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Well, welcome everyone to another episode of Faithfully Engaged.

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Today, my guest name is Ahmaud.

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So Ahmaud, it's great to see you today.

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Have you on the show and kind of tell the audience a little bit about yourself.

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First, thank you for having me on.

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And, you know, I know we're going to get into a number of different things and, you know,

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we started looking over people's bio and resumes and it's just long, long list of things.

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So I like to keep things very simple on the intro.

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I'm just a young man from a small town in Texas who had a dream and a pen in his hand.

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And the foundation of everything I do comes back to writing.

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I feel like that's God's gift to me is to be able to put pen to pad and inspire people

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in that way.

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So everything you see from me up to this point, whether it's the coaching, consulting,

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keynote speaking, curriculum building, ministry work, all of it starts off with the fact of

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the gift of the pen for me.

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And so I've been writing, you know, probably since, you know, my early, early preteen years

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wrote my first book at 11, first published at the age of about 29 or so when I put out

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my first book, majored in journalism out of college, worked for community newspapers

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when I left from there, jumped into the college football recruiting analyst work and started

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writing in that, you know, that's around the time when the internet was starting to become

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online blogs became like a big thing, especially in the college football recruiting world.

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And I jumped headfirst into that as the way was coming out of the newspaper world and

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kind of inching into online blogs, talk boards and things of that nature.

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So I came up through all of that.

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And so really everything just kind of grew out of the idea of my writing led to coaching,

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coaching led to consulting, being an author of a book led to keynote speaking.

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And so everything just kind of evolved from there.

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And of course, now I'm just in a whirlwind of doing a number of things, leaning in a

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lot with young adults through service and with the ministry, of course, that's where

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I do a lot of my work and obviously doing the things with the nonprofits and different

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things.

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But at the end of the day, I just, I'm just someone who's called to serve.

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And I'm just really leaning in on that.

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And the beautiful thing is, is that, you know, you and your podcast and your listeners, they

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catch me at a time when I'm really going through a new season and allowing the voice

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to speak to me and say, okay, you've seen some success, you've been blessed, but I want

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to take you further.

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And I think right now I'm kind of in that place where you're putting down your goals

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on playing tablets and you're just like, okay, so which one of these do we want to lean on?

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So I'm kind of in that, not so much a wait and see, but more like awaken and show me

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type of type of world.

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And hopefully I'm explaining that as best as I can because that's about as good as I

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have as I'm as I'm looking in and in pursuing different goals right now.

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But for the most part, it's been going well and the blessings continue to come.

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Fantastic.

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And I'm excited to kind of get into a lot of the things where, where your hands are

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at right now.

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And one thing that really struck with me when I, when I first kind of ran into you and everything

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is specifically your work with young adults.

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And I know that that's a timeframe when I'm just thinking over my own life that a lot

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of confusion, they're not always a lot of direction and just some difficulties of like

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kind of life hitting you in the face.

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So what is it about young adults that really is important to you and why you want to speak

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into their life?

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You know, I think, I think there, I think it's multi-layered when it comes to that.

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Obviously with me being a sports writer, I was always, you know, with young adults because

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I'm covering high school and college age athletes.

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So that's, you know, anywhere from 15 up to about 22, 23 years old, you know, jumped into

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the ministry at some point in my life and as teenagers.

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And, and, you know, I would go to these nonprofits and they would have me work with their teens.

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And it's just like, I noticed even when I was speaking in colleges and high schools,

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I mean, I speak to the faculty on Saturday and later that evening, I'm speaking to,

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you know, the baseball softball and the soccer team.

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And I started noticing that everywhere in my life where, where blessings was coming in

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for me, the common denominator was young people.

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And as I started leaning into it more, I realized how society and how some of the forces that

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be were always trying to instruct young people in a way that would not be advantageous to

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the future.

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And I started noticing that.

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And of course, you know, we know what happened in 2020.

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That was to me, that was a pivotal year, not because of the virus, not because of the election,

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not because of any of those things, but because some of the dark forces showed their hand.

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And that's when I was like, I really leaned into that time.

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I had just joined a new church and it was very, very, very, very, I don't want to say

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strict, but I mean, there's no over interpretation of the word.

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This is what it is, like unapologetic, you know, when everyone's saying the churches

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are going to close down, I came in under the pastor was like, come do something about it.

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And that's where I ended up.

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And so I started seeing how there was a like an incoordinated attack against young people.

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And so at that time, my heart just opened up and I was just like, you know what, I see

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what's going on here.

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And my mission is to gear up, armor up, to pour everything into them because they're

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the ones who are going to lead the revival.

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They're the ones who are going to turn the ties of this country.

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They're the ones who are going to really rebuild all that has been taken and torn down over

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the past 40 to 50 years.

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They're going to be the ones who are going to be like enough.

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We're going to do that.

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So our job is because society doesn't want to take us out, right?

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Society wants to take our children out.

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And so I really wanted to lean in on that because to be able to empower them to want

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to start from ground zero, to understand that the foundation of society is the family, to

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lean in on my young men and say, hey, look, you have to be purposeful.

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You have to have fulfillment in your life.

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There's no one coming to save you.

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There's no, there's no mulligans for you in the standpoint of just like, I don't know

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what I want to do.

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So I'm just going to sit over here and drift.

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No, young man, this is not how we're going to live life.

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We're going to come up with some purpose.

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We're going to put some things on paper and we're going to go out and we're going to earn.

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We're going to be providers and protectors, right?

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And we're going to build society from the ground up.

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And the way we're going to do that is one, two, three and four.

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And so we lay that out and do those things.

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So my heart goes out to them because I feel like if we don't invest in the future, we

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don't have a future.

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There's nothing to build on.

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If the people who are going to build a society behind us is weak and sitting in the corner

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and crying victim, there's nothing to build from that.

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And so I look at my youngsters and say, I want to empower you.

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I want to empower you to be greater than I could ever become.

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And so that's where the turn happened for me.

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And I say that happened over the last 10 years, but the last two to three, I've really, really

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leaned in on that.

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And so now I'm setting aside, even part of my business plan, it's like, okay, this much

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allotment for this level of service, right?

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Where it's like, okay, how many, how many hours are you going to invest a week, a month

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into mentorship of young men and building them up from many different levels?

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Obviously starting with the word and building out and coming to society.

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And I've actually done a lot of investment in that.

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And I'm not done.

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I'm just getting started.

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Yeah.

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No, that's fantastic.

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Now I'm assuming everybody listening to this understands what you're referencing of 2020

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and just a little side note, that was when you talk about just the darkness, there were

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so many things that was a loaded year that even if you throw away COVID, just so many

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different aspects going on.

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Presidential election alone tends to be a kind of a difficult year for a lot of people.

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It was just constant throwing everything every single day.

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It seemed like something new.

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For those that are listening that either didn't have kids that were during that timeframe

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or if they just might have been ignorant to some of the effects that this was having,

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particularly on younger people, those in school age up to their lower 20s or whatever, what

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experiences did you see and impacts did you see from those young ones of how that whole

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year, couple years affected them?

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What were your experiences with them?

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For one, the lies that were being pushed to them.

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And I'm not really concerned with where the audience stands on, what you thought about

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COVID, the severity of it and all those things like that.

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That's completely irrelevant.

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The bottom line is that there are youngsters specifically between that second and fifth

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grade who are never going to recover from that year and a half that was taken from them.

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And in some areas they lost too, some of the West Coast.

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I'm in Texas and so we did miss some time, but we did have some in-person learning because

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there was a lot of schools.

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It was like, yeah, and they gave you the option between that and virtual.

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And I was encouraging all my people, I'm like, send your kid to school, please.

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I understand you're concerned about this and that.

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But in life, there's just inherent risk.

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Whatever major city or wherever city you are, it's a risk every time you turn your car on

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and get on a highway.

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Every time there's a natural disaster, it's going to be a risk.

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And I'm not saying that some risks are higher than others.

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I understand that.

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However, the idea of the human touch, idea of human interaction, that has been part of

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our society since the beginning of time.

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And you cannot just remove that and think that there's not going to be some dire ramifications.

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And we're starting to see those already in test scores.

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And so where I was getting upset was the idea that, oh, just tell them to sit behind a computer.

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I mean, we're adults.

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If I do a seminar online, I mean, I'm tapped out within like two to three hours sometimes.

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You think a seven-year-old is going to pay attention for more than 20 minutes?

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You really think they learned anything during that time?

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Some of these young boys and girls are not going to get on the other side of this.

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It's egregious the way the school system was just like a coordinated idea that we don't

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want to go back in person.

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We don't want to have the kids in school or whatever.

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I'm like, look, I don't care if you wrap them up in bubble paper, put them in school so

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they can see each other.

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And that is where I saw from the school level.

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And then just in every little area where it was just like, you shut the churches down.

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You shut the gyms down.

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But it's OK for you to go to the liquor store and get you some vaping products.

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I'm just saying, can we not have that conversation?

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The idea that things that, how is that essential?

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But the word isn't.

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How is that essential?

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But our school system is not.

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But I do believe that that was that whole year.

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And of course, let's not talk about even the cartoons and the different forms of media

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and these books that are targeted at children and telling them lies.

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Like the idea that you would look at a young man and tell him that it's not good for him

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to compete.

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It's not good for him to challenge his peers.

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It's not good for him to go into some kind of competitive battle.

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That's how we're built, right?

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And to tell the young ladies, right?

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OK, there's liberation and not needing a man, a husband, right?

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It's liberating to go out and conquer as many sexual acts as possible, right?

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You are hearing these lies.

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People telling them, like, there's liberation and just doing what you want.

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That is not how this is going to work.

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And that too is having dire ramifications.

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The birth rates are down, marriage rates are down, shocker.

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The more this secularism goes up and religion goes down, shocker.

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The home is broken.

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Gee, I wonder who could have seen this coming, right?

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And so I saw how they were doing all of this.

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And once you do this to the children and you just sort of inch things up and see where

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all of these pillars are put in place to destroy everything that built society from the jump.

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Well, that's where we are.

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And so now that I know that the children is what they want, I want to go to ground zero.

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I want to go into trenches.

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I don't mind getting dirty because I came from dirt from back in the day when I was

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doing what I wanted to do before I got revived and brought back to my senses, before I leaned

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in on the word and realized that, like, OK, I'm a prodigal.

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I'm sorry.

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I've gone wrong.

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But show me where you want me to go.

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I'm far from perfect.

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But you know what?

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I'm very transparent in my young people and saying, you know what?

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The path that you think you want to go down, I've been through more than once.

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I promise you all of that, what you think is beautiful and awesome and freeing.

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It will cost you and you don't want to waste 20, 30 years trying to figure out what doesn't

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work.

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I've tried it and it failed miserably.

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Please, please don't waste all that time.

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So my investment in them is at that level.

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In the same way I'm talking to your audience and to you right now, that's the same urgency

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I share with them because I know that the enemy is on full attack and has all the guns

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pointed at our children, right?

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All the way from like three years old to the preteens to the teenage years.

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They want all of them and they want them all in some perverse, you know, secular worldview

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and it's just like enough is enough.

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You know, and I want them to try to reach as many of them as I can.

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I want to real quick just point to people in the audience of just listening to you speak.

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It's very apparent that the passion that's there and I'll tell you that's been one thing

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on my end looking back over kind of COVID things and just the whole last few years.

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But be a little transparent here, my daughter was born in 2019.

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So the whole COVID stuff, I had a little baby and then my son was born in 2021.

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So those were years that extremely formative in their years and there were times that I

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would go to go to the doctor, for instance, and if my daughter was with me and six months

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old or something and you have to have a mask on.

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What she would do every single time was grab that mask and pull it down because she knows

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who mommy is.

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She knows who daddy is.

240
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And I remember in that moment, we're talking May 2020 or something.

241
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Like I know they say it's just the mask or it's just the social distance or just virtual

242
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school.

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There's a lot of just, but that's what it is to be a human.

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Like my daughter, and she actually understood that she was six months old.

245
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She knew that I need to look at those faces.

246
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That's really important to her.

247
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And that's what I loved about listening to you is there's that passion there that, no,

248
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that's not the way we're created.

249
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We weren't created to live that way.

250
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And to have the arrogance to think that's not going to have an effect, particularly

251
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on the young people.

252
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I remember around that same timeframe, May, June, something like that 2020, the CDC actually

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came out with this, uh, this study and it asked people, I forgot the age range, but

254
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something like 15 to 18, something in that range, teenagers.

255
00:16:59,280 --> 00:17:05,240
And the last 30 days, have you considered killing yourself, considered committing suicide?

256
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And the number was like 25%.

257
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I mean, through the roof.

258
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Can you imagine one out of four teenagers?

259
00:17:12,520 --> 00:17:18,480
Thought about, not that they were down, feeling down, but they thought about killing themselves.

260
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That's not right.

261
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Something is wrong here.

262
00:17:21,120 --> 00:17:24,920
And that again, that's what I love about the passion is you're not just going to say,

263
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Oh, that happened.

264
00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:29,440
Let's move on and act like nothing ever happened.

265
00:17:29,440 --> 00:17:31,000
No, it did happen.

266
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So let's do something.

267
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Let's really pour into these kids' lives that were affected.

268
00:17:38,040 --> 00:17:41,800
Without questioning, it's funny you say like, Hey, let's, you know, nothing to see here.

269
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Because you hear some of these health experts and in the past like six months, I've seen

270
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some of them, whether it's on Capitol Hill or in the meeting, they're just like, Oh,

271
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we kind of got this wrong.

272
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It's like, wait a minute.

273
00:17:50,960 --> 00:17:53,720
So it's just, it's just a wipe my hands off my bad.

274
00:17:53,720 --> 00:17:57,040
No, you cutting somebody off in a parking lot is a my bad.

275
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You ruining the lives of millions is not a my bad.

276
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There needs to be some consequences for this.

277
00:18:01,600 --> 00:18:04,280
Cause that's some serious stuff you just did with the kids.

278
00:18:04,280 --> 00:18:08,840
Like you said, even a little, the little nuance from your daughter pulling your mask down saying,

279
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I need to see daddy's face because that's important.

280
00:18:11,920 --> 00:18:17,720
You know, think about, think about the speech and occupational therapy from, from the, from

281
00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:22,120
the, um, you know, the autism spectrum or the special needs spectrum.

282
00:18:22,120 --> 00:18:27,480
I mean, seriously, like what, what's the state of the situation with them?

283
00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:31,560
Like, I mean, and my sister works with, with special needs and I obviously need to follow

284
00:18:31,560 --> 00:18:32,640
up with her and my needs.

285
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They both teach special needs children.

286
00:18:35,320 --> 00:18:40,200
And I need some, I need some data on that because I know, I know that it's already heavy

287
00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:42,880
lifting enough dealing with them as it is.

288
00:18:42,880 --> 00:18:46,000
And to go through those two years, right?

289
00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:49,960
You think they're going to virtually learn when, when you're talking about, when, even

290
00:18:49,960 --> 00:18:54,680
when you're talking about elementary age, like very small kids, they need non-verbal.

291
00:18:54,680 --> 00:18:59,000
We all need non-verbal, but they for sure need non-verbal.

292
00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:04,920
They need to know the reactions of the face to know if you're happy, displeased, if you're

293
00:19:04,920 --> 00:19:08,080
concerned, you can't get that through just eyes.

294
00:19:08,080 --> 00:19:16,040
And so getting on the other side of this man, this is, I wish I had the answers for what

295
00:19:16,040 --> 00:19:17,040
it is.

296
00:19:17,040 --> 00:19:20,600
I just know that I'm going to fight in those trenches, but I know that we're still cleaning

297
00:19:20,600 --> 00:19:26,600
up mess that we don't even know how much fire damage was done to our kids as minds.

298
00:19:26,600 --> 00:19:30,880
And, but, and I'm glad you brought up the suicidation numbers because yeah, they said

299
00:19:30,880 --> 00:19:36,520
the, the percentages in teenage girls is up like 40% and that hurts my heart, right?

300
00:19:36,520 --> 00:19:41,600
You know, because, you know, not to say that, you know, guys and girls don't are not both

301
00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:42,600
in that boat.

302
00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:47,280
It's just, it has literally taken a toll more on the young girls than it has on the young

303
00:19:47,280 --> 00:19:48,280
boys.

304
00:19:48,280 --> 00:19:52,360
Because again, guys can, you know, go out there and fight their, you know, homeboy in the

305
00:19:52,360 --> 00:19:56,560
front yard and, you know, maybe, maybe hash that out that way.

306
00:19:56,560 --> 00:20:01,600
But young girls, they may take that in and if you take in too much without releasing

307
00:20:01,600 --> 00:20:06,560
it in some type of way or getting the proper treatment or getting the therapy needed and

308
00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:10,080
you don't think that you want to be a burden on someone and you just keep it to yourself.

309
00:20:10,080 --> 00:20:13,600
Well then we have a problem and we have a lot of that going on.

310
00:20:13,600 --> 00:20:18,680
Like you said, those numbers, those numbers just scare the mess out of all of us.

311
00:20:18,680 --> 00:20:22,080
And that's why I tell people after every one of my classes, I teach fitness classes out

312
00:20:22,080 --> 00:20:23,080
here.

313
00:20:23,080 --> 00:20:26,160
I'm just like, look, if you have a teen or young adult who's struggling, please come

314
00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:27,160
see me after class.

315
00:20:27,160 --> 00:20:29,840
We want to be able to provide resources of some kind.

316
00:20:29,840 --> 00:20:33,680
And it's like, I don't even know what kind of situations are going to show up on my desk

317
00:20:33,680 --> 00:20:35,400
when I ask that question.

318
00:20:35,400 --> 00:20:36,400
And you know what?

319
00:20:36,400 --> 00:20:42,360
I don't think I care because once I hear what's going on, if I'm not able to, I want

320
00:20:42,360 --> 00:20:46,200
to put you in charge with somebody who does because I don't want any more of our kids

321
00:20:46,200 --> 00:20:48,280
being lost in that type of way.

322
00:20:48,280 --> 00:20:57,680
Like to me, that's a very crushing thing when we lose teenagers and it's not like just an

323
00:20:57,680 --> 00:20:59,600
accident or something like that.

324
00:20:59,600 --> 00:21:00,720
It all hurts.

325
00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:08,240
But when it's that way, it just tears me on the inside on so many levels.

326
00:21:08,240 --> 00:21:10,040
I don't even have to know them.

327
00:21:10,040 --> 00:21:16,760
But I just don't want to lose our young people in that way.

328
00:21:16,760 --> 00:21:21,640
Because it leaves more questions than answers.

329
00:21:21,640 --> 00:21:24,160
You didn't get a chance to ask the questions.

330
00:21:24,160 --> 00:21:29,720
So I want to be proactive and be like, I tell my teens, every time I'm teaching class, if

331
00:21:29,720 --> 00:21:34,600
you are having sleepless nights, if you are having some anxiety attacks, if you're feeling

332
00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:39,240
depressed, if you're just having too many bad days, come see a leader immediately.

333
00:21:39,240 --> 00:21:40,240
Immediately.

334
00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:44,160
Do not try to figure this out on your own.

335
00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:46,840
Because life is not meant to be lived alone.

336
00:21:46,840 --> 00:21:48,680
You come in here, we don't care.

337
00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:51,360
Bring us all your broken pieces.

338
00:21:51,360 --> 00:21:53,040
Bring us all the burdens or whatever.

339
00:21:53,040 --> 00:21:55,560
We're going to place it here at the altar.

340
00:21:55,560 --> 00:21:59,600
We're going to agree together and we're going to get down to the bottom of this and find

341
00:21:59,600 --> 00:22:01,200
you what you need.

342
00:22:01,200 --> 00:22:04,800
Obviously, we're going to pray over here and we're going to pour into you.

343
00:22:04,800 --> 00:22:09,400
But if you need additional help, if you need to go sit down with somebody and work through

344
00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:12,720
some of these issues, let's do that.

345
00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:16,980
We're not letting this stuff go on these unhealed things just continue to faster.

346
00:22:16,980 --> 00:22:23,160
We are going to address this with some level of aggressiveness immediately.

347
00:22:23,160 --> 00:22:25,440
This is not something that's like, oh, we'll deal with this next year.

348
00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:27,280
No, we deal with this right now.

349
00:22:27,280 --> 00:22:28,280
Right?

350
00:22:28,280 --> 00:22:30,960
I'll walk out of service to go out there and deal with that.

351
00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:31,960
Right?

352
00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:34,160
I'll stop what we're doing and go deal with that immediately.

353
00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:38,280
That's how we have to be with our young people because they're crying out.

354
00:22:38,280 --> 00:22:42,200
And so we can't always just wait on them to come to us.

355
00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:48,160
We need to proactively ask them, hey, how are things and then assess that on a person-by-person

356
00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:49,160
basis.

357
00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:51,480
Yes, that's going to take a long time to do that.

358
00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:52,640
I don't care.

359
00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:54,760
Our young people are worth it.

360
00:22:54,760 --> 00:22:56,480
And we need to do that.

361
00:22:56,480 --> 00:22:57,480
Parents, yes.

362
00:22:57,480 --> 00:22:59,400
Be intrusive on your children.

363
00:22:59,400 --> 00:23:00,400
Yeah.

364
00:23:00,400 --> 00:23:01,520
Why do you keep asking me this?

365
00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:03,080
Because I love you that much.

366
00:23:03,080 --> 00:23:04,080
Right?

367
00:23:04,080 --> 00:23:07,000
I love you that much to continue asking.

368
00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:09,800
To the point, it's like you're tired of me asking.

369
00:23:09,800 --> 00:23:13,600
So then make sure you continue to show me signs that everything is good and that we're

370
00:23:13,600 --> 00:23:14,680
on a good page.

371
00:23:14,680 --> 00:23:17,800
And that's where I think we have to be with this.

372
00:23:17,800 --> 00:23:27,680
I love that intentionality there of not, let's not wait until, goodness, we find a teenager

373
00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:31,120
that said, hey, I just took 20 pills.

374
00:23:31,120 --> 00:23:33,400
I need to go to the hospital.

375
00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:37,080
I know some of you listening, you might say, well, gosh, that's horrible.

376
00:23:37,080 --> 00:23:38,240
My kid wouldn't do that.

377
00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:42,440
I pray that they wouldn't, but we don't know that.

378
00:23:42,440 --> 00:23:44,560
So you need to be checking in.

379
00:23:44,560 --> 00:23:46,320
Don't wait for them to come to you.

380
00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:47,600
I love that.

381
00:23:47,600 --> 00:23:50,000
Don't be afraid to be a little too intrusive.

382
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:54,480
And I'm actually curious on this, especially in this timeframe.

383
00:23:54,480 --> 00:24:01,040
I grew up really when cell phones were really starting to take over.

384
00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:04,220
So I didn't have my first cell phone until I was 16.

385
00:24:04,220 --> 00:24:07,240
And that was pretty normal during that timeframe.

386
00:24:07,240 --> 00:24:11,400
But since then, like goodness, they have five year olds with smartphones.

387
00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:16,540
And there's so much access to just everything, anything and everything.

388
00:24:16,540 --> 00:24:20,600
And I've heard of this from parents of like, well, I don't want to, I don't want to look

389
00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:21,600
at their phone.

390
00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:23,480
That's their privacy or whatever.

391
00:24:23,480 --> 00:24:28,720
So for those parents that are a little bit more timid that don't want to check on their

392
00:24:28,720 --> 00:24:34,640
phone or really lean in and ask them how they're doing, what would be your advice to those

393
00:24:34,640 --> 00:24:38,920
parents to get started in that habit?

394
00:24:38,920 --> 00:24:42,760
Well I know we have a parental group with my ministry at the church we have down here

395
00:24:42,760 --> 00:24:43,760
in the Woodlands.

396
00:24:43,760 --> 00:24:48,560
And there's programs out there where you absolutely are intrusive.

397
00:24:48,560 --> 00:24:53,520
It's almost like every keystroke they do comes, it seems like a report to your phone.

398
00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:56,120
Certain absolutely blocked and different things like that.

399
00:24:56,120 --> 00:24:57,120
Absolutely get intrusive.

400
00:24:57,120 --> 00:24:59,360
I know you're like, you want to respect their privacy.

401
00:24:59,360 --> 00:25:06,560
So on this level, we live in a democratic republic.

402
00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:11,120
We live in a federalist type of situation in the United States where each state has

403
00:25:11,120 --> 00:25:13,600
a rising and we have the federal government.

404
00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:18,360
In your house, you are the leader and the ruler.

405
00:25:18,360 --> 00:25:22,200
Like you lead the way.

406
00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:25,280
This is not equal opportunity and all that.

407
00:25:25,280 --> 00:25:31,880
But if you're rearing up especially in this iteration of the up society, no you absolutely

408
00:25:31,880 --> 00:25:36,120
have to be almost like a tyrant and find out what's going on on their phones.

409
00:25:36,120 --> 00:25:40,760
I'm talking about because the numbers are not in your favor to be like I'm going to

410
00:25:40,760 --> 00:25:43,040
trust them to do this on their own.

411
00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:44,320
No.

412
00:25:44,320 --> 00:25:45,600
Find out what's going on on their phones.

413
00:25:45,600 --> 00:25:49,720
Get those sensible apps on this.

414
00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:57,040
You can put on the phone and I wish I had those by me but what I can do is Johnny when

415
00:25:57,040 --> 00:26:00,640
I get off, I'll go look for those resources and I send those over and maybe you can put

416
00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:01,640
those in the show notes.

417
00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:02,640
Absolutely.

418
00:26:02,640 --> 00:26:05,840
To be able to basically hack your kids phone.

419
00:26:05,840 --> 00:26:06,840
Why?

420
00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:10,880
Because you pay for it and you need to know what they're taking in.

421
00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:15,320
Young ladies are getting caught up in social media and it's making them depressed and making

422
00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:16,640
them suicidal.

423
00:26:16,640 --> 00:26:19,040
Young men are addicted to porn right now.

424
00:26:19,040 --> 00:26:23,760
So yes, you absolutely need to be going in there and not to mention some of these games

425
00:26:23,760 --> 00:26:28,520
are teaching them things that are not that I'm pretty sure you don't want them being

426
00:26:28,520 --> 00:26:30,020
taught right.

427
00:26:30,020 --> 00:26:32,320
Telling them different things about their body.

428
00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:35,720
Tell them things about their mental state and all these different little things.

429
00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:42,320
So no, you need to be intrusive or and I mean really and truly and this probably going a

430
00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:45,320
little bit too far off the deep end.

431
00:26:45,320 --> 00:26:52,000
I'm not really, really sure kids need social media up until maybe like 17, 18 years old.

432
00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:56,160
A 12 year old shouldn't be on social media at all.

433
00:26:56,160 --> 00:26:59,240
And I know that's going to be like, oh, my kid's already on it.

434
00:26:59,240 --> 00:27:00,680
Hey, times can change.

435
00:27:00,680 --> 00:27:01,680
You know what?

436
00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:03,680
There's a new regime in town because why?

437
00:27:03,680 --> 00:27:08,440
Because those algorithms again are trying to come after your children and subconsciously

438
00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:13,080
they're telling them things that you're going to turn around and wonder why your kid is has

439
00:27:13,080 --> 00:27:17,280
a whole different mindset that goes against everything you're teaching at home.

440
00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:19,880
Everything you want them to learn from a school standpoint.

441
00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:22,760
Everything that the Bible teaches them on different things and they're totally going

442
00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:25,800
to turn into somebody like, who the heck is this kid over here?

443
00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:29,120
That's what happens when you take your foot off the gas and don't become intrusive with

444
00:27:29,120 --> 00:27:30,120
them.

445
00:27:30,120 --> 00:27:31,120
Right?

446
00:27:31,120 --> 00:27:37,480
Yeah, it's okay to be a little bit more in tune with what's going on over there.

447
00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:42,200
Yes, early on it may be like, like if you've been very laissez faire, maybe that's a tough

448
00:27:42,200 --> 00:27:43,200
conversation.

449
00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:47,240
Hey, welcome to the toughness of being a parent.

450
00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:50,240
You know, like we're here now.

451
00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:55,240
We're here now and it's just too many things that are attacking our children from so many

452
00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:57,360
different sides and it's so subtle.

453
00:27:57,360 --> 00:28:01,160
You listen to the beats of some of this music, listen to some of these lyrics.

454
00:28:01,160 --> 00:28:05,600
These movies are slipping in themes that go against everything that you probably believe

455
00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:06,960
in your house.

456
00:28:06,960 --> 00:28:09,960
So you need to be on top of that on a whole other level.

457
00:28:09,960 --> 00:28:15,120
That conversation will be tough, you know, but I think if you lean in and share with

458
00:28:15,120 --> 00:28:20,760
them and have that family time, even if it's for, let's just say you commit to 30 minutes

459
00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:25,600
every day where everyone in the house gets together and we have a sit down and say, hey,

460
00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:26,600
how was your day?

461
00:28:26,600 --> 00:28:27,680
What are our challenges?

462
00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:28,680
What are our goals?

463
00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:29,680
What do we want to do?

464
00:28:29,680 --> 00:28:34,600
I know we live in this busy, you know, society or whatever, but like, let's get our heads

465
00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:38,600
out of this for a second and look across from somebody and actually give them a hug and

466
00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:42,080
actually reach over and touch them and hold them close to us.

467
00:28:42,080 --> 00:28:43,080
Right?

468
00:28:43,080 --> 00:28:47,040
We've lost some of that stuff because our heads are buried in Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat

469
00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:52,840
and TikTok and whatever news station has popped up on our phone.

470
00:28:52,840 --> 00:28:54,720
Let's detach some, right?

471
00:28:54,720 --> 00:28:56,600
Put a time limit on this.

472
00:28:56,600 --> 00:29:01,040
You know, I tell my teens all the time, I'm like, look, if you really want to detach from

473
00:29:01,040 --> 00:29:06,840
that when you go to bed, how about you plug your phone up in the kitchen?

474
00:29:06,840 --> 00:29:07,840
Lock it up.

475
00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:11,280
And I always tell them, I say, you know what I want you to do?

476
00:29:11,280 --> 00:29:15,120
If your phone is in the room, make it far further than your Bible is.

477
00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:18,520
So when you wake up in the morning, the first thing you don't reach for is the phone.

478
00:29:18,520 --> 00:29:20,920
To where you can't just reach over and grab it.

479
00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:24,760
It's on the nightstand way across the room.

480
00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:26,120
You can't get to it.

481
00:29:26,120 --> 00:29:27,120
Right?

482
00:29:27,120 --> 00:29:30,160
That's when you start getting, you got to like break some of these habits.

483
00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:36,040
And so if you're not used to having these uncomfortable conversations with your kids,

484
00:29:36,040 --> 00:29:37,040
let's go for it.

485
00:29:37,040 --> 00:29:38,960
Let's, let's, let's pray about it.

486
00:29:38,960 --> 00:29:44,200
Let's lean in on it and let's do it because they want the next generation.

487
00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:45,360
They want the next two generations.

488
00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:46,360
They want the kids.

489
00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:47,360
They want that.

490
00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:48,360
They want, they want toddlers.

491
00:29:48,360 --> 00:29:51,160
Doggo Sesame Street is out here talking crazy now.

492
00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:56,080
You know, I mean, whatever these little shows out here that they're trying to attack all

493
00:29:56,080 --> 00:30:00,200
of these different institutions, we got to be on guard.

494
00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:06,920
We have to arm her up every day because this fight, this fight, because while, while we're

495
00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:12,000
not willing to have some of those tough conversations, they are willing to have all the conversations.

496
00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:17,000
And so if we don't have something to combat that, we are in for a long ride and we've

497
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:20,840
taken our eyes off the ball for far too long and now it's time to put our foot down and

498
00:30:20,840 --> 00:30:25,360
say enough and move forward with this and do some progressive and do some positive things

499
00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:31,680
to be able to help our kids, be able to fight and live in a way that's going to be mirroring

500
00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:35,560
the values that we know you instilled in your kids from day one.

501
00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:41,000
Yeah, something that you had said earlier that really would like you to espouse upon

502
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:48,120
a little bit more is this concept of a secular worldview and a biblical worldview.

503
00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:53,440
I think most people probably have a decent idea of what that means, but let's say it's

504
00:30:53,440 --> 00:30:54,440
secular worldview.

505
00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:55,440
What are you talking about?

506
00:30:55,440 --> 00:30:58,360
Like it's really just been the last since COVID.

507
00:30:58,360 --> 00:31:00,240
That's when all this stuff just flipped.

508
00:31:00,240 --> 00:31:01,920
Everything was perfect before 2020.

509
00:31:01,920 --> 00:31:05,000
There was no problems before then, which I don't believe that.

510
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:06,680
What some people do.

511
00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:11,880
So, what exactly do you mean by a secular worldview and what is the difference in a biblical

512
00:31:11,880 --> 00:31:13,760
worldview?

513
00:31:13,760 --> 00:31:18,240
You know, that's a very deep concept, but let's just maybe go on the surface because

514
00:31:18,240 --> 00:31:19,480
we're introducing this.

515
00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:27,360
So, a secular worldview obviously is everything is about me.

516
00:31:27,360 --> 00:31:30,720
Nothing with the community unless you're talking about some community justice stuff

517
00:31:30,720 --> 00:31:35,880
where everybody has an equal outcome and everyone gets a ribbon and all that nonsense

518
00:31:35,880 --> 00:31:36,880
like that.

519
00:31:36,880 --> 00:31:41,680
But really, the way I look at a secular worldview is what I call idol worship.

520
00:31:41,680 --> 00:31:48,440
The worship of self, the worship of feelings, the worship of, it's about me, the worship

521
00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:52,960
of what's good for me, my truth, not the truth.

522
00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:53,960
Those types of things.

523
00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:56,120
That's one of the problems from a secular worldview.

524
00:31:56,120 --> 00:32:03,360
When you want to go with cultural Marxism, egalitarianism, where there's just this total

525
00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:09,440
going against with the Bible because obviously we as people, we are limited.

526
00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:16,040
We get our strength, our wisdom, and our guidance from the Word, from God, from the words of

527
00:32:16,040 --> 00:32:17,360
Jesus and things of that nature.

528
00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:21,040
So, a biblical worldview is 10 commandments.

529
00:32:21,040 --> 00:32:24,440
The biblical worldview is seek ye first the kingdom.

530
00:32:24,440 --> 00:32:28,400
Not seek first my pleasure, but seek first the kingdom and all these things will be added

531
00:32:28,400 --> 00:32:32,200
unto you for where you honor your father and mother.

532
00:32:32,200 --> 00:32:37,200
Different things like that because a secular worldview will say challenge your parents and

533
00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:39,080
go with what makes you feel good.

534
00:32:39,080 --> 00:32:43,520
The whole YOLO movement, like hey, do what makes you happy?

535
00:32:43,520 --> 00:32:47,800
No, there's no part of that, this biblical whatsoever.

536
00:32:47,800 --> 00:32:49,720
Just do what makes you happy.

537
00:32:49,720 --> 00:32:52,480
There's responsibility.

538
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:59,920
To walk the line of righteousness, not only will you be tart and feathered on this earth,

539
00:32:59,920 --> 00:33:04,760
but it also is not easy, but it's fulfilling.

540
00:33:04,760 --> 00:33:08,000
I'm leaning in on that a little bit more and I'm continuing to work on that where it's

541
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:11,400
like don't seek happiness, seek fulfillment.

542
00:33:11,400 --> 00:33:17,200
Because it's just like when you go into something that's a challenge, whether it's building

543
00:33:17,200 --> 00:33:19,800
a business, starting a family.

544
00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:23,240
That ain't it takes a lot of work.

545
00:33:23,240 --> 00:33:27,800
Even you just had your second child.

546
00:33:27,800 --> 00:33:30,760
Think about that process.

547
00:33:30,760 --> 00:33:40,600
From birth to from fertilization to birth, what mom has to go through, that's not an

548
00:33:40,600 --> 00:33:46,520
easy process, but the beauty and fulfillment.

549
00:33:46,520 --> 00:33:48,760
It wasn't like, oh, this is a walking apart.

550
00:33:48,760 --> 00:33:54,160
No, it's not, but it's fulfillment, new life.

551
00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:58,800
We take that from whether you're talking about nature, whether you're talking about birth,

552
00:33:58,800 --> 00:34:02,640
the biblical idea is that there's going to be a trade-off.

553
00:34:02,640 --> 00:34:05,360
My grace is sufficient.

554
00:34:05,360 --> 00:34:11,440
I'm saying that yes, you will have pain, you will have struggles, you will have to go and

555
00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:15,000
face a giant.

556
00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:16,920
But I'm with you while you do this.

557
00:34:16,920 --> 00:34:19,200
I'm not taking the pain away from you.

558
00:34:19,200 --> 00:34:23,280
I'm saying that you can't defeat this without coming to me.

559
00:34:23,280 --> 00:34:26,680
Rely and lean on me, not on your own understanding.

560
00:34:26,680 --> 00:34:33,320
So that's where the worldview, the look at me, it's about me, not about service.

561
00:34:33,320 --> 00:34:34,720
What makes me happy?

562
00:34:34,720 --> 00:34:40,600
What my feelings feel like to a biblical worldview where it's like, I understand God is asking

563
00:34:40,600 --> 00:34:43,120
this of me and it's going to cost.

564
00:34:43,120 --> 00:34:45,520
There's no freebies here.

565
00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:49,200
There's going to be pain, there's going to be triumph, but my father is with me and he

566
00:34:49,200 --> 00:34:50,200
will heal me.

567
00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:53,240
He will restore me through the trials.

568
00:34:53,240 --> 00:34:59,800
And so obviously in the world sense, going that route seems so much easier, right?

569
00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:02,200
Because they think there's no trade-off.

570
00:35:02,200 --> 00:35:05,640
There is still trade-off, but in the moment it's like, I do what I want.

571
00:35:05,640 --> 00:35:11,840
And so they're teaching our children to basically go against their fathers and mothers and just

572
00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:13,880
do what you want, do what makes you happy.

573
00:35:13,880 --> 00:35:15,800
You don't need to work for this.

574
00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:18,960
We'll take care of you, all of these little things like that.

575
00:35:18,960 --> 00:35:24,280
And all of that stuff is literally ruining us and it's ruining society as a whole.

576
00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:27,680
I think that's extremely well said.

577
00:35:27,680 --> 00:35:35,160
And a little challenge for those of you that are listening is keep that in mind, that secular,

578
00:35:35,160 --> 00:35:37,680
biblical worldview.

579
00:35:37,680 --> 00:35:39,840
And you're not going to be perfect on this.

580
00:35:39,840 --> 00:35:46,320
And a great way to back yourself up here, if you're a little confused, is does scripture

581
00:35:46,320 --> 00:35:47,320
speak to it?

582
00:35:47,320 --> 00:35:48,800
Does scripture confirm?

583
00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:51,080
Does scripture deny what you're thinking?

584
00:35:51,080 --> 00:35:54,440
You're not always going to have a slamed up case on every little thing, but that's an

585
00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:56,320
excellent place to start.

586
00:35:56,320 --> 00:35:59,400
But go watch your kids' shows.

587
00:35:59,400 --> 00:36:01,040
Go on Netflix.

588
00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:03,920
Go on Hulu, Disney Plus, whatever you got.

589
00:36:03,920 --> 00:36:04,960
Just go turn it on.

590
00:36:04,960 --> 00:36:10,960
I about guarantee you, you're going to find something in there that, okay, that doesn't

591
00:36:10,960 --> 00:36:13,840
really jive with that biblical worldview.

592
00:36:13,840 --> 00:36:18,720
And you're going to be faced with some questions here of, do I want my kids to continue to watch

593
00:36:18,720 --> 00:36:19,800
this?

594
00:36:19,800 --> 00:36:25,320
If they have already watched it, how can I have these conversations?

595
00:36:25,320 --> 00:36:30,720
Like you were saying earlier, these kind of in your face type of questions there.

596
00:36:30,720 --> 00:36:37,080
Just like you, I'm not going to say that I am perfect on this by any stretch of the imagination.

597
00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:41,260
But my wife and I, again, we're raising kids in the midst of this.

598
00:36:41,260 --> 00:36:46,640
So we are refusing to keep our eyes closed and I collect there's things that aren't going

599
00:36:46,640 --> 00:36:48,120
to come for our kids.

600
00:36:48,120 --> 00:36:56,080
So something that we do, there's this book that, so we're Baptist and there's this kind

601
00:36:56,080 --> 00:36:58,640
of older Baptist catechism thing.

602
00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:04,200
And really all it is is these parts that are straight from scripture and teach our kids

603
00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:05,200
scripture.

604
00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:08,120
It's just in a very distinct way.

605
00:37:08,120 --> 00:37:13,440
And one of the first ones is who made me and my daughter says God made me.

606
00:37:13,440 --> 00:37:14,440
It's wonderful.

607
00:37:14,440 --> 00:37:23,760
So to put this in a, just a very specific situation, just today, literally this afternoon, there

608
00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:26,000
was a toad in our backyard.

609
00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:28,600
And the second one is, what else did God make?

610
00:37:28,600 --> 00:37:29,600
God made everything.

611
00:37:29,600 --> 00:37:34,760
So there's a toad in my backyard and my wife and daughter over there and my daughter's

612
00:37:34,760 --> 00:37:36,040
three now.

613
00:37:36,040 --> 00:37:39,960
And real quick, my wife, well, who made that toad?

614
00:37:39,960 --> 00:37:46,280
And without thinking, no hesitation, my daughter said, God made that toad.

615
00:37:46,280 --> 00:37:50,360
You're not going to have blues clues or something teach you that, right?

616
00:37:50,360 --> 00:37:56,760
Like you have to manually inject that wisdom into your kids.

617
00:37:56,760 --> 00:37:58,640
We've made ton of mistakes along the way.

618
00:37:58,640 --> 00:38:03,640
I'm not saying we're perfection, but what I am saying is that those truths that we inject

619
00:38:03,640 --> 00:38:06,760
into our kids, they don't just happen.

620
00:38:06,760 --> 00:38:09,760
You have to make that a priority.

621
00:38:09,760 --> 00:38:14,320
And what bigger priority should there be than to inject truth into your kids?

622
00:38:14,320 --> 00:38:19,320
If that's not a priority, then you probably do need to have a pretty good, pretty good

623
00:38:19,320 --> 00:38:25,400
come to Jesus meeting with yourself and see what's going wrong with me.

624
00:38:25,400 --> 00:38:31,000
Without question, and really you can tell where your values are is where you put your

625
00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:33,160
time and money.

626
00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:35,840
Where do you invest your time and money?

627
00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:37,080
Right?

628
00:38:37,080 --> 00:38:44,000
And obviously, resources are needed, but we're taught, if we're talking about biblical now,

629
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:45,640
we are to worship nothing.

630
00:38:45,640 --> 00:38:48,520
And I mean nothing of this world.

631
00:38:48,520 --> 00:38:53,680
Nothing of this, none of this stuff, none of this stuff matters in the big scheme of things.

632
00:38:53,680 --> 00:38:56,520
Obviously, it is our essence, it's our spirit.

633
00:38:56,520 --> 00:39:01,440
It's the God in us being able to be expressed in others because it's very clear, well, I

634
00:39:01,440 --> 00:39:03,120
don't want to say it's very clear.

635
00:39:03,120 --> 00:39:09,600
Like you said, it's very clear when you lean in on it more often than you should, right?

636
00:39:09,600 --> 00:39:14,240
What we're called to do, called to serve others, feed the poor, take care of your family, honor

637
00:39:14,240 --> 00:39:15,240
your father and mother.

638
00:39:15,240 --> 00:39:19,680
Like you said, if you want to get started, if you've never picked the Bible up before

639
00:39:19,680 --> 00:39:24,680
and you want to sort of jump back into it, from my standpoint, and I'm sure there's

640
00:39:24,680 --> 00:39:30,320
plenty of scholars and pastors and stuff who will go against what I'm saying, if you're

641
00:39:30,320 --> 00:39:34,440
just starting off in the Word, I would say go proverbs in the Gospels.

642
00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:38,120
I would say that if you want to start somewhere, go there.

643
00:39:38,120 --> 00:39:42,600
Proverbs in the Gospels, that's the wisdom and the life of Jesus just laid out there

644
00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:48,760
very plainly and you get to see it from multiple different interpretations from the standpoint

645
00:39:48,760 --> 00:39:53,880
of the same accounts, spoken from different men or whatever.

646
00:39:53,880 --> 00:40:02,840
But yes, we have to be very intentional in not allowing the world view, the world view

647
00:40:02,840 --> 00:40:03,840
is what?

648
00:40:03,840 --> 00:40:07,360
TV, media, all these different things.

649
00:40:07,360 --> 00:40:09,680
They have a situation that we didn't have coming up.

650
00:40:09,680 --> 00:40:14,320
I mean, there was always TV, there was radio, but there was no internet, there were no smartphones

651
00:40:14,320 --> 00:40:17,200
and now everything is on demand.

652
00:40:17,200 --> 00:40:22,240
And we really do, and I don't want to rehash back over this, but I think it's very important,

653
00:40:22,240 --> 00:40:25,040
we have to be willing to have those difficult conversations.

654
00:40:25,040 --> 00:40:28,080
We have to talk about gender ideology.

655
00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:29,640
We have to talk about porn.

656
00:40:29,640 --> 00:40:31,280
We have to talk about sex.

657
00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:35,520
We have to talk about the way you show up in dress for boys and girls.

658
00:40:35,520 --> 00:40:38,200
We have to talk about the way you operate.

659
00:40:38,200 --> 00:40:41,400
We have to talk about the language that comes out of your mouth.

660
00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:43,760
We have to have those difficult conversations.

661
00:40:43,760 --> 00:40:45,760
You know why?

662
00:40:45,760 --> 00:40:48,680
Because society is going to teach them about that.

663
00:40:48,680 --> 00:40:53,440
Society is going to tell them they can talk to you, the parent, any way they want to.

664
00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:58,720
And good luck with trying to undo what their favorite rapper tells you they can do, what

665
00:40:58,720 --> 00:41:03,600
these actors and actresses are out here trying to encourage kids to do and what they're encouraging

666
00:41:03,600 --> 00:41:04,680
them not to do.

667
00:41:04,680 --> 00:41:06,760
Like work.

668
00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:08,560
Like obeying.

669
00:41:08,560 --> 00:41:10,880
Like attending church.

670
00:41:10,880 --> 00:41:11,880
Right?

671
00:41:11,880 --> 00:41:17,280
And I know we'll get into more of this, but it's like, I don't know, you need to make

672
00:41:17,280 --> 00:41:23,000
sure and put your kids in a community where there's believers around them.

673
00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:24,000
Right?

674
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:25,520
You need to build your community.

675
00:41:25,520 --> 00:41:27,440
You need to build your crew.

676
00:41:27,440 --> 00:41:28,440
This is important.

677
00:41:28,440 --> 00:41:29,440
Right?

678
00:41:29,440 --> 00:41:36,400
I've readily said that where I am right now, I know God placed me there for a reason because

679
00:41:36,400 --> 00:41:41,680
the collection of men around me, like I want for nothing.

680
00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:48,400
I'm in a place where we're righteous men, family men, fathers and entrepreneurs and

681
00:41:48,400 --> 00:41:55,080
just good giving tithing men can pour into me any day I need it.

682
00:41:55,080 --> 00:41:56,520
Some of many of them are on speed.

683
00:41:56,520 --> 00:42:01,200
I can walk into the church and be like, Hey man, it's been a week man where I've been

684
00:42:01,200 --> 00:42:05,720
in a fight and I'm still breathing, but man, I don't have much left in me and I'll have

685
00:42:05,720 --> 00:42:07,320
good guys come in and do that.

686
00:42:07,320 --> 00:42:10,040
Your children need that.

687
00:42:10,040 --> 00:42:12,640
The guys need that and the wives need that.

688
00:42:12,640 --> 00:42:13,640
We all need that.

689
00:42:13,640 --> 00:42:18,960
We need a group of people around us who can pour into us at a moment's notice, who can

690
00:42:18,960 --> 00:42:22,520
pull us aside and pray over us, pray with us, agree with us.

691
00:42:22,520 --> 00:42:24,000
We need this.

692
00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:25,000
Right?

693
00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:30,720
We need the only way we're going to get through this is as a community and the world of society

694
00:42:30,720 --> 00:42:33,160
is telling everyone to go into their silos.

695
00:42:33,160 --> 00:42:39,560
That's why they're saying that in the generations behind us, more women are choosing to raise

696
00:42:39,560 --> 00:42:41,240
pets than raise children.

697
00:42:41,240 --> 00:42:47,520
There's a reason for that because community would encourage you to have kids, but now

698
00:42:47,520 --> 00:42:51,560
it's like, I love my two dogs and three cats or whatever.

699
00:42:51,560 --> 00:42:54,160
It's like, that's great.

700
00:42:54,160 --> 00:42:55,160
You know when it's better?

701
00:42:55,160 --> 00:43:00,840
It's better when you do that with a full family so we can all enjoy these together.

702
00:43:00,840 --> 00:43:05,480
That's not a substitute for these greater things.

703
00:43:05,480 --> 00:43:09,880
But we've gotten away from that because the secular worldview says what?

704
00:43:09,880 --> 00:43:11,480
Having kids is a burden.

705
00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:14,360
Having kids is too hard.

706
00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:15,520
It is difficult.

707
00:43:15,520 --> 00:43:17,200
I'm not saying it's easy.

708
00:43:17,200 --> 00:43:19,600
I'm just saying it's worth it.

709
00:43:19,600 --> 00:43:24,480
That's all I'm saying is fulfilling and we have to get back to the foundations of what

710
00:43:24,480 --> 00:43:29,720
built this country, what built our world and what built the foundation of everything.

711
00:43:29,720 --> 00:43:37,160
You can point to every single issue, crime, teen pregnancy, suicide, drug use, dropouts,

712
00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:42,560
any of these issues that crime, all this stuff that's going through the roof, it all starts

713
00:43:42,560 --> 00:43:44,680
with the breakdown of the family.

714
00:43:44,680 --> 00:43:47,800
I don't care what anyone wants to go out there and debate on this.

715
00:43:47,800 --> 00:43:49,000
I'm ready for it.

716
00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:53,560
The bottom line is the breakdown of the family, all bets were off after that because when

717
00:43:53,560 --> 00:43:58,680
you don't have both sides, there's a reason why man and woman was created to be able to

718
00:43:58,680 --> 00:44:05,520
bring that nucleus together because you needed both sides to be able to properly raise youngsters,

719
00:44:05,520 --> 00:44:06,920
especially today.

720
00:44:06,920 --> 00:44:09,520
You cannot do it alone.

721
00:44:09,520 --> 00:44:14,040
I know and they're glorifying that too.

722
00:44:14,040 --> 00:44:19,480
When did we get to the point where that's like the aim?

723
00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:21,160
I understand it happens.

724
00:44:21,160 --> 00:44:24,080
It absolutely can happen.

725
00:44:24,080 --> 00:44:26,880
But that's not the goal.

726
00:44:26,880 --> 00:44:33,440
But it has been promoted as the goal, which is why we are here having these conversations

727
00:44:33,440 --> 00:44:35,280
about why are so many kids dropping out?

728
00:44:35,280 --> 00:44:36,880
Why are there so many kids who can't read?

729
00:44:36,880 --> 00:44:38,720
Why is there so many kids committing crimes?

730
00:44:38,720 --> 00:44:42,200
Why are there so many kids who are having trouble with math?

731
00:44:42,200 --> 00:44:44,360
Why are there so many teen pregnancies?

732
00:44:44,360 --> 00:44:46,560
Why are so many people on drugs?

733
00:44:46,560 --> 00:44:49,280
Why is alcoholism up the roof?

734
00:44:49,280 --> 00:44:52,600
Why are young girls having sex at nine years old?

735
00:44:52,600 --> 00:44:54,120
How would they even know about that?

736
00:44:54,120 --> 00:44:56,680
That wasn't even a thing when I was a kid.

737
00:44:56,680 --> 00:44:57,680
Now it is.

738
00:44:57,680 --> 00:45:00,960
There's girls pregnant at 10.

739
00:45:00,960 --> 00:45:03,200
That's insane.

740
00:45:03,200 --> 00:45:07,680
But that comes down to the idea of not having community and not being willing to have those

741
00:45:07,680 --> 00:45:10,000
uncomfortable conversations.

742
00:45:10,000 --> 00:45:11,400
100%.

743
00:45:11,400 --> 00:45:19,200
And when it comes to on the community aspect, there's going to be some people that are like,

744
00:45:19,200 --> 00:45:23,520
okay, yeah, I'm a Christian.

745
00:45:23,520 --> 00:45:25,880
I'm here and I'm in rural Oklahoma.

746
00:45:25,880 --> 00:45:29,480
So rural Oklahoma, we don't have any problems here, right?

747
00:45:29,480 --> 00:45:31,520
We're Christian family values.

748
00:45:31,520 --> 00:45:33,080
There's no issues here.

749
00:45:33,080 --> 00:45:38,480
And then they sit and, well, I haven't been to church in quite some time, but it's okay.

750
00:45:38,480 --> 00:45:40,280
I just worship.

751
00:45:40,280 --> 00:45:41,280
I got my Bible.

752
00:45:41,280 --> 00:45:42,280
It's me and God.

753
00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:43,640
No big problem.

754
00:45:43,640 --> 00:45:48,640
And you're hitting on that right there that there's, I had a recent guest on that.

755
00:45:48,640 --> 00:45:55,840
We talked about this quite, quite at length at, if you are a Christian, you believe that

756
00:45:55,840 --> 00:45:59,440
there is a biblical worldview out there.

757
00:45:59,440 --> 00:46:04,680
There's no excuse of not being plugged in a church somewhere.

758
00:46:04,680 --> 00:46:06,920
Don't wait for a perfect church.

759
00:46:06,920 --> 00:46:09,360
And I'll tell you a little bit of my backstory.

760
00:46:09,360 --> 00:46:14,280
2020, we actually found a new church ourselves, my wife and I, and it's been wonderful.

761
00:46:14,280 --> 00:46:19,680
I share a lot of things of what you just said of just true community.

762
00:46:19,680 --> 00:46:26,720
And to be raw, I, what I loved about it, probably the most is that if something happened to

763
00:46:26,720 --> 00:46:32,960
me, if I got to a horrible car wreck or whatever, I know my wife and kids would be taken care

764
00:46:32,960 --> 00:46:36,440
of, not a question asked, they would be taken care of.

765
00:46:36,440 --> 00:46:42,120
And that's everything that loosens me up to do more, to serve more.

766
00:46:42,120 --> 00:46:49,520
You are not built in, you cannot have a true God fear in life and not be plugged in a church.

767
00:46:49,520 --> 00:46:51,360
It's not an option.

768
00:46:51,360 --> 00:46:55,960
I'm not saying if you're sick one day that to be all legalistic that you have to go every

769
00:46:55,960 --> 00:46:58,040
single week, if you're sick, then you're terrible.

770
00:46:58,040 --> 00:47:03,840
No, but you know what, you know a difference there between I'm just being lazy and saying

771
00:47:03,840 --> 00:47:08,800
that there are bad churches out there, which were people were sinful.

772
00:47:08,800 --> 00:47:13,520
There's no perfect church, but really these are excuses.

773
00:47:13,520 --> 00:47:15,680
If the church is around you, you aren't doing great.

774
00:47:15,680 --> 00:47:17,440
What are you doing to make them better?

775
00:47:17,440 --> 00:47:23,080
We can't sit here and profess to say that I am a Christian or I do want these values

776
00:47:23,080 --> 00:47:29,720
or point to all the crime and all these horrible things and then me sit back and just idly

777
00:47:29,720 --> 00:47:32,480
watch by while things are in fire around me.

778
00:47:32,480 --> 00:47:33,840
It's not an option.

779
00:47:33,840 --> 00:47:36,600
We can't do that anymore.

780
00:47:36,600 --> 00:47:42,400
And that's a big part of why I made this podcast is to focus on action instead of just sitting

781
00:47:42,400 --> 00:47:45,840
back and watching the news and oh, did you see how terrible that was?

782
00:47:45,840 --> 00:47:47,400
We all know it's terrible.

783
00:47:47,400 --> 00:47:49,320
But what are you doing about it?

784
00:47:49,320 --> 00:47:55,840
And first step, if you are Christian and if you're not a Christian, go to church, listen

785
00:47:55,840 --> 00:47:59,840
to the word and have that community.

786
00:47:59,840 --> 00:48:00,840
You're absolutely correct.

787
00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:05,480
And I love what you said, how like you don't worry about, you know, your wife and kids

788
00:48:05,480 --> 00:48:08,440
being taken care of and I absolutely have the same thing.

789
00:48:08,440 --> 00:48:13,320
And I was saying that that's the beautiful thing about community.

790
00:48:13,320 --> 00:48:19,680
If life punches you in the face too many times and you're downtrodden, your church community

791
00:48:19,680 --> 00:48:22,520
is not going to let you fail at all.

792
00:48:22,520 --> 00:48:28,080
Like I mean, I don't think if I went into my church right now and just like, look, the

793
00:48:28,080 --> 00:48:32,880
bottom just fell out and a whole lot of unforeseen things happen.

794
00:48:32,880 --> 00:48:33,880
I know.

795
00:48:33,880 --> 00:48:40,800
And I was joking with a guy and there's a man I've known for maybe two years and I

796
00:48:40,800 --> 00:48:46,040
say, you know, I said, I have a feeling that if I was ever in a downtrodden state and I

797
00:48:46,040 --> 00:48:52,480
just needed somewhere to lay my head for a few days or a week or whatever, I feel like

798
00:48:52,480 --> 00:48:56,600
there's some people in the church I probably can find some find me a corner somewhere.

799
00:48:56,600 --> 00:48:59,080
And he's like, I got a room for you right now.

800
00:48:59,080 --> 00:49:02,240
And this is a man with a full house.

801
00:49:02,240 --> 00:49:07,280
I'm talking like a full family, like four or five, six kids.

802
00:49:07,280 --> 00:49:08,280
Don't worry.

803
00:49:08,280 --> 00:49:09,280
We got a spot for you.

804
00:49:09,280 --> 00:49:11,520
Now, that's just one.

805
00:49:11,520 --> 00:49:15,000
I mean, you don't think that's what it's about.

806
00:49:15,000 --> 00:49:17,520
And like you said, you're not going to find the perfect church.

807
00:49:17,520 --> 00:49:20,880
No church is perfect, but I will tell you this.

808
00:49:20,880 --> 00:49:26,880
If your church bends to the dictates of society, that might be a sign that you need to get

809
00:49:26,880 --> 00:49:27,880
up out of there.

810
00:49:27,880 --> 00:49:33,320
I will say that you want to you want a church that never makes you just feel comfortable

811
00:49:33,320 --> 00:49:36,880
because because to follow the word is not comfortable.

812
00:49:36,880 --> 00:49:40,360
It is a challenge, but it is worth it.

813
00:49:40,360 --> 00:49:46,280
But yeah, you don't want the yeah, you know, it's okay under some circumstances to do these

814
00:49:46,280 --> 00:49:53,280
actions or it's okay to do this or you know, love is the idea like all the come on man.

815
00:49:53,280 --> 00:49:59,600
Like, we can't compromise on certain things if the word is that where the word is very,

816
00:49:59,600 --> 00:50:00,600
very just.

817
00:50:00,600 --> 00:50:07,960
Like I said, I'm far from perfect, I've been down every street that you're not supposed

818
00:50:07,960 --> 00:50:13,960
to go down ever, but I do know at this point in my life, I know this service and community

819
00:50:13,960 --> 00:50:16,280
are two very important things.

820
00:50:16,280 --> 00:50:20,080
You're not going to find everything you want, just like you don't you don't love everything

821
00:50:20,080 --> 00:50:24,120
about your parents, yet you still love them along with your children.

822
00:50:24,120 --> 00:50:29,160
But the bottom line is, is that you have to be able to plug into somewhere because life

823
00:50:29,160 --> 00:50:30,760
is not meant to be lived alone.

824
00:50:30,760 --> 00:50:34,560
There's a reason why disciples went and planted churches and they went and checked in on those

825
00:50:34,560 --> 00:50:40,440
churches to make sure that as Christians, you have an accountability factor there.

826
00:50:40,440 --> 00:50:42,560
You have a praying factor there.

827
00:50:42,560 --> 00:50:47,400
You have, you know, people who will look out for you heal and take care of one another.

828
00:50:47,400 --> 00:50:50,480
You know, because back in the day, there were no social programs.

829
00:50:50,480 --> 00:50:52,480
It was the church.

830
00:50:52,480 --> 00:50:53,480
Hmm.

831
00:50:53,480 --> 00:50:54,480
Shocker.

832
00:50:54,480 --> 00:50:57,760
And in the breakdown of the church, what ends up happening as government intervention

833
00:50:57,760 --> 00:51:00,400
goes up church attendance goes down.

834
00:51:00,400 --> 00:51:01,400
That's not my opinion.

835
00:51:01,400 --> 00:51:02,640
Go look at the numbers.

836
00:51:02,640 --> 00:51:04,200
That's just what it is.

837
00:51:04,200 --> 00:51:06,440
And the bottom line is we've always taken care of each other.

838
00:51:06,440 --> 00:51:09,920
What if somebody gets left behind if you're plugged into the church and a church leaves

839
00:51:09,920 --> 00:51:14,280
you behind shame on them, but I've not seen it happen if you're plugged in at the right

840
00:51:14,280 --> 00:51:15,280
places.

841
00:51:15,280 --> 00:51:18,480
You know, and I'm not saying like you said, all churches aren't good.

842
00:51:18,480 --> 00:51:24,000
You know, just like almost anything else, probably a lot of them are not so awesome.

843
00:51:24,000 --> 00:51:28,920
There's enough of them out there and you connect with enough enough of the right people because

844
00:51:28,920 --> 00:51:34,440
he in your circles, whether it's in life, whether it's in at the school or, you know,

845
00:51:34,440 --> 00:51:38,440
at your job or whatever, you know, find that guy.

846
00:51:38,440 --> 00:51:43,520
You know, the one you're just like, man, Bill is always so grounded, so righteous.

847
00:51:43,520 --> 00:51:44,880
He's a pleasant guy.

848
00:51:44,880 --> 00:51:48,240
Ask him where he's plugged into and follow him and see where he leads you.

849
00:51:48,240 --> 00:51:51,880
And even if it's not him, go to option number two.

850
00:51:51,880 --> 00:51:57,320
But the bottom line is, I always share with my people the answer you need and the blessing

851
00:51:57,320 --> 00:51:59,080
you need, you already know them.

852
00:51:59,080 --> 00:52:01,840
You just haven't opened up yet.

853
00:52:01,840 --> 00:52:07,440
The blessing you need in life, the blessing you need spiritually, financially, relationally,

854
00:52:07,440 --> 00:52:10,320
mentally, all those different things.

855
00:52:10,320 --> 00:52:14,720
You already know them or you know the person who knows the next person.

856
00:52:14,720 --> 00:52:18,240
You just haven't opened up because you have not utilized your community and you're not

857
00:52:18,240 --> 00:52:19,960
sharing and being open with people.

858
00:52:19,960 --> 00:52:25,640
Why? Because you feel like you're either not worthy or you don't want to be a burden on

859
00:52:25,640 --> 00:52:26,960
someone else.

860
00:52:26,960 --> 00:52:29,720
The bottom line is you don't know that you don't know.

861
00:52:29,720 --> 00:52:35,520
And the second you can step back and take on some humility and just come to people and

862
00:52:35,520 --> 00:52:38,640
say, you know what, I'm a bit broken.

863
00:52:38,640 --> 00:52:40,640
I've made some mistakes.

864
00:52:40,640 --> 00:52:42,880
You know, I'm here to repent.

865
00:52:42,880 --> 00:52:44,320
I come in peace.

866
00:52:44,320 --> 00:52:45,520
I come in gratitude.

867
00:52:45,520 --> 00:52:48,800
I come in love, but I really need some help.

868
00:52:48,800 --> 00:52:50,720
Here, lay it all out.

869
00:52:50,720 --> 00:52:54,440
And if you're plugged into the right church, there is someone in there who can get you

870
00:52:54,440 --> 00:52:57,840
not only on the right path, but can take you to a mighty blessing.

871
00:52:57,840 --> 00:53:00,840
And I'm so serious about this.

872
00:53:00,840 --> 00:53:03,400
It is so important to be able to plug in.

873
00:53:03,400 --> 00:53:09,960
And you're one step away from the greatest blessing or the greatest failure, and you

874
00:53:09,960 --> 00:53:14,280
get to choose what path is going to be yours, but you will never be able to find that out

875
00:53:14,280 --> 00:53:16,680
without tapping into a community.

876
00:53:16,680 --> 00:53:18,880
100%.

877
00:53:18,880 --> 00:53:21,400
Oh, Ma, so many great things.

878
00:53:21,400 --> 00:53:26,160
And I'm sure we could probably go on for hours if we really wanted to.

879
00:53:26,160 --> 00:53:31,640
But I'm sure people listening are really loving what you're saying and probably want to hear

880
00:53:31,640 --> 00:53:34,240
more about you and stay plugged in with you.

881
00:53:34,240 --> 00:53:36,880
So where can they find you at?

882
00:53:36,880 --> 00:53:39,760
MaVital.com is going to be the hub.

883
00:53:39,760 --> 00:53:43,600
And it's also on MaVital on all the social platforms, every one of them.

884
00:53:43,600 --> 00:53:48,760
That's pretty much typed my name in and all those things are going to come out.

885
00:53:48,760 --> 00:53:51,400
There's resources at my website.

886
00:53:51,400 --> 00:53:53,600
There's booking info there.

887
00:53:53,600 --> 00:53:56,040
There's contact information there.

888
00:53:56,040 --> 00:54:02,800
And really, what's also there is an opportunity.

889
00:54:02,800 --> 00:54:07,960
I want people from your website, from Truth and Grace, to be able to reach out to me if

890
00:54:07,960 --> 00:54:11,680
you're one of those parents who are having a hard time maybe having that conversation.

891
00:54:11,680 --> 00:54:12,680
Now, mind you.

892
00:54:12,680 --> 00:54:14,480
I will be very transparent.

893
00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:16,960
There are no kids in the house with me right now.

894
00:54:16,960 --> 00:54:22,960
However, sort of like others in the Bible, I've been a father, uncle, cousin to many,

895
00:54:22,960 --> 00:54:23,960
and my church.

896
00:54:23,960 --> 00:54:28,200
And I work with teens all over the place in every area, even all the way down to some

897
00:54:28,200 --> 00:54:30,480
small kids or some of the nonprofits.

898
00:54:30,480 --> 00:54:33,800
So I do look after a bunch of them.

899
00:54:33,800 --> 00:54:35,320
I mentor a lot of them.

900
00:54:35,320 --> 00:54:40,560
If you're having a hard time having that conversation or if you have a teen who is maybe you feel

901
00:54:40,560 --> 00:54:44,080
like going down a dark path and going down that road.

902
00:54:44,080 --> 00:54:49,000
And I still want you to go get the therapy needed for them and go have them see your

903
00:54:49,000 --> 00:54:50,520
pastors and different things of nature.

904
00:54:50,520 --> 00:54:54,440
But if you want them to be able to connect with someone who's maybe going to be like

905
00:54:54,440 --> 00:55:01,120
an intermediary, can be a mentor, be a little bit of a coach for them, reach out to me and

906
00:55:01,120 --> 00:55:06,040
just put Truth and Grace in the subject line.

907
00:55:06,040 --> 00:55:09,120
I'll do a 30-minute discovery call with them.

908
00:55:09,120 --> 00:55:11,680
I'll unpack what's going on in their lives.

909
00:55:11,680 --> 00:55:16,520
Maybe just have a talk, almost like an uncle or a big brother type of situation.

910
00:55:16,520 --> 00:55:21,920
I've been doing that with a lot of young adults and teenagers and it's been going well.

911
00:55:21,920 --> 00:55:25,920
And we've had some great impact on this end.

912
00:55:25,920 --> 00:55:32,160
So if you go to email info.emailinfo.mobvital.com, put that in the subject line.

913
00:55:32,160 --> 00:55:38,800
We'll get that set up for you and just be ready to look after your youngster and just

914
00:55:38,800 --> 00:55:43,960
have a conversation and just see if we can come with some solutions to be able to share

915
00:55:43,960 --> 00:55:46,920
what you all, to where you all can make the steps needed to be able to make something

916
00:55:46,920 --> 00:55:47,920
happen.

917
00:55:47,920 --> 00:55:48,920
That's complimentary.

918
00:55:48,920 --> 00:55:49,920
That's on me.

919
00:55:49,920 --> 00:55:50,920
30 minutes.

920
00:55:50,920 --> 00:55:52,420
We'll get that going.

921
00:55:52,420 --> 00:55:55,960
Whatever we need to be able to help this next generation, we're here for that.

922
00:55:55,960 --> 00:56:03,280
So by all means, please check in and get that offer and we'll do our best to be able to

923
00:56:03,280 --> 00:56:05,680
push them forward in a new direction.

924
00:56:05,680 --> 00:56:06,680
Awesome.

925
00:56:06,680 --> 00:56:08,080
I love it.

926
00:56:08,080 --> 00:56:10,320
I definitely check them out.

927
00:56:10,320 --> 00:56:12,240
It might have been great.

928
00:56:12,240 --> 00:56:13,240
Just kind of hashing out.

929
00:56:13,240 --> 00:56:14,740
We talked beforehand.

930
00:56:14,740 --> 00:56:19,600
We don't ever know how, the way I struck these, I never know exactly how it go, but it's awesome

931
00:56:19,600 --> 00:56:23,480
talking with you and yeah, I really appreciate the conversation today.

932
00:56:23,480 --> 00:56:27,640
Man, thank you for having me and thank you to all those who are listening.

933
00:56:27,640 --> 00:56:31,080
I love all of you and hope to catch up with you soon.

934
00:56:31,080 --> 00:56:32,080
Great.

935
00:56:32,080 --> 00:56:35,040
Well, you guys, thanks again for listening.

936
00:56:35,040 --> 00:56:38,720
I really appreciate all the support for this show and we'll catch you on the next episode.