It’s Ask Dr. Nurse Mama Friday! Jessica talks about this week’s healthy habit of being faithful.

Transcript

Dr. Jessica Peck: Operation Christmas is going on this weekend

>> Dr. Jessica Peck: Hello and welcome to the Dr. Nurse Mama show, prescribing Hope for healthy families here on American Family Radio. Here's your host, professor, pediatric nurse practitioner, and mom of four, Dr. Jessica Peck. Well, hey there, friends, and welcome, welcome, welcome. It is a fry. Yay. It's my favorite time of the afternoon and my favorite day of the week and my favorite thing to talk about, and that is Christmas. Operation Christmas. Christmas child is going on. I've been talking about this every day. Listen, if you're looking for something to do with your family this weekend, pack a shoebox to send to a child somewhere in the world. You can go to samaritans purse.org occ check out your local church and see if they're having a drive. But go out this weekend. You can do it with not very much money at all and really bless the heart of a child. So I encourage you to do that. And it is Friday. We are on a Friday in November. The holiday are approaching really quickly. And I don't know about you, but it seems like it was just yesterday that I was sitting behind this microphone saying, hey, guys, it's 2026. It's a new year and we're going to go on a journey together. And oh, it's 2025. Yes. Thank you. Okay. I'm so happy. I have a producer that keeps me on track. It's 2025. I, will be sitting here very soon saying it's 2026. I'm already trying to turn the page here, but it's 2025 and we have a whole year ahead of us. And we have been journey together to develop habits for healthy families.

We started with spiritual disciplines and then moved into communication habits

And there are so many listener emails that I have just had so much joy to read about the journey that you've been on yourself and what God is teaching you, how he is transforming your family, how he is healing past hurts and just giving you encouragement in life. And if you remember, at the beginning of the year, we started with spiritual disciplines. We spent the early part of the spring talking about rhythms and then we talked about communication habits, which was, oh, so hard, so hard. The tongue, who can tame it? We're all working on it. And then we went into, the summer where we talked about tech. All summer long we talked about tech habits and then we moved into safety. And now we are in our series.

This week we're talking about being faithful in an unfaithful world

We have one more week left on this where I'm talking about the be attitudes, not the ones that are found in the Bible, but they are found in the Bible. We're talking about the Ways to be with your family. We're talking about character development and discipleship. We have encouraged you and equipped you to be hopeful, to be a good friend, to be unafraid, to be an influencer, to be resilient, to be intentional, to be tender hearted, to be content, to be patient. And had a really sweet email from a dad last week talking about how he really wanted to be more patient with his family and looking for resources on that. And so definitely praying for all of us who are struggling in that. And this week, we're talking about being faithful. That is the habit. And it's one of the most foundational, yet very countercultural habits. We're talking about faithfulness. Faithfulness to your spouse, faithfulness to your children, faithfulness to your family, faithfulness to your commitments, to your church, to your walk with Christ, faithfulness to God. And there's a tension here because culture is really glamorizing unfaithfulness and making it very easy for us to be unfaithful to so many different things. But Scripture commands faithfulness as central to the Christian life. It is one of the fruits of the Spirit. And what does that really mean? That's what we're going to talk about today. What does faithfulness truly mean? And how does the world define it differently than God does? We'll talk about why unfaithfulness is increasing and even the ways that it's celebrated, maybe in ways that you hadn't thought of. And we'll talk about how does faithfulness to our Christian faith show up in our daily life and what it takes to stay faithful in an unfaithful world? Faithfulness is not just a promise. It is a practice, and it requires practice. And, you know, as I've been in this life stage, as I've shared before, I've been in a stage where I've had a lot of friends who have passed away. I've been to more funerals in the last two years than I have been in my entire life. It feels like every. Every other week we are going to a funeral. It feels like sometimes and not too long ago, one of my very dearest lifelong friends passed away. And I was standing with his wife at the bedside as we were in his final hours. And I remember her grabbing his hand and looking at him so lovingly. And she looked at him and she said, well done, good and faithful servant. Well done. And it brings tears to my eyes even now to think, isn't that what we all want at the end of our life? Don't we? Want someone to say, well done, good and faithful servant. Faithful is the key word there. And it challenges us. That parable that Jesus told in Matthew challenges us to consider, what does that look like when she was saying he had been a faithful man? What did that look like for my friend? What does that look like in the eyes of God? Well, Jesus tells us that those who are faithful in the small things, diligent in stewardship, obedient to his commands, will hear those words, well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much. We all desire that affirmation. And yet it's more than just doing the big things. And we tend to focus on that or just performing well when someone's watching. Or our public life, it means consistently living with integrity. It means keeping our commitments. It means loving others sacrificially. And it means serving God in both ways that are seen and the ways that only heaven applauds. Only heaven knows. Faithfulness is not a choice so much as it is a lifestyle. It's not a single moment. It reflects a heart that is surrendered to God's purposes rather than your own convenience, rather than your own desire for recognition. And we saw this on full display earlier in the year when there was an affair that was publicly disclosed, if you will, to the public in a. In a very popular concert that happened. You know what I'm talking about. You saw the CEO that was there and the whole world talking about it. What do we learn from that? Well, really, when I think back on that, we can learn a lot about the concept of faithfulness. We learn that hidden sin has consequences. So no matter how hidden in or how secret it feels, your sin will find you out. Sin has a way of being exposed. And in Proverbs we read, whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. And we know that faithfulness means not letting that sin sit in the shadows, whether it's in our marriage, in our parenting, in our leadership, in your private life, we know that hidden sin has consequences. When we have hidden sins that are, that make us not faithful, we will be found out for those either now or later. And integrity matters everywhere. It's not just about being good in public. I mean, when we look back at this situation, those leaders were compromised in a very visible way. But that wasn't the moment that it happened. That unfaithfulness has a very long private life, and that's. That's really, really difficult. So as Christians, our Faithfulness isn't a performance for others. It's our character that we display before God. It's a reminder that our private life needs to match our public life. We also can learn that accountability is crucial. When we see people fall, when we see them fail, it doesn't just affect them. It affects so many people. It affects their families, their employees, their community. And we learned it's so important to have accountability structures to hold us to faithfulness, to be faithful to the promises that we've made, to the character that we have committed to. We have to encourage openness and confession and relational accountability in our lives to guard against unfaithfulness. And we see the cost of compromise that comes from staying in a place that is comfortable because faithfulness cost us something, and sacrifice is a part of that. And this is a witness to the world. For so for believers, we see that unfaithfulness tarnishes not just your personal reputation, but also your Christian witness. And on the other side, faithfulness is such a powerful testimony. It really is. Even when you have a fall, a fail, confession, repentance, rebuilding and restoration, that is a powerful testimony of redemption. And we know that transparency builds trust. It builds trust with your family, with your spouse, with your children and your employees and your community, whatever that is. It is. I think that that that whole thing went vi because it was just this cultural sweet spot, this mix of power and secrecy and scandal and public exposure. But what we should take from it is that faithfulness matters, not just in those big moments, but in the little ones. Because as we think God telling us in Scripture, he who is faithful with little will be faithful with much thinking about, we need to be faithful in the little things and practical ways. Now, it's not easy. It is definitely not easy. And it's not something that's instant. It's not something.

Faithfulness means choosing truth over convenience, we choose integrity over shortcuts

If you pray for faithfulness, God is not going to automatically infuse you like an IV and just give you faithfulness. He's going to give you opportunities to practice that, to have that spiritual discipline, to have that fruit of the spirit fruit, is an instant. We have to be faithful in our daily obedience. And, it's most visible in those small, repetitive, unseen acts of obedience. When we choose truth over convenience, we choose integrity over shortcuts. We choose to be pure over being tempted, and we choose to be humble over being proud. We've got to be faithful in the daily disciplines and reading Scripture every day and talking with the Lord every day. And it shows up in marriage because the covenant of marriage Today is continually being tested. That faithfulness in your marriage is tested through having to forgive each other again, having to be patient with each other again, and having to be selfless and put the other person's needs above your own again. Being faithful means guarding your heart and really resisting emotional attachments that will be detrimental to your marriage. That is a powerful testimony. We can be faithful in our parenting because raising children demands consistency, it demands presence, and it demands sacrifice. So faithfulness shows up when you keep your promises to your kids, when you are faithful every day to pursue training your children in the Lord, when you model repentance, when you mess up, when you connect with love rather than respond in anger, when you're spiritually present, not just physically present, God is. God's faithfulness is seen through our children, through the faithfulness of their parents. Faithfulness we can demonstrate in speech and integrity because the tongue reveals the heart. And we as Christians are challenged to be faithful in how we speak. Do we speak the truth even when it's scary, even when it costs us something? Do we avoid gossip? Even that, gossip disguised as prayer request? Do we. Are we faithful to keep confidences? When we promise to do that? Do we speak life rather than criticism? Do we make sure that our speech is clean? Do we speak one way a church and then speak another way at work or at home or in the car, maybe when no one's there? Faithfulness means you can be trusted. Your yes means yes, your no means no. As Christians, we can also show faithfulness when it is tough, when we are in trials, when we are in seasons of suffering. Because those difficult seasons test whether is our faith rooted in our circumstances. Like, if everything is good, then God is good, or is it rooted in Christ, yet he slay me, yet will I trust Him? Do you have that kind of faithfulness? True faithfulness endures hardship without abandoning God, without bitterness, without withdrawing spiritual community. That doesn't mean we don't have moments of weakness. That doesn't mean we don't have moments of questioning. That doesn't mean we don't have honest conversation. But it means that I'm going to continually choose to trust. I'm going to choose to obey. When I fall, I'm going to come back. We can show faithfulness in our finances and faithfulness in stewardship of what God's given us. That means handling our money wisely, honoring God with tithing, avoiding dishonest gain, stewarding what we have, and resisting that cultural pull towards materialism and entitlement. We can show faithfulness in our relationships, our friendships, our church relationships, our workplace connections, being loyal, being honest, being empathetic. It means speaking the truth in love and showing up when you're needed. We can be faithful to our church community, going regularly, serving, contributing, praying, pursuing unity, being accountable. We can be faithful in so many different ways, especially in our discipleship and our spiritual growth, guarding our hearts and minds, faithful to share the gospel. And when we come back, we'll talk about what it looks like, how the lack of faithfulness impacts our own personal health and our family relationship, how that shows up. And I'll give you a hint, it shows up a lot in secrecy. So I invite you to evaluate your life along with me evaluating mine. And we'll be right back after this break.

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God is faithful in the good times and the tough times, melody Malone says

Welcome back friends that is I've witnessed it by passion and melody Malone and I have witnessed God's faithfulness in my life over and over and over again. So many times, so undeserved. But I m am so grateful for the faithfulness of God that he has been there no matter what. In the good times and the tough times, God is faithful. He is faithful to keep his promises. And if you are in a season where you are not feeling that, I promise you that God is faithful. He is right there waiting for you. He is walking with you through that trial, through that tough relationship, through that tough diagnosis, whatever it is that you are facing. God is faithful.

Today we're talking about our own faithfulness or our lack thereof

And today we're talking about our own faithfulness or our lack thereof. We are human and we fall and we fail and we can get back up again. And we've talked about the different ways that we can be faithful in our lives. And I'm telling you that personal faithfulness, faithfulness to your faith, faithfulness to God, faithfulness in your church and your family and your personal integrity and your work. It is probably the witness that you have. When people look at you and people are looking at you way more m than you know, and they see that you are faithful. They see you walking in those church doors even though they know what you're facing at home. They see you showing up for your family. They see that your behavior in the community is the same as your behavior in the church. That is such a tremendous testimony to the love of God, to the good news of the Gospel, and the hope that is in Jesus Christ. Now, it's a lot easier to be faithful in public. It's much harder to be faithful in secret, even when no one is watching. And the greatest test of our own Christian faithfulness often occur in private. Our private thoughts, what we're watching on our private screens, the private habits that we have, the private conversations that we think no one else is going to hear, or maybe even our private motives. Because faithfulness is what we're choosing when no one else knows, but but God. That private integrity is the foundation of our public witness. And so if you're wanting to work on your faithfulness, we've got to start on our own personal faithfulness. The things that we do in private when no one's watching, that is the foundation. Now, when we are unfaithful has all kinds of consequences. It breaks trust, which is the foundation of all family bonds. When someone is inconsistent, when they're unreliable, when they're dishonest, when they're unhappy, unfaithful trust cracks and spouses feel unsafe and kids feel insecure, parents feel disrespected. And once that trust is compromised, every interaction that you have is filtered through suspicion. And you have the instinct to self protect instead of connect. It also really creates emotional instability for children because children thrive on predictability and consistency. And when parents are unfaithful, whether that's emotionally Spiritually, relationally, physically. Children feel anxious, confused, abandoned. And it can even impact the way that they form secure attachments. They start to believe this is my fault, like I am the reason I'm not good enough. I'm not good enough for them to be faithful. And that's not logical, but it is what the reality is of a child. When we're unfaithful, it obviously erodes intimacy in marriage. When we have. When we have acts of unfaithfulness. And I'm not talking about just infidelity, I'm just talking about unfaithfulness in a multitude of ways. You have distance growing, and it freezes the emotional climate. It models dysfunction, and it even reproduces it in the next generation because children watch more than they listen. And when they grow up with inconsistency and broken promises and hypocrisy and secret sin, that just becomes the normal. And those patterns start to repeat. And then you start to have a culture of secrecy in the home because you want to hide that unfaithfulness. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, their first instinct was to hide, even though God knows everything. So children start to learn what not to ask, what topic is off limits, what topics are unsafe. If we voice any honest opinion or feeling about what's going on, that can lead to conflict. Hiding problems is better than addressing them. Secrecy really kills family unity, and it damages the spiritual formation. Because when you have unfaithfulness and spiritual habits, when you say, ah, let's, let's skip church today. Oh, let's, let's not pray, let's stop. We just stop praying together. We stop reading our Bible. We stop apologizing. We stop following those Christian disciplines. It just teaches our kids, hey, faith is optional. And kids notice when you're living a different way on Sunday than you are at home, or when your public life doesn't match your private character, that can create some confusion. Unfaithfulness also fosters resentment and bitterness and emotional walls. Because when the relationship is not defined by trust, you're going to have damage there. You're going to have decreased conflict. You're going to have more arguments. You're going to have increased defensiveness. You're going to shift the blame. Your communication with each other is just going to be a little harsher, a little less kind. And instead of giving one another the benefit of the doubt, you just kind of brace yourself for disappointment. You're going to let me down again. And it creates fear because you're afraid, when are they going to disappoint me. I'm afraid they're going to be angry. I'm afraid of the instability. I'm afraid they're going to leave again. And then you've got a weakened witness to the world that is really hard. Confusion about God's character and disruption of safety in your home. You can see that faithfulness is something the enemy goes after. And it starts small. It starts in those small things. It usually doesn't start with something big.

Culture has redefined faithfulness, minimized importance of it

One of the challenges that we have today is that there's a real cultural divide and a very big contrast. Because faithfulness is a core biblical virtue. But culture has steadily redefined it, pulled us away from God's word, minimized the importance of it, or even openly mocked it. I'm sure many of you have experienced being mocked for faithfulness to your faith. And we see that culture treats faithfulness like it's a contract that is easily renegotiated, that is easily broken. It's not a covenant, and it's always a if, then proposition. So as long as I'm happy, I'll stay. If this is serving me, I'll do it. If this is, you know, good for me right now. Relationships are viewed as conditional and transactional. And if you're meeting my needs and if you're suiting my life stage or it's like these relationships become performance based, like, if you perform well, I'll keep you around. And the most important thing is personal fulfillment. Because we see this, the culture is emphasizing self actualization. That's what they're prioritizing. Hey, do what makes you happy. Hey, you owe it to yourself. If it no longer serves you, let it go. Treat yourself. You don't deserve that. You deserve to be happy. And faithfulness becomes less important than our own personal happiness. And when we see these, that entertainment normalizes emotional affairs or soft betrayals or those kinds of just incremental compromise, then we see like, okay, well, it's just. And then where we see that translating into our own lives is you kind of justify it for yourself because you think, hey, I'm not having an affair, I'm not doing drugs. I am not, you know, doing these big things. So you think you need to, you need to tolerate those little breaches of faithfulness. That's not okay. And in culture, seeker is accepted and even kind of expected because it says, hey, privacy is a right. Even in relationships, you see a lot of people talking about, can husbands and wives have hidden social media accounts? Is it okay to have private messages with someone who's not your spouse. It's not okay, by the way, or private finances or secret friendships. All of those things are normalized in culture. But the biblical definition of faithfulness is very, very different. And it prioritizes covenant and commitment over convenience. And it is modeled after God's love to us. That's a covenant love. Great is his faithfulness. We know that from Lamentations 3. That God's faithfulness is so great, and his faithfulness forms the pattern for ours. Faithfulness is a fruit of the Spirit. We know this from Galatians 5. It's not personality. It's not just a choice. It's an evidence of spiritual maturity. And faithfulness is obedience, even when you don't feel like it, even when you think, I really don't feel like showing up again, I don't feel like being faithful. You are. And faithfulness is public and private. He was faithful. Little is faithful with much. If somebody's watching, if someone is not watching, it requires integrity, it requires light, it requires transparency. Because Scripture warns us that secrecy and darkness breed sin. So that should be such a warning for us if. If you're watching something, your screen, and someone walks in and you think, oh, I don't really want you to know I'm watching this or listening to this or whatever it is, really, listen to that warning bell. Because Luke's and Luke 8:17 says, Nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed. Faithfulness thrives in transparency and accountability. And where we see a collide of these messages is in marriage. Because the cultural message says, unfaithfulness is unfortunate, but it's understandable, you know, if your needs aren't met or honor your truth or follow your heart, or, I've, just outgrown this relationship. And the biblical message is that marriage is a living picture of Christ in the church. And faithfulness is not just physical, it's emotional, it's spiritual, it's relational. And we're told to guard our hearts. And we see practical signs of biblical faithfulness when we share truth, not secrecy, when we're wanting to be in each other's presence, not avoid each other, and when you're protecting your spouse's heart, not comparing them or criticizing them to other people or in front of other people. When you're choosing accountability and transparency in your digital behavior, and when you're choosing humility and apology and conflict. In parenting, we see the cultural message shown up as faithfulness to children. Being faithful to your children means giving them opportunities, taking them, being at all their activities, making sure, you meet all of their needs to set them up for the future. Being physically present, sometimes we see that parents are physically present, but we're emotionally absent. The biblical message of faithfulness is consistent discipleship regardless of what opportunities you give them or don't give them. We're talking about things like reliable reliability, keeping your promises really, truly listening, saying that no when it's hard to say no, maintaining those boundaries, modeling integrity and independence. Those are the things that, the ways that we can be faithful in our parenting. It shows up in our work life because you think, okay, well, it's fine to talk this way at work and talk this way at home. And as long as we're producing results, you know, character isn't on the front burner there. We need to cultivate integrity as much as we're curating our image. And faithfulness is shows up as biblical. Faithfulness shows up as consistency. There's no double life here. Who I am at work is who I am at home. Who I am at home is who I am in the community. And that same spirit led character shows up everywhere. And we can be faithful to God by just walking the walk, not just talking the talk. Because the cultural message is, hey, your spirituality is private and you know, it's an emotional experience. But the biblical message says faithfulness is discipline. It is obedience. It is showing up to church, it is reading your Bible. It is using prayer as a rhythm and not just an emergency mechanism. it is confessing your sin, it's being accountable to others, it's serving others, keeping your commitments, telling the truth, even when it's hard. So that's the litmus test for us. Are you the same person you are at church? Are you the same person at church, at home, at work, online, in secret? And if not, something is shaping you other than scripture and the fruits of the Spirit, like faithfulness.

Faithfulness requires sacrifice, and our culture despises that kind of sacrifice

Now, it's hard because we have all of these cultural enticements, all of these temptations to be unfaithful. And they can be subtle but really powerful forces because we have a world that is very hyper individualistic. It is all about me. Social media, right? Watch me, follow me, look at me, tag me. you know, whatever it is, it's all about me, me. But the Bible is all about we. Faithfulness requires sacrifice. And that is really hard because true commitment, true faithfulness, it is always going to cost you something. It will cost you your time, your comfort, your preferences, your pride, your immediate desires. And Scripture calls us to a covenant mindset to deny ourselves. Take up our cross and choose obedience even when it's inconvenient, even when it's uncomfortable. But really, we see a culture that despises that kind of sacrifice because it clashes with the message that they're trying to give of, self fulfillment, instant gratification. Add to cart like follow, treat yourself. Culture tells us that anything that requires endurance or patience or self denial, that is totally unnecessary and in fact it's unhealthy because you're not going to become your biggest, strongest, best self if you don't listen to yourself and follow your heart. You know that scripture tells us the heart is wicked above all things. Who can trust it? And if something no longer feels good, hey, you. You don't have to stay there. But biblical faithfulness teaches us that the most meaningful relationships, the most Christlike virtues are formed through sacrifice. And sacrifice, is not a threat to our happiness. It is the pathway to spiritual maturity. It is the pathway to healthier families. It is a pathway to life that reflects the heart of God. And so when you are engaging in culture, when you're watching things that normalize betrayal, that are tempting you to hidden digital spaces that are pulling you away from emotional intimacy with the Lord, with people you love who are immersing, you in a culture that is constantly engaging in comparison and telling you you're not good enough, you're not enough, you need to follow your own happiness. In a culture that has busyness as a badge of honor, you know that you are being pulled away from faithfulness. And when we come back, we will talk about ways that we can be faithful, ways that we can intentionally choose faithfulness to be faithful so that maybe, maybe one day at the end of our life, when someone is standing around us, they will say, well done, good and faithful servant. I encourage you to be faithful to your families, be faithful to your faith. And we'll explore that more right on the other side of this break.

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How do we remain faithful in marriage and parenting

So let's talk about some practical strategies. How do we remain faithful? Let's talk about marriage first. Some practical ways that you can be faithful and demonstrate faithfulness in your marriage is to build some guardrails. Share your passwords. Let your spouse have open access to all of your electronics so they can look at any time not as the password police, but just as a measure of accountability. Digital transparency. We talked about that all this summer. Pray together with your spouse every single day. Pray with your spouse. I cannot tell you enough how much of a difference that makes. And practice encouragement, encouraging words, not criticism. These are ways you can be faithful. Demonstrate faithful in everyday little steps and parenting. Keep the small promises with your kids and don't make promises that you can't keep. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. And be faithful to keep your word. Don't be afraid to tell your kids no, especially with Christmas coming. They may be asking for things that you don't know if you're going to be able to to do. Don't be afraid to tell them no. And be a man or woman of your word. Keep those promises when, when, not if. When you get it wrong, apologize quickly. That's a way to be faithful. Model to them what you want to imitate Read scripture together in your personal character. Ways that you can show faithfulness are eliminate, secrecy, audit any hidden digital spaces that you have, and practice confession regularly. Invite account into your life and live as if everything that you privately say or do will be revealed. Because especially in this digital world, you never know when that might be the case. And this isn't about being perfect. This is about sanctification, about walking towards that goal and our faithfulness to God. We can read our Bible, go to church, we can serve and not just attending. We can honor the Sabbath and keep it holy. We can evaluate our spiritual habits, what is forming us, what is informing us, what is deforming us. Those things are all important to know because faithfulness is a reflection of God's character. God is faithful, and we as his children want to be faithful. There are so many scriptures about faithfulness. Pick one and have your family memorize it. When we look at those scriptures about faithfulness, this is about covenant keeping, about being reliable, being having intact integrity, being consistent. And the contrast in culture is that it's feeling based, that your faithfulness is, is based on your feelings. It's conditional based on the circumstances, fluid based on the moment. But scripture is covenant based. It is unconditional, it is steadfast. And we see that culture measures faithfulness by convenience. If it's convenient for me, yeah, I'll do all of those things. If I feel like it, I'll do it. But God measures faithfulness by character and by obedience. And when we look at the way that we struggle with this, some of the statistics around this, around infidelity, around church attendance, around, all the other measures of faithfulness, we see that the world is telling you, hey, follow your heart. And it's very easy to do that. God says, guard your heart. That's so important. We've got to be on guard for those lures of modern culture. If it's digital temptation, if it's temptation to pull you away from faithfulness through what you're engaging in in entertainment, what you're watching on tv, on your screen, the rise of instant gratification culture like I want it now, or just that influence of social media, these are things that you may just need to cut out of your life. You may need to shut down digital platforms, you may need to stop watching certain shows, you may need to wait for something to buy it, put deactivate your shopping account or just take a break from social media. And many of these things, as I've said, they start in secrecy. Many times unfaithfulness doesn't begin with an action, it begins with a secret. And that impacts our faith families so incredibly grateful, so incredibly greatly they impact our family. But there is so much that we can do in being faithful, especially for mothers. That faithful presence that you have with your kids, the emotional nurturing that you have, the consistent discipline, just modeling godliness and teaching scripture and prayer, these are ways that mothers are so instrumental and so impactful and having faith faithfulness for fathers especially, we have an epidemic of fatherlessness in this country. We have so many physically absent fathers and I know, I talk to so many children who live with the burden of that. And we have an epidemic of emotionally absent fathers as well. It faithful leadership over your family is so meaningful. And if you are that father who is working to faithfully, not perfect perfectly, but faithfully lead your family, I just thank you so much.

Children flourish under faithful parenting, studies show

And I tell you that that matters. The work that you are doing matters. Your presence is even more important in some ways than your provision. Because yes, you want to provide a shelter, a food, a house and those physical, basic physical needs, but all of the extras your kids are longing for, your prayer presence, your presence in their life, more than their presence like gifts and setting the spiritual tone is something that you can do in your family. Being emotionally available and modeling purity and integrity that is so powerful coming from the heart of a father. And children flourish under faithful parenting. I see it, I know it. They have better mental health outcomes, they have stronger moral development, they have higher emotional security, they have lower risk taking. So faithfully parenting and your individual role as a mom, whether you're a single parent or whatever your circumstance is that faithful parenting really truly makes a difference. And that's the first thing that I look for when I have kids who come in who are going through a hard time. I look to see do they have a parent who is faithful in their life, faithful and consistent to show up, to learn more every day, to do their best, to apologize when they get it wrong. We, we know that for kids, the number one predictor of resilience is meaningful connection to a faithful parent in their life. Lots of things that kids face we cannot control. But we know that having that faithful parent in the home is so important. And our faithfulness is really forming the backbone of our kids faith. Another way that we can be faithful is just walk the way, walk, do what we're doing. Don't just have a Sunday version of Christianity. Do your spouse and children see the same person that your church sees? Are you spiritually consistent at home? At work, online, and at church. Are you that same person? Because it's dangerous living a double life. But you can find faithfulness through scripture reading. It will help ground you every single day, shape your worldview. So if you want to be faithful and you're not reading God's word every day, just start reading five minutes every morning. Just read God's word. Align your desires with God's truth. Go to church, show up, be faithful in your speech and your behavior. Those are such powerful ways. And so there's powerful ways that we can actually take intentional actions to cultivate faithfulness in your marriage. Schedule that regular connection time together. Be, open with everything and parents. Be present, show up to events. Be, be physically present, be mentally present, be emotionally present. Have those spiritual disciplines. All of these habits are building on each other. Go back and listen to any Friday show where we've talked about a lot of these things before. Because here's the bottom line. Culture invites us to unfaithfulness. It entices us, it tempts us. The enemy comes to steal and to kill and to destroy. But God is calling us to faithfulness. And our families rise and fall on the faithfulness that we practice every single day. And I cannot say it enough. Faithfulness does not mean perfection. My kids would line up behind the microphone to tell you all the ways that I am not perfect. But it's about perseverance, it's about being refined. And so you can maybe choose one area that this week. Maybe it's your marriage, maybe it's your parenting, maybe it's your personal walk, maybe it's at work, maybe it's in just your own personal faith and make a concrete decision to move forward in pursuing faithfulness. And some questions that you can ask yourself in doing a self assessment. Walk through this here and let's talk about your faithfulness to God. Ask yourself these questions. I'm asking myself them as well. Do I spend consistent time in prayer, scripture reading and worship even when I don't feel like it? Am I faithful to that discipline? Do my actions align with what I say that I believe? Or am I in some way living one way publicly and another way privately? Am I quick to confess my sin and repent? Or, am I hungry, hiding it? Do I justify it or rationalize it? Do I follow God's calling in my work and my relationship, my daily decisions, even when it costs me something and when I face challenges? Do I trust God? Or am I relying mainly on myself? Let's talk a little bit about your speech. And your relationships? Is your word trustworthy? Does your yes be mean yes? Does your no mean no? Are you walking away from gossip? Or do you speak negatively about your family, your friends or your colleagues? Are, you emotionally loyal to your loved ones? Or are you seeking intimacy and validation outside of those commitments? Do you honor boundaries? Do you respect others trust in both public and private spaces? Are there private habits or online behaviors or secret indulgences that are contradicting your values or harming your relationship relationships? Are you resisting temptation even when no one's watching? Or do you rationalize compromise? Do you take responsibility for your mistakes? Are you consistently living in the same principles in all areas of your life? Home, work, church, social media, all the things? I encourage you to take a good look at your life and think, am I living the same way and every element of the my life, and am I happy with that? Am I living faithfully? Faithfulness is not going to happen by accident. It is a spiritual discipline. And listen, wherever you are, I am praying for you. I'm praying that God would call you and equip you for faithfulness. And I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you and give you peace. And I'll see you right back. Back here on Monday. Can't wait. The views and opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Radio. M.