As successful business leaders, it can be easy to lose track of who we are.
As successful business leaders, it can be easy to lose track of who we are. Sometimes it takes great hardship for us to learn that our ways don't really work, and we need to trust in God. Many Christian entrepreneurs understand this principle, but sometimes struggle to live this out well. Thankfully, ministries like The Lion Within help to simplify God's word and easily apply it to our lives in practical and fruitful ways.
In this latest Iron Deep podcast, Brett talks with Chris Grainger, who, after a successful sales and engineering career, felt God calling him to men's ministry. As founder of The Lion Within Us, Chris is educating and preparing men to be Godly leaders.
Of course, before leading others, we have to let God lead us. Chris explains the importance of not putting God in a box. Hard as it is, we have to give God complete control. That means renewing our minds every day, while being a steward of both our money and our time.
Chris also points out that there are certain roles that we cannot outsource because doing so can leave us and our families vulnerable to influences we may not like.
Chris notes that it's hard running a business, and putting in the time and effort it takes to do family and faith well. It's easy to take short-cuts. But as Chris also notes, we need to find The Lion Within us and rise to the challenge. We need to be Christ-Centered leaders and put the work in. We need to be bold to succeed in business, but we need to be even more bold and focused to succeed in our faith and family. If we, as men, don't fulfill our roles as fathers and husbands, the world will easily take our place.
So check out the latest from Iron Deep, and understand what it means to be a Christ-Centered leader.
What's going on? This is Brett Snodgrass with another episode of The Iron Deep podcast. I have Mr Chris Granger on the podcast episode with me. The Lion Within Us is his organization. Welcome to the show, Chris.
Brother, it's an honor to be here, sir. Thankyou so much. Super excited about this show. I love what you're doing
The Lion Wthin Us isyour organization and it really aligns with Iron Deep. You are training,teaching men biblical principles, how to be a man a leader in our modernculture, especially in the pillars of health, wealth, and self. Check outChris's website The Lion Within Us. Awesome stuff with you're doing. You alsohave a podcast and you have another job that you do. This you do thispart-time, but, man, I just love what God's doing in your organization and we'regoing to talk about Christ Center leadership in modern culture and how do we dothat as men. How do we do it in a healthy way and a courageous way, and whatdoes that even look like? So we're really going to be diving into that, butChris, tell us about your journey. Man, obviously you're an engineer. We had aconversation before the show, but this is something totally different. Youstarted this organization, The Lion Within Us. Tell us about your journey withthat.
Yeah, it's been interesting, so I mean kind ofstarting back my faith journey. I didn't grow up in the church or anything likethat, So I started going to church around 16 cuz my girlfriend at the time wentto church and thought was a good time just to spend more time with her. Right.So, you know, ran into Jesus there. The grace train ran over me. But also Ididn't have any disciples that were working me that were teaching me right. Nomen in my life at church. And then I just drifted as many of us do. And you knowwent through some seasons and trials in life and went through a divorce. Mywife left and I had two little girls and it was just me and the little girls. Sheleft all of us so it was ended up being very interesting season of life, whereI had a three and a 5year old and I'm a single dad trying to figure out all thethings in life. And it's just in those moments I just, you know, figured out,you know, that my way is not working. So let's just do it God's way and lean onhim and lean on a church I met my beautiful wife. Now we we've gone through alot of things, we've lost a child, so I'm just I've gone through a lot ofseasons and trials man. And, you know, throughout all that, I've learned thatyou know that I need to start surrendering less of my will and lean more on hiswill. It's a weird deal as an engineer. When I graduated I didn't really likethe engineering part. I like the people piece, so throughout my whole career Iwas found myself in leadership positions that were technical, but I was reallykind of like is being the overseer. Just trying to make sure the people wereconnected, we were working towards a same Mission. I just found that was a giftand so I started a podcast for that business. It's done very well. A day justlater him He's like “now I want you to do this for me” and I'm like okay Lord.God told me “I want you to teach leadership and talk about leadership forChristian men directly”. I talk to my wife and she starts laughing. I'm likewhy are you laughing? You live in a house, at the time we had three daughters,you live in a house with me and three girls of course he wants you to to teachChristian men. You need some more masculinity in your life. Testosterone right?You're surrounded by estrogen. So she actually came up with the name of The LionWithin Us uh one night in bed. We were laying and she came up with that and wejust we never looked back. So we launched the podcast, and we just talk aboutthose areas-- simple stuff you know. How do you be a better husband? How do yoube a better Steward? And why do we need to take care of our minds? And whatdoes it look like to try to lead in the world that we live in today? And that'sled to the whole business element of, okay, how do you take God's word that weyou know if you if you're a Christian you know some of these scriptures but howdo you actually apply them you know in a simple way? Not something where youhave to you know go in and hit people across the head with the Bible, but howcan you just apply this stuff? And that's really what The Lion Within Us is allabout trying to help God simplify and apply God's word. And you know it's beena lot of fun. It's been a ton of work. I'm sure you can attest to this Brett. Theevil one does not want organizations like we have to be successful. He's gonnado what he can do to constantly throw us off, but it's just one step ofobedience at a time and just trying to serve the best I can. So that guessthat's a quick nutshell of who I am and what we're trying to do
I love it. It's crazy,ever since we started Iron Deep a year ago, it's been quite the season, quitethe journey. A lot of different challenges. The evil one’s been definitelyafter what we're doing. I'm sure you are in the same boat. Let's just reallytalk about Christ centered leadership. Obviously your focus is on raising men,up training men to be leaders. Whether that's in their homes, right where westart off as a husband as a dad. We also in our minds, in our health and even finances.We're going to talk about each of these, but why is it so important for men toraise up as Leaders? What are you seeing out there right now? Obviously thiswas put on your heart to raise men up as Leaders. Obviously there's been aproblem. How do you help these guys through?
Yeah becauseif we don't who is? I'm gonna tell you who is going to do it? The evil one'sgoing to step up and lead. I mean he's going to step up and lead your family. He'sgoing to lead your finances. He's going to lead your health. He's going to takeover and you'll be chasing all these things of the world. That's not what we'recalled to do. I mean the evil one is going to try to trip us up each and everyday. I have a lot of guys who think they can outsource so many things. I mean,you're a CEO. You know you can outsource certain things. You can't do it all. Butyou cannot Outsource leading your family. You can't outsource leading yourself.Until we take this serious and understand God's word. Taking this and teachingit to our children. That's not the pastor's job. That's not a youth minister ora youth pastor or something like that. No, it's our job. The churches aresupposed to come alongside of us, but I have to own this. Just like my wifecannot teach my young son to be a man. I have to teach him how to do that. Ican't teach my daughters how to be women. She has to do that. Together, we'reequipping them. But I feel like too often we try to Outsource so much stuff. Isee parents now. We parent with these tablets and the phones and electronicsand we put them in front of our kids cuz we just want I just need a half hourof peace. I just need some quiet. You know what, that's not what we're designedto do. We're called to provide, protect, preside. That means leaning in and doingthe hard things. That means that, yeah, we're going to be tired. It's not goingto be easy but we got to have some strong Christian men stepping up andleading, taking the bull by the horns, and not trying to outsource this stuff.I have four kids. I'm not sure how many you have. I mean you look they'reconstantly being attacked, day in and day out. The stuff of this world, thatthey're facing now, we never had to think about. Man if you're not ready toaddress that stuff head on as the leader of your family, I'm gonna tell you whois, Satan. He is tricky, he's sneaky. Next thing you know he will infiltrateyour home and I'm trying to help guys recognize and see that and then take thatnot just from the home but to their careers. Stop being a different guy onMonday through Friday that they are on Sunday. You don't have to separate them.They are not decoupled. They can come together because our business that is ourministry, that is our pulpit. Whatever we're in it's not just for people in thechurch. I just think it's such a need right now particularly when we look atthe shape of the world is in.
Amen and you're exactly right.I'm always thinking about how I can outsource different things especially inbusiness. I'm always thinking about how to get more off of my plate so that Ican stay in my giftings my talents that that God's given me. He's given mecertain gifts or talents that I'm pretty good at and then other things that I'mnot. So I'm trying to outsource some of that stuff but then again it kind ofcomes into your home and you're always constantly thinking um yeah outsourcingother things. And then there's certain things that you cannot outsource. Youcan't. It was funny like exercise for example like man I wish I could just haveyou go run a couple miles for me
that be nice right
that'd be good right andit just comes into me but that doesn't work or leading your family . You'reexactly right. We put our kids and we think maybe their teachers are going tohelp them out, their youth pastor, their churches. And we're seen just menbeing passive in certain things. It's crazy I see CEOs and I'm shown of my businessleaders all the time. We're so driven in certain areas of our life and then sopassive in other areas of your life. Do you see that as well like men aredriven and then passive and they brag about being so driven yet they're passivein certain areas?
100% I mean look at how most of us define whatwe do. I mean when men meet men our first question is what do you do? And somuch of that we think our identity is in our career and this and the thingswe've accomplished or the car we drive or our watch or whatever that thing is Andit's not. I mean at the end of the day that that's not what defines us. Christdefines us. You know and our family often, not always, but a huge percentage ofthe time get the worst version of us right and we feel like we can outsourcethat component of raising them or being there you know with our spouse and youknow what is this thing called intimacy anymore. She said I do why do I need topursue her anymore. And we just we just completely put that off to the side andI'm sitting here like guys you're completely missing it. We had a focus on theright areas of our life from Christ standpoint. We have you know God first thenwe have our spouse then we have our kids then we have the rest of everythingelse. If we align ourselves to the biblical worldview the way that this bookright here tells us to live our life you're going to have something that peopleon this Earth are constantly searching for. And that's Peace of Mind. Everybody'salways worked up. there's so much anxiety. There's so much stress, there's somuch tension division. The only peace that passes all understanding comes fromwhen you have that relationship with Christ and you surrender to his will. Andnow his will here's the scary part may not be something that you want to do. Forme I'm kind of an introvert talking and getting in front of groups and things likethat. I don't wake up in the morning oh I hope I get to talk to a thousandpeople today but you know what, God's put me in this position where I have tolean into my insecurities and to the areas of discomfort to do his work and I doit out of obedience and to ultimately glorify Him. But man it's just it's crazyhow often men we think what defines us and then how often sometimes too we'llquickly dismiss how we're not qualified in certain areas. Like well I can't Ican't teach my kids about the Bible because I don't know the Bible. Or man doyou know all the stuff I've done in my past? And we let those things define us.Like you know I was a cheater or I was a a gambler or a drinker. I watchpornography and I can't talk about all this stuff because I've did all thesethings. We just have to remember there's no condemnation for those in ChristJesus and he's the only one that defines us. Not the evil one so I just I thinkthere's such a gap there I'm so glad we're able to kind of touch on that
Yeah definitely. I'vebeen reading this kind of study and it's an older study um I don't know it justkind of like laid upon me and experience God. And it's basically a 12-weekstudy uh it's really just about how to experience encounter God. I'm in thatstudy right now where talking about the will of God and many people are askingthat question you know what is the will of God uh for my life? And sometimesthey you know get the question wrong if you ask the wrong questions maybe youdon't get the answers that you're actually looking for. And you touch on this alittle bit about you know what's like as Christians and as Believers um I thinkthat God has and it's in the Bible right certain assignments like you know. Soit's almost like you know we're training for this Mission and you need and Ithink so many times it talks about how we want to ask God to come into ourbusiness or our homes and to bless our desires and to bless our life and wewant him to partner with us instead of flipping the script. And we really juststart asking him you know what are you doing and how can I partner with you umwhat is my assignment with what you are doing? And that's just something that'sreally been kind of on my heart. I think you touched on that just the will ofGod um and just asking him um what is he doing instead of here's what I'm doing.Can you can you bless it um can you give back on that?
100% I like to call that uh putting God in a boxright because we'll do that. Like okay God here's what I'm going to do, can youshow me the path and then when we start here's what I like or I got this that'sa flag versus to your point all right God what do you want and I had someonebring this up to me the other day. I was just on a call and he was like youknow what I I recently realized that I didn't really pray about it. I said Iwas going to pray about it you know and maybe I even said I did pray about itbut I really didn't pray and ask him to you know what is your desire what isyour will and I and I've been thinking about that a lot lately is you know howoften is it that we think particularly as Christian men and you get you getseasoned and maybe you feel like you're you know you're coming along in yourfaith journey. And you know we forget the basic blocking and tackling of justhitting our knees and like okay God what do you want for me is this it? BecauseI'm going to tell you right now Brett if God tells me today to shut down thelion within us we're not going to release another episode because it's His. Imean we'll shut down the community the summit whatever we have to do becausethis is not a Chris thing this is this is His. So 100% I have to listen inorder to know what to do to be able to to grow and to do things we're called todo. I have to listen and then I also have to be obedient and I think that's twohard things for guys to do just right there listening and be obedient to it man.So I think take God out the box don't put him any parameters and just see whathe tells you then actually Walk It Out
Yeah and it's funny likewe do put God in a box and we put limits like you know we all have certainthings that maybe we could do but then sometimes you know our mind puts a limiton it and we put limits on what God can actually do right. And you talk aboutthis a little bit about your health mind body.Obviously body is all arounds uha lot of people talk about the physical body and how to um how to take care ofthat how to get in shape and that's all that's good stuff. Honestly sometimes Ithink as Christian I'm seeing you know non-believers non-christians theysometimes do better at that I see than what we do uh right. We don't we don'tthink about that we're just eating whatever not taking care of ourselveswhatever and we don't take care of our physical health but obviously the mentalhealth. Even at our church they're going through this series about how to renewyour mind um biblical principle of you renewing your mind each day and you talkabout this at the lion within us so yeah. How maybe is there any tips or how doyou do that specifically like you know every single day because this is a dailybattle it's a daily oxygen putting on your oxygen mask a daily thing that youhave to renew your mind because I might have a great day then the next day Ihave to do it every single day right or I'll get thrown off the horse. So talkto us about like is there anything that what's your day and the renewing ofyour mind look like
Well I mean I think easily it has to start withthe word of God and just and not just saying that like actually spending timein the word and so you know for us at the lion it's every day. I do this thingcalled a spiritual kickoff where I literally read scripture in our communityand the guys join me in you know that there's a go live feature but it's uhit's just spending time in his word and you know there's a lot of prep work Ido in the morning before I before I do that within our community but I think itjust it means just starting there just start spending some time with them youknow you wouldn't get married and you know didn't go live in separate housesthat would be ridiculous you know if you don't have spending time with yourspouse same thing with our father he wants a relationship and the only way Iknow to do it is to spend time with him and and outside of Prayer spending timein the word that's that's the two best ways I know to do it. You know and notjust a onetime prayer where you say the same words day in and day out just talkto them I pray all the time I prayed probably twice since we started thisinterview you just thinking like okay how can I best answer this God give mesome wisdom here right and it's just and I find myself that the more you do itthe more natural that becomes and you know so far as for take taking care of ourmind I'm going to tell you what scares me to death is these little devices I'mholding my phone up right here in the last the last 10 years how much it'sshifted our whole culture particularly from the Christian worldview I mean Imean it's it pull. I sit in church and I see guys on this thing during churchyou know and they during a sermon they'll be checking out Facebook or checkingout you know setting up their fantasy football team for the Sunday right andit's just like man it is it's such a hold on us and it's such a lore it's sucha lust that's out there and we know the evil ones got the lust of flesh thatlust the eyes and the pride of life and all that can be found on that onelittle device and it's just man. We have to recognize that if that's pulling usaway from our time with the Lord uh I've even I've gone as far as encouragingguys that you know we have uh a a bunch of devotions on the u-verse the Bibleapp and I'm all for having those apps on our phones and the Bible you knowbeing to have to access you know biblical Godly content on our phones but don'tmiss the opportunity of actually having copy of God's word you know. Actually abook like that you know cuz and and I had someone challenge me on that one timeI was like well look man he said well Chris I sit at the at my kitchen table onmy phone in the mornings and I read the Bible. I'm like well that's great andI'm like so when your daughter walks in he happened to have a daughter I saidwhen she walks in how does she know that you're reading your Bible versuschecking work emails or on Instagram he's like well I don't guess she does. I'mlike yeah but how much bigger impact would it be if she walked in or her dadwas sitting at the kitchen table with a copy of God's word opened up penshighlighters whatever you need. That's making a more impressionable impact andshe's seeing the importance of it there so I'm not disqualifying the need foryou know having those things on our phones but man whenever we can I think wegot to somehow figure out how to decouple from those devices and plug into theword man so that's just a couple of things to think about
Yeah love that. I guessI never really thought about it like that and again the phone like you do somany different things with the phone right you check your work emails get onInstagram listen to music uh all these different apps like play games you doall these different things on your phone and you got the Bible in there toowhich is which is great but it's just mixed in with everything else too likeyou know get the word of God uh the written copy over here that's the onlything that it is right so I think it's just it's just easy to acknowledge andit's so easy when you're reading the Bible to get that notification Ding and getthat dopamine mind hit and you're like well I wonder what how many likes I goton my Facebook whatever it is. And I think again we get addicted the mind we'retalking about just addicted to that dopamine I mean gosh I mean these peoplewho invented this thing I mean you know behavioral analysis all the data likethey know what they're that they're doing and that's what honestly a lot of theaddictions come through is just you know we want that that dopamine hit whetherit's a drug whether it's pornography whether it's gambling we all want thislittle dopamine kick. And man they knew what they're doing it's crazy addictedall of us so we talked about Renewing Your Mind healthy self um let's just talkabout wealth a little bit a lot of people that listen to this uh are ChristianBusiness Leaders owners uh I'm in the real estate space a lot of friends are inthe real estate space I go to Mastermind groups we're all talking aboutBuilding Wealth building freedom financially uh that is it's been a hot topicfor years centuries I mean everyone wants power everyone wants wealth everyonewants options especially in today's we want to do what we want to do and nothave to ask if we have the money to do it that's just the that's just the termso talk about wealth stewardship from a Christian biblical perspective I knowsome guys battle with this. Can you just dive into that a little bit?
Oh 100% I mean I always start whenever I starttalking about money or wealth I just go straight to and you've already said theword but stewardship and it really starts with a mindset shift and thatstewardship is just a management of someone else's material and items and oncewe recognize that no matter what you know maybe you have five figures or sixfigures in your in your account whatever that number is that you think that uhit's going to make you fully and finally satisfied and you're secure there it'snot it's not because I mean that the what what we all want from a moneystandpoint if we we're truly being honest is more there's just there the numberis more right we just all want that stewardship shifts that stewardship saysyou know what Lord how do you want me to manage this whatever you bless me withright because I tell you I've been in sales and worked throughout my careerBusiness Development and you know had very large bonus and commission checksand things like that and while that stuff was cool you know we able to do somewonderful things with it but it always leaves you empty versus with the lionyou know we'll have little $5 a month members and things like that and when thosewhen those clear sometimes I get more joy out of that than any of the the fivefigure you know commission checks that would use to get from sales because Iknow that I'm doing that what God's want me to do and I'm gonna tell you whatI'm even more diligent about uh making sure that that I'm stewarding what he'sgiven me here with the lion than I ever have been before and it's just I thinkthis a mindset shift because man money is not evil it's the love of money Imean it's very easy to get that verse you know misconstrued but once weunderstand that it's his all of it not 10% man like all of it's his like oncewe recognize that it's all his it does get it frees you up you know and you'restill gonna be stressed out I mean you're I think the world is going to stressus because you know we do want to be good providers and that we hear a lot ofhusbands hide behind that they hide behind that well I got to be a goodprovider I need to do this and this is why I'm working 60 or 70 hours a weekbecause I have to provide for them and we have to look around and like wait aminute you know we have a roof over our head we have some food in our belly youknow what really are you trying to provide for you know I mean what morebecause I feel like so many of them are trying to buy the love versusunderstanding that so many of our family members they really just want our timethey just want to be with us and actually be where our feet are not be likethinking about work and all the things that we do when we're at home so I thinkthat stewardship mindset is it mindset rather is so is critical and it's soeasily misunderstood and I think if we the quicker we can get men to recognizethat uh man I think it's going to really for me at least for me it just broughta sense of relief and freedom and do I still worry about finances from time totime yeah yeah I honestly do because I mean this is the world we live in but atthe end of the day God has always provided and he and he will I mean he's goingto show us and it may not be the revision that I think that I need but it'sgoing to be his provision so uh that's usually where I go when I start talkingabout that and that usually loses about half the room and then for the rest ofthe guys that are there we we usually have a pretty good conversation
Yeah I think what a lifeI mean just to just to recognize that it's not 10% his that it's all his thatit's all uh it's all the fathers and whatever he what is the assign inment withit how are we going to Steward this well um it really frees up takes a lot ofpressure off um and you can just live out um the mission the again the missionthe assignment that he has before you if you're just like well I'm going to useuse it for all you I mean I I've I've made the decision you know my lifestyleis definitely not going to change a whole lot but the the mission you know theresources I could I could use to to impact more people um could from from anyof the the money and that's a mindset that I probably had just in the lastcouple of years um let's talk about time a little bit so we talked aboutSteward stewardship of money stewardship of time um you got four kids I want toask you maybe a personal question
Sure
You work engineer lionwithin us I mean I've seen the website I've seen the podcasts I've seen Uverion devotionals that's a lot I mean I I podcast I know it's just a lot fourkids family you know do you have time I me stewardship of time like how do youyou maybe in your own life integrate um just making sure you are stewarding yourselfand your time with what he has given you with everything you have going onbecause this is I'm also talking to everybody else like because we all say weall got a lot lot going on so.
Oh yeah yeah and I'm gonna answer this as honestas I can um I suck at this okay so I'm terrible at it I I really this is thearea I got to do a better job of you know since starting lion there's been somuch stress on just trying you know so we we usually stay ahead on the podcastand things like that but this is an area of of weakness that I got I have towork on you know it starts from learning how to say no I need to start learninghow to say no to certain things I'm I'm a servant at heart so anytime There'san opportunity to step up and help I want to do it and I need to I'm trying toto recognize is it me trying to serve for my glory or am I trying to honor youknow and glorify God and if it's for glorifying God then let's do it but ifit's try to glorify Chris I got to stop doing that stuff right and you know Ithink that it starts there and just recognizing you know I said earlier be whereyour feet are and I really tried to implement that in my life so when I'm herein my studio and I work from home so that's the beauty of it too so whether I'mworking for my primary job or this for the lion I'm in the same place I reallytry to focus on that and I don't really try to put my thoughts elsewhere so Iknow the family's being taking care of my wife's taking care of that she'staking care of our farm all the things that that we're doing here so I reallyfocus on that and then when I leave this studio as hard as it is I transitionand I'm I'm getting better at it I think some of it's helped us here since wemoved out here to the farm my signal on my phone is terrible so when I walk outof here like I I don't get email emails or notifications which really helpsbecause I can truly unplug uh and just be there with them because I find mykids more and more you I have a 13 and 11y old as well and then I have a2-year-old and a one-year old I I find my older girls they just want to hang outman they just want to go down they we just go outside and go to the barn youknow that that's it so stewarding that time with them I have to recognize youknow what I have to be intentional about making sure that you know Dad's notchecking out here you know and some of it comes down to man in that calendar soI'm big on doing calendar Audits and just saying okay where am I spending toomuch time where do I need to make some adjustments and the last thing we needto start stripping out of our calendar fellas is time with God that's got to beprioritized then we need to look at our calendar and look okay where's my timewith my wife you know where is that then the kids and then everything else youknow and if we start you know doing that you know from that mindset I mean forme that's one area I'm really trying to be intentional about is sending down mywife and all right what do we need to do how can we prioritize time for us youknow what for Christmas this year she just wants just a weekend with no kids nohorses no responsibility so I mean it's a pretty simple gift right yeah I gotto figure out how to do it so I think we just had to you know be intentionalabout that stewardship of time and man um I'm so glad you brought that one upBrett because I feel like that's a big one yeah very convicting very convictingyeah
No that's awesome so Ijust want to ask another personal question you guys moved out to a farm what'sthat even look like
Yeah I mean we God just man when he moves him II like I just I just have to just hold on for the ride so I I brought up theidea to my wife you she we'd always wanted to kind of do some homesteading andI was like well you know we'll just pray about it so we were starting to prayabout our property that we started praying for him to show us the property andI was on a hike with a buddy he's like hey man there's this horse farm thatcame up for sale and uh it's close to us and you should check it out I like manI can't afford no horse farm so I texted my real estate buddy and we rode outhere and I fell in love with it she did too it's all I mean we're talking aboutold this thing was built in 1951 the house was uh 1,600 square feet tiny andit's six of us right so uh that's crazy
I mean it's not that tinyback in the old days but we're used to living in you know all new houses arelike 2500 plus
So yeah so like for six of us like we'reliterally me and my wife turned the sun room into a bedroom because there weretwo bedrooms in this house like there's not even enough bedrooms so but therewas a barn there was some things out here and the property was just beautifuland it gave her an opportunity to quit she was in HR and she's like I want tolet's just do this so uh she started a boarding business and you know we'restarting to get our first horses in and she grew up with horses she loves themand it's gave us the opportunity to do things together so she's kind of likethe CEO and I'm like what does she call me like the the the barn manager orsomething whatever it is I basically report to her out there but I tell hershe's cute so I'll keep reporting to her but uh but yeah so that's what we dohere we just have you know little farm where we're trying to you know teach thekids you know hard work mucking stalls and yeah growing stuff and raisechickens and all sorts of stuff here but just trying to be more uh you know umbeing able to take care of sustain ourselves directly yeah versus having tolive in grocery stores and things like that so we'll see we just started thisjourney but uh we're pretty excited about it
I love it that's so cooland it sounds like you're you're we talked about time before and one of thethings I think that we don't do um as dads and as husbands sometimes againintegrate what we are doing with our family is there certain things maybe I'lljust ask the audience out there is there certain things that you can bring yourkids into or bring your wife into um because I haven't done the best at this mypast my kids don't even know what I do for a living or I don't take them towork or I don't um you know bring them in to podcast stuff or talk about someof the missions that God has laid on my heart and again whatever it looks likefor you is there something one little very simple thing that you can do tointegrate and it sounds like you know the farm which is a big thing but nowyou're integrating some of the family and spending time with also a mission andwhat God's laay before you so that's awesome love it Chris uh we're about outof time man I appreciate you being on the on the podcast today I want to justgive you one last opportunity like if if a man's out there right now he'sresonating with this particular message to lion within us uh what does thatlook like for a man I know you're building this community you're doing it youjust had your very first retreat in the wild which sounds amazing um but uh ifa guy's interested how do they get involved with the lion within us
Yeah I mean just just head over to our websitethe lion within. us is is where you can find us and uh you know you can emailme, chris@thelionwithin.us, if you guys want to talk to me directly but um meanthat we have several different ways to engage our community you know we we havea 30-day free trial of the community too so guys can check in and see whatbasically the community is a a platform we've built it's not Facebook oranything like that to where guys can log in they can they can really be aroundother Christian men talking about what we've been talking about today with youBrett so it's uh we have events all the time it's all virtual so guys canconnect directly wherever they're at uh we have them all over the US and Canadaactually so it's uh easiest way to just head over to thelionwithin.us or sendme an email and like I said we have a podcast that comes out three times a weekyou can check that out if you want but uh you know I try to be accessible andif you send me a note I will respond back I promise so I would would love toconnect and try to help you know serve anyway I can
Awesome sounds good makesure you guys go over to the website thelionwithin.us thank you so much Chrisfor being on the podcast today appreciate you God bless you man
You too Brett thank you
