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, fellas, it's fun Friday time. Let's get right into it. Okay. So the scripture of the week this week is in the book of 1 Timothy, the fourth chapter, the eighth verse. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. Okay. So, guys, we had a really good time unpacking that verse in our spiritual kickoff episode again, all about simplifying and applying God's word. So go back to in your podcast feed if you haven't listened to it yet. Check that out because I really try to give you some good insights there. And then the last podcast in the feed you should see is from our friend Mark Oxer talking about this is the way. And he really practically unpacked a lot of things around discipleship, but more from a coaching standpoint. I really liked how he tied in the coaching element, the way, because this is just so relatable for guys. Like, you know, if you want to get stronger uh in the gym, you you go to the ones who have been there, done that, and then they can show you where you're at. They can assess where you are right now, then they can start prescribing for you, you know, the types of workouts, the types of motions, the types of moves, the types of weights that are not going to get you hurt, but but they are going to push you. And I thought it was super interesting. He's like, you know, when we work out, when we when we train our bodies, going to failure is not is natural. That's part of the process. You know, you want to you want to push, I mean, some exercises literally, you want to push your body to the point of failure so that that's where you build the strength. When it comes to discipleship, that's just not the way it's often talked about. You know, we don't want to push people outside their comfort zone because we don't want them to keep coming back. But at the end of the day, that's not discipleship. Jesus was constantly pushing his disciples, he was constantly challenging them and showing them new ways and new things to consider. And that is what it's like to be a truly surrendered, all bought-in disciple of the Lordship of Jesus Christ. So he really had a great some great frameworks there. I just thought it was really uh, really just a good conversation about not being accidental, but we have to be super intentional. So hopefully enjoy that one. Again, he's from the Netherlands, just really has a great, great story and background. I thought the the the game that he played, I mean, he's the number five in the world with that game. So uh don't mess with him on that one, okay, fellas. All right. So let's get into our fun Friday. What we always try to do on the Lion Within us each and every week is we try to give you three areas to consider our our pillars for the lion, if you will, health, wealth, and self. Okay, so that health, we break it down into two sections. How do we build strong bodies, but more just as important rather, strong minds, right? Got to have that mind and that body. Wealth is how do we steward better finances and our careers? They they go hand in hand, one leads to the other. Self is okay, from from for me as an individual man, how do I grow as a father and a husband? Okay, if you're not a father, it's okay. Maybe that's that's come that's down your path, maybe those years are behind you, whatever it may be. But as a husband, right? What what does what does this look like for how can I serve my wife better? So these are some tips to consider, fellas, as we get this thing moving. And again, I'm trying to keep uh the the theme of coaching in with this week. So the health tip, particularly for you guys who are getting started, maybe it's been you know a few presidents since you've seen it inside of the gym. It's okay. Ease up. Don't don't don't worry. Start with body weight. You can't you can't go wrong with bodyweight training, telling you. Uh if you don't know where to start, this is where it's where it's at. And I'm talking just the basic movements, push-ups, squats, planks, lunges. Hey, if you can work yourself up to a pull-up, they're great. They're foundational, they're not flashy, but they build strength, they build stability, they work on your core, right? They help you build endurance. And here's the beauty about all this stuff, fellas. You don't have to go to Rogue or some fitness company to buy this stuff. You can do this stuff right now. Zero investment. You don't have to have a gym membership. And the cool part is these body workouts, they're scalable, right? You can make them easier, you can make them harder depending on your ability, right? You can adjust your hands on, for instance, on your push-ups, all this, these types of things. You can you can make these different um minor adjustments with squats, taking your feet out wide or bringing them close together, wall squats. There's all sorts of different ways to do this. But the big thing is they help you prevent injuries because these body workouts, what they really are doing, they're strengthening your core and they're helping you to be ready to improve mobility. And if you start here, particularly as a guy, you can start developing this the discipline of consistency. And Mark and I talked about this a lot over and over and over, like you'll go to the gym every day. Like you want to be able to put that rhythm in. Because it's not about going into the gym and lifting some heavy weight on day one and getting hurt, and then you won't come back for another couple presidents. No, it's about showing up, doing the work, and stewarding our bodies well so we can serve God. We want to be able to serve Him and all that we can do. That means we have to take care of these vessels he's given us. And if you don't know where to start, I totally get it. But the body weight stuff, I'm telling you, lean into that. Just start with just with a basic air squats, then start with a couple lunges, and then move to a push-up or two. And if you can't do a full-blown push-up right now, just use your knees, okay? Just get the motion going, and then you'll, as you do that, as you get those reps, the strength will go up, and then you'll be able to improve your form, okay? All right. Wealth tip. Very simple, guys. Get good at financial math, right? You can you cannot lead your household or steward our resources well if we don't know our numbers. We have to know our numbers. Uh and it's just bottom line. So we need to talk about budgets, need to understand your interest rates, you need you need to know uh debt to income. What does that look like? You need to know about returns. All these things matter. We can't just bury our head in the sand and just plead ignorant. It's not an excuse. You are called, if you're hearing me, you are called to be the financial steward of your home. And this requires wisdom. This requires diligence. This requires humility to ask others for help when you don't know it, right? You have to be getting, we really should be striving to get comfortable with this math, right? And I'm not saying you gotta be a doggone CPA. I'm not a CPA, but it does mean you better know how much money is coming in each month and how much money's going out each month, and you better know how to make those wise decisions with what God has given you. And I'm telling you, this is a lot of it, you just have to surrender the ownership mindset and flip it to a stewardship mindset. But the clearer you can get your financial picture, the more intentional you can be around generosity, around saving, around you know, investing, all the stuff that matters. But saying I'm not good at math is not an excuse. And I'm telling you, I'm done with that. Like, no. You don't have to be uh again a CPA, but you do need to be your responsible for understanding your individual numbers. All right. For yourself tip, fellas, train your children in these finances. I'm gonna just keep pulling this thread a little bit, just coaching our kids. Schools very rarely teach your kids how to handle money, right? That that lies on us. I mean, 100%. So if we're gonna uh be able to teach our children about budgeting, about saving, about giving, about investing, you're equipping them with tools that they'll be able to use for life. And more importantly, you're shaping their values because you're teaching them that money is not a tool, it's not a master, but we're called a steward that. And this has to be age appropriate, guys, right? I mean, you with your young kids, you start with simple chores, and as they get older, you give you you increase the level of complexity. The same thing goes with here, right? So maybe with with small kids, just talk tick, just help them understand what a savings account is. That's it. Why do we need to save our money, right? And with as they get older, maybe you start to teach them how do you track expenses and and how do you walk through car payments or or or savings for college, whatever, whatever works. And look, guys, I got an ebook that's out there uh on this very subject. And and full disclosure, this is an area of weakness for our family. And I recognize, I'm like, geez, Louise, my my older daughters are struggling with understanding stewardship. And I forgot. I actually wrote a doggone book for it. So it's an ebook. I can email it to you. So if you need some resources and you think something like this would help you just to navigate the conversation, please email me. Okay, shoot me an email, Chris at the lionwithan.us. I will be gladly, I will send you a link. I think I can just send you, yeah, a link. I'll either send you the PDF or a link. I think I have to send you a link, but I'll send you to you. It's free. We just want to put this in your hands. So, guys, if you if you need help with financial one-on-one conversation, look, this could be good just for you in general. But if you want to have conversations with your kids, send me a note. I'd be glad to send you a copy of that ebook, okay? All right, fellas. So that's the three tips this week. Start that body, uh, start that training with training regimen with body weight. Uh, is your is your health tip. The well tip is get good at that financial math, and that self-tip is start training your children in finances, okay? So, book of the week this week, guys, is the one from our friend Mark uh Mark Oxer. This is the way following Christ in a culture of confusion. Cool part about this book, too. He has a little eight-part uh Bible study review at the end. Well, actually, I think it's nine weeks, so it but it breaks it down for so you can actually have a conversation with others and work through the book as a group. So if you have a little small group of guys and you don't want to commit to any anything that's like a year long or two years long, hey, this is a little nine-session guide right here that I guarantee you will help you uh in your discipleship journey, okay? All right, let's get to our dad jokes, fellas. Dad joke number one. What do you get if you cross a tree and a dog? So cross a tree and a dog, what do you get? Well, you get bark. That's what you get, fellas, because you should know that one. All right. Number two, what happens when a frog's car breaks down? So you got a frog driving a car and it breaks down. What is it to do in that moment? Of course, it's supposed to get towed. All right. Do you get it, fellas? All right, so that both of them are terrible this week. I totally get it. But look, this the whole point is an eye, roll or size. So dad joke number one is what do you get when you cross the tree and a dog? That's a bark. Number two, what happens when a frog's car breaks down? It gets towed, fellas. So let me know which one you like best. And again, if you have a dad joke you want us to use, send those over to support at the linewithin.us, okay. We'd love to get those at that email. Okay. All right, fellas. So the question of the week this week is how much time do you give daily to spiritual training? Again, we talk a lot about strengthening our bodies and all this stuff. But what are we doing to truly grow as disciples of Christ? That's on us, fellas. We have to be intense, super intentional there, okay? So hopefully the things we talked about this week are encouraging you along the way there. Thelionwithin.us is where you'll find all our resources, guys, all the ways we try to help, all the ways we try to serve you and your walk with Christ. So you can head over there. Start your daily spiritual kickoff, sign up for the weekly roar. That's two free ways we connect with you, okay? Go to the Bible app, open it up, and just search for the Lion Within Us. Find the more than 50 plans that we have out there, fellas. It's it's unreal. The things that are happening on the Bible app, we're just we're really leaning in hard because we see that's just a great opportunity to share encouragement with others, to share uh just some thoughts and some ideas. And the cool part is you can take those Bible reading plans that we put together to Lion Within Us. You can have them with your small group, like your little men's group that you got going right now, when you guys meet on a Saturday morning or a Tuesday morning or a Wednesday evening, whatever that works, use some of the Lion resources just to help facilitate conversation. With every study that I put out, I always put a couple of reflection questions. And what a great way. Just read a study, read one of the days, and do the reflection questions together, fellas. I'm telling you, it's a great way to connect and move there, okay? And if you want to go deeper with the Lion within us, join our community. We have a 30-day free trial, guys. I cannot emphasize this enough. Like, quit sitting on the sidelines, quit being just a pass, uh passive participant, get active. We'd love to have you in with us. We'd love to have your hear your thoughts and your reflections and your questions and your struggles and the things that are going well, where your praises, we want to have all of we want to be part of that with you. So thelionwithin.us, join the community, get that started today. And then for you guys who are really looking to go to the next level, our leadership mastermind, that's where it's at, fellas. That the mastermind process, the way it works, it's all defined right there at thelionwithin.us. So go check out the website and see if there's something that we can help and encourage you in your walk. Okay, guys. So I hope do hope you have a great weekend. I really appreciate you listening to the lion. So give us a rating and review if you don't mind. That will be awesome. Other than that, guys, I hope you have a wonderful day. And remember, just keep on leashing the lion within. Trying to find genuine resources to help grow spiritually can feel overwhelming. At least it was for me. For the longest time, the support that I was looking for didn't exist. And I knew I wasn't alone. And at the same time, God was leading me to take action. That's why we built the Lion Within Us Community, which is simply a place for Christian men to grow together in an honest, practical way that's always rooted in God's Word. We've made it simple. We have our daily spiritual kickoff for that little boost to get you going. We have Bible studies focusing on discerning truth and applying it. And we have a private forum where you can speak freely amongst other guys who listen. And then we have things like Friday Forge, Couples Night, where we tackle the hard items that guys are craving to talk about, but most face settings just refuse to explore these areas. So our community is about a growth mindset, intentionality, and transparency. Simply put, leave the mask at the door and come as you are. No perfect resume, just a willing heart and a desire to lead. I believe in what we've built simply because I've seen God use it to strengthen so many men. And I'd be honored to walk alongside you. So if you're ready, visit thelionwithin.us to explore the community. Start your free trial. Look around and see how this could help you lead with clarity and courage. So your journey begins here at the lionwithin.us. I look forward to seeing you inside the den.