God Hears Her Podcast

We often talk about the topic of joy with an emphasis that we “choose joy” or “find joy.” But what does that actually mean? Are those phrases true? Or do phrases like “choose joy” put pressure on people to somehow become happy in the midst of rather unjoyful circumstances? On this episode of God Hears Her, Elisa and Eryn talk with Mary Jo Clark about what life looks like when “choosing joy” feels impossible.

About Our Guest:

After years of working in bakeries, coffee shops, and food trucks, Mary Jo Clark returned to her love of audio production and sharing stories. She is now a podcast producer and engineer for Our Daily Bread Ministries. Outside of her passion for creating podcasts to encourage women, she is a talented baker. Her cookies and cupcakes are described by many as “legendary.” She and her husband, Russ, are expecting their first child.

Notes and Quotes:

• “As someone that struggles with depression and anxiety, I am not someone who is an innately happy person.”
• “What if I struggle with depression . . . am I supposed to suppress those feelings down and pretend I am happy?”
• “It wasn’t a pity party. You were grieving very real things.”
• “I couldn’t find a way out of it until I was broken enough to find the point of being done. It’s time to be okay.”
• “Our job or status are not our identity.”
• “I can’t feel it [joy] because it’s down in my heart and I’ve buried it because I’m not content and I’m not focusing on the gifts I know God has given me, but I know it’s there.”
• “I was discovering this feeling of joy while I was crying.”
• “Through every single one of those trials, God grew me and He developed the joy that was growing already.”

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
• Mary Jo’s Instagram: @sugarcoated.bymj
• Elisa’s Instagram: @elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: @eryneddy

How often do you feel stressed? Frustrated? Overwhelmed? Do you feel those ways more often than you feel at peace? This world is filled with events and people that can make us feel far from peaceful. On this episode of God Hears Her, Eryn and Elisa talk to Kay Wills Wyma about feeling the real, full peace that God grants us when we lean into Him.

About Our Guest:

Kay Wills Wyma is a blogger, speaker, video podcaster, and mother of five. Kay writes on cultural and societal issues that impact family and friends. She is an author of four books, including The Peace Project: A 30-Day Experiment Practicing Thankfulness, Kindness, and Mercy where she leads readers through 30-days of finding and feeling peace. She’s also a former White House aide, International Capital Markets banker, and entrepreneur.

Notes and Quotes:

• “To just slow down for a second and really enjoy the people that walk beside you is such a gift.”
• “Friendships are giving relationships also.”
• “I grew up in the South, so there became this strange relationship with Jesus because I had to ‘do and be’ to be okay.”
• “It’s easier in the hard times than the good times. In the hard times you’ve got nothing.”
• Soul30: Practice finding moments of peace every day for 30 days.
• “Why does being thankful feel good? Because it is literally firing parts of your brain that deliver dopamine and endorphins.”
• “You have neural pathways in your brain that are highly traveled pathways, and they tend to go along the lines of fear, anxiety, worry. What if you can change the routes?”
• “You can actually change the pathways in your brain so that peace is where you are going instead of anxiety.”
• “He says: ‘I keep in perfect peace those whose minds are fixed on me.’”

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. 
• Check out Kay Wills Wyma’s blog: http://www.themoatblog.com/
• Purchase The Peace Project: A 30-Day Experiment Practicing Thankfulness, Kindness, and Mercy https://amzn.to/3mvkK4p 
• Elisa’s Instagram: @elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: @eryneddy

How do you experience hope? Maybe you’re hopeful for something? Or you have a strong hope in who God says He is? Or maybe you feel hopeless and are starting to wonder what hope even is! On this episode of God Hears Her, Eryn and Elisa talk to Joyce Dinkins, a woman that comes from a generation of people hoping for better circumstances. Joyce exemplifies this godly attribute of hope and talks about it with a wisdom that comes from God’s Spirit.

About Our Guest:

Joyce Dinkins is the executive editor for the Our Daily Bread Voices Collection. She has an incredible passion for inclusion and equity. Her career emphasis is amplifying the voices of diverse authors, African American and others, in the literary world. She has invested several decades as an editor serving at several Christian publishers across the United States.

Notes and Quotes:

• “My dad’s dad was born a slave, and that affected everything.”
• “I had access to freedom in my home; but I never forgot, and I still don’t forget where my parents came from, where my grandparents came from.”
• “People seeing me weren’t necessarily seeing what they were looking at.”
• “Hope to me is the truth.”
• “My parents taught me at an early age to not take abuse from anyone.”
• “They were capable, after all they had been through, to love their enemies.”
• “Love will allow us to overcome.”
• “Literacy is the right to vote, fair housing, the right to pursue education, etcetera.”
• “See us, hear us, express our stories.”
• “Go open that book [the Bible].”
• “Cry out to God.”

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.  
• Visit the Our Daily Bread Voices Collection
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

Have you ever had a moment in your life where you needed to give something fully to God? The word surrender may feel a little overwhelming, but Dr. Debbye Turner Bell is a great example of what can happen when we fully submit ourselves to God’s best and accomplish something we didn’t feel we were capable of doing. Join Eryn and Elisa on this episode of God Hears Her as they revisit their conversation with Debbye Turner Bell and her journey of pursuing a courageous faith.

About Our Guest:

Dr. Debbye Turner Bell is a veterinarian, broadcast journalist, motivational speaker, workshop facilitator, corporate trainer, and Miss America 1990. For more than two decades, she has addressed audiences in the corporate, academic, and community service arenas. In addition to her speaking and media work, she is also the Founder and CEO of Debbye Turner Bell Consulting, a faculty member of the Institute for Management Studies, and an Affiliate Trainer for the TransPorter Group Inc. Dr. Debbye Turner Bell lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with her husband, Gerald, and daughter Lynlee.

Notes and Quotes: All Quotes by Debbye

• “That [prayer of surrender] is when my goals became subservient to God’s goals, will, and His purpose for my life.”
• “It is a matter of deciding, ‘God, I believe you no matter what the circumstances look like.’”
• “That is what I seek to get to: that if God Himself smite me, it won’t shake my faith in Him.”
• “God proves Himself to us every day. And if we will just take the time to notice His faithfulness in our lives, then it creates in us a reservoir of His work in our life.”
• “Every time that God performed a miracle in the Old Testament, an altar was built. The whole purpose of the altar was to remember what God had done.”
• “What I know about God and what I feel in the moment can be such a disconnect with me.”
• “When we don’t know what God’s Word says about who we are and our identity and our authority, then we live below our privileges.” 
• “Faith is a decision, not a feeling.”
• “Surrender is a choice, not a default.”
• “Surrender takes strength.”
• “Our identity is not what happened to us. Our identity is who we were created to be.”

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:  https://amzn.to/32lYSgh
• Order Courageous Faith: A Lifelong Pursuit of Faith Over Fear: https://amzn.to/3A6RCVz 
• Debbye’s Instagram: debbyeturnerbell
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

When we look back on our lives, do we see the times that our dreams evolved into something we never thought they would be? What are the dreams that never worked out? What are the dreams that changed when we learned more about what we loved? On this episode of God Hears Her, Elisa and Eryn talk to a young woman named Jade Gustafson about the dreams and fears that she has in her own life. Jade talks about how her dreams are in the process of changing and how surrendering her fears to God has led to some unexpected life changes.

About Our Guest:

Jade Gustafson is currently a senior at Grand Valley State University studying English and writing. She is a blog post writer and small group leader for GVSU’s Delight Ministries. While she is figuring out her future she continues to work at Our Daily Bread Ministries in the podcast department.

Notes and Quotes: 

• “We can have so many standards and goals set, but it does not matter when it comes to the purpose that God has for your life.”
• “If things don’t work out the way that I want them to, it’s not a reason to be anxious or upset because God has a better plan.” 
• “I am not to find my self-worth and my identity in these narratives or dreams or stories that we tell ourselves, but in the truth of who God is and what He wants to do in me and through me.”
• “All of a sudden I wasn’t unique. All of a sudden my dream wasn’t special.”
• “Your life is your life, and the things that you do are what God wants you to do (most of the time).”
• “Even doing something small is a reason to be celebrated.” 
• “That’s when we know He sees us in those little godly moments, and He uses community to do that too. That’s when He uses people that push us to do things we wouldn’t normally do. He uses people to see us, to show us that He sees us.”
• “We need to end something in order to begin something.” 

Links/Books/Resources Mentioned in Show: 

• God Hears Her website: https://www.godhearsher.org/
• God Hears Her Joyful Christmas Kit: https://www.godhearsher.org/joyfulchristmas
• Eryn’s social: eryneddy
• Elisa’s social: elisamorganauthor

Verses Mentioned in Show: 

• “Cast all of your anxieties on Him because He cares for you.” —1 Peter 5:7

Have you ever felt disconnected from your partner, spouse, or someone you love? Maybe your schedules are getting busier everyday? Or do your kids distract you from paying attention to the other person? On this episode of God Hears Her, Eryn and Elisa talk with Beth and Todd Guckenberger, a married couple who decided years ago to set aside two hours a night to work on growing their marriage.

About Our Guests:

Beth and Todd met at the age of seventeen in a Young Life Bible study.  They experienced several international short-term mission trips together, and in the mid-nineties they were deeply moved by orphaned children they met in Mexico. In 1997, with a dream, a savings account, and each other, they packed and drove to Monterrey, Mexico, where they lived for fifteen years. Beth and Todd are the parents of eleven children—a family they’ve formed through biological, foster, and adoptive children, and a family who reminds them everyday to stay in the fight until every child is known and loved.

They lead Back2Back Ministries, an international orphan care organization with nine locations around the world. The combined 350 staff work relentlessly to find new and creative solutions to the challenges facing vulnerable children and their families.

Notes and Quotes:

• “Anyone can have a co-missional marriage.”
• “Sometimes you can make your family life be your exclusive mission.”
• “We are going to spend two hours a day only wearing that hat of spouse.”
• “It [the two hours] became the deepest breath of our day.”
• “The calling felt like a magnet, you could feel the resistance.”
• “Expectations are like premeditated resentments.”
• “Set aside time (any amount) where you are going to put away phones, don’t do the dishes, don’t help the kids, and spend time just the two of you.”
• “When you go through hard things together, it creates an intimate connection.”
• “Part of being co-missional is understanding that my agenda is not the most important.”

Links/Books/Resources Mentioned in Show : 

• If you or someone you know suspects any human trafficking activity, please call the National Human Trafficking hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or text “HELP” to 233-733. Or you can go to michiganabolitionistproject.org to learn more. 
• 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.  https://amzn.to/32lYSgh
• Back2Back Ministries: https://back2back.org/
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

Modesty is an important and tricky topic within our church today, and as women, we are told so many different things. Most importantly, we should all remember that we are made in the image of God and that He made us beautiful. In this episode of God Hears Her, Eryn and Elisa talk through what we get wrong about modesty, while providing thoughtful insights on celebrating our femininity and positive ways to express ourselves. 

Notes and Quotes: 

• Self-expression vs. being-accepted-expression.
• “I can’t look a certain way because I am responsible for how people respond to how I look.”
• “When we are immodest, shame creeps up.”
• “What is the motivation in your heart for why you wear what you wear?”
• “I don't need to worry about everyone else’s response. How am I responding to those less presentable parts of myself?”
• “How am I seeing myself in God’s image?”
• “Our femininity is something to celebrate.”
• “That is what modesty is: both appreciation and care.”
• “The desire to be seen and accepted is very normal.”
• “We were made to be seen.”

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 Elisa Morgan's book You Are Not Alone: Six Affirmations from a Loving God  https://amzn.to/3yBiXx6 
• Order God Sees Her: 365 Devotions for Women by Women on Amazon.  https://amzn.to/32lYSgh
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

(Warning: Sensitive and potentially triggering content) On this episode of God Hears Her, Eryn and Elisa talk about a topic that most people don’t want to believe exists, even if they know it does: human trafficking. While we don’t want to believe that it’s happening around us, we need to recognize that it is and do whatever we can to spread awareness and protect the most vulnerable. Heather McGannon, who is the West Michigan Program Coordinator at the Michigan Abolitionist Project, joins Eryn and Elisa to discuss the truth about human trafficking.

About Our Guest:

Heather McGannon is the West Michigan Program Coordinator at the Michigan Abolitionist Project (MAP), an organization passionate about working to prevent and end human trafficking in Michigan and beyond through education and collaboration. Before her time at MAP, she mentored college students, helping them navigate big questions to prepare them for life. Heather’s never met a stranger, and her smile and laugh make anyone feel at home. She’s been married to Geoff for over a decade and has two boys.

Notes and Quotes:

• “Human trafficking is essentially modern-day slavery: labor or sex trafficking.”
• “1 in 4 women have been abused.” 
• “Just believe them. Most abuse survivors are telling the truth.”
• “It takes relationship for any of these stories. They are blinded. It is all they have ever known.”
• “Trafficking happens through force, fraud, or coercion.”
• “In the United States, we see it as women who are selling themselves. And many times they were being groomed and forced into it.”
• “One of the biggest things we can do as human beings is to become aware.”
• What to look for: an older boyfriend or father figure, brandings (tattoo of a barcode), evidence of someone being controlled, distancing/isolating themselves, notice a lot of absences/kids are gone for the weekends.
• “Ask the question,  ‘Are you okay?’”
• “It thrives in the darkness, so we need to bring it more into the light.”

Links/Books/Resources Mentioned in Show: 

• If you or someone you know suspects any human trafficking activity, please call the National Human Trafficking hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or text “HELP” to 233-733. Or you can go to michiganabolitionistproject.org to learn more. 
• 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.  https://amzn.to/32lYSgh
• MAP’s Instagram: michiganabolitionistproject
• Heather’s Instagram: heatherjoymcgannon
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

Have you ever read the phrase “cling to God” in the Bible? Did you ever pause on that verse and wonder what that would look like? In this episode of God Hears Her, Eryn and Elisa talk to Kim Cash Tate, a woman who was deeply impacted by what the phrase “cling to God” means.

About Our Guest:

Kim Cash Tate is the founder of Cling Ministries and the author of Cling: Choosing a Lifestyle of Intimacy with God. Kim has a YouTube channel where she shares her Bible teachings and YouTube series Cling. She’s also a singer/songwriter, wife, and mother of two children.

Notes and Quotes:

• “God got me to a state of discontentment so I would cry out to Him.”
• “We’re never too old to come to know God.”
• “It’s funny how you can hope that you don't want to do something, and then God gives you the grace to do it.”
• “He transformed me to view my identity as a ‘person in Christ.’”
• “My name is not my job title, not my skin color, not who my relationships are; my name is ‘I belong to Jesus.’”
• “God stirred up their (Ezra) spirit.” 
• “You begin to see God working more in your life because you’re looking and you’re watching for Him.”
• “Sometimes God says ‘listen for me to move.’”
• “The only way to become more like Him is to spend time in the Word.”
• “There is strength in dependency on Christ.”

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.  https://amzn.to/32lYSgh
• Kim's Instagram: kimcashtate
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy
• Order Kim Cash Tate’s Book: Cling: Choosing a Lifetime of Intimacy with God - https://amzn.to/3tpxuLr
• Check out The Cling Experience - https://www.kimcashtate.com/theclingexperience

We’ve all felt lonely at one point or another in our lives. In many different situations or areas of our lives we may feel an overwhelming sense of loneliness. On this episode of God Hears Her, hosts Eryn Eddy and Elisa Morgan talk about different types of loneliness and even share their own stories of feeling lonely. 

Notes and Quotes: 

• “I think you can be surrounded by people and affirmation and celebration and all of that and still feel lonely.” 
• “A recent survey found that almost half of Americans feel alone. Nearly 50% feel lonely, left-out, isolated, or lack companionship. The number of friends people report today is one or none, whereas 20 years ago people could name on average four close relationships.”
• Six Types of Loneliness according to Elisa:
  • Emotional: feeling like nobody really loves you
  • Relational: feeling like nobody really knows the real you
  • Vocational: feeling like life has no meaning and no one really cares if you’re here or not
  • Spiritual: feeling literally alone and/or apart or cut off from God
  • Physical: no one to share the “alone” with; having to do things alone
  • Situational: experience of not being included
• “God gives an affirmation towards each of those kinds of loneliness.”
• Affirmations:
  • Emotional: God gives a promise that He loves us.
  • Relational: God gives His perception. He says, “I know you because I made you.”
  • Vocational: God gives a purpose. He says, “I know the plans I have for you.”
  • Spiritual: God gives His presence. He says, “I will be with you.”
  • Physical: God gives His provision. He says, “I will provide for you.”
  • Situational: God gives His perspective. He says, “I’ll use all things for your good and My purposes.”
• “Lament your loneliness, feel it.”
• “In feeling lonely, we have an opportunity to experience vulnerability in something we would not normally do.”

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 Elisa Morgan's book You Are Not Alone: Six Affirmations From a Loving God  https://amzn.to/3yBiXx6 
• Order God Sees Her: 365 Devotions for Women by Women on Amazon.  https://amzn.to/32lYSgh
• Elisa’s Instagram: elisamorganauthor
• Eryn’s Instagram: eryneddy

Verses Mentioned in Show: 

• Genesis 1, 2, and 3--Story of Hannah, Moses, Jeremiah, Elijah, Jesus, David, and Esther