Chris Grainger: 1:22

Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast serving Christian men who are hungry to be the leaders God intends you to be. I'm your host, chris Granger. Let's jump in. All right, guys, it's your fun Friday episode. I'm excited to have you here with us, so let's get right into it.

Chris Grainger: 1:36

So Scripture of the Week this week is actually the book of Matthew, chapter 6, one verse, verse 10. It says your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So again, guys, go back and listen to the spiritual kickoff episode where we talk about how you can simplify and apply this one verse at length and, if you like, the spiritual kickoff episodes, what we do inside our community. Just in case you guys don't know about this, every day, monday through Friday, I go live in our community first, first thing in the morning, around 8 or 8.15 Eastern, and we unpack a spiritual kickoff together. I read scripture, I give some insight from the Holy Spirit of what it's shown me and how I can apply this to my life. It gives a way for guys to chat, engage, interact with us. It's all part of our community. So if you're looking for more than just that one on Monday that comes out and you really like those. Go check out our daily spiritual kickoff. Head over to the website thelionwithinus. Click over there. You'll see daily spiritual kickoff. Join and get started. Okay, it's an easy way to connect with us. It's a free way to get connected with us and you never know how that little bit of boost in the morning it's going to do so much more for you than anything from Starbucks, I promise you. Okay, so just jump on in and do that.

Chris Grainger: 2:46

Okay, now for our episode this week. If you missed the Wednesday episode, our meat episode. We had Tyler Brown on and he was actually able to unpack his story of addiction how marijuana led to crystal meth and just bad decision after bad decision that some sexual abuse that happened to impact his life and then, ultimately, all this led up to the opportunity where he found himself at a conference and he just got ran over by the grace trainer, jesus Christ, and at that moment God healed him. God just completely restored some things in his life and now he's on fire. He is doing what God's called him to do. So if you know someone or maybe you're dealing with addiction and you're not sure how to move forward with it, highly, highly, highly encourage you to go check that out. Go listen to it and see if that inspires you, gets you a little bit of encouragement. Okay, all right.

Chris Grainger: 3:38

So now let's get into our fun Friday stuff. Getting to our fun Friday stuff, fellas, for our fun Friday episodes, we do a health, wealth and a self-tip Now for our new listeners out there. The health is taking care of our minds and our bodies, so how do we strengthen those and build them up right, to be able to do what he's called us to do? For wealth, we need to be better stewards of our finances, okay, particularly our careers. We need to be stewarding that well. Now, from a self-tip, how can we, as Christian men, be the most effective fathers that we can, as well as very intentional husbands? Okay, so we're going to talk about a couple things here.

Chris Grainger: 4:18

So, for the health tip, try this out a digital detox. Okay, digital detox. So try to schedule some regular periods and breaks in time where the screens or certain apps are just put to the side. So just purge it and maybe you want to do like a 30 day detox. We've done this in our community before and maybe you pick which one you want to detox from. Maybe it's Instagram for some of you guys Facebook, linkedin, youtube, or it could be just a random app that you find yourself in all the time.

Chris Grainger: 4:54

Do that detox, surrender that Now. Is it going to be easy? No, it's not going to be easy. The evil one, the first day, is going to try to be tempting you so hard, with reasons why you need to open that app, why you need to get to this. Because what could she be missing out? This FOMO is real. I need to know what's going on. I'm telling you that's a lie, that's a trap from the evil one. These doggone phones have rewired so much in our DNA and our brains. We need to just stop. So a digital detox? Okay, that could be a big deal.

Chris Grainger: 5:28

But now, tyler Brown, this week we talked about going through an addiction to drugs, because when you think detox, you think that, right, you're thinking about, okay, what type of drugs is this person doing? Or alcohol, whatever it may be, but I think the number of us, including myself, who are addicted to these devices it's staggering. So, being intentional about detoxing from them so that we can truly hear what God's trying to tell us such a big opportunity. So don't just fly by this tip, guys. Okay, chris, go on to the next one. Nope, take your time, think about it. How can you begin implementing a digital detox into your life today?

Chris Grainger: 6:10

All right, now for the wealth tip skill diversification. Think about this and start investing times and learning some new skills that can open some additional income streams or adventure, give you some advancement opportunities that you don't have right now. Now, in the engineering world, this looks like OK, because I have the engineering background. Maybe you learn new platforms, or you learn a new technology, or you get proficient. If you're a, I'm an electrical guy. So if you're a Rockwell guy, you become a Siemens guy. If you're a Siemens guy, you learn Ben Shaw. Ben Shaw is down the line, right. You learn all these different brands and manufacturers so that you can bring more value to your employer.

Chris Grainger: 6:54

Or it could be things like I've chosen to do Start writing, start investing that time in writing, in podcasting, starting a community, all these things for us. Learning horses and learning to take care of them so we can build our business up here on our farm. So always be in a period of learning. At all times you need to be learning something. It may be small, maybe a smaller season of your life right now, but we should be lifelong learners. If you think about it from a stewardship standpoint, from income generation and trying to do the most of what God's given us, and with our talents, gifts and abilities, this is a big one. So don't feel like you're just stuck because I'm this person and this has been my background. This is all I'm going to do. Hold on what's God asking you to do and then take that opportunity and lean into it and start diversifying. Ok, all right, now for your self tip. You need to be a little selfish here. You need some personal retreats. Ok, you need that alone time Tyler talked about this where you just take those walks, just be alone with God, and you know what A personal retreat may just be, that it may be 30 minutes a day.

Chris Grainger: 8:09

I'm going to go, just be quiet, just take a walk, just be still with him. For me, the personal retreats when I go to the trail, sometimes I ruck it and most of the times I run it, but I'm there, it's quiet, it's in the woods, you can't see anything, there's no pavement, there's no body. We're back in the woods with our trail and I can just connect. Usually, I can listen to a podcast, or sometimes the podcast stops. I don't have any signal. The signal's terrible back in the woods and I'm just with him. Maybe seek God's direction for your role as a father, as a husband, as an employee or an employer or business owner. God, what do you want me to do with this? And then just be still with him, those personal retreats.

Chris Grainger: 8:55

If you never had that one-on-one time with God where you can just disconnect from the world and plug in with him, you're missing a huge opportunity. Huge opportunity, all right. So start thinking about how you can cultivate that into your life and what that can do for you. So again, health, wealth, self fellas those three pillars are so huge that health is a digital detox this week. Really lean into that idea. The wealth is skill diversification. What are you doing to diversify your skills, to start generating more income so that you can steward better right and have more to build the kingdom? And then, self-tip, get a personal retreat. If it's been years since you had any just one-on-one downtime, you probably need to think about this, because burnout's real Anxiety's, real Stress is real. Sometimes you need to unplug, head to a fishing hole and just sit and maybe you don't even throw the fishing line in the water. You just sit there and breathe, just be still. There's beauty in that. All right, guys.

Chris Grainger: 10:01

So the book of the week this week, pulling it up right here for you guys, this is called the Loudest Roar, okay, living in the Unshakable Victory of Christ. Now, this is written by a lady named Judy Duncan and the book was sent to me by the publisher. I will be honest with you. This is on my reading list. This is not one I have worked through yet, but it looks incredible because it talks about discerning God's voice over the lies of the enemy. Check that box. It talks about standing firm in the faith, learning, giving you a way to fear Yep. It talks about dwelling in the cover of God's armor over you and your loved ones. Love that. And it talks about guarding your thoughts with truth. Tell me, fellas, right here, the loudest war. This, ruth, I'm telling you, fellas, right here, the loudest word. This is us. So this is going to be one we're going to add to our reading list. It's on my reading list right now. I haven't read this book yet by Judy, but I'm looking forward to it. So I highly encourage you guys to put this on your list.

Chris Grainger: 10:56

Sometimes the publishers send me books and things like that just so I can get an idea for them. I told them I said, look, I'll feature this as a book of the week for sure. But uh, you know, right now we're focusing on on men interviews. So, uh, we're going to hold off on that part of it, but highly encourage you guys to check it out. Okay, all right, guys.

Chris Grainger: 11:12

So let's get into our dad jokes, this time Stepped on. Well, he let out a little whine. So there you go, guys. I don't know, I really like that one. Number two what do you get from a pampered cow Spoiled milk. Everybody knows that. So there you go. Number one what did the grape do when he got stepped on? He let out a little whine. Number two what do you get from a pampered cow, spoiled milk? Let us know. One, two which one hits best. If you have a dad joke idea, support at the line withinus, send your dad joke in. If we use it, we'll give you a shout out on the show and also hook you up with some. A couple free resources. Okay, now remember, when it comes to dad jokes, eye rolls counts. A chuckle is even better. I told one of our dad jokes to one of our girls on our softball team. Last night she actually laughed out loud loud. I'll say all right, that's a good dad joke right there.

Chris Grainger: 12:03

So anyway, fellas, enjoy this stuff and share them out with others. And the question I want you to think about this week is what is your message of hope to others? We talked a lot about the hope that we have in Christ. We always talk about that and maybe you're going through a tough season, a difficult trial. That could be an opportunity to serve someone at an extremely high level at some point in the future. So just hold on to that hope, cling to it with all you have and then, when you can share that message of hope with others. And then, when you can share that message of hope with others because you never know just how walking in the beings like that, how it can bless and draw more people closer and closer into that relationship with the father, all right. So, guys, hopefully you enjoyed this stuff this week.

Chris Grainger: 12:50

Again, we're going to just do all we can, week in and week out, to serve you, to give you the most information, to give you the most resources, to give you some encouragement there's so much junk out there, but to be able to give you some encouragement. That's coming from the bottom of my heart. I'd ask that you just pray for the ministry to lie within us, the things that we're doing there's lots of opportunities and things like that we're trying to figure out, moving forward, trying to be very intentional about being still and listening to God's call on my life. What God's calling me to do with the lion here no clear-cut answers. I just know one step of obedience at a time. One step of obedience at a time. I'm not trying to get too far out in front of my skis, so just thank you for listening. Ratings and reviews help. I'll just admit that they do help.

Chris Grainger: 13:30

Head over to thelionwithinus. If you haven't been to our website before, I can't tell you how much time, work and energy goes into the website. It's a lot to try to get good information out there for people that are just struggling or people just maybe just want additional resources or help. Deliantwithinus, we have the links there to where we go, to the Bible app. You can connect with our devotions on the Bible app. You have our daily spiritual kickoff. You have your ability to join our community If you're a business leader and want to make more ethical business decisions. You have the opportunity to join the Summit Leadership Development. All those resources are right there, primarily on the LionWithinus. Now you can also go to the LionWithinus. If you click on underneath resources. You'll see.

Chris Grainger: 14:15

We've curated content for you. We have a health, a wealth and a self area. Ok, so we have things like how do you cultivate a faith filled mindset? How do you resist and defeat pornography? I know so many of you guys are struggling with pornography. How about? How do you strengthen your mental health? Or embodying spirit, servant leadership or financial stewardship, or pursuing your career in a godly manner, or establishing spiritual habits or parenting God's way? We have lots of ways we want to help you, depending on the season or what you got going on in your life. We've assembled the content in such a way that when you land, maybe you're struggling with pornography this is a commons railroad guys. You'll be able to land on that pornography page and what you'll find is all the resources that we have assembled over the time working on the show, working with our blogs, working with our YouVersion devotionals, our books of the week, all those things that will help you along the journey there. So I highly encourage you to check that stuff out. We're going to give you lots of resources, lots of tips, lots of ways to grow, but you got to take the step. You got to take the step and head over there. So hopefully you'll find some of the resources that are built on that page encouraging and helpful.

Chris Grainger: 15:29

Again, the lion within. Don't forget the V T-H-E lionwithinus is how you connect with us, okay. The T-H-E lionwithanus is how you connect with us okay. So ratings, reviews they help big time. And guys, it's just encouraging to me just to be here with you. I would love to meet you, have a conversation within our community. If you have any questions on that, just reach out. Only email the way, okay. So have a great day. Good Lord willing, we'll be back next week with some more episodes where we're just going to keep encouraging you to do what God's called you to do and be the leader he intends you to be. All right, so get after it, have a great day and just keep unleashing the lion within.

Chris Grainger: 16:08

If you're a man who's looking for greater spiritual guidance into how to become a better leader, finding resources that you can trust and then implement can be daunting For me personally. I thought it was a lost cause and I decided to take the action, knowing that I wasn't alone. It was because of this wide gap that we created our line within this community, and the areas that we're helping Christian men grow are incredible. For instance, we've built ways for guys to lean in and grow through fun events like our daily spiritual kickoff, where you get that much needed boost directly from God's word, our Bible studies that always focus on how to discern and apply what we learn, and even our amazing form, where you can speak your mind without fear of getting shut down or judged by the extreme rules of modern day social media. On top of all that, we know that many men won't help overcoming issues and becoming stronger in many different areas. That's why we created several mastermind groups, where the iron truly sharpens iron.

Chris Grainger: 17:08

Our community is about having a growth mindset, accountability, intentionality and transparency. In other words, just leave fake you at home and come to community just as you are. I fully believe what we feel. I see the impact it's making on men right now and I would love to have you check it out. So start your very own 30-day free trial today to see how we can help you be a better leader. So if you're ready to take that first step, head over to thelinewithdenus and get started. Your journey begins here. Visit thelinewithdenus and I'll see you inside with Den.