How to Build a Future Aligned with Your Values with Lyndon Azcuna
This week, Matt Wilson and guest Lyndon Azcuna explore the importance of using practical tools to navigate life’s complexities and foster personal growth. They discuss the role of self-awareness and humility as key drivers of personal development and highlight the value of a biblical worldview in addressing life’s challenges. Matt and Lyndon also share actionable resources and frameworks.
Listen for insights on how to live a life aligned with your values and promote overall well-being.
Transcript
Hi, welcome to the Live well podcast, where we explore how to navigate life's biggest changes, overcome challenges, and build a future that aligns with your values. Hi, I'm Matt Wilson, financial advisor, coach and business owner at my practice here at Cornerstone Wealth Services in South Bend, Indiana.
And I'm so glad that you're here.
This podcast, again, was born out of a very simple but apparent powerful belief that you can live a life that is grounded, healthy, and aligned with your values and your goals, even in the middle of big transitions and hardship.
So whether you're facing retirement, changing jobs, maybe you, you're dealing with the death of a loved one, you're looking to start that business, you're looking to start that organization, or just wondering what's next, then this podcast is for you. Every episode, I aim to sit down with a professional or expert, real people who've lived through the hard stuff and who have come out stronger.
And we're going to unpack what it really looks like to Live well. Today I have with me again Lynden Ezuna.
Lyndon:Yes.
Matt:From Life Plan. And we had had just a great conversation in the prior episode here, but I would just tell you that if you're looking for the tools part.
So that's our tagline, tools for a healthier and wealthier life. And that means so much. It's not just about finances. It's relationships with yourself, with others, and with the good Lord above.
And I would just tell you that there's no better person right now, there's probably no better podcast that you're going to listen to than what we're going to talk about here today. And today is all about the tools part of Living well, and really what that means.
So we talked through the first go around here just about the awareness that we need to have, the awareness of just what's working, what's not working, the awareness of what's actually missing in your life, but what do you need to do to fix it practically? How do we do that? How do we make sure that we're. We're aligned, that we're.
We're living healthy with not just ourselves physically, but relationally and all that. So today we're going to talk through some of the tools that we need. And, and also I.
We were talking earlier about just an amazing opportunity that I think you have, and I want our listeners to be aware of that, if that's okay, and just know that what's coming, because there's resources out there for some of the challenges that we face, but not all of them really give you the hope and give you the proper practical steps to realign yourself, to get you to a better place where you can overcome some of these things. So that's what we're going to discuss today is just tools that change lives.
Lyndon:Wonderful. Let's do it.
Matt:So we're going to dive in. I think we call this equipped to serve tools, truth, and building a life that lasts.
And so when you look at all the things that are out there, they might provide you with some quick fixes, they might provide you with a quick tip, but sometimes you need to, like, destroy the foundation and start over.
Lyndon:That's well said.
Matt:So some of that is probably what we're going to talk about today. But so let's talk about just personal growth.
Lyndon:Okay.
Matt:First, keys to personal growth. What daily habits would you say that help you stay grounded and resilient?
Lyndon:Absolutely, without a doubt. Spending time with God now. It is. It is.
I've learned through I've been a Christian now for over 40 years, and I can definitely say it's that it's been silent and solitude. I think we're too busy as a nation, as a people. And one Christian writer said the greatest danger for the Christians today is hurry.
Hurry is the greatest danger for Christianity today. We're so here. Hurry that we don't have time for God. We need that because that's like our foundation that sets us in our. Sets us for the day.
And even the secular community has understood that. Reflection, meditation, things like that. I'm talking about biblical meditation is understanding who God is and what he's done.
And that's what I try to do every morning, every day of my life, every morning. I'm fortunate that life, my family are late sleepers and late risers, and I'm an early riser.
So I go to sleep early, wake up early, just being in the word, reading good books, reading good biographies of people who have done it well before me. So I would say that just being in the word, not just reading, but studying it, understanding what the word of God is saying, I would say the.
That is the number one anchor, without a doubt. And if you look back in history or Christian history or faith history, that's the same truth that goes back.
Matt:You know, you mentioned anxiety and you mentioned just the hurried nature of our society. And so there's a study done, and if I can find it, I'll put it in the show notes.
But the study said the greatest predictor of anxiety in adulthood is having always been in a hurry. As a Child, there you go. Being forced to be in a hurry. And you know, now we wonder, oh, how do we get here?
You know, why do we have so much anxiety and why do we have so much, you know, that we need to deal with on that? And you know, maybe there's something to. Something to it.
Lyndon:I remember an author, he wrote a book, this I would recommend, maybe a show note. Ruthless Elimination of a Hurry by John Mark Comer.
Matt:Okay.
Lyndon:He says, essentially, he also says the goldfish has a longer attention span than we humans. The goldfish has a nine seconds attention span and we humans have eight.
Matt:Well, I wish I could incorporate that on. It's not memory, it's attention.
Lyndon:Attention. Yeah.
Matt:Okay.
Lyndon:Attention.
Matt:So. Okay, good.
Lyndon:I'm sorry, Attention span is what I meant.
Matt:No, no, no, I think you said it right. I was just like, I've always heard it as they have a memory, you should have a memory. Sorry, but no, that's great. Yeah, well, let's, let's.
We'll put that in there as a resource. But if I can find that study, we'll do it. But you know, I think I phrased this question like a north star.
Lyndon:Yeah, yeah.
Matt:Okay. What's your north star? And I think I know the answer.
Lyndon:If you listen to the podcast or you can equate it. Yeah, north star, without a doubt is God loves me. Or if you want to say it, another way of saying it is that Christ is everything I need.
There was a point in my life when I lost everything and I lost everything. I was at empty and I had nothing left but Christ. But guess what? He was more than enough. A trellis that I use for my life. Life is organic, it flows.
But I have a trellis that I've created now since the last 10 years, I would say, and I use it in my tagline when I email people. It's three, turn, trust and treasure. What I mean by that is this is a summary of my life. This is the trellis of my life. Turn.
The modern word for repentance, it's turned 180, right? And Martin Luther says, we need to live a life of repentance. And that's not repentance of your sin, of your overall sin. I'm a sinner and all that.
It's a daily repentance because life is messy. I say bad things to my wife, I yell at my kids, I get angry driving. But I need to repent of those because God has called us to live better than that.
So turn is one, number one. Number two is trust. In everything that happens to me.
I've learned that in my broken, in my marriage, in failure, of somebody stabbing me from the back in the difficulty. I will trust God in raising money for my ministry. I trust God that he will provide. So in all things, trust God, trust Christ, and.
And then lastly, treasure, treasure Christ above all else. Because we're always tempted in our world to treasure other things that we find our hope in other things.
Or this is a better treasure that will fill my heart. I'm sorry to say, nothing fills our heart except Jesus Christ. So those are great principles I've applied in my life turn.
Trust, treasure, treasure Christ above all things.
Matt:The three T's.
Lyndon:The three T's.
Matt:Three T's. I love it. I love it. How do you lead yourself before you lead others?
And, and we, we had a little discussion about this where, you know, people will come to you and say, hey, I want to lead, I want to serve, I want to teach. You know, and I think this is kind of where that fits in, right?
Lyndon:Yeah. Yeah. Just two weeks ago, a guy came up to me, hey, I. I'm not involved in church, but I want to teach. I want to be a teacher.
Can I teach in one of our classes and all that? And as an elder of my church, I counseled him and I first asked him, okay, that's great. I'm glad you had that passion.
I asked him, number one, did you ever ask yourself why? I asked him, why do you want to do this?
Matt:It's a great question.
Lyndon:Is there something broken? I'm not saying there is. I'm just saying, have you asked, what's your motive behind it? Is it people pleasing?
Is it some emptiness that you're trying to fill?
Matt:Sure.
Lyndon:So I asked them that first, and then I asked them the usual things. Have you taken the spiritual gift test? Is this your giftedness? Or maybe it's something else. Yeah, let's see if teaching it is. So take.
You take in the spiritual giftedness. And then I asked him, what about have you tried, instead of at this level, coming up to this level, teaching at the church?
Have you tried Sunday school? Have you tried vacation Bible school and all that?
And then I asked him, I'll look at the church and see if there's opportunities that you can start teaching. But ask yourself first, be aware of why you're doing it, because it could be the wrong motive. It could be escaping something from home.
Yeah, so I helped them with that. So, yeah, that's what I would say in counseling and in leading yourself, I would Say this. Pete Cesario, great book. Emotionally Healthy Leader. Okay.
This book is really great because he says it's directly proportional how you manage your emotion that is equal to your spirituality. Wow. So if you can't manage your lust, your anger, your spirituality is that plateau. So they're directly proportional.
So that's very interesting because if you're going to lead, if you ask me, Linden, what's the biggest advice you can give to a leader? Number one. One of the number one quality you need to have self. Aware.
Matt:Yeah.
Lyndon:Is your leadership. Are you self aware in your leadership? How you talk? Yeah, you talk about this. Matt, you're very. That's your. You're right on to that.
Are you self aware of how you're being portrayed by other people, how your words, how is it reacting? If you can't see that, I wouldn't recommend being. I think you need to grow there first. So that's really important in leadership.
There is one more thing I do personally. One of my favorite guys in history, his name is Robert Murray McShane. And he said this. This is what I think about when I think about leadership.
My people's greatest need is my personal holiness. I believe if we're a leader, we need to have integrity. We need to have a right standing with God, and we need to have him as our north compass.
Because you can't lead others if you don't know where you stand first with God.
Matt:Yeah.
Lyndon:What are you following?
Matt:Yeah, what are you following? You know?
Lyndon:Yeah. What are you following?
Matt:Everybody's following somebody.
Lyndon:Exactly.
Matt:And so is that going to lead to growth or is that going to lead to ruin?
Lyndon:Right.
Matt:There's so much more we could unpack there, but we'll.
Lyndon:Let me just say one last thing. When people are under our leadership, they should be better people. After our leadership. That can be applied in everything.
Better people in themselves. They have better leaders in the future. They're better people. They're greater knowledge of God, love for God, all that.
They should be better off because they went through our leadership. That's my encouragement and challenge.
Matt:Yeah. You know, I'm glad you bring all this up. I mean, as I look to start the podcast and look to do this live well concept, it's really just.
I'm going to learn alongside my audience and people like you, providing the tools and seeing how grounded you are. People may not necessarily agree. They may not know exactly what you mean. And we're happy to have you connect with Lyndon.
If you feel like you need to do that, obviously you can reach out to us here.
But I would say that having that just foundation, knowing who you are, knowing what your identity is, and then knowing maybe what your strengths and weaknesses are. How many people actually don't even know that? Like they don't know what they're.
Lyndon:That's right.
Matt:Whether it's spiritual gifts or maybe they overestimate their abilities or what have you. So, no, I think that's fantastic. Just knowing how to lead yourself and be self aware. Again, it's awareness of. I mentioned in.
In my money minute, and I think we were talking about this, that 70% of people don't even know how much or what they're spending their money on. They don't have a budget. So how do you even know what to fix or to change or to address if you're not aware of it?
So again, there's that awareness applies to life. Another way you can apply just how you fix it is just being aware. Just figure out where it's going.
I would plug that there, but I would just tell you that it's great to see your compass truly pointed north. And obviously there's a lot of people who want to get there. And that's where I think we can walk into is just what are the tools that we can use?
What are those specific tools that you use to help people align themselves better? And so what are the go to tools or the frameworks that you use for people in crisis?
Lyndon:Okay, you said something there.
Matt:Sure.
Lyndon:When people don't know how to get there, why did they get there? I want to say if you're really struggling, you don't have a North Star. I want you to know the beginning to understanding the North Star. Here it is.
It's in Matthew 5:3. It's the first of the Beatitudes of the 12 Beatitudes, 11 Beatitudes. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.
In other words, not poor in poverty, but pouring. I can't do this by myself. That is the red carpet. That is the front door into the kingdom of God.
That is the front door in God coming into our lives and helping us when we come to the end of ourselves. Whether you're an alcohol or an addict or. Or life is so messy and you want God to come in. That is the entrance point.
That is the first words out of the Jesus Christ when he gave the greatest sermon on Earth, the Sermon on the Mount. So know that that's the front door. That's the red carpet, the end of ourselves. You remember that in my story when I came to the end of myself.
I couldn't fix it. That's when God came in and throughout history said, okay, so what's the framework? Yes, I'm sorry, I need to get that. So, people.
Matt:That's good.
Lyndon:How do I start? How do I start? That's the starting point. Yeah. And that's the kingdom of God starting point.
Matt:And it's. It's a humility. Humility, you know?
Lyndon:Exactly.
Matt:It's a humility where, you know, I was. I was talking to my wife about, you know, talking to Ashley about the fact that, you know, hey, you know what?
I need to not necessarily care what people think of me, but I. I don't want to just be like, well, I don't care what you think.
Lyndon:Right, right.
Matt:And. And I'm like, I'm trying to kind of understand. And you know what she said to me?
She says, well, there's a way you can do it, and one has humility and one doesn't. So are you humble in. In your state and. And also in how you think of yourself in front of other people. So anyway, I thought that was great.
Just humility is. It's the red carpet. I love it.
Lyndon:It's the red carpet. It's the beginning of the framework to restore. So you're asking the question, what are those tools.
Matt:Tools and frameworks that you use for somebody in crisis?
Lyndon:Okay. Okay. Let's provide a tool. Very simple. Very simple. Okay. I would add to that. The beginning is humility.
You have to ask people where they're at, because my wife and I are counseling a couple right now, and I think he is just trying to restore this marriage because he got caught. Yeah, it's not really. I'm sorry.
Matt:He didn't fess up.
Lyndon:He didn't fess up. So that's the problem. So humility is very, very, very important. Okay. It's understanding. It's what you said, Matt.
When we realize what's the problem, do we realize we have a problem? Okay. So humility is the entrance point. Then you become aware of yourself. Is the second thing. Awareness. Awareness of what the problem is.
Awareness that you could be the problem. You could be the problem. And helping people, counseling men and women and guys that if. If they.
If their excuses is always pointing to something else or someone else, they're maybe not ready or they're not aware.
Matt:You ever heard of the Bob principle?
Lyndon:Well, yeah. What is it?
Matt:So the Bob principle is if Bob has a problem with everybody or everything, then usually Bob's the problem.
Lyndon:That's Exactly. That's it. That's it.
Matt:Yeah.
Lyndon:It's applied everywhere. Applied in finance, applying it everywhere in people with their marriages, with their personal problem. If they. Oh, if their.
If their answer is always external or someone else, they're not aware yet. Not aware.
Matt:Yeah.
Lyndon:Then here we go. This is where. What is your biblical worldview? What is the answer? What is the brokenness? Okay. Because this.
There are people like in the pro life movement. I'll just apply this and then I'll correlate it in the pro life battle. We think the solution is just changing the laws.
Well, I have a sermon that I always preach on. Let's have a right diagnosis. Is the problem really laws of the land or is the problem the heart of the people?
Matt:Yeah.
Lyndon:And that's why life plan. The gospel is always the answer. Because our problem is not circumstances or situation. The problem is sin in our hearts. Okay, let's go back.
What made the worst. What made the world where it is? It's the fall we were created holy and perfect. Then the fall we decided we can handle our own way of life.
And then that created a whole mess. But God in his goodness gave us the good news of redemption. Here's the point. Diagnose of the right, what the problem really is. So this is where.
What is the real problem? Is it circumstances or is a heart problem? And that's why Lyndon here goes to the biblical worldview and understand what the real problem is.
And it is sin.
So this is huge, Matt, because if you don't see the world as a sin problem, you'll just try harder and work harder and do things, and it'll all eventually mess up again.
Matt:Right, Right. Yeah. It's so foundational. You know, you look at.
Lyndon:The.
Matt:The symptoms and not the cause of the issue. You know, there you go. I've counseled people financially and, you know, don't necessarily just want to always keep it coming back to that.
But, you know, sometimes it's not a. It's not a spending issue. It's a thinking issue.
Lyndon:Yes, it is. There you go.
Matt:And I mentioned that kind of in the first podcast that we. That we did, you know, so I think that there's. There's the awareness, but then there's like the journey.
Lyndon:Yes.
Matt:There's the ongoing that.
Lyndon:The fourth thing is that we are called to walk with each other. We are called to get help, like what you're doing in the area of finance. We're called to help get help in our marriages.
That's what the Church of Jesus Christ is for to bring help and healing. God will bring the healing through the people. That's why life plan is here.
That's why as Christian churches are here to help the brokenness of our world and point to the ultimate hope. Remember, where hope begins is Christ.
Matt:Yeah. You know, I heard a statement one time and this just hit so deep.
And I don't know, maybe this is too deep, but you look at somebody said one time that what a world it would be if everyone focused on everyone else's needs.
Lyndon:Wow.
Matt:And their own character instead of focusing on their own needs and everyone else's character. And, and so you think about that. And I've tried to think about that in my home, in my relationships.
And you know, imagine a world where it would be like that.
Lyndon:I think the, that guy got that from Jesus Christ.
Matt:Well, it was, it was in a sermon of some sort or some sort of. I can't remember exactly where it was. But anyway, I thought that was one of those nuggets I better write down and take it with me.
Lyndon:So summary humility.
Matt:Yeah.
Lyndon:Self awareness, biblical worldview and walking with others.
Matt:Yeah. You can't live well if you don't love well.
Lyndon:Right, right, right, right. So.
Matt:I think we kind of talked about this, but what about somebody who wants to lead but they just, they just don't really know how, you know, they. And, and I think sometimes I know my own life. You, you get rejected and it's like, oh, it feels like you're being gut punched.
And then you just say, well, I'm not going to try again.
Lyndon:Yeah.
Matt:What would you say to anybody who's looking to try to develop that leadership?
Lyndon:Yeah. Learning to lead. Well, you can always read books. Like I said. You can get a personal counselor or you can get a book counselor.
There's a lot of great books out there that you can learn from. So reading books, reading books, reading lots of books. If you want to lead, well, read books, read books.
Take people out who are already leaders in their community. Take them out to lunch, talk about it, write things. Self reflection, understanding your bent, as you said earlier, what's my strength?
What's my weakness as a leader? And then learning from these book and apply things in your life. Okay. It's not about the volume of books, but application of those books in leading.
Self awareness is always a key.
Matt:Yeah, you're talking. I had. And maybe this is too simple, but you know, read, relate and reassess.
Lyndon:Absolutely.
Matt:You know, it's a constant. It's not like, oh yeah, I got it. And yeah, it's just like, no, you're gonna try to improve yourself. You're gonna try to expand your knowledge.
Work on yourself.
Lyndon:Work on yourself.
Matt:But then, you know, I've heard, heard it said before too. You know, skim the cream off the top of every man's brain.
Lyndon:Yes, that's right.
Matt:That's right.
Lyndon:So anyway, that involves humility, be humble. You know, it's not about you. You have a greater purpose than that. If you want to help people, you learn from others.
Matt:So we were talking a little bit about kind of one of your passions. And you, you have some resources and I think, you know, in this, this world, where do you, who do you turn to?
Where do you turn for some of these really? I call them big hooks. And, and you know, I, I mean, you look at just whether it's drugs, alcohol.
We talked about a, a just understanding that there's a. Having an awareness first. But then once you have that awareness, it's like, okay, now what?
Lyndon:Yes.
Matt:So can you talk a little bit about that? I mean, and kind of your passions. And then there's also a project that I. Oh, yeah, you got coming up.
Lyndon:Okay. Yeah. I've been in life plan for 10 years and just a little history. Been lifeline for 10 years. And we were helping with women to make life choices.
But if you peel that a little bit, there is a brokenness there. And our culture has a huge brokenness, a sexual brokenness. I believe one of the big two big idols in our world is materialism and sexuality.
Broken sexuality. And that's the root of the Life Plan issue. And then as I unpack that even deeper, sexual broken, brokenness.
One of the key sexual brokenness in our culture is pornography. Huge. Huge. I'll give you a quick stats, just quick stats. Average age of a kid getting exposed to pornography is between age and 11 years.
Eight and 11 years old.
Matt:Yeah, I was like 10 years old.
Lyndon:Yeah. Yeah. There are more traffic in pornography than tick tock, Instagram, Facebook and all of those combined.
Matt:Oh my goodness.
Lyndon: The kicker is this, okay, in:Now they don't even have, they don't even know how many.
e website, the biggest one in: Matt:So what you're saying, if I'm hearing you right, is this affects a lot, a lot of people, not just a few.
Lyndon:Yes. Pornography destroys your relationship with God because you will start thinking that you're not saved if you are a Christian.
It keeps you distant from God, it destroys your identity to yourself in a lot of ways. And impotent if you keep going with it by the way, destroys your marriage, destroys your family, destroys your view of people and women in a society.
It morally declines our society in a family. It's like throwing a grenade in the middle of your family. Body parts are all over the place. That's how dangerous pornography is.
And then my personal interest in this because of my brokenness also I realized that walking men through this is much more than just knowledge. The danger of pornography, it's the next phase I'll help them walk through is being self aware. What are the triggers?
Because pornography is not necessarily the main reason why men, men get into pornography is because it's a coping mechanism in how they handle issues and problems and challenges.
Matt:Symptom, symptoms.
Lyndon:It's a symptoms people go to drugs, alcohol, whatever. We need to go back to God because he's our source, he's our fortress.
Do you know that in the Bible there's 120 names of God just in the books of Psalms. Why is that? Because there's 120 name that he can be to what you need him to be. Not pornography.
Then the next phase is helping them understand that how the Bible answers this issue. Pornography and the worldview, the change that the Bible offers, it's an idol worship essentially.
And then finally finding their true passion in Christ, that Christ is the greatest hope of their heart that they long for. Not pornography.
Matt:Yeah, you, you have a, I have lots of resources. You have a series on that. And then if, if you, if, I guess tell them, tell folks if they, they just don't know what to do next.
Maybe they're aware of the an issue. Maybe they now believe what you're telling.
Lyndon:Yeah.
Matt:Telling them what do you tell them to do next?
Lyndon:Get help. Get help. Get help. Because you cannot do this alone.
Matt:Right.
Lyndon:You cannot go to a church friend. Go to a friend that you can trust. That'll walk you through it, that'll help you through it, go through. There's some solid resources out there.
Oh, off the top of my head, Pure desires ministry is a ministry that I would recommend. There's a lot of resources, but just make sure. It's Christ centered. You can go to our life plan YouTube website and I have your channel, my channel.
And then there's a five talks there for 15 minutes that I've given and you can call me. You know, I love walking men through it. I have some resources that I would recommend.
One of the number one that I start with with men in struggling with Pornography, Hope and Holiness by John for Fondel. And there's a lot of other ones that I could recommend.
Matt:Yeah, we'll put some of that in in the show notes too. You know, you gave me several really good books.
You know, whether it's on awareness, whether it's the actual issue, discipleship, or maybe you just need like a deeper, A deeper walk, deeper understanding of where you are.
Lyndon:Yes.
Matt:So let's do like a. A little toolbox. Toolbox moment.
Lyndon:Oh, yes.
Matt:Okay. And so give me quick rapid fire, two to three. Really good.
I know you've given some of your resources, the website, the YouTube channel, and give me two to three tools that listeners can use this week.
Lyndon:This is for healing. Just general growth, right?
Matt:Yeah.
Lyndon:Oh, these are. This is my go to books. Honestly. Healing from within by Chuck de Groth. Chuck DeGroth is a pastor, counselor and therapist. How's that combination?
So healing from within. I go through this in my second phase with walking through men after they saw the awareness of their brokenness. And then this is healing.
It's understanding how our past, our. Our trauma has broken us. Like me when I lost my father. Okay.
The second one would be Emotionally Healthy Discipleship or Emotionally Healthy Person by Pete Cesario. Great book on understanding yourself and the impact of family background. I don't know if your listeners have taken the geniogram.
It's understanding your background. I've asked men to take this go and one guy realized I didn't know my grandfather. Grandfather cheated in so many women. And that's how I'm like.
So it's like understanding how people behave or how you solve problems. Like my family solve problem by removing the child from the situation and not taking responsibility. So things like that from our background.
Matt:What was that called?
Lyndon:Geniogram. It's called Geniogram. It's a test that you take. Bunch of questions. We can put it on the show notes.
Matt:Okay.
Lyndon:Geneograph. It's a therapist basic thing. Questions about your background.
Matt:Free to watch, free to anyone.
Lyndon:Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's how do you resolve or how do you address conflict? How do you do forgiveness? How did your father and mother show work ethic?
So all of these things.
Matt:Yeah.
Lyndon:Oh, pizzas are. You said this Jesus may be in your heart, but grandpa is in your bones. How's that as a phrase? Yeah. Jesus may be in your heart, he can transform you.
Well, but grandpa is in your bones is how you make up.
Matt:Yeah, there's. I just. My mind goes back to the scripture. It says, you know, sins of a father and a third and fourth generation Malachi.
And so how do you break the cycle? You know, it's like we talked about earlier with just what's the difference between somebody who continues to remain poor.
Lyndon:Correct.
Matt:And then they think, well, I just need more income. That's going to solve the issue.
Lyndon:Oh, no.
Matt:Well, they're going to perpetually be dependent or they're never going to break that cycle.
Lyndon:Right.
Matt:And that's not a good life where you just always live in that anxiety of it's all going to get taken away all the time. And then they don't have that third box. They don't have the third box, which is just the asset box. And understanding that you have another option.
But I think it just goes back to again, that awareness of, of who you are, where you come from, what makes you up. And some people. It might be really scary to do this.
Lyndon:Absolutely.
Matt:Do you find that, that it scares people to death?
Lyndon:Yeah. That's scary. Yeah.
Matt:They don't want to start it.
Lyndon:No, but most people don't. But I want to encourage you. Your identity is already in Christ. Your hope is there, you can unpack because there's forgiveness.
Forgiveness and healing. But Jesus took the stripes already, so you and I can be healed.
Matt:I hate to keep doing this, but you made me bring. It brings up the verse in Psalm, I think it's 51, says, My sin is against you and you alone, and you only. And yes, you can sin against a brother.
You can sin against your spouse. You can. But until you, you know, at least in my life, until I realized, hey, my, My wrongdoing, my sin is not against anyone but him.
Lyndon:Yes.
Matt:I gotta get that right.
Lyndon:Yes.
Matt:And if you don't come to that place, then it's all kind of like, well, I got found out. I guess I gotta clean.
Lyndon:Oh, yeah, yeah. That's Matthew 5, 3. That's Matthew. And remember the 2. The story in Luke 18 when the Pharisee went to the temple and the sinner went to the temple.
The Pharisee says, I got it, so I'm glad I'm not like him. But the sinner said, beats in his own heart. And who Went home, forgiven the sinner.
That brokenness, that awareness that against you, Lord, against you. That's when Christ starts working. And I want to say your listeners know how bad mindset is. Okay? There's a lot of examples.
Mike Tyson is a great example. He, he was a millionaire in one boxing match, but he also bankrupt, I think two or three times. Yeah, it's a mindset.
Matt:It, you know it is. And you know, I have another amazing statistic.
And when it comes to inheritances, do you know how this is going to talk about mindset in understanding the different boxes and what keeps you wealthy or makes you wealthy? How long do you think the average inheritance takes to spend.
Lyndon:Wow, Tell me.
Matt:To be gone completely. No, Regardless of the age you get it and regardless of the amount, how long do you think it is? Give a guess.
Lyndon:Year.
Matt:18 months.
Lyndon:Wow.
Matt:It's gone. It doesn't matter the amount and it doesn't matter the age that you get it. And it just goes back to. Well, they're probably just buying stuff.
They're not buying assets. And they. And so what I would encourage people to do is just stop and reflect.
Lyndon:Reflect.
Matt:Take a picture of where you are. Do a self assessment that you say to do, you know, back to the self assessment of, hey, where actually am I?
Lyndon:That's right.
Matt:So. And I would encourage anybody that they can reach out, go to the website and then I'd be happy to schedule some time.
And then if you need to do that on the personal level, if you're struggling, I would highly encourage, reach out to Lyndon to the website. They can go to lifeplan.org right.
Lyndon:Yep.
Matt:We'll put your phone number in the show notes.
Lyndon:Sure, no problem. You can email me. Email me. We're here to serve people. If you say, then we're here. That is a great point.
Remember, I want to, I want to wrap it back again.
Matt:Yeah.
Lyndon:My story, when I walked away, I stopped. After that, I said, what's broken? That is a self assessment. Where am I? Yeah, I think your listeners and everybody. Where am I? What is.
Where's my family situated? Where's my finite Stop. In fact, they say animal. Humans are the only, only animals that when something goes wrong, we run faster.
I heard that somewhere. Stop. And God says, be still.
Matt:Yeah. You know, I'm learning that right now too. Like sometimes it's okay just to be.
Lyndon:Yeah.
Matt:Just to like do nothing.
Lyndon:Yeah.
Matt:Like I have, I've had this thing in life where it's just like overwhelmingly like I gotta be doing something. I gotta, I'M not productive.
Lyndon:And.
Matt:And it's like sometimes you just need to rest and like recharge or you need to just kind of like assess. So rest and assess.
Lyndon:Yes. Last book. Okay. I gave them the Healing From Within. Emotionally Healthy Discipleship or Leader Steps. It's a great book. Steps by John Ortberg.
What it is is a Christian guy who took the AA philosophy, by the way, it was originated from a Christian perspective, the a way. So what he did was he re. Emphasize the spiritual aspect. And it's called the book. It's called Steps. Excellent book.
I use it for my addiction group this coming fall at church.
Matt:Okay. Now I know we talked about that a little bit, but I want to highlight that you have some resources coming up.
Lyndon:Yes. Life plan.
Matt:You want to talk about that?
Lyndon:Yeah. Life plan. We. This coming. This coming next year, our hope is to create because we want to equip parents on the danger of pornography.
We're making our first children anti pornography. And it's. It's going to help parents. It's a storybook on the danger of pornography, ages three, I mean third grade to fifth grade.
And we're going to produce this. It's going to be available Amazon.
It's going to help kids see the danger of pornography and walk a parent on how to help their kids if they get exposed to what to do, how to close the book report and then there's a gospel presentation at the end. We're producing this and I'm really excited.
The graphics person that's going to be doing it is the person who made Odyssey from Focus in the Family, if you know about that. The graphics is so beautiful. So we're just looking for funding to support that mini. That project and we're hoping to launch it sometime next year.
We already actually written it. We just need funding to produce it.
Matt:I'm sure there's a lot of parents who are like, man, I don't. I don't even know how to talk about this. I don't know how to start.
Lyndon:This is a tool that'll help you and there's one in the Amazon right now, but it's a non Christian one. This one will have the Christian aspect to it.
Matt:Yeah, well, boy, this is all really helpful. And again, I think they can go to lifeplan.org to support you and to get the resources and, and then if they. I think that's a project, that book.
So if they want to help support that.
Lyndon:Sure.
Matt:Opportunity, we would love that. Do they just email you@info.lifeplan.org info or.
Lyndon:They can go to our website and go to funding and designate it. There's a other. And you can write in their anti pornography children's book.
Matt:Okay.
Lyndon:It's another way of doing it. But they can do info and then I can respond to that.
Matt:Respond to it. Okay. Yeah.
So I would just take this moment to say if you have found this helpful, this conversation helpful, and hopefully you have, and there's been some things that you can chew on and maybe there's some somebody that you can share this with that you can encourage them. You know, it's hard to talk about some of this stuff. It's hard to. Hard to bring it up.
But if somebody's struggling, maybe say, hey, look, you know, let me send you this link to this podcast. So first subscribe and then you can go ahead and do that, leave a review and share it with a friend if this episode has helped you.
So I just want to take a moment to do that. I don't know if there's anything else you want to, I guess, review at the end here. In closing, I've got way more stuff here. We got to talk again.
So we'll have you back again just to talk through some of this stuff. But I think living well is, and certainly you're approaching this from a biblical worldview where hope doesn't mean what the world thinks hope is.
And you also don't. You don't necessarily just want to fix the symptom. You want to address the root.
Lyndon:We're too old for that, you're too.
Matt:Old for that, and stuff that lasts.
Lyndon:Yes.
Matt:So living well isn't like taking a pill and not changing your behavior or not changing the way you exercise or eat, nor should it be what you intake know, as far as content and whatever. So there's great resources. If you're struggling, if you've got an issue that Lyndon touched on, please do not hesitate to read.
Make today the day that you decide that you are no longer going to go down that path. Make today that you decide to live well and to ask for help. And it may be the day to save your life.
It may be the day that saved your marriage, it may be the day that saves your finances.
I mean, this is just understanding where you are, knowing that there's other people that have gone through this, knowing that there's other people that, that can help you. That's the whole goal of this. So we're trying to go back to the core four. I've given you ways to know how to give. I've also given you ways to.
To know how to receive.
There's great content, and then there's great books and whatnot that Lyndon shared, and then the core four, and knowing how to say no to those things that absolutely crush you, and then saying knowing how to ask for help. And we've given you all of those today. And Linda and I, I thank you very much.
Lyndon:My pleasure.
Matt:So again, if you have found this helpful, please subscribe, share it with a friend, and until next time, keep showing up, keep being honest. Remember, you can do this, and I'm here to help. Till next time, live well.
