Episode S5E6: "Learning from Boomerang Kids"

“Learning from Boomerang Kids”

Hal, Vicki, and their 43-year-old son, Jonathan, share their story of Jonathan moving back into their home for a season. Really, Jonathan is telling his story of what God is doing in his life and thereby the story of what God is doing through him in their home. God is at work in more ways than we might imagine.

Transcript

Unknown: 0:02

Mike today on the finishing well podcast, I lost my house, I lost my car. I've lost all of my finances. So it was a rebuilding of me from day one, mind, body, soul, spiritually, everything. Welcome to the finishing well podcast where we encourage believers of every age to find meaningful ways to impact their world for the kingdom of God. Our mission is to prepare and encourage every person to live well and to finish well. We pray this podcast will be a source of strength and encouragement as we seek to glorify Christ as we engage him in our aging years. Now, here's your host for finishing well. Hal habecker,

Hal Habecker: 0:47

good morning. Finishing well. Ministry podcast land, we're glad to have you join us. We do these podcasts on a variety of issues, but they all relate to us as we age a little bit and grow older. So wherever you are in the journey, we have a unique topic today. We would call it boomerang. Kids, Boomerang. That's Vicky's you wanna say anything about boomerang? Kids, Vicky, she's here say hi, Vicki.

Vicki Habecker: 1:13

I just came up with the idea of that title, and as we get into it, you'll see why.

Hal Habecker: 1:19

And our son, Jonathan is here. Say hi to everybody. Jonathan,

Unknown: 1:22

hello, hello, hello. Longtime listener, first time participator.

Hal Habecker: 1:27

Well, glad you're here. He is 43 and is the third of our three children, and he is living with us, and that's where we get into our title. But let me say a couple of things. First, you know, I hope whatever we say here is is heard with respect to where you are in your family and your kids. You know God is the author of all families, and we are always parents. I mean, no matter how old we were when our children were given to us, remember Psalm 127 Children are a gift of the Lord, and they are always that it doesn't matter what their age, it doesn't matter where they go, how many grandkids they have, or great grandkids, or whatever, but children are a gift from the Lord. So wherever we are in that spectrum, let's remember that God gives children for a purpose. Our living circumstances may change, but it's all about that. So we view them and but God gives us children to launch them out into the world. You know Psalm 127, children are arrows. God intends for them to go, but sometimes they come back.

Vicki Habecker: 2:37

And that's why I like the idea of Boomerang, because if you shoot an arrow out, it goes, if you throw a boomerang, just right, it will come back to you. And for those of you listening who have had adult children move back with you, you've done something right, because they've come back to you. They have been willing to come back to you.

Hal Habecker: 2:59

That's good idea. Vicky, I love that. So we might be tempted to think of boomerang kids coming back to us as an interruption in our own lives as we age. It is. Well, we may talk about that a little bit, but the idea is, anything else you want to say about Boomerang Kids? Vicky, no, we'll get into it. Okay, we're here with our son, Jonathan. He is 43 and I'd like to start with his story. He wants to share his story with us, and that's really setting up this whole discussion.

Vicki Habecker: 3:34

Let me interrupt. There are a lot of reasons that adult kids might move back in with you. Health, finances, maybe an adult child's going through a divorce. Are they going to move back in for a while with their kids, with dogs, financial issues, saving money. Our oldest daughter wanted to move back in with us to save money before she got married. Well, she saved money, but we spent more because she and I were always planning the wedding and adding something new. Bethany moved back in with us with her husband, because they were remodeling their house. So they were with us for just a few weeks. Those were all we kind of knew how long that season was going to be with Jonathan's story, we don't know how long it will be. It's an amazing story.

Hal Habecker: 4:21

Oh, so Jonathan, welcome to our podcast. Tell us your story. I'd love to hear it. I've watched it as your dad and your mom, but nobody else out there in our podcast world knows your story

Unknown: 4:33

well. Thanks for having me on definitely kind of excited to do this. This is a surreal experience being able to sit down and talk with you guys to broadcast this to anybody willing to listen. I guess my story really starts back in May, and work was an afterthought at this point, I lost two consecutive jobs and. I had developed quite a drinking problem, way too much for way too long. Mid May, I think, on the 14th, I was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver. I was told I had about less than 10% of liver health remaining. Wow. So that was a big like, Hey, Jonathan, I'm gonna get your attention watch this type of deal from God. So anyways, started going to the hospital, having appointments, procedures, blood work, done all sorts of labs. I mean, just as far as the eye could actually see

Hal Habecker: 5:40

a little interruption here. Where did you live at this time?

Unknown: 5:43

So at the time, I was currently living in Princeton, Texas, which is about 35 minutes north of y'all's home address and about an hour away from bumpsy down in downtown bumpsy. Bumpsy bumpsy is the Baylor Scott and White Medical Center down there

Vicki Habecker: 6:05

who told you you might be sick.

Unknown: 6:09

Actually, Dad, you were first we were at, oh, hate is. And you're like, Jonathan, I see like a little bit of yellow pigmentation going on, not only in your face, but in your eyes, and then Jennifer and Bethany confirmed that the day afterwards, and the day after that, I had a bunch of co workers confirm it, and the following day, that's when I checked in to the hospital to see exactly what was going on. So yeah, that's kind of how everything started. Things slowly progressed. At the very beginning, I was under very, very strict fluid restrictions. I could have as much protein shakes as I desired. Those would not count, but I was under sodium restrictions, fluid, I mean, just all sorts of things. I had to consume 180 grams of protein a day. Anyways, liver started repairing itself, but then things started going south, and unfortunately, I was retaining a lot of fluid in my abdomen area, and so mid July, that's when I checked in to Baylor, and things had gotten extremely out of hand. I ballooned up to almost 310 pounds, which is the heaviest I've been in my entire life. And I spent almost two weeks in the hospital. I got released right at the end of July. So August, September. Now we're halfway through October. I've been with you guys for two and a half months, and it was one of those scenarios of I had to be dependent upon you guys to help me go to appointments. I lost my house, I lost my car, I've lost all of my finances. So it was a rebuilding of me from day one, mind, body, soul, spiritually, everything. And I will say this, it didn't seem like it was fun at the time, but now, just kind of taking a look back at it, you're able to smile and see the progress of what has gone down in what the Lord has done for me.

Vicki Habecker: 8:23

Were you ever scared that you were dying?

Unknown: 8:26

Oh, yeah, no, with my MELD score being as high as it was, looking up statistics, my 90 day death rate would have been about 90% so if I just kept on drinking, we wouldn't be having this conversation right here.

Vicki Habecker: 8:41

When did you go to your first AA meeting? Do you remember? Because that's a

Unknown: 8:47

little after May as well. Because started my sobriety on May 15, the day after I was diagnosed, which that would be a smart date to start your sobriety. Went to a place up in Princeton. But then when I moved in with you guys, I'm now fully engulfed in odat one day at a time. And in fact, I also just hit five months of variety just yesterday.

Hal Habecker: 9:13

Yeah, one of the things I want to insert in here, it became apparent to you at some point you had to give up everything in Princeton and move in with us. I mean, how did that hit you? I mean, how did we make that decision?

Unknown: 9:26

I mean, I think the decision was one where all three of us collectively were like, This is the only option. There is no other option. There was nothing that I could do on my own for myself at the time.

Vicki Habecker: 9:39

I remember the first time, because you know and you listeners, parents, if you have a child that's really struggling with something, there's a fine line between letting them tell their story and you telling their story. And God had just given Helen me the the wisdom and. That this was Jonathan's story to tell, and the way you did this, I don't know if you remember he posted on Facebook. I'm going to my first AA meeting tonight. Please pray that God will use this to help me get my life back on track. Yep, you had 120 comments about that from high school, friends, college, friends, work, friends that gave you so much encouragement, and everybody was just so proud that you were brave enough to say, I've got a nasty problem. Yeah, and

Unknown: 10:37

family, friends that are probably listening to this podcast right now. So the support that I've had, not only with family, but just from other individuals, some people who I've never even met before, that's just been insanely eye opening. And I feel very blessed and very grateful,

Vicki Habecker: 10:58

Jonathan, you were still living in Princeton when you went to your first aid meeting, I think it was, and you called us on your way home. I don't know if you remember this. Yeah, and I was crying, You were sobbing, and you said, this is all about God. This is all about what God is going to do in my life. And you hadn't missed a day since, going parenthetically.

Hal Habecker: 11:22

If you'd like to catch part of his story you're familiar with caringbridge, go to caringbridge and look for the story of Jonathan habecker and or if any of you would like to contact him personally, contact me here at finishing well ministries. Write me at Hal at finishing well ministries, and I'd be glad to put you in touch with Jonathan, and maybe his story can encourage you more in a special way. Or

Unknown: 11:46

if there's any extra details and you want to have a one on one conversation, I'd be happy to share

Hal Habecker: 11:53

something I want to get into here. One of the things that I feel, and we've talked about this, you know, God is faithful. Now, there are challenges that families have prodigal kids, and you know things, they're parents that have no contact with their grown kids because of trials in life that has not been our case, and we are grateful. But I hope all of you would take encouragement that God is always working, and I want to give you an illustration in your first week in the hospital, we were there waiting for you to have a procedure, and I sat in the outside steps, you know, just there wasn't enough room for all of us in the doctor's office. And my neighbor comes walking across the street, my literal neighbor across the street, and I say, Skip, what are you doing here? He says, Well, what are you doing here? And I told him the story about you. I just was very open and honest and said, We're here, Jonathan. And he said to me, how you won't believe this. Our son has the same problem, and he lives in McKinney, and he's the one who helped you make contact with your first AA meeting. Yep, you know, God is always working. And days are dark at times, and you don't know what's going on. You don't know what the future is. You know, Vicki thought, you know we were going to lose you. You know you weren't going to survive. But God is always there. He's ahead of us, encouraging us. And I think one of the things I've always said to you is that, Jonathan, don't, don't ever, I mean, just be reminded of God's faithfulness in our lives all the time. I mean, whatever, however dark it is, however uncertain the future is God is there, and he's always working ahead. Vicki,

Vicki Habecker: 13:37

you said we were afraid of losing him. Jonathan, dad and I were terrified that we might lose you and dad can vouch to this. I cried myself to sleep

Unknown: 13:48

every night those first few months in my prayer life consisted of the word please, please, God, don't take my son

Vicki Habecker: 14:01

so you move in with us, with your dogs, with your deer heads, all your possessions. And here were three people, listeners, under the same roof, all grieving differently. You were grieving, Jonathan, I was grieving. Hell was grieving. And listeners, as you know, men and women grieve differently. I cried. I got snippy with you. Hell, you men kind of got quiet, and you made me watch dumb movies. What was it? Money, Money Python and the question that is the stupidest movie, but we were trying to do things to get our minds off the fear that we had. And I know that God's love is perfect and holy, and perfect love casts out fear. But as you parents would know. So when you got a child that they've said you might have three months to live, that just puts you in a puts you in a different tailspin. So we decided on Sunday nights we would have the three of us. We would have it. I called it our come to Jesus meeting where we talked about schedules, like Johnson said he didn't have car. But Hal had scheduled. I had schedules. Jonathan had doctor appointments. So we'd sit down on Sunday nights and plan our week and reassess what happened the week before. I like to use the expression spinning plates, and it seemed like everything we did or needed to do was contingent on something else that had to happen first. I couldn't sleep. I cried all the time. Like I said, I got a little snarky. I would try to be you guys will laugh at this. I hope you don't laugh at much I say, I would try to make a funny comment, and y'all wouldn't laugh, and what? How would I reply to

Hal Habecker: 16:04

you? It wasn't funny

Unknown: 16:06

to us. Guess I'm not funny, but I am funny.

Vicki Habecker: 16:09

I'm the funniest person you've ever met. Anyway we've tried to Don't roll your eyes at me.

Unknown: 16:15

That's directed at Dad, not me,

Vicki Habecker: 16:18

anyway, as a parent, and I imagine some of you parents who are listening, if you've had a boomerang kid come back, my mind went nuts. I lost keys, I lost important papers. I bought my nine year old grandson a birthday card for a 90 year old man. That was funny. Well, it made me feel like I was losing. It was funny. It was funny. How did it make you feel when you had college fraternity brothers and high school friends that you hadn't seen in years and all of a sudden they show up at the hospital? No one encouraged you. But how did it did it make you think, Oh, they think I'm dying, or what? What went through your mind when all of those good looking men walked in your room?

Unknown: 17:08

Yeah, I wouldn't say all of them are good looking. They're just awesome, awesome, awesome people. Now I love them all. They're great. Actually, I want to backtrack real quick. Another reason why I had to move in with you guys is when my liver stopped repairing itself, then the talks of get on the transplant list started to happen. And when they went to submit my case before the transplant committee, I was denied. And so they said, moving forward, what you need to be able to do is you've got to get out of where you're living. You can't be around alcohol. You have to do X, Y and Z in order for this committee to approve you. And by the grace of God, with the way things are going right now, that possibility looks smaller and smaller in the rear view mirror. Now, mom, getting back to your question here, I wasn't shocked that I had friends coming in to see me in the hospital. For me, it was one of those scenarios of it's so good to see you guys. I hate that we're seeing each other under these circumstances. Yeah, definitely. College friends, high school friends, family friends, some people who I hadn't seen or talked to in 510, years are reaching out. My fraternity brothers were so gracious that one of them started to go fund me to allow me to stay on top of hospital bills and everything like that. Because, as you guys know that's been a fun little process.

Vicki Habecker: 18:42

Let me interrupt right there when you lost your job, you lost your health insurance, and we went, Uh Oh, yep.

Unknown: 18:50

Anyways, so it was great to see the support of the people who I thought would be there, and actually seeing them. But then also, even more amazing to see the people I did not expect.

Hal Habecker: 19:03

You know, one of the things I'm amazed at, we can reflect on this for a minute, God is working all along through what we would call a serious interruption in life. And I think one of the principles is when, when God interrupts your life through whatever, whether it's an accident, a tragedy, a change of circumstances, a health issue, whatever. You know, God's in charge. He wants to teach you something, and we were flexible, and that's one of the things I'd encourage any family with, whatever your kids are. Are you flexible enough to change? My work schedule changed? You know, our family changed. You know, the three of us were now under a roof, and lots of things were added and changed in our lives, but that's part of God's plan, I think. And will we interrupt? I mean, I think, I think James four, James exhorts us be careful. Don't say you're going to go to this and this city tomorrow, because you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. You know, if God wills. And so here you had a huge interruption in your life, and it became a family interruption, you know, for your sisters as well. And you know, we're trying to grow in this circumstance and trust God to lead. And the great thing is, he is, isn't he? I mean, it's amazing to me

Vicki Habecker: 20:17

tell us what AA is doing for you, because dad and I were, we didn't know anything about it, I'm so impressed

Unknown: 20:26

well with following the 12 Steps and getting a sponsor and working through those 12 Steps, you were able to kind of reinvent yourself. Because everybody who is in those meetings, it's, a group like I've never been a part of before. You're instantly loved and welcomed from the very first meeting that you go to. And the main reason for all that being is we are all there to better ourselves and to work on ourselves. And the more that you continue to go to these meetings, even when you feel like you've got everything under control, keep going to meetings. This will be something that I will do for the rest of my time here on Earth, because at the end of the day, I believe that God put us on this earth to help other people and to love people. Dad, you've always told me, life is about building relationships, and with all this information that has been given to me over these past three four months, what good is it if I don't share it or try to help somebody else through that same scenario? So that's one of the powerful things that I love about AA is, if you're debating whether or not if AA is right for you, just go. Just go check it out. If you know somebody, just tell them. What do you have to lose? Dad, you even mentioned that one point about whether or not you wanted to basically try Jesus, all right. Well, if you don't cool, you don't lose anything. But if you do, I guarantee you you're not going to lose same thing with AA, you have nothing to lose. You have everything to gain. And by hearing people's stories that are 1020, 30 years sobriety, you're just like, golly, yeah, this, this is definitely doable for the foreseeable future. So it gives you positive mindsets and positive things to look forward to, and that's why I love the name of our establishment, one day at a time, Odette, yeah,

Vicki Habecker: 22:36

what did you think about when you and I went to Al Anon a few times.

Hal Habecker: 22:41

Well, I think it's the same thing for us. I mean, you're with people, you have a common problem, a common challenge, and it's, you know, I thought of a phrase that I went back to college that's 5060, years ago. You know, the definition of the church that I heard Bruce Larson say is one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread, and I've always had that in the back of my mind. How desperate are we to lean into others for food that we need in our lives, and we need to encourage each other, and it's always been my benchmark for relationships. Do I need people? Or do I want to be independent? Well, I put my life out there. And one of the great things for AA, for me is it pictures what the church ought to be. Are we desperate to be with each other, to help each other, or, well, if I got something else to do now, I won't go to our small group meeting or whatever, but you're desperate in AA, and we ought to be desperate in our lives for what God wants us to experience and become.

Vicki Habecker: 23:45

I want to talk to our listeners, especially if you've had a boomerang kid, you might identify with this how your and my social life just disappeared. We were so worried about leaving you alone, Jonathan, because your health was so precarious. You had your lab with you, plus all your stuff, your deer heads up in the attic, all your stuff. Our house was chaos, and with Hal being in the ministry, we love to socialize, have people over, meet people, go out to eat, but our social health kind of stopped when you say how,

Hal Habecker: 24:24

yeah, I would, but God had interrupted us, and we had to become flexible and follow His will and loving our son and taking care of him and going to the hospital, spending our days there when he was in, and helping and giving Our lives to help each other

Vicki Habecker: 24:40

and we grieved differently. Do you remember we talked about that? Yeah, and you and I got snarky with each other at the beginning, when you were still in the hospital. Do you remember this one day we were in the kitchen, and I just stopped and threw my arms around you, and I said, we're a team. We have to. Be a team. We can't be at each other all the time. So Jonathan, what's been the hardest thing about moving back in with mommy and daddy?

Unknown: 25:12

It's probably the same thing for you guys, is you're adjusting to a way of life that you haven't had to worry about now for however many decades. I'm a very independent person. I like to do things on my own time. Go where I want to go, see who I want to see, talk to I want to talk to, watch what I want to watch. I mean, just everything, and all of that flipping upside down just like that. That was definitely the hardest part. Is basically like I was talking about earlier, kind of reinventing yourself,

Hal Habecker: 25:45

yeah, reinventing our family, reinventing our marriage. We're now a threesome in our home. You know, how do we do all that as adults? And I think it's been very helpful. I mean, it just reminds us that we are not our own. We are bought with a price. God's in charge. We don't know what will happen in life. It was a total surprise to us. We had no idea, no and makes two of us. And all of a sudden, you know, here we are, and God has rearranged the chairs on the deck, so to speak, and we're following him in this journey.

Vicki Habecker: 26:17

I think the first time we went to an Al Anon meeting you and me. I just kept asking the people in there. I said, what did we miss? How did we miss this, that he was struggling, and they pointed me to something on the wall, a plaque on the wall, and said, You didn't cause this. You can't control this, and you can't cure it, but parents listening, you know, there's always something that you in the back of your mind go, Oh, how did I miss this? How did we not know that he was getting his liver in trouble? Because he was very functioning. He was very fun. You never had a DUI. You never had any of the things that you think of happening with someone who is abusing

Unknown: 27:09

alcohol well. And one big reason why y'all two included Jennifer Bethany, friends, everybody, even my roommate at the time, if I was socializing, I would watch what I was consuming. When I wasn't socializing and I was at the house or by my own that's when the cork really came open.

Hal Habecker: 27:33

So the principle would be, be careful about isolating yourself, because your mind plays tricks on you, and you don't know what's going on, really?

Vicki Habecker: 27:41

And then now that he's with us, you moms especially, might understand. At first, felt like I had to control every single step he took, everything he ate, because he was on a special diet. And then I realized he's not my project. He's my son, and he's God's Son, and God is working a change in his life. So Vicki, you might want to keep your mouth shut, and you might wait, wait, wait. Are you smiling at me when I said, keep my mouth shut.

Hal Habecker: 28:12

He interrupts your time in the kitchen because he has to take care of himself, and so rather than it's your kitchen. It's now his kitchen and yours, and you have to take step back and let him run your kitchen for himself.

Unknown: 28:29

That irritates the fire I know doesn't stink. I don't hear any complaints when the food I make is delicious.

Vicki Habecker: 28:35

Oh, I love it. What's the best thing about moving in with us? I

Unknown: 28:41

get to have a relationship with you guys again beforehand, y'all would always reach out, Hey, we're gonna go to a haters, or we're gonna go do this. We're gonna go do that. But because I lived where I lived when I would get home from work, well, number one, the drinking had already began. And two, I didn't feel like getting out and going wherever y'all wanted to go, maybe once in a blue moon, I'd come by for like, a Labor Day, or July 4 or something like that, for something simple, just swimming in the pool, hot dogs, burgers on the grills, you know, just keeping it nice and simple. So the one thing I've really, really enjoyed is the fact that I'm actually having a relationship with you guys again, and it's not just because, all right, got to check the box. Got to go see Mom and Dad. Got to check in with them. It's actually like, hey, like, what are we gonna do? Like, I remember, before I could even work, we had our nights all together. We would plan dinner meals. We would

Vicki Habecker: 29:35

alternate movie nights. No, they did not give me a chance.

Unknown: 29:39

No, she wanted to watch Mamma mia, and you said, No, we vetoed her,

Vicki Habecker: 29:44

and then we watched that stupid Napoleon.

Unknown: 29:48

But it was fun right at the very beginning, because we got to do things together when we hadn't in decades. Okay,

Vicki Habecker: 29:57

so is it not fun? Now, you said it was fun at the very. Very beginning, how? How as now that this has progressed on five months of sobriety, are you getting tired of us? Are you picking up that we're getting tired of you? No, seriously, I think these are serious questions.

Unknown: 30:12

I think there's definitely going to come a time where it's like, okay, you're like, for me personally, my health, as far as I'm concerned, we're almost there. We're all most there. Praise God. And then the second part of all that is going to be my finances. Luckily, we're getting back on track with those things. And I know you two would love to resume life the way it was beforehand. So would I to the extent of still being independent, but remembering this time to see just how great it actually was. Yeah, there's times where I'm just like, I gotta get out of here. I gotta go. I'm just gonna take the keys before I had a car. But overall, yeah, no, I'm not getting tired of you guys. I would like to think you're not getting tired of me at the same time. But despite being a boomerang kid, I would say there's definitely a timeframe for sure. Unfortunately, we just didn't know what mine was going to be when this whole process began. Let's

Hal Habecker: 31:21

move to kind of wrap this up and draw some conclusions. I mean, one of the things that has been really helpful to me is whatever interruptions God gives you need to be willing to make adjustments in your life. Yeah. I mean, yeah. And some of those changes are really tragic and disappointing, and this ours hasn't been that, because God has restored you. But accidents happen, and you know, we need to really throw our lives in on God and trust him. And it really makes all the difference. And you know, the best thing for me is watching God work in your life and in our lives together, and seeing him recreate another new launch. You might say. I mean, I think God gives us families to launch them into the world, to make a difference for him, and there are interruptions in that process. So here we are praying for you and trusting God to relaunch you into His purposes, and thanking him for what we've had, what he's restored, and continue to be a family together and pray and encourage each

Vicki Habecker: 32:22

other. And Jonathan, you've got people all over the United States praying for you. I mean, it was unbelievable when we would post something or somebody would call and then the word would just spread. And then I had the exciting privilege of saying, He's not having withdrawals, he's not having cravings. He's going to AA, all this stuff, Jonathan, we were so proud of you, and still are that you've taken ownership of some bad decisions in your life, and with God's help, you are like you said, you're reinventing, or God is reinventing you, yeah, and you look great. You've lost, what?

Unknown: 33:07

70 pounds. 70 pounds, 70 pounds. And two and a half months. And

Vicki Habecker: 33:11

Jonathan and I try to, we've gotten lazy the last couple of weeks, but we try to go walking. We try to go walk two, three miles every morning, until I face plant.

Unknown: 33:20

I'll say one final thing here. So I heard this quote few years back, and the quote goes something like this, a man has two lives. The second life starts when he realizes he only has one. So this whole process of rebuilding myself the base and the foundation that I'm doing this time, rather than the first 42 and a half years, is going to be centered on Christ, Jesus. It has to be, what's the story about the guy who builds his house on firm and solid ground? That's the most solid ground I can think of. So that's a good place to start. It's good then everything else will fall online. Thanks.

Hal Habecker: 34:04

Jonathan, thanks. Vicki, any final words? I want

Vicki Habecker: 34:08

to say one thing to parents, if your child has come home, consider it a blessing how you have in our garage a boomerang. I do that was what from the farm you growing up? Or when did you get that? I don't know. Throwing a boomerang is difficult. It takes practice. And if you throw it out there correctly, what does it do? It comes right back to you. So parents, grandparents, if you've got an adult child,

Unknown: 34:44

move it in. Take it as a compliment that you did something right, you did something right, and they were willing or wanting to come.

Hal Habecker: 35:00

Income. That's awesome. Thanks. This has been fun, reminiscing, thinking, reflecting on the last five months as a dad, mom, son. Hope that you've picked up some things that would encourage you just hearing our story. I don't know what your story is out there, but trust God in it, throw yourself into it and learn from him and encourage each other. You know, we need to be desperate to keep being the people God calls us to be, regardless of the challenge. So whatever your challenges are, trust God. Vicki wants to say one more thing in

Vicki Habecker: 35:38

two things, I love Elizabeth Elliot, and she has the best quote if you've got an adult child that's moved back in with you, she says, never pass up an opportunity to keep your mouth shut. And Scripture tells us let our words be seasoned with grace and only speak words that are good for edification according to the need of the moment. Jonathan, I'll be honest, there were some times when I wanted to pontificate and tell you if you would do this, you did that, you do that. And the Holy Spirit said, Vicki, why don't you just shut up right now?

Hal Habecker: 36:18

You got final word? Jonathan,

Unknown: 36:20

no, not really. Okay.

Hal Habecker: 36:22

Thanks. We pray for you. Pray for finishing well Ministries as we as growing adults, we're all aging. Let's be the people God has called us to be influencing our families, influencing others, and being bold for Jesus, work in our lives. May God bless you and encourage you this day. Thanks for listening.

Unknown: 36:41

You've been listening to the finishing well podcast, let's keep pursuing Jesus together and encourage each other to follow him in our aging years. Subscribe to the show wherever you get your podcasts, or you can find us at finishing well ministries.org/podcast, our vision is to change the way we think about our aging Season of Life, equipping you to actively pursue God's calling in your life. May the Lord bless and encourage you and we'll see you next time on the finishing well podcast. You.