At 40, God corrected how I correct my kids

This week

I was 40 and had been following the Lord for decades when He showed me I was being too harsh with one of my kids.

That's the video I'm sharing this week. Further down, later than I promised, is how I make them, so you can make one too.

Watch: at 40, God corrected how I correct my kids

One morning God pointed out phrases I kept repeating when I corrected one of my kids. I sensed Him say, "I want you to invite more grace, more grace, into your correction." He didn't say don't correct. A good father corrects. He said bring more grace into it. Jess and I talked about it.

I want God's correction. That's how I keep learning.

My child, don’t reject the LORD’s discipline, and don’t be upset when he corrects you. For the LORD corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights. (Proverbs 3:11-12, NLT)

Watch the video on Instagram

Try this week

Tomorrow, before you pick up your phone, ask the Lord out loud about each of your kids, or a young person you lead: "Is there a phrase that I'm repeating to my child that You want to change?"

Sit quiet for a minute and write what comes to mind. Test it against Scripture and with someone you trust. Then write what you'll say next time, with just a little more grace and maybe a little less irritation.

Hit reply and tell me what happens. I read every one.

Money: more on the word that got us out of debt

Last time I told you about the word a friend in our marriage group heard for me while he prayed: incremental.

Why did God speak to me about my business in a marriage group? Because our business was crushing us. Jess saw the burden I carried, so she tried to protect me from the goings on of our family, our kids. Jess did everything.

With the word "incremental," God gave us permission to prioritize our marriage. He gave me permission to grow the business slowly.

In the business, I found the strategy of contentment. We accepted our level of income and simply spent less money than we made. This slowed our growth but paved the way towards a debt-free, profitable business.

Years ago I wrote a test for my heart from Ecclesiastes 5:10-11: Am I satisfied with my income? Contentment is not laziness. We are instructed to grow, steward and build. No matter how much or how little you have, thankfulness to God for His provision will be your guard.

Home: where we each meet with God

I meet with God in the morning in a little corner of our house with lots of pillows, and I try to defend that space from my phone. Jess has an actual prayer closet, where she can block out distractions.

The private place we go when nobody's looking is where we dig the deep wells: our relationship with God and the depth of our character.

I still have a day job, so some mornings the hospital calls about an emergency and my day starts before I'm ready. There's grace for that.

From the workshop: how I make my videos

The real time. Last time I said about 20 minutes. That was a guess before I'd filmed anything. Filming three scripts took me about 40 minutes. My biggest filming day was one afternoon at my desk, and it gave me eight short videos, posted over 11 days.

My setup. My iPhone sits on top of my Mac, with my script on the screen just under it. A mic I already owned plugs into the Mac. My only new gear was a desk arm for it.

The AI's part. Claude, an AI from Anthropic, drafts each script from my own stories, and I give notes. Claude edits with faster-whisper, Remotion and a small program it wrote. It picks my best take of each line, cuts the pauses, and adds captions and animations. Music is from Epidemic Sound. A few short background clips were made with Grok, another AI, and those posts say so. Nothing posts until I tap Post. Then Metricool posts it to Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and Threads.

Our first try didn't work. My repeats were still in, I was looking down at my script, and there was no music. I said we were "really far from successful." So I filmed again, saying "cut" every time I flubbed. That afternoon I wrote back: "first one is EPIC." I still had notes, so I asked Claude to keep our work as a checklist. Now Claude checks every video against that checklist before I see it, so I don't have to give the same note twice.

If you want to make one: I put every step in a free playbook, with my real numbers and the checklist Claude runs on each video. Press "Copy for your AI," paste it into the AI you already use, and it sets the whole thing up with you. Copying it takes a one-click sign-in, no card.

Get the playbook

Hit reply and tell me what happens when you ask Him about that phrase. I read every one.

Forward this to one parent who's building something while they provide: linnetlegacies.com.