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Preparing Your Kids for Healthy Extended Family Relationships Robin Jones Gunn & Tricia Goyer

What are some things you can be doing right now to help prepare your kids for healthy marriages and relationships with their spouse’s extended family. Best-selling authors and friends Robin Jones Gunn and Tricia Goyer join Julie Lyles Carr for an honest, funny, and insightful conversation about what they wish they had known, what they’ve taught their kids, and what they’re still learning about marriage, in-laws, and what it all means in their relationship with God on this episode of The AllMomDoes Podcast.

Show Notes:

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Transcription:

Julie [00:00:15] Today on the All Mom Does podcast, I have two alums to the podcast. I got to interview each of them separately originally, and now they are making up a power team. I’m excited today to have Robin Jones Gunn and Tricia Goyer on. Thanks so much for returning to the podcast. I really appreciate it.

Robin [00:00:33] Thank you. And glad to be here, let me tell you.

Julie [00:00:35] All righty. I am going to talk to Rebecca and make sure that she gets your previous episodes back into the show notes. She does an incredible job with show notes each and every week, so listeners can check that out. But first, I want you guys to reintroduce yourselves in this newest season of life. Robyn, the last time I talk to you, you were living in Hawaii. You’ve made a big move in the last couple of years. Where are you now and how would a listener know? You give a little bit of your of your resumé.

Robin [00:01:02] We moved to Southern California about two years ago. We’re closer to family here and I’m still writing. I have been for many years, started with some children’s books and then the Christy Miller series for teens that are still selling, which is a God thing in and of itself. And I hear from 12 year old girls just about every week how these books are drawing them closer to the Lord, and they’re making good choices based on the characters. So kind of amazing. Very amazing. But then I also wrote novels for women and some nonfiction and devotions. Little bit of everything. I’m still writing novels than nonfiction have a book coming out with Tricia that we’re going to talk about that we’re pretty excited about because it’s sort of a companion to a book that we wrote a number of years ago. I also do a podcast, by the way, this is new. I do a podcast called Women Worth Knowing. I’m a co-host with Cheryl Brodersen. We talk about women who just ordinary women and God used them in extraordinary ways. It’s been really fun. As you know, those podcasts can really get in your blood.

Julie [00:02:14] They really, really can. I’m so excited to hear you’re doing that. That will congratulations on that. So lots of big changes that you’ve been going through and also so great that the work that you’ve produced is still out there and still is finding an audience and all those good things. That’s just amazing. That’s got to feel really fulfilling. Okay, Tricia, one of the most prolific writers I know, you also do all this genre hopping and all the things introduce the listener to you.

Tricia [00:02:40] Yeah, I am been married to Jon for over 30 years. We have ten children from the ages of 33 all the way down to 12. I’m a homeschooling mom, so I’ve been doing that for many, many years and everyday still homeschooling, doing those math worksheets, all the things. And then I write fiction and nonfiction children’s. I’m like, Robin, I love, I love it all. And Robin was one of my very first mentors when I showed up at a writers conference at 22 wanting to be an author. She was just so encouraging and sweet, and it’s wonderful that we could have right now. And I this year started a daily podcast.

Julie [00:03:21] Daily podcast? Robin, now she’s just showing out.

Robin [00:03:23] She didn’t have enough to do already.

Julie [00:03:26] Okay. Tell us how much more awesomeness you have. Go ahead. I know, I know.

Tricia [00:03:32] Yeah, No, it’s the Daily Bible podcast with my friend Michelle Hill, who I met. She was at Family Life. She had her own radio program there. And we’re reading through the Bible together and talking about it. And it has really it’s been great for me getting into God’s Word. It’s not just let me sit down and get my 5 minutes entertainment. It’s, I have to talk about this every day. So we’re going to we’re really going to get into it. I love it.

Julie [00:03:56] That is a hardcore level of accountability. I love an every day podcast and I’m very impressed. Once a week keeps me on my toes so that you’re going every day. Amazing. Now, Robin, tell me you’ve collaborated with several authors in the past and you and Tricia have had projects before. What made you pursue a collaborative type writing environment? Because of course you’re so prolific on your own and all of the work that you’ve done. What is it in the collaborative relationship that appealed to you?

Robin [00:04:25] Well, I think it was God’s idea, honestly, because each time it was very specific and it was a person that I knew well, and there was just this sort of deep calls to deep fun that idea or the project we thought let’s just try and see what happens. So, especially with Tricia, because the first book that we wrote together was called Praying for Your Future Husband. And I love how that started? Because we were together at a retreat. We had afternoon break, we’re lying by the pool. Tricia fell asleep in her lounge chair. I’m journaling and just, you know, Lord, I’m here to just listen to You. Tricia woke up, looked at me and said, “We should write a book together.” And I said, “Okay, what?” She said, “I have no idea.” And she went back to sleep.

Tricia [00:05:15] It’s so true.

Robin [00:05:16] But then amazing things happened that led us to believe this is what we’re supposed to write. Praying for your Future husband. And the subtitle is Preparing Your Heart for His. So after that book came out, it’s just been over evergreen for well over a decade. And so the publisher circled back and said, “Didn’t you have some other ideas of books to do together?” And we said, “Yes!” We wanted to do this sort of prequel because before you start praying for your future husband, we wanted to write a book before you meet your future husband so that we could help young women get on the right track with their thinking and in their heart, their relationship with the Lord. And our publisher said, “Go for it.” And so we did.

Julie [00:06:04] I love that. I love that. And yes, you have a new project you’ve done together called Before You Meet your Future Husband. As you said, which is the prequel. Part of what I love about that is I got to say myself, I was like, Hey, God, here’s my list of what I want down to hair color, eye color build, you know, And of course, things like, you know, their moral stance and, you know, just little things like that, too. But for sure, there were definitely these things that I was approaching God with a list. And now, however many years into marriage that I am Tricia, you and I have a similar you know, my oldest is 32, almost 33. My babies are 15 and we’ve got eight. So, you know, we’ve had a similar path in that. And here we are this many years later, all these kids and now all these kids getting married and on and on. And I think, huh, you know, it is interesting how I presented God with a list and how in some ways I guided my kids to have a list. And I didn’t always take that pause and say, Who do I need to be? Who do my kids need to be before they go align their lives with someone for life? So, Tricia, what are some of the things that you thought about as you began approaching this project? About how on earth do we make sure that we are the people that we have done the work and we have gained the maturity before we even start putting together a list or praying over that list? How do you think we’re to evaluate and who do we think we are to be when it comes to really being ready for something like a commitment to marriage?

Tricia [00:07:34] Yeah, And I think my story goes back and it’s like the foundation of everything I write because I did everything out of order. I became sexually active very young. Even though I had grown up. My mom became a Christian, was in second grade. I grew up in church, but a very, very young Christian. My stepdad wasn’t a Christian, so not a lot of great examples or teaching or training became sexually active at a young age, got pregnant at 15 and had an abortion because I was so ashamed. And so God has brought a lot of healing from that. I had my son at 17, so I was a single mom, but it was during that pregnancy that I dedicated my life to God and I said, “God, I have messed up. If you can do anything with my life, please do.” And that’s when I started, as you know, five months pregnant, 17 year old reading my Bible and praying and praying for my future husband. So I started preparing myself as a pregnant teenager. I didn’t have any foresight. So really, you know, I know there’s young women that will approach this book and other books that, you know, have been thinking and praying, and they’ve had that education and they’ve had that training and they have that foundation. But for those young women who maybe have made mistakes, do not have a Christian home, do not have a biblical foundation, really a lot of what Robin and I share is what does that even look like to have a clean heart, to be able to take our thoughts captive, to be able to, you know, let God point out areas in our lives that we need to maybe do things a little bit differently. I had to learn a lot of things to do differently. And God was so faithful. He brought John. We started dating him when Corey, my older son was two weeks old. I mean, God answered my prayers and amazing ways, and we’ve been married ever since. But what if it doesn’t happen like that? And what if you have to wait? And what if he doesn’t look like the list? And so really, we have questions that we want the girls to ponder. This book isn’t about giving them all the answers. It’s about them pausing and saying, What questions do I have? What is God speaking to me? How can I prepare? Because every single young woman who picks up this book is going to come from a different place. We can’t give a prescribed answer for all of them. So just like me and Robin, our stories were so different. And so where does God need to meet each person individually? And that’s really our hope when they pick up this book.

Julie [00:09:55] Right. Tricia, I love that you’re always so transparent to share and interviews what your background was. In your case, it’s so clear why you wouldn’t even have known where to begin when it came to trying to put together some kind of godly marriage. You know what’s interesting for me, in my case, I was raised in a Christian home. I’m thankful for that. I went to a Christian university. Here’s what’s interesting. I just assumed I knew what I was supposed to do because I had this background. And I can tell you now, this many years in the marriage, in staying in touch with various people that I’ve known through the years and through the journeys of our walks, Wow, We’re hitting those seasons, right? They talk about the seven year itch, but I’m sure you all know, and I certainly do, people who are hitting the 30, 32, 33, 35 year itch, and I’m seeing marriages that were based on Christian homes, met at a Christian university, seemed to be walking out life in the same way that are now blowing up. And it’s still a surprise. And it’s not I don’t say that from a perspective of can you believe it? I mean, humbling, like, wow, you can think you’ve got all the building blocks together and it doesn’t necessarily mean you really know what you’re doing. Robin, How can we do that check with our own kids as we’re trying to guide them into making these kinds of decisions? Asking the right questions with our daughters in our homes, in a world that is increasingly more and more biblically illiterate, more and more rejecting even those who are raised in faith environments to say, Well, I don’t really think there’s such a thing as sin or on and on. How are we supposed to prepare young women today to even know what to look for when the mark seems to be shifting all the time, even within, if you’ll forgive the phrase, but even within the Christian zeitgeist. I mean, it just doesn’t even seem to be a target. So, Robin, what have you been able to pull through in putting together this project that you’ve noticed about what can remain constant?

Robin [00:11:49] Well, you really hit on it, Julie, that the attack, the opposition is greater than ever. And so where we started with this book, Tricia and I broke it down into three areas of every young woman’s life, every old woman’s life, which was first the heart and the head and then the hand. So we wanted to go, okay, let’s pull back from all that influence that’s coming at you and just look at what’s going on in your own heart. What is in there that needs to be released and forgiven and cleaned out so that there is space for God’s Word to get roots down and grow in there and the truth to really get established. And then what’s going on in your head? Like, where is your Disney image of Princess you and what are you really or what are the things that you’re thinking about? And it goes back to your list. Julie Like, here’s the list like this, just to help you out God, this is all I want, you know? But rather, to take those thoughts captive and to let the Lord renew our minds and to really direct us, give us wisdom. And then the hand section is what? What do you have in your hand right now? What are you good at? What are you sensing that this is something that God made you in a special way to do this? Develop that, be about that, do that as your focus rather than. All that matters is that I get the right guy and then my life will begin. Oh, it’s happening right now. So how that plays out as we get older is taking those times to pull back and reflect what what is going on in my heart? Have I stored so much bitterness against my husband that now is just a wall or is my head taken? And all these thoughts? Or what if I did contact that old boyfriend from high school or whatever, you know? And what is it that’s in your hand that at whatever stage in marriage, are you using it as a weapon or a tool of love? And I’ve been married 46 years and it’s hard. And I know that there’s so many different seasons where you could go, That’s it. Like I really tried. Nobody would blame me, you know? But it’s so worth it to just be faithful and to really allow God’s spirit to control and to lead you.

Julie [00:14:34] I think one of the things that I see that’s so interesting today is to your point, Robin, this place that within marriage, I know we say it, hey, marriage is hard. And I understand when people hit the point where they’re like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it. And two year olds are terrible and I don’t want to speak some kind of notion over young marriages. Hey, you guys just be ready, You know, the jaded, whatever. But I do think that it’s interesting I think Hollywood over romanticizes right relationships but I think we’ve been in danger of doing it within our faith communities as well. And because of that, I’ve seen people who’ve gone in very, you know, dewy cheeked and starry eyed that it’s going to be so fantastic because we are so aligned in all these ways. We have our faith together. We served on that mission trip together. It’s going to be fine if we just follow Jesus, it’s going to be fine. And they then discover and reality hits and it is tougher than we think. Tricia, how do we do the work of helping prepare our kids for what marriage is without coming off like it’s horrible, horrific and a drag. But at the same time say, really, you got to really think about, is this something that you’re built for? You know, something I really admire in people as people who say, I don’t think I was built for marriage. And so often I think we’ve equated that to sexual activity, you know, well, if you want this, then you have to be married. I sometimes think we haven’t left room for people who are saying, I’m not sure, I want to honor God. I don’t know how that’s all going to work out. But am I really the kind of person who’s ready to live in that sacrificial place that marriage requires? Tricia, how do you guide someone to really even do that inner work and to try to somehow sound strange but disconnect it to some degree from that, wanting to be sexually pure before God and yet at the same time going off I’m not only that outside of marriage, but I want to do this and I better get married. But are you really ready? So how do you how do you unpack all of that? That is a really complex question. I’m sure you have an answer in five words or less. Go.

Tricia [00:16:48] Well, I don’t know about five words and less, but I have five unmarried daughters right now. So these are conversations that are happening daily in time. And It’s almost like the pendulum of no marriage is wonderful. Like, look at your dad and I, we just love each other because sometimes they’re like, I’m never going to get married. Like, it’s just negative, negative towards marriage. And then other times it’s like one daughter said, If my husband doesn’t cry when I’m coming down the aisle, I’m going to turn around and march out. And I’m like, Oh, my word. You see, it’s whatever videos they’ve seen or whatever movies they’ve seen or whatever, even in, you know, even in sweet romances, which I write. And it’s like, okay, now these are sweet, but this is fiction. Like you’re able to wrap up the whole story and just having these conversations that what is reality? Reality is sometimes I don’t feel like talking to your dad and he really makes me mad, but he’s committed to me and I’m committed to him. It’s having those conversations almost on a daily basis. One things I do with my daughters is try to take them away, you know, just overnight or to lunch and just what’s going on. What are you thinking about and giving them space? You know, I took two of my daughters. They’re they’re 12 and 15 away for a weekend. And it probably was like one and a half hours of conversation over two days because it’s just that time together if you need time. To get them comfortable. Then they’ll finally ask the question that they’ve been wanting to ask for the last day and a half. But we have to be in relationship with people. We have to have conversations with them and we need to show like it’s not always easy, but then it’s worth it and our oldest son actually got married. They were both 20 and they both, you know, save themselves until marriage. They did everything right. And then seven years into the marriage, we didn’t know at the time but had an affair with someone at work and left him. And we honestly, like didn’t know she didn’t come home one night. We thought was she kidnaped like what was going to happen? We had no idea because it was, again, this marriage that you see, this is this is exactly how it’s supposed to work out. You know, they both love God. They’re both from Christian families. They both do these things. And I still I love her. She still in my life now. We have two kids, but we also had to face like, what if someone makes wrong choices and walking through those situations and now he’s remarried and I love his wife. But I think so many times we think, okay, everything was great. They saved themselves until marriage. They had this perfect wedding, and then we’re just good to go from here. We don’t have to worry about it. But I think, again, like I talk about relationships in those conversations, looking back now, we need to keep having those types of conversations going even through marriage, even for someone who’s married seven years or with our friends, or just encouraging other people to share what is going on, because it’s when we want to hide, when we don’t want to share what’s going on. We didn’t want to share that. Oh, I really think that guy, that co-worker’s handsome, that that’s where the devil’s able to come in and speak those lies to us. And so having conversations, talking about these things, being realistic when we talk with our own kids really makes a big difference.

Julie [00:20:13] I think that’s so powerful. And, you know, one of the things that we’ve talked actively for, well, three of our kids are married and one’s about to get married, so we are all in that stage. If you guys need any wedding decorations, they’re all out in the garage. I just keep recycling. I’m like, How about we just use the same color scheme? How about the same bridesmaids dresses? We can just keep going and going. But one of the things that I can remember, my kids sort of being shocked when I said this to them, and yet I think it’s so important to say, especially in faith spaces where we’re supposed to value marriage as not just a temporal arrangement or a legal arrangement, but as a covenantal agreement. And I can remember saying to one of my kids, some of our kids, you know, it’s not that once you get married, you’re never attracted to anyone else again or you’re never aware of the other options that could have been out there or the other kind of life you could have had. Because in many ways, I think within our faith spaces, as we’ve said before, we romanticize to a place that you’re right, Tricia. We feel like if we can just get him across this finish line, that’s the race. Ta-Da! We did it. And yet that’s just the beginning and the investment that we need to make, both as man ladies, I guess we’re the elders now, right? Like I’m still kind of I mean, I still like, how did this happen? I certainly should not be in charge of anything. I don’t know how this happened, but here we are. But to be engaging in those conversations that are honest and really can help direct and just be clear about what you’re agreeing to. Robin, guide us in something that I think is really interesting. I know that with all three of us in publishing, we’ve seen a lot of trends where we’ve been talking into women’s ears and their eyeballs on the printed page about understanding that they are worthy, that they are loved, that they are enough. And yet part of what I see grow out of that sometimes is almost a sense of therefore my spouse, my potential spouse, my future spouse must love me exactly as I am. I never have to change. I should never have to compromise. I should be able to be exactly this. And I’m seeing some interesting challenges on both sides of that. People who are trying to really be malleable in a marriage to where they completely lose who they are and what makes them unique before God. And they just it just kind of evaporates all the way to feeding concrete. This is exactly who I am. I will not compromise because God says I’m worthy and I’m His kid and I don’t have to change anything. So, Robin, how are you navigating what I feel like are the two extremes, not just in our faith communities, that in our culture today, people who have zero boundaries and are just doing everything they possibly can to almost not in a aggressive way, but almost like Catfish who they are. Like I can be whatever you need me to be, I can be whatever all the way to. I will not compromise. I will not change. How do you speak into that?

Robin [00:23:09] We actually in the book have the same kind of foundation where each section we were doing, we thought we have to take them back to the Word, that’s it. We have to go back to see what God says and we have to humble ourselves before Him. And this is pretty much in opposition of how our culture is today, where we sort of pick an identity or become this brand or whatever we we label ourselves with and identify with whatever group. And then we just…I see it so often where it’s like, I’m just going to really drill down and make that my who I am. And rather than pulling back and looking at God’s Word as the guideline. I recently had a long conversation with a small group of women in their thirties, 20 late twenties, thirties, and just ask, So how many of you have like read through the Bible the whole way or read your Bible constantly? And they kind of looked around and it’s like, Well, I read this one devo online, and it’s really good. And I just felt like you’re skimming the surface of what so rich and so deep and will answer all those questions for you. But your identity has locked on to something else, and then you’re just trying to verify that identity and get that affirmation from others instead of just un latching from that and going back to God’s Word. So in the book, when we put the subtitle as 30 questions and 30 prayers, that’s what we thought. This is how we’re going to direct young hearts, young women to you got to ask these questions. And if you’re in a study group with this, you need to ask each other these questions. Where are you connected and where are you focused? Is it on the Lord? Drawing all your identity, your strength, your purpose from Him? And so those 30 questions, or if you’re doing it on your own time, to be honest, honey. And then 30 prayers because that’s the first step to to re connect. Our daughter is now in she’s in her late thirties. Well, I distinctly remember maybe it’s been almost ten years now when all of this you’re enough. And I just looked at her one day and she was having a bad day and said, “You’re not enough. Jesus says, you are more than you are more than a conqueror in Him who loved you and made you. You look at Him, He’s made you exactly who you are, and He will accomplish His purposes in your life.” And it was just a beautiful shifting of like, Oh, that’s my focus. That’s I’m more than a conqueror. I don’t have to be enough. You’re not. You’re a sinner like the rest of us. But in Christ be written Word, He’ll tell you. You’re worth it. It’s beautiful.

Julie [00:26:21] Yeah. I think that the little change of word is so important because it does refocus and release us from the sense that we have to somehow achieve enough, but then lean into working with God so that we are in that place of being more than. Tricia, I can already hear, and this would be my question if I was in the ages and stages of preparing to date and thinking about marriage, if I could get in that, you know, in that time machine and go back but somehow end up in 2023. I think one of the things that would really be confusing to me in this era, which honestly I didn’t think a lot about at the time, I was not raised in the Bible Belt. I was raised in a Christian home, but raised in areas that were not Bible belt heavy. And for me, the idea of when I came into those ages and stages of dating and preparing for marriage, the answer was very simple. You just go to the Christian college of your denominational heritage, and there you find the, you know, inbreeding program to find the people like you who’ve been raised like you with the same rules. And that’s how you navigate. We don’t live in that world for the most part anymore. And two of my kids met their spouses online, which is a whole other world. Very fascinating. And it’s really been a beautiful thing to see how God has brought these two people together. But I have to think if I’m working through the questions of I’m working through the prayers, there’s got to be this place in my head, either as the parent of someone in those ages and stages or as the person walking through it. Okay, great. I’m becoming who I’m supposed to be, and then I’m going to get to the next book and I’m going to pray over who this person is that I’m hoping comes into my life. Where exactly am I supposed to be looking for this person? Because the ratios don’t seem great right now. So what are some things that you’re seeing in your work with young women and in that, I mean, bad places to look, good places to look, how to get out of God’s way. But at the same time, I’ve also seen young women who are not proactive and they’re just kind of taking this, you know, posture where they’re not even trying to date. And that’s probably not going to do much. So where do you live in all of that right now when you are mentoring young women?

Tricia [00:28:43] Yeah, I was skipping the book and that’s one devotion that I pause on because there are some that are like, yes, where is he? I’m going to look every single place and we’re going to go to all those places and we’re going to download this app. And then there’s those that are so frightened there. They know that’s a scary world out there. And in my again, in my own family and with the girls that I connect with, we have both of those. And for some of them, I will say you do not need to be on the dating app because I know their personalities. I know that they’ll see that handsome face and that they’ll just forget. That was like me in high school. Like, he’s so handsome. Well, he didn’t have faith. Like, it was so completely. So there’s some I’m like, You definitely don’t need to be on these apps because I know their personalities. Others, I say, you know, maybe there’s these wonderful Christian apps you should look because they’re so timid in trying to get out there. And so I really think the personality of the person, you need to consider that. My oldest son has his new wife they’ve been new like they’ve been married for years, but they met on this app and they are both strong Christians and it’s been a really good relationship and that is kind of the world today. I also have a 28 year old. He is single and he is like, there’s not girls at church his real age. And then he spent so much time with our family and, you know, just praying for him, like, Lord, let him be bold. And just a couple weeks ago, he started going to a different church in our town that has a singles group that was large, like he was talking like over a hundred young people there. And he’s so excited about going back. So, you know, whether it is on apps, whether it is in different churches, you kind of have to almost look even outside of your little circle sometimes into what is out there. And then there’s for those really timid ones, just encouraging that. My 18 year old just got asked on her first date. And I’m like, tell me about the guy. She’s like, Well, he’s home schooled. He’s in 4H, he’s in Civic Air Patrol, his family are pastors in this church, and he wants to take me to the zoo. And I’m like, you know what? Even if you’re not attracted to him, I think this is a good idea. Like, go to the zoo, know what it’s like to walk around like, so I’m encouraging them, even if it might not be someone you think like, Oh, yeah, I want to date him. Get that opportunity to go out and make connections with people. Because again, we get so used to just being what young people with their devices in front of them, they don’t know how to interact. And she’s like, he was so polite. He paid for me at the zoo. We carried on great conversation and it was like, they need that. They need not just to be behind the app, but maybe venture out into a different churches, youth group or singles group or people that, you know, just go out as friends. And I think that will get them more comfortable. But it is a completely different world than just the the Christian colleges and, you know, people that are out of college. It’s like, where do I go? Where do I look? And I think it does it takes prayer and it takes God opening those doors. One of my friends, we just drove 12 hours to her wedding. She just got married for the first time at 48 and they met on an app. But just being there and seeing that God, she’s been wanting to be married for so long and God answered those prayers. I was just like crying. She walked down the aisle. But it’s a different world and we can prayerfully seek and we always say, you know, we talked about and praying for your future husband. God knows that person out there. And we could be praying for that person even if we don’t even know. But we could also be praying that God will show us how to connect and how to kind of get out of our comfort zone sometime to find that person that He has for us.

Julie [00:32:34] Tricia makes me think of a friend of mine recently talked about that his kids have not dated really, and they’re, you know, heading into their mid twenties. And he said, you know, I almost feel like we did too good a job scaring them as Christian parents about the dangers of dating. He said to the point now that they haven’t dated. And what’s fascinating for me is I don’t know about y’all, but back in the day, not that I dated a whole lot, but it was like a sport. Like you went out even if you didn’t think you were interested in someone. Just the social experience of getting to know people, understanding what you liked, what you didn’t like, those that were kind of, you know, a dark horse, Hey, I didn’t think I’d like that guy. And then he was really kind of interesting. I mean, we still had, believe me, my mom and dad, man, they had a million rules that surrounded dating and all that kind of stuff. That was all still there. But there wasn’t sort of this fear of even trying to date. And so, listener, if you’ve got kids who are heading into those stages or you’ve got little ones and you’re thinking ahead, just that, that conversation about trying to demystify even the process of socializing and dating I think is so important, particularly because, yeah, you may have kids who meet on an app and that’s all great, but there is something very powerful about truly understanding and getting to know people. I think that’s really, really profound. Well, Robin, Tricia, as always, I think we could go on and on. You guys have so much wisdom. You have mentored so many women through the years and your heart for really pouring into and investing into women. It’s just unmatched. Where can listeners go to find out more about y’all and to find out all the great stuff you’re doing? Robin, we’ll start with you and then Tricia, you can tell us where all your handles are.

Robin [00:34:18] Very easy. Just go to RobinGunn.com, and that’ll take you to wherever you want to go.

Julie [00:34:30] Tricia, how about you?

Tricia [00:34:31] For me, it’s just TriciaGoyer.com. And if you go on Instagram or Facebook, if you just put in my name, I’m going to pop up there. And I love hearing for people. I love connecting from people. I think that’s one of the joys why Robin and I love writing for young women is just hearing those stories and we will screenshot it or copy it and send each other so we can both be celebrating when we hear these wonderful, wonderful stories that we get to just be part of this journey. It’s a real blessing.

Julie [00:35:03] That’s amazing. Well, thank you both so much for being here. The book is called Before You Meet Your Future Husband. Listener, be sure and check that one out because it’s going to have all kinds of great wisdom for you as you guide your kids in all of this craziness. Or if you yourself are in a position where you are looking ahead to who God has for you, this will be great encouragement, great questions for you to ask yourself. Be sure and check out AllMomDoes on all the socials and also Allmomdoes.com or you’ll find all kinds of community inspiration for the kids you’re raising. The romance that you are nurturing, the faith walk that you’re undergoing, the work you’re doing. And I love to interact with you too, @julielylescarr. You can find me on all the socials at julielylescarr.com. And I’ll see you next time on the AllMomDoes podcast.

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