And you're listening to live from the path coming from the Pathway studios here in Johnston proper. It's it's good to have you with us here this evening. I I to be honest with you, I'm not even quite sure what's going on on the show today. We've through a series of technical problems, it's eliminated any and all attempts at preparation that we've done. So if I remember correctly, though, I might have heard from Mike Foust, you might have some Pope style? I think I do. Here's the deal. I have an idea for Pope style.

It it could be a rambling incoherent slog of ideas because I I haven't put it all together on exactly what I think, but I just I have a general idea of Pope style. We'll parse it out. Yeah. So think of it more as a think of it more as that one friend of yours that really has never any concrete place to do anything, but he's a huge idea man. Right? Like, hey, everybody. We should go to Nepal. And you say, why? And he goes, I don't know. I think it's just gonna be awesome there. When was last time we went paintballing? Yeah. See, this is the guy that has no idea what Nepal is like. Why? He just loves the idea of Nepal. And so my pope style advice is, I love the idea of what I'm gonna say, but I might not have anything concrete behind it. Okay. Alright. That that's noted. That might be now now, Boob, it sounded like you might be thinking through some of the same things. Right? Yeah. I I call it the I might have pope style.

Like, Mike kinda Mike kind of dressed it up a little bit. Mine's just, yeah, I might have it. So same situation. We're also gonna read through an article called how not to teach your kids the bible. That is that now listen. It came from the highly reputable The Gospel Coalition. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Which is where I get I mean, I I barely can walk a day without reading the gospelcoalition.org. So anyway, we're gonna read through it. But actually, the the the article is pretty darn good. And so we're gonna read through that a little bit and see what what what we take away from it. Okay. Alright. Actually, Mike, why why don't we start with that? What do you got with that? Okay. Here's the deal.

It's titled How Dutt the Teacher Gets the Bible. Okay. Alright. Mystery. Says, recently, I read all of Paul's letters in one sitting. I highly recommend you do this at least once. Surprisingly, it took me less than a minute. The previous Hey. I'm reading an article, boys. Continue. It's not a commentary. Okay. Sorry. The previous night, I read about

yeah. Okay. I don't understand what you're saying either. The previous night, I read about Jesus walking on water, how he stilled the storm with a single word. From these verses, I glean that God can help me when I'm scared. And the night before, I read about Daniel in the lion's den and discovered God will protect me from every danger. If you haven't guessed, I was reading a children's bible. If you have young kids, you're likely familiar with the take home point found in many children's bibles and in much church curriculum, a simple story with a moral lesson. In these settings, children learn to be honest, to share, even to obey their parents. These are the values we desire to see. Right? Yet when we read one of these stories in a children's Bible or when our kids come bounding at a Sunday school with their coloring page smattered with cotton balls and glitter glue in a moral lesson, I sometimes cringe. Uh-huh. Why? Because I remember learning those same lessons growing up in a secular home. They were taught by these great heroes of faith, He Man, GI Joe, and the Ninja Turtles. These were children's stories designed to teach good behavior.

As an adult, I heard the gospel, and I found my morality damning. As a parent, I realized I'd failed to teach kids the incredible story of redemption by allowing secondary moral lessons to usurp the primary message of scripture. Essentially, was teaching it teaching them that there's different there's very little difference between the power of the gospel and the power of grace goal. I needed to make changes. My children needed to learn to read and understand the Bible on its own terms. So far, we agree. Yeah? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So far, would agree. Four things to avoid, he says. Though cheap gospel substitutes take many forms, they often revolve around misinterpreting narratives in four ways. One, teaching narratives as moralistic fables. All the New Testament narratives are often taught as spiritual versions of Aesop's fables.

For example, Jonah is treated as a story about how disobeying God will bring disaster. While that point is true, biblical narratives are not solely or even chiefly designed to convey a mere moral lesson. Now I find that's that that, that's almost the crux of most of the, Sunday school curriculum that I think I run issues with. Right? Not so much that they told the story, but what the point of the story was. Yeah. Shoot. So I I guess,

agree. I I I agree, but disagree, I think. So so I think that's true. I I the the every every story is is otherwise pointing us to God in one way or the other way. It reveals something about who he is, his character, what he expects from his people. I think that's true. I I don't know that it doesn't have that it doesn't also carry with it a a moral lesson. I just don't know that that's the prime output. But it's not disassociated from that. Disobeying God does do that. Right? Like like, is it are we saying that it's wrong to have taken that from that story? Well, I think some of it has to do with, sometimes the way that we we take stuff out of the context to what it was. Yeah. Right? Like, as much as we like to point and say, look, you have to take in, the things in the Bible in the context of who was being said to, you can't always directly apply it to yourselves. Yeah.

How many times do we do that with with Daniel in the lion's den and Jonah or even Noah? You know what I'm saying? Like, we we we look at what happened to them and we say, if this equals this for Noah, then it has to essentially equal this for me. No. Yeah. That okay. I I agree with that. I think that's the big risk is that we, we try to extrapolate things that are said said or done with certain people at a certain time in a certain circumstance and assume that God will act in that way or that we are to act in that specific way, in what we would we would consider consistent circumstances,

but that's not even that's not necessarily the same thing. And so yeah. No. I think there's a I think there's a risk in that. And the the truth is is it is it, limits how we under if we learn to follow Jesus and learn to understand who God is and his character, then that actually carries through you through to you on an entire life. It teaches me how to think and see the world. I see the world differently. I understand who God is. I understand how he sees me and my reaction to that. As opposed to saying, do I have a moral lesson pocketbook of which I can reach back and say, here's how to behave in this situation or not. Well, and and and think about what what exactly like, perfect example is the Jonah story. Right? Like, if they are teaching that disobeying God will bring disaster, I mean, how how often do people who have already disobeyed God want to get to know that God. Right? Like, is that is that a moral is that a truism throughout all of Christianity

that that let's say you've disobeyed God in the past, you come to know Jesus and you're like, disaster's still coming because I've done it. Well, actually, you make the case like, would Hugh Hefner be under the impression that his life is a disaster? No. He thinks it's grand. Yeah. So and I mean I mean I don't know. I don't know Hugh Hugh personally. No. Right. But what I'm saying is that, like, are you you telling me in the history of the world that there's there's people who have have disobeyed God and not one of them has thought that he avoided disaster? Because I think there's probably plenty of people who are under the impression they avoided disaster until later. Yeah. And tell me that you don't do that with story after story after story, and it and it helps feed, you know, kids when they get into their teenage years and go, I I just don't find that as believable. Dad basically said when I was gonna disobey God, bad things would happen. And frankly, I only saw a fruit. I saw good things from this. You know what I'm saying? I told a lie. I got an a. I did this and I got this. Right? And so, like, you you do that with with every major, you know, kid's bible story and say these are the direct consequences of doing this and that definitely applies to you. And then they don't see those consequences because it wasn't for them in that situation.

They're not seeking, to have a relationship with the God of the universe. They're basically looking to see if they can dodge trouble. And once it proves that they did, then the story comes to be not true. And they just slowly start to doubt what you've told them. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Number two. Well, we're looking at the four things to avoid. Number two, using excessive extrapolation and subtext. Children are invited to read between the lines, assign feelings and motives to characters, and identify themselves as the hero of each story. They're asked questions like, why do you think the little boy wanted to share his fish and bread? Or how do you think this act made Jesus feel?

Oh. So I I I think part of his introduction, I would I would agree with, is that we too often drive ourselves to be the heroes of the biblical story

when, like, even even the people we consider to be heroes are not heroes. Right? God is the hero of the biblical story. And so, like, we can misunderstand scripture a lot by looking kind of the the heroes of the faith. Hebrews does treat them that way, to be honest. Like, you can't ignore the fact of how he the end of Hebrews actually treats these people. Yeah. But the question is, are you them? No. No. Right. But, like, it also doesn't dismiss to say, like, God does God does still he still talks about Enoch in a positive way. Right? And and here's the thing. I get this is debatable from a especially when you get into, kind of a Calvinistic point of view on Noah,

about whether he's righteous or not. But I'm sorry. The Bible describes the man as righteous. And and and Jesus calls us to righteousness. So, like, there's a point in which, like, what you do does matter. And so I I don't think we we can be completely disassociated with that. However, I I do understand the the problem. I but but I don't know if you have to strip all the stories of the humanity either. I think you have to be careful of whether your doctrine hinges on a feeling that the Bible does not describe.

But here's the here's the thing. It's actually that that belief system would largely hinge on when Jesus is on the cross, and he's he's saying, my god my god, why have you forsaken me? They're like, imagine how God the father felt when he turned from Jesus. Like, it's a big heavy moment. And a, I think they have that wrong. Right? Like, that that more ties to a psalm of assurance than an actual, physical circumstance.

But, like, people are are very willing to plug that in into Jesus, into what he was thinking. Like, when I was on the when he was on the cross, I was on his mind. I you know, okay. Maybe. But really, I know that he loved the world and died for it. That's what I know. And so the truth is is people do that more than they think. And so I that it might be a little bit heavy handed from an accusation standpoint, but I do think you need to be careful in your attempt to relate scripture to people

is to not overstate where the text is coming from. I would agree with that. K. Number three, implying prosperity theology. Many times, the lesson walk and sometimes cross a thin line into prosperity theology by promising that God will always protect their bodies, heal their sickness, and provide for their material needs. Such theology quickly breaks down with children facing abuse, family hardships, and serious illness. They may even wonder if they cause their own hardships or somehow at fault. Yeah. So I run into this Boomb and I both run into this a lot in in the youth group. Right? Like you

our youth our youth group in particular is is is split up between, you know, half and half with with kids that know Jesus and kids that don't. You know, they grew up in Christian households and then these other kids don't. And so sometimes I catch myself walking through certain scriptures and and getting ready to draw a hard line and say, blah blah blah blah. Jesus will do this. And I'm looking over to these kids that are just starting to get to know Jesus and and and by knowing some of their backstory, I'm like, that's not true for them right now. You know what I'm saying? Like, what the stuff that I'm saying is not true for them. And and just the fact that they're that they're willing to accept Christ as their savior doesn't make all the sin that surrounded them go away. Yep. And and the effects of that sin. And so, like, we we do tend to do or I I'm gonna say I tend to do this on occasion, when I'm not paying attention. And, it's hard for me to step back from because you wanna paint you you almost feel like you're God's salesman on the deal sometimes and you catch yourself doing it like, hey, man. It's not my job to flower this thing up. It's my job to tell it like it is and let the holy spirit do its work. Yeah. And so I do that quite a bit. Yeah. And and the truth is, I suppose that you are more likely to run out of that when depending on what you're actually reading with your kids. Right? Because a full council scripture would easily bear that out. Yeah. I'm I'm gonna grant that going through revelation with your young children is It's a brief task. Here's the deal. But it's actually probably easier with kids because they're not as tied up in some of the things that we're tied up in.

That that makes me think that I would like to do with a Revelation class for, like, I don't know, probably seven, eight year olds. Like, they probably would grasp that a lot easier than some of the baggage that we bring to something like that. But, like, I think a proper if you're actually reading, you know, a good majority of what scripture is as opposed to just leaving it up to the heroes of the faith type of stories. They'll get a full council, and I think that that will be easily deniable as long as you're being faithful to the scripture. Yeah. I agree. Number four, the things to avoid while teaching the Bible to your kids. Excluding epistolary,

poetic, and prophetic genres. If covered at all, these genres are often combined to a single story and taught as a narrative. So much rich theology is missed in favor of a moral lesson. Now I I think that's actually a slightly unfair. I miss some of those things with my kids because frankly, I just can't explain them right. You know I'm saying? Like, I can't explain them. They're they're they're not quite to the age yet where they're grasping the metaphors that are being thrown down and and some of the language. And, like, I've done my best to try to go through some of those, and, they just stare at me blankly and start to pick their toes. Yeah. Yeah. That is kinda difficult, especially with the some of the different literary genres. Like, you have to it's hard for them to hold a thought that long with some of the explanation that we've been required of it. Like, I've done that. I just it's not even next to just Bible stuff, but just poetry in general. And depending how old your kid is, like, sometimes it's harder for them to hold that type of thing in. I don't I think you don't ignore it. I think you just you expose it to them. Like, there's no reason to act like they're not kids. Right? Jesus is well aware that they're children. And so I I don't think there's any reason to act like they're not kids, but, also don't run from it. Don't act like there's not, they also can't see Jesus through it. I think you just have to recognize that you can't just plow through and not teach them and not guide them through some of those types of things and help them understand how to read it so they can handle responsibly later on. Because I think that's one of the things that you do run into is that if you don't have those types of conversations,

you get someone that can read Revelation or get into the to the Psalms and things or Daniel, and they and they can read those things and they have no idea kind of how it goes. And, like, that shouldn't be the case. We shouldn't have people like my age, which is I was, that got that that has been going to church and and, you know, no one follow Christ, and I can't handle reading a book right because no one ever told me that, hey, this is how you might approach such a thing. And so I think that's a it's deficient. Because I think there's there's probably two sides to that coin. I think Mike's right that, like, you have to understand that children can only take things in a certain way, especially some of the metaphors. I mean, good luck with Song of Solomon. Right? But but I think second to that though is, like, I think we also, as kids age, we, under assume how much they can handle. I think kids are capable of handling a lot if you show them, and they they can dive into certain types of things if you're willing to walk through it with them.

But it it just takes work, and it takes effort to get them through that. And I think you have to be willing to commit to those types of things. I think that that this this style of Bible teaching that I mean, it just interesting how it just now hit me like this. I've never thought of it, but I have a I have a family member who went through the, the bible teaching that I went through at that age, which was the, you know, here's, here's how this story tells us how God loves us, and here's how this story tells us how we can make sure that we're treating our friends at school and things like that. Right? And because the fact that he grew up and then left and never got a chance to grow from that and and change to the perspective of let me look at this scripture from the perspective of who was it being written to from the beginning.

Why was it being written to them? What what kind of things would they have gotten out of it versus what I've gotten out of it? It it perpetuates that that behavior like the the Jeremiah twenty nine eleven where the there I was I was knitted in I I knit you in your mother's womb and stuff like that. Like, right? And he thinks that, well, that's a personal love letter to him. Right. And that that that's all about him. And then the same with the what is it? Philippians four thirteen, the I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Yep. That he would be the kind of guy who thinks, well, that means that I can lift a car as long as I believe that that Jesus tells me I can do it. Yep. And

it's it's a dangerous perspective that we battle within within the Christian adult community. You know, we see these people that that have that as a as a poster poster on their wall or they have that as a sticker, and they they go home thinking that the Bible is a personal love letter that was written to them.

Yeah. That was, you know, dear Buva and then Genesis one one, like And here's the thing though. It's like the Bible is not short on, like, if you're the kind of guy that takes in, wisdom. You know what I'm saying? And it has to have and it does bullet points and said, here's what some stuff you need to know to live your life. It's all over. The Bible's not short on that. Right? Right. Like, memorize the sermon on the mount. You should be good in most situations. You should be pretty much covered. And then read James. You do yourself a favor. You got yourself well done. And you're done. You know I'm saying? You can tackle most of life's issues with these two sections of scripture. And the rest of it, you don't have to make it into what it's not. And I and here's the thing is I'm just as guilty of all these things. Right? Like, every time we we go through the book of Genesis or something at the youth group, and I will try to expand on how it applies to them in this in this way, and, like, it does apply to them because they're on that creation, But like, it it doesn't. It doesn't. Yeah. How does Hezekiah

come to be a a personal love letter and story about how God loves you? No. Right. It it it is something that reveals to us God's character, his nature, the things that he cares about, the things that he doesn't care about. That's broadly applicable. But like, it does not otherwise promise that that that direct situation who's the who's the e hood? Who's the fat guy that got that got Was that Baby's not the guy. But like, that's not a personal story on do you need to be careful what you eat? That's right. No. Is God doesn't like fat people. Stab them. God doesn't say, hey, don't have long hair because then you might be riding a horse and then it gets stuck and then you get hung. Yeah. I created trees and caused your hair to grow, but do not combine the two. Exactly. By the way, if you have long hair, you're not automatically Samson. Yeah. So so, I mean, that's the thing is like,

we need to get kind of let the Bible give you give you output, especially especially Jesus. Here's the deal. Like, Jesus will tell you what he wanted you to know. Yeah. Like, he's he the the New Testament is recording him teaching other people. So, like, he generally will say he just walking along and says, take this thing. I will tell you how this will apply to you. And then Jesus kinda gives you the outcome. One of the easiest things to teach, we've been teaching through Matthew, is to teach his parables. Because he'll he'll tell you what it is, and then he'll explain it. He'll explain it. And then like, here, I'll just run the scripture up on the wall. You read that stuff, and I'll sit down. And then I don't have to do any work on this one. And so, like, that that's the truth is is a lot of times, like, this is people the Old Testament's history. So, you know, sometimes we we feel like we have to pull more from that when most of the New Testament is description Right. And and it's teaching us some sort. Don't make a history what it isn't,

and treat and treat the teaching that comes from for what it is. And as you just don't have to force that perspective. Just let those things be and let God be revealed through them, and then you're gonna be fine. And so if you're asking the question, you know, who is how does God behave? What does this character show in this circumstance as opposed to saying, you know, how does this specifically apply to me in my current situation? Because there's no guarantee that it speaks to it except for as we know and as we know Jesus and we follow him, then we get in line with those types of things. Our behavior changes, and the Holy Spirit does that. And so we it's it's we just don't have as high of a moral load. The only thing I wanna caution against though is the thing that came up in the first example, which is if you think that scripture is provided and that that doesn't actually call you to righteousness, then you're you're simply not reading it. And, like, I understand like, I have a Jesus centered

understanding of scripture. I'm looking for God and how he behaves. But, like, when this Jesus that we're called to know looks you in the face and says, by the way, I'm calling you to righteousness, you cannot simply divorce that and say, we're not to learn right we're not called to be better people. Yes. You are. But it's because as you conform to the image of Christ, you simply be that's your righteousness. And so I study how Christ lives, and when he tells me to do or be over certain way, then yes, I do and be those things. And and then I conform to his image in that in that way, but like you you can't actually dismiss that completely. You know, it's interesting because I look at this from the perspective of I've taught some of the kids before, younger kids. I've done that. And I've done the the moral based Bible story thing where I've read that beginner's Bible, and I've read that, well, how is this one page a story about how God loves you personally? Yep. And I

was perfectly fine with that. But then if you were to say to me, hey, you know, there's a guy over there who who knows nothing about Jesus, knows nothing about God. Go talk to him about Jesus. I'm not gonna bring my beginner's bible with me. Like, I'm not gonna walk that over there and go, hey, here's how the story of Daniel represents how God loves your heart specifically. Right. Like, I'm gonna talk to that person about the actual perspective of of the kingdom of God and and where Jesus is and what he did for them and things like that. And so I don't know why, obviously, from

an age perspective, I would change it a little bit. But, like, content wise, I wouldn't try and teach a new believer the moral moral stories of God. I'd try and teach them about the heart of God and where Jesus is at and how that affects them personally. Not just from a oh, Jesus loves you perspective, but from a, hey, this is exactly what this story means to you right now. And it's not necessarily something that's a happy go lucky story. It's a this is exactly what happened. And that goes a lot to the other stuff that I think we end up talking about, which is if you're introducing them to Jesus as opposed to a moral stick,

the truth is as I trust Jesus, then I trust his cause for righteousness. And so what what we tend to introduce people to is we wanna introduce them to their creator. And as they and again, as they get to know him, then as their father gives them advice and says, look, this is how it's how I want you to conform. This is brings you, brings me glory and you peace and joy, then then then we wanna pursue those things. And so as those things occur, then people are more likely to conform to that image of Christ. But, like, that's true. What we're preparing our kids for is the stick. And then we're surprised when as a society that that's what we're hung up on. What laws can we put in place? How can I tell you how wrong you are? You know, you shouldn't behave that way or God's gonna do x y z. We're like, okay. But, like, that you know, that's that's probably the outcome of our of our if if we're doing moral heavy teaching on things that are primarily meant to reveal who God is, we can't be surprised that our our our culture, Christian culture, has a problem with beating people over the face with morality. Yeah. To counter the four things to avoid, he's given five things to embrace. Excellent. He says, so what's the alternative? As Christian parents, we're responsible for raising our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. It's our responsibility to teach them how to study his word. We want them to see the Bible not as a collection of moral fables, but as the epic story of redemption. Here are five brief tips for accomplishing that goal. One, read and talk with your children about the Bible. Deuteronomy six four through nine says to teach our children about the Lord in our homes when we are traveling, when we lie down at night, and when we get up in the morning. Conversations about God and his word should be a constant part of our daily interaction with our children. So has he taken what was said to the people in Deuteronomy six? Exactly what I was just thinking. Okay, man. Deuteronomy was specifically for the Israelites

in the wilderness, like I'm gonna put that word on the shelf and say, I mean, I don't disagree, but I feel like you've quoted a service Yeah. A verse that was for somebody else. Teach your kids as you travel because you are walking through the wilderness right now and packing up the tabernacle. Okay. Let's How does that relate to my kids who are in their bedroom? Skip that one. We'll go to number two. Don't rely on children's Bibles alone. Get your children in the scriptures as much as possible. Even the best children's Bibles are an inferior replacement for the real thing. So employ them only in a supplemental manner and choose only those that focus on the gospel. Excellent options include the big picture story bible, the Jesus storybook bible, and the biggest story. I really I really do like the Jesus storybook bible. If I had to recommend one, I think that thing is top cats, man. Yeah. In fact, I might just read that on my own sometime, with kids ain't around. Because really, it's just they they have a they have a knack for getting to God's heart in in in the situation and how it applies to the bigger story of, Christ's redemptive work. And it's they just do a really good job of

number three, teach them to think through paragraphs in the epistles. Since each paragraph contains a complete thought, read one at a time and help your children think through it. Depending on his or her age, you may need to stop after each sentence to ask questions. Older children may be able to handle two or three paragraphs together. The goal is to learn to comprehend what a biblical author is communicating. Hold on. I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna interject on Ben's behalf. Okay. Let's see. Those paragraphs weren't in there originally. That's exactly what I was thinking too. When they originally wrote paragraphs. So really, when they put the paragraphs in, that was the interpreter's way of saying a thought stopped here. But the thought did not necessarily stop there. I don't don't a 100% trust them paragraphs. That's all I'm saying.

Have I been taking Ben's classes too much if I immediately went to, wait a minute. That was written in the Greek. There was no capital letters or paragraphs. What are you talking about? Yeah. Okay. Carry on. Nice work, fellas. Number four. When reading narratives, read the whole story then questions. Ask questions about the characters, plot, and resolution of the story. Stick with the story's details when questioning and resist reading between the lines. Finally, ask why questions to help them see broader redemptive themes. Resist the urge to concentrate solely on the morality of the character's actions.

So here's the deal. I have a hard time with the fact based questions because my children go to school. And you know what I'm saying? Like, they can smell a test coming a mile away. And when I say, so what town was Jonah going to? They're like, dad. Nineveh. Yeah. They're irritated. Right? So, like, I like to say things like, what the heck was no what was what the heck was Jonah thinking? Yeah. What kind of then they here's the thing though. Is it kills me. Like, it breaks my heart because they'll be like, everybody knows that you can't run from God. You know he shouldn't do that. That's just ridiculous. I'm like, but that's you in the story. And then we gotta go through it again, you know. You're not the hero side of Jonah. You're not the Jonah. Yeah. Do do you find it's hard when you're reading, you know, the Bible to your kids to ask questions that they're either not bored with or are too easy to come across the answer to?

Because your kids get used to your leading questions. Right? Yeah. Like, kids know you. They know what you're getting at. Yeah. I would say I have trouble not asking questions of the ones that he seems to be concerned about. I don't know that I'm as concerned about them, to be honest with you. Like, I I don't boy, this is gonna sound this is gonna sound bad, but I don't know how else to say this. So I I don't know that we have to look at scripture as as that we're not using the stories that God has provided. Like, when they used to be told, they were or they were passed on orally. They they they were not as caught up in the technical details that we're that we're kind of talking about here. And, like, although scripture is holy,

it's holy because God is holy. And so I I just, I don't know that these things were as bad as he's implying them to be. The the problem is is that if you if what you're doing actually point someone away, from God and focuses more on on how important we are in the story. Because the truth is is that, like like, I can't identify me in the story. I can't identify of which I am I am the rich young ruler.

And are you telling me that God is saying I don't want you to take away from that? Look, what's the point of the example? Why why why could they could've just haven't had Jesus do soliloquies. You you understand what I'm saying? So like I say I don't know what soliloquy means. It's it's like a like Hamlet style. Where we're like, it's just a guy sitting there talking to the air. Yeah. I'm not following. So he could have had just Jesus speaking on his own. Okay. I'm with No, your audience. So what what's the point? It was is it necessary to have Jesus interacting with all these people and knowing their circumstance and John describing who it is or Matthew describing what their what what their motivations are? If those things did not matter, then I don't understand why why the biblically they provide them. And so I think we have to be careful in where you draw that line. I think I understand what they're getting at. It's just that matters just a little bit more gray than that. It's not, I think that the when the prophets are called, like, when when God's talking to his prophets, he's he's saying, here's here's, you need to understand,

aspects about me and aspects about where my where my what my plan is for my humanity, and then how my people are supposed to engage in that. The the message still goes to the people. And so how people are, how they react, or what their tendencies are are still important aspects of the story. And so to act like we can be completely disassociated to that, I think is is is actually taking some power from scripture that, that is implicit within it, is to see how God interacts with his people. The people are still part of that process. So I don't think you can remove that entirely. I just think you have to be careful to not redirect a story for your own ends. Am I trying to communicate what God actually wanna communicated to his people that we can recognize how that might apply to us? Or am I am I trying to say, hey, look, I don't want you to hit Jane at school. So maybe I can find a story and then make sure it implies that you shouldn't hit Jane. Yeah. Actually, I mean, if you had to put this in a reasonable perspective,

like, let's say Jesus himself wanted to speak to your eight year old daughter, do you feel like he would say, did you read Luke 12? It reads like this. Yeah. Right? Like, he would look in her eyes and explain what he wanted to explain and say, this is my heart on the deal, and I love you. And right I mean, can you communicate how Jesus communicates? And as especially when you're talking to your kids. Yeah. So so and so here's what here's what, begs a little bit of an interpretive question, which is if

nobody gets up like, the modern day in churches, nobody gets up and only read scriptures and doesn't say anything else. Right? Like, I I don't I don't find anybody doing that. That gets up, reads the Bible, not even with a boom afterwards or nothing? Nothing. Gets up, reads Bible, sits down. Right. And that's it. Nobody does that. Because the role of preacher. Right? And it's a biblical role. Seems to be that that God expects there's guys that are preaching and teaching that are taking the scripture and then not expanding upon it in the way of which, like, we're changing doctrine, but, like, otherwise, reveals it. Right. Right. Taking what God now now here's the deal. It's like, for some for some people that are pretty harsh on this type of thing, especially this goes back to our holy spirit conversation that we had a few months back. But, like so I don't know what the role of those guys are because,

Paul is actually doing that. Like, nature of Paul's letter is Paul's letters are those things. Peter's letters are those things. Here's what scripture says. Here's my life interactions with Jesus. Here's my encouragement or my lesson or my warning to you. And so the truth is is that, like, unless you are otherwise in a church of which you have said, look, we don't do anything here but have a get up guy. Get up on stage. You read scripture, and then you put it back down and have no commentary on it whatsoever. Then, like, your definition is a little bit more loose than what you're otherwise portraying with some of this stuff. So if you think that I can't if I read scripture and then explain it to my kids differently than what the scripture said using different words or with a different angle, like, that that that is I don't find that as risky. You're taking on a pastoral role within your family. The the question is, do you follow and love Jesus? Do you know him? And are you explaining things in a way that is consistent with God's heart and character? That it's it it here's the things. People don't like that because it puts responsibility on a person and says that they are capable of doing that. But, if people are capable of doing that, I know what the holy spirit does, and I have some serious questions about the nature of the epistles. Yeah. That's true, actually. I I I and it goes a lot back to,

stuff is a lot more simple than people make it. It is gray, but it it it's also simple. Yeah. Right? Like, if you if you love Jesus and you want your kids to love Jesus, you will talk to them about loving Jesus. Yeah. Right? And, like, unless you divert in some kind of weird web traffic path where you start explaining weird signs and angles and some kind of weird you know I'm saying? Like, you have to be purposely throwing that off on all the simpler that is. It's a redemptive story between God and his people whom he loves that he was willing to sacrifice for. And you can you can purvey that point that your that your kids can grab onto, like, was done for all of humanity, me included. That's amazing to be loved that way. What else does he have for me? Yeah. Right? That's what we're going for. And, like, if you're if you're if you're talking to your kids in in that realm, I I don't know how you're gonna screw it up. Like, their choices are still their choices. But, like, if you're focusing on them memorizing the Old Testament books in order, and that is taking the forefront over maybe overcharacterizing some of the stories, but but basically getting to the point that they needed to know,

I I don't know. I think you're making mistakes. I think you can teach them the Old Testament books in order. It's handy later in life. It really is. Yeah. But when they're five, do I care? I don't care. I don't care if they can sing a song with all the books of the Bible in it. I want them to know what happened in Luke. That's what I want. Yeah. And so I I'm I'm not saying that that stuff's not worth it. There's nothing wrong with having, students of the word, you know, people that understand what God is saying to you. Frankly, if if if if you can't teach your kids to read the Bible, I I don't know how they're gonna learn to follow Jesus on their own anyway. Right? They have to be able to source the material from where it's come from and not have a faith that's solely based on your interpretation of it to them. And they gotta be able to do that. But like, the long story short, I I mean, to even let them know what's available and why they should open that book, you gotta explain to them a little bit what's in it in terms that they're gonna get. Yeah. Yeah. So I I think it is, I think we would maybe people are seeing it as a risky thing to teach your kids the Bible that way. But the truth is it's really more oriented on where your heart is at and where your faith is at. And then, like, there's I I just don't have any concerns about people that love and follow Christ who are biblically faithful on their own telling biblical stories to kids in a way that otherwise makes sense to them. It just, like, combination of faithful dudes and holy spirit. I just it doesn't seem like a huge risk to me. The problem is the storyteller. It's the same problem that you have with people who can't lead churches correctly. Right? Like or people teaching a a a prosperity gospel that's not biblically consistent. The problem is is that the guy's wrong. Right? The guy's not being biblically faithful. But to the extent that I am doing all the things that he's advocating for the kids, if I'm doing those things, do I have a lot of concern about my ability to turn around and teach my kids well from that using stories that make sense to them, using different language so that it make like, good luck with propitiation, buddy. You know, at least what I'm saying is is that, like,

healthy people that follow Jesus and serve him can say things without being verbatim scripture. And I and it doesn't just it just doesn't produce the type of risk that I think he's concerned about. And that's not because I have a low view of scripture, because I have a very high view of scripture, and I have a very high view of Christ's ability to otherwise not be hamstrung by, like,

the Greek word for propitiation. You know what I'm saying? Like, I I think that's what I'm getting at. And I I agree to some people that seems like I'm introducing risk, but I think the I think the holy spirit's bigger than that. I think faithful people that love Jesus care about communicating his word correctly better than that. And I would say that if that's a a huge problem for you, then, again, I I would question the role of what you think preachers and teachers do. Other like, otherwise, we would just have an office, a biblical office of a reader, and we would be done with this noise, and we wouldn't have any of these type these type of questions. Agreed.

Number five. Last one. Don't assume you need all the answers. Not knowing answers to all their questions can actually be constructive. Make it a fun learning opportunity to search together, modeling for them how to find an answer in the process. Here's the deal. You might wanna know how to do that before you get yourself in that pool. Yes. I'm not saying that, like, you can't, you know, walk through. Here's how we figure out what's going on here if we don't understand a question. You need to that's a good thing to walk through with your kids. But you might wanna have the slightest idea on how to get that done Yeah. Before you start fumbling around and making it appear as if there really is no answer in there. I've done that before. Yeah. If your first inclining is to read scripture and then immediately go to the commentary right below the scripture Mhmm. And not reading other scripture,

she's probably trying to figure out how to find that other scripture first. No. And and actually, would say that that's a very powerful thing is is helping kids understand how to read the Bible. And that goes to a little bit on the talking about some of the various literature forms like the the Psalms or the, you know, apocalyptic stuff or whatever. But also, you know, how do how do we how do we cross reference things? How do we look for things that ways that God has said these things before, and how can we understand to interpret them now? Because if you can you know, it's a bit of a teach a man to fish thing, but, like, if you can help them learn to to read the Bible, they don't get freaked out when they read something that they don't understand. They have the ability to kinda dig into it without being at the mercy of your commentary. I would have killed to have known that at 13. Yeah. Like, at 13 years old, if I would have known other than,

you know, read the scripture and then immediately look down to, we'll find verse 28, what does this person have to say about this? Yeah. And then immediately go into that or Google it. Like, if I would have known that, hey, man, there's that middle section that says exactly like, find this letter here and go to this scripture Yeah. And then find it. And I think that I had I had no clue up until the six months ago Yeah. That was the right way to to start looking at that and start looking outside of the Bible for cultural perspective on what's inside of the Bible and stuff like that. The first ten years of my Bible learning was based off of read this, Google it, and then figure out what everybody has to say. Yeah. And you know what's interesting is that I I I wonder if from his perspective, do you do you also reject, you know, a cultural information? Because the truth is if you if you need to negate any potential human thought or emotion that might be related to something, like, are we also asking because the Bible didn't provide culture information, do we ignore it? Because I I don't know I don't know very many people that are operating from that perspective. Because

the truth is you're community reliant. You're relying on the people of God to understand these types of things and to pass them on. Again, I think that's what offices of preachers and teachers are for. And frankly, a trust in a biblical community, to to be able to retain these types of information and understand why things happen that way. And so, like, most people wouldn't reject that because it's not in the Bible. Like, what makes you why does a get emotions bring risk.

And I and again, people can manipulate those, whereas manipulating historical cultural in in institutions

or circumstance is a bit harder. Although, I've heard many people repeat the that there was a there was a gate that was literally called the eye Of The Needle. And, like, there's no historical founding for that. Because and here's deal is it makes that for months, I think. It's just a camel that just kinda ducks its head a little bit through a through a kind of a narrow gate. Yeah. Yeah. It's not bad. Right? Like, can make your way through it. And like, it totally takes the power out of that out of that story. Right. Story is like, no. This is outrageous what Jesus has said. And we're like, well, no. It's just mildly difficult. It just gives a little extra work for the old camel. It's a real pain in the teeth, but couldn't be done. But but and and that and that's the thing is that, like, that's simply not true. It has no I've seen it come up in multiple places, and there's no cultural there's no cultural historical foundation for it. Why are we making excuses for that? You know what I'm saying? Like, why are we trying to make it more palatable? God says this is gonna be a big hairy deal, and it's impossible. And we're like, well, maybe it can be done. Like, there's a group of Christians out there counting stars and be like, yeah, Abraham was just a pansy. We can do this.

Oh, that's awesome. Equals NASA. You know I'm saying? There and then we got we got we got 50 guys on the pay ticket with billions of dollars of budget. We're like, we're counting stars, boys. Holy cats. Anyway, that was it. That's, that's pretty much the whole article. So it it gross over point. Yeah. I kinda like his take on this. Yeah. There's parts of it that might be a bit of an overreach, but but really,

I I I think it it's something actually pretty close to my heart on exactly how and how we teach, the Bible, not only kids, but to but to youth. And and I think that's right. I think we soft shoe it, And we try to teach them a morality, and it will fail them. And it always fails them. Yeah. Then they wanna know, like, you how many articles do I see week? It was like, why are college kids leaving the church? Because they never went. Like, they didn't get it. We went to a moral moral boot camp, and and morality failed them. Because on the opposite side of morality is immorality and without any reason to disassociate yourself with immorality, hey, it it produces good times sometimes. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? There's a reason it's a struggle. And and you're not like, hey, I should just sit home, mind my own business, and run an integrity driven life. Cause everyone who's not doing that is making big money.

You know I'm saying? Yeah. And and having a lifestyle which you think I could probably do that. And so we have to get off the the the the ground of teaching a morality based anything or a grow this because we need to grow this thing. Or like, we need a bigger community, a bigger family to what? Have another moral conversation? Right? Like, it has to be a Jesus centered conversation. It has to be a biblical conversation. And I think if, Ben's right, if you poured on them, they'll get the parts that they need, and then they'll they'll want to see the parts that fell off. Yeah. Yeah. I would I I think, like, if if a normal normal kid, some at some point grows up from coloring books,

but that is where we see we we get stuck from teaching kids biblical things. You know, we can't be surprised that they that they find that if they were coloring My Little Pony for eight years and we're pretty excited about it, and then when they're 20 years old and we're trying to still convince them that My Little Pony is real, like, I understand that they left it because we actually never transitioned them. We never actually gave them the connection. And here's here's the truth. If a as a parent, if you want to teach the Bible well to to your kids, the I if you get two things down, then I would think you're actually gonna be fine. The first one is is you need to study the Bible faithfully. K? Yeah. You do that right. You study the Bible faithfully. And two, the things that you talk about are lived out in your life. There's reality in that. The truth is is that the the moral things that you're teaching are difficult if your life doesn't match up with it. You know? And and the the thing is is it's it's oftentimes disbelievable because you wanna use it to use God as the hammer in whatever situation that you want your kid to act differently

when he's actually placed you in a position to be the parent. So you should be the parent. But the but second to that is that, like, if it's inconsistent with your life, regardless of how well you teach the Bible, if your life doesn't look like that, you're gonna have a hard time convincing that this is reality because you don't trust it. You don't actually believe it. You're the you're the five virgins that that were waiting who didn't fill up the fill up the oil. You got five who said, I believe this because they loaded up oil. It shows that they believed it. Then you five who said, yeah. No. I can get on board with this and made no preparation at all. You're full of crap. And so they don't believe that. And any story that you're trying to point them to, you're gonna have a hard time doing if it's not reflected in your own life. And and here's the thing is like that. That doesn't mean that you you're obviously not living a perfect life. Like, we I was just talking about this some of the other days. Like, my kids hear a lot of apologies for me. They they know when I'm struggling with something. They know I mean, they may not get, you know, extreme explicit details depending on what's actually up. Right? But, like, all the time I say, hey, look, I'm really struggling with being being faithful to God in in a particular area. I'm just I'm not trusting him. Right? And I need you guys to pray pray over that with me and for me. And and they know that. They'll see me struggle with those types of things. I'm honest with them because that's that's actually that shows some reality. Like, I believe this thing, and I know that there's a gap there, and I know prayer solves problems. So there you go. That's that's how I'm gonna engage with my kids in that type of thing. So faithful by bible reading and having, like, even when you fall short, having that be reflected in your life and in your prayer life, then I think actually teaching kids the bible is actually gonna go just fine. That's it. Alright. That's the end the story. Alright. Very good. Teach your children well. Yeah. I you know what? I wonder if the biggest barrier is whether you're even doing it at all.

Like, are you doing it at all? Do you even spend any time, like, reading the Bible or talking about things with your kids? Here's the thing. When Minecraft's available, they roll they roll their eyes at me. I know. And I'm like, well, do I gotta take away Minecraft? I don't wanna take away Minecraft. Here's Minecraft is fun. Here's the worst part. Like, it's the same problem I have with and Mike, I think you and I have talked about this, is trying to teach your kids to be gracious. Right? To not do things because I forced you to, but I want you to just be gracious to be I want you to learn how to do it. And so the problem is is that, like, it seems counterintuitive for me to say, now I'm gonna make you be gracious to your sister. Yeah. You know, you're gonna share it with her. Well, like, that actually didn't it's not you practicing being gracious. That's me just forcing your hand. And so, like, that isn't quite the lesson I want you to learn. And, you know, reading scripture and stuff is the same problem. It's like, hey hey, I wanna read about let's read a Bible story tonight. I get at the Bible, and if one of the kids is like, no, I don't really want to. I was like, well, I'm gonna force you to read the Bible. Yeah. You know, like, here's the truth is I want them to read the Bible. But it becomes a difficult thing when they're only doing it because I'm making them do it. Now you there's still kids. So here's you know, you have to lay right groundwork, and it's okay to force your kids to do things. Like, I forced them to take a shower whether they want to or not. True. And so, you know, I ain't gonna let the kid be stanky just because he wants to be stanky. So, I mean, there's certainly there's room for you to parent in there. But like, trying to trying to encourage your kids to have a love of scripture and to

to want to pray, to want to do these types of things, you know, you need to be careful how you go about doing it. Because there's a lot of people that will reject it because they you forced it on them, not because they were meeting Jesus, but because even those things were moral guideposts. Like, we read scripture, so I'm gonna force you to do it. Well, you know, you just created a moral standard. I want you to read scripture because God's in there, you wanna know what God's up to. Alright, gentlemen.

Bubba has a question for the three of you as fathers then. Okay. Let's have it. Is there an acceptable time for for when you allow your kids to stop coming to church if they don't want to?

And I asked that because in my house, my dad made a rule where at 16, we could decide to stop coming to youth group. Mhmm. He said, you still live in my house. You're still my my son, but you do not have to go to youth group if you don't want to. Is there is there a, an acceptable time when that is okay? Or and if so, if not, you know, what's the alternative? What what do you do? How do you deal with that? Because you're forcing your kids to go to church. Is there a chance that you're you're causing them to to despise God because of it? Guestman, have you put any thought into that? Your kids are still young yet.

Not really. I mean, we handle it with some of the the activities they do during the week. Sometimes it it's church based. Yeah. Not at our church. It's at a different church. But What?

I know. How dare you visit other lord's people? The church is a building. We deal with it a little bit but I mean, guess it's not it's not on the same page but

we leave it up to our oldest. I mean, if he wants to go, he can go. If he doesn't, we'll we'll stop doing it just because we do have other activities that we're involved with, church related. But I would hope

I don't know if I would lay down. I would hope that I wouldn't have to get to a point where I have to lay it down where this is just what we do and this is how we act. Yeah. Yeah. And there's no, I don't know. There's no approaching them saying, you gotta decide. It's

it's just what we do. And to so when we so we only started going to church, maybe ten for me. So, I mean, there's only six years that I was in the church. I did not grow up going to church. I never went to to bible study and stuff like that. I never, like I didn't learn the children's stories. I had to learn that as an adult. Yeah. And so like it was only a couple of years where my dad had to try and

be our pastor within our home. And then to the point where we had we were able to make the decision at 16 if we were gonna go to to youth group or not or if we were gonna keep going So Yeah. I'm just I'm interested because I was actually I was driving I can't remember where was that. Was like, was I think I was driving to Chicago, and I was trying to listen to a sermon that was going on

on the radio, and I'd never really listened to a radio sermon any time. And a guy was talking about his kids. Yeah. And he was saying that, you know, I don't care if this if this turns into you resenting God. This is my home, and and you will do as I say, and I I you will obey what I say. I say you're going to church no matter what. It's not your choice. You're 16 years old. You're 17 years old. You will do as I say. And so I was interested in that perspective because it seemed I don't know if it seemed harsh to me or anything like that, but it just seemed strict

and in a way that I hadn't heard before. So I didn't know if you guys had as as dads have had a chance to even start thinking about that or had any thoughts on that. See, and I think that's that's an odd it's your perception of what church is. Mhmm. Right? And so, like, like I said, with with our experience in the youth group, really, all it is is an on purpose community that you can count on to be there. Right. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, we meet at this time in this room, and we're gonna be here every Wednesday. And so that's the deal. And so it's an on purpose community that you can, you know, that that you have the option to show up at. And, like, I feel that way, and I think I would still that way still with my kids. And, like,

I don't know the Sunday morning thing or the or or the getting together and sitting under teaching that is not for me, I'd probably not as negotiable with me. And and, like, I think that I can, hopefully, can raise them in such a way that they they already know that. And it's like not even a question that you ask, you know. But, like, I you know, as far as I'm concerned, you know, I have to give you the freedom to make your choices. But if I have a say in it, I'm gonna encourage you as strong as I can that you're gonna sit underneath this teaching. Now whether you don't dig on the youth group community or wanna be there for senior supper night because all the other youth are helping there,

you know, I I don't know that I can push that button that hard. Because, I mean, who am to say that the Lord doesn't got that sweet girl of 17 talking to someone who's got some real problems and needs to know Jesus? And I've been forcing her in a in a comfort filled youth group setting for five years when actually she had some mission work to do. Yeah. And I didn't let her do that. But, like, that's yeah. That's that's not a black and white answer for me. I don't know. I yeah. I I think I'm sticking with I don't know. But I do view youth group in particular and all of churches, extracurricular activities to be just an on purpose community, and and that you can count on a time. Right? That doesn't matter what's going on in your life. If you gotta skip one, it's not a deal. The thing's not gonna fold. We're just gonna be here. Yeah. So just for a heads up, if anytime you want a community with this and this age group, we're here on Wednesdays. Done. K. Yeah. And I I think that's that's the right thing is that, like, you know, that that sermon that you're talking about, would seem to relate to church as, you know, primarily an event. Right? Right. And I think he called that out specifically talking about like a Sunday morning service. Yeah. So because the thing is is that like, you'd have a hard time for me. I I wouldn't I probably would never give my kid the option if I were to put it this way.

Yeah. You don't have to be part of the community that surrounds you. Like, it it it wouldn't even make sense with that option. Right? And so, like, if you're understanding your church as a as a group of people gathered together following Christ, I mean, that's what the ecclesiastes, what the word is. Right? So, like, if that's what it is, like, no one has the concept to say, I'm not gonna be part of that at all. Because the truth is you could stay home every Sunday from a year for the next ten years, and it doesn't mean that you're not part of a community of believers.

I mean, there's some there's a lack of health there, certainly. Right? But, like, it's not what you're actually bailing from. And to to to that extent, if you're driving yeah. Yeah. I I think there's there's probably some there's a lot of danger in saying,

you know, I'm gonna force you to do this. But, like, I think that even prescribes that you have a a weird perspective or not not quite a full perspective of what the church community is that you would even have to say something like that. Right? Because, like, I'm part of that church community, and I'm home every day. And I'll be I'll be somewhere near you. And so it's not even something that you can logistically bail on, like, live there. Yeah. And so

so no. I mean, I would certainly take them. I don't think I maybe it'd be different if I was presented with it. But, like, I'd say, I if if if my kids said, hey, look, don't wanna go. I just don't wanna go to church. I don't wanna be there. Like, this part probably a much longer conversation than that. You know, why why you know, what about this? Do you don't wanna go too well? It's it's boring for me or like something like that. It's like, well, the truth is is that, like, if that's if they they just gonna kick a selfishness, they can be like, well, it's not necessarily about you. Maybe there's Right. Maybe there's somewhere that God's God's got some somebody wants to talk to you, and you're there for them. And so, you know, is that can you consider that? Like, there's probably there's probably just a lot of a lot of conversations

that that would have to happen before I would even come more near that says, look, you're going or else. You know? That makes sense. That doesn't address the underlying problem. There's a different problem than I just don't wanna be there. Yeah. You're just dealing with the symptom of the situation. You can discover exactly what's happening. Yeah. Why are they mistrusting the church? Why is it something that bores them? Why is it something that no longer matters to them? Something like that. Yeah. Like, there's too many things wrapped up in your church community to just be, like, either I'm bored or I don't wanna talk to Susan. Yeah. I don't like Randy. He's a weird guy. Yeah. There's a creepy guy in the corner. Randy is weird. Randy's always weird. Here's the thing. It's like it never occurred to me before, but God did not have to create the feeling of boredom. Right? Like, he could've just let you just be at peace with nothing going on. Yeah. And so, like, I feel like that's that that's not a a sociological thing. Like, that's a God given I need you to do something.

You're just hanging about. You know what I'm saying? Right. I need you I need something something within your body that gives you the gives you the heads up that there you should be doing something at all. I'm not saying it's like a default holy spirit. But what I'm saying is it's like, when you're sitting somewhere and you're like, I'm bored of this, you should consider the fact that either you you're not paying attention to it or you should be doing something different. Right. Like, there's nothing no one's no one says, look, one of the healthiest things you can go through is boredom. Not even the secular world of science will encourage you to be bored because it's good for you. And so if your option is to either hang tight and get through it or find something, you know, decent to do, I would recommend decent to do. Yeah. Bored is a very good inclination that you don't belong where you're at. Okay. Or you're not looking at it correctly. So we were just talking about kids being generous. You know? And, like, I I just went through an example with this last Saturday. The my wife had to work. And so I made the girls pancakes. Right? And there is there's like how many pancakes did I make? I made, like, eight pancakes. Right? The girls are the girls are are not my age. We'll just put it that way. They're younger kids. So I make eight pancakes. I'm cleaning up the kitchen or whatever, and I say, go ahead and disperse your pancakes. I'll be in a minute and, you know, and I'll get some. And I roll in there, and they have

four each. And there is one left for me. And I look her I look at these girls, and I'm like my instant thought is, I have raised selfish, ungenerous girls who can't even put two and two together. I'm a grown man. They're

not eating four pancakes, and I'm eating more than one. Right. And so I looked at them. I said, ladies, will you look at this table and tell me what the problem is? And they're like, there's no salt? I'm like, it's pancakes. It's the the salt is not the issue. And they like, we went through this for two, three minutes. They couldn't get it. They weren't picking it up. I said, y'all got four pancakes a piece. I have one pancake. I'm a grown man. I eat more pancakes, but I said, here's the pancakes, and you took as many as you wanted for yourself with no thought of your dear old father. And they said and then they just started whooping pancakes off their plate onto my plate. And and and the thing that humbled me a little bit is is like, I don't even know that they were being on purposely selfish. Right? They just don't grasp the world in a large enough picture as I think that they do. Yeah. Do you know what I'm saying? To a girl that is six, they see pancakes, they go, pancakes.

And then they take a lot of them. Right. And that's it. Like, they don't think four is unreasonable. They think I love pancakes. Right. I hate to run out. And then they put more on their plate. Right? And so sometimes, like, you have to be very, very careful on how you monitor your progress of the gospel within your children depending on their age. Do you know what I'm saying? And, like, even at eight where I think that she should know better, I just do not think that she has much she has a a a bit of a small world picture at the moment that pretty much is centered around her. Now that's gonna innately bring home some selfishness, and I'm gonna roughly

start pushing her boundaries out so she's not looking in a 10 degree window anymore. But, like, especially the kids that aren't that I don't think God has created to be that way right out of the womb. I have one kid that is, that cares about people's welfare, and she was just born that way, been that way since she was two months old. This other one, nope. You gotta force her out. You know, you gotta give her an opportunity to see it, and you gotta do it over and over again without getting frustrated. And that pancake thing was just about enough to make me think that I had failed as a father. And I I can't believe I've raised such two selfish children. Yeah. She was just thinking dad was being generous. That's right. I'm being generous without even being Yeah. That's amazing. That'll make more pancakes. Oh, yeah. Was gonna say, or maybe they thought the dad was had left to go make more pancakes for himself. He'll eat last. They do the same thing with their mother. They'll start eating food before mom sits down at the table. I'm like, hey, man. Your mom is still in there working. What's the matter with you goons? Hey, man. You gotta you gotta live on a four pancake rule. Yeah. What that means is for every person that's eating pancakes, you're gonna make four pancakes. No. K. Yes. And that way You know what that's gonna if they don't eat four pancakes, you you throw them in the freezer. I bet that means the dog gonna eat nine pancakes. No. That's what it means. You throw them in the freezer, they have pancakes two days later. You think a six year old is gonna mind having pancakes twice in one week? Look, what you're saying is true unless you make gluten free pancakes. Oh, that's It's really palatable the first day. Yeah. Reheated in the microwave. First of all, the microwave is no problem. To gluten free pancakes. Yeah. You cannot reheat gluten free pancakes with the cancer box. I suppose that's a valid point. We are talking about gluten free pancakes. Those things do not reheat.

The dog would have eaten them. Alright. That's right. In your household, there's no four pancake rule. No. You got a two pancake rule. Yeah. Yeah. There's no re repricing flaxseed and cardboard into something palatable forty eight hours later. There's not unhealthy enough syrup for me to put on these gluten free pancakes. I mean, I will literally I will put a bowl of syrup at the table. I would dip the entire gluten cardboard in there. Let it soak for like ten seconds and say, alright. I can choke this down for the good of the kids. And halfway through, I'm like, I'm going to QT for a hot dog. They're terrible. My Hey, man. Go ahead, Ben. My wife has done I mean, I probably 20 different variations

of gluten free pancakes where she's like, these are fantastic. And like me and the kids both had these this morning, and these were great. We all agree that they're great. So I'll make them for dinner tonight, and then you will be impressed. And every time I taste them, I think no. Have you have you tried the banana ones? Like, did you only but only made out of bananas? Only been made out bananas. Yeah. Banana and egg. Yeah. Banana and egg pancakes. Yes, it's been there. Yep. I think they're awesome. Are they are those delicious, Yes, ma'am? You have to get used to it. Flavor than a You've been regular gluten free. I would say you've been down this road. Would you say that they're better than any other gluten free option out there? The

consistency of them. It takes some getting used to. Yeah. It's weird. It's a little different. It's like tapiels of pudding. It's just bananas. You would look at it and you'd say, that's not a pancake. That's Why are you calling this a pancake? That is called a Johnny cake in my It's a banana chip. Yeah. Yeah. I think I had one good gluten free pancake recipe And and I was actually I was taken aback. And I said, you know what? I'm sorry. These are decent. And then the lady's like, yeah, this flour is only like $75 a pound. I'm like, man, we could celebrate once a year with this super expensive gluten free. It comes from Nepal, and that's why that guy wanted to go there that one time. Then a single Incan man grows in his backyard.

And apparently, we have to get on a list. He's got a stone mill. The millstone's been there for eight thousand years. Yeah. Hey, man. Have you guys ever tried the sugar free syrup, by the way? K. If you have, I'm sorry. If you haven't, stay away. No no, Buva. That's the ton of toxin that's not allowed in anybody's house. Because when people say sugar free, all they say is sweetened with cancer. Yeah. We don't do that. So I went out to I went out to eat it with a friend a couple of months ago, and they they had pancakes and tried to offer me some of pancakes. And I said, no. I I can't have pancakes. And I said, oh, why not? I said, well, pancakes normally come with syrup,

and that's just something I can't live with. And so they said, oh, no. We're gonna get you to eat these pancakes. So they asked the waitress for sugar free Smucker's pancake syrup. Oh, yeah. So here's the deal. I don't trust Smucker's with anything besides my jelly. Yeah. Okay? Live by that rule. Okay. Gal brings out

this bottle and I mean that from the perspective of actual bottle. Like, you know how sometimes you get the syrups and they're the clear plastic things you Yeah. Flip top with your thumb. Yeah. It's a bottle of syrup like you're pouring it on ice cream. Like, you you take off the top and you just squirt. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Sign. Tried this stuff. It tasted like sadness and and like

the liquid embodiment of if someone was punching me in the stomach. Oh, no. So I put this on one pancake. Gentlemen, I've never thrown a pancake away before in my entire life. Okay? That pancake was gone before she could even grab the plate. Like, I picked it up off the plate and walked it to the trash. Like, this this this does not deserve to be on this table any longer. What have you done? I even took a picture of it and, like, tweeted smuckers and said, you've done me wrong. You've

done me straight up wrong. Like, I understand with the diabetes, you gotta live life sometimes. But there's a different gentlemen, if you have this situation, live the life where you don't need to find substitutes for everything. Just live without it. Yeah. Serve is one of those things. If your body says, hey, sugar. Uh-uh. Not gonna work. Do not find a substitute for something that's just basically sugar because it's it's in no way gonna taste good. Yeah. Yeah. Don't do it. No. Yeah. That's yeah. That's basically my trajectory. I don't I don't do fake sugars. Either I eat real sugar or I don't I don't drink it. Yeah. That's actually kind of the freeing part of of like the the general

clean living cooking that happens at my house is like, you can have this stuff. It's just gotta be the right stuff. It's gotta be good stuff. Right? You can't have a falsified sugar. So she'd probably rather have you eat, you know, a a blue blooded steak and then spoon actual organically grown sugar in your face opposed to sweetening anything with anything else that could remotely mean that somebody made it at a factory. Yeah. And that's we don't put up with it. And, you know, if if some of it makes for better tasting food, some of it makes for a cheap substitute of good tasting food. Yeah. That looks like it might be palatable, but under it all, it's shoelaces. It's shoelaces with some kind of butter on there. Yeah. Yeah. I don't I don't like I don't like to be sold, like, gluten free and sugar free are basically the same difference to me. I'm like, you're trying to sell me something that is supposed to be legit, and this is not legit at all. And I don't want your illegitimate item. So like if I'm if I'm gonna have syrup, I'm I'm buying the whole missus Butterworth.

And then I'm having legit syrup. And I don't mean here's the but here's the thing. It's from my perspective, and this is more from a because of the house that we grew up in. But, like, I don't consider real maple syrup real either. No. That's The missus butter would put butter already in it, so you don't have to butter the pancake. That's yeah. Yeah. I like that stuff. Artificial butter already in the syrup. Hit it. That's macaroni and cheese for me. If someone makes macaroni and cheese, like, from from scratch. Like, I don't care, like, if you made the noodles. I'm grossed out more by your mac and cheese than if you bring me a box of the powdered cheese. Yeah. I don't even like that liquid cheese. I think it's a lie. That's what I think. I think I think that if it does not come in a bag of powder and you adding some kind of miracle milk to it and then turning it into something then throwing some hot dogs in it so you lie to yourself and pretend like you're eating some kind of fancy pasta Yeah. I don't believe in it. No. Boy, Boo Boo, we might have grown up in fairly same house. The only thing that I hold true is that it drives my wife nuts. But, like, when I make macaroni and cheese, I make the the craft cheap macaroni and cheese. Yeah. I refuse to do it in the microwave. I'm like, I stovetop it. Yep. I gotta run it seven to eight minutes, let it to boil, and then you gotta you gotta get that stuff out of there. I'm gonna get that directions tattooed on my forearm because that's There ain't no doubt. I always throw the box away and have to go get it. I'm like, oh, crap. Every time. I got what it was. I've been making this mac and cheese the best ten years of my life, and I can't figure out, yeah, seven to eight. Yeah. And I always have to recheck the butter. I'm like, that looks like a lot of butter. A whole stick. Never a lot of butter. Really? A whole stick? Yeah. Okay. Throw it in. Yeah. It just disappears because you put processed cheese powder on it. And then that that stick o butter somehow turns processed cheese powder into delicious juicy goodness. We what we're reading, there was like

we're reading one of the Little House House in the Prairie books and like, the kids have a Little House in the Prairie food book. It's like a it's a cookbook, but it also helps, like, some of the other food that they have, so like preserves. Yeah. And so, like, if I remember right, the recipe, they did some sort of tomato preserves. So they That sounds wrong. The recipe called for two pounds of tomatoes and two pounds of sugar. Yep. That sounds about right. And I thought, Mercy, I suppose that's what you have to do to make these tomatoes palatable as preserves. No doubt. But I thought, hey. Those things gotta last ten years. That's just there's nothing in there. See, that's the stuff Tomatoes gonna be real fruit. Well, you shouldn't trust gluten free bread. I went to go buy gluten free bread the other day. It was in the fridge section at the store. Yeah. I thought, what about this needs to be refrigerated?

I don't trust this at all. Actually, that always made me real suspicious about almond milk. The woman drinks almond milk. And, like, I say, hey, man. I bet that milk's about to go bad, and it's good for, two months. Yeah. And I think to myself I'll buy it. But normal milk's only good for what? Ten days? Seven to ten days? And this is good for two months. And like, what kind of freak stuff is in here? See. And I thought, what goes bad about an almond? You know what? You don't have to refrigerate it either. Yeah. You can buy it straight off the shelf. Uh-huh. That's right. Like, you can store that stuff up in Oh. Yeah. You Good stuff. You can leave it sitting out. You like, if when it goes on sale, you could buy five, and you're not you're not running a risk here. That stuff's good all the time. See, that you gotta put good in quotes because I can't use it. I tried to hide it in cereal figuring that cinnamon toast crunch would overpower. No. No. You just have weirdly sweet cinnamon toast crunch Yep. In a bad way. No. Hey, try with Kashi. You ever tried Kashi cereal? That stuff's nasty. That stuff is good? No. It's not. Almond milk and Kashi is one of my favorite things. I eat a banana, some almond milk, and like half a cup of Kashi cereal. It's awesome. Yeah. No. That's that's that combination is for people that braid their armpit hair. Yeah. I did that one time and it was there. Like, I do move to California, boo boo. My dude offered me some money and said, hey, man. Do you wanna drink some almond milk? I'll braid your armpit hair. And I'm just like, wait. Do those two things always go together? And they said, yeah. I'm like, alright. I suppose I'll try it. Win. No. But it's what you don't realize, it's a one time thing. He only has to braid it once, and then you just get free access to almond milk no matter what. Boo was one step away from milking his own almonds.

You just see me over a a bucket just squeezing the crap out of an almond. Where's the milk come from? We bought a flour grinder. Right? And so, like, for six months, we're turning everything into flour. It doesn't matter what's in there. We're just grabbing uncle Ben's rice. We're like, oh, that's rice flour. Then we're grabbing random bits of this nut flour, but we should try this flour. I mean, everything that you could grind into a flour or paste, win in that grinder for like six months. And then I threw it away. I'm like, I can't take this thing. First of all, it sounds like a herd of elephants inside of a inside of a nail factory when this thing turns on. I mean, literally, there is just nothing but bones breaking in this. And if the whole house shakes, it sets off the fire alarm. I mean, it's outrageous.

I can't have cool kitchen utensils like that because I would have way too much fun. I'd throw a box of macaroni in there just to see what would happen. It's just it was it was unbelievable. I I mean, I swear one day we were putting rocks in there. It was just like, we should make rock flour. This stuff is great. Hey. What happens when you buy, like, one of those fancy, like, Vitamix or a Ninja Ram. Like, you're gonna make smoothies. You're you're chucking all kinds of inappropriate juice in there. I would juice everything Yeah. If I buy one of those juicers. Yeah. I'd be like, here's the deal. This has this has no reason to go in there, but I'm a make a sweet potato juice today just because I got them right there and we're gonna see what happens. Yeah. Yeah. We should in there. You you like you got your you keep the dog hair and then eggshells. And you're like, put that together, add a little bit of yogurt in there. I think this could be fine. Be great. There's gotta be protein in that stuff. Yeah. Eggshells are good for you. Gotta be. People telling you about the benefits of gross things. I said, can't see it. Every article I see on a on a on a Facebook, this was one hold on. I saw this guy at work. He's like, he says, hey, man. We should be friends on the Facebook. I said, no. We shouldn't.

And he said, seriously, I won't tag in anything. I'm like, seriously, if you if you send me a friend request and I agree to this and you tag me something, I will murder you. There's nothing there irritate me. Sent you like a game request or something like that. That night. Hey, Blake. Complete He tags me and 15 other people in the benefits of drinking like apple cider vinegar. Unlike this fifteen fifteen page article on why apple cider vinegar is the thing, you know, and tags me with 15 other guys. Uh-huh. And then the next day, I go into work, he quit. He don't even work there anymore.

And I thought, I I can't even yell at him. What am I I mean, I can hide his post, but that's very passive aggressive. That's not me. Right? I like to show up the next day, have the confrontations like, you said you wouldn't do this, and then you did it. Unfriend me directly. Here's the consequences of your actions. And I I thought, here's the deal. Like, have the reason you have to have 15 pages of benefits on this stuff is because it tastes like armpit. It's gross. Yeah. No one wants to I'm not breaking an armpit. Apple cider vinegar. It's disgusting. Yeah. Here's what doesn't have to happen. Like, people don't have to say, here's the 10 benefits to drinking whiskey. People just go to whiskey. And the the only reason you keep that article is to show somebody else as a justification as to why you keep drinking it. Like Yeah. That's exactly right. It didn't convince you to do it. No one has to say, hey, Ben. Five good reasons to drink chocolate milk. It's like, I'm already there. It's delicious. The taste of the thing got me on board. It's its own PR man. Yeah. Chocolate milk does not need a commercial. You just go, hey, kids. Do you want milk with chocolate in it? And then they just go, yeah. That'll work. Yeah. Definitely. It's like someone someone having to make a pros and cons as to whether you're gonna marry a person. Like anytime if you even had to think, man. I need to make a list of pros and cons. Like, you need to put that paper down and break up directly. Yeah. Here's the 15 reasons I shouldn't marry her. Here's the five I should. Con, he smells like apple cider vinegar. He drinks it all the time. It comes out of his pores.

He keeps telling me there's 15 pages of benefits of drinking it, but Like, you could live to be a honey. Well, here's the deal. It's not a hundred years. Who was I talking to? Someone was yelling to me yesterday about my soda intake. Here's the deal. I drink a lot of soda. Whatever. Okay. So I I have a a large amount of soda. In fact, I don't even know it's because we ran out of soda at my house. And I I text the wife and said, hey, man. Can you pick up some soda? We're running low. And she's like, drink water. I said, what? What does it mean? That is not a substitute for the latter. What do you mean by that? I said, we're a two income household. I don't drink water.

The the elitist perspective that you just gave was was wonderful. Actually, I only said that because she happened to be working that day, and I wasn't. And that never happens. Right? And so I said, you go to work so I drink soda. That's what happens. Anyway, long story short, I'm getting a bunch like, you should you should worry about your kids in the long run. You should be healthy and live to be 90, but I'm like, here's the deal. God is good.

I will live as long as the Lord permits me, and I will have to stop drinking soda at some point. But really, I don't fear death at say 65 when my kids are grown, married, having kids of their own. If the Lord wants to take me on account of a pancreas and I'm heading up to meet him, I I just I don't see the reason to give this thing up. Now tell me why I'm not thinking right. Hit me, fellas. Let me know when you need some insulin. I've got I've got a couple hookups for the situation. Booba, fought off the diabetes my whole life. Yeah. I'm a survivor. I did too. I did too. I have two And then things went bad. No, Booba. Yeah. I think that had to do with where you got your haircut. You think I got diabetes from where I get my haircut? Yeah. Yeah, man. I won't endorse where I got my haircut then because I don't want that going around the web. You should read some of the blogs I read. Most of diabetes is connected to the shampoos and the cancer causing agents they put in there.

Yeah. Your your skin is just like a mouth, man. Have you ever tried the benefits of Please don't ever say that again, first off. It's it's true. Do you use cancer do you use apple cider vinegar for anything? No. But I've had plenty of people try to tell me about If you drink half a cup of apple cider vinegar, your diabetes will go away. You're maybe the fourth person who's told me that Really? So far. But Yeah. I just made that up. But I'm certain Legitimately, there's there's eight on the list. There's yeah. That's probably number eight on the list is the fact that, like, apple cider vinegar is very good for diabetics. It's supposed to help you out. Cinnamon's supposed to do the same thing. I feel like my doctor's failing me if he keeps prescribing me very, very expensive insulins and things like that. When all he could say to me is, hey, you know how every time you come in here and we have to say, hey, man, that blood sugar's kinda high. You could just drink apple cider vinegar and some cinnamon, and you'll be fine. True. You

think they could make it into a diabetes cocktail or something? Like, just put every good thing you find on the Internet? Call it the beatus? Put it in a beatus. Put it in a smoothie and say Carbonated beatus. Would Wilfer Brimley be the spokesperson for that? Here's the deal. I got the diabetes. Try yourself an energy drink called beatus. You know I It's got all the wonderful homeopathic medicines that are gonna take care of your beatus. It'd be cool if it if it turns out the cure for diabetes was like whiskey. You know I'm saying, man? What's it good for? Tooth pain. Whiskey. What's it good for? Diabetes. Whiskey. They would never need to advertise any whiskey ever again. No. People just bite it off America, you know how most of you have this? Will?

Whiskey. And that's the whole ad. Wait a minute. Is diabetes that that prevalent? Oh, yeah. Most people have it? Most was just a statement, but I would say a lot of people Hey. Is alcohol can you can you replace meals with it? Like it Yeah. I know some people that have. I know plenty of people that have, and I've definitely had to have different conversations with them. When I say, hey, John, when was the last time you ate? He goes, well, I had I had a half a bottle of whiskey earlier, and then for breakfast, I had six beers, and that's basically wheat. My dad feels great. And I don't have diabetes. Maybe that's too much, but can I take like three shots of whiskey and that's and I won't be hungry? No. No. But you better do it for dinner, not breakfast. Yeah. Yeah. Don't do that as don't go to your boss and go, hey, man. I just had breakfast earlier. That's all that happened. You were slurring your words in your presentation, man. Well, I just had breakfast. But I'm not hungry.

Lose weight, feel great. Okay. It's a liquid diet. Alright. Alright. Alright. Maybe I won't do that. I'm just it's a thought running through I highly the recommend not doing that. Alright. But would you have did you have some Pope stuff? Alright.

Yes. Remember, this is the this is the Pope light. Okay? That's what this is. So recently ran into a situation. By recently, I mean, like, four hours ago Mhmm. Where I ran into a situation where I'm going to have to spend a lot of money on something I don't want to spend. Okay?

My immediate reaction as it was happening was, hey, god. Are you gonna handle this? Because I really need you to take care of this and not give me the the money that I'm or give me the money I'm either gonna have to owe or just make it so I don't owe money. Mhmm. Immediately went to that versus the many bad decisions that I made that caused me to have this situation. And so after I got after I got the the situation

taken care of, walking away from it, realizing that I I now owe a lot of money, I started thinking about it from the perspective of, hey, man. What have I been doing with my money lately? And, like, how am I serving money versus serving God? And so Dave Ramsey.

That hit me a that hit me in a huge way because I immediately went to, alright, God. I really need to take care of this because, like, I can't afford this and I can't walk into this and, like, you know, I'm I'm messed up in this way. And then, you have you have to handle this because I'm not gonna have the cash. And I realized, I totally have the cash. Like, I really do. I have the money to take care of this, but my brain immediately went to how can I take care of this in the most comfortable way possible for me? How can I take care of this with the least amount of sacrifice from my pocketbook?

And that went to, hey, god. Do you wanna just somehow find me this money and take care of it when I already have it? He's already given it to me. And so it just made me start kinda stepping back and and looking at how has money ruled my life in the last couple of months or entire lifetime. And in what ways have I completely neglected God and thrown money in his face

showing him that that I serve it, not him. And I realized every single time I've ever been in a place where I was in a financial straight of some sort. I can never say, man, I was being so honest with my money.

And I was being so gracious with the the money that God had given me, and I was in no way serving it. And then out of nowhere, I I just somehow ended up having to owe a bunch of money on something stupid that happened. Like, it never went that way. It never went, oh, I was giving all my money to church, and I was helping out orphans, and I was helping out widows, and all my money went to homeless people, and, like, I was eating, you know, rice flour every day from a from a machine that made it for me and and all the different stuff and craft macaroni and cheese. Like, no. I I can't ever say that. It's always been I was serving myself with my money, and I was making it my master. And making certain that I was incredibly comfortable, and I had to sacrifice the least amount. And then something hit me, and I immediately started saying, woe is me.

God is is forsaking me with the fact that I now owe money that I could very easily come up with if I just took out a couple of things. Right. And so it just it it

within the last couple of hours, just completely punched me because I started texting people and telling them how unfair it was that that this had just happened to me and I now owe this money. And I was trying to figure out how I can get out of it. And then God kinda smacked me upside the head and said, hey, man. What do you think you could do with all the cash that you're spending on the food that you eat? When was the last time you went a week without going out to eat? When was the last time you went three days without going out and being able to say to your friends, no matter what the situation was, yes, I have enough cash to do that. Let's go.

When was the last time you actually sacrificed any amount of your pleasure and your comfort when it comes to the buffer that you have for money? And when was the last time you honestly had to look to God for help for with it? Long time. It's been a long time, and I would I would be hard pressed to find someone who can honestly say that they don't find themselves in that situation every once in a while, if not constantly. If you're thinking to yourself, my financial hardship is in no way my fault,

and everything that I'm running into was because of the fat well, was because of God, and it had nothing to do with my dishonesty with money and my comfortability because the money that I have. I'd probably challenge you on that in many situations. I'm sure there's someone out there, but I would I'd really be interested to see who that person is. No. I'm pretty sure there ain't, buvo. I think you're right. Carte Blanche, 100%. Yeah. So

here's my here's my pope style. The next time you find yourself in a financial hardship, maybe don't run just straight to God and say, hey. This is your fault. How are you gonna get me out of it? Maybe it's a time when you should step back and go, what have I done to serve money recently instead of God? I think that's solid. Yeah. Yeah. No. I'd agree with that. You know, it's funny that you bring that up, Buba, because, you know, we worship a lot of things in a lot of ways. And, like, it's you don't realize on how tight you hold on to them,

until they're you're you're forcing yourself to stay away from. Right? Like and and we've we worship things that that, aren't as glamorous as like like, we we characterize in Bible stories. Right? We always say don't worship money. Don't worship don't worship money. And the truth of matter is I went through this about it was almost exactly a year ago is, I worship the the convenience of things. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Gas station visits or grabbing something to eat or whatever. You know, I went out. And so

the lady and I went on, yeah. I mean, it was like a strict Daniel fast kind of thing. You know? And, like, you can't just buy that stuff at the Casey's. I think there was one item I could eat at the Casey's, and it was like a prepackaged dill pickle. And it was the only thing that didn't include some of the ingredients I wasn't supposed to have or whatever. Right? But, like, it wasn't so much the food that was the driver for me. It wasn't that big of a deal. I don't really worship food like that. Right? But it was a lot more the convenience of the thing. Right? Not like not being able to just stop whenever I wanted, spend the money whenever I wanted, get something fast and now, and move on. It's hot and ready, and let's go. Like, I had to I had to plan some things out, and, I had to watch what what I was doing. I had to say no to certain things. I couldn't go out to to eat with certain people, because they just they weren't going to a restaurant that literally served anything that I could eat.

And, like, that was for some reason, that two weeks that I did that just I mean, it just followed me around all year, you know, until here we are a year later. And it's it's it's a problem again. But we can talk about that later. But Right. But it's it's it's funny like when you when you say, look, I'm I'm not gonna worship this thing, and I'm gonna set a time limit on it. And like even if it seems small to everybody else, but it's huge to you. You know, like people can't say, well, what's the big deal with the guy that stops at the gas station every once in a while? Well, it turns out it's a big deal to you. Yeah. And so, like, when you say, look, it's it has to end. This part has to end. And I I'm not saying that it's gonna bring me on a path to righteousness before the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm just saying that I spend a lot of time and money invested here, and it's gotta move. And I I I think I think you're right, Moovid. Like, you everybody can pick their poison on the things that they choose to worship, and you realize how much time and money you actually do have when you stop worshiping those things. Yeah. Anyway,

get off boov Islam. Yeah. Get off Islam. Yeah. Pseudopope style. Mike Mike, did you wanna save yours or do you got stuff? No. We better skip it, man. Okay. Alright. Do you do you have a any dear life from the past? We can do a couple, then we'll call this thing a day. We can probably do we can probably do one. Hang on. I wasn't quite as ready as you had thought. Hey, man. So recently, a buddy of mine went to Canada for a trip, and he posted some stuff on Facebook about a McDonald's up in Canada

that has I don't know if I'd call it a gourmet menu. But, like, they have this you can sit down at your table, and you can order from your table menu where you can pick your bun. And it's not just like the sesame seed bun. You can get, like, a brioche bun Yeah. Yeah. Onion roll Yeah. And, like, all this different stuff and a couple of different other fancy buns, then you can get it says like the premium all beef patty, then you could choose the cheese, which is like I love the way they verb it or put it because it's like McDonald's classic cheese. And they have cheddar cheese and then pepper jack and stuff like that. Yeah. McDonald's classic cheese is one of the most terrifying things I've ever heard in my entire life. Yeah. Boy, yeah. But then it has all these, like, crisp

and and fresh vegetables you can put on this thing. It's like an $8 burger, but it looks like a legitimately the like the a restaurant style burger that looks delicious. I I don't know if we have any of The United States or anything like that, but he posted this on Facebook and showed me. What I think whatever. I saw I think I saw it on food channel. I think there's one outside that the Vanderbilt Mansion or the Biltmore. The Biltmore Estate. Somewhere down south. Okay. I think they've got like a real fancy McDonald's just like across the street or whatever. And, yeah, it looks like a real nice joint. Yeah. I'm I'm excited. Like, I can't eat it. Fast food and I cannot get along in any way, shape, or form without me immediately run into it and then being an issue. Yeah. But if you guys ever find yourself eating that thing, you let me know if it's good. Okay. Yeah. Alright.

Dear life from the path. I've been married for fourteen years. My wife is a liar and lies about small things. I realized it about ten years ago, and I've tried to reason with her. We have two daughters, and the older one is like her mom and is also has a habit of lying. Over the last few years, I've started calling my wife on it whenever she lies to me. For the last eight months, we have not talked, and we sleep in different rooms. She has never made an effort to fix our relationship. I want a divorce, but for the kid's sake, I'm not talking about it or forcing the issue. I'm very depressed, and I don't know what to do. I've started drinking a lot that night when everybody in the house is asleep. I call it losing weight. Wow.

Hey. Listen, man. Good day. You didn't call in and ask him for advice on one situation. You brought, like, ten. Eleven. There's a lot of stuff going on at your place, dude. Yeah. Okay. Anybody wanna offer advice to this fella? Do want me to hit the major points again? Was that it? That's the end? Yeah. Yeah. Fourteen year married. Wife tells lies.

Two kids. Gunnar gasp for divorce, but not really bringing it up. Haven't slept in the same room for eight months. She don't wanna fix the relationship. He's depressed. Drinking heavy. Pull it together. He's had it in Georgia. He's fed up. No. Yeah. He needs to pull it together. Has he tried to have a conversation with his wife about this? I don't know if if that was in there at all.

Like, actually, tell her. I've tried to have a conversation with my wife about these things, but to no avail. Chances are he's pansy and out of that. I'm willing to make a harsh judgment on this guy. I feel like I feel like he's had a pansy conversation with her. When he says she's lying, like, I feel like I need some more distinction about the lies. Not that not that like I mean, obviously,

morally, there's not there's not an acceptable lie and non acceptable lie. Like, you shouldn't be telling lies. But like, I just wonder to the extent that this has been going on for ten years in his marriage. What did say? Eight years ago? Ten years. Ten years ago. So and he's been married for fourteen. So so so four years into his marriage, he finds out that his wife tells lies. He's been is it calling her out on it? Yeah. Like, I I think I'd probably have to know, what's she lying about? Like, is it because is is she actually

she says, hey hey, did you spend a $100 at the store? She's like, no, I spent 10. When she obviously spent a 100, is that type of thing? Or like, you're wearing a pink hat. No, I'm not. Yeah. No, I'm not. Yeah. Yeah. You are. It's it's purple. No. Yeah. That's weird. Now here's the thing. I hate feeling this way about people, but like,

there there's way too many glaring neon signs in this letter to make me think that he's being a 100% honest. Do know I'm saying? Yeah. Like, she tells lies. My daughter tells lies. We don't stay in the same room. I wanna fix it. She don't wanna fix it. I'm thinking about divorce, but I'm altruistic and wanna keep it in line for the kids. Here's the like, he's admitted to the I'm drinking a lot lately, but here's what he didn't say, I need to work on that or I need to stop. His his heading was, I've had it in Georgia. Like, here's the reason I'm justifying my drinking Yeah. Is because she's so bad. What am I gonna do about this situation? Well, why don't you stop acting like a jackwagon? Why don't you try that? Why don't you stop drinking? Why don't you try to try to spend some time with your kids and impress upon them the reason that we don't tell lies and and handle yourself,

and then you can work on this thing. But, like, you have a lot of finger pointing going around that doesn't seem to be coming to the source of the problem, which is which is yours. Some of this stuff is is not only what's going on around you, but how you handle it. You're choosing to to demonize all of this stuff. Now granted, the lying's not a good thing, and it does need to change. Right? But, like, do you react so poorly to bad news that she has no choice but to tell lies? Right? Does the smallest thing set you ablaze? If someone says, hey, look. I accidentally ran over the mailbox. Do you turn into a crazed ape? Because, I mean, people only tell tell lies when they think the outcome of the lie is better than the outcome of the truth. And there's some cowardice involved on the on the liar's end. But if there's some truth on on the end that where you completely overreact every time you hear something, you you might be playing a small part in the monster you created. Yeah. So I I don't know, man. You sound kinda like a pain to me. Yeah. He's playing both the hero and the victim in his own story. Yeah. Yeah. Which I mean makes for a real good movie except for it's it's fiction. Yeah. Like, I would like to see a letter from a guy that says, dear dear life in the path. I'm 85 years old. I found out fifty years ago that my wife tells lies.

I've been sticking around in the marriage to serve her, to show her the love of Jesus. My kids are kind of off the path. I'm working to continue to build relationships with them. I really could appreciate your prayers. Yeah. I struggle with alcoholism on occasion. Yeah. Don't want to. Sometimes I take to to to drinking about it. I know that's not healthy for me. So if you guys could pray for me, that would be great. Love 85 year old man. Yeah. Man, how awesome would that be? Like, not the situation, but like that guy's character. Yeah. Yeah. My wife my she she she suggested we sleep in separate rooms. I said I prefer not to. I'm still here.

I'm texting you. I'm hip with the times. I think it's because I drink. I sent you emojis. Let's see what, secular's advice is. It's time to take a step back and review what's happened in your marriage in the sober light of day. Neither you nor your wife is communicating on a meaningful level. Drowning your sorrows and alcohol won't fix what's wrong in your relationship with a compulsive liar, and neither will tolerating the status quo. You say you want a divorce, but haven't mentioned it, for your children's sake. However, the silent anger and hostility in your home isn't a healthy environment for them. Do you really want them to grow up thinking this is normal? The I think this is funny. Right? This is not why don't you stop the silent anger and hostility in your house? It's you should just get a divorce so that stops happening. That's terrible advice. Yeah. If you or your wife is concerned about how your behavior is affecting your daughter, start talking with a licensed marriage counselor to see if your marriage can be revived. If it can't be, then it might be healthier to consult an attorney and make the split as amicable as possible for everyone's emotional and financial sake. Yeah. That sounds like a good way to trigger it. Hey. Before I talk to you and try to actually resolve this, even if you're getting a divorce and besides talking to each other, we thought, let's just bring the attorney in. That doesn't feel forceful by any means. I I I am flabbergasted.

I'm flabbergasted at people's inability to talk to each other. To keep That's the root of 80% of the ones we do it. I just I just don't know. I don't understand, like, how do I well, here here's the thing. I do understand how people's lives have such a spiral trajectory

when they can't seem to be able to communicate. When you can't say something that you want to say to somebody and feel like you're being understood. Like, the the this is kids get frustrated doing this. Marriages get get have problems with this. Friendships break up because of this. You have something that you mean to say to somebody, and you wanna communicate it, and you either are don't have any stones to do it, or you try to say something and it's clear that this person doesn't understand you. The the not being understood is actually a pretty big weight to bear. So I mean, that's frankly worth knowing being on the other side of people who are trying to communicate things that they're struggling with or whatever.

Just recognize it. Like, that's difficult. But I just I don't understand how you could, how people can get so motivated to solve problems in such the wrong way.

Right? Like, your if your gap is is that you're not communicating, start talking. And if you can't talk, write it down. And if you can't write it down, dictate it to someone and have him bring it over and sing it in the telegram. Like, figure it out. Take some initiative that says, I want to communicate something, and I'll figure out how to do it. Like, what actually, I I thought of this I don't remember what terms I I was thinking of this, but it was it was earlier today. I I thought, like, how much how much things how many things were in my life where, like, I do the hard thing? Like, if it was what was the example I thought in my head? Oh, I I I know. I was studying. I was doing some revelation study. And then I thought, like, for some reason, it popped in my head. What what if the only way to get the information that I was getting out of the particular commentary that I was reading was I had to go downtown and sign something and wait four hours, and then they would let me look at it for half an hour. And don't don't ask why I had this in my mind. I don't know. I have no idea why why I'm considering this would be difficult. But I thought, like, everything is so easy for me. I have

I have commentaries at my disposal to read as I see fit. I have I have time. My job is is they're pretty flexible with me. But like, my wife is pretty gracious with me in the amount of time I have to spend doing something. Like, there's just not a lot of times where, like, it's my life is flat out difficult to accomplish something. Would I do it if it was hard? How many things would I do I do if they were actually difficult to accomplish if it if it was was or would I just say, hey, that's that's that's too much of an inconvenience. It's too difficult. I really am not gonna do it. And, like, how much of that then flows into how people actually interact in the relationships? We're, like, I I I don't have a I can I generally talk things out with my wife, but it's pretty easy? My wife's pretty easy to deal with. Right? But, like, if my wife was actually awful to deal with, how many times would I put that up with them? Like, you know, I'm never not gonna deal with this anymore. And that's what they're running into is that, like, we've just kinda lost the will to do the hard thing even though it's the right thing. We just get really jazzed up. It's like, you know what? I'm doing my call. I'm gonna call this, and this will straighten it out, or I'm gonna take steps. Right? You know, I'm just gonna take up drinking. Maybe that would that's straighten some stuff right out. And so, like, I I just it's just it's hard it's hard to think that the basic human desire is to felt feel like people understand you, and the thing that humans have the hardest thing doing is communicating with someone and to get that very thing across.

Boy, I agree with you, but I I I feel like the solution is much simpler than that. I I I think you nailed it on the head. I think people are just cowardly. Like, they're they're they just don't wanna say what they're thinking or how they're thinking it because they're so afraid of the other person's reaction. And so they dance around it or they give half of it or test the waters. And, like, some of that is just being a yes, yes, no, no integrity based conversation.

Do you know what I'm saying? Like, I I just can't we we we talked about this a little bit last week, but, like, I just can't I don't understand how people can live in a world where your yes is not a yes and your no is not a no. Where you're like, you're you're always playing some kind of political football with everybody. Your family, your kids, your your job. The the even the the the guy who calls you and and tries to sell you something that you didn't want. Right? Like, you're always playing some kind of weird game with them where you're like, yeah. No. You're just taking me off the list. Instead of just like, look, man. I'm not on your list. Don't call me no more. I know it's your job. I'll talk to you later. You know what I'm saying? Like, you could be and here's the thing is you can be you can be honest about disapproval without being angry.

And, like, that I never see. Right? They always feel like they have to communicate their emotion through their words and how they're feeling is way more important about what than what the words are coming out of their mouth. You can be disappointed with somebody and tell them so without hating them or without, like, changing your or your behavior around it. Right? These are yes, yes, no, no principles. Actually, but that's the root of people not really communicate though. It's like, because they don't feel like they're communicating well or they wanna drive home a point, they have to load it with things. They have to load it with judgment or with guilt or with being hurt or whatever it is because they simply they wanna be able to someone, hey. I'm hurt. I I was harmed by what you did. But but they they don't people stink at doing that through words in an honest way or in a way that's not loaded with, and I also want you to feel it. The the the it's the desire that says, I want you to feel what I feel. I want you to,

like, if I was hurt, I want recompense. I want you to hurt also. And the truth is, like, that's understandable. It's just not biblical. Right. That's not how forgiveness works, and frankly, it doesn't it doesn't tend to rectify your situation. It just brought someone down to your level because you hurt me. I want you to be hurt as well. And the thing is we say, I never would want you to go through the hurt that I'm going through, but but we lay we guilt people in such a way that's really actually what we do want. We want you to feel what you had someone had done to us. And so, like, that's why those conversations tend to be laced so poorly and and framed in those ways is because we just want to be understood. And to the extent that we can't be, we gotta load stuff up. And, like, that that that is ineffective communication. It's just a someone takes a takes a bat to your head and your resolutions will at least I could club them with the bat. Like, that actually is solving problems. Feels like. Yeah. Instead of just, hey, man. You live with that bat. Never heard bat. Yeah. Why the hell do you live with this bat? It's outrageous behavior. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. No. I agree. Alright. You're listening to Live From The Past. I don't know. Work on that. Seems like that seems to be a universal problem. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good luck. Read the kids read the the Bible to your kids, man. Jump right into that stuff. You read it faithfully and follow Jesus and read it to your kids, and things are gonna be just fine. And and, frankly, kids will feel your excitement for it. I love reading the Bible. Like, I love to read stuff. I mean, unlike anybody else, sometimes I have trouble doing it consistently. But I'll be honest with you, when I pick it up, I I like to read it. I like to dig and see what God's God's got going on. And I and I'm excited to share that with my kids. If you cultivate that love in your own life, study it,

then that will pass on to your kids. And if I can give you some advice, it's get engaged with good people that are teaching the bible. It it helps you get excited. It opens it up if you're limited by your own understanding. He's got preachers and teachers, people that can help you out to get excited about what's what's going on in God's word and help you to read it for its fullness. So jump in on that and work on communicating with everybody you know and maybe show them how to communicate, maybe facilitate good things like that with Pope. And for Pope's Pope's style, I suppose just what's on the table? That's what it's really the question. Right? It's like, are you asking God to solve problems within the parameters of what you're willing to give? Are you saying God everything's on the table,

especially with money? What am I what am I holding back and saying I'm not willing to give up my lifestyle, my way of living? I'm not willing to be inconvenienced for these things. Or is it saying, you know what? God, pray that you'll provide. If that if that if there's any way to do it within my means, help me to do it. If you're gonna otherwise provide it, do that. So put everything on the table. You listen to Life From The Path. We'll see you next week. Check us out online at lifefromthepath.org. Thanks for listening.