WHOA That's Good Podcast - The World is a Lesson

Episode Date: January 8, 2020

Sadie Robertson welcomes her rockstar grandmother Chrys Howard ("2Mama") to the podcast. Listen as she shares generational wisdom and how God has orchestrated her life through the years to impact many. Learn more about author, speaker, and radio host, Chrys Howard and her ministry at chryshoward.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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So today is a very, very, very, very, very special episode. Because I have a very special guest. This woman has helped raise me. I literally call her two mama because she is a second mama to me. So welcome to the podcast, my grandmother, two mama. I know, I feel like there's something. Like a button I can press. It's like, woo!

But no, it's super exciting, but two mama jose, because your magramal doesn't mean I'm going to start any other way. What is the best piece of advice that you've ever been given? Okay, because I'm your grandma, and I have listened to your podcast, I know that's the question I'm going to get. Right. So is it fair that I've known that and I'm thinking that through because honestly, I was that generation that was raised with a lot of good advice. Like parents of the 50s and 60s did not sit down and lecture you. They gave you little short phrases. Yeah. And you were expected to figure that out. you little short phrases, and you were expected

to figure that out. Like, if you were misbehaving, your daddy might say, go to your room so you can stew in your juices. Okay. First of all, yes, and if we were to say, what does that mean, they would say, you go figure it out. It's like a parable. Yes, it is.

And that's how I grew up. My parents spoke in those kind of little idioms or, you know, axioms, I don't know really what all you call them little sayings, like, pretty is, is pretty does, things like that. And my grandmother was the same. She always had those little one-cinets things for us to think about in life. But I'm just going to say one, I think one that was life-changing

on this big scale, like everything is, of course. But I remember time when I was in my early 20s and I had gotten married at 18. By the time I was 23, I had three kids. Well, so a year for me. I've got three kids. I have three kids. Three kids, yes.

And so it was a very busy kind of crazy time in my young life. And a lot of my friends were still in college doing college things, and I was raising babies. And my daddy, who was just such a man of wisdom, and you remember a papo shack, just such a wise man. And I don't know if I was complaining could have been, that could have been happening. And Daddy said, if you can't change the situation,

change your attitude. And that really is something that people still say today. But it just really hit me in that way of, wow, that is so right because I'm in a situation that I can't change. So I need to love it and change the way that I think about it. That's so good. That's one.

I think a lot of kids need to hear that. A lot of everybody needs to hear that. I think it's something everybody can grow from. And because everybody, no matter where you are in life, what you're doing in life, you're going to be in a situation or many situations that's out of your power. There are a lot of things that we can control in life and what we can control. We can and we should take the lead on some things, but some things we can.

Like even if you're at the dentist, I remember thinking about this, I'm at the dentist and it's not comfortable and that I don't like it. But what I can do when I'm at the dentist and seriously have done this is I can pray. I can change that situation. I can pray and think about things and plan things and set goals and I can change my attitude about not a great situation.

That's awesome, that's so good. So something I wanted to talk to you about because you are queen of this, you're queen of analogies and you know it, you're like smiling, you're like, yeah, I am. And I think that's really something special because I think that goes into your writing, that goes into a lot of different things

that you do in life, but it's also just how you live. I remember every time we go to a movie, regardless of the movie, we'd leave and you said, now what did you learn from that? So you're constantly seeking for an analogy or something to learn, and how have you seen that kind of impact what you do as far as your writing goes?

Thank you, I appreciate you saying that because you never know if things that you say to your children or grandchildren are noticed, you know? So it's fun to hear that you say that because we did lots of movies when you're kids, lots of popcorn, lots of coke being passed down the aisle, that kind of thing. And I even remember coming out of the movie spirit. Remember we've talked about that a little with the little spirit at horse and and our little Sadie was a little spirit at the time and we talked about that.

I asked you and mom if I could legally change my name to Spirit. So we did a lot of analogies like that but I think that does kind of go with this quote about changing your attitude because I like to look at the world in a lesson and an analogy and like everything that happens in life, I like to look at that and say how can that be a message from God? How can that be a message for me to do better in life, or have somebody else do better, or whatever it is, and I do see the world like that.

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Funny studio. I don't know why I can't explain that, but it's that is true. That's just how I do. Oh, it's amazing because what it is is you're constantly in a state of learning from everything around you. So then you're a really good teacher. You can teach well because you give these good pieces of advice because you're always seeking advice yourself, which kind of leads me into your book because you're a writer,

you post a Monday hug on Instagram every Monday for free content, everybody go follow her on Instagram. But also you wrote rockstar grandma, but not a lot of people know, which I want you to touch on rockstar grandma, but talk about how you've had a lot of history with books. Rockstar Grandparent is actually the name of the book. I'm just gonna throw that out there, but.

But you create history. Our family did own a publishing company. So for over 30 years, we had a publishing company. The name of that publishing company is Howard Books. It still exists today, but we did to sell it and get out of the publishing company 10 years ago. That's just a walk with God that I just see how he just covered us and blessed us that we were able to

invest ourselves in the publishing world. When we knew nothing about it and say to you talk a lot about stepping into things that we're really not prepared to step into, that was definitely one thing for us. We decided my husband and I and some other good friends that we would do a publishing company and literally none of us had no experience. I was a teacher and my husband's a business person, but not in the publishing world. And so we just stepped out and faith in that publishing company and we learned so much through those however many years we had that. It's a insane amount of time that we spent. And for my first year with the company, I didn't do anything but sit and listen and learn because they had started it without me.

I was still teaching school. And then in about 98 I think my husband said, why don't you join us where the company is actually growing. And I've said, okay, that's awesome. And literally I said at my desk that first day and looked at him and said, now, what do I do? Like I had no idea because I was a teacher. Which also probably has something to do with my analogies

and things like that because my training is teaching and education. So anyway, I just set there for a year just learning this business and editing and writing and all that sort of thing. And so years later now, God has through our journey together with Doug Dynasty. Right. And you has opened the door to me helping you with some of your writing because nowhere did

we think of that 30 years ago. And that was incredible because I want people to hear the backstory because not everybody knows that follows me, that you have literally helped me write every book that I've written. You wrote with me the devotional book pretty much wrote it as we set together and shared stories. You also edit our blog for us that many people who listen to this podcast read. You taught me during dance with the stars. And so what they don't know behind the scenes, you're in all of this, but what's really cool is it's not just like, oh, like you're doing all these things, it's like, no, God has like actually brought you up like this. You were a teacher and you actually did have a publishing

company. So now you actually have the wisdom to pour out. So this whole generation is being impacted by you and God's allowed me to have a platform to bring it out, which is crazy. It's so amazing because it is just a God journey. It's like following God's path for you, even though you have no idea where it's leading, but following that path and then when you get older, like I am, I don't even think you have to be that old, but you can look back and see where he's stepping and said, okay, you do this for a time. And even if you're like saying, really?

And later on, then you go, oh, that's why I did that. That's why I left teaching and went and joined the publishing company. So that one day, when my granddaughter, saving her all her's in, needs to write a book. I cannot just help her but help her with some authority because I know the book business. So cool. Unbelievable. Unbelievable. her with some authority. Yeah, because I know the book business. So cool.

Unbelievable. Unbelievable. So with Rockstar Grandparent, and I'm sorry, I said Rockstar Grandmom, what's funny is we call her Rockstar Grandmom now. So it's just trained in my brain. But with Rockstar Grandparent, what's cool, and I'll say this for you because you will not say this about yourself. But everybody we meet wants to be two mama.

Everybody in there, one day they want to be two mama actually when I was in fourth grade We had a superhero day and everybody dressed up like Superman wonder woman all these different people And I dressed up like two mama because she is my superhero So that's not just me that's everybody around her and so I'm so glad she wrote rock star grandparents because she's you know Just teaching people like I, she's a great teacher, what it looks like to be a Grandparent in today's time. And so you wanna talk a little about what inspired you to write the book.

When you write a book, it takes a while. My book came out in March. So I wrote the book two years ago. It's a process, of course. And three years ago, when I began thinking about it, I just began thinking about how every grandparent is a rock star. It's such a great honor to be a grandparent.

It's a position that we're put in and held up in such high esteem, even if we don't even live close to them, grandchildren love their grandparents. But then I got to thinking about how we, because of this generation with social media and the internet, we have an opportunity to influence our grandchildren and ways our grandparents in the past didn't have that opportunity. I didn't live in the same town that my grandparents lived in and we got a phone call maybe once

a month because it cost money to talk long distance and then we saw them in the summer and then maybe we saw them at Christmas. Later on in life, we moved a little bit closer and then maybe we saw them at Christmas. Later on in life we moved a little bit closer to them and I got to be closer but that didn't stop me from loving them and holding them up in this high esteem of this position of leadership and our family. But we do have a bigger opportunity now and I think we should be taking advantage of that to be a bigger influence over our grandchildren and the way that I think it's biblical. You look all through the Bible and you see where God empowers the patriarch and

matriarchs of the family. And my mother is still alive, say this great grandmother, Memo Jo, and she's very much the matriarch of our family. She actually lives at the top of the road we all live on, so we call her the gatekeeper of the road. And we love her so much, and her wisdom and influence is so powerful to our entire family. I came up with Rockstar because I wanted to base it on the song titles of songs made famous through the 60s and 70s. Because so many grandparents today are baby boomer generation. We can relate to those songs.

And those songs spoke to us as teenagers. And I started looking at them. I thought they still speak to us. Yeah. I mean, they spoke to us like songs of your generation do. You listen to them over and over again. You sing them. They become a part of you.

And that's how all of these songs did for us as well. And so they translated very easily into the lessons I wanted grandparents to learn. Yeah. Like one of them is put your hand in the hand of the man who steals the water. That was a very famous song sung by Ann Murray and we all loved it. Well, what a better way to live your whole life. That's so good. Then that, it's awesome. That's so good. Well that, it's awesome.

That's so good. Well, grandkids, if you're like me, and every time Christmas rolls around, or grandparents say, and you're like, what do I get my grandparents? Get them rock star grandparents. They'll love it. Grandparents, you'll get it.

Mom's dad's, get it for your moms and dads. It's so good. But I do want to touch on this too, because a lot of people might look at you and say well You you are a rock star grandma like your family has this fame On all these things and but you're claiming that everybody's a rock star grandparent is so true And I just kind of want to speak to this because years ago before we had anything We're living in West Monroe, Louisiana. I remember every single day before we went to school

You always said, as you gave us our blueberry muffin, you would say, be a good leader and example today. I mean, that goes back to pre-k to kindergarten, to middle school, to high school, and every first day of school, you'd come to school with us and we'd hold hands and we'd pray around the flag. And that's rock star material. You know, and that's before anybody's famous, that's just investing in your grandkids life. And I think about that, I mean, a piece of good advice I've received is be a good leader and example today, because you get sent off with this short little saying, that's be a

good leader and be a good example. In all of the school you're thinking about how can I be a good leader and a good example. And so just talk about those practical little things that you can do in investing in your grandkids life on a very normal scale. Exactly. I think that's exactly how it is done. It's done with intentionality. Will the other day said that, quote,

the be a good leader, good example, because now all of my grandchildren are too old for me to walk to school or to take to school. They're all teenagers. And I love that they remember that. That that's something that still stays with them. And so I think it is those little things is not the big thing, the big trips to Disney are fun.

We've done that to New York. It's fun. We all go to the beach is fun. But it's those little daily things that intentionality of just pouring into your grandchildren on a daily level, find that one thing that one's saying that you value and say it to them over and over again. Of course, pray over them. That's the best thing that you can do. But also share stories of

your history. I think that we have done that in our family. What has been handed down, the legacy that's handed down to them from our parents. We try to make sure those stories stay alive so that our children and our grandchildren, which again is biblical. No. The heritage that they come from, and like they do on the Robertson side of the family, as well as our side of the family, which gives kids a security.

That's how you feel secure about who you are, be sure to know where you've come from. So I think it's just like we were saying, just being intentional about pouring into them, investing in them every day, finding out what they like and dislike, and even if you don't live where they live, this now can be done through FaceTime messages. I might have three grandkids who live in another

city, seven hours from us. And I still text them all the time, FaceTime them. They will FaceTime me and show me a dress they're trying on. I think that's the coolest thing ever that I can still help them pick out a dress when I don't live where they live. This is a great time to be a great parent. It is. And everybody, all your green kids do feel just as close to you as the next. We'll argue that we're all of your favorite, but we all know it's me. No, this is kidding.

We all know it's really John Luke. Could I remember when you were little, you would find over who was on my front page of my phone? Yeah. So I actually put my picture on her phone, and it's still there, because I think she doesn't know how to change it. No, she's kidding. But no, we're all her favorite. And she does such a I think she doesn't know how to change it.

But no, we're all her favorite and she does such a good job with that. But she's so right. Those big moments are great. But it's a small moment. It's not leads to those big moments being so special. Like I always say, yes, she was there and stayed with me during days with the stars. But the only reason I even wanted her to be there for dance with stars is because she was at every basketball game. She was at every tennis match. And we had this relationship to where I genuinely wanted

to be at this big moment with my grandma. And so spend those little moments, those things that you're like, I don't even know this is a big deal. It matters to the grandkids. And I'm so inspired by you as a grandma, as a mentor, as every type of relationship you can have. I know a lot of people are.

So I just hope that this podcast is not only impacting to the grandparents to the moms and dads, but the grandkids as well, just to get closer to your grandparents, there's amazing things that happen to all of the zeal of your youth meets the wisdom of your grandparents. And so thank you to Mama for being on the podcast. How fun.

Thank you for having me. Whoa, that's good. We got a good guess on today. His name is Christian Hope. This should be no shock that you're on because we always in the house with Christian of. We always in the house. Welcome, once again to the podcast. This segment is going to be good about advice on new years advice, all right?

Let's do it. And this is all advice sent to us by Instagram. So I just want to give a shout out to the boy that's good Instagram. Thank you for all the advice, good and bad. And we'll discuss some of it right here. You ready Christian? I'm ready. Let's do it. All right. Let's go baby. Okay, so I'm gonna say this or that because one piece of advice is very Contrary to the other piece of advice you receive so I'm just gonna say would you take this advice or that of us?

Okay, I love it. So start slow somebody said baby steps or hit the ground running. So basically when you go into the new year, do you want to start slow, kind of a baby step at a time or do you go into the new year and just full speed ahead, let's go. What do you have from 2020? That's really good. Because I think both have such good qualities to them. For me, I like to think of getting into 2020 and hit the ground running and really get after it and really see what all the Lord has. But I do think that there is nothing wrong with baby steps because I do think that so many people make news resolutions and don't stick to them because they

I don't know maybe ghosts are hard after them, but I do like the idea of hit the ground running and being super intentional with all the things that you're doing and really getting after it. Yeah, that's so good. I agree. I think you can go both ways on that one for sure. I can totally see the mindset of like, let's baby step this. This is what we want to get to eventually, but baby steps to get there. But then also, on the time of first, it's like, it's a new year baby, let's go. Full speed ahead.

But then a lot of times, I think that's where you crash and burn. I'm like, there's 21. So both things are really helpful. I think Tate Baby says, but also there's a super light, huge excitement around the New Year, and it's awesome to lean into that. So speaking of New Year's resolutions,

you kind of mentioned that somebody says, make a New Year's resolution something that you're passionate about and have the motivation to actually accomplish. What do you think of that? I love that. I love that too. That's such good advice.

I think a lot of times we try to make a new your resolution something completely opposite of what we actually do. We're like, oh, well, I don't like to work out. So I'm going to just start. Work out six, seven days a week. Okay, unrealistic. I mean, if you did just start CrossFit and you know, worked your life, like God bless you, you got this, keep going. May the force be with you,

and through God all things are possible. But I will say, it's super hard. Like do something that you've never done before and just start, you know? I'm not against it. I think it's awesome. I think it's motivating. I'll make you a better person.

But also, I do think there's something too, like okay, I'm already super passionate about this. I'm so motivated that I wanna see, I'm already super passionate about this. I'm so motivated that I want to see this done. So I'll start this and I think you're more likely to get that job done, to continue in it if it's something that you're passionate about and you care about. Don't you think? I think so too.

And I do think, kind of going back to the first thing we've talked about, if you are doing something that maybe you're not super passionate about, but you do want to work into it and get into it, then I think baby steps are not a bad way to go about it. Yep. Alright, babe. Let me ask you this. Do you have a word this year? Because a lot of people talk about their New Year's word.

I do. My word for the year. So my word last year was surrender. And I think that the Lord did so much of my heart through that, which was awesome. And my word for this year is faith. You know, I just finished reading Jeremiah. Now I'm reading judges. And so many of the things that the Lord did

through those people were always by the faith that they had. And I read so many passages, I have to passage it as that said, by faith, the Lord did, by faith, the Lord did, by faith, the Lord did. And especially coming after passion, and I just think I heard the word faith so much these past few days.

And that really dispoked me and really disencouraged me. It's my word for the year is faith and just to see the Lord work through all the things that I'm expecting him to do and to say, have the faith to see them through. Awesome. Yeah, my word this year is commit or commit, and my word last year was celebrate.

And I just watched God teach me so much about celebration throughout the year. And just what it really looks like There's such a deeper meaning to celebrate than I even thought I thought it was just like hey, let's have a party But no it's so much deeper than that. It's a time to stop and give praise and honor Represents honors do yeah, and so that really Influence my whole year especially with our wedding and different things that happen that we're true Moist just stop and just focus in on why we're celebrating this why we get to celebrate this and all those beautiful things

And this year it's commitment and part of that is because we got married We committed and I'm seeing just the value of what it looks like to make a commitment and stick to something and I think and so many things That we've already decided to do this year to just do them you know no matter what obstacles come because they will if it God put this on our heart, unless God says, stop, we're committed to doing it. That's beautiful. And I'm excited to see where that takes us. I think words for you are really important. I know that resolutions are important too.

We kind of joke that they never really last. And if they do, I think it's amazing. But I think a word of something that you can actually hold on to because you're not going to get burnt out on your word, you're not going to mess up. And like even if you forget about your word for a month, get back on your Word, you know, because I think stopping at the beginning of the year and being like, okay, what I want to improve on, what I want to think about this year, what I want to learn about. And having a challenge like Christian, so like faith or having something like commit or commitment, or even the years before I celebrate, you want to do something like easier, surrender. What does that look I celebrate, you want it doesn't look easier. Surrender.

What does that look like? I think it just ultimately makes you become a better person. And somebody said this in our advice. It said, focus on who you want to be, not just what you want to do. Because who you will be is what will affect what you do. And I love that advice. And I think that kind of goes back to that word.

It's like, I want to have more faith this year. And me having more faith is getting influenced what I do because I'm not going to let them out in my way. It's told me to stop. I'm going to, I'm going to keep going past something mountain having commitment. You know, no matter what, I'm going to commit. I'm going to keep going. So I think these things, these words are important. And I hope this kind of starts your new year off right. Listen to this podcast. You're like, man, what's my word going to be? God, what do you want to do through me this year that maybe I could focus on and become better and that won't challenge me in a way that's different than who I am, but it'll challenge me to be the best version of myself that I know I am.

So this encourages you. 2020 is gonna be an amazing year. Go out in this year, become the best version of you and just let God do the rest. Just keep walking all the he has for you and it's gonna be a great year. It's gonna be a great year. Here we come, 2020. Love you guys. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you so much for listening to the WoW That's Good Podcast.

I have so much fun doing this. I hope you'll have fun listening. And don't forget to follow me on Instagram at legit Sadie Rob and follow the podcast at woe that's good podcast I don't know where to live original dot com to see when I'm in a city near you or visit live original blog on our online store which carries my exclusive words by city rob line also be sure to subscribe to my podcast and leave comments so we can hear what you're loving. I want to give a special shout out to my audio engineer Marcus Depala, the whole team

at United Talent Agency and my live original team. You guys are awesome and hey, so are all of you too. Thanks so much for listening. you