Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - April 12, 2022


Ep 598 ｜ Prepping for the Apocalypse？ ｜ Q&A


Episode Stats


Length

31 minutes

Words per minute

192.91689

Word count

6,159

Sentence count

428

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

7

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Is it biblical to pray before meals? What does the Bible say about praying before meals and why should we do so? What is the difference between praying before and after meals? Is there a biblical precedent for this practice?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hey y'all, welcome to Relatable. Happy Tuesday. This episode is brought to you by our friends
00:00:04.700 at Good Ranchers. Go to goodranchers.com slash Allie. That's goodranchers.com slash Allie.
00:00:19.580 Okay, today we are doing a fun question and answer episode. Sometimes we do these. We'll
00:00:25.160 keep this one on the short side, you know, which is good because some of our episodes get really
00:00:30.400 long and I understand they get really heavy because we're talking about really big, important
00:00:35.180 stuff. Like low key, if you listen to Relatable, you really know what's going on in the world.
00:00:41.920 Not every single news story because we're not necessarily a news show. We stop and we pause
00:00:47.860 and we talk about a story or a trend that's happening that may have been in headlines a
00:00:52.880 couple weeks ago, but is especially pertinent to us right now as Christians. And we talk about
00:00:58.820 why we should think about this and how we should think about this and how we should approach it.
00:01:03.700 And we really try to peel back the layers on everything that's going on, not just telling
00:01:08.060 you what's happening, but why what's happening matters. Sometimes I think about that. I'm like,
00:01:12.420 wow, the guests we have and the stories that we talk about are really, really important. If I do say
00:01:18.040 so myself, I don't think that's patting myself on the back. It takes a whole village to do this
00:01:22.660 whole thing. And plus, as I like to say, you guys really are the executive producers. And so you
00:01:27.620 guys tell me what you want to talk about. So we're all in this. We're all in this together,
00:01:31.420 but I'm just, I'm just thankful and I'm proud of Relatable for the stories that we give, but we
00:01:36.420 can't do that every single day because we kind of get burnt out on it, which is why we do strictly
00:01:42.080 theological episodes. Sometimes we do some more like evergreen episodes and then we do these fun Q&A
00:01:47.620 episodes. We will talk about serious stuff. I am getting asked serious questions as I always am,
00:01:52.840 but there's some fun stuff too. And there's some, some lighter stuff that's not quite so topical
00:01:58.640 and so news heavy or so even theologically heavy. And so I'm going to go through as many questions
00:02:04.580 as I can. Sometimes I get carried away and I take too long on answering a question. I'm going to try
00:02:09.740 not to do that. I'm going to try not to do that today. One of the reasons also though, we are not
00:02:13.460 in a news episode today is because I'm traveling. Yesterday I was in Ann Arbor, Michigan, speaking
00:02:18.620 to some high school students. So I'm traveling today. I recorded this last week as you're listening
00:02:23.880 to it. It'll be last week. But then we'll be back tomorrow with all the new and news stuff.
00:02:29.920 All right. First question I'm going to answer. Is it biblical to pray before meals? I think that's
00:02:35.360 a great question. My opinion is that it is not necessary, biblically necessary to pray before
00:02:41.180 meals, but there is a biblical foundation for it. One example, Acts 27 35 ESV. That's the version I
00:02:48.800 use. And when he had said these things, he took bread and giving thanks to God in the presence of
00:02:53.680 all, he broke it and began to eat. And so that is just one example of the breaking of bread by
00:03:03.020 Christians in order to give thanks to God or the praying of Christians before breaking bread to give 0.98
00:03:13.420 thanks to God for what he has done for us and what he has provided for us. And that of course was Paul
00:03:20.100 in that Acts chapter. And then there's also Ephesians 6 18, praying at all times in the spirit with all
00:03:26.600 prayer and supplication to that end. Keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the
00:03:31.760 saints. That's not meal specific, but that basically says just pray at all times. We should be praying
00:03:39.260 before we do lots of things, not just eating. But I do think that there is a biblical precedent
00:03:44.400 for praying before meals. It definitely couldn't hurt. And so I think that's kind of how we determine
00:03:49.200 what we do is not just what does the Bible say to do or not to do, but what based on biblical
00:03:53.640 principles glorifies God the most. I also think it sets a good example for the people around you and
00:03:58.460 in particular your children. Here's a question that I get a lot. And that is, how are you so bold in
00:04:05.080 the things that you talk about when people are so brutal today? Yes, people are brutal. You guys know
00:04:11.260 if you follow me on Instagram that I get plenty of mean messages. I get really nasty messages from
00:04:17.000 people who consider themselves much more empathetic and loving and tolerant than I am, of course.
00:04:21.040 You know, they wish me death. They wish they wish me awful things that would happen to me
00:04:26.180 and my family, all while saying it is I am the one that is being hateful simply because I said
00:04:32.840 something they don't know how to intellectually actually refute. And so they just go on the attack.
00:04:38.340 That's what emotional, unintellectual people do. And so I try to remember that. I try to remember that
00:04:43.480 they're coming from a place of insecurity. If they were actually able to refute anything that I say,
00:04:47.760 they would try to do so in some kind of logical manner. But when you are so frustrated by your
00:04:52.840 lack of capacity to actually be able to articulate anything in a way that makes sense, then of course
00:04:57.600 you are going to lash out emotionally. You know, we see that with, you see that in one sense that I
00:05:05.180 mean this in like the most compassionate way, but you see that with a young child who is just learning
00:05:10.480 to speak when they aren't able to articulate what they want. Sometimes that erupts in a temper tantrum.
00:05:16.180 And we have a lot of understanding and patience for toddlers because they are just learning how
00:05:20.440 to talk. There's not a whole lot of excuse. There's not a whole lot of excuses for adults
00:05:24.500 who are unable to articulate their disagreement or their desires or their thoughts. And so they
00:05:29.460 erupt in a temper tantrum that concludes in them sending you threats via DM on Instagram. I don't
00:05:35.460 have a whole lot of patience for that. So, but I do try to remember that those people are just
00:05:39.940 apparently intellectually stunted. And so I try to have some kind of compassion for them there.
00:05:44.900 And I also have to remember that if they are sending that kind of threat or they're sending
00:05:48.860 that kind of mean message that they also, they just need Christ, that they're probably not actually
00:05:54.840 stupid. They probably don't actually really lack the capacity, but they lack the heart, the soft heart
00:06:03.420 to be able to communicate in a way that is not only logical, but also is sympathetic and makes any kind
00:06:13.060 of moral sense either. And so I just try to, I don't always do this well, but I try to respond
00:06:19.220 kindly. A kind word can turn away wrath. Doesn't always, but it can. And, or I just block them. I do a lot
00:06:27.080 of blocking. I do a lot of blocking of trolls. And also when it comes to speaking things that are
00:06:32.520 unpopular, once you say it, once you say that thing that you're like, oh, I could never say that.
00:06:37.060 That's too scary. I'm going to get pushback. I'm going to get backlash. And you just say it.
00:06:42.620 You get a lot braver after that. We talk about how courage begets courage. Someone stands up and
00:06:48.340 does something courageous, goes against the grain, how that courage is infectious, that it spreads to
00:06:54.720 other people. And then other people stand up and say, you know what? Me too. I believe that unpopular
00:06:59.720 thing. I'm going to take this unpopular, but right stance. But it's also contagious within yourself,
00:07:05.860 if that makes sense. So you're courageous in one instance, and that reminds you that you can do it
00:07:12.040 again. It's just like with any kind of physical challenge. If you, the reason that you train for
00:07:19.340 a marathon or train, I've never run a marathon, but I ran a half marathon many moons ago. And you
00:07:24.660 don't have to run the full 13 miles before you actually race in a half marathon. You train every
00:07:32.680 week a little bit more. Maybe you add a mile, two miles, whatever it is. I don't remember. And every
00:07:38.020 week that you add another mile, the fact that you had previously run almost that far helps you get to
00:07:45.180 the finish line because you remind yourself, I've done this before. I've done almost this exact same
00:07:50.280 thing before. And I ran almost this many miles last week. And I only have to run one more mile in
00:07:57.000 addition to what I ran last week. And I know I can run one more mile. It's the same thing with anything
00:08:01.840 you do, with any challenge you face, any obstacle you face. Once you practice, once you practice
00:08:08.200 bravery, and you practice being outspoken, and you manage the backlash that you get for saying something
00:08:15.340 that you know is right and true and necessary, then you realize, okay, you can do it again. Yeah, that was
00:08:21.720 hard. Yeah, no one likes bullies. No one likes me messages. No one likes being trolled. And even worse
00:08:26.620 than that, no one likes your friends turning their back on you or people at your church or whatever it
00:08:31.600 is. But their response is not your indicator of whether or not you should say something or whether
00:08:38.500 or not you're being obedient to God. Their response is their responsibility. It's not yours. Your indicator
00:08:46.300 of whether or not something is necessary and right is whether or not it aligns with God's word. That is your
00:08:54.220 standard. That is your indicator of whether or not you should say something. You can say it kindly. Yes, you can
00:09:00.720 say it with compassion. But if something is true, if God's word says that it is true, and you see a lot of
00:09:06.940 people believing lies, then it is your responsibility to say something. And look, they're going to be
00:09:12.020 Christians. This is the worst. This is worse than the trolls in a lot of ways. They're going to be
00:09:16.240 Christians that if you say, hey, man is a man, woman is a woman. Hey, abortion is murder. Hey, 0.92
00:09:22.260 the government is not God or our caretaker, whatever unpopular stance it is, you're going to
00:09:27.940 get tone policed by social justice Christians. They're going to tell you it's your tone. That's 0.88
00:09:33.120 why the world hates you. It's your tone. If you were just nicer, if you're just sweeter, if you just
00:09:38.220 didn't use such harsh language, which I'm not saying that we should be purposely inflammatory or brutal
00:09:44.000 in what we say. I'm not saying that at all. But just realize that the world hates you, Christian.
00:09:50.960 The world hates what you're saying, Christian, not because of your tone, but because they hate the 1.00
00:09:55.200 truth. They don't hate your tone. They hate the truth. Okay? We remember Jesus, who was full of
00:10:00.700 grace and truth. We remember Stephen, maybe a better example, full of grace and truth because Stephen
00:10:05.900 wasn't fully man, fully God. He wasn't culminating the prophecies of redemption and all of that.
00:10:11.440 He was just a man, but he was full of grace and truth. And what was the response when he shared
00:10:16.140 the gospel? It was hate. It was vitriol. It was rejection. He was stoned to death. Okay? So any
00:10:23.460 Christian who says, well, if your tone were nicer, if you just use the right pronouns, like if you just
00:10:28.340 said, if you just raised your fist and said black lives matter, and you forgot about the fact that
00:10:32.420 it's a totally corrupt organization that has never done anything for black lives. If you just like 1.00
00:10:36.940 give a little bit to the world, if you're just a little bit sweeter, then the world will love you and
00:10:41.220 you'll win more people to Christ. What precedent do we have for that in the Bible?
00:10:46.220 So just be aware that you're going to get tone policed and you're going to get people who say,
00:10:50.200 Matthew 7, 1, you shouldn't judge as if that means that we shouldn't discern good from evil,
00:10:55.040 right from wrong. We are supposed to be innocent as doves and as wise as serpents. Of course,
00:10:59.420 we're supposed to discern right from wrong. What do you think Paul was doing when he was writing the
00:11:03.820 letters to the churches and calling them to repentance and not to sin? Was he violating Matthew 7,
00:11:09.520 1? Of course not. As Christians, we are to discern humbly what is right, what is wrong,
00:11:14.080 and admonish one another who are in the faith. And yes, speak the truth in love because we are
00:11:18.880 supposed to be sources of clarity in an age of chaos. And you're going to get people who say,
00:11:23.880 oh, you're supposed to love people. As we often say, God is love. 1 John 4, 8, whatever he says is
00:11:28.860 right and wrong, good and evil, true and false, he says from love, the most loving thing that we can do
00:11:32.540 is agree with him. So withstand the unpopularity, withstand the backlash. If what you are saying
00:11:39.540 is necessary and right and true according to the God who authors truth and who is love, then say it
00:11:46.280 and come what may. All right. Someone asks, how was your day today? I hope it is a happy one. Well,
00:11:53.500 that's very sweet. That is not a mean message from someone who disagrees with me. Let's see my day
00:12:00.300 today. Well, as I am recording this, it is only, it is 1257 Eastern time. And so it hasn't, I've been
00:12:08.660 basically recording all morning because I had to stow away some episodes since I am traveling. And so
00:12:16.020 it's been a good day. I mean, I love recording. I love talking about the things that we talk about.
00:12:21.300 It's always an early morning in the Stucky household with two babies running around. That's just the way it
00:12:26.440 is. But it's very sunny where I am and it's warm where I am. And I love that. And I'm about to also,
00:12:33.100 as I'm recording this, go into the weekend, which is pretty exciting. I hope your day is wonderful too.
00:12:38.440 Makeup routine. This is something that you guys ask me about a lot. And I have gotten a lot of
00:12:44.120 requests, even though this is not like my brand because I'm not a lifestyle influencer and I don't
00:12:48.820 pretend to be. I've gotten a lot of requests to do a video of my makeup routine. I'm not going to do
00:12:54.940 that because honestly, I, I'm not, I shouldn't say I'm insecure about like doing my makeup. It's
00:13:01.260 just that I'm not an expert. You know, some things that you do and you're confident enough to do it
00:13:06.040 yourself, but you wouldn't be confident enough to teach someone else how to do it because you're
00:13:09.520 not confident that how you do it is correct. I just feel like I would do it. And people would be
00:13:13.740 like, why are you putting that on first? Why are you using that brush? Why are you doing it that way?
00:13:18.700 And, you know, I get plenty of criticism about other things. I don't know if I want to subject
00:13:24.760 myself to that criticism. So this is just not necessary. I have talked about the, the different
00:13:31.400 things that I use. I mean, I use Adele Natural Cosmetics a lot for, for a lot of the stuff that
00:13:37.120 I put on my face. Um, I don't know. I've used some of the same brands since like 10th grade,
00:13:42.680 which is probably not great. I just use foundation and bronzer and, um, I do swear by Tarte Cosmetics
00:13:52.540 Shape Tape under my eyes. I love that stuff. As I have said before, I don't care what it's made of.
00:13:59.960 I don't care if it is made from the saliva of Jezebel. I will keep using that because it works 1.00
00:14:06.780 so well and it is so effective. So that's like the one thing that I would say, one of the things that I
00:14:12.380 would say that I like really recommend just because I really like it, but I don't do anything
00:14:17.420 special. I don't do any special like contouring. Sometimes I'll randomly get into like maybe
00:14:22.900 watching YouTube videos about it, but really I don't, or mostly Instagram videos because they're
00:14:27.600 quicker. I just, I've never been like a brands gal and I've never been like a designer gal when it
00:14:33.180 comes to anything. I've never known about designers or different places to shop or different places to
00:14:39.020 get your makeup. I've only recently started doing a good skincare routine through Adele Cosmetics.
00:14:44.540 And so that's just me. I'm probably not the best person to ask about the makeup routine, but I'm
00:14:50.220 flattered. I appreciate you asking because I guess that means that you like my makeup. So
00:14:55.460 I appreciate that. What is my take on Elon Musk and being Twitter's largest shareholder? I think it's
00:15:01.880 a great thing. Now, do I think he's going to have that much influence? Maybe, possibly, although I do
00:15:07.440 think the people on the board of Twitter, the people running Twitter are just ideologically on
00:15:11.100 the left. And so they're just not probably going to be swayed by Elon Musk. Elon Musk is not a
00:15:17.160 conservative himself. I would call him heterodox and moderate in a lot of ways. And he questions a
00:15:22.400 lot of mainstream left-wing narratives, which I think is really important to do, even if we don't agree
00:15:27.120 on everything. He has talked about the birth rate being low. He's talked about the dangers of
00:15:32.420 censorship. I think he disagrees with just like dystopian wokeness in general and the denial of
00:15:39.560 truth. But I mean, he acquiesces to like the CCP. And so I don't think he's like completely on our
00:15:45.840 side. I do think it's cool how the richest man in the world does have heterodox views and does have
00:15:51.440 that much influence. And I think it's cool that he bought the majority of shares in Twitter. He is the
00:15:59.160 largest shareholder in Twitter. I think that that is really cool. And I hope that he does have
00:16:03.420 influence, even if it's just less censorship, even if it's just that the leadership is now less woke.
00:16:09.520 Let's hope that this leads to some kind of accountability. I think it's kind of cool.
00:16:14.080 Why can't our party, I'm guessing you mean the Republican Party, feature more electrifying
00:16:18.340 candidates that register with party youth? So I think that's coming. Okay. I mean, I don't know.
00:16:25.060 I don't think the intention is necessarily to electrify the youth when you've got like J.D.
00:16:31.580 Vance and Blake Masters. I don't know if like their intention is necessarily to bring in all
00:16:36.120 the young voters, but I do think that they could accomplish that. And I think that one mistake
00:16:40.820 that the GOP establishment makes is thinking, or even just like conservative activists in general,
00:16:47.200 Republican organizations, they think that the only way you're going to win young people is by being
00:16:51.700 socially liberal or by being libertarian, that you can't care about marriage. You can't care about
00:16:56.220 the family. You can't really care about abortion. You can't care about those things. You can only
00:17:00.340 care about like capitalism and being able to go to Starbucks. I think that's so stupid because
00:17:05.340 you're not going to get conservatism if you're not preserving the building blocks of any free society,
00:17:11.160 which is the family, which then goes back to the more like existential reality of human beings,
00:17:17.800 which is the definition of male and female. And so I think that it's really important that we are
00:17:23.040 socially conservative because I actually don't think it's possible to get economic conservatism
00:17:27.120 without social conservatism. Conservatism is based on the idea that our rights come from God,
00:17:32.700 that we come from a creator. That is why we believe that we have rights that supersede, that transcend
00:17:38.040 the power of the government. And so if you're letting go of any biblical principles, if you're letting go
00:17:44.260 of the belief in God is where our rights come from, you don't get the rest of conservatism.
00:17:49.100 You just don't. And I've explained this many times. And so I know I'm not telling you guys anything that
00:17:53.680 you don't already know, but I think that it's a mistake for conservatives to abandon that, to try to
00:17:58.580 make, you know, Republicans a big tent party. No, why don't you educate young people, educate young
00:18:05.740 people in what conservatism is, why having rights that come from God rather than the government is
00:18:11.820 important, why the family is important. Why don't we educate rather than acquiescing to the views of
00:18:17.080 people who don't even have developed frontal lobes? That's stupid. I do say, however, that people like
00:18:26.040 J.D. Vance and like Blake Masters and this new crop of, I wouldn't necessarily, because I don't know if
00:18:30.920 they would call themselves populist per se, but this new crop of anti-establishment type
00:18:38.740 conservatives, I think just their personalities can attract young people in the same way that
00:18:46.460 Trump kind of did. And DeSantis, by the way, I would put DeSantis in this group too, that this kind
00:18:55.560 of like anti-authority, I don't care what the media says. I don't care what Joe Biden says. I don't care
00:19:01.780 what these activist groups say. I don't care what Disney says. I don't care what these corporations say.
00:19:05.760 I care about what the people say. I care about doing what's right. And I'm not just going to be,
00:19:11.000 oh, free market, yay, capitalism type Republican. I mean, capitalism is good. The free market is good.
00:19:18.740 But let's use the power of the government that we have to accomplish policies that are going to help
00:19:26.780 American families and the American worker. And look, I want a culture warrior. I'm a young person,
00:19:32.240 and I want these politicians to be culture warriors, and I want them to not care what the
00:19:37.880 corporations and what the activist left says. That's what I want. I mean, I'm not an 18-year-old,
00:19:43.780 but I'm a 30-year-old. I think that still counts as relatively young. And I like Ron DeSantis.
00:19:49.360 I like these politicians that do not care what the media and other establishment types say,
00:19:55.600 and they just do what we, the voters and conservatives, want them to do.
00:19:58.840 So I think if Republicans wake up to that, then they will. They will hopefully
00:20:04.360 bring more young people into the fold. But it also takes you and me educating young people
00:20:10.420 against the propaganda that they are learning in school and from the media and on social media.
00:20:17.020 Someone asks, is it a bad idea to listen to true crime podcasts? And I think maybe I've answered this
00:20:22.580 before. I think I've talked about it. Maybe I talked about it on Instagram. I don't remember.
00:20:25.740 But it's a good question. I think that it can be. I think that it can be. We are told in Philippians
00:20:33.200 4 that we are to focus only on that which is pure and lovely and commendable and excellent and worthy
00:20:41.180 of praise. We're to think about these things. And God understands that when we don't think about
00:20:46.900 these things, when we are dwelling on the bad, when we are dwelling on the dark, when we are dwelling on
00:20:53.480 the corrupt, then our minds get very anxious. Now, I have heard from people that listening to
00:21:00.140 true crime podcasts has made you more prepared. It's made you more equipped. It's made you more
00:21:04.360 of a critical thinker. Maybe that's possible. Maybe it's possible for you to listen to some kinds
00:21:10.940 of true crime podcasts that are really just interesting. It's like unsolved mysteries. And of
00:21:15.300 course, all of us who like to ask questions, we all like mysteries. We all like a story. I think
00:21:19.380 that's part of human nature. Maybe it's possible to do that. But I think you have to be really,
00:21:24.340 really careful about what we're consuming, no matter what the content is, and to make sure that
00:21:30.380 it is not making us more anxious and more fearful and making us dwell on that which is only dark.
00:21:37.880 We have to talk about hard stuff. We have to know about difficult things that are going on,
00:21:43.300 corrupt things that are going on. We talk a lot about that kind of stuff on this podcast. But
00:21:48.240 we also have to be reminded of God's sovereignty, that not a hair can fall from our head apart from
00:21:53.800 the Father's will. Unless you are renewing your mind in that, I do think listening to true crime
00:21:58.940 podcasts or any kind of dark content has the ability to really corrupt your mind and make you really sad
00:22:06.460 and depressed and anxious. And you don't want that. Yeah, I mean, I think that doesn't help. That
00:22:11.740 doesn't draw you more towards God. So I think it's just something to consider.
00:22:17.720 Random things that are giving me joy. The weather gives me joy when it's warm outside.
00:22:22.760 It's about to be blazing, blazing hot to where I won't want to go outside. And I'll
00:22:28.020 be trying not to complain about that on this podcast in a couple months. But right now it's warm. It's been
00:22:34.000 in like the 70s and 80s. And I just love being in our backyard, hanging out with our family.
00:22:39.160 That is just like a simple thing that really gives me joy. Someone asked, being prepared for
00:22:47.420 food shortages versus relying on faith. So I don't think that those things are mutually exclusive
00:22:54.300 at all. I mean, we have faith that, like I said, as Matthew 10 tells us, that nothing can happen to
00:22:59.200 us apart from the Father's will. And so, of course, we have faith in God. But at the same time,
00:23:05.780 we are supposed to be working. We are supposed to be working hard so that we can give to those who
00:23:13.660 are in need and also to provide for our families. And actually, Scripture also says that those who
00:23:18.220 fail to provide for their families are worse than an unbeliever. And Proverbs 31 also tells us what a 1.00
00:23:25.700 good woman and a good wife and a good mom looks like. It has to do with preparing her home, 1.00
00:23:31.360 with making sure her home is prepared for the winter months and prepared for the hard times so
00:23:38.100 that her family has something to eat. So faith is not stupidity. Faith is not recklessness.
00:23:44.440 Faith is not just throwing caution to the wind and not using the intellectual capacity that God has
00:23:51.040 given us to be able to think through things and to prepare and to think about consequences.
00:23:58.640 And so I think it's both. I don't think we should be paranoid. I don't think that we should lose our
00:24:03.380 presence and our joy and our contentment in this moment by preparing. But I absolutely think that
00:24:08.600 we can have joy and we can have faith and we can have peace while also making sure that we are
00:24:14.080 providing for our families as prudently as we possibly can. Oh, this is a good one that kind of goes
00:24:20.960 along with that. If you could pick one special apocalypse skill or trade, what would it be?
00:24:28.340 Oh, goodness, this is hard because I have none. And so I often think about this. I'm like, oh,
00:24:34.100 if what what do I need to learn to do? Well, I don't really prepare. And so like I'm not really a
00:24:41.960 prepper as much as I talk about that it's important to you. So I keep telling myself that I'm going to.
00:24:46.560 I well, I don't know how to sew. I think it would be probably good to know how to sew to make clothes
00:24:52.640 because you could not just make clothes for your family, but you could also sell those things.
00:24:57.660 But I would love to be like a super skilled gardener or know anything about agriculture
00:25:02.000 at all, which I really don't. I'm a suburb gal through and through. I love the idea of the country.
00:25:09.000 I love the idea of, you know, being out in the middle of nowhere and like living on a farm
00:25:14.620 with some animals. I think a lot of us have that fantasy and have over the past couple of years.
00:25:20.140 It used to be that I would fantasize about like living in New York and just like loving that life.
00:25:24.520 My husband and I used to think we wanted to do that. And then all millennials after 2020 were like,
00:25:29.420 yeah, I need to learn how to make cheese curds using my own goats. I don't know why,
00:25:33.900 but we just like I guess with COVID and everything, we just thought that it would be amazing to no longer
00:25:38.320 live in the cities and to live as far out as we possibly can. The fact of the matter is,
00:25:42.920 I don't know how to do any of that. I think probably I should say the most important thing
00:25:47.140 would be to make food. That's probably most, most important. So make food, sewing. If y'all know
00:25:53.920 how to do that, send me a step-by-step guide. That would be really helpful. So someone who follows
00:26:02.320 me asked, and this is a great question. I think it's a question that a lot of us have right now.
00:26:06.460 Well, she asks about friends, like how many people are in your circle of close friends?
00:26:13.200 She said she's had a hard time keeping up with college friends now that she is a mom. Man,
00:26:19.080 I can totally, totally relate to this. It can be really hard to keep up with the different friends
00:26:26.480 from the different stages of life and to make sure that you're being a good friend, that you know what's
00:26:30.760 going on in their life, that you text them back. That's my downfall. I just have a hard time texting
00:26:35.440 people back. And I'm not trying to scoff at that, or I'm not trying to belittle that. I actually think
00:26:41.420 that routinely not texting people back is a really bad thing. Like I really do. I think that's a bad
00:26:47.180 thing. And I am someone who is guilty of that. I love when people are responsive. Although I give,
00:26:53.980 I have absolutely no judgment or condemnation ever for people who don't text me back right away,
00:27:00.780 or even like within a week, because I am continually that person. But I think it's awesome
00:27:05.620 when people are like super responsive when I know that they're busy. So who, how many people? I don't
00:27:12.200 really know. Like we have church, we have a small group. So we have some couples there and we are still
00:27:19.020 learning. Like we are still cultivating those relationships. We are still in the process right
00:27:24.220 now. We are in this stage of finding our people. Like I have friends from different stages of life,
00:27:29.540 from different areas of my life that I keep in touch with. I do the best that I can.
00:27:34.880 But we are still in the process right now of like cultivating our close godly friendships. It's hard
00:27:42.920 and it takes effort. It's not how it was in college when, okay, you just step out of your dorm room or
00:27:48.100 your apartment. And then you've got like 10 friends who you can go to lunch with and you
00:27:52.720 can just like do life with. That's the thing. That's what creates friendships is really doing
00:27:56.780 day-to-day life with someone and just the casual stuff. It's not, okay, necessarily having to plan
00:28:03.120 three weeks in advance to have like a long drawn out conversation with someone. Although I think that
00:28:07.720 can be great, but that's not really what builds the true edifying friendships and the friendships that
00:28:13.160 I think that a lot of us at this stage in our lives are yearning for. It's really just the casual
00:28:18.700 stuff. It's like the, hey, what are you doing right now? Do you want to go get coffee? Or hey,
00:28:23.800 what are you doing right now? Can you watch my kids? Or hey, can I bring you this? Or do you want
00:28:29.120 to like borrow this book? I think so much of our lives now are so segmented between work and church
00:28:34.660 and personal life that we feel like every single part of our lives, including our friendships,
00:28:39.260 have to be scheduled. And that can actually be somewhat of a detriment to real organic
00:28:44.200 friendships. And I, just to be completely transparent, like I find that really difficult
00:28:49.540 myself because I'm just like the rest of you. I'm busy. I'm really busy doing this. This is not,
00:28:54.960 this podcast is one of the jobs that I do in addition to writing and speaking and other things.
00:29:01.300 And then I've got my kids and my family. That's my first priority. And then of course you want to
00:29:06.700 spend one-on-one time with your husband and then, okay, well, you've got small group or you've got
00:29:11.540 church or you want to volunteer. It can be really hard to have those organic everyday life on life.
00:29:18.100 That's Christianese terminology. Friendships. And so I can't give you all of the, I can't give you all
00:29:26.660 of the advice on that or even put a number on that. I do my best to maintain the friendships that I have
00:29:32.220 to like be a good friend and to listen to people and to talk to people. I have tried, one thing I've
00:29:36.920 tried to do is get more comfortable with having other people bear my burdens, like explaining the
00:29:44.820 things that are going on in my life, the true like concerns and anxieties and fears that I have.
00:29:49.300 That's hard for me. I don't like to, I don't like to do that. I like to be the one that are,
00:29:54.120 that's bearing another person's burdens, giving advice, giving wisdom. I don't like to be in the
00:29:59.040 vulnerable position of telling someone what I'm struggling with. And that can be difficult. I
00:30:05.000 think a lot of us feel that way. So if this is like a struggle for you, if you're still looking
00:30:10.460 to like find your group of Christian people, I am with you. I understand that. And I think churches,
00:30:16.980 they do, a lot of churches do the best they can. A lot of churches don't though. A lot of churches
00:30:21.120 don't cultivate good friendships and they don't even really know how. And a lot of people within the
00:30:25.520 church, maybe me included, we're not good at cultivating those friendships. And so I don't
00:30:31.160 know if that's necessarily like a good thing to end on, but maybe we should do a podcast like on
00:30:37.360 friends and on friendships and on, is it necessary to have that group? Or is it okay to just have like
00:30:43.180 a bunch of different friends from different areas of your life? What is true accountability
00:30:47.340 and Christian friendship and Christian discipleship and Christian community? What does that really look
00:30:51.600 like? How do we really cultivate that? It seems like a lot of us are in the process of really,
00:30:56.500 really trying to solidify that right now. So I feel you, girl. I feel you. Last question is just a
00:31:03.020 fun one. What sauce at Chick-fil-A? What kind of question is that? What kind of question is that?
00:31:08.160 It is obviously Chick-fil-A sauce. I used to be a Polynesian sauce. That's the old me. That was when I
00:31:13.400 was like little. A Polynesian sauce. And I like, I'm a ranch gal, love ranch, but it's Chick-fil-A sauce.
00:31:20.740 Obviously, that is the sauce that you get at Chick-fil-A. Come on. I might have to go get
00:31:24.580 some right now. You've reminded me. Okay. That's all we've got for today. As I'm recording this,
00:31:32.780 I think that tomorrow we have an interview talking about something really important and really big.
00:31:39.540 So I think things can change. But regardless, tomorrow will be a great episode. I just know that
00:31:44.900 if you love this podcast, please leave us a five-star review. That would mean so much. And please
00:31:49.220 subscribe on YouTube, follow on Instagram, and all that good stuff. I will see you guys back here
00:31:55.200 tomorrow.