Undone Redone

Tray and Melody are joined by Sam Black from covenant eyes to discuss the need for filtering and accountability online, authentic community, intentionality and living a life of freedom.

Tray, Melody and Sam discuss the importance of having not only accountability partners in life but the benefits of utilizing tools that Covenant Eyes provides. These tools not only allow you to put filters in place for your children but also allow their internet history to be sent to you in a report weekly. This is a wonderful parenting tool that allows conversations to be opened up and an understanding of personal accountability to begin to be formed.

In addition, they discuss the importance of this tool for adults to use with their spouses and accountability partners in life. This is a freeing step for so many struggling with addiction and keeps you honest with yourself and others about issues you face.

Sam Black is a vice president at Covenant Eyes Internet Accountability, and the author of "The Porn Circuit: Understand Your Brain and Break Porn Habits in 90 Days." He joined the Covenant Eyes team in 2007 after 18 years as a journalist, and has edited 16 books on the impact of pornography and how to protect our families. He has been married for 22 years and is a father of two.

Tray and Melody are joined for the 150th episode of the Undone Redone Podcast by author, speaker, pastor, and entrepreneur Stephen Mizell. Tray, Mel and Stephen talk the messy stories, his own undoing and coming back from the mess through grace.

Growing up a Pastor's kid, Stephen's father urged him to try other things before settling on ministry and Stephen did just that. After trying a slew of jobs and businesses Stephen felt God stirring in his heart in 1995 to go into ministry. He took a church in rural North Carolina where they were for several years.

Around that time he and his wife had gone through several marital issues, but he thought he had dealt with his side of the issues. The big undoing started with the hiring of a new employee at the Church. Conversations lead to an affair with someone else and ended up having to resign from the Church. He and his wife eventually divorced.

They discuss the comparison that is inevitable in our culture where we compare our lives to those of the people around us instead of looking at a perfect Savior. Its in the places of Gospel community where we can surround the conversations of vulnerability and weakness that real healing occurs.

Stephen has been the lead pastor at Open Door Church in Edenton, North Carolina since 2010 and is working in northeastern North Carolina to build life-giving congregations in rural communities. Stephen, a gifted communicator known for making practical truths acceptable to people of all backgrounds, is also part of the John Maxwell team, and has been asked to share leadership principles to churches, business, and organizations of all sizes all around the world.

In addition to sharing biblical and leadership principles in both the United States and abroad, Stephen has written several books including The Long Walk Back.The book chronicles the long, difficult, and arduous journey back from the brink, giving people hope, inspiration, and wisdom. As the subtitle to his book says, there is always a path to recover from failure.

Traylor is joined by artist and craftsman David DelaGardelle of Cedarlore Forge to discuss the journey to becoming a full time craftsman, God fulfilling dreams, marriage, and sword making.

David takes us through the journey of starting sword making as a hobby in high school to now doing this full time. He reflects back on how God provided him with everything he wanted and dreamed and that made him realize these physical and earthly things do not fulfill you.

He walks us through the struggle of seeking perfection and success in your chosen work. David and Tray discuss the heart of men and how deep rooted you seek validation.

David is 29 years old and is married to his wife Hannah. David and Hannah live in Indiana with their 8 month old son, Boaz. Cedarlore Forge is the sole work of artist and craftsman David DelaGardelle. David crafts mythopoetically and historically inspired one-of-a-kind fully functional swords and fine art.

Cedarlore Forge is David's serious artistic exploration of the Northern European mythopoetic tradition, in the form of uniquely hand forged swords and artwork. He attempts to embody the ideology that Professor J.R.R. Tolkien spoke of in his poem "Mythopoeia" when he wrote of the creation of art as a transcendent truth that can glorify and praise our own Creator.

David crafts each piece with meaning and purpose, a mythic story to tell, and a truth to be known. He works with the raw materials as closely as they would have been used thousands of years ago by historical swordsmiths. Also, he is inspired by both the classical and legendary works of old writers and folktales. The natural environments of his childhood shaped his imagination into the craftsman he is today.

Traylor and Melody are joined by Bethany Meadows to talk parenting, faith, adoption, and the great news of the gospel.

Bethany worked in youth ministry as a mother of one daughter and fell in love with teenagers. She called herself a mother to one with the heart of a big family. She ended up reading an article about an organization which ultimately led her to feeling called to adopt. Bethany and her husband ended up adopting 4 siblings despite being overwhelmed and lining up every excuse she could find.

With the addition of four children, Bethany was forced to revaluate her parenting style and discipline techniques all while teaching about God's love and grace.

Getting a Grip is structured to take the reader through the process of developing their own parenting plan. It is a framework upon which a parent can establish and build customized methods for discipline, setting rules and guidelines and even identifying spiritual objectives. Throughout the book, Bethany uses stories and examples from her own parenting journey to illustrate and support each section. In just 10 simple chapters, she guides the reader step-by-step to discover a new way of parenting—a way that is flexible enough to change as needs change.

As a former teen runaway, Bethany did not have an easy or typical start. However, those early experiences as a rebellious teen brought her valuable insights when she adopted a sibling group of four children from the foster care system.

Her story includes many challenges and personal struggles, including an alcoholic spouse, divorce, single motherhood and even the loss of her home to a fire in 2015. She credits her ability to process past loss and overcome trials to an unwavering faith in a loving God.

As a response to bullying, Bethany began homeschooling her biological child in 2001. She continued to homeschool post-adoption with all five children until the youngest graduated from high school.

Bethany began her own marketing firm in 2008 to allow her the flexibility she needed to homeschool and care for her children as a single mother. The agency is aptly named after her motto to "stay vertical" in her faith. Vertical Solutions Media has since grown from a one-woman marketing firm to a full-service marketing agency with a team of six marketing professionals.

When she's not working, Bethany and her husband, Jeff, love to travel, play on the lake and watch movies. In their spare time, they buy rundown homes in their community and renovate them for resale. No matter how busy, Sunday evenings are always set aside for their big blended family to come together for a meal, love and lots of laughter.

Traylor and Melody are joined by author Joy Beth Smith to discuss her book, Party of One, celebrating seasons of singleness, and finding other joys in life.

Joy talks through her upbringing and various aspects of it that have impacted who she is as a person, a christian and a single. She discusses how she has had a desire to have a husband throughout her life, but she also appreciates her singleness as its own beautiful, life giving time on its own. Joy emphasizes that a season of singleness doesn't mean you put your life on pause. There are so many things that single women put off because they are waiting for marriage. Something as simple as buying dishes for your house or taking a trip because you "want to do that with your husband". She encourages women to live their life. Don't live in the limbo of waiting. Do things you desire and buy things you love. That leads to an opportunity to combine lives with someone without losing your individuality.

Joy discusses her experiences with dating and how as a bold, independent woman impacts dealing with the dating world. She discusses her thoughts on how single women are empowered and how this often times shuts men down leading to a insecure man in the dating world. Joy Beth Smith is a managing editor with Christianity Today and winner of the Evangelical Press Association's Higher Goals in Christian Journalism Award. She's been published in the Washington Post, Salt Lake Tribune, Virginia Pilot, and Christ and Pop Culture. After earning her MA degree in English Lit, Joy Beth had a brief stint as a teacher, but now she happily resides in the Chicagoland area, where she no longer has to give anyone permission to go to the bathroom.

Tray is joined by returning guest Chad Bird on episode 146 of the Undone Redone Podcast. They discuss Chad's new book, Your God is Too Glorious, his own undoing and redoing, and the good news of the gospel. Chad discusses his story of undoing and the grace of God that brought him out of it.

Chad discusses his new book focusing on seeing God work in our everyday lives. Our lives are boring and regular, but those are the lives that God is excited to get involved in. Chad reflects on how you can open your heart and mind to seeing how God is working in and through your life. Diving into scripture and discussing the messy stories that bring hope to us that God will meet us in our brokenness. It is the messy, broken sinners that God uses for his most important work.

Tray and Melody are joined again by Pastor, Professor, and Executive Coach Chris McAlister to discuss ordering the chaos, your identity, the impact of the #metoo movement, and healthy marriage.

Chris discusses his views on the #MeToo movement and the positive and negative impacts it has on men and women. Discussing the difference within men and women's identities and traversing the world of dating and romance within this culture.

Healthy marriages need both individuals to be confident in their own identity rather than relying on their spouses to define who they are. What is the big story that God is writing for you? Our spouse is not the adventure, but they are there to join us in that adventure. We can get excited to live life instead of just existing.

Chris is a speaker and has authored 5 books including The Stuck Book, Figure That Shift Out, and The Rider: Avoid Building A Life You Hate. He currently lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and three daughters.

Tray and Melody are joined by former model Leah Darrow to discuss sex, imitation love and true beauty. This conversation seemed from the recent awards show where influential people in Hollywood were standing up for the #MeToo movement and standing up against exploitation, but directly after this the trailer for the new Fifty Shades Freed movie was played. A movie that is entirely about abuse, imitation love and exploitation. Leah tweeted about the ignorance or compliance that Hollywood shows when they do things like this.

Leah takes us through her season of understanding the difference of authentic love and imitation love and the impact that imitation love has on your life. She talks about at 15 she chose imitation love and what that decision did to her conscious and how her worth and value got tied up in imitation love and imitation beauty.

Leah's undone moment happened in the middle of a photoshoot where she God met her and told her "I made you for more". At that moment Leah knew this "life" she had created wasn't what would bring her fulfillment. She made a bold decision to pick up her things and walk out of this photoshoot. She realized that she had made Jesus a nobody but had made the world everything. That is when things began to shift and change for her and she decided to reclaim her role as a daughter of a king.

Leah is a former model and contestant on cycle 3 of America's Next Top Model and has a driving passion to inspire women to do something beautiful with their lives. She is an international speaker, writer and host of the Do Something Beautiful podcast. Her book The Other Side Of Beauty allows Leah to expose the lies we are told about our worth being tied to our appearance. https://info.thomasnelson.com/the-other-side-of-beauty/

Leah and her husband live in St. Louis, Missouri where they are raising their three marvelous and crazy children. Follow Leah as she helps readers live truly beautiful lives that ultimately point to God on her website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Tray and Mel are joined in studio by Jacob Simmons to discuss the often brushed aside topic of sexual brokenness and the Church. When it comes to sexual brokenness, the church remains silent on it because they often think, "Oh we'd never do something like that" and it becomes hard for someone to seek help form the church when they are comparing their shame to everyone else's highlight reel.

Tray shares some staggering statistics released by the largest porn site in regards to consumption of pornography in 2017 showing that the enemy is hunting in the unique place of sexuality where God can meet us. There is a tsunami of lust pouring over us and its only a few clicks away. The church being silent has created a vacuum because how do we expect our children to have a healthy education of sex when it isn't discussed.

Jacob is the Minister to single adults at Shades Mountain Baptist Church so he has the unique viewpoint of dealing with sexual brokenness in the young adult aspect of the church and single adults in the church. He offers his insight of how to reach this group of people and they discuss the topic of sexuality for young people.

When we directly or indirectly send the message that people inside the church don't have these struggles, we lend this idea that to know better is to do better. But more information didn't lead to better behavior. If more information did change us, Jesus didn't have to die.

Jacob joined Shades Mountain Baptist Church as the Minister to Single Adults in May of 2015. Shades was his home church during college and seminary. He is over the unmarried adults in the church meaning he leads and administers Sunday school classes, Discipleship Groups, Bible Studies, and outreach. He's also the minister who oversees Pastoral Care and Benevolence. Jacob is married to Suzanne, who is a hospital chaplain at UAB Hospital, and father to John.

In his spare time Jacob is also part of the improv group Ugly baby. He has been improvising since 2009 and has been able to perform in Birmingham, London, Edinburgh, Chicago, New York and Atlanta.

Tray and Mel are joined by Erik Guzman to discuss spirituality, his new book, and have an honest conversation about the beauty of Christianity.

Erik discusses how various people he has had the opportunity to speak with have impacted his life and put him on a path of discovery. Jesus takes us into not just the blatant stuff but the nuances of our brokenness and that really shows us the beauty and amazingness of Christ's Grace.

Erik discusses his mini book The Gift of Addiction and how true Spirituality is just desperation. Even though it is messy and hard, working in addiction shows that desperation and how to let the Gospel work in their lives.

In a labyrinth, there are no dead ends, if you follow the path you will always end up at the center of it. I thought at first that this represented my walk with God but then I got a thought that was definitely from outside myself.

I was the one at the center of the labyrinth and Christ was walking to get to me. I had built this wall, this labyrinth for him to walk and sometimes he would come closer to the center and other times he would be sent further from it, but He is always coming for me.There is no way that He would not be able to reach me in that labyrinth.

Another example of this is building your own prison with your own life and when the circumstances of life start to destroy your prison, we begin to double down on that prison. Slowly the vines begin to come in and break down those walls further. What you don't realize about those vines, the seeds of those vines are planted by God's love.

What feels like death and destruction of your life is actually freeing you from your prison. That shadow you've been running to is cast by a light and if you turn towards the light you don't see the shadow.

Erik is the author of The Gift of Addiction, a book that dives into the healing elements of pain in our lives, and also The Seed: A True Myth. He is VP of Communications & Executive Producer at Key Life Network. Erik is co-host of the nationally syndicated talk show Steve Brown, Etc. and announcer for Key Life. He has a BA in Mass Communication, an MBA, and is perpetually working toward a Masters in Theological Studies.

Erik's wife tolerates his insanity and his three children enjoy it. Erik is also a drummer, a 5th degree black belt in Aikido, and a self-obsessed over-achiever who can't stop talking about himself.