Embracing Change: Homeschooling, Community, and the Joy of Growth

Aaron Smith (00:00)
Everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Marriage After God podcast. I’m here with a special guest. If you’re listening online, you probably can’t see her, but it’s my beautiful wife, Jennifer. Hello. It’s been a while. Yes, it has. We were supposed to be doing this. Don’t remind them. Once a month. I’m just being honest. We dropped the ball on that, but we had a really busy summer. We’ll talk about that in a second. But not just summer. I feel like the whole season I checked out of.

anything I could to focus on finishing homeschooling from last year and having another baby. Oh, yeah. So much stuff. Before we get started, I just want to encourage you, if you haven’t already, please click that like button, subscribe wherever you like to listen or watch. If you’re on YouTube or if you’re on Spotify or Apple to iTunes. Also, we love reviews. Please leave us a review. It helps everyone find out more about our show, especially

Hearing from you, word of mouth, people reading your reviews, it’s just the best way to market. Lastly, if you want to support this show, check out shop.marriageaftergod.com and pick up one of our marriage resources and parenting resources. We have prayers for sons and daughters. We have prayers for your husband and your wife. So support our show, support your marriage, shop.marriageaftergod.com. Yeah, that’s my intro. So welcome back to the show, Jennifer. Hello. It’s been a while. I know. You’ve been busy without me. I have. I think I’ve done…

40 plus interviews so far this year. That’s wild. You’ve been so consistent with it. Tons of interviews and they’ve all been amazing and fun. Well, I’m proud of you for carrying the torch and carrying on even without me. I think you’ve found it kind of refreshing in a way just to be able to have different conversations in the mix. It’s been fun having conversations with all different kinds of people and just different backgrounds, different stories, but with a common theme of just

their love for the Lord and their love for marriage and their love for you guys listening, our community. So it’s been a lot of fun. So you’re still doing those? Yeah, I’m still doing those. I have a lot of really cool interviews coming up. Gary Thomas is going to be on the show. I’m recording him next week and some other people. Gary Thomas is just a fun one because it just takes us back all at the beginning of us starting our ministry. One of the first marriage books we read. One of the first marriage books we read. And he’s just, he’s been so consistent in his messaging.

So it’s going to be really cool to talk to him. So I’m a little nervous, but you’ll do great. know it. So why don’t you share a little bit? I I’m the nervous one over here. Just trying to jump back in. Like I’ve been here the whole time, but I haven’t. I checked out of a lot of extras and as you know, you listening, if you’re a mom and you’re juggling a bunch of things, you know this, um, the, highest priorities are your relationships with your husband and your children and just how you’re managing your home.

And so I was just feeling very stretched this last spring, summer season and really wanting to delight in my family and enjoy them, which is funny because I felt like probably one of the hardest struggles that I’ve had this last season is just my own recognition of capacity and my relationships. And you know, when you hit like hard moments with your children or even those one-on-ones where you’re like, there’s, there’s something going on and I don’t know what it is. just pressing into that. ⁓

and praying more diligently for that relationship, for that person. And I don’t know, I just, I feel like I really needed to focus my heart at home. You have been. Yeah. It’s been a really cool journey with this whole last year. feel like there’s been a lot of changes. We’re going to talk about some of those. Yeah. I kind of wish that I listened to our last episode, which I think was like January, February, just to see what we talked about. Cause I don’t remember so much as it happened. Yeah. I should have done that. But that’s kind of how life goes.

Lots of things happen all at once sometimes. Sometimes not like nothing happens, but there’s been a lot of changes in our life. There’s been a lot of changes in ⁓ everyone’s lives, but we’re going to share some of that. We, you all know that we had our sixth baby because I bring her up like almost every episode. Yeah. She’s just the light right now of our family. Everybody kind of just gets drawn to her and jumps into playing with her. Well, it’s super special. I was talking to another family the other day. went to like a pool and I was.

that with the kids and they were talking about how they had two and they were concerned, they were nervous about having one and I was just sharing and I was like, you know, it’s every single time it’s just different and new and special. I was like, especially when the kids get older and they get to start helping it just, it’s a whole new world. It’s a whole new experience. And a new experience for them. just caught them in the school room talking, the older’s talking about how, ⁓ whether or not they remember which kid has a baby. And, ⁓ like Elliot was like, yeah, I remember like Wyatt has a baby and,

Edith has a baby, but I don’t really remember all of it as a baby because he was two and a half. And that makes sense. And so then they were talking about, you know, Edith probably won’t remember because Edith is five. They were wondering if Edith was going to remember Emryn as a baby. So it was just a really cute conversation that they didn’t know I was eavesdropping into. OK, this isn’t this. I’m going to add something to our notes because I think it’s really cool. Just last night, you were finishing up a photo album. Yes. For Elliot. So I just I’m going to share. I’m going to boast to my wife.

And it’s also this is an encouragement for you listening and watching for something that you should do in such a digital age. Real quick. I know this is not you can leave this in or not, but your hand keeps hitting my chair and I can hear the ring. No, these chairs are a little flimsy. I didn’t know if you wanted that to keep happening. It’s OK. So in this digital age we live in, there’s we have millions of photos on our phones. I know. And you know, many times I’ve backed up our phones and I have like we have a folder.

of thousands of photos and like tens of thousands. Maybe one day our kids and their older, they’ll, they’ll, they’ll to shuffle through the tens of millions of photos and, maybe AI will help us organize it. I don’t know, but there’s something really awesome about physical having the Tangerine having, and you did this a couple of years ago. You started doing albums for the kids. think I mentioned this on the podcast because it was a pretty big project I was endeavoring to do. And what happened was I did it right in conjunction with us moving into this house.

And so, um, my timing wasn’t perfect. And I remember finishing the four, the four, um, Eda through olives, uh, I didn’t get to Elliot’s and the reason being he was older. So he had more photos and I remember thinking, Oh, I’ll get to it. And then I kind of shelved it. And over the last three, four years, he’s asked me, mom, are you ever going to do mine? And I was like, I was feeling bad that I never got to, it’s always on my to-do list, but nothing that I tackled. so just the other day I was like,

or yesterday. I was like, I am going to do this. I don’t know why I was determined to do it, but I wanted that done. Well, I would say anyone who’s my age, know, 40s, we all grew up and we had albums. Yeah. Like my mom had a bunch of albums. grandmas. Scrapbooking was a hit back Our grandparents had albums. But I don’t think it’s like a thing now. You can do like digital ones. anyways, I just thought it was really cool that you did that. And that was I think that’s why the kids were talking about it today, because Elliott was looking through his album and he’s like, wait, I remember that. Was that what?

It was just really cool to be able to hold it and go through the pages and see all the life that’s already happened. Cause it’s rare that we just scroll through our photos on our phone. get everyone’s on my phone. It sends me a photo and I’m like, ⁓ then I send it to you. have friends that do do this, especially during slow down times like postpartum. And they’re just in bed with that newborn and I’ll get random photos sent to me from my friends of our time together from a long time ago. And it’s the sweetest. I almost, it’s like hard for me because

the reminiscing of going back. It’s like, it hurts a little bit because I miss my kids as babies, but it’s also really sweet. So just a little encouragement is maybe take some time if you’re a parent and you got little kids, ⁓ print out some photos and make a little album so your kids can actually have something physical to look through and they can remember and see. it’s really fun. It’s sentimental. think out of anything, these photos on my computer might not ever exist someday. I might delete a drive, but…

Yeah, that would hurt. Painful, but the albums might be something that our kids might take with them. I will say that when we were on Fire Alert last year, right before Emoryn was born, we had to grab some things. I’m going to say some things and not, you know, tattle on myself of how much I actually grabbed. But the albums were definitely one because you put so much time into them. And it’s like, I don’t know, because it is tangible. Yeah. Like, I need those. That and kids are work. I even think there’s companies that you can send them photos and they make a book. Like, there’s just cool things out there.

When you said, I’m going to boast about my wife and I knew you were going the album route, I I chuckled inside because I would, I’m not proud that it took me three or four years to do that project. But you did it. But I did it. and the gains. Aaron’s been talking to me about business books. Yeah. So that’s the gap and the gains that you just mentioned. What is some other things that have been, ⁓ that album thing was out of nowhere, but it was really cool. And I think our listeners should try that, but what’s been going on in our lives that we can.

share with them. And along this conversation, by the way, we’re going to throw some encouragement at you guys. So cool. ⁓ well, last school year, I think I mentioned that we started a little bit early in August, knowing that Emory was coming and it was such a smooth school year. So I just want to encourage you guys, if you know, if you homeschool and you know that, you know, something big is coming up, ⁓ don’t be nervous to jump in early. ⁓ the kids loved it so much that we ended in May, which is a lot earlier than when we usually end.

And, because of it, they, they asked to start early again, this school year. And so I had to make sure that I was prepared to do that. And so far it’s been great. And I’m not one that usually homeschools during the summer because I myself like to take a break. And I did, we took all of June and all of July off and we’ve kept it light. ⁓ we have another camping trip coming up in August. So we’re, we’re, still like utilizing.

the full day, the sun being out and the nice weather. But we are getting a little ahead of schedule by getting some school in, starting some math, starting some science. And the kids have been diving in and they get so excited about just being together. I will say one thing about that. So this year, Elliot turned, ⁓ well, he’s turning 13, but he’s going into seventh grade. Yeah, we’re about to have a teenager, y’all.

And so junior high, I’m thinking, no, the elementary school year seems so easy to navigate with homeschool. Not really. I mean, I had a lot of insecurities there, but when I thought about junior high, was like a big deal to me. And so I just wanted to make sure that he had everything that he needed to keep growing and stay busy. so this is the first year that, ⁓ usually we would do all of our history and science together. And I chose for him to do a separate.

I mean, it’s still the same company. So for history, we’re doing not grass and he’s doing not grass. And for science, we’re doing apologia, but he’s doing general science apologia. And so he’s kind of on his own track, meaning that when we did an experiment the other day with the kids, ⁓ Elliot wasn’t present and Wyatt looked up and he said, where’s Elliot? And I’m like, bud, he’s got his own science this year. And he’s like, well, I want to do his science. You want to do it together? It was the first time that I.

recognized that even though I felt that tug on my heart of Elliott doing more independent work, that the kids recognized it. And I was like, Oh, so it’s kind of an interesting season that we’re tapping into with the kids being different ages and different grades. And I don’t know, I’m excited for it, but I, I’m also feeling it. Well, they’re loving it. They’re getting in there digging in. one of the things that we did in the beginning of this year, I feel like this, we’ve had a really packed summer. Yeah, I did that starting in April. Yeah. It was like back to back to back to back to back things.

Lots of travel, lots of things that we’ve been doing. We went to a homeschool conference to talk about this last one. feel like we brought it up that we’re going to one. Okay. Or maybe we even talked about it, but we can just share briefly. Yeah, was recap. What’s cool about it is I’m going to be in a couple of weeks. Next week, I’m recording an episode with the founders of this homeschool conference called Teach Them Diligently. It was a really awesome conference. I feel like we talked about this, but that’s okay. It was really encouraging to get us excited about the school year to remind us that we’re doing good.

You’re doing okay. Because there’s all these times that you feel like you do the bulk of it. But this feeling of like, I doing enough? Because you only have so much you can compare to. But what’s awesome is this conference was so encouraging. wasn’t just about homeschool. It was also about marriage and parenting and all, like just life. And so it was fun doing that because me and you got to go. It was awesome. It was awesome. And it like a date, extended date travel thing.

But also encouraging us. had been wanting to go for several years just to get my heart filled up for homeschool and just tools as a teacher type of thing, experience. And it just didn’t work out until this year. I had a friend offer to watch our children and I was like, we’re all in, let’s do this. And booked it right away so that nothing could change those plans. ⁓ And also, like I said, Elliot going into seventh grade, was just like feeling, I wanted to feel confident.

of what we were choosing for him. And so I was hoping that this would do that. And you know what? The Lord is so gracious and he did exactly that. felt like over the three days that we were there, was it four? Every little bit encouraged me, every person I talked to, the different sessions we were in, it just reaffirmed that we’re on the right track. We’re on the track that God has for us. I feel like specifically there was like a handful of specific insecurities you had that you had voiced to me. Like I’m insecure about this. I’m not sure about this personally, school-wise. And I feel like

the whole time we were there, certain things were like orchestrated. Like every insecurity you had was like encouraged and diminished and spoken into directly, which is really cool. So we encourage you all. That was an awesome conference if you ever go. I think they’re all on the East Coast, Yeah. It’s Midwest East Coast. I’m going to be interviewing them soon. So you listen for that podcast coming out in three or four weeks.

I going to say, think they came out with a new location later on in the summer and I thought it was going to be the West Coast and it wasn’t. So if you guys are listening, you should do one on the West Coast. I know it’s hard. I’ll talk to Oh, I’ll ask them about, hey, when you come on over here to our side of the woods. So homeschool has been cool. The kids have been getting really into it. The kids are some of the younger kids are really taking off in their reading, which parents, if you’re homeschooling, even if you’re not, if your kids are in public school.

There’s something incredibly powerful about reading. It’s probably the number one skill that our kids could get and benefit from because and there’s something we’re learning. The better they are at reading, the better they are at comprehension, the better they are at learning, the better they are at teaching themselves, the better they can literally learn anything they want and be more independent earlier and be more independent earlier. So reading’s huge. And so our younger kids, you’re incredible at teaching our kids. What’s the resource called that we use? I think we’ve talked about it before, but I use how to

100 easy lessons to learn how to read. Yeah. It’s 100 lessons. I call it 100 lessons. It’s called 100 lessons. If you Google that, you’ll literally find it’s called 100 lessons. By the time you get to end of it, they’re reading. Yeah. Now I feel silly because I’ve used it for 10 years. 100 easy lessons to get your child to read or something like that. Messed it up. It’s okay. You look for 100 lessons, you’ll find it on Google. It’s been really powerful. Our kids have all loved it. And it is really easy.

⁓ Did we, so you already mentioned that we started homeschool early. Was there, did you say why we started early? Well, the kids were just asking for it. don’t know if they, our kids just like to be busy and do. And so when they have like ⁓ structure to their day, they just. Yeah. And then the summer feels a little bit less structured. so they. think they had a long period of time off and I think that was enough for them. I don’t know. Like you said, I packed it so full that they were like, okay.

Let’s move on. Yeah. And Elliot, I think our kids are all going to be this way, but Elliot specifically, he’s like, I just want to get done. He wants to graduate, but he’s 16. I told him I want him older than Yeah. But he’s all going home. I’ll just say they’re eager. So once I ordered all the curriculum and books started coming in, they were already starting to dig in. like, you guys have to wait. I’m not ready. Yeah. And we’ll find Elliot in the school room with his headphones on doing his schoolwork, just because he’s like, don’t have anything else to do. I’m going to go do that. It’s a new era.

He’s, you guys, he’s teaching himself Japanese. I never saw it coming. Well, I don’t even know what, where did he even get that from? Well, I bought Rosetta Stone because I was going to use it to teach them Spanish. But- And he’s like, Mom, can I use this? And he started picking up Japanese. So he’s in the back of the car today, actually. He’s like, okay, guys, can you say, I can’t even say the word. And he’s like trying to teach them a word that he’s learning or a phrase he’s learning. It’s fun. Which is really cool. That’d be awesome. I told him, was like, hey, if you come fluent in Japanese, you can get some really good jobs.

translating. So he’s all stoked about that. Learning these skills again, if you can read, you can follow these programs. You can learn anything. Another thing that we’ve been doing, this really feeds into like your heart. Like you have, you put a lot of energy into homeschool and raising our children, which I love. And one of your favorite outlets is outside the house. It’s like a thing that rejuvenates you. it’s gardening, landscaping.

Flowers for days. You’re making fun of me in that. know you are. The watering wouldn’t make a photo you because… Erin thinks I overwatered, but everything loves it. Some of them you do, but most everything does really great. Sometimes I’ll be out there in March when there’s still snow on the ground just trying to like, I’m doing something. I’m going to help these little plants along. we’ve actually done, if you guys have followed our journey at all, we’ve done a lot of landscaping on our property and something that we really, we’re going to talk about this in a little bit later, but ⁓ something that’s really cool about…

doing it yourself, which is it’s very hard. Like, I don’t know what I’m doing all the time. saw a really funny meme video on Instagram about ⁓ someone trying to be in the garden, trying to dig a hole. And, you know, the caption is like, how come nobody ever told me that digging a hole is so hard? Like, it’s so because it is hard. It really is. And especially our soil is all like clay and moon dust. It’s weird. But what’s really cool about it is not only does it save us money, which is I’m a huge fan.

All the money he saves by doing the work himself, I spend on flowers. That is partially in plants. Luckily, I like buying plants too. you get away Listen, the justification is they’re perennial, so they come back every year. It’s an investment. that’s one bonus is saving money. But the other major bonus is… We are doing it together. We get to do it together. That is a really big bonus for me. It’s the biggest bonus. And also our kids who, mean,

Everything we do work wise is online. so like it’s going to take them a while before they understand that work relationship. technology and it’s yeah you can’t just really jump in and do. But going outside putting gloves on digging a hole putting in a gravel path moving bark all planting a plant. Pruning. Gets your hands dirty makes you all sweaty gets you hot but when you’re all done with it you look like look what we did.

Like we did something beautiful. We made something that was just dirt look pretty. it’s a huge value to our children to be able to not only see us work and be willing to be like, hey, we can get out and do this. We’ve never done it before. We don’t know how to, but we’re going to do it. So they see us do that, but then they come with us and they help us and they learn that we can do things on our own. This is something my dad taught me. He would always say, if someone could do it, we can do it. And it’s true for the most part. Maybe not brain surgery.

But you could learn brain surgery actually. So we’ve been doing a lot of landscaping on our property, front yard, getting all sweaty, making paths, making it pretty, getting the kids out there with us. Something that we, Jennifer was just going crazy over this year was we had a lot of weeds. Hey, no. This property that we developed was just a bare land. this year though, all of the disturbed dirt, all of the hidden seeds underneath or…

Maybe they flew it. have no idea. think what happened was we spent a lot of our time last summer in the backyard. Yeah. And so we weren’t paying too much attention to the front yard. So here’s your tip. If you don’t tackle the weeds, they go to seed and then the seeds spread out everywhere and weeds. then it’s a thousand times worse. Yeah. Weed seed is like terrible. It’s so much worse than how far flower seeds can spread. feel like.

⁓ and so I think it just went wild because we weren’t tackling it. And so this year, me and you and the kids all got out there and tackled the front yard. I feel, and I kept telling them, you guys, because of our hard work this year, next year, there will, there will not be as many weeds because there’s nothing out here to go to seed. So we did it in time. Here’s the spiritual connotation of that. Just like you said, you, you, if you don’t take care of these little weeds over here, like maybe you’re focusing in your life and your marriage.

on this area. Like, I got this thing over here. working on. I’m trying to get this raise at my job. I’m trying to, you know, buy this house. trying to whatever it is. You’re focusing hard on this, but not giving the attention you need over here. You know, oh, there’s this. Yeah, there’s this thing in the background with me and my wife. But, know, we’ll figure it out later. I don’t have the energy. I don’t have the capacity. I don’t have the emotion to try and figure that out. But I’m going to focus on this. And what happens is those seeds grow and they grow and they grow and then they spread and then

You haven’t gone and dealt with that little thing at the time. And now it’s a bigger thing. And now it’s harder. Now it’s more painful. Now it’s- Which there are some weeds that pull up and those are my favorite because I could do so many. The whole root comes out. Yeah. Sitting on my knees, I can reach all of these and it’s, you know, it’s easy. And it’s almost like, um, not therapy, but you’re just like, this is refreshing at six o’clock in the morning. Therapy for sure. But then there’s other weeds that-

you go to pull and yank on and you cannot get them out. And then you break them off and you know that root is still in there you’re like, ⁓ You got to go get a special tool for it. You got to get out. This is all, all this analogy. It’s the same in our marriage spiritually, same in your life with your relationships, with your children. If you just avoid it and say, you know, I just don’t want to work on that right now. I just don’t want to deal with that. Maybe it’s private. Maybe it’s inside yourself. It’s sin. The Bible talks about this, know, and sin is full grown against birth to death.

Are we just letting something exist and not plucking it up, pulling it out, taking and saying, you know, it’s popping up and that doesn’t belong. And if I let it go, it’s going to get worse and it’s going to grow. And then it’s going to be really hard. We had a lot of weeds. There were so many of them, these little weeds, and they grew up this one little thing and then like a billion seeds. And I started out there early in the spring out there myself, and I realized it was too overwhelming and I was getting overwhelmed by it. And so.

calling on others to help, even going to that spiritual principle of you’re dealing with sin, you’re dealing with something. You might need extra help in some area that you need to be able to be open about, transparent about, to use those special tools and resources that you might have access to, to get it. To get it. Yeah. That’s something that, I mean, we had to do a few times this year. Yeah.

reach out for help to the text. I’m struggling. I’m frustrated. I’m angry. I need help. need prayer. I need advice. I need to be kicked in my butt. ⁓ There was ⁓ specifically one moment that was just really emotional for us. And it got to the point where I was like, I didn’t know what exactly I needed, but I was like, I need to cool off. And so I left the house and I called my friend right away because I didn’t really know what I was doing or where I was going. And I called her up and she answered right away.

And she was like, come over. And it almost felt hard. And I wanted to say no, but I knew in my heart, the Lord was like allowing this moment to happen. And so I called you and I was like, this is where I’m going. This is what I’m going to do. And then I’ll be home. And so I went and sat on her patio with her and she just poured into me. She, she was a great listener. She responded to everything that I had to share with ⁓ grace and understanding, but also she encouraged me to do the hard things and to respond to these things with you.

Um, from my perspective of what, what can I do? What can I do to help? What can I do to, um, honor our marriage and pour into it? Even when things feel hard, even when things feel uncomfortable. And so I was really grateful for that. And I called her husband that day and he encouraged me the same way. And what’s cool about having what’s not, it’s not just cool. Of course it’s cool. Of course it’s like, wow, that’s powerful. But the reason God calls us to be in fellowship with other believers is because our job for each other.

is to remind each other of the truth, is to encourage each other in the things that are good and right and honorable, and to remind us of the promises we made and to encourage us to do the right thing and move in the right direction. Which a little side tip, my friend challenged us to start reading his and her needs. And so we both got that book, you got it in audio and I got it. so we’re going to start reading it together.

I think we’re going to try and on. You started listening to it and then I started reading it then we’re like, we should be doing this together. So we’re going to start on Sundays and read it together. But I just wanted to share that because it was a marriage book that we hadn’t read yet together. And so if you’re in a place in your marriage where maybe things feel a little bit hard, you can go to it or if things are feeling great and you’re just looking for an extra resource to do something together, you can. Yep. So we’re going to do that. We, mean, 18 years and we’re.

we’re probably for the rest of our marriage, you’re gonna need help here and there. And hopefully it gets less and less, the kinds of things that we deal with, but that’s called sanctification. It’s a process and that’s why we need each other and other people in the church. So. Amen. Speaking of church, should we tell them? Yeah. we can tell. Yeah, so we had a, if you’ve been following along for any amount of time, you know that we’ve been doing home church for, gosh, about 11 years.

Because was in an alley, it was one. And he’s turning 13. Oh, 10 years, because all of those three weeks old. Oh, 10 years. 10 years. Still, not an insignificant amount of time. It’s a quarter of my life. Six of those years were with this group of Six years pastoring at this home fellowship that we were at. But we just want to let you all know that we just recently decided to step away from the home church for an unforeseeable amount of time.

we have decided to shut it down and to currently we’re searching for as a family, something you guys can all be praying for us, ⁓ a church home. And what’s awesome is it was the right timing, even though it didn’t feel like the right timing, if that makes sense. There’s no way for it to feel like the right timing. Well, it felt emotional because we’ve been walking with these people for so long and in this format of home church and how we kind of did things.

Um, as we fellowship together. And so I think the grieving is more like, Oh, that’s not going to be happening anymore, but we’re all hopeful and we all had peace about the transition. Um, I think that was the biggest encouragement to me was we, we, um, didn’t end because people weren’t showing up. We didn’t end because there was conflict. We just felt like the Lord was leading us in a different direction and at for a season, I can easily, I know for sure.

I guess I can’t say I know for sure, but I could see us in the future being doing home church again. We love the model. We love the format. We love the community, but needed a break. we’ve been a part of a lot of churches and we love churches. love all the different ways that church has done. And I’ve seen churches fall apart in bad ways and I’ve seen churches split up in good ways. And I feel like what happened in our home church was good. We’re still in fellowship with

All of the families. And we still love them. They’re still our friends. It was more of just a moving on. we still do life with these people and we’re still really close friends. And so I’m excited about that. And we’re all texting and deciding. They’re trying to figure out as a community, like, where are we all going to to church this Sunday? So you can be praying for us. That’s been a big transition. It was very difficult for us to make that decision. Very bittersweet. But yeah, so we just wanted to share that with you all because you guys have been a part of our journey this whole time.

You know, we have a we have a video, one of our most popular videos on YouTube is why we do home church. I want everyone to know ⁓ I love home church and I will be doing home church again. I I personally think it’s one of the most powerful formats for church. The intimate intimacy, the closeness, the safety. ⁓ There’s power in that the time, the amount of time you get to spend with people. So I’m in no way anti home church. I’m in no way putting it down.

just God’s doing something. We’re in a season of transition and change and just seeking out what God has for us next. So that being said, we just, we love you all and wanted you to know that that was a major decision in our life. Biggest, I think the biggest part was our children, because all they have ever known is home church. And so we’ve been having to walk with them and navigate with them and tell them about it and talk to them about it say, Hey, like this is how we’ve done it. It’s going to be different. And we’re going to walk through that with you guys.

I also really love giving our kids different kinds of experiences where they know bottom line, they can trust the Lord. So whether it’s home church or what we call big church, they can trust the Lord and be patient with Him as He navigates for us and gives us peace on where we’re going and what we’re doing and also trust you as you lead our family. Which is scary for me to lead a family. Do you feel the weight of responsibility? I feel the weight.

of all the responsibility. Yes, I actually do. That was a big part of the difficulty of making that decision is like, okay, that means that my family’s gonna have to change what we do. And that was really hard for me. It’s still hard for me, to be honest. I’m excited for you to ⁓ have sort of a break from bearing the weight of leadership and ⁓ kind of carrying the torch and We’ll see how long I stay away from that. I know. But…

you do need time to be poured into as well and for the Lord to continue to refine you. And so I’m really excited for what this next season will birth in you. Me too. Yeah. Please pray for us. Thank you. Speaking of prayer, something really was one of our friends that actually is that same friend that you went over and got to talk to recently just kind of randomly reached out to you. I say I wanted to share that. I forgot that you’re going to talk about that.

Yeah, no, it was a really quick thing that I just wanted to share with you guys because it was super impactful. but she randomly texted me one morning at like seven and said, how can I pray for you today? And I don’t know why the impact of that, knowing that someone somewhere is praying for you is just such a sweet encouragement. He hits even harder when you feel like you’re in a space where you need extra prayer and you’re like, man, yesterday sucked or I’m having a really hard day or whatever. and she also like went out of her way.

She’s praying only praying for you, but she actually reached out to ask you. Yeah. Like I want to pray for you. What can I pray for you? Yeah. So it encouraged me so much. It has inspired me and she doesn’t even know this yet because I haven’t done it, but it’s inspired me to do the same thing. And so I’ve been reaching out to people via text asking them, Hey, how can I pray for you today? The other morning I asked you, Hey, how can I pray for you today? And so it’s been a huge encouragement to my spiritual prayer life on being thoughtful of others. ⁓ and just

Specifically asking them and so I wanted to share that with you guys today because it’s such a simple thing that you can do Reach out to your spouse reach out to a friend Reach out to that mama who just had a baby and just ask her how can I pray for you today? Which that leads us to our challenge for you this week and maybe even several weeks make it a pattern but like this week I want you to reach out to First and foremost your spouse I mean in the morning right before bed look at him and say how can I pray for you right

It sounded like you said, in the morning, right before bed. in the morning or right before bed. Look at them and say, how can I pray for you? And then pray for them right then. Maybe they don’t answer, but they’re like, let me think about it. But use that opportunity to pray for them. And then secondly, reach out to one or two or three friends just randomly and say, hey, thinking about you, how can I pray for you today? And if you were encouraged by it, everyone’s going to be encouraged by it. Do it.

I would. When people ask me, I’m like, oh, hey, yeah. Actually, I have a list. Can I send my list? I got a lot of weeds that need pulled. Yeah. So reach out and ask someone how you can pray for them. And then don’t just say, OK, I’ll pray for you. Pray for them right then. Like maybe not on the phone, but like take a moment, put your phone down, pray for those things that they tell you that they need prayer for. I think you’ll see some really awesome fruit from that. So. We can end on this last idea or.

I’ve lost where you’re at. don’t know where I’m at. Sorry. It’s okay. So we were just going to talk about that. We did. Yeah. Do you want to share before we end that verse because it was super encouraging? Sorry. Forgive me. I’m new to this podcasting thing. You’re new but old but but new.

Okay, so in my Bible time the other day when I was reading in Isaiah right now, in Isaiah 55, where is it? Verse 11, just spoke to me, encouraged me, and I shared it with Aaron. He’s like, oh, you should share that on Before you read it, can you give a little bit of context of why it was so impactful for you? You don’t have to give too much detail, but if you want to just share just that struggle of feeling like change is hard. Yes. So…

Well, that’s exactly it in a simplified version. ⁓ I’ve just been wrestling with a couple of things, ⁓ one of them being my countenance and the way that I am, you know, just in my relationships with my family. And sometimes I can struggle with anger or ⁓ even not even to that extent, but just not being super joyful. And so I’ve been praying a lot about that, about my own ⁓ countenance and my way of being.

and that I’m not just this like, you know. Well, you’ve been, these are normal things that people struggle with, but feeling like why can’t I change in this area? Like I want to change. I want to be better. And we’ve had several conversations about this, but then you read this that really encouraged you. So, man, I don’t know. here. Okay. So what’s really cool too is the Lord speaks to me through gardening and metaphors and things like that. So I know we talk about it a lot on here and it’s just because it’s

of my heart like Aaron said. So, 55 starting in verse 10, it says,

And so I was underlining like crazy. And then I had put on the side there ⁓ that that’s a promise that his word accomplishes that which he purposes. And then I just kind of wrote out this little prayer that, Lord, this is a prayer of my heart that I would have joy and I would have peace and that you would in a way water me.

and then grow me. And then I said, change me. And I underlined that word change. when I was talking to Aaron about it, said, I was almost struggling with the word change because I felt like, how is he going to change me? How am I going to see this different kind of person come along, this different version of me? And so there was a small burst of like, know, when you pray something and you’re like, I don’t know. Yeah, if I could get on with that. But I hope for it.

And then, so after I finished the prayer, I finished reading the chapter because there’s just a few more verses. And it says, mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle and it shall make a name for the Lord and everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. And I cannot explain to you, even as I say it right now, you guys, I had so much hope. I just felt the Lord was like, look, I can do this.

I can do this in you, I can do this for you. And I just want to hold that so close to my heart and say, okay, Lord, this is what I’m praying for. I’m praying that, you know, when you think about negative emotion or a lack thereof, you know, anger or just not being joyful, I want to see instead, you know, the cypress and the myrtle. Those are beautiful, beautiful trees. so… the thorns and the fizzles are gone. Yeah.

And so sharp edges. I was when I was explaining this to Aaron, if I hadn’t kept reading, I wouldn’t have been so encouraged. But when I asked him to change me, this is what he says he’s going to do instead of the thorn coming up. He’s he’s he is making a new thing. And I was like, OK, Lord, it was just a huge one ever since then. You have been have had more joy and more peace. Now they haven’t challenged in those things, but you for sure have. And this was super encouraging to me.

Because there’s so many people just like you, just like me, we all feel this. I have this way in me that I feel like I cannot stop being. Like Paul is like, know, what wicked man I am, you know? And he’s like, but thanks be to God through Christ Jesus that he does change us and he can change us and he is changing us and his word is going out in us and working. And it’s working in you listeners. He’s working in us and he’s working it for his glory.

It was so cool. That’s so good. And as you were talking, I just got reminded that ⁓ shortly after this, were driving in the car and my kids lately, I don’t know if your kids got to a certain point where they’re like all about music, but our kids like, can I have the, can I have mom’s phone? Can I show, you know, playlists on Spotify? And they’re just so encouraged by music, which I love. And I forget what we were listening to, but the lyrics were essentially, ⁓ you’re not done with me yet. And as I was listening to it, I was thinking about this verse and I was thinking about how

in my flesh, I struggle that I’m not perfect. I struggle that you have this ideal that you can never get to it. Yeah. And maybe I could be that ideal for so many days and then I mess up again or I have an outburst or I just have those moments of struggle in my flesh. And I’m like, I don’t want this. I don’t want to be like this anymore. And so I was just resting in the fact that he’s not done with me yet. And that’s why every day we can get up and-

pursue him and ask him to transform us and walk in his ways and be encouraged by the little messages he gives us throughout his word. If we’re faithful to read it, they’re there. I discovered one in Isaiah 55. So just an encouragement to you guys. If you are struggling, if you’re wrestling with those things that kind of come up, even the things that you’re like, no, I, I tackled that one already. We’re yeah, that thing shouldn’t be there anymore. Um, it’s going to happen cause we’re made of flesh and.

⁓ I remember, sorry to go back to it. When I was listening to that song and it said that the Lord’s not done with you yet, I thought about how if going back to that ⁓ picture of God being the potter and us being the clay and being on that spinning wheel and as he’s molding us and shaping us, you know, if something were to bump it or one side is too oblong or for some reason the clay cracked,

and he’s still moving it like the wheel hasn’t stopped spinning yet. And so I got this picture of that’s why I’m not done yet. I forgot about that. He’s still molding. He’s still shaping. He’s still going with it because there’s going to be when you push over here, it’s going to affect over here. And so I just got this picture of he’s, I’m just, I’m just on that spinning wheel still. And also life feels like that sometimes that we’re spinning and I can’t see straight. What’s happening? We can’t, but he can. He sees perfect.

So I hope you’re encouraged by that, that guy’s not finished with you yet. that’s a ⁓ little bit about us this month. We are going to try and at least have an episode once a month. So pray that we can accomplish that task. Because I do like doing the podcast with you. I like it too. I do like the interviews also. So check out all my interviews. Because you guys have been faithful to leave reviews and share how the podcast is going, some of you have shared with Erin that you have missed me. And I was encouraged by that.

I was very encouraged, so thank you for calling me back to it. And I hope that I can peek in from time to time in between his interviews and just say hi. And ⁓ I do pray that the Lord gives us more to share with you. My goal is to just keep this going until all the kids are out of the house and then we can just do this full time. right. love you all. Thank you so much for joining us on the Mary Jeffricot podcast. And we’ll see you on next episode because you’re going to come and listen to that next episode.

You’re go back and listen to all the old episodes of us talking, because we have like over like hundreds of us talking. have a lot of hours. And I have like 40 something plus interviews that you should go listen to. They’re really good, awesome people, authors, speakers, pastors. You’ll love it. So thank you for joining us on the Marriage After God podcast. We’ll see you next time. Bye.