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0:50
This is Undaunted Life of Man's Podcast.
0:54
I'm your host Kyle Thompson, and let's get into it.
0:57
Another guy who got a special return guest on the show today, and that's Taya Kyle.
1:00
She is an author and speaker, and she is the widow of Chris Kyle, who is the most prolific
1:03
sniper in the history of the United States military.
1:06
She also runs the Taya and Chris Kyle Foundation.
1:08
She's been on the show three other times, so we did a great kind of double interview
1:12
way back in the day, and then she came out and talked to me after the botched withdrawal
1:16
from Afghanistan.
1:17
And so we haven't talked to her in a few years on the show, but on this particular episode,
1:21
we took care of a lot of business and talked about a lot of different subject matters.
1:24
So we talked about how she's keeping her husband's legacy going on, and how she's doing that
1:29
within her family as well, but also just the current status of our country, the concerns
1:33
that we're seeing about what's going to happen with the election in November and people talking
1:36
about civil war and all these types of things, but also what we can expect from the next
1:40
generation.
1:41
Do we have that next generation of warriors and sheepdogs that are ready to go?
1:45
Because a lot of our modern warriors, our current warriors, are not encouraging their
1:48
children to become sheepdogs in the sense of joining the military.
1:52
Like, what does that look like? But then we talked about, you know, parents spending
1:55
all this time focusing on their kids' hobbies and their skill sets, and not really focusing
1:59
on their hearts and their spiritual development. And then we get into her children's book,
2:02
which she just read or just, well, she read it, but she also wrote it. And so we talk
2:06
about that. Why is she getting into that world of things after doing a few things in the
2:09
nonfiction world? But guys, I'm really excited to bring her latest interview today. So without
2:13
further ado, let's get into it.
2:16
Take Kyle, you're back. It has been a long time, but this is, believe it or not, this
2:20
is your fourth appearance on Don't the Life of Man's podcast. That's got to be up there
2:24
with you, with all the accomplishments you've had in your career, right? That's, that's
2:27
pretty high up.
2:28
Oh, yeah. And you can't get rid of me. That's the other thing. Apparently you knew when
2:32
you did the first one, you wouldn't be able to shake it.
2:34
Well, what's funny about that is I look back on the first time that we chatted because
2:39
I've had four different studios, but the first two were like literally in closets in my house.
2:45
And so I interviewed you the first time in closet number two, there was no video. And
2:50
you know, I'm, I'm doing my best and you know, I do all my preparation and all that. But
2:54
you gave me probably the greatest compliment afterwards, because this is still really, really
2:58
early and doing all my interviews and all that. And you're just like, come in, you were,
3:01
you were built to do this. Like you, you're so good at it. You could tell that you were
3:05
prepared and all that.
3:06
And I just got to say like that, that still gets me fired up today because it's like you've
3:09
done a lot of stuff like this. And at the time, it's like, here I am, you know, recording
3:12
in a closet on a $50 microphone and to get that compliment was obviously great for me
3:17
to hear.
3:18
Well, honestly, I think about you a lot too, because it was inspiring for me. I remember
3:22
we talked a little bit after the podcast too about how you were in this place where you're
3:26
like, I don't know if I make this a full time thing or if I, you know, it was like a precipice,
3:32
right? You were just kind of, and I thought, well, yeah, you're so you really are very
3:37
good at it. And you really did put the work in. And I feel like today in society, a lot
3:41
of times, people expect an overnight success. So to speak or like, you know, the image is
3:48
that people come into things so easily. And it was like, no, I'm coming in and I'm putting
3:51
the work and I don't know if it's going to work or not. And then now here you are. It's
3:54
really cool. It's inspiring.
3:56
Well, it's funny about that is last December, we went mega viral for some stuff we did on
4:01
my Glover show. And some stuff we talked about, which is the same stuff I was talking about
4:05
even back in the day when we were doing our first interview. And you know, people were
4:09
like, where did this guy come from? I was like, no, it's not where did this guy come from?
4:12
It's like, I got 600 plus episodes out there. We've been doing that since 2017. So it's
4:16
like, when you hear about these overnight success stories, it's like, yeah, it was an overnight
4:19
success that took like eight years to kind of get going and all that. And so again, I certainly
4:24
appreciate that. I will say the last time you were on the show, this was during the botch
4:29
withdrawal from Afghanistan. And I got a lot of different people's opinions during that
4:35
time period, because it's one of those, it was one of those turning point moments for our
4:39
country. And obviously you see where someone like Joe Biden is right now, he can he can
4:43
barely speak. And at the at the time of this recording, he is still currently running for
4:48
president for a second term. But I want to just start out by talking generically about
4:53
what you think the state of our country is, because I got to tell you to tell you, I'm
4:56
very concerned. And I've said this a lot on the show. I'm very concerned about what November
5:00
brings regardless of who wins, because if if Trump goes on and wins, well, I remember
5:05
being in Austin, Texas and downtown Austin and their board, this was the week of the
5:09
2020 election, they're boarding up all the businesses and they weren't doing that just
5:12
in case Joe Biden won, right? They were doing that just in case Donald Trump won. And so
5:16
obviously the left is ready and rare and to go, they got their bricks, their moths off
5:19
cocktails ready. But they're right. If for months and months and months, you're being told
5:23
like, nah, he's he's winning in all the polls, like he's winning nationally, he's winning
5:27
in all the swing states. And then if you were to lose, I'm just concerned about what's going
5:31
to happen to the country, what's your read on it?
5:34
I'm concerned too. And I really try to keep my emotions level and be level headed about
5:41
things because, you know, I don't want to add to the fearfulness. And at the same time,
5:46
I think it's we can't also ignore it, right? And even in in revelations, it talks about
5:53
and I'm not saying we're there, I'm just saying it talks about how we feel powerless or we
5:57
see somebody hurting and we don't go to help them. And I feel like that's where we are.
6:02
I have a friend of mine who's like, you know, I know the country's going wonky, but tell
6:06
me where to muster. And the thing is, nobody can tell you where to muster, right? Nobody
6:10
can tell you how to fight back right now. And that's weird because we have all this opportunity
6:15
to communicate. And yet we don't either we're too distracted or we don't know how to fight
6:22
back. So that's that's one part. The other part is, I don't know what happened in the
6:27
last election. None of us do. I know there was a lot of scuttlebutt about, was it fixed?
6:33
Was it stolen? And if elections are stolen, and then if you have what happened with Trump
6:40
in court and it seemed like the courts, the high courts were sort of rigged. I mean, things
6:45
weren't going according to policy. Then I think America, we're doomed, right? If you can steal
6:50
an election and if you can take a president and convict him of felonies or whatever you
6:54
want without having to go through a due process, or where at least it's so obvious to educated
7:00
people, you know, especially legally educated people that things were totally awry. Then
7:06
I think we're in really bad shape. So, so if Donald Trump could pull off this win, for
7:15
me, it's even less about Donald Trump or politics. It's more about, are we in a place
7:22
where one political party can ruin another one at will? That's what's terrifying to me.
7:29
So if Trump were to win, to me it would at least signal that one political party cannot
7:36
take away democracy in the way that it appears has been happening over the last four years.
7:41
Did that make sense? It does. And part of the issue I have with that is the last couple
7:47
of elections, we keep being told at first it was people on the left were saying, this
7:51
is potentially the last election we'll ever have. But now I'm hearing that same sentiment
7:55
from both sides. And I'm like, guys, what you're saying, what what an undercurrent of
7:59
that statement is, is civil war is coming. Not, hey, left and right have never been more
8:04
divided. That's not, that's not what I'm hearing you say. Because if you're saying this is
8:07
potentially the last election in the history of our constitutional republic, what you're
8:11
saying is, is there's going to be tremendous amounts of bloodshed. And I just don't think
8:15
that they really think about it that far, you know what I mean?
8:18
Right. It's a, it's a power mongering. And so that's a, like if you look at it from
8:22
a really global standpoint on humanity, and how we can take things like power and greed
8:30
and lust, and we can, if we are allow ourselves to get away with it, or if other people allow
8:36
us to get away with it, they're sort of the deadly sins for a reason. Because it really
8:42
does take out more than one or two people. It gets out of hand. And so I'm really big
8:47
on the Bible as an example of what God tells us. He tells us that this is how mankind is
8:54
created. Like it or not, this is how you're created. These are the things you can do for
8:58
things to go well. And these are the things you can do that are going to tear it apart.
9:02
Right. And so to me, it's really just a recipe for happiness. It's, it's less about
9:06
rules. You must follow this or I won't love you. No, he loves us all. But he's trying
9:10
to tell us this is how this goes. And so you look at, like, if I look at, I didn't
9:14
used to believe in the devil and I'm like, I've, I've had the opportunity to talk to
9:18
a lot of biblical scholars over the years. And I've had this much greater understanding
9:23
of really this fallen angel who was God's right hand person. So he had all the power.
9:29
He was in charge, Kyle. I love this part. He was in charge of music. To me, I'm like,
9:34
Oh, let's pay attention to that. Because how do things get in our head today? Music is
9:37
a big one that corrupts our minds, right? And so, or helps us on that side. So if he
9:43
was in charge of music, light, good looking power, he had, you know, I think he had dominion
9:48
over the other angels, like he had it all. And he wanted more. If even an angel could
9:55
be in a position to be the right hand of God, the father and want more, how do we expect
10:01
humanity not to want that right mankind is going to want that and crave that the beauty
10:05
of democracy is that we can keep it in check. So a group of people can keep in check the
10:12
desires of one powerful person. And like you said, if they start muttering, well, it's
10:17
going to be the last election. I won't let any any group of people keep me in check.
10:21
Even the devil falls to that. It means you there's no man that can have all that power
10:25
and do well with it. I don't believe it. I've never seen it. Have you?
10:29
No, I mean, and if you say this is potentially the last election, then basically what you're
10:34
saying is that any type of resistance is allowable to to take out such a threat, because you're
10:39
right. Lucifer was the worship leader in heaven. And as my buddy, Pastor Joe B. Martin says,
10:44
it's like he was being looked through to God. And then he was tired of that. And so we wanted
10:49
to be looked to and that, you know, kind of led to his fall and led to a fall of a third
10:53
of heavens Legion. And when we get to the point where we're at right now, I've made that same
10:57
connection for people is like, why do we get so romance by music and entertainment? It's
11:02
because the devil is in charge of a lot of these things. And it's not always super nefarious.
11:07
It's not always Sam Smith wearing a, you know, a devil, you know, hat or something like that
11:11
on the Grammy's performance. It's sometimes more subtle. It's beautiful music that will
11:16
take us away from the true beauty that we see from God, the true beauty that we'll see
11:20
from his word and scripture. And so like, again, this, this idea of this, you know, pitchfork
11:26
and red horns and all that's like, no, like he, he is beauty in an, in an, I guess she,
11:32
I was gonna say in an American form, but in an earthly kind of humanly form. And the thing
11:36
is, is he's so adept at taking what God creates and counterfeiting it. And I've used this example
11:41
quite a bit. The real rainbow has seven stripes in it. Roy G. Bivright, seven stripes. Well,
11:46
the pride flag has six. And so isn't it so interesting that the number for completion
11:50
is seven, the biblical number for completion, but the number for incompletion is six. It's
11:54
like none of this is random. This is all part of, you know, a coordinated attack on every
11:58
single one of us to you.
11:59
Oh, it is. And so it's because it's brilliant. He's like, I knew what I fell to. You're just
12:06
mere humans. I can make you fall to this in a heartbeat. Like, you know, some of the music
12:10
that's got just like that jam and beat and you're like, boom, boom, right? And you love
12:13
it until you listen to the lyrics and you're like, Oh my gosh, that's subconsciously getting
12:17
in. It's exactly what you said. We don't see it coming, right? You see the people that
12:21
get plastic surgery and they get a little bit and it's like, Oh, I like that, you know,
12:26
and I feel a little bit prettier and then a little bit more. I feel a little prettier.
12:29
And then before you know it, it's like, it's gone all awry on them because it starts subtly.
12:35
Like you said, it's not like, you know, okay, so if you know the Bible, you say the devil
12:39
comes to seek, kill and destroy, right? But he's not going to do that by saying, Hey,
12:44
I'm here to destroy you and expect you to stay around. He's going to come in like, Hey,
12:48
you look pretty, you could be a little prettier. Hey, what do you think about this music? Oh,
12:52
you like that and then put some things in there, right? It's like, it's a very enticing
12:57
way that he pulls you into seek, kill and destroy. He's here's the good news, though,
13:02
and that he's not more powerful than any if we have the Holy Spirit in us, if we invite
13:06
the Holy Spirit in, and this changed things for me when somebody said we have more power
13:09
in our little finger than the devil has in his whole being. We just have to know it.
13:15
That's all we have to know that the Holy Spirit in us is stronger than him. So so I know we're
13:19
talking kind of individuals and group psychology and sociology and theology here, but it all
13:25
applies because as individuals, we have to know what we're up against so that we can
13:29
influence society, which influences the overall power structure of our country. And I don't
13:35
know, I hope it never comes to a civil war. I know that, you know, Chris believed that
13:42
there would be a civil war at some point in our lifetime and assuming that he lived longer.
13:47
And I always thought, man, really? You really think that? And I hope that's not the case.
13:53
But I can see why when people, they don't, I don't believe that people wanted to divide
13:59
the country for the sake of dividing it. They wanted to divide it for the sake of giving
14:03
their own power, right? So it just, it comes from like an individual power list. And, and
14:09
now if it, you know, it's getting out of hand, what, what comes of it? I don't know. Hopefully
14:14
the next generation gets smarter and they, they learn from us. I don't know.
14:19
I don't know. Have you talked to people from the next generation? Cause I feel like half
14:22
of them might have like, you know, purple hair, nose rings and don't actually use words. They
14:26
just mumble. I've used this example before. I was at 711, like getting a drink or something
14:31
like that. The person behind the counter never used the English language. Like I get to the
14:36
counter. Hey, how you doing today? It was, it was like noises. I was like, wait, what?
14:41
And they never looked up from their phone. They just kind of beep, beep, beep. And at
14:46
the end, it's like, all right, well, thank you very much. And I was like, nah, it's like,
14:48
wait, what? Like this is not how we're supposed to, you know, take care of business. And you
14:53
keep hearing about things like in the military, they're having a lot of problems getting enough
14:56
qualified applicants to join because, you know, everyone's on antidepressants or they're
15:01
too fat or they've got flat feet or something like that. But that's another concern for
15:05
me, Taya, is the status of the military. Because here's, here's one of the most nefarious
15:09
things that I've heard. Because I know a lot of guys that are kind of from that tier one
15:12
community or from, you know, SF or seals or things like that. And a lot of these folks
15:17
have, you know, young sons or sons that are just, you know, not off and on their own now.
15:22
And when I talked to them about, Hey, if your son came to you and said they wanted to be
15:25
a Navy SEAL to, or they wanted to be a greenberry to, or they wanted to be a recon marine. And
15:29
the answers that you would expect to get from guys like that, that deployed 10, 12 times
15:34
something like that would be like, absolutely, I would be, I would be scared for them. But
15:38
it would be a tremendously patriotic thing. And I would support them. That's not what
15:41
I'm hearing a lot anymore, Taya. Yeah, I'm hearing like, yeah, I would not want my son
15:46
to sign up to potentially go fight and die in Ukraine for the most corrupt entity there
15:51
or to go be part of this, you know, supposed military industrial complex. But like for
15:56
you and your family and I even your son, what's your read on that? Because it's, it's astonishing
16:02
to hear people talk about the United States military in a way to where it's like, Hey,
16:05
they seem way more concerned about making sure that to not offend anybody during pride
16:09
month than making sure that they're really good at killing people on breaking stuff.
16:12
Yeah, I like the way you said that. When you said about killing people and breaking stuff,
16:19
you know, it is it is in all seriousness, it is an issue. And if I were to look through
16:24
a conspiracy lens, I would say, okay, if if a government wants to be in control, if they
16:29
want to be the parent, because if a government is a parent, then the children, we the people
16:35
need our parent to take care of us. So if you really wanted to be in control of all
16:39
the people rather than represent them, control them, you would put yourself in a position
16:44
of power where they need you, right? And so that was never supposed to be the design,
16:49
but we have to be really careful that we're not going toward that and understand when
16:53
the government's trying to be our parent, we're in peril. So then you would take the
16:58
gov or you would take the military and you would make them the same thing, you would
17:02
make them the weak child that needed their parent, right? You wouldn't empower them.
17:07
You would you would be like a manipulative parent who never wants their child to grow
17:11
up and be that strong because that kid won't need them anymore, right? So now you have
17:15
is you have the military where somebody said the other day, they're like, how could anybody
17:20
even want to be in the military when we have military members on food stamps? What? Yeah,
17:26
right? So then I think, well, OK, so if it's a conspiracy type situation and maybe maybe
17:31
conspiracy is too harsh of a word, what if that's part of it? You're just you're getting
17:35
kind of the people that all, you know, accept that because they don't value themselves
17:41
enough or because they had no better option that they'll take. I have a friend I just
17:45
talked to this week and his son is getting out of the military. I mean, he's he's what
17:51
was it? He said there was some workers at the grocery store making $15 an hour. That's
17:55
more than he made in the military in the Navy. You know, he could barely survive on it. That's
18:01
not so so my point is we're kind of why would these guys, these two or one guys ever want
18:06
their children to be in the military? If they can't hardly afford to live, we've got people
18:11
who are their housing situations are absolutely awful, like toxic living. They're not paid
18:18
well. They're not empowered. If I told you, I mean, we could go on and I'm sure you've
18:22
heard him, but the military has this way of saying like, Oh, by the way, we paid you
18:27
too much, you know, three years ago, you owe us $5,000. And I mean, things where there's
18:32
just no accountability for the internal working. So you would die for the military. They don't
18:36
give a [inaudible] about you. Right. The organization does not give a [inaudible] about you. So when people
18:41
say to me, Oh, I love the movie and I'm going to sign up the military. You know, your, your
18:45
husband inspired me. I used to get a pit in my stomach. And now I just say, I hope you're
18:50
praying about it. And if that's where you're called to be, then God bless you. And I, you
18:54
know, because some people are still going to be called to do it. We need good people
18:57
there. But no, I don't, I mean, Chris didn't need Colton, our son to be in the military.
19:03
He flat out said that he's like, you're your own man. And I feel like I did enough for
19:05
our family. So do what you want to do when you, and I know, I believe Kyle, you'll have
19:10
Colton on because on your show and have people, he's running the American sniper brand. He's
19:15
passionate about apologetics. He's a strong leader. I have 40 year old men telling me
19:19
they want to be my son when they grow up. Right. So when we talk about the next generation,
19:23
you've got the guy that you just talked about at the convenience store, mumbling and not
19:26
speaking a word of English. And then you've got Colton Kyle and friends of his that are
19:31
ambitious, smart, Jesus loving, strong minded. He is, he is such a strong, calm, level headed
19:39
dude with interest in a lot of things, self motivated, bodybuilding, Muay Thai, running
19:45
a brand, you know, doesn't have any interest in going to college to party or be in a fraternity
19:49
seat. No, if he's going to do it, he wants to be an apologetics and theology, you'll do
19:53
it online. He's got a girlfriend he loves once to marry as soon as he can afford to get
19:56
that, you know, the house and the ring. And it's like, the divide is is wide. I don't
20:02
think there's a whole lot of in between with this next generation. You're gonna have the
20:05
ones that are their parents didn't invest, or that got lost along the way, or that social
20:10
media and COVID got to them. And they're, they're kind of lost souls. And then you're gonna
20:14
have the strong ones. And there's not a lot in between that I see. Well, and you've heard
20:20
it said before, there's kind of the old adage is you'd rather be a warrior in the garden
20:24
than a gardener in the war. And the, the issue I see is there's, there's a whole lot of gardeners
20:30
that wouldn't even try to go to war. And so I do have some concerns about the United
20:35
States long term and about, you know, our hegemonic standing in terms of how, how we operate in
20:40
the entire world. But I also remember feeling deeper, Greg, because I grew up in Lawton
20:44
Ford's Hill. So I was around military members my entire life, but I got a full ride scholarship
20:49
to go to school. And so never really considered the military. And I remember thinking about
20:53
all the people that did raise their right hand and say that they were going to potentially
20:56
give their life to protect us from enemies, foreign and domestic. And wondering like, man,
21:01
did I miss out on on my patriotic duty to serve this country? But the reality is, is
21:06
you serve your country in the way that you were meant to serve your country. I remember
21:09
mentioning even to my father, you know, how, man, I feel like I could have been, you know,
21:14
could have been one of these, one of these guys, one of these high level operators. And
21:18
he's like, how you also could not be here right now, if that were the case. So you could
21:21
have been blown up, you could have taken around like, I mean, you could not be here right
21:25
now. And then you wouldn't be able to do undaunted life. There, you wouldn't have your
21:28
sons. And so it's like, you know, be careful, you know, looking back and kind of wishcasting
21:32
the type of world that you would want. I guess my, my issue is, is how do we make sure guys
21:39
like Colton are still sheepdogs in the end? Because if you go through the military and
21:43
you do more than, you know, three or four years, you kind of create this Spartan, you
21:47
know, atmosphere with your life where you take working out seriously, you take shooting
21:51
seriously, you know, you're very conscientious and all those types of things. That's why
21:54
so many people think I was in the military is because I kind of do that like, they're
21:58
like, why are you working out so hard? What kind of war are you getting ready for? I'm
22:00
like, I'm not I'm just, you know, here to be ready for whatever. So I'm concerned about
22:04
that next generation Taya of those young guys to make sure that they've got people that they
22:08
can look up to that are taking care of themselves but are also deeply patriotic and willing to,
22:13
to give up themselves in order to serve what you're read on.
22:15
I mean, I love this conversation because you are a hundred percent right. We need those
22:20
warrior spirits. Interestingly, I mean, I found myself kind of smiling and getting some
22:24
chills when you were talking. I just had a Bible study of women over here last night.
22:29
And we were talking about the same thing. First Corinthians chapter 12. Okay, it talks about
22:33
how we're all created differently and how God has a specific purpose for us and all
22:38
we have to do is show up. We tend to think, Oh, I could have should have would have, you
22:42
know, what about this person's doing that? And it's like it like you think about a symphony,
22:47
right? And so God is this great conductor and he's got the flutes and the violins and the
22:51
saxophone and you can't have the flute loud all the time. He's like, go and then like,
22:56
bring it down, bring this in, bring that down, bring that. We all have a role to play for
23:01
it to sound and look amazing, right? And so you, your dad's right. You maybe you wouldn't
23:06
be here, but here's the deal. You are a patriot. You are serving. You're doing it differently,
23:11
right? And that and God created you that way. And the, I think the reason why we start to second
23:16
guess is because at different times in our lives, we feel passionate about different things.
23:20
So if you felt the way you did right now back then, you would have gone there, but that wasn't
23:25
your calling. God said, no, Kyle, you're a full ride here because I need you to serve in this way.
23:30
And we don't really get, if we're true believers, we don't really get to choose
23:33
necessary. We can choose, but if we're following God, we, we show up where he has us and we serve.
23:38
So Colton, you mentioned the next generation. My son's a shooter carries concealed. The
23:44
minute he could do it, he's doing it. He has no qualms. He's very quick. And you know what,
23:48
if you met him, he doesn't need to tell you that. He doesn't need to show you that.
23:51
Right. Just who he is. And he walks in the room and he's confident, but not arrogant.
23:56
You know what I mean? And so like that, I believe God created him that way.
23:59
100%. And so I believe that God is not done creating warriors who are exactly like that
24:06
and who will do things. And he gives them parents who are not afraid, right? They're
24:12
parents who are afraid of everything. And he gives other kids, and their value is there too.
24:18
We're just different. So I want to encourage you that we may not see it all the time,
24:22
but there are young people like Colton who are prepared, who are aware, who are watching,
24:28
who are not looking for a fight and will not run away from one either.
24:32
Well, that's what you just said there at the very end to you. That's what meekness means.
24:36
When we hear about the meek shall and here at the earth, that doesn't mean the weak navel
24:40
gazers, the guys who wouldn't hurt a fly as Jordan Peterson is basically, you know,
24:44
taught to even modern day Christians. It's like meekness is having your sword sheathed,
24:48
but you know how to use it. This is somebody that if the fight comes to their doorstep,
24:52
it's going to be a problem for the other guy. And one of the things that I feel like is,
24:57
is of benefit that does give me hope, because I'm fairly pessimistic, you know,
25:01
just by normal disposition, is having a lot of voices in the podcast space of guys that are
25:07
constantly encouraging people to do hard things. And so that could be your Joe Rogans or your David
25:12
Goggins or your or your campaign or even me with with my show and different things. It's like
25:16
constantly telling people, Hey, do hard stuff. The ubiquity of jujitsu, like training a realistic
25:22
martial art that is immediately transferable to outside of the academy that you're training at,
25:27
it's impossible to train jujitsu and not become a more resilient human being. Because if you keep
25:32
coming back, I mean, I said it took me about five years of training before I felt like, all right,
25:36
no one's going to whoop me in a street fight unless they're better trained than I am or there's some
25:39
sort of physical freak. But it's one of those things that it with it being everywhere now,
25:45
you're having a lot of young men and a lot of older men that are like, okay, this is a way that I can
25:49
develop. And this is a way that I can, you know, sharpen the sword in this particular way. And
25:55
it's different. Like if you like golf, that's fine. If you like video games, that's fine. Like
25:58
whatever you want to do, those aren't transferable into the real world though. Like being able to
26:02
chip a ball into the green from 100 yards away or kill 17 guys in a row and call a duty doesn't
26:07
transfer to resilience in the real world if things actually pop off and go crazy. So I do see some
26:13
signs that there are some things that that the next generation can latch onto. Is there anything
26:17
else to tell you that that comes to mind for you outside of, you know, just hearing from from
26:22
these guys or hearing from guys who fought in the GWOT that are encouraging them to, you know,
26:26
not to sit around and be lazy? Yeah, I mean, I just one of my dear friends, a woman, she was saying,
26:32
I was telling her that, you know, my daughter McKenna can look at things and go like,
26:36
the world and life is dangerous. You don't tell your kids, no, it's not. You tell them, yeah, it is.
26:41
You're right. It is. And it's not going to get any easier. You will get better at doing hard
26:47
things. Right. And that sticks with me. Life has not gone any easier for me. I have just gotten a
26:52
lot better at doing hard things. And I've gotten accustomed to it to your point where you do jujitsu,
26:57
you do mental training, where you don't, you know, you don't have to be afraid of your kids having a
27:01
hard time. You just have to be there with them to say, it is hard. You got this. You're smart enough
27:06
to figure it out and on your backup. And I've had to work on that. I mean, as a mom, sometimes I've
27:10
wanted to tell my daughter McKenna, like, do it this way, do this, this, this. No, what I need to say
27:14
is how do you, how do God create you? How do you want to attack this problem? I'm behind you.
27:19
Go attack it and let me know when you need help. Right. That's such a better way to parent. And
27:24
God bless her. She's 19. And I'm just now figuring it out. Right. So, you know, 18. Sorry, she's 18.
27:31
I think of her as older. But, but I want more parents to know that. That's the way to do it,
27:35
really. And we get in a hurry and my life was crazy and wild and, you know, chaotic and traumatic.
27:41
And so I was like, we need this done, do this, do that in a different world and ideal world.
27:46
And thank God, literally, I thank God that he's giving me another chance to do it differently. Still,
27:50
a much better way is how did God make you, honey? Okay, then go use those skills and go do it. And
27:55
let me watch. And let me, and let me not criticize you, by the way, let me let you do it and fail
28:01
forward. Right. If you, if you make a mistake, good, would you learn from that? Right. Like,
28:06
this fixed mindset of there's a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it is no good in my family.
28:11
It's go do it and then learn from it. Right. And so I think that's, I think that's where we're
28:15
going to be with the next generation. I do think people are becoming more empowered.
28:19
I do think people are going back to like, okay, farm your own food, figure it out, go back to
28:23
one room schoolhouse where kids are outside. You know, did you hear, I had only heard this recently
28:28
that one of the reasons why the public school system got so regimented was because they realized
28:36
they needed more factory workers. Yeah, it's off the pressure. It's modeled off the pressure system.
28:41
Okay. So I'm just like mind blown, right? Like I could tell you what I thought, but to hear that,
28:46
I was like, Oh my gosh. So I think more people are knowing, like I tell my kids homeschool,
28:50
if you can get your kids out there, learn differently. When we do that Kyle, I think we're going to have
28:54
that more of a warrior mindset, because kids will know, Hey, I can farm this. I can lead an animal
28:59
here. I can do that. I'm a homeschooler. I don't have to do it the way everybody else did it.
29:02
The more we do that, I feel like we have a chance of that free thinking that made us
29:07
this great country and this democracy that people that were willing to leave Britain, you know,
29:13
and say we can do this differently, we can be empowered. I think we'll get back there when we
29:18
start raising our kids. No, you're not under the authority of this or that, you know, you're under
29:22
the authority of God. Go be a child of God and do it the way he created you to do it.
29:27
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29:31
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29:36
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31:01
Well, here's the thing for me. So I've got a four year old and a two year old. Okay. And they're
31:06
both sons. And so it's like, okay, these are little men that need to be, they need to be
31:12
chivalrous. They need to be polite. They need to be ready to go. But my biggest goals for them
31:17
is not that they get a full right scholarship to go play baseball or to wrestle or not to get
31:22
their jujitsu black belt before they turn 21 or not to, you know, create some enormous company that
31:27
that, you know, employs a bunch of people. All that stuff is great. I want them to be godly and
31:31
I want them to be resilient. Because if they are those two things, that is going to help them,
31:36
regardless, it's going to help them to be a great husband, to be a great father, to be a patriot,
31:41
to be someone that serves the community to potentially be an elder someday. Like think about that.
31:46
So at our church, I think the youngest elder currently is like in his late 40s and everyone
31:50
else is in their 60s and 70s. Imagine trying to raise a little kid so that someday they can be an
31:56
elder in their church, like having it in that type of a mindset, because we can see from scripture
32:01
what it takes to be an elder, like, you know, husband to one wife and, you know, like not having
32:06
all kinds of strife and, you know, hidden sins and things like that. As opposed to, I feel like,
32:10
tell you, we have so many parents that are obsessed with, I'll put it this way. And I want to be fair
32:15
when I describe the story, because I do like this family and I like these people. But there's
32:19
this family where the husband and wife were both golfers and they're both very talented collegiate
32:23
golfers. Well, their middle child, their son, is like an elite level golfer. And he's like 10
32:30
years old or something like that, like potential prodigy going to be a pro, all that. And they
32:34
apparently know this at the age of 10. Well, this family moves from Oklahoma, all the way to Florida,
32:40
so that their middle son could play in more golf tournaments, because there's, I guess, better golf
32:45
tournaments and more available golf tournaments in Florida than all the travel they would have to do
32:49
if they were based in Oklahoma. And I remember thinking to myself, if this kid ends up being,
32:53
you know, McElroy or Mickelson or Woods at some point, maybe that was worth it. What if the kid
32:59
turns 14 and doesn't like golf anymore? Well, the entire family picked up and left because of one
33:05
child, the amount of pressure that's going to be on that child to produce as a golfer is astonishing.
33:12
And I'm not saying that this family isn't making sure the kids are also godly and also resilient.
33:17
That's not what I'm saying. But I feel like we get romanced by the idea of, oh, we find out
33:21
that our seven year old can sing. All right, we're going to get them singing lessons and we're
33:24
going to do all this. And I feel like it's almost this selfish thing. Like, I, if my kids awesome,
33:29
then I get to be awesome. If my kids are awesome, then I get to post it on Instagram. And it makes
33:34
me look better. And we're we just, you know, as opposed to making sure they're in church on Sunday,
33:39
we're making sure they're on the next travel ball team, which plays all summer and you miss out on
33:43
church. Does that make sense? Oh my gosh. Yes. And here's the thing. On the one hand, I could say,
33:48
okay, well, maybe that's what, you know, if they're faithful people, maybe that's what God has for
33:52
their family. Okay. On the other hand, can you imagine the pressure on that 10 year old? The whole
33:56
family moves so you can play golf. Like that's an amount of pressure that I would not want, right?
34:02
Now, so we could say they're either doing it for themselves or they're doing it for the kid.
34:05
Either way, they're doing what they think is best. I understand that. On the other hand,
34:09
I know when I was raising my kids, and I would say this to Chris all the time, I'm like,
34:13
our kids are getting up way too early for school when they're little to go to public school. They're
34:16
staying way too late because both parents want to work. Yeah, I didn't work. I chose. I'm like,
34:21
I don't care how much money we have. I'm not, I don't want to work. I want to be with them.
34:24
So, and I'm not saying that that's just how God made me. So people get to do their own thing.
34:29
But what I noticed with that is that, okay, so we have practices going late at night because
34:34
why? Because the parents are at work and they need to be able to get there to pick up the kids.
34:40
Okay, so why do we have these kids going for like championships and all of that stuff? By the way,
34:45
I'm super competitive, like ridiculous, competitive. Okay, so it's not about that. I get that. I love
34:50
kids sports. Like I surprised myself how crazy of a mom I could be. You know, I literally surprised
34:55
myself. I was like, damn, you know, but and I coached and I loved it. You know, I mean, I'm all in.
35:02
At the same time, they're kids. So here's an example. My son starts playing football and he
35:08
started playing flag before Chris was killed. And then it was like the camera was the first
35:14
year of tackle, but it was right at that middle school age where it's getting serious. And the
35:18
coach said, we're going to practice on Sundays. And I heard this sermon about how like of the top
35:24
10 commandments, one of them is a day of rest up there would don't murder people take a day
35:28
arrest, right? So I was telling Colton about that. And I said, here's my problem, buddy.
35:33
I'm like, that's our one day that we're not supposed to be doing something other than church.
35:37
And I'm a woman without a husband. If I say my son's not going to practice on Sunday,
35:42
they're probably going to be like too bad. He doesn't have a dad around. This was my insecurity
35:45
at the time, right? I was very tearful about it and saying, if Chris was here and Chris said,
35:49
hey, my son's not going to practice on Sunday, the coach would probably be like, oh, damn,
35:53
maybe we shouldn't practice on Sunday. You know what I mean? And it would be it would be like a
35:56
respectful thing. All this to say, I said to my son, I'm like, here's the deal. You look at the
36:01
time he loved football. He wanted to be in the NFL, like, you know, of course, who knew at that
36:05
time, I'm just saying middle school, this was like his middle school dream, right? I'm going to be.
36:08
And I said, here's, here's the deal, bud. And I said, out to me, he goes, well, mom, I think if
36:13
God says we're not supposed to be doing something one day a week, then we don't do it. And so I was
36:17
like, dude, I'm so proud of you. Even that's how God made him, right? For middle schooler to say
36:22
that's how he's made. So I, so I texted the coach, you know, and I said, I'm really sorry. And I
36:26
understand, and he goes, it's just that that's the only day I have off from work. And I said,
36:30
understand that and I respect that. And we'll be there every other day. And I just want, you know,
36:34
he's committed. He loves it. We just can't do a Sunday. And he ended up changing the practice
36:40
to a different day. My point being with all of this is it is the parents. It's because the parents
36:46
are busy and the only time they can fit it in is here. So that's the only time the kid can do it.
36:50
And the kids have no rest. And if they're in multiple sports, which mine were,
36:53
there's no rest from that. There's no, because the, the high school coach wants to be a college
36:58
coach. And he knows his team needs to win. So it's not about the individual kids anymore.
37:02
And guess what? When they go to college, the reason why Colton pulled out of
37:05
football his, his junior year is he realized that he knew guys that played in college that said,
37:10
it's not a team sport when you get to college. It's about who do you need to step on to get to
37:14
the NFL? That's all college sport is. It's not team. And he was like, you know, I just, I'm not
37:18
into this. And he got, you know, some offers after he quit, right? So I'm just saying it was a, it was a
37:22
moral, intentional decision. And so when you raise your kids, I think to say, and again, I don't want
37:31
it. I can't take credit for this. God really did make him that way. I believe that. I also think
37:35
as a parent, like when you parent your four year old and your two year old, and you're saying,
37:39
I want my kids to be competitive. And guess what? If God's will is for my kid to be a competitive
37:44
golfer, nothing will stop that. That's the truth. If that's the plan for your kid's life, nothing
37:49
you do is going to stop it. So if you said, Hey, you know what, you're going to play in all these
37:53
tournaments. And if God's will is that for you, they'll find you and you'll be a professional,
37:57
but we don't have to move our family. Right. You don't have to sacrifice your Sundays.
38:01
If God made you that way, you'll be that way. That takes a lot of faith. But I'm sorry, I know I'm
38:07
going on for a lot about this, but this is not about for a long time. And I talked to, I talked to
38:11
my son and his friends are all athletes, right? They were all the smart kids that were athletes that
38:16
until I said, I went to their lunch one day and I said, guys, tell me something. When you guys are
38:21
parents, will you keep your kids this busy? Like, was this is this a life that you want for your kids
38:27
across the board? They said no. I was fascinated by that. And you know what, their parents don't
38:34
know that. And they weren't complaining about it. But they knew something wasn't right.
38:39
Well, I think, Theo, we as parents, we instinctively want what's best for our children. And we want
38:47
we want better for them than we had. And so with that in mind, though, I would ask somebody this
38:54
because because don't hear what we're not saying, guys, we're not saying get your kids out of sports,
38:58
sports is useless. But I remember years ago, Taya, I got an email from a father who was describing
39:03
his yearly schedule in terms of kids doing this sport and this sport and this activity. And I was
39:08
like, have you ever considered just taking like a fall off where no one has any, no kids have any
39:14
activities from August to December, where you do family time and you develop other things, you know,
39:21
I don't care of paint or, you know, lawn care, like whatever, starting a little business as a 14
39:26
year old, like, you know, making bracelets or something. And he actually ended up doing that. And he's
39:30
like, it was like, I couldn't give myself permission. And all I needed was to hear someone else say,
39:35
hey, this is a possibility. And then it became just a way for him to create this breathing room.
39:40
Because I grew up in a family, they didn't, they didn't care whether or not I played sports. But
39:43
if I played, I had to give full effort. That was like their thing. And so when I chose not to
39:47
play anymore, they're like, yeah, no big deal. But whatever you do, you have to give full effort.
39:52
But I would ask these parents, because I live in Oklahoma. So football is currency here in Oklahoma.
39:57
And you know, it's you got to be great in middle school. So you can get a good spot on the high
40:00
school team. So you can get seen by scouts go to college, maybe go to the NFL like you were saying.
40:04
I would ask this and nothing zero sum in life. So even the way I'm going to phrase this is not
40:09
going to be exactly appropriate, but the sentiment is there still. It's like, okay, if you got to choose,
40:15
your son gets a full ride scholarship to a division one school, and is, you know, all conference,
40:23
you know, one of the top players, they're, they're a legend as a collegiate football player,
40:28
or they're a godly father and husband. If you could only choose one, well, that doesn't make
40:35
sense. No, you don't get to make up the scenario. I do. If you can only choose one, what are you
40:39
going to do? And so obviously most people with a functioning brain would choose, I would want
40:44
them to be a godly, you know, husband and father. It's like, okay, then why are you spending all
40:48
this time and effort making sure that they're set up to maybe get a college scholarship to play
40:53
football? Because it's like, by the time they're in college playing football, your level of influence
40:59
on them is going to be diminished because they're no longer in your home. They're no longer under
41:03
your care. They are a man now to a certain form. And so it's like, why did you spend hour after
41:09
hour after hour helping them drill and helping them go to the right camps and helping to make
41:14
sure their film is great when they send it off to all these people? Again, I'm not anti sports
41:17
by any stretch in the imagination. My boys were very likely be athletes, but it's like,
41:21
you didn't spend any time catacizing them. You didn't help them learn how to study the Bible.
41:26
You didn't help them understand who God made them as a person that will help them to operate long
41:31
after the last snap of their football career is done. You know what I mean? Like, I feel like,
41:35
I mean, easy for me to say because I have a four year old material, but it's like, guys,
41:38
just look at the hours you're putting in to investing in their athletic ability as opposed to who
41:43
they are spiritually. It's just completely out of whack. Well, it is. And here's one of the things
41:48
that I love. So Colton, when he, like I said, he loved football, and then he started to recognize
41:52
like, maybe it was more about the, the coaches getting to the next level. And maybe there was,
41:57
maybe there were some other things that he wasn't quite on board with, right? Maybe, maybe there was
42:01
some abusive talk to some of the other players, you know, maybe, maybe things weren't what he
42:04
thought, but he was still in because he's still an athlete. And he said, listen, instead of track,
42:08
I want to, I want to do jujitsu and bodybuilding. I don't enjoy doing 300 hurdles. I don't get
42:15
anything out of it. It seems like I waste a lot of time doing this stuff that you want me to do.
42:18
And they said, no, that's just the rules. Like you either do track or you don't play football,
42:22
right? And he said, but I feel like it's just not a good use of my time. And he's super ambitious,
42:26
right? So he prayed about it. He thought about it. And he ended up, he ended up trying to see the
42:33
coach in person. And the coach was never available, right? Because he knew. And the coach later said,
42:38
I knew that's what you were going to come to. And I didn't want to hear it, you know, is to not
42:40
play your senior year. So he has a very respectful conversation. He says, look, I've prayed about it.
42:45
I've talked to my spiritual mentors about it. And I've come to this conclusion. And the guys,
42:49
and the guys, you know, Christian guy and a friend of our family and stuff, but he said,
42:54
well, well, I'm going to ask you to think about that a little bit more. And I'm going to ask
42:57
you to sleep on. And he said, I really appreciate that. But I've already done that. And this is my
43:00
decision, you know, and I'm going to be doing some other things, whatever. And the guy was,
43:05
Colton's response was, I'm going to be in the stands cheering you guys on. And I want the best
43:11
for you. He said, I'm just going to do a different thing now. I'd really want to invest in some
43:15
different areas of my life. The way he said it was so graceful. And my point is, Kyle,
43:19
we can raise kids to stand for what they want, enjoy their sport when it doesn't work for them
43:27
and with grace, not hate. You know, I tried to push my daughter into sports that she didn't really
43:34
enjoy. I didn't, you know, if I could go back, I would do a lot of things differently for her.
43:39
And yet she's perfectly and wonderfully made to do exactly what God has her to do.
43:46
But I think my point is I was, I think the pressure of me wanting something for her so
43:51
much drove her the other way. And I kept thinking, well, I only want it for you for
43:59
all the right reasons, for the team mentality or the individual thing, or I just want to keep,
44:02
parenting isn't easy, right? We don't have the answers ahead of time. And at the end of the day,
44:09
exactly what you said is exactly where I landed. Does she believe in God? If the answer is yes,
44:14
he will lead her. Is she praying? Then he will lead her. Like, I need to get, I need to back up
44:19
here for a minute as a parent and realize that he made her for her, you know, for her own unique
44:25
path. And it's hard as a parent when you, you know, you grow up a certain way, you do a sport,
44:32
it keeps you busy. I mean, I had all these things that I wanted and it didn't, it was different for
44:37
her. And what a humbling thing for me as a parent to say, it doesn't have to go the way I thought
44:42
it went, as long as she's praying God will lead her where she's got to go.
44:45
Yeah, I would certainly agree with that. And again, guys, we're, we're pro. If your kids
44:50
graded an instrument, getting them a good coach and all those types of things, like we're pro
44:54
them developing in all these other different ways. But you have to make sure you keep the, you know,
44:59
the most important things at the upper echelon and preeminent to all other things.
45:03
Now, I do want to transition to something pretty cool because I get care packages all the time,
45:08
right? So we love our folks over at Origin and Jocko Fuel and Primal Beef. And I, you know,
45:12
I get books all the time and different things like that. But never in the history of me running the
45:17
Chotea. Have I got something like this? And that is your kid's book called Prayer for Bears. And
45:24
like I did sneak it out of this, this beautiful thing so that I could actually read it. But you've
45:28
got this super soft like baby blanket and all this type of thing like this was a very, very, very
45:33
beautiful presentation. So that's my way of transitioning into, hey, you're a children's book
45:38
author now. So you've done a couple of nonfiction books and things like that. So talk to me about
45:43
getting into the world of children's books. Thank you. You know, this, this really is a leap of faith
45:47
because there's nobody with in their right mind would say, you jump into the children's, you know,
45:52
market, it's going to be fruitful. You know, for now, right now, it's pretty much celebrities have
45:57
the, have the market and social media following. If you don't have it, you're not getting the
46:01
children's book and all this stuff. This has been a passion of mine since before Chris had a book
46:06
out and prayers for bears is about gratitude. And I've, I believe that gratitude is the thing that
46:13
changes lives more than anything. Even when we're in our worst trauma, we had a roof of our head and
46:18
food to eat. I have a friend remind me that even if it's not my own roof and my own food, I have
46:23
people who love me who will make sure that my kids and I have a roof over our head and food to eat.
46:28
At the end of the day, Bailey in this book, Prayers for Bears, Bailey the Grateful Bear
46:32
has a hard day and Bailey is an adventurous bear who loves to climb trees and, you know, chase the
46:39
fish and do all this stuff. And there's there are days that Bailey has like we all have where
46:43
things just aren't going that way and there aren't things to enjoy. And so what does Bailey do with
46:49
that? How does Bailey have gratitude? And at the end of the day, Bailey's parents teach Bailey a
46:54
prayer about being grateful for little bear paws and little bear feet roof over your head and food
46:58
to eat because you know a lot of military people and they don't have their hands and feet, you know,
47:04
and they used to. They got blown up. I'm grateful. I have mine still. And for them, they don't have
47:10
their hands and feet. They have other things that they are grateful for. And, you know, like Chad
47:15
Fleming, a friend of mine, he lost his leg. And at the end of it, he does some great talks on stage
47:22
and he'd say, you know, if I go back and somebody asked me, would you still lose your leg or not?
47:27
If you could change, I wouldn't change it. He's like, I lost my leg and I gained so many other
47:31
things, right? That's a gratitude perspective. I'm not saying he got blown up and immediately felt
47:35
that way. Right. But when you have gratitude, it changes the wiring in your brain. And there's
47:41
so many things right now to be pessimistic about. There are so many things to be comparing ourselves
47:47
to other people. I mean, social media, TV, all the things that first Corinthians chapter 12
47:53
was so powerful last night to remind us like, you know, you're the hands, I'm the feet,
47:58
you're the nose, I'm the ears like we don't make a body of Christ without having all these different
48:02
parts. So what do I have? What can I be grateful for? And can I rest in that? So that's the first
48:09
of what I hope to be a series. I do need more people to buy it so that I can get picked up by a
48:13
publisher for a second of a series. And I really need people to write reviews. So Kyle, if you have
48:18
not written a review on the website, I haven't, I'm going to do that. Yeah, write that down. Thank you.
48:23
Make a note, please, please review the book. But anyway, I, yeah, it's a, I appreciate you bringing
48:29
it up that. And then, and then watching Colton grow the American sniper brand. And my daughter
48:36
McKenna is built differently than him. She's not a social media person. He has Colton Kyle
48:41
official on Instagram, then Colton Kyle TikTok, I'm an American sniper dot brand.
48:47
But she doesn't, she's, she has a site, McKenna Kyle official, but she like, I said, do you ever
48:52
want to post? No, I don't really understand. Why do I want to talk to people? I don't know.
48:56
Why do they need to know what I'm doing? I'm like, well, fair enough, you know. So she's interested
49:01
in like helping law enforcement. So she, she helps with Sheriff Bill Waburn's law enforcement on
49:06
his Instagram, Sheriff Waburn on Instagram, and Sheriff Bill Waburn on Facebook. But
49:10
those are the things I'm, I'm really excited about Kyle. It's like, this children's book is really
49:15
cool. I have my Tay and Chris Kyle Foundation service marriage strong, which we help couples
49:22
over two years with five unique programs. Baylor University has been studying them 99.16% success
49:29
rate for marriages coming in so much better, or I'm sorry, coming out of the program so much
49:34
better than they came in. That fights the suicide rate more than anything else, because their
49:38
relationships are kind of the last straw when they don't work. And, and by the way,
49:43
it's not what TACF does. It's the people who show up ready to do the work. We just have the unique
49:48
tools, right? And these warriors come in and they're like, thank you for telling me what I needed.
49:53
So I can implement and then they do the work. So, um, those are, those are my, my focuses and my
49:59
passion and probably like you, there are a million other things that I wonder if I could do. Yeah.
50:04
And I'm like, yeah, I'll lead. Just focus today. Try to stay on track.
50:07
Focus on what's in front of you. But hey, I appreciate you calling me out because I'm really
50:11
bad about not leaving reviews, even though I like live on reviews, like if a movie does have good
50:16
reviews from people, I won't even watch it. But I'm not going to take the time to leave a review. So
50:20
that is a good reminder. I will go on there and do that. And also, you know, we have links to all
50:24
that in the website for, you know, the, the foundation, but also the books, your website and
50:29
all that as well. But we've covered a lot of ground in this conversation. We've weaved in and out
50:33
to a lot of different things, but is there anything else you want to get off your chest before we let
50:37
you get out of here? Hmm, let me think. Open invitation. I know. Am I going to leave this podcast
50:46
in an hour later? Kyle probably is probably going to be like two minutes later. That's how
50:50
normally goes. I should have talked about this, but hey, I'm patient. I'll just sit here. Okay,
50:55
but listen, so we talked about God, which I'm super passionate about. And I will say this that
50:59
for me, the biggest shift with God was recognizing that he was not giving me rules just to follow
51:06
blindly. He was giving me a recipe for happiness. The Bible is a love letter. I needed the right
51:10
Bible to understand it. I have, um, Gene Getz has a study Bible. It's G-E-N-E-G-E-T-Z
51:17
Gene Getz. And it's got QR codes throughout the chapters that take you to videos. And I'm like,
51:23
so it's the is the Bible with that. Um, life principles.org is I think where you go. So that
51:29
one changed my life. I'd love to that. That's a big thing for me. Um, we talked about the next
51:35
generation. I do think we have hope when we raise them well, which I know you're going to do. And I
51:38
think your listeners will do, um, recognizing that we're all uniquely made for different purposes.
51:45
There's no point in comparing, even though society today, the devil wants us to compare,
51:49
compare, compare. He always wants to tell us we're not enough. We're not doing enough. And, um,
51:53
and we are, and our kids are. And if they're meant for pro sports, they'll be there. There's
51:57
nothing you have to do. I mean, we got kids in, in little Midlothian Texas that are going D1 schools,
52:02
you know, and they're kids in charter schools that are getting recruited to their home school,
52:07
but they do charter school type sports. Um, yeah, I don't know. And you're going to talk to Colton
52:15
later and he's going to love you and you're going to love him. And what else do we have, man? Tell
52:19
me something about you. Anything about you. Oh, and marriages. Yeah, service marriages. We have
52:23
help for them. Yeah. Anything interesting going on. My entire life is about whatever the next
52:28
show is. That's the one thing that I am working on. I will tell you this and I'll tell this to my
52:32
audience is I don't celebrate wins. That's just not really something that I do. I'm the type of
52:37
guy that I dwell on the negative. Like I remember, you know, balls I dropped and flag football in
52:42
college. I remember like, you know, balls I dropped, you know, in the outfield and baseball in high
52:47
school, like I remember stuff like that, but I don't like celebrate my wins. And so that's something
52:51
that I'm trying to be a little bit better about. And even here recently, I haven't had a chance
52:55
to talk about this on the show. Let's see if I can say it without, you know, getting all weepy.
52:59
We had a little bit of a drowning scare with our two year old son. And so we,
53:04
we're at this pool party and I hate the pool just because it's wet. It's hot. I'm sticky
53:08
from sunscreen and I don't want to go. And but here I am. I'm in the pool with the kids because,
53:12
you know, I'm, you know, I don't want my kids to be on the news as another, you know, kid that
53:15
drowned at a pool party, that type of thing. And so we're being very, very beautiful parents. And,
53:20
you know, I'm in there and ready to go, but it's dessert time. And so I run inside to grab something
53:24
real quick. And I'm literally like, I've got a fork a dessert on it. And I'm like, giving a bite
53:27
to my wife. And it was like she felt something. She literally turns around and we both look out
53:33
the window of the kitchen over the sink. And we see our two year old without his floaties on,
53:37
because we had taken them off because it was food time. And he jumped and he jumped in in the water.
53:42
And so I can move pretty fast. I'm not sure I've ever moved that fast. I somehow managed because
53:47
my wife was in front of me. I somehow managed to shoe her out of the way without forcing her
53:51
into the next county. And so, you know, I jumped in and he's sitting there, like literally smiling
53:57
as he's under the water, because he's just, he's swimming, right? And I will tell you, like,
54:02
jump in, grab him, get him out. No issues like he wasn't, you know, coughing up water, like it was
54:06
just one of those moments where I wish it didn't take something like that for me to kind of change
54:11
a little bit and slow down a little bit. But that's one positive thing that's happened for me over
54:16
the last several weeks since that happened is I'm pausing a little longer in the mornings before I
54:21
go and start, you know, getting into my day and getting into my, you know, conquer mode, right?
54:25
And just like sitting there and being like, I'm making this little kid laugh. And if
54:29
I hadn't been paying attention, there is no laugh, you know what I mean? Like, because no one else was
54:34
out there to save nobody, right? And it would have been just one of those things that your entire
54:39
life is defined by, you know, 30 seconds of not paying attention. And so that is something that
54:44
has been very helpful for me to just, you know, I'm very focused on them growing up to be godly,
54:49
resilient little boys. I'm, you know, focused on making sure that I, you know, wrestle with
54:53
them and do all the things that the study say you should do rough house with your boys,
54:56
because it helps give them confidence and teaches them boundaries and all that type of stuff.
54:59
But helping me celebrate the wins, like that is a win. I wish it didn't have to be so macabre
55:05
at the end of the day. But that's what I'm focusing on for this year. So there, there's a little bit
55:09
about me. See, even though this is my interview, Taya, you don't get to interview me. Okay, so we
55:13
need to be very, very clear about that. Yeah, well, I don't do that as well following, following those
55:18
instructions. But you know, I will say that, as you know, a lot of drownings happen at pool parties,
55:24
because everybody thinks somebody else can watch. I believe the whole spirit said something to your
55:29
wife to turn you around to see it. Your son was smiling, I believe he was taken care of. And it
55:33
probably all was for exactly what you said to say, Hey, Kyle, you know, this could be gone in a
55:38
minute. And what a beautiful loving thing for a father to do for you is to show you that like,
55:46
no harm comes to him, but I'm going to give you this little wake up call so that you don't miss
55:49
these moments. And you know, you know what they say that nobody lies on their death bed wishing
55:55
they spent more time at work. Yeah, you know, they all spend wishing they spent more time with
56:00
their people. You know what's interesting about that? As I never really thought about it until
56:03
I never really thought about the scenario I'm about to describe in terms of like what a loving
56:07
father provides. So our loving Heavenly Father and what he provides. So I remember when James,
56:11
our first born was born, I remember hearing all my buddies say like, Oh, I couldn't believe the first
56:16
time I looked at this kid my whole life change and all my, you know, priorities change right in that
56:21
moment. I remember holding my son for the first time being like, this is kind of weird. I don't
56:25
know that I can hold him correctly. Like, and I just kind of hand him back to mom. And it was
56:30
about six weeks to like he was, you know, around for six weeks. And I'm like, I know intellectually
56:35
that I love this, this thing that is part me and part her. But I just didn't feel that connection,
56:41
which a lot of fathers actually come to find out have struggled with because, you know,
56:45
your job is basically to keep your wife alive while she keeps, you know, your progeny alive.
56:49
But at six weeks, you know, our son goes in for emergency surgery on his intestines. And here we
56:55
are having to hand like I remember handing my six week old son over to the nurse to take him to the
57:00
surgeon. And I was like, Oh, it was in that moment that I was like, Oh my gosh, I love this thing.
57:06
I love this James more than I could possibly love, you know, anything else other than my spouse on
57:11
this planet. And so it was almost as if, you know, that that our good heavenly father gave us that,
57:17
you know, terrible experience and this terrifying experience to be like, no man,
57:22
you're good, but also I'm good. And I'm going to make sure that he's protected and cared for.
57:26
And you know, here, I'm here for you, like you can rely on me when you don't feel like you can
57:32
rely on somebody else. And so yeah, that's, that's a good thing to think through as well.
57:37
Okay, so can I share one more thing with you then? Please let's go.
57:39
Okay, so I love this because I used to think even when Chris died, I thought, well, maybe,
57:45
you know, this is all part of the plan and God does these things to show us these things. I do not
57:49
believe that anymore. I 100% believe that God allows certain things. I don't think he plans
57:55
the bad things. I think he allows them. So one of these things I had this wash over me. And I,
58:00
there are very few things that I could say I confidently feel are divinely given just because I
58:04
never want to make that mistake and assume right. But this one was like one of those feelings
58:09
where I was like, okay, and it was a chess game. And I feel like God showed me,
58:13
Taya, it's a chess game between the devil and me. And this whole thing where I allowed him to
58:19
leave and take a third of the angels with him because he wanted to go for it. Go do your best,
58:24
try your hardest, and let's see how this goes for you. So this chess game is that the devil has
58:30
somebody on the chessboard and puts him in check and we're like, oh my God, like, you know, like
58:35
maybe it was the murder of Chris and you think my family's in check. The devil's, the devil has
58:38
had us so hard. And then there were lawsuits and attacks and loss of family members and family
58:43
members turning on us. And like all these attacks, we think the devil's got her, right? And God's
58:48
like, wait a minute, because I'm the master chess player. And so he does, I think a loving parent with
58:55
a warrior's spirit would do when the devil puts him in check, he's like, check me, you know what I mean?
58:59
Oh, you want to see that? Watch this. I'm going to do good with even that. And so I, and I don't
59:04
think God's like the angry person that I just portrayed because that's like my feeling. Like,
59:08
you want to mess with my kid? Okay, put my kid in check. Watch what I'm going to do, right? Like,
59:13
I'm going to take my kid and I'm going to go out and we're not going to, we don't need to destroy you.
59:17
But I'm going to show you that what you did doesn't touch my kid because they are made better than
59:21
this. And you know what I mean? Like, they're going to launch. So, so I feel like that's what God
59:26
does with all of these things. It's like the devil does something to your kid with his intestines or,
59:30
you know, the devil pushes your kid in the pool and God's like, go for it. Go for it. Put them in
59:34
check. Watch what I do with that. Checkmate. And every time the devil goes check, God's like, check
59:39
mate. Next, checkmate. You know, he can play this all day long and does. And so I feel like anything
59:44
that happens, he will do good with we just give it some time. And the things that I relied on,
59:51
like I said, gosh, you know, if all else fails, at least I have this and it'd be like a family member,
59:56
this supported that sport. And some of those things I lost to for a while. And I mean, man,
1:00:01
I was doing that thing where I'm crying in the car screaming out, like this hurts so bad. Why?
1:00:06
Why the frick? You know what I mean? Like, what is happening? And so at those moments,
1:00:12
I think I felt kind of in check and then God's like, just wait, baby girl, wait, right? And so
1:00:17
then he comes around with checkmate and checkmate is those chains that I was holding onto that I
1:00:21
thought were good chains, right? Like I'm connected chains. He was like, click, click, click. Now what?
1:00:26
I'm like, I still have you. He's like, you do still have me. So what are you afraid of?
1:00:29
Who cares who you mean? The devil can take it all day, but I'm still here. And it's like, it like
1:00:35
really did take away what I thought were like good chains of connection. It was like, those can
1:00:40
be handcuffs too, right? And so now that those chains are broken, I'm like, I love these people
1:00:44
still. And whether I have their support or not, it's okay. You know, I can, and I'm not saying it
1:00:50
never hurts. It does sometimes. But I feel like the more, more things that have happened to us that
1:00:54
were terrifying and scary. And then I cried my way through. Once I got around to the other side,
1:00:59
they freed me from fear, not afraid anymore. It's like, no, I mean, we survived. God did good with
1:01:05
that. So, you know, well, that's a perspective shift that most of us need, because you can't
1:01:11
connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. And so when you
1:01:15
talk to these people that have gone through these horrific circumstances, family member murdered,
1:01:20
or losing a child, or any losing your business, getting double crossed by your partner, like all
1:01:26
these things that could possibly happen to you. And it's the same thing that I tell someone that's
1:01:30
an atheist that's like, okay, you know, God's all loving and all powerful, right? Well, why did the
1:01:34
seven year old girl get kidnapped, raped and murdered? It's like, you know what, I can't answer
1:01:39
why? If there's a pastor on this planet, that's going to, you know, give you an answer as to why
1:01:43
that specific thing happened. I don't think that they know what they're talking about, but I do know
1:01:48
that we serve a God that is for us. And if he is for us, who can be against us and to assume that
1:01:53
no positives can come out of that circumstance, I think would be foolish and to also assume that
1:01:59
the father is not comforting that that gal and in that type of circumstance, I think would be foolish
1:02:04
as well. But again, we love to make these grandiose statements. And it's, and it's easy for somebody
1:02:09
that does not believe in the father to say, yeah, well, this doesn't, you know, pass my sniff test.
1:02:15
Like if I were God, I would have done it this way. It's like, also, if you were God, you would be
1:02:19
able to see everything as opposed to the one thing that you use as the descriptor for this moment. But
1:02:24
hey, we can wax poetic for the rest of the day, but I think you got stuff to do. I certainly got
1:02:28
stuff to do for the rest of the day. But anything else for we'll let you get out of here?
1:02:31
Now I appreciate the conversation. We could go on that one for a long time, but I agree with you.
1:02:36
God's doing good with all of it. We just have to let him. All right, Taya, until next time.
1:02:40
Thanks, Kyle. There you go, guys. I hope you enjoyed the return appearance of Taya Kyle on the
1:02:45
show. But before we let you go, we are going to do a quick resilience boost added on to life. Our
1:02:49
mission is equipping men to push back darkness with content that forges spiritual, mental and
1:02:52
physical resilience. So the links I've got for you today, I've got a link to Taya's website. I've
1:02:55
got a link to where you can buy hers and Chris's books. I've also got a link to the Taya and Chris
1:02:59
Kyle Foundation. And also for those of you that love your Amazon, I've got an Amazon link to her
1:03:04
prayers for bears, books. And guys, if you do go buy that and buy that for your kids, make sure
1:03:08
you do what I did after the interview ended. And that's go and leave her a view that'll certainly
1:03:12
help her out. Thank you for listening to this podcast. Wherever you're listening to this,
1:03:15
please subscribe, rate and leave us a positive five star review. If you want to come speak live
1:03:19
at your event or on your podcast, shoot me an email to info@undonton.life. That's i-n-f-o
1:03:25
at undonton.life. Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook and check out our website for
1:03:29
everything else, including how to donate to keep more content like this coming your way.
1:03:32
Just go to www.undonton.life. And as always, we want to thank the band Holy Name for allowing
1:03:37
us to use their music for our content. The music on this podcast is our song Perpetua,
1:03:41
which is off their self-titled debut album on Face Down Records. The links are in the description.
1:03:46
I'm your host, Kyle Thompson. Remember, keep pushing back darkness, keep forging spiritual,
1:03:52
mental and physical resilience. Keep seeking the lion of Judah.
1:04:22
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