Episode Transcript
[00:00:24] Speaker A: Hey, welcome, everyone, to another episode of the Jonathan Project podcast, where iron is sharpening iron. And we take the example of Jonathan and his good friend and future King David as the inspiration for our show. If you want me and Jason to come out to a men's event, your business, if you're having some kind of gathering and you found inspiration in our podcast, please reach out to us at the Jonathan Project podcast gmail.com. again, the Jonathan Project podcast, gmail.com. jason, welcome to yet another week, another episode.
[00:00:59] Speaker B: How are you doing, brother? It is all good. As you know, this is Saturday afternoon and it's repair everything I need to today.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: Ah, it's all good.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: Just out there on my old truck, you know, changing oil, things like that. Old trucks are like large format, okay? They need a little bit of muscle and, you know, a lot of muscle and a little bit of love because those bolts and everything just get stuck. So how are you, man? How's things going?
[00:01:29] Speaker A: You know, it's been a really good week. And that's. That was the genesis for this episode in particular, where my son decided that he wanted Jesus to be his Lord and Savior this week. So for. For us, it was a really great week. Super excited for that. And it was a lot of prayer, you know, and, you know, I know we're going to get into it as that's really the topic for this, this week's episode, but I reflected on it and I kind of shared that with you. Is that you. He came to accept Jesus really, from a really analytical kind of approach. That's really his style and the gifts that God has given him. You know, he's a. He's a math and science kind of guy. And me and you both have spent a lot of time around these folks. They're called engineers. So we kind of understand that mindset. Whereas my daughter, when she came to accept Christ, which was before him a little bit younger, she was just like, yeah, I want this. I love it. I love the songs. I love everything about Jesus. Get me to heaven now, right? Sign me up. Give me the Express Pass. Two different things. And I'm sure a lot of the dads that are, you know, moms, everyone that's out there listening to us, you can relate to that, that those little personalities kind of come through. But we're gonna spend the time, Jason, here together for this, this week's show, talking about really the impact that dads really have on modeling and getting your kids to that ultimate goal, get them to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and savior. So I'm excited to kind of get into that, and I think the model verse I'll have and throw it out There is Proverbs 22 and 6. You know, train up a child in the way they should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. And so, yeah, man.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: No. Congratulations. What an incredible, successful moment for your fans. Best news, you know, all year or forever, right? It's the best news. I love it. I love it.
[00:03:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:19] Speaker B: You know, when you talk about train up a child and the way they should go. So it's interesting you chose that verse. So the other night, we were sitting there talking, and, you know, I'm helping my son out with his homework. It's. It's like pulling teeth, right? It just is. He's. You know, some days I want to apologize to the genetics I gave him. He's not on board with homework, but we got to get it done.
[00:03:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:03:41] Speaker B: And he looks over me as I'm sitting there, and actually, I have my Bible out. As he's coming back in, needing more help, he goes, you know, I think I'm gonna let my kids kind of figure some things out on their own. And so it started that conversation, really. I'm like, well, you know, God put you in my life and me and your life, these roles. So when you get kids, you let them go about that. But except for one.
You. You are responsible to train up your child in the way of getting to know Jesus Christ.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: Yes, sir.
[00:04:14] Speaker B: Responsibility and, you know, kind of sitting there. A lot of dads leave that up to the pastor. They leave it at Sunday school or Mama. Mama. Right. Like, as a dad, you have such an impact.
[00:04:28] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:04:29] Speaker B: And saying prayers, you know, don't be in a hurry when the kids are saying their prayers to hurry off to go see the TV show. Right.
You'd be surprised what great prayers they are. And just the perspective of the child.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: Those young prayers are amazing. And they're long. We both can attest to that. And they pray about, thank you, God, for letting me have good water and for my friends, toys and all kinds of stuff.
[00:04:55] Speaker B: All sorts of things that we ought to be thankful for, right?
[00:04:58] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:04:59] Speaker B: Like, let me have another good day like this, how it didn't rain today, not still to go out and play. I love those prayers. I love.
[00:05:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. It's good stuff. But, you know, it's. It really is. It's a moment. I think I'll never forget it for all of eternity because it's such a good feeling to know that your Child has come to accept what you have modeled. And that was an important thing. I think some people were like, well, you know, do I push him? I'm like, no. I go back to something my grandfather told me a long time ago when I was little. And it didn't hit me until, you know, I became a father. Was, is that individual? Is a Christianity is an individual thing. You know, I can't pray you into heaven. You know, you have got to come to have that relationship with him. And I think with me and my wife and what we did was, you know, it could have been a little bit of an emphasis when his sister went before him, like, hey, you need to jump on the train. You need to lead her. But it's. No, it's one of those things where we would constantly ask him, okay, well, what's on your mind? What are you thinking? And he would ask some doozies of questions. And I think for a lot of parents, that can be overwhelming. But what we found was, is we just bring that to the Lord. Like, hey, buddy, we were honest. Like, I don't know. But let's explore that together. Let's find out why bad things happen to good people. Right? Which is one of the questions that really racked his little mind, you know? And again, it's. It's just leadership. We don't have to make this more complex than it has to be. But as fathers, the Bible calls us to demonstrate spiritual leadership. You know, let's think about Ephesians 6 and 4, which is one that a lot of us have heard from a parenting perspective. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. It's just that simple. It's like we. We are to lead them on a path that helps them discover Jesus, because if we put them on that path, the Holy Spirit will do the rest of the work. He answer those questions that we can't. He will guide them and give them what they need. But it's our job to put them on that path and provide that leadership.
[00:06:52] Speaker B: No, that's absolutely right. I think, you know, when you raise a child, you're. You're really cultivating their design, right? Like, God has created them in very unique being, just like he made us, right? But he also. He. You know, he knit them together just like he knit us together as a father. It's a cultivation. Just, hey, this is. You're actively involved, right? Don't. You're not like, oh, well, I'll just let them go figure out Go see Buddha or I'll let him go see this other person, Whatever. Right. That's not it. Like, as a dad, you have an active role. I think so many people, like I said, you go back to it. What do you. What do you think about this? Like, as a dad, I really think you ought to be equipped to be able to lead your children in that prayer in the center of prayer. Right. Like you really should. That's a glorious moment.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: Yeah. It's such a privilege, man. It's such the privilege that. And again, I didn't care how we got there. Right. And I think that, you know, a lot of the Christian field fathers out there would say the same thing. You know, I don't care if it was a neighbor down the street, but it is a tremendous privilege when the voice that they hear in the loudest. And I don't mean by yelling or screaming or anything, but what I mean is, by the biggest influence, it's like, dad, I want you to do this. Right? And we kind of waited. We did it all as a family, and we. We sat around and we prayed, and it was a great moment. But I think that's one of the things when we talk about leadership. It's just that, you know, I know a lot of the guys that listen and other folks, they are military, either been in or they have an understanding or kind of a passion for learning about it. And that's one of the biggest things with the military is just learning leadership and how to identify those threats and navigate through them or identify the weaknesses of others and help them, build them to strengths. But one of the ways that you do the spiritual leadership part is. And one of the things we've talked about here quite a bit is prayer. You have a golden moment every time before that child from the time they're in the little world and they're learning how to read and write all this time. Yeah. Do the little stories with them, but also start praying over them and letting them hear that Bible study. I know that's something big that you spend time with Jason, and I wish I did more of it, to be quite honest, but those are just a couple little small things that you can do, right?
[00:09:04] Speaker B: Superbook.
I love book.
[00:09:07] Speaker A: Superbook's great.
[00:09:08] Speaker B: Yeah, it's great. And it's. You know, when my son was young, they had redone it, Right?
[00:09:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:14] Speaker B: And, you know, you and I talked quite a bit, and we watched every single episode of the night. You know, I read to. I read to him. I read to my daughter as they fell Asleep. Because I have that voice. You don't know that. I had that voice that hears it. Psalm.
And, you know, and it's. It's that simple as a dad. I mean, Romans 10:9 says, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart, God raised him from the dead, Thou shalt be saved. And even repeats it in verse 13, where he says, and this is King James Version, but you don't have to have the King James verse, but whosoever should call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's. It's so simple. As a dad, you got to be courageous, you know?
[00:09:57] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:09:58] Speaker B: And I think. I think here's something, too, is dads known hypocrisy. Like, it's got to be a dude. Right? And I'm not saying you got to walk on water. No, not. I swim all the time. Not when it's real cold, but I do. I do swim. Right. I was very good at swimming because I was very horrible at walking on water.
When we make mistakes, just like in leadership, military or wherever, on that mistake, you know?
[00:10:24] Speaker A: Yes, sir.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: Yep. I shouldn't have said what I said. God knows I shouldn't. I'm asking for forgiveness.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: Yeah, I love that. I think that goes to the power of an example. And I think for all of us, especially for, you know, a good chunk of our audience, we've had mentors in our military careers, folks that came before us that you look to you like, I want to aspire to do that. Well, don't discount yourself. That is the greatest way. And I think about my son, he had this analytical mindset. Right. And I've shared this with Jason. You know, it was harder for me to relate to my son when, as he was coming on, he was younger, because he really is his smart little dude. And I know it's like, oh, well, you're saying that's your son bias. But what I mean is, you know, he has this ability to be very analytical at a very young age, and I had to learn how to relate to him. Not him trying to conform necessarily to what I thought he should be. Right. And that power of being a role model and saying, okay, let me demonstrate. Let him see me reading the Bible. Let him see me praying. Let him hear me calling out to God when things aren't going right, you know, that is such an important part of leading your family, is just showing up and being a good example. What we do here, every week, we're just being obedient. We're showing up. And, you know, that's powerful, man. The power of an example.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: No, absolutely. You know, I hear there's that old saying, you know, you don't need to do it right, because they're. They'll let you down. Well, the truth is, is. Yeah, but those were all fallible.
And, you know, I'm always reminded of Teddy Roosevelt speech, but he's not worried about the lion. But it's the man in the arena. Right. Continues to get back up. You're. As a dad, you're gonna make mistakes. David made mistakes in the Bible. Every person in the Bible made mistakes except Jesus. What sets them apart is, is when they made those mistakes, they got right back up and they went right back at it.
[00:12:23] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:12:24] Speaker B: And as a dad, I encourage you to get back up. You don't lose a boxing match when you get knocked down. You lose a boxing match when you stay down.
[00:12:31] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:12:33] Speaker B: Paid $8 million.
[00:12:36] Speaker A: No. Well, yeah, that was. Yeah, that was terrible, by the way, for all of us that grew up watching boxing when it was in his prime, or at least in this last golden era, I would say. But you're right, man. You know, children are always watching. I. You know, just like young soldiers or if you're a business owner, your employees, someone's always watching you. I remember my dad telling me that. And it's how you speak and react and live out your faith. You know, if they see you in the car and I, I love using the car because it's something we all relate to. And you're in traffic and you're cussing up a blue streak and you're losing it. Well, and then you turn and look at them when they're going through something emotional like, hey, you need to just get it together. You're okay, well, let's go get in traffic and see how you handle it. That right? Yeah, exactly. But when things hit right, and different things. And we talked about a great episode last week, and I encourage everyone to go back to listen about resiliency. When things go sideways, there are those times and moments where you have to demonstrate your faith. And if they see you relying on Jesus, then they're more likely to do the same. Think about James 1 and 22. Be doers of the word, not just hearers. It's one thing like, oh, dad talks about Jesus and we go to church, and then Monday through Saturday, you're, you couldn't find Jesus if you had to. And so you have to be careful with that. Right.
[00:13:50] Speaker B: And that's it. Right. Like a Lot of people. Church is not a tradition. Right. It's absolutely. That's not what it should be in your life. It should be where you become the fellowship. Right. And you and you get together. But what I. I guess what I mean by this is if that's your only touch point, think about if your kid is getting ready, fight for his life, and you're like, hey, we're only going to exercise. We're going to maybe show you how to operate that gun, maybe. So you got to train them up. You have to go, hey, this is it. Because they're going to be met. Tons of. There's all sorts of distractions out there.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, you're absolutely right.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: It's not a lack of information too much. Yeah, yeah. So spending time, that's important. And they will remember, you know, I'm not gonna say it's gonna be perfect, you know. No, it ain't perfect all the time.
[00:14:42] Speaker A: No. And it's not. That's not the goal. And I think maybe that intimidates a lot of guys, like you're trying to strive for perfection, but really you're trying to teach them, as you said, something, it brings, you know, kind of some, Some other points from my research to. To the light is I'm trying to teach you how to stand firm in faith. And I'll give you this analogy. It was that scout leader school for anybody that was an old scout out there. You'll know what I'm talking about. You get to kind of this final scenario out in the hinterlands of glorious Fort Knox, Kentucky, or at the time, that's where it's at. I know the school has moved to lovely Fort Benning, Georgia, but you're out there and you're in these thick woods. And the final scenario is really a test of how are you going to stand and deliver bad news and still fight. Right. Which is a prime thing in the US Military. We're going to fight, you know, until we can't no more. So the scenario is this, is that you go out, you're trying to identify all the approaches that the enemy could possibly take as your main unit is preparing for a defense. Well, what you find in the scenario, and they don't tell you what they already know, is there's multiple. Yeah, there's the, the, the offense, the attacker, the aggressor in this case has the advantage. And what you're supposed to do is go back and relay that and then help identify, mitigate. What can we mitigate on some of those? And where do we stand and fight? Let's translate that to just being a father and preparing your children to accept Jesus Christ every time they step out of the house. The adversary is the aggressor. He has multiple ways to reach, to fight and to degrade your family and your values once they step out that door. And if you don't teach them and be that influence in how to stand, armed them with the word, armed them with prayer, then they're going to be overwhelmed and the defense is going to fall. So you have to learn how to be. And again, I think about Ephesians 6, 10, and 12 as I put in my notes, put on the full armor of God to stand against the schemes of the devil. And that starts with you as a father, demonstrating, as we talked about a little bit earlier, as a role model, covering them in prayer, teaching them how to pray, putting the word of God into them so that they can recall that when those flaming arrows from the adversary kind of hit, you know, James.
[00:16:50] Speaker B: 5:16, actually, and it says, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man faileth.
And you. You hit the nail on the head. Like, is it that. Are you not praying over your family? Are you not. You should at night be praying for them, giving thanks for them, and, you know, hey, I give thanks, God, for just bringing them into our life. You know, I do this quite often. You know, my daughter, my son, and I am very lame for him, but I pray over God, please surround them with godly friends and remove those who aren't.
[00:17:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:22] Speaker B: Because there's a lot of ungodly. There's a lot parents who are like, well, I'm just gonna let my kid figure it out.
Hey, man, that's. That's not the right answer when it comes to. When it comes to your eternal destination. That is. That's absolutely not. Because, you know, and it gets into where people. I'll be like, well, you know, I'll let them figure out what heaven is. Well, heaven is a. Is a, Is a Christian construct.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:17:49] Speaker B: Right. That's like asking someone at McDonald's. That's like asking someone at McDonald's in Niger. How do I get to a, you know, major league ball game in Washington, D.C. two different things.
[00:18:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:03] Speaker B: When I was there, I don't. I don't think they did, but. Which makes it even better. Right. For me, like, what? But that's, you know, as a dad, you have a massive influence and, you know, you're just like, you know your son. I know my son. I know my daughter. And you have that relationship, and you have that avenue into their heart. And the adversary has all these avenues in which you are uniquely postured. That is the defender of the castle, right? You have. You have the access, and you have such a powerful role, and I love that.
[00:18:36] Speaker A: No, man, you know, it's. You know, and this is why it matters for you to learn to demonstrate and role model for them how to stand faith. Because the world is going to challenge their faith. If you don't believe me, they will have friends, they will have TikTok, Facebook, whatever it is. Every second that they have access outside of your home, something is challenging their faith. And you have to teach them how to defend their faith using the two edges sword, the divines, all the way down to individual and marrow. Right? The word of God. You have to be able to put that in, encourage that critical thinking based off of Bill. Okay, like, well, this is great. Little, you know, social media influencers telling me to do 1, 2, and 3. Well, does that make sense? Should I eat a Tide pod? Should I stuff cinnamon in my throat? Should I, you know, and I use that one because I know that was such an old one. But there is countless things where. Well, there's one. I'll give you a current one that's happening right here in our neighborhood, you know, TikTok thing where there's telling kids to put a mask on, right? And then go bang on the door really hard and run away. Not the typical, like, little knocking we would do, but it looks like you're kind of doing a home invasion, right? And for some of us out there, you know, maybe us too, on here, and other folks listening, you know, we might respond in a different kind of way. That's not the smartest approach of kind of things. But again, back to the point, critical thinking, you have got to arm them with that, right? You can't just be the dad that's going along with everything. You got to swim against the current if you want your children to find success. I love what you said, Jason. I pray for my children's future spouse.
[00:20:12] Speaker B: Yeah, that.
[00:20:13] Speaker A: That is number one is a Christian right out of the gate. Everything else is inconsequential, and we'll go from there. But I love it. We have to stand. We have to be that powerful voice in our children's lives.
[00:20:24] Speaker B: You do. So I was reading over in Proverbs 16 and brief, and so it talks about this. It's commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established. So sometimes as dads, you can be Intimidated by. Well, maybe I'm not the best example. Or, hey, I don't know enough about the Bible, whatever. But what this says right here is put your feet to action. Get that? It's literally first. It doesn't say, get your thoughts right. It says, get your action right. You know, if you change your action, you start moving through this, then. Then there you go. Your thoughts will be too. Take time with your shit. You probably won't get it right. You know, six out of 10 times, eventually you will. You'll get it. You know, you keep kind of going and going, going, and it's okay. Hey, we're going to learn this together, right?
[00:21:11] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:21:12] Speaker B: An attitude that I developed years ago and I thought it was. And I modeled it for somebody else's. And Jason didn't come up with this on his own. But the best way to describe it was we were to deployed. And a buddy of mine is a phenomenal chef. He listens to this. So Micah's out there, Mike, and. And Micah was cooking. And I said, micah, I want to learn. And he goes, what? I said, yeah, show me how to park. And he's like, you're messing with. And we kind of go back and forth. And I said, micah, I'm not. I'm not messing with you. I said, I'm not going to be. I'm not. I don't know how to cook right. I'm not very good at it. I just throw it on there. It looks done. I'm gonna eat it. We're moving on.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:48] Speaker B: And he goes, I said, but I'm gonna tell you something, I'm gonna be real angry at the end of this deployment if I've sat next to you and you haven't taught me how to cook. Get to teach it. You do. You have to figure it out together some.
[00:21:59] Speaker A: Yeah. No, you're absolutely right, Jason. And I think one of the things that guys can be intimidated about is that there are competing voices nowadays. It's not like when we were coming along or even our parents were coming along, where the loudest voice. And while. I mean, again, loudest. I'm not talking about yellowish human, but the most influential voice was in the home. And you know, and now we have even more so with. I know a lot of our audience that listens to moms out there, single moms, like, where you have to be. But the thing is, is you have to be the most consistent voice because that's who's winning. You cannot yield and give over to the TikTok influencer. The famous athlete, whatever else out there, the friend, and allow that voice to be the most influential and the most consistent. You. They might not want to hear it all the time, you know, and I love the phrase, and it's so true for parenting that you say, and I always screwed up. But I think about the concept is the ground that you fight from as teens was won when they were little. You know, that is where you build it. But it doesn't mean if you are now in the fight and as teens, that you just give up and throw your hands up, you know, you have to get in there and spend time with them, you know? You know, it just kind of comes to my mind, this Note here, Deuteronomy 6, 6 through 7. These commandments I give you today are to be on your hearts, impress them on your children. Right? That means a consistency. That means, hey, we're going to. In this house. As for me, at my house, as Joshua said, we're going to serve the Lord. And if you're training up in the way that they go, all these promises that God gives us, that's our responsibility as a spiritual leaders in the home, is to bring that to their remembrance, to be the bad guy, if that's what label you want to use, and say, hey, they're going right. You're not going to go right. You're going to go left. And this is why. But we can't delegate that. You know, we can't push that to the side. We can't give that to mama. That starts with us.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: All right, Recruit that. And, you know, with parents. And I was kind of thinking, I got some. Yeah, you see, I got.
[00:23:59] Speaker A: I see it. I saw it come out.
[00:24:01] Speaker B: Yeah. So, you know, when you said consistency, that's a big deal, right? Getting the reps in. That's it. Well, and there's a saying in the military, okay, I may not know everything, but I got a lot of reps. And there's something to be said.
[00:24:15] Speaker A: There's a lot to be said about that, you know?
[00:24:17] Speaker B: Yeah, it's like, what was it Bruce Lee said? He goes, I'm not worried about the dude that can throw a thousand punches. I'm worried about the dude through one punch a thousand times. Yeah, get the reps in. Like I tell my kids all the time, I love whether they like it or not. And I will, because I need that consistent voice.
[00:24:32] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:24:33] Speaker B: I don't need them to doubt it, you know, and as guys, sometimes we go, well, I told you this, you know, like. Or wives, like I told You. I loved you when I married you. What do you mean? It's our 20th anniversary. I told you 20 years ago that I love.
[00:24:46] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It doesn't quite work with that, with wives or children. Amazingly, yeah, it doesn't work.
[00:24:52] Speaker B: And what it made me stop think about was there's this debate to do attitudes create behaviors or behaviors? Street attitude. And in psychology, it's both ways. You have certain feelings and perceptions and why you act. But in the same token, if you act enough, you'll feel a certain. There was a lady, her dad was a newspaper Patty, son, I'll mess it up.
[00:25:16] Speaker A: And was the last name Hurst or something like that?
[00:25:19] Speaker B: And Hearst.
[00:25:20] Speaker A: I was thinking Hearst as soon as you said Patty. But anyways, one of them was night route. There you go.
[00:25:26] Speaker B: Story short, she got tied up in this group robbing banks for the rest of them.
[00:25:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:31] Speaker B: She gets ready and the trial goes on. The best of my recollection, they brought in an expert and said, no, ma'am, I see the way you're holding that thing, that gun. I see your actions. You're intentional. And she was like, well, I went along to get along. Nope. Eventually, that going along behavior created an attitude.
[00:25:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:50] Speaker B: Still no.
[00:25:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:52] Speaker B: In the positive side of that, dads, you may feel you may be in the prey of the battle right now because, hey, your kids are teenagers or they're old. Get the reps in, Keep trying and stay at it. Keep swimming.
That's. That's the big encouragement. And. And pretty soon, whether you feel like it or not, your attitude will.
[00:26:12] Speaker A: Will go, no. I love it, Jason. And as we wrap up like this main part of the episode, at least for sure, you know, I want to leave like, these practical thoughts with, With. With the guys here, is that, you know, faithful fathers practicing and building your faith creates the same thing with your children. When you demonstrate your faith, when you share those moments where you have been challenged, where you have been redeemed and edified, if you will, with your faith, that will do the same for them, and it gives them something to stand on. We all stand on the shoulders of those who come before us. Same thing with your spiritual faith and leadership. Your leadership matters. Your voice matters. You cannot yield. And again, I use that term because it's almost like a military term, because it's true. You have to hold the line. The. The. The enemy's coming, and it looks bad. It looks scary. The friends, if you have teens, we've all been there. We've been teens. They're really important in their lives. The tick tockers, the social media folks, the athletes, whoever it is, they are big voices. But you have to be one of those voices. And I would argue that yours has to be the most influential, loudest and the most consistent. And you're not going to see the results maybe necessarily immediately. Again, I'll use my son. And tying it back. It was years of prayer. And you say, well, he's. He's a young guy. You're right. But I know that that was the most important decision. And every year that passed, I had to fight that much harder because the voices outside, as I just talked about, were getting bigger. Your consistency and those seeds will bear fruit, but you have to keep tending your fields, Right? To use a agriculture, farmers don't just plant and go sit and wait for the harvest. They tend you have to do the same thing in your house because there's an enemy that's wanting to go and steal those fruits from you. And then finally, First Corinthians 16 and 13. Be watchful. Stand firm in your faith. Act like men, be strong. Love that verse. Might need to put that on a T shirt. Be watchful. Stand firm in your faith. Act like men and be strong. Right. Very militaristic terms. Again, very fatherly terms. We have a great responsibility. Future generations of our families are looking to just do the right things. Act like men, be strong.
[00:28:26] Speaker B: No, I love that. Act like man. There are too many parents out there that are trying to be kids, you know, and your kids deserve better parents. That's true.
[00:28:35] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:28:36] Speaker B: Right? I love that. Act like men. Yeah, I need a T shirt that says that.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: I don't know, we might need to figure that one out too. Right?
[00:28:42] Speaker B: Figure that out. Figure that out.
[00:28:43] Speaker A: All right.
[00:28:43] Speaker B: All right.
[00:28:44] Speaker A: Well, folks, that is yet another great episode of the Jonathan Project Podcast. You can find this episode and every episode every Tuesday morning, 6am on the east coast or the same time, wherever you're at on the planet, at your favorite podcast platform, that might be Spotify, Apple, iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, just to name a few. But if you can download it, you can probably find the Jonathan Project podcast there waiting for you. If you have found inspiration, you found encouragement, you like what we have to say, and you want us to come out and encourage men around you, businesses, whatever it might be, please reach out to us. Or if you want even prayer, please reach out to us at the Jonathan Project podcast, gmail.com. again, the Jonathan Project podcast gmail.com. and last but not least, if you're looking for a way to edify yourself, your family, build those consistent practical habits. My partner in crime here has done a phenomenal job with a little bit of assistance for me on a devotion. It is absolutely the best price anything in this planet, especially if you've seen eggs lately. It is free. Not like eggs. It is absolutely free, 99. It will be in the comments, in all the segments. You can download it and encourage those around you. Jason, over to you for final thoughts.
[00:30:06] Speaker B: I love it. It's hard to follow that. That's excellent.
[00:30:10] Speaker A: Well, we love you guys. Talk to you again next week. All right, bye.
