Spark Directory

Welcome back to Fierce Calling! In this episode, host Doris sits down with Melissa McLaughlin, an author, teacher, and speaker, who writes to uplift and inspire followers of Christ.. Melissa opens up about her faith journey, including her unexpected bout with debilitating health issues that led her to an unexpected and unplanned early retirement from her teaching career. What could have been a season of loss became a time of deep spiritual renewal, as Melissa rediscovered her identity in Christ and found new ways to connect with God through scripture-based prayer.

Out of her darkest moments came her first book, In Dark of Night When Words Fail, Voice of Jesus, Pray for Me, designed to help those who struggle with prayer find their voice again through scripture. Melissa also shares how her second book, The Whole Bible Devotional: Seeing Jesus in Every Book of the Bible, was inspired by her own challenges with reading the Bible all the way through, and her desire to help others see the big-picture story of Jesus woven throughout all the books of the Bible.

Join us for an encouraging conversation about hope, identity, and the power of God, Who creates beauty from ashes. Whether you’re in a season of uncertainty, desire to deepen your prayer life, or looking for fresh ways to engage with Scripture, Melissa’s story and resources will inspire you to keep seeking God’s purpose—no matter what twists and turns life may bring.

1. Introduction to Melissa McLaughlin

2. Melissa’s Personal Faith Journey

3. The Impact of Health Challenges

4. Rediscovering Identity in Christ

This episode of Conversations with Christians Engaged is part of our Stories from America series, featuring believers making a real impact in culture. In this episode, Bunni Pounds sits down with constitutional attorney Keisha Russell of First Liberty Institute to discuss her new book on defending religious freedom.

Keisha shares her journey from teaching special education in Atlanta to becoming one of the nation’s leading defenders of religious liberty. Together, Bunni and Keisha dive deep into why the First Amendment matters for every believer, how Christians can boldly exercise their rights, and why fear should never keep us from living out our faith in public.

They explore real cases—from Coach Kennedy’s historic win at the Supreme Court to believers standing firm in schools and workplaces—and unpack the cultural misunderstandings around “separation of church and state.” Keisha reminds us that defending freedom isn’t just about courtrooms; it’s about inspiring everyday Christians to know the truth, stand firm, and proclaim the gospel without fear.

Subscribe for weekly episodes of Conversations with Christians Engaged to learn how to pray, vote, and engage with biblical clarity.

“The righteous are as bold as a lion.” (Proverbs 28:1)

• christiansengaged.org
• christiansengaged.org/donate
• christiansengaged.org/pledge

• First Liberty's Website: https://firstliberty.org
• Keisha's Book: https://www.harvesthousepublishers.com/books/uncommon-courage-9780736986403
• Instagram: @keishatonirussell, @firstlibertyinstitute
• Twitter/X: @1stLiberty

#ChristianPodcast #FaithInAction #KeishaRussell #UncommonCourage #ReligiousLiberty

How can we respond to misunderstood promises?

Host Tina Yeager sits down with Hannah Pierrou—storyteller, artist, author, and founder of Treehouse Storytellers—to explore the topic of misunderstood promises, especially those that shape our families and culture. Together, they discuss:

• Cultural Promises vs. God’s Truth: How our society’s shifting narratives affect both adults and kids, and what it means to reclaim biblical promises in the face of distortion.
• The Rainbow’s True Meaning: Drawing from her new children’s book, Misunderstood: A Girl with a Promise the World Forgot, Hannah shares the story of the rainbow from a God-centered perspective, and how its meaning has been reclaimed through creative storytelling.
• Creativity as Worship: Hannah opens up about the powerful connection between creativity and our identity as image-bearers of God, encouraging us to embrace art and storytelling as acts of worship.
• Helping Our Kids Stand Firm: Practical advice for parents to build strong, grace-filled foundations at home—equipping children to navigate conflicting messages with compassion and biblical truth.
• Finding Healing and Identity: For those who have been hurt or left empty by the world’s counterfeit promises, Hannah and Tina talk about God’s compassionate path to healing and the unshakeable identity we find in Christ.

Resource Spotlight: Curious about Hannah's new book or her mission with Treehouse Storytellers? Visit thetreehousestoryteller.com for her creative resources, podcast, and more.

Reflect & Flourish: As this episode reminds us, misunderstood promises are all around, but God’s Word stands true. Whether you’re a parent, creative, or believer seeking renewed hope, you’ll be inspired to reconnect with the source of real truth and to pass that hope along to the next generation.

Stay Connected: Love what you heard? Share this episode with a friend! And don’t forget to subscribe to Flourish-Meant for more encouragement and equipping conversations.

We're thrilled to accompany you on this journey of faith, growth, and transformation. As always, we appreciate your support! Please subscribe and share this episode. We can't wait for you to join us for future episodes of Flourish-Meant.

To book Tina as a speaker, connect with her life coaching services, and more, visit her website: https://tinayeager.com/

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SUMMARY:

PODCAST INTRO:

Using her personal story of abuse combining that with her education in Marriage and Family Therapy along with her Master of Divinity from San Francisco Theological Seminary, Rev Cheryl talked about understanding abuse, boundaries, identity, righteous anger, and forgiveness as taught in the bible. The discussion on forgiveness alone was worth the conversation because so much about God’s love and forgiveness has been hijacked with a toxic empathy that is used against tender hearted, conscious Christians especially the abused.

We talked about the difference between forgiveness and denial. Reverend Cheryl states that forgiveness requires acknowledging the hurt caused by others and making a conscious decision to forgive, while denial involves minimizing the impact of the abuse or rationalizing it.

One of the tools that Rev Cheryl shares is for the moments when you’re having a flashback, you’ve been triggered or trying to resolve inner, emotional mental conflict in yourself. She shares this exercise, the therapeutic term known as classical conditioning and it involves using your dominate hand to represent yourself as the adult you are and your non-dominate hand as the child you were.

Using your dominant hand you write down something like, I know you’re in pain right now and Using your name, you ask yourself by writing down, what is going on? Then Using your non-dominant hand write down your emotions. There is a point to using your non-dominant hand because it looks like a child’s handwriting.

Then Looking at the emotions that surfaced you use your adult hand (that knows the truth about where you are now) to comfort your child hand (that is bringing forth the emotions that are connected to the pain).

Reframe the emotions with truth whether it be with God’s word/His promises, with facts such as Rev Cheryl said things like, You couldn’t take care of yourself then but you can take care of yourself now and then you’d list truths. If it was about money, it could be, I have a job, I have a bank account, I’m working toward financial independence. If it was about not having control then say, I have control over myself, I’m responsible for myself, I am learning to set boundaries, I have boundaries in place etc Things that speak truth over where you are today.

To me, I thought it was effective using your hands because it gets you outside your head. I think that would be beneficial because sometimes you have so much emotion and overwhelm in your head that if you can make it external, it seems to help you isolate and sort through your emotions in that moment.

It reminds me of the effectiveness of journaling as a way to purge your thoughts on paper, it gets everything you can list out of your mind and you can sort through it that way too.

So in short, us the classical condition exercise to take what yo