152 | Dad Perspective from Thailand (Aaron Smith)

Dec 17, 2020

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Aaron Smith

Aaron Smith was one of the founders of Venture, now living full time in Thailand as a missionary with his wife and nine year old and thirteen year old kids. He has a passion to resource dads both in Thailand and the US.

Conversation Notes:

2:37 - Discussing life in Thailand as a dad.
5:37 - Resources Aaron is providing to help Thai dads experience the love of God.
- "I went to a counselor and was diagnosed with work-induced burnout and kind of the result of it was that I just felt like that God expected us to work so hard and prove our worth, similar to parenting here in Thailand. Like you have to prove you have to gain your worth, your value, you have to pay back your parents for raising you, I kind of felt that way with God. But that's really not God's character if you really read the Bible. You can see that there's so much love and grace there. He just wants to spend time with us. We don't have to earn it...His desire to relate to us is not based on what we do or not do...He really cares for and loves us graciously, mercifully compassionately, and his desire is to really connect with us."
8:22 - Losing his dad in a biking accident 16 years ago.
14:10 - Encouragement for dads with young kids and balancing expectations of family and work.
14:40 - Recovering from burnout and needing time to rediscover passion for God, kids, wife.
16:30 - Rhythms that add life
17:00 - Recommended podcast: From Burnout to Breakthrough
18:25 - Verse by Verse ministries - a resource Aaron uses for his morning time with God.
19:45 - Friendships and mentorship while living internationally.
20:19 - "More than anything else in life, as a human, I desire someone to know what's going on in my head and my heart at the most raw and honest level. If you don't have that, you're not living life. And then the truth is, like, what's inside of me is not always pretty, it's ugly, like it's really ugly and thankfully the last year I've spent working on developing that kind of relationship with my wife. Before this we had a good marriage right but it wasn't amazing. It was harmonious, but this last year we both made a commitment to each other that we're gonna share what's going on in our heart even if it's ugly, even if it's distressing, even if it's like, oh man, it's shocking, but we want to be known by each other."
22:45 - Fathers for the Fatherless rides and runs for 2021
23:15 - Sharing stories of the impact of Venture in Thailand.
29:57 - Aaron's closing prayer
31:30 - Recommended books:
- Surrender to Love (Book)
- The Gift of Being Yourself (Book)
- The Place we Find Ourselves (Podcast)
31:51 - Aaron's ministry page

Conversation Links: