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May 23, 2025 15 mins

What would change in your life if you started and ended each day with intentional wins? The power of simple habits can transform how Christian men lead themselves and their families. This week's Fun Friday episode unpacks Psalm 23:5-6, reminding us that God prepares a table before us even in difficult circumstances. From this foundation of security, we explore three practical tips to help you thrive in every area of your life.

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Our devotionals dive deep into the pillars that define The Lion Within Us - health, wealth, and self. Whether you're seeking spiritual growth, financial wisdom, or personal development, these devotionals are tailor-made for you. Connect with The Lion Within Us on the Bible App. 👉 https://thelionwithin.us/bible/

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chris Grainger (00:03):
Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast
serving Christian men who arehungry to be the leaders God
intends you to be.
I'm your host, chris Granger.
Let's jump in.
All right, fellas, it's funFriday time, let's go, okay.
So now Scripture of the Weekthis week has been Psalm 23,
verses 5 and 6.
You prepare a table for me inthe presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil.
My cup overflows.

(00:24):
Surely your goodness and lovewill follow me all the days of
my life and I will dwell in thehouse of the Lord forever.
So, guys, beautiful scripture.
Absolutely loved it.
Go back and listen to a couplepodcasts ago in your podcast
feed, our spiritual kickoffepisode, where we tackled this
head on to try to help yousimplify and apply it to your

(00:45):
life.
And, guys, we do this Mondaythrough Friday within the Lion
Within Us community.
That's all part of what we do,thelionwithinus.
I'd encourage you to just headover there right now, because
there's so many great ways thatwe've changed and updated the
site and lots of resources, sogo plug in and get started All
right Now.
We had a really fun conversationwith Charlie Watkins.
If you guys haven't listened tothat one yet, you probably

(01:06):
should.
He talks about throwing norocks and just love Charlie's,
his demeanor, his approach tolife, his approach to leadership
, how he's trying to lean in andencourage other Christian men
in their walk.
So much to learn from you know,part of the cool part, one of
the cool parts of being apodcast host is you get to hang
out with some of these verysuccessful guys who have proven

(01:29):
themselves, who have done justincredible things.
You get to share these stories.
I find myself quite often justsitting back just soaking it in
With Charlie.
It was just like that, justsoaking in his wisdom, his
discernment, the differentthings he shared Again head over
.
Check out that site, thatepisode rather, and hopefully
you guys enjoy that.

(01:50):
So now, fun Friday time.
What we do on fun Fridays is wetry to get some tips.
We always throw in a book ofthe week and some dad jokes Very
simple structure.
It's usually a shorter episode,by the way, but we try to do
that just to encourage you, justto help you with your walk.
Okay, so we always do a health,wealth and a self-tip.

(02:10):
So our health tips always focuson mind and body.
How do we strengthen those Froma wealth tip?
It's all about stewardship.
How do we be better stewards ofour finances and our careers?
And self-tip is ultimatelyhusbands, fathers.
That stuff is hard.
So you got any tips on being abetter husband and father?
Well, I don't have all the tips, but we try to just give you a
little encouragement each andevery week.
Ok, so let's jump right into it.
So the health tip this week isbookend your day with wins.

(02:34):
Think of how bookends work in alibrary.
Right, so you keep the bookstogether.
So start that morning right.
Maybe it's prayer, and I alsowould encourage hydration.
Okay, start there.
Maybe the end of the day isgratitude and stretching.
I don't know.
That's.
They're simple little things,but what they do is they start
bringing, building in the righttypes of habits and rituals to

(02:58):
anchor your day, to get itstarted right.
Okay, because you know how itgoes, fellas, if you start your
day right, usually the day justhas a tendency to keep that
momentum.
But if you start today and it'sa dumpster fire and you forget
to pray, you forget to spend thetime of God's word, and you and
your wife are bickering witheach other as you're walking out
the house and you and your kidsare yelling at each other, that

(03:19):
day just gets stressful, right.
So take control.
Start with wins.
Put some wins in your cornerout the gate.
That daily time of prayer, justsome hydration, some time alone
with God non-negotiable,non-negotiable.
All right, fellas, that's it.
Booking those day with wins.
Wealth tips Consider doing athree-minute resume review

(03:46):
review.
So today, sometime, just open upyour resume, wherever it's at,
and if you only had threeminutes to update it, what's
missing?
That shows your leadership andimpact.
Okay, we start there.
And I'm not saying you have todo this if you're not even
looking for a job.
This is just a good exercise todo in general, because what
it's going to force you to do isthink through the role that

(04:09):
you're in right now.
How is the role right nowimpacting your leadership?
How is that manifesting itselfin the work that you do?
Then how would you articulatethat to others?
It's just a good thoughtexercise around stewardship of
your career that will help youjust recognize the value that
you bring, or recognize thedeficiency that's in your career

(04:31):
right now.
And if there's a deficiency,then you have something you can
work towards.
So a three-minute resume review, okay, all right.
Self-tip Be the firstencourager.
Say that again.
Be the first encourager.
Say that again Be the firstencourager.
Your wife, your children, thepeople in your home need to hear
encouragement from you first.

(04:53):
Okay, if they hear it from theworld, great, I hope they do,
but they have to hear it fromyou.
I'm telling you, I got guys inmy life right now who send me
texts, send me emails, messages,and it's always a note of
encouragement, and they have noidea how much of an impact that

(05:20):
makes for me.
My pastor, pastor Joby inFlorida.
I sent him a weeklyencouragement email every week
because he told me one time he'slike man, bro, he's like.
You know, pastors, wedefinitely, particularly someone

(05:40):
who has his platform.
It's not a lot of positivestuff to come across.
People are very quick to pointout the shortcomings or their
perception of shortcomings.
So I made a point.
So every Thursday I send them anote of encouragement.
And you know what the guys whotake the time to encourage me

(06:00):
along the same type of structuremeans so much.
And that's the power you have,like, I tell you those stories
just to give you an example.
But you have that power rightnow with your wife.
When's the last time you toldyour wife?
You know what, babe, you aresuch an encouragement to me.
I just want to just tell youyou do an amazing job as a mom,

(06:22):
as a mom, as a wife Like I ambeyond blessed.
I know I don't show you oftenor tell you enough, but thank
you, and you do stuff like that.
First of all, she may be like,what do you want?
Like it's not happening tonight.
So you may have to get overthat.
But if you, if you, if you justactually come through, come at
it with sincerity, man, it coulddo some powerful things for

(06:43):
your marriage.
And look, the evil one wants ourmarriages to fail.
He wants all of our marriagesto fail.
Let's just face that.
Let's call a spade a spade.
That's all he wants is to steal, kill, destroy your marriage.
I don't want that for you.
I want so much more for you.
But it's not like it's going tohappen by accident.
It just doesn't.
It happens throughintentionality and effort.
That's what it's going to take.

(07:04):
All right, fellas.
So your three tips your health,wealth and self Book in that
day with wins.
I'm serious man.
Think about that.
The wealth tip three-minuteresume review, three minutes how
would you elevate that?
And then self-tip be the firstencourager.
Okay, now the book of the week.
We talked about this onWednesday, the episode right
here.
But Charlie Watkins' book Throneof Rocks A Man's Guide to

(07:26):
Success Through Partnership withGod.
Love the book, love Charlie.
He's just a fun guy to be with.
He's in Virginia as well, whichis really close to where we're
at Fellas.
Just highly encourage you totake some time, consider adding
this one to your library.
Charlie's just a wonderfulwriter.
He's got lots of really goodpractical insights into this

(07:49):
book.
Again, those seven strategiesjust to kind of reiterate what
those are the strategicimperatives.
You've got time, money, giftsand talents.
He lumps those togetherRelationships, identity,
authority and spiritual warfare.
He mentioned the authority.
One was the hardest one for himto write because of the issues
he had with his father.
Maybe that just resonates withyou.
Warfare, and he mentioned anauthority.
One was the hardest one for himto write because of the issues
he had with his father and maybethat's you know, just resonates

(08:10):
with you.
But I guarantee you all theseseven areas.
If you're just in tune to theseseven areas and start thinking
about them, it has somepractical insights.
The way Charlie gives you righthere it's going to help you in
your walk and again, there's somuch alignment to the lion.
You know the health, wealth,self, mind, body, career,
finances, husband, father,spiritual leader, all that stuff
.
There's lots of alignment.

(08:31):
So we're just highly encouragedby Charlie.
Okay, all right, fellas, let'sget into our dad jokes.
So the first dad joke is mywife said I should do lunges to
stay in shape.
Huh, that would be a big stepforward.
I'm sorry, that's pretty good,bro.
That's it.
Number two what do you call aline of rabbits hopping backward

(08:52):
?
Okay, well, that's called areceding hairline.
I think they're both good thisweek.
I'm sorry, number one.
Number two my wife said Ishould do lunges to stay in
shape.
That would be a big stepforward.
Number two what do you call aline of rabbits hopping backward
A receding hairline?
All right, fellas.
Now look, that's going to getan eye roll, that may even get a

(09:14):
chuckle, and you know what Ifit gets to a little smirk?
Just right, hey, you know,touch down, let's go.
So question of the week thisweek is are you living from a
place of abundance or fear?
My prayer is that it'sabundance, but if you're living
in that fear, you don't have tostay there Again.
Go back to the spiritualkickoff episode.

(09:34):
We talk, we help you walkthrough this to unpack it at a
deeper level, fellas, but soblessed and honored for each and
every one of you listeners outthere.
The Lion.
There's been a lot of thingshappening at the Lion with
Dennis since we got started withthe podcast.
Then we have our YouVersiondevotionals, then we have our
YouTube channel and then we havethe mastermind groups that are

(09:57):
starting up.
Obviously, we've always had thecommunity and things like that
that are happening.
There's just been a lot ofchange.
I feel like it's been throttleddown since the moment we hit
launch.
It wears you out.
I'm just going to be honest.
It wears you out.
I would just covet your prayers.
This has been a difficultseason as I'm recording this.
I'm actually recording this inMarch.
I'm not even sure when this isgoing to come out, but we try to

(10:20):
stay so far ahead.
There is no massive team,fellas.
It's not a massive team.
It's from a podcast standpoint.
It's me and one other brotherand it just wears us out.
I'm encouraged by you sharing,by you listening.
Check out also.
We started some new things onour YouTube channel called Bible

(10:41):
Briefing for Men.
It's really awesome.
It's a fun videos that we doone a week.
They're super short, like threeminutes or less, and we just
try to give you OK, whathappened in Scripture?
Ok, so what?
Why does it matter?
And then now, what do we dowith it?
And it's, the structure isawesome.
I'm having a ton of fun makingthem and I'm hoping that you're

(11:03):
going to enjoy watching them.
So, again, head over to ourYouTube channel.
That's that's exclusively wherewe put that content.
Check that out and then headover to the Lion Within dot US
to get started with ourmastermind groups, All the stuff
we talk about within the LionWithin us.
That's how you can help themost.
If you want to be a monthlydonor, that would be awesome,
just to support the show, whatwe're doing, what we're building

(11:25):
Fellas, you can head over tothelionwithinus slash, donate
and connect.
We would love to have you as apartner to come alongside with
us as we're just laying in.
We're doing the hard work andif you enjoy the podcast in any
way or any of our content in asmall way, your support would go
a long way.
And I just wanted to say thankyou.
All right, so have a great dayagain after.
Thank you so much for listening.

(11:46):
Leave us a rating and review ifyou get a chance and you know
what's coming.
Keep unleashing the lion within.
We're making a big change that Ithink you're really going to
enjoy.
I spent a lot of time thinkingabout our spiritual kickoffs and
, honestly, I love doing themeach week so much so we started

(12:09):
doing them live every Mondaythrough Friday inside our
exclusive platform.
And here's the best part We'vedecided to give full access,
completely free, so now you canjoin our daily spiritual kickoff
space at no cost.
Every day, we go live to readthe word, to encourage each
other and find simple andpowerful ways to apply God's

(12:31):
truth to our lives.
You'll even have the chance toengage with me directly, and if
you missed a live stream, don'tworry, the videos are posted the
same day so you can catch upwhenever it works for you.
This is exclusivebehind-the-scenes content that
is not available anywhere else,and now we've removed every

(12:51):
excuse.
So if you're ready to getstarted, head over to
thelionwithinus and grab yourfree access today.
Let's grow together.
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