Well y'all, it's finally time. It's finally the moment to hang up the mic on In Joy Life – and not as a failure or unwanted ending but as a beautiful exclamation point and real-time walking out of the message I've preached on here for three years now:

DON'T MISS A MOMENT. GO SAVOR AND IN-JOY YOUR LIFE.

If you've been here long, you've been through the deepest valleys and most miraculous, sun-soaked mountaintops, and I'm so grateful you have. And for now, this season of podcasting for me is finished. I'm proud of it. I'm thankful for it. I feel like mine has been the heart God has most moved and changed over the course of each intentional interview and episode.

This season of creating and learning and sharing with you has been precious to me in every way. Thank you for offering me your ears and your time.

And no matter where you are – what celebrations or what griefs mark your days – remember joy is a choice we can make together. I'm Mattie, and this is the In Joy Life podcast.

As a parent of a toddler, is it too early to be worrying about the teen years?? When is the right time to start laying the groundwork for (**hopefully**) open and honest communication as our kids grow up?

Mother and counselor Kristen Hatton tells us no matter where you are, no matter how old your kids, the time to start parenting redemptively is now. Her latest book, Parenting Ahead: Preparing Now for the Teen Years, helps parents lay the groundwork to have honest conversations, set reasonable limits, and explore issues of the heart will prepare us and our children for the next stage. Hatton helps moms and dads make the connection between our current parenting and future outcomes.

Proactive, long-haul parenting will help parents and children be better prepared for engaging in the realities of peer pressure, decision-making, and recognizing the connection between behavior and the heart. And don't worry - Kristen says no matter what your kids' ages, you're not too early and you're not too late!

Follow Kristen & Redemptive Parenting. Order Parenting Ahead here.

This week's episode is one of the greatest tools to freedom for women of this generation. PERIOD.

In her new book, Sincerely, Stoneheart, Emily Wilson Hussem draws from her 14 years in women's minsitry as well as her own experiences as a wife and mother of 3 to address 42 specific lies that make up Satan's playbook to attack and destroy women in the day to day of life.

Inspired by C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters, this book shows how tricky influences can twist women's beliefs about themselves and their faith. It talks about big themes like identity, being a mother, and how technology affects us. The story encourages readers to recognize these challenges and overcome them to find true freedom and happiness in their beliefs.

This week I get to have one of my favorite authors and friends BACK on In Joy Life. Mary Marantz is here to help all of us break through the fears that continually hold us back.

She says it's time for a wake-up call! Because so often when faced with the choice between creating nothing and creating failure, we choose nothing. Another year goes by. The clock goes on ticking. And the world is worse for our absence. It's time to move from stuck to start.

Mary's newest book, Underestimated, does the heavy lifting to dismantle all the lies fear uses, move you out of an endless spiral of your own excuses (not to mention other people's opinions), and bring you right up to a threshold of no return--this place where we become people who feel the fear and move forward anyway. With equal parts powerful prose and tactical action steps, Underestimated will become the essential go-to field guide for anyone who is ready to once and for all quit playing small.

Order Underestimated, today!

A few years ago during the Covid-19 crisis and the mounting cultural tension surging after the 2020 election, Jen Thompson felt a serious need for more than a way to de-stress. She needed to return to Jesus.

Return to Jesus is more than a book. It's an invitation to receive something millions of us are crying out for: a more real, consistent closeness with Jesus, saturating every wonderful and difficult moment and circumstance of life.

But how do we rest in His Presence when our world is yelling for us to hurry up and do? For Jen, it's all about intentional practices and daily rhythms of returning to Him. In Return to Jesus, Jen invites us to return to the One who gives us lungs to breathe and eyes to see all the beauty, heartache, and wonder that can be found in a single day. Using personal stories and scriptures, Jen offers guidance on how to disrupt the patterns and rhythms of life and embrace an eternal perspective that calls us out of the constant demands of our schedules, our time, our emotional capacity, and the expectations of the world pressing in.

The idea of "mental load" may not have felt burdensome while dating or engaged, but over time, as the responsibilities of life increase, the emotional, mental, and physical toll of the on-going mental load starts to disproportionately affect women, which often then has a direct impact on the quality of their marriage. Women get resentful and men wonder what happened to their wives. So how do we find a better share in the mental drain and to-do list we all carry?

Renowned relationship expert, podcast host and bestselling author Dr. Morgan Cutlip takes a different approach. Instead of pitting couples against each other, she helps them define the true enemy in their relationship: a full mental load, hustle culture, societal expectations, and the pressure to always be productive. She aims to help couples feel like they're on the same team and find a solution that works for the ever-changing demands of modern life and family. Morgan emphasizes that these pressures often drain intimacy and connection between partners, and she is passionate about helping couples rekindle their spark.

In her new book, A Better Share: How Couples Can Tackle the Mental Load for More Fun, Less Resentment, and Great Sex , Morgan combines research and real-life stories to guide couples into relationships built on shared responsibility, greater joy, and a thriving sex life. Through practical advice and empowering strategies, Morgan helps couples overcome resentment and feelings of inequity, fostering deeper emotional connection.

Everyone knows what the 12 Steps are. Whether you're in recovery, someone you love is, or if the idea seems like a life-time and a church-basement away from you, Ian Cron has some news for us. We're all addicted to something. We're all victim to trying white-knuckled, self-reformation rather than surrendered, God-worked transformation. And these steps are the way to fix all of that.

I've been a fan of Ian's work for a long time. And this conversation has somehow left me with even greater respect, gratitude, and joy for his both his depth of wisdom and wit. Ian calls us all like we are: broken humans incapable of fixing ourselves. He also calls the 12-steps what they are: practicle rhythms to "put wheels on the gospel."

What we already believe theologically as Christians, he says, is taken from the doctrinal to the transformational when we use these steps as a trellis for surrenduring to the God we claim can heal us but are so seldom willing to hand the reigns over to.

Ian's new book, The Fix: How the Twelve Steps Offer a Surprising Path of Transformation for the Well-Adjusted, the Down-and-Out, and Everyone In Between, is for anyone and everyone who is ready to admit they can't white-knuckle the lives they want. Don't miss Ian's hard-won truths and his on-going invitation to live honest, joyful, beautiful lives.

Today's guest is bringing some hard-won, much needed wisdom for all the parents out there -- especially moms of girls -- but also for the kid in all of us still carrying wounds left open.

Melanie Shankle is a three-time New York Times Best-Selling author, and for the first time, she's opening up not just about parenting her daughter, but about how becoming a parent was an unforeseen catalyst to facing a lifetime of trauma with her own mother.

With her trademark humor, candor and vulnerability, Shankle encourages readers to explore their own existing wounds and trust God to not only heal, but break generational cycles of trauma with the goal of handing a legacy of triumph over to our children.

To every mom who's ever felt overwhelmed, ill-equipped and fearful she's not "enough" for her daughter, Shankle's Here Be Dragons offers hope, encouragement, and empowerment. When we achieve healing and wholeness in Him, there's no dragon we can't slay, and no parenting battle we won't call victory."

Follow Melanie Listen to Big Boo Podcast Pre-Order Here Be Dragons: Treading the Deep Waters of Motherhood, Mean Girls, and Generation Trauma

As you come to the end of another year and the start of a fresh one, where are you on energy? Focus? Gratitude? JOY? If like so many of us, you're screeching to the finish line on fumes, today's guest is here FOR YOU!

Cleere Cherry Reaves is a true lover of God and people. And her powerfully evident desire with her newest devotional, Revive, is to help us learn to do exactly that. And not just revive our lives in the New Years resolution, emotionally-charged major moments. But rather how can we start reviving the monontony and grind of our daily lives? How do we create margin to plug back in to the God of abunance and let him start reviving us one day at a time?

Follow Cleere @ Cleerely Stated Get REVIVE: Declarations of God's Truth to Revew Your Spirit

As we approach holidays and the end of 2024, here's a quick solo chat with Mattie on life updates, new book, and another special announcement!

New devotional BOOK New Through the Valley of Grief 6-week COURSE