Help & Hope

Discontent easily arises when our desires aren’t met and our plans don’t come true—but this is a dangerous path that drives us away from God. Megan Hiil talks with Sharon Betters about how discontentment can be an insidious, unrecognized poison that robs us of opportunities to experience joy and intimacy with the Lord. Megan explains the meaning of contentment, how we often make discontentment comfortable in our hearts and how it puts a shadow on everything we do. This conversation took place in the middle of the Covid pandemic, where we all experienced many reasons to be discontent but in this interview Megan suggests such seasons of uncertainty are opportunities to intentionally draw strength from contentment. Megan offers practical ideas on how to seek contentment in the ordinary and extraordinary seasons of life.

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In this conversation with Sharon Betters, Wendy Alsup shares how suffering came in wave after wave, leaving her breathless and lonely. In one particularly dark and painful period after intense surgery for cancer, Wendy discovered she was not truly alone. Though her pain was not alleviated, she found comfort and strength in experiencing intimacy with the Lord Who walks with us in suffering. Wendy describes how the Lord is our companion in suffering, even when we must walk alone.

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Aging is a season of loss on many levels. Married women fear losing their spouse or outliving their children. In fact, today there are 13.6 million widows in America, and about 700,000 women become a widow in the U.S. each year. Single women who have never married can fear being alone in the last years of life. In this conversation with Sharon Betters, seventy-two-year old Jerdone Davis frankly shares some of the emotional challenges of anticipating aging alone, including addressing how we can prepare for this season while we are younger and how can we handle the fears of being alone, especially in the last season of our lives. No matter your marital status, Jerdone’s recommendations for preparing for the last season of life will encourage you to be intentional in taking steps to make things easier for loved ones after your death.

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In this conversation with Sharon Betters, Miho Kahn and her husband share the story of Miho’s journey into a world of drugs, violence and abuse. At the age of fourteen, Miho pushed against the boundaries of her parents’ quiet life and struck out on her own, telling her sister, “Don’t try to find me.” As you listen, you might think, “This story could be a compelling movie” as you imagine a young girl hitch-hiking alone across America and exposing herself to danger and abuse. Miho shares the story of her drug addiction, rape, co-dependency, abortion - and all of this happened before she was seventeen years old. Miho transparently shares her journey and how she found peace and direction in a personal relationship to Jesus.

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Pam Benton started noticing small changes in her pastor husband. Though Wilson had retired, he had agreed to serve as interim pastor in another church for eighteen months. Eighteen months turned into five years. Pam’s concerns grew when Wilson started using notes for his sermons. Since both of their mothers had Alzheimers, Pam and Wilson did not hesitate to get their doctor’s opinion, hoping for a simple answer, but knowing Alzheimers was not unlikely. In this conversation with Sharon Betters, Pam describes how a diagnosis has changed the direction of their plans for retirement, how important it is to get an early diagnosis and the way the Lord has grown her faith. Pam’s children told her that in spite of a lifetime of ministry, this season of life is perhaps the most important as she models for them how to love their dad well in what many call the long goodbye.

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Twenty-one surgeries by age thirteen. Years in the hospital. Verbal and physical bullying from schoolmates. Multiple miscarriages as a young wife. The death of a child. A debilitating progressive disease. Riveting pain. Abandonment. Unwanted divorce. How can one woman survive let alone thrive when she experiences such crashing waves of pain? In this conversation with Sharon Betters, Vaneetha Rendall Risner, author of The Scars that Have Shaped Me; How God meets us in Suffering, has experienced all these life crises and more. Rather than despair and giving up when wave after wave of loss hits, Veneetha encourages us to allow suffering to draw us into the heart of God.

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On average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. During one year, this equates to more than 10 million women and men.1 About 2 in 4 women have experienced some form of physical violence by an intimate partner. This includes a range of behaviors (e.g. slapping, shoving, pushing) and in some cases might not be considered "domestic violence." 1These statistics do not include abuse of men. These are just a few of domestic abuse statistics on the National Statistics Domestic Violence website. Many more people do not report abuse. If these stats are true, it’s likely 1 in 4 women sitting in our church pews have experienced severe physical violence. Sadly, the place where wounded women should feel safest – the church – is the one place they are too ashamed to be transparent. In this informative but at times disturbing interview, Darby Strickland draws from years of not only studying the impact of abuse but her interaction through counseling abused women. Darby is passionate about equipping local churches to be a safe place for the abused. To go deeper, you can order her newest book: Is it Abuse? A Biblical Guide to Identifying Domestic Abuse and Helping Victims

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Infertility, ministry conflict, chronic pain – experiencing just one of these life crises can be all consuming. But all of them at the same time – and more? How does a woman not just survive, but thrive? Glenna Marshall, author of The Promise is His Presence, Why God is Always Enough, joins Sharon Betters to share her journey that has taken her to some very broken places. But as you will hear, she discovered priceless treasures as she struggled to make sense of it all.

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Imagine you have one child, a beautiful daughter whose life reflects her deep love for Jesus. You and your wife work for a Christian organization, offering the help and hope of the Gospel, seeing every day as an opportunity to encourage and love others. And then you get that phone call that is every parent’s nightmare. Your only child, 17 years old, has been in a fatal car accident. Fast forward twenty years and your wife gets a diagnosis that not only will take her life but turn her last years into a place of great anguish. How would you respond? Ellis Goldstein had to answer these questions, the most recent, when he learned his wife’s diagnosis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, better known as Lou Gerig’s disease. This thoughtful conversation between two men who share the grief of losing a child will challenge listeners with their responses to grief and Ellis’ response to the illness and death of his beloved Colleen.

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Almost 40% of young adults live with their parents or grandparents. This is the highest percentage in 70 years. The last time young adults did life in such proximity to their parents or grandparents was just before the Depression. Then it was out of financial need. Today it seems there is a whole different perspective on the part of the young adults. Dr. Chuck Betters talks to Jim Burns, author of Doing Life with Your Adult Children about some of the challenges for parents as they transition from parenting children to parenting young adults. Jim gives practical advice and hopeful encouragement for this tough yet rewarding transition.If you have an adult child, you know that parenting doesn't stop when a child reaches the age of eighteen. In many ways, it gets more complicated. Both your heart and your head are as involved as ever, whether your child lives under your roof or rarely stays in contact.In this conversation and in his book, parenting expert Jim Burns helps us navigate one of the richest and most challenging seasons of parenting. Speaking from his own personal and professional experience, Burns offers practical answers to questions often asked by parents of adult children.

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