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Hiya, I'm Hallie Labonte, and this is Mega, coming to you from Twin Hills Community Church, where every single week We're giving our mega church a tiny family feel. And per usual, I'm joined by my co-host. He's the youth pastor for our high school ministry called Climax. Please welcome Gray Haas. Feeling nice because I'm inside Christ, Hallie. How are you? So blessed. Spring has really sprung, hasn't it, Hallie? And it is a beautiful 46 degrees here in Indianapolis.
Everyone's out. They've got their... I got shorts on. People are in shorts. It's throwing the frisbee around. Of course, that can be dangerous because there is still a bit... of you know that deep freeze ice that just seems to there's a lot of snow yeah it's just a high pack crusty snow um you know the other day i'm not sure if i mentioned him before but my friend clay mason bannerman and i were in the packing lot of the costco which we just
Isn't Costco awesome? I love it. It is awesome. It is blessed. Why go someplace? you know, one thing or why can't you go? to the other place where you can get a palette of the one thing 50 times over. I kind of feel like Costco's trying to be like Twin Hills because honestly- More is more. Ever since we got a-
A garage here where you can get your tires changed. Oh, I know. You know, right here while you're in service. You can get gas here now. Yeah. And the prices are good. The prices are amazing if you're a part of the... the Gas Up program, you know, because it's a little confusing to be honest now, Hallie, because right when we... Right when we got a gas station...
And the Costco thing is an issue because, you know, now we got the gas station here because I guess Costco is doing a bunch of DEI stuff. And we're supposed to hate it now. That's a bummer. But, you know, Clay and I do go there every once in a while because the way else are you going to get... you know, a flat of 200 eggs. We go through 200 eggs a week. Yep. Yep. And also, you know, you can go get your new prescription glasses.
Oh, that's right. You know, we don't have that at Twin Hills yet. But at least you can get gas here. We can totally replace Costco. And you can buy gas here. But now a lot of people are driving electric because I think Tesla is awesome. And I think Cybertrucks are awesome. And, you know, before I hated electric, but I do I do think that...
Tesla is awesome. Well, CMB has a Cybertruck that has a jacuzzi in it, isn't that right? Yes, he does. That thing must slosh around if you corner like you're on rails. You know, the jacuzzi is part of the package that you can pop in and out. It's a detachable jacuzzi. Oh, that is so cool. Yeah. Even though it is spring, somehow... Clay got a Cybertruck stuck on the ice that's in the parking lot, that spring ice. And I was like, these aren't supposed to get stuck.
I think we said on a previous episode, we did have the trucks packed out there, the ice trucks. The ice agents. People thought it was ice, but those were ice removal trucks. Yeah. And we are happy. People remove. Right. And we're happy to have eyes come by if they think they need to. They don't because we sort of police our own here. We comply.
here at uh twin hills you know we like the cops you know we give to caesar what is caesar's you know what i mean and you know a lot of my best friends are cops and um And, you know, I know a lot of cops, a lot of my best friends are cops, and one of my friends is a black cop. Is that right? Wow. How do you know that he's, I thought you didn't see color. How do you know he's black? He told me. Oh, is that right? And so that's awesome.
Wow, that's awesome. And he said, you know, he told me the other day, he said, I don't see what everybody's all. worked up about. I feel like Indianapolis has really attractive cops. Really? Is that okay to say? I think they're really good looking. I don't see that either. I don't see that either. Oh, you don't see it? I bet some of the lady cops... Some of the lady cops, and I do call them lady cops, because if you say cop, what's the first thing you think of?
A guy. Right. So you have to say a masculine guy. And somebody said the other day, you can't call them lady cops. I'm like, yeah, if I say cop, you're going to think guy. And so I don't know, Hallie, I've never really thought of a lady cop as attractive because a lot of them have kind of. I don't know how to put this in any other way, but bad hair. Is that right? Don't you think? Have you ever seen a lady cop with good hair?
I'm sure some of them have very thick ponytails. Exactly. So, yeah, anyway. You know what? It's probably because they've got on the military bulletproof vests and the big jackets, the bomber jackets that got the blinkers and the clinkers and the... CB radios and all that stuff so you can't see her waist you know and what I always tell my daughters is you got to accentuate your waist so that the guys know you're a gal Well, speaking of waste, it's been awesome to see what this Department of
ministry efficiency has done around the campus because Steve basically said, we're going to do something similar. We're going to get this church really, really humming when it comes to just efficiency. And so he hired some outside experts to come in and really just go through every single department. And what they found is, Hallie, not only is there really no inefficiency at Twin Hills, but that we actually need more. So they basically were like, we need...
We need to beef up a lot of these budgets because the ministry could actually be... you know, held a little bit. Basically, some of these ministries have sort of hit their ceiling when it comes to not being able to do enough with the money they have. And Steve came back to the congregation last weekend and said, you know, church. I can't wait for our spring pledge drive because the dome came back and told us we basically need more.
Well, as a lady, I am here to say, hitting the ceiling ain't so bad. What does that mean? Any hoodles. I'm going to have to ask you to put me on the top of your prayer list. Oh, Gray. What's going on? My friend, I covet your prayers. I do. My son, Day, has come to me and he told me. That he wants to work in the cannabis industry. And I says, what in the heck is cannabis? But it gave me a little tingle on the back of my neck. Like I knew it was something bad. What is cannabis?
Well, it's marijuana, weed, pot. Oh, right. I have heard that term. It's what... Well, I guess that's what its phylum kingdom class genus species name is as a plant, which, you know, I got into it with my kids because they were like, Mom, if God made all the plants. then why would God make a cannabis plant? And I'm like, no, no, no, no. God did not make a cannabis plant.
Humans, they cross-breed these other things and they make new species that God didn't make. And my kid says, so you're describing evolution? that means evolution is real. And I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. And they were like, well, frankly, you just perfectly described it and say you believe that's how things work. And I said, that's not how things work because everything was made in seven days, actually six.
And everything was made as it is now. And I think, again, I've said it before, I'll say it again. I wish I would have been in the Garden of Eden where there were. all the animals. I think I would have liked to name the animals. I like to name my Frenchies and my Corgis. Anyway, sorry, I'm just getting away from that. I'm really upset and I can't stop crying. And I said, I told. day that, you know, absolutely not. And he said, well, you know, after I'm 18, after I'm 21, like I
I'm going to be an independent person. I'm going to be able to make my own decisions. I'm going to have agency. I've looked it up a number of times. It doesn't go in and I can never remember what it is. But it gives me a tingling on the back of my neck like I know it's something that's bad. Wait, the word agency? Yeah. Oh, I'm with an agency.
Oh, yeah. Little star makers. Yeah. Are you still are you still auditioning for big time movies? Well, I'm offer only now. So I said, as long as it's Christian, you can offer me the job, but I'm not going to be doing auditions. And I have. I have everything you need to know on my TikTok. But I think, Hallie, one thing that you should consider is have you ever thought about putting day up? Where it's just like, until he's 18, if he's going to say all this...
And I'll say it, crap. Yeah, it is. Maybe you should put him up for emancipation and just say, hey, bud, if you want to do all these decisions and you think it's so easy to just do these things on your own and work in drugs. And, you know, go be a soft boy feminist somewhere. Maybe you should put him up for emancipation.
I'll consider it honestly, because, you know, maybe that's what the Amish do. I think the Amish get a lot of things wrong. You know, I think buttons and zippers are fine. I think they do buttons. They let their kids rum spring. I don't find anything in the Bible that supports that, but I don't know. I'll pray about it. I'll pray about letting Day just go. Guess what?
without being able to drive my husband Lance Labonte's Tahoe or my Lexus, how are you going to get around? You might as well go get in a buggy with the Amish. Exactly. If you want to get around. But the problem is, Gray, I recently took away his iPhone and I hit it because obviously they'll just take it right back. But I hit it. And then day came to me like two weeks later and he was like.
Can I have my iPhone back? I just want to check on one thing or whatever. And I was like, I forgot where I hid it. And I didn't realize that he didn't care that he didn't have it. And I couldn't find it. And I was like, oh, my gosh, that's a thousand dollar phone that I paid for. I don't know where it is. And Day goes, you know what?
And so now I have no recourse. I have no way of punishing him or doing anything because he's like, I want off screens. They're terrible. There's an algorithm that's trying to colonize my mind and I want to stay in organic and not. fuse with technology. And I'm like, what? This is where things end up when you start using words like agency. Yeah, I think this is something that I've thought about a lot with teens lately. You can think of teens as basically animals that you have on a leash.
And for about four years of high school, They are constantly just pulling at the leash, running at the leash. And I'm sure you've seen it, Hallie. It's like your dog who keeps running into the electric fence. Oh, yeah. He likes to catch air. Shoot. straight up in the sky like a sausage shot out of a geyser. They will do it over and over and test boundaries over and over even though they clothesline themselves. And sometimes with teens, I say, great.
You want to strain at the leash so hard, guess what's going to happen at the other end of the leash? I've got a big pair of garden shears, and I'm just going to snip it. When you are running that hot, and I'm just speaking in metaphor, but when you're running this hot at a leash,
and someone snips it, what happens? You go flying? Into the street. Oh. And all the cars... society and secular culture and drugs and sex they're flying down the highway and you've just been saying I want to run in the street I want to go play in the street let me play in the street let me go do that well guess what bud Reality is going to show up and hit you pretty hard. So I would just say consider it.
And putting him up for emancipation, letting him get a taste of the cold, hard reality of being strung out in some druggie place with him and all his Canubis friends. And then see. What it's like, because I bet he comes. crawling back, begging to be let back in. And I doubt I'd even let him leave even for a few hours, you know, but like.
I remember I used to tell my mom, I'm going to run away from home. And I'd go sit and hide behind a tree trunk in the backyard for what was probably 15 minutes. And then I wanted to. snack and came back inside well I did run away from home Hallie actually yeah and I got on a freight train which I'm not sure yeah and I I'm not told this story and I won't tell the whole thing but When I was age of seven and nine, or maybe I was even 15, I got on a freight train because I was so terrified.
of all the sort of crazy things that were going around. in my home and community with the people who weren't Christian there. No one, no one loved Jesus. I did. And I hadn't even been saved yet, but I knew, you know, something, something was better. I got on a freight train. Unfortunately, that freight train. If you know the geography of Australia as well as I do, there's Sydney.
And then there's not a single town city or anything until you get to Perth, if you're getting on that particular freight train. Is that right? I was on a freight train, Hallie, for upwards of, I don't know, days. Speaking of, you know. Speaking of spring in hibernation and things like that, I was basically like a bear who had to completely self-hibernate as I was on a freight train to nowhere.
And I won't tell you exactly how I survived or what I did or who I met or where it went. But I will tell you that I was on a train for a long time. And that was also a wake up call, even though I was trying to go find other Christians. Maybe Day needs to just have a long freight train ride to nowhere and see what happens.
Well, he has jumped trains before with his friends and eating candy bars on the top and just taking it into Indy, jumped off and walked back home. Yeah, they do that stuff just. What? Yeah, that's what happens when kids get off screens. They start going around exploring the world, being out in nature and having adventures. I mean, he's going to break a clavicle.
Well, I will pray for you, Hallie, because Day has always been your problem child. What would you say? He's just always going to be breaking the rules, testing the rules. disappointing you and me. And I think sometimes a little bit of a taste of his own medicine wouldn't be bad. He's always had such a pesky... practice of of questioning things and wanting to understand how they work and looking into them and researching and having special interests and understanding things in context.
All of this stuff where I'm like, buddy, you don't have to do that. That's the nice thing about God giving us a sacred text that tells us how everything works. And so we can understand everything through taking it literally. And, and then, you know, the rules to follow in life, you know, the rules of the game. Okay, it's the big 10. It's, you know, don't covet your neighbor's wife. Don't lie, steal, cheat, worship other gods before me. Murder.
adultery, all of that stuff, guess what? Now we got a game plan. Now you just get to like play the game of life according to God's rules. And he will reward you, won't he? I mean, sometimes I just tell my kids like, Look at what will happen. And then I'll play just a bunch of my, you know. a bunch of reels for my tick tock and just you know they're so sick and i think that's like it's a thing when you see someone living at their absolute fullest potential because of jesus
I mean, what else would you choose? But this is what the problem with Day is, is that I say, I like it that the Ten Commandments are posted in a public school, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, and Day says, What do you want those children, those five-year-olds, those six-year-olds to... be thinking about when they read the words, thou shalt not covet your neighbor's wife.
How do you explain that to a five-year-old and say, like, these are the most important things for you to know right now? And I said, well, you just tell that five-year-old, you know what? Someday, you're going to be 25. And your neighbor's wife might be somebody. who is shaped like an hourglass,
keeps catching your eye and keeps watering the lawn and washing the car in the middle of winter, bending over and weeding in front of her front door. You know what I mean? And you're going to need to know that that lust in your heart. is going to drag you straight to hell. There's a very real hell. I'm sorry you're five years old and this might scare you.
Even five-year-olds can go to this place where it's weeping and gnashing of teeth nonstop. You know how you throw fits, you little five-year-old? Imagine doing that for all eternity. That's an eight turned on its side. It never stops. You're going to be burning, but never consumed. Well, I just tell the kids that, you know, just change wife to crayon. And I think that's a good way of doing it.
And, you know, even though they're not doing well, actually, to think about it, some of the five year olds I know have done some pretty nasty things with their crayons. And so, you know, maybe that's a good thing to just get them thinking in that direction. I'm dealing with that right now, Hallie. I'm dealing with a lot of these themes because, of course, it is spring. Spring is just generally... a dangerous time it is and
For Christians, for sure. And we're dealing with our neighbor all the time. Donovan Gio. Donovan Gio. And I'll say it. And I've said it in... in not so many ways my absolutely stupid irritating neighbor you know how i i guess i guess just spring he's the one he's he's still he's still going to be wearing the things he he always he always wears his y-fronts And the other day I was so excited because as you all know, I love the show Yellowstone.
You know, Clay and I have a watch party every single week for Yellowstone. Oh, it's so fun. Everybody comes over and watches Yellowstone. It's so great. All our friends. And wouldn't you know, Donovan Gio comes right to the back door. And he is wearing Yellowstone Y-fronts. What? It's basically his typical...
Y fronts, but they're black and where the Y is, it's got a yellow Y. Oh, it grieves the heart of God. He's not even invited. I didn't even invite him to the Yellowstone watch party, but you can't turn somebody away once they're there. You can't? No, it's not a very Christian thing to do. Even though I told him, you're not invited to go home. He still came in. Well, that's how the devil is too. You know what?
Devil hasn't been welcomed in, hasn't been invited. And boy, is he still on the prowl and attacking us constantly. Well, and so we're dealing with that. And of course, that rubs off. on popsicles and here's the strange thing Hallie is um You know, and just it reminded me when you're talking about naming your dogs earlier, because I think Popsicles has a dog complex. A God complex? No, a dog complex. Well, I mean, I think he.
He is a dog that thinks he's a god. So what's happening is, however old Popsicles is, I honestly forget, but he won't. He's been acting like a dog for weeks now. He will only eat his food out of a bowl. He will only drink water out of a bowl. He will not speak words. He will only make dog noises. And he thinks... He's one of those rescue dogs. So he thinks he's one of the best dogs. He thinks he's like a police dog. So he does kind of have a God complex because he's always trying to save us.
You know, he's always indicating that there are bombs in different department stores that we're in. Wow. Or, you know, he's just got this dog complex. And I am so sick of it. And I'm like, Clay, you have to get your son under control. He's not a dog. Clay seems to think it's fine. Donovan Geo loves it.
Donovan Gio came over, came to the back door for the Yellowstone party, had a big soup bone, threw it at Popsicles. He caught it in the air and then ran into the closet and he chewed it for like three hours. And I'm going, guys, this is just a bit much. And I don't know what to do. I mean, what does that even mean developmentally if your child just won't stop acting like a dog? And I don't even know what to call him now because he won't respond to popsicles.
Oh, no. This is what the left wants. It really is. And it's definitely culturally rubbing off and on. And I'm like, well, maybe this is just a season. This is a product of wolf culture. Yeah. I don't know what's, yeah. It's definitely there's something there's something deeply wrong with him. The next thing you know, he's going to try to be on the women's swim team and they're going to be like, no way, because dogs have four legs and can swim way faster.
than humans. And so it's just not fair. You can't have dogs swimming against women. Clay calls him Pupsicles and I'm like, don't call him that. His name is Popsicles. And I but but I said, you know what, Clay, this is your issue. I am not his dad. You are. And you can deal with it. Well, granddad. And I will say, you know what? Him gnawing on a bone in a closet.
That's not bad for a number of reasons. One, he's safe and at home and in a place where you know where he is. And so you can kind of relax and not have to keep an eye on him. Number two. That might be good for his baby teeth. You won't have to tie a string around him and slam a door. You know, he can get. What is that, Hallie, again? I forget. You tie a string around him and slam the door?
That's how I removed all my daughter's baby teeth is you tie a string around the baby tooth and then you tie the other end of the string to a doorknob and then you slam the door. Oh, which daughter? Oh, my daughter who now I got braces on their headgear. the whole thing because... Oh, I saw... attachments to her own headgear? Well, Dr. Crisp is doing that. Oh, okay. But any hoodles, I think gnawing on a bone might be a good way to get rid of the baby teeth and then he'll grow his strong adult.
no it's not Hallie because he gets so he gets so possessive and I tried to walk down the hallway the other night where he had his You know, this is a bone from Yellowstone night. This is three days later. Oh, absolutely. He's got food aggression. He I tried to get into the closet because, well, this is just the closet that I had this really, really sick.
It's kind of a vest that I've been wearing a lot. It's kind of a... uh kind of a cross between like a tactical vest but you know it's short and um just kind of like it's a great spring look i try to get into my vest closet And he was in there with his bone. He came flying out. He bit me. What? He beat me in the ankle. Who does he think he is? Mike Tyson? Oh, my gosh. That's a dog bite from a kid. His canines actually look longer than the other ones. And so I'm just going.
It is just so annoying. And so, you know, I kind of just like... I shook my leg. He won't let go of it. He's just latched on. And wouldn't you know... Clay and I got in a big argument about it because he goes, well, what did you do? And I said, I didn't do anything. He goes, did you try to get his bone? I said, no, I was just trying to get my little vest out of here. And there was just.
And it was just so annoying because I'm like, this is what I don't get about dog owners is a lot of times they blame it on the person who gets bit. and i'm going i got bit and in fact now that i think about it i'm thinking of him as a dog owner And not as a father, which is just part of the problem, right? That's how much I'm thinking of popsicles as a dog now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm like, you need to control your dog. You control this animal. And he won't.
Wow. I mean, I am... racing that to the top of the charts on my prayer list, my brother in Christ, because That is a real challenge. I mean, Donovan Gio, I think he really is your Judas, man. I mean, he has come in and caused. More problems. I just, with his catchphrases and his Y fronts, he needs to put on pants. This is the problem. This is the whole problem of pornography. You know, when people don't cover up, it causes problems.
But, you know, that being said, I do have on shorts today because it is a balmy 46. Oh, those are shorts? What would you call those? My daughters say, Mom, those are capris. But I call them shorts because they're certainly shorter than a long pant. I know. I just thought maybe you put some pants in the dryer for too long and they got a bit too short because I've never seen anybody wear a capri with an ankle boot.
Well, I think they used to be. I probably one of my daughters might have hit high heat on the dryer because these used to be longer. I mean, now it's barely covering my kneecap. What's daughter? Oh, the one who is really getting into the more traditional household things. And I'm like, finally, I've got a girl who likes home ec type of.
stuff oh that's good like what sort of things oh I mean she'll dust she'll clean the floorboard she'll do laundry do the dishes put stuff in the dishwasher oh this is great take stuff out of the dryer fold it it's nice she starts uh cleaning up, bussing people's plates from the table, clearing the table on her own.
She rinses everything even before putting it in the dishwasher. Finally, finally. My kids got that's living up to her. You know, it just living biblically, I guess. Yes. But my other one of my other daughters was given her guff because. She said, you don't rinse them before you do. It's bad for the earth if you're rinsing. Don't waste water rinsing your dishes. Just put the dirty dishes in the dishwasher. So we ran a test.
And I said, okay, we're going to put half the dishwasher stuff is rinsed on the other half. And I made a perfect divide on the other half, top and bottom. And the third thing with the silverware. I says, we're going to put non-rent stuff on this side. Okay. And then we're going to run a load. And then what do you think happened? I don't know.
Well, the side that we didn't rinse the stuff, it still had like food caked on it. And now it was harder to get off because it had already gone through the heat dry cycle. Okay. So you're someone that absolutely insists on washing the dishes before you put them in the dishwasher? Well, no, I make my kids do it now. Well, I mean, this is, I mean, I don't know right now, Hallie, because all of our bowl, every single bowl in our house just has dog food caked in it.
so we you know we've had to put those in the dishwasher oh no i mean it grieves the heart of god it It could be that spring is in the air and prom is coming up. I don't know why we do prom in the spring. It should happen in the dead of winter when... You know, there aren't like bunny rabbits and animals mating like right outside the window where you can see these animals.
hook it up and it's frankly disgusting and then it gives kids ideas all the canada geese that are out on the pond on the retention pond right now it it's it's it looks like When I look at that, I go, this is why Rome fell. You know what I mean? Totally. It is just an absolute.
I hate to use the word orgy out there, and I just don't like it. I don't like the sounds that they make. And the only time I've really enjoyed this whole dog thing with Pupsicles is... I had brung him to work because, you know, obviously they won't let him go to school right now because he won't do anything. But, you know, he keeps trying to save the kids from the school because he thinks it's a dangerous place to send any child.
I had him at the church the other day. He went sprinting on all fours. You can't imagine how fast he is on all fours to chase all the geese. uh off of the pond which i at that moment i was like well that's probably a good a good role for him Wow. It's going to be second on my prayer list is that this spring, we will be able to keep our minds pure. And our hearts, right? We've been coloring eggs. We've been dying eggs in my house. And I have these awesome stencils that have Christian themes.
logos on them and stuff. You can put a cross on your egg that you're dying. You can put the face of Jesus on an egg and it comes out really detailed. It's really cool. It's like a tie-dyed egg with a Jesus face on it, you know, a white Jesus face, unless you do a brown egg and then it would be a brown Jesus face. Yeah, I don't know why you do that. But I don't know if you can color brown eggs. I've never tried.
But anyway, I like to do a good tie dye egg and then I'll eat them afterwards for sure. I mean, we have a lot of that. That is one good place for, you know, Costco is good for if you want a lot of eggs. And you probably need it with you. Clay Mason Bannerman doing your CrossFit stuff, I'm sure you need a lot of protein. Oh, yeah. We need simply 200 grams of protein per day per unit of person that's in the house.
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