Ep 454 ｜ Allie’s Dad on Texas Dems, Voting Bills & Raising Strong Kids ｜ Guest： Ron Simmons
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Summary
In this episode of Relatable, my dad joins me to talk about the Texas Democratic delegation's decision to flee to D.C. to vote on a voting integrity bill. He also talks about how he and his family grew up in Texas and what it was like growing up in a Christian household.
Transcript
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Hey guys, welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. I am super, super excited for today's episode.
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I am interviewing none other than my dad. We are going to talk Texas politics. He has been
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very involved in Texas politics for a long time. He used to be a state representative
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in Texas. And we're going to talk about some of the drama that's happening with Texas state Democrats
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fleeing to D.C. because they are trying to abdicate their responsibility and get the support,
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I guess, of federal Democrats and trying to avoid voting on this voting integrity bill.
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We're going to talk about what's actually in the voting integrity bill, what's in the federal
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voting bill, H.R.1. He's going to clarify a lot of things for us. And then he is going to answer
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some of the questions that you guys sent me. He's going to answer questions about how we get
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involved in our communities, how we get involved in politics, if we should run for office, how we
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make that decision. And then he's going to answer quite a few personal and parenting questions about
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growing up in his household, his and my mom's household, and what they were like as parents,
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and then what I was like as a child and some advice that he has for you guys raising kids to be
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Christians who stand up for the values that you believe in. So super, super excited for you to
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hear this interview. Without further ado, here is my dad.
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Dad, welcome to Relatable. Thank you for finally joining us. I've been trying to get you on for so long.
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You've been putting me off, putting me off, putting me off, but you're finally here. So thank you.
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I'm just, you know, honored to be here no matter when it is. I'm glad to be here. You,
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I think you've got a pretty good start on your own. You didn't need me to help you get going.
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Yes. And that is actually a joke for people who don't know. He, we have been talking about him
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coming on my podcast for a while. A lot of you guys have been asking for him to come on my podcast
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for a while. And it is, it is me that finally, finally made it happen. So I'm very grateful that
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you're here. We're going to talk politics first, and then we're going to kind of get into personal
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and parenting and things like that. So I know, I know you've been involved in Texas politics for
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a while, obviously used to be a Texas legislator. Tell me what you think in general about what's
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going on with the Texas Democrats fleeing to DC to basically avoid their responsibilities.
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Well, just so people know, this isn't the first time Texas Democrats have done this. They did this in
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2003 and the famous trip to Ardmore, Oklahoma for the house, and then to New Mexico for the Senate.
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And, uh, they are doing, making the same mistakes that they did in 2003. You know,
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people say history doesn't repeat itself, but actually it does. And, uh, what they've done is
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they've, they have broken quorum. You have to have two thirds of the Texas house to be able to conduct
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business. And that's a hundred members. There's 150 total. Two thirds would be a hundred members
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and 50, I think 57, 58 Democrats got on two charter jets with no mask cases of beer all around
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and flew to DC to claim that they were trying to help out voters when it actually, what they're doing
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by not voting on this deal will be suppressing votes in the future. If this bill doesn't pass,
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but they are acting like this is some big, you know, um, like civil rights move. I saw some tweet
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by a legislator saying that they're sacrificing so much because they're leaving their family,
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they're leaving their constituents and they're going to DC, but it really just seems like more
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of a political stunt. That's not really going to accomplish anything. Is it going to accomplish
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anything? Oh no. It may help them raise money for their campaign, you know, from the George Soros
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of the world and people like that, but it's not at the end of the day, it will not accomplish anything
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because the way that special sessions work in Texas is that the governor is the only one that
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can call a special legislative session and they last up to 30 days, depending on how long it takes
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them to get the bills passed. And the governor is already on record, already on record as saying
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he will continue calling additional special sessions until this election integrity bill is
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passed. And so, and they said, how long will that last? He said, right up until the election in 2022.
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So they'll have to come home here soon. They'll, what they'll do is they'll end up saying, well,
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we made our point, you know, we we've stood up and they'll have to come back and they'll vote. No,
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probably on the bill, not all of them, but most of them will vote. No. And, uh, then we'll move on.
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Okay. I want to play a little clip from, um, the Texas Democrats at the Capitol singing to get,
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I guess they're trying to rally support. I don't know what they're doing, but they're trying to
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sing. We shall overcome. I just want to play that quickly.
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So that is them at the Capitol, I guess, trying to, um, you know, liken themselves to civil rights
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heroes. They say that they're trying to get federal support. I think Kamala Harris actually
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met with some of the state legislators. What do you think? What do you think is going to come of
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that attempt at some kind of partnership? Like, do you think the Biden administration is going to
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be able to help out the Texas Democrats in any way? Or again, is it just political posturing?
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Well, last time I checked and maybe they've changed some rules since I've been in there,
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but I don't think so that, uh, president Biden or vice president Harris has the ability to cast a
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vote in the Texas legislature. And you know, it's, it's so funny, uh, Ali, because many people think
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of our nation as they should as a country, but however, our country is made up only of the states.
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It's not like, uh, in some countries, like in Europe and what have you, the power that the government,
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the federal government gets is only derived from the states. And so therefore it was originally
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set up that the states will run the elections and that you actually have 50 different state
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elections. You don't, there's really not a national presidential election. It's 50 different states
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voting for their choice for president and then having their electors cast that vote on their behalf.
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And so to have the federal government micromanage the state elections is the most
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overreach that I've ever seen in, uh, in my history, in my, you know, 60 years of living.
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And that is what HR one, the federal elections bill is trying to do. Correct. They're trying to
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basically say, Hey, the federal government is going to come in and like you said, try to micromanage
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state elections, right? That's exactly right. They're going to come in and they're going to take
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over state elections. They're going to require, they're going to, they are going to do things that
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would just have been unconscionable before. In fact, they're going to do things that aren't
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even done right now. And some of the most liberal States out there, they're going to require same
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day registration so that if somebody can't, we can't even have the ability to check their
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eligibility for to vote because it's going to be same day. How are you going to know whether or not
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they're eligible or not? They're going to require online registration. Now think about that for just a
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second with all the cyber hacks and the ransomware going on out there. How in the world could we
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assure that that's going to be safe and secure? Right. I mean, it's just incredible and it's
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nothing. And they also are going to take away you and my individuals as citizens of this country to
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challenge an election. You and I will not be able to do that anymore. It'll only be elected officials
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that can do that or bureaucrats, which is absolutely crazy. So, uh, I am proud of our
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U S Senate for standing up against that, not allowing that to go through. And, uh, I'm also
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proud of, you know, uh, Senator Manchin saying, I am not going to vote to have that done, uh, outside
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of the filibuster rules. And it also allows ballot harvesting, correct? Can you talk about what
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ballot harvesting is? Ballot harvesting. And this is a real problem in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
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This is something that, uh, some organizations have reported on Texas public policy foundation.
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What it is, it's where an individual usually working for a campaign will go around usually to older
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people, seniors that are doing mail-in ballots and they'll go around and they will actually collect
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the ballot. Most of the time, help them fill the ballot out, which is illegal. And they will then
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harvest a lot of ballots and who knows what they're doing with them once they've done that
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and then bring them in, uh, to the elections office and what have you. And they get paid to do that in
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many cases, which also is illegal. And that's something in the Texas bill that we're just clarifying.
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Now, like, let's say that my mom was still alive. You know, you've talked about grandma Dodd on here
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before and, uh, you wanted to help her vote, you know, to help take her ballot. She votes on her
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own, but you take her ballot. You could do that as, and you could still do that as a family member,
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but you can't have somebody for a campaign that's going around intimidating citizens, telling them
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how to vote and, uh, picking up their ballots. And who knows we need a, we need a secure chain of
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custody, which is something that the new law in Texas is, is putting into place.
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So would you say HR one just makes it easier to cheat in the name of trying to alleviate
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voter suppression? Yeah. It's just like a lot of liberal ideas. They are really great ideas.
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The problem is sound really good. The problem is they don't work. Yeah. And everybody wants
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every legal vote to be casted and counted. But what HR one does, it allows the bad actors
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more opportunity. In fact, holes you could drive a truck through to be able to do things that we know
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are nefarious. And so tell me, I know you just talked a little bit about it, but tell me more
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about what this Texas voting bill does, because you've got Joe Biden, and I want to play this clip
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as well before you, before you explain this, um, Joe Biden saying that, you know, these voting bills,
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not just in Texas, but in other Republican states are the biggest threat to our democracy
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Okay. So to me, that kind of rhetoric is, is very dangerous. I mean, this is harsher rhetoric than we
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have heard the president use towards, you know, some of our foreign enemies. Um, and yet they're
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basically saying, he's basically saying that Republicans and these Republican, uh, legislative
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bodies that are pushing these kinds of voter integrity bills are threatening our democracy.
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Tell us why that's not true and what specifically this Texas bill does.
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Well, first of all, remember president Biden has not had an original thought in a long time. So
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somebody wrote this for him. And as you know, as we all know, his left is a, his staff is about as
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far left as you can be. And president, president Biden actually voted for some of the protections
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that's in the law now during his Senate career. Right. He voted on voter ID and all those types of
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things. So, uh, you know, it's just like many things that he's done. He just totally reverses himself.
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And I'm not sure he even remembers that he's done that. And so in some ways I feel a little bit
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sorry for him, but we'll, we will overcome that. I believe the, uh, the Texas bill, you know, what,
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what it does is it does a few things, but it would actually, and I've said this before recently in
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that by not voting yes on the Texas bill, Democrats are suppressing votes. Right. And let me tell you
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how that happens. The way that happens is, is that if one illegal vote is cast, if one, and they always
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talk about, well, it's not widespread fraud, that doesn't matter. Fraud is fraud. And if one illegal
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vote is cast, then that cancels out a legal vote. They have suppressed that legal vote. What we need
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to make sure that every single possible legal vote is counted and that every single illegal vote is
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not counted. And what the Texas law does is it's continues to build parameters to ensure more legal
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voting. One of the things that happens right now is if you're actually, you're doing a mail-in ballot
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in Texas, if you meet the criteria for that, you do not even have to prove that you're eligible to
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vote and who, or who you are, what this will do is it will require you to provide proof of ID. When
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you send that mail-in ballot, either through the last four digits of your social security number
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or through your driver's license, if that's what you choose or your passport.
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So you're saying right now in Texas, before, if this bill doesn't pass right now, if you qualify
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for mail-in voting, you can do that without having to verify in any official way who you are and
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whether or not you're eligible to vote in Texas.
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Yeah, that's exactly right. That's what, that's what happens and that's going to be changed. So
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why would anybody be against that? Only people that are against that are the people that want to
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leave it open for being able to, you know, to cheat. I mean, there's no, no, no better term for that.
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The other thing that it does is it expands early voting hours. The, the, unlike the nation that is
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made up of states, Texas is not made up of cities and counties. Texas is a state and all the powers
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that a city or a county has are only have them because they're given to them by the state. And so
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the state controls the elections, not the county, not the cities. And so what the state wants to do
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is make sure that Texans all over the state have a uniformity in early voting. So they expanded the
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hours to any nine hours between six in the morning and nine at night. So that is a plus. Why would
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somebody be against that? Now, Harris County tried to do 24 hour voting. Now they got shut down because
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it was against the Texas law and the Supreme court shut them down. But 24 hour voting, again, just opens
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the opportunity for more things. You know, when you were young, I used to tell you nothing good
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happens after midnight. It's the same way in voting as well. Nothing good happens after midnight in the
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back off the back rooms of how votes are counted and votes are cast. So is there anything at all to
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the claims that we're hearing from Democrats that these laws, for example, in Georgia, we heard that
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that was like Jim Crow, that it's specifically trying to suppress the minority vote through a variety of
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subtle means? Is there is there any credibility to that claim at all? And why are they even claiming
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it if not? There's only credibility if you think being able to not verify legal votes is proper. And so
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there's absolutely no credibility to that. What what this bill, again, continues to do is allows
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more poll watchers at divide. It sets up the systems for how people campaigns can have people
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watching the polls. It has a chain of custody to make sure that the ballot is followed through to
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the very end. We require live streaming and video in all vote counting places in most counties,
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the larger counties. So I just I just can't see it. I think they got on the mantra and then they just
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decided to stay with it. And the media has helped them out. Some media has. There's a there's actually
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in the Dallas Morning News today, there's a great editorial in there about and it's it's pretty
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balanced. But it basically says the stunt that's been pulled by the Democrats in Texas is just that
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it's just a political stunt. And there's nothing in the bill that suppresses voting at all. We there
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was a deal in there on you couldn't vote before 11 o'clock or one o'clock on Sunday. That's now been
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moved back to or 10 or 11. So that's that that was just again, it's a red herring that just does not
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exist at all. And this is going to make just like getting rid of one punch straight ticket voting.
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This is also going to make Texas elections even more secure. Yeah. And I know that there are
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Democrats who say, well, you know, this is just a solution in search of a problem. Like we really
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don't have widespread fraud. But to your point, even one fraudulent vote cancels out another vote,
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which is a form of voter suppression, which is something that they claim is happening on a wide
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scale. There's even less evidence that voter suppression is happening on a wide scale. And yet
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that's something that Democrats are running with. And the Democrats that have fled to D.C. are saying
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that they're doing it to try to save democracy. They're actually abdicating their responsibility,
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you know, in a Democratic Republic to represent the constituents that voted for them. Do you think
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it's going to come back to to bite them in the election when people say, OK, this is where my
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taxpayer dollars are going? Well, based on the polling that I have seen so far, people aren't happy that
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they fled. And I'm talking about independent voters. Of course, Republicans are not now the
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hardcore Democrats. You know, they're they're you know, they're fine with that. They're going to vote
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with them no matter what. But if it follows the pattern that it did in 2003, 2022 is going to be
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a great year for Republicans in Texas. And, you know, interestingly enough, this little bit of
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maybe in the weeds a little bit. But I think it's interesting is that the way the procedure works
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is that yesterday Speaker Dade Phelan did a call on the House and a call on the House means that every
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member has to be there unless they have an excused absence. They could have a death in the family or
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something like that. And once that happens, they actually yesterday locked the House doors. Now
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they went into recess and let everybody go home and, you know, sleep and all that type of stuff.
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But that call on the House continues so that the minute that a Democrat member enters back into
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Texas, they are subject to people here about arrest. Well, they're not arrested going to jail there.
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They're escorted by a state trooper to the Texas House so that they can do their job.
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And that's going to be really interesting to see how that that. Yeah, because Greg Abbott said that
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they would be arrested coming when they came back to Texas. Well, they are technically arrested,
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but they're not arrested going to jail. They're going back to the Texas House to do their job.
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And, you know, the interesting thing is, too, these people are up there in Washington during special
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session. They get a two hundred dollar a day per diem, you know, pays for hotels and stuff like that
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in Austin. And then they get, of course, their limited salary. So they're during this 30 days,
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if they stay gone, each of those people are going to get six thousand dollars for advocating their
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responsibility. And six hundred, you know, six thousand dollars with with 60 people is what is
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that? That's three hundred sixty thousand dollars, something like that. So that's Texas taxpayer money
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going to fund this boondoggle in D.C. Yeah. Wow. That's crazy. I can't imagine that it wouldn't
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come back to bite them. So is it going to pass eventually? Will the bill pass? Absolutely. One hundred
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percent. And Democrats have the ability to try to amend the bill on the House floor and the Senate
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floor if they want to. Of course, it passed the Senate yesterday, but they have the ability to
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amend it on the House floor to have discussion. And they also have the ability to vote,
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vote their constituents. They want to vote no, they can vote no. OK, well, that's good news. I know a lot
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of people are worried about that, but they want these voter integrity bills. So the fact that this
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isn't going to thwart that, I know, will encourage a lot of people. So absolutely. Thank you for your
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insight on that. I do want to talk to you about some personal. Well, some people had some business
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questions. Some people had some personal and parenting questions, a lot of curiosity about
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who Allie was as a child, as a teenager, things like that. Let's start with some questions about
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one person had a question about their own politics and maybe political career. One person had a
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question about a business decision that they're making. One person asked, do you think that it's
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a good idea for them to for someone to run for office while they still have a young family like
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state office? That's a big decision. How would you encourage them to go about making that decision?
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Well, my response on that is that nobody should run for office until they've had life experience
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themselves. And I don't mean life experience. I've gone to high school. I've gone to college.
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I mean that they've actually gone out there and either signed the front of a paycheck or the back
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of a paycheck so that they can understand how laws that they're going to be voting on will affect
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them. And it's and it has affected them. And so without regard to where they have a young family
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or not, I believe people should go out, especially if they're going to the state level. Now, if they
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want to get involved as maybe a precinct chair, which is a great place to start, which is an elected
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position. If they want to start on maybe their local school board or city council, something like
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that. I think that's those are good ideas to do. I do believe that if you have a young family,
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especially at the state level where you're gone away from them in Texas, it's a little easier,
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because we only were in session every other year for about six months. In a lot of states,
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it's every year for several months. I would have them think obviously and pray long and hard about
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that because that has to be a family decision. They will give up some things for their family and they
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will miss some things for their young children. And they just have to decide whether or not the trade
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off for themselves and the family and the area which they're serving is worth that. It would be a
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big decision. It would be much easier to do that once your family has established itself a little
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bit, because it's going to be very difficult on your spouse. For mom and I, you were in college
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when I first ran. Yeah, I was a sophomore in college.
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Um, and so it, and pretty much everybody's out of the house. Now, you know, your brother, Daniel was
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not, uh, he was still living at home with us because of his challenges and what have you, but
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it was much easier for us. We didn't have a lot. We didn't have as much to consider.
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Yeah. I think a lot of people are very eager to get involved in some way. I get questions all the
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time asking, you know, what can I do? I don't like the curriculum that's being taught in the public
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school, my area or at my kid's school. Um, I don't like a lot of the things I'm seeing come down the
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pipeline and I just kind of feel powerless. It feels like so many of our major institutions and
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obviously at least two branches of our federal government are all not just liberal, but they
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seem very opposed to Christian conservative values in a lot of ways. People want to speak up. They want
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to stand up, but they don't know if that means running for an elected position or if it just means
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being involved in their community, what would you encourage people to do? If it doesn't mean
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running for something just on a practical level in their everyday life, how do they stand up for
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the things that they believe in and maybe affects change at least in their community? Well, first of
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all, I'm glad you brought this up because I want to tell everyone how thankful I am for critical race
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theory. Oh really? And the reason for that is it has woken up, in my opinion, a sleeping giant
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of young moms and dads and older moms and dads that have said, you know what? Enough is enough.
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We're having more conservative participation in school board meetings and city council meetings
00:23:56.340
than we've ever had before. You know, most of us that are conservative, we're trying to out,
00:24:00.780
you know, build a business, do our job, raise our family, go to church. And so we have put some of
00:24:06.800
those things on the side. And I understand that because you have to prioritize, but the best way
00:24:11.480
to get engaged, the best way to get engaged is to make sure that you're at those school board meetings.
00:24:18.080
That's probably the number one place. The thing that has the longest term effect
00:24:22.400
on what happens in our country is what goes on in our public schools. Yeah. And if your kids are in
00:24:28.060
public schools or even if they're in a private school and you have the ability to meet with them,
00:24:32.540
it's still money. That's right. And you should, that's where you should make yourself known
00:24:37.640
the most. The other thing that you can do, if you really want to make sure that the proper officials
00:24:44.000
are elected is that you can get off your derriere and go help them get elected.
00:24:49.780
You say, well, I don't have a bunch of money. They're looking for big donors. You know what?
00:24:52.680
Nope. The people that I remember the most, Allie, in all of my elections are the people that got out
00:24:56.820
there and knocked on doors for me. And you say, well, I'm not a politician. I can't be a speaker.
00:25:01.240
You don't have to do anything. Knock on the door, hand them a brochure saying my family's voting for
00:25:05.740
this candidate. Yeah. That's what's most important.
00:25:08.220
So you just, so to do that, you just look at who's running for the positions in your area and you
00:25:14.480
basically just reach out to the campaign and you say, how can I help? Here's what I'm willing to
00:25:18.180
do. And I would tell you to meet with, don't do it without meeting with the candidate themselves.
00:25:21.700
If that candidate's unwilling to meet with you or they're too busy, that's not the candidate to
00:25:25.580
represent you. Yeah. So there are all types of ways that people can get involved and can speak up
00:25:29.800
without running for office if that's not what they're prepared to do at the moment. Because like you
00:25:34.280
said, that is a big sacrifice that maybe God is calling, you know, more Christian conservatives
00:25:39.420
to do, which is awesome. But like you said, there's a lot of issues right now that I think
00:25:43.680
are waking people up, not just critical race theory, but also some of the sex ed that's coming
00:25:47.720
down the pipeline for these schools. And people think, okay, it's not going to affect my community.
00:25:52.300
I'm in rural Alabama or Georgia or Texas. It's coming for you. I mean, that's just what
00:25:56.960
progressivism does. So yeah, I think that's really good encouragement and insight. And speaking of
00:26:03.000
parents and parents who want to get involved, a lot of people ask, okay, what did your parents
00:26:08.100
do to kind of instill you with Christian conservative values? I'm trying to do that
00:26:12.500
for my kids, but it's hard because the world is saying other things. Like, what would you say
00:26:16.980
are some things that you and mom that you feel like you guys did well to instill those values in us?
00:26:21.720
And what are some things that you wish that you would have done differently?
00:26:25.520
Well, first of all, you've already had Lisa on here. And she was the number one reason.
00:26:30.680
There's absolutely no question about that. Lisa's faith, your mom's faith is as strong
00:26:35.240
as anybody I've ever seen. She's never, you know, it's funny the other day, one of our
00:26:38.960
grandchildren, not yours, but one of our other grandchildren was talking to their cousin
00:26:43.140
and they said, do you know, Grammy? And that's what, you know, they call them. And, uh, they
00:26:48.200
said, no, who's Grammy says, well, Grammy like singing in the Bible. So I thought that
00:26:53.680
she's nice. They said, she's nice. She likes singing in the Bible.
00:26:57.140
Yeah. So, and that really sums up mom. And so I think your ability to see mom daily,
00:27:02.840
daily in the word probably had the biggest influence.
00:27:06.100
And her, she was very diligent and praying for all of us.
00:27:08.860
Yeah. She, she absolutely do that. I think for me, uh, the thing that a dad can do most
00:27:14.200
is he can be someone that their kids can look up to as a man of character and integrity.
00:27:18.520
Um, and it has to be the same at home as it is outside. And I think we talked about that
00:27:25.560
a lot growing up. We talked about what's right, what's wrong. We were very engaged in our own
00:27:31.240
development of ourself, personal development. You know, Lisa and I just didn't get to be
00:27:35.160
adults and just stop. We said, how can we be better? How can we learn more? We, we both came
00:27:40.640
from pretty meager backgrounds. You know, I was tell people all the time I was born in Louisiana,
00:27:45.720
raised in Arkansas, got to Texas as fast as I could spell it at age 25. So it was really a,
00:27:51.240
I would squeeze four years of college into 10. So, you know, those things are, those things are
00:27:55.420
hard to overcome. But, uh, and I think us both having an early faith decision, you know, I was
00:28:03.020
a youngster when, when I, uh, accepted Christ and Lisa and mom was too. And I think the foundation
00:28:09.200
that was built over time, did we always stay exactly with it? No, but it was always there.
00:28:15.580
Building that foundation allows you to have your kids something to fall back on. And you've probably
00:28:21.640
talked about that, uh, before I would just encourage people to just make sure that you're
00:28:28.220
men and women of character and that you follow Christ at home as well as you do at church.
00:28:34.940
Yeah. And we didn't, you know, we didn't sit around the dinner table and talk politics that
00:28:39.260
much. Although I do remember some political things. Like I remember the Bush Gore election. I
00:28:44.900
knew who we were going for. I remember nine 11 being in fourth grade and what that meant. I remember
00:28:51.160
always feeling a sense of patriotism and gratitude for living in a free country. And you guys, even
00:28:58.040
whether it was intentional or not, although I think it probably was intentional, you definitely
00:29:02.720
instilled in us a desire for entrepreneurism, a desire to kind of be our own boss for better and
00:29:09.320
for worse. That has been good. It's also been difficult. It's difficult when you're not your
00:29:13.380
own boss and you want to be. Um, and so you kind of instilled that drive in us as well. And it was
00:29:21.340
based on, I think, you know, what you and mom did and the tough decisions that you guys made when you
00:29:26.100
got married at 19 and 20, you know, you didn't know what you were going to do. You didn't necessarily
00:29:31.220
have a dream of your life, but you just kind of put one foot in front of the other for other people
00:29:36.240
who are in that situation. They don't know what they want to do with their life. Maybe they don't
00:29:39.580
have a grand vision or a grand dream, but they know they want to create a better life for themselves
00:29:43.980
and their kids than they had growing up. Like what's your, what's your advice for those,
00:29:48.940
those young people or just adults in general making that decision? I think the best advice that
00:29:54.260
I've ever given someone, and I'm sure I heard it from someone else, was that always take the next
00:30:00.360
uncomfortable step. Um, I believe that God honors righteous action and that he's not sitting there
00:30:08.120
saying, if you take that wrong step, I'm going to hit you over the head. It's not a whack-a-mo. We
00:30:11.720
don't, we don't serve a whack-a-mo God. We serve a God that says, Hey, this is who I am. I care about
00:30:18.160
you even more than your own earthly parents. And therefore I love you more than them. And I want you
00:30:23.580
to, yes, I have a plan for you, but I need for you to be able to have faith in that plan.
00:30:29.840
And so if you've sought me and you have, and you're feeling, Hey, I'm, I don't know a hundred
00:30:35.840
percent. I want you to take that step and I'll be there to, to guide you, stop you. Sometimes there
00:30:40.900
may be, there may be, you may suffer consequences from that, but that's just, you know, that's just
00:30:45.960
the way it is. You know, when, and, uh, when you were a teenager, uh, things weren't always rosy
00:30:51.400
between us. I think people would, you would admit that you've probably talked about that.
00:30:55.600
Most, uh, most of that was my fault, uh, because you and I are a lot alike and that we're pretty
00:31:01.380
headstrong. Um, you probably more so than me, maybe, maybe not. No, that's not true. That's not
00:31:07.760
true. That's a big statement. That's right. Um, and you know, mom was so important and saying,
00:31:13.880
Hey, I think we need to sit down and go to a counselor to figure this out. Cause she felt
00:31:18.040
like she was caught in the middle between us. And the things that we learned from that counselor,
00:31:24.060
the things that I remember the most is that parents have to decide, especially as their
00:31:27.880
kids are getting older, um, as to what's your family value. Okay. I think for us, that was pretty
00:31:35.600
simple. We didn't, we didn't have a big problem with that. Where I got into the problem was what's
00:31:39.920
the difference between a rule and a preference in the world that I grew up in? Everything
00:31:44.720
was a rule. Okay. And there were no preferences. The preferences were what I said they were rules.
00:31:50.720
And so I had to learn that many, many things that your kids go through are simply your preferences
00:31:58.000
and they shouldn't be your rules. Yeah. And that was very hard for me, but I think, and I,
00:32:04.660
and I think once we got past that, things were better. The also, I think prayer is so important.
00:32:11.760
When you went off to college, Allie, we didn't know. Anytime you send a kid off to college, they,
00:32:16.860
the, the, uh, the additional independence that you have is probably pretty overwhelming. And most,
00:32:25.400
and most college kids don't handle it as well as they should. And, and I'm sure, as I've told all
00:32:30.620
my kids, if you did something in college that I, if you haven't told me about, don't tell me to ease
00:32:34.680
your conscience. I don't want to know it in the future. Right. But, but I think in your book,
00:32:38.600
you've talked about some of those challenges and what have you, but I will tell you, and I've told
00:32:42.660
people this a hundred times is that I've never seen somebody mature more than they have in Christ
00:32:49.080
in college as you did. And you got with some girls that you had a Bible study, you know,
00:32:56.180
you got with a small group of girls, you know, maybe not all the time, but some of the time you've
00:33:00.060
got some mentors outside of, uh, your college that were just really, really important for you.
00:33:05.640
And then of course you had mom, uh, and grandma was still praying for you every day. So that was,
00:33:11.480
that was, uh, I think that was important. I think that's what you can do for your kids.
00:33:14.840
You know, this is my last question and you just answered a lot of it, but a lot of people
00:33:29.000
different kinds of questions, but just to sum it up, people want to know, okay, what was Allie like
00:33:34.020
growing up? What was it like raising Allie? You already talked about is, you know, difficult sometimes
00:33:39.620
in my teenage years, because like you said, we have those similar personalities and we're just kind
00:33:44.280
of butting heads, but in general, people want to know what was Allie like as a child? Did you always
00:33:50.500
expect me to do something like this? Does it surprise you that I'm doing something like this
00:33:54.800
now? Or just kind of, what was it like? Well, that's interesting. First of all, I think you were
00:34:01.340
a very quick learner. I mean, you were, you were verbal early on. You're very smart. Uh, we could tell
00:34:07.360
that you, there was a pretty good gap between you and Daniel, you know, age wise and Justin. So,
00:34:13.620
so by the time we had you, poor Justin had to grow up with us because I was, uh, 20 when
00:34:21.300
he was born, just almost for 21. Mom was 21. And so he kind of had to grow up with us and
00:34:27.580
I've apologized to him many times for that. Uh, but he turned out, he turned out well, by
00:34:33.280
the time you were born, uh, you know, things had settled down for us in financially and everything
00:34:40.140
else. So I think we were able to take things, uh, at least when you were little at a, at a slower
00:34:46.040
pace and everything wasn't brand new to us. And so we were able to enjoy probably your childhood
00:34:55.520
even more than the others, only because we were separated far enough from it in age. And I think
00:35:02.140
that allowed you to maybe blossom into who you would be independently, maybe a little bit more
00:35:08.060
so than we were able to do early with the other two. And, uh, very talkative, very headstrong.
00:35:15.160
I'll never forget when I'll never forget the car we had. We had this, this red car, you were sitting
00:35:20.840
in the back seat. You were five years old. I know exactly where we were. We were down by the Galleria.
00:35:25.420
Um, and, uh, we were, you and I were arguing over something. All right. And I don't even remember
00:35:32.560
what that was, but I was trying to make my point. And at five years old, you said, well, dad, what do
00:35:37.780
you want me to do? And it was like, it was like you were an adult. I mean, I was like you in that I
00:35:43.800
couldn't wait to be an adult. I couldn't wait till I turned 32. I got the first bit of gray hair
00:35:49.300
because I was always the youngest one in the room and whatever I was doing. And so I knew then,
00:35:55.520
and I told mom this many times is that you were just an adult in a child's body. And that's,
00:36:02.680
that's really. And so for you, when you got more independent, okay, now you didn't understand
00:36:09.420
in high school, like none of us did that the front lobal part of our brain hasn't fully developed yet.
00:36:15.580
And it doesn't develop until we're about age 25. Uh, so we think all our decisions are the right
00:36:20.840
ones. I thought the same thing in high school. You know, I thought exactly the same thing.
00:36:24.800
That's why many times I knew what you were thinking. Mom didn't think like that. That
00:36:28.720
wasn't the way she processed stuff. Right. Uh, but I knew that if we could ever get you to be an adult,
00:36:34.860
you were going to be a great adult. Now you might not make it, you know, we may have had to do
00:36:38.940
something drastic, but it didn't work out that way. And you were, you were going to be a great adult
00:36:43.140
and you are a great adult. Simone, we're very, very proud of. Well, thank you very much. Being
00:36:47.040
an adult, I have to say is everything that I ever thought that it would be not having a bedtime,
00:36:52.400
being able to eat ice cream whenever you want to. It really is as good as you think it's going to be
00:36:57.060
when, when you're little. And of course, becoming a parent and being married and all of the wonderful
00:37:03.200
things about adulthood. A lot of people say to put responsibility off as long as possible,
00:37:08.180
but I could not recommend enough growing up, growing up and becoming an adult and taking
00:37:13.800
things seriously. It really is the most fruitful and fulfilling thing, not just for you, but I'm
00:37:17.940
sure also to, for your parents to see that. Let me tell one more story. This is for dads. This is
00:37:24.240
straight to dads. Okay. Okay. A little bit to moms and the daughters, but dads, you know,
00:37:28.380
when Allie Beth was in high school and, uh, she was dating. Okay. Which I was totally against.
00:37:34.160
Didn't matter how much you should have been. And I shouldn't have dated in high school. I'll just
00:37:38.080
say that I shouldn't have been dating in high school. Yes. Yes. So, but one of the things I'd
00:37:43.080
learned through some of my other mentors, like John Maxwell and others was, Hey, you don't just
00:37:48.860
let your daughter, first of all, go out with somebody you don't know. Don't let them, you know,
00:37:53.440
if you can avoid it, try not to let them meet somewhere, make the boy come to the house. And so if you
00:37:58.220
remember Allie, the boys would have to come to the house. They would come into my office
00:38:02.840
house. And I was mortified. You were mortified. I was mortified. My mortified. My office was right
00:38:08.600
off of our foyer area. This big kind of, you know, dark paneled walls and all that type of stuff.
00:38:15.400
And of course I made them sit on the other side of the desk in a chair that was a little shorter
00:38:20.480
than mine, uh, which gets you in the dominant position. And they were all nervous. And, uh, I
00:38:26.860
would, I'd learned this. I listen, I forget who, who did this, but somebody that I listened to on a,
00:38:31.440
uh, radio program or something had done this. And it's, and so they would sit down. I'd say,
00:38:36.300
tell me a little bit about yourself. Uh, Hey, I'm glad you're, I'm glad you're dating Allie,
00:38:41.160
taking Allie Beth out tonight. What are y'all going to do? Do you understand,
00:38:44.120
you know, the parameters and things like that? And, and when she needs to be home and all that,
00:38:48.920
yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I said, then I would hit this question with them. I said,
00:38:52.600
are you going to marry my daughter? Oh my gosh. See, I didn't even, it's better that I didn't know this.
00:38:57.220
You're going to marry my daughter. And of course they went into total sweat, panic mode, right?
00:39:01.120
Yeah. I imagine they would. Uh, no, sir. I said, Oh, that's good. I didn't, I don't expect that.
00:39:06.300
I said, but you know what that means that you're dating somebody else's wife tonight.
00:39:10.780
And you know what else it means? Somebody else is dating your wife.
00:39:14.160
I want you to treat Allie Beth. Like you want your wife treated tonight.
00:39:18.400
Can we do that? And then the last one was when I hate it.
00:39:22.080
You say this, but I think it's funny that says, and I would ask them every time. And I hated it.
00:39:28.260
Cause you know me well enough. No, do you know what inappropriate touching means? Cause if you
00:39:32.620
don't, we'll talk about it. Oh yes. You know, and so they would leave. Oh my gosh. Just thoroughly
00:39:39.140
embarrassed for in time. And yes, that is not something that you wanted to talk about. No,
00:39:45.640
but I do think dads do not be afraid to do that. Yeah. Do not. Your daughter will thank you for
00:39:51.660
that later, uh, for standing up for her and secretly down deep, even then she probably
00:39:58.160
appreciated it. Yeah, of course. There's, you know, there's a lot of people whose dads don't
00:40:02.440
care. And I think one of the most detrimental things in especially a girl's life is to have a
00:40:07.960
dad who doesn't care. And I never had that problem. Even, you know, with the back and forth that we had,
00:40:13.060
I never had a problem with parents who cared. And I'm very thankful for that. Thank you so much
00:40:17.780
for coming on. Great conversation. I know a lot of people are really going to enjoy it. Thank you.