Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 166 ｜ Love Your Neighbor Over Your Religion？

00:00:00.000 hey guys welcome to relatable happy monday i hope everyone had a wonderful weekend so there was a

00:00:06.680 quote that was circulating on instagram that a bunch of you messaged me that was posted by a

00:00:13.160 popular author whom a lot of christian women i know follow and have been reading for a long time

00:00:18.600 i personally haven't but i know a lot of christian women love her uh it wasn't a quote by her it was

00:00:23.020 a quote by barbara brown taylor she is an episcopalian priest she is the author of lots of

00:00:29.360 books including holy envy from which this quote that i'm about to read comes uh the quote is the

00:00:36.320 only clear line i draw these days is this when my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor

00:00:42.340 i will choose my neighbor jesus never commanded me to love my religion so you've got a lot of women

00:00:49.100 sharing this saying yes this is so right this is exactly how i feel jesus never told me that i needed

00:00:55.560 to love my religion so i am going to live my life by this quote we're going to talk about why this is

00:01:01.340 not only nonsensical but also unbiblical from our christian perspective uh barbara brown taylor like

00:01:07.960 i said she's an episcopalian priest she's written several other books she is known um if you can't

00:01:13.440 tell from this quote for kind of stretching the bounds of theological christianity until it almost

00:01:20.200 until it almost looks like a universalist worldview in which everyone worships the same god but different

00:01:28.120 gods at the same time everyone ends up in the same place so it's fine you can believe whatever you want

00:01:33.620 to believe as long as how you are acting falls under her definition or some kind of subjective and

00:01:39.740 simultaneously objective definition of loving i don't want to do a deep dive into barbara brown taylor

00:01:46.100 in her book because i just don't think it's worth it i just want to dive into how this quote reflects

00:01:53.140 something that is going on not just in our culture but particularly in the church i don't really want

00:01:59.260 to decontextualize it but i do think that by itself it kind of symbolizes a trend that's been going on

00:02:06.400 and it represents the essential problem with progressive christianity which we've talked about so many times

00:02:12.520 and i don't mean progressive from a political point of view but a theological point of view in

00:02:17.320 this context the essential problem with progressive christianity is that it is far more concerned with

00:02:24.360 acquiescence to other people than obedience to god so the essential problem with progressive

00:02:29.580 christianity is that it is far more concerned with acquiescence to other people than obedience to

00:02:35.080 god and that is represented in this quote it would much rather appease others appease modern culture

00:02:40.500 appeal to current trends than obey God. And let me read that quote again. The only clear line I

00:02:47.600 draw these days is this. When my religion tries to come between me and my neighbor, I will choose

00:02:53.340 my neighbor. Jesus never commanded me to love my religion. Let's take a second to think about this

00:02:59.980 because if we're not careful, if we're not analytical, we may just take something like this

00:03:05.460 to be good because it sounds good. That is the responsibility of thinking Christians today to

00:03:11.800 look at quotes that sound like they might be truth, sound like they might be biblical, and weigh them

00:03:18.040 against our perfect standard, which is the word of God. Matthew 10, 16, Jesus tells us that we are to

00:03:24.120 be innocent as doves and wise as serpents. So we need to be using our minds to discern. Romans 12, 2 says,

00:03:30.780 do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by

00:03:35.380 testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Our tools

00:03:41.080 for discernment are found in God himself, as we know, and in his words, as we've already said.

00:03:46.680 Proverbs 1, 7 says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Some other verses say the

00:03:51.940 fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. 2 Timothy 3, 16 through

00:03:59.380 17 says, all scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction

00:04:05.480 and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. So

00:04:11.840 using the wisdom from the Lord and the truth that he has revealed to us in scripture, let us consider the

00:04:17.600 validity of this statement by first doing something very important, and that is defining the terms. That is what

00:04:24.400 we always need to do first is to define terms, because when you are contending, particularly with

00:04:30.880 people of the social justice variety, they may say things that sound just and right and good and even

00:04:37.040 godly without really saying what they actually mean. And so it's our job to take a step back, to pause, and

00:04:44.680 to think for just a second, okay, what is this quote actually saying? Let's try to break it down. So

00:04:49.740 first, let's define religion. According to the Bible, since she does identify as a Christian, religion is often

00:04:58.920 used as a pejorative or as a synonym to legalism or rule following. So what she seems to be saying is that she

00:05:07.320 will stop following the rules when those rules get in the way of loving her neighbor. But the Christian definition of

00:05:14.200 religion is not actually just rule following. Here's what James 1 27 says, religion is according to the

00:05:20.760 Lord. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows and

00:05:27.240 their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world. The Christian religion is one of love, of

00:05:33.960 compassion for the downtrodden, one of holiness and separateness and light in the midst of a dark world,

00:05:39.940 all empowered, of course, by the Holy Spirit through the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

00:05:45.820 So the question is, if this is the Christian religion defined by the Christian text, which we

00:05:53.120 have already established is breathed out by God and is sufficient for our instruction, why would we

00:05:58.820 ever have to let go of this in order to love our neighbor, any neighbor? So she says she is drawing a

00:06:06.060 clear line between her religion, which she professes to be Christianity in loving her neighbor, which

00:06:11.680 makes me question what she believes her religion is. Was it not God himself who commands Israel and

00:06:18.240 Leviticus to love their neighbor as themselves? Was it not Jesus in the New Testament that reiterates

00:06:24.380 this, the necessity of following this command? So in what scenario, as a Christian, would you have to

00:06:31.300 forsake your Christian religion in order to love your neighbor? Well, to consider that, I think that

00:06:38.860 we need to define love according to the Bible. Here is how the Bible defines it in 1 Corinthians 13.

00:06:44.800 Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast. It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist

00:06:50.280 on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the

00:06:56.200 truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. So again, I ask,

00:07:03.540 as a Christian, in what scenario would you find yourself needing to sacrifice, compromise, or give

00:07:10.120 up your religion in order to love your neighbor? This is not a rhetorical question. I actually have

00:07:15.360 the answer for you. You will sacrifice your faith in the name of love when you allow the second greatest

00:07:21.680 commandment to supersede the first. So let me repeat that. You will sacrifice your faith in the

00:07:28.200 name of love when you allow the second greatest commandment to supersede the first. Let me explain.

00:07:34.680 In Matthew 22, Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is. He answers, you shall love the Lord

00:07:40.720 your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first

00:07:46.500 commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Uh, what this quote

00:07:53.640 reflects, what Taylor's quote reflects is the belief in the ability and even the necessity to love your

00:08:00.920 neighbor without loving God. But according to the Christian ethic, that just doesn't work because if you

00:08:06.480 first believe in the first and greatest command to love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your

00:08:12.480 mind, with all your soul and with all your strength, you will love how he tells us to love. You will love

00:08:18.600 self-sacrificially. You will love without compromise. Loving in this way is only possible if you follow

00:08:26.500 the first command to love the Lord, your God with your whole being. If you love God with your whole being,

00:08:32.500 you will also love his law. You will also love his ways. You will hate what he calls sin. You will have a

00:08:38.380 desire for your neighbor to not just be taken care of, but to know the truth that will set them free,

00:08:44.540 which is that Jesus is the way, the truth, the life, and that no one comes to the father except

00:08:49.940 through him. If you love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength,

00:08:55.820 you will take on his definition of love, which is not simply tolerance and acceptance and celebration

00:09:02.080 of what he calls sin, but self-sacrificial service to others without compromising on what the Bible says

00:09:09.140 is righteous and good. An all-consuming love for God means a love for his character and a love for

00:09:15.140 his commands. His character and his commands are perfect. They are holy. They are good. They are

00:09:20.160 righteous. They are unchanging no matter what's happening in culture. That means that we defer to how

00:09:25.780 God defines religion and how God defines love. That means that these two will never get in the way of one

00:09:31.420 another. We will never have to set down religion for love if we are walking in congruence to who

00:09:36.720 God is and what he commands. This quote reflects a flippancy about obedience to Christ and the

00:09:43.800 prioritization of appeasing others over pleasing the Lord. It says that you will only follow God and walk

00:09:49.860 in his ways until it offends your neighbor, until it infringes upon your neighbor's lifestyle, until

00:09:55.680 it maybe drives an awkward wedge between your neighbor, and then you are going to have to

00:10:01.320 compromise. I'm just not sure that that is the self-denial, the taking up of the cross that

00:10:08.480 Jesus has asked his followers to do. We are to be not only hospitable and kind to our neighbor,

00:10:14.880 but we're also not to ignore what he says is good and right and true, and we are to share

00:10:20.040 the gospel with them. That is the difference between being a light in the world and being friends with the

00:10:25.660 world. Christians are not called to be friends with the world. They are called to be salt and light in

00:10:31.820 a flavorless and dark world, but we are not called to make a friendship with the world. James 4.4 says

00:10:37.820 this, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a

00:10:44.000 friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. So Christians, all of us, left, right, and center,

00:10:50.700 are guilty of making friendship with the world. We want to be liked. We don't want to be called

00:10:56.260 bigots. We want to fit in. We don't want people to think that we're too Christian or too religious

00:11:00.960 or that we actually believe the whole Bible, that no, we just believe the easy part. So we celebrate

00:11:06.200 things that we shouldn't celebrate. We dress ways that we shouldn't dress. We use words that we

00:11:10.460 shouldn't use. We watch shows that we shouldn't watch. We tolerate sin in ourselves, and we celebrate

00:11:15.400 celebrate it in others, and we convince ourselves that we're just being kind, and that maybe

00:11:20.540 being that, that version of tolerance will lead people to Jesus. And I think that we all know that

00:11:26.760 we're kidding ourselves. The Bible is very clear that seeking camaraderie with the world is putting

00:11:32.420 ourselves in opposition to the God of the universe. I don't want to be in opposition to the God of the

00:11:38.360 universe. In fact, that's exactly why I claim Jesus as my Savior, to be reconciled to God, to escape the

00:11:45.040 wrath of God that I fully deserve because of my sin. Wouldn't we rather be not liked by the people

00:11:51.300 in this world than condemned by an eternal God? That should be a really easy question for all of us.

00:11:57.200 Unfortunately, it's not. The answer to that question for so many who identify as Christians, and probably

00:12:04.000 has been true for every Christian, maybe at some point in their walk with Christ, is no. The answer to

00:12:08.880 that is no. They would rather be liked by the world than they would rather be liked by the world

00:12:14.920 than be in obedience to God. Whether or not many professed Christians would say it out loud,

00:12:20.900 some would truly rather be accepted by non-Christians than be in alignment with God's

00:12:26.520 Word. Some would rather be seen as inclusive to the secular world than a good and faithful servant

00:12:31.400 to the Lord. And this quote that I have seen hundreds and hundreds of people share, if not thousands

00:12:37.120 of people share, is indicative of this reality that we're living in right now. We know how this kind

00:12:43.260 of mentality manifests itself in a professed Christian's life. It manifests itself in the

00:12:48.420 picking a part of scripture until all that's left is verses about love and grace. But without the rest

00:12:54.320 of the Bible, without context, verses about love and grace and isolation become malleable to our

00:13:00.200 personal interpretations and definitions. So when they read that God is love, for example, instead of

00:13:06.120 looking at the entirety of the canon to inform us of what that love is according to God, one of goodness,

00:13:12.980 and justice and wrath and mercy and holiness and forgiveness, they inform themselves of what love

00:13:18.480 is based on their own experiences. A subjective experiential definition of love is always going

00:13:25.420 to be much flimsier, much more fragile than God's definition of love because of our own sinful human

00:13:32.160 nature. When we define it, when we define love, it's going to mean to ignore sin. When we define love,

00:13:37.700 it will give into culture's demands. When we define love, it's going to be whatever is convenient for

00:13:43.440 us and helps us to avoid awkwardness or tension where we might actually have to disagree with

00:13:48.660 someone's lifestyle. Grace will be redefined to mean tolerating and even glorifying sin. That's what

00:13:55.340 happens when you pick apart the Bible and you only take the parts you like. Even the parts you like

00:13:59.160 start to mean something that they don't actually mean. And yet these are not the biblical definitions of

00:14:05.120 love and grace. They have nothing to do with accepting sin and everything to do with a forgiveness

00:14:10.780 of and repentance from sin. People talk about a lot Jesus dining and hanging out with prostitutes and

00:14:18.200 tax collectors, but rarely do they call to mind Jesus's sole purpose in his interactions with them

00:14:24.560 to call them away from sin and to free them from the bonds of transgression. This is a hallmark

00:14:31.300 of progressive Christianity, which we've talked about so much of the emphasis on worldly definitions

00:14:37.840 of love, which obscure the importance of salvation and the gospel and focus instead on worldly standards

00:14:44.020 for inclusion and tolerance and acceptance. This is typical of what is called liberation theology.

00:14:50.100 We've also talked about that on this podcast as well, which is the theology that undergirds liberal

00:14:56.480 Christianity holds to the idea that the main purpose of Christianity is social justice or

00:15:01.560 cosmic justice, as we like to refer to it, or liberating people from the chains of oppression,

00:15:07.000 aka poverty or marginalization or discrimination. They see this as much more important than sharing

00:15:13.380 the gospel and typically believe that calling people to repentance and salvation in Christ is

00:15:18.040 totally unnecessary. The roots of liberation theology are in 19th century Latin America. It's made its way

00:15:24.640 to the United States. It did in the early 20th century. It's kind of ebbed and flowed come and

00:15:29.800 gone since then. James Cone was the father of what is called black liberation theology, which is actually

00:15:34.840 very popular today. It's a Marxist theology or Marxist ideology that manifests itself in a lot of

00:15:41.520 different ways in the evangelical church today. It essentially believed it's evolved since then, but

00:15:46.240 essentially believed that black people and secondarily all oppressed people are God's chosen people

00:15:51.300 and that God is concerned only with demolishing earthly systems of oppression like white supremacy

00:15:56.580 and even capitalism. That's what the ideology holds. James Cone may have been Christian in name,

00:16:03.340 but he is quoted saying that his religion is really just one of liberation. So any religion that agrees with

00:16:09.700 his ideas of liberation, such as Islam, for example, the kind of Islam that Malcolm X represented,

00:16:16.380 uh, he's okay with that. He's on board with that too. That is something that he has quoted saying, uh, fun fact,

00:16:23.100 James Cone actually had a huge influence on the people that had an influence on Barack Obama. So if you're

00:16:27.940 wondering part of why Marxism has become so popular in the past 10 years, that is part, that is part of the

00:16:34.360 reason. Uh, you can receive, you can see all of this reflected in the theology of a lot of people today, seeing

00:16:40.100 Jesus not as a propitiation for our sins, but as a social justice warrior who is not at all concerned with

00:16:45.860 sexual immorality, who is not at all concerned with our behavior or covetousness or idolatry. He

00:16:51.240 instead, they would say is only concerned with all the isms, with racism, with sexism, with homophobia,

00:16:57.420 with Islamophobia. Those are the kinds of things that apparently their Jesus is exclusively concerned

00:17:03.460 with. He is only interested in deconstructing systems of unfair power. Uh, that is why typically

00:17:09.280 when people move to the left politically, they also move to the left theologically. And unfortunately,

00:17:14.280 usually not always, but usually that ends with the minimizing of the work on the cross to be some

00:17:20.680 kind of social justice metaphor rather than the power of God for those who believe that is not to

00:17:27.420 say that people on the right don't have their own theological issues and misunderstandings because

00:17:30.980 they certainly do. But because this quote in particular kind of reflects a lot of what we see in

00:17:37.200 liberation theology, this emphasis on the horizontal rather than the vertical and the sacrifice of the

00:17:42.660 vertical for the horizontal, it just typically is something that is a part of progressive Christianity.

00:17:48.680 When you kind of can pick and choose what you want from the Bible and say, okay, as long as I have

00:17:54.460 some kind of worldview that doesn't make other people feel awkward or make other people feel

00:17:58.440 uncomfortable or tense, that's the worldview that I am going to go with. Unfortunately, that is not

00:18:04.040 the gospel. Unfortunately, that is not Christianity. If we look at the book of Acts, for example,

00:18:09.080 the gospel that was being preached by the apostles, it's not just one that made people uncomfortable,

00:18:13.660 but made people angry, made people want to stone them, drove them out of their cities, put them in

00:18:18.460 jail. Is that really the kind of gospel that we see that is being perpetuated by someone who claims to

00:18:24.880 be a priest herself, who is ordained, and who other people who profess to be Christians should be

00:18:30.640 sharing? One that says, okay, as soon as this gets awkward, I'm going to give it up. As soon as this

00:18:36.200 offends someone, I'm not going to talk about this anymore. I don't think so. We already know the

00:18:40.720 power of Christ is offensive to both the Jew and the Greek. It's a stumbling block. It's a point of

00:18:45.200 confusion. It's a point of disagreement. And so if we are not comfortable with sometimes being put in

00:18:53.280 situations to where we have to stand up for something that we know is going to offend someone

00:18:57.240 else, that we have to speak truth into someone's life or lifestyle, speaking the truth in love and

00:19:02.720 gently, of course, with the desire that they know Christ, not in a way to just condemn and judge to

00:19:07.860 pretend like we are perfect. If we are not okay with that, then I think that we have to do what

00:19:13.180 Jesus asks us to do in the gospels, which is to count the cost. Are you ready? Are we ready to give

00:19:18.800 up our life for the sake of the gospel? I think that's a question that we all have to ask ourselves.

00:19:22.740 Are we okay with that? Because that's what Jesus is demanding. I love that quote by C.S. Lewis that I

00:19:27.780 can't, I can't repeat from memory, but just paraphrasing that Jesus doesn't ask for some of

00:19:32.720 us or a part of our heart or a part of our lives, but he claims all of us completely. And of course,

00:19:38.080 we know that sanctification happens over a lifetime. We know that it's not overnight that immediately we

00:19:46.200 have the perfect theology. I was thinking of the other day of some stupid stuff that I used to believe

00:19:50.900 theologically when I was in high school and you grow and you become holier through the power of the

00:19:55.340 Holy Spirit. And we become better at this stuff, discerning what is true from what is not true,

00:20:00.140 loving our neighbor in a way that doesn't compromise. All of that can come over time.

00:20:03.640 So I don't want it to seem like I have it all figured out because I certainly don't,

00:20:07.180 but that should be our goal. And it starts with being able to take things that sound good

00:20:11.160 and are popular and are being shared by people we respect and lining them up to God's word.

00:20:16.000 Because when you do that, when you do that, it really, it helps you. I mean, that's what I think

00:20:20.700 it's Proverbs 3, 5 through 6 says, to lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways,

00:20:25.720 acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. That's our best bet that we have when

00:20:29.840 we are going up against the culture that constantly feeds us things that sound holy and righteous,

00:20:34.600 but are unequivocally not. It's also why we lean on a passage like Ephesians 6 that reminds us

00:20:40.920 that we're not against flesh and blood, but we're actually against spiritual authorities. We're

00:20:45.700 against a completely unseen realm. And in order to contend with unseen lies or deceptive that is

00:20:52.720 coming honestly from the pit of hell, we have to be equipped with the power of the Holy Spirit and

00:20:57.280 the full armor of God. And so that's always my goal. That's my goal in these Monday podcast episodes

00:21:02.900 is to take something that we are hearing a lot of or an idea that we're hearing a lot of and weigh it

00:21:08.460 against the truth of God, because I don't have any insight for you. I don't have any wisdom for you.

00:21:12.660 I don't have any knowledge to share, but God's word does. And what I love about being a Christian,

00:21:17.900 someone who really likes things to be black and white, even though I realized that so much

00:21:21.600 it, it, it, it isn't always black and white, but I like objective standards. And I love that. I have

00:21:29.020 a standard for what I believe that I don't have to just make up, uh, I don't have to make up some

00:21:34.260 reasoning about how I feel, or, uh, I don't have to have ever shifting qualifications for my morality,

00:21:42.640 but I can always go back to God's word and I can correct the things. I think the things I say,

00:21:47.240 the things I do, the things I read, uh, against God's perfect standard. And that is what we are

00:21:52.640 called to do. And I am so thankful. I'm so grateful for how gracious God has been in providing

00:21:58.640 us with his word that we don't have to wonder that we don't have to wade in confusion. And of

00:22:02.860 course, not everything is explicitly or verbatim in the Bible, but it is our guide. It is a lamp into

00:22:08.720 our feet, a light into our path. And, uh, we have to use it when we are up against culture,

00:22:14.800 even Christian culture today, unfortunately. Okay. That's really all I have on that. I do just want

00:22:20.460 to give you. Some of you have been asking about, uh, my baby girl and how she's doing and how it is

00:22:26.680 being a mom. I am almost 12 weeks in, we are almost 12 weeks in and it's awesome. I love it. People keep

00:22:33.920 asking me if we're getting sleep some nights. Yes. Some nights we are getting sleep. She's doing,

00:22:38.800 she's doing pretty well. Um, but some nights we are, we are not, but it's okay. It's, it's all worth it.

00:22:45.060 Is it hard to balance, you know, work and being a mom and all of that? Yes, it can, it can be difficult

00:22:52.140 sometimes, but gosh, I would do it a thousand times over. I love being a mom. It's what I've

00:22:58.240 always wanted to be. It's what I've always wanted to do since I was little. I never even had a second

00:23:03.060 thought about whether or not I wanted to be a mom. And I'm telling you, it is even better than you

00:23:07.960 would ever expect. I was talking to someone last weekend who is pregnant and she was scared.

00:23:12.880 She's having a baby girl and she was scared about having her and what it's like being a working mom

00:23:18.860 and balancing it all. And do you know what you're doing? Well, no, but you figure it out and you do

00:23:24.180 learn the balance. And I just want to tell every pregnant person, like I wish I could just make

00:23:28.700 this my mission in life to tell every pregnant person, Oh my gosh, I'm so excited for you. I'm so

00:23:34.300 excited for you. So if you're pregnant right now, I am so excited for you. Being a mom is awesome.

00:23:40.020 It's not the end all be all because we know that only Christ satisfies us and our purpose in life

00:23:44.660 is not to just be only be a wife and a mom, but it is to be a follower of Christ. And that can look

00:23:50.760 different for everyone, whether you are, uh, whether you're single, whether you are a mom,

00:23:55.460 whether you're married, whatever. But I am extremely thankful for the opportunity and the blessing that

00:24:01.240 I have to parent her. She's like starting to try to make noises that kind of sound a little more like

00:24:11.300 words. Obviously she's not really talking and that's just been so fun. We have nonsensical

00:24:16.680 conversations all day and I could just, I could just stare at her. Do y'all know what I'm talking

00:24:21.820 about? Those of you who are parents, I could just stare at her all day long and be totally content.

00:24:27.260 And unfortunately there are other responsibilities that I have, but she is, she's awesome. It's my

00:24:34.260 husband and I are just spitting. We're like completely over the moon about it. And I just,

00:24:39.100 I don't want to like be rushing the stages or anything because I actually do like the newborn

00:24:43.400 stage. People keep saying, Oh, the newborn stage is not that great. I actually like it, but something

00:24:47.660 I am excited about is being able to teach her, being able to read to her and her actually understand

00:24:53.700 and comprehend. I do read to her, but it's like those little crinkly books that say like two spotted

00:24:59.220 cows, moo, moo. I mean, I think I've read that book to her like a million times. I'm excited for her to

00:25:04.120 actually be able to understand things of substance, to teach her how to read something that my mom and

00:25:09.400 my grandmother who lived with us did from an early age was teach me how to read when I was read when I

00:25:15.500 was really young. And, um, since then I've always loved to read and I've always loved to write. And I think

00:25:21.360 it really helped me verbally as well. So I'm just excited to be able to pass that down to her,

00:25:25.880 share that with her. And I know my mom's going to be a big help in that too. My mom and grandmother

00:25:30.180 were both teachers. So they're really good at that. I didn't necessarily get the teaching gene. So I

00:25:35.020 might not be as good at it as my mom was, but I'm just excited to share that with her and to share

00:25:40.500 those experience with experiences with her. The thing that she's obsessed with right now that

00:25:46.700 has nothing to do with my teaching whatsoever is the fan. I had no idea that babies were obsessed

00:25:53.420 with fans. They, she will just stare at the fan all day. If I turn the light on and I turn the fan

00:25:59.940 on a little bit, it's like a pacifier. Like she will sit there for, I would say sometimes it kind

00:26:06.040 of depends. It depends on if she's in her bouncer or not. She'll sit there for 30 to 45 minutes,

00:26:10.860 just staring at the fan. I have no idea what it is about it, but I heard that this is a thing that

00:26:16.220 babies do. So that has been nice. I haven't had to spend any money on toys or anything like that.

00:26:21.420 That's her current obsession. I know in every stage they kind of have different things that

00:26:25.620 they're interested in. One thing that encouraged me, I actually had the privilege of meeting Nikki

00:26:30.360 Haley, uh, last weekend and she was telling me, and maybe this will be an encouragement to you too.

00:26:36.020 She was telling me that every stage is fun and that you can look forward to every stage and to not be

00:26:41.500 sad when they leave a certain stage because the next stage is just as fun or more fun.

00:26:46.520 And that was really encouraging to me because it's easy to be sad when they leave this newborn stage,

00:26:52.060 when, you know, they get too big for their newborn diapers and you have to switch into like three to

00:26:57.520 six month clothes. That's what we're about to do right now. And, um, it's, it's hard. It can be hard

00:27:03.560 to let go. When you look back at old pictures, you're like, I swear she was never that small. She was

00:27:07.540 never that vulnerable, but it's good. And I think it is really important for us. My parents were

00:27:12.520 always really good at that. And I hope that I'm good at it too, is celebrating each stage and not

00:27:17.460 constantly saying, you know, I miss when you were a baby or I miss when you were smaller because it

00:27:22.080 is such a blessing to be able to see our kids grow. I remember you always hear parents say like,

00:27:28.000 Oh, my daughter's never going to leave the house or like, she's never going to get married. She's

00:27:31.960 not going to date or anything like that. But I haven't had that feeling yet. Like I am really

00:27:36.880 excited for her to experience life as hard as and difficult and sometimes backward as this culture

00:27:43.420 is like, I'm really excited for her to grow up. I'm really excited for her to know things. One

00:27:49.700 thing that I've prayed before she was born is that she would be wise. That's what I pray for her. I

00:27:54.960 pray that she would have wisdom and gosh, that is missing in this world. I pray that she would be

00:27:59.860 wise. I pray that she would have discernment. I pray that she would know good from evil. And of course,

00:28:04.040 we know the source of all of those things, as we've already said on this podcast episode is the

00:28:08.160 fear of the Lord. And so that goes hand in hand. I pray that she would fear the Lord all the days of

00:28:12.960 her life, that she would love the Lord, her God with all of her heart, mind, soul, and strength, and

00:28:17.760 that she would be wise from a very young age, that she would be able to discern what is right and

00:28:23.580 what is wrong. So many of us, you know, struggle with that throughout our lives. And if we look at the

00:28:28.720 world today, there's so much foolishness and so much backwardness. And I just hope that she's able,

00:28:34.540 she's able to tell the difference. Um, I think that's all that I have today. Just wanted to give

00:28:39.900 you that brief updates and I hope that you have a great rest of your Monday and I'll see you back

00:28:44.680 here on Wednesday.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - September 23, 2019

Ep 166 ｜ Love Your Neighbor Over Your Religion？

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