Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - When Finances Stop You from Having Kids | Ron Simmons

Episode Date: September 5, 2026

Can Republicans keep both the House and the Senate in November? Ron zeroes in on the key races that will make or break the conservative coalition in the 2026 midterm elections. Also, should finances stop you from having children? And what’s the best way to handle grief after losing a loved one? Ron answers those questions and more! Do you have a question for Ron? Feel free to contact him at [e-mail] Share the Arrows 2026 is on October 10 in Dallas, Texas! Tickets are on sale now at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sharethearrows.com⁠⁠⁠ Share the Arrows is sponsored by: A'del Natural Cosmetics: AdelNaturalCosmetics.com Range Leather: RangeLeather.com/ALLIE We Heart Nutrition: WeHeartNutrition.com Buy Allie's book "Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion": ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.toxicempathy.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ – Time Codes 0:00 Introduction 2:17 Senate Races to Watch in November 19:58 House Races to Watch 30:09 Viewer Q&A – Today's Sponsor: Head to https://cozyearth.com and use my code RELATABLE for an exclusive 20% off on home and sleepwear! Episodes You May Like: New Report: Home Prices Were Raised 30% by This Biden Policy | Ron Simmons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uidMZvdASaI Don't Listen to the Critics — Trump Unveiled an Election Nightmare | Ron Simmons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aKEYQ1KMDM --- ► Buy Allie's book "You're Not Enough (& That's Okay): Escaping the Toxic Culture of Self-Love": https://alliebethstuckey.com/book ► Subscribe to the podcast: iTunes: https://apple.co/2UVssnP Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2FwkXxj ► Connect with Allie on Social Media: https://twitter.com/conservmillen https://www.instagram.com/alliebstuckey/ https://facebook.com/allieBlazeTV/ ► "Relatable" merchandise — use promo code ALLIE10 for a discount: https://shop.blazemedia.com/collections/allie-stuckey

Well, hello, everybody. It's good to see you again or hear you again. If you're just listening to me, I appreciate that. If you're watching on a video, you can see it's a little bit different background. You are actually down in my shop in our mountain location. And I thought a little bit more manly, masculine, whatever. You got a couple of deer heads behind me that I've hunted before. And you have my fly fishing and my duck hunting. that's a mount of a canvas back, and you can't see it real well, but that plate back there is our Labrador retriever, Deuce, Chocolate Lab, has won a national championship. He's a master national hunter. So I thought you'd appreciate that, and there's some of the tools. I like to do projects like I'm sure a lot of you guys do. And ladies, a project is good for a guy to do.

Let me tell you, if you've got a husband or a son or a brother or whatever that likes some projects, for them, that's actually relaxing. As long as you're not over-pressuring him to get it done, it's very relaxing. I really enjoyed doing that. You know, my grandfather was a carpenter, home builder, and I spent a summer with him one summer when I was 14 years old, best summer of my life. Although I think my parents sent me there because they were a little concerned that maybe I was heading in potentially the wrong direction, but my grandparents were great people.

When my grandfather passed away, he left me his hammer and his hand plane, which is how you used to get wood down to the type of size that you wanted it. And that was very special to me. But anyway, thank you. I'm Ron Simmons. I'm Allie's father. And I appreciate you supporting her podcast. I do this twice a month, and it comes out on the weekend. In fact, this episode is coming out on the first Saturday in September over the Labor Day holiday. So I hope everybody has a great holiday weekend and a safe holiday weekend.

But what I wanted to talk about today, since we're now officially into September and soon to be fall, is the campaign season. You know, during the summer, people don't pay that much attention to politics because they're busy with their families. and vacations and other things, and that's the way it should be. But now we are just a little over by the time this comes out, we'll actually be within two months of our midterm elections, which are very important. It's very important relating to public policy. And you know, Allie always said politics matter because policy matters,

because people matter. And so I want to pay attention to this for just the next few minutes and talk about what could happen in the midterm elections. You know, the president's not on the ballot, but there are, and I've got a lot of notes here with me today, 35 Senate seats, U.S. Senate seats that are up for election. And, of course, you probably have in your state and in your county, you probably have a lot of local elections that are up as well to pay attention to. And I can't follow all the local elections, but I want to talk to you about the national elections today. And there, again, as I said, there are 35 Senate seats up for election in 2026. And as you know,

there's a hundred U.S. senators. So it actually takes only 50, if you're a Republican, to have the majority because the vice president breaks the tie and we have a Republican vice president. When President Obama, I mean, sorry, President Biden or Obama was in the White House. House, then it only took 50 Democrat senators. So right now, there are 53 Republican senators and 47 Democrat senators. When I say 47, it's really 45, but there are two independent senators that caucus with the Democrats, so we consider them Democrats. So in order for the Democrats to overtake the Senate, they need to get to 51. And the reason they have to get to 51 instead of of 50 is because the vice president is a Republican. So they can't depend on the vice president

to break the tie. They have to have 51. So they have to, they have to flip four seats in order to win the majority in the Senate. And let's look at those for just a second. According to the Cook political report, which was in July of 2026, there are not, there are several competitive Senate seats. There are three that lean Democrat. In other words, they're not a solid Democrat, but they kind of lean blue. And there are four that are genuine toss-ups. And there are two that lean Republican.

So, again, they're not solid Republican, but they lean Republican. And the remaining races are solid Democrat or solid Republican. So of the 35, there's a solid Republican. there's really only nine races that are going to determine the majority of the Senate. And we're going to go through five of those tonight to make sure that you understand where to be paying attention. And again, I want to remind you that when you're voting in the general election, we're voting for policy, not people. All right? So think about the policies that the Republican support and the policies that the Democrats support. For me, I can stop after one policy

and it's related to abortion. I'm a absolutely staunch pro-life advocate. And you know that Allie is as well. And she was raised in a pro-life household. Her mom has been involved in pro-life organizations since we were early, early married. And Allie's grown up with that. And she's developed her own beliefs. Obviously, she is a great apologist and she understands, when I say apologies, she can defend her beliefs as well as anybody I've ever known, whether that's on some biblical principle, whether that's on some political principle, whether that's on some social principle. And I would like to think that she grew up in a household that helped frame that. Now, she got there on her own. We didn't tell our kids what to believe. We talked.

told them what we believe and why we believed it. And then they made their own decision. We're thankful that they all believe like we do. And that unborn, protecting the unborn is the number one issue that we have as, in my opinion, as Christians and as people. So when I look at policy versus people, the Republican policy on abortion and pro-life, there's nothing more clear than that. Democrats believe elected Democrats. Now, maybe there are some of you Democrats that don't believe this,

and that's why I want to talk to you, but elected Democrats believe that you can have abortion right up until, and in some cases, after birth of a baby. And to say that they don't believe that, you're kidding yourself, because that's what they voted for. Don't listen to what they say. Watch what they do. And when you look at the votes, they vote against every abortion restriction and vote in favor of everything that has to do with killing unborn children. And Republicans are the opposite. They vote in favor of every abortion restriction, and they vote in favor of protecting the unborn. Now, let's look at those five races, okay? The first one I want to talk about is one's very dear to me.

and that's the race in Texas. Ken Paxton, who's the current Attorney General of Texas versus James Tala Rico, who is a state representative of Texas. I want to talk about why that is. Ken Paxson is someone that I know personally. And I'll just tell you something up front. Nobody is perfect, all right? If you're looking for a perfect politician that's lived a perfect life, then you're wasting your

time. There is no politician that is perfect. perfect, the only perfect person that ever walked this earth with Jesus Christ. And Ken Paxton is not a perfect person. There's no question about it. But as I said before, we're voting on policy. Ken Paxton is a conservative, traditional Republican, meaning that he is going to vote pro-life. He is going to vote for a restrained government. He's going to vote for a balanced budget. So he's going to vote for everything that you and I, I believe, most of you and I would agree with. James Talariko, on the other hand, and I know him because I have, I did not serve with him, but because of my involvement in the

continued involvement in the Texas legislature with things like school choice and what have you, James Tala Rico is a wolf in sheep's clothing. He is going to vote for abortion right up until birth. He's going to vote for girls, for boys, excuse me, biological boys being in girls' private spaces, including boys participating in girls' sports. He's going to vote for any type of transgender, gentle genital mutilation for minors. He's going to vote for all of that because he's either voted for that in the Texas House or he's voted against bills to stop that. And, you know, He's the person that said, you know, that God is binary, that there are six different genders. And so, for those of you that live in Texas, it's very important that you get out and support

and support the Republican candidate. James Tala Rico was raising a lot of money. In fact, he raised about $60 million in the primary to beat Crazy Lady Jasmine Crockett in March. And there are a lot of people that think this seat is in play. those of you that believe that there's no way a Democrat can win Texas, you're just fooling yourself because it is absolutely possible. And if the Republicans don't come out and vote, James Tala Rico will win, and that will be a bad six years for Texas. So I encourage you to look at the policies, vote for what candidate you think supports the best policies. And also, even if you

you don't live in Texas, if you know people in Texas, if you have family in Texas, or you know friends in Texas, make sure you encourage them to make sure they get out and vote. That's really important. The second race we're going to look at is Mike Rogers in Michigan versus Abdul El-Said. It's even hard for me to think about that these are actually going to be the candidate on the Democrat Party. This is an open seat. The Texas seat was previously, Republican. We're trying to keep it Republican. This was a Democrat seat, but the Democrat, I think Senator Peters, decided not to run Gary Peters. And so this is an open seat. And as you remember, Trump won Michigan in 2024. And Mike Rogers actually only lost by 20,000 votes in the Senate race in

24. So there's a good chance for the Republicans to win this seat. El Saeed is a far-left radical. He is an anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist Democrat, and he's part of this whole communist socialist movement. And so, again, if you're in Michigan, make sure that you look at the policies and vote for the policies, that you think make the most sense. And the person that supports those, in my opinion, is Mike Rogers. If you have friends or family in Michigan, make sure you're calling. This is a very important race. We haven't had a Republican senator in Michigan for years.

So this would be a big flip. And if we win Michigan, listen to this. If Republicans win Michigan, there's no way that Democrats can win the Senate, in my opinion. The third one is Ohio, which is really interesting because Ohio was a solid and is a solid Republican state. But again, this is an open seat. J.D. Vance's seat. Remember Vice President Vance was a senator before? And this is an open seat. And a Republican is John Hustead versus former Democrat Senator Sherrod Brown. So you've already got a record. Go back and look what Sherrod Brown voted for or voted against.

And if he voted for or against policies that you would think about, you know, if he voted against policies you would be in favor of or voted for policies you would be against, then that should tell you the answer to that. But this is a very tight race. Brown has a, first of all, it's a great campaign name, a ballot name. If you have a simple name, if you have a complicated name, people that are uninformed may not vote. for you, but Brown is the simplest name of all, and he's been around for a long time. Ohio is a solid red state. If we don't win Ohio, Republicans I'm speaking about, it'll be hard for, it'd be hard for us to hold the Senate. So again, if you're in Ohio, make sure that you get out to vote and make sure that if you know people in Ohio, that you call them and have them make sure they're

voting for the policies that they think best fit them. The fourth one is Maine. Susan Collins and Troy Jackson. This is a really interesting rate. Susan Collins, she's a moderate Republican. Maine is a moderate state. In fact, Vice President Harris, Kamala Harris, won the state of Maine in the 2024 election. In what really was a Republican land side nationwide, she still won Maine, which is kind of hard to believe. But if you remember this Senate race, this is the Senate race where there was another gentleman in, I wouldn't even say gentleman, another scumbag, actually, if you look at his history with how he's an abuse, potentially, allegedly abused women and others, that he had to drop out of the race, even after he won the primary, so the Democrats had to put somebody else in, a guy named

Troy Jackson. But this is a tough race for the Republicans to win. Collins has proven as a moderate that she's been able to win Maine. And I'll tell you, folks, I don't agree with everything Susan Collins says. However, in order for the Republicans to keep that seat and she will agree with us on, let's say, 80% of the issues, we need to support Susan Collins. And if you know anybody in Maine, and I've got a few friends in Maine, Tyler and Gary, I know you're up there. You know who I'm talking to.

I want to make sure that everybody gets out and supports Susan Collins on the Republican side. even if you don't agree with 100% of what she did. You do not want Troy Jackson to be a part of this. It's going to be very interesting to watch. Again, it's another race that Republicans, if they want to hold the Senate, really need to win. The next one is Dan Sullivan. Now, this is really an interesting.

This is Alaska. Dan Sullivan versus Mary Peltola. Mary Pottola is the first Native American elected to Congress in Alaska. She's got a pretty good statewide name. but she lost her house race by three points in 2024 because Trump won it by 11. So Trump carried her challenger over the finish line. The problem with this is there is another candidate on the ballot. I guess he's running as an independent.

And guess what his name is, Dan Sullivan, the exact same name as the Republican candidate, which the Democrats put up to run. to cause confusion. This is really interesting. In 2017, or actually 2018, I had in my primary, a candidate name with my same last name, Kevin Simmons. And he ran just because he had my same last name thinking that he could cause confusion. Now, it was in the primary, so it made a little bit easier, but I beat him 86% to 14%. So I'm hopeful that people don't get confused. used on which Dan Sullivan that is running, make sure that they're voting for the correct Dan Sullivan, the Republican Dan Sullivan. And again, I don't know that much about Ms. Peltola, and I appreciate

what she's been able to do, considering her background as a Native American and probably some of the struggles that she've been through. However, here's what I know. When she gets to the Senate, she's going to vote to kill babies. She's going to vote to increase government, She's going to vote to have government more control of your daily lives, and Dan Sullivan is not. So I encourage you to think about the policies that these two people support. Those are the five races. There are there a few more that are close, but those are the kind of the key ones that we want to pay attention to. And again, if you have questions about your particular Senate race in your state, please email me,

Ron at Ron Simmons.com. and I'll be happy to talk to you and answer you on that. Quick pause to tell you about our sponsor for the day, and that is Cozy Earth, y'all. I just got new Cozy Earth pajamas. I am so excited. They are the softest, most breathable pajamas ever. I have so many sets of Cozy Earth, loungeware, pajamas. I love their sheets.

I love their towels. I love everything. But I am in a cozy maxing season right now because if it's still hot outside, I want to feel like it's fall inside. So I want to be cozy. Plus, as I'm preparing for postpartum, I'm getting all of the loungeware so I can be as comfortable as possible after this baby gets here. Cozy Earth is a big part of that. I got, I think it's like a light green sage color of the pajamas that I got.

They're so cute and so luxurious. These make for great gifts for yourself, for the loved one in your life, especially as you start to think about those Christmas presents, cozy earth related bros out there. Perfect for your wife. go to cozyearth.com. Use code relatable. You'll get up to 20% off home and sleepwear. Cozy Earth, code relatable. Now, let's go to the House. We don't know who's going to control the Senate, obviously. Before we get to the House, the Decision Desk HQ have Republicans have a 52% chance and Democrats a 48% chance. That's essentially within the margin of error. We don't know what's going to happen. It's going to be very, very close. And a lot of this is really a

about Donald Trump. And even though he's not on the ballot, the president is always theoretically on the ballot in the midterm years. And it's been very difficult for a president to be able to maintain his margins in the House and Senate during the midterms of his year. It's just always been very difficult. A lot of presidents, Democrat and Republican have lost seats in both the House and Senate in midterm elections. Let's talk about how this works. The history is one reason Democrats are expected to pick up seats in November 26th, and that's because the president's party almost always loses seats. However, this is really an interesting. This has never happened before, so I don't know how that's going to affect, but 10 states, if you remember this in the last year or so, they redistricted.

It's really interesting. A lot of the models actually are showing that Democrats will win a small majority. But they have to flip 13 seats in order to be able to win that. And that's pretty hard to do. We'll see what happens. So here's kind of the way that how Democrats are favored in the House. We have a full screen shot of that that we're going to put up here. And it shows that you can see the blue line, if you're watching this, can see the blue line is a little bit above the red line. And we'll, that's not that unusual. We'll see what happens. Now, the interesting thing about house races is they're really not national races. They're individual races in a local house district.

And a lot of times, the local or state issues are what really has the effect on them. But we're going to go through the top five competitive races real quick. Number one is New York 17 with Mike Lawler versus Kat Conley. Lawler won this in 2024, even as Harris carried his district just barely. So it's a big Democrat target because Harris carried that particular district. Conley on the Democrat side is pretty well funded and she's a combat veteran running a center-left race. Now, she's running a center-left race, but she will vote far left. She will vote with whatever her party tells her to do.

And her party will tell her to impeach Trump, will tell her to raise the budget, spend more money, will tell her to allow boys and girls private spaces and will tell her to be to be okay with killing unborn babies right up to the time of birth. That's what their party will tell her. And in my opinion, that's where she will vote. So think about the policies. Lawler's going to vote just the opposite of that. So those of you in New York 17 district, make sure that you're, that you take a look at that.

The second one is the Michigan district, which is Tom Barrett versus Will Lawrence. Tom Barrett versus Will Lawrence. And it's one of the most competitive seats in the country. And again, a major Democrat target. It was a Republican seat currently being held. And the Lawrence, however, has already been backed by Bernie Sanders. That ought to be a red flag.

And Rashida Taiv, one of the squad, which is, if you followed her at all, her vulgarity alone is something that make you not want to vote for her, just her language. But again, Michigan, we need to make sure that we keep this seat in Michigan. So if you know anybody that lives in this district, the 7th District of Michigan, make sure that you get them out to vote and vote for the policies that they support. The third one is Arizona, the first congressional district in Arizona, Jay Freely versus Amish this is a retirement of a Republican representative, Mr. Shreichhardt, and it's the state's most competitive House seat. And we're going to see what happens in this particular election. Mr. Shaw ran for

governor, lost in 2024. And again, he is going to vote, just like I said with the gentleman from Michigan, he's going to vote with the Democrat majority on everything he does. So make sure that you're taking a look at this and that Jay Feely is the one that we support because he is the one that's going to vote for the policies that you and I agree with. Number four is Marionette Miller Meeks Republican versus Christina Bowhannon. This is in Iowa. This is Iowa First District. The Eastern Iowa District has seen this match up several times.

Miller Meeks first won by six votes. I remember this election by six votes in 2020. And then she beat Bohanan by 20,000 votes in 22 and about 800 in 2020. So these ladies have been going at it for a while. And the Republican has won every time, but it's been very, very close. And in a midterm election like this, the Democrat probably has the advantage, but we need to overtake that. So if you know any people in Iowa in this district, make sure that you're encouraging them to get out to vote.

The last one we're going to talk about is Thomas Keene Jr. versus Rebecca Bennett, and that's New Jersey. Believe it or not, we do have chances to win New Jersey Republican seat. It's a very high-income district, very close to New York City, all college educated, and it kind of goes with the national mood. But it often punishes the president's party. It's gone back and forth. So this is a tough race for Republicans, but we need to make sure that we're supporting the Republican candidate in this. And we'll see how that goes.

If the Republicans win this seat, there's no question we're going to keep the House. So this is a bellwether one to look at. We could keep the House without it, but it's certainly one to take a look at. But anyway, those are the five most competitive seats in the Senate, and what we think are five of the most competitive seats in the House. And we're now in September.

We need to be paying attention to this. We've got 60 days left for the general election. If you want the Republican traditional conservative agenda to continue, then we need to make sure that we take both the House and the Senate. If we lose one of those, it's going to be very hard to get anything in a positive manner done in the next two years. So just make sure that you're thinking about that, paying attention to it. If you have any questions, again, email me, Ron at Ron Simmons.com. Now, let's talk a little bit about we're going to answer some audience questions in the next few minutes as we finish up here.

And again, as I told you last time, we're trying to get these episodes a little bit more condensed. I know I got some emails from several of you that said, please don't, please don't reduce the length of the episodes. I just think that more people will pay attention to them longer if we can get them down to in a reasonable amount of time. So for those of you that want the longer ones, apologize for that. But I want to keep hearing from you because we want to do what's right for you. That's our number one goal. What is it that we can do to best serve you?

Anyway, here's the first question. I think it's a good one. The difference between a mother's influence and a father's influence when raising sons. And this is kind of moms and dads. This is really a good question. And listen, I've watched this in my own kids. My kids, all three of them, have a very special relationship with their mom. And two of our kids are boys, as you know.

And I've seen it in our grandsons. We have three grandsons that have a very special relationship with our daughter-in-law. And that's good. There's no question about that. I think a mom is there to care, to show. that type of sweetness and that type of love and what have you. And a dad shows it in a little bit different way. I think a mom's influence allows them to know how to be a good person, all right?

To be a person that can care about others, that thinks about another person's feelings, which is really important. It would be very important for them as they meet their. spouse if they get married, but also in everything else that they do, to really understand how other people feel. A dad's influence is teaching that young man how they can be a leader, all right, and how they can lead their family, their own life, their business, whatever it is they're doing, their vocation, how they can do that in a proper manner. And he's also teaching them how to protect. One of the jobs of a dad and one of the jobs of the man in a household is to

protect. How do we protect those around us that we care for? How do we make sure that they are taking care of first before us? We have to be willing to sacrifice ourselves, whether that's physically, financially, mentally, whatever that is, sacrifice ourselves for those that we care for. And that's what a is supposed to do. And so it's a totally different influence. And that's why it's so important for moms and dads to stay together. We got a text from our daughter-in-law this week. And I don't know if she'd want me to share this or not. So if not, I apologize. But it was a really special text. And the text said, I just want to thank you to me and Lisa for staying together and be an example for our oldest, Justin, on how to have a marriage that's committed to each other.

She has some friends that are going through some very difficult marital times, and so she's experiencing that as a close friend of the wife. And I'll tell you what, that text meant as much to me as any text I've ever gotten. And that's really, Dad's what we're about, keeping things together, protecting the family, leading the family. You can't be the whiner in the family. If you're the one whining, then you're taking on the wrong role. Your deal is to make sure that you're teaching your boys how to be the leader.

But do it with a velvet glove, okay? Meaning that just because you have the hammer, which you can see right there behind me, doesn't mean that everything's a nail. Sometimes you have to be able to be the softer as well. And that's what the dad's role is. All right. Hope that helps. Now, move on to the next question real quickly.

Teaching teens about money. Well, the first thing I think we need to teach all our teens about money, the best way to do that is to give them cash. Do not let them charge everything on a credit card or a debit card or on their phone. Make them learn how to manage cash first. Give them their allowance or whatever, even if they work at a job, make them take out the money they're going to spend in cash and put it in envelopes or come up with a system on note cards or whatever so that they spend cash so that they understand how much they're spending that's really important and i do think it's important when your teens are young you know when your kids are teenagers and they're making some money or you're giving them some money for their

allowance for doing things around the house that you sit down with them on a regular basis and go through how they're spending their money now again if you could when you use a debit card or a credit card, it's easy because you've got a tracking system for that. But it's better, in my opinion, at first, to help them understand how to manage cash. Because when they're looking in their wallet or their envelope and there's no more money, they know they're out of money. That's the thing that I would do. And also make sure that you always teach them to give money first to the church and secondly to save. And then after they've done that, and if they have to put aside money for taxes, they can do that. But then after they've done those two things, that that's their money that they can spend.

But make sure those first two things, giving money to the church and saving money, minimum of 10% each, that they do that first. But again, focus on cash first. Do not let them just pay things with a credit card or their phone. really important. Next question is, my husband is very stressed out about our finances. I agree it's not great, but I worry it's a slippery slope from wanting to provide for family and idolizing money. How do I come alongside him as his wife through his difficult time, which is weighing heavily on him? Well, first of all, just because he's worried about the family's finances doesn't mean he's idolizing money. All right. Please don't make that mistake. And I'm not saying you are making that mistake.

and I don't know your individual situation, so maybe there's some things going on where he is actually idolizing it, but just because he wants it to be better or make it better, doesn't mean he's idolizing. He has this burden to make sure that his family is financially secure. And I understand that. I've been down that road. And so that's very important to him. What you can do for him is you can make sure that you're spending wisely of the portion of budget that you are responsible for. And then you can also make sure that you're encouraging him.

How can you be a supporter of him? And is there anything that you can do that would help that situation? I don't know what that is, whether that's having a in-home business, whether that's having part-time income come in. I'm not sure what it is. But make sure that the, that you're not, just because he's wanting to take care of family, that you're not labeling him as idolizing money. I don't know that that's always the case. Now, husbands, let me talk to you for just a second. If you put money above the benefits of your family, in other words, if you're saying, no, we're going to save this money and you're not going to be able to do X, Y, or Z that really is important to the family, then you're wrong in that as well, all right? And I've made that mistake more than one.

I've had to go back to Lisa multiple times and say, you know what, you were right. We should have done that. That was a mistake on my part. And so, guys, make sure that you're balancing that as well, because sometimes it may be that you have to do something else. Maybe you need a second job, or maybe you need to think about doing something in your career that would allow you to make more money. Or maybe there are some things you're spending money on that you need to say, well,

you know what, I've got to cut back on that for now. So I hope that helps you. And, but I encourage it, ma'am, just make sure that you're supporting him, making sure you're doing everything that you can, and that you are an encouragement to him. It doesn't, will not do any good to badger him over something like this. I feel called to have a third child, but lower income, and I don't know how that can change, worried about dollars. Well, and these are all financial related. the next one is how to handle family with spending from always saying they're broke need dollars. Well, I grew up in a family that everything we did was related to money. My mom and dad were public

school teachers. They did not make a lot of money. We had four kids, but I will tell you, everything that we did was focused on money, and it was mainly focused on what we couldn't do. And that was very, very stressful, okay? Listen, if you're in a financial situation where you're you're doing the job that you think you're supposed to do, where God's called you, where you're supposed to be, where that fits you, and it's not paying the amount of money that you would like for it to pay you, then you have to make one of two decisions. You have to say, I'm going to do something that may not be my sweet spot, but will take care of my family better, or I'm going to reduce my lifestyle to make sure that I can live within what I'm making and it not be stressful.

And it can't be paycheck to paycheck. It has to be something that is well below what you make so that you're not stressed about that. As far as having an additional child, that's something that I would not recommend you have an additional child getting pregnant unless it's something both the husband and the wife agree with. I remember after Lisa and I had two kids, I was really fine with having two. I was good. I loved them both. This was great. How can I love anybody else anymore?

And Lisa didn't push me on that. I knew she wanted a third child. We'd love to have a little girl. And but I just, and maybe I was selfish, probably was. But God worked on my heart. And it took years. It didn't happen overnight. I mean, Ali is seven years younger than her next older brother. But one day, and it didn't happen one day, it happened over time. But one day, I went to Lisa and I said, I think we need to have another child. And we did. And it was Ali Beth and goodness gracious, look how the Lord used her. I'm humbled by that. Last thing, got a rejection letter from my dream job. What do I do now? You know, I think what you do is if you can get in touch with the firm that sent you the rejection letter and say, hey, can I spend a few minutes with you to let me know why I wasn't selected so that I can use.

use that and improve on that. What was the reason? And a lot of people will be kind enough to do that to you, but you have to be willing to take that what might be uncomfortable news and apply that and assume that it's the truth. Now, maybe it was something ridiculous and you can just blow it off, but there's probably something there that you could learn from that. And that's what I would do. And then you just keep moving forward. You work on whatever that issue and you keep more forward. Do not let that turn you down. All you got to do is read like, Henry Ford's book where he had, I think, several hundred banks told him no before the one that told him yes. You know, you think about, you know, the Kentucky Fried Chicken guy, Colonel Sanders, you think,

all of these people that were told no, no, no until they were told yes. And that's the scenario you're in. You need to keep charging, okay? And I'm sorry that that happened to you, but it might actually be the best thing that ever happened to you. Very last question. Handling lost. I said goodbye to my 14-half-year-old chocolate lab last week, and I'm heartbroken. Well, I've got a chocolate lab as well, and he is now getting ready to be eight years old,

seven and a half years old, and I know that's going to be hard. But, you know, the Lord puts those things in our lives to provide us comfort and friendship and enjoyment, and there will be another one, all right? Our chocolate labs are important. Our dogs, our pets are important. but they're not our family. They're not, you know, they're not humans. They're not our family.

And he lived a long life. That's a very long life for a dog, as you know. And you can decide whether or not you want another one or not. I didn't think I wanted another one after my first one passed away. And I waited several years. I waited eight years before I got another one. But I'm so glad that I did. But during that eight year time, I wasn't ready for another one.

But then all of a sudden, I was. And it's been the best thing ever. And as you can see, he's done well. he's a master champion. He's a national champion. I've enjoyed some great times with him. And I think that you'll come to. So I would encourage you to grieve this one. Think about the loss and then go back and get you another one and move forward with that. I know I've gone a little bit longer today than normal. And I apologize for that, that we didn't keep it as short as we intended to. But I appreciate your time and listening.

I really appreciate supporting Allie's podcast. Don't forget about share the arrows. And I hope that you get your tickets if you don't have them. We are, the Simmons family and the Stucky family are super excited about the thousands of women that are going to be there and the show that's going to go. It's going to be incredible. So we'll look forward to talking to you in a couple of weeks and we'll see you in October at Share the Arrows. Take care. Have a good day.