[SPEAKER_00]: Christian parenting.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey friends, welcome back to part of the mess.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm your host, Courtney Defeo, and you guys, we made it the final week of praying all school year together for our kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm a little emotional today.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is my last week as your host.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you hadn't heard about that decision on the 21st, my minty Megan interviewed me, and I shared more about how I came to this decision.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the next week, you're gonna meet your new host.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I find myself just feeling pretty,
[SPEAKER_00]: Terry today and honestly just grateful that God would invite me to be a part of your lives and be a part of just such a rhythm of prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: This has been the most unexpected blessing of it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I knew how to do interviews.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know how to connect with people.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love getting people's stories.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that Thursday episodes.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I didn't know what God had for me, and this thing personally was just to show up every Monday and pray and learn more about God's Word and learn more about God and just humble myself beforehand and pray so specifically for my kids so I'm grateful for that and I'll be as I look back one of the greatest things that I was able to do in my own personal
[SPEAKER_00]: journey as a mom and just with Jesus over the last three years.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm grateful for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope it rippled into your lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope it blessed you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope it gave you a piece at the beginning of the week.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I will miss you guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: So a couple of ways we can connect.
[SPEAKER_00]: Always find me at Courtney Defeo anywhere on mine.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to come to your towns.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really do.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so,
[SPEAKER_00]: Seek me out on my website, Quentinfare.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to be able to just see you guys in person.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this next season is Lars and graduate next year.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I get some more flexibility.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would rather just be in person with you guys versus on this podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just knew it was a season.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm really, really thankful for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So connect with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't wait to be with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I love.
[SPEAKER_00]: that today, we are ending with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so all year long, we have been praying through a great cloud of witnesses.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'll remind you of our verse that we started with.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hebrews 12 says, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin so easily entangles.
[SPEAKER_00]: And let us run with perseverance, the race marked out for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, Scourney and shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
[SPEAKER_00]: And guys, as we think back to history and all the people in the Bible we've learned about today, like we're a part of that story.
[SPEAKER_00]: No art stories that specifically written in,
[SPEAKER_00]: The God's Word, but we are writing a story for our lives and for the future generation and y'all as you pull up like that just gets me so excited about the future for our kids and generation Oh, like for our green kids like what things can happen in the future because we took this moment in history as our role as parents and our you know just as leaders with our husband and the house to say like
[SPEAKER_00]: We in this house, we are gonna be about Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are gonna be about God's word and just the ripple effects that honestly guys, we may never know until heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some kids are showing fruit and telling you, hey, thanks, Mom, for taking us to church, but many of these stories, we won't even know until heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is kind of overwhelming and also super exciting.
[SPEAKER_00]: But this simple point we're gonna pray today is that we are sanctified.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, our kids, we're gonna pray for that, but
[SPEAKER_00]: at the end of the day, we are only responsible for us and say, I'm this really simple and the journal I love that it says it's real simple we become more like Jesus as we spend time with them and so that's what we want to do and even the summer as I don't know of what your pace.
[SPEAKER_00]: It does, if it ramps up or slows down, but make that your whole goal, like this summer, don't worry about being a perfect parent.
[SPEAKER_00]: Don't worry about being the most fun parent to say, Lord, I want time with you this summer and the more I'm like you, the better mom and parent I can be.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as I end today, guys, I really just felt pressed to share about legacy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as I think about the legacy of the show, the legacy of my life, the legacy of our lives as Christian moms, like I want this, like I said to ripple into history.
[SPEAKER_00]: that we impacted our kids for generations.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I want to read you a story that I read years ago and just loved it so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: But
[SPEAKER_00]: Hang with me, it's pretty pretty cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I am reading and I'll link to the article.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's from Gospel Coalition.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it says Jonathan Edwards was a Puritan preacher in the 1700s.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was one of the most respected preachers in his day.
[SPEAKER_00]: He attended Yale at the age of 13.
[SPEAKER_00]: And later went on to become the president of Princeton College.
[SPEAKER_00]: He married his wife Sarah as 1727, and they were blessed with 11 children.
[SPEAKER_00]: Holy Moses.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every night, when Mr. Edwards was home, he was spent an hour just an hour guys, conversing with his family and then praying and blessing over each child.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jonathan and his wife Sarah passed on a great godly legacy to their 11 children.
[SPEAKER_00]: One American educator named AE Winship decided to trace the descendants of Jonathan Edwards almost 150 years after his death.
[SPEAKER_00]: His findings are remarkable.
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all just give me chills.
[SPEAKER_00]: Especially compared he compared it to another man from the same tire period known as Max juke so we'll get to Max juke's descendants but first let's go a Jonathan Edwards as we told you in earlier as I shared He spent an hour conversing with her kids about God and prayed a blessing over their kids Jonathan Edwards legacy includes one US vice president one dean of a law school
[SPEAKER_00]: One dean of medical school, three U.S. senators, three governors, three mayors, 13 college presidents, 30 judges, 60 doctors, 65 professors, 75 military officers, 80 public office holders, 100 lawyers, 100 clergymen and 285 college graduates.
[SPEAKER_00]: How must this be explained?
[SPEAKER_00]: Edward was a godly man, but he was also hardworking, intelligent, and moral.
[SPEAKER_00]: For the more Winship states, much of the capacity, and talent, and intensity in character, of the more than 1,400, Edward's family is due to Mrs. Edward's.
[SPEAKER_00]: y'all, they're giving credit to the mob.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you hear that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Due to Mrs. Edwards.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now let's contrast that to the legacy of Max Juke.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he was someone around that same time in history.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the family trees of 42 different men in the New York prison system.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they were traced back to him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me say that again, 42 different men in the New York prison system were traced back to this guy, Max Jews.
[SPEAKER_00]: He loved in New York about the same time as Edwards.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Duke's family was originally studied by sociologist Richard L. Duke Dale, Doug Dale.
[SPEAKER_00]: In 1877, sorry guys, these are a lot of numbers.
[SPEAKER_00]: But here are the descendants of Duke's family.
[SPEAKER_00]: Seven murders.
[SPEAKER_00]: 60 thieves, 190 prostitutes, 150 other convicts, 3010 poppers, and 440 who were physically wrecked by addiction to alcohol.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of the 1200 descendants that were studied, 300 died prematurely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all, does that not just so sobering that the decisions that we are making for our families today
[SPEAKER_00]: could and will impact the future generations.
[SPEAKER_00]: And not, don't let that be pressure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let that feel like excitement of like, there's bigger, there's a bigger deal going on here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I know your day to day can fill mundane and hard, but just know that generations from now, some, and it doesn't matter if they're judges, the lawyers or attorneys, but generations from now, kids are gonna be saying, I'm so glad I knew about the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm so glad that I knew about Jesus and they can eventually track it back to maybe,
[SPEAKER_00]: your decision or your parenting and the things that you brought into your home and that churches that you showed up for and the times you opened God Word, God's Word and so I hope you just feel incredibly excited today and remember that you're really, really important.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of my goals through just getting three years in front of you which is to remind you that your role as a mom is so massive.
[SPEAKER_00]: that it would just be like the highest honor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, our highest honor we've talked about is to be a child of God for sure, but right under that for me is to be Ron's wife and just to get to be a mom, the privilege of being a mom.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know so many friends that have not been yet able to have kids.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, Lord, you saw it fit that I got to be a mom.
[SPEAKER_00]: And a mom of these two, and I just want to steward that, the best I can.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's what y'all have done all year long.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've been showing up to pray for your kids, not knowing that it wouldn't just impact your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And just that act of surrendering, but it would impact their lives in a very real way and ripple into generations and generations.
[SPEAKER_00]: So let me close our season and prayer.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, Lord, I am just really, really, really humbled that you would allow me to be a part of part of the mess.
[SPEAKER_00]: Encouraging parenting and an amazing team there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I thank you that you pulled me into this for no other reason than to praise specifically for my children for three-year straight.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just thank you that that is an option for us, that we can turn over all the pressure and all the worry and continue to surrender arcas to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know more.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are sovereign.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have their best plan for their live.
[SPEAKER_00]: You love them before we did.
[SPEAKER_00]: You knit them together in our rooms and Lord, we thank you for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you for your sovereignty, your powerfulness.
[SPEAKER_00]: We thank you for your spirit, who's interacting with our kids and us on a daily basis and showing us the way we should go, Lord, I as a courting to fail and the defaio family, Lord, I want to be one of your great clout of witnesses.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I want to just steward well and I pray that I do steward well my life, my time, my home, my resources in order to glorify you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I pray just a massive blessing.
[SPEAKER_00]: over all the kids represented today for the moms that showed up in tears on Monday and prayed through some hard circumstances, Lord that you would bless their family for generations to come.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord help sanctify us, Lord, we want to be more like you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so give us just nudges this summer and give us room to just spend more time with you and become like you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord, again, I'm so thankful for this pleasure and privilege to be the host of Pardon
[SPEAKER_00]: over the next season with the new host, and I just thank you, Lord, for who you are, and how much you love us, and Jesus name, amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks, guys.