418 | Celebrating 8 Years of DadAwesome: Minivan Miracles, Ripping Out Fences, and the Power of Unlikely Friendships (Craig Allen Cooper)

Brotherhood & Mentorship
Written By Jeff Zaugg

Episode Description

After eight years and 418 episodes of DadAwesome, we're celebrating with a conversation that captures everything this ministry is about. Craig Allen Cooper shares the story behind Walker Hayes' song "Craig," why his kids are praying for adult friendships like their parents have, and the five P's that guide his fatherhood. Plus, you'll hear how a minivan miracle led to a stadium-filling artist bowing his knee to Jesus.

  • Craig Allen Cooper is the co-author of Glad You're Here: Two Unlikely Friends Breaking Bread and Fences with country music artist Walker Hayes. He is the subject of Walker's hit song "Craig," which tells the story of their unlikely friendship and Craig's influence in Walker's journey to faith. Craig is a speaker, podcaster, and devoted father of four who lives near Nashville, Tennessee with his wife Laura. He's passionate about discipleship, authentic friendship, and helping men feast on God's Word.

    • Your kids are watching your friendships, and they're praying they'll have the same kind of adult community they see modeled in your life.

    • Trust is the foundation of friendship with your kids. When they know you're for them no matter what, the door to real connection opens wide.

    • Tables beat tablets every time. Eye-to-eye, heart-to-heart connection happens around tables of mercy and grace, not through screens.

    • The 5 P's of fatherhood: Provide, Protect, Prepare, Propel, and be Present. These aren't about perfection; they're about direction.

    • Arrows are meant to fly. Your job is to prepare and propel your kids toward their God-given calling, not keep them close forever.

    • What's upstream matters most. Feasting on God's Word daily is what fills you with gladness to pour into your family.

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  • JEFF: Welcome back to DadAwesome and happy eight years. So DadAwesome launched with episode one exactly eight years ago today. And we're thrilled to celebrate the eight year birthday with a phenomenal conversation with Craig Allen Cooper.

    And I also want to just celebrate by letting you know that I'm holding right now in my hands, I'm holding the DadAwesome book. So this is eight years in the making, the whole history of DadAwesome. We've distilled down the dad discoveries from eight years, the core framework of everything we've learned into a book that's little short seven minute chapters, so easy reads. You can read it in any order. So if you pick up the book and you're like, I'll jump to chapter 26, you can do that.

    So I want to encourage you guys, anyone who's interested in getting a copy about five weeks early, go to dadawesome.org/book, and we have the advance team. The prayer here is we're advancing the mission of this book by having a team of you dads reading the book in advance. So reading it early, you don't have to read the whole thing, read a handful of chapters early, write a review, pre-order the book on Amazon. There's a few kind of core simple things for you to do with being a part of the advance team, but it will help multiply the impact of this book and this ministry.

    Many times if you recommend the ministry, DadAwesome, to somebody they're like, well, which episode? And there's 418 episodes. Well, this is distilled down. It's much more portable to introduce someone to the ministry by recommending the book, DadAwesome.

    So I want to encourage you guys to go to dadawesome.org/book to join the advanced team. We're mailing those books out in like a week. So with the birthday celebration, the eight year birthday celebration of DadAwesome, a fun invitation for you guys.

    So Craig Allen Cooper, he co-wrote a book with Walker Hayes titled Glad You're Here. And I met him at the Forming Men Conference up in Tennessee a few months ago. The subtitle of his book is Two Unlikely Friends Breaking Bread and Fences. And I love the concept of tearing down a fence, making a gate in a fence, creating more connection with friends.

    And there's a song titled Craig that we're going to feature just a little clip of in today's conversation about their friendship. Friendship is so key and this is one of our core discoveries of DadAwesome is show me your friends and I'll show you the kind of DadAwesome that you're going to be. So thankful to have Craig Allen Cooper join us. This is episode 418.

    ---

    [CONVERSATION BEGINS]

    JEFF: I was in the lobby though, having a conversation with a few friends that I already knew and you walked in and they were like, wait, do you know Craig? Because your ministry is called DadAwesome and you need to know Craig because he would be a perfect fit. So that was truly, these guys sent me right your direction. And then we had that great first initial chat, but just so grateful for you saying yes. We don't allow any perfect dads on DadAwesome, but we—

    CRAIG: Thank God for that. I would not be here. Friend, I would not be here.

    JEFF: It's a heart posture though of dads who see the role as a gift and who step into treasuring the role and pursuing their kids. And I know you're in a launch phase, I believe. A couple of your kids are in college, is that right?

    CRAIG: Yeah, so actually our oldest just launched into the career phase. So she's working with a nonprofit in Pennsylvania, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. She's home now for a little bit of time, so that's awesome. But our second oldest is in New York and he actually goes to John Tyson's church, Church of the City of New York. And so he's very much in that college phase. Then we've got two in high school.

    JEFF: I'm curious, this phase, specifically with your oldest two, what have you found? Any discoveries around fatherhood, discoveries in the dad life? You're like, I didn't know that was coming, but I'm realizing this or that. Any recent discoveries?

    CRAIG: I love when you move into, it's really a friendship, you know, with your kids and fellowship and they're sharing things and what the Lord is doing in their lives. And then you're sharing what God's doing in your life. And it's really cool to be in that position now where they're adults. I mean, my goodness. And then my third will be 18 in March. And then I've got a 14 year old.

    I really, Jeff, I'm moving into this brand new phase of parenting. But we were all playing games last night. We just love being together. And so it's fun to watch them grow and just embrace life and launch. So that's really cool.

    JEFF: I wanted to kind of pull on that thread a little further, friendship. And this would look, you know, there's friendship with our spouse if we're married. There's friendship with our kids, like you're talking about, especially in that adult kid. There's friendship beyond the home. And all these friendships can be a huge gift to our kids that we're raising. And I would just love to hear you share a little bit about why working to build and treasuring and valuing friendships, why does this matter for dads?

    CRAIG: Oh yeah, I mean, you know, without trust built, it's hard for there to be ears to listen to anything. And I really feel like they need to know that you're for them, that you are with them. I mean, I've told my son so many times, he'll say, oh, you know, he'll get in a place where he's like, oh, thank you for doing that. You don't have to do that. And I'm like, bud, I would give you my blood.

    You know that, right? And so sometimes he'll say, I know what you're about to say. I'll give you my blood. And I would. And so, you know, I think them knowing that you are for them, come what may, opens the door for friendship. And we've been surprised at times what our older two will share with us.

    And we're going, yeah, okay, well, I've walked through similar situations, I know what you're talking about, and that type of thing. But I do think that that foundation of trust is huge.

    JEFF: Yeah, would you take that even a little further into friendships with your friends, with buddies, with other dads, and even like any stories that would connect with why having good friends makes you a better dad?

    CRAIG: Yeah, man, that's a great question. And I would need to think for a second, but why having good friendships would make you better, Dad. We just got back, my wife and I just got back from a couples retreat. We've been doing this really yearly with some couples and this time of year for a long time and we look forward to it.

    We have text chains going back and forth on it and then we just soak it up. There's five couples. They're all in Tennessee, but they're in various places. So you've got Chattanooga, you've got Knoxville, you've got Franklin, you've got Nashville.

    And what I have heard my kids say over and over and over and over again is I'm praying that I'm going to have adult friendships like you and mom have. And they've recognized the means of grace that it is in our lives. And they want it. It's attractive. It's so attractive to them.

    We show them the pictures. We show them the videos. In fact, you know, we just got back from this retreat and that was one of first things I did was gathered everybody around and showed them a video clip that I had put all together. And they just love it.

    But they're praying for adult friendships like they see modeled in our lives as well. And these couples, they've all been together, they've gone through so much and we've walked together with each one of them and we're all together. You know, talking about marriages that are over 20 years, over 25 years, and I really do believe that it has strengthened our marriages to have these types of adult friendships with the gift of fellowship and companionship with one another.

    JEFF: What would you add to us? So we talk about friendship and even this idea of building trust with your kids. What are some other principles, fatherhood principles? If you had a group of young dads sitting around your campfire, are there other top of just kind of the rising in your heart, things that, man, I'd want to pass on to these dads?

    CRAIG: Yeah, you know, it's funny that you say that, and this is kind of out of the overflow of what I've prayed for in my life is there's these five P's that I just pray that I can provide, I can protect, you know, I can prepare, I can propel, and I can be present with the kids. So those are the, you know, providing, I mean, that's talking about food and clothing and care and connection and education and spiritual nourishment and all of that.

    So we have that idea, but in protecting, I mean, we had a situation where like, okay, we're getting ring cameras, you know, we're getting, you know, I want my girls to feel safe. You know, I want my son to feel safe. You know, protecting.

    And then when you think about just preparing, I'm not talking about preparing for graduation, preparing for the next, it's always the next phase, but also preparing their hearts for eternity. Now these are eternal beings who will stand before the living God. Beginning with the end in mind and thinking all the way out that far to, you know, Lord, I want to prepare them to hear well done, you know, good and faithful servant.

    And then I want to propel them because for me, Jeff, I pray a lot about, you know, like arrows in the hands of a warrior are the children's one's youth. An arrow is meant to fly. And I remember when that first hit me and we're like, okay, there's a tendency to desire to just want to keep it around us.

    But now my daughter's in Pennsylvania serving the Lord. My son's in New York City serving the Lord and my soon to be 18 year old daughter, she's got dreams and desires and we want to lean into that and we want to prepare them for that and also get in a position where we can propel them. And then at some point that arrow will fly and I just pray that God would use them to make a mighty difference in the kingdom for his glory and the advancement of the gospel and the strengthening of the church.

    And around all of that is I want to be present. I just want to be present. I want to be there for them and with them through the highs and the lows and the ups and the downs, the twists and the turns, whatever life looks like for them, where they know, hey, you can come in here and it's safe. Gospel safety time. That's what Ray Ortlund always talked about. And I want to provide that for them and be present with them. I don't do that perfectly. But that's the goal.

    ---

    [BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT]

    ANNOUNCER: I'm interrupting the podcast with a quick announcement. My dad wrote a book called DadAwesome. It releases on March 10th, but I'm going to send you a free copy early. All you have to do is sign up for the advanced team. Go to dadawesome.org/book to learn all about the advanced team.

    Let me tell you what other people have said about my dad's book. Dave Willis, a marriage expert said, "My friend Jeff Zog is one of the most contagiously passionate people on the planet. Whatever he's doing, he's doing at 100%. His passion for family is another level."

    If you want to get a free early copy, go to dadawesome.org/book.

    ---

    [CONVERSATION CONTINUES]

    JEFF: I've heard you share around tables instead of tablets. I've heard you share something about like how the distraction overload of tablet screens, whatever the device is, right? Can you share your heart on that concept?

    CRAIG: I mean, we are the most connected the world has ever seen. But there's a huge difference, I think, between table connection and tablet connection. Table connection is eye to eye, it's heart to heart, it's soul to soul, it's around these tables of mercy and grace and acceptance and love and compassion and empathy and care and gentleness and gentle correction where needed and all of that.

    But it's around that table of grace is what I'm thinking of. And then, you add the little T, you say tablet. And really, I think that I'm talking iPhones, I'm talking iPads and digital devices and TVs. And by the way, I have them, and we're communicating on one right now through the computer and it can be a gift from God.

    It can also really be like a mirage, you know, where it is promising to quench a thirst that it won't quench. And so that's what I really mean when I'm talking about connection on that end, which goes back to friendship and trust. You know, we're built to be together, eye to soul, heart to heart, person to person. And there's a distance in that when you do it through any device.

    JEFF: Yeah, I'm curious if what you, the boundaries, the rhythms, the kind of plan for your oldest two when it came to devices, if you've made any calibrations for your younger two, any pivots that you and your wife have prayerfully discerned?

    CRAIG: Yeah, you know, it's interesting. I was that dad, go back to the protection side, where the kids would have seen it as a little bit old school or whatnot initially, but they thanked me. The older kids have said, thank you so much.

    They didn't have social media until they were adults, which was, I think, helpful for those guys. But also, what we tried to do, Jeff, is just like, device-free bedrooms, you know, so we all have a charging table that's their charging station that's in the kitchen.

    And you know, the last thing after everybody says good night, love you and all that, everybody goes and plugs their phones in and just leaves it there so that you can go in and rest and not have that any sort of temptation either to steal our time, but also as we all know, my goodness, the introduction of pornography and sexually explicit images and all this kind of stuff. You know, I wanted to protect the kids from that. I mean, it's going to hit them in various ways, but I didn't want to have the, in the home, I wanted it to be safe, you know, from that.

    JEFF: This is all super helpful. I told my daughters that I was gonna have a conversation with you today. And the reason they don't always know my guests. When I flew back from Tennessee a couple months ago, I played a song. It's a song for my girls that has stuck and it's been a song that they love.

    And it's a song that was written as a thank you note, a thank you to you after a long journey. And I think a lot of dads, we can have timelines to different things that we hope for, can be timelines, can be naturally, we can just start to be judgmental of like, man, we're judging, so we think it should be this way and now it's this way.

    And the gift of the song is it feels like to me there's tenderness and there's a, it's just, it's things that I want to grow in is being just like open-handed friendship, trust God and his timeline and not like see people as like, I want to get someone from here to here.

    And it also stirred me because my home in Minnesota before we moved to Florida, we cut two fences or two gates into our fence. We had fences in two directions. We actually cut some gates in because we had that backyard gift. Would you be willing to share the shorter version of why Walker Hayes wrote this song titled Craig?

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    [CRAIG SHARES THE STORY]

    CRAIG: Yeah, well, that never ceases to amaze me anytime I hear it. In fact, the two of us are tattooed with my life verse. One over my left wrist and then he has one over his right wrist where we both broke our wrists in different accidents. Me in a four-wheeler accident, him in a skiing accident. And so over our brokenness, we have Isaiah 42:8, which is, "I am the Lord, that is my name. My glory I give to no other nor my praise to carved idols."

    That for me, Jeff, is exactly, it's where I go in my mind and in my heart anytime someone mentions that song, Craig. It has my name in it, you know? And so every grain of glory, every ounce of praise for anything good in my life belongs exclusively to the Lord Jesus Christ.

    So the story was essentially Walker, when he and I met, our families met, he was a struggling singer, songwriter, artist. He had been dropped from a record label and he was playing at Puckett's Boathouse on Wednesday nights to 15 to 20 people who were gnawing on chicken bones and a lot of them not listening.

    And I would think about just how music during dinner is an insult to both the cook and the musician. I wanted everybody to stop and listen to him. But I would stand in the parking lot with him and I would say, dude, you're going to pack stadiums. Because he was writing all these songs and everything.

    Well, after they lost the record deal, they lost a van that was a part of the sponsorship that he had gotten through that record deal. And so Laura and I, we let him borrow our van. We were gone with her family in the Northeast. We came back, I felt like I didn't want to take it back. And we did that a couple of times.

    And so I started praying, Lord, would you please provide for us so that we can replace our primary vehicle and give the Hayes our van. And so in secret, that's exactly what happened.

    We ended up meeting them at a baseball field late after a game was over. And Laura and I came in two different vehicles and Walker sees us and he, you know, normally we would enjoy the game together. We'd run the scoreboard together. He's like, dude, what are you doing? What are you doing here?

    And then he did the math and realized, there's two cars. What's happening? And I had the title to the van and a pen and I had the keys. And I just said, hey, bro, all you got to do is sign and this is yours.

    At that moment, Walker, it was a little bit of an altercation. We had a little bit of a conflict, a little bit of an argument. He was like, no, I'm not doing that. I'm not taking your car.

    I was reminded of Laura's grandfather doing the same thing for me, Pop, World War II veteran. He had given me one at a time of need. And it just came to me, I said, dude, somebody did this for me once, just let me do this for you.

    And at that same time, Leela, his oldest was going, dad, just take the car. So anyway, he reluctantly took it. And then he left, we left. And I remember telling Laura as we were driving off, man, I hope I didn't just ruin that friendship. I hope I didn't offend him too.

    Far from offending him, it actually softened him. He was an unbeliever. He was an atheist. Didn't want to have anything to do with Jesus or the church. You know, he slowly, over time, he kept trying to thank me and felt like he wasn't able to do that.

    We'd be at an event, a baseball game or something like, dude, you gave me a car. And we had shared with our kids, we're not sharing this with anyone else. Jesus said, don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. And so we did that in secret.

    But he ended up, Jeff, trying to thank me the best way he knew how. And for him, that was writing a song. And that song is, you know, the song Craig, it's all about Jesus. Yeah, it is. All about Jesus. In fact, he says, you know, he can't walk on water. Talk about me. Can't walk on water or turn that Napa Valley red. But he just might be tight with the man that did.

    JEFF: I mean, Craig, those lyrics, you can't do the miracles, but you're tight with the man. That, my daughters, my seven-year-old, my nine-year-old, my 12-year-old, like they got that right away.

    And then the reason our family gets emotional, we have two families, a lot of kids that are double buckling in some of their vehicles. And that we're praying and trusting that God's gonna give that family a bigger vehicle so they don't have to double buckle.

    CRAIG: Mechanics on a Mission. Reach out to, there's a group called Mechanics on a Mission. My good friend, Brian Sweat, he is now almost at 200 vehicles that they've given away. And he is looking for people who need that, who need vehicles, because individuals donate a vehicle, the mechanics come and they fix it up and then they gift it. And so everybody should check out Mechanics on a Mission. I am blown away by what they're doing, what they have done.

    But yeah, that's the story, Jeff. And then he ended up coming to faith in Christ. And so there's two versions of that song. One is the original one that he sent me.

    So I received it in the car on a date night with Laura when I was telling her that I think we need to hang up ministry. And I had just come back from a weekend ministry retreat. I was so discouraged. I was walking her through an email that I had sent to the pastoral team of Redeeming Grace Church and how I had just shared with them, hey guys, I think I'm done.

    And I had prayed that day in downtown Franklin, Lord, you know I try to encourage other people and I really need you to please encourage me. Is my life making any difference to anyone around me?

    And the last person that I would have thought the Lord would use to encourage me in that moment was my good friend, best friend, Walker Hayes, who was an atheist. And he shared that song.

    And I sat in my car and I wept and I felt like it was Zephaniah 3:17, "The Lord your God is in your midst, the mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you with his love. He'll exult over you with loud singing." Yeah, isn't that amazing?

    JEFF: People rejoice over you through the singing of a country music artist that doesn't follow him, that isn't following him.

    CRAIG: Well, the second version is he recut it with Bart Millard. And Bart was like, hey, more people need to hear this. So there's a contemplative version, which is the one that he sent me, and there's a celebratory version. And that is after he bowed the knee to Jesus. That's it. Yeah, and professed faith in Christ. He lives for the Lord, man.

    JEFF: And that's the version we celebrate with. Yeah, my girls, I don't think I've even heard the contemplative version. So I guess what I want to share is Jesus stories multiply. And when your hearts are, when there's softness and love for others, which there was so clearly between you and Walker, like when there's softness and love for a friend, and God does something in that friend's life, good or bad, even hard stuff. It's like, then I am moved.

    And by the blood of the lamb and the word of the testimony, we will overcome. So your testimony, your Jesus story is rippling into my home because of someone using their gifts, right? It's like we're taking miracles of the Bible, anchoring them to minivan miracles of generosity that were going to be private. It's going to be a private story. No one's going to hear.

    And I just, I guess I want to encourage, I am encouraged, but I want every dad to think, man, how could I live a little more with my full heart into friendships, into generosity, into kindness, and look for these little, they might feel like they're little Jesus moments, right? But if we keep showing up day after day, you never expected this Jesus moment to multiply, never.

    CRAIG: Never, never, never. No way.

    JEFF: But it happens and sometimes they get shared on a real broad level and lots of people are blessed. But even when they happen to just the friend, when I heard you describe standing up in a sushi restaurant and giving Walker a hug, I got to hear that bit of that story from another podcast. I started crying. I started crying picturing the joy, the unexpected joy. So I guess, what would you add? Anything you'd add to that?

    CRAIG: Well, yeah, that particular moment, Walker and Laney had said, hey, can we do dinner this night? We have something we want to share with you. Walker has something he wants to share. Can we do it with just the couples? We've always been all families.

    When they moved in next door after he came to faith in Christ, we ripped the fence out between our two backyards. And we just opened the dual policy and kids are going back and forth, dogs are going back and forth. It was a beautiful time because it was during COVID as well.

    But when they said there was something he wanted to share, let's go with couples. So then I'm sitting there and I'm like, hey dude, what's going on? What's on your mind? And I thought Jeff, he was going to say something about his career, something about something.

    And here's what he said. He said, "I believe."

    And I was like, you believe, what do you mean you believe? What do you believe? And he said, "All of it."

    And then I put my chopsticks down and I said, well, are you telling me that you believe that Jesus is the son of God and that you want to live your life for His glory? And he said, "That's exactly what I'm saying, bro."

    And I was like... And I just got up and I gave him the biggest bear hug, man. Just squeezing life into each other. And then I sat down and I'm like, filling the gaps.

    And then I said, hey, y'all are going to have to excuse me for a second. I went into the back of the sushi restaurant, Miso on Hillsborough Road. I locked the door, I fell on my knees in that dirty old, it's not too dirty, it's a great place. The bathroom, I got on my knees and I just worshiped and I thanked God that He had saved my friend.

    And so the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. And I just watched the Lord do that right in front of me. And I will never cease to be amazed at the power of the gospel.

    JEFF: And just one more pass at your kids, your family is forever changed. Way before some song goes out, right? Just that sushi conversation of a friend you love, your family's forever changed. His marriage and his kids, the Hayes family, this is a forever and then eternity.

    And using again, he has these platforms that he is like, his songs have gone mega, mega, mega, and now he's sharing. I just, I almost can't move to the next topic because I'm so like, Jesus changes everything.

    CRAIG: He does. He changes everything. You know, it was, I remember this moment when Walker was doing a concert to a packed sold out stadium in Houston. And, you know, I talked to him after, I was like, dude, I told you, you were going to do that.

    And he wrote a song that people know, Fancy Like. Yeah, Fancy Like, Applebee's on a date night. You don't want me singing it. But he wrote that while we were writing and working on chapter five of a book that we were working on together called Glad You're Here, Two Unlikely Friends Breaking Bread and Fences.

    And what was crazy about it was it just threw him into, I mean, that song went seven times platinum and it's still going. I mean, there's a Christmas version, all this kind of stuff.

    Anyway, it put him on the biggest stages and I remember him and we were about to do the Today Show together. And he said, hey, let's pray. And he just said, Lord, let this all be about you, Jesus, all for you, Jesus, all about Jesus.

    And then we get out there and Hoda starts asking questions, Hoda Kotb, and he's just Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And I was sitting there going, I'm blown away by this. I'm blown away. But yeah, the Lord has done great things for us and we are filled with joy.

    JEFF: Craig, I'm going to send our dads at DadAwesome to the multi-season podcast series you did called Glad You're Here. I believe it's the same name, right? And then it's your book.

    Gladness. When we met in Tennessee, I felt a gladness. I felt that for you. I felt that from you. I was like, oh my goodness. We would be buds right next door. So I really, I'm grateful for your, just your joy, your cheerfulness, your empathy, your love for the Savior, what you're doing with this podcast, what you're doing for dads.

    It is such important work and I know it's hard and I know it's not easy. And I know you're a prayerful man. I mean, we prayed before we started this podcast and you love the Lord. And so I just want you to know, man, kindred spirits, like I felt that in the lobby of Church of the City Franklin. And I was just honored that you would want to hang any more. I really appreciate it.

    CRAIG: I receive and I'm grateful, thank you.

    JEFF: What is upstream though, for kind of a landing place in this conversation, what's upstream from you carrying gladness? We've been talking about Jesus, of course Jesus is upstream, but what is upstream from pursuits? What are you pursuing? It could be a habit or rhythms. Like what's upstream that causes you to show up in that lobby of Church of the City carrying such gladness?

    CRAIG: Man, well, thank you for asking. I feast on the word of God. I had a wonderful man disciple me, a guy named Bruce Landis in Knoxville. I was at the University of Tennessee where I heard the gospel, met my wife, Laura, and was introduced into the local church and into ministry. The most impactful introductions for me happened.

    And in that time period, and I just celebrated 30 years of walking with Jesus, which was October 26th of 1995 when I heard the gospel. And what has kept my soul alive is that the word of God is living and active. I mean, it's like Luther said, it has hands, it grabs a hold of me, it has feet, it runs after me.

    So thankfully, Bruce, who discipled me and I named my son after him, Joshua Landis Cooper. Bruce, he taught me to be a man of the word. And so I don't do anything different, Jeff. Like I'm reading the same Bible reading plan that I've read for, it's coming up on 30 years and I just go through it. I start in the Proverbs, I go to the Psalms, I go to the New Testament, I go to the Old Testament and the Lord continues to meet me right where I am with what I need for the moment.

    And he keeps speaking to me through what he has spoken, what he wrote. And so, yeah, what's upstream for me is that you've exalted above all things, your name and your word. And I want to keep feasting on and keep glorying in His name and His Word, and then just sharing with others that He's good. He's good. He's good. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed are all who take refuge in Him.

    JEFF: Both describing it as feasting and then the scripture promised taste and see. I'd love for you to pray that over me, over all the dads listening, that we would have a stirred hunger and that we would taste His goodness. So would you pray over us?

    CRAIG: Yes, my pleasure.

    Father, thank you so much for your kindness to us that you love us so much that you sent your son Jesus to live the perfect life that we could never live, to die in our place as a substitute, receiving in full the punishment that we deserve for our sins and then crediting us with His righteousness.

    Thank you that Jesus defeated death and sin and Satan and that He rose again from the grave. And Lord, thank you that He is now exalted at the right hand, at your right hand, Father, and He ever lives to make intercession for us.

    And thank you, Lord, that you love us so much, that you have given us your Word and that you continue to speak to us through what you've written.

    And I pray for all the dads listening, that you would incline their hearts towards your Word and not to selfish gain. I pray that you would open their eyes to see wonderful things in your Word.

    Lord, I pray that you would satisfy them in the morning with your unfailing love, that they would sing for joy all the days of their lives. I pray that you'd unite all of our hearts to fear your name, that you'd be glorified in our lives and that you would use us, Lord, like a finger pointing to Christ.

    And that all of our lives, people would look at us and then they would have to look up because there's no other explanation than it's your mercy, your grace, your kindness, your favor.

    And I pray that you would do things in us and through us that can't be explained by anything other than the divine and divine love. And I pray for that and I thank you and thank you for Jeff. Please continue to bless this podcast. The work he's doing is awesome and I'm so grateful to be his friend.

    And I commend them to you and the word of your grace that's able to build them up and give them the inheritance among all those who are sanctified in Jesus' name, amen.

    ---

    [OUTRO]

    JEFF: Thank you so much for joining us for episode 418 with Craig Allen Cooper. The conversation notes, the transcripts, the key takeaways, the key quotes are all going to be found at dadawesome.org/podcast and look for the most recent episode 418.

    Want to encourage you one more time, if you're interested in getting the copy of the DadAwesome book early, join the advanced team, go to dadawesome.org/book and you can join that team. The first 200 dads to sign up, I'm going to mail you a copy of this early edition of the book before it launches on March 10th.

    Guys, I'm so thankful that you're celebrating with us today the eight year birthday, eight years of DadAwesome conversations, eight years of learning, growing. I've added two daughters to my family since we launched this ministry back in January of 2017. So grateful for you guys. Thank you for your support.

    Many of you are like, well, how can I get behind this mission? We do have a team now of 39 families who give every single month, give financially to support the mission of DadAwesome. So if you would like to help us reach this goal, we're prayerfully headed towards, man, if we had 50 families or businesses, so sometimes a business wants to join a monthly support team. If we had 50, regardless of the level, if it's 50 bucks or if it's $500 a month, man, we would love to grow that team to 50 supporting families.

    And you just have to go to dadawesome.org/give to join the support team. And I'm so grateful for those families and all the people who have given to make this ministry a possibility. Grateful for you guys, praying for you this week. Thanks for being DadAwesome.

    ---

    • "Dude, I would give you my blood. You know that, right?"

    • "I've heard my kids say over and over again: I'm praying that I'm going to have adult friendships like you and mom have."

    • "There's a huge difference between table connection and tablet connection. Table connection is eye to eye, heart to heart, soul to soul."

    • "An arrow is meant to fly. There's a tendency to just want to keep it around us, but at some point that arrow will fly."

    • "Every grain of glory, every ounce of praise for anything good in my life belongs exclusively to the Lord Jesus Christ."

 

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Jeff Zaugg
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417 | From Control to Influence, Eradicating the Child-Centered Home, and the Love Jug (Ted Cunningham)