Speaker 1: We can't possibly know how unbelievably incredible this experience will be,
Speaker 1: and that is heaven. Well, what's up everybody. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to the podcast, episode two hundred and twelve, and thanks
Speaker 1: for being here. I love doing this. It's different than
Speaker 1: everything else I do, all the other pieces of media
Speaker 1: I get to do. This is different because I don't
Speaker 1: prep for it. I don't have notes for it. I
Speaker 1: don't have books on the table for it. This is
Speaker 1: me answering your questions. That's all this is. I'm going
Speaker 1: through emails, no rhyme or reason to how they're ordered either,
Speaker 1: So you email me. Look, the email has changed this
Speaker 1: week for the first time and two hundred episodes, the
Speaker 1: email has changed. I'm still going to check the old one,
Speaker 1: but we're trying to streamline this. So the new email
Speaker 1: is podcast at grangersmith dot com. So podcast at grangersmith
Speaker 1: dot com is your email if you want to ask
Speaker 1: me any questions. It could be about anything in life,
Speaker 1: anything you're going through, anything you're excited about, anything you're
Speaker 1: worried about, anything you're stressed about, any anything in a
Speaker 1: relationship or whatever it might be. Just ask me the question.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about it like we're just sitting
Speaker 1: in the cab of a truck. You say, hey, man,
Speaker 1: can I run something by you? And we walk through
Speaker 1: it once again. That new email is podcast at grangersmith
Speaker 1: dot com and I going to jump right into this.
Speaker 1: And the first one that randomly comes up, the subject
Speaker 1: line says is country wrong, and the email itself says, Hey, grangeer,
Speaker 1: I'd like to stay anonymous. I'm nineteen years old from
Speaker 1: the back country of the Northwest Territories. Yes, the North
Speaker 1: has good old boys, and trust me, let me pause
Speaker 1: you right there, the Northwest Territories. Yes, the North has
Speaker 1: country boys. I have traveled this beautiful world and I
Speaker 1: have seen country boys and country girls everywhere. It's not
Speaker 1: just the South. Let's move on in this question says
Speaker 1: my question is this, and hopefully it makes sense. Is
Speaker 1: it wrong to live the quote unquote country lifestyle. Me
Speaker 1: and my boys love cruising around in trucks, playing in
Speaker 1: the mud, and so on. But people from our church
Speaker 1: often make comments on how that lifestyle is not glorifying
Speaker 1: to God. Also, I really enjoy listening to George Strait,
Speaker 1: and the leadership of our church really looks down on
Speaker 1: any kind of country music. I have a very close
Speaker 1: relationship with God, as do all my boys. We love
Speaker 1: having Bible studies and prayer meetings as well as any
Speaker 1: other church function. And I know that we all love
Speaker 1: the church. So my question is how would you balance
Speaker 1: that spiritual life then having fun? When and when when
Speaker 1: does that fun become wrong? By the way, I love
Speaker 1: your music in but I also love seeing you leave
Speaker 1: it for God's work. Ye yee, all right, Anonymous, thanks
Speaker 1: for the email. I think it's a good question, ma'am.
Speaker 1: I think it's a good question. A couple of things
Speaker 1: worry me from the question that you're asking, and it
Speaker 1: neither one of those things really has to do with you.
Speaker 1: I'm more worried about the people in your church coming
Speaker 1: at you with this legalistic idea that you need that.
Speaker 1: What did you say, It's not glorifying to God? Right, man?
Speaker 1: We have to be careful with that, with saying stuff
Speaker 1: like that, Hey, that's not glorifying to God. We have
Speaker 1: to be careful if it's not a sin, right, If
Speaker 1: it's a sin. If we're talking about a moral issue,
Speaker 1: we're talking about right and wrong. It's a moral issue.
Speaker 1: If it's sin, then of course it doesn't glorify God.
Speaker 1: But if it's a non moral issue, like cruising around
Speaker 1: in a truck, that's not morally wrong or right. And
Speaker 1: so we can't over spiritualize that and say, hey, man,
Speaker 1: you can't ride around that truck. That's not glorifying God.
Speaker 1: That doesn't make any sense to me. That is, that's
Speaker 1: a negative on the church itself. I don't know why
Speaker 1: they're saying that, because that's coming across pretty legalistic to me.
Speaker 1: But maybe if we were in the cab of the truck,
Speaker 1: maybe this would come up. If we were in the
Speaker 1: cabin of the truck cruising around and not sending maybe
Speaker 1: this would come up if I asked further. Maybe there
Speaker 1: are things that these people are seeing you guys doing,
Speaker 1: Like are we drinking. We're drinking in the truck, We're
Speaker 1: staying out past curfew. Are we hanging around a bunch
Speaker 1: of people were hanging around some hoodlums that are doing
Speaker 1: some things that we shouldn't be doing. There's some thug
Speaker 1: life going on here, you know what I mean. Then
Speaker 1: you could see that, and from the church perspective, somebody
Speaker 1: in the church is like, hey, guys, man, guys, I
Speaker 1: don't want to see y'all hanging around those guys, those
Speaker 1: hoodlums over there. I don't want you. I don't want
Speaker 1: to see y'all out here at two in the morning,
Speaker 1: even if you're not the one drinking. Y'are stacking up
Speaker 1: a bunch of a bunch of beer cans back here,
Speaker 1: and you're underage, you're nineteen years old. I don't want
Speaker 1: you to get caught and be associated with this because
Speaker 1: it looks bad on you, and I don't want that
Speaker 1: to come around and then you have consequences that you
Speaker 1: have to pay for that like that, that's a legitimate thing.
Speaker 1: That could be someone that actually cares about you, wanting
Speaker 1: the best for you, and it might be heard like
Speaker 1: this legalistic thing. These guys are telling me, I'm not
Speaker 1: glorifying God. Maybe they just actually want the best for you,
Speaker 1: and they're like, hey, I'm a little bit worried about
Speaker 1: who you're hanging out with and what y'all are doing. Right,
Speaker 1: So there's that. Let's put that aside now, and let's
Speaker 1: let me plug another card here and just say this,
Speaker 1: is it wrong to live a quote unquote country lifestyle? No,
Speaker 1: not essentially, No, I mean, think about think about the Bible.
Speaker 1: We have John the Baptist, who John the Baptist clearly
Speaker 1: was a country boy. The dude ate he ate locusts
Speaker 1: and wild honey, and he wore animal skins. Uh, the
Speaker 1: dude is his country is it gets Jesus ended up
Speaker 1: finding his disciples that were a lot of them were fishermen.
Speaker 1: Like these dudes are country boys out there fishing. Jesus himself,
Speaker 1: God invades the world, his own creation, to come into
Speaker 1: redeemed centers. And how does he come in? Does he
Speaker 1: come in as a city boy? God comes into creation
Speaker 1: redeeming sinners, and he comes in as the son of
Speaker 1: a carpenter, not a wealthy man. He comes in working
Speaker 1: with his hands. And we understand that maybe the carpenter,
Speaker 1: maybe that was also a metal worker. We're not really
Speaker 1: sure exactly if it was woodworking or metalworking, but either way,
Speaker 1: we're talking about blue collar in our in our perspective,
Speaker 1: somebody that works with their hands and somebody that's not.
Speaker 1: They're not just poor, but they're also not they're not
Speaker 1: just crushing it and they're not wealthy by any means.
Speaker 1: And so you could say Jesus himself chose country boys.
Speaker 1: I think that's a fair enough answer, all right. Next question.
Speaker 1: Strangely enough, well, the subject line says spurts and you
Speaker 1: could email me podcast at grangersmith dot com. That's my
Speaker 1: new email. Then this subject line says spurts, but I
Speaker 1: don't think you meant to say spurts. Let's dive into
Speaker 1: the email and says, hey, granger do you believe in
Speaker 1: spirits or ghost? There it is spirits ghost. I never
Speaker 1: really did. Their email says, I never really did until
Speaker 1: I was in a car accident back in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1: I woke up in the hospital and I swear I
Speaker 1: saw my sister's X in the corner of my room.
Speaker 1: Felt like he was watching over me. He had passed
Speaker 1: away a few years before the car accident. What do
Speaker 1: you make of that? I will not on any medication,
Speaker 1: so I know I wasn't tripping. Thanks Gin, okay, Jin,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for the email, and let's dive
Speaker 1: into spurts. You were in a car accident back in
Speaker 1: twenty fourteen. You woke up in the hospital, and you
Speaker 1: swear you saw your sister's EX in the corner of
Speaker 1: the room, and it felt like he was watching over you,
Speaker 1: and you were not on drugs. You were fully, fully
Speaker 1: aware that this was happening. Okay, So yeah, I'm going
Speaker 1: to tell you that the Bible is going to say, well,
Speaker 1: how do I start this. There's a multiple ways to
Speaker 1: get into this, but the Bible is going to say
Speaker 1: that there are absolutely spirits. Of course, absolutely third member
Speaker 1: of the Trinity, Holy Spirit. Right, so we're in. We're in.
Speaker 1: We understand that God is spirit. We understand that. We
Speaker 1: also understand that they're is a spiritual warfare going on
Speaker 1: around us. Read Ephesians six. See what Paul writes about
Speaker 1: that Aphesian six. We understand that there are angelic creatures
Speaker 1: and demonic creatures, and we cannot see them, but they
Speaker 1: are present here on this earth as we speak. Okay,
Speaker 1: that is what the Bible says. So yes, the answer
Speaker 1: is there are spirits. There are there are There is
Speaker 1: all kinds of spiritual activity around us wherever you are,
Speaker 1: wherever you're listening to this podcast. I remember when I
Speaker 1: used to think about this, like twenty years ago, when
Speaker 1: all of the This Present Darkness books were out. Remember
Speaker 1: that series of books, This Present Darkness. My dad used
Speaker 1: to read those and I would come in and read
Speaker 1: them with them. It's fascinating stuff, but it's a about
Speaker 1: spiritual warfare. And the thing to know about that is
Speaker 1: that when a human dies, what the Bible says is
Speaker 1: that person has no business on earth anymore. They're done that.
Speaker 1: Jesus says, that person has no business left on earth.
Speaker 1: They're finished with their work. They're not haunting earth. They're
Speaker 1: not back here sending butterflies or roses, are closing cabinet
Speaker 1: doors so that you'll hear them. They're not whispering things
Speaker 1: in your dream, and they are not looking over your bedside,
Speaker 1: watching over you when you're in the hospital. Okay, that's
Speaker 1: what the Bible says. And we believe that the Bible
Speaker 1: is inerran. The Bible is the word of God. If
Speaker 1: you don't believe that, if you don't believe the Bible
Speaker 1: is the word of God, then then I'm not sure
Speaker 1: what to tell you, because you're you're not gonna believe
Speaker 1: anything else I'm about to tell you. But what's strange
Speaker 1: too is that when when the disciples were in the
Speaker 1: boat during the storm and they saw Jesus coming to them,
Speaker 1: they thought he was a ghost. That's what the Bible says.
Speaker 1: They thought he was a ghost, which is interesting because
Speaker 1: that puts it in perspective that the disciples, just like you,
Speaker 1: thought that there was some kind of spiritual world out
Speaker 1: there that they could see and be afraid of, like
Speaker 1: a ghost. What we do know is that the enemy
Speaker 1: is a liar and a deceiver. He's the King of
Speaker 1: lies and easily makes his presence known throughout the Bible,
Speaker 1: manifesting in demons. There's all kinds of demonic warfare that
Speaker 1: Jesus is casting out demons. Paul is dealing with it.
Speaker 1: Paul is dealing Peter is dealing with it. Everyone's dealing
Speaker 1: with demons. And we see this throughout the New Testament.
Speaker 1: They are manifesting themselves, and they are possessing people, they
Speaker 1: are oppressing people, and they're making themselves known in all
Speaker 1: kinds of ways. Right, So with everything I've just told you, now,
Speaker 1: let's start putting some of these pieces together. I threw
Speaker 1: a lot at you. So we start putting these pieces together.
Speaker 1: And you could say, if I saw something at the
Speaker 1: end of the bed when I was in the hospital,
Speaker 1: if I saw something looking over me, it had the
Speaker 1: appearance of a human that even looks like a human.
Speaker 1: I used to know and the enemy is a deceiver.
Speaker 1: He's the king of lies right, and he's the prince
Speaker 1: of this world. Am I right with Jesus? Because I
Speaker 1: saw something that didn't seem right and it wasn't an angel.
Speaker 1: You would I think you would have said that. I
Speaker 1: think you would have said I saw an angel, like
Speaker 1: people say that. You didn't say that. You said I
Speaker 1: saw a human, a dead human. And I'm telling I'm
Speaker 1: telling you that the Bible says there are no dead
Speaker 1: people that are haunting this earth, but there are spirits,
Speaker 1: demonic creatures, deceitful, able to take different forms. You see
Speaker 1: what I'm putting together here. I'm saying, when I hear
Speaker 1: something like that, it's terrifying for me to think about
Speaker 1: you and what you might be dealing with, what might
Speaker 1: be around you, and what you might have seen that
Speaker 1: day in the hospital. I could speak from a somewhat
Speaker 1: confident experience that you are in a spiritual war right now,
Speaker 1: and I would run to our savior, Jesus. I would
Speaker 1: run to him. And we have to understand who he is.
Speaker 1: We have to understand that he came in the form
Speaker 1: of a man, one hundred percent man. He came to
Speaker 1: this earth, born of a virgin, lived a perfect life,
Speaker 1: fulfilled the law perfectly, perfectly in a way that we
Speaker 1: could not. And he was killed on the cross as prophesied,
Speaker 1: as planned by God because of the evil hearts of men.
Speaker 1: He was killed on the cross on purpose as the
Speaker 1: sacrificial lamb, taking on the sins that me and you
Speaker 1: have committed, and all of his people taking on the
Speaker 1: sins and redeeming them as the ultimate sacrifice by taking
Speaker 1: the wrath of God as a payment, because the wages
Speaker 1: of sin is death. He took the wages of your
Speaker 1: sin and paid it in full. Three days later was resurrected,
Speaker 1: proving his divinity. If you believe that, If you believe that,
Speaker 1: that's the gospel, and he could save, and he could
Speaker 1: end this strange idea that maybe someone has been watching
Speaker 1: you at the end of your bed. Thank you for
Speaker 1: the email, Jan And I'm sorry that I'm all over
Speaker 1: the place today on this episode. Let me jump into this,
Speaker 1: and I don't know what I'm getting into here. The
Speaker 1: email says this, Hi Grande, I'm twenty eight years old.
Speaker 1: I'm from North Texas. I love your podcast. I listen
Speaker 1: to them all the time, and I find that they
Speaker 1: help me. But I have something that I've been struggling with.
Speaker 1: When I feel like I'm on the right track of
Speaker 1: doing good, I always fall back into the old routine
Speaker 1: and just get stuck in a rut. I pray for
Speaker 1: guidance to get out of this, and when I do,
Speaker 1: I still go back again and again. If you have
Speaker 1: any advice for me, please let me know. I've been
Speaker 1: trying to save money and I was doing good until
Speaker 1: I lost it by going to the casino. And I'm
Speaker 1: beating myself up because it's one of the things I
Speaker 1: struggle with and stress out about. Yeah, this comes from Lonnie. Lonnie,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for the email. Twenty eight years old,
Speaker 1: North Texas. And I know that those casinos are right
Speaker 1: over that border in Oklahoma. You're struggling with doing good,
Speaker 1: getting on the right track. Those are the words that
Speaker 1: you're using. And you're getting this rut and you save
Speaker 1: up a little money, and you've got a gambling addiction,
Speaker 1: and so you had to burn up this money in
Speaker 1: the casino and then you beat yourself up about it.
Speaker 1: You feel guilty, and this is the cycle. This is
Speaker 1: the vicious cycle. And this happens a lot to a
Speaker 1: lot of people, and not just casinos, but a lot
Speaker 1: of other things as well, namely drugs. And there's a
Speaker 1: lot of ways that I could go about this, and
Speaker 1: to answer this quickly, it's very difficult because this is
Speaker 1: the kind of thing that takes hours of discussion and
Speaker 1: weeks of getting together. But the first thing I'm going
Speaker 1: to go with is I'm going to go with accountability,
Speaker 1: because if you show me the five people that you
Speaker 1: hang around, then I'm gonna show you the net average
Speaker 1: of what you are and what you are becoming. So
Speaker 1: take the five people around you that you hang around
Speaker 1: with most, and I'm gonna take those five people, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna see them, evaluate them, and I'm gonna tell you
Speaker 1: exactly who you are based on those five people. It's easy.
Speaker 1: I take the average of them and that's you. I
Speaker 1: take the average of where they're going in life, where
Speaker 1: they're heading, and then that's your average of where you're
Speaker 1: going and where you're heading. That is easy, And this
Speaker 1: happens in all walks of life with all different kinds
Speaker 1: of people, all tribes and tongues and all cultures. Whoever
Speaker 1: you're hanging around with becomes you, and you can't think, well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna help make these people better. Don't think that
Speaker 1: that never works that way. I hang around with with
Speaker 1: some bumbs. I'm not a bum, but I'm gonna help
Speaker 1: bring them up. They need me. You're going to be
Speaker 1: a boom five years you're gonna be a bum That's
Speaker 1: just the way it is. So I think if you
Speaker 1: look at those five people, we almost don't have to
Speaker 1: go anywhere else. I would say, Upgrade. My brother says
Speaker 1: this all the time. Upgrade, you're five. Upgrade, you're five
Speaker 1: people because those five people are affecting you big time.
Speaker 1: And you get some five people around you with accountability,
Speaker 1: with integrity that say, hey, Lonnie, what are you doing
Speaker 1: on Friday? Come on, we got some stuff to do.
Speaker 1: And you're like, okay, good. They're lifting you up instead
Speaker 1: of hey, man, come on, get in the truck. We're
Speaker 1: going to the casino. And you're like, man, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to get better. And they're like, come on, Lonie, go
Speaker 1: to the casino. That's what happens with your five Hey.
Speaker 1: When you buy a house right and you get on
Speaker 1: a certain street and you're the most expensive house on
Speaker 1: the street, your value of your house goes down because
Speaker 1: everyone else around, all the other houses around you are
Speaker 1: pulling your value down. So don't be the most expensive
Speaker 1: house on the street. I hope that's not you, Lonnie.
Speaker 1: I hope that you have more value than that, and
Speaker 1: I hope you could upgrade your five keep that accountability
Speaker 1: around you. This conversation could be way longer than this,
Speaker 1: but I want to start just with that simple thing.
Speaker 1: Who's around you. It's time to upgrade your friends. It's
Speaker 1: time to go, hey, man, I need some friends that say, man,
Speaker 1: you're not going to that casino. We're gonna hold you accountable.
Speaker 1: We're gonna keep you down here because we love you, man,
Speaker 1: because you're our friend, and we're not gonna let you
Speaker 1: get into this. Find those friends and I'll start doing
Speaker 1: it right now. I'll take a break beer right back.
Speaker 1: This show is sponsored by Better Help. You know, we
Speaker 1: have so many questions coming in with people that are
Speaker 1: asking things that usually require a therapist or a counselor
Speaker 1: of some sort. And I am not that I could
Speaker 1: provide you with a lot of answers, but sometimes it's
Speaker 1: just going to need therapy just for a peace of mind.
Speaker 1: Amber and I did that after we lost riv and
Speaker 1: we learned some things about it each other that we
Speaker 1: just would not have known without it. In fact, in
Speaker 1: my book Like a River, I talk a lot about
Speaker 1: therapy and how that affected me in a positive way
Speaker 1: that I still use techniques that I learned today. As
Speaker 1: we go into winter coming up in the holiday season,
Speaker 1: a lot of stress could come with that, and therapy
Speaker 1: could really be a bright spot inside all of that
Speaker 1: holiday change. So if you've been thinking about starting therapy, hey,
Speaker 1: give Better Help a try. It's entirely online, designed to
Speaker 1: be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill
Speaker 1: out a brief questionnaire to get matched up with a
Speaker 1: licensed therapist and then you could switch therapist at any
Speaker 1: time for no additional charge. Find your bright spot this
Speaker 1: season with Better Help. Visit Betterhelp dot com slash granger
Speaker 1: today and get ten percent off your first month. That's
Speaker 1: Better Help h e LP dot com slash granger. Hey
Speaker 1: did you hear about our brand new EEE Freedom Club
Speaker 1: over at ee dot com. Well, it's a brand new
Speaker 1: club we just started where you get a shirt of
Speaker 1: the month delivered right to your door. This is an
Speaker 1: exclusive EEE shirt that's seasonal that changes every month. We
Speaker 1: only make the amount that we have in the Freedom Club,
Speaker 1: so no one else gets a shirt like this and
Speaker 1: you can't find it anywhere else. This also gets you
Speaker 1: early access to all of our launches, so if you're
Speaker 1: tired of things selling out by the time you finally
Speaker 1: get logged in for a launch, you can get access
Speaker 1: to our launches long before anyone else does. Plus exclusive
Speaker 1: discounts monthly exclusive discounts for the EEE Freedom Club members only,
Speaker 1: plus a lot of other cool stuff we've been working on.
Speaker 1: You could check this out at EEE dot com again,
Speaker 1: it's called the EEE Freedom Club. And by the way,
Speaker 1: we also just launched our brand new Hunter's line. It
Speaker 1: just came out and I hope you enjoy it. You
Speaker 1: could find all of this at EEE dot com. Last thing,
Speaker 1: if you want to get a hold of me for
Speaker 1: any reason personally, go to cameo c ame eo dot
Speaker 1: com slash grange your smith, or you could download the
Speaker 1: cameo app again that c ame eo. Download that app
Speaker 1: and find me Granger Smith. You can get a video
Speaker 1: message that I could send to us. It says happy
Speaker 1: birthday to somebody, Happy anniversary to somebody. Maybe just a
Speaker 1: bit of encouragement, maybe a pick me up. Whatever you
Speaker 1: want me to say, you fill that out on the
Speaker 1: app or the website, and then I come in. That
Speaker 1: sends a notification to my phone and I record a
Speaker 1: video message about thirty seconds to a minute long, just
Speaker 1: talking whatever you want me to say to whoever you
Speaker 1: want me to say it too. It's super easy, and
Speaker 1: then I hit send. It goes right to you again.
Speaker 1: That's at cameo dot com slash Grangersmith, or you could
Speaker 1: download the cameo app and search for me granger Smith.
Speaker 1: Back to the podcast. All right, welcome back to the podcast,
Speaker 1: and if you have a question for me, email podcast
Speaker 1: at grangersmith dot com. That's podcast at grangersmith dot com.
Speaker 1: Ask me anything you want. We'll walk through it. The
Speaker 1: next email here, subject line says podcast question the baby dilemma.
Speaker 1: Hey Grangeer. First off, thank you for the blessing to
Speaker 1: the world with Like a River. You're a gifted writer
Speaker 1: and I hope everyone gets an opportunity to read your book.
Speaker 1: My family listens to your podcast, so I would like
Speaker 1: to remain anonymous. Please. My husband and I welcome to
Speaker 1: our first child over the summer. This is a baby
Speaker 1: that I'd prayed for. But I don't think my husband
Speaker 1: fully realizes my desire to have a baby, although I've
Speaker 1: told him and he always seems surprised. During my pregnancy,
Speaker 1: we were constantly anxious about having a healthy baby. We
Speaker 1: pray over our baby and praise God. Everything we prayed
Speaker 1: for God has provided. But our baby was. Before our
Speaker 1: baby was born, I would constantly say we were never
Speaker 1: having more children because of the anxiety and stress involved
Speaker 1: with growing and wanting a happy, healthy baby. I had
Speaker 1: been in the emergency room twice during the pregnancy for
Speaker 1: scary situations, which turned out to be just fine. Fast forward,
Speaker 1: and now our baby is here. Our baby is wonderful, happy, healthy,
Speaker 1: and fills our heart with so much joy. My dilemma
Speaker 1: is that I find myself toying with the idea that
Speaker 1: it was so ignorant, ignorant to say I'd never have
Speaker 1: another My husband, however, is adamant on having no more children.
Speaker 1: Last time I brought it up, he seemed to have
Speaker 1: worn me down saying he seemed to have worn down saying, fine,
Speaker 1: if you want one more, we'll have one more, which
Speaker 1: is obviously doesn't mean that he wants another but that
Speaker 1: i'd be I will have broken him down into surrender.
Speaker 1: I don't want that to be the mindset he has
Speaker 1: when bringing another baby into the world. And obviously I
Speaker 1: don't want to change his mind. I'm just not sure
Speaker 1: how to get over this desire in my heart. Could
Speaker 1: you please share your thoughts on this. Sorry it's been
Speaker 1: long winded. Thank you for your time. Blessings to you. Anonymous. Yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: keeping this anonymous. It is interesting, I will say, just
Speaker 1: throw this out there after so many episodes. It's interesting
Speaker 1: when someone like this says they want to remain anonymous
Speaker 1: because their family listened, but then they give such a
Speaker 1: detailed story about their family that's it'd be really difficult anyway,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It's a great question. Thank
Speaker 1: you for the question, and let's walk through it. There's
Speaker 1: a couple of things I want to show you. At
Speaker 1: the very beginning of what I want to say, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna I'm gonna find the first time you said God,
Speaker 1: and well you said at the very beginning, this is
Speaker 1: a baby I'd prayed for. Okay, So there's that, And
Speaker 1: then batten down into the fourth paragraph, you say, during
Speaker 1: my pregnancy, we were constantly anxious about having a healthy baby.
Speaker 1: We'd pray over our baby and praise God. We would
Speaker 1: you and your husband would pray over our baby and
Speaker 1: praise God. Everything we have prayed for God has provided. Okay,
Speaker 1: I just want to point that out. During my pregnancy,
Speaker 1: we were constantly anxious about having a healthy baby. We
Speaker 1: prayed over this baby and praise God. Everything we prayed for,
Speaker 1: God has provided. I just want to I said that
Speaker 1: twice because I want to see what I want you
Speaker 1: to see. What you typed, you were anxious, you prayed,
Speaker 1: He provided. Now. To be honest, it doesn't always work.
Speaker 1: He always provides, and his plan always happens, but we
Speaker 1: don't always see it happened in the way that we
Speaker 1: want it to happen. In this case, it did what
Speaker 1: you wanted and what you prayed for was aligned with
Speaker 1: his will, and it happened and he provided everything that
Speaker 1: you asked for. Sit with that for a while, and
Speaker 1: I hope you're listening. But in your situation, I want
Speaker 1: you to sit with that idea, and then I want
Speaker 1: to I want you to see what I want to.
Speaker 1: I want to show you what you're doing and what
Speaker 1: we all do. We we're anxious, we pray, he provides,
Speaker 1: we get anxious about something else. That's what we do.
Speaker 1: Is crazy, but that's what we do. And he goes,
Speaker 1: you of little faith. That's literally what he's saying in
Speaker 1: this through his word. And so here we are, and
Speaker 1: what you're what you're anxious about, and what your your
Speaker 1: your dilemma is with your husband is totally valid, and
Speaker 1: your husband is totally valid for thinking what he's thinking
Speaker 1: because he went through this with a wife that was
Speaker 1: overly anxious about having a healthy baby, a wife that said, oh,
Speaker 1: we're not going to do this anymore. I'm in pain,
Speaker 1: I'm nervous, i'm anxious. Oh please God, and you got
Speaker 1: this healthy baby. And he said no more. And he
Speaker 1: said fine, yeah, yes, I get it. This is you've
Speaker 1: been a stress ball. And so yeah, I hear you.
Speaker 1: And then a few years go by and you go, hey, babe,
Speaker 1: I think I want to have another baby, and he goes,
Speaker 1: uh uh, he says no. Right, So that's what I mean.
Speaker 1: I don't blame him for saying no, because this is
Speaker 1: what he's left with. And I also don't blame you
Speaker 1: for now God's provided, and now you're anxious again about
Speaker 1: a new thing. I also don't blame you that you
Speaker 1: want another child. That this is all natural. These are
Speaker 1: all these things, every bit of it is natural, and
Speaker 1: it makes total sense. And I don't read this and
Speaker 1: go this is a messed up family. I don't think that.
Speaker 1: I go, yeah, this sounds like a pattern. It sounds
Speaker 1: like a very normal pattern. So let's just acknowledge first
Speaker 1: of all your feelings and everything you're going through, and
Speaker 1: this pattern it's normal. And your husband and his resistance
Speaker 1: to it, there is a level where you're just gonna go, Hey,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not gonna push you beyond what you want.
Speaker 1: I desire another baby, and I can understand why you
Speaker 1: say no because of the craziness of the first pregnancy.
Speaker 1: I get it. At least acknowledge him that, at least
Speaker 1: give him that instead of if it's getting to the
Speaker 1: point where you're actually breaking him down, that's what you said,
Speaker 1: you said, he said, fine, if you want one more,
Speaker 1: we'll have one more, which obviously doesn't mean he wants another.
Speaker 1: But you've broken him down. If that's the case, what
Speaker 1: that breaking down tells me is you've been nagging him. Hey,
Speaker 1: if you're thought any more about this baby. Is it
Speaker 1: always about what you want? Is it what you want
Speaker 1: or what I want? Because I want another baby? Is there?
Speaker 1: And is it so much to ask? We have one
Speaker 1: and he's health and it's beautiful. Can we have another one?
Speaker 1: That's all I'm asking? And he goes, fine, Fine, if
Speaker 1: that's what you want, we'll do it. I could totally
Speaker 1: see that plan out. What's what's happening. We can't control him,
Speaker 1: we can't control his reactions, but what we can do
Speaker 1: is change the way we approach it. So instead it's
Speaker 1: like this. It's like, hey, baby, no, you don't want
Speaker 1: another baby, And it's crazy to me that I actually do.
Speaker 1: But I'm not gonna push it. I just wanted to
Speaker 1: tell you and I want to get it out there
Speaker 1: and maybe if you change your mind, will you please
Speaker 1: come to me. But I feel I feel like it's
Speaker 1: in our future to have another one. But I totally
Speaker 1: understand that you don't, You know, like, let's do that
Speaker 1: instead of pushing him to break him down. Let me
Speaker 1: go back to God's province, providence. Let me go back
Speaker 1: to God's purpose, in God's will. This is gonna blow
Speaker 1: your mind if you really think about it. Listen, anonymous.
Speaker 1: Think about this. Think step away from this podcast, and
Speaker 1: I want you to think, after this is over, really
Speaker 1: think about what I'm about to say, and if you
Speaker 1: really meditate on this, it will blow your mind. Whether
Speaker 1: or not you have a baby another baby is already determined.
Speaker 1: If you have another baby, it is already written. If
Speaker 1: you don't have any more babies in your life, it
Speaker 1: is already determined. It's crazy, right, And what am I
Speaker 1: just a puppet on a string here? Well? No, No,
Speaker 1: You're making choices, you're making decisions, you're praying through it,
Speaker 1: you're acting within your will, the constraints of your personal
Speaker 1: will and everything you got going on and everything you're
Speaker 1: dealing with. But the product of that is already determined.
Speaker 1: The reason I tell you that is that should if
Speaker 1: you meditate on that and you go wow, it's already determined,
Speaker 1: a baby or not, It's already written, regardless of what
Speaker 1: I'm worry about. What. The reason I tell you that
Speaker 1: is because you could sit back on that and just
Speaker 1: go wow. I could just rest in that, Hey, God,
Speaker 1: did this is? This? Is you? You're God and I'm not.
Speaker 1: You know my heart, God, you know I want another baby.
Speaker 1: You also know my husband doesn't. But God, you could
Speaker 1: soften his heart, or you could give me better understanding.
Speaker 1: Either way, this child's I'm handing it to you. It's
Speaker 1: all you, God, whether it comes or not, it's all you.
Speaker 1: That is, that is a mature prayer. And that is
Speaker 1: that is where extreme rest comes from. That is, maybe
Speaker 1: that's extreme. How could you possibly extremely rest? That is
Speaker 1: where ultimate rest is right. Ultimate rest comes from from
Speaker 1: ultimate faith, which none of us have. But the closer
Speaker 1: you get to that, the closer, the stronger your faith gets.
Speaker 1: The stronger you believe that God has already determined this
Speaker 1: for you. The stronger you believe that, the easier you rest.
Speaker 1: It's crazy, but it's true, and that's what the Bible says.
Speaker 1: And I love that we already have this example in
Speaker 1: your life when it happened before. You were anxious, you
Speaker 1: were worried, you prayed, He provided, Trust him. Thanks for
Speaker 1: the email. Let's dive into another one here. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to know. I have no idea what I'm getting into,
Speaker 1: but this question subject line says life question. The email says, Hey,
Speaker 1: Gran should like to remain a non us, but I
Speaker 1: have a question for you. I am no, no, I've
Speaker 1: read this one before, I've read that one. That one
Speaker 1: came in twice. Don't send him twice, y'all. Don't send
Speaker 1: them twice. That's that. Then it leads me to this
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. Let me go into this one. Hey Granger.
Speaker 1: First of all, I'm a big fan. My wife and
Speaker 1: I went to your concert at the Lake of the
Speaker 1: Ozarks and I had a blast. My question is this
Speaker 1: last summer there was a local family whose youngest boy
Speaker 1: drowned in the lake over Fourth of July weekend. We
Speaker 1: have bought your book, and I'm curious when do you
Speaker 1: think it's a good time to give them this book
Speaker 1: to anonymously thanks for what you do with your podcast
Speaker 1: right now or give it to him right now. You
Speaker 1: sent this early October, and it is that happened for
Speaker 1: the July. Yeah, right now, give it to them right now.
Speaker 1: Next question, subdic Cline says, friends, Hey Grangeer, my name
Speaker 1: is Toner from Tulsa, and I've been helping in my
Speaker 1: church youth group for almost a year and I'm starting
Speaker 1: to see a change in me that's causing me not
Speaker 1: to be around my non church friends anymore. And one
Speaker 1: of them told me I deserted them for church? Should
Speaker 1: I feel bad that I may? That I may have happened?
Speaker 1: How do I'm going to try to read what you
Speaker 1: wrote here? They told me I deserted them for church.
Speaker 1: Should I feel bad? I'll just whatever you said for that.
Speaker 1: I'm not quite sure, but you said, how do I
Speaker 1: balance hanging out with church friends and my non church friends.
Speaker 1: I have recently quit drinking every weekend. I'm a non
Speaker 1: church friend. My non church friends are mad because I
Speaker 1: won't drink with them anymore. What should I do? Hey, Toner,
Speaker 1: I appreciate the email, brother, and what your saying is
Speaker 1: absolutely normal. This is absolutely normal. Jesus read through the
Speaker 1: gospels and watch what Jesus says very carefully. He's gonna say,
Speaker 1: I did not come to bring peace. I came to
Speaker 1: bring a sword. He's gonna Jesus is gonna pit father
Speaker 1: against son, mother against daughter, friend against friend. Your new brothers,
Speaker 1: your new friends are going to be friends you find
Speaker 1: in Christ, and then you're going to as an example,
Speaker 1: then go back and be able to give your non
Speaker 1: church friends as a bit of your hope that they
Speaker 1: could trust and what you trust in that they don't
Speaker 1: need to be doing what they're doing in a non
Speaker 1: judgmental way. It's super easy. You're just like a man.
Speaker 1: I I'm sorry I don't go out with you guys drinking.
Speaker 1: But I just found something better. That's all it is.
Speaker 1: I just found something better, like what possibly could be better.
Speaker 1: It's like, man, you should come with me. You should.
Speaker 1: You should come and check it out. She should come
Speaker 1: to church with me and maybe you'll see. But I
Speaker 1: just bounce on them better. And I can't go drinking anymore.
Speaker 1: Why can't you go drinking? Man? Because to be honest
Speaker 1: with you, when I go drinking, it's it's nothing on
Speaker 1: you guys. It's not it's not judgment in any way
Speaker 1: on you guys. But when I go drinking, I feel convicted.
Speaker 1: I feel I feel like I'm messing myself up a
Speaker 1: little bit. What are you talking about, ton Er? Come on, man,
Speaker 1: come drinking with us, dude. That I love you guys, seriously,
Speaker 1: I do, and I appreciate the invite and I'll go
Speaker 1: with you guys, but but I can't drink because it
Speaker 1: just it's not who I am anymore. That that old
Speaker 1: me died, that version of me is gone. Ah. So
Speaker 1: at that point if they're like, well, get out it.
Speaker 1: We don't, we don't want anything to do with you.
Speaker 1: Is that something that you would all a friend? You
Speaker 1: found something, you found a treasure and you love it
Speaker 1: and it's a new joy of your life. It's given
Speaker 1: you purpose and joy and identity. And these guys say,
Speaker 1: get lost, man, or come with us? Or do you
Speaker 1: still call them friends? So yeah, that's the new world
Speaker 1: you're living in and it's totally normal. And here's the thing,
Speaker 1: here's the cool thing, Toner. I bet you a couple
Speaker 1: of these guys, maybe one is gonna end up coming
Speaker 1: with you. That's a beautiful thing about it. But there
Speaker 1: is no more for you. There is no more. How
Speaker 1: do I balance church friends and non church friends. It
Speaker 1: doesn't matter what I tell you on this podcast, because
Speaker 1: you've been redeemed by the blood, So the Holy Spirit's
Speaker 1: going to act through you and witness to this as
Speaker 1: you live it out, so you don't even have to
Speaker 1: worry about me. And what I say, what's gonna happen
Speaker 1: is the more you go out with these the non
Speaker 1: church guys, the more you're just going to be miserable.
Speaker 1: And you're like, oh, I really don't want to be here.
Speaker 1: I don't feel like I fit in. I just don't
Speaker 1: want to. I don't want to be doing this. That's
Speaker 1: what you're gonna feel. And I don't have to. I
Speaker 1: don't have to push you along. You're gonna end up
Speaker 1: going back with the friends that go Hey, Toner, we
Speaker 1: get you, we get you, man, we understand come back.
Speaker 1: That's the deal. Let's grab another one. Hey, thank you
Speaker 1: guys for bearing with me on this podcast. This has
Speaker 1: been interesting, and I think for those of y'all that
Speaker 1: have listened to a bunch of these when I do
Speaker 1: them at night and just weird things happen in my
Speaker 1: brain and I don't have a guess. It's just me
Speaker 1: and you. So so yeah, what I'm gonna do. I'm
Speaker 1: actually scrolling down. I'm gonna grab something kind of old
Speaker 1: right here. It says broad, open ended heaven question. Hey Granger,
Speaker 1: how do you picture heaven? I would love to hear
Speaker 1: the details that you imagine. My name is Julie and
Speaker 1: I'm from Broken Bow, Oklahoma. Thank you for what you're
Speaker 1: doing this podcast. My husband and I love hearing these
Speaker 1: all the best. Julie, Hey, Julie, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for the encouragement, and yeah, that's a great I love
Speaker 1: this question. You know what's crazy. I was thinking about
Speaker 1: this today, not the question, but I was thinking about
Speaker 1: this in now analogy. Today. When I tell you the
Speaker 1: truth about heaven, it's going to sound boring compared to
Speaker 1: other ideas of heaven that you've heard. But the reason
Speaker 1: it sounds boring is to anyone that's listening is because
Speaker 1: you're your underestimation of what I'm about to say is
Speaker 1: will blow your mind because if you really got to
Speaker 1: grasp on what I'm trying to say, and me too, Hey,
Speaker 1: I can't either. I can't. My brain is way too small.
Speaker 1: But if I really got a grasp on what I
Speaker 1: was trying to say, it would be the most opposite
Speaker 1: of boring that anything I could possibly say. But because
Speaker 1: I can't say it well, and because my brain is tiny,
Speaker 1: when I do say, it's gonna sound boring to you.
Speaker 1: Let's do it, all right, let's get into it. I
Speaker 1: could tell you how do I picture heaven. I could say, Man,
Speaker 1: I hope it has green grass, and I hope it
Speaker 1: has a beautiful lake and largemouth bass and good lures
Speaker 1: and good fishing gear, and I hope it doesn't have
Speaker 1: fire ants because I can't stand fire ants. And I
Speaker 1: hope the sky's blue with puffy clouds, and I hope
Speaker 1: the temperatures around seventy degrees, and I hope that those
Speaker 1: fish bite every single cast. I hope I get an
Speaker 1: eight pounder here, a ten pounder here, And I hope
Speaker 1: River is with me. And River is standing next to me, laughing,
Speaker 1: and we're fishing together, and maybe we're both about the
Speaker 1: same age, and we're saying, isn't Heaven fun? And Rivers like, yeah, Dad,
Speaker 1: Heaven's so fun. And we're just catching bass, and then
Speaker 1: my dad walks up and he says, hey, guys, how's
Speaker 1: the fishing. And we're like, Dad, it's Heaven fish shirt.
Speaker 1: You know, we're always biting here and it's crazy. I
Speaker 1: can tell you that. And then we would end the
Speaker 1: podcast and everyone would be like, Oh, that's real sweet,
Speaker 1: But let me tell you, I think that's that thing
Speaker 1: that's really far off. Okay, I've prepped a lot, So
Speaker 1: here we go. When we get to Heaven, we are
Speaker 1: going to be in the presence of our creator, and
Speaker 1: we are going to be so lost in the dazzling
Speaker 1: magnificence of him that it's going everything else will pale
Speaker 1: in comparison. And I think there will be everything else.
Speaker 1: I think there will be a lot of unbelievably incredible
Speaker 1: things in heaven. But I think if we miss the
Speaker 1: fact that we're going to be in the presence of
Speaker 1: the maker of everything you've ever loved, imagine that for
Speaker 1: one second, you're going to be in the presence, the unveiled,
Speaker 1: unfiltered presence of the creator of everything you've ever thought
Speaker 1: was beautiful, are worthy? Are lovely, or artistic or musically inclined,
Speaker 1: Everything you've ever thought that every human being has ever
Speaker 1: thought about planet Earth, that ever thought it was worthy
Speaker 1: or beautiful or integrity, are healthy or beautiful sounding, or
Speaker 1: beautiful smelling or beautiful every sense beautiful, the most incredible
Speaker 1: thing you could possibly imagine in your life that you've
Speaker 1: ever seen or enjoyed, or tasted, or listened to or
Speaker 1: are sung along with everything, You're going to be in
Speaker 1: the presence, unfiltered, unveiled of the one that created all
Speaker 1: of that. We can't possibly know how unbelievably incredible this
Speaker 1: experience will be. And that is Heaven, and that's what
Speaker 1: the Bible is going to describe it as we're gonna
Speaker 1: be the presence of our Lord. And like I said
Speaker 1: at the beginning of this question, there's probably a lot
Speaker 1: of people who go, that sounds boring because you're not
Speaker 1: thinking of it in that you're thinking of it in
Speaker 1: terms of largemouth bass and green grass and blue skies.
Speaker 1: The creator, the guy, the one, the being that invented
Speaker 1: blue skies and green grass and largemouth bass, the one
Speaker 1: that every song, the most beautiful songs you've ever heard
Speaker 1: in your life, the one that invented music, right of
Speaker 1: every beautiful girl or handsome boy you've ever seen in
Speaker 1: your life, the one that invented handsome boys and beautiful girls,
Speaker 1: the one that the way you love your child, or
Speaker 1: your wife or your grandfather, the way you love them,
Speaker 1: the feeling you felt, the butterflies you felt, the one
Speaker 1: that created them is going to be right in front
Speaker 1: of your face, unveiled, unfiltered, with you, and you're gonna
Speaker 1: just be in the presence of that and go. I
Speaker 1: don't want to go anywhere else. I just want to
Speaker 1: stay here, Please Lord, I want to I just want
Speaker 1: to soak up this moment. I can't as I describe this,
Speaker 1: I can't possibly portray what this might mean for all
Speaker 1: of us believers, but I could say it's going to
Speaker 1: be beyond our wildest dreams. Yeah, that's how I picture heaven.
Speaker 1: All end the podcast there, but I love you guys.
Speaker 1: If you have a question for me, email podcast at
Speaker 1: grangersmith dot com and we'll see y'all next Monday. Gigi,
Speaker 1: thanks for joining me on the Grangersmith podcast. I appreciate
Speaker 1: all of you guys. You could help me out by
Speaker 1: rating this podcast on iTunes. If you're on YouTube, subscribe
Speaker 1: to this channel. Hit that little like button and the
Speaker 1: notification spell so that you never miss anytime I upload
Speaker 1: a video. Yi