Episode #9 Why Christians Are Struggling to Date with Christian Rodriguez

On this episode of Everyday Faith, I’m joined by Christian Rodriguez from Family Church Downtown as we dive into the importance of having Godly mentors and why so many young adults are struggling with dating today. We talk about what dating should look like as Christians, dating with purpose instead of temporary feelings, and making sure your relationship with God is healthy before pursuing a relationship with someone else. This conversation is honest, relatable, and full of wisdom for anyone navigating faith, relationships, and young adulthood.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:09

What is up, everybody? Welcome back to the Everyday Faith Podcast. I am your host, Tyler Klein. And joining me today is a good friend from Family Church Downtown, Christian Rodriguez, who is a let me just read the little bio you gave me. I love reading the little bios that people give me. Pastor to the students and families from Family Church downtown. I I had the privilege of serving with you, uh, Kairos, college students.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Yeah. I miss it. That was the year. You, Verati.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Yeah, I feel like you tricked me into it because I didn't know what I was getting into. And then I pictured like maybe like, you know, four or five kids that I'd be like giving a little Bible study to, and then I get there the first day, and it's like 30 kids. And I'm like, what are we doing? Um you did it great, man. I pre- I sometimes I want to come back. I'm not there yet. I'm not there yet.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Well, I'm not there anymore either.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

So um, man, you partner with parents to disciple their kids. You lead teams, volunteers, and you run the internship program. I always forget about that. You as long as I've known you, you've been like, like, if we need a hype guy, like C Rod's the guy.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

I'm just loud, Tyler. I'm loud. That that's part of my Cuban, my Cuban nature.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

So I always have this memory of you. I think it was block party. And as the kids are coming in and signing up and whatever it is, like you are just there playing random instrumental music, but you are rapping and just getting these kids hyped. Um, man, I'm so excited to have you on.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Um well, my my most vivid memory of you, Tyler, is when you first moved down, seeing you walking, you're walking from like some type of parking lot area when you first moved down, so you can go hang out with Lakin, and you're walking all alone. I put the wind on my do you need a ride? I remember this. And then uh, and then that's when I think right after we had the idea to ask you to come do Kairos because we were like, hey, yeah, there's all these young guys, none of them really know each other. And I think that's when you started serving with was you would you and Verati lead a group? It was me and Roddy. And then we did the fashion. Was helping lead something, and then Trace Trace showed up. Yeah, Trace was in. Yeah, and we were supposed to kick Trace out because he was too old. But then I was like, no, but Trace, y'all would all become friends. Yeah, and it's wild how it all happened. That's y'all squad.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

I I remember that because I remember going to Lake and I was like, hey, you remember that guy? I think his name's Sierra. She goes, Yeah, I I mean I know Sierra. I'm like, Yeah, he seems pretty cool. He just offered to let me ride in his car with him.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

I remember Lakin being uh an accounting major.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Yeah. Yeah, I I remember that. We've gone a long way. Uh huh. And it's it's been a fun process. I mean, I've gotten to see your wife and my wife pregnant in the same season. Crazy. Which was awesome. Getting reads together, going to parties together, uh and you know, just seeing them pregnant, and now we're fathers, and it's uh it's wild to see how fast it's going. But how are you doing, man? How's dad life? How's life?

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Dad life is fun. I thought we were just both talking earlier before this of dad life is even more fun when like your son starts getting older and you can actually like toss him around and wrestle with him and play with him. I think uh I miss the two-month-old like him sleeping on my chest. But uh I do I enjoy the routine of he falls asleep at the same time most nights. Victoria and I get a couple hours to ourselves, you know, to just spend time with each other, and then I'm sure you feel we're just figuring out as we go. There's not really there's not really a lot we know, but we're just like, all right, he's breathing, he's eating. Is he sleeping all night?

SPEAKER_01 3:38

Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 3:39

What about y'all?

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Yeah, it's the best thing ever. Yeah, I love it. Now um, I know that you're a big fan of reading, and I wanted to ask you, what is what has been your favorite book that you've read? Because I've seen your Narnia collection.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

That's pretty nice. We are readers at the Rodriguez house. I think Victoria said it. She we we try to treat reading like Netflix of like have a couple different shows, like have like a intense story one if you're in the mood for that, or like a lighthearted thing. Yeah, I would say my favorite book is probably I'm reading Red Rising right now, and it's a book like if you take if you combine Dune, like you see the Dune movies? Yeah, if you combine Dune with the Hunger Games, really, and like put them together, you get this Red Rising book.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

Is it a series or just one book?

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Uh it's a series, so there's six of them. I like it because I don't have to skip very many pages. Yeah. Like it there's like violence, and they might say a couple bad words, but like there's not like a lot of like explicit content. Yeah. So that's been a favorite. Another one of my favorites is a book called Mistborn.

SPEAKER_02 4:50

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:51

That is kind of like a it's kind of like if the bad guy won and it's like a thousand years later, and this like group of friends has to this group of thieves has to overthrow the government. So I I'm a I like reading fiction because it kind of lets me lets my ADD calm down. So those are those are my favorite like fiction books, and then there's a book I try to read once a year that's the cheesiest book ever, but it's like a Christian leadership book called The Noticer.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

Or not The Noticer, it's called uh The Traveler's Gift, same author. Uh it's about a guy who like he gets to travel back in time and meet like seven historical figures, yeah. And like they teach him something, and it's like short enough that like you can read in like a coffee shop for a like.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Do you have like do you typically have like three books on rotation? Are you like uh I'm gonna finish this book before I go to Barnes and Noble?

SPEAKER_00 5:44

No, I heard from a couple mentors the idea of like there's some people who hate to like not finish a book. Yeah, I'm kind of team like Netflix. If if I watch a season or I read the first hundred and fifty pages and I'm not a fan of it, I might Google, all right, how does it end? Yeah, hey, what are the best chapters that I should read?

SPEAKER_02 6:07

I've been there.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Uh like today at work, I was going through I was about to start this book, The Anxious Generation, on like Gen Z. Yeah, I don't have time to read the whole 200 pages, but I was like, all right, Chat GPT, what are the five five biggest chapters on this? Like, you know, what are some of the ideas? So I'll kind of skim through a lot of stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 6:26

Big chat GBT guy.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

It helps.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

It helps, helps, helps things go fast. So I'm a big uh I love a good thriller, I love a good sci-fi fantasy book. Um I love a um recommendation. It's called The Tattooist of Auschwitz. I recommend to Matthew.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

I've heard lots of good things because that's like the same type of thing of uh all the light we cannot see, like that World War II kind of yes.

SPEAKER_01 6:52

I took it on my honeymoon with me and I finned, I couldn't put it down. For real. I mean it was it was so good firsthand like experience of like what it was like to be the guy that had to tattoo all the numbers on everybody that walked through Auschwitz, and it was it's it was insane. And I love I love history like that. But let's get back on topic though. Man, um I'm excited to have you in today. I'm excited to talk about possibly mentorship. I'm excited to talk about dating, man. I mean, like, what's your go-to dating app nowadays, C-rod? I'm just kidding. Um man, take me into the shoes of C-Rod. Like, what did it look like growing up? Like, what did it look like to find Christ? What was the influence like? Was there for me? It was two little old ladies on Sunday morning always preaching the word to me. Um, what'd that look like for you?

SPEAKER_00 7:40

For me, so I grew up Catholic. Grew up like there's a lot of like in the South, some people hear about like cultural Christianity. I grew up like culturally Catholic and cultural Catholicism with what most Hispanics, a lot of Irish people, Italians kind of grow up in. So we went to Catholic Mass and kind of grew up in that. But then when my family moved up to West Palm, I was middle school was pretty hard, just adjustment, trying to figure out who I was, trying to deal with some just the craziness that is middle school. But in high school, I became friends with like four, four or five guys. Uh Kirk Crowley, Matt Fritz, Ross Perry, Zach Schwartz. Uh those are the main four, and Connor Hart. Those five guys all went to what back then was First Baptist Church of West Palm. Oh, yeah. Now family church.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Yeah, family church, yep.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

And Ross's mom and dad knew that the best way to get their son Ross to church was to make sure that all of his friends were going to be there. So starting freshman year, we would all sleep over probably like three times a month. We were sleeping over Ross's house on Saturdays. Yeah. Which was crazy because like Hispanic parents, you don't really do sleepovers until your parents get close with the other parents. So this is one of the only houses I was allowed to sleep over.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Well, just how I feel like I would be as a parent, though.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

Yeah, I'm team, it's gonna take a lot for me to be okay with a sleepover. Let me know your dad.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Let me know who's at that house.

SPEAKER_00 9:09

But uh Santi can sleep with Brooks and Santi can. Yeah, like something like that's fine. But my parents somehow, I think the Lord just made them comfortable with it and made them feel they became friends with the Perry family. Yeah. And Ross's mom would tell everyone, bring church clothes, and we'd all pile in the minivan, and the next day we'd be go to church.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

There were some days we'd probably show up like 30 minutes late and go to small group. But that was like the the most regular recurring time. And then my senior year, all those same guys, we did started doing a Sunday night Bible study.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

With a guy, this guy named Scott Sawyer. That he worked on the operations team at the church.

SPEAKER_01 9:49

What a name.

SPEAKER_00 9:50

And Scott would have us over his house on Sunday nights. He gave us a gave me a Bible. I read Book of James, it was the first book I ever read. Uh, we met every Sunday, and like those were the things that really planted the seeds of like me understanding. I struggled a lot with like not wanting to be a hypocrite, like what I thought a lot of Christians were. So I don't think I fully made a decision to like surrender to Jesus until college. Yeah. But those years in high school were pretty influential. Like I vividly remember like the Bible studies we did. Like I remember going through James. I remember my buddy Matt at Peanut Island giving us a uh Devo on Romans 15 and like knowing what it means to stand on your own convictions. Yeah. I remember Scott asking me, like, hey man, do you want to lead a Bible study? And I led something on Matthew 7, and like I said five words and didn't say anything else. And he, you know, but those are the memories that like Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

It sounds like some good friends.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

Yeah. And now it's crazy. I get to be the pastor in the same room that like I was a high school student. I always forget about that.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Uh that is that's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

Uh so but if it wasn't for those guys, pull him in, and one of those guys, his parents actually said, like, hey Matthew, are you are you sure Christian's the right person to like kind of be hanging out with? Like, you know, he kind of seems like a little bit of a not great influence. And to be honest, at the time I probably wasn't the best influence, but uh guys like him were bold enough to tell their parents, like, hey, he's a guy I wanna, he's a good guy. Yeah, you know, he's trying to figure things out, we want to help him. Yeah, so I'm thankful for those guys.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Do those guys still go to family church downtown? Do you still see those guys?

SPEAKER_00 11:34

No, they've all moved different places, but Kurt and Matt, them and their wives, and Victoria, we're all great friends. They we all had babies within six months of each other. Oh wow. So we're all planning in like September a trip to like have our kids get to like hang out and play around, which is exciting.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

That's awesome. I love that. So, what was that like? You so you obviously have the influence, good friends, planting the seed. You get to college, figuring out life, that's when you like you really were like, I think I'm gonna follow Christ here.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

Yeah, I think in college I was still wrestling with, hey, do I want what the world has? Do I am I sure about this Christianity stuff?

SPEAKER_02 12:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

And I think I just had a freshman year of a lot of up and ups and downs, but I did a like a summer, it wasn't an internship, it was kind of like a summer discipleship program.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

And I remember that's the first time that I just had someone ask me, like, hey, do you think Jesus died for you and your sins? And it took me like a week to like realize, like, all right, regardless of how I feel about myself, yeah. Yes, Jesus died for me. And I think that's when it all clicked and changed. You know, was it was the I think that was summer of 2015.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

Dang, I just graduated high school that year.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Did you really?

SPEAKER_01 12:53

Yeah.

unknown 12:53

Dang.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

Were you only like what, one year older than me? Two years older than me?

SPEAKER_00 12:56

Uh well, yeah, I graduated in 2014. I don't know why I met I don't know why I made it sound like I was that much older than you.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

And then you met your wife.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

And we uh yeah, me and Victoria met.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

What college did you go to?

SPEAKER_00 13:07

So I went to Samford. Yeah, where's that? It's a small school in Birmingham, Alabama.

SPEAKER_01 13:12

I've heard of it. I just don't remember where it was.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

So it's like right in the middle of Birmingham.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Now I asked, this is what I love about the podcast. I say this every single time I do an episode. I love chatting with people and saying, especially someone like you, who sees a lot of young adults, and I ask you, what do you see them struggling with? And you immediately text me, dating and mentors. Why? Why do you think that? Let's let's start with this. Let's start with this, let's break it down a little bit. I threw you under the bus there. Why why why would you say it's important to have a mentor in your life? Because I I would say um when I was leading high school guys, like there are there are definitely kids out there and young adults that just don't have someone to give them guidance and how important that is. So why would you say it's important?

SPEAKER_00 14:04

I think it's part of the fabric of how God made us. I think you look through the whole Bible, and I think you can constantly see there's always an older, more mature person and a younger person. Yeah. So like two of my favorites to constantly look at is like the relationship that Moses and Joshua had. Yeah. So like Joshua's mimosis is number two for like the whole time, you know, especially when they're in the wilderness, uh, and then Joshua takes over once he dies, you know. And then as you go through the rest of the Bible, I mean, even David, you know, David's having different mentor influences, whether it's Samuel, he's having a bad older figure in his life, like Saul uh gets in the New Testament, Jesus is pulling in guys that are his same age and guys that are younger than him. Like there's a lot of theologians think that most of the disciples, uh, most of them were young men, yeah, like 15 to 20 years old, when they get called to follow Jesus, with the exception of Peter and James and a couple of them, and then Paul. He's got Timothy, uh, there's Barnabas as mentoring Paul. So I think those patterns consistently show that part of us growing in as men, also growing young women growing as women, and part of us just growing spiritually is all dependent on this idea that like there are older people in the faith that are supposed to teach the younger ones. You know, I think it's in it's either 2 Timothy or 1 John. There's this part in chapter 2 where it's like almost this poem of like, hey, fathers of the faith, older older people in the church, hey, you've known what it means to like actually you know the gospel, you've lived the gospel, and then it's like, hey, but you young men in the faith, like you're on fire for the Lord, you're believing the gospel, but like it's this passage where they're encouraging each other. Yeah, like the Paul is encouraging them to have a relationship with one another, and I think mentorship I think mentorship is different than discipleship, though. Like I think a good mentor most of the time turns into someone that disciples you, yeah, but I think also mentoring mentoring and discipleship doesn't mean that it's indefinite.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Like, yes, you can have a lifelong mentor and a lifelong discipler, but I think most of the time it's it's short seasons. Yeah. Like Jesus discipled and mentored for three years, and then all those guys went out on their own.

SPEAKER_02 16:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Paul and Barnabas were only together for certain amounts of time, and then they're splitting up and doing their own thing. So I think disciplers grow you in your spirituality. I think mentors though try to take a more holistic approach of like it's someone that you're coming to not just for your spiritual advice and hey, specifically, I need to help grow in my faith. I think mentors also are helping you in your professional life, they're helping you with your family life, and all that has a spiritual aspect. Yeah. But I I tend to think of discipleship is about the Bible, spiritual disciplines, mentorship is about how do you take those spiritual disciplines and put them into the rest of your life.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Yeah. I mean, I feel like you can see you can kind of see that reflection in everyday life too, like um in work. Like there's always older, more wise people that can pour into you to make you a better worker. Like, especially I work in construction. There are guys that know tricks that I will never know and wouldn't know if it wasn't for them. And they're able to pour that into me and make me a better worker. And I think it's important for us to have mentors in our life, especially like if you are following God and you have a you want to live in God's design. I think it's important to find the right mentor. You know, not just some guy that is a great guy, but he doesn't love Jesus, right? Like you want to find someone that is gonna is gonna mentor you and guide you and help you live a life for Christ. You know what I mean? Would you say you have a desire to be a mentor? Like, I feel like as long as I've known you, you've always been pouring into the younger generation.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

I think so. I mean, I'm not sure. It's funny that you say I don't know if that's like always a innate desire that like I'm constantly looking around, like, all right, who's the next guy that I have? Maybe it's just a gift you have. Part maybe I I think part of it too, Ty, I think I've just noticed that all the men who have mentored me and like are the most influential people in my life, just part of the fabric of who they are is that they decided, hey, I'm gonna be I'm gonna be a people developer. Yeah, I'm like going to pull in guys that are in a different life stage and I'm just gonna like bring them along with me. And there's I've been really blessed that my mentors, like when people describe them, the number one thing they describe them as is a mentor. Yeah, you know, so I've just noticed that consistent thing. So even when I've been uncomfortable doing it, like I've had guys that I've mentored that like kind of like, hey, I'm pretty sure you're further along in your career than me. I'm pretty sure that you can do my job better than I can.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

But I am in a life season ahead of you. So alright, I'm an initiated, and if you want to press in and you know, there's something I can help you with, then perfect. You know? Uh so but I think part of it is the Lord's kind of just open doors and if faithfulness in this season looks like all right, let me let me develop people, um, I'm down for it, you know.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

It's like there's like an enjoyment to it, like something in our in our in our spirit, like being able to for me personally, I didn't really have a mentor growing up, I didn't have an outreach that there were you know, young men that were able like when I was in middle school and high school, like I didn't really have that. And so when I had the opportunity to do that in Pennsylvania, like with high school men, and then come down here in Florida and do it, like it's there's an enjoyment to like see God do something in these young kids.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Well, I would say I've I think you probably had some mentors. You might not call them mentors like straight up, but like yeah, you're a baseball guy. Yeah, so like you did you have a favorite baseball coach growing up?

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Well, I my dad was my coach my whole life. Your dad was your coach? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

Okay, so your dad.

SPEAKER_01 20:31

Uh but I that that was the closest thing. Like my dad was my hero my whole life growing up. Like I won I saw the way he worked with his hands, I saw the way he did life, I saw the way that he treated his wife. Like, and I was just like, Well, that's just what I want to do.

SPEAKER_00 20:43

Oh, I think a lot of young men, I mean, coaches tend to be mentors. Like, people don't realize it, but like your coach, a lot of people will say, like, hey, my high school football coach, my high school baseball coach is like the single most influential person in my life. Yeah, he yelled at me to tuck my shirt in, he yelled at me to touch the line on suicides, and then there are times that he kicked me in the butt because I wasn't playing well, and then there are times that he pulled me aside and said, Hey, you can do this. Yeah. And like coaching in sports is pretty much your mentoring. Yeah. You know, so I think even looking back, a lot of people I think retrospectively, when we look back, you can see who God used to influence you, whether it was for the betterment of you spiritually, or some people influence you a lot in the world, you know. But like I think our culture is already set up in ways where like teachers, faculties at school, coaches, like young people are constantly around different adults. Yeah, I agree with that. You know, for sure. Uh even though though we for some reason we don't call them mentors, yeah. We just call them these different titles without always recognizing like, no, that's that's pretty much just a professional position that developing the next generation. That's a part of what they do, you know.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

I had an amazing mentor when I got out of high school. I was in college, I was a little lost, and I was a little struggling with my faith anyway. He took me in and he uh I ended up doing students with him, and he was so wise, and he was so he's one of those he was one of those guys that like you would look at them and you'd be like, Man, that guy loves Jesus. Like it would it'd be so so I don't even know if I've ever seen him mad. Like it's just one of those guys that like he's always there ready to show the grace of God and just give you the wisdom that you need through whatever season it is because he's lived it, you know. It was a man that lost his daughter at a young age and his marriage fell apart, but yet he still had so much joy for the Lord. And you're like, so how do I get that? You know, and I'm so thankful for him, and I still talk to him nowadays, and I'd love to get him down here, but like there is something so important about having a mentor that that that can get you through through life. And I wanted to ask you because we were discussing dating before we did the podcast, and I would I was gonna ask you, how can a mentor help someone uh discern if they are spiritually ready for a relationship to date?

SPEAKER_00 23:01

Uh I think most of the time regardless of your life stage. So, like I know uh I know men who mentor me who are in their 50s who like they have sought out mentors, yeah, and they've sought out people to help develop them. So regardless of what age you are, when we're talking specifically about young adults, uh mentors are really essential and important because a mentor is able to see things in you that you're not able to see when you look in the mirror. Yeah. That's right. So I think mentors are able to see potential that you have, mentors are able to point out your blind spots, and I think mentors are also typically the relationship you have with a mentor, you're gonna speak more freely with your mentor. And part of that is the fact that you're saying things out loud, your mentor is gonna pretty much either make you say them out loud or they're gonna challenge you to actually like think through them more. So I think those three things are part of why people want mentors. Yeah. And then I think when you combine those three things of they can see things you can't see, and they can see where you're going to be, that gives them a better glimpse of the road that you're on and the season of life that you're actually walking in. They can see your blind spots, so they can see the areas that you're not aware of, and if you trust that mentor a lot, maybe if they tell you you're not ready when you think you are, they're actually helping save you from some brokenness that you might fall into. Yeah. And then thirdly, the fact that you're probably going to be more open with the mentor, something happens when you say something out loud to somebody else that makes it real and then makes you evaluate what you're actually thinking. So I think those three things are pretty essential when you're wanting to start. You know, because even the idea of dating is what dating is, it's dating is the process of evaluation for marriage. Yeah. So really what what the question actually a mentor should be talking with a mentee about is hey, are you are you ready to start that process towards marriage?

SPEAKER_02 25:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Because like you can go on a million dates for for any reason, but like even more, I think keeping the yen goal in mind, a mentor will help you realize whether you're ready for that, or a mighty mentor might just tell you, hey, man, you just need to start putting yourself out there and you need to go on a date because you just go to need to go meet people and like do something uncomfortable. So I think mentors can help you evaluate things in a really good way.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

What if someone's listened to this and like, well, see, right? That's dumb. I don't need someone in my life to tell me, like, hey, you're ready for this, you're not ready for this. Like, hey, I see some things in you that just aren't aren't ready. Maybe you shouldn't date it. Maybe you shouldn't go and do this that you feel like you're called to. Um I know you just gave an amazing uh answer to that previously. I had this question in my brain before you started answering, but what if someone's listening to this and like they're kind of like listening to this and they're like, man, that sounds pretty good. Like maybe I do need a mentor. And then like they're listening to you speaker, like, I don't know if I want someone pull calling out my flaws and and and saying this and saying this. But it's it's beneficial. You know what I mean? It is.

SPEAKER_00 26:16

I probably would say there are very few people in the world who have been successful, who have achieved great things, or who even have the things that they that this individual might want to have that have been able to do it without a mentor. Like there are a few. Yeah, there are some people that are just built different.

SPEAKER_02 26:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

I would say the majority of the population isn't like that. I'm not like that. Like, if all through history, one of the dividing factors on how successful somebody is at achieving their heart's desires is the fact that they've had a mentor pour into them. I think that's something that's understood in Christianity and outside of Christianity. Like you can't really lead a or read a leadership book without it saying that you need a mentor. Yeah. You can't really read a self-help book. The self-help book itself is a written communication from a mentor to the reader, the mentee. Yeah. So I think I would challenge that person to ask, are they the one in a million exception? Or is it really the issue at hand is, hey man, I'm just not really ready for someone to start calling me out on all my wrongs. Yeah. And I would say, hey, well, if you find the right mentor, they're probably not going to do that from the jump.

SPEAKER_02 27:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

Or maybe what the big thing that you do need most of this season is for the first time in a while, someone to point some things out.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

That's good.

SPEAKER_00 27:53

Uh but again, if you want to take the risk, like I I think it's okay. If someone thinks they're the one in a million that can do everything without a mentor, hey, go for it. Yeah. I just don't know if you're how confident you truly are that you're that one in a million person. You know?

SPEAKER_01 28:10

Now let's let's let's dive into this, right? Let's let's dive into dating. We live in a broken world. But why do you think young Christian adults specifically struggle with dating? Or I think you said they should date more.

SPEAKER_00 28:25

Yeah, my C-rod hot take. Level good hot take. Yeah, I I actually think that Christians who are trying to date can actually learn something from the secular world and how they're dating. Okay. Not everything. Yeah. But I find it really interesting that so many young adults struggle with dating. Even going on dates. And I like you affirm that. Like we were talking earlier about like, hey, this is something that a lot of young adults struggle with.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of people, like you could you could probably do a study, and there could there's probably a lot of young single men and women that just can't seem to find a date for some reason, even though there's plenty in the church.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

Yeah. So I think what's really interesting is this non-Christians don't have issues going on dates. There's issues and brokenness in what they do on the dates, but that's a whole nother topic.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

Yes, yes. We'll make that clear.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

But I think it's really interesting that Christians who have clarity on what dating is for to help you get married, which is a holy thing, so you should date in a way that prepares you for that. And Christians who have clarity on gender and sexuality, that like the Bible's pretty clear on there's two genders, male and female, that's how God made us, and that heterosexual attraction is like God's design for us, yeah. And that marriage is one man, one woman for life. That's that's pretty tremendous clarity that we have as Christians that the secular world doesn't have. So if we have all that clarity, then why is it that young adult Christians go on significantly less dates?

SPEAKER_01 30:10

Yeah. It's very, you know, it's it's funny because when we we were talking before we started this podcast, I didn't think about it like this. And you kind of open my eye where it's like, why don't we date because I want to make this very clear. We're not saying why don't we date more as in like be like the world and go date and mess around, have fun. No, like what we're saying is like we have the blueprint of what we're looking for. We know what God's design is, right? We're looking for someone that's equally yoke, right? We're looking for someone that loves Jesus, not just a text that says, Hey, do you believe in God? Yeah, okay, cool. No, really, how will you know their heart if you're not going to date, right? I'm singleness is great. You learn, you can grow tremendously towards God with God. And there are some people that are called to singleness that do amazing things. But what if God has given you plenty of opportunities to go meet that person? Uh, but you are just there's like this almost pressure where you're like, I have to wait and find the perfect one, and you just miss out on so much.

SPEAKER_00 31:08

Yeah. And I think guys and girls have different obstacles with this whole thing.

SPEAKER_02 31:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

So I find like I was cracking up uh your previous guest, Pastor Jason Williams. Yeah, he had something uh he said in his sermon the other day where he was just encouraging some young men. Yes. Like, hey.

SPEAKER_01 31:27

I talked to them about it.

SPEAKER_00 31:28

Okay, so like, hey, young men, you gotta you you need to be brave enough to ask a girl on the date. And he said that funny thing of your grandfather was scared when he stormed Normandy on D-Day, but like he still did it, yeah, you know, yeah. And I think there is a good portion of Christian young men, young adults, that like that is a struggle, the fear of rejection. Yeah. But I think for most mature Christian young adults, the bigger struggle has to do with the pressure they feel from Christian culture to date in the right way.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:03

And I've talked to a lot of young adult Christian men who have a girl that has piqued an interest. Like, they're like, hey, in an ideal world, I would love probably to take them to coffee and get to know them more to see if there's something here. I see potential, but they're not gonna ask the girl to go to coffee. And when I've had conversations with some of these guys about it, I've been surprised that the answer has been, well, hey man, I'm really afraid that what happens if something goes wrong and it affects whether or not she feels comfortable around me at church.

SPEAKER_02 32:43

Yeah. That awkward that awkwardness.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

Yeah, like hey, I serve in student ministry and she serves in student ministry. What's gonna happen if something goes wrong? Is one of us gonna have to leave student ministry? It's like, is this gonna affect my relationship with other people? Is and I find most of the time they're more terrified of if this goes wrong, if she's more interested in me than I am in her, or if I mess up and do something that is a mistake, is this gonna have a sp a repercussion on her spiritual community and her her church?

SPEAKER_01 33:17

It's tough.

SPEAKER_00 33:18

And then I find with our girls that what would you say to that though?

SPEAKER_01 33:23

To the for the guys, yeah. Like to if you had not even just a guy, say say a young lady came up to you, said that same exact thing to you that said, I kind of like this guy, but I'm nervous to go on a date with him because what if we break up? What if it goes horrible and I have to see him every Sunday when we serve on studios together? What would you say to that person?

SPEAKER_00 33:45

I would say that if you date You can date without having to experience immense amounts of brokenness, and things might be awkward, but they'll be okay.

SPEAKER_01 34:02

There's almost like a matureness that needs to happen. Like, hey, like if it didn't work out, it's okay. Like we both still love to serve, we love God, like this can still be okay.

SPEAKER_00 34:11

Yeah. I find the only time it's not okay is when there is sin in the that happened in the relationship. Yeah. So maybe physical boundaries went too far, yeah, and now the sin leads to there's an aspect of shame, and then the shame that there's a whole entanglement now of like, well, hey, maybe that affects how you are serving in your inner responsibilities, but most young adult Christians the likelihood that they can go on a coffee date or a dinner date and do it in the right way without sin ever being a part of the first first or second date, yeah, is pretty high. Like I think the batting average on that is like 900. Like and I think there's a fear of that, but I do think it's really hard because there's a lot of pressure on young Christian guys that are young adults to initiate, be the ones that pursue a godly girl, and they should feel that pressure, but I think then on top of that, there's even more pressure for them to do it perfectly.

SPEAKER_02 35:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:22

And I think most guys are actually afraid of, hey, what happens if I can't be to that standard? How is that gonna affect her? How's that gonna affect me? Or some guys, I think there's also sometimes a fear of like, hey, but what happens if I don't like her as much as she likes me? And then I try to encourage guys with, hey man, that's just part of the game. Yeah, like part of being in the dating world is that you have to lay a level of vulnerability down that, like, yeah, maybe you're gonna go on a date and she might like you more, and you'll just need to now initiate the conversation going, Hey, I don't see this going any further. Yeah, and then the ball's in her court. But again, I do think the girls have a lot of pressure too. Yeah, I think a lot of girls, the second girls go on a date, whether they're Christians or not, it's really fun for girls. And like you see it in the movies. Uh, my wife disciples a lot of girls, so whenever they're going on a date, we gas the girls up when they're excited. But it's also hard because Christian girls, a lot of Christian young adult girls right now don't get to go on a lot of dates. So when they finally do get the opportunity, it's kind of hard to take it as a casual date that you're getting to know each other and heart's really in it. Yeah, for you not to either have your own heart in it, or another thing that's hard for Christian girls is for the other people around them to make it a bigger deal than what that first date should be. Where non-Christians can go to a coffee date or a lunch date or a dinner date, and oftentimes they just view it as, hey, it was nothing more than a date. We are getting to know each other, and I think that's one of the things that in our current Christian culture, young adults, they kind of just got the bat under the straw where there's a lot of pressure on them to date right. There's a lot of pressure on they want to get married. Everyone's telling them that they should get married, so the girls are coming in, having to break apart this idea that, like, all right, is this gonna be my future husband? And helping themselves recognize, like, okay, this is a first date, it doesn't have to be that serious. But then the guys also feeling like, mate, if I mess this up, how does this affect her at church?

SPEAKER_01 37:33

Like, it's a whole different there's so much I want to say.

SPEAKER_00 37:36

Yeah, it's it's just weird.

SPEAKER_01 37:38

Man, um I I think we have a communication problem too. I think that oh, there's so many things I was rattling off my brain when you were talking. This is great, this is really good. I I I think that as young men and women, and I've seen it like in some of the guys I've I've been able to teach, like we struggle just having a regular conversation, and I I think that's another problem too, is why people's hearts are so into it. Because like we don't live in that day and age anymore where it's common to go out on dates, to go and talk with people that when you finally had the opportunity to go out with somebody like this is it, this is the one. Um man, and and I would say too, is like you always hear that thing, it's like, what if I'm not like really attracted to her? That is important, right? Like, no one's gonna lie and say it's not, right? But I think it's important to like man, if you find someone that's on fire for God, and maybe she likes different things than you, like, take a chance on it. Not a chance, like go marry her, like listen to her story. Like, like, see, like I always bring up like me and my wife, when I met my wife, we had nothing in common. She always says that's not true when when we when I bring this up, but like she was a theater girl, like she was uh like so I'm I'm a sports guy, played baseball my whole life, like Sundays. I'm watching football after church, like two different ballparks. But I think what's so amazing is like obviously her heart for the Lord was so attractive to me. And that is like when you meet someone and you dive into their life and you get to really see behind the curtain and see like what they do for the Lord behind the scenes, you're like, wow, that's it, it draws you in. But what's so fun is man, like she pulls me in to do things that she likes that I'm like I would never have gone to do that when I was 20. But it's actually fun. Yeah, like you're trying new things, like I've gone to music goals, I've gone to dancing with the stars live, and it was so fun. And I'm just like, man, like if I would have met someone, and this isn't this is not like a thing that like don't go marry someone that has the same interests as you, right? But I'm in my mind, my personal experience, I'm like, I wonder if that would be boring to me. Like someone with the same and the same things that they like, you know, like we're just gonna do sports, we're just gonna do this. Like, I'm doing things I've never imagined I've ever done. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:52

Well, Kai, I think even what you're talking about is when it comes to chemistry with somebody, yeah, I think there's more I don't know if facets is the word, I think there's more layers of chemistry than people realize.

SPEAKER_02 40:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:04

So like everybody, everybody can recognize whether you have like physical attraction, like a physical chemistry with someone. Yeah. And that's the easiest one to spot, and I think most people tend to hyperfixate on it. And it's not a bad thing. Like, I think we both agree God wants you to be attracted to your spouse.

SPEAKER_02 40:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:22

That like part of God's design for like marriage is that like you are both physically attracted to each other. Yeah. And like there's intimacy with that, and like that's important. But there's other aspects of chemistry that I also think people put into the don't evaluate all of it. Yeah. So like the lower tiers. Yeah. So like there's I don't even know if they're lower tiers. I actually think they're like five equal levers. Yeah. And most people hyperfixate that if you don't have the first one. Yeah. Yeah. That's it. But like you have physical chemistry. Are you both physically attracted to each other? I think you have social chemistry. So like even you saying like you're into baseball, Lakin's in the theater, but like you never know social chemistry can change because you can get into different hobbies and different topics and different stuff. Yeah. Exactly. So like social chemistry is a big one. Do you guys will laugh at the same things? Are your friend groups similar? So like there's a social chemistry, and just like culturally, do you guys get along? I think there's a spiritual chemistry. So like whether it's what type of church you guys go to, uh, like you know, whether it's a denominational thing, I don't think that's as important. But I do think some people, hey, does the girl that you're interested in or the guy that they're interested in, do you both like spending time in the word? Are you both worship people that like through music? Uh are you prayer people? Like, hey, what parts of what parts of being on mission for God excite you the most? Like I know some couples that like they just go out and evangelize, and like that's their favorite thing. I'm not a cold turkey evangelism type of guy. So like, but like I think there's a spiritual level of chemistry with that. Uh I think that there's also people forget there's a vocational chemistry. So like, what do you want to do professionally? Because like if your professional lives don't match up, that affects your ability to like date each other. Like, if someone wants to move to London and work in the fashion, we were watching Devil Wears Prada last night. So if you want to move to Paris and do fashion, the first one, right? Yeah, the first one. You probably can't date someone that wants to coach football at their local high school. Yeah. Last one's emotional chemistry.

SPEAKER_02 42:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:36

So like there are some people who are like, hey, do you cry during a movie? You know, like emotions are real. Like there, that's a silly example, but just like, are you a words of affirmation person? Are you uh a physical touch person? Like, I think you can get along with someone really well emotionally. Yeah. And a lot of the times I think guys and girls will become really good friends because they have a high level of emotional chemistry, but maybe they'll never date because there's not necessarily the highest level of physical chemistry or this. But I do think those are like five different areas of chemistry that like if you're if you're someone trying to date, you might want to start realizing that if you got four areas of chemistry with someone, regardless of what four they are, that's probably someone that's a prospect for you to go on a date on.

SPEAKER_01 43:22

Even three out of five.

SPEAKER_00 43:23

Yeah, like three out of five. Like if you guys serve together on a consistent basis, yeah, you guys have the same friends, and then also you're like, hey, you know what? Like, maybe I don't think that they're like a 10 out of 10, like I'm not naturally super physically attracted to them, but like spiritually, I'm attracted to them. Socially, we get along with the same things, yeah, and emotionally, we're on the same wavelength. Maybe that's someone that you should consider taking out on a date. Absolutely. And who knows, maybe after three dates, you might realize that there's more physical chemistry than you first thought.

SPEAKER_01 43:56

Maybe you look at her like, you know what? She's actually the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. Yeah. I do think that Hollywood has made it a way for us where we're like I can only speak for guys because I'm not a woman. We're like all the movies, all the TV shows, you gotta get the cheerleader, you gotta get the the the prettiest looking woman in school, and it's like Chris is totally opposite of that. Like, obviously, you want to be attracted to them, but man, like you just said, if you can get three out of five of those, go on a date, try it out. I got two more questions I want to ask you. Um, why is it so important to be spiritually aligned with someone when you are looking to date someone? Because we are looking to be married, right? And I love Pastor Joel's little clip behind a family church where he's like, Pastor Joel, like I'm dating someone. Oh, yeah, it's great. Do they believe in God? I think so. What do you like? That was me in high school. That was me shooting a text because I was too nervous. I was like, hey, do you believe in God? Yeah, cool, that's all I needed. But it's like it's so important to dive into someone's heart and story and be like, but how much do you believe in God? Because like I'm dating for like one day you're gonna be the mother of my children. So why is that so important to be spiritually aligned like that?

SPEAKER_00 45:05

I think one of the first things if dating is a process of evaluation, you know, you're you're gonna get to a point where like the end goal is marriage.

SPEAKER_02 45:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:16

What a Christian believes about marriage and what a non-Christian believes about marriage can be two drastically separate things.

SPEAKER_02 45:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:25

So like entirely different ideologies in that. You know? Uh I think when it comes to dating, the way you date is going to affect your future spouse.

SPEAKER_01 45:39

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 45:39

Like I remember uh Victoria and I, we were uh hanging out with a with a friend, a younger friend, and they were talking about we were talking about dating, and Victoria told uh this person, she's like, hey, I'm not dating Christian in her like and I'm while dating Christian, I'm not preparing myself to be Christian's wife. I'm preparing myself to be somebody's wife.

SPEAKER_02 46:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:04

And right now, hopefully that is Christian. Yeah. But when she said that, what she meant by that was like, hey, we're dating in a way that one day both of us are gonna be married, and we want to go into those marriages with integrity, telling our future spouses, hey, we've been pursuing God's design for our life, and like I was preparing myself for you even before I knew who you actually were.

SPEAKER_02 46:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:28

So like the way that you're gonna date when it comes to like all your boundaries, like, hey, you don't want to cross physical boundaries. Like, you want to have clear physical boundaries whoever you're and you want to have emotional ones, you want to have spiritual boundaries.

SPEAKER_01 46:41

Boundaries are so important.

SPEAKER_00 46:42

Yeah, so like you can't set boundaries with somebody if you guys don't have the the same beliefs that you're building your life off of. So, like I talked, I've talked to a ton of couples like this. Let's say the girl's a Christian and the guy's not. At some point, after you've been dating for a year, both of you are gonna have a desire to like be physically intimate.

SPEAKER_02 47:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:08

For the guy, the only reason he's saying no is not because of some core conviction he has, it's because his girlfriend is saying, Hey, I would rather not, because I'm a Christian. Yeah, I just don't know how long that scenario is gonna go well for both people in that.

SPEAKER_01 47:25

Yeah, because either you're gonna have your heart broken or you're eventually gonna cave.

SPEAKER_00 47:29

Yeah, and it's just one of those things of like it's hard for that girl in that relationship to hold him to that standard because he's not living according to the same standard. Our standard is the word of God as Christians. So if you can't relate with somebody on the word of God, and let me remind everyone, and you know this, the world doesn't relate to the Bible. No, the Bible's countercultural. Yeah, so like there's no dating someone that doesn't believe the Bible that you guys are gonna land on the same things for all these decisions you gotta make in order to get to marriage.

SPEAKER_01 48:05

That's why I don't mind your whole topic of like, hey, as a Christian, like go out and date and see you know, try and find your wife because it's it's also so important. I tell people this all the time, like, hey, like when you meet someone on a date, don't wait three dates into it to be like, hey, like, I want to wait till marriage, I want to have these boundaries. Like, why let your heart get in a place where it's gonna hurt to be broken? Like, and I always use this. Um, one of the Robertson brothers from the Duck Dynasty guys, um, he would say, like, every time he picked up a girl, he would be as soon as she'd get in the car, he'd say, Listen, this is what I want. I'm looking for a girl that's on fire for God. I'm not having sex until marriage, I'm doing A, B, C, and D. You can either go on a date with me now, or you can happily step out. And I'm totally cool with that. And he went down like through 10 girls until finally one day his wife stepped in that car and said, Well, that's exactly what I want. And I always tell people, like, man, like set these boundaries early, like figure out where their walk with Christ is. Because, like you said, like a year in, like, what if he doesn't want to do it anymore? Like, what if he doesn't want that boundary anymore because he's not a Christian? And now you're heartbroken and you've wasted a year trying to invest in someone who now isn't gonna be your husband.

SPEAKER_00 49:12

And it happens on the other side too. Oh, 100%. It's the same issue with a Christian guy dating a non-Christian girl. But that's where I think the pressure people feel from from Christian culture is yes, you gotta do all this right, and that's a healthy pressure. Like there's an accountability to that. Yeah, but I do think what what I would love to see is more young adults feeling comfortable enough to go, hey, listen, we're both in the same circles. Even if you're even if you only look like it's potential, like go on a coffee date. Yeah, like go on. I'm really big on group dates. I remember in college, some of the the things I was a part of, they required us to go on group dates.

SPEAKER_01 49:58

Go on like group on, get a good deal.

SPEAKER_00 50:00

No, literally, uh, this this thing I did that freshman summer, we did uh every week the guys on this college like mentor discipleship program, we had to ask a group of girls on a group date.

SPEAKER_01 50:12

That's so cool.

SPEAKER_00 50:13

And I remember I learned so much that summer because I started learning about all these different areas of chemistry, and I started realizing, oh wow, I used to think I was attracted to this, but actually I'm more attracted to someone that can make me laugh rather than someone I'm just physically attracted to.

SPEAKER_02 50:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:30

And like looking at how me and Victoria got to know each other, I knew what I was looking for before I met Victoria, and then when I met Victoria, I knew that she was what I was looking for. Yeah, because I had already processed all of these things through like a healthy dating culture that my mentors kind of forced me into. Like it was mandatory on this thing that we had to go on group dates.

SPEAKER_02 50:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:56

And like I look back on it, and when I tell people that, they're like, I can't believe someone would do that. And I'm thankful because I don't think that I would have been in the right headspace to appreciate everything about my wife if I didn't do it in the right healthy way in a Christian community where we were all spurring each other to do it in God's design. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:19

This is a great conversation. We could have a part two to this conversation. Um, if I had to bring it all together, like I would just tell people like number one be in the word. I I think that's just so important. It's like understand who God is in your life. Because if I always tell people, if if your relationship, you know, I was reading, I was gonna read it earlier, but in Matthew where it says, seek the Lord with all your heart, not just some of your heart, right? Because if you if you aren't seeking God first and putting him first in your life, dating is gonna be a challenge for you. Having a relationship is gonna be a challenge. I always tell people, like, if you have a wife, if you're dating, like it's gonna be hard to manage that relationship and be good with it if your relationship with God isn't good, right? And so what is just so fun about this is like encourage people to date. We know God's design. Hopefully, like if you're listening to this, like and you don't know God's design, like be in the word and or go to a local church and like go to a family church. Um, but man, just just knowing the word, knowing God's design and going out on a couple dates to kind of you know put what's the word I want to use? Like, don't just sit back and hope God's just gonna smack your wife right down in your right here, right in front of you. You know, like so that that that was a good I I like this, like uh the perspective you kind of showed, like, hey, go out and try and date. That way you are mentally ready.

SPEAKER_00 52:31

I'd even point this back to the mentor thing. Yes. I think part of what a part of what a young adult can ask a mentor for is hey, who around me, if I need to go on a date, who would you say that I should ask?

SPEAKER_02 52:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:48

Because again, a mentor can see your blind spots, they can see potential in you, which means they can probably see potential in other people. Yeah. And they're gonna help you process things.

SPEAKER_02 52:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:00

I I would say a good practice is for you to have a trusted mentor that if you're wanting to be married, you humble yourself to your mentor and go, hey mentor, this month, why don't you pick someone out that I should ask out on a date? And I trust you enough that if you think that there's potential there, I'm willing to try it.

SPEAKER_01 53:19

Even when you were talking about boundaries, I was like, that's just another great, great example. Having a mentor would would be able to put you in check and help you with those boundaries. You know, someone in your life that will be like, hey, are you are you you doing good? Like, let's have a conversation. How are you doing? Like, how's your relationship going? Like, what's that boundary look like for you guys? Are you are you hanging out behind closed doors? You know?

SPEAKER_00 53:41

Um, and I will say, last thing, mentor doesn't have to be your pastor. Yeah, mentor doesn't have to be your small group leader. A mentor can be anyone who is in a life stage ahead of you and has successfully walked through whatever you're walking through now. It could be the guy that sits on the same row at you at church, who is married, has two kids, and maybe he's an accountant. Yeah, maybe he's in a whole different career field. I think you can, as a young adult, go up to that person and say, hey, listen, I would love a mentor. I would love to meet with you for the next three months, once every two weeks, and I would love your help discerning what I should be doing in this season of my life.

SPEAKER_01 54:25

Honestly, I love that, man. It makes me like, I don't necessarily know if I'd have a mentor. It makes me think about like when you said Tyler, maybe you do have a mentor, you just don't realize it. But like that, that actually convicts me too. Like, it's it's good for everybody to have someone to sit down with once a month, twice a month, and just be like, hey, here's where I'm at in life. Like, uh, like when you go through the marriage classes, like those are great people too. Like people that are just seasons above you and be like, how's your marriage? And just give you the all the wisdom that you could ask for. I love that, man. I appreciate you coming to the studio. Thanks for having me, man. I appreciate you pouring some wisdom to the young adults. Um, and I'm excited to see what God does in your life because I've gotten a front row seat and I'm excited.

SPEAKER_00 55:04

Well, dude, uh, I'm I'm excited we get to grow our boys up together. So I don't know if Santi will be a baseball player like Brooks, but uh We have to get uh the WWE belts and one day be like, you boys want this?

SPEAKER_01 55:17

Come get it.

SPEAKER_00 55:17

I'm already planning a WWE wrestling party for Santi.

SPEAKER_01 55:20

He doesn't know it yet, but uh I told a Lake at my 30th birthday party. I want to get a moon bounce that's a wrestling ring, and all my all my friends come over as their favorite WWE superstars growing up.

SPEAKER_00 55:31

So get ready. Ray Mysterio's coming. I'm ready.

SPEAKER_01 55:35

Well, thank you guys for making it this far, and thank you for checking out the Everyday Faith podcast. I hope you took away something from this podcast. And again, thank you to Kristen Rodriguez at Family Church Downtown, and we'll see you guys on the next episode