Well it’s that time of the year where egg nog is spontaneously appearing on the shelves and ghost decorations are making simple trips to the store feel like entering a haunted house (I’m looking at you Home Depot). But today, Doug and Brad hit on something that scares most of us year round - the fear of failing as a parent. What if I mess up my kids? What do I do when I know I missed the mark? How do I keep moving forward without giving up? All this and more as we dive into the second episode of the season.
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Thank you for listening and Go M.A.D. today!
Well it’s that time of the year where egg nog is spontaneously appearing on the shelves and ghost decorations are making simple trips to the store feel like entering a haunted house (I’m looking at you Home Depot). But today, Doug and Brad hit on something that scares most of us year round - the fear of failing as a parent. What if I mess up my kids? What do I do when I know I missed the mark? How do I keep moving forward without giving up? All this and more as we dive into the second episode of the season.
Connect with us on social media and / or email:
Twitter - @GoMADPodcast
Facebook - facebook.com/gomadshow
Instagram - @gomadshow
YouTube - @gomadshow
Email - gomadshow@hutchcraft.com
Or find out more about us on our website: gomadpodcast.com
Enjoy the show? We'd love it if you took a moment to leave a review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/go-m-a-d/id1593068456
Thank you for listening and Go M.A.D. today!
Everybody welcome to season 3, episode 2 of the Go Mad with Doug and Brad podcast. They were talking about that biggest of all parent fears tuition. Know that we're failing our kids, so hang on. Whether you got kids or not, whatever age they are, this is for you today.
Speaker 2:Well, it's that time of year again where eggnog is spontaneously appearing on the shelves and ghost decorations are making simple trips to the store feel like entering a haunted house Looking at you home Depot. But today, doug and Brad hit on something that scares most of us year-round the fear of failing as a parent. What if I mess up my kids? What do I do if I know I missed the mark? How do I keep moving forward without giving up all this and more coming up as we dive into the second episode of the season? Let's go, matt.
Speaker 3:Welcome everyone. As Doug said, another episode of go mad with Doug and Brad. We've got Jesse with us.
Speaker 1:Hey, Jesse.
Speaker 3:Alright, jesse has a man bun. He does. He does have a manly bun, in fact.
Speaker 1:I actually didn't know. I for a little while I actually thought that was a bakery thing, and then and then, you kept ordering it and no, everyone's like no, and someone pointed at a guy and said you have a man bun. My life was.
Speaker 3:This is gonna be quite an episode because the reality is we have got three dads here and we have I. We were talking, we were comparing notes before the episode and evidently None of us are perfect ads.
Speaker 2:That was weird to figure that out.
Speaker 3:But I especially did not appreciate that you guys kept listing why I'm not. We did.
Speaker 1:Happen to rank us as. That would be wrong of me to tell you that I came in number one.
Speaker 2:You said it was private that oh man.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I mean, we really Are talking about something that I think is maybe parents greatest fear, and that's that somehow we're failing our kids. You know, hmm, when, when I think of ways I know I have failed or times I know I failed, it's like a loop of Recording that goes back and back and back into my head Remembering I failed, I failed. Brad said something the other day said how come we we don't remember and celebrate as much all the wonderful things that we've done as parents and the successes, but we always focus on the failures. So we're gonna talk about that some today. All our kids are at different points. If you're listening today, maybe they're little, still little, maybe your kids are student age, maybe they're grown, but we're gonna talk about things today that addresses all of them, maybe your grandparent even.
Speaker 3:That's out there and you're like man, I, how do I pour into my grandkids and I don't want to fail them in Bringing up this next generation. So we're gonna tackle all of that. And you said that it's true. We remember some of the Fun things that we've done as parents and the things that we've I I'll be honest, there's a victory that I don't know if everyone will agree is a victory, but I, you know you remember some of the victories and for me, we are almost through all of the 18 episodes. Wow.
Speaker 1:Sure, that's a victory, that's true. I don't thank you. Thank you to mrT.
Speaker 3:We have seen 43,000 explosions and no one died. It has been amazing.
Speaker 2:I mean cars flipping.
Speaker 3:And one of the best things is when my kids are sitting there and we're watching it and then they're just like they see a car flip and it's just crushed and they're like no, and then the guy called hey, bob, you okay. And they're like they just crack up and I love it.
Speaker 2:I can't live up Kids into jazz Watch the A team.
Speaker 1:Wait, I've got my.
Speaker 3:Jesse, I'm 50 years old and I'm not into jazz. I've tried, I really have.
Speaker 1:I've got my own victory story. You ready, I'm ready. So the other day I'm gonna give you a hint. I'm gonna give you a hint, you see, if you can guess the victory. Here's the hint. Oh, we're halfway there on.
Speaker 3:Joby 80s music.
Speaker 1:I mean my kids Heard the beginning of that song, of that course, and they started singing it word for word.
Speaker 3:See, at least yours is more spiritual, because your song talked about prayer, at least I don't.
Speaker 2:I mean so hard to get my kids into the Muppets and Fun.
Speaker 3:That was a tough one for you.
Speaker 2:We talked about that a little, no, Obviously it still hurts a lot Talking about no Muppets, no Bon Jovi, no jazz and no A team. It's it's a little my evening.
Speaker 3:But I will say that, what that? There are other things that you look back in there, those things that we celebrate the I love that, my kids Love traveling, that we have over the years you know a little more serious one a lifelong memories thing, that man we get to take these trips together, including with on Eagles, wings and everything else, but we get to do these things together. But it is true that there's so much to celebrate, but when we mess up, when there's something that happens, whether it's our fault or whatever and sometimes it is our fault and all of a sudden we look at it, we're like we dwell on that and we just let the enemy kick us around.
Speaker 1:I have one of the worst parent fail stories. Here you ready.
Speaker 3:Oh, please tell us. Hey, wait, you said you were number one. I thought I, and they had that in parent fails.
Speaker 1:So my daughter, noel is two years old and I am not still Victor not to be clear.
Speaker 1:She's 21 now and yet still this haunts me. This haunts me my first child, two years old. I'm like we are in victory mode. We're at Disneyland, oh my goodness, and I'm like I'm gonna bring her on my favorite ride, pirates of the Caribbean. Like this is a kid's ride. I can't wait for her to experience what I've experienced. Well, she was two years old. I kind of forgot that I was like 12 when I went on at the first time and it's not exactly a kid's ride.
Speaker 1:I take her in my arms, by the way. There's no way to get off this ride, just so you know, if you start to have a bad experience you are trapped. So we're in this boat. It gets very dark and immediately Noel tenses up and we start to go into the ride and there's like this spooky face that goes Abandoned Hope. All of you who enter here and this evil laugh and immediately she starts, she tenses up, she buries her head in my chest and she cries, for the entire ride is terrified. The entire ride which, by the way, is seven minutes long.
Speaker 3:And that felt like 17 to 27 minutes for you right there.
Speaker 1:It felt like seven hours.
Speaker 3:man, there's a one-time dog thought I could swim for it with my daughter.
Speaker 1:What a huge dad fail. You got any of those.
Speaker 3:Oh, I see, I don't know if I can tell the one that comes to my mind, I'll tell it.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 3:So because it's actual and metaphorical. The reality is that Sarah ran out. We're living out in Arizona remote community and she runs up to this I like yard sale. It's like seven minutes away. I'm like I'll be fine. And Carissa, she's a baby. And all of a sudden I'm carrying her and I want to be clear. It wasn't a long fall, but I dropped her, I dropped my daughter. You're right. You shouldn't have changed.
Speaker 1:I have a feeling if he's telling the story, it turns out okay.
Speaker 3:No, it was so all of a sudden, I mean, I called Sarah quickly and said you need to come home. I'm not ready for this.
Speaker 3:And so she came home and Carissa was fine, but I'm going to be honest, I couldn't tell her till she was 16 years old. It just came out once and guess what? Yeah, there were. I'm pretty sure there's some judgment there. It was just look of you did what and I'm like you're fine, you're fine, I mean so it was. But I will say what stuck with me was yes, it wasn't the you know, it wasn't maybe typical parent failure or whatever, but I, I dropped my daughter and all of a sudden I just felt like man.
Speaker 3:All this guilt and shame for that and that is really what we're talking about today is there are times that we drop the ball as parents, and one of the greatest tricks the devil uses with parents is causing them to live in doubt and shame and regret. But the reality is we still have to be bold in those times. We still have to be willing to say you know what? Hey, I know I made a mistake, but I'm not going to let that keep me from trying moving forward. But the devil really loves to throw that in your face, not just at the time, but years down the road to bring it back up the Bible calls him in Revelation 12, the accuser of the brethren, and I think you can call him the accuser of the parents man.
Speaker 1:He knows if he can really get into our hearts and minds as failures, as parents were convincing us that we are. We won't intervene when we should because we'll be afraid of failure. We might become apathetic because we're afraid of failure. There is no question that the enemy will work on you in a big way. I remember with my son, he was just we had put every filter you could possibly put on the internet and he's like trying to look at cars, videos like Lightning McQueen and, as you may know as a parent, on the internet there are things that even if your kids aren't looking for them, those things are looking for your kids and they figure out a way in advertisements and well, either way, he ended up watching something that no one should ever watch. But you know, as a 12, 13 year old, we saw that and his mom and I were heartbroken and I will tell you, for weeks afterwards I was kicking myself and said where did I fail? Why did I not? Why wasn't I more careful? And the enemy really did a number on me.
Speaker 3:I think one of the keys here is something you just brought out there, because all any parent listening, any grandparent listening, anyone that has honestly worked with youth of any sort that it could be you may not be married, but you may be heading up a youth group or you may be helping out at school with kids you know the feeling of that. You feel like you've messed up and what that leads to is fear. It leads that fear that you were talking about that. When we fail, it gives us fertile soil for the enemy to say yeah, you know what. You shouldn't confront this next time. You shouldn't take this on.
Speaker 3:What were you thinking? Doing such and such? And the reality is that those times where we maybe mess up, where we have those things that we feel we could have done better, those are incredible times to be able to bring God into the situation, to teach our children through those. And that's what we're talking about today. We want to talk about simple steps to overcoming the fear that we face as parents of failing our children, because when we realize we can trust Jesus, that we don't have to have this fear guiding us, there can be victory on the other side of that.
Speaker 1:What a scary thought fear, in that fertile soil, of our desires to raise our children in a godly way, that they would become followers of Jesus. Because if you're a believer, this takes on a whole nother level because you care so deeply about where they're at spiritually and you want to do right by them. We have such a deep, deep concern for our kids. There's a reason for that. There's a scripture in Psalm 127-3 that says Children are a heritage, they are a gift from the Lord and, yes, that includes teenagers.
Speaker 3:Yes, so here's my attempt. It specifically lists that I'm pretty sure Original Hebrew Greek somewhere there.
Speaker 1:It included teenagers. So here's my attempt to sound smart. There is a Latin word for legacy, it's called legare, okay, and of course we care very deeply about our legacy, and legare actually means to send an ambassador ahead of us, and that's exactly, of course, what we want for our kids. I remember our mom had a sign over where she would do the dishes and it said Children are messengers to a time we will not see. In fact, a little bit later, in Psalm 127, it talks about that. Arrows are like our kids are arrows in a quiver. Now I have an, and a man whose quiver is full of them is blessed. I don't know how many kids it takes to have a full quiver. I'm not even sure I know what a quiver is, but I do know that an arrow is a weapon that goes where I cannot go. That's legacy, okay, and our children, our grandchildren, will never interact with a more influential ambassador than us.
Speaker 1:Second Corinthians 520. We talk about this scripture all the time on the podcast. It's all about being ambassadors for Christ, and what greater responsibility do we have than to be ambassadors for our children, for our family, for our wives, our husbands? So think about that, the reason I think that it's planted so deeply in our hearts. Why we care so deeply, as we're believers, that our kids have a spiritual legacy is because God has planted that there. Our kids are deciding who Jesus is. If we're ambassadors, our kids are deciding who Jesus is by who we are. We're representatives of Jesus Christ. So how are we doing, right? God says I'm a God who forgives. How am I doing? God says I'm a God who keeps no record of wrongs. How are we doing? I'm a patient God. I care more about the inside, what's going on in the inside, than what's on the outside. How are we doing? Well, the honest truth is we as parents fail in this impassionorship from time to time, but we can't let that keep us from intentionally building faith in our families.
Speaker 3:One of the things I think that parents really face when failure hits is the reality that there is this feeling that, man, I'm marginalized, that I moved to the outside and so they stop fighting and they stop being willing to do stuff. And what kind of comes to my mind here? What our kids need? You think of a sports event for children? You have got all these parents who are out in the stands and we know you hear from those parents.
Speaker 1:They are trying to yell there's especially that one guy you always hear from oh, my goodness.
Speaker 3:Do this, do that? No wait, you've got this and you see that ref. But the reality is, our children need to have the coach in their lives. That's right there on the sideline, that's right there with them, it's in the huddle with them when they need to be calling that time out to say, hey, you know what? This is what we need to be doing. Who is willing to instruct, yes, in their mistakes, but through our own mistakes, that we instruct through those, because the reality is that when we have those moments, oh my goodness, that's when we can step up. In fact, one of the things I love to say do you guys all right if I read a quick quote here Please? I just saw on. I get confused because I would say a tweet, but it's not Twitter anymore, it's an X, and I don't understand.
Speaker 2:So Isn't it an X, isn't it a Y? So I'm just going to go with I'm going to go with Twitter.
Speaker 3:On Twitter, I saw a tweet from Greg Stier, who's the founder of Dare to Share.
Speaker 2:He's an evangelist.
Speaker 3:Author speaker yep, but most importantly he's a dad. That's what he leans into here and he says raising children is not a formula, it's a fight. It's a fight for wisdom on when to discipline, how to discipline and when to show mercy. It's a fight for the balance between leading them and loving them. It's a fight to keep your marriage strong at great times of great stress. When people ask how did you do it? Because he's got children who are walking with the Lord, he says I don't tell them about a course on parenting that we took I jokingly answer prayer and duct tape. My series answers this.
Speaker 3:My wife and I realized years ago that it is not our job to make our kids serve the Lord. You can't make your kids serve the Lord. All you can do is create the environment, do your best to set the pace and pray. It's not our job to force our kids to be godly. Honestly, that's impossible. But he goes on to say that we can pray for them, that we can love them. We can do all these things to set I love that image Set the environment If we are setting the right environment. So what we're going to talk about here is steps to create the environment, to conquer fear.
Speaker 1:You know, brad, before we get jump into that, I think we need to take a second here to address parents whose kids are maybe wandering. I love wandering spiritually. I love the coach analogy, because the best Super Bowl coaches ever make plenty of mistakes, but they make the mistake, the penalty happens or whatever, but then they get right back in. They keep looking forward. If you've got a young person that's spiritually wandering, the enemy wants you to believe it's too late. Whether they're 14 years old, 20 years old, 40 years old, you want to believe it's too late. I love how my dad explains it. He says remember that whatever age they are, this is not the end of the book. As long as they have breath, they have hope and this is just a chapter in their lives, the enemy wants you to believe it's over.
Speaker 1:Remember that amazing parable. And Jesus even says, right before he tells this parable, he says this is so. You will pray and not give up. Apparently. There's something in our going to God in prayer, over and over and over, that glorifies him, and every child is on their own different faith journey.
Speaker 1:So as a parent, remember Jesus says so. There's just evil, judge. And this woman keeps going up to him knocking on his door saying I want justice. I want justice. Keep saying, leave me alone. Leave me alone. Finally, he says just because you won't shut up, I am going to give you what you want. Jesus says if an evil judge will do that, how much will the God, by the way, who will made lovingly formed your children in the womb, how much more will he listen to you and answer you? But remember, jesus said this is so you will pray and not give up. Keep bringing it, keep asking it. Don't become weary in doing good One of my favorite scriptures because if you don't give up, then you will see a harvest. Let's get into this. How do we conquer this fear?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and a great quote. One more quote from Greg Steeher here, because it goes along with what you're saying, Doug it is our job to build a lighthouse that is so tall and so bright that, even if they stray out of the harbor when the storms of life hit, they know how to navigate back to the safe harbor of Jesus.
Speaker 2:I love that you mentioned being a lighthouse, because it's such a good analogy for our relationship with our kids.
Speaker 2:But remember the day when I realized I couldn't save my kids only God could. And that was both a slap in the face and a relief, because my natural tendency is to look at other people's kids and go, wow, they must have it all together. They have the secret sauce that I'm missing and Doug like the parable that you mentioned, recognizing God, you're actually the only one who can save them, no matter what age they are. I got to keep running back to you. If I think I can follow these 10 easy steps to parenting and knock it out of the park, if I just check these boxes, I've left God out of the picture. But if I'm forced to continually run back to God not compare my kids to other kids or my parenting to other parenting, learning what I can from other people but not saying they're the standard and I'm subpar it keeps me running back to God over and over again, and I think that's the way he set it up.
Speaker 3:Hey man. Wow, Well, here we go. That was so good how do we do this?
Speaker 1:How do we conquer? We're going to rip through these really quick here because they're pretty straightforward, but you guys will connect to them.
Speaker 3:Number one own it when you're wrong. When you make a mistake, you own up to it and you move forward.
Speaker 1:With your kids, or maybe you were right, but maybe we're too harsh. You know the sin and our relationships. I kind of look like as a vampire. You know how vampires die when they're dragged out into the light. That's what confession. When there is a problem in a relationship, that's what confession does. When you confess to us and to the person, even when it's your kids, we go. Well, if I am transparent and I say sorry to my kids, isn't that going to make them respect me less? No, it's gonna make them respect you more because they're gonna. It's funny, you know, they already know we're not perfect, but they don't know that we know.
Speaker 1:We're not perfect so so be transparent and and own it. When you're wrong, be don't be afraid to say I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:I was wrong. Yep, I had to do that this morning Did you see, it's really.
Speaker 3:It doesn't take us long to remember.
Speaker 2:Nope, I had to call up my my wife, who had my daughter, and say I need to apologize to my daughter for something. Oh man, and it kind of it. You know it hurts a little bit on the inside but I do think a consistent Lifestyle of that does make a big difference in the long run.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm. The second thing that I see is just don't stop fighting, don't give up. And what does that look like, to not give up when maybe there's a mess up on our part or something Doesn't go the way we want? It's to keep living it out. Like Deuteronomy 6, 5 through 9 says you shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today We'll be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and you'll talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise. What I see, when I read that, when I hear, what I hear in that is man, keep talking about Jesus, keep putting Jesus before Everything. Make sure he is not just. We don't want to have just this time. All right, it is time to sit and talk about Jesus, children.
Speaker 1:That's not what it is.
Speaker 3:Exactly. This is saying Jesus is supposed to be woven throughout our lives. So in the victories and in the failures, we're pointing to Jesus keep moving forward.
Speaker 1:I don't know what we call parapathy, parent apathy Wow, I I don't know what the word is, but I do know the enemy. Here we go again. The accuser Want you. We don't even realize when it's happening. I want you to kind of disengage a little bit out of fear. So here's the third one you ready, receive God's grace when you fail. Remember that scripture if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If Jesus will forgive us, if God will forgive us for our sins, shouldn't we forgive ourselves, for when we mess up? I mean, we even teach it to our kids be a forgiver, amen. And then we don't forgive ourselves. So move forward, receive God's grace when you fail. I.
Speaker 3:I'd go next to. You've got to be with other parents, you trust. The reason we mention this is if you don't have community. Yes, you are supposed number one is supposed to be your spouse that you are Talking with your spouse about what's going on in life, about the. You shouldn't fail and go to someone else first you should talk that through with your spouse, but then for you to gather as a couple to be able to be with Another man and woman that you trust. Here say a couple things that stuck out to me. Galatians 6 to tells us to carry each other's burdens. Hmm, romans 12, 15 rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. How do we do that if we're not in community? So be around, guess what those other parents. You know that man. They're trying to walk with Jesus, trying to point people to Jesus, to guess what they mess up, to Talk about it. Be able to have good community together.
Speaker 1:Don't ignore this one. This is a big one and it's easy for someone who's kind of an introvert Doesn't like to be around other people, perhaps or man, or just generally a man.
Speaker 3:Which men I mean? I'm serious yeah. I don't like I'm fine. I keep my emotions inside.
Speaker 1:I am a man. I do not share my emotions. Is that how they sound when they say, brad, this is a great point? And maybe someone goes, oh man, but I don't have the time to do that. You don't know my schedules. Like you know what. You make time for things that are important I get it. But even if it's a 20 minute zoom once a week, kind of getting a covenant, maybe getting a prayer, relations with other parents who maybe have kids your age or who maybe can even be mentored to you, make the time. James said confess to one another and you will be healed. Another great scripture, like the ones you brought up, read there's something about this community thing where there's a lot of power. Don't ignore it, even when you're busy.
Speaker 3:I Can I throw a random one in the mix here that I think you guys will? I Connect with God. It is important. We're talking about what to do when there are these moments of failure and how to really just kind of keep moving forward and everything, and these are important. But celebrate the victories. Celebrate the victories in community, with other people. Celebrate it in your home. Celebrate it with your spouse to be able to say you know what, man, this is a good season, this is a good stretch. The enemy wants us focused on failure. Yes, we need to learn how to use that and to be able to grow. But celebrate the victories. I love I'm gonna tell a story about Doug here. We both love our children, love to read the word of God. Yes, we love that. I love that my children start their day with that and they don't do it perfect, they don't Make them perfect it doesn't, but and they don't do it in a loud and flashy way.
Speaker 3:Right, they did. They do it in their rooms, they have their quiet time with Jesus. But, man Doug, you sent a picture the other day and you just sent a picture of your boys who were out there, and they both just pulled out their Bibles middle of the day and they were just reading the word of God. The video games weren't on and and everything. And yes, do they play video games? Yes, do they do these things? Yes, but they also prioritize these different things and they prioritize God's word. So celebrate that.
Speaker 1:I love that you sent a picture of it because all of a sudden we're able to celebrate with you and, by the way, they are going to do and model whatever it is You're doing, just as a little side note here what.
Speaker 1:So, so, yeah, there are the things we say, but let's, let's get real here. It's the things they see you do. So if you're spending some quiet time with the Lord and they see that they want to know what makes her parents tick and you, they odds are they're gonna try that themselves. Let me. Let me maybe wrap us up with A really important one here. I love, I love. Own it when you're wrong. Ways to conquer your fear. Own it when you're wrong. Don't stop fighting, don't give up. Receive God's grace when you fail. Be with other parents you trust and, of course, pray. Now I'm gonna go. Oh, no, duh, I know I pray for my kids. God, please make my kids good. Now, this is, this is more than that.
Speaker 1:Pray alone, pray with others, pray with your family, pray alone. Get some daily what I call in your closet time that's the way the the word puts it is. You know, close the door, get away from your phone, even the rest of your family, and have a prayer time focused on kids and your relationship with your family. Pray with others Like we mentioned a little bit earlier before getting a covenant of prayer with other parents in the same situation and finally, pray with your family, your kids.
Speaker 1:Seeing you share Pray with your family, hearing you bring your real life struggles and thanks to God in Prayer publicly with your kids, all of a sudden this belief system what I believe I believe becomes real and they see your relationship with God come to life. It's I don't know why. It seems like one of those things we just where. It doesn't end up and I'm talking about personally Somehow a few days ago by and I'm like we haven't really prayed together. In a few days we make room for everything else. The enemy does not want you doing this. He knows where the power is. Pray with your family, prayer with your wife, with your kids.
Speaker 2:Make it a priority and I would say to that also pray specifically for your kids because, yes, I'm finding and I'm learning this my oldest has different gifts than my youngest and different challenges and I'm praying Obviously general things. I want them to love the Lord, I want them to love people, but it's gonna look different in my oldest than it is in my youngest and I want God so much To bring out those gifts that I see in my oldest and to bring out the specific gifts that I see in my youngest and to work Individually in their lives in in the way that only he can that's so good.
Speaker 3:Pray specifically to I man. This is all been real encouraging, even as I'm sitting here and I you know We've talked some about this before the episode. But to hear all this and to hear these shared hearts, it's an encouragement to me. And let me just I share this one other verse that I want to throw out there for parents who are struggling, who do have that wayward child, who don't know what to do right now. Proverbs 22 6 start children off in the way they should go and Even when they are old they will not turn from it. I know right now you may be saying well, I did, I started them off with the word of God. I did that, but they've turned from it. It means I failed? Maybe it means it's just a certain chapter, like you said, doug, and not the end of the book yet. So make sure you keep making much of Jesus in a way that is natural.
Speaker 1:God's word says that Jesus, our shepherd, goes out and Gathers his sheep.
Speaker 1:He's with those parents that have young.
Speaker 1:Let's pray right now, together, for everybody listening, that that our shepherd would find wandering sheep. And In fact, let's let's just pray that together right now, lord, that is our prayer. That For anyone that is Listening and that has kids and is discouraged right now that their kids are wandering, or maybe their kids haven't, haven't Responded to the gospel or to your word, help them know, whatever age their child is, help them to know that you are at work, that you love that child somehow even more than they do, and your work in that child's heart. Help us to pray and not give up so that we will see the harvest of our Young people, of our children, becoming followers of yours, whether they're our kids, our grandkids. Maybe someone is a mentor of of a young person that's listening. So, great shepherd, go out, gather our kids. We pray that each Parent here, that for each of their children, that their kids would grow to be a mighty oak of righteousness, a display of splendor For King Jesus, as it says in your word. In Jesus name.
Speaker 3:Amen, Amen. I thank you for joining the conversation today. Everyone we we know that there's a lot of different things that parents face and we pray. This has been a little bit of an encouragement to you today. We're gonna cover a whole lot more this season.
Speaker 1:We're just getting started. We got some cool surprises. Hey, hey, if you'll go and rate the podcast wherever you, review leave a review, a sentence, two sentences, if it's good. Hey, maybe, maybe, hold back on that. Hey, I actually looked on the Apple podcast, yeah, and saw that our podcast it actually has received a fair amount of ratings and out of five, stars 1.2 and we know. No, we actually 4.9.
Speaker 3:Oh. Out of that no we're still looking for that one tenth. Who thanks if?
Speaker 1:you've been doing that, please do that. Hey, tell your friends about it. But in the meantime we're praying that you will go mad.