WHOA That's Good Podcast - How You Can Distance Yourself from Your Biggest Temptations | Sadie Rob Huff & Craig Groeschel

Episode Date: February 28, 2024

Decision fatigue, no decisions, fast decisions, decision regret, bad decisions, great decisions — there's so much to talk about when we think about decisions in our day-to-day life and decisions we make now that will affect our future. Sadie and pastor and author Craig Groeschel talk ALL about this and share some practical ways we can be thinking ahead so that "big" decisions won't seem so big when we encounter them. Sadie talks about a recent breakthrough moment she had at the dinner table confessing thoughts to Christian. Craig breaks down why some of us struggle with making ANY decisions at all and encourages those of us who might be too scared to decide: An imperfect decision won't necessarily ruin your life! And how can we be preparing NOW for our future in the decisions we make? Get your copy of Craig's book, "Think Ahead": https://www.craiggroeschel.com/books/think-ahead https://www.trymiracle.com/whoa — Get 40% off + 3 FREE towels with code WHOA at checkout! https://liberty.edu/Sadie — Get your application fee WAIVED when you start your future with Liberty University today! https://drinkag1.com/whoa — Get a FREE 1-year supply of Vitamin D3+K2 AND for a limited time you’ll get 10 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase! - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alrighty, well, I don't really need to do a huge introduction, but first and foremost, I'll say what's up to the world that's good fam. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Get ready, because if your week isn't going good, it's about to get so much better, because we have the one and only Craig Groschelle back on the podcast with a brand new book, Think Ahead. And I am so excited to talk about this because all of us need help making decisions in our life. So Craig, welcome back to the podcast. Hey Sadie, so glad to be back with you and I'm super

honored. I'm gonna have to twist your arm and try to get you to come back to the church. Our church needs more Sadie. That's so sweet. Well you don to have to twist your arm and try to get you to come back to the church. Our church needs more Satan. That's so sweet. Well, you don't have to twist my arm because we love your church. Christian and I had the best time and Christian would love any excuse to get to work out with you again too. So that would be so fun. That's what we'll do it. I hope he's still doing the cold plunge. He told me he was in and and uh, I'm watching forum on instagram to see him doing the cold plunge. He told me he was in and I'm watching for him on Instagram to see him doing the cold plunge. Oh, for sure. No. And you, it's so funny because when I think about Christian's future goals, it is definitely you. I mean, when we were there, he was like so inspired. He's like, okay, I can just so see this in my future. You were like eating your healthy lunches,

working out, pastoring a church. And we're just very inspired by you and Amy and I said this in a prayer a second ago but y'all lead the world so well but you lead your family so well and so anytime we get a chance to be up close and learn from y'all is a huge blessing for us for sure. Thank you. We look up to you guys and he did tell me, he said, when I get really, really old I want to be like you. I get really, really old. That's what he told me.

How sweet. How kind. Oh my gosh. really old, I want to be like you. So I get really, really old. That's what he told me. Yeah. How sweet. How kind. Oh my gosh. Also, I just want to say, as I was reading through the book for the podcast, I saw that you put a story about something I spoke at Liberty's Convocation in here about influencing, which I thought that was really cool and grateful to get to make your book. I can't wait to talk about all of this. So first we'll just start off by saying, you know, congrats on another book. This is what?

Number 15? Maybe way more than that. I think we tried to count, but maybe we just counted on one specific target because you've written so many books. But why this book? Why now? What's it all about? Well, this book is a a book. I think it's overdue

When you when you think about you like your life Yeah, you and Christian the trajectory of your lives are really a reflection of the decisions that you make You know, what is your life for the most part? It is the sum total of the decisions you make so that the quality of the life you have in general is a reflection of the quality of The decisions that you make and we all quality of the life you have in general is a reflection of the quality of the decisions that you make. And we all have really good intentions, right? Especially early in the year, you know, we want to eat better or be better with our money or be closer to God or be better parents or whatever it is. We've got really good intentions, but then we end up making really, really dumb decisions.

And as a student of God's word first, and then just as a student of the mind and how things work, I really did a deep dive into the process of decision making. What works, what doesn't work, why do we end up self-sabotaging with bad decisions? And I learned so much that I've been trying to both apply to my life and also to teach others that I thought this book was really timely to recognize why it is that we make the wrong decisions and then just some very simple principles that we can make. And I just talk about pre-deciding a lot that we can choose ahead of time what we're going to do when we face a situation because we often find ourselves in similar situations and we either

consistently make the right decision or consistently make the wrong decision. So I want to help our readers determine what type of life they want to live, how can they honor God and then let's make decisions today that will duplicate over and over and over again because like you take your life and Christen's life, the influence you have, the integrity that you have, the reach that you have, the way you're able to bless people, it is not the result of three or four major life decisions. It is the result of hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds

of small, almost invisible decisions that other people don't see that you make consistently over time that leads to the life that you have. And so I want to help the reader to make those thousands of little decisions that all add up to a life that is God honoring in every way. This is so good. I'm so thankful that you wrote this book because I know I could use it so much of the advice I was reading already. I was like, okay, writing this down, writing this down. But I wanna go so super practical

before we go really deep because we're gonna go there. But first off, so I feel like some people truly just get so overwhelmed by making decisions in their life. I mean, being overwhelmed, you wrote this in the book as one of the biggest problems as to making making a decision and we have I think you said 35,000 like on average decisions that we make Just about every day So it's very overwhelming to think about that and all the decisions and I'm gonna out Christian here for a second because I don't think he'll care

He out some stuff all the time on this podcast But when we first met he was so bad at making decisions. And it would be the smallest things. Like for the big things, he could do it, but it would be the small things that he would just get so like he didn't want to make it. He would want me to make it for him. And it would be like so silly. So for instance, Christian just about eats at the time, he was eating cookies and cream ice cream and mint chocolate chip mixed every night. Like that was his thing. He would get a little bit of a four bed every night. Well, we went to TCBY one day and he's like, what do you think I should get? And he's like, I'm kind of thinking about the cookies and cream and the mint chocolate

chip and I think I'm going to get it mixed. But do you think I'll like it? And I look at him and say, Christian, you do this every single night. What do you mean? Do I think you're going to like it? Like, yes. And he said, well, I don't know single night. What do you mean, do I think you're gonna like it? Like, yes. And he said, well, I don't know if I'm gonna like TTP wise. Like I do that at home with my blue belt.

I don't know. And it was just so funny because that's a small example, but it was like, he couldn't commit to it because he was worried what if like mine was better, you know, the one that I ordered or whatever. So I think that's a really small example of kind of a big problem that a lot of people face. And Christian and I, that opened the door for us to talk about, hey, why, why

do you like get overwhelmed in these small moments of what are you going to eat for dinner or what ice cream are you going to choose? And it kind of came to that realization that he was just worried that mine would be better than his that he was going to make the wrong decision. And so talk to the person for a second who is like, they feel like their personality is not the personality that makes decisions. They'd rather someone make the decision for them. But the importance of them coming to that confidence in their own self to decide what ice cream they want.

Yeah, right. Well, that's such a common issue today. And we tend to think that more options makes decisions easier, but it's quite the opposite. It's kind of like you want to watch some show on Netflix and when you've got hundreds to choose from, you can't choose. But if you get on an airplane and there's seven movies to choose from, you want to watch two of them. And so more options, oddly enough, don't make decision-making easier. It makes it more complicated. And what happens, you alluded to it.

There's several things, Sadie. One is, we just get decision fatigue, meaning if it's at the end of the day and you're at TCBY and Kristen's been making good decisions all day, and in the same way, if you carry boxes around for five hours, your body gets tired, the mind works the same way. If you make decisions all day long, which we do, your mind gets tired, experts call it decision fatigue. So on a totally side note, one of the things in leadership I try to do is I try to make as few of decisions as possible. I will automate decisions. I'll make other, I have others make decisions about really small things just to save my decision making muscles so

I can make better decisions. But that's one thing. The other thing too is fear of missing out. And if I get this one ice cream, I'm not going to get the other. And so what happens is a lot of people, they get paralyzed and they don't make any decision at all. You know, where should I go on this trip? Or what should I study in school?

Or should I go to school or not go to school? And they become very indecisive and in whenever I'm like that, Sadie, I try to remind myself that no decision is a decision. Yeah. And this is a really difficult place to be. I think especially for your generation coming up, you have more options, more opportunities than ever before, and because of that, it's really easy to become indecisive. I always work in leadership. I would tell somebody, you know, an imperfect decision is often better than no decision at all. If you just create movement and you're, you know, if you wait until you're 100% sure about most things, you're going to be too late as it is. And so what we want to do is recognize God is really, really good. He directs our steps. If we make a decision that's not perfect, He's still going to love us. He's still working in all things.

And I just, I want to really try to help people have more confidence in their ability to make decisions, not second guess it. help people have more confidence in their ability to make decisions, not second guess it. It's easier to turn a moving car. And so if we are moving in a direction, God can correct our steps rather than if we're standing still, we're not getting much done. So I hope the book really inspires people to have confidence that they can hear from God

and that an imperfect decision doesn't necessarily ruin their life As long as we're as long as we're humble and repentant and moving forward I don't know if there's anyone out there like Christian and I but we both get so hot when we sleep It is like a thing we both get hot We wake up and we're like burning up no matter what the air is on and I know for many of us sleep can be such a difficult thing for many reasons. But luckily Miracle Maid is out there trying to make it easier for all of us with their self cooling.

That's right, you heard it. Self cooling, silver infused fabrics inspired by NASA. Their sheets are thermoregulating and designed to keep you at the perfect temperature all night long and let me just tell you, Krishna and I will not use any other sheets after having Miracle Made. So say goodbye to waking up sweaty or shivering because Miracle Made wants to make sure you get better sleep every single night. The silver infused into Miracle Made sheets is not only great for temperature regulation, but it also prevents up to 99.7% of bacterial growth too. So that means your sheets are going to stay cleaner and fresher three times longer than any other sheets

and I am so down for anything that helps me do less laundry. With so much less bacteria in the bed, you don't have to worry too about your pores clogging and breakouts and acne and all the things, it really is such a game changer. So not only are Miracle Made sheets super cool and clean, but they're also the most comfy. They feel like luxury sheets,

but without the insane price tag, you'll feel like you're sleeping at a five-star hotel every night. And actually, we love our sheets so much that we bought another set of Miracle Made for our guest bedroom because we really want our guests who stay in our house to feel like they are at a hotel and just having some peace. And so we were like, you know what? Only the best for our guests. And Miracle Made is where it's at. So go to trymiracle.com slash whoa to try Miracle Made sheets today. And whether you're buying them for yourself or as a gift to a loved one, which would be a great gift.

If you order today, you can save over 40% off. And if you use our promo code, whoa, at checkout, you'll also get three free towels and save an extra 20% off. Miracle is also so confident in their product. It's backed with a 30 day money back guarantee. So if you aren't 100% satisfied, you'll get a full refund.

Upgrade your sleep with Miracle Made. Go to trymiracle.com slash woe and use the code WOE to claim your free three piece towel set and save over 40% off. Again, that's trymiracle.com slash woe to treat yourself. That's great, I love that so much. You say it in the book and I actually just watched a YouTube video of you saying this as well, but you're talking about how maybe it will help you to make a day to make a decision,

like set a date and that's the day you're going to make a decision. I thought that was really good advice. But then you also go into this thought of like, hey, I know it's harder for people who have this spiritual in sometimes because you're worried that you're going to make the wrong decision. You're going to mess up God's will. And I love how you just spoke to that because this year, so we always ask each other birthday questions on our birthday. And it's, you know, what is something that you're taking with you from this year that you learned and what is something that you're leaving behind?

And this has been such a good question for Christian I had to ask each other and we've been able to kind of hold each other to what our answers have been. And this year, mine was to stop overthinking God. Like I think so many times I overthink what, what God's thinking, what God's doing. And then I'm like, what if I mess it up and blah, blah, blah, blah, and then what if he's not proud of me?

All these things. And then I was like, you know, that's just not even true about him. You know, I'm like projecting on him the way that I respond to things, but that's not who he is. And so I just kind of got things straight on who I know God to be so that I'm not overthinking what he's thinking about me, you know,

and in these decisions I'm making. So I love that you hit on that, that, hey, an imperfect decision, you know, is even better than not making any decision at all, because God is going to direct your steps, and He will redirect your path, you know, and you look at all these sorts in the Bible when they were doing things that weren't necessarily exactly what God said the plan was, but God would work it together for good. And you always want to try to be obedient to everything He's caused you to. You want to be in the pursuit of following His will. But if you're in the pursuit of following Him and your heart is towards Him, I don't think, again, you're not going to mess it up too bad, you know?

Right. Well, we do. we really wanna honor God right, and we're afraid if I do this wrong thing, what if I make the wrong career choice? What if I date the wrong person? Or it goes on and on. And so we kind of want, almost like guarantees, like, okay, if I take this first step, God, what's the 10th step?

Am I gonna be married to this person? Am I gonna have the great ministry? What I've realized, like when you think about scripture, Sadie says, you know, God's word is a lamp and to our feet, a light to our path. And so his word directs our steps. And if his word is lighting my path, that might mean I can see what one or two

or three steps ahead of me. And I often don't wanna take that first step unless I know the tenth. But I think maybe God would say, you can't see step four until you take step one, step two, step three. And then when you're at step three, then His Word's going to illuminate the next steps ahead. And so sometimes I think if God would show us step 10, we'd never take step one because we'd be too afraid. We couldn't handle it. And he's maturing us step by step. He's growing us step by step.

He's discipling us step by step. Sometimes he's correcting us step by step. And so let's just take another step. That is 100% true. If God showed me the whole path, I might have never walked down it. But that's so cool that we're talking about this because I haven't even said this publicly,

but I feel like I have to say this because if I don't say it, then y'all are gonna think I wrote this book after this podcast, but I just finished my next book and I'm literally, I'm supposed to turn it to edits tomorrow, like the final edits. And it's called, thank you, it is called Next Step. And it's all based off of your word is living to my feet

and lying to my path and the whole premise is like, he lights the next step, but's all based off of your word is living to my feet and light to my path and the whole premise is like it he lights the next step but not the whole path and so I'm like if I don't say this right now you're gonna see this and think I wrote this after this podcast but I'm finishing it but I think that this is so cool because this is like not the first time this has happened where I'm writing something and another person and the church leadership is writing about the same thing and I think that the church leadership is writing about the same thing. And I think that the Holy Spirit, obviously I know that the Holy Spirit does this.

This is what the Bible is, it prompts you to write these things. And, you know, he's telling it to other people and their different voices and their different spheres of influence. And I feel like God really wants this generation to know that, that, hey, like be confident in the next step that you're taking and know that he is lighting that path. you're not going to see the vision for the whole path,

but you're going to see the vision for the next step. And so this is so cool. I love that. So I love to have you on our podcast, talk about that. It is so important too, because what happens a lot of times is, you know, like, you know, look at what you're doing today. Well, a year from now, God's going to have something entirely different for you. And you may even have a vision for it.

Like last time we were together, you and Christian were telling me something that you were starting and you don't know how it's all going to come about. And so a big project can be overwhelming. We get analysis paralysis. We don't we don't do anything. And what I like to do, Sadie, is if I've got a big project, I don't like to put the project down as a goal. I like to put down what is the next step. Just the next step. It could be just, it might be to call someone. It might be to do some

research. It might be to write the outline. It might be the first page. But a project, a goal, a vision, a dream is overwhelming, but everyone can take one more step. And so if you're planning something, that's just a little thought too, decision-making is you don't have to decide everything, just decide what's necessary, and then keep things moving. So I can't wait to read your new book, and I think it's gonna be super helpful.

That's so cool, this is so good. This is just so affirming to this, because I do think that so many people are paralyzed and not able to take the next step because they're so overwhelmed by the end goal, but it's like, hey, you're not gonna get there unless you take that next step and start walking in that direction.

So this is just so good, so helpful, affirming to things that I've been feeling for myself. Gosh, there's so many things that you wrote in this book that I love. One is that you talk about pre-deciding, and you mentioned this earlier, and I've never really thought about this. Like what are those pre-decisions that you've already made

that's gonna help you whenever a big decision comes up? Can you kind of go through what that is? And I love how you reference it to Bible stories like Abraham and Daniel and different things. Yeah, so let's think about it. Tomorrow you're gonna have so many decisions. What are you gonna eat? What are you gonna wear?

Who are you gonna talk to? What are you gonna do with your day? What happens when you're tempted? What if someone puts the wrong food in front of you? What if you're tempted to look at the wrong thing, say the wrong thing, gossip on and on and on and on. And you know to to some degree, what's what many of those decisions are going to be. If we take today, Sadie, and say, what do you

value? What's most important to you? In fact, let's just play that game right now. Like, I'll ask you for real, what are some things that are really important to you? What are some things that you and Christian value? Okay, this is good. Well, obviously, I feel like first answer, you have to say our faith. We value our faith and our time with the Lord. We value so much our time with each other and our kids. That's probably like our biggest thing right now as time with honey and even.

This is like a small thing, but we value walks together as a family Love is part of our time together. We value hosting our friends We love having our friends over and our sermon squad is what we call them Okay, so yeah, we value life things family time. Okay, so yeah, so you value you value God in his word You value your marriage and your children you value relationships. So what's gonna happen tomorrow? Well, you're gonna have a lot of opportunities to be distracted from those things, right? Someone's gonna invite you to go do something you can't see Christian, you're gonna have an opportunity, you got to do this one thing and so you can't spend time with the

kids. Someone will tempt you to gossip about someone and disobey God's word or whatever it's gonna be. So if your values are clear, your decisions are easier. It's good. We start with the values today. If I talk to Christian, he'd probably say those same things and knowing him, he'd talk about honoring God with his body, right?

So he's gonna value what he eats, so he's gonna value time working out, some things like that. So if we're really, really clear about our values today, when the decisions come tomorrow, we can already say when I face this certain situation, I have predecided X. If you really know, and oddly enough,

walks, you talk about that in time with each other, I think that is one of the most valuable things you can do in your marriage. It's incredibly common how walking helps marriages. And I'll tell you why, if you're loving Chase a Little Rabbit, based on research. One is anytime you're outside

and there's no roof over your head, but you're in God's creation, that tends to, it opens up conversations. Secondly is women generally love face to face time. Guys are better side to side. So when a guy is walking with his wife, he's much more open and transparent. You're away from kids, you're away from everything else. And that a lot of research shows that that's one of the best contributor to good marriage, oddly enough, is walking. I see. Cool.

And then there's other things too, like if we had time to talk about it, like with families camping is a big thing or anything that's, you know, there's, so there's lots of research on it. But back to your question is if you value eating well to honor God, if you pre-decide tomorrow what you're gonna eat today, then when you go to the office, you've got the right snacks, you got the right food there, and someone brings in two dozen donuts,

you're not gonna eat three of them because you've already pre-decided what's gonna happen. The same would be true with your time with Christian. If you pre-decide that Wednesday night is date night, and almost nothing gets in the way of that, whenever you get in, you know, hey, can you come speak at this event on Wednesday night? Like actually no, we've already pre-decided that's our date night. And so what we want to do is we want to be really clear with our values and then we want to put some parameters when faced with this situation. This is what I've already pre-decided to do. It automates our

decisions, it keeps us on the right track, it eliminates a lot of temptations, and it just is very effective for avoiding temptation, for doing the right thing, for protecting our relationships, for choosing to honor God. And it's a game changer if someone takes it seriously. That is so good. I love that. That's such great, helpful, practical advice. And I feel like if anyone's listening right now, that is a great next step for you to go and ask yourself, what do you value? Write it down, put it on the notes in your phone, actually think about it, share it with a friend.

So that way you're actually taking steps and making better decisions for tomorrow. I love how you keep saying, because you wrote about this in the book, about temptations, because we're going to face temptations. And you made a very clear statement that to be tempted is not, that doesn't mean that you're sending when you're tempted. It's whenever you act on those temptations. And I love that you put that in the book

because that is something that so many people, I think, wonder about and wrestle with. So can you talk a little bit about facing temptations and when it becomes a sin? So many of our family members have truly grown so much from their experience of going to Liberty University. It has been such a gift for our family and I'm so thankful that Liberty has been training champions for Christ for more than 50 years. Liberty offers more than 350 residential study programs to choose

from so you're definitely going to find a way to turn your passion into a career. Liberty has a beautiful 7,000-acre campus, state-of-the-art facilities, and NCAA Division I sports programs. Their football team has even made it to their first appearance in a huge New Year's bowl game, which was awesome. We were so excited to fan the flames. Plus, Liberty offers tons of scholarships and discounts

to help you achieve your dreams at a price that won't break the bank. I love taking online classes personally from Liberty, and I know that you will too. My sister actually just graduated from Liberty University. My brothers both went to Liberty University. I mean, really, so many people in my family have gone

and just been so successful from it. So I actually took a semester at Liberty University whenever the pandemic hit. I had a little bit of extra time on my hands. So did a semester and it was so great. One thing that was really cool about it was just how flexible it was with my schedule. With your schedule too, it'll fit with anyone's schedule. It's kind of a Monday to Monday eight week program. And honestly, it was very doable. It was awesome. I learned so much. I did the Old Testament, the survey, the Old Testament and the New Testament.

And the things that I learned during that one semester are things I'm still preaching on. And so really, really beneficial. I hope to do more one day, but it was great. And I know that you'll love it too. So if you're a transfer student or a high school student, second semester, sophomore, junior or senior, you and your family can check out Liberty University in person at

College for a Weekend coming up April 4 through 6. This three-day event lets you attend classes, explore campus, and eat in Liberty's new dining hall as well as connect with other students at fun events. It's amazing. And let me just tell you, I just personally went to the new dining hall. It is insane. If I went to college there, I would be there all day, every day would probably not be good for me, but it would be a great time. So start your future now by going to liberty.edu slash Sadie. And because you're a well-nourished

good podcast listener, you'll get your application fee waived. So don't wait, go to liberty.edu slash Sadie now and get started on your future goals today. and get started on your future goals today. I would love to. So anytime we sin against God, somewhere in the process, we made a decision to do so. What's interesting is there's probably two or three or four steps before we actually make a bad decision.

There might be, you visually see something that's tempting or your mind starts thinking about something that's tempting or someone else offers you something that's tempting. To be tempted is not a sin. Then what happens, Sadie, is to in some form or fashion, we start desiring it. Maybe we start meditating on it. Maybe we start rationalizing out. Maybe we start making a deal like, well, just this once, but our mind starts drifting toward it. And then we might circle it, or we might, you know, fight against it a little bit. And then eventually we make a decision. If we recognize there's often two or three or four or five or six steps before we actually give in, what could we do to eliminate those two or three or four or five things and never let them happen?

That's what I want to do. And so in the book, it's in many ways, it's kind of like a workbook, is I want to help the reader to be really, really honest about where they might be vulnerable. And I tell them, you know, very directly, when you think about this, is you are only as strong as you are honest. So let's take me, for example, to honor Amy and to have a good marriage 33 years in, I need to guard my eyes. I need to guard my mind to continue to be a faithful pastor. I can't put myself in compromising situations. And so, in order to do so, what have I done? I'm putting distance, as much distance between me and any kind of sexual temptation, any kind of financial temptation, anything that could be harmful to

my relationship with God, to my intimacy with Amy, I'm going to put distance between there. And I write about it in the book and I'll just be super transparent with you like, and I wrote about this, all my devices, my phone, my computer, my iPad, all that, they are locked down into the best of my technological ability. I have no way to look at something that would be inappropriate. Someone smarter than I could possibly do it, but I can't. I can't download apps. I've got content block. There's certain apps I just don't have on there. And it's not because it's not that dangerous to me today at this age, as it

would have been 20 years ago, but at some moment in time, if I'm weak, if I'm vulnerable, I could be tempted to look at the wrong thing. Why would I resist that temptation in the future if I had the power to eliminate it today? So good. Let's say three months from now, I'm in a weak spot and I go, I'll just look at this one thing, no big deal, whatever.

And I look then, if I can eliminate that and just take that option away now, why would I not do that? And so that's what we look at in the book, is how can we create lots of margin and distance between anything that we're vulnerable. And it could be with our diet, it could be spending habits, you know, you may have to get, if you overspin on Amazon, you may have to give your Amazon password to your spouse or to a friend if you you know Whatever it is We want to we want to create distance and so that that decision in the book. I call it being ready Let's let's be honest about where we're weak. Let's be honest about where we're vulnerable

Let's invite accountability and let's let's ask for help It's it's never a sign of weakness to ask for help It's always a sign of wisdom and ask for help. It's always a sign of wisdom. And so if we can be transparent and know the enemy is going to attack you, Sadie, somewhere. It's gonna be comparison or jealousy or competitiveness or distraction, whatever it is, you know where it's probably gonna be.

What can you do today to help eliminate the threat of that upcoming attack? And that's what we're talking about in thinking ahead. Think, pre-decide how to keep a distance from the devil's attacks. That is so good. That was like a, whoa, that's good, five minutes. If you're gonna go back and listen to anything,

you need to go back and listen to those five minutes and take seriously everything that he just said because I love that. People don't think about that, that who they wanna be in the future really starts with today, with what you're deciding to do today. And to be intentional about that, I think there was a quote in your book

that said something along the lines of, you're never faithful by accident. And I thought that was really good and just kind of like an eye-opening word of, faithfulness doesn't happen by accident. And I thought that was really good and just kind of like an eye-opening word of, faithfulness doesn't happen by accident. It happens by intention, by being intentional about how you're going to be faithful. And it doesn't matter how awesome of a person you are,

I think I'm so glad that you are so vulnerable in sharing that because people can look at you and be like, oh, he's Kroger a show. He's a pastor, he's a husband, he's a father, he's all these things, but you're also human. And all humans have fallen short of the queer guy, but also continue to be tempted by the enemy and are not free from, you know, getting those temptations and those distractions and whatnot. And so, and for myself, I'm the same way. All the ones that you listed, I was like, Oh, shoot, he read in my mail. That's exactly

the things I struggle with. He's calling me out. It's so good. I do get distracted. That was a huge thing for me. I get so distracted and I can struggle with those feelings of jealousy and comparison. And one thing that's really helped me is just like confessing that to Christian

and having someone that I'm actually just so honest and open with about things. We were having this moment at dinner with their night and I said, can I just tell you something that is so dumb but I just need to say it. so honest and open with about things. We were having this moment at dinner, at dinner, at dinner night, and I said, can I just tell you something that is so dumb, but I just need to say it. And I was telling him about just a thinking pattern that had started to form in my mind

that was just so much, I guess, less than what I know is true about how God would want me to think and how I even wanna think. And I was just like, I just wanna admit this verbally because this is actually not what my heart believes is true. This is not even what my mind believes is true,

but this is a thought pattern that has begun to form and it shaped the way I act sometimes and I don't like it. So I'm just telling you this. And he was like, I'm so glad you told me that because I think the same thing. I've been like struggling with the same thing. And I was like, okay, one glad you told me that because I think the same thing. I've been like struggling with the same thing. And I was like, okay, one,

that makes me not feel as bad, but two, it makes me like so thankful that we share that because that isn't good. Like that is less than what we're called to and who we are and what we believe is true. And even just verbally saying it, it helped us actually shift because now it wasn't this like thing

that was allowed to just live in my brain. It was like now when I think about it, it's gone. I'm like, nope, not sure you already dealt with that. And we actually were able to pray with each other about it. And it was just really, really cool. So I love just the power of confessing these things and actually being intentional about it. That's so smart on so many levels. I just kind of want to point out why because it might help someone who's in a similar place. If you keep those thoughts to yourself, sin grows best in the dark, right? Yeah. Yeah. But the moment you confess it, it's no longer in the dark, it's in the light. Then

you've got someone else who's praying for you, you've got accountability. And then, it's interesting, but when you verbally speak the truth, you're starting to renew your mind. And so you're saying this thought is not true, and that's creating a new neural pathway in your brain. And you're saying, here's what God's word says is true. Yeah. And so you're renewing your mind and you're giving life to it. And so that is so important. And then if you start to go down that path, Christian knows, and he can help hold you accountable.

And that's the second type of confession most people forget about. So if you know you're stuck somewhere, you confess to God. Okay, why did we confess to God? We actually confess to God for forgiveness. If you confess your sins to God, he's faithful and just to forgive your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. But there's a second confession that you did that a lot of people don't. And that's confessing to people. And James says we confess to one another our sins and pray for each other so you may be healed. That's why it's brilliant. Not only has God forgiven you, but by confessing it to someone else, you find healing. And that's

the next step. We don't want to just be forgiven for our sins, but we want to be healed from them. So all that to say, there's a lot of brilliance in that. And I think that's one of the reasons why you have such a great marriage and such a big impact is because of your transparency. And he doesn't think less of you because of that. He actually connects with you, right? We, we, we impressed people with our strings, but we connect through our weaknesses. And that's, that's what you're doing.

So that's cool. That's a lot of levels that's what you're doing. So that's cool. That's so cool. There's a lot of levels of smart to that. Well done. That's cool. That's actually really true. We connect so much over the weaknesses. And it is, I mean, it's true.

Whenever you're about to confess something to someone, even my husband, who's my best friend and I love him, I was so nervous because I feel like, oh, this is so dumb. You know, I wish I didn't think like this or I'm embarrassed that I think like this. But, um, yeah, it wasn't. There was no shame in that.

I mean, I think, too, you got to be smart with who you share it to so that you don't feel that shame or they don't respond in like a lack of empathy way. But for him, it happened to be something he struggled with, too. That he hadn't shared with me. So it was actually a really beautiful moment. So that's really cool that you bring that up and you bring that to light because it's true, that was a really powerful moment for us and our marriage.

I love how you are so straight up about all the things I guess straight up about the things that we go through that are just less than the life that God has for us. And one of the, I think it's like the tagline of Yall's church, maybe the mission statement says to lead people to become fully devoted followers of God. And I just, I love that because I don't think you see that a lot in churches these days, unfortunately, is that call to be fully devoted.

You know, I think there's a lot of people, and maybe it's not necessarily the church's fault, but people, they just want to, they want church to be kind of a part of their life, you know, they kind of want some advice here and there, but like they're still going to live their life. Like don't call it a fully devotee, you know, don't call it a pick up your cross, but it's in that full devotion that you really get the beauty that God has designed for you to live. And so why is it so important to you to call people to that full devotion? And also, you know, to be a leader of leaders, why do you continue to help people become better versions of themselves? What kind of keeps you going with that?

Most of you probably already know that Christian and I have been drinking AG1 for a long time. And today I've got a special offer for y'all so that you can get started optimizing your own health. For the last several years, AG1 has been a part of our daily routine at the Huff House. We love that AG1 makes taking care of your health so simple. It's just one scoop in cold water once a day and you really can't get much easier than that. I love the boost of energy that I get from AG1.

It helps me get through very busy days. And each serving at AG1 delivers my daily dose of vitamins, minerals, pre and probiotics and more. And I honestly really don't like mixing and matching powders and pills and all the things. So I'm thankful that AG1 is an all in one solution to getting what my body needs and nothing that it doesn't. And also it's not a complicated routine.

The travel packs also make it super easy to stay healthy when I'm on the go. I can just put it in my purse, in my backpack, whenever I'm traveling. And it's great because it's so hard to stay healthy on the road. This is a great way to just add to your routine, throw in your purse and know that you're getting all the things that your body needs. We really have seen such great results in our family. Christian's dad has seen so many cool health benefits from it that aren't even things that are promised on here. It just ultimately does so many great things for your body because of the vitamins that are in it. So if there's one supplement that you should start with, it's definitely AG1 and that's why I've partnered with them for so long. So if you want to take ownership

of your health, start with AG1. Try AG1 and get a free one-year supply of vitamin D3 plus K2. And for a limited time, you'll get 10 free AG1 travel packs. Yes, that is 10 travel packs with your first purchase at drinkag1.com slash woe. Again, that's drinkag1.com slash woe. Check it out while this offer lasts. I think, Sadie, I think people have no idea what when Jesus came to bring life to the full, that doesn't mean it's without pain. It doesn't mean without persecution, but that means that there is meaning and joy and purpose and contentment and satisfaction and peace in the will of God. And again, it doesn't mean that it's easy,

but if we're not calling people to like total self denial and total surrender, you know, trust in the Lord with all your heart. It doesn't say with 87% of your heart, right? You know, I trust you with some things, but not other things. And I'm not saying I'm there by any means, but I'm saying I'm there by any means, but I'm saying

I do understand that full surrender, dying to yourself, meaning it is not about me, not about my goals, my influence, my status, it's all about him. When we get to that place, there's a transformation that takes place in our lives, and we just stop caring about what people think about what we have, what we don't have about the human scoreboard. And we start playing by eternal rules, not by the temporary rules of this world. It's really hard to get there. And if I preach a message that's kind of like a self-help, get a little bit better message only, that'll help you maybe lose some weight or save some money.

But that's not going to create generations of children and grandchildren that fear the Lord and serve Him faithfully. And so I think if we really understand what's possible and the pathway there is a full-on death to self, surrender to Jesus, glorify Him and nothing less than that. It actually, in my opinion too, it's more appealing. It's not a go to church and get a little bit better. It's a go to church and the old is gone, the new has come. I mean, that's pretty big that you can have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithful, gentleness, and new has come. Yep. You know, it's a, I mean, it's, it's pretty big that you can, that you can have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithful, gentleness, and self-control.

That's a pretty good thing, right? Yeah. That you, that you can overcome this world by the blood of the land, by the words of your testimony, that you can do all things through Christ and you can find contentment in him. And so the word is powerful. And if we read it for what it is, it's not a halfway kind of part. Jesus is not an add-on. He is everything. And if we settle for anything

less than that, we're missing out on the fullness of what God has for us. Wow. Come on. I keep saying go back and listen because I just want everyone to know like the importance of what you're saying. This is huge. I love that you said Jesus is not an add-on. And I think if we're honest with ourselves, a lot of us can look at our lives and ask ourselves a question, has Jesus become an add-on in our life or is he everything in our life? I think what an add-on might look like is you have something along the lines of a Bible verse in your bio on Instagram, but your life doesn't reflect anything that you're living. That would be an add-on, but not in everything. You see that a lot in people. Like their bio is a scripture,

but their feed is completely counteracting what they put in their bio. And so don't just have an add-on. Jesus, He needs to be your everything. And if He's not, then, then start reading, start asking the questions, start seeking, start asking him. Um, I love, this is just so important. This is so good. One of the things you talk about in the book made me laugh because this is actually something that happens to me a lot. So you're talking about how no matter where you are,

people ask you to pray for things. If, if you're in the room, they're like Craig can pray, Craig can pray. And it's kind of like become a funny thing with my friend group because it really does not matter where I'm at. If I'm in a circle of people, they're like, oh, Sadie, you say the prayer. And it's just been like some funny moments.

Like for instance, I was at this engagement party for a couple and I'm a friend of the couple, but I didn't know their families at all. I was just like truly peeking in and about to leave. I had honey with me and my friend's mom, who I didn't really know their family was like, Sadie, can you say the prayer for the engagement? And I was like, sure. And so then everyone's just kind of there and this is like a big family gather.

I don't know anyone. And she's like, okay, can you also get everyone together? And I was like, sure. And so I'm like, hey, everybody, we're gonna come in here. And I'm like, we just wanna say a huge congrats to this couple and say their prayer. And then later, me and my friend just started dying laughing, I was like, I probably should not have been

the person doing that. Cause I was like the person that didn't know anyone. But I am comfortable in those situations. I'm happy to bring people together and pray, of course. And I was at a rehearsal dinner recently, and again, I probably should have been the last one in the room to maybe be leading the prayer, but they looked at me to pray.

And I love how you say this. You say, when you know who you are, you know what to do. And that's so true. I think back in the day, my high school self would have felt so awkward in those moments and I would have been awkward about it. But now I'm like, you know what? It is kind of funny because maybe I shouldn't technically be the one praying in this situation, but I do know who I am. And I do know what to do in these moments. And I'm thankful that

they know that I'm a person who can pray in this situation and I'm happy to do that. And so can you speak to that a little bit about the person who maybe is in that awkwardness or like, ah, I'm kind of awkward of who God called me to be, but wanting to step into the fullness. Yo, we are very much so gamers in the Huff household. We love games. We love playing games. We love starting new things. It's just, we are very much so gamers in the Huff household. We love games. We love playing games.

We love starting new things. It's just who we are. And it seems harder and harder these days to spend quality time engaging with your family, especially when you have the competition of the TV and social media. But we love that KiwiCo is doing all the legwork of helping families to turn off their screens and engage with each other with simple, fun projects that will make for amazing memories. KiwiCo offers monthly crates with hands-on projects for kids of all ages from infants to teens.

Plus, there's no commitment so you can pause or cancel anytime. Everything you need is included and all the materials are seriously high quality. One of my favorite things about parenting is watching my girls gain confidence and skills to explore and to grow and with KiwiCo you'll encourage your child's natural curiosity while building new skills and experiences to encourage them in making their own discoveries. Seeing my kids overcome challenges will absolutely never get old. Right now we actually just got a new KiwiCo box for Honey and it is so cute it's a little baking set so she can make you know, well pretend meals but what's great about it is so cute. It's a little baking set so she can make, you know, a little pretend meals.

But what's great about it is while she's doing that, it helps her learn math because they have all these little fractions and math things. And obviously honey's not there yet, but it did introduce us to her learning some new numbers and what numbers look like. So it's just really cool to start thinking forward. So redefine learning with play, explore projects that build confidence and problem-solving skills with KiwiCo. Get 50% off your first month on any CrateLine at KiwiCo.com and use the promo code SADYROB. That's SADYROB and you'll get 50% off your first month at KiwiCoKIWICO.com

with the promo code SADYROB. w i c o dot com with the promo code Sadie Rob. Yeah, so so I love you ask that in the chapter in the book that reflects that and your story, which I want to tell is I will be an influencer. We're going to predeside if you're a follower of Jesus, what are you? You're the salt of the earth, you're the light of the world. And that means if you walk in the room, light walks in the room, if you walk in the room, hope walks in the room, you're an ambassador. What is an ambassador? It is the highest ranking representative. So you are the highest ranking representative sent by God from heaven to earth to represent the goodness of Jesus. And what I would say a couple of things, Sadie, is in those meetings, you're comfortable praying

because you know who you are in Christ. But everybody else wants you to pray because you're Sadie Robertson. And what I would say to every other Christian in the room is you are every bit as capable as Sadie to pray that prayer because you don't need followers to pray that prayer. You need to be a follower of Jesus. And when you're a follower, you are capable to pray. Your prayer is just as powerful. And I would want everyone in the room

to see themselves as an influencer. And that chapter, oddly enough, was born out of me watching your talk at Liberty. And I am actually a ridiculous fan of your preaching. I think that your faithfulness to the word is, every sermon I've heard you preach, you go deep into the word, very, very grounded in the word, very, very applicable. And there's not many people that do both. It's very, very, very good preaching. And so somehow I heard about that sermon, looked it up on and watched you and you asked

early on, how many of you or influencers raise your hand to like whatever 20,000 students at Liberty University. And they're all looking at you going, say, he's an influencer, but I'm not. And so only a few people raise their hands. And then you kind of turned it on them and said, actually, you know, every single one of you, you're called to be an influencer. And I would just say that to everyone who's listening to your podcast right now.

You don't need a title to be an influencer. You don't need a job to be an influencer. You don't need a blue checkmark to be an influencer because you have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of you. God has chosen you. You can be a word of encouragement. You can bring God's word. You can pray the prayer.

You can be a witness. You can point someone to Jesus. You may be the only, someone else said, you may be the only Bible that they ever read and you want to be that. And so, in fact, I would just say to someone listening right now, if there's someone on your heart, you may be the witness they're supposed to hear from.

If you haven't let the light shine in a long time, pre-decide every day. Today, I'm going to be a witness. Everywhere I am, I'm representing Jesus. I'm not a witness because I'm a pastor or because I'm a YouTuber, I'm a witness because I'm a follower of Jesus. That's so good. I can't stop smiling because I'm so excited for people to listen to this podcast and be encouraged by this word. And he's absolutely right. Every one of us are an influencer. I have a sign up right here by my desk that says, be an influencer worth following. And that's a call to all of us because there are a lot of influencers out there

with a blue check mark that aren't really doing much influencing what what is influencing if you're not influencing right be one worth following friends I am so pumped for y'all to hear that these words but not only hear them but take them and bring them into action. And this is only a small snippet of all the things that Craig talks about in his book, Think Ahead. Obviously, if you don't follow Craig Grishon on Instagram,

you need to be following him, follow his leadership podcast, there are so many great resources that he is putting out to help us become better versions of who God created us to be. And for that, Craig, we are so thankful. Again, we love looking up to you from afar and up close for how you lead your family and lead your church and your life so well. So thank you for this.

I can't wait to listen back to this because I'm like so encouraged by everything you said. Thank you. Well, thanks for having me on and truly truly Amy and I love you guys so much. We need to have you back and have Christian in the gym. We're going to go again. Well, we're there as soon as the invite is there. We're on the plane. We love you guys. Y'all are awesome. Love it. Hey, thanks so much. It's an honor to be with you and can't wait to do it again. Thanks for watching!