91. How to Honor Our Past Milestones to Build a Fulfilling Life and Legacy

The key to the future is our past. As the leader of your business and your family, have you considered the gravity of honoring your past? Not just our wonderful American heritage, but memories of your past mistakes and successes, too?

Why would two business guys care about writing Scripture on the studs of their home or going back to the exact spot where one of them got saved at 8 years old? We discuss how building a legacy by celebrating wins and setting up boundaries after our mistakes lays a foundation for your future family values. 

We answer a question you may never have thought about before: why should men care about building "memorials" and tributes to our past? 

Key Takeaways:

• What the Bible says about remembrance
• What in the world is an Ebenezer and why does it matter? 
• Ideas for family traditions and how to impact your kids and grandkids
• How to foster connection with your family and friends 

From sharing captivating stories with grandkids to reflecting on the significance of holidays, this episode is a heartfelt tribute to the moments that shape our lives and the legacy we leave for future generations.

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Big A’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronwalkerviewfromthetop/
Wally’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinwallenbeck/

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Do you have any memorial stones or Ebenezers in your life? As we celebrate Independence Day this week, we're going to dive deep into the importance of remembering big moments in our lives, and we may even get into what an Ebenezer actually means. So with that, welcome to View From the Top podcast, where we help growth-minded men who desire momentum in their business, their family and their finances get through the valleys and up the mountain to their very own view from the top. Let's get Big A in the studio and set off some fireworks. Welcome, big A.

Speaker 2: 0:37

Hey, come on, this is pretty fun. Here we are, 4th of July. I couldn't be more excited Going to get the family together and have a time of celebration. So man, what a great week this is.

Speaker 1: 0:49

Yeah, I know, man, it's awesome we're going to talk in a minute here just like how we celebrate, but before we get into that, I have a question for you. Yeah, what is it, wally? I don't know. I think I know the answer to this, but I'm not quite sure. Have you ever served in the military or in politics at all?

Speaker 2: 1:10

You know, you and I have talked a little bit about one of those.

Speaker 1: 1:13

No to answer your question.

Speaker 2: 1:15

I've not served in the military and quite honestly it's not like it doesn't keep me awake at night. I do regret it a little bit. I think I would have liked to serve our country. Robin has always said I would have really done good in the military because I'm very structured, I like things you know, organized and kind of a methodical way, and I've got a very forward personality and so she thinks from a leadership standpoint it would have been really good for me. But my dad served. You know I have other family members that served and I know what a formation process that was in my dad's life and how it really directed a lot of the things that he did. And not only that. But there's something, as I get older, more patriotic. It's like I kind of wished I had done a stint in the service to kind of honor, you know, our country Politics, yes, yes, and we'll talk about that. But what about you?

Speaker 1: 2:14

Yeah, so yeah, for me, I think, just thinking about Independence Day and getting ready for this week. And we just had Memorial Day, we celebrated that a month or so ago, two months ago. And so just getting ready for this week, and we just had Memorial Day, we celebrated that a month or so ago, two months ago, and so just getting ready for this episode, I was thinking about Independence Day and just thinking about kind of what that means and we're going to dive into that. But it got me thinking about ways of serving just our countrymen, if you will. And I was thinking about the military and thinking about politics and I'm kind of the same way, like I have on the military side. I wanted to.

Speaker 1: 2:54

When I was younger I don't know if it was lack of guidance Both of my dads you know, my biological dad and my stepdad they both served and I don't think my grandparents served, but my dads did and it just wasn't. But it wasn't part of, like, our culture. There's a lot of people I know serve in the military. It's like part of their culture, of their family, but I just didn't. And there's some level with me it kind of doesn't keep me up at night, but some level of regret to be able to serve my country in that way.

Speaker 1: 3:24

And then I think about politics and it's a whole different animal. You know, you've you've told stories before about some some you know your forays into politics and serving that way and and I thought about that as well, I don't, I don't know if it's too late to do that. Probably not. You know, being fifties or whatever, it's probably not too late to get involved in some of that, even locally. And I've been thinking about that lately, so we'll see what happens with that in the future. But I thought it'd just be interesting to see, like, if you really kind of what you thought about about service right, as we think about Independence Day. You asked you mentioned earlier like some of the ways that you celebrate. So what are some of the ways that you do celebrate the Fourth of July like Independence Day?

Speaker 2: 4:07

Yeah, well, I've probably not done a great job and I'm not going to sit here and pretend like I'm this guy that's really dialed in on reflection of independence and how I've really set this patriotic stage at my home. I haven't. When I think about, as we talk through this, my home I haven't. When I think about, as we talk through this, some of the reasons that I miss the opportunity that I had to be in the service, I think there's a certain level of respect for our countrymen that they deserve, and I think about my uncle, my uncle Joe Stafford. He's deceased now, but he was on Iwo Jima and the stories that he tells being in that battle and the things that he had to do to protect those that were with him and the things that guys did. They were in a foxhole and a hand grenade was detonated in the foxhole so he had shrapnel all over his body and even after he got out it was years and years, multiple surgeries that he had to have as a result of that. And I thought, man, he did that to protect us and there's just a certain level of respect that just goes with that.

Speaker 2: 5:17

When I think about that guilt that wells up inside of me when I think about my lack of participation in memorializing our servicemen on this great day of the 4th of July and our independence, and I think, as we prepared and thought through this episode, it's given me a little inspiration, honestly, to do a better job. But in the past it's getting the family together. It's always kind of a highlight. One of my daughter's birthday is the next day, and so we get together, we celebrate her birthday and eat a lot of good food, and we live in Nashville and so we get to go downtown and see one of the best fireworks demonstrations in the country. It's right here in our back door, so that's a lot of fun. But if I'm very, very truthful, it's really more of a time of getting the family together and having a great time than it is the focus that it should be on celebrating our independence.

Speaker 1: 6:13

Yeah Well, let me challenge you on something, because I've been challenged myself as I've been thinking about this episode and doing some research and whatnot. So I've always felt a little guilty at times about just the way in general that I celebrate some of our days that we set aside to remember and 4th of July, you mentioned our military and serve vets and things like that you mentioned a little earlier and we have a day Memorial Day is when we set aside those that have passed on before us, right, and we have veterans day and, and a lot of times we we kind of put I think fourth of july and the military together. And what's interesting is I was just kind of sorting through all this is that I felt the weight of like, oh man, like it did, the is the way that I celebrate, the way it was meant to be celebrated. And I came across this letter that John Adams one of our kind of founding fathers, right, he wrote to his wife.

Speaker 1: 7:14

This is what it says. This is his exact words the second day of July 1776 will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows and games, sports guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore. And then I stopped feeling guilty.

Speaker 2: 7:56

Well, that puts it in a really good perspective, doesn't?

Speaker 1: 7:59

it, it does, doesn't it?

Speaker 2: 8:00

Because I do kind of put the countrymen and the military services all in one, but when you separate it. Thank you, john Adams. That does eliminate some of the guilt because, quite honestly, we do exactly what he's setting out here to encourage us to do. We do do those things.

Speaker 1: 8:19

That was great and that was literally written to his wife on the day like July 2nd 1776. So it's not like it was an afterthought, it was in the moment. I thought that was so good and that is good, thank you. Yeah, oh, it was so good. And then there is I think there is an actual brevity right there's a weight to what it took to achieve the declaration of independence. So we do celebrate and I think that it's important to remember why. I do think that that is important to remember why.

Speaker 2: 8:50

You know you think about the courage that it took these guys to pursue this and you know we look at the courage, or the lack of that, we have today and it's even for standing up taking a position for the way we believe. Do we have the courage to do that Much less what the countrymen did, you know, hundreds of years ago on our behalf? So, yeah, the courage that it took was astounding.

Speaker 1: 9:15

Yeah, it's pretty crazy. And then, of course it was. You know, once the declaration was in place, then there was the battles, the wars, the bloodshed that followed. Right Then there was the battles, the wars, the bloodshed that followed. And just a quick history lesson, I think it's good for us to remember Timing some is more important to others than others, but I love it. But it wasn't until 1776 is when the Declaration of Independence was signed. And then it wasn't until 1814 that Francis Scott Key actually penned the words to what became known as the Star-Spangled Banner. And I didn't even realize that even like that took a hundred years for I think it was Hoover, the president at that time to actually make it the national anthem.

Speaker 1: 9:56

Isn't that interesting? Like you don't think about, yeah, we don't think about like the amount of time it takes and just the. There's this weight and this brevity of like why these days are set in remembrance. And, yes, we celebrate, but also it's important, I think, to remember Throughout history. You know, there's been, you know, philosophers and historians, and I found a couple of these quotes, one of them we're pretty familiar with. I didn't know who actually said it until I looked it up, but George Santayana. He was a philosopher in the late 1800s to early 1900s. He's the one that quoted those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it, and so obviously that quote yeah right, it's like, yeah, okay. So it's important to remember history, important to think back. There's another historian, howard Zinn said if you don't I love this one Listen to this. If you don't know history, it's as if you were born yesterday. And if you were born yesterday, then any leader can tell you anything.

Speaker 2: 13:12

Well, you have no reference point. No, you don't know the history right.

Speaker 1: 13:15

Yeah so we're gullible.

Speaker 2: 13:17

Yeah, it's true, because we don't know the history.

Speaker 1: 13:20

Yeah, yeah, this is so good. And then I start thinking about, like, okay, well, how does, as believers, followers of Christ, like, how does the Bible, right, talk about remembering? Like we have Independence Day because we're remembering something, we celebrate it, but we're supposed to remember why? In Genesis 28, jacob, he set a pillar up in Bethel to commemorate the powerful vision that he had while he was sleeping there. So that's kind of like one of the first. It is the first example in scripture of setting up like a memorial In Joshua 4, where God commands the Israelites I believe that's the second time to cross the river, the Jordan river.

Speaker 1: 14:03

Um, and it just stopped miraculously. And Joshua leads the tribes across and uh, that was a place called Gilgal and uh, they were set up 12 stones for the 12 tribes. They set up 12 stones around the Jordan were memorial to God's love and miraculous assistance as they crossed right. So they set up this memorial. But the cool part about it was in later in Joshua, it talks about that in the future, your children will ask what do these stones mean? And then you can tell them this is where, like, our people right, cross the Jordan on dry ground because God wants us, he longs for us to proclaim his goodness to future generations. So that was like a part of remembering.

Speaker 1: 14:52

And then in 1 Samuel and this was interesting because we're going to talk about the word Ebenezer so 1 Samuel 7, the Israelites are under this imminent attack from the Philistines and God leads them to victory. And after that, samuel erects a large stone and names it Ebenezer, meaning the stone of help. And so Samuel recognized right the source of their victory and by setting up that stone he publicly declared it just commemorating God's goodness in a permanent way, so that you could look back right, those that crossed that path where that stone was, or visited it in the future, even if it was part of why they were going, but they would remember what happened there, not just what happened but why it was important, of what God actually did. I thought that was so cool. Do you think Big A for yourself? Do you think that remembering big moments, so, whether it's historical or spiritual, do you think that remembering big moments in our lives is important?

Speaker 2: 16:02

Yeah, I certainly do. I think we do do that. I've done it in a number of ways, not to the point that Samuel erected a stone I didn't do that but there are small things that we've done as a family. I think it's very important that we remember big moments. Obviously, we do this with anniversaries, we do this with birthdays. We commemorate that we remember that person Somewhat of a way to memorialize them, to remember them, to celebrate them. I do think it's important. There's things that Robin and I have done in the construction of our last home. There's some things that we did and some people may—.

Speaker 1: 16:43

Like, what, like what, walk through those. So I'm going to tell you.

Speaker 2: 16:46

Yeah, so it was a seven-acre piece of property. And so we went to the corners the four corners and we had prayer Robin and I did praying over our property and we actually bought a Bible and we put it in a container and we buried it at the cornerstones of the property the Bible Somebody someday will find those. And then we went to the site of the home that we were going to build and they had already pinned out the corners and we knew exactly where the footing and the foundation was going to go. And so we went to the very center of the house, right at the entrance of the home, where the front door was going to be, and we prayed there and we buried another Bible underneath the front door, under the footing, where that was going to go. Bible underneath the front door, under the footing, where that was going to go.

Speaker 2: 17:40

After the house was constructed, we had a party with our small group and they all came over during the construction and everyone wrote their favorite Bible verses and things on the studs before the drywall was applied and everyone prayed over our home, prayed God's blessings over the home, and then, once the drywall was applied, just before they finished, the master bedroom Robin and I built kind of a memorial to each other over the entrance to the bedroom and we wrote our favorite scriptures, we wrote love letters to each other, we put pictures of each other, fun pictures that we had taken over the course of our marriage, and then the final application of drywall was placed over that, going into our bedroom. So we knew those things were there and it always made an impact. Entering our property, entering our home, going into our bedroom. We knew the scriptures that were written on the studs. So it was kind of a memorial, thanking God for his provision and praying that everything that was said and done there would bring glory and honor to him.

Speaker 2: 18:47

So that was one of the things that we did at our home.

Speaker 1: 18:50

That's so cool. I'd never heard about writing scripture. Your friends and your family like wrote scripture on the studs. Yeah, that was so cool, yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:04

What about you? What? About you, wally. What are some things memorial stones in your life.

Speaker 1: 19:10

I haven't done that and I haven't erected a stone in my life. Haven't erected a stone, you know, in my-.

Speaker 2: 19:19

Metaphorically speaking, yeah, yeah right.

Speaker 1: 19:21

No, I'm just saying I haven't done exactly that, Sure, but I think the idea or the intent was like the place of remembering, like there was a moment, like you can go to that place and you can see that and you can remember. We had this pretty cool experience last year. So I, I was, I accepted Christ, I was saved when I was eight at a Christian camp back in New York where I near where I grew up, and a funny thing was it was back when you can have cowboys and Indians week, like it was. It was like the theme of camp that week was cowboys and Indians and uh, we had a break. The cowboy or the Indian, I don't remember man, I just remember there was a brig which was the jail, right. So if you were, if you misbehaved that week, you got, you know, got sent to the brig or whatever. But it was after a chapel service one night, like when I understood what the Bible was talking about, when it talked about my sin condition and the hope that Jesus gave me. And so I accepted that and once I understood that, my took me down to the brig because the only place that was quiet and nobody else was in there, and, uh, we talked through those verses and, and, and, uh, he led me to Christ and I, I accepted Christ as my savior and it was. It was so I technically got saved in jail, like. So there you go Eternal bondage. So that was eight.

Speaker 1: 20:57

I was eight, and so last year, at 50, uh, all of our daughters, son-in-laws, grandkids, went back to like that area of New York state where I grew up and we had, like a family vacation and they got to see you know the area and kind of where I grew up, and all that. And we went to the camp and, uh, that building that the brig was in is no longer there, unfortunately. But we went and stood on that spot and it's basically at the base of the hill. There's a big cross, a big cross erected next to the flagpole and the chapel's up on the hill behind. And we have a picture. We're standing on the spot where that brig was, so where I accepted Christ, and, yeah, I took a picture of that. So, like, that's a, that's a reminding spot to me of like here, you know, some 42 years later, my daughters, my son-in-laws, my grandkids, it's I can, I can point back and say, hey, this is where Grandpa accepted.

Speaker 2: 21:58

Christ right.

Speaker 1: 21:58

Yeah, this is where my spiritual life began, and it was then cool for me in that moment to see, to have them all there and be like man. God's goodness and grace. There's some other.

Speaker 2: 22:12

Hold on Before we go further, I may be getting out of the scope of what you want to share.

Speaker 1: 22:19

No, that's all right.

Speaker 2: 22:20

You did do something that day that commemorated that time, did you not as kind of a memorial, as you probably don't want to bring it up, but I'll bring it up and I'd love for you to share kind of what you did to commemorate that event to share kind of what you did to commemorate that event.

Speaker 1: 22:42

Yeah, so we had a. God had enabled me we've talked on the show before God had enabled me to build a business that became I mean, lots of businesses were successful. This one got to a point where I was able to sell it. I mean, lots of business were successful. This one got to a point where I was able to sell it. And so, as part of that sale, we had set some money aside and quite a bit, and so, because of that, we had an opportunity then to go back and with our family all there. Opportunity then to go back and with our family, uh, all there.

Speaker 1: 23:19

In addition to that, what I didn't tell you is that all of my daughters, even though we lived in Michigan, all my daughters had gone back to that camp. Uh uh, one, you know, went to camp for for a week. The other two went to camp, but they also went back during their teenage years and served there as counselors and the offices and on maintenance staff, you know, maintenance in the kitchen and things like that. So there's this history of not just what God brought me to there, but just my family being able to minister there and God working in their hearts there and teaching them, and then be able to go and give just a sizable donation that God had enabled us to do and to be able to give back into that ministry.

Speaker 1: 24:02

Yeah, that's pretty cool. That is so cool. Yeah, that was pretty cool.

Speaker 2: 24:05

God allowed you to go out and prospered you, and you were able to go back at a place that was meaningful, your Ebenezer, and make a contribution to further that cause going forward. So we need guys like you with a generous heart that are willing to commemorate times like that and show it in front of your family. So there's multiple things learned as a result of that. Like you taught your family to be generous while commemorating probably the biggest decision you've ever made. And so what a great memorial for your kids and for your grandkids and grandkids may be too young to remember that, but your kids that made an indelible impression on your children. So way to go. You know there's other ways, also a flip side, to memorialize not to remember it from a good sense. But decades ago now, I made a horrific mistake in judgment and as a result of that, robin and I elected to write a letter to remember and then burn the letter on february 23rd of that year to never go back there again. So it was a memorial to us to be like hey, you know what? This was an experience in our marriage that we're never going to repeat, and I can look back at that. And it was a time that six of my closest friends got together. We had praise and worship. We had prayer, we commemorated a horrible event and we pledged to never go back there again, because we dedicated that time, february 23rd of that year, to never go there again.

Speaker 2: 25:50

And so, for all those that are listening, we can celebrate, like Wally has just described, but we can also mark a place and point in time that you gave that thing up, and we did this for a decade in ISI, at the live events. We would have a burning to put these things to bed. It's like never again I'm giving this up. And it's so easy to be able to say on February 23rd, I gave this up, never to be talked about again, never to be mentioned, never to go back there again. It's a memorial and you can do the same. But if you just say, hey, yeah, I gave that up, but you can never point to something specific, I want to encourage the listeners today to do the same with your friends and family Commemorate in the way that Wally has said and really be appreciative, but also commemorate a point in time that you're never going to repeat these acts again so multiple ways that we can remember things.

Speaker 1: 26:47

Yeah, man, I love that. That's so powerful. I've had that experience of the moment of burning something and it's funny, you can remember. You can remember the exact like date year for you. I've done a couple of those and I can't remember the date sometimes, but I re, I remember the thing, not because it because it burdens me anymore, but just just the goodness of God to be able to to remove those burdens from us. Right, it's amazing what he can do. It's pretty powerful.

Speaker 1: 27:20

Yeah, have you seen other people that witnessed other memorials that people have done? I've got a friend that takes an annual trip to the mountains by himself to rest, renew and just remember God's goodness and faithfulness. He sets that as a time to remember a point where he gets away by himself. I knew of a CEO one time that has photos of all of his team on his wall across from his desk and he uses that like throughout the day to remember his people and part of his mission and why he's there and that he has and what God's endowed him with uh, responsibility, wise, um, to serve them and to help them be successful.

Speaker 1: 28:02

Uh, I know another guy that uh, that used the business anniversary date so, like every year. Uh, he would like write a letter, uh, an email letter, but just reminding everyone of where, where God has led them, not just like in this last year, but also like over time, right, like what. So I thought those were pretty interesting. Have you ever like heard of other people what things people have done to like, memorialize, like a moment.

Speaker 2: 28:26

Yeah, I'm like you. There's numbers of them that we could go across, but the one that's probably made the biggest impression on me personally, at which I've personally only done one time. But my friend also takes a one-man pup tent and he goes into the woods and he spends a week in solitude and, uh, part of me is like, oh my gosh, I would die if I didn't have somebody to talk to. But, on the other hand, we need a time of reflection, we need a time to remember, we need a time to refresh and those that have listened to us in previous episodes know that I've done a couple of stints now with a little bit of a sabbatical, taking a few weeks off at a time, or even a couple of months off at a time.

Speaker 2: 29:14

One of my clients right now I'm encouraging and coaching. He's going to be taking a month off completely going dark. He's going to eliminate his phone, his email, all social media, all connections, interactions. He's not going to go to his office for 30 days. He's going to spend all of his time with his wife and his two children and it's just through reflection, through prayer, through journaling, to be able to think at a much deeper level than he's able to do daily because of all the distractions.

Speaker 2: 29:47

And so, yeah, people that are able to remember and look back, on my desk I've got an electronic picture, a reminder of all my grandchildren, robin and I, and it reminds me daily. Hey, we had trials and tribulations at that time also, but, quite honestly, I don't even remember those and it reminds me that there's great hope in the future. We're going to work through these things too, and so, just kind of looking back and going, you know what that was tough at the moment, but I was able to get through that. There's something about old pictures, wally, that I love to look through, because I'm like, hey, I know there were struggles, I know there was trials, and it's kind of a memorial to me to know this too will pass and we're going to be fine. And so, yeah, my buddy, a week in the woods every year, he gets refreshed, so yeah, that's good.

Speaker 1: 30:43

I love that. You talked about taking a sabbatical for yourself a couple of years ago and then you got someone you're coaching and taking one now, like essentially he's creating. You got someone you're coaching is taking one now, like essentially he's creating an Ebenezer. Right, because this moment in time he'll remember. So do you know what Ebenezer? Like?

Speaker 1: 31:06

I know there's a song that we've sung in church. It's an old song. It was written back in like the 1700s. It's called Come Thou Fount, and whenever we sang this in church when I was a kid I had no idea what this meant. So there's, it says here I raise my Ebenezer here, by thy great help I've come, and I hope, by thy good pleasure, safely to arise at home.

Speaker 1: 31:26

I had no idea what Ebenezer meant, but so I I looked up, uh, the song um, not just for the lyrics, I wanted to grab those because it has Ebenezer in it. And then in Samuel it talks about Ebenezer, which is where the song, the word Ebenezer in the song, comes from, and so I thought it was interesting, kind of the story of the Come Thou Fount song where we hear you know the word Ebenezer and we're talking about everything like well, if he wrote the song. There's gotta be a reason why he used those words, right? People just don't write songs typically for because it has no meaning to them. It typically does.

Speaker 1: 32:01

And so I looked it up and, sure enough, it was Robert Robinson, born in 1735. So a few minutes ago, he was ran the streets of London and gangs as a young person, not really caring about anything spiritual, um and uh, he ended up, uh, through something that, uh, um, a fortune teller said to him. He ended up going to a evangelistic meeting, uh, where George Whitfield was speaking, which I found really interesting, right, his intention, though, was to disrupt him.

Speaker 2: 32:34

It was yeah, yeah, to be fair, it wasn't to, like go and listen.

Speaker 1: 32:37

Well, I think the story is told, though, that he was interested, but with his buddies he kind of made it out hey, we're going to go disrupt this guy so that he didn't get found out that he was curious, right, but God's working in his heart, so there's some curiosity of their Holy spirit's working.

Speaker 1: 32:52

And he goes, he listens and then, uh, a little while after that, uh, he comes to, he comes to Christ, and, um, he ends up writing this, this hymn, and, uh, he actually writes a letter and tells George Whitfield but here's what's interesting, I think about this was the interesting reason I brought the song up at all, not just because it has the word Ebenezer in it, but here was the best part. I thought one of the best parts of the song is that he writes he comes to Christ, he writes this song and literally the song says Ebenezer is what it's a memorial stone. So he says, here I raise my Ebenezer. So he's putting up this memorial stone that says, at this moment I remember that by thy great help I've come. So God's led me to this point. He's divine assistance.

Speaker 1: 33:39

Yeah, and I hope by thy good pleasure. So he's asking God that he's going to continue to help him as he safely arrives at home throughout life, to eternity. That's what he writes. That's what he's saying. That's what he writes in this song. After he wrote the song, years later, he walks away from his faith. I didn't know that, I was like holy cow. He walks away from his faith for a period of time and then he's in a stagecoach being driven somewhere I can't remember where the place was and he's with a stranger in the stagecoach and this stranger lady starts humming the song Come Thou Fount. Isn't that cool, it's just so crazy. And then there's a story there. Obviously they had some communication about it and God used that. God used the song as the Ebenezer, as the thing that brought him back.

Speaker 2: 34:36

You know, what's cool is the lady quoted in there. Hey, the words are still true by his grace, and his grace is still abundant for you, and he was saved by his own song. I know, and that's so cool.

Speaker 1: 34:47

So good yeah.

Speaker 2: 34:48

God's so good, that is so good, isn't that funny? Because how God's got this imagination where he's always orchestrating things in the background? So you got this little punk kid that was in a gang, goes to a service to disrupt. It, comes to Christ, writes a song, goes against his faith and then uses a lady and a stagecoach God knows where they were going and brings him back to himself. It's like no man, you can't make that stuff himself. You can't make that stuff up. You can't make that up.

Speaker 1: 35:16

You just can't make that up and you will never sing, Come Thou Fount again without knowing the truth of the words right.

Speaker 2: 35:26

You'll never sing it the same again. That's so good, Wally. I'm glad you brought that story up. That's a great story.

Speaker 1: 35:30

Alright, so we got to get closing out here so guys can get ready to plan their celebrations?

Speaker 2: 35:37

How can?

Speaker 1: 35:37

we as guys listening today? How do we as men, husbands, fathers and business leaders, how do we take action on remembering?

Speaker 2: 35:49

Yeah, I think it's being intentional, wally. This episode has encouraged me to be more forthcoming with looking for those golden opportunities. Like you were very deliberate in going back to that location where you accepted Christ, you and Sonia really prayed through and talked through making a donation. Like that didn't happen by accident. Like this was weeks, if not months, in the planning, and so I think we've got to be very intentional for it to be meaningful. I think that we've got to look for the opportunities to put the memorials at the corners of our property and invite our friends over to contribute to such a big event. I think it's just being deliberate and I think, when we're focused, when it's meaningful, when it's impactful, that the kids can look back.

Speaker 2: 36:39

You know what's funny is I got five grandkids and they're all over the board, they're everywhere. They're like running around playing, but I can say, hey, y'all come here, big A's got a story. Well, I've got their undivided attention for as long as the story happens. I've got their undivided attention for as long as the story happens and I know that when I'm intentional about sharing with these kids and with my family, being the patriarch of our family, they're going to listen. They may not pay attention today, but it's going to have an impact later. So I would just encourage you guys today to think through what it is for you, what is your Ebenezer, what are the things that are important? Years ago, I had a picture crafted for Robin and it's in the middle of our home and it's all the names of God, el Shaddai, the Morning Star. You know, he is King, he is Risen. It's everything that we can say about God and it's a constant reminder to me, and Robin knows our central focus is on God and that is our Ebenezer, that is our cornerstone. That is the thing that we're going to live out our life. As a result, do we fail Often? And it's a constant reminder. So develop those things visually that you can see stories that the kids can tell, and I think if you do that, there is no question in my mind that you also can have those Ebenezers.

Speaker 2: 38:02

I want to encourage you today to take just a moment with your family, just a moment. It doesn't have to be some ritual, but just take a moment and remember the 4th of July and why it's celebrated. Go, enjoy those fireworks, enjoy the cookouts. Listen, I eat more hot dogs and hamburgers on the 4th of July than anything else, but go online and read the Declaration of the Independence to them. Just get it out.

Speaker 2: 38:28

You know, and I'll be honest on that day, I've never done that and I may do it this year. I'll be honest on that day I've never done that and I may do it this year. It may be an opportunity where I go pull that out as well, but I hope that the conversation that Wally and I've had today really strikes a chord with you, that you'll not just be a bystander in your family and let things just go by, but also in your business. I want you to take action and create these memorial stones, if you will, so that your children and your children's children, your employees and others that are in your circle of influence can be challenged and encouraged on their climb to the view from the top.