Pain Into Purpose - When Our Dreams Need to Pivot

In this deeply personal and powerful episode, Michelle sits down with motivational speaker, pastor, nonprofit founder, and former All-American running back Brian Pruitt for a conversation about identity, fatherhood, forgiveness, purpose, and what happens when God rewrites your plans.

Brian shares the heartbreaking story of how an NFL dream ended overnight after doctors discovered a spinal condition that made playing professionally too dangerous, and how that loss forced him into years of wrestling with identity, disappointment, and purpose. But through the pain, God began building something even bigger.

Together, Michelle and Brian talk about:
• What it means to carry leadership into your home, not just your workplace
• The importance of culture in families, marriages, and teams
• Raising children with acceptance, affection, and affirmation
• Learning to trust God when His answer is “no”
• The complicated reality of forgiveness and family wounds
• How God can redeem even generations of brokenness
• Why your pain may become the very thing God uses to heal others

This conversation builds toward a raw and emotional story of forgiveness and reconciliation that neither Michelle nor Brian could get through without tears, and it’s a moment listeners won’t soon forget.

Scriptures mentioned in this episode include:
• Jeremiah 29:11
• Genesis 50:20
• Joshua 1:9
• Matthew 3:17

If you’ve ever struggled with disappointment, grief, identity, broken family dynamics, or wondering whether God can still use your story, this conversation will encourage you.

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📖 Find the companion devotional and deeper reflections over on Substack.
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Find Brian Pruitt on his website: Pruitt Motivational 

On Facebook & Instagram 

Don't forget to check out his books as well, all in the, "Read With Me," tab of my Amazon Storefront! 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Life isn't always Sunday best. Sometimes your faith is put to the test. If you feel unseen and all alone, it's time for stories you've never known. Hey friends, welcome back to Messi A Men. This is a show where we talk about the good, the bad, and the holy parts of real life. I'm Michelle and I'm so glad you're here. I'm here with Brian Pruitt, the founder and CEO of Pruitt Motivational, The Power and The Power of Dad, a nonprofit organization and former AP, first team, all-American running back and second leading rusher in the nation, but most importantly, a husband and father of four. I'm so glad you're here. Thank you for joining me.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

It's an honor to be here with you, Michelle. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_03 0:42

So I met you um a few years ago, um, and you were one of our um pastors at church, and um I think you were um g guest preaching a few times and then eventually got um you know hired with a real role.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was just coming in doing a lot of, you know, because my major role within the body at that time was I was a traveling evangelist. Uh so was coming to your your church speaking every now and then, which happened to be the church that I gave my life to Christ in when I was a teenager. So it was always an honor to come back there. And uh yeah, eventually, uh I think through COVID was covering Pastor Kurt at that time for a little bit because he was sick. Um and then uh and then God just began to do some cool things at that time.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

Yeah. So like growing up, you had two dreams, and one of them ended up being um motivational speaking as an individual. What motivates you?

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Um seeing other people's dreams come true. Uh I I am ignited by that. Um helping people believe in themselves, uh, helping people see the gift and the call of God in their life, um, helping people get connect and see there's something great inside of you. That that inspires me.

SPEAKER_03 1:55

So um you were recently a guest on another p um show and I teared up once and cr started crying another time. And so one thing was um really special is whenever I tell somebody about um being a small group leader and then my story that's been unfolding the last few years of um and like a little bit of confidence that there might be something we're sharing that p and the inclination that somebody would listen to me and come to you know join a group with that I'm you know lead leading and offici um you know facilitating. That all began by a meeting that I had with you, and then you um for whatever reason you'd never really heard of Bible journaling.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, you know, I'm I'm from the inner city of Saginaw, you know.

SPEAKER_03 2:43

A player.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

I'm a football player.

SPEAKER_03 2:45

As much a player doesn't want to have highlighters.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

That's right. I'm from the inner city of Saginaw, I'm a football player, I'm kind of a guide guys. I was like, Bible, I was like Bible journaling.

SPEAKER_03 2:55

And you're like, what are you talking about? So I um flip started flipping open uh one of my Bibles and um showed you what I was talking about. You're like, I have no clue, but I'm here for it. And then you said, Well, I guess we can um this will be something that you can try. And that um so back in 2023, that's the fall I started. So I'm going on um three years of you know, and I've had a lot of different people, you know, in and out, and then just always a dynamic group. Yeah. So whether there's two or nine um total, um or three or you know, so and so that's been a lot of fun for me, and it all began because like you said you believed in me and thought I might have something to say.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

It was an easy thing to do for me, Michelle. Here's here's what I know for sure when you asked me what motivates me. That was the those type of things are the things that motivate me, helping people find purpose, right? And so when you brought the journal to me and I got a chance to see it, I said, wow. I I was impressed, okay? I was thoroughly impressed, and what I could see was your giftings, your talents, your abilities, and uh what I know is there's people like you out there, right? Um they're not gonna come and catch a football, they don't play piano, but but they do what you do, right? And they're looking for a group or a tribe, so to speak, to connect with, and you would offer them a place to do that. And so um I thought what you did was beautiful, and uh I I have always admired the creative artistic mind because I am not one. You know, I struggle with drawing stick figures, okay. So, but but when I saw what you did, I thought it was absolutely beautiful, and um I'm surprised you haven't made me one of those yet.

SPEAKER_03 4:42

Hey, there's a industry now, and a market, it's called Loaded Bibles. Okay. So it's the tabs that you can open up to each book, and then there's um taped, they're called tip ins. So you tape in like charts and you know different um designs and things. And so that would definitely be something that would be cool because there um are different manly version like loaded Bibles, and I've seen a couple creators make them for their husbands and stuff like that. So there's a whole um story of um like different people that do those, and it's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

There's a genre out there for me next.

SPEAKER_03 5:17

Yes. So I can um also have to look them up and um show you a couple examples later. But like so, as I've been doing this um show, I have been trying to say um and like a lot less than I used to, which is tricky. So this is kind of public because it ends up getting published and distributed among all of the places, podcast Apple Podcasts and Pocket Cast and YouTube and Spotify and all those. But a lot of the things is growing my confidence as a speaker and the confidence that I would have something that I can bring things out of you and other guests that would be interesting and inspirational. Yes. And that not e not as a show, but then as something that can transform a heart and the right thing that somebody needs to hear. But what advice would you have as I'm trying to grow in this role as a podcast host?

SPEAKER_01 6:16

Yeah, I I would say this that the major gift of anyone who's doing an interview is the ability to make the other person that you're interviewing feel comfortable. That's when you're gonna get the best out of them. When uh when they forget they're even being interviewed because you've made them feel that comfortable. And truthfully, we've been sitting here talking even before the cameras were on, right? Yeah, and uh we just forgot and we were talking. You have the ability to do that. And so if I can, just encourage you, you know, keep doing what you're doing. You're gonna grow in that gift, and uh, and that's the gift. The gift is if I'm running a camera or if I'm doing an interview, can I make the person on the other side feel so comfortable that they forget that that's what's happening and they're just talking from their heart?

SPEAKER_03 7:03

Yeah, we absolutely don't have shiny lights on both of us at the moment, right? No, that's not happening.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

It's not it's not millions of people out there looking at us or shiny lights shining off of my head. No, nothing. It's just you and me.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

Yeah, as you're speaking, what kinds of audiences are you um going to speak for and what does that look like for you?

SPEAKER_01 7:22

Um I I I've been granted the grace to speak for many different types of audiences. Um, I think that's the beauty of the ministry that God has given me. One day I could be standing in a gym with a couple thousand high school students speaking. The next day I could be uh in a Fortune 500 company lead uh speaking, doing a keynote speech, or doing leadership trainings for executives. So I have to shift back and forth. Uh one day I could be at a church preaching, the next day I'm in the secular marketplace where I can't necessarily say Jesus, but I can bring the fruit of the Spirit.

SPEAKER_03 8:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

And so um I speak to all different types of audiences, um, whether it be churches or secular, but I also find join the fact that God has also given me the grace to to cross borders in regards to race and also in regards to different denominations. So I've been given grace to do to do all those things.

SPEAKER_03 8:22

Because if I close my eyes, I might as well think you're Baptist.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Yeah, yeah, well, you know what? It's in there. It's in there somewhere.

SPEAKER_03 8:27

It's just it's it's in there somewhere. And you know what they say, if if we think that there's a d a door to heaven with our denomination's name on it, the we can might have different doors, but they're all leading to the same place.

SPEAKER_00 8:37

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 8:38

So that that's just a misconception. And so as you're talking to these different audiences and different settings and events and things like that, do you have certain templates and outlines and then you can tweak them to whatever it is?

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Yeah, you you you have some like that. So there are some messages that I have that are for the nations. That one, those those type of messages, those are templates where you're gonna go, you you you take that to the nation. That's a word for the nations, okay? And then there are some situations where this is a word for the group of people I'm speaking to. And that's where you got to be able to hear God, obviously, uh, on a weekly, daily basis, and go, God, what are you speaking to these people?

SPEAKER_04 9:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Uh but there are some messages that I have that is uh design for the nations to hear, and you make some tweaks to those things like that, but this is what God is saying to the nation.

unknown 9:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:35

So as you are speaking to like say a bigger company, um, what are some of the things as a leader that you're you're a leader and then you're uh what's the um heart behind the um the talk for them that you hope that they can um take with them for like their team?

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Yeah. Uh number one, culture, uh culture is everything. So if your culture is poor, I don't care what you're paying them people. Eventually they're leaving. Okay. They're going to leave because they can't stand up under poor culture for very long. People will leave. Uh second of all, to have everybody in your company understand that everybody should be and could be a leader. I call it the leadership train where um uh I don't come in and expect you to change things and change the culture. I walk in and I say to myself, um, I will be the change that I want to see. So if I want to see the culture change, it starts with me. I don't wait for Michelle to change the culture. So those are things that that I hit on the leadership train, uh taking responsibility for culture, uh, having people understand the value of culture. You can only get away with so much before before your culture begins to tell on you.

SPEAKER_03 10:56

Yes. And then it won't matter if somebody's smart and has a good idea if they're complete, you know.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

It won't won't even matter how much you pay them. They'll do it for a while for the money. Eventually they're gonna eventually they'll leave for peace.

SPEAKER_03 11:10

Because there are people that will choose a small like a much smaller um salary for something that they're passionate about. And that and that's what you would probably prefer most people to do. Be like, don't do it for the money, but the heart and that the lives that you can change.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

That's right. And and the ideal of challenge companies that the most valuable asset you have in your company, it's not the machines, it's not all the it's your people.

SPEAKER_03 11:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

And if you add value to your people, you're always adding value to your company.

SPEAKER_03 11:38

So something that you mentioned in another um interview was the tr um translation of these principles that you can bring at home. So can you talk about how you can translate that to a family and what you can m pour into your kids at you know any age?

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Yeah. So the whole idea uh you just talking about environment again. So uh if I'm going to go to work and take that mentality of I'm responsible for the culture in my workplace, then I can't leave that mentality at work. I gotta take that mentality at home. I'm also responsible for the culture that's in my house.

SPEAKER_04 12:12

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

And I'm trying to raise leaders within my house. So whatever the culture is at my house, I have to be honest with myself and say, I must, I must be playing a role in the culture that's in my house as much as I'm playing a role in the culture that is in my workplace. What does it look like? What's the flow here? What's the core values here? Um, what's what's our mission? What's our vision? At my house, we have a family vision, mission statement, just like any company has one. But my family is more important than any company or any church. And so we have a family vision, mission statement. Here's what the Pruits stand for, here's our core values, and and here's the culture we want to create. And and I try to teach leadership principles. Yes, you can use that work, but you can take those leadership principles home, and they will also improve your relationships with your with your spouse and with your children.

SPEAKER_03 13:05

So you have um some young teens and young adult um children, and I have a four-year-old daughter and an almost ten month-old baby.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Cute ones. You have cute ones, that's what you have. Just say it. Just say it. You got some cute kids.

SPEAKER_03 13:19

They're precious, but they're also um it's a very in the trenches season for me. And I I understand, like we can all everyone can argue about which things they like the b um best, and you can say, well, the smaller kids are smaller things that you're navigating, and it's not that big of a deal with like diapers and all that. But a testy four-year-old is tricky for me personally. So I'm not taking away my own personal struggles.

SPEAKER_01 13:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:46

But like, so can you speak to what that looked like when you were they were even younger and go go back to the you know, the dynamics even in your marriage and how you like if you're frustrated, if you're getting angry, and like how you navigated those types of things.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Oh, yeah, these are easy questions. Yes. Forever, for all of them. Just yes covers it all. So, yeah, we got four kids, and then we had a set of twins. And so it was it was a it was a joyful time. There was a lot of fun, but but it was stress, you're raising kids. Um it it was stressful, it was hard. I remember some sleepless nights. If you ask my wife, Delisha, half of that time she'll go, I don't even remember. I go, what did you do? Did you black out for about five years here? She says A little bit, yeah. She says, I was just trying to make it at that time. So, but but I tell you what, the older my kids have gotten, the more I look back on that season, and strangely enough, you go, man, I actually miss stepping on those Legos in the middle of the floor.

SPEAKER_03 14:53

Because a lot of times they the the idea the navigation and the things that you're working through, it does get more complicated. Yes. Cause like I was just talking to um, you know, our last guest who is 20 years old now and we talked about being a teenager, and I'm just like, Yeah, when I was pregnant, I'm just like, Lord, don't give me a daughter. I d I don't it's hard to be a teenage girl. I was like really a like and so but the g God was gracious to show me that gave me a little girl that was exactly like I'm sure I was, and I've had a lot of compassion on her, and she is, you know, silly and she asks questions, and God has given me opportunities to learn patience that you know when she has a lot to say and she's curious and things like that. So and then you're looking back, and it's not it probably is not as stressful as you, you know, remember or it you know, remembering it is.

SPEAKER_01 15:48

I look back at I look back, I remember you see this? Listen, before I had kids, I had an afro. I want you to know that, okay? I had an afro, okay. This was totally dark right here, okay? This gray beard.

SPEAKER_03 16:01

But you also remember so many sweet moments and good things, and then it kind of pales in comparison to the like so it ends up being worth it, and then you get to grow um have teach them values and you're pouring into them as t saying you're l there's good in you now.

SPEAKER_04 16:20

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:20

So e when I was a teenager, I feel like I got kind of made fun of a lot. And so there was oh Michelle's boy crazy or Michelle talks too much or things, and so when I used to feel kind of self-conscious about something, that God has started to reverse that and show me that it's not a bad thing if I'm in prayer and wanting to glorify him. Right, right. So m as a misguided teenager, I loved the I love the Lord and I wanted to um be passionate about, you know, all the things, but I didn't have as the um might not have had the right toolbox, right tools in the toolbox, the right discipleship, the right habits, you know, the right, you know, mindset in there.

SPEAKER_04 17:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:04

So but you are a motivational speaker and you're pouring into your kids, and I just um so envious of that because it's so uh I feel like that'd just be like the best as well.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

What what what you find out is even even with that gift of motivational speaking, there there's you know, there's still a learning curve, right? Um children don't come with instructions. We all have heard that. And you also know now that you have two. What you learned how to do with one of them is not necessarily gonna always work with the next one. Even as babies, even babies.

SPEAKER_03 17:38

Even as babies, they're different babies, they're different people.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Um there are some non-negotiables you have as a parent, but we have had to learn different tools in raising each one of our children. And uh, I look back on some of the most beautiful moments for me is when my daughters, Brianna and Destiny, when they would and even Diamond at this at this time now when they would go upstairs, put on dresses, and come downstairs and spin around in front of me and say, Am I pretty dad? Am I pretty? And uh we would cut on music and then we would just start dancing. You know, and my son BJ, another fine moment for me, you know, fine moments were where he's a little kid and he go gets his football and he just goes, Dad, can we play football? You know, and we would we'd play 10 yards. He felt like he was running 150 yards, you know, 10 yards of football field in the living room and tackling, and I would let him tackle me, and of course I would throw myself to the floor. He thought he really put it on me. So those those were fun days.

SPEAKER_03 18:33

Yeah, you're building confidence and that sense of um, you know, m being a man in him that you know he can feel on top of the world even for those moments, those moments. So motivating others in corporate settings and church settings and all the things. Um my husband Jared and said that when you would preach at our church that you would make him feel like he could run through a brick wall and it was the you know, you're pumping everybody up.

SPEAKER_04 18:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:59

Who in your life would pump you up and even give you that belief in yourself? Yeah, yeah. Because having a dream as a little boy, like speaking, you know, like you know, thinking um a couple having a couple dreams, that had to grow and then you know, change.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

It did. So for me, there was a couple people. Number one was a gentleman by the name of Lawrence McKellen. Lawrence McKinley was my elementary school coach who really believed in me. He's you know, he just was somebody who believed in me until I could believe in myself. Because when he met me, I did not. I was uh I was pretty broken kid. Um, you know, I didn't I I was too broken to dream. He caused some healing in my life and it allowed me to begin to start dreaming. And uh and then the second person I would say would be a gentleman by the name of Brian Molotor. Brian Molotor, who I still live life with today. I met him when I was, you know, a little bit older. But he began to say to me, Boy, you got an incredible story. He says, What if I taught you how to tell that story? And I was like, What? He says, What if I taught you how to tell this story? He didn't have any idea that as a kid I had a dream of speaking. So I would come to his house, he would cut on a video camera, and he would go, tell your story. And then afterwards, he would go, we would watch it, and he would go, What do you want to change? What do you want to continue to do? And then he would go, go change the stuff you said you wanted to change and do the stuff you said you he says and come back next week. And he taught me a trade. You're practicing a podcast. I was practicing a podcast. So he taught me a trade as a young man, but he had no idea that when I was a kid, I used to pretend to do these things in my bedroom.

SPEAKER_03 20:40

So it's kind of like you have a message for the different um masses of people. Yeah. Like so whether you're speaking to a small congregation at a church or you're speaking to elementary kids or middle schoolers or high schoolers or CEO or uh um, is there a chance that you've also spoke to other professionals bes um besides like businessmen?

SPEAKER_01 21:01

Oh yeah, oh yeah. Uh professional athletes, professional pro pro pro uh pro teams, college teams. I've done I've done pretty much the gamut at this point, but I tell you this, like Paul says, I I pretty much become all things to all men in order to win some to Christ. And so um uh that's been the blessing. The blessing has been uh God has given me uh the grace to go into those different areas now.

SPEAKER_03 21:27

Can you give me a cool nugget of an example of one of those? I'm just gonna go ahead and dying, I'm sorry. I'm dying to know.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Oh, you're gonna love this one. So uh I I I I once spoke at a national Jewish rabbi conference.

SPEAKER_03 21:40

What?

SPEAKER_01 21:40

Yeah, yeah. I I know what you're thinking. You don't listen, you don't even have to say it. I can see it in your eyes, but you know, you I I know what did you say to them? Well, this is what I asked the guy when he invited me. He says, Well. So he was a Jewish rabbi. We have become really good friends. And literally, we have become such good friends. We started studying the Bible together for about a year or two. And uh man, we didn't always agree on things, but we we studied the word together. He became the head of a national Jewish conference. And he goes, I want you to come and speak at this conference. And I said, Who's there? And he says, Oh, it's Jewish Rabbi Somalu. I said, I have nothing to say to Jewish rabbis. And he goes, Of course you do. They're just dads. Come and talk to them about fatherhood. And I said, okay. Well, when he gets up, he he he he introduces me and he basically says that um that there was an African American Gentile who was going to speak that day. Now, I'm looking around the room like there's an African American Gentile in this room? Of course, I you know, I am the only African American in the room, but but I really never can say that I've seen a gentile. But I guess I look at one every morning when I wake up in the mirror. I'm looking around going, African American gentle? What in the world? Because I want to see another person that looks like me in the building, period. And and then he goes, ladies and gentlemen, my friend Brian Prue, and I'm going, Oh, it's me. We had a great time, but it was funny. And most people would ask, How did you end up speaking at a Jewish rabbi conference?

SPEAKER_03 23:28

So it sounds like a punchline. Like you have all of this um history, um, but then speaking wasn't your first dream. No. But you also, you know, you also enjoyed that as a kid as well. So what was your um what was your background? I mentioned it with your introduction. You played football.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Yeah, my my I would say the two dreams I grew up with were speaking as a little boy, even as a little boy. But the other dream was uh playing football. Uh I I always was the kid in the backyard pretending to catch the last second touchdown pass. Um on my walls, even to this day, if I if I you know, when I would go to my mother's home as an adult in my bedroom with still the same posters when I was a kid of NFL football players, that that was my dream. And that dream really came out of Michelle that um, you know, my mother was a single parent mom. Um we came out of some rough situations. One of the few things that would make my mom smile was when she would watch the Detroit Lions. She would watch football and my mother would smile and she would laugh. Those were the few times I would see it. And because I saw that what it did to her, it made me want to be that. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 24:40

So that that was an inspiration to something that brought her joy. So tell me, I'm gonna just like put myself on blast because I just thought of it and makes it kind of funny before we get into some nitty-gritty stuff. Um in high school, I had the big um we had maybe five black kids in the whole school, and I had the biggest crush on uh the running back on our phone.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

Oh, see, there you go. Did he go to a Jewish rabbit by the compass? No, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 25:06

I don't know what I think his Instagram's a little private, so if it ever reaches him, he I did try to tell him that I had a crush on him and I was basically laughed at, but it's okay. Okay, you know it's okay.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

You did you ended up you ended up winning.

SPEAKER_03 25:21

Yeah, I'm win I'm winning at life anyway.

SPEAKER_01 25:23

You end up winning, and you got a great husband.

SPEAKER_03 25:25

He's and and if he had played football, he wouldn't have probably been the running back, but he would have been a good lineman.

SPEAKER_01 25:31

Yeah, he would have been one of the guys hurting me. That's that's what he would have been.

SPEAKER_03 25:35

Offensive or defenses, we're not sure about what's right.

SPEAKER_01 25:37

Yeah, either hurting me or blocking from me. But he's a mountain of a man.

SPEAKER_03 25:41

This is Jason Kelsey, okay. Yes, that's right, that's right. Jared and Tori.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 25:47

But so, like, um, can you tell me um continue your story as far as like how that developed and um continue on the running back stuff?

SPEAKER_01 25:55

Yeah, yeah. So uh I ended up going to Arthur Hill High School, uh, great football program there. Um, and uh from Arthur Hill, um played with a great group of guys who gave me an opportunity to play college football and uh played college at Central Michigan University. Uh we we became champions while I was there. Um and during my time there, you mentioned I became an all-American, uh, battled it out for the uh nation's leading rusher, and uh it was it was a lot of fun. God, honestly, God was doing something. It was it if you ask me, I will honestly and sincerely tell you, it was more supernatural than than anything. Okay, it was pr it was a very supernatural time. Um it wasn't just football.

SPEAKER_03 26:40

Because you just had become a Christian at around 18.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Yeah, yeah. It wasn't just football, it was the stage that God had given me to shine the light of Christ. And one of the ways I would do that, obviously by how I lived my life, to prove you could live with character in that world. But but when I got to the end zone, I always did what I called the altar call. You know, I just kneeled down. I wanted the world to see where who was my strength. Um from college, I went on into the NFL draft, as all Americans do. Uh, it was a no-brainer NFL, uh, you're an all-AP first team all-American, you're going pro. Um, I was one of the few uh athletes, they only invite 300 athletes to what they call the NFL combine. Um, I was one of the few running backs that was invited there. You're going pro. And um NFL draft night starts, uh, the draft starts, the draft ends, the phone rings, my agent calls and says, Pruitt, we got a problem. They found out the way your spinal cord is made leaves you more susceptible to being paralyzed. All the teams are backing off of you. So literally within 24 hours, my my life changed like that. I still have the newspaper article uh at my house of the moment because the local news was at my house waiting for uh the the you know local kid to go big, my family, everybody's there. So what what should have been probably the biggest one uh a huge celebration honestly turned into a very embarrassing moment for me. And it was captured on the front cover of our newspaper uh the next day.

SPEAKER_03 28:11

Yeah, I um like absolutely crushing, and I was like, um, I listened to you say that an um the another time and I was just like uh Yeah, yeah. Like moment like there that those are moments that you know, but on one hand that could have just ended, like you could have walked away from God, you could have, you know, easily just you know been so angry, be like, well, there goes my life, you know.

SPEAKER_01 28:39

Right.

SPEAKER_03 28:39

You had a rough upbringing, you could have taken it to the streets and said, Oh well.

SPEAKER_01 28:43

Yeah. And and a lot of athletes do. They don't take that curve well when that when it's over. They don't take the curve well that you can make a lot of bad decisions. And I would say this for me, it was an opportunity to say, God, I told you I love you more than anything. I'm not going nowhere. And as long as you're telling me you're not going nowhere, because I don't know who I am right now. I really it was an identity issue for me. I didn't know who I was anymore for about five to six years. I I was just trying to find me again. Um so it was a wild, tough time. I ended back up on my school campus to finish my last year. Um, it was humiliating to walk back on my school campus and people go, Hey, what happened? You know, and and God told me, He said, Brian, you be quiet. He says, When they ask you that, I don't want you to say anything to defend yourself. I don't want you to make it look better than what it is. Because your ego wants to say, Well, um, I I was good enough, but but you know, and God said, No, swallow this pill. Swallow this pill. What I've learned at 53 is this there's a blessing in God's no. There's a blessing and no. We think the blessing is only and when God tells us yes. And and when we do that, that is a that's the thought pattern of an immature believer. As a parent, you tell your child or your children no, and you know in that moment, you're telling them what's best for them. One of the most supernatural moments in my life was that night when God said no. And now I look back because I've grown up spiritually. So I'm I look back now and go, and I have four kids, and I know I understand my own no. Now I look back and go, Oh. He just has something else for me to do. And Michelle, when we say to God, God, take my life and use me. See, I believe as Christians, we don't always believe God hears us. We we say we pray, we just don't think he hears us. God said to me once, He says, 'You told me to take your life and use it,' and now you're mad because I did.

SPEAKER_03 30:57

Yeah, on one hand you had that dream, but then God almost gave fast forward you to this stuff where other, you know, there's could be other professional athletes that speak after that.

SPEAKER_01 31:09

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03 31:10

So, you know, I there was a former I d sorry, I can't remember his name, but there was an NFL player that was ended up being a preacher, and I saw him at Northridge Church in Plymouth.

SPEAKER_05 31:20

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_03 31:21

And then, you know, obviously Tim Tebow. Um he and then I think he tried baseball for a little while. Um but with all of this, it's almost like he just he we ha sadly had to skip that chapter.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:34

But there's so much good that has come out of it.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 31:37

The the beauty's other you know, God turns it around. You know, but we say but God. Gen Genesis chapter something.

SPEAKER_01 31:45

Yeah. Genesis, we just but God.

SPEAKER_03 31:48

It's it says it, you know, but what God um and then Joseph says, but what that um what you planned for evil that God turned it around for my good. So what was your other convers? Tell me more about your conversations with God in those five, six years and how what your prayer life and what scriptures were speaking to you.

SPEAKER_01 32:06

Well, the the major scripture I stood on during that time was Jeremiah 29, 11. For I know the plans I have for you, plans to give you hope in the future, because I felt like I had lost hope. I was still serving Jesus, um, but I was looking for identity. Um, I was struggling with joy. I wasn't going to walk away from God, because I knew God had saved my life and I knew He had fathered me. Uh I didn't know to go backwards for me was death. I knew it. It's death. So going forward, that's the only way I knew to go. But I felt stuck. My joy was lacking, um, purpose was lacking. So I just tried to crawl my way forward, cry my way forward. There were many nights where I just cried myself, cried myself to sleep, and and sometimes that was two years after, three years after, and just cried of what had what could have been. Right. So um it was it was the death of a dream. You know, it was the death of a dream. It took a long time to begin to until one day two things happened. One of my sisters came to me and said, You're miserable. And they said, What else did you want to do? And I said, Well, I wanted to speak. And they said, Okay. The next day they showed up with a set of business cards and handed me those business cards. I said, Go do it, because you're miserable. The other thing was my wife walks in one day and says, You're miserable. And she says, I want my husband back. And I said, What do you mean you want me back? I'm right here. And she says, You're not the man I married. You have no joy and you have no passion. You're a passionate, joyful person, Brian Pruitt. And she says, You were an all-American for everybody else. I need you to be one for me now. I need you to get up. And so I'll never forget that moment. It was that moment for you know, it was one of those moments where you realize I married the right person. Yeah. And so I got up. I started speaking. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:03

She helped you remember who you were.

SPEAKER_01 34:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:06

And like so, and we can talk about identity so much in the Bible, too. That who God calls us. Right. And so having people in our circle that can remind us of the truth when we're struggling, because we're all gonna all gonna have ups and downs.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:19

So, like, as you um were working you're talking about the dreams, and then also you were saying, um, we can talk to um God, and He's our um Heavenly Father, He's our Savior, He's our Lord. Yeah. Can you speak more on Him as a Father and then what that looked like for you growing up?

SPEAKER_01 34:37

Yeah, yeah. Well, if if we can do that and you're okay with me getting a little emotional. Yes. Okay, all right, all right. This won't be the Jewish rabbi story.

SPEAKER_03 34:44

This is this is a messy amen. So there's gonna be a mess.

SPEAKER_01 34:47

This is where my you might get the ugly cry and everything else here. But uh and I'm glad I can still say that at 53. I I never want to get to the place where that part of my story does not impact me. I would be afraid, I would feel ungrateful. Uh, I'm glad that I still get emotional when I tell the story because it means I have not forgotten. Um so I come from four generations of physical abuse and uh and a murder. My grandmother on my father's side was murdered uh by uh her husband at the time. Um statistically, I should be the fifth generation of physically abusive men. Um but God. But God. Instead, I'm I'm I'm the first, I'm the beginning of something different on my father's side. Um God took me and he sent when God says he's a father to the fatherless, he is that. He sent fi He sent men of God into my life who began to father me. That coach, that elementary school coach, he wasn't just a coach, he was a man of God. Um the mentor I mentioned, Brian Mollinger, there are other men that he has sent into my life, that they were all men of God, and he fathered me through those men. I am the product of many fathers. I am the product of men who allowed God to be the expression of dad to a broken child. And I am what those young men grew up to be. If you'll take the time and make a make room at your dinner table, we don't grow up to let you down. We grew up to change the world. But you just gotta give us a moment. You just gotta give us time because we've had broken models in front of us. And and we're looking at you to redefine this broken model and to find hope in the fact that I don't have to be that. You mean I could be I could be this, I could be like you. So I I I gave my life to Christ at 18. I was on the verge of taking my life because I was so afraid of the man I was going to become.

SPEAKER_03 36:55

And um You figured that was already set for you?

SPEAKER_01 36:58

Oh, it was set in stone. It was set I I figured it was set in stone. This is who I'm going to become. I don't know how to stop that monster from becoming. And so I thought the only way to stop the monster was to take the monster out. But God had a different plan. And and here I am today. When I gave my life to Christ, I didn't have a problem with him being my Lord and Savior. But when I heard people at the church start referring to him as father, you said, uh What?

SPEAKER_03 37:28

What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_01 37:29

Yeah, well what are you talking about, Willis? I left that I thought at the same time you said Um That that I struggled with because I could only define father as someone who abandoned me, someone who hurt our family, unreliable, unreliable, uh someone who uh you know who got angry and brought pain to us. So my definition of God when I heard father, you know, it it was messed up. It took a while for me to understand that God is not like man.

SPEAKER_03 38:04

So as you're um like just growing up, that you d had these building blocks of you know, having people speak into your life and then meeting God, and then he met you too.

SPEAKER_01 38:17

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:18

So with that upbringing and that pain, how have you um helped um others now in that?

SPEAKER_01 38:25

Beautiful question. I took my pain and turned it into my purpose. Now uh for the last twenty-five years we've run a ministry uh called Power of Dad. Uh we've reached over three thousand kids. Uh we've been doing it for twenty-five years, so we've watched young men become men. We've watched them become fathers, we've watched them become husbands. I don't go anywhere in my city and not run into at least two to three times a day somebody, a young man who is either presently in one of our programs or used to be within our program. And I find great joy in that. It amazes me. Excuse me. It amazes me because I know who I am. I know where I was when God found me. It amazes me that He can take somebody that broken and bring that much healing out of it. And that's just in my own city. That has nothing to do with the many troubles I've had and speaking at men's conferences and speaking to youth and seeing the healing. Um that just amazes me that God can take He has taught me to roar from my wounds.

SPEAKER_03 39:40

So as you were speaking before, you reminded me, uh I just got this vision of fire.

SPEAKER_02 39:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:46

So as you're coming up and you see a two different paths that you can take. Like you can have fire and it can destroy things and it can destroy the like the people around you, the circumstances in your life. Or you can have a fire for the Lord and that can burn with a passion to change lives.

SPEAKER_01 40:07

Excellent. I couldn't say it better. I could not say it better. I'm just just you want to drop that mic right there, just grab it and just just do the just drop it. Just drop it right there.

SPEAKER_03 40:16

Unscrew it.

SPEAKER_01 40:17

That's right, unscrew it. We'll wait. Unscrew that mic and just drop it.

SPEAKER_03 40:21

I um I would plug the mics, but I really wish I had something a little bit more like let me pick it up and drop it off. Um like, but I'm just gonna say it. It's not just men that, you know, obviously that's your the ministry, and that's so good to um reach young men and reach, you know, young dads and to encourage them to be like men of God. But um you've been such an encouragement to me as well. Yeah, um, you know, even you know, my own dad has been um amazing, but at um as a child of divorce, it's just been a little bit different. Um, a little bit different, like different pain points, different struggles. Um, I have a sister um who um was five uh four and a half, almost five years older than me, and her and I ended up flip-flopping homes um just because of the um school districts and you know, s living with different parents. So from s uh eight about maybe eight years old, um so or nine-ish, she went to high school in Fenton and lived with my father. And then when she graduated, I um I couldn't take Ypsilanti public schools, you know, down by Ann Arbor a little bit. Um I couldn't take it anymore. I was like, Can I just please live with you? So he but my f um dad ended up moving from Fenton to just outside Midland. Okay. So for his next United Methodist appointment, he was just outside Midland and I moved with Fenton for eighth to twelfth grade. So um it was um really nice to um get to know him a little bit more and um have that special time. But then the um the hard part was I was never close with my sister like growing up because we just flip-flopped. So she went to live with my mom to go to eastern Michigan.

SPEAKER_01 42:04

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_03 42:05

So that um so it's interesting to hear about the different dynamics and that um and uh you know, poor dads, good dads. Like it's so different there's such a scale, like not s um spectrum is the word I was looking for. And that can look like so um many different things. Right. So then it's you know, my family was broken and we worked through a lot of hardship and trauma and different things. My sister ended up having um kidney disease and a lot of health struggles, and then she passed away um last September. And so as a family, um, you know, that even, you know, having the um divorce and all that, we all, you know, came together to um remember her and celebrate her life. But that really was like, you know, earth like life-shaking and w you know, made me question too. But then even I d you know, sometimes I joke about my husband's family because he's got you know, his parents were together forever and th they celebrated almost four almost f it was I think almost 44 years of marriage and that was like I'm like, is there anything that was like wrong in your life? But then even the dyn even the dynamics, there can, you know, still be sin and you know different um challenges, right? But as you're um talking um like about your dad, was there ever a moment like since then that there was any reconciliation or yeah, there there was.

SPEAKER_01 43:33

Um and I I thank God and God waited for the right moment for there to be. Uh it had to be the right moment, the right time. He waited for me to be the right person to have that happen. Uh, because initially the conversation went this way NFL draft night, my dad calls and um I hadn't heard from him in a while. So I say to my father, NFL draft night, um I'm looking for you now. We're not running. Uh I know all the things you did to my mom. I'm big, I'm fast, I'm strong, and I'm looking for you. And I hung up the phone and I told him, I said, when I s when I see you, it will be judgment day. And nobody would have blamed me for that. No, nobody would have blamed me for that. And I was a Christian.

unknown 44:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 44:22

I was a Christian. But I believed in justice.

SPEAKER_03 44:25

Let's just say one of our lovely ladies at church has said um similar things about um getting locked up for things that I I would have gone through. And if that if that happened to my kid, you know, you know, we all have those problems.

SPEAKER_01 44:38

Yeah, yeah, I I was a believer, but I I believed he deserved to pay for what he did. And I was gonna make sure he did. Me we were coming. And so that was when I was 20. Fast forward to the year 2020. I was uh probably 49, 50 years of age at the time. My daughter Brianna comes to me and says, Dad, I had a dream last night. And I said, Okay. I said, Well, stop eating the pizza before you go to bed. You know, you won't have dreams that night. She says, No. You want to hear this? I said, Okay. She said, I had a dream about your dad. And I said, Well, Brianna, you you wouldn't know my father if he was standing standing next to you. You've never seen my father. And she says, I know, that's why you gotta hear this. She says, You know how you're all about your family. I said, Yes. She said, You and your father never made amends and he died, and you changed for the worse. And she said, I think you need to find your father.

SPEAKER_03 45:34

And in her dream he did?

SPEAKER_01 45:36

Yeah. And she's telling me this, and she said, I'm not being disrespectful, Dad, but I think you need to find your father. This dream was really real. And she walked away. I went back to eating my frosted flakes, because you know, they're no good when they're soggy. So um, long story short, that was Sunday. Monday, my wife calls me and says, Hey, come to my job. I got something you need to see. I go up to her job, she slaps a set of pictures in my hands, and I said, Who put my face on these old black and white pictures? And she says, That's not you. I said, Of course it's me. She says, Those are pictures of your father. What? And I said, Where in the world would you get these at? Because I don't own pictures of my dad. She says, Some lady is on her deathbed at Covenant. She asked the nurse there if she knew the Pruits. The nurse said yes. She said, Would you please make sure Brian Pruitt gets these pictures? She took them to my wife, I got the pictures. So Sunday the dream, Monday the pictures, Tuesday, I said, Okay, this is weird. I should probably find out where my dad is. I find out my father's in Cleveland, Ohio in a mentor institution. And um Wednesday, my wife calls and says, Hey, I got bad news. I said, Okay, what's what's going on? She says, My job says I have to be at a conference, and the conference is Friday. She said, I said, No problem, I got the kids, go do what you gotta do. She said, Guess where the conference is at? I said, Where? She said, Cleveland, Ohio. I said, What you talking about, Willis, right? And um that was all in a week's time. By Friday, I was in Cleveland, Ohio. Her company had got us a hotel, and she said, You got two days to find your dad. Do you know my father was three blocks away from the hotel that her company had got for us? I walked in. This has been my whole life. Just supernatural movements. I I all I can say, and I and I'm still thankful that all of it still moves me. The moment it stops moving you, you've lost something. So I walk into this place my father's at. We look exactly alike. And um he was very nervous when I said, Hey Dad, because he thought that was the moment. He remembered our last conversation. And I just let him know, I'm I'm not here to hurt you. I actually came to tell you I forgive you. And that was the first time I'd seen my father in. I can't even tell you. Twenty, thirty years. We sat, we cried, I held my dad in my arms. I asked him questions that you would ask a stranger. When's your birthday? What's your favorite color? Where did you live? You know, what you know, weird questions. Weird questions that you would ask a stranger, but you're asking somebody who's supposed to be your dad. I left that day and um What did he say? We just wept together. Yeah, he was crying, I was crying. He couldn't believe that I would forgive him. And he couldn't believe that God had brought me to him when I told him how I found him. He just wept. He just could he just wept.

SPEAKER_03 48:38

Did you know who the lady was?

SPEAKER_01 48:40

No, I still to this day have no idea who the lady on her deathbed was or the nurse. I I honest believe it was angels. I I have no idea. And um two weeks later, I get a phone call. They say, Mr. Pruitt, your dad's dying. Remember the dream? And I said, I put him on the phone. I said, Dad, I just left Cleveland. I can't get back to Cleveland. I said, I want you to know I love you. I want you to know I forgive you. And then I said, Dad, do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? And my father said, No. And I said, Will you let me lead you to Christ? Can I introduce you to my father, the person who raised me, the person who brought me to you, and the person who gave me the ability to forgive you? My father said, Yes. The last conversation I had with my father was leading him in in a censor where he gave his life to Christ. As we got off the phone, I said, Well, we didn't spend a lot of time here. I'll see you on the other side. And that was our last conversation. So it was the day I say that I led my I introduced my dad to my father. And and I say this Walt Disney can't write that story. No, there you that you you there's not a writer on guys greener who can write on it.

SPEAKER_03 49:59

No, because in a di in a Disney movie, the dad would have died first.

SPEAKER_01 50:01

That's right. That's right. That's right. I I'm I'm just saying, that's how beautiful God makes all things beautiful in his time. That's how beautiful. That's how I mean I I still it's uh I still stand in awe of it. I really do. I stand in awe of it.

SPEAKER_03 50:22

So that was only a few years ago.

SPEAKER_01 50:24

That was only a few years ago. And it was it was the day I set a prisoner free. I just didn't realize the prisoner was me. There was some forgiveness that I thought I had forgiven.

SPEAKER_03 50:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:36

But there was still work to be done in me.

SPEAKER_03 50:39

In me. Because that's a comp tricky situation.

SPEAKER_01 50:42

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:43

Um, and I've had a few people remind me that when you think that you forgave somebody, you can practice it out loud and just say their name to yourself. And like in the name of Jesus, I forgive you. Yeah, that's good. That's good. Um that it's complicated in my life, and that's you know, and then sometimes you can carry things that you don't realize you're carrying, right? And that can be hard. Yep. So like is there anything since then that's felt messy, like with ups and downs? Oh oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:16

I mean, life life in Life be life in.

SPEAKER_03 51:18

You know, remember Yolanda?

SPEAKER_01 51:20

That's right, that's right. Life be life in. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 51:23

So t yeah, tell me how you brought something um r even recently to God and how you've prayed even in the thick of it that you didn't turn away, that you continue to bring things to God.

SPEAKER_01 51:33

Yeah, yeah, we've we've had some health scares, you know, within the family. Uh our parents are at different places in life now. You know, it it's an interesting thing. You when, you know, your parents who have raised you and taken care of you and and now they're a little bit older. So, you know, they may be in the hospital, they may be going through physical things, and you begin to realize you're in a new chapter of life. And it can be scary.

SPEAKER_03 51:56

You never know.

SPEAKER_01 51:57

You never know.

SPEAKER_03 51:58

Is your mom a believer?

SPEAKER_01 51:59

My mom is a believer. And um, you know, I can't say when I was a kid that she was, but my mom is a believer, loves Jesus. I'm forever grateful. So I think of the scripture where it says God's a father to the fatherless, that mattered a lot to me when I was a kid. You know what matters more to me now? The part where it says, and a husband to the widow. Because as a 53-year-old man, all I want is to know who my mom is taking care of. And now I was grateful as a young man that he was my father. As an adult male, I I am more grateful that he takes care of my mother, that he provides for her. Um I'm watching him fulfill the entire scripture right now in my life. So I'm learning to trust God on new ventures, things that he's called me to do, places he's called me to move into, um, challenges, and you're not always confident when you go, as we talked about. But you go anyway, because you know you were told to go.

SPEAKER_03 53:01

Can you give me a couple more verses and Bible passages? Maybe, maybe another something else that encouraged you when you were younger, and then something that's encouraging you now?

SPEAKER_01 53:10

Oh, yeah, yeah. Something that's encouraged me now is uh when God speaks to Joshua and He says, Be strong and be courageous. And it's not a suggestion, it's it's a command because God can give you vision, you can have integrity, and you can be passionate. But if you're not courageous, you won't move.

unknown 53:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:32

And so God has really been challenging me on that. Brian, I've given you the vision. Brian, you are passionate, you are called, you are anointed. Now be courageous. Yeah. Go get it. Go be great.

SPEAKER_03 53:46

Yep. And um, so what would be another um dream like of people or uh an occasion to speak at right now for you that you haven't done before?

SPEAKER_01 53:58

Uh for me, I would say this. My wife and I have kind of moved into a new season. And that season has been we we are now doing marriage conferences.

SPEAKER_02 54:06

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:06

And what I love about it, this is we refer to it as the season of we.

SPEAKER_03 54:13

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:13

We get to do it together. Nice. You know, you you you grow up, she's excellent at what she does. God has blessed her career, God has blessed my career. And eventually, we've been married for 30 31 years this summer.

SPEAKER_03 54:29

After I turn 31.

SPEAKER_01 54:30

After you turn 30. At some point you you you just start going, okay, we're both great at what we do. Where can we come together and do some things and be a blessing to the nations? And this is the place where we have found an opportunity to give back to the world and strengthen people. And more than that, it is a place that we have found joy in, just working together. And uh, man, we we behind the scenes being friends. Oh my god, behind the scenes, we've been we're we're back there cracking being friends, laughing. You know, we're gonna do a bloopers reel someday. Yeah, it'll be funny.

SPEAKER_03 55:05

Well, I we weren't rolling a few of the things out we could have definitely got in there, but there will be some um later.

SPEAKER_01 55:11

I will definitely like when your husband threw the camera in.

SPEAKER_03 55:13

Definitely some. Definitely will try to get a behind the scenes. But so as like you're talking about dreams with her, um, I'm gonna plug that you should get in um in touch with the celebrate your marriage conference and um up in um Mackinac Island. So we like to celebrate our wedding anniversary and go to Mackinac Island for the conference. So one day I would like to get my tickets and you'll be one of the headliners.

SPEAKER_01 55:38

I would uh you know what? I touch and I agree with you.

SPEAKER_03 55:41

Yes, that'll be that'll be fun. Um, because there's been um the guy um Gary Chapman, we met him and took a photo of five love languages, and I know that you actually did a class on that before. And then um I I took a lot of notes on a class you did on Ephesians, and we got in the word. Um so with that there we um getting more lighthearted. That's a dream you have. What it um so what are you doing um in free time um besides all these dreams?

SPEAKER_01 56:08

Oh, free time? I I you know what I enjoy working out. So I go to the gym, I work out. That is my that's that's how I that's how I get the stress off. Okay. Um I I put my worship music on while I'm working out and and uh I'm talking to God and I'm lifting.

SPEAKER_03 56:23

KB and Lecrae.

SPEAKER_01 56:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah. KB, Lecrae, you know, and I'm talking to God and I'm lifting, and that's that's that's good stuff for me. Outside of that, I find great joy in just going to my kids' events and and watching them discover their gifts, their talents, and their abilities.

SPEAKER_03 56:40

I I just find so much encouragement in that fact that you can maybe try to f call things out in over their life that you get to see in a different way being their dad than even me as a fr like friends and um you know other um mentors in the church. Yes. Um, but then you the way that you can believe in people. Yes, yes. And that that uh that's so good. And so you um enjoy working out. What are what are you benching these days?

SPEAKER_01 57:05

Oh man, I you know what, I don't lift heavy anymore. I'm not trying to hurt myself, you know. So what's your go-to routine then? My my go-to routine, you know, here's what here's what my son tells me. He says, Dad, you skip leg day a lot. And I told him, I said, listen, son, and when you hit your 50s, you know, your legs just don't matter that much, you know. I tell him, I said, what your mom is interested in. I said, you gotta know your wife, son. You don't your mom's interested in upper body stuff, okay? All right, I'll just wear pants, okay? I wear pants, and so my son's joke is always, uh, let me guess, you're not doing legs today.

SPEAKER_03 57:46

I um I have to um be inspired as well because as a with a um 20-pound baby, I understand how important upper body strength is because it is lacking. I a few years ago, I uh I make the joke that Jared knocked me up because he was sick of my healthy recipes, and I have spent six weeks doing beach body and um shame tea. Um and then I was do as best as I could, uh it wasn't always I was given at least, you know, 85% every day every day except Sunday for six weeks straight. And was working on upper body and then um, you know, just a lot of cardio, and then you're using your own body for like, you know, a lot of planks and you know, cardio and doing the step and all of these things. And so I but my legs are usually the most proud of, you know, um those felt very strong. And then um back in the day I could do a few push-ups, not probably not right now.

SPEAKER_01 58:47

That's okay. That's okay.

SPEAKER_03 58:48

So you um love to stay fit and um keep in shape, keep your body flo on moving. And I'm sure your wife, who's a doctor, will tell you that that's good to get you blood pumping.

SPEAKER_01 58:57

Yeah, yeah, yeah. She yes, she will. She she would do that, and you know, it's just a joyful time in life right now.

SPEAKER_03 59:03

Taking care of our temple, taking care of the temple.

SPEAKER_01 59:05

And what I realized too for me is for my for me, my body wasn't just built for football. Yeah, my body was built to carry the call of God. And so it's important for me to take care of me because of the call of God that's on my life.

unknown 59:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 59:23

So let's say um pick a setting that you can speak at right now and give me, um, give some listeners a few bullet points.

SPEAKER_01 59:31

Yeah, yeah. I I would say this a setting I would speak at right now, uh, let's say I'm at a national men's conference, and a few bullet points would be how to release identity over the next generation, because they lack identity, and anyone who lacks identity lacks purpose. And so I would say a few bullet points. We see it in scripture when God speaks to his own son and he says, This is my son, whom I love, and with him I am well pleased. What God actually does in that passage of scripture is he gives us a blueprint for speaking identity over our own children. And he says, This is my son. It's a statement of acceptance. He says, Um, whom I love, this is a statement of affection. And he says, and with him I am well pleased. This is a statement of um, so you this is a statement of acceptance, affection, and affirmation.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:24

And so I call it triple A. God does acceptance, affection, and affirmation. It is what every child needs. And if they don't get it from us, they're gonna go to the world to get acceptance, affection, and affirmation. And that's who they'll get their identity from.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:42

Awesome. That is so good. I will definitely that's real worthy. That's one of the things I'll be looking for later to edit. Um, and so as um throughout this conversation, I've been so encouraged. And even as the messy amen, I don't always look at, you know, we're talking about this whole timeline of yours, but you know, you always seem to I always j um made a joke with Tony Lee. I'm like, you're so put together. I wouldn't, there wouldn't have been there almost wouldn't have been a testimony. I could have called and said, You seem so perfect. And then in the last few years, her and I have both been put through the ringer, and there's definitely been stories there. And so, um, with the show being called a messy amen, how how else does that renew resonate with you?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:24

Um, when I hear that, I love the title, by the way. I love it, I love it. I think we're all a messy amen. I think that's who we are. And I think um, unless if you think different, you're you're in trouble. We we come we come from a mess. Yep, but God makes all things beautiful. He makes all things beautiful. And so, hello, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Brian Pruitt, and I will confess to you today, I am a messy. Amen.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:53

Our life being, you know, given to the Lord as a mess.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:57

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:57

So I love that you personified it in the in that way because I always think of a sheet, you know, like, you know, scri dear Lord, scribble, scribble, tier, tier, tier, amen. Like our, you know, our mess and our um how God can transform our testimony. So I that uh I can't even think of anything else that can sum this up as you know as much as we have already. But thank you all for tuning in, tuning in. There will be a companion devotional over on Substack. And as always, find us on um Instagram and TikTok at a messy amen. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:33

We forgot to share one thing with you here, so we hit the rewind button. I have some incredible materials that I believe would be an absolute blessing to you. I've written eight different books, and I've written those books because I believe that they will be a blessing to the body of Christ. Uh, this one here is called Forgiving Our Fathers. As you heard my story, this will help if you're struggling with that. Uh, this one here is called Fight Like a Man. May Your Hand Freeze to the Sword. It is an encouragement and a challenge to men. Uh, this book right here called Power Dad is the book that actually started our nonprofit where we begin to work with fathers and fatherless young men. Uh, two of the books that I would love for you to take a look at is one's called The Wound, it's called Wounded Lions. Your loudest roar comes from your deepest wounds. God's going to take your mess and turn it into a messy amen. And last but not least, uh, my most recent book is called Inheritance, What Jesus Left Us and What the Enemy Has Tried to Steal. You are a covenant child of God. And when you understand the covenant that you live under, you will understand how much you are loved. GBG, go be great.