#135 Calling off the engagement

And then if you found me on TikTok or Instagram, or you heard about me on After Midnight, maybe my own post that I've made about the podcast. Hey, wherever you came from, thanks for being here, wherever you're listening, whatever platform you're on. I'm just glad you're here. We talk about things like me and you are sitting in the cab of a truck together or sitting around a campfire and just talking through it. You could email me Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. I put it in

the queue. I have a few requests from you, guys. Don't make the email too long, make it about the length of a phone. That's easier for me to read. If it gets too long, it's harder for this format. And the second thing I have for you is don't send the same email twice, okay, because I know that some of y'all like to send email the same email every day to make sure that you get in the queue, and they just get deleted. So don't worry about it. You send it one time, it gets put in the

queue and we'll walk through it. Okay, let's get started. This first question it says questions about marriage. Hey, granger, my name is Ben, and I've been dating my amazing girlfriend for almost a year and things are going great. She has four kids that are fourteen, nine, seven, and five. Being a step parent has had its challenges, but they've all started calling me dad. It's a great feeling. The kids know I'm going to marry their mom, and so does her family. My question is how do you feel

about one year of dating? Do you think it's too soon for me to ask her to marry me? Or should I wait a little bit longer. I appreciate you listening and answering this. Keep up the great work from Ben. Yeah, Ben, Amber and I dated Amber and I were engaged for seven months, and we dated for like four or five months before that, So we dated four or five months. I asked her to marry me, were engaged seven months.

So all that happened from when I met her to when I married her, it happened in less than a year. So of course my answer to you is absolutely, you could do this. Here's the thing, we overthink this as a culture. We overthink engagements and dating and finding the

right one and the soulmate. We just we overthink it so much because think about it in terms of you're looking to find your life lifetime partner, right and so you want to find someone that's that's passionate about God and loves you, and you could see how they treat other people. So with your girlfriend girlfriend right now, you could see how she treats her kids. That's a huge indicator. How does she treat people around you? How does she

treat perfect strangers? So you can quickly identify a woman that you love, that you could be compatible with for the rest of your life. It doesn't take that long to figure that out. The catch is, and this is the hardest part about it, is once you make that decision and you say yes, she's the one I've I've carefully watched her, I've listened to her. I know how she treats other people. I know her relationship with her parents and with God and with me. Here's the hard part.

The hard part is once you commit to that, you stick with it, not because your heart are your feelings, but because your brain tells you I am making a commitment and I will not break this commitment. Isn't that crazy that that's hard? But in this culture, that's the most difficult thing, is keeping your word till death. Do us part through sickness and through health, That's what we say,

But that doesn't happen. We take those terms so loosely because our heart just falls for someone else, and that and our you know, we change our minds because our heart takes us somewhere else. It should be the opposite. Your heart doesn't get to change your mind. Your mind gets to change your heart. Your mind controls your feelings, not your feelings control your mind. Make sure that happens. Make sure that once you make that commitment to her,

especially she's got these kids, she's got four kids. Don't mess this up for her. Don't mess this up for those kids. So watch her learn from her and then once you make that commitment, there's no getting out of it, no matter what your heart tells you, what your feelings tell you. And that's it. It's as simple as that. It's so difficult and so simple at the same time. Okay, I wish you the best. Next question says help please life advice. Hey Granger, my name is Caleb. I'm from Alabama.

I'm engaged in a long, long distance relationship and her parents have never approved to me and don't like me and refuse to actually meet me, and every time they catch us together, they threatened me. And I've never been nothing but respectful to them the one or two times that I've met them. Can you please help me find out how to go about how to approach the situation and what would you do if it was you? A question comes from Caleb shout out to Alabama. Caleb, thank

you for writing. It's a great question, and I appreciate you trusting me with something like this. And here's what I'm going to tell you. There's a reason why there's this long lasting human tradition of the man asking the father for permission for marriage to have her hand in marriage. There's a reason. There's an old tradition of this, and it's so that stuff like this doesn't happen. So I would suggest a couple things. We got to walk through this,

but I would suggest a couple of things. One, how do you feel about being engaged in asking her to marry you? And you never consulted the father, regardless of if he didn't want to listen to you or not. Regardless of that maybe he didn't want to meet you. Regardless of that, you said that you've only met him one or two times. Why I would ask you that? Why? Because if you're going to say it's a long distance, get in your truck and go drive there. Get on

a plane and go see him. Go to the dad's work, right, go to his work and sit outside the work and say, sir, I need to talk to you. Hey, do this, Caleb. You don't want to hear trust me, I don't think you want to hear anything I gotta say. So I'm gonna say this as respectfully as I can to you, okay, with as much grace as I can. But it sounds

like you're in a tough situation. So I got to give you tough answers right, I would break off the engagement with her, and then I would go to his work and I would sit outside in the parking lot and just say, sir, my name is Caleb. I want to tell you. I know you don't like me. I know you disapprove of this. First of all, I just want to tell you I broke off the engagement and he's going to go good and you go. But that

doesn't mean that I don't love her. I broke it off because I desperately want your approval because as I walk through marriage with your daughter, I want to have her father involved. I want God willing one day we have kids, I want you as a granddad. I want you to teach our kids it's God willing to go fishing and to drive a pickup. I want that. I desperately desire that, and I want to do anything it

takes to earn your approval, to earn your respect. Is there anything I could do right now to walk through this as long as it takes. I don't have to do this tomorrow, but I want to walk through this with you because I want to earn your approval. Caleb, you asked it the very last quest your very last sentence of your question, you said, what would you do if this was you? This is what I would do.

I wouldn't go through with this marriage. I wouldn't go through with this engagement because this is a life of trouble ahead of you now are there are situations The dad's a complete jerk, he's a terrible human, he's never going to approve of this ever. And she's a sweetheart and she's great, and the mother is terrible, but she's great. Okay, that's rare, but that could happen. I understand it. But

you got to put the work in. You've got to make sure before you say that he's just a terrible person. You make sure you did everything you could, including breaking off this engagement right now. Show him that that's how much he matters to you, that you're going to break this off even though you still lover to make this work. The other question I have is why do they think

this about you? What have you done? What what has happened in your reputation, in your history that leads them to think you are you're not good for their daughter. I got a lot of questions. Are y'all too young? Is there something in your in your past that you've done that you need to repent for to him, that you need forgiveness for from him. Hey, I'm coming to you as not only someone that that has been engaged like you, but also someone that's a dad of a daughter.

I've got a little girl, So you got to understand when you asked me this question, I got to think in terms of my daughter. What happens. There's this guy, he's long distance. He asked London to marry him without my permission. I don't approve of him. Maybe it's because I don't know him. Maybe it's because I think he's dangerous for her. Maybe I think he might physically abuse her or verbally abused her. Absolutely, I'm going to disapprove of that, absolutely, But I could be broken down by

someone that's man enough, Caleb. Listen, someone that's man enough to come to me and wait it out and say, mister Smith, I broke off the engagement with your daughter London, and I broke it off because of you, because I love her and I want to build something with you. I want to build trust with you. I'm asking for forgiveness. I repent for anything that you think that I am,

and I want to be better. I want to be because I love your daughter that much and I understand how you feel, and I want to make this up to you, and I'll probably say no. But if he's persistent and he shows back up the next day and I say no again and he backs off and he doesn't get he doesn't go back and re engage, but he waits it out and earns my trust. Okay, now

I'm listening. And then eventually you get your now girlfriend and you say, over Christmas, we want to we want to come and have dinner, and we want to talk this out with you, guys, because we still love each other and we want to we want to have dinner and just talk it out. There's this is all. This is all up to you, guys, parents, but we want to bring this to you because we're still in love. Hey, let me tell you the hardest part, Caleb, this is

the hardest part. Okay, he might never come around to this. Once again, I don't know your history or your past. He might never come around to this. And if he doesn't, my opinion, I'm not always right on this podcast, but I'm just telling you what I feel. In this setting. You got to break it off with her because that's a tough life, and you've got to honor him for that. She has to honor We haven't talked about her yet, but she has to honor him. Why is she doing this?

Why is she going along with this long distance thing? Why is she going along with this engagement when her parents hate you? That's on her too. This is a fifty to fifty deal. That's on her. Okay, So you're not taking all the blame here. This is partly on her. This is tough. I know you're in a tough situation. I got to give you some tough news. That's just how I feel. Okay, check back in. Do what I said, try it out. Sounds like you're desperate. You might as well,

right and check back in. Check back in in about six months, and let's see what happens. Next question says, Hey Granger, my name is Dallas. I'm nineteen years old from a small country called Belie. I just want to say thanks for all the advice you've given me and helped me with some of my problems i've had. I've gotten so much help from other people's questions, and I'm thankful for your podcast because I could hear from the other people that are struggling with the same things that

I am. On a side note, just wondering if you're ever going to do a concert and Belie love your music. Yee ye Dallas, Thank you man, I appreciate it. I need to be built up sometimes to make sure I'm not just talking to an empty microphone. Thank you for listening. Brother. I hope we get to go to Police. I've actually been to Police on a cruise a long long time ago. It's an absolutely beautiful country. So buddy, you find me a venue and we'll come play it. Thank you for

listening to the podcast over there. Okay. Next question says subject line of admitting failure that Grandeur. I'm a longtime listener and fan here in Georgia. Shout out at Georgia. Really enjoyed the show and I've learned how to love and heal with your music on my eighty seven silver od a bench seat. Within the past year, I've gone through many highs and lows. I've come through those trials stronger as a man, but still have some failures that

I'm facing. I'm a student at University of Georgia. I've had a really toxic relationship and not being happy in my degree. I let struggles get the best of me, and I have a couple classes that I will not be able to pass this semester. I'm embarrassed. I'm ashamed of the things that I've done to cause this. The biggest challenge facing me is admitting this upcoming failure to

my family in a couple of weeks. I did shut the door on that relationship months back and have changed my major to an area I feel that I'll be a better fit in. And I've also reconnected with the Lord and even have an opportunity to lead a small group next year. I'm just anxious about the future and admitting my failure this semester. Do you have any advice for my situation? Thank you, Grayson, Grayson Buddy, thanks for emailing. Dude,

I have been in your shoes. I went to Texas A and M, and first my first year there, I struggled and didn't pass a couple classes. Here's my thoughts for you. Your question is it sounds like you're getting things together. It sounds like you're finding your focus now and you're finding your drive, your motivation to do better and a toxic relationship could be a big part of that. So she's gone great. But your question is not any of that. Your question is how do you admit to

your family that you're failing? And that answer is simple honesty. You go face to face with your mom and dad. I'm assuming that's what you're talking about. Your mom and dad. You go to them and you just say, can I sit down and talk to you guys about something? And you look them in the eye and you try not to stutter, and you go right into it, and you say, I've made some bad choices that I regret. And the outcome of that is I'm going to fail one or

two classes this semester at Georgia. And I not only have failed these classes, but I have failed you as a son. And I am so sorry, and I will not do this again. If I could regain your trust and my new focus and this new awakening that I'm having right now in my life, and with these classes and the change of major and the dropping of the toxic relationship, the new focus that I have will not allow this to happen again. And I want to give you my word as I sit here that although I

have been a failure in these classes. I will not do it again. And I'm so sorry. And I know that these are just words and you're gonna have to see this trust built through my actions. But I want to sit here and tell you that the actions are at play right now, and I'm willing to take whatever kind of discipline that you might need me to have right now, Like you're going to take away my truck, or you're gonna I got to pay my own rent, whatever.

I don't know your life situation. I don't know, but admit to your failure with honesty, with clarity, and be will willing to accept any kind of repercussions from this failure. And dude, that's it. That's it. You're going to be in good shape after that because we all fail. Man, It's not just a class. We fail things in life more than we win them. We fail way more than we have victory. But that's what makes us better. You're going to be a better student at Georgia because of this.

Why How do I want to know? How do I know this? Because I was there, man, I was there instead of Georgia, it was Texas, A and M. And when I refocused and re engaged and went back in this with this kind of mentality. I'll be honest with you. After that, school was easy for me. It was so hard before that because I wasn't focused. I had other distractions all around me, and that wasn't the priority. Then when it became the priority, and I made that the priority,

and I had to face my dad with this. My dad was a scary man, six foot three, two hundred and fifty pounds, and he stared me down. When I had to face him like that, I didn't do it again, and he made me pay for school from then on, and I did willingly. He was paying for school my freshman year until after that. He pulled all finances from me, which your dad might do. So I'm manned up and I don't regret it one bit. I'm glad I failed

because I was better for it. Okay, I'll do one more and then we'll take a break, says graduation anxiety. Hey Granger, I'm about to graduate from high school next week on Friday, and I'm super excited but also anxious about it because I'm not entirely sure what I want to do after graduation, and I'm also anxious that I might lose a lot of friends that I've made the past years in high school? Do you have any advice for me? I also love it your music, love the podcast.

This question comes from Kyler. Kyler, thank you for emailing man Kyler. There is nothing to fear or worry about tomorrow. Today has enough worries of its own. You are worried about things that haven't happened yet and that might not ever happen when you have enough stuff going on today. Look at this. You're about to graduate high school. It's amazing. That's amazing. That is a huge accomplishment, probably the biggest accomplishment you've ever done in your life. Right, You're about

to graduate high school. That's huge. I remember me doing that. That was like, wow, this seemed impossible. Now it's happening. Okay, So you don't know what you're gonna do after graduation. So what who does at eighteen? Who does? Very rarely does someone go out of high school and I know exactly what i want to do the rest of my life and I'm gonna stack it up this way and then I'm gonna end up here. You don't, That's okay,

most people don't. So you do the next thing That's always what we do in life when when we're at a crossroads, we don't look too far ahead. We just do the next thing. The next thing for you might might be need to make some money. I need to make some money. So you do the next thing. You go make some money. You don't have to figure out your final career next week after graduation. Now like you get your diploma and they go, okay, now you have you have five minutes to decide what you're going to

do the rest of your life. No. No, If you have the luxury, take off the summer, take off for the summer, do nothing. Think. Get a piece of paper and write down things you're interested in, things you're not interested in. Make some columns. Things I like to do, Okay, things I love, things I'm passionate about. Are you passionate about making a lot of money, Well, that's a different column.

Are you passionate about doing things that you love that might not be something that pays Okay, that's a new column. And then go off of those things and say what does it take to get me there? What's the next step of say you want to go you want to be a police officer, what's the next step to becoming a police officer. That's finding out the local police academy, finding out how much it cost to go to the academy. Rights,

that would be the next step. You don't think about what do I want to do when I'm a police officer? What am I going to do at a traffic stop if someone pulls a gun on me? Like, that's not the next step. The next step is where's the closest police academy and how much does it cost? And when can I enroll? Right, So think smaller, don't think so far out. Think here now the next step and the

friends thing. I wouldn't worry about the friends thing. You're worried about losing friends that you've had in high school? Why why are you going to lose them? We live in a world that's so connected now with social media and text messages. Just start a text threat. Hey, even better, ask them what they're doing. What are you guys doing? We're going to community college? Hey? Cool, that might be something I want to do. We're going to text school. We're gonna go work for this farm down the road.

Maybe I'll do that for six months, Maybe I'll do that for a year. You don't have to be at work at that farm the rest of your life. Go do it, the next thing, do the next thing. We'll take a break, be right back. This podcast is sponsored by better Help. You know life could be overwhelming and many people can get burned out even without knowing it. Symptoms can include lack of motivation, feeling helpless or trapped, detachment, fatigue,

and more. I mean, I always have to try to find balance between the podcast and the radio show and touring and making movies and making music. I always am looking for ways to slow down and find that balance. So we associate burnout with work, but that's not the only cause. Any of our roles in life could lead to us feeling burned out. And better Help Online therapy wants to remind you to prioritize yourself. Talking with someone can help, and it helps you figure out what's causing

the stress in your life. Amber and I have used therapy several times and it's important. Betterhelp is customized online therapy that offers video, phone and even live chat sessions with your therapist, so you don't have to see anyone on camera if you don't even want to. It's more affordable than in person therapy and you could be matched with a therapist in under forty eight hours. Grangersmith podcast listeners get ten percent off their first month at betterhelp

dot com slash granger. That's better h LP dot com slash Granger. You could also find me at cameo dot com. So if you ever need a personal shout out video, or an announcement video, or some encouragement at all. If you want on a personalized video from me, go to cameo dot com slash granger, or you can download the Cameo app and search for me. Okay, let's get back to some questions. Subject line here is called eternal marriage

from anonymous Hey Granger loved the Smith. I'm seventy and I was married thirty six and a half years, was sealed to my spouse. I've been single for fifteen plus years. Haven't met anyone in my in my age group and or anyone single in my age group. And I have to say that I do spend ninety percent of my time with my animals, work on a small ranch, and leave ranch for groceries and Bible study, et cetera. Guess my question is how to change an inner feeling that

if I was eternally sealed to my spouse? Is there anything I would be challenging by being with someone else? Let me say that without stuttering. How to change that inner feeling that if if I was eternally sealed to my spouse, is there anything I would be challenging by being with someone else? Thanks for listening to the long Get the Facts email. Okay, Anonymous, Thank you for watching the Smiths and listen to the podcast. And I love

your question and it's amazing. Let me first say, it's amazing to talk to someone that was married thirty six and a half years. That's a beautiful thing. My mother, too, is a widow with about the same statistics as you, including the ranch and the animals and the groceries and the Bible study. But let me say something, this is very very important. There is no such thing as eternal marriage.

That's what they'll tell you in the Mormon Church. And I will get a lot of emails from my friends at the Church of Jesus Christ the Latter day Saints. They email me all the time to try to correct me. And I've read the Book of Mormon. I have talked to many, many, many many of my Mormon friends, a lot of them through this podcast and through emails that I get, and they will challenge me every time on eternal marriage. But that is not biblical. Jesus talks about it.

Eternal marriage is not true, Apostle Paul talks about it, and so Anonymous. You'll find this many times as you go through your Bible study. Marriage is not eternal. And I know I know the arguments and they are out of context. The scriptures that I will get will be what is bound on earth is bound in heaven, and that is not concerning marriage. So your question is how do I change the inner feeling that if I was eternally sealed to my spouse. Well, as we mentioned a

little bit earlier on the podcast, that's a feeling. That's a feeling. So you could change feelings by using your brain. And so many times we take the opposite approach. Like I said said earlier on the earlier question, so many times our feelings change our mind. But really, and this is biblical too, our mind is what's going to change

our feeling. So by you reading and do a quick search on it, do a quick do a quick search, go to Google, so that you could quickly find these scriptures, they're going to talk about marriage that once your spouse dies, you were are you were then released from that covenant. Okay, you're released from that covenant. Now. The Bible does suggest that at your age, maybe it's best to be single now. And it also says that we need to look after

the widows and take care of our widows. That's biblical too, and and so I and I could speak to this because you're my mother's age and you have a very similar story to my mother. So I would say absolutely, people, people need to look after you and take care of you your family, and you don't have to be getting married again, but you can, absolutely, But that's not up to you. That's up to God. And you know that, and that you'll find that through reading your Bible as well.

But you you look around you and your life, and I understand that you're spending so much time at your ranch and doing your own thing, and so you have ten percent of your time left over to find someone.

But what all you're gonna do is you're gonna look around you, and you're going to look at someone that's that's seeking God and studying their Bible and maybe working on their ranch and they're single, and there they're they're a widower just like you, and you take them out to coffee and you get to know them, and there's absolutely a chance that you'll find someone and you'll love again, and you could have an equal love that you had

for your spouse. Not the same, and it's not replacing it by any means, but you could have a strong, strong love. It's amazing how humans could have extra space in our he art to love again or to have another child. Like, for instance, you have a child and you you know, you hold up your child and you think, I never thought I could love this much because I loved my spouse, and now I have this extra love for this kid, and I'm complete. Now I've loved this

kid so much. Until you have the second kid, and you go, I had no idea that my heart had space for another love, and now I'm holding this little, precious baby. And you think that until you have the third kid, and then you think, guys, I've got four kids, and I've thought this four times, how could I love anymore? How is it possible that my heart could open up

and love something all over again this much? And it's the same thing with marriage, so you're gonna, you're gonna you might find somebody, and you're not ever gonna replace your husband, but you could love a lot wholeheartedly enough to marry. Now, we'll say, after I said all that, there is one eternal marriage and that's our relationship, our covenant. Well, Jesus, that's eternal. That's the covenant that never goes away. Because when we go to heaven, we're all gonna be brothers

and sisters in Christ. And it's hard to understand that. It's hard to grasp that with our small brains, we're not capable of truly understanding an eternal covenant like that. But it is biblical that you and your spouse are now that covenant is now released. I don't want to say broken or tarnished because you had a great thirty six and a half year old relationship, right, that's incredible, But you're now released from that covenant and it's totally

totally fine. Next question, subject line contentment. Hey Granger, I love your podcast and your constant encouragement and advice. Thank y'all so much. My name is Kayla. I'm twenty three years old from California. I've dealt with a lot of heartbreak in my life already, whether it was from a guy, losing friendships or losing a loved one. More recently, I've just been struggling on how to be content and joyful

in the present moment. What would be your advice on being content and finding joy even in the midst of hurt and frustration. I continue praying because I know that I can only find true sidifaction in the Lord, but

it's just difficult sometimes. And adding to that, I went to a Christian college and everyone is getting married and engaged, and I know it's God's timing, but I just feel behind because I'm not even dating anybody and feeling like I can't be content when other people are basically living the dream, if that makes sense. Thank you for all you do, Kayla. Thanks for your email. I appreciate you. Shout out to California. You are not alone in what

you're feeling and what you're thinking. You're looking around and you're going to Instagram. Gosh, Instagram is so bad for us, guys. Social media is so bad for us because we look around and we see everyone on their best day. We look at these other people around us and they're all getting married and they're so happy, and they're posting pictures with the champagne glass and they're holding up their left hand and they got this diamond ring on it and

they're so happy, and we're not. How could that be? Why are they so lucky? Why are we not? What's wrong with us when we go back and look in the mirror and we say, there's something wrong, there's something wrong with me. No, that's a lie. That is a lie.

It's a lie that you're seeing on Instagram because you're seeing you're seeing that girl that posted that picture, and she has fifteen pictures and she found the best angle with the best smile and the best eyes that she has, and then she colored it and put a filter on it, and then she tossed it around and she zoomed in so you don't see the waiter in the background of

the restaurant, and she cropped it just perfect. And then she wrote a caption and then she deleted it and then wrote another one, and then she showed it to her friends, and then they told her to add a few more words, and so she changed the caption again. She's making a fake idea of what is happening to her. I do it. Everyone does it. That's what we do. That's the evil and social media. So you're not seeing

the truth. You're not seeing that she's in a relationship that they it's very normal, and they have disagreements, and he's another human and he's not the best human in the world. None of us are. And then they're gonna get married and they're gonna have problems. They're not seeing that, so it's a false representation of what you're saying. So let me just get that part of your question out.

The other part and I could use this for so many questions that y'all send me, but your advice on being content and finding joy even though you continue to pray because you know that true satisfaction is in the Lord. So here's my question. We know that this contentment and this joy and this satisfaction comes from God right and we know that because of faith. Faith is what activates this. But my question to you is, Kayla, and I love you, thanks for the email. I got to say that, but

I want to give you some tough love. Did you know that faith is not a noun? You're you're sometimes replacing the idea of faith with grace. Grace is the unmerited gift to you from God. But faith is your part. That is an action. Faith is a verb. So I would say, you know what they talk of faith in terms of a walk, a walk of faith? How is your walk in faith? Meaning it's active, it's persistent, it's step by step. So I would ask you, Kayla, what are you doing in your walk of faith? Is what

you're talking about? Just saying, God, help me find somebody I trust you? Hey, this, let me say it again. What I'm telling y'all, this goes to so many questions that you'll ask. So many people ask me something along the lines of I'm losing my faith, or I'm struggling with my faith, or I'm trying to find my faith. Like it's gold in the ground and you're you got to find this gold, right, and that's your gold and you put in your pocket. It's a noun. This is

not a nounan we're talking about. We're talking about an active verb. So I would say, what are you doing? Jesus says in Luke six, you say, Lord Lord, But why don't you do anything that I say? Right? So what are you doing? What are you? Are you listening to him? Are you doing what he's saying. Are you going to your Bible and reading those red letter words and doing doing things? Are you studying your Bible? Are you in a small group. Are you going to church

every Sunday because your life depends on it. Are you praying circles around problems in your life? Are you giving it to God? Are you trusting him? Are you glorifying him? Are you actively representing him in the way that he deserves to be represented as the creator of the universe. What are you doing, Kayla? Are you just asking for things and hoping that the genie in the bottle is

going to give it to you? Are you looking at the man upstairs like some people say, like the big old man with the white beard and the white cloak, and just hoping that the genie in the bottle, the Santa Claus, is going to give you some presents. What are you doing? Are you waking up every morning with a fire under you, making that coffee, getting your Bible, open it up and saying, God, I'm about to open

the Word of God. I'm about to open this Bible. That, first of all, is a miracle that's even here through all the trials and the wars and the tribulations that this word made it through the word of God. I'm about to open it up. God opened my eyes to this word so that I could learn more about you and your glory, so I could see you for what you are, the creator of everything, sovereign, God in control. You're driving the ship, not me, So I'm gonna trust you.

Open my eyes to these words. It's life to me. These words are life. It's going to satisfy every hunger, every thirst with these words. Is that what you're doing? Is that what your faith is? Are you looking for the genie in the bottle to bring you a man so that you could post on Instagram your ring with a champagne glass and the waiter in the background at the restaurant, which one are you? That's how you find contentment, That's how you find joy and peace when you know

that you're not in control and that's okay. God is. And it's not just an understanding, it's an active path, a walk of faith that you are reading that word. You're joining sisters like you in small groups. You're sharing your testimony, You're going to church, you're taking notes on Sunday morning, going God feed me feed me through the words of this pastor as he's going to talk. I'm and listen for what you have to say through his mouth to me, and I'm gonna write it down because

my life depends on it. If you're doing those things, and then you look to your right and you see a guy sitting next to you at church down the aisle a little bit and he's doing the same thing, you might have just found somebody you need to start talking to. There you go. Next question, ironically, subject line is the Lord? By the way, I'm not prepping these questions at all. Is or just what's in my inbox? Okay, says Hey Granger. Been listening to the podcast for a

little while now while I'm mow and I love it. Hey, I listened to podcasts while I'm mow too, buddy, Thank you for that. That's a good time to listen to podcasts. Is on a lawnmower, he says, I just have one question. I just joined my youth team at church a couple of weeks ago, and I love the people I teach with, and I have such a good group of friends at church. How do I get closer to the Lord? Fisher from KYMP Texas Boom, back to back questions. There we go, Fisher,

go back, listen to what I just said. You're on a good path right now. You want to get closer to God. You want to get closer to the Lord. You read his word. That's our instruction manual. It's like saying this. It's like saying, I just bought a new lawnmower. We'll go with your same analogy. I just bought a new lawnmower and I ordered it online, and so it came from hardware store. I'm not going to endorse anybody. It came from the hardware store in a box. And

open up the box and it's all these pieces. And it's like saying, looking at all those pieces out of the box and going, how do I figure out this lawnmower? And it only takes one person to go read the instruction manual. Oh yeah, oh yeah, read the instruction manual. It came with the box. So that's you. You're in the box and you got an instruction manual. It's called the Bible. So you want to get closer to the creator of you. You want to know what he needs

from you. You want to know how to glorify him. You want to know how to grow your faith, read the instruction manual, Read the Bible. We want to make it so hard. We want to make Santa Claus in the sky, we want to make the genie in the bottle so bad, and we forget that we got the word of God right here in front of us. Think about this, y'all. I'm a prac person. I'm just not a person that goes. I just believe. I just believe in a fairy tale. I don't. I can't. Some people can,

God bless them. My mother is one of these people. I can't do that. I am a practical person. I love history. I have to go backwards. I have to calculate things. That's not all of my testimony, but I got to look at things from a practical standpoint. And I go back and I read these words, and I go this is talking about things, people and places, specific times that they happened in history with eyewitnesses, and all these people wrote the same story about the same thing,

and they dispersed. And then we found fragments of those people that wrote those things. We found fragments of them all over the world, and we put these little fragments together and astonishingly we find out that these fragments are saying the same thing. Like you find this little piece of John over here, right this little piece of the

Gospel of John. And you find a little piece of John seventeen right down there in verse five, and you go, wow, we found the same fragment way over here, two thousand miles away, in the same time period. And guess what it says the same thing. It's not possible that that was recreated or some one person decided that this is what the Bible is gonna say. It would be impossible to stop that kind of movement from happening unless it really happened, unless those people really saw what they said

they saw. And if they saw what they said they saw, then we have to believe that it really happened. And if we believe that it really happened, we got to believe. It's important to us, and it matters to us that this man, the son of God, claiming to be divine, living a sinless, perfect life, saying I'll forgive you if you believe in me, and he was killed in the most gruesome death on the cross, a crucifixion, the most terrible,

horrific way to die in the history of evil. He was killed on a cross, and just like he predicted, and just like all the prophets thousands of years before him predicted, he came back to life three days later, proving that everything he did and said was true. And people saw it. Over five hundred people saw this, and then they wrote it down, and then they were killed

for it. Do you think they would have been killed for it if it didn't happen, If it was a lie and you're getting tortured and people are ripping your limbs off and cutting your head off and dragging you through the streets behind a horse until your skin falls off, do you think one of them probably would have said, okay, okay, stop please, it was made up. It's not true. But

they didn't. They went along with their own deaths because they knew that something more important mattered than their own death. They knew that death was already defeated and that their life was just beginning after death. They died for this. We have to think about this practically. We have to look at all these martyrs. We have to look at the story historically. This isn't one person under a tree having a dream and writing a book. That's what other

religions will do. This isn't a talking head that just says do this, do this, do that, follow these rules to be closer to God. It's not what the Bible does, it's not what it says. We have to look at it practically, at least at least me. I'm speaking just for me here. I'm not trying to preach to y'all. I'm just speaking from my brain saying practically, I look at this and I go, wow, that should matter. Those people are either crazy or lying or telling the truth.

And I'm pretty sure if they were crazy or lying, they wouldn't have been killed for it. First of all, all those people couldn't have been crazy. It's too many of them. And if they were lying, I don't think they would have gone along with their own beheading. I think right there, when that act starts coming down on their head, they would have said, well, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, because all they had to do during these times, all they had to do was tell them it was a lie.

But they didn't. They took it. They took the pain, they took the death. Some of them were put on crosses just like their lord so if all that happened, then you got to think maybe it was true. And y'all, if maybe it was true, that changes everything for me. And you think about that, if maybe it would true, If you hold that Bible and think maybe this is true,

that changes everything for you and me. So if you're asking me, Fisher, how to get closer to the Lord, I would read that instruction manual that came in the box your box you, I would read it like my

life depends on it. Look at it this way. If you're an atheist or an agnostic and you're not a Christian, wouldn't you let me suggest wouldn't you want to read the whole Bible just for an experiment because it has impacted humanity more than any other book ever ever, And it starts the story in the beginning of the book, all the way back at the beginning of man. And these stories have been repeated and they've impact culture for

thousands of years. Don't you think as an atheist, hey, it's a good experiment just to read this book just because of the fact that it's impacted culture for so long, I might as well read it. You read everything else, and then at that point you read it. If you don't believe it, that's on you. And I'm not going

to plead with you on that. I'm just saying for me, my personal thought is practically speaking, I can't see us coming from Amiba's and then becoming growing legs and walking on land, and then thousands of years later we became monkeys, and thousands or millions of years later we became humans, different than every other species on this planet. When the Bible says that we are image bearers of God, made in His image, that's why we're different. That's why we

think like we do, That's why we're problem solved. That's why we create like our creator created us. We constantly want to create art and music and buildings and jobs and new ideas, new technologies. A monkey doesn't come up with new technologies or buildings or architecture music, but we do because we're image of areas of God according to

our instruction manual. That was a long way of answering your question, Fisher, But I hope that that helps you get up in the morning, before you start anything in your day, pull out that Bible and start reading it and then look at it like it's your instruction manual and then look at it like your life depends on it, and you're going to see those words a little bit differently.

There's enough translations out there, good translations that came from teams of scholars that put these together, that translated that Greek and Hebrew, which, by the way, is not like a game of telephone. It's not like someone said one thing and one hundred years later they repeated it and it changed a little bit, and one hundred years later

they said it again and changed a little bit. We have access to the ancient Greek and Hebrew writings, so we could take what we have now in the translation today, and if you want, you could take your phone out and put a translator on it on an app and type in the words and you could translate it yourself. So you don't have to rely on a translation. You could translate it yourself today. It's a crazy time we

live in with these phones, but you can. I'm just saying you can trust the translation, and you could find one that speaks your dialect. That's the beauty in it. You don't have to learn Latin anymore just to read the Bible. You don't have to speak Greek or Hebrew, you could speak your native tongue. I appreciate y'all. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next Monday. Thanks for joining me on the Grangersmith Podcast. I appreciate all of you guys.

You could help me out by rating this podcast on iTunes. If you're on YouTube, subscribe to this channel. Hit that little like button and the notification spell so that you never miss anytime I upload a video. If you have a question for me that you would like me to answer, email Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. Yigi