The Greta Eskridge Podcast

*Don’t forget to pre-order my new book, It’s Time to Talk to Your Kids About Porn: A Parent’s Guide to Helping Children and Teens Develop Sexual Integrity. You can get your copy here! 

And would you consider leaving this podcast a rating and writing a quick little review? A sentence or two would be so great and helpful. You can leave one here. 

Both of these things would be so helpful to me in spreading the word about my mission to help families create connection in a disconnected world. Join me! 

Today I am so excited to welcome homeschool grad and young author, the wonderful Millie Florence! This was my first time meeting Millie, but we share some friends and life experiences, so it felt like we were old friends right away. Millie has multiple middle grade novels out in the world, and her newest novel, Beyond Mulberry Glen comes out in January of 2025. I loved talking to Millie about this new book, about home schooling, about creativity, writing, publishing and more! I know you’ll love this conversation too. Enjoy! 

Where to find Millie: 

Her website here 

Her newest book here 

Her Instagram here 

Resources mentioned in this episode: 

Pre-order goodies here 

Brave Writer (a home school writing program) here 

Honey Butter (Millie’s first book) here 

Ingram Spark (self-publishing book distributor) here 

Waxwing Books (Millie’s publisher) here 

Some favorite quotes from this episode: 

“Home school is customizable.” Millie Florence 

“My mom wanted our home school to be directed by the things we delighted in.” Millie Florence 

“There was never a time in my life when I didn’t want to be a writer.” Millie Florence 

“You’re never going to be ready. You just have to do it.” Sarah Mackensie 

“Look at what you have and use that to the best of your ability.” Millie Florence 

I am delighted to introduce you to today’s guest, my friend Alicia Hutchinson. Alicia and I have been online friends for a long time, and I have enjoyed learning from and have been inspired by her through those years. Alicia is a home schooling mom of 4, the founder of the Learning Well Community and the Learning Well Journal. She is not afraid to go deep and in fact, she’d much rather go deep than waste time with small talk. As a result, we dive deep right away in this podcast episode where we talk about a lot of things, but especially focus on home schooling in the high school years. I know you will enjoy this episode!

Where to find Alicia:

On her website here

In her home school journal here

On Instagram here and here

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Some favorite quotes from this episode:

“Hard things are not bad things, and sometimes they’re the best things!” Alicia Hutchinson

“The growth that happens from 14-18 is phenomenal and I would not miss that for the world.” Alicia Hutchinson

“High school is like the frosting on the cake!” Alicia Hutchinson

“There is a fear that comes with keeping kids home in high school but we don’t have to give into that.” Greta Eskridge

“I can’t teach my kids physics, but I bet I can find someone who can!” Greta Eskridge

“Everything you say yes to, you are saying no to something else.” Alicia Hutchinson

Don’t forget to pre-order my new book!  Get your copy of It’s Time to Talk to Your Kids About Porn—A Parent’s Guide to Helping Children and Teens Develop Sexual Integrity clicking on the title of the book. 

Today’s episode is extra fun because it is my first episode with a guest from outside the Untied States. Meet Dave Boden, my friend from England! Dave is also the husband of one of my dear friends, Leah Boden, who is also known as Modern Miss Mason. Dave and I thought it was great fun that he was a guest on my show before Leah was. We sure had a great time together in this episode. I especially loved talking to Dave about his heart for reaching the next generation for Christ. Whether you have teens in your life or will one day, this episode will remind you that teenagers and young adults are craving meaning and purpose in their lives and we can help them find that through Jesus. I know you’ll love this conversation. 

Where to find Dave: 

On Substack here 

His website here 

On Instagram here 

His book Like or Follow here 

His book Parallel Faith here 

Resources mentioned in this episode: 

Get a discount on bulk orders of Dave’s book Like or Follow from 10 of Those here 

Some favorite quotes from this episode: 

“The heart of my family is all about the next generation. That is what we’re passionate about. We’re captivated by reaching the next generation.” Dave Boden 

“If we’re open to teens and we don’t think the worst of them, we’ll see they’re such incredible people. At that time of life, they’re so excited about the world and they have ideas and questions and they want to learn.” Greta Eskridge 

“Discover how Jesus can reframe your world with hope and purpose.” Dave Boden 

“A part of our call as Christians is to leave our Christian bubble, bridge the gap and go where people are.” Dave Boden 

“There are three questions every person has: who am I, what am I here for and where do I belong? Young people are asking these questions and searching for the answers.” Dave Boden 

“Jesus is a real person who answers the real questions in our lives, but the places young people are searching won’t necessarily lead them to this answer.” Dave Boden 

“Your kid might be pretty good at attending church. But the goal of Christianity is not to church people. The goal of Christianity is to help people become like Jesus.” Dave Boden 

“So for me the end result is how Christ like are my children becoming? And how can our children become Christ like if they don’t know Christ?” Dave Boden 

“Young people are looking for adventure. They’re looking for a sense of purpose. They are looking to right wrongs. And they’re longing for hope.” Dave Boden 

“Teen don’t want to just be told about their faith. They want to go out and do it!” Dave Boden 

“We’re meant to be inspired by Jesus and then go out and do inspiring things with Jesus! That message is incredible for teenagers! It helps them know they’re called to a great destiny.” Dave Boden 

“Let’s rebel against low expectations! Jesus has incredible expectations for all His disciples.” Dave Boden 

“Parents are so scared of the teen years. And I just tell them that it is an amazing time! Just like they were incredible humans when they were babies and toddlers and preschoolers, they’re incredible humans when they’re teenagers!” Greta Eskridge  

“We should say to teens, “look at all you can do as a young person of faith!” Greta Eskridge  

“As parents we need to support our kids as they make their faith their own. And a lot of times that looks like saying, “yes, you can have your friends over to sit around and talk about God. I’ll make snacks.” Greta Eskridge 

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

This is your reminder to pre-order my new book, It’s Time to Talk to Your Kids About Porn: a Parent’s Guide to Helping Children and Teens Develop Sexual Integrity, today!  

I have been asked to write this book for years and now, I have! Your pre-orders are tremendously helpful in growing the reach this book will have. I need your help in getting this book into as many hands as I possibly can, so pre-order and share away! 

You can pre order It’s Time to Talk to Your Kids About Porn here 

In today’s episode, I get to talk with my friend Amber Johnston. Amber is a wife, a home-schooling mom to 4, a world traveler, author and speaker. She is also a world changer! One of the things that has most impressed me about Amber in my years of knowing her is the way she sees something that needs to be done and she does it. This is the way she changes the world. It is inspiring and hopeful. We talk about this and so much more in this episode. You are sure to enjoy it. 

Where to find Amber: 

Find Amber’s website here 

Find Amber’s first book, A Place to Belong, here 

Find Amber’s second book, Soul School, here 

Find Amber on Instagram here 

Where to find the books mentioned in today’s episode: 

Find Soul School here 

Find The Read Aloud Family here 

Find Honey for a Child’s Heart here 

Find Honey for a Woman’s Heart here 

Find Honey for a Teen’s Heart here 

Find Book Girl here 

Find Read for the Heart here 

Some favorite quotes from today’s episode: 

“The freedom of home schooling is one of, if not the best parts of home schooling. Even as a kid, I recognized the beauty of the freedom of home schooling.” Greta Eskridge  

“My husband originally suggested home school and I burst out laughing. It was literally the most ridiculous thing I had ever heard. Then I joined a home-schooling group and that changed everything for me becau was in constant community.” Amber Johnston 

“Those moms gently and consistently told me I was the best. They spoke truth into me and built me up and that made all the difference.” Amber Johnston 

“My kids were always visitors to someone else’s stories and that was something we had to radically change.” Amber Johnston 

“You know your kids and you know what makes their learning come alive. That’s a beautiful part of home schooling.” Greta Eskridge 

“If there is a book you want to read but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” Toni Morrison 

“Don’t complain. Don’t talk about it. Be about it!” Amber Johnston 

“I am really proud to have that work not just for home school moms but into perpetuity and into society and to be able to say there was a point in time when these authors and illustrators were given their flowers and really focused on.” Amber Johnston 

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

Reminder to pre-order my new book, It’s Time to Talk to Your Kids About Porn: a Parent’s Guide to Helping Children and Teens Develop Sexual Integrity, right now and it will arrive at your door step March 4, 2025! You all have been asking for this book for years and I have been praying I could write it for years and now, I have. Please go ahead and pre-order it now as that is tremendously helpful in the reach this book will have. And then share the heck out of it, OK? I’ll need your help in getting this book into as many hands as I possibly can. 

You can pre order It’s Time to Talk to Your Kids About Porn here 

Today’s episode is part 2 of my conversation with Anna and Nathan Sutherland. Today I get to speak with Nathan and our conversation it going to enlighten and inspire you! Nathan and his wife Anna are the founders of Gospel Tech, an organization that exists to equip families to use tech in a God honoring way in a tech saturated world. Rather than painting all tech as bad, Anna and Nathan want to help families talk about tech, communicate the gospel and connect the hope in the gospel to the use of tech. It is a beautiful mission and they are doing it so well! 

In an effort to get more of this message into the hands of more people, Nathan wrote the book, Gospel-Centered Tech: Raising Faithful Followers of Christ in a Digitally Distracted World. This book will enlighten and inspire you to push forward in using tch in the best way possible with your family—a way that honors God. Yes, you can honor God with your tech use! Nathan’s book and our conversation is honest and helpful and it is also hopeful. That is such an important element whenever we talk about tech use and screen time. It is not all doom and gloom! I know you are going to love this episode like I did. 

Where to find Nathan: 

Find Nathan’s book here 

Learn more about Gospel Tech here 

Follow Gospel Tech on Instagram here 

Some favorite quotes from today’s episode: 

“There are two kinds of tech: tool tech and drool tech. Tech that helps us build is on the tool side and tech that helps us consume is on the drool side.” Nathan Sutherland 

“Drool tch comes to the table with it’s own goals. It wants to take our time and our focus and our money. And until we understand that, we’re going to wonder why we keep fighting with our family. We’re never going to understand why it’s always Fortnite and never Microsoft Word.” Nathan Sutherland 

“We aren’t perfect in our tech use. But the goal isn’t to be perfect. The goal is to be humble enough to recognize we need a savior and that applies to our tech too.” Anna Sutherland 

“We need to know understanding what operant conditioning is so that we can have compassion for our kid when they’re stuck in the loop of social media or a video game.” Greta Eskridge 

“Technology isn’t fair. It’s designed to increase engagement and build habits. That is not an accident. They’re using a mind bending amount of data to give you things you didn’t even know you wanted. And to make you think you need things that you never wanted.” Nathan Sutherland 

“The definition of addiction is when you give up what you need to get what you want.” Nathan Sutherland 

“When we understand how tech works it gives us the opportunity to come to our kids with compassion and grace and understanding rather than the frustration we often resort to.” Greta Eskridge 

“Dumb phones are great!” Greta Eskridge  

“Porn is bombastic now. I don’t know if the porn I saw in 7th grade even counts as porn anymore. I’m not 100% sure that we adults understand what kids are experiencing from their pocket device or their friend showed them on the bus.” Nathan Sutherland 

“It’s not about porn proofing. It’s about equipping them to make the best choices. It’s about not being afraid to bring it up with them. It’s about not being afraid to answer their questions. These are all things we can do to help our kids be resilient in this world that is saturated with porn.” Greta Eskridge 

I shared some big news at the start of this episode: my new book is available for pre-order! That’s right, you can go pre-order my next book, It’s Time to Talk to Your Kids About Porn: a Parent’s Guide to Helping Children and Teens Develop Sexual Integrity, right now and it will arrive at your door step March 4, 2025! I am just overjoyed to be sharing this book with parents and giving them the tools they need to talk to their kids about a subject that can feel daunting, uncomfortable, scary, painful or just too difficult. Or maybe a mix of all of those things. I am here to help! You all have been asking for this book for years and I have been praying I could write it for years and now, I have. Please go ahead and pre-order it now as that is tremendously helpful in the reach this book will have. And then share the heck out of it, OK? I’ll need your help in getting this book into as many homes as I possible can. 

Pre Order It’s Time to Talk to Your Kids About Porn here 

And now, for the rest of today’s episode:  I get to speak with Anna Sutherland and our conversation it going to inspire and excite you! Anna and her husband Nathan are the founders of Gospel Tech, an organization that exists to equip families to use tech in a God honoring way in a tech saturated world. Rather than painting all tech as bad, Anna and Nathan want to help families talk about tech, communicate the gospel and connect the hope in the gospel to the use of tech. It is a beautiful mission and they are doing it so well! 

In alignment with that mission, Anna just wrote a book called The Graceful Disconnect:  25 Days to a Quieter Heart in a Tech Saturated World. In this episode I get to talk with Anna and Nathan, but really focus on Anna’s book. Next week you’ll get to hear from Nathan and his book! Anna’s book is a challenge, but it is a doable challenge. And an inspiring one that most of us, if we’re honest, need to take part in. I can’t wait for you to learn more as you listen. 

Where to find Anna: 

Find Anna’s book here 

Learn more about Gospel Tech here 

Follow Gospel Tech on Instagram here 

Some favorite quotes from today’s episode: 

*“Moms, this is why I am writing to you. As much as we’d like to turn a blind eye to that screen time number that pops up (our own and our children’s) we simply cannot. We are fools if we think the conditions of our hearts aren’t impacted by what we digitally consume.” Anna Sutherland 

*“Most conversations take at least seven minutes to really begin.” Sherry Turkle 

*“The car is a space where we default to isolation. What if, instead, it became a place for conversation and connection?” Anna Sutherland 

*“You can speak a common language because you share the time in the car instead of everyone doing their own thing.” Greta Eskridge  

*“Even as a kid, I recognized there was a break in connection when people put their headphones on.” Greta Eskridge 

*“We’re playing the long game as parents. We want these kids to launch and to be successful adults. Our job is teach them how to do that. Life is a parenting opportunity.” Anna Sutherland 

*“Tech is the easy default because we don’t have to deal with our kids. But easy is not the goal.” Anna Sutherland 

*“My grandma was a stay-at-home mom and her ministry was cookies. That’s attainable. I can make cookies! And she prayed for us every day and it’s incredible to have that kind of prayer covering. She made a difference for the kingdom.” Anna Sutherland 

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 

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