Latest / Grace for My Home | Christian Women, Growing in Faith / Guiding Little Hearts Towards Great Character
Transcript
- 1:12Audrey McCracken: Hello friends, welcome back to Grace for my home.
- 1:16Audrey McCracken: I'm so glad to be back here with you guys again this week.
- 1:20Audrey McCracken: I hope that your Christmas was wonderful and I hope that you are gearing up for a great new year and I just appreciate you coming back again this week and I hope that something I say today will be an interesting video.
- 1:42Audrey McCracken: Last week we talked about character development and how character development in our children actually starts with us, and I promised that this week we would talk about character development in our children and how we as moms can help in that.
- 2:00Audrey McCracken: And as I started to prepare this week for this topic and get my mind right my mind I realized that I probably bit off more than I can chew, meaning this is a big topic, it's a lot, and I will barely scratch the surface.
- 2:22Audrey McCracken: I really could do a series on child training just because there's so much.
- 2:29Audrey McCracken: When it comes to this topic, there's so much to talk about, and it's not that I'm an expert, it's that it's important.
- 2:36Audrey McCracken: This is an area that's not a lot of thinking about it.
- 2:41Audrey McCracken: I've done a lot of practicing in it and I'm just going to share with you.
- 2:45Audrey McCracken: I'm going to give you a brief overview today of some thoughts that I have on training children in character development, and I also want to just give a little a little, a little caveat here.
- 2:59Audrey McCracken: You know, sometimes I struggle with what to share with you ladies.
- 3:03Audrey McCracken: I have some ladies who I know listen to me, have older children.
- 3:11Audrey McCracken: I have some who have no children.
- 3:12Audrey McCracken: I have some who have children, who have their own children.
- 3:16Audrey McCracken: Now I have some grandmothers that listen, and so sometimes I struggle with what kind of things you want to hear.
- 3:23Audrey McCracken: But I just want to encourage you that if you, if I touch on something and you think, wow, I'd really like to know more about that, send me a message either through Facebook or through my email you can find that and just let me know.
- 3:38Audrey McCracken: Hey, that is something I'd really like you to talk more about and I would be glad to do that.
- 3:44Audrey McCracken: And you know, some of the topics I teach on are not going to be relevant to all, to all of you listeners, and that's fine, you know.
- 3:53Audrey McCracken: Just take what it what's helpful.
- 3:56Audrey McCracken: But what I'm going to talk on today, if you would like to hear more on this, I would be glad to dig a little deeper into this topic and I would like to talk about the way that we are training is teaching our children the right, the proper way to behave, the way that we want them to walk.
- 4:18Audrey McCracken: We want them to walk.
- 4:20Audrey McCracken: As many women of character and you may wonder if that's possible to train in children and I want to say, most definitely, ideas.
- 4:31Audrey McCracken: The Lord has given us great, a great, and also he's given us great influence in the lives of our children.
- 4:41Audrey McCracken: You know, today there are so many things that are vying for our children's attention and allegiance and those things won't to dictate the kind of person they're going to be.
- 4:55Audrey McCracken: But I still believe that as parents, we are the most fluent, we can be the most influential person in their life If we take that job seriously.
- 5:09Audrey McCracken: And that's where child training comes in Now.
- 5:13Audrey McCracken: Last week I talked about how the most important thing is that we are actually walking in the things that we're trying to teach our children.
- 5:22Audrey McCracken: Now I won't go into all of that you can go back and listen to that podcast but I do want to start with that and just reiterate that that is the most important prerequisite for training our children, because if we're trying to train them in something that we're not walking in, then it's really.
- 5:42Audrey McCracken: We're really being hypocritical, it's really fake.
- 5:45Audrey McCracken: Until it's real in us, it will not be real in them.
- 5:49Audrey McCracken: And have you noticed that they're extremely smart, that they catch on really fast If we're asking them to behave or to be something that we're not even trying to do or be?
- 6:03Audrey McCracken: I remember when I struggled with anger and I would have angry outbursts and then immediately try to talk with them about their temper, and that didn't go over too well and I knew it and I wasn't trying to be that kind of person, but I was struggling with my own issues and as the Lord helped me to get my issues under his grace, in control, then it was a lot easier to train my children in those areas.
- 6:35Audrey McCracken: And one of the reasons it was easier to train them in those areas is because I had a lot of grace with them, because I understood.
- 6:42Audrey McCracken: Instead of getting angry at them for getting angry, I started saying you know what I understand?
- 6:52Audrey McCracken: I understand how frustrating this must be, because I lose my temper a lot too, and so, instead of being their adversary, I was able to become their advocate.
- 7:05Audrey McCracken: And I see so many people today either they let their kids do whatever.
- 7:10Audrey McCracken: There's no training involved.
- 7:12Audrey McCracken: It's just we don't want to damage their spirits, we're just going to let them be them and there's no training, or there's a very harsh training that almost drives the child away from us, and we don't want either of those extremes.
- 7:27Audrey McCracken: There is a middle road, there is a place of grace where we can do what the Lord's asked us to do and we can lean on him to do what we can't do.
- 7:39Audrey McCracken: I liken it to teaching our children how to drive.
- 7:43Audrey McCracken: I have two teenagers right now.
- 7:46Audrey McCracken: Every time they leave the house, I say a prayer.
- 7:49Audrey McCracken: I say a prayer under my breath and I tell them please be careful, you know, watch out for the other person, and I guess I'll always be that way, or at least for a long time.
- 8:00Audrey McCracken: And you know we train them well as far as driving.
- 8:06Audrey McCracken: Well, I must confess, my husband did most of the training.
- 8:10Audrey McCracken: I did some, but he did the majority of the training and he's a good teacher and he trained them really well when it comes to driving.
- 8:18Audrey McCracken: But even still, when they get on the road, I say a prayer and I think that is just a good illustration of life.
- 8:33Audrey McCracken: We have to train them.
- 8:34Audrey McCracken: We have to train them as good as we know how.
- 8:36Audrey McCracken: But then we have to trust God to do what we can't do.
- 8:41Audrey McCracken: We can't just send them out and not train them and say, well, god's with them, you know, god will take care of them, because God is not going to do what we can do and we can train them.
- 8:53Audrey McCracken: But at the same time there is a heart change that only God can do.
- 8:59Audrey McCracken: So when we do our part, he does his part, but he won't do what we can do.
- 9:05Audrey McCracken: And that's how I see child training.
- 9:09Audrey McCracken: We are doing our part.
- 9:10Audrey McCracken: We're working with God to help them become men and women of character that we are leading by example.
- 9:20Audrey McCracken: It says in Luke 640, a student is not above the teacher, but everyone who was fully trained will be like their teacher.
- 9:29Audrey McCracken: We impart to our children who we are.
- 9:33Audrey McCracken: It's not enough just to say do this, don't do that.
- 9:38Audrey McCracken: We first lead by example.
- 9:42Audrey McCracken: I also think it's important when we start training our children that we keep in mind that we're not just training behavior.
- 9:52Audrey McCracken: Okay, we're not just telling them the things to do and the things not to do.
- 9:56Audrey McCracken: That's important.
- 9:57Audrey McCracken: But it's a higher calling than that.
- 10:00Audrey McCracken: We're training them.
- 10:02Audrey McCracken: We're teaching them who they are who they are created to be.
- 10:05Audrey McCracken: Because when I know who I am, when I know who I'm created to be, then it affects the things that I do, the way that I see myself, the way I see the world around me.
- 10:19Audrey McCracken: And so we're not just training them in what to do, but we're teaching them who they are and why the things that they do and don't do matter.
- 10:30Audrey McCracken: So you were teaching them that they were created in God's image to serve God.
- 10:37Audrey McCracken: Now I wanna tell you I believe in original sin.
- 10:39Audrey McCracken: I believe that we are born needing a savior, that we are born with a sin nature.
- 10:46Audrey McCracken: If you have a two-year-old, you are very aware of the sin nature.
- 10:53Audrey McCracken: We don't have to go looking for it.
- 10:56Audrey McCracken: It shows itself really quickly.
- 10:58Audrey McCracken: But I also believe that we have to believe for our children that God has a good plan for them and we're gonna train them for the good.
- 11:09Audrey McCracken: We're gonna train them for the good plan and we're going to tell them the truth.
- 11:15Audrey McCracken: It says in Ephesians that we were predestined to be before him in love.
- 11:20Audrey McCracken: He created us to serve him.
- 11:22Audrey McCracken: He created your children to serve him, and so we're just teaching them who they are.
- 11:29Audrey McCracken: We are teaching them who they are created to be and how God wants them to serve him, and they don't know that.
- 11:37Audrey McCracken: They need us to teach them that when we teach them who they are, that speaks to identity.
- 11:47Audrey McCracken: It gives them their true identity in Christ.
- 11:51Audrey McCracken: I was created to serve God.
- 11:54Audrey McCracken: I was created to know Him, to please Him, to love Him, and we teach them in such a way as in our family.
- 12:04Audrey McCracken: These are the things that we do, these are the things that we believe, this is how we act and we teach them right from God's word.
- 12:13Audrey McCracken: This is who God is.
- 12:15Audrey McCracken: This is what he requires of us.
- 12:18Audrey McCracken: See, it's not our authority, it's God's authority, working through the authority God's given us as parents over our children, and it's very powerful.
- 12:29Audrey McCracken: We're teaching them.
- 12:31Audrey McCracken: We're the kind of family who does what's right, even when nobody's looking, even when it hurts, even when it's hard.
- 12:40Audrey McCracken: We're the kind of people who obey God no matter what, and so we're giving them that identity, because they need that.
- 12:51Audrey McCracken: They need to see that we don't take the easy road.
- 12:56Audrey McCracken: Serving God is not the easy road, but it's good.
- 13:00Audrey McCracken: There's a healthy tension between showing our children by example and teaching them with words.
- 13:08Audrey McCracken: They need both.
- 13:09Audrey McCracken: I'm sure you've heard the saying the gospel is easier called than taught.
- 13:14Audrey McCracken: Well, I believe that the gospel is easier called when taught, and the same is true of teaching our children.
- 13:23Audrey McCracken: They will catch our attitudes, they will catch our behavior, they'll catch our character and see that.
- 13:32Audrey McCracken: But they also need words to express the things that they see and we need words to explain the things we expect of them.
- 13:42Audrey McCracken: They need specific directions, they need direct instructions and being vague, you know, telling them to be good, telling them not to be bad, that's just confusing, you know, it's vague, it's frustrating, even because you've got to show them what that means.
- 14:05Audrey McCracken: What does it mean to be good?
- 14:07Audrey McCracken: What does it mean to love God?
- 14:10Audrey McCracken: What does it mean to obey God?
- 14:12Audrey McCracken: And I encourage you to spend time praying about this.
- 14:17Audrey McCracken: You know, what specific character traits do you want to train into your children?
- 14:23Audrey McCracken: You know, and you may ask well, what about personality?
- 14:27Audrey McCracken: Doesn't personality play a role?
- 14:29Audrey McCracken: It most certainly does.
- 14:31Audrey McCracken: You know, we cannot change our children's personality.
- 14:35Audrey McCracken: Some kids have a natural bent towards one way and in the same house you have other kids who have a completely different bent in another way, and I found that with my children, some of them catch on to certain ways much easier.
- 14:50Audrey McCracken: You know, I have a kid that it's really easy for him to forgive, and then I have another kid that it's not.
- 14:58Audrey McCracken: It's really hard for him to let go, and that's their personality.
- 15:02Audrey McCracken: But it doesn't mean that I can't train both of them in how to forgive and what it means to forgive.
- 15:09Audrey McCracken: You know, the same thing with having a good attitude.
- 15:12Audrey McCracken: You know, some kids are more sullen, some kids are just more naturally happy.
- 15:18Audrey McCracken: That's personality and you're not going to train them out of their personality.
- 15:22Audrey McCracken: But what we're doing is we're pointing them towards the ideal.
- 15:26Audrey McCracken: So we're not trying to change who they are, we're just trying to help them see who God's called them to be.
- 15:35Audrey McCracken: But if I had to give you a one, two, three, this is how you train your children.
- 15:39Audrey McCracken: First, you decide what character traits you want to impart or teach to your children.
- 15:49Audrey McCracken: What kind of character do you want them to have?
- 15:52Audrey McCracken: Now you may have a few things on the top of your mind, but I really encourage you to pray and ask the Lord, lord, what am I supposed to be teaching these kids, lord?
- 16:02Audrey McCracken: What kind of character do you want to develop inside of them?
- 16:07Audrey McCracken: You know, how am I supposed to do this, lord?
- 16:09Audrey McCracken: It's okay if you don't know, okay, I didn't know.
- 16:13Audrey McCracken: I would say a big majority of those who are listening to this podcast were never trained in character.
- 16:22Audrey McCracken: And so how do you do something, how do you give your kids something you never had?
- 16:27Audrey McCracken: You do it by grace, you do it by faith, you do it by the help of the Holy Spirit, and so I had to do this.
- 16:35Audrey McCracken: I had to say, lord, I need you to show me this clearly, because it's all fuzzy to me.
- 16:39Audrey McCracken: Show me specifically what things I should be teaching my children.
- 16:45Audrey McCracken: And then, once we have a list of things we want to share with them, we want to teach them, we want to, to help them walk in, we have to be that example right, it goes right back to being that example.
- 16:57Audrey McCracken: And then we have to introduce those things with words.
- 17:03Audrey McCracken: Now we can be an example far earlier than we can introduce those things with words or teach those things with words, because we're an example before, from birth.
- 17:14Audrey McCracken: We're an example to them their entire life.
- 17:18Audrey McCracken: But even before they can speak, we're being an example of who God has called us and them to be.
- 17:24Audrey McCracken: But once they can understand the words.
- 17:28Audrey McCracken: We can give them our words, we can teach them explicitly.
- 17:33Audrey McCracken: This is how God's called us to live.
- 17:35Audrey McCracken: And then, after we've taught them explicitly, then we train them in it.
- 17:41Audrey McCracken: That's life, you know.
- 17:44Audrey McCracken: We sit down at one interval and teach these things, but the life lessons they keep coming.
- 17:52Audrey McCracken: They come at the most inopportune times.
- 17:55Audrey McCracken: And that's life, see.
- 17:58Audrey McCracken: We teach them and then we train them, and we train them usually when they miss the mark.
- 18:05Audrey McCracken: Okay, but we have to do that gently.
- 18:08Audrey McCracken: We don't want to always be correcting, we want to show them.
- 18:12Audrey McCracken: We want to draw them back to the path, to the way.
- 18:16Audrey McCracken: How does God want us to act?
- 18:19Audrey McCracken: Not like this.
- 18:22Audrey McCracken: I remember so many times when my kids were young, I just felt like, why don't they get this?
- 18:26Audrey McCracken: I have taught them and I have taught them and I have told them and I have told them, and they just don't get it.
- 18:31Audrey McCracken: Maybe I'm not telling them forcefully enough, maybe I'm using their own words, maybe they're just stubborn and, by grace, the Holy Spirit had to show me this is your job.
- 18:45Audrey McCracken: Okay, you didn't change in a day and they're not going to change in a day.
- 18:51Audrey McCracken: You're showing them the path, but it's going to take a long time for them to make it their own path.
- 19:00Audrey McCracken: You know, I have a blue healer.
- 19:01Audrey McCracken: You may can hear her right now because as I'm doing this podcast she keeps barking in the backyard.
- 19:08Audrey McCracken: Her name is Gigi and she has our backyard.
- 19:11Audrey McCracken: We have our backyard fenced in and we take her for walks, but that backyard is mostly her home and it's so funny.
- 19:20Audrey McCracken: She has the entire backyard but she has two paths that she takes.
- 19:24Audrey McCracken: There are two gates to that fence in the backyard and she has a path from one gate to the other gate and then from that gate up to the steps of the house and she can go anywhere she wants to in that yard but she follows those tracks because I don't know why that's.
- 19:46Audrey McCracken: That's her track and she rarely goes off the track and you can see the track because there's no grass there, because she's walked it so much.
- 19:55Audrey McCracken: And so see, what we're trying to do is help our kids form in their minds the track that we want them to walk on.
- 20:03Audrey McCracken: We're showing them the track we're creating, hopefully.
- 20:07Audrey McCracken: We're creating the rails that we want their train to stay on.
- 20:10Audrey McCracken: So we're giving them habits and the habit is not for proof.
- 20:15Audrey McCracken: You can always decide not to do the habit.
- 20:18Audrey McCracken: But see, the habit makes it easier to do the right thing, and so that's what the training is, is we're trying to instill in them habits.
- 20:27Audrey McCracken: This is what we do, this is how we do it, and so we're trying to form in their mind the path that we want them to take, the right path, and we want to do it in such a way that it's easier to stay on the path than to get off the path.
- 20:44Audrey McCracken: Are they going to get off the path?
- 20:46Audrey McCracken: They sure are.
- 20:47Audrey McCracken: Are you going to get frustrated when they get off the path?
- 20:51Audrey McCracken: If you're like me, you will.
- 20:53Audrey McCracken: But after a while you'll see them staying on the path, even without you having to keep reminding them, and then the next week they'll be off it again.
- 21:06Audrey McCracken: But that's life and that's our job.
- 21:09Audrey McCracken: Don't get frustrated when they don't take your correction quickly and consistently.
- 21:56Audrey McCracken: That's what they need a mom for.
- 21:59Audrey McCracken: So we're guiding them, we're training them, we're reminding them, we're correcting them, and then we do it all over again, all over again.
- 22:07Audrey McCracken: We're their example All over again.
- 22:09Audrey McCracken: We have to teach them explicitly, all over again.
- 22:13Audrey McCracken: We have to train them in daily life, and that's what it means to be a mom that's training her children.
- 22:20Audrey McCracken: We're making pathways in their minds, we're giving them the right habits, we're helping them to make it easier to stay on the right path than to get off, and we're patient with them when they resist our training Because, remember, they still have a sinful nature.
- 22:39Audrey McCracken: We still have a sinful nature.
- 22:41Audrey McCracken: But as we walk with them, as we walk with God in relationship, we can train them in the way that we would have them go.
- 22:52Audrey McCracken: It says in Proverbs train up a child in the way they should go, and when they are old they won't depart from it.
- 22:58Audrey McCracken: It's never perfect, it's always messy, it's often frustrating, but it is possible.
- 23:06Audrey McCracken: And I just want to throw in a couple of thoughts with that.
- 23:13Audrey McCracken: This is not manipulation.
- 23:15Audrey McCracken: You're not manipulating them and doing the right thing.
- 23:18Audrey McCracken: We're training them in love.
- 23:20Audrey McCracken: Also, we're not beating them with Scripture.
- 23:25Audrey McCracken: Now we need to use Scripture.
- 23:27Audrey McCracken: Scripture comes in.
- 23:29Audrey McCracken: I'll talk to you in a minute about the tools that we have, and Scripture is one of those tools.
- 23:33Audrey McCracken: But we don't beat them with Scripture.
- 23:36Audrey McCracken: One of my desires is that my children would love God's Word, and if I'm using God's Word to constantly scold them, then they will be turned off by God's Word.
- 23:49Audrey McCracken: So we want to use the Word to encourage, to correct, to remind, to train, but not to scold, not to beat.
- 23:57Audrey McCracken: So what are the tools that we have?
- 24:02Audrey McCracken: Well, we have our example.
- 24:04Audrey McCracken: We also have our words.
- 24:06Audrey McCracken: Our words form in their minds what is expected.
- 24:12Audrey McCracken: It gives them a clear picture of what we're looking for, of what the goal is and our relationship with them.
- 24:18Audrey McCracken: That's a huge tool, because when we have a close relationship with them, when they know that we love them, when they know that we're there for them, that we're their advocate and not their adversary, then they really do take to our training and our teaching much quicker.
- 24:37Audrey McCracken: We have Scripture.
- 24:38Audrey McCracken: It says in 2 Timothy 3.16,.
- 24:41Audrey McCracken: Every Scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction and righteousness.
- 24:54Audrey McCracken: So Scripture helps us to do that.
- 24:57Audrey McCracken: Scripture gives us the mind of the Lord.
- 25:00Audrey McCracken: It helps us to share with our children.
- 25:02Audrey McCracken: This is who God is, this is what he expects from us, and so Scripture is a tool that we can use and we need to use in training our children.
- 25:12Audrey McCracken: Also, examples, as in stories, books, movies, especially when our children are little, the stories that we read to them.
- 25:23Audrey McCracken: They help form their imagination of what is right, of what is wrong, of what the world is like.
- 25:30Audrey McCracken: And so stories are so important Hero tales, stories of men and women who have done great things, who have lived virtuously, who have done hard things, who have pressed through when it would have been a lot easier to give up.
- 25:45Audrey McCracken: Those men and women of character help us to impart character to our children.
- 25:53Audrey McCracken: In other words, we say, just by reading the story, just by watching the movie, we're saying to them these are the men and women we look up to.
- 26:02Audrey McCracken: This is the ideal, this is the goal, and we don't have to say that Just putting it before them says that.
- 26:11Audrey McCracken: That's why reading with our children is such a wonderful tool, because we are able to put before them the ideal and it gets in their hearts.
- 26:24Audrey McCracken: Guys, our children won't to rise up and be men and women of character, but they just have to know what that looks like and they have to have somebody cheering them on and believing with them that they can do great things, that they can do what is right in a world that wants to do, that doesn't care about doing what's right, it doesn't even know what right is and what wrong is anymore.
- 26:52Audrey McCracken: So stories are so important, and so those tools are very helpful in training our children the example that we give them, the words that we use, the books, the stories that we give them, the relationship that we have with them and God's word.
- 27:11Audrey McCracken: But, like I said before, we really do have to get clear on what things we're going to train our children in, so that it's not vague.
- 27:23Audrey McCracken: Just to give you an example of some of the things that I tried to train my children in Some things I was more successful than others, but I put it in the Lord's hands.
- 27:36Audrey McCracken: Things like we put God first, we pray to God every day, we read God's word, we obey our mom and dad, we take correction with a good attitude, we treat others with respect.
- 27:55Audrey McCracken: We treat others the way we want to be treated the golden rule we forgive others who hurt us.
- 28:02Audrey McCracken: We don't take other people's things without permission.
- 28:05Audrey McCracken: We work hard, we're generous, we're givers and not takers.
- 28:12Audrey McCracken: We help each other, we are not argumentative.
- 28:18Audrey McCracken: You know, those are the kind of things, and there are many, many more, but that's just an example of the kind of things I wanted to train them so that they, when they got older, would know how to serve God and how to treat and how to love people.
- 28:36Audrey McCracken: And I must say, even today I see where they have taken on for themselves many of those character traits and they have a desire to do well, to do things well, and I can't take credit for that because I often it felt like I was just wasting my breath.
- 29:02Audrey McCracken: But by faith you just keep on doing it and believing that even in our weaknesses God is strong and that he is in their heart working, that we're using our words but he's in their heart working.
- 29:20Audrey McCracken: And I do want to encourage you to find resources that help you.
- 29:23Audrey McCracken: Sally Clarkson and her 24 Family Ways really helped us.
- 29:27Audrey McCracken: It gave me a springboard, it gave us words to use in training our children.
- 29:35Audrey McCracken: It helped me very much and so I encourage you I'll put that in the show notes so you don't have to go it alone.
- 29:41Audrey McCracken: There are resources out there and character training and how to do that, how to help our children in those areas.
- 29:50Audrey McCracken: So I encourage you to look for those resources.
- 29:53Audrey McCracken: Like I said, her book, sally Clarkson's book, our 24 Family Ways, really helped me and I will link that in the show notes.
- 30:02Audrey McCracken: But if this is an area that you'd like to hear more on.
- 30:05Audrey McCracken: I would be glad to do that.
- 30:07Audrey McCracken: I'd be glad to share more.
- 30:08Audrey McCracken: Just let me know and that goes for anything that I've shared.
- 30:11Audrey McCracken: If there's an area where I just did not dive deep enough, let me know and I will go deeper.
- 30:19Audrey McCracken: We can investigate those things together.
- 30:24Audrey McCracken: But before you go, I'd like to pray for you.
- 30:26Audrey McCracken: Father, in Jesus' name, we come to you today and, god, we ask you to show us how to train and teach our children in the way they should go.
- 30:38Audrey McCracken: Lord, you've given us this wonderful responsibility, as moms, to be an influence in their life for the good.
- 30:46Audrey McCracken: Help us, o God, to impart to them, lord, a love for you, a desire to do right, lord, a knowing that they belong to you and that there's a high calling on their life, that, lord, they are not of this world but, lord, that they were created to serve you.
- 31:07Audrey McCracken: And, lord, I pray that, lord, you would give us wisdom in this, lord.
- 31:11Audrey McCracken: And I pray, god, that, for those who are listening, that Lord, you would impart to them a strength, a courage, lord, a faith that you're with them and that you have good plans for them and their children, and we thank you for it, lord, in Jesus' name amen.