Marriage and Us
Are you recently engaged, newlyweds, or married for years and looking to learn even more about the art of marriage? Hosts Rob and Robin Atkins discuss what they've learned with honesty, humor, and gospel mindedness. In 34 years of marriage and 10 years as pre and post marriage coaches they practice what they teach. A podcast designed for couples with old tools or no tools wanting to maximize their life together with simple principles that can transform your marriage.
Marriage and Us
S2E06 - Faithful Waiting: Nurturing Your Dreams Together
Join Rob and Robin as they explore the often challenging journey of waiting for dreams to come true. We'll discuss the importance of maintaining faith and hope in your relationship while navigating the emotional landscape of anticipation and patience.
Music by - Roger Jaeger - from the album (Fall Off the Earth)
Produced by - Jared Nester
Outro by - Madison Nester
Hi, I'm Rob and I'm Robin. Thanks for listening to Marriage and Us. Each week we will talk about real-life topics that couples experience in everyday married life. So let's get to today's episode. Hello everybody. Hi yes, we're back.
Speaker 2:We're still here.
Speaker 1:We're still here.
Speaker 2:We know that we haven't been around very much lately and that season two is becoming a limited edition podcast.
Speaker 1:Collector's item.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Oh, life has been busy, hasn't it?
Speaker 2:Very busy.
Speaker 1:If this is your first time, thank you for tuning in. I know you don't actually tune in, but it sounds cool to say that.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening. We appreciate that. I'm Rob.
Speaker 2:And I'm Robin.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so we love being married.
Speaker 2:We do.
Speaker 1:Love doing the podcast.
Speaker 2:We do, even though we haven't been doing them lately.
Speaker 1:Yes, I was going to say something about that. It has been an interesting season and we're going to talk about that.
Speaker 2:We are.
Speaker 1:A little bit today About where we've been for the last month. Not that we've been hiding or anything.
Speaker 2:That's not what the point is Maybe the last couple of months.
Speaker 1:Yeah at least a month and a half at least, and some big news that we have and moving forward, yeah. So we're going to talk about several different things today, and so I'm excited. We're going to talk about literally where we're at the reality and what does it look like when you dream as a couple. Yeah, the reality. And what does it look like when you dream as a couple. Yeah, I mean, a dream is a big word when you really think about it.
Speaker 3:It is.
Speaker 1:Because it can have hope in it. For us, obviously, faith is part of that. There's discouragement We'll talk about that a little bit today as well, too. There's disappointment We'll talk about that a little bit today as well, too. There's disappointment. There's trying to be on the same page when it comes to dreams.
Speaker 2:Very true.
Speaker 1:They're sharing your dreams not only with each other, but with other couples. So, yeah, those are some of the, I think, some of the highlights today. Let me ask you, now that we've been married for a while, when you hear the word dreams, or because we've had a lot of big dreams in our life, you know, some people know our story. We're not going to go into our history today, but when you hear that, where you are now, what does, what does that feel and look like to you? When you, when somebody says, you know we're dreamers or we have this dream?
Speaker 2:So what does it feel like to me when other people share their dreams with me?
Speaker 1:No, just where you're at right now, in the process of us being married, and what that looks like to you now maybe what it did five years ago, ten years ago.
Speaker 2:Sure. Well, I think that you know for us, we're both 60 now.
Speaker 1:You could always leave that out.
Speaker 2:You know it's important, we look great, though I'm just saying we're so good looking.
Speaker 1:We are yes.
Speaker 2:You know, at our age dreams look different than they did in our 20s.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, talk about that.
Speaker 2:Well, I think when you're in your 20s, for one thing, you really don't. You have dreams, but it's kind of hard, maybe, to hone in on one dream.
Speaker 2:Usually I think a lot of times. Now I meet some people in their 20s and they're very, you know, like just targeted, and they know what they want and you know their dream is this but I know for myself, when I was in my 20s I felt like my dreams could go in many directions and we didn't get married till we were 26, which is not that old, but I think back when we got married we were considered getting married a little older than some couples, and so I think the dreams that I even had before we got married and the dreams that I had after we got married, you know, those were two different things in some ways, because when you're single and you're dreaming your dream, to be honest.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, I think there's, and that's what I hear you saying. There are different stages of dreams in our lives. There are different stages of dreams in our lives. If you aren't married and your dream is to be married, then that's a totally different dream than once it becomes a reality and you get married.
Speaker 2:Yes, true.
Speaker 1:I mean, you're not going to still be dreaming boy. I wish I was married when you're actually married, because that one has become a reality.
Speaker 2:Right and dreams of children and career. That's what I was going to say.
Speaker 1:Right and dreams of children and career. That's what I was going to say. So as you progress with marriage, you know, for example, a big dream for most people is owning a home Right. It's one of the first, I think, big dreams that most people have.
Speaker 2:True, you know, so I think that. But now, where we are in our stage of life, it's interesting because, you know, being empty nesters, there is a feeling for me that when I think about dreams they feel like you know, wow, we could just do anything. You know, because we're at a stage in our life where, you know, we've raised, we just have one daughter, but you know, we raised our daughter and she's married now and you know when she has her own dreams.
Speaker 2:Exactly. And when you're parenting, you know your dreams. Please don't let me mess this up.
Speaker 1:If you're a parent out there, especially if you have more than one kid, you're going. Please let me be a good parent. Please help me raise a kid.
Speaker 2:When you're raising kids, when you have a family. I mean not to say you don't dream. I believe you do dream, but there's so much going on in your life sometimes, at least for us, we were so busy parenting and different things that our life was more consumed with that and it was great, I mean very fulfilling for us.
Speaker 1:So let me ask you a question, though. When you said that, it made me think of something Moments in life, if we're not careful, not that raising a child is not important. That's not what. I'm saying but your dreams can sometimes be put on a back burner or feel like they get even stolen from you. I know we've talked to people like well, I just don't know if that's ever going to happen you know in this stage of my life or where we're at, or we can't do it because of this. I think.
Speaker 2:Would you say they've been stolen, though, or would you just say that people let go of their dreams.
Speaker 1:Maybe Maybe yes, that's a good word as well too, I guess they could be stolen too.
Speaker 2:But I think a lot of times it's just kind of like you, you know, it's like well, you know, I thought I might do that one day, but oh well you know that kind of thing Possibly, yeah, right.
Speaker 1:I totally agree with that. I think it's again, it's knowing the stage of life where you're at. I mean, we've said this on several podcasts in the past you know, when it comes to marriage, it's a journey, it's the best hard work you'll ever do, but you've got to know and be willing to know that change is inevitable or just stay single, because marriage requires that ability, and I think that's what we're trying to talk about today, especially as a married couple. How do you talk about your dreams, especially as a married couple? How do you talk about your dreams, share your dreams and then discuss what's reality? What can we do in ourself? Is this just something, man, I'd love to sing? If you're a musician, you sing country music. Man, I'd love to sing on the Grand Opry, but you don't play an instrument anymore, you don't sing anymore. That type of dream realistically probably was never going to happen. I mean, I think you and I we love talking about basketball sometimes. I mean, like Spud Webb.
Speaker 1:Right, I mean everybody probably told him it's not going to happen. Right, you're only 5'6". Right, he wins the dunk competition. But there are dreams that I mean he just wasn't going to give up and he was an incredibly gifted athlete, but most people that are 5'6 are not going to play in the NBA.
Speaker 2:True.
Speaker 1:So there's always exceptions, I guess, is what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Yes, I agree. So let's talk a little bit about our dreams.
Speaker 1:Sure Well, to get to our dreams, especially for us, there's been a lot which I think a lot of couples experience as well too the waiting game.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:You know of wow, is this ever going to happen? I know you and I have talked about this and we've talked about you know, and I think we've kind of put these two thoughts together. One of the things about waiting is how do you wait, how do you communicate your frustrations and your disappointments? And something I know that has really helped us in that time is sharing our dreams. We, over the last year or so, we've had several couples that we would meet a couple times a month and we'd just talk about marriage, talk about life, and they're all at different stages. Most of them are younger than us. I think we like it because it makes us feel younger. But anyway, it is that ability to communicate and share your dreams and have them become part of your dream as well, too. Right, this is what we're thinking, this is what we want to do.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it's important, though, when you share your dreams, you have to be careful who you share those dreams with. Oh, absolutely, I think you know, and so when you find friends that embrace that kind of thing, it's very helpful. Yeah, because they can help to fan the flames inside of you for things that you're looking to do Right Again as being Christians and believing in God.
Speaker 3:Faith is a big piece in all of this, absolutely, absolutely For sure Our church community is Because you can't have faith.
Speaker 2:Sorry, absolutely. You know for sure our church community is awesome and you know, and I think that anyone in the church over the years that we've shared some things that we're hoping for, whatever you know, they've been quick to encourage us and, you know, just kind of help us keep moving towards that, cheering us on Right. That's kind of what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 1:And it goes both ways. I mean, one of the things I've loved most about our life group that we had was when we shared our dreams. I always felt it gave them permission to share their dreams. It could be going back to school, it could be buying a house, it could be going back to school, it could be buying a house, it could be wanting children. So those ability to share those dreams it kind of feeds off of each other Right, start their own business.
Speaker 2:Exactly that type of thing.
Speaker 1:It feeds off of that. So for us, I think that that's been a big part of the journey over the last four or five years, of the dream that we've, that we've had for quite a while. I know you've done this as well too, so we've shared. So let's just get to the dream part for us.
Speaker 1:I think that's what you're shaking your head. The we have for the last four or five years especially kind of ramped up the idea of buying property and having enough land to do like a micro wedding event and a retreat center for couples and things of that nature. So initially it was just. This has been our process and I hope this helps some of you.
Speaker 1:We talked about it Right, prayed about it, didn't talk about it, talked about it, prayed about it, didn't talk about it, talked about it some more, talked with other people who had the same dream, kind of forgot about it. So it's been this process, wouldn't you say. But over the last year and a half, I would say our, our desire really intensified, would you agree?
Speaker 2:Yes, I think so. I was even thinking. You know, maybe it even at first wasn't so much a dream, it was just an idea. I thought like, wow, that'd be kind of cool. Wouldn't it buy some land and and have like a small wedding venue of some sort on it and, like you said, have couples could come out onto the property and do workshops or whatever kind of like an idea, you know, and I don't know where it shifted from maybe just an idea to like a, a dream or desire you know, um that's good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, it was just kind of like oh wow, I think I would really like that, I think I, I would. I could say I want that. Yes, you know, um, carrying it to, even through prayer, like, okay, god, this is, this is a kind of like a. This is a dream, it's becoming a dream, it's like a desire.
Speaker 2:You feel it, you feel it inside when you talk about it, there's a passion that kind of comes along and maybe that's where it starts moving through the phases of a thought or an idea to a dream, through the phases of a thought or an idea to a dream, and you hit a great word.
Speaker 1:So learning how to move from an idea, a dream, a desire, to now. How does this become reality? What are the practical steps that we have to take? What is this going to cost us?
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:You know, not only money-wise but time, time wise, all those things you have to have and I think that's the thing that I really want to touch on as well too is that open communication, because you and I were talking about this in the car. We've known couples that one spouse is like really.
Speaker 2:I mean, they just dream all the time or have ideas. Right, always an idea. Hey, what about this?
Speaker 1:You know we could do that, and the other one may be a little bit more practical and play it a little bit safer.
Speaker 3:They're just worried about how do we pay the electric bill and the water and feed our children.
Speaker 1:So there's that communication, because you don't want to stifle your spouse if that's how they're wired. But you know, I will say this as well too In that situation if you learn how to communicate, you actually can learn how to work that together, where the practical and the dream can benefit each other.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:So let's fast forward. So over the last six months or so, we really it intensified what we wanted to do. We created for us, we created a dream board.
Speaker 2:Right, so explain that. What does that look like?
Speaker 1:For me. I'm a visual, I need visual, I need something, something to look at.
Speaker 1:I need something tangible that I can look at and go. That's what I want. So between I mean I can't count the times I would walk in. You're watching YouTube on some channel about people that had a dream and they're out pursuing something. Or tiny houses, how do you build them? And I'm looking at how do you restore barns and what's the best tractor to buy, so you get all these things. That's going on. So a dream board for us was snapshots of buildings and it could be down to cornhole. It was down to. You know what is-.
Speaker 2:Like what we would even play, right when you're saying cornhole yeah exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what do we want on this property? What type of venue are we looking for? What's the idea of that? And that was a. That was a big, and we brought that out to one of the life groups.
Speaker 2:Yes, when we had life groups at our house, we did and let them see it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it was. The response was great and it's go. Oh yeah, I can see it, and some people will journal your thoughts. That's a great way to do it as well, to write down your thoughts so you have something to go back and look at and remind yourself. But since then, to where we are now, so it's we're again excited, overwhelmed. I don't think are big enough words. I don't think I've actually cried on the episodes I talk about all the time. But it's just when you're able to put a stake literally, physically and mentally and spiritually in the ground. It just does something. It gives you such hope.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm. Yes.
Speaker 1:So you got to talk a bit more in a second Catch my.
Speaker 2:So what that looked like for us, we felt like in our hearts and through prayer, we just felt like God was challenging us to go ahead and put our home on the market. And we live in town, we live in Nashville, and so we're in the city. We're just on a small lot in a neighborhood. But he asked us and we just felt that push kind of like a leap of faith Okay, I'm back.
Speaker 1:I'm back. Wait a minute. Before you do that, I want you to tell it, so the house that we're in how faithful God is when it comes to dream and how he literally does see the beginning from the end. Because when we bought this house, take it away.
Speaker 2:So when we bought this little house, really it was all we could afford, and I think that we felt like, in some ways, when we purchased this home, that we had to settle because financially you know, financially, this was really all we could do was just, you know, a small house and um, and so you know we came in. The house was very dated and um. Our home was built in the late fifties.
Speaker 2:No air conditioning, there was no central heater air in this house when we moved in, and so it got very interesting when it was in the heat of the summer or the coldest of winter days, you know, sitting by space heaters and wrapped in blankets, watching TV, and then slowly— and from a spiritual point let me interrupt you there.
Speaker 1:I mean going back to what you said. We literally felt we missed it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we felt like we had missed it after we moved in we're like, did it? Yeah, we felt like we had missed it. After we moved in we're like did we settle?
Speaker 1:Because we felt we had done just what we could do in ourself, right, and we didn't feel that our faith, we knew there was something more, so we were dealing with again we're talking about dreams we were dealing with disappointment, and so that's where we were.
Speaker 2:But at least we'd purchased a home.
Speaker 1:We're going to make the best of it.
Speaker 2:And we did start working on the house a little bit and you know just little simple things and we've been here now for 13 years and definitely call this house our home. Yes, but as as as we stayed in the house longer and year after year, you know, the housing market starts booming.
Speaker 1:We do live in Nashville and we stayed in the house longer and year after year. You know the housing market starts booming. We do live in Nashville and we live in.
Speaker 2:Nashville, and we live only a few miles from the heart of downtown Nashville.
Speaker 3:Broadway.
Speaker 2:So you know, this neighborhood all of a sudden becomes this hot commodity. And you know, and yeah felt like, ok, we're going to put the house on the market. And we only had the house on the market a few weeks and we were under contract. It was just wild. It was like wow, this is moving fast.
Speaker 1:A little scary because we had nowhere to live.
Speaker 2:Right, it's like the first week.
Speaker 1:it's on the market and people keep coming in and looking, but our realtor, becky Pendergrass, shout out to Becky.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Love her.
Speaker 2:Yes, love her yes. She told us yeah, she's like we're going to find something. We're going to find something and we really wanted to move more outside of town. Like I said, our dream was to own land, and lo and behold this property just pops up.
Speaker 1:Here's the miracle. So we want to encourage you if you're out there listening, if you've got dreams we had seen this property that we really, really liked. So we told Becky say, hey, let's get on a call tomorrow and we want to show you this house and let's talk about it. From that day to again, our house just went under contract. The next day we pulled this up with Becky and the house had dropped $62,000.
Speaker 2:Yes, the next day. Yeah, the next day.
Speaker 1:And you just go in. Okay, God, I get it. Okay, this is just lining up. It doesn't make any sense necessarily, but it's to a point. But you're working on things that are good here.
Speaker 2:Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So we go see it.
Speaker 2:Go see it, love it, put an offer on it and go right under contract.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so all of this change happened within just a number less than three weeks. Our house is under contract. Our new home that we're going to purchase, we're under contract.
Speaker 1:But it's happened and because, again, going back to what you shared, we thought we'd missed it.
Speaker 2:Right Years ago, 13 years ago. Fast forward, fast forward. This home was a fabulous investment, and so we, you know the equity that was built in was incredible.
Speaker 1:We, you know, we're selling it Four times, four times what we purchased it for.
Speaker 2:Because, you know, the market has just changed in this area.
Speaker 1:Now, yeah, like we said, it's just so God really does see the beginning from the end. He does go bigger.
Speaker 3:So what we really does have a plan right when we couldn't see moving in as we're leaving, we can see that his hand was in all of it and that you know everything was just was our dreams were coming, but we just had to wait you know and um, and so we're super excited and 16 acres 16 acres Um.
Speaker 2:so if you follow us on Instagram, we've got a little picture.
Speaker 1:If you see us on Facebook, you can see that and a beautiful little home had been totally redone. Because that's that was our dilemma. We we'd find land, but the house was, you know, possibly haunted we wouldn't for sure or we'd find a nice house with not enough land, and so now that we've found both, I mean it literally is going to give us I mean, trust me, there's more things to come, there's more faith. We've got to have more structures, we've got to build and all those type of things. But it has been, it has restored our hope so much. And again, that's what I hope you hear. Today is 13 years ago. We couldn't see that. It wasn't even a dream then to have to do this type of thing. Then, 13 years ago, oh no.
Speaker 1:So this is something that was birthed once we moved here and then continued to do marriage counseling and coaching, but again from the disappointment of what we thought because we thought we did something wrong to where we are now.
Speaker 2:Right, right the excitement.
Speaker 1:I know it's so good yeah.
Speaker 2:So we just think, you know, just hope our story and our testimony really encourages all of you guys out there. I will say along the way, over the years I know one thing that has helped me so much with dreaming I follow a YouTube channel. Actually, I just love YouTube and you know that I do, oh my God, every morning.
Speaker 1:I mean I love YouTube, every morning you can find anything.
Speaker 2:That is true, and so what I started doing probably now it's been at least four years ago, I would say I started looking for channels on YouTube that would um encourage me and, like I love gardening and I've talked about that a lot over you know the podcast I love getting out and I am still learning.
Speaker 2:Yeah, rob loves the okra that I that I grow, but, you know, just learning how to garden and become more sustainable. So I started following, um, you know, different channels that support that kind of thinking and, um, I have one that I just, I really love. I've talked about even before on one or two of the episodes, but it's about a family that you know purchases land and what that looks like to turn that raw land into gardens and greenhouses and you know and everything that they're dreaming about.
Speaker 2:And they're homesteaders for the most part. I don't know if Rob and I will be homesteaders with multiple animals and all of that ever.
Speaker 1:I'm buying a tractor. That's all I know.
Speaker 2:But I guess, yeah, rob keeps saying we're going to be farmers.
Speaker 3:And if you guys know us.
Speaker 2:Some of you know us very well. I don't know if I always would have thought I'd be a farmer one day. We're going to grow pumpkins. We're going to grow pumpkins. We're going to grow some stuff. Yeah, we're going to have fun, but you know it, it those kinds of channels and and finding um things to encourage you, the.
Speaker 2:The one statement um Jess Sowers is is the woman who's on the one channel that I love so much, and and one of her favorite little mottos that she has for her life is turn your waiting room into a classroom, and I love that and I really took that to heart, even when this property seemed like something way off in the future. I would try to find ways to turn that waiting into something productive and and and learn, learn, just just learn. And and I'm so thankful because this little yard here in our home has been a great practice lawn for all sorts of things that I've grown, and I'm thankful, you know I'm really, really I'm thankful. So I know this may not be your dream, maybe you know, but but whatever it is that, whatever that dream is, it's Doing things that can help you learn. You know it keeps that fuel on the fire of your dreams, and it doesn't necessarily even have to always cost a lot of money. You know to do it, but it's just finding practical ways to keep moving forward, moving forward.
Speaker 1:Well, one of the things that I love of a lot of the shows that you watch and then I watch them as well too is the honesty that most of them well, I would say all of them that you watch or you've had me watch have. So it's the dream, the process, the failure. Again, we talked about the disappointment. This is something we're wanting to do, but it looks like we're not going to be able to right now. And what does that look like and how do you walk that out? And again, going back to what we said about couples, again, I totally agree with you on that is you can't share your dream with everybody. I agree with that. But you do need to find even you two but like-minded people that you can share your dreams with and then go one, maybe it's. I'm sorry that happened. I understand the disappointment, right when things don't work out Exactly.
Speaker 1:But I'm still with you. I still believe in your dream. Sure, you know. So I think you've got to surround yourself. You know I used to share this all the time. Whatever you know, I used to say show me your five closest friends and I'll let you know where you're at. You know, if they're still only drinking beer and pizza, you probably need drinking beer and pizza drinking beer and eating pizza. Well, if you drink enough beer, you may think you can drink a pizza. I'm not sure, but that's another story in itself.
Speaker 1:I don't know, we just fell off the wagon folks. Here we go, Back on track, Back on track. You've got to surround yourself with people. That again, I want to be careful with this too. I'm not saying I have to agree with you, but are like-minded.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:You know, because you need that pull. And you know, even in marriage, you and I, again even tonight before the podcast, we're talking about some different things. Like it's, like you know, I've had I'm thinking about something a lot and you're like telling me now what you think. So now I have to think about what you've said.
Speaker 2:So it's, it's that it's that and so I think okay. So I'll push back on that a little bit.
Speaker 1:That's been a big word for us, just if you're going to push back.
Speaker 2:I was going to say you want to be around people that are like-minded, yes, but then you also want to have people that think differently than you, because they can see things that you can't. That's what I meant. I'm not saying they always have to agree with you. You may not.
Speaker 1:And that's what happened with us tonight as we were talking about. Well, why do you think that's better? Why is that choice and I'm wired, you know? Again, this is being very vulnerable because, if I've had a lot of time to think about it and you will use that word again push back a little bit. We talked about tonight going. Oh, I need to know that you're not upset with me. This is you talking to me, but you're just now needing time to think about what I've said.
Speaker 2:Sure. So, within anything. I think that any kind of partnership when it comes to marriage and and ideas and plans.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah that you're going to face that. Oh, you know, that's just part of married life.
Speaker 1:Right, because again, this is still, I believe, part of dreaming. We've talked about this many times before on some previous episodes Offense kills healthy conversation, true, and if you've got to be willing and again, I'm not always I'll be the first to say I don't always do a great job Again, I'm not always I'll be the first to say I don't always do a great job we were talking tonight and she said your face is saying something totally different. And I go well, I can't help my face to a point.
Speaker 2:So I shut my eyes.
Speaker 1:So yeah, don't look at me.
Speaker 2:Don't stare at me.
Speaker 1:Listen to the words I'm saying, but don't look at my face. Don't look at my face Because, again, I'm not a very good poker player. When it comes to that. I can't hide things. They'll say I wear my emotions on my sleeve. But when I communicated that to you tonight, even though I've told you that multiple times, you said, hey, I still need to hear that every now and then, hey, I'm okay, I'm just needing time to think. Don't judge my face. I may be not struggling, but the pushback may make me go. Oh well, is this the right decision? Is this not the right decision? And I think that's healthy as well, too. You've got to have that.
Speaker 2:Oh, you do.
Speaker 1:In marriage or friendships. I love our daughter, Madison. She works at a place, she just got a promotion and she has a great mentor there, and he'll just say things to her like well, that's not right. You know, this is something you need to look at and be aware of. And it's like, oh, okay, well, yeah, and that can be difficult, even in marriage, because it's not the point of always. What's our statement?
Speaker 2:You don't always have to think alike, but you do have to think together. Yes, love that, it's one of my favorite quotes, and that's one of the main things.
Speaker 1:Well, I think, at least for us, if you're a dreamer out there, or you have dreams, surround yourself with good people.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Surround yourself with people that do think different than you, that you trust. Keep your faith up, and for us, that's the thing You've got to keep trusting God, even if you feel you've missed it. He does have a plan and nothing is called Him by surprise. And even if you miss it, supposedly, whatever that is, I'm not sure what that means anymore Journal.
Speaker 1:Whatever you've got to do, but don't give up on your dream, but be flexible enough to know that sometimes dreams change and I think the hardest thing sometimes, if we feel like a dream dies, that can be tough, but sometimes it just may go in a different direction and I think you've got to be willing, especially as a believer, say God, this is something I desire, but if you have something better for me and I don't mean that I want to be careful, that is not an out to not pursue stuff or keep believing. That's not what I'm saying either. What I am saying is sometimes God said I have a. If you trust me, I have a better way. You know cause? I mean we, we know countless people is that well, I mean for us, we're. You know, this is not where we thought we were going to end up when we were in our early twenties.
Speaker 2:No, yeah, I mean our late twenties, when we first got married, late 20s, late 20s.
Speaker 1:But it's a good path.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And we just totally believe. And again, even as we move on, if God says, I've got something else in mind for you, then I want to be open to that as well too.
Speaker 2:Right, it's an adventure, it is.
Speaker 1:It is, but dreaming's good, so keep dreaming. Yes, and just being honest, we close in a few weeks on our house, so keep those things in prayer as we move. 14 years of boxes oh my gosh, we've got boxes and stuff I've forgotten about everywhere. So not quite for sure when our next episode will be.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:So it could be Christmas.
Speaker 2:It could be Happy New.
Speaker 1:Year, I don't know Hell. Here we are, 2025. But we'll be back soon. Thanks for your support. Thanks for always listening for those that listen and tell a friend. Again, we're still trying to grow this. We'll keep you updated. We've got some things in the work with the property. We're working on the name of that. So as soon as we have some of these things in place we'll be letting you know about that and then if you know people that want to get married coming up next year, you'll know who to call.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:All right, well, thanks for listening.
Speaker 2:See you, guys, soon.
Speaker 1:See you, bye.
Speaker 3:You've been listening to Marriage and Us, with your hosts, Rob and Robin Adkins. Stay up to date by following them on Instagram at marriageandus underscore podcast and on Twitter at marriageandus. Also hit the follow button so you never miss an episode from your favorite couple. You.