As You Go

This week Lele and Kathy sit down with Connia Nelson and Amy Alexander to talk about taking an active role working towards racial harmony. Amy gives insight into her experience with interracial marriage, friends refusing to come to her wedding, and raising her kids in a world of injustice. Connia speaks to her life as a black female and the racism she has faced in her life, and the impact of 2020. These conversations are important, vitally important if we want to create a better future for our children and for future generations. The questions Connia poses for listeners to focus on: What kind of relationships do you have in your life? Do you have a diverse set of friends? Do you have people who understand your heart, who lean in with you, who learn and grow with you? Amy provides us with 5 quick tips to approaching racial reconciliation conversations: First, be curious about someone's story. Approach those conversations with humility, compassion, and curiosity. Second, approach the conversations with humility. Be a lifelong learner. Third, be aware of your blindspots--what you are completely unaware of. Fourth, check your intentions. Where is this coming from? Finally, be intentional about micro-affirmations. Small gestures on a daily basis that foster inclusion, listening, and comfort to those who may feel invisible in an environment. Invite them in and make the space for them to be heard. Both women speak into educating their own children, but also educating our children. They advise to start the conversations early, and acknowledge differences early--in a way that shows dignity and respect. Model for your kids respect and appreciation for others, as well as modeling empathy for them. Show them how to be curiosity and intentionally invite diversity into your home. Teach your children not to let others label them, show them who they are in Christ. We are commanded to love others as God does, so let us go into this week teaching our children to do that, and challenging ourselves to do it as well. "Before you take a stand, take a seat", what does it mean to you?

Listen to hosts Kathy and Lele talk with author, teacher, and ministry leader Kelly Minter speak on various topics such as the last year, the pandemic, and rest. When everything is being canceled, how do we cope with the loss of normality? Kelly speaks to how the Lord brought her through the loss of her established income during the pandemic, and the intense fear that wracked all of us during that time. We know the Lord will be faithful to bring us through, but relying on Him is a completely different story. What was it like for Kelly to be home for a longer period of time than normal? How did the Lord speak to us in the quietness of 2020's quarantine? Kelly speaks to running and sprinting toward the finish, but never taking the time to rest. Slowing down, and not pushing yourself so hard to the point of almost burnout is important to our spiritual, mental, and physical health. The Lord is a God of abundance, and where He calls us He will lead us. But He can do it without our help, sometimes He needs us to rest in Him and let Him do the work. Kelly speaks to her new venture of being in seminary and what it is like to be a student in the digital age. She is pursuing the truth behind the major issues that create shifts in Church history, a firmer foundation, and what the truths of the scriptures are. What does obedience for Kelly look like now? It looks like faith and rest in the patience and prayerful about the new way that her life looks. It looks like being a good friend, sister, daughter. Simply being faithful in what she's been called to. Lastly, Kelly speaks to the importance of prayer for the Amazon, and what it is like there right now and how we can support them. She challenges the women listening to this that the Lord is waiting for you, He wants to meet with you, so be proactive in setting aside time for Him.

Dive into the world of social media and comparisons with Kathy and Lele. They talk on what apps they spend the most time on, influencers, and the craziness of comparison. Do we go places just to take pictures and prove we had fun? Or are we really trying to experience things with other people? What is it about the "fake real-ness" that we put into our social media posts that draws us in? What is your heart behind how and why you use social media? Do you seek likes, comments, followers, story watchers more than you seek the Kingdom of God? Where does you worth lie? We have all of these obligations and justifications for why we stay on these apps, but long term they cannot be healthy for us and our growth in the Spirit. How do we talk to our children about the dangers of social media, when we spend so much time on our phones ourselves? We are human, and we don't always use our social media for pursuit of the Kingdom, but there are small steps and small challenges we can take to pursue the Lord and be present in all things we do throughout the day. Taking a step back gives us the space to be present in the real lives of those around us.

Kathy and Lele talk with Betty Rock from WAY FM about God's faithfulness in singleness. They get real, they get vulnerable, and they speak to what it is like growing up in the church. Betty speaks to the ideas society speaks into the minds of girls and of women about needing to be dating, married, and have kids by a certain time--finding the joy when you aren't necessarily where you thought you were going to be 10 years ago. Do we need to be married to be truly loved? Absolutely not! There is power in singleness and standing on your own, in your faith. Learn Betty's suggestion for things such as fighting against these lies, fighting our own self-doubt, listening to God and His timing. Our worth comes from the Lord, and our identity lies in that hope. How could the church better connect and support its single members? What does it mean to include those who are single, even when the world is so focused on the family and the married life? How does singleness connect to joy? What advice does Betty have for the married women who wants to love her single friend well? These are all topics the women touch on this week, tune in to learn more about these and more!

RHCC Women's Pastor Lele Griesheimer and Counseling Director Kathy Koon sit down to talk about their stories, what brought them to today, what 2020 was like for them as women, wives, mothers, and individuals, and what their motherhood and womanhood looks like in the day-to-day. They speak on exhaustion, on busyness, on loving themselves and their families, and on their plans for this podcast in the future. The struggles of being a woman and of general daily life are difficult, and finding moments of silence and solitude in this busy life can be incredibly intimidating, but Lele speaks to what it looks like to truly practice focusing on moments with the Lord as times of peace. What does it look like for you to sit in silence and solitude? In Mark 1, we see Jesus' practice of this. As Kathy and Lele point us to Mark 1:35, we see Christ as the perfect example of this. This week, Lele and Kathy challenge their listeners to find 30 minutes this week to get away from it all, take a moment to practice silence of solitude.