Unashamed with the Robertson Family - Ep 780 | Sadie Robertson Huff Makes Her ‘Unashamed’ Debut & Relives the Chaotic ‘Duck Dynasty’ Days

Episode Date: November 2, 2023

Sadie and Christian Huff join the guys to talk about their new book, “How to Put Love First,” their lives as parents, and where God is leading them these days. The guys and Sadie recall what they learned from the chaotic energy of the “Duck Dynasty” era, and Sadie admits that the day she decided to marry Christian was the same day she’d decided to dump him altogether! Christian is in the midst of learning a new skill set that the Robertson family is ready and willing to teach him. See the rest of 5-year-old Sadie preaching the Word at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeXGbzWxhRY! In this episode: Psalm 51; Acts 10, verses 9-13 — Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am unashamed. What about you? Welcome back to Unashamed. We are super excited today because Christian, we've had you on a couple of times. Your old hat, you're just one of the guys. But we have never had Sadie on the Unashamed podcast. And you're here, Sadie. I'm so excited to be here. I finally made it. You are here. We had to boot Jay South the set to be able to make room for Sadie and Christian, which was not a bad thing. Although I will. say he was definitely an upgrade definitely an upgrade a big upgrade but he was he was mopey yesterday said because he was he was a little bit pouty because he wanted to be here when you were going to be on the bike i know he's been so encouraging every time i've almost been on i got sick last time yeah it was about this time last year because it was Halloween it was and he was like really you know

you canceled last minute and then i finally rescheduled and we had to kick him off because i wanted to bring my husband along with me because you know, all the fun things. And yes, this is Christian's third time on Yaw's podcast. Yeah, it is. He's one of the guys now. The last time he just, we had him on, we just did our regular Bible study and he did amazing. Oh, I love that. I love, I love being invited down here to be on Y'O's podcast, so thank you so much. It's a lot of fun. And then we got Zach from North Carolina, which Zach kind of scared saying, because he came in like the voice of God earlier. You literally did. Say they didn't know you were hiding out in our picture frame over there.

Yeah, I come in virtually. So sometimes. I'm not very consistent, but. Well, I knew it was your voice, but I didn't see you anywhere in the room. And it was like, what's the plug for the book? I'm like, Zach? Like, always looking out for the book. Thank you.

Zach is like the guy who, like, called into like the radio, like the radio show. That's it. This is Zach from North Carolina. Hey, Zach, North Carolina. What are you at for us today? So, my role, my role, Sadie, is when there's like a dead space and it's awkward, then I jump in. And I'll say something to just.

just keep it moving. So it's awkward and not jump in. Here's another thing we do now. I just let you know. I don't anticipate it today, but you never know, so I'll make you aware. So Jay's got a new toy from Maddie,

and it's crickets. And so it's mainly for when Zach drops a big word, because he likes to drop one of those like four to six syllable words on us from time to time. So he loves it for that and then other things. That's funny. If Zach drops a big word, just if you hear the crickets, you know that's what's supposed. It's not you. We're not making fun of you. That's hilarious. So I got to ask you say, the first time you'd been out here

to the lair, and I always ask people when they come out for the first time to do the podcast. So what were you thinking as you're walking through everything out on the other side of this door? It was hilarious. I mean, it was just so funny because you would think I would expect this because you're in our family. I am in the family and I've obviously come to your house my whole life. But I still did not expect this. I kept seeing Christian. Wait, where is it? Where is it?

He's like, that you're about to see it. And as soon as he came around the corner, I was like, no way. That is it. However, I then quickly was like, well, of course that's it. Because Peppawfield would not do a podcast if it was not something like this. I mean, I don't want to say you wouldn't. You probably still would. But this definitely probably helped you say yes.

No, you wouldn't. I wouldn't want to go to town. This is just kind of what we do. Well, yeah. That's like Jeremiah Johnson. He's been to a town. He's been to a town. When we were coming up, you know, Christians say,

oh, yeah, this is where, you know, we go hunting and then we clean the ducks here. And then this is all the ride. And I was like, okay, now this is making sense, you know, because he can literally go duck hunting, walk in, film a podcast. But it is hilarious. I mean, the reach y'all have is incredible. every time, you know, if I ever look at the charts, it's always like us back and forth, which is so fun.

Which is so much fun. And I've had people say, well, do you think you'll ever beat Sadie? And I said, well, we don't really want to beat Sadie. We just love being in the neighborhood with Sadie. That means she's having an impact because I don't think our audiences are probably the same. They're not the same. They're probably very different. And yet we still have this huge impact, which one of my questions that I was when I actually said,

was just looking back all those years ago, being on the show, doing Dancing with the Stars, could you have ever imagined that you would have the impact that you have on so many first girls, now women? Never. I mean, all across the globe. Isn't that amazing? It's amazing. I definitely would never have thought that.

And you know, it's so cool with God because you look back at your life and then you're like, okay, I can see that you were doing something in me. You know, I can see, you know, the Bible studies that would lead in middle school. school, how that helps shape who I am now and what I'm doing now. But of course, you don't know what tools he's putting in your toolbox for what reason until later. But no, I didn't. And, you know, of course, the church we went to, women weren't preaching in the church. I hadn't seen that and thought of that.

I did not even imagine at all my life going that direction until, yeah, after Dancing with Stars, I was kind of in this place where I was like, you know, this has been really exciting, everything that's happened for our family. And the fame was exciting, but it also was very scary to me. Like, it was a little bit overwhelming. And there's this quote from Mr. Rogers, and he says, fame is just a four-letter word, like tape or Zoom or face. I just remember you were a small little girl.

Bible verses were coming out of it. There's a famous video of that. I remember about myself. I would love to say four, maybe. Yeah, five. And it is true. Like, that's what I mean. You look back and you're like, you can see what God was doing.

But at the time, you know, you don't know. So anyways, I just kind of was like, fame is just a word unless you do something with it. And that's whenever something starts shifting in my heart, it's like, okay, I've got to do something positive. And I had the example of all of you all in everything you do, you're preaching the word. And so I started doing that, preaching the word. Which is so awesome that we get to be a part of that with you. because I'll be doing an event and afterwards someone will come up and they'll have a daughter or two with them and they're like they're huge Sadie fans and they do this, that and the other. And so it's all interconnected in the sense because we all get to do it from a platform that the Almighty built us, you know. But you're right. He said he had us prepared at an early age. And it was similar for me. In my case, it wasn't filmed. But, you know, I was I think seven at the time. And mom tells the story about when we were going through the, the, the darkest point that we showed on the movie that, you know, I had a word for mom, you know,

that we're going to be okay. Our family's going to make it. And it was at a time where she was just at that sunken low. And so when I look back on that now, think about all the opportunities I've had to teach people, to preach to people. There was an annoying early. And there was something there. And so, you know, I had to go through struggles to get, you know, where I needed to be. But at the same time God a lot of times picks who he's going to use from a very early age. So he did that with you, which is a blessing. Yeah, that video, you can actually watch it on YouTube for those listening. Oh, really? Yeah, I was five years old and I was preaching to my parents on the countertop. And I was just saying, you know, it doesn't matter who you are. God loves you. And then I said,

let's give it up for God. But the coolest part within that whole thing is I said, you know, even if I get famous one day, I'm not going to think about myself. I'm giving it to God. And it's like, why would I say that? You know, I was five years old. We lived in Calhoun, Louisiana. That's a pretty good line for a five-year-old. I know.

That's like I'm saying. God is obviously in it the whole time, but when you can really see his hand like that, it's pretty powerful. Well, I'm hoping because we were coming home a few, it's been a few months ago, I guess, and Pearl at the time was five, my granddaughter. And I guess she had heard something in Bible hour

that got her cranked up. And so all of a sudden I hear about, back there and she's like, that devil, he never wants what's good for you. You have to follow God because he's always the ancient. So I looked over at BK and BK. Starr's filming her. So we got about 30 seconds. That's awesome. So I said, hang on to that because you never know. I said she's the same age as Sadie. Maybe one day we'll be saying the same thing about her. That's so cool. I love that. It was pretty awesome. So I had to tell this is funny. So Corey had her 50th birthday party. this past weekend.

And luckily, we were home to be able to go over for a few minutes. And so they were getting ready to do a giant nitty-gritty game. They said, the games are about to begin. I said, okay, that's my cutelie. And so I don't really do games at this point in my life because it's injuries and such. And so, because I saw Christian, like, totally demolish a trampoline. That's why I don't do games. I did.

I did break a few springs. You broke the trampoline? the trampoline. He's like, you know, captain of... It doesn't sound good. No. Too many,

there's too many squats. Yeah. Too many squats, Christian. Well, there was, it was a race. Okay, yeah, I'll let's say to explain. Well, it was just kind of funny

because the reason I even put the thing on the trampoline is because I knew Christian was going to be faster than everybody. So I was trying to slow him down by having to jump on the trampoline. So that would be like the leveling, like, you know, it would level the ground for everyone. But as soon as Christian beat everyone and jumped at a trampoline, the spring just,

like, phew. Totally. So the race was like, you had to run, it was like maybe 20, 30 yards to pick up, it was like two stuffed animal teddy bears,

which was, the whole thing was kind of weird. You had pick up two teddy bears and like hold them at your waist when you ran. And then you had to run another like 20 yards and pick up fruit snacks off the trampoline and then run,

do like a loop and then run back to where two mama and Sadie were. Always wonderful city people do you. Yeah, that's it. So this was why my instincts told me when they said, the games are about to begin. I said, okay, I need to find Corey. So you left, Al, you left for all?

You didn't get to witness all this happened? No, no, I saw it all on video. Oh, it is on video. It is on video. So here's the moment, though. So I wanted to find Corey because I've been visiting with everybody in the family, but I had not told Corey happy birthday. So I was going to find her and tell her happy birthday for her left.

So I'm looking for Corey. So I walk outside. Sadie walks, comes around a corner. and she's wearing Corey's high school cheerleading outfit. So you've got to put yourself in my mental friend. I'm looking for Corey. Sadie comes around the corner. Could you sit on my face?

I did. I stopped and I paused because in a second, my mind was telling me this is Corey, but we've gone back in time. I felt like I was in some kind of crazy movie or something. So it took me like two seconds. I'm looking at Sadie's looking at me. I was like, I was looking for your mom, but you look like your mom. Yeah, he was so confused.

I was like, I was looking for your mom, but hey, it was like so confused. When I was, I was wearing her outfit because we were all dressed like mom from the different decades in mom's life. So I had mom's cheerleading picture, and I was actually wearing her uniform, and I had my hair like her, and it stopped you, which is actually funny because, you know, everyone says I'm my dad's twin, which I really am in a lot of ways. You have his smile, but it's something about that look. You look so much like that.

That was so funny. It was a surreal moment. It really was. It took me a few seconds to gather myself. So then I went up to Corey. I just saw you from like 40 years ago, 30 or 40 years ago. That was so funny. And it's your daughter, which was pretty amazing.

But yeah, it was a lot of fun. It was fun. People were different eras of Corey. The Howard's, Dad, the Howard's know how to do birthday parties. I'm going to tell you, it being, Corey's side of the family. They are epic party people. Oh, yeah. They know they all, everybody shows up for the party, everybody's engaged. They're the best that's ever been for birthday parties, just so you know. Us, not so much. Yeah, yeah, no. Have you ever had a big birthday celebration that you planned?

No. Do you have a favorite birthday party that you've done for yourself? Not really. Dad doesn't even know what his birthday is. We usually have to tell him. And really at this point, you'd just soon not know, right, Dad? That's right. You'd just say I'm heading toward 80 or, you know, whatever. I love it.

So also, I want to say before we get into our regular stuff, you guys have built a new home, and you're my next door neighbor, which we're super excited about. We live kind of in a compound situation because it's funny because my family's close to me, and then Willie's family's pretty close to him. And then, of course, Jeff and Jay's are in the neighborhood as well. So it's kind of fun that we all get to be there together. Yeah, we're so excited.

And Jay told me that he said, you know, it's a good thing to be my neighbor because I'm going to be cooking out there. Y'all going to be smelling it. I said, hey. He told me he's going to take Christian under his wing to teach you some of his grill master techniques. Well, he did. Well, I shot a deer the other day, and he met me out there for like an hour. We were skinning it, and he was showing me all the techniques for you.

for it the other for it the other day yeah i did tell jay i said look here's the thing i need you to help christian because christian you know hasn't been a hunter until this year he started getting really into hunting which i haven't had to have the um you know hunting season wife you know experience where your husband's gone all the time in the woods i've heard of this from everyone in our family but i hadn't had to experience yet and christian starts hunting and he's you know in the woods all the time. So I said, look, I'm totally fine with this. This is great. But I do just want you to learn how to actually get the meat and cook the meat because then that will make it all worth it. That's right. So Jay is going to be helping Christian out. And Sadie grew up in a home where

the mom does not do a lot of the cooking, but dad does. So it's a tradition, I think, in your family. It's a tradition. I'm actually, I was with, last time I was with you guys for dinner, Willie was making hamburg. And I think, Christian, you probably ate. You had to eat five hamburgers that I saw. This man can eat. Yeah, I think it was either five or six, but yeah. It was impressive.

So you're going to, I think it's a, it would be a good move for you to, to kill animals and to stack your, your freezer full of meat. That's exactly. Because what I saw was impressive. He's a protein, man. Let's, let's take your first. Yeah. I mean, Jay is a great teacher of all things hunting and cooking. because he's gotten pretty good at both.

Yeah, but Jaysh is so funny because he was, you know, we had hoisted the deer up with the pulley system and everything, and he was just, he was so engaged in it because it was a pretty big deer, body-wise, and he just kept being like, you know, oh my gosh, I just cannot believe this thing. So he was showing me all the, all the things with the knife and where to cut it and how to, you know, do all the things. But he was geeking out about it, but he's awesome.

It's pretty exciting for us, I know for dad, to know that, like, all this, hunting property that we've accumulated through our lives because when we were when we were first down here when I was younger than y'all you know we didn't have any money to buy a hunting property so we just were like everybody else we're hunting on public land and so part of the blessing of the almighty for us is to have this place that and now we're able to make it like a conservatory a place you know where we have growing deer herds and turkey and ducks and all that and so to get to see the younger generation you were talking about Sadie about, you know, getting to experience that.

I love that because that means that this will live on beyond us. I mean, you know, dad and then, of course, the older brothers, I mean, we're getting at that place where we're wanting our kids and grandkids to take that legacy because if you don't, somebody doesn't get engaged involved in that, then we won't get to keep this. A good example of that. It was about noon. Most people don't know this. About noon the following day, they were approaching the city.

Peter went up on the roof to pray. He became hungry and he wanted something to eat. While the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance. He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. Here comes a message. It looks like a big sign. It contained the pictures on it. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals.

you know, start adding them up and you'll come up with them. But deer, how many feet did he have? Four. Four. Four. Yeah, that's what, he's one of them. As well as reptiles of the earth, uh-oh, and birds of the air.

A voice told him, it's the almighty talking. Peter, kill and eat. Peter said, arguing with it, I've never eaten anything impure, unclean. He said, the boy spoke to him. again, don't call anything impure that God has made clean. Eat them, kill them and eat them. So it is kind of amazing that that had to be verified in case somebody in some culture say, well, we're against hunting or whatever.

Yeah. You said, God's far. He's the one who made it. You made you and the animals and told you you could eat them all you want and kill them and eat them. Well, and there's something. It is interesting that he did show that. There's something great about a tradition and a family that goes through generations of being able to enjoy something and build something together.

So obviously we have that spiritual legacy, but even just a legacy like that. I mean, so I'm thrilled to see you guys getting into hunting and that being a part of what you're learning and then to teach your kids as that goes forward. I mean, that's a great thing. Yeah, we're going to need to take say it on a duck cut. year though because she's never been so you need to go that'd be fun yes I would I would be down for the hang I'll just I'll go for the fun well most of the most Robertson women have gone once and once only you may be different but I don't know most of them went one time we're like okay this is great I'm glad I need a few lessons about weapons she just

wants to observe I'll just go be in the blind I would love see you in the sun rise with y'all and just hanging but i i don't have to shoot it you know phyllis you don't you don't want a gun say to you're not going to take the gun with you i don't think i need one i'll just i'll just be there for the fun however i would i did see phyllis post on instagram the other day about her having a copperhead like right beside her cotton mouth turns out it wasn't by the way it was a water snake but upon further review well once those of us who knew what a cotton mouth was oh my gosh took a look at but it's still a big scary look at snake. It was like right next to her foot. He looks pretty close to a cotton mouth. He does, but this one wasn't.

Ooh, see, in that case, y'all might have to teach me how to use a gun because that would scare the mess out of me. No, because Christian would be your protector. He would jump in there and bring a glass man. We have rather you not blow a hole in the bottom of the line. Which has been done before, I will say that. Well, and then when you and Jacob went hunting last year. I heard Jacob put the wrong shells in the, his gun. That was actually just a few weeks ago. It was during tail season. Yeah, that was a, that was a nightmare. That was not a good situation. The Chronicles of Jacob hunting are pretty funny. Yeah, the next generation, Christian and Jacob, they love it, but the stories they already have and the pictures they send us when they're out in the woods

is pretty hilarious. They could definitely carry out another TV show that would be very entertaining of the next generation. So I'll tell you this, Christian, because since Jacob's not here, I wish he was. Because so Jay's, you know, I always get Jay's time. He said, you know, Christian, he's teachable. I mean, like, he's open, he's willing to learn. But Jacob, that's a lot of work. That's a lot of work.

So that's Stone's take on the two of you. Well, I appreciate it. Yeah, you're teachable. I like to try to be teachable. Jacob's just so funny because he's so hungry. He's so hungry to learn, but he's just, I don't really know. he's just hilarious. There's always something like that that happens that you just kind of scratch your head out. That's funny. So Sandy, I wanted just because we've had Christians, the first time

we had Christian, we were all, and Jace was here, we were all so curious because we didn't really know like how y'all met and the whole, how all that whole story. And so we were just peppering him with questions about it. And he did well to understand. But since he's on record now as an unashamed nation, I at least want to hear your version of meeting him and like, when did you know and all that? The longer version. The longer version. Yeah. Well, it's always funny because when people ask us, like, how did y'all meet, depending on how much time we know we have, he'll tell the story out to the story.

Because his story is very short. I'll try to be fast. But, yeah, we met. It was actually a really cool thing. So I was down at the beach with my friends. I'm sure this is probably so far lining up. his story. But it was kind of unique because I was in a relationship with this guy, but we were long distance. And I was like, okay, I knew we needed to break up. It was time.

And so as soon as we got to the beach of my friends, I was like, I'm so excited for this vacation, but like I need to break up with my boyfriend because I just did not have peace about it. It was just time. So I did. Then I tell my friends, I am so done with dating. I'm putting this to the side right now. This has just been too much drama. And so I'm just going to take a little dating break. Six months. I said I was going to take six months of a break. So I say this, they video me saying it to hold me accountable.

So it's no dating for six months. No dating for six months. I was like, I have to just stop. I just need to just spend time with the Lord. And so they video me saying it to hold me accountable. So I fully intended to follow that plan until the very next day, I met Christian. Until the very next week.

Until the very... Four hours later. It wasn't even 24 hours later. Was it love at first sight? It really was. I'll never forget. I literally will never forget this moment. The Almighty might want to send him on down.

I know. I think, but I do think God, I think there's a reason I said that I acknowledge that I really wasn't dating well and I did need to slow it down. And it actually set us up for success. So I see Christian on the beach and Bella had known him. She met him like a year and a half before. And so I knew who he was, but I never met him. So I saw him.

I was like, oh, shoot. And so I told my friends, I literally turned around before we walked up to him and I said, delete that video. Like, I knew. I knew as soon as I saw him, I was like, yeah. Destroy the evidence. Destroy that. And my friend was like, no, do not. Don't even talk to him.

We still have the video. Yeah, we still had the video. And it's so funny because it's dated, you know. Yeah, right. And it's July 2nd, 2018, and I met him July 3rd. And so it was just so funny. Well, then I really did try to avoid him all night. I was like, okay, I just said I'm not going to date anyone.

He's too cute. I can't even talk to him. And then he came up and talked to me at the end of the night. Because he hadn't made a video. He hadn't made a video. He was in the clear. He was still on the move. That's what happened to do.

So he was still in the clear. So I ended up following him on Instagram later that night. And I don't know if he told this part of the story, but when I followed him, I saw that he had messaged me a year and a half before and I never saw the message. And it was like the night. I think I shared that. The nicest message ever. And he was like, I saw you preach at passion.

It was really powerful. I love what God's doing in your life. And that was like, this guy. So. What else did I say? And then he said, and I think you're the most beautiful girl in the world. Which I was like, that's very nice. So that was how we started talking.

But how I knew he was the one is actually kind of a funny story. Like when I knew like, okay, I think I'm going to marry you. Definitely did not share this part. Was actually when I went to break. up with him. I did not know that. I did not know I was going to get done. So now we've been with Christian enough.

He's the guy from earlier. You're about to break up with him and make another six months. I know. I was about to break up with him. And then by the end of the conversation, I was like, I'm going to marry him. So it was actually kind of funny because he didn't realize I was breaking up with him. And still recently. I'm still in denial.

So recently I was telling the story. Keep in mind, I did not know that until like, You didn't tell me 10 months post that moment that you were going to dump me. No, he didn't know until like months later. You didn't pick up on it in the moment at all. Not at all. Or 10 months post that conversation. Let me tell you how cool it was.

So this is what happened. So I was like, okay, I really don't need to be. I said I wasn't a good dating one. This is after our first. We had an awesome first day. Everything was going great. But then I was like, I just don't need to be dating anyone. I'm too busy right now.

Like I was about to go on tour. I was about to be in like 17 cities, preaching all the stuff. He was in college. I was like, I'm not, I was really thinking I'm not going to be a good girlfriend right now. Like, I don't really have time to come see you and I'm not going to be able to talk to you all the time. So I was really. She was going to go with the, it's not you. It's me.

It was like truly. That's the ultimate. It's not you. It was the ultimate. It's not you. And it really wasn't him. It really was me. Like, I really was like, this is me.

I'm removing myself from the situation. So I called him. And I was like, hey. you know, our date was great, all this stuff. But I'm like, I'm so sorry, but I just really don't think I'm going to be able to date right now because I'm going on to work. No, I was, well, this is how I was. I would have known.

I would have known when you were going. So I was like, I'm really sorry. I was like, I would just feel so bad. I was like, I would feel so bad that I couldn't talk to you. I couldn't call you, couldn't talk to you. I would be on the road. And then Christian was like, what? He was like, hold on.

He's like, stop, just stop talking. Which first of all, I just love that. For some reason, that just already, I was like, this is great, because I feel like I naturally like lead in situations and scenarios, and I didn't want to lead in a relationship. I really wanted whoever I'm married to lead me, but sometimes it's hard because I naturally am a leader. And so I love that. He was like, wait, he was like, hold on, stop talking.

And then he was like, he's like, don't ever apologize for what God's doing in your life. And just when he said that, I was like, wow. And I realized I do apologize a lot because I feel like, oh, I'm sorry I'm so busy. I'm sorry I'm doing this or whatever. And I never want people to feel, I didn't want people my age to feel intimidated by what I was doing or jealous of what I was doing. So I would constantly like apologize. He was like, don't apologize for what God's doing in your life. And then he said, if it's a win for you and if it's a win for God and if it's a win for the kingdom, then it will always be a win for me.

And then I was like, forget the plan of breaking up with you. I'm going to marry you. That was like awesome. And so I just like... You know your grandmother when we got together, she was in the 11th grade. And I'm graduating. So I'm a senior. She's got one more year of high school.

I said, well, it's been fun. And she said, wait a minute. She said, do you think you're going to college and leave me over here? She said, I'm going with you. I said, get in the truck. It was just like this, just like you guys. Sometimes you just need to be like, no, it's basically what Christian said, getting the truck, right?

I love it. I love the confidence of just like, no, we're not, this is a good thing and just, yeah. Which is funny because I'd still decide. He didn't know I was breaking up. I thought it was just a normal conversation, but. Yeah, the truth be told. the confidence came from the fact he didn't know you were breaking up with him. So he would just...

Yeah, that helps. I was nervous, so I'm sure I did fumble my words. So thankfully, I didn't really get it all out before he stopped me in my tracks. And then I just, like, we kept talking. I just acted like I wasn't breaking up with him and got on board with what he was saying. I was like, I love that. And now you've reminded him again all these years later that that was it. Yeah.

It is interesting that you moved. Well, you have two beautiful kids. We do. We have beautiful girls. Awesome, family. You're preaching the gospel all over the world. And I want to know how... I'm doing some great things with you, little girl.

He is. How has that changed you guys? Because, like, obviously you went into your relationship, and we were talking about the book, because you guys have written a new book, and some of that goes in with what you were just talking about. But how is that now being parents changed the dynamic of you guys, even in ministry and everything that you're doing?

Because kids put you in a new season, right? I mean, it's different. I mean, what would you say has been the biggest difference being a mom and a dad now? You want to go? Yeah, well, I was just going to say simply just time. I mean, you know, you have less time to do things that you typically would do if you weren't a parent. You know, when we were nearly married and even just before we were married, you had, you know, a nice quiet time in the morning. And you had, you know, time to do kind of things more so like that.

But now it's, you know, we were up at 2 a.m. last 9.5.30. And so we woke about 7.30 this morning, like just feel like I got hit by an 18 wheeler. And the last thing I was thinking about doing was like going to read my Bible to have a quiet time because I'm just like in the biggest days. So it's like trying to adapt to things like that of, you know, carving out time throughout the day and different situations that, you know, for time with God that looked different, you know, years ago before that. But yeah, it's been cool because we travel a lot. and our kids come with us to, I'd say, 90% of the things that we get to do.

So it's been cool to invite them into those moments. But yeah, there's definitely a lot of different dynamics of time that I would say for me is probably the biggest adjustment. It's been awesome. I think Christian, he's such a disciplined person. And we talk about that a lot in the book. Just he is very disciplined. And so I think for him having kids, it was like, whoa, you know, my routine is totally off. I am not a very routine person.

I kind of like, I'm used to living in the chaos. And I think, you know, having our show when we had it throughout my high school years, that was just so crazy. You can't make it. It was drinking out of a fire hose. It was a whole period of time. Let's take another break. Yeah, it was drinking out of a fire hose the whole time. So you grew up.

I didn't think about that. That's how you grew up. Yeah, so I grew up. Yeah, truth be told, I think that our entire family. we do kind of like operate in the chaos. It's kind of the magic, you know. It's true. But it's exhausting at them.

And I think, you know, that really is how I grew up. Our schedules were always crazy. It was always changing. There's always so many people in the house. And so I like that. That doesn't, you know, I kind of lean into that. And so having kids, yes, the schedule is crazy. And I said now I kind of have like a permanent eye twitch because I just don't

sleep at night. But this is like my favorite season of life ever. I mean, I just, I love it. And I think having two girls is the most fun thing in the world. And in some ways, it actually makes our time even more intentional when we are together as a family, you know, because I think that time is just so sacred when we're home and it's just the four of us and it's just been so who looks up to the kids when y'all have like a function like this. Yeah. We have an amazing nanny. She's awesome. She's a godsend. She's, you know, the best ever and loves the Lord and loves our kids and they love her. And so that's been a huge blessing. And then, you know, we live so close to mom and to mama. So we have so much help around us. And, you know, truly, because people say, you know, it's crazy to have kids so young. You're just the stones throw from Willie. Yes. Oh, yeah, right there. We have people all around us. And I did say we're about to, like you mentioned, we're about to move into our new house, which is so close to my mom and to my mom. my grandma and I was like this is dangerous because if I was you know living this close to my

grandma at that age I would have ran away from home every day like I would have just I would my grandkids do well because I always used to tell mom when I was upset I would cry and I'd say I'm moving in with two mama like that was like my thing so I was like honey is definitely going to throw out so I'm moving in with kK and dubs it's really funny because you and John Luke were the same kind of relationship that Lisa and I have with Carly and Bailey because you were the oldest two of the oldest child. And so you're around longer. And so that puts you in such a close proximity with your grandparents. And so that's the way it was with us. And so we are super close. And I love all my grandkids, of course, but there's some kind of a special bond with the oldest one or two in the UK.

So watching you guys grow up, I noticed that same thing between Chris and you guys and Johnny, which is really great. So tell me, tell us about the book, kind of what's the idea behind how to put love first. It's a 90 day challenge. So it's like a devotional, right? Yes, it's a devotional, 90 day challenge. And it really, it's about love, but it's for everyone. When people were asking Christian out, they're like, we want to try to write a relationship book. And we were like, you know, we've only been married for almost four years. I don't think that we should be the ones writing a relationship book. We're not experts. We're reading relationship books, you know. We actually read a lot of relationship books when we were dating and engaged and they helped us so much.

And still, when we hang out with married older or married couples, you know, we're always saying, give us your best piece of marriage advice. Like, we're constantly learning and we just don't feel like we're at the place where we have that much to give, you know, as much as we have to learn. And so we kind of just put it off for a little while, you know, I don't think it's the time for that. And then Josh Kirby, you know Josh. So he's a, he's at my cousin. He's a marriage and family. counselor and he reached out to me one day and was like Sadie you know I think it would be really cool if you wrote a relationship book and he said and I can help you I'm a marriage and family counselor

I've been that for 10 years I can kind of put in the expertise and the wisdom where it comes to relationship and y'all just be vulnerable just be real talk about your day-to-day struggles and relationships and I was like you know that's actually a pretty cool idea like if we're just honest about how we do relationship and then we have him coming in with kind of just some really good advice from seeing relationships. Well, we started talking about this concept. And as we started writing it, it really wasn't intended to be like this. As we started writing, all of them were about God. Like it was just like our relationship with God, our relationship with God, our relationship with God. And so we were like, you know, this really is becoming a relationship book with how do you have a

good relationship with the Lord. And so we called it how to put love first because it's really how do you put God first? Because God is love. And then from there, all. all of your relationships will naturally be better because love is in the right place. And so that's kind of where the concept came from. And the first 30 days are your relationship with God. So if you get that down, it's going to get better. The next is like your relationship with people and your relationship with your community. Yeah.

And it really is, like I said, it's not like a romantic relationship book. It's really, honestly, a lot of it is just practical stories of, you know, mishaps and scripts that we've had over the years of, you know, situations where we did put God first and situations where we didn't. Yeah. And things that we've learned from, you know, the things where we didn't. Like, for instance, there's, we expose ourselves so many times throughout the book of just, you know, embarrassing stories and stuff. We'll talk about, you know, I'll talk about road rage of somebody pulling out in front of me and it's, you know, I'll get so worked up. And then it's like a, you know, 80-year-old woman, like driving like this. And I'm like, okay, well, now I feel like a,

you know, a jack wagon. So situations like that and it's like, well, how do you be patient in those situations? Even like what you mentioned earlier with time, like, you know, how do you learn how to have, you know, just how do you walk with God 24-7 and not just get frustrated when your morning didn't turn out the way it is? You know, it's more practical. Like, how do you just have love first and it makes your life better? Yeah, it's like if you don't have that, would give a 20-minute drive to work.

It's like, well, instead of listening to, you know, secular music in there, you can, you know, you have a Bible app on your phone that you can literally press the play button and it reads the daily scriptures or whatever that could be. It's very practical. There's so many things that you can do that I think sometimes we can just not be disciplined at it that we lose side of it. But yeah, it's really just, a lot of us just trying to be relatable to people of, you know, there are plenty of things that we struggle with still.

And, yeah, so it's, we're really excited about it. I think as believers, we have the ultimate advantage because, you know, because we understand sacrifice, submission to each other. We understand so many of the biblical principles, but you're right. What I loved about it is because I kind of perused it last night was how practical living that is. But you have to be intentional, right? I mean, you have to make a decision. I want to apply my relationship with God and the way we are into one another and into our parenting.

And so it's that intentionality that I really liked about it. and Lisa and I are super excited to go through it because I think anybody at any stage of a relationship has to look back and say, look, let's make sure we're right with God first. Because we do our testimony all the time. Our lives changed, our marriage changed when we finally both got on the same page with God. Yeah. Because we went through 15 years without that, you know. Yeah, Jill and I talked about this a lot with our own marriage.

The biggest breakthrough that we had was when we had kind of approached our marriage early on as kind of skills-based marriage. improvement. And I love how you guys kind of flip the script on that and you start the first 30 days. If you look in the book, it's God sees you. God knows you. God offers salvation. God is your father. God.

I mean, it's every, the first word in the first 30 day study is God. And I love that because it's, it's the point of our marriage is not. It's like the old Jerry McGuire, you know, you complete me. And it's like, well, not really. And I mean, that's the problem is it. you're coming to this other person to complete you, then you've already missed the premise and the point of marriage. And so what you guys did in the in the book is, is that you're putting the preeminence of God first. And this is the foundation. And so anyone that's listening, by the way,

it's not intimidating. It's not like, I mean, these are really kind of formative practices that you can go into on a 90-day schedule. It's not something that's like overwhelming that you're going to read. Oh, my gosh. It's, it is just a rhythm, a 90-day rhythm. and a reset. So I love the way that you guys did this by starting that rhythm off with who is God. Yeah. And then let's talk about us. I love that you said that because that was actually when we first, it was the book was pretty much done. And that was the last 30 days was all the God sees you, God knows you. That was the last part. And I was literally walking through Walmart one day, just getting groceries. And it was like conviction.

I was like, that has to be first. Like that has to be the first thing. Like that can't be the last thing. I think sometimes in our relationships we treat it like that. It's like, let's, you know, figure out each other and then we'll go to church on Sunday. Like that's like the last thing. But it's like, no, that has to be the first thing. And so I literally called my editor in Walmart. I was like, we got to change it. That has to be the first 30 days.

And I was like, and I was like, and if you don't change it and make it the first 30 days, then I will on social media tell everyone to read the book backwards because I was like, you have to start with it. Or it doesn't. So you literally fit the script. I literally did. I literally called her and said, we have to change that to the first 30 days. And if we can't change it to the first 30 days, then I'm going to make it a marketing thing.

And I'm going to put all over social media to start backwards because it won't. That's the whole point is putting love first. And if we really are saying to put God first, then why is that not the first 30 days? Why is that not the most important thing that we're talking about? And, you know, we were actually, we're watching Tim Keller's meaning of marriage study right now. with our marriage group. And it was so good because they're interviewing this couple. One couple is a Christian couple, one couple is not.

And the Christian couple was talking about how their marriage operates. And they were talking about a quarter of three strands is not easily broken and just how powerful it is that God is in their relationship and kind of keeps them center. Well, the non-Christian couple hadn't heard of that verse. And the guy said, you know, that's actually a very, he said that would be a really amazing feeling. thing to have in a relationship. He said because in our relationship, the way that it works is when something goes wrong, we both do go to our outside sources, like the other thing in our relationship, but that would be our friends, our family, but she's going to a friend and I'm going to a friend. And so he said, what happens is when we're in conflict, we're both going to other things and other people,

and then sometimes we get even more unstable because the advice they're getting from other people might not be bringing them closer together, it might actually be, you know, leading them further away. So he said to think about having a third strand that is based on truth that we would both be going to center us. He said, that actually sounds like a good idea. And it was just, you know, it's cool to hear from the outside perspective of, oh, that's how, you know, a relationship with God works.

that's why that's the beauty of it is that your relationship is not you know dependent on each other's feelings or season of life that you're going through or circumstance you can look back at it and say we could be wrong but we doubt it I'm writing a book that's name of it speaking of new books yeah that's what I've done for you you lay it all out you're walking in his step and you say we could be wrong but we doubt it I love that. The book people love that. That's the title, yeah.

I love that. That's great. I love how you start, too, because the core of intimacy, and I was thinking when I was reading through your book, that how it starts with God sees you. And I'm thinking, man, think about like what went wrong, just the whole biblical narrative. And the first thing that happens when sin enters the world is Adam and Eve says, I don't want you to. see me and they cover and it's like like that's why I love even in the beginning like God sees you God knows you like you can this is like the seeding of the gospel at the very beginning of it and it's just crazy how the gospel really is the answer for marriage too it's the

answer for intimacy but it's this idea of of you know if I'm going to be if I'm going to be intimate with somebody they have to see me and they have to know me the problem is I have sin that's why chapter three or day three has God offers you salvation. And so you can start to see this rhythm between me and God is almost a mirror of a rhythm between me and my spouse. And I just love that. I don't know if you guys are even thinking about like the creation, fall, redemption, kind of Genesis 1, 2, and 3 narrative here.

But it's just all in the way you guys set this up. It's absolutely beautiful. That's cool. Yeah, the Apostle Paul wrote in 1st Corinthians chapter 1, the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it's the power of God. It's good. It's just according to how you look at it.

Yeah, having that openness. Zach, I was in my sermon Sunday, I was talking about hypocrisy because I was in Luke 11, and that's the woes to the Pharisees, you know, they were legalists, and so they were being hypocrites. And I said the only difference in a hypocrite in the center is one admits who he is. And when it comes to hypocrisy, it's like you have two options. And I use the garden as one of those. You can have shame.

And that's all I know. And then there's exile because that's what happened to him. So people just, you know, they don't know what to do with their lives because they're just living in the shame. Or you can have salvation. And you look at Psalm 51 and you see how David responded to hypocrisy. When he finally had that inward look, you know, when Nathan finally got through to his heart, he was like, didn't read Psalm 51. I mean, here's a guy who's just pouring it out.

And he's like, man, God, you're so good and I'm so not good. And so you look at those two pictures and you're like, how do I want to respond? Do I want to respond in salvation and surrender or do I want to respond in shame? And that really becomes our two choices. That is good. Yeah, and you see that play out throughout the Old Testament as well. we're going through Luke right now, but we kind of got on a detour the last podcast, we're getting into a whole thing on the kingdom and going back to some of the Old Testament prophecies.

But you read through Isaiah and you look at Israel and Judah and just like it was the same pattern that you're talking about, Al, just like it's this pattern of same pattern from the garden and we do it now. But I don't want to be seen for who I really am. because if I am, then I might be rejected because I know who I really am. And I had that in my marriage early on. I don't want Jill to see me for who I really am because if she sees me, then she's probably not going to love me. And so there's a level of protection, the level of, I mean,

it's a fig leaf is what I was doing, putting a fig leaf up so that you couldn't see by nakedness. I think that the world's solution is often some version of this, that God looks at you and says, I know you think you're bad. you're not that bad, you're great. But the truth is, we know we are bad. And I know that I know my inadequacies. I know my moral failings. I know my character falls if I'm being honest. And so that's a horrible solution because when I hear it, I hear bootstrap yourself up. And when I heard that in

my marriage bootstrap yourself up, it was just met with more condemnation, more shame, more inability to actually do anything about it. And that's not the gospel. I mean, the gospel is Romans 5, that while we were enemies Christ died for us, while we were you know, while he died for the ungod. He died for us at our worst. And so God sees us in our brokenness. He sees us in our rebellion, sees us in our wickedness. And he says, I know you think you're bad, but here's the truth. You're actually much, much worse than you think you are. And I died for you there. That's where I die. That's where I see you. And that's where I know you. And if God sees me and knows me, his first two days of your book, if God sees me and he knows me while

I'm an enemy, and he says, and I died for you there. Now, that's true intimacy, because I don't have to perform for him anymore because I can't. And he saw me at my worst, and he's not leaving. He's present and available at my worst. He says, that's where I came for you. And so when you can experience that with God, it is transformational. And I know it's progressive. I mean, I've been a Christian for 20-something years, and I still have shame. I still have guilt. I still deal with stuff, but it's a progressive healing that God is teaching. me intimacy, and then I can take that into my marriage, and now I can model my marriage after who God is.

You know, that's the Ephesians 5, right? I mean, it's modeling after the Trinity, modeling after God. And I think that's where healing's at, but we're so broken that we need rhythms. That's why I love Christian, love your podcast, by the way, because you're talking a whole lot about physical formation and spiritual formation. But this happens through daily rhythms, and I love the 90 days. rhythm. I think it's such a perfect time to reset. So we're out of time, but how to put love first, nine-day challenge. It's from Thomas Nelson. I'm assuming just anywhere you get books.

Anywhere you get books. Also, of course, Christians 4-8 podcast. The 4-8 Men podcast. Look for that, and then whoa. Whoa, that's good. That's good. It's 80s podcast. We're always right there in competition. Friendly, good competition. Friendly competition. As well as-eight men, four-eight men. Four-eight men. That's right, four, eight men. I'm not a, I'm not, I'm not competition up there yet. That's all right. Y'all are growing. You're growing.

You're growing. So, before we go to overtime, Sadie and Krishna go over this over time. I asked them to find something, Luke 15 through 18, which is where we are in our text. So we will do something out of that for our overtime segment. If you want to follow us over for a little more with Christian and Sadie, BlazeTV.com slash unashamed is where you can find that. So thank Al for being on the podcast. Thank you so much. It was awesome. Thanks for listening to The Unashamed podcast.

Help us out by rating us on iTunes. And don't miss an episode by subscribing on YouTube and be sure to click that little bell to get notified about new episodes. And for even more content that you won't get anywhere else, subscribe to BlazTV at blazediv.com slash unashamed.