Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
ARP 014 - Faith and Parenting while Working from Home
87 Plays3 years ago
We can all agree parenting is not an easy job! In this episode, I am joined by my colleague, Sunny Gault. Sunny shares with us how she juggles parenting while working from home - all these while also podcasting! Sunny also shares with us how she came to know Jesus as her personal Lord and Savior.
Sunny's channels:
Website:
https://www.sunnygault.com
http://www.newmommymedia.com
Twitter: @newmommymedia
Instagram: @newmommymedia
Facebook: @newmommymedia
Connect with me via the following platforms:
Website: www.abovepreciousrubies.com
Twitter: @AboveRubiesBlog
Instagram: @AboveRubiesBlog
Facebook: @Above Rubies Blog
Recommended
Transcript
Navigating Parenting with Faith
00:00:00
Speaker
And I think God's saying, why do you have to figure that out? Why haven't you come back to what I said? If you stay grounded in me, I will take care of that for you. We know how hard it is to parent kids, especially in this digital age.
00:00:27
Speaker
Sometimes people can be very hard on you and your parenting style. And if you allow these comments to affect you, you can really go haywire. Now that's one. Imagine how hard it is when you're not only parenting but also working from home.
Introduction to Above Ruby's Podcast
00:00:48
Speaker
In this episode of Above You, this podcast, we'll welcome our guest, Sunny Gold. We'll be talking about working from home with kids, and we'll also be talking about how our faith can affect how we parent our children.
00:01:09
Speaker
Thank you for listening above Ruby's podcast, created by a mom for every mom and parents for that matter, embracing parenthood and sanity. Here to help you get by through weekly discussions and parenting, relationships, home and faith as you juggle daily in life.
00:01:36
Speaker
Welcome to Above Ruby's podcast, where we talk about marriage, faith, parenting, relationship, and sanity. I am your host, Lynn, and with me right is Sunny Galt, who is my colleague at Zencaster. She's someone I look up to and someone I consider a coach in podcasting. In fact, we just had a quick one-on-one session about podcasting before we recorded this. And we just ended our team meeting. Actually, we left early.
00:02:05
Speaker
How are you, Sunny? I'm good. Thanks for inviting me to be on your show, Lynn. Thank you for squeezing your time for me. So we both know that we're both working from home, thanks to Zancaster. And we're doing that with kids on the side. But I'm curious, how long have you been working from home?
Sunny's Transition from Media to Home Content Creation
00:02:24
Speaker
Oh my goodness. Well, for a very long time. I'm trying to do the math in my head.
00:02:31
Speaker
I used to work for radio and TV stations. That's kind of how I got my start. So I went to school for that. And then about the time that I got married, so when I married my husband, I had to move to where he was. We were actually doing the long distance.
00:02:47
Speaker
relationship thing. Yeah. And that's the story in itself. But he was here in California where I live now. And at the time I was working at a TV station in Washington state. So it was still like I was at the top of the country. He was at the bottom of the country. And so when I moved to San Diego where we live now,
00:03:10
Speaker
Again, he was already here and I started freelancing and doing some work for the local TV stations here. And then I just felt like it wasn't a good fit. You know, I love media. I've been doing media my whole life. I knew from a very early age that that was my skill set. That's what I just love to do.
00:03:28
Speaker
But I never really felt like television was it, or radio was it. I felt like I guess I had this idea that there was something else, which obviously there's the internet now, but the internet really was not a thing back then, right? And so I started freelancing and then
00:03:46
Speaker
YouTube, someone created YouTube and I went, well now that's interesting, right? I was like, oh my goodness, you mean kind of dive into what you said earlier, Lynn, about us working from home. I was like, you mean I can create content in my pajamas while I'm raising my kids and I have the best of both worlds because in the television world,
00:04:08
Speaker
You have to be so committed to working and you work on holidays and if you don't want to do it, there's someone right behind you that's ready to take your place. It's a horrible feeling, honestly.
00:04:24
Speaker
Like a camaraderie, you know, it's not like a group that supports each other Yeah, maybe there's some I don't want to generalize but generally speaking the higher you climb up the ladder the more cutthroat it is and I just didn't want that I just that's just not me. I just don't operate that way and so YouTube was really my first opportunity to start creating content from home and I started doing less and less of the freelance work where I was
00:04:53
Speaker
getting paid x amount of dollars per day i would go into the tv stations and i'd be a reporter i do whatever and i started doing less and less of that and more and more of the stuff online and it got to a point where we were uh trying to start a family and i was like well why am i going to get a job now
00:05:12
Speaker
That doesn't make a lot of sense. What if they just let me go once they find out I'm pregnant? It took us, it ended up taking us a couple years to get pregnant. But that was my idea. I was like, well, that's silly. Why would I do that? Now I can produce this stuff from home. So why don't I try to figure out how to make a career doing this online stuff while I'm pregnant, while I'm, you know, in those early stages. And anyways, that's how I started working online.
Balancing Work, Family, and Hectic Schedules
00:05:39
Speaker
Oh, that's really awesome. And yeah, I mean, with the company we're working at now, you won't really feel that. What you described, you don't feel threatened that you won't have a job the following day or week. So that's really nice. What does Sunny's actual day look like? This sounds like a digital nomad interview. This is becoming more and more of a digital nomad interview.
00:06:08
Speaker
For those of you who don't know what that is, that is the podcast that we're working on now for Zencaster and it interviews all of the people that work for Zencaster and tells the story of Zencaster. Well, as far as what my day looks like, it is insane. It is a balance of at least between five and 10 different things.
00:06:29
Speaker
And my kids are, I have four kids. They range between age 10. My oldest son is 10. Then I have another son who's eight. And then I have twin girls that are seven. And right now, they're learning from home right now, right? Because of COVID. But they were on this kind of schedule where they would go to school sometime during the day and they'd be home for a part of the time as well.
00:06:54
Speaker
But it's a lot to manage, right? So I have to try to keep them on track when they do have to go to school. It's tough because I got to drop my schedule. You know, whatever meetings I have planned or whatever, I got to go do that and then I got to come back. So that's just one facet of my day is older now, but they still need me a lot. Like I'm sure while we do this interview, I'm going to have like at least five times a kid is going to come in here and need something, right?
00:07:20
Speaker
And your audience understands what that's like. So that's just one facet of my, obviously Zencaster plays a big role in it as well. So I am working on different podcasts for Zencaster. I am going back and forth on social media with everybody.
00:07:37
Speaker
And then, so I do that throughout the day, but I feel like, and my schedule really does need to be revamped a little bit because I do have other projects like my own podcast that I work on and running all of that. And I'll be honest, I end up having a very strange work schedule where
00:07:58
Speaker
There's really not set times for set things because I do have to be kind of fluid, but there may be days that I'm working really, really late and days that I'm up really, really early working on something. And I just try to make it all fit. I'm not sure it's the best for health purposes. I do drink an abnormal amount of coffee, which probably isn't the best thing for me.
00:08:20
Speaker
But yeah, it is a constant balance, you know, just trying to find that balance between being a mom and having all these projects. But it's also a huge blessing because I get to enjoy my kids in a way that most people, you know, I don't have to, we do use babysitters and stuff like when my husband and I want to go out and have a date night or something like that. But really, like if my kids are sick, like we had this happen right before Thanksgiving break here in the US.
00:08:49
Speaker
The kids had some time off from school and one of my kids started to feel sick and the schools right now, if you feel sick at all, you have to stay home. Well, I thought he was just going to be home for like a day and then I contacted the school and I said, oh, he has a little bit of a sore throat. And they said, oh, it's an automatic 10 days out if he even has a sore throat.
00:09:10
Speaker
Yeah. And then they're worried about COVID, right? Oh, wow. Really? Oh my goodness. It wasn't a huge... I was more concerned about A, how does this impact the attendance schedule from... You know what I mean? Because my son has perfect attendance and he really stresses out about that. He really wants perfect attendance. I'm like, oh my gosh, what's going to happen with that? But the schools went through and this year they're not holding people to attendance at all. That doesn't count against you at all because of this.
00:09:37
Speaker
But yeah, it was an automatic 10 days out and then his siblings, my other children were impacted by this as well because they lived with him. So I went from having a kid wake up with a sore throat that I thought was going to be, okay, maybe we'll just keep him home for this one day to having four kids out for 10 days. Now, how would I have been able to handle that with a regular job? What if I had a job where I had to go in every day?
00:10:02
Speaker
Yes. I know. I'm going to take care of the kids. Hopefully, it doesn't sound like I'm complaining because I think I am so blessed to be able to do what I do and be here with my kids and also be able to support my family and do that kind of stuff. But I think for all of us, it's all a challenge. We're living in uncertain times.
00:10:22
Speaker
Yeah. And like most things with parenting, you kind of just have to do what I call rolling with the punches. Like if you get hit, you know, you roll with the punch, you go back with the punch or to the side with the punch, you don't go against it. You don't want to hurt yourself anymore.
Overcoming Parenting Challenges at Home
00:10:36
Speaker
Right. So you roll with the punches. And I remember during one of our
00:10:40
Speaker
I mean, when you showed your screen, because we have a behind the screen segment during all hands meeting at work, and you kind of mentioned sometimes you spend 16 hours of your time on your computer. So I was like, wow, Sunny's really working really, really hard.
00:11:01
Speaker
Yeah, and I think a lot of that is because, again, I don't want to sound like I'm complaining, but if my kids come in and need something, you know what it's like? It's a mental shift. It's like, oh, I have to stop doing what I'm doing right now. I've got to shift my attention to my child. And then it can take a little bit of time to get back into a rhythm with your work.
00:11:21
Speaker
Right? Exactly. And I find that to probably be one of the biggest struggles that I have is I feel like I'm 42 years old. I feel like I'm getting to the point where I start forgetting things a little bit more. Like, what was I doing? I was doing something. And then my son came in and needed something. And then, you know what I mean? I'm trying to get back on track to where I was. So anyways, that's one of the things that I'm working on is a little bit more of the time management. But yeah, you just started
00:11:48
Speaker
feeling that I'm already I'm 32 and I already I'm already forgetting a lot of things that might be just mommy brain there's a difference between mommy brain and oh this is what getting older is really like
00:12:03
Speaker
Okay, I take note of that. But yeah, I mean, yeah, I agree with you. And now that you're talking about that, I kind of appreciate that I work at night. And then I don't get to, you know, my attention is full with work because when my son is awake, he also needs my attention. Yeah, totally.
00:12:25
Speaker
Okay, looking at it at a different angle. Yeah, and now let's talk about your kids or let's talk about kids in general. We know that they have different personalities. Do you ever have to deal with sibling rivalry, especially that you have twins? And of course, you have cute twins, beautiful twins, or mini-mes, sunny mini-mes. They are.
00:12:49
Speaker
They are, thank you for that. Yes, do I have to deal with sibling rivalry? I joke with my children that I am a referee. That is my part-time job or it feels like a full-time job, right? I am there to determine who did what and why and how do we resolve this and how do we prevent this from happening again? That is like one of my full-time jobs that I do.
00:13:13
Speaker
And it's frustrating. And one of the things that I'm starting to do, and the jury is out as to whether or not this is a good thing, I'm hoping it's a good thing, but I started putting it back on my kids. I started saying, okay, you guys are fighting about time on the computer.
00:13:30
Speaker
I need you guys to go into a room and come up with a compromise on what is going to work and then you come out and you present it to me and I'll tell you if I think that's fair. Because I don't have the mental capacity to go through all these cases every day and figure it out. And I'm trying to teach them that it's not always gonna go their way. It's not always this person wins or that person wins. A lot of times in life it's a compromise.
00:14:00
Speaker
And they've got to start figuring this stuff out on their own. I cannot be the mediator for every single problem that happens because with four kids, they are all upset about something at some point during the day, you know? And it's like, I'm dealing with my own stuff. You have got to figure this out yourself. So I've started to do that a little bit more. And if they can't come up with a compromise, then nobody gets what they want.
00:14:25
Speaker
So, that's the incentive. Work on this, figure it out, present it to me, and I'll tell you if that's going to work. Because the other thing that I have to do too is, especially with the twins, I find that one usually just gives the other person everything. They're just like, okay, she just gets it all. I'm like, no, no, no, no. You need to stand up for yourself a little bit here.
00:14:48
Speaker
I didn't notice that. Yeah, it happens. Yeah, it can totally happen. And it just depends on their personalities. Like my one daughter doesn't like to fight about stuff. She doesn't want to see her sister upset. They've got a very close relationship, so she is a very feely person. She doesn't want to see her sister upset, so she'll just cave. And I'm like, you can't do that all the time in life. You cannot let people just come in here and run you over. So what is it that you want? What is it she wants? Discuss this.
00:15:18
Speaker
figure out a solution and then you can come tell me what that is and I'll let you know what I think. That's awesome. I do a sibling rivalry all the time.
00:15:29
Speaker
all the time. You know, there's a funny, well, it's not a joke because it happens in the Philippines where the moms who get tired of their kids fighting over, they just go to the kitchen and grab some knife and just give them the knife. Okay, you kill each other, kill each other, do what you need to do and I'm done. Yeah. But yeah, I think that that's a really good idea if I ever have another child.
00:15:55
Speaker
I might do that, but I don't know yet. You have to wait until they're a certain age, right? You can't do this with toddlers. There comes a point where you have just, you know, in those kinds of situations, I have to do this with my middle son because again, he's a pretty emotional kid. And so he gets upset really easily. And I will have to, you know, kind of talk to him a little bit differently. And I'll have to give him choices. So I may start it off and be like,
00:16:20
Speaker
You're having trouble deciding, you know, what's going on here. Do you want to do this or do you want to do this? And I usually keep it to two different options. Do you do this? Do you do that? And then it's like, because what he does is he gets frustrated because there's too many things he could choose or whatever. So I'm helping him by narrowing it down.
00:16:38
Speaker
And then usually, he's okay. So I say that just to say, obviously every child is different. There may be some kids that you cannot say go into a room and figure it out. But I know, especially with my twins, they are around each other 24 seven. They know each other super duper well. They were born, they literally lived, they were born the same minute. I had a C-section and they came out, one came out at the top of the minute, the other one came out at the bottom of the minute.
00:17:04
Speaker
Oh my gosh, can you even tell? What about the birthright? Well, the one girl did come out 30 seconds before the other one, so we still say that she was born first. But the point being is that they have always been together, always been together.
00:17:20
Speaker
And so I know insane to them you guys figure this out. They're the same. They're identical twins So they're the same size everything I can send them into a room I can say figure it out and I know that will work if I try to send like my daughter in with my oldest son Is that gonna work as well? And you know, I don't know if I have enough information to be able to say that So all that to say that every kid is a little bit different You may not be able to do that with all your kids, but maybe it's an option. I
00:17:46
Speaker
Yeah, that's nice. That's good. And well, with your twins, because I've seen them during meetings, I really cannot tell who's who. That's how identical they are.
Community Engagement and Faith Journey
00:17:58
Speaker
Coming up next, we talk about our faith and how it affects how we parent our children. Don't go away. We'll be right back.
00:18:06
Speaker
For your daily dose of inspirational proverbs, visit us on Facebook and Instagram. Simply search above Ruby's blog. Want to know more about podcasting and connect with podcast virtual assistants? Join us in our exclusive Facebook group. Simply search PodcastBAsPhilippines.
00:18:23
Speaker
Okay, so let's talk about your faith. When did you come to know Christ as your Lord and Savior? Did you grow up in a Christian home? I did grow up in a Christian home. I went to a private Christian school growing up until I was ready to go into sixth grade. And that's when I transferred over to public schools. But I was raised in the church. But I don't know that it really... There's a couple different milestones that I think back on. Going to a Christian school,
00:18:52
Speaker
they still wanted you to go through the process when you were ready of officially accepting Christ into your life. It was never a, we're just going to assume that you're all saved and you've asked. It was, if you want our help, we had chapel every Monday, so we'd have like a message and the whole church, well, it was a school, but it felt like a church. All the kids would get together and there would be some sort of message that they gave on Mondays and always ended with, if you want to ask Jesus into your heart,
00:19:21
Speaker
just go talk to one of your teachers and they will help lead you to Christ. And I never remembered doing it outside of making that choice in school. And it was kind of weighing on my heart, weighing on my heart. I think I was in first grade.
00:19:37
Speaker
And I decided today's the day I'm gonna do it. I felt like I was just kind of on my heart going, okay, Sunny, are you ready? You gotta make a commitment. Are you gonna do this? What are you gonna do? And I'll never forget it because my teacher, Mrs. Hirschman, it's so funny how you remember your teacher's names. Mrs. Hirschman, she had all of these kids up by her desk. Everybody wanted her for something.
00:20:03
Speaker
And I was a pretty shy student. And so I came up to her with my little shy voice and I just said, Mrs. Hirschman, I want to ask Jesus to be in my heart. And at first she didn't hear me.
00:20:20
Speaker
So I had to say it again. And I had to say a little bit louder, which was tough because there's all these kids up at the front, right? And so I said a little bit louder. And Lynn, do you know, she stopped everything she was doing. All of the kids asking her questions. She left her desk. She took my hand out into the hall and she prayed with me.
00:20:42
Speaker
And I'll never forget it. I mean, there was no video of it. So I have all these memories. You know, it can't be something you watched on video. There were no photos taken of this. I remember her praying with me. I think that's just something and I just got the chills now. I think that's something.
00:21:00
Speaker
God's just going to keep with me because I think that was the first time that I really reached out and accepted him. And I was like, this is something. It was my choice. No one forced me to do it. I'd been going to church for a long time by then. I know it's six, seven years old, but still, I'd been going to church for as long as I can remember. But I had not made that commitment.
00:21:21
Speaker
Yeah. And then, so that was the first time. But then you know how life goes. You know, I continued to go through the Christian school and then I went to public schools. I will say that the first, my family's church growing up really didn't do much for my walk overall with Christ. Like I didn't really connect with the church. But back then, you know, I mean, my whole family went there. It's not like I had an option to go to another church. I just, you know, I wasn't even thinking along those lines. I was just thinking, this is boring.
00:21:49
Speaker
I was like, we got to go to church every week. It was just boring. I would try to sleep in. It felt like a routine. A routine. That's exactly what it was. And I just wasn't connecting with anything. But I knew, looking back, I knew that God had a hold of me. I had accepted him in first grade. He knew that I was his. And I think sometimes you have to go through just, there's just so much happening when you're an adolescent.
00:22:18
Speaker
And sometimes it's hard to, anyway, we really didn't have a church that really talked about the power of the Holy Spirit, you know? And I think that makes all the difference in the world. I mean, if you're not just grabbing hold of the Holy Spirit every day and saying, lead me, guide me, I'm yours, then you can be taken on so many rabbit holes in your life. And I just, I didn't really have that. The church that we were going to just didn't really talk about the Holy Spirit. So it really wasn't until
00:22:46
Speaker
I was like my mid 20s. Oh, I know what it was. I was almost 25 because I remember thinking I'm a quarter of a century years old. I was 25 because I was moving around for my job. I was working at TV and radio stations and I have like two year contract here. And then I would move to another place and have a two year contract there. And so I was in Washington state.
00:23:13
Speaker
And I was trying to find a church, and the church that I found was a spirit-filled church. It was a four-square church, if anyone's familiar with four-square churches. I am, yeah. We have four-square churches here in the Philippines. That's what it was.
00:23:29
Speaker
And I had never been to a four square church before, but there was something about it that I was like, I think I'm supposed to be here. And in going to that church, they had a drama team and I'd always been involved in drama growing up in my life. And so I'm like, oh my goodness, you mean like my drama skills can be related to church? Like there was this light bulb that went off.
00:23:51
Speaker
I was like, that is so cool. I joined the church's drama team. I don't know if it was every Sunday or whatever, but we would get up and we would put on some sort of a scene from the Bible or whatever. I just loved it. It was like grabbing all of these things that were so important to me in my life and connecting them. I never really thought that
00:24:15
Speaker
Oh, God gave me these gifts. Of course he did, but I didn't go through that mental process of, you know why you like theater so much, Sunny? Because God gave you that. You're supposed to like that. That is something that you can use for God's glory. That wasn't something that, again, you go back to my church growing up, and we didn't talk about that kind of stuff.
00:24:36
Speaker
So it wasn't until I went to this four square church that I realized that I had been baptized as a baby, but I had not gone through the process of choosing to be baptized and making that commitment. And I feel like the Holy Spirit really just put it on my heart to say, this is something publicly you need to do because I have physically changed you. And this is an outward expression of what I've done in your heart. And now you need to go through this process again.
00:25:05
Speaker
So I did, and that set me on a ... I haven't been the same since, and that's when I was 25. I'm now 42. Yeah, life has never been the same.
00:25:14
Speaker
Nice. That's awesome. That's a wonderful testimony. Mine was a little bit different. I grew up in a Christian church too. I already shared it with you. I'm a pastor's kid. And there were doubts. I would accept Jesus now. And then, because I was too young, two years later, I would say, did I really accept Jesus wholeheartedly that time? And then I would do it again. I did that too. I'd pray that prayer. I did it several times.
00:25:41
Speaker
I did that too. I was like, oh, maybe I should do it again. Just in case you didn't hear that the first time, God, let me say that again. I think we all do that. Just in case it was not wholeheartedly prayed the last time. I'll say, I'll do it again. But yeah, it's awesome. And how has your faith affected the way you raise your kids now?
Faith's Role in Parenting
00:26:04
Speaker
Oh my goodness.
00:26:07
Speaker
It's always interesting. I never know how much to talk to them about this because my greatest fear is that my kids are going to feel about church the way I did growing up. I don't want it to become religion. I don't believe Jesus came to give us religion. He came to share.
00:26:25
Speaker
with us and to have a relationship with us. And I always want it to come back to how do we practice the principles of the Bible in our everyday lives? Because if you're just going to church and going through the motions, it doesn't mean anything.
00:26:41
Speaker
You know, just like, you know, sleeping in your garage doesn't make you a car. You know, you have to like, you have to fully embrace this and to do this, you can't separate your personal life from your spiritual life. It's all the same thing. And so I've started, now that they're a little bit older, I've started to talk to them a little bit more about stuff. Here's the big thing for parents, if you're trying to do this, don't suppress or don't hide what you're doing in the faith. Okay, so for example, yesterday,
00:27:10
Speaker
I really felt like I needed to put on praise and worship music and just praise God. Okay? So here I am in my little production studio here. I didn't have the speakers on my computer on, but I had my headphones on. I was the only person in the room. I shut the door. And that was just so I could concentrate because there was noise and stuff going on out there.
00:27:28
Speaker
And I mentioned my kid's son comes in and he saw me praising and worshiping. I didn't stop just because he came in. I'm not trying to hide anything. And he even asked me, he's like, Mommy, what are you doing? Well, Mommy's praising Jesus. I think our kids need to see that more.
00:27:45
Speaker
if you have regular time in the word every day, consider, now sometimes this doesn't work because of schedules and stuff, but consider making it a time that your kids can actually see what you're doing. It was recommended to me, I went to a, I think it was a mom's Christian group, mops, if you've ever heard of mops, we've got mops here in the United States, but it's mothers of preschoolers, but it's usually church-based, right? And so it was recommended
00:28:13
Speaker
that in your prayer time and in your Bible reading and study time, they said, you know, do it when your kids are awake. I know there's a temptation to do it when everyone's gone to sleep or whenever, you know, before anyone gets up. But they said, like, have like a little, either candle, it could be a fake candle or whatever, have that represent the Holy Spirit. And when the candle is lit, you just tell your kids, this is mommy's prayer time with Jesus. Okay, so when this candle is lit,
00:28:42
Speaker
You know, mommy's with Jesus and you can watch or if you want or, you know, do whatever you want to do, but don't interrupt mommy's time with Jesus. Now, that's not necessarily that you got to do it and you don't have to do in a separate room or whatever. But the whole point is like show them what you do. How are you incorporating this into your life?
00:29:00
Speaker
You know, another thing that I do is when my kids don't feel good, if they come to me, if they say they have a headache or whatever, the first thing we do is pray. I lay my hands on them and I said, well, we're going to pray. The first thing we're going to do is pray. And then I'll give you some ibuprofen, but first we're going to go to Jesus, who heals everybody. He is the author.
00:29:17
Speaker
of miracles and no matter what we're going through in life, we should always go to Jesus first. So that's what we do. I lay hands. I pray. I say, do you have anything that you want to tell Jesus right now? No, mommy, I'm okay or whatever. You know, sometimes they speak up, sometimes they don't, but we start to implement that. You know, if they have a bad dream, I pray over them. I pray out loud and I say, and I am very intentional about cursing evil spirits.
00:29:42
Speaker
I do that. I believe that we have the Holy Spirit and then there are demonic things out there in the spiritual realm that will try to attack us. So I speak against, I say, I break evil spirits, I bind them, I send them back to hell. I do all of that because I think that's one of the things, sometimes we
00:30:03
Speaker
We get scared to talk about spiritual stuff like this, but that's one of the things that I'm implementing in the conversations with my kids. They'll say they had a bad dream and my son was literally having demonic dreams. And that's how I knew that this was starting. And I was like, we are going to bind this. We're going to do whatever. And then, you know, the dreams went away. So I'm just, I just think that.
00:30:26
Speaker
Bottom line, whatever your rituals are that you do or habits or however you're worshiping, whatever you're doing with the Lord, let your kids see that. Let them know how important this is to you because they're like little sponges, right? We're teaching them everything. And so much of that is being said without even using words, right? They are just watching us.
00:30:49
Speaker
They're watching us and they are repeating what they're doing. So I'm just hoping that this is rubbing off on them. It has to be good for them to see this stuff as opposed to me feeling like I have to keep it separate for some reason. Yeah.
00:31:04
Speaker
That's awesome. Have they been curious about the Bible and all that? Have they started asking questions about Jesus? Oh, they asked me a lot of questions. Well, our family dog died. We had him for 13 years. He was our first baby. Again, my oldest son is only 10. So we had this dog for a really long time. Huge part of the family, little teacup poodle. And he died of old age. He had a stroke at the end and he passed away.
00:31:32
Speaker
And my daughters were, they just love this dog. They would pick this dog up all the time and, you know, dress him up. I mean, he was just everything to them. So we were very nervous about how to break the news about death. And I mean, it's not that they didn't know things died, but this was the first thing, first situation that they had where they really had to, we had to talk about dying.
00:31:58
Speaker
And I had to do a little bit of research, honestly. I had to kind of figure out, because the moment our dog died, we were handed this information. They talk about Rainbow Bridge that they call it, like where all dogs go when they die. And I don't like, you know, is that good theology? I don't know. But you know, so I had to do a little bit of research and I don't want to get too much into a theological debate here. But I do believe, I have a hard time believing that things that we
00:32:24
Speaker
loved so much, like people and animals and things like that in this earth aren't somehow represented in heaven. I have a hard time believing that God would just be like, nah, you know, we're done with that. Now you play a harp. I don't think that's what heaven is about. Okay. Obviously never been to heaven, whatever. But just my personal take on it is, honey, if you love this animal so much, I do believe that
00:32:46
Speaker
you're going to be back with this, Am. I do believe that Jesus is going to allow you to see Him again. And so it forced us to talk about this. And they've been asking a lot more questions, which I think is good. I think it's bad that we don't talk about something that for most of us is going to be inevitable, which is death.
00:33:05
Speaker
I think that's a bad thing when we're just like, oh, you're just being morbid and negative. No, like death is part of life. And if you're a Christian, you shouldn't be so scared of death because you have everlasting life. So why aren't we talking about this morbid? Because people should be more concerned about what they do in this life so they can go to the next, right?
00:33:27
Speaker
So anyways, I feel like they're asking a lot more questions since our dog passed away and they obviously love this dog to death. Like literally they love this dog to death. And so it's brought up a lot more conversation, but I get a lot of questions about spiritual things because when I pray over them and I cast away demons and stuff like that, then they'll ask me some follow up questions. We had this conversation the other day when I was, I think maybe someone wasn't feeling well. So I was praying over them.
00:33:53
Speaker
And it led to this whole conversation about demonic activity and what demons can do to you and whatever. And I had to have a heart to heart with all my kids. And I said, as long as you say, in the name of Jesus, leave, they cannot stay.
00:34:08
Speaker
But I didn't let them off easy. They said, can demons come into my dream? Yes, they can. I know they're seven. I understand their age, but I think the younger we can be honest with what's really happening here and also give them the authority, which Jesus has given us, to be able to cast those things out.
00:34:27
Speaker
This generation has to be raised up knowing who they are in Christ. We've done a pretty poor job, at least here in the US, we have done a pretty poor job of introducing that. And I think the church is suffering because of that. But Jesus has given us this authority to do things in His name. And the Bible tells us that if you say in the name of Jesus, they can't stand it. And I also tell them, when you read your Bibles, read it out loud, because the enemy cannot stand the Word of God.
00:34:55
Speaker
read it out loud, proclaim it, declare it, decree it, and it will happen. So these are the things that I teach. And the more I talk about it, the more questions they have, but that's good. I want them to ask questions. I don't want them to kind of roll their eyes and be like, oh, mom, mom's the Bible, some for at it again. Maybe someday they'll think that, but at least now I'm raising them to... At least now they're the one asking questions. Yes, so they do. They ask a ton of questions.
00:35:23
Speaker
That is awesome. My son asked questions too and I wouldn't want him to feel like he's being forced to go to church too and do the ministry unhappily because we all want to do it joyfully anyway.
00:35:43
Speaker
I mean, that's the thing is I think when it clicks for us and it clicks in different ways for different people. But once you realize what it's really about, you can't get enough of it. It is no longer a chore to do the things that just like I said yesterday, where I felt like I had to worship. I couldn't wait to leave what I was doing so I could worship.
00:36:03
Speaker
It wasn't a, man, I gotta do this now. It wasn't a to-do item. It was, I wanna spend time with Christ. This is my time for whatever reason. He's called me to do this now and I want to do this. So you just gotta figure out how is that gonna click for your kids? Sometimes we don't know. We can only share what we know, but I think obviously praying over your kids and praying that God leads them
00:36:31
Speaker
I know I had a lot of people praying over me when I was younger. And the choices that I've made, the way that I worship and the way that my relationship with Christ is actually very, very different than the rest of my family growing up. They still have more of, not that it's a bad thing, but they connected with Christ a little bit different way. That kind of church that's a little bit more reserved, it works for them, okay? And they're saved. Like there's nothing wrong with it. I just needed to go about it a different way.
00:37:00
Speaker
And so I think that's important to realize too, is just because someone doesn't go to the same, you know, as a part of the same denomination or whatever is you, they're still part of the body of Christ. And Jesus created us to be totally different. We're just different people. But when we come together as the body is when amazing things happen. And we've got to recognize that not everybody is ahead. Not everybody are the arms. Not everyone is, we all have our own, you know,
00:37:27
Speaker
we're all a little bit different and that's on that's by design, right? And yeah, I agree with you because like you don't really there are some churches they just say that they're the only ones who only their members get saved and that's just not the way it is like it doesn't matter where you go to as long as you have you know that you are eternally secured in Christ and you've accepted Him as your personal Savior just
00:37:53
Speaker
Pick wherever you feel like that's where God called you to do the ministry. That's where you're most helpful. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, I think you have to let the Holy Spirit lead you, you know? And it's like anything. When you first start doing something, it's going to feel weird, okay? But I think the more you pray into it, I mean, I made that decision again in first grade that I was going to follow Christ.
00:38:18
Speaker
Even though for most of my adolescent life we went to a church that I didn't connect with, it's not like God forgot about me.
00:38:25
Speaker
He knew that I'd get to a point where I would find the path that was best for me, where it really connected with my skill set and just everything kind of fit. I mean, it took a while, but we have to let them do that, you know, and they'll find it. That's awesome. That's really great. Wow. Look at that. We need another session about our faith.
00:38:51
Speaker
See, once I start talking, Lynn, you're like, shut up. Oh, my God. She keeps talking. One more thing. I have one more question. We know that the internet right now, we are now trying to raise kids in the digital age. And internet can be really scary. Do you have any advice on how we can make sure that they're watching or playing anything harmful or dangerous?
00:39:11
Speaker
I think, well, I, you know, and I mentioned this to you, Lynn, even before we started recording, I'm going through a bit of analysis right now of my own intake when it comes to what I'm seeing, what I'm hearing, what am I allowing into my life? That's something God's really been working with me on is, Sunny, what are the channels, if you will, that you're allowing to influence you?
Social Media Use and Family Impact
00:39:36
Speaker
Where is it coming from? Where is the noise coming from?
00:39:40
Speaker
And I used to be of the mindset with kids that you should know about these different platforms or whatever and even have accounts on them so you can monitor your kids, whatever. I don't think I really subscribed to that anymore because I'm now going through this situation where I'm literally getting off most social media sites because I just don't think it's good for me. God has really been working on me in the last six months. He's been revealing some stuff to me.
00:40:08
Speaker
And if I really want to be true and I really want to be able to say God is influencing my decisions and it's not all these other sources, then I've got to cut out those other sources. So what I would say, my husband has this idea that just forget about social media. I don't necessarily think you should have that kind of mindset. I think as parents, we do need to be aware.
00:40:31
Speaker
Okay, but I think this is something that you have to go to, you know, to God with prayer and petition on just to say, what is best for my family? I mean, give you an example. Both my boys have YouTube channels and they have YouTube channels to kind of post their gaming stuff and whatever. They haven't really used it in a while.
00:40:53
Speaker
And I'm very leery, you know, after creating the channels, I'm very leery of letting them on because I feel like whenever they get on YouTube, YouTube is a constant battle in my house because I need it for work purposes. And I actually I listen to a ton of sermons online. I use it for different reasons. But my kids like to hop on there. And whenever they do, something comes out of their mouth that I think is inappropriate. And I'm like, where did they hear that? You know what I mean?
00:41:23
Speaker
I think parents always walk this line of just, you know, you don't want to go overboard, but you also don't want to shelter your kids so much that it's like they can't make decisions for themselves. I just go back to if we raise our children
00:41:42
Speaker
to be followers of Christ and to truly believe what the Bible says. I still think that is the best starting point here because they have to get to the point where they can make sound decisions on their own. Now, are they going to fail sometimes? Absolutely. There have been countless times in my life when I was on my own that I failed, that I did something really, really stupid, okay? But I had the basis to come back.
00:42:09
Speaker
and go, what is wrong in my life? Oh, the Bible told me not to do that. That's why, right? So we can't shelter our kids so much. And it's hard to know what else is out there. I think media, most media out there right now is pretty evil. I really do.
00:42:26
Speaker
And I'm not trying to sound like a conspiracy theorist or anything like that, but the Bible tells us that the enemy is the prince of the airwaves. God has allowed Satan to roam this earth, and he is in charge of the media. He truly is. If you really look at stuff that's being said in the media, there's not nearly as much God stuff as stuff in the enemy.
00:42:49
Speaker
And so we have to come back to this being a spiritual battle. This is a spiritual battle. And so the Bible tells us, you know, we have to put on the armor of God. And when we do that, we can't tackle this stuff on our own. There's just no way. We are no match for Satan. There's just, we cannot do it. We are full of sin. We cannot do it.
00:43:08
Speaker
But if we come back to having these spiritual weapons, which I think that's what it is, then I think we can trust God. I mean, if we truly believe the stuff in the Bible, I think we would parent a lot different.
Encouragement for Faith-based Parenting
00:43:21
Speaker
I agree, yes. I agree. Yeah, I just feel like parents put so much on themselves, like, I've got to figure this out and this social media and that social media. And I think God's saying, why do you got to figure that out? Why haven't you come back to what I said? If you stay grounded in me, I will take care of that for you. I just think that sometimes simplicity is the best option, right? And it's the most sane option for you as a parent, especially when you have multiple kids.
00:43:49
Speaker
Nice, that's awesome. Well, thank you so much for your time today, Sunny. That's really good. You're welcome. If people want to reach out to you, how can they find you? Especially now that you're leaving socially. You know, but here's the thing. Okay, real quick, funny story. I firmly believe in everybody owning their own domain, right? Their own domain. If you can get your name, go out there and get it now. Before I named each of my kids, I made sure their domain names were available. Oh, really?
00:44:19
Speaker
So you can, I did, it was part of my naming process. So you can find me at sunnygault.com. It's S-U-N-N-Y-G-A-U-L-T. And any of the sites that I still am on, like I'm still gonna be on YouTube, I'll make sure that I'll just link to everything on that site. But yeah, that's my home base and you can email me through there. You can do whatever, just go to sunnygault.com.
00:44:42
Speaker
Or I can just slack you. You can just slap me, which almost sounds like slap. So don't slap me, but you can slack me. That's great. It's really a wonderful time today, Sunny. It's great how we transitioned from working from home into talking more about our faith and sharing about it. That's really awesome.
00:45:15
Speaker
It's been more than a year since COVID hit, and now, here in the Philippines, we are once again on a lockdown. In times like these, many of us are anxious, worried about what the future holds. When we face uncertainties, know that there's a big God who is the God of the impossible. We don't know what the future holds, but He is there waiting for you to come back to Him.
00:45:46
Speaker
All it takes is a personal relationship with God. Believe in your heart that you are a sinner and that you need a Redeemer and accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. If you want to do that now, pause this podcast and talk to him in prayer.
00:46:46
Speaker
And that's a wrap. I'm so glad I had the chance to talk to Sunny about working from home with kids. If you are a work at home mom, I hope you find that helpful as you work and take care of your family.
00:47:04
Speaker
Hope you enjoyed today's episode. Sign up to my newsletter so you're notified of my next podcast at www.abovepreciousroobies.com or follow me via Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, and other channels. Today's Bible reading is found in 1st Theater, Chapter 2, Verses 2 and 3. Be a good shepherd of the flock God has put in your care.
00:47:29
Speaker
Do not care for the flock as if you were made to. Do not care for the flock for money, but do it because you want to. Do not be bosses over the people you lead. Live as you would like to have them live.