Hello and welcome to our first ever episode of Upfront and Undivided with Luke and Dean'na.
So here we go babe, this is the first shot at it.
Woo!
What do you think?
I like it.
Yeah?
I'm excited.
I am too.
You said you're a little nervous.
I am a little nervous.
I am too.
But I'm excited.
Yeah.
I just want to be good.
Yeah.
And hopefully all of you will enjoy this journey that we go on together.
So I think first off what I want to talk about, or what we want to talk about is why Upfront
and Undivided?
You know, what is that?
What does that mean to us?
Well I know that we started off by saying a lot of the car ride conversations that we
have.
Our biggest thing is always we're really good talkers.
We have no problem communicating.
We like having conversations.
And you know how you get into a car, okay, roll with me now.
You're in the car and you're looking out the window and you obviously one is driving, the
other one's kind of maybe I try to put my phone down and I try to watch what's going
on around me.
So that way it starts kicking ideas and just you know sometimes you need your brain to
rest and then sometimes a conversation comes out of it.
And it usually starts with, hey babe, do you ever think and then you go on this conversation
and regardless of how long or how short that car ride is, the fact is that you're having
a conversation maybe on a greater level, deeper level than what you would have if you were
just sitting in the living room or if you're just passing in the kitchen or something.
And so we found out fairly quickly that car ride conversations was taken so we decided
that we were going to do the upfront and undivided upfront and undivided.
And anybody that knows us knows that undivided is a huge word in our world.
It's actually tattooed on both of our arms and it's one of those things that we stand
for where like even if we come at our conversations from two different ways, two different angles,
we decide that we're not going to have a divided front.
We're undivided in whatever it is, the conclusions that we come to.
So I know one of the things kind of along those lines that we like to say is, you know,
it's like when you have a destination on a journey, there's many ways that you can get
there but you always have one destination.
We've heard many times in relationships, marriage, remember you're on the same team.
Even if you're coming at it from the top and she's coming at it from the side, you're both
going at the same, you're striving for the same solution, you're striving for the same
answer.
It's just because of life experience, because of education, because of mindset, because
of so many different things in your life and in your mind, you might be looking at the
situation from two completely different angles but yet so many times we're trying to get
to the same place.
We're trying to, you know, whether making a decision about what to do with your kids
for the weekend.
Oh dear.
You know, again, it's, and so that's why it is, you know, we're undivided.
We're undivided in this, that no matter what, we will be together.
No decision, no situation is going to drive us apart.
We are solid and we are together.
And I think the upfront part of it comes is you and I have no problem with confrontation.
No.
We don't have, and confrontation has gotten such a bad rap.
Yes.
Like people think, well, if you're confrontational that you're trying to pick a fight and it's
not at all.
When we confront a problem, it's we're trying to face it.
Yeah.
We're trying to figure out how do you come about this?
What's the best way to work this?
How are we going to make this better?
What are we going to learn from it in the process?
How are we going to become stronger and better?
And we're trying to instill that into our children too.
It's like having conversations with Gabri, you know, or even Sebastian, you know, it's,
it's telling the truth the best that we can or our truth, listening to each other, those
points of view and then learning something like having a greater knowledge of it.
Oh, I have a greater understanding of maybe you or I have a greater understanding of what
you went through and then it causes a greater compassion or knowledge or whatever else is
needed.
Sometimes we just go, you know, I don't agree with that, but that's okay because I'm going
to respect you.
I'm going to honor you and I'm going to say no problem.
And then we're going to move on to whatever.
And so that's where a lot of these podcasts are going to come into play.
It's our point of view.
We're not trying to say, think like us, act like us, do like us.
We're not trying to say here's an advice column.
Oh gosh, no, no, no.
It's more of a, hey, these are some things, practical things, maybe even impractical things
that we've done along the way in the 10 years, almost 10 years that we've been married over
10 years that we've been together and being led and guided by the Holy Spirit, being led
and guided by people around us, some good solid teachings, some things that we just
have hashed out by ourselves and said, okay, this seems to work really well.
Maybe we can just throw this out to you.
So pick out the bones, chew on the meat, don't throw the baby out with bath water.
I don't know how many different silly things that you want to say there, but it's like
our goal here is that you walk away with maybe a conversation or maybe a greater understanding
of a conversation or even just an opportunity to where you have more questions.
Having more questions is not a bad thing either.
Right.
Yeah.
And I think our conversations give you a new way to look at something.
Yeah.
Or, oh, hey, I never thought about courtship in that manner.
Right.
Yeah, we're going to talk about a lot of different things in this podcast.
And a lot of it is we like to talk to each other, as we've said a lot.
And so this is just kind of peeling back the curtain a little bit.
We've had these conversations and we've talked to friends and such throughout the years and
they've been like, man, I wish I could be a fly on the wall for your conversations and
so on and so forth.
And so we decided that that's what this is going to be.
You now get to be a fly on the wall while we have our conversations.
And every now and then we'll kind of break the fourth wall and we'll point part of our
conversations at you.
Yeah.
So, yeah, so that's kind of our, I think that's kind of our goals and what we're going to
be doing with this.
Yep.
So stay tuned.
Keep your ears peeled.
If this is something that even intrigues you, we are more than welcome to have questions.
We'd love to have people ask us questions.
It's a lot easier some days for people to ask us questions because we, like we said,
we don't have the answers, but we have a lot of good solutions that we know that have happened.
And we also know the one that has the answer, which is really great, which we're grateful
for.
So know that God will be very much a part of these conversations and all of the goodness
that he's poured out onto our lives.
We want to also share that with you guys.
We want to remind you that there is a hope that you, you know, no matter where you are
in your life in this very moment, while you're listening to this, that you have a hope that
there, you know, that things aren't just black and white all the time, that we have a God
that that lives very much in the gray and he wants to meet you in those places.
And he wants to pull you into the beauty of who he is, the completeness of who he is.
And so if this helps you in any way, that's our heart.
Our heart is here to be helpful and maybe crack some jokes.
Yes.
Periodically.
Yes, I think so.
I mean, dad jokes are, I mean, that's your forte, babe.
I try.
It's pretty good.
You're a dad and you like jokes.
I do.
So that's it.
I think that's it.
Did you have anything else you wanted to add?
I think that's it.
Okay.
So guys, stay tuned and we will talk to you guys soon.
Yes.