You're listening to the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. It's fast, fun, free, daily deep-dive Bible. And right now, we're talking about Galatians.

I have no idea who said this originally, but it smacks of truth.

And the first time I heard it was like my eyes opened and my universe expanded.

I was like, dang, that is one of the truest things I've ever heard.

Ready?

Here it is.

Whatever you incentivize, people will do.

Just think about that from a perspective of relationships, family, how you operate in an

institution, a workplace, policies, HR policies in the workplace, public policy, government,

whatever you incentivize, people will do. And so when we became parents, Camilla and I had to think

real hard. And we're like, well, how do we want our kids to turn out? What kind of stuff do we want

them to have his habits, as virtues, how do we want them to problem solve things? What kind of

vibe? What kind of attitude toward challenges do we want them to have? And so we made a decision

early on, which is something we've mostly stuck to, surely we've screwed it up at some point.

But the decision was, nobody in our family is going to get what they want from complaining or

griping or moping. Because if that works, then we've incentivized it. And then people will

complain and gripe and mope, including me. Whatever you incentivize, people will do.

And so there have been times over the years.

My kids are, you know, they're pretty cool.

They don't get this wrong a lot, but everybody gets it wrong from time to time.

There have been times over the years where I've had to pull the kids aside and be like, hey, kiddo, what are you doing? Have you ever got what you want from complaining and moping and griping like you're doing right now?

Ever. Has that ever worked? No. Okay, then why are you doing it? I don't know. Okay, well, here I'm going to offer you something. I can't guarantee you're going to get what you want here.

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