Well, welcome everyone to another episode of Faithfully Engaged.
Today, my guest name is Ahmaud.
So Ahmaud, it's great to see you today.
Have you on the show and kind of tell the audience a little bit about yourself.
First, thank you for having me on.
And, you know, I know we're going to get into a number of different things and, you know,
we started looking over people's bio and resumes and it's just long, long list of things.
So I like to keep things very simple on the intro.
I'm just a young man from a small town in Texas who had a dream and a pen in his hand.
And the foundation of everything I do comes back to writing.
I feel like that's God's gift to me is to be able to put pen to pad and inspire people
in that way.
So everything you see from me up to this point, whether it's the coaching, consulting,
keynote speaking, curriculum building, ministry work, all of it starts off with the fact of
the gift of the pen for me.
And so I've been writing, you know, probably since, you know, my early, early preteen years
wrote my first book at 11, first published at the age of about 29 or so when I put out
my first book, majored in journalism out of college, worked for community newspapers
when I left from there, jumped into the college football recruiting analyst work and started
writing in that, you know, that's around the time when the internet was starting to become
online blogs became like a big thing, especially in the college football recruiting world.
And I jumped headfirst into that as the way was coming out of the newspaper world and
kind of inching into online blogs, talk boards and things of that nature.
So I came up through all of that.
And so really everything just kind of grew out of the idea of my writing led to coaching,
coaching led to consulting, being an author of a book led to keynote speaking.
And so everything just kind of evolved from there.
And of course, now I'm just in a whirlwind of doing a number of things, leaning in a
lot with young adults through service and with the ministry, of course, that's where
I do a lot of my work and obviously doing the things with the nonprofits and different
things.
But at the end of the day, I just, I'm just someone who's called to serve.
And I'm just really leaning in on that.
And the beautiful thing is, is that, you know, you and your podcast and your listeners, they
catch me at a time when I'm really going through a new season and allowing the voice
to speak to me and say, okay, you've seen some success, you've been blessed, but I want
to take you further.
And I think right now I'm kind of in that place where you're putting down your goals
on playing tablets and you're just like, okay, so which one of these do we want to lean on?
So I'm kind of in that, not so much a wait and see, but more like awaken and show me
type of type of world.
And hopefully I'm explaining that as best as I can because that's about as good as I
have as I'm as I'm looking in and in pursuing different goals right now.
But for the most part, it's been going well and the blessings continue to come.
Fantastic.
And I'm excited to kind of get into a lot of the things where, where your hands are
at right now.
And one thing that really struck with me when I, when I first kind of ran into you and everything
is specifically your work with young adults.
And I know that that's a timeframe when I'm just thinking over my own life that a lot
of confusion, they're not always a lot of direction and just some difficulties of like
kind of life hitting you in the face.
So what is it about young adults that really is important to you and why you want to speak
into their life?
You know, I think, I think there, I think it's multi-layered when it comes to that.
Obviously with me being a sports writer, I was always, you know, with young adults because
I'm covering high school and college age athletes.
So that's, you know, anywhere from 15 up to about 22, 23 years old, you know, jumped into
the ministry at some point in my life and as teenagers.
And, and, you know, I would go to these nonprofits and they would have me work with their teens.
And it's just like, I noticed even when I was speaking in colleges and high schools,
I mean, I speak to the faculty on Saturday and later that evening, I'm speaking to,
you know, the baseball softball and the soccer team.
And I started noticing that everywhere in my life where, where blessings was coming in
for me, the common denominator was young people.
And as I started leaning into it more, I realized how society and how some of the forces that
be were always trying to instruct young people in a way that would not be advantageous to
the future.
And I started noticing that.
And of course, you know, we know what happened in 2020.
That was to me, that was a pivotal year, not because of the virus, not because of the election,
not because of any of those things, but because some of the dark forces showed their hand.
And that's when I was like, I really leaned into that time.
I had just joined a new church and it was very, very, very, very, I don't want to say
strict, but I mean, there's no over interpretation of the word.
This is what it is, like unapologetic, you know, when everyone's saying the churches
are going to close down, I came in under the pastor was like, come do something about it.
And that's where I ended up.
And so I started seeing how there was a like an incoordinated attack against young people.
And so at that time, my heart just opened up and I was just like, you know what, I see
what's going on here.
And my mission is to gear up, armor up, to pour everything into them because they're
the ones who are going to lead the revival.
They're the ones who are going to turn the ties of this country.
They're the ones who are going to really rebuild all that has been taken and torn down over
the past 40 to 50 years.
They're going to be the ones who are going to be like enough.
We're going to do that.
So our job is because society doesn't want to take us out, right?
Society wants to take our children out.
And so I really wanted to lean in on that because to be able to empower them to want
to start from ground zero, to understand that the foundation of society is the family, to
lean in on my young men and say, hey, look, you have to be purposeful.
You have to have fulfillment in your life.
There's no one coming to save you.
There's no, there's no mulligans for you in the standpoint of just like, I don't know
what I want to do.
So I'm just going to sit over here and drift.
No, young man, this is not how we're going to live life.
We're going to come up with some purpose.
We're going to put some things on paper and we're going to go out and we're going to earn.
We're going to be providers and protectors, right?
And we're going to build society from the ground up.
And the way we're going to do that is one, two, three and four.
And so we lay that out and do those things.
So my heart goes out to them because I feel like if we don't invest in the future, we
don't have a future.
There's nothing to build on.
If the people who are going to build a society behind us is weak and sitting in the corner
and crying victim, there's nothing to build from that.
And so I look at my youngsters and say, I want to empower you.
I want to empower you to be greater than I could ever become.
And so that's where the turn happened for me.
And I say that happened over the last 10 years, but the last two to three, I've really, really
leaned in on that.
And so now I'm setting aside, even part of my business plan, it's like, okay, this much
allotment for this level of service, right?
Where it's like, okay, how many, how many hours are you going to invest a week, a month
into mentorship of young men and building them up from many different levels?
Obviously starting with the word and building out and coming to society.
And I've actually done a lot of investment in that.
And I'm not done.
I'm just getting started.
Yeah.
No, that's fantastic.
Now I'm assuming everybody listening to this understands what you're referencing of 2020
and just a little side note, that was when you talk about just the darkness, there were
so many things that was a loaded year that even if you throw away COVID, just so many
different aspects going on.
Presidential election alone tends to be a kind of a difficult year for a lot of people.
It was just constant throwing everything every single day.
It seemed like something new.
For those that are listening that either didn't have kids that were during that timeframe
or if they just might have been ignorant to some of the effects that this was having,
particularly on younger people, those in school age up to their lower 20s or whatever, what
experiences did you see and impacts did you see from those young ones of how that whole
year, couple years affected them?
What were your experiences with them?
For one, the lies that were being pushed to them.
And I'm not really concerned with where the audience stands on, what you thought about
COVID, the severity of it and all those things like that.
That's completely irrelevant.
The bottom line is that there are youngsters specifically between that second and fifth
grade who are never going to recover from that year and a half that was taken from them.
And in some areas they lost too, some of the West Coast.
I'm in Texas and so we did miss some time, but we did have some in-person learning because
there was a lot of schools.
It was like, yeah, and they gave you the option between that and virtual.
And I was encouraging all my people, I'm like, send your kid to school, please.
I understand you're concerned about this and that.
But in life, there's just inherent risk.
Whatever major city or wherever city you are, it's a risk every time you turn your car on
and get on a highway.
Every time there's a natural disaster, it's going to be a risk.
And I'm not saying that some risks are higher than others.
I understand that.
However, the idea of the human touch, idea of human interaction, that has been part of
our society since the beginning of time.
And you cannot just remove that and think that there's not going to be some dire ramifications.
And we're starting to see those already in test scores.
And so where I was getting upset was the idea that, oh, just tell them to sit behind a computer.
I mean, we're adults.
If I do a seminar online, I mean, I'm tapped out within like two to three hours sometimes.
You think a seven-year-old is going to pay attention for more than 20 minutes?
You really think they learned anything during that time?
Some of these young boys and girls are not going to get on the other side of this.
It's egregious the way the school system was just like a coordinated idea that we don't
want to go back in person.
We don't want to have the kids in school or whatever.
I'm like, look, I don't care if you wrap them up in bubble paper, put them in school so
they can see each other.
And that is where I saw from the school level.
And then just in every little area where it was just like, you shut the churches down.
You shut the gyms down.
But it's OK for you to go to the liquor store and get you some vaping products.
I'm just saying, can we not have that conversation?
The idea that things that, how is that essential?
But the word isn't.
How is that essential?
But our school system is not.
But I do believe that that was that whole year.
And of course, let's not talk about even the cartoons and the different forms of media
and these books that are targeted at children and telling them lies.
Like the idea that you would look at a young man and tell him that it's not good for him
to compete.
It's not good for him to challenge his peers.
It's not good for him to go into some kind of competitive battle.
That's how we're built, right?
And to tell the young ladies, right?
OK, there's liberation and not needing a man, a husband, right?
It's liberating to go out and conquer as many sexual acts as possible, right?
You are hearing these lies.
People telling them, like, there's liberation and just doing what you want.
That is not how this is going to work.
And that too is having dire ramifications.
The birth rates are down, marriage rates are down, shocker.
The more this secularism goes up and religion goes down, shocker.
The home is broken.
Gee, I wonder who could have seen this coming, right?
And so I saw how they were doing all of this.
And once you do this to the children and you just sort of inch things up and see where
all of these pillars are put in place to destroy everything that built society from the jump.
Well, that's where we are.
And so now that I know that the children is what they want, I want to go to ground zero.
I want to go into trenches.
I don't mind getting dirty because I came from dirt from back in the day when I was
doing what I wanted to do before I got revived and brought back to my senses, before I leaned
in on the word and realized that, like, OK, I'm a prodigal.
I'm sorry.
I've gone wrong.
But show me where you want me to go.
I'm far from perfect.
But you know what?
I'm very transparent in my young people and saying, you know what?
The path that you think you want to go down, I've been through more than once.
I promise you all of that, what you think is beautiful and awesome and freeing.
It will cost you and you don't want to waste 20, 30 years trying to figure out what doesn't
work.
I've tried it and it failed miserably.
Please, please don't waste all that time.
So my investment in them is at that level.
In the same way I'm talking to your audience and to you right now, that's the same urgency
I share with them because I know that the enemy is on full attack and has all the guns
pointed at our children, right?
All the way from like three years old to the preteens to the teenage years.
They want all of them and they want them all in some perverse, you know, secular worldview
and it's just like enough is enough.
You know, and I want them to try to reach as many of them as I can.
I want to real quick just point to people in the audience of just listening to you speak.
It's very apparent that the passion that's there and I'll tell you that's been one thing
on my end looking back over kind of COVID things and just the whole last few years.
But be a little transparent here, my daughter was born in 2019.
So the whole COVID stuff, I had a little baby and then my son was born in 2021.
So those were years that extremely formative in their years and there were times that I
would go to go to the doctor, for instance, and if my daughter was with me and six months
old or something and you have to have a mask on.
What she would do every single time was grab that mask and pull it down because she knows
who mommy is.
She knows who daddy is.
And I remember in that moment, we're talking May 2020 or something.
Like I know they say it's just the mask or it's just the social distance or just virtual
school.
There's a lot of just, but that's what it is to be a human.
Like my daughter, and she actually understood that she was six months old.
She knew that I need to look at those faces.
That's really important to her.
And that's what I loved about listening to you is there's that passion there that, no,
that's not the way we're created.
We weren't created to live that way.
And to have the arrogance to think that's not going to have an effect, particularly
on the young people.
I remember around that same timeframe, May, June, something like that 2020, the CDC actually
came out with this, uh, this study and it asked people, I forgot the age range, but
something like 15 to 18, something in that range, teenagers.
And the last 30 days, have you considered killing yourself, considered committing suicide?
And the number was like 25%.
I mean, through the roof.
Can you imagine one out of four teenagers?
Thought about, not that they were down, feeling down, but they thought about killing themselves.
That's not right.
Something is wrong here.
And that again, that's what I love about the passion is you're not just going to say,
Oh, that happened.
Let's move on and act like nothing ever happened.
No, it did happen.
So let's do something.
Let's really pour into these kids' lives that were affected.
Without questioning, it's funny you say like, Hey, let's, you know, nothing to see here.
Because you hear some of these health experts and in the past like six months, I've seen
some of them, whether it's on Capitol Hill or in the meeting, they're just like, Oh,
we kind of got this wrong.
It's like, wait a minute.
So it's just, it's just a wipe my hands off my bad.
No, you cutting somebody off in a parking lot is a my bad.
You ruining the lives of millions is not a my bad.
There needs to be some consequences for this.
Cause that's some serious stuff you just did with the kids.
Like you said, even a little, the little nuance from your daughter pulling your mask down saying,
I need to see daddy's face because that's important.
You know, think about, think about the speech and occupational therapy from, from the, from
the, um, you know, the autism spectrum or the special needs spectrum.
I mean, seriously, like what, what's the state of the situation with them?
Like, I mean, and my sister works with, with special needs and I obviously need to follow
up with her and my needs.
They both teach special needs children.
And I need some, I need some data on that because I know, I know that it's already heavy
lifting enough dealing with them as it is.
And to go through those two years, right?
You think they're going to virtually learn when, when you're talking about, when, even
when you're talking about elementary age, like very small kids, they need non-verbal.
We all need non-verbal, but they for sure need non-verbal.
They need to know the reactions of the face to know if you're happy, displeased, if you're
concerned, you can't get that through just eyes.
And so getting on the other side of this man, this is, I wish I had the answers for what
it is.
I just know that I'm going to fight in those trenches, but I know that we're still cleaning
up mess that we don't even know how much fire damage was done to our kids as minds.
And, but, and I'm glad you brought up the suicidation numbers because yeah, they said
the, the percentages in teenage girls is up like 40% and that hurts my heart, right?
You know, because, you know, not to say that, you know, guys and girls don't are not both
in that boat.
It's just, it has literally taken a toll more on the young girls than it has on the young
boys.
Because again, guys can, you know, go out there and fight their, you know, homeboy in the
front yard and, you know, maybe, maybe hash that out that way.
But young girls, they may take that in and if you take in too much without releasing
it in some type of way or getting the proper treatment or getting the therapy needed and
you don't think that you want to be a burden on someone and you just keep it to yourself.
Well then we have a problem and we have a lot of that going on.
Like you said, those numbers, those numbers just scare the mess out of all of us.
And that's why I tell people after every one of my classes, I teach fitness classes out
here.
I'm just like, look, if you have a teen or young adult who's struggling, please come
see me after class.
We want to be able to provide resources of some kind.
And it's like, I don't even know what kind of situations are going to show up on my desk
when I ask that question.
And you know what?
I don't think I care because once I hear what's going on, if I'm not able to, I want
to put you in charge with somebody who does because I don't want any more of our kids
being lost in that type of way.
Like to me, that's a very crushing thing when we lose teenagers and it's not like just an
accident or something like that.
It all hurts.
But when it's that way, it just tears me on the inside on so many levels.
I don't even have to know them.
But I just don't want to lose our young people in that way.
Because it leaves more questions than answers.
You didn't get a chance to ask the questions.
So I want to be proactive and be like, I tell my teens, every time I'm teaching class, if
you are having sleepless nights, if you are having some anxiety attacks, if you're feeling
depressed, if you're just having too many bad days, come see a leader immediately.
Immediately.
Do not try to figure this out on your own.
Because life is not meant to be lived alone.
You come in here, we don't care.
Bring us all your broken pieces.
Bring us all the burdens or whatever.
We're going to place it here at the altar.
We're going to agree together and we're going to get down to the bottom of this and find
you what you need.
Obviously, we're going to pray over here and we're going to pour into you.
But if you need additional help, if you need to go sit down with somebody and work through
some of these issues, let's do that.
We're not letting this stuff go on these unhealed things just continue to faster.
We are going to address this with some level of aggressiveness immediately.
This is not something that's like, oh, we'll deal with this next year.
No, we deal with this right now.
Right?
I'll walk out of service to go out there and deal with that.
Right?
I'll stop what we're doing and go deal with that immediately.
That's how we have to be with our young people because they're crying out.
And so we can't always just wait on them to come to us.
We need to proactively ask them, hey, how are things and then assess that on a person-by-person
basis.
Yes, that's going to take a long time to do that.
I don't care.
Our young people are worth it.
And we need to do that.
Parents, yes.
Be intrusive on your children.
Yeah.
Why do you keep asking me this?
Because I love you that much.
Right?
I love you that much to continue asking.
To the point, it's like you're tired of me asking.
So then make sure you continue to show me signs that everything is good and that we're
on a good page.
And that's where I think we have to be with this.
I love that intentionality there of not, let's not wait until, goodness, we find a teenager
that said, hey, I just took 20 pills.
I need to go to the hospital.
I know some of you listening, you might say, well, gosh, that's horrible.
My kid wouldn't do that.
I pray that they wouldn't, but we don't know that.
So you need to be checking in.
Don't wait for them to come to you.
I love that.
Don't be afraid to be a little too intrusive.
And I'm actually curious on this, especially in this timeframe.
I grew up really when cell phones were really starting to take over.
So I didn't have my first cell phone until I was 16.
And that was pretty normal during that timeframe.
But since then, like goodness, they have five year olds with smartphones.
And there's so much access to just everything, anything and everything.
And I've heard of this from parents of like, well, I don't want to, I don't want to look
at their phone.
That's their privacy or whatever.
So for those parents that are a little bit more timid that don't want to check on their
phone or really lean in and ask them how they're doing, what would be your advice to those
parents to get started in that habit?
Well I know we have a parental group with my ministry at the church we have down here
in the Woodlands.
And there's programs out there where you absolutely are intrusive.
It's almost like every keystroke they do comes, it seems like a report to your phone.
Certain absolutely blocked and different things like that.
Absolutely get intrusive.
I know you're like, you want to respect their privacy.
So on this level, we live in a democratic republic.
We live in a federalist type of situation in the United States where each state has
a rising and we have the federal government.
In your house, you are the leader and the ruler.
Like you lead the way.
This is not equal opportunity and all that.
But if you're rearing up especially in this iteration of the up society, no you absolutely
have to be almost like a tyrant and find out what's going on on their phones.
I'm talking about because the numbers are not in your favor to be like I'm going to
trust them to do this on their own.
No.
Find out what's going on on their phones.
Get those sensible apps on this.
You can put on the phone and I wish I had those by me but what I can do is Johnny when
I get off, I'll go look for those resources and I send those over and maybe you can put
those in the show notes.
Absolutely.
To be able to basically hack your kids phone.
Why?
Because you pay for it and you need to know what they're taking in.
Young ladies are getting caught up in social media and it's making them depressed and making
them suicidal.
Young men are addicted to porn right now.
So yes, you absolutely need to be going in there and not to mention some of these games
are teaching them things that are not that I'm pretty sure you don't want them being
taught right.
Telling them different things about their body.
Tell them things about their mental state and all these different little things.
So no, you need to be intrusive or and I mean really and truly and this probably going a
little bit too far off the deep end.
I'm not really, really sure kids need social media up until maybe like 17, 18 years old.
A 12 year old shouldn't be on social media at all.
And I know that's going to be like, oh, my kid's already on it.
Hey, times can change.
You know what?
There's a new regime in town because why?
Because those algorithms again are trying to come after your children and subconsciously
they're telling them things that you're going to turn around and wonder why your kid is has
a whole different mindset that goes against everything you're teaching at home.
Everything you want them to learn from a school standpoint.
Everything that the Bible teaches them on different things and they're totally going
to turn into somebody like, who the heck is this kid over here?
That's what happens when you take your foot off the gas and don't become intrusive with
them.
Right?
Yeah, it's okay to be a little bit more in tune with what's going on over there.
Yes, early on it may be like, like if you've been very laissez faire, maybe that's a tough
conversation.
Hey, welcome to the toughness of being a parent.
You know, like we're here now.
We're here now and it's just too many things that are attacking our children from so many
different sides and it's so subtle.
You listen to the beats of some of this music, listen to some of these lyrics.
These movies are slipping in themes that go against everything that you probably believe
in your house.
So you need to be on top of that on a whole other level.
That conversation will be tough, you know, but I think if you lean in and share with
them and have that family time, even if it's for, let's just say you commit to 30 minutes
every day where everyone in the house gets together and we have a sit down and say, hey,
how was your day?
What are our challenges?
What are our goals?
What do we want to do?
I know we live in this busy, you know, society or whatever, but like, let's get our heads
out of this for a second and look across from somebody and actually give them a hug and
actually reach over and touch them and hold them close to us.
Right?
We've lost some of that stuff because our heads are buried in Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat
and TikTok and whatever news station has popped up on our phone.
Let's detach some, right?
Put a time limit on this.
You know, I tell my teens all the time, I'm like, look, if you really want to detach from
that when you go to bed, how about you plug your phone up in the kitchen?
Lock it up.
And I always tell them, I say, you know what I want you to do?
If your phone is in the room, make it far further than your Bible is.
So when you wake up in the morning, the first thing you don't reach for is the phone.
To where you can't just reach over and grab it.
It's on the nightstand way across the room.
You can't get to it.
Right?
That's when you start getting, you got to like break some of these habits.
And so if you're not used to having these uncomfortable conversations with your kids,
let's go for it.
Let's, let's, let's pray about it.
Let's lean in on it and let's do it because they want the next generation.
They want the next two generations.
They want the kids.
They want that.
They want, they want toddlers.
Doggo Sesame Street is out here talking crazy now.
You know, I mean, whatever these little shows out here that they're trying to attack all
of these different institutions, we got to be on guard.
We have to arm her up every day because this fight, this fight, because while, while we're
not willing to have some of those tough conversations, they are willing to have all the conversations.
And so if we don't have something to combat that, we are in for a long ride and we've
taken our eyes off the ball for far too long and now it's time to put our foot down and
say enough and move forward with this and do some progressive and do some positive things
to be able to help our kids, be able to fight and live in a way that's going to be mirroring
the values that we know you instilled in your kids from day one.
Yeah, something that you had said earlier that really would like you to espouse upon
a little bit more is this concept of a secular worldview and a biblical worldview.
I think most people probably have a decent idea of what that means, but let's say it's
secular worldview.
What are you talking about?
Like it's really just been the last since COVID.
That's when all this stuff just flipped.
Everything was perfect before 2020.
There was no problems before then, which I don't believe that.
What some people do.
So, what exactly do you mean by a secular worldview and what is the difference in a biblical
worldview?
You know, that's a very deep concept, but let's just maybe go on the surface because
we're introducing this.
So, a secular worldview obviously is everything is about me.
Nothing with the community unless you're talking about some community justice stuff
where everybody has an equal outcome and everyone gets a ribbon and all that nonsense
like that.
But really, the way I look at a secular worldview is what I call idol worship.
The worship of self, the worship of feelings, the worship of, it's about me, the worship
of what's good for me, my truth, not the truth.
Those types of things.
That's one of the problems from a secular worldview.
When you want to go with cultural Marxism, egalitarianism, where there's just this total
going against with the Bible because obviously we as people, we are limited.
We get our strength, our wisdom, and our guidance from the Word, from God, from the words of
Jesus and things of that nature.
So, a biblical worldview is 10 commandments.
The biblical worldview is seek ye first the kingdom.
Not seek first my pleasure, but seek first the kingdom and all these things will be added
unto you for where you honor your father and mother.
Different things like that because a secular worldview will say challenge your parents and
go with what makes you feel good.
The whole YOLO movement, like hey, do what makes you happy?
No, there's no part of that, this biblical whatsoever.
Just do what makes you happy.
There's responsibility.
To walk the line of righteousness, not only will you be tart and feathered on this earth,
but it also is not easy, but it's fulfilling.
I'm leaning in on that a little bit more and I'm continuing to work on that where it's
like don't seek happiness, seek fulfillment.
Because it's just like when you go into something that's a challenge, whether it's building
a business, starting a family.
That ain't it takes a lot of work.
Even you just had your second child.
Think about that process.
From birth to from fertilization to birth, what mom has to go through, that's not an
easy process, but the beauty and fulfillment.
It wasn't like, oh, this is a walking apart.
No, it's not, but it's fulfillment, new life.
We take that from whether you're talking about nature, whether you're talking about birth,
the biblical idea is that there's going to be a trade-off.
My grace is sufficient.
I'm saying that yes, you will have pain, you will have struggles, you will have to go and
face a giant.
But I'm with you while you do this.
I'm not taking the pain away from you.
I'm saying that you can't defeat this without coming to me.
Rely and lean on me, not on your own understanding.
So that's where the worldview, the look at me, it's about me, not about service.
What makes me happy?
What my feelings feel like to a biblical worldview where it's like, I understand God is asking
this of me and it's going to cost.
There's no freebies here.
There's going to be pain, there's going to be triumph, but my father is with me and he
will heal me.
He will restore me through the trials.
And so obviously in the world sense, going that route seems so much easier, right?
Because they think there's no trade-off.
There is still trade-off, but in the moment it's like, I do what I want.
And so they're teaching our children to basically go against their fathers and mothers and just
do what you want, do what makes you happy.
You don't need to work for this.
We'll take care of you, all of these little things like that.
And all of that stuff is literally ruining us and it's ruining society as a whole.
I think that's extremely well said.
And a little challenge for those of you that are listening is keep that in mind, that secular,
biblical worldview.
And you're not going to be perfect on this.
And a great way to back yourself up here, if you're a little confused, is does scripture
speak to it?
Does scripture confirm?
Does scripture deny what you're thinking?
You're not always going to have a slamed up case on every little thing, but that's an
excellent place to start.
But go watch your kids' shows.
Go on Netflix.
Go on Hulu, Disney Plus, whatever you got.
Just go turn it on.
I about guarantee you, you're going to find something in there that, okay, that doesn't
really jive with that biblical worldview.
And you're going to be faced with some questions here of, do I want my kids to continue to watch
this?
If they have already watched it, how can I have these conversations?
Like you were saying earlier, these kind of in your face type of questions there.
Just like you, I'm not going to say that I am perfect on this by any stretch of the imagination.
But my wife and I, again, we're raising kids in the midst of this.
So we are refusing to keep our eyes closed and I collect there's things that aren't going
to come for our kids.
So something that we do, there's this book that, so we're Baptist and there's this kind
of older Baptist catechism thing.
And really all it is is these parts that are straight from scripture and teach our kids
scripture.
It's just in a very distinct way.
And one of the first ones is who made me and my daughter says God made me.
It's wonderful.
So to put this in a, just a very specific situation, just today, literally this afternoon, there
was a toad in our backyard.
And the second one is, what else did God make?
God made everything.
So there's a toad in my backyard and my wife and daughter over there and my daughter's
three now.
And real quick, my wife, well, who made that toad?
And without thinking, no hesitation, my daughter said, God made that toad.
You're not going to have blues clues or something teach you that, right?
Like you have to manually inject that wisdom into your kids.
We've made ton of mistakes along the way.
I'm not saying we're perfection, but what I am saying is that those truths that we inject
into our kids, they don't just happen.
You have to make that a priority.
And what bigger priority should there be than to inject truth into your kids?
If that's not a priority, then you probably do need to have a pretty good, pretty good
come to Jesus meeting with yourself and see what's going wrong with me.
Without question, and really you can tell where your values are is where you put your
time and money.
Where do you invest your time and money?
Right?
And obviously, resources are needed, but we're taught, if we're talking about biblical now,
we are to worship nothing.
And I mean nothing of this world.
Nothing of this, none of this stuff, none of this stuff matters in the big scheme of things.
Obviously, it is our essence, it's our spirit.
It's the God in us being able to be expressed in others because it's very clear, well, I
don't want to say it's very clear.
Like you said, it's very clear when you lean in on it more often than you should, right?
What we're called to do, called to serve others, feed the poor, take care of your family, honor
your father and mother.
Like you said, if you want to get started, if you've never picked the Bible up before
and you want to sort of jump back into it, from my standpoint, and I'm sure there's
plenty of scholars and pastors and stuff who will go against what I'm saying, if you're
just starting off in the Word, I would say go proverbs in the Gospels.
I would say that if you want to start somewhere, go there.
Proverbs in the Gospels, that's the wisdom and the life of Jesus just laid out there
very plainly and you get to see it from multiple different interpretations from the standpoint
of the same accounts, spoken from different men or whatever.
But yes, we have to be very intentional in not allowing the world view, the world view
is what?
TV, media, all these different things.
They have a situation that we didn't have coming up.
I mean, there was always TV, there was radio, but there was no internet, there were no smartphones
and now everything is on demand.
And we really do, and I don't want to rehash back over this, but I think it's very important,
we have to be willing to have those difficult conversations.
We have to talk about gender ideology.
We have to talk about porn.
We have to talk about sex.
We have to talk about the way you show up in dress for boys and girls.
We have to talk about the way you operate.
We have to talk about the language that comes out of your mouth.
We have to have those difficult conversations.
You know why?
Because society is going to teach them about that.
Society is going to tell them they can talk to you, the parent, any way they want to.
And good luck with trying to undo what their favorite rapper tells you they can do, what
these actors and actresses are out here trying to encourage kids to do and what they're encouraging
them not to do.
Like work.
Like obeying.
Like attending church.
Right?
And I know we'll get into more of this, but it's like, I don't know, you need to make
sure and put your kids in a community where there's believers around them.
Right?
You need to build your community.
You need to build your crew.
This is important.
Right?
I've readily said that where I am right now, I know God placed me there for a reason because
the collection of men around me, like I want for nothing.
I'm in a place where we're righteous men, family men, fathers and entrepreneurs and
just good giving tithing men can pour into me any day I need it.
Some of many of them are on speed.
I can walk into the church and be like, Hey man, it's been a week man where I've been
in a fight and I'm still breathing, but man, I don't have much left in me and I'll have
good guys come in and do that.
Your children need that.
The guys need that and the wives need that.
We all need that.
We need a group of people around us who can pour into us at a moment's notice, who can
pull us aside and pray over us, pray with us, agree with us.
We need this.
Right?
We need the only way we're going to get through this is as a community and the world of society
is telling everyone to go into their silos.
That's why they're saying that in the generations behind us, more women are choosing to raise
pets than raise children.
There's a reason for that because community would encourage you to have kids, but now
it's like, I love my two dogs and three cats or whatever.
It's like, that's great.
You know when it's better?
It's better when you do that with a full family so we can all enjoy these together.
That's not a substitute for these greater things.
But we've gotten away from that because the secular worldview says what?
Having kids is a burden.
Having kids is too hard.
It is difficult.
I'm not saying it's easy.
I'm just saying it's worth it.
That's all I'm saying is fulfilling and we have to get back to the foundations of what
built this country, what built our world and what built the foundation of everything.
You can point to every single issue, crime, teen pregnancy, suicide, drug use, dropouts,
any of these issues that crime, all this stuff that's going through the roof, it all starts
with the breakdown of the family.
I don't care what anyone wants to go out there and debate on this.
I'm ready for it.
The bottom line is the breakdown of the family, all bets were off after that because when
you don't have both sides, there's a reason why man and woman was created to be able to
bring that nucleus together because you needed both sides to be able to properly raise youngsters,
especially today.
You cannot do it alone.
I know and they're glorifying that too.
When did we get to the point where that's like the aim?
I understand it happens.
It absolutely can happen.
But that's not the goal.
But it has been promoted as the goal, which is why we are here having these conversations
about why are so many kids dropping out?
Why are there so many kids who can't read?
Why is there so many kids committing crimes?
Why are there so many kids who are having trouble with math?
Why are there so many teen pregnancies?
Why are so many people on drugs?
Why is alcoholism up the roof?
Why are young girls having sex at nine years old?
How would they even know about that?
That wasn't even a thing when I was a kid.
Now it is.
There's girls pregnant at 10.
That's insane.
But that comes down to the idea of not having community and not being willing to have those
uncomfortable conversations.
100%.
And when it comes to on the community aspect, there's going to be some people that are like,
okay, yeah, I'm a Christian.
I'm here and I'm in rural Oklahoma.
So rural Oklahoma, we don't have any problems here, right?
We're Christian family values.
There's no issues here.
And then they sit and, well, I haven't been to church in quite some time, but it's okay.
I just worship.
I got my Bible.
It's me and God.
No big problem.
And you're hitting on that right there that there's, I had a recent guest on that.
We talked about this quite, quite at length at, if you are a Christian, you believe that
there is a biblical worldview out there.
There's no excuse of not being plugged in a church somewhere.
Don't wait for a perfect church.
And I'll tell you a little bit of my backstory.
2020, we actually found a new church ourselves, my wife and I, and it's been wonderful.
I share a lot of things of what you just said of just true community.
And to be raw, I, what I loved about it, probably the most is that if something happened to
me, if I got to a horrible car wreck or whatever, I know my wife and kids would be taken care
of, not a question asked, they would be taken care of.
And that's everything that loosens me up to do more, to serve more.
You are not built in, you cannot have a true God fear in life and not be plugged in a church.
It's not an option.
I'm not saying if you're sick one day that to be all legalistic that you have to go every
single week, if you're sick, then you're terrible.
No, but you know what, you know a difference there between I'm just being lazy and saying
that there are bad churches out there, which were people were sinful.
There's no perfect church, but really these are excuses.
If the church is around you, you aren't doing great.
What are you doing to make them better?
We can't sit here and profess to say that I am a Christian or I do want these values
or point to all the crime and all these horrible things and then me sit back and just idly
watch by while things are in fire around me.
It's not an option.
We can't do that anymore.
And that's a big part of why I made this podcast is to focus on action instead of just sitting
back and watching the news and oh, did you see how terrible that was?
We all know it's terrible.
But what are you doing about it?
And first step, if you are Christian and if you're not a Christian, go to church, listen
to the word and have that community.
You're absolutely correct.
And I love what you said, how like you don't worry about, you know, your wife and kids
being taken care of and I absolutely have the same thing.
And I was saying that that's the beautiful thing about community.
If life punches you in the face too many times and you're downtrodden, your church community
is not going to let you fail at all.
Like I mean, I don't think if I went into my church right now and just like, look, the
bottom just fell out and a whole lot of unforeseen things happen.
I know.
And I was joking with a guy and there's a man I've known for maybe two years and I
say, you know, I said, I have a feeling that if I was ever in a downtrodden state and I
just needed somewhere to lay my head for a few days or a week or whatever, I feel like
there's some people in the church I probably can find some find me a corner somewhere.
And he's like, I got a room for you right now.
And this is a man with a full house.
I'm talking like a full family, like four or five, six kids.
Don't worry.
We got a spot for you.
Now, that's just one.
I mean, you don't think that's what it's about.
And like you said, you're not going to find the perfect church.
No church is perfect, but I will tell you this.
If your church bends to the dictates of society, that might be a sign that you need to get
up out of there.
I will say that you want to you want a church that never makes you just feel comfortable
because because to follow the word is not comfortable.
It is a challenge, but it is worth it.
But yeah, you don't want the yeah, you know, it's okay under some circumstances to do these
actions or it's okay to do this or you know, love is the idea like all the come on man.
Like, we can't compromise on certain things if the word is that where the word is very,
very just.
Like I said, I'm far from perfect, I've been down every street that you're not supposed
to go down ever, but I do know at this point in my life, I know this service and community
are two very important things.
You're not going to find everything you want, just like you don't you don't love everything
about your parents, yet you still love them along with your children.
But the bottom line is, is that you have to be able to plug into somewhere because life
is not meant to be lived alone.
There's a reason why disciples went and planted churches and they went and checked in on those
churches to make sure that as Christians, you have an accountability factor there.
You have a praying factor there.
You have, you know, people who will look out for you heal and take care of one another.
You know, because back in the day, there were no social programs.
It was the church.
Hmm.
Shocker.
And in the breakdown of the church, what ends up happening as government intervention
goes up church attendance goes down.
That's not my opinion.
Go look at the numbers.
That's just what it is.
And the bottom line is we've always taken care of each other.
What if somebody gets left behind if you're plugged into the church and a church leaves
you behind shame on them, but I've not seen it happen if you're plugged in at the right
places.
You know, and I'm not saying like you said, all churches aren't good.
You know, just like almost anything else, probably a lot of them are not so awesome.
There's enough of them out there and you connect with enough enough of the right people because
he in your circles, whether it's in life, whether it's in at the school or, you know,
at your job or whatever, you know, find that guy.
You know, the one you're just like, man, Bill is always so grounded, so righteous.
He's a pleasant guy.
Ask him where he's plugged into and follow him and see where he leads you.
And even if it's not him, go to option number two.
But the bottom line is, I always share with my people the answer you need and the blessing
you need, you already know them.
You just haven't opened up yet.
The blessing you need in life, the blessing you need spiritually, financially, relationally,
mentally, all those different things.
You already know them or you know the person who knows the next person.
You just haven't opened up because you have not utilized your community and you're not
sharing and being open with people.
Why? Because you feel like you're either not worthy or you don't want to be a burden on
someone else.
The bottom line is you don't know that you don't know.
And the second you can step back and take on some humility and just come to people and
say, you know what, I'm a bit broken.
I've made some mistakes.
You know, I'm here to repent.
I come in peace.
I come in gratitude.
I come in love, but I really need some help.
Here, lay it all out.
And if you're plugged into the right church, there is someone in there who can get you
not only on the right path, but can take you to a mighty blessing.
And I'm so serious about this.
It is so important to be able to plug in.
And you're one step away from the greatest blessing or the greatest failure, and you
get to choose what path is going to be yours, but you will never be able to find that out
without tapping into a community.
100%.
Oh, Ma, so many great things.
And I'm sure we could probably go on for hours if we really wanted to.
But I'm sure people listening are really loving what you're saying and probably want to hear
more about you and stay plugged in with you.
So where can they find you at?
MaVital.com is going to be the hub.
And it's also on MaVital on all the social platforms, every one of them.
That's pretty much typed my name in and all those things are going to come out.
There's resources at my website.
There's booking info there.
There's contact information there.
And really, what's also there is an opportunity.
I want people from your website, from Truth and Grace, to be able to reach out to me if
you're one of those parents who are having a hard time maybe having that conversation.
Now, mind you.
I will be very transparent.
There are no kids in the house with me right now.
However, sort of like others in the Bible, I've been a father, uncle, cousin to many,
and my church.
And I work with teens all over the place in every area, even all the way down to some
small kids or some of the nonprofits.
So I do look after a bunch of them.
I mentor a lot of them.
If you're having a hard time having that conversation or if you have a teen who is maybe you feel
like going down a dark path and going down that road.
And I still want you to go get the therapy needed for them and go have them see your
pastors and different things of nature.
But if you want them to be able to connect with someone who's maybe going to be like
an intermediary, can be a mentor, be a little bit of a coach for them, reach out to me and
just put Truth and Grace in the subject line.
I'll do a 30-minute discovery call with them.
I'll unpack what's going on in their lives.
Maybe just have a talk, almost like an uncle or a big brother type of situation.
I've been doing that with a lot of young adults and teenagers and it's been going well.
And we've had some great impact on this end.
So if you go to email info.emailinfo.mobvital.com, put that in the subject line.
We'll get that set up for you and just be ready to look after your youngster and just
have a conversation and just see if we can come with some solutions to be able to share
what you all, to where you all can make the steps needed to be able to make something
happen.
That's complimentary.
That's on me.
30 minutes.
We'll get that going.
Whatever we need to be able to help this next generation, we're here for that.
So by all means, please check in and get that offer and we'll do our best to be able to
push them forward in a new direction.
Awesome.
I love it.
I definitely check them out.
It might have been great.
Just kind of hashing out.
We talked beforehand.
We don't ever know how, the way I struck these, I never know exactly how it go, but it's awesome
talking with you and yeah, I really appreciate the conversation today.
Man, thank you for having me and thank you to all those who are listening.
I love all of you and hope to catch up with you soon.
Great.
Well, you guys, thanks again for listening.
I really appreciate all the support for this show and we'll catch you on the next episode.