Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 575 ｜ Quick SOTU Reaction, Big-Picture Encouragement & Q&A

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, and welcome to Relatable. Happy Wednesday. This episode is brought to you

00:00:04.400 by our friends at Good Ranchers. American meat delivered right to your front door.

00:00:08.660 Go to goodranchers.com slash Allie for a discount. That's goodranchers.com slash Allie.

00:00:14.020 Okay, guys, as promised, we are going to focus on non-news politics items today. I know you guys

00:00:32.160 have really wanted a breather and a break. That's understandable, especially as Ukraine and Russia 0.96

00:00:39.880 are in this conflict, this invasion. There's been so much information to sift through. And even as

00:00:46.080 we take a break from talking about all that, that does not mean that, of course, we don't care about

00:00:51.320 the suffering that is ongoing there and in many parts of the world. But of course, it can get

00:00:57.160 overwhelming. We have to take a step back and get perspective, especially eternal perspective,

00:01:03.560 but also just kind of focus on the day-to-day things that do demand our attention. So I'm not

00:01:09.440 going to do a most misused today. I know I said that that was a possibility. I'm not going to do

00:01:14.520 that today. I didn't get to prepare for it quite as much as I wanted to. And I really don't like to

00:01:19.640 wing those episodes because I want to make sure that I'm as thorough and as accurate as possible.

00:01:25.300 And last night was the State of the Union. And I wanted to also give you my commentary on that last

00:01:30.580 night. So I just wasn't able to prepare for a most misused. But I am going to answer some of the

00:01:35.420 questions that you guys sent me on Instagram. Some of them have to do with biblical topics. Some of

00:01:40.740 them just have to do with everyday topics. But I want to take a little break from the news cycle,

00:01:46.260 take a step back and remember the seemingly mundane and also the big picture eternal perspective

00:01:52.420 stuff. All of that, of course, matters. However, at the very start of this, I do want to give just a

00:01:58.920 few comments about the State of the Union. Since it did happen last night, it's an important thing,

00:02:03.700 the President of the United States. It's supposed to get up there and talk about his administration's

00:02:08.400 accomplishments, what they've achieved for the American people. And of course, a lot of people

00:02:12.760 on the right in the center, myself included among these people on the right, who we were skeptical

00:02:22.660 and curious about what he was going to say, because his poll numbers are in the tank. About 37 percent

00:02:28.780 Democrats across the board just aren't doing well as far as approval numbers go. And there's a reason

00:02:34.560 for that, because inflation is super high. Unemployment is still higher than it should be.

00:02:41.640 Afghanistan was a mess. There has been a lot of disagreement in how this administration

00:02:47.940 has approached the Ukraine-Russia situation. Prices are really high. People can hardly afford to fill up

00:02:56.760 their car. And that is because of the so-called climate policies of the Biden administration to

00:03:04.680 move us from energy independence under Trump to depending on regimes in Russia and the Middle East

00:03:12.940 for our oil that has made the price of gas go up. And it's continuing to go up. So people are feeling

00:03:20.960 Biden's bad policies in their bank accounts. And that makes a big difference in people's lives.

00:03:26.900 And then also the draconian and unscientific restrictions that have continued in blue areas.

00:03:33.960 It's weighing people down on both sides of the aisle. That is part of why Biden has such low

00:03:41.080 approval numbers. And plus, all of the people that voted for Joe Biden because they thought that he would

00:03:46.420 be a moderate because he said that he wasn't going to crush the economy. He was just going to crush the

00:03:51.240 virus because he said that he was going to unite people, bring us together, that this was the end of

00:03:57.160 Trump era demagoguery. They realized these center right people who voted for Biden, they realized

00:04:03.120 very quickly that they had been lied to right away. It was obvious that he was going to govern to the

00:04:08.740 left. He has been a radical when it comes to energy policy, when it comes to economic policy,

00:04:13.180 when it comes to abortion policy, when it comes to so-called trans rights and basically throwing the 0.54

00:04:19.020 rights of and the protection of the privacy of women right under the bus. He has been a radical

00:04:25.200 in every sense of the word when it comes to his policies. And so these center right people who

00:04:30.680 really wanted Joe Biden to do well, who really wanted him to be a moderate and to bring people

00:04:35.520 together have been very disappointed over the past year. Joe Biden is now realizing that Democrats are

00:04:41.560 realizing that. So last night's State of the Union was really about bringing those people back,

00:04:49.000 convincing those people that he is the moderate and the uniter that he wanted them to be, even

00:04:53.720 though he has proven otherwise over the past year. He has been a demagogue. And what I mean by that is

00:04:58.820 that he has been extremely divisive in his rhetoric. He constantly is categorizing Americans as good

00:05:06.780 versus evil. In general, the good people are those that agree with him and democratic policies like

00:05:12.780 legislation on what they call voting rights. And the bad people are the people who voted for Donald

00:05:19.160 Trump. Those are the white supremacists. We've seen this in many speeches that he has given over the past 1.00

00:05:25.560 year. He compared people who don't agree with voting legislation that the Democrats have put forward in a

00:05:31.940 variety of states and in Congress as people who fought against civil rights in the 1960s. He has said this is a

00:05:38.500 pandemic of the unvaccinated. The White House said the unvaccinated can look forward to a winter of a dark

00:05:45.600 winter of death. I mean, he oversaw the firing of servicemen and women who chose not to get vaccinated. His

00:05:54.180 government put out a mandate that corporations had to, of a certain size, had to require vaccination or

00:06:03.200 other stipulations and regulations for their employees. And that led to lots of people losing

00:06:10.480 their jobs. So this person who has worked very hard to divide Americans between left and right, who has

00:06:16.840 called, you know, a large segment of Americans white supremacists, who has said that our biggest 0.79

00:06:23.560 national security threat is white supremacist terrorism. Well, he put all that to the side

00:06:31.980 last night. What's interesting about that last point, too, is that we have been hearing from the

00:06:36.760 Biden administration, from the FBI, from Biden's DOJ, that our biggest threat is white supremacist

00:06:42.840 terrorism. If that were really true, not only would you be hearing about it, hearing those plots and

00:06:47.660 attacks all the time from the media, but you would have also heard Biden mention that last night.

00:06:54.820 So you're saying that white supremacist terrorism is the biggest threat to our safety, and you're not

00:07:00.240 going to mention it once in the State of the Union? That's because he knows that that is just a tactic.

00:07:05.760 That's a tactic to bully people. That's a tactic to otherize everyone who didn't vote for him.

00:07:10.620 That is Joe Biden. That's who he has been while he's been president. That's who he was

00:07:14.700 before he was president. And last night, he just wanted all the people who have become very

00:07:20.640 disappointed in him over the past year to forget all of that and to get back on board and to vote

00:07:26.400 for Democrats in the midterms. That's what this was all about. That's why Congress changed their

00:07:30.980 masking rules a day before the State of the Union. That's why you see Democrats rolling back on these

00:07:37.100 restrictions that we were told were to keep people safe and were based in science. Now, all of the

00:07:43.040 sudden, I guess the science has changed a little bit and we don't need those same restrictions anymore.

00:07:47.940 It's all politics. It is all to make you forget the destruction that they have wrought over the

00:07:54.380 past two years. And what I'm afraid of is that people are going to forget. They're going to forget

00:08:00.580 that the things that Joe Biden last night said that he wanted, said that he was for, he has actively

00:08:06.220 worked against for the past year and Democrats have been working against for years.

00:08:10.900 So, for example, he said that he wanted to rebuild American manufacturing, support good policing. He

00:08:18.960 said, actually reiterated that he doesn't want to defund the police. He wants to fund the police to a

00:08:24.320 round of applause. I mean, that was crazy that we need to secure the border. We need to support our

00:08:29.520 veterans. We need to get back to normal in open schools. Look, I agree with all of that. I think

00:08:34.920 that's great. And if he were representing those policies, I would absolutely applaud him, even if

00:08:41.160 there were other things that I disagreed with him on. But the fact of the matter is, is that when he

00:08:46.400 says we need to rely on American manufacturing and ensure that we are self-reliant as Americans for

00:08:54.420 the things that we need, his administration has actively worked against that, for example, by shutting

00:08:59.540 down American gas pipelines. I mean, that lost a lot of jobs. And his mandates also led to a lot of

00:09:06.620 unemployment for working class Americans. Support good policing and fund the police. I'm sure he is

00:09:11.920 not himself a defund the police radical, but Democrats absolutely were calling for that in 2020.

00:09:19.380 And Democrat cities across the country have absolutely done that over the past two years.

00:09:24.860 He's talked about good policing and equal justice and safety and equal justice don't have to be

00:09:30.260 mutually exclusive, except the cities that are run by Democrats have actually put both of those

00:09:36.760 things to the wayside. They are neither safe nor are they doling out equal justice. They are actually

00:09:42.240 letting criminals back on the street in the name of equity and keeping their cities unsafe. So the

00:09:47.920 Democratic Party is not, in general, is not for equal justice and safety because the cities that are run

00:09:54.320 by Democrats are characterized by neither of those things. He says we need to secure the border,

00:09:58.900 which I thought was probably the biggest piece of gaslighting, or at least one of them,

00:10:04.300 that he employed last night. We have a greater number of illegal crossings and fewer deportations

00:10:16.140 than we have ever had at any point in American history, at least over the past few decades. So more

00:10:22.980 illegal crossings incentivized by his promise, Biden's promise that those people are going to be able to

00:10:29.660 come into the United States and start a life even if they're illegal, or his policies and his promises

00:10:36.520 have amounted to that, at least. And we are deporting fewer and fewer people. And Mayorkas has said that it is

00:10:45.580 his policy not to deport an illegal immigrant simply for being illegal. They have to commit some kind of very, 0.99

00:10:52.120 very egregious crime. There are all other kinds of crimes that an illegal immigrant could commit and 1.00

00:10:57.800 still not be deported. The federal government under Joe Biden is actually busing and flying illegal

00:11:04.520 immigrants from the border to the interior of the United States in the dark of the night. I mean, 1.00

00:11:10.160 this is documented. We've known this for the past year. And he says we need to secure our border.

00:11:14.800 I mean, he's joking. He's joking. He's tricking you. Of course, he doesn't actually mean that.

00:11:19.720 He's trying to appeal to you. He's trying to lie to you. He's actively working against that. And then

00:11:23.880 he says we need to support our veterans again under his leadership, servicemen and women who

00:11:29.640 didn't want to get the COVID vaccine for a variety of reasons. Maybe they had natural immunity,

00:11:35.040 whatever the reason was. They've been discharged and their families left destitute. So we want to

00:11:40.260 support our veterans, but not those. And by the way, the only person who got fired after the whole

00:11:47.200 Afghanistan debacle was actually one of the servicemen who spoke up about the corruption 0.88

00:11:56.140 and the mishandling of that whole thing. He was the only one that got in trouble. He was actually

00:12:00.780 put in jail for that. But everyone else, of course, stayed in their job, even though that was an abject 1.00

00:12:06.780 failure. And then the last one that I, of course, agree with, but just have to roll my eyes at

00:12:12.740 is this idea that we have to get back to normal and open up our schools, that our kids have to be

00:12:19.400 back in school. Yeah, we've been saying that for the past two years. European countries have had

00:12:24.720 their kids in school this entire time. It's been exclusively Democrat-run districts, Democrat-run

00:12:31.480 cities, Democrat-run states that have kept kids out of school or who have put so many restrictions on

00:12:37.320 them that they have made school so miserable and have stolen normalcy and childhood from these kids

00:12:43.160 that has been exclusively Democrats. OK, it hasn't been Republicans. So you don't need to preach to

00:12:49.840 Republicans that kids need to go back to normal. We know. So this was not a list of accomplishments

00:12:54.620 for Joe Biden, which is what the State of the Union is supposed to be. Accomplishments and goals.

00:12:59.160 These weren't even goals. These were just things that he wants you to believe that he stands for,

00:13:03.300 but actually that he has actively been working against for the past year. So don't be fooled.

00:13:08.500 Don't be manipulated. It's all a political tactic. And look, I'm still rooting for this

00:13:12.800 administration because I love this country. And so, of course, I want him to do well. I pray for

00:13:17.320 this administration. I pray that they have wisdom. I pray that they have discernment. I pray that God

00:13:21.740 would bless them with the ability to do the right thing for America. Countries are like families. You are

00:13:28.940 supposed to put your family first. That does not mean that you hate other families and you don't

00:13:34.060 love your family the most because you think all other families are bad. You love it the most

00:13:38.140 because it's yours. You seek its best interest first because it's yours. Even if that means you're

00:13:42.600 not putting the interest of other families first. Again, that doesn't mean that you hate other

00:13:47.000 families or that you antagonize other families in any way, but it means that the family that God gave

00:13:51.280 you, you are called to be the primary steward of. There's the same thing when it comes

00:13:55.660 to countries. And Joe Biden, at least rhetorically, seemed to understand that last night when he's

00:14:01.680 talking about the greatest and most prosperous and freest country in the world. A lot of American

00:14:05.560 exceptionalism that if I said it or if Donald Trump said it, that would be scary, fascistic

00:14:10.340 nationalism. But again, when Joe Biden says it, we're supposed to say, oh, yeah, this is totally

00:14:15.620 normal. I mean, the guy that continues to sell us out to China, we're supposed to pretend that he

00:14:19.820 believes that America is exceptional and that he is standing for our country first. Again, it's a bunch of

00:14:24.940 a bunch of gaslighting. I won't be gaslit. I don't want you to be gaslit. Doesn't mean that I'm not

00:14:29.500 hoping for his success because I am. But I'm also just not going to go along to get along. I'm not

00:14:35.180 not after he has divided us so much over the past year, not after he has failed us so much over the

00:14:40.140 past year. I'm not going to forget. And I don't want you to forget either. And I am here to make sure

00:14:44.720 that you don't forget. Okay, so let's actually talk about something other than the president of the

00:14:53.340 United States and news and politics, because I promise and there are things that affect your life

00:14:58.640 more directly that we do need to discuss. So let me start by answering a question that I get so much

00:15:03.800 and I always want to answer it because you never know who's listening. And one of my favorite kinds

00:15:08.800 of messages that I get is, Allie, because I listened to you about having kids, I am now pregnant after

00:15:18.120 years of saying I didn't want kids or putting off having kids for reasons that weren't very good

00:15:22.900 reasons. I absolutely love getting messages like that. It makes me really happy. And so this question

00:15:27.980 has to do with that. It has to do with this idea of being scared to bring children into the world.

00:15:33.800 So first, let me validate that feeling that it is absolutely scary to bring children into the world.

00:15:41.260 There's a threat of nuclear war. There is all kinds of conflict. And plus, we live

00:15:47.400 in this crazy post-truth anti-God culture in which the powers that be are constantly trying to reach

00:15:55.000 into the minds and the hearts and the souls of your children to evangelize to them, to disciple them,

00:16:00.360 to win them over to their anti-God side and to try to place them on the side of anti-truth when it comes

00:16:11.220 to gender, when it comes to sex and marriage and family, all kinds of issues that the world

00:16:17.160 calls culture war issues. But for Christians, we know that they're actually pre-political, 0.89

00:16:21.760 pre-cultural war, culture war issues. They're actually biblical issues. The definitions of those

00:16:27.480 things, male and female, marriage, gender, life inside the womb, right and wrong, all of that has

00:16:34.380 existed far before America existed, far before our political system existed. They have been in

00:16:41.820 scripture for thousands of years. And so for Christians who care about those things and want

00:16:46.500 to raise our children in the truth, it's not a matter of politics or engaging in the culture war.

00:16:51.420 It's about discipling them in the truth of God's word. And it has been difficult in every single

00:17:00.740 stage of history for Christian parents to do that. It might not have always been difficult in America to do

00:17:10.540 that. America and the West, but especially the United States, is rare historically. We are the

00:17:17.440 exception. This idea of religious liberty, where it's safe to be a Christian, it's safe to publicly 0.78

00:17:23.700 talk about your faith and to be proud about worshiping in a church and sharing the gospel,

00:17:29.140 that is rare historically. The vast majority of human history, in fact, almost all of human history,

00:17:35.440 and Christian history, I should say, church history over the past two millennia,

00:17:39.080 has been characterized by intense danger for Christians, intense persecution, the threat of

00:17:45.240 martyrdom, having to worship in secret, being jailed for sharing the gospel, being marginalized if you

00:17:55.180 express your faith in any way. It has been much scarier to live. It has been much more difficult to

00:18:03.440 live as a Christian in many other points in history than it is today. I'm not minimizing all of the scary stuff that

00:18:11.080 we're enduring right now, and just the demonic forces that I think we see at play in a variety of ways in our

00:18:16.700 world today. I think it is extremely normal and rational in a lot of ways to say, I don't know if I want to bring a

00:18:23.880 child into this world. You're simply thinking of the child that you know that you're going to love, and you're already

00:18:28.340 thinking of ways to protect them even before you have them. So I understand that. But I don't know, and you don't

00:18:35.320 know if it really is the end of the world. A lot of people are looking at Russia and Ukraine, and they're

00:18:40.300 saying wars and rumors of wars. Well, think about how many times in history there have been wars and rumors of

00:18:45.760 wars. I don't know if it's the end times. Maybe. There's a lot of disagreement on that. I have talked about my

00:18:52.180 particular eschatological views. You can go back and listen to some of those episodes that I've done

00:18:57.160 on it. But the fact of the matter is that no one really knows for sure the timeline of when Jesus

00:19:03.060 is going to come back. And so if that's the case, like if we've got another thousand years in this

00:19:09.400 thing, like if things could possibly swing to the better, if there could be some kind of religious

00:19:18.660 revival, if people could love truth again, if there is another great awakening, that's not going to

00:19:25.680 happen unless we have kids who grow up to be Christian adults. Yes, God is going to accomplish 0.57

00:19:32.800 whatever he wants to accomplish through whomever he wants to accomplish it. But it is our job as

00:19:40.500 Christians not just to be salt and light ourselves, but to raise the next generation of lights in the

00:19:46.520 world, to raise the next generation of bold, of strong, of wise, of kind and loving children who

00:19:54.700 know the truth and speak it in love relentlessly. If we look at the world and we see so much chaos

00:20:01.080 and so much confusion and so much cowardice, which I think we do, what we need is people who will push

00:20:08.980 back against that. So yes, that falls on our shoulders, but eventually it's going to fall on the

00:20:12.980 next generation's shoulders. We need to raise disciples and future evangelists that are going

00:20:19.740 to go out into the world and infuse clarity into confusion and chaos, who are going to show courage

00:20:26.160 to a cowardly world. That's what we need. That's a huge responsibility of Christians. That's what the 1.00

00:20:32.260 world needs most. Of course, they need Jesus, but they also need people who are going to show them Jesus.

00:20:38.220 We need wise and discerning and strong and bold little babies who are going to grow up into wise

00:20:46.940 and strong and discerning and bold and loving and generous and kind adults. I mean, people shape

00:20:54.640 societies. They shape civilizations. They change the trajectory of the future. And you don't actually

00:21:00.600 have to be in a majority to change history. They're really what's required to change things for the 0.59

00:21:07.480 better. It's a strong minority. I mean, secular progressives understand that. They were the

00:21:12.680 minority for a very long time, and they've pushed really hard to push their ideology. And now their

00:21:18.060 ideology really characterizes most global and national institutions. And so we have to remember

00:21:27.640 that as well. And it's even more powerful knowing that if God is for us, who can be against us? Now,

00:21:33.200 I'm not saying that the Christian responsibility is to primarily wage culture wars. I'm saying the

00:21:38.240 Christian responsibility is to glorify God. And that, the one consequence of that is a changed 0.95

00:21:45.780 culture. And so I say, have the kid. I know that it's scary, and you have to look at your particular

00:21:52.900 situation, and you have to seek wisdom and pray to God. But I don't see any biblical directive

00:21:59.280 saying that, you know, when times are scary, you shouldn't have kids. Times have been really scary

00:22:05.540 for all of human history. We've faced serious challenges for all of human history, especially

00:22:10.980 all of church history. And what we see throughout scripture is that having children is a blessing,

00:22:16.740 not a burden, but a blessing. And so I think that's how I look at it. Again, I can't tell you

00:22:22.720 you're the prescription for your particular situation. You seek wisdom and you pray to God. But in

00:22:27.920 general, that's what I'd say. All right. Next question. Let's see. All right. Advice for

00:22:38.220 someone who's graduating from college and doesn't know what's next. Well, I have a very simple piece

00:22:43.900 of advice for you, and it might be unsatisfying. And I know I say it a lot. I didn't come up with

00:22:48.320 this. Do the next right thing. Now, I did add my own spin to it. Do the next right thing in faith

00:22:53.460 with excellence and for the glory of God. That last part is mine. But a lot of people have said

00:22:57.600 do the next right thing. So let me be a little bit more specific because I know that it can be

00:23:04.180 hard to know exactly what that is when you're looking for practical steps. So I'm going to go

00:23:10.060 back to what Mike Rowe said on Friday, which, by the way, a lot of you said that you had never heard

00:23:14.700 of Mike Rowe. Actually, someone kind of left me, I think, an offended review saying that, well,

00:23:21.300 you don't think that you live under a rock, but you didn't know who Mike Rowe was. I was

00:23:24.860 obviously being sarcastic. I know that not everyone knows who everyone is, but Mike Rowe

00:23:29.700 obviously is very famous. He has done the Dirty Jobs show for a very long time. And I loved his

00:23:37.500 three steps to finding a job that will eventually fulfill you. And before I even give those three

00:23:45.560 steps, I think that one important thing to know is that your job does not have to fulfill you right

00:23:50.380 away. You do not have to find your dream job right away or even in 20 years in order to have a

00:23:57.040 fulfilling life and in order to glorify God with your work. And we are told in Scripture that we are

00:24:04.200 to glorify God in all that we do, especially our work. And we are called to some kind of productive

00:24:12.080 kind of work. Now, that doesn't mean that we're always going to get paid for our work like stay-at-home

00:24:17.140 moms or volunteers who are working very hard, that it's still work that could be pleasing and

00:24:22.420 glorifying to the Lord. So you don't actually have to get paid for it in order for it to be glorifying

00:24:27.380 to the Lord. But if your job is providing for yourself or your family, then yes, you do need

00:24:32.040 to get paid for it because that is part of being a good steward and being responsible with the gifts

00:24:37.960 that you have been given and not depending entirely on someone else for that. Anyway, so what Mike Rowe said

00:24:44.560 is that in order to find a job that will eventually be fulfilling, that you will be fulfilled by,

00:24:50.420 he said that you look for a skill or a job that's in demand. And then you try to become excellent at

00:24:58.380 that skill and then you find a way to love it. And that is so backwards to how I think we think,

00:25:05.700 certainly how I think or have thought traditionally when it comes to finding a job. Like we just have so

00:25:12.080 many options as millennials or have had so many options as far as the different kind of jobs that

00:25:19.080 we can do. And I think a lot of us in this generation, I know this is true for me, value

00:25:24.280 flexibility. You want a job that fulfills you right away, that uses all your talents, that pays you a

00:25:28.760 lot of money and allows you to work from home and all of these things. And that could be totally

00:25:33.640 possible, but that's not possible for everyone. That doesn't mean that you're less successful or that

00:25:38.240 you are going to be less fulfilled if you simply find a job that's in demand or a skill that's in

00:25:43.960 demand, become really good at it. So that just means working hard at it, committing, dedicating time

00:25:49.920 to becoming a master at that craft, and then you learn to love it. So all of that requires

00:25:56.940 being uncomfortable, putting yourself in situations that aren't necessarily natural for you,

00:26:02.740 and working harder than the person next to you, and then committing to actually loving it.

00:26:08.560 So we often think that it has to start with loving your job. You have to start by loving something,

00:26:15.520 and then you get good at it, and then you are fulfilled by it. Or you start like with fulfillment.

00:26:22.480 You have to be fulfilled by something first, and then you get good at it, and then you hope

00:26:28.640 that someone will demand it. I think that's very often how we start, especially in the media and

00:26:33.520 especially in the creative world. But if that's not the realm that you can occupy, and you need to

00:26:39.920 make money, and you need to be productive, and you need to provide for yourself, or you just need to

00:26:44.980 learn some skills, find a job that's open and become really good at it. The first job out of college

00:26:51.060 does not need to be your dream job. That's not expected of you. And I would say that's extremely rare.

00:26:57.220 It was not my dream job when I took a PR social media job out of college. I'm very thankful for

00:27:02.260 it. I think I learned a lot that still benefits me to this day. I learned about client relations,

00:27:08.500 which I honestly think is one of the most important things that anyone can learn, because it will help

00:27:12.420 you for the rest of your life. I learned how to write an email. I learned how to work under a boss,

00:27:19.400 and I still love those bosses to this day. But I will say I am not someone who has ever been

00:27:24.780 a great person to have a boss. I just have a hard time with that. And that is part of why I now do

00:27:32.080 what I do. But I am glad that my kind of like anti-authority personality did learn to work with

00:27:40.060 and respect and communicate with a boss and work with other people. I built great relationships in

00:27:45.020 that job. So find a job, find a job, do it well, learn to love it, use it as a starting point for

00:27:51.120 the next thing. And try to honor God in everything you do and pray for wisdom in everything you do.

00:27:58.640 Find a job. That's what I would say. That's that's that's your next right step is to find a job,

00:28:04.220 learn to love it, and don't put pressure on yourself. This has to be your dream job.

00:28:08.220 Okay, next question. Would I rather eat 14 gross flavor jelly bellies or kiss an alligator? 1.00

00:28:18.000 Is it our jelly bellies is are you from the UK? Are you from Canada? Down here, we call them jelly 0.92

00:28:24.260 beans. Okay, so I don't know what a jelly belly is. But the question is, would I rather eat 14 jelly

00:28:29.980 beans or die by kissing an alligator? I think I'm going to have to go with the first one. I don't think

00:28:36.940 that I want to kiss an alligator. But thank you for your question. All right, let's see. Next

00:28:45.800 question. Does Beto, Beto, Beto, Robert O'Rourke have an actual chance in Texas? Please no.

00:28:57.220 I don't think that he actually does. They're going to try their darndest. Obviously, Democrats across

00:29:02.420 the country are going to be pouring money into this campaign just like they did when he was running for

00:29:06.460 Senate against Ted Cruz. I don't think that it's I don't think that there's a possibility. Obviously,

00:29:11.780 anything could happen. And so people in Texas have to work really hard to make sure that a Republican

00:29:16.320 gets elected. It doesn't matter if you're not fully satisfied with with Greg Abbott. Maybe you think

00:29:22.300 that he could have worked harder to protect the border. I can guarantee you he will do a better job

00:29:28.360 than Beto O'Rourke. So just ensure that no matter your feelings about the primary results, that if you

00:29:37.540 are in Texas, that you are helping out Greg Abbott and that you are voting for him and trying to convince

00:29:42.900 other people to do the same. How you use the ESV study Bible. So I have I've very much been a fan

00:29:55.380 and a recommender of the ESV study Bible. It really changed my life. I had a friend give it to me, I think

00:30:01.360 in 2011 in college. And it I it's my favorite study Bible. There are a lot of great study Bibles. I also

00:30:09.560 have the John MacArthur study Bible that's an ESV study Bible, but or it's ESV version. But the ESV

00:30:17.340 official study Bible is different than like, it's not just the ESV version. It is like the official

00:30:23.920 ESV study Bible. It's like a white Bible with red and black on it. You can find it wherever you find

00:30:29.520 your Bibles. And I just love it because it gives so many good resources, so much good insight. One

00:30:34.700 issue that if you I love John MacArthur, you guys know I'm a huge John MacArthur fan. And I'm so thankful

00:30:41.200 for his faithful ministry and just how clearly he speaks the truth in love, maybe better than any other

00:30:47.320 pastor of our generation or of the generations that currently are on earth. But I don't align

00:30:56.020 with him on eschatology. And actually someone's eschatology, what they think about the end times

00:31:00.360 really does characterize a lot of their biblical interpretation and what they think about certain

00:31:05.260 Bible passages. So if you land in a different place, like I am the same as someone like John

00:31:11.160 Piper. I actually agree with his eschatology, not because it's his eschatology, but just that's

00:31:16.900 because that is where I, that's where I land. There are a lot of faithful Christians, by the

00:31:21.000 way, who disagree on eschatology. That's okay. But it actually does make a difference in your

00:31:25.340 biblical interpretation. And so it can be a little bit difficult to read the biblical commentary of

00:31:30.840 someone who doesn't have the same eschatology as you. Whereas I'm pretty sure John Piper helped

00:31:35.840 write the ESV study Bible anyway. I agree with the eschatology of the people who did write the

00:31:41.920 ESV study Bible, so it's a little bit easier for me. How I used it, I just would read the Bible.

00:31:48.240 And if I had a question about something, I would look at the footnote. But there's also a lot of

00:31:51.520 information in the back of the Bible about like different religions and different theological issues.

00:31:56.700 I love systematic theology as well by Wayne Grudem. We've had Wayne Grudem on this podcast

00:32:00.940 to answer like big picture questions. Like if you want to know what is eschatology,

00:32:04.940 what are all the different, what's all the different support for the different ideas about

00:32:11.800 the end times? Like where are all these people getting the different ideas? Why are there so

00:32:15.380 many disagreements? Systematic theology, this big like textbook type book is a really great place

00:32:22.180 to look because it explains all of the different views on a whole host of things and explains why

00:32:28.480 different people adhere to different theological stances. And so I highly recommend that just as a

00:32:34.160 supplement, I also have a keyword study Bible that I sometimes use that if I want to know

00:32:38.920 the original Greek or Hebrew of a word to better understand, like when I do the most misused, I

00:32:45.100 always use all three of these resources to really understand the context of the verse and what the

00:32:50.560 verse originally means. I like my keyword study Bible. I don't use all of those every day. I don't want

00:32:55.700 to make it sound like I am some like, you know, monk that has time to do like an hour and a half Bible

00:33:03.120 study where I'm looking at all of these resources every day. Honestly, the vast majority of my

00:33:08.100 quiet time as we call it or reading the Bible is like sitting there while my children are, you know,

00:33:16.640 playing and I'm just trying to read what I, you know, set out to read that day. And usually it's like

00:33:23.980 reading two verses and then like answering a question for my toddler or putting it down or warming up

00:33:28.880 my coffee. And so it's not some like, oh, I am in my room with candles lit and I've got my tea at 4 30

00:33:37.080 a.m. I would love to do that. I am not there yet, just to be totally honest. But ESV study Bible is a

00:33:44.160 huge help in just helping me understand what's really going on in scripture. All right. Top 10 snacks.

00:33:52.860 Now that's, that would take a really long time. What is my favorite snack? You know, I'm actually,

00:33:58.420 I'm not really a snacker. I like meals very much. I very much like food. This will actually lead into

00:34:07.100 the next question that I saw. Top 10 snacks. That would be way too difficult. I do like like chips and

00:34:13.860 guacamole because y'all know born and raised in Texas. I'm a Tex-Mex girl, but I'm not really someone

00:34:20.240 who is going to just like eat that randomly. I just like carbs in my meals. And so I'm not like,

00:34:29.520 I don't like like potato chips and things like that. So I couldn't tell you my top 10,

00:34:33.900 my top 10 snacks. My favorite food is probably Tex-Mex though. The other question I saw is how

00:34:41.540 to stay fit. When you are busy, you're either working, your mom or a combination of all of those

00:34:48.580 things. Well, sweet person who asked that, who thinks that I have some special insight or authority

00:34:55.580 into that. I do not because I am not fit myself. I used to be, I used to be, I was reminiscing on this

00:35:02.380 yesterday. I, from about 2013 to 2018, I was a very fit person and I genuinely, I genuinely like working

00:35:08.800 out and I loved working out. I was like pure bar CrossFit cycling. I was doing all of that and I was

00:35:14.440 on and off eating healthy. Sometimes I was way too strict about it. I've written about that and

00:35:19.880 talked about that before. And other times I just was busy. And so, you know, I was losing weight

00:35:25.840 without meaning to, and you know, it kind of went up and down, but I was working out a lot during

00:35:30.100 that time. And then when I got pregnant for the first time, I think part of this was the healthy

00:35:35.060 shift in mindset. And then part of this probably was just sheer laziness is that when I got pregnant,

00:35:40.300 and I was like, Oh, I feel like I have an excuse not to constantly think about like the calories

00:35:44.740 that I'm consuming and like how much I'm working out. I just kind of want to take a break because

00:35:48.680 I've been doing that for at least five years. And I don't want to think about that anymore because

00:35:53.020 when you're pregnant, you know that you're going to gain weight. You're not trying to lose weight.

00:35:57.120 And so having just kind of like that burden lifted from me, I really enjoyed. Now I think I took it too

00:36:02.680 far. I halfway through my pregnancy, I totally stopped working out and I just didn't even have,

00:36:07.860 I didn't even have the pretense of trying to eat healthy. I was eating whatever I wanted to all

00:36:13.120 the time. And that I don't recommend. I do think that there is some fun and being like, Oh, I'm

00:36:17.220 craving ice cream on a random Tuesday night. Let's go do that with your husband. And plus, like you're

00:36:22.460 doing all of the things that you want to do before the baby gets there with your husband. So there's

00:36:25.900 a lot of fun and just like eating out and all of that stuff. I think I took it too far in my first

00:36:30.820 pregnancy and I don't recommend that one. Obviously it's not good for your, your body. It's not good 0.92

00:36:35.800 for you. But also you tell yourself that as soon as you have a baby, you're going to get back to

00:36:41.640 being as fit as you were. And it's going to be fine because that was just a pregnancy thing. And

00:36:45.900 you're going to go back to eating healthy, but it's really not that easy. It's really hard,

00:36:50.000 especially postpartum and you're tired. If you're, uh, if you're breastfeeding, then you really want 1.00

00:36:55.940 carbs and all of that. And I think part of that is good, but it's really hard to get back into

00:36:59.740 working out and eating healthy. If you took a really long break while you were pregnant,

00:37:04.060 like I did. And so it took about a year for me to kind of get back into working out and eating

00:37:09.980 healthy and losing weight. And then I was pregnant like immediately after that. And the same kind of

00:37:14.700 thing happened to my second pregnancy, not quite as much. I tried to be a little more disciplined,

00:37:18.900 but I didn't work out nearly as much. And now here I am. I don't know if you can believe it,

00:37:24.020 but almost 11 months, I'm actually just 10 months, um, just turned 10 months postpartum.

00:37:30.240 Um, and I'm kind of in the same boat, like on and off over the past year, I've like worked out and

00:37:36.220 I've tried to eat healthier and go through stages. My husband and I are back into like an eating

00:37:41.740 healthy stage, but I, I was working out really well at the beginning of the year. That's what

00:37:47.520 everyone does. And they have new year's resolutions. And then I got COVID and I got tired and then I got

00:37:51.360 lazy. And then I feel like I have a million things to do. I'm writing a book and then there's this,

00:37:55.840 and obviously motherhood takes priority. And so I don't feel like I have a lot of time. And when I

00:38:01.020 do get to like sleep a little bit, I always take that. And so I can't really tell you the secret

00:38:07.480 because I haven't figured it out. I think the secret is probably like waking up really early

00:38:12.620 to try to get things done. I sometimes do that. Basically what I'm trying to tell you is that I

00:38:18.960 don't have a consistent discipline schedule every single day. I try to get everything done that I need

00:38:24.180 to get done on a daily basis and a weekly basis. And that usually means that one thing has to be

00:38:28.740 pushed to the side. And for me, that has been exercise. Um, I'm going to try to get back on it

00:38:34.860 though. I genuinely like to work out. I miss being strong. That's what I want. Um, it's not just for

00:38:41.640 like aesthetics. Although of course there is like, Oh, I would like to be this weight and fit into this

00:38:45.840 size and all of that, of course, but really I just want to be strong and I want to be fit again. I want

00:38:49.980 to feel good again, not feel like I'm addicted to like carbs and sweets, which I do feel like I am.

00:38:55.940 Um, so I know that that didn't help you at all, except for that. Maybe it's relatable. Maybe

00:39:01.700 it can help you realize that other people are struggling with that too. And there are a lot

00:39:06.300 of good resources. I know I'm probably going to get a million messages and emails and that's fine

00:39:10.500 from people saying, Hey, you should try this or you should like, I can help you or whatever. And I,

00:39:15.060 I do totally appreciate that. I really do because I do need help, but there are a lot of

00:39:19.500 different accounts and different plans and different things that I think you can follow

00:39:22.920 that are realistic because it really does have to be realistic. My problem is, is that I want to like,

00:39:29.620 I want to go cold Turkey, like stop eating or doing something that I was doing before,

00:39:34.120 or I want to go all in on something. And then I get burned out really easily. Like in my mind,

00:39:38.680 I'm like, Oh, I want to do CrossFit again. And I want to, you know, eat paleo, whatever. I know

00:39:42.840 that after a week, I'm just going to be like, yeah, pass the pizza. So I got to say,

00:39:48.360 I got to figure that out. All that to say, I'm right there with you.

00:39:54.500 All right. Let's see. Last question. I know that I, um, asked for, I asked for questions and so I

00:40:03.780 got a ton of them and I didn't get to answer all of them. I know, I know, but, um, I try to answer

00:40:11.900 the ones that I think are going to apply to the most people. And this definitely applies to the

00:40:19.340 most people. Would I rather have potatoes for hands or only eat potatoes for the rest of my life?

00:40:26.340 I love potatoes. I love eating potatoes. They don't have that many nutrients. So I wonder,

00:40:32.180 am I able to take like a multivitamin? If I can take a multivitamin and only eat potatoes,

00:40:37.980 that would be better than having potatoes for hands. I couldn't pick up my children.

00:40:42.760 I couldn't do anything if I had potatoes for hands. Now that I'm not trying to offend the,

00:40:49.900 uh, potatoes for hands community that may exist out there. I think that you're very capable and

00:40:55.400 there's a lot that you can probably accomplish. But for me, I rely on my hands a lot. And so that

00:41:00.260 would be very difficult. So I think like I would make potatoes, I would eat potatoes for the rest of

00:41:04.880 my life. There's a lot that you can do with potatoes. Um, you can hash potatoes, you can mash

00:41:10.780 potatoes, you can smash potatoes, you can, um, you know, boil potatoes, you can bake potatoes,

00:41:18.660 you can roast potatoes, you can fry potatoes. There's all kinds of things that you can do with

00:41:24.700 potatoes. So I think I'm going to have to say only eat potatoes for the rest of my life and,

00:41:29.780 you know, just pop that multivitamin every day and hope for the best. Um, so thank you for that

00:41:35.400 question. I really appreciate it. All right, guys, if you love this podcast, will you do me a favor

00:41:40.820 and leave me a five-star review on Apple podcasts and on Spotify? That would just really mean a lot

00:41:46.740 to us. You don't have to do some long lengthy review. Just maybe tell us why you like the show

00:41:51.740 and subscribe on YouTube. If you haven't already tomorrow, we will be talking to Victor Davis Hanson,

00:41:58.660 and he is, I have a lot of brilliant guests and I really mean that. I think I talked to the

00:42:03.080 smartest and most interesting people in the world. He is definitely one of the smartest and one of the

00:42:09.080 most interesting people that we've had on the show. And I think in the world, I mean, his insight is

00:42:13.720 really just invaluable. So make sure you tune into that. And if you've got any specific things that

00:42:20.000 you want me to ask him, let me know. I will see you guys back here tomorrow.

00:42:28.660 Thank you.

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - March 02, 2022

Ep 575 ｜ Quick SOTU Reaction, Big-Picture Encouragement & Q&A

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