[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: Podcast. I'm your host, Jack Wilkie, joined by my co host Joe Wilkie and will Harab. Happy New Year. First of all, as this is our first episode of 2025, thanks for being with us for our fourth year. Pretty crazy to say that, but good to be rolling on another episode. And this year we're going to be looking at ways you can grow. This year we wanted to do something that's beyond read your Bible and pray. Yeah, those are going to be part of it, but we're going to be a little more specific with that. But everyone, you know, has goals. If I'm going to get through the Bible in a year, I'm going to pray. We want to get pretty specific with this one. We want to give you actionable things. There's 12 months in a year. We've got 12 for you. And so we're going to get through our list. You guys have anything else? As we introduce this idea, I have.
[00:00:51] Speaker A: A bit of a rant to go on. Maybe not, maybe not a full rant to start the new year.
[00:00:56] Speaker B: I know where this is going.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: The new thing Deeper podcast, but. Or the new year of the ne podcast. But I just got to say, if you are listening to this and you are somebody who is anti New Year's resolution, kind of anti goals, anti. Ah, you know, I don't really set those because, you know, I don't really, I don't, I don't ever finish them or they're unrealistic or whatever. I would just encourage you two things. One, if that's you, I would encourage you to give it a try. And by that I mean just try to take and improve one area of your life spirit, obviously spiritual is going to be the most important. But even if, if you choose not to do that and there's a health goal, a financial goal, whatever it is, choose one thing and just really try to improve.
The second thing I'm going to ask you to do is not get on social media and brag about how much you hate New Year's resolutions and how you just don't believe in them and they're just ridiculous. I feel like it's kind of becoming in vogue and kind of trend, trendy to kind of bash New Year's resolutions. And if you have been listening to us for any portion of the years that we've been doing this, you know that all three of us are big fans of taking the New year to really evaluate and try to shoot for some, some, some bigger and better things. And it doesn't mean you're always going to hit them. And I do think that there's an element of, you know, you, you just try to stretch yourself too much to the point where you burn yourself out. And we, I think that's probably happened to all three of us, and we don't think that's good. But I think it's a very valuable thing as Christians to look for ways to improve and to look for areas that maybe we came up short and try to improve those. And that's really all New Year's resolutions is or are. And so, yeah, I would just encourage you not to, to be very, to flippantly dismiss it and be nonchalant about it, like a lot of people are, because I think it's so valuable. And to be honest, that's also the whole point of this episode. So if that's you, you might, you might not want to, not want to listen to this. But I don't know, I just, I grow tired of the kind of making fun of the New Year's resolution. People like, hey, man, at least those people are really trying to, trying to get better. Those are my introductory thoughts.
[00:02:56] Speaker C: I love it. Boy, we could talk on this. This is why Will and I have a podcast together. Go check out episode one of the gym podcast if you are somebody who does not, does not strive for greatness. So you know what? It's important for us to look for ways to be better. And I find this to be. Well, we could do that anytime. Well, okay, do you, does anybody take June 1st to decide? Let's set out goals for the next year. And no, of course you're going to do at the start of the year. So everybody that does that, I'm like, well, I think you could do it at any time.
Come on now. Most of the time it's going to be either around a birthday or around the start of the year. I'm not saying that you can't make a change at any time. I'm saying projecting into the year ahead. Yeah, correct for us. So what we're going to do today with these 1212 kind of, you know, different ways to grow your spiritual life. We are looking to the year ahead. We're looking to try to make 2026 a fantastic year and using 2025 to build on that. So if you want a daily Bible, which Will. Will and I recorded a podcast recently on this for the new year. If you want to get really good at something, if you want to have a daily Bible reading goal, try not to start maybe January first, this year, if you go from 0 days to 7 days, don't start now. Plan on by the beginning of 2026, we're going to have seven days of Bible reading per year or per week, because you can then build up, scale up throughout this year. Do two days, do three days, do four days, do six days. Right. So to me, it's a matter of just being smart with it, but it's also little adjustments we can make along the way to throw the baby out with the bathwater and go, I just don't make resolutions. I'll be done with them by mid February anyway. Like, maybe that's an indictment on you. I wouldn't be posting that on social media personally. Maybe that just means you need to be smarter in how you're setting the goals and keeping the goals. I've made so many mistakes and given up on a ton. That doesn't mean I'm giving up on the concept itself. So, man, I'd second will to the nth degree on this one. That drives me nuts. Jack, any thoughts on that?
[00:04:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm gonna go slightly in another the other way with it. If, if somebody's posting that kind of thing, we're, we're not reaching them. Like, okay, you don't want to grow, great. But, you know, I'm not, I'm not Jehovah's Witness about this. I don't need to come knock on your door and explain to you why you need to set a goal. You need, you know, and so I'm here for the deep thinkers who are listening because they, they do understand that that's you guys. You guys are the inner click here. And so we appreciate that. I, I mean, I fully share the. Just you scrolling, like, why would you post that? Why would you, like, make fun of your unwillingness to grow?
I, I think being intentional about it, being serious about it, is how it gets done and the people who are willing to do that. We're glad you're here. So let's, let's get into it. 12 steps. We have 12 ideas, 12 actions you can take.
Well, why don't you go ahead and give us what you got some Joe.
[00:05:38] Speaker C: I'm just gonna say we each came up with five, and then we blended some together. So this is an amalgamation of all of us. Kind of came up with some things we're going to be working on personally. Some things that are close to our heart, things that we've either done in the past or things that we think might really help the church. So this is A mix of all of us coming together. And we took the. We blended a couple and then took the. The top 12 to help. So just so everybody's aware, we're going to kind of go through the list of everybody had a little contribution on this will.
[00:06:05] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Joe loves that word. An amalgamation.
At least every three episodes.
[00:06:11] Speaker C: Whenever I can. What was word that I use? I used to have a. Oh, I remember because we. We called it out, I was gonna say. And you made fun of me for that one too, so. Hey, don't make fun of me because of my massive vocabulary.
[00:06:21] Speaker A: Okay, well, my New Year's resolution is to, you know, have better vocabulary, so.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: There you go, Joe, you got one of those New year word of the day calendars. Didn't you.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: See?
[00:06:30] Speaker C: Amalgamation, your new word. This. This comes up, like every single week.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: All right, so are we just going to go down. I should have asked before. We just going to go down from top to bottom, or do you want me to take our first one? Okay, so the first one we have on our list. And Joe, I'm gonna turn it over to you here because I think this was one of the ones that you brought to the table contributing with Jack here. But pray for a specific person to come to Christ and kind of a backslash. Another addition that we have on here is have a prayer journal. And I think the point behind this is be very specific in your prayers. Make sure that you are kind of not praying. What's. What's the word? Just kind of not deliberately like, you know, you can always say those general prayers, those kind of generic prayers. You know, thank you for my blessings and be with those who need to come to Christ and man, be with all those who are sick. And I'm not trying to cast any aspersions on people who do those things, but there's a lack of. Of intentionality. There's a lack of specificity in those types of prayers where it does just kind of seem like maybe it's. And this is, you know, speaking to me as well. Seem like one of those things where you're just trying to check it off your list. And so you just kind of give the most overarching, generic, vague covers for your prayers of, again, you know, peace be with the lost and. And be with all those who. Who need you and be with the sick at the. At the church. And there is something very special about praying specifically for people by name, especially when you, you know, you'll have somebody maybe at your congregation who says they need prayers and you'll tell them, hey, I'm going to be praying for you.
It just packs a whole lot more power to it when you were praying for them by name. And so the, the prayer journal, I think, was Jack's addition to this point, or keeping a prayer journal.
And that is write people's name down, write their situations down, write what it is specifically that you need to pray for for that individual. And so, again, I just think the intentionality behind it is really what we're going for here. Joe, what thoughts do you have to add?
[00:08:22] Speaker C: One of the things I love about the prayer journal that Jack mentioned, you can also add prayers of thanksgiving and what prayers were answered. You can keep track of that a lot more because we realize we'll pray for a hundred different things throughout the year. How many of those do we follow up on and realize, man, God came through for us. That person was healed out of the hospital. The guy who's in the car wreck, battling for his life is actually stable. He's in stable condition, and he's actually doing better. Those are things that we should be offering thanksgiving to God for. But how often do we pray for it on the front end? Because maybe that's what's going around. It's in the bulletin. They're announcing it at church. Very serious situation. Maybe we do pray throughout the week for it.
Do we remember to go back and give thanks? I love the idea of a prayer journal for that reason, because each month you can go and evaluate what has got answered, and then we can say prayers of thanksgiving on that, and that can fuel your prayer life all the more. The reason why I added finding someone specific, though, to pray for is, yeah, you know, God, give me. Give me opportunities. Give me opportunities to go serve the lost.
Maybe think of somebody in your life that you say, you know what? I think they're a good prospect. Pray specifically for their heart to change, for their heart to be open toward the gospel, for opportunities with that specific person, for boldness and courage to go speak to that person, for the words to come into your mouth that need to be said. I do think God guides. I've been on planes before where I'll kind of say a prayer to God. Like, God, give me words. He answers the prayer, you get involved in a conversation, and next thing you know, you're. You're smooth and you're talking about these things and remembering verses that you didn't remember before. And like, I fully give glory to God in those moments. It's important when you have somebody in mind.
I have a Person in mind, on my own, that I will be praying for throughout the year for their heart to change and for them to, you know, be open to the gospel. And so when it's very specific, I think it does help to keep evangelism top of mind rather than, like, you know, just praying for the loss and then that gets lost. Right. Somewhere along the way.
[00:10:13] Speaker A: Well, you can make it. You can do it so thoughtlessly. When you do it that way, like just kind of, you know, almost involuntarily, just saying those things, not really thinking about it.
[00:10:22] Speaker C: Well, Jack, you. You added the prayer journal. Did you have other thoughts that you wanted to add specifically on that? That. Well, either point. Really.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, how many times do you go to church and there's somebody that's mentioned or you're talking to somebody like, oh, yeah, I'll pray for you, and then you just forget. That's my biggest thing about the prayer journal is, as you're saying, with a specific evangelistic process prospect or anything, you know, a person who's sick or. Or things in your own life. And. And I. I'll realize, wow, I haven't prayed about such and such in a couple weeks now. That's not good. I. I meant to. I said I would, and I didn't. And as you said, it gets measured. You can look back over the course of a year, and.
And so I think it'd be a handy thing. It's not a bad idea. In fact, maybe something I'll try and start practicing. I mean, these notebooks are like, what, 50 cents? Grab one. It's your church notebook. Take it with your Bible. Write down prayer requests. You talk to somebody in church, and like, yeah, my mom is going for surgery. Write it down. Put their name next to it. If you're in that journal every single day, then you'll remember the next time you see them ask like that. That draws you closer to other people. Like the. The charting stuff. And keeping up with it, I think, really helps your prayer life and that it's not to the point you guys were kind of making. Every time you sit down, you're reinventing the wheel, you know, and so you're just kind of hitting all the high points because you don't really have a specific direction you're trying to go with it. I. I think you. You remember Jesus talking about the persistent widow. Sometimes you got to ask and ask and ask and ask. But as he also said, you know, God's a good father. He gives us good things when we ask him. And so you trust in that, and having it written down kind of helps you remember. And. And I know people who will tell stories about, like, I had somebody on my prayer list for 10 years before they came to Christ or before they got better or whatever it may be.
How cool is that? How cool is it that, you know, people kept somebody's name before God's throne for that long? Like, that's powerful. It's.
[00:12:10] Speaker C: It can become cliche. Prayer can become cliche because you hear it every week. Read your Bible and pray and read your Bible and pray. Read your Bible. So I've preached on this, and you guys are probably sick of me talking about it. But I hate that those things become cliche because prayer is one of the most powerful tools we have in the church. It is. And obviously reading your Bible and getting closer to God and such, the fact that it's like, yeah, preacher, I know, I know I need to pray more like, no, make it a goal in 2025 to get on your knees to put your prayer list by your bed and have it there in the morning, have it there at night, whatever it is, and at least read through it. So it's top of mind. So even if you're not getting on your knees, which I would suggest, I think that's great. At least it's on the top of mind so you can pray for these things throughout the day as you're going along.
[00:12:51] Speaker B: The.
[00:12:52] Speaker C: The key is just having it in a place for us to be able to pray. So let's get in number two, though, because, Jack, I'm going to bump one ahead that we had a little later on the outline. But you had mentioned bringing this notebook. I love this idea of a church notebook. That part's not on our list, but I think it's important, bringing a church notebook that is. And I have one myself where I have all sorts of biblical thoughts. I was sitting there in Bible class last night and, yeah, as we're recording this on Thursday, sitting Bible class last night and just have these thoughts come to me as he's teaching on John the Baptist. And so I scroll down some thoughts, and it's something for me to go study a little bit later. It's really helpful to have that. And Will, you added this one to the list, which is take notes during the sermon. Take notes in church. If you grab yourself a cheapo notebook and a cheapo pen, take it with you everywhere you go, you'll have your prayer list. You'll have thoughts that come in for further study. Maybe now is not the time to do your deep study in the middle of the Bible class, in the middle of the sermon, where all of a sudden you get on your phone. No.
[00:13:46] Speaker A: Yeah, probably not.
[00:13:47] Speaker C: Stay off your phone, make a note of it later, but at least you got it. And I love this point that you had will take notes during the sermon. This is a matter of paying attention. It keeps you on track. It causes you to maybe not look at your phone or to not be distracted by somebody else. Like, man, I'm taking notes. Fill up the entire notebook. There's 52 sheets, I'm sure, in these notebooks. So fill up the entire notebook with notes from your, you know, from the sermon. Even if you're taking the three point sermon, as it's biblical, of course, right? Taking a three point sermon to get in the main points or, or putting down every scripture that's used or whatever it may be. Figure out a system that works for you. But I love this idea.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: Well, I thought I had a thought as well. Not just the sermon, but also in Bible class. I mean, that to me, I, I absolutely love sitting in a, in a really, really good Bible class. And you know, you think of going to class and you think of, you know, that from a, you know, academic standpoint, most of the time what are you doing in class? You know, hopefully you're taking notes and, you know, writing down the things that are important that you need to know. And so similarly, I mean, I think, I think the sermon is important just from the sense of, like, there's going to be a, hopefully a lot of application in the sermon. And so I'm with you, Joe. You're writing down the three points. Maybe you're writing down, you know, the way the preacher said a specific thing. It's like, man, that's really good that I need to, I need to remember, that needs to stick with me. But for the Bible class, I mean, we're studying through Romans right now and you know, it, that would be, it'd be hard to keep up taking notes in Romans just because there's so much, so many, you know, good little nuggets of truth in there that's important to write down. And so I, I think once again, not to beat a dead horse, but the intentionality of. I'm not just sitting here as a passive observer, checking my watch every seven minutes, going, okay, when is, when is class over? Oh my goodness, is he still going on the sermon? No, I'm actually taking notes. I'm really trying to. That's a practice that I Started probably later than I should have. But when I was 18 or 19 and I was listening to other. Because I think it's because I'd grown up listening to dad so much that I knew I had had his stuff memorized. It's like, okay, I know what he's gonna say, but actually getting into the habit of. Or the process of trying to, okay, what is the main thing that the preacher's trying to say? What's the main thing? You know, and really trying to process through all those things. And the same thing with the Bible class versus I'm just again, gonna kind of sit here and casually listen and, oh, okay, that's kind of interesting. But I'll never remember that again because I'm never going to write it down. And there's just. It's one of those things, like if you're not. If you're going to do things that way, there'd be a lot of people that'd be better off not coming if you're not going to actually actively listen and engage. And I think taking notes is during the sermon or Bible class is huge for that.
[00:16:14] Speaker B: Yeah. With the Bible class thing, as a teacher, it is so great when you get up on Sunday and you can tell people have been in that book, like they've been reading, they're right along with you. Not they're trying to take over the class and teach it for you, but they know what's going on. And especially when you're in a textual class, that is so helpful for your own learning to keep going. Take your notes in class, go home and restudy them, and it just sticks better that way. Otherwise, it's in one ear and out the other.
[00:16:38] Speaker A: A lot of times the best Jack, is when you ask a question from lap from the previous week and you can tell that people know it because they've got their notebook open in front of them.
[00:16:46] Speaker C: Right?
[00:16:47] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:16:47] Speaker A: Awesome. You wrote that down. Yeah, exactly. I would agree with that.
[00:16:49] Speaker C: Well, how cool. And they have something to add, you know, that you didn't as the teacher. Sometimes that's embarrassing when somebody comes up with something that's like, probably should have known that. Wow. I didn't, you know, didn't run across. But I love when somebody comes and goes, hey, this week I saw this. Have you seen this concept before? And you go, wow, I didn't miss that in my notes type of thing. You know, they're engaged. You know, it matters to them and the people that it matters to, man. That's why you get up and teach these Things because sometimes said it's in one ear and out the other. You see people who will engage and Bible classes where you see it the most because obviously that's where they can converse and such. And that's a big boost to the teacher. So if you are listening, if you're the teacher, yeah, maybe encourage your members to do something like that. But if you are somebody like that, bring something to Bible class that you can share with the teacher. That I've been studying this during the week or I found this particularly helpful. That does the teachers a lot of good. I tell you that. It's the pat on the back sometimes that we need. It's nice to hear, hey, good class. It matters a whole lot more when, you know, people are engaged, taking notes and are offering something to the class because it matters to them.
[00:17:50] Speaker B: It's funny, we've said bring a prayer journal, bring a notebook, of course, bring your Bible. We're gonna have people showing up to church with backpacks and I'm going to be so proud. Like that's just bringing the whole thing. But I mean, just, yeah, come like you mean to take something out of it for sure. All right, let's move on from that. To choose an older member. Joe and I went different directions on this and I think this is great because you need both of them. Joe said, choose an older member of your church to take care of. I said pick a younger person to mentor or to just encourage, reach out to whatever it may be.
[00:18:21] Speaker A: Is that because Joe is young?
[00:18:23] Speaker B: Oh, good. Older. So that's right.
[00:18:27] Speaker C: Jack's gonna have to mentor the younger generation.
[00:18:29] Speaker B: I am the older person he had in mind. And Will is the younger person.
No, the but. So I'll go with the younger person since I added that but there's that meme you'll see go around every now and then of be the person you needed when you were younger. And if you think of like 18 or 19 year old you or 20 or even, you know, just college age or early 20s or the young mom, you know, maybe she's 25, but she's got a couple kids and you're an older mom, you've raised your kids and all that. Think about, boy, it would have been nice at that age if somebody at church said, hey, you're doing a great job, or how can I pray for you? Or can I come over and just hang out with you for, you know, a morning or something like that goes a long way. And the thing is, for guys, aged men like me, in your mid-30s I've got this weird thing where I see like a 22 year old dude. I'm like, oh, yeah, you know, we're young guys. Like, no, we're not. Like, there's a gap there now. But on the other hand, I can relate to them more than I'll be able to when I'm 60. And that doesn't mean the 60 year old shouldn't do it. There's a, there's just a different level of it. But it wasn't that long ago I was going through trying to find a wife. It wasn't that long ago I was trying to find my footing with education and career and all that. Like, I can relate to that guy and so I owe it to him to try and help him in that way. So, you know, if, if you're at that point in life and you, you, you've gained some kind of experience, look to the people behind you and see what you can do for them. But Joe, go the other direction with the, the older people. Yeah, yeah, they don't like being called older people. The elderly, the, the senior members. Sorry, sorry.
[00:19:53] Speaker C: I'm gonna call you the older people because you're older than us. So that's just correct. But no, you're right. For the elderly, for us young people, it is easy to stick around the young people, for the young families to stick around the young families. For the teens. To stick around the teens. I'm not big on fracturing the church with all the programs we have for every individual group. I like crossing the groups and saying, okay, let's take a teen and figure out how he can serve somebody that's in his 60s, 70s, whatever it is. It's important for us to get out of our comfort zone, to get out of our little, our little pack, our group, and to notice, hey, there's an older person who, you know what? I bet they need their gutters cleaned. I bet they need something at their house. Or maybe they need a meal where I can bring them a meal. You're a young family and you decide you're going to make an extra big pot of spaghetti, take the extras to somebody else. My mom is great at this. My mom has a older lady at church that she takes meals. I don't know how often. Every single time I talk to my mom, it seems like she's taking her a meal, checking up on her, calling her, things like that. That is so cool that she is in the life of an older woman at church who needs it, who's struggling a little bit, struggling A little bit financially. And so being able to provide a meal here, they're like, the only way my mom knows that is because she's in her life enough to know that. So that to me is a key of young, somebody younger. And my mom is, she's younger than this woman. So it's not like there's some massive gap where my mom's 20. This is for anybody in the church to look to somebody older and to say, okay, how can I serve them? What do they need? Get in their lives, talk to them after church. And then a lot of older people are going to be, this may be mean. They're too proud to ask. They're not going to say, can you do this? You may have to invite yourself over. You may have to say, hey, you know what, let me get your address or I'm going to come on over. You got in the directory, I'm going to come on over and let me help you with your house, let me help you with cleaning your house or let me help you with this meal or whatever it is. Sometimes you have to push into their lives because they're not going to say, can you bring me a meal this week? So to me, yeah, it may be reaching out a little bit more, but it's invaluable to get to know somebody else in the congregation, to know where they come from. And we did this growing up. Mom had us do this, actually. She, she pushed for us to do this with an old. Remember, never met these people in my life. They were shut ins. They ended up being the sweetest people. They had. He had stories of World War II, I think it was World War II he was in. He had all sorts of, just these amazing stories. We would have never known that if you didn't reach out. So it's just important.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: Yeah, that's the beauty of the church. I mean, you guys said it very well of you're able to connect and relate to different generations. And yeah, my, my parents did a good job of really making sure that that was a priority for us when we were young, of not just hanging out with the teenagers all the time and actually speaking to older people. And that's definitely something I want to try to pass down to my kids. Like, hey, you don't have to be afraid of them because they have gray hair like you do. You don't have to, you know, just walk by them because you're like, they, they're not going to know anything that I know about as far as how to, how to have a conversation. About the latest events or whatever. Like no. Talk to them and really reach out to them. I think for young people specifically, just talking to the older people is a bit. Is. Would be a hu. The right direction.
[00:22:54] Speaker D: Hey guys, Jack Wilke here. And I wanted to tell you about the Focus Press holiday sales going on December 3rd through mid January. We've got discounts on all kinds of books and DVDs, including devotionals, our teen devos or Will Harb's Family Worship Guide for Family Devotional Times. We also have books and DVDs on the fundamentals of the faith, like Dr. Brad Harb and Will Harab's Starting Line or my book Sunday School Catch Up. And of course, there's deeper studies such as Dr. Brad Harrop's convicted A Scientist Examines the Evidence for Christianity or my book Church God's Design for so Much More. Get discounts on these and all of our other content aimed at shoring up your walk, your home and your church as we aim to help you stand strong in today's world. Check it
[email protected] shop.
[00:23:42] Speaker A: So I don't have a ton more to add. That was a really good addition. I'm going to keep going number four here. And Joe, I think this was one that you added.
Have a tough conversation that you need to have. And you added on here, don't gossip. No gossiping. Have a tough conversation you need to have and basically get rid of the gossiping. And I think this is one that, man, it's so much easier to just kind of back away from the confrontation and to do the, you know, we, you know, we, we hear the word gossip. Like, well, I don't really gossip, but, but I did, you know, tell this other person that I'm close to about just how frustrated I am with, with this person or just how much this annoys me that this person did that. And man, I just wish that this person would. That's gossiping. And so I, I like that you added this, Joe, in the sense of just don't be afraid of the confrontation anymore. And, and because what's difficult about this is our brain immediately goes to what's the worst thing that's going to happen? What catastrophizing, I think is what it's called is where you're like, what's the worst thing that could possibly happen? I think you're really mad at me. We get into a screaming match, they leave the church or they leave the congregation and we just big split. Right? Okay, those things have happened before, but odds are hopefully that's not going to happen. And I will say, if you think that that's what's going to happen, then your relationship with them is kind of already in shambles at that point. And so, Joe, this, this idea of having a tough conversation that you need to have with somebody, hopefully your relationship is strong enough to where it can withstand. And if it's not, well, then maybe this is what's going to strengthen the relationship to the point where you're not just a shallow. Hey, how are you doing every Sunday morning? Do you have a good week? Yep, it's been great. How's the weather type of relationship? Like we've had. We've, we've used the analogy before of having this conversation with your spouse. If you dodge every tough conversation you ever need to have with your spouse, good luck having a solid marriage and a really good, you know, communication in your marriage. Similar. Similarly, in church relationships, obviously it's not going to be the same as a marriage relationship. Don't dodge the tough conversation. Obviously be tactful about it. Don't be, don't be abrasive or anything like that. But there are times where, I'd say there's a good amount of times during your church tenure where you will need to just kind of go at it straight on and address it rather than kind of doing the behind people's back, just kind of talking about a thing. Joe, you added it though. What thoughts do you have to add that. Yes, cover.
[00:26:00] Speaker C: I was thinking like, it doesn't always have to be the ultra serious. You know, they're in sin.
This can be a tough one for people. Like, man, I just wish I'd get control of that kid. Have you talked to him? Have you pulled him aside? Have you, have you said, you guys need help back there? Can I sit with you? Can I help? Things like that or your son's kind of distraction, those type of things. It's easy to talk about it. It's easy to run somebody down. And I can get into this where it's like, man, I wish they just do this, okay, have I told them no? Why am I telling you and not them? So this is speaking to myself. This is something I have to get better at in the new year is it's really easy to grow frustrated at even smaller things that in the grand scheme of things don't matter all that much. Either I need to let it go or I need to go talk with them. And like you said, Will, we've mentioned that idea before.
You got to have Enough emotion in the bank account to cash the check. Right? We talked about it before. There is a level of if I haven't spoken to you all year and the first thing that you hear from me is running you down or having confrontation, it's not going to go well. So this is for me to step up and for everybody else to step up. Have them in your home, pray for them, think about them, talk to them, build a little goodwill, build a little emotion in the bank account. Then when you go to cash the check of having a tough conversation, there's enough there where it doesn't bounce. You have to have something there where they've not heard from you for the last six months. But every single time they hear from you, you're critiquing something. Nobody responds well to that. You got to be in people's lives if you want to have tough conversations. And yeah, that means you got to be around some people that maybe great on your nerves, maybe they rub you the wrong way still. We're brothers and sisters in Christ and so be willing to just step out on the limb and say, okay, this, I believe in this strong enough. Be kind in how you do it, be loving in how you approach them. We don't have to be jerks about it. But it's a lot better than gossiping and just growing frustrated week by week. So that's something I'm going to look to do in the new year, is not allow frustration to grow, I think.
[00:27:55] Speaker B: I mean it's as simple as a better life is on the other side of the conversations you don't want to have like it's just because we're talking about like church members or, or neighbors or friends or co workers, whatever. Your spouse. How many people live in misery with their spouse of they have this, this festering resentment toward their, their wife, toward their husband about this thing. And I don't want to talk about it because it's going to be a blow up. Well, it doesn't have to be. And, and how you approach it matters a lot. You can't be like, hey, why don't you do the dishes more? Hey, why don't you help out more with the kids? Hey, why don't like that's not going to happen.
You start off humbly of I would really appreciate if I got this from you. What's the best way we can make that happen? Or can you tell me why this hasn't happened? Or we already discussed this one time and it didn't happen. Why is that? And what can we do have those conversations. It's. It's hard, but it does a lot of times, especially if it's somebody you love and you know they care about you. It's a hard conversation to have, but it does work itself out in the end, if you remember those, those key points. So, yeah, it is a really. Joe, you had volunteered. Well, if we have too many, I can take this off the list. Like, no, literally, this is one of the most important things somebody could do this year. So I'm glad it's on there.
[00:29:06] Speaker C: One of the toughest ones that's on the list, I think one of the most uncomfortable ones. But I, I love how you said that.
[00:29:11] Speaker B: We're talking about growing this year. I mean, discomfort.
[00:29:15] Speaker C: So let's get into number five here, and that is choose a book of the Bible to study with your spouse. Choose one book of the Bible, study with your spouse. Hopefully you study through it, you have a great time. You choose multiple, you know, choose many more throughout the year, whatever it is. But this is one of the biggest struggles we talked about getting in the Bible. It's, it's. Yes, reading the Bible is very important. Obviously, that would be on the list, but this is getting very practical in terms of have somebody else to hold you accountable with your spouse. It's a way to grow closer to them. But the reason we choose a singular book, even if it's a.
A study guide or, you know, a book that you have to the side that you can study through. Choose something that you can study through. Because you get there and you go, okay, we sit down, got our coffee. What are we going to study? And my wife's studying one thing and I'm studying something different. And we don't really talk about it. And there's not. Yeah, we're individually growing, but Alyssa and I have gotten into this. She was studying James for a while. She was kind of leading the ladies study or helping with the lady study in James. I was studying stuff for my sermon and for my class, and. And I was getting into the Psalms and such. So it was great. We're studying the Bible together, but it's not on the same page. So she'd asked me some questions about James or I talked about Psalms. It's not the same. So when we get together and we decide. And I said, okay, let's just. I'm going to study James with you, man. It was great. It was fantastic. And so you're going through and asking questions at the same time. What do you think this means? What do you Think that means that to me is exciting where you can be on the same page going forward. You're going to have two different perspectives clearly from the guy and the girl perspective. So choosing one book like that can make it a. It makes it tangible and it makes it productive. Where I don't know, what's the word I'm looking for? Like purposeful. Maybe you sit down and you know what you're going to study and it means you're a lot more likely to continue the study rather than these one off little study sessions that maybe we're studying the same thing, maybe we're not. Choose something.
[00:31:05] Speaker A: Surprised you enjoy it as much as you did. When you talk about how overrated James.
[00:31:08] Speaker C: Is, why do you think I said it's overrated?
[00:31:13] Speaker A: Listen to our holiday hangout episode if you're not sure about that. We did overrated. Underrated. No, that's funny. Oh, it's good.
[00:31:17] Speaker C: It's good. That's real.
[00:31:18] Speaker A: That's a really good. I'm gonna go ahead guys and just add on number six to this. This is. People do five and six together and we can kind of talk about them both here. But one that I added was pray out loud with your spouse.
Joe, I'm curious. Well, I guess I'm not really sure which of you added the, the choose a book of the Bible study with your spouse to the list here. Joe, it looks like it was you.
I do think for those of us who are married there is such a, a special thing to do these things together with your spouse. And as far as the praying with your spouse goes, that's one specifically for me that is on my list of goals and objectives for the new year is pray more with my spouse.
Prayer is, is always going to be an area that I feel like I need to improve in and I feel like for the last several years it's been all individually focused and so that's going to be kind of the, the emphasis for me as we head into this new year is praying more out loud at least one, one time a day with my spouse. I think it's valuable for her to hear me pray, hear the contents of my prayer. I think it's valuable for us to be able to spend that spiritual time with God together.
But as far as the going back to the choosing both the Bible to study with your spouse, I am curious guys what yalls thoughts are on the different methods for this because what's difficult about it, I'll use my own example. Me and my wife don't really have an hour sometimes every single day that we get to just sit alone uninterrupted, you know, with no kid. It's just because of my work schedule. I'm working all the time. And the time that we do get where we're together, we're usually taking care of the kids. And then when we finally get them to bed, it's you know, 8pm we're already needing to start our nighttime routine and I guess we, I suppose we could do it then but by that point your brain shot for the day and so you know, maybe that some people hear that go well, you're just making excuses. I do think there are situations where the sit down with your spouse every single day for an hour is a bit unrealistic. And so I'm curious your guys recommendation. I, I think that. And that's why I'm choosing to focus on the prayer one because if we can't find 15 minutes to spend together praying then we've got some other issues. But the, the in depth hour Bible study together. What are your, what are your guys's thoughts on other methods for that? Some of the things I've thought of are like okay, you both study the same book, study it at different times and then you come together at some point during the day and kind of talk about what you learned. Maybe that's not quite the full hour session, things like that. Because I do sympathize with people who. It's like man, I would love to be able to start my day every morning with my spouse for an hour with coffee in the Bible because of work. That's just not going to be realistic. And so yeah, that was my only, my only question for you guys is what are yalls thoughts on kind of different methods for that?
[00:33:57] Speaker C: I got some thoughts but Jack, go for it.
[00:33:58] Speaker B: No, I think that's a fair challenge to bring up.
Yeah, I like the thing of kind of separate but even my, my wife with four little ones, she's homeschooling her daughter, two toddlers, all that like how much time is she having to sit down and get her own study to have notes to bring. Like she can listen to the Bible or read through, you know, the chapter that we're on and kind of have some notes. But that, that might not be a bad thing. You know, it's kind of like it's fair that I would carry the more of the weight and so if, if she can be in the word just a little bit and then because yeah, I mean like you say you're probably not Going to get an hour. Okay, well, if, if she's done the reading and I've done my reading and I've got some study and some remarks to bring. Doesn't have to. You're not starting from scratch. And so it doesn't have to take an hour necessarily. You know, once the kids are in bed, just sit down before you get to anything else because that's the other thing that'll happen is, all right, let's do all of our chores, get the house cleaned up, get things ready for tomorrow, whatever, and then we'll get to Bible study. Oh, wow, it's already 11:00. We got to get to sleep. You don't have any time left. Take that time up front, Go over what she's read, any questions that have come up, any observations, go over just a small section, pray over it, get what you can out of it. Like you're saying. I think that's. I'm glad you brought it up because, man, there's so many people in our situation where it's like. Or in just different situations. I mean, it's hard when you have older kids. It's hard when you have extracurricular activities. You're driving kids to all the time. You're probably not going to get that, that full time in. So, yeah, do what you can with what you have. Joe?
[00:35:28] Speaker C: Yeah, I was gonna say if you can listen to the book on audio, you're driving into work, you're listening to it, she's listening to it while doing dishes in the morning, whatever it is. And then you get on the phone during your lunch break and you're talking about certain things. Yeah, you got a lot to go over on, I'm sure, on logistics and everything else. But you can also take some time and say, yeah, I noticed this in the text, whatever it is. That's just from you listening to the Bible and having some thoughts on it that you can share throughout the day. The other thing is, yes, there are some people who genuinely cannot make it work. The guy works overnight shifts. It's completely different schedules. I'm very aware of those things. I'm also very aware. Well, I'm going to skip to the next one on your list.
[00:36:04] Speaker B: Hold on. Don't do that just yet. I was going to make a quick plug. We have our daily Devos on Focus Plus.
You subscribe, you get almost 300 of them and counting at this point. We also released our Devo book that was from those. We just bound them up and put them in a book. A closer Walk with Thee. You can get it on Amazon and I love what Joe did with it. Of you have a daily reading, a suggested prayer topic, a meditation to think about from the text that you read. But then there's a discussion question. And so something like that, whether you get our resource or another one that gets your mind in the Word. But the discussion question is, all right, you take your time in the Word and then find somebody else who has been in the Word and go talk about that discussion question with them of the reading that you did that day and go over it. It can be as simple as that. If, like, if you really only have 10, 15 minutes together, that's great. You can do this, have your time with God and share it with somebody else. So quick plug for that again, it's on Focus plus it's a Closer Walk with Thee if you want just the book on Amazon. But yeah, get a resource like that to work through together if that's what you need to do.
[00:37:02] Speaker C: Nice little ad read that worked well with the, with the point. The point I was going to make. And will you put on here, set your alarm 30 minutes earlier than you have to.
There's a lot of couples that are going to look at and go, my schedule's too full. Okay, you're waking up 30 minutes before you got to go to work. Whatever it is, if you bump that. And your wife, I know she's tired. My wife has. We got four kids. I know she's tired. We know we can fit this in. If we're up at 5, I don't want to get up at 5. She doesn't want to get up at 5. If we're up at 5, we get this fit in. If we don't, it's not happening. I just know that's going to be the case. It's not happening. Things get too busy. The kids, the, the nap schedules don't align. My work schedule doesn't align. We're getting home late, whatever it is. It's really difficult to sit down at that point. She's busy 24, 7, 5am My kids have not woken up yet. Around 6, they're gonna start stirring, right? Maybe 6:30. But if, if we can do that and sacrifice. We're not perfect on this, but if we can sacrifice that a little bit extra sleep, we know we're gonna have that time. We set the coffee pot by 5am the coffee pot's rolling, it's ready to go. So when we wake up, coffee's ready, the table's clean from the Night before, you have to think about these things. But if you have any opportunity for you and your spouse to set the alarm 30 minutes before, make that happen. Yes. For maybe your personal time to. With God. But if you can do it together, to me, I don't think that's a great excuse. If you have an opportunity to do it in the morning and you just decide that sleep is more important, then that's literally what you're saying is, I would rather get the sleep than get the time with my spouse to do these things. And I know that may be a little bit harsh. Maybe your schedule doesn't allow for it, but there's plenty of people who have the schedule that would allow for it. They just don't. And that's been me for a long time. And that's something that we've actively tried to change.
[00:38:43] Speaker A: I'm passionate about this one. That's why I put it on there of setting your alarm 30 minutes before you have to. Because. And so, Joe, I appreciate you kind of adding it into this, the spouse one. But so just one last thought on that. And that is you don't have to sacrifice to sleep. You know what you can do if you're worried about getting up 30 minutes earlier, go to bed 30 minutes earlier. And you know, that's where it's like, oh man, but our Netflix show, or oh man, but our social event and all these things. And obviously there needs to be time within your marriage for enjoyment together and, you know, entertainment and having people over, going to people's house, spending time with friends. Like all those things, none of those things are wrong. But I do think it's funny that when we typically, and this is a younger person issue, when we're like, well, I just really want to prioritize sleep, we're not really talking about going to bed earlier, we're talking about waking up later is typically what we mean by that. And so setting your alarm 30 minutes earlier than you have to, I, I do agree obviously that I think that that is going to be. You want to find time for it, then just create time at the beginning of the day. Just if you've got to be even like if you've got to get up, if you got to be at work at 8, leave by 7:30, so you're normally up by 7, wake up by 6:30, you turn on for 6:30.
Even if it's just getting downstairs and being able to pray together right then and there, or read, read through the psalms or like read a psalm a day and meditate over it or just, you know, start your day together, whatever it is. I think this is a great way to grow this year. I'm not sure what number we're on now. Our numbers are getting mixed up. 5, 6, 7, 7 I think.
But I think this is something that is. If you are truly looking to grow in any of these areas again, prayer, Bible time or just time with your spouse or whatever it is.
Man, set that alarm 30 minutes earlier. And again, if you're worried about the sleep, maybe it's time to re examine the nighttime routine a little bit. Get in bed just a little bit earlier. But it is one of those things that your day just starts off so much better when you are able to begin your day like that. It's almost like you have a, a momentum for the day that you don't, or at least speaking for myself, that I, that you don't have. If you sleep in later and you're, you're rushing to get out the door for work and then okay, then you get to work and it's like, man, I didn't really have any time to, to settle into the day again to spend time with God, spend time with my spouse. So yeah, I'm a passionate believer about in this one, Jack.
[00:40:53] Speaker B: Just two kind of dumb things, but they're incredibly practical things that have helped me on this front of things that we kind of all know deep down are true. But you have to think about them and realize that they are true and act on them. Sleep before midnight counts more than sleep in the morning. That extra 30 minutes. I was going to wake up at 6:30, but just going to go till 7. No, as you're saying like that if you went to bed at 10 instead of 10 30, that and there's research on this or whatever, but you feel it as well. The earlier you go to bed, the more that sleep really gets you restful. The other thing is snooze button. Sleep is worthless in the moment. It's the instant gratification. I don't want to get up, it's cold out, the bed's warm. Whatever it may be, that sleep doesn't help you. You are more tired for hitting the snooze button. It makes your morning worse for hitting the snooze button. I know it, you know it, we all know it. Don't do it. Like don't give yourself a snooze button. In fact, I have a thing where I set an alarm right next to me and then there's one in the next room. Where it's like they go off like a minute apart. Because if one goes off and I hit that button and then wait for the next one, like, it's harder to get going. And so you get up, turn however many alarms off you need to to get going, your day just starts better. You've got that time with God, that time for your spouse, whatever it may be. So, yeah, just be practical about the kind of sleep you're getting, because it matters. Obviously, we want you to be healthy and well rested and all that, but Will's point is well taken here.
Hey, guys, I wanted to tell you.
[00:42:19] Speaker D: About A Closer Walk with Thee, Volume 1. It's a devotional book written by Joe and me. It is 90 days worth of devotionals that each day gives you a Bible reading, a prayer, a meditation, and a discussion question. Something that you can do quickly. It's something you can share with others, something that will give you three months worth of devotionals to get your year off on the right foot. It's currently available on Amazon, coming soon to the Focus Press store. So go check out A Closer Walk with the Volume one today.
[00:42:50] Speaker C: All right, let's get to number eight. Have one person or one family over in your house once a month. Hospitality. This is a. This is a tough one for people because I think we get into our routines where, man, I got so much going on. You know, we got soccer practice on Tuesday night and of course, church on. On Wednesday night, and Monday nights are busy, and my. My husband gets home late on Thursday nights, and then Friday night. That's family time. You know, of course we're not gonna have people over then. That's one night that I really get to myself. And Saturday night, we're always doing something busy. Kids are at somebody else's house. Like, we fill our schedule so full. And if we don't. And Jack, I'm actually either one of you, I'll throw this, too. I want you to get to kind of get into why hospitality is important. But, man, it's so easy to fill our schedule. And I'm the world's worst at this, which is, yeah, I got clients late on a lot of nights, and Nashville School of Preaching and other things that are worthwhile pursuits. And meanwhile, my relationship with those in the church is not as strong as it could be. But if you had to sell somebody on it, because people may look at and go, what's the big deal with hospitality? Yeah, I have friends over occasionally. That's fine. We'll have a pizza party, whatever it is. But I could easily do that at the church. We could go do a pizza party at the church. You know, as, as I love to say, laser tag and pizza for all the teens.
Shakes his head yeah, we can do those things at the church. We specifically think it's important to have people into your home. But I want you guys, either one of you to take the specific reason why that is so important, why we're passionate about the idea of hospitality.
[00:44:18] Speaker B: So I wrote about this a little bit in church. Reset. You've got all those one another commandments. You know how hard they are to do.
Not just on Sunday morning in passing, you know, from Bible class to worship and on your way out the door and not just at fellowship events that the church has potlucks or whatever. Not even like even at a restaurant. Let's say you and one other family go out. There's some of that. But man, in your home where you're not crunched for time, you're not having to keep up appearances, it's very, I mean there's something about like that that takes the mask down a little bit when somebody comes through the front door of your house. And so when it says love one another, confess your sins one another, share one another, you know, just all the everyone another commandment there is in the New Testament that's very hard to do from a distance with your mask on, you know, you know what I'm saying? By the mask of just kind of that perfect facade we all walk into.
[00:45:10] Speaker A: Church ability to it.
[00:45:11] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:45:12] Speaker B: There's vulnerability there and there is a humility of I'm having you into my house like I'm sharing something with you that I don't have to. And especially in this day and age, our houses are such fortresses where we lock off our doors, we order everything to be dropped off at our door by the Internet and so we don't ever have to leave telling somebody, hey, come on in there. That really does open a metaphorical door in, in so many ways to do one another. Commandments that God commanded us to do.
[00:45:40] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's, that's, that's a great point. There's Joe's preaching to the choir on this one. As far as preaching to me, I'm, I'm the world's worst about filling up schedule with, you know, even time with family. Like valuable, valuable things, you know, like going over to my parents house or going over to Rachel's parents house or just things that. What has been sacrificed over the last year is having people over from a hospitality standpoint. And vulnerability has kind of being vulnerable. It's kind of become like a squishy word in the sense of, like, it's very much in the zeitgeist. Oh, I need to be vulnerable. And. And, you know, I think it kind of gets taken out of. Blown out of proportion a little bit. But that's exactly the. Where my mind went when Jack was describing that whole idea of, yeah, like, you're not going to share some of the things that you would share around my kitchen table at a Mexican restaurant. Like, you're just not going to. And so there is a. There's an element of, we're here in my home, around our table, we're drinking coffee, just had a great meal. Let's. Let's talk about some things. And to the point earlier about having tough conversations you need to have. Those are made a whole lot easier when you have the relationships that have been forged and built around a kitchen table as opposed to relationships that have been built around a. A fellowship meal line. Like, those two things are. There's no parallel there. They're two completely different things. And so I think doing this number, this number eight will help with number four of having those tough conversations is if you are. And this is tougher to do in a bigger congregation in the sense of, like, if your goal is to have every family over and you're at a fam. A congregation of 350, like, that's going to be a pretty. Pretty ambitious goal. Still doable, but pretty ambitious, versus the smaller congregations where it's like, okay, I know for us at Jackson Temple, we have, I think, 45 or 50 individuals. And as far as families go, there's right around 10, 11, 12.
And so, you know, one a month gets you there for the whole year. And so again, I know it's going to vary depending on the size of your congregation, but having one person or family over in your house, it. I think the other thing that it does is it just gets you in the spirit of hospitality more.
If you're doing it every month, by the time May and June roll around, it's like, okay, I'm actually really enjoying this. I'm enjoying having people over, and I'm enjoying, you know, preparing the meal and really just getting really looking forward to it, as opposed to. It's a chore that I have to check off list. And so it's one of those things, I think the more you do it, the more enjoyable it becomes. So this was a great addition.
[00:48:00] Speaker C: The only thing I'd add to these Things.
It does not have to be the three course meal. Four course, five course meal. Doesn't have to be perfect. I don't care if it's PB and js. If you have me in your house, I'm grateful. And. And you know. Yeah. Obviously we want to cook a nice meal for somebody when they come over. Don't stress yourself to death. Put some pasta on. Right. Make some spaghetti. Everybody loves spaghetti. Everybody loves something. That's simple. Don't stress yourself to death. Number two, your house doesn't have to be absolutely spotless. You're not having the president over. I actually think there is a. And Jack speaks to this. Well. And I can't remember if it's in church. Reset. I don't know. You've spoken on this before. It actually kind of does harm when the house is perfect. It feels inaccessible and there is no vulnerability. I'm not saying there needs to be toys everywhere where people are killing themselves. Walking into your house, on the other hand. Yeah. Having a couple of dishes in the sink and some things that maybe the kids rooms aren't absolutely spotless when somebody comes over. Okay. Okay. I still am not going to let that be the hindrance that doesn't have you over into my house, because my house, I just can't get it spotless right now. For you. It's okay to let people see that vulnerability to a certain degree.
[00:49:02] Speaker B: It makes it hard to reciprocate if it's perfect. Like, oh, well, I can't do it until my house is as clean as theirs was. And it might not get that way, so I just won't.
[00:49:09] Speaker C: Right.
[00:49:10] Speaker B: We don't need to set that standard.
[00:49:12] Speaker C: Yeah. And you're having everybody over and it's like this ultra nice fancy meal. Like they're not going to be able to provide the same. So actually keep it on the lower end, I would say. And then the last thing I just say real fast is it doesn't always have to be time for Devo. Time for pulling out the songbooks and singing. And sometimes I think people get this in their minds, oh, we're having church members over. We need to make it churchy.
Just. Just talk. Okay. This is. If you do it specifically, if you're.
[00:49:35] Speaker A: Not used to this.
[00:49:36] Speaker C: Yeah, Correct. If you do it enough, you will find yourself opening up or them opening up around your kitchen table about something going on in your life. I don't think it has to be like, all right, now it's time to share our deepest sins.
No, but you do it enough and you'll find those things naturally taking place. And if you guys want to sing some songs, that's fantastic. But I think there is this idea that it's got to be ultra spiritual when we go to do it. Sometimes the mere idea of just having church members across and realizing they're people, too. They're not just people from church where we do church things together. No, they're people. And I'm not going to have my. My secular friends over and sing church songs. We're going to talk and talk deeply about our lives. Sometimes that's enough just to do that there. So don't stress yourself out.
[00:50:14] Speaker A: I'm 100% going to have Joe over and sing the greatest commands in our. In our house.
[00:50:18] Speaker B: That's going to work really bad with four people. And Joe, I was going to say. Yeah, exactly.
[00:50:23] Speaker C: I'm not a great singer, so, yeah, I'll take whatever part. I'll take harmony on that one.
[00:50:27] Speaker B: I was about to say, you can do the bass mumbling part in that one.
[00:50:31] Speaker C: Yeah, there you go. I'll have my son sing soprano. All right.
[00:50:35] Speaker A: I was going to go ahead. So we've got four more to get to, so we're going to have to roll here. So number nine, that we have this one that I added to the list again, things you can do to grow, sing out and worship. We talked about it before. We're not going to spend a ton of time here. But if you are in. Jack, we just talking about mumbling. If you are one of those people that just kind of mumbles through the songs and, you know, you kind of zone out while you're singing because you've sang these songs a thousand times and you look up, oh, wow, the song's already over. It's. Yeah. Because you weren't really singing out. You were. There was no spirit involved. There was no emotion involved.
Sing out in worship. And it takes. It's a. Especially if you're somebody who hasn't done this a lot, it takes a conscious effort to actually sing out, to raise the volume a little bit. Not to scream at the top of your lungs. To belt it out. No. But to. To just give your singing a little bit more purpose. And you would be surprised at how much it does for you in the worship in the sense of the, you know, the spirit filling you. And you are. You find yourself involved and engaged in the worship a whole lot more. And so, yeah, I mean, again, we talked about this before, but singing out in worship, I think is huge.
[00:51:37] Speaker B: I. For the longest time I put the song books away because I would find myself looking at the notes, trying to get them just right or trying to, you know, read my ups and downs and like, no, no, pay attention to the words. So I stopped using the book. Now I'm at the point where it's like, I think I need to get the book out again. It's kind of like keep the pulse of what is what keeps your attention in the right place. If it's having the book, great. If it's. Or the screen or whatever your church does of like keeping your eye on it or going from what you know. Yeah. Just be attentive. I think is a good point here.
[00:52:03] Speaker C: One thing I'd say, pick out something in every song. Try to stay engaged. If you're new starting out to this, try to stay engaged and pick out the point of the song. Yeah, we all know the point of Amazing Grace type of thing, but, like, really pay attention to note and see if you notice something that maybe you never noticed before. Sometimes we skip line three. Actually, a lot of times we skip the third verse. Maybe when the song is done or whatever, go over that third verse, read it, and so you're thinking actively about the words. I love this edition here because this is a tough one.
[00:52:32] Speaker B: There's another benefit of family devos too. You can't hide. You. You have to get in that habit. So make sure you're doing that. Number 10 as Joe was getting to walk around and greet as many people as you can before service starts, which is good. And I had kind of had one, so we combined these as one. I just said, pick a role. Whether it is the guy that walks around everyone, you're the person who goes and hands out bulletins. That's a great way to talk to people, is grab the stack of bulletins and go handing them out. And that way you can greet people. You could be the person who holds the door open so everybody that comes through the front door, you get to say, hey, shake a hand, whatever do. Just find something like that that will get you around people, get you serving, get you opportunities to. To discuss and fellowship. Yeah, I think this is pretty straightforward. But what. You guys have any other roles or ideas to add to this one?
[00:53:16] Speaker A: No, I mean, I added part of this one on as well. Just in the sense of.
I think I was more so targeting. Don't be the person that just walks in, sits in your pew, and then as soon as it's over, get up and leave. Like, no, go around, talk to people, actually. And so Jack I think you took it more you in the direction of like a role to do a certain my thing was like, don't just be a consumer. Don't just be somebody that sits there, waits for the, the amen and then is out the, out the back door. You know, talk to people, walk around, shake some hands, ask people, genuinely ask people how their week was. And so that, that was kind of my thought to this is make sure that you are, you know, show up to show up to service early. Make sure you're there, not not there. Right as service is about to start, you slide in your pew and then again, like you're kind of out the door pretty fast. You're just missing out on so much within your congregation of good, faithful Christian fellowship that that truly is spiritually uplifting. And so, yeah, get there early, walk around, talk to people, and then other roles as well. Jack I think that was a good addition. Joe.
[00:54:15] Speaker C: Yeah, the only thing I'd add to this, because this is hitting, hitting me hard. I am one of those that rolls up right around time. I'm always late. My clients can attest to this. I'm always one to two minutes late. And usually we're getting there 8, 59, 9 o'clock, whatever it is. I'm very much going to try hard in this new year to get there early specifically for that. The other thing is it does help with the preparation, and that's for Bible class, of course, but it does help with the preparation to be there early but also thinking the night before. We didn't add this one, but think the night before with the prayer or with the songs that you're going to sing and things like that. Warm up your voice in the morning, be praying the night before for God to really use you in worship and to help you be filled with the spirit and things like that. Warming up your voice then, and reading some songs or reading some passages and such, getting prepped for it. Showing up early can help in that pursuit where you are ready to go, you're kind of pumped. You've been shaking hands, you've been excited to see everybody for the week, and now you're ready to help and worship and to sing alongside people. There has to be a preparation involved when you slide in at the last second specifically for service, not just Bible class, but when you slide in at the last second, all right, I'm here. Let's go. You really rob yourself of the opportunity to do the preparation work to be ready to worship God. We want to give God our very best every Time we show up, that's lost when we're sliding in last minute. And again, I'm preaching to myself on that one. So that's something I'll be working on.
[00:55:34] Speaker B: That rolls into this number 11 1. That was kind of part of it was be there on time.
We talked about bring a notebook or whatever, like, show up like you're there to go to church. We had a whole episode on dressing nice for church. I'm a big believer in that of, like, really carry yourself seriously when you showed up to church, man, we don't need to do that whole episode again. But people show up, you know, really sloppy, but take it up a notch, whatever. Unless you, like, are Mr. Suit and Tie every time, there's not really much room for you to go up or misses, you know, fancy dress and hair and makeup every time. But whatever level you're at, just a little bit nicer. Like it mentally to yourself, it does something. But then to Joe's point of showing up on time, just those external things get you in the right place. You look at the Old Testament, the way they. They prepared for worship going up to the temple, Mountain Zion or whatever, think in that way of like, man, I really am going to be with my church family. I'm going to worship God. This is a serious thing. This matters. I'm going to treat it like it matters. And so, yeah, not a whole lot to be said there. Again, we've done content on that.
But I wanted to say that, like, if that's not something you've really emphasized before, give it a try for just a month. If you're not a tie guy, put a tie on. If you're, you know, Mr. Polo Shirt, put on a button up, you know, like, just try something like that. See the difference? As you said, if it's showing up on time, if you're Mr. At the last minute, get there 10 minutes early, whatever it may be, make one little tweak like that, it'll. The external things do matter. All right, let's get to the last one before we run out of time.
Memorize one verse a month. And it doesn't have to be one verse like Jesus wept, but it can.
[00:57:07] Speaker A: Be, you know, without ceasing.
[00:57:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Ephesians 2, 8, 10, or whatever, you know, like a section, a passage, whatever you want to say. But, you know, 12 months in a year. It's kind of funny as kids and we talked about the lads, the leaders thing, but in Bible class or whatever, memory work is such a big deal. And then we just Stop. Like, when's the last time a Bible class challenged you to memorize? When's the last time you did? Why would we not want to have God's word hidden in our heart? As the psalmist says, why would we not want to dwell on a. Meditate on a day and night. Psalm 1. And I see like the capacity my kids have to memorize. They memorize stuff like that. Like that brain works that way. Oh yeah, I can teach them. I can memorize with them. And then at the end of the year, I know a lot more Bible why. So that's. That's a big one in my house. This year is going to be about Bible memory work.
[00:57:50] Speaker C: I love that.
[00:57:50] Speaker A: Yeah, that.
[00:57:52] Speaker C: That's something that I don't capitalize on enough. As you said that, like. Yeah, my kids pick up on so much. It's the reason why learning a language when you're young, a second language is so much easier. Yeah, use that, man. When you have young kids, you got to use. And maybe it's difficult for you. It's difficult for me to do the memory work. It still is valuable. It still is good for us. But man, they just eat it up and it's fantastic. So I love this one. Keep it small. The verse a month is, is very doable. If you can do more, great. Do more. Don't burn yourself out. We're gonna do a verse every week or verse every day. Probably not the verse a month makes it a.
I can accomplish this. I can do this. We're going to work on this show up. But that means you have to consistently do it. If you, if you do it and you're all gung ho tomorrow and you decide we're going to start on this verse and the next time you mention the verse is 15 days from now. They're not going to memorize it. So this is something you're going to have to gather around and go over this time and again. Get yourself a whiteboard, whatever it is, where you can go word by word, depending on the age of your kids, however you want to do it. It used to be the three by five cards. Right. With the memory work.
Yeah. Get creative on it. But I love that this is one. Because this is so neglected specifically from us adults through. Yeah, I know enough. I think I know where that's found and I'm the world's worst at that of I know exactly where to find it in my Bible. It's on the right hand column on the. Okay. About halfway down the page. I could tell you exactly where it is. Can I quote it? No. I need to get better at being able to do that. So I like this edition, Will.
[00:59:16] Speaker A: Yeah, no, we were really big into. Into memory work growing up in homeschool, and we did it through Last Leaders as well. And Jack's right. You just kind of. It just kind of goes away as life gets busier as you move on to other things. And this is one that, that would be very good for. For me as well, to make sure that. That I'm adding to my things because, I mean, my kids are gonna be at the age soon where it's gonna be good for them to memorize stuff.
[00:59:39] Speaker C: So.
[00:59:39] Speaker A: Yeah, I really like this one. I like how this list, if one of y'all wants to do just a real quick review, recap, and go over all of them again, Jack, and maybe if you get the list.
[00:59:47] Speaker C: But sure.
[00:59:48] Speaker A: I love how there's so many different angles to this. And that does speak to what we started with in the sense of how can you grow closer to God? It's not always just a, well, you know, pray and study more, you know, as the complete list. Like, yes, obviously those are aspects on here, but, man, there's a lot more creative ways that you can grow closer to God. And, and when we did a full hour's worth of content on ways you're closer to God, and we didn't just say pray and study for the entire hour. So I really liked that about the list. And hopefully if you're. The last thing I'll say is if you're somebody who's over maybe overwhelmed looking at this, like, man, this is a lot. I don't do any of this stuff. Pick one thing per month. One thing per month. Add it to, to your. To your agenda, so to speak. And okay, for the, for the, for the month of January, I'm really going to focus on this prayer journal. I'm really going to try to pray for somebody specific, hopefully at the end of the month. That's a bit more of a habit. You can move on to the next thing. Maybe it's going to be studying with your spouse or setting your alarm 30 minutes earlier. Like I would encourage you. In fact, I'd probably discourage, discourage you from tackling every single one of these things as soon as you click off of this episode. If you're not doing any of them, going from 0 to 12 is going to be difficult. And so one thing a month really try to work on. I mean, obviously we passionately believe in all of these, and so we Would encourage, you know, somebody to eventually try to have all these added to your repertoire. But don't go from zero to a hundred is what I would say. Maybe one thing a month would be a good go.
[01:01:10] Speaker C: That's exactly what I was going to add. And the other thing is choose the one that you think you need the most work on. Let's say you got a great prayer life. Let's say you are praying with your spouse. Well, if we tweak it a little bit more, we pray together six days a week, but we're going to try to pray together seven days a week. But you haven't had anybody over in the last three years. Okay, well, maybe prayer is not the one you need to work on. Maybe it's a hospitality. So you got to know yourself a little bit to say what am I most efficient in? I'm going to start with that one. And try to build up throughout the year. Don't try to do them all at once. And even on the once a month, if you have one that's taken a little bit to get into but you're really passionate about it, I would say it's okay to take three or four of these and make it the goal for the year. This year is going to be a year of prayer. I'm really going to work on the prayer journal. Really going to work on praying with my spouse, more praying with my kids at night. Great. Then make it the year of prayer and add another one in or whatever it is. So these are several ideas. Even if you don't get to all of these, you can re. Listen to this one in the year 2026 and go, okay, I did these. Well, what else can we add things along those lines? These were just a smattering. We could have probably come up with.
[01:02:09] Speaker A: A lot more, but I would include an amalgamation. Joe, is that what it was?
[01:02:14] Speaker C: It was.
[01:02:14] Speaker B: I would say it's an amalgamation.
[01:02:16] Speaker C: Absolutely. Absolutely. That's. That's a great word for it. Actually, I'll have to use that one more.
[01:02:20] Speaker B: Please don't.
[01:02:23] Speaker C: Jack, go ahead and get us or read the. As we get ready to go toward our. Think fast. Read the list one more time.
[01:02:28] Speaker B: Yeah, so we had start a prayer journal and specifically pray for one specific person to come to Christ. Two, take notes during sermon and Bible class. Three, choose an older or younger member at your church to take care of or encourage or both. Number four, have a tough conversation you've needed to have. Five, choose a book of the Bible to study with your spouse. And number six, pray out loud with your spouse. Number seven. Set your alarm 30 minutes earlier than you have to. Number eight. Have one person or family over in your house once a month. Number nine. Sing out and worship. 10. Walk around and greet as many people as you can before service starts. Or pick a role like just to find a way to get around and talk to people. Number 11. Keep up appearances. Number 12. And so that's dress nice or show up on time, things like that. Number 12. Memorize one verse a month.
Again, look at that and go, I'm not doing all 12. Pick a few of them. Pick a lot of those are doable together. Like have somebody over and take notes for the sermon. That's not like, oh, I've got to start in on this habit and start in on this other habit. Like, just do it. I mean, like, so some of them will take some work, some of them you can start doing tomorrow. So hopefully some practical stuff, some short term additions, some long term additions, stuff that maybe again if you, you apply some of these, you'll look back in a year and think, wow, that's, there's a lot of growth. So things for us to work on as well. I mean there's, this is not us going, all right, you know, slackers, get, get your act together. There's a lot of this we're looking at like, yeah, I need to start doing this as well. So appreciate you guys with, with your additions to the list. And yeah, we'd love to hear your comments if there's particular ones. I put it out on the Think Deeper Deep Thinkers Facebook page. That is a mouthful of suggestions. But focus plus or wherever. Drop a comment on, on other tips you'd add to the list. All right, let's get to think fast, which is will this week. What are we talking about?
[01:04:18] Speaker A: All right, so I'm gonna put you on the spot here. It's going to be our probably our last 2024 reflection type question. But I want to know what was the biggest blessing you guys had in 2024 and then the biggest challenge that you guys had to deal with in 2024. I'm happy to go first because I'm again putting you guys on the spot here. You guys can fight over who goes next.
I'll start with the biggest blessing. I think for, for my family, the biggest blessing was definitely getting into our own house. We were able to, to, to buy a home in May of this past year after living with my parents for a bit when we moved back to Tennessee. And as much as we enjoyed that Being in our own home where we're able to kind of be in our own routine, own habits, and Rachel has her own kitchen, being able to cook dinners and stuff. It's just that that's been a huge blessing for us. And then as far as the, the biggest challenge.
Excuse me. I would say it's probably just the kind of ramped up work schedule that I've had, and I've talked about this before on our other podcasts, of just not getting to spend as much time with the kids as I would like to, not getting to spend as much time as a family as I would like to. God is still very good and gracious and we get, you know, a good amount of time together, but it's one of those things that I would. I would like it to be a little bit more. And so I would say that was probably been the most challenging thing is just the neverending work schedule, the never ending mountain of responsibilities that, that, you know, just stuff that just has to get done. And I'd like to, you know, a little bit more time in the floor playing with the kids. And so it's one of those things I'll just have to create time for in the new year. So those were, those were my two. I don't know who wants to go next. Biggest blessing and biggest challenge of 2024.
[01:05:58] Speaker C: Yeah, my. My biggest two sides of the same coin, kind of. My private practice grew quite a bit, and God is very good. I worked for my dad's company. My dad sold the company. They kept me on, and then they had me in for a meeting and I ran the meeting. They're like, great. We love the work. And then they sent people out and said, you're fired.
That's weird. So, yeah, they fired me after that. That was tough. That was a financial blow. And God came through for us in amazing ways with my private practice going very well. And I was mainly already transitioned to that point, just helping out dad's business on the marketing front. But that was kind of a challenge. That's not the main challenge. That was a challenge that God got us through. And so just to see him working in my life and bringing more people into the private practice and such for therapy was. Was huge. It was a major blessing.
On the other hand, lots of work meant I did not have as much family time. That was the biggest challenge this year. Spending time with the kids and realizing you blink and your kid's six. Like you were like six months two days ago, and now you're six years old and the needs are different and they want to spend a ton of time with dad. And I booked my schedule too full and you know, took on lots of, lots of different things in the last year thinking, okay, I can get it all done. This is a year to simplify and to say what's actually important and what can I do. Like, family meals are very important. And so Booking clients at 6, 7, 8 and 9pm is probably not smart. And so I'm going to really try to do better on scheduling around family meal times and then also some time where I can just play with the kids and not have something to do every day. So that was the biggest challenge for me, I think, is really hitting the family time, specifically playing with the kids.
[01:07:42] Speaker B: Yeah, the biggest blessing, I think was finally some normalcy. You have newborn twins on top of two other young ones. We were talking about it off air before we got on. It felt like drowning for about two solid years. And finally these, these last, last half of the year, we got in more of routine, we got in more of able to kind of work on the house. You know, we had moved in the year before, but it's like, all right, we're here, let's just kind of hunker down and survive, get through, you know, getting them to sleep at night, managing daytime, all that stuff is, is very hard. And so normalcy and all that is really, we're getting into a groove with life better, which has been great.
Able to do just more living kind of stuff. We didn't leave that. I mean, as you guys know, we didn't leave the house hardly other than the church and back for a long time.
So that was good. The challenges, the Focus Press stuff has been very difficult, strained for, for some time now as, as folks have seen, we went to Think Think Magazine Digital, which has been great, but that was a cost, you know, that we had to cut down. We had to shuffle some people around some things like that. And, and obviously Brad is at the head of the company, but I'm pretty intimately involved on the, the day to day as well. And so that's been a lot of growing pains, I guess. I think we're doing a lot of great work. I'm proud of what we do, but it's been tight, been a challenge, been a lot of stress on, on that front, but God's been good. We're still here, we're still podcasting and writing and putting out books and all that stuff. So that's, that's a good thing. Fast. I hope you guys have all had very blessed 2024s, but challenging ones as well. And I, I think we can probably expect the same this year. A lot of blessings, a lot of challenges. That's kind of how life goes, what God brings us through and, and his faithfulness to us and all that. So really good, good question there, Will.
[01:09:34] Speaker C: All right, guys, is that it? I think, I think we're ready to wrap. We.
[01:09:37] Speaker B: All right.
[01:09:38] Speaker C: Next next week. I think we already know what we're going to be doing next week. It will go it will coincide with Think Magazine. We're going to try to do that once a month in coinciding. But this, we're a little behind on.
[01:09:47] Speaker B: This one because of the holidays. This is the December issue we're going to be putting the episode out for which is Satan's Attack on the Home. You in fact, because of that, it's out now. FocusPress.org Think you can get the free magazine digital issue and sign up for the mailing list to get the next one when it's out. So, yeah, Satan's Attack on the Home will be next week's topic, but we.
[01:10:08] Speaker C: Hope this has been, yeah, very helpful for everybody. And as Jack said, make sure to comment if you have some things to add, some things you're going to be working on. We love being able to compile a list because this may make content down the road for more articles, books, things like that. So throw us your comments, whatever it is. But yeah, we appreciate you listening. We'll talk to you again next week.
