hear the correction in it later. Instead, If you are the loving, caring, nurturing, helping when they’ve fallen, then their ears are more apt to hear you when you’re disciplining and correcting.

And for sure, depending on how you’re wired, it’s going to be easier or harder for you to do that. Certain people are wired in a get it done. Take action. That’s me. You know, more controlling wiring. And some people are far more wired in a comforting, loving, embracing listening mode. And there’s in-between that obviously, too. But it doesn’t matter how we’re wired, because we all need to shift to the needs of the different person in front of us that needs our love in a certain way, and we need to cater to that while being ourselves, but cater to that. And being in the word and praying and walking strong with the Lord is going to help us to be patient and loving in those ways. All right. The next thing is to balance and the balance of fulfilling our God given jurisdiction to provide, nurture and protect, teach and train and disciple and discipline our children. Yeah, there’s a good handful of things.

I know. There’s like five bullet points basically, that we have. But, you know, provide and protect. I mean, those kind of go more under the husband, father, although there are women who do those things as well. Right. Like if I’m out with my kids and there’s a threat, I’m going to protect them, right? Like, I’m. It’ll take. I’ll be kicking and screaming, taking them down. Right. Um, but generally speaking, the protect and provide lands more on the guy. Shoulders. Right. Then women are more wired for the nurturing, caring for taking care of their health.

I can’t think of a specific example right now, but these things have happened where somebody does something to your child when you weren’t there and you’re like, whoa, you know, you have full capabilities of smashing them verbally or, you know, doing things to make sure they learn their lesson and these kinds of things, these things probably go through your head, gents, you know. But then what are we looking for? We’re actually looking for the best learning experience, outcome, possibility, if at all possible. Sometimes we do need to step in and I have before, but sometimes it is literally coaching and encouraging how to handle the situation to become stronger, handling difficult people or difficult conversations and your children, depending on how old they are, of course need to start experiencing that. And so that first gut reaction is sometimes the worst thing you can do. Sometimes we need to think and pray on it and think about what is the best way to protect them. Use this as an opportunity to teach them how to protect themselves. Right. So they’re not always going to be with you. That’s why I have so much confidence in my children being out there in the world and doing things. We have lots of older children now.

Well, the older ones.

Yeah, because when they were little, we were gradually teaching them these things and they know how to protect themselves verbally. They know how to stand their ground. They know.

Even physically.

Yeah, they even know some skills. You know, physically, you know, obviously nothing’s perfect, but, um, but I feel confident that they can stand on their own in an environment of hooligans, even if they’re in a group where that stuff’s happening, they wouldn’t participate.

Mhm. You know, I think that if we were to take one of these out of the five categories we have provide nurture which nurturing is like caring for their health, feeding emotions, loving them. Right. Like there’s even with moms, one of the challenges that we have is to be so over nurturing that we’re taking care of everything to where they don’t learn how to take care of themselves. Right? Like if you’re when your kids are little, you brush their teeth at night so that you get every area and you train them in how to actually brush all the areas of their teeth. But if you do that for a really long period of time, eventually they’re not going to learn how to do it themselves, and they would be dependent on you. Can you imagine a 20 year old not brushing their teeth because mom did it for them for so long that they didn’t develop the habit themselves of good hygiene? Yeah, right. Same thing goes for food. Imagine if a mom was always cooking for her family. Like I’m always cooking for my family. I provide three meals a day, but I try to bring my kids in to help with those different meals, and sometimes I assign them to a certain meal. And there are times when I start to struggle with that mom guilt of like, no, I should be doing this. But then I’m slightly reminded. I’m reminded that no, this is good for the olders because they need to learn how to be responsible and make their own lunch. They need to be able to care for themselves. Because I may not always be here.

You never know. Like that’s the reality, right? And so recognizing that so you provide the food but you have them feed themselves sometimes. Right. That’s what the as they get older. Not when they’re little little. And the same goes for like even their emotions and taking care of their own physical needs. So a good example of this is that today, one of the things that I’ve heard from so many moms is that their kids are scared to even as like young adults and teenagers, to call the dentist office and make a dentist appointment, or they’re scared to get on the phone and make a doctor’s appointment. Yet they’re 18 or 19 years old, and good old mom and dad are not actually on their account, and they’re young adults. And so the problem is, is that kids need to be trained before they get to that age and what it means, what it looks like, how to call the doctor, be confident, make an appointment. And yeah, you can go with them, but you teach them. Like I recently was with one of my kids at a doctor’s appointment, and we were getting some imaging done and different things. And the whole way there, well, not the whole way, but a lot of the conversation was you are older now, so these are the conversations that you need to be having with your doctor. You want to take notes. You want to pay close attention to these things, go down these different avenues. And the reason why we’re having that conversation is I was like, you are getting older. You need to be able to ask these questions.

And on a side note, you always want to put your children in the position of authority, not the doctor in a position of authority. They have that relationship. They have to advocate for themselves because otherwise.

They’ll get taken advantage of.

There’s lots of different directions doctors can take people. There’s really good ones and there’s some that aren’t as good. So in like minded. So they have to be good at these things and you have to train them in that.

Yeah. So you have to train them to be confident.

But one thing I saw Angie do just the other night is we went out for dinner, I think it was Sunday night or something, and we went around. We had the with the we had the lower half in age right with us and the littles and she coached them on the way there to put their orders in. Once they figured out what they’re going to eat, the waitress came and each of the children made their order, including the little three year old, right?

Because I had practiced with them before she got there. And it’s it’s something that I’ve done at different points with all of our kids where it’s like this conversation of make sure you make eye contact with the waitress. She’s a person, too. You want to show respect, use your manners, please, and thank you. May I am asking what options are if you don’t know the answer right. And so I had them practice. I was like, okay, where are you going to order. All right. Make sure that you’re loud enough so she can hear you. Make sure this make sure that and all of the kids ordered for themselves, which was great. So we start this obviously, like as soon as the kids can, like, talk in an understandable way for the waitress, we try to have them at least share, like what drink they want or what they’re going to have on the menu. And I think that that’s like the beginning of it, right, is being able to be confident to interact with other people in real life. But if you take over and you do it all of the time, then they’re never going to learn that skill.

And there are times where we’re in a hurry. We just got to get food. So mom just goes.

Boom, boom, boom boom.

Orders for everybody. But it’s true. Um, you know, there’s a time for that. Yeah.

But, you know, I think that on this balancing the fulfilling of our God given jurisdictions, right? So we have these God given jurisdictions and protecting. Let’s just talk about that a little bit for a second. So obviously we’re called to protect our kids. Use wisdom, be realists about what’s going on in the world right now. This is this is a really great topic for right now because there’s so much weirdness. I’m gonna use that word weird that’s getting overused today. But there is a weirdness happening where sin is becoming normalized by by those in authority, and they’re pushing some really weird stuff on kids. They’re pushing sin, they’re tempting kids to sin. They’re specifically trying to indoctrinate in, in their own sexual ideologies or kids. Right. And so there’s a lot of moms that are protective.

Well, and just a side note on that, is anybody that’s trying to create a more permissive culture and change the laws to do these terrible things to children at a younger age and all these things, it probably means they participate in it, right? Because that would be the motivation of these people around the globe. They want.

To justify their sin and.

They don’t want to go to jail eventually. So. Right. They probably are participating in these things they’re trying to legalize, which can take a moment to listen about youth drive our children going through this this summer. And it’s so good to feel the gaps of financial education. We’ll be right back to the show.

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As think about.

That. But but as parents, I think that we need to recognize like, yes, it is our job to protect our kids. So that’s what you’re going to hear from courageous parenting. That’s our official statement. Yes. It’s your job to protect your kids. You have parental rights. You discern, be realist. Take the rose tinted glasses off. Look at what’s being taught to your kids. Make sure you know who’s influencing them. Then there’s this other aspect right where you have the the. So there’s overprotecting which this is like a spectrum, right. The whole protective versus being permissive. And you don’t want to be overly permissive, but you also don’t want to be so protective that your kids don’t ever have to learn how to defend themselves and why they believe what they believe. Right? That would be an older kid and a younger kid. It’s more like you’re going to protect them from dangerous people, but you’re also going to teach them like, hey, we only have certain people are the safe people, right? Like, you teach them parameters, you teach them their boundaries, and then as they get older, you’re continuing to teach, but it just gets more educational. Right? And so as parents, though, we need to understand, like God is again given us this awesome example of what it looks like to be a parent. And we see it in Romans chapter five. I just want to share verse three through five with you guys. It says not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

This is the thing guys like whenever we read this scripture. This Scripture has been one that people have given to me in times where I’ve been in suffering, whether it was losing a baby or, um, losing a my dad or whatever, whatever the circumstances, losing a job, you know, people generally use this scripture and they’re like, okay, but what is good about what you’re going through? Like, you’re growing, man, right? Like, you hear that? You get that encouragement. But you guys, this scripture is also for our kids. And the reality is that, yeah, our kids have little sufferings. They have scraped knees, they sometimes get sick. They, um, they sometimes have a cut on their finger because they weren’t using the scissors correctly. When they’re learning how to use scissors or whatever it is, maybe they have hurt feelings from a friend because they weren’t sharing. That’s something to learn, right? Like, there’s a little bit of friendship suffering happening right there, and it’s a good thing for them to learn through. And so there’s this element of understanding, like, do we want our kids to have endurance? I know I want my kids to have endurance. Do we want them to have character? Oh, yeah, I want them to have godly character. Do we want them to have hope? Oh, yeah. I want them to know where their hope stands. Well, then that means that there’s going to be times where I need to allow the the natural consequence, even if it’s a little bit of suffering, to exist in my kids life, so that they get motivated to change that.

Amen. Amen. Let’s talk about, um, the unprecedented times tip that we always do at the very end. And I think it’s more important than ever that you’re having a marriage conversation. And so this is our challenge, is that you have a marriage conversation, and you write down each child in your journal or piece of paper, even a napkin at the restaurant, and you write down, okay, where might we be overprotective like a helicopter parent, if you’ve heard of that, and really controlling too much and not letting any of our children on this specific child. How about this child? How about this child? Where are we too permissive on what things? What they’re watching, what they’re exposed to, their friendships, things like that, and really audit that and see where you disagree. And don’t just skirt around. Disagreeing where you disagree is going to be your friction point that ruins your parenting effectiveness. And so if you really are disagreeing on things I highly or no matter what, I highly encourage you to take the Parenting Mentor program because that’ll give you a biblical foundation and all the talking points to talk about on all the things with all the date night questions and the packets and all those things, but have this challenge go out on a date. Date night in. If you need to and really vet this out on each child. Where are we being overprotective? Where are we being too permissive?

You know what I even say? I have a word for moms and dads that have, you know, pre-teens, teenagers, maybe even young adults in their home, just that, you know, over ten years old, if you have kids, over ten years old, if you experience your kids being disrespectful to you. I would evaluate on this date night. Am I making their life too easy for them by doing too much for them? Do they not have an appreciation for me? And have I cultivated an entitlement attitude in them because they don’t actually have to do the things I’m doing their laundry, I’m cleaning their room. I’m making their lunch. I’m da da da da da da. I’m getting them to where they need to go. I’m filling their gas tank. I’m doing oil changes on their car. Like, I think this is a really important. This is part of what we’re talking about here. Because the reality is when your kids are little, you might have this idea in your head, oh yeah, I’m going to train my kids on how to do their laundry, for example. And that’s a really good thing. But if you start stepping in and doing it because they’re not doing it your way, or they’re doing it halfway, and so you step in and do it for them, they’re not going to learn how to do it, and then they’re going to be totally sloppy later in life potentially. Right. So that’s a.

Good you bring up a good thing entitlement. And I think we should end on this is entitlement. People talk about an entitled generation. And some people are like wow, every generation becomes more and more entitled. Yeah. And whose fault is it that a child or a young person is entitled? Is it the education system that makes them entitled? Is it the peer relationships that makes them entitled? Is it the school they go to? Is it society? We can blame it on society. Is it the devil that’s making them entitled? I actually think that it’s a parenting issue. I think that parents as they’re raising their kids. So what does that mean if a generation after generation is becoming more entitled, if that’s something you believe? I would say that parenting is not keeping up with the rigors and changes of the day, and including in Christian circles. And normal Christian parenting is falling flat. The normal rhythms of what the average Christian’s are, you know, are doing they’re they’re going to church and so forth. So you need to be doing different things. You need you need to make some distinctions. What are we going to do differently? Because if you don’t change something, then you too will be launching very similar kids, a homogenized society where everybody’s kind of operating in the same flow. Well, the 70 or 80% of children are leaving the faith by age 18, leaving the church, at least the studies show. So, you know, you don’t want that. So you have to do something different. So we’re talking about something I think is crucial and very, very important for different, which is really honing in on where are we being overprotective and where.

Are we doing too.

Much? Where are we doing too much for them? Right. And where are we? Too permissive.

Right. Being too permissive would be like so. For example, being doing too much would be like cleaning your 11 year old or 12 year old’s bedroom for them when they should be keeping it clean themselves, right? Being permissive is being too overly permissive would be not ever having them clean it up, just letting them live in a mess, right? And so there’s this fine balance between the two where it’s like, so you want to be where you want to hold them accountable and you want to teach them how to do it, but they need to do it themselves. So look.

For those teaching opportunities versus looking for ways you can do things for.

Them. Let’s you know, I want to end on this verse. It Proverbs 13. I just love Proverbs. This is a warning for those entitlement attitude kids. Right. But it’s also a scripture that we as parents need to really heed. It says the soul of a sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied. So what do we want? Do we want our kids to be a sluggard? That’s going to be the fruit of someone who is doing too much for their kids. Actually, is that they won’t actually do the things that are necessary in life, like the basic things that they should be taking care of in their life, those those mundane like nuance things that are sometimes annoying, like everyone needs to do them, everyone needs to clean their toilet, everyone needs to make dinner. Everyone needs to do their laundry and pay their bills and all of those things. And if we’re not, then we’re not walking in godly character of taking care of the jurisdictions that God has given us to steward. And so if we keep doing them for them, it does actually perpetuate an entitled attitude. And they never get challenged to actually be thankful that their parents did that for them before, if they’re still doing it for them. Amen.

Hey, so if you loved the show, share it. Thanks for joining us.

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Full Transcript:

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

Welcome to Courageous Parenting Podcast, a weekly show to equip parents with biblical truth on raising confident Christian kids in an uncertain world.

Hi, I’m Angie from Courageous Mom and Isaac.

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

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

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

We’re praising the Lord that the ministry continues to expand and impact more legacies. We couldn’t do this without you. Whether you pray for us, give us five star reviews, or share on social.

Or even if you purchase courses and merch, or join the Be Courageous app community, enjoy the coffee or support financially. We’re so thankful you are a big part of the 10 Million Legacies movement.

If you want access to all the episodes, show notes, and other biblically based resources, go to Be Courageous Ministry.

Org. Join us as we start another important conversation about effective parenting in a fallen world. Welcome to the show. Hey guys. Big announcement. We are planting a church and but this is going to be practical insights on really. You know, why we’re planning a traditional brick and mortar church and not a home church.

And that’s right. We’re also going to share with you guys some awesome testimonies. Do you like hearing about how God is moving and and, you know, honestly, I’m super encouraged by that. And lately I’ve been feeling like God’s been kind of rolling out the red carpet, so to speak, as far as like, this is the path. Stay on this path right here. Let’s go.

Feel like the Lord’s been a little pushy on me? Yeah. Pushing. Pushing me in a direction. No, no.

Don’t go that way. Stay right here on this path. Right here. So we’re going to share some of those testimonies with you guys also.

You know some aspects of that you can really gain from I think of what our heart is for the church and should be part of the church and how the body of Christ can be stronger. So we’re going to really talk about some of those things. Obviously, we’ve learned a lot being part of different churches, planting churches. And we’ll bring you up to speed on this process too. And I think it’ll be episode that’s super encouraging regardless of where you go to church.

So of course, we’re also going to share an unprecedented times tip, but courageous parenting action, um, challenge, if you will, which is always fun. That’s always at the end of the podcast, so make sure you stay for the end of that. But you guys, we just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for following along. Thank you for being here. You know, you had it on your heart to share with people about be Courageous ministry real quick, because some people might be thinking, oh, you’re planting a church. What does that mean for be courageous ministry? Yeah.

And you guys know I’m working hard. Our family works hard on this and that’s going to stay the same. I’m going to be by vocational time is the challenge. We only have so much time. And so I’ve really looked at how I could use my time even better, but also how somebody else could take things off my plate and do those things. So we’ve been reinvesting once again. Many of you have been helping us reinvest and we hired somebody that’s taken on 20 hours a week of extra things beyond what’s, uh, from my plate, basically, and some extra things that needed to get done that weren’t getting done. And in fact, that’s even enabling us to continue with the Resolute Man Show and launch a third podcast on motherhood. Angie’s in the house for that. That’s so that’s coming out on Monday soon. Great parenting on Tuesdays. Resolute man on Wednesdays. So let’s go. Busy busy.

Week.

We’re still committed 100% to Double Impact Vision this year. We’re having the biggest impact ever this year. Be courageous ministry. And but we need help to make it double impact, which is the vision to get on track for 10 Million Legacies movement, which is impacting 10 million legacies with biblically sound resources and messages that spread across the world. You know, 194 countries are people are listening in on a weekly basis.

It’s exciting. Then we have the Be Courageous app, which is really cool. For those of you who are in there, we have the live that’s on Wednesdays where we do kind of podcast extras and we do a Q&A every week in the in the Be Courageous app. And then Fridays I do a heart of the home Bible study, which is an hour long Bible study with women in the Courageous Mom group.

So. So I’ve said this many times God often shows up at the end of your own strength. That’s exactly where I am. I’m at the end of my own strength, far beyond it, I would say. And God is showing up and he’s revealing things to me. He’s helping. He’s bringing people together. And I know I’ve only met some of those people so far. I’m so excited to meet the more people that are jumping on, to be part of this journey of bringing new biblical church to Horseshoe Bend, Idaho.

Which is exciting. Okay, so before we dive into the fun testimonies and talking about why we’re planning a church and you’re going to share about like church culture and the things that are going to be really honing in what we’re building. Right. Um, I just wanted to share with you guys because as you know, from the last few podcasts, the last couple of months, we are partnering with some awesome organizations that also have the same heart we have. They want to help equip parents to be able to be raising up strong kids who are launching into their generation, into the community, and they’re on fire for Christ. And that takes a lot of intentionality and parenting. So we have partnered with an awesome sponsor, Master Books. You guys may have heard me mention them, but I’m bringing them up because we are in an awesome giveaway with them right now. If you go to Master books.com/courageous, you can enter the giveaway. Anybody in the US can enter. Um, we have three different packages, so it doesn’t matter what age your kids are. I have kids all different ages, as you know, because I have nine from three years old all the way up to 24.

So we have homeschooled for almost for a very long time actually. This is our 21st year we just started. Wow. That’s a big deal. And so, you know, we have a package for smaller kids. We have a package for middle aged elementary school kids and a high school package as well. So if you are the winner, you get to choose which package. It’s pretty cool, a couple hundred dollars worth of curriculum. So go check it out. Master Books.com forward slash courageous. And also I just want to put a little pin in there. Please look at their science curriculums. Look at what they are offering for extra apologetics. Specifically, I got the apologetics program that they have for our high schoolers. We’re going to be going through it with Luke and Drew this year, and I’m super fired up about it, because some of the books there that Ken Ham is offering is like, what are people saying about the Bible in regard to truth? And so it’s literally the issues that we’re dealing with today. What does the Bible actually say? So that’s going to be fun. So find out more at Master books.com/courageous. Don’t forget.

The courageous. Hey we’re going to talk about why we’re doing this. But also we’ve in our story at the same time. And so yeah so you know many of you know we planted a home church here in town where we live in Idaho upon moving here, but not at first at first. The first year we were hoping to just join in somewhere, and we found some great churches in one in particular. We stayed at for a good while, but it was about 50 minutes away from where we live and we really felt this conviction. You know, we need to be in proximity and be in our own town. So let’s plant a home church. We had some other people encourage us to do so, which was great. And we did that. And it really fast grew. And at the height it grew to 16 families. And you know, what was really interesting about it is zero people were from where we live. Everybody came from 40 minutes to way over an hour away and came in, and we had really good attendance on Sundays, people. Most people came on Sunday and obviously sometimes people are sick. But it was a wonderful thing. But the challenge was everybody lived far apart. So it was hard to really experience that fruit of running the race together.

Yeah. So like if somebody had a baby or somebody family was sick, the thought of like even making a meal, though, I wanted to do it and they probably felt the same way about me or other people that were going to the church that were far from them in other directions. It just was hard because it’s like, okay, if I’m driving an hour and a half one way, that’s three hours of driving, plus the cooking time and all of the things, and you’re like, that makes it hard, which is very different than when we planted the home church in bend, Oregon. That’s still going right. Like you’re in proximity 5 to 20 minutes from everybody. It’s like you’re in each other’s lives, you’re doing life together. And that was kind of the benefit.

I think one of the interesting things was, I don’t think any of them were native to Idaho. They’d all moved within the last six years or so. True. Yeah. And so what was interesting is none of us were from Idaho, right? We’d all moved in, and it made us really think that, you know, really, maybe home church isn’t what our community needs, isn’t what people are comfortable with. And so we spent a year visiting churches and so forth this last year and really praying and started to go on a journey of what would it look like to plant a brick and mortar church in our town and really started to have a heart, a deeper heart for our town And really what is needed in thinking about what does this town need.

Mhm. You know, I will say at first, um, when we were initially encouraged by this because there were at least a handful, like I can think of five different people off the top of my head. Boom, boom, boom. That all were like at one point in the last year and a half. Hey, have you thought of planting a church here? Hey, can I take you guys out to lunch? Have you thought of planting a church? You know, and then, amazingly, as we were in this process. And the bugs in our ear. Right. Just from people in town. Have you thought of this? Um, going. Oh, interesting. What would that look like? And then the Lord brought the right people who had the knowledge of what that would look like. Um, church planting organization that we are partnering with, which is super. Yeah.

I went to a church planting conference. I spoke with the director, and I said, Horseshoe Bend needs a church. And I’m thinking, hey, maybe he knows of somebody. Maybe there’s already something in the works. Yeah. You know, because he seems to kind of be in the know of the pastors in the area and so forth. And very quickly you know, was focused on, you know.

Me.

Planting a church, which I was open to. I was open to that if God wants me to. But I was waiting on the Lord just to make sure that’s what he wants me to do. And, you know, one of the things this is one of our whys is to obey God. And when God calls you towards something and it becomes very clear, that is one place I do fear. I fear the Lord in that good way, that he’s an awesome God and I want to please him. And if he’s calling me to do something and it doesn’t look easy and it looks hard, and you wonder how there’s time for that, and these kinds of things, those things are irrelevant if God’s calling you to do something. And that became really clear. So I didn’t want to disobey God.

Yeah. And I appreciate that 100%. You know, I’ve always believed that God had a call similar something like this. You have been telling.

Me that our whole marriage.

I even thought it upon meeting you even before. I just thought that I thought to myself, man, if this guy gets saved, he could He could be a pastor. So many people would come to know the Lord. And like I thought, all those things. I just wish.

You had feelings for me. All you cared about was me knowing God. Which, by the way, that’s awesome.

Yeah, that’s a different story. You have to listen to a different podcast for our marriage story, but, you know. And in all in all fairness, I look at that and I go, wow, look at how encouraging that is to how many people feel a call, or they have this desire to do something and God can put it on your heart. And sometimes it’s not for the season that you’re in, right? Like I saw that 26 years ago in you. Wow. Like that’s. And now it’s coming to fruition. I mean, you’ve been you’ve been a head pastor or head elder of a few home churches in a sense, and been appointed to elder and so forth. But this is different in a different kind of way. And and it’s just interesting to me. But as we’re moving forward, we want to share some other wise with you guys. You know, one of the biggest things this is the biggest reason is Isaac mentioned that we were just looked at around us and looked at the town and looked at what was needed. And and there really is a need for a strong, unapologetically biblical, solid Bible teaching. I’m talking expository teaching, Bible church that is going to be standing firm against progressive ideas. That’s going to speak truth and love. That’s going to be Jesus’s hands and feet, where the church is coming together to do good and be a light in the world.

That balance of being welcoming, where everybody is welcome to come, but is biblically true and right, and helping people to.

Grow, helping, helping people grow in the Lord and in truth. Right. And so, you know, there’s a need for there is a need for it. And it’s something that we’ve desired. Yeah. You know, so there is that personal element of like, our family needs a church. I’m just gonna say it. That’s true. Our family needs a church. But not only that, that, you know, we we’ve met so many people. God has brought so many people into our lives in the last year who live near us, and they either believe in the Lord, but they’re unchurched, or they believe and they are committed to a church and they’re going to church, but they’re going pretty far away. And and we don’t want to take anyone away from their church. We we want you to we want people to stay committed if God has called them to those churches. Absolutely. But one of the things that we’ve heard over and over and over again, that we’ve experienced ourselves is that people are driving for an hour and they’re they may be rooted in their beliefs and rooted in Christ, but they’re not rooted in the body of Christ because it’s so far away. They’re experiencing the same thing that we were experiencing with the home church, with people living far away.

Right? Yeah. And so there is a need. There just is a need here. And then when we look at like the giftings that God has given us as a family, you know, we have Ethan and Megan who have this gift of leading worship. And to see them practicing that every Wednesday we’ve been hosting a special worship night. We’ve called it rooted Summer. So this was our 10th week, um, doing that. And those two have been leading worship. And then Isaac shares from the Bible. And then we spend some time in prayer, and then we just have fellowship together. And it’s just to get to know people in the area. And it’s been it’s been definitely there are times when it’s a challenge, like Isaac has said, because it’s like, okay, we’re hosting again, right? But that’s why I’m excited about having a building is that we can go to the building, but we can also practice hospitality. And it’s it’s hard to be able to have those intimate times with 1 or 2 families when you’re hosting big events all the time. And I’m excited to get back into the hosting people one on one and having that more intimate. Absolutely.

And so we’re praying through town. This is many months ago, and Angie’s praying over this plot of land in the middle of town, just a beautiful lot with a very small building on it. And that, that, that the church could be on that spot. And we hadn’t 100% committed yet, but we were very, very close. We were really walking towards planting a church.

Prayer walking and praying for a property very close to that. And then all of a sudden that property went for sale. And I texted Isaac a picture of it, and I went, I feel like God is nudging me to pray for that place, that there would be a church there someday. Not necessarily for us, but yeah.

And then a few months later, somebody calls and says, an angel investor is interested in buying a property in town. If you’re following through and planting a church, if you would be the pastor and plant the church. And and I’m like, wow, that sounds interesting. Let’s go look at it. And he takes us right to the exact property Angie was praying for. And she starts crying. And it’s just this amazing God thing, and, uh, only God can do that. Long story short, that gentleman followed through in purchasing the property and is leasing it to the church with first right to purchase. Uh, and very generous terms and within a quite a long period of time. So really, the goal is that the church can be right there in the center of town and eventually, you know, if needed, build a building and these kinds of things. So it’s got a small building It’s about 1000ft², so I think we can fit maybe 70 people in there.

Um, yeah. So it’s 1000 square foot building. It’s a lot older, but it’s going to work totally fine.

Big one acre parcel, right?

So there’s there’s a lot of space for people and for activities and different things for gathering, which is exciting. And and it’s in the perfect location. It’s right in front of the part of the school right next to the public library. It’s literally in the center of town. And you guys, this is the crazy part. Like that. Only God can do that. Yeah, only God can do that kind of stuff. And I remember thinking, oh, well, we plan a church. Like, where would we meet? Like, you know. And God’s just already got it figured out because he’s already gone before you.

And people ask, hey, Isaac, I think that building is going to fill up kind of quick. I go, well, Lord willing, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I hope so, that would be fantastic. And, you know, uh, and I’m like, well, what do you do when when it’s full? I go, well, I just assumed the community would build a building together. You know, why can’t we do that?

I mean, we’ll either have a tent.

God will provide.

It’ll all work. Maybe a barndominium, I don’t know. I mean, who knows, right? God. God knows. No human knows, but God knows. Yeah. I’m going to share with you for a second, because I had mentioned that there are a lot of people who believe in the Lord, but they’re unchurched, meaning they don’t take the the trip over. And so this verse was one that was just really heavy on our hearts. It says, and let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, and not neglect the meat to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near. And I, you know, I think of that like you, it is hard to stir one another up to good works if you’re not meeting on a regular basis. But this is talking about the church meeting time and not neglecting that time together. And so there’s two elements in here, right? Like God’s saying, hey, stir one another up to good works. So if you’re going to a church and you’re not experiencing that, that’s actually something that’s super important. And we want to encourage you guys to get connected on on the level of what we had experienced when we were doing home church. And even when we were apart, there was another family integrated church that we went to when we lived in Oregon That was just a phenomenal experience, and we had been taking our kids to church with us for a few years before we went there, but those churches were not super excited about that. There was always the pressure of, why don’t you put your kids in Sunday school, why don’t you put them in Sunday school? And we were like, because they need to go to church.

Well, there’s seeds. So let’s talk about the. So we were introduced to this concept, which we’ve been thinking about these things for years. But someone put it in a framework which is upper room and lower room activities in the church. Upper room being Jesus with his disciples, very much disciple making activity, people growing stronger in the Lord and loving each other well and reaching the lost and so forth. And on an individual level, right. Doing hospitality and being in each other’s lives, right? Really running the race together. If you’re running the race with people, there’s people beside you, there’s some right behind you, and there’s probably some ahead of you, unless you’re the leader of the race. And so you’re running together. But unfortunately, so many people today are on the track by themselves. And so and they’re.

Not being stirred up to good works or stirring other people up.

So how do you do upper more upper room activities? And then lower room is like, you know, giving a sermon, just talking at in two people and a programs and, you know, do their normal church stuff. Right.

Actually it feels more like a business or an organization. Right? Which is like I’m not saying it’s into these things.

I’m not saying it’s bad. You know, the churches need to do things. But what about the upper room activity? How much of that is happening and what percentage are people actually in church activities during the week and these kinds of things in a world that’s changing and we’re in unprecedented times, people are more distracted than ever, and people can feel like they’re connected to people by having social media and all this technology and access to things, but actually are lonelier than ever. The stats show. So what in depression is growing all these things? There’s problems with the youth. About 70 to 80% of the youth are leaving the faith from Christian homes by age 18 and are walking away from the church at least, which is about the same thing it seems like usually. But so. So there’s this challenge. And so as we’re thinking about this, you know, when we do home church, we love home church because it’s almost all upper room activities. You’re all together in close proximity. You’re growing, you’re known. Nobody can just show up and leave without being talked to and connected with. People are doing hospitality because they’re getting to know each other, and trust is building really fast and these kinds of things. Of course, we did all the things that in church that we’ll continue to do in traditional church. Acts 242 talks about them, and it says, and they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching.

So that’s the teaching of the Bible and the fellowship to the breaking of bread and prayers. Okay. So those four things in other places in the Bible talks about worship as well. So there’s five things talked about in the Bible that are important part of the church meeting we did those during home church. If you’ve ever heard of a church home church not doing those things, maybe they called themselves a church, but it was more of a Bible study or a we always did full church and with all five of those things, and that was important. But now, how do you do upper room activities in a traditional model where it grows with more people and so forth? And I think it has a lot to do with the culture that’s created. And there’s certain things that we hope to that we are going to do that are slightly different than a large number of the churches out there. There are churches doing these things out there, which is really cool. And when I hear the stories, you hear of a lot of fruitfulness in them. And one of them, Angie mentioned, which is age integration, um, during the church meeting. So parents and children sitting together, families sitting together during the meeting.

Um, hey guys, thanks so much for listening to the Courageous Parenting podcast. We just want to take a moment to highlight some of our awesome sponsors who are actually there making the Courageous Parenting Podcast possible. And so let’s just take a moment and listen to the sponsors, and then we’ll get back to the show. I’m not naturally artistic, at least not in the fine art sense. So when my kids showed early on that they loved art, I wanted to nurture that creativity. That’s why we love creating a masterpiece. They’re award winning art programs are for everyone ages four ish through 104. Plus, your family gets to practice drawing, using watercolors, charcoal sculpting, painting, and so much more. And the best part? You get to do it all together. Building relationships, making memories, and letting creativity grow. Visit Creating a masterpiece.com/courageous to sign up for one low rate for your entire family that’s creating a masterpiece.com/courageous because anyone can create a masterpiece. Parents, we know you want your children to thrive as they transition into adulthood, and fortunately they’re facing economic challenges you never did starting out because of rising costs and deteriorating wages, but because there’s little room for error today, it’s a non-negotiable that they learn financial literacy skills to get ahead and not live paycheck to paycheck. Youth Thrives Academy ultimate personal finance course is filling that gap left by traditional educational curriculum. My kids are taking Youth Thrives Online course now, which was created by a former CIA economic analyst, and they’re learning valuable life skills like career readiness, budgeting, saving, investing, borrowing and protecting their assets.

Go to you thrive dot Academy forward slash parents. That’s the letter U. And get this online course for only $99, which comes with lifetime access and is exclusive for only our listeners. Use courageous at checkout before it expires. And it’s interesting because that’s actually how a lot of churches were run even 100 years ago. It’s how I grew up, a lot of different. It’s depending on denominations. Different denominations do things a little bit differently, right, where they’ll have like church service, Sunday school, church service. That was how I grew up. Right. And so there wasn’t any competition as far as like church service and Sunday school because all the kids were in the church service and then they went to Sunday school or they came, went to Sunday school and then they stayed for the late service. And so I think that there’s an element there that is super important. Isaac and I have talked about this on the podcast many times, but for those of you who maybe don’t understand why we think this is so important, there’s a big epidemic happening. Um, a lot of kids like what the statistics are. Well over 70% of kids are leaving the faith by age 18. And we believe it doesn’t have to be that way. We look at the whys, we ask hard questions and go, why is that? Why is that happening now? Obviously it’s not just one answer.

It’s not just the church’s fault. It’s not. It’s parents need to be discipling their children. That’s why we have the Courageous Parenting podcasts. Why we do Be Courageous Ministry is to equip parents to raise confident, courageous kids for an uncertain world. And we we are by no means perfect. As parents. We’ve been parenting for a long time. We just lay ourselves out there and go, hey, this is something we struggle with. This is what the Bible says. This is what we are are doing. Share that kind of wisdom from hindsight. But here’s the deal. When it comes to church and family integration. If if parents are not having their kids with them in church, then their kids are not actually experiencing the church meeting. Sunday school does not include the five elements that you just listed and read in acts 242 and included worship. Those things are not always happening in the Sunday school room. And even if they were the fellowship, the breaking of bread, which is communion, right? Like kids are not experiencing those things in their Sunday school classrooms. So technically, for taking our kids to church on Sunday, they should be sitting in the church meeting with us. Otherwise, what we’re doing is we’re taking our kids to Sunday school while we go to church.

And we’re also creating ageism, which is also created in the education system where you only talk to people your age or older, and these kinds of things start happening, and adults don’t want to talk to children, and that needs to happen. There needs to be a comfortability of talking to different ages and so forth, and you just see that naturally happen. You always, from a business perspective in my business walk is you have to see, look at the positive and negative ripple effects of all your decisions. And I just see so many positives of being age integrated. One of the challenges is for parents to actually have their young children sitting still, and that is a challenge. And we’ve helped people and encouraged people different ways to do that. We’ve given a podcast on that before and we’ve had to do that. We still have to do that. We have a three year old. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it and it’s so worth it. Plus, I love hearing the sounds of children. I’m around children all the time. I have nine children I’m used to. I can give a sermon and not be bothered when I hear noises of children in the audience, and I think that that’s important. I think that the children should be welcomed. What did Jesus say? Children come to me.

Yeah. I mean, Matthew 1914. I was just going to say it says actually verse 13, then the children were brought to him, that he might lay his hands on them and pray. And the disciples rebuked the people. But Jesus said, let the little children come to me. Do not hinder them, for such belongs the kingdom of heaven. And he laid his hands on them and he went away. And I think that this just shows us that Jesus is making a point here. He’s like, hello, the it is these kids. Such is the kingdom of heaven. That’s a big deal. And for us as adults to learn from Jesus. But also there are verses that just come to mind, right? Like having faith like a child. How much do we as parents learn from children and their their deep faith? How many times have Isaac, you and I have done podcast episodes alone on walking through trials as parents and how we have encouraged our kids in the times where we even struggled to pray with faith for really big things like God’s going to give us a house, for example, or he’s going to bring us out of the business failure thing or whatever, you know, whatever you experienced. And we invited the kids to join us in praying for those things because you were humble enough to not hide and you were willing to say, this is something we’re struggling with, and they would pray for it. And then they saw God answer their prayers, and their faith grew, and so did ours. And so I think there’s something powerful there is.

And when you’re worshiping together, you’re worshiping with your children. How amazing is that? You’re seeing your little four year old singing to the Lord, and you’re driving home and you’re able to talk about the same things because y’all were taught the same thing. And there are ways to talk about anything in Scripture in a way that doesn’t hurt little ears. Right? And I think we need to be able to preach the whole Bible, and it’s all we can preach, all of it to anybody listening.

That’s right. So, you know, for us, we’re going to try to take that aspect, that of family integration, and that’s going to be part of the church. It’s not that we are anti program, it’s that we just we’re going to start out as simple as we can. And it’s a ground roots effort. We’re hoping that the people that God brings to the church have the perspective of I’m going to join in and what God’s doing here. And recognizing that we’re all members of the body of Christ. And let’s look at the giftedness and see what where people want to serve. And we’re going to build this thing together. It’s going to be exciting But that being said, you know, we’re open to doing Sunday school in the future if we have to, but it would be an additive thing. It would never be at the same time as a church service, just because of the things that we have seen the need for kids. I mean, think about this alone kids being in a service where they witness a baptism. Oh yeah. And then they’re like, what was that? I want to learn about.

The right questions and interest.

Right. Like literally everything that you could potentially experience in a church meeting could be an opportunity that really is like a tug on a little kid’s heart where they start asking the most important questions of their life.

What about the mom? That’s just like, I’m so tired and I need a break, and I just want to listen to the Lord and actually hear the sermon. Angie, I.

Know well, I’ve been there for many years because we started having our kids sit with us when Kelsey was five, and so and she’s 24 now. So I’ve been doing that in churches.

Where often we were the only ones doing it.

Yeah, actually. So at our church, you won’t be the only one doing it. You don’t have to deal with that outsiderness that I experienced. No. But and and and you know, I, I my heart goes out to them. We’re going to we’re going to have some sessions, um, where us moms are going to get together. And I’m going to share some tips on how to help your kids, to know how to sit still in church and and how to train them during the week so that they’re ready to be able to sit in a church service. Um, and but here’s the thing. Like Isaac said, he doesn’t care about the little noises. That’s the sign that the church is thriving. If you don’t have little children. Whoa. Big problem. Too quiet. Does that mean the church is going to die soon? I mean, I hate to say it, but, you know, you need to have a good demographics and for the elders to really cherish and delight in the littles. And that the littles would not be apprehensive about building relationships with older people, that they would see them as valuable and wanting to learn from them. And that only comes from kids rubbing up against people of all different ages.

So the other thing we’re going to do is a potluck every week after church. And that is so good. Right. But the positive ripple effect of that is it spurs on hospitality because walls are being broken down. Yeah, parents aren’t racing to get in line to get their kids and not talking to each other and then fighting the parking lot to get to lunch as fast as possible. Instead, we’re all together, and then we can transition into potluck and spending time together, whoever wants to. No one has to stay, right? Sometimes people can’t. They’re doing other things. But everybody’s welcome to stay. Bring a dish that everybody can participate in and then boom, we’re we’re we’re hanging out together. And that breaks down walls. And what we’ve seen is it spurs on hospitality. The Bible actually commands us to do hospitality. And that is how people grow deeper and stronger in an authentic way that’s not, uh, forced in a way, from a programmatic, programmatic way by the church.

And it’s it. Hospitality truly is one of those things that I think a lot of people will use as an excuse. They’ll go, oh, that’s not my spiritual gift. But you know what? It’s actually not listed in the in the list of spiritual gifts. It’s like you said, it’s something God calls us all to. You can’t even be somebody.

Can’t even be an elder unless they’re given to hospitality. And it’s not that everybody should be an elder. It’s. But I strive for it. We should all, all, all the guys should strive for, um, for that qualification. That’s right.

So, Isaac, why don’t we tell people the name of the church so that they can and tell them where they can find out about it? Yeah.

We’d love your prayers and encouragement. If you want to get on the email list to Rooted Bible church. Org Rooted Bible Church. Org, take a look. Uh, get on the list and we’ll be emailing out what you can pray for and things like that, and support and so forth. And so it’s just we’re so excited. It’s something new. It’s adding on to what we’re already doing. We’re not going to do less of what we’re doing. In fact, we pray and hope that God just takes be courageous ministry to a whole new heights. Um, as we’re being obedient in in this additional area.

Yeah. And we definitely need to because we have to be able to support more staff members. Right. So you have more time to do that? Absolutely.

And as of right, I mean, the goal is that Be Courageous Ministries still supports our family and supports itself. There’s a lot of expenses in and of itself and those kinds of things. And you’re bi.

Vocational as a pastor. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And that’s something that we’ve had a conviction about for a long time because we have a large family. And so we know that there is a need for that. And and, you know, when you were when you and I were praying about the name and we were working with a church planting organization and we were like putting some names out there getting we actually sent out an email to people on our list too and said, hey, what do you think about these? You know, which one do you like best? And and that was kind of fun. And we also did that with logos, with the people who have been coming to our Wednesday night. And there’s just so many things like, we can’t even tell you all of the stories we’ve been. Isaac’s been going through pastoral training and the church planting organization spent a week. I mean, they took us for four days to Texas, you and I, and we did this assessment thing with all these pastors. I’ve never been.

Drilled to such a level 13 pastors drilling us for three days.

Yeah. And then then we had a clinical psychologist, a Christian clinical psychologist doing marriage counseling. He was like, digging in. Okay, let’s talk about this. Let’s talk about that. Yeah. It was so good. It was intensive.

We were so encouraged.

We haven’t shared any of that stuff. Like anywhere online, on the podcast, any of this stuff. And, you know, we probably like it’s not be courageous ministry stuff. It’s rooted Bible church stuff.

Totally separate things.

So if you want information on how you can be praying for us and supporting us, because we get that a lot like you got to sign up for the Rooted Bible emails, which is on the website, but you can also follow on Instagram and Facebook. Right, Isaac? Yeah, rooted Bible Church on Instagram.

You just find it. If you search for Rooted Bible.

Church, you’ll see our logo. But the first week that we hosted this worship night, I want you to share, you shared a verse that in Ephesians chapter three, verses 14 through 20. Yeah. Um, and there were a couple of things in there that to me, I was like, wow, I have read this so many times, but I like the words didn’t pop out to me. The same. So I want to give you guys a clue. When Isaacs read, listen for the words. Every family.

All right, so here we go. For this reason, I bow my knees before the father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. There was that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. That you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. And so now verse 20, here, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

You know, I love that because when when we were praying about what the town needs, what what we see. Yeah the Lord just kept saying, routed over and over again. You know, we have people here who multi-generations in this town. It’s pretty cool. And we have put our roots down. When we moved here, we knew we planned.

To live here forever. That’s right. Lord willing. Yeah.

And and so there was already this, like, theme of rootedness. But then when you read scripture like this and it’s about being rooted and grounded in love, and it’s it’s about being rooted in his word and being strong in the Lord and, and walking with other people who aren’t in, lifting them up and, and taking them along on the way. Right. Yeah. And teaching them the word and discipling them and just thinking about how there’s this beautiful image of being rooted in the Bible, rooted in Christ, rooted in the body of Christ, and rooted where God put you. Yeah. And it’s it’s a powerful thing for us to really give our best in all the things that we’re doing. So it’s exciting and we’re excited to be on this journey together. Now let’s let’s wrap it up with the unprecedented times.

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Okay. So it’s so important. I mean, one of the things of us planning a church is wanting to be in proximity and encourage a growing strength of believers in proximity where we live in reaching the lost as well, because we’re in unprecedented times. And it’s going to become more important than ever that you know your neighbors, that you build trust with people where you live, that you can lock arms with people and help each other. There may come a time where certain things in society don’t work as well as they are right now, for various reasons, and it’s going to be important that we’re already have built those relationships. We already have trust with people, and we’re going down that road. And when you unite on Christ, that is a different level of trust. That is incredible. And so and I think that in the coming years, the church is going to become more essential in helping the communities. And so we really believe we believe this town was a little vulnerable in a way, because there wasn’t a vibrant, growing biblical church that’s adhering to the the Word of God, but also willing to talk about issues in society and what’s going on and never afraid of saying what’s true.

Um, I think of Matthew chapter six, verse 33 that says, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. And again, we see in, in in three of the Gospels where Jesus is wrapping up, he’s saying he’s wrapping up all the law and the prophets and two commandments, the first and greatest commandment to love the Lord your God with your whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. And there’s this element of like as Christians, are we obeying the most basic commandments that God gave us? Because if we love him with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, then we’re going to desire to love other people. But we have to do that first. We have to love God first in order to be enabled and equipped, to be able to love others well. And that’s what the church is for, is helping people to love God, to know God more, to grow in spiritual maturity. And and so, you know, running the race, it’s important who you run the race with. You want to be walking with people, but it’s also, as Christians, we’re called to be a part of the body of Christ. And so if you’re listening today and you don’t have a strong, um, deep biblical community, I just want to challenge you to find that deep biblical community, to find people that you can run the race with, to be praying for God, to make known what his will is for your family, what his will is for the body of Christ that’s near you. And instead of being so, um, in a place of like looking at the hard things, let’s start looking for the opportunities. It’s just like in parenting, when our kids have a bad behavior or something, it’s easy to get like overwhelmed or think of the glass half empty. But we need to start viewing things as opportunities for the ministry of reconciliation that God gave us in Second Corinthians chapter five and six.

One of the tips I got that’s most important in planting a church is getting people praying and praying yourself more than ever. And so I am inviting every single person I know. People listen from 194 countries around the world. I’m inviting every single person to pray for Rooted Bible Church, to pray for our family, to pray for the people that are involved, to pray for the people of Horseshoe Bend, Idaho. Look that up on a map. That’s where we are planting Rooted Bible Church in obedience to Christ. And we’re so excited about this journey that’s extra on top of everything we have going on, would you be praying for leaders to rise up for volunteers to join in? For it to be a total team effort?

It would be a God thing. This isn’t like this isn’t the Tobin’s church. This is God’s.

Church. This is God’s.

Church. We’re just joining him.

And so join the prayer team by signing up on the email list at Rooted Bible Church. Org, and we’ll give you feedback on what to pray for. But be praying for us and we so appreciate it. Would you be on our prayer team that would really help us.

See you next time. Hey, thanks for listening and being a part of the 10 Million Legacies movement. Go to be courageous Ministry. Org for more biblically based resources, ways to switch where you spend your money that support the mission and information about the incredible Be Courageous app community for believers.

Also, we wanted to quickly tell you about our six week online Parenting Mentor program.

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

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

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

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Full Transcript:

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

Welcome to Courageous Parenting Podcast, a weekly show to equip parents with biblical truth on raising confident Christian kids in an uncertain world.

Hi, I’m Angie from Courageous Mom and Isaac.

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

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

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

We’re praising the Lord that the ministry continues to expand and impact more legacies. We couldn’t do this without you. Whether you pray for us, give us five star reviews, or share on social.

Or even if you purchase courses and merch, or join the Be Courageous app community, enjoy the coffee or support financially. We’re so thankful you are a big part of the 10 Million Legacies movement.

If you want access to all the episodes, show notes, and other biblically based resources, go to Be Courageous Ministry.

Org. Join us as we start another important conversation about effective parenting in a fallen world. Hey, welcome back to the show. We’re so glad you’re here. We have Ken do kids here. Davey Lu, the founder and owner of this incredible creative solution for children. So good to have you.

Thank you very much, Isaiah. Angie, it’s my pleasure to be in your podcast today.

For those of you who are listening, we just got a chance to meet Davey at the homeschool conference in Texas. Um, he was there and had such a riveting, I will say, riveting. It was very eye catching. Your booth was, um, obviously he has a lot of really beautiful animation. He’s a got a gift from the Lord regarding drawing and animation, and has quite the story as he used to work for Disney. And we’re going to get into that in a little bit here. Um, but we got to meet him at the homeschool conference here, some of his story, which we’re going to invite him to share with that with you guys today. It’s pretty powerful testimony.

Yeah, I think there’s some practical insights from, you know, raising up kids that learn differently to, you know, voting with your dollar and finding better solutions to, you know, I think things we don’t know yet as the spirit leads. So it’s going to be really cool. And I’m so glad you’re spending the time with us, because you’re having a unique but important impact by bringing quality books and videos to children in the Christian world. We so appreciate it.

Yeah, thank you very much. Yeah, working at Disney for ten over ten years, I recognize what Disney does. Everything represents excellence. So I want to continue to carry that through. Can do and really just it just letting kids that know that you can do all things through Christ.

That’s that’s so good. So we’ll jump into that in a second. But first we want to share a little bit about something.

That’s right. So as you guys know in the Courageous Parenting podcast, we’ve been sharing about some really awesome sponsors that have been helping to make the Courageous Parenting podcast possible. And one of those has been master books. They offer many different curriculum choices for homeschooling families, and this year we are getting to benefit from that in a sense that we are doing that with our kindergartners, some of our high schoolers, and even our eighth graders. And so we want to invite you guys to take advantage of a giveaway that we’re doing with them at Master books.com/courageous, where you could have a chance to win an entire curriculum set for the year. And it doesn’t matter what age your kid is because we actually have three different packages. So if you’re the winner, you get to pick. If you want one of the younger packages, one of the middle age packages or one of the high school packages. So one of the things that I’ve really loved about master books has been that they have so many different options for science and that they’re all creation based. And I think that that’s really like the foundation. If you’ve been listening to the Courageous Parenting Podcast for any amount of time, you know that we have a very high standard for making sure that what we’re teaching our kids and exposing them to comes from a biblical world view, and that we are being engaged as parents and intentionally teaching them when there’s something that’s from a secular worldview, anti-God, anti-bible pointing that out to them and making sure that they’re equipped with the answer for what they do believe and why. When they are asked. Master Books.com is helping us to be able to equip our kids as we’re using this curriculum. So go check out the giveaway at Master Books.com forward slash courageous. So good.

You’re so good at that.

Well, I genuinely love them. Okay, but today I’m so excited to be talking to Davy because what he is doing comes from that same perspective of coming from a biblical worldview, understanding the spiritual battle that we are in for our kids hearts, and that there is another company called Disney that actually has a very, I’m just going to say demonic. And there there is a agenda that is scheming that is led by the enemy, and it wants our kids hearts. And there’s this element of competition when we are trying to raise our kids with a biblical worldview. And we want tools, right? We want tools, Davy. We want good movies. We want good books that are going to be able to, like, catch our kids attention. And that’s just the reality is there’s a competition out there, and the Christian world hasn’t really been producing a lot of things that have had the excellence that you mentioned earlier. Yeah, yeah, 100%.

Yeah. When I, when I was going to Sunday school and then growing up in Sunday school, I mean, I recognize that, you know, the American kids in the high school teacher uh, in Sunday school, Sunday school told me that the Christian kids that grew up in America, 18 years after four years of liberal college or Christian college, less than 5% retained their faith. This is 1995. And then when I when I saw the statistic that The Lion King came out in 1994 and then 1996, 99.9% every child knows Simba. Hakuna matata. For like two years. It took Disney for an animated film to evangelize their agenda to the world. I’m like, wow, how can the Bible become like a beautiful animated film like we did with The Lion King, which is The Lion King is actually a biblical gospel story of Moses. And that’s when I got the inspirations that, you know, that, you know, animated films that has biblical stories and they don’t have to be literally, literally like the story, like Jesus or or Noah. You actually can be very creative using the animal. So that’s why the vision that I have after working on VBS, Aladdin and The Lion King, that’s when I got that inspiration that, you know, children loved animals. And that’s when I got the inspiration of creating this beautiful, cute little fox lion can do and can do his name come from you can do all things through Christ.

So I wrote the stories during Disney when and how the animal discovered Noah’s Ark and I pictured the Disney and on the on there’s one guy in there says, hey, can you take the animal to animal. Go in there two by two to Mr. Turtle and then to Mr.. I said, no can do the Bible says one male, one female. So that that was the struggle that I saw in the project development here in Los Angeles. And then when I saw the Slater film in 1998, and as a believer, I saw their developing, spending $23 million developing a boy want to be a girl. That’s when I realized, this is serious. This is a seriously, this is not just a dream, a job or it’s not. It’s a personal conviction. It’s a spiritual warfare. It is no longer. It wasn’t funny anymore. It was. It was a dream job. Until I became convicted that I did not want to face my Savior in eternity. To know that the gift that God has given me, that I have contributed something that is, you know, hindering children. I love what Jesus says. It says, let the children come to me and do not hinder them. I said, I do not want to be that verse, that I hinder these little children, and I want to be the part. I want to be the part that, you know, contribute, that let the children come to me.

So there’s another verse that that comes to mind when you were saying that it’s in Matthew. I think it’s in chapter 16 that says it’d be better for a man to have a millstone stone hung around his neck and thrown into the depths of the sea, than to leave one of these little ones astray or into is another translation. Right? And so what is Disney doing? They are literally leading children into the temptation of sin, leading them astray. And so people who are helping to get their agenda across are actually participating in that and they will be held to account. They will be.

I remember when Lion King came out. At the time, it was the best new animation that existed. It had some innovations and you literally were one of the artists drawing the lions and some of those key characters and so forth there, and you became convicted. I want to just touch on this for a second, because there’s a lot of families where the husband has a job. Maybe that part of what they’re doing is convicting to them. And it’s very hard, though, being a provider to shift gears out of something and to where the unknown is and something that is glorifying to God.

You mean standing up for that conviction that that you also experienced? Right. And I think that a good question that might be encouraging to some of the providers, some of the men who are listening or women who want to encourage their husbands, who maybe their husbands are wrestling like, I don’t know if I want to work for this master anymore. What sort of encouragement would you have for them through your testimony? Because you made a big, hard decision?

Yeah Well, for me is, you know, I always reflect on that verse for me is, you know, Matthew 619 and 20. I mean, for me, I grew up, I had low self-esteem growing up, honestly, even struggling, I would work on all these films because I was the youngest of seven. So my I grew up, I’m the youngest of seven. So all my, all my families are Chinese, so they’re automatically straight eight kids except me. I have straight F, so my mom always thought I was a Forest Gump, and so I always wanted to hear my mom says, I’m proud of you. But, you know, growing up in Christian home, I didn’t understand what God did to me. I mean, did he just forget he gave me IQs or so. So when I had this dream job, all I want my mom is like, you know, mom, mom, mom to say I’m proud of you. It was so important to me, for me as a boy growing up and working at Disney. So every film will come out. And then my mom wouldn’t go see it because she thinks it’s cartoon, and he’ll talk about my next door neighbor being a doctor or a lawyer. And then when I saw the verses where I was pursuing in Matthew six 1921 says, where your treasure is, is where your heart is all your heart. And where do you store your treasure now as a believer? Here I have a great job. I mean, you know, Disney came to my school. They were looking for eight kids out of the whole world. I was one of the lower looks. I don’t want to say lucky that God chose me to go to the Disney, but I didn’t know that.

That conflict of my faith and my income and my dream clash. And it was so convicting, so strong that I that that I saw myself in eternity of making this choice will change the trajectories of the treasure that I store in heaven. Yeah, I’m saved through Jesus Christ, but I certainly know that God gave me another chance to win souls, and for me was I want to. I want my mom to, to, to to say, I’m proud of you. So I want to win an Academy Award. I want to win an Oscar for my mom. And God says, don’t, don’t strive for those dreams. Your mom’s endorsement is nowhere near what God says that you are my. You know what? You are fearfully and wonderfully made. And so my biography in China, it says not a marvel, but a diamond. So, you know, I always say that my mom sees me as marble, but God sees me as diamond. So this, this biography showed up to remind every child that you know, in every child’s parents eyes. You are his, your kid are diamond in your eyes. And then when I saw how important that was, that’s when I my all my low self esteem was filled with the fullness of Christ that I recognize that that my heart, my treasure, my dreams, everything that I’m worth, that the pursuing, the success is all measured in this infinite of eternity, of success in God’s eyes. And that’s not when in a beyond an Oscar is nowhere near. When in one child to Christ.

This is such a good message because there’s so many ways to measure intelligence. And in the academic world, it’s measured in a very singular way. And I think what you’re hitting on is important for parents to hear, especially if they’re home educating their children is or regardless, is that God made each child unique and for different purposes. And there’s brilliance that’s possible through all children. But it’s going to look different. And our job is not just to look at our children in a singular fashion of intelligence, but to look at the the natural expression of intelligence that comes out of each child in the way they’re wired, not how we’re wired, because that’s usually what parents tend to project naturally and instead look for the brilliance in their children. That’s unique. And I would say that, you know, how did. So then you’re in this environment with six children, straight A’s, very academic and academic culture in your family. How did you come out of that and discover the brilliance God had for you? What’s that journey about?

Yeah, so I came to America in 1982, I was 13, I couldn’t understand a word of English. I went to school and then had his class called Art class. We didn’t have art class in Taiwan, so art class, all you’re given is not test paper, it’s just blank sheet of paper. So I loved it. I don’t need translations or dictionaries. So that sheet of paper, my art teacher told me something that, hey, Davey, you can do it. And I was like, yeah, right. No one ever told me I can do anything. So I drew something, a Chinese dragon, and I didn’t think of anything of it. I just gave it to her as my homework assignment. And then she took that artwork into a competition in Florida. And then I won that champion. National champion in Florida. Then went to national in a whole 50 states. And then I won the top 20 in the whole United States. So that’s when I knew that. Okay. All right. So this I thought I was living in a body of Forrest Gump until I realized that, hey, you know, I got a gift to really draw a straight line. God gave me this extraordinary gift that no one had ever given me.

A blank sheet of paper, except my art teacher gave me a sheet of white paper, and through that white sheet of paper, I got to practice my creativity. And I always talk about that. You know, in the beginning, God created the heavens and earth. That’s Genesis one one that that creativity is in all of us. It’s God’s first attribute, the biblical Bible. And I and I talk about how blessed that I am. I got to use that gift and even thought in my Chinese culture that we don’t celebrate creativity, we celebrate manufacture, we celebrate following others. We celebrate being a cow instead of being a cow boy. Uh, you know, it’s really being a pioneer in doing something that your heart and you’re built, you’re chiseled to do this. Despite of my parents, my dad’s going to celebrate 100 years old. He’s still waiting for me to quit my day job so that I can go back and take over my old man’s job in Taiwan. But. But I just knew that, you know, my destiny and my my passion and my gift. It is truly using my my creativity. That’s God’s given me. And to bring children to Christ through animations.

That’s amazing. That’s amazing. So fast forward now you’re leaving Disney and you’re starting something new. Did you have some savings? Did you? How did you how did you get started in this new endeavor? I think a lot of people are curious how they make that transition.

Yeah. So so I left Disney in 98 and I was so blessed. I was able to got hired by George Lucas to work on Star Wars Episode one, and it’s doing that two years I had that. I had that complaint that said, these poor kids. I mean, they can’t be watching cucumber or tomatoes or a million times. And this is 1999. I mean, that’s all churchy kids is watching everybody’s meaning that VeggieTales. Oh, yeah, everybody’s mimicking their, you know, and it’s great. But, you know, VeggieTales doesn’t don’t do so well after Christian kids past 6 or 7, right? They don’t have anything that’s a little bit more, more polished, I call it. Um, so but you know, here I’m always complaining, making fun of these poor kids, you know, looking like tomato and cucumber. But I was like, wait a minute. You know what? What would you do if Christ was one of those creative people? He would do something about it instead of complaining. And so I got off my high horse year 2000, and I moved from San Francisco down to here in Southern California, and I bought my humble house with my first wife. My first wife left me because she thought I was the dumbest choice that I ever chose to leave a very lucrative job. I think I had no kids at that time. And, um, during year 2000, I had a rep in New York, and then my illustration became the most, um, creative original illustrator of the year in 2000. So I was really blessed that I was able to stay home and do an illustration for time magazine, for GQ, for some big publishers.

And, um, that’s that’s when I realized that God gave me this time quietly in the garage, even though I was, you know, devastated that I’d gone through a divorce. Um, it was four years later. And, of course, you know, during that time, 911 hit. Um, it was a really challenging time because I had no money in the bank. And I really want, I really need, you know, income. Um, so I, um, I saw the verse that Jesus said, there’s one man that when he saw a hidden treasure, and when he saw it again, he hidden it again. And he joyfully when when he saw everything he has. When I saw that I was a verse because I was, I was on the verge. I have to be honest with you. I was working on freelancing for Disney and Lion Kings two and three. I was on the verge of no having no money and thinking about going back to Disney to get a get a, get a really good salary for that verse. It hit me because, you know, here I am, I have a house I can sell, but when I sell a joyfully. So this is 2002. And when I saw that verse, that was a confirmation that I knew that, you know, Christ did everything he knew how he did not die out of retirement. He died in his prime. And I was 32 at that time. And I and I saw myself, I said, if I go back to Disney again, I would never come out again because I knew that it’s such a comfortable and great job.

But when this verse hit me that this guy sold joyfully everything he has to find his treasure, and I saw that treasure was to win souls for Christ. And it’s eternity. It’s going to be worth it all. And then I literally next day put a for sale sign. I sold my house and I moved to a humble studio, and that’s when I began to develop this project. The giant lead, the fire fish, the slate of animated film. Because I got to show the investor what this film will look like. And that’s why these books are for. They’re not. They’re they’re actually. I didn’t create them as a book. I created them as an animation script. From animation script. I used this house money that I made, and I hired some people to help me develop the script and, and, and all the product that you see here is basically my first house. And then I met my wife and then my wife, Joan. We’ve been married 19 years, and she saw her beautiful house, too. She was. So she became my first investor. She married me and her she was a widow and her daughter and three of us. We just worked hard at it. How do you translate the Bible so that the Bible can be seen if The Lion King go go to China and Muslim countries, so much more the righteousness and holiness of God. But it does require a beautiful artistry. It does require commitment. Someone that believe in to love and to embrace, to really craft this beautiful artistry.

Hey guys, thanks so much for listening to the Courageous Parenting Podcast. We just want to take a moment to highlight some of our awesome sponsors who are actually there making the Courageous Parenting Podcast Possible. And so let’s just take a moment and listen to the sponsors, and then we’ll get back to the show. I’m not naturally artistic, at least not in the fine art sense. So when my kids showed early on that they loved art, I wanted to nurture that creativity. That’s why we love creating a masterpiece. They’re award winning art programs are for everyone ages four ish through 104. Plus, your family gets to practice drawing, using watercolors, charcoal sculpting, painting, and so much more. And the best part? You get to do it all together. Building relationships, making memories, and letting creativity grow. Visit creating a masterpiece.com/courageous to sign up for one low rate for your entire family that’s creating a masterpiece.com/courageous because anyone can create a masterpiece.

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And when I came out with this slate of Bible storybooks, it took 20 years. I got published in China. These beautiful books. And then when they were published in China, um, this is the story of Noah’s Ark, and this is a story of lion perspective of Daniel. This is the perspective of Moses parting the Red sea. And then there’s this one is the story of Jesus. What’s this story of Jesus from the donkey’s perspective?

I love seeing right where yours are in Chinese. Right?

Yeah, yeah.

This is in Chinese, so I have it in English. I just want to show and tell and.

I absolutely love it. I think it’s cool that people can see both of them, like next to each other. Yeah. And I think also, you guys, before you continue for a second, I think it’s important that people know, um, where they can find these books. And so we’ll share at the end. But I also would you just share right now, right during this part of the podcast as well where they can find these awesome. Look at this illustration you guys, and you’ll go through and maybe share like a brief, um, synopsis in a second. But where can they find them?

Yeah, you can find our, our ministry website. It’s called can do kids k e n d u kids so.org. Yeah. And you can find in there our bookstore there. So these books.

These.

Books won the best children’s Moral Books in Communist China in 2015. Wow.

And they shared their gospel messages.

Just so everybody’s clear.

The story of the Bible.

So again, I got invited to Billy Graham’s headquarters in 2019, right before Covid. I got to talk about how I brought the gospel into a non-Christian country. I said, listen, if Disney can bring their stuff, why can’t Jesus, right? Jesus told me to preach the gospel not like a dove, but like a snake. We got to be as wise as a serpent, right? When I saw what Jesus did, 57 parables that he preached in the Gospel of Matthew, Luke, and John, all the parables, none of them were Christian or churchy. And they were all very, very, very easy to understand for a little child to adult. And that’s what I saw Disney use. The tool is really break down the morality into a really simple animal languages. And that’s what I learned, that many children don’t think like us. Children don’t think in this theology format. But children love beautiful stories. And that’s when I saw that you know, if Disney can create a Lion King, then with God’s help, I’m going to create the story for the King of Kings.

I love that because that we should be producing things that are of superior quality. If society is used to a certain experience and quality of receiving something, then us Christians should be trying to do even better than that. Not only with the story, not only with the words and the writing, but also the look and feel and the design, because that’s what people are used to. How are we going to grab people if the quality of the acting and the quality of the illustrations aren’t up to par?

It’s a competition, actually, I hate to say it, but it truthfully is because kids are exposed to all the other things. And the truth is, you guys who are listening, there’s so many things that I want to tell you that I learned from Davy when we were at the homeschool conference. We could literally talk to him for probably an hour and a half or more. But, you know, for those of you who are listening, we want to be able to offer you guys a giveaway as well. So I’m going to share about it more at the end to remind you. But I do want to tell you you got to find us on, on Instagram. Because on courageous parenting and courageous mom and resolute man, we’re going to be hosting a giveaway along with Davie. And you could win this beautifully illustrated book. It’s called The Giant Leaf, which was your first product, right? Right. Yep. Right. And so you’re going to want to find out information about where to find the giveaway. You can go to the Courageous Parenting. Com website. On the podcast it’ll be in the show notes like always what.

I love what I love is the strategy behind this. Because you can’t send something that is like a children’s Bible to communism, like it’s crack. You can’t send a track, you can’t send a normal Bible. You can’t send anything that is straight up, you know, biblical, recognized as biblical truth. But what you’ve done is you’ve stayed true to biblical truth, but disguised it a little bit in different characters and animals and so forth. So you’re telling the story, but through animals, which is attractive to children. Um, how do you make sure that it translates to the children, even if maybe the parents don’t even understand what’s happening or the government doesn’t understand what’s happening.

So we are we’re developing a curriculum. We’re going to have it by January of 2025, in our next homeschool. All the conventions that we’re going to be showing, we’re going to have a curriculum to teach this as an allegory. How do you explain the how do you connect that with the biblical truth? So we’re going to have that, just like Jesus explained in the parables, without explaining the parable, you’re going to think they’re very silly stories. So, um, so again, you know, the allegory is what what you said, Isaac, is like, how do I take a biblical story like Noah’s Ark that every kid know the story? But I surprised them from this little fox, that he had a dream and he lived in the slavery of dinosaurs. But he dreamed of this massive giant leap. Someday will come and that he will find his new freedom when he finds his giant leap. So I won’t spoil the surprise. Um, so, you know, it’s this journey of this finding giant leap. And then with the with the apes. Don’t believe in, you know, the floods coming. Dinosaurs says we don’t believe in no rain. We believe that we’re big and mighty. No rain ever could bear us.

So it’s an allegory of, you know, kids, are you going to be confident like you’re you think you’re going to be a mighty T-Rex? Uh, or are you going to be like, can do humble little fox that take a giant leap of faith. And so on. The way there, he found that a monkey had a dream of the giant leap, and there was king bananas. And eventually they heard about. There’s a little myth of animal eater, right? There’s animal eater has destroyed their force for 120 years. But those who went inside the animal eaters belly found out animal eaters is actually animal saviors. So what, you’re seeing that book right there, Angela, that you’re flipping? It’s actually the highlight of an animated feature film that’s coming out in the theaters, and we’re producing them to a beautiful, epic animated film directed by Disney directors and produced by Disney producers that love Jesus. Because our goal is really, you know, if the world is making that kind of benchmark so much more us. With us with what? Excellence. Why? Because that’s what Christ does. Christ should be the largest children’s ministry and not the secular world.

I love this, so you guys have to tell you, when I came to the booth at the homeschool conference and I started talking to Davey and he started taking me through this story, The Giant Leaf, and showing me through allegory. But this story, right from an animal’s perspective about Noah’s Ark, actually. So here, if you’re watching our YouTube channel, you guys might not know, but we actually have the podcast on YouTube also. So go and check that out. I have a there’s a video. And so you can actually see inside the book, which you just said is going to be coming a full animated film. And you got you got some sponsorship. Who was the sponsorship? Was it.

Uh, so I got to keep that part.

Kind of confidential. But we have 17 million rays out of the 35. So it’s an investment from a major investors here in California. So, um, you know, I keep continuing to look for the rest of the 18 million. So if one of the audience wants to be an investor that can invest in something that is seen as lucrative as The Lion King, except it’s for the King of kings, you can reach out to us at Kendall do that.

I love that it’s such a good cause. For those of you who are listening, I mean, we’ve done podcast episodes on voting with your dollar. We’ve talked about the dangers of Disney, um, and just that. Parents would be aware of the hidden agenda that’s in there, and maybe we can talk about that in the future too. But one of the things that you showed me, so for those who are watching this is the animal eater. This is the ark and the the animals are scared to go into the ark. But there was another aspect of this video that I wanted you to share about, because this really was intriguing to me. You have this character. Yeah. Is a.

Yeah. Look, it’s.

Actually that when the animal saw the mouth of the animal eater and they’re contemplating, some people are frightened. And it’s exactly the reflection of when you meet Christ, it’s the same thing. You see him as a Savior. Do you see him as a good man or a prophet or a liar? You have to make that choice of crossing that line. And that’s.

Why you make the liar.

Or the Bible’s.

True. That’s right. I make.

That very. And I make that very clear. And that’s subliminal right there with the cross. I mean, this is exactly how every animal sees is how every child sees who.

Jesus.

Is.

But then you have this character that’s in a lot of your books. That’s right. Just explain that to those who. Because I went through the whole thing with you and I was like, shocked when you shared with me about what this animal represents.

Yeah. So that gazelle.

Came from this book of Genesis, that there’s an eternal gazelle, the angel, our angel Gabriel. And then he also. Yeah, he’s also in the in the book of revelation. Basically, he is in all our 12 animated films. He is in the fish perspective. Moses parting the Red sea. He is in an animal perspective of Jesus, lion perspective of Daniel. These are this is the story of the garden tree, good and evil. It’s about these four little girl wants to be a beautiful hot chick in the garden. And then when they when they recognize they eat this tree, good and evil, you will die or become the most beautiful pageant. Pageant? Pageant. You know, the pageant beauty. But when Eve showed up, they sent her to see if she really died. So that’s what I did with this. And then. So this is where the origin of this beautiful story of the Gabriel, the gazelle and the gazelles are inspired. Yeah. The gazelle by inspired by by this character. So he’s in the in the. So we’re going to be releasing the secret code, the giant leap. You actually can find the shadow of that gazelle despite of can do not knowing that that gazelle continue to lead it. So you can see the shadow in every page in the book so that kids will know that you know, so to speak, the the, our angels of God that you know, we may not know who God is, but God’s got us. He is always with us, and he is always watching us before we even know it.

It’s so cool because you’re, you know, in in communist countries and so forth where Christianity is not allowed. These seeds are being planted with people and then parents who are raising up their children to be Christians. Um, they’re.

Tools.

They’re tools because the kids can easily identify with these. You can have discussions with your children too. So and it just makes it fun for the kids.

To almost see it. You said something so powerful. You said the word seed, and it just reminds me of the parable of the sower that Jesus shared. Right. And and how there are people who are doing house churches secretively in China and they’re they’re evangelizing and these house churches are growing. But if children can be exposed to this, these are the little seeds that prepare the soil of their hearts, if you will, so that when they do meet someone who’s a part of one of those house churches or someone who does share the gospel with them, it actually like connects the dots in their mind. And then they remember these really sweet stories that they loved in their heart. And then Jesus can reveal his truth to them, and it’s more like their soil of their heart is prepared to accept him. And that just really gets me excited, because that is an element of children’s ministry, if you will, as far as evangelism is concerned.

So. So now I have to shift gears back to this other part of this episode that we’ve been weaving back and forth on. Two things here is you made this transition. You’re where you’re at now. And my guess is and this is from my own experience with God, is that often as you take steps out in faith, that God often shows up at the end of your own strength and just in time. And I see that it’s like, you know, financially sometimes we’ve experienced that. We just have to trust God in this. And all of a sudden someone gives money. All of a sudden something happens and God shows up through people. And I’m sure you’ve experienced a lot of that. And obviously your new wife, you know, selling her house to contribute as your first investor.

That’s amazing.

That’s pretty amazing. And I just didn’t want that to get missed, because I think a lot of people are scared to trust God to that level.

Yeah, I have.

To say it. I have to say those are reality and those are some real fear. And it was very scary. I mean, when I was in my garage and when nine over 11 hit, I mean, there was literally, literally I couldn’t pay my bills. I mean, these are these are real, real, real moments. A Christian that someone believe, you know, God’s got Jehovah Jireh, but.

Yet.

Where is he? Right. Where is he? I mean, so what? I’m struggling is no different. Exactly what those guys in Old Testament or New Testament, it’s. It’s really just. How do you experience something that doesn’t make sense for me, that I believe this is what God calling me to do. But when I have wings from heaven, what’s wings from heaven? When you have a little things like, you know, the books that we just just this summer I have someone came back from China, came to California and says, thank you so much. I was in China and right now the crazy dictator is dictating China. But I was able to find your beautiful Bible stories in a normal bookstores, and I can able to purchase it. Yeah, those are wings that I have, and I am able to buy those books legally without getting arrested. And I can shower this to the family and children’s in China. And those are things that I call wings. I mean, these are encouragement that has no price tag. There’s no price tag, but it’s absolutely just it’s an endorsement. It’s like a hug from heaven saying, keep going, David Yes.

With God, nothing is impossible.

Don’t look at your circumstances because your God is the God who sees victories. Even though you’re facing your Goliath. But God always seen that head on the plate of your hands. So I have to. I have to walk by faith. I can’t walk by the numbers of my bank account. I because it’s especially right now with this circumstance I’m in. People say, are you crazy? Live in California? Well, somebody’s got to live in Sodom and Gomorrah. Okay, so I’m going to stay here. This is my industry of films. I’m going to be standing right here facing Goliath, and I’m going to keep fighting because it’s not me who’s fighting. It is Christ who fight in us. And I have to be faithful because I’m not promised till tomorrow. Tonight. The rapture might come. I want to do this well.

Wow. Way to be obedient to the Lord.

Okay, I have some questions because you had the inside scoop on Disney, and that is just it’s rare when you get people who will actually talk about the agenda that’s happening. And you were warned you’ve shared a little bit of that testimony, but from someone who knows the purposeful, intentional agenda, you saw it. They were planning years ahead. Maybe you could share a little bit about how they were planning years ahead. But but as a parent, as someone who cares about what your children are exposed to, what do you have to say to parents about Disney and what warnings do you have for them? Like, just please share.

Yeah.

I um, when I was there in Disney and I was going to church at Pasadena and I was telling the pastors I would start telling the pastors what Disney is doing at that time, 1998 1999. No one is really taking me seriously. They think, come on, you know, Disney is doing that. They’re just doing it for fun. But then, you know, we’re talking about 24 years later that every parent is feeling the heat. When I warn the pastors that Disney is doing this to children, they really weren’t taking me seriously. I think sometimes where churches are a little bit, I don’t know, two decades behind or something. Um, you know, I just don’t see us Christian boycotting. I certainly don’t want to.

Boycott.

Because I feel like if the darkness is there, the light just has to be bright. I mean, if we shine as a light, the darkness has to flee. So what’s going on? Why is Disney doing this? Well, when I was there in Disney in 1998, I was in the development. So we call it the cowboy level. Like there’s 5000 animators, there’s only 50 of us. All we do is produce quality content that will impact the world, that will make billion. That’s what we do, 50 of us. We’re up there developing well, 50 of us up there. I would say 60% people are. They were all they had a gay lifestyle. So as you can see, this is their normality. These are the people who make a difference. Now in Disney for some reason. It’s like a bonus to be gay, to work in a I don’t know what it is about artists, they’re just so creative, but yet they have this different perspective of what family is. So of course they’re dictating. They’re taking their position and making their agenda known. So they’re sincerely believe that this is empathy. This is something that they call it. You know.

Mercy.

And understanding, but they just are lost. They don’t realize that they’re being used by the demonic spirit, and so they’re sincerely wrong. So what am I going to do? I mean, here I am and I’m seeing them. I mean, they’re nice people, right? They’re nicest people. They just don’t know the savior. So I recognize that for them, this is their lifestyle. But for me, I know this is the demonic. This is absolutely a spiritual warfare. And I never knew that Mickey could, could be in that level until I sit there. At one time, one guy came up to me, his name is Royal Disney. He came up to our floor and he was so mad because Disney stock was going down, because Disney never made any money out of their films besides The Lion King in 1994. And Pixar is making all the hits. So Royal Disney, the nephew of Walt Disney, came up storming. He was the guy who runs the studio. He says, show me every. I mean, he was cussing. Show me every garbage that you guys are making right now in the.

Next 20.

Years. So we had like a day and we show all the film that we, you know, we were going to produce in the next two decades. And one of them is called wildlife. It’s about a boy wanting to be a transvestite. I remember Walt Disney in the Disney theater. He threw his pipe across. He was so upset. So upset. He says, who the heck? I mean, he just cussed across the room. He says, who decided to spend these? My uncle’s money to make a boy want to be a girl. He fired the three executives and those three executives. Disney at that time, they were all LGBTQ lifestyle and and Walt Disney says my uncle would never approve of this stuff for children. So I can testify this is not Walt Disney’s agenda. It is. So unfortunately, Walt Disney today is not owned by Walt Disney family. It is owned by public now. So I think Disney has many times been the fringe of going public and going for sale. So I know right now it’s no longer owned by Walt Disney. So that’s why you’re seeing all this woke agenda that is embedded in.

In.

Disney and and my my, this is my theory. I really think the rapture is fairly coming back fairly soon. And I think by doing that, it’s exactly what Jesus says hindering kids. It’s way faster than hindering parents or adults. But because kids are vulnerable. You look at Hitler, you look at, uh, Communist Chairman Mao Zedong, you look at all these people. They start they begin with decaying children first. And that’s what I saw. What what devil use is really using the tool of Disney to really, you know, decay our generation all you do. So when I started in first day in Disney, Disney says get them before kids turn ten.

Which can take a moment to listen about youth thrive. Our children going through this this summer. And it is so good to feel the gaps of financial education. We’ll be right back to the show.

I want to pause for a second and share something that’s been on my heart. This economy has changed, and it takes more to equip your children to thrive financially. Today, we can’t just assume that sending them off to college or helping them get a job will make them successful. You Thrive Academy is filling in the gap left by educational efforts, and offers a personal finance online course that’s relevant to today’s economy. I’m excited my teenagers are taking this comprehensive course knowing any gaps will be filled in. Financial preparedness. They’re learning career readiness skills and how to manage their money through budgeting, saving, investing, borrowing, and protecting their assets. Make you thrive. Academy a part of your summer. Initiatives like We Are go to Thrive Academy slash parents. That’s the letter U and get 66% off retail, which is exclusive only for our listeners. Use the code courageous at checkout before it expires. And again, that’s Youth Thrive dot Academy forward slash parents. Wow.

Yeah ten. They say if you get them before you turn ten they love this Disney brand. And the stories. They will sing the song, buy the product and they’ll tell their kids of their kids, of their kids.

I just have.

To tell you something. I was recently reading a book, um, about by Sean McDowell, and it had some Barna Group statistics and other statistics on it and the average. This book was written about five years ago, but the average age that a person actually makes a decision on if they believe in God or not is age 11. How strategic is the enemy that he’s like, we got to get him before age ten. Yeah, right. I mean, we see Satan trying to counterfeit everything that God has created, and you see that over and over again, even portrayed in some of these Disney films, right? Where they’ll try to tell a story that seemingly is actually first shared in biblical scripture, and then they warp it and they change it to make it be something that is going to actually lead kids astray. Yeah. And so it’s there’s definitely a war and a battle going on. But I think that a lot of parents for the longest time felt like there were no other options for them. Yeah. And so they’re like, oh, am I going to be the parent that just says no to all entertainment? Because it’s all like it’s all down in the.

I know. Right, right.

But there’s I mean currently right now I’m still in the battle.

I mean, it’s.

Just like, you know, this, I didn’t I didn’t want to make this into a book, even though I was book signing at a Christian kid came up to me, says, sir, thank you for not making your book look like a Christian book, I love it. It was an eight year old kid. He understood that there’s a Christian product and then there is the, you know, secular product. But, you know, it’s like the kid even understood the quality of it. And then, you know, so, so really, our goal is really make this produce this into an animated film that can be shown across the world. And the quality you have there has to be just beyond what Disney is doing, and that’s really what Christ deserves. So, you know, I pray that we hopefully get our the rest of our funding so that we can get this film take off. It takes two years and it roughly about 2000 animator to animate something that is Christ worthy. Beautiful animated film story. You know, for children’s.

Well, everybody listening. Let’s say a prayer for the movie efforts in the 18 million that needs to come in. If everybody listening just says a prayer right now, um, that would be so powerful. And where can people find more information?

Um, yeah.

So just visit our website. Can do kids. Org and I also speak around the country or your churches. My testimony is from The Lion King to the King of Kings. So you can hear my testimony on our website.

So cool. One little fact that I forgot didn’t come out. You depicted yourself. That’s in a major movie. Could you explain that real quick?

Oh my goodness.

That means I gotta get up and I gotta show it to you. So let me. Since this is my studio, I happen to have it right over here.

No, I love it.

Yeah. You got to be on the YouTube to see his.

All right. Pretty cool. So you guys can cut and just. Yeah.

So yeah. You know every Disney is true. Every Disney animator always want to put their personal signature in there. And then so I did mine. Um, so I went there when I, you know, help develop the story of Mulan. And then Mulan is a Chinese stories and I saw Mulan has a hero character named, you know, General Shen. And I was like, you know, so one of the character designs saw my face. It’s like, hey, yeah, maybe I could use you as a reference. Who wouldn’t know that stuck. So they turned my face into this beautiful animated characters here and licensing character right here. Yeah.

That’s great. Oh that’s.

Exciting. Well, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. For those of you again. I want to remind you, we have an awesome giveaway of it’s a beautiful book called The Giant Leaf. And again, it is going to be representing the new animated film that, Lord willing will be coming out in a few years. And if you want to find out more, keep up to date you. Where can people follow you on social media?

Yeah. So there’s Instagram can do kids. So it needs to go on Instagram can do kids. And if you want to look at our beautiful production whatever if your kids are in a creative stuff, our film studio here in LA, it’s called Can Do Films. So you can go to can do films.com to see our beautiful productions.

All right, Davey, so good to have you on the show. Thanks so much. Thank you very much.

Hey, thanks for listening and being a part of the 10 Million Legacies movement. Go to be Courageous Ministry. Org for more biblically based resources, ways to switch where you spend your money that support the mission and information about the incredible Be Courageous app community for believers.

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Full Transcript:

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

Welcome to Courageous Parenting Podcast, a weekly show to equip parents with biblical truth on raising confident Christian kids in an uncertain world.

Hi, I’m Angie from Courageous Mom.

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

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

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

We’re praising the Lord that the ministry continues to expand and impact more legacies. We couldn’t do this without you. Whether you pray for us, give us five star reviews, or share on social.

Or even if you purchase courses and merch, or join the Be Courageous app community, enjoy the coffee or support financially. We’re so thankful you are a big part of the 10 Million Legacies movement.

If you want access to all the episodes, show notes, and other biblically based resources, go to Be Courageous Ministry.

Reorg. Join us as we start another important conversation about effective parenting in a fallen world.

Hey guys. Welcome back to the Courageous Parenting Podcast. Today we have a very special episode. Today I’m going to be sharing about how the last 24 years of mothering has been a sanctifying experience of growth and learning in the Lord. And today I’m going to be doing the podcast on my own because Isaac is not feeling up to par. And so we thought this would be a great opportunity. I just celebrated my 45th birthday this last week, and my oldest turned 24 this month as well. So it’s been a month of actually a lot of reflecting for me. And so as I’ve been doing some reflecting and thinking on the on how my parenting has changed over the last 24 years, there hasn’t been a lot of big changes, but there’s definitely been a lot of lessons learned. And so I know that for myself, the mentors and women that I’ve learned the most from were those that were willing to share the things that they’ve learned along the way. So I hope today’s episode is an extra special encouragement to those of you who are listening. But before we get started, I wanted to share with you guys something that’s really near and dear to my heart and that is homeschooling curriculum. As you guys know, we have been enjoying getting to be more familiar with master books, and that’s one of the main curriculums we’re using for about four of our kids this year.

And we have partnered with them to bring and really awesome giveaway. If you can find out more about that by going to Master books.com/courageous to sign up for the giveaway as well. But there’s actually three different kind of book bundles, if you will, of favorite curriculum that I’ve been able to pick out based upon different age categories. So it doesn’t matter what age your kids are, you’re welcome to join in the fun and and hopefully win a giveaway of curriculum. Wouldn’t that be awesome to get some curriculum for free to try out with your kids? So go check it out again. It’s at master books.com/courageous. And while you’re there I just want to encourage you to bop around their website and check out more of what they have available. I don’t know if you knew this, but they are exclusively Ken Ham’s publisher, so a lot of his books, you’ll see if you’re familiar with answers in Genesis and the different curriculums that they’ve had over the years, you will see those at Master Books.com. We’ve been using them for probably close to 20 years with our family, and we’ve just been so thankful for that ministry as well. So as you’re going through, you will find that they have a lot of different options for science, curriculum, math, and all different kinds of things. So have some fun, but don’t forget to enter the giveaway. All right, well, let’s dive in.

As I was mentioning, this month has been a month of reflection for me. Um, I think I tend to be that way whenever there’s a special holiday or whenever I have more time to myself. Right? Like on a birthday? Um, I actually got to go and have a little bit of time alone after going bowling with my family, which was a super big highlight. Um, and while I was sitting there, I was doing a lot of thinking, praying, reflecting. I even got out my journal and I started writing some things down. And you know that when I was doing that process, it was just for me. I wasn’t intending on sharing a lot of those things with you guys, but, um, as this time has allowed, I realized, you know, those are actually probably some of the most precious things that I want to share about the last 24 years. So, um, I’m going to share part of my testimony, which is that you might be surprised, you know, if you were to follow me, like on Instagram or if you’ve been listening to the Courageous Parenting Podcast, you maybe know that Isaac and I have been married for almost 25 years. We have nine kids that range from ages 24 to age three. So we have kids in every season of life and we’re also grandparents. We have two grandchildren as well. Um, and, you know, this season of mothering has been special, but it’s been hard, if I’m honest.

It’s been hard. Hard in a good kind of way. Not hard in a way that I have any kind of regret. It’s hard in the sense that there’s so much going on, and I have kids in every season of life, and I just want to be able to embrace every season with them, and I want to be fully present with all of them, and that can be a challenge at times. And I’m really thankful that God has yoked me to a man who also takes family very seriously, in the sense of responsibility and wanting to be a part of as much as he can as well, while also providing and. And so Isaac does a really good job of supporting me, and we do a lot of things as a team. Sometimes we’re tag teaming where it’s he’s going in one direction, I’m going in the other. But I will say that that not being able to be everything for your child has been really humbling. And I think that that’s probably one of the first things that I would like to talk to you guys about in regards to the sanctification of motherhood. When I became a mom for the first time, I remember thinking of all the things I wanted to be for her. I thought I wanted to be the best mom I could possibly be. I thought of all these things that I wanted to do with her, whether it was traditions or, oh, I’m going to make scrapbooks for her, or I’m going to have keepsake boxes for her, and, oh, we’re going to have these memories, and I’m going to do swimming lessons with her, and I’m going to do ballet with her and all these things, like I had all these big, grandiose ideas of what motherhood would be like and how much fun it was going to be, and that I was going to be best friends with my kids.

And it was just going to be a whole bunch of fun. And of course, if you’ve been a mom for any length of time, you know that it’s not that simple. It’s not all roses and chocolate cake and strawberries and bubbles and and and swim lessons. There’s those moments where you honestly find yourself literally going, I don’t know what to do in this situation, Lord. And for me, becoming a mom, that was really a lot of my experience firsthand. I didn’t know what I was doing as far as taking care of a baby. Um, birth and all of that. I read as many books as I possibly can. If you’ve read Redeeming Childbirth, you know that whole testimony. Um, but I will say that, you know, today motherhood is probably very different for moms than it was for me 24 years ago. There was no social media, there was no internet, there were no blogs.

So it wasn’t like there was instant information at your fingertips. And while that can be a blessing, it can also be really overwhelming to a lot of you. And I hear that from you guys on a regular basis. How do you know what you’re reading is actually the right thing? How do you you know, it’s so overwhelming. I keep hearing this side and then I hear that side, and I don’t know how to make a decision on vaccinations or this and that. And I will say that while there was an element of simplicity to those years of not having so many voices to have to weed through. There was still a challenge of not having the training, not having the experience and having to go to books and trying to find people who would make time to spend with me and mentor me and teach me. And I think that for me as a mom, finding a mentor was probably one of the best, most, um, profitable things I could have spent any of my time doing was sitting at the feet of another mom who was maybe a decade to two decades ahead of me, and her being willing to be honest and transparent and share the lessons that God had taught her over the years. So I hope today is an encouragement to you guys. But one of the the first point that I’m going to bring up, how how has motherhood changed me? Well, there’s been many, many ways that if I was to count all of the ways that motherhood has sanctified me or changed me, this podcast would go on and on and on.

So I picked the top four things that we’re going to talk about today. One is selflessness. The second thing is learning how to surrender control. The third thing is humility. How God has humbled me. And the fourth thing would be how he has refined me and is continuing to refine me. And while I’m saying, oh yeah, these are four things that God has done the most in me, that doesn’t mean he’s done with me yet. I still experience these things on a daily basis, and I think that that’s an important expectation that we all have of ourselves, that these things learning to be less selfish, learning to surrender control, learning to be humble and being open to the Lord, refining us through hard times and through being reflective and honest about the things that we struggle with. That is part of the Christian walk. Um, I will say that part of my testimony begins with 24 years ago becoming a mom, and it not being so popular to be a stay at home mom that wasn’t doing something on the side. A side hustle, if you will. And I remember feeling really, like, almost embarrassed to admit to people that, yeah, I’m a stay at home mom.

I’m a stay at home wife and mom. Yeah, I cook and I clean and I change diapers, and I do laundry, and I decorate my house, and I entertain people, and I help my husband with different things, and I pay bills and I, you know, and I would list all the different things. I could take kids to doctor’s appointments and I go grocery shopping and da da da da da. And I pick up toys and I do preschool with them. And I remember the long list of things that I did and and feeling like I was less of a woman or less of a busy woman of God, because I wasn’t working outside the home and then coming home and doing all of those things. In addition, and I had immense respect for women who did work outside the home and were also able to manage their family life and manage the home and take care of their kids. And it was very confusing to me and hard for me. And I think that during that time, that was really the first time that I realized two things. One, I need to grow up and be stronger and not be so much a people pleaser, but be willing to listen to my instincts and listen to God as he’s prompting me to do certain things for my family and not be looking and comparing to other families, but be confident in the decision.

And the thing that my husband and I feel strongly that I need to do. So coming to that place was a journey. It wasn’t something that was right off the bat. Oh yeah, I’m going to stay at home. Mom and I have always hoped that for my daughters especially, that they would grow up and they would already have a confidence in their identity and who they are and what God has called them to, that it wouldn’t be a wishy washy thing for them, like how it was for me. And I know that for myself, they’ve probably watched me over the years grow and be more confident in saying, yeah, I’m a stay at home mom and not being a people pleaser and not trying to prove to them that I’m not lazy and that I do work hard. Also, I think there’s this element of of just Christian living right where we recognize that if we’re walking in the ways that God has called us to, there are going to be things that we choose to do. And I’m not saying just that just anything in general that we are going to have to be walking countercultural today. And that can be a hard thing, especially if you’re a people pleaser. And so I think that the first thing that I had to realize is that that tendency in myself of being a people pleaser was really selfish.

It was about me. It was about what other people thought about me versus selfless and being willing to obey God and lay down my life and take up the cross that he had asked me to take up to bear the cross he had asked me to bear and be willing. To walk strong and confidently in that with a selfless heart attitude. Recognizing that I didn’t need to have accolades or permission, or even pats on the back, or feel valued by other people, knowing that what I was doing was valued by God and that that was enough. Not that I was enough, but that God was enough, and that me being obedient to him was what I needed to focus on, not on what other people were doing. So yes, having to step out and being somewhat countercultural was one of the first hard lessons that I learned in life. I want to share with you guys from Luke chapter nine, if you’ll flip with me there, if you guys have your Bibles, that would be awesome, because I have some really special scriptures to share with you guys today. Luke 923 says, and he said to all, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

This has been probably one of the most sanctifying scriptures to try to be more like the Lord, to be following after him. You know, there’s those bracelets that you see teenagers wearing that have WWJD. That was really popular even when I was in high school. It was a big thing. What would Jesus do? We all would ask, and we’d sing the DC talk song and jars of Clay songs, and and we would be focused on constantly talking about, well, what would Jesus do? What would how would Jesus treat that person? How would Jesus respond? And I think that as a wife and a mom, that still was something that was at the front of my mind in regards to how am I going to love my family, well, what would Jesus have me do? And so coming at it from that perspective of it’s not about me, but it’s about God obeying him and serving others. It’s actually about serving others and understanding that that’s the model of what Jesus gave us. That’s who he was. In John 15 verse 13, it says, greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. And then it says in verse 15, no longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends.

For all that I have heard from my father, I have made known to you. This is this scripture about being friends of God and understanding that His Word actually is our guidebook for understanding what God’s will is for our lives, and looking at what the responsibilities and jurisdictions that mothers have. I’m speaking as a mother to mothers in today’s podcast, but this goes the same for parents. Like all parents, moms and dads in the sense of like, what does God’s Word say is my responsibility in training up a child in the way he should go. And when he is old, he will not depart from it. That’s Proverbs 22 six, right? You see Scripture like Ephesians chapter five. Let’s just flip to that together, because I think that this is another verse that is for me has been a huge encouragement, but I know will be to you as well. It says, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. So if we’re trying to be like Jesus and he gave himself up for us, we should be giving ourselves up for other people as well. And if not, first, our family, like God even says that we should be doing this for our our enemies and for other people who don’t like us. But if we can’t even be selfless with our own family, which is like the first training ground of selflessness, then there’s a big problem there.

And so recognizing that God calls us to walk in love as he walked in love. And then Ephesians chapter six, this other verse, this is super encouraging. You guys probably all have had your kids memorize children. Obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. But if you skip down to verse four, it’s really. This is like a warning to parents, right? Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger. And then here’s the instruction. But bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. And so we have we have different verses like train up a child and bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. We also see in in Deuteronomy chapter six, where God is saying, love the Lord your God with your whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. And then he’s exhorting them to teach all of his commandments to their children while they sit, while they rise, while they lie down, while they’re standing to to put it on their doorposts and their. He just goes on and on and on. And to understand that and the, the the sheer importance of God directing us and how we should be communicating with our children. This is clearly another responsibility here. I’m just going to read it to you guys very clearly from Deuteronomy chapter six. It says, listen, that the Lord God commanded me to teach you that you may do them in the land in which you are going over to possess, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son, and your son’s son.

See, this is about multiple generations here. By keeping all his statutes and commandments, which I command you all the days of your life. How many days of your life? Just maybe. Oh, when you’re really on fire for the Lord in college? No. All the days of your life. That your days may be long here. Therefore, Israel, be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you in a land flowing with milk and honey, and then just continues, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children shall walk. Talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk, by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise, you shall bind them as signs on your hand. They shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. And when the Lord God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, and then just continues on with more promises.

But we know from the Scripture that this is God’s way. If God had a way that parents were supposed to be with their children, there are many scriptures. There are many more than what I’ve even shared with you just then. And I just read 3 or 4 of them. But the point is, is that God has so many instructions for us. And I think when I first started getting to know my firstborn daughter, that was my first motivation of learning what it meant to be a parent. Before that, I was all about like learning about pregnancy and all about learning about birth and learning how to cook, and learning how to clean a home and how to do laundry. Right. And and all the things that I’d been learning for that whole year and a half before she was born, right? And it was like boot camp of learning all the things. But then all of a sudden she was here and it was like, okay. And I’m still learning all the postpartum stuff, and I’m trying to learn. I’m trying to learn. But then there’s also this element of like, okay, but what about parenthood? What does the Bible say about parenthood now? And that was really, really humbling to be reading the Bible through a different lens. That wasn’t just all about me and Jesus, but through a lens of a multi-generational lens, a lens of, Lord, what are your instructions to me now that I’m a mom? And I just want to encourage you guys that when we start reading the Bible for other people’s sake and how what God has commanded us to do for other people’s sake, it becomes alive in a new kind of way.

You start reading it not just for yourself, but for how you should be treating other people. That changes everything. And so I would say that selflessness that I was learning through the boot camp of like the different things that you experience when you’re pregnant, right? Like, I had really bad morning sickness for the for the entire nine months. I even vomited right after I gave birth to our oldest. And I remember like, wow, this is a selfless thing. And I had this totally different new respect for my own mom and what she had gone through in bringing forth life three times. And I remember being like, wow, I didn’t ever realize that this was what it was like for all those women. And so I immediately had this newfound respect for anyone who had given birth. And it it was this bonding thing to me and other sisters that were mothers, you know, just women in general. And that was such a powerful life lesson that forever changed me. But also that element of being willing to go through it again for life again, being willing to lay down your life, whether it meant you were going to have morning sickness or not because another person’s life, their legacy, like I’m talking every person they exponentially touch, whether it’s witnessing to someone having their own children, the people they come in contact with or serve in church.

Like, think about all of the legacy that comes from one person. From one person. Nine months of vomiting is worth another person’s life, their legacy, and eternity. And so that selflessness, like as such a young age, it hit me so hard that it was like this. This isn’t about me. And once you understand that your life isn’t about you, everything changes. God starts opening up wisdom and truth to you in ways that you never thought possible. Hey guys, thanks so much for listening to the Courageous Parenting Podcast. We just want to take a moment to highlight some of our awesome sponsors who are actually there making the Courageous Parenting Podcast possible. And so let’s just take a moment and listen to the sponsors, and then we’ll get back to the show. I want to share a really amazing personal testimony with you guys. The first 20 years Isaac and I were married, we primarily went the traditional health insurance route. Being entrepreneurs in those first 20 years, we had nine pregnancies, one loss, and eight babies birthed Earthside. Each time we were pregnant, we felt limited by our insurance coverage when making the decision on where we were going to have our babies.

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So selflessness is obviously the opposite of selfishness. Choosing what’s best for others at the sacrifice of even your own desires. I know that a lot of times moms talk about self-care and they talk about mental health, and there’s a lot out there on those things. And I, I do think that there is an element of needing to take care of yourself so that you can care for other people. Obviously, there’s the whole analogy of putting on your own life the oxygen mask on a plane, if a plane’s going down so that you can help other people, otherwise you’re going to pass out and you can’t help them. And there is a truth in that. However, what we see in Scripture is very countercultural to the way that this world works. Jesus says to lay down our lives and that when we do that, that’s when other people experience life. And so I would tend to just encourage you guys to not be so absorbed or influenced by the ways of the world and the suggestions that other people do. But do what in your heart, like the Lord has, if your heart is in alignment with the Lord’s heart. If you love the Lord your God with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength like we read in Deuteronomy chapter six, like we see again in the Gospels when Jesus commands us and he says, all of the law and the prophets can be summed up in this, that you love the Lord your God with your whole heart, mind, soul, and strength.

He put heart in there. Why? Because our heart can be deceived. But when we love the Lord with our whole heart, he changes our desires. He changes our minds. He changes our hearts to where then we can fully serve him selflessly. So the second thing I want to talk to you guys about is surrendering control. And this is a really big thing. And I think it’s something that as humans, we keep trying to take back control, don’t we? But control is really an illusion. Um, but a lot of people struggle with this illusion. I myself am one of the greatest offenders of this. And it’s out of love always, especially in regards to motherhood, where I just don’t want my kids to be hurt. Right? To where you’re like, oh, please don’t don’t go cliff jumping. Oh, please don’t play football. Oh, please don’t do that. You’re going to get hurt. You’re oh don’t dirt bike. You’re gonna get hurt. Oh motocross. You’re gonna dislocate something. You could die. Like, I just I think of all of the what ifs and they potentially like. What happens is, as a mom, I want to take control and say, no, don’t do those things. It could put your life at risk. That could cause you pain.

I don’t want you to be in pain, because if you’re in pain, then I’m in pain too. It’s a self-preserving mechanism or, um, reaction that all of us humans actually have instinctually is to Self-preserve you see it from Adam and Eve back in the Garden of Eden in Genesis when they sinned, what they do, they hid. They were self-preserving. And so as moms, we if we’re walking in a place of selflessness and wanting what God’s desire is for our children versus our desire for our children. Those are two very different things. And the difference maker is that we would surrender, that we would recognize, oh, I do have a will for my kids, but so does God. And actually they’re not my kids. They’re his kids. So I need to give up my will to the Lord and pray for God to impress upon his will that he has for my child. He would impress that upon my heart, and that I would be able to lead them and help guide them and give them wisdom that would help them make the right decisions in their life so that they can be walking in God’s path for them. But here’s the deal our kids also make decisions at times. And so as your kids get older and older, this is definitely something I’ve experienced. And you are surrendering more and more, right? Because you know, when they’re older, you’re not always picking out what they’re eating.

For example, you’re not choosing what job they’re going to pursue. They have to make those decisions. And so you while hopefully you would have the kind of relationship where they would want your advice, you have to surrender, control and allow God to be the one that is leading and guiding them, and it’s between them and God. And that, my friend, has been probably the one of the most sanctifying things that I have been experiencing in motherhood. And I think that, you know, you experience it a little bit when your babies are born. And they it’s so funny how we go from wanting them to do everything early. We’re like, oh, come on, you can crawl. Oh, you can talk. You can say it, baby sign language. Oh, you can go potty. Now we’re going to try potty training. You’re doing all these things to get them to do things, maybe even before their time. But then by the time the second or third kid comes around, you’re not, like, super eager for them to crawl, are you? Because you know what that means? You’re not super eager for them to have teeth, are you? Because you know what that means. Instead, you start to really understand how quick the time goes, and you savor it more and you start to delight in it more. And that is truly a phenomenon that every mom experiences.

And there’s just no way that you can, no matter how many times you’ve been told that you can’t fully embrace it in the same kind of way until you’ve experienced it yourself. And it’s just part of the sanctifying journey of motherhood. But that’s the boot camp that we walk through little by little as our kids are little, and then they start getting older and then by the time they are older. Lord willing, we have surrendered more control, and we have let go and let God to where they are able to feel like confident, and that we are confident that they are able to walk strong in the Lord on their own two feet. And I think that there is there is a need today for this message more than ever, because there is a real epidemic of kids that are failure to launch, especially among boys. It’s almost like the moms are just keeping them boys longer, way longer than they should be. And I do think there’s an element of technology and just society and low expectations of teenagers, and there’s so many things that contribute to that, for sure. But one could possibly be that women who are mothers need to learn to surrender more control to the Lord. And here’s the fruit from it. If you, in prayer surrender to the Lord, you will be drawn and experience God in a whole new way in your prayer life.

That for me has been the fruit. So as I in obedience, have learned to surrender more and to back off and to let them go, I have learned to grow in my prayer life. And you know what is awesome is that in doing that, I found that some of those kids will start coming back even more than you thought they would, because they do want that connection with mom and dad. They want that prayer. They want that wisdom. And that’s how it should be. It shouldn’t be that we’re constantly, as parents all throughout our kids lives trying to exercise some kind of control, but instead we need to back off. There’s Mark 14, verse 36 is a is a scripture I want to share with you guys that this has been super convicting to me. It says, and this is Jesus. And he said, ABBA, father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will. And this is the example that we have from Jesus. He’s praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, and he’s about to be sacrificed. Obviously, he knows what God is calling him to do, but he doesn’t want to do it. But then he. But then he changes and he submits and he says, Lord, not my will, but your will be done as moms.

That is the beautiful picture of what true surrender looks like when we’re able to say, not my will, but your will be done in my child’s life. Matthew chapter six, verse 33. This is one of the verses that I remember just really bathing in over and over and over again. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. And this is why let me just explain. Verse 34 explains why therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. That’s the very next verse. I think that a lot of us struggle with the anxiety of tomorrow and wondering what’s going to happen, and not necessarily like the very next tomorrow, but what about like five, ten, 30 years down the road? Like, do you have anxiety or overwhelm about those days? The truth is, is God’s word here it is sufficient again. He’s literally giving us the antidote. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. If we are seeking God’s kingdom, not Angie’s kingdom, not Jennifer’s Kingdom, not Holly’s kingdom, but God’s kingdom and his righteousness, which we find what his righteousness is by reading His Word. That’s how we seek the kingdom and his righteousness. It’s by reading these words.

Then guess what happens. We will not struggle with being anxious about tomorrow. We see it again in Philippians chapter four. If you need encouragement in this, the third thing I’m going to share with you guys is humility. Now, this is something that I think, again, is an ongoing thing that you’re going to experience over and over again throughout your mothering. I know that for myself, this just keeps happening over and over again. God keeps letting me walk through things that show my imperfections, that help me to have a heart posture of, oh, I don’t have it all perfect either. And I think that one of the first experiences that I had was, oh, and I’m not saying that life was like perfect up until then, but, you know, first three kids, I was doing pretty good managing the home, and we had date nights on a regular basis. The house, it would have messy days, but but really, like it wasn’t too much to clean up and be organized and keep things going. But then I had my fourth and when I had my fourth, that fourth had colic really, really bad. So I was up. Oh, I was up so much in the night. But then I had to be up and alert and awake during the day with the other kids. Wow. Talk about humbling. I’ve had many humbling experiences in my mother, and I’m sure you could think of some too.

But I remember thinking to myself years prior going. I wonder why people have such a hard time. Have you ever said that? That’s almost embarrassing to say because it’s so over critical and judgmental and so prideful, you guys. But God is so good to us because he loves us. He disciplines us, and he allows us to walk through hard things to humble us because he wants us to be more like him. When I think of this, I want to just share with you guys from first Peter chapter five verse six through ten. It says, humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Be sober minded. Be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world and after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you to him. Be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. So in the end, God is glorified by this. But he’s the one who allows us like nothing tempts us. That hasn’t been sifted through God.

And he can. He can give us the strength knowing. Ladies, listen. When you go through something, do not allow the enemy to deceive you into thinking that you’re the only one that’s ever experienced that. That is a lie from the pit of hell, and it will make you depressed. It will disable you. It will make you paralyzed. It’ll become a snowball effect that gets bigger and bigger and bigger, with more lies about how you’re a failure as a mom. And that’s not okay. We need to take our thoughts captive, understanding that in humility, if we humble ourselves and we cast our anxieties on him because he cares for us and we’re aware, we’re sober minded, so we’re aware of what our insufficiencies are. We’re aware of our imperfections and we’re watchful to try not to sin. But we need to resist him, firm in our faith. And we need to remember that other people are also struggling with these same things. And when we do at the right time, God will restore us, confirm, strengthen and establish us. That is the promise that we have from God. That is the truth that we know from His Word in first Peter chapter five. But it can be hard in the process of going through that time where you are struggling and you have anxiety, or you’re struggling with some kind of suffering or trial that you’re walking through.

There have been so many times where we have walked through something and I’ve realized, okay, Lord, is this for me to learn a lesson? Or is this for someone else to learn a lesson? Or is it for both of us? And that should be our first prayer. Lord, would you teach me? Might this not be wasted? Sanctify me, make me a better person so that I can glorify you? Another scripture that I want to share with you guys is in Hebrews 12. It’s um, verse six which says. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves. Listen, this scripture not only tells us that God loves us and that he’s going to allow us to walk through hard times so that we are humble because it makes us better people, and it refines our character, and it brings us into closer fellowship with the Lord because we understand his suffering even more. But there’s this element of like, what is the opposite of humility? It’s pride. What does pride do? Pride comes before the fall. Yes, we know that. But pride also causes people to be overly critical and judgmental of other people. And that separates friends. No one likes being around someone who’s overly critical. No one wants to spend time with someone knowing that they’re just going to judge them harshly. They’re not going to allow that kind of toxicity into their life if they’re aware of it.

Which can take a moment to listen about. You thrive, our children going through this this summer, and it is so good to feel the gaps of financial education. We’ll be right back to the show.

I want to pause for a second and share something that’s been on my heart. This economy has changed, and it takes more to equip your children to thrive financially. Today, we can’t just assume that sending them off to college or helping them get a job will make them successful. Youth Thrive Academy is filling in the gap left by educational efforts, and offers a personal finance online course that’s relevant to today’s economy. I’m excited my teenagers are taking this comprehensive course knowing any gaps will be filled in. Financial preparedness. They’re learning career readiness skills and how to manage their money through budgeting, saving, investing, borrowing, and protecting their assets. Make you thrive. Academy a part of your summer. Initiatives like We Are go to Thrive Academy forward slash parents. That’s the letter U and get 66% off retail, which is exclusive only for our listeners. Use the code courageous at checkout before it expires. And again, that’s you. Thrive Academy forward slash parents. So here’s the reality. We have a choice. We can either humble ourselves before the Lord, or we can allow him to humble us before the Lord. Or we can just be alone our whole life. I don’t know about you, but if those are the options, I would much rather learn the lesson by submitting to humbling myself before the Lord myself. But the reality is, is in humanity. So many times we just don’t. And when we experience God humbling us, he is so faithful to show his goodness to us and to teach us and to make us better people.

And then we’re able to serve other people better. The fourth thing that I would say motherhood has done for me has been refinement. And I’m sure that if you’ve been a mom for any length of time, you would probably agree with that statement. Um, when I think of the the the process of refining something. It is humbling to think that God has my good in mind as I’m going through a hard season or I’m being humbled, but I’m just going to read from Proverbs 17 verse three. It says the crucible is full for silver, and the furnace is for gold. And the Lord tests hearts. God wants us to be the best people that we can be. He wants. He wants what’s best for us. Leaving pride in us isn’t what’s best for us. Having us walk through maybe a hard season or something that’s humbling and and letting us experience the the refinement and the sanctification that comes through being humbled. It makes us a better person in our character for the long term. That is a discipline that is for our good, that is loving. And as parents, when we when we look at how God the Father treats us, and he’s so gentle with us and patient with us, we need to be that way with our kids. But sometimes we’re not, are we? It can be really hard.

And so through all of this, of course, there have been character qualities and different things that have grown in me over the years, but one of the things that I’ve learned the most is just what one of my favorite songs is, is create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. And I keep thinking of how that is a process of refinement where God has to refine us and create in us what he wants in us. But we have to surrender to that. We have to be humble in order to experience that. We have to be willing to be selfless and not selfish, and offer ourselves up for those experiences so that God can refine us. So let’s just wrap all this up. What are some what are some advice during these unprecedented times for courageous parents when it comes to motherhood, I would say if there’s any good advice I could give you, it’s don’t make any decisions based upon the way that the world is. Meaning, don’t allow the world to influence you. Don’t allow the things that you think are happening in the world to influence the decisions that you make. Be willing to look to God alone. To look at His word. To prayerfully consider the challenges of being selfless, surrendering control, being humbled, being willing to be refined in the refiner’s fire, and to be willing to be true servants of Christ and to be friends of Jesus when we do that.

It literally changes our lives, and they are going to look a little different. At the beginning of this episode, I mentioned how I’m in every season of parenting all at one time right now, as well as being a grandparent, and how that can be hard at times, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. The reality is that a lot of people don’t talk about the hardships that come along with choosing to be a mom of many, and as a mom of nine, there are times when I have felt like, wow, I am at my max. I am beyond my limit. I have way too much on my plate. But you know what? I don’t regret it for a moment. In fact, if there was any advice that I would give you in regards to surrendering. Surrendering your life to Christ and and opening it up for him to grow you and sanctify you, it would be the advice of living beyond yourself, being willing to step out in faith and let God be the one that controls your life, that leads you day by day. That is the one that you are surrendering to the person that you are hailing as king in your life. And when you do that, you don’t live with regret. You have more joy in your life. And even though you may not have all the treasures of the world, you’re going to have treasures in heaven, and you’re going to be just like they say on little House on the Prairie.

You’re the richest family there is. And I, I truly believe that because I experienced the love and joy from my family, from the decisions that we’ve made. And even though it wasn’t easy and there were times where I was tempted to think, oh, well, what if I went and I got a job? Or what if I did this? Or what if that? What if this? And the truth is, is staying faithful and being confident that what God has called me to in my home and being a mom has led us in so many decisions that we have made in the sense of like that has been a priority of Isaac in mine, and because that was a priority that helped us to make our other decisions, and those decisions led us to where we are today. And for that, we’re thankful. So I’m praying that you experience that as well, that you live beyond yourself and in God’s full strength, surrendered to him. Thanks for joining me. Hey, thanks for listening and being a part of the 10 Million Legacies movement. Go to be Courageous Ministry. Org for more biblically based resources, ways to switch where you spend your money that support the mission and information about the incredible Be Courageous app community for believers.

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