325 | Discovering Your Child's Purpose, Nurturing Independence, and Prophesying Over Them (Dean Deguara)
Episode Description
In this episode, Dean Deguara reflects on how he identified his children's purpose through prayer and prophecy. He details the practical ways he and his wife raised their kids to be resilient and bold, from bedtime prayers to meaningful car ride conversations and more.
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Dean Deguara is the lead pastor of Real Life Church in Sacramento, California. He and his wife, Amy, have been married for 30 years and have two adult children.
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· God will give you clues about your kid's purpose.
· The small deposits of time add up.
· Be just as competitive about your kid's purpose as their performance.
· Teach your children how to make good choices on their own.
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Podcast Intro: [00:00:01] Being a great father takes a massive amount of courage. Instead of being an amazing leader and a decent dad, I want to be an amazing dad and a decent leader. The oldest dad in the world gave you this assignment, which means you must be ready for it. As a dad, I get on my knees and I fight for my kids. Let us be those dads who stop the generational pass down of trauma. I want encounters with God where He teaches me what to do with my kids. I know I'm going to be an awesome dad because I'm gonna give it my all.
Dean Deguara: [00:00:39] As fathers, we have to be very intentional about contending and being just as competitive about our kids purpose, and look for those clues as early as possible, because I promise you, God is revealing them to you in ways that you might not be aware of. But if you ask God, He'll highlight some things to you and you're like, oh man, I want to, I want to see that cultivated in their life.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:01:00] Welcome back to DadAwesome. Today, episode 325, I have Dean Deguara joining me from Sacramento, California. He, I've heard about him through a number of guys connected to Jesus Culture Church. Some guys connected with Danny Silk and Loving On Purpose. We, all of a sudden I was like, I've been hearing about Dean and about his son and his daughters. Sometimes, there are, there are guys that are recommended to me because people are watching their kids in the adult phase, and they're like, you've got to talk to Dean. Because what I'm seeing from Dean, yeah, his kids is impressive. And again, we're not just measuring in the world's eyes, you've got to be this, you got to be this to be a, to be DadAwesome. But, people that I trust said, talk to Dean. So that's our conversation. We're actually it's a short and sweet conversation today. We just jump right in. We we had a long conversation, but I just felt like the second half, that's where the punch of, like, this is all practical, transferable, it's going to help you in your dad life. So before I introduce Dean, I want to share something for Mother's Day that's coming up here in about a month. For Mother's Day, we're throwing a special sale at the DadAwesome store. So I haven't talked about the DadAwesome store in like six months. So we launched the store about seven months ago. We talked about it a bunch for a month and then stopped, dadawesome.org/store. So we have, my favorite coffee mugs, these amazing coffee tumblers, they're fantastic, Fellow coffee mugs. We got, hats, we have t-shirts, tank tops and some sweet track jackets, now. You're looking at the website, you're looking at the store and you're like $29 for a t-shirt, what the heck? Well, we went with the best. We just really wanted DadAwesome to have the best coffee tumbler, Fellow coffee tumbler, the best hats, the best jackets, the best t-shirts from a like, you're going to love these shirts. You're going to love these hats. You're going to, so that's why they're a little more expensive. But for Mother's Day, we have nothing to offer the moms, but why not throw a sale, a special sale, the first ever DadAwesome sale. So, 15% off on everything. If you make a order at dadawesome.org/store, and we'll leave it up for two weeks. So for two weeks you can get 15% off your order at dadawesome.org/store. Wow. There we go. Jeff doing a commercial for the DadAwesome store. All right, that's it for the intro. Let's jump in today's conversation, Dean Deguara. We're going to jump right into me asking about, specifically about his daughter. So here's my first question. I thought this might be fun, Dean, to talk about, we'll start with your daughter, Mariah. And then we'll talk about your son, Josiah, after that. But, Mariah, two things I already know about her, is she's a RN, so she's been successful in this side of high school, college into career. Like you have to, you have to be pretty brilliant to take those steps. But then secondly, you said she she celebrated paying off her student loans. So she's like being diligent with finances. That's all I know about her. So I'd love for you to share a little bit, share some things that you just admire. You're like, I love this about her, I admire this. I see God working in this way, or her growing and learning in this way, and taking ground professionally or in character. Just what are some things that you'd say about your daughter?
Dean Deguara: [00:04:14] Yeah. I think, I think Mariah, her name means wind. Her middle name is Brooke. And so, she's very refreshing to be around. She loves people. She has the pastoral mantle, and she she loves people. She never passes a person by, and, it's carried over in her professional career. But this is how she was even when she was younger. And, she is, you know, she's a people first type of person. It's kind of cool. She grew up playing piano. She's a worshiper. And, at I think it was 12, she didn't want to play anymore. So we said, okay. And just recently, just just a few weeks ago, actually, for Christmas, her brother, she asked for a keyboard for Christmas, so Josiah got her a keyboard. And to see her kind of resurrect that gift. You know, now it's been 12 years later and she's just kind of picked up and she puts her earphones in and closes the door and you know, I'm like, I wish I could be on the other side of that door because those are some the precious times we had even when she was growing up. Her and I played a little guitar and she would play piano and so those were some fun moments, that we had together. But, and everybody loves my daughter. They love being around her. She's, she's just, she's just a joy to be around. And that's carried over in her first couple of years of, being a nurse. I say first year, in her first year and a half, she got the Daisy award. And I'm not sure if you know about the Daisy award.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:06:00] No. Tell me.
Dean Deguara: [00:06:00] Yeah. So the Daisy Award is the highest, like, one of the highest awards that you can get in nursing. I had no idea about this. She got it twice. Some nurses go throughout their whole career and they never get it, even once. In her first year and half, she got it twice for the care, people, basically, you'll take care of a patient above and beyond. Usually what happens is those families will ride in and just say things like, God sent us an angel, you know, and you're getting the, you're hearing that, you're reading this as a dad. And you're like, man, so she has a presence about her that is comforting, calm, you know, you know, when we're panicked about something around here, you know, she said it's going to be all right, you know. So she's that, she's that person in our family, that we look to for just having that confidence.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:06:54] Being I, I've like, the amount that I've enjoyed the last 90 seconds of you talking about your daughter. It's so fun for me. I may never meet your daughter, but it's so fun, as a dad of four daughters, what I'm, what I'm watching is I want to always speak life, speak highly, speak with specificity about my daughters and their current flourishing. And that looks different in every chapter. There's always something. There's things to treasure about every child in every season. So I think it's just helpful practice for us to hear a dad who clearly, and I knew this was true about you before I asked the question, that you beam, like your eyes, your face, your countenance, your voice, the way you talk is just so much treasure in the way you talk about your daughter. So I knew that was true. But now, now I'm hearing, I mean, wind and refreshment. Like I want that to be true about my four daughters and their future four husbands, that they are a joy to be around. They refresh the room. They they bring life into a room. Any any ideas how to go upstream, to when they're five years old and, and deposit some seeds there that would cause the child to be a refreshment, people just drawn to them and want to be around them? Any, any thoughts on that topic?
Dean Deguara: [00:08:08] Yeah. I think, you know, I give a lot of credit to my wife in this area. But both of us, a couple things we did, we did the bedtime prayers. And I know that sounds, you know, maybe cliche, but, you know, after our kids are asleep, yes, we go and we say our bedtime prayers, but after our kids were asleep, we'd also go back in, pray and prophesy over them and really call them by name, like, we were intentional about our kids names. And so, you know, we prayed, we prayed over Mariah, you know, Lord, we pray. And I knew in a very, when she was very young that she had this at least a pastoral mantle, again, not called to be a pastor, necessarily, but she had this care and concern and, so just, you know, go in there and just Lord, I thank you, Lord, that, you've got this past storm. I pray whatever she does, Lord, that she would care for others well, you know. Same thing for Josiah, go in, it was a different thing. We knew Josiah with, you know, he had something special about him as well. But, you know, Lord, I think he's going to be a champion in whatever field you raise him up to be in. And so that, and then my wife was super intentional. There was a 20 minute drive to school. They both went to private school up through, both of them went through, my daughter all the way through 12th grade. And then my son up through eighth grade, and my wife was very intentional with those 20 minute drives to and from school. And, it was, it was praise and worship, K-Love. You know, all listening. But it's funny, to this day, there will be old, you know, old songs that come on that I don't know, but all three of them know, and they'll make fun of me because I don't know the words. But, those were deposits. You know, I think of, I mean, how, you know, 20 minutes, 20 minutes, but that's, you know, that their whole lives, you know, 20 minutes back and forth, that's a lot of time investment. And my wife use those times is turn the van, the minivan into a sanctuary. And, but also times of conversation. My wife would tell you that, that she would use those moments of God, give me opportunities to just ask the right questions. And so a lot of good conversations.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:10:40] Yes. I, I think the building blocks of what would add up over time and drive time adds up over time. So how are we, how are you using it? And no shame over, I mean, if the drive times have been rough for anyone listening or like that, it's like, man, I'm just trying to survive this season. No, but the next chapter, there can be more deposits in that drive time, and it might be 3 minutes of the 12 minute drive. It might not be the whole 12 minutes if youv'e got little kids, in different phases. But that's so, that's so specific that we can we can purpose, what are we depositing in those moments? Let's pivot to your son for a second. So, Josiah, what I know about him is that he's, he shares his faith. He's courageous for sharing his testimony. I know it's also true that he cares about high schoolers and using a platform that he's been given to encourage and bring light to, because I've just seen him speaking in those contexts. And then also, I don't think you get to play for four seasons in the NFL for the Packers, if you don't have some level of perseverance, resilience, work ethic. I'm pretty sure you have to have a few of those things to play at that echelon.
Dean Deguara: [00:11:45] Yeah, yeah.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:11:46] That's all I know about him, though. Tell me some more things about your son, Josiah.
Dean Deguara: [00:11:51] Yeah. Josiah has a determination that he's had, it's funny, we just found some old videos, you know, cassettes that Josiah bought us, we, our camera got stolen. So we thought a lot of these videos were gone, but he just bought us a way so that we could play them again. And, and we're just like, man, you were determined when you're a young guy, too, you kno. We didn't, maybe not necessarily, recognize the determination piece. But when you go back and watch these videos, you're like, oh, he was persistent. He was persistent. And so, yeah, you have to be determined. You know, obviously a lot of criticism, both, constructive and unfair criticism, as a, as a professional athlete. But, you know, when you're in sports that, that, that starts, you know, if you have, if you have the, you know, certain coaches, you know, that criticism could start really young, unfortunately. But as you get older, every level has a different level of critique and yeah, so just having that stick-to-itiveness and, if he'd listened to coaches along the way, he wouldn't be where he was at, you know, and that's at every level, you know. After high school, you go to college and, you know, they recruiting over you and, and, you have to be, again, you have to be like, man, God has called me here. I know I'm supposed to be here. There's, you know, you know, you see this a lot, in the transfer portal these days. I think, I think, you know, there's just this huge funnel in these transfer portals, and, and kids think it's going to be better somewhere else. But, you know, we all know that, like, hey, if you don't pass the test where you're currently at and you think it's going to be better over here, it might, it might turn out better for you if, you know, if if God was in it. But if you couldn't deal with your heart over here, the same issue is going to happen over there. And so, yeah, I would say, determination, his passion for the Lord, he's very disciplined, very disciplined. And, it's cool to see Josiah, like he journals every day. I don't even journal every day. Josiah journals every day. Has his word. He comes down, you know, when when he lived with us, you know, and he does this now even when he's visiting. They live here in Sacramento now, so they technically are not visiting anymore. But, he's down early with his cup of coffee, his Bible, his journal, and, so very disciplined. But you have to be, and just like, with anything, but especially in professional sports, but to see his relationship with the Lord, kind of permeate, a really, can be an ugly business. And to see him persevere, even now, like we were talking about earlier. But before we jumped on, you know, it's, it's a lot of mind games, and, you have to be focused on the Lord. So super proud to see him, yeah, to to just navigate those, those, those waters of the, the NFL and professional sports and media, which is brutal. I can't even go on social media, because I start getting upset. You know, because I mean, he's a, he's got a lot of character and man, to, to to take all those, that sometimes again, unfair criticism. You're just like man, man, you're good, you're better than I am.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:15:42] I mean part of the is to draw out identity, to know who you are. I mean, in that space, I'm certain like, he he knows and and part of that's rooted in, you mentioned, he's in, in in his Bible, in his time journaling out what's God showing me? What's He speaking to me? If you don't, in sports, from, I was chatting with a guy this morning, his little son like the sport, coach dynamic of, like, traveling squad. Like, it just feels like identity is being messed with on every level. Because you believe, that your identity, you're a more valuable human being if you succeed in this sphere of these rules, of this league, of this, to, to get the next opportunity. And the parents all agree with that identity framework and so to the other players and so does, it's so easy to just drift right into it. Anything, is there anything that you or your wife were able to do earlier in the early sports success? Any, any just coaching or tips of like, we did this and maybe even you stumbled to, but for the most part you got this part right, that come to mind?
Dean Deguara: [00:16:46] Yeah, yeah. Wow, man, that is a great question. You know, I, I mentioned this a couple weeks ago at something else that I did, but we were a family on mission. And so wherever we went, we were, we tried to be the same people we were in public, that we were in private. I think that, and then just allowing our influence to be who we are. I think that was, that, I mean, some of the friends, that are friends today that are still friends and not necessarily believers. You know, we have really good friends from those early days of baseball, you know, football. And again, it was just rubbing shoulders, and we've been, we've been there for those families in the thick of things. Whether it's deaths and, you know, the first person, I don't know any pastors, right, they don't go to church. And so the first person that calls, hey, can you help me do my dad's funeral? Can you you know, those types of things. And so we're just trying to, I think, just being present as a family, involved and engaged and not just saying like, oh, those are those people. And so we, we, I think we integrated our faith real well and just our everyday life outside of church. And I think people noticed that, that we were a little different and, we weren't weird, you know, we weren't weird, but definitely, I think people, again, those just opened up a lot of doors for us, just to be friends to people and be there when life wasn't good to others, you know. And I just see that in Josiah. So you talked a lot about identity. You know, the, when it, when a professional athlete gets injured, that's when their identity gets challenged because everything's taken away. So that's happened to Josiah, two times, his freshman year of college, he tore his, his, his shoulder. First day at training camp. And, and when you get hurt, you're, you're separated from the team and you're scrubbed. You know, you're next. You know, it's not you know, there's not somebody checking in on you. Same thing in the NFL, his rookie year for games in, someone, you know, collapsed, fell on his knee during the junk time of the, playing Atlanta on Monday night. Last play the game literally, someone fell on his knee and boom, everything gone. Everything's taken away. You're, you're actually can't even practice with the team. And so it's like you're very isolated. And it was in those moments where he, where your faith gets tested, right. And, and I know I'm going off from your question a little bit, but this is where some of those friends, like we had a friend when Josiah got injured his rookie year, sent him Doctor Tony Evans book Detours. That book really helped Josiah grasp and answer the question, like, why am I going through this, you know? And so now what Josiah does, that book really carry Josiah through to very much inspiration, now Josiah uses that book as a tool. So anytime anybody gets a major injury, he already knows what they're going to go through. They're going to go through isolation, depression. They're going to wonder if they're ever going to play again. He'll give them this book, Detours. And he's used that to really minister to guys, lead them to the Lord. So he's been able to just, yeah, just through that, you know, through his own journey of having things stripped away and only having God, he's been able to minister to others effectively. So I hope I answered your question.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:20:55] Yeah you did. You did, Dean. This is so helpful. I have one more question about these prayers that you prayed over Josiah to be a champion, in whatever sphere. And then observing, especially in hindsight, wo,. He was determined. He was determined. He was showing those signs of, like, that prayer being answered because, you know, champions are determined. Now, there's there's a negative probably you can take determination to negative outlets as well. But the, man, a champion in God's eyes, a champion in not not like for the world and for fame and success. But no champions have influence that's unlocked to them and we want that. I want that over all four of my daughters. I want them to step in to, to be, to have perseverance, to to strive to be the very best that they can. But at the same time, I don't want to be the dad who exasperates, who pushes too hard, who says, you got to do this and that. And in a world of every kid gets a trophy, in the world of like, where, where would you coach me to, of course I can pray in their sleep, over them, to be champions. That's a, we can do that without any harm. But the, is there, what level of encouraging to stick through commitments or at what level of just what are the coaching tips would you have for me on raising daughters who go after it with their whole hearts?
Dean Deguara: [00:22:15] Yeah, I think both my kids are very competitive, by the way. And so obviously being in a very performance oriented, you know, culture, I think, as as fathers, as parents, we have to be very intentional about contending and being just as competitive about our kids purpose. And so identifying their purpose, at a very young age, and again, you might not know what, you know, field or what they're called to be. But Lord, you know, it's like I was telling you, like I recognize the pastoral mantle, my daughter, very young age. And so just praying into that. For Josiah, you know, being a champion for Christ. Josiah Daniel, you know, like a very strong name. God, we pray that he be able to stand in the midst of, you know, cultural pressure all around him. You know, it's those types of prayers, that we prayed. And the other thing is identifying your kids dreams, at an early age. And so I, Amy and I, my wife and I, we just did a, a conference, a session at a family conference we were invited to. And, some of the clues of our kids purpose, Josiah did a little essay, when he was a kid, like a paragraph. And, he literally, in this, he he reveals the dreams of his heart, and you read it, and he says, when I, and it's like he's, I think he's, at the time, he's like a 10 or 11 or something. He's like, you know, I want to, you know, I want to play for, you know, back in his, like, North Carolina Tar Heels, either football or basketball. And, and then after that, you know, I want to play for the Los Angeles Raider, I think it was the LA Raiders, at the time. I want to play for the Raiders and, you know, and and so we're like, oh man, let's let's pray into this. I still have that. I shared that at the family conference. Mariah, she put together this project, a skeleton with Q-tips and then like, wrote all the bones, like all the bones. And they had to memorize the bones. She she we had to do that, you know, in this process of becoming a nurse. And so we we still have those things, and we actually frame the skeleton thing, and we have the other thing that Josiah wrote as well. But identifying your kids purpose and then being just as competitive, you know, we're so, you know, less than 1%, I hate to break it to everybody, but less than 1% of kids are going to make it to, you know, a division one college. Even less than that make it to the NFL. But, I tell people this, you know, it doesn't matter what field your kid, be competitive and contend for their purposes and look for those clues, as early as possible. Because I promise you, God is revealing, revealing them to you in ways that you might not be aware of. But you ask God, He'll highlight some things, and you'll be like, Oh, man. They got a gift of hospitality. I want to, I want to see that cultivated in their life. You know, those types of things.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:25:25] Dean, you're inviting us on a discovery mission, and that mission is never over. But we can, we can press in more right now with our little kids to trying to discover, what are their dreams, what's their purpose? And then be, yeah, being competitive for championing that versus what the world says is success. It's like no, they're yeah, they've got God's got big plans for each of those children, for each of us. So, yeah. I wanted to just as a kind of a last question, Dean, is there anything that you would say, man, I would want, let's say Josiah and his buddies who are maybe going to start to become dads in the next five years here or whatever, like anything that would be that, like, top of mind for him to to know from your hearts of like, do this as a young dad, this will serve you well. Any just top of mind advice you'd want to give that group of dads?
Dean Deguara: [00:26:15] I think one of the, you know, one of the biggest things I like to encourage is teach, you know, teach your children how to make good choices on their own. As they're growing up, you know, I think a lot of times we wait to the, these big transitional moments for our kids to make these, like, super, especially, again, with cultural pressure, but, like, you know, where there's just a lot of pressure. Okay. Now you got to make a decision where you're going to go to college, you know, and it's like we didn't give them and we didn't allow them to make any choices until those biggest choices in life who, you know. And so again, we just started in the safe in a, in the safety of our home and the safety of our family, just giving our kids opportunities to make big decisions. And, and I'll just, I'll just mention this as an example. When our kids got an eighth grade, our kids grew up, my, wife taught in private education for 17 years, and, and then, my kids went to the school where she taught at a. So very, she wanted to be close to our kids. and, when our kids got to eighth grade, we gave them the choice whether they wanted to stay and complete high school or junior high and high school, at the private school, or go to the public school closer to our home. Both of them were athletes. And so, and both both had good, good sports programs, but obviously, the, the, the public high school, where they grew up, was very predominant in sports. And so we gave that choice and, to them and prayed with them and, counseled them in that and, but ultimately allowed them to make that choice. You know, they would ask, well, dad, what do you think? And I tell them what I thought and I said, let us pray about it. And so what was cool is both of them chose different things. They both went to the same school. Josiah chose to go to Folsom High School, which was just ten minutes from our home. Mariah, they call her a lifer, because she went from preschool to 12th grade, at the same school. But I'e just seen, giving them that confidence, you know, Josiah just bought his first home. You know, he had to make that choice. But I really believe that it started back then, you know. My, my, you know, my daughter, was in Phoenix for the first year and a half, two years of her career. Made the choice to move back home, save some money, get ready for the next phase of life. Those things were, you know, all things that, you know, they chose to do on their own. I didn't, you know, they didn't say Dad, We, you know. So, I would say just that's one thing that I felt like we did, we did right. And just giving our kids the confidence so that when they had to make those big decisions. What school you going to go to? Who you going to marry? Those types of things. They, they had some, they had some change, you know, they had they'd say, God, you you led me to when you when, when I chose what high school I was going to do. You're going to lead me like Josiah, right now, God. Yeah. I mean literally Josiah texted back because this is second way in a free agency. So he's waiting on the call and Josiah literally, like, texted me yesterday and just said, it's in God's hands. And I'm just like...
Jeff Zaugg: [00:29:57] Because now he doesn't have to lean on, your son and daughter, don't have to lean on, well, God came through for my parents when they prayed for a big decision. God came through for them. So yeah, I wish we would have had this call Dean like six weeks ago because we did, for our five year old, seven year old and ten year old, we prayerfully, we spent a lot of time of prayer. No, well this, we missed it. Michelle and I prayed a lot about what activities? Is it dance? Is it gymnastics? Is it musical theater? So we prayed about it. They knew Mom and Dad were praying, but we did not invite them, we invited them into sharing what are they interested in. But do we make this commitment to every Monday night and do it? If we could have approached that a little bit different to give them a rep, a practice of look, God showed me, I made the choice. So, so we can use it in the future. But I missed it six weeks ago because I hadn't had this chat.
Dean Deguara: [00:30:46] Can I say one more thing?
Jeff Zaugg: [00:30:47] Yeah. Please.
Dean Deguara: [00:30:48] Before we get off. So, like, again, my daughter, she was a Division one athlete, as well. She got an offer, she got a scholarship offer to run cross-country, for Saint Mary's here in California. She said no. She said, dad, Saint Mary's doesn't have a nursing program. I feel like I'm called to be a nurse.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:31:12] She knew her call.
Dean Deguara: [00:31:14] Man. And this one hit me right there. That was so hard for me. Because I wanted to jump in and say, do you know how many kids get a scholarship for track? Not very many. But, seeing her make the right choice, instead of Saint Mary's, which I felt like would have been a good thing. Didn't have, didn't have her degree program. She went to Grand Canyon University, had a great, had a great college experience and then is doing very well. But I just use that as an example of like, wow, given her that choice. And me like, no, you know, you need to do this, you know.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:31:51] Oh, the stereotypical pushy dad that has a trajectory for his kids. That's not, that's not one you pass on to let them make. It's like, no, this is all the reasons why you kind of bulldoze. So that's, thank you for sharing that. Dean, I'm so thankful for this conversation. And you just giving us a window into your journey, what you've learned, areas you feel like you missed. But, man, it's, this is so helpful. Would you say a short prayer over all of us dads listening?
Dean Deguara: [00:32:16] Yeah, yeah. Father, I know there are a lot of dads listening now that maybe feel like their, they have fallen short. Maybe they even feel like more like a father failure than a father figure. And Lord, I just pray God that You would encourage them today. God that You would be confident, that You would give them confidence to lead their families well and lead their kids well. And, Lord, I just pray, God that they'd also see Your hand and Your grace in their interactions with their kids. God, it's not by power, it's not by strength, but by Your spirit. And so I just pray that the dads that are listening to this call, the parents that are listening to this call, God would just, be sensitive to what You're saying over their children. And that, Lord, You would help them to carry out, You would help them to partner with You in drawing out what, what You deposited in their kids. I pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:33:26] Thank you so much for joining us this week for episode 325 with Dean Deguara. All the conversation links, the show notes, the action steps, the transcripts are all going to be found at dadawesome.org/podcast. Guys, I'm so thankful you chose to listen this week. And just like we kicked off this episode with Dean and him, the way he talks about his daughter, the way he talks about his son, the way he challenged us to pray over our kids while they're sleeping. Let's speak future and destiny and calling over our kids. Let's be curious. Let's be looking for those those little treasures along the way. They're signs, they're signals of this is what God has created in my son or my daughter to be. And then let's, let's really step into praying about those themes that we pick up on. So, guys, thanks for being DadAwesome. Have a great week.
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· 16:56 - "We were a family on mission. And so wherever we went, we tried to be the same people we were in public, that we were in private. And then just allowing our influence to be who we are."
· 26:16 - "One of the biggest things I like to encourage is teach your children how to make good choices on their own. As they're growing up, I think a lot of times we wait for these big transitional moments for our kids to make these [big decisions], where there's just a lot of pressure. Now [they] have to make a decision, where you're going to go to college and we didn't give them and we didn't allow them to make any choices until those biggest choices in life. We just started in the safety of our home and the safety of our family, just giving our kids opportunities to make big decisions."
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