Skipping to the Good Part: Ruth Chou Simons

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Skipping to the Good Part

Guest:Ruth Chou Simons

From the series:Now and Not Yet (Day 2 of 2)

Air date:December 31, 2024

Dave:Okay, so 2024 is coming to an end. How are you feeling?

Ann:I think every year, I’m like, “Oh, Jesus, You were so good. You were faithful. Even through the hard times, You were faithful.” But there’s also another part of me that wants to make impact: “Did I do anything to increase the kingdom this year?”

Dave:Yeah; and again, you could do that next year.

But one of the things we always have a conversation about is year-end giving. I’m hoping some of our listeners do the same thing. I’m going to encourage you, if you haven’t done that, to do that today. And I hope you consider FamilyLife as somebody you would support as you give a year-end gift.

Ann:And if you’re listening, you’re like us: “Marriage matters; family matters; legacy—

Dave:—“legacy matters.”

Ann:Yeah; this is our last day—the last chance—to be giving to this year-end campaign, which is pretty sweet.

Dave:Yes, because we have generous donors, who have done the same thing you’re doing; they’ve said, “This ministry matters, and I want to give.” They’ve given so much that they’re going to match your gift; so whatever you give today will be doubled,—

Ann:—up to $3 million.

Dave:Yes, that’s amazing; that’s a blessing from God. We are inviting you—even challenging you—to say, “If you believe in FamilyLife, and what we do—and the impact that God’s having in your family; but also, in your friends, and neighbors, and the world—we get to impact the world, one home at a time. And that only happens when people, like you, say: ‘I’m in,’ and ‘I’m not just going to pray for this ministry; I’m actually going to give as well.’”

Let me tell you how you can do that: just go to FamilyLifeToday.com, and you can give a gift there. And what we want you also to know is, if you do that, we’re going to send you a bundle of a couple of books.

Ann:I know; this is sweet!

Dave:One of them is Ruth Chou Simon’s book, Home Is Right Where You Are; it’s a children’s book. It’s illustrated by her water painting. It’s amazing; you’ll love it.

Ann:It’s based on Psalm 23. And we’re also going to send you a devotional called Our Faithful God Devotional; and that is by Katie Davis Majors, and it’s a really beautiful devotional.

Dave:So those are yours for sending us a gift. Again, you can go to FamilyLifeToday.com and make a gift there. Or if you’d like to give us a phone call, you can do it that way as well; our phone number is 800-358-6329. That is 800-F as in Family, L as in Life, and the word, TODAY.

Ann:Or you can even mail us your donation at FamilyLife. And the address is 100 Lake Hart Drive—100 Lake Hart Drive—Orlando, Fl 32832.

Dave:Just make sure to let us know that you’d like your copies of Our Faithful God Devotional and Home Is Right Where You Are. And let us say, first of all, “Thank you,” and “Blessings to you on 2024, and let’s go make 2025 the best year ever for us and our families.”

Ann: Happy New Year.

Ruth:In the same way that God had purpose for Joseph in Genesis—that He had purpose for his life, even though there was a good long stretch, a couple of decades there, where he kind of couldn’t figure out why he was sitting in the dungeon—he couldn’t figure out why the rescue wasn’t here, but God actually meant it for good; and God actually had a plan. I think we would be wise to lean in, stay faithful; and recount the goodness of God in past seasons, when we’re restless in our current one.

Dave:Welcome to FamilyLife Today, where we want to help you pursue the relationships that matter most. I’m Dave Wilson.

Ann:And I’m Ann Wilson. And you can find us at FamilyLifeToday.com. This is FamilyLife Today.

Dave:So I was just thinking, based on what we’re going to talk about today: “I hate waiting. It isn’t like I don’t—

Ann:I don’t think I’ve ever heard you say this.

Dave:Oh, you know! You’ve been in the car with me.

Ann:I know you don’t like waiting in the car or in a line.

Dave:I turn right on red; and the person in front of me is not turning, because nobody is coming. I don’t think I’ve ever beeped, but I want to. I want to; I’m like, “Come on!”

Ann:“Oh, that’s Pastor Dave behind me.”

Dave: But I mean, it’s just something I don’t like to do is wait.

And so we’re going to talk a little bit about that today with Ruth Chou Simons; she is back. Now and Not Yet is her book; but here’s the subtitle: Pressing in When You’re Waiting, Wanting, and Restless for More.

Ann:That restlessness is a thing, too.

Dave:What are your chapter titles? I just love to hear your thoughts. I know you wrote this a while ago; so it doesn’t have to be thoughts, even from the book; it can be thoughts you have right now about you said: “When right now isn’t what you want.” That is so everybody.

Ann:It’s everybody.

Dave:I mean, there’s somebody listening, right now; it’s like, “Yeah, right now isn’t what I want.”

Ann:It could be in their marriage; it could be with parenting. Maybe, they don’t have kids; or they can’t get pregnant.

Ruth:I think it’s something that we all feel, but we don’t always vulnerably share with one another. I think we all say: “Hello,” “Hi, how are you doing?” “What’s going on?” And we’re always sharing a couple of great things that are going on in our lives. But the reality is, under the surface, all of us are living a story—maybe, not the whole story—but there’s a part of our story. All of us—we’re always navigating—going: “Lord, do I need to be dealing with this circumstance right now?” “Do I need to have this conflict right now?” “Do I really need to have these questions unanswered right now?” “I’d really like to just skip to the good part.”

I was thinking about this the other day, because I am really the worst person to watch movies with; I mean, absolutely the worst person. I’m going to tell on myself. When—let’s say I’m watching a video at home—and I have six boys; the oldest is 22 now, and the youngest is 11; so we’re not watching Thomas the Train anymore. There are times when—let’s say it is Inception or some kind of—something deep and hard to understand. I kid you not, guys, I will sit there; and I’ll be like, “Let’s Wikipedia what the ending is”; because I cannot—

Dave:No!

Ruth:Oh, I’m serious.

Dave:You can’t even wait two hours for the ending?

Ruth:It’s so stressful for me. I don’t want to deal with the stress of this right-now moment, the right now of: “What’s going to happen?” Or if I’m at a movie theater, I will absolutely stand up, and choose to go to the bathroom or go get popcorn, in the middle of the stress.

Dave:Is this a mom/woman thing?

Ann:This is new for me.

Dave:Ann does the same thing.

Ann:I didn’t used to do it; but now, it’s so stressful.

Ruth:I don’t want stress; I’m like, “Why would I actually pay money to sit here and feel miserable?”

And here’s the thing: it’s not like I just want to see Rom-Coms all day long; and even Rom-Coms can be super stressful. I basically am like, “I have too much stress in my life to deal with this, and I am not going to—

Ann:This is so funny!

Dave:She gets up and starts walking around the room.

Ruth:I do, too!

Ann:Sometimes, I’ll go in the kitchen; I’ll start cooking something. Dave’s like, “I thought we were watching a movie!” I’m like, “I can hear it!”

Ruth:That’s exactly what I do. I share that story because I feel like that’s exactly what I do in life, too, where I just go, “You know what? I don’t actually like this right now; I don’t really like what I’m dealing with. I’m going to just go move on, and just pretend that this is not going on, and I’m just going to: ‘How can I speed this up?’” I love that fast-forward 15-second button: “Ooh, I love that.” I mean, I love to listen to every message on double- speed; because I’m like, “Get me where I want to go; I want to get to the good part. Stop putting me in this situation, where I have to…” The movie-makers are taking this long montage, where the suspense is building—and I’m like, “I hate that! Can we just say, ‘Suspenseful: this is what happens’?—Now, let’s get to the good part.”

Ann:Have you always been like that, or is it new?

Ruth:I think if it was that way before; I don’t think I’d noticed it. But I think now—here’s what it is—is that you have a lot more time, when you’re younger; and you have time to sit there, and feel stressed, and process it, and think about it. And now, I’m like, “Y’all are lucky that I even have two hours to watch a movie with you. I don’t have time to be stressed out while we’re doing this.” I’m like, “This is a rare occurrence.”

I share that story to say, all laughing aside, I think the reality is: life can be so hard and so stressful—and there are so many questions and so many tension points in our right-now moments that a lot of us are living—we can just press that fast-forward button. And the way we’re doing it is that, sometimes, we’re turning to social media to kind of just numb our brains a little bit.

Ann:Well, we talked about, at the end of our day yesterday, of we become distracted. We want to distract ourselves.

Ruth:Yes!

Ann:And do you think it’s happening more than ever?

Ruth:Oh, absolutely. This is actually a topic that I’ve become quite fascinated with; because I think, “Okay, I love Jesus. I have lots of things to do. Why do I end up wasting my time? How does that happen?”

Dave:You don’t waste your time.

Ruth:Oh, I, for sure, do waste my time.

Dave:All the things you’re doing; I’m like, “…waste your time?”

Ruth:But here’s the thing—I don’t always waste my time—but I know when I do. I waste my time, when I end up on the explore page on Instagram, when I end up comparing myself to 20 other creatives, and wonder, and start thinking: “I’m not really great,” “I have no creative ideas,” “I have nothing to say.” When that loop starts playing, it’s always because there’s something painful going on in my life that I should be going to the Lord about—I should be asking Him how to be faithful, right now in—but instead, I’m kind of trying to get my way out of it, just trying to find a way to skip all this, feel better about it, find the formula to fix the problem and move on.

Ann:Dave and I had some big decisions to make, and there’s a part of me that wants to just numb out and hide. One of the easiest ways to do that is just by falling into some Netflix show.

Ruth:Absolutely.

Dave: A season of Downton Abbey.

Ann:I know; I’m totally into that.

Dave:She’s all over it. Is that what’s going on right now that we need to talk?

Ann:No; no, I—

Ruth:No shame and nothing wrong with watching a series or anything like that.

Ann:—but—

Ruth:—it’s just that everything can be, if you’re not careful, if you’re not being honest, it could be a distraction.

Ann:What we were doing—was we were trying to make some hard decisions—this is before that. And I said, “I need to fast from watching anything after dinner; because it feels good to not think about it, to not stress over anything, watch something that makes me happy.” But what I did instead was I was spending time with God—just talking to Him—journaling, reading. I was amazed how refreshed I felt; because when you numb out, however that is, it doesn’t fill us up.

Ruth:But I do think that it starts with, even as basic as, admitting that you are turning to other things when right now is not what you want. I think it starts with us even admitting that we’re feeling restless; we don’t like our current circumstances. We feel a little unsure if God knows: “Lord, do You know what I’m going through?” When you really get vulnerable about that, and get real about it, and say, “Okay, I don’t like my right now”; then you can start taking a better assessment of your life, and say, “How much am I giving away of my time, my mental energy, my eyes, and my ears? How am I squandering those things?—because right now is not what I want.”

And so when I waste time, it’s not that I actually sit around every day, just eating bonbons and wasting time. It’s that sometimes, when I feel the most pressure, when I feel the most sad, I’m not turning where I need to turn. And I’m trying to mask those feelings, in the moment, thinking, “I will get through the heartache of this if I just kind of numb myself out.”

And that’s kind of where I start addressing this whole issue of pressing in when we’re waiting, wanting and restless for more. Because I think a lot of times, we are, in this culture, where there’s a formula for everything. You really could go to any bookshelf or open up your computer and there’s a webinar waiting for you on how to solve the problem that you’re in and get to the other side. A lot of those are really good tools, really good tools. And I’m not knocking, for sure, taking a webinar, or taking a class, or joining a mastermind group, or whatever it is that will help you. Those things are good. I create resources, so I don’t think that we shouldn’t use resources.

But I think the ultimate thing that we’re missing is that God is purposeful right where we are. And sometimes, we’re ignoring Him and going to other resources to try to fix the issues that we think will get us past the hump. When really, I think what God wants is for us to press in—and find Him faithful, learn more about His character, kind of discover what He’s trying to teach us right now—when right now is not what you want.

Dave:Is that what you think God’s doing in that? Because when you said, a minute ago, I’ve never heard it said quite like that: “I want to hold the fast-forward button.”

Ruth:Oh, yeah; yeah.

Dave:Often, I’ll do that—like you go on a podcast or a show—”I’ll get to the…” I know they’re setting this up, but that’s how we often live; it’s like: “I just want to fast-forward through this phase,” “…this day,” “…this month,” “…this season. But I look at your next [chapter] title: “Restlessness as an Invitation.” Is that what God’s doing?

I think what we do is escape—and I am thinking of men here—I’m thinking, “Men escape.”

Ruth:Absolutely!

Ann:Yeah, what do you think men escape to?

Dave:It could be food; it could be shopping; it could be porn. It’s anything—

Ann: —which is true for women, too.

Ruth:Young men gaming. A lot of—

Dave: —“Anything to get me out of this moment.”

But you’re saying, “God’s in that moment, doing something”; it’s like an invitation. What’s the invitation to?

Ruth:And I would just say we do that in our Bible reading, too. We want to skip to only the verses that we think are going to be completely applicable and just going to give us a boost of: “God is good,” and “This is a praise song, and I’m ready to burst forth.” We want to skip all the parts of Scripture that feel a little boring, a little mundane, a little bit—

Ann:—convicting.

Ruth:—or hard to understand.

When really, all of Scripture is building the narrative and picture of God’s heart. And when we skip to what we think is the good part, we’re actually missing the entirety of where He’s trying to draw us in the invitation.

And so the restlessness as an invitation is really—rather than: “I’m so restless,” “Oh, my goodness, so restless. Call my three best friends and figure out: ‘What should I do?’ ‘Should I start a new business?’ ‘Should I go and join a gym?’ ‘What should I do?’” And we all get like that. And sometimes, it’s super fun to just like, yes, I go on girl weekends and clear my head.

Ann:And watching Netflix is fine.

Ruth:Sure. None of this conversation is condemning those wonderful things that we get to do with friends, or the ways in which we chill out, enjoy an evening. The thing that I’m just bringing our attention to is that, when you feel a stirring and a restlessness, or when right now isn’t what you want, and when you feel like you’re going through things that you’re like: “I just feel like this is a waste of my time. I have so much potential. Why do I have to sit here and deal with this trial?” “…this crisis?” “…this financial trouble?” or “…this disobedient child?” or whatever it is.

Ann:—or “…marriage?”

Ruth:“Can we just get to the part, where we find the problem, and we get over this?”

Ann:Or we can think: “They need to fix the problem,” “The problem is him.”

Ruth:Absolutely. Well, yes; If we go down the marriage track, I would say, absolutely, I start thinking that I could get to the not yet I’m after: “If he could just—

Ann:—”’X,’ ‘Y,’ ‘Z.’”

Ruth:—”get on board and just get his act together.”

Dave:And sometimes, guys, we do need to get on board. Some of that is true.

Ann:When you talk about pressing in, Ruth, what does that look like?

Ruth:I think it looks like not running away from God, but running to Him. I think it looks like believing that, when we read in Ephesians 2:10 that—”We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, prepared beforehand that we should walk in them,”—when we read that, to know that we were designed, on purpose, for a purpose changes the way we deal with our right now.

Pressing in means: “God, I believe that You created me, on purpose, for a purpose. I don’t always feel it. I don’t feel like a well-designed, wonderfully purposeful person; but help me understand who You are right now, not just when all my dreams come true, and everyone is doing what I want them to do, and life is easier.”

Dave:We’re sitting here, nice and quiet, at a nice table.

Ruth:Right; right. But right now, someone might be listening, and going: “Yeah, my kids are fighting and hitting each other in the backseat,” or “I don’t really know what to make for dinner, and I really don’t have money to take everybody out tonight; so what am I doing?” We’re always in a situation, where we’re kind of going, “I don’t have time to think about what God has to do with this. I just got to do the next thing.”

I think my challenge to myself, and to anyone who resonates with this message, is that in the same way that God had purpose for Joseph in Genesis—that He had purpose for his life, even though there was a good long stretch, a couple of decades there, where he kind of couldn’t figure out why he was sitting in the dungeon—he couldn’t figure out why the rescue wasn’t here, why he was misunderstood, betrayed, or treated wrongly when he actually was doing all the right things. But God actually meant it for good, and God actually had a plan.

Ann:—and used all of it.

Ruth:And he couldn’t see that yet. I think we would be wise to lean in, listen, stay faithful; recount the goodness of God in past seasons, when we’re restless in our current one.

Ann:Can you recall a time that you did that? Or even a time that you felt like—with these six boys, and life is crazy and chaotic—that God met you in it; or that you sought Him and pressed in instead of just wanting to escape?

Ruth:Yeah; one of the stressful seasons of my life were when my oldest and my youngest—are 11 years apart—and so really, you can imagine it was like when it was, 11 and under, and most could not match socks really well yet; it was like that.

Ann:So six boys, 11 and under.

Ruth:Right. I will say—side note: quick tip—”You do get to raise children who help you raise children.” I really did work myself out of a job. So by number six, I had some help with the potty training, with help with lots of things; and so super grateful for that.

But I remember a season—and especially, that one, when they were all 11 and younger—and I think I even started the #motherhoodissanctifying on Instagram—now, it’s really blown up—but I started that hashtag because I had a two- or three-year-old, literally on the ground, rolling, and kicking, and having a tantrum. I was like, “Oh, so I feel like my job is to correct this tantrum, and to help him see how much he’s a sinner.” And I was like, “No, no, no; I think this moment is about me. I think I get to be sanctified here.” That hashtag came to mind because I, literally, had a moment, where I just said, “Oh, I thought my job was to change them; when God is really using them to change me.”

Ann:Amen!

Ruth:And so #motherhoodissanctifying was the hashtag that reminded me: “Your children are not your project to change. You’re not actually trying to create wonderful little minions. You’re actually a work in progress, and God is using all the things that you would rather skip here.”

And specifically, I remember where this came to full visibility for me, was one time we came home from the grocery store. I, literally, was celebrating the fact that nobody died on this grocery store run, that we were doing great. We were on a tight budget then; I mean, Troy was a pastor/headmaster of a school that he was essentially being paid through tuition. We were just—

Ann:—and you’re just starting it.

Ruth:We were just, literally, trying to raise six kids. We were not buying anything extra; we had parents helping; all the things. I remember we came home with a few extra goodies—and extra—when you’re on a budget, might mean getting the little gummy snacks that you would not usually buy.

Well, we came home with this giant jar. My boys happen to love bread-and-butter pickles—so the sweet pickles, whatever—we bought this big old jar. It was unnecessary; there’s no nutritional value here; but we just were like, “This is a fun treat. We’re going to get it.” It was this big giant jar; it’s probably a little more than buying a small jar. We bring it in; and we’re bringing all the groceries in, and we’re in a tight kitchen space. And as we’re putting things away, somebody knocks over that jar.

Ann:No!

Ruth:The jar falls onto the tile floor. It’s bread-and-butter pickles, so this is sweet, sticky juice. And this entire giant jar—I remember thinking it was big enough to feel like this was Costco size—it was just a really big jar. It went under the island, because it was like a freestanding island. It went under the island; it pooled; it went down. I just started seeing it spread throughout the kitchen. And then, of course, the baby who wasn’t—was still crawling—is doing angels; he’s lying in the puddle, just moving his arms, spreading it around.

In my mind, as a mom, you immediately go: “Now, I got to clean the floor, make sure ants don’t get in; clean the baby; make sure the tracks don’t get tracked all through the house.” And then, on top of that: “We just wasted the money we spent on this giant, giant pickles.” I was angry, but I was just mostly deflated. I was so upset—I think I actually called Troy—I don’t think he was home at that time. And I called him because Troy likes to say, “When things go wrong, it’s always his fault.” I’m always like, “Troy, you won’t believe…” He’s like, “I didn’t do anything!”

Dave: That would be me.

Ann:Dave would say that

Ruth: Because whenever something goes wrong, I go, “Troy!”; and he’s like,

“Why? Why are you calling me?”

But I call him, and I go, “I can’t believe this happened.” I went on and on

about how I was just the most: “Feel so sorry for me; this is so hard. I can’t

believe this happened; and now, look at all the stuff I have to clean up.” And the boys were actually being really sweet, and they were really sorry.

But now, I have shards of glass, and stickies, and pickled juice, and

angels going on the ground. It was just the whole thing.

And Troy says to me on the phone—and he doesn’t always say the perfect thing—but sometimes, he just does. He’s a pastor; shepherd/preacher as well. And sometimes, he’s just the best pastor of my heart. And he says, “Honey, what if God’s using this broken pickle jar to actually sanctify and grow you? What if He’s actually at work to cause you to love Him more and be more like Him? Because you would never welcome this; you would never ask for this, but you sure would want to be more like Him, right?”

I remember thinking, “You are right.” I just held my breath. But when I thought about it, I was like, “Troy, you’re right. I talk all the time about wanting to be more like Jesus and wanting to grow in my faith.” And God was using a messy, sticky, annoying thing, like a broken pickle jar to remind me like, “Oh, right now, this is not what you want, but what you want is more of the presence of God. And through this right now that you don’t want, you might actually discover how accessible and how faithful He really is right where you are.”

Ann:So tell me: “Did you pray right then? What did that look like?”

Ruth:I think I shared a photo of—I went all the way back on Instagram and found this photo—and I shared it when I think I was promoting Now and Not Yet. I have this picture of all the boys on the ground, with paper towels; and they’re like—I mean, now that they’re adults—I think, “Oh, these are a lot of little people, all getting in there, thinking they’re being helpful. And I really should have just been like: “Everybody outside.” But anyway, they were all in there, helping.

I remember gathering everybody because, in that moment, you really want to be like: “Everybody, get it done. Let’s just get it done.” But really, what I needed was a reset. I think resets are highly undervalued: that idea that we might just pause—and not get further ahead, not fix the problem—and just stop, and reset, and realign our hearts with truth. If I remember correctly, I think what I did was really just grab everybody, and say, “Okay,”—this is one of the most common practices I remember, in my early motherhood years, was saying—“Mama has a lesson to learn here; and I think maybe you could, too.” I feel like I said that every single day: “I am working this out; and I’m sorry that I lost my temper, and I got real upset about that.”

But you know what? Just realizing that: “This is an opportunity,”—I just remember thinking the word, “opportunity,” was what I wanted us to all get—”This is an opportunity for us to see that God is still here; that this is not a waste; that we can learn something about serving one another; and that we can also just kind of recognize that, when hard things happen, it doesn’t mean that we have to freak out about it. We can actually go, ‘Okay, what can I learn about myself; and how can I grow in, even my patience, and my love for the Lord, even when things don’t go my way?’”

Ann:What a great lesson for your kids!

Ruth:It was a valuable lesson; yeah.

Ann: Because you basically brought God into the entire thing, where you’re right—I would’ve probably been like: “Everybody out. I’m doing this on my own,” because to have them all in there is chaos—but they needed to be in there with you. You brought God in there with you, too—which: “What a life lesson for them,”— like, “Oh, even in the hard, frustrating times, I’m bringing Jesus into this and allowing Him to shape me through it.”

Dave:And there’s a maturity and a humility that I hear in that story—

Ann:Me, too.

Dave:—that I think shows that you’ve grown so much that you were able to receive that from Troy. I was just thinking there are times, where I would say something like that; or you’d say something like that to me, and I’m not—

Ann:We get so defensive.

Dave:I’m not mature enough; I’m prideful—and I’m like: “I don’t need that right now. That’s not what I want to hear right now. I want to be mad,”—rather than go, “Pause; reset,”—what a great word: “reset”—and go, “Okay, God’s in it. God’s doing something, not just in my kids; but in me. I’m going to let Him do it.”

Ruth:And I think I want to just say for anyone, who’s listening, saying: “Well, I’m not that spiritually mature,” and “I don’t feel like I can stop, and reset, and tell my kids a good Bible story, or bring God into it,” “Does everything have to be a spiritual moment, Ruth?” “Are you turning everything into a Bible lesson?”

I’d say, “No.” And I would say, “You will be more effective, even with your little tiny kernel of faith, where you just say, ‘Hey, guys, I am learning that God can be my strength even when I feel like I messed up with my attitude,’”—or whatever it is. Just confessing a little bit, and speaking what you do know of the moment is better than not at all. And so I just want to make sure we say that, and free up anyone who’s listening, who goes, “I don’t know how to turn these really chaotic moments into some grand Bible lesson or Sunday school moment. I feel like I’m not strong enough for that.”

And I just would say to my sisters, who are mamas—but to anyone who’s listening—“You never have to be brilliant to make that an honest, teachable moment for everybody; because you just have to be a good student, and someone who says, ‘I don’t have the right answers, but I know I need a reset right now.

Ann: That’s so good.

Ruth“’And so I just want to invite you guys”—my kids—”to just join me on the

journey, where I’m going to learn how God is going to be faithful, even

when I’m really disappointed in how today went. I’m learning something,

and I’d like you to pay attention and join me on it.”

Ann:I love that.

Ruth:I think that is good enough; you don’t have to make it some grand thing.

Ann:And it could be as simple as saying, “Jesus, I need You right now.”

Ruth:Yes, and just modeling that; modeling it.

Dave:And let me just end with this: “You can get the book and have a lot of resets,”—like, when we read it—it was chapter by chapter, reframing our thinking and action. I’m not a mom, obviously—and I’ve never walked through that thing—but I mean, it really does do that. Now and Not Yet is the book we’ve been talking about the last two days. Go to FamilyLifeToday.com and buy it there.

But here’s something else that’s pretty exciting: in this month—the whole month—for you to give a donation to FamilyLife, we’re going to send you Ruth’s devotional—well, it’s really not a devotional—it’s children’s book, Home Is Right Where You Are.

Is that a golden retriever on there?

Ruth:Pretty much.

Dave:Yeah; I love that. I mean, we’ve always had golden retrievers. It’s so beautifully-illustrated.

Ann:As I went through this book—I bet people do this with a lot of your books—I was going through, thinking, “I could rip out that page, and I could frame it,”—it would be so cute in our grandkids’ rooms. It’s gorgeously illustrated; so pretty.

Dave:By the way, your gift will be doubled for one more day. This is the end of the year, so this just goes until the end of December. If you send a gift, we will double it; and we’ll send you this [book]. FamilyLifeToday.com; or 800-358-6329; it’s 800-F as in Family,—

Ann:—L as in Life,—

Dave:—and the word, TODAY.

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