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Call 800A Family or donate at focusonthefamily.com/slash family. He came. He died. There goes my sin penalty and The drunkenness stopped. Cursing stopped.
by one sacrifice All your past sins removed. Forgotten. Go. And on top of that, none of your future sins, because he's at the right hand of the Father. You make mistakes as you follow Jesus.
He's made us perfect. Forever.
Well, that is the late Phil Robertson, and you're going to hear more from him. Most of the Robertson family today on focus on the family with Jim Daly. Merry Christmas. I'm John Fuller. Yeah, Merry Christmas to everyone.
You know, with Phil's passing in May this last year, the program you're about to hear is even more meaningful, especially if you're a fan of their hit television show Duck Dynasty. And you know, the one thing I loved, I probably went down to Phil and Miss Kay's home about four times and taped with them. He was one of the most amazingly direct Clarifying voices when it came to the faith. I mean, he just said it straight so everybody could understand. There wasn't gentle, nuanced language, just like that clip.
It was very direct. And a couple of years ago, we hosted a special event at Sea Island. It's a resort there in Georgia. And for the first time ever, all 13 members of the Robertson clan, including Phil's recently discovered daughter, gathered on stage and it was awesome. We gave each family member an ornament that symbolized something about their lives.
So you'll hear some of their fun stories and fond memories. And you'll probably laugh, too. The Robertsons aren't shy about sharing their faith and the way the Lord redeemed their stories. Each of them has experienced trials of one sort or another, and I'm sure that will continue as long as they're on this earth. And they have come out on the other side of those trials proclaiming God's glory.
As we're all celebrating Christmas today, this conversation will remind you of God's goodness and love. And you're going to hear from Phil and Kay, and Al and Lisa, and Jace and Missy, and Willie and Corey, and Jeff and Jessica. And as Jim mentioned, Phil's daughter Phyllis. Even Uncle Cy is in this presentation. We're going to begin now as Miss Kay received her special Christmas ornament.
I think we're going to start with Miss K. Go ahead, Al.
Alright mom, open up your gear. Mom loves opening gifts. Yeah. All right, so my these are so cute. All right, so you got a whisk and a rolling pin.
And I use them all the time. Right. And so obviously that means a lot about cooking.
So we want you to tell a little bit about why cooking is important and kind of How that came about, how did you learn how to do what you do?
Well, I lived half the time with my grandmother because we had a big store in the town. It was the biggest store in the town. We lived of about 300 people. But uh so I got to stay with my nanny and uh Her whole thing was on cooking, cooking and cooking and cooking more.
So uh she let me start helping her. I love rolling out the dough. I learned so much with her. And it was just so fun. I mean, I just couldn't imagine a life without learning how to cook.
Well then I did really well some learning her stuff The den when I hooked up was right here. My other half. Maybe better half, I don't know. But. His mother cooked different.
Than my grandma did.
So what did I have to do? learn how to cook like his mother cook. But I mastered that. And then I even came out with some of my own recipes myself. And I'm not a scholar or anything like that.
In fact, I barely made it through high school. But I promised them I'd bring them some cookies, teachers, you know, I bribed and stuff like that. And I made it. I did. They're smart.
Because foods work. Foods help. You use the talent you have. Mine was cooking and food. And uh anyway And then I learned to cook like Phil's mother, so he was happy, happy boy.
And so, anyway, food has always been important, not just the food, but the kitchen. And I mean, I even had Jason's daughter over and brought ten or. 15. I don't know how many. of her her classmates in college.
To learn how to make chicken and dufflings. I was thrilled they wanted me to teach them that. We were while learning it, and they learned how to roll the dough and put them in. It was a fun night. We had to get rid of Phil, of course.
he would have been in there with Fox News or something.
So we sent him over to our workers. But I'm going to tell you something. I was just thrilled that my grandkids wanted me to teach their friends how to cook. And most of my boys can cook. Not as well as others.
Alan's a dessert man. Willie can cook anything under the sun and add more and more and more stuff.
So Willie's really a good cook. Alan's got the desserts down. Jason can cook a lot of good wild game and stuff, or probably I know, I just remember I always see them in cook fried potatoes really well. And other things, and where's my other son? Jepp, yeah, Jeff.
He couldn't. He's the baby, he's the sweeter one of course, but he can cook. He can cook very well. Him and his wife both are great cooks, but most all my daughter-in-laws are. Corey's a little slow around the edge, but I'm going to tell you something.
She loves me. She loves me. And she's got many other talents too. It's not just in cooking. That's just my field.
And it's what I love and it's my passion. And I think it draws a lot of people to our house. What do you think, Phil? No doubt about it. A lot of them.
We have taken uh Hospitality to a new level. It's mentioned about five times. practice hospitality, And check this out: without grumbling. You say, why would Peter the apostle, when he wrote that, why would he add without grumbling? Because you work and you work, you finally get a big pot of gumbo, you've worked on it all day, it's perfect.
As they're leaving, going up the road, You shouldn't be saying, I cannot believe the amount they ate. Mm-hmm.
Okay.
So uh Who's next on the list? Sigh. Although, who taught who to do squirrel? Did you start the squirrel? Bail's mother taught me how to do squirrel.
And I'm going to tell you something. I love to eat squirrel. I know you think it's gross, but I mean, he's a good eat. If you're starving, you'll like it. We better move along, or this is the K-Show right here.
All right, Sal, what you got? Open yours up. Size, Gib. I got a Tupperware cup. With a string on it and it's got Merry Christmas Jack.
So what does the temporary cup mean to you, Sam? Yeah. In the story. That's all you got, boys. But wait a minute, okay, wait, wait, wait.
Didn't she send you the Tupperware Cup to Vietnam? I thought that was part of the story.
Well, okay. That's the better story. When you got as many stores as I got. It's hard to keep from straight.
So look, I went to Vietnam. I was in college first with this man and two of my older brothers.
Okay, and uh See, they didn't understand. I majored in women and minored in party.
Alright.
So eventually Sa did go to Vietnam and did get Tup World Cup sent to him. Good night, everyone. Good night. Hey. It's been great seeing you.
I'm sorry about you chasing rabbits. Yeah. I forgot all about tripwork. Yeah. Y'all got sides.
That's what we call get signs. What do you want to do? Who's up next? All right, who's up next? I think it's you.
Is it me? Yeah. All right, who's least? There you go. All right, so this looks like a blank canvas.
Blank canvas. Blank canvas. Blank canvas. What could it possibly mean?
So, what could it possibly mean? What do you think? I don't know, but here's what I think. I think that. That Alan and I are so transparent.
With Our lives and with the mistakes that we've made, and what, and then again. What the Lord has done in our life. That You know We're just, we're a blank canvas, and whatever he wants to put on here, wherever he wants to take us, whatever he wants to lead us into. Um that's where we're going. Because we're so grateful for him bringing us through Um the tough times and the hard times Wherever, you know, we think back to where we were.
as to where we are now And we both say the same thing, and this took a long time to get there. Um The things that we have went through in our in our lives, in our in our marriage. We would go back through them all again. If that's the way that God has for us to be where we are today. If we could be in the same spot, we'll do it all over again.
That's how grateful we are. That's how blessed we are. And that's how much. We're just So excited to do what we do today. Our partnership with Focus.
Came about because we met Jim, and to be honest, when we went out to do the radio show. I didn't really know the setup. I'd never met Jim before. And 10 minutes in his office, I knew I was like, we're going to be friends. Because he said it last night, perfection is not required.
And that's what I love about Focus on the Family. Focus on the Family is focusing on.
sometimes the difficulties of a family and how to help people get better. And so we partnered with a book with focus called Desperate Forgiveness. It's now one of the resource books for Focus, and we couldn't be prouder of being able to do that with Focus.
So I think you know that that's our blank canvas. Yeah, and if you haven't heard that program, download it from the website or the app because it's one of the most powerful stories. It will bless you about Mistakes and God's grace. In the do-overs, and this couple right here magnifies it so very well. That's awesome.
Will and Corey. I hope it's miniature. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's a mini jukebox.
No I'm not sure. Uh no idea. Yeah. Yeah. I think they want you to sing, babe.
Yeah, so in order to, when we grew up, we were really poor. And right, Kay? We were poor? Yeah. We were poor.
Poor. Free lunch is enough.
So I was always trying to hustle up money. And I came up with this idea. And it was called the human jukebox. And So It was not near as lucrative as the gum and candy, but what you would do is you would put a quarter in my armpit, and then I would mechanically drop it into my pocket, and you would punch on my chest, and you would pick a song for me to sing for a quarter. I mean, I had no money in it, it was just, you know.
It was good money. And so I would sing all.
So Al has this eight-track player. And so Al had all these eight tracks. And I'd memorize all the lyrics to these songs. The song that everybody always wanted to hear was this song called Jukebox Hero by Forner.
So once Duck Dynasty started, we were in LA, I was in there talking to an agent who was going to represent us, and I look in the restaurant and I see Guy Fieri sitting at the table. And I am freaking out. I'm like, so I'm waiting, I'm waiting, I'm waiting until right at the right moment when he stands up. And I slid in there and I said, God, how you doing? Love your show.
I love to eat. I love traveling. I love everything about you, you know. And I was so excited. And there's a guy beside him stands up.
He's this tall guy, long hair, sunglasses on, 10 o'clock at night. And I'm thinking, LA. And he goes. This is uh Kelly Hansen, he's a lead singer of Foreigner. And I'm looking at it going, oh.
When I was in fifth grade, I did this thing called the human jukebox. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Standing in the rain with his head hung low. And I'm looking at this cat, and he is not smiling. He's not making any gestures.
He's just staring at me. Like, I mean, and I'm going, well, anyway, I'm a big fan. What? And he goes, hang on. He tilted the sunglasses down.
He goes, Uh, is that when you were peeing the bed? Hmm. And I thought, how does he know I paid the bed? We ain't even wrote a book yet. And I'm like, how did he know that?
And then it hit me. Sy made fun of me on the TV show about pee and the bed. And I said, did you? And he goes, Willie, I've never missed an episode of Doug Dynasty. The human jukebox was real.
Seems like it worked. That's awesome. Jace? It's a teeny tiny house. It's a house.
Let's think. There's a lot going on in our house right now. There is a lot going on in our house. But when I look at this and I think about our house, I think about our children. And I think most of us up here have children that were not our own, that became our own.
whether on paper or just in our hearts. And so we had and I think as a little girl, I said, when I grow up, I'm gonna have two boys and a girl, and I'm gonna have one girl 'cause I want to spoil her. I remember saying that as a child. When we grew up, had two boys and a girl. And then we had another girl who was 18 who came a part of our family just a few years ago from Nicaragua.
She's a total orphaned. and worked her way up, got a scholarship in Germany. Through a long story, but she basically during the unrest in Nicaragua could not get back home. And through her pastor there, who knew us, called us and said, Can she stay at your house for about a month before because she has a full ride scholarship to college in the USA? I said, sure, we'll let her stay in our guest room.
And when she came and we found out her story, we fell in love with her. She had no family, and she became ours, and we became hers. And that was four and a half years ago.
So she's ours even though it's not on paper. She's our family. And then we have a grandbaby and another one on the way.
So I consider that my kids of some sort. But then about eight months ago, the Lord dropped. literally dropped a brand new baby into our laps. and we've had him for the past eight months. And we don't know what his future is, we don't know what his story is going to be, but when I think about this house.
I think about all the things that we all have done for children and for our families. This is our sanctuary. And We teach our children The Word of God, how to pray to God, singing songs to God and praises to Him. And now we're doing that all over again with someone who's not even our family because He doesn't have that for Him in His life.
So that's what this represents to me. is a house full of love. Amen. Good job, bad. No, I got one.
Yeah. Yeah, he's been a blessing. I mean, look, we've realized there's a reason people in their 50s are not having kids anymore.
So uh being honest. But you notice more now. about subtleties that I took for granted. when my kids were here. And you know, it goes in the face of all these arguments in our world that these kids that you know they They might just ought to be aborted rather than come up in difficult situations.
And when I see a kid like this that was born that had zero people. Zero. Zero family come forward and say, Hey, we'll We'll take care of him. I mean, that's just sobering in and of itself to imagine that, to be born on a planet where no one... wants to step up and say, You're worth something.
So somewhere through that When you see him smile and look. He's never met a stranger, humbly. He's way better a baby than any of our kids were. come out of chaos. It's been a blessing, and there's a verse in Hebrews 12 that says, you know, let's fix our eyes on Jesus.
Throw off the sin that so easily entangles. We remember that, but it also says, and the things that weigh us down and I finally realized that there's a lot of things that God gives us. that may be difficult and they may weigh you down, but They're actually blessings, it's just the way we're handling it. is what's weighing us down. And so, when you get your attitude right and realize, you know, this is a gift from God.
It tends to put things into perspective. But I was just going to say: when you read the Bible in Acts 17, God does not live in buildings built by hands. You read Hebrews 3, 4, it says, Every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. My point is It's not in buildings. It's not in a house or how big it is or 'Cause our house was really small.
And my parents made a lot of money, and guess what? They live in the same small house. But God is the one that makes things grow. And the reason we've stuck together and flourished. through the wilderness and through success.
It's 'cause our faith and trust Was in that there's a God? We acknowledge our flaws and difficulties because, let's face it, we're all flawed. We don't even act to be smart or experts on anything. But we just are who we are, and we believe that God uses us in spite of our difficulties. to make Jesus look real good.
Man, that is so, so good. Yeah. Get in the hand. I think it's Jeff and Jessica, right? I don't know where your where your little gift is.
There it is. I'm the quiet one, as you can tell. How did you survive in this family? Barely, to be honest with you. I just No, my mom spoiled you.
Yeah. He's the bank.
Okay, so we got a Texas yeah, so we moved to Texas for a while. Do you want to tell the story? I think we have breaking news here. Oh my gosh.
So after the show ended, we were the babies of both families. We never went off to college.
So we were like, let's do something different. Our kids were little, we were homeschooling. And so we moved to Texas, Austin, Texas. And we had a lot of friends there. We lived there for five years.
It was great. We found a great school. We found an awesome church to go to. It was great for our kids.
Now, our two oldest are actually at ACU.
So we decided, obviously when our kids were older, like when they were graduating high school, going to college, we were like, we really miss family. We really want to be home. And my parents are there, my sisters. And so we were just kind of buying our time until the kids graduated. But we're so happy because we moved back to our house on the same street as all the brothers.
That's right.
So we're back with family and we're loving it. And what else are you going to say about Texas? I love Texas. No, we had a great time. I think it was a good experience for us.
We had never lived anywhere else in our life, so. It really brought us together. We didn't have a lot of help. Like, we didn't, you know, we were our own babysitters for our kids. Um, it was good.
We learned a lot. Um, I think we grew in the Lord, but I'm really happy to be back home with family and. We miss you guys. We love you all. Yeah.
Yeah. All right, Phil, you have your box there, and that'll give you a chance to respond. Kind of talk about this. It's a little chuck. I think it's supposed to represent the the truck that you when you drove to Monroe.
uh to tell mom you wanted your family back. how that changed your life. I did, I pull up, you know. I'd run her off. He kicked us out, me and the kids.
You know, all these texts you read in the Bible, you know. about the love of Jesus He he did this incredible showing up. He dies a horrible death. Ferv. Idiots like me, sinful men.
and guaranteed we could be raised from the dead. Trust me when I tell you I had that old truck I pulled up in the parking lot where she was working, And the day finally came where I said, Okay, I'm done with Satan.
So a guy came to me. He put the gospel on me. I didn't even know what it was. He asked me. Yeah.
You probably have you obeyed the gospel, I said. Obey the gospel. Why do you do that? He went on to show me starts with faith. And Jesus' death Burial resurrection.
He came. He died. There goes my sin penalty, and The drunkenness stopped, the cursing stopped. by one sacrifice All your past sins removed. Forgotten.
Gone. And on top of that, none of your future sins, because he's at the right hand of the Father, after he died, was buried, raised, went back, sat down. Sat down at the right hand of God. 24-7. You make mistakes as you follow Jesus.
He's made us perfect. forever. The Hebrew writer said as were being made holy. But we still make mistakes not counted against you. He's made us Perfect.
through blood shed on a cross, Well, I came to that realization And boy, did life ever change for me.
Well, what a fun and wonderful Christmas conversation with the Robertson family on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. I can listen to them time and again, Jim. It's so enjoyable. They are great storytellers, and we had an amazing time at this particular event. I was touched by the way Miss Kay and the four brothers embrace Phil's daughter, Phyllis.
None of them shy away from talking about the choices they made, kind of those hard lessons they learned, but they plainly acknowledge the way God intervened in their lives and called them to something higher, something different, something holy. And I hope you've enjoyed reminiscing with the Robertson family. Christmas is a great time to reflect on God's goodness, His mercy, and the love He has for us as we celebrate the birth of Christ. And I pray your Christmas is a blessed one. And if you'd like to celebrate more with the Robertson, You can kind of prepare for next year by getting a copy of Phil and Kay's terrific book, Exploring the Joy of Christmas.
We've got it here at the ministry. And when you make a donation of any amount to Focus on the Family today, we'll send you that copy. And like I said, you can have it ready to go for Christmas 2026. And let me remind you that Focus on the Family is here for you. We have top-notch resources to help you in your faith, your marriage, and your parenting.
From online articles to videos to books, to a team of caring Christian counselors who can provide you with answers and direction. When you order books through Focus on the Family, the proceeds go right back into helping couples on the verge of divorce, families in crisis, bewildered parents, and others who really need a touch of hope. Christmas is the perfect time to deliver hope and joy to families in crisis through your support of Focus on the Family.
So donate today. Donate today and Get your copy of the book Exploring the Joy of Christmas when you click the link in the show notes.
Well, thanks for listening today to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. And again, from all of us here at Focus on the Family, we trust that it's been a really rich, blessed Christmas day so far. Join us again tomorrow for another of our Best of 2025 programs. We'll hear from Jay and Laura LaFoon. They'll have helpful advice for fun dates with your spouse.
And if you understand coming into it what the so-called purpose of this evening is, it becomes a lot easier to put the phone down, to focus on your spouse, and to really make a concerted effort. to meet them where they're at. On behalf of the entire team, thanks again for listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. I'm John Fuller inviting you back as we once again help you and your family thrive in Christ. Hey mom, Rebecca St.
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