250 Years of Faith and Freedom: Learning from our Founding Fathers Ep. 350

Coming into Independence Day, Linda Hutchinson and Andy Dalton talk about the 250th birthday of the United States of America. They go into detail about how the Founding Fathers built America and how we as a nation need to make sure we stay on that foundation. 

Thank you all for your support! Have a blessed 4th of July as you celebrate the 250th birthday of America!

To learn more about Rock Solid Families, go check out their website: https://www.rocksolidfamilies.org/

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to the Rocksellow Families Podcast. Andy, we have a great show for everybody today.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Yeah, we do. We are talking all about freedoms on the 4th of July coming up with the semi-quincentennial. Very good. First try. Yeah, as we're celebrating our 250th year of America, we're talking about the foundation of what the what America was built upon. Guys, we've got some really good truths here that we would love for you to listen to. But before that, Linda, we'll talk to people who might have never listened to Rock Solid Families before.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

Yeah, and so our mission is to really help individuals, couples, and families build on the solid rock of God and his word. And that's really what we're talking about today. How our nation was built on that same, those same principles and really the takeaways for your family that you can put into practice today. So we hope that you will listen to this newest episode of the Rock Solid Families Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:59

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SPEAKER_02 1:55

Welcome to the Rock Solid Families Podcast. I am Linda Hutchison here with Andy. Andy, how are you?

SPEAKER_01 2:00

I'm doing well. How about you?

SPEAKER_02 2:02

Yeah, good. We're coming to the end of our month. Yep, yeah, we are. Uh the end of June. This is kind of a bonus episode of the Rock Solid Families Podcast. And so as we've wrapped up, we've been talking all month long about leadership and discipleship. And honestly, it's been a great month.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Yeah, this has been really cool to get some different, you know, perspectives. You know, we've got uh uh Amy Searcy and her perspective of leadership within a tough, you know, situation for family. Uh Father's Day, we had our Father's Day panels with Bob and Zach to get different seasons with their kids, adult children, young children. And so it's really cool to get a lot of different takes and different guest dolls.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Yeah, yeah. But as we kind of wrap up June and kind of look into July, we're really excited about really celebrating what's coming up next month, the beginning, the very beginning of next month. What is that?

SPEAKER_01 2:49

It is the semi bison quintessential, semi-quincetineal on that.

SPEAKER_02 2:55

We practiced that to do it, and it didn't work out so well.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Sometimes we messed up.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

Yeah, I got my shirt on. See, so here I told you I I kind of messed up though, because I bought this shirt to celebrate the 4th of July, the 250th anniversary of our nation's birth. And uh I was really excited about wearing it today. Yeah, yeah. And then I realized that 90% of the stuff is on the back. You do see 1776 to 2026, I think it says so. You know, um, we are excited about that. But I thought it was a great opportunity, Andy, to really um to talk about leadership from a national point of view. Yeah, right, about our country and how it was founded and really how that ties into really what we've been talking about all month.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Yeah, absolutely. And and one thing too, we would love to point out is you know, uh when we see some of these clippings of news from national leaders or presidents or whatever. Uh, you know, I saw somebody take a clip of something and not give the full context or not give the whole video or whatever, and and then we want to argue and fight about stuff. I think it's the same thing about when we have conversations with people, or if we just take a clip of what Jesus said in this and we nitpick, oh, he said this. Like, well, hold on, let's let's do the whole thing. Let's let's give some people some grace, just as Jesus did. Right. As we know we need it.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

So, as we're celebrating the 250th anniversary, Andy, um, I'm really showing my age here because you weren't even around for the bicentennial. That's a lot easier to say than semi-sensequentennial or whatever it is, but um, I was, and so I just want to share with you my memory. This is crazy. My memory of the 1770s, 1970s, not 17. I was not around 1776.

SPEAKER_03 4:35

You look great for you right now. Yeah, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 4:36

Um the 1976 bicentennial, the 200th anniversary. Yeah, I was in fifth grade. Okay, so um, and I remember at the end of the school year, because obviously 4th of July is in the summer. Um I remember that the teachers really made a big, big, big deal about this, and I couldn't really understand what the big deal was. But all I remember, this is awful. All I remember is the end of the year festival we had and parade. Okay. Yeah. And every grade level was given an assignment of I don't even know if it was like decades or what we were supposed to be representing. All I remember is that I dressed up in this history parade as Snow White.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Oh, really? Yeah. I I don't know. I don't know if it was like the birthday.

SPEAKER_02 5:17

Just like seven little dwarves coming around. Yeah, I don't even know if it was like the birth of Disney or something. So don't judge, but I think my mom had like uh we didn't do a whole lot of Halloween dress up. Um we weren't very creative. And I think my mom had this black wig and she was trying to figure out something to do with the black wig. And so that's all I remember was the parade, uh, my dressing up, and fireworks. That's that's that's about what I remember of the bison tender.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

As a fifth grader, that's a pretty good memory to come back for you know two or three years ago. So that's that was awesome.

SPEAKER_02 5:48

So, you know, uh what we're talking about today is really how different our world felt in 1976 versus 2026. Uh for me, honestly, life felt simpler. Um the responsibility, though, for us as parents and grandparents is to what is it that we're going to be passing on to our children and grandchildren? What is going to be their memories of our 250th anniversary and our nation as a whole? And so, you know, I don't think as a kid the magnitude of this date, this time period really sunk in. Um, it was just a parade and, you know, this kickoff of summer. But the core question I have for you and for our listeners is what will our children and grandchildren remember about this moment long after we're gone? And so hopefully it's gonna be more than fireworks and costumes.

SPEAKER_01 6:46

Yeah, but at least you have those joyful memories to think about. But before we kick into dive in this topic, we'd love to thank our sponsors. Who's your ice house, uh, Maxwell construction? And we'd like to thank Casey's Outdoor Solution. Um, and it is only because of their generosity and faithful uh stewardship uh that we've been able to put these on, um, you know, and be blessed to be in a new studio space such as this. And so uh, if you could do us a favor right now, um, if you could subscribe to this podcast, whether it's Apple Podcasts, Spotify, share it with a friend who you think needs to hear this, um, rate us as well. Those ratings allow us to be uh more in the algorithm and the feeds of other people who don't know about us yet, because that's the one thing we want to do is we want to strengthen our communities and those beyond by the power of God and his word, by these different conversations we have. And you guys are able to help spread that. So if you guys could do that, would be phenomenal. And we thank you for listening each and every week that we get to put out a show. You guys are awesome.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

But we're really talking about the spiritual foundation of our nation's freedom today, which really ripples down into our homes and our families and communities. But you know, it's time to look past the cultural noise and the and educate really the next generation on the legacy of freedom and really, Andy, the Christian principles that really founded our country.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Yeah, I I heard somebody else talk about this too. Like, okay, if we wanted and we didn't agree, which again, I don't think that's the case, but let's say we didn't agree with the foundations that our country was built upon. Like, oh, we want to erode these foundations. Like, if you're gonna do that, you're gonna destroy everything. Uh and I agree with you to go back to what was just built on, and we're around for 250 years for a reason. We've been blessed as a country. People want to come in America. I want to be an American. I was talking with uh a professor this last weekend about it. He these people overseas, they are so desiring to be what we have in America and to be Americans. The way I think we take it for granted. Oh, yeah. And so I think what you're saying is let's get back to the foundations we were built upon, how this became a successful country. And we've been around for 250 years thriving. Let's let's what were those built upon? What were those foundations?

SPEAKER_02 8:49

You know, Psalms 33, 12 says, Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Yeah. And I was just listening to a podcast recently, and you were talked about how there's three general bodies in our world that God created. God created the family, yeah, He created um the church, and He created the nation. And those two three governing bodies, like they all have leaders, they all have a set of principles that guide them and direct them. And so when we um are looking at our nation, you know, the general principles of our independence really were the general principles of Christianity. I mean, John Adams, he took those same principles. I try to imagine myself being in the shoes of our founding fathers and the decisions they had to made and the ripple effect it had for generations after generation. It's just crazy. You know, um, the Declaration of Independence, Andy says, we hold these truths, okay, to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with a capital C with certain unalienable rights. Like that was the foundation that they built our nation off of.

SPEAKER_01 10:06

That's so good. And you go to George Washington, the first president. It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible. Because as the world is broken, and and what is the truth? I say this all the time in session. Like, is ChatGPT the truth? Is YouTube, is Google? Like, well, the only truth that we've tried to disprove, but it's been proven again and again and again, is the word of God, the infallible word of God. And so that's we have to govern and live off of the truth in that word.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

And so for the past eight years, Rock Solid Families, this has been our heartbeat. Like, really, this is this is what we're trying to help clients build their lives off of is the unshakable, you know, absolute truth of God's word. And so our nation is really only as strong as our families. And so that's really the core of our building block, is is building on the rock of Jesus Christ, but then our families, our churches, our nations, communities. And so that's that's really the foundation where we get our spiritual freedom, our our nation's freedom was built on that.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Yeah, and I want to highlight that for a second. You know, that's Matthew chapter seven, on our wristbands, it's it's everywhere within Rockstar families, because the Jesus doesn't promise us that life is gonna be easy at all, but he does promise us that take heart that I have overcome the world. Um, storms are gonna come, as Matthew 7 says. Are we protecting and building our communities, our families, our house on the truth and the word of Jesus Christ? Or if we're building it on sand and when the storm comes, because life's not easy, then we're swept away.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

Yeah. So we want to kind of share some foundational truths that we are hoping that you will pass down to your children and grandchildren that we want you to build your lives on, not just because Andy and Linda said so, but because God's word says so. You know, the founders of our nation wrote a constitution to govern and establish order in our country. But I'm just telling you, as parents, Andy, we're called to do the same thing.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

We are, absolutely. If you look at any big organization that's successful, they are intentional and they take time to establish their values. What is their mission? Where are they going? They're not just, oh, I guess we're gonna go this way today. They're not just shooting from the hip, right? It is a as pre-planned thought of, like this is what I want my family's values to be built upon. Yeah, that equals success long term.

SPEAKER_03 12:33

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 12:34

And so are you doing that with your family? And if you haven't, that's okay. You can do it today. Yeah, you know, we did ours recently. Our kids are nine, seven, and three. Um, and Millie might have been a newborn when we sat down and said, we've not to this point said, what are the values we're gonna be built upon? Yeah. Um, and we did, and that's okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

It's not too late. Yeah, you don't have to have a written constitution, but you do have to be, like you said, that word intentional. You have to be intentional about what is the mission and vision of your family. Like, what are the hills you're gonna die on? What are the values that you're gonna fight for? One of the um core uh exercises I do with couples who are struggling with, you know, division and um lack of unity is I have them sit down and I have them write. What are your core values? Like at least five, six of them. Is it gonna be honesty, right? Is it gonna be respect? Because that's gonna be the hills you die on. Those are the things you're gonna fight for and you're really gonna build your family on. So we're asking you as mom and dad to have some authority in the home, not lording them over as an authoritarian, right? But an authoritative way. We talked about this in an earlier show this month, just about the Shema, right? Yes. And and how we're supposed to lead our family, kind of the constitution of the home. So that's the concept we're trying to help pass down, um, that we are hoping you hear from our nation's um foundation and and its history. That was important and so is in our home.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

Yeah, absolutely. And we want to say this too, like uh as we want that authority uh to be passed down correctly, we want them to understand too that freedom isn't free. And I think one of the things you said you take away, like I hope my kids, my kids are pretty young, they're not quite in fifth grade yet, but I hope that they can take away and say, look at the blessings that we have in this world. Um, and that doesn't come by accident, and that that comes at a cost, yeah. Right. And so, you know, with liberty, we look both historically at the military, uh, but if we look at our homes spiritually, that cost has already been paid as well. Yeah. You know, we look at the cross that Jesus uh he sat there and took all of our sins so that we don't have to pay debt. And do we understand that and do our kids understand that?

SPEAKER_02 14:44

Before we get into that more, Andy, I kind of want to go back to the foundation of leadership in the home because um I am seeing a trend, and I know you do too, where culture tells us that the parents want to be the best friend, like to really, you know, to avoid conflict and to be liked, right? And so the kingdom truth says that children need that healthy leadership. They need that authority, again, in a healthy way, boundaries to feel safe. It's not healthy for them to feel like it's willy-nilly, anything goes, I'm your friend, you know, I want you to like me. And so that's what culture says. But really, the kingdom-mindedness that we want to pass down to our kids is that mom and dad, we need you to be mom and dad, not your child's best friend.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Yeah, I would think too, with that, uh, you know, before we go back to freedom as a free, uh, a children ran home. And what do I mean by that? If you look at your schedule, if you know what you're doing on Monday nights because you've got to go run to a baseball game, and then you're split home on Tuesday because one's got softball and then the other person has a baseball practice, and then on Wednesday we're running out of the house as soon as we go and eating because we got to go down to uh a dance, dance recital. And then this weekend we don't have time to hang out with friends because our kids are running to sport. And and is your home revolved around the kids' schedule and what they do? Um, and I say that, you know, that being being involved in sports, I was a college athlete. I know that's not a bad thing. But when your kids are centered around and your lives are centered around their schedules and what they do, is that successful? Is that healthy for families, Linda?

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Yeah, we've done so many shows on a child-centered home, and honestly, it is. I was a college athlete as well, and so I know the value of practice and hard work, but we uh as parents have got to take control back over our homes. We're gonna have to start saying no. We're gonna have to limit, because you know, it used to, you know, you played football, I played volleyball. No, it was a seasonal sport. Now it's a it's a year-round sport, and they're doing more than one year-round sports. And so the takeaway really is modeling this balance, okay? This balance of grace and truth. Yes, we want to allow our children to be children and make mistakes and have fun, but we also want to balance it with this truth, this understanding of meaning what you say and saying what you mean. If you say no, you're not allowed to go, you know, spend the night at a friend's, and then all of a sudden they wear you down, and then you're like, okay, just go. Like, you're not establishing the authority in the home that your kids need. They're not gonna like it, by the way. They're not gonna say, please, please give me boundaries. No. But but it's such an important concept that I think our world is kind of really underestimating and kind of dismissing as being um mean or hateful. That's not hateful, it's being healthy.

SPEAKER_01 17:41

Absolutely. Yeah. And so, and when we talk about growth of kids, that is that is huge. But um, we'll go back when we said the freedom isn't free. The takeaway, I know that we talked about liberty being bought as a sacrifice, militarily and spiritually, with Jesus at the cross. We want, do our kids understand that they are honoring that freedom, or do they take it for granted? And that was what we had talked about. I said earlier, that professor I was talking to. We take it for granted what we have. Yeah, we do, because we don't know what it's like to uh, you know, for a woman to not be able to speak freely in other countries. They're killed if they speak out. Like that's just not okay in some of these countries. Or for us to be able to publicly, I prayed this morning um with a friend of mine at a public park, like a public park. Uh we meet uh early in the morning on uh Tuesday mornings, and there are no there's no persecution there. We would be in other countries. So do we take that for granted? Um, I think so. And so, how do we teach our kids to steward well the blessing that we've been given?

SPEAKER_02 18:36

You know, Andy, again, I'm a little older than you, but um we've seen this wave of patriotism that comes, and and I remember after um Vietnam, how that was really kind of like um deadened as far as the the wave of patriotism, uh recruitment was down, um, people flying the flag was down until 9-11. And 9-11 seemed to resurge this this patriotism, this loyalty to our country, um, this really celebration of our freedom because, like you said, we took advantage of it. We we kind of took advantage of that. We were fine and nobody's gonna hurt us on our soil, and then all of a sudden we find ourselves attacked. And and that, you know, our our sons, two oldest sons are in the military, and and so I I think that that really affected them of seeing like I want to go fight for my country, I want to defend our freedom. And so we, you know, we got to teach kids, like you said, that true freedom is a gift to be steward, not a right to be claimed. And so it's not an excuse to do whatever you want, like it's a free country. I hear that sometimes. Like, I'm allowed to do what I want. Uh, you know, the Bible says everything is permissible, but not everything is healthy. And so I think I I misquoted that, but not everything is right. Um, but but that's the key that we want to help us see that freedom isn't free, that there's somebody that has sacrificed their life for our freedom. And we want to be good stewards of that.

SPEAKER_04 20:07

So all right.

SPEAKER_02 20:09

All right, the importance of commitment is another value that we want you to take away from our nation and this time. You know, uh the final line of the Declaration of Independence says we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. And I'm just gonna tell you, Andy, we live in such a disposable country, a culture where we just, you know, walk away from marriages, jobs, promises. We throw away everything from our refrigerator to our dishwasher. I mean, we don't fix things anymore, we don't persevere through things anymore. And again, I'm generalizing, but yeah, back in our day, and again, man, I am sounding so old because I remember my grandmother saying the same thing, you know, like she would reuse paper towels sometimes, you know, and coffee filters. Like my grandpa literally used coffee filters more than once. I'm like, you can buy a thousand of those for five bucks. But you know, it doesn't have the flavor, okay?

SPEAKER_01 21:12

It doesn't have the the the seasoning that's Paul Willis.

SPEAKER_02 21:16

He he literally even would take foil off of like plants and like flatten it out and use the colored foil for things, and like like I can't imagine, but like that was so you know, their culture, they were World War II babies, right? And so they were used to scarcity, they were used to reusing and persevering, and and we live in such a disposable culture today.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

I think too, I want to highlight that with relationships. So my wife and I weren't exactly the healthiest, and that could be a whole nother show we could talk about. We were not, it was so bad. But to go back, it was a couple of years ago, my wife was like, Man, I wish when we started our marriage that we could be as healthy then as we are now. And I looked at her and I said, I don't agree with that. And she's like, What? You want to go back to that mess? I said, no, no, I didn't I don't mean it in that way. What I mean to say is I didn't know how dirty we'll were until we became green. Yeah. And so when you just throw something away because it's dirty, you don't. I am so thankful for what we fought through and how we healed and learned to love each other in a deeper, meaningful way. The relationship with my wife has grown because of that. If we would have thrown it away years ago before we got to 10 years of marriage, we wouldn't, we wouldn't appreciate what so when you talk about that, like the disposable culture, you don't get to appreciate when you work through a tough time, like, oh my gosh, this is so much better for it. If I just gave you something, you wouldn't appreciate it as much as if you earned it and worked for it.

SPEAKER_02 22:42

Yeah, yeah. And so we're asking you as parents to help us teach kids the value of their word. You know, I think about the founders and the sacrifices they made in our nation. They were all in, they were risking everything. I mean, it was gonna be death.

SPEAKER_03 22:59

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:59

You know, as they fight for fought for their independence. Are we teaching our kids to be all in on their commitments today? Like let your yes be yes, your no be no, the Bible says. Are we teaching that with our kids? I'm just telling you, you you will not be sorry when you help a child learn uh perseverance and resilience and commitment and value. Man, it's it's super important.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

It is. Yeah, we uh, for example, our daughter wanted to do, I forget what sport it was. Um I know where you're going with this. But she she looked and we're like, hey, you making sure? Because you know, we told her what the commitment was. And she's like, I don't, I don't want to miss out on time with my friends outside the neighborhood. And I know that I have to go to all these practices. And I was like, I looked at her and I said, That's a it's a very big decision. This is like when she was seven or eight. Yeah. And uh and she said the word commitment, and she knew what it meant. So she's like, No, I don't want to do this. And again, right now we're uh we're allowing our kids to have some fun before we, you know. Anyways, it was just cool for her to be able to understand that, know what it meant, and say, No what? Yeah, no, I don't want to miss out on some of these things.

SPEAKER_02 24:07

But it was good, Andy, that you had already established for her, like if you say yes, your yes means yes. Yeah, you're gonna finish that season. Yes. Now, if you don't want to go back next year and do it again, fine. Yes. But once you commit to be on a team, you know, especially when parents are paying money, you know, like you're gonna finish that. And that's what we're saying, you know. We we've got to help our children understand the value of their world, word, the value of commitment and being all in and really honoring their word.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

Yeah, that's really good.

SPEAKER_02 24:38

So, yeah. So, what's another um value that we're hoping that we will use in our takeaway with our nation's um really anniversary?

SPEAKER_01 24:47

Yeah. Um, I think this is something kids kind of learn at a young age, if taught correctly, but that all life has value. It doesn't matter, you know, kids don't know money when they're in elementary school. Like they all these kids are just having fun together. It isn't until they get older that they're that they start start seeing the disparity of like, oh, you're wearing shoes have holes in them, and I'm only hanging out with those who are wearing dunks. Uh, and being in school, I see this, I see when you get to middle school to high school, the separation, and it it's just hard to hear. But color, kids don't know color. Like my kid, I remember the first time I talked about it, like, what is this? And we're talking about the skin is darker, and I we were teaching our kids like, well, it's because their background and their heritage and their ancestries, and they're like, huh? Like, they just don't know because they just know that all life has value, whether you're brown or you're light skinned, or you come from you know, more money or less, or whatever it is. And what does scripture say, Psalm 9139, 13, that he knit us together on our mother's wombs, and and isn't, oh, he knit you together special, and you've got more powers and you're worth more. No, that's not it at all.

SPEAKER_02 25:53

Well, and and Andy, it does come from the top down. It comes from parents. And um, I was uh I had grandkids in town recently, and they went, we went to the local pool.

SPEAKER_03 26:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:04

And uh I was such a blessing to be able to go with them and just see them go down the slide and the diving boards and all that stuff. And I'm just sitting there as a grandma watching, yeah. And there were these two, I would say maybe fifth, sixth grade boys who were um on the side of the pool and they were making fun of two heavier set girls that were going off the board, and they were literally making jokes and they were kind of talking about, you know, tsunamis and all that stuff. And and I thought to myself, if I was their parent, how would I have responded to that? You know, because I I didn't have a right to like come in and correct them, but I I just sat there sad because I I I know the girls heard them, yeah, and I thought, man, you know, our true worth does not come from the what we look like, our bank account, how many followers we have, the color of our skin. It comes from our creator and mom and dad, it's our job to teach our kids that. So when you see, and again, they're I taught junior high, I get it. Prepubescent boys can be very vulgar and inappropriate sometimes, but it's our job as parents to not let that go wild. Yes. To nip that in the bud, to correct that, to punish that, to let them know it's not okay to make fun of girls your age that are heavier set or whatever. Like, like that is when we understand that God made us uniquely and our self-worth comes from what God says we who we are, not what the world says. Because I can't imagine what those little girls were feeling that at that moment.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

Absolutely not. No, that is hard. Yeah. Well, before we continue, we want to take a break right now and go thank one of our sponsors.

SPEAKER_00 27:47

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SPEAKER_01 28:47

Authority in the home, freedom isn't free, the importance of commitment and all life has value.

SPEAKER_02 28:52

Which I believe our nation has founded on. Now we have strayed, not gonna lie, but as a founding father, that is those were values they wanted to instill in our nation and for our country to be known for. And we were for a long time, and I think we've really strayed away. But in the home, we can fight for those again. And again, I want to mention them again because you know, the authority in the home, not best friend, but authority as mom and dad, that's really important. Just like our nation took hold and and instituted their own authority and their own declaration. And freedom isn't free, we talked about, and this concept of sacrifice and our freedoms that have come from that. And then we said the importance of commitment, like your yes be yes and your no be no. Like our those founding fathers, they were all in and they fully committed, knowing that it was going to be their life. And then the last one is you know, the value of life. All life has value. And so we hope that as parents, as individuals, as as you know, Americans, we would fight for those values that our founding fathers had instituted, you know, hundreds of years ago.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

Well, you've said it multiple times throughout this podcast. You've referenced the Declaration of Independence and what was written down in ink when they signed their names. That was this is treason. I am putting my name down because I know that this is better. This is worth it, this is worth my life. Yeah, I know what this is about. And so I think you're right. You're you're not just calling this is good stuff from Linda. No, this is this is from what America was founded upon. Why is it one of the best countries in the world, the best country in the world, because of what they did. And so let's go back to those roots in the foundation.

SPEAKER_02 30:36

So we've got a backyard challenge for you. I have a feeling with cornle? No. I'm I'm horrible at Cornhole. Uh sometimes I miss the entire board. I feel like it should be like air, you know, airbag, airbag. Um ha ha. Um, no, I want to give our listeners a challenge because I know you're gonna be celebrating the 4th of July. Maybe you're gonna be listening to this in the archives later on. But I want us to give us some practical things that we can do over the holiday weekend with our families, with our friends. And so this backyard challenge is this. When you gather around the grill or you're waiting for fireworks, which by the way, a lot of times you have to like be there five hours ahead of time. To get good seats if you want to make it worthwhile. Even though they're up in the air, it's like, well, you know, I think you- You gotta be right underneath it.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

You gotta hear the boom then your chest.

SPEAKER_02 31:26

Actually, sometimes you're right underneath it, like you get the little like particles that kind of get your hair and stuff like that. But anyway, I'm I'm straying away. Don't let this day pass by without being intentional. And and so we're just asking you to turn off the screens, you know, to kind of focus on with your kids, with your friends. Like, what do you think it means when we say freedom isn't free? Like, just ask, just ask your kids that. Yeah. What does that mean? And and really help them to kind of guide through that conversation of just you know, reflecting on the sacrifices, right, that were made for what we have today in our nation.

SPEAKER_01 32:08

Yeah, I think two things too with that. One, you said that word intentional. I think it takes intentionality, very much so, and it's not too young. Well, my kid, my kids are too young. We kind of mentioned that, like my daughter at age seven or eight knew what commitment was because we've we've started talking about that. It's not too early. I promise you that the earlier you get your kids to wrap their heads around some of these foundational truths, the better they're gonna be for it. So, understanding how to steward freedom, three, four, five, yeah, let them learn those.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

Those are really, really good skills. Yes. And and the second question I think is a great question to ask all the time with our kids is what are you grateful for living in this country? And and as they get older, you know, your oldest one is how old? Nine. Nine, okay. You can start to have kind of some more serious conversations with him about countries and what freedoms they don't have. For instance, women having to have their head covered or not being able to pray out loud in a park, right? Or not be able to um, you know, make decisions that we can make in our country. So for the older kids to really kind of talk about the lack of freedom, and then what we are grateful for in our nation, you know, the whole I just heard uh recently a podcast on voting, and there's a lot of people that would say, Well, I don't like either one of those candidates, so I'm not gonna vote. You really abdicate your right, your responsibility as a follower of Christ to be a part of the process. Because when you step back as Christ followers and you say, I'm not gonna vote, you allow the enemy to get a foothold. You allow the policies that are completely against God's word to run rampant. So for us to sit on our hands, that's not what God has called us to do.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

No, that's a really good point. Or even to do uh sometimes you're going into it, like I'm not sure who these people are, what their policies are. I immediately have a gut check, I've not done my due diligence. Yep. That is on me because I all of a sudden I've elected them into a position where they have control and power. And I'm like, I don't even know who I just put up there.

SPEAKER_03 34:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

And so for me, like I, and it comes around twice a year. Do your due diligence, do your research. What have they stood upon? What are they standing for, and who am I backing? Yeah, I think that is a very easy thing. It doesn't take that much time. Uh, and like I said, it it allows, are we giving them power and control over things that we know aren't right and what God calls.

SPEAKER_02 34:36

I will tell you, and I've been in this position before where I didn't like either candidate. You know, one of them maybe for their policies that I was against, and one of them because their personality, or maybe some uh things that they've done that have been immoral. Okay, and so you're like, ooh, neither one of them feel like a qualified candidate. It's still our due diligence to vote. Us not voting does not help push forward the policies that are gonna be for our kids and our grandkids. So that's when I've had to do a gut check, like you said, and really think about okay, let me put uh apart my popularity vote of I like this guy or don't like this girl, but that it's what policies are gonna affect my children if I don't vote. And then that, and you're right, you have to do your homework to know what people stand on. And so please, that is a freedom we have in our country that we as followers of Christ, I was just listening um recently, the Texas midterms were a huge debate and uh very close race. And I heard that there was um I forgot I'm gonna mess up the numbers, like 8.5 million Christians who um have said they weren't gonna vote because of this uh runoff was either one. Wow. And then that point was made of but the decision was probably gonna be so close that it was gonna be like 400,000 vote difference between winner and loser.

SPEAKER_03 36:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

And you think about that. If all of those Christians would have engaged in the process and they would have voted, they could have turned the election to the policies, again, even if you don't like either candidate, policies that are going to be um honoring the Lord. Even if both men don't honor the Lord and their policies or their personalities, it's what will the policies be that will affect our kids and grandkids? That's a freedom we have.

SPEAKER_01 36:37

It is, that's really good.

SPEAKER_02 36:38

So sorry, I got on a on a because it's really uh it's it's a it's a it's a topic that has really been on my heart and a struggle for me because I feel like I'm giving them um some kind of affirmation. Oh, yeah. Like I approve of your conduct when honestly I really have to look back and deeper into the policies that they stand for and what that does when it comes to following the laws and the rules of Christ.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

And the last thing with that too, if we live in a country where we didn't get to choose, you were just nope, this is your choice, your lot in life. Is that what you guys would want? Yeah. Like, no, I have the power, then let's use what the Lord has blessed us with and have our voice be heard in this capacity. And so as we go again, your guys' challenge to take some time, intentionality. Let's look beyond the fireworks to the foundation of our history here. Let's take some time intentionally. Enjoy Fourth of July. We've got some things planned for our kids. Super excited for it. Enjoy it, absolutely, yet at the same time. Let's pause, let's be intentional, let's make sure that we are understanding the gift that the Lord has blessed us with by living in America.

SPEAKER_02 37:48

And and don't build your family on this shifting sand of modern culture, you know, build it on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ, the rock solid foundation of Jesus Christ. And so, you know, lead with this sacred honor so that 250 years from now, the foundations we lay today are still standing. And I pray that they're still standing on the Christian principles that our nation was founded on 250 years ago. Yeah. So, you know, we want to thank you so much for listening to this podcast. If if this is something as we wrap up the whole month of leadership, discipleship, if there's something that we can do to help you to lead and guide you, again, we don't have all the answers.

SPEAKER_04 38:30

No, right? No, no, no.

SPEAKER_02 38:31

Um we know somebody who does. We just know somebody who does, and that's where we go to. And so if we differ, if there's things that we said today that you disagree with, we would love to have a conversation. We would love to open up God's word and say, okay, what does God's word say about that? So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:46

Yeah. Full of grace and full of truth at the same time as Jesus was, as best as we can. Yeah, we thank you guys. Appreciate you guys. We also want to thank one more time our sponsors, uh, Maxwell Construction, Who's Your Ice House, and Casey's Outdoor Solution. And again, you guys, thank you for listening and for following along.

SPEAKER_02 39:01

Yeah. So thank you for listening to the Rock Solid Families Podcast: Building a Stronger Community, one family at a time. Make it a great day.

SPEAKER_00 39:14

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