372 | Seeing God’s Bigger Picture, Championing Your Child’s Purpose, and Fighting for Peace (Mike Wehde: Part 2)
Episode Description
In the second part of this conversation, Mike wraps up his top five fatherhood plays. You’ll learn how to discover what lights your kids up and why your biggest impact can come from investing in others. Mike will inspire and equip you with actionable wisdom to raise resilient, purpose-driven kids.
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Mike Wehde is the Founding Pastor of Lifecoast Church in Palm Coast, Florida. He and his wife, Holly, have five kids and several grandkids. Mike has owned multiple businesses and works as a leadership coach for business and church leaders. They believe the kingdom of God will be advanced through family and community impact.
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· Your best fruit will grow on someone else’s tree.
· When the world’s going crazy, your kids need to know what lights them up inside.
· Your victories, as well as failures, are all part of God’s bigger plan.
· Be your child’s biggest cheerleader, and they’ll want to stick around.
· The Top Five Plays to Run as a Dad: show affection; live the Gospel; practice a God-led work ethic; mentor and multiple; and speak vision and purpose into your children.
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· Send a Voice Message to DadAwesome
· Apply to join the next DadAwesome Accelerator Cohort: Email awesome@dadawesome.org
· Subscribe to DadAwesome Messages: Text the word “Dad” to (651) 370-8618
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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.
Mike Wehde: [00:00:39] They need to grow, they need to grow. If they need to be loved on, they need to be loved on. If you need to protect them, you protect them. If you need to pull back and let them fail, let them fail. They'll always know you're there and you're for them. Every little moment I see could be an opportunity where I can show you I love, I'm for you and it's safe. We're not going anywhere.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:00:58] Welcome back to DadAwesome. My name is Jeff Zaugg and today, episode 372, is the second half of my conversation with Mike Wehde. If you missed last week, jump back before you listen to this week. But Mike is a pastor, a business owner, passionate dad and grandpa, and he loves investing in younger leaders. He loves seeing parents launch businesses with kind of a Kingdom mindset. In fact, quick shout out this episode is brought to you by Waffle Cone. One of his businesses is an ice cream shop that he references and my family loves this ice cream shop. It's actually problematic the amount of our budget spent, family outings, family dates at his ice cream shop. So anyways, quick shout out. This conversation though is so fun to hear how he weaves business and ministry and his heart for just, man, men and women, parents to see like I can grow and I can take new domains of leadership, of business ownership and use it to unlock more of the Kingdom of Heaven. So you're gonna love this conversation. Want to remind you guys, you can leave a voicemail for DadAwesome and that is the way to get your name kind of on the list for one of those half hour phone calls. So I'm setting up half hour phone calls once or twice a week with our DadAwesome community so I can connect one on one to learn about you, your family, pray for you, hear about what are some of the current challenges, some of the current wins, and then I can share tools that I've discovered along these seven years of DadAwesome. So simply click the button, leave DadAwesome a voice message. You can live up to a 90 second voicemail, and I'll respond and keep you in the loop about scheduling one of those calls. So thanks for leaving me a voicemail. Let's jump right in today, episode 372, the second half of my chat with Mike Wehde. Okay, I'm gonna jump to the third one. The third one is practice a God led work ethic.
Mike Wehde: [00:03:03] That's tough depending on where you work, right. So owning businesses has been a little easier because you can prep for the day better. But if you have a Kingdom mentality or Kingdom mindset, I just believe every dad, husband needs to nail this down, why do we exist, you know, the purpose driven life, all those things. You got to nail it down. You can't waffle on this for 30, 40 years, wake up at 60, like, why did, why did I exist? You have to understand, you know, Ephesians 2:10, God created the very good things before the foundations of the earth for you to do. Man, we have stuff He thought, man, I'm going to make Jeff like this and wire him like this and drip in a little of this personality and that wiring and this test Ennegram, because I've produced all these great things that he can partner with Me in and build this Kingdom. And man, why would you want to wait for so long? So for business owners can tend to be different, unique thinkers. But He made us this way and why? But now you approach every day with, oh, what do we get to do today? You, you build your business, we get to build this for what? Well, it's for the wiring, why we're made here. If we believe, and Holly and I believe, and my kids believe that our businesses weren't just made to make income, but to change a community. Customers coming in the door, our value system is everyone should feel loved, valued and known, because that's how Jesus makes us feel. Whether they know Jesus or not, they're going to feel the presence of being loved, valued, and known. Therefore, we hire people and train them on, well, did you make them feel loved, valued, known? Because if you didn't, they're not feeling Jesus. Let's sit down, let's talk. Are you feeling Jesus, you know? But if we do that, then just the coolest things can happen. People can come up to you and say, I don't know what's different about your shop, but... And then if they ask, well, we can talk a little bit about;. You know, in our ice cream shop, we had a couple come in and they were both lost their spouses within the last six months in different parts of the country. They moved to Flagler Beach. They started visiting the Waffle Cone at the same exact time. They started sharing their story. I lost my spouse, well I lost my spouse. Well, let's meet here because we're, we don't want to jump in too much and meet here every day at 2:00 for the next eight months, and I would come in and the employees would say, you know, our employees would call them by the flavors, you know, hey, rum raisin, hey, cookies and cream, kind of like cheers. You know, that's how you feel known, you know. But after a while, so, like, they're starting to develop this deeper relationship, they went on a trip to test out if they should be dating or not. I was, I saw them again, how'd your trip go? And tell me what kind of fight you got in. Yeah. Okay. Whoa. Next thing you know, I get a call saying, hey, your son told me you're a pastor. I'm like, oh, well, they're not really supposed to do that, but how can I help? We have been dating for a year and we decided to get married.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:05:54] To get married. Yes.
Mike Wehde: [00:05:54] Would you marry us?
Jeff Zaugg: [00:05:55] No way.
Mike Wehde: [00:05:56] I'm like, well, I don't have a church building, we meet in a school. Oh, no, no, we want to get married at the Waffle Cone.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:06:02] At the ice cream shop.
Mike Wehde: [00:06:03] We want your employees there. We're bringing our family, and we want them to feel what we felt because they don't know Jesus. And they actually, while they're dating, recommitted their faith to Jesus because they felt that in the shop. And they said there's just always something about your shop. So if you build this, and wake up, what's our value system? What's our vision or goals? It's Kingdom and it's community affecting. And so when people walk by us like, and we've actually had people say, hey, are you guys the owners of the Waffle Cone? Yeah. You must also own the SwillerBee because the, the feeling just seems the same as, we do. I knew it. Your employees just give off somethings like that's our values. We hope you felt that, you know.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:06:43] That's magnetic and it's, it's intangible, but it is tangible.
Mike Wehde: [00:06:48] Yeah, right. Yeah. It's a, it's a hard thing to teach, but if you get with the Lord and say, hey, who, how He made us, how does this come out in our business or our work ethic? These things, it should always be, do all things is unto the Lord, you know, not under men. Well, what are we doing? And how does it affect others? My family, my community, my work mates, my boss. You get your value system right, and you get your work ethic based on, you know, the working under the Lord, all of a sudden the boss that might be mean to you or this like, that's not my problem. My problem is I need to align with God and maybe we can touch that.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:07:21] It washes over the other. Yeah, the upstream. Let's see, the last two. So these are again these plays that we can run as dads, mentor and multiply is the fourth one. Yeah, what would you, how would you unpack mentor and multiply?
Mike Wehde: [00:07:37] When it comes to kids?
Jeff Zaugg: [00:07:39] Well just within dads running this play of mentoring, multiplies. So probably, yeah, probably within our kids.
Mike Wehde: [00:07:44] Yeah, I think, I think it starts with your life and others around you, model it, because when you're mentoring and investing in your kids, it's a given. Well, that's what you're supposed to do. So them taking off and getting traction and that to multiply is just going to be, well, you're my dad. You're supposed to teach me. You're supposed to model things for me. But if they see you doing and others, something different happens. You know, it's like, why are you meeting with so-and-so? Well, give them a little bit of backdrop stories. But not only are they trying to turn their life around, they're trying to, you know, walk differently and make better decisions. They got a family their leading and they want to do with their kids. Oh, hey, do you remember I was meeting with, they're meeting with somebody else now. Isn't that really cool that they're taking this? And I would always tell our kids, especially as they became older Jack Welch, you know, the famous Jack Welch, my best fruit grows on other people's trees. And Mack Lake and I were back in seminary, in Dallas, talking about that a little was like, how do we live with such a vision? That's long, the long game to say, can my fruit cry somebody else's trees? And how do I model that for others? Hey, hey, wait a minute. So early on at Life Coach Church, when we founded, planted Life Coach Church, I was investing in 5 or 6 guys, and one of them was our current pastor now, Brian Kingsley. And I was just pouring on him at six in the morning and over the next years and, well, now he's our lead pastor because I stepped down and guess who's, guess who Brian's pouring into? Other than eight other guys at Life Coach Church, one of my sons.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:09:18] One of your boys.
Mike Wehde: [00:09:19] And he's, he's one of my best friends. Like, well, you're one of my best friends. Like this what we do. We invest, we mentor, we multiply. And sometimes it might be connected to your family. And isn't that a cool?
Jeff Zaugg: [00:09:31] My mind is jumping back to both times that we sat down for a cup of coffee, we had interactions with at least 1 or one of the times was with two of your sons. So you like, probably chose, you know, he happened to own the coffee shops, that helped. But it just naturally happened that your boys observed you pouring into me, and it just like it wasn't a fractional, separate thing. Like there they were within proximity.
Mike Wehde: [00:09:55] Yeah, they know one of my spiritual gifts is, is teaching, investing. And I just follow that and make disciples just naturally. So it's His calling for all of us. You can do and should do some of that privately for working through hard things. But why not model it out there, especially those you're connected with? So they could say, he really does do this.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:10:14] He follows it up. Not jusg a part of our training workbook for our culture, our company.
Mike Wehde: [00:10:18] Yeah, there's no check going on here because, you know, I don't ever bring these little it's like heart to heart, work hard on the questions you asked to get some really good conversation for good discipleship. But almost always they ask, who's that? Oh that's Jeff. Yeah. You know, guess what? He's living in our house. He's doing a podcast in the very room we built for you, Dillon, you know. It's like, wow, that's kind of cool. And just walking through some things like, wow, that's great. They always have a good, hey that's great.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:10:45] You're connecting dots. That you can't help but connect because it's part of God's bigger story, but they're aware of it.
Mike Wehde: [00:10:52] What an honor to to do that and to have God wink at you a lot. You don't need a lot of kudos because you're doing this for Jesus. But to have Him wink when somebody says, I see what you're doing over. I've had that number of times, even when I met in Panera and others, I see what you're doing over here. I just think, keep doing that. That's great. Like, thanks for winking at me, God, because it is time spent. It's intentionality. It's time away from kids or whatever, whatever you can afford. I just think there is times you're mentoring and modeling that for your kids. So that they'll do that when they get older, not just with their kids, but who am I walking with?
Jeff Zaugg: [00:11:26] And it also proves that you're not about yourself. Because if, if you know a really intentional, loving father that just pours into his own kids and their future spouses really can accidentally do all these amazing discipleship, but kind of build a Kingdom unto their own name for themself, and the mentor multiplies, just a constant, it just kind of forces outside of, no, let's get outside the walls of our immediate family.
Mike Wehde: [00:11:54] Yeah, yeah. And for their future, they bump into people all the time, guys and women my wife's invested in over 20 years time. Man, your dad or your mom, it's like, oh, I'm so glad we're connected now. And I'm a financial guy. I'm a realtor guy, and they're connecting. It's like there's just some really cool groundwork that's done years ago that now all of sudden has bring other fruits, business fruits and relationships, these kind of things, you took the time to pour in and just trust God with all those results.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:12:23] Yeah, it's the open handed. And I just want to say it one more time. The my best fruit is on somebody else's tree. Like if that, if that could be true of all of us dads that of course we're going to take care of the trees in our own garden. You know, the idea of our own kids, of course. But if like you could truly see that the best is on its, it's just so selfless. And it's so like celebrating others.
Mike Wehde: [00:12:48] Yeah. Isn't that a cool thing to think when you get to Heaven and see Jesus face to face, you know, we'll worship like crazy. But there's a thought like He's going to say, well, who'd you bring with you? And there is that thought making disciples. But wouldn't it be cool if He said, but you invested in these ways, and look at the thousands that they touched and touched thousands you didn't know about. Yeah, you can weep. Like, yeah, that's amazing. You really did pay attention, which, you know, one of my mentors said not one ounce of mentoring, discipling, sacrifice time in that way gets wasted for God's Kingdom, not one ounce.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:13:22] Yep.
Mike Wehde: [00:13:23] He's going to take that and use it and water and grow it. Whether you ever find out until Heaven or not, doesn't really matter.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:13:29] Not a waste. Yeah, yeah. The fifth one, for the plays that we can run as dad's, was Speak vision and purpose into your children. And I know we tapped on it earlier with this idea of pulling out vision that they can't even see. But could you just one more round of expounding on speaking vision and purpose into our kids?
Mike Wehde: [00:13:50] Yeah, I think today, especially for dads who have younger kids, today, we live in a culture of fear, anxiety, especially about the future, whether it's economics, whether it's safety, all these things, the polarized country we have and all this thing. My own kids, so if they're like, man, why is the suicide side rate so high among teenagers? It's not necessarily lack of identity, these things, it's like they're scared to death and they can't figure things out. And they know I have no models, role models showing them. So when you were talking about purpose and you're talking about identity, those things go hand in hand to develop the confidence and assurance that they need when it gets wonky. When hormones are going crazy inside, you're not sure, but you got something to rest on. Like, well, here's who I know I am and whether I'm about it or not, I know my purpose. I know my purpose in life. Maybe I've gone around a couple of years, but I'm going to come back to it because I know that grounds me, there's a purpose beyond my few years here. There's a purpose that was instilled in me upon creation, you know, and if I can fall back on that. So when you, when you start pulling out vision and specific purposes, you know, then you can talk about gifts, sets, wiring, Ennegrams, those things become very useful then. Not to pigeonhole, but say, now as you're going through the next season of life, see what things you love doing, you catch yourself doing longer than you probably should have. Like you tap into that, bring God into that. Let's see if we can expound and celebrate and be your biggest cheerleader in that, so that you can feel like, you know, the world is going crazy, but I know what I love and I know what's been put in me and I'm going to do that. And I've told you this before, it doesn't have to look a certain way, as long as it's the thing you love to do. I love investing. I don't love donuts, per se. I'm a health guy. Fitness guy. You know, I own a gym, you know. Ice cream and donuts, but that was the next best way for us to number one, have a team. 40 something employees, we get to invest in. I love that, you know, customers come in to me. I'm not, I used to be an outdoor salesman. I'd be driving and you're like, But I'm an introvert. So I'm like, I hated cold calling all that stuff. And now they're walking in the diner.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:16:08] Line up. Yep.
Mike Wehde: [00:16:09] Man, how do we cultivate a relationship so I can invest in you? I can be part of your great day instead of a bad day. And so, yeah, it's not necessarily the thing you do, an ice cream shop or I'm going to go become an engineer. It's the things I get to do in an early when my gift set is or wiring is, it just like lightens up. It just makes me come alive. That's why I don't mind when people say, but I went to school for this, and I'm going to do this, but I'm going to jump. I'm like, I don't care what you do, per se, what your position is, what's lighting you up? Because if you're telling me I gotta go do this job instead of that job, my parents are mad because they spent so much money in schools. Like, but what is it about this job that you think will align yourself with the purpose of God? And all of a sudden you become so much better at life. You're affecting everyone around you at this workplace where this workplace, you got nothing, you're not utilizing. So it becomes a dead end day job.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:17:06] And dads that are lit up. It's felt. The family feels it. Yet, this is probably a spot that we'll land this conversation is around being a dad who fights for his family, not against his family. But Dad's who are, I truly like. I want to be a dad who fights is a fighter versus a dad who takes flight. And he says not to be a passive in this season or I'm too overwhelmed, so I'm going to kind of like disconnect my heart. I pray that I'll be a dad who's a fighter on behalf of and for my little girls, my wife, what would be, just maybe a few encouragements to, to close this conversation around being dads who are fighters and fighting for their families?
Mike Wehde: [00:17:49] Yeah. Decide what you're going to fight for is huge, because you fight for a lot of things that won't last in their minds any way. You know, we carry things from our childhood and these are the important things, you know, and for us, secure. If we don't have X in the bank. Those are some of those things are good, stability and those things, you know, we're providers. But what are you fighting for? And so I started having kids pretty much before the internet, before blue screens, before all those things. And then my last one had all, that's all they know. So I have older kids who saw the before and after, and it scares them to death, and they're reacting differently, than I had middle ones, and then I had the older ones like. And they're just so immersed. And so I made a lot of mistakes along the way. Just because you didn't see long term effects and things like that. Not that were huge screeners. We've thrown out our TV early on and that kind of stuff, but you do get lax after a while. Like, man, I shouldn't have done that. I should have fought more for some things. One thing we always fight for, I love when I see my kids do this. We fight for the shalom in our house.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:18:54] Yeah.
Mike Wehde: [00:18:55] The shalom for my wife, the shalom from in our house. And we don't allow chaos in the house. And you don't get to incite chaos either, right. You know, so it can be okay to go through conflict, but if you're creating chaos where there's no shalom, I'm stepping in, I'm fighting for that. But if you're coming and bringing others into the home here, this is the Shalom House. This is the Temple of Shalom. Because so much is nurtured and cultivated and grows and the peaceful shalom of God, right. And now I don't, I'm not fighting other things. I'm just fighting my own will to be intentional. Get off of this and go be with the King. That's the only thing I'm fighting is me. And I can do it if I don't have a lot of other things I'm fighting, you know. Too much TV and those kind of things create the chaos. Like I got to fight that. And now you're whining because I took that away. Why, well, it's just during the year, however you work at during these hours, it's just shalom. And now me and mommy are working through some things where we're going to cultivate learning experiences, good relational experiences, in the pool experiences, all of us, you know, is like, wow. And that feels great. And they don't always understand it. But when they get older, I've had kids, so I'm encouraging you come to me in 30 years, you know who I am in my house, the peace keeper. I'm like, dude, that is awesome. You know, it's like, yeah, that's a lot of work because you got to say no. A lot says, but when there's peace in the house, the little the little kids, the little ones just seem to be great. They seem to be, you know, when there's no peace in the house, they're off the wall. It's crazy. Holidays can do that for you, too.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:20:28] And it's, it's contagious. Yeah, it spirals up or the peace is contagious as well.
Mike Wehde: [00:20:33] You know, some things you had to fight for is the extremes. I would say the pendulum swings of, well, my kids, I'm just going to love on them. I wouldn't say be their best friend, but I won't let them endure any strain. And, you know, they're just going to grow up naturally. And then then there's others, like farmers. I grew up and I was like, you're going to learn the hard stuff of life early on. You know, it's like a pendulum swinging. There's a balance where your kids have to learn to become resilient. Your kids have to learn hard things. Your kids. I'm going to fight for the right times that those things are going to happen. My wife is great at this. You know, it's like, oh, you make take them with you make them. My kids, by 5 or 6, we're going up to counters and buying their own thing, getting their own change. My kids by 12, you know, I remember we're you just talking about this, she had to call and make her own doctor's appointment at 12.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:21:19] Schedule it.
Mike Wehde: [00:21:19] No, I don't want to, but, but she did it, and she went. You know, it's like we're fighting for those opportunities to grow them in the best ways possible. Not just so they survive, but they thrive. You know, and I had somebody come to me, we've helped them in business before, I visited you guys and you said, hey, we're at the coffee shops. We're going to be looking at a house over here, and my kids are going to be over there. You want to come with us? Oh, yeah, sure. Number one, I said, you're a business owner, you just get up and go when you want to go. So yeah, I call my shots. So let's go. We go over there and by the time we walked in, my daughter was already talking to the real estate agent at a young age, asking them all these hard questions. Well, you got to find these things out for him. I'm like, whoa, man, she just held her own. She was confident and she was like, I'm expected to bring value here. I'm not expected to hide around behind anybody. As I says, that's that's what I learned is like, you know, I'm not just trying to create a nurturing environment for my kids. I'm fighting for the right opportunities, you know, grow in safety, growing. And So like I said, you know, we want to fight for the opportunities and don't miss those opportunities. If they need to grow, they need to grow. If they need to be loved on, they need to be loved on. If you need to protect them, you protect them. If you need to pull back and let a fail, let them fail. But they'll always know you're there and you're for them. And that's really huge to know the things I need to fight for. I needed a fight that, you knew dad was always going to be your provider. That's kind of a given. We should be doing that. But I also need to fight for every little moment I see could be an opportunity where I can show you my love, I'm for you, or now's the grow time and it's safe. It's, we're not going anywhere.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:23:01] You know, I even that last thing you mentioned of of like, you're, you're safe, here's my love. But this may be a growth moment. So it's almost like pop that coach hat on and looking I want to do that with more like purpose of the love, grace, care, tenderness that hats on. And oh, this is a moment, let me just, and its in love, put a coach hat on, let's, let's grow through this together. Let's figure this out. It's almost a framework that helps me. And you don't even have to take one off, but to add the coach hat in moments.
Mike Wehde: [00:23:32] I've seen you do it. And so that famous triad is you can't just have knowledge, you can't dump information, doesn't develop transformation. You can't just have experience because you're fumble around, you know, you see people say, I want to learn how to play golf. Well, read this book on golf and then go out there and hack away and you'll never get good, you need the coaching. So you add a little knowledge. Yeah okay kids, we're going to go out here and try this thing and then and while you're failing, hacking at this ball, slicing away, I'm going to come alongside you, and then transformation happens. So you have to fight for that whole triad. You know I'm not just going to be an information dumper because now you're just teach, teach, teach. Can't we ever just... But I want to get out there and create an experience for you, let you try it. Maybe let you feel, here I am. Let me show you some things. Now I'm ready for those things. As a child, and I'm going to transform and get better. And that's a, you know, that takes the time, right. It's, it's easy and comfortable to do one of those things. It's, you know, but it's so fruitful to move in to do all three over a long period of time.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:24:35] Yeah. I love that as just a way to draw out maybe one last tip from you if, if we've got 6 or 8 dads around a campfire, the nights wrapping down. But there's maybe you get peppered with questions and you just have a chance to share. Is there something you haven't shared yet that you like think might be helpful for myself, the other young dads listening? Any topic or any just bit of wisdom that you're that's, that's bubbling up right now that might be helpful? Any, any last word, last thought?
Mike Wehde: [00:25:03] Yeah. Maybe too many. Maybe I should have thought about that a little more. But I would say this, you're part of a bigger plan. God I already knew all of this, every dad, every mom, every child. He's, you know, He's omniscient, omnipresent, all those things. You're never alone that, that way, right. And He's so personal that He's with each and every one of us at every moment, just saying the same thing. I'm going to give you a little knowledge. Here's a child, I'm going to give you a little experience. Here's Jesus I want to coach you a little bit. The Holy Spirit is going to guide you, nudge you this way. Just be enveloped in My grace along the whole process because we say it to our kids, but listen to what Jesus says the same thing, says the same thing. Victories, as well as failures are all part of the plan, because the grace turns everything into good for those who love Him are called according to this purpose, right. And so, yeah, daily, just think, wake up like I'm part of a bigger plan here. I'm going to think differently about my day, about my, my spouse, my kids, I'm going to think multi-generationally about Kingdom and lasting effects, because when I'm gone on however many years, this thing's going to keep going. And they're going to make failures and make mistakes. They're going to, but at least here's some things they learn from me, it's okay. God is here and you're going to do great. So I think that the way the enemy just beats us down is huge. And the other thing is, man, just believe in your kids. Find those things that God has put them and champion them, champion them, champion they're, they're going to hear the same voices of defeat that you did, maybe times ten in this culture or 100. What they need to know is for, for not just God is for me, dads for me, moms for me. And when they have that assurance and you've, and you've taught them how to chase the Kingdom and how He's made you man, just be their biggest cheerleader ever. And I guarantee they'll come back around, even if they have big hopes and dreams of going to Europe when they were like, I can't wait to be back with my cheerleaders. You know, Io didn't say best friends at five, I said my cheerleaders. I'm cheering on everything God's doing in you. I'm championing His vision, His calling on your life and I'll do that until the day I die. And when you come back and visit, I'm going to be the same way. What's He doing in your life? How can I help? Wow, that's, that's attractive for kids growing up. It's like because they're going to feel like failures or like I'm kind of ashamed, I don't want to go home for the holidays because they're going to find out. But if they think that doesn't matter to Mom and dad, my dad was my biggest cheerleader and even in my worst times. Oh, I can't wait to get back to see him for the holidays.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:27:52] I love that. Thank you for this time together, Mike. I'm really grateful for you.
Mike Wehde: [00:27:55] Really great to talk for hours.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:27:57] We probably will do another round at some point. But this was I think yeah, just so helpful.
Mike Wehde: [00:28:03] I would add real quick, shameless plug though. But we have started Christian Family Entrepreneurs. We have a lot of dads that come and say, I want to start a business, I don't know how. I want to raise up entrepreneurial kids to think in terms of problem solving, I don't know how. And so we've developed those things so you can just look it up, Christian Family Entrepreneurs. One of our first things out is how to raise entrepreneurs starting at 2 to 3 years old.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:28:27] Yes. We're going to link all those resources, the website, and I can't wait to go through it myself because it's like this huge desire. But we haven't really purposed any like going through a course through, you know, materials to actually say, let's add these building blocks to have girls that are entrepreneurs. So yeah, thank you. And yeah, there's no such thing as a shameless plug. We are always gathering and sharing resources. So would you take a moment and just pray for all the dads listening?
Mike Wehde: [00:28:51] Yes. Yes. Father, just thank You. Thank You for your presence. Thank You for Your grace. Thank You for never leaving us alone. And the enemy just isolates us, the things he says to these dads who are listening, O Lord, I renounce that in the name of Jesus they're lies. They're meant to steal, kill, and destroy the very abundant life that You've designed to give these dads their marriages, their families, their children, and their children's children. Lord, so we now speak blessing into them. We speak Your hand of peace, anointing, and grace over them. Lord their lives. Lord, they're all going through different things, Lord, I pray that You would say it's okay to them right now. I'm with you. I've created you for this very thing. Help them to feel confident that they've been created for this God. You would have never gave us our kids if You didn't think we were the best thing going for them. If we would just rely on you, live in Your grace and just put forth the effort we can Lord each and every day. Oh Lord, I also ask that You help each and every one of us to keep, not of me perspective, but a multigenerational perspective. Every ounce of investment and love and affection and care will last for generations and touch people for the kingdom of God. And we just pray that each and every day we wake up and ask that same question, what can I do with You today, Jesus, that will last for generations and touch the kingdom of God? Keep letting us want to build your kingdom, not ours, Lord. And Lord, I pray that those who might even today feel like maybe they've messed up a failed and miserable ways, or that You would just bring Your, Your grace and peace over them right now and say, today is a new day. Today is a new day, and You're a powerful, powerful God that does miracles and transformations on a daily basis. So just walk with each and every one of us. Let us have great, great hope. Let us think about the things that You have for us that are unimaginable, Lord, more than we can ask or imagine. Let them chase after those things together. As dads, we're in this together. Thank You, Lord, that You haven't left us alone. Jesus name. Amen.
Jeff Zaugg: [00:31:17] Thank you so much for joining us for episode 372 with Mike Wehde. All the show notes, the transcript, the key quotes and takeaways, and we're going to link that course that he's launching around raising entrepreneurial families, we're going to link that as well. It's all going to be found at dadawesome.org/podcast. And then you just look for episode 372. Guys, thank you for listening. Thanks for leaning in this week and say, man, I'm going to keep learning. I'm going to treasure and prioritize this role of being DadAwesome. I'm cheering for you guys. Have a great week.
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· 11:10 - "Thanks for winking at me, God, because it is time spent. It's intentionality. It's time away from kids or whatever you can afford. I just think there is times you're mentoring and modeling that for your kids, so that they'll do that when they get older, not just with their kids, but who am I walking with?"
· 22:22 - "We want to fight for the opportunities and don't miss those opportunities. If they need to grow, they need to grow. If they need to be loved on, they need to be loved on. If you need to protect them, you protect them. If you need to pull back and let a fail, let them fail. But they'll always know you're there and you're for them. And that's really huge to know the things I need to fight for. You knew dad was always going to be your provider. That's kind of a given. We should be doing that. But I also need to fight for every little moment I see could be an opportunity where I can show you my love, I'm for you, or now's the grow time and it's safe. We're not going anywhere."
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