Getting Real About the Ideal

Every parent has moments they're proud of... and moments they'd rather pretend never happened. In this episode, we're sharing stories of fails, victories, and the moments that have kept us humble (and laughing).

We're also unpacking the idealized self—the imaginary parent who never loses their cool, always says the right thing, and never makes any mistakes. As it turns out, God has never asked us to be perfect but invites us into dependency on Him.

If you've ever wondered whether you're enough as a parent, this episode is a reminder that God's faithfulness has always been the real success story.

CDC Milestone Tracker App: https://www.cdc.gov/act-early/milestones-app/index.html

BabySparks - Developmental Tracker & Online Learning for Parents: https://babysparks.com/

Harvard's Center for the Developing Child: Three Core Concepts in Early Development: https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/videos/three-core-concepts-in-early-development/

Building Social-Emotional Skills at Home: https://www.naeyc.org/our-work/families/building-social-emotional-skills-at-home

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Welcome to the Whole Person Parenting Podcast. We're here to have honest conversations about how to follow Jesus and parent kids in a whole person way. For more content and encouragement, as we support you on your journey, you can find us on Instagram, YouTube, and wherever you get your podcasts. We're so glad you're here. Now let's jump in. Hey everyone, welcome back to the Whole Person Parenting Podcast. Uh we're so thankful that you're here. Um and we have once again rearranged our room. We're in process, guys. We're in the process. As we said last or two weeks ago, like we're in the construction zone. Yep. You know, and that's okay. Um so yeah. This might never this look might never happen again. But it could be the new norm. We just never know. And so we'll see. Yeah. Um trying it on. Yeah, we're trying it on. I think that works. For size. Yeah. And see and see.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Is it bueno or no bueno?

SPEAKER_02 1:05

Yeah. So we're not quite yet starting our uh new series called Becoming a Parent. Um, we are gonna plan to start that at the beginning of August. Um, and we're excited for that. So stay tuned for that series and make sure to follow us on Instagram and all the things if you wanna.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

We're actually on some new platforms too. Yeah, so that's exciting. What are they? Um well YouTube podcasts. Oh yes, that's true. Um, if you guys prefer that. Also um iHeartRadio podcasts. Are we really? I don't know. And I and there's another one. Sorry, I can't remember the third one. Those were the two big ones that stood out to me. And something else.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

And something else.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Go find it somewhere. Yeah, but yeah, I love it because we're getting it's like getting more available to people and I think and we're, you know, gaining in listeners and that's exciting. But yeah, it is exciting, and um yeah, just gets us closer to fulfilling the purpose that we feel like we have here, which is honest conversation and and trying to yeah, prayerful conversation, discerning kind of conversation. Um yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:08

And just you're really seeing us in our truest form here. Yeah. For better for us. We yeah, pretty much no filter.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Yeah, yeah, pretty much.

SPEAKER_02 2:19

Pretty much, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Very little editing. I don't know if you're very little editing.

SPEAKER_02 2:22

If you guys watch the videos, you know that we don't be editing. We just let it go. So go with it. Um, yeah, you're really hearing the raw edit um every time. So um today I was like on my drive over here and we were just thinking about what we wanted to talk about in this podcast, and I was like, I realized we hadn't like just talked about like it just our experiences and just the way that like God has shown up in in the midst of those and um some of like the wins that maybe you've experienced through parenting, or maybe some of the losses where you've been like, Man, that did not work, or yeah, you know, different ways to do it.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

I mean, I know you're saying that, and but as you know, as I was thinking about it too, like I also think it would be I don't know, kind of cool to hear too from like some, you know, you've it's you know you know it's been a while since you've been a baby or a toddler. That's just true, but you know, you are just yeah, yeah. Because well, and some of the things that you think are your wins or losses, even in our relationship or in you know, like your own life, um like whatever you would feel like sharing. So yeah, that's what I yeah, I think we just we just talk about it.

SPEAKER_02 3:34

Yeah, you got any stories that come to mind right off the bat.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

I was I mean, I I think that one of my I you know, because of like the things we've just talked about in a previous episode, we just talked about, I think, maybe last episode, like those cognitive distortions and those like thinking errors that come up. And um and so like I could definitely see what I and what I would what I would say like felt like a loss at the time um was around like needing to be perfect. So like having just a lens of negativity on my parenting and feeling like you know, like it was very difficult for me to see wins for a long time. I I basically only like I filtered out all the positives and looked only at the places where I wasn't I felt, you know, matching up. I was just at a thing this morning um that was talking about like um one of our pastors um at our church was talking about there's this idealized, idolized version of yourself. And um he didn't say who said that. So if you're the person who said that, like let us know. It was like kind of an anonymous um kind of spiritual director person. Um but uh I he was just talking about like we kind of have this sometimes this idealized version of ourselves, and then we get fixated on that. And when we get fixated on something, it sort of becomes like an idol, like where we we feel like if we're not um like we're always aspiring to that thing and we're always looking to that thing. And so I think that thing for me at times was um like a perfectly clean house, like everything in its place. Um and it and it was tough, and like maybe me and dad will talk about this someday, but like even even like really struggling with him um too around like his caregiving of you guys and uh especially you, I think as a brand new dad, brand new parent, um like my perfectionism and like my own anxiety would get in the way of like allowing him to be um like just to be dad and to do things the way that he wanted to do them. Like I had in my mind that there was like a right way to do it and that um and then whenever he did anything less than that, then it was just like kind of criticiz criticizing, you know. And so I feel like that wasn't, you know, for me that was hard and um I I like didn't like it about myself, but also felt really like I can't get this. I can't stop. Yeah, yeah. And so just because I was so fixated on this like journey of perfectionism and parenting, and you know, it just very rigid. And so I think I think there are I mean I I don't think that was all bad. Like at this point in my life, like I'm I can see like the nuance of things and like there may be some there may have been some good things that came out of my like perfectionistic parenting at first. Um but like it wasn't too long before I started realizing like this is like robbing me of any joy in the season because I'm just so fixated on actually me. I'm very fixated on myself um and like my performance of being like a parent. Yeah, yeah. So like that's what comes. I mean, that's like not it's not very uplifting. No, I mean it is real, yeah. Yeah, and I think a lot of parents are.

SPEAKER_02 7:19

And I would say like I remember that, like, not to like make you feel like you like this was like, but it like I feel like it can be a kind of a wake-up call to some people to be like my parent like kids do actually experience it. Like they're not just kids and they're not just gonna forget about it. Like I'm not saying my childhood was like the I don't wouldn't describe my childhood as rigid, yeah. But I definitely remember there were you know, Sunday afternoons we'd come home from church, um, and that was our cleaning time, or that was our time to like leave you guys alone because you would be tired from church after singing and all that. And we just after daddy's cellos. Yeah, just sing he was just yes, and like I remember like just not being able to I feel like I could approach you guys at this point.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

Like that's what I was about to say is like I would imagine that from your perspective that felt like there's no access to us.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

There were definitely yes, yeah, I would agree with that. There was definitely times where we knew me and Brain knew like we can't talk go talk to mom and dad at this point. And even if we got in a fight or something, if me and Brain like hurt each other or something like that, we knew figure it out. Yes, and we knew that we could not go, yeah, we just had to problem solve it.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

And so which is not all bad, it would be bad, but yeah, but like I don't I don't like the part where it's like you it felt like you did not have access.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

And that's like that's exactly what popped in my mind was like I imagine from your perspective it was like they are inaccessible, which it does make sense, like it doesn't like it was good for you guys to have rest for sure. Um, and I remember you guys would tell us like this is time where you guys can rest, and we usually just ended up planting. We all gonna rest. Yes, yeah. Um, but I also knew that we were not supposed to go and like bother you guys. Yeah, go and bother you guys. Um, and so yeah, I mean I definitely remember you were always the disciplinary. Like I don't remember dad hardly ever disciplining us.

SPEAKER_01 9:38

Dad.

SPEAKER_02 9:39

I know, like well, and which I think in some ways made it like more of more of an emotional toll whenever he did discipline us, if that makes sense. Because it was like you dad came in, it was if dad came in, it it was like this is more serious, yes, and like I've I don't know if I've told this the story of like the basketball coach.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Oh, yeah, but I have, yes, I think it might be a little tea trauma, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:06

A little tea trauma, like poor daddy, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Like my if you haven't traumatized your kids, like become their coach, yeah, because it's a great, a great line.

SPEAKER_02 10:16

My dad was my basketball coach from kindergarten to fourth grade, probably, and you know, he was really passionate about sports, and I liked basketball.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

And he had a backstory, like he had already been um coaching. Coaching. He coached like at school and in middle schools and high schools, yeah. He played basketball for a long time, and um and so he yeah, he would think he got in trouble, he got fined, he got seat belted as a coach.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

Yeah, he was very passionate coach, very passionate coach, which when you're going to be your five-year-old daughter's coach, I know you gotta tone it down, but he did not, but and so I like teaching her how to like do scraig rent screens and yeah, like and I think it I maybe and that's like in the ways that like your vision of who your child will be can play out into how you raised them.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

That's maybe like his his idealized version of himself was like a having coach, you know, in so he's gonna be like, and like I'm gonna push my kid.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

And and he did, and like, and you know, it's like a it's like a mix. Like some of my favorite memories with my dad are us playing basketball together. Uh we always got root beer in a Hershey's bar after games, and um, and I really loved it. But there were also times where I'm literally sobbing that running down the court because dad's like, Presley, get the ball. What are you doing? Like just screaming at me from the sidelines. And it was, and I was just like poor little sis. I know. Um, so yeah, I just think it's like it's always like and I don't and I'm not even saying like I don't have any fun memories of you, but I definitely get what you're saying when you were like I wasn't able to have like I could tell you weren't joyful, yeah. Like and I feel like I remember a switch whenever it seemed like you let go of the perfectionism and actually weren't able to have joy.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Yeah, and that was a spiritual thing for me. Like that was 100% like how that came about was like really hitting a wall in my life and like spiritually hitting a wall and really having to like I mean have a little bit of it, wasn't a crisis of faith, but I mean there is um maybe one day we'll talk about, but like there's kind of this progression in your faith walk, and eventually everyone hits this wall, and it's sometimes like this kind of wilderness seasons, like desert, like dry season, and where and really where your best efforts like meet their end, like where you can't do what you've been doing. It's like whatever you've been doing isn't working, and you have to decide like, am I gonna double down and trying to keep figuring this out on my own, or am I gonna surrender, surrender this to the Lord and like allow him to work in my life and change me, you know, from the inside out? And and so that I I think that's what happened is like kind of on the other side of that, like that's whenever that began to happen. I'm getting a little teary thinking about it. Um, but you know, because I'm grateful. I'm just really grateful for that. And even though that was a very difficult season, it was also like a transformative season, and like God knew that I was gonna need to like change things, that you guys needed me to change things, and I need to change things for myself or for our family, and um and he needed to work in me. And so like, yeah, like I went through that that that phase of life and kind of up to that point probably had relied heavily on that and I needed to let that go. I mean, it's not like it's never a battle or never, never somewhat of a struggle, but for the most part, I mean, that is something that I I really have been able to get. Yeah, really been able to get free from. I mean, it's why we can host people at our home and why I don't have to be uptight and worried and I don't remember us ever hardly hosting when we were Yeah, but I had a desire to, but my perfectionism was like taking over in the way.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

Yeah, I yeah, it was uh there's definitely been a shift. And I feel like there's just been a lot of shifts in in throughout the li our lives, and like um I feel like most of them have been like good, like towards the good, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah, I do too. And I mean like even if I think about like what back to the like disciplinary like conversation, like dad is definitely like more like in it with you now. Yeah, in that side of things, yes, yeah. And and it's not just uh you're the you're the the mean one and he's the fun one. Kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Well, part of that was probably because that started like early on in our um parenting journey. Like I remember him like me being very frustrated with him in um like in the caregiving aspect of things because it was like it, you know, I felt like he just wasn't doing anything right. And so then I but that's that perfectionism was coming in, like taking over, and then it like made it where he he kind of only could be the fun person, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

You know, because you weren't even allowed controlling everything, yeah, you know, and yeah, like worry that he was gonna discipline wrong almost, and then like it was gonna be like I was gonna have to step in, or yeah, and that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

So like I think that so much of that was just about like what was going on for me. It really wasn't about him or his capability. I mean, like he's extremely capable with children. Yeah, I mean, he's not gonna be able to do it. He does it for his yeah, he's very adept um at and so it wasn't at all about his ability or capability, no, it was just about fear, it was about fear, anxiety, perfectionism kind of playing a role. So yeah. So I would say, like, you know, although there's like a I would say like the that feels like maybe in the category of loss on one hand, but I also can see like I don't think it's that black and white. I think it's more like this is part of the journey. And I think with um just like I think where we came to or like where I've come to, not that I've arrived, I still have growth to do, but I'm you know, I'm running out of time in terms of parenting. Um you know, in that way, my parenting role is gonna change to yeah, like um to having adults um who I've yes parented.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

Exactly, exactly. And now and that's what I mean, like all of our shifts too, is like it's been there's been especially with our relationship, we've probably had the most shifts. Brain's probably not like totally there because there's he's still like being parented, and I still am too, but it's much more out of the most part, it's much more out of a friendship role and mentor role and support, yeah. And like you're still one of my favorite people to hang out with and be with, but it's not so much like yeah, I've been seeing this, you know. Oh, if it is, it's more out of like a mentorship role, not of like a go do your laundry or like things like that role.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

I've been noticing that your laundry is piling up.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

Yeah. Although you do say that, you're like, so I've been noticing.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

I think I just said, like, do you need to do your laundry?

SPEAKER_02 17:32

Yes, something like that.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

It's free if you need to. It's free, it's right there. Nothing. There's no like, there's no like if you don't get your laundry done by the by, you know, then you're not gonna go hang out with your friends or whatever. Like, I'm like, if you got dirty clothes, I don't know if you don't have anything to wear. But that's not for me to, yeah. And I and I'm really not thinking that. I'm just like no, I know.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

You just not even like you're like having to restrain yourself from not being a parent. You're genuinely just like let you have let and I think that's like a part of like the that's I think that's a testimony to like the relinquishing of control that you've like been working through.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Yeah. I mean, if I would have held on to the case.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

I feel like if you would have held on, I think you would 100% still be trying to be my parent.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

I don't even know what that would have been like.

SPEAKER_02 18:16

I don't think it would be like I don't think a relationship would have be what it is.

SPEAKER_01 18:20

I don't either, yeah. I don't either.

SPEAKER_02 18:21

So it was very like and I think also that took me, I was like as a teenager and kid, just very, very unreceptive to any kind of like criticism. Like you and we talked about it, my response was always, I know. I know. You tell me to go do something. I'm no, I know. I've been seeing this in you, I know. Like, I literally that was my response to everything, and I could not handle someone, and I'm sure there's all sort of psychological stuff like that. Yeah, there's developmental things too going on there, and also with your perfectionism, we already d discussed that I totally picked up on it and was like, well, if mom doesn't want, like if mom can't I don't know, I don't know how to explain it. Like I'm seeing in you your need for perfection or need for things like that.

SPEAKER_01 19:12

That's the way we be a lady. Or if you were yes, or if we were that was not grammatically correct, but yes, you know, that's like I feel like that's how we woman. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 19:23

And I don't even think I picked it up uh because you were like, uh I expect you to be perfect. No, but you never told me that. It was out of you getting upset whenever something didn't happen, or if something wasn't the way that I was there or was expecting. Um but out of that, I think that's where the I don't want any correction came from. Oh, for sure. And I was very much like not willing to accept that I was wrong. Like in almost any capacity. Like if I in school capacity, especially with Braden, yeah, my brother, like if he there was anything that he was right about, and like I've had to apologize to him about this, but I was so just uh degrading towards him. And like I I like I remember like something I told him just probably at least a couple times a day was like, You're stupid, you're never gonna do anything. And like I was so horrible to him about like, and I just I constantly and and it's because I prided myself on being smart, and I prided myself on the that I could do more than him, yeah, and that I was better at school than him, or things like that. And I and I remember being jealous, like, yes, it was my idealized version. It was like he's never gonna be he's just me or yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

And I remember I do have a video of him saying that he was never gonna be taller than you.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

Yeah, like this this is literally what it was like. And she was like 13.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

Yes, like I'm like, physiologically, I don't think that's just not gonna work.

SPEAKER_02 20:55

And I was like so much, I was like uh double down. Like, I'm just I was so but and I knew it was he wasn't gonna be taller than me, but I was just I was just hard to admit that. Yes, I'm just I hated admitting that I was wrong or that anything was ever gonna change. Yeah, or and like I always hated admitting that brain was better at sports than me, or um that he whenever he would uh do something like and his and the honest truth is just his brain works different than mine. And I just was so blind to see that. He has yeah, he I he has like he is so much smarter than me when it comes to uh you know fashion and cars and um like anything to do with like reptiles, like any fashion, cars and reptiles and other things too. But he just has a brain that like I will never have any interest in those things, and he could tell you any sort sort of detail about any of those. Right. And um, but I like to read and he hates to read and and things like that.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

So I'm just like actually been reading a lot.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

He has been reading a lot. I've seen that. I have. So I mean it's just like But the point of all that was to say is that is that Braden's good at fashion corporations.

SPEAKER_01 22:07

I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_02 22:10

I could not admit that I was wrong. And I still have a little bit of like a defense or like an offensive kind of thing come up in me every time that I am corrected and I've just kind of had to be like, Lord, like search me and know me. Like search me and know me. And you know my heart and like refine anything in you that is. Yeah. Yes. You know my heart behind the defenses, and I want you to reveal the ways I can surrender that kind of.

SPEAKER_01 22:38

And I mean, we all have those things because we have we have things that didn't work the way they were supposed to, right? We're like, we are uh, you know, we're we're flawed people, we are dysfunctional people. So anytime there's dysfunction in your life, and I would say that that was a dysfunctional way of living that and it was a dysfunction that I brought into our family dynamic because of, you know, it it it if like I'm a bit dysfunctional and I'm the mom, then there's gonna be dysfunction.

SPEAKER_02 23:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

Right. And so anytime where there's dysfunction, you have to try to all of us, we have to try to adapt to whatever that dysfunction is. And out of that adaptation, we start believing. What are you saying? I'm thinking about how we adapt to everything. Oh, yeah, we do.

SPEAKER_02 23:20

Okay, we'll talk about that in a second. Another time.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

Anyway, out of that adaptation, we start um having these beliefs about ourselves. And so if your belief about yourself was I'm only worth something if I'm this way, yeah. And that was one of the things that I've done. So then, whenever anything wasn't the way you wasn't, it didn't pan out that you did know that or you're wrong about that, or whatever it was, then it then it poked a hole in that belief of like I'm yeah, I am only which is going back to the idealized version, is like yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

Which this video, this episode's been coming more and more about like how we perceive ourselves and how that plays into our relationships. Yeah. But because that has been a lot of the reasons for the like losses.

SPEAKER_01 24:06

Yeah. And it's important to talk about like that we and that we all have these, and it doesn't make us bad or wrong or any of those things. It's just it's that we've had to adapt in ways that cause these, you know, these things to rise. I I my perfectionism was probably an adaptation to something. It's it was its own belief underneath the surface that I'm only worth something if I'm perfect or I'm not enough, or you know, I have to perform to be, you know, valuable or whatever that is. And so um, yeah, I think and then performing out of that and then not being able to handle it whenever it doesn't go that way because it's poking a hole in what is my, you know, uh my way of doing things that works, like making things work.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

So anyway, yeah, yeah. So yeah, I feel like the encouragement out of that will just be like I feel like there's just things that only the Lord can reveal. Yeah. And or through like relationships, you just see a pattern, yeah. And there's just asking the Lord to reveal the pattern.

SPEAKER_01 25:09

Yes, like whatever there is in me that is getting in the way of the way you want this to work, and it for it to actually being functioning in the way that you are supposed we I was designed to function. Anything that's like getting in the way of that is some is is something that's getting in the way of God using our lives and using us as parents and and being who our kids actually need us to.

SPEAKER_02 25:33

I feel like it can be a block to obedience, like out of like yeah, because I prioritize upholding my belief, my ideal self over obeying the Lord, obedience. Asking him to be the parent, basically. Yeah. We've talked about the the losses. Are there like any wins that you can think of?

SPEAKER_01 25:52

Um well, I was saying this a little bit earlier. I was uh gonna say this, and then we started talking about something else too, but which was great. But I I think um what I was gonna say is that they're you know, like the overcoming of these things is I think the win. You know, like being able to see that like that it's never too late in relationships, like that I don't have to um like it's does it doesn't erase everything, like it doesn't make it go away. Like you might still do struggle with this, you know, what happened in the to you based but based on what dysfunction I was bringing to the family, but that doesn't mean that's forever. And like it gets to be something that like an area where we can depend on the Lord more, where we can grow, and then we can see like it is possible for things to change. It is totally possible, and it gives me faith, like it gives me faith for whenever I'm struggling or whenever my friends or family are struggling, or whatever you and be are struggling with something, or daddy, like there is always um there's always room for the Lord to work if we allow him to. Like if if we give him the space, he will work, he will do the work, he will he's working on our behalf. He's that I love that song the by Abby Gamboa, the there goes that man, he's always moving on our behalf. And like even when we don't see it. Yeah, even every week when even when we don't see it. Um, and it's bringing us into alignment with his will for our lives, and and that has this ripple effect for other people, like when you can do that, especially in your role as a parent, because God's given you your kids and put him put them in your life specifically so that you can because there's something uniquely that you are meant to do in that relationship, and so it just puts you in a place where you can be used by God in big and small ways that are yeah, uh it are actually like bringing you know God's kingdom here on earth, which is really cool.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

That's really good.

SPEAKER_01 28:05

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:06

I feel like I remember there was like a bit like I feel like it was a win for you. Like, or maybe I could tell when there were wins for you and there was things that you were overcoming because I just remember like just seeing the Bible out more.

SPEAKER_01 28:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:19

Or like just just little things like that. Like the Bible was in our in our house, like just laying out more or um I remember there were those days where you would get up you got up every morning, read and prayed, and um just seeing like just all the um I think just seeing the ways that the Lord has has blessed you um these past couple years has been really cool. Um, and I just think that's out of your obedience and not and letting him work.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

Letting him move, yeah, letting him move like okay and getting out of the way. Yeah, that makes me think of like I always think it's really funny because I feel like that God speaks to me like through his uh spirit, like in very short small sentences. He just knows you're short and he's like, go do this, and I'm like, okay. It's always like it always feels so go.

SPEAKER_02 29:16

Didn't this happen with the podcast? Go start a podcast.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

I totally forget about podcasts.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

Like, go start a part of podcast. And you were like, Okay, that's exactly what happened.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

And you were like, All right, I guess I never literally never thought of that. Like, not even for a second, not even for a second, not even for a second, and then it was like that's so funny, especially to be on the podcast. Okay, I'll do that too. Sounds good, yeah. Yeah, so funny, yeah. But again, it's like those like seeing God work and seeing God move, it builds your faith. Like it it makes you know that you can you can ask for things of the Lord and that He is going to meet you there, like He's going to answer, He's going to answer you.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Yeah, the quote about like what the definition of a disciple being like uh a long obedience in the same direction Yeah is coming to mind. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's a long obedience in the same direction, right? Are you oriented towards Him?

SPEAKER_01 30:19

Yeah, then as long as you're oriented toward Him and you're walking in obedience, you're gonna you're gonna walk in the right way. It's like how the crooked paths get made straight, you know? And that's just really, really cool. It's very cool. So yeah. Do you want to pray for us before we end today and pray for the listeners?

SPEAKER_02 30:38

Yes, I would. Okay, Lord, thank you. Uh just for every person that's listening to this. Um we thank you for uh the purpose and the identity that you give us, Lord. Um, and the th the things that uh are these uh just kind of tendencies and this this vision that we have of ourselves as this ideal uh person or this idol um that we feel like we're constantly having to work towards, Lord. I pray that you would just free us from that. Um that that you would give us a renewed vision of who you want us to be, um that that would be the identity that we uh we uh put on and that that would be um the purpose that we walk towards to be a parent uh that that glorifies you, that follows you. Um Lord, would you help us to have a long obedience in the same direction? Um that you would constantly refrain refine us and uh just show us anything that is offensive to you in our hearts and our minds. Um we just ask that you would um continue to uh give us purpose and vision um for what to do next and uh the patience to wait through the seasons of uh a wilderness and and faith to know that you are still moving, even if we can't see it, and that you are a God that goes before us and prepares the way. Um so we thank you. Uh we thank you for our family and just the the ways that you have worked, um, and I thank you for just the uh the stories that are going to come um from your from uh the ways that you're moving in families, uh, where uh there's stories where they were they were lost as a family and they didn't know where to go. Um but Lord, you showed up and um ten years from now this gonna look like a completely different family. And so we just thank you for um that you have you have a plan, even if it's d a long way down the road. Yes. Um and that you are bringing people to your heart um in families where the people are are far gone from the Lord and all these things. We just ask that you um would be the author of the our stories. Um and we thank you for all the stories that are are listening and um we just bless them in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 33:00

Amen. Thanks, Chris. All right. Well, we will be back in August for starting our new series on becoming a parent. So again, subscribe, listen, follow podcasts, watch all the things on YouTube. All right, and we will see you guys next time.

SPEAKER_02 33:21

Love you guys.

SPEAKER_01 33:21

Bye bye.

SPEAKER_02 33:22

Bye.