Join me with my  guest, Ann Dunagan for a conversation that will help you keep Christ at the center of your Christmas celebration. Merry Christmas!

Ann Dunagan is a missions leader with Harvest Ministry, director of Daring Daughters, mobilizer with Mission-Minded Families, and global-mom with 7 kids (and a growing number of married-in-spouses and grandchildren). Since 1987, the Dunagan family have been sharing the love of Jesus in over 100 nations, caring for 1000+ orphan children in Africa and Asia, and overseeing 450+ remote village churches. Ann’s books include:

The Mission-Minded Child (for parents)
The Mission-Minded Family (for parents),
Teaching With God’s Heart for the World, Volumes I and II (for homeschooling families)
The Scarlet Cord: Nothing but the Blood of Jesus (co-authored with her husband Jon Dunagan),
The Whole World Needs Jesus (for children),
and coming soon in 2018 . . . The Fishless Fisherman (for children)

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TRANSCRIBED PODCAST BELOW

Hey everybody, this is Heidi St. John, welcome to the podcast! Today is Friday December 21st. It is episode number 704 here at the podcast, and I am excited today because my friend Ann Dunagan is back on the show with me – and we’re going to be talking about how to have a Mission Minded Christmas!

Stick around, I think you’re going to be encouraged.

So you guys, we’re just a couple days away from Christmas now. I’m hoping that your lives have kind of settled down a little bit. Our family decided to take two weeks off this year. So what I mean by that is – we cleared everything on our calendars off and we bumped some people out and we decided that we’re gonna keep doing that because we need some white space if we want to make memories, and we want to have some time to sit around and play board games, and enjoy the time that we have off from school and from the normal hustle and bustle of life.

It’s good to create some white space. The other thing that we’ve really wanted to do with our children, and I find – and I know – Ann, we’re going to talk about this in a minute — but I find as my kids are getting older I am becoming more and more aware of the preciousness of their season of life when they were little. And I think when you’re in the middle of that it’s easy to forget because we’re so inundated with all the things to do and there’s Christmas parties, and Christmas caroling, and Christmas cookie bake-offs – and all those things. And we lose sight of why we’re doing what we’re doing – and so Ann’s going to come back on today and we’re going to talk a little bit about having a mission-minded Christmas. Ann Dunagan, I love you, friend, thanks for coming back.

[Ann Dunagan] Thank you.

[Heidi St. John] So you and I have first of all – you’ve raised seven children and you are at the end of the raising of your children phase of your life. Yes?

[Ann Dunagan] Yes.

[Heidi St. John] And I also have seven children but you’re a few years ahead of me and I just watch with amazement and wonder as the Lord is just expanding your family, and allowing you opportune to speak into the lives of younger parents – which is kind of what we want to do today and sort of turn the hearts of parents toward the Lord Jesus so they can point their children to the Lord Jesus. And you have a passion for helping families do that. And so your idea to do a mission mine a Christmas and I was like – great, awesome!

When you think of Mission Minded Christmas, what do you think of?

[Ann Dunagan] I think of how Jesus left everything to come to this earth. It wasn’t about just tons of presents, and stuff, and busyness. It was Jesus surrendering everything, leaving Heaven to come to this earth. It was about Mary surrendering her life and just, you know, just – be it unto me according to Your Word. And for her to trust God enough to – you know, go and follow that census not knowing if the baby was going to come during that time, and so she’s headed, you know, on a donkey –  going to Bethlehem.

I just believe there was such a trust in her heart that she just knew – God’s got this! I mean, God is the one to put this baby inside of me and this baby is gonna be born at just the right time. And I just – I love Christmas time. It’s my favorite season of the year. I. I love all the lights. We have fun with decorations. I thoroughly enjoy the Christmas season, but I do know that as a family you have to be intentional about calming down. You had to be intentional about bringing a spiritual focus to this season.

And even to specifically focus on how can we even be more intentional about sharing the gospel – maybe with family, with people around us who don’t know Jesus, with even with our churches. How can we be intentional to realize Jesus didn’t just come for us. He came from the world. You know – Joy to the world, The Lord has come!

[Heidi St. John] I love that. And for the mom… and we’re at we’re at the 21st of December now. And I imagine that there are parents listening to this right now and there’s like – oh we didn’t do that this year, we felt like Santa and a sleigh just overran our family, and now we’re so close to Christmas – how can we pull it back in?

But it’s never too late.

[Ann Dunagan] Oh, it’s never too late.

[Heidi St. John] And so we’re not here to give any kind of condemnation or say – hey you know, if you didn’t do this you didn’t do it right. We’re saying – hey, pull back a little bit. Where are some good places start for that family who’s like – oh my goodness, I want my children to really really really know that Jesus is the reason for the season?

We see the T-shirts, and we argue about Starbucks cups, and we do all those things. But at the end of the day you’re absolutely right. This season is about the Lord Jesus giving up heaven. He gave it up to come down here into the most humble of circumstances, born and placed in a manger. What an incredible story.

[Ann Dunagan] Yeah. To realize it’s not just presents – but the presence of the Lord. And even just like our presence of time that we can have with our children, or the presence that we have as we are with our loved ones and our relatives that of just bringing the presence of the Lord.

A couple of things at this stage of the game, you know – just a few days before Christmas maybe turn out the lights, light a few candles, and just read the Christmas story from Luke Chapter 2. It’s very very simple but it just brings that focus. I love the part where the angels said good news, you know, fear not for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. It is not just for us.

The message of the gospel, the message of Jesus coming — it is for all people and we’re not to be afraid. I think another really good focus at this stage is — as we go and as we’re around relatives – ok sometimes that can be volatile, sometimes that can be touchy, sometimes it can be stressful, there can be contentions and stress. How can we as a family go into a relative situation, you know, into where extended families are — with peace, with joy. You know, how could we even as a family present the message of the gospel in a way that wouldn’t be threatening. And I think a lot of times even just as we go with young children – you can, like the children could make like little pictures of the Nativity to give to grandparents, or the children could put on a very simple little nativity scene and sing a couple songs.

[Heidi St. John] Have you seen see the little people version?

[Ann Dunagan] Oh, yes. We haven’t for all of our grandchildren.

[Heidi St. John] We do too. So I love that Nativity set and we take it out every year around first of December and we will play with our kids, with our grandkids now, and we’ll play and have them tell the story. And it is so sweet and it’s not threatening. You know if you say – hey are kids been practicing you could put your little nativity set, or you can do you know that the little paper cut outs – they’re all over the internet. The little paper cutouts for Nativity. Have your kids tell the Christmas story and there’s something so precious about hearing that from a child.

[Ann Dunagan] Something we did when our children were young,  and we’re bringing back this old tradition that we had. We call it the hunt for baby Jesus. And it’s where we have the older kids will take the nativity set out into the woods, or just outside in the dark somewhere – nobody knows where they’re going to put it. And then they usually put some little candles around it. And we have some like hot chocolate, we had like a little Christmas cookies and then we all bundle up with all the little kids, and we take flashlights and we go out and we sing like, you know — We Three Kings, Following the Star, and you know – we sing other songs, Away in a Manger, and Oh Little Town of Bethlehem as we’re going out into the woods.

It doesn’t take very long. It takes about 10 15 minutes. We follow the little candles, and then we figure out where it is – and then when we get there we sing a couple Christmas songs and say Luke 2.

And when kind of shake it up a little where you’re creating a memory where you’re like outside, and it’s a little bit different. It’s a memory. And then I think also just to pray ahead of time before you go into your extended family situation. So to pray that we would be a light for Jesus among our relatives, and maybe we could have like a little family candlelight service before the present opening time, and you know just pray together – or have the grandchildren say a little something, sing a little song, that would bring Jesus and bring the gospel into our extended families.

[Heidi St. John] This really is such a great time of year to do it because it kind of is one of the only times that our kids can really talk openly about Jesus because Christmas is about Christ. It really is. I mean we’re trying to, you know, wash Him out of the culture and replace him with Santa Claus, but you can’t.

[Ann Dunagan] And it’s getting better.

[Heidi St. John] It is getting better!

[Ann Dunagan] I think is getting better easier to say Merry Christmas and as family. You can even do something like have a birthday cake and actually sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, which just brings that attention back. Or to take maybe an afternoon right near Christmas and go – either go out into a park, or go into like a nursing home facility, and there’s probably people that don’t have family that are coming in and they’re alone. We had, a couple of years ago my dad had had a stroke and so we brought the whole family to him because he couldn’t be home for Christmas. So we all, and we did a little family nativity inside of the nursing home where he was staying –  but then also my husband disappeared and we couldn’t find him anywhere! What happened to John?

And it turned out that my husband had gone into one of the rooms, this is actually the room that my dad had been rooming with – and he was sharing the gospel with this elderly man and the man prayed to receive Jesus Christ on Christmas Eve.

[Heidi St. John] Oh my goodness!

[Ann Dunagan] It was so beautiful!

[Heidi St. John] How did John know? So here’s the question everybody listening is going -I don’t have that kind of guts, I don’t think I could do that.

John really has the gift of evangelism, and you do too. My grandmother did – so we would take the bus into downtown Portland. I was a kid, and Grandma – I mean people on the bus were getting saved. She was talking to everybody about everywhere we went  – you know have you met my Jesus – that’s how she would, and I you know I’m next to her, you know – 10 years old, bury my head. Not Grandma, come on!

Do we have to do this?  I asked her one day like — Grandma, on the bus? Really?  And she’s like – Heidi the whole world needs Jesus, they need Jesus. And it just burned inside of her. And I think about that so often because part of it – we’re just so driven by our fear. And I wonder did this guy come out and John catches his eye? Or did the Holy Spirit just say – hey, go wandering down the hallway? or how did he end up talking to this gentleman?

[Ann Dunagan] Well he was stuck in his room. He couldn’t come out to where we were. So he was all by himself. And my husband felt drawn to just go and sit and talk to the man for a while – and you know my mom had been sharing with him, and my dad had been – my dad couldn’t talk very much at that time. But he definitely was having people around him sharing the gospel. But it was – you know sometimes people just actually, they are ready to just yes.

And what a beautiful time – would you like to pray and receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior on Christmas Eve! What would be a better time to do that!

One time I got in a conversation with someone on top of the Eiffel Tower, and I was talking to them about Jesus and what it means to be a Christian. And I’m like – how would you like to accept Jesus right here, right now? He’s like – right here? I was like-  what would be a better place, on top of the Eiffel Tower? That would be the most incredible memory! And he was like – Yeah it would be. And I I’d prayed with someone on top of the Eiffel Tower to surrender their life to Jesus.

Yesterday I was talking with, we were recording this a little bit ahead of time, but I was talking with a son that is at Liberty University right now – he’s actually taking an evangelism class. And one of the assignments in the class is that they have to talk to someone who doesn’t know Jesus. Well he doesn’t have a car, and he’s on campus, he didn’t even leave campus for fall break. He just stayed on campus to do some homework. And then on the Thanksgiving break, he just went to a Christian family’s house in the middle of nowhere.

He has not been able to find anyone who doesn’t know Jesus. I’m like – now come on, there has got to be. So I’m trying to brainstorm – how can you find people who don’t know Jesus, on you know, Liberty University campus – where you know, practically everyone is Christian. I said – I know that not everyone on that campus is a Christian.

You know you can go to a ballgame and there’ll be people from another school coming in. There’ll be people. What about over by the visitors center. Maybe there’s homeless people on the street, you can talk to them.

So I was just brainstorming all kinds of ways of how he could you know go and share the gospel. At Christmas time we could take like a  carafe of hot cocoa and go out on the streets, and you know maybe just have a little – we did it before, we’d put a little verse on the cups that would say like, you know – you’re sweet, and Jesus loves you. Something just kind of like that or an invitation to a church service or a special Christmas service and just to pass those out. We’re past the Operation Christmas Child time.

[Heidi St. John]  Yeah we did that here at the Resource Center.

[Ann Dunagan] But that’s always a fun thing of every year of being able to do that. In our home we have areas of those decorations where we actually have little trees with globes around them. And we have like these little ornaments that have little passports on and where it’s kind of our little area that focuses on that we need to take the Christmas story to the world. It’s not just for us.

[Heidi St. John] I think people, I think sometimes we’re afraid because we don’t – we have forgotten what it’s like to have that own, that hunger in our own hearts. You know?

I was talking to a bunch of moms at a conference recently about — we decided to take about half an hour, and just remember – where we were when we first realized that Jesus loved us, where were we when we first were touched by the message of the gospel? And we forget that passion and that zeal – and you know it dawns on you – Oh my goodness He loves me! He loves me. He sent His Son, God sent His Son to die for me. And it’s a message of hope, and it’s a message of joy. And you never know who’s gone before you ‘till the soil. Right?

[Ann Dunagan] Yeah

[Heidi St. John] Yeah

[Ann Dunagan] In my book The MMission-MindedFamily we have a couple of Christmas stories and one of them is there were some Christians in Liberia, West Africa – and it says it was Christmas and the Liberian Christians had been asked this year instead of receiving gifts to help carry the gospel to others — and many mission fields they brought not money but produce! So presently the great plates were piled high with offerings of rice, and cocoa, and bananas, and palm nuts, pineapple, and cassava.

And there was a moment’s pause. Slowly a 12 year old boy walked forward and solemnly placed his feet in one of the plates. And afterwards, when the missionary questioned him the boy said – We are very poor. I did not have anything else to give. So I gave myself.

And there’s another one that is – I’ll Be Home for Christmas – and I know as our children start growing up we can sometimes feel that it is our right for our children to come home and be with us for Christmas. And to just really surrender that to the Lord. And just to be happy when they even go over there with the other side of the family at Christmas time. And realize that Jesus actually was not home for Christmas. That Jesus left home in Heaven to come and surrender everything at Christmas time.

And this is a little story about Wycliffe Bible Translators and it says – Only a few days before Christmas says Bernie Mae, a pilot for Wycliffe Bible Translators, successfully delivered emergency medical supplies to the isolated Amazon village. Now he eagerly anticipated being back with his wife and children in their South American home away from home. Yet as the evening drew dark,  he knew he would not be able to fly out until morning. With his pontoon plane waiting on the river Bernie arranged for temporary protection for the night, but then it began to rain. The rain continued even up until Christmas Eve as the missionary felt increasingly depressed by his misfortune. His wife Nancy and their boys were six hours away, and by this time they would have received his radio message. He would not be home for Christmas. As a family, they had prepared their hearts to be separated from their loved ones and friends. But it was Christmas Eve and they were now separated from each other.

Back in Pennsylvania, everyone would be coming home from church to the sound of caroling and the smell of roasting turkey and the sight of falling snow. But where was God’s missionary? Here he was, stuck in a remote jungle in a makeshift shelter, in the pouring rain, alone. He said. Oh God! I moaned. I’m in the wrong place! But that night under my mosquito net I had a visitation from God. Something like those shepherds must have had on the hills of Bethlehem. There were no angels and no bright lights. But as I lay there in my hammock desperately homesick I felt I heard God say – My son, this is what Christmas is all about. Jesus left heaven, and on Christmas morning He woke up in the wrong place – a stable in Bethlehem. Christmas means leaving home, not going home. My only begotten Son did not come home for Christmas. He left home to be with you.

[Heidi St. John] Wow. That’s amazing. That puts it in perspective. Ann Dunagan, thank you so much for coming and ministering to our listeners today. And I know that as we’re getting close to Christmas, I thought I’d be just a sweet thing to do, to have you close this out in a word a prayer for these families who are listening and thinking of ways that they can point their children to Jesus, and that the whole world really does need Him. Would you mind closeness and prayer?

[Ann Dunagan] Father we just thank you so much, for your love for us. Jesus, we thank you that you came to this earth to be born, and to live, and to die. And Holy Spirit – we just are so thankful for just Your presence with us, and we just invite Your presence Lord God , Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – to be with us this Christmas season. Give us Your wisdom in raising, and training, and just bringing times of a quietness to our family. Give us your passion for those around us who don’t know You. Lord help us to not be afraid. Fear not for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. Lord help us to not be afraid, but help us to bring your joy to our family, to our extended family, and to those who have never hurt you before. We love you, Lord. Thank you for Christmas.

[Heidi St. John] Amen. Amen. Thank you Ann for coming on the show today.

Everybody if you want more information about Ann Dunagan and their families ministry to families, I will link back to the Dunagan’s in the show notes today.

Have a great weekend everybody – it’s almost Christmas and I’ll see you back here on Monday.

In your part of the world, how do people define happiness? In other words, what’s the difference between happiness and JOY. You see, most people define happiness as a pleasure or an enjoyment. I’m telling you what – it’s found in the Word of God and in walking in right relationship with Him. Jesus isn’t hiding His JOY from you. He wants it to be in your grasp, and we’re talking about how to find it today!

Scriptures in Podcast

Psalm 63

1 Peter 1:3-9 NIV

1 Peter 1:3-5 ESV

James 1:12

Romans 10:17

Habakkuk 3:17-19

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Merry Christmas friends. This is Heidi St. John, welcome to the Heidi St. John podcast!

Today is Wednesday December 19th. This is episode number 703.

Today we’re going to be continuing the study at MomStrong International – InSearch of JOY. The JOY we are looking for is a deep foundational contentment. Let’s find out today how to get it!

Stick around, I think you’re going to be encouraged!  

All right you guys. So I am thrilled we are halfway through the month of December and just the other day we reached 10,000 members over at MomStrong International! So keep your eyes out on the forums, out on the chat rooms at MomStrong International – and we are going to start giving stuff away!

I cannot wait to see what God does in 2019 as we study His Word and continue to dig deeper for the answers that we’re looking for as we grapple with the questions of the culture right now.

Couple of things I want to let you know before we dig into today’s study. The first thing is that we have really amazing gift baskets for you at HeidiStJohn.com. If you search for the Heidi St. John Store you will see that we have necklaces. We have two different styles of arrows (here and here), and a Quiver Necklace, we have a brand new series of shirts in the store right now based out of the Psalms.One of them says He trains my hands for battle.

These are great gifts for the women in your life and for the young girls! Their wonderful gifts for your daughters – to let them know that they are arrows in the hands of their warrior Father, The King of kings, and the Lord of lords.

Also, you can get them in baskets. If you do the gift baskets they come with a limited release candle that has arrows, gold embossed arrows, all around it! So check it out at HeidiStJohn.com just click on the store and I hope that that will bless you! Also It blesses us – when you shop from that store it helps us with the ministry here.

Also wanted to let you know that we believe that giving the gift of membership to MomStrong International is a fantastic gift! It’s two dollars a week to sponsor somebody here at  MomStrong International and for that two dollars a week – as you guys know, you’re going to get a Bible study that is deep, and meaningful, and will hopefully draw you and your children into right relationship with God as we walk out our lives as believers. And that’s really what we’re trying to do at MomStrong International.

So, I want to thank you guys for coming. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. We are regularly hitting 50,000 downloads an episode now, and we’re just excited to hear from you! We love to get your feedback, by the way. And you can reach out to us anytime just simply send us an e-mail podcast@thebusymom.com. We have a staff that looks over those and we are getting your questions ready for the 2019 year!

If you have a question that you’d like to see addressed over at Mailbox Monday, the best way to do it is to put Mailbox Monday in the subject line and a shortened version of your question. So the topic of your question addressed to Mailbox Monday right in the subject line.

So you might say Mailbox Monday: Help, I have a three year old! Or something like that that helps us to make sure that those e-mails are seen and categorized appropriately, so that we can answer them on the podcast.

All right, let’s jump into today’s Bible Study we are going through. 1 Peter 1:3-9

The key verse this week is Psalm 63:3. So I’m going to give you an opportunity, if you haven’t done it already, to open up your Bibles and turn to Psalm 63 with me.

Women, I would love it if every time you listen to this on Wednesday – you had your Bibles out and you were ready to go with me. As we dig into and study the truths that are found in the Word of God. So we’re going to parse it out a little bit – but I’m going to start by just reading this to you.

Psalm 63:3. This one is actually out of the NLT

3 Your unfailing love is better than life itself;
   how I praise you!

This is David’s prayer. He’s saying that God is the one who satisfies our deepest longings. It’s the Lord who does that. And then 1 Peter 1:3-9 – I’m going to look it up in my Bible really quick.

So let’s dig into the Bible Study. Let’s open our Bibles to 1 Peter 1:3-9. I’m going to read it to you today out of the NIV.

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious JOY, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Let’s open up this study in a word of prayer.

Lord Jesus, I thank you Father for the opportunity that you give us to study Your Word. Wherever it reaches through this podcast, we praise you. Lord we praise you for the freedom that we have to speak Your Word here in the United States. And Father, I pray that Your Gospel might go forward bringing hope, and healing, and salvation to millions of people who have yet to hear it and believe. Father as we talk about JOY today, I pray that You would anoint my words. Lord, for the women who are listening to this who are struggling in their walk with You. Lord, who are struggling to see purpose in their life, who are frustrated or discouraged. Father I pray, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, that you would turn our eyes heavenward, toward You – and that You would change our hearts and that we would recognize that JOY comes only from You. As we study Biblical JOY, this Christmas Lord, I pray that You would help us to turn our eyes ever always only to You, in Jesus name amen.

So when you’re part of the world. Let’s talk about this for a second because this is part of the MomStrong International study. If you haven’t downloaded it yet you can actually download the notes and come along with me as we study the pursuit of JOY.

And I want to ask you – in your part of the world, how do people define happiness? In other words, what’s the difference between happiness and JOY. You see, most people define happiness as a pleasure or an enjoyment. So for example, you know – all your Christmas packages are wrapped before men and on December 23rd and you’re like — yes! I did it! My laundry’s done, the dishes are miraculously done by the time I go to bed and I feel happy, right?

I grabbed a great deal on a sweater that I’ve been eyeing. Happy, right? Sunny weather: #happy.

But JOY is different. JOY is defined by the world as a sense of deeper emotion. It’s peace and contentment a sense that all is well. Some of you were watching my Instagram stories last week and I was telling you that I spent the month of July and August — I literally tore my house apart. I’d been on the road (and which I’m getting ready to go back on the road again)…

I’d been on the road with my family for months and I was just so happy to be home and I wanted to — I just wanted to do anything that made me feel like I was living there and not living out of a suitcase in a hotel somewhere. And so I decided to get rid of almost everything that we had downstairs. You know – 30-year-old couches, and we ripped up a 20 some odd-year-old carpet. We painted all the walls. I mean I had my kids – they were working. They were what my mother used to call: singing for their supper. And we did that.

And on my Insta stories, I showed you sort of the net result of that, which was a very peaceful home. I got rid of a lot of stuff. You heard me talk about my striving to declutter our home in an effort to have it be more peaceful. And we realized a long time ago, right? As many of you have already realized – that contentment doesn’t come from any of the things that we do.

Peace can come with it, but it lasts for just a little while and that’s why I took a video of my family room. I was like – look, all is well. There’s peace in my home, there’s contentment- but you know what you guys? – it doesn’t last.

And Biblical JOY, which is what God says we want to search for, is neither one of these things. It’s not JOY as defined by the world. It’s not a sense of contentment or of peace that’s momentary. It’s not happiness which is really just an emotion that comes from pleasure and enjoyment.

The Bible says the Biblical JOY, the JOY that we are wanting, isn’t either one of these things. And this is what we want to teach our children, right? So in this study, for the whole month of MomStrong International, we’ve been fleshing out how Biblical JOY is different than the world’s definition of JOY.

So, and here’s the thing you guys – the Good Good News that we just read in 1 Peter 3:1-7 (NIV) is the phrase

6 In all this you greatly rejoice

because it’s looking back at all of the content in the verses before –

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable,

1 Peter 1:3-4 (ESV)

Which means it’s never going to it’s never gonna go away, it will never it will never fail, it will never disappear. It’s undefiled, it’s not going to fade away, it’s been reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power of God.

through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

1 Peter 1:5 (ESV)

Right? So as you think about this, and we look ahead, it helps us to feel a little bit more prepared to read verse 6 and the following – because we know that JOY, the real JOY, comes from the reinforced steel four-foot concrete slab of Truth that’s underneath our feet.

So listen to this women. So in this, which is what we just read in versus a 3 to 5 – we greatly rejoice. There it is. Even though now for a little while we’ve been distressed by trials. I think of my friends in paradise. I just got a message the other day from a friend who has a friend in the church over in China. The Chinese are being terribly persecuted for their faith right now. Part of the result of communism and wickedness, right? So that’s why, well it’s a whole other thing – but that’s why we pray for our people in government, for the men and women who are in our government because it actually matters. Right?

But though we’ve been distressed by trial – so that the proof of our faith which is more precious than gold, and even though it’s tested by fire – we want to be found to result in a life that’s giving praise, and awe, and glory, and honor to the Lord Jesus.

You see, this is the reason that we have JOY.

True JOY is a deep foundational contentment – knowing that no matter what is going on around us – all is well between me and my God. So Biblical JOY, not defined by your circumstances, has nothing to do with whether or not our husband said nice things to us, or our children were obedient, or we got everything done on our to-do list, or even if we have enough money to pay the rent.

JOY, Biblical JOY, is based on a spiritual reality – a fact of God being glorified in every circumstance.

It’s the unmistakable fingerprint of God in our lives. And when we’re walking in right relationship with Him, when we’re pursuing His purpose and walking rightly with Him – that’s when we get it! That’s when we get to experience it.

So think about this: When gold needs to be purified it’s put to an intense heat and this melts the gold and it raises any impurities to the surface. And the impurities then, are skimmed off and removed – and the resulting purification leaves that gold free from as much contamination as possible. And while God will not test or try us for the purpose of seeing us fall to evil -He doesn’t tempt us (if you don’t believe me read James 1:13. God doesn’t do that). In other words, God’s purposes are different. His testing is used to raise up the stuff in our character that inhibits us from becoming more like Him.

And this is always ever only for our good and His glory. You see – God never wastes our brokenness and He won’t waste the brokenness of our children either. I want you to keep this in mind when your children are going through troubles. And we talked about this last week, right? God allows afflictions and trials to cleanse us of things that stand in the way of us becoming more like Him. And true JOY, Biblical JOY, is a deep foundational contentment that tells me that no matter what’s going on in my life – all is well between me and God.

Do your children know that all is well between them and the Lord? Did they know that no matter what they do in this life –  JOY only comes from knowing that we are in right relationship with the Lord? You know, a lot of times we talk a lot about discipline and parenting on this podcast, partly because I’ve been privileged to raise seven children, and partly because I see a terrible lack of the understanding of the discipline process for our children.

We discipline our children so that they will walk in right relationship with God, so that they will learn how to treat other people, so they will learn the value of respect and obedience. And trials are for the adult, what discipline is for a child.

So we look at the trials in our lives as the Lord allowing us to be purified. Trials do to our faith what fire does to gold. And this process isn’t enjoyable, right?

And there’s a couple of ways we can respond. We can run away from the hard things. We can hide our kids from the pain that they surely are going to endure. And when we do that – we raise children with skinny spiritual muscles. They can’t hold themselves up in the current or the culture.

Men and women, when you recognize that your children are struggling in whatever reason – take the time and discipline them. Take the time and discipline them. Paul teaches us in his letter, and we talked about this in Blessings on the Battlefield. Yes. Last month in the month of November in week three, you can look back at it.

We can teach our children to respond with confidence with courage with perseverance and in so doing we prepare them for real life in the fallen world that we live in. Peter says in essence – shift your perspective Christian. Don’t waste the opportunity to grow. So in James 1:12 we read about trials. Where do these trials come from? What’s the purpose of the trials that come from the Lord? The Bible says to consider it all JOY knowing that the testing of our faith produces endurance. It produces endurance.

We talked about, many months ago, the difference between perseverance and endurance. I’m not going to go through it again  – if you want to you can hear that podcast, just probably if you just google it: Heidi St. John Perseverance versus Endurance.

But I want you to think about this, talk about this with your children. Why is endurance an important character trait that we want our children to learn? Why is it important? When trials come which of your parenting responses can interfere with God’s training of your children? And what are you going to do to retrain yourself for the good of your children’s relationship with Jesus?

We want to be thinking about these things because as I’m always telling you, mom and dad – some time, and it’s going to happen sooner than you may think, your children are going to grow up and they’re going to leave your home and they’re going to take their memories of you with them! And everything that you taught them or did not teach them about the Lord – they will take into a world that’s watching.

So as we think about what it means to pursue JOY, Let’s think about the things that we can build in place when the heat turns up in our lives that will remind us of God’s steadfast grip which holds us and causes our faith to grow.

In Romans 10:17 we see one sure practice. I’m going to let you look that up for yourselves. But I want you to be thinking about what other practices you can list. What are some things that you can do to ground yourself in the Word, to ground yourself in that truth.

You know I talk a lot about politics here at the podcast – and part of the reason I do that is because I want you to go back to the foundational truth that you know in God’s Word. Because the truth of God should impact every area of our lives.

It first should impact our personal lives. We should be different. The Gospel doesn’t doesn’t leave us where it finds us. It changes us. It grows us up so that when we encounter trials in our lives – our faith is not shaken. Our faith isn’t shaken. We need to think about some verses that you’ve gone to that encourage you when you’re feeling disoriented or you’re feeling discouraged.

A good place to start is head back at Habakkuk 3:17-19. Open your Bible today, do the Scripture Writing challenge with me, get in there with your kids. It’s so important for you to understand what it means to walk in right relationship with the Lord. And so if you haven’t done it this week – I would encourage you again open your Bible read 1 Peter 1:3-9 and then discuss with your children, or your husband, or your MomStrong Group — your response to the verses that you read.

I’m out of time for today but if you are not a member at MomStrong International you can find the study that I just did, including a whole lot more, as we dive into how you can be set free from anxiety that robs you of sleep in the middle of the night. How you can come up with different ways to to anchor your soul into the Holy Spirit and into Jesus as you study His Word? How do you get upheld when you’re walking through trials?

I’m telling you what – it’s found in the Word of God and in walking in right relationship with Him.

Let’s have this be our goal and our ambition and our desire for 2019 – that we would go beyond an obvious answer and marinate in the work and person of Jesus. That we would ask Him to show us what it is that we can do to be filled with JOY. That no matter what happens in politics, no matter what happens in the culture, no matter what’s happening in crazy downtown Portland, Oregon right now – I am not moved. My JOY cannot be taken from me because it has nothing to do with me it has everything to do with God and in the promises that are found in His Word.

And sweet mama, if there’s not much else around you that feels JOY-producing, I would encourage you right now – think on one simple way that you can realize the difference between a circumstantial happiness that’s found in your life, and a foundational JOY that comes from knowing that you are walking in right relationship with God.

And if the concept of foundational JOY, Biblical JOY, is a struggle for you to understand, it feels elusive to you — I want to just encourage you head on over to MomStrong International and go to the chat room and talk to a group leader there or another MSI girl, and ask you to pray for you.

Jesus isn’t hiding His JOY from you. He wants it to be in your grasp. Search for it in Him – the only right place to find it.

Thanks for listening to the Heidi St. John Podcast today! We love to hear from you. This is a wonderful time of year for you to encourage the ministry that’s happening here. We love to get Christmas cards from you. We love it if you would be considering supporting this ministry to become a member at MomStrong International. You can reach us by mail at 11100 NE 34th Circle Vancouver, Washington 98682.

Thanks for listening everybody, and I’ll see you back here for Meet-My-Friend-Friday in just a couple of days.

Anxiety is a real thing, and it seems to plague many today – myself included. Join me as we talk through Psalm 91 and see how the Lord wants us to deal with it. Can we be free?

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TRANSCRIBED VERSION OF PODCAST BELOW

Hey everybody, this is Heidi St. John – Welcome to the podcast!

I’m so glad that you guys have decided to join me this morning. Today is Monday, the 17th of December.

You guys – a week from today is going to be Christmas Eve and I’m just wondering – are you enjoying the season? For those of you who feel stressed and frustrated we’re going to be tackling a couple of questions today, particularly as it relates to the Word of God and what God says about our everyday lives, the Proverbs 31 woman, how do we pray with our kids, how do we handle the topic of fear.

Stick around, I think you’re going to be encouraged.

Well, you guys will notice that I have a little bit of a tickle in my voice today and I hope you’ll be patient with me. I have been down now for about five days with this crazy cold and so I’ve been babying my voice trying to get back on the podcast – but it still has a little bit of a crack in it. So if you’re wondering what’s going on with my voice-  that’s what it is.

Today’s mailbox Monday and as always – I love to answer your questions here.

Before I jumped into today’s questions though, I just want to let you know that we are still studying over at MomStrong International this topic of JOY- his idea that God wants us to have a joy that is so deep that nothing in the culture, nothing in our circumstances can affect the joy because it is the sign of the presence of God at work in our lives.

And I just want to encourage you toward that end today as we tackle some of these questions at Mailbox Monday. There is a great opportunity for you, it makes a great Christmas gift – to join MomStrong International. Join the membership over at MomStrong International we are releasing Bible studies there every month. The Scripture Writing community is growing and I just want to encourage you toward a place of turning to God’s Word for every aspect of your life.

You know, God isn’t silent on the issues that we’re facing in the culture today. He’s not silent on parenting, on marriage. He’s not silent on Creation. He’s not silent on human sexuality – and yet, we turn over and over to conventional wisdom and to pop culture – and we try to find our answers there when God’s word is saying – no no no, come back to the Lord, come to His Word. And so we’re going to do that today.  

I’m going to tackle as many questions as I can in the next 17 or 18 minutes or so.

So, I’m going to deal with the topic of fear and anxiety today for just a few minutes. I get asked this question quite a bit, but I’m going to read a letter from a listener today which I know is going to resonate with a lot of you. She writes:

Hi Heidi. I have been battling postpartum anxiety for almost a year and a half now. I found a lot of healing in God’s gift of anxiety medication and a wonderful therapist along with learning to dig into God’s word and lean into Him more. I decided to go off medication so that we can start trying for baby number two and I am much better than I was. But things trigger my anxiety anyways. I’m trying to stop by leaning into God’s truth more.

Okay, so a couple of things sweet girl. If you’ve read Becoming MomStrong you know I have battled with anxiety my whole life and it has taken me almost a lifetime to get off of the anti-anxiety medications that my doctors put me on when I was just 19 years old. And I want to just second what you’re saying because – if you read Becoming MomStrong you’ll see that the first time I went off of them was because I found out I was pregnant. And I didn’t want to be on medication while I was pregnant.

Well now that I’m coming up on 49 years old,  I just I’m learning more and more about trusting the Lord, trying to learn more about my body. You guys have heard me talk about essential oils, and supplements, and eating right, and all those things. It all goes into that healing that God has for us. But also, I think you’re totally right to realize there are some things that will sort of trigger anxiety. Like for me I know it’s when I don’t have any margin in my life – then I’m going to deal I’m going to struggle more with anxiety.

And I noticed that you have pointed out a particular trigger in your life, that is a trigger in the lives of many women. And so I’m going to continue reading her e-mail. She says:

One of the current events that always triggers my worst anxiety spirals are mass shootings. It seems to me that they are on the rise and if that is true and they become more common – my fear-ridden mind automatically will think it’s going to be one of my kids, my husband, or another loved one close to my heart is guaranteed to be caught up in a mass shooting shot and killed.I can hear how irrational it sounds but there are days when I can’t see any part of the rationality. I know statistically it’s unlikely but my mind focuses on the minuscule chance and blows it up into a probability instead of a possibility. I feel helpless as a mother, and a wife, and a daughter, and a sister.

All I want to do is hide my family in a cave and keep them safe. But doing that would not be getting off the bench and onto the battlefield.

You’re right! I love that you said that. I’m going to finish reading:

I’m trying to fight my mind and fight the fear that Satan is showering me with because it’s owning me and distracting me from being present and executing God’s mission for me.

So you mentioned in your letter Psalm 91, and I thought this is a really good place to start. And so I’m going to give you a little bit of commentary off of Psalm 91 – because I don’t believe that God wants us to live in fear. And, it doesn’t have to be fear of a mass shooting – it can be fear of a child becoming ill, it can be fear of a lack of financial provision.

We live in a broken, fallen world because of sin. But God said that He is never going to leave us. He’s never gonna forsake us. And one thing I want you to hear is that no matter what comes in your life – God’s grace will accompany it.

I’m gonna say that again – no matter what comes in your life, God’s grace will accompany it. God’s protection, in the midst of danger, is one of the primary themes of the Psalms.

God never promises us a world that’s free from danger. But He does promise us help whenever we face it. So the author of Psalm 91 is anonymous. We don’t know who wrote this Psalm but I’m going to read it to you and then I’m going to talk about it for just a little bit so you can hear God’s heart for you.

Psalm 91:1

1 Those who live in the shelter of the Most High
   will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
2 This I declare about the Lord:
He alone is my refuge, my place of safety;
   he is my God, and I trust him.
3 For he will rescue you from every trap
   and protect you from deadly disease.
4 He will cover you with his feathers.
   He will shelter you with his wings.
   His faithful promises are your armor and protection.
5 Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night,
   nor the arrow that flies in the day.
6 Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness,
   nor the disaster that strikes at midday.
7 Though a thousand fall at your side,
   though ten thousand are dying around you,
   these evils will not touch you.
8 Just open your eyes,
   and see how the wicked are punished.

9 If you make the Lord your refuge,
   if you make the Most High your shelter,
10 no evil will conquer you;
   no plague will come near your home.
11 For he will order his angels
   to protect you wherever you go.
12 They will hold you up with their hands
   so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.
13 You will trample upon lions and cobras;
   you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet!

14 The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me.
   I will protect those who trust in my name.
15 When they call on me, I will answer;
   I will be with them in trouble.
   I will rescue and honor them.
16 I will reward them with a long life
   and give them my salvation.”

So there is a lot to unpack in this Psalm, and I think it’s important for us to note that as God says in Psalm 91, and throughout the Scriptures, He is a shelter. He wants to be a refuge when we are afraid and the writer’s faith in God – as protector – would carry him through all the dangers and fears of his life. And this needs to be how we see the Lord. He wants us to trade our fears for faith in Him no matter how intense our fears might be – and to do this we’ve got to learn to live and rest with Him.

We want to learn to live and rest with Him.

Psalm 91, especially versus one and two – really are an assurance of God’s protection. I’ll read it again to you:  

1 He that dwells in the secret place of the most High will abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

2 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust.

So God saying He has a secret place for us. It’s a place that we are to live in, and as I said many times on the podcast – I believe that we live in a culture, particularly in Christian culture – of reactive Christianity.

So we run to Him when we need Him, right? When something happens that’s when we want to go and find His shadow. That’s when we want to live under His protection and His care. But when life seems like it’s going OK – we sort of forget that that’s what He wants us to do on our everyday lives – is to live in the shadow of the Almighty. Not just come there when things are difficult.

Spurgeon said:

Every child of God looks towards the inner sanctuary and the mercyseat, yet all do not dwell in the most holy place; they run to it at times, and enjoy occasional approaches, but they do not habitually reside in the mysterious presence.

Duncan said that this was an expression which implies great nearness the shadow of the Almighty. We’ve got to learn to walk every day close to our companion if we would have His shadow fall on us.

So Spurgeon went on to suggest four ways that the Scripture speaks of the shadow of the Almighty: in Isaiah 32:2 he calls it the shadow of the rock, in Song of Solomon 2:3 he calls it the shadow of the tree, in Psalm 63:7 it’s the shadow of his wings. In Isaiah 49:2 it’s the shadow of his hand, and the verses of Psalm 91 are using some amazing wonderful beautiful names for God. We call him the Most High, the Almighty the Lord –  which is translated Yahweh, and in my, Elohim. He’s my God, He’s my refuge, and my fortress.

When we walk with God everyday, when we live in intimacy with Him, when we walk intimately with Him – we learn the greatness of His protection – because God becomes the mighty fortress, that refuge – that we’ve sung about for so many years.

For the believer, God is our refuge – and it doesn’t just happen on the times when we need Him. It happens because we have learned to trust in Him. We’ve developed a close relationship with Him and that comes from reading the Word of God, from from speaking His truth out loud to our heart.

Spurgeon also went on to say that

Men are apt enough to proclaim their doubts, and even to boast of them, indeed there is a party nowadays of the most audacious pretenders to culture and thought, who glory in casting suspicion upon every thing: hence it becomes the duty of all true believers to speak out and testify with calm courage to their own well grounded reliance upon their God.

See Spurgeon knew what we need to know now – and that is – especially in this age where people are casting doubt and suspicion on your faith and they’re hammering it at every at every front. We want to take our refuge, and our trust, and place our trust and put out the assurance of our protection in God’s hands.

So that’s the first part of Psalm 91. And then he goes on, as this as the storm moves along. And as I’ve already read the whole thing priest I’m not going to go back and read it again but in verses 3 and 4 – he talks about how God brings that protection and comfort and care. He says he rescues us. That’s how it is going to rescue you. He’s going to protect you is going to cover you with His feathers and shelter you with His wings. The Bible says that His truth. Remember we’ve talked about this before on the podcast? It’s truth that is really under assault right now.

But the Bible says in Psalm 91 vs 4 that His truth should be our shield and our buckler. So when we talked about last week – we talked about a little bit about Lauren Daigle and her struggle to stand up under the pressure of celebrity and speak the truth of God’s word.

Can I just encourage you – go back to the word of God. Go back to the word of God. The Psalmist is describing specific ways that God cares for us – beginning with rescue from those who would trap us, right? And then he goes on to say that he will protect us in times of plague and disease.

In your question… One of the questions at the end of this email was that – if God promises that He is going to protect us from disease, protect us from plague – why doesn’t  that happen all the time?

I don’t believe that the Psalmist nor the Holy Spirit who inspired this almost intended this as an absolute promise. He’s not saying every believer is going to be delivered from every snare, or every disease, or every trial, or every trouble – but rather the idea is that the Psalmist is pointing to the many times when God has done that for the people who trusted Him.

There’s something beautiful, and I saw this first in my grandmother – when we find ourselves in trial there’s something beautiful about the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, the protection that you feel, the protectiveness that you feel.

I think of myself as a mother when my children are sick, or when they’re injured. Some of you saw me on Instagram a couple of years ago when our daughter – when our youngest daughter – broke her arm in the most egregious fashion.

So we’re driving to the hospital. Her arm is so badly broken that it’s literally contorted out of shape. And every bump that we went over, every pothole,  every turn – she would just cry in pain because any little movement hurt her. And as her mother I just I wanted to take it away from her. But you know what I noticed all the way to the hospital and as we got there? Even when she was in pain – when she would lock eyes with me and I would tell her it’s gonna be okay – there’s something that happened in her heart and in her spirit, and her heart would calm and she would quiet.

I think that’s why God is saying to us  – Don’t worry. He’s saying – don’t dread disease, don’t worry about this stuff. Keep your eyes on me. I want to cover you with my feathers.

I love that He says that. He’s going to cover you under the shelter of His wings as a mother wants to cover her babies.  

You see this as a metaphor. God is represented here obviously as a bird sheltering young chicks under His wings. And David described Him this way in Psalm 61:4. But listen to this description: the mother eagle spreading her dread wings over her eaglets is a wonderful symbol of the union of power and gentleness. It would be a bold hand which would drag the fledglings from that warm hiding place and dare the terrors of the beak and claws.  

It’s powerful stuff. God wants to protect you.

I want to talk for just a second before I run out of time about angels. Because this particular Psalm talks about angels in verse eleven it says:

11 For he will order his angels
   to protect you wherever you go.

Psalm 91:11

You guys, angels are real. And one of the functions of angels is to watch over believers. There are examples of guardian angels in Scripture. And if you do if you don’t believe me look these up in 1 Kings 19:5, Daniel 6:22, Matthew 18:10, Luke 16:22.

So as you read these you’ll see that God does assign His angels to protect us. I don’t see any indication that he assigned one angel for each of us. But listen, angels can be God’s messengers. We read about that in Matthew 2:13.  Angels are not visible except on special occasions. But it’s comforting isn’t it to know that God watches over us even in times of great stress and fear.

He’s not going to leave you. He will not.

And I think part of our role as mothers is to show our children that calm assurance that we have in God – when we’re struggling, when we’re afraid, when we don’t know what to do – Is to turn our attention to the Lord and see Father, I trust you. I know that nothing that comes my way in this life comes without Your permission and without your knowledge. And I know that you’re at work. God is at work.

He wants you to do well with Him. So as you dwell with Him – dwelling is a place that you live. It’s not a place that you come to once in a while and that’s how most of us view our relationship with the Lord. This is why it’s been so much on my heart to have you join us over at the Scripture Writing Challenger. There is something really powerful about being in the word of God everyday. Surrounding yourself with the truth of His word. Speaking it out loud, showing our children that this is the God that we serve. That He will take care of us, that He watches over us. That is the way God loves us.

I want to thank you guys for listening today. If you want more information on the Bible Study: In Search of Joy, please visit me at MomStrong International. We’ve got so much going on over there this month and we’re going to direct you constantly back to the Word of God.

If you’re enjoying this podcast, and I hope that you are – please do me a favor leave us a review at iTunes. You can go over there and click on the little gear shift and you can rate it and write a review. We read those everyday and we appreciate your efforts.

If you’d like to support this ministry,  feel free to send us correspondence at our office at 11100 NE 34th Circle Vancouver, Washington 98682.
In the meantime I hope you guys have a wonderful day and I’ll see you back here for MomStrong International’s Study: In Search of Joy, on Wednesday.

Does parenting tweens have you question your sanity? Well guess what — it’s not us, it’s them! Hal and Melanie Young, award-winning authors, join Heidi today on the podcast to talk about parenting tweens and how to maneuver through this often challenging season of parenting.

Hal and Melanie Young would like to offer you all a freebie – Christ-Centered Christmas. To get access to this freebie, head on over to their site RaisingRealMen.com/GuiftGuide (just scroll down to the bottom of that page).

Hal and Melanie Young are publishers, writers, bloggers, and speakers known for their Christ-centered focus and practical real-life stories. Authors of the Christian Small Publishers Book of the Year, Raising Real Men: Surviving, Teaching,  and Appreciating Boys. They have also authored No Longer Little: Parenting Tweens with Grace and Hope and the Amazon bestseller Love, Honor, and Virtue: Gaining or Regaining a Biblical Attitude Toward Sexuality. 

You can connect with them at RaisingRealMen.com for all sorts of resources – from wholesome gifts to parenting books, NoLongerLittle.com, and on their podcast at HalAndMelanie.com/radio.

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TRANSCRIBED PODCAST BELOW

Good morning everybody, this is Heidi St. John. Today is Friday, December the 14th.

Welcome to the Heidi St. John podcast, today is Meet-My-Friend-Friday and my friends Hal and Melanie Young are here today. We’re going to talk a little bit about the mystery of parenting pre-teens.  Stick around, I think you’re going to be encouraged!

So, for those of you who are keeping up with me over at  MomStrong International we are just under 10,000 subscribers now. We’re trying to hit that goal by the end of the year. It’s not too late to jump into the Scripture Writing Challenge!

We are right in the middle of our study for the month of December, In Search of Joy, and you can invite your kids and your teens to join you. You can sign up today at MomStrongInternational.com.

All right. I want to encourage you guys this morning as we’re going to be talking a little bit about parenting teens. And I love my guests today – Hal and Melanie Young are on the podcast with me today.

They are the award-winning authors of Raising Real Men, No Longer Little and the Amazon bestseller Love, Honor, and virtue. They are publishers, writers, bloggers, and speakers known for their Christ-centered focus and practical real-life stories. They are also my friends – which I noticed didn’t make it into their biography – but I’ll forgive them :).

So we’re going to be talking a little bit about just the ups and downs of parenting teens. They sent me their book to preview several months ago and I love the description of it. Tell me if this doesn’t resonate with you guys all right?! This is the description for No Longer Little

No one tells you what to expect.

Right? We’re talking about tweens here.

Your 9-year-old that loves school suddenly takes 3 hours to get math done. Don’t even ask about everything else. The11-year-old that loves to run errands now can’t remember the one thing you told them to bring you long enough to get out of the room.
And the 13-year-old… EMOTIONAL TURMOIL. Change your shirt before you leave, you tell your son, but he explodes. You don’t care about me! This is my favorite shirt! You’re always criticizing me!

Oh my goodness – I can go on and on and on. The Young’sreally get parenting tweens and I’m so excited that they’re here today. Hal and Melanie, welcome to the podcast!

[Melanie Young] It is delightful to be here Heidi.

[Hal Young] Thanks for having us. We appreciate it.

[Heidi St. John] Well, we’re so glad that you’re here and I know that this is going to resonate with our audience because you guys have been around the parenting block a few times. Tell us a little bit about your family.

[Hal Young] Well we’ve got eight kids. We’ve got four of them grown, and we’ve got four still at home.

[Melanie Young] Six boys, in a row, and then two girls at the end.

[Heidi St. John] Six boys in a row – woo!

[Melanie Young] Yea, and it took us a while going through this tween stage to realize that it wasn’t us that was crazy. It was them!

[Heidi St. John] Right?! But you know what happens is – you don’t start off crazy but you end up there.

[Melanie Young] Isn’t that truth!

[Hal Young] Well that’s what Sam Levison said you know – insanity is hereditary. You catch it from your kids.

Well yeah! And that’s a really critical thing about this time period because when they lose their minds – you can’t. You can’t join them in that party. You’ve got to step off the rollercoaster.

[Melanie Young] Well somebody has got to be the adult around here and it’s not going to be them.

[Heidi St. John] That’s exactly right. My husband and I have a saying – we like to tell people that little kids wreck your house, but big kids wreck your mind. Do you agree?

[Melanie Young] Oh yeah!

[Hal Young] I think we can go with that, sure! Yeah.

[Melanie Young] This tween stage though, is one of the things that if you don’t handle it right it will wreck your mind and your life. Because we’ve just seen again and again that the challenges of this stage…

Many parent child relationships are broken during the tween stage. And if they are broken then the teens tend to get worse and worse. And that’s why the parenting advice is aimed at parents of teens – because so many people have blown it, and now they’re in this nightmare of disbond. But really, if you can get through the tween stage with your parent child relationship intact – then generally the teens get better and better.

[Heidi St. John] Yeah. I think it’s really true. I noticed that when, you know, our oldest daughter is 27 – so I remember very clearly when she went into the stage I was like – wait a second. We were getting along yesterday. What you know what’s different it really it kind of literally does happen overnight. Do you think so?

[Hal Young] Yeah, yeah. And you weren’t expecting it. Were you? I mean when this first happened with us, you know we’re thinking – OK the teenage years that all starts when their voices crack, when they develop a figure, whatever – you know boys a girl- whatever you’re dealing with. Nobody told us – no actually, that’s kind of at the end of that transitional gateway. That really, your turmoil is going to start a couple of years before you see the first whisker, before their voices change.

[Melanie Young]  Yeah well, they still look like kids and that’s what’s so gob-smacking about it – because you’ve got this kid that looks like a kid and suddenly they’re acting like some kind of hormonal nut.

[Heidi St. John] Right.

[Melanie Young] If you look at their biology – did you know that kids can have up to 50 times the testosterone or estrogen they will as adults?

[Heidi St. John] That doesn’t even survivable.

[Hal Young] No. Let that sink in. I mean just register on that. I mean think the worst hormonal periods of your grown up life and then multiply it by dozens and think – how do how does anybody make it through that?

[Melanie Young] Yeah yeah. Is it any wonder she’s in a puddle? And is it any wonder he’s angry? It’s a wonder he’s not an ax murderer

[Hal Young] right

[Heidi St. John] Yeah, yeah. So when a parent comes to you – and I think it’s good to shoot this disclaimer. Because you guys are a homeschooling family and I obviously and the homeschooling mom —  homeschooling does not protect you from puberty. It really doesn’t. And no doubt many parents they think – oh I just homeschool my kids -They’re never gonna talk back to me. We’re never going to have all these issues that everybody else’s kids have. But it just isn’t true. Right? Because hormones come to everybody.

[Hal Young] Somebody told me a long time ago – the decision to teach your kids home does not heal original sin. And I mean, you’re going to hit you’re going to hit puberty – and the thing of it is – if it’s happening at the big consolidated middle school somewhere miles across town — you may not see it hour after hour in every instance. But when you’re homeschooling – you get the front row seat, and you get to experience the whole thing. Which on the one hand you think – oh no. But on the other hand – that means you’re there and you can deal with it.

[Melanie Young] And you know that’s really.. I’m glad you said that about original sin, Hal – because the spiritual part of this is huge! They’ve got all these emotions going on – that are…

Their emotions are out of control, they’re insane. And then school. And their minds are going through a remodelling process where the part of their brain that governs executive functions is remodeling – so like they can’t focus. They can’t remember what they’re doing. School is much harder.

Well, the combination of the brain changes and the emotional changes bring about spiritual doubt. And it’s so common for kids to struggle spiritually during this time and we’ve got to be there for them.

[Hal Young] That was something that was something that really frightened us as Christian parents. Because – you know I think about our early…

Like our first child – we were going to do everything right. You know, we drilled him in scripture, in the Catechism, we taught hymns – I mean we did everything the Christian parenting was supposed to do. We checked all the boxes. And then at nine years old he suddenly announced – I think I’m an atheist!

[Melanie Young]  I about drive off the road, by the way.

[Hal Young] And we just wanted to know – what went wrong? Well, it wasn’t really what went wrong in the matter. I mean the situation is – he reached this developmental stage where, you know – when they’re six years old and they’re like – mom and dad love Jesus and I want to love Jesus like mom and dad do.

And six-years-old – that’s a beautiful time.

And then when they get to be nine, ten, eleven – it’s like they get another page in their brain that says – there’s other opinions about this. How do I know that Mom and Dad are right?

And they start questioning things. And really – we need to – instead of doubling down saying “hey you know how can you dare question” –

We need to say.. this is like that parent in the scriptures who says – I believe. Help my unbelief, give me a reason to believe. Give me something to hang on to here.

[Melanie Young] Oh, it’s the perfect time for apologetics, for talking through those hard questions with your kids. For letting them see that, you know, they don’t need to be afraid to ask questions because our faith can handle it.

[Heidi St. John] So good, and so many parents – when your kids do that – especially because you’re used to this compliant child – right? And the one thing that you hold dear, that you’ve been praying for your whole life – they start to question things and a lot of parents will freak out. And what I hear you saying is – don’t do that, don’t freak out will you just.

[Hal Young] This is just such a critical, fertile time, in the life of your child and in your relationship as a parent with the child. You know this is a time when you are really going to get a lot of work done – if you recognize, and embrace, and it lean into.

[Melanie Young] Yeah, lean into it don’t freak out. Instead grab that opportunity to talk to them about these hard questions, to walk them through it. And the cool thing about it is they actually can develop an adult faith at this age. A faith that can carry them through the teen years, and college, and the young adult years – without the bumps in the road that we see in so many kids raised in Christian homes – that didn’t solidify their faith when they were pre-teens.

[Hal Young] And see when they get to this point, when they’re starting to gain an adult’s ability to reason – then when you’re explaining things, you’re not only rationalizing what you’re doing – but you’re helping them understand the process they need to go through as they start to manage their own lives more and more. As they start to make decisions about – how do I evaluate a situation? How do I deal with a troubled relationship? How do I? Guess what – how do I apologize and ask forgiveness when I’ve done something wrong? You know, we’re modeling that behavior sometimes.

[Melanie Young] And so it’s a change. It’s a change in your parenting. You’re not letting him get away with things, but you’re just changing how you do it so that you can build the kind of relationship that can last into their adult years. Does that make sense?

[Heidi St. John] It makes perfect sense and I think for the parent who’s listening to this, and I know I’m I’m as I’m listening to you talk – I’m replaying in my head conversations we’ve had with our teens over the years, with our pre-teens. And I remember – I can remember several – I would call them pre-teen fails.

Can you guys talk to the parents who are listening to this right now – and they’ve just had a heated argument with their child, and they’re feeling like they’re failing, and they’re not really sure how to pick it up and keep moving. Maybe it’s been a habit of getting drawn into the drama. Like we have we have a saying in our house – No Drama Mama! Just because you’re engaged in drama doesn’t mean I need to engage. But sometimes we do, sometimes they hurt us, sometimes they say things that trigger us and we’re just like – I cannot believe I just came out of my mouth.

Talk to the mom or the dad who’s who’s feeling pretty discouraged right now in their parenting.

[Melanie Young] You know what? God is full of grace. There is much grace – and when we’re His people, when we’ve repented of our sin, and trusted Him to save us – He already loves us. Already is pleased with us because He sees the righteousness of Christ. So go to the Father, and get on your knees, and say – I need help. I repent of how I handled this and Lord – I need you to help me to control my tone.

I have a hot temper, and I’m usually the one that loses it in our house. And so many times I’ve had to apologize to the Lord and then go apologize to the child. And then start again. The wonderful thing about relationships is they’re made in the moments, in the little things, in the walking up and putting your arm around a child, in listening when they interrupt you instead of going and going “mmhmm” and going on with what you were doing online, in being interested in them – and just showing genuine delight that they are your child. And you can do so much rebuilding in those moments.

And if you blow this moment get the next moment right.

[Heidi St. John]  I love that. And I think what I’m hearing from you is it’s never too late. It’s never too late to get back in there, to show that affection, and really want to be involved in the life of a child.

You guys have lots of books that you’ve written, lots of resources for parenting – and this book in particular No Longer Little is available on Amazon right now and also at your website. Where can listeners find you so that they can download some of this information, and then I want to talk about a freebie that you guys have up for Christmas.

[Melanie Young] Okay. No Longer Little you can find it NoLongerLittle.com. Lots of reviews there. You can check out all of our books and resources from wholesome gifts to parenting books, and advice, is at RaisingRealMen.com. We have a podcast at HalAndMelanie.com/radio.

And we’ve got a freebie! We have a book called Christ Centered Christmas where we share a lot of our family’s heart about how to make Christmas really about Jesus. And yet to thoroughly enjoy it and celebrate it.

A couple came up to a conference recently and said that it just freed them up because they’d been told not to celebrate Christmas, that it was a pagan thing – and they read our book and they said we had the best Christmas ever.

So you can get it free at RaisingRealMen.com/GuiftGuide. That’s our gift guide for boys that we put out every year. If you scroll down to the bottom you can join our newsletter list and get Christ Centered Christmas free. It’s 72 pages of goodness.

[Heidi St. John] I love it. And for those of you who are driving right now, or in the shower – don’t stop what you’re doing, keep doing it. I will link back to all things Hal and Melanie Young in the show notes today. You guys thank you for coming on the show today. It is always such a pleasure to have you and I can’t wait for our listeners to get more acquainted with your ministry.

[Hal Young]  Heidi, it’s been a blessing. Thank you so much.

[Melanie Young] And Heidi we just love your heart. You know, we’re about the same thing – we’re about Jesus. And just thank you so much for having us. It’s been a joy to talk to you.

[Heidi St. John] Thank you. if you guys want more information about Hal and Melanie Young go to HeidiStJohn/Podcast. Also – we have just started transcribing the podcast took me 700 episodes to get there. But hey – we’re doing it now. So if you want the show notes in a transcription format- they’re available for you! Just keep scrolling down past our normal notes and you’ll see the whole thing transcribed.

Hope you guys have a fantastic weekend! Thanks for listening today. Don’t forget to leave a review for this podcast at iTunes and I’ll see you back here on Monday!

Recently, contemporary Christian music artist Lauren Daigle fumbled her way through what is arguable THE question that the church is grappling with: “Is homosexuality a sin?” But what if we all were ready to give an answer? Join Heidi today as she turns our attention to the our own responsibility to know and share the hope we have in Jesus with the world.

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TRANSCRIBED PODCAST BELOW

Hey Everybody, this is Heidi St. John! Welcome to the Heidi St. John podcast!

Today is Monday, December 10th – it’s episode number 699. I have gotten so many emails, and Facebook messages, and Instagram posts from those of you who have been wanting me to comment on the recent interview that Lauren Daigle gave to a radio show about homosexuality. It’s a pretty deep topic, but I think it bears talking about so stick around, I think you’re going to be encouraged.

All right you guys. We got a lot of stuff to talk about today. Before I jump into it, I want to say hi to everybody who is listening to this in the shower because I keep hearing from you – so rinse your hair. 🙂

It is a joy for me to be coming into your homes, and into your hearts, three days a week. I want to thank you so much for leaving reviews for this podcast over at iTunes, for sharing it. God is doing an incredible work here at the podcast. It really is my heart and the heart of my husband to see a generation of women actually become strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. It’s really are going to be talking about today. Obviously what Lauren Daigle said is going to be the topic of our conversation.

But honestly, every single one of us has a platform. We all have a responsibility – and I want to encourage you to know the word of God for yourself. It’s the reason why we started MomStrong International. We’re coming up on 10,000 members there. It’s our goal to get to that point by the end of the year and you can help us do that – simply by sharing what’s happening over at MomStrong International. Talk to people about the FREE Scripture Writing community that’s there and we hope that you guys will join us.

We are so excited about what God is doing. He’s doing an incredible work. And He does it as we come together and decide – hey, we’re going to be the people that God says we are. We’re not going to listen anymore to what the world says. We’re not going to take our identity from what the world says – rather we’re going to take it from the Word of God and we’re going to see ourselves the way that God sees us. So that’s what I want to encourage you to do today.

All right. It’s been in the news all over the place. You had to be living under a rock if you haven’t been hearing about Lauren Daigle. So several weeks ago Lauren, who is a prolific Christian music writer – she’s got an incredible voice – very much like Adele. I could listen to her all day long. I actually love her music.

I heard that she was going to be going on the Ellen DeGeneres show. And unlike some of my critics, I actually thought that was great. I love to see her embrace the people around her in the way that God would have her due. To use her platform to share the love of God with people. And we need to be very careful, men and women, before we start judging people who don’t know the Lord and are outside the church.

In 1 Corinthians 5:12-18, The Bible says (this is the NIV)

What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?

That’s what we’re gonna hang on to today at 1 Corinthians 5:12.

What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?

So I keep hearing people say, you know – don’t judge lest you be judged. You guys have heard me talk about this before It’s a terrible misuse of that verse. We are called to righteous judgment. But you can’t hold somebody to account for sin, particularly when it’s a sin that God’s word speaks against – so clearly like homosexuality but the culture has absolutely embraced it.

How can we expect someone to believe that what God says is sin if they don’t have the power of the Holy Spirit? So for Lauren Daigle, to get on the Ellen DeGeneres show – you guys I’m praying for Ellen DeGeneres.

She’s hilarious for one thing, ridiculously talented – I’d love to see her come to faith in the Lord Jesus. She would have an incredible story to tell of God’s redemptive power in her life. So I hope that we’re praying for her. We should be.

You shouldn’t condemn somebody for going on her show. I actually don’t understand the condemnation coming from the Christian community that way. We love to be Pharisees, we do.

I read a book a long time ago called Twelve Steps For A Recovering Pharisee Like Me. And I loved it because the author of that book was so clearly saying – we got issues. The church has issues. And unfortunately, Lauren Daigle – you know, she should have prepared for this. You know she was interviewed after that, predictably. And of course, people want to know what do you think about homosexuality.

So she is on The Domenick Nati Show, or Nadi – however, he says his name – and she offered her comments as to whether or not she believed that homosexuality is a sin.

Now listen, this woman has enjoyed a whole lot of mainstream success in recent years because she’s ridiculously talented, and she struggled with this question.

So they asked her just point blank: Do you feel that homosexuality is a sin? And here’s what she said: “You know, I can’t honestly answer on that.”

She said adding that she had “too many people I love” that “are homosexual”. But she didn’t stop there. “I don’t know” – she went on to say “I actually had a conversation with someone last night about it”. She continued, “I can’t say one way or the other. I’m not God. So when people ask a question like that that’s what my go to is like. Like, I just say read the Bible and find out for yourself. And when you find out let me know because I’m learning too.”

All right. So a couple of things. I agree with her – she said that she had been deeply saddened that people criticized her for appearing on a show that was hosted by someone who’s openly homosexual.

I was also sad about that because for me she had an opportunity. She sang about the gospel on that show. I was thrilled. I was like – Get after it girl. Go for it.

But I will say I’m very disappointed in her answer, And I don’t want to make this about Lauren so much today as I want to make it about us. Because every single one of us, including myself – every single person listening to this, every teenager, every father, every mother, every grandmother, every single one of you has been given influence.

You have influence with your family, you have influence with the people that you work with, and the Bible says that we are called to give an answer for the hope that lies within us. And I was disappointed to Lauren’s answer mostly because she said she “can’t answer that”

Well if you know your Bible you can answer it. It is not a hard question. And I think we would do ourselves a favor as believers if we would stop making these questions about us. This question isn’t about Lauren Daigle. It’s about the Word of God. It’s about what God says in His Word. And so when she said – “I can’t honestly answer that” – I was like – Oh Lauren, yes you can! Read your Bible!

She doesn’t have to say “Well I think homosexuality is a sin”. What she should have said was “well God says it’s a sin just like He says adultery is a sin, and greed is a sin, and lust is a sin, and lying is a sin.

Unfortunately, in the culture, we’ve elevated homosexuality in the Christian community to be like – THE sin.

So now we have to argue about it. But the Bible says that all of our sin separates us from God, that without the sacrifice of Jesus, that all of our righteousness is as filthy rags toward God. We are separated by sin, all kinds of sin, of which homosexuality is clearly one. And I keep hearing people trying to make theological arguments for homosexuality. Listen you guys have to do theological and doctrinal backflips to say that homosexuality is not a sin. It is. Read Romans for goodness sake.

Read the book of Romans, start with Romans 1. And you don’t need me to help you read it. Read it for yourself. I do appreciate that she said go read your Bible. I kind of want to say to Lauren – you should read your Bible too before you get on.

She knew she was going to be asked that question. It’s a very simple question to answer. It’s a very simple question to answer.

I posted a quote by Rich Mullins on my Facebook page the other day and I said – why are we so surprised at Lauren Daigle struggled to stand up for the truth amidst the crushing pressure of celebrity? And it is crushing. She has used her platform many times to announce the Lord. This was nothing different, except for – I think she really did buckle under the pressure of celebrity. It’s tough when you’re in that situation, so I can have grace for her – listen to what Rich Mullins said.

I think he said it best. He said, and I’m quoting now:

It’s so funny being a Christian musician. It always scares me when people think so highly of Christian music, Contemporary Christian music especially. Because I kind of go, I know a lot of us, and we don’t know jack about anything. Not that I don’t want you to buy our records or come to our concerts. I sure do. But you should come for entertainment. If you really want scriptural nourishment, you should go to church…you should read the Scriptures.

And that’s really what I want to encourage you to do. Read your Bible. It’s time for us to stop looking to contemporary Christian musicians as theologians because we keep getting let down over and over again. And because the world esteems that kind of celebrity, we’re gonna keep looking to these people. And I just wanna encourage you – if you’ve got a platform – know your Bible. You’ve got to know your Bible.

Had they took direct aim at that Lauren Daigle in in her question in the question that they posed to her and her perplexing response has sort of set the Christian world on fire – and I think it doesn’t need to do that.

I think we can look each other go – wow that was a lesson for every single one of us.

There’s another young man, a colleague, who wasn’t afraid to call sin sin and rebuke compromise publicly. He posted this on his Facebook page. He said:

“So Christians everywhere are apparently upset with Lord Daigle because she didn’t stand up for truth, but the problem is that they just can’t seem to remember the last time they did either. People are writing to me everywhere today because in many circles I’m known as a prophet who speaks out with boldness courage. Pastors and saints are asking me to come out tonight and blast Lauren Daigle. Well I’ve been in prayer about it all day and I feel absolutely zero unction from the Holy Ghost to address Lauren Daigle. I feel tremendous unction to address the hypocrisy in the body of Christ.”

And I kind of –  I am disappointed with Lauren – but I do agree with this young man. Because unless we’ve been in that situation ourselves we really don’t have any idea how we’d perform. But we need to know the Word so that we can be – what? Ready. We want to be ready.

I guess I’m disappointed because I feel like she should have been ready because she knew that that question – surely that was gonna be asked of her. But we don’t know. Maybe God wants to use her voice to bring hope and healing and faith to a hurting world. The messages in her song are wonderful. Her voice is angelic. God is using her, let’s continue to pray for her.

I would hate to see her become another casualty of the Christian culture wars. And we can certainly take a lesson from Lauren. And I think the lesson is – we need to be ready. We need to be ready to give an answer for the hope that lies within us.

I think the enemy would love to see us jumping on the train, but I’d rather we learned a lesson from it, and we pray for her. God has given her a platform and I just, I pray to God that she knows His word and that she can rightly defend it when the hard questions come. And they will come. And they’re gonna come for every single one of you. And I know that a lot of you have written questions to me about this particular episode and this happens all the time, right?

I talked about a book written by a very popular artist right now, an author rather. And I did a podcast on it several months ago talking about her – basically, she was talking about her love for diversity and tolerance, and that’s our jam, and blah blah blah.

And I’m so concerned because I’m watching these people get out there and they talk about Christianity. Really their books are secular. We read it and we don’t have the discernment to say – that’s actually a secular book. We’re not going back to the Word of God. Which brings me to a question that I’m an address from Mailbox Monday really quickly from a listener. And she said –

Heidi my husband and I left the Methodist Church two years ago, prompted by the Holy Spirit, after seeing what’s happening at the national level – beginning to have such a significant trickle down effect in our small town country church. We found a wonderful non denominational Bible based church that God uses to rock our world. But a friend who still attends a Methodist Church recommended a book for our book club. It’s called Everybody Always by Bob Goff. I researched him before beginning the book.

OK so first of all – hats off to you. This is what we should be doing. So whether it’s Heidi St. John that writes a book or Bob Goff writes a book — we should be researching, find out who these people are. So she says:

I researched him before beginning the book after learning that the local Methodist church was using it for their Sunday morning small group study class. I finished chapter one, glanced at the rest of book – can’t find one lick of Scripture in the whole stinking book. The goal he states is “What I’m trying to do right now is make my faith simple”

And so this listener writes:  

My question is – how does an author explain or discuss faith without any scripture, including only vague references to the Bible?

So, here’s the thing, sweet girl, and I appreciate you writing this. Here’s the thing -this is the culture that we find ourselves in in right now. We we want to talk about our faith to make it “simple”. What we’re doing is we’re watering down the truth of the Word of God in order to make it palatable to the culture.

And anytime you see someone do that – it worries me. I did read Everybody Always and that would be a book I would probably give someone who didn’t know the Lord who – maybe was interested in faith. And I love the message of his book. I love his attitude. There were a lot of things I liked about I agree with you. Not very good representation of scripture. If your goal is to study scripture. But I don’t really think that was his goal.

I was asked several years ago to speak for a conference (wasn’t a Christian conference) and they asked me – hey, could you please not proselytize. You know, we think you’re a great speaker we want you to talk about marriage and family,  but we really don’t want you to give an altar call or anything like that.

And I’d been hired by these people. And so I said – absolutely I can do that – but boy I’ll tell you what you guys – I went to prayer before it. I was like, Father help me! I don’t know how to do this without You. I can’t. I can’t. Everything about my life is awash with Scripture, everything.

I don’t how people do this world without Jesus. Really, apart from Him, we don’t have any wisdom except for what the world offers us – and for goodness sake look around! It’s not helping. And the Lord so clearly said – you are the fragrance of Christ, be the fragrance of Christ. How do we how do we start being the fragrance of Christ? They’ll know we’re Christians by our love.

Which brings me back to the verse that we started off with this morning in 1 Corinthians 5:12.

What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church?

We are called to judge those inside the church. That’s why the criticism of Lauren Daigle, that’s why the criticism of so many these Christian authors who are giving kind of a watered down version of the truth of the word of God.

But I want us to be careful that we reserve our judgment until after we’ve really said – Father open my eyes. What am I missing? They’ll know we’re Christians by our love.

I’m hoping that every single one of us that’s listening to this, myself included – because I’ll tell you what — even for somebody with a smaller platform like mine, the pressure is enormous. It’s enormous.

I get hate mail on a regular basis. People have threatened my life because of my stand for the Lord Jesus. I can’t even imagine being in Lauren Daigle shoes. What would happen to her? And I don’t know what went on in her mind. Maybe she doesn’t know the Word of God, I don’t know. But I’m going to pray for her because she has platform. And we are called to be salt and light, to speak the truth in love, not to water it down.

And so I just want to encourage you – rather than just turning the spotlight on everybody else all the time – can we also shine it on our own lives? What are we doing in the privacy of our homes? How are you guys dealing with the things that you’re watching on Netflix? and with the number of glasses of wine that you’re having with your dinner?

We make so many excuses and we love to judge other people – but I’m telling you what – the Lord has been so strongly reminding me, especially this Christmas season — it starts with me.

Your witness starts with you. If you want your kids to walk with the Lord, if you want people around you to see God at work in you – walk with them. He doesn’t want to be an accessory to your life. He wants to be your life. And so before we look to Christian celebrities, or Christian music artists, or Christian authors – we should look to God’s Word. God is still at work.

I’ve been watching, as many of you have over the last week, the funeral service for George Herbert Walker Bush.  Looking over his life, and his marriage, and his legacy now. And it’s interesting to me to note that the thing that he said gave him the greatest joy – wasn’t an accomplishment, it wasn’t meeting with the world leader, it wasn’t being president – it was knowing that his kids were having an impact.

An really, God wants us to walk in right relationship with Him so that we can share the Gospel. Our lives should share the Gospel.

I heard it quoted once that we should share the Gospel all the time – and if necessary, use words. And I want my life to be like that. So before we end the podcast today I’m going to go ahead and pray for all of us, myself included, because this world is not our home. We’re just passing through and God wants to walk with us every step of the way until we step into glory. and we hear – Well done.

So would you bow your heads in prayer with me?

Lord Jesus, I thank you for Lauren Daigle. I thank you for the platform that you’ve given her. Father would you be with her? Would you give her your words? She clearly has your heart for the lost and she’s got the love piece right. And Lord, as we talk about standing up in the culture, and speaking the truth, and and being an ambassador for you – Lord I pray that we would all get the whole piece right. It’s the truth in love any other way is not your way – but I pray that you give me boldness and temper it with love, and mercy, and kindness. Father thank you for every person that’s listening to this podcast right now, every single person who’s within earshot of my voice.

Lord, would your Holy Spirit just convict us. Lord, show us the areas of our lives that we need to be more like you. I thank you for the opportunity you’ve given us, Lord, to speak the truth. I thank you for social media. I thank you for the many places that we have opportunity to be salt and light, and Lord – I pray you’d help us do it.

Lord we love you, we want to honor you with our lives and with our words – so Father, to quote your Word

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, our rock, and our redeemer. [Psalm 19:14]

Thanks for listening everybody, today to the podcast! I want to remind you to head on over to MomStrongInternational.com – we just started a brand new week – it’s called In Search of Joy. We have revamped the Bible Study – I think you’re going to love it! You can start a MomStrong Group in your home, you can start one in your church, you can study it by yourself. Either way, we want to help you get into God’s Word and encourage the people around you to know His Word betterm and to walk in right relationship with God.

Thanks for listening everybody and I’ll see you back here on Wednesday!