Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Family Business with the Alessis, where family is everybody's business. Today in the podcast booth is Steve Alessi and Mary Alesi. Yes, husband and wife team, super duo.
SPEAKER_0235 years.
SPEAKER_0135 years building a church, 25 years together.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Mary, it's a good season.
SPEAKER_02It's a good, good season.
SPEAKER_01It is. And it's a great season, too, because we're starting another year. This is actually the introduction of our fifth season. Is that true? As a podcast. Yes.
SPEAKER_02I did not think we'd have this much to say.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02We have much to say. Yeah, yeah, you did. You did.
SPEAKER_01I'm on the patio with you all the time. I know how much you talk.
SPEAKER_02I know. Vice versa.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, right. Fifth season of our episode doing this together with our family. We've um been able to enjoy this, and and we've got some new things happening in this new season of 2023. One thing is we're going to bite off a huge,
huge endeavor with our family, we'll call it our family business pod uh conference, but it's actually going to be a conference for families that are in ministry. That's our business is ministry. Ours is church ministry. But there's some in ministry that will be listening to us and they're on the road ministry with uh music and speaking, and their families are working with them. So anybody that is in ministry and they desire to have their family work together with them. Maybe they're multi-generational ministries, uh legacy ministries, if that's the case, then we have a conference that we're going to be kicking off in April. It'll be the first time we do it. Pretty excited about it. It's something fresh. So that's what season five will help prepare us for, is some of that as well. So I'm excited about this new year of possibility with 2023. But I'm also excited about that new opportunity with our business conference. That's going to be fun.
SPEAKER_02If there's anything that we can do to help other families who want to work together, like legitimately work together, I think it's also important to back up about 10 years before your kids are even ready to do that and start helping them, sewing into them the vision of how to do it and get a long, long runway. Because that's something that you and I have had is a long runway with our kids being young and helping them develop that desire to want to not only be in ministry with us, but work for the church with us so that we're parent and boss. And so, you know, not that we know everything, but we do know a lot from experience. We're both third generation working with our families. So we did bring a lot of that to the table of how to do it because we're doing it and we're still doing it.
SPEAKER_01And our kids are doing it with us, so they've got something to say about it. They have a lot to say. They've had to overcome a lot working with you.
SPEAKER_02And and that's true. I'm the hard one. It's difficult to work with me.
SPEAKER_01I am just such the number one thing I hear though, babe, from people, not just in church, but even out there in the real world. I was at an event last night and um it was all secular individuals uh in the real world, and somebody knows what I do, and they know of it because they follow us on social media. And the thing they brought up, nothing about my speaking. I hate to say nothing about your singing. What? No, but they mentioned, man, your family is impressive. You guys work together. It's it's always the biggest compliment that we get.
SPEAKER_02Always, you know, you've said that for years. Yeah. You've said that. We both have said this for years. You will judge us by our family. And we do. Yeah. We do, we naturally do. Christians and non-Christians, churchgoers, non-churchgoers.
SPEAKER_01We just some things we want to do in the coming year to help others that are in our same seat do it better with their family. So I'm excited about that. Now, today, uh, I our episode, since it's at the beginning of the year, uh, we've packed everything away from Christmas. That's a lot of packing going on because of all your Christmas stuff.
SPEAKER_02A lot of trees.
SPEAKER_01Yep, a lot of bulbs, a lot of lights, garland, lots of garland, snow globes. The big thing has been snow globes.
SPEAKER_02This year, the stores, a lot of snow globes.
SPEAKER_01Yep. Yep. So uh we put all that away. Now we are into this new year. Yeah. And um, you know, people are dealing with New Year's resolutions. It's just a part of every new year. January actually means new beginnings. It it ties in with starting fresh. So if you're gonna start
new, then most people want to do things that they haven't been doing so that they can end up having something maybe they've never had. Right. So there's the new year resolutions, and many of them have to do with weight.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01People want to lose weight. So they're going to eat better. They're gonna go on a diet. No sugar. No sugar. They're gonna do that. They're gonna commit to going to some kind of gym to maybe lock in with a trainer. They're gonna do something for their physical bodies. Uh, we as a church are doing things right now. We're in the middle of a 21-day fast. Yeah. That's spiritually, we're just trying to reset our spirit, our body, all of that at the same time. It's a Daniel fast. So that's something you usually do at the beginning of the year. Right. That's a New Year's resolution for you. Um, we are also on a Bible reading plan right now. We're taking our church through the New Testament, reading together so much. So there's a Bible app that we've all connected with. Those are all part of New Year's resolutions. Right. What are your favorite?
SPEAKER_02My favorites from the secular or the flesh perspective is really just getting back in the right eating plan and purging myself from all the Danishes and the pastries and all the desserts. And then I think definitely from a Christian perspective, from the church, it's it's probably that Bible reading. It is not the 21-day fast. I I fight that all the way to the very last day. Yeah. But I definitely do like the Bible reading aspect of starting my year off with that because every single time it never fails. When you're about halfway through the 21 days of your Bible reading, you go, why don't I do this every single day? Because it just makes such a difference in your life. How about yours? What's your favorite?
SPEAKER_01Um, gosh, I I say this pretty much every year. I'm going to be nicer.
SPEAKER_02Oh. Oh, I thought, okay. I have to answer that way.
SPEAKER_01Uh that's my New Year's resolution. Be nicer. And I know John Roman can help me on this journey. We like to work together.
SPEAKER_02You know how I'm nicer.
SPEAKER_01With people like you and Alan Paul and Ashley helps make us nicer.
SPEAKER_02Oh, isn't that right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know how I'm nicer?
SPEAKER_01How?
SPEAKER_02No sugar. Oh, you're right. Sugar makes me mean.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I want to have it, and then it's my mood off.
SPEAKER_01Funny thing. I mentioned to you, and we noticed on the eating and all of that. How it I got my blood pressure more under control. Another supplement.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And you said, man, you're being nicer. You're being so nice. You don't think it's being older? You think it has to do with my blood pressure?
SPEAKER_02It's all your blood pressure.
SPEAKER_01Hypertension?
SPEAKER_02All whatever the doctor gave you. Wow.
SPEAKER_01Let's keep it. See, it hasn't been my fault all these years. Alrighty. All right. Anyhow, those are things. I want to be nicer. I want to be a lot more patient. Uh, and that's always a New Year's resolution. How old are you now?
unknownIt was the year.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so here's here's where this episode's going to be. It's not so much about our own personal, but have you considered helping your family as a leader of a family, mom or dad, have you considered helping your the rest of your family with New Year's resolutions?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So a lot of people do their own, but can you sit down with your kids and say, hey, let's talk about some New Year's resolutions? So on this particular episode, I want us to look at it from that perspective. Not just make it personal. Yeah. But as a family leader, as a husband, wife, as a father, mother, or even as a business leader. Okay. And in us a ministry leader, I know my job is to make sure our church is on point with vision.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01So as a church, we've got, you know, locked into what we're going to be doing this year. Our New Year's resolution is this. We're going to walk into a year where we're more sensitive to the spirit's leading in our lives. So it's a year of the spirit for us. As a pastor, that's my job, all right? To know where God wants us to go as a church. Right. So if I'm doing that as a pastor from my church, how about me doing the same thing with my family? Yes. And helping them with some New Year's resolutions and um sit down and discuss this. So here's uh Lee Domang has been on our program before. He and I have talked, and he's got some great material. And if you're listening and you haven't heard the episode with he and I, I would encourage you to go back. It's a great one. Subscribe, listen to it, because he talks about a family's plan. And his is a great layout to be able to help a family do that. So that's some great resources. The point there is being intentional about what do we want this year to look like as a family. Right. So let's talk about that because
the first thing, your first New Year's resolution should be that right there. Right. Be intentional about your family. How important is that?
SPEAKER_02I think it's the most important thing because next to your God relationship, the one that affects you the most is your family relationship. You can quit your job, you can move away, but you can't change your family. They're in your life forever. And if they're not in your day-to-day, they're in your heart and in your mind. So making sure that you're being intentional with a plan for your family is super important. Well, the reason it's important is because of what it alleviates. It does take a lot of the drama out of your life because you're setting your life up, even in these little things with the right expectations. Because you and I both know what throws good relationships off is just either unmet expectations or you don't have the same expectations from the family, even from just one particular event. Oh, I thought we were all bringing casseroles. Well, I didn't know. I thought we were all bringing desserts. And then therein lies a problem. So even in those little things of being intentional with communication, intentional of planning to be together, setting 2023 up as the year, not just about me, but about thee.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02The whole family, not my own goals and vision to be thinner and to be healthier. But how can I set a goal for my family that we can all be healthier together in an area that will bring so much peace to your life? And then you're gonna have more health, longer days, happier days, and more memories.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So important to do that.
SPEAKER_01And maybe you're, you know, three or four weeks into 2023 just listening to this episode. It's okay that you didn't start at the first of the year. It's it's good to start right now.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01You can go ahead and say, all right, I'm gonna go ahead. Everybody's had their own resolutions that they've tried up to this point, but I'm gonna pull the family together and um let's talk about it. So I'm gonna be very intentional this year about helping my family with some new year's resolutions that really, if it's your kids, what you're doing is you're giving your kids a vision for their life, the family a vision for the for their existence in the coming year. Right. So gotta be intentional about it because this kind of stuff doesn't just happen.
SPEAKER_02No, it doesn't.
SPEAKER_01I notice with winning football teams, Mary, they come out of the season of the game. Um, when their season's over, they just don't chill, they just don't relax. No, everybody has an off-season goal and a vision for their lives. So if you're not making something intentional, it's not gonna happen.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_01So the first thought here for our podiums is to be intentional about having a vision or New Year's resolutions for your family and don't think they're just gonna get their own. No, help them with it, which brings me to this one. I think this would be a great thing to have as a New Year's resolutions for your family. It's
togetherness.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, totally.
SPEAKER_01You've got to communicate to your kids, your family. We are going to be together more.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01Social media has isolated everybody.
SPEAKER_02Oh, for sure.
SPEAKER_01And just because you're in the same house as your kids doesn't mean you're together with their your kids. Right. Because your kids could be sitting in the same room around the same dinner table, watching the same programs on TV, and be totally disconnected from you because they are on social media or in some gaming room or in some environment that removes them emotionally and mentally from you in the moment.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01So you're gonna have to help your kids with this vision. Togetherness is a priority in our home.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Why is that important?
SPEAKER_02Well, you know, the family, like you said, is so divided. And one thing that we made sure our kids did was if we were downstairs, they were downstairs. There was no one that could stay upstairs when the family was together. And I know there's parents that that struggle with that, maybe a single parent struggles with that. But as a as parents of minors, they are under your care. And they have to learn the importance of togetherness because a 12-year-old, a 13-year-old would love nothing more than to steal away into their room and either be on their phone or be on TV or be on or do something on their laptop with friends rather than be downstairs talking to mom and dad. And it's easier sometimes for parents to just say, good, let them be in their room. Well, you're not going to benefit and get the fruit of togetherness without force. So there's a season where parents want to not have to fight their kids and just forget it. I don't want the pain. Part of getting to where you want to go in your family and creating this beautiful family that that values togetherness is getting them through the tough years and saying, this is the rule of the household. I think sometimes we as parents think that somehow our children are extraordinary and they're going to be different than all the other kids and want to be with us. It's not the case. You have to sow the seeds for that so that when your children are home, this is the rule. I don't care if you're there with a bad attitude. We are at the table together at this time. And with time and maturity, they will learn to value that. But if you don't push the envelope because you don't want conflict, you're not going to get there. So that's one thing. I think that's important to tell parents who would say, Well, I wanted togetherness to be our value, but I can't get my 15-year-old son to look up. Well, then that's on you. You have to put that out there and say, I'll take your phone away.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02You know, you're whatever is getting in the way of you and I being together, I'm going to fix that right now and be a bold parent. That's another podcast they need to go back and watch. But um I I think if maybe your kids are older, you know, when kids are little, it's easier. But as your kids get older and we're all going different directions, I think it's important to start this year off maybe setting a goal for once a month on a Sunday night or once a month Saturday morning brunch, the whole family is going to get together, whoever can, and host that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Open your own home to say, I'll make it easy. Pay for it if you have to. Because what we're realizing now as we get older and we're going down this road, that our kids will pretty much do anything if there's a plan that we put out there and if there's a financial uh blessing in it for them, you know, and until they're in a place where they can give back, we make sure if togetherness is a value for us, then we, you and I together are going to make sure that's on the calendar. All the kids are invited. We have a family chat that we make sure everybody gets the information. So there's not one person saying, I had no idea, always creates conflict. But we did that through the holidays. We made sure we had several nights set aside just for our family, and we did it, and it was so beautiful.
SPEAKER_01Babe, uh, the uh young adults that are married didn't even think of it.
SPEAKER_02I but we never did. We were ogre as much as we do now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but we see it now. That's the point. We're they didn't they weren't, it wasn't on their radar. No, they weren't thinking, so that's why the intentionality of saying this year, okay, I mean, New Year's resolutions are good about getting skinny and making sure you're working out right. But even more important is together. Hey, let me make this uh vision, this New Year's resolution of being together as a family. And I would even encourage that you don't make it just about you and your kids, but if you've got parents, if you've got grandparents, you need to include them in that togetherness on a regular basis. Our kids need to be connecting with their grandparents, not just during the holidays or birthdays or special days. Calling them. That's it. They have to be included. You go pick up your mom and dad, you do the event at their house, you do something where you're together to include them because you don't want your kids growing up and not even knowing their grandparents. Yeah. And the grandparents can't be isolated from them. There's there should be on the grandparents' end of it, they should enjoy the fruit of having relationship with their grandkids. Right. But if you're never really doing except for the holidays, you're never really together. Because even the holidays are just a blur. Everybody's so under the stress of it. So I wouldn't say this year, 2023, the year of the family for you, make it about being together. Put it on the calendar, look at your whole year, when your vacations are, all those special days, down days. Hey, make sure you're together.
SPEAKER_02I think that is more valuable than anything in a relationship and in a family. You will look back over your life when you do step into that intentionality. Um, and we'd love for those who are listening and watching to do this for the first six months of the year and then interact with us through this podcast and tell us how that's working for you. What are some of the blessings that have come out of being intentional? You listen to the podcast and you're actually putting it into practice because I can promise you you'll have happier grandparents, happier parents, happier kids when you put that intentionality of just a simple task, little bit of time. It's not even a lot of time, it's a little bit of time in togetherness. And here's the bigger reward that you might not see now, but you will see down the line. You won't have any regrets. Yeah. You'll know because you intentionalize togetherness. God forbid, we live in a crazy world. You know that you aren't going to look over your life and say, I wish I I would have. Shoulda, coulda, woulda. But I didn't listen. I didn't stop from my crazy busy schedule. Because I know there's people out there that just believe they're busier than everybody else. Nobody is busier than anybody else. Right. We are all busy. We all have the same 24 hours in a day, seven days a week. Nobody works. I'm sorry, but somehow, somehow, we are all working pretty hard.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Babe, you're not going to ever regret spending too much time with your kids or your watching. Or your or your parents. No.
SPEAKER_02And the piece that gives you, knowing that you did that, it's it's called priorities. Yeah. And we get our priorities so out of whack, and we're living for the job, and we're living for the end of the year bonus, and we're living for the bosses, and we're living for the expectation and the status and the house and make it all of that. Meanwhile, at the end of the day, what matters the most are these people that have come from you, the people that you share DNA with. And obviously, there are families out there, we know it's another podcast they need to listen to with boundaries, but we're not talking about that yet. We're just talking about families who have good relationships that can be better. And intentionalizing being together, because we're better together, we're gonna have stronger, happier, healthy families, which helps us leave a strong legacy behind.
SPEAKER_01Good. So before January's over, guys, get together, have a time where you're saying, let's plan this intentional. Yes. This is our New Year's resolution. Here's another thing I think you need to resolve on the front end. Have a resolution and resolve this on the front end. Make it conflict resolution. Conflict
resolution. Have a discussion on the front end with your family. Guys, we're going to have disagreements. We're going to have blow-ups in the house. We're going to have fights and disagreements with one another. We're going to hurt each other. But here's what we do in our family: we preserve our relationships. As father and mother, as parents and children, we resolve them. So yes, it's okay to fight, but it's not okay to stay mad at each other. So let's make a commitment this year to be people that resolve their conflicts.
SPEAKER_02Man, and it's tough. It's tough to do it. But when we die to ourselves and we we keep the family as priority, having a strong, healthy family is priority, and we know we have to, um, we will. And I think a rule of thumb in every family is to eliminate the thought of what I can't say. You know, I'd like to say this, but I can't say this. I'd like to share my feelings, but I can't. And creating an environment. Where true conflict resolution cannot be had. I think that there are very respectable, honorable ways that we could sit down with one another and work out our differences that we may have had back at Christmas time where it went crazy. When you can't do that, that's a whole nother subject. That's a whole different toxic boundaries conversation. But when it's just differences of opinion or we're going to come to the table and have an agreement that we, these are things we don't need to discuss, like maybe it's politics or whatever the situation is. We have a respectful environment. But I also think, honestly, in our families this way, I do think families need to be a place where we can talk about things. I I was told recently by a family member who has a big family, huge family, and they've got this massive family text feed. And somebody made a joke. It was just a funny political joke. It was nothing. And two of the people on that feed said, I won't be at the family get together this year because of that post. Because I I, you know, I found it offensive. So my my friend said, Do you think this is offensive? And I said, What? That is ridiculous. Well, that's somebody who's just set themselves up to be in conflict. So you can't always help those people, but you have to lean into those in your family where you're creating an environment where you can say, We're not all so doggone defensive all the time where we're creating eggshells. We're family can't be family. I mean, either we're family or we're not. Yep.
SPEAKER_01You know? Well, our daughter Lauren works at a school right now as a mental health counselor for students. And on a number of occasions, she'll have students come to her and say, I just can't discuss this with my dad or my mom.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01That's what we want to avoid.
SPEAKER_02That's it.
SPEAKER_01That's why you need to make this a New Year's resolution so that your kids feel totally at peace to be able to come and talk to you about stuff they're dealing with. Now, I've also heard of there's even kid families in our church whose kids are being bombarded at school with just wrong information. I'm not talking about in the classroom. No. I'm talking about their friends and their peer group. And these kids come home with this confusion. Well, if we're leaving it up to the school, their friends at school that have no maybe no center of gravity with a good, wholesome God relationship, and they're just out there with whatever is woke in this society of ours, then our girls and our sons are going to be confused. They need to know, let me be able to go home and talk to dad and mom. And even if they're afraid, oh, it might upset mom and dad, because you have said at the beginning of the year, no, we're going to be a family this year that discusses our issues. Right. We're going to have conflict resolution moments. Your kid can feel at peace to be able to come and say, This may upset you, dad or mom, but this is what I heard. Can you help me with this? That's right. And that's going to be so important. If you're going to move into this year, you're teaching your kids how they're ultimately going to be a husband and wife one day. That's it. You got to be able to learn how to resolve their conflicts.
SPEAKER_02That's so huge. And I know that we've said more and more at nauseum, the world's divided, America's divided, whatever. Homes are divided. Yeah, they are. Over social issues that it's catastrophic. Yeah. We see it in our channel. And we promise as a podcast that we're going to have a conversation how to help you talk to your woke kids or kids that are entertaining that. We've got a series that's that we're going to discuss on that to help them know how to do that. So they're going to have that support. Just commit this year to saying we're going to have a conflict resolution agreement. We will resolve our conflicts. And parents need to understand that they're they are the parents. And at the end of the day, your kids only get one mom and they get one dad. And that's it. So get on the same page, resolve it, and walk in peace.
SPEAKER_01Woke and broke go hand in hand. And we don't want you broke. Here's another thing I think you need to discuss at the first part of the year at the onset. And that is what future boyfriends and girlfriends look like.
SPEAKER_02Wow.
SPEAKER_01A child needs to know on the front end. A young person needs to know on a
front end. When you like another person, when you like a boy or you like a girl, that boyfriend or girlfriend isn't just going to affect your life, it's going to affect the family's life. And if it's going to affect the family's life, then we have to have some agreements here. Right. Great way to teach your kids at a young age that just because they like somebody doesn't need mean they need to be in a relationship with somebody. Oh no, no, no. Because cool and all that stuff that may attract you could be the very thing that hurts you in the future. Right. So having um a New Year's resolution in the family about that, I think would be important. Puts it on the front end so your child again knows, okay, I like somebody at school. I like somebody in the youth group. I like somebody. Well, I'm not going to just go into it all because I like them. I'm going to get some coaching here from my mom or dad. Right. And it's okay that I do that. Yeah. But kids don't feel that freedom to go to mom and dad regularly because mom and dad maybe they don't think it's something mom and dad want to talk about.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And every parent needs to want to talk about that. So on the front end of this year, a New Year's resolution should be hey, we got to agree on you dating somebody when you're old enough to date them because they are going to affect the dynamics of what's happening in the home.
SPEAKER_02Oh man, you know, this is such a big, huge part of the family dynamic and keeping peace. It's the agreement to the dating situation and who's allowed in the family and who our daughters can like and who our sons can like. It's really difficult. And we know we've been there, and thank God we're kind of through that season, but it's a tough one. But we cannot, guys, listeners, we cannot stress it enough. Proactive. Be proactive. Be on the front side. Set the vision for your daughters. I can remember when I would tell my father, and and what my biggest takeaway from this, really, and I hope everybody's takeaway is that I would tell my father, that's the biggest takeaway. Okay. I would tell my father. That's huge. Yeah. And when I would say, Oh, I think so-and-so likes me, I would be 12 or 13. And you know, I was a twin. So one boy would like both of us, you know, and that was awkward. Oh. And I was like, well, which one of us is prettier? So you talk about conflict in the family, a lot of conflict. So I have to say, my father was a very smart dad. And he should have had a master's in psychology for free because he was really smart about some things. And I can remember I'd go home and I would just say, Dad, I think buddy or whoever likes me. And he wouldn't, he would never go, who's buddy? You tell him I got a shotgun. He would never do that. He'd say, I'm sure he does. Always. Or I think such and such has his eyes on me. Oh, honey, I'm I'm sure he does. I'm sure they all will, baby. You're beautiful. Who wouldn't like you? And it was reverse psychology for me with braces and big thick Coke bottle glasses that my father would say, Oh, honey, of course he does, you know. But the biggest takeaway from that was the confidence it gave me that I already had to tell my father. So somehow, somehow, he had created an environment. And you know, the truth is our girls were the same way with you. They weren't afraid to go tell you um who they liked or and we would make it family meetings. We'd get the whole family in on it and it was fun and we'd celebrate, but we'd also say, okay, but hold on a minute. We don't date.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I think this is cute and it's sweet, but hold on a second. What do the Alessis do? What is the rule of the Alesi family? And even when they didn't understand it and they'd get frustrated, but he likes me, but he won't. Of course he does. But listen, honey, there's things you don't know, there's things you don't see. This is the agreement we have as a family. And what was great about that is it didn't just make it an us and Christopher conversation or an us and Lauren or Gabby or Stephanie conversation. The whole family got to say that empowered everybody so that at night, if one of the kids who was against us would try to go upstairs and talk to their sister and get uh support, this the one of the sisters would say, Oh, don't come to me. We have a family agreement. Yeah. And those little things happen that you find out later why it's so invaluable to have like this family vision of understanding this is what we do as a family.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Last one I want to look at. I think uh a tragedy in the Christian household today is when a parent gets up to go to church and they leave their teenager at home.
SPEAKER_02No.
SPEAKER_01And yet a lot of people do that because they think I don't want to force my kids. All right, here's a New Year's resolution, vision for a kid
in 2023. Here it is. It has to do with their spirituality. Yeah. It has to do with here's what we do as a family. We love God. Yes. And we go to church on Sundays.
SPEAKER_02That's it.
SPEAKER_01You've got to spell it out for the kids. Yeah. Doesn't matter they're busy. Again, everybody's busy. Doesn't matter what goes on on Saturday. They're young. They got all the energy in the world. What you don't want them to do is to be lazy to the things of God and their relationship. So this may not land with everybody that's listening to us because maybe not everybody listening to us has a relationship with God. But for those who do, here's what we do know: that relationship with God is going to determine success or failure in pretty much every area of your life because it's a strong foundation. Now the Bible talks about building a house on a strong foundation or a foundation that's made of sand. And if you don't build it on a strong foundation and you build it on the shifting sand of time and changes, then when the storms come, the house does not survive. Only the house built on a firm foundation will survive. What then do you want to teach your kids? You want to teach them and the family, this is how we're building our lives this year. We're building it on the strong foundation of God and having a healthy relationship with Him. And the way that we do that is we're at church on Sunday. One way we do that is being in church.
SPEAKER_02That's right.
SPEAKER_01So every family needs to come together at the front first of the year and say, all right, and husbands and wives, you talk to each other. Maybe one of you aren't that crazy about going to church, and the other one is, hey, for the sake of the family, have a New Year's resolution. Try it. Give it a year and watch what will happen to your family. Right. The good that'll happen because you're making God a priority. And it's a New Year's resolution for you. So throw out the diets, throw out your exercise routines. If that's getting more focused than your relationship with God, actually, there's a place in the Bible that says little uh bodily exercise profiteth little. I mean, it profits some, but not near as much as having your relationship with God. So what we're trying to say on this podcast today is yes, and all of your New Year's resolutions have them. But also consider as a family having the intentionality of saying, these are our New Year's resolutions. These are our visions. This is the vision for this house for 2023. It's gonna be togetherness, it's gonna be our way of being able to deal with conflict resolution. It's gonna be, hey, all boyfriend and girlfriend considerations need to be discussed. We need to all feel at peace with this. And there has to be this pursuit of having a godly relationship. So church is gonna be a priority. It is. Sound good, baby?
SPEAKER_02I love it. I have just to say one more thing. Say it. If you're listening today and you think that everything we're saying sounds good, but your family would never do it. You would never be able to pull it off with your family, or your family's too young, or they're not ready, you're the one who needs to do it the most because we promise you, we put these practices in place years ago, and we are who we are today because we've lived by these truths. We're not just teaching them, we're living by them. And when people look at us and say, How do you have all these kids and serving with you? This is why. Don't throw this out. Do it. I mean, it's dire really because of the world that we are living in, the family's under attack. Start with your family, give your family a chance to say yes to this, even if they're all, I don't want to. You know, have that meeting and it will blow your mind how empowering it is because you have smart kids, your spouse is smart, it will speak to them and get started. Get started. Don't dismiss your family from it.
SPEAKER_01Don't dismiss it, and that's why you also want to make sure everybody's listening to the Family Podcast. Family Business Podcast with the Alesees. Make that part of your New Year's resolution as well. Thanks for joining us today. We hope
this podcast has encouraged you. Keep following us and spread the word. It's going to be a great 2023.
SPEAKER_00You've just enjoyed another episode of the Family Business Podcast with the Alesssies, and we can't thank you enough for being a part of our podience today. Now that you've learned more about us, here's how you can join in in the family business. First, make sure you're following our podcast right now and download this episode so you can hear it at any time. Second, think of someone you know that might need or enjoy this episode and share it with them. You'll be helping them and helping us to spread the word about the family business. Third, go to AlesiFamily Business.com and tap the Ask the Alessies button. This is really cool. You can use it to record a voicemail comment or question, and we can add your voice to our conversations. Finally, while you're on our page, tap the reviews tab and you'll see a link to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. We love reading your reviews and we might even share them on the show. Thanks again for joining us, and we'll see you next time at the Family Business with the Alesssies, because family is everybody's business.