Speaker 1: If you're a human, you qualify you're a hypocrite. What's up, everybody,
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the podcast. Thanks for being here. My
Speaker 1: name is Granger and this is episode two twenty four.
Speaker 1: If you've been here for a long time and you've
Speaker 1: seen this podcast evolve over the years, welcome back. If
Speaker 1: you're brand new, I'm glad you made it. What we
Speaker 1: do here is we answer your questions. You could email
Speaker 1: me podcast at grangersmith dot com. Just walk through it casual,
Speaker 1: like we're sitting at dinner, like we're sitting around a campfire,
Speaker 1: like we're riding in a truck. You asked me a question,
Speaker 1: I don't have any notes in front of me, and
Speaker 1: we just kind of walk through it like two friends.
Speaker 1: First question here comes from Katie says, Hey, Granger, I've
Speaker 1: loved your book and gained so much wisdom and perspective
Speaker 1: from reading it. I'm reaching out because, similar to y'all,
Speaker 1: we've had challenges conceiving. We're so grateful to have two beautiful,
Speaker 1: healthy daughters who were conceived easily. We always wanted a
Speaker 1: third child, but it has not been possible, even with
Speaker 1: initial interventions. I U I. We are now faced with
Speaker 1: the choice of moving into IVF or making peace without
Speaker 1: a third child. I'm really struggling with this decision and
Speaker 1: feel as if a third child is not God's will
Speaker 1: for us. Therefore, if we pursue IVF, are we going
Speaker 1: against God's will. It's this all a lesson to be
Speaker 1: grateful for the incredible gifts we've already been given versus
Speaker 1: wanting more. I would love your perspective in how to
Speaker 1: think about and pray about this big decision. I've loved
Speaker 1: watching your story unfold in the past year, and it's
Speaker 1: so inspiring to see you embrace your god giving purpose.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Katie Hey, Katie Hey, thanks for your question.
Speaker 1: Thanks for emailing. It's a great one. I love the
Speaker 1: way you're thinking through these things. And partly what I
Speaker 1: do on this podcast is is not to tell people
Speaker 1: I'm right. That's not my goal. My goal is to
Speaker 1: to help people think through a logical question with a
Speaker 1: biblical worldview. Really, like, if that was a subtitle, this
Speaker 1: podcast would be helping people like you think through common
Speaker 1: problems with a biblical worldview, right, And it's so it's not.
Speaker 1: It's not helping you get the answer right. There's a
Speaker 1: difference between helping you get the answer and just helping
Speaker 1: you with the starting point of thinking through it. That's
Speaker 1: all that I hope to provide. I hope to be
Speaker 1: that kind of encouragement because otherwise I'm not always right.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna sit here
Speaker 1: and tell you here's the right answer, but I gonna
Speaker 1: tell you I could tell you here's how we should
Speaker 1: be thinking about this. So first of all, I don't
Speaker 1: I don't want to over spiritualize anything in life. If
Speaker 1: you've heard me before, I think think we should always
Speaker 1: have caution in over spiritualizing, meaning I don't want to
Speaker 1: look at this and go God is trying to tell
Speaker 1: me an answer about a third child. He's sending me
Speaker 1: a message in a bottle. But I'm not quite sure
Speaker 1: how to how to decipher this foreign language that God
Speaker 1: has now sent me. It's like, no, he didn't send
Speaker 1: you a magic language that you need to decipher that
Speaker 1: came through the clouds or the bottle in the ocean,
Speaker 1: or there's like billboards and you're seeing certain letters and
Speaker 1: if you add up the letters, subtract them with the
Speaker 1: dream that you had last night, plus your husband just
Speaker 1: now had a revelation at work from his boss who
Speaker 1: says his favorite movie is this. And if you take
Speaker 1: that title and the middle word in that title is this,
Speaker 1: and guess how long the movie is. It's one hour
Speaker 1: and twenty one minutes long. All this comes together and
Speaker 1: says God is trying to tell us. It's like, come on, y'all.
Speaker 1: I mean, let's not do this. It's not biblical. And
Speaker 1: then it's just not logical. It's not rational. Do you
Speaker 1: think God Creator would give you some kind of morse
Speaker 1: code that you need to set out and decipher like
Speaker 1: you're living in the movie National Treasure. No, it's just so,
Speaker 1: that's what I mean. I overdid that whole thing. But
Speaker 1: I just don't want us to overspiritualize, because then that
Speaker 1: is just not Christianity. God is a God who speaks,
Speaker 1: and he's a God who speaks clearly and definitively, and
Speaker 1: he speaks through his son and his ever living, breathing
Speaker 1: Word of God. The Bible right in the beginning he
Speaker 1: spoke through the prophets, and in the last days he
Speaker 1: spoke through the Sun. That's what the Bible says, the
Speaker 1: son Jesus. So we know what God's intentions are through
Speaker 1: reading the Bible, and we can't make that too complicated.
Speaker 1: So with all I said, what I just said, let's
Speaker 1: take that and then pour that on top of this question. Right,
Speaker 1: Your question is there's a couple of them. Are we
Speaker 1: going against God's will to pursue IVF. Let's start with
Speaker 1: that one. You said, we're now faced with the choice
Speaker 1: moving into IVF or making peace without a third child.
Speaker 1: In fact, let's start there, because that's not your final option.
Speaker 1: That's not where the book closes. Because you've said you've
Speaker 1: said nothing about adoption, And I think adoption is a
Speaker 1: beautiful thing. In fact, I think it's something that all
Speaker 1: of us should consider. I think it's a calling that
Speaker 1: all of us should be praying through and praying for.
Speaker 1: Don't close the door to all the children in your
Speaker 1: family just because it's not biologically possible. We should always
Speaker 1: be praying and thinking and asking, saying, God, if there's
Speaker 1: another baby in this world that needs our house. Lord,
Speaker 1: opened my heart to that, open my eyes to that.
Speaker 1: I am your servant on this or that's all I am. Lord.
Speaker 1: Let me be your servant. Let me be available to
Speaker 1: you God, to serve you to your needs. If there
Speaker 1: is another baby out there, we'll take it right. I
Speaker 1: want that to be part of this discussion. I want
Speaker 1: that to be part of your question, and I hope
Speaker 1: that it is, and that's why I said it that way.
Speaker 1: So then we move on to the second part of
Speaker 1: the question. If we pursue IVF, are we going against
Speaker 1: God's will? That's a complicated question from a dad who's
Speaker 1: been through IVF. The decision that Amber and I made
Speaker 1: according to God's will. Once again, we can understand his
Speaker 1: will by reading the Bible, and it's not hard. There
Speaker 1: are many dangers and evils in IVF, and part of
Speaker 1: it is. One of the things is the fact that
Speaker 1: you have all these embryo leftover ethically, morally, biblically, what
Speaker 1: do we do with the extra embryos that are made
Speaker 1: Lord willing? That's something you have to wrestle with. Now.
Speaker 1: IVF is science. God is science, so that like science,
Speaker 1: does not go against God. He's the creator. He made science,
Speaker 1: like science exists because God exists. We can't. We have
Speaker 1: to reconcile that we can't go well, these two things,
Speaker 1: this is science and this is God, so they don't
Speaker 1: go together. That's absolute garbage. God is science. God created science,
Speaker 1: just like he created art in music and mathematics. You know,
Speaker 1: he is a creator. He is the great intelligent designer.
Speaker 1: Of course he is science. So so in a way
Speaker 1: God is behind IVF listen, long story. But in my
Speaker 1: book Like a River, the way that this, the way
Speaker 1: I had a better understanding about this idea is in
Speaker 1: terms of gardening, right, And Lincoln asked me, he said, Dad,
Speaker 1: does God make all the trees and man makes some
Speaker 1: of the trees. And he's thinking, because we plant trees,
Speaker 1: like we go to the nursery, right, and we buy
Speaker 1: a seed, or we buy a tree and we plant it,
Speaker 1: and then there's the wild trees that live in the forest.
Speaker 1: And in his mind at the time when he said
Speaker 1: it was like seven years old, six years old. So
Speaker 1: it's like he's thinking, God makes those wild ones in
Speaker 1: the forest. But then there's also the ones that man
Speaker 1: makes out of seed. And I had to correct him
Speaker 1: in that and say, no, buddy, God makes all the trees.
Speaker 1: Sometimes man plants the seed, right, So that's the difference.
Speaker 1: God makes all the trees. It's the same thing with babies.
Speaker 1: And through the new technology, the new science of IVF,
Speaker 1: God makes all the babies. God ordains all the babies.
Speaker 1: There is no baby born without the hand of God
Speaker 1: all over it. And there's no baby that's not born
Speaker 1: without the hand over that from God. God either allows
Speaker 1: it or he doesn't. He ordains it, or he doesn't.
Speaker 1: He wills it, or he doesn't, including IVF, including all
Speaker 1: of science, because that's who he is. But in the
Speaker 1: case of IVF, God makes all the babies. But sometimes
Speaker 1: man plants the seed. That's the case with IVF, and
Speaker 1: that's the case with buying a tree at a nursery,
Speaker 1: or buying a seed of a vegetable of a tomato
Speaker 1: plant at the nursery instead of the wild one grilling. Okay,
Speaker 1: so you have to reconcile that. You have to pray
Speaker 1: through that. What are the evils that come with that?
Speaker 1: What are the evils? And one of the things is
Speaker 1: too many embryos? Are you willing? This is this is
Speaker 1: the decision Amber and I had to make. Are we
Speaker 1: willing to implant all of the embryos so that none
Speaker 1: go to waste, none go to science or another family
Speaker 1: or research or the trash. Ambers said, I will take
Speaker 1: all of the embryos it just so happens we were
Speaker 1: only left in the end with one another, just clear
Speaker 1: distinct piece of evidence of God's providence. We were only
Speaker 1: left with one in the end, and it ended up
Speaker 1: being our baby, Maverick. Are you willing to reconcile that?
Speaker 1: And then the last part of this says, is this
Speaker 1: all a lesson to be grateful for the incredible gifts
Speaker 1: were already given versus wanting more? Once again, this goes
Speaker 1: back to overspiritualizing a fundamental biblical concept. So you're wondering,
Speaker 1: is this God? Is God showing me through this spiritual
Speaker 1: story that He's created around me that this is really
Speaker 1: all of this really is a setup so that I
Speaker 1: will just be grateful for what I've already been given
Speaker 1: instead of wanting more. Maybe that's what God's doing. It's like,
Speaker 1: hold up, pause, take a break. Here's where Katie. I'm
Speaker 1: not at all blaming you, but this is where like
Speaker 1: strange nominal Christianity starts creeping in the idea. Think about this,
Speaker 1: Let me rephrase it for you, let me say it
Speaker 1: in another way. God sees all the things that happened
Speaker 1: in your life, and sometimes rarely he intervenes with something
Speaker 1: that is supposed to make you grateful for what you've
Speaker 1: been given and not wanting more. Or are we always
Speaker 1: supposed to understand that reality when we read through the Bible,
Speaker 1: when we read through the teachings of the Gospels, do
Speaker 1: we not always get that feeling from Jesus that he's
Speaker 1: trying to tell us be grateful now, don't worry about tomorrow.
Speaker 1: When we hear the teachings of the apostle Paul, when
Speaker 1: he says I have learned to be content in all situations,
Speaker 1: he said all situations. Not I have learned to be
Speaker 1: content because of this one time. God gave me this
Speaker 1: scenario that played out, and that all he wanted me
Speaker 1: to see was how to be content. No, he says,
Speaker 1: all situations. So that's just a given, Katie, that you
Speaker 1: should be grateful for the gifts that you've already been
Speaker 1: given in versus wanting more all the time. That's the
Speaker 1: essence of being a Christian. So take that as just
Speaker 1: a big unbreather, a thought that's difficult to grasp, but
Speaker 1: you have to lean into that, not because of some
Speaker 1: magical situation that's popped into your life. You could use
Speaker 1: these situations absolutely but fundamentally that just should always be
Speaker 1: taken in the background. Be grateful for what I have now,
Speaker 1: whether it's fifty children or one child, or if you
Speaker 1: lose the last one you got, be grateful for what
Speaker 1: you have, not because of a certain scenario, but because
Speaker 1: that's what you're called to be as a believer. I
Speaker 1: think I think I have run this question pretty much
Speaker 1: into the ground, and I hope that that's helpful for you, Katie.
Speaker 1: I still remember whenever I started grangersmith dot com, whenever
Speaker 1: that website was brand new. That was twenty six years ago.
Speaker 1: Can you even believe that it's been so long? And
Speaker 1: I had maybe an online store, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: don't know how I possibly sold it anything. I don't
Speaker 1: know why anyone would care. But I did have a
Speaker 1: few T shirts and some CDs in my apartment kitchen,
Speaker 1: and then either me or my mom would mail those out.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I would say, hey, Mom, there's there's a T
Speaker 1: shirt that sold last week. Now that really that is
Speaker 1: the ancestor of EE dot com. Really, I mean that's
Speaker 1: where EE Apparel started. I know we say that it
Speaker 1: was founded in twenty eleven, but really, if you go
Speaker 1: back to when I was a country artist. It goes
Speaker 1: all the way back to like two thousand and two.
Speaker 1: I would say that the number one way that we
Speaker 1: started managing orders in an efficient way when we started
Speaker 1: gaining popularity around the country was with Shopify. Because we
Speaker 1: didn't know coming from those old days, we didn't know
Speaker 1: how to sell e commerce and how to take orders
Speaker 1: and how to do that efficiently. But that's where Shopify
Speaker 1: came in and changed the game for us. And it's
Speaker 1: so easy all because I use Shopify. Shopify is the
Speaker 1: global commerce platform that allows you to sell it every
Speaker 1: stage of your business, from the launch your own online
Speaker 1: shop stage to the first real life store stage, all
Speaker 1: the way till did we just hit a whole bunch
Speaker 1: of orders stage? Shopify is there to help you grow.
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter if you're selling outdoor apparel like we do,
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Speaker 1: com and ee dot com that's been using Shopify and
Speaker 1: sees great results from it so that we could focus
Speaker 1: on our creative stuff and not on the techi stuff. No,
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Speaker 1: businesses that grow grow with Shopify. Sign up for a
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Speaker 1: slash Granger all lowercase. Go to shopify dot com slash
Speaker 1: granger right now to grow your business no matter what
Speaker 1: stage you're in Shopify dot Com slash Granger. Next question
Speaker 1: comes from anonymous. It says, Hey, Grainger, I have a
Speaker 1: situation I need advice on regarding my church and pastor's son.
Speaker 1: The pastor's son preaches a sermon every now and then.
Speaker 1: I work with him and notice he makes perverted and
Speaker 1: cruel jokes as well as racist remarks. I have a
Speaker 1: feeling he's a product of raising. I have a feeling
Speaker 1: he's a product of his raising, and that his father,
Speaker 1: the pastor, may be the same way. The son's last sermon,
Speaker 1: he spoke on acting way at church and another way
Speaker 1: at work. He also spoke on how he confronted someone
Speaker 1: we work with about them acting one way at church
Speaker 1: and another way at work, and he told the guy
Speaker 1: that he was going to hell. I found that hypocritical,
Speaker 1: and I don't know how to go about it. Do
Speaker 1: you believe I have the right to hold him accountable
Speaker 1: for this and bring it to his attention concerning considering
Speaker 1: I'm a part of the church. Also, do you recommend
Speaker 1: visiting new churches or staying at my current church? All right, Anonymous,
Speaker 1: thanks for the email. A lot of stuff regarding this
Speaker 1: is serious stuff, and I don't know the whole story,
Speaker 1: and I don't know you, which creates a problem for me.
Speaker 1: Since I don't know you, and I wish I did,
Speaker 1: it makes it more difficult for me to step into
Speaker 1: this situation right off the bat boom. First thing we
Speaker 1: need to understand is, first of all, there's hypocrites in
Speaker 1: the church. You should know that. But there's hypocrites everywhere,
Speaker 1: in every business and every organization, and if you're a human,
Speaker 1: you qualify you're a hypocrite. The only difference should be
Speaker 1: in the church. The only difference is in the Church,
Speaker 1: we know we're hypocrites because we know we're sinners. So
Speaker 1: that's the difference in hypocrites in the Church and hypocrites
Speaker 1: in the world. Hypocrites in the Church at least will
Speaker 1: admit I'm a hypocrite, and we welcome all hypocrites to
Speaker 1: join us on a Sunday morning. You need to understand too,
Speaker 1: that when we judge like this in the Bible, people constantly,
Speaker 1: out of context will throw out don't judge, don't judge,
Speaker 1: don't judge. But what we need to understand is what
Speaker 1: the Bible's saying when it says don't judge, is don't judge,
Speaker 1: or you will be judged by the same measure that
Speaker 1: you're judging, which makes judging. It's actually good. It's a
Speaker 1: good thing to correct and rebuke from scripture patiently, right
Speaker 1: in love. But beware that what you're rebuking, what you're correcting,
Speaker 1: what you're judging, needs to be and demands to be
Speaker 1: judged and correct and rebuked back by the same measure
Speaker 1: to what you're doing. So have you checked yourself? Here's
Speaker 1: my point, Anonymous. Have you checked yourself to see if
Speaker 1: the speck that you're trying to get out of your
Speaker 1: brother's eye is bigger than the log that you have
Speaker 1: in your own eye. So we have to think about
Speaker 1: look at yourself first, look in the mirror first, right,
Speaker 1: how you do it, Anonymous? Like, because that's why I hesitate,
Speaker 1: because I don't know you. Are you just one of
Speaker 1: those people that goes to church And it's like, man,
Speaker 1: that Pastor Son, And I don't like that Pastor Son.
Speaker 1: He just does this and that and says this and that,
Speaker 1: and he crewed jokes all the time. And I think
Speaker 1: it's a product of his raisin. And you know what,
Speaker 1: I think he's probably racist. And you know what, I
Speaker 1: just don't. I think I should go somewhere else. And
Speaker 1: And is that you, because there's a lot of that
Speaker 1: or if I knew you, this would help, or you
Speaker 1: just like sincerely crying for help, and like Granger, Hey,
Speaker 1: I've read first and second Timothy, I've read Titus, Hebrews, Acts,
Speaker 1: all the places in the Bible that give us the
Speaker 1: qualifications for an elder granger. I've gone through these. I
Speaker 1: know what it takes to be an elder or a
Speaker 1: pastor according to the Bible, not according to my own thoughts.
Speaker 1: And this guy's not qualified. And so if that's you,
Speaker 1: and you're truly being faithful and sincere about this out
Speaker 1: of love, then I say, okay. If you have read first,
Speaker 1: second Timothy, Titus, Hebrews Action, and you know all the
Speaker 1: qualifications of an elder, and then you go and and
Speaker 1: then you sit down and you say, can I have
Speaker 1: lunch with your pastor? Or can I grab coffee with
Speaker 1: you and tell you some concerns I have? And if
Speaker 1: your argument is biblically grounded, not your personal opinion, and
Speaker 1: you have evidence with it, then the pastor says, you're wrong.
Speaker 1: This is my son. He's awesome, he's amazing, he's gonna preach.
Speaker 1: And then you go, yes, sir, I just I would
Speaker 1: like to let you know I'm gonna i'd be looking
Speaker 1: for another church. And it's it's this is the concern
Speaker 1: I have. And I hope that this is an encouragement
Speaker 1: to you. From what I see. I don't mean to
Speaker 1: be a burden on your pastor. But I hope that
Speaker 1: this can be an encouragement that what I see in
Speaker 1: scripture is not lining up with what I'm hearing on
Speaker 1: a Sunday morning. And if I'm wrong about that, which
Speaker 1: I might be because I don't know a lot, But
Speaker 1: if I'm wrong about that or about that, then I
Speaker 1: hope you can correct me. And I hope that I could.
Speaker 1: I could come back and this could be my church home.
Speaker 1: But right now I think I'm gonna be looking around
Speaker 1: for another church. So, Anonymous, I think that that's the
Speaker 1: way that you need to go about it, as opposed
Speaker 1: to just disappearing no one ever heard from you. Again,
Speaker 1: if your church is so big that you don't even
Speaker 1: have the ability to sit with your pastor or have
Speaker 1: coffee with him, then that's another problem. Your church is
Speaker 1: too big. The sheep should have access to the shepherd, right,
Speaker 1: What else? What else is going on going on in
Speaker 1: this question? The the perverted, cruel jokes and racist remarks.
Speaker 1: If that's true, you're then you're absolutely right. I don't
Speaker 1: want to sit here and just throw stones and dogpile
Speaker 1: on this thing that I don't know anything about. I
Speaker 1: don't know what you're talking about with perverted, cruel, joke,
Speaker 1: racist remarks. I don't know what that means. I don't
Speaker 1: know what you're I don't know where you're coming from,
Speaker 1: so I can't I can't pile on that. But if
Speaker 1: it's true and that's that really is what's happening, then
Speaker 1: then you're absolutely right. The guy's not qualified. According to
Speaker 1: first Timothy tewond Timothy Titus, he brief's acts, et cetera,
Speaker 1: then he's not qualified. And the last thing, here's the
Speaker 1: last thing I want to say. You briefly mentioned in
Speaker 1: this second paragraph here about he spoke in church about
Speaker 1: acting one way at work and acting with one way
Speaker 1: at church. I don't know what you're talking about, and
Speaker 1: I don't know what he's talking about, but I would
Speaker 1: highly encourage you in everyone listening, to be in a
Speaker 1: church that preaches expositionally, meaning the pastor. And I believe
Speaker 1: I've said this previously in other episodes, but I'll say
Speaker 1: it in every episode because it's that important to find
Speaker 1: a church where your pastor preaches from the Bible, working
Speaker 1: through it with some kind of system where he's working
Speaker 1: through a book in the Bible. And this needs to
Speaker 1: be the majority of the teaching that happens at your
Speaker 1: church on a Sunday. Now there are exceptions to that,
Speaker 1: and there should be. There should be breaks in between
Speaker 1: the books, brief topical messages. I understand that. But the
Speaker 1: majority of the teaching that comes from the pulpit on
Speaker 1: a Sunday morning at any given church should be expositional.
Speaker 1: Meaning the pastor or the preacher is preaching through a book.
Speaker 1: In the Bible, verse by verse, the context of the
Speaker 1: original author is the context that the sermon should be.
Speaker 1: So whatever the original author was writing about, whatever his
Speaker 1: point was, that's the point of the pastor on the
Speaker 1: Sunday morning, not the pastor's own point that he's trying
Speaker 1: to use the Bible to support. There's a big difference
Speaker 1: in that there's a fine line that's actually a massive
Speaker 1: grand canyon if you don't see it right, Because a
Speaker 1: lot of pastors will say, or excuse me, not pastors,
Speaker 1: a lot of churchgoers will say, my church preaches from
Speaker 1: the Bible. And to that I say, well amen. If
Speaker 1: they didn't preach from the Bible, it wouldn't even be
Speaker 1: considered Christian, it would be a ted talk. So, of course,
Speaker 1: but that's not what I'm talking about. Your church preaches
Speaker 1: from the Bible. I get it, of course, it's Christian.
Speaker 1: What I'm talking about is preaching expositionally, is taking, say
Speaker 1: the Book of Mark, and for the next thirty Sundays,
Speaker 1: twenty Sundays, even ten, even fifty whatever, we're going to
Speaker 1: be in the Book of Mark, starting with the beginning,
Speaker 1: and guess where we finish when the when the sermon
Speaker 1: series is over at the end. We're working through systematically,
Speaker 1: or it could be a part, but regardless, you're working
Speaker 1: verse by verse and your your point from the pulpit
Speaker 1: is the point that Mark is making. Okay, then you
Speaker 1: can apply what Mark was teaching to his people in
Speaker 1: that writing. You could apply that to the modern hearer.
Speaker 1: But that happens after you've looked through the lens of
Speaker 1: the Bible itself, as opposed to looking through a cultural
Speaker 1: lens with what we want to hear in our modern context,
Speaker 1: looking through that lens at the Bible. Instead, you're taking
Speaker 1: the Bible and looking through it at the culture. Does
Speaker 1: that make sense? That would be what I would say
Speaker 1: is good grounded biblical teaching and a healthy church. Next
Speaker 1: question comes from Rolando says, Hey, Grangeer, I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask what do you think about family businesses. I'm twenty four,
Speaker 1: I'm married, already have a son, my two brothers, and
Speaker 1: I work with dad on his farm, and sometimes it
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to work very well. What are your opinions
Speaker 1: on families working together? Brother? I'm glad you asked it.
Speaker 1: I have a different opinion than my dad. And my
Speaker 1: brother had worked with his brother for many, many years, decades,
Speaker 1: and he always told us, He's like, don't work with family.
Speaker 1: It causes problems. You're gonna have problems working with family
Speaker 1: that you don't have working with other people. My brother, Tyler,
Speaker 1: he kind of thinks the same thing, but I don't.
Speaker 1: I think it's a blessing to work with family. Yes,
Speaker 1: it comes with problems, it comes with the risk. This
Speaker 1: is what my dad is the risk of families breaking up,
Speaker 1: separating because work made a rift in between them and
Speaker 1: they caused it a big enough problem where now they
Speaker 1: don't even speak to each other or as. Another thing
Speaker 1: my dad is worried about is that when you do
Speaker 1: get together with all the families, like on Thanksgiving or Christmas,
Speaker 1: you don't want to be around the guy, because you've
Speaker 1: been around him Monday through Friday. Now here you are
Speaker 1: spending the weekend. You know he worried about that stuff.
Speaker 1: I don't. Once again, I think it's a blessing to
Speaker 1: work with family. I think it's such a privilege an
Speaker 1: honor to be able to work with your siblings and
Speaker 1: or your dad at the farm, like you're saying, and
Speaker 1: the alternative, And this is how I was. I made
Speaker 1: an argument to Tyler, my middle brother, about bringing Parker,
Speaker 1: our youngest brother on when the first conversation came up,
Speaker 1: that maybe Parker would work with us at Eeye Apparel,
Speaker 1: and Tyler was like, man, no, Parker needs to make
Speaker 1: his own name for himself and do his own thing.
Speaker 1: And I was the guy who's like, no, I want
Speaker 1: him to work with us. And my argument was this,
Speaker 1: if he goes off and does his own thing, makes
Speaker 1: a name for himself, like you're saying, Tyler, then he'll
Speaker 1: get so involved in whatever hobbies and business and friends
Speaker 1: and church group that he has, and it probably moves
Speaker 1: him out of our town. He'll get so involved in
Speaker 1: that that we just won't see him besides holidays. Would
Speaker 1: you rather see him only on holidays? And we love
Speaker 1: him and we have a great time. Or see him
Speaker 1: every day Monday through at the office, and you have
Speaker 1: some tough times every once in a while, but you're
Speaker 1: living life together. You're growing up together, kids are growing
Speaker 1: up together. You see their face, and you work through
Speaker 1: life together. I said, that's my argument, that's what I
Speaker 1: want with Parker. We ended up hiring Parker because Parker
Speaker 1: wanted to do it, and I don't regret it for
Speaker 1: one second, Orlando, I don't regret working with my two
Speaker 1: brothers one second. You know, Ever since I was a kid,
Speaker 1: I've always written a song for a special occasion, whether
Speaker 1: that was for my dad or for my mom or
Speaker 1: for Amber. I've written songs for my brothers. I've wrote
Speaker 1: a song for my alma mater, Texas A and M.
Speaker 1: It seems like I just I don't have a lot
Speaker 1: of talents, but that was my way to express myself,
Speaker 1: writing songs and making that song a gift to someone else.
Speaker 1: And then I realized obviously that not everyone just picks
Speaker 1: up a guitar and does that. But now it is
Speaker 1: a able to anyone. You could tell someone special how
Speaker 1: much they mean to you, but you don't have to
Speaker 1: actually put the words together for them, because that's what
Speaker 1: Songfinch does. They will write a song saying I love you,
Speaker 1: or I need you, or I'm so grateful for you,
Speaker 1: or whatever the occasion, for whatever event you want to
Speaker 1: write a song about, they will do it for you.
Speaker 1: Songfinch is the ultimate gift to show someone how much
Speaker 1: you care. An original, studio quality song inspired by your
Speaker 1: story that's completely unique, personal, and last forever. Songfinch walks
Speaker 1: you through a simple four step process to create an
Speaker 1: original song, and all you gotta do is tell them
Speaker 1: about who the song is for, provide them some personal details,
Speaker 1: and let them know the type of song you want.
Speaker 1: Then you pick your favorite song Finch artists are get
Speaker 1: massed up with one and they will pour their heart
Speaker 1: into writing, recording, and producing you an original song. And
Speaker 1: it happens all in just like four to seven days.
Speaker 1: It's pretty remarkable. In fact, they want you to like
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Speaker 1: know they've done this over three hundred thousand times this
Speaker 1: Valentine's Day. Put your heart on the line with a
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Speaker 1: listeners upload their song on Spotify for free, so you
Speaker 1: can listen to your new favorite song anywhere you go.
Speaker 1: Go to songfinch dot com slash granger and start your song.
Speaker 1: After you purchase, you'll be prompted to add Spotify streaming
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Speaker 1: This offer is available only to my listeners at my
Speaker 1: special url songfinch dot com slash granger. That is songfinch
Speaker 1: dot com slash granger. Don't wait, get started now. Best
Speaker 1: question comes from Samantha says, Hey, Granger, recently found your
Speaker 1: podcast at the end of twenty twenty three. Loving it
Speaker 1: so far. I'm telling everyone about it. Thank you, Samantha,
Speaker 1: she says. Let me start by saying that my husband
Speaker 1: and I've been together nine years now. We have two
Speaker 1: children under the age of four, and we're a Bible
Speaker 1: believing Christian family who attend a Lutheran Church in Zanesville,
Speaker 1: Ohio every Sunday. We're very involved in our church, me
Speaker 1: being the director of our Sunday school, and my husband
Speaker 1: is a deacon. My question is how do I set
Speaker 1: firm expectations in our marriage while remaining respectful. My husband
Speaker 1: is a wonderful man, great provider, but not the family
Speaker 1: man that I have always dreamed of marrying. I love
Speaker 1: him very much, although I miss the mark each day.
Speaker 1: My goal is to be a respectful wife so my
Speaker 1: husband will in turn give me the love I desire.
Speaker 1: We often get caught in the crazy cycle, and I'd
Speaker 1: love nothing more than to improve our communication. Much love,
Speaker 1: Samantha oh Man. Samantha, this is one of the rare
Speaker 1: times when I a question and I just think, Ah,
Speaker 1: You're gonna be just fine. It's like, if we build
Speaker 1: this scenario where we are in sitting around a campfire,
Speaker 1: like I say all the time, it's like, ask me
Speaker 1: a question, Like we're sitting around a campfire and the
Speaker 1: embers are burning down and someone says, hey, Grandeur, kind
Speaker 1: of run something by you, and I'm like, yeah, what
Speaker 1: you got? And then Samantha, it's you and you, this
Speaker 1: is what you download on me. This is one of
Speaker 1: those times around the campfire, I would let it go
Speaker 1: silent for a second and I would be like, Samantha,
Speaker 1: you're gonna be just fine with what you're saying. You
Speaker 1: have two children under four, you've been together nine years.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna just I'm gonna totally guess that
Speaker 1: you're thirty four. Right, it's just a random guess. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say you're thirty four years old. You got married
Speaker 1: at twenty five, you start having babies in your late twenties,
Speaker 1: early thirties. Maybe I'm gonna say that. And this is
Speaker 1: about the time, you know, like mid thirties, you look
Speaker 1: back in your life and you go, I hope I
Speaker 1: did everything right, you know, and you look at your
Speaker 1: husband and you go, I kind of expected that my husband.
Speaker 1: When I'm about thirty five years old, I kind of
Speaker 1: expected my husband would be like doing more with the kids,
Speaker 1: like I've kind of expected he'd be taking the boys fishing.
Speaker 1: But he's just grinding it out at work right now.
Speaker 1: And I think that that's probably a common thought at
Speaker 1: your age, and it's probably a common thing. The husband
Speaker 1: you married, who was the outdoorsman in Zanesville, Ohio is
Speaker 1: now caught up because he's now thirty six. I'm just
Speaker 1: totally guessing. So he's like thirty six and he's grinding
Speaker 1: it out because he's he's like at the cusp of
Speaker 1: doing something in his company where he turns the corner
Speaker 1: and provides much more for his family, much more stability,
Speaker 1: That's what I mean. And if he doesn't, if he
Speaker 1: feels like if he lacks in that area and goes
Speaker 1: fishing with the kids, then he might be missing out
Speaker 1: on stability in the future. And I'm not saying any
Speaker 1: of this is right or wrong or even true. I'm
Speaker 1: just saying that's a possible scenario to why you might
Speaker 1: be thinking, maybe I thought I was going to marry
Speaker 1: a bigger family man. And that's also why I'm saying,
Speaker 1: I think this is probably a normal thought for you
Speaker 1: to have a normal thing for your husband to be doing,
Speaker 1: and I think the normal scenario for this to play
Speaker 1: out with you having this kind of mentality saying, look,
Speaker 1: I have a lot to work on myself. I just
Speaker 1: I desire better communification and I want my goal each
Speaker 1: days to be a respect wife so my husband can
Speaker 1: give me the love that I desire. I think I'll
Speaker 1: just go, oh, somntha that is that is beautiful. You
Speaker 1: wrote it beautiful. I think you're Your worries are normal
Speaker 1: for thirty four or thirty thirty five years old, and
Speaker 1: you're above and beyond what I would hope that you
Speaker 1: would be thinking in response to those worries. So you're
Speaker 1: gonna be fine. Next question comes from Jesse Hey Graindream
Speaker 1: from South Carolina. I'm a listener. Me and my girlfriend
Speaker 1: enjoy listening to your podcast. It picks us both up
Speaker 1: and opens our eyes to things we're blind to. Wow.
Speaker 1: I'm concerned about a question that came up about a
Speaker 1: young adult Bible study that left me uncomfortable to answer.
Speaker 1: Here's the question, did God want Eve to sin? Wanted
Speaker 1: to know your take on how to answer this. Thanks
Speaker 1: in advance with much love, Jesse. Wow, that's a good one. Jesse,
Speaker 1: I love I love thinking about these things. And I
Speaker 1: said this at the beginning of the podcast, and it's
Speaker 1: my true desire to not give you answers. Instead, my
Speaker 1: desire is to model poorly by the way, like I'm
Speaker 1: trying my best, but to model thinking through difficult questions
Speaker 1: with the Biblical worldview, and in order to first model
Speaker 1: that in an encouraging way, to model thinking through things
Speaker 1: difficult questions with the Biblical worldview starts with knowing the Bible.
Speaker 1: It starts with reading the Bible. I love that you're
Speaker 1: in a Bible study, and I hope that in addition
Speaker 1: to that Bible study and everyone listening also has a
Speaker 1: daily devotional plan just for themselves of reading through the Bible.
Speaker 1: That is your day, Bailey, nourishment, and nothing could be
Speaker 1: more important outside of prayer. That is your communication with God.
Speaker 1: In fact, prayer is us talking, bringing things, expressing ourselves
Speaker 1: to the Creator, and our time and the word reading
Speaker 1: the Bible is the time when He speaks back. It's amazing, right,
Speaker 1: It's amazing. So so then as you're doing that, and
Speaker 1: then you come across a question like that happened in
Speaker 1: the Bible study. Did God want Eve to sin? Well?
Speaker 1: In order to answer that correctly, we would first need
Speaker 1: to know what does God want? That's a question. Here's
Speaker 1: another question, what does he not want? What does he love?
Speaker 1: What does he hate? In order to know these kind
Speaker 1: of questions, you need to know God. For example, I
Speaker 1: know my little girl London, I've spent a lot of
Speaker 1: time with her. She's twelve years old. I know a
Speaker 1: lot about her, not because I've read about her or
Speaker 1: because I've she has sent me letters. More so I
Speaker 1: have spent time around her. I have absorbed so much
Speaker 1: of her time, and I have absorbed her in a
Speaker 1: way that I know her so that I don't need
Speaker 1: her to tell me one specific thing. I know in
Speaker 1: a general way what she loves and what she doesn't.
Speaker 1: I don't have to go to a convenience store candy section,
Speaker 1: and I don't have to see a new candy, for instance,
Speaker 1: and go, you know what. I don't know if London
Speaker 1: has specifically spoken about this specific thing before. Therefore I
Speaker 1: do not know if she would want it. Instead, because
Speaker 1: I know London so well, I can go to that
Speaker 1: convenience store and see a brand new candy that she's
Speaker 1: never spoken about and go, ah, she would want this
Speaker 1: or she wouldn't want that. You get my point. So
Speaker 1: then you can come to a question and go, did
Speaker 1: God want Eve to sin? Well you can go God
Speaker 1: doesn't want anyone to sin. God would never desire for
Speaker 1: one of his creatures to sin. He hates sin, so
Speaker 1: he would not want you to engage in anything that
Speaker 1: he hates, including all the way back to the first
Speaker 1: one Eve. But this is a large this is a
Speaker 1: large issue that we have to address here. But God
Speaker 1: is sovereign. God is all knowing or planning, working everything
Speaker 1: for good and in his providence that's a big word
Speaker 1: for in his control in the unfolding of his plan
Speaker 1: in that plan, as we as revealed as he is
Speaker 1: revealed of the Bible. In that plan, his plan was
Speaker 1: to redeem a people back to himself. And we don't
Speaker 1: know why, but in that plan of redemption required us
Speaker 1: to fall because he wasn't going to redeem a people
Speaker 1: that were not fallen. So we don't know exactly why
Speaker 1: that falling was part of the plan so that he
Speaker 1: could redeem us, but we do know that it is
Speaker 1: the plan to redeem us from the fall. So because
Speaker 1: of that, listen, this is just it's just just rational
Speaker 1: knowledge here, right, it's just thinking through this, so we go.
Speaker 1: So God's plan was to redeem us through his son,
Speaker 1: whom he sent to earth as the perfect human, one human,
Speaker 1: one hundred percent God, that he sent to earth to
Speaker 1: the cross to die for sin, so that whoever looked
Speaker 1: to him whoever believed in him would not perish, but
Speaker 1: have eternal life. He would redeem them by becoming sin,
Speaker 1: therefore defeating sin, defeating death for all who believed. That's
Speaker 1: how we would defeat it. In order to do that,
Speaker 1: rewind rewind. He needed Eve to sin, he needed Eve
Speaker 1: to fall. So although he did not want Eve to sin,
Speaker 1: he allowed it. He ordained it. The same you could
Speaker 1: say for the Cross, you think he wanted his son
Speaker 1: to suffer. You think you wanted his son to die
Speaker 1: the most horrific death. No, it would be blasphemy to
Speaker 1: say God wanted his son to die. Instead, he allowed it,
Speaker 1: He planned it, he ordained it as part of the plan.
Speaker 1: He let it happen because it had to happen for
Speaker 1: his plan of redemption. For you, That's how we think
Speaker 1: through any kind of issue of what would God want
Speaker 1: or not want? Next question comes from Danny. Hey Granger,
Speaker 1: my name is Danny, I'm twenty three years old from Laredo,
Speaker 1: and I wanted to start by saying I love your
Speaker 1: music in your podcast, which I've listened to every single
Speaker 1: episode and has helped me numerous times since I started listening. Bro,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Danny, I have two questions. My
Speaker 1: first question is I want to pick up the guitar
Speaker 1: again after not having not played it since high school.
Speaker 1: I was wondering if you had any tips on how
Speaker 1: to pick it up again quickly and get back to
Speaker 1: the level I was at, and if there's any kind
Speaker 1: of guitar recommendations you have that won't break the bank.
Speaker 1: I would appreciate all those kind of ideas as well
Speaker 1: as I sold my previous guitar. My second question is
Speaker 1: do you think it's important I learned to read sheet
Speaker 1: music again or should I just focus on getting better
Speaker 1: at playing God bless you, Hey, Danny, nice lighthearted question
Speaker 1: here after some heavy hitters. I appreciate it, buddy, thank
Speaker 1: you for listening. And that's cool you're wanting to get
Speaker 1: back in guitar, I've seen over the years. For me,
Speaker 1: it's just like riding a bike. It shouldn't take you
Speaker 1: very long. It's not something that just goes away and
Speaker 1: you go man. I used to play guitar, but now
Speaker 1: I've completely forgotten. It's going to come back quickly like
Speaker 1: riding a bike. And I would recommend against sheet music.
Speaker 1: I don't think that that's good for guitar players. I
Speaker 1: think it could be used sparingly for piano players, but
Speaker 1: I think relying on sheet music too much it curbs
Speaker 1: your creativity and kind of hinders your ability to vamp
Speaker 1: or change things up a little bit or adapt to
Speaker 1: something that might be happening, especially if you're playing in
Speaker 1: a band. Atmosphere, there is a fine line probably between
Speaker 1: picking a guitar that is good enough to play but
Speaker 1: won't break the bank. My suggestion is you can go
Speaker 1: with a cheaper guitar if you put nylon strings on it,
Speaker 1: and those are like classical guitar strings, and you can
Speaker 1: get those at a guitar store. You can ask the
Speaker 1: guy say, hey, want this guitar and I want nylon strings,
Speaker 1: And the guy's gonna be like, oh, that guitar doesn't
Speaker 1: is not supposed to have nylon strings, And you go, yeah,
Speaker 1: but can I do it? And he's gonna go it's
Speaker 1: not set up for that, and you go, yeah, but
Speaker 1: can you just tie little tiny knots at the end
Speaker 1: of the nylon and that way it holds it in
Speaker 1: there and he'll look at you like your But what
Speaker 1: it does is it saves your fingers from getting torn
Speaker 1: up because those nylon strings are a lot softer than
Speaker 1: the steel strings, and it's a good way to play
Speaker 1: a lot to not have the pain of the steel
Speaker 1: strings on your fingers, and that'll hopefully get you down
Speaker 1: the road quicker. And then you could decide at that
Speaker 1: point if you want to spend more money on a
Speaker 1: higher end guitar. And when I say higher end, I'm
Speaker 1: talking about the difference between a two hundred dollars guitar
Speaker 1: and like a thousand dollars guitar. I'm not talking about
Speaker 1: four or five six thousand dollars. Okay, that would be crazy.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about you can get a really nice guitar
Speaker 1: for about twelve hundred bucks. I'm not telling you to
Speaker 1: do that, but I would go that direction eventually, not now.
Speaker 1: At first. I would spend about four or to five
Speaker 1: hundred and get you like a mid level Martin and
Speaker 1: that's if that's too harsh on you, get nylon strings.
Speaker 1: Last part, and I'll wrap this up. YouTube is a
Speaker 1: great resource. I wouldn't spend money on lessons, definitely, not
Speaker 1: in sheet music. I would do more YouTube. Get the basics,
Speaker 1: and then use your ear, develop your ear, cultivate the
Speaker 1: muscle for hearing what you hear on your favorite songs
Speaker 1: and playing along with your favorite songs. That's the most
Speaker 1: valuable thing you could do. It's kind of like a
Speaker 1: language immersion learning a foreign language. It's better if you
Speaker 1: completely immerse in that culture instead of just like doing
Speaker 1: an app that teaches you how to speak another language.
Speaker 1: That would be what an app to teach you how
Speaker 1: to play guitar would be. Ultimately, you want to just
Speaker 1: hear a song and play along with it, and you'll
Speaker 1: get there eventually. That's all I got, y'all. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for listening. We love y'all. See you next Monday. EBI,
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 podcasts on iTunes. If you're on YouTube, subscribe
Speaker 1: to this channel. Hit that little like button and note
Speaker 1: vcation spell so that you never miss anytime I upload
Speaker 1: a video. Yi