Episode 125 - Happy Anniversary!! - podcast episode cover

Episode 125 - Happy Anniversary!!

May 06, 202542 minEp. 125
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Episode description

It is our anniversary! After 13 years of marriage, and over 14 years of being together, we are here, standing strong. We talk about ups and downs, tears and smiles. Our struggles are what make us who we are and what we share.

Isaiah 40: 30-31 - "Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." (NIV)

Have a listen, and let us know what you think!

Have the best week! Enjoy the journey!

Transcript

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Upfront and Undivided with Luke and Dean'na. Hey, and welcome back, and here's Sparx. Yeah. Hi, baby. Hi. No. No. Don't look at you. Don't talk. Baby, talk to you. I'm not looking. I'm looking at you, though. Yeah. Hey, babe. Hi, babe. Happy anniversary. Happy anniversary. It's our anniversary. It's our anniversary. 13 years. 13 years. Yeah.

It feels longer, and yes, the whole... joke of oh you know it feels longer but yeah it in a bad way in the best of way yes like um what have we determined at this point that we were together 16 months before we said i do 14 14 i don't know yeah longer than a year yeah but shorter than just a little over a year yeah because what February, March, April, May, June, July, August. Well, no, just go February to May. October is when you proposed to me. So eight months into our

relationship. And then December, January, February, March, April, May. What is that? That's 14. 14 months. Yeah. Woo -hoo. So it's one of those where, like, we go, okay, we've been married 13. We've been together moving towards 15 years. And life just gets better. It does. Do you know what? I think the sweetest thing that I heard today was when your dad texted us. Yes. Like, not that I heard him. Yeah. But just, you know,

keep up the great job is what he texted. And it was like, I don't know about you, but that meant a lot to me. And, like, it's weird because it's, like, lately he's been pulling back the curtain on some stuff. Yeah. Like, not in a bad way. No. Like, what was it? We were helping. Because, okay, so full disclosure for our audience that does not know this. My parents live 30 minutes away from us. Yes. Which is a treasure. So we see them at least once a month. Yes. Well, more

than that, but yes. But, like, all of us. Yes. Yes. But so, yeah, it was one day you were painting their bathroom. Yeah. One of their bathrooms. Yeah. And like all of a sudden my dad's like, oh, yeah. Well, when we were in England, which was the late 70s, he's like, mom and I went on some marriage retreat. I was like, I had no idea. And what sprung that conversation was we were kind of, I think we were talking about. Just one of our dreams of things that we would like

to see in the future. Like the relationship coaching. And then it's like, Hey dad, this is ultimately something that we would love. And then like, we would like to organize some kind of retreat or something like that. And then like have some property and all the things I could see your mind. Like I see it plain as day. I can see your mom and dad, your sister, even if she wants to come along, but your mom and dad on the property and, and being everybody's mom and dad, that

would come onto the property. Like, I don't know what else. to say it's just like i could see them being like you know like your dad being kind of like almost a groundskeeper but not just like he's like hey guys or the official bird watcher stuff but just um being surrounded by and cultivating that kind of thing because they just celebrated 52 years yes of marriage and the suck of it is we it was the same day as my mom's little sister's funeral yeah So that was,

dang, babe, that was last week. Yeah. Right? Yes. Yep. That was a week ago. My head hurts. Genuinely, like, yeah, like a week ago. Anyway, but it was your parents' anniversary. And I was thinking, like, what a suck of a way to celebrate your anniversary, right? Like, death is never a good thing. But like disease or injury or problems, like I was thinking about us in particular. Yeah. Okay. Because of what's going on with us right now. Because what's happening to you, babe? I

am injured. You are injured. Right now. And it assumably. It is my knee again. Yes. We are hunting for answers. We are hunting for answers. And fervently praying. Truly. Truly. We believe like we know the power and the presence of God. We know his healing that is absolutely for today. We also know that if there's other ways of going about it, then we're okay with that too. Yeah. But it flared up from this trip. Yes. Being in the car for 18, 19 hours. Yeah. And it's like

today. It was our anniversary. And it's like we had these big grandeur plans. But we did, but we didn't. Because life really just kind of got smack in the middle of the way. Because I'm looking at you while we're out of town. And we're sitting in the middle of a hotel room. And I'm thinking, I didn't plan anything for our anniversary. And I'm pretty good about getting us to go away and things like that. I just looked at you and I said, you know what? I think God

knew. I mean, even in the midst of the sorrow and in the midst of the loss, God was so gracious to help kind of carve us out some time to where we had. uninterrupted time in the car. Yeah. And then we had very intentional time at the hotel. Yes. Which where your mom was still so funny. Like, couldn't keep my eye on you two. Mom, we're married. It's fine. And so, but it's one of those things where, um, I think that that was one of the main things that we wanted to

talk about today. Yeah. Yeah. Number one. Yes. Yes. It's an anniversary. Happy anniversary, baby. Let me tell you something. Yeah. As much as life has thrown at you and I over the 15 years, I would not genuinely. Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't want to do this with anybody else. I wouldn't either. And as hard and as suck as some of this

stuff has really, really been. And as much as we do share things with you guys, like we try to do our best to be transparent, but unless you're right there in that space with us at times, like you're never going to know the full gravity. Yeah. But when you have somebody that is literally your ride or die, somebody that you say literally for better or for worse, sickness and in health,

all the things, it hits different. Like you get to walk these hard spaces differently because it's not a thing of, um, are you going to bail if it gets bad enough? Are you going to bail on me? It's like, no, like I'm not going anywhere. We're going to buckle down. We're going to do what we need to do and we're going to get, we're

going to make it to the other side. And so it's like being, I even did a video today, um, on our, our socials and basically said, you know, just creating a space that's more intentional. Cause even though today you came home, you're in a lot of, you are in a lot of pain. Um, I, I was going to make us steaks and I ended up eating sooner or later and messed us up. Sorry. Um, but I went ahead and made you some scrambled eggs with some cheese and you were happy. Um,

yes. And then, um, But it's one of those where it's like today or any day may not look the way that we think, like we might have painted it in our brain. Yeah. But I think when we decide that it's the everyday, the day in, the day out, I choose you, the pushing through the mundane, even when it looks, and I'm putting quotations, boring. Yes. there is a peace and there is a contentment. There is a security in those spaces. And so just like one of our little sayings on

our wall, we're together. That's all that matters. I forget the rest. But that's all that matters. And I think also because earlier in the year, a couple months ago, a few months ago, It's like we had a time, we had a chance to go out of town, just the two of us. Yeah, it was the weekend after Valentine's Day. Yeah. Yeah. And the weekend before my, well, when my stepmom passed away. Yeah. Yeah. Dang. So, yeah. So, I mean, that was, you know, so mid -February we got away.

We had an intentional time for that. Yes. But I think it was also, I think it was funny because it was like we've been, we were planning that. Yeah. And then it was like. we know your birthday is coming up at the end of this month and I know your brother's getting married in a couple of weeks. So it's like, we've been focused on like that. Yeah. That we kind of skimmed past us a

little bit. It's like, it's like in a way it's like we, it's like even for the past few months, we haven't really been planning or saying really. It's like, we know it's there on the calendar, but it's not like, Oh my gosh, we got to do something. Yeah. You know, it was never really a, there was never really like a, a big talk, like an urgency or anything like, or like a, Oh, we, we need to, we need to do something about this.

Yeah. So I, I, because again, it's the, the running joke is may is your months, you know, because, you know, yes, we got, we got married. It's our anniversary. There's mother's day. There's your birthday. Yeah. You know, so it's, it's all the fun. Every two weeks. Yeah. Yeah. All the funness. Yes. Um, you know, and that's fine. That's fine. It's good. It's, um, But it is. I think it is. It's funny. It's like we had intentional time. And it was. It does. It feels like God was setting

this up. Yeah. That you don't need to worry about this one. Yeah. And it's funny because it is. It's when you sit back and you look over. When you're so sold out to that journey with him. you know, just being able to sit back and just trust and know, you know, it's, I know, I know they're, they're super popular. Like when you go to Hobby Lobby and stuff like that, you know, the be still and know, be still and know. I mean, we have one in our house. We do have one in our

house. Yes. Um, you know, but it's so funny because it's like, I know so many people that like that phrase that even aren't Christians. Yeah. But it's, but it's almost like they forget. It's like they really like that first part and they forget the rest of it, you know, or even just the next couple of words of be still and know that I am God. That I am God. You know, because again, at the end of the day, we know he's going

to take care of it. Right. You know, it's, you know, one of my favorite scriptures from right before Sebastian was born, you know, the Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, you know, it's like God is God. Yeah. Even if you throw us in that fire. You're God. God is God. Yeah. Even if he doesn't save us. Yeah. God is God. Yeah. He's not on trial. Right. We don't care what you do to us, what you don't do to us. Yeah. God is God. Nothing you do, nothing you say can change that fact.

Yeah. And it's like when you go through life and you commit fully to having a marriage that is based on that. Come on, babe. you can sit back and yes, there's, there's a lot of work to it. There's a lot of effort that needs to get put into it, you know, because I mean, what was it? I saw it. I saw something the other day.

It was like, you can't, you can't sit there or it's, I'm going to, I'm going to totally butcher this, but it was something like, if you pray for God to move a mountain in your life, be prepared to have a shovel next to you. That's it. That's it. Because again, you can sit there and you can say, I want this. And God, I'm asking for this. God, I'm praying for this. God, I want to push through for this. And it's like, okay, cool. Where's your part of this? Because even

Moses, no, not Moses. I'm wrong. Not Moses. Abraham. Okay. Oh, yeah. Getting my founding fathers messed

up. But even Abraham, when it was the whole... you know i'm making this covenant with you you know god made a covenant with abraham you know i will be your god you will be my people type thing i know that's not exactly what he said but it was it was that i will be your god and and you will be blessed through me through your descendants your descendants will follow me and and again it was the whole you know god split the animals in half put abraham on made him unconscious

put him to sleep and literally walked him yeah through between this row of animals that were split open you know and because again i love this story because it's you know it was explained to me once that that's how they used to make covenants because it was it was an agreement between the two people walking between those animals that said if i break this covenant you can do to me what has been done to these animals like i get goosebumps on that one yeah every

time And like somebody, somebody really explained it to me because it was like somebody, somebody, I listened to somebody and they were digging through that and they were like, A, God never goes back on his word. That's right. He is. He will not lie. But it was, but it was the fact that it wasn't so much a covenant of God or Abraham with God. It was the, it was God that was going through the animals. Yeah, he was making a covenant with himself. And he was the one making the covenant

with Abraham. Yeah, if I go back on my word, then this is what gets to happen to me. Which is absolutely... Abraham, if I go back on my word, you can destroy me. Dang. Dang. Yeah. And I think about how funny, because I literally just went to Aslan, and the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe, right? And how he's like... I will lay my life down. Yeah. I'll lay my life down in order for the covenant to come to fruition,

for this promise to be made fulfilled. I will lay down my life so that the innocent can be spared. That's it, right? Even though the innocent has betrayed and been a traitor. Yeah. Dang. Like we completely went on a whole other thing. But it does go back to marriage. And it's so funny because it's like we're doing our final week of this round of marriage supplements with our marriage group. And I found 35 scriptures to basically that you could speak and pray over

your spouse. moving things around and I'm making this list and putting it together. I'm reading them one by one and parts of them, I'm looking at them going, well, it doesn't really say about husband and wife. It doesn't really say about husband and wife. And, and I, I want to always constantly go back to the fact that no, no, actually it's, it has everything to do with relationship, everything to do with relationship. You know, here's, here's, you know, Christ died. you know,

for the church. Okay. So the man should be willing to lay his life down just like Christ did. Right. The woman should be willing to, to honor and respect and all the things. And we're even, um, I say we, I am reading the book, love and respect. And it's talking about how, even how we're wired. And it's like in our culture, in the world, it says, babe, if you do this, Then I'll do that. Right. In the word of God, where God says his absolutes and he knows who he is and he knows

what he has created, right? He says, when you do this, this is what will happen. And it's like, this is a command, honor. This is a command, love. It doesn't mean if your wife is being lovable or if your husband is doing something that's respect. full. It's you have made a covenant. You are willing to say, I am going to lay my life down. I'm going to do what I'm going to be intentional. I'm going to be willing to do the things that I need to do. You and I. Came

home, was it yesterday? You listened to the radio and I listened to the radio at two different things, but they had the repeat. Oh, yeah. No, I think it was at the same time. It was just we were in two different cars. Yeah, but it was like the first Corinthians 13. And it's like, love is patient, love is kind. And it says, now I challenge you. Yeah. Put your name in there. Every time it says love. Every time it says love. Put your name in there. Are you that? To your

spouse? Yeah. Are you that to your children? Yep. Are you that to your coworkers? Are you that to the nosy neighbor that wants to be shady? Are you doing your best to create peace in everything that you do? Or are you in a constant state of, like, we could be really mad right now. We are mad. that this is happening to you again. But we could sit here and say, oh, because I've been asked several times, what are you guys doing today? I mean, well, let's see. This is what

we're doing. We're actually going to go later tonight to finish our workshop with some of our marrieds groups. You guys are doing this on your anniversary? Yeah. Because the last time that we tried to do this is when we were traveling back from Kentucky. Yep. And we had nothing in our tank. Yes. And so we wanted to be able to have the opportunity to have more into our tank. Do we have more in our tank? No. Probably not. Not as much. Yeah. Because this has been a hard

week. Yes. And total side note. Yeah. There is a promise of sugared confectionery goodness. There is. Is, yes, there is. But is there enough foundation inside of us that we can share even when there's not enough in our tank? Yes. And the answer is yes. Yes. Like there's days where I think so many times people want this picture perfect marriage and they want these picture perfect moments. And I think too many times we

do a misjustice for each other and others. When we don't share the heart, when we don't look at people and say, let me tell you what's going on right now, but let me tell you that it's going to get better. Yeah. Or I think sometimes it's not so much that they want to see the picture perfect, but they want to see the devastation and turmoil that you have walked through and struggled through. In order to get where you are, you know, it's like, it's like there, there

really wasn't any of that in our marriage. I mean, we had stuff in our past that we got to work through and, and some of that was working through individually with God. Some of it was working through it as a couple, as a married couple, as a family, you know, but it was, you

know, again. you know the the people that are like well if you don't fight then you're not talking or you know let me you know explain to me how how bad your marriage was at the beginning so that we can we can talk about how good it is now it's like yeah there's not that you know it wasn't picture perfect but it wasn't a horror show yeah and it's i i think one of those things that you know i know we're going to talk about it again later with with our group but it's a

lot of it comes down to what is your effort level? What energy are you putting into this? One of the things I said, when there is conflict, where are your weapons pointed? When there's a conflict in your marriage, are you drawing swords and pointing spears at each other? Or are you saying, okay, stuff's going down. Yeah. Let's unite and fight this thing. Yeah. Even if it is a disagreement amongst us, we still get a chance to say, okay, my problem isn't with you. Your problem isn't

with me. Our problem is with this issue that came up. Right. And we need to tackle it. We need to take it on. We need to conquer it. We need to figure it out. We need to come to a compromise,

whatever. Yeah. Again. you know kind of using you know my aunt's funeral yeah which you know again it's it was like she passed on i think she passed on a wednesday and then the following monday was the funeral so all of a sudden it's like okay what are we gonna do is it gonna be the two of us is it gonna be the two of us and sebastian what do we do with sparks right you know If we can't do this, do I go by myself? And so it's like, you know, all of that thrown

in there. Yeah. And it's like, what do we do? What do we struggle? You know, here's the latest struggle on a hot plate. Bam. Yeah. Welcome to dinner. You know, and it's like, you know, what do we do? And it's like, okay, well, here's our options. Here's what we can do. And, you know. The kids stayed home. They watched each other. The house didn't burn down. They watched sparks. You know, everything was good. Everything was happy. Yeah. You know, everything worked out.

Got my sister involved because she stayed, you know, home. She didn't go to the funeral because she couldn't get off work. Right. And, you know, the two of us went. And it was a real quick, you know, we left Sunday after church. Had the funeral Monday. Tuesday came back. You know, so, and we get to do that sort of similar again in a couple of weeks. In a couple of weeks for my brothers. Yeah. We're driving down to Texas. On a Friday, have the wedding on a Saturday.

Watching a wedding on a Saturday and driving back on Sunday. Yep. It'll work out better for my knee this time. It will. Yes. It will. We will have a bigger car at this point. Yes. Yeah. But yeah, so it's just, it is, it's. It's looking at those situations. It's looking at those when the difficulties pop up, when the opportunities pop up. Yeah. And just taking a pause, knowing that this doesn't need a knee -jerk reaction. Correct. This isn't something that has to get

decided right in the split -second moment. Right. And what are we going to do about this? Yeah. How do we want to go forward? God, how do you want us to go forward? Right. You know, and that's what we get to do. Yeah. No, I agree. Yeah. I agree. My brain started moving towards the 14 other things. No, I saw. You saw. I saw. Yeah, you saw where I was going. I was like, I'm going to pause so you can bring back to, come back to the conversation. Come back to the conversation.

I'm sorry. Come on back. I'm sorry. Join us. Yes. Water's nice. It is. It is. Yeah. I think. See, I'm looking at like my sticky notes that are in front of me that live in front of me all the time. Yeah. And I'm looking at the words in very big letter, false expectations. Yeah. And so if we would just take the blinders off, take off the preconceived ideas of what we think things should be looking like, how things should even go, even with you, like you. You made that

very bold statement to me. You looked at me and you said, you know, like this happened to me. Yeah. Like, what did we decide? Two months into our marriage? Yeah. If that. You got pretty sick. Basically a month. Yeah. A little over a month after. You got pretty sick. Yeah. And you had it somewhere in your head. The enemy had worn you down is what had happened. Yeah. I will say you are not anywhere close to as strong. as far as who you are as you are now, right? Like you

have grown so exponentially. I mean, because back then, I mean, I was still... We would consider you a baby Christian. Maybe a year and a half into being Christian. Yeah. And so you thought, this is my life. This is how this is going down. This is what we're doing. And here I'm crawling over on top of your body and I'm saying, we need to get up. You got to get up because I could see where the enemy was trying to take you. And

you are dealing with this again. And this is probably the most severe pain I think I've seen you in on this round. And your fight is different. It's a fight now as opposed to... An acceptance. An acceptance. Does it hurt? Do you, do you break down? Yes. But I think in the hurting and the breaking down, there's nothing wrong with that. I think that that's what people have to remember. It's there's like, if you're arguing with your spouse, we're having, we keep having fights.

Okay, cool. You're still communicating. Right. You're still in it. Yeah. You're still in it. The minute that you stop fighting for things and just let things happen. Yeah. You're going to see some, pretty devastating blows probably yeah but the fact is that you walked in today and you were like i am pissed off yeah like you used very colorful words which i was very excited about but it's like babe, is it okay for me to be this angry? And I'm like, absolutely, because

what it does is it fuels your fight. And the fact that you know that this is literally an attack and a ploy of the enemy, whatever it looks like. But the fact is you're not fighting by yourself. We are walking this together. And it is, it's taking off the false expectations, but remembering the promises of God. Remember your

covenant. Remember who you are. When things come, when sickness comes, when something happens with the kids, when something happens with your job, when something happens with your sex life, when stuff starts happening mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, all the things. When they come, not if they come, but when they come, you stand back to back with each other. You create a unmovable, unshakable. of I'm not budging.

And then watch God come into the smack in the middle of it and fortify and reassure and then watch him get the glory in the midst of it. Oh yeah, definitely. Because it is and that's what it is. It was spoken over us, taught to us and we have it framed on a wall. or on top of a cabinet somewhere. I mean, I say somewhere. It's in our dining room. I know it is. I was looking at it

the other day. Papa Charlie. Yeah. And it was that triple braided cord that it's not just you and your spouse, but it's also Jesus that's in there. It's also the Holy Spirit that's in there. It's God that's in your marriage. And so again,

it's that. that reminder of no matter how tightly you're bound yeah part of that tightness part of that binding is god you know and so it's like it it has to be there and so it is it's it's like if you're not using that if you're not bound that tight if you're not bound that close you know again that you know the whole you know a two -strand cord is easily broken yeah you know And it's just, it is, it's just that reminder that everything we do has to involve God. Yeah.

You know, everything we, every decision we do has to be run through the, you know, the Holy Spirit. Yeah. And it's not like, like we're kids running off to mom and dad, like, is this okay? Are we allowed to do this? Right. But it is, it's that, it's that, you know, seeking that

wisdom, seeking that counsel, seeking that. that strength to make the decision or, you know, to, to go through with it because it is everything, you know, I think, you know, small things, big things that we've done in our marriage, just, you know, God, is this what you want us to do? You know, even when we got this house, you know, you didn't, you for the longest time did not want to look. Yeah. In this town. Yeah. And you're like, nope, I've read too many stories. I used

to work in the news station. Nope, we're not living in that area of the town. Yep. Nope, not going to do it. And God said. You need to expand your borders. Yep. Yep. And as soon as you said, okay, fine. This was the first one that came up. Yeah. Yep. And it's everything that we asked for. 48 hours. 48, 72 hours, we were under contract. Yeah. Yeah. And it was almost more than we thought. we could get, man, I'm still floored of the goodness

of God in that space. And, and, and that's not to say, look at us now, but at the same time it is no, like, look, look, look what happens when you surrender. Have we been perfect? Look, have we been perfect in it? Like I even told you like last night, Gabriel and I are talking and, and I said, Gabriel, the only thing I can tell you is that dad and I are always going to do our absolute best. Are we going to be perfect

in it? Absolutely not. Because we are human and we're frail and we're foolish and we're faulted. But know that in that moment, hopefully 99 .9 % of the time, we are always going to try to do our best to go, okay, God, what do you want to do? And because it's like. I don't want to do this without Him. I know what my life looks like without God in it, or at least without God being the center of it. And He's not an accessory in my life. He is the main source. He's not an

accessory in yours. He's the main source. He's the main source of our family, and our family knows that. And so... It teaches our children to lean on the Holy Spirit. It teaches our children to, when it's their turn, to have spouses. And then eventually, if God wants, willing to have children. Like, they will get to learn, okay, this is what mom and dad did. Like, this is what they did. Okay, they constantly just... kept pointing me right back to the throne. I don't

know. Have you prayed about it? I don't know. Have you asked God about it? I don't know. Fill in the blank. Right. Like mom and dad always talked about stuff. Like always. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, and that has been said to us, but then also in the same breath, it's also been, no, I've seen where you've been. Right. Like she said that to me last night and so didn't want to say it, but. I just listened and I said, I appreciate that. But we know that that was in

those moments where I was right. We know that in those moments I was listening to God. Yeah. There's just no other way. And so, or there's just a peace. So going back to the peace, going back to the expectation, going back to the trust, going back to the knowing, going back to the surrender. There's days I just keep going, I feel like we repeat ourselves so much, but it's not. It's a reminder. Like, babe, you and I are tired. We're tired. Yeah. We're tired. Yeah.

We're tired of being tired. And we're tired of being tired. But we're not stopping. No. We're not giving up. We're pausing here and there. Why? You're laughing. I'm laughing because I don't remember when this was written because, again, you're talking about the sticky note in front of you. I have tons. You do. Tens of sticky notes on my desk in front of me and just quotes and random things. And I don't know how it got here, why it got here. I mean, I know why. Yeah.

I know. Yeah. But it's funny you're talking about that because it's Isaiah 40, 30 and 31. Even youths grow tired and weary. Hmm. and young men stumble and fall. But they who wait on Adonai will renew their strength. They will soar up with wings as eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint. So yeah, like apparently I wrote this verse down, who knows when, and this sticky note ended up here. I don't remember this sticky note being here

before today. I don't think I've ever seen it. And I sit there often too. You do? Wow. Yeah. So there's the sweet reminder. We're going to wait on him. Yeah. We're going to wait on him. We're going to trust him. And waiting isn't... Passive. No. No, it's not. It's an act of waiting. Yes. It's not just sitting in your lounge chair and saying, okay. If he tells you to kick up your leg because it hurts and you need to rest, that's one thing. But, yeah, it is. It's like

waiting, like a waiter waits on people. They're serving. They're doing. They're being obedient in the moment. They're doing what they have been asked to do. And during that time. And if it happens to be, hey, I kind of have to hide away right now and just be still, then do it. If it is go and befriend the neighbor that you don't want to befriend because they act nasty to you,

then you need to go do it. If it's your spouse who right now you just don't like or you're not attracted to or you're having a hard time even wanting to be intimate with them, you need to do it. You need to be intentional. With your time, you need to be intentional with the gifts of God that he's given you. Because if you are, if we, as the people of God are not intentional in these small moments, then when the big things do come, we're going to be able to get snuffed

out fairly quickly. It's true. And then that's when we start seeing families falling apart. Yeah, it is. And so. We get to wait. Yes. We get to find some answers. Yeah. And we get to see the goodness of God. And we get to see you get better. Yes. And be better than what you were before. Yes. Aggressive waiting. Ooh. Yeah. Ooh, I like that. I am writing that down in our

notes. Aggressive. Yeah. Because it was. I was like, because when you were like, you know, we're going to wait and we're going to find out what's going on with my health. And it's like, you know, but we're not going to sit there and say, oh, well, they're going to, you know, they're going to do it on their timeline. It's like, no, we're going to knock on doors. We're going to like track people down. We're going to kick chairs.

We're going to, we'll be patient. We'll be respectful, but we're not going to wait around on your timeline. Right. We'll wait on his timeline. Yes. Yes. No. Yeah. No, I like that. Yeah. Aggressive waiting. Yeah. Aggressively loving your spouse. Yes. Aggressively being part of your children's lives. Yes. Aggressively searching out God's heart and finding out what his purpose is. Aggressively speaking into your friends' lives. Building them up. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Because the enemy is not playing. Yeah. You don't think he's not being aggressive? Yeah. Game on. Because I think almost it's one of those things where it's like, because we've had conversations before where it's like, you know, hey, I really want to say this to a friend, but I don't know if they'll take it. Right. I don't know if they're in that space where they could receive this word. Right. It's like, what if this time that you

say it is when it hits? Yeah. You know? I'd rather, and I said this to our girl last night, I said I would rather be faulted on saying too much than not saying anything at all. Yeah. I would rather be faulted on, well, that was just a little extra there, Mom. Yeah. You know what? I told you the truth. Yeah. And I am accountable. Yeah. I'm not just accountable for what I say, but I will also, I believe with everything in me, I will be accountable for the things that I did

not say. Yeah, that's true. And I would much rather err on the fact that you know that I love you intensely as opposed to silence. Yeah. Or maybe not at all. Yeah. So, this is good. Yes. Yeah. Happy anniversary, babe. Happy anniversary, babe. Happy anniversary. I am happy. I am too. You bring peace. And we should wrap this up so you don't cry too much. It's too late. Yeah, I know. It's too late. Yeah. All right, guys. Have the best week. Enjoy the journey.

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