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The Saints Alive Podcast, Storytelling and Sacrificing Adventurously with Alex and Melissa Dee
193 Plays1 year ago
This Episode included guests Alex and Melissa Dee - of the Saints Alive Podcast.
We have found that storytelling is particularly important to developing a homestead that brings forward a place of encouragement, excitement and wonder amongst children.
The stories of the Saints are unique as their commitments to God are inspiring and challenging and we are grateful to Alex and Melissa, and all of the team-members of the Saints Alive Podcast, for their work to bring these stories to our children, and many more families throughout the world.
We hope you enjoy this episode as a production of Little Way Farm and Homestead.
Saints Alive Podcast: https://saintsalivepodcast.com/
St. Padre Pio Episode: https://www.saintsalivepodcast.com/episodes/saint-padre-pio-part-i
Additional Notes:
Real Estate for Life is a real estate brokerage with over 1,400 Prolife Real Estate Agents worldwide. They have completed over 10,000 real estate transactions and they report 65% of their revenue goes to a Prolife or Catholic Apostolate. You can quickly find an agent near you through their website at Realestateforlife.org [https://realestateforlife.org/] And if you let them know that you learned about Real Estate for Life from Little Way Farm and Homestead, that helps support our family in continuing the work of Little Way Farm and Homestead. Now, back to the episode.
Link: https://realestateforlife.org/
For more information about Little Way Farm and Homestead, including the farm, podcast, and upcoming projects, check out LittleWayHomestead.com.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Little Way Farm and Homestead Podcast. Little Way Farm and Homestead is a regenerative and educational farm in southeastern Indiana. Motivated by the Catholic faith, we strive to inspire, encourage, and support the development of homesteads and small-scale farms in faith and virtue. I'm Matthew. And I'm Karissa. We're excited for you to join us on the podcast.
Importance of Storytelling in Homestead Development
00:00:24
Speaker
Welcome to another episode of the little way farm and homestead podcast. This episode included guests, Alex and Melissa D of the saints alive podcast. We have found that storytelling is particularly important to developing a homestead that brings forth a place of encouragement, excitement, and wonder amongst children.
00:00:41
Speaker
The stories of the saints are unique as their commitments to God are inspiring and challenging. And we're grateful to Alex and Melissa and all of the team members of the saints alive podcast for their work to bring these stories to our children and many more families throughout the world. If you find this episode inspiring, we encourage you to share it with friends and family. And again, we thank you for joining us on the little way farm and homestead podcast. Let's get into the episode.
Meet the Hosts of Saints Alive
00:01:17
Speaker
Alex and Melissa, we thank you for joining us today. And we're extremely excited to have a conversation with you all today, learn a little bit more about the Saints Alive podcast and hear a little bit about the Catholic faith in your home. Yeah, we'd love to start by asking you guys just to introduce yourselves a little bit and tell us how you got started with the Saints Alive podcast.
00:01:37
Speaker
Great. Yeah, thanks for having us. Yeah, this is awesome. I can start. So my name is Melissa and I am the producer and head editor for our podcast. We got started because my husband and his best friend Tanner are actors and filmmakers. They were out in Hollywood for over five years.
00:01:56
Speaker
And I wanted to help them continue to tell stories that would move hearts to Christ. The short version is after a lot of prayer and discernment, we finally decided that this was something we could do outside of Hollywood that would still, you know, hone in on their talents and hopefully move hearts to Christ. And it's just kind of taken off from there, but all that Alex introduced himself to.
Transition from Hollywood to Faith-Based Storytelling
00:02:19
Speaker
Hey, everyone. Yeah, my name is Alex. And yeah, we're the D's. We started Saints Alive in 2021. And yeah, I was out in LA pursuing acting in film for five years. And I just came to a point I quickly came to a point I didn't move out to LA, you know, and like naive to this, but I
00:02:40
Speaker
knew that if I wanted to be a storyteller and working in what's called the industry, that I was going to have to be someone who was like a resistance storyteller, basically trying to get stories made that I felt needed to be made, that were worthy to be made, and that I could be a part of because there just wasn't anything for me to
00:03:03
Speaker
be inspired to be a part of. So that was kind of just like the quick realization I came to. And that took like five years of me still kicking and screaming, trying to do things only my way before St. Celia was finally born out of a lot of prayer. And yeah, as Melissa said, like we just, we left LA and came to the realization that we're going to have to figure out how to tell stories without being there. And that's where St. Celia was really born out. It was out of that.
00:03:32
Speaker
leaving LA and me being really confused at that time of like, you know, God, you've called me to be an actor and filmmaker and now I'm leaving the center of creative world and what am I going to do next? And then, yeah, God is, you know, amazing and put Saints Alive into our lives.
Challenges and Support in Leaving Hollywood
00:03:51
Speaker
Wow, what a neat backstory there and how that all kind of came to be. I presume it would not be easy to be in that type of environment and be a committed Catholic and, you know, want to excel in your profession and at the same time, make sure that you're bringing the Catholic faith through in a way that glorifies God. So really commend you all for that decision because I'm certain that it was not an easy one at all.
00:04:13
Speaker
Yeah, it was much easier for Melissa than it was for me because, because Melissa, did you mention this? I'm not sure if you, if you mentioned that you're, she's a pediatric nurse. Yeah. So I'm not, I don't care about Hollywood. I was ready to get out. Yeah. I dragged her out there. I tricked her, like proposed to her. I dragged her out to LA. Um,
00:04:33
Speaker
But yeah, I always like to say that there are really good people in Hollywood, really great Catholics. There are good people that still are out there and trying to fight the good fight, it's just that there's a lot of cards stacked against us. And so yeah, we really wanted to do what we could to start to stack the against and start to stack the cards in our favor with great stories.
00:05:00
Speaker
So what does the process look like? Maybe if you kind of dove in just a little bit further and moving from LA to where you are now and getting started with the Saints Alive podcast.
Starting Saints Alive Podcast
00:05:10
Speaker
So we got back, we had our son in March, 2020, and that was kind of the kick in the pants we needed to really leave. And then it was about a year of Alex just kind of being this frustrated artist. And I was just watching him and wanting to help him, but it really happened. It was July 4th and our best friend Tanner came out to Vermont where we live to come visit us. And he, Alex and Tanner were just,
00:05:39
Speaker
Ever since I met them both, they've always just had so many incredible ideas. And they were sitting in the kitchen late at night. It was like 11 o'clock at night. And they were like, man, we could do this movie or this series. Or what if we started this podcast or this apostolate?
00:05:57
Speaker
And I think it was the Holy Spirit, but I was like, you guys, if you want to do something, now is the time. You know, you have to start and you have to take this leap because you can't just keep talking about these ideas. And that was that. That was kind of, I don't know exactly what our expectations were. I can tell you that I did not think this would be my husband's full-time job. I did not think it was going to
00:06:21
Speaker
take off the way that it did. But I just wanted to go for it and give it our all and just see what happened. And so
Impact of Saints Alive on Families
00:06:28
Speaker
we prayed about it for the summer and we decided that a podcast would be the best medium to try to reach people right now, the easiest way to do it remotely on a small budget. And yeah, the rest is just kind of history.
00:06:42
Speaker
I feel like we have a similar story in always bouncing these ideas back and forth. And in the last couple years, we've kind of gotten to that point where we're like, we have to just get at it and try something and see if God takes it and makes it fruitful or if it's just something we had to try out and get out of the way.
00:07:06
Speaker
But also I love that you guys chose a podcast format and we came across the Saints Alive podcast shortly after you guys launched it and it has so much depth and beauty to it. It's so engaging for them and they have just really loved it. They take all the Saints stories and reenact them as they play and it's been so fruitful for our family.
00:07:29
Speaker
Oh, that's great. That's amazing. Well, I think that children really enjoy storytelling and listening to stories. I mean, I'm sure many children, just like ours, they love hearing bedtime stories and being told stories and they always want to read or be read too. And so the podcast itself, the Saints Alive podcast, really brings some of these really positive stories and these conversations around the saints and really makes it real for children in a world where there's just so much other content that they could be consuming, which is probably not very productive to their Catholic faith.
00:07:57
Speaker
And so it's an honor to have, you know, those stories be brought into the household. And frankly, we learn a lot from them because we're going around doing our normal household work and chores and running the farm and homestead. And then in the background, we hear the Saints Alive podcast. And I'm like, Oh, I didn't know that about that saying that's really interesting. And then my children lecture me about it because now they know more than I do. That's awesome. That's so great.
Listener Feedback and Inspiring Stories
00:08:22
Speaker
So in general, you know, obviously we provide a testimonial for the Saints Alive podcast. Has that been the general consensus and the feedback you all have received? Has there been, you know, really good stories or positive comments that you've received back about it or what's kind of been the general consensus?
00:08:37
Speaker
Yeah, it's been crazy. It's such a blessing to hear the stories that have come out from families listening all the way from like a woman who contacted us to let us know that she's converting to Catholicism after listening to the podcast, which was just
00:08:54
Speaker
That was, yeah, that really floored us. We were like, I guess we're doing something kind of important. But no, it was, I mean, it's all glory to God. And, you know, he's blessed this postulate. It's his hand and we can't take the credit. And these are his stories of his saints. But the there has been so much amazing feedback. We have this, you know, Melissa can go through them too. But there's this one picture that we received from this family of this girl kneeling down in
00:09:24
Speaker
like the dirt outside her house, praying a rosary on her knees after listening to Saint Joan of Arc, just because she was inspired to pray the rosary by herself for the first time. And it's just so amazing. And then, yeah, Melissa, do you have anything else that you want to... No, I mean, the message is it's really humbling. And I can say with certainty that I think that is what kept us going. Starting this has been...
00:09:52
Speaker
probably one of the hardest things I've ever done. It's been so much fun and such an adventure.
00:10:00
Speaker
but long, painful hours working and not knowing exactly how we're gonna make ends meet or make a go of it. And things are finally, I feel like we're finally getting our head up of water and figuring all of this out. But it's really those messages that kept us going and kept us inspired and kept us focused, not on our own success, but just on that original call to move hearts to Christ.
00:10:26
Speaker
Yeah, what a blessing. It's that's absolutely amazing. I generally figure that the feedback was pretty positive, but I'm sure that the stories that you all are receiving are incredibly heartwarming and probably overwhelming in some capacities and.
00:10:42
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sure it's absolutely amazing. Just talking to friends of ours that I've introduced to the podcast and hearing how it's been such a hit like it's an automatic. Yeah, our family loves it. And they're just automatically drawn into
00:10:59
Speaker
being subscribed and waiting for the next podcast. It's very naturally welcoming into the home, I think. That's awesome. So as you guys have been writing these stories and recording them, are there any saints that have their stories have really stood out to you and your family and really impacted your faith?
Deepening Personal Faith through Storytelling
00:11:19
Speaker
Yeah, it's funny. I kind of recently, I was just talking about this with somebody else, but I actually always struggled with the Saints growing up and really until we started this podcast.
00:11:30
Speaker
I grew up homeschooled and my mom would read a saint's stories, but I was intimidated by the saints for the first 29 years of my life. I just felt like I couldn't relate to them and people that had all these devotions, I was like, man, I don't get it. I'm not holy enough for these saints.
00:11:52
Speaker
You know, the Lord has just like worked through that and destroyed my perception of who the saints were in a beautiful way. And I think, I don't know. I mean, I feel like every saint we do, I'm like, that's my new favorite. But I think Saint Josephine Bequita is someone I didn't know her story. And I was able to write that script through a time where my extended family was kind of in crisis and reading her words of
00:12:19
Speaker
the meaning behind suffering and it was just such a comfort to me at that time and her story is just incredible. So that would be mine. I don't know what yours is. Yeah, I feel like the same effect happens like after every episode we do. I'm like, oh my gosh, it's my new favorite one. But I think for me, the perception that I always had of the saints was like,
00:12:42
Speaker
Yeah, like they're the people on the stained glass windows and kind of like this untouchable level of holiness. But what's so beautiful about diving into the lives of these amazing people is that they were people and they were human and they had faults and childhood and they grew into their faith. Some of the most amazing saints weren't
00:13:09
Speaker
Even born Catholic, they were all sinners who chose holiness. I think diving into their lives just helps kids look at them, it helps us all look at them and really be inspired because it wasn't like they were just on automatic holiness the entire time of their life. They really took struggle and work and they had
00:13:37
Speaker
Yeah, they had a journey. And so that's been really inspiring to me as someone who is also on a journey trying to do his best, you know, getting his family to heaven. But the I guess the story that really sticks out to me, there's a couple of them, like I have a couple of favorites. I think St. Thomas More, St. Padre Pio and St. Joseph are ones I always keep coming back to as some of my favorites, just because they're just these
00:14:03
Speaker
Yeah, just the amazing men of faith and each of them had to meet incredible challenges in their lives and they did it with such grace and courage. And yeah, those are a few of my favorites right there.
00:14:17
Speaker
Yeah, I kind of relate to what you guys are saying. I'm actually a convert to Catholicism and whenever I first started learning about the faith, I had a sense that the saints were actually really present to me and I had never
00:14:33
Speaker
I grew up Protestant and I had heard some of the most famous saints, like their names in passing, but I never really understood the concept of saints and I had never really heard anyone's stories.
Connecting with Saint Padre Pio
00:14:48
Speaker
But in my period of discerning conversion,
00:14:54
Speaker
was just very inspired by the saints lives and how committed to death they were to the faith and it was something that I remember being present at that point and then I don't remember very much thought or interaction or learning about the saints up until the last couple years
00:15:14
Speaker
And of course, through your guys's podcast, again, they have helped listening to their stories. It really has also given me the concept that they were people just like me and just like the people I know. And it helps me to visualize
00:15:31
Speaker
my own journey towards heaven. I will say that I really appreciated St. Padre Pio's episode. I have heard a little bit about him through the years, and he is obviously a very bold personality, and I appreciated that. He also might have scared me a little bit from his boldness. But through your guys' story, I felt pretty connected to him, and it was right around that time
00:16:00
Speaker
I was having some health issues and ended up in the hospital one day and my priest brought me a relic of Saint Padre Pio and blessed me with it and I was like wow it was it kind of felt like Padre Pio came to me and he gave me comfort and solace and also
00:16:21
Speaker
a lot of courage because that was a pretty trying and scary time for our family. But I did love that episode and I love hearing his story.
00:16:32
Speaker
Wow. That's powerful. I mean, and I, that's, I actually had the same kind of knee jerk view with him for some reason. I don't really know why. Um, like I think honestly, you know, you can't really talk to, I have an Italian half family and I think that like the many Italians just hike, they like, you know, really love Padre Pio to the point of just being like, if you don't know who Padre Pio is, like shame on you.
00:17:01
Speaker
And I think there's some sort of like kind of like cultural knee jerk that's like been, you know, smashed across my face throughout my life or something with that. And so I had like this kind of fear when it came to his story, but I don't even know where it came from, but it's so, I mean, he is intense. He's like, he is an intense Saint. I just, yeah, after doing his story and learning about him, like I have just,
00:17:28
Speaker
Yeah, I've really grown so much closer to him and yeah, and his courage and his intensity. I had the same sort of... Well, I think if you hear his story without the broader picture of like God's mercy,
00:17:45
Speaker
And his love that is so much bigger. You're just going to remember like he was attacked and he had the stigmata and a lot of suffering and parts that were filled with you know, scary parts, but that was a tough story to tell because
00:18:03
Speaker
You know, we really don't want to dumb these stories down, but we also don't want to scare kids. So it's always that fine line. But I'm glad, I don't know, I'm glad that that struck you and that's beautiful that you were brought a relic. That's really powerful.
Researching Saints' Stories
00:18:18
Speaker
It does make me think how you're looking back on a lot of history for the saints across all types of generations and time periods. What does the process look like for going out and researching a saint's story and then figuring out a way of kind of compiling it into a story that is easily accessible by children or even adults?
00:18:38
Speaker
Yeah, it's not easy. I think we're learning as we do it. We started with the more popular saints, initially like Saint Valentine, Saint Patrick, and we know some about their life, but a lot of it is legend, which was kind of fun. But now that we've gotten into, I'm writing our JP2 script, and you can just so easily become so burdened with all of the facts and the details and
00:19:07
Speaker
what we've kind of realized is that what we need to do is tell the story of their heart and that's what needs to drive the story. So, I mean, we could spend years researching just one saint, but we would drive ourselves crazy and we would never make anything. So, we usually just try to find a couple books and stick to those. And obviously, you know, we have a fact checker and a theology checker and we try to
00:19:29
Speaker
stay true to everything that happened but also just letting the heart of that saint drive the story because otherwise we'll just be bogged down by research. Yeah, I always imagine that that is probably a really challenging aspect of it. I'm sure it involves a lot of prayer and guidance and support because you're right, these stories are so big because these people's commitment to God was so big.
00:19:54
Speaker
And it's worthy of being told and shared and hopefully those stories are continuing to be used around the world through all of history in order to inspire others to live more committed to God and through their Catholic faith.
Podcast's Impact on Family Spirituality
00:20:08
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:20:09
Speaker
So how has, obviously, you have the Saints Alive podcast, which I'm sure takes up an enormous amount of time through research and production and recording and conversations and promotion and all kinds of facets of running that organization effectively. How has running and developing the Saints Alive podcast changed your Catholic house and your family's lives? Yeah, it's really been an inspiring process for us as well because
00:20:38
Speaker
I think we mentioned, yeah, we knew about the saints obviously as Catholics, but we just, we were never as connected to them as we are now.
00:20:49
Speaker
We really started this podcast out of like another point of inspiration to start it was having our son and wanting to give him content that we knew he trusted and that we knew it was going to inspire his faith and bring him closer to Christ. And he's young, he's only three, but he asks for these stories like every day too, which is really, really amazing. So he's growing up and
00:21:17
Speaker
he'll be able to listen to these, you know, powerful stories of the faith. And I wish that when I was a kid, like, you know, I had such a respect and amazement with the saints as he's going to be able to grow up with listening to these stories. So it's really helped us in our, you know,
00:21:36
Speaker
kind of our strict selfish terms here. Like it's really helped us get him to look to the faith in a, you know, inspiring, adventurous way. And yeah, like it's definitely challenged us as like the more that we've dived into learning about the saints and their lives, it's just constantly brought us inspiration as well. Like I think like every time Melissa is diving into the research and doing
00:22:01
Speaker
there's not one time it goes by where she's like, wow, did you know so and so did this? And did you know this happened and this miracle? And they helped get this thing done in the church. And so there's been so many moments when we've just been so inspired by the saints ourselves in doing this. And yeah, it's just been a gift.
Personal Growth and Marriage Strengthening
00:22:24
Speaker
It's all around. It's been a sacrifice. Yes, it's been really difficult to do this project.
00:22:30
Speaker
But at the end of the day, it's been an amazing gift to ourselves spiritually and also to to our very young family. So yeah, I think the other huge part about this outside of the content that we're making is just
00:22:48
Speaker
I think that it has been really good for our marriage and our family. Alex likes to say that I have a vice grip on control and I've had to slowly let go of that. Like I said, I was a pediatric nurse before we started this and I'm very practical and I like things to be controlled and planned out.
00:23:13
Speaker
That's not always the case in production. And that's not always the case when you take the leap and start your own business. So that's been really, really beautiful for us and just embracing our marriage and family life as less controlled and just more as an adventure together. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you find that the saints alive podcast is being played throughout your house on repeat?
00:23:39
Speaker
Yes, that does happen sometimes. Sometimes it's the only way we can get work done. We released the first episode of our podcast and I think I've heard it probably a dozen times at this point in the house because the children just want to continue to listen to it. That's awesome.
00:24:00
Speaker
So I guess aside from just the conversations about the Saints or the Saints Alive podcast in the house, are there any other particular Catholic traditions or celebrations that are uniquely important to the way that your Catholic home is operated and run? Yeah, we end every day with a family rosary. Melissa and I, you know, we'll start praying generally, James or
00:24:23
Speaker
our daughter will be awake or falling asleep and then they'll fall asleep during the rosary. But yeah, we do that every day. And that's really like the only thing, I mean, that's one of the, I don't know, we've had a lot of, yeah, really difficult days with getting production done. And yeah, me taking the leap to do this full time from, you know, leaving a full-time ministry job that I,
00:24:48
Speaker
could have just stayed in and remained comfortable, but it was just not where I was being called to be. And making that leap was really difficult for me. I just wanted to, you know, as a father, like I'm just so focused on providing stability. And I felt like that was it was
Balancing Prayer Routine with Family Life
00:25:06
Speaker
a leap. But the rosary is something that we have plugged into and really try to stay committed to as a daily daily thing that we do.
00:25:16
Speaker
Yeah, we keep trying to add new habits like daily mass and confession and we keep failing and trying again, but I think
00:25:30
Speaker
Alex is a very disciplined person. And so he's great at holding us accountable to that nightly rosary, no matter how late or how tired. And we just keep trying and failing and trying and failing at all the other things. Yeah. There are nights when the rosary isn't quite as focused as it should be. So we're just so tired and maybe one of us is sleeping. Maybe one of us is falling asleep during it, but, but yeah. Yeah. We try and keep to that.
00:25:54
Speaker
The rosary for us is one that I think, at least for myself, I really have had to change my expectations on what the rosary looks like being prayed in a household with small children. Yeah, yeah. I think I always wanted it to be very, I think just like anyone else, you have this vision of what holiness looks like in a lot of your prayerful activities, liturgical activities. All, there's a vision for what those should look like and really how your children should behave and how you want to be presented in them as well. Right.
00:26:23
Speaker
I suspect and believe that as I grow older and am completely humbled by raising children and simply the vocation of marriage that I recognize that those expectations are kind of silly in some ways and that we have these amazing people, the saints and those around us who often are exhibiting holiness in ways and we can look to them for inspiration but ultimately
00:26:47
Speaker
A lot of it is just continuing to persevere knowing that it's going to be messy and not look exactly how I think it should look, but ultimately we're moving towards God. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's in the struggle that, you know, we can find a lot of beauty and just like, I'm going to choose right now to pray and lift this prayer up as messy as it is to God. And he'll see, and he'll do with it as he sees fit. Absolutely.
Building a Strong Catholic Home
00:27:16
Speaker
From your guys' experience just in your marriage and as your family has continued to grow, would you be able to offer any advice to other people that are just starting out in marriage and starting their families on good ways to build a strong foundation for a Catholic home?
00:27:35
Speaker
I think that we had kind of like your typical newly married Catholic, maybe it's not typical. We had a rough first six months of our marriage. It was beautiful and fun, but we were at this crossroads where I wanted to leave LA and Alex didn't, and we were just kind of butting heads on careers and plans and things like that. And
00:27:58
Speaker
I think ultimately it was just like realizing that this wasn't about what Alex wanted, it wasn't about what I wanted, and it was about what God wanted, which is so fundamental to marriage. It's kind of embarrassing that we didn't realize that initially, but I think as far as advice, it's just truly offering up
00:28:16
Speaker
your plans and God's will for your life to him and just letting him take it from there and realizing that it really is supposed to be an adventure. We look at the lives of these saints and not one is the same, you know, and good luck finding a boring saint story because they just don't exist.
00:28:35
Speaker
And in marriage, we're all called to St. Hood and we're called to help our spouse get to heaven. And that is going to be an adventure. And I'm sure you guys experienced this starting your own homestead, just taking that leap and knowing that it wasn't going to be the picket fence in the nine to five. There's going to be bumps in the road and
00:28:58
Speaker
things that you couldn't plan for, but if you place your trust in God and just give it up to him together, I think that that's the best thing you can do.
00:29:07
Speaker
Yeah. And I think there's a quote that we come back to a lot that we heard from one of our friends and they heard it from, I think a priest during a homily. I don't really know. I can't fully say where this quote came from, but it's a good one. And it's, there are two types of marriages, hard marriages and impossible marriages. That really struck us because like, I think that there's this idea out there that like,
00:29:35
Speaker
Everything that's good should be easy in our kind of instantaneous world and culture that we now live in. Marriage is a lot of work and it's
00:29:47
Speaker
such a beautiful sacrifice to partake in together, but it's never easy to make the sacrifices that are necessary sometimes. It's easy to do it because you can look at the person next to you and know that you are so in love with them, but the
00:30:07
Speaker
The actual, I think, meat and potatoes of some of the day-to-day things that are necessary in marriage, if you're not looking at it as a call to sacrifice and you're just looking at it as hard, your marriage will become impossible because you're not going to be able to make those sacrifices for the person out of love. And so that's been something that we've really come to a lot is that like,
00:30:34
Speaker
You know, when the days are hard, it's like, yes, it is, and I love you. And that is the thing that we come back to a lot. Yeah, and I just think that we look at that as like an adventure. I just think that if more marriages looked at each other as like, how do I sacrifice adventurously for you today? There'd be a way, if we can all go through that kind of mental shift,
00:31:00
Speaker
Marriages would be a lot stronger. And it's something that we, I think, we had a great, you know, dating relationship. We never fought once. And then we got engaged and we fought like every other day, almost every day, because there's just something that happens when kind of like, yeah, the rings go on the finger and life gets real, real fast. But it's also like the greatest adventure.
00:31:27
Speaker
Yeah, that's something that we really worked on a lot is to sacrifice adventureously for each other.
00:31:34
Speaker
Well, I think that's together in both your comments, there are incredible reminders of the trust, the mercy, all the things that we should attribute to God and really maybe even our position on earth, which is in some ways simply to submit to whatever he asks us to do without hesitation, without reservation.
Final Thoughts on Marriage and Adventure
00:31:53
Speaker
The saints' stories proclaim that theme throughout many of their lives and the way that their stories are told.
00:31:59
Speaker
And you're right, marriage is not easy. And I think that for many people, it's become really scary to even consider marriage. And so to hear about the perseverance needed and the trust needed and all the faith aspects of being married now, especially for someone who's discerning marriage or just starting marriage and thinking, hey, this is not like dating. That's really powerful. And those are great reminders. So thank you to both of you for that.
00:32:30
Speaker
Well, if someone wanted to follow along with the saints alive podcast or was interested in supporting the saints alive podcast, where would they go? They would go to saints alive podcast.com. And yeah, we're also on any podcast platform. So Apple podcasts or Spotify or anything like that.
00:32:49
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Apple, Spotify. Saints Alive Podcast. Saints Alive Podcast. Yeah. If you just like search Saints Alive, it'll pop up in whatever podcast platform you like to choose. But yeah, saintsalivepodcast.com is a great place to go to.
00:33:04
Speaker
Wonderful. Well, we really appreciate both of you taking time out of your day. We wish you well, and we thank you for the work that you do in bringing the saint stories to our children and many children and households throughout the world. So thank you both. Thank you so much for having us. Have a great day. Bye bye. You too. Thank you for joining us on another episode of the Little Way Farm and Homestead Podcast. Check out the show notes for more information about this episode and be sure to tune in next week.