Hey everyone. I'm here with Jason and Crystalina Evert,
international chastity speakers and authors.
And today, we're going to ask them 20 questions so you can get to know them a little bit more.
So, Jason and Crystalina, number one: What's your morning routine?
Chaos.
(Maria laughs) — Yeah, it's pretty chaotic.
We've got—this is baby number six
and so, we've got to get everybody up and out the door by 8 o'clock.
And so, I'll get up, get the kids up at about 7:00, get everybody ready,
then we do morning Mass, and then head off to school.
— (Maria) With all the kids? — (both) Yes.
— Fantastic!
You do morning Mass as a family every single day of the week?
— Yes, unless the night is extremely bad and then I have to stay behind
or one of the kiddos is sick or something.
— (Maria) So great! — We try to make it a priority.
— (Maria) Yeah, that's huge.
OK, what do you do for exercise?
— I try to get to the gym about five times a week
and play some golf and basketball and lift some weights.
And I've just found that if you're taking care of your body, you're taking care of your family,
in the sense that I'm more fresh, I'm more relaxed,
it's just better for everybody all around.
So, if you're trying to put yourself so far on the back burner,
that you're trying to think of everybody constantly,
then you don't end up, I think, loving them as well
and so, there's obviously times where you got to forget what you want to do,
but I think just trying to remind, "OK, hey, Crystalina needs some time to go breathe.
She needs some time to go work out, she needs time to—"
and provided we're giving ourselves that time to each other,
I think it's a more functional and happy family.
— That's amazing with all the chaos going on, it's amazing that you're even able to get there.
— And professional wrestling with toddlers, so undefeated, yeah.
— Elliptical, treadmill, basic stuff.
— So great, so great. — And I'll strap them on me, if I have to.
You do what you got to do, right? Just keep going, babe.
— Chasing six children around is good cardio for the both of us.
— I love it.
OK you touched on this a little bit already, but finding time for prayer.
So is it usually in the morning then, before—?
— Well, I try to set my cell phone about a half hour early, before everybody wakes up
and then spend some time, Liturgy of the Hours
and just trying to listen and then we go to morning Mass together as a family,
and then sometimes, we alternate who can stay behind to go to adoration.
It's we'll kind of take turns doing that sometimes
and then, evening prayer, we try to corral all the kids together and get a rosary in or a decade in
or Stations of the Cross and we found it's helpful to use video rosaries on YouTube,
where the kids can watch the mysteries as we're praying
so they're not kind of just staring into space and attacking each other.
— They're more engaged that way. — Right — Yeah
— I really like that you're able to trade off so you can get to adoration and that's this priority.
Are you able to do that most weeks, even with all the kids?
— Mmm-hmm. — That's really encouraging.
— Where Friday is like— — Right, the big day to go
— Now that summer's coming, things will change a little bit
and also I just started setting an alarm on my phone for 12 o'clock and at 3 o'clock.
So 3 o'clock, the Divine Mercy and twelve o'clock to stop and say a prayer to Our Lady.
Just to kind of pause in the middle of the day. — Yeah, that's a good tip.
— Fast, but it's that reminder that you need, you know? — I'm gonna do that.
Everybody has an iPhone, just set an alarm and just say quick prayer.
— Right. We set it up for everything else. Huh, good. Do that.
OK, here's a fun one.
Which of the two of you could best talk their way out of a parking ticket or a speeding ticket?
— Speeding ticket. — Me.
— Done it multiple occasions. — Done it several times.
— "Officer, officer."
— What do you do?
— "I'm in labor or something—" — No! I don't know. God's just good.
I don't know. — Oh, "God's good".
— Well, it has nothing to do with God. I don't know. — This is not a spiritual.
Everybody's gonna go home and get schooled and get that speeding ticket or parking ticket.
— No, she's good. She's good.
— All right, solid. OK.
Where are you going on vacation this summer?
— We're gonna go to— yeah, we're gonna go to California with the kids at the beach for a week.
— Maybe road trip there. — Yeah.
— To be determined. — Very fun. Go to Zion if you can. It's amazing.
What outfit does Jason wear that you secretly hate?
(Crystalina and Maria laugh) — I'm ready for this.
Get it on the table.
— Ohhhhh...
No, he has this polo shirt that's a green one. I don't know, it's old.
I probably should just get rid of it. — You already did. That's gone.
— Yeah, I did, so I got rid of it. — I've been looking for that.
(Crystalina and Maria laugh) I've been looking all over for that thing.
— YOU got me in trouble! (Crystalina and Maria laugh)
There it was. You're right. I got rid of it. Hey, your mom told me to.
— What do you mean—? — "Don't even tell him. Just put it away.
He won't even notice," and see, you didn't even notice?
— I'm like, "What the heck? Where's that been?" — Anyway, let's move on.
— Vice versa? Do we get to go vice versa?
This is your chance.
— Oh, she'll find out. It'll just disappear from the closet soon enough.
(Crystalina and Maria laugh)
— I like it.
What sacramentals do you wear?
— I wear a Miraculous Medal, so it's an image of Our Lady
and then, I also wear a chain of consecration, St. Louis de Montfort—
— How about you? — Yeah, but then, I wear a Benedictine crucifix as well.
— Why the Miraculous Medal in particular? — Well, just a strong devotion to Our Lady
and I just want to consecrate our family, our ministry, myself, everything we do completely to her intercession,
because if we're able to change anybody's heart in our mission,
I know it's not because of a good talk or a funny joke,
it's because of the graces that we're gonna get from heaven
to that person to help them where they're at in life.
So, we're just at all moments aware of her maternal mediation and her help in our family and our ministry.
— It's like dog tags. (Crystalina laughs)
We're in the army and I feel like it's our shield. — Especially with what you're doing.
It's so counter-cultural that you need that protection. — (Everts together) Yes.
— Mother Teresa called that a spiritual bullet.
And we're going kind of into spiritual Afghanistan on a regular basis
and you don't want to go in—
— And it's beautiful that you both wear it together. I like that.
And then, the wedding ring, too. — Of course. That's a good one, definitely not to forget.
So great. What do you— I mean, you guys do go around and obviously,
you're always speaking to people about purity and about sexual integrity,
What you do— Are you doing anything with your family slowly as you're building it,
to teach that to them within the family?
— We were golfing a couple months ago and my four-year-old saw a girl jogging.
And I don't know whichever she was wearing — some yoga pants and a small tank top or something.
And he yells from the putting green over to the sidewalk,
"Dad, she's immodest!" (All laugh)
—(Everts together) She's like, "What?!?" — "What did you just say to me?!?"
(All laughing) — She heard!
—Oh yeah. Yes, yes, she heard.
So, that's not what we're teaching our kids to go point fingers and label,
but we're just trying to tell them,
you know, when you dress, you dress in such a way that private parts of the body are private
and just try and explain that to them. — You honor God with your body and your clothing.
They're just kind of coming out with their interpretation in their own way
— They haven't picked up the way to really catechize others on those topics
so, that's a work in progress.
But you don't wait until they're 12 years old, then just drop a chastity bomb on them.
You got to start, it's got to be organic
so that when they get that old, and the tougher questions happen,
they understand, "But, oh yeah. Yeah, my body is a temple. Yeah, I've heard that before."
So it fits into place.
— And also the Princess and the Kids. Squire and the Scroll.
— Little books for the kids.
— Things like that that you can read to them now that start kind of embedding that in them.
— That's beautiful. That's really great.
If you guys aren't traveling, do you ever have a Saturday that's just like not taken up by— ?
— (Crystalina) Just chill? — Yeah what do you guys do?
— Nothing. I'll just try—
— That's just the nice thing. Just being at home, being with the family and not just doing,
not just "go, go, go," just a little family unit. — Yeah, we just want to be together as a family.
Downtime for us isn't like leaving the house and going, doing stuff.
It's just being a family and playing in the backyard and barbecuing
and just being together. — Arts and crafts. Just hanging out.
— So great. So great.
So, this is another interesting one. I'm interested to hear this one.
If you had a spirit animal—? (laughs) — A spirit animal?
— Have you ever heard of that term? — What is that? No!
— A spirit animal— — Well, it's either a spirit or an animal
but theologically, we've got to get this straight.
— This is not theological, this is merely pop culture. This is like your spirit animal.
It's like the animal that "in-vibes" you? — In-vibes you?
— What? (Maria and Crystalina laugh)
She just left the planet, honey. I'm just playing.
— What spirit animal in-vibes you?
(Maria and Crystalina still laughing) I've actually prepared some notes for this question,
because I was expecting it from— — What animal do you feel—?
—Is this like, "If you were an animal, what animal would you be?" kind of thing?
— Yeah! What animal would you be?
—Hey, we were talking about this at the dinner table the other night.
— What animal would you be? Did we get to you?
I asked the kids what— I asked my children,
If Mommy was an animal, what animal do you think she would be?
And what did they say?
Well, I remember one of them crawled in— — I'm like a Momma Bear but like grizzly bear
But they're like, "No, Mommy. You're a peacock or something."
It was just hilarious what they said.
— Yeah, one of them crawled into bed very early in the morning and said,
"Mom, don't ever become a mermaid!" And we were like, "What?!?"
— "Don't ever become a mermaid, Mom."
Three in the morning, here's my four-year-old. I'm like, "What?!?"
And then he said, "You'd swim away and never come back."
— Yeah, and then he's saying what type of animals we would be.
I think he said I was a dragon or something. I don't remember.
— Or you had dragon breath. One of the two. (laughs)
And then I guess just finally, what would you like to say just to young people?
Is there any thing in particular that you would just like to encourage or communicate?
— That it doesn't matter what's going on in your life.
No matter what mistakes or sins that you've committed in the past,
that it matters but it doesn't matter where you've been or what you've done.
All that matters now is where you go from here.
That your wounds and your sins don't define who you are as a person
but that God wants to do great things in your life, amazing things in your life
and it doesn't matter what has happened in the past, that you can start over.
— Yeah and I would say also, in your youth, to give your youth to Christ.
All the energy, all the vigor, all the enthusiasm you have
just give it to Christ, knowing that he has a plan in mind for you,
that you're not going to lose your identity by coming to him
but you're going to find it.
And John Paul II once said to college guys, that every man who seeks the kingdom of God, finds himself.
— Beautiful. All right, thank you so much both of you for sitting down. So great.
And for all you watching, thanks so much.
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Thanks so much.
God bless.