Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Encouragement! - FF S2 E1
29 Plays21 days ago
How do you know if a person needs encouragement? If they are breathing! So if you're breathing you need to listen to this episode! We kick off Season 2 with a shot in the arm! We want you dads, and moms, to continue in the fight and not give up! There is hope in Christ! Keep pressing on! We have your back, we are in your corner...just listen and find out!
Check out PreacherDad.com
Email us: Dads@PreacherDad.com
Recommended
Transcript
Balancing Family and Work
00:00:03
Speaker
We certainly understand what it is like to, you know, get up in the morning before anyone else is awake. It's dark outside. You got to get to work. You got to hit, you got to clock in at the right time. and You're going get written up, battle through the struggles of the world. then you get off and you come home and you got more work to do at home. There's a job there before you, dad, that is even more important than your nine to five. Our family verse is Isaiah 26, three.
00:00:34
Speaker
You keep him in perfect peace. His mind just stayed on you because he trusts in you. And so I guess that's the first bit of advice I would would give. if you If you want that perfect peace, and we all do, then we just keep our eyes on Jesus.
Fatherhood Friday Introduction
00:00:54
Speaker
Hey everybody out there, welcome to Fatherhood Friday brought to you by the Preacher Dad Podcast. My name is Jared and we got a good one for you today. i hope that you're set and ready for season two because we want to encourage you. I hope that if you're feeling a little down or or under the weather, I don't know, maybe you're just discouraged about things in life, listen in. We're going to encourage you today and I hope that you will be blessed and uplifted.
00:01:18
Speaker
I want to remind you that this episode is brought to you by Cornerstone Fellowship, the tiny country church in the middle of nowhere, Georgia. And we would love to love you if you got time to come by. And you know, a church alive is worth the drive. If you got to come a little bit of a distance, that's okay.
00:01:34
Speaker
We don't mind. We're not going to turn you away. Come on down and come to Cornerstone Fellowship, just a little bit north of Tombsboro, and we'll bless you and love you and point you to Jesus. All right, folks, let's start Fatherhood Friday.
00:01:53
Speaker
Well, hello, all of you seven or eight listeners out there, maybe 10 or 12 today.
Meet the Co-hosts
00:01:59
Speaker
i don't know, but welcome to season two ah Fatherhood Friday, brought to you by the Preacher Dad podcast. My name is Jared.
00:02:07
Speaker
I am the Preacher Dad, and I'm here with my co-hosts, Matt Stewart and Nate Eisner, and our beloved brother, Tony. He got offended at us because we were too weak and wishy-washy, We didn't like to eat our steak medium rare.
00:02:25
Speaker
oh no. Speak for yourself. Oh, well, OK. Fine then. Be gone then, Nate. No, I am just kidding. Tony loves us and we love him. He's going to be part of season two. He just couldn't make it tonight.
00:02:40
Speaker
Hey, you know, we're we're busy dads. we We are not full time podcasters. Not at this time. So ah you can help with that. If you just click like and subscribe, you can contribute.
00:02:51
Speaker
ah But we are glad to be back with you again for season two and to share more with you about life as a father.
The Struggles of Fatherhood
00:03:02
Speaker
Both Nate and Matt and myself are all dads. I have eight children and Matt has six and Nate has two.
00:03:12
Speaker
And Mr. Tony has three, right? Or is it four? He's got three. three Yeah. But we're all just kind of in different places in our fatherhood journey. And we figured, you know, maybe we could help somebody out there also on their fatherhood journey.
00:03:28
Speaker
um We certainly understand what it is like to, you know, get up in the morning before anyone else is awake. It's dark outside. You got to get to work. You got to hit. You got to clock in at the right time. or You're going to get written up.
00:03:44
Speaker
We understand what it is. In fact, at one point, we all worked together, all four of us. and, you know, we know what it's like to have to get there on time and focus on work and battle through the struggles of the world. and then you get off and you come home and you got more work to do at home.
00:04:04
Speaker
And it's the, there's a job there before you, dad, that is even more important that you're nine to five. And that's a really challenging, it's really challenging for dads to do that. And if,
00:04:19
Speaker
You know, maybe things at home aren't always really peaceful. If you're struggling to find unity with your spouse, or maybe you're maybe you're a divorced dad, and maybe you're not living with your spouse anymore.
00:04:36
Speaker
There's a number of reasons why your home life might not be very pleasant, and that just makes it all the harder to keep on battling. um But we want to tell you tonight that You need to stay in there, Dad. You need to not give up.
00:04:52
Speaker
You need to not give up on your family. You need to not give up on your marriage. You need to not give up on your faith, on your God. And you need to keep on pressing on.
00:05:03
Speaker
There's a scripture verse, I believe it's in Galatians, that says, Grow not weary in well-doing, for in due season you will reap if you faint not.
00:05:15
Speaker
So it means that the reaping doesn't come if you faint, if you give up and just give up on the garden, well, you're not going to get a ah crop out of that. But if you hang in there, if you keep on pressing on grow, not weary and well-doing, there is a harvest that's coming and you will see the fruit.
Perseverance and Motivation for Dads
00:05:36
Speaker
You just have to not faint. And so dad's, you know, out there, there's a lot of reasons to give up, but, uh, We want to tell you that it's worth it to keep going.
00:05:48
Speaker
And we've we've all been there where, man, we just need a shot in the arm. And we hope that maybe um maybe we can be that shot in the arm for you. um I'm going to throw this over to Matt Stewart. Matt, what's something that you do to try to stay encouraged or stay in the battle?
00:06:10
Speaker
Well, um scripture will be the main thing. I actually wanted, uh, one of the first things I wanted to say was, was thinking about my struggles at times. Um, uh, financial decisions is always, um, always up there, raising my children, dealing with disobedient children, how, or, you know, one's got an issue. What am I going to do? Like, it's always something, right? And we all, we're all, we always are struggling. Um,
00:06:44
Speaker
But our family verse, and I don't think I've said it in any podcast we've done yet, but our family verse is Isaiah 26.3. You keep him in perfect peace, whose mind just stayed on you because he trusts in you.
00:06:57
Speaker
And so I guess that's the first bit of advice I would would give. um if you If you want that perfect peace, and we all do, then we just keep our eyes on Jesus.
00:07:10
Speaker
And it's...
00:07:13
Speaker
it's It's hard, um but that's what we have to do um as as fathers, as husbands. If we want to lead our family, if we want to just, yes, stay in the fight, we've got to have our eyes on Jesus.
00:07:34
Speaker
And that's um that was my first little bit of encouragement. Just because it's hard doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. Right.
00:07:45
Speaker
Right. um You want me to keep continuing me to go on with my head? And I have another point I wanted to share at some point. yeah Yeah, go ahead. So just.
Leading Family Worship
00:07:56
Speaker
um I've been listening to and reading a book called Family Driven Faith.
00:08:03
Speaker
Oh, I've read that book. By Vody Bauckham. Yeah. I don't know. We didn't I didn't know him personally, but i I do miss him now that he's gone. It was sad to see him pass away.
00:08:14
Speaker
a few months ago. He's played an instrumental role in our lives. um But anyway, so I've been reading through that again.
00:08:27
Speaker
And really, the the family is the main system for delivering God's truth, right? It's more important than, it's really more important than then than church, then youth group, then godly grandparents. It really starts with the family.
00:08:46
Speaker
And specifically, it starts with the with the dads, right? We have to be we have to be walking the walk. um You know, if the word, if if the Bible is not important to us, it might not be important to our children.
00:09:02
Speaker
You know, if we aren't we aren't singing the truth, if we're not praying the praying the word, if we're not doing um family devotions, then um then our if it's not important to us, then it's not going to important to our kids.
00:09:19
Speaker
And so I just want to encourage fathers who are dealing with all sorts of things in life, if you if you have to just do one thing, um just disciple your kids.
00:09:37
Speaker
Teach them the Word of God. Teach them to love the Word. teach them to just follow Jesus. um And one way to do that is through family devotions. And I wanted to read one little paragraph from Vody's book.
00:09:53
Speaker
It says, nothing will spur a father toward godly spiritual discipline in his own walk with Christ more than leading his family in worship. In order to teach his wife and children, he will have to study the scriptures on his own.
00:10:04
Speaker
A godly woman will be encouraged and inspired as she sees her husband take responsibility and lead in family worship. This practice sets a tone of harmony and love in the household and is the source of strength when they go through affliction together.
00:10:18
Speaker
As they pray for each other, their mutual love is strengthened. so um So, yeah, I just want to encourage any fathers out there, if you haven't done it, um family worship is a as ah as a glorious time to to worship God together.
00:10:35
Speaker
um It doesn't have to be anything special like doesn't have to be a certain up certain amount of time. you have to You don't have to read through two two chapters in the Bible. It could be one verse. It could last five minutes. It could be whatever.
00:10:48
Speaker
Just get in the word and teach the kids. That's that's what that's what we're called to do as as fathers. And you don't have to be a Bible scholar. of course not. Or really, really good at understanding the Bible just to lead your family in searching out the truth.
00:11:04
Speaker
and You just got to... I heard Voddie Bauckham actually, I think, said one time, You just got to stay one day ahead. You just got to be one day ahead of everybody else. You learn the lesson, then you teach it to them, whatever. and it but In most cases with me, it's about 10 minutes ahead, 15 minutes ahead. Yeah. because we Like we go through right now, we're going through John.
00:11:26
Speaker
And so I know, all right well right, I look, all right, I'm talking about Lazarus being raised from the dead tonight. So i read over that and then sat down with him. So. yeah About 10 minutes ahead. Exactly. i mean, that's better than not doing it.
Faith and Political Challenges
00:11:40
Speaker
ah Yeah, I know. but Better than not doing it. I mean, for me, i have a hard time pulling out the Bibles and having family worship with the scriptures. I know that we need to, and I know it's important, but I try to make sure that we at least at the minimum pray together as a family at the end of every day at the minimum.
00:12:00
Speaker
And so that's not as good as I want it to be, but it's better than doing nothing. Yeah. So, you know, dad, get out there and do something. Get your family in the scriptures, get your family connected to God, lead them in worship.
00:12:14
Speaker
Nate, what do you do? Stay encouraged. Yeah. So, uh, very similar to Matt actually is what I wrote down. I you referenced some stuff from John. I've got some stuff as well. Um, I definitely in preparing for this episode, probably took it more the, um, uh, uh, political, climate in just the, um, The negative news that's going on in our world, that's kind of more the the frame I came from. But that's probably probably just me misunderstanding what we were supposed to be talking about. it's fine. I guess it does. No, it just adds more facets to the discussion.
00:12:49
Speaker
It does. um So going back to John, all pretty much all of John chapter 15 16 is Jesus um encouraging his disciples to take refuge in himself. um He lays out the exact game plan that we've seen replay over the last 2,000 years and will continue until he returns. um But the the he really kind of sums it all up in the world will hate you because it first hated me.
00:13:19
Speaker
um And those who kill you will think that they're doing it out of service to God, though they never knew Jesus, he says, me, Jesus, or the Father.
00:13:30
Speaker
This is where Jesus promises um that in this life you'll have sorrows and persecution, but he ends the message by saying, take heart because I've overcome the world. um And so for me, Matt, I agree with you 100%. I come right back to that, um is just keeping your eyes fixed on Christ. And um i think I would imagine our audience is predominantly conservative Christian, but if you're not, you will find that we will constantly come back to this idea and this core of fixing our hearts and our eyes on Christ um because He is the center of of our lives. He is the center of everything. And um what is what's what's that?
00:14:13
Speaker
It's a great hymn, that on Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. And as far as you know we see you know, the the negative news cycles and the news just seems to be bipolar.
00:14:28
Speaker
Although these days because it's not so much happy. It's just all sad. In Virginia, we've got this psychotic communist governor that just got installed and, you know, they're already pushing magazine restrictions as of today, the recording of this episode.
00:14:44
Speaker
know, that's making its way through the legislation and, um you know, it's just, yeah There are so many reasons to to get caught up in this um downward spiral, and it'll get get you.
00:14:57
Speaker
i mean, it it'll get you. i I'm remembering you know when when Biden got got a well got into office, let's put it that way. I had a newborn.
00:15:12
Speaker
Hey adventurers, ready to level up your outdoor game? At Goose Feet Gear, they're committed to keeping you crazy warm without weighing you down. I've known the founder and owner, Ben Smith, for nearly two decades and his commitment to quality is outstanding.
00:15:29
Speaker
Their custom down socks, jackets, and pants are made in the USA and packed with premium 850 plus fill power goose down. Perfect for backpacking, camping, or hunting.
00:15:42
Speaker
tailored to you with 10% off. If you use the promo code fatherhood, check out goosefeetgear.com and feel the ultralight difference.
00:15:53
Speaker
That's goosefeetgear.com.
00:15:59
Speaker
You know, my, my, my oldest daughter was, man, she was six months old at the time. I think, yeah, probably should have been six months old when, when he was inaugurated and Man, I probably got gray hairs over those four years. um And a huge lesson that I learned was exactly what God tells us all throughout the Bible. Do not fear. Do not worry. Because worry is not going to change it. Worry is not going to solve it. Worry is only going to ah put a negative connotation to your outlook on life. It is only going to affect what you do
00:16:41
Speaker
negatively. um And
00:16:45
Speaker
again, coming back to this idea of keeping our eyes fixed on Christ, like like you said, Matt, you you you just take everything to the Lord in prayer. um You take your worry and you lay it at the feet of Christ. you're It's going to happen. you know the the God telling us not to worry is not to beat us up, but to remind us that when our flesh is faced with these feelings that we're going to face when we come and come into the presence of evil, when we come into chaos, our flesh is going to worry, it's going to fear, but it's our response to that um that is the game changer. And that is what will sustain us, is laying our fear, laying our worry down at the foot of Jesus and and asking him to to get us through and to help us. And I'm telling you, the the times that I failed to do that, the the the times, like you said, Matt,
00:17:38
Speaker
reading the scriptures daily, spending time in the scriptures as a family. When I'm not doing the that, my house is chaos. I mean, the the the times that I'm the most bitter with my wife and children is the the the seasons where I've not been digging into the Word, the seasons where I've not been praying.
00:17:52
Speaker
um And you would think, you know, almost 27 years later, I would have figured that out by now, that this is a cycle. of But it takes it takes videos like this, whether you're watching it for me, having the conversation with with the two of y'all is immensely encouraging. And um that's one other thing, man, get get into, you know, like you said, the family is um is a foundation, but that's not too um to shy away from the importance of having a good church community.
The Role of Church Community
00:18:25
Speaker
That's something we really haven't touched on in this in this video. um
00:18:29
Speaker
Having brothers, having a brotherhood around you, and this is obviously geared towards dads, but for the women as well, you know having godly women, if there's any out of y'all out there watching. But having that godly community around you to hold you accountable in that in the prayer, in the reading of the scriptures, but also um just to have the camaraderie and the friendship and the lightheartedness. I mean, every every time before we start recording these podcasts and afterwards, we we we got to get ourselves focused because you know guys do what guys do. We start talking and we start having a good time. And so, um you know, you can do that in a secular sense, or you can do that in the context of the local church. And um I can say from experience, in the context of the local church has been life-giving. The secular context, I have um very few interactions that I don't either regret or count as, you know, nice, but not really meaningful.
00:19:29
Speaker
um And so that's my experience. But, you Yeah, that's that's where I'm at. Yeah. I was going to chime in real quick and say and when it comes to like you know political stuff and all the negativity in the world, um it is okay to to talk about it.
00:19:47
Speaker
Oh, sure. We don't want to just brush things off. You don't sweep it up the rug. Don't bury your hand in the sand. Yeah, sure. And talking with brothers. That's not what I was saying. No, I know. Oh, I know. I'm just saying, I know. But I...
00:19:59
Speaker
Yeah, it's easy just to scroll Facebook or X or whatever, just see all the the negative junk. um But, you know, we talk about it with with friends, like you're saying, Nate, with some brothers and and figure out what scripture has to say about it. And then, you know, encourage each other and, you know, and um sometimes commiserate together.
00:20:20
Speaker
Yeah. Like you just, man, I'm just so frustrated and so annoying. And I can't, it's just good to have somebody that's like, yep, I get it, bro. Yeah. Somebody that gets Yeah. And I think, too, I actually haven't done it yet with my kids, but I need to. And since we you reminded me, Nate, of our um new governor, you know, I do need to to pray with my kids um for our state and um and that God would arm would change her heart.
00:20:55
Speaker
That's a big thing, too, is to remember, you know, It's not just praying for ourselves, but remembering to pray for our elected officials, even if they are completely opposed to Christ. Yeah. Whether or not, whatever they want to say, they're opposed to Christ. they can They can claim the name of Jesus all day. They can claim to be Christians um because that will get you political points. But your actions prove where you stand.
00:21:20
Speaker
yeah but pray But choosing to pray for them, um pray for your enemies. Yeah. There's a if there's <unk>s something I do that helps me to be encouraged because I consume a lot of news and I try to stay informed.
00:21:38
Speaker
I think all dads should about what's happening in our society and the the current events to be informed about that. But it can be really disheartening and really discouraging because the news tends to focus on what is negative. That sells more papers. It
Disconnecting from Negativity
00:21:53
Speaker
gets more clicks. you know it's It's a lot yeah easier. Yeah.
00:21:56
Speaker
to sell the the negative things and so I i like to listen to a podcast called wall builders the wall builder show produced by ah the wall builders ministry was founded by David Barton they have an episode every Friday after you get done listen to fatherhood Friday you should go listen to good news Friday from wall builders because on good news Friday, they basically just talk only about the good things. They focus on the encouraging things that are happening. The, the legal victories, the great bills that got passed the, just the uplifting stories from a Christian, a biblical Christian conservative point of view. It's so uplifting it, you know, they sometimes talk about, it is good. They sometimes even talk about,
00:22:49
Speaker
ah ah Evidence of reformation and how they, they believe that we are in currently in a reformation, another great awakening.
00:23:01
Speaker
But the thing is that even in the first two great awakenings and in the United States, the people that experienced them didn't know that that was happening. And it took like a 70 year period.
00:23:13
Speaker
It happened over a seven, an entire generation of the great awakening. It wasn't like just a couple weeks or months of revival. It was a it was a a seismic shift in the culture that took place over a generation or two.
00:23:30
Speaker
And so, you know, that I think that that really could be going on. We just can't tell because we're only ever seeing the bad news. But, you know, sometimes turn the turn the news off.
00:23:42
Speaker
Turn the news off and go for a walk and just enjoy nature. um You know, that's one thing that I've done more with my boys in the last couple of years. is we've gone camping and been able to see some cool things and have some neat experiences out in the, out in God's creation. And that's encouraging too.
00:24:02
Speaker
It's uplifting to spend time in nature. So I encourage you to do that oh more than you play video games or scroll on TikTok or something like that.
Engaging with Children
00:24:14
Speaker
But you're speaking of video games, Jared made me think too, but, we do need to be having fun with our kids and our family. And i will occasionally get get on the switch with them and play for 30 minutes or whatever. So we don't need to be so wrapped up in and everything as as dads and a lot of good stuff too. I mean, we could be preparing for something for church. We could be, you know, preparing for a podcast, whatever it may be. But I would like to encourage the fathers to just go
00:24:47
Speaker
go sit down and play with your kids, wrestle with your boys, whatever you want to do with the girls, do that too, you know, um, play switch with them. Yeah. I'm not saying we shouldn't ever play video games, i want but there are some dads that, you know, they check out from their families to play video games because that's how they decompress.
00:25:05
Speaker
Yeah. That's just a real, it's, it's a recipe for disaster. If it's not kept in careful moderation. Of course. Of course. my That was my thought. Yep. Anyway, final thoughts guys, before we end tonight,
00:25:17
Speaker
I would say Matt on that same, uh, on that same note or Jared, but every one of y'all was just talking.
Family and Couple Time
00:25:23
Speaker
Y'all were both talking, but, um, you know, as far as like playing with your kids, um, do something different with your wife, you know, mix it up a little bit. Something we're, um, we're, we're as of the recording of this episode here in Virginia, we've been snowed in with this lovely 24 inch snowstorm that was about six inches with a layer of ice on top.
00:25:46
Speaker
But, um, so Two inches. Two inches. Is that what it was? Okay. Yeah. yeah Two inches with, with however much ice, you know, so we've been tra trapped inside all, all the last couple, you know, 48 hours. But um my wife and I have been playing checkers a lot. And I will say she puts up a mean fight in a game of checkers, but you know, we, that's something that her and I have never done is play board games. um You know, really just have never done it. We, we but that's, it's just something different. And so like, that's,
00:26:16
Speaker
That's a new level of encouragement. It's a new, it's a different kind of encouragement. I know when you, when you do something different, oh yeah you know, um it's obviously as dads, we need to be well-rounded and our kids are very, very important, but don't, don't forsake, don't forsake the relationship with your wife. that That comes first. I think that is a biblical order is, is God, wife, children. So um yeah, don't, let's not forget our wives.
00:26:43
Speaker
Yeah. On that same point, just tell y'all, we made a rule two weeks ago. Yesterday was two weeks ago for our three girls. they They're the oldest.
00:26:54
Speaker
um We told them they no longer have a bedtime. It was more new. Yep. We just we just it was actually it was my wife's idea. And we're like you you we that they haven't had to wake up at a certain time.
00:27:07
Speaker
So like you can stay up late as you want because we're really we we're just tired of all the arguing. Well, She stayed up five minutes late. I should stay up five minutes late. You know, I know how that, you know how that goes. no Oh man, I know it. So we're like, you know what?
00:27:18
Speaker
You stay up as late as you want, but you have to wake up at 715. And so, and also with that at 830, this is, this is new too, but we're like at 830, it's mommy and daddy time.
00:27:31
Speaker
And you're not going to interrupt us and unless it's an emergency. And we gave them some examples of what an emergency was. And so ah the first two weeks have been, have gone,
00:27:41
Speaker
very well. ah the The kids have not argued at night and they've gone to bed at the same time, basically the same time as they were when they did have bedtimes, but, and they've not bothered us after 830. So really smart. I got to think about that.
00:27:57
Speaker
is and mate Now this is again, it's two week trial period. But even my my oldest last night, she said, um daddy, it's been two weeks since we did this. um Are we going to keep doing it? And I said, well,
00:28:09
Speaker
yeah Yeah, I think so. Y'all done a pretty good job. And so yeah they're excited about it. Now, the little ones don't know about it, but yeah. Yeah. Well, that's interesting.
00:28:20
Speaker
yeah Well, listen, guys, thank you very much. I hope that somebody out there has been encouraged.
Light-hearted Couple Activities
00:28:25
Speaker
um Nate, I got an idea for you. Maybe take the checkerboard to the bedroom and for every jump, piece of clothing. PG, Jerry.
00:28:37
Speaker
pg jerry ah Oh man, that's a good idea. Uh oh. Well anyway, i hope that everybody's been encouraged listening tonight and I hope that if you have a good way that you stay in the fight, that you don't give up, then put that in the comments below. Yes.
00:28:56
Speaker
Or maybe send us an email. Yes.
Episode Wrap-up and Interaction Encouragement
00:28:59
Speaker
We would love to hear from you. You can email us dads at preacherdad.com or if you make a comment down below,
00:29:08
Speaker
That helps the algorithm to pick us up and spread this message to others that maybe need to hear it. So we would love for you to do that. But thank you very much for listening. And we hope to look, we we we look forward to many more episodes in the future of Fatherhood Friday here on season two.
00:29:28
Speaker
So thank you so much for listening in and we will catch you next time. God bless you. Bye-bye.