Justin Knoop: We’re made in God’s image. God is a creator, and that’s why I love the term “content creator” because we’re actually using our gifts, our abilities, and our talents to create something through technology for people to enjoy and be inspired by. 

From Overgrown Yards to Overflowing Hearts: Stories of Families Transformed ft. Justin Knoop and Tricia Goyer – Episode #478

Narrator: Welcome to the Jesus Calling Podcast. This week on the podcast, we meet Justin Knoop—a husband, father of four, and the heart behind the Blessing Boys. What began as a small lawn care business grew into a mission to serve others, inspire his sons, and transform lives one yard at a time. 

Later in the episode, we’ll hear from Tricia Goyer—an author, speaker, podcaster, and homeschooling mom whose journey has taken her from teen pregnancy to building a family of ten through adoption and foster care. Along the way, Tricia discovered that it’s not about doing more, but about noticing what matters most..

Let’s begin with Justin’s story.

Justin Knoop: My name is Justin Knoop. I’m the dad behind the Blessing Boys. I’m a father of four sons. I’ve been married for sixteen years, and currently my sons and I go out and we serve the community by transforming overgrown yards for people in need—the elderly, single moms, just people that need help. We have built a YouTube channel out of that and a social media following, and I get to just serve people full-time in that capacity.

How Faith Filled the Void

I grew up in Buffalo, New York, and lived there until about the age of fourteen or fifteen when my entire family relocated to North Carolina. My biological father was actually out of my life from before I was born, and my mother was in a relationship with another man, who was my stepfather that actually raised me. There was a search in my heart for purpose, for fulfillment, and in a lot of ways, something to fill that hole of my own father not being there for me. I spent a lot of my years—my teenage years and even into my twenties—just searching to fill that void. I think eventually it led me to where I am today, but it took me a long time to figure out what that purpose was that I was searching for. 

“There was a search in my heart for purpose, for fulfillment. I spent a lot of my teenage years and even into my twenties just searching to fill that void. I think eventually it led me to where I am today, but it took me a long time to figure out what that purpose was that I was searching for.” – Justin Knoop 

My first career was as an X-ray technologist. I worked at the hospital, and eleven years in is when I actually met Jesus. My wife is really such an inspiration for my walk with the Lord. The Jesus Calling devotional—she received very early on in her walk, and it was pivotal for her because it got her into the habit of spending time with the Lord and gave her direction on what that looked like and where to go in the scriptures. I was able to be inspired by her consistency in her time with the Lord, and finally came around to learning how my own personal walk with the Lord could be impacted by that. 

I felt like, Okay, now my life has purpose. What does God actually want me to do with this? Before, I chose my career path based on what was logical—what would make money,  how would I be able to take care of my family, and things like that. But now that God was leading my wife and my family, we felt called to the mission field. 

Sharing the Gospel Through Screens 

We were planting house churches and sharing the gospel with people, and we found that we were teaching people the same thing over and over. I was like, “Hey, what if I learn how to use YouTube and social media to begin to record these gospel presentations and teachings?”

The very first time that I created a video of sharing the gospel, I got a message from somebody in Indonesia that responded to it while I was asleep. That blew my mind—I recorded a video once, and it’s continuing to share the message of Jesus with people over and over, even while I sleep. 

We traveled all over the world, trained with different missions organizations, and ended up landing in Nepal. Right before the COVID pandemic hit, we moved back to the States. When we got back, I had this choice—I could either go back to my old career or I could do something new. As my wife and I were praying, we both heard separately that I was supposed to start my own business. The only thing that kept popping in my head was lawn care. And so, I started my lawn care business in 2019. I started very small, and I had just a few yards—family members, friends, stuff like that—and built that up over time.

Cultivating a Mission: Blessing Boys Lawn Care 

One night, I was sitting in bed with my wife, and I came across a video on YouTube where somebody was mowing for people, and I was just so inspired by the impact that this was having on people. At the same time, I was thinking about my sons. They’re getting into this phase of life where I need to start thinking about what it means to begin to set an example for them.

So what I did was I set aside Fridays—one day a week—for me and my sons to actually go out and serve the community in this way. Having a little bit of a history with social media and YouTube from the past, I knew that the greatest impact we could have was not only by serving these people, but by actually documenting the process so we can inspire people.

“I was thinking about my sons. They’re getting into this phase of life where I need to start thinking about what it means to begin to set an example for them. So what I did was I set aside Fridays—one day a week—for me and my sons to actually go out and serve the community.” – Justin Knoop

I think we can get caught up in our own lives and what’s going on in our family and our home and forget that there’s a world out there that needs us. What we teach our kids is that your purpose in life—outside of being in relationship with God—is to bring value to others. 

“I think we can get caught up in our own lives and what’s going on in our family and our home and forget that there’s a world out there that needs us. What we teach our kids is that your purpose in life—outside of being in relationship with God—is to bring value to others.” – Justin Knoop 

We’ve got the tools that we have, and we go out, we see a problem, we fix that problem to the best of our abilities, and we don’t expect anything in return. We live in a world now where when you say, “I wanna do something for free,” there’s always a catch. And so it takes a minute for people to actually trust you enough to say, “Why are you doing this?” If the person that I knock on their door says, “No,” then we have to move on. But what happens when they say, “Yes?” It’s amazing the restoration that can take place. 

I didn’t know how quickly it would grow, but after we posted our first video, it grew pretty rapidly. 

Eventually, I actually shut down my lawn care business so that we could do this full time, and put our full efforts into what we’re doing with the Blessing Boys.

Weeding Out What No Longer Serves You

I have seen major changes in my boys since we started doing what we’re doing. Getting to see that hundreds of times over and over has really changed them. So I pay a lot of close attention not only to how they’re working in the yard, but my favorite thing to do is watch when the person reacts to what we’ve just done—and to see how they react to their response and their reaction. 

I think when kids can begin to see that, it motivates them so much more to want to do something above and beyond just hanging out, playing video games, and doing whatever 

Yes, we have different hobbies and things that we do, but we want to pour the majority of our time into things that impact people around us. We’re not just about cutting grass and overgrown yards. We’re really after changing lives and impacting people.

“Yes, we have different hobbies and things that we do, but we want to pour the majority of our time into things that impact people around us. We’re not just about cutting grass and overgrown yards. We’re really after changing lives and impacting people.” – Justin Knoop

In a lot of ways, we look at the yards that we do and we can see a story of our own lives in these yards. They sit for so many years sometimes and people walk past them every single day—almost to where they don’t even notice them anymore because they’re just used to them being overgrown and chaotic. It’s like a picture of our heart. But then one day, just like in my own life, Jesus took notice of my heart, and He stopped and knocked on the door of my heart, and He offered to completely restore it.

Narrator: To learn more about Justin Knoop, visit www.BlessingBoys.com, and follow them on their YouTube channel.

Stay tuned to Tricia Goyer’s story after a brief message.

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JESUS CALLING: STORIES OF FAITH Returns for Season 4!

Hey everyone, this is Faith Broussard Cade, your host for the fourth season of Jesus Calling: Stories of Faith on UPTV. We’re so excited to bring you inspiring stories of people from all walks of life, who have turned to their faith in times of struggle, and in times of joy. We’re going to hear from some extraordinary guests this season, including Julie Chen Moonves, who you might know as the host of Big Brother. We’ll also be joined by NFL Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw and Light Heavyweight Champion boxer Andre Ward, GRAMMY award winning gospel singer BeBe Winans, the world renowned Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli, and actress Taraji P. Henson, in addition to many others. And of course, you’ll get to hear more about me and my story, too. I can’t wait to see you there. Stay tuned for the new season coming soon on UPTV!  

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Our next guest is Tricia Goyer—an author, speaker, podcaster, and homeschooling mom. From navigating teen pregnancy to building a household of ten through adoption and foster care, Tricia shares how embracing imperfection and tuning in to what truly matters has shaped her family—and her faith.

Tricia Goyer: My name is Tricia Goyer, and I live in Arkansas. I’ve been married to John for thirty-five years, and we have ten kids ranging from the ages of thirty-five all the way down to fourteen. I’m a writer, a speaker, a homeschooling mom. I thought I just wanted to write one book and homeschool my kids, and I have over 100 books published, do four different podcasts, speak at conferences, and try to hang out with my family as much as possible. 

An Unconventional Path to a Big Family

We never planned on having ten kids. I grew up going to church, but it was all new. We hadn’t fully integrated Christianity into our home, and then I became pregnant as a teen. My boyfriend was out of the picture that I got pregnant by. 

I started praying for my future husband, and God brought me John. He was actually the pastor’s son. John and I got married and had two more kids. By the time I had three, I’m like, “Okay, I think I’m done.” Then years later, God called us to adoption. We actually adopted a newborn when our youngest was fifteen. Then God opened up the door to foster care, and we adopted a two-year-old and a five-year-old from foster care. I thought for sure we were done, and then a couple of years later, God put it on our hearts for older kids and sibling groups. And so, we adopted a sibling group of four girls.

It became this very loud, very chaotic, kids from trauma, all different ages—and I was going to homeschool. [It was] like, “Now children, we are going to sit around the kitchen table and read the Bible and memorize Scripture verses and read missionary stories and read devotional books and talk about Jesus.” It was a lot. 

Becoming Students of Our Children

We were signed up for every activity—we’re doing sports and arts and homeschool co-ops and music and all the Bible studies. I was completely overwhelmed, and it was actually my husband that sat me down [and said] “Do they want to do these things?” Like, we have kids that didn’t even like sports. It really made me realize I thought that kids were empty vessels and we just need to pour everything in them. Here’s a dash of sports and a dash of music and we’re going to stir in some art classes, and they needed all those things because the opportunities are out there.

We were just way overdoing it, and I realized through God, through prayer, through sitting before Him crying because I was so overwhelmed, that He already created them as unique human beings with a purpose and I didn’t need to pour everything into them. I just needed to follow the purpose that God had given them. My second oldest played the piano, and her teacher’s like, “She picks it up twice as fast. Just keep running with that.” So that’s what we did. We dropped dance, and we dropped some of the other things. She was also very outgoing so she got involved in youth group and then leading youth worship. She’s a missionary now in the Czech Republic. My oldest son played basketball. My third oldest loved to write. It’s really [about] just discovering their unique talents. 

“I realized through God, through prayer, through sitting before Him crying because I was so overwhelmed, that He already created [my children] as unique human beings with a purpose and I didn’t need to pour everything into them. I just needed to follow the purpose that God had given them.” – Tricia Goyer 

By the time we adopted kids, I had figured that out a little bit. There was so much trauma. They had been in foster care for six years, and before that, they’d had a failed adoption, so it was very hard for them to accept me—there’d been so much chaos in their lives.

One of my daughters—her name’s Florentina—was eleven when we adopted her. I would have her take a turn to do the kitchen chore, and she would just be flat out on the floor crying and just dramatic about everything. But I noticed that while that was the negative side of it, the positive side was anytime we volunteered together at Vacation Bible School or when I mentored teen moms, she would come babysit. Like kids were just drawn to her. I’m like, “Florentina, it’s like you’re Ms. Frizzle. I can just see you’re so good with kids. They relate to you. They love being around you. You’re such a great leader.” The more that I praised her at the things I saw, the drama was redirected in a good way. Later, she was working as a physical therapy assistant and an opportunity came up for her teaching preschool and helping support missionaries in Poland. She and her sister both applied, and out of eleven people, they both got chosen and they’re in Poland now. 

I think it really takes almost becoming students of our kids and seeing what God already put in them—the calling that He has on their lives—and us not trying to do everything and fill our days with just shuttling them from here or there. But really focusing on who God created each individual to be—the special design for them—and then going before God, sitting quiet before Him, praying for our kids and asking Him to open the door that we can help them walk through. That really just takes the pressure off us, because God has already got it figured out. We just have to join Him in the journey. 

“I think it really takes almost becoming students of our kids and seeing what God already put in them—the calling that He has on their lives—and really focusing on who God created each individual to be. And then going before God, sitting quietly before Him, praying for our kids, and asking Him to open the door that we can help them walk through.” – Tricia Goyer 

Raising Empathetic Kids

My husband led Children’s Church for twenty-five years, and we would have our kids dressing up in Bible costumes and acting out Bible stories and helping with the soundboard, so they were very involved. And then, I helped start a crisis pregnancy center in Montana that I ran for years. I felt so guilty, like, I’m the worst mom ever because my kids are having to come and help fold baby clothes, and we would babysit for the teen moms. But those acts of service ended up being the things where they just continued to serve when they grew older in some capacity or another. They saw other people, they saw their needs. 

I always say, “Let’s always be on the lookout for who needs help.” I remember one day we were sitting around the table during our homeschool, and one of our girls mentioned that when she was on a walk with some of the siblings the day before, they saw a lady from our church three blocks over—she had just moved in and she was a single mom. Her son was ten at the time. She says, “Mom, we should go see since, she lives so close, if she needs help sometimes. He could come here to play,” and so we did that. It was my thirteen-year-old daughter that pointed that out and said, “Hey, there’s a need.” And they’re still really good friends of ours. 

When we have them seeing how they can serve and help other people, then the concern isn’t, Do I have the newest phone? or whatever. We’re looking to see how we can help and serve other people. I think that really shows that my two daughters are working in service industries caring for people, and then we have two daughters serving overseas as missionaries. It just helps them to get a different outlook on life when we are seeing these acts of kindness—it’s like big worldview thinking when it comes to our kids. 

Making Family Time Count

We have a great opportunity to influence our kids with their faith journey. They’re still in that little kid where they want to play Mario Kart, they want to play Legos. They still enjoy those things, but they’re starting to understand their place in the world and have big questions like, “How do we know the Bible is true?” 

The five real life ways are: prayer, Bible reading, conversation, service, and relationships. It just comes down to, if anything else, you can quit every sport, they could fail at math, but if you take time for conversation and getting to really know them, build those relationships where you’re enjoying board games and family times… tonight we’re having little snacks for dinner, and we are doing a board game night. We’ve got some tents—they want to sleep in the yard—so I’m like, “Okay, we’ll see how this goes.” We want to have these times with them when we’re connecting with them, when we are listening to them. And if it takes listening to them talk about their Mario Kart score for forty-five minutes before they finally get around to feeling like they were bullied or the situation with the neighbor down the street—kids won’t come just naturally up to us and share the deep things of our heart if we’re just busy, if we’re on our phone, if we’re distracted. But if we are listening—if we’re sitting around, driving, getting a smoothie, taking a walk around the block—if we’re there and listening to them, that’s when the big things come out, that’s when the questions happen. 

“If we are listening—if we’re sitting around, driving, taking a walk around the block—if we’re there and listening to [our children], that’s when the big things come out, that’s when the questions happen.” – Tricia Goyer 

Even reading a chapter of the Bible—that’s where they’re like, “Oh, you’re right!” We always talk about David being very emotional because one minute he’s like, “I am but a worm, not a man. [Psalm 22:6]” And the next moment he’s like, “I’m in a miry pit! [Psalm 40:2]” And the next moment he’s like, “I’m praising God.” We’re like, “See, it’s okay to be emotional. David was emotional. You can be emotional, and you can still praise God.”

If we’re waiting for our kids to be adults before we have meaningful conversations with them, it is too late. We need to build that, and pre-teens is the perfect little window where they still think it’s really cool to go get a smoothie and talk, and we can use that time to pour into our kids. 

“If we’re waiting for our kids to be adults before we have meaningful conversations with them, it is too late. We need to build that, and pre-teens is the perfect little window where they still think it’s really cool to go get a smoothie and talk, and we can use that time to pour into our kids.” – Tricia Goyer 

So many times we wonder how things are going to work out. Whatever God has called us to, we’re trying to see the end, and all we see is obstacle, obstacle, obstacle. I think that’s just a reminder that if God calls us to something, He is faithful and He’s going to be there. 

“So many times we wonder how things are going to work out. Whatever God has called us to, we’re trying to see the end, and all we see is obstacle, obstacle, obstacle. I think that’s just a reminder that if God calls us to something, He is faithful and He’s going to be there.” – Tricia Goyer 

When I just need a little bit of encouragement, I love Jesus Calling. I listen to the audiobook. We try to be so strong for our family, for all of our kids, and just turning on the audio for five minutes when I’m folding laundry, in the car, doing dishes, listening to that short little excerpt is just like I need that. I need that little reminder throughout the day for whatever comes up. I’m like, “Oh yeah! The battle’s the Lord’s. He’s got this.” I think it’s so helpful. And with our kids, praying for them, He knows how much we love and care for our kids, and He loves and cares for them even more than us. So that’s what keeps me going. 

Jesus Listens, October 21st:

My faithful God,

I look to You this day for help, comfort, and companionship. I know You are always by my side, so even a glance can connect me with You. When I look to You for help, it flows freely from Your Presence. You are teaching me to recognize my constant need for You—in small matters as well as large ones. Your continual Companionship is an amazing gift! As I look to You, I find You faithful, true, and lovingly present with me. No matter what losses I may experience in my life, I know that nothing can separate me from Your Loving Presence!

In Your comforting Name, Jesus,

Amen

Narrator: To learn more about Tricia Goyer, you may visit www.triciagoyer.com, and please be sure to check out her new book titled, Faith That Sticks: 5 Real-Life Ways to Disciple Your Preteen, at your favorite retailer.

If you’d like to hear more stories about serving others, check out our interview with Gary Sinise.

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Next week: Monique Rodriguez

Next time on the Jesus Calling Podcast, we’ll hear from Monique Rodriguez, the founder and CEO of the Mielle Organics beauty brand. Monique shares how loss led to a drastic change in career shift from registered nurse to CEO, and how she’s breaking barriers for black women in business. 

Monique Rodriguez: I really wanted to pursue my dreams of passion, but I didn’t believe in myself. I didn’t have the courage to step out on faith, to turn off all of the noise. It wasn’t until I went through something very devastating in my life that I decided to give my life to Christ. I decided that I wanted to follow His lead and I wanted to live a purpose-built life because you only get one shot at life.