Dates, Mates and Babies with the Vallottons
Dates, Mates and Babies with the Vallottons
107. The Power of Friendship: Strengthening Marriages and Families Through Intentional Connections
In this episode of Dates, Mates, and Babies with the Vallottons, Jason and Lauren Vallotton explore how friendships impact marriage, parenting, and relational health. While friendships often take a backseat to family life, they are crucial in shaping emotional well-being and offering support.
As life gets busier with marriage and parenting, friendships are often neglected. However, research shows that maintaining strong friendships improves marital satisfaction and reduces parenting stress. Jason and Lauren discuss why intentional friendships matter and how to build a supportive community.
Discussion Points:
- Do Your Friendships Support or Strain Your Marriage?
- Jason reflects on early marriage years when he let go of friendships that didn’t support his relationship.
- Lauren shares how she invested in friendships to have connections in the same life season.
- The Changing Definition of a Support System
- A survey of 2,000 parents with kids aged 0-6 found 78% believe the concept of a support "village" has changed from their upbringing.
- Modern parents rely on an average of seven people for support, often leaning more on friendships than family.
- Jason discusses how founding BraveCo helped him build relationships with men committed to personal growth.
- How a Lack of Friendships Impacts Emotional Connection in Marriage
- Despite hardships, Jason’s strong friendships provided stability.
- Lauren surrounds herself with women who invest in their marriages, reinforcing the importance of supportive friendships.
- The Importance of Same-Sex and Opposite-Sex Friendships in Marriage
- Jason’s close friendships extend beyond traditional boundaries, such as walking Sum down the aisle.
- Lauren highlights the security of knowing she has men in her life who would support her and her children.
- Friendships and Parenting: How Parents’ Friendships Shape Their Kids
- Studies suggest strong friendships lead to happier marriages and lower stress in parenting.
- Parents modeling healthy friendships significantly influence their children’s social development.
- Jason and Lauren discuss ways to nurture friendships while raising a family.
Takeaways:
Strong friendships are essential for thriving marriages and healthy families. Jason and Lauren encourage listeners to assess their friendships, invest in meaningful connections, and recognize their profound influence on every aspect of life.
Tune in to this insightful conversation and learn how to strengthen your marriage and family life through intentional friendships!
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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.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, good to be with you. We are battling some sickness in our house this week, so you're going to hear it in my voice a little bit. I promise to not talk too nasally.
Speaker 1:No, but we did just have to restart this because she had a coughing attack. Yeah, it's true. So we'll see how this goes.
Speaker 2:We'll see. Today we're talking about something that is it's actually a really important topic in our life.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:With regards to relational health. We're going to talk today about how friendships actually shape our marriage and our parenting. So we're hitting a lot of things in one go today, but I'll tell you what the the importance of friendship has been communicated to me my entire life, directly or indirectly based on how my parents lived their life, um, my mom in particular. My earliest memories, some of my very earliest memories, is being in a stroller at a park, sitting on the sidelines of a? Uh volleyball court while my parents played volleyball with their friends. And this was I mean, I was, I was under three years old. I remember distinctly how do you? How?
Speaker 1:do you remember? It's crazy, I have this vivid memory of being at Wash.
Speaker 2:Park, Wash Park in Denver, Colorado, and I'm watching my parents play volleyball.
Speaker 1:I don't know how you remember that.
Speaker 2:I don't know either, and but I'm telling you from my earliest memories my parents, uh, prioritizing time with friends, recreation with friends, um, until the day my mom died, some of people in my life who are like aunts to me came to visit her on her deathbed and they had been friends since elementary school, junior high school. Like her closest friends were lifelong friends for her, and in some of my mom's toughest seasons I watched her pull on her friendships for strength, pull on her friendships for strength, um, and so, yeah, I think that cultivating and maintaining and stewarding deep, lifelong friendships has been a core value of mine since I was little.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But I don't think I realized how significant that really is or what a gift it was really to be modeled that by my mom until later in life, right when I'm like finding the true need and I'm realizing, oh wow, that actually isn't a given in life and it doesn't necessarily come easily for people and it is so critical.
Speaker 1:I don't think anyone realizes how important friendships are until you get to the later stages in life where you're raising kids, going through hard stuff, like working hard on you know, like on your business and family, because part of it when you are in school, it feels like you could find a new friend every single day. I remember when I was young. This is my vivid memory.
Speaker 1:I was probably like nine or 10 years old, and I remember my dad telling me if you have five close friends, you are like really blessed. There's not a lot of people that have five close friends. And I remember saying to him that I have like 10 or, and I was able to list them off, you know. Yeah, these are all my friends and he's like you're really blessed.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:But now, when I I mean just even. I was reading a statistic the other day that said less than 15% or sorry, 15% of men have no friends at all. Wow, 15% of men, if you go chat GBT right now, that's literally what it?
Speaker 1:will tell you and but I see it all the time, and especially with guys guys have a very hard time building friendships and I think a lot of that is due to we're at work, we are working hard. You come home to a family and what you used to do before you got married is so different after you got married and I just know it's been an intentional challenge to grow, maintain, build deep, meaningful relationships and friendships.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like you, growing up, I mean we lived in a very small town and I think when you live in a small town it's a bit easier to have friendships because you really do know. At least that's my experience. My experience is the smaller the town that I lived in, the easier the friendships and relationships were, because you know everybody. It's like going to a small church as opposed to going to a big church. You actually know less people when you go to a big church than when you go to a small church, because a small church there's so few people. Like we went to a church of 250. I mean you know every single person in that church and you know their story and you know whether or not they were in church. You know.
Speaker 1:But when I moved to bethel and started going to bethel church, I mean I don't know half the people as deeply as I knew in Weaverville. It's the same thing Like when you grow up in a small town like you, you know your neighbors. It's just part of it. Like you literally know everybody in town as opposed to in a large city everyone. Just I mean it feels like there's so many people.
Speaker 2:Well, you have to be more intentional to build friendship.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and there's more people.
Speaker 2:There's more people. Yeah, so I mean, I don't know that the the amount is going to change a whole lot, but the percentage of people is going to be a lot different. If you grew up in a big city versus a small town, and I think you're right there's not as much intentionality required when your community is set for you. I mean, you don't have to make any choices, they're right there, this is who you got right. But I think that as we grow and whether you're growing from a small town into a larger town, or whether you're just growing up and so your pool of people that you have to like the world becomes bigger as you grow. And I think the truth is is that we have to get more intentional, especially in the context of marriage and having children.
Speaker 2:If we believe that solid friendships are really crucial for our relational health and that actually the quality of our friendships can even influence our marital satisfaction and our parenting styles and our emotional support system, like if we believe that the quality of our friendships impacts those things, then we do get to. You know, take a good hard look at how. How are we at, how are we doing in the friendship arena? Because the truth is, is that for a lot of people I don't think it's just men, babe, but for a lot of people friendships can take a real backseat. When marriage and parenting demands are high, friendships can be less prioritized, and I think that it's worth actually having a discussion about.
Speaker 2:You know, the quality of our friendships so impacts the quality of our life, and I wonder if we might just go through some questions that I have for us and I think it will be a meaningful discussion. But the first one that I have is just do your friendships support or strain your marriage? I think I have that. You do your friendships support or strain your marriage? I think I have that. You know that question has been a journey for us and I think it's a great question for people to ask themselves Do your friendships support or do they strain your marriage?
Speaker 1:When we first got married, I had a group of friends that I had been with for a long time, specifically one really close friend, and, for whatever reason you know, we had been friends for such a long time and, for whatever reason, he just started going through a really tough time in his life and, honestly, the friendship became like so challenging and toxic that I actually had to end that friendship and it was like one of the most painful things that I had done, because we had been friends since I was 16 years old and I tried really really hard to confront him and you know, and keep that friendship, but it honestly just didn't work out. And then I went through. I feel like I went through probably like a five or six year period of not feeling like I had close friends.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it was really painful for me because I had had when we got married, I'd had this really actually, I probably had two or three close friends that were like that. Now that I think about, it that I actually had to create distance from, which was weird for me. Can?
Speaker 2:I say something about that for a second. Well, I just think that it's really it's significant question of like is your, are your friendships supporting your marriage? So when you get married, protecting your connection with your spouse is of utmost importance. So, really taking a hard look, assessing, if needed, assessing, you know, are my friendships actually supporting the health of my marriage? And I would say, those friendships that you had before we got married, they served such important purposes for you, they were such meaningful places of connection. But for one reason or another and I think we discovered it really had to do with their own personal emotional health those friendships didn't support our marriage. They actually didn't do a great job at connecting with me, prioritizing us as a couple the interest levels, engagement was weird.
Speaker 1:Well, and they were in such a hard place in their life, yeah, and because they were in such a hard place in their life, yeah, and because they were in such a hard place in their life, it it was such a drain and such a weight on our relationship, yeah, and so those are relationships that I actually had to had to end and um, which was a really painful thing. You on the other hand, you came into our relationship having had great friends, but not they weren't here in Reading.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, yeah, that's right. I mean, to this day, my closest friend is, you know, she lives on the other side of the country and we grew up together. She's my closest friend. But, man, I'll tell you what, when you get married, you know, getting married to you, I it was also me getting married to this city, I mean I there was no future that I could see where we wouldn't be here in Redding, california. So, for the first time, although I lived here for a number of years, I had to really go.
Speaker 2:Okay, if I'm going to be here in this place indefinitely, I really have to invest in some friends, because proximity becomes really important when you're raising a family, when you're married and you're raising kids. You have to have friendships in your day to day life. There are statistics on I mean gosh, there are statistics on uh, friendships and how important it is to have friendships in that child rearing age. There is a study actually that was published in the New York Post that it was a survey of 2000 parents with children between the ages of zero and six, and the study showed that 78% of people in that study believe that the definition of a support village has changed compared to their upbringing, and it's wild, because modern parents are relying on an average of like seven or more people for support, and they're often leaning on friends instead of extended family, which makes sense, right.
Speaker 2:Because we move away from our families now, like in 2024, like a lot of people move away from their hometowns. You might not live near your aunts, uncles, grandparents, moms and dads, and so there's like a real need for people to develop what feels like a village and there's much higher levels of satisfaction in marriage and parenting when you have that. So you know, I found I found myself in that very same position. It took me a lot of. It took me a couple of years of pouring really intentionally into a small group of women before I felt like I had friends that I was doing life with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I. I mean now, you've been with your, your girlfriends, for what? Eight years, nine, oh my gosh, no, we've.
Speaker 2:We've had our small group going for 12 years, because Michelle's oldest son is 12 oh really, yeah, yeah, it's a long time every other Wednesday, plus for 12 years which, honestly, is a miracle it is. I mean, it's such a gift yeah, really is.
Speaker 1:You know, what changed for me is, I mean, when I started to build BraveCo in 2019, 2020, that really changed a lot for me. Group of friends, but a group of really intentional friends that were going after raising healthy kids raising a healthy family, building businesses, and that was like a game changer, a complete game changer.
Speaker 1:Now I have friends that we work out together on a regular basis, we travel together, we do events together and I mean there's just something that happens. Well, I'll tell you, it's not just something when you have really close friends and you start setting goals in your life, then and your friends are doing the same thing you're able to actually look and go. Am I reaching my goals? Am I achieving my goals? Are we? Am I being a better father, a better husband, a better businessman? And that makes a massive difference.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then, on top of that, the areas in which you get stuck. You now have other people in your life who are probably better than you in that area and you get to pull on them, and so several of our friends like just a simple example, several of my friends right now are doing our marriage intensive.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that wasn't something that we charged them for. It's just something that they get to do because of my friends.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so we're pouring into their marriage.
Speaker 1:And, um, last year, the year before, we sat down with one of my friends to talk through our finances and yeah we're just a bunch of things like that where it's literally they're literally pouring in and helping your life and that's not just having someone there, but having someone that's active in your life is incredible.
Speaker 1:We did a um, a brave co men's event this last men's retreat this last week and we had there's 13 of us there and we were inviting these guys into um deep relationship with us and it was really awesome because they're really great guys businessmen, fathers, husbands just really crushing life.
Speaker 1:And when I look around that room, they all want the same thing thing they all want a brotherhood of men that they can run with, grow with, sharpen each other, strengthen each other. The Bible says that a brother is born for the day of adversity and as I spent time with those guys, even just last week, we were inviting them in to do what I do with my friend group and when you start to hear their stories and look at their marriages and look at what they're going after man, the deep need for a group of men and it's the same with women, but a group of men who are strengthening each other, who are intentional, who are lending their strength to one another it really is the greatest asset that we have, and yet you can't buy that. You have to build it right.
Speaker 1:You can't just go out in one day Like it is one of the only things in life that you can't buy. You can have tons of money and you can't go get friends right. You have to build friendship, yeah, and you have to build deep friendship, which there's a real framework to doing deep friendship and I think that that's part of the difference is, and what we've gotten really good at at Braveco it's also what you guys have gotten good at in your girls group that's why you've been together for 12 years is deep friendship isn't something that you can just purchase.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:You have to go in intentionally building it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so that's where, like, learning great communication skills comes in. That's where, uh, being able to weaponize your story or talk about the things that have happened to you in the past and uh listen with empathy and understand, deal with your own triggers right those are all things that allows us to build deep, lasting friendships, uh, that benefit other people.
Speaker 2:Yeah Right, Absolutely. Babe. How do you think that a lack of friendship impacts emotional connection in marriage?
Speaker 1:Well, one of the greatest benefits, I think, for us just personally is I mean, there was so much stuff that we were going through when we first got married the blending, blending a family, our kids going back and forth you know, my kids going back and forth, which, um, and then just all the challenges that I was going through with my mental health and my nervous breakdown coming out of that that I I remember talking a lot in those days when I was really struggling. You would always say I don't ever really worry about you because you have men in your life that are there to pour into you and I think that that's been.
Speaker 1:You know, when I look at everything that we've come through for real, it's like I was in a nervous breakdown when we got married and we blended a family. That was a very challenging years, very, very challenging ages to do it, and you were 26 years old when we started, 25 years old when we. When we started to get to where we're at today and to have done it successfully is because I had people in my life that were helping me and you had people in your life.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:There's no doubt about that. Our success was because of that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's true, we are not meant to do hard things alone, and I think about the emotional connection in our marriage and how supported it has been by the people in our life. I'll say this I have a core value and not everybody is wired the same as me. Actually, you have a different threshold. I'll say this I have a core value and not everybody's wired the same as me. Actually, you have a different threshold than I do for this. But I have a core value that the people who I'm closest to in my life, they actually love their marriages and they work hard in marriage.
Speaker 2:Um, my, I don't have. My most intimate friendships are with women who have great marriages, and that's that is a boundary that I have and I need it in my life. Like I, I rely so much on my girlfriends for their wisdom and their hope and their energy, for the health and thriving of their marriage. That's a, that's a boundary that I have and, um, you know, I, I have so valued for you, I've so valued that you have men in your life who you're talking to, who know about your struggles, who know about your weaknesses. Man, you know we've said this before, but like if I was the only person in your life that knew what was going on on the inside of you when times were tough. That's an. That is a, a, a measure of pressure. That's really too much for a spouse to carry.
Speaker 2:Like I can't be your wife and your counselor and your accountability and your no. Like we're not meant to do life that way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's too much.
Speaker 2:It's too much. So you know, a lack of friendship would so impact our emotional connection. Luckily we've we've not had that, but I would say for anybody listening, you know, I would say like a great, and we we did. We've each actually been in a season where we have prayed together for the quality of our friendships, especially in that building season where we were first married. We prayed God, help us establish deep, meaningful friendships here so that we would feel the support that we need and enjoy the benefit of friendship.
Speaker 1:Well, when we're I mean again, I'm watching it on a regular basis because of Braveco and what I do at Braveco Like I'm literally watching men transform their marriages and their lives in a very short period of time, as soon as they get really good friends. Because you just have that, you have something to look up to, you have something to aim for and to shoot for and you all of a sudden have a completely different standard for your life. It's really wild, I'm telling you, like I'm I'm literally watching it happen every single month. I'm watching it happen. Guys, lives are literally transforming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's wild yeah, absolutely and, like I said earlier, it's also very, very challenging because you have to build it.
Speaker 2:Let's talk about the importance of same-sex and then opposite-sex friendships in relational health, and let's talk about it in the context of marriage.
Speaker 1:Well, I think we've talked a lot about the same-sex. You know how they affect you, how your women affect you and how my guys affect me. I mean it's, yeah, like there's just that there's that challenge to grow and that challenge to be stronger. I think the opposite sex is an interesting conversation.
Speaker 1:This year I walked your best friend down the aisle and it was just one of the greatest privileges of my life to stand with her and to be in that moment with her.
Speaker 1:Her father passed away years ago I don't can't even remember when, but a long time ago, yeah, and so you know, because she was so close to you, I mean she's like a sister to me, and so I've spent a lot of time just hearing her journey and loving on her and her with me as well, and so I think there's a beautiful place when done in relationship for the opposite sex, cause I was able to come in like an older brother for her. Yeah, and, and those years when she didn't have a husband and she didn't have even brothers, she didn't have any brothers to really pull on. I mean, I was able to like, love on her and talk her through hard times. And I'm just thinking even your other girlfriends, like I've been able to, to love on them and and be a really a brother to them, yeah, and vice versa, you know, um summer and even michelle and um some of your other friends, have been such a great place of strength for me and encouragement.
Speaker 1:And it's just been a real big help in our life.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah, I think about how this is going to sound weird y'all. But welcome to the brain of Lauren Vallotton. I'm a six on the Enneagram. Lauren Vallotton, I'm a six on the Enneagram. I tend to think ahead into the future and consider what might come, which which isn't always actually super helpful, but, man, I'm usually prepared when stuff hits the fan. You know, I'm working on that. But we had this, I don't know. I was probably on my period or something, and I had I started crying, remember, and I was like you're like what's wrong? I'm like I don't know, I'm just, I'm just thinking about.
Speaker 2:it was before he went on a trip to Alaska, yeah, it was before he went on his two week trip to Alaska to go hunt like deadly animals. Anyways, I'm like I just feel like I want to ask you something because, like, if you ever died, like I want to ask you something because, like if you ever died, I would wonder what you thought I should do. But I wouldn't be able to ask you. So like if you ever die, god forbid like what do I do? I need to know what you would tell me to do. And I remember one of the first things you said was um, don't sell the house, get my dad and your dad to help you so that you don't have to sell the house.
Speaker 2:Yeah, get my dad and your dad to help you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So that you don't have to sell the house.
Speaker 1:And then don't make any big decisions, don't make any big decisions for one year. Yep.
Speaker 2:And financially do whatever Chris Lamb tells you to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, whatever Chris and Ted tell you to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, whatever Chris and Ted tell you to do, which are Chris and. Ted are two of Jason's best friends and their wives are good friends of mine. But I'll tell you what, like I don't wonder now, you know, I don't want to dwell too much on that and we're agreed that we're going to die at a ripe old age together, holding hands in bed, just like in the notebook.
Speaker 1:Who are not holding hands in bed?
Speaker 2:Okay, just like in the notebook who were not holding hands in bed, okay, well, anyways, god forbid, that would ever happen. But I'll tell you what there isn't. There is an actual piece that I get, knowing that if I was ever in need, I don't wonder who I would call yep there are.
Speaker 2:There is a, there's a richness to your friendships that extends to our family and our children, and it's such a blessing to know that there's other men actually in my life who care for me, who care for our kids, who would do anything for us, and I don't wonder, like, what would I do if I was in need? I'm like crying, I'm like this is the benefit I was in need.
Speaker 2:I'm like crying. This is the benefit. I'm like congested and crying. So I'm sorry Now I do sound very nasally, but I'm like there's a wealth there. You can't buy it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's really awesome. This year I had a really good friend of mine reach out and he said I'm doing a rite of passage for my son and I'm wondering if you'd write him a letter.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And it just was so awesome, you know, to write him that letter. And then I got to see him and tell him I'm here for you. Whatever you need in life, please come and ask me. And then we're getting ready for the Braveco conference this year and we do a rite of passage for young men 12 to 18 years old. And again, a lot of my friends, but a lot of their wives, are so excited about what we're building for their sons and I just think again, that's the benefit, that's the value of being in these relationships is sometimes I'm able to love and care and treat their wives like I would my sister and really love on them. And sometimes they're pouring into our life. I know when you were gone last year, um, even just with stuff with your mom, like a lot of women stepped up to help. Um, even when we had, you know, edie and Liam, like it was your girls that stepped up to come and help.
Speaker 1:And yeah come and help, and I mean just the. The value, the quality of life that you have is directly related to the community that you are in and the depth of your community, day in and day out.
Speaker 1:At the end of the day, you have to have this thing that you can't buy. You have to build you. It costs you something, it's your time, effort and energy. But you can't buy. You have to build you. It costs you something, it's your time, effort and energy. But you know if you, if you get to the end of your life, you're not going to care what's in your bank account, you're not going to care. You know about a lot of things. You're going to care. Really, who's there?
Speaker 1:and I know that we say that consciously, but that's very, very true. It's becoming more apparent. I mean, even, as you know, we we buried your mom last year, um, and all of our parents are getting older when we look at life, when we take a real look at life, the richness is coming from our friendships that we have, and that is an intentional build. It really is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the one last point that I think I'd love to make. We've touched on it a little bit, but just more specifically, I think that, as parents in the body of Christ, right Like, our aim is to raise children who know and fear the Lord. Your family is local.
Speaker 2:We have a lot of support from your parents and even your sister that doesn't live too far away. My brothers are scattered, my mom has died, my dad is on the East Coast, and so I really pull heavily on my friendships. You know, I would say that families with young children if you can figure out how to actually prioritize by weaving a rhythm of friendship and community into your daily life, you will be better for it. And it won't happen on accident, it requires, I mean, I have. So. A couple of my closest friends lead a ministry at our church called Life with Littles. It's a ministry specifically for moms of kids that are, well, it's littles and middles, so they, you know it. Just it got so big They've expanded it now to basically, if you're a mom at all, then you can be in this group.
Speaker 1:And that is a woman thing to do.
Speaker 2:Well, the wild thing is is that, I mean, arguably the most important demographic in our church is. Well, I should say this the demographic in our church who will play the greatest role in the longevity of our church and of the health of our community are families with young children. Right, we're raising these kids in church. And the isolation that young moms feel in particular is out of control through the roof.
Speaker 2:The isolation of the season of child rearing is wild, and so I have come to respect so much the priority of our church on making sure that this ministry thrives. Um, and the magic that happens in a space where moms connect and are equipped and actually lean on each other for even their parenting and even their navigating tough times with their children or their spouses. It's just absolutely irreplaceable. And what it? What it reminds me is just that. Um, it reminds me of an ep.
Speaker 2:The episode that we did earlier it one of the earliest 2025 episodes was with a woman named Erica Komisar, and she was talking about how you know the importance of the bond and the nurture that is formed between a mother and a child, or the primary caregiver and a baby in the in the early years, zero to three, and how you know, when you're in the intensity of that season that is essentially one-on-one, 24-7, mother and baby, or primary caregiver and baby, whatever you have to. And she was talking about the importance of community. For the mother in that season to do well with her family is so significant and so as isolating as as it can be to be a mom of young children or a father of young children. I think my like encouragement to anybody listening is it is worth reorganizing priorities in life to build rhythms of connection and community in life to build rhythms of connection and community.
Speaker 2:You know, having other families over for dinner, finding uh other moms or dads who you can take your kids to the park with, helping your children build friendship with other parents in your community and teaching our families how to have friendships together and how to include each other in our daily lives and rhythms I mean these are irreplaceable gifts that you'll pull on, that we pull on regularly in our life and I think it would be worth any reorganizing, any reprioritizing that you have to do in order to protect it, aside from protecting your connection with your spouse and your children, obviously primarily.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:I would say. Third would be prioritizing connection with community.
Speaker 1:Yeah, covenant friendships. It's true, this is the. It's the best thing that you'll build outside of your marriage, and your relationship with your kids is your friend group. So, guys, we hope that you enjoyed this podcast and, uh, if you did go ahead and send it to someone, if you've got someone that you're looking at and you're like gosh, that's the loneliest person in the world you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, yeah, like and subscribe the podcast, share it if you're interested. And, hey, listen everybody. I want to let you know, um, jason and I love creating this content so much. We've recently created a Patreon account that's listed in the show notes. If you love this content, you can help us prioritize creating content by becoming a part of our team, and we'd love for you to visit the Patreon link in the show notes, um, and consider supporting this podcast to help us keep creating great content for you. All right, have a great week.