Speaker 1: Success? What does that word even mean? I have a
Speaker 1: question for you that I've been trying to answer for myself.
Speaker 1: Putting aside success in a career, hobbies, or personal accomplishments,
Speaker 1: in your opinion, how could you judge success for yourself
Speaker 1: as a husband or a father, or a son or
Speaker 1: a daughter, a mother? What does that even mean? That's
Speaker 1: a question on an email I got today, and I'm
Speaker 1: going to dive into it because it's an interesting concept.
Speaker 1: Success is something that is That term is so widely used,
Speaker 1: and yet it's still so mysterious because so many people
Speaker 1: define that word in so many different ways, Like your
Speaker 1: boss or your teacher might look at success for you differently,
Speaker 1: or your parent or your grandparent or your kid might
Speaker 1: look at that differently for you or themselves. And success
Speaker 1: is defined so many different ways for that individual. So
Speaker 1: how do you call yourself successful? And people struggle with that.
Speaker 1: We all struggle at some level with defining our own success,
Speaker 1: Like is it because of accomplishments in your career? Is
Speaker 1: it because you have so many kids? Or is it
Speaker 1: because you're married for so many years? Or is it
Speaker 1: because you stayed single? What does success mean? And when
Speaker 1: you start diving into that subject and you start stripping
Speaker 1: away everything. It's actually amazing how much we all have
Speaker 1: in common for the core idea of success, and I
Speaker 1: love talking about it and I could talk about it
Speaker 1: on every podcast if I wanted to, because it's something
Speaker 1: that's worth discussing. What is your success and how do
Speaker 1: you define that and how does that make you different
Speaker 1: from anyone else or the same? I got my good
Speaker 1: buddy Bernie. We're going to talk about this and many
Speaker 1: other questions that we are asked. If you have anything
Speaker 1: for me at all, anything you want me to talk about,
Speaker 1: could be music related or touring, or life or struggle
Speaker 1: or happiness, anything. Email Grangersmith podcast at gmail dot com
Speaker 1: and we'll dive into it one of these mondays. Welcome
Speaker 1: to this podcast. This is episode seventy one. Did du
Speaker 1: Long line up and downed on the back? Crazy co
Speaker 1: yeahation my podcast business associate partner Sidekick Today. It comes
Speaker 1: from the corporate world of old Maybe yeah, let's go
Speaker 1: with Sidekick. I'll be sidekick. When we first met, I
Speaker 1: forgot to say this, Like meeting granger for the first
Speaker 1: time is kind of like I feel like it's when
Speaker 1: Robin met Batman automatically, he knows, like, Okay, I'm going
Speaker 1: to be the kicking in this role. It's like, well,
Speaker 1: I was gonna be the funny one and you'd be
Speaker 1: the good looking one. But then you're pretty funny too,
Speaker 1: so it's like, well, I'll just be the sidekick. I'll
Speaker 1: be the rob. Stop to your back man. Stop it.
Speaker 1: It's true, y'all know it's true. That's why you're here.
Speaker 1: You missed the actual joke of the whole thing. You
Speaker 1: come from the corporate world of Old Navy. Yeah, when
Speaker 1: I met when I met Bernie a long time ago,
Speaker 1: he was working at Old Navy, and a couple of
Speaker 1: times I would come and see you and you had
Speaker 1: the headset on. Remember that, Like all the Old Navy
Speaker 1: people have to wear headsets. Yeah, well they don't need more.
Speaker 1: They got these light they could just wear, like these
Speaker 1: walkie talkies or something. But yeah, we had to wear
Speaker 1: the headset and they got so mad. Put your headset on?
Speaker 1: What was the purpose of it? I always know it's
Speaker 1: not that big of a stores. Yeah, I don't know it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I have no idea. We should write them an ask,
Speaker 1: I guess so they the Old Navy employees are in
Speaker 1: constant communication with each other, Okay, and I guarantee you
Speaker 1: ninety percent of that is not work related. Oh really,
Speaker 1: it's about customers that are in the store, like, man,
Speaker 1: stay away from that lady, she's crazy. Yeah, or you
Speaker 1: know whatever. Okay. Comment if anyone has ever worked at
Speaker 1: Old Navy, I'm curious why they use headsets. That's an
Speaker 1: interesting business model that they or why they've gone. I
Speaker 1: think they've gone away from them though, so if you
Speaker 1: have any intel into why Old maybe lost the headsets
Speaker 1: as a former, you know, like Old Lomba. How many
Speaker 1: years did you work at Old Navy? We'll see it's
Speaker 1: a good job. Yeah, yeah, it was great. I met
Speaker 1: a lot of great people there paid the bills while
Speaker 1: I was just drifting trying to figure out life. Guys,
Speaker 1: you know what you're doing right. I was probably there
Speaker 1: for two and a half years. Yeah. Do you still
Speaker 1: fold close and think about it? Yeah? Absolutely, dude. Lesly
Speaker 1: can attest to this. Like Sunday nights, she takes the
Speaker 1: the routine with the kids, like I give baths and
Speaker 1: and and do the bedtime routine. Uh, every night except
Speaker 1: Sunday night, because that's when we do laundry. And so
Speaker 1: I walk into our dent and there's just like a
Speaker 1: mound of clothes and I'm like, let's do this, about
Speaker 1: to bust out my old Navy chops, And so I'll
Speaker 1: just sit there and full close and the and the
Speaker 1: thing is is nobody appreciates it. But it's not even
Speaker 1: like the kids will take their stack and just like
Speaker 1: throw it into that. But it does. It does remind
Speaker 1: me of those days. And you know, just like if
Speaker 1: you're gonna fold some clothes, just do it. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: the kids are the harder it is to fold. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: the shirt is so little, it doesn't fold in any direction.
Speaker 1: That's true. Some things are really tough to fold. Common
Speaker 1: below old Navy alumni. I'm interested to know. Let me
Speaker 1: please don't like unsubscribe from this podcast because I know
Speaker 1: a championing all of you old Navy people out there.
Speaker 1: Why would anyone think badly of Old Navy for any reason?
Speaker 1: I don't know. That's like the ones that works there
Speaker 1: were like, okay, yeah, I'm with you. Everyone has bought
Speaker 1: something in Old Navy. No matter what your style is,
Speaker 1: or your background or your what, everyone has bought something
Speaker 1: from there. Yep, it's got something for everybody. That's right.
Speaker 1: It's a good brand. It's a good American brand. People
Speaker 1: outside of the country are like, I've never been there,
Speaker 1: Old Navy. That sounds stupid, not as American as an
Speaker 1: American eagle. We've digressed. First question comes from Taylor, and
Speaker 1: it says, if you get this email, I want to
Speaker 1: thank you for reading it. If you decide to answer it,
Speaker 1: I really look forward to hearing your opinions and your advice.
Speaker 1: My name is Taylor. I'll be twenty two years old
Speaker 1: on November twelfth. That already happened, so you are now
Speaker 1: twenty two Taylor. I'm from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I'm a
Speaker 1: technician at a dealership, and your podcast give me such
Speaker 1: inspiration to keep working as hard as I can. I
Speaker 1: have to ask a couple things. First and foremost, I've
Speaker 1: been playing music since I was in fifth grade. I've
Speaker 1: always been in love with music. It's such a great
Speaker 1: escape from the world, and it's such a great way
Speaker 1: to connect with people all over the world. I've been
Speaker 1: wanting to start a band for a long time, and
Speaker 1: I'm curious what you would recommend to get started I'm
Speaker 1: a drummer, I play guitar, and I would love to
Speaker 1: get something going. My second question is simple, do you
Speaker 1: like coming to Baton Rouge? If so, what's your favorite part? Ye?
Speaker 1: Thank you, Taylor. I'll start with the last question. Man,
Speaker 1: what's my favorite part of Baton Rouge The food? I
Speaker 1: love Cajun food. So yeah. I love traveling so much
Speaker 1: because of the food in so many different places, you know,
Speaker 1: Like I love to get whatever that that local cuisine
Speaker 1: is in that region or country or state or city.
Speaker 1: Everybody's known for something and everyone has even if it's
Speaker 1: just like a local place that has an amazing burgers.
Speaker 1: I love to do that kind of stuff. So yeah,
Speaker 1: bet Ruter's Cajun food. Love it. Shout out to Louisiana,
Speaker 1: and thank you for the question, Taylor. Bernie and I
Speaker 1: on the last podcast kind of had a similar question,
Speaker 1: but it was backwards. It was a drummer trying to
Speaker 1: be part of a band, and you are a singer
Speaker 1: trying to get a band, And it's a little bit
Speaker 1: different of an answer than a musician trying to find
Speaker 1: a singer. It's a little bit a little bit different. I,
Speaker 1: as I said mentioned on the last podcast. I started
Speaker 1: my first band by putting an ad out in the
Speaker 1: school paper that's a country singer looking for country band,
Speaker 1: serious gigs in line, and I lied about the gigs.
Speaker 1: I didn't have any gigs in line, but I did
Speaker 1: get one reply, just one in the entire Texas A
Speaker 1: and M system. One piano player that became a longtime
Speaker 1: friend and actually moved to Nashville with me at some point,
Speaker 1: and get you gave it a shot for like five
Speaker 1: months and introduced me to other musicians. So it actually worked.
Speaker 1: Then add in the paper worked. Uh so today's age,
Speaker 1: you wouldn't do that. You would instead probably post on
Speaker 1: Facebook and just say I'm looking for musicians and man
Speaker 1: aim low at first. Aim low because your first band doesn't.
Speaker 1: They don't have to be complete rock stars in any way.
Speaker 1: They don't have to look like rock stars. They don't
Speaker 1: have to play like rock stars. They just need to
Speaker 1: be good people you want to hang around. If they're
Speaker 1: good people, you want to hang around them. You're gonna
Speaker 1: want to practice more. If you want to practice more,
Speaker 1: you're going to get better. You don't want to look
Speaker 1: at it and go I don't want to get around
Speaker 1: those guys. Tonight. So put it out there, put it
Speaker 1: out in the world, put it out on social media.
Speaker 1: Say you're looking for a band, and it usually just
Speaker 1: needs to start with one person. One person comes in
Speaker 1: and goes I play bass, You go cool, come over,
Speaker 1: come to the garage, and inevitably that bass player will
Speaker 1: know a cousin or somebody that plays something else. You know,
Speaker 1: my cousin plays keyboard or drums or whatever. Invite them over.
Speaker 1: Aim low, start that network from the center and work outward. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think he nailed it. I'll just say one thing
Speaker 1: that Griz actually told me I hadn't done. I hadn't
Speaker 1: had a songwriting appointment in like forever, and a buddy
Speaker 1: of mine said, hey, let's you know, let's get together
Speaker 1: write some songs. I was like, okay, So I called Grizz.
Speaker 1: I was like, dude, I haven't done this a long time.
Speaker 1: What do I expect? You know, like, what what do
Speaker 1: I need to do? And I remember you said when
Speaker 1: you can keep the level of your gratitude above the
Speaker 1: level of your expectation, magic will happen. And I remember
Speaker 1: leaving that appointment just feeling like man, we wrote probably
Speaker 1: one of the worst songs ever written. But I had
Speaker 1: a blast and like he did too, and it was
Speaker 1: just like, yeah, let's do it again. And there's just
Speaker 1: something about the experience of it that I think can help,
Speaker 1: you know, kind of propel to another appointment and like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna write with that person now. And so yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that advice was really sound like he's saying
Speaker 1: the same, you know kind of thing. You know, shoot low,
Speaker 1: but keep your gratitude high, expectation low, and you'll you'll
Speaker 1: really enjoy it and see what happens. Just put put
Speaker 1: yourself out there. There's what's crazy is there's a bunch
Speaker 1: of musicians out there right now looking for you, and
Speaker 1: they don't know that they're looking for you, and you
Speaker 1: don't know you're looking for them. But one day it'll
Speaker 1: happen and you'll be at a garage one day and
Speaker 1: the music will sound terrible, but it will be so fun.
Speaker 1: That's how it starts, man, And we've everybody that's been
Speaker 1: a musician at some point remembers those first days of
Speaker 1: making music with another human in the room. So I
Speaker 1: got a follow up question for you. His question, So
Speaker 1: he has now opened himself up, like, Hey, you played
Speaker 1: bass and you played drums, and yeah, they get together right,
Speaker 1: and this drummer is awesome. It's like he's God, he's there.
Speaker 1: The piano players okay, he's okay. The bass player is
Speaker 1: just like, oh man, I don't know if he has
Speaker 1: played this instrument before or just like borrowed. It happens.
Speaker 1: How do you go through the process of like communicating
Speaker 1: like I want to find another bass player or do
Speaker 1: you do? You have to set that expectation from the beginning.
Speaker 1: How do you navigate like getting the right people together
Speaker 1: skill and you know, kind of chemistry And I hope
Speaker 1: nobody listening that used to play with me back in
Speaker 1: the day. But but yeah, that that happens, man, and
Speaker 1: it's gonna happen, you know one day to Taylor you
Speaker 1: you're gonna have that bass player or whoever that's terrible.
Speaker 1: It always happened to me, and I don't ever I
Speaker 1: know a couple of times it was a little awkward,
Speaker 1: but I don't ever remember it being a situation where
Speaker 1: that person didn't know it was coming already. Like if that,
Speaker 1: if that, if like you're saying, the drummers great and
Speaker 1: the bass player is terrible, He's just gonna know, man,
Speaker 1: I can't keep up. And what's cool is a lot
Speaker 1: of times you could still if he's a good guy,
Speaker 1: the bass player, you could just say, man, I found
Speaker 1: this guy and he's he's he has a lot of
Speaker 1: experience at base and I want to bring him on
Speaker 1: to show you some things and to jam with us.
Speaker 1: But I also I don't want you to quit on me.
Speaker 1: So we also needs somebody to sell T shirts or
Speaker 1: to be the tour manager or you know, you could
Speaker 1: keep them on the team. So they still feel like
Speaker 1: they're like just getting replaced and fired, right, but they're
Speaker 1: gonna know, Yeah, I can't. A musician knows when he's
Speaker 1: not in a circle he can keep up with. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So it's not it's not ever easy, but that's it's inevitable.
Speaker 1: All right. Here we go, new question. It says, Hey Granger,
Speaker 1: this is Kyle from Washington. Shout out to Washington State. Says,
Speaker 1: my wife and I had an opportunity to meet you
Speaker 1: at a show in Idaho back in December before the
Speaker 1: pandemic started. And when we met, you asked me what
Speaker 1: I did for a living, and I said I'm a
Speaker 1: youth pastor, which is still true Today, I wanted to
Speaker 1: say how thankful I am for you and the example
Speaker 1: you are setting living your life out in faith so
Speaker 1: boldly without hesitation. I wanted to ask you a simple,
Speaker 1: but genuinely curious question. Who is your favorite Bible character
Speaker 1: that you admire or relate to? And why? I love
Speaker 1: asking people this question to hear a little bit about
Speaker 1: their story and why they chose to relate to a
Speaker 1: certain person in the Bible. Over another, thank you, Kyle,
Speaker 1: Junior High pastor for True Life Youth. That's it, Bethany
Speaker 1: Christian Academy. What's up Kyle? Thanks for writing in man. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm glad that I'm glad we got to meet in Idaho,
Speaker 1: and then that you still listen to me to today.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Question came back in October, so little late.
Speaker 1: All these questions. You could ask anything you want. You
Speaker 1: email Grangersmith Podcast at gmail dot com. I'm probably not
Speaker 1: going to answer it on the next episode that from
Speaker 1: when you emailed it like this question from Kyle for
Speaker 1: a few months out, So I hope you guys can
Speaker 1: have patience and keep listening knowing that maybe one day
Speaker 1: I'm going to answer it. So ask anything you want, Bernie,
Speaker 1: I'll start with you. Who's your favorite Bible character? He
Speaker 1: says that either you admire or you relate to the most.
Speaker 1: And why. I guess every answer is a Sunday School answer, right,
Speaker 1: Which is interesting because you don't have to be a
Speaker 1: Christian to be able to answer this question because most people,
Speaker 1: regardless of your background or religion or atheism or whatever. Yeah,
Speaker 1: no character is the Bible and there's somebody that you
Speaker 1: could relate to. Yeah, yeah, there's a couple that kind
Speaker 1: of jump out to me. I'll go with my can
Speaker 1: I have a top two? Yeah? Okay, of course, of course.
Speaker 1: The first one I think is probably the father of
Speaker 1: the prodigal son. Wow, okay, I think that there's something
Speaker 1: about like trying to like communicate to our kids what
Speaker 1: that love is like. So explain a little bit of
Speaker 1: the prodigal son's story. Okay, it's a short one. So
Speaker 1: you know, young man goes to his dad, Hey, I
Speaker 1: want my inheritance. I don't need you anymore. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: go live my life. Takes his dad first. His dad says, okay, son,
Speaker 1: here you go. Which that's a tough one for me
Speaker 1: to swallow. I'd be like, I'm not giving that to
Speaker 1: you. You You justually gonna like you're gonna go, you know,
Speaker 1: give it all the way or party it away whatever.
Speaker 1: So that's what the kid does. He goes and he
Speaker 1: you know, you know, spends all of his money on
Speaker 1: parties and you know, drinking whatever, ends up working with
Speaker 1: animals and eating pig slop, and he has this moment
Speaker 1: where he's like, what am I doing? You know, my
Speaker 1: father is rich, and maybe he'll give me a job
Speaker 1: to just work whatever. So he runs back and the
Speaker 1: father had spent day after day just like looking out
Speaker 1: down the road, just praying and hoping that his son
Speaker 1: would come home. And you know, the Bible says when
Speaker 1: he was still a long way off, his dad jumped
Speaker 1: up and ran towards him. Yeah. I think that there's
Speaker 1: something just pretty special about that relationship and what it
Speaker 1: says kind of about what we can feel for our kids,
Speaker 1: but also like how I can how I imagine God
Speaker 1: feels about us, and he's trying to tell us like, hey,
Speaker 1: it's okay, you want to go just do your own thing, okay,
Speaker 1: And eventually we're going to come back and be like, Dad,
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry. Can I just like work for you,
Speaker 1: He's like work for me. No, we're gonna throw a
Speaker 1: party because you're here. You weren't here. Yeah. So I
Speaker 1: think that that would be first one that came to mind,
Speaker 1: and then the second would be Job only, because I
Speaker 1: think to live is to suffer in some way and
Speaker 1: to struggle. And I think that Job, you know, like
Speaker 1: in all of that, he did not sin against God.
Speaker 1: He he did not curse him, he did not he
Speaker 1: stayed faithful, which I just cannot even imagine. And so
Speaker 1: I think that testimony to me is like the things
Speaker 1: that we go through in the struggles that we have,
Speaker 1: is like this, this comforting hope of this you know,
Speaker 1: biblical character that saw far more than I think, you know,
Speaker 1: we can imagine. I could definitely relate to Job too.
Speaker 1: And it's the oldest book that I learned this from
Speaker 1: Billy Graham, But the Book of Job is the story
Speaker 1: of Job is the oldest written story in human history. Wow,
Speaker 1: it's the oldest piece of literature that we could trace
Speaker 1: back to a human writing, which is interesting because it's
Speaker 1: all about suffering and what's wild to me, it's a
Speaker 1: little bit of a tangent from Kyle's question. But what's
Speaker 1: wild about that story is that you know that the
Speaker 1: Bible says God is is today and it always was.
Speaker 1: He's the same as he always was and he always
Speaker 1: will be. And that story Satan is with God. He says,
Speaker 1: you got this guy Job, he's pretty good. Huh you
Speaker 1: think he's good? And God's like, hey, he's one of
Speaker 1: the best. He goes, I bet you if I start
Speaker 1: messing with him a little bit, he won't be as
Speaker 1: good as you think. Can I do it? God says, yeah,
Speaker 1: you could mess with him? So do you realize what
Speaker 1: I just said? This is a wild story that God
Speaker 1: and Satan are talking. Satan doesn't mess with Job until
Speaker 1: he gets permission. So it's interesting to think that's the
Speaker 1: oldest story written history. It's interesting to think that that could.
Speaker 1: I say could, but it probably does still happen today. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Satan doesn't get to do anything without permission, right, he
Speaker 1: didn't have the authority. And some people have a big
Speaker 1: problem with that. Yeah, they're like, no, Satan acts on
Speaker 1: his own power. He's a complete rebellion. He's his own
Speaker 1: It's like, no, God's it still in control of everything. No,
Speaker 1: I don't believe in that. Kind of God that lets
Speaker 1: him do that would give him permission to do something terrible.
Speaker 1: It's just what it says. Yeah, a lot of times
Speaker 1: with this stuff. It's not what I feel in my heart.
Speaker 1: That's what it says, right, yep. Way off on a tangent.
Speaker 1: But this question is hard for me, Kyle, because it's
Speaker 1: hard for me to compare myself or relate to anyone
Speaker 1: in the Bible without sounding arrogant in some way like
Speaker 1: oh you're sure, yeah, you're gonna be like him. Please,
Speaker 1: with that being said, don't take it the wrong way
Speaker 1: when I say I could relate a lot of times
Speaker 1: to Peter. It's like I think most of the Bible characters, though,
Speaker 1: they were like you know, and messed up a lot. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And I just I'm thinking. I'm thinking of like the
Speaker 1: first Pope, Peter, the first Pope of the Church the Rock,
Speaker 1: you know, not that Peter. I'm talking about the fisherman
Speaker 1: that was always a little bit on edge, you know,
Speaker 1: when when the Roman soldiers came to get Jesus, he
Speaker 1: just cuts the guy's ear off, you know, like, come on, man,
Speaker 1: like gets this. I can't imagine Peter, like in the
Speaker 1: garden getting the sword and be like, get out of here. Man.
Speaker 1: Whack just whacks the guy's ear off, and he's just
Speaker 1: like Peter, chill out, which he probably told he kind
Speaker 1: of has that tone with Peter a lot, like dude,
Speaker 1: chill would you chill out for a second, Like this
Speaker 1: is supposed to happen, Let me deal with this. In fact,
Speaker 1: he says, you know, Satan get behind me. He like,
Speaker 1: like Satan is is affecting Peter's ability to control himself sometimes.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I feel I feel that, and I feel
Speaker 1: that side of Peter, and I also feel the side
Speaker 1: where Jesus says, follow me, and Peter just drops everything,
Speaker 1: leaves everything, leaves the boat, leaves the fishing nets, leaves
Speaker 1: us everything, and just goes Yep, here we go. I'm in,
Speaker 1: I'm in, I'm all in. I'm dropping everything. I love that.
Speaker 1: I can't say that I've done it to that extent
Speaker 1: in my life, but I want to. I want to
Speaker 1: do that, and I want to be that. I want
Speaker 1: to be that more than I am. The the ability
Speaker 1: to not to not be perfect and not be so
Speaker 1: righteous and high and mighty, but at the same time,
Speaker 1: the total reverence, which in a lot of ways I
Speaker 1: could say that about about David as well, who I could.
Speaker 1: I could definitely relate to David because of you know,
Speaker 1: musician makes a lot of mistakes but always gives God
Speaker 1: the glory and he fears God. So an interesting question.
Speaker 1: And I haven't gotten a question like this on the podcast,
Speaker 1: probably won't anymore, but I think we kind of think
Speaker 1: we kind of hit on it. So yeah, Kyle, one
Speaker 1: day I'll meet you and hear your answer to all
Speaker 1: this stuff. And that was kind of the light coding.
Speaker 1: That's a deep conversation that could take hours, but those
Speaker 1: kind of the frosting of it. See if we can
Speaker 1: get We got about ten minutes, sot's see if we
Speaker 1: can get one more before we take a break. And
Speaker 1: it says, hey, grandeured, this is Eric from wake Forest,
Speaker 1: North Carolina. Shout out to NC. Says I'm coming to
Speaker 1: you as a child of God, father too incredible kids,
Speaker 1: and husband to a loving woman. I have a question
Speaker 1: for you that I've been trying to answer for myself.
Speaker 1: Putting aside success in a career or hobbies or personal accomplishments,
Speaker 1: in your opinion, how can you judge your success as
Speaker 1: a husband and father I know. My goal is to
Speaker 1: raise up confident, independent, responsible, caring and loving kids, to
Speaker 1: grow old with my wife always being honest and never
Speaker 1: losing sight of her my love for her. But how
Speaker 1: could I know that I've accomplished that? Thanks brother Eric.
Speaker 1: So my goal is to raise up confident, independent, responsible,
Speaker 1: caring and loving kids, and to grow old with my wife,
Speaker 1: always being honest and never losing sight of my love
Speaker 1: for her. How could I know that I've accomplished that.
Speaker 1: I don't think you will too. You're old, right, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm looking up a poem for your love it so much.
Speaker 1: This poem I've probably read it on this podcast at
Speaker 1: some point I can't remember, but it's by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Speaker 1: It's so interesting, this poem. I found it because in
Speaker 1: such an interesting way. But I found it when my
Speaker 1: dad died. We were going through all his stuff and
Speaker 1: you know, like his desk, drawer and closet, and we're
Speaker 1: going through a bunch of paperwork and we're trying to
Speaker 1: find anything that was important and throw out anything that wasn't,
Speaker 1: and we found this poem written by Ralph Waldo Emerson,
Speaker 1: hand written by my dad on an eight y ten
Speaker 1: piece of paper just in a folder. None of us
Speaker 1: knew why he wrote it, none of us knew where
Speaker 1: it came from. And that was the thing about my
Speaker 1: dad was like, at some point he felt the need
Speaker 1: to take out a pen and a fresh piece of
Speaker 1: paper and write it by hand. Maybe we'd like to
Speaker 1: think that because it meant so much to him, or
Speaker 1: maybe because he wanted to live like that. But the
Speaker 1: interesting thing is he didn't say anything to any of
Speaker 1: us about it. The poem says success to laugh often
Speaker 1: and much, To win the respect of intelligent people, in
Speaker 1: the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest
Speaker 1: critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty,
Speaker 1: to find the beauty and others. To leave the world
Speaker 1: a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch,
Speaker 1: or a redeemed social condition. To know that one life
Speaker 1: has breathed easier because you lived here. This is to
Speaker 1: have succeeded so good. That's great, man. And you don't
Speaker 1: see anything in here about a lot of money in
Speaker 1: your bank account or and so that kind of success.
Speaker 1: Eric is about the journey, not the destination. It's not
Speaker 1: about knowing if you accomplished that because I found that note,
Speaker 1: you know, tucked into my dad's stuff after he was dead,
Speaker 1: and was like, yeah, he did it, he did this,
Speaker 1: but he didn't know that right, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like it was past his time. So you can't. You're
Speaker 1: never gonna sit back and go, ah, boom did it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I did the success thing. I succeeded as a husband
Speaker 1: and father. It's an ongoing journey. You're going to continue
Speaker 1: to unpack this and continue to live this every day.
Speaker 1: So once again, I've said this many times, but the
Speaker 1: fact that you're even asking it means you're on the path. Man.
Speaker 1: You're doing great. You're doing great. You say, my go
Speaker 1: goal is to raise up confident, independent, responsible, caring, loving kids,
Speaker 1: to grow old with my wife, always being honest, never
Speaker 1: losing sight of my love for her. Boom, you do.
Speaker 1: Just do that. That's your goal. Do that, and that's
Speaker 1: It's not a victory. Every moment you're gonna feel like
Speaker 1: a failure. Sometimes you're gonna feel like you're not you know,
Speaker 1: you're you're not caring enough for your kids, or you're
Speaker 1: you're not being you're losing sight of your love for
Speaker 1: your wife. Occasionally you might feel that, and then you
Speaker 1: correct yourself and you straighten your boat up again, and
Speaker 1: then you keep sailing, and that journey is the You're
Speaker 1: playing the long game. You know, you're playing the game
Speaker 1: of averages here. Nobody's perfect. You're gonna you're gonna have
Speaker 1: tons of failures, but you're gonna win more than you
Speaker 1: fail with that kind of goal and mentality. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you're I think you're doing good. Brother. Yep,
Speaker 1: right on, quick break, We'll be right back. I'm grateful
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Speaker 1: your ritual today. Should have a question, email Strangersmith podcast
Speaker 1: at gmail dot com and these come in, they come
Speaker 1: in random. I try to sort them a little bit,
Speaker 1: and I'm giving you guys a little bit of a
Speaker 1: warning because I think just looking at these subject lines,
Speaker 1: I think the ones that I'm going to finish here
Speaker 1: with today are a little deep and a little spiritual.
Speaker 1: So I hope that everyone stays with me on this
Speaker 1: and I'm just I'm answering it as they come. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not trying to pigeonhole this podcast. And
Speaker 1: in any way besides the fact that I want to
Speaker 1: be able to answer your questions. It could be how
Speaker 1: do I become a drummer, it could be how do
Speaker 1: I find God? I'm going to answer them as they come.
Speaker 1: And sometimes I see comments that think that this podcast
Speaker 1: is kind of pinching pigeonhole in itself in a certain way,
Speaker 1: and it's not. I'm just answering as they come. If
Speaker 1: you hear a lot of questions about career, it's not
Speaker 1: because I'm picking them that way. It's because there's a
Speaker 1: lot of people thinking about their career. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of people. So if you think I'm only finding the
Speaker 1: ones about faith, no, that's just a lot of people
Speaker 1: are really questioning faith. Yeah. So with that being said,
Speaker 1: the first question. The first question of this segment subject
Speaker 1: line is walk in Faith says, how to grande your
Speaker 1: My name is Timothy, which is another awesome character that
Speaker 1: we don't know much about in the Bible besides Paul
Speaker 1: writing to him. But strong name Timothy. I live in
Speaker 1: a small town in Pulaski, Virginia. Long story short. I
Speaker 1: grew up on a farm, joined the Marine Corps looking
Speaker 1: for a better life and a better opportunity. After eight
Speaker 1: years of service, I moved back and started a new
Speaker 1: life with a family. Grew up going to church. I've
Speaker 1: fallen away from Christ, but have now re establish myself
Speaker 1: in my faith and wanting to grow it as well.
Speaker 1: So my question is parentheses. Sorry it's long. I'm thinking
Speaker 1: of my children as my parents do. How could I
Speaker 1: help lead them to Christ and help them live for God?
Speaker 1: Any advice would be helpful. I love you and Amber
Speaker 1: on the podcast. I watched them on YouTube. Shout out
Speaker 1: to YouTube watchers on this podcast. My oldest son Zane
Speaker 1: agrees when I say your music is great and if
Speaker 1: you ever are around us in August, We'll be sure
Speaker 1: to come to your show. God bless and keep up
Speaker 1: the good work. So your question is how could I
Speaker 1: lead them to Christ and help them live for God?
Speaker 1: Any advice would be helpful. Some missing pieces in this question,
Speaker 1: and there's some missing stuff in here. And as always,
Speaker 1: I'd always like to say, this is like we're sitting
Speaker 1: in there, We're sitting around a campfire and these kind
Speaker 1: of questions come up and we're gonna answer them like
Speaker 1: we're sitting around campfire with their buddies. So Bernie's a
Speaker 1: great guy, He's a great person to have on this
Speaker 1: with me. I would say I would start, Timothy. If
Speaker 1: you're asking how could I help lead them to Christ
Speaker 1: and help them live for God? The number one place
Speaker 1: to start is you living that in front of them.
Speaker 1: Because you could only say so much. You could. You
Speaker 1: could send them to school, you know you could. You
Speaker 1: could put them on a YouTube channel that they should
Speaker 1: be watching, or give them a book. But man, number one,
Speaker 1: and way above number two, is you live that life
Speaker 1: for them to watch you. They're watching you right now.
Speaker 1: Live it, man, live it, and and through that example,
Speaker 1: that's the best teacher you could be to your family.
Speaker 1: If you can't live up to what you're trying to
Speaker 1: preach here, then no one's going to be attracted to
Speaker 1: that lifestyle that you're trying to pitch to them. So
Speaker 1: it doesn't it doesn't even matter. We've all seen that.
Speaker 1: We've all seen some crazy preacher on TV and been like,
Speaker 1: I don't want to be that guy. So I don't
Speaker 1: want to listen to anything you say in it or
Speaker 1: whatever he snake O he's selling. I don't want it,
Speaker 1: so right, Yeah, yeah, I think Griz, you know, hit
Speaker 1: the nail on the head. It really starts with you.
Speaker 1: So so the options here are you know, point your kids,
Speaker 1: you know, to to know Jesus, lead your kids away
Speaker 1: or to the world. Right. We know that, you know,
Speaker 1: Jesus is hidden inside God's word. You know, he is
Speaker 1: the word. It was there in the beginning, if you know.
Speaker 1: The question really is like how how much time do
Speaker 1: we really spend in God's Word? How much are we
Speaker 1: letting it really saturate the small moments of our lives
Speaker 1: and become the reactions that come out because much like
Speaker 1: you know a lot of you know, TV shows or
Speaker 1: different podcasts you could listen to, like, whatever you're putting
Speaker 1: in is going to come out naturally. So the more.
Speaker 1: I just feel like the more time that you know
Speaker 1: that we are spending, you know, in stillness and quiet
Speaker 1: and solitude, just letting that kind of you know, soak
Speaker 1: into us, then it's going to naturally come out, which
Speaker 1: is what your kids are watching. They you know, they're
Speaker 1: going to pick up on if something's just kind of
Speaker 1: forced from you, and they're going to pick up on like, no,
Speaker 1: that's that's just what dad did. He you know, you
Speaker 1: know my dad, he just sat in his chair and
Speaker 1: sang old hymns like that's just what he did. You know,
Speaker 1: these little things start to show your kids, you know,
Speaker 1: where your heart, where your treasure lies, and so and
Speaker 1: like just above everything though you're not alone. This is man.
Speaker 1: My wife and I talk about it, Griz and I
Speaker 1: talk about it. Man, this is such a difficult thing.
Speaker 1: We value these relationships so much and we want to
Speaker 1: like make sure that we're pointing them towards life that's
Speaker 1: meaningful and eternal. And so because we care about it
Speaker 1: so much, there's almost can be this like over analysis
Speaker 1: of are we doing it right? Are we? So? I
Speaker 1: think one just taking away the burden of like the
Speaker 1: Holy spirit is to meet your kids and we can't
Speaker 1: dictate when that happens, if it happens again, going back
Speaker 1: to you can only control what you can control. You know,
Speaker 1: God has written the rest, and we just have to
Speaker 1: trust in him that, you know, if we abide in
Speaker 1: him and that his word starts to come out, our
Speaker 1: kids are just going to like be drawn to him,
Speaker 1: which which, yeah, man is it's a constant daily battle.
Speaker 1: We're all in it, and so know that you're not alone.
Speaker 1: But it's worth the fight for sure. What good time
Speaker 1: to do this, Timothy too, of an opportunity is your
Speaker 1: nighttime prayers and could also be meal time prayers too,
Speaker 1: But a nighttime prayer for me is really important because
Speaker 1: when I lay down to pray with Lincoln or London,
Speaker 1: I try not to ever let it become a repetitive,
Speaker 1: repeated prayer from a book. I try to make it
Speaker 1: different every night, which is the challenge, and I try
Speaker 1: to make it creative in a way relative to our
Speaker 1: current lives. And I try to let it be in
Speaker 1: a language that they could easily digest. So for instance,
Speaker 1: I'll lay down with you know, say Lincoln, and you
Speaker 1: know every night we say prayer, and I'll just say
Speaker 1: I'll try to be just as plain languaged as I can. God,
Speaker 1: thank you for this little boy, led him to grow
Speaker 1: strong and smart and love you above all else. And
Speaker 1: if he's ever scared to talk to you, he said,
Speaker 1: if he's ever happy to thank you, you know, and
Speaker 1: just putting these little things in his brain, you know
Speaker 1: that we're he just feels that relationship where I'm kind
Speaker 1: of saying, I'm kind of saying the words that he
Speaker 1: could think, if that makes sense. But to me, that's
Speaker 1: a good opportunity because he's laying there, his eyes are
Speaker 1: closed and I'm right in his ear, as opposed to
Speaker 1: you know, he's with us at the farm now and
Speaker 1: just run around with his sister, so it's hard to
Speaker 1: get him focused, and that's a good time for them
Speaker 1: to focus. Yeah, I think that's great. Making it like
Speaker 1: you're saying, just different every time, and personal takes away
Speaker 1: the ritual part of it, which there's a whole culture
Speaker 1: of people that believe closeness to God and in relationship
Speaker 1: with God is all about ritual. It's not the heart
Speaker 1: behind what you're doing. It's just doing the thing. And
Speaker 1: I think what you're doing separates that and saying it
Speaker 1: kind of makes it like, no, we're you know, we're
Speaker 1: doing this because if you were doing it just to
Speaker 1: check it off the box, it would be the same
Speaker 1: thing every night and just say oh yeah yeah, and
Speaker 1: Lincoln would pick up on that. Yeah yeah. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that's awesome. Man, good question, Timothy, really good and it's
Speaker 1: awesome that you're thinking about that, and thank you for
Speaker 1: your service. Shout out to Marine Corps two and Virginia.
Speaker 1: All Right, this question comes from Eric. He says, Hey,
Speaker 1: my name is Eric. I'm from Covington, Louisiana. And he says,
Speaker 1: I like when you're good friend. How you and your
Speaker 1: good friend Bernie think. He said, I need a friend
Speaker 1: like him. I promise I didn't find this female before
Speaker 1: you came. That's awesome. I love your new album. I'm
Speaker 1: a big friend of your music and watching your podcast
Speaker 1: and smith videos. My question is, how would you know
Speaker 1: if God is trying to give you a blessing? Once again,
Speaker 1: a spiritual question. So, my wife's dad inherited his family's
Speaker 1: land in a small town called Blonde and it's a
Speaker 1: big property with four houses on it, and he's trying
Speaker 1: to offer us one of the houses on the property,
Speaker 1: but it's the smallest house on the property, and it
Speaker 1: also needs the most work. And I really I don't
Speaker 1: make the best money at my work. So I want
Speaker 1: to take the offer because we live in a two bedroom,
Speaker 1: one bathroom apartment with a large dog and two cats.
Speaker 1: If you were in my shoes, would you take this offer?
Speaker 1: Let me read again, Yeah, to soak it in. Yeah,
Speaker 1: shark take Would you take the offer for that reason?
Speaker 1: All right? It says, how do you know if God
Speaker 1: is trying to give you a blessing? My wife's dad
Speaker 1: inherited his family's land in a small town. It's a
Speaker 1: big property with four houses. He's trying to offer us
Speaker 1: one of the houses on the property, but it's the
Speaker 1: smallest house and it's the house that needs the most work.
Speaker 1: I really don't make the best money at work. I
Speaker 1: want to take the offer because we live in a
Speaker 1: two bedroom, one bathroom apartment with a large dog and
Speaker 1: two cats. If you very much chose, would you take
Speaker 1: the offer? I'm trying to find the negative. Yes, that's
Speaker 1: what I'm thinking. Yeah. So here here's a perfect example.
Speaker 1: This actually recent not exactly the same, but recently happened.
Speaker 1: I was out on a walk around my office and
Speaker 1: I walked by this house that was in the area
Speaker 1: that our office was currently that we were leasing, and
Speaker 1: we knew that we wanted to buy a place. And
Speaker 1: I walked past. All these houses are real nice, and
Speaker 1: then we found one that was like it was kind
Speaker 1: of overgrown, needed a lot of work, and I just
Speaker 1: kind of felt like, I feel like I need to
Speaker 1: talk to somebody about this. Who happened? So first of all,
Speaker 1: don't underestimate just walking with God, go for walks, be
Speaker 1: still and quiet, and just try to listen. Just try
Speaker 1: to listen. That nudge will lead you a lot of
Speaker 1: really fun, exciting places. So I walk around the back
Speaker 1: and there's a kid outside that's raking the leaves, and
Speaker 1: so I said, hey, do you own this house? He said,
Speaker 1: my mom does. I shouldn't know in this house. So
Speaker 1: Mom comes out and I said, hey, I was just
Speaker 1: curious if you're interested in selling. She said, well, well,
Speaker 1: maybe let me get your phone number a week and
Speaker 1: talk about it. All that to say that lands me
Speaker 1: then in this situation like you're in Okay, I have
Speaker 1: this opportunity. The price that she came back with was
Speaker 1: more than I felt like it was worth or that
Speaker 1: I was comfortable paying for it. So that would be
Speaker 1: the first question with this house, like is it is
Speaker 1: does it make you uncomfortable? Do you know, listen to
Speaker 1: your gut. It probably has the answer for you. But
Speaker 1: if it, if it does, I think go So So
Speaker 1: what I did is I went back to her and
Speaker 1: I said, Hey, I would really love to have this
Speaker 1: property and kind of continue its legacy here. We're not
Speaker 1: going to tear it down and do whatever like restore it,
Speaker 1: but honestly, this is kind of the budget that we're
Speaker 1: looking at. And I said, if that you know, somehow
Speaker 1: you know may work for you, just let me know.
Speaker 1: And she called me back and said, yeah, actually that
Speaker 1: I think if if you could kind of do this,
Speaker 1: I think we may be able to make something work.
Speaker 1: So the point of the story is if you communicate
Speaker 1: with your dad earlier, Yeah, whoever, my wife's dad, Okay,
Speaker 1: So you communicate with the father in law and just
Speaker 1: show them like, hey, this is this is really what
Speaker 1: we can afford. I want to be responsible for a
Speaker 1: good steward or what I've been given and if and
Speaker 1: don't be emotionally tied to it. I was ready to
Speaker 1: walk away from that house and be like you know
Speaker 1: it just it wasn't it you? You have the unlimited resources.
Speaker 1: If God wants you to have that place, he's gonna
Speaker 1: he's gonna move in the hearts of the people that
Speaker 1: are you know, behind the scenes of it and say,
Speaker 1: you know what, I think we could make this work
Speaker 1: and we could give it to him for this or
Speaker 1: you know whatever that may be. I just I think
Speaker 1: that putting it out there and communicating with your father
Speaker 1: in law where you sit with it and and make
Speaker 1: sure that it's a win on both sides, Like because
Speaker 1: I also went to this lady and said, look, I
Speaker 1: don't want to lowball you. I don't want to like take,
Speaker 1: I don't want to take from you. I want this
Speaker 1: to be a win for you and a win for me.
Speaker 1: And if it's not a win on both sides, then
Speaker 1: don't get emotionally attached. There will be something else that
Speaker 1: comes up and walk away. Props to the dad too,
Speaker 1: like trying to get his daughter to live close to him.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be me one day, like hey boy, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna offer you a house so that London could live
Speaker 1: close to me. Again, that is another variable in the question. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so how's your relationship with them. Here's the thing, dude,
Speaker 1: you're not going to be married to the house. If
Speaker 1: it's not good, you're leave. It sounds like it's a
Speaker 1: pretty good, decent opportunity because you're not. It's not like
Speaker 1: you're giving up a lot to do it. You're giving
Speaker 1: up a two bedroom, one bath apartment that you already
Speaker 1: fill too crowded in with these with your animals and
Speaker 1: your wife. So you're not giving up a lot. You're
Speaker 1: gonna go into the house. If it doesn't work out,
Speaker 1: If it makes your life terrible, just leave and patch
Speaker 1: things up with the in laws and go back to
Speaker 1: the two bedroom apartment. It doesn't feel like it's I
Speaker 1: don't feel like there's too much negative in this in
Speaker 1: this question. There's this is an easy This is an
Speaker 1: easy commitment that you could easily get out of, unless
Speaker 1: unless there's something I don't know in here where this
Speaker 1: this is all the way across the country on the
Speaker 1: other side of But you're in Louisiana and this is
Speaker 1: in Maine or something, But you didn't say that. Sounds
Speaker 1: like it's in the same area. You're not giving up much.
Speaker 1: Give it a shot, and because you you have a
Speaker 1: job that doesn't make that much money doesn't mean you
Speaker 1: can't work on this property slowly with your own work,
Speaker 1: you know, your own two hands and uh and and
Speaker 1: make this better. It's amazing what some yard work could
Speaker 1: do and cost nothing but a little sure, a little gasoline.
Speaker 1: So and my guess is the father in law would
Speaker 1: probably be willing to life. That's true. That's true. You
Speaker 1: get a can of paint, you know, scrape some that
Speaker 1: old paint off. It's it's been pretty amazing. And you
Speaker 1: don't have to do anything right now, even if you
Speaker 1: want to save money. You could just move in. And
Speaker 1: there's nothing wrong with living in a little bit of
Speaker 1: a junker right now with the vision of what it
Speaker 1: could be. So, yeah, dude, I don't think there's anything
Speaker 1: wrong with going in this house. You say, if if
Speaker 1: I was in your shoes, Yeah, it sounds like sounds
Speaker 1: like I don't get those dogs to some land, get them,
Speaker 1: get them out of that apartment. We got wet. We
Speaker 1: let's do another one. Okay, says hey Granger. My name
Speaker 1: is Gage. I'm from small town, USA. Monta Signo, Washington, Montasigno.
Speaker 1: Is that how you say it? Monta Signyo Washington or
Speaker 1: it could be Monta Sano Montasana. That's probably right. Sorry, man,
Speaker 1: I'm a butchering the town name. I'm twenty one years old.
Speaker 1: I'm an automotive mechanic and also a volunteer firefighter and
Speaker 1: medical responder. I'm currently taking EMT classes. Thank you for
Speaker 1: your service. I love listening to your podcast. I listen
Speaker 1: to them when I'm driving to and from work, and
Speaker 1: when i'm driving to the fire station, and when i'm
Speaker 1: driving to nine to one one calls. Listening to your
Speaker 1: voice helps me stay calm and relax, especially when I'm
Speaker 1: going to nine to one one medical calls. Hearing you
Speaker 1: talk helps me stay focused, calm, and prepared to do
Speaker 1: the best that I can. I'm emailing you because I've
Speaker 1: always been a follower of God in Christ, but i
Speaker 1: find myself at times putting Christ aside, kind of on
Speaker 1: the back burner and focusing on things instead of when
Speaker 1: I should be focusing on my Savior. I'm hoping you
Speaker 1: can give me some advice on how I can can
Speaker 1: can can excuse me, can continue to follow Christ and
Speaker 1: make more of make him more of the priority overall,
Speaker 1: want to become a better Christian. Anything helps thanks many
Speaker 1: yee Gauge. You're human, dude, this is your human and
Speaker 1: I'm sure Billy Graham ran into the same daily problem.
Speaker 1: The most important thing is you're aware of it and
Speaker 1: you want to be better. And that's the most important thing,
Speaker 1: is the motivation to want to be better in anything
Speaker 1: in life, whether it's a job, or your relationship with
Speaker 1: your wife, or becoming a father, or your relationship with God.
Speaker 1: So first of all, thank you for your service, Thank
Speaker 1: you for listening to this podcast and using it as
Speaker 1: a way. You know, on a nine to one one
Speaker 1: call is not a place I thought I would this
Speaker 1: podcast would exist, but you've y'all's emails have always made
Speaker 1: it made podcast in my mind, get broader and broader
Speaker 1: in terms of who's listening and why they're listening and
Speaker 1: where they're listening. So that's that's a cool thing. If
Speaker 1: I could, if I could help you like that success point,
Speaker 1: if I could make one life breathe a little bit
Speaker 1: easier than that success and if you if you're going
Speaker 1: to a nine to one one call and a little
Speaker 1: bit calmer by the time you get to the location,
Speaker 1: then that's success for me. That's that's a great win.
Speaker 1: For this podcast, Burns. What do you say he's put
Speaker 1: he puts, puts God on back burner? Who doesn't? Yeah,
Speaker 1: who doesn't? And if you don't, you're just you're not
Speaker 1: truly admitting it. Yeah. Yeah, I think just having the
Speaker 1: the awareness that man, the enemy has so many very
Speaker 1: desirable and pleasurable tools at his disposal to distract us
Speaker 1: with Yeah, and he's not taking days off either with
Speaker 1: throwing them at us. And so yeah, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: a struggle. It's it's tough. I Yeah. One thing that
Speaker 1: comes to mind, Man, I'm not really sure why, but
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna share it with you. Maybe it maybe
Speaker 1: it connects, maybe it doesn't. I'm just gonna get kind
Speaker 1: of practical. I would probably say two and a half
Speaker 1: three years ago, I started practicing meditation. And I know
Speaker 1: a lot of people hear the word meditation, they're like voodoo,
Speaker 1: you know, new Age, And it's like, no, hey, let's
Speaker 1: just let's go ahead and take that perception, throw it
Speaker 1: out the window. Here's what I'm talking about. In order
Speaker 1: to run faster, I do certain certain stretching and I
Speaker 1: do certain kind of weight lifting because that enables me
Speaker 1: to run faster meditation when we can. It's doing the
Speaker 1: same thing but for our minds. And if you read
Speaker 1: through the Bible, there's so many verses that are very
Speaker 1: very powerful about mindset and where are you know, A
Speaker 1: mind focused on the flesh is death. A mind focused
Speaker 1: on the spirit is life and peace. These are the
Speaker 1: two things we're talking about here. So what I found
Speaker 1: with meditation is all I'm trying to do is really stretch,
Speaker 1: exercise my mind and give it the ability to retain
Speaker 1: things more and to focus more so that whenever it
Speaker 1: comes time for that race, which is like I go
Speaker 1: out into the world or I'm in a sermon, or
Speaker 1: I'm listening to a sermon and I'm listening, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to like my mind all of a sudden is not
Speaker 1: just going a thousand different directions. It's like I'm able
Speaker 1: to like listen and I'm able to focus. And not
Speaker 1: only that, when I get in the situation where I
Speaker 1: need those things I've heard to come out, I feel
Speaker 1: like my mind is just a lot more clear. So
Speaker 1: this is something very you know, practical and easy. Start
Speaker 1: with three minutes a day and you can get on
Speaker 1: an app or you can just sit in quiet, and
Speaker 1: just like, just try to follow your breath for as
Speaker 1: long as you can. And the point is not to
Speaker 1: be able to go the three minutes without getting distracted.
Speaker 1: The point is is to be able to recognize when
Speaker 1: you've been distracted and then return back to your breath. Okay,
Speaker 1: And here's what meditation has taught me about not only
Speaker 1: following my breath but also my life, is that my
Speaker 1: life is trying to pursue the breath of God, and
Speaker 1: day in and day out, I get distracted. The point
Speaker 1: is to recognize when I be more aware and recognize
Speaker 1: when I've been distracted and just come back to that breath.
Speaker 1: And the more that you do that, the easier it
Speaker 1: is to recognize, and the easier it is just to
Speaker 1: come back. You don't start veering miles away like you
Speaker 1: may feel you are right now, like come back and
Speaker 1: and just start that. You're going to start to see
Speaker 1: parallels in your mindset and your spiritual life. Your mind, body,
Speaker 1: and spirit are more connected than I think we know,
Speaker 1: so that would just be a practical thing. I hope
Speaker 1: it hits with you or maybe somebody else, but I
Speaker 1: think that's awesome. Man, and dude, I wasn't asking that
Speaker 1: question when I was twenty one years old. I just wasn't.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it props to you. You're way ahead of
Speaker 1: me and where I was at that age. So and
Speaker 1: you're also you're working two jobs auto mechanic and volunteer
Speaker 1: firefighter slash medical responder. Those are some stressful jobs you're working.
Speaker 1: Because yeah, and it might be overlooked that auto mechanic
Speaker 1: could be stressful, but dude, I know how it gets
Speaker 1: when you're in a place and it starts getting backed
Speaker 1: up and Joe Bow wants his vehicle right now, and
Speaker 1: your boss is wondering why you know while you're not
Speaker 1: on it, And that's a stressful thing. People want their
Speaker 1: vehicles when they're getting worked on. They're mad that it
Speaker 1: costs so much, they're mad that the part is hard
Speaker 1: to find, and then they're mad that you can't do
Speaker 1: it tomorrow. So I can't. I can't imagine that coupled
Speaker 1: with your your medical responder stuff that you got. I
Speaker 1: think Bernie's probably on something that it's really worth exploring,
Speaker 1: because it sounds like you have a lot of stuff
Speaker 1: clanking around in your brain during the day and especially
Speaker 1: when you get home. It's time to shut your brain
Speaker 1: off for a little bit and not just go to
Speaker 1: besides this podcast. You make sure that the podcast is
Speaker 1: part of your day, but other than that, you probably
Speaker 1: want to reduce the screen time a little bit. And
Speaker 1: that pause, that quiet is where God is going to
Speaker 1: have space to come and work in you. And so
Speaker 1: that's going to take care of itself. He's going to
Speaker 1: take care of itself. Give him that space, give him
Speaker 1: that pause, and watch him come in and start working
Speaker 1: you from the inside out. And keep asking that question.
Speaker 1: If you keep asking yourself that question, how could I
Speaker 1: continue to follow and make that a priority? I want
Speaker 1: to become better If you keep asking that, you got it,
Speaker 1: It's coming to you. There's no secret answer. There's no
Speaker 1: I'm not going to say start with fifteen minutes here
Speaker 1: and do and read this and make sure you journal that.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to say that. You're just you do you.
Speaker 1: As long as that is it is a focus and
Speaker 1: a priority for you, You're gonna be a good spot.
Speaker 1: That's all we got. Bro. Hey, good times man again,
Speaker 1: Thanks for giving back. Yeah, we'll see you guys soon. Ye,
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. If you have a question for me that
Speaker 1: you would like me to answer, email Grangersmith Podcast at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. Yigi