[SPEAKER_00]: Christian parenting.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, welcome.
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back to part of the best.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is week 36 and y'all.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't do not send the Jan off and I are professional podcasters.
[SPEAKER_01]: This would be our third take on the third one.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're new here, we're new here.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Cynthia, for those that don't know you, I'm so glad you're back.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are the original host of part of the mass about six years ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I got the pleasure of taking the torch for three years.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I'm passing it to someone else.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think you and I would both say that this is always bigger than us.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a community of moms that needed encouragement and we just got this special privilege of walking in and being a part of it for a few years.
[SPEAKER_01]: But one of my favorite parts of being able to be a part of this podcast is the prayer journal.
[SPEAKER_01]: I did not want to do it and I look back and I'm just so thankful you started this.
[SPEAKER_01]: So give us context of why you did a prayer journal, why you thought it was important to pray with moms on part of the mess.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, well, I'll just be honest with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was so poor at praying for my kids and I just felt a deficit there and I prayed for their safety.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I'm like, well, I got to believe that I should be praying for more than their safety and maybe their spouse one day and I just maybe that's encouragement for someone in leaning into what I was not good at.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Lord literally just put it on my heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, maybe.
[SPEAKER_00]: a lot of people are feeling that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I wrote from my deficit, a prayer journal that Christian parenting used.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here we are, um, did a little podcast on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was just a Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's just encouragement to whatever it is that you don't feel good about, like, don't live in shame.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no condemnation in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like lean into it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, the Lord's crazy that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: He'll be like, yeah, when you are weak, I am strong.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's like, let me prove that one to you.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think it's interesting.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't look at the numbers often, but
[SPEAKER_01]: I think the numbers for Mondays episodes are right at or even higher than the ones on Thursdays was totally surprised me, but it makes sense because it just echoes all of us are out here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Going I desperately want to be a woman of prayer, but I just like lob it up the end of the day.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, Lord, you know, a heart pray for them, but it's been really fun to like,
[SPEAKER_01]: See the fruit in my own life of like I was praying Monday specifically for this and then Thursday Oh my gosh, this happened or maybe we prayed for it and we're still waiting on it But we're surrendering it.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the that's the point.
[SPEAKER_01]: So week 36 We're talking about a topic that is really important to both of us is legacy of faith And we're talking about Eunice and Lois and I was like Google
[SPEAKER_01]: Who the heck are Eunice and Lois?
[SPEAKER_01]: And so tell us where we find these two lovely ladies.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I know about what you know on this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Eunice and Lois were not in my top five that I've studied up on.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I do know that, you know, it's the mom and grandma of Timothy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Paul's writing in first Timothy's writing, you know, like Timothy, he's an emphasis.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's a, like, very influential and, um,
[SPEAKER_00]: spiritually chaotic city.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so falls left in there to lead a church and Timothy Zhang is a little timid and leadership has not been easy with the people there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And and as I was reading a little bit just through first and second Timothy just kind of looking through this at how
[SPEAKER_00]: he's encouraging people to sing like you know you grew up in this and we know that in the faith and that you have a mother and a grandmother that love the Lord and to talk to you all the things and just this idea of you just you don't know who you're raising.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah coming back to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was thinking about on part of the mess years ago when I got to interview David Green who is the founder of Hobby Lobby.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was like a dream interview and he, um, older man, he just talks about how he grew up in home with his dad was a pastor.
[SPEAKER_00]: They had no money.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that they, people, parishioners of their church would drop off vegetables and use clothing for them because they had a larger family and he would watch his parents tie back financially on things that were donated and they've figured out what that was probably worth.
[SPEAKER_00]: And and here's the thing all along his career all the way through he would get a promotion he opened his first store in his mom always said.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what are you doing for the Lord love that she didn't know that like this guy is now called by Forbes the biblical billionaire she did not know she was raising a biblical billionaire, but this is a man that grew up in a home we're just little
[SPEAKER_00]: acts of faith were reiterated over and over and over and over and it's just that reminder like you think of unison low as I don't know exactly what they did but they didn't know they're raising a Timothy right and so we don't know who are raising and I just think it's that encouragement to just keep doing the small things and pointing our kids back to the Lord we don't control results but we can control our day-to-day interactions and what we prioritize.
[SPEAKER_01]: I absolutely love that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes I speak over my kids and I like see their weaknesses and I make jokes.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, I hope you, you know, don't go to jail.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope you go to, you know, just silly stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm like, you just like remind me and encourage me like, let's speak life.
[SPEAKER_01]: And go like, I don't know what God has plans for you, but there's a great purpose in your life and speak that over there and pray that today.
[SPEAKER_01]: But one, I want you to tell a story we had talked about it earlier about your daughter and what she's up to.
[SPEAKER_01]: But as I think about my grandmother and legacy of faith,
[SPEAKER_01]: She had no idea her decision and her husband's decision, my grandfather, to follow Jesus how that would ripple into the generations.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, she didn't know her just church attendance, her prayers, like her consisting with faith, would rub off in a way that now it's going to ripple into generation after generation.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so can you tell us about a time and I'm leading you, but I love the story about how Kate in an unexpected way has done some cool things lately with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you say that reminds me of that Warren Buffett quote someone sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago and that's just it I'm sitting in the shade you're sitting in the shade of people that plant trees long ago of faith like planted seeds and and it's just trickle down and yeah when the Lord called Mike and I to foster care to do foster care I mean I was literally like are we kidding here like this is for like really religious people like I don't know but it ain't us we let our kids play sports on Sunday sometimes so surely don't know the vibe deep you know we
[SPEAKER_00]: from foster care and and so we obviously didn't we adopted a little one eventually and I look at that in how scared I was going into it and so nervous yet at the same time the only thing I wanted for my kids was them to know the Lord ultimately and I now fast forward and my daughter goes to college and she gets involved in young life and really young lives which is
[SPEAKER_00]: teenage girls that have babies.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here she is.
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys all over Austin driving around these moms and their babies.
[SPEAKER_00]: She got to actually baptize two of her young life girls.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, here's the deal.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I'm not saying this like, oh, and she awesome.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I'm saying like, this is the ripple effect of just pointing your kids to the Lord because in doing the hard thing that God called us to do, not just talking about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: not just showing up at church, not just reading God's Word, why don't we do the things we're called to do?
[SPEAKER_00]: Had this ripple effect, and now I'm watching her who has had the opportunity to baptize two girls that will now be in heaven for all eternity.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: So cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: You just can't, you can't.
[SPEAKER_00]: underestimate how these small things we do to point our kids how they would the Lord uses a big and and so as I was reading through this I don't know if this if this came to you but I was like okay but what does this practically look like like I think we and if you're listening to this you're like yes I'm on board with generationally pointing my kids the Lord how do I do that again remind me yep and so like you said speaking truth and wisdom over them I love that I started thinking out this this morning
[SPEAKER_00]: Like young kids and I was a young mom I was convinced like if we didn't have a devotional around the table at the other time Yeah, or you know on the way to school.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, now I've realized something.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, that's great if that happens at your home But for the other 99% of us that we don't do that regularly like I think here's the deal You have opportunities all the time to point your kids the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's what you what you say about the coach Who pulls your kid at a critical moment in the baseball game when you thought they should be playing
[SPEAKER_00]: It's what you say about the mom who had a party and invited everyone except your kid over.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: What are you doing when you don't like the sermons at church?
[SPEAKER_00]: You think the preacher's office game?
[SPEAKER_00]: How are you spending your money?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, what, what, how are our finances being used?
[SPEAKER_00]: How are we living out our colleagues in our own life?
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you're just telling our kids to do the things they're called to.
[SPEAKER_00]: All these little moments every day, and not from a place of guilt, but a place of opportunity.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Day in a day out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every moment we have opportunities to do things the way the world does them or do things the way the Lord would have us do it And our kids I mean that's pointing our kids to the Lord and so that's my encouragement in that I love that I love it You know mom's well.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're like very very cute tell me what I do today
[SPEAKER_01]: and we're like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But will you just talk to the mom?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure there's many of them listening it.
[SPEAKER_01]: They think they don't know how to do this.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're like, I'm like, you wouldn't be listening to a podcast if you weren't trying to be a mom that love Jesus and passes it on.
[SPEAKER_01]: But a lot of people listening, they are the first generation.
[SPEAKER_01]: They are the moment this kind of like change the ripple effect and the legacy of faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: And because speak to that mom, it's like, I feel so ill-equipped to be able to guide my kids in this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think that's a tactic of the enemy to tell us we're ill-equipped and to say, oh, man, a court in Cynthia's kids have such an advantage over mine.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, they don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, you guys, like we are all, we all have the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think about my husband, there's nobody in his family that's a believer other than my husband.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he came to Christ because a couple of guys he played baseball with.
[SPEAKER_00]: took him to FCA.
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_00]: He noticed these guys lived differently and he wanted to know why and so we got to know them, they took him to FCA.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like that's it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You guys just raising kids that are just willing to do little things that impact those around them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I would just say don't overthink this.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're listening to this podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're praying over your kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's number one thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like we can do is pray over them.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then back to kind of what I said before, just
[SPEAKER_00]: What you know what you believe and to how you live because you can talk about a lot that our kids they're really good They they sniff out hypocrisy.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, they do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it is especially teenagers So it's just a great opportunity and and when you how you spend your money like tell them say hey You know, we're not gonna do this vacation the summer because we decided we want to give to this ministry Whatever your things are you're already doing bring them into
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that.
[SPEAKER_01]: One of my friends Ashley is my neighbor.
[SPEAKER_01]: Actually, I love her kids or season ahead of mine and I just watch her because they're just quick kids and they're so I'm I was like asking her one day.
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you do about?
[SPEAKER_01]: mean people and mean friends.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she said, well, when he gets in the car, and he starts unleashing on these people, he said, I don't pile on.
[SPEAKER_01]: I do not pile on and rip these kids apart.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, man, it's so easy to get your feelings hurt and be like, oh, he's such a jerk.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can't believe, but just to be like, hey, I'm not negating your feelings, but I'm not going to speak on kindly about that's someone's son.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think what you brought up is a really, really good practical challenge today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe at this afternoon, I'm like, watch your tongue court, watch your tongue kind of.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well you pray for these amazing mothers and again Cynthia thank you so much for just starting a culture of prayer of moms that like this is what we start our week to doing and it really has helped me as a parent So thank you for doing
[SPEAKER_00]: I would love to pray for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can I say one other quick thing before I pray for y'all?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, please.
[SPEAKER_00]: As a mom has done this for a really long time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just want to say one other thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: My little one, he struggles and I've told you this before, but he struggles in so many ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, man, does he struggle academically, but he struggles, you know, socially in a lot of ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he just accepted the Lord into his heart last weekend.
[SPEAKER_00]: with my husband in the car, I wouldn't even they are driving home from a practice and all.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I had this moment of clarity.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just want to share with y'all that I'll pray is that especially for this little one who came from really hard story.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's now in our house and he accepted the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought, you know what?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all that matters.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like ultimately that's all that matters.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if we get nothing else right, that's the thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as much as I hope and dream for him, this is the reason the Lord brought him into my home.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, I believe that not because I was going to do it, but because the Lord was going to use us as an instrument to do that for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why he's here.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is just the same for all of you guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whether you adopt a Dhamma or not, like they are in your home for that reason.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the goal.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when you point your kids the Lord, like, and they ultimately accept the Lord God willing, then that's it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our job has been done well.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just want to encourage you in that because we want so many things and hope and pray over them.
[SPEAKER_00]: But ultimately, that's what matters.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I hope that encourages you and let me pray for us real quick.
[SPEAKER_01]: Love it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, thanks so much for Courtney and just the years she's put in part in the mess.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thank you for every mom and dad that has listened historically and that listen now and we'll listen in the future or they are kids, rape the benefit of being praying, moms and dads.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just, Lord, pray for every mom and dad listening right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and every child represented by them, or that they, these kids will know that they are loved and that they are cared for.
[SPEAKER_00]: But more than anything that we want them to know the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: I pray that she will just get a hold of their hearts, Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that they will do, um, they will do mighty things with the faith that they've already been passed down, but that they will know you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, it will be real to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just pray for the mom or dad that's discouraged and thinking, am I the person for the job?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do I have what it takes?
[SPEAKER_00]: Just right now, Lord, that you will just squelts that lie and remind them, this is the time such as this.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we don't know who we're raising, but you do, and you have equipped us to do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so Lord, just encourage us in that, and I just pray that our kids will be another generation that follows you.
[SPEAKER_00]: In your name we pray, amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, friend.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you.