Intentional Parenting, Teaching Biblical Truth to Children, Refining Through Challenges

Hey friends, I just wanted to talk to you for a few seconds. We’re going to get into the content soon, but if you’re new to this show, we just want to invite you to subscribe. We’re trying to see 2025 be a year of growth and expansion. We just need people like you to subscribe to our channel and to share about the episodes that you just are totally in love with on social media. And then lastly, if you can leave us a review today, we’d greatly appreciate it. The algorithms will appreciate it. And so thank you so much for joining us on The Marriage After God podcast and I just pray that you enjoy this content. Hey, I’m Aaron.

And I’m Jennifer.

And we’re the hosts of the Marriage After God podcast. Our desire is to help you cultivate a marriage that chases boldly after God’s will for your life together.

We want to invite you to subscribe to our show wherever you watch or listen.

We are so glad you’re here and we pray that our discussion truly blesses you and your marriage.

Welcome to the Marriage After God podcast.

Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of The Marriage. I Forgot podcast. I’m here with my beautiful wife. Hello. She hasn’t been on for a while. You were on last month

Told, yeah, we told them we were going to do just once a month with me, so here I am.

We’re back

Racing you at the finish line of February. Yeah,

But we’re here. So we just want to welcome you to the podcast. And if you haven’t already, just go ahead and subscribe to our channel. If you watch on YouTube, welcome. Hello. We’ve been doing videos a lot since last year and it’s been cool to do that, but we’re just going to give you some updates on our life and talk about some really cool wins that we’ve had, things that God’s been doing teaching us. And so yeah, we’re excited to have you on the show. So why don’t you start?

Okay. Well, what’s funny is I feel like the first thing that we’re really going to jump into is kind of an idea that I had but kind of handed off to you. And so really you are starting, but I’ll just intro it.

Okay.

I had been dealing with just some heart issues with the kids that I felt needed a little extra attention. And what was that, the beginning of January or end of December?

Yeah, I think it was late last year.

And I remember just coming to Erin and being like, we need to really focus on these areas with the kids, certain kids. And so I thought, if you have time for this, why we already do Bible time as a family mostly most days on the days that Aaron can’t join us. I follow through with that.

You’ve really good keeping it, keeping the pace,

But I just felt like a little extra time with Dad would really be awesome to dive into the word together, but also focus on some character traits and build them up in a special way that would be affirming. And so I brought this to you and I was like, what do you think about Monday mornings after Bible time, you sneak away with one kid and this particular child loves Hai. And so I’m like, you guys could have HAI together and it’ll be so wonderful. And so you jumped right on it. You were like, absolutely. That first Monday came and we told the first kid, this is what you’re going to do with dad. And then everybody else of course was like, I want to do it. And so we told them after this month we will move to another child and then another child. So it’s been really awesome. We’ve been two months in now of this and the kids look so forward to it.

Look, yeah, they’re looking so forward

To it. They’re looking so forward to it.

It was a good kind of pace breaker for us because having baby number six and the whole family being involved in that and all the changes and all the things that come along with that of saying, oh, there needs to be a little bit of intentionality poured into the individual children, letting ’em have that space. And also something I’ve learned through doing this, realizing that how much they just want time with me,

Especially when there’s a transition, like a new baby in the house,

And then also how much they love chai and getting a little special treat, but the whole experience is special. It’s like they get to come upstairs to my office and we get to sit down. They got their drink, I got my coffee, and then just getting to ask them questions and getting to read the word of God with them, praying with them.

And I think I texted you later that day and I was like, I already see a difference. This is incredible. More patience, more love, less frustration, more communication. All the things were checking the box for me. So I was like, this is so cool. And then the next week came and I saw it again and again. And so I’ve been really encouraged by you stepping into that and being more intentional with, there’s been three kids that have done it now. Edie is still awaiting her turn and she’s very excited, excited.

She keeps going, daddy, when I get

I go up, turn up there,

What it’s showing me, because I’m sure there’s dad’s listening, they’re like, oh, I don’t even know how I’d start that. And to be honest, I didn’t either. And really what it was is like, okay, I’m just going to go up there and I’m going to spend 30 minutes with one of my children just to ask some questions to get to know them, say hi to them, encourage them. If there’s character issues which always come up, we all have them.

How do you address those without saying, Hey, there’s this issue I want you to look at highlighting something without highlighting it.

What I’ve been trying to do is start with questioning like, Hey, how do you feel like you’ve been doing with your brothers and sisters lately? How do you feel like you’ve been responding when things happen that you don’t like? And so asking questions and often nearly every time they know exactly where they on themselves, oh, I get too angry, or I was getting frustrated with this or I’m

Not. Do they ever tell ’em themselves?

They do. And then they’re like, oh, okay, well what do you think causes that? Where do you think that’s coming from? How can I help you with that? And then often it comes up and I think of something in the word of God, and I’m like, oh, you know what the Bible says about that. That’s cool. And then I go to the word of God, I’m like, see what it says right here. Something I’ve been working on with some of the youngers specifically is just going back to the, I think it’s the fifth commandment, honoring your mom and dad just because that’s something that we all need practice on as little kids of honoring mom and dad. So it’s been interesting. And I also finding navigating how to not, like you said, not just

Point

Out, look at all these things that you do that are wrong. Trying to figure out how to coax them along, recognizing those things themselves. Try not to make them just feel overburdened with, look at all these things that you need to change, but hey, what’s one thing you can work on this week that I can help you with? And so often when throughout the week I’ll be like, Hey, do you remember what we talked about on Monday? And they’ll be like, yeah,

So cool. I love that.

And so it’s another way of getting them to think about those things.

And they’re telling me too, the things that you guys are sharing in different types of ways, but one of ’em just happened last night. One of our younger ones was screaming kind of chaotically throughout the house, and I pulled them in and I was like, Hey, do you know what this does to everyone? It just adds a lot of chaos. And he goes, I know Dad’s been talking to me about it in the mornings on Monday. And I was like, oh, that’s so cool.

They know. And that’s the thing is I got,

And I think they said, I need to have more self-control.

Yeah. But that’s the thing is when they come up and I just start asking him questions often already, like I said, they already know

The

Things that they’re struggling with and I don’t need to just poke at it, but I can ask them, I can guide them. And the biggest part about it’s going to the word of God and saying, what does it say? What does God desire of us? And that he actually helps us and we can pray to him and ask him to help us. Do

You guys pray together?

We do. That’s cool. I try and always pray with them. Yeah.

I think stripping away too, all the noise and all the extras when you’re like, I’m a homeschooling mom, I have six now. And so there’s always a huge group of us moving from one thing to the next. And not that people get overlooked, but I’m sure there’s times that they don’t always feel heard or even get to say the thing that they want to say. And so pulling them away and kind of isolating in a precious moment, spending time with you, I think is really good for them to kind of quiet down and go, what do I need to share? What is important? So I’m glad that you’re giving them that time.

Well, and what’s nice too is I can give ’em that time. I will ask them, I’ll always, Hey, you have any questions for me? What are some things that you want to know about me or mommy or what the questions you have about the Bible or God? Often they’re like, oh, I don’t know. So I have, that’s okay. I have to ask a few times. And sometimes, but then they’ll come up with something.

Well, you’re also planting seeds. And so during the week they might be thinking about that. Or even years down the road, they might remember. Dad’s always let me ask him questions, giving me that space.

Yeah, I think the best part about it is it’s intentional. It’s alone time, just me and them and it’s space. Especially talking about some of those character issues. Often we’re addressing them in the midst of the thing that’s taking place, like the flags

Correction or reprimand,

Where this is like, we’re not in the midst of any of that. We’re like, let’s look back and say, which is such a better way.

Reflective.

Yeah, it’s such a, I dunno, I’ve really enjoyed it.

Calmer space.

So I appreciate you encouraging that. And it’s been cool getting into it. And our kids absolutely look forward to it and desire it. And each one of ’em ask, what about me? What about me?

So if you’ve just inspired a man or woman in doing this with their kids and they can’t because they’re gone for work in the morning or school schedules, what would you encourage them on how to find that time, how to carve it out? What would be,

Yeah. I think it’s going to look different for every family and every dad based off of their schedules and what they have. But I think there’s a way to do it, especially nowadays if you’re someone that’s gone often and isn’t around when your kids are awake maybe, which is hard. There’s got to be times that it is. And it might be a sacrifice on a weekend or

Something, Saturday morning schedule

Getting up earlier. But that’s also something that’s really special, something you can consider. You might be able to get up earlier where you’re like, oh, my kids need to be sleeping. But that might make it extra special and extra memorable if they get woken up like, Hey, let’s go have our disciple time together,

Which we have a friend, I won’t say their name just in case they didn’t want to be shared about, but dad gets up early. One of their sons got up early and mom was like, Hey, I’m okay with it. And dad’s okay with it because that’s time that they get to spend before he goes to work. And I thought that was so special.

So it’s going to depend on the dad, but I think there’s always a way, and if you have to do it over FaceTime, maybe I think they could still be special

Or at night fitting in wherever you can.

And

Sometimes we can overwhelm ourselves by not knowing what to say or allotting enough time. It could be not knowing what to share, and it could only be 10 minutes and it would still be profitable for your children to spend that time with you. So very cool stuff.

Yeah. Thank you for encouraging it.

Yeah,

It’s been really good. We’re going to keep doing it.

So kids are always on my mind, always. And something that I wanted to share with you guys was a friend invited me. We do these, I think I’ve shared about it on here before, but we do these moms groups where we meet up for moms who homeschool, and they’re like usually quarterly

Homeschool support groups.

Homeschool support. Yeah.

(11:02)
Really? Aaron always goes, what do you guys do? Yeah, there’s a lot of different types of meetings that we have, but sometimes it’s just prayer. It’s just like, let’s get together and just pray. But a lot of them are practical and encouraging, and we all kind of just talk about what’s working, what’s not, what we need help with, what we need, encouragement in all of that. So we had one a few weeks back and my friend invited me to share a little 15 minute encouragement with the theme, how to homeschool through the winter Rut. And I thought, oh, I don’t know if I’m doing that. Well, I don’t know if I can speak on that, but I was really blessed that she asked me. And so I was like, I brought it before the Lord. And I just said, what do you want this time for? What can I share? I’m already thinking about a handful of things that are practical, but is that what everybody needs? And I got drawn to Proverbs. I started looking through scripture, which I’m not going to share all the scripture right now, but it was actually really cool. If you guys want a little break from normal Bible time or whatever, go search scripture about winter. There’s a lot of cool verses about frozen water, ice crystals, hail, snow, snow, winter. It’s really cool.

(12:18)
But one of them that stood out to me was Proverbs 31, 21, and it says, she is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in Scarlet. And I won’t take credit for all of this because I was reading a blog about it and this woman, she just explained how when you first read that you’re thinking, oh, everyone’s prepared and living in Central Oregon. I’m thinking, yeah, I got the mittens, I got the scarves, I’ve got the hats, I got the snow boots, got all the things. My kids are ready for winter. Okay, theyre

Closed. Do you remember when we first moved here? We were not good at that

Very underprepared.

We’d go out and we’re like, why didn’t we? Don’t we have no gloves? Yeah. Why are

We freezing?

And the kids would be like, colder. We’re like, we need to get better at preparing for winter because we weren’t used to it.

So at face value, a woman who takes care of her household makes sure that they have all the clothes that they need to stay warm during winter.

(13:06)
But this woman on her blog was highlighting how it says specifically clothed in Scarlet and the color of clothing doesn’t really help much be warmer for anyone. So there was meaning in that. And she goes on to share how being clothed in Scarlet is being clothed and prepared with the gospel and how Jesus, what he did on the cross for us, saved us and prepared us for those winter hours, those moments of hardship and circumstance where our faith is tested. And so I shared this encouragement with all the moms that our job as moms is to prepare our children with the gospel so that when they go out into the world and they encounter those winter months, those hardships, those things that challenge your faith, that they’re prepared and ready for it, and that they are clothed in scarlet, meaning that they understand the gospel, they believe the gospel and that their faith is strong enough to withstand those winters.

(14:13)
And I just thought that was such a really powerful encouragement for me to hear. And also just to give perspective on those winter months when you’re tucked inside more and you have a little bit of extra time to divert your attentions in different ways. So maybe you’re not specifically sticking to the curriculum of what you’ve chosen for homeschool or regular school, whatever you’re doing, but you can add in some extra supplements. Maybe it’s a family devotional, maybe it’s another book, something that stimulates inspiration and growth when it comes to the gospel for your children. And so I thought that was really cool. Another book I’ve been reading that added to this, I may have shared it last in our January episode, but Sally Clarkson wrote a book called Awakening Wonder. And in it, there was a letter that I shared when I was sharing this encouragement to the ladies during homeschool. It was a letter from her, one of her adult children looking back on her childhood. And so it starts out, dear mom,

Oh, you read this to me.

Yeah, I remember. It was really powerful. I was thinking about our children in the future

And desiring that they would think this way about us.

Exactly. Exactly. So I’m just going to paraphrase, but it was really powerful. Basically this, one of her children wrote to her and said, I was going through this really hard thing and I was drawn to, it was a specific part of the story of what was the prophet? Was it Ezekiel? Maybe it was one of the prophets and their story. And so she starts explaining how once I started reading it, I understood how familiar those verses were because all throughout my childhood you would read it over and over and over again. She goes, then I started reading other verses and realized how familiar those are to me and encouraged me so quickly. And she basically was just sharing this gratitude to her mom for being open with the word of God and sharing from the word of God so that she was prepared as an adult. And yeah, I was reading it with tears in my eyes going, I want this my children to understand the word of God and to feel so familiar with it that it encourages them as adults.

When you read that to me, it made me think of so often, I know I feel this way is like, are they hearing what I’m teaching? Are they understanding what I’m saying or trying to explain out of the word of God when in reality the word of God stands alone, doesn’t necessarily need me to explain it. It’s good to have that. But just the fact of us, my desire to read the Bible to the kids, to tell them the stories in the word of God, to tell them what God’s word says. I was just thinking. I just, at the end of the day when they grow up, I want them to look back and be like, oh, my parents showed me this, that letter, this was familiar to me because you have read these to me so often. And so making the word of God a centerpiece of our home, not just a centerpiece as in sitting at the table, but it’s the central focus of our home. I know it’s not always that, but that’s our desire and we want to do it more and more. That’s really cool.

That’s all just wanted share

That. That was an awesome thing. And when you were preparing that, you shared it with me after the fact and it was really encouraging. Cool. So I’m glad that you got to share that with everyone. And also I love you pulled out from that blog post that was explaining how the scarlet of the clothing, I do believe this, there’s meaning in all of these things. And you’re right, the color of the clothing doesn’t make it any warmer or less warm. And so there is meaning in that, scarlet. So I love that. Preparing our kids for the seasons when it’s not so comfortable, not so easy. The summer that I’m excited for,

Oh, I cannot wait. I told the kids the snow started melting outside and I’m like, will you guys tell me if you see any tulips? I planted out a hundred tulips in the fall right after I had emerin.

We are starting to see new growth on our trees. There’s the nice red, the beautiful red, new

Growth. Our whole family loves spring. We love this season coming

And we love horticulture. We love plans. So what is some wins or challenges in our marriage that we’ve experienced Larry wins or challenges or both?

I know you’re asking the question, but I feel like I’ve been talking a lot. So

Do you want to

Also real quick, just to remind you guys these episodes with me coming in, it’s more of just like a catch up and here’s everything we’ve been learning. So I hope you’re okay with the randomness of it, that’s all.

I think it’s good though. They like hearing from you

Good.

They like you, they really like you, wins and challenges. I would say, I mean over this last year since last year with my brother dying and just lots of stuff going on in our lives,

New

Babies coming and just things like that. I think there’s been a lot of challenges this last year, but one thing I’ve noticed and we’ll talk a little bit more about in a little bit, but these things that we’ve dealt with challenges in our life have really caused us to look inside a lot. And I feel like it’s been a challenge and a win, both personally, individually and together, being forced to look at our lives, look at our hearts and God really showing us like, Hey, here’s some areas that you need to grow up in. Here’s some areas that you need to let go of. Here’s some areas and God really working in us. And I feel like it’s been a lot, it’s been at times painful

Or

Emotional or emotional.

The word I keep hearing as you’re talking is refining, and it’s not in our notes, but that’s what I keep hearing is that that heat or friction, when you come up against something hard or emotional or that conflict, it gives us an opportunity to grow up in change or essentially lead to things that are harder. And I would say that we have been working through them and being a support for each other and being refined through it all.

Refining. Yeah, that’s the word. I feel like it’s been a win and a challenge is personally and together in our marriage, there’s been a lot of refining happen over the last year, and I believe that this year, not that God’s done refining us, but I feel like we have some momentum in the refinement. It felt like I was, I personally, but us having a new baby in the home, dealing with some grief and not really understanding how to do that, trying to understand where God’s leading what he has for us in our lives, almost a floundering. Okay. Just trying to get through to the other side, but I feel like I’m starting to see, I don’t know. Do you feel like that

Things feel lighter? Yeah, and I think that also comes with decisions being made or the words, not reconciliation to what I’m thinking about, but you know when you have something that you’re waiting an answer for or you’re waiting to check off the list or move past, I feel like we’ve had a couple of open tabs that have needed to be answered or moved past that. We kind of couldn’t thinking one about the investment tabs. You know what I mean? We had an investment opportunity that’s almost closed out and it’s like once that closes, I feel like we’ll be so much lighter.

That was a big lesson.

So I think that with each opportunity that we’ve had, the Lord has asked us to self evaluate and together as one, evaluate and determine how to grow from it.

Yeah, I would say also I think we often, it’s hard for sometimes to see outside of how we see, we see a certain, does that make sense? There’s a term, everyone has their own rose colored glasses. We see the world through our own lenses. But I think personally, I think we often see ourselves and see the way we respond to things and the way we behave and the actions that we take and the ways that we think. And sure, we might say, well, yeah, I’m not perfect and I make mistakes. But I would say the majority of the time we probably put our way of being in a category of pretty Okay,

Right?

Yeah. Right. Yeah. Pretty okay. I’m fairly right and it’s all this other reasonable stuff outside of me that needs to change. And I feel like God has been taking me personally on a journey.

Humbling.

Yeah, that’s good. Saying maybe I don’t see everything exactly right.

That’s a good place to be though, because with that

You would say that

Humility, kidding. You’ll see my way is best. No, I’m kidding.

Now you finally have figured it out.

But what is true is that with that humility, you’ll see that his ways are best. And I think that oftentimes those rose colored glasses or how you put it, get in the way of even believing that his ways are better. We do think that we’re right, and so we operate in what we know is. And so I think it can get in the way of what he’s either asking of us or wanting to point out in us. And so with humility comes a very honest and pure ability to see and have vision. I’m

Going to skip back past this next note just to go to this one real quick and then we’ll go back.

I wanted to share about marriage real quick.

Okay, go ahead.

Let me close this out with my thought. Perfect. So you asked about a win.

Yeah,

So something that I would say is a win for our marriage is that throughout this postpartum season and coming into the new year and trying to relearn rhythms of the home and life and relationships, I’ve been more emotional than usual and hitting walls with my capacity and things like that. And when I feel defeated or frustrated or just emotional, you’ve been so supportive and I feel like that’s been a huge win for you to walk in compassion and understanding and being very quick to, instead of pointing out what’s logical, because not always logical in those moments, you’re very quick to just say, can I pray for you? And it’s been very healing and very uplifting and very encouraging for you to hold me up in that way. And so I would consider that a win.

Thank you. Some of that is in me recognizing that my way of thinking is not always correct.

So you’re like, be quieter and be quieter. It’s funny,

It’s all connected. It’s amazing actually when one person in the marriage starts to change, it actually affects the other person in the marriage, either for better or for worse.

That’s good.

We could change that

Different ways. That’s what means by for better or for worse,

For better or for worse. We’re looking for people who have been blessed by this free podcast and our free daily marriage prayer emails and who want to help be a blessing to others. Creating and hosting this podcast and sending out our daily emails do incur financial cost, and we want to invite you to join our faithful patron team to help financially support these resources so that they can remain free for all who need them. Please join our patron team today and become one of the faithful financial supporters who desires to help bless thousands of marriages around the world. Your support will help us pay for the creation, hosting, and promotion of our podcast and daily emails. Thank you. And we hope to see you become a marriage after God patron.

Yes. Okay, so now you’re going to talk about,

I’m going to skip over this one. We’ll talk about next, devotional next.

This is number three on devotional

Topic.

We did a devotional with our children. I talked about a mom’s home group devotional, and now you’re going to share this one.

Well, I’ll say this, going back to that, thinking about myself a certain way, usually in a better light than I probably should. As the Bible says, don’t think too highly of yourself. Have a sober thought. Have a sober way of thinking. As a pastor of our home church over the years, I would be able to say to myself, I feel like I’m leading well, but one of the things that God’s showing me is that I’m not leading well always

Well, that there’s different facets to what leadership is,

Growth in my leadership. Maybe it was good enough in the beginning, but where we’re at now needs more. And so one thing that I decided to do for the men in our church was I bought us all this devotional called Experiencing God. It’s not in here, it’s

By Blackaby,

By Henry Blackaby. And which

I noticed there’s a new cover.

They rerouted the whole thing. It looks really nice.

So Aaron and I went through this probably in 2009 or 10,

A long time ago,

Right before we started all of our ministry stuff, or right at the same time.

I had been wanting to do something with my men for a while and for a long time we’d just kind of been going through a book of the Bible, but hit or miss, really hit or miss. And I was like, I want to be more intentional. I want to do something. So I got us this book, and we’re in week two, and it’s already been incredibly powerful, not just in, I’m seeing it already in the other men of our church, but in myself helping me understand, oh, I am having some, the way I’m viewing this situation is pretty selfish, actually not. And going back to what you said about putting ourselves aside and what does God actually want? And that’s essentially the idea of this book is how to identify, how to learn to follow what God is doing, not what I want, not what I’m doing. And so it’s been a really powerful experience going through this devotional with the church, with our men, and it’s not just for men. Anyone could do this.

I went through it with a group of ladies back, I think it was 2010, maybe 11. I feel like it was right around the same time that we launched our blogs. Anyways, it was very encouraging. And some of theology phraseology that is in there has really impacted our trajectory of life and faith and how we view what God is doing in the world.

Yeah, I was sharing this with the guys this morning. We meet on Tuesdays and we’re talking about what we’re learning in it and what God’s doing. And I was realizing that. I was like, there’s so much of the way I view God in the Bible, came from this devotional in many ways. And I’m like, I didn’t realize how influential it has been over the last 15 years of my

Life. Cool.

It’s

Kind of cool to revisit that.

I just wanted to bring that up. That’s been a win, is going through that devotional with men and seeing God use it to open my eyes. And

Would you say that for those listening right now, they would benefit from it if they went through it, even if it’s not a group setting?

I think so. I think this is my third time going through it. I feel like we did it once before.

I think this is your third time. I think I only did it once or twice,

So I must have went through it at one point and then went through it with you separately, but at the same time, and then now we’re doing it again and I’m just like, oh, this is awesome. Yeah, it’s called Experiencing God by Henry Black. The whole point is how to understand the will of God. It is pretty awesome because it points you to the word of God in many ways, and prayer and all of these,

I remember

Disciplines that help you understand what God wants and is doing,

And really good questions for self-reflection. I feel like

Very good questions for self-reflection. Yep. So I just wanted to share that, and I want to encourage you listeners to go check it out if you want.

Nice.

Yeah. Cool. There’ll be a link in the description if you want to go check it on Amazon.

Yep. I would say that’s all the things that God’s been teaching us in the last month that we’ve been working through.

So I think there’s a few announcements we’d like to share with you guys.

What do you want to start with? Let’s start with Dawn. So gosh, probably like, well, Edie’s going to be five in March, and I remember writing them, was it right before we had her, I think. Anyways, I remember specifically

You’re asking me dates and I’m not good with dates.

At least five years ago, we were podcasting and we shared about some children’s books that we were very excited to be writing. I always share the things that I’m working on with you guys. And writing a children’s book to me was always like, I knew it would be a highlight of my life because I love children’s books and I love children. So we sat out to, I feel like I cannot talk today. My words are,

You’ve been no good up until this point.

Thanks. So we set out to write our children’s books and we did kind of a pair. So one for think of a father and son relationship and then a mother-daughter relationship. And we’re, but

It could really go,

Either one you could read, but the whole book is about love being an adventure and how a husband and wife relate to each other in love is how the children learn to understand love. And therefore, when they get married one day, their heart will be full of ways of loving their spouse. And so we came up with this concept and we’re inspired by the Lord to write it out. And we did. And then we found a really awesome illustrator who used our family as the premise of the books. And so we’re all in there except Emerin because she came after they were already done, all to say that we’re really excited about these books and they’re available on Amazon.

So the names of the books are, this is How You Love Your Mommy, and this is How You Love Your Daddy. And like Jennifer was saying, the premise of the book is, so this is How You Love Your Daddy is a mom teaching a daughter how to love Her Daddy, by the way, she loves her husband.

So she’s giving ideas to her daughter all along the way of ways to love Daddy. And then the illustration show the mom on a date night and spending time with her husband. But then the follow-up is the little girl having a tea party with Dad. So you can see the reflection throughout the whole

Story. And the purpose behind it is showing the children, so parents showing their children that love is an action item. It’s an action verb. It’s something that we do. It’s something that we show with the way we behave, the way we act. So in teaching our children, we do this in our marriages. We teach our children how to love their spouse or how to love their mom and dad, by the way we love our spouses. And then ultimately the hope is that they would transfer that one day to their own spouse and that they would love that way. So it is really playing on the idea of what the Bible teaches about love

With some very practical ways

That it’s not just an emotion, that’s definitely a part of it, but it’s a practical thing. Love is a practical thing. It’s an action. It’s what we do. It’s how we treat another person

Shows

Us or not, we love them. And so the books are called, this Is How You Love Your Mommy, and this is How You Love Your Daddy. We have desire to make more in the future, different types of topics, different types of things. But yeah, we want you to go check those out. You can just search ’em on Amazon and currently that’s the only place you can get, but let us know what you think. They’re awesome. Yeah. Okay. Last announcement we wanted to make. So I don’t know if you’ve noticed listeners watchers that for the last, I don’t know how many long is

Five-ish months,

A while I’ve been doing interviews, and that’s been something that’s been really interesting and something that we’ve never really done before. We did it a little bit for the launch of one of our books, but that was never the intention of the podcast. The podcast was always going to be me and Jennifer

Having a six baby made it challenging for me on top of homeschooling. And so I told Aaron, I really need to pull back on this, but he had the idea to do interviews, which I never considered in that way of just him doing it. So I was a little nervous. I’m like, how’s this going to work? Are you sure you don’t need me? Type of thing. But oh man, it’s been so incredible.

So I’ve been doing that. It’s been interesting. It was a huge learning curve for me. I had never really done that before. And it’s been something that’s been, I think, awesome. I hope that you guys have enjoyed it, but it’s something that I’m evaluating whether I want to continue to do or not. It’s something that we’ve been discussing. Jennifer and I have always been, I want to say quick to evaluate things that we do in our business and ministry. Not just continuing to do things because we think it’s the right thing to do, or the only thing to do, or we must do it. We want to look at everything and be like, well, this valuable. Is this a good thing for us to continue doing time-wise, energy wise, focus wise?

I was going to say, we always look ahead too of the future and say, what does this look like for our business and ministry? What does this look like for our family? And so is this the direction that we’re going to continue in? And then to consider where I’m at, kind of climbing out of that postpartum hole and knowing that I could probably handle a little bit more and maybe coming on here a little bit more, but we’re also not sure. We always like to submit it before the Lord and say, God, what do you want with this?

Yeah. But we also want to let you guys know how we’re thinking, the direction we’re going. So essentially what we’re letting you know is, so I have from the air of this episode, there’s still a month or two left of episodes already recorded. So you’ll be seeing more episodes coming out all the way through

March or April,

March, April, but we are not sure yet if we’re going to continue recording episodes after that, something that we’re praying through. So you could be praying with us on that. And so we just want to let you know that if at that point, we’d probably come on again and announce whether or not we’re going to continue,

Not what it looks like,

But essentially we’re trying to figure out where we want to put our, you have been working on a couple new books

I have been,

And we have other book ideas and other devotionals

That we want to do. So that might be a focus of ours for the next year.

Because believe it or not, the podcast takes a lot of effort and energy, which is, there’s nothing wrong with that, but that energy effort can’t be put toward other things when it’s put on that. So we’re just trying to evaluate if we should put that energy toward creating other resources, creating other devotionals, some things we’re thinking about

With all of that said, I am sure you guys have seen on social media, but February marked the seventh year of the Marriage after God podcast. And I just want to tell God right now, thank you so much. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to have managed and produced this podcast for so many consecutive years. And just my hope and our hope and encouragement is that you guys have been inspired by it and that it’s been a good thing.

Yeah, it’s been good. I’ve enjoyed it. But we’re wondering what’s next. So be praying with us. We’d love that. Also, you could reach out to us on social media and let us know what your thoughts are of that, the podcast and what you’ve loved about it or not loved about it. You can be honest with us and share your thoughts, share your hearts. And yeah, if we wanted to, do you encourage me to send out an email to ask

Questions? Yeah. I said, since our listeners are community and who’s listening in, why don’t you send an email and ask them a couple of questions in regards to the podcast, if we continued with it, what that looked like for them. What do you guys want to be hearing and listening to? Is it more of the interview style that Erin’s been doing with others, or is it more of Erin and I? Is it more teaching, more inspiration, more practical? Do you guys want to hear more about our marriage or do you want to hear more about parenting or something else? And so any sort of feedback that you guys can give us, I was saying, I think that would be really helpful in navigating the future of the podcast and what it kind of turns into. So I think that you should do that.

So at some point, I will send an email. I don’t know when yet, so don’t help me do it, but I will send one and it’ll have a poll, and we’d love for you to answer that. But I’d say, let’s pray and yeah, we’ll call it.

Okay.

Okay.

God, we just come before you. Thank you so much for today. Thank you for the opportunities that we have in our relationships to love and love. Well, thank you for just the purpose of your will in our lives. And we pray that we talked a lot about vision today and how we see the world. But we pray, Lord, that you would give us your eyes to see clearly. We pray that we would understand your word clearly. We pray that we would just understand our roles in marriage clearly and in parenting, just the purpose that we have there to inspire our children and to them and clothe them in that scarlet for winter months ahead of them. And so we just pray, Lord, that just specifically today, that the couples listening would feel blessed, that they would know that they’re loved by you, and that they would be inspired to love their spouse and their children well. And we also just pray for the future of this podcast. We know that you’re always moving and refining us, and likewise, you refine ministries and you refine businesses and all things including this podcast. And so we kind of just hand it off to you, Lord, and ask that you would give us vision and show us what we should do. And we just pray all this in your name, amen.

Amen. We love you guys. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode, and we look forward to seeing you next time.