April 24, 2025 • 55 mins
🛏️ Huge thanks to our sponsor: Cozy Earth ✨ Use code MORETHAN for 40% off the world’s softest sheets: CozyEarth.com
In today’s episode, Adam and Danielle share the real-life, faith-filled journey of embracing change as a family of eight. From considering homeschool for their quintuplets to letting go of control in uncertain seasons, this conversation is raw, heartfelt, and packed with encouragement.
We explore how God plants seeds long before the shift begins — and what it looks like to trust Him through the unknown. Whether you’re a parent navigating school decisions, a spouse wrestling with big questions, or simply someone feeling called into something new… this episode will meet you there.
đź”” Subscribe and share if this episode speaks to you!
Welcome to "More Than Reality" with Adam and Danielle Busby, the proud parents of 6 beautiful daughters—5 of whom made history as the first set of all-female quintuplets born in the United States. After 10 incredible seasons of our hit TV show OutDaughtered on TLC, we’re taking you behind the scenes of our extraordinary life like never before. Join us as we navigate the joys and challenges of raising a family of 8, share unfiltered stories from our journey, and explore everything from parenting tips to personal growth. It’s life, love, laughter, and a whole lot of chaos—because our reality is so much more than what you’ve seen on screen.Tune in each week for a candid look into our world, where the real adventure begins when the cameras stop rolling.
In today’s episode, Adam and Danielle share the real-life, faith-filled journey of embracing change as a family of eight. From considering homeschool for their quintuplets to letting go of control in uncertain seasons, this conversation is raw, heartfelt, and packed with encouragement.
We explore how God plants seeds long before the shift begins — and what it looks like to trust Him through the unknown. Whether you’re a parent navigating school decisions, a spouse wrestling with big questions, or simply someone feeling called into something new… this episode will meet you there.
đź”” Subscribe and share if this episode speaks to you!
Welcome to "More Than Reality" with Adam and Danielle Busby, the proud parents of 6 beautiful daughters—5 of whom made history as the first set of all-female quintuplets born in the United States. After 10 incredible seasons of our hit TV show OutDaughtered on TLC, we’re taking you behind the scenes of our extraordinary life like never before. Join us as we navigate the joys and challenges of raising a family of 8, share unfiltered stories from our journey, and explore everything from parenting tips to personal growth. It’s life, love, laughter, and a whole lot of chaos—because our reality is so much more than what you’ve seen on screen.Tune in each week for a candid look into our world, where the real adventure begins when the cameras stop rolling.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is More Than Reality podcast where we dive into
all things faith, family, and marriage and share that there
is so much more than the reality that you see
on the surface. Welcome to More Than Reality with Adam
and Danielle Busby.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I think this is episode thirty.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Hey hey, does that song like just like get you
excited to like, hey, feel good?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Thirty if some would say dirty thirty, But today's episode
isn't dirty.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Have we ever done a dirty episode?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I mean, we kind of did a kind of a
dirty connect card one day about oh so, uh, today
we're gonna have a kind of a I guess some
would say it's like a hard conversation about just change,
embracing change. But we're hot off the heels of Easter break. Yeah,
(01:02):
And we had a very unique and different experience for
Easter this year because we went back home, which we've done.
We've gone back home to Louisiana. We're both from Lake Charles, Louisiana.
My family lives in a smaller town just north of
Lake Charles called Moss Bluff. And it's thunder and outside.
I don't know if you guys will hear that, but
(01:23):
and so we went back home because well.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
One we always host since we've lived in this house,
we have hosted Easter the last like five years. And
then when we do like a crawfish boil and we
have like are my sisters.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Over earlier years we would chase the kids around as
an Easter bunny.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Sometimes you're some Easters your family has come here, but
we also invite like our closest friends who don't have
like family around to come. So are usually our Easter
celebration here that we host is a big crawfish boil
with you know, quite a bit of people in kids.
But it's changed over the years just everybody's getting older,
(02:03):
you're not really you know, Easter egg hunts are turning
into what are you putting in the Easter egg?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
That's a gift card?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah, and then you know just more like challenging games
and stuff.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
But yeah, this year we did go to Lake Charles.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, my older sister. A lot of people don't even
know how an older sister because she lives away. She
lived for years in North Carolina, which and then now
and they live up in Oklahoma. But you know, it's
just harder for them to get over for like every
holiday and stuff like that, and so it's been man,
it's been probably five years since like she's been with us.
(02:42):
And then really it's like her whole family because of
her husband's job and stuff, and he's always like out
of the country and stuff, and so usually like times
that she's come back, it's just been with either her
by herself or her with the kids. And so this
is like one of the very few times as a
whole family, like their whole family came hasband kids and
(03:05):
then so obviously we found out, oh, Claris is coming in,
so we got to be there, and so you know,
we made it a point to to come in and
it was awesome. You know, we got to spend time
with nieces and nephews that we don't get to spend
much time with and let the kids play together. It
(03:27):
was like a just a super awesome experience. Yeah, we
even did, like, you know, just to celebrate this momentous occasion,
we had a photographer come in. We did like big
group family photos, which we still haven't gotten the photos
back yet, so we can't wait to share those.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
I mean, it was just a couple of days ago.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yeah, And so I mean normally because it's me, usually
it's me like setting up a tripod or taking like
group shots of families and stuff, and so we get
those photos right away. But this time around, we brought
in a photographer, so you kind of have to, you know,
do the photographer thing and.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
Wait hard because I'm like, oh, I can't see the photos.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Just when I do it, it's like instant gratification. Everybody
can like, you know, I walk into the house and
upload them and everybody can see them right away. But
this time, I just we had the anticipation.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Yeah, I mean, you snapped.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Some photos while we were like just waiting and stuff
for everybody to get there.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
But I should have at least snapped one like family photo.
Like I took a photo of you and the girls,
but like I was taking the photo, so I was
out of it.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
You took a picture of me and the girls, Yeah,
from the Magnoia tree. Oh that was at your mom's souse.
I thought you're talking about when we did the family photos. No, no, you,
I mean you snapped around the picture. I think you
already posted it. Yeah before we got rude, we got there.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Those were such cute pics. You should have collaped with
me on that.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Oh sorry, we all got there a little early, just
to kind of scope out, like honestly, we'd never been
there before, so we got there extra early, and so
we were waiting for the photographer to get there, and
I looked over and I remember like my childhood in
Louisiana and like honeysuckles and you know, you walk up
and you can pluck up, pluck the flo I mean,
(05:00):
the the actual honeysuckle bush or ravine. I don't know
if it's considered a bush ravine. It's I think we
always said bush, but it's super like aromatic and like
it smells like so sweet and so good. But you
can walk over and you can pluck off the bottom
and then pull the stem through the bottom and there's
(05:21):
like nectar in the bottom and the like you can
like taste it and stuff, and it's like super sweet.
And so I showed the girls because they'd never seen
a honeysuckle before. I han't seen one since I was
like a kid. I have them around here, yeah, mom,
Mom and dad don't have them at their house. But
and so that was like super cute because I was
I was. We got there and we're like, oh, what
(05:42):
are we gonna do? We're just sitting around waiting and
I looked down. I was like, oh, there's a honeysuckle
bush down by the water. And so I showed the
girls and grabbed my camera and just snapped a few,
like I showed them how to how to do it,
and just was taking some photos of them just exploring
and stuff. And it was just made for some super cute,
like candid photos around the all the flowers and the
(06:04):
bushes and stuff, and they were all dressed up for
photos and so it was it was super cute. But
we had a crawfish boil at mom and Dad's house,
so we still did the crawfish thing because that's like
our our thing for Easter. It was awesome. I mean,
like the kids were like asking every single day for
(06:24):
like a month, we're going to Nannapapa's house. We're gonna
have crawfish. We're gonna do crawlfish. Yes, yes, yes, And
then we almost missed it. Yep, we almost missed it,
but yeah, you made it.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
And oh I laughed because like Adam's mom and dad
like are both like into.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Like gadgets, kitchen gadgets.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Exactly like Adam.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
And we get there and I'm like Oh man, I
just saw this thing on Instagram pop up with this
crawfish peeler peeler tell and they're like, we got it.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
I'm like, of course you do.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
I mean literally it was like two days before and
I was like, that's a cool thing.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
And yeah, Phil, it didn't work at all.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
And it just slows you down.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Yeah, it's like major slows you down, just trying to
get the clamp things like, no.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Nobody got time for that.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Yeah. But yeah, we had a really good time.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
I mean the weather turned out nice and it rained
a little bit, but the pool was really cold, so
the kids were kind of in the pool in the
hot tub, in the pool in the hot tub. But yeah,
there was a full house of all of us there.
We actually were like when we go in in the
eight of us, go say, it's a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Now we had Clarisa and her husband and like the kids,
and Kayla and her husband and the kids. But they
would stay at their house, but they're in like one
of their rental properties, like in between like building and
selling their home and whatever they're going to do next.
But you know, there's not a lot of room over
there for us either. But we made it work. I
(07:58):
mean we used the pool house couch bed, we used
the camper, and I mean we we took up every
space that there was with the family to sleep.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah. It's funny because like I text Dad like the
day before and I was like, is it too late
to call DIBs in the camper? So we just had
like our own little space like off to the side
of the house. But He's like, no, come on, it's already.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Sweet, that's fun.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
It's enjoyable in there.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
It's cold, yeah, because they have a they have a
bed like ours at home, there's like a sleep number bed.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Yeah that it was actually more comfortable than the beds
that we usually sleep in. Yeah, and so it was
it was like.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Comfortable and familiar. So it was like super cozy. All right,
So we're gonna take a little break for our sponsor,
which is Cozy Earth. And it's it's funny because in
this house, I feel like we've been on we have
a really nice set of sheets out of like we
(08:58):
rotate our sheets probably every week. There's like one set
of sheets that's like our favorite, and we've been on
this like search for the best sheets, and I feel
like like none of them compare to this certain particular
one that we have until we came across cozier, right.
(09:21):
I feel like that these cozier sheets that we have
are like butter.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
So I I was always that person's like change the sheets,
wash them, change them, and I'll just like get some
like I don't want to spend money on it. But
now I know that quality matters when you sleep. And
I am someone who doesn't sleep well but needs sleep
(09:49):
because sleep is so important for our health and like
physical and mental.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
And I'm like, I'm done.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
How do you say sheet finding? She shopping sh we
have found it cozy Earth. I mean I've heard people
talk about Cozy Earth. They've got like the pjs, which
I can only imagine how amazing the pjs are. But
we have the sheets, and the sheets are literally like
you don't want to get out of bed, which is
a problem for me.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
But because we both sleep hot, yeah and so and
so whenever we go to bed, Like when you want
a sheet that's going to keep.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
You cool, yeah yeah, but not cool, like it's it's
like a wet feeling cool.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
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Speaker 3 (10:33):
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they're just amazing.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Yeah, that's like literally the words to describe it.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Like you need sheets that feel like this and you're
never gonna want to get out of your bed.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah, because you spend most of your life in bed.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
I mean well, I.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Mean like you like the nine to five, like the
hustle and go, and it's like when you get at
home and it's like you wind down, like you want
to like get in your bed and just be like
comfortable and just like cozy.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
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(11:29):
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Speaker 2 (12:17):
So thank you Cozy Earth for sponsoring this episode. And
now we'll get back to the conversation. So we're gonna
do a card today. Yeah, sure, I go first this time.
Did you already look at these?
Speaker 3 (12:31):
I didn't know what is different about a relationship now
that you're glad is different.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Like something immediately popped in my mind, But I was like, oh,
it's not really different. I mean, it's it's hard to
say different because like through our relationship, like there's been
so many different times and like sections of our relationship
as like a couple, but also as probably the majority
(13:01):
of our relationship now is also has the majority of
our relationship now as predominantly been with kids. And so
I mean I think early on, like our relationship was
just full of like travel and just going doing fun
stuff and and then now that like our life has
kind of been you know, consumed with like kids and
(13:24):
family and stuff. You you embrace that, but also like
we've had to kind of lean a lot on just
our relationship and our faith and stuff like that moving
through because like it changes so much. I'd like that
because when you're not you can definitely see the difference.
(13:46):
And I feel like our life is, like, especially over
the last couple years, we've had to lean heavily like
on our faith and like God's direction and stuff. And
I feel like things a lot of things are changing,
and that honestly, that's kind of the subject of this
episode today. But and so we can kind of get
a little bit more into that later on. But our
(14:07):
relationship has gone from like just kind of doing whatever
we want and like going out and like experience and
stuff and going places and and we still do that,
but you know, we're very much more like adults and
parents now and like just trying to figure out like
the future and like where our life and our family
like settles out, which which is scary a lot of times,
(14:32):
but it is good and I don't feel like we
need that, and it stretches us and it pushes us.
We have to like lean on each other a lot
more through those like difficult circumstances or trials or questions
about the future. And so yeah, that would probably be it.
(14:54):
I'm gonna do you what does contentment look for you?
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Am I ever content?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Hmm?
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Because I suffer with high expectations in life, and so
I don't know if I'm ever just content. I think
that contentment for me means letting go of control.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
And so when I can be okay with.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Letting go of the reins and and something, even if
it's in a game, even if it's in cleaning, even
if it's in whatever.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
That task or whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
I when I can mentally tell myself to lower my expectations,
that's contentment.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
So I'm trying to learn not to have high expectations for.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Me being content with like where you're at it.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Just kind of the word. But yeah, I mean, but
it's hard.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
It's hard to be content in my head, like because
I always think that there's something better to achieve or
to strive for, and like, I don't know, I just
don't like the I don't know, it's hard. It's hard
to accept being just content. I am learning that we
have to be content in certain areas of our life
(16:21):
and there are certain days and times and the years
and seasons that this is where it needs to be
and I have to be okay with that. Yeah, and
so that I mean it's hard though, but I think
a lot of that for me personally looks like when
I have to let go of control. It's not easy.
But that's what I would say, I would think makes
(16:41):
me feel more content or understand what contentment is.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, I agree with that. It's funny because like both
of our questions today kind of revolve a little bit
around like the subject matter for what we were wanting
to talk about today, and it just the subject today
is about just change.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Did you like pres I did? They're just still sitting
on the table from us, and I never know with
you a little sneaky thing.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yeah, So like honestly, like over the last few months,
you know, we've been wrestling with a change.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
It's been like the last Yeah, well I will just
to start this off. I think when we went through
our church fast last year, so we do church fast
twice a year and it's usually January and then August September.
The last year. God made it evident to me that
(17:48):
something was going to drastically change this year in twenty
twenty five. I wonder what that changes and I and
I didn't really think much of it, but it's stuck
on me.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
It's in my journal.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
It's like in my journaling of like what's happening during
these fasts, And like twenty twenty five comes around, and
you know, there's a lot of things that have been
on our plate to like have been hard or like
difficult or changing, and it's just so crazy to like
(18:21):
look back and think, like when I go and like
look at my journal and I'm like or my notes
in my phones where I do a lot of it, Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Like the seed was planted. Yeah, like you're aware of
and have a feeling this stuff's going to happen, but
like I see it start happening.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
Yeah, like in the midst of change.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
It's hard, but I found a piece in knowing that
this is what it's like more of like that reassurance
and where that piece can come from and saying like man,
look at this, Like God told me this a year ago,
like sometime in twenty twenty five, something drastically was going
to change. And we're still working through this change in
(19:05):
how to talk about it or how to like really
share about it.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
But we can still talk about the topic of change.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
But yeah, I mean, I know it's I know this
is the right journey because I feel peace with the
direction that God has been leading us through, even though
it's kind of been a fight, like you know in
conversation or what does that look like? Or the unknowing
is really what's the hard part of change? And I
(19:32):
think that's where everybody could relate to. I mean, I
would assume, you know, we don't like change because we
don't know what's next or what's coming, or what is
the outcome or what do we have to do differently
or it's scary. Yeah, there's some fear in there, but
you know, it's also it's also an encouraging phase because
(19:59):
something's next. Yeah, something's next, and like what is that something?
And I don't exactly know yet. Honestly, I don't know
in a lot of things, but.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
I know that things in our lives have started to
like unfold that kind of forces that change and it's
uncertain it's scary, but you know, like God's moving us
in this direction.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Yeah, Like I mean, I think one of the aspects
of like that I kind of like elaborate on. It's
not something that's actively happening now, but like I can
see like how God is like working within change of
my uh like heart to head when it comes to
like schooling, Like with the kids, you know, Blake's gonna
(20:53):
start high school. You know, they've got like four weeks
left to school right now until summer, and like she'll
go in a high school and she's really excited about it,
and then the quincil start, like their last year in
elementary school. I think over the past probably like I
don't know, probably since January, really, there have been more
(21:15):
and more instances where I've been placed in conversation with
people who homeschool. It's always something that I never envisioned doing.
We got it, we got a taste of that through
co COVID, and it was like absolutely, no, kids don't
see me as teacher.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
They don't.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
That's why we kept them when we probably shouldn't have.
That's why we kept them in private school for another
year because of there was so much uncertainty in the
public school system and the politics involved with like COVID
and all this stuff. And you know, there was like
all this stuff looming about, like in home learning, and
(21:54):
and we were like into like kindergarten and and You're
hearing all these things about, oh, they gotta they gotta
get issued a laptop computer and they have to stay
logged in for like six hours a day, and and
I'm like, how how would that possibly work in our house?
Like I would have to set up a computer lab
(22:16):
and have full time tech support in our house with
a bunch of kindergarteners that don't know how to really
use a computer yet or read. Yeah, and so you
have to like you would have to be like hovering
over them the entire day.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Yeah, We're like.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
How would we how would we be able to do
anything like work? Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
So it wasn't something that I was like. I was like, heck, no,
I'm not cut for this, I'm not fit for this.
Like this is not what it is. However, years have
come by, We've learned a lot as far as like
education and learning disabilities and like who needs what and
how to help learning. Still still it's still hard for
(22:59):
you know, parents in a mom to learn how to
help your child with dyslexia, help your child that has
like you know, more like cognitive like comprehension, and I
mean there's so much. We've got five kids the same age,
and it's still hard. But I do know that, you know,
within the school district and what they've been placed in
(23:21):
at their school, like, they have been given a lot
of free resources that have been very helpful. I'll speak
for myself as a mom of multiples, to be able
to manage and assist with needs that they need. It's
very hard for me to be able to provide all
of that that they each need in that capacity of
(23:42):
different levels.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
So being in the public school.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
District has been very beneficial for this phase of life
that we're in of helping them learn other skills a
different way. And for someone who doesn't know how to
do that or the technology or the resources behind that,
it's just all in all, Like if I had one child,
I think I could manage it, But I have multiples
(24:07):
with different different learning disabilities in a sense, and it's
just overwhelming for me to understand how do I teach
this one, and how do I teach this one?
Speaker 4 (24:16):
And how do I teach this one?
Speaker 3 (24:17):
And I've learned a lot working with the teachers and
with the school, and it's it's been very good, and
so like now like the goal is having to see
progress and like watching them read and hearing them read
and listening to them read, and we've grown. They have
grown a lot over the last like three years. My
(24:37):
hope is that with dyssexia and stuff, that they are
learning all these skills so that when they get out
of elementary school they know how to utilize what they've
learned and it not be like a peer deficiency and
you know, you get to middle school and it's hard,
like they're going to have a shock of just it's
(25:00):
going to be very different for them in multiple ways.
And so I think when I start looking and talking
about change and like homeschool, it's not the same type
of homeschool I think about from what we first experienced,
which was overwhelming, like holy cal you know. And so
(25:22):
this is something that i've I wouldn't say I've always
been against it. I just have never been educated enough
to understand like what homeschool is.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
And I'm learning.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
More about what it is and how I can see
benefit for our our life and the quints as.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
They're getting older.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah, and you can see how like how God places
people in your life for like such a time as this.
Like now, probably half of our closest friends at our
homeschooling their kids, yea, in like a aspect some form, yeah,
or like homeschooling their kids, which allows us, like, you know,
(26:05):
it's kind of been planting the seed and like we're
learning a bit about the system and how it works.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
And I've had multiple ran into multiple friends who have
you know, three or four kids, and they're like, you know,
we used to be neighbors, and it's like, well, what
you know, running the grocery store at each other and
it's like, hey, how are you. Oh, I saw you
at church. I didn't know that y'all started going there.
And she's like, yeah, well, you know, this one such
and such is in like the homeschool one of these
(26:33):
homeschool like co op programs, and so a lot of
the peers go over here to church, and but the
other ones are still in here, and this one goes here,
and she's like, it's what works for us, it's what
works for that kid. He was not doing well in
like the classroom setting, and so we found this program
and it works, and so just it's just crazy God
(26:53):
putting all these people back in our life to kind
of like like really, you know, show us and teach
us and like in a way be like it doesn't
have to be this way clear as day, you know,
And so I've kind of been open to like, Okay, well,
when sixth grade comes around, like what does school look
(27:15):
like for the girls. And so when we talk about change,
like this is very a very big topic of change
of something that might drastically change for us and our kids,
and so we don't have the answers yet, but when
we talk about change this episode, these are heavy things
that we've been praying about and talking about for a
while now, because like we've got another year of where
(27:38):
they're kind of the Quints are kind of like together,
and when they get to sixth grade in the school
district that they're going to go to, they don't even
know how to be divided up as far as not
being in classrooms together and not being able to really
choose that I want you with this sister in the
(28:00):
peer level is like tripled, and you know, the learning
how they learn, Like so I worry a lot about
those type of things, like when we come to middle school,
not so worried about like this next year.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
But it is something that is something that do believe
will change. Whether it's all of them that go to homeschool,
all of them go to public school, some go to
public school, some go to homeschool, Like, I don't know,
but like these are things that we're wrestling with right now,
and it's hard, Like change is hard.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Like what does that look like? And what does that
look like for work? What does that look like for
our schedules? What does that look like for you know,
school life? And if it's some here, some there, Like
there's a lot of uncertainty and a lot of questions
that we have. And I'm glad now that I feel
like we're you know, God's been planting seeds within us
(28:54):
and people in our lives that I feel like we
have a good We have a span of time to
kind of like we're about to just start, you know,
summer where we can kind of like navigate, you know,
our kids are with us all the time in summer,
and so just to kind of like how would you
process like school and then like they go back to school,
and so when we're talking about change, we're not talking
(29:17):
about like let's change our hair color or like whatever.
We're talking about like real life changes that are hard,
and you know when you feel God's called you to
do something differently or might be stretching you outside of
your comfortability or pushing you to grow or pushing you
to be uncomfortable, like this is what we're talking about.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
And it's hard.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
It's scary because I feel at times like I am
not equipped enough for that. I'm not equipped enough for that,
and that's where God slaps me in the face. It's like,
but that's why I'm here, Danielle. Do you remember your
life of where you were not equipped and I equipped you.
(30:00):
I provided you strength, I provided you rest, I provided
you energy, And I'm like, yes, yes, Lord, like you know,
so I have to be reminded of that often, and
so I am encouraged and filled with hope of whatever
that next change is going to be that pray that
I can be obedient. I guess too, yeah, whatever that
(30:24):
change is going to be.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
And then you know, you see like stories in the Bible,
like over and over about how God is a god
of like movement, like he wants you. He wants to
push you and stretch you, and like I mean you
like look at like in Genesis and stuff and like
Abraham and you know God told Abraham just to go
(30:46):
into this land that with no roadmap, and you know
he but he was just obedient and he went. And
you know, even like stories of like Moses, like in
the Promised Land and like just to go and move
and just answer the call and take that step. And
you know, even like reading through like the New Testament
(31:08):
and Jesus and the Disciples, like one of the things
that like Jesus would approach these disciples and and he
would just say, come with me, and they would drop
every single thing that they had in their life and follow.
And you know, it just shows over and over like
God is a god of movement and he wants you
to just respond and whenever he's whenever you feel that
(31:33):
tug or that direction or just like that feeling. Yes,
of course it's scary because because you know, whenever you
move into something new or you feel like you're called
in something new, it's like scary because it's so unknown.
You have to remember like the promises that he's given
of like I'll never leave you or forsake you. I
(31:55):
walk through this with you. And and he's going to
equip you in these hard times. Yes, you're still gonna
have hard times whenever you're going through change and stretch,
and and he's like molding you and refining you through
like this new season of your life. He doesn't say
it's gonna be easy, but he's going to be with you. Yeah,
(32:17):
And you know, and that's one thing, like you know,
through seasons of our life where you know it's hard,
and like we're we're we're going through changes and different
aspects of our life. You know. That's whenever we should
draw near and draw closer to him, and to be
(32:38):
obedient and to get in the word and to pray
and and just to sit there and listen, like what
what what do you have for me? Like where where
am I going? And he may not show you everything,
you know, it may just be you're going to go
through shim change next year. He may allow something like
(33:00):
asked to happen in your life that you know, in
a sense, may force you to change something in your life.
And all he's asking is take a step, take a
step in the right direction, be obedient, and I'm gonna
show you. I'm gonna light your path one step at
a time, and he wants you just to take that
(33:20):
step and may show you just enough just to be
able to take that step and have the courage just
to take that next step, and then he may show you. Okay,
you know, now we're here. Now let me take you
a little further. And you know it may open some
doors or bring some people in your life. And that
next step or that next area that you're in, that
(33:43):
will illuminate and show you, okay, like give you some
more direction on where to go.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
Yeah, And we've been going through I've been going through
the Bible study like book through the Book of Matthew Gospel.
And this last chapter was like chapter thirteen talking about
all like these like Jesus speaking in parables and giving
all these like stories. When you're talking about a change
(34:13):
or a movement or God might take you somewhere. It
doesn't even have to be physically. It could just also
be mentally growing and changing and taking you somewhere, but
it also could be physically and whatnot. But I was
reminded as I was reading, Actually this morning I went
and read Sma chapter thirteen, but it tells Jesus. At
(34:36):
the end of this he says, a prophet is honored
everywhere except in the hometown among all his friends. And
so I'm reminded that, like what that means to me
right now is that we're in this we're in this community,
and you know, you're known here, you're known there, blah
blah blah blah blah. But we're also seen outside of
(34:58):
the community. And God has been showing us different ways,
in different ways of life, different speaking to us, differently,
us being used as encouragement to others elsewhere to and
that we aren't always we don't always need to be
(35:19):
standing in the same place that we that we are
comfortable in, right So, like whether that means here, you know,
I don't know what that could mean for you.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
It could look different across the board. But for me,
this is speaking to me.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
And though it's not literally, like you know, Jesus is
like went in away from his hometown to evangelize and
like to tell people, you know, these parables and stories
and what was going to be happening, and that he's
the Messiah. And sometimes we have to stretch ourselves and
get uncomfortable and go.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
And that could be going to coffee with.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Someone that you don't know, that you maybe ran in
at church or met at a Bible study, or met
at a party or met at somewhere, and just even
that change of like get outside of your home and
go have coffee about with someone and get to know someone,
or you know, maybe God is calling you to a
different job, or maybe God's calling your family to a
(36:17):
different location, or maybe like this change could be anything.
It could be anything. But Jesus went, Moses went, like
went and and and shouted right. And so I've just
that just kind of encouraged me on like the topic
of just change that like man Jesus was never comfortable
in like this one setting and Moses they all just went.
(36:40):
They all just abided he said go and they went.
And so that's what I want for us, and that's
what I want for y'all.
Speaker 4 (36:47):
Is like, if you feel this urge, if you feel
this uncomfortableness, it's probably because God's pushing you into something,
and so lean into that. Seek the scripture and prayer
because it's hard and it's scary, but.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
It's going to be beautiful whatever the outcome is yeah,
if you do it and guidance of obedience to him.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Yeah. I mean we've been in seasons where you know,
just like uncertainty and unknown is like downright terrifying.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
And like when someone tells you you're having quintuplets.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Yeah, and and you're like, man like, how are we
going to do this? Like how are we going to
get through this? But then you're always reminded, and you
you always you know, you can you can sit back
and like look at look at the past, and look
at where you were and certain certain aspects of life
and certain points in your life, and and just like
(37:43):
think back on that and remember like your fear and
your doubt and your worry through those moments, and you know,
and sit back and think, man like why like why
was I so scared about that? Or all right, man,
how stupid I was for just being so scared and
unwilling to not necessarily unwilling, but like just just scared
(38:07):
to move. And you know, because I'll be real, like
it is scary, and it's okay to like wrestle with something, yeah,
but but don't let the fear rob you of where
God's trying to take you. And and so just lean
into that and like if if there is like a
(38:27):
tug or an impression that you have of like there's
something more, there's something more I should be doing, like
lean into that and try to figure out what that is.
And and you know it may take You may not
get that answer right away. You may get you may
just get an answer of take one more step, or
(38:49):
take take this step, or somebody coming into your life
and and leaning into that person because like God may
be working through you, are through that person to speak
to you about something and just be open to what's next.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
Don't do it alone. I mean that's just like that
to me is a step. It's finding a sound mind
to like share with and to like talk about your
struggles with and pray about and have someone pray for you,
because like prayer is powerful and prayer works.
Speaker 4 (39:25):
Guys, prayer works.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
I mean we've seen miracles happen via prayer and it's
it's divine.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Yeah, So like pray more, like get into the word
like seek like just like I said, seek people in
your life of like with with good biblical godly counsel
and pay attention to like moments of peace because you know,
we've been through very very tough seasons in our life,
(39:56):
but also through those tough seasons, have felt just unexplainable peace,
through certain situations where there's no doubt in your mind that, Okay,
I'm doing what God wants me to do right now
because He's filled me with this supernatural peace about it.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
And yeah, and I think whenever, whenever you can like
move forward or use that change, accept it and go
like it's purposeful. Like I feel like I want nothing
more than my life to be purposeful for the kingdom. Yeah,
(40:42):
not purposeful for me or purposeful for the kids. I
want to be doing what God has called me to do.
And that takes change no matter who you are, because
you have to deny yourself and your once and your
desires to.
Speaker 4 (41:01):
And that's hard.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
That's hard because we live in a world that is
full of gratification for self and that's a that is
a that is one beast to fight, you know. And
but there's so much fulfillment and joyfulness when you're doing
(41:24):
something purposeful. And if you've experienced this before, you know
what I'm talking about. It's it's something that says I
could do that forever. I could do that all day,
I could x y Z, like whatever that purposeful, whatever
you feel like God's called you to do and you've
had a glimpse of doing it, or maybe you actually.
Speaker 4 (41:46):
Are in that career path, you know.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
Like I look at like things Adam does with like
photography and all this, and then all like this is
he is purposeful for what he's doing. Like he's got
so much joy. He's been doing this this whole life
since he was since even before we before I even
knew him, he was into all this stuff. But like now,
(42:09):
let's like use these gifts that you have for a
purpose and for the kingdom. And so you know, over
the years we've grown to understanding like how to utilize
these tools and gifts for good, you know, And so
like you know, even this podcast for an example, we
don't just want to sit here and you know, we
(42:31):
want to talk about life and talk about funny stories
and you know, you know, thirty dirty or whatever every
once in a while, but we wanted to also be
fulfilling and purposeful. And so we don't know who could
hear this, And that's something that we've always kind of
like spoke about, was like the value of sharing your story.
(42:52):
And you know, I still can be so encouraged by
hearing someone's story for the first time that I've never
known the deptness of who they are, where they've come from,
or what God's done in their in life, and how
impactful that can be. I mean, just recently finding out
a story of someone, I was like, I had no
idea that is your background, Like that is beautiful to
(43:14):
hear that, Like this is where you stand today and
this is what you do, and how that encourages me
to want to do more for my purpose.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
And yeah, God uses change to position us for purpose,
and yeah, it's something that we may not see like
in the present. Usually it takes us looking back and realizing,
like what God did through that time or what God
did in my life through that, because you can't really
(43:46):
see it in the moment. Most of the time. It's
always like looking back and realize realizing, oh, man, like
look how powerful this time in my life was because
I was obedient and I did step into that and
look at all the doors that open for me through
that time.
Speaker 4 (44:05):
I mean, let's give like a raw example of that.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
So I'll give you an example of something that's very
a sensitive topic for a lot of families and marriages
is finances and money. Right, that's like one of the
biggest causes of like divorce and everything. Something God did
in our life that when we stepped out in faith
and trust, here we are as to you know, doing
(44:31):
great in our careers. We've got like the most money
we've ever had, We've got our house, we've got you know,
our kids, and we want to grow our family and
we're just like we're ready, We're ready for all that,
Like we're set, we're good financially, we've got this, we're
doing what we want, YadA YadA, yadda, and speed the
story up to say, you're gonna grow our family, but
(44:54):
we're gonna grow our family five times at once. And
we now have gone from two income, two good solid incomes,
to one income adam supporting a family of eight now, So.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
Talk about all the while every single thing in our
life needed to be upgraded, right, it's in order to
support this new.
Speaker 4 (45:15):
Family of amily.
Speaker 3 (45:17):
So this is one aspect that we talk about when
you say we've shared our story beginning earlier in these
podcast episodes, and if you want to listen to that,
go back to listen to the probably like the first
like five or six maybe, and you'll hear, like our
background stories, that is a hard thing. And I think
a lot of people step into fear and saying I
(45:38):
don't have the means to do that, and you're right,
you don't. This is why you need Jesus. This is
why you need Jesus. And when you can give up
and step out in faith and trust, even the unseen
God will provide. And that is what He has done
through this whole story of the remainder of our story.
And so I hope that just one thing, because I
(46:01):
know finances are such a complication in a lot of marriages,
and for someone to tell you that we stepped out
in faith to in multiple reasons, in multiple scenarios of
you know, not being able to not being able to
have a quintemplate pregnancy, to be pregnant, to not survive,
to them not to survive, to millions of dollars in
(46:24):
the Nike you too. I mean, I could go on
of all the things that God has provided and taken
care of, and so when we try to take the
reins and control control those things, that's when things start
to get chaotic and start to get crazy and wild
and not going the way you want. It's because when
you do that, you're stepping out of what God's doing
(46:46):
through you, and you're trying to take over and say,
I am the God of this, and i am the
God of my finances, and I'm the God of my wardrobe,
and I'm the God of my travel, and I'm the
God of this. And it's gonna all fall. It's gonna
all fall. But if you can let go and say, God,
I give you, I give you my trust, I give you,
I put my hands and my faith in you over
(47:08):
this aspect, beautiful things will come from that. And that's
something that we can like give you an experience of.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
Yeah, So, like what's practical steps of like walking in faith?
If you do feel that God is moving you in
a direction, I mean, is.
Speaker 3 (47:30):
There something that you feel God is making you or
you feel uncomfortable about that, you know that you want
something or this desire is this, or you know you
feel uncertain about this, but you feel a nudge to
move forward, but you're just scared. This could be in
a relationship, this could like it could go on.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
Yeah, And I feel like it all starts with prayer
and seek you in the word, Like prayer and you know,
having this open and repeated conversation of not my will
but yours. Yeah, And and and then through that, you know,
(48:11):
spending time in the Word looking for you know, direction,
like what God wants to show you. That's how He
speaks to us predominantly is through his word. And then
also just journal, just write out like your daily thoughts
and your feelings and like what's going on. Because it's
so cool to like whenever I am in times where
(48:35):
I'm journaling a lot, and to be able to go
back and like remember like my thoughts through a certain
hard time and to be able to like read through
that and and see you know the evidence of like
what God did in my life and brought me from
that place. It's so encouraging, you know, whenever you're moving
(48:59):
forward to moving in the right direction. And obviously you know,
don't isolate yourself through those times, like get with a friend, seek,
seek wise counsel, seek you know, guidance of if you
know God's impressing something on you that you know there's
something more to what I should be doing, speak with
(49:21):
someone and just to work help. You know, sometimes it's
just easier to like to verbalize that and like listen
to yourself speak through that and let somebody hear it,
and let like bounce those ideas off of somebody and
then you know, like I said, and journaling and stuff
and and to be able to remember and to go
back and see like past faithfulness that God has brought you,
(49:44):
you know, out of certain things and and into new
things and seeing what the benefits of those were, and
like where you were in those past times. To be
able to move forward and have this written down it says,
because God doesn't change even when you're like life does
you know, Like God is constant, you know, God wants
(50:05):
God wants what's best for us, even though we don't
know it at the time. But God does remain constant
through those hard times were and we we get scared
and we falter and and we worry and stuff like that.
But God never changes and He's always with us.
Speaker 3 (50:26):
And usually if you're in the middle of some form
of problem, the problem is usually you and God is
the solution.
Speaker 2 (50:37):
Yeah. And one one thing that I used to pray
a lot was clarity, like God like clarity, you know,
and like and just seeking clarity on things. But you
may not know what those things are right, and you know,
instead of necessarily asking for clarity on what those things
(50:59):
should be, like asking God for courage to step into
something new. Yeah, and be willing you know. So.
Speaker 3 (51:07):
Yeah, So I loved this podcast. I love love this one.
It's a good topic. It's very raw for us, very real,
real for a big season of you know, twenty twenty
five of change of whatever it's continuously going to look like.
But we stay in the word. We are active in
(51:31):
prayer within our small group and just seeking wisdom and
asking for guidance from God and that courage to just
be like, Okay, I'm all in, but like guide my
steps Lord, because I don't know if it's gonna be
muddy or what or what's gonna be a pile of poop? Yeah,
(51:52):
so tell me which way to go.
Speaker 2 (51:55):
Yeah, this topic, it's tough, and like our prayer for
you is for not necessarily clarity, but to make it
evident of what if you are struggling through or you're
wrestling with a new change or something going on in
your life, for God to make that more clear and
for God to reveal you know, that next step and
(52:16):
to be willing to our prayer for you is just
to be willing and have the courage to step into
that and take that next step.
Speaker 3 (52:25):
And you don't have to you don't have to take
a giant step. It could just be like a small
step forward, but move forward because God doesn't hold onto
the past. He don't hold onto the past, guys, So
you need to let go of your past and step
forward with God.
Speaker 2 (52:41):
Yeah, and to just to trust God more than you
trust your own comfort. Yeah, you know. And so if
you're dealing with something like that, if you if you
know a friend that is struggling with a decision or
just uncertainty of a new thing, share this podcast, and
(53:02):
you know, hopefully this ministers to someone out there. To you, guys,
if you have any stories about something that's going on
in your life and you're wrestling with the change, or
you just recently stepped into something in your life that
God has pushed you out of and into something new,
share those stories with us, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (53:21):
Because they encourage us too.
Speaker 3 (53:23):
Especially you know, this is a very kind of like
we want to be able to interact, y'all, but this
is very one sided on this sense, Like we share
and we wait for responses, but those responses are very
much encouragement to us and to hear from other people's
(53:44):
life stories and what they're going through or what God
has done in your life, like those are all encouraging
to us and help us continue to speak more and
give us that like momentum to be like yes, yes,
this was good, Like let's keep going, like let's get deeper.
Speaker 2 (54:00):
Yeah, Because just like the name of this podcast, like
somebody that you see around us, or someone that you
see around you, or you yourself, are so much more
than the reality and the surface level that you may
see of what's going on. You know there may be
something so much more deep. So reach out to people,
(54:20):
share your story, listen to other people what they may
be going through, because you never know how God can
work through these stories. And so we just want to
thank you guys for tuning in and listening episode thirty
or More than Reality podcast and we'll see in the
next one, hey guys, All right, Love you guys,
This is More Than Reality podcast where we dive into
all things faith, family, and marriage and share that there
is so much more than the reality that you see
on the surface. Welcome to More Than Reality with Adam
and Danielle Busby.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I think this is episode thirty.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Hey hey, does that song like just like get you
excited to like, hey, feel good?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Thirty if some would say dirty thirty, But today's episode
isn't dirty.
Speaker 4 (00:35):
Have we ever done a dirty episode?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I mean, we kind of did a kind of a
dirty connect card one day about oh so, uh, today
we're gonna have a kind of a I guess some
would say it's like a hard conversation about just change,
embracing change. But we're hot off the heels of Easter break. Yeah,
(01:02):
And we had a very unique and different experience for
Easter this year because we went back home, which we've done.
We've gone back home to Louisiana. We're both from Lake Charles, Louisiana.
My family lives in a smaller town just north of
Lake Charles called Moss Bluff. And it's thunder and outside.
I don't know if you guys will hear that, but
(01:23):
and so we went back home because well.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
One we always host since we've lived in this house,
we have hosted Easter the last like five years. And
then when we do like a crawfish boil and we
have like are my sisters.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Over earlier years we would chase the kids around as
an Easter bunny.
Speaker 4 (01:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Sometimes you're some Easters your family has come here, but
we also invite like our closest friends who don't have
like family around to come. So are usually our Easter
celebration here that we host is a big crawfish boil
with you know, quite a bit of people in kids.
But it's changed over the years just everybody's getting older,
(02:03):
you're not really you know, Easter egg hunts are turning
into what are you putting in the Easter egg?
Speaker 4 (02:09):
That's a gift card?
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah, and then you know just more like challenging games
and stuff.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
But yeah, this year we did go to Lake Charles.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Yeah, my older sister. A lot of people don't even
know how an older sister because she lives away. She
lived for years in North Carolina, which and then now
and they live up in Oklahoma. But you know, it's
just harder for them to get over for like every
holiday and stuff like that, and so it's been man,
it's been probably five years since like she's been with us.
(02:42):
And then really it's like her whole family because of
her husband's job and stuff, and he's always like out
of the country and stuff, and so usually like times
that she's come back, it's just been with either her
by herself or her with the kids. And so this
is like one of the very few times as a
whole family, like their whole family came hasband kids and
(03:05):
then so obviously we found out, oh, Claris is coming in,
so we got to be there, and so you know,
we made it a point to to come in and
it was awesome. You know, we got to spend time
with nieces and nephews that we don't get to spend
much time with and let the kids play together. It
(03:27):
was like a just a super awesome experience. Yeah, we
even did, like, you know, just to celebrate this momentous occasion,
we had a photographer come in. We did like big
group family photos, which we still haven't gotten the photos
back yet, so we can't wait to share those.
Speaker 4 (03:43):
I mean, it was just a couple of days ago.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yeah, And so I mean normally because it's me, usually
it's me like setting up a tripod or taking like
group shots of families and stuff, and so we get
those photos right away. But this time around, we brought
in a photographer, so you kind of have to, you know,
do the photographer thing and.
Speaker 4 (03:59):
Wait hard because I'm like, oh, I can't see the photos.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Just when I do it, it's like instant gratification. Everybody
can like, you know, I walk into the house and
upload them and everybody can see them right away. But
this time, I just we had the anticipation.
Speaker 4 (04:12):
Yeah, I mean, you snapped.
Speaker 3 (04:13):
Some photos while we were like just waiting and stuff
for everybody to get there.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
But I should have at least snapped one like family photo.
Like I took a photo of you and the girls,
but like I was taking the photo, so I was
out of it.
Speaker 3 (04:24):
You took a picture of me and the girls, Yeah,
from the Magnoia tree. Oh that was at your mom's souse.
I thought you're talking about when we did the family photos. No, no, you,
I mean you snapped around the picture. I think you
already posted it. Yeah before we got rude, we got there.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
Those were such cute pics. You should have collaped with
me on that.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Oh sorry, we all got there a little early, just
to kind of scope out, like honestly, we'd never been
there before, so we got there extra early, and so
we were waiting for the photographer to get there, and
I looked over and I remember like my childhood in
Louisiana and like honeysuckles and you know, you walk up
and you can pluck up, pluck the flo I mean,
(05:00):
the the actual honeysuckle bush or ravine. I don't know
if it's considered a bush ravine. It's I think we
always said bush, but it's super like aromatic and like
it smells like so sweet and so good. But you
can walk over and you can pluck off the bottom
and then pull the stem through the bottom and there's
(05:21):
like nectar in the bottom and the like you can
like taste it and stuff, and it's like super sweet.
And so I showed the girls because they'd never seen
a honeysuckle before. I han't seen one since I was
like a kid. I have them around here, yeah, mom,
Mom and dad don't have them at their house. But
and so that was like super cute because I was
I was. We got there and we're like, oh, what
(05:42):
are we gonna do? We're just sitting around waiting and
I looked down. I was like, oh, there's a honeysuckle
bush down by the water. And so I showed the
girls and grabbed my camera and just snapped a few,
like I showed them how to how to do it,
and just was taking some photos of them just exploring
and stuff. And it was just made for some super cute,
like candid photos around the all the flowers and the
(06:04):
bushes and stuff, and they were all dressed up for
photos and so it was it was super cute. But
we had a crawfish boil at mom and Dad's house,
so we still did the crawfish thing because that's like
our our thing for Easter. It was awesome. I mean,
like the kids were like asking every single day for
(06:24):
like a month, we're going to Nannapapa's house. We're gonna
have crawfish. We're gonna do crawlfish. Yes, yes, yes, And
then we almost missed it. Yep, we almost missed it,
but yeah, you made it.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
And oh I laughed because like Adam's mom and dad
like are both like into.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Like gadgets, kitchen gadgets.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Exactly like Adam.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
And we get there and I'm like Oh man, I
just saw this thing on Instagram pop up with this
crawfish peeler peeler tell and they're like, we got it.
Speaker 4 (06:56):
I'm like, of course you do.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
I mean literally it was like two days before and
I was like, that's a cool thing.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
And yeah, Phil, it didn't work at all.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
And it just slows you down.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Yeah, it's like major slows you down, just trying to
get the clamp things like, no.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Nobody got time for that.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Yeah. But yeah, we had a really good time.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
I mean the weather turned out nice and it rained
a little bit, but the pool was really cold, so
the kids were kind of in the pool in the
hot tub, in the pool in the hot tub. But yeah,
there was a full house of all of us there.
We actually were like when we go in in the
eight of us, go say, it's a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
You know.
Speaker 3 (07:36):
Now we had Clarisa and her husband and like the kids,
and Kayla and her husband and the kids. But they
would stay at their house, but they're in like one
of their rental properties, like in between like building and
selling their home and whatever they're going to do next.
But you know, there's not a lot of room over
there for us either. But we made it work. I
(07:58):
mean we used the pool house couch bed, we used
the camper, and I mean we we took up every
space that there was with the family to sleep.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah. It's funny because like I text Dad like the
day before and I was like, is it too late
to call DIBs in the camper? So we just had
like our own little space like off to the side
of the house. But He's like, no, come on, it's already.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Sweet, that's fun.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
It's enjoyable in there.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
It's cold, yeah, because they have a they have a
bed like ours at home, there's like a sleep number bed.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
Yeah that it was actually more comfortable than the beds
that we usually sleep in. Yeah, and so it was
it was like.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Comfortable and familiar. So it was like super cozy. All right,
So we're gonna take a little break for our sponsor,
which is Cozy Earth. And it's it's funny because in
this house, I feel like we've been on we have
a really nice set of sheets out of like we
(08:58):
rotate our sheets probably every week. There's like one set
of sheets that's like our favorite, and we've been on
this like search for the best sheets, and I feel
like like none of them compare to this certain particular
one that we have until we came across cozier, right.
(09:21):
I feel like that these cozier sheets that we have
are like butter.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
So I I was always that person's like change the sheets,
wash them, change them, and I'll just like get some
like I don't want to spend money on it. But
now I know that quality matters when you sleep. And
I am someone who doesn't sleep well but needs sleep
(09:49):
because sleep is so important for our health and like
physical and mental.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
And I'm like, I'm done.
Speaker 3 (09:55):
How do you say sheet finding? She shopping sh we
have found it cozy Earth. I mean I've heard people
talk about Cozy Earth. They've got like the pjs, which
I can only imagine how amazing the pjs are. But
we have the sheets, and the sheets are literally like
you don't want to get out of bed, which is
a problem for me.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
But because we both sleep hot, yeah and so and
so whenever we go to bed, Like when you want
a sheet that's going to keep.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
You cool, yeah yeah, but not cool, like it's it's
like a wet feeling cool.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
Like I don't know how to explain it.
Speaker 3 (10:33):
They're just like this buttery soft, cooling, silky bamboo, Like
they're just amazing.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Yeah, that's like literally the words to describe it.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
Like you need sheets that feel like this and you're
never gonna want to get out of your bed.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah, because you spend most of your life in bed.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
I mean well, I.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Mean like you like the nine to five, like the
hustle and go, and it's like when you get at
home and it's like you wind down, like you want
to like get in your bed and just be like
comfortable and just like cozy.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Yeah. So like when you're five to nine.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
Then the name is legit Cozy Earth. Yeah, like let's
make this earth cozy. Starts with your sleeping schedule. So
we are loving our Cozy Earth sheets. But what's amazing
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(11:29):
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Speaker 4 (11:38):
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Speaker 3 (11:40):
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Speaker 4 (11:57):
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Speaker 2 (12:17):
So thank you Cozy Earth for sponsoring this episode. And
now we'll get back to the conversation. So we're gonna
do a card today. Yeah, sure, I go first this time.
Did you already look at these?
Speaker 3 (12:31):
I didn't know what is different about a relationship now
that you're glad is different.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Like something immediately popped in my mind, But I was like, oh,
it's not really different. I mean, it's it's hard to
say different because like through our relationship, like there's been
so many different times and like sections of our relationship
as like a couple, but also as probably the majority
(13:01):
of our relationship now is also has the majority of
our relationship now as predominantly been with kids. And so
I mean I think early on, like our relationship was
just full of like travel and just going doing fun
stuff and and then now that like our life has
kind of been you know, consumed with like kids and
(13:24):
family and stuff. You you embrace that, but also like
we've had to kind of lean a lot on just
our relationship and our faith and stuff like that moving
through because like it changes so much. I'd like that
because when you're not you can definitely see the difference.
(13:46):
And I feel like our life is, like, especially over
the last couple years, we've had to lean heavily like
on our faith and like God's direction and stuff. And
I feel like things a lot of things are changing,
and that honestly, that's kind of the subject of this
episode today. But and so we can kind of get
a little bit more into that later on. But our
(14:07):
relationship has gone from like just kind of doing whatever
we want and like going out and like experience and
stuff and going places and and we still do that,
but you know, we're very much more like adults and
parents now and like just trying to figure out like
the future and like where our life and our family
like settles out, which which is scary a lot of times,
(14:32):
but it is good and I don't feel like we
need that, and it stretches us and it pushes us.
We have to like lean on each other a lot
more through those like difficult circumstances or trials or questions
about the future. And so yeah, that would probably be it.
(14:54):
I'm gonna do you what does contentment look for you?
Speaker 4 (15:01):
Am I ever content?
Speaker 2 (15:04):
Hmm?
Speaker 3 (15:07):
Because I suffer with high expectations in life, and so
I don't know if I'm ever just content. I think
that contentment for me means letting go of control.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
And so when I can be okay with.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Letting go of the reins and and something, even if
it's in a game, even if it's in cleaning, even
if it's in whatever.
Speaker 4 (15:32):
That task or whatever it is.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
I when I can mentally tell myself to lower my expectations,
that's contentment.
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
So I'm trying to learn not to have high expectations for.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Me being content with like where you're at it.
Speaker 4 (15:54):
Just kind of the word. But yeah, I mean, but
it's hard.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
It's hard to be content in my head, like because
I always think that there's something better to achieve or
to strive for, and like, I don't know, I just
don't like the I don't know, it's hard. It's hard
to accept being just content. I am learning that we
have to be content in certain areas of our life
(16:21):
and there are certain days and times and the years
and seasons that this is where it needs to be
and I have to be okay with that. Yeah, and
so that I mean it's hard though, but I think
a lot of that for me personally looks like when
I have to let go of control. It's not easy.
But that's what I would say, I would think makes
(16:41):
me feel more content or understand what contentment is.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
Yeah, I agree with that. It's funny because like both
of our questions today kind of revolve a little bit
around like the subject matter for what we were wanting
to talk about today, and it just the subject today
is about just change.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Did you like pres I did? They're just still sitting
on the table from us, and I never know with
you a little sneaky thing.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Yeah, So like honestly, like over the last few months,
you know, we've been wrestling with a change.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
It's been like the last Yeah, well I will just
to start this off. I think when we went through
our church fast last year, so we do church fast
twice a year and it's usually January and then August September.
The last year. God made it evident to me that
(17:48):
something was going to drastically change this year in twenty
twenty five. I wonder what that changes and I and
I didn't really think much of it, but it's stuck
on me.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
It's in my journal.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
It's like in my journaling of like what's happening during
these fasts, And like twenty twenty five comes around, and
you know, there's a lot of things that have been
on our plate to like have been hard or like
difficult or changing, and it's just so crazy to like
(18:21):
look back and think, like when I go and like
look at my journal and I'm like or my notes
in my phones where I do a lot of it, Wow.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Like the seed was planted. Yeah, like you're aware of
and have a feeling this stuff's going to happen, but
like I see it start happening.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
Yeah, like in the midst of change.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
It's hard, but I found a piece in knowing that
this is what it's like more of like that reassurance
and where that piece can come from and saying like man,
look at this, Like God told me this a year ago,
like sometime in twenty twenty five, something drastically was going
to change. And we're still working through this change in
(19:05):
how to talk about it or how to like really
share about it.
Speaker 4 (19:08):
But we can still talk about the topic of change.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
But yeah, I mean, I know it's I know this
is the right journey because I feel peace with the
direction that God has been leading us through, even though
it's kind of been a fight, like you know in
conversation or what does that look like? Or the unknowing
is really what's the hard part of change? And I
(19:32):
think that's where everybody could relate to. I mean, I
would assume, you know, we don't like change because we
don't know what's next or what's coming, or what is
the outcome or what do we have to do differently
or it's scary. Yeah, there's some fear in there, but
you know, it's also it's also an encouraging phase because
(19:59):
something's next. Yeah, something's next, and like what is that something?
And I don't exactly know yet. Honestly, I don't know
in a lot of things, but.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
I know that things in our lives have started to
like unfold that kind of forces that change and it's
uncertain it's scary, but you know, like God's moving us
in this direction.
Speaker 3 (20:31):
Yeah, Like I mean, I think one of the aspects
of like that I kind of like elaborate on. It's
not something that's actively happening now, but like I can
see like how God is like working within change of
my uh like heart to head when it comes to
like schooling, Like with the kids, you know, Blake's gonna
(20:53):
start high school. You know, they've got like four weeks
left to school right now until summer, and like she'll
go in a high school and she's really excited about it,
and then the quincil start, like their last year in
elementary school. I think over the past probably like I
don't know, probably since January, really, there have been more
(21:15):
and more instances where I've been placed in conversation with
people who homeschool. It's always something that I never envisioned doing.
We got it, we got a taste of that through
co COVID, and it was like absolutely, no, kids don't
see me as teacher.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
They don't.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
That's why we kept them when we probably shouldn't have.
That's why we kept them in private school for another
year because of there was so much uncertainty in the
public school system and the politics involved with like COVID
and all this stuff. And you know, there was like
all this stuff looming about, like in home learning, and
(21:54):
and we were like into like kindergarten and and You're
hearing all these things about, oh, they gotta they gotta
get issued a laptop computer and they have to stay
logged in for like six hours a day, and and
I'm like, how how would that possibly work in our house?
Like I would have to set up a computer lab
(22:16):
and have full time tech support in our house with
a bunch of kindergarteners that don't know how to really
use a computer yet or read. Yeah, and so you
have to like you would have to be like hovering
over them the entire day.
Speaker 4 (22:30):
Yeah, We're like.
Speaker 2 (22:32):
How would we how would we be able to do
anything like work? Yeah, you know.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
So it wasn't something that I was like. I was like, heck, no,
I'm not cut for this, I'm not fit for this.
Like this is not what it is. However, years have
come by, We've learned a lot as far as like
education and learning disabilities and like who needs what and
how to help learning. Still still it's still hard for
(22:59):
you know, parents in a mom to learn how to
help your child with dyslexia, help your child that has
like you know, more like cognitive like comprehension, and I
mean there's so much. We've got five kids the same age,
and it's still hard. But I do know that, you know,
within the school district and what they've been placed in
(23:21):
at their school, like, they have been given a lot
of free resources that have been very helpful. I'll speak
for myself as a mom of multiples, to be able
to manage and assist with needs that they need. It's
very hard for me to be able to provide all
of that that they each need in that capacity of
(23:42):
different levels.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
So being in the public school.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
District has been very beneficial for this phase of life
that we're in of helping them learn other skills a
different way. And for someone who doesn't know how to
do that or the technology or the resources behind that,
it's just all in all, Like if I had one child,
I think I could manage it, But I have multiples
(24:07):
with different different learning disabilities in a sense, and it's
just overwhelming for me to understand how do I teach
this one, and how do I teach this one?
Speaker 4 (24:16):
And how do I teach this one?
Speaker 3 (24:17):
And I've learned a lot working with the teachers and
with the school, and it's it's been very good, and
so like now like the goal is having to see
progress and like watching them read and hearing them read
and listening to them read, and we've grown. They have
grown a lot over the last like three years. My
(24:37):
hope is that with dyssexia and stuff, that they are
learning all these skills so that when they get out
of elementary school they know how to utilize what they've
learned and it not be like a peer deficiency and
you know, you get to middle school and it's hard,
like they're going to have a shock of just it's
(25:00):
going to be very different for them in multiple ways.
And so I think when I start looking and talking
about change and like homeschool, it's not the same type
of homeschool I think about from what we first experienced,
which was overwhelming, like holy cal you know. And so
(25:22):
this is something that i've I wouldn't say I've always
been against it. I just have never been educated enough
to understand like what homeschool is.
Speaker 4 (25:31):
And I'm learning.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
More about what it is and how I can see
benefit for our our life and the quints as.
Speaker 4 (25:43):
They're getting older.
Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah, and you can see how like how God places
people in your life for like such a time as this.
Like now, probably half of our closest friends at our
homeschooling their kids, yea, in like a aspect some form, yeah,
or like homeschooling their kids, which allows us, like, you know,
(26:05):
it's kind of been planting the seed and like we're
learning a bit about the system and how it works.
Speaker 3 (26:10):
And I've had multiple ran into multiple friends who have
you know, three or four kids, and they're like, you know,
we used to be neighbors, and it's like, well, what
you know, running the grocery store at each other and
it's like, hey, how are you. Oh, I saw you
at church. I didn't know that y'all started going there.
And she's like, yeah, well, you know, this one such
and such is in like the homeschool one of these
(26:33):
homeschool like co op programs, and so a lot of
the peers go over here to church, and but the
other ones are still in here, and this one goes here,
and she's like, it's what works for us, it's what
works for that kid. He was not doing well in
like the classroom setting, and so we found this program
and it works, and so just it's just crazy God
(26:53):
putting all these people back in our life to kind
of like like really, you know, show us and teach
us and like in a way be like it doesn't
have to be this way clear as day, you know,
And so I've kind of been open to like, Okay, well,
when sixth grade comes around, like what does school look
(27:15):
like for the girls. And so when we talk about change,
like this is very a very big topic of change
of something that might drastically change for us and our kids,
and so we don't have the answers yet, but when
we talk about change this episode, these are heavy things
that we've been praying about and talking about for a
while now, because like we've got another year of where
(27:38):
they're kind of the Quints are kind of like together,
and when they get to sixth grade in the school
district that they're going to go to, they don't even
know how to be divided up as far as not
being in classrooms together and not being able to really
choose that I want you with this sister in the
(28:00):
peer level is like tripled, and you know, the learning
how they learn, Like so I worry a lot about
those type of things, like when we come to middle school,
not so worried about like this next year.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
But it is something that is something that do believe
will change. Whether it's all of them that go to homeschool,
all of them go to public school, some go to
public school, some go to homeschool, Like, I don't know,
but like these are things that we're wrestling with right now,
and it's hard, Like change is hard.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
Like what does that look like? And what does that
look like for work? What does that look like for
our schedules? What does that look like for you know,
school life? And if it's some here, some there, Like
there's a lot of uncertainty and a lot of questions
that we have. And I'm glad now that I feel
like we're you know, God's been planting seeds within us
(28:54):
and people in our lives that I feel like we
have a good We have a span of time to
kind of like we're about to just start, you know,
summer where we can kind of like navigate, you know,
our kids are with us all the time in summer,
and so just to kind of like how would you
process like school and then like they go back to school,
and so when we're talking about change, we're not talking
(29:17):
about like let's change our hair color or like whatever.
We're talking about like real life changes that are hard,
and you know when you feel God's called you to
do something differently or might be stretching you outside of
your comfortability or pushing you to grow or pushing you
to be uncomfortable, like this is what we're talking about.
Speaker 4 (29:38):
And it's hard.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
It's scary because I feel at times like I am
not equipped enough for that. I'm not equipped enough for that,
and that's where God slaps me in the face. It's like,
but that's why I'm here, Danielle. Do you remember your
life of where you were not equipped and I equipped you.
(30:00):
I provided you strength, I provided you rest, I provided
you energy, And I'm like, yes, yes, Lord, like you know,
so I have to be reminded of that often, and
so I am encouraged and filled with hope of whatever
that next change is going to be that pray that
I can be obedient. I guess too, yeah, whatever that
(30:24):
change is going to be.
Speaker 2 (30:25):
And then you know, you see like stories in the Bible,
like over and over about how God is a god
of like movement, like he wants you. He wants to
push you and stretch you, and like I mean you
like look at like in Genesis and stuff and like
Abraham and you know God told Abraham just to go
(30:46):
into this land that with no roadmap, and you know
he but he was just obedient and he went. And
you know, even like stories of like Moses, like in
the Promised Land and like just to go and move
and just answer the call and take that step. And
you know, even like reading through like the New Testament
(31:08):
and Jesus and the Disciples, like one of the things
that like Jesus would approach these disciples and and he
would just say, come with me, and they would drop
every single thing that they had in their life and follow.
And you know, it just shows over and over like
God is a god of movement and he wants you
to just respond and whenever he's whenever you feel that
(31:33):
tug or that direction or just like that feeling. Yes,
of course it's scary because because you know, whenever you
move into something new or you feel like you're called
in something new, it's like scary because it's so unknown.
You have to remember like the promises that he's given
of like I'll never leave you or forsake you. I
(31:55):
walk through this with you. And and he's going to
equip you in these hard times. Yes, you're still gonna
have hard times whenever you're going through change and stretch,
and and he's like molding you and refining you through
like this new season of your life. He doesn't say
it's gonna be easy, but he's going to be with you. Yeah,
(32:17):
And you know, and that's one thing, like you know,
through seasons of our life where you know it's hard,
and like we're we're we're going through changes and different
aspects of our life. You know. That's whenever we should
draw near and draw closer to him, and to be
(32:38):
obedient and to get in the word and to pray
and and just to sit there and listen, like what
what what do you have for me? Like where where
am I going? And he may not show you everything,
you know, it may just be you're going to go
through shim change next year. He may allow something like
(33:00):
asked to happen in your life that you know, in
a sense, may force you to change something in your life.
And all he's asking is take a step, take a
step in the right direction, be obedient, and I'm gonna
show you. I'm gonna light your path one step at
a time, and he wants you just to take that
(33:20):
step and may show you just enough just to be
able to take that step and have the courage just
to take that next step, and then he may show you. Okay,
you know, now we're here. Now let me take you
a little further. And you know it may open some
doors or bring some people in your life. And that
next step or that next area that you're in, that
(33:43):
will illuminate and show you, okay, like give you some
more direction on where to go.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
Yeah, And we've been going through I've been going through
the Bible study like book through the Book of Matthew Gospel.
And this last chapter was like chapter thirteen talking about
all like these like Jesus speaking in parables and giving
all these like stories. When you're talking about a change
(34:13):
or a movement or God might take you somewhere. It
doesn't even have to be physically. It could just also
be mentally growing and changing and taking you somewhere, but
it also could be physically and whatnot. But I was
reminded as I was reading, Actually this morning I went
and read Sma chapter thirteen, but it tells Jesus. At
(34:36):
the end of this he says, a prophet is honored
everywhere except in the hometown among all his friends. And
so I'm reminded that, like what that means to me
right now is that we're in this we're in this community,
and you know, you're known here, you're known there, blah
blah blah blah blah. But we're also seen outside of
(34:58):
the community. And God has been showing us different ways,
in different ways of life, different speaking to us, differently,
us being used as encouragement to others elsewhere to and
that we aren't always we don't always need to be
(35:19):
standing in the same place that we that we are
comfortable in, right So, like whether that means here, you know,
I don't know what that could mean for you.
Speaker 4 (35:28):
It could look different across the board. But for me,
this is speaking to me.
Speaker 3 (35:32):
And though it's not literally, like you know, Jesus is
like went in away from his hometown to evangelize and
like to tell people, you know, these parables and stories
and what was going to be happening, and that he's
the Messiah. And sometimes we have to stretch ourselves and
get uncomfortable and go.
Speaker 4 (35:53):
And that could be going to coffee with.
Speaker 3 (35:56):
Someone that you don't know, that you maybe ran in
at church or met at a Bible study, or met
at a party or met at somewhere, and just even
that change of like get outside of your home and
go have coffee about with someone and get to know someone,
or you know, maybe God is calling you to a
different job, or maybe God's calling your family to a
(36:17):
different location, or maybe like this change could be anything.
It could be anything. But Jesus went, Moses went, like
went and and and shouted right. And so I've just
that just kind of encouraged me on like the topic
of just change that like man Jesus was never comfortable
in like this one setting and Moses they all just went.
(36:40):
They all just abided he said go and they went.
And so that's what I want for us, and that's
what I want for y'all.
Speaker 4 (36:47):
Is like, if you feel this urge, if you feel
this uncomfortableness, it's probably because God's pushing you into something,
and so lean into that. Seek the scripture and prayer
because it's hard and it's scary, but.
Speaker 3 (37:03):
It's going to be beautiful whatever the outcome is yeah,
if you do it and guidance of obedience to him.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Yeah. I mean we've been in seasons where you know,
just like uncertainty and unknown is like downright terrifying.
Speaker 4 (37:19):
And like when someone tells you you're having quintuplets.
Speaker 2 (37:22):
Yeah, and and you're like, man like, how are we
going to do this? Like how are we going to
get through this? But then you're always reminded, and you
you always you know, you can you can sit back
and like look at look at the past, and look
at where you were and certain certain aspects of life
and certain points in your life, and and just like
(37:43):
think back on that and remember like your fear and
your doubt and your worry through those moments, and you know,
and sit back and think, man like why like why
was I so scared about that? Or all right, man,
how stupid I was for just being so scared and
unwilling to not necessarily unwilling, but like just just scared
(38:07):
to move. And you know, because I'll be real, like
it is scary, and it's okay to like wrestle with something, yeah,
but but don't let the fear rob you of where
God's trying to take you. And and so just lean
into that and like if if there is like a
(38:27):
tug or an impression that you have of like there's
something more, there's something more I should be doing, like
lean into that and try to figure out what that is.
And and you know it may take You may not
get that answer right away. You may get you may
just get an answer of take one more step, or
(38:49):
take take this step, or somebody coming into your life
and and leaning into that person because like God may
be working through you, are through that person to speak
to you about something and just be open to what's next.
Speaker 3 (39:05):
Don't do it alone. I mean that's just like that
to me is a step. It's finding a sound mind
to like share with and to like talk about your
struggles with and pray about and have someone pray for you,
because like prayer is powerful and prayer works.
Speaker 4 (39:25):
Guys, prayer works.
Speaker 3 (39:26):
I mean we've seen miracles happen via prayer and it's
it's divine.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
Yeah, So like pray more, like get into the word
like seek like just like I said, seek people in
your life of like with with good biblical godly counsel
and pay attention to like moments of peace because you know,
we've been through very very tough seasons in our life,
(39:56):
but also through those tough seasons, have felt just unexplainable peace,
through certain situations where there's no doubt in your mind that, Okay,
I'm doing what God wants me to do right now
because He's filled me with this supernatural peace about it.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
And yeah, and I think whenever, whenever you can like
move forward or use that change, accept it and go
like it's purposeful. Like I feel like I want nothing
more than my life to be purposeful for the kingdom. Yeah,
(40:42):
not purposeful for me or purposeful for the kids. I
want to be doing what God has called me to do.
And that takes change no matter who you are, because
you have to deny yourself and your once and your
desires to.
Speaker 4 (41:01):
And that's hard.
Speaker 3 (41:03):
That's hard because we live in a world that is
full of gratification for self and that's a that is
a that is one beast to fight, you know. And
but there's so much fulfillment and joyfulness when you're doing
(41:24):
something purposeful. And if you've experienced this before, you know
what I'm talking about. It's it's something that says I
could do that forever. I could do that all day,
I could x y Z, like whatever that purposeful, whatever
you feel like God's called you to do and you've
had a glimpse of doing it, or maybe you actually.
Speaker 4 (41:46):
Are in that career path, you know.
Speaker 3 (41:49):
Like I look at like things Adam does with like
photography and all this, and then all like this is
he is purposeful for what he's doing. Like he's got
so much joy. He's been doing this this whole life
since he was since even before we before I even
knew him, he was into all this stuff. But like now,
(42:09):
let's like use these gifts that you have for a
purpose and for the kingdom. And so you know, over
the years we've grown to understanding like how to utilize
these tools and gifts for good, you know, And so
like you know, even this podcast for an example, we
don't just want to sit here and you know, we
(42:31):
want to talk about life and talk about funny stories
and you know, you know, thirty dirty or whatever every
once in a while, but we wanted to also be
fulfilling and purposeful. And so we don't know who could
hear this, And that's something that we've always kind of
like spoke about, was like the value of sharing your story.
(42:52):
And you know, I still can be so encouraged by
hearing someone's story for the first time that I've never
known the deptness of who they are, where they've come from,
or what God's done in their in life, and how
impactful that can be. I mean, just recently finding out
a story of someone, I was like, I had no
idea that is your background, Like that is beautiful to
(43:14):
hear that, Like this is where you stand today and
this is what you do, and how that encourages me
to want to do more for my purpose.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
And yeah, God uses change to position us for purpose,
and yeah, it's something that we may not see like
in the present. Usually it takes us looking back and realizing,
like what God did through that time or what God
did in my life through that, because you can't really
(43:46):
see it in the moment. Most of the time. It's
always like looking back and realize realizing, oh, man, like
look how powerful this time in my life was because
I was obedient and I did step into that and
look at all the doors that open for me through
that time.
Speaker 4 (44:05):
I mean, let's give like a raw example of that.
Speaker 3 (44:07):
So I'll give you an example of something that's very
a sensitive topic for a lot of families and marriages
is finances and money. Right, that's like one of the
biggest causes of like divorce and everything. Something God did
in our life that when we stepped out in faith
and trust, here we are as to you know, doing
(44:31):
great in our careers. We've got like the most money
we've ever had, We've got our house, we've got you know,
our kids, and we want to grow our family and
we're just like we're ready, We're ready for all that,
Like we're set, we're good financially, we've got this, we're
doing what we want, YadA YadA, yadda, and speed the
story up to say, you're gonna grow our family, but
(44:54):
we're gonna grow our family five times at once. And
we now have gone from two income, two good solid incomes,
to one income adam supporting a family of eight now, So.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
Talk about all the while every single thing in our
life needed to be upgraded, right, it's in order to
support this new.
Speaker 4 (45:15):
Family of amily.
Speaker 3 (45:17):
So this is one aspect that we talk about when
you say we've shared our story beginning earlier in these
podcast episodes, and if you want to listen to that,
go back to listen to the probably like the first
like five or six maybe, and you'll hear, like our
background stories, that is a hard thing. And I think
a lot of people step into fear and saying I
(45:38):
don't have the means to do that, and you're right,
you don't. This is why you need Jesus. This is
why you need Jesus. And when you can give up
and step out in faith and trust, even the unseen
God will provide. And that is what He has done
through this whole story of the remainder of our story.
And so I hope that just one thing, because I
(46:01):
know finances are such a complication in a lot of marriages,
and for someone to tell you that we stepped out
in faith to in multiple reasons, in multiple scenarios of
you know, not being able to not being able to
have a quintemplate pregnancy, to be pregnant, to not survive,
to them not to survive, to millions of dollars in
(46:24):
the Nike you too. I mean, I could go on
of all the things that God has provided and taken
care of, and so when we try to take the
reins and control control those things, that's when things start
to get chaotic and start to get crazy and wild
and not going the way you want. It's because when
you do that, you're stepping out of what God's doing
(46:46):
through you, and you're trying to take over and say,
I am the God of this, and i am the
God of my finances, and I'm the God of my wardrobe,
and I'm the God of my travel, and I'm the
God of this. And it's gonna all fall. It's gonna
all fall. But if you can let go and say, God,
I give you, I give you my trust, I give you,
I put my hands and my faith in you over
(47:08):
this aspect, beautiful things will come from that. And that's
something that we can like give you an experience of.
Speaker 2 (47:19):
Yeah, So, like what's practical steps of like walking in faith?
If you do feel that God is moving you in
a direction, I mean, is.
Speaker 3 (47:30):
There something that you feel God is making you or
you feel uncomfortable about that, you know that you want
something or this desire is this, or you know you
feel uncertain about this, but you feel a nudge to
move forward, but you're just scared. This could be in
a relationship, this could like it could go on.
Speaker 2 (47:51):
Yeah, And I feel like it all starts with prayer
and seek you in the word, Like prayer and you know,
having this open and repeated conversation of not my will
but yours. Yeah, And and and then through that, you know,
(48:11):
spending time in the Word looking for you know, direction,
like what God wants to show you. That's how He
speaks to us predominantly is through his word. And then
also just journal, just write out like your daily thoughts
and your feelings and like what's going on. Because it's
so cool to like whenever I am in times where
(48:35):
I'm journaling a lot, and to be able to go
back and like remember like my thoughts through a certain
hard time and to be able to like read through
that and and see you know the evidence of like
what God did in my life and brought me from
that place. It's so encouraging, you know, whenever you're moving
(48:59):
forward to moving in the right direction. And obviously you know,
don't isolate yourself through those times, like get with a friend, seek,
seek wise counsel, seek you know, guidance of if you
know God's impressing something on you that you know there's
something more to what I should be doing, speak with
(49:21):
someone and just to work help. You know, sometimes it's
just easier to like to verbalize that and like listen
to yourself speak through that and let somebody hear it,
and let like bounce those ideas off of somebody and
then you know, like I said, and journaling and stuff
and and to be able to remember and to go
back and see like past faithfulness that God has brought you,
(49:44):
you know, out of certain things and and into new
things and seeing what the benefits of those were, and
like where you were in those past times. To be
able to move forward and have this written down it says,
because God doesn't change even when you're like life does
you know, Like God is constant, you know, God wants
(50:05):
God wants what's best for us, even though we don't
know it at the time. But God does remain constant
through those hard times were and we we get scared
and we falter and and we worry and stuff like that.
But God never changes and He's always with us.
Speaker 3 (50:26):
And usually if you're in the middle of some form
of problem, the problem is usually you and God is
the solution.
Speaker 2 (50:37):
Yeah. And one one thing that I used to pray
a lot was clarity, like God like clarity, you know,
and like and just seeking clarity on things. But you
may not know what those things are right, and you know,
instead of necessarily asking for clarity on what those things
(50:59):
should be, like asking God for courage to step into
something new. Yeah, and be willing you know. So.
Speaker 3 (51:07):
Yeah, So I loved this podcast. I love love this one.
It's a good topic. It's very raw for us, very real,
real for a big season of you know, twenty twenty
five of change of whatever it's continuously going to look like.
But we stay in the word. We are active in
(51:31):
prayer within our small group and just seeking wisdom and
asking for guidance from God and that courage to just
be like, Okay, I'm all in, but like guide my
steps Lord, because I don't know if it's gonna be
muddy or what or what's gonna be a pile of poop? Yeah,
(51:52):
so tell me which way to go.
Speaker 2 (51:55):
Yeah, this topic, it's tough, and like our prayer for
you is for not necessarily clarity, but to make it
evident of what if you are struggling through or you're
wrestling with a new change or something going on in
your life, for God to make that more clear and
for God to reveal you know, that next step and
(52:16):
to be willing to our prayer for you is just
to be willing and have the courage to step into
that and take that next step.
Speaker 3 (52:25):
And you don't have to you don't have to take
a giant step. It could just be like a small
step forward, but move forward because God doesn't hold onto
the past. He don't hold onto the past, guys, So
you need to let go of your past and step
forward with God.
Speaker 2 (52:41):
Yeah, and to just to trust God more than you
trust your own comfort. Yeah, you know. And so if
you're dealing with something like that, if you if you
know a friend that is struggling with a decision or
just uncertainty of a new thing, share this podcast, and
(53:02):
you know, hopefully this ministers to someone out there. To you, guys,
if you have any stories about something that's going on
in your life and you're wrestling with the change, or
you just recently stepped into something in your life that
God has pushed you out of and into something new,
share those stories with us, Yeah.
Speaker 4 (53:21):
Because they encourage us too.
Speaker 3 (53:23):
Especially you know, this is a very kind of like
we want to be able to interact, y'all, but this
is very one sided on this sense, Like we share
and we wait for responses, but those responses are very
much encouragement to us and to hear from other people's
(53:44):
life stories and what they're going through or what God
has done in your life, like those are all encouraging
to us and help us continue to speak more and
give us that like momentum to be like yes, yes,
this was good, Like let's keep going, like let's get deeper.
Speaker 2 (54:00):
Yeah, Because just like the name of this podcast, like
somebody that you see around us, or someone that you
see around you, or you yourself, are so much more
than the reality and the surface level that you may
see of what's going on. You know there may be
something so much more deep. So reach out to people,
(54:20):
share your story, listen to other people what they may
be going through, because you never know how God can
work through these stories. And so we just want to
thank you guys for tuning in and listening episode thirty
or More than Reality podcast and we'll see in the
next one, hey guys, All right, Love you guys,
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