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Let me fall on my sword. Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me

After investing in a backyard transformation, building a new deck, and buying my 2026 Yamaha XMAX 300 scooter, I realized it’s time to hit the pause button on discretionary spending. In this episode of Leaning Toward Wisdom, I explain why I’m beginning a financial fast on August 1 – not because of financial hardship, but because intentional restraint can restore perspective. Sometimes the best purchase we can make is deciding not to buy anything at all. Let me share the thinking behind this experiment and why spending less (and getting rid of some things) may lead to greater contentment, clarity, and freedom. Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me

What’s your relationship with your own money? Happy July 4, 2026 – 250 years of American freedom. And I’m thankful. Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me

Watch. Listen. I think you’ll get it. Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me

There comes a point in life when too many people decide improvement is behind them. But growth, wisdom, curiosity, and meaningful change are still available — no matter your age. In this episode of Leaning Toward Wisdom, I explore why staying teachable, engaged, and willing to improve may be one of the greatest advantages of growing older. Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me

People. They’re the problem. 😉 Not all people, but most people. Then there’s ME. Maybe the biggest problem of all. Forever, my wife has urged me to lower my expectations, accusing me of expecting too much. Most often, the context is somebody’s behavior or performance. I’ll remark, “I think he could have done better.” To which she’ll reply, “I’m not sure he could have.” She’s likely right. I expect too much because I always believe people, including me, can do better. It sounds like I’m being critical (which is sometimes true), but in my head, it’s not so much that. It’s more my innate belief that improvement and growth are always possible. The deeper issue for me is the belief that everybody deserves the opportunity to get better. To be better! But I could be wrong. Maybe most people are as good as they’ll ever be. Relationships are hard. Worth it, but difficult. Okay, some are worth it. Others? Not so much. We get to decide. Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me

I’d have written some show notes, but I didn’t want to. 😉 Enjoy! Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me

Thank you. For watching. For listening. For being part of the small band of folks who give their time and attention. It’s not a small thing to me. I hope it serves you in some way, too! Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me

Nuff said. Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me

Sacrifice. Self-control. Self-discipline. Temperance. Repentance. They’re all part of a life devoted to deprivation – a life devoted to not serving self, but a life devoted to improving self. Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me

An important link: https://www.youtube.com/c/LetthebiblespeakTv Spiritual, professional, and personal - those are the areas of life. And I need to put in the work to improve them all. Because I don't want another year, I want a new, better year! Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me • My central digital hub: RandyCantrell.com

As we close out the final day of 2025, it seems fitting to engage in two of my favorite activities: reflection and anticipation. Links: My other shows are GrowGreat.com (a city government leadership show) and HotSpringsVillageInsideOut.com (a show about retiring, living, and thriving inside Hot Springs Village, Arkansas). Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me

Happy New Year! Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me

Today's topic has preoccupied (and occupied) my thoughts for decades. Boys. Girls. Men. Women. Our differences. Our wants, needs and desires. Those things we crave most. From one another, as husbands and wives. Our duties and opportunities to serve each other. To make a difference for this person we love most. Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me

Once we were young. Now, we're old. Okay, older. Being older is good. Often, it's great! She was always gorgeous. I was always smitten. Madly in love. The love affair began on Wednesday night, July 2, 1975. During a church camp meeting in Oklahoma. I asked her out on a date following church services that night. She said yes. That orange car in the picture was our chariot. We drove around a bit. Talked a lot. Probably went to a Dairy Queen for soft drinks. I can't remember. Eventually, I kissed her. She kissed me back. And it was all so easy. The conversation. The being together. The kissing. But I'm ahead of myself. First, there was her reputation. And my respect for her. She was known for being determined to remain faithful to her convictions. We shared faith. The Faith. She was smart, dedicated, disciplined, and intentional. The oldest of six kids. It was evident. It was among the top reasons I asked her out. She was beautiful, but that was bonus content. ;) I hadn't been in love like this before. Ever. This was different, and I knew it from the very first date. Becoming a Christian was my best decision. Falling in love with her was my second best. She's only ever taken a backseat to God. Eighteen-year-old me would have denied ever being able to fall harder for her. But he'd have been wrong. Did I always behave like it? Nope. To my shame. But that was primarily due to my immaturity and selfishness. Two problems I've experienced and that I often see in the lives of other men, too. I'm not saying it's a uniquely male weakness, but I'm a guy and it was mine. She's not perfect. But she's pretty ideal for me. I'm not perfect. But I'm pretty ideal for her. It's our story. My story. But let's not make this entirely about me, or her, or us. Two ideas have been swirling in my head for as long as I can remember. One, my daily, if not hourly, fascination with her. True confession: I think of her every waking hour. And I always have. Sounds like an obsession, huh? Well, it likely is. But in a good way. It's why many times a day I approach her, seemingly out of the blue (I'm sure that's what she thinks), and hug her because I've been thinking of her a lot before I literally have to hug it out. I'm high-maintenance like that. Two, sadness that too many marriages fail because of selfishness and pride. Mostly, I think of my own selfishness and pride because I know those are ingredients for failure for each of us. Read your New Testament, and you'll see it more clearly — especially in yourself. This is about us - all of us. Yes, it's about those of us who are married. And it's about those of us who aren't. Because love, fascination, selfishness, and pride are both universal and individual. Masculinity seemed all but gone until we got a new President in America. The shift back toward things our country once cherished and away from the idiocy that overtook us starting in 2009 or so has given many of us hope that men can get back to being men and women can return to their glorified place of being women. Love, pride (not the selfish kind, but the honorable kind), commitment, honor, loyalty, and merit. Those were once givens in our society. They eroded in the past couple of decades because we allowed ourselves to be manipulated away from the things we knew to be true and correct. Now, we're seeing how bitter, hateful, and outraged the opponents to truth and right can be. But love and right are worth standing up for, and idiocy deserves to be fought vigorously. Without shame or embarrassment. I make no apologies for being a Christian. I make no apologies for being married to the same woman for almost 47 years. I make no apologies for confessing that we were both virgins when we married. I make no apologies that - because of my faith - I choose not to drink alcohol, gamble, or be promiscuous. I don't care that others have made fun of my stance against alcohol or drugs or illicit sex. The mocking doesn't bother me. I don't care that others think putting their wives on display is better than my dedication to putting my wife on a pedestal. I learned as a kid the value of zigging when others are zagging. If you're devoted to truth and right, you'll be swimming against the tide. Sadly. When men are fascinated with their wives and maintain or grow that fascination over time, it's not normal. It should be. When wives respect and let their husbands lead, it's not normal. It should be. When husbands love their wives, as Christ so loved the Church. Ephesians 5:24-26 "But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word..." Some truths are hard. Worth it and doable, but hard. Loving my wife isn't hard. Never has been. I know, I know. Getting it right - marrying the right person - is monumental! I got it right. Please tell a friend about the podcast! • Join our private Facebook group • Email me