2024 Wrap-Up: Holiday Challenges & Strengthening Marriages | Love By Faith with Kyle & Selina Almodovar #054

In our last episode of the year, we discuss navigating holiday challenges while looking back at our 2024 podcast season to recap strengthening marriages.  

Reflecting on another whirlwind year, we open up about the trials and triumphs that have fortified our marriage in 2024.

As holiday traditions bring us comfort, we ponder whether pre-wrapping gifts or binge-watching Hallmark movies is the true path to a serene Christmas morning.

Our podcast has evolved from sharing personal stories to offering practical advice, and we dive into what that transformation has meant for us—and for you.

As we gaze into the horizon of 2025, we invite you to embrace this fresh start with the same faith and teamwork that have seen us through this challenging yet rewarding year.

With the holiday season approaching, we underscore the importance of praying together to stay connected amidst the chaos. Drawing from personal experiences, we warn against holiday burnout and introduce our 21-day devotional, "Journey to the Heart of Christmas," as a guide to rediscovering the season's true essence.

Planning for a stronger relationship doesn't stop with the holidays; we discuss setting growth-oriented goals for the new year, reminding you that a shared spiritual journey can fortify bonds.

From rekindling creative passions to pursuing personal growth, we explore how remaining open to life's surprises—guided by faith—can lead to unexpected and fulfilling paths. Join us as we lean into 2025 with renewed energy, purpose, and the readiness to uncover what faith has in store.

It's been an incredible year, we hope you will have a wonderful Christmas and New Year, and we'll see you again in 2025!! ✝️🎄


🔗 LINKS TO THINGS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE! 🔗

Love & Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs

Proverbs 16:9 "The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. 

Chapters

• 0:00 Reflecting on 2024 and Christmas Traditions
• 15:23 Planning for a Stronger Relationship
• 23:21 Embracing Change With Faith and Plans

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Merry Christmas, Kyle.

Speaker 2: 0:01

Is it merry?

Speaker 1: 0:02

You know, looking back at 2024, we did not expect to go through everything we went through as a couple.

Speaker 2: 0:07

That would be my biggest encouragement for the holiday season.

Speaker 1: 0:10

This is our last episode of 2024. We're not perfect people.

Speaker 2: 0:16

By any means.

Speaker 1: 0:17

But by trusting in God we learned what it takes to build a friendship.

Speaker 2: 0:22

A relationship.

Speaker 1: 0:23

And marriage that has stood the test of time.

Speaker 2: 0:26

With a Keeping it Real style. We're going to talk to you about everything everything that we've been through are going through and have overcome All by learning how to lean on God and each other.

Speaker 1: 0:39

In order to help you learn how to love by faith. Merry Christmas, Kyle.

Speaker 2: 0:58

Is it merry, is it bright?

Speaker 1: 1:00

Am I going to get gifts? Yes definitely Are we going to have great food. Do I get to wear PJs all day.

Speaker 2: 1:07

That's your choice. I'm going to. There you go.

Speaker 1: 1:10

What.

Speaker 2: 1:10

It's going to be merry. It's going to be merry, merry Christmas.

Speaker 1: 1:13

Do we get to watch Hallmark?

Speaker 2: 1:15

Oh man the age-ending question.

Speaker 1: 1:18

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:20

The answer should always be yes, I love you so much.

Speaker 1: 1:22

The answer should always be yes.

Speaker 2: 1:23

That I am willing to connect with you through watching Hallmark movies.

Speaker 1: 1:27

You know what my favorite Christmas traditions are.

Speaker 2: 1:29

I can name a bunch of them, okay, but one that I really like is when we wrap gifts.

Speaker 1: 1:34

First of all, we don't wait until the day before Christmas. We wrap gifts like two weeks in advance Because for kids they might have things. Don't knock the plan, okay.

Speaker 2: 1:46

I'm not. I fought it at first, but now I've come to really love that. You make us get ahead.

Speaker 1: 1:52

For kids. They have items that you might buy that will require you to assemble. Things okay, they might need things that need programming things Okay, they might need things that need programming. You think I want to sip on my Merry Christmas coffee and enjoy my cinnamon bun with three kids pulling at my shirt talking about fix this for me put this together.

Speaker 2: 2:16

Oh, Selena, that's part of the tradition.

Speaker 1: 2:18

No, heck, no. I want it to be done so that on Christmas morning they wake up and it's done. They could just go Go do what you got to do. And I'm going to sit here by the fire and I'm going to watch a Christmas story and I'm going to just chill.

Speaker 2: 2:31

So in the beginning my counterargument to this was then they don't get the satisfaction of opening the box to get their stuff out of the box.

Speaker 1: 2:38

You, put it back in the box.

Speaker 2: 2:45

How do you put a Hot wheels track back in the box? You put a big bow on it right, or you can wrap it. I'm we got through this discussion already in our relationship and we've come to the conclusion that I esteem your opinion so much that we will put the stuff together ahead, because it is it is way better for the parents. It's definitely a selfish thing that we could chill and they could play, because their stuff is ready to play with you don't gotta look at instructions.

Speaker 1: 3:05

You don't gotta put little stickers everywhere. You don't gotta find the batteries. Like it's done.

Speaker 2: 3:10

It's done, just do it oh, I still have to do all that. It just happens way ahead of christmas morning and it's it's a good move. It's a good move. Definitely recommend it to y'all that's right.

Speaker 1: 3:20

So we're in our christmas season.

Speaker 2: 3:22

This is our last episode of 2024 oh, I keep thinking it's 2023, seriously my brain my brain is just blank that it's 2024 because it goes back to writing. I haven't written the date down in so long. Oh my gosh kai. But yeah, I so yeah, 2024. I keep looking at my watch and it says oh yeah, there's the year 2024. Got it.

Speaker 1: 3:43

Are you looking forward to 2025? Or are you assuming it's just going to be 2024, all over again?

Speaker 2: 3:49

No, I'm looking forward to 2025.

Speaker 1: 3:50

Why.

Speaker 2: 3:50

I love that. Even the five and zero years, it just feels like boom.

Speaker 1: 3:55

Except 2020, was robbed from us.

Speaker 2: 3:57

Yes, so 2025 is going to be sweet Because you're going to get all the fun like 25th anniversary of this and 75th, and because it's lands on a five year, it's gonna be nice, that's nice, the car companies and like all the marketing people just come out extra hard on the even years. So like you're gonna get some sweet model cars okay some nice, uh nice packages here's what I think.

Speaker 1: 4:19

here's what I'm feeling in my spirit. I feel like what 2020 was supposed to be, that's what 2025 is going to be. 2020, we all had this expectation of like we're going into the roaring 20s. It's going to be amazing. This year's our year, it's 2020. And then everything happened.

Speaker 2: 4:40

It's crazy that that was five years ago now.

Speaker 1: 4:43

Everything happened to the point where we just abandoned plans and planners and all things. We were just like screw this, it's a mess. But I feel like, after coming out of that and and going into this five years later, I think 2025 is going to be that new high moment for a lot of people what was your favorite episode of ours, of this year, of this, of this new season? Yes, okay, so in of of the love and respect season maybe even for for the guys, for the girls oh, for the season two yeah, the whole season two

Speaker 1: 5:21

it's really hard to say. I feel like we you know what it is. It's so crazy because all last year, or in from january to season two through 2024, we were so personal with our stories and with our experiences and I really like that because I'm a huge fan of storytelling. I love to just interact with people and become very vulnerable to share that so that they can reflect that. But when we started season two, to me it's felt like lecture after lecture after lecture, of like guys make sure you do this and girls make sure you do this, and guys you're slipping on this area and girls you're slipping on this area and girls you're slipping in this area. And it's just like which one of those lectures are my favorite. It's very hard to say.

Speaker 2: 6:13

So you edit the podcast when we do the.

Speaker 1: 6:15

Yes.

Speaker 2: 6:16

So which one did you when you were doing the editing or going through your re-listen? Were you like this was a really good episode? I don't mind Anytime, anytime that we're going through and we're talking and I ask you a question and you make this grunchy face. Oh, it's so good, it happened twice this season I don't.

Speaker 2: 6:35

In the Respect series it happened, and for the Ladies series it happened. And you're just like I don't have a good answer for that because it's a. It's a challenging point when I, when I do that, I'm like, yes, I challenged her, got a good, good, good point, I feel like um the old, there's an old sports show where they keep score yeah and the points don't matter, but there's. There's another one where there's like I feel like I get two points when okay, so when that?

Speaker 1: 7:01

happens if my, if my scrunchie face is your way of knowing that I, you challenged me yeah your deadpan straight into the camera is my way of knowing like this guy's got wheels turning in his head, because there are so many times when I'm editing where I see you're just like, it's just straight into the deer and headlights, or like but the funny part about it is that it's usually when I'm like popping off at the mouth, like when I'm in it.

Speaker 1: 7:35

You know, if you guys have heard other episodes and you hear me just kind, of on a rant. You always have that deadpan face and it's just like he's not hearing me, or he's not like you're just not emotionally reacting to me, and that lets me know.

Speaker 1: 7:49

Oh, you're, you're deep in thought, thinking about it so deep, that, yeah, that it's not coming out okay, so now I figured out what I want, what my favorite one is okay I really enjoyed the attraction portion of I think it was for the ladies how, or how to how the guys, how to make them attractive, and I really thought that that was really interesting because there was a lot of fun parts in there and there was a lot of unknown parts in there.

Speaker 1: 8:16

I think that was an episode where we were both able to learn from each other, learn things that like, oh, guys, really, oh, I didn't know this about a guy and you thought, oh, vice versa, like I didn't know girls needed this, and I think that there was just a lot of revelations in that episode. But it was also fun and I think I laughed the most when I was editing. My thing that I look forward to is I like to hear, I like things that will make me laugh, if I can make myself laugh. I'm not, I don't want to sound arrogant at all, but if I can make myself laugh from what we're talking about, then I know it's a good episode.

Speaker 2: 8:50

You think yeah.

Speaker 1: 8:51

With that being said, you know we kind of ended this whole season two portion with the Love and Respect book.

Speaker 2: 9:00

Right, so good.

Speaker 1: 9:02

And Kyle, you're a huge fan huge fan respect. Yeah, game changer can you tell us anything that we can do to just kind of bring it all together, especially like with holidays coming around? Yeah all of these things like what are some things that we can look forward to or be mindful of to keep love and respect our mission in this season.

Speaker 2: 9:23

That's good. I think I'll go like this For the ladies, tying it all together for the ladies. Remember that as all this stuff is happening, it seems like a lot of times you guys are the ones keeping track of the schedule, keeping track of where the things are and what's in the gift wrapping, and it's time to do this and it's time to do that.

Speaker 1: 9:45

A lot of planning.

Speaker 2: 9:46

Remember to just take a second to see your husband, to see him. He just just see him and not give him something to do, not critique him, not see him doing nothing, but just see him and appreciate him and pour pour that, that respect to him, for helping to make, make it possible okay and then I would say for the, for the guys yeah, your wife is going a million miles an hour.

Speaker 2: 10:14

She, she's doing all this stuff. One of the big takeaways in love and respect was to esteem her. She's doing all of this because she cares about it. How do you esteem her? You esteem her by showing her that you care too, by pulling your weight, by looking for things that she is missing.

Speaker 1: 10:33

That invisible load.

Speaker 2: 10:34

The invisible load. How can you I know I tend to pick up dishes load the dishwasher, do that kind of thing when she's not looking pick up wherever I'm walking? You know I have three kids so they leave stuff everywhere Wherever I'm walking. I just try to return stuff to where the vicinity of it goes so that the clutter is not like it's more like. You know, just a little bit.

Speaker 1: 10:55

You know, there are wives and mothers out there who will purposely leave things where they are.

Speaker 2: 11:01

Oh.

Speaker 1: 11:02

Just to test and see how long it will take for the rest of the family to notice and pick it up.

Speaker 2: 11:07

Oh, you're going to tee that one up. For me that goes back to the goodwill of the relationship. You can't be doing that to him. Don't trap your husband. Oh, husbands relationship. You can't be doing that to him. Don't, don't trap your husband, oh, husbands see, it. Don't step in the trap, bro. Don't step over. Open your eyes.

Speaker 1: 11:23

Yes, listen, 60 of it is taking care of yourself, bro, 60 of it in the kitchen is taking care of yourself and she'll see it.

Speaker 2: 11:29

I leave my tools everywhere. I'm horrible at putting my tools away. I'd be embarrassed if you any of you saw my tool bench right now. It's crazy, but I know where everything is.

Speaker 1: 11:37

Don't touch it. I say that because I think the last reel I saw last night was a woman who had these pliers and screws on her kitchen counter and she was counting it. She counted all the way up to 30 days before she finally just threw them in the garbage and was like I wonder how long it would take before he asks for them. And you could see like he was going in the kitchen and hugging her and, you know, playing and flirting with her and it was right there and he did nothing.

Speaker 2: 12:05

So was the message about it to like empower wives to take care of the house.

Speaker 1: 12:09

There was no empowerment. It was just awareness that Was this so?

Speaker 2: 12:14

was this video geared towards Sorry, getting off topic? It was just awareness. That was this, so was this video geared towards Sorry, getting off topic it was geared towards wives.

Speaker 1: 12:19

It was geared towards women who have a related frustration in the fact that their men do not notice and take ownership of the small things that are in plain sight.

Speaker 2: 12:32

Connect with her. Connect with her If her connection is to her surroundings. Connect with her surroundings, All right.

Speaker 1: 12:39

I like how you did that.

Speaker 2: 12:41

It's real.

Speaker 1: 12:41

It's real, I like it.

Speaker 2: 12:43

Yeah, connect with her, because that's a different way to connect. That's going to lead to the way you guys like to connect later.

Speaker 1: 12:50

The way you like to connect.

Speaker 2: 12:51

The way you like to connect. Read between the lines. It's in the acronyms of love and respect. If you want to find those out, get in the book. It's.

Speaker 1: 12:59

It's awesome yes, thank you for sharing that yeah, glad anytime. That's what I'm here for so what else are we going to talk about today? Hey, everyone, we hope that you're enjoying this episode, and right now we want to just take a small minute to introduce to you the latest thing that we created to help you elevate your relationship and take it to the next level. It's called the Love by Faith Playbook.

Speaker 2: 13:24

Every good coach knows they have to have winning plays. We went through our foundation series and we pulled out some of the best winning plays and created strategies for you guys. Plays like how to be better financially, how to do ministry together, how to be better. Romays like how to be better financially, how to do ministry together, how to be better romantically, how to be better family life. We went through all these different areas from the foundation series and put it together in a playbook.

Speaker 1: 13:44

So grab your Love by Faith playbook today. You can use the link in the description below, enter it, and the good news about this is that it is a living document, so you download it one time and every single month we are going to be updating this document to give you fresh, new plays to help you and your partner love by faith and create a winning season. Go ahead and get your love by faith playbook now, and let's get back into this episode.

Speaker 2: 15:23

Going into the new year, I know that I'm looking forward to keeping this train rolling.

Speaker 1: 15:29

Yes.

Speaker 2: 15:29

And coming up with new topics and having a whole new series.

Speaker 1: 15:33

We do have really good topics lined up.

Speaker 2: 15:35

It's so good. I love that when we get together and we put our faith together and we pray and we really dig in that God answers.

Speaker 1: 15:42

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 15:42

And the same thing that would be. My biggest encouragement for the holiday season is couples to pray together, Because that busyness just happens so fast and for us it's two weeks of no school for the kids. And it's a whirlwind there's parties, there's get-togethers, there's friends get-togethers, then there's school events. Oh my gosh, 17 things to do in two weeks it's true, and slowing down to be intentional about connecting your faith makes such a difference in this season that goes back to the episode of having the male become the spiritual leader in the household.

Speaker 1: 16:20

You know if you guys are looking for okay, well, how can we do this? How can we pray more in the holiday season? Guys, go back to that episode earlier this season and really listen to it and step up, and your wife will more than welcome the opportunity to have some quiet, alone time with you and the Holy Spirit, so that way you guys can move together. Because you're absolutely right, it's. It becomes a burnout and we might not feel the burnout until afterwards. I remember there was one Christmas where I just go, go, go, go go. I had the. The children were a lot smaller. We were hosting, we were baking, we were contributing, we were volunteering, we were serving, we were doing all the things. And on Christmas day, when we came home, I crashed for like four hours.

Speaker 1: 17:08

I didn't even realize that I was asleep for that long, but my body just couldn't take it anymore. And I woke up and I was like, oh snap, like what were we supposed to do? What happened? And you were like it's all good, I put the baby to bed and I'm like the baby. Oh snap, I forgot about the baby. I didn't.

Speaker 2: 17:27

I picked up the load.

Speaker 1: 17:28

Picked up the load, but it's real. In this season. You just get so caught up and consumed with it. I have a devotional out right now and it's called Journey to the Heart of Christmas.

Speaker 2: 17:37

Let's go.

Speaker 1: 17:38

It's a 21-day devotional and it is literally helping you, day by day, redirect your sights, your focus your attention your energy back to the heart of Christmas, which is Jesus. Right, jesus is the reason of the season but, at the same time, like he is the one who you go to, to find rest, and so if you go to him frequently in this season, you will feel rest even in the midst of the chaos, because your source of rest is not coming from your bed, it's not coming from your downtime, which is you don't have a whole lot of.

Speaker 1: 18:11

It's coming from him.

Speaker 2: 18:13

From the Holy Spirit in you, and it's coming from his peace.

Speaker 1: 18:15

That just kind of surpasses all that understanding. So, yes, prayer 100%. I would love to encourage our people to. Just if you're going to do one thing together, this season definitely focus on that prayer.

Speaker 2: 18:29

There are easy devotionals on the Bible app that you could do the same day Christmas morning devotional, yeah, and it'll be like three. We've done several of them three or four readings, a couple of different discussion questions, reflection on how Jesus has impacted your year, how the Lord being in the world has changed our life and our outcomes. And then the other side of that is, I would say, after Christmas we get into this lull between Christmas and New Year's again of go, go, go or of getting distracted, and it's a great time to start with doing a devotional getting ready for the beginning of the year.

Speaker 1: 19:03

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 19:04

And just reflect on what your goals look like for 2025. Reflect on what you guys can do better as a couple for 2025. Because, as we learned in Love and Respect, you have that goodwill. So you want your relationship to do well.

Speaker 1: 19:18

You each want to connect and stay connected, and by getting together and doing a goal setting or goal planning or goal brainstorming session with each other, you will connect spiritually in a whole new way. I really think this is a perfect way to end this year Because, like I said earlier, this episode we talked a lot of like almost like quote unquote lecturing for guys and for girls of, like this is what you should do to become better, and so I'm hoping and we're praying together that by you guys listening to Love, by Faith season two you guys are getting convicted in specific areas of your relationship, like maybe it's the spiritual maturity, maybe it's the man being just mature, like learning how to be more mature in his relationship, maybe it's the woman finding attraction or giving grace for their man, like, whatever the case may be, maybe there was something that really stood out to you and how we wrapped it up with love and respect having that will. We both learned from the previous two episodes of the love and respect series that you have to have the will and the desire to want to love and fight for that love, and so, by understanding what you need to work on and then by reaffirming that you have the will to work on it, that sets you up for a perfect 2025 season, because now you're going in knowing exactly what you want to do and you have that re-engaged fire within both of you to say we're going to work on it together and we're going to do this so that's perfect yeah

Speaker 2: 20:51

that's great thanks look at that for being here. Thanks for being here. The uh, I'll end with this. Okay, have you done? I know you love to, to plan and write in your planners and get your power sheets planners and and all that stuff. Yes, have you started any 2025 goals writing yet?

Speaker 1: 21:06

I have not Okay.

Speaker 2: 21:08

We're still in the first half of December. I don't expect this. I just wanted to see if you'd what?

Speaker 1: 21:12

Okay. So what I've? I've been trying to be very open with where God is taking us and what God wants to do with us. I definitely want to get back into like a YouTube space. I definitely want to get back into writing more books and really producing and getting the woman's prayer book out there. I want to do things personally. I want to work on my health goals, but at the same time, I'm also getting older and as I get older, I am coming to realize that you make a plan and your plan doesn't always go as you want it to, and this is something that I shared in my single woman's group recently, very recently actually and what I've determined is that you know, it's that Bible verse you can plan your steps, but the or you. You can put your plan in motion, you commit to the plan, but the Lord directs your steps.

Speaker 2: 22:05

Okay.

Speaker 1: 22:06

Okay, and I believe it's in Proverbs. There's the verse where it's like you commit to your plan and then the Lord will direct your steps. And growing up as a baby Christian, growing up, I always wondered, like, well, what is the point of planning if the Lord's just going to change it all anyways? Like why don't you just tell me where to go and I'll go? And it really dawned on me as I got older with 2020 and the way things turned crazy and then coming out of 2020 and now going into 2025, I have plans, but part of me, there's a huge part of me that's just like these plans aren't going to happen because God can do anything. And so what is the purpose of planning if God's just going to pivot you?

Speaker 1: 22:50

And I come to the realization that when you plan something and when you commit to that plan, your commitment is your seal of faith to move forward. And if you never set a plan out in motion, if you never even put it out there to say, hey, we're going to work on our marriage. Hey, we're going to go get counseling. Hey, we're going to read the book Love and Respect in the new season, If you never make a plan, then you're not putting faith into the action to move forward.

Speaker 2: 23:21

You're missing the faith step.

Speaker 1: 23:22

You're missing the faith step, the action to move forward. You're missing the faith step. You're missing the faith step, and so you need to have a plan, because once you put your faith out there, then God knows that you're moldable and you're able to move and pivot according to his will. You know what I mean, and so you need to have the plan in place. With the open expectation of Lord. I'm committed to moving forward, but I'm also committed to trusting and following you if what I thought is not the right way. Right, if you have a better way.

Speaker 2: 23:51

It's so funny how I love you and I appreciate this and I see how that works in your life and I think I hear you talking through the way you do it and I think of like how in my personal walk I go a little bit different. First I'm like God, what is the plan? What I wait? And I'm like, where am I going here? Where am I going here? But I I still in the same way, I go in faith that God will give me a plan. But my more, I think my more beat type personality is more like I'm just going to start walking by faith and then God will we'll, we'll line it up where you're like all right, here's what I'm going to do, here's what I'm going to do here, how you want to do it.

Speaker 1: 24:34

Let's take your graduation, for example.

Speaker 2: 24:36

Okay.

Speaker 1: 24:36

Kyle. If you guys don't know, kyle just graduated with honors.

Speaker 2: 24:40

Praise the.

Speaker 1: 24:41

Lord Hallelujah Got his degree in business, took me long enough and it took him 20 years to do it.

Speaker 2: 24:46

Yeah, off and on, I did yeah. You had a plan A class here and a class there.

Speaker 1: 24:50

You had the plan Yep. You had reasons to pause.

Speaker 2: 24:59

The humble road. Okay, to this education.

Speaker 1: 25:02

It kind of is like that yeah. You had something in motion.

Speaker 2: 25:05

Yeah, you were moving forward, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 25:08

But God had other plans.

Speaker 2: 25:09

God said wait, not right now. Okay, keep going.

Speaker 1: 25:12

Wait.

Speaker 2: 25:12

Stop right there. Dude that book, the Pilgrim's Progress. It reminds me of that.

Speaker 1: 25:16

Yes, all the like side quests and all that. Yes.

Speaker 2: 25:19

So good.

Speaker 1: 25:20

Yeah, whereas for me, like I got my degree boom, boom, boom, thinking okay, if I do A, b and C and if I get through it all, then I'm going to have the next piece of the puzzle laid out for me. And God definitely did not do that with my two degrees.

Speaker 1: 25:40

Like to this day, I'm not exercising in those specific areas that I got degrees in, and so the plan for me was very different, even though I was very meticulous in the steps. So different planning, different purposes. What are my plans in 2025? My goal is to get back into my YouTube channel there you go. My goal is to create a lifestyle where I can be healthy and happy with my health, and really I don't. I don't have any else, I don't have anything else. That's major, I think.

Speaker 2: 26:13

I'm just those are, those are major thank you are major.

Speaker 1: 26:16

I'm expecting big things from God. I'm expecting love by faith to grow, but those are all expectations. There's no real goal. The goal is that we're here and we did it the goal was that I wanted to wear Christmas pajamas, and we did it. We pulled it off.

Speaker 2: 26:31

I'm willing to connect with you on a level that may take some humility for me to show up like this, but it's all right. This is kind of my color. I'm good with this color.

Speaker 1: 26:39

I know a lot of things are going to happen because of the turn of the year.

Speaker 2: 26:44

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 26:48

But at the same time, because of all of these opportunities, because of all of these milestones, I think I'm just more in a heart condition to just be open, to receive. So if you guys are out there and you're married and you don't know what to do, and you don't know what to plan and you don't know what your goals are, just go to God in prayer with your partner and be open to receiving what God might have to offer you.

Speaker 1: 27:07

You know, looking back at 2024, we did not expect to go through everything we went through as a couple. We did not expect to have loss. We did not expect to receive gain, and yet here we are, and those types of situations, whether they're high or low, will always help you get stronger if you have the will to love and if you desire to get closer through faith.

Speaker 2: 27:32

That was such a perfect time to say, it would all come together if you love by faith I thought you're gonna that's your thing.

Speaker 1: 27:39

I thought you're gonna hit it man. You had it. I served it on a silver platter for you.

Speaker 2: 27:44

Kyle, there it is it will all work together if you love by faith do you have to say it with the period, period, period, yeah, love by faith yes, because all three are so important. It's true. It's true.

Speaker 1: 27:58

It's true. So, Kyle, what are your goals? What are your last minute things that you want to share with the people before we wrap up?

Speaker 2: 28:05

this year. So I've always wanted to be a journaler and it's never come to me like naturally.

Speaker 1: 28:11

Wow, and I intend to do. You're going to have to learn how to write the date. I intend learn how to write the date I intend it's gonna have to be. I intend to do some writing in 2025 for my own self, oh wow that's exciting yeah, I intend to do that, I'm hearing about this for the first time, guys the lord's been working on me wow, the lord is working on you indeed gonna do that.

Speaker 2: 28:32

You know what it sparked with writing for the, for this, for our podcast, writing the emails and getting getting into that flow and enjoying it. I enjoy sitting down behind my computer and typing them out, getting them edited and figuring it all out and I am looking forward to doing that just for my personal headspace and for my personal just growth. That, um, that's kind of my, my big goal when I fill up a notebook. See what, what I can do. You must. It's going to be cool.

Speaker 1: 28:58

Well, we all know what Kyle's getting for Christmas.

Speaker 2: 29:01

I think, no, I think I just just like a plain spiral bound.

Speaker 1: 29:05

That's what you need at first. Just something like just no structure For someone who has been journaling since, like the age of five, a spiral bound notebook is the best thing to have when you're starting to journal, because it takes away the pressure of like oh, this is a pretty thing, I want to put pretty things in it and if you don't have nothing pretty to say, then it stops you from writing in the pretty book.

Speaker 1: 29:28

So just get just playing this thing. Yep, you can have to just start and just go, and there's no restriction whatsoever it's my biggest recommendation when it comes to journaling Absolutely. So, good, I've been saving all my pretty things for my 40th year. So I have one journal entry left in my most recent journal and I'm like, oh, I still have three weeks of December. I got to wait to, like, write something really good. And then I could finish it and then I turn into my pretty journals. It's going to be amazing.

Speaker 2: 29:59

My other goal is to keep bringing content here. Keep bringing new stuff to Love by Faith and to doing what we can to keep the couple's playbook growing. Yes, keep providing for that.

Speaker 1: 30:08

Yes.

Speaker 2: 30:09

Be on the lookout for updates.

Speaker 1: 30:09

Are you guys checking that lately? Make sure you check it. We got new content in there.

Speaker 2: 30:13

Yeah, we'll click the link. We appreciate you being here, man. It's been a fun episode A year end. Wrap up Love and respect. Wrap up For the guys. Wrap up For the girls. Wrap up Guys Love your wife, honor her, esteem her. She'll feel the love and she'll return it in respect. It goes together Hand in hand.

Speaker 1: 30:31

Ladies, make sure you're spending your time with God so that he can pour into you, so that you can pour into your spouse. You can't do it alone and we burn out a lot, so make sure you take the time to take care of yourself spiritually so that you can cover your husband and you guys can learn to love together.

Speaker 1: 30:49

Love by faith y'all, love by faith y'all. We'll see you guys in the next year Hot and ready. I hope you guys are there and in the meantime, in between time, we wish you guys happy holiday season. May you connect, may you thrive, may you be blessed, may you get rest and may you love by faith. On that note, we're going to go ahead and leave you guys with an end of the year prayer. How about we both pray?

Speaker 2: 31:14

At the same time. No, we're going to read each other's mind? No.

Speaker 1: 31:19

I'll pray and you end it. Can we do that? Okay, I'm going to wait till you're laughing. The Lord's going to be looking at you with big eyes. Lord, we just thank you for this opportunity to connect with our community, to talk about you, to lift you up and to help couples get closer together so that they can love by faith. We thank you for an amazing first half of the season two, last portion of 2024. We just pray over all of the couples who have been hearing us, who have been receiving from you. We pray that you will connect with them this season. You will make their love real, you would reignite them and you would bless them as they carry out the rest of these days of 2024.

Speaker 2: 32:01

Yes, lord, lord, we're grateful for everyone who's listening to us, lord, we pray that the Holy Spirit would be in their hearts, lord, they would know you, that they would feel connected to you. Lord, if they need a refresher, a rekindling of that fire, lord, I pray that you would fill them with it now, lord. Yes, rekindling of that fire, lord, I pray that you would fill them with it now, lord. Yes, that everyone at the sound of my voice would ask for the Holy Spirit to fill them up, to overflow from them, lord. That they would be able to hear you, feel you see you. That they would be able to understand how to love and respect their partner, the way that they're called to, and that they would understand what your will is for their life. If they don't understand those things, that they would seek to find it, lord, that they would knock on the door, lord, and that you would open wide the doors of faith for them. We give you glory for this year and for everything that happens here, in Jesus's name, amen.

Speaker 1: 32:51

Amen, that's it. That wraps up 2024 of Love by Faith. We have a gift for you. If you have not signed up to receive our couples playbook, make sure you do so. As Kyle mentioned, it updates every single month and it's filled with lots of resources and tools to help you guys grow together as a couple. If you want to give us a gift, then hey, like, share and subscribe on YouTube. Also, go on Apple or Spotify or iHeart. Give us a rating rating, a five-star review.

Speaker 2: 33:17

we would love to see our podcast grow to reach more people in the new year thanks, we'll see you next time thanks, it's great you said the right stuff, man, I gotta just merry christmas home run you tee it up, I knock it out the park.

Speaker 1: 33:35

Merry christmas happy. We will see you again in the new year. Take care, bye, bye. Are you going to wear those pajamas to work?

Speaker 2: 33:47

Definitely not. It's not pajama day there. It's a real professional atmosphere.

Speaker 1: 33:52

Oh, I'm sorry.

Speaker 2: 33:53

It's all right. They've never done that. I thought a Hawaiian shirt day would be a good idea, though.

Speaker 1: 33:58

At work.

Speaker 2: 33:59

Yeah, it would be a good place for that Christmas in July. We could do like a. Yeah, do a luau. My favorite New Year's was when we went to Ginkgo. We were there at midnight at Ginkgo. That was nice.

Speaker 1: 34:16

It was a sushi spot in downtown cleveland.

Speaker 2: 34:19

Yeah, and it's literally just if you super low-key, it's like you know where it is, you know it it's like probably like 600 or 900 square foot restaurant. Yeah, they have like eight tables and and seven seats, nine seats at the bar, and it's just super low-key. Super, super, super exquisite fish and sushi. It was so good, so good. That's a great place to spend our New Year's.

Speaker 1: 34:46

Yeah, we're going to do that this year Maybe.

Speaker 2: 34:49

Maybe, See it's coming up. We got kids yeah.

Speaker 1: 34:51

We celebrate New Year's at 7 pm these days, end of these days, that's right. We do the old cheat. That that shows that on uh, on the video, they do the noon you can go to sleep, yeah, with that man I'm going to sleep now we'll see you in 2025, bye. Oh, that's so exciting.

Speaker 2: 35:10

It's time to edit this podcast, can't edit.