In Part 1 of this two-part conversation, Nadine Dyer sits down with dear friend Lisa Murdock, Purposeful Living's hospitality coordinator, to talk about the sacrifices of a mother. Lisa shares her story out loud for the very first time.

She was the "good girl" who followed every rule, married, and had three little daughters. Then unhealed childhood trauma surfaced and her world began to crumble. Facing divorce in a small town in the 1980s, Lisa made the hardest decision of her life. For the sake of her girls' future, she let them be raised in their father's home. Later, when he remarried, she stepped back once more so her daughters could have a whole family, even if that meant watching from outside the snow globe.

Lisa opens up about the moment she saw Jesus with open arms saying, "Come to Me, child," and about ten years of counseling, rebuilding her faith, and refusing to let anyone tear down her children's family. She also shares how a devastating family loss changed everything she thought she'd one day tell her daughters.

Today, Lisa and her grown daughters are closer than ever, part of what Nadine lovingly calls "one big happy, dysfunctional family." Her story is a beautiful reminder that God doesn't always carry us around the hard things. He carries us through them, and He redeems it all.

If you're carrying shame, feeling unworthy, or being asked to lay something precious down, this episode is for you. You are loved. You are worthy. And you are never too far from God.

Stay tuned for Part 2, where Nadine and Lisa unpack practical steps for surrender, discernment, and seeing the fruit of sacrifice.

Content note: This episode includes discussion of childhood abuse, divorce, and the loss of a child.

Sister, if Part 1 stirred something in you, this episode is where it gets practical. Nadine and Marti pick up right where they left off, distilling their conversation into five simple, memorable steps you can carry with you all week long.

Marti walks through each one with the same warmth and honesty that made Part 1 so meaningful. She talks about sitting with an emotions chart during her devotional time, digging past the surface feeling to find the lie underneath, and learning the difference between a feeling that needs to be confessed and one that needs to be grieved.

One of the most tender moments comes when Marti opens up about carrying a victim identity from past trauma, and how she's learning to bring even the parts of her story that feel too painful to hand over as an offering to God. Nadine pauses mid-conversation to speak directly to any listener sitting in a hard season, reminding her that God collects every tear and sustains the ones who cast their burdens on Him.

The conversation moves into what endurance actually looks like day to day, using Romans 5 as a framework for how tribulation produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. Marti shares a vulnerable moment about recognizing her own tendency to grumble even in the middle of answered prayers, and the practice of remembering God's faithfulness instead of dwelling on old trauma.

Sister, whatever you're carrying today, this episode offers a simple hand-shaped way to remember how to bring it to Him.

GUEST BIOMarti Justice is the founder and CEO of Marti J Styles and serves as the Generosity Coordinator for Purposeful Living. A wife of almost 28 years and mom of four adult children, Marti brings her hard-won wisdom on faith and emotional health to this two-part conversation on emotional endurance.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• What am I feeling? Pausing to name the emotion, rather than rushing past it, is the first step toward emotional maturity.
• What do I do with it? Some feelings point to lies that need confessing; others point to real pain that needs to be grieved and felt.
• Trauma and past victimization can quietly become identity if we don't bring them to God as an offering to be healed.
• Endurance is not one and done. It's a moment-by-moment, step-by-step choice to keep turning toward God instead of the flesh.
• Remembering God's faithfulness, and testifying about it, is a powerful weapon against discouragement and grumbling.
• Character is built through tribulation. There's no shortcut to the maturity that perseverance produces.
• Surrender and humility are the foundation underneath everything else. The gap between our current capability and God's calling is His to fill, not ours.
• A simple hand-shaped memory tool: thumb (what am I feeling), pointer (what do I do with it), middle (endurance), ring (His faithfulness), pinky (surrender and humility).

Scripture References

Romans 5:3-5 (NKJV) — "And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us."

1 Peter 5:6-7 (NKJV) — "Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you."

Psalm 55:22 (NKJV) — "Cast your burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved."

James 4:1, 6 (NKJV) — "Where do wars and fights come among you come from... But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: 'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.'"

James 4:7 (NKJV) — "Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you."

Psalm 78 (referenced, NKJV) — A recounting of God's faithfulness to the Israelites despite their grumbling, used as a picture of our own tendency to forget His provision.

Sister, have you ever felt something so strongly that you were sure it had to be true? That's exactly where this conversation starts. Nadine sits down with Marti Justice to talk about emotional endurance, and what unfolds is one of the most honest conversations we've had on this podcast.

Marti opens up about the doubt, insecurity, and fear that have shaped seasons of her life, especially in her business and in stepping into new roles God has called her to. She shares how easy it is to believe a feeling is fact, and how that belief can quietly shape our actions toward ourselves, our spouses, and the people we lead.

What makes this episode so tender is Marti's willingness to name the pattern most of us know well. Numbing out. Scrolling. Ordering something online. Staying busy so we don't have to feel the hard thing. She and Nadine talk about why that instinct is so human, and why healing only starts when we stop and ask, what am I actually feeling right now, and is it true?

You'll hear Marti describe emotions as indicator lights rather than enemies. They point to something underneath, sometimes a lie we've believed, sometimes a wound that needs grieving, sometimes both. The invitation isn't to suppress feelings or to be ruled by them. It's to bring them honestly to the Lord and ask Him to sort out what's real.

This episode also gets practical about relationships. Marti shares a vulnerable moment about contempt and blame shifting with her husband, and how taking ownership of her own emotions, instead of projecting them onto him, has changed how she shows up in her marriage.

By the end of Part 1, you'll be sitting with a simple but weighty question. Are your emotions leading your life, or is God? Come back for Part 2, where Marti and Nadine get practical about what it actually looks like to build endurance day by day.

GUEST BIOMarti Justice is the founder and CEO of Marti J Styles, where she works as a personal stylist for busy professional women. She is a wife of almost 28 years and a mom of four adult children. Marti also serves as the Generosity Coordinator for Purposeful Living, bringing her heart for service and encouragement to the women in this community.KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Emotions are indicator lights, not verdicts. They point to something happening beneath the surface, often a lie we've started to believe.
• Feeling insecure or afraid can actually be a sign we're being called into something new, not proof that we're unqualified.
• Numbing out through scrolling, shopping, or busyness is a common way we avoid feeling the "yuck," but healing requires actually stopping to feel it.
• The question to ask in a hard emotional moment isn't just "what am I feeling," but "is this true?"
• Contempt and blame shifting in relationships often come from unprocessed shame we don't want to own.
• Taking ownership of our own emotions, rather than projecting them onto others, is where real growth starts.
• Grieving and lamenting are biblical and okay. Weeping doesn't mean we're doing faith wrong.
• Emotional endurance isn't a one time fix. It's a daily, sometimes hourly, choice to bring our feelings to God instead of letting them lead.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

John 11:35 — "Jesus wept."

1 Peter 5:7 — "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you."

2 Corinthians 10:5 — "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

Matthew 18:3 — "And he said: 'Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.'"

James 1:2-4 — "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

Psalm 34:18 — "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit."

Sister, welcome back. If you missed the first conversation with Tasia Bade, go listen before this one. That episode carries the why behind everything we're covering today, and there's some real wisdom in there about managing the fear and shame that tend to show up the moment we start looking at our own money.

This time, Nadine and Tasia get practical. Tasia opens by walking through the four pillars she built Graceful Investor around: getting your household budget and balance sheet in order, understanding your personal investments and 401k, navigating private investments and requests from friends or family, and getting your estate plan and your parents' wishes squared away. From there, the conversation turns to the nuts and bolts you can start using today.

Tasia recommends three budgeting apps, EveryDollar, YNAB, and the personal version of QuickBooks, and walks through how each one links to your accounts and helps you slide transactions into categories without much fuss. She's honest about how the first few days can feel clunky, and she gives real, specific language for approaching a spouse or partner who has been carrying the finances alone, so the conversation feels like teamwork instead of an interrogation.

There's also a wake-up call here about debt. Credit card interest rates that used to sit around 6 to 8 percent are now landing at 27 to 32 percent for a lot of people, and Tasia explains how that silent creep can add years to a payoff timeline if you're only watching the minimum due. And she closes with something easy to overlook once the budget is built: savings and giving need their own line items too, not just whatever's left over at the end of the month.

Sister, this episode hands you a real starting point. Not a vague one. Log into your accounts, pick an app, connect them, and start looking backward so you can move forward with a clear head.

GUEST BIO

Tasia Bade is the founder of Graceful Investor, a financial education platform created to help women build real wealth with confidence, without the jargon or the judgment.

Tasia is a proud mother of two, and her greatest joy outside of her family is coming alongside women, walking them through the fear and overwhelm that so often surrounds money, and helping them find confidence, clarity, and freedom on the other side.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Graceful Investor is built around four pillars: household budgeting, personal investing, private investments, and estate planning.
• Three beginner-friendly budgeting apps to consider are EveryDollar, YNAB, and the personal version of QuickBooks.
• Keep business and personal accounting separate if you're running a business.
• Approach a spouse or partner with warmth and teamwork in mind, not accusation. How you open the conversation shapes how it's received.
• Some credit cards are now charging 27 to 32 percent interest, and unnoticed rate creep can add years to your payoff timeline.
• Once your budget is set, checking it daily takes less than 10 minutes and builds real momentum.
• Savings and giving belong in the budget as their own categories, not as an afterthought.
• Aim to build an emergency fund covering three to six months of expenses.
• Start simple. Log into your accounts, choose a budgeting app, and connect them. That's step one.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

Luke 14:28 — "For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?"

Proverbs 21:20 — "Precious treasure and oil are in a wise man's dwelling, but a foolish man devours it."

Proverbs 22:7 — "The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender."

2 Corinthians 9:7 — "Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."

Sister, has money ever felt like a locked door you keep walking past? You know it's there. You know you should open it. But something about it makes you want to look the other way instead.

In this episode, Nadine sits down with her dear friend Tasia Bade, founder of Graceful Investor, for a conversation that gently pulls back the curtain on something so many of us avoid: understanding our own financial house. Tasia doesn't come at this with jargon or judgment. She comes at it with grace, the same grace she built her whole ministry to women around.

Together, Nadine and Tasia name the real reasons we shy away from our finances. Maybe you've told yourself you're not smart enough for this. Maybe you've handed it all over to your partner and told yourself you'll deal with it if something happens. Maybe you're simply too full, too tired, too stretched to make room for one more thing in your mind. Sister, you are not alone in this, and you are not behind.

Tasia reframes money as simply math, and reminds us that we were capable long before we let fear convince us otherwise. She walks through the concept of "inflection points," those seasons every couple of years where life shifts (a job loss, a promotion, a move, a parent's passing, a marriage) and your financial picture shifts right along with it. The question isn't whether these moments will come. It's whether you'll be ready for them with a clear mind, or caught off guard in the middle of grief and stress.

This episode also speaks to something bigger than any of our generations have faced before: the historic wealth transfer now underway as parents pass assets to their adult children. Tasia gently challenges us to have these conversations with our own parents now, before urgency and emotion make the decisions harder than they need to be.

And when the fear creeps in, and it will, Tasia gives it a name: the shame spiral. She walks through what it looks like when we start rewriting our own story into one of failure and avoidance, and she offers a better way forward. Sister, this is your permission slip to get curious instead of ashamed. To log into your accounts. To open a budgeting app. To look back at your spending with compassion instead of condemnation.

This is stewardship. This is legacy. And it starts with one small, curious step.

GUEST BIO

Tasia Bade is the founder of Graceful Investor, a financial education platform created to help women build real wealth with confidence, without the jargon or the judgment.

Tasia is a proud mother of two, and her greatest joy outside of her family is coming alongside women, walking them through the fear and overwhelm that so often surrounds money, and helping them find confidence, clarity, and freedom on the other side.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Money avoidance is common, and it is not a reflection of your intelligence. It's a learned block, and it can be unlearned.
• Life moves through "inflection points" roughly every two years. Being financially prepared before a crisis hits changes everything about how you're able to respond.
• We are living through a historic generational wealth transfer. Having proactive conversations with aging parents now can prevent painful decisions later.
• Step one to understanding your financial house: log into every single account you have.
• Step two: download a budgeting app and connect all your accounts to it.
• Step three: look back over the past few months of spending with curiosity, not judgment, to understand your real financial picture.
• The "shame spiral" is real. Naming it takes away its power. Curiosity is the antidote to shame.
• Teaching your children to steward money well starts with you modeling it first.
• This work isn't just about you. It has the power to shift the financial trajectory of your family for generations.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

Proverbs 21:5, 2 Timothy 1:7, Proverbs 13:22, Luke 16:10

Nadine sits back down with Melissa Stout for the second half of their "Accepting All of Me" series, and this time it's all about the how. If you're the friend who wants the practical steps, not just the feeling, this one's for you.

Melissa walks through how she's learned to build rhythms into everyday life, from a family whiteboard when her kids were young, to a grocery app her twenty-three-year-old now manages himself, to a shared calendar that keeps her whole household in sync. The heart behind it isn't rigidity for its own sake. It's freeing up mental energy for what actually matters by making the repeatable things automatic.

She also introduces listeners to the concept of a clarity break, a practice from the EOS entrepreneurial operating system where you step outside your normal space, once a week, and simply dump everything swirling in your head onto paper. Melissa describes it almost like a coffee date with herself, and both women talk candidly about how sacred and hard it can be to protect that time. What surfaces in those clarity breaks often reveals not just what needs to get done, but what actually belongs to someone else, and what's genuinely part of your gifting.

One of the most tender threads in this episode is about raising kids who don't need you to survive. Melissa shares how teaching her children responsibility early, even when it wasn't popular in the moment, has grown into young adults who show up and help without being asked. And she's honest that asking others to carry some of the load isn't a failure. It's actually a gift to them, one that helps them grow into who God made them to be, too.

The episode closes with a simple but powerful reminder. The things weighing you down aren't just clutter. They're distractions from stepping fully into your calling. And letting go of some of that weight, whether through a system, a rhythm, or simply asking for help, creates the space you need to become who you were made to be.

GUEST BIO

Melissa Stout is a Purposeful Living board member beginning October 2026 and cofounder, VP of Operations, and EOS Integrator at Milestone Business Solutions Inc. With over 25 years of accounting and operations experience, Melissa brings both sharp business insight and hard won personal wisdom to this conversation about building systems that free women up to live in their gifting, at home, at work, and everywhere in between.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Rhythms and repeatable processes protect your mental energy for the things that truly need your attention.
• A weekly "clarity break," stepping away from your normal space to brain dump everything on your mind, helps you see what's actually yours to carry and what isn't.
• Protecting that time can feel hard, but treating it as sacred and non-negotiable is what makes it work.
• Teaching kids responsibility early is a gift, even when it's unpopular in the moment. It prepares them to thrive without you.
• Many things we resist doing simply aren't in our gifting, and that's okay. They may be exactly in someone else's.
• Asking for help and sharing responsibility isn't a weakness. It's empowering to the people around you.
• The mental clutter you're carrying isn't just noise. It's a distraction from stepping fully into who God created you to be.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

• Galatians 6:2 — "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ."
• Exodus 18:17-18 — Jethro's counsel to Moses on the wisdom of sharing responsibility instead of carrying it all alone.
• Philippians 4:6-7 — The peace that comes from releasing our anxieties instead of carrying them.

Sister, have you ever wished you were wired differently? Maybe you're the planner in a family of free spirits, or the logical thinker surrounded by people who process everything through emotion. In this episode, Nadine sits down with Melissa Stout, business owner, mother, and Purposeful Living board member, for an honest conversation about what it looks like to stop fighting your own design and start accepting it.

Melissa opens up about growing up as the oldest of four children, becoming the "take charge" one long before she had the language for it, and how that wiring eventually shaped her career as an accountant and cofounder of Milestone Business Solutions. She shares a tender and surprisingly funny story about losing a great uncle to Alzheimer's, and how being the only sibling who didn't cry at his funeral taught her something important: processing grief logically instead of emotionally doesn't make it any less real.

Together, Melissa and Nadine trace a three part journey many women will recognize in themselves, moving from accepting who God made you to be, to embracing it, to finally learning to enjoy it. Melissa is candid that this hasn't come easily. It took a divorce and years of intentional work for her to stop apologizing for her structure and process oriented mind, and to start seeing it as a gift rather than something to defend.

The conversation closes with a beautiful reframe on rest, reminding listeners that the exhaustion so many women carry isn't just physical. It's the mental and emotional weight of never putting down the things we were never meant to carry alone. Melissa and Nadine leave listeners with an invitation to ask God directly: how did You wire me, and what do You want me to lean into? Part 2 will dig into practical ways to release that mental load and build systems that actually free you up to live fully in your gifting.

GUEST BIO

Melissa Stout is a Purposeful Living board member beginning October 2026 and cofounder, VP of Operations, and EOS Integrator at Milestone Business Solutions Inc. With over 25 years of accounting and operations experience, including more than 15 years in the CAS space and firsthand experience navigating a business acquisition, Melissa is passionate about helping small businesses grow through smart technology integration and streamlined processes. She's a mother of two adult children, active in women's ministry at her local church, and brings both sharp business insight and a tender, honest heart to this conversation.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Our gifts and our struggles often come from the same place. A "superpower" misused or overused can start to feel like a flaw, but it's still the same gift God gave us.
• Acceptance, embracing, and enjoying who you are is a journey, not a single decision, and it can take years (and sometimes a painful season) to walk through.
• Processing things logically instead of emotionally doesn't mean you feel less. It just means you feel differently, and that's okay.
• Structure and planning aren't limiting. Like a budget, they can actually be freeing because they give you clarity to move confidently within your gifting.
• Give yourself permission to celebrate your accomplishments instead of immediately jumping to "what's next."
• The mental and emotional load of carrying everything yourself is a form of unrest that keeps you from showing up as your best self.
• Understanding how God uniquely wired you matters more than living up to everyone else's expectations of who you should be.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

• Psalm 139:13-14 — "For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb... I am fearfully and wonderfully made."
• Matthew 11:28-30 — Jesus' invitation to bring our burdens to Him and find rest.
• Romans 12:2 — Being transformed by the renewing of our minds rather than conforming to outside expectations.

If Part 1 was the why behind soul health, Part 2 is the how. And it is rich.

Nadine and Carla Sands are back, and this time they're getting practical. Drawing from John Mark Comer's book Practicing the Way, Carla walks through nine spiritual practices pulled directly from the life of Jesus — disciplines that don't just shape behavior but invite the Holy Spirit to do something in you that you simply cannot do for yourself.

But before the list even begins, Carla offers something important: a reminder. These practices are not a measuring stick. They are not a checklist to perform or a ladder to climb. They are, as Carla puts it, the table we set for the Holy Spirit to come and do what only He can do. The goal is never behavior modification. The goal is heart modification. The goal is Jesus.

The nine practices are: Sabbath, Solitude, Prayer, Fasting, Scripture, Community, Generosity, Service, and Witness. Carla unpacks each one with care, including a beautiful breakdown of four distinct types of prayer — talking to God, talking with God, listening to God, and simply being with God — and a tender word about Sabbath for anyone whose weeks are overfull, overscheduled, and running on empty. (Hint: that may be most of us.)

From there, the conversation turns to implementation — because knowing the nine is one thing, and actually living them is another. Carla offers a clear, grace-filled framework for how to start: go to God first and ask what He wants to highlight. Start where you are, not where you think you should be. Think subtraction before addition. Don't do it alone. And expect slow, small changes over time — because consistency over time is where transformation lives.

Carla also offers a beautiful lens for thinking about which practices to start with: disciplines of abstinence (Sabbath, Solitude, Fasting, Generosity — the ones that require pulling back) and disciplines of engagement (Prayer, Scripture, Community, Service, Witness — the ones that require leaning in). Depending on your season of life, your personality, and where God is stretching you, one of those categories may feel like your natural starting point. And she wraps it all with a simple, freeing rhythm: daily, weekly, and monthly or seasonal practices — so the whole thing begins to feel livable rather than overwhelming.

GUEST BIO

Carla Sands serves as Ministry Director at Purposeful Living, Inc., where she walks alongside women in their spiritual formation and growth. A trusted voice in the Purposeful Living community, Carla brings deep theological grounding and genuine warmth to every conversation. She is passionate about helping women understand who they are in Christ and what it looks like to be whole — spirit, soul, and body.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

• Mark 2:27 — "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." (Referenced in the Sabbath discussion)
• Hebrews 12:2 — "The author and finisher of our faith" (Referenced in the seed-planting analogy)

RESOURCE REFERENCED
Practicing the Way by John Mark Comer

What does it really mean to be spiritually healthy? Not just going through the motions, not just checking boxes, but truly, deeply healthy from the inside out?

In this first part of a two-part conversation, Nadine sits down with Purposeful Living's own Ministry Director, Carla Sands, to explore what soul health actually is and why it matters more than most of us realize. Carla opens with a beautiful framework that will stick with you: picture a bullseye. At the center is your spirit. Around it, your soul. And on the outside, your body. This image becomes the lens through which everything else in the conversation unfolds.

From there, Carla walks through the three theological tenses of salvation — justification, sanctification, and glorification — and connects them to that same bullseye. Justification is that one sacred moment when you said yes to Jesus. Glorification is the eternity that awaits. But sanctification? That's where we live. That's the lifelong, ongoing process of being made more and more like Him. And that is the soul health this episode is all about.

Nadine and Carla talk honestly about why this matters — not just for our own peace and joy, but because we are called to be salt and light. The fruit we bear isn't for us. Like an apple tree, it's for the people around us: our children, our husbands, our friends, our church family. When we are spiritually healthy, something unexplainable starts to flow out of us. Not from us. Through us.

They also name something important: spiritual health is not about performance. It's not about a checklist. Reading your Bible every morning doesn't automatically mean your soul is well, just as the Pharisees' religious discipline didn't reflect a heart surrendered to God. True soul health is about intentional formation, setting the table for the Holy Spirit to do a work in you that you cannot do in yourself.

GUEST BIO

Carla Sands serves as Ministry Director at Purposeful Living, Inc., where she walks alongside women in their spiritual formation and growth. A trusted voice in the Purposeful Living community, Carla brings deep theological grounding and genuine warmth to every conversation. She is passionate about helping women understand who they are in Christ and what it looks like to be whole — spirit, soul, and body.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The spirit, soul, and body can be pictured as a bullseye — and soul health lives in the middle, the sanctification layer, where daily life actually happens.
• The three tenses of salvation (justification, sanctification, glorification) give us a framework for understanding where spiritual growth fits into our faith.
• We are called to bear fruit — but like a fruit tree, that fruit isn't for us. It's for the people God has placed in our lives.
• Spiritual health is not performance. Spiritual disciplines are the table-setting; the transformation itself is God's work.
• Passivity is not neutral. If we're not being intentionally formed by God, we are being formed by culture.
• He never asks us to be perfect. He asks us to be willing.

SCRIPTURE REFERENCES

• Matthew 5:13-14 — "You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world."
• Galatians 5:22-23 — The Fruit of the Spirit
• 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 — The body as God's temple

In Part 1 of this conversation, Jenni Balda introduced us to the shadow mission: the hidden, subconscious drive to prove, perform, or protect ourselves that quietly hijacks our God-given calling. If that episode cracked something open in you, this one is where the healing begins.

In Part 2, Nadine and Jenni get practical. Awareness is only the first step, so Jenni walks us through exactly what comes next.

It starts with curiosity. Not condemnation, not a complete overhaul of everything; rather, a willingness to slow down and ask: where am I feeling pressure right now?

From there, Jenni lays out a clear, grace-filled path forward: name the shadow, bring it into the light, and refuse to let it hide behind excuses or old stories. She makes an important distinction here: it is worth going back to find where you first took on the shadow mission, where the wound was, where the lie began. But visiting that island is not the same as making it your permanent address.

The conversation moves into one of the most tender parts of the episode: asking God what was actually being offered to us in that moment we chose the shadow instead of truth. Inviting Him to replace the lie with what He says is real. Receiving—truly receiving—the identity that was always already ours in Christ.

And when the shadow mission creeps back? Because it will. Jenni reminds us that returning to a familiar struggle doesn't mean we haven't grown. As one wise counselor put it: it might be the same rock, but you are at a higher elevation. You are not the same woman who fought this battle the last time.

Jenni closes with her verse for the year, Psalm 131 — a peaceful, beautiful picture of what it looks like to live from the other side of the shadow mission. Humbled. Quieted. Resting. Content in Him. That is the goal. And sister, it is worth every bit of the work.

Guest Bio

Jenni Balda serves as the Spiritual Growth and Development Coordinator at Purposeful Living, Inc., where she supports the ministry's spiritual depth and leadership development as part of the executive leadership team. Jenni brings a Scripture-rooted, compassionate approach to helping women identify what's driving them beneath the surface — and find their way back to the freedom and rest that is already theirs in Christ. She is also a trained coach at Purposeful Living and available to walk through this topic one-on-one.

• 2 Corinthians 10:1, 4–5 — Referenced from Part 1; the divine weapons we have to demolish the arguments and strongholds of the shadow mission.
• Philippians 2:3 — "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others more significant than yourselves." Christ's humility as our model — free to serve, free to lead, free to surrender.
• Psalm 131:2 — "I am humbled and quieted in your presence, Lord. I am your resting child and my soul is content in you." Jenni's verse for the year and the portrait of a life free from the shadow mission.