I don’t know about you but sometimes I dream of simplicity around the holidays. I want to figure out the recipe for helping our family live out the words of Paul in Acts 20:35 “it is better to give than receive." 

I want my family and I to not only embrace this but really soak it in during this season. However, if you're like me you have multiple parties to plan or attend,  you have kiddos running around the house making their way too long, 10-page Christmas list, and before we know it, Christmas has come and gone and the true meaning of Christmas has gone by in a blur of tinsel and flocked snow that seems to end up everywhere in my house.

A few years ago I felt like the lists, the parties, and all the "things" had gotten out of hand. I wanted to find a way to not get caught up in the hustle and bustle and truly observe Advent, to help my kids understand the power of giving and the gratitude of receiving. 

 

In this podcast:

 

• I share a different way to do Christmas lists
• How you can help your kids experience giving all month long.
• How you can help them experience the power of giving to charity together.
• Intentional ideas for advent.

 

Get your FREE GIVING CALENDAR

 

 

 

 

I loved having this father/son duo on the podcast to talk about the relationship between father and son. Dads want to have a great relationship with their sons, but sometimes they don’t know where to start. 

 

Today I talk with this son and dad about:

 

• What important conversations to talk about?
• What are some important rites of passage?
• What are the most important things that keep a father and son relationship strong?
• It’s never too late to build or repair a relationship.

 

This is so important to the Kubiceks that they came up with their own company called

 6 summers, a resource to help dads be intentional with their sons. 

 

Check out their website here and get started today.

 

 

 

I loved this conversation with Juli Bevere, a founder of Sons and Daughters, led by John and Lisa Bevere’s sons and their wives. Sons and Daughters is an initiative that helps young adults discover the adventure, freedom, and purpose found in their Creator. What began in 2017 as a few YouTube videos for millennials has grown into a collection of studies, podcasts, events, and a global community with Ambassadors in over forty countries. 

 

I talk with Juli about living an integrated life, as a follower of Jesus, mother, daughter, wife. What does it look like to integrate everything? We talk about identity and how our lives change when we find our identity first in Christ before anything else. 

 

Check out their new devotional I AM TRANSFORMED, (40 Devotions for Knowing Who You Are and Whose You Are)  a companion devotional book for their book. I AM

Learn more about Sons and Daughters ministry

Listen to their podcast

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Warning: Adult topics discussed.

Today I talk with Rachelle Starr, founder and CEO of Scarlet Hope, a Non-profit dedicated to sharing the hope of Jesus with Women in the Adult Entertainment industry.

Rachelle helps us get out of our comfort zones and reminds us that God can use us anywhere. You will be inspired to love others better and have the courage to help your family get out of their safe space and into the lives of others. When God asks us to go, he always directs our steps. 

You can grab Rachelle’s book here: 

Learn more about Rachelle and Scarlet Hope here: 

Who doesn’t want to bring out the best in their kids? I think all of us do!

This podcast was one that really got me thinking and had me talking with my kids immediately after. 

Here are some things his book goes into and what we talked about on the podcast

To be empowered with effective relational parenting skills. 

Children who will almost immediately and positively respond to a new parenting approach   Principles that are easily adaptable to the full spectrum of school-age children.    Dramatic improvement in communication as the principles are adopted and consistently applied    A more joy-filled home complete with understanding and purpose.    Grab Miles Book:

Leave a review if this podcast has encouraged you. 

Have you ever felt like you didn’t fit in? Have you ever moved into a new place and craved community but didn’t know how to find it?

This was me a few years ago. We moved to a new state the week COVID shut down the world. SPOILER ALERT: Not a great time to build community or new friendships.

We lived in a new neighborhood bustling with new families, but I didn’t really feel connected to anyone. It seemed as if everyone had their own group, and no one had kids our age so it didn’t automatically match up. But what I learned is if I really wanted community I needed to ask for it. So I did….

Listen to this episode today to see how one simple text led to a community that has been lifegiving.

 

 Grab our childen’s book:

Families are struggling to connect and grow together. Social media influencer and father of four, Andy Dooley, wants to change that. His new book, Building a Family of Faith: Simple and Fun Devotions to Draw You Close to Each Other and Nearer to God  wants to help families connect to God and each other.

We talk about:

• Practical ways to make faith fun.
• Modeling faith for our kids.
• How to make faith a family priority when other things are pulling our attention elsewhere.
• He talks about how his dad made being a Christian look attractive to him as a kid.

Andy Dooley is committed to empowering today's families as a passionate leader, pastor, and fitness professional. He has been working with young people and families for over eighteen years through sports, fitness, and ministry. He is a Men's Health contributor, and he holds multiple fitness certifications with International Sports Sciences Association. He is the author of Walk in Faith: 5-Minute Devotions for Teen Guys. He is happily married to Tiffany, and they have four gorgeous children, Hope, Skylee, Andy II, and Ava, and live in Seattle, Washington.

Grab his book here:

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Deborah Liu is a seasoned technology executive based in Silicon Valley. She is currently the president and CEO of Ancestry, the company at the forefront of family history and consumer genomics. Prior to this, she served on the leadership team of Facebook, where she was the vice president of Facebook App Commerce. During her time there, she founded Facebook Marketplace and created Facebook Pay, Facebook Audience Network, and App Ads.

Deb and I talk about her new book Take Back Your Power. Ten Rules for Women at Work.

Deb and I go in depth about her journey as a CEO, wife, and mother of three. We talk about her going after her dreams, but also creating a home. We talk about partnerships in marriage and how choosing the right mate is one of the most important things we can do. A real eye-opener for me is when she talks about the different lanes her and her husband operate in, and how they don’t critique each other’s lanes. This advice alone will save some marriages ;)

We talk about different seasons in life, and why that really matters. We talk about giving ourselves grace and doing what we can in the season that is in front of us.

As an ambitious woman this interview was such an encouragement to me.

Get her book

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Pat Bradley is the President of International Crisis Aid, one of the first organizations to show up in “no-go zones” where starvation, disease, and danger are a part of everyday life. A humble beginning turned into life-saving efforts for people living in crisis in eleven different countries. Crisis Aid is committed to “helping the helpless” with relief efforts locally and globally, equipping those who are beyond the crisis to take responsibility by providing programs that train, inspire, and move them to independent, self-sustaining living. Pat and Susan, his wife of more than forty years, live in St. Louis. They have two adult children and six grandchildren.

 

Pat Bradley stared out the back car window at seventy displaced people huddling together under a few trees to escape the blistering African heat. They had fled their village in South Sudan in the middle of the night as it was destroyed amid a bloody civil war that had indiscriminately claimed the lives of young and old family members alike. As these desperate, mourning survivors became smaller in the back window, they grew ever bigger in Pat’s heart. He knew they wouldn’t survive unless someone did something―and quickly. But he was just a normal guy―a formerly divorced recovering alcoholic who worked at an ad agency. What could he possibly do?
 
From that moment forward, Pat Bradley refused to do nothing.
 
In this interview, we talk about how all of us can DO SOMETHING, wherever we find ourselves.

 

 

Get to know Crisis Aid

 

Get Pat’s book: Born For Rescue

Today I talk to author Shannan Martin, who wrote the book Start with Hello (And Other Simple Ways to Live as Neighbors) In this practical, compelling book, author Shannan Martin shares simple practices for living as a more open-hearted, empathetic neighbor who sees past what divides us, looks for common ground, and is rewarded with vibrant and enduring connection.

 

There are so many ways, both intentionally and unintentionally, we wall ourselves off from one another, yet we are truly better, healthier, and happier together. The good news is authentic connection can be found. Martin shares how to:

• Believe in the possibility of healthier, sturdier, more unified communities and be committed to the collective health of those at the sidelines.
• Trade feelings of loneliness, isolation, and disconnection for the security and camaraderie of living in connection with the people near them.
• Engage simple, accessible practices for living as a more open- hearted, empathetic neighbor.
• See past the headlines of division and become more curious about our shared humanity.
• Be equipped for the small, slow work of repair within a culture that often seems to have given up and experience the brighter life that comes through the persistent practice of solidarity.

 

This episode is so good!

 

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