Parenting: Raising Up Godly Leaders — Shane Idleman

Raising Up Godly Leaders Through Every Influence

This is an interesting message this morning because as you're going through Proverbs, there are topics that are not going to be able to relate to everyone. The one this morning is parenting, raising up godly leaders.

Raising up godly leaders, but I said that to say this, all of us are going to be able to benefit from this message. Whether you don't have children, whether your children are gone, whether you're single and not there yet, the principles in Proverbs are very important.

Here's why. All of you in this room are influencing someone. I don't know, Shane, you are. Every single person in this room, I don't care how old you are or how young you are, you are influencing somebody.

Somebody is looking at your life and if you live my life, you live in a fishbowl. So many people say, how can you live in a fishbowl? Well, you do too. You just don't know it. People are watching you.

So that's what we're going to talk about this morning. All of us can glean from this message and I'm going to cover just four or five things from the book of Proverbs. Number one, to raise godly leaders.

Preparing for Godly Leadership Before Parenthood

That's what we look at children as future leaders and maybe grandchildren. Can anyone relate now? You know what, I was looking over the last two years worth of memorial services I've done or have been to.

Something that always stood out and still does is when kids come up here and they say, my grandpa or my grandma meant the world to me. They influenced me. They read the Bible. We've missed how important that role is of being a grandparent.

Actually, you can get away with a lot more. You can let them eat whatever they want, stay up late, root beer floats, and they love you. It's when they come back to the parents that we have to do that hard job of reeling them back in.

So, grandparents, those who are single, get these principles in your spirit now. Or if you haven't have children yet, get these principles in your spirit now because you don't just come to the altar and say, I do, and then become a man or woman of character.

You don't raise godly children the day you say, I do. You raise them early on before you even have them. It's something you're putting in your heart that God's working in your life. And I was gonna wait to the end, but this this keeps coming up.

I also want to encourage you because I know people are gonna hear this sermon and they're gonna think it's too late. I wish I would have known that 25 years ago. And I don't know how God does it, but he does it.

Once we get back on track with our mindset, once we say, Lord, I did blow it, would you would you begin to rebuild those years? Would you begin to rebuild my influence? Would you still bring that prodigal son home, Lord, even though I wasn't a good example?

He will hear those prayers. So you don't have to live in regret. Oh, because God says, give me your regret and watch what I do with it. He always, give me your regret and watch what I do with it, if the heart is right.

So don't sit here in regret. Just sit here pondering the goodness and grace of God. Number one, to raise godly leaders, you must embrace your role. What do you mean by that, Shane? Well, here's what I mean by that.

Embracing the Spiritual Role of Parents

You are stewarding God's gift. Selfishness must die. And if this was one sermon I would go sit in the audience on, it would be this one. Because this is an area we all have to work on. But to truly lead and guide children and train them up in the way they should go, you have to, number one, you understand or you embrace your role.

Okay, my role isn't, this might be a surprise, but my number one role isn't to pastor. Your number one role isn't to work and pay the bills and make the money. That's what you do. But the role, who God designed you to be, us to be, is to lead and influence others.

Especially when it comes to our children. See, that will make, that will change because now you put things into perspective. It's not business, you know how many people have destroyed their marriage because they sought more money?

Because they went after careers and dreams that are not God and good and God-given? And they're following all these things. And I hear it all the time, but Shane, in five years things will slow down and then I can spend time with my family.

I've never seen that come to fruition. Of course there are exceptions, but we're always following. So get your focus in front of you. It has to start here. Okay, parents, this is going to go out to different people, a lot of people will hear this who are parents.

Your role is to raise godly children. That's the primary goal, to have this wonderful relationship with the Lord and God and then you take that and then you invest into others. And then yes, you work.

Yes, you have priorities. And yes, you have activities and you do different things. But that has to be your main role. And maybe I'm over clarifying this, but I saw this all the time, especially working in the industry I did and the different places I did.

Men thought that their main role was to pay the bills. What do you hear? What do you hear often? I pay the bills in this house. It's like I make the money here. I go to work. That's not your primary responsibility because you can succeed at business and fail at home.

It happens all the time. So of course the scripture I'll be jumping off and on of all the time is Proverbs 22 .6. Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.

They will not turn from it. Now just on that scripture I could spend the next hour. So I'm going to try to just throw in some other things here. Proverbs 4, 1 -4. Hear my children, hear my children, the instruction of a father and give attention to no understanding.

Now he's talking to the kids here. He's encouraging them. Listen to your father. Give attention to understanding. But then it hit me like a ton of bricks this week. That's not just for kids. That's for us.

That could be God saying, God listen to all of us, my children. Listen to my instruction. Give attention to what I'm saying. Listen to me for I give you good doctrine. That means good teaching. What I give you is good and right.

And do not forsake my law. Do not leave it. When I was my father's son, tender and the only one in the sight of my mother, he also taught me and said to me, let your heart retain my words and keep my commands and live.

So we get this from this text. Here, open your ears and focus your attention on understanding God's truth. Where you lead, others will follow. See that's not just a parenting verse. We can't say, well I don't have kids or they're growing too bad.

No. God's saying here, open your ears. And I would say that's one of the greatest needs in the church today is to open their ears. Listen to my understanding. Listen to my ways. Listen to my commands.

Focus your attention on understanding my truth because where you go, where you lead, others will follow. So who's leading us? That's why I often say Hollywood or the Holy Spirit. There's your choices.

I just remember when I used to speak at men's conferences, I would always make that point about those motorcycle shows and fathers watching these and fathers watching these programs and fathers while their kids are there just dying spiritually.

Dying to spend time with their fathers. But they're watching and doing all these things that have nothing to do with God's truth. Please don't misunderstand. I'm not talking about entertainment, having fun with your kids, but teaching and training has to be the priority.

And here's why your prayer time and your reading time, spending time in God's word is absolutely and completely essential here. This is why we push this issue so much. Fathers, your reading time, your time with God, it's essential here.

How are you going to teach people what you don't know yourself? How are you going to lead them where you have not yourself been? The only way I can teach my children heartfelt worship and time in God's word is if I do it.

They might not like it, but drag them out of bed at six in the morning. Get them here to morning worship. Let them see it sometimes. Because I know there will come a time years from now where God will bring back that thought and they'll remember, oh, I remember my dad on his face at the altar praying for my family.

I remember that. You're putting these impressions into their mind, what it looks like. Mothers teach and nurture, but fathers must be involved in shaping character. But this is a good reminder here that both of you must be in agreement in certain areas.

Unity, Priorities, and Spiritual Direction in the Home

There's something I talked about yesterday. We had a staff elder deacon luncheon type thing. I mentioned the word synergy. Do you know what that is? Synergy is the definition. I probably should have looked it up because I probably messed up the definition.

When you take a couple different things or a couple different people, the work that they're doing, the sum workload of what they're doing is far greater than what one person can accomplish on their own.

It's not one plus one equals two. It's one plus one equals three or four or five. There's synergy. So when the wife and the husband, the spouse come together, they get on the same page and they say, we're following Christ and that's the direction we're taking our children and there's unity there.

Now, of course, my husband's not saved or my wife's not saved and that's impossible. Shane, I understand that. Please don't misunderstand. But God will do. You plus God is synergy. So don't worry about the spouse that isn't coming along.

I'm not talking about that right now. I'm talking about those who can be on the same page, those who can go in the same direction. And you might disagree. I've seen this before. You might disagree on discipline, what that looks like.

But do not disagree on direction. What direction is our family going? What direction are we taking our children? And that's why it is challenging because sometimes even with my wife and I, she'll tell you too that that's why we have to get in the same direction because sports comes in, doesn't it?

Or this comes in. When my daughter's gymnastics is really good and my son, at eight years old, we have three travel ball teams that were wanting him to play at eight years old. I'm like, oh that sounds great.

The flesh, right? And then when you see what's involved and what happens is you begin, God begins to go on the back burner and all these other things are in the forefront and we are teaching them that you can put God to the back and focus on these other things.

God is not a priority. So be careful. That's all I'm saying. So I don't want to get an email saying, you say I can't do sports? Of course not. I think it's important. I think you should coach your kid's team and be involved.

But be careful what that priority is. And be careful you can say no also. Little League tried to get me to do things on Sunday. I said I'm not available. They actually changed the schedule around on all the games so I could make some of the games when I was coaching.

I said I can't do that. If you want me to coach, then here's what you need to do. And they did it. So there is ways and God will begin to honor that. But again, there are disagreeing on little issues.

But what direction are we going? The direction is to follow Christ. The direction is to see it resembled in our homes. And in case some of you are mistaken right now, I do not follow this perfectly. Sometimes I look more like Howard Stern than Jesus.

Is he still around? That might not be a good example. Let me think of a better example. What's a better example? Come on Randy, help me here. Trump than Jesus? No, that's not good. Okay, a work in progress.

How's that? Sometimes you know you resemble because you can't walk on water all the time. You can't be at home and live perfectly. Oh, dad's so gentle and loving and forgiving and makes all the right decisions.

It's bringing that back to Christ. But I've noticed that it's incredible for your kids to see you say I'm sorry. That was not right. I apologize. I just told Aubrey sorry a couple days ago. I'm sorry.

I came home as a little agitated. That wasn't right. But see, that's how they see Christ in you. They see, oh, okay. What would be that parent who thinks they're always right? And they can just boss people around and the kids never see.

See, kids have to see humility. And here's what I've learned. When I humble myself, guess what they do? Oh, maybe start crying. See, because that humility and that gentleness, that forgiveness, it begins to work the way God wants it to work in your family.

So it's okay to admit mistakes. And we admit mistakes often. Lord, I haven't mastered this. The hardest area right now for me, I'll just tell you up front, is family devotionals. The devil doesn't care if we watch TV.

But as soon as you, let's see what the Bible says. Oh, everybody's throwing a fit. Everybody's having a breakdown. Everybody is like, what happened? Let's just do this. So you're struggling. You're contending.

There's warfare. You're shaping your children. The enemy's primary attack is against the parent's influence. Did you know that? I was going to read different statistics on fatherless homes, which I have before.

It is alarming. And this is from 1999. The National Center for Fathering said this, according to 72 of the U .S. population, fatherlessness is the most significant family or social problem facing America today.

Do you see the craziness in the news? These kids that are like, are you kidding? What is wrong? Look in the home. Look in the home. And people say, well, I'm not an absentee father. I live at home. Right.

But you don't have to leave home to be absent. We can be absent in our homes spiritually, emotionally. Absent. Absent of the role that God has designed us to lead and to live. Fatherless homes, many more times, kids that come from fatherless homes are many more times likely to be in prison, to drop out, to have kids out of wedlock.

They're even four times more likely to be poor. There's behavioral problems. There's drug and alcohol abuse. All this just escalates. Why? Because of that godly influence. Also, when the mother's not involved, it was interesting.

The top two is angry kids. When the mother's out, when we drop them off at daycare all day, we're not there. We're gone. Angry. Angry. It's like the statistics were skyrocketing. Also, rejection. The kids feel rejected.

So, their anger. Anger and hyperactivity. When the mom, the role the mom is missing. Number two, to raise godly leaders, tough decisions need to be made. Okay, so you have to, you understand your role and number two, if you truly want to raise godly leaders, tough decisions need to be made.

Making Difficult Decisions to Protect the Family

You've heard me say this before. I'll say it this morning, but welcome to life. Welcome to battle. This is not comfortable Christianity. This was a big wake-up call for me 15 years ago. Christianity is not comfortable?

It's not your best life now? I mean, I read the book. I just want my cozy, comfortable life. Bank account's good. Everything's going good. My kids will just be raised in the fear and the admonition of the Lord.

I don't have to do much. We can play Nintendo all day and go to Disneyland and just the good old days. But then, the more you go through life and read the Bible, you realize it's a battle. It's warfare.

There's difficult decisions have to be made, which means you will have to make difficult decisions when it comes to work, activities, your business, all these different things. What is the priority? Tough decisions.

I mean, I've known men that have given up jobs because they were losing their family or they retired or they stepped back because they were losing their family. We had a pastor's event Thursday. A pastor who serves, I believe, down at Grace Community Church spoke to us.

He said there was a season many years ago when he tried to be a pastor and wanted to. Things weren't opening. He couldn't serve anywhere. Doors were closing. He took it to God for a while. God said, how do you want me to open a door for ministry when you won't even minister at your home?

When you won't even lead your home? What makes you think that's not ministry? And he took a 10-year leave from ministry and just served his family and served the Lord. And then from there, God began to use him.

And did you know that a man can actually be disqualified from ministry if he doesn't lead his home? Well, a person can be disqualified from ministry, a man, if they do not lead their home well. Now, what that looks like, there's many different views on this.

The bottom line is you think of a priest like Eli who just let his sons do whatever they wanted with the Lord's food and prostitution and didn't restrain them, didn't do anything. My view on it is if a father can restrain and they don't, that's what they're talking about here.

Restraining. If you live in my house, this is not going to happen. Here's how we're going to conduct ourselves. Now, you can't force people to do things. I've seen people, they want a pastor to resign when their 24-year-old goes off the deep end.

Well, that doesn't make any sense because he's an adult. But in your home, when you can lead your family. So it can actually disqualify a person. In order for someone to be an elder at our church, an elder at any church, the Bible says does he rule his home well?

Is he watching the spiritual condition of his home? Is he making changes when they need to be made? Is he stepping back from certain things to invest in his children? Is the marriage falling apart? It's a challenge for a lot of us in this area.

I remember we read all of these heroes of our faith we love. We read these books by people. We just love these people. They were so spiritual. No, they had hang-ups. One of the people I really enjoy is A .W. Tozer.

It's common knowledge that he neglected his family in many areas. His wife was quoted as saying, I know Tozer loves the Lord, but I don't know if he loves me. Because so much time spending God and finding that balance, so to raise godly leaders, tough decisions need to be made.

Maybe you hearing this later, hearing this this morning, there are tough decisions that need to be made. Number three, to raise godly leaders, you must, you ready for this word? It's not going to be politically correct.

Starts with a D. Discipline. To raise godly leaders, you must discipline them. It goes back to number two, that a man can be qualified, disqualified from ministry if he doesn't do anything. You know what that is, right?

Just little Johnny runs the home. Little Sally's just so silly when she's two, but it's not very cute at 12. And they just run the house. I want this. I want this. Give me food. Give me food. Give me this.

Give me. Give me. Give me. And they just, can we go here? Can we do this? Scream. Throw tantra. Tantra. And you're running through. You see some people on Walmart and you're like, Lord, who's running this house?

Little monsters. Because we've all been there, haven't we? It's like, just give me the Cheetos off the shelf and be quiet. I need some relaxation. Proverbs 13 24. We're going to talk about an interesting topic here and I want to be sensitive and careful, but it's important.

Proverbs 13 24. He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him promptly. Chase in your son while there is hope, and do not set your heart on his destruction. Now a couple things come to mind.

Hate can mean to prefer less than. You know, we hear this word, like Jesus said, unless you hate your father and your mother. And we don't have time to look into this, but if you look into the Hebrew language, they use a lot of pictures, like a thorn, and different things would be used as a picture to the word hate.

It really means to prefer something so you avoid the pain next time. And so we hear this, God hated Esau. God hates your father. You can't follow Jesus. The word, the root word, is to prefer more than.

I prefer more Jesus than I prefer my parents. I prefer Jesus over my wife, and my wife wants to follow Jesus more than me. And see, that has to be the dominating relationship. So you are not truly caring for your children if you do not discipline them.

You prefer passivity to pain, and you prefer comfort to confrontation. But it says here, promptly deal with it when there is love, not anger. Promptly, deal with it right there when it's love, when love is going to come out of you, not anger.

And if you know, okay, anger is going to come out, maybe take a little break. Walk around your block, listen to some worship music, and then you come back and you deal with it. The chasten means to have a restraining or moderating effect.

So it says, chasten your son while there is still hope. See, at a certain age, there's hope there, you're bending the will, you're training the child. Chasten them, and that word means to give a moderating effect.

And I think of like a flat tire. It's going to affect the performance of that vehicle. And that word kind of comes like taking the air out of something, like take the air out of their evil ways, and flatten that tire so they can't go as far as quickly, and you chasten them.

So here's the application. If you don't discipline your kids, you're not teaching them to stay away from the source of pain. If we don't discipline our children, or even grandparents, if you don't discipline your children, you're not helping them avoid the source of pain.

What is the source of pain? Disobedience to God's word. The undisciplined son enters the world thinking it's all about him. The undisciplined daughter enters into life thinking she's a diva. You'll get that.

Paris Hilton come to mind. 50 million followers on all her different media outlets. And we think, well, I'm not going to discipline them. Well, if you don't discipline them, the world is shaping them.

See, discipline is part of them feeling pain for the choices they made that do not line up with God's word. So it's a disciplining through conforming the will, like the military does. They break down your will.

But it has to be followed in love. So here's a few things you could do. Take them to the hospital homes. Bring the patient's presence. Feed the homeless. We have something in the bulletin for that. Now, here's a biggie.

You ready for this one? Tell them no. Tell them no. And they know what parent they can go to to get certain answers for certain things, right? My kids know if they come to me about getting junk food, I'm like, Fort Knox.

Nope. I don't throw a fit. I don't care. I could care less. Nope. Nope. But if they go to Morgan, might be able to get something there. But then on other things, she's more like, I said, no electronics for three days.

I told you no. I'm like, oh, man. Can we watch Do Perfect? Or those bottle flip videos? It's just nothing at all. But you have to be selective in that area too, because the electronics are overpowering and mentally shaping.

And there's actually something that they know of now, which of course is obvious, is addiction from these things. Give me your phone. Mom, you have a five-year-old. Give me your phone. I have to have a phone.

I have to have a computer. I have to have my... I have to. It's this addiction. So you have to withdraw them just like a drug and say no. That's why tough decisions have to be made. That could be for some of you.

Have you been convicted lately to disconnect something? Is there ungodly things you're watching on Netflix? Things on YouTube that are just not good? Well, you go to it and you hit delete and remove it for a season.

Make hard decisions if it's something that's hurting your family. You are shaping a will, you're programming a mind, and you're training them to follow God or the world. It's very important. But also Colossians 321 says this, do not provoke them to anger, which means do not trigger, do not inflame, do not annoy dads primarily, do not exasperate, do not provoke them like a snake, a rattlesnake.

You're just provoking it. See, you can be the calming temperature in your home. You can calm that environment or you can provoke it and cause the kids to lash out even more. So it says, fathers, don't do that.

That tells me dads have a predisposition to do that, right? You kind of can provoke that. And it's not wise. Proverbs 22, 15, foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. Foolishness is in their heart.

The rod of correction will drive it far from them. Proverbs 23, 13, do not withhold correction from a child, for if you beat him with a rod, he will not die. What is wrong with the Bible? People are thinking.

Well, this topic is interesting because there are different sides of it. We know that America, especially even in our area, is one of the highest child abuse, has the highest child abuse rates in LA County.

We know that that's not the heart of God. We know that beating somebody, it's a no-brainer. However, we don't want to run to the polar opposite and do nothing. So what's he talking about? Well, one Hebrew author said that the rod of correction was written by King Solomon, who himself carried a scepter, a rod.

It's basically like a king, a father who withholds his authority and refuses to establish boundaries and laws as a king does for his nation. Such a hates his son. So the rod of correction, this authority that God has given us to correct in our homes, if we remove that symbol of authority, we don't care for our children.

Now, obviously, and you can do studies on this word, rod. They break it down and there's three Hebrew words and different things, but it's like a switch on a tree. Did you ever have that? My dad or mom, go out to that tree and you pick your switch.

No, mom, no. And I come back with a little tweak. Or my grandpa, I'll never forget those. Snap. And you're like, oh no. But it wasn't ever to abuse. It was just a light, hey, that hurt a little bit. I better not do that again.

You don't leave bruises and you don't leave marks and you don't abuse, but there's a light. There's a stinging, like a bee sting. Oh, I don't want to do that again. So if we don't, and there are some people, God bless them, that think taking away a computer for a day is going to do it.

I don't know. Each family has to come to this conclusion on their own. Personally, it was hard for me because coming from a family or a father that would be considered abusive today. So I would retract to the opposite often of being too passive because of what I went through.

But the biblical goal is to experience a little bit of pain. That's why there's a little padding here. There's not bruises, there's not marks, it's not hurt. There's a little bit of pain there. They have to feel.

How are you going to discipline or train a child if there's no consequences for their actions? Now, you can't go make them stand in a corner like this for 10 minutes. I mean, if that works for you. But I think it's clear that there has to be some amount of pain to where, ah, I don't want to do that again.

Why don't kids touch the stove anymore? And anytime I see a pan on there, I'm like, make sure that it's not on, right? Because you've learned that lesson. So there's something inside of us called the human will that opposes God.

And so the will has to be shaped and conformed. And as a kid is disciplined throughout his years, train up a child in the way he should go. You're training and you're altering that disposition to sin.

God knows not perfectly, right? We don't do it perfectly. And there are people who are raised in wonderful homes that go sideways. I know Franklin Graham wrote a book on that, Billy Graham's son, and other pastors I can mention who've had issues.

And Lord knows where we'll be when our kids grow older. I mean, you can't live on that regret and thinking that, you know, you could have done so much more. Ultimately, they're God's children. And ultimately, you need to do as much as you can, biblically speaking, to steer them in the right direction.

It's like a quiver. The Bible says you have a quiver full. It's like taking that quiver and pointing and shooting that arrow in the right direction towards the enemy and building them up and strengthening them in things of God.

Persevering and Leading by Example

So number four, to raise godly leaders. This is a biggie. To raise godly leaders, we must persevere as we lead by example and we train them. We must persevere. Do you like that song? Yes, I will. Yes, I will.

I praise God. Yes, I will. But did you know it doesn't just apply to worshiping God? Yes, I will praise you in the storm is what we sing. But also, yes, I will praise you in the storm of parenting. Yes, I will persevere.

When all hell is breaking loose in my home, I will continue down the path you gave me, Lord. You have to persevere, even if there aren't results. Because that's what we say, oh, forget it now. Just let them do whatever they want.

And there could have been a breakthrough just around the corner. Do they see you praying more than praising your favorite team? Do they see you being selective with what you allow in the home? Do they see you making God a priority?

Do they see you repenting and asking for forgiveness? Do they see an example of Christ in you? But Shane, that doesn't make any sense. You just said, right. But do they see at least the example? I mean, it's been marred.

It's been damaged. We're broken. We make mistakes. But do they at least see that glimmering light of what Christ looks like when we say, I apologize. I'm repenting myself. I want to ask for your forgiveness.

I want to lead. Do they at least see you going in that right direction? Many years ago, I used to quote Josh McDowell a lot. And you probably have heard this. But he was asked by young adults, or he actually asked this question to young adults throughout his career and different things.

And then he asked them to ask a question of him. And he said the top question that he received many, many, it's been 15 years ago now, that young adults would say is they would ask him, how can we live for Christ when we don't want the Christ that our parents have?

Now, that is enough to get most of you on this altar. How? How can we follow the Christ you're talking about, Josh, when we don't want the Christ we see in our parents? And the only reason I bring that up is to bring us to deeper repentance.

Because parenting is getting back on track. Parenting is getting up back on track. Staying focused. Yes, I will. Yes, I will parent according to God's will, even though all hell is breaking loose in my home.

Yes, I will parent correctly, even when nobody's listening. Yes, I will sit down with the devotional if it's just me. Yes, I will. And you persevere forward. I want to encourage you to listen to went out to the men yesterday.

It's on our Facebook page. Ray Ortega gave a just a thing about an eight minute testimony. He's an usher here. And it just really, it just really impacted me yesterday. We have a father daughter dance.

We try to do it once a year. And his his daughter wrote down because your daughters can write down things for you and you save those. And they just had twins, I think two years ago or so. Baby twins, twin, twin girls.

And his older daughter, she was 18. Here's what she wrote to her dad. She said, Dad, lead the twins to the Lord. Lead the twins to the Lord. That's a great model. Lead them to the Lord. And I thought, wait a minute.

That's the goal. That's the focus of my life and your life. One of the main priorities is to lead them to the Lord. Not financial stability, which is good. Lead them to the Lord. Because many children who are adults now, there's there's a couple here that have left and they came back, but they left the church.

They hated the church because their parents loved the church more than them. Always had to be gone. Always had to be going here. Always said needing, needing, needing. And the children died at home. Same thing in the workplace.

Pursuing and pursuing and pursuing and pursuing. But kids growing up, four years old, then eight, then 12, and then they're gone. But they were chasing almighty dollar. And doesn't it sound good? It promises the world.

And we have this mindset, if I could just make a little more, if I could work, I'll work my my tail off for five more years, then I'll have more time for you guys. And they and they buy in like, okay, okay.

Now again, there's seasons in life. Don't feel beat up if you're in a hard season. I've been had days where I've had to work seven days a week. And I didn't see my oldest as much as some of the younger ones now because I was in construction.

It was long hours, long days, very tired, gone a lot just to to get by. But see, my goal wasn't to keep doing that. My goal was to get back home and to follow Christ. And Lord, would you bring these hours into submission to your will?