About a year ago, Dr. Beth’s father  took her to hear Lilli Meier speak at the Thrive Senior Living community on Lookout Mountain, GA, where he volunteered up until the time of his death August 25, 2025.  He suggested that Beth interview her to hear about her story and her book….so this is the culmination of his sweet suggestion. Lilli was born in Cuba in 1949, which she describes as an idyllic paradise before Fidel Castro took over and imposed a totalitarian system on this beautiful country. Lilli shares about her trauma and grief she had to endure when school-aged kids were forced to do a morning chant every day, “We are pioneers for Communicatism and we will all be Chegavada.” She adds,  “Our family had a hard time for a long time and Catholicism felt robotic.”

She and her family left her beloved country in 1961 to go to America and she wasn’t able to return for a visit until 2008.  She said “America will always be the beacon of freedom.” Lilli shares how her faith sustained her through all of this, saying, “ I found my freedom in Christ.” She adds,  “God takes a lot from us sometimes and we have to hold on to him. “

To order her book CLICK HERE

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Today Dr. Carol Stoney, Beth’s most frequent (and very likely one of the most popular ) podcast guests returns to the show to talk about marriage. She likes to encourage married couples to ask themselves the question regularly: “ Why did we get  married?” Like when things get hard  or when transitions happen, she urges them to sit down and have a conversation “What’s our purpose?” Sometimes couples have change their mission, she said.

Dr. Stoney stated “I don’t care what couples are fighting about, I care what they are fighting FOR“ “What is the mission and the purpose and the reason you are staying together?”

In essence, it is important for couples to know and remember what it is they are trying to achieve and what stands in the way (or threatens) what it is that they are trying to recover to achieve that goal they never knew they had.

She urges couples to consider, why is this so important to me? What is it that we’re fighting for?

To hear more episodes with Dr. Stoney, go to your favorite podcast platform and Google Never Perfect Dr. Stoney

To learn more about her, you can go to healingforcouples.com

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Many of us who experienci significant pain and suffering, may start to doubt that God is still taking care of us and still loves us and still wants to give us good things . Sometimes we doubt that he is doing good things for us personally, even when we know that he is good globally. Many of us also think that we need to clean ourselves up before we can approach God and turn to him, or return to him after a period of withdrawal or retreat. We also forget that we don’t have to be good enough because he is good enough. When we cling to him, we need to be reminded that him clinging to us is the thing that we can really count on Today beth shares the highlights of an amazing sermon on the book of Ruth by Dr. Mary Willson Hannah.

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Today’s episode is dedicated to Pastor Roger Gulick, who passed away March 21. He left a wonderful legacy which you can hear about on the last episode which was published February 13.

Today Beth shares her journey of faith and her frequent struggle to tune into God and His Word, oftentimes going through the motions in a rote way, because she wants others to learn from her regrets and missed opportunities of knowing God and engaging with him in a deeper way. She encourages the listeners to find creative ways to engage with God and scripture, using their own unique minds and learning styles, whether that be through studying Scripture, creating art or poetry that represents biblical truths, Bible Studies, topical studies, etc. she emphasizes the importance of the Holy Spirit as a “tutor “or “illuminator” of Scripture. She shares strategies she has discovered to study the Bible in a more engaging an interactive way. see below for links to Bible Gateway and to some of the books Beth mentioned.

See below for links to Bible Gateway and to some of the books Beth mentioned.

Bible Gateway HERE

Also, If you’d like to check out, Laura Pettit’s art, her website HERE   

Instagram is @Laurapettitfineart

Bible study on Philippians HERE

Daily devotional HERE

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At the age of 86 and only six days after moving into an assisted living facility because of terminal cancer, Roger Gulick has agreed to share his life story with us today. Roger and his wife Joy have been in ministry, for more than 50 years. He and his wife Joy have been married for over 60 years, and their life has been quite the adventure, whether that was pastoring one of the churches in four different states, or traveling around the world ministering to pastors and their families for 17 years. Up until his college years, Roger believed that being a nice person would get him to heaven because he felt like he was “nicer” then 93% of the population. When someone explained to him that Christ did for him what he couldn’t do for himself (ie, live a perfect life) and gave himself up for him, his whole life changed and he has devoted the rest of his life to ministry. Joy has published a couple of books and she will soon be a guest on Never Perfect Faith as well. Attached is a beautiful song written 119 years ago that echoes the sentiments shared today, entitled “He Will Hold Me Fast”

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How many youth have been able to wrestle with the question: “ What does God want me to do with my life?”

Annette and Tim Gulick have devoted much of their lives traveling the world to help Youth (and adults who work with Youth organizations) discover who God created them to be and what their highest purpose is. They explain that Jesus gives shape to all of reality and to who we are and what we are meant to do, much like gravity gives planets their shape. Allowing Christ to shape you can fit into reality. After many years of doing this work and writing several books, Annette decided to write “Aligned: Flourishing in a World of Choice”, summarizing the principles that she and her husband Tim had been teaching for so many years. The book and workbook includes activities to help readers discover what it means to live a more fruitful life. The Gulicks were also recently on Beth‘s mental health podcast called Aligned and Flourishing on December 31, 2024. Check it out HERE

To learn more about Annette’s book, go to HERE

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Hollee Brock has a passion for living, holistically, and healing holistically. As a Christian and licensed Energy 4Life practitioner, she lives out her philosophy that “faith and science should not be separated.” While raising her six children ( now young adults) she studied and practiced a variety of things, including dance and earthing, and is currently using somatic techniques called bioenergetics. In her work, Hollee

takes a bioenergetic approach to health and wellbeing by working with the energy and information of the body system, understanding that they are the control center that drives our biology and chemistry. Today she shares part of her fascinating journey with us. Hollee also has a podcast called Along the Camino at Basecamp.

You can find her podcast at HERE

Or learn more about her practice at wellnesscornerchattanooga.com

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How can you tell that God is with you when you feel alone? Today Dr. Beth shares a story about a client from many years ago who believed that God did small things to help her all the time. Her client had struggled with serious health issues for years, and was broken hearted when her husband left her when she was around age 60. She began sensing God's presence and noticing little ways, he was helping her on a regular basis

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At some point in our lives, most of us have felt lost/confused, due to failure, feeling like an “outsider”, or a disappointment; and most of us have battled some sort of addiction. Francis Thompson, the “Ne’er Do Well” and “misfit poet” experienced it all to a staggering degree, and unintentionally caused his family, a great deal of stress and heartache, and disappointment. Dr. Beth shares his story in this episode, explaining that it’s one of the most touching and compelling stories she’s ever heard. His story is timeless and relatable, even though he lived from 1859-1907. As a young child, he was drawn to reading and writing, but his family encouraged him to pursue other studies and occupations. He was brilliant (scoring at the top of his class) in some subjects (like writing) and at the bottom of his class in other areas. He was viewed as odd and “Mooney” at school. After being rejected at seminary, failing three rounds of exams at medical school, being refused in the military, Thompson moved to London England to pursue writing, with his parents reluctant approval. Little did he know that “a life of destitution awaited him”. He was unable succeed in any of his odd jobs and he ended up homeless and addicted to opium for three years. He continued writing during these years and submitted his writing on dirty and crinkled paper, to the owner of a literary magazine (Wilfrid Meynell), who was eventually able to locate him and help rehabilitate him, although he was on the brink of death. His most famous poem “The Hound of Heaven” (written while he was being rehabilitated for his opium addiction) has been a source of inspiration for over 130 years. This redemptive poem has been taught in university classrooms worldwide and impacted countless people, including literary giants and heroes such as JRR Tolkien, G.K. Chesterton, Eugene O’Neill, Madeline L’Engle, and Dorothy Day. this poem is autobiographical and depicts God as the Hound of Heaven who never gives up pursuing our souls. 

Listen to the poem HERE

This “ne’er do well misfit” poet’s work has been compared to the likes of Shakespeare and Robert Browning. His poem echoes sentiments from Psalms 139:7-12

and the story of the Good Shepherd (Matthew 18:10-14) who never gives up rescuing the one sheep who is lost.

To learn more about Francis Thompsons story, check out the following articles and documentaries. 

Documentary abut Francis Thompsons

Article on Wikipedia and Natcath

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As he approaches his 80th birthday, minister and chaplain Ed Salter shares his story of caregiving his wife Christine, who passed away almost 10 years ago. She was battling Parkinson’s 27 of their 50 years of marriage. Today Ed shares their story and their, including many of the sorrows enjoys that came with it. He spent his life savings on healthcare costs, had to endure sundowners syndrome for years, while he and his wife both maintained a witty sense of humor. He regularly sang to her, while pinching her toes or her nose, “You are my sunshine “. For years he has facilitated grief support groups and caregiver support groups and he talks about how God, his family and community has sustained him through it all. One of his greatest desires is to “finish well” and he is using the story worth platform to write his story and leave a legacy for his family. Near the end, Beth shares a little bit about her dissertation research on grief and the five themes that emerged from her interviews with grieving individuals. The five themes were Details/ telling the story of dying/loss, how they coped, How they felt (affect), How they changed, and the Relationship with the deceased. Here is an article summarizing her research.

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