SR 896: Teaching Bible: Help Your Kids Study the Word Effectively – Kim Sorgius Jones, Part 2 (Homeschooling Every Subject)

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He is powerful. He is good. He

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is, you know, sufficient. He is. I mean, like, just go on and on. If

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you know those things, then you’re like, well, I know God. So

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because I know Him, I can trust him with this very hard

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situation. Hey, everyone, this is Yvette Hampton.

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Welcome back to the Schoolhouse Rocked Podcast. I am so glad you are back with

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Kim and I. Today we are talking about how to study God’s word.

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And this is always my favorite topic to talk about because, well,

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the Bible is my favorite topic to talk about. I mean, there’s

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this. If I could only have one book, you know, if

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any of us could only have one book, if we were stranded on an island

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and we could only take one book with us, what book would it be? Take

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the Bible. Take God’s Word with you because it’s full of all sorts of amazing

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stories, and most importantly, it’s full of God’s truth and that’s what

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we need for our families. So we are going to get back into our conversation,

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but before we do, I want to say thank you to our sponsor, BJU Press

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Homeschool. For those of you who are looking for really good, strong

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biblical worldview curriculum, check them

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out at bjupresshomeschool.com and they’ve got something for

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everybody. Whatever grade, whatever subject, whatever age your kids are, they’ve

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got something for you. And if you don’t know what you need, you have a

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hole in your homeschool somewhere, and you don’t know how to fill that hole, and

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you’re not sure exactly what you need. Call them up, talk to one of their

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consultants, and they will help walk you through what’s best for your family.

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Bjupresshomeschool.com. Well, Kim,

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welcome back to the podcast. If you guys missed Monday’s episode, go back and

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listen to that. That was the kind of kickoff to this week

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that we’re talking about how to study the Bible. We are at the end of

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our series on teaching every subject. And as I said on

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Monday, this is the grand finale because this is the most important

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subject to teach. And hopefully all of the other subjects that you’re teaching are

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also pointing your kids to Jesus. But the most important thing, as we talked about

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on Monday, is knowing the word of God. And so I want

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to talk about. I know you’ve got a free Bible study that

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people can download. It’s fantastic. I downloaded it some time ago. It’s been a

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couple of months, and it’s called the Best Family Ever, which I

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Love the title of that. Because the best family is the one. You know, you

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hear. The family that prays together stays together. Well, the family that prays

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together stays together. The family that reads the Bible together stays together.

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And it is so important for us as families to be in God’s

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Word together. And so this is a free study that you have. And in there

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you talk about some specific things that I want to walk through today. And one

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of them is the purpose of Bible study. And

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so really, when we get down to it, what is the purpose

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of studying the Bible, and why should we teach our kids to do this?

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Yeah. So first, above all, number one is

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so that we can know God and we

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have to know God. And a lot of times people will come and say, you

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know, I’m struggling with this thing, and, you know, I can’t trust. I don’t know

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if I can trust the Lord. And the answer to that is always, that’s

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because you don’t know Him. Because if you knew him, you

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could trust him with that thing. Whatever it is, how big, however big it is,

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however heavy it is, it’s trusting God.

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The key to trusting God is knowing him

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and knowing him as deeply as possible. There’s

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only one way to get that, and that’s through His Word. That’s what he

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tells us is the only one way to get that. So. So the most

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important reason to study the Bible is so that you can

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know him better. So you know he’s loving, you know

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he is good, you know he’s all powerful. He can change a situation,

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you know, you know all of the things about Him. So that’s number one.

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Can I pause you right there for a second? Because, Kim, you and I

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ask you this. I’m going to somewhat put you on the spot, but I know

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you’ve been very public about your testimony, and I don’t want to get

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too far derailed, but you have a pretty incredible testimony. And there’s

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a reason why your ministry is called Not Consumed. Because

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you’re not saying this just like, well, if you go through hard times,

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just trust God. And the way you trust him is because you know him,

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you have been through some really difficult times. And so I don’t want to park

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here too long, but just can you give us kind of a brief

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overview of what God has done in your life and how he has

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shown his faithfulness through some of the tough things that you’ve been

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through or. So when

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my oldest child was 8 years old, I had four children.

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One was a newborn My husband left,

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and that was kind of the beginning of our

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storm that, you know, we faced. And I

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became a single mom, as in, like,

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got evicted from our house, had to go on food

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stamps, trying to figure out how to make. Make

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it all work. I had so many small kids, I couldn’t even

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go back to work because the daycare was going to cost me too much.

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So, you know, I. I was in a box, a for sure

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box. And I had to figure out, you know, what do I need to do

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here? And very quickly the Lord showed me, you don’t have to do

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anything but trust me, you know, and. And I

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remember very clearly thinking, and we had, we don’t need that. We could park here

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for a long time. But I remember very clearly thinking, yeah, I mean,

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her up in church and, you know, I have been through some things in

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life, none of which I would consider to be that hard now that I’ve been

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through the harder things. Right. Yeah. But, you know, you know, I have been

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through some things. And, you know, I had. I’m literally three

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services a week from, you know, childhood. I had been saved for

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many, many years. But I sat there and thought, I don’t know

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how to trust God. I have no idea. What does that look

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like practically. And I find that over the years, as I’ve talked to other

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single moms and people with lots and lots of other problems, because that

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is one of many that we all face. Right? Yeah,

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that is a big issue. We don’t know how to trust God because people

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tell you to do it, but they don’t really give you the tools to do

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it, because there are no tools other than what I just said.

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We have to know Him. Amen. And it’s coming into that place

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of figuring out, oh, he is powerful,

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he is good. He is, you know, sufficient. He

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is. I mean, like, just go on and on. If you know those things, then

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you’re like, well, I know God. So because I know Him,

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I can trust him with this very hard situation which

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came into play even more so several years

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later when that baby, who was, you know,

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just days old when his daddy left, got

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cancer. He got a brain tumor and when he

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was 6. And that was yet

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another time for me to figure out, well, what does it look like to trust

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God now? Yeah, and it is different. It’s different, you

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know, when you’re trusting him with health versus your

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financial situation. It’s different when you’re trusting him with, like, a situation

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with your children and what they’re facing. And you Know, there’s

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nothing in life that makes you feel more out of control and

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helpless because then your child is suffering and you can’t

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change it. You know, you can’t do anything. And so it’s just

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a different season of learning and having to go back

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and say, okay, what do I know to be true about God? How, how,

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how. Who is he? And, and what. What does the Bible tell

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me about him? What can I hold on to right now? And that is the

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key to knowing, you know, trusting him, knowing him.

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And that is the sole reason I believe. I mean, we have two more

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to talk about, but to me, it is the top thing because it’s the thing

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we need the most. Right. You know, when, when my children are struggling with,

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like, the consistency of getting into the Bible and,

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you know, because that’s something we all struggle with. Right? Sure.

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Sometimes just life gets in the way and you just don’t get in there and,

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you know, whatever. And I’ll usually let it go for a little while, and

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then they start to struggle with something, and I’m like, you know,

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there’s an answer to what you’re struggling with. Yeah.

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You know, how we find it, and then we have to go back

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and say it’s the word. That’s where we get this, you know, and.

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And I see that you’re struggling with this. And in part it’s because,

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you know, the other things have gotten in the way. And I mean, it’s. It

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happens. It happens to me. It happens to everyone. And so we realize, oh,

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wait, you know, I’ve been trusting myself. I’ve been trusting

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good circumstances. We love to trust our good circumstances. You know, we

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think all these, all these things in our lives, you know, we can trust these

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things. We can’t trust those things. You know, I mean,

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I remember once in the hospital right after

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my son had his tumor removed,

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a friend of mine said, you know, how do you,

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like, face the fact that your son might die?

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And I said, I just, I. I want to say this very

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genderly to you, but how do you face the fact that your son might

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die? Wow. She’s like, what do you mean? And I said, it’s just as

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likely. It’s not different. It’s just,

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I know of this thing, and it’s a giant thing. It’s a huge tumor.

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It’s a big deal. You know, you don’t know what might happen

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tomorrow. You don’t know what bus might, you know, be in the wrong

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place, what hurricane might wash your house away. Let’s Talk about that.

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I mean, reality, Right. Like, there’s so many things that we don’t know that

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we don’t have control over. Right. And so when we, you know,

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we think, oh, we’ve got these good circumstances, so we’re cool, but that’s not

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true. Yeah. Like, we cannot rest in those things. We can only rest in

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who God is. Right. And we can’t rest in that if we don’t know it.

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So that’s number one.

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We are back with Kim. Kim, thank you so much for sharing that and taking

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that little detour with us. I know God has been so faithful to you

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and to your family even through the storms. And recently we

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sent out an email and just

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recognizing what’s going on with so many people as the storms were coming through and

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Hurricane Helene and so many people suffering from that. And, you

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know, Florida, North Carolina, all the. All the states, like, everybody’s

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just suffering, struggling. I know even where you guys are, a lot of people

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got really hit, lost electricity, you know, all sorts of stuff.

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And the Lord put this hymn on my heart. It’s in Christ Alone.

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And this is my favorite hymn, hands down. And as we’re

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talking about the purpose of studying the Bible, I

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was thinking again about this hymn, and it’s in Christ alone, my hope

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is found. He is my light, my strength, my song

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this cornerstone, this solid ground Firm through

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the fiercest drought and storm. What heights of love, what depths

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of peace when fears are stilled, when strivings cease,

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My comforter, my all in all, here in the love of Christ I stand.

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And man, I think about that. And even through the line

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that says firm through the fiercest drought and storm,

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we can look to God, but we have to know him in order to be

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able to look to Him. And so as we’re talking about the purpose of Bible

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study and you say to know him so that we can trust him. We know

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his character. We know who he really is as God. We know that he is

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good even in the storms. That is. I mean, we could stop

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there as the number one purpose for studying the Bible. But I know you’ve got

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two others that you talk about, so let’s dig into the other two as well.

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All right, so the second one has to do with who.

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What God has for us to do here on Earth. And, you know, people often

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are trying to find. Find their purpose. They’re trying to figure it out. It’s not

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a job, it’s not a career path. It’s not a. It’s not even

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a ministry yeah, it’s the one thing that he gives us in the Bible, and

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that’s to share the Gospel. That’s to share him with

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other people. So that’s our second reason for studying the

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Bible is we want to learn, discern, and

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share the truth with other people. So when they’re having a

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storm in life and something is not right, we can share the

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truth with them. And when they need to know Jesus, we can share

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the truth with them. And that is what we’re called to do. Above

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all, that’s our purpose and God’s will concerning

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us is to be able to share those

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things with others. And then lastly

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is to enjoy a deeper relationship with them, which I think we kind of leave

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out. But we’re kind of like, well, we got to do this. It’s not a

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box to check off, because we’ve got to do it right. You know, it helps

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us. Right? This is going to help us with life. It’s our purpose because it’s

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going to, you know, give us the tools that we need to do what God

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has called us to do. But most importantly, he wants us to have fellowship with

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him and he wants us to enjoy that time with Him. And studying the

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Bible gives you the opportunity to go deeper with that.

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And you won’t get that with just sitting in the

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pew on Sunday or even just glancing over a few

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verses, like, really getting in there. It just gets you excited,

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and you’re like, wow, Lord. Like, that’s what you mean by this. And, you

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know, that’s what this really is. And it. It becomes more of an

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almost a conversation that you’re having with him, you know, and you’re sitting

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here thinking, wow, like, this is so neat, and I can’t believe you did this.

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And, like, look at that, you know, and it’s a different. It’s a different feeling.

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Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, with any relationship that we have,

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we can read about somebody, you know, that maybe a hero that we

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have, we can read all about them. But unless we talk to them and spend

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time with them, we’re not going to have a relationship with them. And so it’s

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the same with the Lord, you know, we’ve got to spend time with him as

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often as possible. And sometimes that in these

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hard seasons, you know, where maybe a mom’s got a bunch of little

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kids, she’s got four kids under the age of five, and she’s like, I don’t

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have time to sit down. You know, right now, I’m in a season in my

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life. Where my girls are older, I get up long before they get

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up. And I can sit for an hour and just read through my bible

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and pray and spend time with the Lord. But it wasn’t always that way. And

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so for those parents who maybe they’re just. They’ve got little ones tugging at

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their heels all day long, that’s okay. You can

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still do it while your kids are doing that, it’s not going to look perfect.

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Like you said in the beginning on Monday, it looks messy,

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but so that they see that it’s important to you. And then maybe

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just if you’re in a season where you cannot sit in quiet

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and focus, having the Bible read to you, you know,

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just putting it on play, I mean, everybody has. Most people have cell

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phones and they can get the youversion Bible and you can hit play

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and it’ll read it to you. I mean, there are so many different ways today

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that we have, where we have access to God’s word

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so that we’re spending time with him and building that relationship with him. Talk for

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a minute about prayer. You talked about the importance of praying

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and that obviously goes along

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with Bible study. Talk about prayer. And how do

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we, how do we teach our kids how to pray in a way

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that is effective? And by effective, I don’t mean he’s going to answer all of

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our prayers exactly the way that we want him to. You’ve learned that that’s not

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always the case. I’ve learned that’s not always the case. But how can we pray

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in a way that’s effective? Yeah. So I think there’s a couple of things

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that we need to consider when it comes to kids in prayer. One of them

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is they don’t remember. And we don’t either, actually. So

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it’s really good to keep some kind of record. And,

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you know, we, we’re really quick to keep records of wrongs.

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And, you know, we can remember all of those, but when good things happen, we

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don’t remember them. And so if you have, I mean, it can

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be just a straight up notebook. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, you know,

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whatever you have, if you have a way that you can record,

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you know, just the things that you’re praying for and the

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praises. Right. Because we forget those. We’re like, we’ve

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prayed for so and so. He was in the hospital so long and he’s out,

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he’s healed, and your kids don’t even have to know so and

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so to actually benefit from seeing that, they’re like, this is

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A guy at our church that I’ve never met, but we’ve been praying for him

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because he has cancer. And look at that now, you know, he’s in remission.

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And we’ve seen God answer this prayer. And you kind of write that

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down. That way you can recount those things.

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That’s what Isaiah tells us to do. Just recount all the good deeds, all of

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the things that he’s done. And so if we can get that down, that should

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be a part of our prayer together as a family. Again, it’s

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messy. Don’t make it like, if we don’t get this down every single day, we

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might as well throw it away. Like, it’s not going to be like that. Just

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have something where you can record these things.

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Actually, when my kids were little, what we did goes along.

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We actually recommend it in the free family Bible study was we

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kept stones because the family Bible study covers Joshua

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4. It talks about setting up stones to remember

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so that their kids. Kids would know that they got

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past the Jordan, across the Jordan, you know, on dry land, and all the things

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that the Lord had done. Right. And they were people who

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forgot constantly. We are, too. And so we. I wanted

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that for my kids. So we started collecting. We had just a. A giant

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vase and there were stones. And every time the Lord would provide,

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you know, a meal, every time the Lord, which back

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then was. Was hard, you know, we were eating out of food banks, we were

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eating out food stamps and stuff. So, like, you know, it was. It

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was an amazing blessing for us at that time to see it.

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But then you get past that and you get to the place to where now

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the Lord is providing, you forget, oh, wait, remember when he

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literally gave us food when we didn’t have anything? And so having

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those stones with a little writing on them was just very valuable for

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us, you know, in those years as we were

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recounting. So it doesn’t have to be stones. It can be a notebook.

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But do something like that. And the other thing that I’ll say about prayer when

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it comes to kids is they don’t have ideas. So if

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you’ve ever noticed, you know, your child will say, dear Jesus, thank you

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for this day. Thank you. You know, help us have a good day tomorrow. You

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know, thank you for this food. Amen. You know. Right. Like, they don’t know what

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to say. Why? Well, it’s not because they’re not spiritual. It’s not because they don’t

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love Jesus or anything like that. It’s just they don’t have the

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experience and. And they need it. They need to

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learn. So we actually have a product that I didn’t

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pull over here, but that goes through and gives

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you ideas of things to pray for. You don’t have to buy

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a product. You can make a list, whatever, you know, whatever

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works for you. Make a list of the kinds of things that your kids can

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pray for. From missionaries to the

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president to the election to, you

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know, people. Like, right now we would be praying for people

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in, you know, that have been affected by the storms. You know, all of

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those kinds of things that we should be praying for. If we keep some kind

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of a list of, you know, those open, generic kinds

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of things, then our kids have ideas,

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and then their prayers get much deeper. And they aren’t just

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rote. They aren’t just, you know, fake. They’re not fake. I

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don’t think our kids are ever praying in a fake way. Just that they don’t

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know, right, what to say. They don’t have extra things

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to say. So it feels so rote that it feels fake.

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And so I think those two tools, those two particular

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things, will go a long way and really helping train your kids,

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you know, to really experience the benefit of

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talking to the Lord. Yeah, when my girls were little,

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actually, I guess it was when Brooklyn was little, probably around kindergarten, first

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grade, we had a journal that we had. And I remember we

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had different columns. And so

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we had, you know, praying for immediate family, praying for extended family, praying for our

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church leaders, praying for missionaries, praying for

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our government leaders, and all these things. And so. And we would put specific

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names in each of those columns, and then we would pray through them. And I

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think I had it divided at that time, even by, like, the day of the

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week. So Mondays we would pray for a specific

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thing or person. Tuesdays the same. And. And it really

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does help our kids to understand it’s not just, thank you for this food, help

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us have a good day. Amen. You know, I mean, praise God for that. You

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know, nowhere in the Bible does it say we have to pray before every single

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meal. But most Christian families do, right? And

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it’s because we want to recognize God’s goodness and providing the food for us

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and the resources that we have, but taking them one step beyond

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that and helping them to recognize, like, this is really how to pray. And I

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love keeping a journal. I’m not great at journaling,

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but I have many journals. I say I’m not

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great at it because some people journal every single day. I don’t, but I have

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Lots of journals where I can go back and look and see the prayers that

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God has answered. And as a matter of fact, we had something this week that

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happened. And I told my husband, I said,

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I’m really struggling with prayer. I’m going to be totally transparent right now to

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you and my audience. I said, I’m really struggling with prayer because I feel oftentimes

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like I pray and like, my prayers just bounce off the walls, you

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know, like God’s just not hearing what I’m asking

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for. And I’m not asking in selfishness. I’m not asking for my own

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gain. I’m, like, legitimately asking, God, help us through this particular

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thing or whatever it is, or help this other person through this particular thing.

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And I said, I’m just struggling right now with prayer, and I know

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God is faithful, but sometimes it’s hard for me to see

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that. And I think it was either that day or the next day. This just

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happened within the last few days, but it was either that day or the next

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day. He was, for some reason, searching through pictures, just old pictures

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from our family of the past few years. And he came across

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this picture. And we were in a season several years ago, I guess

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it was about four years ago, where we were trying to get the

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movie done, and we were trying to get moved into a house. And there, I

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mean, so many things were happening. And I was like, God, where are you?

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Like, I just. Please just show up. We need. We

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need these prayers answered. And I really wanted them answered the way that

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I wanted them answered, of course. Anyway, God showed up. He was so

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faithful. He put us, you know, moved us to Oklahoma, put us in

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this amazing house, has provided just an incredible

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life for us here. Not that it hasn’t been hard. It has certainly come with

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its challenges. But we took a picture. I’m going somewhere with

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this, somehow, someday. I took a picture

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of this sign that we had purchased, and it just says

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thankful on it. And it’s sitting on this table on this big blank wall. Because

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when we moved into this house, we had no furniture at all. Like, I

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mean, basically nothing. We had mattresses, and that was about it. And so we had

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to furnish the entire house. And that was. I mean, God just came through. It

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was incredible. But there was this picture of this table that someone

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gave us with this sign that just says thankful. And it’s sitting on

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this big, empty wall with no other furniture. And he said,

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you’ve got to come in here and see this picture. And he said, look at

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this picture. Look at where God has brought us in the last three and a

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half, four years. And I was like,

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yeah, he is faithful. He is good. He does

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hear our prayers and he doesn’t always answer them in our time. He doesn’t always

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answer them the way that we want them to be answered. But he is a

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loving and kind and faithful God. Which goes back to knowing his character.

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Which goes back to. That’s why we study the Word of God, so that we

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can know him, we can know his character, and we can pray in confidence

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knowing that he has a good plan for whatever it is that we’re going

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through. So anyway, we’ve got lots more to talk about, but we’re out of time.

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So we’re going to come back tomorrow, finish this conversation. Kim, tell our audience

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more time where they can find out more about you and your ministry. Yeah, you

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can check us out@notconsumed.com all right, super

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easy. We’ll of course put links in the show, notes to Not Consumed and all

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of her amazing resources that she has, which we’ll talk a little bit more about

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tomorrow. Thank you guys so much for being with us. We are so

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grateful for you. If there’s any way we can be praying for you. Speaking of

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prayer, send us an email at

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podcast@schoolhouserocked.com and we find it a joy and an

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honor to be able to pray alongside of you. Have a great rest of your

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day. Stay tuned at the very end to hear a clip of what’s coming up

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next and we’ll see you back here tomorrow. Bye.