God Hears Her Podcast

A part of being in relationships is coming into conflict with the people we love. What do we do when we have those disagreements? How do we handle conflict? Do we run away from it or fight through it? On this episode of God Hears Her, Elisa Morgan and Eryn Eddy talk about how they handle disagreements with the people they love. They also share their thoughts on unhealthy conflict, and how we can resolve it. 

Notes and Quotes: 

• “When you have a disagreement with somebody, it does feel like that can take up the whole relationship instead of looking at the other pieces of the relationship.”
• “The way disagreement first hits us is that we feel rejected. We feel wrong. We feel less than, out of control, not safe. But you can learn to receive disagreement in such a way that you can grow from it, and you can feel loved by it.”
• “Create a safe space for the disagreement where you can let your emotions ‘thaw.’”
• “Have mutual respect for the other person [while being in a disagreement] and believe the best of them.”
• “Reflect on your posture. Is it a defensive posture? Or is it an open-handed posture?”
• “When we are stuck in defensiveness we are building barriers.”
• Paul’s recommendations for disagreements from Philippians:
  • Stand firm in your belief.
  • Begin the conversation with love.
  • Stay on mission: What are you trying to accomplish here?
  • Get help from an outsider when you can’t agree.
  • Put your faith in practice.
• “How does the Lord see my viewpoint? What is there for me to learn? What does He want to teach me?”

Verses: 

• Paul’s letters to the church in the Bible
• Peter’s letters to the church in the Bible
• Philippians 3 and 4

Links: 

• God Hears Her website: https://www.godhearsher.org/
• God Hears Her newsletter sign-up: https://www.godhearsher.org/signup
• Free Resource: Developing the Art of Gracious Disagreement
• Subscribe on iTunes! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/god-hears-her-podcast/id1511046507?utm_source=applemusic&utm_medium=godhearsher&utm_campaign=podcast
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

The word “orphan” may feel like a title that doesn’t fit for most of us, but have you ever felt alone? Left out? Like you don’t belong? On this episode of God Hears Her, Elisa Morgan and Eryn Eddy are joined by Lorilee Craker to talk about the orphan inside us all. Lorilee shares her own story of being adopted and how she learned that the orphan in us all truly belongs in the kingdom of God.

About Our Guest:

Lorilee Craker is the author of 15 books, including Anne of Green Gables, My Daughter, and Me. Lorilee was also an entertainment writer for The Grand Rapids Press for 17 years. She now writes for travel websites, blogs, and speaks at many events including writers conferences. She is the cofounder of the Breathe Christian Writers Conference and a writers day camp for children.

Notes and Quotes: 

• “I’m very pro-adoption, but I’m clear that adoption is not all rainbows and sunshine. There’s a lot of pain. There are a lot of things to be reckoned with.”
• “My spirit really responded to Anne [of Green Gables] and how she was always looking for belonging. She was always looking for her people.”
• “The truth is we can all feel orphaned.”
• “One of the dictionary definitions that I found for orphans was ‘bereft, left behind, and left.’ . . . In Christ we are orphans no more. And we’ve all felt bereft, left behind, and left.”
• “Once you’re adopted, that doesn’t mean the orphan feelings go away.”
• “God is not an adoptive Father, He’s an adopting Father. It’s ongoing. It’s part of His character to adopt children.”
• “Any rejection, any abandonment is an opportunity to grow closer to the heart of the Father.”
• “God wants to be there with us. He doesn’t want us to dress up like we’re going to church before talking to Him. He wants us when we’re lying on the floor with our face in the carpet so sad, so bereft, so left behind. That’s when He wants to come to us. And dry our tears. And move through the pain with us.” 

Links: 

• God Hears Her website: https://www.godhearsher.org/
• God Hears Her newsletter sign-up: https://www.godhearsher.org/signup
• Subscribe on iTunes! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/god-hears-her-podcast/id1511046507?utm_source=applemusic&utm_medium=godhearsher&utm_campaign=podcast
• Free resource: We Are His: Belonging to the Family of God
• Lorilee’s book: Anne of Green Gables, My Daughter, and Me
• Lorilee’s website: www.lorileecraker.com/
• Lorilee’s Instagram: thebooksellersdaughter
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

In our culture today, it’s normal to disagree with people and “cancel” them by refusing to talk to them or even trying to understand their viewpoints on various issues. But did you know that “cancel culture” contradicts what the Bible says? On this episode of God Hears Her, Elisa and Eryn interview Alexandra Kuykendall about what it means to actually love your neighbor the way Jesus did, even when you disagree.

About Our Guest:

Alexandra Kuykendall encourages the church to engage God’s world in the tension and intersection of heartache and hope. Her most recent book, Seeking Out Goodness: Finding the True and Beautiful All around You offers a roadmap for how to look for and find echoes of God’s goodness. Alex is the cofounder of The Open Door Sisterhood, a community of women working to be world changers for good right where they are. She cohosts a podcast and retreat under the same name. A trusted voice for Christian women, Alex has been a guest on Good Morning America, Focus on the Family’s Daily Broadcast, and Moody Radio. She lives in downtown Denver, Colorado, with her husband Derek and their four daughters.

Notes and Quotes: 

• “The gospel is still true. And God is still good. And we are not the first people to say ‘Where are we?’ and ‘What is happening in the world?’ This has been true throughout history. Before Jesus came, people were wondering that. After Jesus came, people have been wondering about that.”
• “We’re in a unique time, which allows us to have creativity in how we live out our faith but also in how we encourage each other.”
• “Jesus didn’t say, ‘Love your neighbors that agree with you, love your neighbors that make you feel comfortable, love your neighbors who give you strokes for what you’re doing with your life or that are happy that you go to church.’ He just said, ‘Love your neighbors like you would like to be loved.’”
• “Who are the people within our circles that we could love better?”
• “If there is awkward silence, it sometimes just gives someone the permission to keep talking.”
• “If I don’t bail, I am telling them, ‘You are more important to me than my own comfort.’ That to me, speaks of the gospel in a way that nothing else can. Because that’s essentially what Jesus said, ‘You are more important to me than my own comfort.’”
• Alex’s definition of cancel culture: “We decide that somebody is not worthy of listening to or valuing at all because of one small part of who they are or what they believe.”
• “We believe that being ‘in a conversation’ means we must endorse the conversation. And we don’t. That’s not a conversation, that’s a dictatorship.”
• “That is part of seeking out His [God’s] goodness. To say, ‘I’m going to stand in awe and wonder that you are the God of all things. You are the God of everything and you know and I don’t know.’”

Verses: 

• “Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Matthew 22:37–39 (NIV) 
• “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” Philippians 4:8 (NIV)

Links: 

• God Hears Her website: https://www.godhearsher.org/
• God Hears Her newsletter sign-up: https://www.godhearsher.org/signup
• Subscribe on iTunes! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/god-hears-her-podcast/id1511046507?utm_source=applemusic&utm_medium=godhearsher&utm_campaign=podcast
• Visit Alexandra Kuykendall’s website: https://alexandrakuykendall.com/
• Check out Alexandra’s book Seeking Out Goodness: https://amzn.to/3razt5O 
• Providence Network: a resource for people in Denver, Colorado. https://providencenetwork.org/ 
• Alexandra’s Instagram: alexandrakuykendall
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

In a season or a lifetime of caring for someone else, it can be hard to care for yourself or know exactly what you need to do to take care of others. In this episode of God Hears Her, hosts Elisa Morgan and Eryn Eddy share their own experiences with caregiving, and how they learned to care for themselves while also caring for others.

Notes and Quotes: 

• “So much of caregiving is about helping restore. And a lot of the way we keep giving it is through the reality that we hold hope.”
• “Caregiving is about sustaining life as much as you can.”
• “Let grief be your partner in it because there are real things to grieve.”
• Self-care Ideas and Tips:
  • Building Community: Developing a team for caretaking
  • Treating Yourself: Doing things you love
  • Developing boundaries
  • Viewing tasks as accomplishments
  • Relationships: Communicating your own needs too
• “When we find ourselves in the caregiving role, I think it’s also important to draw from the reality that we don’t do it alone and we don’t do it in and of ourselves.”
• “We are really to be a kind of conduit in our caregiving between God and those we love. But the only way we can do it is when we ourselves receive His care. When we let God be our caregiver.”

Verses: 

• “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3–4 (NIV)

Links: 

• Read the article Who’s Caring for the Caregiver? - https://ourdailybread.org/whos-caring-for-the-caregiver/
• God Hears Her website: https://www.godhearsher.org/
• God Hears Her newsletter sign-up: https://www.godhearsher.org/signup
• Subscribe on iTunes! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/god-hears-her-podcast/id1511046507?utm_source=applemusic&utm_medium=godhearsher&utm_campaign=podcast
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

Church is meant to be a safe place for all people to gather and heal within the community. However, the world is filled with sin that hurts us, even in places that are meant to be safe. Dr. Amanda Benckhuysen joins Elisa Morgan on this episode of God Hears Her to talk about abuse within the church and ways that people can be helped.

This episode may be triggering for some listeners. If you or someone you know is being abused please visit https://www.thehotline.org/ or call 1-800-799-7233.

About Our Guest:

Dr. Amanda Benckhuysen is the author of The Gospel According to Eve and Immigrants, the Bible, and You. She is also a scholar, speaker, teacher, wife, mother, and follower of Jesus. She currently serves as the director of Safe Church Ministry for the Christian Reformed Church in North America after having taught the Old Testament while mentoring seminary students for more than 15 years.

Notes and Quotes: 

• “There are things in the Christian tradition, practice, and cultures that have been such huge stumbling blocks to the gospel, and they shouldn’t be because they’re not actually of God. Abuse is one of them.”
• “A lot of them were coming to seminary in some ways to find healing, but also to channel their brokenness in a way that would redeem it, to allow God to redeem their brokenness so that God could use it to bring healing to others.”
• “Women who were clearly so gifted, so made in God’s image. People of dignity and value and worth.”
• “When trust and loyalty run high, but accountability runs low, it’s like the perfect situation for abuse.”
• “The Department of Justice says one in three women experience sexual abuse at some point in their life. And one in six men. This is a human issue. It affects both women and men.”
• If a child is being abused, most states legally require it to be reported to Child Protective Services. In the case of ministry leaders, it depends on the denomination. Even with confidentiality, some ministry leaders are required to report after letting minors know up front.”
• “If someone reports abuse and it’s responded to with the same sense of rejection or the same sense of being made to feel dismissed, small, or less than [the same response as the abuse], then it’s a trigger. And all the emotions associated with that initial abuse come to the surface again.”
• “Part of what God longs for in Christian community is that it would be a safe place for people to find healing.”
• “If you’ve slipped into abusing, there is hope for you too.”

Links: 

• Safe Church Ministry: https://www.crcna.org/SafeChurch
• Dr. Amanda Benckhuysen’s books: https://www.amazon.com/Amanda-W.-Benckhuysen/e/B085M3DP8T?ref_=dbs_p_pbk_r00_abau_000000
• Domestic Violence Hotline: https://www.thehotline.org/ or call 1-800-799-7233
• God Hears Her website: https://www.godhearsher.org/
• God Hears Her newsletter sign-up: https://www.godhearsher.org/signup
• Subscribe on iTunes! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/god-hears-her-podcast/id1511046507?utm_source=applemusic&utm_medium=godhearsher&utm_campaign=podcast
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

When we look at our friend groups, do we see people that look and act just like us or is there a diverse group of people around us? Are we challenged by the conversations we have with them? Or are we always within our own comfort zones? On this episode of God Hears Her, Eryn and Elisa talk to Vivian Mabuni, who encourages us to learn from other cultures and situations that we may not have experience with. Vivian believes in diverse communities where we can have open conversations with people who aren’t just like us, even if it’s uncomfortable.

About Our Guest:

Vivian Mabuni is a national speaker, author, Bible teacher, and the founder and host of Someday Is Here, a podcast for Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI). Her writing has appeared in Christianity Today, She Reads Truth, and Our Daily Bread. She is also the author of Open Hands, Willing Heart and Warrior in Pink. Vivian has been on staff with Cru for more than 30 years. She loves drinking coffee with her husband of 30 years, Darrin, and marveling at their three adult kids.

Notes and Quotes: 

• “In a corporate setting or a church leadership setting, it’s easy to overlook an Asian and think, ‘Oh they’re not assertive’ or ‘they don’t really have an opinion’ or ‘they’re not expressive or aggressive’ or the kinds of things that we think of as a leader. But in other cultures we’re absolutely acting with integrity to who we are and the greater body of Christ, or our company actually is enhanced with the contribution of people that come from different backgrounds.”
• “We can all gift each other with so many different perspectives of how God has made and wired us.”
• “The issues of the world hit differently because we have real relationships with real people.”
• “The recognition of not feeling seen or heard or known is an indicator maybe to do something.”
• “Unity is not uniformity. It really is being able to be different . . . but together.”

Links: 

• God Hears Her website: https://www.godhearsher.org/
• God Hears Her newsletter sign-up: https://www.godhearsher.org/signup
• Rate and review the podcast: go.odb.org/ghh-applemusic
• Check out Vivian’s podcast Someday Is Here: https://www.vivianmabuni.com/someday-is-here
• Vivian’s website: https://www.vivianmabuni.com/about
• Vivian’s Instagram: vivmabuni
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

Verses: 

• Hannah and Elizabeth infertility stories in the Bible

What is something you’re waiting for? A career? A significant other? A good friend? In every season of life, we feel like we’re waiting for something. On this episode of God Hears Her, Eryn Eddy and Elisa Morgan talk to Dr. Heather Thompson Day about what we can do while we’re waiting. They also learn more about Heather and her experiences with waiting.

About Our Guest:

Dr. Heather Thompson Day is an associate professor of communication at Andrews University, and an interdenominational speaker and contributor for Religion News Service, Newsweek, and the Barna Group. She runs an online community called I’m That Wife and is the author of seven books, including It’s Not Your Turn. She currently lives in Michigan with her husband and their three children.

Notes and Quotes: 

• “I think we’ve lost the beauty of resting in our purpose.”
• “We are the answer to other people’s prayers.”
• “I think we miss out because we’re waiting for some big sign and sometimes, I think almost all the time, it’s these little stirrings from the Holy Spirit saying, ‘Go talk to them. Go sit down. Go see how you can be helpful.’”
• “I think I thought faith was something I built, but it’s really something God gives us, because our faith is actually us acknowledging the answers to the prayers and the experiences that He gives us. So I say all the time, ‘God, build my faith.’”
• “When you feel like you have nothing, that’s actually the perfect place to start.”
• “God says that the way to the kingdom of heaven is to realize that this relationship was never about what you will give Him. It has always been about what He will give you.”
• “Any Christian worth his [or her] salt will read their Bible cover to cover every single year.” —J. I. Packer
• “God answers a bitter woman’s prayer. You can show up however you feel.”

Links: 

• God Hears Her website: https://www.godhearsher.org/
• God Hears Her Newsletter Sign-Up: https://www.godhearsher.org/signup
• Rate and review the podcast: go.odb.org/ghh-applemusic
• Heather Thompson Day: heatherthompsonday.com/
• It’s Not Your Turn by Heather Thompson Day
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

Verses: 

• Matthew 5–7: Sermon on the Mount by Jesus 
• Matthew 28:18: “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.’”
• 1 Samuel 2: Hannah’s Prayer
• Ruth 1:20: Naomi changing her name to Mara

Sometimes women are treated as second-class citizens within the church. If they aren’t encouraged to study Scripture, teach about it, or go to seminary, they often feel overlooked in comparison to the men. On this episode of God Hears Her, Dr. Amanda Benckhysen shares about her journey from feeling like an overlooked woman to becoming a woman who learned she was seen and valued by a God who loves us all.

About Our Guest:

Dr. Amanda Benckhuysen is the author of The Gospel According to Eve and Immigrants, the Bible, and You. She is also a scholar, speaker, teacher, wife, mother, and follower of Jesus. She currently serves as the director of Safe Church Ministry for the Christian Reformed Church in North America after having taught the Old Testament while mentoring seminary students for more than 15 years.

Notes and Quotes:

• “All of who I was and what I had to bring to the table was pleasing and acceptable to God.”
• “I thought going to seminary would help me represent the gospel well, it will help me represent Jesus well.”
• “I wanted to share with those that didn’t know Jesus that Jesus loves them.”
• “It expanded my understanding of texts to read what others thought.”
• “It set her on a trajectory of recovering women’s voices in history in terms of how they interpreted Scripture.”
• “Women did not have access to education. So by and large, we don’t tend to think of women when we think of interpretation of Scripture.”
• Women interpreters mentioned: Anna Maria Venturemen and Christine de Pizan
• “They [women] are reading the texts differently because they are reading it through their lived experiences.”
• “There is a complete devaluation of their [women] personhood.”

Links/Books/Resources Mentioned in Show: 

• God Hears Her website: https://www.godhearsher.org/
• Subscribe on iTunes! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/god-hears-her-podcast/id1511046507?utm_source=applemusic&utm_medium=godhearsher&utm_campaign=podcast
• Order God Sees Her: 365 Devotions for Women by Women on Amazon. 
• Dr. Amanda Benckhuysen’s book: The Gospel According to Eve
• Dr. Amanda Benckhuysen’s book: Immigrants, the Bible and You
• Elisa’s Instagram: @elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: @eryneddy

Do you feel a disconnect between your faith and your everyday life? Does it sometimes feel like there is no purpose in the mundane things we do over and over again like folding clothes or washing dishes? On this episode of God Hears Her, Daniel Ryan Day shares how to connect our faith with our everyday real life, including the mundane activities we may sometimes feel are purposeless. 

About Our Guest:

Daniel Ryan Day is the author of What’s Next: Your Dream Job, God’s Call, and a Life That Sets You Free. He’s also a content producer and writer for Reclaim Today, a cohost for Our Daily Bread Ministries’ Discover the Word podcast, and a producer for the Where Ya From? and God Hears Her podcasts. Daniel holds a master’s degree from Fuller Theological Seminary, and is an ordained minister in the Anglican Church in North America. He is married to his high school sweetheart and has three kiddos.

Notes and Quotes: 

• “My story can be boiled down to growing up in a very tight Christian bubble but then having experiences that made me realize that a tight Christian bubble was not relating to the world in a way that made sense for the world that we live in.”
• “This faith in Jesus, if it’s real, has gotta impact how we interact with orphans, it’s got to make a difference in these bigger issues.”
• “How does this faith impact real life?”
• “So many things I learned in that experience [of giving up things], so hence the ten days without speech to represent those who don’t have a voice, or who have a voice but that it’s not listened to. Ten days without legs for those affected by disabilities that live in our world and who are often overlooked. Ten days without furniture for those who live in homeless settings and don’t have a home or don’t have furniture.”
• “I was still struggling with those questions of how does faith work in real life? Where do they meet? And specifically, as it relates to my calling and my job in the world.”
• “The use of the word ‘calling’ in the Scriptures, most often refers to callings like seeking justice, love mercy, walking humbly with God. So humility or giving thanks in all circumstances.”
• “The decade of the 20s and 30s are the real transformational decades for us really being shaped from how we grew up, what we thought we were going to be, who we thought we were going to be, into discovering the reality of us.”
• [On the topic of a Rwandan Pastor who walked the hills of his village to meet with people] “He’s just visiting with people. So meeting needs, his sermons, all of that comes from real relationships with people.”
• “It’s with people that real ministry happens.”
• “In the biblical story we get a picture of being colaborers with God. We’re not His servants, we’re not His slaves, we’re in relationship with Him. Invited into everything that we do being a part of this relationship with Him. And so, I think first and foremost above anything else, that is our purpose, that’s our identity, that’s our calling.”
• “God is at work. And God is going to accomplish His work, regardless of what role we play in it. So for us, where it actually begins is in quiet solitude time.”
• “Even in those mundane moments we can realize that God has us where He wants us to be.”
• Prayer for Today: “Creator God, who took what was formless and void and gave it shape and meaning, the One who filled emptiness with beauty and gave all creatures their purpose [including us]. Reclaim today in these small, seemingly insignificant moments. Help me discover meaning in the mundane. Ordain the very ordinariness of these tasks or my current lack of them for your glory, the good of the world, and my good. Amen.”

Links: 

• God Hears Her website: https://www.godhearsher.org/
• God Hears Her Newsletter Sign-Up: https://www.godhearsher.org/signup
• Subscribe on iTunes!  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/god-hears-her-podcast/id1511046507?utm_source=applemusic&utm_medium=godhearsher&utm_campaign=podcast
• Reclaim Today’s Instagram: reclaim.today
• Daniel Ryan Day’s book: What’s Next: Your Dream Job, God’s Call, and a Life That Sets You Free
• Watch Godspeed: https://www.livegodspeed.org/
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

Verses: 

• The Lord’s callings to everyday people and people like Moses, Paul/Saul
• Genesis 1
• Acts 17:28: “For in Him we live and move and have our being.”

At Christmastime, we bring out the nativity sets to decorate our homes and we talk about Jesus as a baby . . . but do we really grasp the idea of what that looked like in that time and culture? Not to mention the fact that God humbled Himself to become human. On this episode of God Hears Her, Elisa and Eryn talk about the story of Jesus, focusing on the reality of His conception, birth, and being a baby. They also focus on what it meant for His mother Mary and how this birth changed everything then, just like it does today. Join us.

Notes and Quotes:

• “The God of the universe scrunched Himself into the womb of a woman and began to grow.”
• “He’s my protector. He’s my guide, my guardian . . . and so for me to imagine Him in a fragile state is just kind of a weird concept in my mind.”
• The purpose of women during the New Testament period was to have babies.
• “30–35% of newborns didn’t survive their first month [in New Testament times].” 
• “Why are we so uncomfortable imagining God to be weak, or being fragile as a child?”
• “We are so black and white that we only see God as a baby, or as the resurrected Christ.”
• “Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” Luke 18:17 NIV
• “We have the tendency to be so self-aware, but not Christ-aware.”
• “His expression of vulnerability begins in the womb and at birth and as baby Jesus. And then we watch His public ministry when truly He is God and He could speak a word and blow fire over all of the naysayers. But He instead humbles Himself to death on a cross.”

Scripture: 

John 1:14

Matthew 1:23

Luke 1:39-45

Philippians 2:5

Links/Books/Resources Mentioned in Show: 

• God Hears Her website: https://www.godhearsher.org/
• Subscribe on iTunes!  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/god-hears-her-podcast/id1511046507?utm_source=applemusic&utm_medium=godhearsher&utm_campaign=podcast
• Order God Sees Her: 365 Devotions for Women by Women on Amazon.
• Get your copy of God Hears Her: A Joyful Christmas: https://www.godhearsher.org/joyfulchristmas
• Listen to the series When God Was a Child on Discover the Word: https://discovertheword.org/series/when-god-was-a-child/
• Elisa’s Instagram: @elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: @eryneddy