The Greta Eskridge Podcast

What a fun and important episode this is. A few weeks ago I shared a photo on Instagram introducing our son William and his new girlfriend, Georgia. The response was full of joy and excitement for William and Georgia but also for our whole family, as this was something to celebrate. 

There were also a lot of questions from my Instagram followers. They wanted to know details like: how old are our kids when we let them start dating, how do set up healthy boundaries with dating, how did I feel about “losing my sons” (spoiler alert—I’m not losing them!) and so many more questions. 

So I decided to turn it all into a podcast episode and here we are! I can’t wait for you to listen and to get a glimpse at the beautiful and good way God can uses dating in our kids’ lives to bring them toward Him and toward pursing relationships that are honoring to Him and to one another. 

The two books mentioned in this episode can be found here: 

Chasing Love: Sex, Love and Relationships in a Confused Culture by Sean McDowell 

Outdated: Find Love That Lasts When Dating Has Changed by Jonathan “JP” Pokluda 

If you enjoy this episode, will you please consider sharing it on your socials? Or text it to a friend? Sharing my podcast is so helpful and I deeply appreciate it! 

And I also always appreciate podcast reviews. Have you left one on iTunes yet? I’d be wildly grateful if you leave one today. Thanks, team! 

Love, 

Greta 

This episode is a really special one. I am delighted to introduce you to today’s guest, John Fort. John is the director of Be Broken Ministries, which exists to help individuals and families move from sexual brokenness to wholeness in Christ.  

John is also the author of several books, including Honest Talk—a New Perspective on Talking to Your Kids About Sex, which we talk about today. 

John vulnerably and courageously shares his story of sexual and pornography addiction and how God has redeemed his story to give him a purpose driven by hope and healing.  

I loved talking with John!  

He is full of wisdom, reassurance and, there’s that word again, hope. He encourages parents to be honest with their kids about their own sexual past and then shows us how to do it. I read his book cover to cover in a few days and I can’t encourage you enough to get your own copy. But start by listening to this episode and getting to know John better. You’ll be so glad you did! 

Find John here: 

Be Broken Ministries 

Find John’s books here: 

Honest Talk—a new perspective on talking to your kids about sex 

Father-Son Accountability : Integrity Through Relationship 

Some favorite quotes from today’s episode: 

*”I was a little afraid to get into this work but God kept shutting all the other doors. It was like He said, “I didn’t bring you out of this for nothing.” John Fort 

*”There is so much freedom in honesty.” Greta Eskridge  

*”Look at what God did! He did it for me and He can do it for you.” Greta Eskridge 

*”If parents would be brave enough to tell their own story then their kids would be able to say, ‘oh you do understand!’ and then they could talk.” John Fort 

*”He realized at that moment that he was not too broken to be loved by his parents or by God. For the first time he felt a surge of hope that he had someone to talk to about sex and maybe his father could help him. That event , just hearing his father’s sexual story became the turning point for this young man to actively engage in his own journey to sexual wholeness.” John Fort 

*”My problem had nothing to do with sex. I was using pornography and other sexual things to deal with emotions I didn’t know what to do with.” John Fort 

*”The days I looked at pornography as a teenager were the days something bad happened and I didn’t know what to do with that.” John Fort 

*”If in our house we never talk about body parts, we never talk about anything, that gives the silent message that it’s not OK to talk about these things.” John Fort 

*”We surveyed a bunch of teenagers and asked why don’t you talk to your parents about sex. They had two answers: ‘I’m afraid my parents won’t understand my past’ or ‘I’ll get in trouble for what I say or even what I ask.’” John Fort 

*”Your story is simply a way to show them it is OK to talk about these things.” John Fort 

*”We can pretend its not happening or we can just talk about it.” Greta Eskridge  

*”You don’t even know what your kids are dealing with until you ask. And the older they get the more often we have to ask them what they’re seeing and what they’re hearing.” John Fort 

*”People are looking for help for their addictions and hope for their broken hearts. They want living water. If we run away or become judgmental or uncomfortable any time we see sexual pain, we will miss the greatest opportunities to enter the pain of their sexual brokenness and share the love of Jesus Christ.” Julie Slattery 

*”Emotional resilience is connected to sexual wholeness.” Greta Eskridge  

*“We think that telling our story is going to make our kids not respect us, but the opposite is true if we do it well.” John Fort 

Thank you so much for listening and being a part of my show! I’d be so grateful if you’d leave a rating and review of the podcast if you haven’t already. I appreciate each one of you. 

Keep chasing joy! 

Greta 

The Greta Eskridge Podcast is a part of the Christian Parenting Podcast Network. For more information visit www.ChristianParenting.org

I am so excited to welcome my friend Anjuli Paschall to my show! Anjuli is a real life friend of mine and this episode reflects that. We laugh and cry together easily, share stories, and if we had cups of tea or coffee in our hands, it would feel like you had joined us as we hung out together in a coffee shop.  

One of the things I appreciate so much about Anjulu is that she doesn’t try to fix everything with some cliché sentiment. Instead she listens intently and asks how I feel, thus inviting me to take my feelings to God instead of pushing them away. She is also not afraid to be vulnerable and through that she invites me into intimacy with her again and again. She is the kind of friend you want on the other end of the phone, text or across the table. 

Anjuli is a fellow author. She and I have walked through writing 3 books together! Her latestes book is called Feel—a Collection of Liturgies Offering Hope for Every Complicated Emotion. This book is like having a conversation with Anjuli. You’ll feel seen, heard, and loved as you go through the book. It is a beautiful book and unlike anything I have ever seen. Our conversation will give you a glimpse of the book and all it has to offer. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! 

Where to find Anjuli: 

Get Anjuli’s newest book, Feel, here 

Find Anjuli on Instagram here 

Find Anjuli’s website here 

Finds Anjuli on Substack here 

Get Every Moment Holy book here 

Some of my favorite quotes from this episode: 

“It takes time to look at your feelings, all of them, as an invitation to look at what your heart is trying to tell you.” AP 

“Feelings are an invitation to wholeness, growth and intimacy.” AP 

“The relationships that are the nearest and dearest to our are the ones where we can be vulnerable and share our true feelings.” AP 

“God can hold it all.” GE 

“God wants to be with us where we are.” AP 

“He wants to heal us not to fix us—not just be better, do better, feel better.” AP 

“God cares about what we feel, but He cares more that we become--whole, loving children of God who reflect His son.” AP 

“We can hold both the good and the hard at the same time and they don’t cancel each other out!” GE 

“There is a sacredness in tears. They are not a mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition and of unspeakable love.” Washington Irving 

“God made us feelers and we don’t have to be afraid of the feelings that He put in us.” GE 

I am so excited to share the final episode of my “Back to Home School” series with you today. (Don’t worry, though, there will be other home school episodes in the future. They’ll just be intermingled with other topics.) In this episode I am diving into some of the home schooling questions you asked me on Instagram. I couldn’t answer them all, but I covered quite a few. And I promise to come back and answer more some time soon! 

Here are links to some of the things I mentioned in this episode.  

I hope you find them helpful! 

Want to have me speak at your event, conference, church, for your home school group, womens’ retreat or in some other capacity, get more information about booking me  here 

Find my Home School 101 Story Series on Instagram here 

Find all the home school articles on my blog here 

I talk about home schooling in high school and in college in episode 24. Listen to it here 

Learn more about high school transcripts here 

Learn more about Hamborg Academy of Art, in person and online art classes from one of our favorite art teachers here 

Learn more about home schooling and dyslexia in episode 25. Listen here 

Find Wild and Free bundles here 

Sign up for legal protection with a membership with Home School Legal Defense Association here 

Find Beautiful Feet Books curriculum guides here (they’re my absolute favorite!) 

Find Ambleside Online booklists here 

Read my book Adventuring Together to get fun back to school traditions (and lots of other ones as well) Get your copy here 

Give your kids a back to school copy of 100 Days of Adventure and dream up a bunch of fun adventures you can do together in the coming year. Get your copy here 

Read my blog post, The Early Years, here 

Thank you so much for listening and being a part of my show! I appreciate each one of you. 

Keep chasing joy! 

Greta 

What a treat to have one of my earliest home school mentors on the podcast today. This is a powerful episode where we hear how Carole met God and how He led her to home schooling, which she initially thought was absolute insanity! Carole and I talk about the early days of home schooling when it wasn’t legal or illegal and so different than it is now. 

Hear how Carole’s son JJ has joined her in sharing the message of home schooling. What a dream that is! She shares books galore too. My favorite kind of episode! 

Carole Joy Seid is a joy indeed and you are going to love the encouragement and wisdom she brings from speaking on home schooling for 30 + years. 

Here are the resources Carole recommends in this episode: 

Read and learn about home schooling’s pioneers: 

John Holt 

Dr. Raymond Moore 

Susan Schaeffer Macaulay 

Read their books: 

How Children Learn by John Holt 

Better Late Than Early by Dr. Raymond Moore 

For the Children’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay 

For the Family’s Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay 

Here are the other books Carole recommends in this episode: 

The Common Rule—Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction 

Theology of the Body for Beginners 

The Least of These My Brothers  

Father Arseny—priest, prisoner and spiritual father 

Little Britches series 

Where to find Carole: 

Her website here 

Her seminars here 

Her podcast here 

Her Instagram account here 

Some favorite quotes from today’s episode: 

“God doesn’t waste a thing.” GE 

“Home schooling was the farthest thing from my mind.” CJS 

“Home schooling is a huge liberty, and we don’t want to take it for granted.” CJS 

“It’s so thrilling to see the next generation of home schoolers carrying out the way of living that is so rich and blessed.” CJS 

“Sharing the message of home schooling has been the joy of my life.” CJS 

“The very first home school conference I ever attended was with Carole Joy Seid and it was absolutely transformational.” GE 

“You can home school with a bible, a library card and a math book.” CJS 

“High school and college is where your child’s theology makes up its mind.” CJS 

“If you’re tired, do something fresh and give yourself a grace package. Because that is what God gives to us.” CJS 

“Your goal is to get shining eyes!” CJS 

“The gift of home schooling for me has been all about freedom. The freedom to pursue education in the way that works best for our family, the way that works best for each kid and the way that works best for me as a teacher.” GE 

“Be the expert on your child.” CJS 

“Never stop reading out loud to your children.” CJS 

“The gospel needs to permeate everything you do.” CJS 

Don’t forget to subscribe to this podcast. And I’d be so very grateful if you leave a 5 star rating and a short review of the podcast. 

Reviews are incredibly helpful to me as a new podcaster. 

Thank you for listening and being part of my team.  

I love you guys! 

Greta 

This is the third episode in my “Back to Home School” series and it is a great one! In this episode I got to talk all things home schooling with my friend, and fellow Christian Parenting podcast host, Monica Swanson.  

Monica is a mom to four boys and lives on the beautiful island of Oahu, Hawaii. Monica home schooled all her boys, 3 of which have graduated, and is still home schooling her last one. She recently wrote a book called Becoming Home Schoolers, sharing the story of their home schooling journey, along with tons of other helpful ideas, information and inspiration. Monica and I had the best time talking together. You’re going to love our conversation and all the stories we tell. You’ll feel like you’re just hanging out with 2 of your friends. Come join the fun! 

Places to find Monica: 

Her website her 

Her podcast here 

Her Instagram account here 

Her books here, here, here and here! 

Here are some of my favorite quotes from this episode: 

“Home school kids have more time to pursue their passions.” Monica Swanson 

“Home schoolers are prepared for the real world.” Monica Swanson 

“The number one reason we chose to home school is because I wanted learning about God, praying together, and reading the Bible together to be a part of their school experience because that is the most important thing you’ll ever learn.” Greta Eskridge  

“There is no such thing as a neutral education.” Monica Swanson 

“Home schoolers are critical thinkers, they’re learners, they’re readers, and they know how to figure things out. Not every home schooler, of course. But a lot of them!” Greta Eskridge 

“It’s so tempting to have a whole curriculum for your 3 year old but if you just live life with your 3 year old and have him be a part of it, what you’re creating is a lifelong learner because you’re showing them that learning is happening all the time.” Greta Eskridge 

“Sometimes we forget how important it is to enjoy our kids. We get so caught up in what we feel like we have to do that we forget to enjoy our time with them or to enjoy them.” Greta Eskridge 

“The best is yet to come! The late teen and young adult years are so fun and it is the best reward.” Monica Swanson 

“It is painful joy to watch our kids fly. We’re excited for them and we have joy for them but there is pain there because things are changing.” Greta Eskridge 

“The home school lifestyle is not just a way to educate your kids but a way to get to know them and be involved in their lives.” Monica Swanson 

What a treat to introduce you to my friend, a person who has poured encouragement and support and wisdom into me, Carrie De Francisco.   Carrie is a mom to 2 homeschool graduates, she is a treasured voice in the home school community through her podcast, her books, her speaking engagements and her amazing videos on Instagram. She also provides encouragement for the moms of differently abled learners and especially for moms of dyslexic learners. The bottom line is Carrie will encourage you today, wherever you are on your home school journey. 

This episode is full of a lot of helpful and practical tips for families that are home schooling dyslexic learners.  

Here they are: 

*Have your child teach someone else something, or explain something they love 

*Spend way more time on your child’s gifts and talents than on the things they’re struggling with! 

*Use the dyslexic font for your computer 

*Use speech to text because it is not cheating! 

*Have your child read aloud the paragraph they wrote using speech to text and then help them edit as they read it aloud 

*Use Grammarly –its your writing tutor! 

*Use audio books (Audible, Hoopla, Libby are 3 great ones!) 

*This article breaks down a bunch of audio book options. Read it here. 

*Math U See is Carrie’s favorite math curriculum 

*Use colored markers, drawings or symbols to help them differentiate the words they’re learning and/or memorizing. 

Places to find Carrie: 

Her website here 

Her podcast here 

Her books here here and here 

Her Instagram account here 

Some favorite quotes from today’s episode: 

*“Homeschool kids don’t just turn out OK. They can really flourish, even if it’s hard in the middle.” GE 

*“Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean we’re doing something wrong, or that our home schooling wasn’t working, or that our kids are never going to learn. It just means it’s different. “ CF 

*“If your kid has dyslexia or dysgraphia or dyscalculia they are gifted. They are gifted in so many ways. They have so many gifts they are going to be better than OK!” CF 

*“The Lord created our kids to be learning machines and we just need to trust the process.” CF 

*“God is going to use this. We don’t know how and we don’t know when, but we can trust Him.” GE 

*“Listening to books is reading books.” GE 

*“According to a study from Harvard, the number one thing that helped kids with dyslexia and dysgraphia be successful was to have at least 1 person in their life who is their cheerleader. At least one person who was their encourager.” CF 

*“As their moms, we know they are super smart and super intelligent, they just don’t know it yet and it’s our job to show them.” CF 

*For all the things that technology brings that can be problematic, there are also wonderful parts of technology that helps people with things like dyslexia. It can give them an opportunity for success.” GE 

*“Spend way more time on your child’s gifts and talents than on the things they’re struggling with!” CF 

*“Our culture likes to celebrate success right now, not the long, slow, version of success that some kids achieve.” GE 

*“Tell your kids over and over, ‘I love that about you’” CF 

What a treat to spend the month of August talking all things home school in my new series Back to Home School. As a second-generation home schooler, I have loved home schooling for almost my whole life. Home schooling was an incredible gift to me as a student and now it is an incredible gift to me as a mom who is home schooling her kids. I share a little bit about my own home school journey in this episode and then jump into discussing the joys of home schooling in high school, as well as the early years. I hope you come away with the reminder that you are doing a good job wherever you’re at in your home-schooling journey. And I hope you’ll be inspired to cast a vision for homeschooling from kindergarten all the way through those beautiful high school years. 

Here are some of the resources mentioned in this episode: 

Learn more about Home School Legal Defense Association here 

Home School High School: a Handbook for Christian Education by Carrie De Fransisco  

Becoming Home Schoolers: Give Your Kids a Great Education, a Strong Family, and a Life They’ll Thank You For Later by Monica Swanson 

Learning Well community with Alicia Hutchinson 

Cloud 9 Adventure  James Eskridge’s first illustrated book with 1000 Hours Outside 

Include these life skills in high school—cooking, travel, finances, home repair, community service, household chores, child care, hospitality, event planning, navigating the doctor’s office, the DMV, filling out forms and paperwork…these are all things they should be learning and doing in high school. 

The Early Years a blog post by Greta Eskridge 

Home School 101 Instagram highlight by Greta Eskridge 

Here are some favorite quotes from this episode: 

*”Being home schooled is one of the greatest gifts of my life.” GE 

*”Someday your kids will be the ones to say to you, ‘mom, dad, being homeschooled is one of the biggest blessing of my life.” GE 

*”There is no perfect educational system.” GE 

*”You are your kid’s first teacher.” GE 

*”You need to have a vision for your home school journey. You need to have a vision for where you want to end up.” GE 

“There are so many reasons to keep home schooling through high school. 

Some of my favorites are: freedom, flexibility, so much less social pressure, the ability to have solid biblical truth as part of their studies, and so much more time together in the last years they’re going to be home.” GE 

*One thing that holds parents back from wanting to home school their kid in high school is that they think their kids are going to miss out on what they see as really important things. But parents need to ask themselves, “is it important to my kid or is it important to me?’” GE 

*”Their high school experience is going to look different than yours because they are home schooled. But different doesn’t mean bad. It just means different.” GE 

*”You don’t need much to home school your kids. You can home school with a Bible, a math book and a library card”. Carole Joy Seid 

*”Home schooling is best when it is personalized to your family and all the ways you live and learn best.” GE 

“Find ways to inject joy into your home school.” GE 

In this episode I have the absolute pleasure of talking to Dr. Joy Skarka.  Joy is a leader in helping women find freedom and healing from sexual shame with her doctoral work, leading seminars and workshops with Authentic Intimacy, and now is the author of a new book on the topic, Her Freedom Journey—a guide out of porn and shame to authentic intimacy.  

In her book, Joy bravely shares her own journey from addiction to freedom. She educates her readers on the way porn use fuels harm, addiction and shame. But she doesn’t leave us there. Instead, she offers so much help and hope to her readers who might be struggling with these issues themselves or want to help someone who is. This book is going to be such an incredible resource to many. It is going to change lives. This episode is full of so many practical tips, encouragement and hope. I am truly honored to introduce you to Dr. Joy today. And I am so proud to share this conversation with you. 

Some helpful links from today’s episode: 

Get resources from Dr. Joy’s website here 

Follow Dr. Joy on Instagram here 

Get Dr. Joy’s book, Her Freedom Journey, here 

Get more resources on all kinds of sexual issues from Authentic Intimacy here 

Hopeful bible verse: “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4 

Some favorite quotes from today’s episode: 

 *“Look at all that God has done!” Dr. Joy Skarka 

*“Girls use porn too. And girls need to be protected from porn too.” Greta Eskridge 

*”If we don’t talk about it for women and they’re secretly struggling, there is just so much more shame and so many more problems down the line.” Dr. Joy Skarka 

*”Do you know what gave me the courage? Someone else went first. I heard a courageous woman share her story at a college student women’s event. Until that moment, I had never heard a woman admit she struggled with sexual sin. For the first time I realized I wasn’t alone and I wasn’t a total freak for being a woman who struggled with sexual sin.” Dr. Joy Skarka 

*”Really what I needed was healthier coping mechanisms.” Dr. Joy Skarka 

*”Not only is sexual sin addictive, but it is damaging to your brain. It reconstructs your neurological pathways and bonds you to the images because God created you for intimacy.” Dr. Joy Skarka 

*There is more to it than ‘just stop watching porn’. You have to heal your brain and your body too.” Dr. Joy Skarka 

*”You were not created for sex, but for intimacy.” Dr. Joy Skarka 

*”God created us with a longing to be loved and to have intimacy that can only be met through Him. So if we’re turning to these fake things that are trying to give us fake intimacy, we’re always going to come up short and continue to have a longing for more.” Dr. Joy Skarka 

*”By delighting in Him, you find something that doesn’t just numb the pain, but heals the pain. That’s what God does.” Greta Eskridge 

*”The good news is this: we worship a God who redeems and restores our broken sexuality. Not only does God restore the beauty from ashes, but He also restores and renews our brains. We can have hope that even if we have been negatively affected by porn, we can be healed!” Dr. Joy Skarka 

*”We worship a God who can restore anything and that’s our hope. God’s power and His healing and His miracles can restore and redeem anybody’s brains.” Dr. Joy Skarka 

*”The porn industry is purposely creating porn for women. They have a whole branded type of porn, they call it ‘romance porn’. They also have porn to draw in kids because they know if they capture them they’re going to stay with us and be our clients for decades.” Dr. Joy Skarka 

*”Satan wants us to stay in that place of shame. He wants us to feel afraid and to feel like we’re cancelled because of the mistakes of our past, the decisions we made, the things that happened to us, even the things that aren’t our fault. He wants us to hide in that shame. And he wants us to stay quiet. But God can use our story when we bring it into the light.” Greta Eskridge 

*”The enemy thrives in the darkness and he thrives in the shame. But if we bring it into the light, that’s where the healing happens.” Dr. Joy Skarka 

My guest today is my real life friend, the incredible Jennifer Pepito. Jen is a mom to 7 and a grandma to 1.  She is a homeschooler and has been homeschooling for 26 years! Jen is the creator and founder of The Peaceful Press, an author several books, including her newest one, Habits for a Sacred Home -–9 Practices from History to Anchor and Restore Modern Families. I love many things about Jen, but her approach to motherhood has always inspired me so much. She engages in motherhood with so much intentionality and care and that is really the focus of her new book. Jen also highlights the importance and power we are given in our roles as mothers. Her new book is incredibly empowering and inspiring. I loved hearing more about the women Jen highlighted in her book and learning from their stories and I know you will too! 

Some links from today’s episode: 

Find Jennifer’s website The Peaceful Press here 

Follow Jennifer on Instagram here 

Get Jennifer’s book, Habits for a Sacred Home here 

Listen to Jennifer’s podcast here 

Find out about the homeschooling community Wild and Free here 

Find the book The Benedict Option here 

Find the book How the Irish Saved Civilization here 

Find the book For the Children’s Sake here 

Find Tish Oxenreider’s Rule of Life course here 

Some favorite quotes from today’s episode: 

*As mothers, we are teaching our children to value the natural world. We are teaching our children how to read and how to value living books. Appreciation of art, reading real books, picking up after themselves, having dinner around the table and looking at each other in the eye--these are all classical and practical arts, lost arts, that we are saving as mothers.” Jennifer Pepito 

*We as moms are saving our culture with normal, everyday practices we engage in with our families.” Jennifer Pepito 

*“There is power in seemingly simple acts like eating dinner at the table with our family every night.” Greta Eskridge 

*”So much of what we do as mothers can seem hard in the moment, but when we can recognize how powerful it is and what heroes we are for doing it, it can give us a new perspective and make us feel more empowered by what we’re doing.” Jennifer Pepito 

*”The real change starts at home and it starts with moms.” Chris McKenna 

*”We are stepping into the lives of our children and making generational impact.” Greta Eskridge  

*”It’s so important for moms to have a vision of what they could be like.” Jennifer Pepito 

*”The fight to which we have been called is not an easy fight. We are touching the very center of the devil’s power and kingdom, and he hates us intensely and fights hard against us. We have no chance at all of winning in this fight unless we are disciplined soldiers, utterly out-and-out and uncompromising, and men and women of prayer.” Amy Carmichael 

*”If the devil can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy.” Corrie ten Boom 

“I do not think anything worth having in the spiritual world is easily attained. There is no shortcut to holiness. But there can be a true, humble, loving choice of the soul, and that choice, becoming a habit, will lead it into peace.” Amy Carmichael