Equipping the Next Generation to Transform Culture, Part 1 - Meeke Addison

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Join Yvette Hampton as she talks with guest, Meeke Addison, Assistant Director of Special Initiatives and co-host of Airing the Addisons on AFR. Her work with AFA began in 2007 as a stay-at-home mom in Louisiana. Since then she has primarily served on-air as a radio personality.

Meeke Addison is a speaker for the live, interactive, online 2020 Homegrown Generation Family Expo. Check out a FREE preview (7 sessions - over 9 hours of content) here!

 

Meeke is a conference speaker, women’s teacher, author, and pro-family activist who keeps a close eye on politics, pop culture, and the Church. Her focus is on equipping everyday Christians to effectively engage and transform culture.

 

Watch the video of this interview (25 minutes) for free on YouTube.

Backstage Pass Members can watch the full interview (1-hour) here.

During this episode, Yvette and Meeke talk about the fact that religious instruction is common in "secular" public schools. Read more about that subject here.

Listen to the Airing the Addisons podcast: https://afr.net/podcasts/airing-the-addisons/

Find Meeke on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AiringTheAddisons/ 

Learn more about AFA: https://www.afa.net/

 

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Whether you are just considering homeschooling for the first time or you are a homeschooling veteran in need of a little encouragement, the Homegrown Generation Family Expo is for you. Click here for a FREE Preview!

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Automated Transcript (Spelling and grammar errors are guaranteed)

Speaker 1:

Hey everyone, this is Yvette Hampton. Welcome back to the schoolhouse rock to podcast. I have such a great guest on today with me today and I'm so excited for you to get to meet her. Her name is Meeke Addison and she was actually introduced to me by Israel Wayne. I know that many of you know Israel. He's been on the podcast several times and he said, you need to meet this lady, Meeke Addison. And I said, okay. So we started checking into her and cause this is what we do. You know, we, we use the internet to spy on people. And, and so Garrett actually started listening to your radio show and just following you on Facebook. He's been for months and he said, we have got to get this lady on the podcast and she has such an encouragement. So, I'm really, really excited Meeke, to have you on today. I would love it if you would introduce yourself to our audience.

Speaker 2:

Well, thank you. I'm so excited to be with you guys. And that means so much to know because we have so many different outlets. People can listen to whatever they want. So it's an honor to me and for me that anybody would listen to anything that I have to say. I'm will Addison's wife and we've been married for 15 years and I'm the mother of his five children and we homeschool. And I also, that's my full time job. My part time job is as a spokesperson for the American family association. And I picked that up from my good friend Abraham Hamilton. He says that what we do out in the culture that is part time work, but that our full time is with our families. And so anyway, I do that and I host a national radio show for an hour Monday through Friday where we talk about cultural issues. We talk about marriage, the family. Certainly we look at what's going on with the church and how we can hold the line. That's what we're constantly encouraging people to do. Hold the line in 21st century America.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love it. Well you are doing amazing work and you know I, I love what you just said about a Abraham Hamilton the third, right? That's correct. He's your pastor. I learned and I'm just another great advocate for Jesus and, and homeschooling and culture and just this, this desperate revival that we are in need of. And you said, you know that fulltime being a, a mom, his full time job and the other stuff is your part time job. And we just actually did a podcast about motherhood, the ministry of motherhood. And I kind of gave my, my testimony of what the Lord has been doing in my heart and kind of going from working full time with school house rock and pouring my whole self into that and realizing that my first priority really needed to be my children. And so the Lord has really been working in our family and kind of allowing me to let go of some schoolhouse rock stuff except for the podcast and allowing me to be more present with my family.

Speaker 1:

And so I love that that is your primary ministry as well. And you know, in that podcast it wasn't at all to say we shouldn't ever work, you know, as wives, as moms, we should never ever, ever work outside of taking care of our families. But there has to be balanced and doing that. We need to know what our priorities are. And so I really appreciate you saying that. You know, I know that the Lord has done many great things through you and you and I got to talk on the phone the other day and you got to share with me kind of your story about how you started homeschooling. And so I would love for you to tell that story and then I want to talk about culture and how homeschooling kind of ties into this whole culture war that we have going on. So, so share with us your homeschool story.

Speaker 2:

So we kind of found ourselves in a situation where we were just, we were sort of at this impasse where we, you know, realize that our kids were sort of being discipled away from us because you know, whenever there is influence, whenever there is training, whenever there is teaching, there is discipleship. You are making people who are followers. And so, you know, we had our kids, the two oldest of the five were educated traditionally so outside of our home. And one of the things that we noticed was that just, you know, the slow changes happening in them where the things that they cared about and the things that grabbed their attention seemed to be more of the things of the world. And they had wonderful godly teachers. I mean, you know, we live in a small community and so they went down to first Baptist, you know, in our, in our area and the teachers are, you know, active in the community.

Speaker 2:

But at the same time I started to notice that those became my girls influence, that their teachers and that their peers were their influence. And so add to that, I felt like I was spending two to three hours after they got home every day. Just kind of reteaching them and Yvette, I just felt like, why? Why am I doing this? Like, you know, why am I, I'm frustrated and, and then also I'm adding time to my day to teach them the way I wanted them to be taught and I'm after prayer and just willing, I'm putting our heads together. We felt like the Lord was really directing us to homeschool them. And I guess that was 2015 and we haven't looked back like, so when I was, I was expecting baby number four, I kind of keep track of life by the babies that I'm expecting, but I was expecting baby number four and, and that's when we made the decision that, you know, when the school year came to a close we would homeschool.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that. And in your show and your radio show that you host, you talk a lot about culture and just the this culture war that we are in. And I would love for you to talk about it from the perspective of a Christian homeschool mom. What do you see going on in the culture right now and how can we as homeschool moms help this, this a revival that is really to take place?

Speaker 2:

I think one of the big mistakes that we make, Yvette, is that we think the culture is neutral. We think that, Oh no, the culture does not have a goal or an aim or that it is not aggressive with that goal or that aim. And that's one of the things that we tried to sort of awaken and stir the Christian community to seeing that the culture is making grabs all the time. And actually it's predominant, right? So our country has undergone a shift where it's no longer the Christian culture that is predominant, you know? So we've heard people describe this as post-Christian America and, and what does this look like? You know? But the reality is that it's not the type of America that I think even you and I grew up in, I think it's rapidly changing. And what we have to recognize is that it's not a neutral change. It is a very aggressive change that pulls toward darkness. So you can't just expect your kid to sort of be out in this culture and be unaffected. Like your kid doesn't just go out into the world and arrive at a neutral position. Right. Your kid going out into the world is going to arrive at the position that's already established by the culture and it is antithetical to the faith.

Speaker 1:

That's right. Yeah. It truly is. And we're trusting that because we have them at home with us, you know, when we have them at home with us, if we have them out in the public, we're teaching them Bible verses and maybe they go to a one and they go to church on Sunday morning. And so we think oftentimes as Christian parents will, that's enough. They know we love Jesus, but then for 35 or 40 hours a week, we're putting them under the influence of someone else and someone else's ideas in someone else's religion. Really, because everybody believes in something, you know? And there is religion being taught in public schools and oftentimes even in private schools, there is false religion being taught in those schools as well. And, and so, yes, I think it's a very difficult thing to expect our kids to spend all of that time away from us and then still come back with our own values and beliefs and morals and it's a war. It's a battle that we've got going on. What can we as parents who, you know, some listening to this are homeschool parents, some are not. Some are trying to figure out this homeschool thing and wondering, is this for us? Is this something that we want to pursue? How can we have a greater influence on our kids? And therefore in our culture,

Speaker 2:

the first thing I think we have to realize is that there is the need for greater influence. I think sometimes, you know, we start talking about, Hey, here's the solution is what you have to do. But I don't know that Christian parents or even nominal Christian parents have even bought into the idea that there's really a war that they, that they really need to be aggressive this, you know, and so one of the things that we try to do with our kids is we try to parent them for the America that they live in now. Not the America that we knew, not the America that our grandparents knew, but we try to parent our kids based on the America that we live in now and the unchanging message of the gospel. So we still teach our kids that they are peculiar. We teach them that they will have by default a different approach to life.

Speaker 2:

And we believe that we have to prepare them now so that when they go out into the world, they're not shocked to discover that they're not well-liked. They're not shocked to discover that people don't love their message. Because you know what, there was a time when we were all just pretty good. You know, Christians, you know, where everywhere and everybody kind of had the same values and the same morals. But for those of us who are adhering to the word of God, we're waking up to the reality that you know where the rubber meets the road is that a Bible believing Christian will be called hateful, will be called a bigot. We'll be called narrow minded. And you can believe in a Jesus who accepts everyone as they are and doesn't require anything of us. And it's just one path among many. But if you say what the Bible says about Jesus Christ, that he is the only way, he is the only way to God and he is the only one who forgives of sin.

Speaker 2:

Well then you're narrow minded and we don't want that type of Christian to be in our circles. So we prepare our kids, and this is going to sound weird, I know, but we prepare our kids to not be popular in the current culture. That will never be. How do you do that? Practically speaking. Okay, so this is gonna sound really weird, right? But one of the verses, and we may get to this a little bit later, but I really believe that a kid or a student who is fully trained as the Bible teaches us is going to be like their teacher, right? Right, exactly right. So I try to ensure that will and I are the number one influences in our kids' lives. And so we model for them that we as your parents are not chasing after the latest fad. We're not into everything that's cool and popular.

Speaker 2:

There are things that we filter even as adults, like we constantly tell our kids the things that we say, no, you're not going to participate in that. Or we don't watch that. We call it consumption. We're not consuming those things. You know what I mean? We tell them, Hey, guess what? We subject ourselves to these same rules because these rules aren't arbitrary. It's not what we gotta to do it cause we're adults and you can't cause your kids. We say, no, this is what we do as people who follow the Lord Jesus Christ. So practically what we try to do is make sure that we ourselves are not in the world to be loved by the world. That we're not in the world to be liked. So that means that we're not ripping and running all the time. Like we're not trying to keep up on the latest things. Like I cannot stress enough how much parents influence their kids with their actions more than what they say. Right? So it means that the things that we value, we want to make sure that it's biblical and then we want to communicate that to our kids so that these are also the things that they value and it's as natural to them as breathing. It's the way that we live our lives, you know?

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes. I love that so much. And it's a hard thing to do, especially because we have grown up in a culture where we, we want to, we want to be liked, we want to be popular. You know, I, I definitely thinking back to my high school years, it's so funny, I was just talking to my daughter about this the other day and I said, I remember high school and junior high like it was yesterday. I graduated in 1993 and that was long time ago. But I remember it like it was yesterday. And I remember that deep desire to be popular, you know, I wanted to be liked by everybody and I wanted to be the cool girl. And, and that's something that even as an adult, I find myself going into, you know, I, I want people to like me. I don't want people to dislike me and, and it's hard to not conform to the culture around us. But I, I mentioned this on last week's podcast where we talked about when, when my oldest daughter was born, I had a very wise mom come alongside me and she said, you become the wife and mom that you want her to grow up to be.

Speaker 2:

Yes. That's it. I mean, that's a wonderful, who do I want her to become?

Speaker 1:

And so and, and I'm going to fail a million times because I'm a sinful human, but at least I can attempt and do my very best to be who God made me to be and then we get to teach our kids. I was, I went on a walk with her this morning actually. We were talking about identity and about how yet her identity is found in Christ and being Christ and like it's not found in the culture. It's not found in what magazines say is, is the new fashion and what things on TV say and how you should talk and what music you should listen to. And it's hard to keep them from that. You know, we were very intentional about what our girls see. We're not TV Watchers, we're not really big movie Watchers, which is kind of ironic since my husband is a filmmaker. But oftentimes, you know, we sit down and we're like, well, let's see if we can watch a movie. And it seems almost impossible to find even a decent movie for us to watch as a family. And so it's, but that's okay. Then we ended up playing a game, which is what we do all the time anyway. But, but it is difficult. It's difficult to be completely set apart. How do your children react to that? Has that just been something that they just know? I mean that's just because that's how your family is or do they, do they push against you on that ever? No, I have say

Speaker 2:

now each of our kids has their own unique personality. Like, so I noticed that it, there, there are objections, but those objections are raised differently. So with our oldest, she tends to be like, she was very strong willed. So from the age of three to like seven, it was consistent and constant discipline and character shaping. It was, Oh my goodness, it was exhausting for me. But man, the spirit of God just really gave me the, I guess the endurance to know that if I can get to this point and not just leave her on autopilot, it's gonna produce a reward. And I've seen it, she's 13 years old now and she is my, she is my second year and can be, he's always had that ability, but it needed to be channeled. And I remember having a conversation with her, you know, she was maybe about seven or eight and it was almost like the height of the rebellion, challenging everything.

Speaker 2:

And I said to her, I said, listen, without consequence. I said, let's have a conversation. What is it that, what do you want? Like what is going on? And I said, you're not going to be in trouble. I just need to know what it is that what's, you know, and my daughter said to me, she said, I want to be your boss. I want to be your boss. Right. She knew this was a breakthrough for me because I understood that what we're doing here is now we're battling for leadership, right. And so I had an opportunity to teach her that the time is going to come where she's going to be able to be in her own family and she will be the mom in the family. She will be in that position of leadership. And it was a wonderful moment and it changed the course of our relationship.

Speaker 2:

So now she is actually very honest with me when she attempted to rebel, when she feels like things are not going her way, you know she we built the kind of relationship where she would tell me then I have my second daughter who is compliant outwardly. But inwardly, no, I disagree. I don't, I don't understand the reasoning. I don't understand why we have to do it that way. You know? And I've noticed that in her. And so I've tried to encourage honesty and transparency. You sometimes think that my rules are arbitrary. Yes. Do you sometimes think we don't need to do it that way? Yes. Let me explain to you why we're doing it this way. And let me explain to you that again, when you're married or if that's not the Lord's will for you, but when you're on your own or however this all works out, you know, after you leave this house, which that's a whole other topic.

Speaker 2:

We're not pushing our kids out, you know? But you know, so I have to deal with them each differently. And then, you know, I have another son who he doesn't understand why the world is so wicked, really just doesn't understand why people are not better. He's 10 he's very philosophical in his thinking. He's, he's very scholarly, so he reads a lot and he reads the Bible a lot on his own. Like he just loves the word of God and you know, he says, he goes, there's, there's nothing that the Bible doesn't speak to is what he says all the time. Like, you know, when he has an issue. And to go back to another question that you asked about, one of the things that we have tried to do, so as homeschooling parents, we still try to make sure that our kids do not see us as the final authority.

Speaker 2:

So we position the word of God as the final authority. When they ask us questions, we take them to the scriptures. We say to them all the time, this is the straight edge. This is the straight edge, you know? And so we try to take them back to the word of God. And I feel like that's helped them to process a lot of what our objections are because they see them as biblical objections and not just parental like user or patient. I don't know. I guess these little people, you know, they want to be independent.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes. Oh, I love that so much. And, and it's true, you know, we've, our girls are kind of flip flopped from yours in that my oldest is the more outwardly compliant and my youngest is the very strong, well then it's so neat to hear her cause we've really been working on her strong will and it's strong. I, I didn't, I never really understood what a temper tantrum was until she came along and I was like, Oh that's, that's actually a thing. It's different than a tantrum. A temper tantrum is something completely different. She prays. Now she like yours. She has such a soft heart and she often, I mean almost daily she praise, you know, Lord help me to use my strong will in a way that honors you because God gave her that strong. Well and so I want her to use it in a way that honors him.

Speaker 1:

I don't want to take it away from her. She just needs to sit in the right direction. That's right. Yeah. And, and you know, she can do big things for his kingdom if she will learn to honor and obey him. And what a beautiful thing, you know, that God is the final authority. Like you said, I want to talk more about this. We are out of time for part one of this. So I definitely want to come back. Let's do part two on Wednesday and let's talk more about God being the final authority about what God's word says about discipleship. And I want to talk a little bit about the church and what you see going on in church culture today. So thank you so much for those. Just listening to this one. Where can people find out more about you, Meeke?

Speaker 2:

I'd love for people to go to afa.net you can learn about the organization and also find links to check out the podcast for Airing the Addison's.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome. Yes, we'll definitely put those in the show notes. And I'm so excited to announce that you are going to be part of the homegrown generation family expo. So next Wednesday, April 1st no wait, hold on. I'm gonna read you that cause it's going to be that week and I'm so excited to announce that you are going to be part of the homegrown generation family expo. You are going to be doing a live interactive session and it's going to be this coming Wednesday, April 1st from fi. It'll be 5:00 PM Pacific time, 8:00 PM Eastern time. And people will have a chance to just come on, talk with you, ask questions, and we're going to talk a little bit more about this. We're going to talk about culture and about the word of God influencing the hearts of our children and in discipleship. So I'm excited to have you as part of that event.

Speaker 1:

Thank you so much and thank you for being on with us today. We will be back on Wednesday with more from Meeke Addison.