Author and Speaker Matt Swigart talks about Rites of Passage, and it’s importance in parenting and in the church.
LINKS:
What Would Have Learned In Sunday School
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/beled-family/donations
TRANSCRIPT
INTRO
This is the BeLED Family Podcast.
MATT
If you were to ask our kids, you know, what were some of the key spiritual, developmental, mature, maturing type moments? They would list these out for sure.
DANIEL
Welcome to the BeLED Family Podcast. So glad that you're taking your time to listen to this week's episode. I'm here with Matt Swigart. He is the founder and executive director of Enhance Ministries. Matt's ministry journey began over two decades ago, fueled by an unshakable faith and an unwavering commitment to serving the Kingdom of God. It all started with a call to make a difference, a call that led him to the frontlines of church leadership.
DANIEL
Matt just finished his book, “What You Would Have Learned in Sunday School: Diving into Old Testament Truths – No Matter Your Age.” I was holding it in my hands. It was kind of cool, Matt, to hold it. Have you autographed your book? As you.
MATT
Have signed a couple books. Yeah. Okay. That's a pretty surreal experience, but yeah, a couple of people have bought it and said, turn around and ask me to sign it, so I'll take that.
DANIEL
Were they your children?
MATT
No, actually, my kids haven't even read the book yet, so, we'll get better from here.
DANIEL
Okay. Well, welcome to the BeLED Family. So glad that you're joining us on the podcast. We are talking about Rites of Passage. Matt, would you describe what Rites of Passage are and how did you get into it and why are they important?
MATT
Yeah. Well, thank you for having me. It's a gift to be able to share a little bit about what I've done, what I've learned, and what's been such a blessing for my family. Over the years. My kids are 21, 18 and 14. As we're recording, today is Lucy's birthday. And these rites of passage have been a core, key part of our family, of our discipleship journey that we've brought our kids on.
MATT
And, it's been a real gift to watch the benefits grow, as they do. And so the genesis of this for me, came from reading the book raising a modern Day Night by Robert Louis. And in that book, he really emphasizes or highlights what in our society in America has been a loss from so many cultures and societies throughout history who have a, this concept of ceremony and, and, and even before the ceremony, there's, there's a, a level of training of proving themselves so that the the ceremony is the culmination of that journey now celebrating, moving from one level to the next.
MATT
And so in the medieval times, obviously, and in his book, he's highlighting the page, squire, knight journey from medieval times. But we see this in, in the Jewish culture with the bar mitzvah, the bat mitzvah, we see it in the Latino culture with the quinceaneras, Aborigines have walkabout. There's so many cultures that have this thing where it moves a young person from a child to an adult.
MATT
You were a boy, now you're a man. And there are levels of. You had to learn and know this. You had to show character and you had to show skill. And now we're celebrating that. And so that really impacted me. And so when I was a youth pastor, we did a series of these in my church that we'll talk about in a little bit.
MATT
But, then as a dad, as my kids have gone through, and, you know, I've got one who is close to being married, or at least there's a conversation with the young man, I'm told is coming. And so we're that far into it, and, and, so it's really become something that we've tried to do with our kids, especially like because in American society, we just don't have that concept of ceremony.
MATT
Right. There's nothing that we have to celebrate when somebody has moved from one phase to the next. And so we've tried to be really intentional with that with our kids.
DANIEL
In my church, we had a young lady who we had a quinceanera for her, and it was quite an event. She asked me to speak at the event and it was just…it was almost bigger than a wedding. It was large. And the reception was incredible. It was a tremendous deal. It was something neat to be a part of.
DANIEL
You know, as you describe that Matt, describe you know, what other cultures have have, you know, you mentioned, Jewish culture. You mentioned a Latina culture. Why have we lost why we in America lost that ability to celebrate these moments that are beautiful to celebrate. I mean, there what that quinceaneras incredible why have we lost the ability to celebrate these moments that are important to a person's development.
MATT
Yeah. I think the question why is, is the million dollar question. You know, maybe we can figure that out and write the next book, and fund our ministries. But, you know, there's so many cultures that have come together here in America that it's almost like we assume that everybody else has it. And there's no intentionality, there's nothing that that, in our culture when it comes to parenting especially, there's, it's just been lost.
MATT
It's become gray and it's kind of like the others, like they do that. Right. And for those, you know, growing up in rural white America. Right. Like there just aren't things like that. And then we see that there's no there's no ceremony, there's no moment. You know, I remember when we were kids, the whole age of accountability.
MATT
I actually just heard that phrase for the first time in probably 20 years. I heard it the other day and I was like, that's right. I remember we got, I heard about that a lot, right? Like, there's this age that we were supposed to get to, and it's a little different for every kid. But when we would be held responsible in God's eyes for our own salvation, right.
MATT
And even that was a little bit of my childhood growing up. But that's not even a part of anything today. And so what we see a lot is this concept of delayed adolescence, right? We've got people who have not, they still, they're age-wise they are adults. Their bodies are fully developed, but their brains, their lives, their level of maturity and adjustment to life, hasn't happened.
MATT
And that's in part because there's never been a moment where they were told, you're you're a man, you're a woman, you're an adult. And we affirm and celebrate that. And so we've got a lot of, a lot of young men or men that are in their 20s or even 30s, still living at home, playing video games in their parents basement, you know, stuff like that, which not knocking on, playing video games or here or that.
MATT
But if that's what life is about, like they haven't, they haven't stepped into that I'm a man, I take responsibility for my life. And and part of that, the reason they haven't done that is because they were never told or said anything.
DANIEL
Right. And that's what I was going to ask next is, you know, obviously there's a void there. There's a void in helping, for parenting, to help our children move into these moments. And I was going to say part of it is because the parents themselves don't know how to do that. Do you think that this unknown void in our lives that, you know, helping a child, helping somebody move into manhood, womanhood, whatever it might be?
DANIEL
Is it possible that we in America have replaced that void with other things? And if so, what are those things in your opinion?
MATT
That's a great question. You know, as you were talking, I got thinking, I've got a couple buddies that were reading through the Old Testament this year and we were into Second Chronicles. And so it's the second time going through the story of David and Solomon, you know, and then we were in Judges.
MATT
So many times we see even generations that saw God do incredible things. There was, there were generations of parents who did not do an effective job in passing on the faith, passing on the hey, God did this. It should impact how you live. We see, you know, David was a man after God's own heart. The kingdom was so blessed.
MATT
And then Solomon comes and has the maturity to ask for wisdom. But then you see, at the end of his life, he was half hearted towards God and the distractions of the world. Riches, the opposite gender. You know, all of that, fame, power came in and so there's even good or great parents. It's not even a guarantee.
MATT
And so but we have generations that have been brought up here in America that we are many generations removed from having any type of ceremony. And so parents are basically functioning and what they've received. And so, you know, for me, like I had great parents, my mom is still around, but I'm so blessed by my upbringing and what they did in me.
MATT
But I'm actually taking and trying to be much more intentional because of the distractions and I don't know, if you call, you know, we could say social media, activities, like all sorts of things. The distractions are out there. But it's almost like so many people, so many families in our society, they don't even know they're being distracted. Like…
DANIEL
It's the normal.
MATT
It's the norm. And so too, to really be intentional in not just raising kids, not just, you know, I always talk about parenting, it has got to be more than behavior modification. It's discipleship. You're not raising kids. You're raising future adults. Right? And as a follower of Jesus myself, I'm raising future followers of Jesus. Now my kids are going to have to make their own choices on that.
MATT
But how I raise them, how I teach them, how I discipline them, how I correct them, and how I intentionally invest in them is with an eye on that. Someday they will be living this out and doing it themselves with their kids in the next generation.
DANIEL
What I'm hearing, Matt, is, is, you know, intentionality. And part of that, maybe part of the intentionality, is knowing what you're aiming for, knowing what you're going for. Obviously, at some point, your child needs to spread their wings and fly in and learn to do it. Rites of passage is kind of that ceremonial, like, “hey, spread your wings and fly,” but then that parent also needs to let them fly.
DANIEL
Instead of being a helicopter parent or snowplow parent, instead of, you know, doing whatever that is and that we can, that's a whole nother topic for another time. But know what you're aiming for. Be intentional about that rather than just kind of almost survive. It feels like sometimes in parenting we just kind of survive from day to day. But if you have something you're aiming for, right?
DANIEL
A passage like, that's what we're going for. And then you communicate that with your kid. Yes. And say, in other words, we are delaying adolescence because we're not, we don't know what you're aiming for. So let's talk about delayed adolescence. Would you describe what that means a little further?
MATT
Yeah. It's, you know, you find people who like you see that they just get it, right. There's a maturity, there's a responsibility, there's the understanding that when something needs to get done, they do it, you know, and then you also notice when people don't have that, and so there's a general posture of passivity, maybe I would say in the delayed adolescence that, yeah.
MATT
I'll get to that later.
DANIEL
Kick it down the road.
MATT
Yes, yes. Whether it's getting into a career, getting out on their own, living on their own. It's taking responsibility. It's, so this concept of passivity, really, to me is that's actually like an allergy to me, like, personally. So, I really notice it, and I try not to get judgy with people, but you just see.
MATT
Well, man, that was like how the issue that that person just shared with me is a product of their passivity that they haven't stepped into that kind of that ownership that this is my life. I know how God wants me to live, and I'm going to do it to the very best of my ability.
MATT
I'm going to take responsibility. All of those types of things. And we just see people kind of, you know, the other, phrase I use a lot is, is getting out of the lazy river, you know, and, and it just, they're kind of going through life like, like they’re floating on the tube in the lazy river and kind of wherever the current takes them is, is where they go.
MATT
And, you know, that you don't get anywhere in the lazy river. Now, I enjoy a good lazy river on vacation, but as a posture in life, delayed adolescents are people that are just kind of floating around in the lazy river.
DANIEL
It's too easy to just stay in the lazy river because you know you're going to end up right back where you were before. By that same point, you're not going anywhere.
MATT
Yes, yes, exactly. And so, you know, for us as a family, one of the things that we did and this is kind of related to and it helped shape the rights of passage. But we, there were four words and then a fifth with our youngest, but four words that my wife Christina, and I identified that we wanted to pray over and speak over our kids.
MATT
And so when we would snuggle and pray before bed when they were kids, we would always pray that they would be a man or a woman of purity, character, wisdom and integrity. And if though, their lives were marked by those four things, we were going to be in pretty good shape with our youngest, Lucy, we added humility, because she's the classic youngest, she's the life of every party.
DANIEL
Whoa, whoa classic youngest, what does that mean?
MATT
Well, you’re the youngest, right?
DANIEL
Yeah. We are the best.
MATT
You're the life of the party. And so the spotlight has been on Lucy a lot. And so we've also prayed that she would let her light shine, but then that it would not become about her. So then we've got those 4 or 5 words and those things actually in correction and discipline played out where we could say, hey, what are the four words we pray for you every night?
MATT
And they list them out and I say, “okay what does integrity mean?” And okay, “doing the right thing even when no one's looking.” “Did you show integrity there?” So it creates a language for our family. But then also with each of our kids we ask the Lord to give us a prayer for each one individually.
MATT
So with our oldest, Caitlin, we prayed that she would be a blessing to everyone she comes in contact with. That Caleb would be a brave warrior for Christ and serve the Lord wholeheartedly, and that Lucy would let her light shine and fulfill all the great plans that God has for her life.
DANIEL
And this is something that you and Christina would you talk about, and those specific prayers for each of your children became tailored obviously to them?
MATT
Yes. Yeah. So we actually sought the Lord on that and was like, what? What's the prayer for each kid? And began praying that and even now, like Lucy, we were just in Orlando. She was Miss Minnesota junior teen and was at the National pageant. And even there the line was just, “Lucy, hey, let your light shine for Jesus today.”
MATT
Well, because that's the language that she's been hearing her whole life.
DANIEL
I was going to ask, I'm sure you, each of your children, have. You and Christina, have you seen how that prayer played out in their lives?
MATT
Yeah, it's actually for all three of our kids. It's become like the main rally cry, like, you know, hey, I want to be this. But also, it's been really interesting that some of the greatest, blunders or, lapses in character have been kind of consistent with that, like the, the, the ways that they've, they've struggled some, have been in opposite of what we've been praying for, which, you know, makes sense because we have an enemy that's trying to destroy what we're trying to build.
MATT
Yeah. And, and so it makes sense, but it's really it has played out and it's just been that, kind of that, you know, the anchor in the storm, you know, like in the old movie twister, you know, we're in that they're in that little pump house or, well house, and they tether themselves in the pipe like it's those things.
MATT
That's the vision, the calling, the legacy that we believe that God has placed in their lives, that it even when the world is kind of inverting them, it's that's what's anchoring them down, in their faith, in their relationship with the Lord and and how they're growing in character.
DANIEL
I think that, you know, being intentional, you describe it very well, specifically teach your children in that prayer. You know, for our listeners out there, intentionality, it doesn't need to be this grandiose thing. It doesn't always need to be something. It's something simple. Just know what you're aiming for, something like that as prayer. I think that's so great.
DANIEL
Would you, Matt, though, talk about some other rites of passage you've done, not only in your family, but also in ministry in churches?
MATT
Yeah, with our family, we've done a number of them. So, one of my favorites, and every time I bump into somebody who is pregnant, or his wife is pregnant, and especially seeing this to dad, but with each of our kids, the day they were born, I wrote them a letter and I put it in an envelope and said to their name and then, to be opened on the day of their high school graduation.
MATT
Okay. And in that letter, I just talked about their, like, the birth story. I talked about their name and what their name means, and what we're praying for them. And, my son just graduated high school a couple months ago, and so I had a chance to take him out for breakfast and give him that letter.
MATT
And I think he knew that we had done this with his sister, but didn't remember, you know? So. Right. Right. And, you know, I was.
DANIEL
Do you remember what you wrote in that letter?
MATT
No. Not exactly. Okay. It's almost a surprise for me. But what was so cool is Caleb read the letter, and he's like, dad, none of that was a surprise to me, And I'm like, I'm losing it a little bit already. And I and also and, this is for another podcast episode, but, you know, his middle name is Roger, which is my dad's name.
MATT
And my dad passed away five years ago, and, and, you know, so, you know, struggling, me personally struggling a little bit with the empty chair coming up at grad parties and, you know, things like that. But to see what I wrote in there. But then here are the things I'm praying for you, brave warrior for Christ.
MATT
Serve the Lord wholeheartedly. And for him to just come out and say none of this was a surprise. Like, wow, you've been speaking these things into my life. Like, which was the prayer when I wrote it, like, Lord, help these things to be a thing. And so just an incredibly powerful moment. And I would say to your listeners, if you have kids that are already born, it's not too late, right, to get away.
MATT
Pray it through. What is your heart? Write a letter and and do the breakfast. And actually, his graduation ended up being on Sunday morning. Because our school district has three schools. So we rented an ice arena, and they did. And so this year it was his high school’s Sunday morning, so that it was going to be too early on Sunday.
MATT
And then his grad party, we did a breakfast grad party. So we actually did it on Friday before graduation. But still, it was just an incredibly powerful moment for us. The next one was when they give their life to Jesus. We get them a big kid Bible. And so that was a big deal as to get a Bible.
MATT
Obviously, the sex talk was a big deal, and we really made a big deal out of that. And my wife with our two daughters, which was funny when we found out Lucy was going to be a girl. That was one of my celebrations, I only had to give the talk…
DANIEL
Once.
MATT
But, you know, what we did with my son, we went out for dinner. We went to a Timberwolves game and stayed in a hotel downtown, and it was cool. And it was funny. It was the day before. It was, I think it was December 26th. And the next day we were doing family Christmas with my family.
MATT
And so we just went straight there and Caleb shows up and he's, you know, whatever he is, 9 – 10, whatever it is. I forget how old he was, but he walked in. The first thing he says, he's like, I know where babies come from. So he was pretty excited about that. So, then the next one was, First Communion.
MATT
And, you know, we're, non-denominational church, you know, but I actually love that, that practice. And so with each of our kids, we, we brought family and friends over to our home, you know, and, and I wrote a little Bible study for each kid to, to do, helping them understand what is what is the gospel, what's their testimony and what is communion and why do we do it?
MATT
And so they stood up and shared their testimony, shared the gospel. And then we took communion together their first time. And it was just incredible, a special time. And so and that made it a big deal then because their whole life is they're sitting in church with us their whole life. They had to let the plate go by, you know, but we just really wanted them to take it seriously.
MATT
Yeah. And so we didn't allow them to do it until we felt like they could and understand that. We did a big thing in eighth grade, like a formal dinner blessing ceremony for our daughters. And with my son, I did a whole year's worth of activities where I invited different men who have been an impact in my life to spend a day with Caleb and I.
MATT
And so, we identified different traits of manhood that we wanted to focus on, and we did fun things like indoor skydiving. We toured the Air National Guard base, went to a Badger/Gopher basketball game. That was really cool. When my oldest was in eighth or ninth grade, when she really started to notice boys, I took her out for dinner and dessert one night, and I found it at Walmart. I was like a little $5 necklace, but it had a heart locket and a key. Okay, now, the key didn't open it, but it was, but I gave her that, and I took the key off the necklace, and the talk was that, you know, this is your heart. And I'm going to hold the key to your heart, and I need you to trust me with that. And, and we talked about all of that and, and over the years, you know, she's actually come back to me and thanked me for how I've kind of helped her make decisions about boys and things like that. But this rite of passage is going to come full circle. Where and I haven't decided yet, but either just shortly before her wedding or even as part of the wedding ceremony that,
DANIEL
Key hand off.
MATT
Give the key to her husband and I, boy, I don't know, it might have to be beforehand.
DANIEL
Yeah, you might not make it, though.
MATT
You make it through that. So there's that one, before 10th grade, we do what we call a hinge trip with our kids. And we call it the hinge, because in 10th grade, you turn 16, you get your driver's license, you start playing varsity sports, you know, all these different things. Like you're the world is going to open up.
MATT
You're going to have much more freedom. And with great freedom comes the need for greater responsibility. And so we kind of talk about how your life has been set, on a certain path. But this year is going to be like that bolt in the hinge and you're going to have the choice which direction you're going to go.
MATT
And so we took our oldest to New York City, our son, we took to San Diego. We actually got to hang out with a Cold War sub captain, a kind of famous guy that I have a friend that connected. It was so cool. But it's just an awesome thing. And then looking ahead, you know, we'll do something, before they're married and then again, before they have their first child, which at that point, then the rite of passage resets, and they begin to do these same things with their kids.
MATT
And so, it's been…
DANIEL
How have your children responded to that? I mean, you've dabbled a little bit and told us some of the things, how they responded. But overall, how have you seen them respond to these rites of passage? And in your opinion, as a father, how do you think that's impacted them spiritually? And in their faith?
MATT
Yeah, I, all of these have been bullseyes like from from what I wanted to accomplish and from what I've seen in their life, they've become those pivotal, mile marker, stakes in the ground moments that, that we still talk about many of them with them and, you know, again, the whole like, you are like, moving them from one phase to the next, you are a man.
MATT
You are a woman. And we celebrate that. But also there's an acknowledgment that there's a higher level of accountability now and we're going to treat you like that. There's more freedom, there's more all that. And it's just been so good. And even though, you know, our kids aren't perfect and they've, they've had their knucklehead moments and seasons, we are seeing that as they're becoming adults leaving home that the foundation is strong.
MATT
And now as they are having the responsibility to choose for themselves that they're making wise decisions. And so I think it's, I, I'd like to think that these, these moments, these experiences that we've had and the, the training and the conversations that went into it, that happened on it and then the accountability that we've been able to refer back to have been some of the key things, in helping our kids get to that point.
MATT
And obviously, there's always intentionality that's needed. You know, again, when your kid messes up, you know, and they need to be corrected or disciplined to to keep your eyes on the discipleship aspect of it and not just the behavior modification, but, but these big moments have, have just been so huge that if you were to ask our kids, you know, what were some of the key spiritual, developmental, mature, maturing type moments?
MATT
They would list these out for sure.
DANIEL
Wow. I mean, the rites of passage and helping them mature in their faith, pointing them to Jesus in that discipleship process, that's the key. And I'm thinking as a parent, like, it can be overwhelming to hear all these things like, oh, I gotta start this. I gotta start that again, start this. But it almost is like, it's not as if you need a parent to start all these things, but just what intentionality can you take to point them to Jesus and draw them to Jesus?
DANIEL
Here, the things that you and Christina did, which are fantastic, and some great examples of what a parent could do to help them, point their kids to Jesus. What about rites of passage? How do they fit into a church ministry?
MATT
Well, I think that's the response to what you just said too, is if you see a little overwhelmed by this, there are other people who also feel that much, you know, and especially in your church. And so the opportunity to do these things in the context of a family of families. So you've got your family. But boy, if you're going to journey together in some of these ways, alongside other families that have kids in the same age, grade or generally, you know, in their, the community that forms there is awesome.
MATT
The shared ownership of the logistics and details of it are great. And so when I was a youth pastor, we did the eighth grade one, as a church. And we had, we met once a month. We had a different theme for each month for the boys, for the girls we met on a Saturday morning.
MATT
And like I said, the girls culminated in like a formal dinner blessing ceremony where, mom, dad and a couple other people, if they were invited, stood up and publicly affirmed their daughter. And then they crowned their daughter with a tiara, like, you know, kind of, a really cool moment. You know, obviously the guys weren't going to be that excited about getting all dressed up and things like that.
MATT
So we went and did the father–son retreat thing, kind of the tribal council fire, which, really funny story. One year we talked to the dads and, and we decided that we were going to get all the boys a hatchet, and that was going to be like, you're a man. And here's a man gift, here's a man tool.
MATT
And so we were at a camp and we were the only ones at camp, and, and we set it up where the dads were in one cabin, the boys were in another, and I actually was in a room, around the corner. And the next morning we wake up and it sounds like there's, like, 40 woodpeckers outside.
MATT
I know this really? So I go outside and just boys with hatchets were everywhere. They were just hacking down whatever they could find. Well, one of the boys was standing on this log and the log wasn't set, so it was kind of rolling. Right. And he was chopping down between his feet. And as you would predict, you know, he went and chopped one time in the angle of the blade changes a little bit.
MATT
It glanced off the log right into his shin. Okay. And so you know, of course, that now his retreat is done. So dad's taken into the yard and his name is Joe. I was like, Joe, do we need to rescind everything that was said last night? If you can't wield the man tool.
DANIEL
You do, you know.
MATT
What is that?
DANIEL
They're not worthy.
MATT
It. Yeah, it was so funny. So, but there are things like that that, you know, churches can come and collaborate together. I've heard of, you know, groups doing a Boundary Waters trip or a camping trip or going to games together or something like that. But you, and a lot of that stuff is already happening. The challenge is, can you add a greater level of intentionality to that?
MATT
Just a little bit of training, a little bit of affirmation, you know, whatever. And so there's those ideas. And then the last idea I'd throw out is, I've been leading and facilitating short term mission trips for a long, long time. And, next summer, I'm going to transition the trip that I host here in the Twin Cities.
MATT
I'm going to transition that from a student focused trip to a family trip. And man, I tell you what, I'm so excited to get families serving together, worshiping together in a context other than just a Sunday morning where a lot of times the the kids don't fully engage, it seems like and and, and the thing I'm most excited about for that trip is that the last night of the trip, we're going to do a worship time kind of a culmination wrap up of the trip, but then we're going to give each church group and hopefully groups or families come as a family of families from their churches.
MATT
But we're going to give each church group a space in the church and, and those that have kids, similar, it's like the blessing ceremonies, will stand up and publicly affirm, like I saw this in you this week and celebrate what they saw as they did ministry together with their kids. And then we'll have some sort of a memento for them to give their kids as, you know, an altar type, you know, like you see this, you remember, and so I'm really excited about that.
MATT
So, we'd love to have your listeners come to that, but more so that the concept of getting out and serving together, doing ministry together, which, if you've ever been on a mission trip before, there's a different level of bonding that happens as you do that. So as a family, but then again, as a family of families doing that together, would be incredibly pivotal for those kids.
DANIEL
That I mean, I believe in intergenerational, I believe in family models, I believe in that kind of model for a mission trip. You know, we all parents always send their kids on the mission trip, but come with the kid, or we do service projects at home. Like, you know, I encourage churches, you know, if you have, like we always say, hey, teenagers, go do this.
DANIEL
You know, the slaves of the church rather, “hey, teenagers and parents, why don't you come do this side by side together?” So obviously if you want to know more about that, there's links in our show description to Enhance Ministries. That's where you can find Matt and get. Unfortunately, I can't make it that week. I'll be at a different retreat that same week.
DANIEL
But, before we get to our final question here, Matt, just I want to remind our listeners, thank you for being a subscriber to the BeLED Family Podcast. Follow us on social media for anything that comes up. Announcements. We have great quotes, things like that. Visit Enhance Ministries, again that link is in the show description. To learn more about how Enhance could we…
DANIEL
We didn't even get a chance to talk about that, Matt. But you go to Enhance Ministries. You can find Matt there. Take time to share this episode with friends. This is such a great topic of rites of passage. And maybe you as a listener know somebody that needs to hear it, and collaborate with them. Maybe, you know, as parents cohort together go.
DANIEL
What can we do as a parent group to have rites of passage for our children? So again, thank you for listening. Okay, so last question, Matt. How is God glorified through rites of passage moments?
MATT
Well, I think the, you know, I've had a lot of titles in my life. But my favorite is daddy. You know, when those little kids come up, you know, you get home and you hear that, and. And I think there's something that aligns with God's heart when when we press into our role as parents and the I get why are some stories recorded in the Bible, I sometimes I don't know, but we see examples all throughout the Old Testament, especially, where, where the, the, the deposit was not passed effectively to the next generation.
MATT
And I think that God receives glory when we intentionally do our job as parents. And again, rejecting passivity, like that was one of the manhood principles I did with my son, right? Reject passivity, accept responsibility, lead courageously, things like that. I think when we do that, we are fully embracing the calling that God has on our lives as parents.
MATT
And it positions our kids to have the very best opportunity to want to follow Jesus with their life. And so, you know, there are fun vacations that we can take. There are different fun activities that we can do. I mean, I coached all of my kids in different sports, my son more than my daughters.
MATT
But, you know, it's not about the trophies that you win. It's about the things that are going to last. Yeah, it's about the things that are going to be passed on to the following generation. Right. And so to me, you know, my calling is as a parent and that's how I view it as a calling. It's not again, it's not just something you survive.
MATT
It's not, you know, I've used the term behavior modification. It's not just correction for the moment, but it's about so much more than that. And these kids have been entrusted to my wife and I, and by God, and I take that as a, as a, a huge responsibility. And so as we press into that and function in that, with, with as much intentionality, under the lordship of Christ that we possibly can, that, that's when, when I feel like God's receiving the most glory, because that's when we're doing what he's called us to do.
DANIEL
Right. Matt, thank you for talking about Rites of Passage. Thank you for being here. So glad. And thank you for your time.
MATT
You got it, brother.
DANIEL
Thank you for listening to this week's BeLED Family Podcast episode. We appreciate you taking the time to tune in. Help us by sharing this podcast with your friends. Support the BeLED Podcast and BeLED Family by visiting us at our website, beledfamily.com and follow us on Facebook and Instagram until the next episode BeLED in all that you do.
Leave a Reply