0:00:00 - 0:00:24 So I wanted to share some thoughts on faith. There's a bird house right there. Right. I think you can see it. And, uh, those were, I have a 12 year old son. He's 11 actually and a half. But he's kind of a walking encyclopedia. And when he starts quoting facts and figures, you should listen because he's 0:00:24 - 0:00:48 got a really good memory. Um, which is something I admire. I, I don't, and he really likes to read and he's great at memorizing things. So we've given him a few, uh, volumes of encyclopedias in print and he likes to read that sort of thing and he retains what he reads. And so we have a, a fairly large 0:00:48 - 0:01:13 garden and there's part of it, some beehives. Um, and we face a lot of predation of our berries from different birds. And he took it upon himself to do the research. I didn't know he was doing this into different kinds of birds that we get here and which ones eat berries and which ones eat bugs. And 0:01:12 - 0:01:37 he said, dad, I think if we build a bunch of bird houses like this, we can entice the bug eating birds to come here. And I found a few that are very territorial and there's, they'll, they'll fight all the berry birds and keep our so we can keep more of our berries. And I looked at him and I was like 0:01:37 - 0:01:55 , you know, this is straining my ability to believe. And I said, you know, I, I know, you know, your stuff, but how confident are you that this is gonna work? And he was super confident and I was like, you know, I'm not confident this is gonna work and this is gonna be a lot of work to build all these 0:01:55 - 0:02:17 bird houses and wood isn't very cheap at this time. And we've got a lot of projects that we're gonna have to set aside if we do this. But he was persistent. And so um in case it's not obvious, I'm sharing this story as a practical example of faith. So I said, OK, um we're gonna have to come up with a 0:02:17 - 0:02:34 design for these bird houses and he said, done, here's the design. He showed me in a book. I was super impressed. I was like, dang man, you really did your work on this. And so what would have been a real strain for me if I had to do all that myself? I don't know if I could have mustered the faith from 0:02:34 - 0:02:52 the beginning to do all that. But he did a bunch of the leg work. And so I just had to take it the last mile. And I said, yeah. Ok. Well, let's, let's next time I'm at Lowe's and we'll get some lumber and we'll build these things. And so I happened to have the, have the tools, I happen to have some extra 0:02:51 - 0:03:14 paint and whatever. And so we made this over maybe two Saturdays, we cut up all the wood and that's, that's another, um, that's another valuable part of this we looked at or I looked at the amount of work and money. It would be to build a few of these and then the amount of work and money would be to 0:03:14 - 0:03:35 fill every pole we have with these. And I said, look, my son's name is Steven. That son. I said, look, Stephen, I don't think that you're right on this. I'm just gonna be clear, but we're gonna know whether you are or you're not when we make these boxes. And I said, I, I have all these concerns like 0:03:35 - 0:03:52 , what if, what if the berry birds are the ones that move in and we just make the problem worse and, and so on. I had a bunch of these concerns and I voiced them and he had a reason why that wasn't gonna happen. And I said, well, let's do it. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? We're gonna burn 0:03:52 - 0:04:08 two Saturdays and a couple of bucks on this wood, but we're gonna do this project together. So, at least we have that and it's gonna be one of us is gonna learn something right. Either way. And, uh, great if, and I was hoping he was right, because it would solve my problem. Right. Which is the berries 0:04:07 - 0:04:29 . And, um, not to mention, I mean, this is, this is really impressive stuff. So, as a dad, well, it could be better. I, I, there's nothing more that I would love than to see my kids be better than me in everything in everything and to have better than I ever did when I was their eight and for the rest 0:04:29 - 0:04:53 of their lives, I would love for them to stand on my shoulders anyway. So we went big and I said, look, if you're right in this a little bit, you're gonna be right a lot. So let's just go all in, right? Because comparatively speaking, it's not all that much more work in time. If you're, you gotta get 0:04:53 - 0:05:17 a paintbrush out. Painting 20 boxes versus two is not that big of a deal. Let's just go all in. Now, every little piece about this story is weird is very unusual. It's not common for humanity to do anything like this, right? But this is faith. So we built the boxes and we put them out and it was freaking 0:05:17 - 0:05:36 cold outside. And Steven said, no, no, trust me, these birds are gonna move in any minute. And I was like, yeah, we'll see. It was freaking cold and we put up all the boxes and it was a pain in the button and then I don't know what the heck happened, but one of the boxes just kind of spontaneously exploded 0:05:35 - 0:05:53 . And I went over there and I look, and I, and I saw that the nails that I used, I used staples with an airgun and, uh, they just weren't long enough and I nailed them straight in instead of at an angle. And so the boxes weren't very strong and I guess the wind knocked one over or a bird or something 0:05:52 - 0:06:10 , knocked one over. And I said, Steven, if we got a problem with one of these, we're gonna have a problem with all of them. I know it's a pain in the butt. But can you go around, take them all down and I'll re nail them, but I'll do it in a batch because batching things is a great way to save time because 0:06:09 - 0:06:31 if you have to get out the nail gun and everything, you just, you go to town and then you're done. So he took them all down and actually I still have to do the nailing. That was just the other day. I made a note very far behind on my stuff. But anyway, um, he went to town with his mom this morning and 0:06:31 - 0:06:49 I noticed a note on the table and it said dad, um, oh, he took down all the boxes, but he, he said he was struggling to take down two because they were on too, too tightly. And I said, don't worry about it. I'll get him some other time. And so he wrote me a note and he said, dad don't take the other 0:06:49 - 0:07:10 boxes down because there's a tree swallow in one. But the tree swallow made a nest. And that's the specific kind of bird that he said would come and make nests in these in these boxes. And so the jury is still out. I have to re nail the boxes, we put them all up and we see what happens. But the, the 0:07:10 - 0:07:34 I thought this story was a really great example of, of a whole lot of ideas in the concept of faith. So we could go through these and, and, and delineate them. But I, I think I'd rather keep this video short and hopefully you get the message. So this is a good way to live life. You pay attention to problems 0:07:33 - 0:07:56 , you, you look for solutions, but you also, you, you stay open minded because you have no idea where that solution might come from and you pay attention to the credibility of people and the strengths and weaknesses of people. And when, when a good idea comes along, you evaluate it rationally to see 0:07:55 - 0:08:19 if there's likelihood that it's gonna work and if it does, you don't just do it half heartedly if the reasons support it, jump in with both feet. At least to the point of whatever is required to actually see if it's gonna work. Right. You can't start a business a little bit or a family, you can't start 0:08:19 - 0:08:43 a family a little bit. That's an all or nothing thing and, and the higher the value of whatever it is we're talking about, the more of everything that you can give that it's gonna require. So this is just a little thing, but the little things are the big things. If you are a faithful person, you're not 0:08:42 - 0:09:05 just gonna be faithful on Sundays between the hours of 10 and two or whatever. And you're not just going to be faithful in religious things. Faith is a principle. It's a principle that has no boundaries in topic or time. If you're a faithful person, you will see the fruits of that faith in every facet 0:09:05 - 0:09:28 of your life. So if you want to learn more about faith, I wrote a book called Through Faith. You can read it on Amazon or get it on Amazon. You can download that's for print cost. You can download a PDF for free from upward thought.blogspot.com and you can even listen to the p the the audio book for 0:09:27 - 0:09:41 free on youtube on the Upward Thought Channel. So I hope you get into those things. And if you already have, I hope you're seeing the fruits of applying this principle to your life in whatever facet might be the case.