0:06

Here's a question for you Is marriage overrated

0:08

?

0:09

Why aren't people getting married anymore ?

0:11

A new Pew Research poll found that two

0:13

in five young adults think marriage is

0:16

an outdated tradition .

0:18

Marriage rates are at their lowest right now . Is

0:20

marriage really even worth it ? More

0:22

than half of marriages end

0:24

in divorce .

0:25

If you get married , you have to be stuck with this person for

0:27

the rest of your life , right ? That's why you get married , so

0:30

that's why it's declining . Why would

0:32

you get married if you don't ? If you want to have

0:34

just one partner when you can have multiple Marriage

0:36

is stupid .

0:39

Welcome to the Married AF Podcast , the self-proclaimed

0:42

greatest marriage and relationship podcast

0:44

in the world . We are your host , matthew

0:46

and Monica Powers . We missed

0:48

one week because

0:51

you're recovering from you were recovering

0:53

and still recovering from

0:55

an oral surgery that

0:57

has left you to not be able to eat solid

1:00

food . How's that going for you

1:02

?

1:03

Mm-hmm .

1:04

Mm-hmm , that's all I get .

1:07

I don't ever want to have to eat mashed potatoes

1:10

again .

1:10

I'll say just before this you're saying I don't think

1:12

I'm ever going to eat another potato again in

1:15

my life .

1:16

Soft foods and liquid

1:20

diet .

1:21

Yeah , that's no fun Weeks . Yeah

1:23

, two weeks of it . You're over a week done .

1:25

Yeah , but I was not prepared no

1:27

, we thought I'm a very prepared person

1:30

.

1:30

Yeah , you were . You weren't prepared going into this

1:32

procedure whatsoever . But

1:35

we're here , we're back , we've

1:38

made it through through quite a week

1:40

, um , but we're here and we're back and

1:42

before we get into anything , I have a few things

1:44

that I want to bust through

1:46

real quickly that , uh , you don't have

1:49

any idea what any of this is , but we've , we've

1:51

seen it , except for maybe one thing in particular

1:54

. Um , we've

1:56

, we , we've talked about it . The first

1:58

things last sunday was wrestlemania . We're still

2:00

kind of involved with that wrestlemania I

2:02

mean big moment

2:04

, though Cody Rhodes wins the

2:07

title from Roman . Spoiler alert

2:09

Well not

2:11

my problem If you didn't watch it .

2:13

You're hiding under a rock If you didn't watch WrestleMania .

2:15

WrestleMania is still a huge deal with your former

2:17

career . Uh , we still involve

2:19

ourselves a little bit with it , but WrestleMania

2:21

, and like the Royal Rumble , is about the only thing that we watch . Roman

2:24

Reigns titles ended 1,316

2:30

day title . That

2:32

is unbelievable

2:34

. But you got to feel good for Cody Rhodes , yeah

2:36

Right .

2:39

I watched the day after

2:41

. I watched a documentary

2:43

on the leading

2:46

up to it . It was the previous year's

2:48

WrestleMania that it was leading

2:51

up to the moment and how everything

2:53

did not necessarily fall into

2:55

place for him to do

2:58

it at that time and it

3:00

was man . I'm

3:04

so glad I watched the newest

3:06

WrestleMania knowing that he won

3:08

, after watching that sad

3:11

documentary the day after . Because

3:13

if I had watched that the day before I would have

3:15

been hook , line and sinker . I

3:17

would have been like we're not going to bed until

3:19

I find out if this kid wins and I can't call

3:21

him a kid because he's almost our age or roughly

3:24

our age- I know , but you got to feel great

3:26

for him after all he's been through , especially with the

3:28

WWE .

3:30

Uh , good for Cody Rhodes ending the reign

3:32

. The ending was great . You know all the people coming , coming

3:34

out , the rock , the undertaker , seth Rollins we

3:37

so thought that . You know the shield was going to be

3:39

back to better , back together .

3:40

Cash was so pumped up about it , that

3:43

music hit and me and you just looked

3:45

at each other . And now the shield

3:47

dean ambrose . Seth

3:49

rollins , roman reigns is

3:52

literally what got

3:54

cashman one thousand

3:56

percent he was wrestling . He

3:58

was front row one

4:00

night , big through

4:03

Dean Ambrose , through the announcement

4:06

table that we were sitting next to . And

4:08

Cash is concerned , he

4:10

sees this man , dean

4:12

Ambrose , get up from

4:15

being thrown through a table by

4:17

the biggest man he has ever seen in his life

4:19

, and that's all he wants

4:21

to be . That was it he wants to be this guy

4:23

. So for years Cashman

4:26

was Dean Ambrose . He was , and then , when

4:28

Dean Ambrose left , Cash did Dean Ambrose better

4:30

than Dean Ambrose and he even has

4:32

him with Cash's

4:35

sign and I mean it was

4:37

a whole thing . But , when

4:39

that hit instantly . We heard

4:42

that and it

4:44

took Cash maybe

4:47

a split second longer . He jumps

4:49

up because he was about to go to bed he

4:51

knew he was like .

4:52

The shield is back . No way , dean

4:54

ambrose is back . Um

4:57

, if , if dean ambrose would have been there , that

4:59

would have pushed things over the top . Um

5:01

would have been one of the greatest moments ever . But but congrats

5:04

to Cody Rhodes . He definitely deserves it . It's

5:06

really , really cool . The next thing is this happened

5:08

this past week Also . We talked about this last

5:10

night . I know people are going to hate this , but

5:13

the eclipse is the dumbest , most overhyped thing

5:15

in the world . I

5:18

don't get it . I don't understand

5:20

it . It is ridiculous how

5:23

overhyped the

5:25

eclipse is . Okay , it

5:27

just is .

5:28

Do you remember , on

5:30

that day it was cloudy

5:33

here .

5:33

It was .

5:34

And actually it was raining a little

5:36

on and off . That's

5:39

how cloudy it was . I mean , it was very few

5:42

break apart clouds to even

5:44

see the sun . Right , I mean

5:47

it was very few break apart clouds to even see the sun

5:49

. Our softball practice

5:51

usually starts around 2.15 , 2.30 . School let out

5:54

. At normal time they let no

5:56

one go outside .

5:57

Because why .

5:59

Because they didn't want anybody to look up at the sun

6:01

. We

6:08

could not start softball practice until 3.20 because that's when the

6:10

eclipse was over . I'm sorry . Why

6:13

, on that one day , are

6:15

we not supposed to look up at the sun ?

6:17

Let me ask this question .

6:18

Is the sun brighter on that day than any

6:21

other day ? Is the ?

6:22

sun not . Are we

6:24

supposed to look at the sun every other day of the week

6:26

? I mean , isn't that just kind of common sense ? We

6:29

, we don't look at the sun .

6:30

Um , and anyways doesn't exist anymore

6:33

.

6:33

Matthew the , the . The eclipse is so

6:35

stupid . Okay , I'm sorry . I

6:37

know that breaks people's hearts . Who

6:39

cares ?

6:40

well , here's my thing I've been hearing who cares

6:42

. It's a once in a lifetime

6:44

event . It happened like seven years ago

6:46

. Well , when we were in LA for

6:48

Wheel of Fortune , there was some type of eclipse then

6:50

. But guess what ? It's

6:53

2024 , right , mm-hmm ? Okay

6:55

, so in 2045

6:57

is the next total eclipse

6:59

? Yeah , and where we are is supposed

7:01

to be in the totality

7:03

, which I think is cool . Now , if we are in the

7:06

path , great , that will

7:08

be a cool moment , because all I think of is Modern Family

7:10

, when Cam was running through the woods and he was all

7:12

white .

7:13

That's right , yeah , yeah

7:15

.

7:16

That sure , because you go

7:18

absolute zero . You can't get absolute

7:20

zero darkness anywhere

7:23

, but in a cave .

7:27

You know what I think ? If I want absolute darkness , I'll go in our basement , into the closet that

7:29

is in our basement that has zero light . I'll shut the

7:31

lights off and , bam oh , I got an eclipse . Amazing

7:34

eclipse is so stupid

7:36

. All right , I'm sorry it is . It's the just

7:38

one of the dumbest things I'm not buying you glasses

7:40

in 2045 ? Guess what ? I don't

7:42

need them because I have regular sunglasses I wear , wear

7:44

every day .

7:44

Ours are polarized , and I have the smarts

7:46

enough .

7:47

I'm not the smartest guy in the world , but I know

7:49

you're not supposed to look at the sun . Anyways

7:51

, the eclipse is so dumb . I'm sorry if that hurts

7:54

your feelings , but it is Last episode

7:56

. I was so excited for baseball season . It

7:58

was here baseball season , we heard the Red Sox were on fire

8:00

. They started the West Coast off on a great

8:03

road trip 7-3 . Way

8:05

better than expectations . And they

8:07

come home and they have no clue how to play

8:09

baseball . The Red Sox

8:12

defense I

8:14

gotta talk about it for just a minute . The Red

8:16

Sox defense is

8:19

embarrassing .

8:20

They cannot catch a ball . Two of your best

8:22

players . Yes , you

8:24

have , but this

8:26

doesn't mean that other people should not

8:29

know how to play . You're getting paid

8:31

millions .

8:32

All right , they are professional baseball players . Okay

8:35

, they should be able to field a routine

8:37

ground ball . They get paid millions

8:39

of dollars to field a routine

8:41

. They lead the major leagues in errors

8:43

. They're the worst defensive team in

8:46

the majors . Now I know Trevor Story went down . He's

8:48

an elite defender . Still

8:50

, our son is 11 years old . I

8:53

watched him Friday night take

8:55

a two-hopper where he's playing third base , field

8:57

a ground ball . It was hit to him . Guess what . He picked

8:59

it up , he fielded it , he threw it to first base

9:01

base and he got the out . He's 11 . Okay

9:05

, we've got major league players that see a ground ball

9:07

hit to him like oh , never seen this thing

9:09

before , not quite sure what I'm supposed to do

9:11

, and it just goes right between their legs . It

9:14

is so infuriating . These are grown men

9:16

, professional athletes , well filled

9:18

.

9:18

A ground ball the game that we just

9:21

watched is it over ?

9:22

it is over . They won five to four . They won surprisingly

9:25

.

9:25

But we saw , was

9:28

it Casas who was playing

9:30

third base .

9:30

No , no , bobby Dahlbeck was playing third base

9:32

.

9:34

Go to a ground ball , like

9:37

run out of position to a

9:39

ground ball , like it was

9:41

a do or die situation . You know you get

9:43

a do or die on the side and you come up firing

9:45

but then decides oh I

9:47

need to backhand this . Listen

9:50

, when it was a situation where you should have

9:52

barehanded , then it didn't even

9:54

get set to throw the ball

9:56

. I can understand if you're in a hurry and you throw the

9:58

ball , but bro

10:02

threw the ball so

10:04

high .

10:11

If you would have just made a regular throw shocker . Another air , mike trout would

10:13

have been out . It just it , it . It blows my mind that a professional

10:15

baseball player cannot field a basic

10:18

ground ball . I'm not asking for diving

10:20

plays all over the place , no , just make the

10:22

yes . Errors are going to happen , but but they happen

10:24

like this who was .

10:26

Who ? Did I say what's the kid's name ? He's

10:29

playing shortstop now and I said he's got the .

10:30

Mookie bits . Hamilton , david Hamilton , yes , hamilton .

10:33

So many new people I have . Well , listen people

10:35

get hurt . They just you know they

10:45

can't . Or was it the guy that's playing second base ? No , it was David Hamilton playing shortstop

10:47

. Got a great ground ball and just ran to tag

10:49

second . There was only one

10:51

out . The force was at two

10:53

.

10:54

Bro , why didn't ?

10:55

you throw to first base . I

10:57

just I have ninth

11:01

through 12th grade girls on our

11:03

varsity softball team that

11:05

, even if they don't

11:07

make the out at first

11:09

, we'll throw the

11:11

ball to first , because they're still

11:14

instinctively . Oh , double play , let's roll

11:16

.

11:16

Exactly . Well , my thought was you coach high

11:18

school softball , and how

11:21

infuriating is it when they just

11:23

they boot a routine play , they

11:25

make an error on just the most routine of plays

11:27

and you just you're like , well

11:30

, why do I even do this ? Okay , these

11:32

are professional baseball players and they cannot

11:35

make the routine play A

11:37

fee to play the

11:39

game .

11:39

These guys get paid to play

11:42

.

11:42

This is the only thing they have to do .

11:43

You've got nothing else to do , you've got one

11:45

job . Anyways , can't even do it .

11:47

Clean it up .

11:49

Get us off the Red Sox .

11:50

They could be well , my last thing is

11:52

a little bit about the red socks . So I'm watching the red socks

11:55

game um the opening

11:57

series against the orioles , like , like you know , I normally

11:59

watch the red socks games and we watch them and everything

12:01

, and you know how long the first and

12:03

third base sides they will have uh

12:06

, advertisements , like they'll have a company

12:08

who sponsors the team or anything . It's been

12:10

on there all weekend , it was on there again today and

12:12

it just I've had to look it up .

12:14

Oh , my God .

12:16

Instead of a regular advertiser . Like you know a

12:18

company that we would know , build

12:21

submarinescom , Build

12:25

submarinescom . So , of course , yeah , maybe

12:27

this is a great advertising idea . What

12:29

is buildinescom , Can I ?

12:32

guess .

12:32

So I of course look at BuildSubmarinescom .

12:34

Please don't tell me it's like some weird

12:37

toy .

12:38

Not at all .

12:39

It's the real thing .

12:40

In fact , it appears that the submarine market

12:43

is just tanking and we need people to build submarines

12:45

.

12:47

Well , the last one that went down

12:49

killed people listen , this is by

12:51

the united states .

12:52

Australia and the united kingdom have

12:54

come together , I guess , as some sort of united

12:57

nations thing . We need submarines . Apparently

12:59

there's hundreds of thousands of jobs available

13:02

all over the country for build

13:04

some and build submarinescom

13:06

. You know , we got , we got to get these submarines

13:08

built because apparently they're they're struggling

13:10

. They know that we don't I

13:13

don't know , but here's what I do know .

13:14

God told us he would . He made a promise

13:17

that he would not flood this earth anymore

13:19

well , here's my other thought with this brimstone

13:22

, so why ?

13:23

with water , build submarinescom

13:25

. Okay , I , you're trying to get these

13:27

, these submarines built because they're in a 501c

13:29

they're incredibly important . To build these submarines

13:31

, all right , but

13:33

of all the people in the entire world to go after , you

13:37

would have to . Red Sox fans Like

13:41

you were sitting in that big meeting and you were saying , hey

13:43

, you know what , we need these submarines built

13:45

ASAP . We're having the problem with

13:47

these submarines . So I think

13:49

the best place to do this would be Fenway

13:51

Park with a bunch of drunk Red Sox fans . Hold on

13:54

, let's get the reams built already

13:56

. All right , red Sox fans

13:58

, let's go .

13:59

Okay , well , are

14:02

there any other submarine

14:04

building type ?

14:06

of this is for the Navy . I don't

14:08

know .

14:10

Parks Not

14:15

to my knowledge . Okay , well , there might be .

14:15

But I kind of get why they're going to

14:19

fenway park , why they're putting it at fenway

14:21

because , harvard

14:23

harvard and mit

14:26

boston college boston college

14:28

b-u-i they're all right , there

14:30

they are , but I'm sorry

14:32

they need some geniuses .

14:34

And maybe they grew

14:36

up in Boston and it's a childhood thing

14:38

and they have season tickets and they're like , oh , wow

14:40

, or this place

14:43

got so much money , they just need to blow it .

14:45

Or that that's right . Or listen , they're saying

14:47

, hey , the Red Sox can't field anything . Maybe

14:56

we can get some of these guys to build . Build some of these submarines for us , maybe they

14:59

can . So listen , everybody get these submarines built , because the submarine market is

15:01

tanking . Okay , um , all right , gen z bible time . Really quickly

15:03

, before we , uh , get into it , luke

15:05

, uh , not luke mark , chapter

15:07

two this is the

15:09

man who was lifted down on the mat through

15:11

the house .

15:12

Oh boy .

15:14

So Jesus was back in Capernaum after a

15:16

while and word got out he was

15:18

chilling at this house . Immediately

15:21

a whole bunch of people gathered there Like seriously

15:23

, it was packed to the max . There

15:26

was no space even near the entrance and Jesus

15:28

started preaching his stuff . Then

15:32

these dudes showed up bringing a friend who was paralyzed and couldn't move on

15:34

his own . Yeah , he was being carried by four

15:36

guys , but the place was so crowded

15:39

that they couldn't get close to Jesus . So they got

15:41

creative and went to the roof above

15:43

him . They straight up busted a hole

15:45

in it and lowered their paralyzed buddy

15:47

on a bed . When Jesus

15:49

saw their strong faith , he was like yo , dude

15:52

, your sins are forgiven , bro . But

15:54

there were some scribes there sitting

15:56

around and thinking in their heads . They

15:59

were like why is this guy talking

16:02

about blasphemous stuff ? Only God

16:04

can forgive sins , man . Jesus sensed

16:06

that they were thinking like he had some crazy

16:08

spiritual power or something and he said to

16:10

them why are you having these deep thoughts

16:13

in your hearts , guys ? Then he dropped some knowledge

16:15

bombs on them , asking what's easier

16:17

to say your sins are forgiven , or get

16:19

up and grab your bed and walk to this paralyzed

16:22

dude ? But just to prove a point , jesus

16:24

was like check this out , my peeps . The

16:26

son of man has the power to forgive sins on earth

16:28

. The son of man has the power to forgive sins on earth . And then he turned this paralyzed

16:31

dude and said yo , dude

16:33

, get up , grab your bed and

16:35

head home . I love it , love

16:39

it . Yo , dude , get

16:41

up , grab your bed and go home .

16:44

Got a lot of that . We love the chosen .

16:47

Yes .

16:48

It's so now

16:50

, and relatable .

16:51

That's great , great , great show .

16:53

But could you imagine if they did ?

16:56

a modern day version

16:59

. That'd be awesome .

17:01

But made everything modern . Do

17:04

you think that when Jesus would

17:07

talk to people and do his

17:09

different sermons or

17:12

do his different parables , he'd be

17:14

texting ?

17:16

Texting while doing it Like

17:21

hold up , this is Peter , just hold up real quick .

17:23

No , they don't even say hold up , they just yeah Huh

17:27

. That's exactly what I'd be

17:29

like .

17:35

That is true , that would be fantastic .

17:36

that'd be a different take on it .

17:37

Please just give us a gen z episode . Gen

17:39

z episode , that's . That's all we're looking just one oh

17:42

, man , gotta love the gen z bible . So um

17:44

, to get into the actual episode of the day and we can

17:46

stop talking about building submarines and

17:48

eclipses and all that nonsense

17:51

. But

17:57

it is baseball related . We're baseball heavy today . All right , our son , cash

17:59

, was playing in a tournament this past week and Monday night he did not play well

18:01

. He had a difficult game . He just couldn't

18:04

seem to get out of an inning , couldn't throw strikes

18:07

. He was getting frustrated , had a whole lot on himself

18:10

, didn't have a good night at the plate . Played again the next

18:12

night , didn't pitch , but again

18:14

just did not have a good night . And he's been

18:16

in his head all season long he's been

18:18

stressed . It's just like he's not having fun

18:20

anymore and he's

18:22

even kind of mentioned like I just can't . He's

18:24

very , very frustrated , Extremely frustrated

18:26

, but frustrated . But you especially seem to have

18:28

this because we coach him um

18:31

yes , I coach , I coach him

18:33

, but when

18:35

you're not when you're not doing softball , you're coaching

18:37

him also um , but not

18:39

from behind the fence

18:41

or in the dugout . I am on the field

18:44

, just so like actually on the field

18:46

, like an official yes official coach

18:48

and I know men hate this idea of

18:50

a woman . Get over yourself already

18:52

. She knows more than you do anyways , but listen

18:55

. So we got home Tuesday night

18:57

. Yes , he was frustrated and

18:59

you kind of had this epiphany , because we're talking

19:01

about cash and just what he's going through

19:03

and how he's feeling everything .

19:05

Well , he rode home with me .

19:06

Yes , and it's heartbreaking to watch .

19:08

It's a serious heart-to-heart conversation

19:10

so kind of walk through that just because I

19:12

think it was that day I

19:15

went and bought him a new bat .

19:19

I think it was that day yeah , it may have been that

19:21

day that before that day , one of the two days , but

19:24

anyways he was riding home with you , so to kind of walk

19:27

us through that started using that bat that day

19:29

and the bat was because

19:31

when he gets

19:34

to middle school he'll be playing .

19:35

If he makes the team or tries out , he

19:37

will be playing for school ball now . So

19:40

he has to have a different bat . So

19:42

I got the bat . Super excited about

19:45

the bat . He was excited about the bat , couldn't wait to

19:47

use it . It's a little heavier . It's the same exact bat

19:49

. It has now just a different drop . Well

19:51

, the way home

19:53

it was , I

19:56

don't know if I want to play . We

20:00

were just discussing so many

20:02

different things and I just

20:04

straight up said buddy , if you don't want to play , that's fine

20:06

. You do not have to follow

20:08

in your parents' footsteps any

20:10

way

20:13

possible at all . We

20:15

are absolutely okay with it . If you don't want to play , don't

20:18

Don't play , because we want

20:20

you to play and that is

20:22

what a lot of parents need to

20:25

hear .

20:25

I was going to say . I think that because

20:28

it we can easily project on

20:30

our children these , these ideas

20:33

and these thoughts and a lot of pressure

20:35

that they feel that

20:37

they can only make their parents

20:39

happy and proud of them if they achieve

20:41

x , y and z . And when it comes to sports

20:43

, well , I need to be a good baseball player , I

20:46

need to be able to do this , I have to do this , otherwise

20:48

my parents aren't going to love me . They're going to think I'm

20:50

no good and I , I think unknowingly

20:53

. A lot of the times parents can push

20:55

that onto their kids without ever even realizing

20:58

it , and it's something that we've been really

21:00

adamant to let him know . Like you don't have to play baseball

21:02

for us to love you , we love baseball

21:04

and we know that you have loved

21:06

baseball . But if you don't and you don't want

21:09

to play , that doesn't make us feel any

21:11

different about you than we do right now .

21:12

And .

21:13

I think a lot of parents you're right need

21:19

to hear that and need to understand that that , just because their child doesn't do what you wanted

21:21

them to do , they need to know that , hey , I still love you and you still

21:23

matter and what you want matters and I still

21:25

care for you and , whatever your passion

21:28

is , I'm here as your parent to help , lead

21:30

and guide you and get you the things that you need to be

21:32

able to achieve that .

21:33

And the most of the parents that need to hear

21:35

that are the ones who probably

21:38

peaked in middle school and high school .

21:40

At times Absolutely .

21:42

It's hard to hear that

21:44

and sometimes , when it hurts , to

21:46

hear those things , you needed to hear it . To hear

21:48

those things , you needed to hear it . But what Cash

21:50

said next just

21:53

floored me . He

21:59

said he didn't know if he wanted to try out for middle school anymore because he was afraid

22:01

that he would not make it . Oh

22:03

, oh , that

22:10

sank my heart to my stomach

22:12

. I

22:15

didn't even know how to respond . We

22:20

got home , he went straight to the shower . I

22:22

went straight to making dinners and

22:24

you and Elkie were sitting in front of me and we were

22:26

talking . I was telling you about the

22:28

conversation and Elkie actually walked

22:30

up in the middle of the conversation and

22:32

she's just looking doing

22:37

her little fun faces .

22:38

She's being Elkie .

22:39

And I don't

22:41

know what came over me , because

22:44

I do push him . I

22:46

push him hard and he

22:49

wears his heart on his sleeve . He

22:51

does not want to hurt anyone's feelings

22:53

, so

22:59

he will not speak up if he thinks he's hurting my feelings or your

23:01

feelings . He will just suffer through whatever's happening . And that

23:04

hit me and I said , oh my gosh

23:06

, I

23:08

think I'm parenting completely wrong

23:10

, because

23:13

I know our children are different

23:15

. I parent

23:17

Elkie different than I do Cash

23:19

. So I just look at Elkie and

23:23

ask , am I too hard on your brother

23:25

? And

23:28

you just turn and looked at her and she goes

23:30

um .

23:32

That was the answer you needed to hear . And you just turned and looked at her and she goes um , that was the . That

23:34

was the answer you needed to hear . She didn't have to answer , that

23:36

was it .

23:37

I don't need to hear anything else . Thank you , that

23:40

hurt , I

23:42

didn't . I don't think

23:45

out I well , I personally think

23:47

outside the box all the time , but I never thought about

23:49

it as in a parenting thing . And I think we think outside the box all the

23:51

time , but I never thought about it as in a parenting thing and I

23:53

think we think outside the box when it comes

23:55

to parenting . I agree . But

23:57

in that moment it was

24:00

so I don't know . What

24:04

am I doing wrong ? What

24:06

am I doing right ? Am I doing

24:08

anything right with being a parent ? I

24:11

consider myself a big kid . And

24:15

then , of course , the weirdest thing

24:17

you know , those God winks . My

24:20

devotion the next morning was

24:22

God

24:25

looks at us like we are whole

24:28

, and the

24:30

best description is

24:33

take a mirror and

24:35

a mirror breaks when

24:37

you try to put that mirror back together . It's

24:40

not going to be

24:42

whole . There's going to be different pieces

24:45

and versions of yourself

24:47

. You're going to see different things and we

24:51

go and pick the version

24:53

we want and that

24:55

mirror and we we want and that mirror and we

24:57

just look in that one . In

24:59

reality , we're all broken , but

25:01

no matter how broken we are , god

25:04

still sees us as a whole . And

25:06

that that broke me like

25:08

what are you trying to do ? Cause

25:11

all I thought of was parenting . What

25:13

was I doing wrong ? What am I doing

25:16

right ? And then that devotion

25:18

popped up and I said , well

25:20

, where

25:36

do I go from here ? I don't , I let God handle it . And I look at him like God would look at me as a whole

25:38

. Yes , we're all broken , but that doesn't mean he is going to do all

25:40

of the things that I

25:43

want him to . I want him

25:45

to do all the things that he wants to

25:47

do . I've lived my

25:49

life , I've done so many cool

25:51

things , and maybe that's the difference

25:53

between me and a lot of other parents who live

25:56

vicariously through their kids , whether

25:58

it's a pageant mom or a

26:00

baseball dad . I've

26:04

had experiences where I don't have to live

26:06

through my children to

26:08

have a life . I don't have

26:10

to have my weekends filled with

26:12

out of town tournaments . I don't have to have my weekends filled with out-of-town

26:15

tournaments or my bank

26:17

account be drained because the most expensive

26:19

bag in my house is my

26:21

son's baseball bag .

26:23

And it is .

26:23

Because of the cleats and all the bats

26:25

. The bats the gloves , all

26:28

the things we

26:31

have to stop and let our kids

26:33

be kids .

26:33

Yes , we have to stop and let our kids be kids . Yes , now , as parents , we

26:36

are there to guide them and push

26:38

them in the right direction , just as the Lord

26:40

does for us , because when we want to take it

26:42

to our own hands , we will get off

26:44

of the path and we will see the shiny thing and think

26:47

that's the way that we're supposed to go . And we

26:49

are supposed to allow God to orchestrate

26:51

our lives , to say and correct

26:53

us and put the people in our lives to correct us

26:56

, to say , hey , you're getting outside of what I

26:58

have for you , let's get . But we're supposed to

27:00

do the same thing with our children . You know , we can't

27:02

just let all of our you know , our children to make all

27:04

their decisions on their own , otherwise

27:06

they , you know , we'll stick , you know , forks and

27:09

knives in the light sockets all the time . That's what parents

27:11

are supposed to do . But when it comes to

27:13

this and our children's

27:15

dreams and the things that they enjoy

27:17

and what they're passionate about , we

27:20

, as parents , I don't think are here to say

27:22

, well , hey , you have to play baseball , you

27:24

have to do dance , or you have to do this , or you have

27:26

to sing , or you have to do music , but

27:29

find out where your child is

27:31

passionate , where they excel

27:33

, and , as a parent , be able to guide them in

27:35

the correct way , towards whatever

27:38

that passion is . Because

27:40

when it comes to baseball , for Cash , I

27:42

mean , he's been passionate about it his whole life , but

27:45

that may not be the thing for him and it may be we

27:48

don't know and it's really up to him . He's 11

27:50

. He's 11 . We're here to support him in

27:52

whatever he decides . The biggest thing for us is

27:54

to make sure that he puts God

27:57

first and really lets God push

27:59

him in the right path , and for us to

28:01

be aligned with God to make sure that we are the

28:04

ones who push him in the right path , because

28:06

if we're outside of him , then it gets

28:08

all sorts of messed up .

28:09

It does . But I remember after

28:11

that happened that morning , everything

28:14

got canceled on Wednesday because of storms

28:17

. So we were sitting

28:20

on the couch I

28:22

want to say we were probably watching baseball . Cash

28:25

is sitting to my right , you're

28:28

sitting to my left , we're on the couch

28:30

facing the TV and

28:32

Cash just starts talking about oh

28:38

, I don't

28:40

know if I could do

28:42

that . And

28:45

without hesitation I turn and look at Cash and I said

28:47

Cashman , do not . Oh , it was the guy

28:51

that was throwing like 101 or something

28:53

.

28:53

Yes .

28:54

I can't remember who we were watching , but Cash goes . I don't

28:56

think I could ever hit that . And I said , cashman

28:59

, don't ever let the fear

29:01

of striking out stop

29:03

you from playing the game . And you were like , oh

29:05

my gosh , baby , that's so good . And I

29:07

said , oh my gosh , that's

29:09

Babe Ruth . And you're like I

29:13

never knew that I didn't know that I just schooled

29:15

my husband on a baseball mark

29:18

that one down , would you ? but

29:22

he goes . Whoa

29:25

, I said , don't be scared to strike out . That

29:28

guy just struck out they all do .

29:30

There's one big thing to learn that you you know , especially

29:33

in baseball , it's the most difficult sport there

29:35

is . It is a game of failure

29:37

where if you fail seven

29:39

out of 10 times , you're a future Hall

29:41

of .

29:41

Famer Right .

29:43

There's nothing else out there like it where you can fail

29:45

that often and be considered great , and

29:48

that's hard , hard for any . I mean , failure is

29:50

difficult , but we all learn from our failures . That's

29:52

why baseball is so difficult and that's

29:54

the challenge that he's facing right now

29:56

is he's experiencing some failure

29:59

and things not going , because last year

30:01

, you know , he hit like 800 and

30:03

never didn't get a hit and struck everyone

30:05

out . And he's facing challenges . This year

30:08

.

30:08

I mean , he was inches away from

30:10

hitting baseballs

30:12

out of big , big

30:14

fields .

30:15

Big parks and he's just he's experiencing

30:17

. He's

30:22

experiencing some challenges , um , which overall is good for him , not just if he continues to play the

30:24

sport , but in life , to know that , hey , things are going to challenge you , you're

30:26

going to hit roadblocks , it's going to be hard

30:28

, it's going to be frustrating , you're going to want

30:31

to quit , but this is going

30:33

to teach him that , hey , I can overcome this

30:35

. That I don't think I can , but I most certainly

30:37

can . The other thing that you said before we go you

30:40

know , the mirror is such a great

30:42

, great example , and

30:44

I think that the enemy does such a great job

30:46

of making sure we're focusing

30:49

on just that one broken not that one broken

30:51

piece , but that particular broken piece where

30:54

maybe we ruined this relationship

30:56

, or maybe we failed in this or we failed

30:58

in that , and we're so focused on that where we never

31:00

see the whole . And

31:03

I thought that was just so , so good that

31:05

you know , have to be reminded . I think we have to be

31:07

reminded daily that God sees us as

31:09

the whole , and if we can see

31:11

ourselves as the whole and see our spouses

31:14

and our children as the whole

31:16

and not a a sum of the broken pieces

31:18

, um , it can completely change

31:20

the way we have our relationships absolutely

31:23

. Church is the people yep

31:27

and the people are broken yeah

31:29

, I mean it's a hospital for broken

31:32

people it is a hospital and

31:34

as long as the church remains a hospital

31:36

for the broken , it

31:39

can be a place where people are able

31:41

to get pieced back together and being

31:43

viewed in the eyes of God , or being viewed whole

31:45

and not as some of your jacked up

31:47

, messed up , broken mistakes

31:50

.

31:50

It's the only way you can move forward .

31:51

It's the only way we can move forward .

31:53

Yep .

31:53

So I thought that was good , but we got to go , got

31:56

to get out of here . That was awesome , though

31:58

. Build those submarines , guys

32:00

. Got to get those submarines built . We got to get out

32:02

of here . On a lighter note , make sure we build the submarines

32:05

already . Praise out Pat God we love you , we're

32:07

so thankful for what you're doing to

32:16

our relationships . God , when it comes to the mirror , just help us be reminded that you see us as

32:18

the whole . You see us for who we are . You call us by name . You do not

32:20

call us by our mistakes , you don't call us

32:22

by our past , but you call us by

32:25

name , and in all of our relationships

32:27

with our children , with our families , that

32:29

we just can be reminded of that and that they too

32:32

are whole , that they're not a part of their broken

32:34

past , that they too need to be

32:36

called by name , and that you will just we

32:38

will allow you to lead us in

32:40

every aspect of our lives and just trust the path

32:43

that you have for us . In Jesus name , we pray Amen

32:45

.

32:46

Amen Play ball .