Every marriage has a story.

How you met. How you realized they were the one. What life has been like since getting married.  

We realized that we hadn't fully shared our story and how God brought us together.  It certainly had twists and turns and each of us made decisions that could have ultimately kept us from living in God's will but through His grace He finally brought us together.

Listen and hear the story but also the significance of marriage being a mission. 

You may have been told before you had kids that once they come there is no going back.  It changes everything.  It's hard to know how true that is until it comes but if we aren't careful it can create difficult challenges for the marriage.  

Griffin and Heather ran into this recently in what seemed like a random moment.  Heather felt like she needed more time and focus on the marriage and Griffin was surprised by the feeling.  How they reacted to the conversation was critical. 

Listen and hear this discussion about protecting your marriage and connection while going through the business of raising kids.  How can you prioritize each other? How do you make sure you have quality time so you don't miss important moments? 

Hormones!

We all know that every month a woman is impacted physically, mentally and emotionally.  The question is how does that disrupt the marriage?

It may or may not be an open and comfortable conversation in your home but if you aren't on the same page with this time of the month then you can open yourselves up to issues that develop over time.

Listen and hear how Heather and Griffin have hit a breakthrough with not only understanding this dynamic better but making sure it doesn't negatively impact their intimacy and connection. 

A new year always produces reflective thoughts.  

Where are we in life?  Where are we headed?  Are things where we want them to be?

With how busy and overwhelming life is it can be tempting to just ask those questions but not have a true plan to move forward.  

This episode is a discussion about why it is necessary to grow and move forward.  Why we must not get stagnant and just stay where we are.  We all have habits and reasons why we don't grow and progress whether it be individually or as a couple.  Listen to Griffin and Heather's passion around never wanting to settle in every aspect of life.  

Gratitude is a choice.

Unfortunately it isn't always the natural one.  As we've discussed before it can be easy to live in a place of discontent and wanting rather than a place of gratefulness.  

Listen and hear Heather and Griffin speak on the power of gratefulness.  You will hear them explore the significance of what your gratitude is anchored to and why it takes work to develop a natural heart of gratitude.  

They also unpack how important it is to show your spouse and children what you are thankful for regularly.  

Making life-changing decisions always comes with trepidation.  

This year Griffin and Heather made the big decision to homeschool all of their children.  After praying and seeking the Lord's guidance they made the move to alter their lives and maybe more significantly the lives of their children.

This episode explores the challenges of making big decisions as a family.  How do you deal with second-guessing the decision? Is it a bad decision if it is hard? How important is it to be unified in these kinds of decisions as a couple?

It's hard not to be anxious or worried.

When you open social media, check the news or even just go about your day you run into information that is unsettling.

Politics, wars, daily news, hurricane destruction, etc. make it really hard to avoid being affected by so many challenging circumstances in the world. 

So, what's the balance between caring and being informed versus being overwhelmed by it all? How much time and energy should we put towards all of these things out of our control?

It's not an easy answer but important to talk about because as you have noticed things don't seem to get better very often.

Listen and hear Heather and Griffin talk about how they guard themselves after feeling the impact of being caught up in certain things in the past.  Hear how they help each other stay on track and focused on the things they can control. 

The demands on your life are strong.

Do you often feel like you can't keep up? Like you are falling behind and missing things you should be keeping up with?

One of the most common questions Griffin and Heather get is "How do you do it all?"  The true answer is that they don't feel like they do.  The feeling is often that we are not keeping up well enough.

Listen and hear Heather specifically unpack how this challenge feels as a mother.  She speaks candidly about trying to meet the needs of the kids, keep up with the house, love Griffin well, etc.  

Words matter.

You can think back to different times in your life where words made a significant impact on your life.  It could have been positive or negative but when people speak into your life it leaves a mark, especially when those words come from someone you care about.

It's no different in marriage and parenting.  Your words to your spouse and kids are of extreme importance.  Choose them wisely!

Listen and hear Griffin and Heather open up about the significance of their words in each other's lives.  You will hear how they have failed at this, learned from previous mistakes and how they approach this with their entire family.  

Everyone parents differently.  

There is no easy or perfect template to parenting that creates the best case scenario with our kids.  One thing that is true, though, about parenting is that we are responsible for them.  Their growth, their character, their values, etc.  

Increasingly, it is becoming harder to fight against the influences of our culture to have a strong voice in the lives of our kids.  We fight social media, other kid's influences, and the norms of the world and often times that clashes with what you value as a parent.

In this episode, Heather and Griffin talk about these challenges and some of the decision they are making to gain more influence in the lives of their five kids.  They aren't telling you to do it their way but having a conversation on not only what they are doing but why they are doing it.  Hopefully it sparks great thoughts for you as a parent or a future parent.