[00:00:09] Speaker A: Welcome back into the Think Deeper podcast. I'm your co host Will Harib, joined by Joe and Jack Wilkie. On the last day of September, we head into the final quarter of the year. Hope everybody is just heading headfirst into Christmas. Just Thanksgiving and Christmas, I should say. Sorry, I always don't want to, I never want to skip over. Careful, the most important holiday, in my opinion, Thanksgiving for all the people that already have their Christmas tree up, which is just kind of crazy. But, um, guys, I'm excited about our episode. This week we are talking about the top ten lessons that we want to pass on to our children. We've said this before, we tend to shy away from doing just straight parenting episodes where we, you know, talk about here's how to parent, here's how to not parent just for the simple purpose or just for the simple fact of our kids are not that old yet. Joe and Jack's oldest is six, I believe. But between all three of us, we have ten kids and so make sure I got the count right. Yeah, ten kids. And so, you know, while we don't necessarily think that we could probably come out and tell somebody who's got a 15 year old, hey, here's how you parent your, your kid. What we can do is think about and talk about what we do hope to pass on to our kids over the next twelve to 15 years as they're still going to be in our house and as we're going to, you know, get into the point where we trying to pass these lessons onto them. And so that's what we're doing with this episode is talking about what are the top ten lessons that we want to pass down to our ten kids combined right now?
Obviously biblical things, some, you know, just simply how to live in this world type of things. And so I'm excited for the discussion on this. One quick note before I pass it to Jack for one more introductory thought, is you might have seen on social media on our Facebook, or maybe if you are, follow my, my dad, Brad Hareb on Facebook that he and my, uh, he and my mom have just put out a parenting book. Uh, that is, I don't think it's quite out yet, but it is going to be ready to order, um, here very soon. It's called arrows in the hands of a warrior. And.
[00:02:14] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:02:14] Speaker C: Very soon. We're putting on the finishing touches as we speak and it should be finished by the time you're hearing this.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: There you go. So it is a again, mom and dad sat down and just wanted to write a book about parenting kids towards heaven myself. I'm 2024, and then my youngest sibling is 16. And so the four of us, very, very privileged to have them as our parents. And they, of course, did an incredible job. Weren't perfect, as they talk about in the book, but I would encourage you if you're looking for a book on, hey, I've got kids that are about to hit teenage years. It's kind of the most crucial part of my parenting life. What should I do? I got a lot of questions. Obviously, there's all kinds of resources out there. I would recommend this book, arrows in the hands of a warrior. As Jack said, pre orders are available, and then we will be getting the hard copies very, very soon. But take a look at that. Check that out focuspress.org. or just check out our Facebook page. Jack, you had one other note you wanted to bring up about our Facebook page as well.
[00:03:08] Speaker C: Yeah, we're putting something out. We're working on an idea called Think Deeper Live, which is just a one day event get together. We'd love to meet some deep thinkers and speak on a topic and kind of have an open forum with the three of us. And so we're looking at doing that right now. It'll be in the middle Tennessee area so we don't have to travel. But I put out a survey. It's on our think deeper Facebook page and on our group.
If you're listening, we'd love it if you take that for us. Even if you're not in the middle Tennessee area, I have a thing on there of where somebody is, somewhere you would like us to be, and if there's enough responses for one place, we'll see if we can set something up. But, uh, yeah, please be sure to check that out, give us feedback on it. And, uh, we'd love to put one of those together and get to meet some of you guys.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: If we have any listeners in, like, Malibu or maybe like, London or something, let us know. Let us know. Make sure to comment on there. Get your church excited, you know, just kids are right.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: All right.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: Just kidding.
[00:04:01] Speaker C: Wherever you may be. So, yeah, um, be sure to check that out. But let's go ahead, will, if you want to kind of get us rolling.
[00:04:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:09] Speaker A: So the way we did this, just a quick formatting note, is we all came to the table this morning, so to speak, with four to five lessons individually that we put together. And we tried to. There was a little bit of overlap. There were a few that kind of hit the chopping block, so to speak. But we've worked it into a list of ten that each individual lesson is kind of brought by each co host. So the first one on our list is one that I brought to the one that I had. And then we'll, of course, kind of open it up to the discussion for everybody here. But I think there's a reason that Jack probably put this one first, is the, the lesson of how to. I want to teach my kids how to study the Bible and how to have a personal relationship with God, how to, how to have a walk with God. I think this is one of the more important things. And I was actually asking my wife last night as we were just kind of talking about, hey, you know, what are some lessons you'd want to pass on? And she made the, the comment of, I don't want my kids to have that term of an inherited faith. I don't want them to just have the faith of their parents. I don't want them to just go to church because that's what they always did. And, you know, they just think that they're expected to know, like we. I want my kids to have a level of, no, this is your faith. This is not my, you know, I'm, hopefully, I'm going to help shape your faith. I'm going to help strengthen your faith as your parent, but it is still your faith. And I think two crucial elements of your kids, of our kids having their own faith is, first of all, how to study the Bible. And so that's, again, the first thing on here is I want them to know how to walk through a passage, how to, you know, draw out from the text what is the author saying? Again, we're specifically talking New Testament here. But even as you go to the Old Testament, how to study more narrative type things, how to see typology. I mean, there's just so many different things. But specifically, I think a lot of young people, when they leave their parents home, they don't really know how to study the Bible. They know the bullet points, the five acts of worship, the plan of salvation. They know the big stories, but they don't know how to study. So that's a big one. And then the personal relationship with goddess, I don't want their, the only prayers that they do to be at mealtime. I don't want the only drawing closer to God, you might say, that they do to be within the four walls of a church building. And so that was the first thing or the first lesson that we have down on our list. Go ahead.
[00:06:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I was just going to ask you, how would you bring that about? I agree. I love these ideas. How do you plan on bringing that about? You have, obviously, Jackson's two, I think, right. Come out of. Yeah, man, time flies as they grow up. Obviously you want them to have a proper study life and know how to. How do you plan to teach them that? Because I think a lot of parents are, well, what books can I have? What resources can I just give them a book and teach them how to.
Practical steps. And again, we're young, so it's not like we're coming from this place on high, but practical steps on your part that you plan to personally implement in their lives. Same with your walk with God. How would you bring that about?
[00:06:58] Speaker A: So two things that. So we'll start with a study point. One is, I think my goal, my plan is to make the Bible a very used piece of literature in our home. By that I mean family worship time that we've talked about. But even since we plan to homeschool very much, incorporating that into the curriculum of a. Every day is going to start with the Bible. I want them to be very familiar with the Bible, if that makes sense. I want them to be very familiar with, you know, the books and how everything's laid out. But then, honest, to be honest, I plan to just sit down with them, you know, providing my work schedule and that I have time later on when they get to this age, sit down with them, walk them through books, how to study as if we're in a Bible class, you know, 30 minutes a morning, an hour a morning, whatever it is. We're gonna. Hey, we're gonna study Ephesians together, we're gonna study James together. Whatever it is, they're gonna be sitting there highlighting words with me and circling keywords, just like I've done, you know, myself, and maybe reading some commentaries. Whatever it is, I feel as though I want to do that with them, my wife doing that with them as well. And so there isn't. That's why I said, you have to. You have to teach them. This is. This is something that I feel like if you, as a parent, don't really know how, it is going to be difficult. But that. To answer your question, Joe, as far as the study part goes, that's what I plan to do, is just, first of all, make the Bible a very familiar resource, so to speak, in our home. But then just sit down with them at the kitchen table, 630 in the morning or whatever, and study with them and show them how to do it. As far as the walk with God goes, it's another thing, it's another concept of being in the home. I don't, I want to make the prayer time around the dinner table to be very well known that that is, that is extra, that we are, you know, and maybe this, this, this is asking them questions. How's, you know, what have you been praying for this week? What's on your mind? What have you brought before God? Incorporating the psalms and with, with their prayers of just setting, setting the example of maybe every morning we're going to gather around and pray. I mean, I've got a lot of ideas, but I think it's just putting them into practice and making it a normal occurrence in the home that is going to set them up for when they're 18 years old. They know how to pray. Uh, they, and they know how to study and all those things. What, what thoughts would you guys have, dad? I'm sure you guys have some thoughts on that.
[00:09:05] Speaker C: Yeah, I think something important in that we've talked about this with other things, with youth groups and such is kids are capable of so much more than sometimes they get handed. And like you say, if their Bible classes, it might not be teaching them deep Bible study, it might not be challenging them with the concept.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: In many cases, it might, it's probably not. Yeah.
[00:09:23] Speaker C: Right. And that's, you know, when I wrote that, the book Sunday school catch up, it was for people who are new christians, didn't grow up in the church. And I've had a lot of people who did grow up in the church who were like, I didn't know what sanctification was. I hear these words, I don't know what it is and things like that. And so, yeah, I mean, challenge your kids. I mean, even in the preschool classes and stuff like that, a Bible class at church, they can start on memory work and, you know, we've got great Bible class teachers at our congregation that are doing that with our kids of teaching them the books of the Old Testament, the New Testament, things like that. And they can handle more than you think at three and four years old. They can handle more than you think at eight years old. And as you say, as they grow into their teenage years, really expect them to be able to crack open the Bible and get something out of it and know what's going on, know the, who's talking and what the occasion is and all that stuff. I mean, again, I think a lot of christians really feel kind of like they're, they're just floundering a little bit with their Bible reading because they know they're supposed to open it and read it. But then beyond that, where do I go? So, yeah, I mean, expect that out of your kids. They can really pick it up.
[00:10:21] Speaker B: Yeah. The one thing I was going to add is what you already said, will. That's one of the reasons I kind of teed you off on that, is you can't give what you don't have. So if you don't have a good relationship with God or you don't have a good study life or whatever else, like, kids will learn primarily by example, them sitting down and seeing mom and dad open the Bible, seeing, study done.
It's one of the most exciting things that when they want to bring the highlighters and they want to mark up the Bible as well, they don't really know what that's about. And it's not necessarily coloring your Bible, but they don't really know that. I mean, they just. That's the cool stuff of seeing the. And modeling it for your kids. They will pick up on this, but you kind of have to have that yourself. And there's so many things that, that I lack in that. It's like, you look at it, you go, I gotta get better at this. My oldest son's six. I don't have, like, a ridiculous amount of time to really establish a great prayer life and all the things that I think I could really improve on in my christian walk. So it's important to do it for your kids. It's important to establish that yourself so you can pass it on.
[00:11:19] Speaker C: So.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: I love that. Jack, go ahead and get us into number two. You're number two on this, or you're. Yeah, you're number one, but number two on this list.
[00:11:26] Speaker C: Sure. Yeah. My number one, or again, number two on the list is love the church. This is an important one in that you might go to church, but for a lot of people, it's, it's a Sunday and Wednesday habit for other people. And this is something we've talked about before. We get the criticism. You're too negative and you guys just, you know, really down on the church and all that. And I mentally, analytically, like, what I was born with is a problem solving brain. And so when I'm writing, it's like, hey, we don't do this very well. We could do this better. Or why do we do the invitation and things like that? And people are like, man, you're always nitpicking the church. You're always down on the church. And, you know, that's the church broadly, but even in the local church, it can be, well, we could do this better. We could do that better. And always trying to fine tune and make improvements.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: Always having a critical eye, right?
[00:12:08] Speaker C: Yes, it's critical. It's negative. I mean, like, there is a negativity to that, and it's in service of. It is in love of the church. It is in desire for it to grow and be a part of something that is better and can be more and all those things. But if you're not in my brain where you don't, like, I take it as assumed. Well, of course I love the church. And so with that baseline, I'm just talking about all the ways we can improve it. Well, if you don't have that baseline, you're going to think, man, the church stinks. And I've had people say, do we do anything right? And then when I see that, I'm like, okay, I need to write a couple more positive articles here for the next couple weeks and things like that.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: Funny enough, those never do as well, though, do they, Jack?
[00:12:48] Speaker C: Nobody reads those. Nobody. Yeah, like, and then they say, you don't ever write anything positive. Like, well, it's right here. You just didn't read it. But no, but it's true. I mean, like, and so with my kids, they're gonna be from a family that is involved in the church, and they're gonna grow up with it, you know, in the way that I bring it to them. And I want them to think, man, that's my family. I love those people. Even when there's difficulties, there's disagreements, there's, again, fine tuning that needs to be done. This is a. This is our home. This is God's people that we're going to spend eternity with them and. And just this true adoration for the church and for God's people and all that. And, yeah, I mean, I'll talk about a couple ways you can kind of. I think I want to help develop that, but you guys have thoughts before I get to that side of it.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: Yeah, man, this one steps on my toes, because, again, I very much love the church. But you're exactly right. It's kind of the same thing. I think that's our family dynamic, is we want to improve. One of those on my list later is going to make a little more sense in light of this.
We do want to be at our very best. The problem is that can often come across as though you don't love somebody. And I look at it as I love it so much that I want it to be the best. Right. I wouldn't strive for this if I wouldn't. I wouldn't push the church or I wouldn't, you know, a Jackson temple or whatever it is. I wouldn't be looking for these things if I didn't love the church. But you can kind of see how obviously, how people would take that poorly. And so I love that you have this on the list. I think this is foundational for kids specifically to understand, like, well, so we're going to go into this a little bit more, but you are part of something much bigger than yourself, and it's important for you to cherish that, you know, organization as a whole, the body of Christ, the way that Christ does, because if you can't cherish church, you'll find yourself floundering and leads to that individualism that we see that's plaguing America. Like this is you are firmly implanted in something that's bigger than you, and you need to cherish and love it and work to help it be its best.
[00:14:45] Speaker A: So I think my addition to this would be, what is something that comes about when you love something, typically action.
What I would want to make sure my kids understand is what pretty much a lot of other people believe about the church, which is just a place that you show up to, you know, every, you know, three times a week to, you know, maybe sit and listen, maybe go to class. You need to pour yourself into the church, look for ways to serve, make, make it something that you actually work at. And obviously, you know, maybe not at seven years old, but, you know, even then, make, make, make, make it. Make sure that they understand, you know, this is your family. Go talk to the older people, start, try to serve at the fellowship meal. Look for ways that you can pour yourself into, you know, make this. Make this a not an organization, but a congregation of people who truly, once again, love to be together, who are growing together. And I think if you have a bunch of people that are not working at that, good luck, you'll never get there, versus people who understand the church for what it is. And, you know, the body illustration that Paul used in first corinthians twelve, you got, there's, there's a level of work that has to be involved in that, but that work comes about because you love the church so much. So that would be my addition, yeah.
[00:15:52] Speaker C: And we're coming at it from the critical perspective, but there are others that, you know, teaching a love for the church comes from a different perspective, of engaging, of being there, of showing up some of the things you're talking about of. There's a lot of people that do the church hopping thing or they're just very loosely engaged with the church. But like their real social life, their family, their everything else is outside the doors of the church, whether it's their sport, they're involved in, their extracurriculars at school, or, you know, they kind of choose something else. And the church is kind of like, yeah, those are the people we see on Sunday. And so whoever, whatever angle of it you're coming from, really teach your kids a love of the church and a loyalty and a dependence and all that. As far as practical things, hospitality is a big one. Just having. We have family over. We have church family over.
Even with the two year olds when we're getting them ready for church in the morning. All right, who are we going to see? A church and they start naming people. Oh, we're going to see, you know, Miss Sissy. We're going to see, you know, Mister, Mister Darrell, we're going to see all these, these people at church and getting them thinking about, it's cool. I'm excited to go see my church family and, you know, you pray for them and things like that and just kind of make it as part of the family. Like these people matter to us. And so any, any practical tips before we move on to yours, Joe?
[00:17:02] Speaker B: No, I think that's really good. Hospitality is big. That's a big one. Having people over and getting your kids used to having church members in the homes, but stops being a building centric thing. Starts being a people centric thing. We'll get together at all the, you know, and I would push your congregations to get together outside of the Sunday, Wednesday, you know, do a debone night where everybody gets together, prayer night, whatever it is. Go get around a big bonfire and cook hot dogs and hamburgers and whatever it is, like, do those things and let the kids help the kids understand that church is more than just Sunday Wednesday.
All right. My number three is proper roles in the home. And I had initially put this as man builds the house, a woman makes it a home. I really want that understanding passed down. I have three boys and a little girl who is sweetest thing ever. And I want to make sure that they both understand you have separate roles in the home for my boys. I really want them to lead and I want them to recognize that they are the head of the home and what all that entails. That means you will be answering to God on a judgment day for the sins of your family, for what you allowed into your home, that means your wife and her struggles and things like that. What did you do? Did you cherish your wife? Did you love her? Did you lead her the way that Christ does with the church? And for my daughter, I want her to know your job is to follow your husband's bowl leadership and to choose a husband, which I hope to have a hand in. And it's like, oh, you're idealistic. Yeah, that's why we're young. We already said that. And I know that it gets a lot harder, but I also hope to raise a daughter that allows us to have a hand in that so she doesn't go out and pick some knucklehead, you know, the first guy that comes along that usually falls to. Guess what? My lack of leadership in the home. When women run to poor leadership, you know, for husbands like bad guys, they're looking for strength, they're looking for love, whatever else that the dad's failing to give. And so these are the things that I want my sons and what I want my daughter to know is, like, man initiates and woman receives, this is just the way that it goes in so many areas of life that the man is to take the leadership and she's to follow behind. But there has to be a boldness in the leadership. There has to be a level of taking responsibility and ownership for your family. Not shrinking back, not letting your wife run the home because you're too scared to do it, that will create a vacuum in leadership that your wife will fill if you don't step up and lead your home. So, yeah, I want them more than anything to understand that the home is going to be the basis of society, pretty much the basis of the church, which is going to be the basis of society. If you can't get your marriage right and you can't get your home life right, at least striving for being what God wants us to be in the roles, the proper roles and hierarchy, you're going to be fighting an uphill battle. And the idea of generational faithfulness and all of the other things that we push on this podcast and some of the things we'll get to later, all of those things are out the window if you can't get this one right. So it's really important for them to understand their roles.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: We believe all ten of these are important.
There's an argument to be made. This one might be the most important. Maybe the study and walk with God is probably a little bit more important, but then again, maybe not in the sense of, if you know how to study your bible, but you don't have the proper roles within your home, you're going to be in trouble. And this is a think deeper special. Of course, we've talked about roles in the home. Masculinity, femininity. These are things that are right up our alley that we talk about all the time, but we don't talk about it all the time just because we feel like it. We believe it is the most. It is one of the most important things out there is to make sure that sons that. That boys are raised to understand they're the leaders of the home. They are the. The. The spiritual leaders of their children, that. They are the tone setters, the culture setters that we've talked about. And then the. And girls need to be raised to understand they are the help meets for their husband. They are the. The homemakers. They are the just different roles. And I think so many times we have young people growing up in the church who, whether it be because of feminism influencing them, whether it be because of just college life, whatever it is, boys and girls are raised pretty similarly. Um, you know, with. With not much communication, not much expectation of, hey, your. Your purpose in life is going to be different, and it should be different. And Joe just had a fantastic article. Go check it out on his substack, if he wants to share that in just a second, about truly just how much damage it has done to our mental health and our society to have women go into the workforce. And, you know, I don't necessarily want to spin this discussion into. Into that, but it illustrates the point of man. If you don't get this right within your home, you are setting your children up for a lot of obstacles. Um, the family is going to be, as far as a direction that the family is heading, it's going to be a little bit discombobulated. If the husband is not leading, maybe if the wife steps up to lead, it's just not the way God designed it. And so, yeah, I mean, this one is supremely important. I'm so glad that Joe had it on his list to make sure that your kids, from the time that they're six years old, from the time that they're ten years old, like, before they get to marriageable age, that we are communicating to them the differences between the roles of men and women. I think it's crucial. So, great, great addition here, Joe.
[00:22:05] Speaker C: Yeah. Will you say something there that, like, raising them differently is so important. And we're kind of in this system of like, well, from up until basically teenage years, they're basically going to be raised the same. Like, no, no, this starts very early. And I. It's psychologically in the kids. My little boys love to run across the room and tackle me. My girls, not so much. They love to carry around a baby doll. The boys don't like these things, the wiring that God has put in there. And yet we raise them the same way. We raise them with the same goals, the same achievements, the same, basically, hey, this is what success in life looks like is the same for boys and girls. It shouldn't. And so that when that is the case, it's no wonder we get this confusion. Then you get husbands and wives competing against each other and. And just not that. That home, the way that God set it up. And, yeah, it starts really young. So really good points, guys.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: I'm reading through a book right now, second time reading through it, but says the two sexes are created to function differently. Men initiate, women respond, men sacrifice. Women receive the sacrifice. Men are to give their love. Women are to grow in loveliness. A saintly woman is not the same as a saintly man. He then goes on to talk about covenantal representatives that the husband and father's covenantal representative, when he goes into the back room of his house, you know, if he's going in, he mentions going into use pornography without it affect the rest of the household. Like, you can't do that every time he goes into your back room. You should think, we, all of us are going into this room and I am bringing my wife and children together with me. The father is going there as the representative of the whole family. That's what we're talking about here, is just making sure that, yeah, our families know. This is interesting. We went and spoke at a congregation, and people get very upset when you start challenging parenting. And we did the best we could.
This is where. Yeah, I'm 30. I got so far to go. I don't want to get into the discussion of, like, well, my kids.
[00:23:55] Speaker A: Well, just real quick, Joe, that was. That was in the context of somebody who lost their kids to the world. Just to clarify.
[00:24:00] Speaker C: Well, and the other thing that made it a little bit more inflammatory was not, we did the best we could. It was, we did everything right.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And we did everything right. And they still fell away. And therefore, you know what you guys are saying? Like, you act like it's so easy and we're not acting like it's easy. This is incredibly difficult. But it's like, this is a worldview that takes lots of different parts to make this work. And so the idea of, like, we did everything right, I know I'm not going to do everything right. It's by the grace of God that people come to Christ. But at the same time, I think there ought to be a level of expectation of, like, my boys are going to grow up and lead their homes as well. And getting these things right, it's really difficult to teach it, but I think it's so incredibly important that we do whatever it takes. And from my article, I appreciate you shouting that out. Then we'll move on here.
Yeah, I think we talk a big game that we know all about therapy and attachment is so important. And you'll see all these people on TikTok or whatever it is. I'm not on TikTok, but, you know, the videos will come to Twitter or whatever it is, and all these therapists and people like that talking about how important attachment is. And then what happens?
Well, the woman goes inside or goes, goes to work. She leaves her kids at the ripe old age of six weeks, or even if she spends a year with them. Well, attachment, zero to two, and it builds on up from there. And so the kid is outside of his parental cocoon very early on. And then we don't think that that's going to affect the kids. Like, even from an attachment perspective, we know nothing about this. Like, we, we treat kids as well. They're resilient, like. Yeah, but I don't want my kids to have to be resilient to overcome what I did to them. So just some things to think about on that front.
[00:25:34] Speaker C: Hey, folks, you've probably heard us talk about focus plus and the deep end. If you're wondering what that is. Focus plus is our subscription service, available through Patreon every week. Members get all kinds of christian content for your walk, including daily devotionals, a sermon of the week, and our understudied teaching series, which Joe and I lead through obscure and less covered books of the Bible like Leviticus and Revelation. We also have the deep end, of course, which is our bonus segment exclusively for think deeper listeners, where you can submit your comments on an episode, and we will respond and have a bit of a q and A each and every week. That drops every Friday. So if you're interested and want to know more, check that out. Go to patreon.com and search focus Press or go to focuspress.org plus.
[00:26:17] Speaker B: Like how we broke down the first three, though, where it's like your personal walk with God, loving the church and then getting things right in the home. And those are kind of the three foundational things for a person's life, making sure. But will, I want you to get us to number four because this is where we break from that idea and get into more, I guess. I don't know, I don't know how we want to say it, but yeah, go ahead and get us in number four real quick.
[00:26:38] Speaker A: I think it's so funny. We had a delete tick tock video like two years ago now, and every time Joe brings up tick tock, he very quickly clarifies, I don't have tick tock. I don't have tick tock. It's quite funny.
But yeah, once I be like, hey, wait, number four. And this is the first one that kind of takes it outside the biblical realm, at least directly. Obviously, I think there's, it's tangentially related, but number four is the one I brought to the table. Self discipline is a muscle, so exercise it is what I put down. Um, this one is, this was enormous for me, um, in the sense of I really desperately want to make sure that my kids have a level of self discipline when it comes to, um, first of all, just exercise in general. You know, I put there as a muscle exercise that, I meant that figuratively, but also literally, there's a. We're going to have something on, on health later, but just the idea of like, things are going to be difficult. Things like exercise, things like eating well, things like getting up at four in the morning to go to work for the men or things like, you know, having. Dealing with homeschooling kids, homeschooling three or four kids. Like, these things are not going to be easy. And if you don't start exercising your muscle of self discipline at a fairly early age, maybe teenage years or so with schoolwork or again with your job or whatever it is, you're going to very quickly get into the habit of just always wanting the easy path, just always trying to get out of things. And I, I think one of the most valuable lessons that I've learned growing up is this idea of self discipline. The idea that, yeah, getting up really early to go to work is brutal. I want to get up and do it anyway. Or even maybe not work. There's been times, let's say I've worked at seven in the morning, need to leave by 630. Yeah, I'm going to get up at five so that I can study my Bible, that's a self discipline thing. Very much so. Even going to bed early, man, I really want to watch the football game. You've got work early next morning. Again, this is specifically for Mendez. Go to bed, have the self discipline to go to bed, have us having self discipline in the context of it'd be a whole lot more fun to have the tv on here. I'm going to choose to read a book instead. That's a self discipline thing. I mean, this ties to so many different areas of our life. And again, for whether it's men, for men or for women, we live in such an instant gratification culture where we want the dopamine hits, we want things that are easy. We don't want to get out and go for a run or go exercise. We don't want to have to pick up the book and read it. We'd much rather sit in front of the tv, get on social media and doom scroll whatever it is. We have to exercise our muscles of self discipline. We're really big, all three of us. And then we've talked about this in legit godly, I'm in podcast before of setting goals, goals that require you to exercise your muscle of self discipline. Reading goals, I mean, even one angle. I haven't talked about spending money yet. It'd be really easy to go out to eat four or five nights a week and a lot more fun. Have the self discipline to, you know, create a budget for your family and stick to it. Make meals at home. Like, once again, I could just go on and on about this, but just self discipline relates to so many aspects and areas of our life. And man, do I desperately want to pass this on to my kids because it will serve them so well with their job, with raising children, with homeschooling children, with keeping their houses clean just from every level of our lives. I feel like self discipline is so important, and so I, again, I definitely, definitely want to pass that on to my kids. What are your thoughts on that one?
[00:29:47] Speaker B: This is even more important in an instant gratification world of social media and doordash and everything else. It's so easy to just get everything that we want in the quick dopamine hits like you're talking about. We live in a world where it's faster than ever to get these things. And so the idea of self discipline is, in my opinion, way harder than probably it's ever been because we have so many distractions and so many things that are very immediate that this is, I love that you put this on the list. Something, obviously we're all still working on, striving for. But, yeah, it's a. It's incredibly important for a healthy life to be able to put some things aside, set some good boundaries, and to do what you need to do. The only other thing I'd say is it is a muscle.
It gets tired at night. So just be aware of that. Especially for, you know, for people that want to put working out, working out till night or. I work with a lot of guys whose porn addiction really kicks up at night and they're just trying to get through.
[00:30:39] Speaker A: Move the Bible study to nighttime. That's. That's pretty tough.
[00:30:41] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. I mean, the self discipline. It's like you've been exercising self discipline the entire day. By the time it hits 910 pm, you're pretty much tapped out. You don't have that much in this. Oh, man. I didn't hit the gym. Oh, I didn't do my Bible study. Oh, I fell into it again. Whatever it is, like, stop putting these things off at night or get in bed or, you know, figure out how you're going to structure your day a little bit differently. But, Jack, other thoughts?
[00:31:04] Speaker C: Yeah, I just saw a reel on this the other day, so I was pulling up some research as you were talking there that you say it's muscle. I mean, this is almost literal, that it is a part of the brain, the.
I'm gonna get this fancy scientific term wrong. Anterior mid cingulate cortex that literally you can wire by any time you have a task that you don't want to do, whether it's doing the dishes, whether it's a really hard work thing, it's just something that's gonna be boring, something that just that thing you hate to do, if you make yourself do it, it literally the way it kind of changes those neural pathways to where you just get better at it. And it gets easier and easier and easier, but the opposite is true. Every time you put it off, it gets easier to put it off again. And so, like, literally every decision you make every single day on the little things you don't want to do, the big things you don't want to do, avoidance becomes a way of life. And so, to Will's point here of why this is so important to teach your kids early on, you do that thing that you don't want to do, you get it out of the way. I've been working on. Yeah, I've been working on that with a six year old and a four year old. Work first, play later, get your stuff done, do the stuff you don't want to do, and then you've got all the time in the world for the stuff you do want to do. But yeah, I mean, literally, that Andrew Huberman guy, real big on science and the brain and the body and all that stuff, had some, some stuff on this of like, literally you can rewire your brain to be self disciplined. You just have to be. That's kind of the catch, is you have to be self disciplined enough times in the moment to get there. But then when you do, it gets easier. And so teaching them early, like will saying, is so huge.
[00:32:37] Speaker B: And you start small, too. I mean, you don't, you don't take the, the biggest frog to swallow in the morning. You start small and work your self discipline muscle up to the point where you can do much bigger things. But you got some good stuff. Jack, go ahead and get us into number five.
[00:32:51] Speaker C: All right. Provide work of value. Do something that as you grow up, as you choose a career, as whatever you're going to do, provide work of value.
And that's stuff that blesses other people. There's, you know, things I'm looking at. There's so many ways you can make money online that aren't outright scams, but it's just kind of gaming the system a little bit. It's kind of, you know, taken from one thing to move there. Joe, there for a while, you had a brief, short lived run as a ticket scalper, you know, buying valuable property, and you got it and you kind of got burnt on something at one time and that ended that.
[00:33:27] Speaker B: But, you know, stupid step up.
[00:33:29] Speaker C: Well, yeah, but it's, you're trying to learn ways to make money and stuff like that, but ways that provide value. And somebody could say, well, that provides value for somebody that couldn't get the tickets, whatever it may be. But, you know, there's a million things like that in this day and age of like, oh, you can find a way to make a quick buck, but, you know, the guy who, and it doesn't always just have to be working with your hands, but hey, having a garden, that's a way that you've got value for your family and yourself. Chickens or whatever it may be, carpentry, things like that, electricity, like building. But even if it's white collar work, you know, if you're going to be a doctor or a lawyer or whatever it may be, do stuff that actually helps people that can make a difference in people's lives. There are just so many jobs in this day and age where it's just shuffling papers, it's. And that's not fulfilling for yourself. You're not blessing other people by what you're doing. You're just, again, shuffling the paper to the next guy. And so I don't look down on the ways anybody makes money as long as it's legitimate. But on the other hand, you're going to feel better about yourself if you have work that provides value. And it's kind of, I got to this point in life where, you know, writing, preaching, speaking, you know, teaching the Bible and stuff like that. It's kind of like, oh, man, I don't have to do anything of value. It's like, okay, there is value in that. I don't want to denigrate that. But on the other hand, there are things that's like, man, I wish I had picked up a skill. I'm going to try and learn some skills, things like that as I go on. But, you know, I want my kids to have a set of skills like that.
[00:34:46] Speaker A: I think I've shared this before. This is not necessarily the reason why you do it, but some people maybe, maybe it is. You want to know the people that make a lot of money in this world. They're the ones that provide something that is of immense value from a supply and demand standpoint. There's a reason that trade schools are coming back in the sense of those guys make a lot of money. It's because it's something that's incredibly valuable. People really need their pipes worked on, really need their electricity, or the people really need electricians, that kind of thing. And that's the biggest lesson I ever learned in economics, is if you want to make a lot of money, find something that is that people incredibly value and that they're willing to pay for.
[00:35:27] Speaker C: These things, that people's problems. Yeah.
[00:35:29] Speaker A: Yes. These things that just about anybody can do. Yeah, they're going to be a lot easier. You're also probably not going to make as much money doing them. And of course, so of course it's not all about money, but I wanted to add that level of, or that layer, I guess, to what Jack's talking about, of work, of value to people that's also going to pay off in the end. And it might not be the man. There are some sewage workers that make a lot of money because nobody wants to do it right. And that's the micro dirty jobs type thing. But yeah, that's just a simple economic fact that I guess we're mainly talking to our sons here for but, yeah, providing work of value.
[00:36:00] Speaker B: When I was going to talk about the women's side of it, which is a clean home, a well prepared meal, you know, that's actually good. Where you're blessing your husband, that provides more value. Watching over the kids and helping the kids grow is what is pretty much the most valuable job there is.
I mean, that's the hand of the rocks, cradle rules the world type of thing. There is that element to it. We're not feminists here, but at the same time, there's certainly an element of like, that is incredibly, incredibly important because, as I said, on the rolls, one man builds the house. That's great. That's, you know, hey, we want to make sure we're providing work of value. It's valuable to build a house. It's a woman who makes it a home. She's the one that has all of the loving touches. When you walk into a home and it's warm, that's from a woman. That's the value that they can provide. And so I would say the same to a woman. You know, those. I mean, no, people on both sides, that of those that work and those that don't. But sometimes you walk into a home, even if they're a home maker, like, they don't work. You walk into a home, it's completely a wreck. You know, 24/7 there's not this warmth within the home. There's this kind of battle with the husband, a lot of time, things like that. And that's not picking on anybody, per se, but it's just to say, I think they're lacking value in their own work. They're failing to see how valuable it is when a woman is taking care of her domain and doing it to the best of her ability. So just to the women here, like, that matters more than you could even begin to imagine. I get done with a day of work, come home, long day, you know, been at the church office or whatever, doing eight clients. And then you come home and to know that, man. My wife has been taking care of things. My kids are well, well fed, and, you know, they're taking care of emotional needs, things like. I mean, that's very valuable. So I wanted to speak to both sides on that, but, fellas, any other thoughts on this?
[00:37:46] Speaker A: No. I'm glad you had that addition, because, I mean, talk about work of value. That is immensely valuable for a family.
[00:37:52] Speaker B: Yeah. So number six is going to go alongside that, which is strive for greatness. Now, this is our Jim podcast slogan, of course. So, you know, will, either me or Will. We're going to have it on here. I added this to my list because I want all of my kids, all four of my kids, to know you do it. You work unto the Lord. You give him your very best in everything that you do, and you strive for greatness. If you are a homemaker, you strive for greatness. You make sure that you are. Look, million one things get in the way. Kids are crazy, have tough days. It's not always me.
[00:38:24] Speaker C: Perfect.
[00:38:24] Speaker B: That's not the point. It's not perfection. We're just striving for greatness. We're trying to be better and growing on. This is what we talked about with the church, right? Loving the church. Jack and I. And Will, I think you're the same. We have this mindset of growth. Striving for greatness, being better. Sometimes it's okay to just be and to know that you're still loved if you just are. You don't always have to be pushing and pushing at the same time. I never want my kids to be, like, super stagnant where they don't really care. Let's just go home, watch Netflix and chill out type of thing. No. Strive for greatness if you're going to the gym. Strive for greatness if you're, you know, if you're at your job. Strive for greatness for your kids.
[00:39:03] Speaker A: Don't do it half hourly. Yeah, correct.
[00:39:05] Speaker B: Strive for greatness. You want your kids to be able to potentially go to Harvard if they ever choose to be that, because you're teaching them to such a good degree. Like, strive for greatness in every aspect of your life, as much as can be, as much as can be done. And I think we lack this a lot in the church where the mediocre kind of comes in. Well, you know, hey, do what you can do type thing. Like, yeah, I understand that. But push yourself. Like, try harder. Push yourself to achieve something that maybe you didn't think you could and just see what happens.
[00:39:35] Speaker A: Just very quickly. Jacqueline, it's all yours.
This world and society accepts mediocrity so much. Just all it takes is get on Facebook and look at the memes that people share that are just, you know, not just accepting mediocre beat or mediocrity, but, in a way, glorifying mediocrity. Yes. Celebrating it. The idea. Oh, man.
[00:39:53] Speaker B: Hashtag adult.
[00:39:54] Speaker A: I had so much to do, but I just want to, you know, I just decided to stay on the couch and watch tv, you know, like, little stuff like that. That's a whole lot, you know, wittier than the way that I put it. But it's. That's what people are sharing in memes. And it's like, you know, don't expect too much of me. You see these t shirts that people wear. I had to adult today. Just stuff like that that we've railed on before. I don't ever want my kids to have any part of that. Just, I'm glad the way you said it, Joe, is perfect of like, whatever you are doing, do it for the. Do it to the Lord, or do it under the Lord and do it to the absolute best of your ability. Whether it's working out, whether it's homeschooling your children, whether it's for the men, the job that you're working at, whether.
[00:40:28] Speaker B: It cleaning a bathroom. What do you do?
[00:40:31] Speaker A: Literally, but just do not accept mediocrity is another way that I would put this of a lesson that I want to pass on is do not settle for mediocre is the standard. Okay, I hit it, so I'm good to go. Move past that. And we, again, there's 45 year old adults that are sharing this stuff on social media that, you know, that's just accepting and celebrating mediocrity. I do not ever want my kids to get to that level. And so, yeah, this is a great addition to the list. Of course, godly. I'm in podcast special. Jack, what thoughts do you have on this one?
[00:40:59] Speaker C: Well, yeah, when you say unto the Lord is really important because we're in this time where, like, trying is not cool and really caring and just going all out, it's kind of like, oh, look at that guy. Well, if you care about what those people think, you're not going to go very far. You're doing it under the Lord, and it's for him that you're doing your work. And so that's really important. And I think of the parable of the talents. Strive for greatness is relative to the individual. You know, the. The one talent guy would have achieved greatness if he came back with two. That's all he had to do. Nobody was expecting him to pull down five. And so as a parent, it's kind of, that was the thing in the nineties. They told all of us millennial kids, you can be anything. You can be the president. You can be an astronaut. No, you can't. And we all got hit with the very hard reality number one. Like, we all graduated college right in the middle of a financial crisis in which there were no jobs, no houses, none of that stuff. And it's kind of like, we got sold this you can be anything dream. And everybody ended up working at Starbucks. Like, that didn't. Didn't work. And so there's a real. I mean, that millennial cynicism is deep set. And so with kids these days, I don't want to tell them, you can be anything. I can tell them you can be, you know, like, they don't have to be anything. They don't have to be the president. You need to be you. And maybe that is the president. Maybe that is an astronaut. Maybe that is something, you know, like, world changing. Maybe it's just a really good dad who grows up, serves the church as a deacon and an elder or as a mom and a wife and all the things she does. Like, your greatness is determined by where you are and where God has placed you and what he's given you. And, yeah, that's not putting undue pressure on you or setting you up to think, man, I just got to show up and they'll make me president. No, put in the hard work and see what God does with it. So I think that got skewed in some weird ways of basically, like, just be you and great things will happen. No, you got to work, and you got to work, and that's where you're.
[00:42:44] Speaker A: Going to try a little bit. Right? Yeah.
[00:42:45] Speaker C: And God will set what that greatness looks like.
[00:42:48] Speaker A: I love it. Love it. That's really good. All right, number seven. This is the third one that I brought to the table, the importance of or under, so understand the importance of commitment.
This, once again, is one that I took, that I brought up, because I think it applies across so many levels.
There is a level to which you, when you choose to marry your spouse and you choose to spend the rest of your life with them, you are choosing to make a commitment every single day. You are choosing to make a commitment every single week, every single month for the rest of your life, to love your spouse, to stay with your spouse, to be committed to your spouse.
We live, once again in the instant gratification society of, I don't like it. I'll move on. I'll break the commitment. I'll do something else. And so I want my kids understand, no, they're. You made a commitment, you stick to that commitment. So obviously, that's one of. That's a kind of a grander scale. They're talking about marriage even with. Even with it, with. With other aspects of their life. Hey, if you commit to this job, don't call out, don't be one of these people that kind of flakes out of work once every two weeks type of thing. Show up to work. You committed to that. You know, even I've talked about this before. I don't know, it's such a pet peeve of mine, flaking out on plans with other people. You know, you committed to be there. Be there. You committed to show up to the church building on Saturday morning to work on XYZ. Be there.
You could take it from the minor scale. You could take it to the major scale once again of marriage or a bigger things. Committing to Christ, committing to God, of course, just from on every level. I want my kids to understand the importance of you committed to something, stick to it. Don't be the person that is always looking for their, their, their parachute out of their commitment, their escape route out of their commitment that they made.
You committed to it, and so stick to it. And once again, that you could tie this into self discipline when it comes to, you know, you just kind of have to practice sticking to your commitments. You committed to take this class. You don't get to drop the class. You committed to. You know, once again, just whatever it is, so many different things that we could, we could apply it to. I want my kids to understand the importance of commitment, because if they understand it on a minor level of not calling out of work, of all these things, then they're going to understand on a major level as well, of hopefully they choose the right spouse and all that. But I chose to marry this person. I chose to make a lifelong commitment. I'm going to stick to it. And so I'm going to figure out whatever I need to do to make this thing work. Versus, man, we're going through some rough patches. Let me just look for my escape route here, my escape hatch, so to speak. What thoughts you guys have on this one? The importance of commitment.
[00:45:16] Speaker B: I think it's really easy to make commitments when things are good, for sure, you know, when the money's flowing and everything else is like, boy, this.
Yeah, exactly. Honeymoon phase. And so you make this major commitment and the same thing with marriage. Like, you're in it, and this girl really likes you, and there's the butterflies and stomach and everything's great.
Commitment only matters when life gets really difficult. It's easy to make commitments when life is great. But what do you do? Do you fold when things get difficult, when you start having marital fights and when you start having your job is not as fun as it once was?
[00:45:52] Speaker C: Right.
[00:45:52] Speaker B: And, you know, you thought that it was great making $15 an hour Wendy's, and all of a sudden, it's like, boy, these are hard hours. They're having to get up at 04:00 a.m. to get to Wendy's. On it, whatever it is. Like, you made a commitment, and that's for better or for worse. That's why we say that in marriage, in the. In the vows. But that goes for everything in life. Like, it only matters if you're willing to stay committed when things get tough. So. I love this point. Will. Jack, any thoughts?
[00:46:14] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, Jesus, let your yes be yes, your no be no. I think one of the dangers in this is it becomes really easy to just not make any commitments. You never go to see anybody. You never sign up for anything. You never volunteer for anything. And because of boundaries, right?
[00:46:27] Speaker A: We talked about that before, right? Yeah.
[00:46:29] Speaker C: People say, that's my boundaries, and that's because when you tell your kids, hey, you got to stick with this thing because you signed up for it, the lesson they might take from that is, oh, just don't sign up for anything that'll make life easy. No, that goes to all of these other things we've talked about, providing hard work and self discipline and things like that. Like, be a part, love your church, family, or you're committing two things and then you're doing them. And so you got to make sure it's both sides of that. And it's not just a way to create backdoor laziness. But, yeah, like, it is really, as will said, when people flake out and stuff, it's very frustrating with the church. It's so hard to get anything going with the church when people are like, I might be there, I might not be there. I'll let you know. See, kind of no. Show up, commit, even if it's not your favorite thing in the world. Make some commitments and keep them. I think it's a good point. I'm glad you added to the list.
That brings number eight. Yeah, I was going to pass it to you, but that's me. Take care of your health.
I've talked about it briefly before. Had 32 years of very poor health, and it's kind of one of those. I can always figure it out later. No, you start to realize the consequences at this point in life. And so it's one of those, like. And the same thing with financially. If you can get kids on a good foot, investing and stuff like that at, like, 16 years old, and they're putting money away.
There's no replacement for that. There isn't. You cannot catch up to that later on. And same thing with your health, of if you are strong and healthy and in shape and eating well and all that in high school, it pretty well solves itself the rest of your life. If you get behind, you're going to be playing catch up for a long time and trying to get on the right path. And so it's something that we emphasize with them now. And obviously, I mean, they're their kids, they want candy, ice cream, pizza, chicken nuggets, all that stuff all the time. Yeah, and there's a place for that. But you know, on the day to day, here's how you eat healthy, here's how you take care of yourself. You need to get out in the sun and do some stuff, not sit in front of the tv all the time and things like that.
And this is one of those, like, if you're not careful about this, it is easier than ever for this to go so bad the other way. All right, here's an iPad and a happy meal. See you in 6 hours, kid. Like. And you just see that happen. And it is the awful.
[00:48:36] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:48:36] Speaker C: Tragic is the right word.
[00:48:39] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't know. This is it. It's one of those sneaky important ones on this list, because I was looking at the list like, you know, as you go down, and it's, this is one of those that, to be quite honest, I think it's one of the most forgotten, especially with those in the church.
This is really important. We, I was just talking with somebody about the gnosticism. I think we've talked about it before, but the gnosticism, like the spiritual is all that matters. The physical matters as well. We are temples, right? Our bodies are temples.
We need to treat them as such. We need to be grateful for the fact that God gave us these bodies. And Paul talks about, I buffet my body so as to, like, he's the boxing or whatever it is. And. Yeah, and we take it as like, it's a lesser importance and so we make it of no importance. He doesn't say it's of no importance. He says it's lesser than the spiritual. Obviously, we want to make sure we're right spiritually. That doesn't mean it's not important to, as the joke goes, buffet my body.
[00:49:33] Speaker C: Right?
[00:49:34] Speaker B: Like, I do that all the time. But we have to make sure that we're not being gnostic in our approach of like, hey, I can serve God. Just you can, you can serve God. People can do amazing things at varying health, but why not strive for greatness in this? And why not take care of what God has given you, what God's blessed you with? If anybody was a horrible steward with their money, if they were horrible, if they were addicted to other things, we would look at that and say, hey, brother, you know, this is something that we probably need to discuss with him. If he's putting his family into bankruptcy or if he put himself into bankruptcy or whatever else, because he can't stop whatever habit it is when it comes to food, it's a very touchy subject, and so we don't want to get into those things. Look, it still matters. The guys.
[00:50:16] Speaker A: It's time to get into it, right?
[00:50:17] Speaker B: Exactly. I mean, the addiction for literally anything else, but if we're addicted to food and we're not taking care of our health in these ways, kind of goes out the window. And yeah, this is one of those that once again, strive for greatness. It's going to look different for everybody, but I think everybody can get on.
[00:50:30] Speaker A: Board with this just very quickly and then we got to move on. So I'll pass it to you for number nine.
This is one you just have to decide to do and do it. You just have to decide. We're going to make exercise a part of our, a part of our daily routine. At least weekly, you know, three or four times a week routine. But even for, for kids and Jack, you mentioned getting them outdoors. That, that starts at three, two, three years old. Like, we're not going to sit in front of the tv. We're going to get them outside. We're going to have them run around outside or whatever. But then as they get older, you just make exercise apart. Just like you make Bible study a part of your day. You make exercise a part of your day. You make. Choosing the right decision with food doesn't mean you can't ever enjoy something sweet or, you know, maybe a quote unquote cheat meal every now and then. But man, so many people, as y'all have said, just kind of let this one go. Like, eh, you know, if they, they end up one of those healthy people, great. But, you know, that's not going to be a focus in our world of seed oils and just fast food and everything is just awful for your body.
This is something that my wife and I have come to in the last two years of just how important it is and just how dangerous. I mean, there's things that we should not be eating literally all around us. And so it is something to constantly watch. And I think if it is a, pass it on to your kids early, make sure that they are in the habit of watching for these things early. Otherwise it's going to set them up for, you know, I wouldn't say failure later in life, of course, but a harder time later in life. So really, really good addition here.
[00:51:55] Speaker C: Hey, folks, I'm excited to tell you about this month's sale where we've got the think deeper branded insulated tumblers on sale at the focus press store. So you can sip your coffee in style and let the world know you're a deep thinker. Check those out again. The sale runs all of
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[00:52:13] Speaker A: Joe, do you want to get to number nine?
[00:52:15] Speaker B: Yeah, number nine is going to go along with your number four of self discipline. But how to conquer your mornings. I really want to teach them to conquer their mornings. I was always a night person, night owl growing up. I hated getting up early. I could stay up till two. I still probably can stay up till 02:00 a.m. way easier than getting up at five. But guess what? Jim comes around awful early. My wife and I are trying to get up at five. Sometimes it's 530, sometimes it's six. But we're really trying to roll out of bed before the kids. So we have that time alone with one another. We have that time with God. We get up and we study and try to do this pretty much every day. And you realize there's a reason the Bible talks about getting up early in the morning a lot. I was just doing this on our 365 devos on focus, plus how much job and Abraham and obviously Jesus and Joshua and Moses, they're all rising early in the morning to talk to God or to sacrifice to God or to meet God or whatever it may be.
There's a precedent for a reason. The psalmist talks about in the morning. I will praise it, like, over and over. He talks about in the morning. You don't see that at night. Matter of fact, you see other things that, you know, things don't go well at night a lot of the time, and that's where a lot of the bad things of society are done, is at night time, whereas the morning is we're rising with the sun. I think there's just a circadian rhythm wise. You can get into the science of it. You can get into the psychology of it. Just scripturally speaking, there's a lot to that. If you get up early and you conquer your mornings and you've got a workout in, you're up before everybody else. There's something so cool about it that by the time I'm out of the gym and by the time I come home and have study the Bible, most people are just now waking up. Yeah, that, that feels good as a guy, and it feels good just as a human being. I imagine women feel the same way. I can't really speak for them, but I imagine they feel the same way. When you get up and you just start accomplishing or conquering your morning, will you. And I read that book. You had me read that, and it was such a good one. The 05:00 a.m. 05:00 a.m. the 05:00 a.m. club. And I think it is. Conquer your mornings. Elevate your life. Is that right? Conquer your morning.
[00:54:12] Speaker A: Own your morning.
[00:54:13] Speaker B: Own your morning. There you go. Own your morning. Elevate your life. So, yeah, I didn't completely rip him off. And conquer your morning, just mostly. And the idea is like, if you get started in the first 60 minutes of the day and get a couple, like three different things accomplished, go read the book. It's really good.
It will set your life up. This is where self discipline and everything takes place, where you swallow the frog first thing in the morning and go from there. But it's incredibly important.
[00:54:35] Speaker C: I used to be really, really late night owl work late into the night kind of thing, and just have really weird hours. And, yeah, when you wake up at 830 in the morning or nine even, and the world's already going and so, like, it's, it's, you're entering a race where everybody else is running and you're just starting. Like, that's not, that's not great. You know, you're behind, you're chasing the day and feels very hard to be on top of the day when that's what's happening. And so, yeah, it's, it's really important. And obviously, different people's work hours are going to make them wake up at that time of day, but that's, it's going to be a different thing. You know, whatever your wake up time is, make sure it's early enough to get these habits and stuff like that ahead of time.
[00:55:12] Speaker A: Just one other thing to add, one other thing to add. And then we'll hit number ten with how many different things are demanding our attention these days with, you know, for a lot of us guys, the economy having to work a little bit more and more hours demanded or whatever, um, social time. Um, obviously, all these things we talk about, exercise, Bible study, like committing to the church, your time runs out if you kind of waste your day away with, you know, sleep until 8910 o'clock. And so if you truly want to be one of these people that is able to, especially when you talk about homeschooling and like, getting a lot of these things done that we believe are vastly important, and having time still at the end of your day, to spend time with family, maybe to. To have some people over from your church, maybe to do something with your congregation, whatever it is, exercise, to get a workout in, you run out of time very quickly. If your day starts at 830 or 09:00 or whatever it is. And I know that people have different work schedules and different things going on, and so we're speaking very generically, but just looking at it from the perspective of all the things that. That I need to cram into my day to my week, if I set my wake up, if I set my alarm for 815 every morning, there's just things that are going to have to be. Be cut that don't need to be cut. And so that's an element of this as well, that I think you just have to, you gotta find time for all these things. And a lot of that time might be before 07:00 a.m. so this is a good one, Joe.
Number ten, I think, is one that all of us had elements on. Joe and Jack specifically, I think, basically had a copy and paste version of version of it on their list. So I'm gonna let one of them take Jack. I guess it's your turn to kind of take this one away as we hit our number ten here.
[00:56:43] Speaker C: Yeah, you're just as a kid, I want them to realize you are a link in a chain. This. We live in this individualistic society, we live in this rootless society where basically you can kind of choose if you want to be associated with your parents or not. We've talked so many times before, you can choose, do I want to even have kids? Or am I just going to kind of be the end of my family's bloodline? No, no, you're. You're part of something much bigger than yourself and both familiarly, like in your family line, but also with your church family and things like that. I mean, people come to the church as individuals and it's kind of, well, as long as this is serving me, I'm going to be here. And when it's not, I'm out of here. Your work, this goes with your commitments thing will of like, well, if I don't want to, I can just always back out of anything. No, you're part of something. You owe. You have an obligation to other people. And this individualism we live in basically says, no, you don't. And you can get deep into Rousseau, who basically is like, well, we're born free, but all of these social obligations we have are just this cage that we're shoved into as a kid. Like, no, that's your training wheels. That's your guardrails. That's what keeps you as a normal person is your social obligations to the people around you and the love of family and things like that. And a lot of times people want to take the good things of that, but not give back, not take on the duty that comes with that. And I want my kids to realize what it means to have our last name, that they're a part of that, and that I'm passing on things to them, and I'm trying to set them up well and bless them so that they can carry on and do. We're in this mission together, both as christians and as a family and all that we do.
[00:58:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I had this one kind of, we actually put the same thing, link in the chain, interestingly enough. And multi generational faithfulness. That's really. It is. You have an obligation. I was just telling another kid this the other day, we were talking about down the line, like, you have an obligation to your kids. You have an obligation to your great, great grandkids to be a Christian, to stand up for God, to teach them the way right to. To make an impact 250 years down the line. You have an obligation right now to do some of those things we don't think about. That's like, oh, that's a lot to put on a kidde.
No, we need to start thinking about this. Life is going to last beyond me, Lord willing. I mean, well, Lord willing, Jesus comes back. But at the same time, Lord willing, my line does not stop with me. That means there is an obligation that I have down the line. And so if we want multigenerational faithfulness, we have to start thinking generationally. We have to start thinking about, I am merely a link in a long chain that will continue long after me. And those, the links in those chains after can greatly be influenced by the decisions I make today for my family, keeping them faithful, things like that. Well, what are your thoughts? You had a slightly different.
[00:59:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I didn't have the link in the chain, Wilkie. Genetic thing that made them put that in there, I guess. But I had something along the lines of, the world does not revolve around you very much ties into the idea of that you're a line and a generation, you're a part of a bigger community. But even just in the sense of man, you see kids, it starts at four or five years old, and they just think the world revolves around them, what they want. And that continues into teenage years, that continues into even adulthood, where they don't have much self awareness, they don't have the ability, eq, they call it the ability to understand things from other people's perspective. Just all about them. All about them. What they want, what they want to do, their needs, their wishes, their desires. And, man, I do not want my kids to grow up like that, because that's a lot of the society that we live in. That's why you have people that. Not to go off into this, but think that they can switch genders, or people who think that they like just so many different things here, that the world does not revolve around you. I think it is the best way that I would put it. So just fit it.
[01:00:20] Speaker B: Go ahead.
[01:00:21] Speaker C: That's two sides of a coin, right? The one side is the world doesn't revolve around you. But what's the answer to that is the belonging and the obligation of being a link in a chain of. You know, it's. I wrote on this a while back of, like, we. You've got that term snowflakes, that everyone's unique and needs to stand on their own again, that stuff that millennials were told, it's just, be yourself, be you. You're the most important thing in the world. It's like, you know, what looks really similar is a snowflake and a cog, but they have totally different functions. The snowflake, it's unique and individual, and it just gets lost in the snowstorm. But the cog, it's pretty ugly. It's an ugly version of a snowflake that keeps the machine running. And so you got to think of yourself that way.
[01:00:58] Speaker A: Well, the other thing, too, just on the other side of it, is like, consider just how special you are in the sense of God demonstrated his own love towards you. He chose you, he provides his grace towards you. There is a level that I want my kids to know, like, yeah, that's a collective thing for the church, but that's also for you specifically. But don't turn that into thinking the world revolves around you. That's kind of the two sided coin that I thought of with this that I think is important for kids to grasp is you are special enough to where God chose you, not from a predestination standpoint, but from a, you know, he chose to bestow his grace upon you. If you, you know, choose to follow him, that's pretty great. At the same time, world does not revolve around you. So there's our ten. I'm going to give a brief review very quickly. How to lessons we want to pass on to our kids. We want to teach them how to study the Bible and how to have a personal walk with God, how to love the church. What are the proper, what are the proper roles in the home? Self discipline is a muscle providing work of value, striving for greatness, understanding the importance of commitment, taking care of their health, how to conquer their mornings, and then the idea of being a link in a chain of multi generational faithfulness. We could have each come up with a list of ten if we had the time. In fact, we have some that we're going to actually, I'm going to make an executive decision. We're going to push to the deep end. Just some quick hits, things that maybe were not a full lesson or we didn't view as quite important enough to make the top ten, but things we still believe are important. I'm counting seven of those that we will move to our extended segment, the deep end here.
That we will. That will come out on Friday, that we will talk about then. That's all we have for now. Jack, I believe you are on for our think fast, which is one of our newer features of just something very quickly that we're going to talk about culturally, biblically related. Jack, take it away.
[01:02:40] Speaker C: Yeah. So we've been teaching through Leviticus number, Exodus, Leviticus numbers in our Bible class, Joe and I have. And anytime you like, do deep study on a book of the Bible, you're like oh man, this is the one. This is the one everyone needs to read and study right now. And so what I wanted to talk about and get you guys to chip in on this is, and I wrote an article on this. It's going up on my site after we record. But when you're listening to this, it will already be up on the book of numbers. I think it is so useful for our current moment. Kind of a faithless generation and the response to it and what God requires from his people and the character of God. I mean people this, this loving, soft, never judge anybody. God, you can't get that out of the book of numbers. And so with that, the question I'm going to put to you guys is, what is an obscure, less covered, less focused on Bible book you think needs more attention? Should get more, I mean, because when we did our like draft our favorite Bible books, one, you always get Romans, John, the Psalms, Genesis, and they're great. I mean, every book of the Bible is great. It's inspired by God and all that. But there are some that man, when you say Leviticus, eyes glaze over when you say numbers, kind of like, oh, the one where they counted the people. Yeah, but there's a lot in there. There's any of the minor prophets other than Jonah, essentially, people just go, eh, whatever. So I'm going to put it to you. What are the obscure books of the Bible you think deserve a little bit more attention? Putting you on the spot here a little bit.
[01:04:06] Speaker B: Is it terrible? Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon comes to mind.
I really do think that, you know, by and large, we get sexuality wrong, and that is a foundational piece. It's not the foundation, but it is part of the foundation of a healthy marriage and a big part of that. And we completely get it wrong. So I think if we were to take some lessons from song of song, that's the one that comes to mind that nobody wants to discuss. But I love the book of Micah. That would be the other one. There's a lot of like one off quotes throughout Micah that I think are fantastic. But by and large, just the historical context and everything taking place at the book of Micah, I think would be a great one to study. Will, how about you?
[01:04:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I've got two. One of them you might not look at as super obscure because everybody knows the story, but I think getting into it, people don't know it quite as well. And that's job. Everybody knows the story of Job, but I think a lot of the stuff within there, specifically when God finally opens his mouth and questions job, theres so much there about the power of God. And basically Job, who do you think you are?
Type of questions that I think is, again, we know the story of Job, but I dont think we study it near to the level of which we should in the sense of understanding who God is and specifically everything that Job went through. But then the other one is a minor prophet as well as Nahum. Kind of the follow up to the story of Nineveh or the Jonah. And the story of Nineveh really puts a picture of the wrath of God on full display. There's so much in the minor prophets. But, you know, the amount of sermons I've heard on Nahum my entire life would be zero, I believe. Don't ever think I've ever heard anybody preach on that. That was not myself.
And so I preached on it.
[01:05:44] Speaker B: You may not have.
[01:05:44] Speaker A: I must not have been there. I must not have been there, but there you go. You have to preach it again. Now that I worship with you, Joe, that'd be good. But, yeah, those the two that come to mind, I was thinking, I can't really think of many in the New Testament. Revelation gets glazed over because people are so scared of it, I think. But mostly these obscure books, to your question, Jack, are going to be Old Testament books, I would think, right? I mean, most of the New Testament ones are pretty studied.
[01:06:05] Speaker C: Yeah. The second, 3rd John, Jude, Philemon, and for whatever reason, the Thessalonians seem to, like, just go missing in between the Galatians and Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and then Timothy. So, yeah, you had mark there for a while.
[01:06:20] Speaker A: Mark is very overlooked, so to speak.
[01:06:22] Speaker C: It's kind of funny there, you know, as again, I was writing, I was preaching on it, and so studying it was like, man, this is such a great book. And it is such a great book, but even in preaching school, they didn't really go into Mark because they're like, well, we cover most of it in Matthew, and fair enough, but it's its own book.
[01:06:37] Speaker A: I think it's the least distinguishable. Gospel is the reason why it gets overlooked so much. Like it's hard to distinguish it from Matthew, first of all. But even separate from that, there's not much that's like, oh, yeah, that's a mark thing. You know, John is the I am statements. And of course, there's a lot about John. Matthew is the. The parables and so much. And then Luke is, you know, obviously there's a lot of stuff in Luke that's different, you know, medical terms and such. But Mark, there's just not much, you know, distinguishing it.
[01:07:00] Speaker C: I feel like, yeah, on the surface, all, like, the content is the same, but it is. They all lay it out differently. And the way mark.
Yeah, well, I wrote a whole book on it. If anybody wants to go buy it and see why, I think Mark is great, but numbers, the other one, like I said of, you've got the wrath of God, you've got the but the grace of God, you know, the. That he, Moses and Aaron are allowed to intercede for them and put a stop to the death. And even though you know, he killed everybody in the wilderness and made them wander that whole time. He still fed them and took care of them and made sure their clothes didn't wear out and all that stuff. And so you've got who God is. You've got, again, how God deals with his own people and the importance of purifying the camp and.
Yeah, I mean, it's. Yes, the census. It starts with the census, ends with the census. That's really dry in between there. Some absolutely unbelievable, unbelievable stuff happens. And it's, I don't know why. It's one of those books that when you think about it again, people's eyes just glaze over. But it's, it's pretty, pretty heavy stuff.
[01:07:53] Speaker A: So it's a great question, though. I like it fast.
[01:07:57] Speaker C: If you have a obscure book of the Bible, one that you think is needs more coverage, doesn't get talked about enough, drop us a comment. I'd love to hear what other or.
[01:08:05] Speaker B: A lesson for your kids.
Speak to the main one. Yeah. If you have a lesson that you are absolutely, like I have to teaches or we ought to be teaching it to our kids that you don't see on the list, please comment on one.
[01:08:16] Speaker A: That you just can't believe that we left off of our list. Yeah, right.
[01:08:19] Speaker C: Right.
[01:08:19] Speaker B: Yeah. There you go. There you go. All right. Well, fellas, we're going to wrap up here. We will talk to our deep thinkers in the deep end on Friday. That'll be coming out. But we appreciate you. Listen, we'll talk to you again next week.
