Dr. Tim Clinton: Welcome, and thank you for listening to Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk. I'm Dr. Tim Clinton, president of the American Association of Christian Counselors and your co-host here on Family Talk. In 2014, Dr. Dobson released his book, Your Legacy. In the book, he talks about how an inheritance is something you leave for someone when you die, but a legacy is what you leave in someone. Dr. Dobson and I agree that parents have the biggest influence on their children's lives. As moms and dads, we need to take that responsibility seriously. I've often heard it said that children are our only eternal possession, which makes the privilege of parenting the highest calling and the greatest responsibility.
Today we have a couple of very special guests joining us to talk specifically about raising Christ followers. They're Anne Graham Lotz, daughter of the late Reverend Billy Graham, and Anne's daughter, Rachel-Ruth Lotz Wright.
I'd like to briefly introduce our guests and then we'll jump right into today's broadcast. Anne Graham Lotz was called the best preacher in the family by her father, Billy Graham. She's an international speaker and the best-selling and award-winning author of numerous books, including Jesus In Me, and Just Give Me Jesus. Anne is president of AnGeL Ministries in Raleigh, North Carolina, and a former chairperson of the National Day of Prayer. Anne actually took over the National Day of Prayer after Shirley Dobson left. Shirley felt that Anne was the perfect person to carry the mantle of National Day of Prayer.
Rachel-Ruth Wright is the daughter of Anne Graham Lotz and the granddaughter of Billy Graham. She teaches a weekly Bible study at the University of North Carolina. She shared God's Word at numerous events around the country. She also serves on the board of directors at AnGeL Ministries. Rachel-Ruth feels called to encourage others to fall in love with Jesus through the teaching of his Word. She graduated from Baylor University in Waco, Texas. She's married to Steven Wright. They have three daughters: Bell, Sophia, and Riggin.
Dr. Tim Clinton: Anne, Rachel-Ruth, thank you so much for joining us here on Family Talk.
Anne Graham Lotz: Oh, it's a pleasure. Thank you for having us.
Rachel-Ruth Lotz Wright: It is. Thank you.
Dr. Tim Clinton: As we get started, Dr. Dobson, his wife Shirley, send their regards. I know that they wanted me to ask you, Anne, for our listeners, a little bit about how you're doing.
Anne Graham Lotz: Thank you. Dr. Dobson and Shirley are precious friends. One of the greatest honors of my life was when Shirley called and asked me to take her position as the National Day of Prayer chair of the task force. So I consider them just dear forever friends. So to be on their program is a blessing. And you can tell them for me that I'm doing well. Funny, I think all that I've been through: the cancer surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, my age is caught up to me. So I'm acting more my age than I did before, but still God is blessing, and He's so faithful to see us through hard times, isn't he? If we didn't have hard times, how would we know the depth of His power, His strength, His love, His faithfulness? So I'm very grateful that He's brought me through to this point.
Dr. Tim Clinton: Well, I know they have a deep love, affection for you. Now on to Rachel-Ruth. It's great to have you on the broadcast, too. Daughter of Anne. I feel like I know you. I've read all the stories in the book, but the new book, Jesus Followers: Real-Life lessons for Igniting Faith in the Next Generation, written, co-authored by Anne Graham Lotz and Rachel-Ruth Lotz Wright. Rachel, so glad to have you. It's a delight.
Rachel-Ruth Lotz Wright: Thank you.
Dr. Tim Clinton: I know you have a deep affection for your mom. It must be fun being able to spend some time and come alongside her in the ministry.
Rachel-Ruth Lotz Wright: It really is. God is so good. My mom, I felt almost like it's Paul/Timothy kind of situation, because Mom has so invested in me and counseled me and taught me. She's so wise, so it's been such a blessing. And then to be able to come together and do this book has been really, really special. I've loved it. I love writing, but especially about something I'm so passionate about. I have such a heart for this younger generation.
Dr. Tim Clinton: I know there's a lot of concern out there about today's generations, people saying when they hit college or what have you, that we're losing them. What a work for such a time as this, because a lot of people are concerned about how do I pass my faith on? Or how do we influence our families for Christ for such a time as this? You guys open up talking about passing the baton of truth. Anne, let me start with you. You open up, you look at the whole issue of Adam and Eve and their two sons Cain and Abel. Cain kills Abel. Even though he's dead, the Scripture says his voice still lives on, and the influence of Abel into, what, Seth, and then Enoch and more, but the baton of truth, how important is it? What's it all about?
Anne Graham Lotz: I use the illustration of a relay race. One of our favorite events in the Olympics, or I guess any track meet, is the 4 x 100 meter relay race. You can have different teams, but in each team they have four runners, and each runner runs a lap, but he is gripping a baton in his hand, and he runs as fast as he can when he comes up to the second runner. The second runner's already running, and he passes the baton forward, and that second runner grips the baton, and he runs as fast as he can. He passes the third runner then the fourth runner, whoever. The team that runs the fastest, and the team that passes the baton the smoothest is the team that wins. I take that and overlay it on Genesis five. Because in Genesis five, there were 10 generations that were listed, that lived in such a wicked world, that it provoked the judgment of God and the flood.
I pulled out from that list of 10 men, four that I felt had characteristics that we could apply to ourselves. We need all four. The first one was to be a witness, and that was Abel, as you already mentioned, because he sacrificed the way God told him to, a blood sacrifice, in order to be accepted by God. His brother refused. He wanted to come to God in his own way, and Abel gave his life basically for an Old Testament version of the gospel. And that's why his blood still speaks. And then the second one was Seth and Enosh, and in their lifetime, people began to worship and call on the name of the Lord. So witness, worship, walk. That was Enoch. He walked for 300 years and walked with God. And he started walking, so interesting, when his son was born. So you know he was overwhelmed with raising his son in a wicked world. That's when he started walking with God and kept on walking until he just walked right into God's presence. So our daily walk is something that needs to be a part of our lives.
The last one was work, which was Noah. Noah not only walked with God, he not only worshiped, and he was a witness, but Noah was somebody who did everything exactly the way God told him. If he had not, we wouldn't be here. So God used his work to present, in a sense you can say this salvation to the whole world when He provided the ark and invited everyone to come in and be saved from the judgment that was coming, but no one accepted his invitation except his family. But as a result of his work, his family was saved. So I just take those four men and introduce each one of Rachel-Ruth's sections of stories with one of their stories. And then she's written stories that emphasize the witness, the worship, the walk, and the work, and she's done a fabulous job. It just comes alive, and you just feel sucked into her stories. But what she's done is illustrate how you live that out within the home.
Dr. Tim Clinton: Yes, Rachel-Ruth, you've been on the receiving end of quite a legacy. Dr. Dobson talks about the difference between an inheritance, something you give to someone, and a legacy, something you leave in someone. You tell a lot of stories, but talk to us about the significance of legacy, Rachel-Ruth, and what it means to you, especially as you raise your own family.
Rachel-Ruth Lotz Wright: It has been something that I think I've thought about, prayed about, since I first had my first child in the hospital. I was desperate, wanting her to know about Jesus. I have three girls. I've always, I've just wanted them to love the Lord. In fact, I love the book of Joshua, and at the end of the book of Joshua, when Joshua is... I just picture him as this old, old man, and they probably had to help him up to stand, and he gets all these men in front of him, and he just challenges them, don't go back to the gods across the river. He said, "Worship the Lord." And then I feel like they must have looked at him with these blank stares. And then he looks at them and he said, "As for me and my house, we will worship the Lord."
That's how I've always felt. I just want for me and my house, I want us to love the Lord. I want to pass it on. I want them to have that love for Jesus. And it can't just be words out of my mouth, it's got to be the way that I live. I think that is one of the keys to leaving a godly legacy. It's not just taking them to church, which is important; it's not just telling them about Jesus, or reading Christian books to them, little story-time things at night, but it is actually living it out. You're authentic in the way that you live. And you watch the things that you say, you're careful with what you say. You are kind to people who aren't kind. They watch all these different things that go on in our lives.
I think that's what can make a difference. I think one thing I know as a parent is there's no perfect formula. We just have to live for Jesus with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Then we just pass it on to our children, and then it's up to them to choose to follow. No matter how great you do it, it really boils down to them choosing, and we just pray that we've done enough to quicken their hearts to want to follow Jesus. But we have to be authentic ourselves. So it is a passion of mine, and I think it's very important, because we are losing this next generation.
Dr. Tim Clinton: There's a lot of brokenness in the world. In counseling, we've learned this, that families tend to reproduce themselves for good and bad. Some people listening are recognizing, they're putting pieces together. Hey, wait, this is the Graham family, the Lotz family. We're going to talk about that in a moment, too, but what if... I've got this burning desire, I want my kids to know the Lord. I want them to follow in the ways of the Lord. I'm struggling. I'm kind of lost. What you guys have put together is a prescriptive plan on how to strengthen your own personal faith walk to see the narrative, and then to also, what, pass it on and make sure that that baton gets passed in a way that it doesn't get fumbled or dropped, right?
Rachel-Ruth Lotz Wright: Right.
Anne Graham Lotz: If I can just interject for people, because I know there are people who can raise their children, and the parents can be authentic followers, and they've done everything they know to have passed on that baton. They can read our book and think they could have shared some things with us that we didn't know about. They still can have a child who rebels. So I think we have to be careful in the Christian community not to point fingers and not to condemn parents when they see a child who's not living for Jesus. So just to say a word of encouragement as we go into this, for parents who maybe they haven't done it all right, and they have a prodigal, or maybe they've done it all right and they have a prodigal, that this is just a moment in time, and it's not finished yet.
Dr. Tim Clinton: Anne, I'm so glad you said that, because I agree with you. Some of our best parenting is on our knees alone, praying over and for our kids. Anne, I want to come back to you just for a moment. You grew up, your daddy, Billy Graham. We're going to talk about your mom, Ruth Bell Graham, and more, but talk about what you saw. Let's talk about this witness side, sharing the gospel, understanding the significance and the importance of it, and sowing those seeds deep in our own hearts. What was it like at the feet of your dad?
Anne Graham Lotz: You know, my father was gone they estimate 60% of my growing up years. So he wasn't really present in the home the way my husband was with my children. But I think that the thing that my father passed on to me was his faithfulness to God's call on his life and his humility with which he served the Lord. He never had an inflated opinion of himself. It was amazing. He was genuinely humble and self-effacing. My mother was strong, feisty, great conversationalist, deeply spiritual. Her art hangs in my home. She could play the piano. She was so good mingling with people that she always sat at the President's table at the White House dinner. She was amazing. But one of the things that I remember about her, there's so many things, but my mother at night when I would go to bed, I would be... My bedroom in their house was over her bedroom.
I would go to bed at night, and I'd see the lights from her room reflecting on the trees outside. I would slip downstairs and find her on her knees in prayer. And I didn't bother to stay because I knew I couldn't get her up off of her knees until she was finished. But then in the morning I would get up real early sometimes to study for an exam or something. I would look out and the lights would be on, reflecting on the trees. I'd go downstairs. She be at her big flat-top desk. She had 14 different translations of the Bible that were open on her desk, and she'd be reading her Bible.
Dr. Tim Clinton: Those visuals, Anne, you take us there. I can actually see. My dad was a pastor for nearly 60 years. My dad also supplemented his income by driving a school bus. He picked up kids on the dirt roads and brought them to the main roads to be picked up by the big yellow bus. But there's this one place, it was Hunter's Garage. He would sit there. I asked him one time. I said, "Dad, what do you do while you're there?" because I'd drive by and see him. And he always had his Bible in the steering wheel, and said, "I would read my Bible, and, Tim, I'd be praying for each of you kids by name." Every day that I went to school, I saw my dad in the same place doing the same things. And those things go deep into your heart and mind, don't they? These are caught and taught lessons.
Dr. Tim Clinton: Rachel-Ruth, I'm going to come back to you for a moment. You had the privilege of growing up with two godly grandpas. Tell us a little bit about what you saw, what you witnessed, and what it started to do in your heart.
Rachel-Ruth Lotz Wright: I do. I tell people this all the time, it is only by God's grace that he put me in this family. How did I get picked to be put in this family? So I understand that, and I feel very humbled by that, but my grandfathers were amazing. My grandmothers were, too, but Daddy Bill, we called him Daddy Bill, he was such a Southern gentleman, just so kind and sweet, and he loved to hold our hands. In fact, the night before I got engaged, I didn't know it was going to happen. We were up at his house, and he was like, "Let me see your hand," and I was like, "What?" He goes, "Well, where's the ring?" I was like, "Daddy Bill, I'm not engaged." And he was like, "Oh." Then the next night, I got engaged.
He was so loving and so sweet and always wanted to ask me about my friends, ask me about what I was doing in ministry, what I was teaching in Bible study, and just very loving. He was very loving and very focused on me. In fact, I wrote a story about it in the book, how he would give me his full attention. He was somebody that people were always pulling at him for attention, but when any of the grandkids walked in or anything like that, even my kids, he gave them his attention and was so sweet and kind, and always brought everything back to the Word and to the Lord. I don't ever remember a conversation with him, which were many, many, many conversations, every single one was geared talking about the Lord in some way, and so he was an amazing example.
Then my grandpa, my dad's dad, was a pastor in the worst part of the Bronx in New York. He had been a wrestler in college. He was a big man. He was also one of those guys that was a street corner preacher. So when you go to New York and sometimes you'll see these guys preaching on the corner, that was my grandpa. He always carried a gospel tract in his pocket, but he attached a dollar bill to it, because he knew they're not going to take the tract unless they see the dollar bill attached to it. He always shared the gospel.
I remember him coming into our house, and he would have his Bible open and he couldn't see very well, so he would have a magnifying glass over it and just be reading it for hours with that magnifying glass and his face right up to the glass, because it was important to him. It showed me that it was important to him. He loved the Word, and he wasn't in the best environment, just a tough space. In fact, when my other grandfather, when Daddy Bill wanted to come visit him at his church in the Bronx, the taxi cab driver wouldn't even drive him to that area of the Bronx. When Daddy Bill showed up, Grandpa was, "I'm not preaching. You've got to preach if you're coming to my church."
Daddy Bill got up, and he told us that he preached on the cradle, the cross, and the crown. Anyhow, they were just both giants of the faith in my life, and such an example. And grandparents have an enormous, enormous influence on grandkids. Even if you feel like they don't care, they're not watching, they are watching, and they don't forget. They don't forget the things, the examples, and the things that you say to them.
Dr. Tim Clinton: We're fighting time here on the first day together. Anne, Rachel-Ruth, it's been just amazing. I want to come back to you, Anne, kind of close or bow tie this particular piece. They say if you have any value to God, if your family has any value to God, all hell will be against you. Anne, I want you to speak some life into those who are out there saying, listen, we don't have a perfect family, but I do love my family. I want God in my family. I want a legacy in my family. Bow tie this for us, would you, Anne?
Anne Graham Lotz: You know, I've heard Rachel-Ruth say, actually, the best thing we can do is to love our children. And then at a certain age, when they're in college and all that, we just let them go to God. If you really want your children... If your children are younger, if they're still in the home, it's a whole different ballgame. What Rachel-Ruth has just emphasized, make time for them, love them, enjoy them. Rachel-Ruth referred to my husband's father. He was a great one for having fun with his kids. My husband was raised in a home where they loved the Lord and they certainly were bold with the gospel, but they had fun as a family. And we want to have fun, too, as a family. But I think the most important thing we can do is to develop our own personal relationship with Jesus as parents, daily time spent in His Word.
It doesn't have to be a Bible study every day, but reading His Word, even if it's a verse. I take three or four verses every morning, working through Ephesians right now. And I just ask myself, what does it say? What does it mean? What does it mean in my life? And what's my takeaway? This morning He gave me a promise that I could claim for Rachel-Ruth and for one of her children, in particular. I do that, and then I talk to the Lord about what He seems to have said to me through the Word, and then I want to live it out during the day. I think that's the most important thing you can do, but then when they're in your home, certainly you need to share God's Word with them. Rachel-Ruth is a great one to make God's Word exciting.
So, when she has Bible stories or shares God's Word, the Bible just comes alive through the way she presents it to her children, so they're never bored by God's Word. I think the most important thing we can do also is to, if we can, to bring our children to the cross at an early age, and we can't do that if we haven't been there ourselves. I came to Jesus when I was seven or eight. I can't remember the year. I remember it was on a Good Friday. I'd seen a picture about Jesus on TV. I knew He had died for me, and I asked Him to forgive me of my sin and come into my heart and be my Savior and Lord, and then prayed that for each of my children, Rachel-Ruth prayed that for each of her girls, and her girls all came to faith, put their faith in Jesus before they were three years of age.
So, you say that's too young. No, it's not. You can bring your child to the cross just as soon as they... You tell them, you share the gospel, and then bring them to the cross so that once they've received Jesus by faith and He comes into their hearts in the person of the Holy Spirit, then in a sense, they're His responsibility. So in all the up and downs of life, raising children, and all the challenges we go through, God the Father loves them more than we do, and he will watch over them, look after them. And if they stray, it's going to be for a time, and then we pray that He'll bring them back.
Dr. Tim Clinton: We claim that Scripture, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when they're old, they won't depart from it." There's a lot more truth, a lot of stories, and some strategies about how to keep that faith strong in our families, and how to pass the baton well. Their new book, Jesus Followers: Real-Life Lessons for Igniting Faith in the Next Generation. Our special guests today have been Anne Graham Lotz, bestselling author of Jesus In Me, and Rachel-Ruth Lotz Wright. So great to have you all. On behalf of Dr. Dobson, his wife, Shirley, the team at Family Talk, we salute you guys and thank you for joining us.
Anne Graham Lotz: God bless you.
Rachel-Ruth Lotz Wright: Thank you.
Roger Marsh: You're listening to Family Talk. That was part one of Dr. Tim Clinton's conversation with Anne Graham Lotz and her daughter, Rachel-Ruth Lotz Wright. They've been discussing the book that Anne and Rachel-Ruth wrote together called Jesus Followers: Real-Life Lessons for Igniting Faith in the Next Generation. Anne, of course, is the daughter of the late Reverend Billy Graham and his wife Ruth. Anne and Rachel-Ruth's book gives readers an inside look into growing up Graham and how parents and grandparents have an undeniable influence on their children and grandchildren.
Visit Dr. James Dobson.org forward slash broadcast to learn more about Anne, Rachel-Ruth, and their book, Jesus Followers. That's drjamesdobson.org/broadcast. Or you can give us a call at (877) 732-6825. We're available to take calls 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, and we love hearing from you. Now, before we leave the air for today, I'd like to share a prayer request with you. Earlier this month, and just a few weeks after we recorded today's program, Rachel-Ruth Lotz Wright was rushed to the hospital, having suffered a heart attack. A day later, she suffered another one. Rachel-Ruth has an extremely rare heart condition that seems to cause heart attacks for no apparent reason. This month, she is undergoing testing as her doctors try to find answers for her and her family. So please be in prayer for Rachel-Ruth, her husband Steven, and their three daughters, as well as their extended families as they navigate this stressful and challenging time. Thank you for joining us as we lift up Rachel-Ruth and her loved ones to the Lord.
And thanks for listening to Family Talk. Make sure you join us again tomorrow for part two of Dr. Tim Clinton's conversation with Anne Graham Lotz and Rachel-Ruth Lotz Wright. Until then, from all of us here at the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute, I'm Roger Marsh. God's richest blessings to you and your family.
Announcer: This has been a presentation of the Dr. James Dobson Family Institute.