Raising Resilient Sons: Faith, Fitness & Fatherhood for Christian Dads

your body is a Lamborghini given to you by God on loan, right? So God doesn't create junk.

And it's on loan, right? So you don't get to take your car that you get and then just trash it

and then expect for it to like, you know, you don't do that to the car dealership. And so

the physical health of the body is super important. And from what I know, from a physiological,

neurological standpoint, your physical health has a huge impact on your emotional health,

how you respond in certain situations, even your focus. So many people are, you know, going to

church and and even just kind of going through the motions when it comes to Christianity. And

they're not even really kind of understanding the words that are popping out on the page,

whether because they're on maybe a ton of different medication or they're just not able to be

able to truly walk that out. So the physical part of it is huge.

Your organization is known worldwide and we certainly appreciate every facet that you did.

I do believe in what you're doing because I've seen it in my family.

So excited about all the things that Robert, you guys are doing with classical conversations.

It's been a huge blessing for our family.

I'm grateful for the work at classical conversations. You're a leader and you have been in this

movement for a long time. We love classical conversations. I do feel like I have a debt of gratitude

to you, your family, all of CC for just the fruit that has come from CC. I appreciate all that

you guys do, both through this wonderful podcast and also through classical conversations,

I am convinced is the best education resource out there. Thank you very much for all that you do

for the cause of Christ and for our families and for our children. Really, really appreciate it.

Hello everyone and welcome back to another informative episode of refining rhetoric. And today I'm

so excited to have Dr. Brandon Schreiner on. He is the founder of the Warrior 3 project and

organization dedicated to equipping and empowering men to live, lead and love strong. He's also co-owns

Revive Chiropractic with his wife, Dr. Samantha Schreiner, where they specialize in spinal correction.

We lost human performance and mindset from the state of Ohio, just like my wife. He was a

cross-fit athlete, one of the top ones in the world. And as he's grown out this Warrior 3 project,

it's just to help men, answers God's call to be everything that they ought to be. And he's

sought after health expert and he's helping men become stronger in every dimension of their lives.

So, yeah, Dr. Brandon Schreiner, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me on, Robert. It's an honor and a privilege to be on the show. I heard a lot

about CC. I've worked with CC families. My wife and I have done CC with our boys. And so

you guys have a great organization. It's an honor. So thank you.

Yeah, well, I did cross-fit for a while. I wasn't an athlete, but did it to stay in shape for

playing rugby. And I know you went to life for the Chiropractic School, which is a big,

big rugby community there. But yeah, talk to us about your life as an athlete and how have you

gone from being an athlete to now an advocate? And what are some of those lessons maybe that you

learned along the way? Yeah, so I grew up a southeastern Ohio, real small farm town,

where wrestling wasn't really a big thing. It was kind of football farming in school.

And just quickly took to the sport. I grew up in a broken home. So I had a lot of frustration

in anger. I tried basketball for a little bit and then quickly fouled out. It was a little bit

too aggressive. So it took to wrestling when I was in seventh grade. I had an uncle that said,

hey, come try this sport. And I did and fell in love with it. And I ended up getting a division

one scholarship to wrestle for the Ohio bobcats at 149 pounds. I was the Mac Red shirt freshman of

the year. And really, my identity at that particular time was imperishable crowns. It was getting

out of my small town. Family I could never really afford to send me to school. And so I had a lot

of pressure on me to perform and become an all-American. And in 2005, getting ready to wrestle

Central Michigan for the Mac title, woke up and I couldn't feel my fingers. I was the guy that was

doing all the right things and 5% body fat and I didn't look unhealthy. And woke up couldn't

feel my fingers. And probably three or four months later, I was getting cortisone shots into

the front of my neck with the needles about this long to try to numb the nerves that were coming

out. I remember I was an organic chemistry at the time. Extra says physiology. I was trying to be

at an orthopedic surgeon. And I remember, you know, they would take me to the orthopedist and

they would inject these needles through the front. And they'd give me a volume to do that. And

it's not even a procedure they do anymore. It's so dangerous with all the carotid arteries and

stuff. And I was just at a point where I was like, whatever you got to do to get me on the map

because my identity was in that. And it ended up feeling better. And I could put a power half on

the back of my neck to get my spot back. And I just felt the pop. And I ended up having surgery.

They put a titanium plate in my neck to fuse my spine together. And my wrestling career was over.

It became very depressed. I was addicted to oxy cotton and just was a sad part of my life. And

I ended up transitioning. I actually fought for the ICFA for two years and engaged fighting,

just kind of beating my way through, you know, trying to figure out like, you know, what is

what has God got for me and I didn't know God at the time. I know he was there, but I didn't have

a relationship with him. And I stumbled upon a chiropractor. So extra says physiology was my

background. So I started training professional athletes and just really, you know, higher level

clients and ran into a chiropractor at the gym. And you know, this was like a bodybuilding kind of

guy and he was, you know, working out all the time. And he goes, hey, let's do legs together.

And I was like, okay, you know, I loved working out. I mean, it was a big part of my life. And he

goes, well, if you can hang with me, you know, without puking, then then I'll kind of take

in or my wings. I was like, okay, whatever. So we start doing legs together. And I start pushing

him and, you know, I survived. And, you know, he kind of took me to his wing, took X-rays in my

neck and kind of explained to me, you know, how the body was designed by God to work that God

doesn't create junk. And, you know, there's this beautiful design that God has for us. And really,

the central nervous system, you know, the spinal cord lays within a spine. And if your spine is not

in a great position, aka, you've been taken front headlock service since you've been in seventh grade.

Yeah, there's a problem. And so I started getting adjusted and just kind of live in a better life.

I got off on medications. I didn't have any more headaches. And I decided not to go be an

orthopedic surgeon. I kind of packed everything in my car, told my family. I said, hey, I'm going

to be a chiropractor. And they were like, you're crazy. I don't know what you're doing. And so I

would drove down to Atlanta, Georgia. And it was interesting because I, you know, the first day on

campus, I see a gentleman there who's got a Cincinnati Bengal shirt on. I'm a huge Cincinnati

Bengals fan. And sorry. Yeah, we're both kind of at the pay-a-thers actually did pretty well

this year. But yeah, we'll pray for the Bengals and hope for Joe Burrow needs chiropractor.

I just put it that way. And so we, I went to on campus. I saw a guy with a Cincinnati Bengal shirt.

So I just kind of, you know, hugged tight to him and come to find out. He was a Christian and his

brothers were missionary pilots and he had given his life to the Lord and his parents' kitchen.

He was like six years old and, you know, just started hanging out with him. His name is Sam.

Really great guy. He's got an awesome practice and right outside Nashville with his wife Claire.

And I went to, I started going to Bible studies and chiropractic school. You know, there's like a,

whenever you go to chiropractic school and you kind of understand the body and how it works,

it's almost like impossible not to understand. There's a, there's a, there's a bigger purpose behind

your life. You know, and so when you're dissecting bodies and you're doing all the physiology,

it's like, wow, like the body is magnificently created. And so it's very common in chiropractic

school for there to be a lot of faith. And so I started going to Bible studies and I went to a

retreat in the North Georgia mountains and, you know, a second day of the retreat and there was

an alter call and I gave my life to the Lord. And ever since then, you know, I've been walking

with the Lord. I met my wife in chiropractic school. She didn't know the Lord. And so we started

hanging out and then come, you know, should we baptize her in the Chattahoochee River. And we get

married in 2011. We open up our practice in 2012 right here in Columbus, Ohio. She's from Western

Michigan. I'm from Ohio. And so we kind of, you know, settled in the middle. So nice.

Yep. So there's a lot of directions. I want to take this. None of it have to do with what's

actually going on. So my wife, so my wife ran track at Ohio and she would have been there

when you were there. So I don't know if you remember April, you're Shannon. I don't know if you

hung out the track, track girls at all, but she ran the floor. You said there was a guy by

there by the name of Dan Bailey. Yeah. She knows Dan. Yeah. And so Dan, him and I are, you know,

pretty good friends. And he actually lives not far from me right now. But when I hurt my neck,

in 2005, I took over strength conditioning for Ohio, the wrestling team. And I also helped

out with men's and women's track and field. So I actually probably had put your wife through some,

you know, some strength conditioning stuff. But the name doesn't ring a bell. But

good. If I saw a face, maybe I would. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Dan was a great

CrossFit athlete as well. Five-time champ or something like that now. Yeah. That's how I got

across fit is that I was actually finishing up chiropractic school, had about a year or two left.

And honestly, I was just kind of bored. I mean, I was always an athlete, you know,

striving towards a goal. And I actually see Dan Bailey on TV at the games. And then I quickly just

went right to CrossFit, Kennesall. And I'd sit down with the coaches and I said, hey,

I want to qualify for the CrossFit Games. And they looked at me like, that's not going to happen.

Sure. And so, you know, if you know anything about me, when someone tells me that I can't do

something, I'm probably going to do it. So at least I'm going to really try really hard to do it.

And so I started training. And then I qualified for the Central East Regional, which at that

particular point in time, the CrossFit Games were kind of broken up into regionals. And the

Central East was the toughest region in the world. We had, you know, guys like Dan and Graham

Holmberg and Rich Froning and all these guys. So from 2011 to 2014, you know, it was a regional

qualifier in 2013. We went to the CrossFit Games for CrossFit New Albany. And not only did it

was CrossFit a huge part of my life, but one of the reasons why we settled back in this area is

that I found a CrossFit gym here in New Albany. And when I got to the CrossFit gym, I quickly

started a Bible study. And that was just a huge thing for me is that is working out and then

diving into God's Word. And I met a guy by the name of Ralph Hicks, who now does all of our programming

for where you're three projects. So all the workouts that you see online that you're getting,

like this is the mastermind behind that, you know, he's coached guys like Marcus Hendren and

Graham Holmberg and all these guys. But anyway, I go to the gym and he's not a believer. He was

a pitcher for the Houston Astros. And I come in. I was like, Hey, Ralph, I'd love to do a

Bible study. I work out at six. You know, we'll do a workout and then we'll dive into God's Word.

And he's like, Yeah, what do you want to do? And so literally like three or four years later,

I ended up baptizing him in a horse trough in the gym. And the kind of the rest is history. We

started, you know, in practice, I would have guys come in and I would say, Hey, we're doing a

Bible study on Tuesday. We're going to meet over at the CrossFit gym. We're going to do a quick

workout. And then we're going to dive into God's Word. And then it kind of took into this thing

that we call now for where you're three, which is what in the word. And so guys show up at my farm,

you know, once a month. And you know, we get coffee and, you know, we do a workout and do some hikes

on my, I got 40 acre farm. And so just a great ministry for guys to kind of get broken down,

break their egos down and then to kind of build them back up with God's Word. So

Yeah, nothing like a CrossFit workout to break your egos down. And for those unfamiliar wide,

WOD just stands for workout of the day. So you have very, very familiar with that language.

Yeah. So we hear all about like toxic masculinity. And of course, you kind of see those traits. And

it doesn't have anything to do with masculinity at all. And we've had, unfortunately, this lie that

kids aren't going to be hurt by divorced. And so now you're at I think more than half of babies born

in America are now born out of wedlock. So there's not a lot of fatherly influence. The

fathers that do stick around may not have had a father that was around. And so we've kind of got

this generational break. And we've got to, well, the Bible is very, you know, clear on how we can

restore that. But yeah, so how did you go from just, you know, this top level athlete starting

this warrior three project? Like what inspired that inspired you to get started with this?

You know, it's always been something that I feel like God has had on my heart was, you know,

just man, I grew up in a broken home. I got a great father. He's awesome. And our relationship

now is way better than it's ever been. But, you know, I grew up, I've had multiple step-dads and,

you know, physical abuse, emotional stuff. And I didn't really grow up with that type of leader

in my life. I mean, my dad is amazing. But he never really taught me, you know, how to be physically

strong, how to be spiritually strong. Actually, what's interesting is that my, my mom was Southern

Baptist. My dad was Catholic. So it was kind of a very interesting dynamic in my home. Yeah.

And so, you know, really it's kind of been, you know, once I came to know the Lord, I was kind of

searching after other individuals, you know, guys like Scott Shaw and different like that, you know,

local pastors here that are involved in CC that what I would just pour into me. And so it's always

been something that I felt like the Lord has called me to, you know, just the past that I've had

and really being able to inspire a young man that, hey, the generational curse that maybe you

grew up with, that can be broken by how it is that you lead your home. But it wasn't until about

2020, you know, practice is awesome. And I always like to tell men that comfort kills. And I was,

I was in that particular season of my life, like great practice, you know, seven figure income.

There's nothing in my life that I was like, wow, like, you know, I just, it was a rough life.

I mean, we had my kids were just amazing boys. I've got four boys, 10, 8, 7, and almost 2 now.

We have two in head, two in heaven. We lost two. And just life is good. And it was my son's,

my third son Hendrix is second birthday. And I remember it because my wife does birthdays big.

And I didn't grow up with, I didn't grow up with big birthdays. It was like, you know, and it's fine.

Like, hey, give me a card. Maybe it's a couple days late, you know, whatever.

But my wife did birthdays big. I remember, like, there was like four or five pots at

Chile. We had like a flag football, had about 50 people coming over to the house. And we're kind of

getting ready in the morning. And all of a sudden, we get a phone call. And, you know, I can't

really explain like the feeling that came over me at that time. But it was like something that I

will never forget. It was like this screech that's like this screen that came from the living room.

And all of a sudden, like the phone had dropped. And, you know, she come to me and she goes, hey, you

know, Mark, Mark took his life. And Mark Jones was one of those guys that helped pray that prayer

of salvation over me in the North George Mountains. He was a really great, awesome Christian guy,

boy, dad. He was a wrestler. He was an outdoorsman. Him and I really, really connected.

We were part of a coaching group called Maximized Living. And so we just, we were always together

when we worked together. And he was one of those guys that, you know, Roberts, like those guys in

your life, like they get me, you know, they're your mat carriers. Like they're not your bros,

but they're the mat carriers or the ones that are going to, whatever they got to do to get you

through the root, like lower to you down from the roof. Like that was, that was Mark for me. And

he took his life and come to find out he was an alcoholic and just came to the point where he was

like, I don't feel like I can beat this and my kids and my wife are better without me. So,

you know, ended his life in committed suicide. And I looked at my wife and I just said, I have,

we have to do something to change this. And all the while, you know, COVID had been going on,

our country is in the leadership of our country is just absolutely disgusting.

Men are tucking their tails between their legs, you know, mask mandates. All these different

things are going on. And I'm like, wow, like we need stronger men. We need, you know, physically

stronger, we need to be better grounded in our faith. And we need to be have stronger,

more spirit-filled marriages and families. And so that's where we just said, hey,

that's where your three was going to be birthed. And so we started that company and continue to do

what we were doing with it and the practice. And so, you know, you have those whys in your life.

Like Simon Sinek says that the what and the how are important, but the why is what, how you find

your way. And for a long time there, like my why was, I don't want anybody to have to go through

what I went through when it comes to surgery and health. And then it's still a part of my why,

which is why there's a health piece to, you know, where you're three. But, but God has really shifted

me into leading and inspiring and empowering men to live, lead and love strong. And that's kind of

where I'm working right now to equip and lead other doctors to begin to step in and take over

and steward over our chiropractic clinic, which helps thousands of people and then really begin

to step into where you're three and helping men and young boys achieve the potential that God has

for him. Yeah. So this live lead and love strong kind of framework. How does that? How does that get

lived out for those who are involved in the warrior three project? Like if I, yeah, give us a little

bit more kind of details of the nuts and bolts of how it works. Yeah. Well, the, you know, the

live is the physical piece, you know, when I think of like mind, body and spirit, you know, it's

that it's that, you know, try out of life. And so I personally think that, you know, we don't get

to pick and choose. I use the analogy a lot is that your body is a Lamborghini given to you by God

on loan, right? So God doesn't create junk. And it's on loan, right? So you don't get to take your

car that you get and then just trash it and then expect for it to like, you know, you don't do that

to the car dealership. And so the physical health of the body is super important. And from what I know

from a physiological neurological standpoint, your physical health has a huge impact on your emotional

health. How you respond in certain situations, even your focus, you know, so many people are,

you know, going to church and and even just kind of going through the motions when it comes to

Christianity. And they're not even really kind of understanding the words that are popping out

on the page, but other because they're on maybe a ton of different medication or they're just not

able to be able to truly walk that out. So the physical part of it is huge. And I think as men,

sometimes we get a pass for that, right? I mean, we're the providers, we're the protectors,

especially in pastors as well. I mean, everything has had to be super perfect. Our marriage has to be

perfect. Our communication has to be perfect. Our spiritual health has to be perfect. But we'll have

donuts and just pizza and everything all the time. We'll get a free pass on that. And so I've

tried to bring physical health into, you know, this as a way of just stewardship. I was at muscle

beach not too long ago in Miami. And I just I've never worked out there. I told my wife, I was like,

hey, I'm going to go and do a workout there. And what I saw was the exact opposite of what

stewarding over the body is supposed to look like from a biblical standpoint. What I saw was a bunch

of people, you know, half naked working out just so they could be jacked so they could go out that

night to show off their muscles. And yeah, being healthy, being fit, working out, doing CrossFit,

so that way you can be healthy for your kids. It's a part of it, but it's more just God's called us

to go and to make disciples. And that word go means action. And so I find that so many men are

stopped shorter. They're God-given potential because of something they could have fixed and

prevented cancer, heart disease, diabetes. I mean, most of the suicides that happen in our country

happen for men, just the pressure, you know, just to provide and protect. And then our physical

healths go to the tube so that that's the physical side of things. And then lead strong as simply

our relationship with Jesus, you know, the research is pretty clear that I believe that when

dads are the ones that are spearheading the spiritual piece of the home, not that mom can't be

the part of that. But when dad says, we're going to church, we're going to do a Bible study. We're

doing this. And he's leading that. He's not just saying it, but he's leading it. I believe that like

90% of the time, once the kids are out of the house, they will also follow after the Lord. So

there's this leadership principle like leading like Jesus. I'm being empathetic, but being strong. I

love, I believe it was Joby Martin, you know, whatever he says, he loves this. Like what's it

mean to be a masculine man? First Corinthians 1613, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like

men, be strong. And so that's that spiritual piece. And there's the love strong. And I thought

this was like really, really big, especially during COVID where there was still there's a lot of

language around like be kind and, you know, love each other. And what I wanted to get out of this

was like loving my wife or my wife loving me isn't always pretty. And what I mean by that is that

if my wife really loves me, she's going to say, hey, listen, you need to stop acting like an idiot.

Like that was not appropriate. That is not okay. I love you. And I know you're not perfect. And

I'm not perfect either, but I'm going to tell you what you need to hear versus what you want to

hear. And so, and what your three projects, it's about loving somebody's strong means that I'm

going to go to bat for you. I'm not, I'm not afraid to lead from the back and to take the blows

so that way you can prosper. At the same time, when you're doing something that you shouldn't be

doing, I'm going to very, very gently, but yet firmly begin to call you out on that so that way

we can actually grow through this process. Nothing happens if we just continue to say, well, you know,

whatever, you know, and so that's kind of where the love strong came in.

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Nice. I love that framework and you had touches all all three parts of our lives and

I just noticed like for me personally the healthier I am physically, the healthier I become spiritually

because I'm actually focusing on doing the right things the right way with my body and so that

also helps me do things the right way more spiritually as well versus when I start, you know,

getting into my old habits or stop watching what I put in my mouth that my spiritual life also

goes sideways and I guess it doesn't have to be that way. I'm necessarily for everyone but I do

think like you said, I mean the Bible says our bodies is a temple into the living Lord. As you

said, it's just you didn't mess it up like we all have our issues, you know, could be taller,

could be stronger, could have a higher metabolism but most people aren't controlling even

what they can control to be there for their family and just that important. So I know my dad did a

good job demonstrating that to us growing up at least on the live part. That's really cool.

In the love part but my mom was more of the spiritual leader in our household until older but

you know, God is merciful there too and trying to do all these three things for my three kids as well.

So yeah, how have you seen like spiritual health and physical strength like tie to each other?

I'm not saying that, you know, can't be obese and be spiritually strong or anything like that.

But yeah, have you seen that among your studies or among the men that you've worked with where

these kind of ideas build upon each other? Kind of like the idea of atomic habits.

I'm doing good things with my body and we do good things spiritually but if I'm eating fast food,

having an extra beer, whatever that things are going to deteriorate pretty quickly.

Yeah, yeah, you know, I don't want people to think that like you just said, like if I'm overweight

and I'm struggling and I've given my life to the Lord, like, you know, you're going to have it,

like, you know, there is no question about that. I think the thing that I try and teach men

and what I find with spiritual men that are struggling with physical health problems and how

that's impacted them spiritually is energy, it's focus. It's the pressure that we put on

ourselves to lead and to protect our family and there's only so much, it's almost like you don't

put diesel fuel in a Lamborghini and expect it to have high output. You know, like, like,

you're the fuel that you put your body in, you know, the exercise that you put yourself through,

these are tools that we can use to make sure that the body is primed in such a way that we can go

and we can make disciples and that we can make an impact. You know, when I think of like, you know,

the Bible and I think of David and I think of Jesus and just how physically active that they were,

I mean, I don't think that we understand in that time, you know, when David walked, I think it was

like 50 miles to gath, like, it was, it was, it was, most people have a hard time, you know,

getting on a treadmill and walking for 20 minutes without being at a breath. And so I think that

there is a piece here that not that physical health is our idol, but first Timothy said,

physical health is of importance, but our spiritual health is the foundation. And, you know, I love

first Corinthians 924 through 27 and the Apostle Paul is kind of talking about, we're all in a race.

And I think as Christian men, we're in a race to, to lead and to protect and to make an impact

and to do an impact can be in various different forms, but in a race, all runners run. And so we're all

running in some way, shape or form, some, some are running faster than others. Run in such a way

that you can win the prize. And I think that's what I, you know, love to inspire into men is that,

hey, if you want this and you want to be impactful and you want to leave a mark and you want to have,

you want to be a man after God's own heart, then you, you're not running in such a way that you

can achieve what it is that you're wanting to achieve, you know, the food that you're putting in

your body, you know, your, your lack of movement, your lack of, you know, mindset and prep for that,

is not setting you up to be able to finish the way that I know that you want to finish. So

I love that scripture. It doesn't change if you, if you, you know, go to heaven or not, but however

physical health does affect how you run the race and the impact that you can leave. Yeah.

I think you can definitely work the opposite way too. One of the things that my mom says and I might

get the terminology a little bit awkwardly, but I'm wrong, but, you know, the average person today,

you know, walks a mile or walks 500 steps or a thousand steps a day, but, uh, God designed

our body to go 10, 15 miles a day because I mean, we're all thankful for horses and then cars,

you know, I'm thankful that I can go, you know, eight miles to work in 10 minutes or something

every morning and doesn't take me, you know, three hours to get there. But, uh, like our bodies

were meant like it is, it is normal for our bodies to be able to do that historically. And like,

now it's like, I mean, even fit people like, you know, today would maybe be considered unfit, you

know, 2000 years ago, uh, just because of the lifestyle changes and things like that. Um, for

leading, like, what are some things like you're learning or teaching for others to do for like

leading their family well because I got, you know, it always seems to, you know, kids have sports,

you know, rushing around, you know, making sure that they get to church on Sunday,

you know, Wednesday nights, you know, trying to do some Bible study at home, but like, what are

some maybe tips or different ideas that can help, uh, fathers be the leaders that God wants them

to be in their household? Yeah, that's a great question. I think I was actually just,

we just had our warrior three call. I had a pastor on talking about leadership, you know,

in how Jesus led. Um, number one, he was never in a hurry. A great book is the ruthless elimination

hurry of hurry from John Mark Comer. And I just, it always baffles me of just, you know, he,

he had a great mission. He accomplished that in three years, um, but he was never really

in a hurry. Um, I think the greatest thing that we can do is leaders for our home is not about

what we say, um, but it's how, how we act, you know, um, we're not short to talk, um, we're,

we're very good at speeches as dads, um, but we're very bad at asking questions. And oftentimes,

what I see, or we've heard this phrase before, do what I say, not what I do, when really it should

be learn from what I, what, what model after what I do so that way you can learn from me. And so

the greatest thing I would tell men out there is that your actions, um, I purposely, um, leave my

Bible on the kitchen table or my kind of nook. My kids know that it's open. I leave it open. Um,

I, I, I got like little highlights and things like that with my notes. My boys will get up in the

morning before school and they'll kind of go over there and, you know, after school, they were like,

hey, dad, you know, I saw that you're reading this morning. Like, what were you reading? Those types

of things, um, are actions. Um, the Bible says be doers of the word, not just hears of the word,

so they can see that there's an action there. Also, I love having my boys see me work out. Like,

in the morning on the weekends, like, hey, come out to the barn. Um, you know, it's chaos. I've

got four kids run around half the time. It takes me 10 minutes more to do what I wanted to do.

It's not always peaceful, but them seeing dad live this out, uh, I think is way more important than

just telling them, hey, you should do this and you should do that. Um, the other thing that I would

say is that, um, it's okay to admit when you're wrong, you know, um, I feel like ego is, is, is the

enemy, uh, for, for a lot of men. And so I make a lot of mistakes and I let my boys know that and

I set them down. I look them in the eye and I said, listen, you know, daddy made a mistake. He raised

his voice. It's been a long day. Um, daddy's got a lot on his plate. Um, hey, I just want to let,

you know, I'm wrong. And, um, can you forgive me for that? Yes, dad, I forgive you. Um, hey, what,

what can I do better, uh, to serve you this week? Well, hey, I'd love to, I'd love to play some

video games. I got this new, you know, maddened game. I'd love to try it. Okay, let's try it. You

know, and deliver on what you say. Um, so be the leader that others want to follow. Um, don't be

afraid to, you know, admit there's a mistake and then follow up with that one thing that I found

as, as you get busier and as you have things going on in your life, it's very often to say you're

going to do something and then not follow up with it. And so make sure you follow through, uh,

with your family. And, you know, I think, you know, as a, as a husband, these are the kind of things

that just grow my wife and I closer. You know, it's not always, we get to spend an endless amount

of time together. Um, but there's an attraction that's, that's built when she sees me

pouring into the kids from a leadership standpoint and a physical standpoint. And I'm raising mighty

warriors for the Lord that are strong. And then there's a physical attraction when I see her nurturing

them as they're going through those hard times as, you know, they got made fun of at school or,

you know, they didn't do very good on a test. And she's kind of putting her arms around them and

just saying, Hey, it's okay, son. I love you. And so, you know, when we're all in the same page

and we're all working towards a common goal, which is serving, living, leading, and loving strong,

which is kind of the core values of our home, um, all boats rise.

Amen to that. One of the things that we're seeing, especially in men, is this, uh,

resiliency crisis and it's a crisis across really across all the gender, the two genders,

not all the genders, but everyone in the United States, there's only two that got made of both

XX and XY. Uh, we're not science deniers here on this podcast, unlike half the country. Uh,

anyways, uh, yeah, so emotional resilience. I know like college athletes now have

resiliency coaches, which is just mind boggling. It's something that, um, we have raised a

generation of people who weren't allowed to fail, uh, were coddled, um, were, were told they're

special because they breathe in and out with their nose and mouth on a daily basis. Uh,

and we've just set a really low bar. And so, uh, when people can't even make that,

they're devastated. So how has, uh, you know, what you teach in the warrior three community

help people develop that resilience that so many people are in experts now to help develop and

are our best and brightest, uh, athletes?

You know, I think number one, men are different than women and, um, men need to

link arms, um, and align marching forward towards a common goal and something that's going to push

them. Um, I would totally agree with you. I'm, I'm a wrestling coach. So I've got four boys,

three of them wrestle and I wrestle. I have 51 kids on Tuesdays and Thursday nights that I

lead and pour into and teach them how to, you know, um, uh, battle through hard situations.

And I'm kind of biased. I don't think there's a sport out there that, um, can teach a kid,

resilience and discipline and how to battle back from adversity than the sport of wrestling.

Number one, you're, you know, basically out there in the middle of, uh, of a mat by yourself,

mommy and daddy can't save you. And then you're kind of in a pretty revealing uniform. And so, um,

you know, just teaching them that like struggle produces endurance, like hard things are going to

happen. And actually, one thing that I've been teaching my boys that I think is a huge thing when

it comes to just resilience is process over outcome. We're in an outcome based world where it's

like, if I don't get an A on a test, I failed. If I don't get into this premiere college,

then I failed. If I don't go to college, I'm a failure. Um, and I try and teach the kids even in

wrestling. It's like, listen, wrestling is a life is a journey. And you need to fall in love with

the process of who you become and chasing after the goal. And when you focus on the process,

you may not necessarily hit the outcome or the goal, which are always better in that. And a

couple of things that I, you know, I teach, you know, um, a man, especially that are, you know,

in that kind of like 35 to 55 year old multiple kids running around, you know, CEOs of companies,

there's two things. Number one is that there are Matt carriers and there are bros. Um, you know,

it's okay to have bros, you know, that you can call up and whatever and, you know, go have a beer

and hang out. And oftentimes they'll tell you what you need to hear. But then there's like the

Matt carriers in your life, the ones that you can go to and you can call them up at four o'clock

in the morning and say, listen, I want to have a drink and they're going to be like, don't do it.

And if I, you know, I'm going to come over to your house right now and we're going to sit down,

we're going to watch Braveheart. We're going to have a glass of water and we're going to,

we're going to work through this together, right? That there's those Matt carriers that are going

to do whatever they need to do to take you, bust open the roof and drop you down. Uh, so, so you

can meet Jesus. And number two, one of my favorite movies is Top Gun. And um, I love that movie

when it comes to resilience, you know, when goose dies, Maverick is just absolutely a mess. Like he

takes a lot of ownership and responsibility for something that wasn't his fault. And I feel like

men, young, young boys have so much pressure on them to be perfect. And then as a dad,

if you're, you know, you grew up in that kind of mindset of like, be perfect, don't mess up,

then you kind of carry that into your family with your kids. And that can be kind of a poison

that kind of penetrates your home. But, but one thing that I love about that movie is that the moment

that that goose dies, you know, that the head, head guy of Top Gun says, keep sending them up,

keep sending them up, keep sending them up. And that's something that I think is super important

because whenever I get into those moments where I feel like I'm not achieving what I want to

achieve, I'm failing as a father, I don't, I don't feel like I'm making an impact in my community

when it comes to health and just being a disciple and leading others to Jesus. My wife will tell me

one thing, go serve. She's like, you guys, you can need to go down to the dream center and you need

to, you know, adjust 100 people and just love on them and pray on them. And like, she just

keeps sending me up. She just keeps sending me in there. Same thing with my sons. They're all

different. All of my boys are just different how they respond. But I have to keep sending them up.

Every single time my oldest loses a wrestling match, he wants to quit. And I say, we're not

quitters. You're going to get back on the mat. You're going to finish what you started. If you don't

want to wrestle next year, that's fine. But in our house, we don't quit. And so we just got to keep,

sometimes we just got to keep serving and we just got to keep sending people up. And then we

stop feeling sorry for ourselves. And then we have those mat carriers around us that can support us

in that. I believe that's how you build resilience, especially in a culture that is so like,

you know, silver spoon, everything's handed to them. We rarely ever have to do anything hard,

which is also the reason why it is that we're three. And the physical piece of it is a part of

the spiritual piece because having men do something hard. Number one, it breaks down the ego. It

breaks down the, you know, you're going into a Bible study and you're like, well, he's got

really nice shoes on. And while he's a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, and I wonder, you know,

we're all just sitting around kind of comparing each other. Yeah. And then all of a sudden you

do this workout. And before you know it, we're all slapping hands. Huggins like all that sucked.

Yeah. That sucked for you. Yeah. It sucked for me too. C.S. Lewis says, the greatest thing

that two men can ever say to one another is, oh, YouTube, like that, like that, like you suffered

with that too. And so the physical piece of it helps to break down some of those like

feeling sorry for yourself vibes and snap out of it. And then you dive into God's word. And that

can help penetrate and begin to change. Helm and respond to resilience.

Amazing. So for Warrior 3, is there like a website? Are there groups? Are there phone calls?

Like, tell us like if someone's interested in this, I mean, I know I'm trying to always spend

the first quarter of the year pretty, you know, dot my eyes and crossing my teeth with my food and

working out, then it seems to go away once we get to the summer. But yeah, how do, how do,

how do men get involved? Or how do, how, you know, got a lot of women listen to this if they

want to get their husband involved? You know, what are those steps? So actually we've got, we've

got two. My wife, we were up in Michigan. I think it was over Labor Day and she looked at me and

we were at church and they were talking about like take the step and she looked at me and she

goes, I need to start warrior women. So we actually we have warrior women and we have

warrior men. Awesome. You know, because we see the benefit like, you know, women are strong in

their own way, you know, very different from what it got calls men to be strong and then

very specific to what men or women are supposed to be when it comes to strength. And so

we got a website that you can go to is Warrior 3, like the number 3 project.com and you can check

it out. But if you want to actually have something delivered into your inbox every single day and

just really have the live, the lead and the love kind of every single day, if you go to

warrior40challenge.com and then what I did is that there's a there's a QR code. If you type in

battle 2026, like we're all in a battle. So if you go to battle 2026, you actually get 30 days

free. And you can try it out every single day. I believe it 4 a.m. in your inbox. On the

men's side, you get a devotional with like discussion questions and guys from all around the

world and all the country can just kind of say, hey, I'm struggling with this. We've got different

levels of workout. So if you've never worked out a day in your life or you got a bad hip or a bad

knee, we've got level one. And then if you're, you know, somebody who wants to push the limits or,

you know, your past, you know, collegiate rugby player and you want to, you know, get all jacked

and, you know, we've got options for you too. And then there's a recipe every day. So like

good, healthy whole food. We call it food by God, not food by man. So single, ingredient foods,

discussion. And then every single month, I just got off a call just before this call.

We have a speaker come on. So Robert, love to have you on and and kind of lead one of those

calls, but, you know, have people, professional athletes, you know, pastors, just men that are

doing it well. Come on and talk about certain topics whether the fitness or, you know, nutrition or

spiritual health or just marriage. And so you have all that kind of at your fingertips. That

was kind of the thing with with CC is that, you know, we want to be able to give, you know,

some of the most well-rounded families that I know. I take care of a lot of families and I take

care of a lot of CC families in my in my practice. And one of the things that always comes up is

like, hey, you know, what do we do for health? And so this is kind of like that that physical

education piece that also is built on a foundation of Christ. So we're your 40 challenge.com

type in battle 2026. And you'll get 30 days free. And after that, it's just 25 bucks a month.

And it's yeah, it's pretty cool. Pretty life changing for a lot of people. Yeah.

So that's warrior the number 40 challenge.com and then type in battle 2026 for a. Yep.

Free trial. Yeah. All right. I'm going to go do that this afternoon. I'm going to have to kick

out my AI coach. This helped me stay on track this year. No, there is a real fitness coach. So like,

we have like a real fitness coach, like nutrition, all that kind of stuff. Like, you know, the devotionals.

We try to make it, you know, really when I think about it, the devotionals were meant for,

if I'm a homeschool family, we're, you know, we're going to be, we were in CC for a little bit,

and we transferred to, you know, private Christian school. And we're actually going to be transferring

back into homeschool. And I want to be able to do a Bible study that's going to push me and a

workout that's going to push me. But I also want to have something for my sons that if we're

going to do this together, you know, I kind of envision it this way. Like, you wake up in the morning,

have some coffee, kids are just kind of getting ready, getting ready to start school.

It's like, hey, here's a Bible study that dad can do with his sons. And if they want to do a workout,

that's going to take 15, 20 minutes just to get their body moved a little bit so that way they can

focus and get these lessons taken care of. And then mom can do that specifically with, with, with the

girls, you know, and they can do their own little Bible study. So that's kind of how we tried to,

to format it, where it wasn't just something that would push us as men, but it was something that

we could actually do with our sons. And so they can, they can see that modeling. Yeah, the Bible

says that a student will become like its master and children are a blessing from the Lord. And so

yeah, more men need to be modeling that on a daily basis. And you guys got the resources to help

them do it, which is awesome. So go to warrior3project.com or warrior40challenge.com. Of course, we'll put the

websites in the show notes. I'll definitely take you up on being a featured guest speaker.

If you really meant it, you can email my team and I'll definitely schedule a time to do it. I'd

love to talk to men because the Bible to me is very clear. I know I talk about this often on the

podcast, but it's, if my people were repent, if men will turn their hearts to their children, right?

I'll heal their land as nothing to do with the pagans or any of the other religions. It's God's

people need to do what's right. And until we do that, we can expect more of the same. And so yeah,

we need, we need men becoming leaders. They need to be strong and they need to love their wives

and their family like Jesus loves the church. And it sounds like you guys are helping do that.

So that's awesome. Thanks for being on the show today. If you like today's episode,

share it with a friend. Of course, check it out on YouTube. Give us a like, leave us a comment

and check us out next week for another exciting episode of refining rhetoric. Until then, God bless.

Thank you for listening to refining rhetoric with Robert Bordens. Want more?

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