Welcome to the Line within us, a podcast sermon Christian man who hunger to be the leaders God intends you to be. I’m your host, Chris Grainer. Let’s jump in. All right guys. This is a special episode. I’m very excited to, to, to bring this one to you today, but we’re gonna start every episode of the line with Dennis with scripture.

And the scripture for this week is Isaiah 12 verses one. Let’s just read that together. Then you’ll say, On that day, I will give thanks to you, Lord, for although you are angry with me, your anger is turned away and you comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid for the Lord, God is my strength, Andal, and he has become my s.

Love that scripture. Guys, I can’t emphasize how much that scripture is. Just, just, just sings to me right there. Go back, check out the spiritual kickoff you missed out on Monday. I really enjoyed unpacking that one. Hopefully you got a lot out of that. Uh, guys, and again, Thanksgiving week. I know tomorrow the big day, if you’re listening to this on the day this drops, tomorrow is Thanksgiving.

It’s the big day. Maybe you’re listening to this Thanksgiving or after. Either way we’ll have some fun. Cause what I’m gonna do, I’m gonna give you a quick story here. This. On the most recent blessing that I’m thankful for, okay? It’s the time of Thanksgiving. It’s the time for all of us to just think about our lives in general.

So I’m most thankful this year for my son, Judah Levi, who arrived on November 11th at 11:40 PM So I’m almost gonna tell you about this, this, this, uh, everything that led up to ju to be getting here again. Guys, this, uh, this is more of a fun. I’m gonna just share some things. There’s now gonna be a lot of major takeaways other than guys, I just love sharing my stories and sometimes, guys, it’s just cool to hear stories.

So here we go. So, I mean, this pregnancy was just a drama field pregnancy. I’m just gonna be straight up with you. Like the last few months sucked. Okay. They were terrible. Like our tension and our house, you could just cut it with a knife and ultimately when I look back, I was having trouble saying to God I trust.

I did, I was having trouble saying to him, I trust you. You know? Uh, and I mean, it’s just in that moment, you know, when, when, when Satan Stone, those haymakers, it’s hard. But I can tell you one thing, prayers and love from others, especially the line within US community guys, I’m gonna talk about that here in a little bit.

That carried me and more work and more ways than I can explain. It’s, it’s unbelievable. Uh, I mean it’s just, it’s crazy, uh, to think through. Guys that I’ve known for several months, but not my entire life. But we’ve grown so close together, particularly within the community and how they’ve helped me. And we’ve had some scary moments.

We had some scary moments that legit, you know, it wasn’t just like Chris just being like super, like paranoid or, or hypochondriac. You know, this. We did have some scary moments in the pregnancy. You know, one morning about a month before Judah was, was arrived, my wife said, I can’t feel it. And in that, I just hit my knees.

I mean, what do you do when she says you can’t feel it? You know, I mean, it’s just, it cripples you. And we prayed and I laid hands on her and we, we just prayed together. And, and rarely, you know, obviously he started moving and he was good. But, you know, uh, when things like that happened and anxiety. And not to mention, this is the only dude in our family, he’s like the only son.

Like my brother’s got three girls. I’ve had four girls. This was it. This is the, this is the last who to even have a chance of carrying on the Grainger name. And it just, it was stressful, man. And I tell, I told my wife, I said, Look, whatever we’re gonna make sure Judah realizes he took easily three years off of both of our lives, just through his pregnancy.

So that was just a joke. But, you know, it was seriously, it was a very stressful moments. Uh, and so again, we had a date. And the date was set for, uh, the 11th to do the induction. And we did that because, you know, we had issues. Again, go back to episode 75, where I’ll talk about faith and losing her, our, our stillborn daughter who we lost her right at our delivery date.

Uh, I’ll try to make sure to put that, that link into showing for you guys. So after that they said, You know what? High risk pregnancy we’re going to set you. We’re gonna go ahead and induce. Not wait. That’s an option we had. So you know what? Yep, go ahead. To set that date. So we had that date set for Friday 11th.

And then we had some issues that morning. I mean, just crazy for that morning, just with like, we had to coordinate our childcare. Uh, my older daughters had to get them to where they needed to get to. Our Louis one had to get her where she needed to get to. And then, not to mention, there was just little hurricane blowing through prayerfully.

It wasn’t that bad. Like this hurricane that just came through was not that bad. At least in my neck of the woods. I, I’m sure it impacted other areas, particularly Florida more, way more. But up here, It was just a lot of rain. So, but we had all that happen that morning as well. Did have some tornadoes and things like that.

And then cars started acting up all the way to the hospital, you know, And then on my final leg to the hospital, we hit a traffic jam, right? It was like, seriously, what else can go on? Like, there’s so much tension, right? Right now, just in the moment, like, and here we go. We got all this stuff happening. So anyway, we get.

And with Lily when she was born, so she’s our daughter. We had in 2021, just for newer listeners, we had to stay in a hospital for basically an extra week after she was born because there were some, some issues with, uh, jaundice that she was having, we had to work through, so we were prepared for the worst, right?

We went to this hospital like, You know what, We’re gonna be here for a week. We’re just gonna camp out. We’re not gonna worry about it, and we’re just gonna roll with it. And then me person. I have a very love hate relationship with living rooms. Okay, just start back with my, with my oldest daughter, Chloe, you know, she ended up being emergency C-section would not come.

She was like at least 10 days past her due date wouldn’t come. And when they go to emergency C-section situation, dad’s not allowed in the room. So very first daughter wasn’t even allowed in the room with her. So there you. The was cool part with, with that though, was I was able to do her, like her first bath and do all the first vitals.

So, you know, I was with her when she came out, but I couldn’t be in a room. Second one was a plan C-section, so I was in the room for that one. So I was able to experience what that was like. Um, Very formal. You know, when you’re in that, in, in that scenario, when you’re, when it’s a planned C-section like that where you go in, I mean, it’s an appointment, you check in, it’s almost just like a regular doctor appointment, Right?

So, and they know you’re just getting the baby. Uh, so I had that, that was with a lee. Uh, I do, I still remember when they held her up over that little curtain, uh, and got to see her for the first time. Just the, the love of my heart. Just, just, it just magnified and multiplied. And then the next time I was in a delivery room was with.

Right. And that was again, episode 75. Go check that out. Quiet delivery room. I lost her at the, at the very, uh, last moment. And we had to, to go through there and I just remember how quiet and still that delivery room was. And then the next one was Lily. Okay, so Lily was born in 2021 in. I didn’t haven’t shared this with, on the podcast before.

So Lily, she was, we didn’t have any issues with her delivery, You know, it took a while. We induced her just like we did with Judah. So it took a while to get there, but then it was like eight hours of like active labor of, of pushing to, to get her out. And then after that we almost lost my wife. She had some hemorrhaging, some things were, were happening and it.

Extremely intense there in that delivery room. So to say that I was on edge going into this delivery is an understatement of the century. Okay, So we went into this delivery room, uh, they started the medicine, all that stuff, and things just weren’t happening. I mean, they literally tried. First thing we found out we got there is Judah was sitting sideways and I think they call it transverse.

And for if you’re a medical per person, and I said that wrong, forgive. I’m not a medical person, but I think that’s what they said. So basically he needed to turn, so they waited a little bit. He did turn, he got in the right position and then they started the medicine. Six or eight hours into it. My wife’s body, nothing was happening and tension was mounting with us and, well, not between us, but it was just tense, like, alright, how long is it gonna take to even get to the point where we can try to have him, You know, the whole time we’re watching the mantra, we’re watching contract.

And we were just like, You know what? It was about 10 o’clock that night and the doctor finally said, You know, you guys, you can elect to have a C-section if you, if you so choose. So we’ve been back and forth. We’ve been talking about it for a while because when we got there that morning again, he, when he was transversed, they said, You know what, We’re gonna do a C-section and we’re gonna do it at one 30.

So mentally we were like, All right, cool. C-section one 30, let’s do it. Let’s have him. And then he moves. They come in at one and say, Oh no, we’re gonna try to just go back to natural. So it’s just ping pong of emotion back and forth. Right. I came down to a quarter, yes. You heard me a quarter. So I told my wife it was about 10 30 that night.

I said, Here’s what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna flip this quarter cause we have both prayed over this thing. Do we go ahead and just do a C-section or do we keep proceeding with the. The natural, the medicine and try to do to be induced. You know, she hadn’t had an epidural at that point. So we had options.

We had some options, and we found a quarter, it was a 2022 quarter, okay? It had this year’s quarter, as in my wife’s purse. I said, We’re gonna flip this thing right heads. We’re gonna keep proceeding with induction tails, C-section. I said, Are you in? She was, She was grant familiar. She said, Right, let’s do it.

Flipped it landed on tails. And she was like, That’s best, three outta five. I was like, No, that’s not how this works, girl. So anyway, uh, we agreed right then, you know what tails called the doc called the nurse, And this is what we’re gonna do. We’re gonna have that C-section. Let’s just go ahead and do it.

So we, uh, we, we got set up, I had to put on the blue suit and all that stuff to go into the delivery room saying, All right, you have to wait outside and be able to, you know, we’ll, we’ll call you. We, we’ll come get you when you can come in and then we’ll start at c. So I’m out there chilling, um, just kind of with my, with my phone, just playing a game, just trying to keep my mind going and not thinking about all the stuff that was happen.

Then, uh, one of the, the aids came out and says, Well, the local anesthesia is not working, so you can’t go in to be your wife during delivery. I was like, You got to be kidding me. Like, seriously? What does that mean? They’re like, Well, we have to put her on general anesthesia. You can’t come in when, when Judah’s born, we’ll bring him out and you can meet him there, uh, and hang out with in the recovery room with him until your wife comes outta surgery.

Oh, you’re fine. So I went and did that and. Watching my son. So when that, that door opened and I heard him crying and that door opened for the first time and he rolled him in. It was just, guys, you know, those moments in life, you only get a few of these moments in life where you just, you make a memory right then, and that was it.

I remember just seeing my son like, This is my son right here. And so took him out, held him, just, just held him real close. And then finally, finally, my wife came out of surgery and, and was next to me. And, and she was so loopy and out of it just trying to come outta general anesthesia. If you guys been around someone who’s come outta general anesthesia, you know what I’m talking about.

And it was just, uh, so she couldn’t really have, have him laying on her. So I was like, You know what, Here we go. We wanted our son to have some skin to skin contact right after, after. Shirt comes off right there in recovery room. He’s laying on me, and I did, and he laid there for about 90 minutes of just an hour and a half.

And just my son listening to my heartbeat, me holding my sitting there by my wife, holding her hand, just, just, just rubbing on her while she’s coming outta recovery. And that was just a beautiful moment. Just a beautiful moment. And, and so we were able to get into our room that night about, man, it was like three in the morning or something like that.

And, and be able to get a little bit of. And then they started doing his tests and prayerfully, he passed all the tests. He passed the first John, this test. He passed his hearing test, then he passed his second one and it was like, Can we possibly go home? Uh, so it was pretty cool. They let us, So my wife was recovering very well, and we were able to go home Sunday, Sunday, Sunday afternoon.

So that was really cool. Uh, getting out the, the church there in, in Raleigh. Treated us so well. We were able to get out and, uh, not the church, the hospital there, and Riley was treated us so well, so we were able to come home and let him meet the family. And that was kind of cool, just being able to meet his older sisters, Uh, his, his his, uh, 14 month older sister as well.

That was interesting, just watching her reaction to him, uh, how Chloe and Ava just responded to him. It was just really cool, uh, just to see how much those girls just fell in love with their brother in that. You know, and, and uh, it was really just, just a surreal moment for me as a dad. Uh, you know, and, and I’ll just tell you what guys, it, it was one of those things that I never thought I’d be hold a son, a son.

I just never thought that was in my card. I just kind of played up this girl dad thing my whole life, you know? Cause that’s all I’ve ever known. But I know one thing, although it’s new to me, I am. And God is gonna show me, He’s gonna show me the things I need to teach this young man. And you know what it’s been, uh, just, it’s been an absolute blessing to get to this point.

I’ve been on both, on both ends of, of things that really go well with the, with a delivery and things that don’t go really well. So this one went really well. And here’s, so something I want you to think about the importance of a church body. Now, why am I bringing this up? Well, because churches are there to love on you when, when things go.

And one thing is go bad, They’re there for you. So they set up a meal train that we have all sorts of emails and messages and all that stuff coming, and I can tell you a hundred percent, they make a difference. They make a difference to be able to have that type of love poured out to you. So if you’re at a church, And, uh, you, you’re have an opportunity to be, to be with a, a local group of believers and a life event like this happens to somebody.

Show some love with them. You know, it really is. In fact, I can tell you what, we’ve had several meals already sent to us and just to have that stress off of, off of us, so we have to worry about the meals where we can just focus on the family. And just adjusting as a family has been an absolute blessing.

You know, just, just to be thinking about that. And you, at this point now, we’re done with biological children. Uh, so we, we both agreed, you know what, this is it, we can’t handle the stress of anyone pregnancies, but we also agreed that adoption is something that we would be willing to, that we really wanna look at at some point in the future.

Uh, hopefully that’s, that’s God’s plan for us at some, at some time. And, but for right now, uh, this season of making babies has kind of pass. And I, now, I’m focusing a hundred percent on raising three God-fearing women and one God-fearing man. And that’s it. I mean, that is it, you know, And prayerfully, you know, I’ll do a good job of that.

And there’s so much out there that’s pulling out them. Negative stuff. You know, what’s a, what’s a boy? What’s a girl? All this trans, all this other stuff that she’s hitting them. I just want them to know, look, you are fearfully and warm if you may, period. And Judah, u r. Man a boy, Chloe, Ava Lilly, you are a girl.

There are differences and it’s this crazy thing we have to break down. Its fundamental areas, but we do, we do. We have to understand it, you know, It’s our job to lead them. And my ultimate prayer too is I hope I’m their hero, you know, because my dad is my hero, particularly for Judah. Uh, you know, if I can.

So it’s, he can look at his life as he gets older and says that I’m his hero. The way that I can, can stand here 100% tell you that my, my daddy is my hero. Then I’ve done a good job. That’s up to me. There’s a lot, a lot of work that I, a lot of big shoes to feel. And my dad and dad, if you’re listening, I love you.

I hope you, I hope you never, ever question that for a second. And also if you’re listening to this and you haven’t told your daddy that you love him, Probably ought do that cuz there’s so many guys out there who don’t have that opportunity to tell their day they love them. You know, don’t just assume, take the step.

Make sure that they, that they, they know that you love them. And the cool part about all this stuff, being a believer is that I know God loves all my children way more than I can even imagine. Right. And, and all I’m supposed to do is point them to, And pray that they make those decisions to follow him. So guys, that, I mean, that’s just, that’s it.

That’s if you’re a father out there and you’re listening, all you’re supposed to do is keep pointing them to Jesus. And it’s every day. I know it’s not, It can wear you down. You know, I have a, uh, my oldest is getting, hitting those preteen years, and it is, and we’re feeling it, but I need to remind her over and over and over how much she is.

How this is a safe place. How her daddy loves her, how she is fearfully and wonderfully made. How there’s not a flaw in her, how God does not make any mistakes. All these sinks gotta keep re reaffirming in her. So she needs to hear this from me as her father. And that’s it. You know, Thanksgiving just added another plate at our table and I, I’m so blessed beyond blessed and recognize that blessing, cuz I also know that for.

There’s a plate missing this year, or maybe somebody’s not gonna be able to be at the table, uh, this year cuz they, maybe they’re overseas or traveling or it is. You never know with logistics how things work. And look, I get it. It can be hard. So whether this is a fun time of year for you or if it’s a painful time, remember that your heavily father loves you.

He loves you infinitely more than you know. I promise you. That’s why this is the time of Thanksgiving. Let’s give him the thanks in everything. Right? We gotta give God the thanks. You know, when I sit there and I hold my son, it’s hard to hold him. And for one, for me to not think of faith, how I missed that little girl, but also know when she opened her eyes, she, she saw Jesus and the Lord.

But Judah opened his eyes, He saw us, and guys, it’s gonna take a, a, a, a bunch of lions to raise alliance. So I, I’m excited for here, but again, I can’t thank you guys from the bottom of my heart for the prayers, I can, I can at fully 100% attest that prayers from this community, the prayers from each one of you guys were, felt they were impactful and made guys to the finish line.

Look again, Thanksgiving, big time of year. I know there’s a lot. You’ll be hanging out with family, you’ll be doing some fun stuff. You’ll have a, maybe you’ll be playing some corn hole or some football, whatever that is. Maybe you, one of those families that does a 5K together or something like that. Hey, just take the time to be with the family.

You’ve heard me say before, be where your feet are, right? So this Thanksgiving, and I, I’m gonna try to do this myself too. Put the phones down and just be there. Just be there with. I struggle with this, so this is, Look, I need some accountability here as well, but just, just be there with them. You know, the phone can wait, the email can wait.

The Instagram, Facebook, desktop, YouTube, whatever that idol is in your life, LinkedIn, all that stuff can wait. You don’t get these moments. So take the time, break the bread, have the conversations, ask the questions. Have the giggles, have the laughs. Make the memories, play the board game. That’s gonna cause to fight all those things, right?

I mean, it’s just have fun with the family, you know? Cause the dynamics have changed so much. I mean, it breaks my heart when I go out to eat dinner. And I talked about this with you guys before too, where you go out and eat and just look around and everybody’s just looking down at their phones instead of being in the.

So I pray that you, that you have a blessed Thanksgiving. I pray that you get to celebrate with the ones that you love, and I also pray that you take that opportunity to do just that. You know, I’m be holding you to a lot during this Thanksgiving. I’m gonna be holding Lilly a lot too, and, uh, just cause I have to hold Lily right now because my wife can’t hold her because, uh, with the surgery she had, she can’t hold her for a few more weeks.

So I’m doing a lot of lily duty, but, uh, either. If I’m all okay, I’m all around Chloe, Ava, Lily Judah, my wife, my mom, my dad, whoever. I want them to know I love them and spend that time with them and don’t just look at it as another day off of work or just another holiday. Actually, enjoy it. Enjoy it. Make some memories.

Now, hopefully, guys, this, this encourages you a little. Again, Tony, just a little bit different episode today. Just wanna share that story of Judah Prayerfully. There was no major drama with this one. Uh, hope prayerfully, he’ll keep passing all his tests and things like that. There’s for all that. You have the newborns at the house, you know what I’m talking about there.

There’s always variables, right? Uh, so hopefully, you know, so far he’s been doing good, but for me and my family, I just pray that you, your family, you have a blessed than. Remember where to stretch your pants cuz that really does help, uh, when it comes to that, that second or third helping a Turkey. And there’s always room for pie.

You gotta keep that. Don’t forget that there’s always room for pie. But hopefully guys, this one that you have a really great Thanksgiving. Think about this week. Who do you give thanks to most often? Cause I’m praying that you’re giving thanks to the Lord most often. Wake up every day, give thanks to him.

That’s what it’s all. Come back on Friday. I have a fun Friday that I think you guys are gonna enjoy. So I have unpack some new things for you, give you a couple tips as well going into this Black Friday that we’ll have. Again, you’ll be out and about, you’ll be driving people around, helping ’em pick up stuff, whatever.

Uh, maybe be heading to the woods. Go hunting. Whatever you need to do, go the line within us all. Have, have a enjoy the fun Friday episode. We will have that coming out on this Friday, even though it’s, it’s, uh, Black Friday, day after Thanksgiving. Wanna share a few things with you guys There? The Black Friday.

Speaking about that, we have our Founders Coalition special that is live that is happening right now. So you have a major opportunity to save big time to be part of our community. And guys, I’m telling you, the community is where it’s happening. We have over 115 or more guys in the community right now that they’re, they’re, they’re constantly, they’re, they’re chiming in with issues, items, encouragement, prayer request.

Uh, they’re jumping into courses, they’re jumping into the Bible study. We’re having line lunches. We’re having live. Ask me Anything events. This is happen. We just had our first one. Next month we’ll have an home. We, we’ll be announcing what that is next week, so come back next week for that. On who our live.

Ask me anything Events gonna be for, for December. It’s gonna be incredible, by the way. So guys, there’s so many opportunities. For you to get off the sidelines and not just listen, but be active. Be a participant. That’s what it’s about. We know you guys listen. The down, they, they, the, the stats show. You guys are listening to the show.

Take action. Jump into community share. Be the iron that sharpens iron. Cause who knows? There may be one piece of wisdom that you have that you are able to share with somebody inside a community that is just what they need to make a huge. And start changing their life to be that husband, to be that father, to be that businessman and a business owner, right?

To be that son that God intends them to be. And they’re just waiting to get that from you, and you will never get that chance if you keep sitting on the sidelines and don’t take action. So if you’ve got anything from the line with Dennis for this over the last. I pray you just too, take some action, go to the length in the show notes.

Here you have it’s den, d e n dot Delia with us. That’s how you can join our community. So I hope you, you take some action there. Again, I pray you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Pray you come back on Friday for our Fun Friday episode. I think you’ll have a lot of fun with that one. And give us a rating, write a review.

All that stuff does make a big difference. Guys, I know you hear me say it every episode, but it really does ratings reviews. They really. Other than that, really encourage you to jump into the community cuz that’s where all our attention is, where all our focus is and where we’re trying to build resources to help you be a leader God intends you to be.

So I pray, have a great Thanksgiving fellows. Thank you again for all the many prayers for, for Judah, Levi, for, for getting us to the finish line. It was all I give you guys so much discredit just for being able to pray us through that situ. Looking forward to, uh, to coming back and just sharing more with you.

So again, come back on Friday. We’ll see you there. Guys, enjoy your Thanksgiving. Enjoy that Turkey. And don’t forget to unleash the lion with them.

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