January 23, 2025 • 51 mins
This episode tackles the alarming state of family life in today's culture, highlighting the pressures from youth athletics, public education, and societal overreach that threaten familial bonds.
Our conversation emphasizes the need for parents to actively engage in nurturing spiritual values amidst these challenges to foster resilience and faith in their children.
• Discussing the cultural pressures on family life
• Analyzing the impact of youth sports on family values
• Exploring the rise in mental health issues among Gen Z
• Unpacking how public education can undermine parental authority
• Highlighting the importance of grounding families in Scripture
• Offering practical advice for families navigating societal challenges
• Encouraging parents to engage consistently with their children's education
• Emphasizing the need for strong spiritual foundations in homes
• Discussing the devastating influence of media on youth morale
• Advocating for resilience in facing family battles and societal pressures
Covenant Church
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:19):
Amen us to recall in today's divisive and dark
culture, from foundationaltruths and scripture to the hot
topics of today's culture.
Allow this podcast to inspireand motivate you on your faith
journey.
Well, hello, church family andthose listening, we're excited
that you're with us for anotherepisode.
This is episode nine.
Pastor Steve, thank you forcoming on again.
(00:41):
My pleasure.
We are going to talk about aprevious sermon you preached on
June 5th of 2023.
The title of that is Battle foryour Home, part 2.
And I thought for this episodeand episode 10, it'd be good to
kind of dig into a series thatyou did and just ask some
questions about it and get somemore in-depth feedback from it.
So in this message, youpreached about the family being
(01:05):
under attack, both spirituallyand culturally, and the
responsibility that parents haveto fight for their children
even in the midst of thepressure of society.
And so the first question, andyour main scripture of that, was
1 Samuel 30-38, the story ofDavid seeking the Lord's
guidance to pursue and recoverhis kidnapped family.
(01:26):
The first question is who arethe enemies of the family today,
in 2024?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Oh my goodness.
Probably the top enemies of thefamily in our culture today,
number one would be youthathletics, youth sports,
technology and helicopterparents.
So that's what I believe veryfirmly are the enemies of our
(01:56):
families today.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
And are athletics different in different parts of
the region of this country, ordo you think just all across the
states?
Right now it's an issue.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Athletics is the new god for young families.
I remember talking to one ofour young families here at
church a couple of years ago andwe were having this discussion
and they were telling me we're aChristian family and I said
well, you believe that, buthere's what you're doing.
(02:30):
You're only in church four orfive Sundays a year because
you're at a tournament everyweekend of the year and you eat
a peanut butter jelly sandwichat the tournament and you say a
prayer over it.
And so you think you're aChristian family, right?
The problem is, what you'reshowing your kids is that
(02:51):
baseball or softball is God, notJehovah God.
And so what you're going to seecoming in the next generation
is your kids won't have arelationship with Jesus Christ
and they'll have no use for hischurch, and you'll be sitting
back as a parent asking weraised them to be Christians.
(03:16):
I don't understand why theywon't go to church.
You're not taking them tochurch now.
You're taking them to theballpark.
Taking them to church now.
You're taking them to theballpark.
In my generation, this haschanged.
I actually served before Imoved to Louisiana almost 26
(03:39):
years ago now, so it's in thelast 25 years on the state Dixie
Youth Board in Alabama andDixie Youth was actually a
Christian organization andabsolutely refused for decades
to play a ballgame on Sunday.
They wouldn't do it Today.
They're like everybody else,it's just another day.
So, yeah, we are telling ourkids love Jesus, love God.
(04:05):
Church is important, but whatwe're showing them is that
athletics is God.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Right.
Do you think that plays afactor in the mental illness of
the Gen Z population?
I mean, the statistics on thatare crazy.
A lot of the younger and when Isay Gen Z I'm talking 17 to 26,
27 years old, the youngerpopulation the mental illness
(04:33):
statistics on that are justoutrageous.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah, well, here's what happens.
Because I coached, I had threeboys at play.
We've been through this as afamily.
It's hard to navigate, okay,because there's all this
pressure to do travel ball Rightand if you don't do travel ball
(04:56):
you're going to be behind,that's right, and you won't get
a chance at a scholarship.
You know, the stats are veryclear.
A very small percentage of highschool players go to college.
I think I saw a stat like 9%actually get an opportunity.
(05:18):
Now when I say college, we'retalking all levels of college.
You know many of them are JUCO,this kind of thing.
So a kid to play at an LSU, forexample, that's one-tenth of
one percent.
I've made a habit of looking atthe rosters at LSU over the
(05:40):
years and you'd be amazed howfew of those kids actually come,
for example, from SouthLouisiana, from our region.
Oh, they'll always have one,sometimes two or three, but when
you've got 100 kids on a roster, 85 kids on a roster, three
(06:01):
from this whole region made itto that level and kids that have
played and made an impact I canonly name less than one handful
in the 25 years I've been here.
So our parents have a falsetarget in their head.
If you go talk to them, they'reall going to play at LSU Right
(06:24):
target in their head if you gotalk to them.
They're all going to play at LSU, right?
And I don't have the heart tostomp on their dream, because
maybe their kid is the one, butmost of them will never play
high school.
Most travel ball players neverplay high school.
By the time you get to about 14or 15, the athletes begin to
(06:48):
distinguish themselves fromeveryone else.
They're just blessed withGod-given talent.
You coach to enhance that.
But a coach can't give you that.
Like speed, you're born with itor you're not.
You can hone it, get a littlebit better at it, but you either
(07:13):
have it or you don't.
And so these parents have thesegoals that are not realistic.
And what happens is I've coachedat the high school level here
at our school, and I hear itfrom other coaches all the time
you got a ninth grader andthey're not starting on the
varsity team and they're likewell, she started every year on
(07:34):
her travel ball team.
Well, on her travel ball teamyou put together nine players
that you believe can play thebest nine you can put together,
and then usually they'll haveone or two extras that can play.
They put together, and so thatkid automatically gets a
(07:58):
position and starts every game.
There's no real competition,right.
So when they hit high schooland now they have to compete for
a position, mom and dad havebeen wired.
My kid's a starter.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
And they're going to start in high school.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Right, and when the kid's not starting, they melt
down.
Why?
Because they have spentthousands upon thousands of
dollars.
Many of them have gone deep indebt.
They've been in a motel everyweekend for the last five years
and they put their life on hold,and so it becomes more.
They're angry about theinvestment they've made than
(08:36):
they want to admit.
So, yes, very unhealthy yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
And shifting a little bit from athletics and ball
today and the obvious idol thatthat is today.
How does policies and publiceducation become, or can be, an
enemy to the family?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
historically, especially in recent years, is a
huge enemy to your family.
I try to tell people.
What they don't understand isthe state's official position
that they'll never tell youopenly, but it's.
Their position is that they ownyour children.
Your children belong to them.
(09:20):
They know better how to raisethem.
They know better how to educatethem.
They know better how to educatethem.
They know better what healthservices they need.
It's amazing their position.
They want to control yourchildren to turn out the product
they want to turn out down theroad.
Yeah, so when a parent pushesback against these things, oh,
(09:42):
there'll be heck to pay.
You better be ready.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Right, there's a I can't think of the organization
now.
I think it's called theHeritage Foundation.
Yes, and you can actually paythem so much a month and they
fight on your behalf.
Yeah, if the state were to comeagainst your children, it's
crazy how we almost need thatthese days, isn't it sad?
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, it really is.
I'll give you an example.
When my boys were in publicschool here one day, in PE class
, they had this person come inand they took their shirts off
and they put them against thewall and they measured the level
of their shoulders.
Okay, so then I get a—I didn'teven know this happened, right,
(10:24):
first of all, I didn't consentfor anyone to examine my child.
So I get a letter home thattells me that I have so many
days to take my child to adoctor and to send them the
results.
And so, you know, I called theprincipal and I said look, I've
(10:45):
tried to be diplomatic.
I said I appreciate y'all'sinterest in my child, but this
is none of your business.
Ok, you need to teach himreading, writing, arithmetic
that's your job, I'll be theparent.
And of course, it didn't go wellat all.
I had another incident whereone of my sons took his lunch
(11:06):
every day and he had a teachersnatch a little Debbie Brownie
out of his hand at lunch andtell him that was junk food.
He wasn't allowed to have it.
Now, this particular child gottoo much of his daddy in him, so
he reached, grabbed it by,stuck it in his mouth and said
(11:27):
come get it.
So I get a phone call and I getup there to the school and
they've got him in a counselor'soffice.
And here's the teacher and thecounselor and me.
I've always been a big boy.
The counselor and the teacherare bigger than me.
They were huge people.
My sons got, maybe at that time, 3% body fat and I tried to be
(11:52):
very diplomatic and it was clearthey thought they knew better
what my child ought to eat thanme.
And at one point I said, look,we need to pay attention to the
room.
I look at your size, I look atyour size.
I look at your size, I look atmy size.
Us three.
We don't need little DebbieBrownies, but he's probably all
(12:13):
right.
So of course that didn't gowell either.
But they have this idea thatthey know better than you do as
a parent.
And in recent years, this wholegarbage over DEI and gender
stuff and all of this stuff.
Look, I'll have thosediscussions with my child.
(12:35):
That's right.
You're not having them.
That's not your role.
We had another problem where andSean will remember this we,
after Wednesday night, home ofjunior high evergreen game.
Junior high was a huge thing inour town back in the day and
(12:57):
our youth minister at the timewas going to have a big fifth
quarter you know, gatheringafter the game.
And so the kids took littletickets to school and invited
their friends.
Well, the principal calls me.
He said I want you to know,this event Wednesday night is
not approved the school event.
So none of the kids will beallowed to attend.
Be allowed.
(13:19):
And I said okay, excuse me for amoment, you don't have any
authority over what we do downat our church.
Well, we have a door-to-doorpolicy Now, listen to this Made
up by the government Schoolsystem.
From the time they leave theirdoor and home in the morning
(13:39):
until they walk back in theirdoor at night, including school
activities after hours, they areunder the authority of the
school.
Okay, so I said to him look, mrPrincipal, I don't want to be a
problem for you, but we'regoing to hold the fifth quarter
(14:02):
and, just to be clear, you'renot my child's parent.
So what happened was this guythen went to the football team,
to the cheerleaders, to the band, to the dance team, because my
son was a football player.
He heard the speech and he goesto every group and he says you
are not allowed to go to thatevent on Wednesday night.
(14:26):
Just a personal vendetta, wow soas I pick up my son that week
from practice.
It was so funny and I was veryproud of it.
I'd have parents from otherchurches coming up to me.
We'll be there Wednesday night.
He's not telling us where we'regoing.
We had over 500 kids.
We weren't there Wednesdaynight.
(14:46):
He's not telling us where we'regoing.
We had over 500 kids.
Wow, we weren't prepared for it.
It was great.
But they believe they own yourchildren.
It is so unhealthy.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
And that right there is why there's a moral shift in
this country.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
That's exactly it.
The moral shift in our countryhas come from our education
system being run by unhealthyliberals who have fed people's
mind a diet of garbage now forseveral decades.
That's exactly our problem.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Yeah, so when we talk about society, according to
Scripture, we have certainresponsibilities for society.
Government is good,government's supposed to bless
and help those who do good andbasically punish those who do
bad, and it's supposed to be agood thing.
(15:37):
But, like you were saying,government has, for many, many
years now, has overstepped thatline and is now trying to
control the family, and familiesare experiencing that, that
pressure and that tension.
And so how does a family useScripture and use the truths of
God's Word to battle this?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yeah, I think scripturally.
My understanding of God's Wordto us is that we're to respect
and honor our government.
Obey our government until themoment our government is sinful.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Right.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Or the moment that they begin to ask us to do
things that are clearly inopposition to God's Word.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Or they try to stop worship, or they try to stop
worship Right.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Then I believe we, and I think it's clear we have a
mandate to be the people of GodRight, and so I honor
government, I respect government, but I do not respect what
we're receiving from governmentas a general rule.
These days.
Just this morning, as you know,president Trump is starting this
(16:50):
new office DOGE where they'regoing to try to eliminate
government spending.
So this morning on the news, asI'm getting dressed, they're
giving some examples.
We spent $1.5 million inEcuador for a study on a road
and how it impacted the climatein Ecuador.
(17:11):
And I mean you got familiesthat you and I both know who are
holding up $20 or $40 at theend of the week trying to decide
do I put gas in my car or do Ibuy groceries?
What do I do?
And they're doing this kind ofthing with tax money.
It's immoral the way they'rewasting money and then just
(17:37):
digging more and more out ofpeople.
You're affecting the quality oflife of families and they don't
see that.
And so they've taken a greatgovernment in the case of our
country, and they've now managedto confound it in such a way
that you almost can't break thestrand.
(17:58):
Confounded in such a way thatyou almost can't break the
strands.
Betsy DeMoss, when Trump was inoffice the first time,
department of Education tried togo in there and change the
direction, but the Department ofEducation in this country is
full of career lawyers who areliberals and she couldn't hardly
(18:21):
bunch the place.
So they've got it so entrenched.
It's horrible and we have amandate.
We have a mandate because it'snot just we don't like what
they're doing.
What they're doing is evil andimmoral.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
What they're doing is evil and immoral.
Whenever society tries to getinto the family, what are some
safeguards that parents can dopractically, for example with
the school system?
I mean, a glaring one isCovenant Christian Academy.
Yeah, I've seen, I've done somebiblical teaching there.
I've seen you teach there for17 years, pastor Brent, other
(19:06):
ministers that have come throughhere, many great teachers at
the school now.
So that provides a way out ofthe public school system into a
school system that values notonly academics but also
spiritual, their spiritual walk,and so that's definitely one
way.
What about the parents who findthemselves in the public school
arena being pressured bysociety and they don't really
(19:28):
have a way out?
What can they do in their hometo foster better spiritual
growth when the society'sbeating them down?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah well, it can be exhausting, but you've got to
decide.
You're going to fight thatfight for the sake of your
children.
And so you pay attention towhat's going on at your child's
school.
You go to the events andactivities because that is where
you will learn the most abouthow things are being done.
(19:56):
You take a stand.
You don't have to be evil ormean, but you can be consistent
and firm.
You let them know.
I'll give you an example.
One of my boys in elementaryschool many years ago.
He's in 4-H public school righthere in this parish and the 4-H
(20:17):
teacher had a guy come preparebananas foster for the
elementary 4-H club and alcoholand all the bananas foster, oh,
yeah, yeah.
And the kids all tasted it, ofcourse.
And next day I'm in the officeand I'm letting them know.
(20:38):
You ever do this again, I willbring wrath down on you.
This better not happen again.
So one of our problems herelocally is we like to think
we're not a part of all theselarger problems.
We absolutely are, but it'sbecause many of our parents
don't pay attention to what'sgoing on.
They don't realize and the kidsaren't going to tell you unless
(21:00):
they don't know any better,right, they're just doing what
everybody else is doing yeah.
So my son comes home from 4-H.
Dad, we had bananas fostertoday.
It was great.
You know now I come from analcoholic family, long line of
drunks.
There's never been alcohol inmy home.
It hadn't touched my lips sinceI was 15.
And it's not going to be in myhome.
(21:21):
But hey, I send my kid off topublic school and they're more
than happy to help him out.
So you've got to be involved.
You don't have an alternative.
And it's exhausting, it is.
It's a fight that never ends.
But you've got to be in thefight for the sake of your
children and you've got to beconsistently teaching them what
(21:44):
you believe and why you believeit, why you're different than
everybody else at school.
Okay, you know, I'll give youan example, not to pick on
Catholics, but just a true story.
One of my boys is in juniorhigh school summertime we're
(22:05):
painting a house and he says youknow, dad, if you're Catholic
you can drink.
Now people have this misnomerthat Baptists don't drink.
I don't know where they getthat, because everyone I know
drinks right, but that's what hehad heard.
If you're Catholic, you candrink, and I just never looked
at him.
I said that's why you're notCatholic you know, and so we
(22:30):
worked hard at teaching our kidsthe values that we believe.
And look, your kids won'talways buy it Right, because
something about those teenageyears, everybody else is smarter
than you and you're ruiningtheir life.
But the Bible tells us to teachthem the ways of the Lord and
(22:53):
they'll not depart from them,and I claim that that eventually
they'll come back to them, andI think we've seen that with our
children.
But I'm going to tell youthere's a lot of times I laid my
head down on the pillow atnight and I thought, dear Lord,
you know, I had one atTerrebonne High School taking a
(23:15):
history class.
They had a young liberal justgraduated Nichols, and all he
did every day was bash theChristian church.
Wow, my kid would come homeevery day and say you know what
he said today, you know what hesaid today.
So the principal at Terrebonnewas a deacon in his church.
So I went to see him and I saidlisten, I don't know how much
(23:40):
you sit in on classes, what youknow, what you don't know, but
here's what's going on in yourhistory class, your 10th grade
history class.
So I demand one of two thingsyou either shut him up about the
church and Christianity, or yougive me equal time so the kids
(24:02):
get a balanced diet and not justa bunch of liberal garbage.
So of course I didn't get to go.
You know they never allow thatand I knew that when I said it.
But supposedly so.
Then I have that teacher come upto me at a football game.
Oh, you're so-and-so's dad.
Yes, I am.
(24:22):
And of course I knew who he was.
Yeah, yeah, hey.
I was wondering what are yourcredentials, what are your
degrees?
So I rattled them off.
Oh, you almost got what I'vegot.
Well, I had a doctorate.
I said, well, what do you got?
Well, I have a math.
I said, well, what do you got?
Well, I have a math.
I said, well, no, I have morethan you.
Yeah, I've got more than you,if you want to compare apples
(24:44):
and oranges.
And they're all from SACSaccredited schools.
So yeah, I got more than you.
So what's your point?
You know right, and he didn'treally have one.
He was just trying to get me tobelieve he was smart Right, you
to get me to believe he wassmart Right, you know, but my
issue wasn't with hisintelligence, it was his bashing
(25:06):
of the Christian church, right,with no balance whatsoever.
So, yeah, you got to fight, yougot to be in the fight, let
your kids know your moral values, but, more than that, why you
believe what you believe.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
You know and you got to you believe.
Yeah, you know and you got todo it.
You can't do it once.
You got to do it over and overand over and over and pray to
God that your kid gets it.
Yeah yeah, it's kind of scary.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Right, and that's so good, Steve, because I can't
count the times that parentshave come up to me in the past
and going, hey, can you talk tomy kid?
You know this needs to be aparent-owned thing.
They need to own their faith.
They need to understand theScripture and if they don't,
they need to start reading itnow.
To where they can combat thesethings when their kids come home
(26:02):
and start talking about it.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Yeah Well, you've got so many kids.
Because of social media andwhat they're being taught at
school, they're like, oh, Idon't believe in God, and I'll
tell them.
That's nice.
Tell me your evidence thatthere is no God.
Now, that's something a parentought to be able to do, right?
Because I believe truth istruth, always and anywhere you
(26:28):
find it.
So give me the valid truth thatyou have that's leading you to
believe there's no God, becauseI can give you volumes of truth
that there is a God.
So don't just randomly decideoh, I don't believe there's a
God, what's your proof?
What if you're wrong?
(26:48):
If you want to believe that,have the integrity to explore it
to make a decision At leasthave some justifiable evidence
or something.
Don't just be mindless becausesome teacher said it's stupid.
If there's a God, I mean, okay,who is this teacher?
What evidence do?
Speaker 1 (27:10):
they have.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
So this is what we fight nowadays big time.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
And what way Steve does Covenant Christian do to
combat that and give thestudents what they need for
their faith.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Well, we teach Bible in every class all the way up
every day.
Okay, so we try to give them agood dose of Scripture, the
foundation that they need.
When you get into high school,many of the tests are Scripture
memory tests, things like this.
Give them the Word of God, getin the foundation.
(27:43):
We see a lot of kids savedevery year and we praise God for
that.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Just baptized one Dylan.
Just baptized one Sunday Dylanbaptized one Sunday.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
You know, for years the school was not the front
door to our church.
But in recent years and it'samazing what's happened I'd love
to tell you it was a plan, butit wasn't.
All of a sudden we're seeingdroves of family, families from
the school coming into thechurch, family members getting
(28:16):
saved.
We had two kids in ourpreschool that were learning
Scripture daily and they live inthe neighborhood behind the
church here and mom and daddecided they were embarrassed
because their kids knew moreabout the Bible than them and
(28:36):
they started coming to church.
Mom and dad got sick, so nowthey're members, and so it's a
journey.
A school's never perfect.
I tell our principal, it's likenailing Jell-O on a wall,
because it's living andbreathing and forever changing.
Every time a new kid comes, apersonality changes.
(28:57):
One year from the next.
You can look at 10th graders andthey're silly and they don't
have an attention span andthey're just goofy and by the
time they're 11th graders.
It's amazing how much they'vematured, right, right.
So you spend all your time with10th grade yelling at them.
(29:20):
You know, shut up, sit down,I'm trying to teach, and the
11th grade will actually sitthere and listen to you.
It's amazing, but our biggestchallenge here is we don't have
a good Bible college close to us, so I have very few on our team
that have any real trainingbeyond their years in church,
(29:43):
and so I spend a lot of myeffort talking to them, helping
them understand what it means toteach from a Christian
worldview, and I'll be honestwith you, we've had a few over
the years that didn't fit ourprogram.
Right now, I am more pleasedwith the school than I've ever
been.
We've got many teachers who getit and they're investing in
(30:08):
these children.
That's how you counter thatstuff.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Seeing the fruit from that.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Yeah, we're seeing the fruit.
Yeah, I'm so thankful for them.
Our principals are doing a goodjob.
Both of them have degrees fromsecular colleges.
They're both wonderfulChristian men, but even they
have had to walk the road oflearning the nuances of teaching
from a Christian worldview, asopposed to just doing education
(30:38):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
In essence, you're asking someone who's never had
experience in ministry to beginto do ministry.
That's right.
And that is a hard transitionto make if you've never had
experience there.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
That's a good point.
Teaching at Covenant isactually ministry.
Yeah, I want you to teach theacademics, and our test scores
the last several years haveshown that we're doing that well
.
In fact, I think the localCatholic school in our area
(31:08):
everybody would say is theacademic flagship.
A couple of years ago weexceeded them on the composite
ACT score, so we're right therewith them academically.
I'm very proud of that and thework we're doing, just as a
small school, Only been here 17years and we're way ahead of
(31:30):
people that have been around alot longer than us.
A lot of effort goes into it,but a lot of it, quite honestly,
is the pastor being thatconstant drip of water.
I'm constantly reminding them.
Is this who we are?
Is this how we do things?
What's the difference?
(31:51):
I used to get questions can wedo something?
And I'd say, why would we wantto do that?
And they would make the mistakeof giving me the answer Well,
HL Bourgeois does it.
So why don't we just send ourkids to HL Bourgeois?
Why would their parents paytuition to come here if we're
(32:12):
just going to do what the publicschool does?
What makes us different, See,and so I'm that constant drip of
water that drives them all nuts.
You know I cannot step away andnot be a constant reminder.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Right, right, amen, and we talked about the moral
attack.
I'd just like to touch on this,though, because I think this is
so important how does media andentertainment influence
children's morals and worldviews?
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Oh, it's huge.
For years surveys were done todetermine what in a child's life
has the most influence, and itcame back over and over again
the parents.
So parents would thinkeverybody else was ruining their
kid.
But the truth is, you know thekid.
I had a kid in our school tellme the other week.
(33:11):
I was talking with this childand the mom had come to me and
they were having trouble.
And the kid said well, I'mfinally old enough to know what
a hypocrite is and I've hadenough, right?
So as parents, we don't realizehow powerful our statements and
(33:31):
our actual activity must lineup.
And when they do, it's apowerful influence on your kids
and you know you can control alittle bit who else is involved
in your child's life.
But with social media, unlessyou're just riding herd, you
(33:53):
can't control it.
And there's a.
Social media is like a hammer.
You can use a hammer to build ahouse or to hit somebody in the
head.
Social media is basicallyamoral that comes through it.
It's just a tool, right, and Iuse the Internet for all kinds
(34:18):
of really good things, but thereare way more really bad things
that come through there too, andthose things influence your kid
.
Yeah, they, you know,especially the developmental
years.
We know that like 30% of sixthgraders have viewed pornography
(34:40):
on their phones.
Oh, my goodness, okay, yeah.
That's 11, 11-year-old,12-year-old, that's 11,
12-year-old child have alreadybegan to get their brain rewired
.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
That's what pornography does it?
Speaker 2 (34:52):
rewires your brain.
You begin to see women asobjects instead of human beings,
and it leads to terrible thingsdown the road.
Marriages break up because ofthis stuff, you know, and so
parents will give their kids aphone with little or no controls
(35:15):
.
Right, and I argue with parentsall the time about this.
Now there was a shootingyesterday at a school.
A girl was at Wisconsin, Ithink.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
I haven't even seen that.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Yeah, a girl went into a school Christian school.
A girl goes into a school,shoots several people.
A second grader called policeon his phone On his phone.
Now people will want to usethat.
See why he ought to have hisphone.
Well, there were a lot morephones there than that second
(35:53):
grader, you know, but we've gotpeople giving small children
phones Access to the whole world.
Access to the world and theycan't figure out why their kid's
having the issues they'rehaving.
Number one there's so muchwe've identified since COVID.
There's so much negativeinformation being fed to your
(36:14):
kid that teenage depression andsuicide is at an all-time high,
the bullying that takes placeand there are tons of really bad
issues with this.
So every family's got tonavigate this the way they feel
is best for their family.
But I'm telling you it is, Ibelieve in my lifetime, the most
(36:38):
dangerous tool that's ever beencreated is out there right now
in the hands of your kids.
You know, when I was a kid theyhad the magazines for
pornography Playboy or Penthouseand they were at the
convenience stores behind thecounter with brown wrapper
(37:02):
around them and as a young boy,all you could do was wonder what
was in that book.
Right, and if you foundyourself believing, you were
lucky.
You know, under your UncleBob's mattress, when he was gone
, you found one.
So it was hard for a child.
(37:23):
Our society, our government,our laws and rules tried to
protect children and they'redoing better these days.
They really are, but it's stillan epidemic.
It's an epidemic and ourchildren, the mental health of
(37:44):
our children, is being destroyedby these media devices Right.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Yeah, we homeschool our kids, so we have to work and
make sure they're havingfriends in the neighborhood,
they're going to extracurricularactivities and they're not just
at home.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Right.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
I can tell you know, caden's the oldest, he's nine.
I can tell when he's got a10-year-old friend that that
10-year-old friend hasexperienced the world.
You can see it in a child.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
You can see it.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
And it's just shocking to me.
You know the visible, you canreally see it.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
I think one of the things that affected me early on
.
You know, I came up when I wasin high school.
That's really when social mediastarted, you know.
So I kind of missed that at anearly age and I saw the effects
of it just then.
I mean, whenever Apple iPhonestarted coming out and you were
(38:42):
able to access the internet alittle quicker with 3G and
friends were texting friends,hey, check out this site and
this site and you know, sean andI were talking before we
started you can access the darkweb just with a URL.
And I mean these sites arehidden in apps in students'
phones so their parents don'tknow what they're looking at.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Exactly.
That's just in recent yearsthat that started.
But the average parent, who isusually not tech savvy, is the
kid.
Yeah, most of these kids getaway with that.
They don't have a clue theparents that it's going on, yeah
.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Yeah, there's things out there like I don't know if
you ever heard of the Gab phone.
No, it doesn't.
As far as I know, it doesn'tconnect to internet and it
doesn't have anything other thantext messaging and calling, and
you're only allowed to textcertain things.
And so there are companies outthere that's trying to have a
way where younger kids can havephones, but, yeah, to eliminate
(39:45):
that access.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
But look, I understand the pressure parents
are under.
My oldest son got a phone whenhe was 16, started driving.
That was our rule you startdriving, we can get you a phone,
and if I call it, you betterpick it up.
The second child got a phone at16, when he started driving.
By the time we got to the thirdone, I think he was 14 and he
(40:08):
got a phone.
And not only were Jan and Igetting pressure from him, but
from families in the church.
What do you mean?
He don't have a phone.
You got to get the child aphone, you know.
So not only are a lot of thesedecisions unhealthy, they're
happy to put that pressure onother families.
Right, you know?
(40:30):
and yeah, yeah.
And so so many young familiesnot wanting their child to be
the outcast, to be the only one,bow to this pressure.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
Right.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
And I just encourage them to stay strong, stay strong
.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Lastly, spiritual, the spiritual attacks.
How does spiritual apathy inthe home open up doors for evil
influences?
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Yeah, well, here's the bottom line.
The more you're in the Word ofGod, the more you have a prayer
life, the more you're seekingGod, the closer you're going to
be to God, the further you getaway from those avenues, your
prayer life, the Word of God.
(41:20):
You are voluntarily creating adistance between you and God.
It's like a marriagerelationship.
You know, if I'm married but mywife lives in one house and I
live in another one and the onlytime we communicate is, well,
the faucet's leaking.
Could you come by and fix it?
(41:41):
You know, that's not much of amarriage and that's what happens
with us individually.
We're, in a sense, spirituallymarried to God.
He wants that relationship withus, and the more we take him
casual, the more he's not realfor us.
We open the window and then thedoor to the influences of Satan
(42:07):
into our home.
All of a sudden, something thatyou would never do, a place you
would never go, a movie youwould never watch, becomes okay,
it's not a big deal, we'llwatch this, we'll do this, we'll
, whatever, you know.
And so I just shake my headsometimes, because I'm on social
(42:31):
media, and I'm on social mediafor one reason.
I used to get this all the time, pastor, nobody came to see me
at my surgery.
I'm sorry, I didn't know youhad surgery.
I put it on Facebook, you know.
So we're at a place in thechurch.
Nowadays if they post it onsocial media, we're all supposed
(42:51):
to know.
You know what's going on intheir life.
So I fought it for severalyears.
I didn't care to be there, butI finally gave it up and I got
on social media.
And today's a good example.
A family posted their child'shaving surgery tomorrow.
I was able to contact them,know what's going on with all
(43:14):
that, but they didn't tell usthey were in church last week.
They didn't say a word and it'sa major surgery.
But the reality is that it thenconsumes us.
It takes over our lives, ourthinking.
Chet, I know people who they gointo depression because they
(43:38):
post something and they don'tget very many likes.
Boy, is this the epitome of alow self-esteem?
You know they don't know whothey are in Christ.
They need these people on theother side of a screen somewhere
to tell them there's somebody.
It's so sad.
(44:00):
And today we've got peopleposting the craziest personal
stuff you've ever seen in yourlife.
I mean, I read one not long ago, this woman.
She says just want to let youall know, I've got a urinary
tract infection today.
It hurts so bad.
(44:20):
Everybody, please pray.
I don't want to know.
You've got a urinary tractinfection.
So we're in a place People haveno boundaries, there's no
boundaries.
They put their whole life outthere and then when somebody
disagrees with them, oh, theymelt down Totally.
(44:43):
It's the end of their life, andso this stuff is so unhealthy.
But, as they all say, the jackis out of the box.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
Oh yeah, it's not going back in it's not going
back in.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
No.
So we've got to learn asparents, to manage this stuff as
best we can, and I don't knowthat there is a best way to do
that.
I think every family's just gotto maneuver that road as best
they can.
Yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Yeah, and I've heard this from you through the years
and I've counseled familiesthrough the years with this as
well If they're not in churchconsistently with their children
in the children's ministry, inthe preschool ministry, in the
youth ministry, they can'texpect for the whole family to
have a tight connection with theLord.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
And serve in Him?
Speaker 1 (45:33):
No, absolutely not so that has to be a thread of
their life that is important.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
I'll give you an example.
I got a 12-year-oldgranddaughter that my wife and I
have just very lovingly andconsistently because her dad's
always been in the oil field andhis schedules are nuts, as you
know, and gone a lot things likethis and he's here practically
every Sunday at church.
(46:00):
But we've made a point to haveher involved since day one, at
12 years old.
This little girl loves Jesusand she gets it.
You know she gets it.
She's the real deal and so itcan happen.
(46:21):
It can happen Now, even over atCovenant, a Christian school.
She'll come home sometimes andshe can't hide it.
I read her like a book and I'mlike little girl, what's wrong?
Nothing, don't lie to me.
So we'll eventually drag it outof her.
And one of the things I try toteach her all the time okay,
(46:45):
some boy said you had a big nose, all right.
Now, middle school boys arestupid.
They're going to be middleschool boys.
That's what they are.
The problem is middle schoolgirls don't understand that, so
they take everything to heart.
So it was a formula we use andshe hates it.
When I do this, I'll say okay,is that guy your mama, your
(47:10):
daddy, your granddaddy, yourgrandmother, your brother?
Who is this guy to you Nobody?
That's the word I'm looking for.
So why would you let him havecontrol over you?
He's nobody to you, he's just adumb middle school boy.
He scratches himself in publicand pees his pants half the time
(47:33):
.
Don't let that rock your world.
And so that's what I mean byconstantly fighting.
In that moment we're not havinga spiritual conversation, but
we are.
Where does your worth lie?
And then we'll get to thatplace where I'll say who's
number one in your life?
Because I've taught her thisJesus, right, you think he loves
(47:57):
you, yes, you think he's happywith you?
I hope so.
Well, good, that's the only onewe worried about, you know.
And so you got to haveconversations to give direction,
constantly, constantly.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
Right.
I think it's helpful too, steve.
If parents are not fightingeach other, they have energy to
do that for their kids.
But if there's a marriage andconstant conflict, there's no
energy, there's no breath.
You know, wait for yourchildren.
Speaker 2 (48:36):
Well, and look, I'll just say it.
I tell young women all the timeyou want your husband to love
Jesus more than he loves you,Because a woman always wants her
man to love her more thananybody else.
I get it, but he will neverproperly love you until he loves
(48:59):
Jesus more than he loves you.
You want him to love Jesus morethan he loves his kids, because
then his kids are going to bevery fortunate people.
And so the two of you, if youboth love Jesus and you're on
the same path with the samegoals, you can raise healthy,
(49:19):
happy children.
But what we've got right now isa culture of broken children
and now broken adults, becauseit's been going on for several
decades and you know themarriage is the key decades.
And you know the marriage isthe key, it's the key to
everything, Absolutely.
(49:40):
So if they're not a team, yeah,you're going to have a divided
kingdom.
Right, Because kids are notdumb.
If they see mom and dad not onthe same page, they'll exploit
that every time.
Speaker 1 (49:54):
Right, yeah.
And one last thing, and we'llclose, Steve, because I think
this is important even in ourchurch.
What do you say to the singlemoms who are struggling to make
ends meet, struggling to havethe energy to protect their
children spiritually?
I mean, what encouragement doyou have for them?
Speaker 2 (50:12):
Keep doing what you're doing.
Don't give up.
There is a light at the end ofthe tunnel and while a husband
and wife in the same home on thesame path as ideal, being
divorced does not guarantee youhave to fail or your child has
(50:32):
to fail.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (50:34):
I know a lot of examples of single parents who
have raised their children well,and I had a single father that
coached with me for years, amember of our church, and he and
I would talk.
We'd finish a weekendtournament with baseball.
I'd say, oh, I'm going home andgetting my chair.
(50:55):
He said, coach, I got to dolaundry ball.
I said, oh, I'm going home andgetting my chair.
He said, coach, I got to dolaundry, you know, and so, but
he very faithfully just pluggedday in and day out and raised
two of the finest young men Iknow anywhere.
You know one just graduated theNaval Academy last year.
Oh wow, that's awesome of melast year.
(51:23):
And so you know, yeah, yeah,you can do it.
Just trust the Lord, draw onhis strength, get up and put one
foot before the other one andjust determine that failure is
not an option.
Speaker 1 (51:31):
Right, yeah, right Amen.
Well, thank you, brother,appreciate you being here, my
joy.
All right guys.
See you on the next one.
Amen us to recall in today's divisive and dark
culture, from foundationaltruths and scripture to the hot
topics of today's culture.
Allow this podcast to inspireand motivate you on your faith
journey.
Well, hello, church family andthose listening, we're excited
that you're with us for anotherepisode.
This is episode nine.
Pastor Steve, thank you forcoming on again.
(00:41):
My pleasure.
We are going to talk about aprevious sermon you preached on
June 5th of 2023.
The title of that is Battle foryour Home, part 2.
And I thought for this episodeand episode 10, it'd be good to
kind of dig into a series thatyou did and just ask some
questions about it and get somemore in-depth feedback from it.
So in this message, youpreached about the family being
(01:05):
under attack, both spirituallyand culturally, and the
responsibility that parents haveto fight for their children
even in the midst of thepressure of society.
And so the first question, andyour main scripture of that, was
1 Samuel 30-38, the story ofDavid seeking the Lord's
guidance to pursue and recoverhis kidnapped family.
(01:26):
The first question is who arethe enemies of the family today,
in 2024?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Oh my goodness.
Probably the top enemies of thefamily in our culture today,
number one would be youthathletics, youth sports,
technology and helicopterparents.
So that's what I believe veryfirmly are the enemies of our
(01:56):
families today.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
And are athletics different in different parts of
the region of this country, ordo you think just all across the
states?
Right now it's an issue.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Athletics is the new god for young families.
I remember talking to one ofour young families here at
church a couple of years ago andwe were having this discussion
and they were telling me we're aChristian family and I said
well, you believe that, buthere's what you're doing.
(02:30):
You're only in church four orfive Sundays a year because
you're at a tournament everyweekend of the year and you eat
a peanut butter jelly sandwichat the tournament and you say a
prayer over it.
And so you think you're aChristian family, right?
The problem is, what you'reshowing your kids is that
(02:51):
baseball or softball is God, notJehovah God.
And so what you're going to seecoming in the next generation
is your kids won't have arelationship with Jesus Christ
and they'll have no use for hischurch, and you'll be sitting
back as a parent asking weraised them to be Christians.
(03:16):
I don't understand why theywon't go to church.
You're not taking them tochurch now.
You're taking them to theballpark.
Taking them to church now.
You're taking them to theballpark.
In my generation, this haschanged.
I actually served before Imoved to Louisiana almost 26
(03:39):
years ago now, so it's in thelast 25 years on the state Dixie
Youth Board in Alabama andDixie Youth was actually a
Christian organization andabsolutely refused for decades
to play a ballgame on Sunday.
They wouldn't do it Today.
They're like everybody else,it's just another day.
So, yeah, we are telling ourkids love Jesus, love God.
(04:05):
Church is important, but whatwe're showing them is that
athletics is God.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Right.
Do you think that plays afactor in the mental illness of
the Gen Z population?
I mean, the statistics on thatare crazy.
A lot of the younger and when Isay Gen Z I'm talking 17 to 26,
27 years old, the youngerpopulation the mental illness
(04:33):
statistics on that are justoutrageous.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Yeah, well, here's what happens.
Because I coached, I had threeboys at play.
We've been through this as afamily.
It's hard to navigate, okay,because there's all this
pressure to do travel ball Rightand if you don't do travel ball
(04:56):
you're going to be behind,that's right, and you won't get
a chance at a scholarship.
You know, the stats are veryclear.
A very small percentage of highschool players go to college.
I think I saw a stat like 9%actually get an opportunity.
(05:18):
Now when I say college, we'retalking all levels of college.
You know many of them are JUCO,this kind of thing.
So a kid to play at an LSU, forexample, that's one-tenth of
one percent.
I've made a habit of looking atthe rosters at LSU over the
(05:40):
years and you'd be amazed howfew of those kids actually come,
for example, from SouthLouisiana, from our region.
Oh, they'll always have one,sometimes two or three, but when
you've got 100 kids on a roster, 85 kids on a roster, three
(06:01):
from this whole region made itto that level and kids that have
played and made an impact I canonly name less than one handful
in the 25 years I've been here.
So our parents have a falsetarget in their head.
If you go talk to them, they'reall going to play at LSU Right
(06:24):
target in their head if you gotalk to them.
They're all going to play at LSU, right?
And I don't have the heart tostomp on their dream, because
maybe their kid is the one, butmost of them will never play
high school.
Most travel ball players neverplay high school.
By the time you get to about 14or 15, the athletes begin to
(06:48):
distinguish themselves fromeveryone else.
They're just blessed withGod-given talent.
You coach to enhance that.
But a coach can't give you that.
Like speed, you're born with itor you're not.
You can hone it, get a littlebit better at it, but you either
(07:13):
have it or you don't.
And so these parents have thesegoals that are not realistic.
And what happens is I've coachedat the high school level here
at our school, and I hear itfrom other coaches all the time
you got a ninth grader andthey're not starting on the
varsity team and they're likewell, she started every year on
(07:34):
her travel ball team.
Well, on her travel ball teamyou put together nine players
that you believe can play thebest nine you can put together,
and then usually they'll haveone or two extras that can play.
They put together, and so thatkid automatically gets a
(07:58):
position and starts every game.
There's no real competition,right.
So when they hit high schooland now they have to compete for
a position, mom and dad havebeen wired.
My kid's a starter.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
And they're going to start in high school.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Right, and when the kid's not starting, they melt
down.
Why?
Because they have spentthousands upon thousands of
dollars.
Many of them have gone deep indebt.
They've been in a motel everyweekend for the last five years
and they put their life on hold,and so it becomes more.
They're angry about theinvestment they've made than
(08:36):
they want to admit.
So, yes, very unhealthy yeah.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
And shifting a little bit from athletics and ball
today and the obvious idol thatthat is today.
How does policies and publiceducation become, or can be, an
enemy to the family?
Speaker 2 (08:59):
historically, especially in recent years, is a
huge enemy to your family.
I try to tell people.
What they don't understand isthe state's official position
that they'll never tell youopenly, but it's.
Their position is that they ownyour children.
Your children belong to them.
(09:20):
They know better how to raisethem.
They know better how to educatethem.
They know better how to educatethem.
They know better what healthservices they need.
It's amazing their position.
They want to control yourchildren to turn out the product
they want to turn out down theroad.
Yeah, so when a parent pushesback against these things, oh,
(09:42):
there'll be heck to pay.
You better be ready.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Right, there's a I can't think of the organization
now.
I think it's called theHeritage Foundation.
Yes, and you can actually paythem so much a month and they
fight on your behalf.
Yeah, if the state were to comeagainst your children, it's
crazy how we almost need thatthese days, isn't it sad?
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Yeah, it really is.
I'll give you an example.
When my boys were in publicschool here one day, in PE class
, they had this person come inand they took their shirts off
and they put them against thewall and they measured the level
of their shoulders.
Okay, so then I get a—I didn'teven know this happened, right,
(10:24):
first of all, I didn't consentfor anyone to examine my child.
So I get a letter home thattells me that I have so many
days to take my child to adoctor and to send them the
results.
And so, you know, I called theprincipal and I said look, I've
(10:45):
tried to be diplomatic.
I said I appreciate y'all'sinterest in my child, but this
is none of your business.
Ok, you need to teach himreading, writing, arithmetic
that's your job, I'll be theparent.
And of course, it didn't go wellat all.
I had another incident whereone of my sons took his lunch
(11:06):
every day and he had a teachersnatch a little Debbie Brownie
out of his hand at lunch andtell him that was junk food.
He wasn't allowed to have it.
Now, this particular child gottoo much of his daddy in him, so
he reached, grabbed it by,stuck it in his mouth and said
(11:27):
come get it.
So I get a phone call and I getup there to the school and
they've got him in a counselor'soffice.
And here's the teacher and thecounselor and me.
I've always been a big boy.
The counselor and the teacherare bigger than me.
They were huge people.
My sons got, maybe at that time, 3% body fat and I tried to be
(11:52):
very diplomatic and it was clearthey thought they knew better
what my child ought to eat thanme.
And at one point I said, look,we need to pay attention to the
room.
I look at your size, I look atyour size.
I look at your size, I look atmy size.
Us three.
We don't need little DebbieBrownies, but he's probably all
(12:13):
right.
So of course that didn't gowell either.
But they have this idea thatthey know better than you do as
a parent.
And in recent years, this wholegarbage over DEI and gender
stuff and all of this stuff.
Look, I'll have thosediscussions with my child.
(12:35):
That's right.
You're not having them.
That's not your role.
We had another problem where andSean will remember this we,
after Wednesday night, home ofjunior high evergreen game.
Junior high was a huge thing inour town back in the day and
(12:57):
our youth minister at the timewas going to have a big fifth
quarter you know, gatheringafter the game.
And so the kids took littletickets to school and invited
their friends.
Well, the principal calls me.
He said I want you to know,this event Wednesday night is
not approved the school event.
So none of the kids will beallowed to attend.
Be allowed.
(13:19):
And I said okay, excuse me for amoment, you don't have any
authority over what we do downat our church.
Well, we have a door-to-doorpolicy Now, listen to this Made
up by the government Schoolsystem.
From the time they leave theirdoor and home in the morning
(13:39):
until they walk back in theirdoor at night, including school
activities after hours, they areunder the authority of the
school.
Okay, so I said to him look, mrPrincipal, I don't want to be a
problem for you, but we'regoing to hold the fifth quarter
(14:02):
and, just to be clear, you'renot my child's parent.
So what happened was this guythen went to the football team,
to the cheerleaders, to the band, to the dance team, because my
son was a football player.
He heard the speech and he goesto every group and he says you
are not allowed to go to thatevent on Wednesday night.
(14:26):
Just a personal vendetta, wow soas I pick up my son that week
from practice.
It was so funny and I was veryproud of it.
I'd have parents from otherchurches coming up to me.
We'll be there Wednesday night.
He's not telling us where we'regoing.
We had over 500 kids.
We weren't there Wednesdaynight.
(14:46):
He's not telling us where we'regoing.
We had over 500 kids.
Wow, we weren't prepared for it.
It was great.
But they believe they own yourchildren.
It is so unhealthy.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
And that right there is why there's a moral shift in
this country.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
That's exactly it.
The moral shift in our countryhas come from our education
system being run by unhealthyliberals who have fed people's
mind a diet of garbage now forseveral decades.
That's exactly our problem.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Yeah, so when we talk about society, according to
Scripture, we have certainresponsibilities for society.
Government is good,government's supposed to bless
and help those who do good andbasically punish those who do
bad, and it's supposed to be agood thing.
(15:37):
But, like you were saying,government has, for many, many
years now, has overstepped thatline and is now trying to
control the family, and familiesare experiencing that, that
pressure and that tension.
And so how does a family useScripture and use the truths of
God's Word to battle this?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
Yeah, I think scripturally.
My understanding of God's Wordto us is that we're to respect
and honor our government.
Obey our government until themoment our government is sinful.
Speaker 1 (16:16):
Right.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Or the moment that they begin to ask us to do
things that are clearly inopposition to God's Word.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
Or they try to stop worship, or they try to stop
worship Right.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Then I believe we, and I think it's clear we have a
mandate to be the people of GodRight, and so I honor
government, I respect government, but I do not respect what
we're receiving from governmentas a general rule.
These days.
Just this morning, as you know,president Trump is starting this
(16:50):
new office DOGE where they'regoing to try to eliminate
government spending.
So this morning on the news, asI'm getting dressed, they're
giving some examples.
We spent $1.5 million inEcuador for a study on a road
and how it impacted the climatein Ecuador.
(17:11):
And I mean you got familiesthat you and I both know who are
holding up $20 or $40 at theend of the week trying to decide
do I put gas in my car or do Ibuy groceries?
What do I do?
And they're doing this kind ofthing with tax money.
It's immoral the way they'rewasting money and then just
(17:37):
digging more and more out ofpeople.
You're affecting the quality oflife of families and they don't
see that.
And so they've taken a greatgovernment in the case of our
country, and they've now managedto confound it in such a way
that you almost can't break thestrand.
(17:58):
Confounded in such a way thatyou almost can't break the
strands.
Betsy DeMoss, when Trump was inoffice the first time,
department of Education tried togo in there and change the
direction, but the Department ofEducation in this country is
full of career lawyers who areliberals and she couldn't hardly
(18:21):
bunch the place.
So they've got it so entrenched.
It's horrible and we have amandate.
We have a mandate because it'snot just we don't like what
they're doing.
What they're doing is evil andimmoral.
Speaker 1 (18:42):
What they're doing is evil and immoral.
Whenever society tries to getinto the family, what are some
safeguards that parents can dopractically, for example with
the school system?
I mean, a glaring one isCovenant Christian Academy.
Yeah, I've seen, I've done somebiblical teaching there.
I've seen you teach there for17 years, pastor Brent, other
(19:06):
ministers that have come throughhere, many great teachers at
the school now.
So that provides a way out ofthe public school system into a
school system that values notonly academics but also
spiritual, their spiritual walk,and so that's definitely one
way.
What about the parents who findthemselves in the public school
arena being pressured bysociety and they don't really
(19:28):
have a way out?
What can they do in their hometo foster better spiritual
growth when the society'sbeating them down?
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah well, it can be exhausting, but you've got to
decide.
You're going to fight thatfight for the sake of your
children.
And so you pay attention towhat's going on at your child's
school.
You go to the events andactivities because that is where
you will learn the most abouthow things are being done.
(19:56):
You take a stand.
You don't have to be evil ormean, but you can be consistent
and firm.
You let them know.
I'll give you an example.
One of my boys in elementaryschool many years ago.
He's in 4-H public school righthere in this parish and the 4-H
(20:17):
teacher had a guy come preparebananas foster for the
elementary 4-H club and alcoholand all the bananas foster, oh,
yeah, yeah.
And the kids all tasted it, ofcourse.
And next day I'm in the officeand I'm letting them know.
(20:38):
You ever do this again, I willbring wrath down on you.
This better not happen again.
So one of our problems herelocally is we like to think
we're not a part of all theselarger problems.
We absolutely are, but it'sbecause many of our parents
don't pay attention to what'sgoing on.
They don't realize and the kidsaren't going to tell you unless
(21:00):
they don't know any better,right, they're just doing what
everybody else is doing yeah.
So my son comes home from 4-H.
Dad, we had bananas fostertoday.
It was great.
You know now I come from analcoholic family, long line of
drunks.
There's never been alcohol inmy home.
It hadn't touched my lips sinceI was 15.
And it's not going to be in myhome.
(21:21):
But hey, I send my kid off topublic school and they're more
than happy to help him out.
So you've got to be involved.
You don't have an alternative.
And it's exhausting, it is.
It's a fight that never ends.
But you've got to be in thefight for the sake of your
children and you've got to beconsistently teaching them what
(21:44):
you believe and why you believeit, why you're different than
everybody else at school.
Okay, you know, I'll give youan example, not to pick on
Catholics, but just a true story.
One of my boys is in juniorhigh school summertime we're
(22:05):
painting a house and he says youknow, dad, if you're Catholic
you can drink.
Now people have this misnomerthat Baptists don't drink.
I don't know where they getthat, because everyone I know
drinks right, but that's what hehad heard.
If you're Catholic, you candrink, and I just never looked
at him.
I said that's why you're notCatholic you know, and so we
(22:30):
worked hard at teaching our kidsthe values that we believe.
And look, your kids won'talways buy it Right, because
something about those teenageyears, everybody else is smarter
than you and you're ruiningtheir life.
But the Bible tells us to teachthem the ways of the Lord and
(22:53):
they'll not depart from them,and I claim that that eventually
they'll come back to them, andI think we've seen that with our
children.
But I'm going to tell youthere's a lot of times I laid my
head down on the pillow atnight and I thought, dear Lord,
you know, I had one atTerrebonne High School taking a
(23:15):
history class.
They had a young liberal justgraduated Nichols, and all he
did every day was bash theChristian church.
Wow, my kid would come homeevery day and say you know what
he said today, you know what hesaid today.
So the principal at Terrebonnewas a deacon in his church.
So I went to see him and I saidlisten, I don't know how much
(23:40):
you sit in on classes, what youknow, what you don't know, but
here's what's going on in yourhistory class, your 10th grade
history class.
So I demand one of two thingsyou either shut him up about the
church and Christianity, or yougive me equal time so the kids
(24:02):
get a balanced diet and not justa bunch of liberal garbage.
So of course I didn't get to go.
You know they never allow thatand I knew that when I said it.
But supposedly so.
Then I have that teacher come upto me at a football game.
Oh, you're so-and-so's dad.
Yes, I am.
(24:22):
And of course I knew who he was.
Yeah, yeah, hey.
I was wondering what are yourcredentials, what are your
degrees?
So I rattled them off.
Oh, you almost got what I'vegot.
Well, I had a doctorate.
I said, well, what do you got?
Well, I have a math.
I said, well, what do you got?
Well, I have a math.
I said, well, no, I have morethan you.
Yeah, I've got more than you,if you want to compare apples
(24:44):
and oranges.
And they're all from SACSaccredited schools.
So yeah, I got more than you.
So what's your point?
You know right, and he didn'treally have one.
He was just trying to get me tobelieve he was smart Right, you
to get me to believe he wassmart Right, you know, but my
issue wasn't with hisintelligence, it was his bashing
(25:06):
of the Christian church, right,with no balance whatsoever.
So, yeah, you got to fight, yougot to be in the fight, let
your kids know your moral values, but, more than that, why you
believe what you believe.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
You know and you got to you believe.
Yeah, you know and you got todo it.
You can't do it once.
You got to do it over and overand over and over and pray to
God that your kid gets it.
Yeah yeah, it's kind of scary.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
Right, and that's so good, Steve, because I can't
count the times that parentshave come up to me in the past
and going, hey, can you talk tomy kid?
You know this needs to be aparent-owned thing.
They need to own their faith.
They need to understand theScripture and if they don't,
they need to start reading itnow.
To where they can combat thesethings when their kids come home
(26:02):
and start talking about it.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Yeah Well, you've got so many kids.
Because of social media andwhat they're being taught at
school, they're like, oh, Idon't believe in God, and I'll
tell them.
That's nice.
Tell me your evidence thatthere is no God.
Now, that's something a parentought to be able to do, right?
Because I believe truth istruth, always and anywhere you
(26:28):
find it.
So give me the valid truth thatyou have that's leading you to
believe there's no God, becauseI can give you volumes of truth
that there is a God.
So don't just randomly decideoh, I don't believe there's a
God, what's your proof?
What if you're wrong?
(26:48):
If you want to believe that,have the integrity to explore it
to make a decision At leasthave some justifiable evidence
or something.
Don't just be mindless becausesome teacher said it's stupid.
If there's a God, I mean, okay,who is this teacher?
What evidence do?
Speaker 1 (27:10):
they have.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
So this is what we fight nowadays big time.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
And what way Steve does Covenant Christian do to
combat that and give thestudents what they need for
their faith.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Well, we teach Bible in every class all the way up
every day.
Okay, so we try to give them agood dose of Scripture, the
foundation that they need.
When you get into high school,many of the tests are Scripture
memory tests, things like this.
Give them the Word of God, getin the foundation.
(27:43):
We see a lot of kids savedevery year and we praise God for
that.
Speaker 1 (27:48):
Just baptized one Dylan.
Just baptized one Sunday Dylanbaptized one Sunday.
Speaker 2 (27:53):
You know, for years the school was not the front
door to our church.
But in recent years and it'samazing what's happened I'd love
to tell you it was a plan, butit wasn't.
All of a sudden we're seeingdroves of family, families from
the school coming into thechurch, family members getting
(28:16):
saved.
We had two kids in ourpreschool that were learning
Scripture daily and they live inthe neighborhood behind the
church here and mom and daddecided they were embarrassed
because their kids knew moreabout the Bible than them and
(28:36):
they started coming to church.
Mom and dad got sick, so nowthey're members, and so it's a
journey.
A school's never perfect.
I tell our principal, it's likenailing Jell-O on a wall,
because it's living andbreathing and forever changing.
Every time a new kid comes, apersonality changes.
(28:57):
One year from the next.
You can look at 10th graders andthey're silly and they don't
have an attention span andthey're just goofy and by the
time they're 11th graders.
It's amazing how much they'vematured, right, right.
So you spend all your time with10th grade yelling at them.
(29:20):
You know, shut up, sit down,I'm trying to teach, and the
11th grade will actually sitthere and listen to you.
It's amazing, but our biggestchallenge here is we don't have
a good Bible college close to us, so I have very few on our team
that have any real trainingbeyond their years in church,
(29:43):
and so I spend a lot of myeffort talking to them, helping
them understand what it means toteach from a Christian
worldview, and I'll be honestwith you, we've had a few over
the years that didn't fit ourprogram.
Right now, I am more pleasedwith the school than I've ever
been.
We've got many teachers who getit and they're investing in
(30:08):
these children.
That's how you counter thatstuff.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Seeing the fruit from that.
Speaker 2 (30:13):
Yeah, we're seeing the fruit.
Yeah, I'm so thankful for them.
Our principals are doing a goodjob.
Both of them have degrees fromsecular colleges.
They're both wonderfulChristian men, but even they
have had to walk the road oflearning the nuances of teaching
from a Christian worldview, asopposed to just doing education
(30:38):
Right.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
In essence, you're asking someone who's never had
experience in ministry to beginto do ministry.
That's right.
And that is a hard transitionto make if you've never had
experience there.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
That's a good point.
Teaching at Covenant isactually ministry.
Yeah, I want you to teach theacademics, and our test scores
the last several years haveshown that we're doing that well
.
In fact, I think the localCatholic school in our area
(31:08):
everybody would say is theacademic flagship.
A couple of years ago weexceeded them on the composite
ACT score, so we're right therewith them academically.
I'm very proud of that and thework we're doing, just as a
small school, Only been here 17years and we're way ahead of
(31:30):
people that have been around alot longer than us.
A lot of effort goes into it,but a lot of it, quite honestly,
is the pastor being thatconstant drip of water.
I'm constantly reminding them.
Is this who we are?
Is this how we do things?
What's the difference?
(31:51):
I used to get questions can wedo something?
And I'd say, why would we wantto do that?
And they would make the mistakeof giving me the answer Well,
HL Bourgeois does it.
So why don't we just send ourkids to HL Bourgeois?
Why would their parents paytuition to come here if we're
(32:12):
just going to do what the publicschool does?
What makes us different, See,and so I'm that constant drip of
water that drives them all nuts.
You know I cannot step away andnot be a constant reminder.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
Right, right, amen, and we talked about the moral
attack.
I'd just like to touch on this,though, because I think this is
so important how does media andentertainment influence
children's morals and worldviews?
Speaker 2 (32:47):
Oh, it's huge.
For years surveys were done todetermine what in a child's life
has the most influence, and itcame back over and over again
the parents.
So parents would thinkeverybody else was ruining their
kid.
But the truth is, you know thekid.
I had a kid in our school tellme the other week.
(33:11):
I was talking with this childand the mom had come to me and
they were having trouble.
And the kid said well, I'mfinally old enough to know what
a hypocrite is and I've hadenough, right?
So as parents, we don't realizehow powerful our statements and
(33:31):
our actual activity must lineup.
And when they do, it's apowerful influence on your kids
and you know you can control alittle bit who else is involved
in your child's life.
But with social media, unlessyou're just riding herd, you
(33:53):
can't control it.
And there's a.
Social media is like a hammer.
You can use a hammer to build ahouse or to hit somebody in the
head.
Social media is basicallyamoral that comes through it.
It's just a tool, right, and Iuse the Internet for all kinds
(34:18):
of really good things, but thereare way more really bad things
that come through there too, andthose things influence your kid
.
Yeah, they, you know,especially the developmental
years.
We know that like 30% of sixthgraders have viewed pornography
(34:40):
on their phones.
Oh, my goodness, okay, yeah.
That's 11, 11-year-old,12-year-old, that's 11,
12-year-old child have alreadybegan to get their brain rewired
.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
That's what pornography does it?
Speaker 2 (34:52):
rewires your brain.
You begin to see women asobjects instead of human beings,
and it leads to terrible thingsdown the road.
Marriages break up because ofthis stuff, you know, and so
parents will give their kids aphone with little or no controls
(35:15):
.
Right, and I argue with parentsall the time about this.
Now there was a shootingyesterday at a school.
A girl was at Wisconsin, Ithink.
Speaker 1 (35:31):
I haven't even seen that.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Yeah, a girl went into a school Christian school.
A girl goes into a school,shoots several people.
A second grader called policeon his phone On his phone.
Now people will want to usethat.
See why he ought to have hisphone.
Well, there were a lot morephones there than that second
(35:53):
grader, you know, but we've gotpeople giving small children
phones Access to the whole world.
Access to the world and theycan't figure out why their kid's
having the issues they'rehaving.
Number one there's so muchwe've identified since COVID.
There's so much negativeinformation being fed to your
(36:14):
kid that teenage depression andsuicide is at an all-time high,
the bullying that takes placeand there are tons of really bad
issues with this.
So every family's got tonavigate this the way they feel
is best for their family.
But I'm telling you it is, Ibelieve in my lifetime, the most
(36:38):
dangerous tool that's ever beencreated is out there right now
in the hands of your kids.
You know, when I was a kid theyhad the magazines for
pornography Playboy or Penthouseand they were at the
convenience stores behind thecounter with brown wrapper
(37:02):
around them and as a young boy,all you could do was wonder what
was in that book.
Right, and if you foundyourself believing, you were
lucky.
You know, under your UncleBob's mattress, when he was gone
, you found one.
So it was hard for a child.
(37:23):
Our society, our government,our laws and rules tried to
protect children and they'redoing better these days.
They really are, but it's stillan epidemic.
It's an epidemic and ourchildren, the mental health of
(37:44):
our children, is being destroyedby these media devices Right.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Yeah, we homeschool our kids, so we have to work and
make sure they're havingfriends in the neighborhood,
they're going to extracurricularactivities and they're not just
at home.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Right.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
I can tell you know, caden's the oldest, he's nine.
I can tell when he's got a10-year-old friend that that
10-year-old friend hasexperienced the world.
You can see it in a child.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
You can see it.
Speaker 1 (38:13):
And it's just shocking to me.
You know the visible, you canreally see it.
Speaker 2 (38:18):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
I think one of the things that affected me early on
.
You know, I came up when I wasin high school.
That's really when social mediastarted, you know.
So I kind of missed that at anearly age and I saw the effects
of it just then.
I mean, whenever Apple iPhonestarted coming out and you were
(38:42):
able to access the internet alittle quicker with 3G and
friends were texting friends,hey, check out this site and
this site and you know, sean andI were talking before we
started you can access the darkweb just with a URL.
And I mean these sites arehidden in apps in students'
phones so their parents don'tknow what they're looking at.
Speaker 2 (39:04):
Exactly.
That's just in recent yearsthat that started.
But the average parent, who isusually not tech savvy, is the
kid.
Yeah, most of these kids getaway with that.
They don't have a clue theparents that it's going on, yeah
.
Speaker 1 (39:22):
Yeah, there's things out there like I don't know if
you ever heard of the Gab phone.
No, it doesn't.
As far as I know, it doesn'tconnect to internet and it
doesn't have anything other thantext messaging and calling, and
you're only allowed to textcertain things.
And so there are companies outthere that's trying to have a
way where younger kids can havephones, but, yeah, to eliminate
(39:45):
that access.
Speaker 2 (39:46):
But look, I understand the pressure parents
are under.
My oldest son got a phone whenhe was 16, started driving.
That was our rule you startdriving, we can get you a phone,
and if I call it, you betterpick it up.
The second child got a phone at16, when he started driving.
By the time we got to the thirdone, I think he was 14 and he
(40:08):
got a phone.
And not only were Jan and Igetting pressure from him, but
from families in the church.
What do you mean?
He don't have a phone.
You got to get the child aphone, you know.
So not only are a lot of thesedecisions unhealthy, they're
happy to put that pressure onother families.
Right, you know?
(40:30):
and yeah, yeah.
And so so many young familiesnot wanting their child to be
the outcast, to be the only one,bow to this pressure.
Speaker 1 (40:42):
Right.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
And I just encourage them to stay strong, stay strong
.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:49):
Lastly, spiritual, the spiritual attacks.
How does spiritual apathy inthe home open up doors for evil
influences?
Speaker 2 (41:00):
Yeah, well, here's the bottom line.
The more you're in the Word ofGod, the more you have a prayer
life, the more you're seekingGod, the closer you're going to
be to God, the further you getaway from those avenues, your
prayer life, the Word of God.
(41:20):
You are voluntarily creating adistance between you and God.
It's like a marriagerelationship.
You know, if I'm married but mywife lives in one house and I
live in another one and the onlytime we communicate is, well,
the faucet's leaking.
Could you come by and fix it?
(41:41):
You know, that's not much of amarriage and that's what happens
with us individually.
We're, in a sense, spirituallymarried to God.
He wants that relationship withus, and the more we take him
casual, the more he's not realfor us.
We open the window and then thedoor to the influences of Satan
(42:07):
into our home.
All of a sudden, something thatyou would never do, a place you
would never go, a movie youwould never watch, becomes okay,
it's not a big deal, we'llwatch this, we'll do this, we'll
, whatever, you know.
And so I just shake my headsometimes, because I'm on social
(42:31):
media, and I'm on social mediafor one reason.
I used to get this all the time, pastor, nobody came to see me
at my surgery.
I'm sorry, I didn't know youhad surgery.
I put it on Facebook, you know.
So we're at a place in thechurch.
Nowadays if they post it onsocial media, we're all supposed
(42:51):
to know.
You know what's going on intheir life.
So I fought it for severalyears.
I didn't care to be there, butI finally gave it up and I got
on social media.
And today's a good example.
A family posted their child'shaving surgery tomorrow.
I was able to contact them,know what's going on with all
(43:14):
that, but they didn't tell usthey were in church last week.
They didn't say a word and it'sa major surgery.
But the reality is that it thenconsumes us.
It takes over our lives, ourthinking.
Chet, I know people who they gointo depression because they
(43:38):
post something and they don'tget very many likes.
Boy, is this the epitome of alow self-esteem?
You know they don't know whothey are in Christ.
They need these people on theother side of a screen somewhere
to tell them there's somebody.
It's so sad.
(44:00):
And today we've got peopleposting the craziest personal
stuff you've ever seen in yourlife.
I mean, I read one not long ago, this woman.
She says just want to let youall know, I've got a urinary
tract infection today.
It hurts so bad.
(44:20):
Everybody, please pray.
I don't want to know.
You've got a urinary tractinfection.
So we're in a place People haveno boundaries, there's no
boundaries.
They put their whole life outthere and then when somebody
disagrees with them, oh, theymelt down Totally.
(44:43):
It's the end of their life, andso this stuff is so unhealthy.
But, as they all say, the jackis out of the box.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
Oh yeah, it's not going back in it's not going
back in.
Speaker 2 (44:56):
No.
So we've got to learn asparents, to manage this stuff as
best we can, and I don't knowthat there is a best way to do
that.
I think every family's just gotto maneuver that road as best
they can.
Yeah, right.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
Yeah, and I've heard this from you through the years
and I've counseled familiesthrough the years with this as
well If they're not in churchconsistently with their children
in the children's ministry, inthe preschool ministry, in the
youth ministry, they can'texpect for the whole family to
have a tight connection with theLord.
Speaker 2 (45:32):
And serve in Him?
Speaker 1 (45:33):
No, absolutely not so that has to be a thread of
their life that is important.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
I'll give you an example.
I got a 12-year-oldgranddaughter that my wife and I
have just very lovingly andconsistently because her dad's
always been in the oil field andhis schedules are nuts, as you
know, and gone a lot things likethis and he's here practically
every Sunday at church.
(46:00):
But we've made a point to haveher involved since day one, at
12 years old.
This little girl loves Jesusand she gets it.
You know she gets it.
She's the real deal and so itcan happen.
(46:21):
It can happen Now, even over atCovenant, a Christian school.
She'll come home sometimes andshe can't hide it.
I read her like a book and I'mlike little girl, what's wrong?
Nothing, don't lie to me.
So we'll eventually drag it outof her.
And one of the things I try toteach her all the time okay,
(46:45):
some boy said you had a big nose, all right.
Now, middle school boys arestupid.
They're going to be middleschool boys.
That's what they are.
The problem is middle schoolgirls don't understand that, so
they take everything to heart.
So it was a formula we use andshe hates it.
When I do this, I'll say okay,is that guy your mama, your
(47:10):
daddy, your granddaddy, yourgrandmother, your brother?
Who is this guy to you Nobody?
That's the word I'm looking for.
So why would you let him havecontrol over you?
He's nobody to you, he's just adumb middle school boy.
He scratches himself in publicand pees his pants half the time
(47:33):
.
Don't let that rock your world.
And so that's what I mean byconstantly fighting.
In that moment we're not havinga spiritual conversation, but
we are.
Where does your worth lie?
And then we'll get to thatplace where I'll say who's
number one in your life?
Because I've taught her thisJesus, right, you think he loves
(47:57):
you, yes, you think he's happywith you?
I hope so.
Well, good, that's the only onewe worried about, you know.
And so you got to haveconversations to give direction,
constantly, constantly.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
Right.
I think it's helpful too, steve.
If parents are not fightingeach other, they have energy to
do that for their kids.
But if there's a marriage andconstant conflict, there's no
energy, there's no breath.
You know, wait for yourchildren.
Speaker 2 (48:36):
Well, and look, I'll just say it.
I tell young women all the timeyou want your husband to love
Jesus more than he loves you,Because a woman always wants her
man to love her more thananybody else.
I get it, but he will neverproperly love you until he loves
(48:59):
Jesus more than he loves you.
You want him to love Jesus morethan he loves his kids, because
then his kids are going to bevery fortunate people.
And so the two of you, if youboth love Jesus and you're on
the same path with the samegoals, you can raise healthy,
(49:19):
happy children.
But what we've got right now isa culture of broken children
and now broken adults, becauseit's been going on for several
decades and you know themarriage is the key decades.
And you know the marriage isthe key, it's the key to
everything, Absolutely.
(49:40):
So if they're not a team, yeah,you're going to have a divided
kingdom.
Right, Because kids are notdumb.
If they see mom and dad not onthe same page, they'll exploit
that every time.
Speaker 1 (49:54):
Right, yeah.
And one last thing, and we'llclose, Steve, because I think
this is important even in ourchurch.
What do you say to the singlemoms who are struggling to make
ends meet, struggling to havethe energy to protect their
children spiritually?
I mean, what encouragement doyou have for them?
Speaker 2 (50:12):
Keep doing what you're doing.
Don't give up.
There is a light at the end ofthe tunnel and while a husband
and wife in the same home on thesame path as ideal, being
divorced does not guarantee youhave to fail or your child has
(50:32):
to fail.
Speaker 1 (50:34):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (50:34):
I know a lot of examples of single parents who
have raised their children well,and I had a single father that
coached with me for years, amember of our church, and he and
I would talk.
We'd finish a weekendtournament with baseball.
I'd say, oh, I'm going home andgetting my chair.
(50:55):
He said, coach, I got to dolaundry ball.
I said, oh, I'm going home andgetting my chair.
He said, coach, I got to dolaundry, you know, and so, but
he very faithfully just pluggedday in and day out and raised
two of the finest young men Iknow anywhere.
You know one just graduated theNaval Academy last year.
Oh wow, that's awesome of melast year.
(51:23):
And so you know, yeah, yeah,you can do it.
Just trust the Lord, draw onhis strength, get up and put one
foot before the other one andjust determine that failure is
not an option.
Speaker 1 (51:31):
Right, yeah, right Amen.
Well, thank you, brother,appreciate you being here, my
joy.
All right guys.
See you on the next one.
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