Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast serving Christian man who are hungry to be the leaders God intends you to be. I’m your host, Chris Granger. Let’s jump in. Alright fellas, it is your fun Friday episode. I’m glad to have you here. You know, we’re gonna start in every episode of The Lion. So it’s scripture this week.

Scripture’s one of my favorite, Galatians 5 22 through 23. You need to know this. By the end of this week, if you have not memorized this verse, shame on you. That is your homework going into the weekend. Memorize Galatians 5 22 and 23. It’s, it’s pretty simple, okay? Right here. But the fruit or the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control against such thing.

There is no. Guys, I’ll even let you off the hook. You can, you can if, if you can’t remember the against such same part, just remember the fruit cause that is the area we need to know. We need to know what the fruit is so that we can apply that to our life. If you missed a spiritual kickoff this week, first of all, kick yourself in the pants, then it’s okay now.

Now get yourself up. Now go listen to the spiritual kickoff. I really unpacked that scripture. Scripture means so much to me. This, this, this is a special one. Again, I gave a funny. On how I learned this scripture happened to be through a song at a vacation Bible school. So whenever I hear this, I automatically go with, but the fruit of the spirit is not a coconut.

If you want to know more, if you wanna know that song, hit me up. Send an email to support at the line within us. I’ll give you the YouTube link for that, for that particular song. And you know what, silly songs like that sometimes can. Get this stuff cemented in. So there you go. There’s a, I’m offering that up as a free tip.

That’s not even one of your, your regular tips for your fun Friday. That’s just a free tip. Now, if you missed our Wednesday episode, that was a special episode there, we hacked Dr. Mike Frazier on. Okay. Dr. Mike helps, helps Christian couples and men particularly connect, you know, with their marriages and, and really improve areas of, of, of communication intimacy.

Had a really good conversation with Dr. Around fruit, what that looks like in our lives, how we need, how we can start making simple, small changes in our life to really have a big impact on, on the, on our spouse and what that should look like. It was a really good conversation. I, I enjoyed working with Dr.

Mike again. He dropped our conversation on his a podcast as well. So if you just couldn’t get enough of, of hearing the line, go over to his podcast, check it out. We’ll be there as. Now for the Fun Friday listeners, you know what’s coming next. We have our tips, our Health well and self tip of the week. So for our health tip and the way I did them this week, I lined up a fruit and then I put a I I’ve given you you guys a little bit more to go along with that fruit.

Okay? So for your health tip this week, the fruit that I wanted to focus on was faithfulness. Okay? Now, God is not a vending. Too often we think about going to him when some, when, when we need something, you know, and we’re, Hey, I need a, a four, give you that Snickers bar. This guy’s not doing that. Right. It’s true.

He’s always there. And Dr. Mike talked about, Hey, he, he, he, that’s what he likes about God. He’s always there. And that is true. He also wants to hear from his children all the time, not just when we need something. We, and we all know that. They, they’re gonna come to us, and when they talk to us, we know they’re gonna ask for something.

And what do we do when that, that person comes? A lot of times we just get our, our, our, our guards go up, our defenses go up, or we sigh internally. We’re like, oh, here we go again. What’s he gonna ask for now? Well, what’s she gonna ask for now? I wonder what’s wrong this time? And that’s not the relationship God desires while he does care.

And we can go to him that way. Why don’t we go to him all the. During the good, during the trials, during the inbetweens. Just the, just the okay. Days. Just even today, I had lunch. I eat on my porch. I do that a lot just to get out of the studio, get outside, get some, have some, some, just some, some quiet time.

And the way our, our house is positioned at lunchtime, the sun is just hitting right on that front. Now in the summer in North Carolina, that’s not a lot of fun on the front porch, but in the fall and the winter and the spring, it can be really nice and just sitting out there just with him, just talking, just talking to God, feeling that sun on my face.

I’m just closing my eyes right now. Just, just, just going back through what that lunch was like and just having that one-on-one connection time to where, you know, for, for us right. Yeah, there’s a lot of things happening that we have a baby on the way. By the time this drops, you know, prayerfully, Judah will be here.

There’s a lot of stressful things that could, that are happening there. Works always stressed the lying within us. There’s always things happening. But at the same time, I’m gonna place a contentment because you know what? I don’t know what the future may hold, but I know for today, the day that God has given me today, I have more blessings than I can count.

And when he put it in that context and you start thinking, God is not my vending machine that I need to go to and just start asking him for stuff that ain’t how it works. And, and you a lot of prosperity Gospel preachers out there. That’s exactly what they, they’re gonna tell you. I’m here to tell you that’s wrong.

He’s not a vending machine. He’s your father. He wants to hear from you. They’re in the trials. They’re in the good, I mean, and in. And yes, you can ask him for things. I get it. You, you, you want to ask God for, for wisdom and discernment and for direction and guidance. So just make sure we have it with the right heart and that we’re not going to him treating him like that vending machine, or we want to get that Snickers or that Coca-Cola.

Okay, now wealth tip. Patience. That’s the fruit patie. And if you go back and listen to my, my, my friend Andrew Sadler, when he came on here, he, he really talked about this so far as an investing in, in growing your wealth. But growing wealth is a marathon, guys, and we need to exercise patience when looking at investments.

We know from scripture that guys want, he wants to bless his children. We know that. And that the blessing, that’s just gonna look different for every different. Depending on how you show up as a steward, we’ll show what type of blessings you have and understanding that his timing is not your timing. When you begin to look at investments, be sure you’re doing it through the lens of a patient long-term strategy.

I’m not saying and never make a change here, guys, don’t, don’t misinterpret interpret me. Here I am saying be sure you’re giving the decisions you made, uh, to Bill will time. They need time for them to come to fruit. If you try to rush this stuff, you try to really push things your way. That’s when so many people get in trouble, you know?

So there, there’s, there’s lots of, of a, of wealth investors and, um, people who work in that industry who will tell you your biggest asset for building wealth is time. Use it, don’t you? Alliance, don’t do knee jerk reactions. Be patient if you, if you feel good about an. And you still feel like it’s, it’s the right direction that, that, that is gonna lead you ultimately where you would like to go.

Sometimes you just need to ride that rollercoaster because the only people that get hurt in rollercoaster are the one that jump off in the middle of the ride. Just ride it and understand that there’s gonna be ups, it’s gonna be downs, exercise patie. For our self tip, I want to self-control. Okay? So your actions as a man are far more impactful in your words.

We have to remember this. Be here for, be careful here guys because you need to exercise self-control at all times. So we can get into a lot of trouble as guys, our physical sides, just the way God designed us, the sound of our voice. Like I can drive my voice like this and I can sound a lot more, I. Right to a 10 to a 10 or a 12 year old little girl.

If I drop that octave, all of a sudden the way daddy looks in their eyes just got a lot scarier. And when that happens, they can shut down and our wives can shut down. And when they start, once they shut down, we’ve lost. We’ve lost. The self-control is one of the hardest fruits to ripen and it definitely is for.

But it has to have been, and for me it’s been one of the sweetest where I’ve seen where, where, where ha I have exercised self-control and that’s allowed my children and my wife to open up more. To me, the only way this happens is you have to look for opportunities to slow down and make the, make that a practice.

Exercising that self-control. And sometimes that just can be a very simple, taking a few breaths before you jump into an. Or to, or into a middle of a issue or situation, just take a few breaths, maybe take two. And I’m talking about deep, deep breaths and I’m talking about sign to where they is drawing attention to you.

But just deep breaths gotta help regulate your heart and get you in a better mood, in a, in a better position. Rather be able to address whatever’s happening and have the right heart. It’s too often we jump in quick and, and we gotta remember this is not drag. It’s a marathon. So a quick reaction is often a bad reaction.

So exercise that self-control, I get it that everything’s going around, around you is on fire. The kids are driving you crazy. Your wife hadn’t said anything nice to you in four years. And why do you need to exercise self-control? Because change starts with you and as the spiritual leader, as the head of the home, as a Christian.

It can have your actions have such a huge impact. So I implore you guys practice self-control, particularly in your home, and then watch that fruit continue to grow and sweeten and manifest and just be abundant in your house. So your health tip, faithfulness, God’s not a vending machine. Wealth tip. Wealth tip fi.

Patience, growing wealth is a marathon. And then your self tip is self-control. Understanding that our actions are really more impactful than our words. Okay, so there you go. That’s there’s three tips right there for your book of the week. I went to a book called The Heart of Leadership. Now I got this ref as a referral from one of our guys in our lined in Steven Morris.

I really enjoyed working with Steven. He’s an amazing, just an amazing man doing some incredible things. He brought this book up to me, but the harder leadership is really, really good. It’s a short read. Uh, it’s, it’s, it’s, there’ll be links in the show notes and it just talks about, you know, having a. A desire for wisdom and expecting the best outta other people.

Um, accepting responsibility, how we should resp, uh, respond with courage. And then thinking about others first. But it all wraps around to the ultimate. What it points to is our heart. If you have the right heart as a leader, good things will happen. Period. You’re headed in, you’ll be heading in the right direction cuz your heart is.

What we get in trouble is when we have the head knowledge with the heart’s not connected. So the heart of leadership, again, great little book for you guys, particularly if maybe if you find yourself in a leadership position in your company or in a professional setting. This can be a really good, and it’s written in a story format where it’s not like a traditional self-help book.

This is like a story of a dude who’s going through, who’s going through these trials at. And basically he goes on a scavenger hunt. So it’s a really fun read and a scavenger hunt happens to be five different people who give him advice that really make an impact on his career and, and his just, not just his career, but his complete outlook on life in general.

So highly recommend that one. Thank you Steven for bringing that one to his brother. Uh, check out the show notes there for that, for that, uh, for your link to your copy. Now, for our dad jokes of. We’ve got two and we’ve got one that’s from one of our Lion Den members as well. Now, now. So here we go. For, for the one from our Lion Den member.

Number one, I told my wife to embrace her mistakes. She gave me a hug . So thank you Mark Thomas for that submittal. That was one that came from him. And he, again, part of our, our mastermind, our lions den, he’s in, he’s, he’s come to line lunches before. Mark’s a very active member of our lions den, so very.

Proud to be able to bring that dad joke to you from him. Dad. Joke number two. I ordered a chicken and an egg from Amazon. I’ll let you. Sorry, you go guys. Number one, I told my wife to embrace some mistakes. She gave me a hug. That’s for my buddy Mark Thomas. Number two, I ordered chicken and an egg from Amazon.

I’ll let you know. So guys, I’ve mentioned two guys and just in this episode who have given referrals that have made it to the lion within us. Again, they are we in the lions den. Okay? And the only way you get there is you have to be part of our community. That’s it. So go to the lion within us and join our.

Now our, our question of the week, we’ve talked about all week, what fruit are you producing? What fruit are you producing? Because it’s either good fruit or bad fruit. There is no in between guys, and a good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. I’m praying that you’re producing good fruit, but if you’re not, we really need to take a look and understand and see what do I need to change so that I can get that good fruit produced in my.

So, guys, I hope this one encouraged you this week. I love Galatians five, that, that just 22 and 23, that the fruit of Spirit, that is a scripture we just need to, to, to just constantly be reminded of and have in our life. So get out there and use it now. It also would encourage you for this week if, if one of these conversations helped you, Hey, give us a rating and review.

Write that right now. Just, just go do that. That really would help. And then share it with somebody. You can click on the share this episode. Maybe you go to our website, to our podcast page. We have all the podcast lists right there, as well as our YouTube channel and all that. Share that out. Connect with us on our social media channels.

We are out there on Instagram. We are on Facebook, although most of our activity is within our community, I still try to have a little bit of a presence on the social media platforms, just cause you do what you gotta do, right? To go check, check, you know, connect with us out there on. But the biggest thing you can do is join the community.

So go to the lion within us. You’ll see links on the main page. Join that community again, Bible study, lion lunches, masterminds, forums, discussions. We got it. All courses, um, eBooks, guides. Guys, I’m telling you, there are so many things we have built for you to serve you, to help you, wherever you’re. Maybe you’re just accepted.

Christ, we got you. Maybe you’ve been there for a long time. We got you. Maybe you’re just struggling in your marriage and you want some, you want some brothers out there to talk to. We got you. We’re building community to serve you, and the only way, the only way that you’re gonna be able to access any of this is take action.

Quit being a. Be a doer and join the community. So I’ll see you on that side. So guys, have a great weekend. Get after it. Remember the fruit of the spirit. I’ll see you back next week. Looking forward to serving you next week as well. Pray everyone has a wonderful weekend. Get out. Unleash the lion within.

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