With You in the Weeds: Where Faith Meets Mental Health

Words can either heal a relationship, or destroy a reputation. They can either calm a fearful heart, or leave a scar that lasts for years. At times, lying might seem like a not-so-harmful sin (“little white lie”) but there’s a reason that our words matter so much to God—and why the Bible treats careless speech with such seriousness.

In this episode, Lynn Roush, LPC, and John Tinnin, MFT, continue our ongoing series, 10 Keys to the Universe, by exploring the ninth commandment: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” Drawing from passages like James 3, Matthew 12, and Proverbs 18, they discuss how words can bring either life or destruction. They explain the connection between truth and God’s character, showing how honest speech reflects the God who cannot lie.

The conversation gets practical as they walk through specific ways falsehood damages relationships and communities. From slander and gossip to flattery, half-truths, broken promises, and false assurance, Lynn and John examine how easily dishonesty can disguise itself in everyday life.

Lynn and John also offer practical encouragement for slowing down before speaking, developing discernment in a culture full of deception, and recognizing the lasting impact our words have on others. Most importantly, they point listeners back to the hope of the gospel: Jesus perfectly fulfilled what we never could and invites us to live in the freedom of his truth.

Resource: The Doctrine of the Christian Life by John Frame

Connect with us: 

Instagram: @withyouintheweeds

Facebook: @withyouintheweeds           

X: withyou_weeds

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter:

Website: withyouintheweeds.com

What if stealing isn’t just about shoplifting or taking something off a shelf? What if it starts with anxiety, dissatisfaction, and the belief that God won’t really provide what you need? To make it even more complicated, what if it’s about the ways that we aren’t always generous with our time and money?

In this layered episode of our ongoing series, 10 Keys to the Universe, Austin Conner, LPC, and special guest Kaelyn Mislan (recent Covenant Seminary graduate), unpack the complex meaning behind the eighth commandment: “You shall not steal.” They discuss why stealing is wrong: because God commands against it, because it violates personal ownership, and because it disrupts the well-being of others. Their conversation also highlights how stealing reflects a failure to trust God’s generous character and reveals a mindset that places personal desires above the needs of others.

They also explore practical ways this command applies today, from honoring other people’s property and work to avoiding “time stealing,” providing fair compensation to employees, and being generous with others as God has been generous with you. At its core, the command calls believers not merely to avoid theft, but to become people marked by honesty, fairness, gratitude, and generosity. 

If you’ve ever wrestled with comparison, entitlement, anxiety about provision, or the temptation to justify questionable choices, this episode offers both conviction and hope. Listen to this thoughtful conversation on the 8th commandment and discover how God’s design leads not to restriction, but to freedom, trust, and deeper contentment.

Connect with us: 

Instagram: @withyouintheweeds

Facebook: @withyouintheweeds           

X: withyou_weeds

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter:

Website: withyouintheweeds.com

Whether you go looking for it or not, attraction that crosses the line of marital fidelity may happen more easily than you think. 

In this episode of the 10 Keys to the Universe series, Austin sits down with Ryan and Kelley Wampler, longtime small groups leaders at The Crossing, to discuss the subtle and seemingly harmless ways we may be tempted to break the 7th Commandment: “You shall not commit adultery”. This revealing conversation traces how discontentment and unmet desires quietly distort the safe and intimate relationship God designed marriage to be. 

Kelley opens up about a time early in her marriage that is equal parts honest and sobering: a friendship at work slowly built momentum, leading to a dinner invitation that felt harmless, and eventually a Holy Spirit moment in an elevator that stopped her cold. What she describes is the danger zone — that charged and deceptively ordinary space where attraction to someone other than your spouse begins to quietly take over. 

Austin, Ryan and Kelley name the many forms this can take — pornography, emotional affairs, digital infidelity, the creeping habit of comparison — and what the warning signs look like before things become irreversible.

As you listen you will learn the importance of admitting the truth to yourself, confessing attraction honestly, cutting off communication, and building new habits of real connection with your spouse. Whether you’ve been hurt by betrayal or you’ve crossed the line of attraction, this episode will enlighten your awareness and bring hope that no one’s story is beyond God’s redemptive power.

Connect with us: 

Instagram: @withyouintheweeds

Facebook: @withyouintheweeds           

X: withyou_weeds

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter:

Website: withyouintheweeds.com

The 6th Commandment, “Do not murder,” may honestly feel a bit irrelevant to your life. Most of us have no desire to harm others so this can seem like a command meant only for the worst kinds of people. 

But in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus exposes how personal it is to each one of us. As soon as he starts talking about anger, contempt, and the hidden conditions of the heart, we’re all on the hook for breaking it.

As we continue our ongoing series, 10 Keys to the Universe, Austin Conner, LCPC, and John Tinnin, MFT, M.Div., explore why human life is so sacred and why this commandment matters far beyond physical violence. 

As you listen, you’ll learn about both the obvious and non-obvious ways this command can be broken, and what Jesus means when he links anger and contempt to murder itself.

John and Austin also cover several difficult and emotionally charged topics, including military service, suicide, and abortion. Rather than offering simplistic answers, they thoughtfully engage the real-life complexity, pain, and ethical questions surrounding each one.

Most importantly, this conversation highlights the condition of the human heart—and the grace of Jesus that meets us there. Whether you feel burdened by guilt or tempted to dismiss this commandment altogether, our hope is that this episode moves you toward greater awareness, carefulness, and appreciation for the infinite value of human life.

Podcast suggestion:

Protecting and Choosing Life - featuring My Life Clinic in Columbia, MO.

Connect with us: 

Instagram: @withyouintheweeds

Facebook: @withyouintheweeds           

X: withyou_weeds

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter:

Website: withyouintheweeds.com

When you attend your parents' funerals someday, will you be proud of the way you loved and honored them when they were alive? Or will you have some regrets?

Few commandments feel as personal as the fifth commandment: “Honor your father and your mother.” For some people, that command feels natural and healthy. For others, it raises difficult questions and painful memories.

In this perceptive episode of our ongoing series, 10 Keys to the Universe, Lynn Roush, LPC, and Shay Roush, M.Div, thoughtfully explore the beauty, tension, and wisdom of treating your parents with honor, even when you believe they don't deserve it.

They’ll talk about the real meaning of the word ‘honor’ and explore what honoring your parents does and doesn’t mean. As challenging as this commandment is to fulfill, there are practical ways to show honor to your parents in everyday life.

As you listen to this episode, you’ll understand the importance of treating your parents with dignity and honor, and be encouraged to engage them with both truth and grace. 

Book suggestion: Bold Love by Dan Allender & Tremper Longman

Podcast suggestion: Engaging With Someone Who Has Harmed You by Adam Young

Connect with us: 

Instagram: @withyouintheweeds

Facebook: @withyouintheweeds           

X: withyou_weeds

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter:

Website: withyouintheweeds.com

If you stopped working and striving for a full day this week, what do you honestly think would happen? For many of us, that question feels less peaceful than it should. Our schedules are packed, our minds are noisy, and even when we try to rest, we carry the weight of everything left undone.

In this convicting episode of our ongoing series, 10 Keys to the Universe, Lynn Roush, LPC, and Austin Conner, PLPC, take a closer look at the fourth commandment through both the lens of the ancient Israelites and the light of the New Testament. They’ll explore why rest can be so difficult, the way God’s invitation is less about rest and more about trust, and practical ways you can incorporate a Sabbath mindset in your busy life.

The fourth commandment doesn’t just give us permission to rest; it reveals something deeper about who God is and who we are in relation to him. Long before rest became a luxury, it was a rhythm woven into creation itself, a gift meant to free people from striving and remind them they were never meant to carry life on their own. If you’ve ever felt like slowing down isn’t an option, this conversation is for you.

For a further look at the relevance of the Sabbath today, check out this article: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justin-taylor/schreiner-qa-is-the-sabbath-still-required-for-christians/

Connect with us: 

Instagram: @withyouintheweeds

Facebook: @withyouintheweeds           

X: withyou_weeds

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter:

Website: withyouintheweeds.com

Do you ever think about how you use God’s name? For most of us the third commandment to not “take the Lord’s name in vain” feels like a gentle reminder to watch our language, avoid the OMGs, and move on. So it’s easy to disregard this command as not very important.

But when we misuse God’s name, we diminish his power, authority and the very essence of his being. God’s name isn’t just a meaningless label - it’s a revelation of his character, his faithfulness and his covenant love. Speaking God’s name carelessly or flippantly is an offense to his identity - the great I AM. 

As we continue in our 10 Keys to the Universe series, Shay covers the magnitude of this commandment which covers false oaths, empty worship, invoking God's authority for our own agendas, and even the quiet hypocrisy of claiming Christ's name while living in ways that don’t honor him. 

Listen in as Shay walks through a convicting prayer written by Pastor Duke Kwon that names all the ways we misuse God's name without ever saying a cuss word. You’ll learn why you shouldn’t take the third commandment lightly as it is the only one that carries an explicit warning: the Lord will not hold him guiltless.

At the end of this episode, you’ll understand why God’s name is the most powerful name in the world, and why your speech should reflect his glory rather than diminish it. 

Connect with us: 

Instagram: @withyouintheweeds

Facebook: @withyouintheweeds           

X: withyou_weeds

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter:

Website: withyouintheweeds.com

Where do you direct your attention, adoration, affection and trust? Your honest answer reveals who or what you worship.

As we kick off our new series, 10 Keys to the Universe, Shay and Lynn look at the first two commandments that serve as the foundation for the rest of the commandments. The Bible states that we are always worshipping something–the question is never whether we worship but what we worship. 

The first commandment says, “Have no other gods before me”, but in today’s world, it’s easy to worship things around us. Lynn walks through a convicting list: approval, comfort, control, work, a specific person, even a political ideology. These aren't exotic temptations. They're the everyday idols we construct, and they all over-promise and under-deliver.

Shay unpacks what makes the first two commandments distinct from each other. The first tells us who to worship—the one true God, exclusively. The second tells us how— not through physical images or mental constructions that shrink him down to something we can manage or imagine. What we believe about who God is shapes everything about how we live. When we quietly reinvent him into a God who only affirms our desires, who never judges, who asks nothing hard of us—that's not humility. That's a different commandment broken.

Whether you're brand new to the Ten Commandments or grew up reciting them, this episode is an invitation to slow down and ask yourself a few honest questions to identify the idols of your heart: What do you worry about most? What makes you angry when it's threatened? What are you most afraid of losing in life? The answers might surprise you — and point you toward where your real worship is actually landing.

Connect with us: 

Instagram: @withyouintheweeds

Facebook: @withyouintheweeds           

X: withyou_weeds

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter:

Website: withyouintheweeds.com

Life can feel like wandering in a wilderness: moments of anxiety, parenting and marriage struggles, feeling a lack of purpose, dealing with disappointment, and more. But having a reliable compass can make all the difference because it offers guidance on where to go and how to get there safely.

In this episode John Tinnin and Austin Conner launch our new series, 10 Keys to the Universe, where we'll be unpacking the Ten Commandments and exploring how they function as a compass for navigating the unpredictable and painful wilderness of life. 

We often dismiss the Ten Commandments as ancient religious rules that are burdensome and designed to ruin our happiness. So the benefits of the commandments might surprise you: protection, freedom, the restraining of sin, and a clear window into God's heart. 

Instead of thinking "I have to follow the commandments" this conversation highlights a different perspective: "I get to follow the commandments". This shifts your heart from following the commandments as a legal obligation to earn God’s favor, to a willing response of being deeply loved and cared for by your Creator.

As we begin this series, we hope the commandments become less of a set of rules hanging over your head and more of a trusted compass that leads you to hopeful blessings in your life. 

Connect with us: 

Instagram: @withyouintheweeds

Facebook: @withyouintheweeds           

X: withyou_weeds

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter:

Website: withyouintheweeds.com

If you love listening to WYITW, would you please leave us a 5 star rating and a review? Your feedback helps us reach more people!

Have you ever walked away from a conversation feeling confused, exhausted, and somehow convinced that everything was your fault - even though you couldn't quite explain why? If so, this episode is for you.

As we end our How to Handle Life series, Lynn Roush addresses one of the most requested and personally meaningful topics she's tackled: how to manage a narcissist in your life. 

Drawing on in-depth biblical study as well as years of clinical experience sitting across from clients who have lost their sense of self in these relationships, Lynn brings both compassion and clarity to one of the most disorienting relational dynamics a person can experience. 

Anchored in Philippians 1:9 “that your love would abound more and more in real knowledge and all discernment”, this episode is not about diagnosing others or declaring war on every person who has frustrated you. It's about growing in wisdom so that you can protect your heart, your mind, and your faith.

Lynn walks through 4 practical strategies for managing a narcissist: 

After listening, you’ll know how to guard your peace, stay grounded in truth, and navigate a difficult relationship without losing yourself in it.

Connect with us & subscribe to our weekly newsletter!

Website: withyouintheweeds.com

Instagram: @withyouintheweeds

Facebook: @withyouintheweeds           

X: withyou_weeds