The Gospel In The Game Sports Podcast
Conversation and stories about real athletes and the journey thru sport, faith and life.
Connecting athletes, sports families and the church. Build bridges and telling real stories to help repair, build and grow people.
Hosts Dan Dromarsky and Dave Dawson
The Gospel In The Game Sports Podcast
Care
Ever felt the frustration of getting a shrug and a "whatever" when you're trying to have a meaningful conversation? In our latest episode of Gospel in the Game, we unpack the significance of clear and caring communication, exploring how small gestures can make a big impact. We share humorous anecdotes about everyday scenarios to highlight the importance of genuine engagement and the art of truly listening to others. Anchored by Matthew 5:16, we dive deep into how our actions can reflect God's love in our everyday interactions.
Have you ever wondered why your kind gestures sometimes go unnoticed? We take a closer look at the complexities of love languages and how they shape our relationships. Through personal stories and experiences, we discuss how understanding and appreciating the different ways people express and receive affection can transform our interactions. Whether in family dynamics, friendships, or teamwork, recognizing these nuances can lead to profound shifts in how we connect and communicate with those around us.
We reflect on how genuine care, even through minor gestures, can mirror the greater love that God has for us. Tune in to discover how you can make a significant difference in someone's life with just a little bit of kindness and understanding. Life inside and outside of sport .... take time to care.
one of the catchphrases that I do not like is when people respond with whatever it's one of those things that it's like whatever, whatever like it can go so many different ways. What's what's?
Speaker 2:honey, what do you want for dinner tonight? Whatever, whatever and whatever. Oh man, I don't like that one, yeah, yeah, especially.
Speaker 1:Don't like that one yeah, yeah, especially the response like that, because it's like I'm asking for a decision, I'm asking for a choice and you're basically I don't know. It sounds like zero interest. How was school today?
Speaker 2:Oh, whatever, whatever, no, I specifically asked you what would you like me to write on this blank check? Oh, whatever, Whatever whatever, that's a good whatever.
Speaker 1:Whose name should I put? Whatever?
Speaker 2:Yeah, too bad, it's for two bucks Blank. Like who writes checks? Do checks still exist? Yeah, I have them. Do you have them? Yeah, absolutely I do.
Speaker 1:And when I first got a checking account.
Speaker 2:I used to write a check every once in a while to like my little brother for like 10 million dollars. Okay, be like here. Here's a check for 10 million dollars.
Speaker 1:And he's like, well, what am I gonna do with this? I'm like, well, you can't cash it first of all? Yeah, but just so you can say that you got a check for 10 million dollars from the dramarski family was different than my childhood.
Speaker 2:So there you go just writing 10 million dollar checks back. But you know what, though?
Speaker 1:I think the odd time, there's the odd place where it's applicable to write a check for processing. Yeah, because not every place accepts e-transfer, sure Right or e-transfer limit.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's it's it's limited.
Speaker 2:Whatever, yeah, whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Uh, the topic today is caring, talking about care, and I think whatever that phrase would apply to not caring. Yeah absolutely. Imagine being a little carefree.
Speaker 1:So if whatever's the not caring response, what's the caring response? Just giving the proper answer? Forget about it.
Speaker 2:Forget about it. I think I don't know what would be the way I do it. It would probably have something to do with an um, a um. Adamant response to this is exactly what I want. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah it. I think I think kind of what the heart of what we're we're talking about is just actually caring enough for others and giving an opportunity to be heard, but also, at the same time, being willing to share from the heart. I have a great example.
Speaker 2:Okay, by the way, we care enough to let you know who we are, absolutely. I'm Dan Dramarski. I'm Dave Dawson. This is episode eight of Gospel in the Game. Was going to be episode seven, but whatever, we're not going to touch on this story.
Speaker 1:Who's counting anyway?
Speaker 2:Yeah, of really what happened there, but counting anyway, really what happened there. But we've we've enjoyed this series so far. Hopefully you have as well. You have your, you and your wife ever do the the love languages thing, the book or whatever test years ago.
Speaker 1:We've had discussions about it. My daughter recently went through a one year program with Bible school and they talked a little bit about it and we had a conversation around our dining table about what our well, uh, well, yeah, what, what, which way? You, yeah, you do the love languages. Yeah, but go ahead and share.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the five love languages or whatever, yeah, yeah. So the physical touch, words of affirmation, acts of service, quality time and gifts are the five love languages. Generally, the way you give and receive love is different person to person. I have a. I guess I can share a story of a roommate I lived with years ago, so we had completely opposite love languages, and I'll tell you how that turned out in a little bit, but first we'll get to today's verse, matthew 5, 16,. In the same way, let your light shine before others. They may see their good deeds and glorify your father in heaven. So the topic of caring today for others is all about glorifying God. That's ultimately the theme of how you want to care for others yeah episode 7 was pride.
Speaker 2:We talked about pride being selfish. This is about being selfless.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and caring for others can be shown in different ways, like you were just saying with your your story about. Like you, you display things. Not everyone not only cares the same way, but also wants to receive care differently.
Speaker 2:So the five love languages are my roommate and I um my top two love languages. At that point in time I think we were 10 years ago, when we were living together mine were words of affirmation and physical touch, his were acts of service and quality time. So the way that we would interact with each other in the house and engage in conflict was different. He was a little more silent. I'm obviously a little more open with explaining and sharing how I feel. Expression, expression there's a good word. So you know, if we were in conflict, he would you know whatever make it make. He loved to cook, he'd make a dinner. Hey, let's sit down, let's chill out tonight, maybe watch a game or watch a movie or whatever. Where I'm like dude, you could have just said I'm sorry and give me a hug.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right. So understanding how another person engages in conflict needs to feel affection, give affection makes a big difference in how you can care for others. Yeah, because if you are using your ability to care and someone's rejecting that and you're thinking, oh well, they're kind of a jerk, but that's not their primary way that they receive love, so they may not feel the weight of exactly what you're doing, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that makes perfect sense. You know what, when we talk about certain subjects, sometimes I just got to like you have that little flip in your mind of like different things that go along with it, and stories and events.
Speaker 2:Like a rotisserie? Yeah, Like a piece of chicken. That's what I was thinking as you were doing the hand signal which you can't see.
Speaker 1:It's not a video podcast yet Dan's thinking about all these flashbacks in his life of different family events and life events, and Dave's focusing Like writing $10 million checks to his brother, there's a chicken rotating on his that.
Speaker 2:I'm using binoculars to look at.
Speaker 1:That's right, exactly. Well, you know what? It's not always in conflict about showing how you care for someone. Sometimes it's just about care. My son randomly brought home for his mother, uh, like a Cinzao cinnamon bun, just because he could.
Speaker 2:And I get to tell you he didn't have breakfast. That's what I'm thinking of chicken.
Speaker 1:But I, I, my wife, texts me and she says she's like, says your son just randomly brought home like a cinnamon bun for me, knowing that I love these things, I like these things. He, she goes, he is 1000% your kid when he does stuff like this, that's like your traits. Your traits come out and just like he could probably cause. He's seen it grown up first of all, sure, but the same, that's way, his way of showing love is just randomly.
Speaker 2:Gifts yeah, gifts. Acts of service.
Speaker 1:Acts of service. Acts of service and totally, and it's like everyone kind of has their own formula with it. Sure, and it's interesting how you don't learn that about someone until it happens. And so often we wonder about personality types and we can do all these different tests and other things for people, and then we're like all of a sudden someone does something and you're like oh that's how they care for it.
Speaker 1:And with sports, often, how do you see my teacher so well? I am an athlete. With my teammate, with my coach, with the different people that are part of my team, how do I care for them? How do I express that I have an interest in what, not what they do, but also who they are. And, um, you'll see it, sometimes in the strangest of ways.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I love that story Cause I, you know, in a similar capacity. I have a friend who their primary love language, and I'm going to go back to this cause. I really believe it. It is a science in really having great relationships. If you study how somebody gives and receives love, it'll allow you the ability to have stronger relationships. Their gifts was the primary way of showing affection, so on my birthday, this person would give me this elaborate gift that I know that they've spent weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks creating For me gifts. Number five on the list. I could care less about gifts. Can I guess what your number one is?
Speaker 1:well, I already told you my number one. Okay, it's way up there what was your number one?
Speaker 2:I don't know what was. What's my number. You have to go back and listen or you can just guess right now I'm saying it's words of affirmation part one a, one b with physical touch.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So her primary form of love giving love is gifts, and remember that's my dead last.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:I find it insincere, based on whatever stuff years ago To me. I just don't see like, okay, it's a gift, great, cool, thank you. Yeah so, but when I'm receiving a gift from her, I have to remember that's her number one way she gives. Yeah, so if I don't receive that gift with the utmost excitement, I'm rejecting her. So I would go wow, you spend, tell me more about how much time you invest into this. Where did you come up with the idea? Right, putting myself in her shoes to understand the importance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, knowing that that's your number one way of giving love, yeah, and it's changed my perspective on how I do relationships now realizing, okay. If your number one way of experiencing love is quality time when we're together I'm turning my phone off, yeah, because you need me to be present for you, that's right. If your number one way of love is acts of service, when you come to my place, or if you, you know, in sports, as an example, if the coach wants you to pick up all the equipment after a practice and his number one way of showing of receiving love is acts of service, by doing all that and then some, and then putting them away and then cleaning them and then locking them up, he is going to feel ultimate amount of love yeah, absolutely, and some, some people it's even just a tangible thing.
Speaker 1:I think it's something that they can see. That's evidence of it. We did this exercise that we do every year as being a chaplain and where we have the guys write a handwritten thank you note. That's quite entertaining, actually, because we lay out all these thank you cards and we have them pick out these things it's a lost art it is and they have to pick someone that they have to mail the thank you card to.
Speaker 1:It can't just be hand given right. And so they fill out this card and we teach them how to do it in the right formula and context, where it's like okay to the addressee. And then first thing you write is why are you writing this? So I always give I'll give an example it's like okay, hey, mom, today when I was making my own breakfast, living at my billet house, I thought about how much I used to enjoy, and still enjoy, when you make me my bacon and eggs my favorite breakfast, sure. So this morning I was thinking of you when I was making some bacon and eggs and I was thinking no one does this as good as my mom, and my mom would do that because I know she cares for me. So thank you got to include that in a thank you card. Thank you for caring for me and for being a great example to me by showing some love by what you did for me. It just made me smile today and send it off and it's so funny because they said okay, now, what do I do?
Speaker 1:well, let's your envelope. It says mom on the outside of it. If you put this in a mailbox right now, who's it going?
Speaker 2:to Whose mom is going to get that. Oh, I don't know my address or my postal code. Well, let's find it out.
Speaker 1:Why don't you text the person who you're going to send it to? So teach them how to properly put together a letter and send it off. Put together a letter and send it off. But I think the best part of it is the response that you get. We actually just had a chapel session and one of the guys we talk about the different things we do throughout the year and one of the returning players talked about doing the thank you card and he sent it to his brother and his brother said to him I said well, what did your brother say when he got it? He said I know that you're forced to do this.
Speaker 1:That's what his brother said I know that you're forced to do this, but you know what this really meant a lot to me, and I've had received text messages where it's like dads and moms, they're like this is the nicest thing I've ever heard in my life. Sure, but it's maybe it's the, the care and that love language that they've never heard before. Right, as we get older, I think, and as we have more responsibilities, the thank yous get less and less they do. That's why I think, sometimes our love languages change a little bit. You're all of a sudden like that.
Speaker 2:Words of affirmation or thanks, Well, we talked about pride in episode seven, right, and in talking about care in this one. Sometimes people are so focused on correction, especially a coach hey, you're doing this wrong, you're doing that wrong, you're doing this wrong, you're doing that wrong, fix this, fix this. And there is an element of beauty to that, because their goal is to make you the best that you possibly can be as an athlete. You're looking at the mistakes you made, right. You're looking at your film going how do I correct it? You're not necessarily looking to be told hey, you know what. You did this really well today, even though that does make a difference, right, and the care that gets put into it. Someone who spends time working with you you know the thankless hours, yeah, maybe, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's not always about the care positively. It's also I'm telling you this because it's hurting you or this is impacting your game, and it's hard sometimes for the athlete or even us as people to take that and receive that, because in a relationship we think that, oh, this person's trying to bring me down, but really they're caring enough to tell us about it. That's like, hey, and you know you are working on this, but by the way, your hair's on fire yeah, like and remembering, it's not an attack on our character yeah, that's right, like we didn't talk a lot about that in episode seven in pride, but if you didn't listen to it, go back and check it out.
Speaker 2:It was a great episode. But realizing, if somebody's investing in you and they're spending time wanting to improve you and it's coming from a spot of love, it's not an attack on your character. It usually means I care enough that I want to see you improve. I want to see you get better. Yes, your hair is on fire. Go dunk your head in the snow. Yeah, go jump into a swimming pool or shave your head.
Speaker 1:One of the three options, all viable options here yeah yeah so, but so the good aspects of care.
Speaker 2:I love the concept of the letter because I remember you telling me when you were walking through that and the reactions were powerful. What about when it doesn't happen the result you're looking for? What happens when that's met on deaf ears, maybe somebody who's heard enough the swan song? I've heard your apologies. I've heard your. I'm going to be better. I want your behavior. What happens when it gets rejected?
Speaker 1:Yeah, when it gets rejected. Well, and there's two sides to that. What happens when it's hard to care about something Like oh man, you keep on. You're bringing this up again Like I have no interest in hearing about this yet again?
Speaker 2:Binoculars again. Yeah, why is this always the topic At?
Speaker 1:the same at the same time. It's like sometimes it's hard to care too, because, um, I don't know, you can almost feel tapped out or, when you're receiving it, this person's harping on that. Okay, like I, I know that they've heard it enough.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've heard enough and yeah, I know their care, but now you're just annoying me. So many things in this world are a balance me. So many things in this world are a balance. They are, it's a teeter-totter. You got to know when enough is enough, and that's all part of relationship as well. It's like understanding that we're all broken, we all need work, we all need improvement, and that brings back to like the coachability that you brought up in episode seven. Just as people are, we willing to be coachable to receive care but also to care for other people. Because you're right, the rejection part of things. It's hard.
Speaker 2:I want to ask you this then Somebody who is a father, husband, billet coach, business owner, like a number of hats you wear, you are in situations where you're caring for others and it's either met with, received with great adoration or the opposite. So you're in a situation where you've told somebody time and time and time again either, hey, they don't have a job, go get a job. I'm trying to, hey, stop this behavior. They're not stopping it. And they've told you you, I've heard it enough, but you have the answer yeah, yeah, yeah this is the solution.
Speaker 2:If you just did this, yeah, but they don't want to hear it, or they've tried and they just can't adopt it what do you do?
Speaker 1:totally, um, some people might say, and give me advice hearing that and say cool off or don't harp on the person. Salvaging things with them is more important than making the point yeah, that's, that's well and good. I think my response right off the hop just naturally is I don't care. And you might say, well, that's insensitive, no, no, no, no, no. I care enough about you that I'm going to find a different angle and a different way in order to try and help you, versus giving up on you. And I think too often we say, well, move on to the next guy. You know, johnny doesn't want to hear you, he's not listening to anything you want to say. Just forget about him on, he's a waste of your time.
Speaker 1:I I think I care too much, and so I'm going to find a different way to get to johnny um, because he's valuable. If he is also created in the image of his, of his maker, in the same way I am, then I'm going to do my best to fight tooth and nail for johnny um, because some people get to the point where no one's fighting for them anymore and so if I'm their last hope, um, outside of christ, of course, ultimately, that's where I'm pointing. So that's my personality. How, how do I balance it?
Speaker 1:It's hard because often in each one of those categories there's something, there's something happening and my strength, ultimately, is found in my Savior. But God's provided different people and God provides different people. My wife is a perfect example of that, someone who shows care and someone who's willing to handle and take care of the things that I can't. If I, you know, I can't race home and be there in time to make dinner or to take a kid to place B or do something. But since she's my partner in this and my equal, it's about having a relationship with you.
Speaker 1:That's 100 I always say the example is like marriage is not 50, 50.
Speaker 1:Marriage is 100 and 100. I'm giving 100 myself to my wife into the family unit. Everything out from that gets built out from it. And that 100 someone's bubble is smaller than other people's bubble. I think by the grace of God my bubble becomes a little bit bigger, but it's ultimately it has to be. That foundation has to be there and my relationship with Christ has to be 100%, which builds my relationship with my wife, 100% which builds my relationship with my family, my family of God, my support that's around me.
Speaker 1:And all of a sudden, it's amazing what you see. Where, all of a sudden, you're like, okay, lord, this part, this part is really tough right now. And all of a sudden I get a text message hey, I'm praying for you in this part that I was just thinking about. Can I buy you breakfast tomorrow? And all of a sudden I go for breakfast and the person shares with me something that I needed to hear and I never asked. And it's like, wow, wow, okay, lord, your fingerprints are on this, equipping me to continue on with this. And that's the motivation to keep reaching and to keep caring and helping, where, all of a sudden, the evidence of God's caring is overarching everything that I'm doing.
Speaker 2:Right, and I love what you said because I think, in caring, god is the author of the unorthodox right. So I think if you're listening to this and maybe don't subscribe to a faith-based life, if you look at the concept of faith and maybe if you are from a faith-based life, it doesn't really have to be two sides you think, okay, well, god's doing everything, my hand in it is, I'm just going to sit around and watch god just work, right. Maybe if you don't subscribe to a faith-based life, you think is that how it works? Like you just sit there and this magical, mystical creature is fixing all these things in your life? No, well, if you live in a faith-based life, sometimes we get so full of excitement you know you've seen God work before and you try to superficially recreate that by heroically. I'm going to go serve the homeless and then I'm going to go do this and I'm going to go work with kids and I'm going to go to single moms and I'm going to go do this and I'm going to go work with kids and I'm going to go to single moms and I'm going to stay up all night and cook and this, and that you think, wow, look at me and my Christian superstardom. Yeah, no pride. Yeah, that's pride.
Speaker 2:Episode number seven. Go back and listen to that. So I mean, it's not one or the other. Yeah, god, when we put our faith in him, we'll through us and as we take steps forward, he will work out the rest of the details. When you talk about your wife being your teammate and you know, the two of you can do great things together, but what you can't do, god does everything else and generally, will do most of the other things.
Speaker 1:If you take a back seat to that, yeah, and equip us to to do things, to to care, to serve, and sometimes it's really hard, like people, they're tough to care for.
Speaker 1:And it is very a good reminder where it's like I've had times in my life where I'm sure I've been hard to love and I've been hard to care for and I've needed a lot of work and maybe I was a burden to someone At the same time. God equipped them and allowed them enough strength and energy and everything else in order to care for me when I was unlovable. And I think one of the things that's really important to mention here is not only the fact that Care is a good thing. We need it, it's a necessity.
Speaker 1:There was an old study and some of you might have heard of it before where they had babies that were newborns, that were not. They were basically changed, fed, put back into a bassinet Versus the ones that were held, cared for, sung to, fed, changed all these other things, things, and they did it for like a month time and the ones that were held and cared for slept better, ate better. All everything about it was good and it's that care and attention is. That is just such a necessity, being human. Um, there's, it's an ultimate, it's a need, not a want.
Speaker 2:Well, it might be a want, just had this vision in my mind that the ones who weren't, as adults, get sung to and held and have their diaper changed and cared for. But no, you're totally right. We, as people, are meant to be cared for and we are meant to care for others, right, as much as we might feel, oh, I want to be cared for. And we are meant to care for others, right, as much as we might feel, oh, I want to be cared for more. Well, maybe you're being cared for too much yeah. Maybe the reason why you feel unfulfilled is you're not caring for others yeah, and maybe the opposite of that. Maybe you're caring for others too much because you don't feel worthy of receiving care. Right, it's. It's a constant struggle in our society. We either want to be nurtured, or we want to nurture others because we don't feel we're lovable, or we don't want to give help to others because maybe we've been burned yeah, and it goes back to that verse what's your intention behind it?
Speaker 1:where it's like in the same way, let your light shine before others like, are you here to make this about yourself? That's one thing that okay. You want to go talk about pet peeves and other things. When people make things about themselves, right, and it's like okay when, when you're showing care for someone, there's one thing to speak into experience and talk about your experience and how maybe things got through or how things worked out or didn't work out in order to give advice. But when, all of a sudden, the danger is is never take someone else's situation and make it about yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because then, all of a sudden, the person feels unheard, unloved, uncared for and that, look, there's. There's no solution to this. It actually brings hopelessness.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it really does, and so I have a great story about myself for that. I'm just kidding.
Speaker 1:But you know what, though, and it's about even the other half of that verse let me see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven. It's about giving God the credit, and you had talked a little bit earlier about it. It and you had talked a little bit earlier about it. It's like, if you're not a person of faith, we don't want you to see God as a genie lamp. No, Because God's not a genie lamp. No, but a relationship with God is something that's precious. That's why I think we lean on it and we hold on to it so tight In the scripture verse where it says that a man finds a treasure in a field and he goes and he sells all that he has in order to buy that field.
Speaker 1:We're heavily invested into this because we know the value of something, and that's really at the heart of caring. When we care for something is we know the value that is placed in someone. That's why we're willing to give up of ourselves in order to care for others here's a great, when you talk about how the gospel applies to your life.
Speaker 2:This is the gospel in the game. So how the gospel applies to the game of sport, whether you're a participant, a viewer, a coach, whatever you buy a gym membership, you go to the gym. If you just go to the gym and sit there and watch everybody oh, wow, that guy's in great shape, oh, that girl's in great shape. Oh that girl's in great shape. Boy, she can lift this. Or man, that guy can squat this. That's not going to help you. You need to participate. You need to engage in change your diet, do the exercises, get better, sleep, do all these things to become a better person. Same with a faith-based life by going to church, participate, looking around, going, wow, this music straight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm a good christian. I go to church. I might sing some songs and, you know, look the part and then go home and not change anything in my life or not adhere to read scripture. Want to become a better person. That's the same thing, right? So an athlete can understand what it's like to make their body better for the battle. The same thing for the Christian faith.
Speaker 2:We want to equip ourselves as believers to become better people. How do we do that? By caring for others and by humbling ourselves, and I want to add my comment to your point there. I think an easy way to care for a total stranger someone you see on the street, somebody you engage with in the grocery store, at the rink, at a stadium, wherever the easiest way to show care is doing exactly what you said, not making a conversation about yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was in an exercise in a faith-based group a number of years ago where you had to tell someone how you felt and the other person couldn't respond oh, they just had to listen. Yeah, and it trained me in my mind that when, if you're sharing a story, our automatic response usually is well, I want to show you how much I care by reflecting your story to my life. Yeah, well, here's what happened to me. You think it's a good thing. You know how often we do that as people. Every single time where all you're doing is you're now taking the attention away from their story and their life and putting it on you.
Speaker 1:Here's another danger they'll bring up. Often we ask people how we're doing, how they're doing, and we don't listen. In a grocery store you come to a store clerk and they say how was your day today? And you say good.
Speaker 2:How was yours Good?
Speaker 1:And then it's down to business. Did we really care?
Speaker 2:It's being controlled. Go to the grocery store. You're in a lineup or whatever, but it's difficult. But you know what though?
Speaker 1:Even in that situation, I'll throw it out to left field, sure, and I'll be like you know what I'm really tired. It's like 9.30 pm. I'm here buying milk. I'd really rather be at home. How was your day? Sure, and they'll usually respond and talk about their shift and it starts this conversation, this engagement.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's one of the dangers where we just kind of off stuff. The other thing is listening. Part of caring requires listening, not and and listening actually shows the heart of caring when you ask someone saying oh, you had a difficult time, tell me more about that. Okay, well, this and that happened, the situation happened, experienced loss or experienced this, and it's not necessarily always bad news, but good news, news to do and then all of a sudden, oh yeah, no, that's good, and then just carry on to something. We have such shallow conversations so often that I think that we're actually robbing ourselves of good, deep relationships, and one of the, I guess you'd say, strategies of building a relationship is going deeper in the conversation and then retaining that knowledge for your next conversation, so that way, when you see the person next time, you want hey, your uncle was sick, right, how's he doing now?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And all of a sudden, the person's like, wow, you really cared. You cared enough not only to listen to me, but now you're showing care enough to ask about how my uncle is doing. It's just, it allows you to have that deeper, deeper and deeper relationships. And it really echoes what God wants with us. He not only wants us to have deeper relationships with each other. Ultimately, he wants us to have a deeper relationship with him. And so, if we're just like trying to skim the surface, I'm going to spend some time in God's word today. I'm going to flip over open. Read Psalm 1. Okay, now I've done Psalm 1. I've done like you had said your example go to church or go do something.
Speaker 2:No, what is life of?
Speaker 1:faith. Does it mean that I have to never go out and I can't do anything fun? It means I just have to stay at home and study. No, home and study. No. I mean it's like you know what. Just pause for a minute, take some time, listen, listen to God, um, and just take those moments and you'll find that sometimes those times of just listening are times where we really kind of get the most out of a relationship. I had a habit Um, I still have a habit of doing it where I would start my day praying as I drive, and there's sometimes that I'll just Hopefully your eyes are open.
Speaker 1:Oh, it is Absolutely Every time.
Speaker 2:And then, like I've seen you on the road, the guys with the eyes closed.
Speaker 1:But then I'll pause and I'll just listen, and sometimes it's not during that time where I'm speaking that are are extra meaningful, because I can ask for a lot of stuff and bring up a lot of things. Sometimes, when I just listen, then all of a sudden, all my heightened observation with everything around me, it's like oh wow, you know, that's a beautiful sunrise.
Speaker 2:So three takeaways for you today for this episode I think will be helpful for your life. Number one whether you believe it or not and want to apply it for your life, I would encourage you invest a little bit in the concept of love languages. And when you look at your friendships, if you're having difficulty in friendships or you want to take your friendships to the next level in the level of care and caring for others, spend a little bit of time understanding what it is that makes somebody tick yeah, whether it's a word that could encourage them or doing something nice for them. That's a great takeaway. Number two in conversations, spend less time making personal reflections to your life in a conversation. Listen. Don't worry as much about trying to relate to somebody. If you have to relate to somebody constantly, that might be a sign of something else. Just listen to them. If you want to interject, stop yourself. Train yourself to go. Nope, it's not as important for me to interject. I just want to listen to you. Trust me, it'll change the way you engage relationships.
Speaker 2:And number three don't be afraid to spend a little more time investing in conversation. The grocery store, the bus stop, the arena, the stadium, wherever your repeated stops are instead of saying good, ask that question If it's somewhere you go back repeatedly. You're constantly going for lunch. You stop at the office. You're downtown, you're going across to this restaurant. You see this person every day. Spend a little more time. You'll be shocked to see what the results will be of the Lord If you subscribe to the faith-based life. The Lord will open opportunities for you to be a light in their life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you know what, Sometimes it's in the simplest of situations. I go to a specific grocery store close to my place and there's a guy who sweeps the floors and gathers carts. That's all he does. And I always seem to try and strike up a conversation with him about something. And I had asked him about how everything was going with his life because he just had a sad look on his face as he was sweeping. He said you know, my daughter's really sick. He said that's all I can think about right now.
Speaker 1:I said well, like at home sick like with the flu and no, his daughter was having like medical episodes where she was having to be hospitalized and they couldn't figure out what was going on. And they, they found out that she had like a tumor and he's like we're basically going to find out how long she's got and I really want to be with my daughter right now. But here I am. So there in the middle of an aisle in a grocery store, I said can I stop and pray for you and your daughter.
Speaker 1:And it was just taking that moment to show care. And every time I see him, how's your daughter doing? Oh, she's doing better now, and you know what. And just all the time, just kind of a little bit of, we tear up together, we say hi to each other, shake hands and just have that moment and he, every once in a while, will see me come, and he'll be the one that he'll.
Speaker 1:Dan, let me tell you about this and that. And all of a sudden now he's done that and engaged that and it's like okay, a first of all. I guess I got to keep coming to this grocery store even though the prices might be elsewhere.
Speaker 1:But B caring is at the heart of relationship, and I think those are great points that you brought up, dave, because they're simple things that we can do in order to build into lives of others, and I think we're going to find, as we are willing to build into lives of others, we'll actually ultimately realize not only how much we care for others, but how much God cares for us, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Certainly anything. But whatever we are the Gospel in the Game. Episode eight. You can follow us on social media Instagram, Twitter as well as download episodes. Listen to them wherever podcasts can be found.
Speaker 1:I am Dave and he is Dan yeah, whenever whatever we're meant to be together okay, and now it's time quick stop, stop, stop the rain, stop the rain. Outro Music.
