Wildly Hopeful with Brandy Dawson

Christmas in October, Adult Freindships & Holiday Cheer, oh my!

Can Thanksgiving and Christmas lights coexist? Yes. My answer is yes. Can the woman hosting dinner please sit down and eat while the food is still warm? Also, that's a yes from me. Brandy is back with What About This? on Fridays corner of Wildly Hopeful with seventeen tabs open in her brain to yap about. Life updates you did'nt ask for, group texts gone quiet, and a cookie skillet situation involving questionable amounts of butter. It's all here and we're also talking about friendships, holiday stress, Thanksgiving games to play, thoughtful gift ideas, and finding joy while you're still asking God to change some things in your life.

A little Jesus, A little Tinsel magic, and permission to let somebody else make the potatoes. Grab your coffee and let's catch up. Shall we? Also, would you send this to your Christmas in October friend so she knows we are a whole community? And send it to your friend who just needs a laugh and a seat at the table.

LET'S KEEP THE CONVO GOING:

to inquire about the podcast, to invite Brandy to be a guest, or for speaking engagements: [email protected]

Website + Blog: brandyadawson.com

Instagram: @brandyadawson

Substack: Musings of a Wildly Hopeful

You finally feel like you have time to sit down with your Bible. The coffee is warm. You have every intention of spending time with Jesus and...

Then you remember the laundry. A text comes through. Somebody needs something. And somehow, you're thinking about dinner while reading the Bread of Life. You want to know Him more, but does being still really feel this complicated? This week on Wildly Hopeful, Brandy Dawson welcomes author, Toutuber, and Happy & Healthy podcast host Jeanine Amapola Ward for a conversation about abiding when your mind has seventeen tabs open and your life refuses to quiet down.

This is an honest look at how easily we turn our relationship with God into one more place to prove we are doing enough. With her devotional, The Abiding Way: A 40-Day Devotional Study Through The Gospel of John, Jeanine invites us to spend the time getting to know Jesus. The One Who calls us to follow Him. Who meets shame with an invitation to into the light. Who weeps with grieving friends, even knowing resurrection is coming.

And we make room for questions, too.

For the Martha who would love to sit with Mary but wondering who is going to clean up the kitchen, pull up a chair.

To Connect with Jeanine:

Explore Jeanine's books + podcast: JeanineAmapola.com

Instagram: @JeanineAmapola

Listen to Happy & Healthy with Jeanine Amapola Ward wherever you get your podcasts

LET'S KEEP TALKING

To inquire about being a guest on Wildly Hopeful, invite Brandy to be a guest on your podcast, or to speak: [email protected]

Website + Blog: brandyadawson.com

Instagram:@brandyadawson

Substack: Musings of a Wildly Hopeful

Podcast: Follow or subscribe to Wildly Hopeful wherever you listen or watch. If these conversations have encouraged you, a rating or review helps another woman find her way to the table.

What happens when life looks nothing like you prayed it would?

Have you ever worried about how you would surrive something that hasn't even happened yet? In this episode of Wildly Hopeful, Brandy sits down with author Katie M. Kelley to talk about trusting God's goodness , finding grace in unexpected places, and learning to live a life we never could have prepared for.

Through honest stories of motherhood, disability, divorce, restoration, and unexpected joy, Katie shares her heart behind her new book, Grace Will Be There: Finding God in the Life We Aren't Ready For.

Together, we explore what it means to trust God when prayers remain unanswered, why hope doesn't require us to deny our grief, and His grace meets us in the ordinary moments of an unfinished story.

Friend, you don't have to figure out every possible tomorrow. You van live with today's grace.

Key Topics:

• The importance of noticing small graces in daily life
• How unexpected challenges reveal God's grace
• Practical self-care for busy families
• The role of faith overcoming adversities
• The significance of small, intentional choices
• The importance of honesty with God in suffering
• Trusting God's sovereignty despite unanswered prayers
• The role of joy and laughter in healing

Connect with Katie M. Kelley:

Website: https://www.katiemkelley.com

Instagram: @katiemblackburn

Substack: https://www.katieblackburn.substack.com

Book: Grace Will Be There

Podcast: Coffee + Crumbs

If this conversation encouraged you, please share it with a friend who needs the reminder that God's grace will meet here there, too.

Stay wildly hopeful, friend!

Connect with Brandy:

Podcast and speaking inquiries: [email protected]

Website + Blog: brandyadawson.com

Instagram: @brandyadawson

Substack:Musings of a Wildly Hopeful

What if you're consuming more Christian content than ever but still longing to know Jesus more deeply?

We can scroll our phones and study theology. We're saving Bible study reels, collecting devotionals, and trying to get spiritual growth just right. But here's the question... Is all of that information forming us into women who look more like Jesus?

My friend Monica Ritchie is back at the Wildly Hopeful table, and we're going from fashion to faith. All things fashion school and Instagram influencing to seminary, spiritual formation, and her new book, Fashioned By Faith. We even talk about hormones and the weather for us gals that stay hot. We're talking about it all.

You don't have to perform your way into God's love. And you don't have to confuse the slowness of formation with His absence. We're all being formed by something, friend. The question is, what's forming us?

Connect with Monica:

Instagram: @it'smonicaritchie

Website: monicaritchie.com

Podcast: Theologically Fashioned

Book: Fashioned By Faith: Spiritual Disciplines for Deepening Your Faith With God

KEEP THE CONVERSATION GOING

If this conversation met you where you are, send it to a friend you think may need it oo.

Connect with Brandy:

To inquire about being a guest on the show: [email protected]

Instagram: @brandyadawson

Website + Blog: brandyadawson.com

Substack:Musings Of A Wildly Hopeful

What if Courage isn't the absence of fear, but trusting God while you're still afraid?

In this episode of Wildly Hopeful, Brandy sits down with bestselling author Laura L. Smith to talk about her book Brave Woman. Mighty God and what the couragous women of the Bible can teach us about fear, faith, waiting, comparision, calling, friendship, prayer, and finding God in ordinary life.

If you have ever felt afraid, unqualified, overlooked, or stuck in the middle of a story you did't choose, this conversation is for you. The women of Scripture wern't fearless superheroes, they were real women who learned to trust a mighty and faithful God. And the same God who met them then is still meeting us today.

You Don't Have to Be Fearless to Be Brave. You can take the next faithful step, even with shaky knees.

To connect further with Laura L. Smith:

Website: LauraSmithAuthor.com

Instagram: @laurasmithauthor

To connect further with Brandy:

Podcast collaboration and speaking engagements: [email protected]

Instagram:@brandyadawson

Website + Blog:brandyadawson.com

Substack:Musings of A Wildly Hopeful

What does our life look like when hope and grief coexist at the same time?And what does healing look like when life doesn't go back to the way it was before? Today on Wildly Hopeful, Brandy sits down with Johanna Rojas Vann, author of American Immigrant and her newest novel Where Wilted Flowers Bloom, for an honest conversation about grief, faith, motherhood, child loss, unexpected friendship, and finding hope in the middle of heartbreak.

This conversation is an invitation to believe that you don't have to wait until everything is better to have hope. Something beautiful may already be growing here. Even here, in unlikely places.

To connect further with Johanna:

Website: johannavann.com

Instagram: @johannarvann

Book: Where Wilted Flowers Bloom

To connect further with Brandy:

Podcast Collaboration and Speaking engagements: [email protected]

Website + Blog: brandyadawson.com

Instagram: @brandyadawson

Substack: Musings of A Wildly Hopeful

What happens when you genuinely love God but still feel far away from Him? In this episode of Wildly Hopeful, Brandy sits down with writer and Inner Revival podcast host Monika Kirkland to talk about it along her debut nonfiction book, Ever With You: Becoming Fully Awake to the God Who Is Near.

The chat about spiritual exhaustion, distraction, prayer, rest and the subtle pressures many women carry to prove their faithfulness to God. Maybe becoming aware of God's presence has less to do with trying harder to reach Him and more to do with waking up to Him being present and near all along. If you feel tired, distracted, or simply hungry for deeper intamacy with Him, pull up a chair. This conversation is for you.

Oh, by the way- they make talk about oenning Rom-Com's too. This is one you don't want to miss if you want a good girls-gilrl convo with alot of seriousness and laughter:)

Ever With You: Becoming Fully Awake to the God Who is Near is out now.

To connect with Monika:

https://www.MonikaKirkland.com

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/monikakirkland/.

To further connect with Brandy A. Dawson:

To inquire about podcast collaboration or speaking engagements: [email protected]

Website + Blog:@brandyadawson.com

Instagram: @brandyadawson

Substack:Musings of A Wildly Hopeful

There are some conversations that feel easier to whisper than to say out loud. This is one of them. When Christians talk about alcohol, the conversation somehow gets reduced to camps instead of compassion. And we're often left feeling like we have to choose sides instead of leaning into discernement. One side talks about freedom. The other talks only about conviction. But what if we have been asking the wrong questions and the invitation is to become more attentive to the Holy Spirit?

What if the deeper invitation isn't simply, "Can I drink?" But rather " What is shaping my heart?"

In this tender + very brave conversation, Brandy sits down with Christy Osbornee - founder of Love Life Sober, to explore Christian freedom, personal conviction, emotional coping, burnout, and what it looks like to be more attentive to the Holy Spirit without shame and judegement.

This episode is not about putting alcohol on trial. It isn't about telling you what your conviction should be. It's about creating a safe space to become honest before the Lord and ask the quiet questions many women have been carrying for a long time.

Whether you drink regularly, occasionally, not at all, or you're simply curious about your own relationship with alcohol, this conversation is an invitation to listen- not fear, but with honesty, grace, and open hands.

• A Gentle Listener Note

This episode includes conversation around alcohol, sobriety, emotional coping, addiction, and healing. If these topics feel tender or close to your heart, please listen gently. There is no condemnation waiting for you here.

About Christy Osborne

Christy Osborne is the founder of Love Life Sober, a certified sobriwty coach, author, speaker, and podcast host. Through her coaching, community, podcast, and book, Love Life Sober: A 40-Day Alcohol Fast to Rediscover Your Joy, Improve Your Health, and Renew Your Mind, she helps women examine their relationship with alochol with compassion, curiosity, and practical support.

To further connect with Brandy

To enquire about podcast collaboration or speaking engagements: [email protected]

Website + Blog: brandyadawson.com

Instagram: @brandyadawson

Substack:Musings of Grace

Have you ever replayed a conversation, questioned whether you said the wrong, or carried the weight of someone else's opinion long after the moment passed?

What if the harshest judgement you experience isn't coming from others- but from your own heart?

In this episode of wildly Hopeful, Brandy sits down with author, Bible teacher, and podcast host Shannon Popkin to talk about judgement, discernment, mercy, and the freedom Jesus offers. Drawing from her new book, Kinda Judgy: Finding Mercy for Myself and Others in Six Stories of the Bible, Shannon explores Noah, Rhab, Jonah, Simon the Pharisee, the man born blind, and the thief on the cross to show how Scripture reshapes the way we view ourselves, others, and the heart of God.

If you've ever struggled with comparison, criticism, church hurt, people-pleasing, or wondering if you'll ever measure up, this conversation will remind you that the invitation of Jesus has always been mercy.

Connect with Shannon

Website: https://www.shannonpopkin.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shannonpopkin

Podcast: Live Like It's True

Book- Kinda Judgy: Finding Mercy for Myself and Others in Six Stories of the Bible

Connect with Brandy

For podcast collaboration and speaking engagments: [email protected]

Website + Blog: brandyadawson.com

Instagram: @brandyadawson

Substack:Musings of Grace

*A gentle note before you listen:

This episode includes conversations about child loss, abuse, grief, and trauma. Please care for your heart as you listen. If today's conversation feels tender, pause, take a breath, and come back when you're ready.

Some conversations don't offer easy answers- they simply remind us we're not alone. Today's episode is one of those. Joy Scott joins me for an honest conversation about navigating unimaginable loss, surviving abuse, wrestling with deep grief, and discovering that hope isn't found by pretending everything is okay. It's found in the presence of God, right in the middle of our pain.

Together, we talk about what it looks like to keep your heart alive when life hurts, how healing often comes slowly, and why your hardest chapter doesn't have to be the end of your story. Whether you're grieving someone you love, mourning the life you thought you'd have, walking through dissapointment, or simply feeling weary, my prayer is that this conversation reminds you that you are deeply loved - and that hope is still possible, even here.

Connect with Joy Scott

Website: https://www.joyscott.me

Instagram:@joyscott

Remember, friend- hope isn't waiting for you on the other side of this. Sometimes it meets you right in the middle.

Connect with Brandy

To collaborate for podcasts or require about speaking engagements: [email protected]

Instagram:brandyadawson

Substack:Musings of Grace

Website + Blog: brandyadawson.com