Audrey Rindlisbacher Podcast

At The Mission Driven Mom, we are empowering moms with principles and purpose. We know that God in His wisdom created a world run by immutable natural laws. We know that true principles flow from these natural laws. And we know that principles are the answer to life's toughest problems. 

Yet, when comes time to actually live those principles, the path can be not only overwhelming but incredibly painful. Who wants to exercise regularly? Who wants to save 10%? Who wants to keep forgiving their spouse? 

Principles are hard--there's no doubt about it. We can't break them or we will reap the negative results in our lives. So what do we do when we really want to live principles but it seems virtually impossible?

Listener's Guide:

Use the time stamps below to skip to any part of the podcast. 

2:30  Audrey studying MDM Academy with her kids

4:08  Quick fixes make things worse

9:25  Stephen Covey and his son's development

13:32  The power of facing the truth and beginning with ourselves

16:34  Why principles stink

21:50  We can't live principles on sheer will power

22:35  Alexander Solzhenitsyn and the importance of truth

26:48  Impact of principles on the MDM moms

27:38  We need a vision greater than the principles

Quotes from this episode:

"People are intrigued when they see good things happening in the lives of individuals, families, and organizations that are based on solid principles...And their immediate request is very revealing of their basic paradigm. 'How do you do it? Teach me the techniques.' What they're really saying is, 'Give me some quick fix advice or solution that will relieve the pain in my own situation.'" ~Stephen R. Covey

"We knew that social comparison motives were out of harmony with our deeper values and could lead to conditional love and eventually to our son's lessened sense of self-worth. So we determined to focus our efforts on us--not on our techniques, but on our deepest motives and our perception of him." ~Stephen R. Covey

"The truth seldom is sweet: it is almost invariably bitter." ~Alexander Solzhenitsyn 

"A sense of responsibility before God and society has fallen away." ~Alexander Solzhenitsyn

"The sense of greatness is the groundwork of morals." ~Alfred North Whitehead

"Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he." ~Proverbs 29:18

Books from this episode:

   

Podcast mentioned in this episode:

Find "Intro to Principles" podcast series HERE

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. turned the world upside down in the 1960's with his revolutionary approach to the problem of racial segregation. His method, "nonviolent resistance," had produced amazing results in India. When King sought to bring a consciousness of the evil of segregation to the minds of the white community, he determined to utilize this method. He said of this approach:

"Christ furnished the spirit and motivation while Gandhi furnished the method." ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

King went further, though. He explained that once his followers had a deep understanding of this "political" method for change, nonviolent resistance eventually became a "way of life" for them. 

How could something that was meant to fight off injustice in America become a way of life? Why did this method take such a hold in the lives of King's followers? Most importantly, why and how can the principles of nonviolent resistance become a way of life for us? 

Listener's Guide:

Use the time stamps below to skip to any part of the podcast. 

1:38  Introduction to nonviolent resistance as a 'way of life'

8:02 Principle 1

10:01  Principle 2

11:23 Principle 3

17:27  Principle 4

19:55  Principle 5

21:11  2 wrong ways of mothering

26:28 Jordan Peterson's examples

32:48  Agape and Principle 6

Quotes from this episode:

"I stressed that the use of violence in our struggle would be both impractical and immoral. To meet hate with retaliatory hate would do nothing but intensify the existence of evil in the universe." ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

"...nonviolence is ultimately a way of life that men live by because of the sheer morality of its claim." ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

"It must be emphasized that nonviolent resistance is not a method for coward; it does resist...This is ultimately the way of the strong man." ~Martin Luther King, Jr. 

"Someone else's bad behavior is never an excuse for my bad behavior." ~Audrey Rindlisbacher

"Things of fundamental importance to people are not secured by reason alone, but have to be purchased with their suffering." ~Mahatma Gandhi

"Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can only be done by projecting the ethic of love to the center of our lives." ~Martin Luther King, Jr. 

"Love is...the will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth." ~M. Scott Peck

"...we are incapable of teaching our children self-discipline unless we ourselves are self-disciplined. It is actually impossible to forsake our own spiritual development in favor of someone else's." ~M. Scott Peck

"Children must be shaped and informed, or they cannot thrive. This fact is reflected starkly in their behavior; kids are utterly desperate for attention from both peers and adults because attention, which renders them effective and sophisticated communal players, it vitally necessary." ~Jordan Peterson

"It is an act of responsibility to discipline a child. It is not anger at misbehavior. It is not revenge for a misdeed. It is instead a careful combination of mercy and long-term judgment. Proper discipline requires effort-indeed, is virtually synonymous with effort. It is difficult to pay careful attention to children. It is difficult to figure out what is wrong and what is right and why. It is difficult to formulate just and compassionate strategies of discipline..." ~Jordan Peterson

"Agape is the willingness to go to any length to restore community." ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

"To the degree that I harm my brother, no matter what he is doing to me, to that extent I am harming myself." ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

You probably already know all about C.S. Lewis' incredible writings like The Narnia Series and The Screwtape Letters. You may also be aware that he was once an atheist and eventually converted not only to theism but also to Christianity. What you may not know is how he got from Christianity to atheism and back to Christianity. 

Clearly a Mission Driven Individual, who lived The 7 Laws of Life Mission with all his heart, his incredible life story is not only inspiring but so insightful and faith-building. With children of our own to raise and duly convert to truth, light and a solid belief in God and His laws, C.S. Lewis can teach us a lot about the loss of faith and the journey back. 

Listener's Guide:

Use the time stamps below to skip to any part of the podcast. 

3:43  Lewis' early life

7:32  Lewis' 3 life changing moments with Joy

14:48  Losing his mother and practicing prayer

17:17  Lewis' boarding school experiences and loss of belief

28:17  Studying with The Great Knock

34:04  WWI and Oxford

40:09  Complete submission to God

Quotes from this episode:

"Instantly I was uplifted into huge regions of northern sky, I desired with almost sickening intensity something never to be described and then...found myself at the very same moment already falling out of the desire and wishing I were back in it. I call it Joy..." ~C.S. Lewis

"Spiritually speaking, the deadly thing was that school life was a life almost wholly dominated by the social struggle." ~C.S. Lewis

"I maintained that God did not exist. I was also very angry with God for not existing. I was equally angry with Him for creating a world." ~C.S. Lewis  

"As Johnson points out, where courage is not, no other virtue can survive except by accident." ~ C.S. Lewis

"I sometimes wonder whether all pleasures not substitutes for Joy." ~C.S. Lewis

"A young man who wishes to remain an Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading...Really,, a young Atheist cannot guard his faith too carefully. Dangers lie in wait for him on every side." ~C.S. Lewis

"Indeed, I must have been as blind as a bat not to have seen, long before, the ludicrous contradiction between my theory of life and my actual experiences as a reader." ~C.S. Lewis

"For the first time I examined myself with a seriously practical purpose. And there I found what appalled me; a zoo of lusts, a bedlam of ambitions,  nursery of fears, a harem of fondled hatreds. My name was Legion." ~C.S. Lewis

"In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt down and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England." ~C.S. Lewis

Book from this episode:

Links from this episode:

Find the Feedspot Top 40 list mentioned in the podcast HERE

Listen to "The Types of People in Hell" podcast taken from The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis HERE

Do you ever feel confused about who or what to believe?  News articles, sound bites and competing voices can leave your head spinning.  If you have felt this, you’re not alone.  As mothers, we desire greater discernment—especially when it comes to leading our families. 

In this podcast Audrey Rindlisbacher and Lindsey Wright discuss the 1st Annual MDM Celebration Event centered around the theme “Mothers of Discernment.”  You’ll hear the backstory behind the creation of the event,  details about the event itself, and why the MDM Celebration will support mothers in their quest for greater discernment.

“To become better mothers of discernment is our objective…wisdom, discipleship, knowledge, love, judgement, indoctrination, personal revelation, truth and principles are all part of the discussion of being a mother of discernment.We hope that you’ll join us.Anyone is invited to this event.You do not have to be an MDM Academy member to come…We’d love to see you there.” ~Audrey Rindlisbacher

*Learn more about the 1st Annual MDM Celebration Event and how you can dive deep into discernment with us this fall: https://themissiondrivenmom.com/mdm-celebration/

Listener's Guide:

Use the time stamps below to skip to any part of the podcast. 

1:23  Why an MDM Celebration Event?

5:17  Why learn about discernment and what it really is?

9:10  Lindsey’s initial impressions about discernment

11:25  Deception is the opposite of discernment

13:27  How to gain a knowledge of truth

17:14  How discernment is connected to love

22:59  Why judgement is vital to discernment

Quotes from this episode:

“We’ve been asked to discern since Adam and Eve partook of fruit in the Garden.  They partook of the fruit and now they can discern between good and evil.  It goes way back…What’s the difference [between good and evil] and how do you find that?…One thing that stood out to me was that discernment involves action on our part.  We have to work for it.  We have to discern with the intention to act on what we learn.” ~Lindsey Wright

“Discernment is a form of discipline.  It’s disciplining our minds.  And when we love God, then we will have the desire and motivation to discipline our minds because He doesn’t want us to just be blind followers.  He wants us to know the truth, to know why it’s the truth, and not just because He said so, but because we love Him enough to be discerning, to discipline our hearts and our minds.  When we learn to discern better, it helps us to recognize His love and His divine design in the things we are studying or just coming across in our daily lives.” ~Lindsey Wright

Have you ever considered that the way you talk to yourself about yourself might actually not be true? Have you ever caught yourself speaking about yourself in reference to a fault or weakness like, "I'm not good with people" or "I'm not a morning person" or "I hate exercising?" As if these habits were part of who you are!

Recently Nir Eyal put a new spin on this negative self-talk most of us engage in by asking us to reframe our identity around small life-time commitments. He challenges us, in fact, to become not experts but AMATEURS! Rather than trying to be spectacular at everything, we move slowly but consistently toward a more happy, fulfilling life.

Listen to this podcast to discover the simple but profound way you can reframe how you see yourself, build your confidence and feel much more successful RIGHT NOW!

Listener's Guide:

Use the time stamps below to skip to any part of the podcast. 

1:40  How we define ourselves

7:38  The price to become a truth seeker

12:16  Decision fatigue

16.21  The power of becoming an amateur

20:39  How small commitments become part of our new identity

26:34  A new frame of reference

Quotes from this episode:

"Instead of wishing you could 'Be like Mike', you need to focus on and enjoy the small everyday tasks in order to accomplish those long-standing stubborn goals such as 'I need to exercise more'. In short, you need to become an amateur.  An amateur is a consistent practitioner of a healthful habit.  The amateur practices a behavior because they enjoy it and it becomes part of their identity." ~Nir Eyal

"In fact, even goals such as consistently exercising and eating right are too big for the budding amateur. You have to break them down into much smaller actions to form new habits." ~Nir Eyal

"To begin forming new habits, we need to find a MEA, a Minimal Enjoyable Action.  A MEA is a behavior, which is so easy and enjoyable, that we do it virtually without effort, and most importantly, we can do it consistently." ~Nir Eyal

Link to the article from this episode:

Forming New Habits: Train to be an Amateur, Not an Expert

Link to the video from this episode:

"How to Break the Bad Habits"

With the 4th of July just around the corner, it's a good time to reflect on the liberties we enjoy. It's important that as mothers raising the next generation, we work hard to understand our national heritage, our political liberties and most importantly, how those liberties are tied to our personal understanding of and adherence to truth. 

As the saying goes, "Freedom isn't free." What, then, is the cost? And what does freedom for our children and grandchildren require from us? 

Join Audrey as she explores ideas and insights from great men and women who have thought deeply on these principles  and can lead us to the greater personal and societal freedom!

Listener's Guide:

Use the time stamps below to skip to any part of the podcast. 

2:04  Audrey's experiences as a liberal arts student learning about American history

3:50  Alexander Solzhenitsyn and loss of freedom in the East

6:47  Connection between freedom, truth and responsibility

9:28   Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder discovering this connection

17:38  What "liberal" and "liberal arts" have come to mean

21:48  Hayek and how the loss of the term "liberal" is decreasing liberty

25:40  How liberal education is traditional American education and increases liberty

29:20  Jordan Peterson and how he summarizes these ideas

Quotes from this episode:

“We come because we realize that the only road to freedom lies through a knowledge of the truth." ~Calvin Coolidge 

“Under [George Washington] the Americans made a sacrifice for liberty which was not local; it was universal. That sacrifice resisted then, and has ever since been successfully resisting, despotism everywhere. America in its beginnings was doing the work of the world." ~Calvin Coolidge  

“Your natural freedom--your control over your own life-energy--was born in you along with life itself. It is a part of life itself. No one can give it to you, nor can you give it to someone else. Nor can you hold any other person responsible for your acts. Control simply can't be separated from responsibility; control is responsibility." ~Henry Grady Weaver 

"She thought: Americans won't obey any king on earth. Americans are free. That means they have to obey their own consciences. No king bosses Pa, he has to boss himself. Why (she thought), when I am a little older, Pa and Ma will stop telling me what to do, and there isn't anyone else who has a right to give me orders. I will have to make myself be good. Her whole mind seemed to be lighted up by that thought. This is what it means to be free. It means you have to be good. 'Our father's God, author of liberty--' The laws of Nature and of Nature's God endow you with a right to life and liberty. Then you have to keep the laws of God, for God's law is the only thing that gives you a right to be free." ~Laura Ingalls Wilder

"I use throughout the term 'liberal' in the original, nineteenth-century sense in which it is still current in Britain. In current American usage it often means very nearly the opposite of this. It has been part of the camouflage of leftish movements in this country, helped by the muddleheadedness of many who really believe in liberty, that 'liberal' has come to mean the advocacy of almost every kind of government control...The essence of the liberal position, however, is the denial of all privilege, if privilege is understood in its proper and original meaning of the state granting and protecting rights to some which are not available on equal terms of others." ~F.A. Hayek

"The polity will function if people attend to their consciences. That's the overlap of those conceptualizations. I think that's the case. If we assume that the political state is something like the emergent consequence of the decision of all its citiz...

As mission driven moms, we need all the help we can get! Sometimes, though, it can feel as if we are limping along and barely making it. How do we get the help we need?

In this podcast, Audrey shares the TRUE story of Christy Huddleston, a middle-class young woman struggling to find herself and her purpose. As she turned to her mentor for answers, Christy was shown the amazing power that was already hers to claim the blessings she so desperately needed. 

If you are striving to find and fulfill your mission as a mother and a woman, Christy's story will have unique value for you in claiming God's help to fulfill His work!

Listener's Guide:

Use the time stamps below to skip to any part of the podcast. 

1:07  Introduction to the book Christy by Catherine Marshall

6:05  Christy thinks more deeply about her why

11:01  Christy learns to claim her blessings and is empowered to fulfill her mission

19:19  Mothers and fathers are called by God and have a right to claim blessings

22:40  Christy chooses to claim her blessings

Quotes from this episode:

“Give and it shall be given you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over shall men give into your bosom.” ~Luke 6:37, Holy Bible

“[God] can’t use ivory-tower followers. They’re plaster of paris, they crumble and fall apart in life’s press.  So you’ve got to see life the way it really is before you can do anything about it.” ~Miss Alice

“You see, Christy, evil is real-and powerful. It has to be fought, not explained away, not fled. And God is against evil all the way.  So each of us has to decide where we stand, how we’re going to live our lives.  We can try to persuade ourselves that evil doesn’t exist; live for ourselves and wink at evil.  We can say that it isn’t so bad after all, maybe even try to call it fun by clothing it in silks and velvets.  We can compromise with it, keep quiet about it and say it’s none of our business.  Or we can work on God’s side, listen for His orders on strategy against the evil, no matter how horrible it is, and know that He can transform it.” ~Miss Alice

“If you don’t do the work that’s been given you to do, that work may never be done.” ~Miss Alice

“Dear God, when I came here, maybe I was partly running off from home for fun and freedom and adventure.  But I have a notion that You had something else in mind in letting me come.  Anyway if You can use me here in this Cove, well, here I am.”  ~Christy

“Lord, Miss Alice said that ‘if we give, it shall be given unto us.’  Well, she is giving, Lord. And so are Dr. Ferrand and David.  And even I’m trying to give, though I don’t yet see what I have that You can use.  I don’t have the faith that Miss Alice has, Lord, in You, in this Book, in anything.  Can you help me with my faith?” ~ Christy

Book from this episode:

Join Lindsey Wright, MDM board member, as she interviews Audrey Rindlisbacher, founder and CEO of The Mission Driven Mom.  Listen to this episode to hear about the first inklings of The Mission Driven Mom, Audrey’s experience discovering the 7 Laws of ...

As mothers in a modern Information Age, we are inundated with information from every direction. Yet, very little of this "information" is truly valuable to us and our families. As mission driven moms, our job becomes to filter through this information ...

“She will never assert herself for herself—she will suffer wrong first—but for others she will be perfectly fearless…Throw responsibility upon her.” Mr. Fowler of the young Clara Barton Young Clara Barton struggled with shyness, yet as a young woman,