Identity Rooted in Christ

On this episode of the Authentic Marriage Podcast, hosts Shawn and Lauren, along with Chris and Brooke, dive into the importance of identity and how it shapes both our personal lives and our marriages. So often, we place our identity in things like our careers, accomplishments, children, or even our emotions. While these things may matter, they were never meant to define us.

The conversation brings listeners back to the foundation of true identity, which begins with the love of God. As Scripture reminds us in John 4:19, “We love because He first loved us,” and in Romans 5:8, God did not wait for us to improve before loving us. He chose us, pursued us, and adopted us as His own.

The hosts discuss how competing voices can distort our identity, leading to confusion and double-mindedness. When we are not secure in Christ, we begin to look to our spouse or children to fulfill what only God can provide. This often leads to disappointment, because nothing in this world is complete or perfect apart from Him.

They also highlight how misplaced identity can affect families, especially when parents place their identity in their children rather than in Christ. As Ephesians 2:10 reminds us, we are God’s workmanship, created with purpose and intention.

This episode encourages listeners to root their identity in Christ alone, knowing that when we are secure in Him, our marriages and relationships are strengthened and aligned with His design.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:09

Welcome back to the Love for Lifetime Authentic Marriage Podcast. I'm Chris. This is my wife Brooke. They're Sean and Lauren. It's good to see you guys. We've realized maybe for some of our newer listeners, you might want to know a little bit more about each of us and just kind of backgrounds and families and stuff. So, kind of Sean and Lauren, why don't you share a little bit about your families?

SPEAKER_03 0:28

Well, we are a blended family. We have kids ranging from 27 to 2. So I plan on being an empty nester at 75.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Or never.

SPEAKER_03 0:43

Oh, they keep us young. So they're a lot of what we're doing in our life right now with the two and the five-year-old. And we have a couple of wedding venues, as you know, and uh we love marriage, and that's why God inspired us to do this marriage podcast and date nights and all the things we do.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Yeah, we stay very, very busy, that's for sure. Um and something interesting about us is we are currently in Bible college, Karis Bible College, actually. So, and that's been really enjoyable. We we do a little bit every morning, and it's been um just really uh helped us in our walk with the Lord. It's grown us substantially. So that's something unique that we've added to our plate recently, but it's a good ad.

SPEAKER_02 1:32

That's fantastic because you guys have made the time for that. I mean, just thinking about that with two kids, five and under, two and two and five.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

You got five businesses?

SPEAKER_02 1:40

You got businesses you're running, multiple businesses that you're running, uh, but you're making the time to do that. So that's fantastic.

SPEAKER_03 1:46

Yeah, we definitely learn that God will expand your time when you ask him to.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Yeah. Yeah, and I think learning all of that helps us to manage uh the blessings he's given us well. So it's it's really good. How about you get what's going on in your world?

SPEAKER_02 2:02

We're kind of on the other side of that problem.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Trying not to be nearly as busy as you are. But you want to swap for a day. I don't believe we see you enough to know that now. Really, it's fine if you want to. So we have to bend. We've got two kids. Um, our daughter is 24. Yeah and our son is 21. He'll graduate graduate from UT in May. And so we're on the emptiness side of things. Um, at least for now. We'll see if they come back or not. But um, yeah, I think they're not supposed to be boomerangs, those kids.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

They're supposed to be arrows. They shouldn't go.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

We'll see.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

We'll keep praying for that.

SPEAKER_00 2:43

So and I'm still a stay-at-home mom even though there aren't kids at home, but I uh don't ever get bored and lots of volunteer things and marriage ministry things. Like love for a lifetime. Yeah, we can easily lazy with that. Yes, which is good.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

And Chris, you have news. Yeah, and for me, I am uh I'm recently retired. I'm still struggling with that word. I tell people I'm no longer working. I'm no longer working for a paycheck. Yeah. Uh but it's been uh it's been a really interesting experience. I I stopped working a couple of months ago now. Just an opportunity timing worked out well between me and the company. And you know, after 28 great years there, it was just a good opportunity to move on. And uh so now I am trying out not working, semi-retired, spending a lot of time with me with Brooke. Yeah, Brooke is not unhappy about this. No most days she's pretty happy about it, some days not as much.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Um learning things about herself, I think.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

Yes, and we're also learning, you know, even though we've been married 32 years, we're learning more about each other. But it's been interesting because I I don't miss work, right? You know, I don't want to go back to the job and the day-to-day uh stresses and requirements of that, but it's interesting kind of the different experience of it because when I was at work, I had responsibilities and deadlines and things that need to get done, and people who who wanted my advice, or people needed my approvals, or sometimes they just need my signature. And it's kind of a funny thing that you know, all these responsibilities go away, and it's like, oh, I'm relieved, and it's a good thing. But suddenly I'm left with, wait a minute, wait a minute, nobody needs me anymore. Uh and it's this kind of funny gap that I started to find myself in. And it and it actually has created a little bit of friction, let's say, a few times in the household. I think we'll come back to that later. But it really got to me thinking about, you know, I don't want to go back to work, but I'm in this funny zone of figuring out this this new place. I don't like the word retired because I'm not, you know, I don't want to go play golf and and fish. I want to do ministry work. Uh so it's trying to figure out what am I? Uh people ask that question all the time, well, what do you do? And people say, well, he's retired. And I'm like, well, I'm I don't like that word. So it's got me thinking a lot about identity. And I think we're gonna talk about identity in this podcast, but first, I think when I first think about it, I kind of start with this this what's the worldly thoughts on identity? And and that's what I'm working through. Is and typically it's what is your job or your position? You know, are you an engineer or a teacher or an accountant or professor or something? So that's one way we define identity. Or even retired. Or even retired, yes. Retired stuff.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

Which from the world standpoint, it's a whole different view of you know, just laying on a beach somewhere. Although that sounds nice.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

I do want to do that, just not every day.

SPEAKER_04 5:47

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

Um, so yeah, so you think about the worldly views. One way they look, we look at it in worldly view is what do you do? What's your profession? Another way, worldly view might be, you know, what's your family? You know, what's your family of heritage? I, you know, I'm a son of Robert, and Brooke is a daughter of Barbara. So people might think about the worldly view, they come from this family or they come from that family. Another one, worldly view, is something, you know, something in your past, you know, some significant event. On the positive side, it may be like you think about uh I'm I'm older, so I know who Joe Montana is. Sean, you know Joe Montana. Right. Joe Montana, he is Super Bowl-winning quarterback, Joe Montana. Right? So he's identified by uh this event in his past that makes him significant. On the negative side, you see this in literature a lot. You get things like uh uh the book, The Scarlet Letter, and Hester Prynn has to wear the red A. She's known as an adulteress. Um it's another way. So that's a third way. History of past, another way I thought about people in the world, we think about identity. Uh they may think about people's income or your net worth or your value. So these are kind of four lenses, maybe worldly views. What do you do? What's your profession, your family of heritage, maybe a significant event, or maybe your income or kind of worldly views. And I was thinking about these, all of these, some observations, and that they're either they're you know often based on what we do or our responsibilities, um, but they're also often very limiting or confining, right? If I'm an engineer, people probably also aren't going to think about me as being a philosopher, right? Um, so they're limiting or confining. Uh, and they often assign us a place in society kind of aligned with stereotypes. So we have all these worldly things, and that's what I'm walking through is I walk from this, oh, I was uh I was a businessman, I was a manager in my business to now I'm retired, and I get hung up and I trip over this idea of what do I do, and I'm thinking about my identity in the wrong way, not in the proper biblical way that I should be thinking about it.

SPEAKER_03 8:00

I think I think some of it too can be almost an attribute of your emotional state. You'll refer to somebody as, oh, that's an angry guy, or that's uh even a joyful person, right? And then they feel like they have to live into that, and when those words are spoken over them, they have to live on by that. And joyful is fine, but when you're not joyful one day, then you feel like you're not doing your job. Yeah, you know. So I think comedians are known that way, aren't they? That's a good example. And so I know that you know, in the past I, you know, I played professional sports, and a lot of that comes from anger and comes from you know, um, just a very good channeled way to direct it. But I was an athlete or I was an angry guy or I was tough or I was physical. And so when you start to live into those, and you and I talked about that on a on a different podcast about you know pride where that can lead to pride and those kind of things, um, as your identity. So I think you know, your emotional state that you tend to fall in, people can call you that. And you will live into those things when people call you if you're not careful.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

Yeah, so I think it's important, you know, that we realize where our identity lies, you know, because it's not in the worldly view of things. And um I think we have to start at the basics. And the basic is uh the love of God for us. That we were loved prior to before we were even born. He knew us beforehand, he planned us, and he loved us. Um he loved us while we were still sinners. And um I think we first have to realize the love of God to really understand all the things that come with the love of God, to understand who we are in Christ, to understand who he is, who what his character is, and that all plays into knowing our identity because he's our maker. So it's important that we know him. And knowing him first off is knowing the love of aspect of him. And um, you know, in John 4.19 it says, We love because he first loved us. He initiated the love. We didn't. He pursues us, not that we've pursued him, you know. And uh Romans 5.8, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Um, you know, he he didn't he didn't wait for repentance, he didn't wait for loyalty, he didn't wait for improvement. Uh you know, we were wanted before before we were even worthy of it, you know. Umorthy because of Jesus now.

SPEAKER_02 10:37

But um Jeremiah before I formed you in the womb. I know I knew you.

SPEAKER_01 10:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:45

He says you were fearfully and wonderfully made. A lot of times we don't see ourselves as wonderfully made, right? The world has beaten us down or or told us differently, and we don't see ourselves as created in the image of God. And that's where our identity starts to form, and that's where it should form. And then your purpose that he gives you is another another way to move into that. But the ultimate identity is we were made in the image of God. And we don't see ourselves like that. And through Christ, we're we're seen as righteous. And we don't see ourselves like that most of the time, right? Never and once have I said, Yes, I'm righteous. I'm Sean, I'm righteous. Right, exactly right. But I think we self-righteousness, the people that are self-righteous has kept that word to kind of be a dirty, prideful word where it's not, you know, it's not if the Lord calls you righteous because of Christ's uh what he did for us, then I want to take that and say, yes, that is what I mean.

SPEAKER_02 11:44

And the important difference there is self, right? Right. It's not I am righteous through the things myself, through the things I did. It's you are righteous through Christ dying for your sins on your cross on the cross.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

Yeah. Um, you know, just for reference, that uh, you know, we always like to bring it back to what does the Bible say? It's not just us saying these things, these are biblical truths that we stand on in in Corinthians 5 21. It says, God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. So when we're talking about that, I mean it's in the Bible. We are the righteousness of him, and that was the exchange of the cross. That's that's really what the cross exchanged for us. Um and so I think it's you know, we are chosen, we're adopted, um, we're accepted, um, and our identity is is um not from something that we achieved. And so I think it's really important because um in this world we have competing voices, right? Um, like you said, you are your job, right? You you are what you look like or what you earn, right? Um and we can't be double-minded in this either, you know. James 1.8 says a double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways. And the like an example of that is we believe God loves us, but we still feel like we have to earn it, right? Or we believe we're righteous, but we live in a condemned state. Um, so truly believing who we are, whose we are, and knowing who he is is so important so that we can walk fully in our identity. Um and that's the that's the I mean we can all walk in that. We just we have to we have to know who he is. We can't know who he is if we're just sitting back and uh you know just going with the ways of the world.

SPEAKER_03 13:43

Yeah, but you know what's cool when you start to pray and you're really seeking the Lord, he says, seek me and you'll find me. But identity is the same thing. God, who do you say I am? What did you make me for here? Right? He doesn't want to not tell you that. He doesn't want you to be confused your whole life, he wants you to seek that purpose and that desire. And I remember I went to a listening prayer one time when I was struggling, struggling with the frustration and the anger and those things that I had battled with most of my life. And the word was so clear and it was like this gong in my head, and it said mercy. And I was like, Mercy, like that's not a word I use frequently, right? Except mercy rule when you're beating somebody so bad that they stop the game, right? Of course that's what you would think of. The sports connection. Yeah, yeah. But as I listened to that, I know I knew that that wasn't from me, because that's not a word I used much, that's not a word that I was really familiar with. And so as I started to live into that, I started to see more and more that I am merciful. I have I love that. And so I started to live into that because that's what God called me. And all the stuff where the people were like, oh, you're angry, oh, you got road rage, or you got whatever, started to really go away because I wanted to live into that identity. I'd rather live into God's identity.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

And I think knowing our identity is so crucial in our marriage, because when we get married, if we don't know who our identity what who our identity is, then we try and find it in our spouse and we turn to them, and that's not their responsibility, and that shouldn't be on them to give us our identity. Um, and I think that's where you see a lot of marriages crumble because each one is looking to each other for their identity instead of knowing who they are.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

Validation. Yeah. Yeah, and I think that's the that's the trap I fell into in about two months into my retirement or my stop and working was that I, you know, I'd worked for 30 years, 28 years at the same company, and I had a certain reputation, identity, I had a certain value and need there.

SPEAKER_03 15:48

You had a title, you had a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

That's right, and all of that ended very quickly, very abruptly. Uh, and the thing I did was then I started saying, well, somebody needs to need me, and I started putting that on Brooke. You know, I would, I would, you know, I would write something, I would write an email or a newsletter or something, and I'd send that to Brooke, and I would expect, oh, I I need Brooke, I need Brooke to respond in the next 30 minutes. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

That didn't work out. Poor you. No, I I think that's important. Like you, you know, I wrote this down, but uh marriage is not a validation machine, you know, and and that's you were looking for that.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

Yeah, and it caused, it caused a couple of lucky for us, it caused a couple, only a couple of weeks of friction. And I think we were able to identify it. And and I I can now uh intellectually I know it's there. I'm in this transition process of moving from one stage of my life to another, and I'm secure in my identity in Christ, but I still want to contribute. So now I'm working back through, you know, how do I contribute? Um, so so but it still causes some uh a little bit of unfair expectations, right? So for you know, 30 years, Brooke lived and she took care of things, and and and I was so busy with work that she really, you know, she needed to be fairly independent. Um and me coming back home and suddenly needing more of her time and wanting more of her time was a was a big adjustment, and I have to back off and realize, oh, wait a minute. Um I'm the one that's had changed here. Her life hasn't changed. Well, it's changed a little bit, but a lot of things you had going on are still the same.

SPEAKER_00 17:28

Right. I didn't retire. All my things are still out there, so it's been it's a bit an adjustment. It's been a good adjustment, but it's it's still an adjustment.

SPEAKER_03 17:37

I didn't know that your job never has a retirement.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Yeah, you're in it forever. Yeah. Well, and I don't know, I just have this on my heart to somebody who's listening to this. I just feel like I need to say this is that there are people who put their identity on their children. And and that is not healthy for your child. Um, because then they're trying to um get your approval, your validation, um, and you've created this horrible cycle of uh an identity crisis. Um and I don't know, the Lord just placed that heavy on my heart. I believe that somebody's probably hearing that, and um and so, you know, I would just ask the Lord, you know, right now, is this something that I do? Because we talk a lot about marriage, but the family unit is really at the core of what we're doing, right? And um and it starts with the mom and dad, but it's what you're pouring into your kids so that they can have successful marriages, right? So if you have an identity crisis and you're pouring that into your child, then they're gonna have an identity crisis and it's just gonna continue.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

And I think it's so important that we learn our identity in Christ as individuals, and then that helps the marriage, but then also I think it allows our children to be who God created them to be. I see too many parents who are trying to live vicariously through their kids the life that they didn't lead or that they didn't get to do, they want their kids to do it. Um, and I think it's really unfair when we put that on them, um, and like you said, get our identity in our child, that's that's not fair to them at all. We need to let them be who God created them to be. But until we're secure in who we are, I can see where we're not doing that.

SPEAKER_01 19:22

How do you teach that if you don't even understand?

SPEAKER_00 19:24

Right, right. And I think for our spouse as well, you know, there's um, I know you're younger, but you know, we can hang out with all of you. Um maybe Jerry McGuire, when he walks in the room and he's like, you complete me, and all the women in the room melt. And it's like, okay, yeah, that sounds sweet, and there is some level of marriage where to become one and there is completion, but it's not Chris's job to complete me. It's not his job to make to validate me, to make me feel like a complete person. Um, and there's this, I love this. Um, this is actually older than we are, even um, 17th century um little figure. Little name uh his name is Blaise Pascal, and he was referring to just the spiritual condition of man, and he said, there is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man, which cannot be satisfied by any created thing, but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ. And I think we all have this God-shaped vacuum in our hearts, and if we're looking to anything else to fill that besides God, we're gonna fall short and we're going to be disappointed. So whether it's your career, it's your children, it's your volunteer work, it's your church work, I mean, anything else we're looking to is gonna fall short because nothing's as great and complete as God. And um, I just think that's a wonderful observation and helpful for us to keep in mind.

SPEAKER_01 20:49

Yeah, and I would also say too, and I wrote this down um that you know, when you know who you are uh personally, and then you you both know who you are in Christ, you know, you are now a united front.

SPEAKER_04 21:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

Um, so when there's pressures of the world, there's uh, you know, parenting gets hard, financial stress, culture pressures, all of these things, you can put the armor of God on together and stand against the attacks of this world, to stand against the lies that come against your marriage and your family. And so I I, you know, doing knowing your identity personally, but then also knowing uh seeking your identity together in Christ as a as a married couple as well is so important.

SPEAKER_03 21:39

We'll remind ourselves of who God has called us to be. We'll remind each other when we're struggling, when one of us is struggling. You know, one thing God's blessed us with is we're never both down at the same time. He allows one to encourage and pick the other one up. And so we do that for one another and we remind each other hey, who are you in Christ? If you're fearful, you know, we we we go. Through that and say, God didn't give you a spirit of fear, you know, He gave you a spirit of self-control and those kind of things. And we remind each other that this isn't who you are at the moment you're putting truth into the lie that we're feeling in that moment.

SPEAKER_00 22:14

And what a gift for us, us to figure that out as the adults, as the parents, but then also to give that to our children. Because imagine if our kids from a young age are equipped in knowing their identity in Christ. Then when the bullies come at them, the influencers are telling them to do other things. Like this world, it's really hard for our kids these days. And if they are secure in who they are in Christ, that just gives them that armor to go out and face the world and not succumb to all the negative stuff that's out there.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

That's one of the things Sean and I have really been trying to do is instill the word, which is truth, into our kids. When there's an you know, when when they have a conflict together, or when, you know, they're complaining or things like that, we bring scripture to the scene so that they know that they understand who they are and and their identity is is in Christ. And and this is who you are. This is not who you are. And you've listened to the lies of the enemy, and that's not who you are. This is who you are.

SPEAKER_03 23:17

And I'll have to say it's not too late if you know we we were blessed with a five and a two-year-old that we almost get a redo. But with the 18 and 27-year-old, we still have the ability to go back and speak that life where maybe we didn't speak it right in the beginning. And we can go back where, you know, my oldest was a great baseball player and burned out at 13 years old because he was tired of that being his identity. And you know, that's probably something that I forced on him because he was really good at it. And I look back and now I don't want to do those same mistakes. And so, you know, the screen I didn't read scripture over him. I didn't talk to him about the truths of the word in those times. I wasn't I wasn't there yet. But it's not too late to continue to speak to our children. They still look up to you, they still want to know what you think.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

Um God's timing on that.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

Yeah, I think the the beauty in that is that that you have changed. I think your older son will see that. Right. He will see some of those changes, some of the the softening of the anger and the and the pride, and and and your son, older son will look to say, Well, what's changed in my dad? And it'll be quite obvious when he looks, he'll know what's changed. He'll know that you're in the Bible more, that you're reading more, and that's that's that's the driver. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

One thing that's on my heart, too, is just we're talking here. Fortunately, we are you guys and we are in in very good marriages, and so thankful for that. But there could be people listening to this who aren't, and they're like, well, this all sounds great, but my spouse isn't gonna do that. And I just want to say, do what you can for yourself, get to know your identity in Christ. You know, there's um one of the marriage things they say is you draw a circle around yourself and then you fix everybody inside that circle. You can't fix your spouse, right? We can only fix ourselves and work on ourselves. And I think I truly believe as we get to know the Lord and get to know our identity in Him, we will be changed from the inside out. And people around us can't help but see that. And I I firmly believe that will help your spouse to soften and um hopefully eventually, you know, join you on that journey. So don't be discouraged if you're out there saying, well, these guys have great marriages, and mine's really not in a good place right now. Do you know, do what you can, focus on Jesus and who he says you are and what he's created marriage to be, and and start there.

SPEAKER_03 25:31

And I think it's important to recognize too, even with our marriages, we still work hard on it. We all work very hard on it. And we came from places of probably not great marriages. So we're a testament to the fact that if you work on it, you seek God and those things that you can have great marriages. We weren't walking on the same path, you know, when we started. You guys, you know, I know your story. During the middle of it, you were in parallel lives, yeah. Right? But God somehow brought you back to the importance of marriage and the and the importance of those things. And so if somebody's listening to this and they don't have that marriage, there is hope. Oh, yeah. We were, you know.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

And I would say, um, and this isn't uh to to praise me in any sorts, God drew me in a moment, and I was like, I want to love him more than I love you, and I really started to seek my identity in him and and seek who he was, and I didn't, I didn't, I wanted Sean to come along. I would pray that he did, but he wasn't like gung-ho about it at first.

SPEAKER_03 26:38

She didn't force me or enag me.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

And um, you know, God can change hearts, and so I just left that to him, and as I as he began to see uh me change, he kind of was interested in it.

SPEAKER_03 26:53

And so I think I saw you move from a pretty selfish person to somebody who started to give and somebody who started to care about other people, and I was like, okay, what you know, what's going on here? I like this. And so I wanted to be a part of that. And and and that was um a big change that you made of yourself that God made in you, that other people around you recognize. I recognize it, your parents, people around you recognize that change, and it was pretty good, pretty quick, honestly. Um and it just makes you want to be around that and to know that more.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

Well, God wants a relationship with you, you know, and like you can't base it on, well, my spouse isn't gonna have a relationship, so I'm not gonna have a relationship. Like, no, God wants a relationship with you, like he wants that, and like pursue that and and then pray for your spouse and their relationship with God, because he also wants a relationship with your spouse, you know.

SPEAKER_02 27:51

So yeah, I think we've got uh a lot more we could probably say about this topic, but I think we probably need to wrap up for today. Yeah. Um, but it's been a good discussion, right? I mean, it's been a journey that you know we talk about we have good marriages, but it still means we're still learning things, we're still having friction points, we still have disagreements and tensions, and and uh, you know, this was this is one uh a small one, but one we had to walk through and we're walking through is this change in my life is you know a little bit of the friction that comes when I need her too much, when I forget where my identity is.

SPEAKER_03 28:23

So I think it's small though, because you guys addressed it pretty quickly, you communicated about it because you guys are a team already, right? Yeah, so it could have been a big thing and it could have been a pain point. But two weeks, two weeks is nothing in a marriage.

SPEAKER_02 28:39

Yeah, let me uh let me pray us out and I'm gonna use uh one of the verses I found on this topic to start my prayer. It's Ephesians 2.10. So Lord, just thank you. Ephesians 2.10 says, For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ, created in Christ Jesus to do good works for for which God prepared in advance for us to do. So thank you, God, so much that you sent Christ to die for our sins, that you sent Christ to make us heirs and sons to you, but also, Lord, that you prepared good works for us in advance, Lord. Help us to lean into those works, Lord. Help us to see how see us, help us also to see our spouses the way you see them, Lord. We just thank you so much for looking past our mistakes, for looking past our sins, Lord, and for seeing us just glorified, Lord. We just praise you and we thank you for this, Lord. We ask you to protect and be with uh all the marriages watching uh uh this podcast, all the marriages listening, Lord. Just be with them. Help them to see their spouses the way you see, Lord, where the way you see them, Lord. Help them to see the glory, help them to see the perfection, help them to see the gifts that you have given to them, Lord, so that they can be nourished and built up and they can go out into the world and share those gifts, Lord. So we just thank you. We thank you for all you're doing in our lives and the lives of our children, all that you have planned for us, Lord, and we just uh uh we just thank you and praise you for that. And we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. So we're Kristen Brook, they're Sean and Laura. This has been uh Love for a Lifetime's Authentic Marriage Podcast, and we look forward to seeing you next time.