Dates, Mates and Babies with the Vallottons
Dates, Mates and Babies with the Vallottons
100. Kris and Kathy Vallotton: Embracing the Heart of the Christmas Story
In this milestone 100th episode, Jason and Lauren Vallotton sit down with Jason's parents, Kris and Kathy Vallotton, for a heartfelt conversation about the enduring meaning of Christmas. Known for their leadership and faith, Kris and Kathy reflect on the miraculous story of Christ’s birth and its profound blend of humanity and divinity. Together, they share insights on how to hold onto the true essence of Christmas amid the distractions of commercialization, encouraging listeners to reconnect with its true spiritual significance.
Kris and Kathy also share a touching personal story about navigating financial hardships with creativity and faith. Recalling a time when scarcity gave way to an unexpected adventure, they draw parallels to the humble circumstances of Christ's birth. The conversation highlights how love and togetherness can transform challenges into cherished memories, offering a powerful reminder of the importance of family and faith.
The episode takes a deeper turn as the Vallottons explore the supernatural aspects of the Christmas story and their relevance in everyday life. Reflecting on moments of divine provision, they illustrate how God's presence often surprises us in the ordinary and imperfect moments. Through these reflections, Kris, Kathy, Jason, and Lauren invite listeners to see the beauty in life’s messiness and embrace the redemptive power of the Christmas story in their own lives.
Join Jason and Lauren Vallotton for this uplifting conversation with Kris and Kathy Vallotton, as they celebrate faith, family, and the transformative hope of the Christmas season.
Merry Christmas to you, and we'll see you back here in the New Year!
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We're the valetins and we are passionate about people.
Speaker 1:Every human was created for fulfilling relational connection.
Speaker 2:But that's not always what comes easiest.
Speaker 1:We know this because of our wide range of personal experience, as well as our years of working with people.
Speaker 2:So we're going to crack open topics like dating, marriage, family and parenting to encourage, entertain and equip you for a deeply fulfilling life of relational health.
Speaker 1:Welcome back everyone to Dates, mates and Babies. With the Valetins Babe we have a special 100th episode.
Speaker 2:Yes I know, happy 100 episodes to us, so exciting.
Speaker 1:It is.
Speaker 2:Guys, merry, almost Christmas. We are going to launch into a really cool and special episode today, but before we do that, I wanted to let all of you know that we are this week opening up registration for our February Marriage Intensive. This is a big deal because you have the opportunity to really start the new year off with a bang.
Speaker 2:That's true, and make some major investment into the health and thriving of your marriage, and so we would love for you to check that information out. You can find out everything at jasonandlaurenballatincom, or you can check the show notes here as well for links.
Speaker 1:So yeah, that's exciting, it is exciting. But today here we go.
Speaker 2:Here we go today for our 100th episode. We are so excited and honored to have Jason's parents with us. Chris and Kathy Vallotton are our beautiful interviewees this morning. Mom and dad, hello.
Speaker 3:Welcome to the show. Hello, it's good to be here.
Speaker 2:Chris and Kathy. If you don't know, they are senior leaders here at Bethel Church in Redding, california and are, more importantly, jason's parents. And, as this is our kind of Christmas episode, after this one we will just bid you farewell and see you in 2025. But for this Christmas episode, we actually thought it would be really beautiful to invite Chris and Kathy on to help us re-familiarize our hearts and our souls with the real story of Christmas. And I don't know about you, but sometimes, in the hustle and bustle of the season, christmas has become so, even just cultural, that sometimes the most familiar story to us gets watered down so much that we're unfamiliar. And our prayer for you and your families this Christmas is that you would, that your hearts would become alive with this story of Christmas. Is that you would, that your hearts would become alive with this story of Christmas and that you would find yourself in the middle of this epic story, um, and that you would be so tender to Jesus in this time. So anyways, mom and dad, on that note, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:Let's unpack the beauty of the Christmas story. Who wants to start?
Speaker 3:Let's do it.
Speaker 2:Take it away, dad. Yeah, dad, would you take it away?
Speaker 3:Well, first of all, I want to say that Christmas, we, you know, when we got saved, we were just radical believers. And you know, before we talk so much about the Christmas story, I want to say that we were, you know, we like. We did not even allow our parents to send our kids Christmas cards that had Santa Claus on them. Poor granny, poor granny, oh granny, exactly Poor granny, she had a hard time with that or Christmas cards. If they sent Christmas cards that had Santa Claus on them, we would send them back.
Speaker 3:And so I want to say we probably didn't use too much wisdom Not very much but we were really concerned about, really concerned about Christmas being hijacked, the Christmas story and the power of the gospel actually being hijacked by one reducing Jesus to a baby in a manger, or two, santa Claus taking the place of Christ for the masses, and so we really we would have done it different nowadays, but we were newly saved and we, you know, we, we really, you know we would have done it different nowadays, but you know, we were newly saved and we were like, yeah, easter bunny out of here, easter bunny's out of here.
Speaker 3:We shot that sucker our first Easter and then Christmas, you know, and Christmas is such a special time of year because, you know, first of all, a lot of people, I'd say a lot of christians, don't actually believe in the supernatural. Yeah, I mean, intellectually they do, but they don't actually realize. Like, how do you not believe in the supernatural when you actually, you know, when actually christ was actually born supernaturally, you had, uh, you know, he was born not just in a woman but of a woman, so he was fully human. Yeah, he wasn't just born in a woman, he was born not just in a woman, but of a woman. So he was fully human. He wasn't just born in a woman, he was born of a woman, so he was fully human. But then the sperm actually came from God, the Father, so he had the egg of humanity and the sperm of divinity collided to create Christ. So Christ was fully human and fully divine. It's wild, wild right.
Speaker 1:So wild.
Speaker 3:So you know, in fact, so wild is the story that when Mary tells Joseph hey, I haven't been fooling around he's like, yeah, no, I don't believe that story. And he, literally, he literally is. You know, he's Jewish culture is a little different. So when they're engaged, they're basically they're, they're they're, they're basically married without sex until there's actually a ceremony, right. So he's basically given himself to her, and then she comes up pregnant before they, even before they're married, right and so. And then she's trying tell him like, actually, holy Spirit overshadowed me and took, you know, the sperm of God and infused my egg. And he's like, yeah, I don't, it's a crazy story.
Speaker 1:It's a crazy story Like I just think about. If it happened today, right, like the there's, I mean I, just how do you believe your, your girlfriend, when she says I'm pregnant, but I'm pregnant because god overshadowed me, I'd be like you are crazy.
Speaker 3:Well, he didn't he didn't believe her, I know. But I mean, when you think about the world, doesn't believe, yeah, the the immaculate conception of christ, yeah, well, joseph freaking didn't believe the immaculate conception of Christ, well, joseph freaking didn't believe it. And so, you know, literally an angel has to come to Joseph and go Mary's not lying, yeah, before he finally believes that Mary's actually pregnant with the seed of God. Think about it. It's never happened, you know, however old the earth is, yeah, it's never happened. And it, however old the earth is, it's never happened. And it's never happened before or after that. So it's a crazy story, you know. And then all of this, the surrounding story, is it kind of actually, it gets commercialized Because, for example, some of the things that we see, you know, we see Jesus in the manger, the manger scene, we see wise men around him.
Speaker 3:That did not happen. So let me say that did not happen. There was really a manger scene, which is actually a barn, right, and it's really interesting that God has this plan to bring Jesus to the earth. That says that he was crucified from the foundation of the world, right? So if he's crucified from the foundation of the world, meaning that God had a plan before God had a solution, before Adam had a problem. First of all, and secondly, it means that God had this plan all along. And yet it says the reason why he was born in a barn is because there was no room in the inn, because the people were coming for the census right and so all the hotel rooms were full and you would think well certainly God would remember to get a hotel room, and it just speaks to us.
Speaker 3:I think you think when God's in something, it's all going to be perfectly smooth. Yeah, exactly. And yet the Lord had to be born in a barn, not because it was like some divine plan, but because literally it doesn't say well, god planned to have him be born in a. It says there was no room in the inn yeah.
Speaker 3:And so you know he's born there among the animals. And then you know Herod hears from the Magi that there's a king born and he's a king. And he's like I don't need a rival. And so he kills all the two-year-old males which think about it. If the Magi told him about Christ, right, the Magi see Herod and they tell him about Christ. Christ by then has to be at least two years old, or why does he kill all the two-year-olds that are under?
Speaker 3:I'm pointing out, the Magi were not there for the birth of Christ. They couldn't have been because otherwise he would have just killed all the children under two months old or whatever. So they get there and they're following a star. Another thing people get mad at me and actually try to correct me. But the Magi were not astronomers, old or whatever, right. So so they get there and they're following a star. And another thing that people get mad at me and actually try to correct me.
Speaker 3:But the magi were not astronomers, they were astrologers. So when we think astrology, we think new age, we think the occult, but actually the uh. In genesis, chapter one, it says that god made the, the, the, he made this, the sun and the moon and the stars first for signs, for seasons and for times for signs. So the, the magi, really there's a really interesting story that you remember that dan Daniel was, actually became the chief magician in Babylon, and what we learned from history not not from the Bible there, but from history is that when Daniel becomes head of the of the magicians that the magi were actually in that in, they were part of the astrologers that serve uh, that serve, you know, the Babylonian kings, and Daniel evidently, evidently, converts them to your way and teaches them about God, because the astrologers that were with the, with Daniel there, they became a legacy in which they are looking for the Christ yeah so they're looking in the heavens, right?
Speaker 3:right, Because they're astrologers. That's how they've learned to hear from the gods. Right Now they're converted to the God, but they're still looking into the heavens for signs and wonders and they see a star and we know that story and they follow the star. But it's really interesting that these astrologers it just goes to show that god will speak to you in your language yes, yeah let's say you have a son that's far away and he's in fact.
Speaker 3:Here's another weird thing you know when we got saved? We got saved during the jesus movement, but we got saved during also the the uh, hippie movement and most of the christians that came out of the hippie movement they actually received christ Christ by being on LSD and being on drugs, and while they were on drugs, the man in white would visit them. And I'm just pointing out that the beauty of the Christmas story is there's nobody too far away from Christ, and if you're an astrologer or you're a drug addict or whatever, god has a way of still talking to you. Yeah, it're a whatever. God has a way of still talking to you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's so true. I um, it makes me think of even just how you said God will speak to you in your language. I. There's so much beauty in the Christmas story. To me, I think part of the beauty of the Christmas story is that it is. It encompasses the reality that God actually wants to speak to us in our language, absolutely. Even the way that God designed for Jesus to come as the Savior is a way of relating to humanity.
Speaker 2:It's a way of us actually understanding the relationship that God wants to have with us, that he came as a baby, that he was born to a woman. I mean that you know that he was raised in a family, because that is where the rubber meets the road. I think, when I think about the season, I think, um, in 2024, in our culture, how many people are deeply aware of their need for a savior? And I would say I mean, this is just me, you know, 40 years in to life, I'm like, I find my need for a savior in my marriage.
Speaker 2:I find my need for a savior in raising children. I find my need for a savior?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I need salvation.
Speaker 2:I am. I am. I am more aware today of my need for a savior than I was before I was a Christian to be honest with you.
Speaker 2:Like, and I just I think of all the beautiful stories that you guys have of raising a family together as young believers, in a mountain town with very little, and I'm like you were aware of your need for a savior in those days. And I don't know if you could share a little bit about that, mom, cause I think some of the, some of the, some of the, some of the, some of the I just think about mary giving birth to christ in a in a barn and I'm like I feel like I'm raising kids in a barn.
Speaker 2:I can I I imagine that scene and I'm like it's profound that jesus would meet us because of all the, all the crap from the animals yeah, I mean the animals, the kids.
Speaker 3:it's messy.
Speaker 2:And I mean this is so I'm going to toss it to you in a second Mom, because I really want you to share some of those stories because it's so powerful. But just the context of, like, I mean, this isn't Christmas story, I'll get back to that but my mom died a little over a year ago and I remember kind of contemplating that we are born and we die in this very it's it. You're not, you're never more aware of your humanity than you are at birth and at death.
Speaker 2:And Jesus found us in that place and can relate to us on the grittiest, messiest levels, both in birth and in death and in the in the experience of human life. And I think it's so beautiful that, like gosh in that, in that context of the grit and the mess and the imperfection, that God can meet us there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know. So, anyways, what, what do you think? Mom, tell us a little bit about those early years for you guys.
Speaker 4:You know he, he can meet us there and the most important thing is he did meet us there.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:You know, there's so many times when you know we were raising our kids that it wasn't any different than when Jesus was walking the earth. You know, our kids experienced the same things that he did and he was experiencing the same things as our family. You know, he experienced need during the time when he was walking the earth. He experienced hardship, he experienced pain and suffering. He experienced joy and happiness, and so there wasn't. You know, it's really exciting to think that in Jesus' 30 years that he walked the earth before his true identity takes off as Clark Kent suit and Superman's underneath there.
Speaker 4:You know, revealed that he was just like us and God chose a Savior. That was his time on earth, his first 30 years. He was doing exactly what we were doing loving people, going after people, loving God, sharing stories and all the things that we have the ability to do now with our Savior, and the fact that, yeah, god did choose a barn to be born. I've got horses, I've got animals and sometimes I think that would be really sweet to be able to live in my barn.
Speaker 3:That's a totally.
Speaker 4:Now my grandkids over in Liam's saying grandma needs help with the poop. Grandma needs help with the poop.
Speaker 2:She should, she should Right.
Speaker 4:So they joined in and get all excited about it. But you know, seriously, um, it's just. It's just a special time of the year where we can direct our focus and our attention on what god has done for us and through us, with us to us.
Speaker 3:You had incredible faith and we've been through. You know I've been through two nervous breakdowns. We've, you know we've owned nine businesses which were, you know, close to bankruptcy on gosh more than four or five occasions. You know some very close to christmas. I remember the story. The little tents tell that story. You know things were super tight winter time three feet of snow on the ground. You know business is like completely dead, can't hardly get out of your driveway and we are on the verge of bankruptcy. And I come home one night. Why don't you finish that story?
Speaker 4:So many times we get stuck on the negative instead of the positive of a story in our life or of a situation that we're going through in our family. And it gets magnified even more so during Christmas time, where you feel like you have to have enough money to go around, you know, for your kids and for your family and gosh. This is really emotional for me.
Speaker 1:I don't know, you're crying, oh wow.
Speaker 2:You've told this story a hundred times yeah and probably a hundred times that cry.
Speaker 4:But so, getting back to the story, there was just, you know, so many times in our life where we just didn't have what I wanted to give and what chris wanted to give to our kids. The growing up years were really tough, and if we would have focused on the negative, we would have been wallowing in our sorrow for a long time, and so I just decided that I wasn't going to go there. I wasn't going to let the need, our need, overshadow what God and the Holy Spirit were doing in our life, in the life of our kids. And so they gosh Jason was probably two and our kids are 18 months apart. So do the math One day it was wintertime and it was really snowy out and, like Chris had said, and I decided that we're going to have fun in the midst of sorrow and we're not going to let that bring us down.
Speaker 4:And it was super cold and I didn't, we our. The only thing I could cut back on was our electricity bill or our food bill, and both got cut back a lot of times and there wasn't much. But we decided that we were going to make it fun. So we took our family room and I converted it to tents. We had a wood stove and we made stew on the wood stove because we could cook on it without adding electric additional electricity.
Speaker 4:And we had, the electricity would go out all the time in Weaverville in the winter, and so we always had kerosene lanterns, you know, ready to go. And Chris came home one night and the house is all dark. He walks in and he's panicking because there's no lights in the house. He's like Kathy, kathy. And I'm like, oh darn, I've been found out.
Speaker 4:And he goes what is going on? Why is it so dark in here? Why are all these sheets pitched over the couches, and why this and why that? And I walk right past him and he's like where are you going? Stop, stop, right now, where are you going? And I go out to the main breaker, go out to the big breaker in the house, and I grab the switch and I switch it back on and all the lights pop on in the house. And Chris I'll never forget he grabbed me by the shoulders and he said what are you doing? And I said and just then Jason pops his head out of this little tent and he said daddy, we're playing camping. Chris is like what he goes, we're playing camping.
Speaker 1:Chris is like what he goes.
Speaker 4:We're playing camping. Dad Want some hot chocolate, and so the kids are all coming out of these little tents and he's like, what are you doing? And I said well, we have a need in our family and I'm home with the kids watching them so that our kids feel safe and secure while you're working and they're having fun and we're conserving energy. And he looked at me with tears in his eyes. He said how long have you been doing this for? And I said well, for a little while Months.
Speaker 3:You know that story. I mean, what she did was turn off the electricity as soon as I left the house, yeah, and turn it on a half an hour before I got home. Except for that night, I didn't call and tell her I was coming home. He just came, just came yeah.
Speaker 1:What I love about. I mean just all that and even the way that I grew up. Like you can see that God clearly designed us to live in a supernatural world. Just the way that he created the heavens and the earth, the way that we were all brought into this world.
Speaker 1:He had a master plan and yet there's so much humanity in it as well, he makes so much margin for us to not get everything perfect, but we've lost so much touch with this God that's supernatural, that designed us to live supernaturally and also live inside of our humanity and growing up. I think that that was one of the greatest gifts that was given was I got to watch both right I got to go through those hard times of man you know, and for me I didn't know that it was hard.
Speaker 1:It was whatever we were camping you know we were having fun but I also do remember hard times.
Speaker 4:I mean.
Speaker 1:I remember having conversations with you, dad, about business, business, and I remember you being stressed out and I remember lots of talk about the bank we talked a lot about the bank, yeah and not having enough money, yeah, and, but I also remember lots of times when god came through oh yeah, and that's what we focused so much on. I remember the christmas when we didn't have money again, which is the story of our life exactly.
Speaker 4:She didn't know. This was about eight years later.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and then the tenth, yeah mom and dad um bought a a ticket, a raffle ticket at the wagon wheel pizza the wagon wheel pizza yeah I remember going there a lot because Dad had put so much salt on the pizza. You couldn't eat it. Yeah, and olives. I remember salami and olives. That was the pizza we got all the time With a lot of salt. And then my next memory is we won this arcade game Defender.
Speaker 2:Defender.
Speaker 3:And I remember it getting With your one raffle ticket With one raffle ticket the day before Christmas on the 24th of December.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you guys didn't have any money for gifts? No, and that's what we won and it stayed in my room, yeah.
Speaker 3:It was a great big, huge, professional defender game. Arcade game. Arcade game Like you'd go to an arcade and play.
Speaker 4:The thing that was so great, though, is we decided that we would scrape our money together. We had enough money for one present it was going to be a Nintendo game, so that all of you guys could play with it and then we got this Defender. Yeah, it was amazing, our house was the house that all the kids wanted to be in. Oh man, Enhanced our youth group by a hundred times they would come way early, enhanced our youth group by a hundred.
Speaker 1:They would come way early.
Speaker 2:Exactly Play defender yeah.
Speaker 1:That's why you guys were having to conserve on energy.
Speaker 3:That one game probably took all your watts. It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:It was yeah, and I just you know I really love, I love my upbringing and I just love that God was wrapped into everything that we did. And in the early years of course that kicked out Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. But as we grew up we found a really beautiful balance of being able to enjoy life, but also expect the supernatural to happen yeah and to me that's one of the most incredible things about the christmas story is their supernatural woven all through it yeah and you can be a simple woman from a really you know.
Speaker 1:Jerusalem was not a awesome town.
Speaker 3:No middle class, lower middle class town.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and have this birth that ruins your identity on some level Wrecks your reputation.
Speaker 3:Yeah, wrecks your reputation, destroys your reputation.
Speaker 1:Yep, and you have to sneak out of town and you got to give birth in this place. That's disgusting and almost inhumane and it puts Mary and Joseph like their young marriage. I mean, think about babe. When we got married I had already had kids and it was. It was so challenging, right, because we didn't have all this time to get to know one another we didn't have all this time.
Speaker 1:It was was so messy, and that's what Jesus was born into. He was born into this marriage that was challenging they were so young they were so young I mean they were kids themselves, Mary.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I said to Lauren when she married Jay that she's our savior, not the Messiah's savior. But you know, my kids, our kids, were struggling and obviously you're doing so much better now, but they were struggling and you know I remember days when they would come to school in their pajamas. You know, trying to be a mom and dad at the same time was not easy For me, yeah, for you Before Lauren, Before Lauren. Being a single parent is so hard.
Speaker 1:Being a single parent mom and dad at the same time was not easy for me. Yeah for you before lauren. Yeah for lauren being a single parent, being a single parent's really tough.
Speaker 3:And you know, and lauren, this beautiful woman who has opportunities to marry, you know, and start a family with somebody that you know wasn't married and divorced and had three, you know, partially grown kids. You know partially grown kids, you know, so, so beautiful and and yet so miraculous. What happened was so miraculous and I think you know part of the story I. That's that's why you know, like even Sunday I was trying to say like, like, we have sterilized the Christmas story, We've domesticated Jesus.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:We've domesticated him. We've domesticated him. It's like we want it to feel really clean and we want it to feel perfect. And I'd say the enemy, he doesn't mind Jesus, he hates Christ, he's anti-Christ, he's anti the Jesus that's powerful. And yet, as you just pointed out, the Proverbs Solomon wrote where there's no oxen, the manger is clean. But much increase comes with the oxen. And I think that all of us have an oxen story. Like we all have a story like.
Speaker 3:Like money doesn't it doesn't exclude you from an oxen story. You know, from the mess, the crap in the barn, you know and you think, well, if I have enough money and I love Jesus, like it's all going to be okay, it's not okay. Like our stories in early days are obviously about a lot of it. You know we didn't have enough, we didn't have money. We had really close friends who bonded together. It's how we navigated. You know the mountain community, how we navigated terrible winters and uh, and and now we? You know mountain community, how we navigated, terrible winters and uh and and now we? You know we have money and there's it doesn't it doesn't isolate you from the pain of life yeah, yeah from challenges, from problems, and you know, and then the lord intervenes supernaturally so much in our life.
Speaker 2:You know it's beautiful it is profound, though, to think that, um, that god is intervening constantly with the supernatural into our very human lives, does not equal things are clean and tidy and orderly, and that's not it at all, and the and the christmas story itself points to that very reality.
Speaker 2:Like you mentioned at the very beginning, it is the most supernatural story in our history it is the wildest, most out of the box, most god-breathed design story that you could be a part of, and yet it did not isolate even Christ himself from the mess of life.
Speaker 2:And I think that we probably all, at different points, are acquainted with our need for his very present help in our life. And and we're all acquainted maybe for I mean for you guys, it was those years of you know, you're young believers with young children and you're navigating life in a mountain town running businesses. You know believing and having faith for even your very meals. Yeah, whereas I grew up Catholic in a family who had a reverence for God, but I didn't have need like that Yet, my, my, like, um, I remember Christmases when I was little, going to mass and it was so different than what you've described.
Speaker 2:I like we didn't camp with the lights off in my house, I would go to like Christmas mass where we had to dress up really pretty and really, yeah, hats and dresses and tights and, you know, pretty shoes. But I remember sitting in church. It'll make me cry thinking about.
Speaker 2:I remember sitting in church and in the catholic church christmas mass is like it's very reverent it's very sacred and I remember sitting there with no relationship with jesus, but with this awe of god the the Christmas story itself will draw people in Because it is supernatural, it is profound, it is not of this world and I think that those encounters as a little girl in the Catholic church it's funny that you brought up me marrying Jay because I remember, shortly before um, I remember shortly before dating Jason, that I I'd gone through school of ministry. My Catholic background met, you know, became a believer, met the Holy spirit in college, came out to be a STEM and, you know, got radically lit up for the kingdom of god. But I remember from from being a little girl, I've always been so, um, drawn to the story of redemption yeah the, the christmas story, the redemption story, the fact that god had a plan, that he has a savior for us.
Speaker 2:I remember praying god. I have this in a journal of mine. Make me a part of a redemption story.
Speaker 1:Wow, merry Christmas yeah.
Speaker 2:God make me a part of the story of redemption, the redemption of Christ coming as a baby and then growing as a man and and being fully man and fully God and and what he's paid for in that for us Make me a part of a redemption story. Obviously, I got more than I bargained for, but I think that this story of the gospel Jesus wrote the story to be attractive to people.
Speaker 2:Something about the Christmas story draws the heart in to this miraculous realm, truly, and so that we would, as believers, not settle for a christmas season watered down by cultural christmas. Sure, enjoy every part of it with your family, but like open your spirit right, like let your heart be, drawn into this miracle story and then that we're in the story still like we are in the story absolutely and gosh, I mean you know, you're talking about miracles and god is speaking to us all the time.
Speaker 4:I think that there's going to be some people that are listening to this podcast saying but I never hear from God.
Speaker 4:I don't ever feel like I experience God. What does that even look like? What does it look like in my life? And so many times I think we discount what God's doing because we just aren't approaching him with open eyes and open ears and an open heart to what he's actually doing's actually doing with us, to us, in us, every, every single day. You know god is always speaking and he's always there. He wants us to depend, to depend upon him, and he wants to provide for us. But sometimes we we end up looking for the big, grandioso miracle that is right in front of us and people are recording on TV, when most of the time that's not how God is speaking to us he's speaking to us in the little, the little things, that the whisper, the, the thought, the, the, maybe an action that happens right before us, but we just discount it and don't even think
Speaker 4:about it right. And this year, you know, I just would encourage everybody to go, go through christmas with eyes wide open and be able to really take in what god is saying to you and don't afraid, don't be afraid to ask. You know, god, this, this christmas, I want more of you. That's, that's what I want. I want to hear you more, I want to, I want, I want to hear you more, I want to see you more, I want to know you more closely, but keep your eyes and your heart open to the things that he's doing all around that go missed day after day after day, because we're just not aware of the goodness of God and the little things that he's speaking to us.
Speaker 3:And I would add that you know you were talking about Lauren, about you wrote in your journal as a girl, I want to be a part of redemption story, yeah, but you had an idea probably what that meant. Yeah, and I think that often God's answering our prayers, but not in the way that we think he is Rarely, rarely ever.
Speaker 3:You were probably never thinking well, I'm going to be part of a um, uh, you know, I'm going to be part of a mixed family and I'm going to be a. I'm going to, you know, be the second wife of, of a man and that's going to be the redemption. I bring this to this family and and and yet you know, you, you wrote in your journal I want to be a part of redemption and you become this huge part of redemption of a valentine family and probably it took a while to realize. Later it's like, oh wait, a second. I prayed to be a part of redemption. I'm trying to figure out, you know, if I'm supposed to marry this man, and I don't know if that story even enters in until after you, you get married and, and you know, you realize this family does need a redeemer, so to speak. It needs a Boaz, right, it needs a Boaz, it needs a redeemer.
Speaker 3:And then now, many years later, you're looking back and you're like, oh, I wrote in my journal, let me be a part of redemption. And I want to just agree with Kathy and say sometimes God hides from us what he calls us to pray me be a part of redemption and I want to just agree with Kathy and say sometimes we, sometimes God, hides from us what he calls us to pray, like he calls us to pray this, but he hides the meaning of it. Right, and we're praying and our prayers are being answered, but not in a way that we had ever, like we wouldn't, even if God said, hey, you're going to be a part of redemption story and this is what's going to look like. You'd be like, oh lord, I don't want to be a part of a redemption story and this is what it's going to look like. You'd be like, oh Lord, I don't want to be a part of that story, and I love that. I just want to say to people who are listening you might be in a mixed marriage, you might be a single mom or single dad, and you're like oh, my life is.
Speaker 3:Sometimes it's like I'm disqualified.
Speaker 3:I'm one of disqualified people and I'd like to point out that it's like we're all disqualified, and even people that you know that you're like, oh, they have that perfect life and you get to know them like you don't have a perfect life because they're humans, and I love the messy part of this divine story of humanity, but it's so messy, right, and then Joseph disappears.
Speaker 3:Joseph's really a father to a mixed family because he's not the father of Jesus. He's the father of his brothers, but he's not the father of Jesus. And then the other thing we learn about that family is that James he has like seven brothers and we know that James that wrote the book of James is his half brother, and James doesn't even believe that his brother is the Messiah until he rose from the dead. And so he's kind of taunting him the whole time as the younger brother, like hey, if you really want to be known, why don't you show up at the feast? And then we find out that James becomes the head of the Jerusalem church and actually in the book of Acts, peter and John and later on Paul, they actually all report to James. And I'm pointing out that when we have kids we're like this kid is such a problem, I don't know what I'm going to do with him.
Speaker 4:Surprise.
Speaker 3:And then he turns out to be the one who's like the head of the Jerusalem church. He is one of the strongest believers in Christ, and yet when he's in the home, he doesn't even believe that Jesus is the Messiah, his own brother. And so, you know, we have these dynamics happening in the home every day. I just want to encourage people like the way it starts isn't the way it finishes, and the prayers that we pray aren't going to probably get answered in the way that we think they're going to, but they're going to be answered, and God has a redemptive story, whether you're a James or whether you're a Joseph, like how get involved in this? I wasn't. I'm dating a girl and suddenly she's pregnant and she's trying to tell me that Jesus, that God, impregnated her, and you know, and, uh, you know, and, and Joseph becomes the father of a mixed family yeah in which you know he he's correcting Jesus at 15, because he leaves the caravan and he ends up at the temple without talking to his parents.
Speaker 3:And when Joseph and Mary get there to correct him, he's like didn't you know I'd be in my father's house? Joseph, didn't you know I'd be in my father's house? And the point is, you're not my father, and so Joe's got a challenge and somehow he disappears in the family story. You know, we don't hear from him after that moment, like after that, I'm in my do you not know I'm in my father's house. We don't, we don't hear from joe the rest of his life. We assume he he passed early, so you know. So you think about that dynamic, like he's got the miracle worker in his family but somehow Joe dies.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a very interesting story.
Speaker 3:It's a very complicated. It really is.
Speaker 2:And you can imagine those like. Think about Mary. I think sometimes about I'm constantly running interference in my family.
Speaker 1:Do you?
Speaker 2:know, what I mean I'm navigating the toddler tantrums. I'm simultaneously working hard to be a parent to adult children and maintaining connection and my heart as a mom that my kids would all have a loving connection with each other. But there's conflict because we're humans and it's family story of the family of christ that is plastered all over christmas cards right now in hallmarks around the nation is a void of the.
Speaker 2:The reality of the complexity of this story and the the, the wild depth of, I mean when jesus, when it says that he's acquainted with all of our sufferings. The mother of Christ was not just on a little cloud, nine unicorn cloud, where she's raising the son of God.
Speaker 3:That had to have been real heart and thought of as a fornicator her whole life.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, misunderstood in conflict constantly.
Speaker 3:Why so many prostitutes were attracted to christ? Because of his mother's. His mother's. You know the sense that she was a fornicator really wild.
Speaker 1:You know this is a time of year for a lot of people when it's really challenging yes and the most incredible thing about this whole story is that Christ is the Savior.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And he really is. He's the Savior of the wealthy, he's the Savior of the impoverished, he's the Savior of humanity, and we don't have to go through this season alone. That's the most incredible thing about moral story, yeah that is the moral of the story and you know we've had really tough years when I was little, yeah. And we've had really incredible years of abundance and not just financial wealth but physical health and emotional health.
Speaker 1:And then we've had, you know, last year was one of the toughest years for us in a very long time because of, you know, Lauren's mom passing and just experiencing, and last year I had tons of anxiety Loss and grief On. Christmas day, lauren and I went for a walk and I said I think I need to get back on medication.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I just wasn't doing well and that was a tough-.
Speaker 2:Not a fun day, yeah.
Speaker 1:December 25th last year was really tough.
Speaker 2:Not an easy day.
Speaker 1:And yet we all have this hope and have this assurance that we have a savior that knows what it's like to be us, and we have a savior that promises us that he'll never leave us, he doesn't forsake us, he has our best interest in mind. He's the guy that holds everything together, the guy that designed everything. If you're in a manger this year, it's okay.
Speaker 3:There it is. If you're in a manger.
Speaker 1:there's the motto of this podcast, that's right, and if you're in the palace, it's okay. His goodness, you're still in need of a Savior.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:And we all get to enter in to this supernatural lifestyle, this supernatural hope, this supernatural God that knows how to meet us right where we're at, and I'm just so thankful. I'm thankful that we got to experience that in our lives. We've got to experience the gift of God showing up in different areas and the gift of God rescuing us out of our darkness, out of our pain and out of our suffering, and so we just want to pray for you guys really quick and wish you a very Merry Christmas. But, father, we thank you, lord, that you are in the midst of our chaos.
Speaker 3:Yes, Lord.
Speaker 1:Lord, you know what it's like to be in the dirt, to be in the poop, to be a part of a family that has chaos and turmoil. You also know what it's like, lord, to endure suffering and, god, we thank you that you came to bring us life, to bring us abundance, to bring us health and wholeness. Lord, that you didn't leave us in this place of darkness. Lord, you don't leave us in a manger without a Savior there.
Speaker 3:Yes, Lord.
Speaker 1:And, lord, we ask that you would enter in Father to the homes where there's pain, to homes where there's suffering. Lord, into the places in our life where we need a Savior but don't know how to ask Father that you would show up in our lives. Lord, we give you permission to show up in our lives, lord to our loved ones who have like the prodigal son, who have said I want to go my way. I want to do what I want to do, lord, whether it's out of pain or selfishness.
Speaker 1:Father, we ask that you'd show up for our family members that you'd show up in our finances, lord, that people would have miracles, like I saw when we got the defender game. Lord all throughout that there would be miracles, or that there would be signs and wonders, but God, that we would get to experience a loving Father who knows how to love us well. Thank you, lord, for your gift that you've given all of us. Amen.
Speaker 3:Amen Well, Merry Christmas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, merry Christmas everybody. Thanks Mom and Dad for joining us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thanks for having us.
Speaker 2:So, so special, and to all of you, we wish you a happy new year. We will see in 2025.
Speaker 1:here begins our two-week christmas break and don't forget, if you want to grow a stronger, healthier, more connected marriage. We have our marriage intensive, six weeks long starts. What february? 10th is the beginning yeah, so you can go to jasonlaurenvaltoncom and check it all out there. Yep, see you guys later.