On the episode today, Eric and I have a conversation about one of the tools that we use almost every day in our fight for joy: staying active with physical activity. Although it was a consistent part of our lives before Jackson died, it has become even more important and helpful these past 8 1/2 years. Listen in as share some of the ways that it has helped us to process our sadness and keep moving forward as we grieve. Because God created us as wholistic beings (body, soul, mind, and spirit), moving and training our bodies goes beyond physical wellness into stronger mental health - and even, for us, deeper spiritual growth and some powerful healing and progress in grief. We hope this episode encourages you to get into a regular routine with exercise and reminds you of its potential to greatly accelerate your fight for joy!

*The Fighting for Joy Podcast is sponsored by Faithful Counseling, an online Christian counseling service that pairs you with a professional licensed therapist who will combine Biblical wisdom with their clinical expertise in mental health to help you address your unique situation. As a Fighting for Joy listener, you can receive 10% off at: faithfulcounseling.com/fightingforjoy. Quality counseling is a worthy investment and can be such a powerful tool in the fight for joy!

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God….for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.” Exodus 20:8-11

What are your thoughts as you read these verses? Have you learned to integrate a day of rest into the rhythm of your week? Even though this is one of the Ten Commandments, what if you began to also think of this Sabbath day as a GIFT…a gracious gift that God has given to us. More than a “day off”. Something He knew we would desperately need. Something that is designed to help us thrive! Something that points us to HIM! Something to sustain us in this broken world.

Sabbath = “to stop”; “to cease”. Listen in as Eric and I talk about the ways this weekly practice has helped our family. Helped us as individuals. Helped us to delight in the Lord. To be still. To quiet our souls. To rest from work. And the “work under the work” (to quote Eric, who quotes Pastor Tim Keller). To remember that He is better. Better than the hustle and bustle of life. To remember that He is enough.

A “rhythm of rest” has been transformative for us and we believe that it can seriously change your life as well! Practicing a day, or at least part of a day, of Sabbath rest, changes not only that 1 day of the week, but the other 6 days as well!! We hope this episode gives you some things to think about and that it further helps you, as Psalm 37 says, to delight yourself in the Lord. There is much delight to be found in our good God, and taking some time every week to slow down, quiet yourself, and focus on that could be what you are missing in your fight for joy.

*The Fighting for Joy Podcast is sponsored by Faithful Counseling, an online Christian counseling service that pairs you with a professional licensed therapist who will combine Biblical wisdom with their clinical expertise in mental health to help you address your unique situation. As a Fighting for Joy listener, you can receive 10% off at: faithfulcounseling.com/fightingforjoy. Quality counseling is a worthy investment and can be such a powerful tool in the fight for joy!

Last week I shared a social media post about friendship in grief. We had just been out for dinner with our friends, Jay and Jodi Nemec, and I was reflecting on the thoughtful (and costly) ways they have walked by our side since Jackson died. I sat down to write a quick sentence or two, and 20 minutes later, a few paragraphs had poured out!! My first thought was to just send it to them and stick with putting out a simpler social media post, but I ended up sharing the whole thing because I wondered if it might be helpful for others to get a glimpse into some of the specific ways that two of our friends came alongside of us, specifically the bold questions they asked in an effort to learn how to best walk with us. The ways they pulled close when it would’ve been totally understandable for them to pull away.

People continually reach out to me about how to help others, not just grief, but in a variety of difficult situations. They often desire to help but worry that they will somehow add to the hurt by saying or doing something wrong. And to be truthful, that CAN happen, but usually it won’t. Usually any genuine act of kindness or thoughtful words will help because often it’s not the words that you say, or the specific thing that you did - it’s your presence. Your tender care. Your compassion. Your willingness to face the discomfort. Being brave enough to say something. Do something. To "sit on the mourning bench". To sit in the hospital room. To sit on the couch and cry with them. To show up, knowing that it may be terribly awkward and hard. It takes courage to walk into these kinds of unknowns.

Because the post seemed to resonate with so many people, I thought it might be worth sharing it here, on the podcast as well. So on this episode, I will read it, with a little commentary on the side. My desire in sharing something like this is never to diminish other friendships or other meaningful ways that people have rallied around us in grief. It’s just to give a specific example of how to come alongside of a hurting friend. I hope this helps just one person pull close to a friend when things get sad and uncomfortable.

Today Eric and I talk through one of our FAVORITE topics…parenting!! The joys and struggles of raising our 4 children is something that we have spent countless hours talking through together and praying over, many times through tears. Although we haven't fully transitioned out of full-time parenting (we still have a senior at home), we are at a stage where we can hopefully offer some helpful thoughts and insights about some of the things that God has taught us these past 25 years.

Parenting brings so much happiness and excitement AND it can easily steal our joy and feel thankless, discouraging, and even hopeless at times. For those of you who are parents, I think you'd agree that there aren't too many areas in life that can bring ALLLLL of the feelings/emotions/experiences together so similtaneously! We hope this episode will encourage and help you in your own fight for joy as parents.

Today I am adding a bonus episode to go along with the FFJL (Fighting for Joy Live) episode that I released last week. Most podcast listening is done individually - but creating and hosting a live event this fall brought people together to listen to the conversation at the same time and connect with one another around the theme of fighting for joy! On this episode you’ll get to hear a little bit from another part of that evening - the conversation that I had with my husband, Eric. Again, we recorded this a few months ago when we were just preparing to kick off Season 4, so we were sharing our vision for this season and why we felt God was directing us to keep going with the podcast. I hope you enjoy hearing from the two of us as we anticipated and prepared for this current season!

*The Fighting for Joy Podcast is sponsored by Faithful Counseling, an online Christian counseling service that pairs you with a professional licensed therapist who will combine Biblical wisdom with their clinical expertise in mental health to help you address your unique situation. As a Fighting for Joy listener, you can receive 10% off at: faithfulcounseling.com/fightingforjoy. Quality counseling is a worthy investment and can be such a powerful tool in the fight for joy!

Today I’m excited to bring you a really fun episode! A different kind of episode that stemmed from a dream that God has been planting in my heart for years…a vision of gathering women in our home to build relationships, connect friends with other friends, and be encouraged around the truths of God’s Word as we share about His faithful work in our lives. After our big move last year, everything came together in my mind and a couple of months ago, I hosted my first “Fighting for Joy Live Event” in our backyard. I actually recorded a podcast out on our patio with a live audience! It’s something that I had seen other podcasters do - and, after hosting my first one, I know why. It was so much fun and life-giving for me. On this episode, you’ll hear me have a live follow up interview with my friend, Cathy DelSenno. Cathy was my guest on Episode 32 and she quickly became a listener favorite. She is a busy single mom of teenagers & young adults, a nursing student, the Educational Coordinator for 2 hospitals, AND the Lactation Consultant on the mother/baby floor at our local women’s hospital. Her "Fighting for Joy As We Wait" episode is still being downloaded, replayed, and shared - so, as I was thinking about who I wanted to have a conversation with at this special gathering, I thought that having Cathy give a life update and share how she continues to wait on the Lord and continues to fight for joy (especially through loneliness, comparison, and feeling overwhelmed) would be perfect. And it really was. She left my guests that night so encouraged, inspired, and full of hope - and I know she will do the same for you as you listen today.

I believed from the start of our grief journey that our faith would allow us to fight for joy in the midst of our sorrow. But happiness? Laughter? It sure didn't seem possible, or even appropriate, for a long time. But today we share a little bit about how laughter HAS returned, even though our grief continues. And, because of all of the tears and darker days, our laughter feels especially sweet now. Richer. More meaningful. More hope-filled.

If you are in the midst of difficult circumstances and feel like genuine laughter is unattainable, we understand - and we want this episode to bring you hope. We have a big God who restores, helps, heals, comforts, and redeems. Wait upon Him. In the meantime, let the tears flow. Keep pressing forward. Take one day at a time. Work to fight bitterness and despondency. And keep fighting for joy, asking God to eventually bring some laughter along with it.

*The Fighting for Joy Podcast is sponsored by Faithful Counseling, an online Christian counseling service that pairs you with a professional licensed therapist who will combine Biblical wisdom with their clinical expertise in mental health to help you address your unique situation. As a Fighting for Joy listener, you can receive 10% off at: faithfulcounseling.com/fightingforjoy. Quality counseling is a worthy investment and can be such a powerful tool in the fight for joy!

Today's episode is unique. It's something that I wanted to provide in response to the many questions we get about helping friends as they grieve. Our loss certainly hasn't made us experts in grief, but we have learned a lot through our experience. And now, as hard as it is, we have become a family that others often come to for advice and guidance when they hear of another tragedy or loss. People want to know what to do and say...and what not to do, and not to say. So, on this bonus episode, my husband Eric and I quickly run through some ideas and practical things to do when you hear about someone losing a loved one. We hope this is an easily accessible (and shareable) resource that better enables you to help a hurting friend.

I'm excited to be back for Season 4 of the podcast! Listen in today as I share a few thoughts about what is ahead. And, if you haven’t subscribed to the podcast yet, it’s a great time to do that. Subscribing (or "Following", depending on the app you use) allows episodes to automatically show up in your feed as soon as they are released. This way you don’t have to go searching for the podcast to see if there is anything new.

I'm so glad that you're joining me for another season. Let's keep fighting for joy together!

*The Fighting for Joy Podcast is sponsored by Faithful Counseling, an online Christian counseling service that pairs you with a professional licensed therapist who will combine Biblical wisdom with their clinical expertise in mental health to help you address your unique situation. As a Fighting for Joy listener, you can receive 10% off at: faithfulcounseling.com/fightingforjoy. Quality counseling is a worthy investment and can be such a powerful tool in the fight for joy!

Today my husband Eric and I finish up our series on marriage by answering some listener questions. Join us as we talk through topics like communciaton, conflict, grief, and parenting.

*The Fighting for Joy Podcast is sponsored by Faithful Counseling, an online Christian counseling service that pairs you with a professional licensed therapist who will combine Biblical wisdom with their clinical expertise in mental health to help you address your unique situation. As a Fighting for Joy listener, you can receive 10% off at: faithfulcounseling.com/fightingforjoy. Quality counseling is a worthy investment and can be such a powerful tool in the fight for joy!