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Today’s guest is Seth Dahl.
We go deep today talking about:
- How Seth was freed from drugs and near-suicide and made new
- How to raise good, strong kids without them needing to go through hard, risky times like so many of us had to
- The power of deciding to always be there for your kids, but not to rescue them
- What parents need to know about the Law of First Mention and how to use it
- The balance we have to strike as dads to both challenge and push our kids to be strong, while simultaneously being discerning and emotionally available
Seth Dahl is a writer and worldwide speaker to adults and children. He is known for his powerful wisdom communicated through contagious joy and childlikeness. Seth loves to empower families to build a strong connection that fosters peace and creates a thriving family culture. Seth, Lauren and their three children homestead with a large garden and handful of animals on a small farm in Texas.
Find Seth online at:
Instagram: @sethdahl
Websites:
spiritledfamilies.world
sethdahl.com
Resources mentioned:
The Difference A Father Makes by Ed McGlasson
Defend Young Minds by Seth Dahl
0:00
You are the foundation of your family, you are the firm footing. They build their lives on. You carry a glorious burden and you never dream of laying it down. You carry it with joy and gratitude. You show up, even when you don't feel like it. You lead, serve, love and protect. You are a father. This is the Dad.Work podcast where men are forged into elite husbands and fathers by learning what it takes to become harder to kill, easier to love and equipped to lead. Get ready to start building the only legacy that truly matters. Your family
Curt Storring 0:59
welcome to the Dad.Work podcast. My name is Curt Storring, your host and the founder of Dad.Work. And I am here today with Seth Dahl This was an excellent conversation guys. And we kicked it off spitefully talking about a terrible time and Seth's life. I was like, Hey, man, nice to meet you. Tell me what the worst part of your life. But it was because I wanted to get a sense of where he had come from, and how he got into the work he's doing today. And he says shares so authentically. And I think it's a very powerful story I want you guys to hear right off the bat. We also talk about how to raise good strong kids without them needing to go through hard risky times. Like so many of us had to write like, the reason that I feel so good about my life now is because I got through the hardness I got through so many things that should have made me a statistic that I should have been divorced by now. I should be on drugs or drinking whatever based on my childhood, my upbringing, and like, Man, I'm so grateful for those things because it gives me so much power now but while I want my kids to feel confident and powerful and good and resilient, like I feel now I don't want them to go through all those hard times. Like man I very well could have gone the other side and had a terrible life. So how do you do that? How do you get kids to do that without them needing to be kicked to the curb and been like Okay, see ya have fun now trying to figure your life out. So we talked about that how to actually raise good kids without needing to do that to them. We'll talk about the power of deciding to always be there for your kids, but not to rescue them key distinction there. What parents need to know about the law of first mention and how to use it. I hadn't heard about this before, it was awesome to dive into here with Seth. And the balance we have to strike as dads to both challenge and push our kids to be strong while simultaneously being discerning maybe even gentle and emotionally available. So guys, Seth doll is a writer and a worldwide speaker to adults and children. He's known for his powerful wisdom communicated through contagious joy and childlikeness Seth and Lauren love to empower families to build a strong connection that fosters peace, and creates a thriving family culture. Seth Lauren and their three children homestead with a large garden and a handful of animals and a small farm in Texas. With over 15 years experience working with children and being a children's pastor Seth has cultivated a passion to help parents create a thriving family culture at home. Sometimes parenting is overwhelming. But it doesn't have to be Seth and Lauren love being able to equip people with the practical and spiritual tools they need to create the thriving family culture they've always dreamed of. And you can find more books what Seth is all about, at Spirit lead families dot world on Instagram at Seth doll that's D H L or at his website, Seth doll.com. That spirit led families dot world Instagram, Seth doll and Seth doll.com. We are going to jump right into it. And guys hold on two seconds. Before we do that, if you've been getting any value at all, if you're listening to this for like more than five minutes an episode you're like, Okay, there's sometimes good conversations, I can apply this to my life. Or maybe I'm even becoming a better man, husband, father, would you please take literally five to 30 seconds, think about this hours and hours of content on here. And I'm asking for 30 seconds, could you please go to the Apple app? Could you please go to the Spotify app wherever you're listening? And would you please leave a rating and review. This is one of the best ways that we can help get this message in the ears and hearts of more men. Because when we get reviews and ratings, it's sometimes can help us bump up in the algorithm. More people are going to find that more people are going to trust that it's worth listening to. It's a big investment to start a new podcast so guys, the more reviews we can get, the better the world is going to be if you agree that dad work is doing good work. So I asked that of you so that you can enjoy this hour long episode, learn something become an elite family leader. Just take five to 30 seconds and leave that rating in review, please. And thank you guys. Here's this episode now with Seth doll. Let's go. Yeah, it's welcome back to another episode of The dad work podcast. I am here with Seth doll. Actually, I should ask you as well. Is that the correct modification? Amazing. Well, man, I'm pumped to have you on because like I was just saying, I became a Christian last year. And I was going, Oh, I'm like doing all this dad stuff. But now it's different. Where do I go and you're or Instagram was one of the first ones that came up just to give me like some direction. And so it's really cool to have you on here because I want to hear more, because I didn't even know until recently, that there's a pretty gnarly backstory, it sounds at least similar to mine in the sense that, like, things were really dark for you. And not to be like a downer from the start. But I'm curious if you can give us like, the 32nd elevator pitch for who you are what you do. And then I want to hear like the origin story. What was becoming apparent like what was getting married? Like what what was it like before that? So if you could just lead us in like your story, who you are, where you came from? I would love to dive into that before we get into like the practical
Seth Dahl 5:39
parents totally. So yeah, right now a 32nd pitch I'm, I do something called Spirit lead families. I, you know, working with Christian parents, I realized there's this, you know, you can see it in the Bible, the Pharisees are how we kind of recognize that religious spirit that Jesus came to destroy and remove from people's lives. And so the reason I call it spirit led families is because we want to be families that follow God and not get pushed around by religion. And so that's kind of what I do. We have a free network, we have coaches underneath me that work with parents, I have a publishing company that does children's church curriculum, because I was a children's pastor, I'll tell you that story in a minute. And then I also have a social media company, we do social media, content creation and management for churches and ministries and people who have content already, we just helped them, chop it up and do social media. And that's called Jesus on every screen. So that's kind of that I also have three kids, one cow, one horse, three dogs, three cats, a bunch of chickens, and a rabbit. And so we, my wife, and I've been married 15 years. So that's kind of our life in a nutshell. Plus, my daughter runs a business and my wife also so we're like, how old are you can 10 and seven. Man What kind of businesses utilize soap, lotion, fingernail polish, all really clean ingredients. She kind of my wife passed her half of our company. And so she's taking this. It's called Living home by Brooklyn. She just sells all these products. And it's really fun for a 13 year old to kind of be an entrepreneur. And
Curt Storring 7:24
yeah, I mean, well, okay, I might have to take a note on that, because that's some my 10 year old just got his first paper route. So he's making money now we're splitting up his finances. So he's preparing for the future a little bit spending money. But the whole entrepreneur thing, obviously, dear to my heart. So I'm gonna make a note of. Okay, let me just see if there was anything else in there. Okay, that's awesome. So you've got a little bit of homestead stuff going on with sounds events that's
Unknown Speaker 7:45
pretty full on?
Curt Storring 7:47
And has that been like, a result of the last few years of craziness? Or if you guys always
Seth Dahl 7:52
wait, my wife's always had that dream. And funny enough, like I told our pastor years ago, this is what my wife wants to do. And he's like, did God tell your wife something that we need to know? I might know. She just has it as a dream. But now after all, this stuff's played out. We're like, wow, we are not dependent on some food system. We're not dependent on the supply chain. We're not We're almost to the point where we're fully self sufficient and can help other people as well. So it wasn't like because of that, but we're now we're realizing more and more the importance of that, you know,
Curt Storring 8:27
100% Okay, so this is like, sounds awesome. By the way, like, all of this sounds so awesome. And I'm just gonna go ahead and assume that you didn't just, like float into all this on this beautiful cloud, like, oh, man, I'm so good at this. Could you like lead us up then sort of the the dark night of the soul perhaps and how we actually got to
Speaker 3 8:48
the so, you know, I grew up in a Christian home. So my mom took me to church, Christian school, all that stuff. But my parents were divorced. So obviously, I had some pain there didn't have a dad really for nine years in my life. She got remarried. That's a whole big story, but somewhere in there, the way I like to describe it as I knew the Bible, but I didn't know God. And so that's kind of how I grew up. That's why I'm so bent towards like, let's not raise kids religiously. But, you know, over I think I was 16 just started dabbling with marijuana got busted, got in trouble, not good. And then just got more and more using smoking weed on a regular basis. And one day my friend comes in is like, bro, we can't find weed anywhere in in the whole city. This is an Iowa where I grew up, I can't find weed, but this dude I ran into can get us some coke. Like, man, I don't want to do coke. And he's like, listen, we can get higher than we've ever been. And we can sell the rest and make a lot more money than we've ever made. So I'm like, Alright, let's try it. So I snort coke the first time and I literally within two hours. I was telling my friends like you If I don't stay away from this, it's going to ruin my life. And so fast forward, I just keep snorting coke. It's ridiculous. It's crazy. It's stupid. We're just snorting coke all day long. And then my friend comes and goes, Man, we can't get coke anywhere, but we can get crystal meth. And I'm like, I don't want to do crystal meth. And he's like, he's like, we can get more high, and we can make more money. I'm like, Alright, fine. Let's try it. So I snorted this one line of crystal meth. And it was just horrible. I hated it. You know, fast forward two weeks later, I haven't really eaten any food. I haven't really slept. My life is crashing really fast. And I'm like, Okay, I'm done. I don't want to do math ever again. I messed with it more and more often on later. But as far as like, just that world, I was like, get me out of here. So you know, ecstasy shows up after a while. And I the first time I tried ecstasy, I'm like this all I want to do. I basically was like, eff everything else. I just want to snort ecstasy, the rest of my life became within like a few weeks. I'm like snorting five pills of ecstasy every day, mixing it with coke and mixing it with acid missing, mixing it with mushrooms just on a rampage. And my friend has this dream, or his dad has a dream. He comes over he goes, Seth, my dad had a dream that we were at an apartment eating pills. Someone gave us a jar of pills. We're eating these pills. And we all start dropping down debt. And I said, bro, that's God trying to warn us. He's like, I know. Because he grew up in a Christian home as well. So he's like, God's trying to tell us something. I'm like, I know we gotta quit. Well, we don't quit. And it's just, it's just, you know, there's more. Obviously, there's more to the story. Drugs contain 40 Other, or 50 other things happening within that world. So fast forward, I get a job that is at a really nice restaurant, and they're training me to be a chef, and I love it. I'm like, going for it. I'm learning all the stuff. I'm really good at it. I like cooking this food. And so it's the only thing sort of keeping me normal. Like our one of our chefs was selling ecstasy to everybody. The other one is bringing in coke, like it's a madhouse, but it's also keeping me sort of normal. And then I just get fired out of nowhere one day. And so I go to my friend's house, who got me the job, I smoke a joint with him. And I'm like, bro, I gotta go home. And I go home, and I just start breaking. And I like, that was the only thing I really had to live for. It was my restaurant. And now it's gone. And I, I just started not not doing well. And I grabbed a gun, I had a couple of guns and stuck it in my mouth was about to pull the trigger. And I start talking to myself saying, I wish I would have listened to my parents, I wish I would have listened to my pastors, I wish I would have listened to my teachers. I wish I could start my life over. And then out of my mouth comes these words. I wish I could just be born again. And I had I didn't know what I was saying till I said it. And then I'm like, oh, and I feel somebody walked into the room. And I knew as Jesus and I hear this voice almost out loud, say you must be born again. So I'm like, Well, I know he's talking to me, because I was the kid and kids church. I said, Jesus, if you're real, and you can make me born again, you either make me born again, or I got to pull the trigger. I'm done. And I just started weeping uncontrollably. I started confess, it was like the things. Every sin, everything I'd done wrong was forcing its way out of my being out of my mouth. I'm just confessing everything. And I fall asleep somewhere in there. I don't even know how long but in there, I told him I said, if you get me out of this, I will help children not go down the path that I went down. And I wake up so I wake up the next morning, like totally a different person. Like I don't know what to do, like the sky is blue. Wow, I didn't know how blue the sky was the grass was green. The trees are Whoa, like I'm, I'm in a whole new world where I'm not clouded by drugs and addiction. And, you know, fast forward, I end up going to this internship in New York City. I don't know what I'm really getting into. But I sign up for this internship and I move across the country from Iowa to New York. And I sign up for this ministry that we did. We had 17 teams going out six days a week, doing Sunday school in Brooklyn, Bronx, Harlem, Queens, Manhattan, in the ghetto in the projects in the shelters like it's, I'm the only white person most of the time there. And we have these trucks that the whole side of the truck flips down into a stage. So I get to this ministry and they are like, we reach 20,000 kids every single week. And so they just put us in, and I'm in New York City, preaching to hundreds of kids a day, three times a day, sometimes five, six days a week. And on Saturdays we'd have 1000 kids three times. So we did 3000 Kids rotating through on Saturday. And so I just I just for four years I spent my Life there just leading kids to Jesus. I'm talking about Jesus and dealing with all this stuff in New York City. And fast forward because of the way I found Jesus or the way Jesus found me. I really believed God had power and can do stuff. And I'm like, I want to learn this. Like, I don't want to just tell kids about Jesus, I want to see miracles, I want to see people get radically changed. So I started praying for like, kids with broken bones and watching like fragments of bones, go down their leg and reattach in their ankle where it had been wrote, like, the craziest stuff that I never had on my grid. And then I find this church in California, that, this that they go after this, and they believe God is the same as he always was, and always will be in and they just go for it. So I packed up everything and moved to California, and tried to get rid of children's ministry. I didn't want to do it anymore. I didn't want to work with kids anymore. But I get there. And I started to realize, oh, man, I've been I've been telling kids, I thought the path that I went down was making bad choices. So I've been telling kids, like, make better choices don't make bad choices, which is all true. But then I realized at that church in California called Bethel, I realized, Oh, the path that I really went down was learning about God, but not really experiencing him as if he like, I thought it was just the old, a bunch of old stories and old book. And so before I knew it, I'm back in children's ministry, now we're doing the same thing. But in the, in the trailer parks in Redding, California. And so we're like, we're doing the same stuff, but all that and then become children's pastor inside the church. And long story short, I ended up traveling for our ministry, and going like, I've been to so many countries now just teaching children's ministries, teaching children's pastors, but somewhere in there, I've God told me, he said, Seth, you've been traveling around the world, helping children's pastors, but you've missed the most important pastors of all the parents. And I was like, oh, man, he said, says, If what happens in the church doesn't get out of the church. It's not Christianity. It's event based religion, and you're actually facilitating the very thing you want to get away from. And if you can get in the home and get in people's everyday life, because Christianity, as you know, it's not what we do. It's who we are. And there's no like, turn off and turn on like, no, that switch is on. And it's on and you can't like you are a Christian, not you go to church on Sundays and act like a Christian once a week, right? And so I was like, Oh, man. So that was became my journey of how I started moving from Sunday mornings, Wednesday nights, working inside the church, to working with parents working with families. I mean, I still do stuff with churches all over. But I also am like, if we don't get this into the house, if parents don't get this all, I just helped him raise a bunch of kids that were like me that think Christianity is what you do put the you know, the little face you put on the mask and put on on Sundays. And it's not who you are. And so that's kind of the whole fast journey. Yeah, I went from I mean, I was a drug addict one day, and the next day, I'm totally free. And like, I got to help kids. It was that fast. And, yeah, he's God. Yeah, it's
Curt Storring 18:24
incredible. Man. So okay, so, um, so many things, so many things. But where along the way, did your family come into this? When did you get married?
Speaker 3 18:34
I got married 2008, I moved to California 2006. So I was there at the church for two years, met my wife, we, you know, I was a little bit older, not not super old. I was 29. So I'm like, I'm not looking to date a bunch of girls. I want to find someone that's a mom and a wife and I want to marry them. And so we became friends for a while, and then get married two years in. And within one year, my wife got pregnant, and we had our first our daughter who's 13. Now so yeah, that's where I met her. It was a good thing. I wasn't married in New York. I almost got married in New York. And I was not in a healthy place. I was a pastor doing ministry with 1000s of children all the time, but I wasn't in a good spot myself. I was not well, you know, working that hard all the time, and not having any rest and not having you know, it just the ministry there wasn't conducive to raise a family. And so I'm really glad my wife and I didn't meet until later. You know, we did a lot of like counseling and a lot of like, learning as well before we got married, so it felt like we were in a pretty good spot. By the time we actually got married. So now we're at we're having 15 years this year. Yeah, incredible.
Curt Storring 19:54
That's awesome, man. Okay, so the thing that is curious for me is like, Okay, you're in children's Ministry. It's kind of like a job a calling. It's like it's kind of in a box, you're really into it. But like you just said in New York, it's becoming like almost this. I don't want to say burden. But I think you understand what I mean. And then you have your own kids. Like, what was that transition? Like? Was that a clear like, Oh, I've been working with kids for a long time, I know exactly what to do. Or was there more sort of like struggle? Oh,
Speaker 3 20:23
yeah, definitely struggle on learning. I did, it did feel to me like, Okay, I've worked with kids for many years. At this point, I'm actually, I've practiced a lot of stuff in a classroom that I would like to implement into my home, just communicating with kids and stuff like that. So that did feel like I feel like I got a little bit of a head start. And at the same time, it's like, Oh, we got to, we got to read books, we got to learn, we got to ask questions, we got to grow. And so you know, I'll never forget the first time when we when, when our son was born, our second boy, or a second child, first boy, because we have girl boy, boy, he was born and I was not well, you know, we didn't sleep all night, I'm struggling, I'm being mean to my wife, mean to her mom, it's not good. And my wife was like, You better go and figure this out, call a friend. Get with God figure this out. Because you're no fun to be around right now. So I leave the house. And I'm at this park. And God says, Seth, you're afraid to be a dad to a boy. Because everything you know about dads and sons is that dads aren't there. And you, you know, with your daughter, it was completely unknown. And I'm really good at like, if something's unknown, like, I kind of liked that risk. And like that, I like, I enjoy it. But he but he said, so with your daughter, you were just embracing the unknown, but with your son, all you know, is dads and sons aren't together, and you're scared. And so I was like, whoa, okay. And so that was that was kind of a wake up call for me to go. Like, I got to figure out some more stuff, even though I already have one kid. And she's three years old, like, I got to keep learning. So yeah, it's been a massive journey. And I don't think you know, by no means do I feel like, I know everything you need to know about parenting. I don't know if we ever stopped growing in this area. And we ever stopped learning. So I've kind of adopted that of like, I've got to be close to God, close to other people. Learning growing all the time. But yeah, it did help me to have a lot of practice, as well. But at the same time, I'm like, who I had to figure out quite a lot of stuff. I still am. But I gotta figure out a lot of stuff with this, you know?
Curt Storring 22:44
Right. Okay. So that, that makes sense. And I agree with that. Because someone put it to me once it's like, Look, you may have a 10, eight, three and zero year old, but you don't have a 10 year and you don't have a eight year and one two year old. So it's like every day is new. But with that piece, man, that's a huge piece that I know a lot of guys struggle with. This unfavoured are fatherless and this feeling or just this letdown from a father. How did you go about doing that? Like, what were the steps? Or what were the thoughts? The heart change that were like, Man, I have to be different than my dad? Well, I think,
Speaker 3 23:18
for me, it was obvious because I'm like, I just didn't have my dad anywhere. Right? And then at the church in California, they're very big on like, let's get you healthy. Let's look at all these areas that have caused wounds for you. You know, a lot of times it's parents, for sure. And so I spent a lot of time like getting even my theology about God cleared up like, wait, you know, because here's one thing, I don't know if a lot of people know this, but like, in the Christian context, you know, dads, kids typically put their dad's face over God. And so they think God is like their dad, or their pastor, rather than as he actually is. And so I spent a lot of time like, I got to actually, like, get healed up from my father wounds, even my mother wounds, even just my own stuff I did to myself. And so, you know, that's a lot of counseling. That's a lot of community. That's a lot of time. You know, there's certain things people can say that, like, they'll say one thing, and you go, Oh, that just cleared up years of lives, you years of unhealthy beliefs in that one statement. So I had a lot of that happening for a long time. I mean, I still do but a lot of it happening so my journey was like was like that, like God, I got to know you. Because if I, if I don't know what you're like, I won't be the kind of father You want me to be. And if I don't get this stuff healed up, then I won't see you clearly because I'll see you through the lens of my dad instead of through the lens of Jesus, you know, and so I don't know if that really answers, answers it. I mean, in some sense, I'm still always on that journey as well. Like, I don't ever even want to get to the place where my, I think I know everything about God like no way.
Curt Storring 25:16
You got to do that. So that's Oh, man, yeah, that's so involved and
Speaker 3 25:21
can't say that. That's kind of the some of the process.
Curt Storring 25:25
Okay, I really liked what you said there about sort of putting your father's face over that I'm reading this free resource I got from a guy named Ed McGlasson. And I can't even remember, I'll have to put the link in the show notes. But he said something in here that I took a note of like, just before this call, and he's talking about the story. I think the guys called Derek Redmond, he was like an 88 Olympics and the guy, you know, he made it. But then he got an injury, and he's limping. And he's not gonna finish the race. But his dad comes up beside him, puts his arm around him. And like, if you've never seen that video, go YouTube, because you'll cry for sure. And that's the kind of father that we want to be, I think, in a lot of cases. But he says, Let me ask you another question. This is a quote from this book. How do you feel your heavenly Father responds when you fall or fail? Do you envision a God who would be even quicker to your side and Derek stent? Or has your assumption been that God would be ashamed of your failed effort? disgusted because you've not been sufficiently prepared or embarrassed because you had not won the race. And the the point of that is like, that's your father's face? Over God. And that, yeah, sorry, I just wanted to really touch on that, because it's such a beautiful way to put it, and I think, very convicting for a lot of us, because I looked at this and I was like, right in the heart. Cuz that's what I have been thinking, I'm like, man, you know, the, the other shoe is gonna drop one day. Like, if I don't get my act together, God's gonna be like, okay, curl up, like your, you know, didn't have enough time for your story. And that's just, you know, what it was. So I think this is like something I'm working on as well. But a question came up for me, which is, like, I often believe, and I know, a lot of people say this, like, the struggle and the suffering, creates good men, in some cases, like hard time pretty good, man. It's very true in a very personal sense. But there's a huge risk. So me and you, it sounds like should probably be statistics, insofar as we shouldn't have made it to families to anything useful in life, we should, you know, still be drug addicts, or still be, you know, kill ourselves or whatever. That's just how, you know, my parents were divorced early two. And yet we did and so I'm grateful for my pain. But I wish there was another way. And so when I'm looking to parent, my kids, I'm like, Well, if you don't have to struggle like I did, yeah, you might not have the risk of like offing yourself, but how are you going to be like, cool, and resilient and strong? How are you going to learn all this stuff? How do you think about that? Like, how can we parent, resilient, strong children without being like, see your
Speaker 3 27:49
fingers? I think, and that's a huge thing I look at all the time, especially I any of my friends that are like extremely wealthy? I asked, I go, how are you making sure your kids have it hard? Because hard times create healthy, strong people and, and good times, create weak people and weak people pray hard times. It's that evil cycle. But like, so I asked them that. And I think about that a lot, like, what am I doing. So I make you know, I make sure my kids, like, we have the homestead. So it's like, everybody has chores. We don't you know, we make sure they're working for stuff we make sure they, you know, we pay for chores, because we want them to learn what it is to work for money. And if you want more money to buy something else, we will give you more work to do. I want that in their life all the time. And I'm always challenging them to grow and get better. You know, I like to say one of the things I like to say is you don't want to do things for your kids that they're capable of. And you also want to make sure you have an accurate perspective of what they're capable of. Because a lot of times we don't know what kids are capable of, unless we let them try. And so and then, you know, you figure it out, but I want to lean towards the side of you got to work on this stuff. But guess what, I'm actually going to be here for you, and with you in it. So I'm not just going to figure it out. Make it happen. No, I'm, I'm I'm going to coach you through, I'm going to ask you questions. I'm going to challenge you, I'm going to push you like I'm trying to think of a story where I do this, but it's kind of like you know, my kids and an outdoors, the garden and stuff like that. Were very much like, Hey, you guys got to come work the garden. We're pulling weeds, we're harvesting onions or whatever it is we're doing. We're gonna go do that together. We're all out there. So I think there's a part of like, I'm not just making you do it. We are going to go do it together. And we're gonna go work together. And, you know, I'm going to be talking to you about hey, if you complain, you're gonna have to do it more. I'm not we're not going to do this complaining thing like this is a privilege that you Have your own garden and can get this food and can grow this food and take care of your animals and all this stuff. So all that to say like, I think it's really important to push them while you're with them. You know, it's like that guy who even if he didn't fall in his dad didn't have to run in the crowd, his dad run into the on the track and fields like, Oh, his dad is in the crowd cheering for him celebrating him and encouraging him. And I think that's a huge part like my son, I was gonna brag on him for a minute, the 10 year old. He is he's the best gymnast in Austin, and in Texas, and then he won second place in state. But then he went to regionals, which is Louisiana, Arkansas, Kentucky, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri. So you got all these states that he's competing against the best kids. And I said, I was driving with him and I go, Hey, buddy, what if you won regionals? And he's like, there's no way I'm second place in Texas. There's no way. And I'm like, Well, what if you did, he's like that I can't, there's no way that kid's gonna be there that beat me. And so are all these other kids. And I said, Alright, cool. And I just kept watering this seed that I planted in his life. And I said, so the next day, we'd be in their cardio. Hey, what if you what if you want, he's like that. I said, Well, what if that kid has a bad day? It's gymnastics, all you have to do is fall one time, and you have a good day, and you win. Like, what if? What if you went, so I just kept on doing that challenging him to dream bigger, challenging him to think bigger. And then he gets to this competition. And he is the overall champion of all six states, the whole entire region, he got first place and God wrecked me. He goes, he goes, Seth, what you did was planting water seeds that he thought were impossible to do. But the seeds took root and they grew in his life. And he had to push through his fear, he had to push through the challenge because he gets anxiety sometimes with it, he gets a lot of fear, he throws up sometimes with thinking about gymnastics, like he's really had to push through, and I never, ever, I'm with him every time he has that, but I never rescue him. I don't rescue him, but I'm with him in it. And I make him go to gym when he's about to throw up. And I make him go to the competitions when he's about to throw up. But I'm there with him. And I pray with him. I talked to him about the lies, I talked to him about the fear. So I'm with him the entire time, but I don't rescue them out. Rescuing perpetuates a victim spirit. And so I never want to rescue him. But I do want to help him. And I do want to empower him. And so all that to say, he gets in that competition, he's nervous. He doesn't think it's possible. But God wrecked me to go back to that real quick. And God goes, he says to me, he goes, You know, I'm trying to plant seeds. I'm trying to plant big dreams in your heart. I'm trying to water big dreams in your heart that you don't think you're capable of or you don't think are even possible. But would you let your father plant seeds in your heart. And I feel like that's what God is. He does that with us where he's like, I have this huge dream for you. And I'm also going to let you wrestle through and work through and push through. And I'm, I'm but I'm going to be with you in it and encouraging you in it. So hopefully that also answers that question. I want to be with them. But I'm not going to rescue them from any of it. You know, there was one time my son really was not well. And I felt like God said you actually need to let him take a break. It's too much. I want my kids to stretch, but not break. And I think that's where we've messed up. We're afraid to break them. So we don't stretch them, or we think they can't be stretched. So we don't stretch them. Right? I'm like, no, these kids are way more capable of things we know they are. And so we need to stretch them but pay attention to if it's going to break them. And so I've had to pay close attention with him, especially in that of like, I'm going to push you and but I'm not going to rescue I'm going to push you but I'm also if it's too much. I'm aware of that. And I'm I'm ready for that. You know, the last thing I want is a kid who's like, my dad never heard my heart or listened to my heart or, you know, I want him to go Yeah, my dad was paying attention. And when it was too much he backed off. And when it was not too much he pushed me. And so, you know, like when he wanted to quit gymnastics, he wanted to quit a couple of times and like bro, you can quit if you want, but you got to talk to your coach. He's like, Dad, what I said, Son, I'm not quitting. You are, I'm not going to quit for you, you if you're going to quit, you got to do it. And he was like, Alright, fine, I'm not quitting. And then he leads to overall champion and six states, you know what it means like? So I think that's my approach is like, don't rescue push. But watch out for that breaking point. For sure.
Curt Storring 34:43
Man, that is the best way I've warmed up to it. So thank you for that that's gonna be on me on my heart because that's I think the thing that I keep coming back to is like my wife and I are going, Okay, well if we do this X, Y and Zed is going to happen because that's how it was for us. But neither of us know what it's like to grow up in sort of a. I don't want to say unbroken home because I use the term broken home, I guess. Neither of us know what it's like to have that full on families at your back. The Father's words at your back. And so when I think about like, oh, no, I'm gonna screw up my kids. Well, it may be if I wasn't here. But even if I push him, I can be there with him and man to challenge and to be there but not rescue that is so freakin good that everyone should just like put that in your fatherhood, little satchel that you carry around and do that. Because it's so amazing, because that's the same thing. Like, I think that we should challenge our kids, I think that that's one of our roles is we need to push for their greatness, and see the potential in them that like you just said they can't see in themselves. And so why wouldn't you do that? Man? I struggle with that sometimes, because I'm very critical. And that's actually maybe another another way to go on this. Have you been? How do you develop this communication style with your kids? When presumably, you never got that from? You know, your earthly father? What? Where are you learning this? How are you like speaking these affirmations to your kids? Like just a quick one for me? You know, I'm reading through the Bible, and Jesus is baptized, obviously. And I found God said three things. He gave him an identity. He said he loved him, and he affirmed him. And so for me, I'm starting to find these little clues on the Bible of how to father, but I'm curious, like, where are you seeing? What are the things you're saying? Like that, which is, hey, but I'm here for you. And you're gonna do the thing?
Speaker 3 36:31
Yeah. If I'm honest, I have, I really lean on God for this. Like, I really lean on God, I have God interrupt me almost all the time, where he'll give me things to say, and drop things in my heart that I can say to my kids. And or if I'm not getting that, like, I'll go pray and go, God, like just the other day, I was realizing, like, me and my boys played basketball, it's them against me. And I'm always kind of like, a mess with them a little bit. I'm like, boys, you're not playing like a team. If you played like a team, you would destroy me. But because you're playing like individuals, I'm crushing you every time. And the Lord said, Seth, they don't know how to play like a team. They need you to teach them. And I was like, Oh, you're right. And he's like, you're kind of the way you're speaking to them as kind of like preventing them from actually learning to play like a team, because they don't know how. So they're just they want to, because they want to beat you. But they can. So I have God do that kind of stuff all the time. So I apologize to them. I said, Boys, I'm so sorry. I'm actually going to work with you and teach you how to play like a team because I didn't even know. So I tell my kids stuff like that, too. Like, I didn't realize I was doing this to you. And I'm sorry. And God showed me this. And this is what he told me. And this is what I'm going to do now differently because of it. So I lean heavily on God. I also have a guy he'd be I mean, he'd be amazing to talk to. His name is Danny silk. He was one of the pastors at my church and Beth in Redding called Bethel. He is a spiritual father in my life, I was just with him in Wyoming fly fishing, like, he's one of the most incredible men I've ever met. His story's crazy. But he's also helped me a lot. And then I have other men in my life, like, we do this thing. You know, I just got I just got really good men in my life, God has brought really awesome men that I can pull from that are very, you know, I think we're at an interesting to go back just for a minute. I think we're at this really interesting place in society. There is so much emphasis on dads and men. And it is so beautiful. And it is so amazing. And I think if we're not careful, we've got to, we've got to be aware, because, you know, we're looking back to like the World War Two, the greatest generation, those men and they're like, at 19, there's, they're lying about their age, to go into World War Two and save the planet. And over here we got, people are cutting their stuff off trying to be a good writer. So like, we've got these two extremes, and I'm going, we're looking back into the past to go, we've lost something so important. And I think we've got to be careful because if we don't, if we don't pay attention, we can easily move into that place where it's like, just Buck up, pick up your bootstraps, don't feel, don't think just go if it's hard push through all the time. 100% of the time, but now we also have this emotional health. That's like not very many people are actually healthy with it, but we've got to go, no, wait a second. Hold on. It's okay to cry, son. It's okay to break down son. It's okay to know your boundaries, son. It's okay. But at the same time, I'm not going to let you turn into this boy that won't push through hard stuff. So like I think we've got to marry these two things of like, the best of that past generation that pushed through everything. And no matter how hard it was, they pushed through, they never gave up all of that stuff. With the self awareness, the emotional health intact. diligence that where it's like, I'm actually not okay. And if I push through, it may screw me and my future generations to come. And so having men around me, God has brought me man like Danny, like my friend Ben and like a group, we have a group of 12 that we meet once a month, and we talk about the areas we're struggling in, and the areas we have victory in and we pray for each other, and we help each other. And now I'm building 12 underneath me not building just pulling in, I'm gonna pull in 12 Guys underneath me, and we've got this whole system in place to surround men with men that this is what we want is we want this for our kids, we want this for our lives. And so I you know, I lean heavily on God, and I lean heavily on these men that can go here, you know, and I love all that I love all the podcasts. And I love all the Instagrams that are like, they lied about their age to save the world. And like, yes, we missed that. And we have to keep this other side. It's like this emotional intelligence, emotional health, but that's where Danny has really helped me, where Danny is one of the most, he's one of the strongest men I've ever met. You know, he, he'll backpack into the mountains and camp out and you know, shoot bears and shoot, shoot elk. And, you know, he has the craziest man stories you've ever heard, like, Awesome man stories. And he'll also break down and cry and talk about his wife going through breast cancer and talk about his process, and just give you permission to go, I need help. I'm not okay, but I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna go into self pity. I'm not gonna go into this swirl of emotions that never gets me out of it. No. And I got the people around me to actually help me through. So like, he would be probably the person that's helped me the most in this. Sorry, that was a really long answer. But like, God, excellent. God interrupts me all the time and goes, Hey, let me show you what you're doing. And I, you know, I think that's the beautiful thing that I have. It's like, I have a father that is available to me. 24/7 and is inside me, talking to me. Whenever I want. Even if I'm not listening, he'll try to talk to me, and he'll try to guide me. And all I got to do is listen. And for me, I'm an he is so for family, like God is a family. He's Father, Son, Holy Spirit, like, and he What did he do? He created humans and like, he is a family. And we I don't know. So he's my goat. Like, I really am like, Lord, feel free to interrupt me whenever you want and help me see I would I need to see where I'm off and point me in the right direction all the time. So those are kind of how I learned all this and keep learning all this as is those? Right? They're so
Curt Storring 42:48
good, man. It's funny that you say that because I'm sort of smiling over here. That whole like hard demeanor, but also you don't want to be a victim. I'm like, Dude, it's hard to kill. But the thing those are the words, those are the words that like I wrote down on my, like self audit, like four or five years ago, and as I'm thinking about like, what is dad work? Like, oh, it's that because exactly. You need to be hardcore. You can't be old pushover, you've got to stand strong. In the faith, you've got to have that manliness, but dude, like how many look at the generations that came after those men. They were hurt. They couldn't like Look who they raised. They raised our generation of the one before and didn't turn out so well. Opinion. And so yeah, we need that whole bodied, like human how we were designed. We're not designed to just like, you know, shut it all up. And then, dude, you get like, Jesus tearing up, like crying with anxiety. He's got his, like, close friends just behind him. He wasn't like, we're just gonna go to Jerusalem at 4am We're just gonna wake up, I'm just gonna get crucified. Let's go use like, Lord, tell us like, Father, take this for me. And man, that's the human experience. That's both sides. That's the balance. And every time I look at scripture, I'm like, Okay, I'm trying to figure out who is God because I'm, I'm new, I don't know. And every time it's like, Dude, it's balance. And it's so unsexy today to be like, you should just be balanced man. Because people are like, oh, like work life balance is like no, like, eat like equal parts. Wrath. Yeah. Love. equal part justice and mercy. Like, what do you mean, that's not sexy or cool to say today, but it's literal fact and truth. So I love that you said that because that's on my heart so much.
Speaker 3 44:34
I love your phrase, hard to kill, easy to love. I'm like, I feel the same way. I'm like, that's the best way I've ever heard this as well as like that is that's exactly what we need is we need both. We need the mix. We need the balance. And I'm totally with you. I love it so much.
Curt Storring 44:53
Oh, thanks, man. I
Speaker 3 44:54
appreciate that. My kids. Oh, it's alright. It'll come back to me.
Curt Storring 44:58
Okay. All right. just interrupt me honestly, if that comes up, but the thing that you also said, as well as like that cultivation of hearing God, and I think like, I haven't done any work on that, I hardly know how to pray. You know, so most of my prayer walk in the morning, and I'm like, Am I allowed to do this? Am I allowed to say this? What about this? And I'm learning more all the time. But even just to hear that, like, oh, yeah, like, if I've got access to this, why aren't I using it more. So that's a really good caller, just for me personally, but let's just touch let's go all the way back to this basketball analogy. Someone said this on the podcast, like, a year or more ago, the difference between training and playing all out, because I don't want to let my kids beat me. But at the same time, they if they don't know how to play the game, then it's like, they're just not gonna play the game. So I just wanted to, like, touch back on that. And I wonder, Is that like a conscious thing that you have seen elsewhere? Because I forget about that. I'm just like, kids, you want to you want to dance like I'm gonna crush you? And they're like, Dad, I don't know how to play. So I've had to, I've literally told them, hey, we're gonna learn how to do this together. And then I gotta beat you. I wonder if you've got that like going?
Speaker 3 46:03
Well, I mean, basketball for us is the easy way is easy place to look at it is like, you know, I'm made sure they know. I, I can destroy you anytime. But then I also let them win sometimes. And I watched that to me, I watched that same thing all the time. I'm watching is this. Are you on the verge of breaking? Or am I just stretching you? And so that's where I try to even basketball, soccer. You know, there's times where my son is out there, my little guys out there playing soccer. And I mean, he'll break down and he'll come over to me and I go, give me a hug. I got you. This is part of the game. You're getting beat right now. You got to get out there. I said, we can we can talk more about this later. But you're in the middle of a game. I want you to get back out there and go, come on, I SWAT him on the butt and I send them out. But I hug him. I hug him. I hold him and I send them out. I don't like I'm not going come here. Okay. All right. You don't have to play. We're not doing that. No, you're going out there and play and, but I'm also I'm also going to be loving and merciful and kind to you. I want you know, that's what I was gonna say to go back to it quick. I remember it now. You know, I felt like, I've always had this. I got been a tender guy. Like, all my life. I'm tender. I mean, I love to shoot things. I love to hunt. I love to slice up a deer and bring it home for my family. I love all of it. I'm into all of it. I love it. I ride a Harley, I'm on it. I go. I love this stuff. And I've always been really, really tender. And my boys are very similar. Like they are 100% boys. You know, I have to tell them like do not punch me in the balls while I'm drinking my coffee. Because they are you know and I taught them to check your oil. So they come in to the I'm trying to drink my coffee and my son's like oil checkbook like up dipstick. I like son, no balls. No buttholes right. So pure boy, they just want to fight me. They want to punch me in the stuff all this and at the same time. They're so tender. And I'm realizing like what society does is society goes, Oh, you're a tender young boy. That must mean you're a girl. You're not a boy. And I go and so I tell my sons, I go sons, man, your heart is so tender. And your emotions, like you share your emotions. And you talked about this. I said, that's what makes you a good dad. And so I like some of my language to adults. I go that tender thing, that emotional thing inside boys, even the most boyish boys, even the most wild boys, they have that thing inside them and society is trying to go oh, you're a girl. But no, no, that's what makes you a loving dad. That's what makes you a good husband. That's what makes you a tender man to your wife and a tender man to your boys. But keep and your and your daughters but keep the hard stuff and, and keep that tender thing. I think that's what we're also saying same topic. All of that is like these are the things that make you a really healthy man is to go I can cry when I need to cry. And I can push through when I need to push through. Whether it's sports, whether it's emotions, whether it's all the stuff I think that's what that's what I'm watching for pursuing going after. And yeah, that's that's what we're doing
Curt Storring 49:25
in that yeah, that my my wife has this thing that she says that most men these days are soft on the outside and hard on the inside. And that is to say you know they're overweight and not very useful and they have just cold nothingness inside and we shouldn't be the other way around and you you have to get past the use of the word saw inside but I think that's true heart on the outside be a man and and soft on the inside and what that obviously means tender hearted and I think we're just so backwards. And you wonder why you know men are killing themselves. You wonder why divorce is through the roof. You wonder why all these kids are looking elsewhere for an identity because The father was not able tenderly to give them that through the loving admonition of, you know, whatever they need from the Father. So I mean, do we've got like, the power of life and death, and many in many instances, I mean, obviously, God's going to do the work. But so many times we fail our kids by not giving them that information. Man, I've got, like, so many specific parenting questions I'm super curious about. But I like this, because maybe this is a good segue into I've heard you talk about this law of warrants mentioned. And it brings something up on this topic, actually, I had Brian Q, I think his name is on the podcast from the union movement. He was at my church a couple months ago. And he's talking about biblical sexuality and identity. And I talked to him a little bit about this, but I'm like, talking about your sex with your kids. Like, obviously, it's going to be a conversation, that's going to be glorious. Because look at this thing that God's given us in the covenant of marriage, like, it is awesome, and keep it where it's supposed to be. And he has this analogy, which is like, a fire is amazing. And a fireplace, not so much in the middle of it. But there's like, there's this idea as well. I was talking to will Noland on this podcast, like, when do you have this? Because the world's getting there early and early. And if you don't have the conversation at five, someone else is going to do this. But like, that's weird. So that's, I mean, obviously, one of the reasons we homeschool our kids, but what do you think about you know, that first of all, you know, what is this law of first mentioned? And then how does this interact with like, when do we tell kids certain so let
Speaker 3 51:29
me just throw this out there, too. I think it's only weird because we were told it was weird. And everyone was afraid to talk to us about it. Where like, if you go back into ancient cultures and ancient civilizations, you know, even in the Bible, where it's like, oh, they they got married, and you're at the wedding, and they throw that rag over with the blood on it. Like what is the kids are gone? What is that? Well, she just had her hymen broke. And they just consummated their marriage. And so it wasn't like a I don't think it's always been this is super scary and weird to talk about. We've Arge previous generations we're afraid to talk about and so we think it's weird. I don't think it's as weird as we think it is. And and so here's what the law first mentioned is though, the law first mentioned is whatever a child has told first, that's what they believe to be true, even if it's a lie. And then every other piece of information that conflicts with it has to butt up against what they believe to be true, right? So let's just look at racism. So simple. This is the easiest one, a one race of people can tell their children. Our race is better, or our race is worse than another race, right? I can tell my kids being a white man, I could say, Hey, boys, you're better than any other race of people. Well, it's an absolute lie. We know this is a lie. It's stupid. It's ridiculous. No, that's not true. But because it's the information my kids learn first about skin color and about race. Now they believe it's true. So if the school comes in and goes, Hey, everyone's everyone's created equal, like no, no one's better than the others. Like, that's not true. Like, well, my parents told me, boom, right? So whatever a child learns first, that's what they believe to be true. So that's why I think it's important that we're the first people to talk about any topic. We don't want someone else telling them information about. So you homeschool, I homeschool? I'm not I'm not letting the school talk about sex and gender. And orgasms before I do. I'm not in babies. And any I'm not letting them. I'm not letting them be in charge of the conversation. I'm going to be in charge of the conversation. I think that's what we're seeing with these corporations, stuffs happening with these corporations right now. That's really bad for them. But here's what parents are saying. We want to be in charge of that conversation. Not you. You can you can do your stuff. But we're going to be the ones who have these conversations. First, I think that's what we need to be aware of. So when it comes to sex, when it comes to marriage, when it comes to gender, when it comes to any of these things. We want to be the first ones to talk. And it can be scary. So you want to introduce it little by little. I mean, honestly, this is why I love having a homestead one reason, because my kids have watched the rooster hump the hands 1000 times and they're like, Dad, now the rooster is fighting the hens and like he's not fighting them. He's making babies. They've watched births from dogs, they've watched death. They've watched all these things that are super, you know, we've disconnected from nature so much that now we're fully unnatural, I think and so I think one of the healthiest things we can do is go Hey, kids, you see that dog doing that to that other dog. That's how they make babies right now you've now you're having a conversation about sex, but you're using the things around them that they see to expose them to it in a healthy way in a natural way. So I love homesteading for that Um, there's a really good book called good pictures, bad pictures that has a version for three to seven year olds. And it's how to talk to your kids about Internet porn. When they're three years old, how to introduce the topic, it is so healthy and so good. I mean, they just explained like the difference between good pictures and bad pictures, then they have an older version that gets more in detail to help parents talk to their kids about sex, about porn, about addiction, about your feeling brain versus your thinking brain. And it might feel good, but your thinking brain is telling you it's wrong, but it feels so good. And how do you listen to your thinking brain instead of just your feelings and not be like, it's a great look good pictures, bad pictures? is great for that. But yeah, I do think, yeah, everyone is trying to talk to younger and younger children. I mean, that's why I did children's ministry for so long. I knew, like, whoever, whoever talks to the kids, like, that's what they believe is true. And so, you know, if I if I, if if I have kids that are growing up, like this is one of the examples I used. I mean, we saw so many crazy miracles from God, the most ridiculous miracles you ever heard. We saw it over and over in our kids ministry. And I was like, You know what, no one will ever be able to come up to our kids and say, God doesn't do miracles anymore. Because they've seen too many of them. And they go, Yeah, except I've seen this one and this one, and this one, and this one. And this. I'm like, Oh, wait, that's their first experience with this. That's their first encounter with this. And now the arguments have to butt up against that, instead of if I told them, God doesn't do miracles today. And then they see a miracle somewhere they go, that has to be the devil. Why? Because God doesn't do miracles today. Why? Because the first mention, told them what was true, even though it wasn't true. And so that, that's that concept. And that's, you know, it is important. I think it's very important. Like, you know, now, not my seven year old, but my older kids 10 and 13. I'm like, No, you guys need to go to bed me and mom are gonna have, we're gonna make love. And we're gonna have mommy and daddy time. And I don't know. Well, like I know. No, but you need it, I want you to know, like me and Mom, have fun. Another thing I think the church really messed up on it kind of threw us for a loop is we made sexuality we made sex only about reproduction. And we we made it only about that. And so that left room for the world to go, No, it's only about pleasure, not about reproduction. This is about pleasure. And you don't even want to reproduce, because that's hard. And so just abort your kids, but just have pleasure. And like, Oh, I think we need to have a balance. Again, a balance of like, this is for reproduction. This is to make children and multiply. And, and it's the greatest privilege a human can have is to make other humans in their image. God gave us the greatest privilege, and a part of his nature, to be able to make other humans in our image. And then at the same time, it's the funnest thing in the world. And we need to, we need to make sure our kids know that. But again, it's that fire, I want my fire in the fireplace, not raging around the city, burning everything up and killing me in the process. So that was a lot.
Curt Storring 58:18
Yeah, no, it's good, man. There's so much I feel like I'm gonna have to get you on for round two at some point, because I got a whole bunch of things. We got like, a couple of minutes left, I was gonna get into I saw you did a real, maybe it's somewhere people can find it about like, what if they've already exposed? What if you're just realizing this? What if they're in the public system? What if whatever. And if you're an adult, think back to the first time you heard about certain things that you take to be truth? And why don't you break those things down with a little bit of a self audit? So I don't want to take up your time. Is there a spot where people can find that? Because they know it wasn't there? Or should we just maybe say based
Speaker 3 58:52
on Did you see it on Instagram? Do you know, it was on Instagram,
Curt Storring 58:55
he said you're going to do a presentation on it somewhere else. So I don't know where that lives whether it's
Speaker 3 58:59
that is inside my spirit, lead families, community, it's on mighty networks. You can anyone can find that at Spirit lead families dot world is the website. But I do the free community where I share I just don't always share that stuff on the usual social media simply because I want to make sure I can say what I want to say and not you know, I will I will D platform you over here so I can tell you what I actually want to say rather than risk me being D platformed. And now you don't get to hear what I have to say. So I tried to do that with wisdom but in my in that I did a live teaching on target and all this a lot of this stuff going on but I to just briefly say it I have tons of hope for the kids who've already grown up like you know, we're fighting against, Hey, don't talk to our kids about sex. Don't talk to our kids about all this stuff. Like we don't want you talking about this like we're working right now to reverse a lot of the stuff that's already here. happened, but we already have tons of kids who have grown up and they believe all this stuff. But here's what I think God showed me with. That gave me a ton of hope. Like, you know, the church, the religious church for a long time, was so controlling, and so religious and you're not allowed to ask questions. You're not allowed to doubt. You're not allowed to wrestle. You're not allowed to struggle, you believe this? Or you go to hell, right? That's this religious like, now, I'm all about having good theology, having healthy beliefs, you know, getting better and better. And at the same time, when that thing is controlling, it's that religious spirit that goes, You believe everything perfectly, or you're done, and you deserve death, and you deserve hell. That's that religious thing, right? There's no room for conversation and relationship. It's right and wrong, black and white all the time. Well, the church did that for forever, for so long. And everyone knows about pastor's kids that run off and just rebel completely. That was me. I was, I wasn't a pastor's kid. But I was as close as you could get this run off in rebellion. And here's what I said. I said, I think this movement towards sexualizing children, and polluting what they believe about sex as is actually because I think the spirit that's on it is the religious spirit. You say these right things, you believe these right? Things. If you don't agree with these, we're going to cancel you we're going to cut you off. We're going to kill you socially, on social media, and we're going to you deserve hell, right? That's a religious spirit. I believe there's a religious spirit attempting to sexualize children and it already has, and the hope that I have from God, I felt like God said, The world is about to discover what the religious church so painfully knew that when you control children, and you force them to believe certain things, and you will not let them ask questions, or even look at any other options, when you are so controlling, and religious, all you do is breed rebellion. And God told me said, they're about to find out what rebellion really is. Because a lot of these kids are going to go, you know what, when they are older, they're going to go, you wouldn't even let us think any different, you wouldn't let us entertain any other option other than when you told us we had to believe and we had to talk like and we had to say, and we had to put in our profile and we had, and they're gonna I think they're gonna rebel so hard and run to God and go, because that's what religion does. That's what control does, it fosters rebellion, it raises rebellion. And I think that's what's gonna happen, I just had to throw it in there real fast. But like, I think that's what they're doing is they're creating a religion, that at some point, the kids are gonna go, screw you, we're out of here, and God is gonna go, I'm the one that provides freedom for you. I'll let you be honest, I'll let you be real. I can handle your questions, I can handle your fears, I can handle your doubts. I can handle all of it and navigate you through it with love, and with acceptance, and with disagreement, and I can help you correct your thinking, because I don't agree with you. And I want you to agree with me because he's, he's the wisest of us all. And so I think that's what's going to take place like they got the law first mention, they got that with a whole generation of kids, they have told them a lot of stuff that's not good, and not healthy and not true. But that generation is gonna go and they're gonna get exposed to stuff enough. It's kinda like, it's like God's word is so much more powerful. That's one thing we also need to keep in mind, even if we've messed up, and that's the beauty of Jesus, right? Jesus says, like, you know what, you all screwed up horribly, all of you screwed up. That's why I died. Because none of you are perfect. There's no self righteousness in any of this. It's all his righteousness. It's all him going. You all screwed up. And even if you screw up horribly, and there's all these bad things that have happened, His Word can come in and rip you out of lies and into truth. And so I think that's hopeful for us as parents to go, wow, I haven't nailed it on the law first mentioned perfectly every time. Well, God can intervene in that. And I also think for that generation that's grown up with all this, he's going to intervene as well. And he's going to create a holy rebellion that causes people to run run as fast as they possibly can from it.
Curt Storring 1:04:20
Oh, dude, that is so encouraging. It's been almost difficult to see sort of a light darkness. And, you know, I'm reading through the Old Testament. And I'm like, actually, God is glorified through pressure cooker situations, and he creates them. I'm going like, Dude, why are you hardening Pharaoh's heart? It's like, no, no, just waiting. He's like, Okay, we're gonna harden it again. You know, just wait, yeah, just trust me. And then like, boom, like, you know, it's just so much more glory. And so I think we are in a pressure cooker system right now. And they can only true I can only put my faith in the fact that God is going to be glorified. Regardless. So, man, this has been a fantastic conversation. Thank you. And where do you want to send people because shownotes Dad.Work slash podcast but if you guys want to go directly to
Speaker 3 1:05:05
my Instagram just Seth all.com all one word or not not at all calm just seft all one word and then Spirit lead families dot world is my website you can go to Seth all.com But it's gonna take you to Spirit led families dot world now that's where I'm kind of aiming everybody right now. I got books I got resources I got curriculums I got coaches, we got a community we got we got all kinds of stuff happening there. But that's the place to find his spear lead families dot world.
Curt Storring 1:05:34
Amazing. Okay, check it out. Dads. Thank you for joining me again. Man. This has been such a blessing to me here. Thank you for listening to the dad work podcast. That's it for this episode. But if you would like to stay in touch between weekly episodes, why don't you go over to Instagram and follow me there because I drop a number of things throughout the week that are related to what we talked about on this podcast but usually go a little bit deeper. provide some tips you can find me on Instagram at dad work dot Kurt. That's da d w o RK dot c u r t. And please, if you have been getting something out of this podcast if it has touched you if it has improved your marriage, your parenting or your life, would you please leave a quick review on Apple or Spotify. leave a rating. If you have a few extra seconds leave a quick review. That's the best way that we can get this work in the hands of more fathers. And I truly believe that we change the world, one father at a time because each father that parents better that loves better raises children who do the same. And in just a couple of generations. I feel like we could be living in a world much better than the one we live in today. Your review will help along that path. And I thank you so much for being here to listen until next week. We'll see you then.
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