Welcome to the lion within us, a podcast, sermon Christian men who are hungry to be the leaders they’re predestined to be. I’m your host, Chris Grainger. Let’s jump in. All right, guys. It is fun Friday time. So you know what that means me. Grab it. Let me grab it. Oh yeah. Time to put my hat on for a fun Friday.

Here we go. So I’m so glad you guys made it through another week, excited that you were hung with us here on the line within us. This was a, a great week enjoyed, uh, the conversations with Don Manning this week. I actually had a cold, so I guys, I apologize when I recorded this. I wasn’t feeling the best, but hopefully, uh, you can get past my sniffles, but I think the conversation was powerful.

Now, you know, and so the scripture this week, you know, we’re gonna start off with scripture, Matthew 22, and this came right from Don Manny. He’s like, Chris, this has gotta be the scripture of the week. If I’m coming on. I’m like, yes, sir. So Matthew 22 versus 36 39 teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law.

Jesus replied, love the Lord, your guy with all your heart, with all your soul and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And second is this love your neighbor as your. Guys go back to that spiritual kickoff. If you want to, to, to get a better understanding of that scripture and, and how to apply that to your life.

I really spent a lot of time in the SKO, just going through that, trying to give you some, some ideas on how you can take this, this concept, what Jesus is trying to teach us and apply it. And then on also on Wednesday for our meet. Don broke down. Crazy cool family. How you can build a crazy cool family guys.

He brought so much, it, it was unreal. It was a long conversation, but it was so impactful, so impactful, you know, and, and crazy. It’s quite simply God’s way. And I loved how he started. Like, you know, when, when you hear crazy. It’s God’s way. And like, I, I totally get that, like embrace the weird , you know, we don’t wanna do it in the world’s way.

We wanna do it God’ way. And sometimes it can be crazy. I mean, look at the Bible. There’s plenty of story of craziness. It’s just there. Right. And these are, these things really happen. So again, I probably shouldn’t even use that word story, cuz these are actual events that are in the Bible that are crazy, cuz they’re God’s way, you know, and he talked about the values.

Of your, of, of your kids being best friends and guys, this is something I struggle with because I pray for my daughters to be best friends. And sometimes again, they’re a little bit younger, 11 and 10 that they’re not best friends right now. Now they have moments, but it’s not all the time. But so I had a lot of encouragement from Don or what we could be doing as a family to start fostering that relationship and building the culture.

That’s gonna bring them together. I mean, seven kids. Seven, and they’re all best friends. And I’m gonna tell you what, once you read the book, you’ll see, you know, they wrote actual testimonies from the kids. Now here’s a question you’re writing a book and your kid’s going have right testimony about you and your family.

What are they gonna write? And I’m gonna say right now, I don’t know if I’m going, if I would love what my girls would write, you know, so I got I’m working on that. I’m just constantly really focusing on that with my wife on what can we do? To make our family. Awesome. Crazy cool. Rather, right. You know, so Don just, he gave so much, I mean, he said, you know, don’t question, he’s not questioning anybody’s intention.

He’s just questioning our methods guys. And we need to be thinking about that because if we can be listening to our kids, when they’re five, imagine what they’ll tell us when they’re 15. When he said words like that, it’s just like, you got me. You, you rattling me, Don. I mean, you really are. And, and the last thing I’ll leave you guys with, cuz you need to go back and, and, and check out that episode.

If you haven’t listen, instead of lecture, guys, we want to lecture we’re men. We want this to be, why don’t you just do what I tell you? Just do it my way and say that about the third time you say. Maybe you’ll hear the holy spirit in God saying exactly because can’t you feel, you know God saying those exact words to us, we’re all sin.

We’ve all fallen short of the glory of God. I’m the chief center. And guess what? In your house, you’re the chief center. So, so understand that it’s not about lecturing them. It’s not about banging something over their head. It’s about doing life and building a relationship side by. So there was so much powerful, powerful, uh, feedback and, and tips from, from Don.

Go back and check that out. So, you know, on fun Friday, guys, I’m gonna give you some tips. Okay. So here’s some tips for you as you move forward for your week health tip, a self tip and a wealth tip. All right. Now, from your health tip, I’m gonna go straight outta Don’s guide here. Okay. Build mental fortitude.

With the affirmations. Now I’m really big on affirmations guys. I think you’ve heard me talk about this in the past, on the line with Dennis, but check this out right out of Don’s book here. It’s your turn take at the moment and declare these statements out loud over yourself and your family print. ’em post them on well, travel places in your daily life.

Things like I’m a child of God. I hear God’s voice clearly with Jesus. We can overcome any family obstacle. I love and appreciate my spouse. I point my kids to Jesus and they are amazing. My kids can and will be best friends with each other. I am over the top encourager to my family. I listen and I am a safe place for my family.

I intentionally discipline my children. My family members are my favorite people in the world. And God designed the best family for. Think about that. God designed the best grant for me, grains your family for me. So guys, we need to start using those words. Affirmation. They need to be spoken out loud. They need to be spoken over our children.

They need to hear the leader, the leader of their family. You say these words to step up, start building, build mental fortitude with these affirmations. All. Now, well tip. Okay. You need to build some lines in your budget to build relationships. Okay. We’re gonna build relationships, let’s budget for it. Cuz there may needs to be some things in your, in your budget that you plan for.

Okay. But again, that direct one on one time, you know, that’s important with your children, but you may wanna plan some money to let the kids do things together. From time to time, maybe they need to go to a movie just. Or go play puck golf, or go to adventure park or do just do something, you know, and, and you fund it for them.

Right. We wanna create great experiences. Right. I noticed it’s really important, but we’re trying to build the relationships. So maybe you just need to put a little bit of money to the side and figure out how can you foster those relationships and help build them up by giving them some experiences. Okay.

But work that into the. For my wife and I, the one-on-one monthly, uh, dates that we have with our children. We budget for that. And we have to, and we, we understand there is a, there is a set amount and we have, we go out, you know, we’re gonna do whatever the children wanna do. You know, whatever kid month is that month they’re gonna do it, but we budget for it.

So you need to really think about it. If you’re gonna be intentional about relationships and building them, and you want your children to have these crazy cool relationships together. Build lines in your budget to foster that, to help facilitate that to actually happen. Okay. So there you go guys, build lines in your budget to build relationships and a self tip.

Okay. Here, self tip for a week, we are to appreciate not improve our spouse. Say that one more time. We are to appreciate not improve our spouse. Okay, so you may be fur along your Christian walk or have more life experiences in general. Hey, that that’s great. Okay. Wonderful. Stop. Trying to change your spouse.

Stop trying to sh to change them, show appreciation for them. If you show that appreciation to them, uh, more often, they’re gonna return that trust to you. It’s just gonna grow. It’s just gonna build your relationship is gonna be just blossoming in ways you can’t imagine. And instead of improving, trying to improve somebody, maybe pray for it, you know, create an environment to, to be their best version of themselves, you know, and let them know how awesome they are.

When was the last time your wife has heard you say, you know, honey, you rocked it. It could be simple stuff. Dinner was amazing, or you are an amazing mother or, you know what? You’re an amazing wife cuz you remembered this for. They need to hear it. Cause we need to, to too often our, our spouses, they’re just, they’re getting the worst versions of us.

We need to flip that, flip it on his head. They need our best version. That is the relationship. When we doc, he talks about those relationship dynamics, you know, us to guide us to our spouse, us, our kids, kids, to kids, kids, you know, kids to God. But that relationship between us. The husband and a wife is so critical guys, so critical to get that right.

So show them the appreciation and stop trying to fix. Cause you know what, there’s a lot wrong with you too. There’s a lot wrong with Chris. Just ask Becca. She will tell you there’s playing wrong, but you know what? She appreciates me and she doesn’t try to fix me or improve me. And if I say silly stuff, like I’m broken, she rebukes that in a.

You do the same thing for your spouse. So there you go, guys. There’s your tips build mental Fortu it affirmations. There’s your health tip. Well, tip, build lines in your budget to build relationships and then your self tip. Appreciate not improve your spouse. Okay. Now the book of the week. Surprise, surprise, surprise.

Crazy cool family. I got her right here for the guys that are on YouTube. Check this out, go to the show notes, go to the line within us slash book. You can see the book of the week. You can see all our books of the. This is one. I love it. Don actually sent me two copies. My oldest daughter actually read it.

She’s worked her way through it. And, and now I want my middle daughter to read it next. But guys, this is a great framework here. Great framework to really get you head in the right space for, he talks about, you know, pursuing God, building relationships, creating that culture, what that looks like, and he just breaks it down.

And there’s so much raw truth. in this book. I mean, he doesn’t try to hide behind. He’s just out there. He’s telling you what he learned. Again, three decades of experience, three decades. Let’s learn from it guys. I’m still learning. I just finished my first decade as a parent. If I can take knowledge from a man that’s walking with the Lord, that’s done it three times.

As long as I have, I will be foolish to turn away from that foolish. So guys, go check out the show notes again, the, the, the crazy cool family rethink the way you do family book of the week now for our dad jokes this week. Okay. Dad joke. Number one, I was so angry that I threw my keyboard against the wall and parts flew everywhere.

That’s when the shift hit the fan, there you go. Number one, number two, whoever stole my copy of Microsoft office, I will find. You have my word. So there you go guys. Number one, I was so angry that I threw my keyboard against the wall and parts flew everywhere. That’s when the shift hit the fan, number two, the whoever stole my copy of Microsoft word, I will find you.

You have my word. So let us know which one lands both best for you. Which one gets to chuckle. I’m gonna be honest this week. It’s a toss up for me. I like ’em both. I thought they were both great. So I hope you enjoyed those, the question of the week. How is your family story playing out again? If your family story isn’t playing out the way you hope I get it.

Okay. Been to a divorce. I’ve had a lot of life happen. We’ve lost children, all that stuff. But at the end of the day, this is our story. We get to write it. You know, God is guiding us. So if your story’s not playing out the way you want right now, lean in, make some changes, listen to people like Don, learn, adjust, and grow.

There you go, guys. There’s your fun Friday. I pray. This served you well this week I pray that you’re, you’re feeling inspired. Ready to go start your, uh, your crazy cool family journey yourself. I shared this out with someone serious dudes. Share this out, write us a rating in review. Maybe jump on and be a Don.

We we’re asking for people to support the show, go check out. Maybe you wanna be a, a monthly donor for the line within, you know, it, it, it costs resources to get this out to you every month. So if you’re listening this far into a fun Friday, I’m, I’m guessing you’re pretty, pretty regular listener. Thank you.

Support us. If you feel like we’re bringing you value this, improving your life, help us out. Be a donor, maybe jump on a website and, and. Get the Bible study online course, there’s all sorts of things. We’re building out there for you. So go to the line with NS, check all that stuff out, join the lines, then be part of our group.

If you wanna be part of our Bible studies, let me know, sh send emails to support at the line with N dots. So you can jump in on the next Bible study. Those are growing and guys are joining and we’re having real conversations and it’s not some stuffy Bible study. Now we’re just talking about life. How can we take the Bible?

And this wonderful, wonderful book that the Lord has given us and applied in our lives. And that’s what we do at the Bible study. So guys, I pray that this, this line with us is serving you well, that you’re enjoying it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for listening. So now I hope you have a great weekend.

You have all these crazy cool ideas now. Get out there, make those changes. Maybe this is probably a good week to share this episode with your wife. This would be one that she would wanna listen to as well. So I encourage you to ha to, to listen to this one as a couple, uh, to Don’s episode, rather as a couple and then get out there and make the crazy cool family.

All right. We love you guys. Thank you again so much. Now get out, unleash the lion with it.

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