The Good Day

When it comes to faithfulness, who can we look to as a model for this? Those things that get in the way of remaining faithful - what does it look like to surrender these? We’re diving into all of the above today with my friend and a long time friend of The Good Day’s, Laura L. Smith.

Laura Smith is a popular speaker, podcaster and best-selling author who has written nonfiction books for adults, pre-teens and kids, as well as two fiction series for teens. She is the author of Brave Woman, Mighty God: 30 Things You Can Do. Her previous book, How Sweet the Sound: The Power and Promise of 30 Beloved Hymns, has sold more than 130,000 copies. Smith is passionate about tearing down lies, so we can live in Christ’s truth. Smith says, “God’s amazing grace is abundant and free for the taking. We can’t earn it. And we don’t have to. All we have to do is accept it. And when we do? Surely goodness and love will follow us all the days of our lives.” 

She lives in the picturesque college town of Oxford, Ohio, with her husband and the youngest of their four young adult kids. There you’ll find her running the wooded trails, strolling the brick streets, shopping at the Saturday morning farmer’s market, or going on a sunset walk.

Download the first chapter of Brave Woman, Mighty God for FREE HERE!

Today, we're talking about:

• Remaining faithful in the ordinary
• Courageous patience when waiting upon the Lord
• 3 things that can hinder faithfulness and what it looks like to surrender these

C A N D A C E  C O F E R

author + speaker ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠instagram⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠youtube⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠facebook⁠

“Doubt doesn’t have to be our faith’s kryptonite. It can be its superpower.” 

That’s coming from someone who from the outside looks like she’s got her faith altogether... She’s moved her family from England to the U.S. to plant a church, written books about God’s faithfulness when life falls apart, speaks across the country and has thousands in her community who look to her for encouragement.

Today, we’re talking about these doubts and questions - whether for ourselves or voiced by someone we care about - and the inner anxiety that often comes with it. We may fear God can’t handle our questions or feel the pressure to “fix” the leak in our spiritual journey, not wanting faith to unravel. Instead, how can we approach this space with gentleness?

Niki Hardy is a proud Brit (now living in the US) and the author of the Audi Award–nominated Breathe Again and One-Minute Prayers for Women with Cancer. Niki has been featured on the Hallmark Channel, Life Today, and Premier Radio. Having left corporate life, been to seminary, moved continents, planted churches, started businesses and nonprofits, and navigated loss, cancer, church hurt, and painful uncertainty, she firmly believes God loves a cheerful doubter. Niki lives in North Carolina with her husband and ridiculous Doodle, Charlie, who is the main reason their three grown kids come home. Learn more at NikiHardy.com.

Today, we're talking about:

• What scent does your life offer to others?
• The crossroads of faith and doubt
• The fruit of gentleness - how to approach a doubting friend with gentleness and hope

C A N D A C E  C O F E R

author + speaker ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠instagram⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠youtube⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠facebook⁠

Did you know you can ask Amazon’s Alexa to say a prayer? Did you know she receives over 1,500 of these requests every day?

Today, we get to talk to the creator of this Amazon Alexa skill, Rachel Britton. Her heart is to help people learn how to talk with God, even simple three-word prayers and come before God with boldness and confidence that He cares and He is good and He is listening.

Rachel Britton is a British-born author and speaker. Her passion is to help others become comfortable and confident in their conversation with God. Her most recent book Pray Naturally: Finding Your Spiritual Confidence as a Woman Loved by God released January 2025 with Our Daily Bread Publishing. She is a contributing author in a number of traditionally published books, Guidepost publications, and online with Bible Study Tools. 

Rachel holds a Masters in Religion from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. She is married with three young adult children spread over too many time zones. She loves to escape to the mountains of Colorado to write, hike, and ski. She blogs on prayer regularly at her online home rachelbritton.com

Today, we’re talking about:

• What scent does your life offer to others?
• Becoming comfortable and confident in our conversations with God
• Becoming a vessel of the goodness of God

C A N D A C E  C O F E R

author + speaker ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠instagram⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠youtube⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠facebook⁠

When was the last time you invited your neighbor over for a cup of coffee or glass of lemonade? What about the last time you spoke with a neighbor? It’s convicting, isn’t it?

My friend, Amy Lively, is joining us and sharing about what propelled her to invite not one but 89 neighbors (!!!) over for coffee. Fair to say, she’s our resident Mr. Rogers today and reminding us of the command in scripture to love our neighbor …without being weird.

Amy Lively is an author and speaker who teaches God's Word as a "how-to" manual for loving him and loving others. Her most recent book, Can I Borrow a Cup of Hope? How to Find Faith for Hard Times in 1 Peter, shows how God transforms pain and suffering into hope and purpose. She is also the author of How to Love Your Neighbor Without Being Weird. Amy is a graduate of Asbury Theological Seminary, a business owner, community organizer, and active church member and small group leader. She has been married to David for 36 years! They have one grown daughter and son-in-law and live in Florida. Visit her online at www.amylively.com.

Today, we're talking about:

• What scent does your life offer to others?
• Loving our neighbor ...without being weird
• Kindness - extending a cup of hope to those in our path

C A N D A C E  C O F E R

author + speaker ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠instagram⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠youtube⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠facebook⁠

For what are you waiting on the Lord? In every season, all of us are waiting for something. Do you feel yourself weary in the waiting? Has the longing become your obsession? What would it look like to wait patiently? Is this even possible in today’s current or is it an outdated concept?

My friend, R.J. Hester, is joining us to share insight he’s learned from waiting on the Lord. I long ago committed to learning from people who have fruit present in their lives and this friend of ours truly has the fruit of patience. We’ll learn the source of this patience and what it looks like to hold desire and patience at the same time.

R.J. Hester lives in Oklahoma City where he serves as a children’s pastor at his Crossings Community Church and leads a small group of young adult men. His background includes playing collegiate football at Texas Tech University (Go Red Raiders!!) and has a passion for legal counsel. When he’s not reading matters of law and case study, he is truly a student of God’s Word, richly rooted, and learns deep theological truths from the kids every week. R.J. wants to help us understand God’s Word simply and return to our child-like faith once again.

Today, we're talking about:

• What scent does your life offer to others?
• Push back on culture to practice patience
• How to hold onto your desire but not get lost in the longing

C A N D A C E  C O F E R

author + speaker ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠instagram⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠youtube⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠facebook⁠

We’ve all heard the phrase, “She believed she could, so she did!” It’s intended to be motivating and encouraging, yet in practice, we see it leaves us wanting. My friend and a long time friend of The Good Day’s is joining us — you might remember her from Summer in the Psalms a couple summers ago — Becky Beresford. In a world obsessed with self-empowerment, she’s helping us remember where our true power comes from.

Becky Beresford lives in North Carolina and is happily outnumbered by her husband and three wonderful boys. She is a writer, speaker, and coach with a Master’s Certificate in Spiritual Formation and Discipleship from Moody Theological Seminary. Becky loves encouraging God’s Daughters to embrace Christ-centered empowerment through gospel truth. Her work has been featured in large online communities like DaySpring, (in)courage, Her View from Home, Crosswalk, and Huff Post, and she regularly teaches for Proverbs 31 Ministries in their First 5 app. Becky’s first book, She Believed HE Could, So She Did, released with Moody Publishers in March 2024.

She would love to connect with you online at ⁠BeckyBeresford.com⁠, where you can sign up to become a part of her ⁠Empowered Email Tribe⁠ and receive resources and truth to help you live empowered in Jesus. Follow Becky on ⁠Instagram⁠and ⁠Facebook⁠ as well.

Today, we’re talking about:

• How self-empowerment threatens our peace
• Experiencing the peace of Christ
• Modeling feminine strength with unity, not at the cost of unity

C A N D A C E  C O F E R

author + speaker ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠instagram⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠youtube⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠facebook⁠

How would you measure your joy today? As my friend, Tara Dew, reminds us: “Jesus wants us to have a joy that is so full, so real, so genuine, so overflowing that we can’t keep it to ourselves!” But, sometimes, our joy is tied to our circumstances because we don’t really understand joy.

Tara Dew is a national speaker, author, and Bible teacher. She and her husband have been married for 25 years and have been blessed with two sets of twins: Natalie & Nathan and Samuel & Samantha. Her primary ministry is to her family, as many hours of each day are spent homeschooling their four children. But she is also a President’s wife, serving the students, staff, and faculty of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, and teaches as an adjunct professor in the Ministry to Women program. 

She directs and teaches in THRIVE: A Ministry Wives Certificate Program at NOBTS. Her first book, Overflowing Joy, was released in February 2024 and her second book, Overflowing Peace, in 2026. Through all of the ministry opportunities, two of Tara's passions have remained the same: women and God’s Word! 

Today, we’re talking about:

• Joy vs. happiness
• What presence and obedience have to do with joy
• Living the abundant life with overflowing joy in all circumstances

C A N D A C E  C O F E R

author + speaker ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠instagram⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠youtube⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠facebook⁠

“How would love respond?” We don’t have to ask this when loving another is easy, but it’s one way we can pause and invite the Holy Spirit to lead us when loving others requires effort and doesn’t come so naturally.

My friend, Rachael Adams is back with us reminding us to pause and ask this question and to think of how we can reflect God rather than mirror the negative energy we receive from others. I love this question and this conversation and I hope you are encouraged for your relationships today. I pray others smell the fragrance of heaven’s love through each of us today.

Rachael Adams is the host of The Love Offering Podcast, and the author of A Little Goes a Long Way: 52 Days to a Significant Life. Rachael hopes to help women realize God’s love and their significance. She and her husband live in Kentucky with their two children.

Today, we’re talking about:

• what scent does your life offer to others?
• loving others always
• learning to rely upon the Holy Spirit to live out this command

   

  C A N D A C E  C O F E R

  author + speaker ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

  ⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠instagram⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠youtube⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠facebook⁠

Have you ever thought about what scent your life offers to others? Is it the sweetness of a honeysuckle or the rancid rank of a heart that has been "through a lot" and seeming a bit more like a water treatment plant, where all the muck comes together?

Because I want us to be a people who carry this scent of sweet fruitfulness everywhere we go, we are going to spend some time diving into each one of these and learning how fragrance of the Lord lingers on us as we live by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit.

C A N D A C E  C O F E R

author + speaker ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠website⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠instagram⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠youtube⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠facebook⁠

We all have quirks; one of mine is waking up singing. I don't play music (long gone are the days of piano and viola lessons), I don't sing in the church choir, but I do nine times out of ten, wake up singing. Not audibly, at least at first. Before I open my eyes, a song is playing in my heart and its lyrics and melody capturing my thoughts. Sometimes it's a song I heard the day before and sometimes it's not.

I've only recently realized this is a quirk and not how everyone wakes up.

Today, a good friend of mine, Rachel Britton, is sharing her reflection of Psalm 149 with us and reminding us of the power of praise, but even more beautifully and profoundly, to recognize this is an invitation for God is already singing over us. When we choose to praise and sing worship, we are joining the Choir Master's song. And not just that, but the song of "the Mighty Warrior who saves."

Rachel Britton is a British-born award-winning author and speaker. Her passion is to help others become comfortable and confident in their conversation with God. Her latest book Pray Naturally: Finding Your Spiritual Confidence as a Woman Loved by God released with Our Daily Bread Publishing. She is the creator of the Amazon Alexa skill: “Alexa, say a prayer,” which receives 1,500 requests per day. Rachel is married with three adult children spread over too many time zones. Connect with Rachel on her blog rachelbritton.com and on Facebook and Instagram.