Finding Faith, Losing Sleep Podcast
Finding Faith, Losing Sleep Podcast
Episode 29: Unexpected Journeys: Parenting, Faith, and Summer Struggles
This week's episode of Finding Faith in Losing Sleep has us (Wes, Michelle, and Pierre) reuniting, after a longer than expected hiatus, to discuss parenthood and its impact on our lives. Our conversation naturally flows from the trials of daily life to a heartfelt discussion on Father's Day. Michelle brings poignant memories of her father's transformation, offering a touching perspective on how earthly relationships shape our understanding of God as our heavenly Father.
Parenting through the lens of faith takes center stage as we balance the chaos of raising an energetic eight-year-old with the nuanced guidance required for a teenager. Drawing parallels to biblical teachings, we reflect on the story of Naaman from 2 Kings and the simplicity and power of faith. Naaman's journey resonates deeply as we examine our own conditional expectations of God and grapple with the challenges of believing in simple acts of faith. Our stories and reflections offer a practical take on how biblical principles can guide us in modern parenting.
Celebrating the milestones of our podcast journey, we express deep gratitude for the unconditional love of family and God. Personal anecdotes, biblical references, and a discussion on the significance of baptism reinforce the continuous journey of faith and repentance. We're thrilled to reach 10,000 listens and downloads and invite you to engage with us, share your prayer requests, and join us in finding faith amid life's everyday struggles and joys. Don't miss the behind-the-scenes moments and our unwavering commitment to offering this podcast as a free gift to our listeners.
Email: findingfaith.losingsleep@gmail.com
Twitter: @FindingFaithPod
It's time to wake up and be a hero on the Finding Faith in Losing Sleep podcast. The thing is, I'm Wesley, one of your hosts at Loafinit on Twitter, and I have with me two people that have been missing in action. They could probably blame me and say I was missing in action as well, and that's fine, that's fair. That's fair. We were all missing in action. Maybe Seasons have changed, those schedules have changed, but here we are back again on this Finding Faith and Losing Sleep podcast. Michelle and Pierre are with me as well. Hello Michelle, hello Pierre.
Speaker 2:Hi Wes.
Speaker 3:What's going on? How are we doing?
Speaker 1:I'm doing fine. How's old Indiana this time of year?
Speaker 3:It's hot, it's really hot, which I'm not. Not gonna complain because I don't like the winter we know michelle does but it's like 90 plus degrees. It's humid, so it's. It's a good time to have air conditioning that works, that's true, one of our cars air conditioners went out.
Speaker 1:Oh, oh, yeah, yeah, that that's, uh, that's a little taste of torment, is what that is? You know, that'll, that'll, that'll help you make it. You make yourself get right with Jesus real quick, because you're like, hey, if it's anything like this, we don't want anything to do with hell.
Speaker 3:What's the temperature down there? Is it warmer or cooler?
Speaker 1:No, no, it was a very mild spring to be a long spring and then just this past week it started getting up there in that 100 area, but today it's like 88, something like that. So it's nice church league softball weather, which I have a little bit later on. Today We've got a doubleheader, so I am very thankful for the 80s tonight.
Speaker 3:I bet you are, and good luck whenever that game starts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, thank you. But hey, we're here at the Finding Faith, losing Sleep podcast and that's enough chit chat about us. Nobody even cares about us, pierre, nobody even cares about us, michelle. They don't want to know about our personal lives. They want to know about what we're going to talk about, and that's I wish we did too.
Speaker 1:We don't do a lot of show notes. I do a little bit of things, michelle and Pierre do their own research too, but we try to just be people that come on here and talk about life and talk about different life circumstances that keep us up late at night thinking about things, and a lot of times that ends up not only just being life-oriented or society-oriented, but it also has to do with religion, a religious context, because we all have our mind's eyes on what we could do to please God, because we realize that there is going to be a death that comes sooner. Well, maybe not sooner rather than later, but eventually there will be a death that comes and we will all have to, pierre, stand before God and give account for our actions here on this earth.
Speaker 3:That's true. I mean it kind of is sooner, I mean, each day you get older, the closer you get to your time, which is crazy to think about. I know I just had a birthday and you know I'm just getting closer. You're not getting closer to life, you're getting closer to that call home, hopefully, and so it's a reality. But yeah, it's unique, it's different as you age, a little bit at least.
Speaker 1:Michelle, you talk more about your father, I think, on this podcast than Pierre or I do Both of us, we've told our stories before a little bit about our fathers and stuff, but you reference your father and the wisdom that he gives you and different things like that. And this past Sunday was Father's Day, and it just got my mind thinking about how God plays that role of a heavenly Father towards us and I don't know. It also made me, though, this time flip the switch and it made me think about myself as a child, Because I have two children. I got a 17-year-old and an 8-year-old. I always talk about how it's like a Tom and Jerry cartoon at my house nowadays, and it's made me a better man. I want to say I'm a decent father, but I also. This past Father's Day, I started looking at my actions like a child in God's eyes, you know, because I'm not perfect and, michelle, that's why I've thrown this question over to you, and I, michelle, that's why I've thrown this question over to you.
Speaker 2:As a father. How patient was your father with you growing up as a kid? It depends on what we were doing and, honestly, it depends if you're talking about in early childhood or about the time my grandfather passed away. My dad kind of became a different person, so he was still always a good dad. It's just that after his dad passed away, he wanted to make sure that none of us ever questioned how he felt about us. So he was more convicted about showing it and telling us and, and you know, being more affectionate and I.
Speaker 2:It took me years to realize when it happened Um, it just kind of was, I guess, gradual, but it was a decision he made. And one thing I'll say about him is, um, kind of like you know, like we look at how God is, he follows through. So if he tells you he's going to do something, he's going to do it, and if he decides that he's going to do something, he'll do it, and so he's trustworthy that way, and I just I it depends on when you say it. So I think he's, he's, he's, he's great, he can have some patience, but if he's really busy, look out.
Speaker 1:Well, and I was thinking about that throughout your childhood and into adulthood how a relationship like that can change. And my eight-year-old she needs. Well, I got to watch her every minute. You know what I mean. Like she's just running around the house a million miles an hour. She can get into everything. We call her the little rascal around here. She's just 100 miles an hour. Now my teenager. I got to watch her too, don't get me wrong, but I've come to try and I don't know give her more wisdom instead of necessarily putting up more guardrails. You know, I see the guardrails coming down and I try to encourage her to prove herself to be able to take more guardrails down as she continues to get older. The advice my role is just changing and I didn't really sense that until maybe about three months ago or something. It's just, it's just changing. So I'm glad you said that about the role of your father.
Speaker 2:And don't get me wrong, I was definitely. My mama was my my best friend and still is. For the most part, I have my my best best friend, but my mom's right up there, so I don't want to sell her short either.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, Pierre, as as a dad yourself, right, as a dad yourself, how? How do you handle different situations with your daughter of, just like when she does wrong? Are you a stern punisher or are you kind of like, you know, let her get away with everything? I could see you being the one that lets her get away with stuff and Michelle having to come in lay down the hammer.
Speaker 3:No, it's the complete opposite. I'm pretty stern. I've tried to lighten up a little bit as she's gotten older. I don't know. So I was raised, obviously we've talked about by a single mom. My dad was around a little bit but he passed away senior year in college.
Speaker 3:It was one of those established dominance type of ordeals for me, if I'm being honest, like I wanted to have her respect really early on and that's kind of just continued on as I know what teenage boys are like because I was a teenage boy. I want to be prepared for that. She's a pretty little girl. I need to have that healthy fear I want to say in her to just be able to listen to me, know when I'm serious, and things along those lines.
Speaker 3:I've definitely been a bit on the stern side. I have patience, I can practice. I've definitely been a bit on the stern side. I have patience, I can practice. I pray for patience all the time. I'm actually afraid of, you know, what might come of that if I don't get my act together at some point. But I feel like I've gotten better at being patient as she's gotten older, as she's able to kind of understand things a bit more. You know you can definitely have deeper and better conversations than kind of have the kid, where it's just you know a learning type of stage for them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I hear what you're saying, because I struggled with that too and I'm glad to hear you say that you struggled with that dominance thing. You wanted to show dominance because I didn't have that father growing up either and so I didn't necessarily get to see the patience part with things. I just felt like I needed to show dominance and I think I've gotten better at not having to be I don't want to say physically, but maybe vocally dominant and stuff like that as time's gone on and I see God's role changing too, depending on the person that he's dealing with in the Bible.
Speaker 1:The person that he's dealing with in the Bible, you know just how he handles people, maybe how stern he is with them. Maybe it's a relationship thing where that person themselves has earned maybe a little bit more respect from God. I don't know how that's necessarily working, but I just think about how he treated Abraham and how he treated Noah and how he treated Moses. And those people were looked at as those pillars in the Old Testament and we see how God was really friendly with them. It seems like, you know, he was rescuing them out of certain situations and he never really had to bring the hammer down on them too hard. Moses and I know there was all different instances throughout there, but it's just interesting to see how he related with each one of them.
Speaker 3:For sure. I think there was definitely a patience there, but there's also non-patience, I feel, with God at times in the Bible. Or maybe it's just a consequence, like sometimes we could see it as being impatient, but maybe at a point there comes a consequence and I feel like that can sometimes be healthy. And even with the fear piece I feel like there's a healthy fear when it comes to God, especially some of the things we know we're not supposed to be doing, when it comes from right, from wrong, things like that. So I feel like there's a healthy feel there. But I get it Like some of those Old Testament you know, individuals there was some patience with, but there was also, you know, some consequences if you're mocking God or, you know, laughing at the fact that you know he's going to do what he says he's going to do. You know he had his image that we get from him at times as well wasn't always very, you know, light and bright.
Speaker 1:Okay. So this is what I do now with the teenager. I give her information and I have to repeat myself several times. Sometimes it's a daily information. Maybe I should just write this stuff down and pin it to her door so she could see it every time she comes out. That way I wouldn't have to repeat myself, right? But I give her information about life and it's almost to the point to where it's like OK, I've given you the information, now you're you have to do with that information, what you need to do with it. I've told you what you need to do Now you got to do with that information, what you need to do with it. I've told you what you need to do Now you got to do it.
Speaker 1:And if she doesn't do it, or maybe she does it wrong, she's going to have to suffer those consequences, and those consequences might not come from me. You know, those guardrails are up. Those guardrails were my consequences, but pretty soon it's going to be life's consequences that come her direction if she doesn't listen to those directions. You know what I mean. Michelle, is that making sense?
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely. I mean, I look back even at my life and go my parents equipped me very well, but I had to learn some of those lessons all on my own and so many times I've thought, man, if I would have just listened to them, I never would have had to go through that. So yeah, it's absolutely true, and I'm sure God feels the same way about us. Like I tried to tell you and that's what he did too.
Speaker 1:In the Old Testament, god gave them the information. He said don't do this, or this is going to happen. And they do it and or they don't do it. And that's what happens. And sometimes he has to be the one to put up those guardrails to not let them destroy themselves. And sometimes he let them suffer the consequences, like when Egypt came and took the Israelites and made them the slaves, and then they had to cry out to God to be released from that kind of punishment.
Speaker 1:I think too to the story of Naaman. You guys remember that story from the Old Testament. You remember he was a captain of the army. This is in 2 Kings, chapter 5. He was a captain of the army of the king of Aram and he was a great man. Naaman was a great man and he was highly respected because the Lord had given him victory several times. The man was a valiant warrior. But here's the thing with Naaman he was a leper, so he suffered from leprosy. Now there's a little girl that was taken captive at some point and she waited on Naaman's wife, so she was kind of a servant to Naaman's wife, and you know, and she waited on Naaman's wife, so she was kind of a servant to Naaman's wife.
Speaker 1:And you know, I could see that where, like, the wife has this little servant girl and you almost adopt them as your own, you know, and stuff like that. And the little servant girl she said to her mistress, I wish that my master Naaman were with the prophet who was in Samaria, then he would cure him of his leprosy. So the little Israelite said, hey, I know somebody who could make you better, I know somebody who could cure you. And so Naaman went to the king and he told her what the little girl had said. And the king said, well, hop to it. Then, man, just go, go, go. And Naaman brought with him—now listen, this is pretty cool. He brought a letter from the king and the king had sent a letter to Israel already. And then it says that—where'd it go? Where'd it go? Oh, here it is. He departed and took with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold and ten changes of clothes. Don't ask me why I don't know how much that meant, but it meant a lot.
Speaker 1:It meant a lot, yeah, maybe. So I didn't think about that. Made it simple for me, michelle. So he does that. And then he goes and he's trying to find Elisha right, and that was a prophet of God. And so he goes there and he finds him. This is what Elisha told him to do. Naaman came with horses and chariots, stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha and Elisha sent a messenger to him saying Go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh shall be restored to you and you shall be cleaned. That's it. That seems easy, Right, that?
Speaker 2:seems easy right.
Speaker 1:Naaman was furious and he went away and said Behold, I thought he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord, his God, wave his hands all over the place and cure the leper. That's not what he did. I don't know if Naaman wanted to show, I don't know what Naaman wanted, but Naaman didn't get what he wanted. And God says this is how you can be cleaned, this is what you could do through his prophet Elijah. I look at that as like a guardrail for us and for life.
Speaker 1:a little bit too, and our expectations and what do we want from God? Right, we kind of make it conditional, don't we, pierre Like if we're going to serve him or follow him sometimes we, we kind of make it conditional If you do this, I'll do that for you.
Speaker 3:It can definitely get that way in prayer and requests, but I think, even more so now, like we're a see it to believe it type of generation and I think even when you look at Naaman, like it could have been a simple, it can't be, you know, that easy, like an unbelief, a disbelief that just basically, you know, cleaning himself seven times is going to kill him.
Speaker 3:And I mean we think that as well, like we get told you know the faith of a mustard seed and you know we can move a mountain, but in our mind do we really believe that? Do we truly believe that we could physically, you know, move a mountain or whatever that analogy might be? We'd have to see it with our own eyes to believe it. And I feel like that's kind of the moment for Naaman, like he's expecting, you know, to have to kind of pay his way through it and then something miraculous and spectacular is going to happen before his eyes. And when he's told to basically go take a bath seven times, there's a frustration there that probably a disbelief is kind of how I read it and take it.
Speaker 2:Like I came all this way, went through all this just for you to tell me to. So you know, take a bath seven times seriously.
Speaker 1:Rumor is the Jordan River was nasty. I'm just going to be honest with you. That's what the rumor is that the Jordan River was nasty. In verse 12 of that same chapter, chapter five Naaman says are not Abania and Parfar? I'm totally making those words up, probably. I mean, I'm not making them up, they're here in the Bible, but my pronunciation skills are a bit lacking at times, right? So I just go through it. I make them up, I say how I look at it, how I read it, and that's how I look at it.
Speaker 3:And there's some difficult names to pronounce when I first started reading the Bible. I just skipped that when I first started reading the Bible.
Speaker 1:I just skipped the name stuff because it was too much. I think I did too, and then I started having fun just trying to read the names. I'm phonetically challenged. I'll be happy to admit it. I learned to read from bathroom walls, Pierre, so it doesn't faze me.
Speaker 3:A lot of phone numbers.
Speaker 1:And men from Nantuckets Are not Abanya and Parfar, the rivers of Damascus better than all the rivers of Israel where the Jordan River was. Could I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away angry. And then his servants came near and spoke to him and said my father had the prophet told you to do some great thing. Would you not have done it? No-transcript.
Speaker 1:So Naaman went down, dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of the God, and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. How about that? He returned to the man of God with all his company and came and stood before him and he said Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but the one in Israel. So please take a present from your servant now. But he said as the Lord lives, before whom I stand, I will take nothing. So Naaman wanted to pay for this, but it was a free gift from God, right? And we sometimes are like that too. When we ask God for things, we don't realize that he is our father. And so I'm trying to wrap this all back around to Father's Day.
Speaker 1:Y'all, my kids. I don't know what they give me. You know, like, at Father's Day, I got a bag of Starbursts. By the way, that was a couple of days ago. Starbursts are almost gone. They got me a little bag of candy corn. That was gone day one. Right, I'm going to be working on some fruit chews, Tootsie Pops, after that, tootsie Rolls All three of my favorites. They know me, they know what to get me, right? Yeah, but I mean, those three little bags of don't make up for what I give them each and every day. That wasn't even a meal that I paid for them.
Speaker 3:You know, you think about all the stuff you give them and what they give me on that time physically is nothing. But that's not what our kids give us, is it? Yeah, and I see how you can tie that in Like I've gotten better at kind of realizing like that nothing here's like mine. Um, we always kind of go into like materialism and our own possessions, but nothing's ours, even the, the money that we think we earn it's. It's not ours, like it's technically paper that someone kind of came up with which I wish I could find the person that started like monetizing things back in history to make this life a little more difficult, but it's not ours.
Speaker 3:And you know, we're given so much each and every day, from from life, to, obviously, grace, to mercy, to the air we breathe, like we're given all this and there's there's no way that we can repay God, you know, back, just like there's really no way our kids can pay us back a lot of the things that we do. Sometimes. You know, they get pretty close when you know we're given the privilege to live to an old age and then they're taking care of us like we took care of them. But yeah, I mean it's kind of a similar concept.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I mean it's kind of a similar concept, like we can't give God back anything that you know he's given us on that platform, including his own humanly life, when you know he came in the form of Jesus.
Speaker 2:Michelle, what does your daughter, what does she give you? A lot, I mean, and very seldom is it, just like you know, certainly not monetary things her love, and so I think that's a really good representation of what God is looking for from us, and you know like she makes my heart smile, so I'll tell you what and this is this is hard for me to say, just because I I didn't, I didn't want the thing, but one of the the best things about a dog is their unconditional love.
Speaker 3:Like one that's like obviously not been like trained to fight or something, but just a genuine, you know dog that you like raise as a puppy. I don't think there's a better example of unconditional love than a dog like. No matter what you do, you can get frustrated at it, you can forget to feed it, forget to let it out, you can yell for it, go lay down and all these things, but as soon as you call it over, tails wagging, nubs wagging they're happy to see you, they're licking you like. That's just. For me it's a good example of unconditional love. And our dog at times drives me crazy the way he follows me around and stares at me, but at the end of the day, like I, I had no doubt you know how that dog feels about me and you know that's an unconditional love that I think was probably put on this earth to help.
Speaker 3:They say man's best friend um, I can disagree with that all I want, but you know I I feel like we're, we're his best friends. You have a dog. You're probably, you know, your dog's best friend if you're a listener and I just feel like that's a an unconditional love. And you know your dog's best friend if you're a listener and I just feel like that's an unconditional love and how you know really animals and pets, specifically dogs, become such a big part of families and just because they can show basically their whole household, you know how to love unconditionally, regardless of you know what they're put through as an animal and we should do the same regardless of what we're put through as a human being.
Speaker 1:I wish I could love God like that. I'm afraid, I'm afraid I'm a little bit more like my children. You know where I'm, I am, uh, I'm, I'm probably not grateful enough. Well, I know I'm not.
Speaker 3:Uh.
Speaker 1:I. I know I ask for more than I give. Uh, I know I'm not. I know I ask for more than I give. I'm sure my love is conditional sometimes. You know, on what did you do for me lately?
Speaker 1:I'm sure that I don't look at all the blessings and see all my mistakes. I probably don't look at my mistakes nearly as God does, as he sees my mistakes. I fail God and you know my children at times make mistakes and they don't thank me for food at dinnertime. You know, all the time they don't do things to show their appreciation to the same level that I give it of myself to them, and I think that that's how God maybe and I like how you said it, michelle what your daughter does is she gives you love and it makes your heart smile, and I would like to think that we can make God's heart smile too at different times, and that's what he wants is us to obey Him, and the same feelings that we have with our kids whenever they obey us, or we see their life going well, or we see them make a good decision and we're proud of them, or we see their effort and there's so many different ways we could look at all this but, bottom line, god is our Father and he's instructed us on how to for life and godliness here in this world. He's instructed us and he's given us the recipes to try and overcome this world, and it's up to us to be able to take all those words of advice and listen to them and make him proud.
Speaker 1:Now, pierre, I told you it felt like five months ago what I wanted this episode to be about. Right, I don't know how long ago it was, I don't know and it was still true what I wanted this episode to be about, because I was praying for our listeners. Just like I say at the end of the show pray for us and we'll pray for you. I was praying for our listeners. I don't know the listeners. I sometimes we get these comments over here on on the listening platform that people listen to it on. Sometimes they leave us comments. It's great to hear from y'all. By the way, just love it. I can put a name with almost a face okay.
Speaker 1:That's what I can almost do, but I pray for the listeners because I don't know what people are going through. But boy, it struck me to do a lesson about this, to do a lesson about God's forgiveness, god's love, and I know we talk about that sometimes. But, man, it struck me that day and he's given us this recipe to have our sins washed away and basically that's repentance, just like Naaman did. I mean, naaman was dirty, right, he's a dirty man with leprosy. I was a dirty man with sin. You might be a dirty man. Listeners might be a dirty people with sin. No-transcript right.
Speaker 1:And then you hear of somebody who can get rid of the leprosy, who can get rid of the sickness, who can get rid of the sin in your life, and you're like, okay, what do I need to do? So you go there, you talk to him for a minute, you're like, what do I need to do? And maybe he tells you to go dip seven times in the Jordan River. What's your Jordan River? Maybe he tells you you got to quit drinking, you got to quit smoking, you got to quit cursing, you got to quit womanizing, you got to quit. But what is it? What's the sin you got to lay down. But you're like, isn't there something else I could do? Just like Naaman, right, or maybe I'm not worthy to be forgiven of sins? Maybe Naaman thought that too.
Speaker 1:Maybe Naaman thought that, with the leprosy, that's it, that's all I got to do. No, I need to do more than that. This leprosy has taken over my life. This leprosy has made me sleep in a different house than my family. This leprosy has just ruled me for so long that it can't be that simple. Maybe you think that way about sin. I've done so much bad, I've done so many things wrong. It has ruined my life. I have ruined my life. It can't be as simple as saying to God I'm sorry, I'm going to dedicate my life to you from here on out, but that's essentially what it is. And then trying getting on the horse, like Naaman did, and going to the Jordan River, wherever that is, and doing what he says to do. And that's the beauty of it, y'all. It's the beauty of repentance.
Speaker 3:You do it, you accept it and you go on. I think the obstacle is multiple times. And so we talk about the Jordan River. You know there's seven times he was clean, but what happens if he becomes unclean down the road? And I think that's where a lot of people struggle.
Speaker 3:So you know it says to pick up your cross daily and I think that's the toughest part is so you, you might, and most people, once they've repented, once they even get baptized, like there's a renewal, like early on in that process, when you feel rejuvenated, but but life continues to happen. You know you maybe get back, surround yourself with bad people, or with people that don't have your best interests in mind, or with just others that maybe are nonbelievers or maybe are believers but just not good for you. Or another thing happens from, you know, maybe a medical standpoint, or a health standpoint, a financial standpoint. Something else takes place, financial standpoint.
Speaker 3:Something else takes place that kind of just ejects you and the obstacle is again picking it up that cross daily and believing, you know, that God can do it again, that he'll forgive you again, that you'll, you know, be cleansed or healed or whatever you're facing again. It's hard to do it over and over again. It's hard to repeat that process and you don't oftentimes see that in the Bible. There's some examples, you know, where folks kind of go back into their their bad habits again, but it's not a one stop. You know everything's fixed. The life doesn't work that way. Like other things pop up and I think that's where the obstacle is is being able to see God in each and every instance in which something gets thrown at you.
Speaker 2:Well, I think too that in this day and age, there's so much instant gratification that, you know, you see, relationships fizzle really quickly and people just move on to the next thing. And I think the relationship with God is probably no different because, as you, you know, when a relationship, whether it's with another human or with God, is new and exciting, it's fun, it's, you know, it brings you that energy, but then, as you know, the days go on, brings you that energy, but then, as you know, the days go on, the weeks go on, the years go on. It's hard to find those things and to get that rejuvenation and to not just sink into, you know, a lull of what's comfortable and easy. And I think our relationship with God is very much the same way that when you're a new believer and you've just been baptized and you're all excited, and then the everyday takes over, right, like it's hard to go.
Speaker 2:Ok, I'm just going to carve out this time and I'm going to remind myself to be more thankful today and remember all these things that he's done. Sometimes, I'll just be honest, like for me, sometimes that's overwhelming and and I don't know why it shouldn't be. I mean, gosh, he has blessed me beyond what I could ever ask for. So I mean, I know, if that's the case for me sometimes, I can't imagine that it wouldn't be that way for other people as well.
Speaker 1:It's a relationship with God, right. Just the same as your child's relationship is with you. A child and a father, right. My daughter is my daughter. She is blood of my blood and flesh of my blood, kind of a boat of my boat, almost to some degree. You know what I mean. Like she is my daughter, there's nothing she can do that will take that love away from us, that bond that we have together. There's just nothing. She's going to make mistakes, she's going to make a ton of mistakes, and it doesn't mean that I'm not going to continue to love her, the same as a Christian with a heavenly father or a person with a heavenly father. It doesn't mean that God's not going to love you. He's your father, you're a child. He understands. And if he doesn't understand, that's why Jesus is our mediator between us and him, because Jesus could say hey, man, I've been there, I've been there, done that. I've lost my temper on earth too, god, it's not as easy as you think. Okay, to keep your tongue. God said so. I mean, he's the mediator. That's why. That's why he was there.
Speaker 1:I can't help but think about Romans, chapter six, whenever we talk about Naaman and we talk about a child, god and all those things Paul writes in here about being baptized, we can see what the baptism part does for us as well. You know, maybe maybe somebody did repent here, michelle, maybe somebody has repented, but they just feel like, hey, I'm missing something, maybe it's baptism. You know, maybe somebody has repented, but they just feel like, hey, I'm missing something, maybe it's baptism. You know, maybe you haven't gone all the way, maybe you haven't made that public proclamation of faith and told the world, hey, I'm done, I'm done, I'm dipping in the Jordan River seven times is what I'm going to do.
Speaker 1:Verse one. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin? That grace may increase after we've repented? May it never be. How shall we who died to sin still be, still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death? Therefore, we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that, as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of his father, we too might walk a newness of life. Boy, that sounds like being born again, doesn't it?
Speaker 3:Sure does it, does it? Does I mean again, it feels that way, like when he got baptized four or five Easter's ago, and it's just. It feels like a new life, like you just feel like a different person. Your mentality's changed and you know a lot of the things that I turned away from, I haven't turned back to, which is great, but there's, there's been a couple of things that you do turn back to and you're like, well, crap, now how do you get, how do you get through it?
Speaker 3:And it can be difficult, and I know we mentioned, like our, our own children, but like our children can, can get that instant gratification from us being here, um, here on earth, like as long as we're around, like we can go up and we can talk to them and say, hey, it's okay, we can give them a hug. And I think there's there's often a longing for that at times when it comes to our Heavenly Father, and there could be times where he's trying to speak to us and we're just too busy, too chaotic, too emotional to hear him. But I mean you look at some of the Old Testament stuff, like he was showing up in clouds and doing all these things, and I think there's times where we we want that, even though it probably terrifies, and we'd be joining him rather quickly, but those are just it's just a different type of gratification, as Michelle kind of said, that we're we're wanting that instant gratification and we're just not willing to to to wait for answers like they really did in the Old Testament.
Speaker 1:The long haul, naaman, it said. Whenever he came up out of that water, his skin, his flesh was like that of a little child, remember that. So it's like he was kind of his flesh, was kind of born again to some degree, and I can only imagine not only his flesh and his appearance of his flesh but just think of his countenance, his joy that he must have had that the leprosy was gone, you know.
Speaker 1:The shock too. I can still remember it feels like 900 years ago at this point, when I was baptized man, I was happy. You know. It just does something to you. I can't explain, and it wasn't just because the water was freezing cold. It does something to you. It's a symbolic thing and we do a lot of symbolic things to try and unite us to different things. Pierre, I'm sure you've. You know you wear your Colts jersey on game day, hoping that you know Anthony Richardson won't get injured that Sunday or whatever it is you got to do to help prevent that. But you know we do things as a symbolic nature to to get us closer to the environment that we're rooting for or to the team that we're rooting for or whatever it is. And this is the same thing with baptism right.
Speaker 3:Michelle's definitely more the the superstitious when it comes to football, like she'll stand in the same spot three hours straight, not use the restroom or anything if they're going well so I can't.
Speaker 1:I can't even go 30 minutes without using the restroom, verse five.
Speaker 3:I mean I'm, I'll get up and she'll get mad. I'm like I'm a coast fan, I can get up. I want to get up.
Speaker 2:I'm like you're going to ruin it.
Speaker 1:If we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, certainly we will also be in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, that our body of sin was done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin, for he who has died is freed from sin. Now, look, we all know that we didn't get resurrected from this physical world, so we're not free from sin, but we are free from sin. Our old stuff is washed away, we get a new life. But here's the thing it's a continual forgiveness kind of a thing. Once you're in Christ, once you are a child of God, once you've made that commitment, don't get down on yourself. Just like a father always forgives their children and they never lose my last name, you know what I mean. They will always have those ties to me. They will never be able to escape that. My children are my children, period, and there was nothing that they could do about it to start with, and there's nothing they can do about it at the end. They are my kids and I'm going to love them until I die. So you know this is God's forgiveness here For the death that he died. Jesus died. He died once for all the life that he lives. He lives to God.
Speaker 1:Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey its lust, and do not go on for presenting the members of your body as an instrument of sin to the unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of the righteousness to God. I think that is a key verse to be able to know how to I don't know repay God for these things, because he says your body is his. Go to work now, find the opportunities that he has put you in to speak up for him, to do some kind of good deed, to do the things that he's asked you to do.
Speaker 1:All the different rules. I say rules. They're not rules, they're guidelines. They're guidelines in life for us and for other people and who we affect, and so he's just trying to make us an instrument here, and once you are forgiven, I think your instrumentational uses can be a lot more, because you're not trying to— that's a big word for me.
Speaker 1:I like it. I think I put it all as one word too. Whatever I was saying, it was actually spelling out in my mind and it just never stopped. I was like, okay, let's just keep going with that one word. I don't even know what I said, but anyway, once you have that forgiveness, it's that clean, fresh air that you have to be able to make you go and do things for him and try to repay him for the stuff. But, man, I could never repay him for all that he's given me, just like a child could never repay me for all. They could get me all the Starburst jelly beans they want. They could never repay me for it. Right, and I give it to him freely, and I give them things gladly. That's what I do, and I think that's what God does for us too. Y'all.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we I mean we talked about options, our very first episode, and that's what life is like, that's what the whole free will, I think, takes place is. He gives us, you know, the freedom to make choices. It says we give our kids freedom to, you know, ultimately grow into who they want to be Like. We, we try to help them along the way, but we let them make their own decisions, their own choices, and he does the same for us. And you know, you got to hope, at the end of the day, that you make, you know, the decisions and choices that that point you to him and keep you closest to him. And if not, unfortunately we know what that, that alternative, alternative is to to not have his presence around. So, options, options.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, first episode, I think michelle was options. You know that was. You know how many episodes ago that was michelle? Do I what? You know how many episodes ago that was? I don't me either, because I've confused myself. I don't know if this is episode 29 or if this is episode 28.
Speaker 3:I believe this is 29, which is pretty cool. Next one's a milestone at 30. We reached a recent milestone which was kind of shocking, given that we haven't recorded in a while. Do you know what that milestone was? Wes, since you're asking questions and pop quizzes, One million downloads, pierre, not one million, no but 10,000, which is really, really cool. So yeah, I never even imagined that it would get to that point.
Speaker 3:Ever, honestly, I thought we might get a couple people. Never even imagined that it would get to that point like um, ever like, honestly, like I thought we might get a couple people, a couple family and friends listening here there. So to reach 10 000 downloads before our 30th episode was just truly impressive. Um, all glory to god on that is thank you all for for listening and tuning in. If you're listening and tuning in now, sorry again for the hiatus, but I think this goes to show that we are in fact human and true to what we say, that we're just normal people. We we run into normal issues and health issues that prevent us from meeting. But, uh, a sincere thank you for the the 10 000 you know, listens and downloads that we have to.
Speaker 2:This point means a lot yeah, and we're still trying this time to not let us record Like I'm under the weather. Wes had some computer issues like, but we we pushed through and we made it so.
Speaker 1:We did, and I got a little rascal running around the house trying to disturb every second. To this I guarantee, hey, that being said, we do appreciate you guys listening and downloading, shared it with your friends and all those things. We don't charge anything for this, which rightfully so. We shouldn't charge for this. It's a free gift. This is our gift to you. We are instruments of God. I think this is a gift to you from God. If I can say that, I don't want to speak for him or anything like that, but I know we're all three led by the Spirit to be able to do something like this. So I'm just going to say it's from him to you and I hope that it is a blessing to you. We would love to hear from you, not for any monetary things or anything like that. We'd just love to hear from you. I love to pray for things specifically. So if you have something specific that you'd like us to pray for, Pierre, how would they get in touch with us privately?
Speaker 3:Pierre, how would they get in touch with us privately? Findingfaith LosingSleep at gmailcom. We're also available over on X, formerly known as Twitter, at FindingFaithPod, and we have some still of our recordings up on YouTube as well, so you can go like us over on YouTube. You can leave us a comment there and we'll check those out also. So a new feature for us now. Youtube Huh, youtube, it's still an image of our cover art, but all of our episodes are uploaded there.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I mean I have had the idea of getting cartoon figures. We could do the video thing too. I mean we could. But I'm just telling you I have had the idea of getting cartoon figures. We could do the video thing too, I mean we could. But I'm just telling you I am in and out of the picture. I don't want. I mean I'm leaning far over to my left right now just because that feels comfortable to me right now and I will grab this microphone and I will lean to the right. I have grabbed the microphone and I have walked around the house with the computer in my hand while I'm talking before on the show the computer in my hand while I'm talking.
Speaker 1:Before on this episode on the show I've sat outside you know just different things like that leaning left, leaning right.
Speaker 1:Thought you like the five heartbeats or something just over there and look, here's the thing if share it, you got many platforms to share with different people, so now people can listen to it at work. They can have it on the background, I guess, while they're working. I've never, ever. Don't tell anybody, pierre, because I know in the fantasy football world that you and I live in as well, so many people do things on YouTube and I've never watched anybody's show on YouTube. I just don't sit down and watch YouTube. Okay, I don't do it. I research how to fix broken things on YouTube. That's all I do on YouTube.
Speaker 2:Our daughter does. She can give you a tutorial.
Speaker 3:All right, you can keep going there can give you a tutorial. All right, youtube can't put it there, but I'm hopping on iSupport just because I hope the folks support me, support us, so I get on there. Yeah, I just wanted to give another platform. Again, it's nothing fancy, but go ahead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or they can learn a lot of dirt on me from past episodes as well. You can do that. But if you have anything you would like for us to share any questions, comments, concerns or any of that stuff feel free just to leave a comment in whatever listening platform you do listen to the show on, and we'll be happy to either read it or you can say don't share, and we won't share that either. So I just would love to hear from you, as somebody who likes to put imaginary faces with names and I do that all the time whenever I'm reading the Bible anyway- I used the chosen.
Speaker 3:now those are the faces I have with the Bible. We talked about that.
Speaker 1:Hey, yeah, hey. You two went out stalking the Jesus character from the chosen, or something like that, didn't you?
Speaker 3:We didn't stalk. We were at the Kayla Fan Awards and got some photos. I had the little one out there. If you follow on X, you'll see some of her celeb encounters that she had on there Gave us some representation on the Finding Faith pod during our hiatus.
Speaker 1:Did anybody say hi to me?
Speaker 3:They did not. No, I did get an email recently for someone wanting to come on the show, but they messaged it to Michelle. So again, they must not listen to know that I'm the one that mans that account. So if you're going to try to get a guest on here, at least know who runs the account.
Speaker 1:It'll be a lot more believable that you actually listen. Yes, it will, and listen, we do appreciate it. 10,000 downloads. Never thought that would happen, but we so very much are thankful for you guys and, as I always say, if you pray for us, we will definitely pray for you.