The Eric Metaxas Show - Ken & Linda Koldenhoven

Episode Date: September 4, 2024

Ken & Linda Koldenhoven share their book: Connecting Around the Table: Discover the Power of Eating Together as a Family. https://us.amazon.com/Connecting-Around-Table-Discover-Together/dp/B0DCR6QMBG

Noble gold investments is the official gold sponsor of the Eric Mataxis show, a company that specializes in gold IRAs and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you can protect your wealth with noble gold investments. That's noble gold investments.com. Welcome to the Eric Mataxis show. Ladies and gentlemen, we ask you now to count down from 10, silently if you don't mind. And when you get to one, you'll hear one of the greatest voices on this or any. other planet. Three, two, one. Eric Ma, Texas. Hey there, folks. Welcome to the first day of the week, which this week is Tuesday. Chris Heimes, did you know that yesterday was Labor Day?

You know, I feel like I'm like many Americans. I'm just so confused. I didn't realize the summer's over. I hate all of it. I got to tell you something. I have so much to say. This happens every time we have like less than 10 minutes. So let me announce, first of all, in our one today, the great Victoria Jackson, as many of you have heard the SNL alumna, Victoria Jackson, who's a dear friend and a strong woman of faith, she's been diagnosed with terminal cancer. So we're going to talk about that with her in hour one today. And there's a lot to say. In hour two today, we have Ken and Linda Coldenhoven.

Turns out they're Dutch. I apologize to my audience. You know my antipathy toward the Dutch, but we just had to go through with it. In all seriousness, they have a great book out called Connecting Around the Table, discovering the power of eating together as a family. These are some of the most delightful people ever, and the idea is brilliant. The books connecting around the table.

That's hour two. Okay. I had to mention that. I want to say what I did over my Labor Day weekend. It involves a gigantic bear, literally, and black mold. I'm keeping it real. So I want to talk about that before we get to our guests. But before that, I want to remind everybody, one of the sponsors of this program is the Heritage Foundation.

The Heritage Foundation, they're the folks behind, I got my notes here, Project 2020. The left, the Democrats, have been demonizing Project 2025 because they're very scared of what it contains as well they should be. The Heritage Foundation, every time a Republican gets into office, they have spent a long time preparing, like, you know, here's the kind of personnel, here are the kind of initiatives that they're very helpful. This one is amazing. And so you can find Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 at 25truth.com. That's 25truth.com. And Donald Trump is not affiliated with Project 2025. So they're trying to scare people.

Don't vote for him because he's going to put in all this scary stuff. Well, guess what? It's only scary if you're evil. So ask yourself, am I evil? And then go to 2525truth. com. It's exciting Heritage Foundation. Just want to mention that.

Okay. So Chris Himes, I haven't told you. Yeah. Did I mention a few weeks ago, I discovered what appeared to be the scat or is it spore? I always get those words confused. The poop of what I was sure was a gigantic coyote in my parents' backyard because we saw this huge scary coyote. and when I saw the, you know, I call it duty just for the right. Duty, the duty.

That's the right word. I said there's no other animal that could have done this, you know, and it was on the deck. So it's like it's come up looking for food. What's going on? Well, I'm happy and sad to say that I was wrong. It was not a coyote. On Friday, it was a Friday? Yes.

my mom says, Eric, Eric, come here, come here. Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up. I run into the kitchen. I look out in the front yard in our home in Danbury, Connecticut. Okay. We're not in Appalachia. A gigantic black bear, gigantic. I took a video.

That's crazy. That's a big black bear. I have never, in over 50 years, living in a little, the house. We've never seen a bear. That's not true. My parents said they saw a bear about five years ago, but I have never seen a bear. A bear. So I went outside. Did you try to hug it? Do you try to give it a bear hug? I gave it a big hug. No, I went outside, and of course, the bear walked away. It's not interested in attacking me, but it started to walk away, and I followed it. So I got a couple pictures, and then I took a video, and then it scamper. But I thought, this is unbelievable. I mean,

It was huge, it was incredible to see the huge coyote a few weeks ago, but to see a black bear, it was just, it was just insane. Eric, I'm not a bear expert, but I feel like listeners. You're not. Whoa. What do you mean? I'm not, but I feel like you might not have wanted to follow it. I don't know. Well, it's a black bear.

It's not a grizzly bear. It's not interested in human flesh. So it's interested in blueberries and trash and, you know, whatever. So, but anyway. It's just incredible. Like all the birds, the things that we see, it's amazing. And I'm spending a lot of time in Connecticut. Now, I didn't want to forget to say this.

People ask me, what did you do over your Labor Day weekend? Did you go to the beach? Did you like, what do you do? I pulled up linoleum with my bare hands. So I want to talk about that in a minute, but I don't want to forget to say the best thing I did over the weekend. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not getting paid to say this. Keith Junta, who's going to be here in the studio today in the TBN studio. We're going to talk about this on the air.

We'll play it later this week. He and his wife and I and my wife and my mom went to see the Reagan movie. It's fantastic. Please run and see the Reagan film. You can see it with your family. Now the previews, I was kind of sickened by the previews at the AM. MC Theater. So arrive at least 10 minutes after the time, so you missed the previews. Because it was a big preview for a gay Lincoln film. I'm not making this up. They're claiming that Lincoln was gay.

Now, trust me, he wasn't. There was a big book about Bonhoffer, that Bonhofer is gay. Is the title of that film called $3 penny? That is so brilliant. And I know you're not that brilliant. So that had to be the Holy Spirit speaking through you. That's pretty funny. So you, but anyway, everybody has to see, folks, I'm not kidding. Like, do not miss it. Do not support a great, great film. Not a good film, a great film.

This Reagan film is fantastic. My friend Mark Joseph has been working on it for 20 years trying to get it made, smashing success. And it'll, well, we'll talk about this more. Okay, so tomorrow, somebody who's in the film, friends with Reagan, Pat Boone will be on this program tomorrow. Pat Boone, my friend Seth Gruber, will be on the program, the 1916 project. I'm in that film.

On Thursday, we have Kirk Cameron, Keith Junta, I mentioned. And we didn't put John Smirak in, but he is in the building. He is in New York, and he is going to be. Cracken has been released into the city. He's like Godzilla. I'm a little frightened. I mean, all of these great guests this week coming up. But so people say, Eric, what did you do, you know, over the Labor Day?

Well, I tore up linoleum with my bare hands. In the basement of my parents' house, we had this big playroom that over the years, my father kind of took it over, turned it into a garden shed. It used to be like a nice room where we'd have guests and have food and picnic. You know, I mean, in the summer we would eat down there and it's right in the backyard. And my father just like took it over slowly. And so I've been cleaning and cleaning and cleaning. And finally I got to the point where I thought, uh-oh,

I think I'm going to have to pull up the linoleum. Like I don't think you can clean this and it's just a mess. So yet when people want to say, hey, Eric, what do you do with your spare time? With my bare hands, no gloves, no mask. I pulled up tons. It's a big room of linoleum. Underneath it was like, I think black mold. Lubonic plague, moisture, it was not good.

But that's what I did. I want to be real clear in case you think that I'm like, I don't know, reading Thucydides, no, I'm cleaning by myself with nobody around. In fact, I didn't even want Suzanne or my mom to know what I was doing because they would have like intervened and screamed. I said, no, no, I'm just going to do this secretly. So that's what I did yesterday. That's dark stuff.

That's dark stuff. You have a problem and you should get help. Thank you. So I saw a bear, gigantic bear. I saw the Reagan movie and I pulled up a ton of linoleum and finished filling a dumpster all by myself. And so it was a very productive weekend. I'm back in the city. We got all these great guests.

Let me remind you, folks, a lot going on. If you're not signed up, go to Eric Mataxis.com. Sign up for the newsletter. I promise you. You don't want to miss this stuff coming up in the next couple weeks. All right. So we got great guests today. Victoria Jackson, Holdenhovens, don't go away.

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noblegoldinvestments.com. Would you like to ride in my... Hey there, folks. If you know me, you know that one of my big themes is that we're supposed to live our faith out in every sphere. It's not just some intellectual theological thing. We're supposed to live it out holistically, integrate it into every part of our lives,

which brings me to my two guests right now. I have Ken and Linda Coldenhoven, not their real name, as my guest. They're the authors of a brand new book called Connecting Around the Table. What a great idea. Ken and Linda, welcome. Thank you so much for having us. Thank you. It's great to be here with you.

Well, I got to ask you, what prompted you to write a book about this? I mean, it sounds like you've been living this life. I mean, describe it. The book is brand new, not that many people. we'll know about it. So I'm glad I get to introduce it because it's an important idea. Thank you. We wanted to write this book because actually, like I know you and Suzanne and us, we did live this with our kids, you know, eating around the table, making time for dinner. And as we know, what is happening right now to our children, the left is just trying to tear apart the family

and get us to not, you know, be together. So we saw the benefits of it with our family, and we definitely wanted to write this book and let other people know. We wanted to start a movement to have families eat together again because it could solve so many problems. For me, I saw it firsthand how important it is. I was going to say before, before Ken, you continue there.

You guys are now grandparents. Yes, we are six grandchildren. How many kids? how many grandparents, and when did you start doing this? Did you do this with your kids? Go ahead, Ken. Sorry. Well, we have three children. They're all married, and they all have two children each. So we have six grandchildren, five boys, and we finally got that little girl, princess. You know, I guess I was building a business early on, and I was gone quite a bit. And we were at a conference, and it was on getting a priority straight, making sure God was first, then your family, then your business. And I thought, surely I'm the poster child of that until I went home and asked my daughter. And I set it up good so she could confirm it.

And she laughed in my face. And she said, Dad, it's business, business, business with you. It really made us think hard about what we were doing and, you know, it wasn't the way I was raised. We moved to Florida. I worked out of my home. I started cooking breakfast. We had a blast. I got to know what my kids were doing, what they were about, what they were into.

I started doing dinners, and then they started doing homework and then helping. It gave me a chance to be a father, a real father in our home and a better husband as a result of it. So we saw the value, what it did for a family, how it brought us together, how it got us to love each other more, how we had a blast around the table. And it was something they looked forward to after we had done it for a while. So it was such a blessing for me. And we know that that's how God intended us to be together. You know, we all have to renew our mind, body, and soul every day. boy, dinner time's a perfect time to do that.

We can accomplish all that, but we just have to do it on a consistent basis. Well, you're talking about community and you're talking about family community. And this is the sort of thing that, let's be honest, we all know, it's gotten worse and worse and worse and worse. This is what I always say, this is the downside of the free market. I'm a big free market guy, but the point is the free market will give you whatever you want. And oftentimes what we want is made. not so great for us, like to have a phone so I can get exactly what I want, so I'm not watching stuff with the family. I'm watching stuff that's aimed at me at some point that destroys

relationships. It erodes community. And so what you're talking about is really taking the family back, building the community of the family. So I said it before. This is a very important subject, folks. This is very important. This is central to everything. If you get this right, lots of good things follow. So you've been doing this since your kids were kids, and now they have kids. At what point did you say maybe we should write a book about it? Well, I think with what's going on in the world in America right now. We saw the great quote from our late great President Reagan. In fact, we have it on the back of our book where he said in his farewell address, all great change in America begins at the dinner table. How true is that? You know, we are the

leadership starts in the home. And so we have to start getting our kids around the table, even if it's breakfast, to let them know about America, about God, about our faith. And like Ken said, You know, when you put God first, family second, and then your business, all those priorities, everything works out. And the kids follow. We're glad our kids are following the legacy and they're eating together with their kids. And you have to be able to be strong as a parent and to tell your kid, hey, no phones at the table. There are a lot of people that they don't have that strength. They feel like, well, I don't want my kid to dislike me.

But you're blessing your kid when you say no phones. When you have rules, I think there's something, too, about a family, there's a family culture. In this family, we do this. In this family, we do this to enforce that, and eventually everybody buys into it. You say these are the rules. But at this point, I mean, when you started, you know, there weren't phones at the table. At what point did you see this as an important part of your faith and your family? In other words, well, first you're just doing it because it seems like you need to do something in the right direction

when your daughter says that you're all about business, dad. But at what point did you feel like this is an expression of my faith? Or was it from the beginning? You know, I think for us, every morning we pray to be bold and courageous, especially what's going on in America right now. We need our churches to stand up and be bold and courageous. If you gave us a list of 10 things we thought we would do, writing a book was never beyond that.

And we just came to the conclusion, you know, we're praying to be bold and courageous. We've got to put down what we believe and what we think could help families get together and to fortify family bonds, improve communication. We've been doing this and we know it works and we see the value of it. So for us to even have a book here is like beyond our wildness imagination. But, you know, it builds our kids' self-esteem, which they need so much right now, so that they can be bold and stand up and know what's right and what's wrong. And so that really helps too, because if they don't have the direction, we know what's going on now. These kids need self-esteem or love. If they don't get it from a single parent or a traditional family, we know we see what's going on where they find it.

I want to mention, again, the title of the book is connecting around the table. And I have to say that, again, we're living in a culture where everything is atomized, fractured, individual. And so it becomes spiritual warfare, just to say we as a family are going to have a meal around the table. That has become, you know, a big thing. It's a big thing just to say that because it's so easy not to do that. And again, you have a culture. It's just a free market. It's kind of giving us what we want. It makes it so easy to not do this. So you have to be intentional about this. I sure do. you do and you know every dinner we start with a prayer to give thanks to god for for being together and for the food that

we have in the country we live in but the next question we ask uh in it's we're intentional with the questions we asked when the kids were little what did you do nice for somebody today so they knew they were going to have to be accountable for their actions and they were going to have to serve somebody or do something nice for somebody that day every day and that's what we wanted we even had we made the plates up and had us we served each other we wanted that servant attitude and that servant heart that we do things for each other we do this together and in the book we have we use the acronym for creation so c is for choice these are the tips that we give in the book so other parents and um adults can can learn from this so c is for choice of course we need to make healthy food choices our is for rest you know once you get everybody at the table

rest, relax, have fun. No phones. Right. And the more you do it, it's unbelievable. The kids do love it. And they put their guard down. You can communicate so much more with your kids without the phones. Just looking at their body language and asking them, hey, what's going on today?

And they do want that support and love from a parent. So you don't let them bring the phones to the table. You don't destroy the phones with hammers and bleach bit. I want to be clear. Right. Is that right? No, it's hard for us, too. All right. So you don't destroy the phones with hammers and bleach bit. You just put them to the side.

And do they put them in a basket? Or how does that work? Or do they just know we don't bring them to the table? Yeah, they just know we don't bring them to the table. The phones are off limits. The TV's off limits. So there is one exception. When COVID hit, you know, we were all quarantined.

And, you know, we couldn't go out and do anything. Well, we had some very good friends. This is the home that we're at now. We had dinner with them about three times a week. When we moved away, we missed them so much. We do a Zoom dinner where they'll put us on in Orlando, and they'll be down here. And we'll do dinner together so we can still communicate and be together around the table, even if we're 180 miles apart.

So it's not just family. It's community with friends, too. I do have to say. Go ahead. No, go ahead. I was just going to say the only time I have a phone at the table is when Ken does something fabulous, which he usually does for dinner, and I need to take a picture of it. Well, that's different.

That's not a phone. That's a camera. We'll be right back, folks. The new book is called Connecting Around the Table. Don't go away. So you're putting money away, saving for the future, for retirement, for your family. You're doing what you're supposed to do, right? Well, what if I told you that your 401K IRA and other investments are probably paying for,

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Go to Nutrametics. That's N-U-T-R-A-M-E-D-I-X.com. Neutrametics.com, use the code Eric for 15% off. Again, Neutrametics, N-U-T-R-A-M-E-D-I-X. Nutrametics.com, use the code Eric for 15% off. Welcome back, folks. I'm talking to the authors of connecting around the table. Ken and Linda Coldenhoven, not their real name.

What kind of a name is Coldenhoven? It's a Dutch name. Oh, no. I hate the Dutch. If I would have known in advance, I just don't like the Dutch people. I'm putting that on the table. No, seriously, you, so Ken and Linda, Coldenhoven, turns out it is your real name. You wrote this book called Connecting Around the Table, and you're talking about this is not just about meals.

In other words, this is an opportunity to live out your faith, to connect with your kids, grandkids, friends. So what's in the book? In other words, the thesis, obviously, I think, is beautiful and biblical. And a lot of Christians are missing this, and we need to not miss this because it's central to everything. But what about the food? Can you, you said that you cook. When did that become a thing for you? You know, I think when we moved to Florida and I started making breakfast and then dinners, and I just saw what it did for the family. So it made me fall in love with food and cooking. One of my things that I love is I want to make it interesting. I want men to get involved in the family dinner and to cook, and they don't have to all the time, but I do some really

fun things that to your kids, you're going to look pretty cool. I use a big clumber's torch to finish things off and to brown them. A plumber's torch? With a clumber's torch. That's what I use the camera. I use a rubber hammer to pound meat down that the kids can also do and not get hurt with. I use PVC connectors to make things look like you're in a five-star restaurant. It's PVC connectors from Home Depot. It's like a mold. It's a round thing so you can make beautiful salads and beautiful sandwiches. And did you make a lovely floral centerpiece using a carburetor?

No, but Linda. How far do you take this? How far do you take the hardware theme? My son-in-law is in cars. I might score points with that. Linda does all the hospitality and the decorating at tables. I just, I do the food, but, you know, I just do simple, quick things that can make us look good. But, you know, when you look good and you feel good, and now your kids are affirming you,

which is we all need that too, we can affirm our kids back. And that's, I guess, my part, what I love about it, what I want to share with men, we can do it too. And some of us need just an example. They need to see it. Then they go, oh, yeah, I can do that. That's, you know, a piece of cake. So that's what we're open for. Ken with his torch.

It's like torch it with Ken. we'll have our grandkids over and he can make an unbelievable hot dog in 30 seconds with this torch. With a torch. And the kids love it. Yes. Yeah, it's fun. We'll send you the video. You know how many people, you know how many guys are listening to this right now?

They're like, I'm all in. If I can use a torch to cook hot dogs, you know, why waste time? Like, come on, a torch. I mean, he gets to play around with a torch. Guys, guys love this kind of stuff. So you can, so you've gotten into the cooking. and I assume Linda, like you know, had it changed, like a fan belt, like on the truck, right? Like you're trading off.

Right. But so what do you cook? I mean, it says in my notes here it says that you cook food out of the Bible. I assume that's like figs dates and pomegranates. What do you mean food from the Bible? What is that? Right. Well, we just try to use different foods from the Bible so we can talk about that when we have dinners.

But lamb and pomegranates and figs, I do a great fig flat bread. I've got a fig tree out back. I was just joking. You're serious. You use things. I bought the fruits of the salad. Yeah, we have a salad that we do. It used to be a strawberry salad.

We renamed it the fruits of the spirit salad. So we can bring up the fruits of the spirit and talk about how important that is. Because, you know, that's what we all need. We need love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. And all that we do. So, and that's something that can be interactive. The dressing you make with fresh fruits. And you can have the kids put it in the blender and watch the color.

change or put in whatever they want. Strawberries, blueberries, blueberries, you know, make it interactive, so you're getting them involved as well. We're all about getting everybody included and active. I want to be clear, Jesus never ate strawberries, but we're no

longer under the law so we can eat strawberries now. So I'm kind of assuming the book's called connecting around the table, but I'm assuming there may be recipes. Are there recipes in the book? Do you talk about the different There's a few. There's a few. We have a lot more coming. But we didn't want it to be a cookbook.

We wanted it to be a lifestyle book and just try to influence people to start eating together to share that precious time around the table. We don't have long that we have our kids in our home compared to our lifespan. Let's take advantage of every moment we have to do it right. You know, you hear people say this over and over and over. I remember people saying it to me. when our daughter was young. And it's the cliche of life because it's true. You have no idea how quickly it goes. It's just astonishing how quickly that time goes

and how you want to take advantage of that time. It's just beautiful that you bring that up. I want to talk about cultivating healthy eating habits. That's part of the book connecting around the table. Healthy eating habits. What about that? Well, that's part of our acronym for Creation C is to choose healthy foods. And we have that in the book, too.

It kind of gives you an idea what's healthy and what's not and how easy it is to, you know, choose healthy foods. Go to farmers' markets and farm stands and, you know, do what you can because we don't want to eat this junk. You are, you know, you are where you eat. Face it, we're seeing more and more of that. So we kind of have tips on that as well. It's interesting.

I mean, I've always felt that solid Christians should be at the forefront of all this kind of stuff. And it was just, it's a joy to hear RFK Jr. talking about how processed foods are bad and we need to get back to eating non-processed foods. And how, as Americans, we just go with the flow and whatever's in the store. We buy it and whatever. And we've got to do a U-turn. We've got to say no, no. We've got to get back to what's healthy. We'll be right back, folks.

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800-978-3057, 800-978-3057, 800-9-78-3057 or mypillow.com promo code Eric. Welcome back, folks. I'm talking to the authors of connecting around the table. Ken and Linda

Holdenhoven, and if I would have known in advance that you were Dutch, this show would have never happened, but now we're into it and I got to go with it. So I'm just going to I'm just going to assume the Lord will work it out. I'm not Dutch. All right.

I'm not Dutch. I just married one. The silver lining. They're not both Dutch. I've had it with the Dutch. Okay, so seriously, you guys talk about community, and you say it's not just family. So it starts with family. But you mentioned on the break that there's this epidemic of loneliness.

This is a real thing. And Christians should be at the forefront of welcoming into their communities, their families, those who maybe don't have a family. So talk about that. Well, in the book, we do talk about hospitality because, well, hospitality is mentioned in the Bible over 100 times, right? And it's so easy for us to have people come into our homes. I mean, Ken and I love to have widows or single moms, whatever. And everybody doesn't have to be a great cook like Kent.

I mean, I don't cook. If you read the book, I can't cook at all. That's really why he started to cook. Exactly. But when we did all these, we looked at surveys and got researched for our book, teenage girls are actually one of the loneliest people right now. Loneliness is an epidemic. And so that is why we need to encourage people to eat together.

And even if you have to go through a drive-through, you know, get or pick up a roasted chicken, bring it home, put it on a nice plate, make the, you know, your atmosphere nice. And it makes such a difference. So kids love to be included. And same with widows and everybody else. I'm sure in our churches, we all know somebody who is alone. So don't let them be alone all the time. It's easy to have them over.

It makes such a difference to gather people around the table and make them, you know, hospitality, it feeds one of the basic needs that humans need. And that's to feel loved and accepted. And that's what we do around the table. My mom is 90 and we lost my dad earlier this year. And I have seen this for the first time in my own life. My mom is a widow. And if somebody reaches out and says, you know, come over for dinner or we'll pick you up,

it means the world to somebody who has. lost their loved ones and they are alone. But this is the kind of proactive thing that Christians can do. And it's just so beautiful. It's so beautiful on many levels because you learn from those people. You're blessing them, but you're bringing somebody into the conversation, into the family. And, you know, I think there are a lot of Christians that get all hopped up. It's like, no, no, this is not about leading them in the sinner's prayer, you know, before dessert.

This is about love. This is about community. And it is, it speaks so loudly. It speaks so loudly. So thank you for bringing that up. And now I'm curious that the acronym creation. You mentioned C is for choice. R is for for rest.

Can we go through a couple of the other letters? Because I'm just dying of curiosity. Sure. E following down the creation. E is for encourage conversations for growth. You know, be intentional on some of the questions that you ask. Find out what your kids' interests are and hit those because it makes a difference. A, we want to achieve fun family meals.

We have to have some laughter around the table. We have to have some times where we show that, hey, this can be a lot of fun. And it's also activity. Get everybody involved. If you get them involved, they're invested then. T is for thank you. That's our most important one is to we thank God before every meal. I invest in your family relationships.

And that's what you're doing by doing all this. You're making the best investment you'll ever make in your life for your family. It'll be something the best return you'll ever see by giving them that time. Oh, optimize and maximize the family time. Turn off the phones. Turn off the computers. Turn off the TV. If you want some light music, if it's you too and you're having a romantic dinner, fine.

But other than that, it's focus on the people around the table. And then it's nourish. We need to nourish our mind, body, and soul. which brings us all back to making good choices. So for us, it's a simple way to just remember, you know what, it doesn't have to be rocket science to get your family around the table and to do something on a regular, consistent basis that just tells them you are so important. You matter so much to us.

And it's good to have a huge big screen TV with some sporting events so you don't have to talk to each other. I got to tell you, to me, when, people have a TV on, whether it's at, you know, when you're at the table or just in general, like it's just on, I see that as supremely tacky. And I don't think people realize it's really tacky. It is wrong. You know, there's a place for that. But this idea of constant distraction so that you never actually have to listen to someone and focus and talk and respond. There's always something else going on. I'm just amazed at how that has crept in.

to American Family Life that there's a TV on constantly. People are probably watching us on TV right now. Shame on you. Just kidding. There's a time actually to do it intentionally. But the background noise and those distractions, I actually think this is a huge, huge thing in American life right now. And many Christians don't see this.

They don't get this. They're not thinking about it. I don't care if it's Christian TV on. You need to turn it. it off and focus on each other. Force yourself to have those conversations. Just a minute left. It's a brand new book connecting around the table. What have we not touched on Ken and Linda? Well, I know that real quick, you know, Ken loves to cook with the torch and guys love to see it. So if you go to our website, Connecting Around the Table.com, he can have a little tutorial on there that shows how he does it.

and you can get the book, and it's a lot of fun to watch and do that. And I guess for me, the benefit that we've seen from reaching out and loving others, we gave the example of having widows over. We had four over for dinner, and we had the best time talking to them and letting them talk. But after they left, we looked at each other and just went, wow. What a blessing to us being able to just love on others. Hey, if we lived closer, we'd love to have your mother over. Well, I got to tell you, you know, this is real, folks.

People listening, they know what I'm talking about. Invite somebody over, folks. Do it. Give it to God, see what he does. Connecting around the table, the website. Is www. Connectingaroundthetable.com. Okay.

And you can order the book and seek him with the torch. Listen, everybody, every guy listening, all we need to know, torch cooking, I'm in. Ken and Linda Coldenhoven, congrats on the book, Connecting. around the table. God bless you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Eric. Hey, folks, before we go for the day, we've got a lot of things, exciting things that we try to mention. We have friends. When we can. We have friends. And I got to ask you, Chris, did you homeschool your kids, any of them? Yeah. In fact, we kicked it off this week. It was like a back-to-school week. So we were homeschooling, but we're also part of a group that meets

once a week of other homeschooling kids. Why not just farm it out to the government who can indoctrinate them with Marxist godless doctrine. I mean, it's free. They've run out of pronouns. The government's run out of pronouns. The government has finally run out of pronouns. We told you what happened. I told you. Well, if you're interested in homeschooling or if you're interested in quality K-12 Christ-centered education, we want you to know about our friends at the Herzog Foundation. They are there to help you educate your kids and grandkids in a way that will prevent them from becoming Marxist maniacs. Honestly, this is very important.

Everywhere I go around the country, I meet kids that have had this kind of education, and they are just head and shoulders above anybody else. So I recommend it highly. Go to HerzogFoundation.com, and they have a website, Reed Lion, R-A-D, readlion.com. Readlion.com.

HerdsogFoundation.com. Folks, it's time. HertzogFoundation.com. Actually, we should also mention our friends of the Heritage Foundation. They're the ones. In case he didn't know, you keep hearing about Project 2025,

which is awesome. Project 2025, you can find it at 2.5Truth.com. The Kamala Marxist left has been demonizing the Project 20205. Yeah, I think they got scared because they were identifying like

because they're going to jail. Well, identifying qualified people that could help jump in with the Trump administration when they need to hire. You know, you hear about the administration that are still looking to staff up for programs you're doing. And this is a way to kind of help. And they're not interested in hiring Mike Pence. Right. So who are they going to hire? Well, there's other people.

So these guys are helping to find those people in advance, which really saves a lot of time. So 25truth.com is the website. That's the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025. There is great stuff on there. It was on a thread on Twitter some weeks ago that was hilarious stuff, but how to take our country back to the founder's vision. So 25truth.com is the website as the Heritage Foundation, and Donald Trump does not endorse this message.

It's actually very exciting, very exciting. We should also mention before we go, if you want to buy my books or read what I write or whatever, you can go to Eric Metaxus. dot com. There's so much stuff there. I know that some of you are signed up for the email. It's free, ericmataxis.com, but we have a lot of stuff we want to share and a lot of new stuff. So that's why I want people to go because we've introduced this thing called the Bonhofer Circle, which is something you can join. I do quarterly phone calls. There's a lot to it. But it's the Bonhofer Circle. And

And if you're not signed up at EricMex.com, you're just not going to hear about this stuff. It's a new thing. It's really fun. You're not going to hear about the exclusive VIP Bonhoffer tour that I'm doing October 1st through 4th here in New York. Actually, you can find that at Socrates and the city.com events. That's nuts. I hope we're going to film that so we can share that. That's going to be filmed.

With other people. The Greek crews, every day I'm getting more excited about this. We haven't, I think, officially launched it, but it is June 6th through June 16th of next year. And I just can't get over that we're finally doing this. This is going to be nuts. Chris, you going to be there? Yeah, I'm going to be there. I think we need to do a thing where everyone gets a captain's hat or something.

Some kind of swag. It'll be fun. Oh, it's going to be nuts. It's going to be absolutely nuts. But anyway, all this stuff you can find if you're signed up for the newsletter, ericmataxis.com. I hope lots of people can come and we can connect. I've never done anything like this before, so I'm excited about it.

Anyway, check it out, Ericmetaxis.com. You get my books there. Whatever. See you later.