January 6, 2025 • 41 mins
In this episode, Granger Smith kicks off the new year challenging listeners to think about their personal growth in 2025 and beyond. He explores themes of faith, purpose, and the importance of focusing on what truly matters amid life’s uncertainties. With 10 thought-provoking principles, this episode offers practical wisdom for anyone looking to build a stronger foundation for the future.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
What's up everybody? Welcome to the podcast. So glad you're
with me. This is actually, as I'm recording this, the
first podcast of this year. So I've been thinking about
this the format of this podcast, which I love you
ask me anything you want. We've been doing this since
twenty seventeen together Email me podcast at grangersmith dot com.
(00:37):
And the last time we were together last week, I
was thinking through a question how do you make the
last podcast of the year, And so I kind of
I made it a reflective podcast where I would say
I would ask the question if I were single and
(00:59):
starting over, we would I do. And that way I
can kind of look back and go, well, this is
maybe in a way, this is the advice I would
give myself back, you know, and if I could start over,
this is what I would want to do. And so
this podcast is now we're looking forward. Maybe this could
(01:20):
be a visionary type podcast where we where instead of
saying if I could start over, this is what I
would do. Instead, I should answer the question that we
should all be asking, how can I grow this year?
And you could define grow in many ways. You could
(01:42):
you could make the size of the growth that's up
to you. I would say, as long as it's something,
as long as it's a little bit more than it
was last year. You know, I grant you guys, most
of you know. I grow these little trees my house.
A lot of times I'll grow oak trees from acorns,
(02:04):
which it's an interesting social experiment because if you grow
a tree from an acorn, you will never get to
enjoy the shade of that tree. I mean, it would
take thirty years to truly enjoy the enjoy the great
shade of a great oak tree. And what we plant
(02:29):
them anyway, and what I'm looking for from those those
little saplings year by year is growth. Sometimes on those
oak trees. It's it's interesting because sometimes like I have
a Monterey oak and I'm like, man, I don't know
what it's done since last year. And then sometimes you
(02:51):
go out there and you go, yeah, I think I
think it got four or five feet taller this year.
And so sometimes it's inches and sometimes it's feet. But
as long as it's growing. That's the question that I
want to ask in this podcast. You could another way
could look at it, is what are you building in
(03:11):
twenty twenty five? So let's talk about foundations let's talk
about disciplines. Let's talk about our our ability to.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Have some kind of.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Forethought of self control.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
We'll put it that way.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
And typically I answer your questions podcast at grangersmith dot com,
So email those. Go ahead and send your questions and
be thinking through it as you're listening to this one
and man, we'll take those and put them together and
we'll produce a ton of shows with it. But in
the meantime, this is going to be kind of a
visionary podcast looking forward. Okay, last week was a reflective one.
(03:58):
So I put together ten ten little titles here that
we can go over and dissect. I put these little
these ten thoughts together. This is not a definitive list,
meaning this isn't the ten items that you need to
know if you're going to build a foundation into twenty
(04:19):
twenty five, you know, And also I say twenty twenty five,
My hope is that this podcast will be listened to
much more, many more years into the future than that.
So if you're listening and you think this is relative
to twenty twenty five and you're listening in twenty twenty nine,
that's not true. This should be a general general ideas
(04:41):
for growing in any given year. Okay, so not a
definitive list. These are ten items. We're just going to
go through this. And I made the list and then
I didn't really think through it. So you're going to
think through with me. And I will say I have
done this quite a bit. But nonetheless, it is still
(05:04):
a bit difficult to sit in a room by myself
for forty minutes and talk to myself. So don't think that.
Don't think that the ideas are just going to flow
like crazy, because that's something I'm still working on as
many episodes as I've done. My number one thing I
(05:27):
have here is to answer the question, how can we
grow in the new year? Okay, that's the question for
all these Number one start with a foundation that lasts. Okay,
So every structure we know this needs a strong foundation,
(05:48):
needs a solid foundation or it won't last. For Christians,
we know that that foundation is Christ. And for people
that are that are unsure about your faith or you
don't have a faith, it doesn't take away the fact
that you still have to ask that question, what is
(06:08):
your life built on?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Right?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
I have seen through the years that we all have something,
we all have a religion, we all worship something. So
for the people that say, grangeer, I don't have a
faith like you do, or I'm not religious like you do,
you just watch their life for just a little bit,
even if it's just the updates they make on Facebook,
(06:35):
and you can learn real quick what their religion is.
I don't do this often, but I will say that.
Sometimes someone will give me a critique or a negative
comment on social media or something. Maybe it's something like
profoundly theological that tries to contradict something I said, and I'll,
(06:58):
like I said, I don't always do this, but sometimes
I'll go to their page to see what their foundation is, Like,
where's this person coming from. This person's making this bold
claim telling me I'm wrong, or they're telling me they're
standing with me in agreeance with whatever I said. And
I go to their page to see what their foundation is,
(07:19):
and I quickly see it. I go, oh, it's NASCAR,
or it's politics, or it's conspiracy theories, or it's youth baseball,
or it's the Boston Red Sox or it's bon Jovi.
I mean, whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
You'll see it.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
You could do this little experiment in all of you,
if you have look at either look at yourself or
look at someone else and go what is their religion
And go to their social media account if they have one,
and just scan through the last month worth of post
and you'll start to see a pattern.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
No one is random.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I have not met anyone or seen anyone that's totally
random that just says something about the weather here, and
then this time now they're talking about golf, and then
now they're talking about their family, and then now they're
talking about President Trump, and then now they're like, no
one is random. Everyone has a pattern, and they kind
of go in and out of that pattern, but they
(08:22):
keep it. We all need a strong, solid foundation, a
foundation that lasts. So if you look at your religion,
like I said, Christians, we would say this is Christ
Christ himself, and the Bible says it's him. And we
(08:46):
know that in terms of this world, that this life
we're living now is temporal, it's temporary, that we have
an everlasting kingdom that we look forward to. All the
doesn't take away from the fact that we have work
to do today. But if you are, if that's not you,
(09:07):
I'm so glad you're listening to this podcast. But if
that's not you take a quick accounting of whatever your
worship is. Maybe that's maybe you don't like that word.
I don't mind using it. But whatever your interest, your
prime interest is, and it might be your family. That's interesting.
(09:29):
Your your prime interest of a person without a specific faith,
your prime interest, your or religion might be your family.
Like everything is family, family, family, And that's tough. That's
a that's tough to build a foundation on family that
I believe family is something that goes on top of
(09:52):
a firm foundation. In fact, family stays together, finds unity
upon a foundation because if you put if family is
your foundation, then when life comes at you and someone
dies or moves away, or gets a divorce, or any
(10:16):
other variety of family separating things, you're in a lot
of trouble. And it's the same thing with any other
kind of foundation. So take an accounting of what of
whatever your religion is, and and ask yourself, is this
a foundation that lasts? And the very well you might
(10:41):
have a good argument that it does. Okay, Number two,
focus on what truly matters. Now, Why did I write
that down? Because in this noisy, distracted world, it is
so easy to chase what is urgent instead of what
(11:05):
is important. I'll probably say this several times on this podcast,
but I was thinking about this before I started recording.
We don't know, none of us do how this year
is going to go, just like I didn't know how
(11:26):
my twenty nineteen was going to go when I celebrated
New Year's in twenty nineteen, not knowing that that would
be a massive catalyst, a massive turning point in my life.
Just a few months in, I would lose my son,
(11:48):
which would start a chain reaction of cleaning house. You
could say my life the house was cleaned, our nature
was tossed out, leading to another death in early twenty twenty,
which is the death of myself. We don't know going
(12:12):
into this year if this year is going to be
another catalyst year for me or you.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
But here's what I do know.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
There are a large amount of people listening right now
that this year is going to be You're gonna have
some crazy things happen. Likely, there will be much loss,
there will be much heartache. There will be babies born
in Grandpa's dying. There will be miracles and there will
(12:42):
be cancer diagnosis. There will be new jobs, and there
will be divorces. There will be horrific car collisions, and
there will be there will be seemingly miracled medical cures,
(13:06):
and most people will fall right in between. But we
need to we need to understand this that going into
the share this might be you might be right around
the corner from the biggest trial of your life. And
I'll probably get to that here in a bit. But
(13:29):
if you don't have that foundation, the truly last, if
you don't have a focus on what truly matters, that's
going to determine how this trial is going to go
for you, if there's going to be growth from it,
or if it's going to be something that shatters everything
that you've built. So in this noisy, distracted world number two,
(13:51):
it's easy to chase what feels urgent instead of what's important,
and so we should ask the question what matters. This
is interesting if you think about what matters, it's not
always what makes you happy. We can't think of, we
(14:13):
can't think of. And I've heard people say this on
my radio program after Midnight. People have said, you know what,
this year, Granger, I'm gonna start doing what makes me happy.
I've lived my whole life for everyone else, and it's
only burned me, and so now I'm going to live
for myself and I'm going to do what truly makes
me happy. Now the Bible is going to say the opposite.
(14:36):
The Bible is going to say that you are wired
to serve to love others. You were wired to love
others as yourself. And if you do that, because that's
the way you were built, then you will feel peace,
joy comfort in that because that's your primary function. And
(14:59):
the more you isolate your yourself from that, cut yourself
from that, and instead serve yourself, the more empty you feel.
That might sound crazy, but it's when you put it
to the test. It works like this. Every time look
at Hollywood, look at the community of people that have served,
given up everything to serve themselves, to indulge themselves, to
(15:21):
buy things for themselves, to build a kingdom for themselves,
And where do they end up happy? No, we don't
ever see that example. Where do you see happiness? Think
of the most secular documentary on Netflix, whatever it might be,
it's whenever you see true happiness, it's the people that
are serving. In fact, they've also connected that with longevity
(15:44):
of life, so that the most centurions, I think that's
how you say it. The people that have lived over
one hundred. When they find those people, you know, they
go what was that documentary was like the Blue the
Blue Zones or something like that, where they went and
found where the oldest people living over one hundred in
(16:07):
the world were. And every time they found a community,
it was the same thing. They're living together in close
knit community, serving each other, not a lot of access.
Of course, they were eating healthy, but a product of
eating healthy was they were cooking together, enjoying meals together,
breaking bread together, out being outdoors together. It's interesting. So
(16:35):
when we think about what truly matters, it's not about
what makes us happy, not always. Sometimes it's a product.
Happiness is sometimes a product, but not always. For example,
if a friend calls me that I went to high
school with and he says, Grandeur, my dad died and
(16:55):
I said, I'm so sorry to hear that, and he says, yeah, man,
we're really torn up about it. And the funeral's Monday.
Can you make it eleven am? The three hour drive
from where you are? And I say, you know, my
flesh says, my first thought is Monday's so busy. I've
(17:17):
got so much going on Monday, and I was actually
going to use that day to get some work done
and relax. You're thinking this, but now this guy's saying,
can you drive three hours there and three hours back
to go to this funeral? It's going to be kind
of depressing. It's definitely not going to It's definitely not
what's fun. That's definitely not the fun thing to do.
(17:39):
And that's definitely not the thing that's going to make
me happy. Like if I'm chasing things, they're going to
make me happy, going to that funeral is not one
of them. But out of my day on Monday, that's
what matters. That's the investment that matters, not because it
it fills me with joy or anything, but because by serving,
(18:04):
by loving, that's the thing that You add those kind
of events up in twenty twenty five and you're going
to look back and go, that year was worth it.
I grew, I had growth in the year. Right, it's
going to be those type of things. So it's we
need to avoid thinking about chasing things for happiness, focus
on what truly matters. Number three, invest in people, not
(18:28):
just projects. That's an interesting thought. Accomplishments are awesome, you know,
we should. We should strive for success in all areas
of life. And I say that because you don't want
to strive for mediocrity in anything, whether it's selling widgets
or loving your wife.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
You don't you want to.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
I want to strive to be middle of the ground. Now,
it's like I want to succeed in this. I want
to be great in this. But we could all agree
that true joy comes from the people that love and serve,
whether that's family, neighbors, or someone that you meet along
the way that's in need. We should look at it
(19:12):
this year as a way to grow. We should look
at opportunities to pour into others self lesslie and this
is what us Jesus modeled for us, valuing people over
programs or systems.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
That's something to keep in mind.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
I would imagine there's a lot of people listening right
now that want to start a new business in twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
That's the goal.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
You might be thinking, let's do this now is the time.
Twenty twenty five is my.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Year and I love that.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
And like most businesses, in twenty twenty five, you're going
to have an online presence. You're going to need an
e store and a way for customers to check out
using their credit card. Have you thought through that yet, Well,
if not, I want to introduce you to Shopify. I've
used it for many years now with brothers Tyler and
Parker over at ee dot com. And Shopify makes it
so easy for us so that we don't have to
(20:05):
worry about the checkout. Instead, we could think about the
creative things that we're actually selling. Right, So, the best
time to start your new business is right now, and
Shopify makes it easy to create your brand, open for business.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
And get your first sale.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Get your store up and running easily with thousands of
customizable templates, no coding or design skills required at all.
All you need to do is drag and drop. And
then the powerful social media tools let you connect all
your channels and create shoppable post and help you sell
everywhere that people scroll. So what happens if you don't
act now? Well, you regret it? What if someone else
(20:40):
beats you to the idea? Right, Well, don't kick yourself
when you hear me say this same thing next year
and you didn't do anything now or Shopify, your first
sale is closer than you think. Established in twenty twenty
five has a nice ring to.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
It, doesn't it?
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Sign up for you're one dollar per month trial period
at shopify dot com slash granger all lowercase. Go to
shopify dot comsh stranger to start selling with Shopify today
Shopify dot.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Com slash granger.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
If you want to get a hold of me, an
easy way to do it is cameo dot com slash
Grangersmith cameo dot com slash granger Smith. You could order
a video message from me saying whatever customizable message you
want me to say, Happy birthday, happy anniversary, maybe a
word of encouragement, whatever it might be. I think it's
a pretty good gift, especially for people you just don't
(21:26):
know how to buy for. Get them a cameo from
me at cameo dot com slash Grangersmith.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Moving on in this list answering the question that we
should all be asking, how can I grow.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
In this new year? Number four? I wrote this down
and be a giver not a consumer man? Isn't that true?
Speaker 1 (21:48):
I need to By the way, this list is for me,
So don't think that this is like me preaching anybody.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
This list is for me. So many times, don't we
fall into this.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Trap that we can zoom consume, consume, and we don't
contribute anything. You know, we we are we are just
in a consumer society. We do this, whether it's our relationships.
I mean, I'm convinced this is why divorce is so
prevalent because we we we take these marriage vows sickness
(22:22):
are poor or or sickness, or health or rich or poor,
better or worse. We say these things, but we don't
mean it. That's why divorce is so prevalent. We say them,
and then we and then as soon as we stop
getting what we want because we're consumers. We've been trained
this way. That's that's in a relationship. And if a
(22:43):
husband and wife, if one of them reaches a point
where they can't consume anymore because they're not getting anything,
they're like, I'm not happy, I want to move on.
I have fallen out of love. We've we've lost the
idea of commitment in that sense. And so in that
that goes into everything else. It goes into church life.
(23:04):
We so many times at church become consumers of the
church service, feed me, entertain me. If not, I'm going
to another church. You know, uh, you can. This is
every aspect of life. Kids, we have trained or we're
constantly training our kids to be consumers and we are
(23:27):
the ones feeding them with the consumption as parents, which
is wrong, and we shouldn't teach our kids that way.
Things should be earned. You know, you should be a contributor,
contributor to society, and then you you consume as it
comes in, your in your share. This is an idea
(23:48):
that humans have always known. We've we've really lost it.
The world teaches us this, to consume more, to hoard more,
to always seek more and more. You know, Jesus just
flips that idea upside down. Jesus taught it's more blessed
to give than receive. Paul tells us this in Acts
(24:10):
twenty thirty five. So this year we should focus on giving,
and maybe that word could be misunderstood. Generosity, your time,
your talents, your resources. Give more than we receive. Be
(24:32):
a giver, not a consumer. Number five, Choose forgiveness over bitterness.
How many people need to hear that forgiveness is in
many ways a choice. Bitterness in many ways. Disgruntledness anyways,
(25:01):
is a choice. Circumstances are not We can't control the circumstances.
The things that happen to us, the things that other
people say to us, the events that happen upon us.
We cannot control, but we can control how we respond
(25:22):
to these events, and that includes forgiveness. Choosing in this
year to grow through the choice of forgiveness and replacement
of being bitter. Because you have a choice between the two.
You want to forgive this person or do you want
(25:43):
to be bitter about it? Not misunderstanding forgiveness for acceptance
or don't misunderstand forgiveness for trust. I'm gonna, okay, I
forgive you there before I trust you. You don't have
to do that. I can forgive a rattlesnake for biding me,
(26:05):
but that doesn't mean I trust the rattlesnake that if
I put it back in its den, I'm going to
walk by the rocks and it's not gonna jump out
at me again. So forgiveness is a heart position that we.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Choose to release.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
I forgive you, I don't hold this grudge against you.
I will no longer be bitter holding onto these grudges.
We all know. I don't have to convince you. Holding
on to grudges weighs us down. So whether that's forgiving
others or seeking forgiveness, both of those things.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
We should go.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Into this year letting go of bitterness and embracing the
freedom that comes from grace. Number six, Live with purpose
but not just productivity. It's a little bit of what
I've already been talking about. But it's easy to fill
(27:10):
our calendar and still feel empty. How you do it? Man?
Busy but empty instead instead of productivity. And it's like,
I'm you could be very productive and still be empty
and still feel like you're just a hamster on a wheel, right,
(27:33):
But if you choose to live with purpose and that
kind of that goes back to a couple other things
we've already talked about. But choosing to live with purpose
doing the meaningful things. What did I say earlier? Focusing
on what truly matters, investing in people not just products.
(27:55):
Our projects start with a foundation that last be a giver,
not a consumer. Forgiveness over bitterness, and that goes right
into live with purpose not just productivity, because instead of
being busy, we should ask the question, yes, I'm busy,
but am I am I busy with a purpose? Am
(28:15):
I being purposeful in my busyness? Otherwise you are spinning
your wheels and this life is a vapor and it
will be gone, and you will look back one day
and go, what have I done?
Speaker 2 (28:30):
What have I done?
Speaker 1 (28:32):
For Christians, that purpose comes from glorifying God and loving others.
But for anybody that's that's not a Christian or anyone
else listening, it would still be worth asking yourself as
on this topic, it would be worth asking what's my
(28:53):
purpose beyond the day today?
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Grind right.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Number seven, Embrace rest, not just hustle, so that that
number seven has to go with number six. Live with purpose,
not just productivity. And then embrace the rest not just hustle.
You know, I've had to learn these last the last
(29:21):
few years because there are several people in my sphere
that work with me that have access to my calendar
and they will fill my calendar. So my publicists will
fill my calendar. My brother Tyler can fill my calendar.
Ant Man can fill my calendar. Paul Amber, there's a
there's a crew, Chris Ly, There's a crew that could
(29:45):
at any time go in there and say at eleven am,
Granger has an interview on this person's radio show or whatever.
So I had to learn a few years ago that
I needed to schedule rest, So I literally put in
all caps hold for rest, so to be like on
(30:06):
the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth, I'll say I'll block all
three days it says hold for rest, And I'll do
that when I when I glance at the calendar and
I'm looking forward, and I see there's there's some either
there's a lot of different things I have to do,
maybe a lot of travel, or it could be just
(30:26):
a few things I have to do, but they're heavy
thinking things, and I know coming out of that or
another way is I'm going into a bunch of heavy
thinking things. Then I should give you an example of
an example would be there is a some kind of
production company that wants to come to my house and
(30:52):
interview me about river or the ministry something like that,
and it's gonna they're gonna be here for five hours.
And that's a heavy thinking thing because that's gonna put me.
It's a joy to do that, it's a joy to
share my testimony, but that would put me in a
position where I'm just kind of drained afterward.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
So the next day I.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Need to hold for rest in my calendar. Instead of
just being busy. We should always ask am I living
with purpose? Yeah, But whenever this world glorifies burnout, right,
Jesus advites us to rest. So we should build a
(31:37):
rhythm of work and rest that honors health, family, according
to God's design for our life.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
So important.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
I don't think anyone's gonna look back on their life
and go, I just I wish I wouldn't have rested
so much, you know, I don't think anyone's gonna say that.
And I think we would be shocked to know that
the more we rested and the more our battery we charged,
the more productive we would have been if we would
have blocked for days of rest. And by the way
(32:16):
I do that hold for rest, I probably don't do
it nearly enough. So this is something I'm going to
lean into. Number eight, Speak life into others. Words have power.
This year, we should commit to speaking encouragement. I say
(32:37):
words have power. That's probably a massive understatement. We should
speak encouragement, truth, love into the lives around us, into
those people, and not just the people that matter the most.
But we should be the person that speaks encouragement and
life and love and truth consistently. We get to be
(33:00):
known as the person that does that. So whether that's
the person in the drive through window, or the person
at the the person at the church sitting next to you,
or your own wife, and the greatest span of of
all the people that are around us, we should be the
(33:22):
people that hold back from speaking things that tear down You.
Remember people say this all the time that my grandma
used to tell me, if I can't say anything nice,
don't say anything at all. There is something so true
about that. And although not saying anything at all it
(33:47):
could equally get you in trouble, sometimes it's typically the
better option. It's always the better option than breaking, than
tearing someone down. Because, as we said it just a
few points ago, number five, choose forgiveness over bitterness. How
many times does this forgiveness? Choosing forgiveness over bitterness come from?
(34:08):
The necessity comes from some words that were spoken in anger,
some words that were spoken as someone else tore someone down.
And this podcast, as I answer questions, so much of
what I answer is based on someone tore somebody down
with words. If someone spoke out of pride or anger
(34:28):
or resentment or impatience, our misunderstanding, but they spoke with anger,
So we should speak life proverbs eighteen twenty one reminds
us that the tongue has the power.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Of life and death.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Choose life this year.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Number nine.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Expect challenges, but look for growth.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
This year.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
And I said a little bit earlier, this year will
have challenges for all of us. I'm not some kind
of freaky profit, but I can tell you right now
you will have extreme challenges this year. I encourage so
many times people to journal. I use an app called
day one. I believe that that costs money. I believe
(35:23):
it's there's a small monthly fee, so I'm willing to
pay the monthly fee because it's so convenient. Day one
it ques the next day up for me. It stores
everything really nicely on the cloud. I could quickly access
what happened in the year's previous right there. But you
(35:45):
don't have to You certainly don't have to use it.
You could use any kind of note note taking app.
I actually recommend digital over spiral notebooks because because I
think for me, the most important thing about journaling is
keeping and reading the previous years, because that's what gives
(36:05):
you the perspective. So as we go through challenges that
sometimes feel like the whole world is caving, in on us.
We could read and look back and in subsequent years
and say, you know, it wasn't that big a deal,
or it was a big deal, and I saw, I
(36:26):
saw the strength that it took to get through it,
and it worked. And so you can encourage yourself, your
old self. Sometimes I'll ask myself my future self questions
in the journal.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
I'll say, this is.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Tough, future self, how does this turn out? And then
I'll answer myself and say, hey, twenty twenty three, I
know it seems crazy, but it's all going to work out, And.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Then I'll answer it.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Sometimes i'll answer that and I'll say, hey, twenty twenty four,
you were right. It even gets better than you know.
So it's like these different versions of myself talking. And
we could expect challenges, but I think God, I know,
God works through these challenges to grow us. I say
(37:15):
a lot of times when I'm preaching, I'll say something
like this is this is the molten metal is when
you know that you're finally ready for the hand of
the blacksmith. But it takes the heat, it takes the
pressure for that mold, that that warped metal to finally
be melted and ready for the hand of the blacksmith
(37:39):
to shape it into what it needs to be, what
it's designed to be, what its purposes. So these trials
and whatever challenges we will face, that's what God is
using to grow us, to mold us. James one two
to four says remind he says, count it all joy,
(38:01):
my brothers. When we face trials of various kinds, these
we shouldn't think of the trials themselves as the joy.
It's like, yay, joy, you know, joy, I'm going through
this tough time, but you should count it as joy
because through that comes the endurance and the maturity. So
there isn't a question if you will face challenges this year.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
You will.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
The question is will you grow from them? Will you
choose to let that trial grow you?
Speaker 2 (38:33):
And then number ten only if you will hear this.
Not everyone.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
I've tried to make all of these for everyone, but
not everyone will hear this one. Keep an eternal perspective.
Life is short, but eternity is long. Not everyone will
believe that, but Christians speaking to you, this year will
be another year to live with Heaven and mine making
(39:02):
decisions that echo throughout eternity, not just what makes us
feel good right now. And for those that don't share
that same faith, you could ask this, I wouldn't be
mad about it if you ask what kind of legacy
am I leaving behind? What are the legacy decisions I'm
(39:27):
making for my kids? What are the legacy decisions I'm
making for my brand new career? What are the legacy
decisions I'm making for this this, this date, this person
I'm dating. Is this just sport dating for fun right now?
Or am I thinking long term? And when I'm talking
long term and you're dating, I'm not just talking about
(39:49):
marriage so that you're happy.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
I'm talking about children. I'm talking about the fruit of your.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Life, the arrows from your quiver, the continuation of your
father's name. You can think of in that way your legacy.
What legacy do you want to leave behind? And that
makes up my ten here. I didn't think too much
on this, y'all. I didn't. This is not something that
(40:17):
I've been working on for the last six months. These
are These are very general. There's not really an order
besides number one, start with a foundation that last. But
other than that, we could you could put those out
of order and then comment below. If you're on a
if you're listening on a platform that allows comments, comment
and let me know what you think of this list,
what you would add to this list, what you disagree
(40:40):
with on this list, And perhaps I would listen back
to this and want to correct myself too, because this
is all on the fly, so maybe I would want
to listen back and go.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
I think I could have tweaked that a little bit better.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
But hopefully this is a good a good way to
kick us off into the year and to maybe are
a couple questions that you could ask podcast at grangersmith
dot com. Sure, love, y'all. I'm glad to be with
you another year. See you next Monday. Thanks for joining
me on the Grangersmith podcast. I appreciate all of you guys.
(41:13):
You could help me out by rating this podcast on iTunes.
If you're on YouTube, subscribe to this channel, hit that
little like button and notification spell so that you never
miss anytime I upload a video. Yigi
What's up everybody? Welcome to the podcast. So glad you're
with me. This is actually, as I'm recording this, the
first podcast of this year. So I've been thinking about
this the format of this podcast, which I love you
ask me anything you want. We've been doing this since
twenty seventeen together Email me podcast at grangersmith dot com.
(00:37):
And the last time we were together last week, I
was thinking through a question how do you make the
last podcast of the year, And so I kind of
I made it a reflective podcast where I would say
I would ask the question if I were single and
(00:59):
starting over, we would I do. And that way I
can kind of look back and go, well, this is
maybe in a way, this is the advice I would
give myself back, you know, and if I could start over,
this is what I would want to do. And so
this podcast is now we're looking forward. Maybe this could
(01:20):
be a visionary type podcast where we where instead of
saying if I could start over, this is what I
would do. Instead, I should answer the question that we
should all be asking, how can I grow this year?
And you could define grow in many ways. You could
(01:42):
you could make the size of the growth that's up
to you. I would say, as long as it's something,
as long as it's a little bit more than it
was last year. You know, I grant you guys, most
of you know. I grow these little trees my house.
A lot of times I'll grow oak trees from acorns,
(02:04):
which it's an interesting social experiment because if you grow
a tree from an acorn, you will never get to
enjoy the shade of that tree. I mean, it would
take thirty years to truly enjoy the enjoy the great
shade of a great oak tree. And what we plant
(02:29):
them anyway, and what I'm looking for from those those
little saplings year by year is growth. Sometimes on those
oak trees. It's it's interesting because sometimes like I have
a Monterey oak and I'm like, man, I don't know
what it's done since last year. And then sometimes you
(02:51):
go out there and you go, yeah, I think I
think it got four or five feet taller this year.
And so sometimes it's inches and sometimes it's feet. But
as long as it's growing. That's the question that I
want to ask in this podcast. You could another way
could look at it, is what are you building in
(03:11):
twenty twenty five? So let's talk about foundations let's talk
about disciplines. Let's talk about our our ability to.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Have some kind of.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Forethought of self control.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
We'll put it that way.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
And typically I answer your questions podcast at grangersmith dot com,
So email those. Go ahead and send your questions and
be thinking through it as you're listening to this one
and man, we'll take those and put them together and
we'll produce a ton of shows with it. But in
the meantime, this is going to be kind of a
visionary podcast looking forward. Okay, last week was a reflective one.
(03:58):
So I put together ten ten little titles here that
we can go over and dissect. I put these little
these ten thoughts together. This is not a definitive list,
meaning this isn't the ten items that you need to
know if you're going to build a foundation into twenty
(04:19):
twenty five, you know, And also I say twenty twenty five,
My hope is that this podcast will be listened to
much more, many more years into the future than that.
So if you're listening and you think this is relative
to twenty twenty five and you're listening in twenty twenty nine,
that's not true. This should be a general general ideas
(04:41):
for growing in any given year. Okay, so not a
definitive list. These are ten items. We're just going to
go through this. And I made the list and then
I didn't really think through it. So you're going to
think through with me. And I will say I have
done this quite a bit. But nonetheless, it is still
(05:04):
a bit difficult to sit in a room by myself
for forty minutes and talk to myself. So don't think that.
Don't think that the ideas are just going to flow
like crazy, because that's something I'm still working on as
many episodes as I've done. My number one thing I
(05:27):
have here is to answer the question, how can we
grow in the new year? Okay, that's the question for
all these Number one start with a foundation that lasts. Okay,
So every structure we know this needs a strong foundation,
(05:48):
needs a solid foundation or it won't last. For Christians,
we know that that foundation is Christ. And for people
that are that are unsure about your faith or you
don't have a faith, it doesn't take away the fact
that you still have to ask that question, what is
(06:08):
your life built on?
Speaker 2 (06:12):
Right?
Speaker 1 (06:13):
I have seen through the years that we all have something,
we all have a religion, we all worship something. So
for the people that say, grangeer, I don't have a
faith like you do, or I'm not religious like you do,
you just watch their life for just a little bit,
even if it's just the updates they make on Facebook,
(06:35):
and you can learn real quick what their religion is.
I don't do this often, but I will say that.
Sometimes someone will give me a critique or a negative
comment on social media or something. Maybe it's something like
profoundly theological that tries to contradict something I said, and I'll,
(06:58):
like I said, I don't always do this, but sometimes
I'll go to their page to see what their foundation is, Like,
where's this person coming from. This person's making this bold
claim telling me I'm wrong, or they're telling me they're
standing with me in agreeance with whatever I said. And
I go to their page to see what their foundation is,
(07:19):
and I quickly see it. I go, oh, it's NASCAR,
or it's politics, or it's conspiracy theories, or it's youth baseball,
or it's the Boston Red Sox or it's bon Jovi.
I mean, whatever it is.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
You'll see it.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
You could do this little experiment in all of you,
if you have look at either look at yourself or
look at someone else and go what is their religion
And go to their social media account if they have one,
and just scan through the last month worth of post
and you'll start to see a pattern.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
No one is random.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
I have not met anyone or seen anyone that's totally
random that just says something about the weather here, and
then this time now they're talking about golf, and then
now they're talking about their family, and then now they're
talking about President Trump, and then now they're like, no
one is random. Everyone has a pattern, and they kind
of go in and out of that pattern, but they
(08:22):
keep it. We all need a strong, solid foundation, a
foundation that lasts. So if you look at your religion,
like I said, Christians, we would say this is Christ
Christ himself, and the Bible says it's him. And we
(08:46):
know that in terms of this world, that this life
we're living now is temporal, it's temporary, that we have
an everlasting kingdom that we look forward to. All the
doesn't take away from the fact that we have work
to do today. But if you are, if that's not you,
(09:07):
I'm so glad you're listening to this podcast. But if
that's not you take a quick accounting of whatever your
worship is. Maybe that's maybe you don't like that word.
I don't mind using it. But whatever your interest, your
prime interest is, and it might be your family. That's interesting.
(09:29):
Your your prime interest of a person without a specific faith,
your prime interest, your or religion might be your family.
Like everything is family, family, family, And that's tough. That's
a that's tough to build a foundation on family that
I believe family is something that goes on top of
(09:52):
a firm foundation. In fact, family stays together, finds unity
upon a foundation because if you put if family is
your foundation, then when life comes at you and someone
dies or moves away, or gets a divorce, or any
(10:16):
other variety of family separating things, you're in a lot
of trouble. And it's the same thing with any other
kind of foundation. So take an accounting of what of
whatever your religion is, and and ask yourself, is this
a foundation that lasts? And the very well you might
(10:41):
have a good argument that it does. Okay, Number two,
focus on what truly matters. Now, Why did I write
that down? Because in this noisy, distracted world, it is
so easy to chase what is urgent instead of what
(11:05):
is important. I'll probably say this several times on this podcast,
but I was thinking about this before I started recording.
We don't know, none of us do how this year
is going to go, just like I didn't know how
(11:26):
my twenty nineteen was going to go when I celebrated
New Year's in twenty nineteen, not knowing that that would
be a massive catalyst, a massive turning point in my life.
Just a few months in, I would lose my son,
(11:48):
which would start a chain reaction of cleaning house. You
could say my life the house was cleaned, our nature
was tossed out, leading to another death in early twenty twenty,
which is the death of myself. We don't know going
(12:12):
into this year if this year is going to be
another catalyst year for me or you.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
But here's what I do know.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
There are a large amount of people listening right now
that this year is going to be You're gonna have
some crazy things happen. Likely, there will be much loss,
there will be much heartache. There will be babies born
in Grandpa's dying. There will be miracles and there will
(12:42):
be cancer diagnosis. There will be new jobs, and there
will be divorces. There will be horrific car collisions, and
there will be there will be seemingly miracled medical cures,
(13:06):
and most people will fall right in between. But we
need to we need to understand this that going into
the share this might be you might be right around
the corner from the biggest trial of your life. And
I'll probably get to that here in a bit. But
(13:29):
if you don't have that foundation, the truly last, if
you don't have a focus on what truly matters, that's
going to determine how this trial is going to go
for you, if there's going to be growth from it,
or if it's going to be something that shatters everything
that you've built. So in this noisy, distracted world number two,
(13:51):
it's easy to chase what feels urgent instead of what's important,
and so we should ask the question what matters. This
is interesting if you think about what matters, it's not
always what makes you happy. We can't think of, we
(14:13):
can't think of. And I've heard people say this on
my radio program after Midnight. People have said, you know what,
this year, Granger, I'm gonna start doing what makes me happy.
I've lived my whole life for everyone else, and it's
only burned me, and so now I'm going to live
for myself and I'm going to do what truly makes
me happy. Now the Bible is going to say the opposite.
(14:36):
The Bible is going to say that you are wired
to serve to love others. You were wired to love
others as yourself. And if you do that, because that's
the way you were built, then you will feel peace,
joy comfort in that because that's your primary function. And
(14:59):
the more you isolate your yourself from that, cut yourself
from that, and instead serve yourself, the more empty you feel.
That might sound crazy, but it's when you put it
to the test. It works like this. Every time look
at Hollywood, look at the community of people that have served,
given up everything to serve themselves, to indulge themselves, to
(15:21):
buy things for themselves, to build a kingdom for themselves,
And where do they end up happy? No, we don't
ever see that example. Where do you see happiness? Think
of the most secular documentary on Netflix, whatever it might be,
it's whenever you see true happiness, it's the people that
are serving. In fact, they've also connected that with longevity
(15:44):
of life, so that the most centurions, I think that's
how you say it. The people that have lived over
one hundred. When they find those people, you know, they
go what was that documentary was like the Blue the
Blue Zones or something like that, where they went and
found where the oldest people living over one hundred in
(16:07):
the world were. And every time they found a community,
it was the same thing. They're living together in close
knit community, serving each other, not a lot of access.
Of course, they were eating healthy, but a product of
eating healthy was they were cooking together, enjoying meals together,
breaking bread together, out being outdoors together. It's interesting. So
(16:35):
when we think about what truly matters, it's not about
what makes us happy, not always. Sometimes it's a product.
Happiness is sometimes a product, but not always. For example,
if a friend calls me that I went to high
school with and he says, Grandeur, my dad died and
(16:55):
I said, I'm so sorry to hear that, and he says, yeah, man,
we're really torn up about it. And the funeral's Monday.
Can you make it eleven am? The three hour drive
from where you are? And I say, you know, my
flesh says, my first thought is Monday's so busy. I've
(17:17):
got so much going on Monday, and I was actually
going to use that day to get some work done
and relax. You're thinking this, but now this guy's saying,
can you drive three hours there and three hours back
to go to this funeral? It's going to be kind
of depressing. It's definitely not going to It's definitely not
what's fun. That's definitely not the fun thing to do.
(17:39):
And that's definitely not the thing that's going to make
me happy. Like if I'm chasing things, they're going to
make me happy, going to that funeral is not one
of them. But out of my day on Monday, that's
what matters. That's the investment that matters, not because it
it fills me with joy or anything, but because by serving,
(18:04):
by loving, that's the thing that You add those kind
of events up in twenty twenty five and you're going
to look back and go, that year was worth it.
I grew, I had growth in the year. Right, it's
going to be those type of things. So it's we
need to avoid thinking about chasing things for happiness, focus
on what truly matters. Number three, invest in people, not
(18:28):
just projects. That's an interesting thought. Accomplishments are awesome, you know,
we should. We should strive for success in all areas
of life. And I say that because you don't want
to strive for mediocrity in anything, whether it's selling widgets
or loving your wife.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
You don't you want to.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
I want to strive to be middle of the ground. Now,
it's like I want to succeed in this. I want
to be great in this. But we could all agree
that true joy comes from the people that love and serve,
whether that's family, neighbors, or someone that you meet along
the way that's in need. We should look at it
(19:12):
this year as a way to grow. We should look
at opportunities to pour into others self lesslie and this
is what us Jesus modeled for us, valuing people over
programs or systems.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
That's something to keep in mind.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
I would imagine there's a lot of people listening right
now that want to start a new business in twenty
twenty five.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
That's the goal.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
You might be thinking, let's do this now is the time.
Twenty twenty five is my.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Year and I love that.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
And like most businesses, in twenty twenty five, you're going
to have an online presence. You're going to need an
e store and a way for customers to check out
using their credit card. Have you thought through that yet, Well,
if not, I want to introduce you to Shopify. I've
used it for many years now with brothers Tyler and
Parker over at ee dot com. And Shopify makes it
so easy for us so that we don't have to
(20:05):
worry about the checkout. Instead, we could think about the
creative things that we're actually selling. Right, So, the best
time to start your new business is right now, and
Shopify makes it easy to create your brand, open for business.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
And get your first sale.
Speaker 3 (20:19):
Get your store up and running easily with thousands of
customizable templates, no coding or design skills required at all.
All you need to do is drag and drop. And
then the powerful social media tools let you connect all
your channels and create shoppable post and help you sell
everywhere that people scroll. So what happens if you don't
act now? Well, you regret it? What if someone else
(20:40):
beats you to the idea? Right, Well, don't kick yourself
when you hear me say this same thing next year
and you didn't do anything now or Shopify, your first
sale is closer than you think. Established in twenty twenty
five has a nice ring to.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
It, doesn't it?
Speaker 3 (20:53):
Sign up for you're one dollar per month trial period
at shopify dot com slash granger all lowercase. Go to
shopify dot comsh stranger to start selling with Shopify today
Shopify dot.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Com slash granger.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
If you want to get a hold of me, an
easy way to do it is cameo dot com slash
Grangersmith cameo dot com slash granger Smith. You could order
a video message from me saying whatever customizable message you
want me to say, Happy birthday, happy anniversary, maybe a
word of encouragement, whatever it might be. I think it's
a pretty good gift, especially for people you just don't
(21:26):
know how to buy for. Get them a cameo from
me at cameo dot com slash Grangersmith.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Moving on in this list answering the question that we
should all be asking, how can I grow.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
In this new year? Number four? I wrote this down
and be a giver not a consumer man? Isn't that true?
Speaker 1 (21:48):
I need to By the way, this list is for me,
So don't think that this is like me preaching anybody.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
This list is for me. So many times, don't we
fall into this.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Trap that we can zoom consume, consume, and we don't
contribute anything. You know, we we are we are just
in a consumer society. We do this, whether it's our relationships.
I mean, I'm convinced this is why divorce is so
prevalent because we we we take these marriage vows sickness
(22:22):
are poor or or sickness, or health or rich or poor,
better or worse. We say these things, but we don't
mean it. That's why divorce is so prevalent. We say them,
and then we and then as soon as we stop
getting what we want because we're consumers. We've been trained
this way. That's that's in a relationship. And if a
(22:43):
husband and wife, if one of them reaches a point
where they can't consume anymore because they're not getting anything,
they're like, I'm not happy, I want to move on.
I have fallen out of love. We've we've lost the
idea of commitment in that sense. And so in that
that goes into everything else. It goes into church life.
(23:04):
We so many times at church become consumers of the
church service, feed me, entertain me. If not, I'm going
to another church. You know, uh, you can. This is
every aspect of life. Kids, we have trained or we're
constantly training our kids to be consumers and we are
(23:27):
the ones feeding them with the consumption as parents, which
is wrong, and we shouldn't teach our kids that way.
Things should be earned. You know, you should be a contributor,
contributor to society, and then you you consume as it
comes in, your in your share. This is an idea
(23:48):
that humans have always known. We've we've really lost it.
The world teaches us this, to consume more, to hoard more,
to always seek more and more. You know, Jesus just
flips that idea upside down. Jesus taught it's more blessed
to give than receive. Paul tells us this in Acts
(24:10):
twenty thirty five. So this year we should focus on giving,
and maybe that word could be misunderstood. Generosity, your time,
your talents, your resources. Give more than we receive. Be
(24:32):
a giver, not a consumer. Number five, Choose forgiveness over bitterness.
How many people need to hear that forgiveness is in
many ways a choice. Bitterness in many ways. Disgruntledness anyways,
(25:01):
is a choice. Circumstances are not We can't control the circumstances.
The things that happen to us, the things that other
people say to us, the events that happen upon us.
We cannot control, but we can control how we respond
(25:22):
to these events, and that includes forgiveness. Choosing in this
year to grow through the choice of forgiveness and replacement
of being bitter. Because you have a choice between the two.
You want to forgive this person or do you want
(25:43):
to be bitter about it? Not misunderstanding forgiveness for acceptance
or don't misunderstand forgiveness for trust. I'm gonna, okay, I
forgive you there before I trust you. You don't have
to do that. I can forgive a rattlesnake for biding me,
(26:05):
but that doesn't mean I trust the rattlesnake that if
I put it back in its den, I'm going to
walk by the rocks and it's not gonna jump out
at me again. So forgiveness is a heart position that we.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Choose to release.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
I forgive you, I don't hold this grudge against you.
I will no longer be bitter holding onto these grudges.
We all know. I don't have to convince you. Holding
on to grudges weighs us down. So whether that's forgiving
others or seeking forgiveness, both of those things.
Speaker 2 (26:49):
We should go.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Into this year letting go of bitterness and embracing the
freedom that comes from grace. Number six, Live with purpose
but not just productivity. It's a little bit of what
I've already been talking about. But it's easy to fill
(27:10):
our calendar and still feel empty. How you do it? Man?
Busy but empty instead instead of productivity. And it's like,
I'm you could be very productive and still be empty
and still feel like you're just a hamster on a wheel, right,
(27:33):
But if you choose to live with purpose and that
kind of that goes back to a couple other things
we've already talked about. But choosing to live with purpose
doing the meaningful things. What did I say earlier? Focusing
on what truly matters, investing in people not just products.
(27:55):
Our projects start with a foundation that last be a giver,
not a consumer. Forgiveness over bitterness, and that goes right
into live with purpose not just productivity, because instead of
being busy, we should ask the question, yes, I'm busy,
but am I am I busy with a purpose? Am
(28:15):
I being purposeful in my busyness? Otherwise you are spinning
your wheels and this life is a vapor and it
will be gone, and you will look back one day
and go, what have I done?
Speaker 2 (28:30):
What have I done?
Speaker 1 (28:32):
For Christians, that purpose comes from glorifying God and loving others.
But for anybody that's that's not a Christian or anyone
else listening, it would still be worth asking yourself as
on this topic, it would be worth asking what's my
(28:53):
purpose beyond the day today?
Speaker 2 (28:56):
Grind right.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Number seven, Embrace rest, not just hustle, so that that
number seven has to go with number six. Live with purpose,
not just productivity. And then embrace the rest not just hustle.
You know, I've had to learn these last the last
(29:21):
few years because there are several people in my sphere
that work with me that have access to my calendar
and they will fill my calendar. So my publicists will
fill my calendar. My brother Tyler can fill my calendar.
Ant Man can fill my calendar. Paul Amber, there's a
there's a crew, Chris Ly, There's a crew that could
(29:45):
at any time go in there and say at eleven am,
Granger has an interview on this person's radio show or whatever.
So I had to learn a few years ago that
I needed to schedule rest, So I literally put in
all caps hold for rest, so to be like on
(30:06):
the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth, I'll say I'll block all
three days it says hold for rest, And I'll do
that when I when I glance at the calendar and
I'm looking forward, and I see there's there's some either
there's a lot of different things I have to do,
maybe a lot of travel, or it could be just
(30:26):
a few things I have to do, but they're heavy
thinking things, and I know coming out of that or
another way is I'm going into a bunch of heavy
thinking things. Then I should give you an example of
an example would be there is a some kind of
production company that wants to come to my house and
(30:52):
interview me about river or the ministry something like that,
and it's gonna they're gonna be here for five hours.
And that's a heavy thinking thing because that's gonna put me.
It's a joy to do that, it's a joy to
share my testimony, but that would put me in a
position where I'm just kind of drained afterward.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
So the next day I.
Speaker 1 (31:13):
Need to hold for rest in my calendar. Instead of
just being busy. We should always ask am I living
with purpose? Yeah, But whenever this world glorifies burnout, right,
Jesus advites us to rest. So we should build a
(31:37):
rhythm of work and rest that honors health, family, according
to God's design for our life.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
So important.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
I don't think anyone's gonna look back on their life
and go, I just I wish I wouldn't have rested
so much, you know, I don't think anyone's gonna say that.
And I think we would be shocked to know that
the more we rested and the more our battery we charged,
the more productive we would have been if we would
have blocked for days of rest. And by the way
(32:16):
I do that hold for rest, I probably don't do
it nearly enough. So this is something I'm going to
lean into. Number eight, Speak life into others. Words have power.
This year, we should commit to speaking encouragement. I say
(32:37):
words have power. That's probably a massive understatement. We should
speak encouragement, truth, love into the lives around us, into
those people, and not just the people that matter the most.
But we should be the person that speaks encouragement and
life and love and truth consistently. We get to be
(33:00):
known as the person that does that. So whether that's
the person in the drive through window, or the person
at the the person at the church sitting next to you,
or your own wife, and the greatest span of of
all the people that are around us, we should be the
(33:22):
people that hold back from speaking things that tear down You.
Remember people say this all the time that my grandma
used to tell me, if I can't say anything nice,
don't say anything at all. There is something so true
about that. And although not saying anything at all it
(33:47):
could equally get you in trouble, sometimes it's typically the
better option. It's always the better option than breaking, than
tearing someone down. Because, as we said it just a
few points ago, number five, choose forgiveness over bitterness. How
many times does this forgiveness? Choosing forgiveness over bitterness come from?
(34:08):
The necessity comes from some words that were spoken in anger,
some words that were spoken as someone else tore someone down.
And this podcast, as I answer questions, so much of
what I answer is based on someone tore somebody down
with words. If someone spoke out of pride or anger
(34:28):
or resentment or impatience, our misunderstanding, but they spoke with anger,
So we should speak life proverbs eighteen twenty one reminds
us that the tongue has the power.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
Of life and death.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Choose life this year.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Number nine.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Expect challenges, but look for growth.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
This year.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
And I said a little bit earlier, this year will
have challenges for all of us. I'm not some kind
of freaky profit, but I can tell you right now
you will have extreme challenges this year. I encourage so
many times people to journal. I use an app called
day one. I believe that that costs money. I believe
(35:23):
it's there's a small monthly fee, so I'm willing to
pay the monthly fee because it's so convenient. Day one
it ques the next day up for me. It stores
everything really nicely on the cloud. I could quickly access
what happened in the year's previous right there. But you
(35:45):
don't have to You certainly don't have to use it.
You could use any kind of note note taking app.
I actually recommend digital over spiral notebooks because because I
think for me, the most important thing about journaling is
keeping and reading the previous years, because that's what gives
(36:05):
you the perspective. So as we go through challenges that
sometimes feel like the whole world is caving, in on us.
We could read and look back and in subsequent years
and say, you know, it wasn't that big a deal,
or it was a big deal, and I saw, I
(36:26):
saw the strength that it took to get through it,
and it worked. And so you can encourage yourself, your
old self. Sometimes I'll ask myself my future self questions
in the journal.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
I'll say, this is.
Speaker 1 (36:38):
Tough, future self, how does this turn out? And then
I'll answer myself and say, hey, twenty twenty three, I
know it seems crazy, but it's all going to work out, And.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Then I'll answer it.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
Sometimes i'll answer that and I'll say, hey, twenty twenty four,
you were right. It even gets better than you know.
So it's like these different versions of myself talking. And
we could expect challenges, but I think God, I know,
God works through these challenges to grow us. I say
(37:15):
a lot of times when I'm preaching, I'll say something
like this is this is the molten metal is when
you know that you're finally ready for the hand of
the blacksmith. But it takes the heat, it takes the
pressure for that mold, that that warped metal to finally
be melted and ready for the hand of the blacksmith
(37:39):
to shape it into what it needs to be, what
it's designed to be, what its purposes. So these trials
and whatever challenges we will face, that's what God is
using to grow us, to mold us. James one two
to four says remind he says, count it all joy,
(38:01):
my brothers. When we face trials of various kinds, these
we shouldn't think of the trials themselves as the joy.
It's like, yay, joy, you know, joy, I'm going through
this tough time, but you should count it as joy
because through that comes the endurance and the maturity. So
there isn't a question if you will face challenges this year.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
You will.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
The question is will you grow from them? Will you
choose to let that trial grow you?
Speaker 2 (38:33):
And then number ten only if you will hear this.
Not everyone.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
I've tried to make all of these for everyone, but
not everyone will hear this one. Keep an eternal perspective.
Life is short, but eternity is long. Not everyone will
believe that, but Christians speaking to you, this year will
be another year to live with Heaven and mine making
(39:02):
decisions that echo throughout eternity, not just what makes us
feel good right now. And for those that don't share
that same faith, you could ask this, I wouldn't be
mad about it if you ask what kind of legacy
am I leaving behind? What are the legacy decisions I'm
(39:27):
making for my kids? What are the legacy decisions I'm
making for my brand new career? What are the legacy
decisions I'm making for this this, this date, this person
I'm dating. Is this just sport dating for fun right now?
Or am I thinking long term? And when I'm talking
long term and you're dating, I'm not just talking about
(39:49):
marriage so that you're happy.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
I'm talking about children. I'm talking about the fruit of your.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Life, the arrows from your quiver, the continuation of your
father's name. You can think of in that way your legacy.
What legacy do you want to leave behind? And that
makes up my ten here. I didn't think too much
on this, y'all. I didn't. This is not something that
(40:17):
I've been working on for the last six months. These
are These are very general. There's not really an order
besides number one, start with a foundation that last. But
other than that, we could you could put those out
of order and then comment below. If you're on a
if you're listening on a platform that allows comments, comment
and let me know what you think of this list,
what you would add to this list, what you disagree
(40:40):
with on this list, And perhaps I would listen back
to this and want to correct myself too, because this
is all on the fly, so maybe I would want
to listen back and go.
Speaker 2 (40:51):
I think I could have tweaked that a little bit better.
Speaker 1 (40:53):
But hopefully this is a good a good way to
kick us off into the year and to maybe are
a couple questions that you could ask podcast at grangersmith
dot com. Sure, love, y'all. I'm glad to be with
you another year. See you next Monday. Thanks for joining
me on the Grangersmith podcast. I appreciate all of you guys.
(41:13):
You could help me out by rating this podcast on iTunes.
If you're on YouTube, subscribe to this channel, hit that
little like button and notification spell so that you never
miss anytime I upload a video. Yigi
Host
Granger Smith
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