Live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper. You are live from the path.

And you're listening to life of the past. Coming to you from the Pathway Studios here at Johnston Proper. It's good to see you. What? You better you better set the bar low tonight, boys.

Yeah. No. That's true. It's gonna be interesting. Pre show conversation did not, did not produce fruit. Yeah. We did have a lot there. Hey, man. Dan is saving it. Dan is showing up twice. Well, he Hey, Dan. How you doing? How you doing? Okay. There we go. Hey. So here's what's going on. Actually, now Mike's showing up twice. Here. How about we do that? What in the heck? No. Now I'm showing up twice. How about Give one give one to Moova. I'm getting dizzy. Here am I. Alright. Here's We're good? Anyway, thanks for coming live from the Pathway. Do appreciate you hanging out with us. We have a probably a lackluster show tonight. I you know, I here's the deal. If you got got other stuff going on, and and this is one of the nights you came on and you're like, you know, I could bail. I could stay on. You could probably go. Yeah. I I would understand. We're gonna do our best, though. I'm not gonna take Okay. The best? We're gonna do our best, though, but we're gonna we're gonna do our best, though.

Why did I sound so Listen here. Nobody who doesn't have a kid in Little League goes to Little League. That's what I'm saying. That's what's going on here tonight, boys. Yeah. Okay. That sounds about right. That's fair. It's like I'll agree to that. Fine. If if this yeah. This is literally nice. I I tried to talk us up a little bit. Yeah. It didn't work. Those are those are lies, Troy. Alright. So here's what got going on tonight. Let's see right through it. Troy's got some Pope style advice. Yes, gonna walk you through that. We hey. Interesting study. I wanna talk about cell phone usage.

I feel like it's ruining people, including myself. Yeah. That's true. And so that's all I wanna talk about. I also I also wanna talk about I wanna talk about prayer when it comes to big events in your life. That on the on the on the

I see. At the offset, don't sound like they have a religious significance. And question yeah. The question is is how much how much time how big is a big how big is a big thing? How do you know when something's big? So let's say something's gonna happen in your life, and you're like, well, I wanna pray on it. You pray on it. You don't feel like you're anything. And, like, it could be that god is just, like, you know, I don't care.

You know, whatever. Drink the cup. You know. Okay. I I think I could I could speak into this. Okay. So I'll I'll I'll give you an example, then I'll give you a different example. So example number one is, hey, man. I'm thinking about getting coffee at 02:00 this afternoon, or I might have a soda. I don't know. Maybe shall I put it to the Lord? And let's say you pray on it. Right? And you're like, I didn't really hear anything back. Do I wait? Do I neither get the coffee nor the soda? Do I wait? Or do or is it is it just somewhere it's like, you know what? God's You must have clear direction. Take your time, Jehovah. So we should all just wait it out. So now so so I I think, you know, if you look at that example, maybe you're like, well, you know, maybe God doesn't care. Right? But then we start ratcheting it up,

what what type of life circumstance is it like, no, I I can't I I feel like I shouldn't move forward. So Yeah. Okay. That's coming up. Yeah. We can talk about that. Yeah. And also we got some advice on Dear Life the Path. And I want to remind you that Life in the Path is brought to you by West field Veterinary Hospital in Johnston. Here's the deal. If you're having trouble if your if your pet's giving you fits I mean I mean fits. Know, he's scratching at stuff. I don't know. Maybe he's just got a bad ill temper. So you listen. Here's it's very overlooked. People are like, oh, the dog licked me. He's got bad breath. Dogs are not supposed to have bad breath. Really? Yeah. Oh. They're not it's not supposed to be that way. I mean, if they just got done eating something unsavory, then that's that's a that's a different thing. Maybe you should stop giving your dog garlic. But here's the deal. Like, if they have bad breath, they have bad teeth. They need to go in into the Westfield and get get that dental business looked at. It is the most overlooked,

area of your dog's health, and it's the one that can cause enormous amount of pain and enormous amount of infection problems with your animal. So you need to get them in there. Yeah. That's good. I did not talk with them, about this ahead of time, but I'm fairly certain that's right. People at Westfield will get Hey. The that BUVA's got a point. The people at Westfield could tell you whether that's good know if, if halitosis is a big deal. If you got bad breath in your dog, then that's gonna some trouble. And here's the deal. You kicking the dog is not solving the halitosis. Yeah. Yeah. Hey. Unfortunately. They get I've tried multiple times. This does not work. Here's what I've never done. I've never taken my dog, or cat or other animal to a vet hospital, and their solution was, get away from me

with a shove. Hey. Get off the couch. Hey. Quit bothering me. Hey. Or one of these numbers. Hey. Go lay down. I've never seen the vet do that. Which means I snapped. It's not solving any problems. Or go outside. You bad. He just said Don't you get nasty.

Quit breathing on me. Quit licking me. You're slobbering all over the place. Here's the deal. I have, I have a a bloodhound, and I just recently, in the last month or so, acquired three goats. And the dog is so starving for attention that it now acts like the goats. Like it goes out there and eats grass.

That's awesome. With the goats in the middle of the, of the of the grass, the goats are tearing it up. I mean, they're eating trees and and weeds and junk, and the dogs out there doing the exact same thing for absolutely no reason. Are are these the goats that, like, fall over when you clap? No. No. No. We didn't we didn't get something. We got normal goats. No. That's a I I I can't remember what's the what's the word I'm looking for? Evil. Just to to get to take your human enjoyment out of making coach faint. Look at that. I mean You fell over? It oh, sinister was the word I was looking for. It's just it's sinister. You know? Why would I pay money for a goat just so I can make fun of them for scaring the crap out of them? I would do that. Wrong. Westfield Veterinary Hospital. Why why did you get goats? Like, for cheese? Are you doing goat cheese? No. They're not dairy goats. They they clean they clean parts of the yard that I I can't mow. Yeah. That's good. Yeah. I love that. I I've often thought that I as opposed to a lawnmower,

I just like to get there's in fact, where is that that that happened? There's like a there was like a city or a province or something who was having trouble keeping up, and so they just brought a bunch of goats in. Yeah. And they just wandered the city for a while cleaning up stuff. They're beastly. I mean, they can take out a decent patch of area in in a day. And, I don't know. We have we have a mama goat and then two two little boy goats. Little boy goats can't be counted off for nothing. But that mama goat, she's tens. I mean, you you give her, like, a six, ten foot 10 foot lead, and she would just eat a circle around herself. I mean, she's the business. And she's a well behaved goat too. Like, she comes when you call her. You can pat her on the stomach. She'll walk with you. She'll sniff your face. She's a good goat. Hey, man. I I need to mow pretty soon. If they want some more grass, like a different style, little do you ever get a flavor? They can come on out. Actually, I rent them out. It's $4 a day. Oh, I'm in. Yeah. $4? Are you kidding me? Can they eat my whole yard in a day? No. Probably not a day. It'll probably take them about three days. Get a you shuckster. I bet they could do it in two. You're just having them perlite so you get $12. They take however long they take. If you wanna give them back after two days, that's your business. $4 a day. Do you come do you pick them up? I'll drop them off.

You clean them Mike, we might have to talk about this. There's no mess. They're small. The goat because they're eating grass, the goat, exit is, actually the best fertilizer out there. So not only will he cut it, he'll make it green, and then he'll get himself another job by making it grow. I wanna ask what the catch is, dude, because I know Brandon would have, my nephew would have a great time with the goats just kinda I don't he don't like kids.

He eats kids. The goat eats kids. I don't really don't wanna give my goat over to your place now that you said that. Isn't that the three billy goats gruff? Alright. Fair enough. Well That's a troll. Sounded like a situation, so $4 a day. I'm still for it. Yeah. So am I. Alright. Anyway Westfield will know. Yeah. Go to Westfield, Vishnu. You know what? Yeah. Here's the deal. We we don't know animals. Yeah. You should check-in with him. Also, if you're buying or selling a home, contact the Eisenhower team. Go to Eisenhower team dot com. Bob Eisenhower can help you out. He's good people. Yep. He'll help you get your, here's here's the deal. You may be holding out. You're like, I'm gonna make some big money off my place. You make some big money. But the problem is You don't know anything about real estate. No. No. You don't. Not a bit. You're not the article you read on the net, that guy doesn't know anything about real estate either. Yeah. You remember that for sale by owner sign you saw in your neighbor's yard for a year and a half?

It's because he doesn't know anything about real estate. And and I'll tell you this. If you found good advice on the Internet, it didn't come from a realtor. You know why? Because realtors don't give out free advice. Otherwise, they would put him out of business. Yeah. Exactly. So anybody that claims that says, you know, I'm Chuck Johnson, realtor. Here's my advice. He's a crappy realtor. That's why he's giving away free advice on the net. Exactly. Because no one wants to pay for it. Exactly. Hire a realtor. Just get it done. He'll help you price your house right. Get it sold fast because I tell you what, money is not valuable unless it's actually in your pocket. A house that you have overpriced that never sells is not big money. It's just a house that's not selling. Yeah. So, anyway, contact Bob Eisenhower with the Eisenhower team. He'll help you out. And if nothing else, give him a quick call and say thanks for sponsoring Life and the Path and keeping us on the air. So here's so here's check out this article. I wanna talk about the cell phones. I feel like the cell phone is ruining my life. Yeah. I agree with that. Okay. Good. I can stop anytime I want. Here we go. That's alright. This says the man sitting in front of a laptop, an iPad, and his cell phone right next to each other. All three of them, Dan. I like to look important. So study shows Americans use smartphones even during sex and at church.

Those are two separate things, by Apparently, the I read it too fast when I was talking about talking with Boob about it. It sounded like sex in church. And it threw me off, and I literally That's definitely wrong. Yeah. I had to have him read it to me again. So so here we go. A new study which provides insight to the behaviors of Americans with regard to their smartphones shows that consumers use their devices just about everywhere, even during sex and at church, among other unusual places. In an online study conducted by the market research firm Harris Interactive on behalf of the mobile company, Jumia, one in ten admitted to checking their phones in the shower or during sex. The percentage jumps to twenty percent among those aged between 18 and 34 years. Have you ever checked a phone in a shower? I don't take showers, Ben. Fair enough. That's disgusting. I let the goats clean me.

That's what goats are for? These goats are a lot more talented than I expected. When you said three goats, you got I just $4, you get a shower. $4 a $4 a day, you get a shower. They'll mow your lawn. They will eat your children. It's great. I've turned the tunes on and and put it next to the shower so I can listen to tunes, but, I don't know that I've been looking for, you know, updates. Yeah. I've never been so detached from the showering experience that I have right now that I'm able to just kinda check the phone real quick. I wonder what's going on over I haven't even called him yet. Or I've never had that important of a conversation. Yeah. You know, if a conversation can't wait in a shower, maybe you're taking way too long of a shower.

Or you took one at the wrong time. Like, you're in a heated debate with somebody, you're like, hold up, bro. Gotta go take a shower. I feel like you can take a quick seven minute shower then and then respond within a reasonable time. Yeah. Seven minutes? No way. What? No way. The shower is my vacation to Chile. That's what I'm saying. I've been there as long as possible. I mean, the water has to I have not gotten out of the shower when the water had colded me out for for, like, probably twice over ten years. Really? If I gotten out voluntarily before the hot water ran out. Otherwise, I'll ride that pony and he'll die. I used to so so people can take these extremely long showers, but yeah. I mean, I'm not saying I wouldn't, you know. I've taken a long shower as well, but you can do a shower in a couple minutes. You don't have to be in there. Oh, yeah. I used have my girls when they were younger set the oven timer for six minutes, and then we'd race. And I'd say, I'll be back before that timer goes off. And I'd run-in and take a shower, get all dressed, and come back out. Were you trying to conserve water or just take really fast shower? I was in a hurry. You got something to do. Okay. Fair enough. Yeah. Alright. So, anyway, hold on. Let me let me continue with the, continue with so wait.

I'm still trying to figure out the intimacy part, though. Yeah. Does isn't that That's gotta make a man feel special. That that's gotta tell you something's not really Yeah. Hold on, baby. Like, I just This is really important. I I feel like we could take the pantopamine this way too far. I'm Life in the Path is posted something on the Facebook. I just wanna check it out. Yeah. And it doubles in those aged 18 to 34 years. Okay. So

when even the most intimate of moments is in the cell phone free zone good call, boo boo, by the way. We should probably get off that subject. Perhaps it's no coincidence that twelve percent of respondents in a relationship said they believe their smartphone gets in the way of that relationship, notes the survey released Thursday. Is that that's true for me. I'm that is true for me. If my phone is on me, I will I will respond to a notification. Right? Got a new email. Got a text message. Whatever. I'll check it. I I can't let it sit in my pocket and have it not checked. I won't do it if I'm, like, on an eye to eye conversation with someone. If we're just sitting in the living room or something together, like family time Yep. I'll check. But That's one of the many reasons that I haven't actually switched to getting a smartphone.

The fact is I don't wanna pay the extra bits of bill to get more data and all that information. All the stuff that goes along with getting a smartphone. I have an older style flip phone that's completely up to date. I mean, it's not technologically outdated. It just doesn't have all the bells and whistles. And that's exciting for me because the fact that I know my tendencies is I could very easily just sit glued to a phone all day, playing the games, doing the the notifications on Facebook or whatever social networking site I'm on. And then every time I get an email, immediately respond to it. In certain circumstances, I can definitely see how it'd be beneficial to have one, but, I know myself and I know my tendencies. I don't think I even have any games.

I took mine off because the kids are always trying to borrow my phone and soak up the battery. Oh, yeah. What? Yeah. With the what did the the candy crush? My phone from my kids. Yeah. That's what my brother does. He puts games on his tablet and his phone. Nope. They're always trying to to take my phone and play the games and try to keep them off kick them outside. I will tell you I'm a little bit of a hypocrite because, I actually do take my girlfriend's phone every once in a while to play that, what is it? Candy Crush? That game? I've heard of it. I haven't Yeah. I I got addicted to it a little bit when she started playing it in front of me. Yeah. So I'm terrible. But I just yeah. At church, we encourage people to use your small smartphones. Yeah. Here's the thing, though. Like, I I mean, let's say you didn't do this. Do you think do you think the current culture is gonna I mean, the the current the way that things get done, is it gonna pass you by and make you ineffective? Because here's the deal. Like, when I send an email, I expect a response within about four or five hours. Yeah. And if I don't get it, I start to get irritated. Because I'm like, I know you got your phone on you. I know why don't you respond to my email? You know? Why don't you tell me what's up? Because I I just sent you and said, hey, what's happening? You know? And you didn't you didn't write back to me. Same with the text message. If I

more, if I call somebody, they don't answer the phone, that's the ultimate insult to me. I'm like, I know you have your phone on you. I know everyone does. I called you and you need an answer. What are you Everybody does. What could you possibly be doing? Now, would say my ringer is off probably 85% of the time. Like, if my phone rings, I'm not fine, but I'm with someone, I will not answer the phone because I figure that's kinda rude. Yeah. I I my phone is normally off ten to twelve hours a day. There was a guy that posted on Facebook that said they gave, like, an advanced notice. It said, just so you know, if if my wife calls me, like, I will pretty I will stop our conversation. If it's my wife, she comes first, I will answer the phone. Yeah. And I was of two minds about that because I thought,

you know, I mean, like, in general order of priority, I suppose that's true. But Yeah. But if you were sitting in a in a in the same room, your wife wouldn't just interrupt. If you're having a conversation, you move a talk, and she wouldn't come and say, hey. Hey, Ben. Hey. Yeah. Hey. Hey. You know? Mean Answer me with this sweet ringtone I have. So yeah. Okay.

So wait. Let's see. This is not surprising given that 72% of those polled said they stay within five feet of their smartphones most of the time. Yeah. That's probably right. Yeah. That doesn't surprise me. Yeah. I do that. I'm with to. I tell you what though, my smart I use my smartphone for a lot of good, I think. I download a bunch of podcasts and stuff. I listen to a lot of sermons on my phone. Put the bible on? Yeah. There's there's definitely advantages to having it. I I would never doubt that at all, but I just I know that I have those resources other where other places. I know that I've got my own personal laptop,

so a lot of that stuff I don't need on my phone. So a lot of people have the the bible apps that you can have on your phone, and then, like you said, downloading the podcast and everything like that, which is I mean, it's absolutely convenience, and I would never argue that fact. But I've got a phone, and it it's a phone. Like, that's what it does. It it it has this app. It's called telephone, and you can call out and talk to people. It's crazy. And then it has text. That's really the amenities that I have in my phone. Everything else that that a lot of people do on their smartphones, I do on my laptop. Yeah. So two separate things. Whatever. Yeah. Yeah. I think I you I'd get rid of it, though. I I in fact, I actually, I had Would you be able to digit for, like, a week? Well, the deal. Like, we just got,

smartphones not, two, a couple months ago. And about two weeks in, I I decided it was the biggest mistake I'd ever made. And I needed to get rid of them. Because it was it was taking up time. I mean, I mean, huge amounts of time. Every transition. You know, like if I were gonna get up and go from the living room to the kitchen, I'd pick up my phone on the way by, make sure nothing happened, and then put it back down. You know? Well, this starts to get I start to have transitions, like, every five minutes for something. Yeah. You know? I get I need to go to the bathroom. Better grab my phone, just in case. Yeah. Something happens, you know? And so, like, that's ridiculous. That's getting too much, know? Yeah. Like, the kids are trying to talk to me. I'm like, hang on, I just gotta check this. Hang on. Just gotta check my thing. And I'm like, what's matter with you? You gotta get rid of these smartphones. This is, I mean, this is what happens to people. And so I almost gave it up and instead, I I I installed some limits here and, stopped carrying it on me. And so, like, I'll set it down and and, you know, lose track of it or whatever. That's that's actually really helped. But I realized that it was this this is gonna sound like a a kind of a heavy assessment, but was idol worship is what it was, to be honest with you. Like, I was seeking I wanna know what everyone was doing. Yeah. I turned to some kind of gossip mill, and I, you know, and like, oh, tell me, oh, god phone. You know, what what's what should I do? What should I do next? Should I say something sassy on that one poster? You know, I'm like, I gotta get out of this. I love this. It's it's terrible.

And so, you know, I I just I put it down. I I I try to stay away from it most of the time, really. I I think it's like anything. You just gotta control it. Yeah. To be honest, I I with with Mike's situation, I think that's very, very common. Mhmm. You know, I do agree that the idol worship can be a bit of a harsh comment to make, but I I wholeheartedly believe that that can happen quite a bit with a lot of Yeah. That's here's the deal. It's like, don't if you don't you're like, well, it's not idol worship. What do you call it? You know, I mean, you're putting all your attention My attention Yeah. My best friend. No. It can definitely get to that point. That that's absolutely something that happened, and I'm not doubting that at all. That is what I think to put that as a rubber stamp on a lot of the situations would be a little bit too harsh. Because you're a yellow bellied, Nancy man. Oh, I'm more than happy to tell you that's idol worship what you're doing. It is. That's I'm telling you that's exactly what it is. I'm telling you that right to their face. So I don't think it's too about it. If you're cutting your shower in half to get to your phone, you you got you got a problem. I can't even be safe. Exactly. Twenty nine percent twenty nine percent admitted to peeping on someone else's phone.

Oh, I wouldn't do that. I catch myself so I Woah. I I I'm sitting there. Excuse me while I move my phone. Right. Whenever whenever my girlfriend and I are sitting down, we're watching TV, if she's sitting right next to me and then does something on her phone, I catch myself just because of a movement and and I'm intrigued and curious. I look over and then immediately catch myself, and she'll hear me all the time saying, oh, I'm sorry. I'm not trying to stare at your phone and then look back at the You're like a raccoon. I I don't get the deal because yeah. I'm like, I don't care. You you can look at anything on my phone. I there's nothing there's nothing She doesn't mind it at all, but if her, like, gets the phone call or text message, I look over too Yeah. Because I hear the chime. I'm just like, oh, well, what's going on on Tessa's phone? And then,

wait, never mind. Turn away. I don't need to be looking at that. That's her personal phone. Yeah. So I I've caught myself doing it. I got nothing to Not intentionally to where I'm trying to figure out somebody's business, but It's like people can go through every inch of all my stuff, and they'd pretty bored. Yeah. There's not a bit of luck anywhere on You like my Cheerios. Yeah. I sure do. I mean Yeah. That's about it. I made three phone calls last week. Awesome. And it all said one in five Americans polled admitted to using their phones in church. 20%.

I I what here's another thing they said. 12% or one third of the respondents said they use phones at a child's or school function. You bet I would. That stuff's boring. I don't know. Here's what I don't know. It's painful. I went to the hospital because someone was I need to go visit somebody at the hospital. You're just waiting in the waiting room. I'm like Yeah. This is awesome. You know? What did people do twenty years ago? That newspaper

Yeah. That's a good point. Phone is you can actually dim the screen. So in the dark school event,

you can make it nice and dark, and you can still do stuff. As a random sidebar to that, I actually so have you guys gone to the movies lately where they're doing these new things with smartphones? See. I haven't done it. There's a thing going. I think you have to have a specific type of phone for it to work, but so to further push people of not using their phones during movies, obviously, be super bright and really distracting everybody, they're doing rewards

for shutting off your phone. And I recently went to a movie where I I know. I I was astonished by the whole thing. They said, if you turn off your so text this number, and it was one of those five digit short dial codes. Text this number and turn off your phone right afterwards. And when you turn back on your

your phone will have had a dream, and it's basically so they'll send a text message to your phone, and it has to you have to wait the full, like, two and a half hours or three hours, and then you'll get a text message to your phone that says what your phone was dreaming about. And I didn't see it successfully work. It looks like it's just some random, like, oh, your phone went to this blah blah blah blah, and this happened. And it's just a weird little thing to make you turn off your phone. And, like, you can get rewards for it. Like, they give you, like, points. Like, you can get online points for turning off your phone. And get a free phone sign Right. Like yeah. No. Exactly. It's just, like, you get a free, like, phone with a cancel sign through it, like, on your t shirt or something. I don't know. But they're pushing these rewards for you to turn off your phone during movies. I've read somewhere greater movie experience. Yeah. Yeah. I just read the other day that that there's some some Nordstrom or something that did some little testing where they were monitoring people's smartphones

and and somehow they were gonna use that, like, to to determine your spending habits and stuff. Like, if you were in the store and I don't know how they're monitoring it, probably, you know, using a drone or something, whatever. And but I don't know. And and A drone. A drone. Flying around the store. Yeah. But Don't mind me, stopped it. It's kinda creepy to think they can find out all kinds of stuff. Well, yeah. There's there's a lot of stuff that has to do with that. You can check website habits. Yeah. What search engine you use. Like, if you're watching the oil looking at the oil I still don't sell that there, I suppose. You're looking at the women's Right. Shorts, whatever. Just checking You know, what are you looking at? And they try to combine all combine all that to to Right. Try to get you

sell anymore. Interesting stuff from folks. Yeah. So I I guess I guess broadly, I I think I got I got stuff to learn here. I I'm too close to the phone. I and it's it's it's it provides a certain sense of a false sense of self importance. Not that I look at them like, oh, I'm important, but, like, hey, I wanna help people. People need help. You know, I wanna respond. I wanna get back to them quickly. I wanna just like I would hope that someone would get back to me quickly. But then I end up, like, serving a bunch of people in stupid things and not actually serving, say, my family or my friends or whatever's going on immediate vicinity in a in a solid thing where I should be focusing my attention and time. Yeah. You know? Like, some things can wait. My my daughter Danielle will at times look around and say, everybody, turn off your phone, turn off your iPad. We're having a conversation. And they're like, hey. I can do this. I can do this. I have some friends that do that with family, like, during dinner, when they're sitting down for dinner. Yeah. Their dad will pass basically, like, a basket, and everyone has to turn off their phones and put their phone in the basket, and then he takes Oh, man. Know Yeah. Takes the phone basket to another room, sets it down, and then comes back, and they have dinner. No phones whatsoever. No electronics. Everyone sits there, and they talk about their day.

Sad that they have to do that. If we're landing text each other the whole time? Pass the rules. Just snap chat what's going on. Just snap chat your turkey. Like, mom's great. That's awesome. Yeah. It's it's sad that we have to do that. But Yeah. We've gotten to that extreme. That's probably the long thought of it. Anyway, you're listening to life in the path. Hopefully, not on your mobile phone. Turn it off. Terrible person. Idolatry. We're coming at you every Monday night at 10:00 at lifeinthepath.org.

Otherwise, you can catch the show at 7PM every Saturday on ninety nine point three KTA, and we're glad to have you on either one. Although you can be part of the scintillating live chat that goes on on the Monday night show if you wanna come on. Although, just recall, I did warn you tonight show was gonna be a thing. Little league. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Buha, people have come up to your house, and they say and they've mistaken you for the pope. Terrible. They refuse to leave your place until you give them some sort of advice that is reflective of your own life that could help them on their path. What would you say? Get off my lawn. Alright. Here's what I got. So the last couple days, I've actually had to have quite a few hot button topic issue

conversations. And I'm finding myself not necessarily giving the right answers. I'm not gonna claim that. But being a little more confident in my answers. At one point in time, hearing about the hot button issues, you know, we have in this day and age, you know, the the laws that are being passed right now with gay marriage and

you know, the abortion situation, that it that's a very hot button issue with with Christians and and nonbelievers and everything like that. The the arguments between a lot of things. And I know that, as a whole, a lot of people stray away from those conversations. And any time they hear anyone bringing them up in conversation, the immediate, you know, veil of, ugh, really? This conversation again? You want to hear about this? A lot of people get that that mindset where I don't want to have this conversation, I don't want to talk to them it. No. I'm not the person. I'm gonna back out. Or I'm gonna give them the answer they're looking for and kind of put a little bit of God spin on it, but not really.

And just kind of be like, well, you know, God says this, but I'm more along the lines of this. And I feel like we fall short of that. But this week, I kinda came to the realization that I've been studying up my bible enough, and I've really been trying to get the heart of God on a lot of these issues by talking to

fellow Christians and getting their thought processes on it and what they're thinking about, pulling up scripture and really reading into it. And the more I'm reading into this stuff and the more I'm really reading into to the heart of God on it, the more confident I am with my answers. And I found very recently that it started to where I'm no longer avoiding these conversations, and I'm actually looking forward to them. It's more along the lines of, oh, well, you wanna talk about that? Well, first off, you're not gonna like my answer, most likely, but here's God's thoughts on it. And here's where I believe God's heart is on it. And I've had

more of those conversations in the last couple weeks than I have in a very long time. And because the fact that I've been praying on God every morning, really, to to really guide my my voice and guide my thoughts when I'm when I'm talking about this. So my advice to everyone would really be,

a, as usual, study your bible all the time no matter what. Study it. Study it. Study it. Read it. Read Read it. Study. Study. Study. But one of the big things that I've seen myself being helped with is every single morning praying for God to not only use me in every situation that he can really put me out there, but also fill me with his words. Like, really speak through me and speak to whatever these people need to hear through my words. You know, I always take it from if I have to answer a question for somebody or talk to somebody about something god like, and I really don't remember most of the time what I said.

A lot of the time, I I attribute that to god who's really working through me with that. But, don't be afraid of those conversations. Really pray to god that he talks through those. Because guess what? God's right all the time. 100% of the time. God is right on those issues. He has the correct answer, and he can use you to give that answer to somebody in a manner that that really shows his heart and shows his love for people. I can't decide whether I agree with you or disagree with you. Okay. How come?

Well, here's the deal. Like, I agree that God takes a stance on things and, and, it's the truth, but I generally will not get in that conversation for any reason. Like, just for there will be abs I I mean, seriously. So there's people people know

that I worship Christ. They know that. Right? Right. And they will say, hey, let's talk about abortion. And I say, no. And they say, why not? I says, because you already know where I stand. That's why you wanna talk to me. You know what I'm saying? They just wanna fight with me. And so and that, like, I guess I don't I don't see any gain there. Like, I'm and and this is this is why I can't decide whether I agree with you or disagree with you. I can either look at what you're saying and say

that I have been backing out of a lot of conversations I should be standing in. Or on the flip side, which is kind of where I was I was at before this conversation came was, is that like, the issues themselves matter nothing to me if you don't know Jesus. Then we're just talking about issues. And really, the it's whether you and I agree on gay marriage or abortion,

I don't care at all. Right. If you and I agree on Jesus, then now we have a conversation to have. You know what I'm saying? And so like, it's this it's almost the same reason I don't get into very many political discussions. Right? Like, I could care less if you agree with me on any certain issue or not. I I more care if you you agree in the principle. You know what I'm saying? If you agree in the backing of it. And so I don't know, Buba. I I feel like I disagree. Okay. Now that I think about it. Well, so here's where I'm taking it from. So I agree on a certain standpoint of where you're coming from. A lot of those conversations can be absolutely for nothing. If somebody just wants to fight it out, yeah, that's gonna happen. But at the same time, you know, through that conversation could facilitate more. There's no reason why God couldn't completely use that conversation that you're having with that person to you know, a lot of times, the these these hot button issues, whatever you wanna call them,

they're getting their answers from the wrong sources. So they wanna fight it out because the fact that, you know, they hear of, and I'm gonna bring up a a very, you know, cliche portion, but the Westboro Baptist Church. They're hearing about God's standpoint on on gay marriage from them, and it's wrong. And and, yes, we're against it, but at the same time, you have to give some honest god feedback on it. I feel like you could very easily back out of a conversation where you could turn someone from absolutely hating god 100

because of intolerance to if you give the right answer where it's not about intolerance, it's about love and trying to protect us from stuff that's gonna hurt us. It flips aside from, you know, God's just intolerant of these people and he doesn't want them to have rights to, okay, well, God whole heartedly knows that this is going to hurt us, and that's why we're avoiding it. So I feel like if you just, out of nowhere, for no reason besides the fact you just want don't want to get the conversation, avoid those conversations,

you could be avoiding some serious conversations where you could really help somebody. But if it's just I mean, if you get into it and you realize that, you know, maybe ten minutes in, it's all about they just wanna argue and argue and argue and argue, there's no reason why you can't stop that conversation, but that doesn't mean that you can't have it to begin with. Yeah. I'll engage the conversation, but if it becomes an argument, I just back out. Right. And that's what I would do too. If it becomes just futility where you're just, oh, well, this blah blah blah blah blah, you know, just yelling back at each other and it's not productive. If you wanna know honestly what God's word says about it, yeah, let's have a conversation. If you just wanna try to draw lines and throw things at each other, not Yeah. Which I I found myself in both conversations. I found myself where someone wanted to talk about God at first, and we start talking, and then all it was is they wanted to, you know, point fingers and then get angry about it, and then just argue with me, and I'll back out of the conversation.

But if they're honestly trying to figure out from a serious real standpoint why God is on this and what our thoughts are on this for the sake of their own knowledge, then it's a great conversation to have. And I I I think that's probably

Right? Because to Mike's point, you're not really arguing the issue. Right? The issue is not is not really the deal. The question is, are are you able to talk about that issue and ultimately show the heart of God through it? That's really where the gain is. Because, Mike, that's where you're at. Right? Like, the point is, do you know Jesus? Well, can you get to know God better through where he where his, where the Bible shows his his heart is in some of those issues? You bet you can. You can you can know God in those situations. And so I I think that's probably where the distinction is. If you just wanna argue about,

about those those issues, that's not really gonna help. But, like, is it a conversation that otherwise shows the heart of God, which gets to the meat of of what Mike's talking about? Yeah. Actually, you know, boo, I think that that's actually come up in the last, couple weeks. A friend of mine at work asked me, and he's a Christian man, he says. And so, you know, he asked me if it was okay for him to stand up at a gay wedding as the best man. And I said, no.

Actually, here's what he asked me. He asked me if I would do it. And I said, no, no, I, I, I, I don't think so. I don't think I could do that. And, he wanted, and that was his big ringers. He was like, why? Why couldn't you do that? Right? And, and, and, and as a Christian, what I said was, is I said, basically, you're standing up and saying,

I am celebrating your separation from God. I am celebrating your celebration in your separation from God. Right? And that's as far from loving as you can get. Because, I mean, generally, the world's look at that and go, You self righteous jerk. You can't be happy for somebody? Go to his wedding, stand up, and say, I'm happy for you. The truth is, is like, while I would like to see a X level of happiness across the board for everybody, I know how that's attained. Right?

That's attained through faith in Christ. God provides joy. Everything else is just a it's a Splenda. It's a Splenda version of joy. Or I like to call it, wait, no, I better not say that. Anyway, it's a Splenda version of joy. It's artificial. It's not right. Right? And and and so, you know, like, that's gonna be a hard conversation for that guy to have with his friend because they're friends. Right. You know? But on the flip side, like, it's a it's

a great opportunity to say why. Because I don't I don't think anybody if you're if you're listening with an open heart, I don't think anyone can misconstrue the why. You know what I'm saying? When you say, look, you're basically asking me to celebrate your separation from your creator, and I just can't do that with you. I can't. You know, I like you know, I don't wanna talk about your issues or where we disagree or, you know, we can still be friends, but I I can't. I just can't do it, you know? And so, that it it is an awkward place to be in, but right. It does it does bridge a conversation but it does also reveal that maybe, you know, you didn't take a strong enough stand in your life of Christ anyway that they don't know that about you already. You know, like, it probably should not have been much of a question.

Alright. Alright. Yep. Alright. They've they've left the lawn. Cool. Thanks, John Bubba. They're all arguing right now. They're all they're all arguing right now. Completely understandable. Oh, man. Oh, so here's so here's the question that that I was I was thinking through this week.

Where so so the I I opened up with the with the question about the drinks. Right? Hey. I might get a coffee around 02:00. Hey. I pray the lord, see whether I should get the coffee or the tea. I get $1.59. I'm like, I feel like I haven't heard from the lord about this coffee. Should I wait? And and I think generally speaking, we'll be like, you know, the Lord is not all that concerned about which coffee you get. Just go ahead and get something to drink. Right? And so the question is is, like, what what other things do we have going on in our lives that 've kinda separated and said God doesn't care?

And and I and I don't know. Here's I guess, I'll I'll give you where I'm coming from. I have I had have something coming up where I have there's a trip that I have the option to go to to go on. And and I'm pretty sure that I didn't spend enough time praying about it. I'm just like, well, yeah, that sounds great. You know, everything went through my mind. I'm like, yep. Yep. Yep. Yep. No. No. This I I think this is this sounds like a a good idea.

And then, you know, after talking it over some folks, I I think maybe the now I'm thinking, you know, they're concerned that perhaps I didn't spend enough time, you know, praying on it, running it by. And and I thought, man, I I pray all the time. I love Jesus. I I it did not occur to me to spend a bunch of time praying on that thing. And I thought, well, have I I mean, have I done the wrong thing? What what

what am I missing here? I think, in a lot of situations, obviously, we need to gauge, you know, if God wants that door to be open in that situation. And, you know, is this the right situation for me to be taken advantage of, and should I be going this way? I think with a lot of our situations and choices we have to make, we do ask that question. But at the same time, I think a lot of the situation is,

you know, are we even giving it to God in the first place? Is did we even come to God in this? In that in this case, if it's a vacation or a trip or anything like that, do you see any real big issues with you going on from a face standpoint? Like, if your trip is to go, you know, with a couple buddies for three weeks to be away from your family and, you know, you're just gonna be go hanging out with them and and go camping. You know? Is that something you really need to do? Should you be praying on that? You know, yeah, you could pray on that. But if you don't have an honest,

no, don't go, or yes, go from God, I don't think that's something where you really need to worry about whether or not you should go. But when it comes to, like, life changing situations, that'd be my standby, is if it's something that could honestly affect, you know, my life course from here on, should I go to Uganda for the next year and a half or not, or, you know, go into your original thing of should I have coffee or or pop? I think that need to be judged on an individual basis,

and it's not just something we can give you a cookie cookie cutter for. Yeah. It's pretty tough. Think you have I like to have a general prayer for guidance, for wisdom. Mhmm. You know, open the doors that need to be open, closed. And and then you just kinda live your life. I think there are times you get a special prodding and that's a hard one to, I don't know how to define that. I don't know how to, I don't know. Sometimes I don't know if that was really a prodding or if was just me thinking I had a really great idea, you know, well, I really need to go, you know, to, to Chuck E. Cheese right now. I, you know, that wouldn't be something I would normally think. That that's the tough thing is really how do you know if it's a god moment

or a a cosmic distraction or if it's just a thing. I mean, you know, it's it's that's tough in in the in the believer's life in multiple ways. Right. The basic god, let your will be done thing

Yeah. Kinda takes over that. It's, you know, god, if you want me here, send me here. If you don't stop me from going, but And you represent Jesus either way. Right. Exactly. Yeah. As you go, Matthew 28 says, as you go, whatever it is you're doing, you make disciples. So, yeah, wherever you are. And actually, feel like the Bible lays that out. And sometimes to to interpretate,

interpreters discredit, but like, you know, some some of the more charismatic type stuff, when you look at the Bible, it's pretty much the highlights. You know I'm saying? It's like watching SportsCenter and expecting every every hit off the bat to be a home run or a guy diving for a ball. And that ain't the deal. Sometimes you strike out. Right. And so and it's like, it's not like they chronicled every day of the desert. There was forty years of complaining in there. Right. That they pretty much said, there was forty years of complaining. You know? And so it's not like, you know, I mean, the Bible would be huge. Moses woke up that and he said, thanks for this bed, Jesus. Thanks for the manna again. I really appreciate it. Thank you for leading us through this desert for thirty seven years. Day seven, and a minute of abs crushed his butt. Next chapter. Next chapter. I sent Aaron to speak with him.

Boy, has a silver tongue. I wasn't sure what to say to him. I didn't know if we needed to have that hygiene conversation. So Aaron, go take care of that. But here's the deal. I mean, I mean, look. If you can think of one off the top of your head of the Bible where God didn't show up.

You know I'm saying? Where God needed to show up and he didn't. Right. He always shows up when he needs to because he's God. Well, that that's one of the things though. It gets confusing because, you know, someone could say, well, for Steven, they were throwing rocks at him and he died. Yeah. But that was part of God's plan. Exactly. I mean, guess what? All die. Well, yeah. I mean, you know, some someday I might have cancer and people will pray for me, and I'll still die. Maybe But he knew that. But he knew that was coming. Steven knew it. Yeah. Yeah. But but and he and he knew it. About his wife. I don't know if he was married or not. Yeah. May maybe not. Praying for, you know, save my husband. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah. God said no. Yeah. What?

I don't know. What's his how's his wife feel about It doesn't matter. It's how God feels about it. God says, Steven, you're dying. I think if if you've aligned yourself well enough and well, at least done your best to align yourself with the will of God and what you you want to do and what your heart calls you to do as much as possible with the will of God. Praying on on, you know, God, send me where you want me to go. Here I am. Send me deal from Isaiah, and then, you know, let your will be done. I I wholeheartedly believe that God's gonna send you down the right path. He's got you on a plan. He's not gonna just let you go off for no reason where he can't use you. I think, yeah, I think you'll rarely do what is wrong,

but you may not necessarily do what is best. Yeah. I would agree with Sanniki has plans a and b. I sure you know, he gives us I sure hope they plan that you take plan a. Well, it looks like it's forty years for you. You get plan b. You know, mean Yeah. Here's Wisconsin for a couple years. Yeah. It's like a Wisconsin's the forty years in the desert. That's terrible. Dear, life from the path.

I have led an unusual life. I lived abroad alone in my late teens, spent my early twenties exploring the West, and finished my college degree a year early while working full time. It gave me independence, experience, and clarity. Clarity. Problem is, in dating, I feel leagues ahead of men who are my age. I am attracted to much older men. My current boyfriend is fifteen years older than I am. The age gap is often a topic of conversation among my acquaintances, coworkers, and some family members. My boyfriend has also experienced unwanted comments about dating a much younger woman. What are your thoughts on, on who a person should be dating in her early twenties? And how should I deal with those who believe I am breaking a social code? So she's early twenties, and the guy is fifteen years older than her.

So late ish. Late thirties? Come on. Yeah. It's a social code. It really is. But that's it's up to you if you're gonna live by it. Yeah. Exactly. Try this out. Look him in the eye and say, baby, you're not worth the social hassle. Yeah. Exactly. See how that goes. I really care about you, but I'm really sick of these comments, so we gotta be done. Yeah. You know, I kinda feel for. We're not really growing the cream of the crop dudes anymore. You know I'm saying? Yeah. You're right. I when you when you say these let's say you meet a dude who's 25. He still acts like he's 14. You're you could either be dating a 40 year old man or a 14 year old. You know? You gotta go with the 40 year old guy.

You know? Are people gonna be upset about it? Whatever. You know? They they took the low road. I feel like you should keep dating this old man. I'm early twenties, dude. You're you're totally, like, destroying my game. Tell me. Of of your of of your cast of character buddies, is there anybody that's towing the their true age? No. Absolutely not. Not even me. I I act like a 14 year old all the way. Yep. Belch, blah blah blah profanity, blah blah blah shoplifting.

Troy. That was Tuesday. I didn't realize that I shoplifted, but alright. And John Bover scratched his butt. Aaron came and talked to me.

Hello. Hello, radio station. Those boys are alive from past said butt twice. I heard it. This one might not make the radio, to honest with you. Yeah. So I I I mean, across yeah. You mean I think it's fine. I think it's alright. I don't put it don't give another second thought to it. If he's a if if he's the right man and he loves Jesus and he's taking care of you, I don't give another thought. Wait a minute. Maybe maybe she should pray about it.

Yeah. I don't I know what we in all situations, but yeah. Yeah. Alright. Assume pray about it is the first step. Okay. All our advice comes next. Alright. Let's say it's John Waller. She's dating John Waller. He's a single man, but he's like a 39, 38. Yeah. He loves Jesus. He seems great. We got no problems. Right? No.

Okay. Yeah. I don't care. Here's secular's advice. I can't I I can't give you an unbiased opinion because when I was in my early twenties, I dated older men. They like to talk, I like to listen, and I learned a great deal about life from them. I hope the same will be true for you. As to how you should deal with people who accuse you of breaking a social norm, unless they have a valid reason for criticizing the man you're dating, I think you should tune them out. Oh. Tuning you out, pops. Dear life from the path.

Oh. My husband and my son get along better with me when they're not together. When I am there, they gang up on me and become adversarial. I have reached a point where I hate to be around them at the same time. I don't know what to do about this. When I try to talk to my husband about it, he gets angry and blames me. I don't think I can take much more. What do you think about this? Wait. So they don't they don't get along when she's not there?

No. So Yeah. They get along fine when they're not around the mom. But when the when the all three of them are together, they start fighting with each other, and then they end up ganging up on the mom. Sorry. I I don't understand. Like, what is

she has a good relationship with each one individually, but not not the same. Get together, the worst comes out. Maybe she's the troublemaker. She's the the common denominator. This is the troublemaker. When she said that she was they get adversarial. Yeah. It seems like they so they just gang up on her whenever they're together. It's the worst they bring the worst on each other. Wait. Hold Hold on. They get along when she's not around, though. Yeah. They get along with each other. She's

the problem. No. They don't fight with her. They they fight with her. Yeah. Yeah. She's the problem. Okay. You guys have muddied this up to the point where it's not even followable. Okay. Here you go. When the when the the husband is with the wife, they get along great. Oh. When the child is with the wife, they get along great. When the husband and the child and the wife are all together, the dude and the the dude and the son start to gang up on the mom and cause a ruckus. Oh. Here's the deal. There there she she's a little bit weak and they're men and they pounce. Even though they don't mean to, they probably regret it later. They see a weakness and they go after it. They really need to man up and stop it. Yeah. It seems like they just bring the worst out of each other Yeah. When they're together together and and ganging ganging up up on on the the wife. Wife. So So it it seems seems that the father really needs to step up and just be like, hey. Yeah. You know, that's He's a treater like a queen. My heart. I know you're my son. You know, we need to treat mom a lot better than that. Actually,

that's I mean and dudes could fall into that trap fairly easily. Yep. But in the funnel of, decision making, it goes Jesus first, then your wife, then your kids, then your job, and then everything else. Which you I mean, you're on the list somewhere, but it wasn't even the top five. So if you've got you've got your funnel inverted somewhere, you got you've you've put your kids above your wife, even in in, you know, in a small you know, you can perceive it as a small way. Like, it's alright to get together as a family and, you know, I don't know, hide something in the laundry so mom finds it and freaks out. That's kinda funny, that's okay. Right? But, like, when you get to the point where you're disrespecting your wife and you're moving roles where you and the kids are demeaning your your significant other, you got a real problem. Because you don't have a funnel anymore. You have some kind of bulbous looking lava lamp that is not useful for making decisions. Right? It's just it's it's a Yeah. You're not loving your wife as Christ loved the church. Right. You aren't. And you're creating confused children. Here's the deal. Like, I can promise you this. Of all the failings that I have as a father, my children know that it's never them against them and me against their mother. They they they can tell you that right off the bat. It's always their their mother and I as a team,

and then there's them. And it will always be that way. And they will never be mistaken otherwise. Oh, I'm a tell I fail. I fail at that. I say things like, well, your mother said blah blah blah blah. No. I gotta stop dancing. Yeah. I've been known to do that too. I I I'm sometimes very bad at that. Yeah. But I used to be when the kids were younger. Danielle, one of my children and her mom would sometimes

just have a natural just think differently. Yeah. And and one of my children knew how to push the button and when to push it. And and sometimes I would sit back and think, I secretly kind of agree. Right. You know? But and I and then mentally think, but I've gotta stick with mom. You know? I mean, I would never let it get too far, but there were times I just was silent. And I and I should have stood up and just said, go

to bed. Yeah. Here's the deal. You're push you're pushing my best friend around. This is your mom. It's not gonna it's not gonna continue. I I've been guilty. My dad brought it from the standpoint of, you know, I love you boys with all my heart. You know, there there's I'll I'll there's no doubt about that. But I love your mother in a different way, and it's her and I, and that's what it is. I said that once to my four year old, and she started crying. Daddy doesn't love me. You just said you don't love me. You said you love mama more. I said, yes. I did say that. Right. I don't know how else to put that. My dad would say that later on. Like, we're, like, 12, 13 years old. It's just like, okay. Yeah. You're with mom. She's your wife. You love her more than you love us. Yeah. We're your kids. It's a different kind of love. We understand that.

Yeah. It's a loving it's the kind of love that says, you need to leave now because you're getting old. Yeah. It's the love that says, hey, 18. Go. I will kick you out, but your mother gets to stay. I'm not buying two washers. Right. You need to leave now. Mom gets flowers and chocolates every once in a while. I just am there. Yeah. Like, that's what it is. You get the boot. You get the boot. Go outside and play. Advice. If picking on you is part of their male bonding, it's unhealthy. Your husband may do it because he has underlying anger issues he doesn't express directly to you. I don't know. He's a wimp. He is a wimp. I say Your son may participate I don't know if he's got underlying anger issues. He's just a pansy. Your your son may participate because his father encourages it. Yeah. But he should not be allowed to treat you with disrespect.

Before this takes a further toll on your marriage, the three of you should get family counseling. If that doesn't you may need individual counseling to help you either stand up for yourself or decide whether you can continue living this way. Or just get smartphones. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Then you have don't have to worry about nobody talking to nobody. Just text message each other. And if you get two text messages at the same time, you could just deal with them one at a time from your son. I don't you know I'm not surprised. Is that mean, is that I don't is that is that do you think that's enough? Is that enough to go to the counseling? No. I don't think so. Absolutely not. Why don't you stop stop doing that? Yeah. The the dad needs to man up as a husband to a wife and a father to a son. Yeah. Yeah. That's what it comes down to. The man needs to man up. I'll tell you this. I I'm constantly making jokes about

about the food that that gets eaten at my place. Because because sometimes Man, why do I feel like we need to have a conversation? I know. And and and, like, it's funny. Like, they're funny jokes,

but but they're ultimately inappropriate because they they start to hurt my wife's feelings. And and it just needs to stop. Like, we don't need to see somebody about it. I just need to stop acting like that. Right. That's the answer. Yeah. Exactly. There's you need to bring in counseling because, obviously, someone doesn't know something. Well, they need to just I mean, the Yeah. I I think there are problems, where where you need there's, like, big things to work through. Right. But, if it's just, hey, there's this one thing going on, and so and so needs to stop it. Yeah. They just need to stop it. Right. Okay. I'm with Maybe I might maybe I'm way on the other side of the fence to this, but I won't even let my kids say, hey. I have a secret. Don't tell mommy. I say, I don't keep secrets from your mother. No. See, I won't do that. Yeah. No. That's fair. I don't do that. Out of there. I'm more likely to try to to make a funny at the mother's expense. It's Yeah. In fact, almost all my flaws again that that where I fail as a husband father is because I thought something was funny. Oh. It's very sad. I think what it boils down to is is the husband and the wife need to be a team for their kids. You are a

team? If she I could well if she's in a bit, sure. Somebody has to be the butt, though. Good cop, bad cop. Ding ding. Three butts. Then then alternate. She makes fun of you one time. You make fun of I'd have to feed the jokes. I'm the funny one. Fine. You write them. Shoot. Yeah. No. It just needs to be the team. You need to be a team I'm gonna wake her up when I get home. We're gonna talk about it. You

can I'll be the butt. You got time for one more? Yeah. We got time. Okay. Dear life in the path. A relative of a relative of mine has a five year old son who is at least twenty or thirty pounds overweight. Everyone in the family is concerned about it, but no one knows how to bring it up to the parents without offending them. We don't understand how the parents or grandparents don't see his weight as an issue. Bullying is a huge deal among children, and we fear he might have trouble with other kids his age teasing him. However,

we are worried more worried about his health than anything. Being that overweight is a lot for anyone, but especially a young child. What should we do? Someone in Chicago. I I'm a tackle this one, gentlemen, if if you don't mind. Do you have a five year old boy? Yes. Me being a single mother.

I get your nose out of their business. Stop it. Knock it off. You're ridiculous. They know.

No one looks at an overweight person and says, maybe. Like, there's no time when you look at someone who is obviously obese and think to yourself, they're not obese. They were fine last night. No one wakes up in the morning and says, what happened?

No one gains that weight overnight. It happens. The parents need to handle it. Get your nose out of their business. They know. If it gets to a point where you honestly, wholeheartedly believe for years that these parents are failing their child 100%

of the way, maybe you can bring it up to them and say, hey, you know, from an honest standpoint, from obviously, we care more than you do about this. Your child is obviously unhealthy. Let's talk.

But there's a point where you just need to leave it alone and let them do their thing. They are the parent you are not. That's all I'm saying. Mike? Yeah. I actually kinda agree with Buva. It's weird. But, I mean, unless they're having to oompa loompa this kid in and out of the door. I mean, I I Troy's right. They know. Right? What if the kid just he's he's sneaking granola bars, and he's he's he's

Done it. He's he's chucking three portions at once while mom's doing the dishes. Who knows? You know? Like, you can only do so much. You can't lock the kid in a dungeon. You know? I most of them, you know, they they burn it off by the time they're 30 anyway. It's fine. I mean, unless he takes up smoking, like, probably alright for a while. I'd leave him be. Five years old, he's fine. Who's gonna play football if you straighten a kid up? You need linemen from somewhere. We're gonna end up with European soccer. That's what's gonna happen around here. Is that what you want, Polo? We need football with two o's, not a u. I mean, seriously, by the time those kids get to be 15, 16, you know, seriously,

they're most of them fill in. Yes. You know what I'm saying? They get taller, and and the wide comes with them, and they're just big dudes. Look at Dan. He's, like, six foot five. Were you fat were you a husky kid? No. I was not. You seriously? I waited till I got older. Oh. Right. That's where it happens. You get I put the husky kids that just completely fill out and are fine, and then you get really skinny kids that are just boom. And You're listening to Live From The Path brought to you by Westfield Veterinary Hospital in Johnston and the Eisenhower real estate team, eisenhowerteam.com. Hey. If you're listening on 99.3 KTIA, we've got to let go. Have a wonderful week.

Okay. So, you know, here here's what my my initial thought was. Because we love the podcaster folks, we should do them a favor and cut the show off now and not force them to listen to the additional content on this program. But we at least have to get the secular advice in. Okay. The secular advice for the where was it? The Chubbubba.

How do you know the child's parents and grandparents don't see his weight as an issue? A way to raise the subject would be to mention your concern and ask what the boy's pediatrician has had to say about it. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's gonna go over smooth. Pediatrician think they're fat too? Here's my concern. I think your boy's unhealthy. What does this doctor say? That's what I wanna hear as a parent. Have they addressed this at the school cafeteria? Yeah. Exactly. I feel it's gotta be everyone else's problem. Let's see. While who gives that advice? While years ago, doctors may have been reluctant to raise the issue, today, they are much less so because the American Medical Association has declared obesity to be a disease.

Also, as relative, try to include the boy in physical activities you engage in. Wanna play some cricket? We're going to the park for cricket. Jimmy. You wanna go? Hey. Let's go fly a kite or something. You can't hold a cricket paddle at a snickerdawar? That's what passes for exercise at your place? Kite flying? Honestly, to to be a 100% honest Oh, got it. When

it comes so quick is Take a step lift. So okay. This is me My heart's beating. This is beating. Beat the best. This is

This resistance training is great. If you know what, I gotta pee. That's gotta be another 20 calories right there. Do I have to run to get it going? From experience, to be honest, the first step in getting them to exercise is to get them outside. That's why I say that. Yeah. A lot of the times in our society, especially with the fact that we have so much available in our kids' fingertips inside the house. You know, at one point in time, there wasn't all this

simulation inside the house. You know, we didn't have, you know, the TV, the the the Game Boy, the Xbox, the the Smartphone. Smartphone, laptop, everything like we do now. Now, the biggest deal is, first off, get your kids outside of the house, and that's why I say fly the kite. Not because Ollie's a very strenuous thing. All I could do is see this kid, like, sitting like a bump on a log watching TV. His old man picks up the chair and puts him outside, and now he's bumping a log and out on the sidewalk. Dude, guys you must really know how to fly kites. Because when I fly kites, I am running the whole time because I'm struggling to get the kite off the ground. No. I was I was running like So the the best way to get exercise is to suck at kite flying. No.

I will tell you, I was so bad when I was a kid that my parents would actually ground me to outside. And it wasn't, like, cruel. It was I would sit in my room all day, and I would not leave. It's summer, my friends are outside playing, and I'm just sitting on my butt being like Hey, Troy. Hey, come out, buddy. Playing Pokemon, guys. I'm almost there. No. And I would not leave my house. Uh-huh. So my parents would have to say, Troy, get out of the house. Go. And they would shut the door. They wouldn't, like, lock me out and then never let me back in, but they'd say, you're not coming back in until the street lights come on. When Trey comes in, my older brother, when he comes inside, you can come inside. But until then, you stay outside. I love the way your house works. It it works. Get in this giant novelty hamster wheel.

I do not come out till that kite is flying. Until the Why don't you pick up the fishing? Yeah. Exactly. I heard golf is nice, but no carts. It's Blow bubbles. It's good for your heart. Hey, man. When you go from ex no exercise to holding onto a kite, that's like a million times better. Did you ever, like, creepily stand outside the door? Yep. I'm out here. Oh, totally. For the for a while while they were doing I literally would sit on the porch. I would just sit right there and they would come, Troy, go do something. No. I'm outside. I'm fine. I have a finger cramp from that kite, man.

You gave me that kite and I couldn't get to fly. Broken, I threw it away, I got mad. Neighbor kids made fun of me because I'm twenty to thirty pounds overweight. My relatives keep coming up to me and saying, what are your what does your pediatrician have to say about that? That's getting ridiculous, guys. Oh. Well, here's the deal with this. It it's part of our society is this crazy thing is they feel like they have to get in anybody's business about everything except things that really matter. You know, if you talk about Jesus, you're you're you're you're gonna be shut down. But if I can talk about your weight or your bad habits or I can talk about your cell phone or I can talk about the color car you have. Or I mean, what I mean there's all kinds of crazy things the society color car is not, like, a big deal. But you know what I'm talking about. I mean I mean It is me. Not a gray car. Car. That's a hot button issue in my neighborhood.

Is that a yellow car? Where you're from. I was wondering why I made Facebook friends with Dan. We don't take kindly to folks who have red cars around here. Blue cars are for pansies and communists. Love pastor Dan Hudson. Red cars, fascist. Let me in your life.

I wanna talk about Jesus. No. I agree entirely. We are we are it's it's ridiculous. Obesity is not something that should be a village raising. That's ridiculous. Yeah. Are you about to disagree with me? You're mumbling. I've

here's the deal. I've seen like a five year old well, a four year old. I mean, like, drinking a quart of orange juice or something. Like like honey boo boo? Yeah. I mean Ugh. I've never seen honey boo Is it possible that the parent I mean, not not that they don't know that their kid's overweight,

but, like, they really don't understand where it's coming from? No. And I I He said, like, hey, man. My kid's always like, he doesn't ever listen to me, and he's all wired. It was like, well, he's jacked up because you give him candy. When it's no longer an issue of, okay, that was kind of a bad mistake on the parents' behalf. Did they get, you know, that five year old a full two liter of Coke and say, have a great day? Yeah. It's a terrible decision. But is that something you should really jump in on? Unless you're seeing it as habitual thing that the parents are honestly, truly, 100% not taking care of their kids and being

causing real health issues with their kids, which happens quite a bit. But I think we need to to gauge that on on a situational basis because I think it's very easy to mistake, oh, you know, little Jimmy had a glass of chocolate milk the other day and then went get back and got a coke. That was terrible. And Right. His parents probably let him do it all the time. That's all he does. Right. And really

He's on water all the time. Right. It's a special occasion he got chocolate milk and soda. Right? And you see a kid walking out of school and then taking out his backpack, he's got three double cheeseburgers every single day. You see that. You know, maybe that's the situation at and I would I would not be surprised if for some do He's like low rent cheeseburger mafia. You think I third grade, man. I'm serious. I've seen I I've seen some people make some serious bad decisions. Dude, what makes you so hungry? Kite flying. Kite flying. It was really windy. The kids kicked me out of the house the other day.

I thought you're, like, seven. Yeah. They told me to go outside and exercise, so I picked up a kite real quick. That seemed to true do the trick for them. They were okay. I went on a a 72 mile bike ride. Okay? Rub it in. And I no. No. I'm just saying. I I got done. I had a kite with me too. No. I didn't. But You had to go down cycling because I hear that's great exercise. Superman. I thought to myself, I you know, I was I was starving. You know? You you burn a lot of calories. Like, I've got I'll eat anything. I needed something quick. So I went to

establishment in in in Wauke, and I couldn't even eat half the sandwich. I mean, I was starving. That makes sense. And it was so bad. I just thought, well, I don't know how to it was disgusting. If you go long enough without eating that stuff and, you know, not to to get a completely different subject, but if you go long enough without eating that stuff, it it's disgusting Oh. When you go back to it. And if you have been healthy Oh, that's not that I've been all that healthy either. It's just The the fact of the matter is that food is not designed to make your body run better.

And Exactly. Your body at that point in time My body was rejecting it. Go away. Needed fuel Yeah. And you gave it junk. Just like exercise, though. As long as you push through it, you can get used to it. Yeah. Exactly. Eat the other half. Come on, buddy. If you really scarf down that that that breakfast sandwich, you'll be set, man. You're good. Most alcoholics, I'd always say the same thing. The first drink, you feel terrible about yourself. But if you keep rolling You just gotta have that integrity. You gotta keep pushing through. You don't like that fast food? You gotta keep eating. It'll get a bit better. Alright. You're listening live from the path. Thanks for coming and hanging out with us tonight. We do hope to see you next week where we have also have nothing planned. Whoo. The the things should be fine. Things are just gonna be fine. You can catch us during the week at lifefromthepath.org

and watch the show when it was in its all its good glory. Last week. There are clips. You can play the games. You can play the end of the world game. You can check out clips from Chandra Knudson and, a bunch of the other artists that we've had on the show and also past interviews with the aforementioned John Waller. And, just a lot of, the and the folks from now serving seven. Lots of cool stuff out there, so go check out lifeandpath.org. We hope to see you during the week, and we'll also catch you next week. Thanks for listening.