Chris Grainger: 1:01

Welcome to the Lion Within Us, a podcast serving Christian men who are hungry to be the leaders God intends you to be.

Chris Grainger: 1:07

I'm your host, chris Granger. Let's jump in. All right, guys. Fun Friday time. Let's get into it, okay?

Chris Grainger: 1:12

Scripture of the week. Though we need to always put scripture first, galatians 6, verse 10 says so. Then, as we have an opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Love that scripture. Guys. Go back in your podcast feed to two episodes. Back. You'll find the spiritual kickoff episode, where we took some time to unpack this verse at length to see how you can simplify and apply it to your life. How you can simplify and apply it to your life. And again, if you like that, if you found there's value in those reflections, monday through Friday within our community, go check it out. The Daily Spiritual Kickoff. That is what we offer to help continue you grow to be the leader God's called you to be. All right.

Chris Grainger: 1:55

So, guys, if you missed the last episode, absolutely loved the conversation with Kent Evans. Just a fun dude to hang out with. I mean, he's just full of energy. Great author, great content creator. All about helping dads helping fathers the whole idea of stop benching ourselves, fellas. I mean, we talked about so much about why we bench ourselves and often it's fear, it's shame, it's criticism, it's because we're impatient and I mean we get some really good stories and insights on what that looked like. Then he also kind of shared a little bit on how we get back in the game. He's got four areas he calls call it out, make it right, leave behind, let it transform.

Chris Grainger: 2:32

But we really spent the bulk of the conversation If you go back and listen talking about calling it out. And I brought that one up specifically because you, as a Christian man, as a leader, you got to be able to have some guys, quite frankly, that are willing to speak truth in your life. Now we can find plenty of those yes men out there. There are a dime, a dozen. You don't need to surround yourself with yes men. What you need to surround yourself with are true speakers who care about you, not that they're trying to hurt you, but they actually care about you and care about you enough to tell you the truth to be that honest feedback that you'll get from them when you come to them with a concern hey, I got this going on in my life. What do you think? Versus? Just trying to make sure that you feel good, they're going to speak the honest truth to you and, fellas, I'm just here to tell you that calling it out can be so hard.

Chris Grainger: 3:29

If you need help calling some things out, if you just need help for someone listening, our Lion Within Us community is built just for this, so go check it out. All right, so let's get right into it. Guys, we're going to be doing our tips. If you're new to the line within us, particularly a fun Friday episode. We do a health, wealth and a self tip. That's kind of our big pillars at the line within us. And this is health is strengthening our minds and our bodies. Right, can't just have a strong body a body, you have to have a strong mind as well. Wealth tip is how do we be better stewards of our finances and our careers? That's it. And self-tip stronger husbands, stronger dads. Got to build you guys up. So hopefully these tips help.

Chris Grainger: 4:11

Ok, so, from the health standpoint, start small, but start now. Ok, you may. It may have been a while since you actually have done some purposeful type of workouts and regimens. So start small, set a timer for 10 minutes and just get to moving. Maybe it's walking, maybe it's something as simple as stretching or some body weight stuff. Maybe you just want to do some pushups or some crunches. But start small, because even small steps can reignite discipline. Maybe that's what's missing. So, if you want to get off the bench and with regards to your health you heard Kent talk about, he's 10 miles away from making his 100-mile swimming goal, which is incredible for the year.

Chris Grainger: 4:58

It takes intentional actions, guys, every day, and what so many guys. The mistake that they make is they jump head back in. They haven't been to the gym in five years and they go spend three hours there. Then they can't walk for two weeks and they're done. No, take your time, ease yourself back into it. Your body's going to have to adjust, particularly if you're doing, you know, different types of muscle workouts and groupings and things like that. But the thing is start small. But the best time to start is right now. Right now, you can't keep putting it off.

Chris Grainger: 5:32

Prioritize this, fellas. I'm telling you it will sneak up on you the longer and longer you push this off. All right, from a wealth tip standpoint, audit your priorities. Can't talk about this a lot in our conversation, but spend 15 minutes reviewing, just looking at your calendar. Review it, your to-do list, and understand where are you aligned with God's calling and then where are you chasing worldly success? Now, this is a hard and we're talking about discipling leaders. This is hard to do, if you're honest. If you're honest, this can be extremely hard to do, and here's why I want to encourage you do the audit.

Chris Grainger: 6:15

Look at, okay, where is my calendar aligning with what God's calling? Where is it not? What's one adjustment? Just one. Don't try to do the whole thing. What's one adjustment that you can take today that's going to help you get off the bench and start headed towards what God's calling you to do? Just one. Don't try to do 10, because that rarely works, but you can make one adjustment. That one adjustment may need to be how you reevaluate, how you evaluate your lunch hour. Whatever time you take for lunch, what could you do in that hour, or 30 minutes, or five minutes, whatever you get, to bring you closer to God, because you have some worship music on in the back? I'm talking super simple stuff, guys. Could you take that little bit of time that you have while you're eating and spend some time in the Word or listen to a pastor or a message or something like that, something that's drawing you closer to God or just spending some time in prayer. But audit your priorities will give you insight to areas that you can move on. Does it make sense? All right, self-tip, three A's. Okay, we're going to call them three A's.

Chris Grainger: 7:27

Practice these Attention, affection and affirmation. Each day. Each day, we have to find ways to affirm our wife, our children, the people in our home with specific words. Ok, then they need some affection. I mean, let's just be real, fellas. They just need a high five or a hug or a fist bump. They need to feel your physical touch. They just do. And then they need some focused attention. Right, they give them that affirmation that they're looking for, fellas, they need that affirmation. So think about that. What are you doing today to affirm your children, your spouse, that you believe in them, that you just simply love them? Do they get that affirmation from you Because you want to make sure they are? Love them? Do they get that affirmation from you Because you want to make sure they are? And when's the last time you actually just sat down and cuddled with your kids or held your wife's hand? That affection is so important. And, at the end of the day, our children, our spouse, they want to be heard, they need our attention. And I'm not talking about, like you have your phone in one hand. Uh-huh, uh-huh, I'm listening. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. No, put that doggone thing to bed, treat that like an infant and be present, be where your feet are. So there are your three A's fellas Attention, affection affirmation. So there are your three tips the health, wealth and self. That health, again, start small, but start now. Wealth tip audit those priorities. And self tip practice. Those three A's Attention, affection affirmation. All right.

Chris Grainger: 9:10

So the book of the week. Guys, no surprise here, my old buddy Kent Evans, don't Bench Yourself. How to Stay in the Game Even when you Want to Quit. It has a forward written by Paul Bird, who is a former baseball player. It's a super quick read, guys. You can literally read this in one setting. It's about what? 80 pages, almost right at 90 pages. You can crank through this. It's going to give you some good reflections, some good insights. So if you're struggling with a dad, or if you know someone who is a current dad, maybe you just want to encourage them. This is a great little resource to give them, all right.

Chris Grainger: 9:43

So now let's get to our dad jokes. We always like to do dad jokes at the Lion Within us every week. So dad joke number one. And I made a baseball theme this week. I don't know, I just want to stick with my buddy Kent here. He says why was the baseball player a great musician? Well, because he had perfect pitch. So there you go, fellas. Let's know, that's number one. Number two what did the baseball glove say to the ball? Catch you later. So there you go, fellas. Number one and number two. Why was the baseball player a great musician? Because he had the perfect pitch. And then number two what did the baseball glove say to the ball? Catch you later. So let me know which one you like better, fellas.

Chris Grainger: 10:21

And if you have a better baseball dad joke, send it to support at the lion within that US. If we use it on the show, I'm going to hook you up with some free swag. Thank you, you can do a shout out on the show as well and just give you a virtual high five for your support. You a virtual high five for your support, all right. So the question of the week this week, guys we've been talking about it all week. Are you ready to get off the bench? You, no one else, but are you ready to get off the bench? Because if you've been on the bench for any period of time, it's time to get back in the game.

Chris Grainger: 10:54

And my prayer for this week is that we've given you some encouragement, some hope, some tools, some resources, some insights, some reflections to get you equipped and ready to move forward. Now, if you still need help, the lionwithinus is where you find all our resources and jump into our community. First and foremost, I'm going to put you up about two or three of our guys that are in our community. They're going to speak some life into you. They're going to hear your story, they're going to hear your testimony, and then you're going to be more equipped. You're going to be more prepared. You're going to have some guys on your side fighting, ready to pray for you, ready to stand beside you and speak that encouragement that you need to hear. But you can't get it unless you go to thelinewithinus. You're going to miss all of it. So I highly encourage you to go check that out, start your community experience with us right now, because all we focus on every day is discipling leaders. That's it, and you are a leader. You need some encouragement. You need some support. Thelinewithinus All right guys. Thank you so much for listening. Give us a rating and review for the show. You need some encouragement. You need some support. Thelionwithinus All right guys, thank you so much for listening. Give us a rating and review for the show Again. Everything can be found at TheLionWithinus, for all our resources. Thank you so much. We'll see you next week. Remember to keep unleashing the lion within.

Chris Grainger: 12:17

I don't know about you, but I used to find Mondays really rough.

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I would find myself trying to reset for work, trying to get my bearing on the family calendar, trying to find time for my own spiritual growth and development, and often I found myself overwhelmed or just flatly ignoring aspects of my life that I know are meaningful to me.

Chris Grainger: 12:38

What I learned was that if I had immediate access to important and impactful spiritual topics and reflections to start my week well after the allure of a Sunday sermon has passed, I would set my whole week up to be more meaningful and for the opportunity to make a true impact. If you think that getting such a boost would help your week to get started on the right foot, we would love for you to sign up for the weekly roar, which is our newsletter that is produced by the Lion Within Us Each week will deliver a powerful reflection and practical steps to help you apply Scripture with clarity and purpose, all being rooted in light and truth. So in just a few minutes, we hope to arm you with insights for living out biblical leadership With confidence and strength, and maybe even have a little extra bounce in your step. If that sounds useful, head over to the lion within dot slash ROAR to sign up today. That's thelionwithinus slash ROAR to get your weekly ROAR today.