Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 428 ｜ Is It a Bad Time to Start a Family？｜ Q&A

00:00:00.000 hey guys welcome to relatable we are doing another q and a episode today just a reminder

00:00:15.320 if you love this podcast if you could please leave me a five-star review on apple podcast

00:00:22.240 if that's where you listen that would just mean a whole lot to me you don't even have to write

00:00:25.200 that much if you want to you can some of you do and it's super meaningful and i appreciate that

00:00:29.240 but if you love this podcast i would love a five-star review subscribe on youtube ali beth

00:00:33.820 stuckey if you haven't already all right let's talk about some of the awesome questions that you

00:00:39.840 guys sent me first question how socialism misunderstands human nature i love this

00:00:46.400 question because it's something that we talk about a lot and i don't get tired of talking about it

00:00:50.300 the reason why socialism has not worked and it has never worked you can look at the 20th century and

00:00:56.880 you can see how much it has failed this assertion that socialism has never been tried simply is not

00:01:02.880 true it's just never been tried and worked the reason is because it goes against human nature

00:01:09.120 and if you look at the nordic countries the nordic countries the leaders of the nordic countries will

00:01:13.460 tell you look we're not socialist yes they have hefty social democracies or they have a hefty social

00:01:19.660 safety net they have a welfare state they have very high flat tax rate some of those countries so like

00:01:25.840 sixty percent but it's flat and so whether you are rich or whether you're poor everyone is paying

00:01:30.660 sixty percent and they are paying into their education system their welfare system their health

00:01:35.840 care system and all of that very different than the united states we have a very progressive tax system

00:01:41.140 maybe the most progressive tax system in the western world and that's not only are you paying more

00:01:46.100 dollar wise if you're rich but you're paying a much higher proportion if you are rich so another thing

00:01:51.880 is that like when people say that the rich don't pay their fair share well the top 50 percent of

00:01:56.740 earners in america pay something like 90 percent of all taxes and if you are poor in the united states you

00:02:04.180 don't pay anything in taxes you actually earn money from the government by way of welfare and things

00:02:10.700 uh like that and so we have a very progressive um leftist type tax system in the united states of

00:02:19.920 course under biden he is raising taxes on people he originally said it was going to be four hundred

00:02:24.760 thousand it's actually going to be two hundred thousand as i'm recording this i'm recording this

00:02:28.840 in march by the way um and so again the nordic countries people who say well that's socialism and

00:02:35.240 that works not only is it not socialism but it actually has some more conservative elements to

00:02:40.980 their tax structure than america does in some ways and they are very pro free market they are very pro

00:02:48.500 business in those countries now they are left leaning in a lot of ways especially socially and

00:02:54.280 there's not uh you don't have the same constitutional rights in those countries but they are not socialist

00:02:59.860 countries their economies are not socialist and even if they were or i should just say the

00:03:04.900 reason why it works for them in some ways it doesn't actually work completely but the reason

00:03:10.280 why it works okay for them to have such big government and to have such high taxes is because

00:03:15.280 they're very small countries they're also culturally homogenous countries they're very different than

00:03:20.800 the united states we i mean it's it's wonderful how much cultural diversity that we have um but it also

00:03:28.260 makes us very complex and the answers to our problems more complex and more multifaceted than it does

00:03:34.720 to those tiny small homogenous uh nordic countries and so the comparison just isn't great it's it's

00:03:42.480 just not great it doesn't make a whole lot of sense and like i said those are not actually socialist

00:03:47.140 countries so socialism has never succeeded this idea of confiscating power property capital from the

00:03:56.840 haves and giving it to the have not so to accomplish some kind of so-called equity meaning that everyone

00:04:02.600 ends up in the same place everyone has equal outcomes everyone has the same quote distribution

00:04:08.240 of wealth um according to what the government decides it doesn't actually work and the reason

00:04:14.500 why i believe that goes against human nature uh is because um it's because it is human beings nature to

00:04:23.600 one own property that is their own um it's not just human nature by the way it's also moral it's also

00:04:30.880 biblical in the ten commandments their commandments against um against property theft or even against

00:04:38.880 wanting someone's property and so a lot of people say that you really only need two commandments to

00:04:43.900 biblically dismantle um socialism and that is thou shall not covet and thou shall not steal

00:04:49.440 so not only does god say you're not supposed to steal something that isn't yours and i would say that

00:04:54.040 absolutely applies to the government but you're not even supposed to want something that's not yours

00:04:58.140 that's how much god believes in personal property that's how much she believes in not just personal

00:05:03.000 property because marxists will say they believe in personal property but not private property

00:05:07.080 but also private property property that is yours you actually have ownership of it that doesn't mean

00:05:12.160 that we don't believe in taxes the bible is clear that we're supposed to pay taxes we can render to

00:05:16.500 caesar what is caesar's but we're to render to god's what is god's we're not to render to caesar that which

00:05:21.800 is god's and caesar we believe as romans 13 says should be subject uh to god it's an institution the

00:05:28.560 government is created by god and should be subject um to what he says is right and he says is wrong

00:05:35.200 that's not a theocracy as i've said many times i don't believe that the new testament gives us a

00:05:40.440 precedent or a command to make any sort of theocracy here on earth but it does say that there is one

00:05:45.720 moral lawgiver one transcendent authority on what is good what is bad what is right what is wrong and

00:05:52.680 what is just and what is unjust and of course we believe as the entire west once did um that looking

00:05:59.240 to his example in general when coming up with the rule of law is good that's where we get due process

00:06:04.220 that's where we get property rights that's where we get many of the freedoms and uh the laws that we

00:06:10.140 have today from the general judeo-christian ethic of what is right what is wrong and what the law

00:06:16.280 should look like socialism goes against that it takes away human enterprise it takes away property

00:06:24.240 rights and it creates a system that is based on covetousness it creates a system that is based

00:06:30.740 on envy socialism constantly is bucking against human nature that's why it requires the bloodshed of so many

00:06:38.180 millions of people in order to be enacted again as we saw throughout the 20th century in soviet russia

00:06:43.880 in eastern germany in vietnam in china in north korea this is what we see that it has to be accomplished

00:06:52.760 by taking away people's rights like you just don't see any socialist countries where people also have

00:06:58.000 free speech and freedom of religion it just doesn't happen because the state has to become god in order for

00:07:04.700 people to submit to it and in order for socialism to be achieved so that the government has enough

00:07:09.860 power to take property and money from people and give it to other people in the hopes of achieving

00:07:15.220 equity and by the way it's always in the hopes of achieving equity what it actually does is just gives

00:07:20.120 the government more power it doesn't actually accomplish anything for the people that it says it's

00:07:25.220 going to we saw the same thing in venezuela it just ends in all kinds of exploitation the same thing

00:07:30.420 in zimbabwe it's the same story over and over again give your power give your money to the

00:07:35.800 government they'll take it they'll say that it's for compassion to help the least of these and then

00:07:41.080 they just screw everyone over including the least of these they play upon your sensitivities and your

00:07:46.620 desire to take care of people they assure you based on no history whatsoever uh no historical support

00:07:54.480 whatsoever that they are the best vehicle the government is the best vehicle to take care of people

00:07:59.680 they take your money uh via taxes by doing that and eventually they have so much power that you gave

00:08:05.200 them in the name of your empathy that they're able to do whatever they want to do and what they want to

00:08:10.260 accomplish is not empathetic history tells us that very well if you study like north korea for example

00:08:16.560 there is a great book called nothing to envy that we read in the book club last year that talks about

00:08:23.120 how these black markets uh uh cropped up in north korea where there is established communism where

00:08:30.100 people have been propagandized against capitalism and the free market their entire lives who have

00:08:35.460 been made to believe that japan and made to believe that south korea and america are these awful imperialist

00:08:40.260 capitalist countries well i mean they are capitalists but they're made to believe that all of these things

00:08:44.560 are terrible um and that capitalism is so bad and communism is great but these people are starving like

00:08:50.300 they understand that they're starving they understand that they're not getting the things that they

00:08:53.660 need to get and so what happened is that they created these black markets that were built on 0.94

00:08:58.740 supply and demand and they you know smuggled goods from china in order to um in order to create a market

00:09:06.740 to meet the demand of food that was had in starving north korea um thanks to communism and so these are

00:09:14.220 people who they didn't know economics like they didn't know capitalism they didn't know

00:09:20.060 the free market and yet they understood inherently how to trade and how to provide for themselves and

00:09:26.380 how to um how how to navigate supply and demand and that's why i say that socialism goes against

00:09:33.600 human nature but capitalism not crony capitalism which we have so much of today um but just supply and

00:09:41.420 demand free markets actually abides by human nature it is the most natural form of market that you can

00:09:48.040 have that is again why socialism and communism always have to be imposed but capitalism supply

00:09:53.780 and demand just crops up naturally even among people who have never been taught about it before

00:10:00.860 um all right so i hope that kind of answers that question that was long favorite place that i vacationed

00:10:06.720 first thing that comes to mind is where my uh my uh my husband and i went on our honeymoon which is

00:10:13.540 very basic i think a lot of people go to camp cancun for their honeymoon we did it wasn't necessarily the

00:10:19.380 place that was the best because i've been to a lot of great places i've been to a lot of places in

00:10:24.260 europe i've been to barcelona i've been to rome i've been to paris i've been to london i've been to

00:10:27.940 scotland and all of those places i've been to amsterdam all those places were wonderful and i loved

00:10:32.280 all those places but i'm like a beach girl i love relaxing i love doing nothing and i love eating food

00:10:37.740 and so your honeymoon is basically the place for all of those things and the resort that we stayed

00:10:43.140 at in cancun was so wonderful it was like you it wasn't like a family-friendly resort it was only

00:10:49.920 for um it was there were no kids and so it was very quiet it was very clean you walk in they give you

00:10:57.740 this like sweet coconut milk which was amazing and just like incredible service pampered all of that

00:11:04.680 fun stuff and we haven't gone back we keep saying oh we need to go back and then of course this past

00:11:09.980 year has just been crazy and we haven't gone back i don't know if we will but um our honeymoon in

00:11:15.740 cancun was probably like the favorite my favorite place that i have ever stayed my encouragement to

00:11:22.220 you if you can swing it or if someone can gift this to you and you're going on a honeymoon if you can

00:11:26.980 afford to go on a honeymoon and you're planning to do it go all inclusive all inclusive is the way to

00:11:32.140 go and it's going to seem like a lot up front but it is worth the freedom of mind when you're there

00:11:38.780 to not have to worry about like you know tipping or well i guess you can i guess you do still tip

00:11:45.320 but you don't have to worry about um like okay if i get a dessert is it going to be too much or if i

00:11:50.560 want to get a second dinner if i want to get room service like am i gonna have to pay extra what's my

00:11:54.660 bill going to be at the end of the week you don't have to worry about that it's literally all

00:11:58.460 inclusive and that was such like a hard concept for me to understand i remember like okay i ordered

00:12:04.240 a dinner one night i didn't like it i want to order another dinner oh my gosh this surely is going to be

00:12:08.900 extra but it's really not so just having that freedom of already knowing that you paid for it or

00:12:13.280 already knowing how much it's going to be and just being able to enjoy yourself that is my recommendation

00:12:18.500 if you can swing an all-inclusive resort stay even if it's just a few days like three days for your

00:12:24.020 honeymoon then i encourage you to do it because for us it was a really great option all right uh

00:12:29.500 someone asked me what is persecution um or how do we think about persecution so there's a conversation

00:12:37.400 right now like whenever christians especially in america talk about persecution like if we talk about

00:12:42.200 a florist or a business owner who for example is getting dragged through the mud or is like losing

00:12:48.360 her clientele because an activist group targeted them because for example their stance on biblical

00:12:54.000 traditional marriage or someone being criticized or slandered for their faith um you'll hear

00:13:02.200 christians say that's persecution and then you'll hear a loud cacophony of people on the other side

00:13:06.780 saying no no no no that's not persecution christians need to stop talking about persecution there's

00:13:12.160 christian privilege in the united states it's white privilege it's all this stuff and they'll shout you

00:13:17.440 down and they'll say you don't know anything about persecution well it's true that we christians

00:13:23.880 in america have enjoyed this wonderful respite from um a lot of persecution over the past how you know

00:13:33.420 over the past few centuries in the west but in particular in the united states religious liberty

00:13:39.100 and christianity being mainstream is an exception in church history not the rule so for most of church

00:13:47.640 history for 2 000 years the rule has been that christians are persecuted still today pew research

00:13:53.680 reports that the number one persecuted religion around the world is christianity so when people

00:13:58.540 talk about christian privilege i just want to roll my eyes but america is unique and that we have a lot

00:14:04.340 of christians and that christianity even though it is getting pushed to the margins it's very mainstream

00:14:08.560 in a lot of ways um you know whether people like it or not even the laws that we have on the books like

00:14:16.700 laws against murder laws against theft laws for property rights laws for due process that everyone

00:14:23.240 benefits from those are based in the bible you might not like that you could reject that you could say no

00:14:29.380 that's just common sense other you know other countries have murder laws too that's true but it still

00:14:35.560 goes back to the absolute morality and the right and wrong that god declared thousands and thousands

00:14:40.440 of years ago to his people um and you could say even that's part of general revelation that god

00:14:45.800 wrote good and evil on our hearts that people who haven't even read the bible understood inherently

00:14:50.900 that it is wrong to kill an image bearer and there should be a price to pay for that but not all

00:14:55.880 countries by the way believe that like you know there are many countries and millions of people that are

00:15:00.320 subject to the death penalty for saying the wrong thing or believing the wrong thing or for

00:15:04.680 criticizing their government and so the idea of freedom of conscience um is also very unique to

00:15:11.840 america which a lot of people would say it's waning but i would say that's because christian influence

00:15:15.980 is waning and so the question is is there like is there persecution in america against christians well

00:15:23.020 i think that we need to expand our definition of what persecution means it's absolutely true that

00:15:29.900 christians in america are not dealing with the same kind of persecution that christians in china are

00:15:33.720 dealing with or christians in the middle east are dealing with of course that's not true or muslims 0.59

00:15:38.120 in china or muslims in the middle east um they are are definitely being persecuted in a much worse way

00:15:44.640 than anyone is here that's absolutely true um but persecution doesn't necessarily just mean being a

00:15:53.160 martyr it doesn't just mean being arbitrarily detained it doesn't just mean torture or all of the

00:15:58.920 terrible things that people in other countries christians in other countries are going through

00:16:03.140 yes i do believe that that could mean having your business targeted that could mean being dragged

00:16:09.140 through the mud by the media i do think that that could mean unfair um unfair criticism like untrue

00:16:16.840 criticism slander about you i'm not saying that's the same thing that christians in other parts of the

00:16:22.640 world are going through but i mean jesus does tell us that we will all christians will be persecuted

00:16:29.560 and second timothy 3 12 says indeed all who live who desire to live a godly life in christ jesus will

00:16:37.760 be persecuted and so i believe that means in one way or another and you can say that without equating

00:16:44.160 all types of persecution or without trying to make yourself a victim like you can say that someone is being

00:16:49.840 persecuted or that you're being persecuted and still declare that as romans 8 says that you are

00:16:55.280 more than a conqueror in christ jesus and that you know that he's coming back and he's going to rule

00:17:00.240 in perfect peace and as psalm 37 says we'll look around and the wicked will be no more so you acknowledging

00:17:05.440 persecution in your own life or other people's life is not to decry a victim narrative actually

00:17:10.960 james tells us the book of james tells us that we should have joy in our trials like we're going to go

00:17:17.520 through trials we're going to go through persecution he was talking to christians who were dealing with

00:17:21.460 persecution and who had dealt with persecution and like christians believe in having joy in that

00:17:26.880 um and so it's not saying oh poor me it's just stating a fact that there are different kinds and

00:17:32.720 different levels of persecution and when someone pushes back on you and says oh this is not persecution

00:17:37.080 if you are being persecuted if you are being pushed back against for truly righteousness's sake i'm not

00:17:42.460 just saying because you were a mean person and someone told you that you were mean or you did something

00:17:46.380 wrong and someone criticized you but if you are truly being attacked and it's a true attack not

00:17:53.300 just disagreement or not just rebuking like godly rebuking but you're truly being attacked in one way

00:17:59.720 or another because of obeying christ and i believe that james coates's imprisonment definitely falls into

00:18:06.420 this category the pastor out of canada then that is a form of persecution absolutely remember all who

00:18:12.740 desire to live a godly life in christ jesus will be persecuted doesn't mean that christians are the

00:18:17.140 only ones who are persecuted um the second corinthians 4 17 says for this light momentary

00:18:23.780 affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison i think that means

00:18:29.720 that if you are talking about slander or true deep sorrow i think it means that if you're talking about

00:18:35.420 um you know going to prison for your faith or you're talking about um someone targeting your

00:18:42.140 business for your faith or losing a friendship over your faith these are all afflictions and all

00:18:46.700 trials and all part of living in a fallen world that god says he's going to take care of and redeem

00:18:51.520 and so i really don't think that we need to like be quibbling over what's persecution and what's not

00:18:58.060 the fact of the matter is is that jesus tells us that we're going to take up our cross and follow him and

00:19:02.700 that life is going to be about self-denial that it's going to be hard that in this world we will

00:19:07.820 have trouble he says you will have trouble in this world whether that's persecution or just life being

00:19:14.000 hard but take heart he says i have overcome the world he doesn't say take heart it's not going to

00:19:19.620 be that hard or take heart it's not going to hurt or take heart people are going to understand you

00:19:23.580 or take heart everyone's going to like you he says it's going to be hard but take heart i have

00:19:28.600 overcome the world so our confidence is not that we're going to escape any kind of

00:19:32.500 trials or persecution here on earth but that we are uh can have perfect confidence in his victory

00:19:40.060 and we do have confidence in that and we look towards the hope of heaven and the hope of him

00:19:45.000 coming back and taking care of all the sadness and all the wickedness and all the persecution

00:19:49.420 that is being seen here on earth

00:19:52.380 so one question i get a lot is should i be having kids right now if if i'm if i'm married like i'm a

00:20:09.820 christian should i be having kids i'm worried about what's going on like i'm worried about the economy i'm

00:20:16.500 worried about our safety i'm worried about the future of our country i'm worried about some forms of

00:20:21.080 persecution i'm worried about our loss of freedoms i'm worried about raising my kid in this crazy time

00:20:27.540 like should i be having kids and i think that the bible absolutely speaks to that remember yes the

00:20:33.920 bible was written many thousands of years ago and it was written to a particular people in a particular

00:20:40.500 context speaking to a particular moment but it was for us like god's sovereignty god is sustained in

00:20:47.240 the eternal now so god is not limited by time that means that the bible his word is also not

00:20:53.840 limited by a cultural moment that means it is for us today and god inspired the words of the bible

00:21:00.600 knowing every hard thing that every christian would endure and look christians have been through a lot

00:21:07.820 harder than what we're going through right now like if you look at the history of the church the early

00:21:12.400 church what was happening in the time of of nero what has happened throughout history like christians

00:21:18.320 have gone through a lot more than we are going through right now and the bible still stands like

00:21:25.920 the lord still said what he said in the bible and here's just one thing that he says in psalm 127

00:21:32.160 4 through 5 like arrows in the hand of a warrior are chill are the children of one's youth

00:21:38.320 blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them he shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his

00:21:44.880 enemies in the gate the entire bible speaks to children as a blessing speaks to children as children

00:21:52.160 being a positive asset in your life it never speaks to children being a curse it never speaks to children

00:21:59.620 being a burden or being something that we need to put off because we want to travel or because we don't

00:22:05.040 feel like it honestly the bible doesn't really give christians that option the bible simply says

00:22:11.240 that children if you are married if you're called to be married are good like there's something that

00:22:16.700 we should rejoice over whether it's your biological children or whether it's adopted children i think

00:22:21.460 both are beautiful depictions of the gospel now the bible are god might not call you to be married

00:22:26.880 and as we've talked about before singleness is a wonderful gift that you can fully glorify god in

00:22:33.300 that you're not an incomplete person you're not missing out if you're not married not according

00:22:37.220 to the bible jesus obviously wasn't married he was the most complete person that ever lived as

00:22:42.500 god made flesh and paul talks about the gift of singleness as well and so um but if you are married

00:22:51.920 and you are thinking about whether or not you should have kids i would encourage you don't base your

00:22:57.200 decision to not have kids off of fear because god knew everything that was going to happen when in the bible

00:23:02.840 he so consistently and continually called children a blessing and in this particular verse calls

00:23:08.960 children um an arrow in your quiver now i want to talk about that statement i really love that metaphor

00:23:16.680 because if you think about what you're doing for your children as you are raising them in the lord

00:23:21.240 raising them to love god with all their heart mind soul and strength and to love their neighbor as

00:23:25.280 themselves you are shooting them into the future they are like arrows going forward and you want

00:23:33.340 them to advance the gospel in all that they do and advance god's love in all that they do and you want

00:23:39.540 them to be a good influence for their generation and make a mark on the future that glorifies god

00:23:45.900 in the same way that an arrow does now i do not want this to get confused with what what's known as

00:23:52.620 like quiverful ideology and this is one of those words like or terms like christian nationalism that

00:23:59.640 kind of gets muddied that is used by people who don't really know what it is to try to slander people

00:24:03.940 that they disagree with slander people who say that children are just a blessing that's not the same as

00:24:08.940 quiverful ideology which kind of goes hand in hand with this like patriarchy movement between

00:24:14.020 or within some forms of like fundamentalist christianity which basically says that like all

00:24:20.620 children or all women until they get married no matter how old they are are under the authority 0.99

00:24:27.620 of their dad and there's a lot there's a lot more more to it obviously i don't agree with that i don't

00:24:34.560 think there's a biblical precedent for that that would have been a huge problem uh for me if uh if we

00:24:40.960 believed that or if my dad had believed that um and this quiverful thing kind of it's in the same

00:24:49.380 realm of that and it's not just the belief that children are arrows in your quiver which is biblical

00:24:55.840 but it's the belief that children are these soldiers or are these tools to turn the country

00:25:02.980 into a christian nation to turn the country into what you want it to be and i don't think that's biblical

00:25:07.640 again i don't think that there is any new testament or any old testament precedent for us creating

00:25:14.620 theocracies here on earth there's just not i don't think that that's um i don't think that that's

00:25:20.540 biblical at all should we advance laws and policies that are good for all people that promote true

00:25:28.180 biblical justice um that advance i think the the freedom and the ability to uh care for care for

00:25:38.260 yourself those kind of policies yes i absolutely do should we try to push policies that support the

00:25:45.180 family as we know that the family is really the incubator of of values the creator of value systems

00:25:51.880 and belief systems that can launch a child into a successful future yes i do but creating a theocracy

00:25:58.840 is not something that christians are tasked to do we just don't see that asked of us or demanded of that

00:26:04.920 of us and so i don't think that we need to see christians that or see our kids that way as like these

00:26:11.600 soldiers that we're sending into battle in order to make america a christian nation are we sending them

00:26:17.920 forward to advance the cause of christ and advancing the gospel and advancing charity and advancing the

00:26:24.600 truth and advancing godliness and glorifying him and all they think say and do advancing service yes

00:26:31.840 i do think so and god uses is going to use their small sphere or their big sphere however much influence

00:26:39.940 that he gives them he is going to use that if they are of him for his glory and the good of other

00:26:46.960 people just like he has for all of human history and so i think that there is a distinction there

00:26:52.560 but the important thing for us to note is that children are a blessing and that god knew what would

00:26:58.180 be in store for this generation when he created this generation the same way that he does for us

00:27:02.500 like i think a lot of us have nostalgia about oh i wish i was you know lived 30 years ago or 100 years

00:27:09.700 ago i'm in the wrong generation no you're not no you're not i remember i think it's aw pink who says

00:27:15.300 that grumbling against the weather is grumbling against god and it's the same thing when we say

00:27:21.020 that um we're grumbling about the time that we were placed on earth god did not place you here

00:27:26.760 arbitrarily he did not place you here accidentally he placed you to meet the exact challenges that

00:27:33.440 this generation faces he didn't place you being born in 1960 that's not what he wanted he didn't want

00:27:41.940 you to meet the challenges of that generation those were not for you we have no business having 1.00

00:27:46.240 i mean and i'm one to talk because i have nostalgia about the 1980s all the time even though i wasn't

00:27:50.920 even alive then i just like that era in history um but so preach it to the choir a little bit but we

00:27:56.940 have no business having nostalgia for past times or wishing that we lived in a different era because

00:28:01.440 god did not place us here on accident he placed us exactly at the spot in the large span of eternity

00:28:08.220 where he wanted us and our life is very very short and he has just called us to glorify him and to

00:28:13.740 obey him in this time and it's really that simple love god and love your neighbor and the small span of

00:28:19.400 time that he has given you your sphere of influence might be huge it might be small no matter what he

00:28:24.040 asked for obedience he asked for truth he asked for justice he asked for mercy he asked for us to make

00:28:28.940 much of him and not very much of of us it's the same for our kids i saw a post circulating a while ago

00:28:37.720 that it was like um don't feel sorry for your kids like they're facing the challenges that god

00:28:44.580 has ordained that they should face and our job is to equip them to face those and the best way that we

00:28:51.600 possibly can like god has given us the responsibility to raise the next generation even if you don't have

00:28:57.500 kids like if you're a teacher if you're a sunday school teacher if you work with kids you can

00:29:01.800 mentor the next generation um you have a hand in helping shape the next generation in the ways of

00:29:09.680 the lord um and that's our responsibility and god didn't god did not pick another generation to raise

00:29:15.260 the next generation he picked our generation and he didn't pick our kids to be a part of any other

00:29:20.320 generation he picked them for this time we have to trust in his sovereignty that he knows better than

00:29:25.320 us and if god says that children are a blessing then we have to trust him on that even when it's

00:29:31.080 scary and even when it's hard um and so that would be that that'd be my answer to that um all right i've

00:29:38.600 got one more quick question to answer what do you do when your friend leaves the faith very difficult

00:29:44.720 i think you continue to share the gospel with them you continue to love them you continue to be

00:29:50.100 faithful to them you pray for them unceasingly i've got a list of people that i'm like it's just

00:29:56.100 a matter of time you're coming to know the lord i just feel it um and so i've got a list of people

00:30:02.900 that i pray for that are not believers and uh you can keep that list too and just continue to pray for

00:30:08.240 them you can listen to them hear their concerns hear their doubts uh try to wrestle with them yourself

00:30:12.660 see if you can come up with any answers or uh direct them to any resources possibly but just keep

00:30:18.880 praying for them keep sharing the gospel with them keep being a faithful friend to them they're

00:30:23.460 going to see people turn away from them and betray them and no longer love them and you should be the

00:30:28.880 friend that you would want in that situation um i hope that helps all right that's all i've got time

00:30:34.200 for today i will see you guys back here soon

00:30:36.500 you

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - May 27, 2021

Ep 428 ｜ Is It a Bad Time to Start a Family？｜ Q&A

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - May 27, 2021

Ep 428 ｜ Is It a Bad Time to Start a Family？ ｜ Q&A

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript

Ep 428 ｜ Is It a Bad Time to Start a Family？｜ Q&A