In the Loop with Andy Andrews

On this week’s episode, I talk about the benefits of gardening with your family and answer a listener question on divided families.

 

We have a little garden of eight blackberry bushes that we planted three years ago.

  • The first year we got a few blackberries.
  • The second year we got a lot of blackberries.
  • This year we couldn’t pick them all at one time.

 

This is a great thing parents can do with their kids.

  • Get a couple of plants, take your kids in the backyard, dig a hole, pour some potting soil in it, and stick the plant in the yard.
  • This is what families used to do together.
  • We’ll spend an hour just picking berries and talking to each other.
  • Doing this teaches your children about end results.

 

Planting something is a great metaphor for life.

  • Zig Ziglar talked about planting a bamboo tree and growing it over ten-years.
  • You water and fertilize it for years without seeing results.
  • Then, in that last year, it will have grown 100-feet.
  • So… did it grow 100-feet in one year or ten years?

 

What can parents of divided families do to make sure they’re being as effective as they can?

  • One of the great strategies is for the mom and dad to get together and determine what they want the child’s adulthood to look like.
  • Write it down.
  • If you sit there and try to discuss methods, it’s going to be opinion vs. opinion.
  • Determine the result, and work backward from there.
  • Then, you can be more certain that when your child is not with you, the other parent is still aiming for the same result.

 

Check out Andy’s parenting series for more information. You will get access to over 80-minutes of free content in this 4-video series.

 

Questions for Listeners

Do you have a question? Call in and your question might be featured on the show!

  • Phone: 1-800-726-ANDY
  • E-Mail: InTheLoop@AndyAndrews.com   
  • Facebook.com/AndyAndrews
  • Twitter.com/AndyAndrews

 

Direct download: ITL139_-_Surprising_Things_Your_Kids_Can_Learn_from_a_Garden.mp3
Category:Podcast -- posted at: 5:00am CDT

On this week’s episode, I share my thoughts on a listener question about generational advancement.

 

Reversing generational curses or trends is a huge thing to me, and I’ve spent a great deal of time searching for answers on this topic.

 

The most important thing I’ve learned on this search comes from studying many other families.

  • I’ve studied families that have been affected by negative generational things.
  • I’ve studied families that have had huge generational success.
  • For people to want to change, you need to prove why a particular way of doing something works.
  • I’ve spent the past two years working on the 100 Year Parenting course to explain just that.
  • It’s basically the long form answer to this question.

 

It’s all parenting.

  • I’m even talking about business relationships and marriages.
  • The way people deal with things, or come around to a new light of wisdom has a lot to do with how they were raised.
  • It’s easy to realize that we all understand that a child who grows into a 25-year-old adult with exceptional manners is imminently more employable than a 25-year-old without good manners.
  • Manners are money.

 

If you haven’t seen any of the parenting course, go to AndyAndrews.com and click on the parenting banner. Inside is a free 4-video series, which has over 80 total minutes of content.

 

Questions for Listeners

Do you have a question? Call in and your question might be featured on the show!

  • Phone: 1-800-726-ANDY
  • E-Mail: InTheLoop@AndyAndrews.com   
  • Facebook.com/AndyAndrews
  • Twitter.com/AndyAndrews

 

Direct download: ITL138_What_Other_Families_Can_Teach_Us_About_Generational_Legacy.mp3
Category:Podcast -- posted at: 5:00am CDT

On this week’s episode, I’m sharing a story I wrote about my dad.

 

It’s not really a short story since all of it is true.

  • It has been pieced together from things I remember, and stories I have heard from others who knew him.
  • I wanted my boys to have a description of their grandfather in the event that I am not able to give the oral history.

 

My father had a different method of parenting.

  • He was kind of nut. Not a professional nut like I am, but still a nut.
  • This story takes you though some of the memories that I love, and the funny things that he would say as our church pastor.

 

Questions for Listeners

Do you have a question? Call in and your question might be featured on the show!

  • Phone: 1-800-726-ANDY
  • E-Mail: InTheLoop@AndyAndrews.com   
  • Facebook.com/AndyAndrews
  • Twitter.com/AndyAndrews

 

Direct download: ITL137_-_A_Brief_History_of_My_Father.mp3
Category:Podcast -- posted at: 5:00am CDT

On this week’s episode, I answer a listener question on what it really takes to have a successful marriage.

Occasionally you hear people say, “We don’t have any problems. We don’t fight ever.”

  • Anytime I hear that, I always think that somebody is being fooled.
  • I don’t know how two people can exist and not have to work some things out.
  • If you have ever been involved in a long-term friendship, there have been moments that you could have walked away from the friend and never done anything with them again.
  • A marriage is more than just a long-term friendship. 

Polly and I have a working marriage. It’s a consistent work in progress.

  • I think we all go through moments where we feel like we can’t stand a person anymore. That’s human nature.
  • The commitment to how things should be has to be larger than a momentary feeling of disagreement.

Our first couple of years were the hardest part of our marriage.

  • We got married, and to our horror, found out how different we were from one another. I panicked for a little while.
  • I remembered Jones telling me that if two people were exactly alike, one of them would be unnecessary.

I think that the kids knowing that your decisions are for your long-term future really affects them.

  • Even though we disagree or get mad, there is a larger purpose that the boys know they are a part of, too.

I think the best marriage book ever written is Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs. It firmly grasps the idea of what both people need.

Questions for Listeners

Do you have a question? Call in and your question might be featured on the show!

  • Phone: 1-800-726-ANDY
  • E-Mail: InTheLoop@AndyAndrews.com   
  • Facebook.com/AndyAndrews
  • Twitter.com/AndyAndrews
Direct download: ITL136_How_Does_a_Successful_Marriage_Work.mp3
Category:Podcast -- posted at: 5:00am CDT