The Family Disciple Me Podcast // Discipleship Starts With a Conversation

DESTINATION DECISIONS | Convo #5: Weapon or Tool?

• Tosha Williams for FDM

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Every day, you and your kids are offering something—your words, your hands, your screens, your habits. The question isn’t if you’re being used, but how. Tool… or weapon?

In this episode of "Destination Decisions," we dig into Romans 6:13, where the apostle Paul uses a word that can mean weapon or tool. That tension lands close to home. Tools build, repair, and bless when they’re trained and guided. Weapons tear down when they’re misused—or aimed the wrong direction. Scripture doesn’t let us stay neutral: “Offer every part of yourself to God as an instrument of righteousness.” Every part. Every day.

A flooded basement forced host Tosha Williams and her family to strip everything back—and that’s when the deeper lesson surfaced. With friends lending tools and teaching safe technique, dangerous equipment became instruments of repair. That same shift—from risk to restoration—frames our conversation about how every part of us can build or break. We explore a simple yet piercing idea from Romans 6:13: your body, voice, and choices can play the role of weapon or tool, and the difference comes down to who you offer them to and what story you serve.

We unpack what this looks like in real life, from the words we speak to the posts we publish. Parents, mentors, and caring adults get practical steps to train kids with the same patience and clarity you’d use with a saw: model, coach, supervise, and celebrate growth. We connect the dots to 2 Timothy 2, where moving from common to special use means becoming holy, useful, and ready for good work. Expect examples you can try today—pausing before you text, choosing to bless when you could bite, and setting rhythms that make purpose feel normal.

We also address a rising pressure that can’t be ignored: teens turning weapons inward. We name the lies, offer language for hard conversations, and share a steady path forward—presence, wise escalation, and practices that honor both God and the person he loves. By the end, you’ll have a simple inventory to guide your week: where did my feet go, what did my tongue choose, and how did my hands serve? Join us, reflect with your family, and take one step toward being a tool in the Master’s hands.

Join the conversation, and find the devotion-driven discipleship guide at the Family Disciple Me app.

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The Family Disciple Me ministry exists to catalyze devotion driven discipleship in our homes and around the world. We believe that discipleship starts with a conversation, and FDM provides free, easily-accessible, biblical resources to encourage these meaningful conversations along life's way. Sign up through our website to be "the first to know" about upcoming releases and resources (including the FDM App - coming soon!!!) You can also follow Family Disciple Me on social media.

Family Disciple Me is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit ministry, and all donations are tax deductible. More information, blogs, statement of faith and contact info can be found at familydiscipleme.org

SPEAKER_00:

A couple of years ago, my family had a water disaster in our basement. It was a mess. It forced us to move everything out and demo the walls and pull out carpet and drywall, and it was a disaster that affected my family for months. Well, in the process, I got so tired of waiting on insurance and waiting on all the pieces that I decided that I was going to figure out how to fix that basement and put it back together if it was the last thing I did. I didn't know what I was doing, but I have friends that do. And one of my friends in particular said, I can't do the work for you, but I can show you how to do that work. And so he, along with other friends, helped us and showed us what to do and loaned us the tools to do those things. I learned the table saw, the miter saw, the tile saw. I learned how to use an air compressor, an air gun, a leveler, a power sander, and countless hand tools. And all told, I learned a lot. But any one of those tools could have been a weapon to myself, if to no one else, without the proper care and training. Fortunately, my friends helped me to learn how to use all those instruments as tools to accomplish that huge project and get our basement back in order and ultimately to be a blessing to my family. Here's the thing: what's true in the home project world is true in our lives as well. And that's what we're going to talk about in this discipleship conversation called Destinations Weapon or Tool. Hi, my name is Tasha Williams, and that basement disaster fiasco has now been a couple of years ago. Thank the Lord. And I hope I never have another flood in my house. I am so thankful for my friends who came alongside who loaned me power tools and showed me how to use those as instruments to help and to bless my family. I literally couldn't have done it without them. It's the same way in discipling the next generation about how they're going to use the instruments of their lives. They are born with physical bodies and so much potential that can have so much impact for good or impact for bad. We enter this world with eyes and hands and feet and arms and lips and fingers and voices that we can use to bless or to curse. And so as we arrive at this discipleship conversation, the destination that we're considering in this particular topic is will we use our lives as weapons or tools? Our verse for this discipleship conversation is Romans six thirteen, and it says this, do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer every part of yourself to God as an instrument of righteousness. Now in the New Testament, the Greek word for instrument can mean either weapon or tool. And that's really significant because our lives, our bodies, our voices, every part of us can be used to hurt and harm or to help and bless. Just like my gracious, amazing friends took the time to help me learn the instruments of construction and building as tools to bless my family and keep me from harming myself or others with those very things. In the same way, we as parents and loving adults can help our kids learn how to offer themselves to be instruments of blessings in God's hands. This is true for our kids, and it's true for us too. But that tongue in your mouth, it can be a weapon or a tool. Those hands that are attached to your arms, they can be weapons or tools. Those feet that take you places, they can be weapons or tools. Those fingers that you use to text or to type, those can be weapons or tools. God wants us to offer every part of ourselves as instruments or tools of righteousness that He can use for His glory and our good. We get the privilege of discipling the next generation about this, just like the Apostle Paul did for Timothy. In Second Timothy two, Paul described it this way. He wrote, In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the master, and prepared to do any good work. I don't know about you, but I want to raise up the next generation to be tools in God's hands for special purposes. No, I'm not trying to suggest that they're better than everybody else. But what I am saying is that we want to teach our kids to allow their lives to make a difference for God and His kingdom in this broken world, to be more than normal or common, but to be special, to be a blessing. This is so applicable to every single one of us. It's applicable to you and me, and it's applicable to our kids, whether we're having a conversation with preschoolers or elementary kids, middle schoolers, or high schoolers. But let me add this for those of us with middle schoolers and high schoolers. Once kids hit even upper elementary school and then certainly middle school and high school, this whole concept of using our bodies as weapons or tools applies not just to how we treat others, but also to how we treat ourselves. The evil spirits of this world are whispering to our kids to harm themselves, to use the instruments of their bodies as weapons against themselves to hurt themselves. This wasn't a part of my generation's struggle. I don't remember friends struggling with wanting to hurt themselves, but I see it over and over in my kids' generations. If you haven't seen it in your family yet, please don't delude yourself that your family is immune to this. In this generation, not only is the enemy tempting people to be weapons to other people, but also to turn those weapons on themselves. And so as I give you this particular discipleship conversation, it's very intentional because it lays the foundation for the next discipleship conversation that is destinations, death or life. Please hear me when I say that if your child doesn't struggle with being a weapon against themselves, first of all, praise God. Thank God for that, but they will have friends or no kids who do. It's our amazing privilege and opportunity to show those entrusted to us a better way, God's way. So here we are, two years later, the work on my basement is done. Praise God. But the work of life is never done till God takes us home. Every day we get to decide what kind of instrument we are going to be in this world. Every day we get to choose where we go with our feet, what we say with our tongues, what we type with our fingers, what we do with our hands, and so much more. This week is a great time for us to take inventory and lead our kids to take inventory about how we use every part of our bodies. May we be people who choose the destination of offering every part of ourselves to be used by God for the good works and special purposes He has for us. Go with God, friend. Remember, discipleship starts with a conversation. So take this.