Girls Talking Life

Did you know friendship is GOOD for you? We are in week two of the Summer of Friendship series and I'm giving you four ways friendship and meaningful connection are good for your physical and emotional health!

To go along with this series, I'm hosting a Summer Friendship Challenge. If you're ready to dig in with intentionality this summer, I'd love for you to jump in. Each week of the challenge, you'll get an email with a small action step to help you cultivate community. If you're already subscribed to the GTL newsletter, you're in! If you're not a subscriber yet, join the challenge here: Summer Friendship Challenge

Research Referenced in this Episode:

Growing Young: How Friendship, Optimism, and Kindness Can Help You Live to 100 by Marta Zaraska

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_your_social_life_might_help_you_life_longer

Medical News Today - https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321019#Face-to-face-contact-is-like-a-vaccine

The New Yorker - https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/social-media-affect-math-dunbar-number-friendshipsy

Everyday Health - https://www.everydayhealth.com/emotional-health/social-support.aspx

Very Well Mind - https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-need-to-belong-2795393

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We are in our very first week of the Summer of Friendship series talking about God's heart and design for community. To understand his perfect design, we're digging into His Word! Here are the verses referenced:

• Genesis 1:2
• Genesis 1:27
• John 1
• Genesis 2:18
• John 1:3
• Corinthians 15:58
• Matthew 22: 37-39
• Proverbs 27:17
• Romans 1:11-12
• Hebrews 10:24-25
• 2 Corinthians 13:11
• 1 Thessalonians 5:11
• Mark 12:30
• Matthew 28:19

To go along with this series, I'm hosting a Summer Friendship Challenge. If you're ready to dig in with intentionality this summer, I'd love for you to jump in. Each week of the challenge, you'll get an email with a small action step to help you cultivate community. If you're already subscribed to the GTL newsletter, you're in! If you're not a subscriber yet, join the challenge here:

Summer Friendship Challenge

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During June, July and August, I'll be releasing mini episodes of the show all about friendship. My hope is that these bite-sized shows will be just what you need for the laidback rhythm of summer and will encourage you to prioritize connection, make new friends and deepen existing friendships.

To go along with this series, I'm hosting a Summer Friendship Challenge. If you're ready to dig in with intentionality this summer, I'd love for you to jump in. Each week of the challenge, you'll get an email with a small action step to help you cultivate community. If you're already subscribed to the GTL newsletter, you're in! If you're not a subscriber yet, join the challenge here:

Summer Friendship Challenge

Meet My Guest Host

I've also invited my friend Sarah Westfall to join us. Sarah was a guest on the podcast a long while back on episode #17 sharing her story of motherhood and heartbreak and seeking God's goodness.

Sarah is a writer, speaker, podcast host, and director of community for hope*writers. Her work explores the intersection of faith, community, and connection. You'll be hearing from Sarah in a few weeks. In the meantime, you can connect with her at SarahEWestfall.com.

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Do you feel intimidated when you pick up the Bible or do you shy away from reading it altogether?

I am talking with Rachel Baker, author of Deconstructed, a bible study guide for anyone who feels overwhelmed or ill-equipped to study the word of God.

Rachel shares how she "accidentally" became a pastor's wife. We chat about why it's important to feel confident to read the Bible for yourself. She gives us some insight into why she wrote her Bible study guide and what readers can expect. We talk about how alive and rich God's word is. Rachel also explains where to start and what to do, if you're new to your faith or to reading Scripture.

You'll hear us talk about…

• Why it's important to read the Bible for yourself
• Rachel's guide on how to study the Bible
• Where to start and what to do
• Reading the Bible in community

Rachel is a pastor's wife and director of women's ministries, who believes in leading through vulnerability and authenticity. She is a cheerleader, encourager, and sometimes drill-sergeant. She serves the local church alongside her husband, Kile, in Northern Nevada. They have two amazing kiddos and three dogs. Rachel is fueled by coffee, tacos and copious amounts of cheese.

Deconstructed – A Bible Study Guide

Try Softer by Aundi Kolber

Tacos

Her Dogs

Adventures with Her Family

Gardening

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Summer is coming and I'll be doing something a little different on the podcast. During June, July and August, I'll be releasing mini episodes of Girls Talking Life all about friendship! These bite-sized shows will encourage you to prioritize connection, make new friends and deepen your existing friendships.

To go along with this series, I'm hosting a Summer Friendship Challenge. If you're ready to dig in with intentionality this summer, I'd love it if you'd join me! Each week of the challenge, you'll get an email with a practical action step to help you cultivate community, create meaningful connections and build lasting friendships.

Join the Challenge

If someone believes, votes or thinks differently than you, are they your enemy? Are you quick to judge and dismiss people who aren't like you?

Amy is sharing her story of her unlikely friendship with a woman who is very different than she is. It started with a prompting from God for Amy to be in the world, hate her own sin more than everyone else's, and to love in a radically different way than our culture teaches.

You'll hear us talk about…

• Disagreement without judgement
• How empathy does not mean endorsement
• Having hard, messy conversations
• Sharing Jesus with your life more than your words

Amy Wolff is a speaker coach and President of Distinction Communication, a training firm out of Portland, OR. Amy is also a TEDx speaker coach for TEDxPortland, one of the top ten TEDx organizations in the world. When Amy's not with clients, she's running a nonprofit she accidentally started in 2017, the Don't Give Up Movement, and cheering obnoxiously loud at her daughters' at soccer games. She is also known to obsess over house plants and vacuum lines in her carpet.

Don't Give Up Signs

The Myth We're Divided – Not All of Us

The Bible Recap

Signs of Hope Book

The Makeup Eraser Towel

Coterie Brooklyn Pillows

HOT baths

The Journey from Text to Translations

Getting Up Before the Family to Read Scripture

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Summer is coming and I'll be doing something a little different on the podcast. During June, July and August, I'll be releasing mini episodes of Girls Talking Life all about friendship! These bite-sized shows will encourage you to prioritize connection, make new friends and deepen your existing friendships.

To go along with this series, I'm hosting a Summer Friendship Challenge. If you're ready to dig in with intentionality this summer, I'd love it if you'd join me! Each week of the challenge, you'll get an email with a practical action step to help you cultivate community, create meaningful connections and build lasting friendships.

Join the Challenge

In honor of Mother's Day, I'm rereleasing this popular parenting episode (originally released in May of 2020).

Are you trying to do it all perfectly? Struggling with mom-guilt? Not sure how to create a God-centered home?⠀ ⠀

I'm talking with Ruth Schwenk, founder of the popular blog The Better Mom, who inspires moms to become better by becoming more like Jesus.

Ruth says, "it's being faithful day in and day out and over the years, those things add up to a faithful life that I think has an impact on our kids that we don't even realize."⠀

Get all the show notes and connect with Ruth!

Sometimes prayer can feel like this big abstract idea that only the most holy followers of Jesus are getting right, but the truth is, it's really just about connecting your heart to God's heart.

Erica Renaud joins me on the show today and she shares her story of following a crooked path into the arms of God, and how she fell in love with prayer and worship.

Erica gives us biblical examples of what prayer has looked like for God-honoring people and how we can incorporate those qualities into our own prayer. She shares encouragement for those of us who don't feel like we have vibrant prayer lives, and gives us practical ideas of what prayer could look like in different seasons.

You'll hear us talk about…

• How Erica's unplanned pregnancy transformed her heart
• 5 Qualities of Prayer – Faith, Persistence, Reverence, Humility and Fasting
• Prayer in Friendship
• Encouragement for Your Prayer Life

Erica Renaud is a powerful speaker, passionate writer and founder of two ongoing prayer initiatives. She speaks at various conferences, events, and retreats throughout the Northeast. Closer to home, Erica and her husband are active in their congregation leading a regular prayer and worship gathering called "The Altar." Erica also recently helped to launch a powerful women's event called 'Ignite' in September of 2021. That same time she signed a contract with David C. Cook. Her book about praying with children will be released in April of 2023.

GET ALL THE SHOW NOTES

If you don't feel gifted in hospitality the way Kendra described herself. If you'd like a little more guidance in the area of gathering people together, I invite you to join me this April for The Gathering Project, a virtual workshop where I will help you plan a meaningful gathering from start to finish.

I want to help you gather, create meaningful connections, and build lasting friendships.

The next round of begins April 25th, 2022.

Save Your Spot!

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by your kitchen and all its stuff? Do you constantly have hungry people coming to your kitchen and wanting to be fed?

Kendra Adachi, the Lazy Genius, is my guest today and we talking all about being a genius about what matter and lazy about what doesn't in our kitchens!

You'll hear us talk about…

• Setting Up Your Kitchen Based on What Matters to You
• Using Your Kitchen in Ways that Matter to You
• Celebrating Other Peoples' Different Choices
• Using Your Kitchen to Foster Community

GET ALL the SHOW NOTES

THE GATHERING PROJECT

If you do not feel gifted in hospitality the way Kendra describes in today's show. If you'd like a little more guidance in the area of gathering people together, I invite you to join me this April for The Gathering Project, where I will help you plan a meaningful gathering from start to finish. It's time to be intentional about getting your girlfriends together or making new ones. Join me for this self-paced virtual workshop where we'll plan, prep and gathering with our girlfriends!

The next round of begins April 25th, 2022.

SAVE YOUR SPOT

girlstalkinglife.com/thegatheringproject

Friendships can be hard, but with help from the Enneagram we can know ourselves better AND be better friends.

Amy Wicks joins me today for a super-fun chat about friendship and the Enneagram. Amy shares a little of her own story and then walks us through each type, coaching us on our strengths in friendship, giving a glimpse into fears or weaknesses, and sharing tips on how to best befriend each Enneagram type.

If you love the Enneagram or want to deepen your friendships, this show is for you!

You'll hear us talk about…

• Amy's journey to wholehearted Enneagram coaching
• Friendship strengths of each type
• Fears or weakness of each type
• A friendship tip for each type

Amy loves Jesus and believes He is the Prince of Wholeness for everyone. She is a California-born turn Colorado mountain girl but somehow ended up on a cul-de-sac in the Midwest, spending her days coaching incredible women who desire to thrive in their faith, family, and business. She is the host of The Simply Wholehearted Podcast with weekly episodes since 2017. Besides being a coach for fellow mompreneurs, she recently wrote and published, Should Christians Use the Enneagram (2021), and in 2017, and co-authored a book study with her dear friend, Sara Hagerty, for the bestseller Unseen; the Gift of Being Hidden in a World That Loves to be Noticed (Zondervan).

The Simply Wholehearted Podcast

Beth McCord – Your Enneagram Coach

Enneagram Basics Episode #31 Julie Short [Health in Your Enneagram Number] Amy's Beginners Guide to the Enneagram Enneagram Quiz

The Shepherd Trilogy by Phillip Keller

Walging (Walk-jogging) and Barre Videos

Instacart

Trader Joe's Cashew Shreds

Her Wood-burning Fire Place

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Welcome to another Girls Talking Life Extra. It's not a full show, just a short chat with a past guest to let you know what she's up to now. I'm talking with Anna Nash. Anna joined me back in November on episode 76. If you haven't heard that conversation, be sure to go back and listen.

Today we are talking about her new book, Easter Matters: How the Resurrection of Jesus Changes You

Grab your copy --> eastermattersbook.com