What's in Your Spiritual "Toolbox" When Life Gets Tough?

Picture this: You're facing a moment where your patience is threadbare, your emotions are surging, and the world seems determined to push all your buttons. What spiritual resources do you reach for first? In this candid conversation, we explore the must-have items in every Christian's spiritual toolbox—those go-to practices, verses, and mindsets that help us navigate both storms and smooth sailing.

From the power of "heavenly language" that brings unexpected peace in tense moments to maintaining an open dialogue with God throughout your day (think of it as constantly texting your best friend), we unpack practical ways to access divine help when you need it most. We explore how specific scripture verses like 2 Corinthians 5:17 can transform your perspective, why putting on the full armor of God daily isn't optional, and how trusted friends who "sharpen your iron" make all the difference.

The conversation takes fascinating turns as we discuss the challenge of leaving work stress at the door, finding the balance between patience and appropriate self-advocacy, and why God cares more about your heart attitude than your perfect performance. Whether you're a seasoned believer or just exploring faith, these practical spiritual tools offer real help for real life.

Transcript

Spiritual Hammers and Toolboxes

Speaker 1 0:37

Well, I'd say they're different Disperse, disperse, disperse, yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 0:46

We're on, just so you know. But, Beth, are they nurses? That weren't? Is it a nursing position? That's not. Medical assistants Okay.

Speaker 3 0:57

And the pay is so different compared to other areas.

Speaker 2 1:01

Yes, that's what I was thinking.

Speaker 3 1:04

And that's what hurts.

Speaker 2 1:07

Yeah, I mean even you know, like I think, a lot of people from Philly and Dover area. If I lived in Philly or Dover I would probably travel to Canton just to get, you know, five bucks more an hour, whatever it may be. But my neighbor that I was just telling you about, she's getting, gosh, what'd she say? $13 more an hour just going to Union. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 1:32

And that's going to Dover. You know what I mean. But they're hard to work for, though. I'm sure yeah, I am sure We've had a lot come back from there Really. I am sure We've had a lot come back from there Really.

Speaker 4 1:49

Is your mic working?

Speaker 3 1:50

I don't know, is it?

Speaker 1 1:52

Yeah, it's working.

Speaker 4 1:56

I couldn't hear her the way I can hear you two.

Speaker 3 1:58

Well, I never talk right into mine, okay.

Speaker 2 2:00

Let me see, keep talking. Beth, say something. Hello, is that better?

Speaker 4 2:06

You just sat a little farther away, that's all.

Speaker 2 2:09

I did have to change my ears or something earlier, so I wasn't sure if something else needed adjusted to.

Speaker 1 2:19

So you're pushing buttons? Huh, not pushing turning.

Speaker 3 2:23

I hope you guys have got a lot to talk about and we don't get to me because I've stumbled all over this one well, well, you've got way more than what I've got hey, some of mine really just came to me this afternoon, so I was actually ready.

Speaker 3 2:37

I was ready, I mean I thought I was ready and then wasn't ready did you do the right one I think so, that would be me, I mean, I think so, I did well, I just was a little like I said, I was a little confused on which direction you were going with. Well, it was abroad. You know, I always like to leave the beauty of it.

Speaker 4 2:59

Yeah, I like to things leave things open to how you want to approach it, because maybe that makes it interesting if we approach it from a different direction.

Speaker 4 3:07

But, yeah, I was just thinking about, okay, you know, if you only have five takeaways or five things, you know that you could put in your toolbox those five things that you use most often let's say it's on your top drawer of your toolbox that when you're going through life, either if things are going tough or perhaps when things are going good, what are those things that you feel like you constantly use in your daily life? If it's prayer, if it's like I said, if there's a certain book of the Bible you go back to that gives you strength, that gives you guidance, just anything like that. So it could be a mix of the two. Maybe here's a couple things that you know when things are going good and I'm appreciative of. But okay then, yep, then I got to have a couple things for things aren't going so good. So, yeah, you don't have to. You don't have to be set on any one thing. You don't have to.

Speaker 1 4:00

You don't have to be set on any one thing. Yeah, See you got it covered.

Speaker 3 4:03

I do, he covered it all. I don't have to talk anymore.

Speaker 2 4:11

Roger, what do you have?

Speaker 1 4:14

I got a hammer, a screwdriver and pliers.

Speaker 2 4:17

Well, what is your hammer? What is your hammer? I guess we should say what is your spiritual hammer?

Speaker 1 4:22

Yeah, I guess it should say what is your spiritual hammer?

Speaker 3 4:26

Yeah, I guess it would be my heavenly language.

Speaker 2 4:30

Oh, that's good.

Speaker 3 4:31

Yeah, I like that.

Speaker 1 4:33

I like that too. You know that hammers down the enemy all the time. So yeah, okay, that's it, that's it. That's all we get. Okay, that's it, that's it. That's all we got. That's all we got I'm going to take a nap.

Speaker 2 4:46

Wait, you said, your hammer, yeah, your tool belt, wait a minute.

Speaker 4 4:50

Yeah, wait a minute.

Speaker 2 4:52

I want to know more about this language.

Speaker 4 4:53

Yeah, Give us an example.

Speaker 1 4:59

Well, I mean, you know a lot of times if I'm having trouble doing something, I just you know a lot of times when you're having difficulty doing something, it's wanting you to lose your temper, get excited, start swearing. You know anything to be on his side, and so you know a lot of times I'll just start talking to the Lord in my heavenly language and then, I don't know, kind's kind of like a peace comes over you.

Speaker 4 5:43

Self-control yeah.

Speaker 1 5:48

And, believe me, sometimes I have a real hard time with self-control. Depends on the situation. But then, if you do lose self-control, but then if you do lose self-control after you've come back down to earth, you think you know why did I? You know that was about the dumbest thing you could have did. You should have just prayed about it more, longer and harder. But sometimes situations come up where you've got to think right now instead of pondering on it. But there again, that's where it comes. Engage your brain. Before you open your mouth, think about what you're going to say. Who's it going to hurt? Is it going to say? Who's it going to hurt? Is it going to hurt you? Is it going to hurt somebody else?

Speaker 4 6:48

Well, that lines up with one of mine, but I couldn't put it into words because I was thinking about is it prayer? And then, the more I thought about it, I'm like well, it's not quite prayer, because to me it's almost like it's having an open dialogue with the Lord at all times. So it's not like setting myself up for prayer and privacy or taking the time to get in the moment and making time for prayer as most of us do, but it's one of those things like you're saying, roger, like you're in a situation where you know, you become aware, you're in the moment and you don't want to act out, even though if inside you might be just bubbling at the top. But that's when you start having that inner dialogue with the Lord, almost as he's walking with you through that situation.

Speaker 1 7:45

Yeah, and you really don't have to say it to where anybody else can hear you. You know you can say it in your mind because the Lord, you know he knows all about us. So you know he's going to read your mind and see how you're feeling and and asking. You're asking him for, for guidance, yeah, oh, and you're letting him take control of the situation.

Speaker 4 8:07

You know you're not.

Speaker 4 8:08

You're not trying to control the whole situation yeah, you know he's there with you and it's almost as if you know he's your right hand man in that situation so he can help you, he can guide you to say the right things, he can give you that you know self-control to where you know. Hey, there's been plenty of times for me like I'll go through that situation and, like I said inside, bubbling at the top. Uh, so I may, after it's all over, I may go in private and vent a little bit, right, because you can't hold everything right forever.

Speaker 2 8:41

I mean it's all over.

Speaker 3 8:41

I may go in private and vent a little bit Right, because you can't hold everything in forever.

Speaker 4 8:43

I mean, it's just not humanly possible to hold in all your emotions all the time and it's probably not healthy to do that. But you can wait sometimes to your private and then you can go what in the world was that all about? And you can maybe say a few words and kind of get the anger out, get the frustration out. Maybe say a few words and kind of get the anger out, get the frustration out. But in the moment, especially if you're in a leader-type position, if people are looking to you for guidance, as you said, if you lose self-control, then everybody's going to the whole situation can only get worse once you lose it.

Speaker 3 9:17

It escalates from there.

Speaker 4 9:19

Yeah. And for me sometimes that's the only thing stopping me is just having that open dialogue. You know where Jesus is always riding shotgun.

Speaker 3 9:29

Yeah, that's your personal relationship with him. Yeah, you're always communicating with him. It doesn't necessarily have to be in prayer, but you're always. Yeah.

Speaker 2 9:38

So that's definitely in my top five yeah, so that's definitely in my top five. Um when?

Speaker 2 9:46

when you always say open dialogue it, it makes me think of like an open diary, like you know, just writing to him or something, and and have you guys watched both of the stitches, the original and then the new one? So the original Lilo is saying to the guy like yeah, my sister, she likes your hair. And he's like oh, did she tell you that? And she's like, well, no, I read it in her diary. But then in the new one it's like yeah, she, you know, she, she likes your hair. And he's like well, did she tell you that? He's like, well, no, I read her text messages, you know. So I'm like, okay, open dialogue. Like if a younger person needs to try to I don't know, um, break it down, some like it's almost like you're writing to him every day or texting him all day, every day, like you're texting your boyfriend all day, every day, probably you know like that's, that's the way they should be looking at it.

Speaker 4 10:38

You know that's a great example. I'm sure plenty of people you know they're having a tough day. They're in the moment and at the same time, they're probably texting whoever saying this is a bunch of yes or yeah and venting to whoever it is yeah it is on their phone. Meanwhile they're not.

Heavenly Language as a Spiritual Tool

Speaker 2 10:54

They're not venting to the one person they should be well and not only actually help them yeah, and not only like even you know, I'm sure margie doesn't 100 understand all of the issues that go on at your work, but she tries to understand. But it's like if you would at least vent to both of them, you know, like to margie and god, like he might be able to help you a little more because he actually knows 100 where you're coming from.

Speaker 4 11:18

You know what I mean yeah, well, yeah, he knows, he knows you inside now. Yeah, he knows what emotions you're coming from, you know what.

Speaker 2 11:22

I mean. Yeah, well, yeah, he knows you inside and out.

Speaker 4 11:22

Yeah, he knows what emotions you're struggling with. He knows exactly why you're struggling with it, Mm-hmm. So yeah, he knows your strengths and your weaknesses and just having that open dialogue he can make up for a lot of those weaknesses when you're going through those moments.

Speaker 2 11:39

Yeah.

Speaker 4 11:43

So, yeah, that definitely for me is, so we thought about that a little bit differently but more or less it's the same thing.

Speaker 1 11:48

Yeah, same thing, only different, right?

Speaker 4 11:51

yeah, yeah oh, I was thinking of um. Was it john deere when he said only smaller?

Speaker 1 12:00

Yeah, yeah, oh, it's green. Yeah yeah, that was a dumb commercial. They're all dumb, they are.

Speaker 2 12:14

Yeah, Seems like they just keep getting worse too.

Speaker 1 12:21

Somebody didn't know what they were talking about. They said to scratch your head and say that was a waste of three minutes.

Speaker 3 12:27

And I do that sometimes I have no idea what they're talking about.

Speaker 1 12:33

What is that about? Somebody got paid to come up. I'm in the wrong business. I could act stupid and get paid big bucks.

Speaker 2 12:41

And someone paid to put this on.

Speaker 4 12:43

Yeah, somebody looked at that and said that is fantastic. We've got to put that out right now.

Speaker 1 12:49

That's what's wrong with the country?

Speaker 4 12:50

right now. We can't do any better than that right there.

Speaker 1 12:52

That's what's wrong with the country right now. Oh, yeah, okay, that's cool, yeah, we'll do that. Okay, what's the consequences? Truth or consequences? Oh, that's probably before your time when Sid.

Speaker 3 13:10

Yeah, I know about it Okay.

Speaker 2 13:15

What's it from?

Speaker 1 13:17

It was a TV show.

Speaker 2 13:18

Oh, that was a TV show. That's what it was called.

Speaker 1 13:20

Yeah.

Speaker 2 13:21

Like a game show. Oh, that was a TV show, that's what it was called, yeah.

Speaker 1 13:26

True Consequences Like a game show, yeah, okay.

Speaker 4 13:29

Like Lawrence Welk, lawrence Welk yeah.

Speaker 1 13:32

You never watched Lawrence Welk.

Speaker 4 13:35

Isn't he on like at 3 am?

Speaker 1 13:37

Well, he is now, Before he was prime time On an actual cable Every Sunday at 7 o'clock. Big time wrestling Saturday nights.

Speaker 4 13:52

That I remember.

Speaker 1 13:54

That I miss. That was the only TV that my grandfather would ever watch.

Speaker 4 13:57

Just wrestling.

Speaker 1 13:59

Yeah, he was from the old country. He was from Slovakia and he spoke very little English. But Saturday night he knew when wrestling was on. He'd be in the room just baiting on the couch.

Speaker 2 14:15

Speaking his heavenly language.

Speaker 4 14:20

Heavenly headlock yeah.

Speaker 2 14:33

Excellent, heavenly headlock, yeah, excellent, all right, so you got one? Um, yeah, a little bit. So the first one was second corinthians 517 um, that is the first bible verse that I learned. I think I was like seven or eight, but I think it was during summer break maybe, but it was with my grandpa and I don't know. I just always go back to it because it I'll read it. Let's see 2 Corinthians 5, 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come, which the one that I memorized wasn't this version, you know. Um, it was like behold, all things have become new. Um, but I don't know. It just makes you never lose hope and faith because you know you're, you're a new creation, like it doesn't matter what your past was or you know what you. I'm not saying you should use your salvation, um as like loosely loosely, yeah, like to your advantage.

Speaker 2 15:29

But if you, you know, if you do happen to mess up like he's always there to you know, hold out his lending hand to us and forgive us, and when we don't deserve that whatsoever.

Speaker 4 15:43

So if we haven't used our heavenly language that day, we need to. We should I mean, we still have opportunity.

Speaker 2 15:51

Yeah.

Speaker 4 15:51

Nothing's ever lost on a bad day. Yeah, we still have that opportunity in the morning to start all over again. Try to get it right and he'll be right there. Ryan shotgun again.

Speaker 2 16:02

Yeah.

Speaker 4 16:03

He doesn't say well, I need a—Jesus never says I need a break from you for a while. You're just too much for me right now.

Speaker 1 16:09

You're way too much, I can't handle you?

Speaker 4 16:13

Yeah, he doesn't do that.

Speaker 1 16:14

I'm going to put you in timeout. Yeah, don't do anything. Yeah, yeah, anything, yeah, yeah, let me rest, just put your head down that's what I was, like my, my grandma was.

Speaker 2 16:23

Like you cannot, like you can't keep your eyes off of like you do, you will turn around for one second. Cooper is putting a worm in his mouth, or you know? I was just dealing with that too.

Speaker 4 16:34

Huh, oh, yeah, yeah, our granddaughter right now yeah he did it. She was outside yesterday, put picked up a rock sure right in her mouth.

Speaker 1 16:41

Yep, rock candy yeah, yeah, up a rock Sure Right in her mouth. Yep, rock candy.

Speaker 2 16:44

Yeah, yeah, I said did you just put that in your mouth Because we were fishing? And he's like so then I had to huck it out with my finger. You know I'm like yeah, but yeah.

Speaker 4 16:58

That's good protein. They're so quick.

Speaker 1 16:59

They are. That's good protein.

Speaker 2 16:59

They're so quick, they are so quick.

Speaker 1 17:04

He's a trip, yes, he is, she couldn't get over when worship started Sunday him dancing.

Speaker 2 17:14

Yeah, he was a handful Sunday. I apologize to everyone.

Speaker 3 17:19

Oh, we love watching, I know.

Speaker 2 17:23

We're in the weird spot. I don't wake him up like in the mornings. You know if he either wakes up at seven or eight, you know it's one or the other, but if it's seven, typically on sundays, I'm like I don't know if we should go to church. Because it's well, we decided to go this weekend he doesn't have his hourly break-in nap, or yeah, yeah because he was starting to like act tired, basically when we were getting ready to leave and I'm like, oh, here we go, here we go.

Speaker 4 17:49

Was he trying to start a mosh pit at church?

Speaker 2 17:52

Yeah, yeah, he had two flags out and then he does the whole thing where he you know when you go grab him and he just like deadweights. I'm like, oh, the whole thing where he you know when you went go grab him and he just like dead weights. My grandma's like you're gonna have to start sitting up front because he just keeps running up there like I know.

Open Dialogue with God Daily

Speaker 2 18:12

Oh, he needs to sit down no, it's, it's cool, like I don't know um resembling or almost like, looking at him and thinking about the way you acted. Well, no, but almost like I'm, you know, I am him and the the lord is me, you know, like trying to constantly parent me, you know yeah yeah, corral. Yeah, not Sometimes, not in the moment, because I'm like, but then looking back, like now, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 18:47

That's a good way of looking at it. Yeah, yeah, we are his children, yep, you know. So I mean, we're going to, no matter how old we are.

Speaker 1 18:55

Yeah.

Speaker 4 18:56

We still belong to him. We're still his child. That's right. We act like children.

Speaker 1 19:04

Mm 10, we're still as child, that's right we we act like children, yeah, and we don't get our way.

Speaker 2 19:06

Yeah, very selfish, yeah, selfish pout, I think a lot of people, especially when they don't get their way and oh well, god didn't do this for me so I'm not gonna follow him like. That is so childish, yeah yeah, yeah do we want to do like one out of maybe have like I've got a few more, but I'm wondering, should we go in a circle?

Speaker 4 19:23

I might be able to segue into that a little bit.

Speaker 4 19:25

Yeah, one of my favorite books is Ephesians and I love the armor of God.

Speaker 4 19:30

I like to go back to that a lot of the time and, as you were saying, you know, sometimes we pout, we don't get our way and we can get depressed.

Speaker 4 19:43

Make no mistake, just because you're a Christian doesn't mean that you never get depressed, that you don't get sad, that you don't have weaknesses. And that's why the armor of God is so important, because, as it says, you want to put on that armor of God every day. And there's a reason for that. Is that because you want to be able to deflect all the things coming at you in life and you just can't do it without that armor. You can try your best, but you just can't do it on your own. And I'm thankful that I look to that because, as I said, just because you're a faithful Christian and you're doing the best you can, it doesn't mean that you can go through hard times. You can face things like depression and just feeling like your life's not going the way you want it to go. For me it just seems like over the last couple of weeks I've just felt just like just down, and I don't even want to say it's depression, but it feels like depression.

Speaker 2 20:53

It's the weather changing and it could be.

Speaker 4 20:55

Yeah, but I just don't quite feel like myself and so it's like, okay, so you're open to all these. You know attacks and things keep happening. And you know, attacks and things keep happening, and you know, and you don't behave the way you would normally behave. But I'm always thankful for that armor of God because I can look at a lot of situations and go well, without that, how much worse would it be. You know, then I probably, you know, wouldn't be handling some things as well as I could, and sometimes it's like I'm not even handling it, maybe, as I should.

Speaker 4 21:33

I'm not at a hundred percent, you know, but I still got that armor on.

Speaker 3 21:37

Yeah.

Speaker 4 21:38

So I'm taking hits, I'm taking damage, but it could be a lot worse, I think, if I wasn't a Christian and trying to live that life and having that. But it could be a lot worse, I think, if I wasn't a Christian trying to live that life and trying to have that focus on things, then I feel I would be not using the spiritual language.

Speaker 4 21:54

I wouldn't have that open dialogue and then I would be lashing out at people. I would be not handling things correctly. But in battle, I mean, you're always going to take, you know you're always going to take hits, you're always going to take damage and um it's. It's impossible not to Um, but those blows don't hurt as bad, I think if you do if you are putting on that armor of God every day?

Speaker 4 22:23

you know eventually, you know you'll, you know you'll come out of it. Things will get better, things will get back to normal, whatever the situation might be. But that book in particular I just have always found very helpful for just keeping that singular idea in mind that every day, when you go out, there you know if you're leaving the house without your armor, which which is your relationship with christ yep, you leave the house without it yeah it's just yep.

Speaker 4 22:54

Hell only knows you're in trouble, you're in trouble so, uh, I just I just think that's an important idea, and a lot of things in that book are just it's more of a, uh, it's more than what. I think more of a, I think more of the inspirational ones.

Speaker 3 23:09

Yeah.

Speaker 4 23:11

So I think it's important to I like to go back to that one quite a bit, so that book alone would be top shelf for me.

Speaker 2 23:23

Beth, did you have something to add about the?

Speaker 3 23:26

Well, that's my first fool in my box. Yeah, the armor of God.

Speaker 2 23:30

I saw her go ah.

Speaker 3 23:32

There's a segue in here I mean because I mean it covers everything.

Speaker 4 23:37

Yeah.

Speaker 3 23:38

You've got your Bible, your sword, you know, and the helmet of salvation. Sometimes I'm like I get my head wrapped around things. I'm like, oh, oh, wait a minute, let me buckle this down tight, you know, and yeah, so I can keep godly thoughts on things instead of especially at work, when you're challenged with yeah, you know yeah yeah, problem is sometimes I I'm gonna be honest, we want to get real.

Speaker 4 24:06

Sometimes, before I go in the house, I take off my armor.

Speaker 2 24:09

Yeah.

Speaker 4 24:10

And then I go in the house and perhaps I don't treat Margie so well. Maybe I'm quiet, maybe I'm. It's like when you finally step off the battlefield, it's like you take your armor off yeah. And then all of a sudden, sometimes it can all like. That's when it hits you. Creep up and then again you start treating the people that love you. They get, you know they get.

Speaker 3 24:31

The short end of the stick. Yeah.

Speaker 4 24:34

Or they get, you know, all the comments that you've held in all day.

Speaker 2 24:37

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 24:37

They're the ones that get it. They're the ones that get to see you be tired. Because, when I'm at work I'm like I don't show that I'm frustrated, I don't show that I'm tired. I don't show any of those emotions whatsoever. I don't allow myself to do that. So when I walk through the door.

Speaker 2 24:51

Even if you're ready to blow up, you know.

Speaker 4 24:54

Yeah, then it's like that's when it all starts pouring out, and that's not really fair yeah.

Speaker 2 24:59

I was thinking that yesterday, like when I came home, like it's not fair that I bring this, you know, like I think I should feel it, but maybe I need to just feel it on my way home, or something like feel it the first 10 minutes and then, you know, maybe just let go and turn on some christian music or something. The rest of the time.

Speaker 1 25:17

You know that's. That's something I never did. What take work home?

Speaker 2 25:21

yeah, as far as you know attitude I think that's. I think it's hard like it's, like it's hard to do that you know to um, to just drop it at the door. Like and I definitely envy people that are able to do it, because, yeah.

Speaker 3 25:45

Yeah, you know when you get home.

Speaker 4 25:47

You still got things you have to do.

Speaker 2 25:49

You still got.

Speaker 4 25:50

You know, you still have to give your family time. You know, you have to do all those things.

Speaker 2 25:55

You can't just get home and those cats of yours, you have to give them time. Yeah, I got to scoot cat letter.

Speaker 4 26:04

So that's that's what makes it hard is you can's like, even when you get home, you've got to keep going, you've got to keep the armor on, and that gets hard to do and I fail at that sometimes. Failing at that right now, as a matter of fact, just because you know, just like you said, before I go in the house it's like, oh, I'll take my armor off before I go in.

Speaker 1 26:25

Maybe you should practice. If you're going to take it off, just leave one piece on. Yeah.

Speaker 3 26:32

Yeah.

Speaker 1 26:34

And then the next day leave two pieces on.

Speaker 3 26:38

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 1 26:40

That's a good thought.

Speaker 2 26:41

Yeah, that is a good idea.

Speaker 1 26:42

Yeah, you know if that's what you're doing, you know.

Speaker 4 26:46

Yeah, you know if that's you know if that's what you're doing, you know, or perhaps it's just that piece that's most essential to whatever's.

Speaker 2 26:53

At home, you know yeah.

Speaker 1 26:55

Well then, maybe you just better leave it all on.

Speaker 4 27:00

It's very hard to sleep in armor, though.

The Armor of God for Daily Protection

Speaker 3 27:03

I find that sometimes when I come home from work, if I just take five minutes and sit in the car with it turned off and just breathe, and maybe listen to a song, or just take that five minutes before I walk in and leave it in the car or whatever you know, yeah. But if you're out there alone with it five minutes, or the dog's looking out the window, Jarvis is like is everything all right?

Speaker 4 27:28

Yeah, Jarvis is like is everything all right yeah?

Speaker 3 27:32

But sometimes that does help. It's just like five minutes of peace and quiet here.

Speaker 1 27:37

Decompress.

Speaker 2 27:38

Especially when you've probably been running all day, you know.

Speaker 4 27:42

Oh yeah, because that's what I mean All the adrenaline stops, mm-hmm you know everything just kind of settles and then it's like everything that you've held back all day sometimes can just kind of like. You can almost just feel it like oozing down from your head to your toes.

Speaker 4 27:58

And it just goes over your whole body and then it's like you need some recovery time. Sometimes that's hard to get but, like I said, I can be very guilty of not that I'm being intentionally, I'm not being mean or I'm not being, but it's just like I guess the best way to say is I'm being vulnerable for the first time and other people can see it and it doesn't make them feel good. It doesn't make them feel good, it doesn't make them happy. So you just think like okay, you know how can I at least have a little more control over, like you said, not taking it home with me?

Speaker 2 28:34

Yeah. You know, because it has no place, it doesn't have any place in the home, if you think about it, but that's hard. And that's what the devil wants, you know. He wants us to take it home that way it yeah you know stirs up relationship issues and everything else.

Speaker 4 28:52

Yeah, yeah so, yeah, that's a never-ending, never-ending struggle. You got anything else to add to the armor there, beth?

Speaker 2 29:04

no, I'll think well, beth was talking about, you know, spending the five minutes and in your car and just either in the quiet or putting music on it, and I put like my spotify playlist. I like to just turn that on sometimes or I've, um, I've had 95.9 on my typically. I have like 99.9 on my typically. I have like 99.9 on just because it's like I like country music. It's not too profanity, you know what I mean. And but I had 95.9 on one time, I don't know, probably three weeks ago and might've been longer than that, and like I just haven't changed it, you know, and it's like it's just refreshing, like Cooper hears the songs and like knows half of them, you know. So it's, I don't know, it's a brush, a breath of fresh air compared to some of you know 92.5, where it's like vulgar and it had to be something that bob ross said a brush of fresh air.

Speaker 2 30:01

Yes, yes I'm messing it up too yeah, but I mean I gosh, I haven't even listened to 92.5 and forever. But when I'm when I'm like seeking through the um channels and sometimes I hear just even just the the sound of someone's voice on there and I'm like, nah, it's just always vulgar no, no, 94.1 is not bad either. But yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 4 30:31

I just usually listen to the Tusk Yep, and it's you know, they always have something good on there.

Speaker 2 30:36

That's what we listen to at work, yeah.

Speaker 4 30:41

Yeah.

Speaker 1 30:43

Do they still have dial-a-deal on there?

Speaker 2 30:46

I have no idea. Is that the lunch deal thing, where your workplace gets the lunch?

Speaker 3 30:51

No, no, we're old Roger. I guess we're still in our age. Facebook market state and care.

Speaker 1 30:58

Well, yeah, that's true.

Speaker 3 31:00

Dial-a-deal was, you would call in and you'd advertise whatever you had.

Speaker 4 31:04

Oh, that's right yeah, and you would give them like your number, oh okay, you're not arrested, that's right.

Speaker 3 31:10

But I bet, yeah, I bet, these new phones have wiped out.

Speaker 4 31:13

Totally Uh-huh, I forgot about that.

Speaker 2 31:16

Like a newspaper ad, but it's on the radio instead. Huh See, they're getting a little history I am.

Speaker 3 31:25

They would do that, that, and then they would read all the obituaries.

Speaker 4 31:27

Yeah, read all the obituaries they say memory unlocked.

Speaker 1 31:35

See, I'm good for something yeah.

Speaker 4 31:43

All right, somebody else. So that's what.

Speaker 2 31:47

Two for me, that's two for me.

Speaker 4 31:50

Two for Two, for you got another one, raj.

Speaker 1 31:57

No, well, you know, you could take your pliers.

Speaker 2 32:05

Yes.

Speaker 1 32:07

That's in my toolbox.

Speaker 2 32:08

And what do you do with your pliers? Yes, that's in my toolbox, and what do you?

Speaker 1 32:12

do with your pliers, your spiritual pliers, Everything that comes at you. That's of the enemy. You take your pliers and I know that's of the enemy you just squeeze it, snip it away. Like a pair of scissors. Yeah, just snip it off. Squeeze it Like a pair of scissors yeah, you know, just snip it off, yep. Okay, what do you think of me now?

Speaker 2 32:34

I like that.

Speaker 4 32:36

You just strike back, yeah, before it gets too big, that's right, yeah, cut the head of the snake off, mm-hmm yeah. I'm trying to think of one of those alien movies where it starts out small and grows the blob.

Speaker 1 32:50

That's old.

Speaker 4 32:51

Yeah, they should have got that blob when it was you know.

Speaker 2 32:54

Yeah.

Speaker 4 32:55

Still able to spit inside of a can.

Speaker 1 32:56

Have you ever seen the black and white blob? No, oh jeez. When you were a kid, did you ever watch gulardi?

Speaker 4 33:09

yes, of course. I think I was leaning more towards the son of ghoul by that time oh, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, but I know what you're talking big chuck and hula hand oh yeah, oh yeah you guys are speaking a foreign language right now for me, yeah, I even feel old on this one. Big Chuck and Little John. Never heard of Big Chuck and Little John. They're straight out of Cleveland.

Speaker 2 33:35

Yeah, really I don't know. Let me look them up.

Speaker 3 33:39

They like critique the movie that came on at what? Yeah, and of course it'd be a ridiculous movie that they could laugh through and tell jokes and Gilardi.

Speaker 4 33:50

Yeah, they're like local legends.

Speaker 2 33:52

Oh, yeah, yeah, Okay, yep.

Speaker 4 33:54

Yeah.

Speaker 2 33:55

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 33:56

Now you look it up on Google.

Speaker 2 34:02

I'm terrible with names, like first off, but I looked up the picture of them, yeah.

Speaker 1 34:07

Well, you know what they look like now. Huh, yeah, okay, yeah.

Speaker 4 34:10

Yeah, little John had that laugh.

Speaker 1 34:12

Yeah, how tall is Little John.

Speaker 4 34:16

He's still around right. I don't know. I think he's still hanging on.

Speaker 3 34:20

Was he about what? 4'10".

Speaker 4 34:22

Yeah 4'10".

Speaker 1 34:23

That's why they called him Little John.

Speaker 2 34:26

Do you know when the first episode was?

Speaker 1 34:29

No.

Speaker 2 34:29

Do you want to take a guess?

Speaker 1 34:31

No 71.

Speaker 3 34:35

I was going to say 60.

Speaker 2 34:36

79, actually September 2nd. Was that a year ago, gosh? Yesterday would have been the anniversary of how many years I can't do the math.

Speaker 4 34:49

I can't do that math 2025.

Speaker 1 34:53

Oh, there you go.

Speaker 2 34:55

Not today, it is 46. 46th anniversary yesterday.

Speaker 1 35:01

Yeah, see.

Speaker 4 35:01

Well, I guess I could have done the math because I was born in 79. I had to do it. My goodness See, I said not today.

Speaker 2 35:10

Do you know when the last episode was?

Speaker 1 35:13

Yesterday Yesterday no.

Speaker 3 35:16

Probably about what? 1982?

Speaker 4 35:18

No, no, no, no, no, no. They went clear in the 2000?

Speaker 2 35:23

They went clear in the 2000. Uh-huh.

Speaker 3 35:25

I just must have said I wasn't going to watch them after that.

Speaker 2 35:27

But what year after 2000? 2003. Seven Wow. No way June too, like June 17th. That's crazy.

Speaker 4 35:38

There's your local history, yep, this episode. Ladies and gentlemen, 28 seasons.

Speaker 2 35:42

it says yeah.

Speaker 3 35:43

Well, you must have still had to have antenna to get them, because I don't remember them on cable anymore.

Speaker 4 35:48

Yeah, they died. When cable died, I'm sure.

Speaker 1 35:52

When cable died, you mean, when TV antennas died.

Speaker 4 35:54

Yeah, no, I enjoyed watching that as a kid. There were little skits and everything. Oh yeah, it was good stuff.

Speaker 1 36:02

You know why they took Gilardi off of the air Because he did too much violence.

Speaker 4 36:09

There's too many violent movies. Movies, or would they do violence in his little skits?

Speaker 1 36:14

He'd blow stuff up, yeah.

Speaker 3 36:16

Boy, if they only knew what the TV was going to become now.

Speaker 1 36:19

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 36:20

Yeah.

Speaker 1 36:23

They're not allowed to show Tom and Jerry, because there's too much violence in that cartoons.

Speaker 4 36:27

Yeah Right, boy, you know they're not allowed to show Tom and Jerry because there's too much violence in that cartoon.

Speaker 1 36:30

Yeah right, oh boy, it's all in what you want to see them, mm-hmm.

Speaker 3 36:35

So I was going to say my second one, which is actually part of the armor, which is your sword. You know your Bible, but my two favorite verses is Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ, and Psalms 46, be still, Be still and know I am God.

Speaker 4 37:05

Because when.

Speaker 1 37:06

I can get all wrapped up.

Speaker 4 37:07

He's like simmer it down there, Patience, Patience was on my list.

Speaker 1 37:09

That's why he gives you that five minutes after work, when you get home, he allows you to just to.

Speaker 2 37:20

Sometimes that's just exactly what I do. I just take a good deep breath and just let it go.

Speaker 3 37:25

Yeah.

Speaker 4 37:27

Patience.

Speaker 3 37:33

I get anymore stray cats hollering at the car door for me hurry up, feed me, feed me, oh please I've got.

Speaker 1 37:37

I've got three at work. You want to stop on your way home and feed them? No, there's. There's food there. All you gotta do is just put it out for them listen, mine won't even eat dry food anymore.

Speaker 3 37:45

I I have to buy them canned.

Speaker 4 37:47

Oh man, Big mistake.

Speaker 2 37:50

Yeah, big mistake.

Speaker 4 37:53

Rookie mistake and ones of ours at work.

Speaker 1 37:56

they'll eat anything. Put chicken bones out. Oh yeah, I mean we put stuff out, scraps in that after lunch and stuff.

Speaker 4 38:08

We got a couple that beg at the table. It's ridiculous. Let's look up at you.

Speaker 3 38:14

Cats that beg at the table. Oh yeah, they'll beg just like a dog.

Speaker 4 38:18

Yeah.

Speaker 2 38:19

Zara's begging right now with Cooper. It is absolutely insane. It drives me insane.

Speaker 1 38:25

Does Cooper feed him?

Speaker 2 38:27

I mean, yeah, cooper throws food, yeah, Sure, so we have to keep them separated, because then I'm like you know, sometimes when he's eating lunch I'll be doing something else, and then I turn around and his food's gone. I'm like, okay, but did you eat it or did you give it to Zara? So now, that's a whole thing. Got to pay attention more. Oh, that's a whole thing.

Speaker 1 38:47

Got to pay attention more. That's pretty sad when you got to separate the dog, I know. The dog was.

Speaker 2 38:51

Yeah. And then you tell Zara, go, go Zara. And then because I'm like, okay, I'll be nice, I won't lock her in because we've got a baby gate from the living room to the kitchen, I'm like I'll be nice, I won't lock her in. And there she is, two, two seconds later I'm like what did I just tell you?

Speaker 3 39:05

Go Well, at least she waits for him to feed him. Mine just reaches up and takes it right off. Oh well, yeah, she can do that sometimes, but yeah, and at seven years old, I just look at him and I said there's no hope.

Speaker 2 39:21

No, that's how she is.

Speaker 3 39:23

I've never had a dog quite as challenging as this one is.

Speaker 1 39:29

You need a hybrid wolf once they're really challenging.

Speaker 2 39:34

Seems like it.

Speaker 1 39:36

That one of mine I had when we were living with my mom when we had our house burnt. Yeah, she wouldn't beg. She would like when we lived in town. She would lay at my feet and she'd never beg she would. She'd like when we lived in town, she would lay at my feet and she'd never beg at the table.

Speaker 1 39:52

When my stepdad started and there was a bag of buns on the table and she grabbed them buns and she ran in behind the, in behind the couch. So I went in and I got a hold of the buns. I said give me them buns. And she went. I grabbed her right by the throat, me her the lamp.

Patience and Self-Control Challenges

Speaker 1 40:18

The end table was out in the middle of the floor and I had her right by the throat, I had her on her back and I said you don't growl at me. And she tried to get up and I said no, I'll let you up. And I held her down. I held her down. I mean I had her right by his throat and then I finally I let her up and I said you don't growl at me, no more. Oh, I got when we moved out to the sticks. Yeah, she caught a baby rabbit and I seen her catch it and I took that baby rabbit out of her mouth. I stuck my finger in her mouth and I started pulling on the rabbit and she clamped down just a little bit and I said, easy, she'd leave up.

Speaker 3 41:06

I've got battle wounds. I mean, this is a daily basis, is that right? Oh yeah, and he does it only to me. $2,000 in training. And the trainer said you're the problem, not the dog, right? He said I don't make him listen and the dogs are packs and they need a pack leader. He said I don't make him listen and that dogs are packs and they need a pack leader and I'm not the pack leader. So he's going to be the leader.

Speaker 2 41:37

I'm like, okay, where's my refund?

Speaker 1 41:41

Where'd you take it? Newcomerstown. You know what that guy told my wife? She took my white wolf down there. He said she needs to put down. My wife told him if I go home and tell my wife or tell my husband that he says I'll come down here and put you down.

Speaker 4 42:02

And he put down because it was untrainable. She wasn't untrainable. I mean, is that what he was trying to say? Pretty much.

Speaker 1 42:09

Yeah, pretty much yeah pretty much. She was the biggest baby she was.

Speaker 3 42:16

Listen, I had he would be a perfect angel when I took him to training and Jarvis even told him he only does this when at home and he's like, well, what's he do when you're sitting there watching TV? And I said he climbs up on the back of the couch and rips the hair out of the back of his head and he's like no, he doesn't. I'm like yes, he does. Jarvis is like yeah, he does. So the guy came to the house. He's a perfect angel, wouldn't misbehave angel wouldn't misbehave like like a kid.

Speaker 3 42:51

You needed cameras or something. Yeah, oh my gosh, after like year, after we didn't do any more training and stuff, I'm walking, we go for a walk. I got both dogs and jarby's like I'm gonna run into goshen here. He's like will you be able to handle both of them? I said, oh yeah, I'll be fine. You know, jarby comes out and they're both sitting like they're sitting in attention and jarby's like what's up with that? I pointed the guy was getting gas in his car. He never said a word to him but they seen him. He was like, oh, oh, now no kidding.

Speaker 2 43:15

Yep, wow, that's crazy.

Speaker 1 43:19

Man.

Speaker 2 43:21

Yeah.

Speaker 3 43:22

I mean, he doesn't, he just nips, nips nips, nips, nips to get me to do, and I'm what I. He gets me by my wrist, takes me to the door when he wants to go out, oh, my gosh Bleeds you by the hand, huh, or the wrist, wow.

Speaker 1 43:39

Oh man.

Speaker 4 43:43

How big is this dog?

Speaker 3 43:44

48 pounds. Wow, I'm glad he's one of my smaller poodles, because my other two were 90-some man. Really, he's just full of sass, just full of it.

Speaker 4 44:00

My goodness.

Speaker 1 44:02

That collar didn't help any, or you put that on the little dog.

Speaker 3 44:06

He is the little dog, that's why I have the one left oh him. Yeah, I know I, I haven't used it yet that's why he's the leader I can't stand the thought of it I'll tell you what.

Speaker 1 44:21

I've got one of those underground fences. Well, I had four but only got three now. But that's the greatest thing since sliced bread. I mean, I live out in the country and they've got a pretty good area to run in. Get up in the morning, let them out of the cage, open the door and shut the door, or just leave the door open. They got a door, you don't have to worry about them. They're not going anywhere. There can be deer in the yard. They'll run over to the line and stop and bark at the deer.

Speaker 3 45:00

My yard's fenced in so I don't have to worry about that. I'm embarrassed when he starts that carrying on out there at the lake because there's new people out there and they have different dogs that he's just not used to. But I don't feel quite as bad now because every dog on the dock is carrying on about these new dogs, Not just mine.

Speaker 4 45:19

Yeah, before we put the fence up, we had two cats on those underground electric collars Cats yeah, they figured it out real quick, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 45:36

It's like I got that little what is he? A little miniature King Charles Spaniel. He was pretty much ran loose. I don't know, he might have been eight months old when we got him. I put that collar on him one time.

Speaker 2 46:01

I mean, I had him on a leash and he got whooped.

Speaker 4 46:07

You don't even have to do that, just you put them on. Once A cat can do a backflip, oh is that right it? Can On four or five, I don't know, but it was hot enough.

Speaker 3 46:22

They decided to stay in the yard.

Speaker 4 46:24

Yeah, Now, the last cat. We tried to put it on. It wasn't going for it. It shocked itself until it was out of bounds. Yeah, the other two, yeah, they did. They did real well on it.

Speaker 2 46:36

Two. You said the other two. Did we all do two? We've all said two. So far, right.

Speaker 3 46:41

Yeah, oh yeah, you're reeling us in.

Speaker 2 46:43

I'm trying to reel us back in? Guys, I'm trying.

Speaker 3 46:46

I wonder how much the Lord ever really wants to zap us.

Speaker 2 46:53

All the time.

Speaker 1 46:56

I'm so glad I don't have a collar on from Evan.

Speaker 4 47:02

Patience was whatever. She led me to think patience was one of mine. That's always one I try to you know, do my best at, and it seems like when I'm out in the world I'm a lot more patient than some people. Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 2 47:21

Yeah, I can see that.

Speaker 4 47:23

Yeah, I do. You know, I've been told that I have the patience of a saint, which I'm like. Ok, I'll take that as compliment. Yeah, which in the male world, sometimes other males see that as a weakness. If you're patient, which means you don't yell, you don't? You know you don't have to force your hand by yelling, or, you know, verbal abuse or physical abuse, or you know you can work through a problem quietly.

Speaker 4 47:52

You know, keep yourself together, um, keep everybody else, you know, on the same line, Um yeah, but yeah, I'd say, patience for me is definitely on there.

Speaker 2 48:07

Now when you're being patient. Do you want to blow up quietly?

Speaker 4 48:12

Okay, oh, inside.

Speaker 3 48:14

Inside that's what I mean. Sometimes I'm bubbling over.

Speaker 4 48:18

Because my natural way of working and doing things is I always want to keep control of the situation and I always want to keep the momentum going. I hate when things come to a stop.

Speaker 3 48:30

Yeah.

Speaker 4 48:31

I hate when, for whatever reason, I lose control of the situation, Like somebody has done something to mess up my plans. Yeah.

Speaker 2 48:37

And then you're like now what?

Speaker 4 48:38

And now I have to you know come up with a plan B and figure it out, and a lot of times things just can't move fast enough as I want it to and you know, like I said yeah, and on the inside I'm just like I'm on the treadmill.

Speaker 3 48:58

Yeah, I was there yesterday. Seriously, I'm on the treadmill but I don't think people could tell.

Speaker 4 49:00

You know, you know people can't tell that and I'm just. You know, I'm trying to be as patient and work through it as well as I can. That way it doesn't turn into a nightmare.

Speaker 2 49:09

And I know you're right when you do say that that men tend to look at that as a weakness Not all of them, but it's like I don't know why because they know how hard it is for us to keep our cool as you're boiling inside, you know yeah.

Speaker 4 49:26

Because sometimes people are like why don't you just go down there and tell him?

Speaker 2 49:30

Like you can't do that?

Speaker 4 49:31

No, you got to work with people. You can't just.

Speaker 2 49:33

You can't let your emotions take over. Bully everybody to get what you want, yeah.

Speaker 4 49:37

I might have to deal with this guy again. And that's what I always think is you know what, right now this guy may be putting me in a position that I don't like, but you know what, there may come a time where that guy's going to help me out. I'm going to be in a situation where I might need him to help me out.

Speaker 4 49:55

And if you act, you know foolishly, then he's not going to. So that's what I always try to keep in mind. There may come a time where I might not know that person very well. It may only seem like they're coming in and out of my life for just an hour or so, but you never know when you're going to see that person again and you might need their help. That might be the dude that's rolling by on the highway when you've got a flat tire.

Speaker 2 50:19

Exactly.

Speaker 3 50:20

Yeah, you just never know. Yeah, yeah, you just never know. Yeah, yeah, I think prayer's on mine, but it's not just prayer, it's that open communication.

Speaker 2 50:28

Mm-hmm, right, mm-hmm.

Speaker 3 50:30

All day long, because sometimes I drive, instead of yelling at the driver, I'll just say God, did you see that? Yeah, hold on. Did you see that? I did it just today.

Speaker 4 50:47

Like I'm pulling up to a four-way stop and and the lady in front of me clearly got there way ahead of me, she sits there. So I gave her a nice wave, like go ahead, she goes threw her hands up like she's mad. I mean, I'm thinking number one. You were there first, so technically you're supposed to go number two. I'm being nice. Yeah, I gave you a nice wave and you throw your hands up like I'm stupid. I'm like that's typical you know yeah like that's because?

Speaker 1 51:06

that's because people aren't used to anybody being nice to them. Yeah, it could be they're they're. They're used to either getting flipped off or or or the window, rolled down and screamed and hollered at you know, yeah, people aren't used to other people being nice to them. Yeah, that's true. So they don't know how to, they don't know how to handle it I.

Speaker 2 51:24

I think I think that's so fair, Like, so true too, because there's Chase will come, you know, go up to a stop sign and he doesn't want people on his butt because he can't see out of the back. There is like a backup camera on the, but it's very little but it's on the, the mirror. So a lot of times he just, you know, lets people go and he'll give you the hand signal. And I think people are so in shock that they're they're like, no, you go. And he's like I just told you to go, so now I have to go. But I think they're so in shock like, oh, I better be, I better be nice to you Go.

Speaker 3 51:58

Yeah yeah or they tell you to go and then, and then there's like a hesitation. Yeah, and then you don't go. You're like, should I or should I not? And then, once you start to go, then they throw their hands.

Speaker 1 52:12

Yes, yes, well, I'm gonna go. Yeah, yeah, are you gonna go or are you gonna sit there? Yeah, well if you're gonna sit there, I'll go. And then you start to go, and then they decide well, and then you get t-boned yep then argue over whose fault it was. Yep, yeah yeah, but here's because you didn't go when I give you the okay but I think that, though, when you like, he sees it all.

Speaker 2 52:47

You might as well tell him, did you?

Speaker 3 52:49

see them.

Speaker 4 52:51

Instead of yelling and calling that person.

Speaker 3 52:54

I just not really yell at God, but I'm like hey, did you see that you created that.

Speaker 2 52:59

You created this monster.

Speaker 4 53:01

Well, I said to him today, because again last couple weeks I've had these feelings of just being frustrated, being tired, just short on patience, all of these things, and somebody again just did something really stupid, and then it has to be something that I have to deal with and I'm, and I'm doing the thing and I just look up and I and I even said it out loud I'm like I'm upset, lord. I said I know I'm upset, I'm mad, I know I'm mad. I said, and I'm sorry, I said, but I am Just like I'm going to do my best. I said, but yeah, I'm mad. I said so I'm sorry that you know that right now I can't, that I'm mad in the first place, like I'm apologizing to him because something got to me to make me mad, even though I'm not acting out on it, but still inside I'm like, yeah, today.

Speaker 4 53:52

I am just frustrated. And I was like Lord yes, I'm frustrated, I'm tired, I've had enough, I just want you to know Giving your heads up and I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I haven't risen to the occasion today, that I've let this stuff get to me. Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm not my better self today. Yeah, I'm just confessing to the Lord like, yep, I'm not at my best today. I'm just telling you.

Speaker 2 54:19

I think this comes as a good point because was it Friday as a good point? Because, was it Friday? My co-worker, she kind of said what was on her mind, but to someone higher up, which may or may not have been our boss, but you know, she was talking to me and she's like I shouldn't have said it and I'm like I don't know if you shouldn't have necessarily not said it, and I was standing right there. What she said was true. We were all feeling it. You know, we basically get screwed over.

Speaker 2 54:54

Like you know, some of these people have certain rides that bring them to these appointments and they're 35 minutes late and here we have to jumble all this stuff and she's like we just don't.

Speaker 2 55:05

We accommodate so stinking much when most of the time, if you're late to a cleaning for more than 15 minutes for your teeth, they're not going to see you at all. You know, this one person was 35 minutes late and it made the rest of the day just insane and it's like we have that happen all the time. And I get that we want to be accommodating, but even when this person was making that appointment, it was like oh well, I'll try to be here at that time. So it was like well, why did you make it that? You know, why didn't you just pick a different day then? And so it's like to to a point like we need to be nice and I don't't know be patient and be polite, but I think we still need to stick up for ourselves too. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I think a lot of times people look at Christians as well. If I'm a Christian, I'm just going to get walked on all the time.

Speaker 4 55:59

No, the difference between self-control and just being passive all the time.

Speaker 2 56:05

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get that yeah, I don't know, I just wanted. I just wanted to say that because it it was something that had just happened the other day and I'm like, oh, this is kind of going hand in hand with this conversation oh, and that kind of leads me into one of my other ones which I just kind of fell upon today, and to me it's devotion.

Speaker 1 56:24

Yeah.

Speaker 4 56:25

It's devotion to the duty that you have as a Christian and to the Lord to do His works every single day, no matter how your day's going.

Speaker 3 56:37

Yeah.

Speaker 4 56:37

Right, no matter what the situation is, you have a duty to do that.

Speaker 4 56:43

I was listening to one of my Civil War things and it kind of put it in perspective.

Fellowship and Iron Sharpening Iron

Speaker 4 56:47

They said, because you know some of these generals, you know, like Robert E Lee, stonewall, jackson, they're these Christian generals, they're Christian people, and Jackson had this idea that he was building an army of the living God, like that's how he wanted his men to behave and that's how he wanted them to see what their purpose was. But he said, of course, but the problem is he's trying to raise this army of the living God out of a bunch of sinners. So he still has the duty of trying to make thousands of men follow him, follow his orders, go in the direction he wants them to go, do all the things that are supposed to happen and still be a Christian. You know, and they kind of put it in perspective is that it's by his example. It's not so much that every single one of them soldiers was going to believe it and become Christians themselves. Right, because you're talking thousands of men, mm-hmm, and, as I said, a lot of them are going to continue to be sinners.

Speaker 3 57:54

Right.

Speaker 4 57:55

And they're not going to buy into that idea. Yeah, under that understanding of being a Christian general, that that's how he's going to control events and that's how he's going to lead his men so that. Let's face it. Even if some of them don't want to go along, they're going.

Speaker 3 58:20

Yeah.

Speaker 4 58:20

Because in his mind, he's doing the work of the Lord and nothing's going to deter him from doing it. So he's going to carry out his plan despite these sinners. That perhaps will be like I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to buy into that, it's like. Well, you will, through my leadership and what I'm going to do. I'll show you, I'll show you that it can happen, that we can do this. It may look impossible now.

Speaker 2 58:46

It may seem unreasonable. Yeah.

Speaker 4 58:49

But if it's the work of the Lord, it's going to happen.

Speaker 2 58:52

Yeah.

Speaker 4 58:52

We're going to do this and sometimes, as a leader, you know you have to look at that devotion every day of just saying, you know, even when things are down, things don't look good. Everybody in the shop's not buying in to my work ethic and how I see things. But if I just keep doing what I'm supposed to do under that devotion, things are going to go in that direction yeah they just will, because you can't.

Speaker 4 59:17

You can't defeat the will of the lord no, no and through that devotion, if you stick to it, it's going to come to pass. You know, if you're working under those ideals, you know, then it doesn't matter if you got a few bad apples.

Speaker 2 59:33

Yeah.

Speaker 4 59:34

It's still. You're still going to end up in the same, in that same place.

Speaker 2 59:40

That brings me to my other one was Bible studies, and I didn't know how I wanted to touch on this one, but that reminded me of, like Alyssa has, the one that it's like the young mom one that we're doing right now. But it basically was saying, like you know, god isn't really necessarily not judging you, but like he's not. He's not looking at how you do the work, he's looking at your heart, on how you do the work. Like you know, say you're loading the dishwasher and like just grumbling about. You know, like he he's judging you, not I shouldn't say judging, but he's, he's not wanting that you know he's, he's definitely like, yeah, this isn't how you're supposed to be, he doesn't care how you load the dishwasher, doesn't care, but he just he cares how your heart is about it all so well and I think we've talked about this before that it's very easy as individuals to to uh take for granted the blessings that you have.

Speaker 4 1:00:45

you know if, if you've been blessed enough to have a house, to have a nice home to have all these things.

Speaker 3 1:00:50

Well, guess what?

Speaker 4 1:00:51

It comes with responsibility and things you have to do, but oftentimes we get mad because we have to do them, because we'd rather be doing something else.

Speaker 2 1:01:00

Not like I have to or I get to, you get to.

Speaker 4 1:01:03

You have the blessing of having this home that has a dishwasher that you can slam the dishes into.

Speaker 2 1:01:09

That's what I was saying.

Speaker 4 1:01:10

Yeah, some people don't have that. Some people, you know, don't even have a home. So you have to constantly bring yourself back down to earth and say you know, I'm really blessed to have everything that.

Speaker 3 1:01:20

I have.

Speaker 4 1:01:21

And yeah, I don't like coming home and doing cat litter I. And yeah, I don't like coming home and doing cat litter. I don't like coming home and doing this or that, I'd rather. But it does take that constant reminder of. You know, I'm pretty blessed here. Sometimes I can look down the street at a lot of my neighbors and go you know they're wanting for a lot of things, and most likely one of those things is you know?

Speaker 3 1:01:45

relationship with jesus and um that's what I was gonna say.

Speaker 4 1:01:48

They don't even know that that's what they need, or right you know, so you know we can't take those things for granted, so that the devotion comes into it as well, that you know you have to, you have to remind yourself that you know, you are where you are because that's where god has placed.

Speaker 4 1:02:03

You allow it because you've up your heart to him. You've allowed him to do that and it's not wise to, like you said. You know he gets it, that you're tired, he gets all those things. But I think the more you're in the Word, hopefully you know less likely you're going to be in there. You know using your dinnerware as Frisbees.

Speaker 2 1:02:25

Right, I think. Have you seen the thing where it says you know, kids slow you down and everyone's like, well, maybe that's the point you know, and I'm looking at it as that. Like you know, maybe that's the point of like he's just constantly, you know, scanning our heart on how we're doing things. You know, and we have to almost keep in mind that you know scanning our heart on how we're doing things. You know, and we have to almost keep in mind that you know we yes, it's when you're in that rat race or like, yeah it, but you have to pull yourself out and remember that everyone's in the same boat and I mean you just have to have a good heart about it all.

Speaker 4 1:03:03

Yeah, yep, it's a healthy way to live, but that's a tough one sometimes, like I said, because that's what the enemy wants Once you get you all caught up, get life going as fast as it can and get you off balance. And you know when you're off balance, that's when you make mistakes, that's when you're not at your best, and that's what he wants. So, yeah, we can't be prepared if we're not, as you said, going into the armor of God, reminding yourself of those kind of things. And you know, as with Corinthians, you know your favorite verse.

Speaker 4 1:03:35

You know, if you're not reminded of that all the time, yeah, yeah, Then you slip into some of those bad experiences, bad habits. So yeah.

Speaker 4 1:03:45

So you always got to have. That's the thing which I'm guilty of. This in the real world. You know my toolbox is usually jammed somewhere in the garage. I have no idea where it is. I don't know what's in it, hardly use anything in there. I don't want to get in that toolbox anymore than I have to. I don't like to fix things around the house, I just don't like to fix things around the house.

Speaker 4 1:04:05

I just don't like to do it, uh, but you can't treat your spiritual toolbox that way you gotta keep it handy it can't be tucked away somewhere gathering dust and gotta keep it well oiled. Yeah, yeah, yeah and whatever you got in there. Yeah, you gotta take care of it and do maintenance and make sure you've you know you're using it on a regular basis.

Speaker 3 1:04:26

Yeah, when you talked about the Bible and you're sharing it the Bible study. Yeah, it kind of brought me to one of mine which was um, I don't know if it's something in my tool, it is in my toolbox. I mean, is fellowship?

Speaker 2 1:04:40

Yeah, iron sharpens.

Speaker 3 1:04:46

That was, yeah, iron sharpens, that was one of mine and that those few close friends that you can say listen, and you puke it out on them and they're automatically looking at you. But and they're pointing out this, this- yeah, yeah, all of a sudden you can. They're not, you know, saying you did things wrong making you look at things in a different way are they're not gossiping with you.

Speaker 2 1:05:01

Yeah, like, or turning it into a gossip session or something.

Speaker 3 1:05:05

Yeah, yeah, one's real good when I dump on her and she's like, yeah, but they did this, didn't happen and this didn't happen and you didn't do this and well, yeah, it's not, it's not, it's not that bad. Anyway, you know I'm looking at it with. You know, I got blinders on, I just see one way, and she's real good about opening, and holly is too you know we can, we have that relationship, that we can, yes, puke things out on each other. Basically, yeah.

Speaker 4 1:05:31

Yeah, that's a real good one. Yeah, iron shaping. Iron sharpens iron. I got this. I got this.

Speaker 2 1:05:41

I think, especially like what I was talking about earlier with Margie, like you know, like if we vent to our significant other, maybe they don't understand all of the things that are going on at work, but like I feel like Dawn does with you, cause like it's the same profession, you know. And now, did you guys ever work at the same? Did you both work at Ember? I was there for 21 years. Okay, yeah, so.

Speaker 3 1:06:05

Did you both work at Ember? I was there for 21 years. Okay yeah, so when I left, I felt like I got a divorce.

Speaker 4 1:06:11

I bet and again, the way the world has now been set up, you know, the enemy has it his way that both parties work. Both people are working, so nobody's getting any sympathy. Sometimes, yeah, because you don't want to come home and start complaining about your day.

Speaker 1 1:06:31

Well, that person's been at work too and had their own challenges.

Speaker 4 1:06:32

Yeah, they had their own problems. But you know. So that's tough, because a man can't come home nowadays and kind of unload on his wife or just talk about it, because most likely you know she's got them problems too. But, again, that's got them problems too, but again, that's what the enemy wants. You know, wear both people out and they'll fight each other. It's really easy to do that.

Speaker 3 1:06:53

It's really easy to do it. I think sometimes it's hard for women to unload on men, because God made you guys your fixers. You want to fix everything, and so when we start puking out all our problems, like Jarvis, automatically, well what?

Speaker 2 1:07:08

do you want me to do about it? Yeah, well, why don't you just do this? I'm like no, no, just listen.

Speaker 3 1:07:15

Yeah, just let me get it out and then it's done. Yeah, I'll figure it out yes. But I think God created men to be fixers and women to be more nurturing. And you know he just created those things different.

Speaker 1 1:07:28

It's hard to be a listener though.

Speaker 3 1:07:32

When you are made to be a fixer.

Speaker 1 1:07:35

Yeah, it's hard to be a listener, because I mean, when my wife was working, she'd come home from the store and she'd say I said I don't want to hear it.

Speaker 4 1:07:45

She's pouring out the drama.

Speaker 1 1:07:48

Because it's for one, it's not doing the person that's venting any good and the person that's listening really doesn't care Because it doesn't involve. Or sometimes that person could be really on a high, had a great day and the other person would come home, you know, because it doesn't involve. You know in person.

Speaker 4 1:08:05

Or sometimes that person could be really on a high, had a great day, yes, and the other person will come home and just destroy it.

Speaker 2 1:08:11

I'm like, well, I'm glad your day was good. Well, let me tell you about mine.

Speaker 1 1:08:18

Well, you know, in those kind of situations you've got to, you have to listen first a little bit to see the tone of voice. Then you know okay, well, that's good. I'm glad you know, I'm glad you had that.

Speaker 2 1:08:33

That's nice. There's a timing turf and tone. Timing turf and tone Don't know, where I got that from, but I've heard it somewhere. Tone Don't know where I got that from, but I've heard it somewhere.

Speaker 1 1:08:46

Yeah, I'm always being told your tone of voice was not very good, I'm sorry.

Speaker 3 1:08:54

I think Jarvie says that. I say that to Jarvie a lot too. Well, what about your tone?

Speaker 2 1:08:58

What tone are you talking about? Uh-oh.

Speaker 1 1:09:02

Here, let me put. I don't have a tone, I'm push rewind if we're gonna play that again I get the timing and the tone, but what's turf?

Speaker 2 1:09:17

I don't know. I was thinking that I'm like what?

Speaker 1 1:09:20

maybe like the time and place your own side, your own side of the bed.

Speaker 2 1:09:23

But that would be what timing is right? No, maybe not.

Speaker 1 1:09:28

Timing would be when.

Speaker 2 1:09:31

Well, we know what timing is and tone.

Speaker 1 1:09:35

I'm not going to talk to you.

Speaker 3 1:09:38

The turf. What is it? Is that where you're at?

Speaker 1 1:09:41

Your boundaries, your boundaries where you're at.

Speaker 4 1:09:42

Maybe, my brain just goes to surf and turf, let's see what is turf Tiny.

Speaker 1 1:09:53

That's something that grass grows Turf and tone, is it artificial?

Speaker 2 1:09:59

If you want it to be.

Speaker 1 1:10:00

Indoor, outdoor turf.

Speaker 2 1:10:02

Okay, here we go. I think they added another one oh boy oh wait, this is different text, tone and time that's what turf kind of be like, you know.

Speaker 4 1:10:12

Don't yell at your wife when you're in the middle of a store you know the turf, you know wait till you get home.

Speaker 2 1:10:16

So I'm thinking like don't have not the right time and place like yeah you know, don't do it in front of your friends, right belittle your wife. That's what I was about to say. Yeah, you know, don't do it in front of your friends, right? Belittle your wife. That's what I was about to say. Yeah, you know, you're gonna have a day tour or deep conversation.

Speaker 4 1:10:29

Maybe do it just the two of you again, if you're in management, if you're a leader, if you got a problem with somebody you don't, you don't yell at them and tell all about it right in front of everybody, you take them aside, yeah, and tell them.

Speaker 2 1:10:41

Yeah, I think that was.

Speaker 1 1:10:43

Maybe that's it, I think so that's too many things to try and remember, yeah.

Speaker 2 1:10:49

You remember what they are.

Speaker 4 1:10:50

Instead of TTT, people want to use TNT. Yeah, yeah. There, you go yeah, yeah, oh boy.

Speaker 3 1:11:01

Discussing it in a neutral place.

Speaker 4 1:11:03

See there you go, perfect.

Speaker 2 1:11:07

Yep, oh boy Discussing it in a neutral place, See Perfect. I don't know where I heard that from, but somewhere. Well. Does anyone else have anything?

Speaker 4 1:11:16

I guess it's all right, I think we got close to.

Speaker 3 1:11:18

I don't know if everybody did five, mine is just like listening to my praise and worship music, which I said we've all touched, based on that.

Speaker 2 1:11:25

Yeah.

Speaker 3 1:11:25

Especially in your five minutes of decompression. Decompression.

Speaker 2 1:11:30

Yes.

Speaker 1 1:11:32

Yeah, it's like putting you in that little decompressing chamber. Yeah.

Speaker 4 1:11:38

I think God gives everybody their own gift of you know like, for me it might be just like, hey, I'll listen to the Civil War thing for five minutes. It'll calm me down.

Finding Peace in Daily Struggles

Speaker 2 1:11:51

Yeah, or whatever it is their thing that calms them down and grounds them almost.

Speaker 4 1:12:01

Right now Brinley Faye, our granddaughter. She just has this blanket and she'll just shove in her mouth like half, you know whole end of the blanket will just start going in her mouth. So anymore we're just like, yep, stop it in there. She gets crying sometimes we'll just throw her the blanket, like get it in there, she'll put it in there and she'll stop crying.

Speaker 2 1:12:25

Does she call it anything?

Speaker 4 1:12:27

yet no, I don't think she's really.

Speaker 1 1:12:29

She can't talk.

Speaker 4 1:12:30

I mean, she's like I said. She'll say, like she was saying pop the other day. And you know she'll say dad, and I think mama, Juice is juju. Juju Well Cooper started singing Thunder by ACDC Like her Uncle Seth will be like say Uncle Seth, she goes no, no. Like she won't say Uncle Seth.

Speaker 2 1:12:52

Yeah, cooper will go Thunder. Really. Chase had him in the truck one day, I don't know. I think I might have been working and they were. He said, yeah, he says Thunder now. And now I'll put it on yeah, so good one but so with the, with the blanket yeah are you thinking maybe like that's what you need to do sometimes just? Yeah, I'm just gonna take a blanket in there if anybody's coming to my office, I'll just go.

Speaker 1 1:13:26

I mean, come back later yep, yep, sounds about right they open the door, say well, okay we'll be back it's time I hope there's a lot of older people listen to us yep that way, they can appreciate where we're coming from nap time you know it's such punishment as a child oh, I know we talk about it all the time.

Speaker 3 1:14:01

I'm like if you only knew somebody tell me to go take a nap, yeah yeah just yeah, you don't know, two o'clock's nap time yeah, oh, it is isn't it?

Speaker 4 1:14:12

yes, it is two o'clock rolls around and it's. I mean, I've only got a half hour to go. I leave at two, usually two thirty three o'clock, but yeah, like one thirty two oh, I know you can't just just yeah, yeah, like 1.32. Oh, I know you can't Just.

Speaker 1 1:14:25

Yeah, especially if you're on a computer. Yeah, oh yeah, oh, just yeah. Oh, can't really keep my eyes open.

Speaker 2 1:14:33

Yeah, I will say it like when I take an hour lunch, like anytime I'm working, it's an hour lunch, so it's typically from 1 to 2. So I don't normally get that weird crash, but like I think 345, it's starting to hit me.

Speaker 4 1:14:51

Yeah, if I didn't get hungry, I wouldn't take a lunch, because after that it's just my mental is gone. And everything is just yeah, trying to start back up again. It's just not so easy as you get older. It's just not easy as you get older. Sure, it is.

Speaker 1 1:15:09

It's real easy Just get in a recliner, kick it back.

Speaker 4 1:15:13

Oh, that would be, yeah, taking a nap would be easy. That's pretty easy, you know, getting moving again.

Speaker 1 1:15:21

I got trouble getting moving at 8 o'clock in the morning, well, 7 o'clock in the morning, well, 7 o'clock in the morning. That's a hole in the ground. Has water in it.

Speaker 3 1:15:35

What was that? I don't know.

Speaker 2 1:15:40

Oops, maybe someone's vehicle. It sounded like your stomach at first, roger, and then like no, no, no, that can't be someone's stomach.

Speaker 4 1:15:48

I thought it was her music.

Speaker 2 1:15:51

It's probably someone's vehicle.

Speaker 4 1:15:53

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:15:54

People were just walking out. Whose turn is it to pray?

Speaker 1 1:15:59

Yours.

Speaker 2 1:16:00

Is it?

Speaker 1 1:16:00

Yeah, because I prayed last week.

Speaker 2 1:16:02

No, no, no, it's been a while.

Speaker 4 1:16:03

Oh yeah, we, because I prayed last week.

Speaker 2 1:16:04

No, no, no, it's been a while. Oh yeah, we weren't here last week, Roger.

Speaker 1 1:16:11

Well, the week before that, Excuse me, I was here Working.

Speaker 4 1:16:17

Working.

Speaker 2 1:16:19

Yeah.

Speaker 1 1:16:21

Yeah, okay.

Speaker 2 1:16:23

All right.

Speaker 1 1:16:24

Trust me Sid.

Speaker 2 1:16:25

I feel like I hit this button and then did the whole thing. Whatever, I'll just do it again.

Speaker 1 1:16:32

Well, yeah, you always got to hit the button. Don't hit the red one.

Speaker 2 1:16:35

Let me think Okay, I got to hit this button.

Speaker 1 1:16:37

Okay, is everyone ready?

Speaker 2 1:16:38

for me to start praying.

Speaker 1 1:16:39

Okay, whenever you're ready. Well, no, she messed up the music.

Speaker 2 1:16:54

It's not. It's not doing anything.

Speaker 1 1:17:00

Hmm, we can pray without music. Yeah, I'll just pray without. There you go.

Speaker 2 1:17:03

Dear Heavenly Father. Lord, I just thank you for this evening that we had tonight talking about. You know all of our just all of our tools in our spiritual kit that you know help us go on with our daily lives and staying focused on you. You know all the aids that we typically depend on. Lord, I just thank you that we're able to meet weekly and just have these conversations and continue to pour out these podcasts and speak whatever is on our mind. I just pray for travel mercies and until we meet at our next point in time, in Jesus name, amen.