Hey everybody, this is Troy.

And this is Ruth.

Welcome to the Foundation's podcast.

Our foundation today is about praise and prayer and Thanksgiving and how we cultivate that in our homes.

Yeah, a lot of good stuff to cover.

We're excited to share with you, so let's get to it.

Okay, so today's foundation is Foundation 8, Cultivate Praise, Prayer, Thanksgiving.

And that's based on 1st Thessalonians 5, verse 16 through 18.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Now, honey, why do you think when you wrote this foundation, you wrote the word cultivate?

Why not just say, hey, make sure you're praising and you're praying and in this house we are going to give thanks?

Why did we lead out by saying this foundation is based on this word, cultivate these things?

It's a good question.

This was one of the early verses that I memorized in high school.

Good one to memorize.

And yeah, and you know, it's real, in fact, you can get three verses and like just real close together because they're very short, like a machine gun fired, you know, and be joyful always, pre-continion.

And all things give things. And I've thought about this for a long, long time. And, you know, probably the main thought that I have come away with again and again and again. And this was especially true.

It's became apparent. Those things don't come naturally. No, they don't. They don't come naturally to my flesh. And I ask the boys this all the time, I say, and I think we've shared this on another podcast. Like, do you have to try to be selfish? Do you have to try to lose your temper? Yeah. And joyceing and thankfulness and prayerfulness, those are things that

really are learned. You know, we live in an agricultural community, and this is actually the time

of year when they're starting to turn fields over, and they're burning the ditches to get the

weeds out so they can irrigate. And there's a lot of work that goes in this time of year to see the green fields in the summer and in the fall.

And I think it's really a great metaphor for what it's like in the Christian life.

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