Welcome to the lion within us, a podcast, serving 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 your fun Friday time. You finally made it through the end of the week. I know that feeling. It feels so good, right?

Feel so good. Now, you know how we’re gonna start? Just like we start every episode we, we we’re giving God all the glory. We’re gonna start with scripture. The scripture this week was outta Matthew. It was chapter seven versus 24 and 25. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mind and puts them into practice, hear that, puts them into practice.

It’s like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house. Yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock. Where’s your foundation guys. Is it on the rock is the rock Jesus. Cause if it’s not, you’re not ready.

You’re not gonna be able to withstand the storms of life are gonna come. They’re gonna knock you down. The only way, the only way you can withstand this, you have to stand on the rock of Jesus Christ. Go back to our Monday episode, the spiritual kickoff. Listen to that where I really dug, dug into the scripture here, guys, telling.

You don’t have him at the center. You don’t him at the center. You’re putting yourself at risk. Okay. Cause the trials are coming. You’re either in one coming out or going in. That’s just the way it is. And it’s eventually, at some point you’re gonna reach a point where you can’t do it on your own. You’re just not right.

You’re not gonna be able to bootstrap it or just pull or just pull ’em tighter just man up. Nope. Nope. It’s not gonna work. Gonna have to fully rely on something else. Something else. It’s the Lord. So you need to make sure you have this right guys. Get it right now. If you missed episode on Nancy, what do we talk about?

We talked about having crazy, amazing intimate marriages. Yes. All those adjectives. They go together. You know, marriage does not, blah. It’s not me. It’s awesome. But you have to work. Eric Wooten came in and he, he dropped it. He dropped the hammer on us guys. He gave us all sorts of tips. He talked about, um, you know, how we need to be, uh, intentional, how we need to be thinking about the community, how we need to be thinking about our personal responsibility, because it all starts with us, right?

The marriage, you know, when two people come together, it starts with you. And a lot of issues, a lot of issues he was talking about are, were not relational issues. You know, between a husband and wife, but personal issues, personal problems that we just haven’t addressed. So guys, again, go back and check it out.

Cuz he brought so much wisdom and insight that really opened my eyes to a lot of areas and including the importance of men that’s right. Men in your life to improve your marriage. Now you guys hear me talk about the lion Dan all the time. Why? Cause it’s I. You gotta have strong men helping guide you that can, can point you in the right direction that can get you back when you get off course.

And you gotta have those guys and I’ll tell you what too often we miss that we just do. And if you don’t have those guys, Eric spoke to the importance of that and what the value is, why that’s important, guys. It is all there. The data is there. So again, if you, if you need a group right now, Joyce joined alliances.

That’s one way you can start right now. It’s free hop on there. You can be part of our lines then, and at least we we’re, we’re having meetings. We’re having calls. You can engage in community that way and get some truth. Cause we know that’s what you are after real truth to help you lead, you know what?

We’re gonna help you get that confidence. We’re gonna help you support you in your marriage. But guys, you gotta take. So that’s one way you can do it right there. So again, go back and check out Eric’s episode. It was phenomenal. He’s a great guy. He’s really knows what he is talking about. He’s got the training, he’s got the, you know, the credentials, all that stuff.

He’s built some amazing things that altered marriage, highly encouraged you guys to check it out now for our tips this week, you know, we’re gonna do a health tip, a wealth tip, and a self tip right? Every week. We’re gonna do that for your health tip. OK. What you think about this? When you try to rationalize.

What are you trying? What are you really doing? Essentially, when you try to rationalize something in your mind, you’re trying to make rational lies. That’s it? Because if it wasn’t, if it was clear, if it was true, if it was honest, it was pure. You wouldn’t have to rationalize it. You wouldn’t be trying to make these excuses up.

So just think about that again. It’s just kind of us playing on words there, but it it’s something that when I heard it, I say that is really impactful. And it makes me think about if I’m trying to rationalize something, why am I doing this? Maybe it’s cause you know what, it’s not right. Not going down the right path.

And by trying to force something, I’m just trying to make rational lies. And that’s just not gonna work guys, not gonna work. You know, mine’s gonna play tricks on you. The mind is powerful to. You can, again, if you wanna search data for anything, you can go out there. If you wanna prove a point, there’s a data set out there.

I guarantee that backs up your point, but there’s also data sets that, that, that go against it. So again, if you’re trying to rationalize something, be careful, just be careful. My advice, go to the word again, go to the word, then go to the father in prayer. See what the word says, see what the PR and then lift your prayers up and then see what he tells.

Be careful when you’re trying to rationalize something that you’re not trying to make rational lives. There you go. That there’s your health tip. Okay. Well, tip again, talk in marriage. So this week I had to go back to the marriage bucket. How can we do this together? And Eric even brought it up. So I just, I wanna stick with that.

Tip a staff meeting. I call ’em a budget meeting, but whatever you need to do. Okay. Every month, maybe it’s every week. If you’re getting started, you need to be looking at finances. Okay, you need to make sure that you’re in alignment there. Cause outside of infidelity money is the biggest driver. It’s the biggest driver of divorce.

Guys. Gotta get ahead of this again. To Eric’s point, it takes intentionality is not gonna happen by mistake. You have to really lean in and make this a priority. Cause if you do and you make it a priority and you actually do the work and you actually have these con these conversations with your. You will, you will no doubt come together.

I guarantee you, you’re gonna find out things about each other. You’re gonna find out things about the budget. You’re gonna find out things about your financial goals and you’re just gonna be on so much of a, more of a level playing field together. And that together part is so is so key. So key. So again, he called ’em staff meetings.

I call ’em budget meetings. You can combine them. I mean, the staff meeting does include more logistic stuff like that, too, but from a well stand. Make sure she has got to be part of the communication. You know, if you’re the type of guy and, and all the numbers run through you, you have all the account access.

You ha you keep everything and she doesn’t see any of it. Why you’re you’re, you’re probably insecure or you’re shameful of something, or you’re hiding something. We need to be completely open and transparent. Our, our wives deserve. Yes, we are. We are the leaders, we’re the head of the house, but at the end of the day, we’re to serve them right.

And, and love them. Like Christ loved the church. We need to open up, quit being so standoffish, get in, have budget meetings, get on the same page and that’s gonna increase. That’s gonna just make your marriage that much stronger. All right. Now, self tip, simple tip. This is the easy one, but I guarantee it’s probably gonna be one of the hardest ones that you, that you can.

Pray together. Now. I know, I know I’ve, I’ve said this one before, but guys, we forget the power of prayer. Okay. And it’s, it’s so important. I’m gonna come back to this one probably more frequently. We are not praying with our wives. And when we do though, when we actually make it a priority and pray with her, we’re surprised at how wonderful they respond.

How much more connected we feel how better our communication is, how more in alignment we are and where we’re headed. We’re just surprised by all that. Why? Because it is just crazy. God designed it that way. God put it, put us together. He gave us a helper. We should be from a spiritual standpoint. We wanna be the spiritual leaders.

We need to be leading our wives, have the prayer. And you can make it super simple. So many guys get so scared of this. Here’s your question? Get ready. Are you ready to write it down? How can I pray for you? That’s all you gotta ask. And then you got in step two. Know what? Step two is. Shut up. Ask the question and be quiet.

Right? Let her think. She may need to think for a minute and just let the silence just be. And then when she answers, oh, when she answers really listen, listen to what she’s telling. Maybe ask, uh, make, repeat it back, do the McDonald’s type of, of strategy. You know, repeat the order back to her me, make sure I’m hearing you, right.

You want me to pray for this, right? That just lets her know, you know what? That you’re listening, but asking the question. How can I pray for you? That’s your beachhead moment. That’s gonna open it. They need need to be prepared to listen and lean in and actually make it happen. And guys, this is not a once a week thing.

Let me re let me reiterate that this is not a once a week thing. This needs to happen on a consistent basis. Okay. Every day, every day, there should not be a day that goes by that we do not pray with our wives period. I can tell you it is personally it’s it’s, it’s one of the things that helps our marriage more than anything.

I don’t care what financial blessings come or, or children or things come from a, a professional doesn’t matter. What connects us more than anything is when we pray together. So guys that that’s, I cannot emphasize that’s 33 tips, your health tip when you’re rationalize, make sure you, you ultimately, you’re trying to make rationalize.

So don’t do that. Well, tipped do that budget or staff meeting, whichever way you way you wanna think about it, make sure you actually. And the self tip pray together. How can I pray for you seriously? It’s that simple. Now the book of a week for the guys that are on YouTube, I’m holding it up right now.

Magnetic marriage. Okay. The magnetic marriage, eight characteristics of irresistible marriages guys. This is Eric’s book. It’s a really good resource. He’s got some really practical things inside this book for you. I think this is one that we need to add to our library and if you’re married, Maybe if you know somebody who’s getting ready to get married, this would be a good present to give them.

So go check out the show notes. We have links to, to get Eric’s book, highly encourage you to support him again. Uh, the things he has in here is biblically sound. If you’re looking for a good resource to maybe give a new couple or a couple that you may think is going through some tough times, this would be a great one to, to point ’em to, and also point them towards Eric and some of the stuff he’s doing, because I’ll tell you what he’s making an.

He has it all centered on Christ. All right guys. So fun. Friday comes with a dead joke. All, all we ready? Dead joke. Number one, I’m writing a book about reverse psychology, please. Don’t buy it. There you go, guys. All right. That’s number one. Number two. Next Monday we start diarrhea awareness week runs till Friday.

So number two for me this week, I put that in there for my oldest daughter that she’s just, uh, that’s, she’s got that kind of humor in her brain. So, uh, you know, hopefully she’s listening to that when she got a good chuckle out of it. I know for me, number two wins it this week. Just, I don’t know what that says about your host here.

That may turn some listeners off, but that may actually turn some more listeners on, Hey, you know how you know, you know what makes me laugh? So number one, I’m writing a book about reverse psych. Please don’t buy it. Number two. Next Monday, we start diarrhea awareness week runs until Friday. Hey, I just realized this guys.

I made that diarrhea joke. Number two. So you could just, it, it just keeps going, right. It’s a gift that keeps on giving. So there you go. You’re welcome. Thank you very much that you can leave your tips at the door, things like that. All right. Now the question a week as what we’ve been talking about this week, do you have a magnetic marriage?

Do you have, is it, is it magnetic? Is it amazing? Is it awesome or is it just. Good is okay. It’s better and terrible, but we want it to be amazing. Right? God has made this beautiful covenant of marriage and we need to treat it as such, cuz it’s not a contract guys. You hear me talking about all the time.

It’s not a contract. It’s not, if you then I right. That’s when we’re trying to buy a house, right? There’s contracts. If you do this, then I will pick you. No, no, that’s not marriage the covenant, no matter what I do, no matter. I do. I can promise you, Rebecca. I’m not going anywhere. I do. And she, and I, I know for her, it’s the same and guys for you and your wife, make sure that you’re treating it as the covenant, not the contract.

So guys, it’s been a great week talking about marriage. I pray. This has served you well, I pray the scripture this week really opens your eyes to make you start thinking about, I need to listen more and then I need to start. Implementing and acting and getting out there and sharing with others. So again, thank you for coming.

Thank you for listening. Go to the lion within us. Join the lions stand. That’s a quick way. You can engage with us right there. Join the lion stand. Okay. That’s a simple way. Check out the 10 scriptures to fight like a lion. That’s a great one. Check out the Bible study the online course. There are resources we’re building guys to serve you to help you.

You want information on our Thursday night Bible study, send us an email. Okay. Connect with us on the lines then. And then I will, I’ll send you an email and you can, you’ll get information on that right away. So just, just go check that out, guys. That group is growing. We’re having great conversation. We’re growing together as men and it’s really challenging each other.

Cuz guys, we, we hear you. Everybody’s wanting community. Well, we’re building it, but you gotta lean in and be part of it or you just, or you’re just gonna. Don’t be a consumer guys. Don’t just be a consumer who just sits hourly by get in the game, join the lion, then be part of something. Maybe you wanna check out our coaching program, starting to do some more coaching guys.

And you know what we take God’s word. That’s the that’s that leads us. And then we talk about your scenarios what’s going on in your life. And we’re gonna find ways to apply. God’s word as align with Dennis is all about simplifying and applying God’s word to help you be a leader, your predestined to be that’s it it’s that simple.

But guys, we need help. We need support. We need brotherhood. That’s what it’s all about. So again, go check out the website. Maybe you wanna be a monthly donor. You can donate right there. You can support what we’re doing. Yes, guys, it does take money to make this thing happen weekend, week out. There’s a ton.

Huh? We put in guys, we do it. Cuz we’re called to and we know, we know we’re on a great mission. We don’t know where it’s going. We’re serving. We’re just keeping our head down and we’re focused on taking care and, and giving you quality material weekend and week out. So guys, maybe you wanna check out, grab you a hat, grab you a t-shirt some swag out there.

There’s there’s all sorts of ways you can support it’s all@thelinewith.us. So thank you again. I pray you come back next. I hope you have a great weekend. Use those dead jokes, particularly the number two dead joke that one’s for free. Let us know which one lands best connect with us on Facebook, on Instagram, all the different platforms out there.

So you can be part of what we’re doing. Get after it. Guys have a great weekend and unleash the lion within

outside of God’s word. What should you be reading to grow as a Christian leader? It can be daunting to see all the options available these days to help bring you some sanity to your search. We compiled all of our featured books of the week, so you can make wise choices and strengthen your mind the topics range from health, wealth, and self.

So there’s something there for all you guys, whether you’re looking for books for yourself, or maybe you’re researching ideas for other men, this is gonna be a resource that brings you. To check out the line with end.us/book, to see what would serve you the best right now, and start sharpening your mind to be that leader, your predestine to B that’s the line with then.us/book to learn more.